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Today's
Stories
August 5, 2004
Peter Linebaugh
Doing Time for Political Crime:
Paul and Silas, Bound in Jail
August
4, 2004
Mickey
Z.
Two Traditions: WMD and Disinformation
Justin
Huggler
The Hunt for Bin Laden
John
Ross
Mexico's Dirty War Never Ended: Inside
Puente Grande Prison
August 3, 2004
Uri Avnery
The
Oligarchs
Ray McGovern
The 9/11 Commission Chimera
Jack McCarthy
Sexual Politics in Jeb's Florida
Eric Ruder
Meet Barak Obama: the Democrats' New Liberal Star
John L. Hess
Crying Wolf: Orange Alert!
Elaine Cassel
Civil Liberties Elections: 1800 v. 2004
Jules Rabin
The Man Who Didn't Walk By
Website of the Day
No Wall
August 2, 2004
Robert Jensen
Kerry's
Hypocrisy on the Vietnam War
Joshua Frank
Greens, Kerry and the Politics of Mendacity
Mike Whitney
The 9/11 Commission and Civil Liberties: "We Need an American
Police State"
Gary Leupp
Beyond
Good and Evil: Some Thoughts on Invasions
July 31 / Aug.
1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
Merlin Chowkwanyun
Five Questions with Noam Chomsky: "The Savage Extreme of
a Narrow Policy Spectrum"
David Lindorff
The Shame of the DNC
John Chuckman
The
Disturbing Words of John Edwards
Brian Cloughley
All Slam and No Dunk; All Blame and No Responsibility
Christopher Brauchli
"Being Poor is a State of Mind": the Frowning Face
of Compassionate Conservatism
Fred Gardner
A World of Pain
Michael Donnelly
How Big Pharma Bilks the Elderly
David Nally
Genocide in Darfur?
Joshua Frank
Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon
Sam Bahour
Colin Powell and My Grandmother
Diane Farsetta
The IMF and the Indonesian Elections: The Invisible Hand in the
Voting Booth
Harold Gould
Was Iraq a Mutual Charade?
Van Bergen / Stephens
Election 9/11: Surreal Political Theater
Lee Sustar
A New Model for the Labor Movement?
Ron Jacobs
The Lost Art of Hitchhiking
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview with Palestinian-American Rapper, The Iron Sheik
Poets Basement
Albert, Ford, Krieger, St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Cross Cultural Poetics
July 30, 2004
Kolhatkar /
Ingalls
Shattering
Illusions: Kerry's Speech Tells Anti-War Activists They're Not
Wanted
Dave Lindorff
Murder
Not So Foul?
Bruce Jackson
Walt Whitman on the Sound of Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Fidel Castro
The
Pathology of George W. Bush
Maximilien Robespierre
Memo to Kerry and Bush: Why They Resist
Saul Landau
Bush
Charges Castro with Sex Tourism; JFK Rolls Over in His Grave
Sex, Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
July 29, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Hail,
the Conquering War Criminal: What Kerry Really Did in Vietnam
Frank Bardacke
What
Michael Moore Left Out of F9/11
Tom Barry
Shallow and Formulaic: Kerry's Latin America Plan
Ron Jacobs
Kerry
and Lennon: Hawking the CounterCulture
Robert Fisk
The Unreported War
Lichtman /
Kellis-Borok
What Kerry Must Do to Win (But Probably Won't)
William S. Lind
The 9/11 Commission Report: Cashing in on Failure
CounterPunch
Wire
Doonesbury Onto John Kerry in 1971!
Website of
the Day
Jabbing JibJab: Copyright Madness
July 28, 2004
Robert Fisk
The
Occupation at 114 Degrees: Baghdad is Swamped in the Smell of
the Dead
Kevin Mink
Kerry's Misperception of Palestine
Ray McGovern
Israel and the Iraq War: How the 9/11 Report Soft-Pedals Root
Causes
United for
Peace & Justice
An
Open Letter to John Kerry: Winter Soldiers and Summer Patriots
Mike Ferner
Vets Demand End to Occupation: "Pull the Troops or Face
Impeachment Mvt."
Imraan Siddiqi
Turning Tricks with Ann Coulter
Alexander Cockburn
Candidate
Kerry
Website of
the Day
Iraq Vets Against the War
July 27, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
the Democrats Deserve Nader
Dave Lindorff
Back to the 19th Century: Globalization's Coming!
Mike Whitney
Control Room: Inside Al Jazeera
Ali, Anderson, Bello, et al.
