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Democrats on the Brink: Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair; Innocent Lads, Depraved Killers and Predatory Priests by JoAnn Wypijewski; Torture Air, Inc.: the Road to Rendition: by Jeffrey St. Clair. Remember these stories are available exclusively in the print edition of CounterPunch. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! 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 donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 |
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Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY  Today's Stories March 21, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts March 19, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Tom Reeves Saul Landau Alan Maass Ron Jacobs David Green John Blair Steve Greenfield Ben Tripp Mike Roselle Joshua Frank Mark Weisbrot Dave Lindorff Sarah Schaffer Warren Hastings Poets' Basement
March 18, 2005 Dave Zirin Richard Thieme John Walsh David Swanson Ben Terrall David Boyle Dorreen Yellow Bird Mokhiber /
Weissman Greg Moses Website of
the Day
March 17, 2005 Christopher
Brauchli Bill Quigley Brian Cloughley Gary Bass / Adam Hughes Dave Lindorff Jude Wanniski Alexander Billet John Ross Website of the Day
March 16, 2005 Ralph Nader William Cook Kevin Zeese Jackie Corr Alan Maass David R. Kolker Cindy Ellen
Hill Paul Craig
Roberts
March 15, 2005 Gary Leupp Dave Lindorff Greg Moses Hadas Their
/ Katrina Yeaw Alison Weir Matt Koehler Evelyn Pringle Harry Browne
March 14, 2005 Ralph Nader David Miller Stan Cox Mike Roselle David Swanson Simona Sharoni Dave Lindorff Dorreen Yellow Bird Tom Barry Website of the Day
March 12 / 13, 2005 David H. Price Noam Chomsky Laura Carlsen Stan Goff Valentina Nicoli Michael Leonardi Saul Landau
/ Sarah Anderson Joe Bageant Manuel García,
Jr. Greg Moses James J. Brittain Ben Tripp Joshua Frank Fred Gardner Walter Brasch Ramzy Baroud Christopher
Brauchli Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Richard Oxman Poets' Basement
March 11, 2005 Jerry Fresia Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff William James
Martin Muqtedar Khan Kathryn Ledebur Mike Whitney Dave Zirin Website of the Day
March 10, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts John Marc Leas, Colleen McLaughlin
and Ashley Smith Larry Birns Michael Donnelly Luis Gomez Jackie Corr Uri Avnery Website of the Day
March 9, 2005 Jeffrey St.
Clair Ward Churchill Robert Fisk Bernice Powell Jackson Mickey Z. Dave Zirin Michael Donnelly James Reiss Vijay Prashad
March 8, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts Robert Fisk Kurt Nimmo Suzan Mazur Evelyn Pringle Giuliana Sgrena Elaine Cassel
March 7, 2005 Dave Zirin Brian Cloughley John Chuckman Mike Whitney Mark Weisbrot Fred Gardner Richard Neville Uri Avnery
March 5 / 6, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Gary Leupp Ron Jacobs Tom Reeves Jenna Orkin Tom Barry Joshua Frank Moshe Adler Jane Stillwater Omar Barghouti / Jacqueline
Sfeir Christopher
Brauchli John Pilger Raúl
Zibechi David Krieger Three Takes on Nepal Surendra R. Devkota Bhishma Karki Joseph Pietri Ben Tripp Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
March 4, 2005 Frederick Hudson
March 3, 2005 Pat Williams Brian Cloughley Dave Lindorff Amira Hass Greg Moses Lynne Landes Nelson P. Valdés John Ross
March 2, 2005 Saul Landau
/ Farrah Hassen Mike Roselle M. Junaid Alam Suzan Mazur Jackson Thoreau Michael Donnelly Jeffrey St.
Clair Website of the Day
March 1, 2005 Scott Richard
Lyons David Lindorff Patrick Cockburn
/ David Enders Ron Jacobs Tanya Garcia Joseph Pietri Kona Lowell Paul Craig
Roberts Website of
the Day
February 28, 2005 Gary Leupp Bill Quigley Paul de Rooij David Swanson Mario Lamo
Jimenez Emma Perez Diana Johnstone Website of the Day
February 26 / 27, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Noam Chomsky Rev. William E. Alberts Fred Gardner Gary Leupp Saul Landau Robin Philpot Yitkhak Laor Ben Tripp Justin Taylor Jack Random Rafael Renteria Jim B. Seth DeLong John Chuckman Alison Weir Richard Oxman Dr. Susan Block Poets' Basement
February 25, 2005 Roger Burbach Behzad Yaghmaian Kurt Nimmo Joshua Frank John Farley Lawrence Reichard Pratyush Chandra David Smith-Ferri Website of
the Day
February 24, 2005 Omar Waraich Brian Cloughley Tom Wright Sharon Smith Dave Lindorff Fred Feldman James Reiss
Diane Christian Website of
the Day
February 23, 2005 Werther W. John Green James Petras Conn Hallinan Joe Pietri Louis Proyect Alexander Cockburn Website of
the Day
February 22, 2005 Naseer Aruri Richard Manning William A.
