Great article on BBC’s “Our Correspondent” website covering a recent US conference trying to see whether there was still anything in common with Europe. Apparently not:

“The West is an outdated concept,” declared one supremely self-confident senior American official at a lunch where he was the guest of honour. “And if there is still a West, then it includes Australia, Japan and South Korea. We have a global vision now” […] Seen through American eyes, it seemed the era of fixed alliances was over.

[…]

The name of the game would be selective and loose commitments: “Like an open marriage,” said one former US official […] “In my experience an open marriage tends to work only for one side,” [said] a British academic, “and I suspect it is the Americans who will benefit.”

When all’s said and done, there’s no real change in outlook. You’re still either with US, or against US.

Perhaps European investigators who are complaining of stonewalling by the US government in their investigation into the secret CIA detention centers and prisoner rendition should give ABC News and the Washington Post a call. Chances are, they know something they’re not telling. Have a look at this very interesting exchange between Brian Ross, Chief Investigative Correspondent for ABC News, and Ed Schultz provides wonderful insight into how the media will often apply self censorship to themselves:

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