If We Were Venezuelan, We'd Vote for Chavez
Stefan Wray
Texas Plan to Grab Los Alamos Takes Hold, as DOE Shuts Down Labs
Louis Proyect
Reflections on Nicaragua: First Came the Contra Butchers, Then
the Sweatshops
Rick Giombetti
Faith in Freedom: the Challenge of Thomas Szasz
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
The
9/11 Report and Its Weak-Kneed Consensus: Dogding Israel/Palestine;
Blinkered on Causes of Terrorism
July 26, 2004
Todd Chretien
Green
Resistance: a Reply to Normon Solomon & Medea Benjamin
Robert Fisk
Terror
by Video
Richard Forno
Security
Theater in Boston: Security Expert Harrassed by DHS for Exposing
Flaws at the Fleet Center
Mitchel Cohen
Report from a Boston Demo: Arresting the Curious
Richard Moreno
Rockers
for Justice: an Interview with Tom Morello and Serj Tankian
Alexander Cockburn
Boston
Awaits a Dead Party
July
24 / 25, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Democrats and Their Conventions:
Part One
Dennis
Hans
Those 16 Words Still Smell, Mr. Bush
Patrick
Cockburn
The Struggle for Iraq is Only Beginning
Josh
Frank
The War Path of Unity: Dems Reject
the Peace Movement
Justin
E.H. Smith
Christianity and the Left: the Latin
American Experience
Tariq
Ali
What's at Stake in Venezuela
Fred
Gardner
The Politics of Pot: Year of the
Antagonist
Mark
Scaramella
There's Dope and There's Dope
Ron
Jacobs
The Weather Underground's Prairie
Fire Statement...35 Years On
July
23, 2004
Lee
Sustar
Revolution in Nicaragua: 25 Years
On
Dave
Lindorff
Battle for NYC: Bush 1, Protesters
0
Saul
Landau
Zaniest President in US History: Bush
Beats Reagan
Mike
Whitney
The 9/11 Whitewash: Blaming No One
Mickey
Z
Get On the Bus: 150 Years After Elizabeth
Jennings
Gary
Leupp
The 9/11 Commission and the Looming
War on Iran
July
22, 2004
M.
Junaid Alam
Ten Ways to Build a Better Democrat
Brian
McKinlay
Rusted On Down Under: Howard, Bush and Sharon
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Lobbied for Easing of Sanctions on Terrorist Regimes While
CEO of Halliburton
Chris
Floyd
Mob Rule: Ripping the Lid Off of America's Pious Myths
Uri
Avnery
Chirac v. Sharon
July
21, 2004
Paula
J. Caplan
The Emotional Casualities of War: Psychologists
Can't Heal All the Damage
Joshua
Frank
Nader Sleeping with the Enemy? Let's be Fair
Ron
Jacobs
American Exceptionalism
Reza
Ghorashi
The Elections, Iran and al-Qaeda
Amy
Martin
Will Congress Rearm the Guatemalan Generals?
John
Ross
Bush May Lose, But His Wars Will Go On and On
|
August 5, 2004
Still Haunted
by Images of War
The Tale
of Saddam's Cameraman
By
ROBERT FISK
The Independent
"I
vomited," Mouffak Fathi Daoud says, and you have to understand
why. Three young soldiers were brought to the trees on the hills
outside Sulimaniyah. They had been retreating from the great battle
against the Iranians on Jebel Maout. Saddam had ordered that all
deserters should be shot. Daoud was one of the Iraqi army's top
newsreel cameramen. He didn't have to watch. But he was a witness.
"They
were between 20 and 26 years old. All of them said the same thing,
'Our brigades collapsed; we retreated with the commanders'. They
were all crying. They wanted to live. They couldn't believe that
they would be killed. There were six or seven in the firing squad.
Each of the men had their hands tied behind their back. They were
shot as they cried. Then the commander of the firing squad went
forward and shot each in the forehead. We call this the 'mercy bullet'."
Yes, the coup de grâce . How easily the Iraqis learnt from
us.
Mouffak
Daoud's story is extraordinary. For eight years, he was the Iraqi
army's top wartime cameraman in the Somme-like conflict against
Iran. He was even filming when the Americans stormed into Baghdad
in April 2003. He still films for the Iraqi Ministry of Interior.
The
old pictures of him show Daoud with an Arriflex film camera - he
agrees real film will always beat the definition of video - and
with long hair. "My colleagues would drink before we went off
to the front," he says. "One of my friends, he would drink
Iraqi arak, so much that he was completely drunk; that was how he
would go off to the front because he was sure he was going to die.
