Today may mark a milestone in this blog’s history–or at least a mini-milestone. Before I identified Yitzhak Ilan as the director-designee of the Shabak recently, I wrote to two Israeli reporters seeking more background information on Ilan. No one replied possibly for the reason that Ilan’s name was verboten for public consumption in Israel. But […]
Wikileaks’ Afghanistan Trove to Rival Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers?
The N.Y. Times today published a summary of tens of thousands of U.S. government cables and other secret information pertaining to our involvement in Afghanistan. The archive, amassed by Wikileaks and probably provided to it by U.S. Army whistle-blower Bradley Manning, will immediately be compared to the Pentagon Papers, both in the voluminous amount of […]
Seattle Conference: Gaza Humanitarian Crisis
Yesterday night, 200 people joined us for the conference I initiated, Gaza’s Humanitarian Crisis: the Failure of U.S. Policy. I was delighted with the turnout and the quality of the talks by Steve Niva, David Schermerhorn, and Hazim Shafi. This event was, in a way, a sequel to an event I organized last December on […]
Knesset Debates Bill to Limit Gag Orders, Cites Damage to Democracy, Example of Foreign Media Breaking Secrecy
A Knesset member introduced a bill today to limit the length and uses of gag orders and to provide for the right of appeal: A bill being put forward by Nahman Shai, a Knesset member for the opposition Kadima party, would limit gag orders to a week. “Gagging injunctions harm freedom of information and the […]
