How
the Press & the CIA
Killed Gary Webb's Career
Today's
Stories
January 14,
2005
Tom Barry
Robert
Zoellick: a Bush Family Man
January 13,
2005
Mark Chmiel
/ Andrew Wimmer
Hearts
and Minds, Revisited
Joe DeRaymond
The Salvador Option: Terror,
Elections and Democracy
Greg Moses
Every Hero a Killer?...Not
Dave Lindorff
The Great WMD Fraud: Time for an Accounting
Jorge Mariscal
Dr. Galarza v. Alberto Gonzales: Which Way for Latinos?
Christopher Brauchli
Gonzales and the Death Penalty: the Executioner Never Sleeps
Gary Leupp
"Fighting
for the Work of the Lord": Christian Fascism in America
January 12,
2005
Robert Fisk
Fear
Stalks Baghdad
Josh Frank
The
Farce of the DNC Contest
Jack Random
Casualties
of War: the Untold Stories
John Roosa
Aceh's Dual Disasters: the Tsunami and Military Rule
Carol Norris
In the Wake of the Tsunami
Mike Whitney
Pink Slips at CBS
Alan Farago
Can
the Everglades be Saved?
Paul Craig
Roberts
What's
Our Biggest Problem in Iraq...the Insurgency or Bush?
January 11,
2005
Tom Barry
The
US isn't "Stingy"; It's Strategic: Aid as a Weapon
of Foreign Policy
James Hodge
and Linda Cooper
Voice
of the Voiceless: Father Roy Bourgeois and the School of the
the Americas
Linda S. Heard
Farah Radio Break Down: Joseph Farah's Messages of Hate and Homophobia
Derrick O'Keefe
Electoral Gigolo?: Richard Gere and the Occupied Vote
Gila Svirsky
A Tale of Two Elections
Harry Browne
Irish
"Peace Process", RIP
January 10,
2005
Ramzy Baroud
Faith-Based
Disasters: Tsunami Aid and War Costs
Talli Nauman
Killing
Journalists: Mexico's War on a Free Press
Uri Avnery
Sharon's Monologue
Dave Lindorff
Tucker
Carlson's Idiot Wind
Dave Zirin
Randy
Moss's Moondance
Dave Silver
Left Illusions About the Democratic Party
Charles Demers
Plan Salvador for Iraq: Death Squads Come in Waves
William A.
Cook
Causes
and Consequences: Bush, Osama and Israel
January 8 /
9, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Say,
Waiter, Where's the Blood in My Margarita Glass?
John H. Summers
Chomsky
and Academic History
Greg Moses
Getting Real About the Draft
Walter A. Davis
Bible Says: the Psychology of Christian Fundamentalism
Victor Kattan
The EU and Middle East Peace
John Bolender
The Plight of Iraq's Mandeans
Robert Fisk
The Politics of Lebanon
Fred Gardner
Situation NORML
Joe Bageant
The Politics of the Comfort Zone
Mickey Z.
I Want My DDT: Little Nicky Kristof Bugs Out
Ben Tripp
CounterClockwise Evolution
Ron Jacobs
Elvis and His Truck: Out on Highway 61
Saul Landau
Sex
and the Country
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Time to End the Blackout
Ellen Cantarow
NPR's Distortions on Palestine
Richard Oxman
Bageantry Continued
Poets' Basement
Gaffney, Landau, Albert, Collins
January 7,
2005
Omar Barghouti
Slave
Sovereignty: Elections Under Occupation
Kent Paterson
The Framing of Felipe Arreaga: Another Mexican Environmentalist
Arrested
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Old
Vijay Merchant and the Tsunami
David Krieger
Cancel the Inauguration Parties
Gideon Levy
New Year, Old Story
Dave Lindorff
Ohio Protest: First Shot Fired by Congressional Progressives
Christopher
Brauchli
Privatizing the IRS
Roger Burbach
/ Paul Cantor
Bush,
the Pentagon and the Tsunami
January 6,
2005
Brian J. Foley
Gonzales:
Supporting Torture is not His Greatest Sin
Greg Moses
Boot
Up America!: Gen. Helmly's Memo Leaks New Bush Deal
Petras / Chomsky
An
Open Letter to Hugo Chavez
Alan Maass
The Decline of the Dollar
Dave Lindorff
Colin Powell's Selective Sense of Horror
Jenna Orkin
The EPA and a Dirty Bomb: 9/11's Disastrous Precedent
P. Sainath
The
Tsunami and India's Coastal Poor
January 5,
2005
Alan Farago
2004:
An Environmental Retrospective
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Oversight
Detected?: Sen. McCain and the Boeing Tanker Scam
Jean-Guy Allard
Gary Webb: a Cuban Perspective
Fred Gardner
Strutting, Smirking, As If The Mad Plan Was Working
David Swanson
Albert Parsons on the Gallows
Richard Oxman
The Joe Bageant Interview
Bruce Jackson
Death
on the Living Room Floor
January 4,
2005
Michael Ortiz
Hill
Mainlining
Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
They
Say They Can Lock You Up for Life Without a Trial
Yoram Gat
The
Year in Torture
Martin Khor
Tragic
Tales and Urgent Tasks from the Tsunami Disaster
Gary Leupp
Death
and Life in the Andaman Islands
January 3,
2005
Ron Jacobs
The
War Hits Home
Dave Lindorff
Is
There a Single Senator Who Will Stand Up for Black Voters?
