Iraq
Iraq: British troops were looking for an enemy that did not exist
If you want to take part in further discussion about the impact of the War on Terror on our world today and how it might shape our future, come along to our FIRST WEDNESDAY SPECIAL: Changing world – conflict, culture and terrorism in the 21st century on Wednesday, 7 September. Some of the violence that […]
FULLY BOOKED Counterinsurgency and the “War on Terror”: Doomed to fail?
As we approach the 10-year anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks we will be bringing together a panel of experts to discuss the “War on Terror” that was launched by the United States government in their wake.
What has been achieved in Afghanistan and Iraq and, ten years on, what could be learnt from the Arab Spring about change in the region? 5 months into a new campaign in Libya, is it time that we reassess our involvement in the Arab world?
BBC journalists reflect on the nature of war reporting
BBC World Affairs Producer Stuart Hughes recently gave a talk on war reporting to a summer school at the London School of Economics. He has uploaded his slides and videos onto YouTube. Inevitably there are a few slides which won’t mean much without the benefit of Hughes’s words overlaid but he has included several interviews […]
Part II: WikiLeaks pushed Arab unrest, Assange says
By Gianluca Mezzofiore WikiLeaks had a prominent role in the Arab Spring, acting as a catalyst and pushing global information to a point where the US and other Western countries could not prop up Arab dictatorships anymore, according to WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange. Speaking at a Frontline Club event in East London, alongside renowned Slovenian […]
Part I: Žižek, Assange and the “new McCarthyism”
By Viola Caon A "new McCarthyism" has emerged in response to WikiLeaks and is evidenced in the calls for assassination by US politicians, the site’s editor-in-chief said today. Julian Assange, the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek and Amy Goodman from Democracy Now! shared a stage at a packed Frontline Club event at the Troxy in London’s […]
Eight modern-day whistleblowers (part I)
Daniel Ellsberg, publisher of ‘The Pentagon Papers,’ speaks at a press conference, 1970s. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images This Saturday, the Frontline Club and New Statesman host a special adversarial debate, "this house believes whistleblowers make the world a safer place". Here we profile some of the most prominent whistleblowers in recent memory… […]
Should Tony Blair be tried for war crimes?
Friday’s screening of The Alternative Iraq Inquiry was filmmaker David Lawley-Wakelin’s documentary-making debut. A panel discussion followed the screening of the short film, with former cabinet minister and MP Clare Short and Major General Tim Cross CBE.
Wikileaks: cat among pigeons
Download this episode View in iTunes Watch the associated event here. A couple of days ago, I finished a post on Wikileaks by stating that the media organisation that refuses to play by everybody else’s rules is still learning its own game. I promised you more on that and here it is. One of […]
Some thoughts on Wikileaks, the media and the truth
This was the second time I’d seen Julian Assange speak at the Frontline Club. A few months ago, the small club room was lined with TV cameras as the Wikileaks founder launched the Afghan War Logs leak. The audience of journalists that day were sceptical and were looking for a news line – they pushed […]
WikiLeaks: Julian Assange and Daniel Ellsberg in conversation
Following the leak by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks of almost 400,000 secret US army field reports from the Iraq war between 2004 and 2009. Join Julian Assange at the Frontline Club this evening in conversation with one of the most famous whistle blowers in history, Daniel Ellsberg, who was responsible for the leak of the Pentagon Papers in 1971.
Iraq revisited: What next for the Forgotten War?
Picture: Chris King By Sara Elizabeth Williams As the last full US combat brigade rumbled out of Iraq, what comes next for the region and its people, and what is the legacy of this long and divisive conflict? A Frontline Club panel got together to discuss just that on Wednesday night, discussing Iraq’s recovery […]
After the troops have gone: What now for Iraq?
After seven years, billions of dollars, as many as 100,000 civilian deaths and more than 4,000 US troops killed – President Barack Obama is finally pulling US troops out of Iraq. Following Barack Obama’s recent statement confirming the end of US combat operations in Iraq, we will be debating the implications for the Iraqi people and the soldiers that serve there.
Do images of the aftermath of an attack help insurgents?
