links for 2011-03-03

— I'm planning a feature on a similar subject to this WIRED article, whose main focus is the Mi-24 helicopter–Shahryar

Global Voices has covered stories of mercenaries from Serbia bombing civilians from airplanes. But the majority of speculation regarding mercenaries portrays them as “foreign” or “African” — meaning from Sub-Sahara Africa and “Black”. This storyline is echoed everywhere in international media, in Arabic media, and in online citizen media and videos.
Why put a Black face on the mercenary story when people in Libya are both light and dark skinned?