Mike Whitney
The Guantanamo Gulag
Joshua Frank
Greens and Republicans: Strange Bedfellows
Maria Tomchick
Playing Politics with Disaster Aid
Rhoda and Mark
Berenson
Our Daughter Lori: Another Year of Grave Injustice
David Swanson
The Media and the Ohio Recount
Kathleen Christison
Patronizing
the Palestinians
January 1 /
2, 2005
Gary Leupp
Earthquakes
and End Times, Past and Present
Rev. William
E. Alberts
On "Moral Values": Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian
Tendencies
M. Shahid Alam
Testing Free Speech in America
Stan Goff
A Period for Pedagogy
Brian Cloughley
Bush and the Tsunami: the Petty and the Petulant
Sylvia Tiwon
/ Ben Terrall
The Aftermath in Aceh
Ben Tripp
Requiem for 2004
Greg Moses
A Visible Future?
Steven Sherman
The 2004 Said Awards: Books Against Empire
Sean Donahue
The Erotics of Nonviolence
James T. Phillips
The Beast's Belly
David Krieger
When Will We Ever Learn
Poets' Basement
Soderstrom, Hamod, Louise and Albert
December 31,
2004
Farrah Hassen
The
Palestinian Right of Return: a View from Syria
Dave Lindorff
US Air's Bold New Idea: Work for Your Boss for Free!
George Capaccio
Tsunami Hits Iraq
Mike Whitney
Iraq v. Tsunami: Media Duplicity
Peter Phillips
The Tsunami and the Corporate Media: Waves of Hypocrisy
Christopher
Deliso
War
and the Tsunami: Putting It in Perspective
December 30,
2004
Lila Rajiva
Unnatural
Disaster? Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Nuclear Testing
Robert Fisk
The
Ghosts of Vietnam
Roger Burbach
Argentina
v. the IMF
Stan Cox
9/11 and 12/26: How to React
Walter Brasch
Bush and Tsunamis: Heartless in Crawford
Christopher Brauchli
Empire of the Misers
Alexandra Spieldoch
NAFTA Through a Gender Lens: "Free Trade" Pacts and
Women
Paul Kincaid Jameison
Grief, Relief and the Stingy West
Dan Bacher
The Water Kings of California
Paul Craig
Roberts
Unbecoming
Conduct
December 29,
2004
Dave Lindorff
Us,
Stingy?: It's All Relative
M. Shahid Alam
America
and Islam: Seeking Parallels
Ronald D. Hoffman
Tsunamis
and Nuclear Power Plants
Sam Bahour
/ Todd May
Elections
Without Democracy
Fred Gardner
Ricky Does 60 Minutes
Ali Khan
Who's Feeding the Bin Laden Legend?
John Hansen
Family Farms Are Being Fed to Corporate Sharks
Sam Lewin
How the Justice Department Continues to Screw the Sioux
Richard Oxman
As Time Goes By With Andy Goldsworthy
Mickey Z.
