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What You're Missing in our subscriber-only CounterPunch newsletter "THE USE OF CHEMICAL WARFARE IS AUTHORIZED" America's secret war plans: "The military purpose is to overthrow the present existing Federal Government of Mexico." Floyd Rudmin uncovers the sick dreams of America's generals. Alito says, Constitution okays Bush to set up prison camps here and torture US citizens. Dems praise his "even demeanor" and shirk the filibuster. Cockburn and St Clair on the Alito hearings and the Democrats' collapse. ... 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! Get CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year

Today's Stories February 3, 2006 Robert Bryce The Problem with Cutting US Oil Imports from the Middle East February 2, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler Pentagon Pork: How to Eliminate It Stan Cox Outsourcing the Golden Years Rachard Itani Danes (Finally) Apologize to Muslims (For the Wrong Reasons) Mike Whitney Afghanistan Five Years Later: Buildings Down, Heroin Up Amira Hass In the Footsteps of Arafat: an Interview with Hamas' Ismail Haniya Norman Solomon When Praise is Desecration: Smothering King's Legacy with Kind Words Michael Simmons Stew Lives! Christopher Reed Japan's Dirty Secret: One Million Korean Slaves Website of the Day State of Nature   February 1, 2006 Sharon Smith The Bluff and Bluster Dems: Alito and the Faux Filibuster Jason Leopold Enron and the Bush Administration Cindy Sheehan Getting Busted at the State of the Union: What Really Happened Joseph Grosso Oprah and Elie Wiesel: a Match Made in "Neutrality" Earl Ofari Hutchinson Coretta Scott King was More Than Just Dr. King's Wife Steven Higgs Life After Roe. v. Wade Robert Robideau "God Given Rights": Palestine and Native America R. Siddharth Tales of Power: When Gandhi Rejected a Faustian Bargain with Henry Ford Jim Retherford Remembering Stew Albert: the Quiet Genius Rep. Cynthia McKinney The Legacy of Coretta Scott King Paul Craig Roberts The True State of the Union Website of the Day Candide's Notebooks   January 31, 2006 Jeffrey St. Clair Revolutionary for the Hell of It: the Good Life of Stew Albert Clancy Chassay US Prods Lebanon Towards Civil War Dave Lindorff The Democrats' Alito Debacle Niranjan Ramakrishnan Alito: Harry-Kerry in the Senate Oren Ben-Dor Hamas' Victory: a New Hope? Winslow Wheeler Pentagon Pork: What is It? Who Cooks It Up? John Ryan Canada: a Chilling Echo of Bush's Republicans Mike Marqusee Privatizing Health Care: the Poor Pay the Price Ron Jacobs For Stew Andrew Cockburn Why Bush Probably Won't Attack Iran Website of the Day Celebrating Stew Albert   January 30, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Bush, Fox News and the Coming War on Iran Winslow Wheeler Inside the Pork Shop: the Defense Budget and Congressional Earmarks Niranjan Ramakrishnan Development Interrupted Marcus Dam "The Real Threat is from Imperial Fundamentalism": an Interview with Tariq Ali John Bomar Message to Democrats: the Case Against Pre-War Lying is a Slam Dunk, Stupid Ben Beachy Swindling the Sick: the IMF Debt Relief Sham Gideon Levy The Good News About Hamas' Victory Michael Carmichael Alito and Opus Dei Missy Comley Beattie Of Losses and Lies Norman Solomon The Question Journalists Refuse to Ask Bush Brian Concannon, Jr. Finally Some Good News From Haiti Michael Ratner Tomorrow is Today; the Time for Resistance is Now Website of the Day "I'm So Bored with Capitol Hill"   January 28 / 29, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Nicholas Kristof's Brothel Problem Ralph Nader The Impeachable Mr. Bush Col. Dan Smith Spying and Lying by the Pentagon Paul Craig Roberts Blind Ignorance: Polls Show Many Americans Simply Dumber Than Bush Tammara Rosenleaf Homefront War Diary: On Monday, My Husband Didn't Call Ron Jacobs Google This! Harry Browne Irish "Peace" Process at Recriminations Stage Fred Gardner Grover Norquist, Drug Policy Reformer? Christopher Reed North Korean Forgeries Bernard Chazelle France's Colonial Blowback Daniel Wolff Radioactive Money, 2005: How Entergy Gets Its Way at Indian Point Tom Kerr Small Fry: If You're Not in Power, You'd Better Not Lie Asad Abu Khalil The Demise of Fatah Chris Murphy The Medicare Disaster Dr. Susan Block