Cook Paul Craig Roberts Ken Krayeske Dave Zirin Kirkpatrick
Sale
February 21, 2005 Hunter S. Thompson John Ross Ward Churchill Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst David Swanson Dave Lindorff Stew Albert Michael Neumann
February 19 / 20, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Kathleen Christison Ted Honderich Gary Leupp Don Santina Jennifer Roesch Scott Richard
Lyons Chris Clarke George Beres Harry Browne Manuel Garc'a,
Jr. Mark Scaramella Michael Donnelly John Pilger Norman Madarasz Surendra Devkota Deborah Rich Fred Gardner CounterPunch
News Service Richard Oxman Poets' Basement
February 18, 2005 Ben Moxham Dave Lindorff Larry Birns Gregory Elich Samuel Logan / John Meyers Nicole Colson Suzan Mazur Mickey Z.
February 17, 2005 Joshua Frank Paul Craig
Roberts Robert Fisk Christopher
Brauchli Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst Alison Weir Ahrar Ahmad Saul Landau Website of the Day
February 16, 2005 Robert Fisk Kevin Zeese Gary Leupp Ron Jacobs Jessica Leight Greg Moses Mark Engler Jack McCarthy Bill Christison Website of the Day
February 15, 2005 CounterPunch
News Service Robert Fisk Uri Avnery Stan Cox Mickey Z. Dave Zirin Nadia Martinez Lila Rajiva Paul Craig
Roberts
February 14, 2005 Robert Jensen Brian Cloughley Patrick Cockburn Gary Leupp Michael Donnelly Dave Lindorff Elaine Cassel
February 12 / 13, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Saul Landau Paul Craig
Roberts Patrick Cockburn John Feffer Mickey Z. Kurt Nimmo Fred Gardner Dave Zirin John Chuckman Ben Tripp Carol Norris Robert Fisk Frank / Chowkwanyun Mike Whitney Deborah Frisch Niranjan Ramakrishnan Christine TenBarge Ron Jacobs Dr. Susan Block Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
February 11, 20055 Manuel Garcia,
Jr Kurt Nimmo Dave Lindorff Larry Birns Bill Quigley Tom Barry Jennifer Van
Bergen
February 10, 2005 Dave Lindorff Christopher Brauchli Patrick Cockburn Nicole Colson Suzan Mazur Michael Donnelly Mike Stark Greg Moses Website of
the Day
February 9, 2005 Jeffrey St.
Clair Mickey Z. John Ross Tom Barry Conn Hallinan Patrick Cockburn Steen Sohn Tim Wise Website of
the Day
February 8, 2005 Patrick Cockburn Brian Cloughley Steve Breyman Harry Browne Doug Giebel Nate Collins Dave Lindorff David Smith-Ferri
February 7, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts Carolyn Baker Joshua Frank Mickey Z. Patrick Cockburn Mike Whitney Stacie Jonas Dave Zirin Tariq Ali
February 5 / 6, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Kurt Nimmo Joshua Frank P. Sainath Patrick Cockburn Laura Carlsen Dave Lindorff Pamela Olson Behzad Yaghmaian Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen Roger Burbach Robert Fisk David Swanson Justin E.H. Smith Cacie Hart Ron Jacobs Mickey Z. Ben Tripp Ben Sonnenberg Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
February 4, 2005 Brian Cloughley Bill Christison Elaine Cassel Jacob Levich Kanak Mani Dixit Ron Jacobs
February 3, 2005 Ward Churchill Sharon Smith Mickey Z. Mike Whitney Jenna Orkin Saul Landau Yitzhak Laor Dave Lindorff
February 2, 2005 David Domke
/ Kevin Coe Noam Chomsky M. Shahid Alam Richard Oxman Joshua Frank Dave Lindorff Nina Hartley Website of the Day
February 1, 2005 Joshua L. Dratel Patrick Cockburn Robert Fisk Uri Avnery Col. Dan Smith Alison Weir Alan Farago Ray Hanania Paul Craig
Roberts Website of the Day
December 22, 2004 James Petras Omar Barghouti Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond Harry Browne Richard Oxman Kathleen Christison Website of the Day
December 21, 2004 Greg Moses Dave Lindorff Chad Nagle Dragon Pierces
Truth* Patrick Cockburn Seth DeLong Ahmad Faruqui Paul Craig
Roberts
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March 21, 2005 On the Second Anniversary of the US Invasion of IraqServing, Refusing, ImpeachingBy MIKE FERNER
