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Today's Stories October 23, 2007 Ralph Nader Bush's Catastrophic Rhetoric October 22, 2007 Ishmael Reed Should Blacks Go Green? Marjorie Cohn Mukasey and the Constitution: Another Loyal Bushie Rannie Amiri Is There a Method to Bush's Middle East Madness? Diane Farsetta Time to Pay for Payola: the FCC and Pundit-for-Hire Armstrong Williams Todd Alan Price Renewing No Child Left Behind: A Hurricane Katrina Aimed at Public Education Robert Jensen The Quagmire of Masculinity Stephen Lendman The UAW Leadership Sells Out Its Workers Jemima Khan The Kleptocrat in an Hermes Headscarf Sunsara Taylor David Horowitz Can't Handle the Truth Binoy Kampmark No Ideas, Please: the Australian Elections Website of the Day Support the Center for International Policy     October 20 / 21, 2007 Alexander Cockburn The Man Who Builds Hillaryworld Tariq Ali A Massacre Foretold Jeffrey St. Clair Greetings from Echo Park Andy Worthington The Shame of Diego Garcia Mike Whitney Housing Flameout Daniel Wolff Play It As It Lays David Rosen Deviants on Parade: Folsom St. Fair and America's 4th Sexual Revolution Saul Landau David and Goliath in Iraq Ron Jacobs COINTELPRO and the Panthers Robert Fantina The Strange Love of Mitt Romney and Bob Jones David Heleniak Erring on the Side of Hidden Harm Joe Allen Hoffa Brown-Nosing at UPS Prairie Miller Lions for Lambs Poets' Basement Gibbons, Holt and Buknatski Website of the Weekend Crash!   October 19, 2007 John Ross Che's Mexican Legacy Sheldon Rampton Shared Values Revisited: a Case Study in the Limits of Propaganda Rahul Mahajan A Tale of Two Atrocities: Blackwater and Haditha Devra Davis Deadly Secrets: Chemical Pollution and Cancer Christopher Brauchli Blasphemous Science Wadner Pierre Haiti After the Deluge Bill Quigley Jailed for Justice Website of the Day Textbook Sticker Shock   October 18, 2007 Saree Makdisi Academic Freedom is at Risk Meg Dwyer What I Learned from 9/11: Who Wouldn't Want Us Dead? Alevtina Rea Sketches of Russian Life Norman Solomon The United States of Violence Kristoffer Larsson Something is Rotten in Sweden Harvey Wasserman Nukes are Back and So are We Website of the Day Eve Ensler: "A Filibuster Would Stop This War"   October 17, 2007 Steve Niva Counter-Insurgency, American-Style Andy Worthington The Case of Mohamed Jawad Alan Farago The Credit Shock Russell Mokhiber The New Billionaire-Criminal Class Sharon Smith Democrats, AWOL When It Mattered Mike Whitney Time for the Banks to Face the Hangman Robert Fantina Iraq, Iran and the US: Business as Usual Chris Irwin Where Have All the Rednecks Gone? Website of the Day Sex Ed at Oral Roberts University October 16, 2007 Peter Linebaugh Doris Lessing and the Dynamite Prize Paul Findley Follow the Leader: The Open Secret About the Israel Lobby Robert Bryce Inconvenient Corrections: Al Gore's Wacky Facts Uri Avnery The Mother of All Pretexts Paul Craig Roberts The Iraqi Genocide Ray McGovern What Did Nancy Pelosi Know About NSA Spying and When Did She Know It? Norman Solomon The Pro-War Undertow of the Blackwater Scandal Martha Rosenberg The Curse of Cymbalta William S. Lind Out of the Frying Pan Joel S. Hirschborn Time to Boycott Voting Website of the Day Pipeline Through Paradise: Big Oil's Arctic Play   October 15, 2007 Gary Leupp Response to an Angry Marine Andy Worthington A Gitmo Detainee Finally Gets a Break Heather Gray Al Krebs, a Fighter for Family Farmers John Walsh Blacks Turn Against the War: Why Won't Liberals Join Them? Joshua Frank Nobel Gore? Dave Lindorff Slaughter of the Innocents in Iraq Matt Vidal Squaring the Circle on Children and Health Care Ali Khan Pakistan's Constitutional Mess Sen. Russ Feingold The CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program Johnny Barber The Balm of a Peace Process Infuses the War on Terror Website of the Day The Real Gore October 13 / 14, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Al