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Today's
Stories
November 20,
2006
David H. Price
American
Anthropologists Stand Up Against Torture and the Occupation of
Iraq
November 18
/ 19, 2006
Weekend Edition
Alexander Cockburn
Top
Dems to Voters: "Shut Up! We've Got a War to Run!"
Ralph Nader
The Hole in Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Lost the Senate
Barucha Calamity Peller
Who Will Live on in the Oaxaca Uprising?
John Ross
Halliburton Wrecks Mexico
Dave Lindorff
The Albatross: Why the Democrats Should Cut Loose Joe Lieberman
Fred Gardner
The Adverse Effects of Marijuana: California Medical Survey
Ron Jacobs
Back in the Aether Again: Thomas Pynchon's Stunning Return
Larry Portis
The Songs of Basilio Martin Patino: Father of the New Spanish
Cinema
Frida Berrigan
The Weapons Bonanza: a Perfect Storm of Profit
Wes Enzinna
Ghosts of Dictatorships Past: the School of the America's and
Memory in Latin America
Elizabeth Schulte
The Fall of Donald Rumsfeld: Architect of a Disaster
Peter Rost,
MD
The Credit Card Trap
Martha Rosenberg
We're Drinking What? Milk, rBST and Monsanto's Rats
Seth Sandronsky
University Unity: California's Professors and Students Unite
Missy Beattie
Explore This!
Adam Engel
Data Days
Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Newberry and Curtis
Website of the Weekend
A Modest Proposal for the Art World
November 17,
2006
Greg Grandin
The
Road from Serfdom: Milton Friedman and the Economics of Empire
Joseph Massad
Pinochet in Palestine: Fateh's Unholy Alliance
Kevin Zeese
George McGovern's Return to Capitol Hill: "A Down-to-Earth
Disengagement Plan"
Gideon Levy
After the Rain of Death
Bill Quigley
WMDs Protected!: Blood-Pouring Anti-Nuke Clowns Sent to Prison
David Swanson
Last Chance for the Democrats?: a Tale of Two Conyers
Sherry Wolf
Gay Rights: When Will the US Catch Up with Africa?
Jerry Beisler
What James Webb Knows
Website of the Day
Thanks for the False Memories!
November 16,
2006
Kathy Kelly
Sources
of Violence
Col. Douglas
MacGregor
Was It Only Rumsfeld?
Norman Solomon
Operation Last Resort: the Media Offensive to Prolong the Iraq
War
Nikki Thanos
From Oaxaca to Portland
Cindy Sheehan
Impeachment Proceedings
Lena Khalaf
Tuffaha
Jimmy
Carter and the "A" Word: Will the Democrats Listen
to Carter on Palestine?
Gloria La Riva
Where is the Justice? Anti-Castro Terrorist Gets Only 4 Years
Pat Williams
How the Democrats Won the West
Kerry Joyce
From Rummy to Rahmmy: Bob Novak's New Source
CP News Service
Wal-Mart Charged with Selling Non-Organic Food as "Organic"
David Letterman
Top 10 Slogans for Wal-Mart Wine
James Ridgeway
Did Robert Gates' Planning Help Bring Black Hawk Down?
Website of
the Day
A Conversation with West Point Grads Against the War
November 15,
2006
Jennifer Loewenstein
Alice
in Erez: the Gaza Crossing
David Rosen
Rev. Ted Haggard and the Eclipse of Evangelical Fury
Ashley Smith
A Socialist in the Senate?
Landau / Hassen
Talking Tough on Iraq Isn't Courageous
Walden Bello
Iraq After November 7: New Challenges for the AntiWar Movement
Sibel Edmonds
The Highjacking of a Nation
Austin / Bernstein
Why Bill Cosby is Wrong to Link Black Culture to Economic Decline
Yitzhak Laor
This Merchandise, Security
James Rothenberg
Unimpeachable: a Brief Argument Why
Gail Dines
"Borat": It's a Guy Thing
Website of the Day
Kakistocracy
November 14, 2006
Werther
Beltway
Bromo-Seltzer: a Sneak Peak at the Baker Report
Ray McGovern
Benching Scowcroft
John Walsh
Korea, Vietnam and Iraq Syndrome: Alive, Well and Gaining Strength
David MacMichael
Gates to the Pentagon
William S.
Lind
Lose a War, Lose an Election
Sharon Smith
Democrats, Born to Compromise
Laura Carlsen
Oaxaca Fights Back
Ron Jacobs
The Perishing Republic
Peter Rost,
MD
Whistleblowers: Who Are They?