As we gather here this afternoon, our colleagues in Toledo are debuting "Arlington at Toledo," a cemetery with over 1700 white, wooden tombstones to commemorate each U.S. soldier killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the past weeks, my wife and I painted a few hundred of these in our kitchen. Last Saturday we started putting labels on them with the name, age, rank and home state of each G.I. killed. As we sat on our living room floor, surrounded by stacks of tombstones representing so many young men and women, we listened to an old Dire Straits album. The track titled "Brothers in Arms" came on with these telling lines: "Every man has to die/But it's written in the starlight/And in every line on your palm/We're fools to make war/On our brothers in arms." Sue looked at the tombstone with a 19 year-old soldier's name on it she was holding and dissolved into sobs crying, "He was someone's baby" We are here today to recommit ourselves to ending this slaughter of someone else's babies, whether American or Iraqi. We are here to demand an end to George Bush's criminal war. We must end Bush's war to prevent more deaths and traumatic amputations of arms and legs, more quadriplegics who will be bedridden the rest of their lives. We must end Bush's war because every day it continues, it produces more injuries we will never see until they explode years later at home. I'm talking about thousands MORE soldiers who will return from Iraq with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the injury that leaves minds riddled with flashbacks, anxiety, unpredictable outbursts of anger, depression, addictions and suicide. If you've not read "Achilles in Vietnam" by Jonathan Shay, get it. Read it. You will learn helpful ways to listen to returning combat veterans. If your Uncle Bob still needs a compelling reason why war is not the answer, you'll learn it here. If you want proof that Bush's war is not only devastating Iraq but our own country, it's in "Achilles in Vietnam." Here's just one example reduced to numbers: over a decade after the last combat troops left Vietnam, the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study found that over 40% of combat vets that's 300,000 men reported engaging in 3 or more acts of violence in the previous year. Imagine how that continues to reverberate through our society, and how Bush has now guaranteed it will continue beyond this generation. Shay stresses that PTSD "incapacitates its victims from participating in the domestic, economic, and political life of the nation. The painful paradox is that fighting for one's country can render one unfit to be its citizen." His book led me to inescapable conclusions: sending people to war profoundly changes every one of them, not usually for the better; and if we truly want to support our troops, we should never turn them into troops in the first place. And lest we think there is some huge gulf between us and the behavior we've seen from GIs in Iraq, we should keep in mind what Shay calls the "comforting fantasy" that our own character would hold up under equally extreme pressure. "Those injured by combat trauma make us painfully aware that in all likelihood one's own character would not have stood firm." That's why it's often difficult to be a good listener to combat veterans or to deny the truth of their stories: they threaten our sense of self respect. Hearing what we sent these soldiers to do may cause us discomfort or disbelief, but allowing them to tell their story to a trusted friend who will retell it honestly can be the best thing we can offer. One former soldier who has told his story many times is Stan Goff, a retired Special Forces Master Sgt. He spent two decades, starting in Vietnam, learning the most highly developed killing skills the U.S. government had to offer. Stan is now a Veteran for Peace. He says: "We know that some vets
cling to denial, some are broken in body and spirit, some rage,
and some turn their anger in on themselves and crawl into a needle
or a bottle or the chamber of a pistol. But there's a way out
of that wilderness, and it's the path of the witness. Witnessing
will heal youWho better to out the thieves and mass murderers
posing as statesmen than those of us closest to their criminal
hearts in their time of need. Because we were there, we know
what these people have sent our children to do; what they have
sent our children to become." Having taken care of hundreds of young soldiers used up and thrown away during Vietnam, and witnessing yet another generation led to slaughter on a lie, it gives me particular satisfaction to publicly announce that on Monday, the Veterans for Peace national office, representing 118 chapters across the country, will notify the entire Congress of the United States of our demand that George W. Bush and Richard Cheney be impeached!! VFP is calling for Bush and
Cheney's impeachment because and this is important to understand
when Senate adopts an international treaty, it becomes
part of the supreme law of the land, the same as an act of Congress.
It's clearly stated in par. 2, Article VI, of the U.S. Constitution.