Gore's Peace Prize Wajahat Ali Privatizing Terror, Outsourcing Diplomacy: an Interview with P. W. Singer Jeffrey St. Clair A Half Mile of Hell Ralph Nader Impeachment, Cowardice and the Democrats David Heleniak Gitmo at Home Laura Carlsen Plan Mexico and the Billion Dollar Drug Deal Brian Cloughley The Flat Drug World Richard Rhames Here Come the "Bankrupted Social Security" Scamsters, Again Ron Jacobs For the Sake of a Future Fred Gardner The Overrated Importance of Being "On Message" John Ross The Betray Us Flap Russell Hoffman Another Pro Nuker Wins the Peace Prize Missy Beattie Will Someone Please Give Lou Dobbs a Lobotomy? Poets' Basement Gibbons, Buknatski and Ford Website of the Day "Psychokiller", the Blackwater Version October 12, 2007 Cindy Sheehan Leadership Void Brendan Cooney Washington's Holocaust Deniers Alan Farago Gore Still Lost Florida Jan Oberg Gore's Peace Prize, a Grand Misjudgment M. Shahid Alam The Mercenary State: Pakistan's Killer Elites David Macaray Lies About Teachers and Unions Julia Kendlbacher Urban Legend, We Love Our Forest People Peter Rost, MD Drug Money and the Clinton Campaign Website of the Day Nader Live: "Things are a Lot Worse Than We Thought" October 11, 2007 Al Giordano Bill Clinton as Ambassador to the World? Saul Landau Killing for Profit: Blackwater in Iraq Jacob G. Hornberger The Failed Legacy of Interventionism William S. Lind The Iraq Mirage Joshua Frank Big Sky Rebels Josh Mahan Colorado River Blues Pat Williams Where Are You, Paul Wellstone?     October 10, 2007 Michael Yates Travels Across Greenspan's America Gary Leupp Spreading Awareness or Smearing a Religion? David Macaray How Wal-Mart Can be Beaten Alan Farago Corruption and the Law of Intended Consequences Tom Clifford Homeless in Their Own Land: Iraq's Deepening Refugee Crisis Col. Douglas MacGregor Washington's War Sunsara Taylor Nooses at Columbia George Wuerthner Behind the Bovine Curtain Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Indigenous Peoples' Day Michael Dickinson Forgetting Lennon's Birthday Website of the Day Paying for War   October 9, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Blinded by Ideology: Cato, Trade and Outsourcing Andy Worthington Fourth Whistleblower Rocks Guantánamo Alan Farago The Fall of Florida's Largest Land Developer Brian Eno Exporting Democracy with Missiles David Rovics The RIAA vs. the World Farzana Versey Two Lovers and the Funeral of Secularism Andrew Buncombe and Omar Waraich Musharraf's Landslide Website of the Day Romney and the Wheelchair Bound Medical Marijuana Patient   October 8, 2007 David Macaray Lesbians for Hillary? or Teamsters for Hillary? Jeff Ballinger Nike, Steroids and Marion Jones Brian Eno This Ban Won't Stop Us Christopher Brauchli Translating Bush Louay Safi End the Disgrace of Guantánamo Matt Reichel Homocide by Cops at the Phoenix Airport Dave Lindorff Finally, A Good Day for the Constitution Thomas P. Healy The Politics of Mercury Pollution Martha Rosenberg E. Coli Spreading Slaughter Allowed to Stay Open Richard Rhames A Democrat's Lament Website of the Day Not All Italians Love Columbus   October 6 / 7, 2007 Alexander Cockburn A Rainbow Over a Graveyard Norman Finkelstein Jeffrey Goldberg's Prison James Bovard Are Presidents Entitled to Kill Foreigners? Patrick Cockburn The Invasion of Afghanistan, Six Years Later Jeffrey St. Clair At Disaster Falls Ralph Nader Where Are the Lawyers of America? Ray McGovern So Who's Afraid of the Israel Lobby? Saul Landau A River Runs Through It Ben Tripp Bring on the Next War! Terry Lodge The Grateful Dead Body Parts Delivered to Your Door Reform Act Seth Sandronsky Market Mystification and the Liberal Virus Kevin Funk / Steve Fake Divestment and Darfur Missy Beattie In the Custody of Bush and Cheney Website of the Weekend Snoop Dogg vs. Bill O'Reilly   October 5, 2007 Andy Worthington The Anonymous Victims of Guantánamo David Macaray De-Skilling