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New Edition of CounterPunch The Return of Robert Rubin: Kerry, Jobs and the Economy by Alexander Cockburn; Party Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe by Jeffrey St. Clair; The Kill Zone: Caring for the Wounded in Fallujah by David Martinez. In April, CounterPunch Online was read by 16.1 million viewers--by far our biggest month ever. But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a (tax deductible) donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Now Available: Hot New CounterPunch T-Shirts! Or Call Toll Free 1-800-840 3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Cockburn / St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War Now Available! Today's Stories May 18, 2004 Doug Stokes Imperial Policing: Why Abu Ghraib Shouldn't Surprise Us Bob Wing The Color of Abu Ghraib Elaine Cassel Pre-empting the Bill of Rights: The Other War, One Year Later May 17, 2004 Kurt Nimmo The John-John Ticket: Kerry Woos McCain Laura Santina Military Conditioning and Abu Ghraib Mickey Z. With Friends Like These: More Election 2004 Madness Frederick B. Hudson Police Terror: Three Mothers Search for Justice Shakirah Esmail-Hudani Inside Abu Ghraib: the Violence of the Camera Boris Leonardo Caro The Revelations of Mr. W. Alex Dawoody Iraq: From Saddam to Occupation Victor Kattan On Watching the Execution of Nick Berg Ron Jacobs Rumsfeld's Sovereignty Shell Game   May 15 / 16, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Green Lights for Torture Douglas Valentine ABCs of American Interrogation: Phoenix Program, Revisited John Stanton Kings of Pain: UK, US and Israel Ben Tripp Torture: a Fond Reminiscence Brian Cloughley Where are You Heading, America? Taking a Closer Look at the Patriot Act Justin E. H. Smith Islam and Democracy: the Lesson from Turkey Brandy Baker Equal Opportunity Torture: Lynddie England, the Right and Feminism John Chuckman Peep Show on Capitol Hill: Sex, Lies and Videotape Bill Glahn RIAA Watch: Goon Squad John Holt Fencing the Sky Ron Jacobs The Power of Patti Smith Brian J. Foley Why the Outrage Over Abu Ghraib? Robin Philpot Re-writing the History of the Rwandan Genocide Eric Leser The Carlyle Empire Ray Hanania From Abu Ghraib to Nick Berg: There's No Such Thing as a Good War Crime Jeff Halper Dozers of Mass Destruction Joe Surkiewicz Inside the Baltimore Detention Center John Whitlow Iraq Goddamn Michael Leon Invitation to a Beheading: Why Bush Should Watch the Berg Video Poets' Basement Krieger, Ford, LaMorticella, Smith and Albert     May 14, 2004 Dr. Susan Block Bush's POW Porn Ron Jacobs Secret History of the War on Drugs William Blum God, Country and Torture Michael Donnelly The People v. Corporate Greed: A Victory on the North Coast Niranjan Ramakrishnan India Shines Stephen Gowans Building Democracy in Iraq and Other Absurdities     May 13, 2004 Dave Lindorff Where is Kerry? Colm O'Laithian Torture and Degradation: Revenge American Style? Saul Landau and Farrah Hassan Wal-Mart: Scrooge with Hi-Tech Accounting Practices Ralph Nader An Open Letter to Bush on the Inhumane Treatment of Iraqi Prisoners Willliam James Martin Deir Yassin Massacre Recalled Marc Salomon Reality TV Bites Forrest Hylton Law 'n Order in La Paz: All Quiet on the Southern Front?   May 12, 2004 Blanton / Kornbluh Prisoner Abuse: Cheney Warned in 1992 Virginia Tilley So, Who's to Blame? Bruce Jackson James Inhofe, the Dumbest Senator of Them All Thomas P. Healy No Enemies: Making Peace with Bert Sacks Linda S. Heard Racism and Ignorance: a Lethal Cocktail in Iraq Norman Solomon Spinning Torturegate Lisa Viscidi The People's Voice: Community Radio in Guatemala Jack Heyman View from the Bay Bridge: Longshoremen Plan Mass Workers March on DC Niranjan Ramakrishnan Rummy's Reprieve CounterPunch Wire Teamsters Corruption Scandal: Hoffa Exec. Assistant Alleged to Have Quashed Investigation into Mob Influence Christopher Brauchli Detention Camp, USA William S. Lind Bush's Waterloo? May 11, 2004 Mark Engler On the "Necessity" of Torture Ray McGovern More Troops? A March of Folly Kurt Nimmo Dirty Nukes and Jefferson's Grand Experiment Mickey Z. Less Than Hero Christopher Reed Torture on the Homefront: America's Long History of Prison Abuse Dennis Hans When John Negroponte was Mullah Omar Bruce Jackson Pete Seeger at 85 Mike Whitney Killing al Sadr Simon Helweg-Larsen Shrinking the Guatemalan Military