14 September 2011 - Iraq internal violence is used to call for prolonging of US occupation
30 June 2011 - An attempt at impartiality on Israel-Palestine
21 January 2011 - Assumption that Iran has nuclear weapons

24 February 2011 - Hidden reasons behind the PM's Middle East tour

Logical Fallacies: The Financial Times on Syria and Uranium Stockpiles
The Editors, 10 January 2013

On 8 January the Financial Times published an article by James Blitz, entitled 'Fears raised over Syria uranium stockpile', premised primarily on the 'fears' and otherwise subjective ruminations of unnamed 'official' and 'expert' sources, one the two named sources being former weapons inspector David Albright (discussed further below). The claims of Blitz's...

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US Election Foreign Policy Debate: UK Editorials on the Role of the US
Josh Watts, 6 November 2012

In a strongly-worded endorsement for Barack Obama in its pre-election issue, the editors of The New Yorker1 write that the 'flawed and complicated' 'human being', Obama, 'has sometimes struggled to convey the human stakes of the policies he has initiated'. This is undoubtedly relevant in regards to foreign policy. Having come...

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Nick Cohen's Deceptive Portrayal of Western Intentions in Call for Intervention in Syria
Steve Nutt, 13 June 2012

Nick Cohen, writing in the Observer on 10 June, demands that the 'guilt ridden' leaders of the Liberal West shake off the hangover of the Bush-Blair years and press reset, a reset on the facade of Barack Obama's mission to forge dialogue with Iran, with Russia, to offer a hand instead...

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Iran: Speculation on Parchin Site Propagates through Guardian Reporting
The Editors, 5 June 2012

On the issue of the ongoing 'Iran Crisis' (in BBC speak), the evidence presented to us about the potential development of nuclear weapons by Iran remains heavily based on speculation, and has in recent months focussed on the hypothetical musings of a Washington think-tank, based on satellite images of an Iranian...

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Afghanistan: Maintaining the Facade of the 'Mission'
Steve Nutt, 20 April 2012

In light of recent predictable events in Afghanistan, it is worth taking a long view of the NATO invasion and occupation to see if we can garner some sense of what the "mission" actually entails. The usual rhetoric concerns two related central matters: that NATO's presence is intended to prevent Afghanistan...

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Syria Intervention: Endorsement Masquerading as News in the Guardian
Steve Nutt, 13 April 2012

Media advocacy masquerading as news has a considerable precedent. Whether it be journalists looking for some 'sick action' in Somalia that might 'restore hope [...] in the capacity for governments taking a moral stance', or to provide western audiences with some much needed post-Cold War meaning in the flagrant PR exercise...

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How the UK Media Legitimise the Idea of a War on Iran
The Editors, 26 January 2012

The UK media has over the last three months obediently towed the line of western leaders in their increasingly hostile posturing towards Iran. Despite their reporting of (to give a few examples) a covert war on Iran, the entry of a US spy drone into Iranian airspace, and the recent assassination of...

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Language Creep: Iran and the Nuclear 'Threat'
The Editors, 27 November 2011

The IAEA report on the state of Iran's nuclear programme released on 9 November didn't quite present western governments with the doomsday scenario they had hoped for. The run-up to the report's publication became a platform for voices to be raised in the media calling for yet another war, as though...

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The Media Beats the War Drum for an Attack on Iran
Graham Bell, 4 November 2011

“Iran’s nuclear ambitions have already started a war with the west”, reads the headline of Julian Borger’s piece in the Guardian yesterday, in which he discusses operations of espionage and sabotage in Iran started by the Bush government in 2007. The headline would have you believe that Iran brought these acts...

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Afghanistan: Ten Years of the Grand Narrative
Steve Nutt, 30 September 2011

The war in Afghanistan is fast approaching its 10th anniversary. In recent weeks we have seen coordinated attacks in Kabul and a number of high profile assassinations by the "Taliban" or the "Haqqani Taliban", NATO's opponents in its increasingly confused and labyrinthine occupation. From the start, the war in Afghanistan has been...

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The Lesser Reported Uprisings of the Arab Spring
Andrew Kanyemba, 21 June 2011

Sparked first by Tunisia’s December uprisings, there has been a multiplicity of bold revolts springing up from inside the Arab regions. Spanning, in varying degrees, from Morocco through to Iran, these unexpected swathes of civil revolt have warranted this moment in living history its own title amongst newscasters; its own unique...

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Blair in Spotlight Urging for 'Plan' for Arab Spring
Amy Woods, 12 June 2011

In the new introduction to his autobiography, Tony Blair urges that Europe and the United States need a plan to “support” the Arab Spring, with further military action as required. Blair has been receiving a warm reception on his current promotional interview trail. While the public have made book-signings too difficult, the...

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Obama's Middle East Plans: Democracy, Freedom (and Trade Liberalisation)
Graham Bell, 20 May 2011

At the recent 25th anniversary of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) (May 11th, 2011) in the US, Noam Chomsky summarised one aspect of the US diplomatic attitude with the following quote: When there's a favoured dictator and he's getting into trouble, support him as long as possible, full support as long...

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Maintaining Western Fear After bin Laden's Death
Graham Bell, 4 May 2011

The news of Bin Laden’s death after the weekend has sparked a combination of celebration, suspicion, debate and conspiracy theories. In Washington, crowds gathered to chant “U-S-A, U-S-A” in a patriotic flag-waving display and celebrate Bin Laden’s death. In the UK, the BBC News showed a looping reel of images all...

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Lots of Attention on the Iranian Navy
Graham Bell, 22 February 2011

Today, the 22nd February, the BBC has given quite a lot of attention to the movement of Iranian warships through the Suez Canal. As scores of protesters are being killed by brutal regimes in Libya, Morocco and Bahrain, big news has been made about the seemingly insignificant passage of two Iranian...

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The Reporting of the Anti-Mubarak Protests
Graham Bell, 4 February 2011

The events in Egypt and Tunisia have put UK news organisations in a bit of a tight situation. Until now, it has been easy to hide the western ally leaders around Africa and the Middle East from mainstream western news. Western governments have, as the BBC lightly put it “turned a...

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