Carol Norris
Post-Campaign Ad Stress Disorder?
Website of
the Day
A Map of the US Nuclear Arsenal
November 13,
2006
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Screw
the Palestinians, Full Steam Ahead
Bill Quigley
Robin Hood in Reverse: the Corporate Looting of the Gulf Coast
Paul Craig Roberts
The Democrats and Civil Liberties: Will They Turn a Blind Eye?
Uri Avnery
Call It What It Is: a Massacre!
Joe DeRaymond
The Strange Return of Daniel Ortega
Norman Finkelstein
Jimmy Carter's Roadmap
Col. Dan Smith
The Pentagon's Revolving Gates: Out with the Old, In with the
Old
Shepherd Bliss
After the Party
Dave Lindorff
What Vote-Theft Conspiracy?
Missy Beattie
For Better / For Worse: Will Laura Stay the Course?
Trenticosta / Fleming
Vindication for the Angola 3
Weekend Edition
November 11 / 12, 2006
John Walsh
Rahm's
Losers
Barucha Calamity
Peller
Oaxaca at Any Cost
Al Krebs
Be Careful What You Wish For
Niall Meehan
Ireland's Freedom Struggle and the Foster School of Historical
Falsification
Conn Hallinan
The Ills of War: Shafting the Vets
Patrick Cockburn
"We
Worry About Staying Alive, Not the U.S. Elections"
Gary Leupp
Democrats Can Be NeoCons, Too
P. Sainath
India High and Low: the Anatomy of a Tiger
Nikolas Kozloff
The Return of Tom Lantos: Beware Venezuela, Here Come the Democratic
Hawks
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Throwing
Rumsfeld Under the Bus
Fred Gardner
Marijuana, the Anti-Drug
Ralph Nader
Taking on the Boss: Claybrook vs. the Chamber
Ben Terrall / John Miller
East Timor: 15 Years After the Massacre
Mike Whitney
Cheney in a Box
Joshua Frank
Post-Electoral Deliriums
Mukul Dube
The Death Penalty Case of Mohd. Afzal
Jason Hribal
Jesse: Eulogy for a Working Dog
Daniel Wolff
The Unseen Springsteen
Michael Donnelly
Red Rock Blues: the Moab Folk Festival
Lord Montague
A Dissenting Note on the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917
Poets' Basement
Davies, Louise, Buknatski and Orloski
November 10,
2006
Alexander Cockburn
Lame
Duck
Marjorie Cohn
The War Crimes Case Against Rumsfeld
Jorge Mariscal
What Veterans See
Gregory Elich
The Trial of Saddam: Who Will Pass Judgment on the Judges?
Joshua Frank
Blue Dog Group: Bye-Bye Coke, Hello Pepsi
Megan Boler
The Joke is On Us: How "Borat" Lowers the Bar of Political
Satire
Ramzy Baroud
The Treacherous Road to Oslo Begins Here
Farzana Versey
An Iraqi in India
Roberto Rodriguez
A Thumpin' or a Whippin'?
Cartoon of
the Day
Splat!
November 9,
2006
Jennifer Loewenstein
How
Gaza Offends Us All
Patrick Cockburn
War of the Snipers
Paul Craig Roberts
Will Democrats Become Part of the Problem?
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
The Roots of Corruption
Mike Whitney
Bush's Chernobyl Economy
Alan Maass
The Repudiation of One-Party Rule
Robert Jensen
Blood on the Tracks: the Elections and the Coming Train Wreck
Nicola Nasser
Saddam's Trial in Context
John Chuckman
As I Lay Dying: Watching the US Elections from Canada
Jamal Juma
Between Resistance and Deception in Palestine
Felice Pace
Can the Klamath be Restored?
Website of
the Day
The Robert Gates Files
November 8,
2006
Alexander Cockburn
/ Jeffrey St. Clair
Count
Your Blessings: NeoCons and NeoLibs Take Big Hit as Voters Say
No to Bush, War and Free Trade
Lawrence E.
Walsh
Robert Gates and Iran/Contra: Lies, Cover Ups and Slanted Intelligence
Bruce K. Gagnon
What's Next for the Peace Movement?: Confront the Democrats,
Now!
Neve Gordon
Anti-Semitism?
Mr. Dershowitz, You Just Don't Like What I Say
Dave Lindorff
Election Post-Mortem: What's Next?