America Wants a Divorce Kathy Deacon Hippocratic Oaf St. Clair / Walker / Palmer / Shields Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Laymon, Engel, Holt, Davies and Buknatski Website of the Weekend Your Child Can Be a NSA Spook! January 27, 2006 Suren Pillay Making the World Safe for Nuclear Violence, Again Lawrence R. Velvel The NYT and Alito: Journalistic Schizophrenia J.L. Chestnut, Jr The Cold Hard Truth: Marching Backwards on Civil Rights Uri Avnery To Talk with Hamas Gary Leupp Hamas's Victory: "the Power of Democracy" Samar Assad A New Political Landscape in Palestine Jeffrey St. Clair King of the Hill: Sen. Ted Steven's Empire of Corruption Website of the Day Bush Jobs Program: You Too Can Be an FBI Snitch   January 26, 2006 Robert Robideau An AIM Activist's View of Jack Abramoff: Another Racist Out to Defraud Native Tribes Paul Craig Roberts Bolton Orders Syria to Do the Impossible Gilad Atzmon Hamas' Victory Jason Leopold A Vaster Conspiracy?: Fitzgerald Probes Niger Forgeries Joshua Frank Iran, Nukes and Oil Dave Lindorff Bush Calls Hamas Kettle Black Susan Lee An Open Letter to the State Dept. on the Cuban Five Missy Comley Beattie A Plea to the Marines: Stop Sending Recruiting Letters to Our House! Michael Carmichael Extraordinary Alito Michael Neumann The Core of Zionism Website of the Day Who Will Stop the Slaughter of Yellowstone's Bison?   January 25, 2006 Saul Landau Domestic Spying, Now and Then: When Hoover Bugged Phone Calls with My Father James Petras Is Chile's Bachelet Washington's Best New Ally? Lawrence R. Velvel Alito and Roberts' Self-Gag Rule is a Phony Vijay Prashad From Chennai with Love Kevin Zeese Gen. William Odom Supports the Empire, But Opposes the War Alison Weir When a Mother Gets Killed Does She Make a Sound? Anatomy of a Cover-Up Bruce K. Gagnon Bush War Economy: Exporting Jobs and Security Joan Roelofs Military Contractor Philanthropy Website of the Day Bob Marley Does Dylan   January 24, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts The Patriot Police: the Unfathomed Dangers of Patriot Act Reauthorization Kathy Kelly Liberation and Deliverance Jorge Mariscal Bush's War Viewed from the South Winslow T. Wheeler Smoke and Mirrors in the Defense Budget John Walsh Why We Picket John Kerry: Join Us Friday in Boston Youmans / Muaddi The Growing Israel Divestment Movement Roger Burbach Bolivia's Evo Morales: Original Mandate for Social Revolution Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste Letter from a Haitian Prison Noam Chomsky The Terrorist in the Mirror Website of the Day Big Brother Watch January 23, 2006 Uri Avnery Pity the Orphan: Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Elections Susan Pynchon Diebold in Florida: "I Saw It Hacked" William Loren Katz Harry Belafonte Reaffirms a Proud Tradition Christopher Brauchli Bush's IRS: Squeezing the Poor Chris Floyd The Goon Show Joshua Frank Tre Arrow and ELF: Environmentalism on Death Row Norman Solomon The Other Shoe Drops: Classified Leaks and Journalists Jackie Corr Working for the Railroad: Racicot and the Burlington Northern Paul Craig Roberts Inside Cheney's War Workshop Website of the Day Arms Against War   January 21/22, 2006 Tim Shorrock Why the Buses Didn't Come: Bush-Linked Florida Company and the Katrina Evacuation Fiasco Ralph Nader Congressional Ethics After Abramoff Peter Feng Casualties of War: Neoliberalism, Katrina and the Asian Tsunami Brian Cloughley CIA Bombs Pakistan, Hits America Michael Donnelly Tapes and Snitches: Feds Hand Down Eco-Sabotage Indictments Tom Kerr Crackdown in San Quentin: Why are They Rounding Up Tookie Williams' Friends? Tim Matson Best Not Drive While Black on I-91 (But Walk Tall With the Bloody Chainsaw You Just Topped Your Neighbor With) Dave Lindorff Rumsfeld: Venezuela "Overspending" on Military Daniel Wolff Hour of Reckoning: the Gospel Roots of Wilson Pickett Fred Gardner "Metabolic Syndrome" is to "Clinical Depression" as Acomplia is Prozac Jason Leopold How Cheney Used the NSA to Spy on Americans Prior to 9/11 Matthew Koehler Betting on Biscuit: Does Post-Fire Logging Make Ecological (or Economic) Sense? John Bomar The Emperor's Clothes: from Bonaparte to Bush Ron Jacobs When Miners March: Struggle and Lose, Struggle and Win! Becky Akers Debunking Democracy Joanne Mariner