But he lived."
Others
did not. The first execution Mouffak watched was of a young soldier
outside Basra. Accused of desertion, he was sentenced to death.
"The reporter from Jumhouriyah newspaper tried to save him.
He said to the commander, 'This is an Iraqi citizen. He should not
die'. But the commander said, 'This is not your business'. And so
it was his fate to be shot.
"No,
he did not cry. But before he was executed, he said he was the father
of four children. And he begged to live. 'Who will look after my
wife and my children?' he asked. 'I am a Muslim. Please think of
Allah, for Saddam, for God. I have children. I am not a conscript,
I am a reservist. I did not run away from the battle. My battalion
was destroyed'. But the commander shot him personally, in the head
and in the chest. Then he lit a cigarette. And the other soldiers
of the Popular Army gathered round and clapped and said, 'Long Life
for Saddam'."
The
longer Mouffak Daoud talks, the more you feel sorry for him. Eight
years of frontline war. He talks about his colleagues, pouring liquor
into themselves before they set out for the front each morning.
"Some of them had to be drunk to go there." It was obvious
that Mouffak sometimes had to indulge. I tell him British soldiers
on the Somme sometimes went "over the top" on rum. He
nods. He knows what the Somme is. "A friend of mine, Talal
Farid, he would never have breakfast, he would just drink arak.
He wanted the power to die."
Many
did die. Take Abdul Zahera, who lost a finger at Moharemah, victim
of a sniper. In the Iranian stores, Mouffak says, they found alcohol
and drank it all. Abdul Zaheras was killed by a sniper at Qaladis
in 1987. At the battle of Shalamcheh, Mouffak was stranded between
the Iraqi and Iranian front lines, trapped with Iraqi soldiers who
would have to surrender, hiding in shell holes and protecting his
friend, Talal.
He
was ordered to fly in a helicopter - on Saddam's personal orders
- to film the bayonet battles of Iraqi and Iranian soldiers, "so
close that they stabbed each other and we could not see which was
an Iraqi martyr and which was an Iranian martyr".
Mouffak
insists that the Iranians were martyrs too. He is no Saddamist,
even if Saddam did give him a $3,000 (£1,600) watch for his
battlefield filming. "Saddam came to Shalamcheh but only his
personal cameraman was allowed to film him; we weren't permitted
to do so."
The
Iran-Iraq war has touched every family in both countries. "I
lost my brother, Ahmed Fathi, in this war," Mouffak says. "One
of his comrades had a wife who was expecting a child so Ahmed volunteered
to do his job for him while his friend went to Baghdad to see his
newborn. It was 5 May 1985. My brother escorted an ammunition convoy
to the front and it was ambushed and we never learnt any more. I
went to the front and spoke to his commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel
Riad, and he said he did not know what had happened. We got nothing.
No papers. No confirmation. Nothing. He was married with two daughters
and a boy and his family still wait for him to come home. They are
still waiting for news. Because there was no body, because there
were no details of his death, his name was not even put on the war
memorial."
Weekend Edition July 17 / 18, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations is
Must Reading
Ghada
Karmi
Vanishing the Palestinians
Lenni
Brenner
When Cattle Unite, Lions Go Hungry: Notes for Ralph Nader
Ben
Tripp
Man on a Bridge: a Ghost Story
Brandy
Baker
What Would Elizabeth Cady Stanton Make of John Kerry?
M.
Shahid Alam
Israel Builds Another Wall
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Nuclear Hypocrisy: Israel, Iran and the IAEA
Patrick
Bond
The George Bush of Africa
Fred
Gardner
Politics of Marijuana: Cannabiniod Therapuetics
William
Blum
Bush and Thucydides
Ben
Terrall
Carter and the Indonesia Elections: "I Don't See Anything Wrong
with a General Running the Country"
Tom
Barry
John Lehman on the War Path
David
Vest
Dylan Without the Music
Phyllis
Pollack
Return to Sin City: Keith Richards Does Gram Parsons
Ron
Jacobs
Smearing Muhammad Ali: Bob Feller Strikes Out
Joshua
Frank
Kerry to Edwards: "Let's Lose!"
David
Nally
A Call for Sudan: Our Georgraphical Blindspot
Toni
Solo
Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Landau,
Hassan, Prashad & Lindorff
Three Reviews of Moore's F911
Poets's
Basement
Ford, Smith and Albert
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