A Wave of Questions: Putting a Disaster in Context
Website of the Day
Banking While Muslim
December 28,
2004
Brian Cloughley
The
Chief Weirdo at the Pentagon: Rumsfeld Must Go
Joshua Frank
Privacy Piracy? What Howard Dean May Bring to the DNC
Jessica Leight
The
Chilean Miracle: Less Than Meets the Eye
Dave Lindorff
A
Shameful Response to Disaster
John Walsh
Disappearing the Anti-War Movement at the NYTs
Dave Zirin
The Death of Reggie White: an Off the Field Obituary
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Be Careful Not to Get Too Much Education: It's Happened to a
Lot of Good Christians
Ron Jacobs
Iran
2004: The Resistance and the Western Anti-War Movement
December 27,
2004
M. Junaid Alam
"Civilization
v. Barbarism": an Interview with Noam Chomsky
Michael Donnelly
Greens and Greenbacks: How Nonprofit Careerism Derailed the "Revolution"
Greg Moses
Texas Election Scandal: Forty Faxes and a Whisper
Toni Solo
Colombia's Appalling Vista: Justice With Eyes Wide Open
Brian Kwoba
Blaming the Victims of the 2004 Elections
Genna Goodman-Campbell
Honduras Validates Its Banana Republic Status, Again
Mike Whitney
Disappearing Act: Fallujah and the Media
Ari Shavit
"Zionism Has Exhausted Itself": an Interview with Amos
Elon
Richard Oxman
Reflections on a Handful of Activists
Saul Landau
James
Cason's Cuban Delusions
December 25
/ 26, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Yup,
It's Moral Outrage Time
Diane Christian
The Christmas Christ
Dr. Susan Block
Faith-Based Sex
Gary Leupp
Rumsfeld, His Critics and the Draft
Ron Jacobs
Music in Wartime
Elaine Cassel
Articles I Didn't Write
Jim Minick
Beyond Organic
Poets Basement
Louise, Landau, Orloski, Albert
and Collins
December 24,
2004
Diane Christian
Winning:
Rummy and John Milton
Chad Nagle
Ukraine's
Real Underdog
Saul Landau
My Friend Richard Barnet
Greg Moses
Ramsey Muniz Speaks
Joe DeRaymond
The Endless War in Colombia: a View From Within
Borzou Daragahi
Iraq's Christians: Tolerated by Saddam; Targets Under Occupation
Mike Whitney
Rummy's Quagmire of Lies
Francis A. Boyle
O Little Town of Bethlehem: Another Christmas Under Occupation
William Loren
Katz
Florida 1837: Christmas Eve Resistance to the First US Occupation
December 23,
2004
Chad Nagle
Report
from Kiev: Yushchenko's Not Quite Ready for Sainthood
David Smith-Ferri
The
Real UN Disgrace in Iraq
Bill Quigley
Death
Watch for Human Rights in Haiti
Mickey Z.
Crumbs
from Our Table
Christopher Brauchli
Merck's Merry X-mas
Greg Moses
When
No Law Means No Law
Alan Singer
An
Encounter with Sen. Schumer: a Very Dangerous Democrat
David Price
Social
Security Pump and Dump
Website of the Day
Gabbo Gets Laid
December 22,
2004
James Petras
An
Open Letter to Saramago: Nobel Laureate Suffers from a Bizarre
Historical Amnesia
Omar Barghouti
The Case for Boycotting Israel
Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond
They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit
Harry Browne
Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge
Richard Oxman
On the Seventh Column
Kathleen Christison
Imagining
Palestine
Website of the Day
FBI Torture Memos
December 21,
2004
Greg Moses
The
New Zeus on the Block: Unplugging Al-Manar TV
Dave Lindorff
Losing
It in America: Bunker of the Skittish
Chad Nagle
The View from Donetsk
Dragon Pierces
Truth*
Concrete
Colossus vs. the River Dragon: Dislocation and Three Gorges Dam
Patrick Cockburn
"Things Always Get Worse"
Seth DeLong
Aiding Oppression in Haiti
Ahmad Faruqui
Pakistan and the 9/11 Commission's Report
Paul Craig
Roberts
America
Locked Up: a System of Injustice
December 20,
2004
Gary Leupp
Japan
in Iraq
Robert Fisk
An
Army Without Compassion
Uri Avnery
The Mountain and the Mouse
Francisco Letelier
My Case Against Pinochet
Patrick Cockburn
The Polls of Fear
Bill Conroy
Charles Bowden on the Legacy of Gary Webb: "He Drew Blood"
Yoshie Furuhashi
Chokeholds of a Giant: Attacking Wal-Mart's Supply Chain
David Swanson
Media Blackout of Bush's War on Labor
Chad Nagle
Did Yushchenko Poison Himself?
December 18
/ 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
They Hated Gary Webb
Saul Landau
Gen.
Pinochet Should Also Face Charges in DC
Patrick Cockburn
Losing
Mosul: Once They Called It a Model for the Occupation
Douglas Valentine
Wolves
and Revolution in Venezuela: a Caracas Romance
Ray McGovern
Laughing Dragon, Dancing Bear: the New China / Russia Alliance
Fred Gardner
DEA Upholds Grower's Marijuana Monopoly
Jean-Guy Allard
Locked Up Naked in a Hole Within a Hole: Have the Cuban 5 Been
Tortured in US Prisons?
