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Today's
Stories
October 28,
2005
Jason Leopold
Fitzgerald
Focuses on the Forgeries
Otober 27,
2005
Saul Landau
The
Scandal Isn't the Leak, But the Illegal War
Stuart Hodkinson
Bono
and Geldoff: "We Saved Africa" Oh No, They Didn't!
Ingmar Lee
Stop
the Troops!: No Glory or Honor in Iraq
Lila Rajiva
License
to Bill: Gates Does India
Ilan Pappe
The
Last Moment of Hope
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Waiting for Fitzgerald
Michael Donnelly
Look Who's Talking Now: the GOP on Perjury
Ron Jacobs
Escape the Weight of Your Corporate Logo
Cockburn / St. Clair
White House in Meltdown
October 26,
2005
Kathy Kelly
For
Whom They Toll
Gary Leupp
Dialectics
of the Plame Affair
Mike Marqusee
Empire of Denial
Eric Ruder
War Crimes in Afghanistan
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq: a Constitutionally Divided Nation
Joshua Frank
Fitzgerald v. the Bushies: Hold Your Elation in Check
J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
The Legacy of Rosa Parks
Website of
the Day
Decent Work in America: the 2005 Work Environment Index
October 25,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Condi
and Syrian Regime Change: Could Somebody Recommend a President?
Ken Sengupta / Patrick Cockburn
Attack on the Palestine Hotel
Conn Hallinan
Sleight of Hand: Iran, India and the US
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Pulling the Court Strings
Jackie Corr
Barbara Bush: Poster Gorgon of the Houston Astros
Robert Day
Talk to Strangers
John Sugg
Judith
Miller and Me
October 24,
2005
Dave Lindorff
Revoke
Judy Miller's Pulitzer
Michael Donnelly
Shades of Iran/contra
Patrick Cockburn
A Nation Stands on Trial
Mike Whitney
Apres Rove
Norman Solomon
Iraq is Not Vietnam, But...
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
US
Foreign Policy and Palestine
October 22
/ 23, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
When
Divas Collide: Maureen Dowd v. Judy Miller
Billy Sothern
Letter
from the Circle Bar, New Orleans
Saul Landau
Bush, an Assessment
Ralph Nader
An
Open Letter to Bush on Harriet Miers
Behrooz Ghamari
Whose Justice Does Saddam's Trial Serve?
Brian Cloughley
Bush the Strategist: Pyrrhus Without a Victory?
Diana Barahona
Venezuela's National Workers' Union
Fred Gardner
Dershowitzed!
Lee Sustar
What the War on Terror is Really About
Patrick Cockburn
Murder of Saddam Trial Defense Lawyer
Laura Carlsen
Mexico City Seamstresses Recall 1985 Quake
James Petras
China Bashing and the Loss of US Competitiveness
Joshua Frank
Invading Iran: Who is to Stop Them?
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
Disasters are Us
Michelle Bollinger
When Abortion Was Illegal
Missy Comley
Beattie
CSI: Iraq
Kona Lowell
Intelligent Design: Making High School Fun
Ben Tripp
Tanks for the Memories
Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening To This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert and Engel
Website of
the Day
Indictment Watch
October 21,
2005
Dave Lindorff
The
Democrats' Abortion Hypocrisy
Winslow T. Wheeler
Paying for Their Mistakes: Incompetence, Deception and the Defense
Budget
Col. Dan Smith
The Destruction of the National Guard
Norman Solomon
Media at Crossroads: 25 Years After Reagan's Triumph
Madis Senner
Abusing Katrina
Michael Donnelly
Richard
Pombo: DeLay in Cowboy Boots
October 20, 2005
Dave Lindorff
Impeachment
Comes to NYC
Ray McGovern
16
Fatal Words: Cheney's Chickens Come Home to Roost
Jeremy Brecher
/
Brendan Smith
Attack Syria? Invade Iran?: By What Constitutional Right?
Patrick Cockburn
Saddam Refuses to Recognize Court
Kevin Zeese
Was the Iraqi Constitution Vote Fixed?