America's Labor Force Lee Sustar The Democrats and Iran: Can They Sink Any Lower? Dan La Botz Cincinnati Six Years After the Killings and the Riots Aaron Hess Hate Week Comes to Campus William A. Cook Unmasking AIPAC Website of the Day Range of Memory   October 4, 2007 Uri Avnery The Power of the Israel Lobby Dave Marsh Dick Cheney, a Eulogy Valerio Volpi How Italy Became a Launching Pad for the US Military Cecilie Surasky Dissenting at Your Own Risk Dave Lindorff Remaking Iraq, as Vietnam Norman Solomon Sputnik, 50 Years Later Laura Carlsen Costa Rica and CAFTA: Memo Reveals Manipulation Scheme Walter Brasch When Compassion Fails: Bush and the Children's Health Act Ben Terrall Haitian Human Rights Advocate Kidnapped William S. Lind Beyond the OODA Loop Website of the Day Musicians in Handcuffs   October 3, 2007 Vijay Prashad Gang of Four Anita Sinha Black Ties and Bulldozers in New Orleans Winslow T. Wheeler Posturing at the Petraeus Hearings: Where was the Oversight? Sharon Smith The Kucinich Quandary Jeff Leys Our Bonhoeffer Moment Sen. Russ Feingold We Must End This Tragedy Mohamad Bazzi Playing Into the Hands of Ahmadinejad Brenda Norrell A Cry from the Top of the World Robert Weissman No Sex, Still a Scandal at the IMF Website of the Day Jena by Mellencamp   October 2, 2007 Ibrahim Warde Logical Lies About Bin Laden's Wealth Gary Leupp "I Hate All Iranians": Frank Talk from a Defense Dept. Official David Macaray The Hunt for a Blue November: In Pursuit of the Labor Vote Conn Hallinan Religion and Foreign Policy John Ross The Great American Chess Match Alan Farago Ripping Off Miami's Poor Sonja Karkar The Right to Exist: States or People? Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Meteor and the Mahatma Website of the Day Grandin on Che's Legacy   October 1, 2007 Al Giordano The Clinton Campaign's Reckless Race for Big Money Donors Paul Craig Roberts From Burma to Iraq: Hypocrisy Rules the West Moshe Adler The Crimes of Microsoft Ingmar Lee My Kayak Journey Down the Wild Pacific Coast John V. Walsh Ahmadinejad is Not My Enemy Norman Solomon Political Science and Truth of Consequences Roger Burbach Historic Victory in Ecuador for the Left Ramzy Baroud The Politics of Assassination Stephen Lendman The Maestro of Misery: Greenspan's Dark Legacy Susie Day Honey, I Shrank the Military! Website of the Day Letters from Fort Lewis Brig   September 29 / 30, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Clinton Time: Do We Set Our Clocks Forward or Back? Uri Avnery So What About Iran? Andrew Cockburn Iraq's WMD Myth: Why Clinton is Culpable Jeffrey St. Clair Through the Gates of Lodore Wajahat Ali The Good, the Bad and the Iraqi Andy Worthington The Curse of the Military Commissions Don Santina Ethnic Cleansing in San Francisco Ralph Nader Free Lunches, for Corporations! Fred Gardner The Man Behind the MoveOn Ad Seth Sandronsky The US Economy Since 1980 Gideon Levy The Children of 5767 William S. Lind A Ticking Bomb Reza Fiyouzat An Anti-Imperialist Case Against a Nuclear Iran Richard Rhames Wag the Tail, Frag the Dog David Michael Green Buyer's Remorse: Their Purchase, Our Regret Zach Mason Hate and Hope in Herndon Poets' Basement Gibbons, Ali, Davies and Suss Website of the Weekend Domestic Crusaders     September 28, 2007 Kathleen and Bill Christison The Teflon Alliance with Israel Roberto J. González / David H. Price When Anthropologists Become Counter-Insurgents Saul Landau September, the Cruelest Month in Chile Tom Clifford Burma by the Numbers Christopher Brauchli Of Toxic Almonds and Bad Beef Martha Rosenberg Spinning Suicide Statistics Dave Zirin Soldier in Winter: John Carlos Speaks Out on the Jena 6 Laray Polk Bush Library or Lockbox? Binoy Kampmark When Reagan Turned Brown James McEnteer Hell, Columbia: an Academic Hotshot Introduces a Petty Tyrant Website of the Day Concerned Anthropologists   September 27, 2007 Alan Farago Housing Market Crashes and Burns