This means Bush and Cheney have specifically and continually
violated Article VI of the constitution and the U.S. War
Crimes Act passed by Congress in 1996. because Bush and Cheney initiated two years ago and continue to this day what the UN Charter legally binding on the U.S. defines as a war of aggression because the Bush administration, in clear and specific violation of the Geneva Conventions also legally binding on the U.S. has tortured and killed prisoners, purposely targeted and killed civilians, prevented the delivery of medical reliefallALL of which are also violations of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. War Crimes Actto say nothing of international law and basic humanity Veterans for Peace is calling for impeachment because it is our responsibility as citizens to do so. The words of a village sheik I spoke with in Iraq last year haunt me every day. Even as he assured me that he recognized the difference between the government and the people of the United States, he asked, "but you say you live in a democracy. How can this be happening to us?" It is our responsibility to impeach this criminal leadership. As citizens, every one of us is complicit with its crimes. By virtue of that complicity, we are compelled not only by the law but by human morality and by history to do whatever we can to stop this war of aggression; stop these crimes against humanity. The Nuremberg Tribunals following WWII did not favorably judge the first nation the world determined had waged a war of aggression, nor its "good citizens" who obeyed their government. But, my friends, we must do more than sign an impeachment petition or get a new bumper sticker. The effort to evict this criminal gang from Washington will help end the war, but we must do more than attend demonstrations, pass out leaflets, or write letters. I'm suggesting we look to the heroic history of Ohioans who in their day fought the legalized evil of slavery. Just south of here, residents of Urbana confronted federal marshals who had come to capture and return a runaway slave under the Fugitive Slave Act. At the point of a gun the people of Urbana drove the marshals out of town and preserved that former slave's freedom. They knew that morality called upon them to do more than just obey the law. Historian Howard Zinn gives
us sound advice on this question: So what must conscientious Americans do today? Should we follow the letter of the Fugitive Slave Act and return our fellow human beings to slavery? Should we write our congressman and then stand by like good Americans and watch our government continue to wage its war of aggression? Should we continue to legitimize a government of war criminals by paying our taxes? The times call upon us to do more than we've already done; more than we think we can do. We can no longer afford to limit our protests to what Good Americans are allowed in these terrible days. And we must stop funding this administration's crimes against humanity. We must delegitimate, disobey and disrupt this war and this system. When the next soldier decides he or she cannot go to Iraq, we must already know which local church will provide sanctuary and not stop there. We need to surround that church with thousands of disciplined, nonviolent citizens for as long as it takes, daring federal marshals to return that soldier to slavery. Can we do less than those citizens of Ukraine who stayed in the streets for weeks to get a legitimate government? Can we do less than people in Iraq who are losing their lives and limbs under this criminal occupation? Americans and Iraqis, young and old, soldier and civilian are slaughtered daily for Empire. What can we do that is commensurate with what the times demand? Some of our more heroic friends refuse to pay a penny in taxes; some refuse to pay the war machine's portion. Others purposely limit their incomes so they owe nothing to the IRS. But here's something that every one of us can do right now that is not particularly heroic; that carries little or no risk. Withhold a token amount from what the IRS says you owe. You will eventually get a series of letters trying to collect your 25 or 100 dollars. They will expend much time, effort, and stationery to no avail. Millions of us doing this will send the message that we will delegitimate, disobey and disrupt this war and this system. Today I beseech every soldier, sailor, marine, reservist and guardsman who can hear my voice or gets this message: brothers and sisters in arms, in the name of humanity, think about what you are being ordered to do. It is not only your right it is your duty to disobey unlawful orders. This war is grotesquely and monstrously unlawful. It is precisely what was condemned at Nuremberg. Look deep within yourselves. Do the right thing and say NO to this war. Hold on to your humanity. Refuse to participate. Apply for c.o. status. Turn from this criminal operation into the arms of a loving, disciplined and powerful movement that will be there for you as long as you need it. It is already beginning to happen. Camilo Mejia, Jeremy Hinzman and Kevin Benderman have quit publicly. Nearly 6,000 soldiers have deserted quietly in the last two years. If even today you are on your way to Iraq, scheduled to pass through Shannon airport like 160,000 U.S. troops did last year, know that members of the Irish Parliament along with a former commandant of the Irish Army are urging you to not get back on that plane, to seek asylum in Ireland. If we are well organized; if we are there for young soldiers who leave the military; if we refuse to be silenced and frightened by an immoral law; if we refuse to be "Good Americans;" if we do what history demands in this critical hour we can grind this war machine to a halt. We can put an end to the suffering and the war crimes. We can absolve our complicity. Will we do this together? Mike Ferner is a former Navy Hospital Corpsman and a member of Veterans for Peace. He spent three months in Iraq, before and after the U.S. invasion, and is writing a book about his experiences. He can be reached at: mike.ferner@sbcglobal.net
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