Ron Jacobs
Drifters Escape, Again: Encounters with Berkeley's Police
Raymond G.
Helmick, S.J.
The Law and Peace in the Middle East
Sean Sellers
Values Voters, Desperate Housewives and Sweatshop Tacos
Lee Sustar
Christmas
on the Picket Line at CNH: "They Want to Break Our Unions"
Richard Thieme
Webb's Wife: "Gary Was Never the Same After They Attacked
Him"
Sam Bahour
WANTED:
Middle East Negotiator
Joshua Frank
The
Spin Doctor: an Interview with Mickey Z.
Dave Lindorff
A Man Who Confers with God Should Have Good Hearing
Stan Cox
What Kids Cost: Dallas v. Delhi
Chris Frasier
Farming By Numbers: More Poets, Fewer MBAs
Poets' Basement
Katz, Melek, Harley, Albert and Ford
December
17, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
CounterAttack:
How the Press and the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career
Dave Lindorff
Racism:
Philly Style
Dan Bacher
Bush Abandons Salmon Restoration
Marisa Jacott
NAFTA and the Environment: Trade Still Runs Roughshod
Francis Thicke
How Now, Industrial Cow?
Rupert Cornwell
The Inuit Strike Back
Website of the Day
Franz Boas Unrolls Over in His Grave
December
16, 2004
Michael
Neumann
How We Became Barbarians
Merlin
Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Ralph Nader
Gabriel
Espinoza Gonzales
The Dubious Career of John Bolton
Christopher
Brauchli
Louis Freeh's New Gig: Usurer
Patrick
Cockburn
Allawi's Pre-Election Ploy: Putting "Chemical Ali"
on Trial
Mike
Whitney
Gearing Up for a Draft?
Walter
Brasch
Hillbilly Humvees and Rumsfeld's New Physics
Bill
Conroy
How Gary Webb Saved My Ass from the FBI
Website
of the Day
Saturday Memorial for Gary Webb
December
15, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Who Killed Baha Mousa?
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Monster Under the Bed
Heather
Gray
Will the Real Christians Please Stand?: a Personal Testimony
Dave
Lindorff
The DNC, Albright and the Iraq Elections
Luis
Hernandez Navarro
To Die a Little: Migration and Coffee
in Mexico and Central America
Joshua
Frank
The Ohio Recount: an Exercise in "Dumbocracy"
Greg
Moses
Eighty-Sixing Civil Rights in Ohio?
George
Caffentzis
The Petroleum Commons
December
14, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
DNC Meddling in the Ukraine Elections
Larry
Birns / Seth DeLong
Haiti is Unraveling and No One is Saying
Anything
Richard
Thieme
My Last Talk with Gary Webb: "I Knew It Was the Truth and
That's What Kept Me Going"
Patrick
Cockburn
A Year After Saddam's Capture, Iraq
is Getting Worse
Chris
Floyd
Client State: Moral Values and Voluntary Servitude in Bush's
America
Akiva
Eldar
A One-time Hanukkah Miracle
Burbach
/ Cantor
The Legacy of Pinochet: Kissinger
and the Teflon Tyrant
December
13, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Gary Webb: a Great Reporter, Trashed
by the CIA's Claque
David
Phinney
"Contract Meal Disaster" for Iraqi Prisoners: Rancid
Food Sparked Abu Ghraib Riots
Paul
Craig Roberts
A Dose of Non-Delusional Reality
for Douglas Feith
M.
Junaid Alam
The War is the War Crime
Robert
Jensen
The US Has Lost the Iraq War...and That's a Good Thing
Richard
Oxman
Kafkaesque Lessons for the Left
Greg
Moses
Send No Messengers of Defeat
Douglas
Lummis
The Pentagon's Neurosis: Fallujah
Gulag
December
11 / 12, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Running an Empire on the Cheap
Ron
Jacobs
The Drugs of War: Getting High in the Green Zone?
Saul
Landau
Listening and Talking to God About
Invading Other Countries
Gary
Leupp
Bush's Capital
Sharon
Smith
The Horrible Toll on US Troops
Dave
Lindorff
Deja Vu All Over Again: 5,000 Desertions and Counting
Uri
Avnery
The Boss Has Gone Crazy
Jude
Wanniski
The Neo-Con Smear on Kofi Annan: What Food-for-Oil Scandal?