Andy Worthington A Bad Week at Guantánamo Jonathan Cook Why Did Israel Attack Syria? William Hughes Billy Graham, a Prince of War Exposed Ray McGovern Bush, Oil and Moral Bankruptcy Ron Jacobs Joe Biden's Plan to Chop Up Iraq Dave Lindorff Quit the Party! Join the Mass Resignation Movement! Joshua Frank Pruning the Green Party Anne Dachel The CDC, Vaccines and Autism Website of the Day The God-O-Meter   September 26, 2007 Bill Quigley HUD's Home Wreckers Paul Craig Roberts A Pandemic of Police Brutality Jeff Kisseloff Still Smearing Alger Hiss China Hand Is China the True Target of Financial Sanctions Against Iran? Behzad Yaghmaian At the Gates of Paradise Sonja Karkar The Quality of Mercy in Gaza Mike Ferner Interrupting the Empire, 30 Seconds at a Time Col. Dan Smith Freedom to Speak, Freedom to Learn Clifton Ross Bollinger's Barbarous and Ignorant Speech Brenda Norrell A Meeting of Indigenous Peoples in Caracas Website of the Day The Smearing of Jean Maria Arrigo, a Psychologist Opposed to Torture   September 25, 2007 Nicole Colson On the March Against Racism Uri Avnery Foam on the Water Brendan Cooney Ahmadinejad on Broadway: Free Speech? Arrest Him! Harry Browne Bruce Springsteen Comes Home ... to Hell Marjorie Cohn The Drift Toward War with Iran David Macaray The UAW-GM Strike: the Long Knives are Already Out Ralph Nader Hypocrisy and Inverted Priorities in Congress Dan Bacher Schwarzenegger, the Climate Change Hypocrite Anthony Papa Perverted Justice & America's Drug Laws Christopher Ketcham All Politicos Now Classed as Sexual Deviants Website of the Day John Waters on Free Speech   September 24, 2007 George Ciccariello-Maher Racist Violence from Jena to Oakland Saree Makdisi The War on Gaza's Children David Keen Action-as-Propaganda: Learning About the Iraq War from Hannah Arendt Sherwood Ross Just How Powerful is the Israel Lobby? Only Cheney Knows for Sure Ron Jacobs Greenspan's Open Secret Donna Saggia The Cult of the Military and the Decline of Democratic Values Mike Ferner Free Speech Takes a Capitol Beating Malini Johar Schueller Norman Hsu is a Model Minority Monique Dols and Dylan Stillwood Ahmadinejad and Columbia Website of the Day The Promotion September 22 / 23, 2007 Alexander Cockburn On Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" Jennifer Loewenstein Beneath the Hideous Veneer of Security Linn Washington, Jr. The Injustice in Jena: Prosecutorial Misconduct More Dangerous Than Racism Jeffrey St. Clair Going Down in Dinosaur: Oil, Dams and Whitewater (Part One) Alan Farago Genuflecting to China Brian Cloughley Of Hate, Hubris and Atrocities Robert Fantina The Deadly Pattern of US Imperialism Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Land Tenure and Resistance in New Mexico Jason Hribal Fear of an Animal Planet David Rosen Slugger Sex: Athletes, Violence and Male Sexuality Mike Whitney The Era of Global Financial Instability John V. Walsh Who Will Lead a Filibuster of the Iraq War Spending Bill? Dave Lindorff Why Aren't We Banning Blackwater Here? David Michael Green Hiding Behind a Camouflage Skirt Fred Gardner Claudia Jensen (Look Back in Anger) Cassandra Jones Support Our Mercenaries Roger van Zwanenberg Pluto Press Under Attack by Israel Lobby Poets' Basement Buknatski, Davies and Ford Website of the Weekend "For the Bible Tells Me So"   September 21, 2007 Karim Makdisi Letter from Lebanon M. Shahid Alam A History of Violence Alan Farago Who Will Buy My House? Joshua Frank The Demise of the Congressional Black Caucus Dave Zirin Notre Dame and the Economy of Sports Kenneth Couesbouc A Short History of Lending and Borrowing Dr. Steffie Woolhandler and Dr. David Himmelstein Mass Health Care Failure Ben Terrall The Streets of San Francisco: Where Impeachment is Taken Seriously--By Everyone But Pelosi Steve Fournier Ex-Dems, Sign Up Here Frederico Fuentes, et al Voices in Defense of Bolivia Website of the Day Sabra and Shatila, Remembered   