Earlier today I came across an interesting blog post by Holly Pickett who recently finished her seven week rotation as the New York Times bureau photographer in Baghdad. She says: "It is nearly impossible to photograph the aftermath of a car bomb or street battle. In most cases, the scene is blocked by police, and cameras […]
Founder claims Wikileaks is preparing to release video of Afghan strike
According to the Daily Beast, NPR and apparently Wikileaks itself, the organisation is preparing to release a video of a U.S. airstrike on a village in Afghanistan which caused civilian casualties. In April, Wikileaks released footage of a U.S. Apache helicopter strike in Baghdad from 2007 in which two Reuters journalists and several Iraqi civilians […]
Wikileaks, journalism and the military
I did mention the possibility of writing a piece on the publication of a US military video by Wikileaks which depicted two Reuters journalists being killed in Iraq in 2007. But one of my colleagues at the War Studies Department, Jack McDonald, has beaten me to it. While not representing my own views, he does […]
Wikileaks video portrays the dangers of reporting the war on terror
By Ewan Palmer Last night Wikileaks revealed a shocking video of two US military helicopters killing a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad, including two staff members of Reuters. The footage was shot in 2007 and shows an unprovoked attack filmed from one of two Apache military helicopters. Two children were also […]
WRL: New media, Afghanistan, Iraq and Al Qaeda
A few bits and pieces I’ve spotted recently: 1. Leveraging New Media (pdf): A US military report on the Israeli Defence Force’s use of new media in the conflict in Gaza re-published in the Australian Army Journal. It’s from the middle of 2009 but I’d not picked it up before. It’s authored by Lieutenant General […]
Journalists and kidnap: the modern dangers of reporting from the frontline
“When you get it right you win awards. When you get it wrong people say you’re naive.” That’s how freelance journalist Sean Langan describes the dilemma facing journalists working in hostile conflict zones every day. In a sense, just to be there reporting from a war zone is a risk – but if there were […]
Round up: Marjah; war reporting; Facebook and the IDF.
Fighting the Taliban in Marjah, Afghanistan. There was an interesting little sub-plot in this article in The Times about the aim of protecting and winning over the population in a counterinsurgency operation. On the one hand these US Marines were being asked to exercise some level of restraint: "The new rules of engagement, dubbed “Courageous […]
Britain’s press ‘duped’ in run-up to Iraq war
Much of Britain’s press was taken in by cynical manipulation when they accepted the case for invasion of Iraq, journalists at the Frontline Club involved in reporting the war and its lead up claimed on Wednesday. Speaking during a discussion on the role of the media in the Iraq war, journalists who were involved in […]
Iraq: Assessing the media’s role in seven years of war
By Alison Larsen Seven years after the Iraq invasion, The Chilcot Inquiry has stirred up old tensions about the rights and wrongs of American and UK military intervention. But what role did the media play in reporting the conflict? An estimated 3,000 journalists reported on the Iraq war, including 800 embedded with allied forces, […]
Mountain minefield rescue at night in Iraqi-Kurdistan
I couldn’t leave him there. He was going to die. Over a hubbly bubbly and sweet chay in Dohuk this week I met Faris Zubair Ali – a highly experienced deminer and Operations Manager for the Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency. My co-producers Karlos Zurutuza and Borja Portuondo had interviewed Faris and his team at […]
Twitter and the Iraq Inquiry
The other day, Dave Lee pointed out that Sky were doing something interesting with a Twitter feed during their coverage of the Iraq Inquiry. They were showing foreign correspondent Tim Marshall’s Twitter feed alongside the live coverage of the Inquiry. At this particular point in time, Sir John Scarlett was being asked about the intelligence […]
DoD Director of New Media: “It’s not about controlling the message anymore”
Continuing what is rapidly turning into an autumnal video season here on the blog, I came across this interview by David Meerman Scott with Roxie Merritt, the Director of New Media Operations at the U.S. Department of Defense. There’s some very interesting stuff in this brief video. A few points for those of you […]
Discussing ‘The Ministry of Defeat’ at the Frontline Club
Last week, Defence of the Realm blogger Richard North dropped by struggled down from Bradford to London to discuss his book on Britain’s deployment in Iraq. Focussing on one of his specialities – procurement and provision of equipment for British troops – North painted a bleak picture of the Ministry of Defence and media coverage […]
Radio reporter held in Iraq
Jasim al-Kinani, a radio reporter with Al-Ahd network, was detained in Iraq on Wednesday following an explosion in the southern city of al-Bathaa in Dhi Qar province. The reporter is still being held by local security forces. The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory put out a statement in Arabic, Kinani detained today by security forces in Dhi […]
Mapping conflict
Using Google Earth (or Maps) as a news tool isn’t exactly new. But mapping all the coalition casualties during the military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq is a monumental effort. It’s the work of Sean Askay, a Google employee. He used the company’s 20% programme (allowing employees to spend one day a week on their […]
Live tonight – Hala Jaber on Iraq
The British-Lebanese journalist Hala Jaber will be in discussion with the BBC’s Kirsty Lang at the Frontline Club tonight. She’ll be discussing her work as a journalist in Iraq and her new book, The Flying Carpet to Baghdad. We start at 7pm GMT/11am PST and if you can’t make it to the Club in person, […]
77 names added to wall of fallen journalists
The names of 62 journalists killed in 2008 and 15 killed in previous years have been added to a memorial wall at the Newseum in Washington D.C. that honours journalists killed doing the job of journalism. Iraq and Mexico were the deadliest places for journalists last year. 13 names from Iraq were added to the […]
The most dangerous places for journalists
Iraq, Sierra Leone and Somalia are the most dangerous place for journalists according to the 2009 Imupunity index released by the Committee to Protect Journalists today. However, the report entitled Getting Away With Murder 2009, highlights worrying trends in South Asia, particularly in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, “We’re distressed to see justice worsen in […]
