War / Peace

'Information Operations' Defined

"As Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes begins her monumental campaign to improve the world's opinion of the United States, not to worry, military information warriors are poised to jump in as soon as the FEMA of public diplomacy falters," William Arkin writes for his "Early Warnings

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Spooks Spin at The Oz

After being deported by the Australian government, U.S. peace activist Scott Parkin has ridiculed claims against him in The Australian. "If I am such a threat, why have the FBI not even phoned me since my return from Australia to follow up [Australian intelligence]'s silly allegations? ...

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Never Whoosh A Spook!

Non-violence training workshops I attended in the 1980s often featured, as a tension-breaker or wind-down game, a little exercise known as the whoosh.

For the uninitiated, a whoosh consists of one person standing in the centre of a circle of people holding hands. Starting from a low crouch, the circle slowly moves in with the pronunciation of whooooooosh building to a crescendo as the group converges, culminating with an enthusiastic jump. The person in the centre is then considered to have been whooshed.

If such exercises are still in non-violence training workshop manuals, maybe it's time a warning label was added: Never whoosh a spook!

A protest against the arrest and deportation of Scott ParkinWhy? This week the Australian government deported Houston-based peace and environmental activist Scott Parkin, after revoking his six-month visitor visa. No reason was given; for all we know, Scott whooshed some hapless, wet-behind-the-ears Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) spook sent to spy on one of the non-violence training sessions he was attending.

Legal Challenge to Australia's Bid to Deport Activist

The Australian Government is facing a legal challenge to its decision to revoke the six-month visitors visa of Scott Parkin, an environmental and peace activist from the Houston Global Awareness Collective. On Saturday Parkin was arrested, six weeks after he arrived in the country, on "character grounds" and imprisoned pending deportation.

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Medical Journal Decries Parent's Deadly Interest

The Lancet, a leading medical journal, has requested that its parent company, Reed Elsevier, divest itself of business interests that "threaten human health." The magazine's editor made the request after learning that Spearhead Exhibitions, a Reed Elsevier subsidiary, organised the Defence Systems and Equipment international (DSEi) arms fair, which opens this week in London.

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Is That "Anti-war Left" or "Anti-gay Right"?

Media Matters caught Sean Hannity on Tuesday blaming the "anti-war left" for protesting at the funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq. In reality, the protesters were members of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) in Topeka, Kansas, which claims that terrorism and other disasters are divine retribution against America for the "sin" of tolerating homosexuality.

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