Articles by Patrick Cockburn
We found 38 results.
Israel’s Political Position Is Now Weaker Than Before the Hamas Attack
Patrick Cockburn – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 May 2024
6 May 2024 – The Attack on Rafah, when It Occurs, Will Have Huge Consequences Internationally
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(Français) Le cas d’extradition d’Assange est une attaque sans précédent contre la liberté de la presse – alors pourquoi les médias n’en parlent pratiquement pas ?
Patrick Cockburn | Investig'Action - TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Oct 2020
8 Oct 2020 – Le silence des journalistes en Grande-Bretagne et aux Etats-Unis sur la procédure d’extradition de Julian Assange les rend complices de la criminalisation par le gouvernement américain. Assange et WikiLeaks ont fait tout ce que les journalistes devraient faire en révélant des informations importantes sur les méfaits du gouvernement américain et en les communiquant au public.
→ read full articleWith the US Distracted by Trump and the UK by Brexit, They’re about to See a Decline in Their Global Power
Patrick Cockburn - The Independent,
27 Feb 2017
One need only look to Yeltsin’s Russia to see how great powers fall. Both Trump and Yeltsin won power as demagogic anti-establishment leaders who won elections by promising reform. The result in Russia was calamitous national decline and the same thing could now happen in America
→ read full articleWho Supplies the News?
Patrick Cockburn | London Review of Books – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2017
Misreporting in Syria and Iraq – The nadir of Western media coverage.
→ read full articleThis Is Why Everything You’ve Read about the Wars in Syria and Iraq Could Be Wrong
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
5 Dec 2016
2 Dec 2016 – The Iraqi army, backed by US-led airstrikes, is trying to capture east Mosul at the same time as the Syrian army and its Shia paramilitary allies are fighting their way into east Aleppo. It is too dangerous for journalists to operate in rebel-held areas of Aleppo and Mosul. But there is a tremendous hunger for news from the Middle East, so the temptation is for the media give credence to information they get second hand.
→ read full articleCompare the Coverage of Mosul and East Aleppo and It Tells You a Lot about the Propaganda We Consume
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
31 Oct 2016
In both countries, two large Sunni Arab urban centres – East Aleppo in Syria and Mosul in Iraq – are being besieged by pro-government forces strongly supported by foreign airpower. Yet the coverage is very different.
→ read full articleThe Age of Disintegration: Neoliberalism, Interventionism, the Resource Curse, and a Fragmenting World
Patrick Cockburn – TomDispatch,
4 Jul 2016
We live in an age of disintegration. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Greater Middle East and Africa. Across the vast swath of territory between Pakistan and Nigeria, there are at least seven ongoing wars — in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and South Sudan. These conflicts are extraordinarily destructive.
→ read full articleThe Corruption Revealed in the Panama Papers Opened the Door to Isis
Patrick Cockburn – CounterPunch,
18 Apr 2016
No ordinary Afghans, Iraqis and Syrians will fight and die for rulers they detest as swindlers. Crucial to the rise of Isis, al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan is not their own strength and popularity, but the weakness and unpopularity of the governments to which they are opposed. The detachment of interests of elites from the countries they rule has already produced failed states or are wracked by conflict and war.
→ read full articleRefugee Crisis: Where Are All These People Coming from and Why?
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
14 Sep 2015
Refugees have been seeking safe haven in the West for years. Recently however, thousands have become millions, as nation after nation succumbs to anarchy and fanaticism. Patrick Cockburn focuses on the increasingly uninhabitable region of fear and hatred which is driving this alarming exodus.
→ read full articleGreece Elections: Syriza and EU on Collision Course after Election Win for Left-Wing Anti-Bailout Party
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
26 Jan 2015
25 Jan 2015 – Greek voters have rebelled against the austerity programme imposed by Brussels and Berlin. The radical left Syriza party won a decisive victory in the general election today and is close to winning an absolute majority in parliament.
→ read full articleFrom Syria to Paris – A Widening Sea of Violence
Patrick Cockburn – CounterPunch,
12 Jan 2015
There is a feeling of inevitability about the attack in Paris. It was culpably naïve to imagine that sparks from the Iraq-Syrian civil war, now in its fourth year, would not spread explosive violence to Western Europe.
→ read full articleThe West Is Silent as Libya Falls into the Abyss
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
3 Nov 2014
In 2011, there was jubilation at Gaddafi’s demise. Not any more: the aftermath of foreign intervention is calamitous and bloody. “Your friends in Britain and France will stand with you as you build your democracy,” pledged Mr Cameron to the people of Benghazi. Three years later, they are words he evidently wants to forget.