Security, Terrorism and Human Rights St. Clair / Walker / Pollack CounterPunch Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Albert, Holt, Engel and Davies Website of the Day Osama's Book Club: Featured Selection January 20, 2006 Brian J. Foley What Kind of War Doesn't Allow for a Truce? Richard Gott Revolution in the Andes Joshua Frank Israel and US Threats Against Iran Pierre Tristam Imperial Mongers: From Gladstone to "King George" Bernstein / Allegretto Hourly Wages Have Fallen in 18 of the Last 20 Months Elizabeth Schulte Abortion Before Roe Website of the Day This Dog Bites   January 19, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Political Machines: Was the 2004 Election Stolen? Bill Simpich Those Damn Democrats: To End War, Don't Ask for What You Don't Want Kevin Alexander Gray Reclaiming King Day (From the NAACP) Sam Husseini Rot at the Top: If the Democrats Really Want to Stop Bush, They Need New Leadership Sam Smith The Real Chocolate City Monica Benderman Dare to Make a Stand Winslow T. Wheeler Just How Big is the Defense Budget? Website of the Day Leave My Child Alone   January 18, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Gore's Speech: a Challenge That Cannot be Ignored Norman Solomon The Crime of Giving the Orders: Executing Clarence Ray Allen Jonathan M. Feldman The System Doesn't Work Anymore Michael Carmichael "Extraordinary Circumstances": the Case Against Alito Paul D'Amato The Crimes of Jimmy Carter Cynthia McKinney King's Mission Endures Norman Finkelstein Why an Economic Boycott of Israel is Justified Website of the Day The Planetary Movement   January 17, 2006 M. Shahid Alam "Real Men Go to Tehran": Has al-Qaeda's Gambit Paid Off? John Ross Latin America's Indians on the Move--in Different Directions Tariq Ali God, Blood, Oil and Iraq Michael Donnelly Killing Anna Mae Aquash, Smearing John Trudell Amira Hass No Child Left Unharassed: the Obstacle Course to School in Palestine Doug Giebel Alito's CAP: Either He Lied on His Resumé or There's a Cover-Up Bill Quigley MLK Day in a Haitian Prison Ron Jacobs Meet the Son of Jim Crow: MLK Day Below the Mason/Dixon Line Mike Stark Governor on a Killling Spree Werther The Liberties of the Subject January 16, 2006 John Walsh Tears of a Neocon: The Good News from Daniel Pipes Earl Ofari Hutchinson Black Students Under Fire: Racial Profiling in Public Schools Roger Burbach Bachelet's Victory: Leftward Drift in Chile? Norman Solomon Ted Koppel, NPR and Henry Kissinger: a Natural Fit? Robert Jensen Dreams and Nightmares: How Would King Judge America? Sam Husseini Martin Luther King and the Deeper Malady Paul Craig Roberts Bush Crosses the Rubicon Website of the Day MLK: Beyond Vietnam   January 14 / 15, 2006 Alexander Cockburn What the FBI Repairman Wore When He Tried to Bug Edward Said JoAnn Wypijewski What is an Antiwar Movement? James Petras The State of the Empire, 2006 Ron Jacobs Fifteen Years of War: Who's Better Off? Brian Cloughley Fly Boys and Lie Boys: Smart-Bombing Iraqi Families While They Sleep Marianne McDonald The Madness of Ajax: a Play for Our Time Bruce Tyler Wick Bush on Torture Echoes Charles I on Arbitrary Imprisonment Fred Gardner A Last, Desperate Plea to Stay in Canada Flavia Alaya Victory at Passaic County Jail Gary Leupp A Neocon Plan to Plant WMDs? Dr. Susan Block Peeping Tom in the Bush: Nonconsenual Voyeurism and the NSA Nicole Colson The House Jack Built: The Abramoff Giude to Buying Friends and Influencing Politics Jeffrey Kolakowski Senator as Illusionist: the Hypocrisies of John McCain Missy Comley Beattie The Stepford Hearings of Samuel Alito: The Senator, the Weepy Wife and a Secret Annoiting Charles Thomson Is Serota Dead in the Water?: the Ofili Scandal at the Tate St. Clair / Walker / Vest Playlsts: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Albert, Engel, Ford and Davies Website of the Weekend Historians Against the War   January 13, 2006 Ralph Nader The Two Questions the Senate Should Have Asked Alito Leonard Weinglass The Singular Story of the Cuban Five Amira Hass Prisoners in Their Own Land: 800,000 Palestinians Sealed Off by IDF in West Bank Chris Kutalik / Jennifer Biddle Airline Workers Fight Back Lawrence R. Velvel Alito and the Democrats Dave Lindorff Eight Who Dared: a (Short) Congressional Honor