Arthur Neslen
Another Tragic Day in Palestine
Joshua Frank
An Election Hangover: Thank God It's Over
James Goodman
The Corporate Food System is Broken
Charles Sullivan
Voting in the Absence of Choice
David Swanson
Subpoena Envy: The Dems Have the Power, But Will They Use It?
Missy Beattie
The Electorate Speaks and Barney Barks!
Dr. Susan Block
American Voters Say, "Bush Sucks!"
Website of the Day
Stealing Olive Groves from Palestinians
November 7,
2006
Michael Neumann
Cut
and Run from Iraq: Sooner Rather Than Later
Paul Wolf
Saddam Must Die: A Pre-Ordained Verdict
Nikolas Kozloff
In Nicaragua, a Chavez Wave?
Eliza Ernshire
The Women of Beit Hanoun
William S. Lind
The Smile on Saddam's Face: He's Tan, Rested and Ready
Mike Ferner
Pick a Number: Greater Than 47,615
Felice Pace
Pumping the Klamath Dry
Chris Genovali
The Problem with PBDEs: Why Canada's Proposed Ban Won't Protect
People or Wildlife
Gilad Atzmon
Watching Borat
Dick J. Reavis
Going to Class War with the Proletariat We Got ...
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Lives (and Votes) Lost: the Ordeal of Larry Peterson
Website of
the Day
Magic Sam: a Sure Cure for the Election Day Blues
Question of the Day
Is Bush Gay?
November 6,
2006
Alexander Cockburn
The
Message of Campaign 2006
Norman Solomon
Saddam's
Unindicted Co-Conspirator: Donald Rumsfeld
Robert Fisk
A Guilty Verdict on America, as Well
Marjorie Cohn
The Banana Election: From Hanging Chads to Hanging Saddam
Paul Craig Roberts
The Goose and the Gander: Is Bush Next?
Nikolas Kozloff
Election Eve Jitters: the Chavez Factor
Newton Garver
The Progress in Bolivia: Morales' Stunning Victory Over Big Oil
Mike Whitney
Bush's Carnival of Blood
Jesse Hagopian
From the Black Panthers to the Green Party: an Interview with
Aaron Dixon
Dr. Peter Rost,
MD
The Genocide Election: When a Life Saving Industry Cheats, People
Die
Website of
the Day
Robert Pollin vs. Rick Wolff: Is Pomo Marxism Marxism?
November 4
/ 5, 2006
Dave Zirin
Political
Players: Where Athletes Give Their Money
Patrick Cockburn
When
Does Incompetence Become a Crime?
Sanho Tree
War
Timing and Opportunism
Ralph Nader
Failure
Across All Fronts
Lee Sustar
The Obama Myth
Dr. Shepherd Bliss
Torture Memories
Adam Elkus
Babies and Banks: Celebrity Colonialism in Africa
Seth Sandronsky
Is Another Recession Looming?
Fred Gardner
10 Years of Medical Pot in California: Dr. Mikuriya's Observations
Joshua Sperber
How the US Lost Latin America
Evelyn Pringle
Ohio Redux: Mr. Blackwell and the Henhouse
Mitchel Cohen
The Left and the Environment: Notes on the Ecological Dimension
Missy Beattie
The Medium is the Massage
Michael Dickinson
Watching the Guards: a Prison Diary
John Holt
The Silk Road to Ruin
Dr. Susan Block
The Beastly Bombing
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Engel, Orloski and Davies
November 3, 2006
Laura Carlsen
Day
of the Dead in Oaxaca
Stephan Said
Honoring Bradley Will
John Stauber
"Victory in Iraq:" The PR Machine Behind Bush's Favorite
Slogan
Mike Whitney
Baghdad is Surrounded
Joshua Frank
DNC Deja Vu
Victoria Furio
More Than Timetables
Tammara~85,441
They Say He is Coming Home
Stuart Croswaithe
Beatings and Sugar Plums: New Labor's War on the Kurds
Missy Beattie
Bush Shock
Website of
the Day
Howlin' Wolf
November 2, 2006
Winslow T.
Wheeler
The
US Body Count in Iraq: an Analysis of Who is Dying and How
Paul Craig
Roberts
Evil
is as Evil Does
Dave Lindorff
Kerry Out: the Joke's Still on Us
Uri Avnery
The
Lovable Man? Lieberman and the Decline of Israeli Democracy
Jeff Birkenstein
Smearing Harold Ford in Black Face
John Ross
Slave Labor in Private Prisons
Zoltan Grossman
Recharging the Anti-War Movement
Eveyln Pringle
The SEC's Probe of Halliburton: Is Cheney Being Fitted for a
Striped Jumpsuit?