Heather
Gray
How the South Became Republican: an Interview with John Egerton
Patrick
Cockburn / Ken Sengupta
Fallujah: the Homecoming and the Homeless
John
Pilger
Return to Kosovo: Calling the Humanitarian Bombers to Account
Joshua
Frank
All the Rage: Mr. Solomon, Say You're Sorry
Ben
Tripp
O Canada!: the Truth About the Election of 2004
John
Stanton
God Speaks!
Laura
Nathan
Porn Stars are People, Too: a Talk with Christi Lake
Poets'
Basement
Capaccio, Davies, Louise, Ford and Albert
Website
of the Day
Fallujah Photos: Killed in Their Beds
December
10, 2004
Ralph
Nader
President Bush, Stop Destroying the
Mosques of Iraq
Greg
Moses
Whitewashing Voter Fraud
Nicole
Colson
Rebellion in the Ranks: Grunts Are Resisting Stop-Loss Orders
Frederick
B. Hudson
"They Still Got Those Dogs": A New Book Probes Old
Civil Rights Lessons
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq's Insurgents Oppose the Occupation, Not the Elections
Kathy
Kelly
From Haiti to Iraq: Burying Water
December
9, 2004
Greg
Moses
Ask Not Who Bankrolled Fallujah
Joshua
Frank
Cobb and the Ohio Recount: Vote Fraud as Fundraiser!
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush: It's Time to
Disclose the Real Casualty Figures
Lee
Sustar
Bhopal: the Making of a Disaster
Tom
Barry
Restrictionist Resurgence
Mickey
Z.
Sander Hicks and the 9/11 Truth Movement
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush in the Bubble
Mark
Donham
Why are House Democrats Trying to
Deny Cynthia McKinney Seniority?
Gary
Corseri
On the Anniversary of John Lennon's Death, 2012
Paul
de Rooij
The Voices of Sharon's Little Helpers
December
8, 2004
Ralph
Nader
Will the Real Michael Moore Ever Re-Emerge?
Ann
Harrison
The Ohio Recount: Reluctant Officials
and Few Rules
Paul
Craig Roberts
War Crime
Dave
Lindorff
They've Got a Secret: Inside the $40 Billion Black Budget for
Spying
Patrick
Cockburn / Andrew Buncombe
CIA Warning on Iraq: Fallujah Did Not Break the Back of the Insurgency
Col.
Dan Smith
Rules of Engagement in Iraq
Emily
Alves / Michael Johnson
Paradise Lost: Corruption and Clientelism in Costa Rica
Richard
Oxman
The Dylan Bob Wouldn't Mention: Up With Dylan Thomas
Ron
Jacobs
In Fallujah, Freedom Isn't Free
December
7, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Running Battles in Baghdad
Behrooz
Ghamari
Lost Muslim Voices of Dissent
Dave
Lindorff
American Fantasies: Psst! Hey Buddy,
Did You Hear How Well the War's Going?
Joshua
Frank
Dean at the DNC?
Richard
Oxman
Down with Dylan: the Insufferable Interview
Ray
McGovern
All Mosquitoes, No Swamp
John
Chuckman
The Invasion of Hallifax: The Imperial Wizard Visits Canada
James
Petras
Latin America: the Empire Changes Gears
Website
of the Day
ToxMap: Who's Poisoning You
December
6, 2004
Paul
Craig Roberts
Paranoia and Pre-emption: Is the
Bush Administration Certifiable?
December
4 / 6, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Politicize the CIA? You've Got to
be Kidding
Joe
Bageant
Dining with the Rhinos
Alan
Maass
Reporting from the Ground in Iraq: an Interview with Patrick
Cockburn
Brian
Cloughley
Democracy, Bush-style, in the Gulf
Laura
Carlsen
Latin America Shifts Left
Lenni
Brenner
Jefferson, Madison, Bush and Religion
Anna
Ioakimedes
Brazil's Haitian Mission: Doing God's Work or Washington's?
Uri
Avnery
Widow of Opportunity?
Fred
Gardner
Supreme Court Hears Medical Pot Case
Dave
Zirin
Steroids to Heaven
Jackie
Corr
Mining Camp Blues: the Red State Variation
Don
Fitz
Will Greens Abandon IRV?
Lucy
Herschel
"Art can be a Weapon of the Oppressed": an Interview
with Artist Anthony Papa
Richard
Oxman
No Angels in America: Bashing the Gay Play
Ron
Jacobs
Holiday Greeting Card
Poets'
Basement
Collins, Albert, LaMorticella
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
January 14, 2005
Rice's #2 at the State Department
Robert
Zoellick: a Bush Family Man
By
TOM BARRY
To what degree do neoconservatives and
militarists control U.S. foreign policy? And how much influence
do the less ideological figures like former National Security
Adviser Condoleezza Rice have over President Bush?