Roll Mike Whitney Countdown to War with Iran? David Price How the FBI Spied on Edward Said   January 12, 2006 Jennifer Van Bergen The Unitary Executive: Why the Bush Doctrine Violates the Constitution Jeremy Brecher / Brendan Smith Command Responsibility: Torture and Legal Accountability Lawrence R. Velvel Alito Refuses to Answer Fundamental Questions Ralph Nader / Robert Weissman Corporations, Originalism and the Bill of Rights: an Open Letter to Justice Scalia Jackie Corr Killing the Big Sky's Golden Goose: Marc Racicot and the Deregulation of Montana Power Jared Bernstein The Wage Doldrums Russell D. Hoffman New Horizons in Space, New Lows in Government Aubrey Streit I Was Born in a Small Town: the Fate of Rural America Clancy Sigal Hugh Thompson and My Lai: He Broke Ranks; He Did the Right Thing Website of the Day Nukes in Space   January 11, 2006 Kevin Zeese NSA Spied on Baltimore Peace Group (And They've Got the Documents That Prove It) Ray McGovern The Big Wiretap Allan Maass / Joe Allen Schwarzenegger's Hit List: Smearing Mandela, Killing Tookie Earl Ofari Hutchinson Snatching at King's Legacy: Mythmaking, Profiteering & Outright Distortions Annie Murphy Evo Morales' Sweater Allan Lichtman Abramoff's Kind of Big Government Ramzy Baroud Politics of Chaos: Gaza's Turmoil in Context Joshua Frank MoveOn Surrenders to Hillary Kathleen and Bill Christison "Eating Palestine for Breakfast": the Real Sharon Website of the Day Memoirs of Rummy's Geisha   January 10, 2006 Uri Avnery The Post-Sharon Landscape: Three Fingers, No Fist Saul Landau Different Americas Noam Chomsky Beyond the Ballot: Iraq, Iran and China Brian J. Foley Playing with Fire: Congress and Executive Power Lenni Brenner The War Within the Antiwar Movement Ronan Sheehan Sheehan to Sheehan: Cindy Sheehan's Irish Interview Paul Craig Roberts Bush's Con Jobs   January 9, 2006 Behzad Yaghmaian Who is to Blame for the Deaths of the Sudanese Refugees? George Bisharat US Aid to Israel is Out of Hand Dave Lindorff How the US Press Squelches Bush Impeachment Drive Norman Solomon Smoke a Marlboro, Then an Iraqi: How Media War Images Distort Not Inform Christopher Brauchli The Generosity of Credit Card Companies Aharon Shabtai A Poet's Letter on the Occupation Andrew Cockburn How Many Iraqis Have Died Since the US Invasion in 2003?   January 7 / 8, 2006 Lawrence Velvel The NYT's Unconscionable Decision to Sit on the NSA Story for a Year James Petras AIPAC on Trial: Them or US J.L. Chestnut Racism and Injustice in Alabama's Courts Mike Ely The Dead Miners in Sago Andrew Wilson The Dying of Ariel Sharon Lila Rajiva Two Moms Go to Capitol Hill William Cook The Rape of Palestine Ramor Ryan The Sub Motorcycle Diaries: On the Road with the Zapatistas Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff An Interview with Michael Scheuer on the CIA's Rendition Program Peter Montague Inherit the Wind: the Global Spread of GMO Crops Ron Jacobs Would Ethan Allen Pay to Protest? Neve Gordon Images of Real Eco-Terrorism in Twaneh Fred Gardner Business as Usual in San Diego Josh Mahon Idaho Timber Industry Leader Advocates Violence Against Green's Mom Dr. Susan Block Abramoff Family Values: the Lobbyist Who Screwed Us All Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Albert and Engel Website of the Weekend Bush Crimes Commission   January 6, 2006 José Pertierra Posada Carriles May Soon Hit the Streets Joe Allen Gary Freeman's Struggle: a Black Radical from the 1960s Fights Extradition to the US Winslow T. Wheeler Huge Defense Budget, Lousy Equipment John Bomar A Former NSA Officer on Snoopgate: the Squawkers Should be Congratulated Jason Leopold Snoop and Shred Norman Solomon Axis of Fanatics: Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad Robert Pollin Remembering Harry Magdoff: the Man Who Explained the Empire   January 5, 2006 Scott Boehm Big Profits, Buried Lives: Bulldozing the Dead in New Orleans Zoltan Grossman New Challenges for the Antiwar Movement Heather Gray Whistling Dixie Yet Again Haninah Levine Simple is Dangerous: the Pentagon's Plan for a Manhattan Project on IEDs Pierre Tristam The Sham of Homeland Security: a West Virginia Parable Remi Kanazi Stroke of Luck?: Political Hemorrhage in Israel Gilad Atzmon Sharon Meets His Maker Kathleen and Bill Christison What Hillary