William A. Cook The Unconscious Country: Righteous Indignation, Nakedly Displayed   May 10, 2004 Robert Fisk From Hollywood to Abu Ghraib: Racism and Torture as Entertainment Wayne Madsen The Israeli Torture Template: Rape, Feces and Urine-Soaked Cloth Sacks Col. Dan Smith The Shame of Abu Ghraib Joe Bageant John Ashcroft, Keep Your Mouth Off My Wife! Ron Jacobs Rummy's Prisongate Blues: Don't Leave Mad; Just Leave Ben Tripp Getting in Touch with Your Inner Savage Ray Hanania Why They Hate Us: Racism, Bigotry and Abuse Reza Fiyouzat "Mishandled" Invasions Diane Christian Images & Abstractions & Genitals Website of the Day Crushing Iraqi Skulls with Tanks for Sport?   May 8 / 9, 2004 Cockburn / St. Clair Torture: as American as Apple Pie Adam Jones America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated and Shot at Kunduz? Douglas Valentine Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press Kurt Nimmo Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib Brian Cloughley Humpty Dumpty is Falling Lucia Dailey Forbidden Games Joanne Mariner * * * *: Redacting Moussaoui Mickey Z. Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders) John Chuckman The Thing with No Brain Doug Giebel Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs Norm Dixon How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11 Sam Bahour A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah Susan Davis Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art Dave Marsh In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing Laura Flanders Life with Dick and Lynne Dave Zirin Fans Push Spiderman Off Base Carolyn Baker Why I Won't Vote in 2004 Prince "Ain't No Sense in Voting" Dr. Susan Block Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation Poets' Basement Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska     May 7, 2004 Human Rights Watch 10 Prisons; 9,000 Prisoners: US Detention Facilities in Iraq Ron Jacobs UnAmerican? I Wish It Were So Robert Fisk An Illegal and Immoral War Ahmad Faruqui The 50th Anniversary of Dien Bien Phu Alexander Zaitchik From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib: Doesn't It Ring a (Prison) Bell? Mike Whitney The Price of Victory Norman Solomon This War, Racism and Media Denial M. Shahid Alam A Comic Apology   May 6, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair They Did It for Jessica: Smeared with Shit; Kicked to Death Kathy Kelly May Day in Pekin Prison: Prison Labor for the War Machine Werther The Sunk Cost Fallacy: War as Vegas Casino Game Lawrence Ferlinghetti Totalitarian Democracy Robert Fisk "Smoke Him": Video Shows Wounded Men Being Shot by US Helicopter John Janney Torturing the Way to Freedom? Christopher Ketcham Outlaw Heterosexual Marriage Now! Alan Farago Dead Oceans: So Long, Thanks for the Fish Sam Hamod Bush on Arab TV: Worthless and Demeaning James Brooks Sullen Spring William S. Lind On the Brink of Defeat in Iraq     May 5, 2004 Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba Complete US Army Report on Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners Kathleen and Bill Christison Kerry: a Lost Cause for Progressives? Will Youmans Deal with the Devil: a Palestinian Zionist and the End of the World Patrick B. Barr Terrorists R Us: the Powerful are Exempt from the Label Lawrence Magnuson Nightline's All-American Morgue Greg Moses Pocketbook of Denuded Ideals Niranjan Ramakrishnan Tormenting Prisoners, Torturing Truth Lee Ballinger Cinco de Mayo and Unity Gilbert Achcar Bush's Cakewalk into the Iraq Quaqmire Website of the Day Operation Phoenix & Iraq   May 4, 2004 Human Rights Watch A Timeline of Torture and Abuse Allegations and Responses Kurt Nimmo The CIA Privatized Torture David Peterson CBS, Self-Censorship & Iraq Barry Lando CACI's Private Torture Chambers Patrick Cockburn Torture: Iraqis Disgusted, But Not Surprised Dr. Susan Block Indecent Insurgents: Watch What You Say Fidel Castro A Mindless, Unnecessary War Mike Whitney Empire of Torture Sonali Kolhatkar How to Stop the War: Demonstrate Against John Kerry Josh Frank The Lost Sierra Club Stan Goff The Role: Another Open Letter to US Troops in Iraq Agustin Velloso Spare Us Your Disgusting Ethics Stew Albert American Know-How Website of the Day Scenes from a Cover-Up       May 3, 2004 Virginia Tilley Let the Wall of Silence Fall May 1 / 2, 2004 Patrick Cockburn An Army in Disgrace, a Policy