Those were questions continually
debated by foreign policy observers during last three years of
the first Bush administration. And at the onset of Bushs second
term, assessing the new ideological/realist balance in the foreign
policy team is the main topic of Washingtons foreign policy community.
The presidents nomination of
Condoleezza Rice and her selection of Robert Zoellick as her
top deputy indicate that the ultra-hawks and neocon foreign policy
revolutionaries wont completely dominate the second administration.
Neither Rice nor Zoellick, who served as the U.S. Trade Representative
during the first administration, are ideologues. But neither
are they moderate conservatives. Only when compared with such
figures as Rumsfeld and his deputies at the Pentagon, such as
Paul Wolfowitz, Stephen Cambone, and Douglas Feith, could they
be considered moderates.
Both Rice and Zoellick are
nonideological foreign policy operatives who are not idealists
or true believers. Rather they are realists who accept the neoconservative
premise of U.S. global supremacy but want to wisely manage that
power to further their notions of U.S. national security and
interests.
At first glance, Zoellick could
be mistaken for an ideologue, as an evangelist for free trade
and a member of the neoconservative vanguard. But when his political
trajectory is more closely observed, Zoellick is better understood
as a can-do member of the Republican foreign policy elitea diplomat
who always keeps his eye on the prize, namely the interests of
Corporate America and U.S. global hegemony. Based on his record
in the Bush Sr. administration and the current Bush presidency,
Zoellick is highly regarded as an astute dealmaker.
Rices surprise selection of
Zoellick was greeted with an almost palpable sense of relief
inside Washingtons foreign policy circles. The great fear, outside
the neoconservative and militarist camps, was that Cheney and
company would insist that the shrill unilateralist John Bolton,
current undersecretary for arms control, serve as Rices deputy.
Zoellicks
Track Record
Robert Zoellick, who enjoys
long-distance running, has a long track record in the economic
policy and diplomatic affairs of Republican administrations since
the late 1980s. During the second Reagan administration, Zoellick,
who began his career as a Harvard-educated lawyer, served as
a special assistant at the Treasury Department. During the Bush
Sr. administration, Zoellick became a key figure shaping post-Cold
War economic policy as a senior officer in both the Treasury
and State Departments and a personal adviser to the elder Bush.
While serving in the Bush Sr.
administration, Zoellick was instrumental in sealing the NAFTA
accord with Mexico. When the negotiations hit a rough spot, Zoellick
served as a special assistant to President Bush in his relations
with President Salinas of Mexico and managed to keep jump-start
the stalled negotiations. As an indicator of the degree that
U.S. foreign policy in the 1990s increasingly became focused
on global economic policy, Zoellick, while serving as a counselor
at the State Department and Under Secretary of State for Economics,
played a key role in launching the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
forum. In recognition for this achievement, Zoellick received
the Distinguished Service Award, the State Departments highest
honor.
Zoellick shuttled all over
the world during the Bush Sr. administration to promote U.S.
global economic policy. Before the founding of the World Trade
Organization, Zoellick was the Bush administrations top negotiator
with the European Union at a time when the Uruguay Round of multilateral
trade negotiations was blocked by U.S.-European differences over
agricultural trade liberalization. He helped break the logjam
by forging the Blair House Accord, which helped save the foundering
Uruguay Round. Among other functions in his role as the roving
ambassador for the U.S. free trade agenda, Zoellick was the administrations
sherpa at the G-7 summits in 1991 and 1992.
His reputation of an Atlanticist
was secured during the Bush administration when he persuaded
the U.S. government to support the reunification of West and
East Germany. According to the New York Times: He is most widely
remembered in foreign policy circles for being the United States
representative at the multiparty negotiation over the future
of divided Germany. He persuaded the Bush administration to embrace
German unity despite the qualms of allies and alarm in the former
Soviet Union.
Zoellick is highly respected
on Wall Street and by Corporate America at large. Not only a
highly effective government representative of U.S. capital, Zoellick
has benefited from direct personal ties with the U.S. financial
community and transnational corporations. He has directly worked
in the highest echelons of the U.S. corporate community, including
serving as an executive at Goldman Sachs. Before joining the
Bush Jr. administration as a cabinet official in the capacity
of the U.S. Trade Representative, Zoellick served on an advisory
council at the Enron Corporation. In addition, Zoellick also
served on the boards of such corporations as Alliance Capital,
Jones Intercable, Said Holdings, and the Precursor Group.
