Naomi Klein

Why failure is the new face of success

Naomi Klein — 2007-09-17T11:10:00Z

Extracted from The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein, published by Allen Lane on September 20.

It may have been the military that invaded but, with Iraq completely dismantled, the reconstruction was to be the preserve of US corporations ... Thus was born 'disaster capitalism', where oil companies profit from a broken country and private security firms grow rich on political chaos, says Naomi Klein in this final extract from her new book.

- n o l o g o . o r g

From Think Tanks to Battle Tanks

Naomi Klein — 2007-08-23T07:35:00Z

'Is Another World Possible?' That was the theme of this year's annual meeting of the American Sociological Association that was held in New York City this past weekend. "We did not lose the battles of ideas. We were not outsmarted and we were not out-argued,” journalist and author Naomi Klein said. “We lost because we were crushed. Sometimes we were crushed by army tanks, and sometimes we were crushed by think tanks. And by think tanks I mean the people who are paid to think by the makers of tanks." Klein is author of the forthcoming book, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism."

The State Department is coming under criticism this week for refusing to allow a prominent South African social scientist to enter the country. Adam Habib was scheduled to speak at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in New York this past weekend, but the government has refused to give him a visa.

Ironically, the theme of this year's ASA conference was "Is Another World Possible?" At the conference, the ASA planned a series of sessions to assess the potential for progressive social change both in the United States and the world and to invite a serious discussion of "economic globalization" and its consequences.

One of the most highly anticipated sessions was to feature Jeffrey Sachs, an internationally known economist and a former special advisor to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, versus Naomi Klein, the Canadian journalist and author. But shortly before the ASA conference opened, Sachs pulled out. Unclear if it was related to the fact that Naomi Klein takes him on in her forthcoming book, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism." The theme of her talk was "Lost Worlds."

- n o l o g o . o r g / Democracy Now!

The US psychological torture system is finally on trial

Naomi Klein — 2007-02-23T06:59:00Z

A version of this article appears in the Nation

America has deliberately driven hundreds, perhaps thousands, of prisoners insane. Now it is being held to account in a Miami court

Something remarkable is going on in a Miami courtroom. The cruel methods US interrogators have used since September 11 to "break" prisoners are finally being put on trial. This was not supposed to happen. The Bush administration's plan was to put José Padilla on trial for allegedly being part of a network linked to international terrorists. But Padilla's lawyers are arguing that he is not fit to stand trial because he has been driven insane by the government. (...)

- n o l o g o . o r g / Guardian

Let the People Rebuild New Orleans

Naomi Klein — 2005-09-09T04:39:00Z

On September 4, six days after Katrina hit, I saw the first glimmer of hope. "The people of New Orleans will not go quietly into the night, scattering across this country to become homeless in countless other cities while federal relief funds are funneled into rebuilding casinos, hotels, chemical plants.... We will not stand idly by while this disaster is used as an opportunity to replace our homes with newly built mansions and condos in a gentrified New Orleans."

The statement came from Community Labor United, a coalition of low-income groups in New Orleans. It went on to demand that a committee made up of evacuees "oversee FEMA, the Red Cross and other organizations collecting resources on behalf of our people.... We are calling for evacuees from our community to actively participate in the rebuilding of New Orleans." (...)

[September 26, 2005 issue]

- n o l o g o . o r g / Nation

Terror's Greatest Recruitment Tool

Naomi Klein — 2005-08-12T02:30:00Z

It's not our tolerance for multiculturalism that fuels terrorism; it's our tolerance for the barbarism committed in our name. A society that truly lived its values of equality and human rights would actually rob terrorists of what has always been their greatest recruitment tool: our racism. Naomi Klein reports.

Hussain Osman, one of the men alleged to have participated in London's failed bombings on July 21, recently told Italian investigators that they prepared for the attacks by watching "films on the war in Iraq," La Repubblica reported. "Especially those where women and children were being killed and exterminated by British and American soldiers...of widows, mothers and daughters that cry."

It has become an article of faith that Britain was vulnerable to terror because of its politically correct antiracism. Yet Osman's comments suggest that what propelled at least some of the bombers was rage at what they saw as extreme racism. And what else can we call the belief—so prevalent we barely notice it—that American and European lives are worth more than the lives of Arabs and Muslims, so much more that their deaths in Iraq are not even counted? (...)

[August 29, 2005 issue]

- n o l o g o . o r g / Nation

Aristide in Exile

Naomi Klein — 2005-07-15T03:49:00Z

Research assistance was provided by Aaron Maté.

When United Nations troops kill residents of the Haitian slum Cité Soleil, friends and family often place photographs of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on their bodies. The photographs silently insist that there is a method to the madness raging in Port-au-Prince. Poor Haitians are being slaughtered not for being "violent," as we so often hear, but for being militant; for daring to demand the return of their elected president. (...)

[August 1, 2005 issue]

- n o l o g o . o r g / Nation

Torture's Part of the Territory

Naomi Klein — 2005-06-08T01:55:00Z

Brace yourself for a flood of gruesome new torture snapshots. Last week, a federal judge ordered the Defense Department to release dozens of additional photographs and videotapes depicting prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.

