Environmental pressures
"More than 200 scientists employed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service say they have been directed to alter official findings to lessen protections for plants and animals, a survey released Wednesday says... More than half of the biologists and other researchers who responded to the survey said they knew of cases in which commercial interests, including timber, grazing, development and energy companies, had applied political pressure to reverse scientific conclusions deemed harmful to their business." — Los Angeles Times, February 10.
With the CIA?
"[Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib] was actually with people in Afghanistan who have a history of murdering innocent civilians." — ASIO chief Dennis Richardson, February 16.
Newspeak I
"There's a clear distinction between interrogations and debriefing or interviewing. One is a voluntary act and one is obviously under a certain amount of duress or coercion." — Defence minister Robert Hill, February 16, lamely trying to defend his claim that no Australians were involved in the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners. The Australian Macquarie Dictionary defines interrogation as "1. To ask a question or a series of questions of a person, especially closely or formally; 2. To examine by questions; 3. To ask questions".
Newspeak II
"Japanese government officials fought to play down claims yesterday that the country had fallen back into recession, saying that data showing a third successive quarter of economic contraction reflected a 'slightly softer tone' of growth." — Glasgow Scotsman, February 17.
From Green Left Weekly, February 23, 2005.
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