A protÈgÈ of
James Baker, who served as treasury secretary during the Reagan
administration and secretary of state during the Bush Sr. administration,
Zoellick has close ties to the Bush family. He was an adviser
to Governor George W. Bush and served as a foreign policy adviser
to presidential candidate Bush.
A New Republican
Foreign Policy
Zoellicks essay in Foreign
Affairs in January 2000, entitled Campaign 2000: A Republican
Foreign Policy, highlighted Zoellicks grasp of the radical new
foreign policy directions that would come with a Bush Jr. administration.
Zoellick faulted the Clinton administration for focusing too
narrowly on economic policy and for promoting social and environmental
clauses within free trade organizations, as Clinton did at the
outset of the WTO ministerial in Seattle. He spelled out a new
foreign policy that would be based on the preeminence of military
powera concept of a new American century in which unquestioned
U.S. military superiority would allow the United States to shape
the international order.
Zoellick was perhaps the first
Bush associate to introduce the concept of evil into the construct
of Bushs radical overhaul of U.S. grand strategy. A year before
Bush was inaugurated, Zoellick wrote: A modern Republican foreign
policy recognizes that there is still evil in the worldpeople
who hate America and the ideas for which it stands. Today, we
face enemies who are hard at work to develop nuclear, biological,
and chemical weapons, along with the missiles to deliver them.
The United States must remain vigilant and have the strength
to defeat its enemies. People driven by enmity or by a need to
dominate will not respond to reason or goodwill. They will manipulate
civilized rules for uncivilized ends.
Although regarded as a pragmatic
promoter of U.S. economic interests, Zoellick has an idealist
streak that also aligns him with the neoconservatives. In his
Foreign Affairs article, Zoellick points to the need for a foreign
policy that recognizes the appeal of the countrys ideas are unparalleled,
and points favorably to the idealism of presidents Theodore Roosevelt
and Woodrow Wilson in promoting their visions of an international
order based on their visions of Americas transformational role
in world history.
Zoellicks Foreign Affairs essay
was a companion piece to another predictive about new directions
in foreign policy by Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza
Rice. Zoellick worked alongside Rice in the National Security
Council in the Bush Sr. administration.
In 1998 Zoellick joined a group
of neoconservatives and militarists, many of whom would later
form the upper ranks of George W. Bushs foreign policy teams,
in signing statements of the neocon Project for the New American
Century (PNAC). The statements among other things called for
increased military budgets and a policy of regime change in Iraq.
Coalition
of the Liberalizers
The Senate unanimously confirmed
Zoellick as USTR in 2001, and it is expected that his nomination
as deputy secretary of state will also receive strong bipartisan
support. Although Zoellick failed to seal a Free Trade of Americas
Agreement during his tenure as USTR, he won respect among the
corporate community for his role in gaining bipartisan support
for Bushs request for trade promotion authority, also know as
fast-track authority because it reduces the role of congressional
and public review of new free trade pacts.
When it comes to global economic
policy, Zoellick is not a free trade ideologue or a committed
advocate of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Instead, he regards
free trade philosophy and free trade agreements as instruments
of U.S. national interests. When the principles of free trade
affect U.S. short-term interests or even the interests of political
constituencies, Zoellick is more a mercantilist and unilateralist
than free trader or multilateralist.
Zoellick coined the phrase
the coalition of the liberalizers prior to the failed WTO ministerial
in September 2003. Thats what Zoellick called the group of countries
that have joined the United States in bilateral or regional trade
pacts. In the face of mounting opposition from Brazil and other
developing nations to the U.S. global economy agenda, USTR Zoellick
began forging a coalition of trade partners that agree to open
their markets and protect U.S. investment in order to ensure
coveted access to the huge U.S. market.
In early 2003 Zoellick outlined
a free trade strategy that anticipated rising opposition to Washingtons
liberalization agenda. Instead of committing itself to making
the compromises necessary to completing another negotiating round
in the WTO, the Bush administration announced that it would pursue
its agenda through free trade agreements (FTAs) with single nations
or subregional groupings. Our FTA partners are the vanguard of
a new global coalition of open markets, declared Zoellick.
At the beginning of the Bush
administration, the United States had FTAs with only a few nations,
including Canada, Israel, and Mexico. However, once Congress
in 2002 gave the executive branch Trade Promotion Authoritythe
go-ahead to pursue fast-track trade negotiationsthe Office of
the U.S. Trade Representative launched free trade initiatives
around the world outside of the WTO. Zoellick took the lead in
negotiating the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)
in May 2004. That same month the USTR announced the start of
bilateral trade negotiations with Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru
(and possibly Bolivia) as part of the planned U.S.-Andean Trade
Agreement as well as the beginning of free trade negotiations
with Panama.