September 20, 2007 Kathleen Christison Whatever Happened to Palestine? Zoltan Grossman An Endless Occupation? Paul Craig Roberts As the Empire Slips: Greenspan and the Economy of Greed Stan Cox and Wes Jackson Carbon-Free and Still Wrecking the Planet Russell Mokhiber AARP to Kucinich: Drop Dead Charles Modiano Jim Crow's Children: the Jena 6, Shaquanda Cotton and Blog Power Raymond J. Lawrence Bush's Worrisome Use of Religion Brendan Cooney Body-Snatched Nation Website of the Day Mind Control for Breakfast   September 19, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Why Did Senator John Kerry Stand Idly By? Paul Krassner The Power of Laughter Sgt. Martin Smith The New Private Warriors: Blackwater in Iraq Seth Sandronsky Living in a Dilapidated Market: To Rent or Own? Claud Cockburn Looking back at the Great Crash Victoria Buch Israel's Agenda for Ethnic Cleansing and Transfer Robert Weissman Oil Warriors: From Greenspan to Kissinger Mike Ferner Can We Talk? Dan Bacher Schwarzenegger's $9 Billion Boondoggle for Big Water Website of the Day Housing Cost Calculator   September 18, 2007 Mike Whitney U.S. Banks Brace for Storm Surge as Dollar and Credit System Reel Alan Farago Interviewing Alan Greenspan: How 60 Minutes Blew It John Ross America's Great Wall: Where Will the Workers Go When They Finish It? Ron Jacobs Nooses Hung From Jena, La. to College Park, Md. Alex Doherty Britain's 9/11 "Truth Movement": Who's Responsible? September 17, 2007 Marjorie Cohn Erwin Chemerinsky and the Post-9/11 Attack on Academic Freedom Paul Craig Roberts Conservatism Isn't What It Used to Be Ricardo Alarcón The Return of C. Wright Mills Amid the Dawn of a New Era Marc Levy Fake Vets Chasing Fame Eva Liddell In 1969 We Already Knew What 2007 Would Look Like Website of the Day Propaganda: Your Job in Germany. Directed by Frank Capra, and written by Theodor Geisel Sept. 15-16, 2007 Alexander Cockburn The General Came to Washington Vicente Navarro How the U.S. Schemed Against Spain's Transition from Dictatorship to Democracy Mike Whitney Plummeting Dollar, Credit Crunch Herman Mindshaftgap Has There Ever Been a Surge? If so, Has it a Future? Ellen Cantarow Girls! Music! Palestine! Jordan Flaherty K-Ville: Fox's New Paean to the N.O.P.D. 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October 23, 2007 Comparing the Canadian Government and Media Response Burma and Haiti By REGAN BOYCHUK In a recent speech, Canada's foreign minister informed the United Nations that his government was "guided by unshakable principles", shared by Canadians ­ "values such as freedom, human rights, democracy and the rule of law." He said it was these principles that lay behind Canada's presence in places like Haiti and went on to declare: "These are not abstract concepts. They are concrete, with effects both immediate and profound. Promoting them is not enough. They must be protected and defended, particularly when they are under assault."[1] Recent events offer an opportunity to test the sincerity of such official claims. If you have picked up a newspaper or seen the television news in recent weeks, you'll no doubt be aware of what's going on in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), one of the world's most repressive states. In September, large pro-democracy demonstrations were sparked when the government doubled the price of fuel. Predictably, the military regime moved to crush the demonstrations, but they have persisted for weeks despite the repression. There is not need for a detailed review the media's coverage of the events in Burma; it has been extensive and sympathetic, as it should be. There has repeatedly been front-page coverage, editorial condemnation, and serious efforts to uncover the details of the Burmese government's repression. The Canadian government's initial response to the Burmese government's repression was to condemn the arrest of pro-democracy activists, to request their immediate release, and to call on the Burmese government "to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the protestors" and "to engage in genuine dialogue with the members of the democratic opposition."