Christopher
Brauchli
Drug Profits and PACs: Why Big Pharma Pushes the GOP
November 1,
2006
Alan Dershowitz
v. Bruce Jackson
On
Torture
Brian Tokar
Running
on Hype: the Real Scoop on Biofuels
Fred Leonhardt
Democrats,
Sex Crimes and the Press: the Goldschmidt Affair
Richard W.
Behan
Triumph
of the Petropublicans: Bush's Other Civil War
Brenda Norrell
Indigenous Opposition to the Border Wall
Charles Sullivan
Spoils of Corruption: Who Will Stand Up When America Goes Wrong?
Ron Jacobs
Hell is Rising in Oaxaca: interview with a Oaxacan Rebel
Mike Knapp
Green Stench in Minnesota: the Commissioner and the Hog Lot
Moshe Adler
The Temptations of a Union Boss: the Case of Brian McLaughlin
Walden Bello
Chain Gang Economics
Lee Ballinger
The Collapse of Hip Capitalism: How Tower Records Committed Suicide
Joshua Frank
Party in a Cage: Snake Oil and the Midterm Elections
Carl Gelderloos
Cheerleading the Massacre in Oaxaca: an Open Letter to the Washington
Post
Peter Rost,
MD
Panic
in Big Pharma
Saul Landau
Bush's
Anti-Terrorism Record: Don't Look Too Close
Website of the Day
The Meatrix
October 31, 2006
William S.
Lind
The
Third and Final Act: Iran
Stephen S.
Pearcy
Dem Candidate's Wife Urges Cindy Sheehan Not to Protest Iraq
War
Uri Avnery
Who's
Afraid of an Iranian Bomb?
Michael Colby
Corporations Win Again!: Bush Opens National Parks to Bio-Prospecting
Sunsara Taylor
A No-Win Election for Women
Ben Beachy
Targeting Nicaraguans' Stomachs: 11th Hour Election Meddling
by the US
Edward Humes
Nine Words: America's Disservice to Veterans
Roger Burbach
The Meaning of Lula's Victory in Brazil
Subcomandante Marcos
A Communique from the EZLN on Oaxaca
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Funny Business in the Booth: Vote for James H. 'Jim'
Sharon Smith
Those
Damned Democrats
Website of
the Day
Parks Not for Sale
October 30,
2006
Robert Fisk
Dirty
Bombs Over Lebanon: Did Israel Use Uranium Weapons?
Bruce Jackson
Normalizing
Torture
Norman Solomon
I Was Wrong About Thomas Friedman, the World's Wealthiest Pundit
Lance Selfa
Liberal Doormats: Tread on Us
Ali Khan
The Veil and the British Male Elite
Lee Sustar
European Islamophobia: Fanning the Flames of Hate
Robert Jensen
The Death of Empathy
Akiva Eldar
Lieberman: Making Haider Look Good
Tim Montague
The Natural Step to Eco-Villages
Brian M. Downing
Evil in the Valley: Civilian Massacres, From Vietnam to Iraq
Website of the Day
Alien Impeachment
October 27 / 29, 2006
Weekend Edition
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Hogwash:
Fecal Factories in the Heartland
Maher Arar
The
Horrors of Extraordinary Rendition: a Personal Account
David Rosen
Perversions of Power: Mark Foley and the Bush Administration
Gregory Elich
"A Bursting Boiler at Russia's Doorstep:" Why Bush
is Seeking Confrontation with N. Korea
Tom Barry
Fear and Loathing in the North: an Apartheid Fence in America?
Jeff Taylor
Democrats By Default?
Dave Lindorff
Why Nancy Pelosi is Wrong
Ron Jacobs
The General Who Called Out the Devil: the Politics of Hugo Chavez
Maurus Chino
Hauba Hanu: Oppression Affects All People
Christopher
Brauchli
Veiled Threats: the Global War on Fashion
Sherwood Ross
The Wages of Whistleblowing: Why Bunny Greenhouse Sits in a Corner
Rev. William
Alberts
In Search of a Real Inter-Religious Dialogue on War and Justice
Aseem Shrivastava
Pushing India Toward a "Dollar Democracy"
Saul Landau
/ Farrah Hassen
Bush's Mea Culpa Speech, First Draft
Russ Fine / Dee Fine
Of Peters and Principles: Learning About Sex and Hypocrisy from
the GOP
Seth Sandronsky
Social Security: the Distortions of Sebastian Mallaby
Michael Carmichael
Rogue President: Midterm Meltdown
Joe Allen
The Legacy of Gillo Pontecorvo: a Maker of Revolutionary Films
David Vest
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Landau, Engel and Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
Safely Home
October 26,
2006
Ismael Hossein-zadeh
Islamic
Fascism?: Inflammatory Ironies
Carlos Zorrilla
The
Police Raid on My House: Trumped Up Charges and Collusion Between
a Mining Company and the Government of Ecuador
Paul Craig Roberts
The Crimes of Greed vs. the Crimes of Government: If Enron's
Skilling Gets 24 Years in Prison, How Many Should Bush and Cheney
Get?
