The U.S. embassy’s view of the conflict over Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara is an example of the role of ideology plays in shaping the perspectives of State Dept. personnel.
WikiLeaks XIV: Mexican Government’s Drug Policy Benefits Drug Cartels
One cable describes a Mexican government pursuing losing tactics in the name of an unfocused strategy that leaves everyone worse off, with the exception of the country’s increasingly drug cartels.
To Chalmers Johnson, American Militarism Was to Colonialism as Overseas Bases Are to Colonies
Perhaps because he didn’t discover it until later in life, Johnson’s outrage at American militarism was a well that never ran dry.
60-Second Expert: Guantanamo
As one of his first acts in office, President Obama issued an executive order committing to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay within one year. Almost two years later, unnamed administration officials are predicting that the prison will remain open “for the foreseeable future.” This means that men like Djamel Ameziane will remain trapped there for the foreseeable future as well.
Postcard from…Shanghai
This photo was taken in Shanghai’s stylish former French Concession district while, across town, the 2010 World Expo ushered in hundreds of thousands of visitors per day. The contemporary art piece on display by Beijing artist Ren Hong juxtaposes the potent political images of the Expo, Beijing’s Olympics, and the People’s Republic’s 60th anniversary celebration. The attendant moral complexities of these spectacles are filtered out through simplistic official symbols. Her work is a fitting eulogy for the Expo that closed in October.
WikiLeaks XI: Release of Sri Lankan Cables Timed to Shine Light on Government and Tamil Tigers Savagery
A cable by U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka reveals that neither government nor Tamil Tigers seek an investigation into civilian casualties resulting from Tiger’s last stand.
Obiang: The Sham Humanitarian
This past October, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) suspended a three million dollar research prize funded by Teodoro Obiang, one of the world’s worst dictators. Shamed by an open protest letter signed by over 60 leading global activists, UNESCO was compelled to distance itself from a man who has long ruled Equatorial Guinea with an iron fist. Precisely how a leader cut from the same cloth as Idi Amin, Omar al-Bashir, or Nicolae Ceausescu came to finance a UN prize in the first place is a truth stranger than fiction.
Assessing Women’s Rights in Nigeria
The Nigerian government needs to show commitment to the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa by passing relevant laws and allocating funds to women’s rights.
WikiLeaks IX: Wires Show U.S. Embassy Actually Got It Right on Honduras
WikiLeaks’ Honduras documents exemplify the positive side of American diplomacy.
WikiLeaks VII: Our Man in Zimbabwe Flatters His Way up the Foreign-Service Ladder
Bush’s ambassador to Zimbabwe believed that if we “stayed the course,” our “freedom agenda” would reign.