[2] A few days later, when Burma's narco-dictatorship resorted to deadly force against the pro-democracy demonstrators, they were again condemned by the Canadian government, who reminded the Burmese regime of their "obligation to promote and protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of its people as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."[3] In its latest symbolic flourish, the Canadian parliament unanimously declared the leader of Burma's democratic opposition an honorary Canadian citizen.[4] But the Canadian government's rhetorical posturing is not expected to have much impact. With the support of China, the Burmese generals are "firmly entrenched in power, and not overly worried about condemnation by the West."[5] The Canadian government's press releases also avoid the limited options available to it if it were sincerely concerned with limiting the abuses of Burmese human rights. After the military's last crackdown left thousands dead in 1988, Canada banned the export of arms to Burma.[6] Today, the Canadian government could ask its trading partner Israel to cease its current military and intelligence support to the Burmese junta,[7] but it chooses not to. So, when it comes to military dictatorships backed by China, the Canadian government makes its voice heard but avoids the limited options available for meaningful action. Meanwhile, the media delivers extensive, high quality, and sympathetic coverage. But how did the Canadian government and the media handle similar attacks on pro-democracy demonstrations in Haiti throughout 2004 and 2005? The Canadian government played important roles in overthrowing Haiti's democratic government in February 2004 and in the events since, so it carries significant responsibility for what happened there during Haiti's foreign-imposed 'vacation' from democracy. The government and media records are revealing. Leaving aside the carnage that immediately followed the Canadian-backed February 2004 coup, numerous opportunities to defend democracy and human rights in Haiti passed with silence, or worse. Demonstrations for the return of ousted President Aristide by Haiti's poor majority were violently suppressed, not unlike the pro-democracy demonstrations in Burma our government and media are so vocal about. The CBC reported in mid-May 2004: "Police used tear gas and fired assault rifles to break up a massive rally in support of Haiti's ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide." US marines helped the Haitian police disperse the crowds; at least one protestor was killed.[8] Canada's leading daily, the Globe and Mail, did not report this political repression. The Canadian government had nothing to say and chose to do nothing despite having hundreds of troops on the ground in Haiti. In September 2004, a gang (financed, armed, and protected from the police by a wealthy sweatshop owner and leader of the elite political group that agitated for the overthrow of Haitian democracy) opened fire on pro-democracy demonstrators who had left their poor neighborhood to join a march on the National Palace. Several were killed and only a few were able to join march.[9] In the Globe and Mail, these attacks by an elite-backed gang on supporters of the ousted government were reported as "political clashes", where "Gunfire erupted in a Haitian slum teeming with loyalists of ousted ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide."[10] A year after the coup, such state repression of peaceful, pro-democracy demonstrations had become both regular and more deadly: o On 1 March 2005, the Miami Herald reported, "Haitian police opened fire on peaceful protestors Monday, killing two";[11] o Days later, when UN forces protected Haitian pro-democracy demonstrators, the coup regime's justice minister accused the UN of violating its mandate;[12] o Three weeks later, the Haitian police opened fire on a march demanding Aristide's return, killing at least one and injuring two others;[13] o A month after that, police wearing black masks opened fire on a demonstration calling for the release of political prisoners, killing five.[14] And the repression wasn't limited to attacking demonstrations either. Not unlike Burma's monasteries, the Haitian capital's poor neighborhoods were regularly targeted because they were home to overwhelming support for Haiti's ousted government and were the origin of the many pro-democracy demonstrations: o In early June 2005, police raids on poor neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince left as many as 25 dead. "The police killed a lot of people and set several homes on fire", said one resident.[15] This is only a small sample of the political repression occurring in Haiti but every one of these were reported by the major wire services, so the editors at the Globe and Mail cannot claim to be ignorant of them-they simply chose not to report them. It is also interesting to note how poor even these news wire reports were. The reporting had no depth. Reporters never bothered to speak to the sort of groups that were quoted in droves when it came to Burmese repression. One Associated Press report, chosen at random, is illustrative of the quality of reporting on Burma. It cites Human Rights Watch in the third paragraph, followed by the US Campaign for Burma (a Washington-based pro-democracy group), the Democratic Voice of Burma (a Norway-based dissident news organization), the 88 Student Generation (a pro-democracy group operating inside Burma), and the National League for Democracy-Liberated Area (another dissident group).[16] Much more evidence of the repression being carried out by the Western-backed coup regime in Haiti could have been uncovered if the media had talked to the same sort of groups cited when it came to Burma ­ but such sources were ignored when it came to Haiti. When it came to the Chinese-backed repression in Burma, the Canadian government praised the UN's efforts aimed at bringing an end to the violence.[17] But when it came to Canada-, US-, and French-backed repression in Haiti, Canada joined in calls for UN forces to unleash greater violence against Haiti's poor majority. In December 2004, the Brazilian head of UN forces in Haiti told a congressional commission, "We are under extreme pressure from the international community to use violence". He cited the US, France, and Canada as among the countries pressing UN peacekeepers to use more force. Six months later, US officials continued to call on UN troops to be more aggressive. By the end of June, UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan was calling for more foreign troops to aid in the UN mission in Haiti. "We want scarier troops", one senior UN official told the Washington Post.[18] On 6 July 2005, the UN got scarier, launching "Operation Iron Fist". According to a confidential UN account of the raid, 1,400 heavily armed UN peacekeepers backed by two helicopters fired over 20,000 rounds of ammunition in the densely populated Port-au-Prince neighborhood Cité Soleil.[19] In the final tally, human rights investigations determined that the UN's 12-hour raid had killed 63 Haitians.[20] Not one UN soldier was so much as injured. The first mention of this massacre in the North American mainstream press came nearly a month after the fact, when Canada's leading newspaper dedicated an entire paragraph to the massacre. It is worth quoting in full: "The US-backed interim government has been unable to re-establish order, and the 7,400-member United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, or Minustah, has been criticized for failing to quell the violence." (On July 6, however, Minustah did show its muscle in an eight-hour operation in the slum of Cité Soleil that left six armed gang leaders dead.)