Zoellick termed his free trade
strategy one of competitive liberalization. By establishing numerous
bilateral and regional agreements outside the WTO, the United
States hopes to undermine opposition to its aggressive liberalizing
agenda and weaken developing country demands for U.S. market
access, subsidy reduction, and Special Treatment in the WTO.
In a July 10, 2003 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal the administrations
trade czar clearly articulated the U.S. global trade and investment
strategy. Zoellick explained that under WTO consensus procedures,
one nation can block progress in extending economic liberalization
to new areas. Explaining that Washington can pursue its liberalization
agenda outside the WTO, Zoellick warned: It would be a grave
mistake to permit any one country to veto Americas drive for
global free trade.
Although other nations remain
committed to a multilateral forum and universal trade rules,
Zoellick signaled that Washington was willing to proceed unilaterally.
He predicted, The WTOs influence will wane if it comes to embody
a new dependency theory of trade, blaming developed countries...
Seeing the recalcitrance of many developing countries to approve
new trade and investment rules, the Bush administration has adopted
a my way or the highway approach to global economy issues. This
unilateral posture with respect to trade and investment rules
mirrors its unilateralism in foreign and military policy.
The day the WTO talks broke
down in Cancun, the USTR said that the wont do countries had
won the day over the can do countries. Referring to the developing
country coalitions that had come together to block the must-do
agenda of Washington and the EU, Zoellick issued a veiled threat
to the multilateral process: Were going to keep opening markets
one way or another, he said.
The Bush administrations decision
to raise agricultural subsidies by $80 billion in the 2002 farm
bill underscored the charges that the United States is a free
trade hypocrite. But protectionism and subsidies have political
payoffs. When Zoellick returned from the failed Cancun talks,
he was praised by leaders of the American Farm Bureau Federation
for not budging on the issue of farm subsidies. This hypocrisy
galls many developing countries, who see their competitively
priced exports blocked by U.S. protectionism while at the same
time heavily subsidized U.S. exports flow into their own domestic
markets.
The USTR relentlessly pressured
other nations, particularly poorer ones, to liberalize their
economies. For itself, however, free trade serves more as a battering
ram to knock down national barriers to U.S. trade and investment
than a universal principle.
In a speech to the right-wing
Heritage Foundation in Washington, Zoellick made the case that
there is no alternative to globalization and that U.S. companies
and consumers were already benefiting in countless ways from
this new wave of corporate-led economic integration. To drive
his point home about all the new opportunities, Zoellick noted:
Even the funeral business has gone global, with a Houston-based
company now selling funeral plots in 20 countries.
Neoconservative-Realist
Balance in New Bush Administration
The selection of Rice and Zoellick
to direct the State Department points to President Bushs determination
to consolidate his foreign policy team. Although Rice and Zoellick
are not blazing hawks like Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Wolfowitz, they
are loyalists and hardliners when it comes to promoting U.S.
military supremacy and corporate economic interests. Set to replace
Colin Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage, Rice and Zoellick
can be counted on for reducing frictions within the foreign policy
apparatus and seeking more policy coherence with the Pentagon
and Cheneys office.
Part of that policy coherence
was expressed by Zoellick in the aftermath of the September 11th
attacks when he conflated his free trade initiatives with the
war on terrorism. Now we have a clear enemy who is not only trying
to do us great damage, but is also trying to terrorize us to
paralyze us by terrorizing us, said Zoellick. The terrorists
deliberately chose the World Trade towers as their target. While
their blow toppled the towers, it cannot and will not shake the
foundation of world trade and freedom. Our response has to counter
fear and panic, and counter it with free trade.
This coherence was also on
exhibit during a speech by Zoellick at the Institute for International
Economics in 2003, when he linked economic agreements with political
adherence to U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. seeks cooperationor
betteron foreign policy and security. Given that the U.S. has
international interests beyond trade, why not try to urge people
to support our overall policies? Negotiating a free trade agreement
with the U.S. is not something one has a right to doits a privilege.
Although not part of the new
rights militarist and neoconservative camps, Zoellicks personal
arrogance, his unilateralism, and his loyalty to Bush and the
Republican Partys new radical elite make him a perfect fit for
Bushs new foreign policy team.
Tom Barry is policy director of the International
Relations Center, online at and author of numerous books
on international relations.
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