Mike Whitney
The Charnel House of Baghdad
Lily Hughes
A Cruel and Unusual Reality: Inside the Texas Death House
Jennifer Matsui
Madonna's African Safari: The Great White Baby Hunter
Tim Matson
How to Save Vermont
Stephen Fleischman
Like a Soldier: Benchmarks, Timelines and Lies
Missy Beattie
The Blood of October: Are We Sure Barney Still Supports This
War?
Patrick Cockburn
From
"Mission Accomplished" to "Mission Impossible"
in Iraq
Website of the Day
Open Letter to The Nation
October 25,
2006
Michael Donnelly
Ethnicity
and Baseball
John Stanton
The
Vindication of Sibel Edmonds
John Ross
Upheaval from the Bottom
Conn Hallinan
Hunting Hugo: When It's About Oil Nothing is Off the Table--Not
Even Assassination
Robert Jensen
Academic
Freedom on the Rocks
Johnny Barber
Drinking Tea with Hizbullah
Bruce K. Gagnon
Space Cowboy: Bush's War on Heaven
Daniel McGowan
Elie Wiesel for Israeli President?
James J. Brittain
Uribe's Failure to Learn from Colombia's Past
Peter Harley
Afghanistan in 3-D
Jonathan Cook
Israel's
Minister of Strategic Threats
Shepherd Bliss
The Bioneers and the New York Times
Website of
the Day
The Price of Staying the Course
October 24,
2006
John Walsh
The
Book of Rahm: Emanuel's War Plan for Democrats
M. Shahid Alam
Not All Terrorists Are Muslim: the Latest Falsehood from the
Advocates of Civilizational War
Dr. Trudy Bond
The Silence at Home, as America Eats Her Young
Michael Phillips
The Story of My Kidnapping in Nablus: "I Never Feared for
My Life"
Dave Lindorff
Truth and Consequences on Iraq: Bush's Latest Cut-and-Paste War
Plan
David Phinney
A US Fortress Rises in Baghdad: Asian Labor Trafficking Used
to Build World's Largest Embassy
Laura Carlsen
Food Insecurity: the World Needs Its Small Farmers
Pierre Tristam
The American Way of Gore
Marguerite
Rose Jimenez
"About
That Trip to Cuba:" When the FBI Came Calling
Website of
the Day
Tampon Terrorists
October 23,
2006
Saree Makdisi
Israel's
Cluster Bomb War: "What We Did Was Insane and Monstrous"
Joshua Frank
The
Antiwar Movement and Independent Politics: an Interview with
Cindy Sheehan
Fred Gardner
What Have California Doctors Learned About Cannabis?
Ralph Nader
The End of Habeas Corpus and the Belligerent Despot-in-Chief
Ron Jacobs
Bush's Clark Clifford: James Baker Wants a Kinder, Gentler War
Norman Solomon
Punditry Without Consequences: Channeling Thomas Friedman
Richard Manning
Outside the Market: We Need and Owe Rural People
Neil Kitson
Canadians in Afghanistan: Bloody, Unbowed, Stoned?
William MacDougall
The Socialist, the Columnist, His Wife and the Prostitute
Gilad Atzmon
Surviving the Board of Deputies
Werther
The
Evening of Empire
Website of
the Day
Different Drummer: Internet Coffeehouse Movement
October 20
/ 22, 2006
Alexander Cockburn
The
Myth of Microloans
Gary Leupp
How
the US Declared War on North Korea
Brian Cloughley
What Are They Dying For?
Dave Zirin
Pat Tillman's Brother Breaks His Silence
William Blum
Don't Look Back: Who Said Clinton Didn't Kill Anybody?
