[haw-info] HAW Notes 5/19: Links to recent articles of interest

Suggestions for these more-or-less biweekly lists can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com. Thanks to Sam Lowe, Maia Ramnath, and Sarah Shields for suggesting articles that are included in the following list. 


"Headlines from the Dustbin of History (Afghan Dept.)"
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175394
By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com, posted May 19

"The Secret Sharer: Is Thomas Drake an Enemy of the State?"
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/23/110523fa_fact_mayer
By Jane Mayer, The New Yorker, posted May 15
On the Obama administration's attack on whistleblowers

"The Bin Laden Killing and American Exceptionalism"
http://hnn.us/articles/139199.html
By Michael H. Hunt, History News Network, posted May 13
The author is a professor of history emeritus at the University of North Carolina

"The Crash and Burn of Old Regimes: Washington Court Culture and Its Endless Wars"
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175391
By William J. Astore, TomDispatch.com, posted May 12
The author, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, teaches history at the Pennsylvania College of Technology

"Torture Is Never Legal and Didn't Lead Us to Bin Laden"
http:/lists.portside.org/cgi-bin/listserv/wa?A2=PORTSIDE;6cccbc27.1105b
By Marjorie Cohn, Portside.org, posted May 11

"Noam Chomsky: My Reaction to Osama bin Laden's Death"
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/07-5
By Noam Chomsky, CommonDreams.org, posted May 11 (from Guernica magazine)

"The Double Game: The Unintended Consequences of American Funding in Pakistan"
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/16/110516fa_fact_wright
By Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker, posted May 7

"Why I Don't Feel Much about Osama's Death"
http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp05052011.html
By Gary Leupp, CounterPunch.org, posted May 5
The author teaches history at Tufts University

"Where Have All the Graveyards Gone? The War That Didn't End War and Its Unending Successors"
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175387
By Adam Hochschild, TomDispatch.com, posted May 3

"The Libyan War, American Power and the Decline of the Petrodollar System"
http://www.japanfocus.org/-Peter_Dale-Scott/3522
By Peter Dale Scott, Asia-Pacific Journal, posted May 2


Note:  For those who noticed the awful typo in the list two weeks ago, in which the title of Mark LeVine's Al Jazeera article was rendered as "The Death of Obama and the Return to Reality," an apology.  The misspelled name was most definitely my fault - it was Osama in the original.  Jim O'Brien

Bradley Manning

Bradley Manning, a 23-year-old Army intelligence analyst, is accused of leaking a video showing the killing of civilians, including two Reuters journalists, by a US Apache helicopter crew in Iraq. He is also charged with sharing the documents known as the Afghan War Diary, the Iraq War Logs, and embarrassing US diplomatic cables, with the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. The video and documents have illuminated such issues as the true number and cause of civilian casualties in Iraq, human rights abuses by U.S.-funded contractors and foreign militaries, and the role that spying and bribes play in international diplomacy.

Although Bradley has not yet been tried, he has been held in solitary confinement since May 2010. He has been denied meaningful exercise, social interaction, sunlight, and has occasionally been kept completely naked. These conditions are unique to Bradley and are illegal even under US military law as they amount to extreme pre-trial punishment.

One suggestion for spreading the word about Bradley Manning is having film screenings on campus or in the community of The Most Dangerous Man in America and/or a documentary or news special on Wikileaks/Assange/Manning.

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2010-2011/wikirebels/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuQML1dSfT0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ix36P3buso
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXI0qk8YUew
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?Itemid=74&id=31&jumival=6124&option=com_content&task=view
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/iraq-secret-war-files-wikileaks-special/

There are also various resources available on the Bradley Manning Support Network. For instance, http://www.bradleymanning.org/resources/organizing-kit

[haw-info] HAW Notes 5/5/11: Articles on significance of Bin Laden death

Here are links to some on-line articles that, in various ways, seek to put the death of Osama bin Laden in historical context. Rusti Eisenberg, Maia Ramnath, Rosalyn Baxandall, and Sam Lowe contributed suggestions for this list.


"Geronimo, Bin Laden, and U.S. Foreign Policy" http://hnn.us/articles/139017.html By Daniel S. Margolies, History News Network, posted May 5 The author teaches history at Virginia Wesleyan College "Osama bin Laden's American Legacy" http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175388 By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com, posted May 5

"Remembering All Al-Qaida's Victims" http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/03/osamabinladen-al-qaida By Karima Benoune, The Guardian, posted May 3 "Osama bin Laden's Death: The US Patriot Reflex" http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/03/bin-laden-death-us-patriot-reflex By Gary Younge, The Guardian, posted May 3

"Obama and the End of Al-Qaeda" http://www.juancole.com/2011/05/obama-and-the-end-of-al-qaeda.html By Juan Cole, Informed Comment blog, posted May 2 The author teaches history at the University of Michigan "The Death of Osama and the Return to Reality" http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/2011529443412377.html By Mark LeVine, Aljazeera English, posted May 2 The author teaches history at the University of California at Irvine

"Osama bin Laden Is Gone, But US War in the Middle East Is Here to Stay" http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0502/Osama-bin-Laden-is-gone-but-US-war-in-the-Middle-East-is-here-to-stay By Andrew J. Bacevich, Christian Science Monitor, posted May 2