in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat Robert Fisk "Good Guys" Who Can Do No Wrong Alexander Cockburn Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders, Useless Spies, Angry World Heather Williams Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin American Troops Flee Iraq Diane Rejman An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq: Abu Ghraib as My Lai? Diane Christian Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and Sharon Speak the Same Language Patrick Cockburn Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah Dave Lindorff Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked, Shocked, Shocked Chris Floyd Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists and Annihilation     April 29 / 30, 2004 Dave Zirin A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome Death of Pat Tillman Kathy Kelly The Warden's Tour Greg Weiher Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the Banality of Evil Michael S. Ladah Terrorism and Assassination: the Ultimate Depception Patrick Cockburn The Fallujah Mutinies         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.     Subscribe Online

May 18, 2004 Pre-empting the Bill of Rights The Other War, One Year Later By ELAINE CASSEL A year ago, I started writing about the Bush Administration's war on civil liberties. Having just completed a book on the topic (The War on Civil Liberties: How Bush and Ashcroft Have Dismantled the Bill of Rights, Lawrence Hill Books, September 2004), I am mentally and emotionally exhausted from keeping up with the bad news on many fronts. And, for the past month, engrossed in the tedious copy-editing and other end-of-stage publication details, I have been unable to write about developments in this war. But I have not stopped keeping up with the news. The reports of torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib prison should come as no surprise to one who has kept up with the shenanigans of the government whose motto could be, "no law but our own." Indeed, mandates (not mere approval or benign ignorance) for torture in order to gain information (about what has not been made clear) are the direct result of an administration that, quite literally, will trample over any law, no matter how sacred. Geneva Conventions, Bill of Rights, what's the difference? The shocking attempts to minimize such horrors in a country the Bush cronies are supposedly liberating should bring to mind Nazi occupations. Oh, I realize that what Bush is doing in Iraq is a far cry from loading Jews in train cars, but hey, the occupation is in its early stages. Speaking of loading people in train cars, the Washington Post last week finally reported on imprisonment abroad of thousands of people, American citizens and others, who are being held by the CIA in what is politely known as a "rendition." These "detainees" are in no way protected by any law whatsoever. I have been in touch with one family whose son is imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. He is American citizen, a resident of Virginia, and a student at a Saudi university. Last June, he was seized by Saudi law enforcement as he prepared to come home for the summer. Though the U.S. government denies publicly even knowing that he is there, sources tell me that he was held initially because he "knew" some of the men charged as the Alexandria 11, those notorious Muslim men about to be sentenced for 50 to 100 years for playing paintball, supposedly in preparation for "jihad." The Saudis deny that they have the man. Contacts from him to his family confirm that he is indeed imprisoned there. American lawyers are helpless to do anything for him, and no Saudi lawyer dare even attempt to visit him (so I am told by a Saudi lawyer). Well, how about the fact that thousands of Americans are disappearing like this, and being held out of reach of family, attorneys, or courts? Does that make you think a little harder about blowing this off as not Nazi-esque? Maybe you ought to keep this in mind as you make summer travel plans, especially if they take you across the Atlantic. Last week, the European Union announced that the airlines of EU countries would share complete passenger information with American law enforcement prior to airline departures. The government (or one of its tens of thousands of contractors who work without complete immunity from federal law or oversight if they are contracted by the Department