Clinton Doesn't Know About Palestine   January 4, 2006 Ron Jacobs Pity the Miner: A-Diggin' My Bones Lila Rajiva Terror Hits Bangalore Huibin Amee Chew Why the War is Sexist Pat Williams How the West Turned: Biting the Hands That Steal Linda Milazzo The House That George and Jack Built: Ownership Society Meets the Entrepreneurial Style Nick Dearden The Fantasy of "Even-Handedness": Blair's Cynical Policy on Palestine James Petras Evo Morales: All Growl, No Claws? Website of the Day Rat Out a Lobbyist for Jesus   January 3, 2006 James Ridgeway Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and 9/11: How Much Did the Bush Administration Know? Laith al-Saud Iraqi Intellectuals and the Occupation: an Interview with Dr. Saad Jawad Dick J. Reavis Border Walls: the View from Mexico Joshua Frank Hillary Clinton, AIPAC and Iran Rochelle Gause Inside Rafah: Collective Punishment as Normalcy Missy Comley Beattie How My Mother Went from a Republican to a Screaming Progressive Paul de Rooij A Glossary of Dispossession   January 2, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts A Gestapo Administration Clancy Sigal A Trip to the Far Side of Madness Cindy Sheehan A Tour of Europe: Friends Don't Let Friends Commit War Crimes Alexander Cockburn A NYT Editorial Contemplates Iraq   Dec. 31 / Jan. 1, 2005/6 Patrick Cockburn The Year in Iraq Alexander Cockburn Who Are We to Complain?: a Diary of 2005 Ralph Nader Rumsfeld vs. the Military: a Pentagon of Loyalists and Enforcers James Petras The Politics of Language: "Escalation" or "Retaliation" in Israeli Attacks on Palestinians Peter Montague A Darker Bioweapons Future J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Black Forever: Race, Class and Activism in the South Vijay Prashad My California Vacation: Conversations with Indian Americans P. Sainath Farm Suicides in Vidharbha James Brooks The Spoils of War: Israel's Corruption was Inevitable Eileen E. Schell The Farmer Wants a Wife: Hayseeds and Hickxploitation in the Land of Reality TV Christopher Brauchli Birds of a Feather: George and Vlad Jo Guldi Politics, Gay Marriage and Christianity Fred Gardner America's Only Legal Grower Ben Tripp A Hapless New Year St. Clair / Walker / Pollack Playlists: What We're Listening To This Week Poets Basement Engel, Albert, LaMorticella, Buknatski, Davies, Ford and Bear Dog Website of the Weekend Commit Bloggamy with Dr. Suzy   December 30,2005 Evo Morales I Believe Only in the Power of the People Earl Ofari Hutchinson The Toxic Air in Black America Dave Lindorff Bush's NSA Spying Jeopardizes National Security Gary Leupp Targeting Iran and Syria: Goss Builds Case for Turkey-Based Attacks Ron Jacobs A Dead New Year's Eve Brian Concannon Down in Haiti, the Chickens are Coming Home to Roost Sandra Lucas Inside TeenScreen: the Making of Mental Patients T.W. Croft The Wind Has Changed: Gulf Storms, Fables of Reconstruction and Hard Times for the Big Easy Website of the Day Images of Mass Consumption   December 29, 2005 Norman Solomon Journalists Should Expose Secrets, Not Keep Them Missy Comley Beattie Christmas Without Chase Dave Zirin Over the Edge: the Year in Sports Kevin Zeese Top 10 Antiwar Stories of 2005 Derrick O'Keefe Bolivia and Venezuela Offer an Alternative to Neo-Liberalism Sam Bahour Turning the Page in Palestine, Again Macdonald Stainsby What's Behind Paul Martin's Broadside Against Bush? Bill & Kathleen Christison Let's Stop a US/Israel War on Iran Website of the Day Deconstructing the Democrats   December 28, 2005 Jeffrey St. Clair The Worst Day of Ted Stevens' Life? Lila Rajiva Operation Romeo: Lessons on Terror Laws from India Amira Hass The Humanitarian Lie Joshua Frank Let the Drilling Begin: Iraq's IMF Loan David Swanson Leaking Top Secret Lies Richard Thieme High Time for Torture Paul Craig Roberts Three Books to Wake You Up Website of the Day Conyers Report: "Constitution in Crisis"   December 27, 2005 Evan Jones Whither the National Guard? Uri Avnery The Peretz Shuffle Mike Whitney Pop Goes the Bubble! Gideon Levy Dusty Trail to Death David Swanson Kurt Vonnegut: a Man Without a Country Norman Solomon NSA Spied on UN Diplomats During Push for Invasion of Iraq   December 26, 2005 Lawrence R. Velvel The Usurpers of Our Freedoms Lance Olsen The Toughest Challenge for Intelligent Design Ben Terrall No Holiday Compassion for Haiti's Political Prisoners Scott Boehm Santa Drove a Bulldozer Charlie Ehlen A Vietnam Vet's Appraisal of Bush Tom Kerr The Atheist Dad at Christmas   December 24/25, 2005 Aleander Cockburn The Year of Vanished Credibility James Petras Iran in the Crosshairs: Israel's Deadline Ralph Nader Talkin' About the "I"-Word Lila Rajiva Horowitz's New Project: Begging for Brownshirts Fred Gardner Dialogue with the DEA Ron Jacobs When Impeachment was Taken Seriously Dave Lindorff Xmas Games for a Gitmo World Gary Leupp Happy Birthday Mithras!: the True Meaning of December 25th Saul Landau Bush's Year in Review: a Report Card from Santa John Chuckman A Christmas Tale for Bushtime Dr. Susan Block Merry XXX-mas! St. Clair / Vest / Pollack / Donnelly Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Holt, Jones, Landau, Ross and Albert Website of the Weekend Merry Xmas, From the Beatles   December 23, 2005 John Ross The Corrido of Death Row: Mexico Ends the Death Penalty Chris Floyd Gospel Truth: Bush Hypocrisy, Radical Holiness and Woody Guthrie Lawrence Mishel / Ross Eisenbrey The Economy in a Nutshell Joanne Mariner Bringing Torture into Court: the Loopholes in McCain's Bill Eric Johnson-Debaufre The Trew Law of Free Democracies? Ray McGovern Cheney the Bully; Rockefeller the Coward J. L. Chestnut, Jr. What White America Doesn't Hear Website of the Day BB King: What I've Learned This Year   December 22, 2005 Ingmar Lee The Citizen's Metamorphosis: I Awoke an Object of Suspicion Elisa Salasin Classrooms in Cages Christopher Brauchli Absolut Bush: "I Swear to Upturn and Rear End the Constitution of the United States" Robin Blackburn Rudolf Meidner, a Visionary Pragmatist Evelyn Pringle Dan Olmstead, Autism & the Dangers of Thimerosal Amira Hass A 14-Year Old's Prison Journey: "I Refused and He Hit Me" Francis A. Boyle Iraq and the Laws of War: US as "Belligerent Occupant" Stew Albert The Spies Who Thought We Were Messy Website of the Day How to Reach a Human Voice   December 21, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts One Nation, Under Prosecutors: Presumed Guilty Lila Rajiva A Short History of Radio Free Iraq Joshua Frank Nancy Pelosi's Truth Dave Zirin The Bray of Pigs: Bush Nixes Beisbol Cubano Ramzy Baroud US Image Problem Rooted in History, Not Media Sonia Nettnin Connect the Dots: Decoding Bush's Mumbo Jumbo Ben Saul Torture as Calculated Policy Jonathan Cronin Anniversary of a Handshake: Cherry-picking History in Iraq Patrick Cockburn Iraq Election Spells Total Defeat for US Website of the Day Nixon on Presidential Power   December 20, 2005 Jackie Corr Natural Gas: a Montana Tragedy Earl Ofari Hutchinson Nothing New About NSA Spying on Americans Michael Donnelly "Eco Terrorism": Cui Bono? Gian Paulo Accardo Empire of Shame: a Conversation with Jean Ziegler Pierre Tristam Trifler, Fibber, Sophist, Spy: How Bush Flouted the Constitution Norman Solomon The Foulest Media Performances of the Year Sen. Robert Byrd No President is Above the Law Dave Lindorff Missing Black Boxes in WTC Attacks Found by Firefighters, Analyzed by NTSB, Concealed by FBI Website of the Day FBI's Spy Files: Got Yours Yet?   December 19, 2005 Mike Marqusee The Global War on Civil Liberties Gary Leupp Feds Ask Student: "Why are You Reading that Little Red Book?" Ron Jacobs The Antiwar Movement, the Democrats and the Delusions of Bushworld John Blair Stealing the Golden Shovel: Lessons on Civil Disobedience Gideon Levy Sadism at the Qalandiyah Checkpoint Kevin Zeese The Global War on Civil Liberties Missy Comley Beattie Warnings from a Military Man and Dad Don Santina Ride 'Em Brush Cutter: Cowboy Imagery and the American Presidency Website of the Day A Call for Justice in Palestine         Subscribe Online

February 3, 2006 Nuclear Proliferation The Gathering Storm By CONN HALLINAN "Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and a Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control." Article VI, Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 1968 "The United States will not use nuclear weapons against any non-nuclear weapon party state to the Non-Proliferation Treaty except in the case of an attack on the United States, its territories or armed forces, or its allies, by such a state allied to a nuclear weapon state" Addendum to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 1978, agreed to by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and endorsed by France. Reaffirmed in 1980 and 1995. The leaders of states who use terrorist means against us, as well as those who would consider using, in one way or another, weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and adapted response on our part. This response could be a conventional one. It could be of a different kind." French President Jacques Chirac visiting the nuclear submarine Vigilant, Jan. 19, 2006. Treaties are rarely scintillating, but the 30-year-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has a certain sparseness of language and precision of meaning that makes it an engaging read. Boiled down, it commits the 177 non-nuclear nations that signed it not to acquire nuclear weapons and the Big Five nuclear powers-the United States, Britain, France, China, and the USSR-to dismantle theirs. The theory behind it was simple: non-nuclear weapons states would forgo developing nukes on the conditions that, 1) they are never blackmailed with nuclear weapons, and 2) the Big Five get rid of their arsenals. All of this seems to have gotten lost in the recent uproar over Iran. While Tehran is being accused of trying to scam the NPT by secretly developing nuclear weapons, the open flaunting of the Treaty by the major nuclear powers is simply ignored. For almost 38 years the vast majority of the world's nations have adhered to the NPT. Only India, Pakistan, Israel, and possibly North Korea have joined the Big Five, although, at the time the Treaty was signed, a dozen more were on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. In short, the vast bulk of the signers have held to what they agreed to. The Big Five, however, have ignored the obligation to dismantle their nuclear arsenals or to even discuss general disarmament. At the NPT Review Conference last summer the issue did not even come up, a shortcoming which UN General Secretary Kofi Annan called a "disgrace." Not only have the Big Five refused to consider eliminating their nuclear arsenals, in 2002 the Bush Administration's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) unilaterally overturned the 1978 pledge, and the White House threatened to use nukes on Syria, Iran, and Iraq, all non-nuclear states. The Administration's rationale is that the NPT is not just about nuclear weapons, but "weapons of mass destruction," which it argues, includes chemical and biological weapons. It is a re-interpretation the French appear to embrace as well. But chemical and biological weapons were specifically excluded from the NPT for the very good reason that they are not weapons of mass destruction. Chemical weapons are certainly nasty, but generals in World War I found them more an annoyance than a serious threat. While artillery (the big killer), machine guns, and rifles inflicted 8.5 million deaths from 1914-1918, gas only killed about 100,000. Chemicals are simply too difficult to deliver and too volatile to do much damage. Bacteriological warfare is spooky, but even more difficult to make effective. Anthrax may have shut down Washington, but it only killed five people. Nuclear weapons are quite another matter, although as memories of World War II grow dim, it is easy to fall into the equivalence trap. A brief reminder: The fireball that consumed Hiroshima reached 18 million degrees in one millionth of a second. It evaporated 68% of the city, demolishing structures built to withstand an 8.5 earthquake. It charred trees five miles from ground zero, blew out windows 17 miles from the city's center, and killed 100,000 people in a single blow. Another 100,000 plus would follow in the months ahead. The bomb that flattened Hiroshima was 15 kilotons. The standard warhead in the U.S. arsenal today-the W-76-is 100 kilotons. A substantial number of our weapons are 250 kilotons, and they range as high as five megatons. One of the latter can eliminate a small country. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there are presently about 27,000 such warheads in the world, many of them capable of being launched within a half hour. In accepting the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the IAEA, said "More than 15 years after the Cold War, it is incomprehensible to many that the major nuclear weapons states operate with their weapons on hair-trigger alert." This is the price the world is paying for not insisting that the Big Five do what they agreed to do. And the danger is getting worse. Not from countries like Iran, but from the nuclear weapons establishment-particularly in the United States-that is systematically trying to dismantle the fragile barrier of treaties that hold the beast in check. One of the key threads in this increasingly tattered web is the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The theory behind the CTBT was that banning tests would prevent any further developments in nuclear weapons technology, particularly the miniaturization of warheads. It was also assumed that no one would risk deploying a weapon which had not been tested. Nuclear devices are tricky and a substantial number of designs produce duds. A side benefit to the CTBT was that it would also prevent the nuclear powers from randomly pulling warheads off line and testing them to make sure they still worked. The Treaty designers hoped that a lack of confidence in a weapon's reliability was all to the good. If you are not sure something will work, you may be more reluctant to use it. But the ink was hardly dry when the United States-and, it would appear, France-figured out how to redesign weapons without actually setting them off. Using sophisticated computers, weapon labs in France, and at Livermore, Los Alamos, and Sandia in the United States, began to configure a new generation of nuclear weapons. Indeed, India pointed to this computer-based U.S. weapons program as one of the reasons why it initiated a round of nuclear tests in 1998, although New Delhi's accusations received virtually no ink in the states. Last year, Congress launched the Reliable Warhead Replacement (RWR) program purportedly to insure that the U.S. nuclear arsenal would continue to work. One could certainly make an argument that RWR was a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the CTBT. But according to the local anti-nuclear group Tri-Valley CARE, the program is also retooling warheads to make them smaller in yield (and therefore more likely to be used), capable of taking out deeply buried targets, and able to destroy chemical and biological weapons. This redesign effort was revealed in a report by William Schneider Jr., chair of the Defense Science Board, who wrote in 2004 that the United States must not just simply improve nuclear weapons capacity "on the margins," but must develop "weapons more relevant to the future threat environment." It is possible the United States could accomplish this without resuming testing (although Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has openly talked about violating the test ban). But even if the United States doesn't test, other nations will certainly not allow themselves to fall behind just because they don't have fancy computers. If the United States continues on this path, other nations will resume testing, which will, in turn, encourage non-nuclear nations to begin their own programs. It is estimated that up to 40 nations could manufacture nuclear weapons. "The most important thing," El Baradei told the Financial Times, "is to make the big boys understand that the major league is not an exclusive club. If you are not going to dissolve that club, others are going to join it. A world of haves and have-nots is not sustainable." The major danger in the world today comes not from countries like Iran and North Korea, but from the unwillingness of the major nuclear powers to live up to the promise they made back in 1968. "The central problem in halting nuclear proliferation," says Selig Harrison, director of the Asia Program of the Center for International Policy and a former India bureau chief for the Washington Post, "lies in the failure of the original nuclear powers that signed the NPT to live up to Article 6, in which they pledged to phase out their nuclear weapons." Conn Hallinan is a foreign policy analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus (online at www.fpif.org) and a lecturer in journalism at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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