Christopher
Brauchli
The
Cronies' War
Winslow Wheeler
The
Mad Logic of Pentagon Spending: As Costs Rise, Readiness Declines
Michael Donnelly
GOP Death Slide: Is the Party Really Over?
Fred Gardner
Corporate Drugs Useless Against Alzheimer's
Susie Day
How
to Stay Out of Gitmo
Lucinda Marshall
Behind Closed Doors: the Invisibility of Domestic Violence
Fred Wilcox
The Second Palestinian Intifada: History of a Struggle for Survival
Alan Maass
Standing Up Against Racism at Columbia: a Wake Up Call to the
Passive Left
Lee Sustar
A Bipartisan Border Wall: New Phases in the Crackdown on Immigrants
Ariadna Theokopoulos
Shame on You, Dr. Warf: Hail the Epidemiologist in Chief
Missy Beattie
Surges: the Dow and the Death Count
CP News Wire
Bush's Paraguay Land Grab: Hideout or Water Raid?
CP News Services
Sexually Repressed Republicans: Robert Bork, Riveted
Poets' Basement
Davies, Engel, Buknatski and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Scenes from Oaxaca
October 19,
2006
Elaine Cassel
The
Bush Administration's Assault on Defense Lawyers
Col. Dan Smith
Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine: Cracks in the Bush / Blair
Axis
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
North Korea's Nuclear Test: a Q & A
Josh Gryniewicz
Wal-Mart Tightens the Squeeze on Workers
Amira Hass
What is 20 Tons of Explosives?
Eric Holt-Gimenez
Poison and Famine in the Fields: How the Agri-Food Industry's
Deadly Cycle Feeds Immigration
Jesse Hagopian
Arrested Democracy: On Trying to Ignore Aaron Dixon
Sam Husseini
How Third Parties Can Solve the "Spoiler" Problem and
Win Elections
John Weisheit
A
Gathering of Water Buffaloes: Feds Celebrate Death of the Colorado
River
CP News Service
A Plea to U2 From Africa's Children: Stop Bono Before He Kills
Again
Website of
the Day
George W. Bush: Hollywood Producer
Art Gallery
of the Day
Botero's Abu Ghraib Paintings in Manhattan
October 18,
2006
Joshua Frank
Cindy
Sheehan's Lesser Evilism: Democrats or Bust?
Dr. Curran
Warf, MD
Slandering Sound Science: Bush's Attack on the Lancet Iraq War
Death Study
Saul Landau
Bush's
Foley: Will the Dems Blow It?
Tom Barry
The
Politics of Fear
Bruce Jackson
Thundersnow: a Report from Buffalo
Dave Lindorff
Loveless Among the Ruins: Even Repubs Flee Bush's Failed Middle
East Policy
Frederico Fuentes
When Cochabamba Said "Enough": Bolivia's Blow to Neoliberalism
Michael Simmons
Greetings from Echo Park: an Open Letter to Rolling Stone's Jann
Wenner
Daryll E. Ray
The Root Problems in American Agriculture
Kate Doyle
The Dead of Tlatelolco
Website of
the Day
The
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
October 17, 2006
Michael Neumann
Hit
and Run: Guerrilla Reviewing
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
Nuclear
Test, Political Flare: Interpreting the Physics and Politics
of N. Korea's Nuclear Test
Stephen S.
Pearcy
The Interrogation of Julia Wilson: Secret Service Grills 14 Year-Old
Artist
Sharon Smith
Afghanistan
Reconsidered: The Taliban Aren't Gone, Women Haven't Been Liberated
Al Krebs
The Corporate Assault on Zoning
David Underhill
Politicus Interruptus: Come Back, Jo Bonner
Daniel Wolff
NY's Iraq Veterans Against the War Needs Your Help ... Now
James Brooks
Desirable
Duds: Israeli / US Cluster Bombs Litter Lebanon
Website of the Day
Stop Torture Now
October 16,
2006
Gary Leupp
North
Korea as a Religious State
Patrick Cockburn
General
Mutinies Against Blair
David Wilson
Where Have All the Doctors Gone?: the Collapse of Iraq's Health
Care Services
Robert Fisk
Confronting Turkey's Armenian Genocide
Robert Jensen
Racism and Cheap Thrills at U. of Texas Law School
Ingmar Lee
/ Krista Roessingh
An Appeal for S. India's Wild Elephants
Mike Whitney
America's Other War Party
Jake Whitney
The Courageous Dr. Rost
Sanho Tree
Sugar Daddy Politics: Was Foley Blackmailed to Secure His Vote
on CAFTA?
