William Bowles – Essays
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The continent from another planet By William Bowles
Have you noticed that events in Africa are reported in a contextual vacuum? And predictably, coverage in the press has been nothing short of scandalous. Either, it’s ‘warlords,’ ‘corruption,’ ‘tribalism,’ ‘humanitarian crisis,’ ‘failed state,’ or some combination of the above. As far as Western media coverage is concerned, Africa has no history that’s of any… Continue reading
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Under siege? By William Bowles
Look, I know that the revolution is not around the corner, but it is true to say that the ‘New Imperium,’ barely a dozen years old, is already under siege, and experiencing a serious crisis in credibility and its subsequent ability to carry out its mission of re-colonising the planet. Continue reading
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Information Clearing House Archive – June 2003 Part 2
July 2003 — Information Clearing House Archive For the Month of July 2003 – Part 2 Venezuela Refuses To Sign Agreement With US Over ICC: The United States suspended more than 47 million dollars in military aid to 35 countries on Tuesday for their failure or refusal to give US citizens immunity from the ICC.… Continue reading
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Ignorance is a (conditioned) state of mind By William Bowles
In an essay, ‘How hatred was born’ (sub-titled ‘Ignorance is not bliss’), in the Independent Review (29/07/03) the black American writer Walter Mosley, makes the comparison between the rage that black Americans feel towards a system, run by whites, that has oppressed and exploited them for generations, and the rage felt by people in the… Continue reading
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The Death of Dr David Kelly: Dark actors – dark forces? By William Bowles
Given Dr Kelly’s central role in the September document, he surely must have known well before its release in September 2002, that it contained false information to boost the case for war. So why wait until May of this year before voicing his concerns? Continue reading
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The bizarre mind of the white liberal By William Bowles
I’ve no doubt that Robert Fisk is a decent fellow with compassion for his fellow man and woman and deplores the invasion and occupation of Iraq, yet this quote, which opens the statement splashed over an enormous photo (with a red tint) of the two corpses of the Hussein brothers (ironically, the image has echoes… Continue reading
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The Death of Dr David Kelly: Murkier and Murkier By William Bowles
Did Dr Kelly commit suicide because he could no longer tolerate the fact that the government he worked for had lied in order to justify going to war? Or was he murdered because he was about to expose the lies? Continue reading
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Liberia: rewriting history By William Bowles
“Another day, another atrocity in Liberia’s blood-soaked capital Monrovia” is how the Independent tells it to us (26/07/03). And of course, the predictable pleas for ‘intervention’ by the “world’s superpower” from liberal commentators. The entire history of how Liberia got to be where it is today, and especially the role of the US, the IMF… Continue reading
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Mind your language! Part Three By William Bowles
Isn’t it amazing. All this time, since the ‘sexed up’ story first appeared, Gilligan, we were told, was the sole source of the story, hence his ‘unreliability’. Then, yesterday, the press carried reports about at least thee other UK journalists who had also been contacted by Dr Kelly and now, it seems there’s even a… Continue reading
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The Death of Dr David Kelly: Opening a can of worms By William Bowles
It is being suggested that he went through some kind of ‘sea change’ last year during his frequent visits to Iraq as part of the Unmovic inspection team and that he was convinced that Iraq had indeed, destroyed its CBW weapons. According to an unnamed analyst quoted by the Independent, he became disillusioned with the… Continue reading
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Mind your language! Part Two By William Bowles
So we have the ironic situation of BBC News reporting on its own alleged unreliability. Can the news be trusted? What is the future of public broadcasting and so on. Yet of course, the nature of the lack of trust in the state media is entirely misdirected. It’s okay that the coverage of the war… Continue reading
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Opening a can of worms By William Bowles
And at last, we have official confirmation that the claims by the government that Iraq got uranium from Niger at any time, is completely untrue. According to the report in the Independent, The French Ambassador, Denis Vène told the Sunday Telegraph that it was “impossible for uranium to leave the country without French officials knowing… Continue reading
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Mind your language! By William Bowles
In this critical situation, as the Imperium girds its loins in preparation for the next round of recolonisation, it’s important that we keep our eye on the ball. Will the Kelly affair divert us rather than inform us? I can already see the questions; ‘Did he jump or was he pushed?’ What is clear is… Continue reading
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Heil Caesar By William Bowles
“There is no more dangerous theory in international politics today than that we need to balance the power of America with other competitor powers, different poles around which nations gather.” — Tony Blair. Thus spake the Emperor’s English regent in paying his respects on a flying visit to Washington DC, our latter-day Rome, and spelt… Continue reading
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Blair into Blah doesn’t go: anatomy of a con By William Bowles
The fake Niger documents reached both British and US intelligence agencies, who no doubt verified that they were fakes but apparently neglected to tell anyone. The documents sat around, probably until sometime in early-mid 2002 when, at least according to high-ranking US intelligence officials, they came under intense pressure from the Bush administration to include… Continue reading
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Biting off more than can be chewed? By William Bowles
16 July 2003 It’s fashionable to think that the US imperium has gotten itself into a quagmire with its occupation of Iraq, but of course this view depends on whether or not, the US cares about what happens to Iraq. And if the situation in Afghanistan is anything to go by, having served its purpose… Continue reading
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A conspiracy of silence? By William Bowles
This morning, on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme, Jack Straw went through a tortuous process of trying to cover his tracks and if it hadn’t been for the fact that the interviewer, John Humphries, let him off the hook at every critical stage of the interview, he would have been revealed for what he is,… Continue reading
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9/11: connecting the dots By William Bowles
If 9/11 had not happened, it would have been necessary to invent it. And the history of the last 150 years is full of convenient inventions that have justified invasions, occupations, subversions and the overthrow of sovereign states by the US in order to pursue its economic/political objectives. Objectives laid down in latter part of… Continue reading
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9/11: the unanswered questions By William Bowles
So the real reason for the invasion of Iraq was 9/11, at least that’s what Donald Rumsfeld, US secretary of defence is now telling us, as the mythological WMDs fade into the background. And will this now be the basis for the next round of ‘revelations’ based on Saddam’s connections to Al-Qu’eda? Wait for it,… Continue reading
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Blair: Tense about Tenses By William Bowles
Backtracking like crazy, the UK government is in a real dilemma. The US which, as we all know, lives on another planet, has let the cat out of the bag and left Blair swinging in the wind with its acknowledgement that the infamous ‘Niger’ fakes were long known to be fakes, indeed well before the… Continue reading