Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald: a rare gem

Glenn Greenwald, an American journalist who deserves serious respect for cutting edge reporting, has a thoughtful piece in Salon.com with the self-explanatory title: The “Bomb Iran” contingent’s newfound concern for The Iranian People.

Glenn’s article begins:

I’m going to leave the debate about whether Iran’s election was “stolen” and the domestic implications within Iran to people who actually know what they’re talking about (which is a very small subset of the class purporting to possess such knowledge).

He’s right of course. What the hell do any of us know about what’s really going on in Iran – a country which, in my case at any rate, is half a world away?

Even so, the humble blogger can serve a useful purpose, it seems to me – if only to point out what’s missing (or almost missing) in the mainstream media narrative.

Over the last day, protests have continued in Iran. There have been sizeable demonstrations – for and against President Ahmadinejad. Fortunately, there appears to have been no repeat of the violence on Sunday evening that cost several lives.

While protestors, it appears, remain free to protest, western correspondents been confined to the luxury hotels where they spend most of their time anyway. Naturally, this is widely-reported as an outrage by the war-pimps of Fox News, CNN, the BCC and Australia’s own conformist media.

Cluster Bombs

Cluster Bombs are a particularly vile weapon. Murderous on impact, they remain lethal long after fighting ends.

In recent years, there have been moves to ban the use of cluster bombs. Successive Australian Governments have played some role in this. The Peace Organization of Australia explains…

“In May 2008 the text for a treaty banning cluster munitions was concluded in Dublin, Ireland, at a meeting of 111 states. The treaty bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions and places obligations on countries to clear affected areas, assist victims and destroy stockpiles. It is the most significant treaty of its kind since the ban on anti-personnel landmines in 1997.

Like the Mine Ban Treaty, this new treaty is likely to have a powerful effect in stigmatising cluster bombs, so that even those countries that do not sign the treaty will not be able to use them without being subject to international condemnation.

The Peace Organisation of Australia urges the Australian Government to sign and ratify the Cluster Munitions Convention when it opens for signature in December.”

Developing international momentum for an effective ban on cluster bombs has been like a twin-track obstacle race for (genuine) proponents.

The most obvious problem were States that simply didn’t show up at Dublin. These include Russia and China, India and Pakistan. But the USA and Israel are also on this list. They are nations that currently refuse to sign any kind of ban.