Ross Eisenbrey
Millions Would Lose Pay and Protections Under Enzi Amendment
Randy Shields
James McMurtry Makes It in Dayton
Justine Davidson
Prosecuting Bush in Canada for Torture: a Small Victory
After Lucas
Cranach
Judy and Holofernes
Joe Allen
The
Scandalous History of the Red Cross
October 19,
2005
Christopher Reed
Koizumi and the Rape of Nanking
Stephen Soldz
Bush
and Avian Flu: the Excuses Begin to Fly
Chet Richards
War
and Intelligence
Patrick Cockburn
Saddam on Trial
Scott Richard
Lyons
Multicultural
Columbus?
Ralph Nader
An Interview with Rev. William Sloane Coffin
Website of
the Day
Shocking Video: Why Birds May Be Taking Viral Vengeance on Humans
October 18,
2005
Chet Flippo
Merle
Haggard: "Let's Get Out of Iraq"
Ron Jacobs
Dual Devotions: the Catholic Church and the US Flag
Keeanga-Yamahtta
Taylor
A Tale of Two Cities: From DC to Toledo
Dave Lindorff
Judy Miller: Little Miss Run Amok
Virginia Rodino
A Winter Patriot: Reflections on the Antiwar Movement
Thomas Healy
The Weather in Goshen: Still Radical After All These Years
Ralph Nader
A New New Orleans
Stephen Lendman
The Sorrows of Haiti
Patrick Cockburn
On the Eve of Saddam's Trial: a Divided Iraq
October 17,
2005
Peter Linebaugh
Spinoza
and the Black Limos
Norman Solomon
Judith Miller, the Fourth Estate and the Warfare State
Cockburn /
Sengupta
"If
the Sunnis Don't Like It, That's Their Problem"
Mike Whitney
Miller's Confession: Last Gasp Before Indictments?
Uri Avnery
Iraq Now: What Awaits Samira?
Harold Pinter
Torture & Misery in the Name of Freedom
Website of
the Day
Al Joudi v. Bush
October 15
/ 16, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ayatollahs
of the Apocalypse
Patrick Cockburn
"This Constitution Won't Get Me a Job"
Saul Landau
Two Terrorists and a Lush: Osama, Posada and Bush's Drinking
Neve Gordon
"Beyond Chutzpah": Exposing Grave Moral Distortions
Moshe Adler
Poverty in New York City
Christopher Brauchli
Lynndie England's Burden
Diane Farsetta
The Emperor Doesn't Disclose: the Fight Against Fake News
Sam Husseini
Notes on Current Reporting About Judith Miller
Monica Benderman
From Chaos to Conscience to Peace
Mickey Z.
POW Abuse by US: Nothing New Going On Here
Douglas C.
Smyth
George W. Bush, the Honorius of Our Time
Lee Sustar
Will Delphi Bust the UAW?
Fred Gardner
Cannabinoids Arrive in Realm of Established Fact
Elizabeth Schulte
A Former Panther's Georgia Campaign: an Interview with Elaine
Brown
Joshua Frank
Will the Democrats Save Harriet Miers?
David Vest
Down with Formalism! Up with Values!
Ben Tripp
Epistle II: the Reawakenign
Poets Basement
Engel, Albert, Ford and Louise
Website of
the Weekend
The
Hidden Canyon
October 14,
2005
Farrah Hassen
A
Somber Ramadan in Syria
Ron Jacobs
The
Black Panthers: They Haven't Forgotten; Neither Should We
Sasha Kramer
USAID
and Haiti: the Friendly Face of Imperialism?
Katrina Yeaw
The Student Struggle in Italy
Nicole Colson
Bird Flu: Militarizing Health Care
Raúl Zibechi
Survival and Existence in El Alto
Nikolas Kozloff
Hugo
Chávez and the Politics of Race
Website of the Day
LA Filmmakers Cooperative
October 13, 2005
Jeremy Scahill
Mr.
Bush Goes to Tikrit (Sort Of)
Jeff Birkenstein
A
Thoreau for Our Time: Why Cindy Sheehan Matters
Brendan Smith / Jeremy Brecher
Harriet Miers: Bush or the Constitution?
Stan Cox
Did You Know This About Iraq?