[21] So there are some seeming contradictions in the Canadian government's response to the repression of pro-democracy demonstrations. In Burma, we find rhetoric but no action with extensive media coverage, while in Haiti we find official silence and much destructive action with a virtual media blackout. All this raises serious questions about the role of the media and suggests there is something rather different than democracy and human rights driving Canadian foreign policy. Canadians should make it their business to find out what makes their media and foreign policy tick. Regan Boychuk contributes to HaitiAnalysis.com References [1] Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, "Notes for an address by the honourable Maxime Bernier, minister of foreign affairs, to the United Nations General Assembly", Speech no. 2007/30 (2 October 2007). [2] Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, "Canada calls upon Burmese regime to engage in dialogue with democratic opposition", News release no. 129 (24 September 2007). [3] Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, "Canada condemns violent crackdown in Burma", News release no. 131 (26 September 2007). [4] "Burma's democratic heroine named honorary Canadian", CBC News, 17 October 2007. [5] Beril Lintner, "The Burmese way to fascism", Far Eastern Economic Review (Hong Kong), vol. 170, no. 8 (October 2007). [6] Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, "Canada's policy on Burma", 19 September 2007. [7] William Ashton, "Myanmar and Israel develop military pact", Jane's Intelligence Review (Coulsdon), vol. 12, no. 3 (March 2000). [8] "Haitian police break up pro-Aristide rally", CBC News, 18 May 2004 and Amy Bracken, "Haitians call for return of Aristide in demonstration that leaves one dead", Associated Press, 18 May 2004. [9] Thomas M. Griffin, "Haiti human rights investigation: November 11-21, 2004", University of Miami School of Law Center for the Study of Human Rights, 8 February 2005, p. 3. [10] Associated Press, "Pro-Aristide protests marked by gunfire", Globe and Mail (Toronto), 4 October 2004, p. A11. [11] Joe Mozingo, "Two killed as police fire on Port-au-Prince rally", Miami Herald, 1 March 2005, p. A10. [12] Stevenson Jacobs, "Haitian official criticizes UN actions", Associated Press, 5 March 2005. [13] Stevenson Jacobs, "Police open fire during pro-Aristide protest in Haiti, killing at least one, witnesses say", Associated Press, 24 March 2005. [14] "Gunfire kills five people in demonstration in Haiti", Associated Press, 27 April 2005. [15] Joseph Guyler Delva, "Up to 25 people killed as police raid Haiti slums", Reuters, 4 June 2005. [16] Michael Casey, "Groups struggle to tally Myanmar's dead", Associated Press, 1 October 2007. [17] Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, "Canada welcomes statement by the United Nations Security Council on Burma", News release no. 141 (12 October 2007). [18] Andrew Hay, "Brazil rejects US call for Haiti crackdown", Reuters, 2 December 2004; Chantal Regnault and Joe Mozingo, "US official: Troops must be proactive", Miami Herald, 10 June 2005, p. A10; Colum Lynch, "Annan makes plea for troops in Haiti", Washington Post, 30 June 2005, p. A18. [19] Lynch, "UN peacekeeping more assertive, creating risk for civilians". [20] San Francisco Labor Council, "Growing evidence of a massacre by UN occupation forces in Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Cite Soleil", 12 July 2005. The total of Cite Soleil residents killed was determined in follow-up investigations by Seth Donnelly, principle author of the SFLC report; email to Regan Boychuk, 15 January 2006. [21] Marina Jiménez, "Haiti's spiral of violence picks up speed", Globe and Mail (Toronto), 1 August 2005, p. A3.

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