The photographs will elicit what has become a predictable response: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will claim to be shocked and will assure us that action is already being taken to prevent such abuses from happening again. But imagine, for a moment, if events followed a different script. Imagine if Rumsfeld responded like Col. Mathieu in "Battle of Algiers," Gillo Pontecorvo's famed 1965 film about the National Liberation Front's attempt to liberate Algeria from French colonial rule. In one of the film's key scenes, Mathieu finds himself in a situation familiar to top officials in the Bush administration: He is being grilled by a room filled with journalists about allegations that French paratroopers are torturing Algerian prisoners. (...)

- n o l o g o . o r g / Los Angeles Times

Torture's Dirty Secret: It Works

Naomi Klein — 2005-05-12T05:00:00Z

I recently caught a glimpse of the effects of torture in action at an event honoring Maher Arar. The Syrian-born Canadian is the world's most famous victim of "rendition," the process by which US officials outsource torture to foreign countries. Arar was switching planes in New York when US interrogators detained him and "rendered" him to Syria, where he was held for ten months in a cell slightly larger than a grave and taken out periodically for beatings. (...)

[from the May 30, 2005 issue]

- n o l o g o . o r g / Nation

How to End the War

Naomi Klein — 2005-05-06T15:49:08Z

The central question we need to answer is this: What were the real reasons for the Bush administration's invasion and occupation of Iraq?

When we identify why we really went to war-not the cover reasons or the rebranded reasons, freedom and democracy, but the real reasons-then we can become more effective anti-war activists. The most effective and strategic way to stop this occupation and prevent future wars is to deny the people who wage these wars their spoils-to make war unprofitable. And we can't do that unless we effectively identify the goals of war. (...)

- n o l o g o . o r g / In These Times

Can Democracy Survive Bush's Embrace?

Naomi Klein — 2005-03-11T02:49:00Z

It started off as a joke and has now become vaguely serious: the idea that Bono might be named president of the World Bank. US Treasury Secretary John Snow recently described Bono as "a rock star of the development world," adding, "He's somebody I admire."

The job will almost certainly go to a US citizen, one with even weaker credentials, like Paul Wolfowitz. But there is a reason Bono is so admired in the Administration that the White House might just choose an Irishman. As frontman of one of the world's most enduring rock brands, Bono talks to Republicans as they like to see themselves: not as administrators of a diminishing public sphere they despise but as CEOs of a powerful private corporation called America. "Brand USA is in trouble...it's a problem for business," Bono warned at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The solution is "to re-describe ourselves to a world that is unsure of our values." (...)

[from the March 28, 2005 issue]

- n o l o g o . o r g / Nation

Getting the Purple Finger

Naomi Klein — 2005-02-11T05:42:00Z

"The Iraqi people gave America the biggest 'thank you' in the best way we could have hoped for." Reading this election analysis from Betsy Hart, a columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service, I found myself thinking about my late grandmother. Half blind and a menace behind the wheel of her Chevrolet, she adamantly refused to surrender her car keys. She was convinced that everywhere she drove (flattening the house pets of Philadelphia along the way) people were waving and smiling at her. "They are so friendly!" We had to break the bad news. "They aren't waving with their whole hand, Grandma—just with their middle finger."

So it is with Betsy Hart and the other near-sighted election observers: They think the Iraqi people have finally sent America those long-awaited flowers and candies, when Iraq's voters just gave them the (purple) finger. (...)

[from the February 28, 2005 issue]

- n o l o g o . o r g / Nation

What Are We Fighting For?

Lakshmi Chaudhry, Naomi Klein — 2005-01-27T19:23:00Z

In a provocative interview, Naomi Klein talks about Bush, the Iraq war and the need for progressives to “answer the language of faith with the language of morality.”

- n o l o g o . o r g / AlterNet

Yes, you must pull out - but also pay for the damage

Naomi Klein — 2004-12-27T14:23:00Z

A version of this column was first published in The Nation.

Colin Powell invoked it before the invasion, telling aides that if the US went into Iraq "you're going to be owning this place". John Kerry pledged his allegiance to it during the first presidential debate, saying: "Now, if you break it, you made a mistake. It's the wrong thing to do. But you own it."

It's the so-called Pottery Barn rule: "You break it, you own it." Pottery Barn, a chain of stores that sells upmarket home furnishings in shopping malls across America, apparently has an in-store policy that if you shatter anything while shopping, you have to pay for it, because "you own it". (...) [page 18 | Comment]

- n o l o g o . o r g / Guardian

You asked for my evidence, Mr Ambassador. Here it is

Naomi Klein — 2004-12-04T14:28:00Z

Additional research by Aaron Maté

David T Johnson,

Acting ambassador,

US Embassy, London

Dear Mr Johnson, On November 26, your press counsellor sent a letter to the Guardian taking strong exception to a sentence in my column of the same day. The sentence read: "In Iraq, US forces and their Iraqi surrogates are no longer bothering to conceal attacks on civilian targets and are openly eliminating anyone - doctors, clerics, journalists - who dares to count the bodies." Of particular concern was the word "eliminating". (...)

[page 26 | Comment]

- n o l o g o . o r g / Guardian

Let's Put Teeth In Our Protest

Naomi Klein — 2004-12-03T04:04:00Z

Jeremy Hinzman tells me that he's thinking about going to Ottawa to join today's protests against George W. Bush. If he does, he won't be giving any fiery speeches. "It's not a good time for that," he observes. (...)

- n o l o g o . o r g / ZNet