Website of
the Day
Best
War Ever
October 14/15, 2006
Weekend Edition
Uri Avnery
Gaza
as Laboratory: the Great Experiment
John Walsh
How
Rahm Emmanuel Has Rigged a Pro-War Congress
Jean Bricmont
A Fable About Palestine
Jennifer Van Bergen
Bush's Military Commissions Act and the Future of America
Ralph Nader
Wilted Yankees: the Fruits of Checkbook Baseball
Floyd Rudmin
The Logic of Proliferation: How Bush's Belligerence Prompted
N. Korea to Pursue Nuclear Weapons
Mark Weisbrot
Correcting the Facts on US/Venezuela Relations
Laura Carlsen
Building a Future in the Mixteca
Hani Shukrallah
A Stroll Through the Cairo Mall: Shopping as Cultural Pursuit
Dr. Susan Block
The Spent Milk of Human Foley
John Chuckman
North Korea's Bomb: Still 1,126 Nuke Tests Behind the US
Lucinda Marshall
Is Betty Ugly?: the Profits of Denigration
Don Monkerud
The Case Against Depleted Uranium
Missy Comley
Beattie
What Bush Means By Tolerable Violence in Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Shouting "No One is Illegal" in a Crowded Theater
Website of
the Weekend
Ratfink Raunchfest
October 13,
2006
Jorge Mariscal
PowerPoint
Racism: How Military Recruiters Pitch to Latinos
Stephen Philion
The
Myth of the Spat Upon Vets: an Interview with Jerry Lembcke
John Blair
Strip Mining Wildlife Preserves: Black Beauty's Filthy Lucre
Col. Dan Smith
Oil, Atoms and War
Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry
How Hezbollah Defeated Israel: Part Two, Winning the Ground War
Stephen Fleischman
Journalism Then and Now
Charles Perroud
The Death Penalty's Invisible Victims
Anne E. Brodsky
Return
to Afghanistan: Where the Rhetoric Doesn't Match the Reality
Website of the Day
Underwater Nuke Test
October 12,
2006
Jonathan Cook
Israel's
Plan for a Military Strike on Iran
Norman Solomon
The Pundit Path to Death in Iraq
M. Shahid Alam
On Colonialism and Colleagues
Paul Craig
Roberts
Can We Call It Genocide Now?
Meredith Schafer / Chris Kutalik
Is a General Transportation Strike Looming for 2008? Can Labor
Seize the Moment?
Carl Gelderloos
Images of Occupation: Teaching in Nablus
Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry
How Hezbollah Defeated Israel: Part One, Winning the Intelligence
War
Charles Sullivan
Assassins of Truth
William S. Lind
Why Do We Still Fight a Lost War?
CP News Service
The South Turns Against the War
Website of
the Day
There's a Riot Goin' On
October 11,
2006
John Feffer
Pyongyang
1, Bush 0
Dave Lindorff
A Killing Occupation
Jackson Katz
Gunning Down Women: Coverage of "School Shootings"
Misses Central Issue
April Howard / Ben Dangl
The Tin War in Bolivia
Michael Carmichael
World War W
Ken Couesbouc
The New Witchcraft: Marvin Harris on the War on Terror
Gregory Afghani
Sleepless on Skid Row: Guilty of Being Homeless in America
Alexander Cockburn
600,000 Dead in Iraq: Chortles in the New Yorker for Slaughter's
Cheerleader, C. Hitchens
Website of
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Petition: Defend Columbia Students Who Confronted the Minutemen
October 10,
2006
Paul Craig
Roberts
Lost
Wars and a Lost Economy
Robert Robideau
The
Myth Keepers of Columbus
Joshua Frank
The
Democrats and the War on Civil Liberties
Dave Lindorff
Free the Press Free Linda Greenhouse
Dave Zirin
Brother of the Fist
Heather Gray
Where Votes Matter: My Experience in South Africa
James Knotwell
Big Ag in the Heartland: the Future of Nebraska's Family Farms
Missy Beattie
The Return of James Baker, III
Mike Whitney
Bush and North Korea: Bumbling Toward Disaster
David Rosen
Sex Panic on Capitol Hill: Mark Foley and the Politics of Sex
in America
Website of the Day
Eno / Byrne: Music to Enjoy the Foley Scandal By
October 9. 2006
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The
Age of Terror
Norman Solomon
Welcome to the Nuclear Club
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The
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The Mystery of America
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Their Back Pages: Sex, Lies and Family Values
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Who Killed Michael Moore?