Anis Memon
The Curious Case of Russ Feingold
Gary Leupp
Miller, Libby and the June Notes
Dave Zirin
A Tribute to August Wilson
Matthew Koehler
America's Endangered Forests
Werther
The
Two-Headed Monster
Website of
the Day
Hurricane Song
October 12, 2005
Omar Waraich
Britain
and the Quake: Mean and Stingy
William Cook
Voices
Behind the Entombment Wall
Phil Gasper
Countdown
to a Legal Lynching
Dave Lindorff
Impeachment Now and Then: Clinton, Bush and the Polls
Matt Vidal
Capital, Power and Class
John Gautreaux
New Orleans will Never be the Same
Diana Johnstone
Srebrenica
Revisited: Using War as an Excuse for War
Mark Weisbrot
The IMF Has Lost Its Influence
Brian J. Foley
Gitmo Tribunals Endanger Public Safety
Website of
the Day
Columbus Day Lies
October 11,
2005
Roger Morris
/ Steve Schmidt
Strategic
Demands of the 21st Century
Lila Rajiva
Live from New Orleans: Abu Ghraib
Bill Quigley
New
Orleans: Leaving the Poor Behind Again
Paul Craig Roberts
Natural Born Liars
Dave Lindorff
Recruiters in Schools: No Lie Left Untried
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Suspect Thy Neighbor
Mitchel Cohen
Showdown at Chuck E. Cheese
Tariq Ali
Pakistan will Never Forget This Horror
Website of
the Day
L'Heure Americaine
October 10,
2005
Cindy and Craig
Corrie
Rachel's
Words Live
Joshua Frank
Washington's War Dems
Gideon Levy
The Beautiful Life Without Arafat
Alan Wallis
The Fight for Free Speech at Union Square
Mickey Z.
In Defense of Liars
CounterPunch News Service
Vermont Independence Convention
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Police State is Closer Than You Think
Website of the Day
Dylan's Chronicles
October 8 /
9, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Rhetoric
and Reality in the Business of Getting Rid of Black People
Ralph Nader
Katrina
and the Growls of Greed
Jennifer Van Bergen
New American Law: Legal Strategies in the Dharfir Case
Saul Landau
An Oily Religious Dream
Jeff Halper
Setting Up Abbas
Lenni Brenner
The Millions More Movement and Zionism
Nikolas Kozloff
Bird Flu and Bush
Brian Cloughley
Training Soldiers in Iraq
Alice Slater
A Nobel Prize for Chernobyl?
John Gautreaux
A View from Cajun Country
Fred Gardner
Does the Controlled Substances Act Mean What It Says?
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Leveethan Approach
M.G. Piety
Rot in the Ivory Tower: Collusion, Cover-Up and Kierkegaard
Tom Gorman
The Hitchens Doctrine
Mike Whitney
Bunker Days with George
Aseem Shrivastava
Beyond the Wasteland: Lessons from Afghanistan
Ben Tripp
Religion, an Epistle
Poets' Basement
Albert, Engel and Ford
October 7,
2005
Larry Johnson
The
Plame Case: the Real Issues
Will Youmans
Why
Do We Hate Our Freedom? Recruiters and Thugs on Campus
Dave Lindorff
Bird Flu: Evolution or Intelligent Design?
Judith Scherr
Haiti's Children's Prison
Russell D. Hoffman
Nukes for Peace, Revisited?: Nobel Prize Debacle
Jared Bernstein
Katrina and Jobs
Jennifer Van
Bergen
New
American Law: the Case of Dr. Dhafir
Website of
the Day
FBI Witchhunt
October 6, 2005
P. Sainath
"Take
That, Tom Friedman": Indian Masses Reject NYT's Neoliberal
Idol Again
Scott Parkin
When Antiwar Activists Get Mugged
Paul Craig
Roberts
Blundering
into Syria
Andréa Schmidt
Haiti's Biometric Elections: a High-Tech Experiment in Exclusion
Dave Lindorff
Easy
Money in the Big Easy
Joshua Frank
In Defense of Lew Rockwell
M. Junaid Alam
Jackboots at George Mason
Matthew Koehler
Cock and Bull on the Bitterroot
Robert Pollin
Is
the Dollar Still Falling?