of Homeland Security) will scan the lists and take action against any people whose names are the same or similar to those on its "terrorist" watch list. Note that I said the names are the same or similar. Not that the identities are. Big difference, don't you think? What kind of action is taken against those whose names are the same or similar? Either detentions abroad (from hours to days) to detentions in the US upon landing (federal agents board planes, handcuff you, and take you away for interrogation, denying you a call to your family, let alone a lawyer). If you are very, very unlucky, you, too, could be "rendered" abroad, taken from say an airport in Paris to Syria (yes, Syria is one of the most popular countries for sending our own or other citizens for torture and interrogation) where you won't be heard from again unless you are very, very lucky. What I have been cataloging here are cases when there will be no intervention by any court whatsoever. There cannot be. But the war on civil liberties at home has, finally, some courts taking notice. Actually, lately a judge or two has acted like a judge. What looked like a slam-dunk win for the government's prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui turned sour last week when the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond that handed Alexandria, Virginia prosecutors such a big win (the appellate court overruled U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema who said Moussaoui should either be allowed to question al-Qaeda witnesses or he could not face the death penalty) has called the chief federal prosecutors to a special hearing in Richmond. Seems the prosecutors in the Moussaoui case told the court that they were not involved in interrogating these al-Qaeda witnesses that Moussaoui and his lawyers wanted access to-that's why the court said it was alright that Moussaoui's lawyers could not examine them. Supposedly, the witnesses' "testimony" was gathered by "impartial sources" (as impartial as CIA interrogators who torture people for information can be). But when Moussaoui's lawyers produced evidence that the prosecutors were boasting that they were involved with the witnesses in developing other cases, the 4th Circuit, surely the most faithful handmaidens of Bush, were upset. Ashcroft says that his lawyers "look forward" to clarifying the issue with the judges. Maybe, just maybe, these prosecutors have been court lying one time too many. And in New York City, a federal judge told Ashcroft's soldiers that its interpretation that the Patriot Act does not allow the ACLU to publicize anything about its case against the government, including that it even has such a case, is a bit too-far fetched even for a judge that also wants to give the President his "due" in fighting the war on terror. Several skirmishes in the past week ended up with the ACLU being able to let some information trickle down to the public. Ironically, the substance of the litigation is the power of the government under the Patriot Act to secretly gain information about you and me from a host of sources-information-gathering that we can never be privy to-not ever. Speaking of the Patriot Act, there has been some lukewarm interest in scaling back its most egregious provisions (like the one attacked by the ACLU suit). Bush made it clear he wants all of the provisions made permanent that were set to expire in 2005. But four Republicans, including Sen. Butch Otter (R-Idaho) and Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) have sponsored legislation that would place greater restrictions on roving wire taps, require law-enforcement officials to notify the targets of "sneak and peek" searches within seven days after a search, restrict the use of nationwide search warrants and amend the section of the Patriot Act that allow for secret searches of library and bookstore records. Of course, just how these errant Republicans will hold firm to their convictions when the White House puts the heat on them remains to be seen. But at least, there is a slight break in the ranks that have let an administration dead-set on running the country-indeed, the world-by its own rules rum amok. Looking ahead to the immediate future, the Supreme Court will be handing down opinions within the next month that will determine the future of our liberty-up to a point. For if the Court rules against the administration in the cases dealing