→ read full articleHow the War on Terror Created the World’s Most Powerful Terror Group
Patrick Cockburn – TomDispatch,
25 Aug 2014
The Underrated Saudi Connection – From the hours immediately after 9/11 to the present, Washington’s policies in the Middle East have created the conditions for more—not less—jihadist terror.
→ read full articleISIS Consolidates
Patrick Cockburn – London Review of Books,
11 Aug 2014
The frontiers of the new Caliphate declared by ISIS on 29 June [2014] are expanding by the day and now cover an area larger than Great Britain and inhabited by at least six million people, a population larger than that of Denmark, Finland or Ireland.
→ read full articleThe Secret Report That Helps Israel Hide Facts
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
4 Aug 2014
The slickness of Israel’s spokesmen is rooted in directions set down by the pollster Frank Luntz .
→ read full articleIraq Crisis: How Saudi Arabia Helped ISIS Take Over the North of the Country
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
21 Jul 2014
A speech by an ex-MI6 boss hints at a plan going back over a decade. In some areas, being Shia is akin to being a Jew in Nazi Germany.
→ read full articleThe Appeal of ISIS: Why Young Sunnis Are Drawn to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’s New Movement
Patrick Cockburn - CounterPunch,
7 Jul 2014
The move by al-Baghdadi and Isis, which wants to be known as simply the Islamic State, has the power to convulse many of the 57 countries that follow the Islamic faith. It is not that all Islamic radicals will rise up to follow the new caliph, but his message will attract many followers and will force other jihadi groups to choose if they are going to follow the new leader.
→ read full articleA Nation Disintegrates: Libya on the Brink of Civil War
Patrick Cockburn – CounterPunch,
26 May 2014
20 May 2014 – Libya is tipping toward all-out civil war as rival militias take sides for and against an attempted coup led by a renegade general that has pushed the central government towards disintegration.
→ read full articleAl Qaeda’s Second Act: How Syria’s Secular Uprising Was Hijacked by Jihadists
Patrick Cockburn - CounterPunch,
24 Mar 2014
Patrick Cockburn reports how Jihadists have taken over the uprising in Syria. “Peace, if it ever comes, will come in stages and with many false starts such as the failure of the Geneva II peace talks.”
→ read full articleThree Years after Gaddafi, Libya Is Imploding Into Chaos and Violence
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
17 Mar 2014
16 Mar 2014 – The Libyan former Prime Minister Ali Zeidan fled last week after parliament voted him out of office. Without a central government with any real power, Libya is falling apart. The Nato powers that overthrew Gaddafi did not do so because he was a tyrannical ruler, but because he pursued a nationalist policy which was at odds with western policies in the Middle East.
→ read full articleAre Protesters Overthrowing a Brutal Despot, or Merely Bad Losers at the Polls?
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
24 Feb 2014
The Arab Spring model of protest, symbolised by Tahrir Square, is now destabilising democratically elected leaders.
→ read full articleLooting Syria’s Archaeological Treasures – Destruction of the Idols
Patrick Cockburn - CounterPunch,
17 Feb 2014
The systematic destruction of antiquities may be the worst disaster to ancient monuments since the Taliban in Afghanistan dynamited the giant statues of Buddha at Bamiyan in 2001 for similar ideological reasons.
→ read full articleHazards of Revolution
Patrick Cockburn – London Review of Books,
30 Dec 2013
The uprisings of the Arab Spring have so far produced anarchy in Libya, a civil war in Syria, greater autocracy in Bahrain and resumed dictatorial rule in Egypt.
→ read full articleMass Murder in the Middle East Is Funded by Our Friends the Saudis
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
16 Dec 2013
Everyone knows where al-Qa’ida gets its money, but while the violence is sectarian, the West does nothing.
→ read full articleUS/Britain’s Policy on Syria Has Just Been Sunk, and Nobody Noticed
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
16 Dec 2013
All US, British and French miscalculations have produced in Syria is a re-run of Afghanistan in the 1980s, creating a situation the ruinous consequences of which have yet to appear. As jihadis in Syria realise they are not going to win, they may well look for targets closer to home.
→ read full articleTen Years after the Invasion: Iraq Helpless under Rain of Terror
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
2 Dec 2013
Iraq’s inability to help its own people when they are hit by natural disasters, despite oil revenues of $100bn a year, underlines the dysfunctional nature of the government 10 years after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
→ read full articleAs Syria Disintegrates, So Too Does Iraq
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
4 Nov 2013
Where there are Sunni minorities in Iraq, they will be killed or forced to flee. Perhaps, the only way to exercise influence on al-Qa’ida and the 1,200 other rebel groups is to threaten them with closure of the 500-mile long Turkish border which they need to keep open if they are to continue to fight.
→ read full articleForeign Media Portrayals of the Conflict in Syria Are Dangerously Inaccurate
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
1 Jul 2013
World View: It is naive not to accept that both sides are capable of manipulating the facts to serve their own interests. The foreign media reporting of the Syrian conflict is surely as inaccurate and misleading as anything we have seen since the start of the First World War.
→ read full articleThe Syrian Target: Why Only an All-Out War Can Depose Assad
Patrick Cockburn - CounterPunch,
24 Jun 2013
One curious aspect of the sarin gas story is that, at the end of May, the Turkish security forces said they had arrested in Turkey militants of the Syrian rebel al-Nusra Front, affiliated to al-Qa’ida, who had in their possession a 2kg cylinder filled with sarin. This is far more substantial evidence for the possession of poison gas than anything alleged against Assad’s forces, but the US, Britain and France showed no interest.
→ read full articleJust Who Has the Most to Gain if the Killing in Syria Goes On?
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
10 Jun 2013
World View: All the players have their own agendas, and none seems to involve a ceasefire… just yet. In a civil war of such savagery, diplomacy with any ambition to determine who holds power in future will founder because both sides believe they can still win. This is a cynical but probably correct explanation for why the US, Britain, France and the Sunni monarchies do not want the war to end until they can declare victory.
→ read full articleIs It the End of Sykes-Picot?
Patrick Cockburn – London Review of Books,
3 Jun 2013
The War in Syria and the Threat to the Middle East – Bashar al-Assad is probably correct in predicting that diplomacy will fail, that his opponents inside and outside Syria are too divided to agree on a peace deal. He may also be right in believing that greater foreign intervention ‘is a clear probability’. The quagmire is turning out to be even deeper and more dangerous than it was in Iraq.
→ read full articleWhy the Claims of Sarin Gas Don’t Add Up: Syria Has No Reason to Use Chemical Weapons
Patrick Cockburn - CounterPunch,
27 May 2013
It should have been self-evident that Iraqi defectors with juicy stories, and the opposition parties that promoted them, wanted to tempt the US into military action against Saddam. When it comes to chemical weapons, the Syrian opposition has similar and wholly understandable motives.
→ read full articleToxic Legacy of US Assault on Fallujah ‘Worse Than Hiroshima’
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
20 May 2013
Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study.
→ read full articleHow Julian Assange’s Private Life Helped Conceal the Real Triumph of WikiLeaks
Patrick Cockburn – The Independent,
9 Jul 2012
Without the access to the US secret cables, the world would have no insight into how their governments behave. As Julian Assange evades arrest by taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy to escape extradition to Sweden, and possibly the US, British commentators have targeted him with shrill abuse. They almost froth with rage as they cite petty examples of his supposed gaucheness, egotism and appearance, as if these were criminal faults.
→ read full articleWALKING INTO THE AL-QAEDA TRAP
Patrick Cockburn,
3 Jan 2010
Yemen has always been a dangerous place. Wonderfully beautiful, the mountainous north of the country is guerrilla paradise with well-defended villages and towns clinging to every peak. We are the Awaleq Born of bitterness We are the nails that go into the rock We are the sparks of hell He who defies us will be […]
→ read full articleSTEALING MONEY, SELLING HEROIN AND RAPING BOYS
Patrick Cockburn - Counterpunch,
15 Nov 2009
Meet Our Afghan Ally There is a dangerous misunderstanding outside Afghanistan about what ‘corruption and mismanagement’ mean in an Afghan context and a potentially lethal underestimation of how these impact on American and British forces. Just when President Barack Obama looked as if he might be railroaded into sending tens of thousands more US troops […]
→ read full articleIN ISRAEL, DETACHMENT FROM REALITY IS NOW THE NORM
Patrick Cockburn,
25 Jan 2009
All these years on from Sabra and Chatila, has anything changed? I was watching the superb animated documentary Waltz with Bashir about the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It culminates in the massacre of some 1,700 Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in south Beirut by Christian militiamen introduced there by the […]
→ read full articleTOTAL DEFEAT FOR U.S. IN IRAQ
Patrick Cockburn,
13 Dec 2008
It’s All Spelled Out in Unpublicized Agreement On November 27 the Iraqi parliament voted by a large majority in favor of a security agreement with the US under which the 150,000 American troops in Iraq will withdraw from cities, towns and villages by June 30, 2009 and from all of Iraq by December 31, 2011. […]
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