October 5,
2005
Heather Gray
Militarization is Not an Answer for
Reconstruction: the Case of the Philippines
Robert Jensen
Is
Bush a Racist?
Ramzy Baroud
Bush's Final Choice: America or
the Empire
Col. Dan Smith
Keeping Promises to Iraq: "Everything
is Bad"
Dave Zirin
Barry
Bonds Laughs Last
Paul Craig Roberts
Liberal Guilt? How the Neocons
Took Over
Alan Maass
Doing
the Right Wing's Dirty Work
October 4, 2005
Nikolas Kozloff
Shocking the Two Party System:
a Political Opportunity for Sheehan and the Antiwar Mvt.
Mike Roselle
Houston,
You've Got a Problem
Joshua Frank
The Scoop on Harriet Miers
John Chuckman
War
Porn: What the Gruesome Images Say
Alan Farago
Storm Warning for Jeb: Developers,
Hurricanes and the Keys
Mickey Z.
An
Interview with Thaddeus Rutkowski
Christine & Ethan Rose
Home Depot Exploits Hurricane Victims
Gary Leupp
An
Earlier Empire's War on Iraq: a Lesson from Roman History
Website of the Day
Rodney
Crowell on Bob Dylan
October 3,
2005
Vijay Prashad
Desperation at Holyoke
Paul Craig
Roberts
Condi
Rice: Gunslinger
Joshua Frank
An Interview with Cindy Sheehan
Seth Sandronsky
The
Hiring Crisis for Black Teens
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Great Green Scare
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October 28, 2005
Kevin
is Not Alone
In the Name of Justice
By MONICA BENDERMAN
Kevin
Benderman sits in jail. An injustice. He did not want to go.
He did not take his stand, break a law and dare the courts to
put him in jail with a stiff sentence. Kevin Benderman put his
principles on the line and dared to trust that his rights would
be respected as the constitution he fought to defend demands.
Kevin Benderman did everything
he could to demonstrate to the military, and to the world, that
he did not want to go to jail, by consistently performing his
required duties without letting the challenge he faced keep him
from his responsibilities
Why would anyone want to go
to jail? Why would anyone challenge the legal system to put
them in jail?
Kevin Benderman followed the rules and filed an application to
be recognized as a Conscientious Objector to war. The military
command broke the rules. They did not follow their own procedures,
and through their failing of the law, Kevin Benderman is the
one serving time. The legal system of our country failed and
did not uphold our constitution.
Days and nights are spent working
diligently on a plan of action for ensuring due process in Kevin's
case. As he sits in abhorrent conditions, knowing in his heart
that he has made the right choice and taken his stand with integrity,
many good people work hard to find a way to bring his case to
public awareness, and to show the world that justice has not
been served.
Kevin is not alone. There
are many, not all soldiers, who are wrongfully imprisoned for
standing for their beliefs with integrity. They did not choose
jail, they trusted that their ethical stand would be respected
and treated with dignity by the legal system. They followed the
rules, did things the right way and were persecuted for it.
For the soldiers still at war,
they choose the road they are on. Does that make the war right?
No. Does that make any war right? NO. But, the difficult situation
they are in is a choice we all are responsible for. If the war
is not over, perhaps it is because many still believe in what
they are doing, and have not been shown enough evidence of the
truth to change their minds. Wouldn't it be more beneficial
to work harder at making the truth evident as a way to stop the
war, rather than shouting loudly until someone finally takes
us away for a symbolic night in jail?
Those who have gone to jail
for declaring their conscientious objection to the war in the
legal manner allowed, have been treated with injustice by a legal
system in a country that professes to believe in, and honor,
ethical, moral behavior. For justice to be served on their behalf,
we must demonstrate evidence of the injustice done. Going to
jail ourselves isn't the best way to do that.
If the law says that protestors need a permit to peaceably assemble,
then why not show integrity, and respect for the legal system
of this country by getting a permit and conducting the protest
in an appropriate manner? Wouldn't the way to demonstrate the
difference between the integrity and higher standards of the
citizens of this country, and the lack of real ethical courage
of many in our government, be to show that integrity in the choice
of our actions?