with the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and the American prisoners held without due-process, Jose Padilla and Yaser Hamdi, do you really expect Bush and Rumsfeld to obey a Supreme Court order? I certainly don't. People suggest that a constitutional crisis will result. I don't buy that either. A crisis means people care, people revolt. Did we object when the justices took over the Florida 2000 presidential election and thus put its man in the Oval Office? Oh, there was some ranting and raving but it all died down. If Bush disobeys the Supreme Court, that would be an impeachable offense. But would this Congress impeach? Not hardly. Would it hurt his reelection chances if Bush thumbs his nose at the court? I doubt that-for he has enough hard line supporters who buy his "my way or no way" and "no law but my law" approach to carry the vote. After all, arrogance and flaunting the law are, essentially, an American trait. Think wild West, slaughtering Indians, slaughtering Buffalos, lynchings, etc. When Bush expressed his pseudo-outrage at the Abu Ghraib abuses, saying this is not representative of America, whom was he kidding? America is, at its core, violent, abusive, arrogant, and, when it chooses to be (and no one is big enough to stop us) lawless. And if admiration for the President's arrogance and flagrant violation of law doesn't carry election day, then Diebold machines will kick in and do their job. Diebold "we promise to deliver the vote for Bush" are the machines most Americans will be using to cast their "preference" for President (please don't call it a vote). So, a year after I started writing about this "other war," where are we? Some Americans are a little more aware of what our government is doing to us, some congressmen and women are a little concerned, and a few judges are taking names and making notes. Would anything be different under John Kerry's rule? I doubt it. I tend to agree with Nader (though I do not support Nader)that Kerry is, in terms of Bush and civil liberties, a distinction without much of a difference. I think he or anyone else that replaces Bush (someday) will appreciate the precedence of the Bush years that sanctioned an adminisration making up the rules as it goes along and ignoring the courts and the Congress. Who wouldn't want that power? The Bill of Rights didn't make it into the Constitution (it was later ratified as the first ten amendments), leading Virginian George Mason to leave the constitutional convention in disgust. He saw that the founding fathers wanted power for themselves, not power to the people. The Bill of Rights-or any other law-only has meaning if it is obeyed and enforced. Bush had demonstrated that one can trample on the Bill of Rights with impunity. That is not a trend that we will see reversed in our lifetimes. Elaine Cassel practices law in Virginia and the District of Columbia, teachers law and psychology, and follows the Bush regime's dismantling of the Constitution at Civil Liberties Watch. Her book, The War on Civil Liberties: How Bush and Ashcroft Have Dismantled the Bill of Rights, will be published by Lawrence Hill this summer. She can be reached at: ecassel1@cox.net Weekend Edition Features for May 15 / 16, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Green Lights for Torture Douglas Valentine ABCs of American Interrogation: Phoenix Program, Revisited John Stanton Kings of Pain: UK, US and Israel Ben Tripp Torture: a Fond Reminiscence Brian Cloughley Where are You Heading, America? Taking a Closer Look at the Patriot Act Justin E. H. Smith Islam and Democracy: the Lesson from Turkey Brandy Baker Equal Opportunity Torture: Lynddie England, the Right and Feminism John Chuckman Peep Show on Capitol Hill: Sex, Lies and Videotape Bill Glahn RIAA Watch: Goon Squad John Holt Fencing the Sky Ron Jacobs The Power of Patti Smith Brian J. Foley Why the Outrage Over Abu Ghraib? Robin Philpot Re-writing the History of the Rwandan Genocide Eric Leser The Carlyle Empire Ray Hanania From Abu Ghraib to Nick Berg: There's No Such Thing as a Good War Crime Jeff Halper Dozers of Mass Destruction Joe Surkiewicz Inside the Baltimore Detention Center John Whitlow Iraq Goddamn Michael Leon Invitation to a Beheading: Why Bush Should Watch the Berg Video Poets' Basement Krieger, Ford, LaMorticella, Smith and Albert WWW http://www.counterpunch.org   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /