There’s a pattern. The government lets companies regulate themselves until they get exposed for causing damage to the public interest. Deny, fudge, delay, until there is enough of an outcry that it starts to be politically damaging. At that stage, the government does just enough to make the public think that the problem is sorted. But not enough to stop the companies from making big profits.
The construction of this book was a painstaking and dangerous enterprise. John Stephenson risked life and limb by returning to the villages and interviewing survivors, and assembling the family trees of the dead and wounded. Empty shell casings from Apache helicopter cannon rounds were collected and photographed. A series of locally sourced stories from the Pajhwok News Agency, pointing to civilian deaths and casualties were filed. And, as mentioned earlier, a locally documented list of the dead and wounded was obtained and photocopied. By triangulating this material with the admissions of anonymous sources throughout the SAS and NZDF, Hager and Stephenson have built a powerful case.
I’m therefore going to break ranks somewhat with many of the other voices on the liberal left and respectfully suggest that maybe Winston IS on to something here, and that there is, in fact, a case to be made for getting rid of the present section 59.
In the words of Jon Stephenson: “Is [NZDF Chief] Tim Keating really saying there were two raids using identical aircraft, in identical places with identical commandos, that left behind identical munitions in that one village, then [in] a village two kilometres south? Seriously?”
Labour and Greens new Budget Responsibility Rules for fiscal management demonstrates a lack of commitment to the low paid and…
Malcolm Evans – SAShhhhhhh
The Hit and Run authors say the defence force leadership is trying to confuse the public and government to reduce pressure for an independent inquiry into the revelations in the book.
If Mediaworks is attempting to cater to Babyboomers, then shite offerings such as ‘The Project’ will not cut the mustard. It is a pale, immature, sickly parody of professional journalism. What else can you call something that is fronted by people whose day-jobs are comedians?
I think TOP is worth paying attention to and here are my main reasons:
The Labour Party remains resolute that Auckland’s parks and playgrounds are not to be carved up for housing development and…