If protestors knowingly break a law, they should be arrested.
If they choose to ask the courts to throw the book at them,
then that is their choice. Although why anyone would want to
do that is not something easily understood. What is demonstrated
by breaking a law and going to jail for it - daring the judge
to make it a stiff sentence? Who wins? What is the purpose?
The conditions of the prison at the Ft. Lewis Regional Correctional
Facility are appalling.
The rights of the inmates in
this facility are violated on a daily basis. Is the way to protest
the war to put ourselves in jail? Do the people of America really
care if someone chooses to sit in jail when they have the
freedom to choose to take a stronger, more positive stand - one
that demonstrates that they are not willing to become what many
in our government appear to already be? Should they care?
We can protest the war, we can protest the illegality, we can
publicly speak to the corruption we believe exists. But until
there is proof, evidence beyond a shadow of a doubt, we cannot
put someone in jail. To consider anything else, would be to
lower our standards far below where Kevin Benderman, and others
like him were willing to go.
The legal system of this country is failing us if evidence shows
that laws are broken and no punishment is given. The legal system
is also failing us when 15 commissioned Army officers, sworn
to uphold the constitution, use their power and rank to put one
soldier in jail for stating the truth and standing by his moral
and ethical values, and not one officer of the law dares to stop
the process.
As we watch the progress in Iraq, and as the potential indictments
come closer to the final day of knowing, time will tell what
comes next. If laws were broken, then justice will determine
the course of action. People have made significant mistakes,
and accountability is necessary. But let's not become what we
are fighting against, just to get results.
Let's find the moral courage to make our country strong again,
to take the right course, and stand on principle. Let's not
allow emotions to force our actions to become reactions. We
have one chance to make things right, to build a foundation based
on principles and integrity. Step by step, brick by brick we
can make our country whole again.
We cannot prosecute someone on assumptions, and we should not
allow someone to go to jail for injustice. We cannot fabricate
evidence, twist and manipulate papers and tell five different
stories under oath, just because a person's actions challenge
our beliefs.
All of this is fact in Kevin Benderman's case. He did not choose
jail he chose his right to live as he believes, as this
country should allow. His stand to live according to
his principles are what threatened his command, and pushed
them into a corner, challenging them to face what he was saying
or use their position to lock truth away in the confines of a
dilapidated jail where justice does not matter, where no one
is held accountable for their actions.
Those officers couldn't find their integrity they ran from
it. They were afraid to face what his choice told them about
themselves.
What does the choice of willingly breaking a law and then willingly
accepting the consequence of jail ASKING for it tell
us?
This country needs to move toward positive solutions, toward
better choices. This country needs to be led back to the constitution.
If you break a law that was created to preserve the rights of
all people, then the constitution allows punishment for that.
It is not fair to make a travesty of those who suffer as a result
of injustice by creating the appearance of injustice, any more
than it is fair for our soldiers to die to preserve individual
freedoms for people who really don't care about the soldiers'
sacrifice.
The citizens of this country deserve the right to make their
choices, but the citizens of this country deserve to be led by
people who stand by their integrity and who walk tall when those
who use their power and rank to dole out injustices try to imprison
the truth inside a steel cage.
If we want change we have to be the change, and live it in our
lives. Whether we are for the war, or against it, we have all
suffered, and lost because of it. It is each individual's choice
how they wish to proceed. All those in favor of staying the
course are free to take my husband's place in jail at
any time.
To learn more about Sgt. Kevin Benderman's journey to Conscientious
Objection, and to understand the psychological and manipulative
tactics he faced from the Military and the chain of command to
deter him from his public stance on Conscientious Objection,
please visit our website, www.BendermanTimeline.com
Monica Benderman may be reached at mdawnb@coastalnow.net
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Coming in the Fall
from CounterPunch Books!
The Case
Against Israel
By Michael Neumann
Click Here to Advance Order Philosopher
Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz
WHAT'S
INSIDE
Grand
Theft Pentagon:
Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror
by Jeffrey St. Clair
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