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Grizzlies in Our Midst: Can Humans and Bears Coexist?
Lucinda Marshall
Not So Pretty in Pink: Profits and Breast Cancer
Saul Landau
Post-Castro
Cuba
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October 7 /
8, 2006
Weekend Edition
Alexander Cockburn
Wargasms
and Orgasms
Peter Kwong
The Chinese Face of Neoliberalism
Ralph Nader
Revolt of the Generals
Mark Donham
What Cynthia McKinney Means to Me
Dave Lindorff
Philly's Police Snoops
Peter Bosshard
World Bank Shuts Out Dissident Voices: Big Dams, Huge Profits
& Political Corruption
Ron Jacobs
Evil Hour in Colombia
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Governmental Derelicts: Moral Meltdown in America
Fred Gardner
Arnold Vetoes Hemp Bill
David Green
The US, Israel and the Invasion of Lebanon
Jim B.
Activism, Incorporated: Outsourcing Grassroots Politics?
Missy Beattie
Prayers for Peace at the Edge of the Abyss
Michael Donnelly
Blame the Page: Grand Old Perverts Go on Offensive
Jackson Thoreau
Enter Newt
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Revisiting Korematsu: Denying Civil Rights Based on National
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CounterPunch
News Service
Why We Confronted the Minutemen at Columbia
Tom D'Antoni
Playlist
Poets' Basement
Orloski, Davies, Tirado, Gaffney and Ford
Website of the Weekend
Reagan Gone Wild
October 6, 2006
Alison Weir
Just
Another Mother Murdered
Tiffany Ten
Eyck / Mark Brenner
Made
in (DeUnionized) America
Corporate Crime Reporter
Look Who's Behind "37 Reasons" to Vote for Big Business:
Former Clinton PR Flak Mike McCurry
Juan Antonio
Montecino
Cleaving a False Divide in Latin America
Walden Bello
A Siamese Tragedy
Christopher
Brauchli
Rank Invitations: Dining with Bush
Brynne Keith-Jennings
Dan Burton in Nicaragua: the Congressman, His Stick and the Elections
Jonathan Cook
The Struggle for Palestine's Soul
Website of the Day
Fighting Hog Farms and Clearcuts in the Heartland
October 5, 2006
John Walsh
Turn
the Page
Carol Norris
The
Radical Right, the Myth of the Gay Child Abuser and You: a Psychotherapist
on the Hysteria Over Foley
Paul Craig Roberts
Will November Bring Hope or Another Stolen Election?
Ricardo Alarcón
The
Truth About the Embargo of Cuba
James Abourezk
Waterboarding the Constitution: After Torture, What's Next?
Nicola Nasser
Removing Hamas: Brinksmanship or Coup d'Etat?
Kirkpatrick Sale
Breaking Away: the First North American Secessionist Conference
Uri Avnery
Peace
with Syria: Lunch in Damascus
Website of the Day
More Naughty GOP Messages
October 4, 2006
Elizabeth Terzakis
The
Walls That Racism Built: Blood Revenge, the Death Penalty and
Kevin Cooper
Paul Wolf
The
Mushy Rebellion: Pakistan Under Musharraf
Sean Penn
The
Arrogant, the Misguided and the Cowards
Dave Lindorff
Outrage as Misdirection: The Real Scandal isn't Foley
Diane Farsetta
For Sale: Iraqi Kurdistan
Sharon Smith
Democrats:
Yes to War, No to Pedophilia
Felice Pace
Revoking 1776
Sara Roy
The Economy of Gaza
Website of
the Day
Alexander Cockburn: the Video Interview (Part Two)
October 3, 2006
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Compassionate
Conservative Pedophiles
Greg Moses
The Infallible Empire: Junking Habeas Corpus
Stan Cox
Real Bad ID: a National Driver's License and the Fading Right
of Anonymity
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
How Empires Die
Evelyn Pringle
Big Pharma Takes a Hit: Alaska's Supreme Court Outlaws Forced
Drugging
Fred Wilhelms
SoundExchange and Unpaid Music Artists: Help Us Find These Musicians
and Get Them Paid
Michael Abelman
Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food: the Risks of Convenience and
Consolidation
Gary Leupp
The Foley Follies
Website of the Day
Bush and Blair: Endless Love
October 2,
2006
Eric Hazan
Roadmap
to Nowhere: an Interview with Tanya Reinhart on Israel/Palestine
Since 2003
Mike Whitney
Bloodbath on 60 Minutes: Court
Stenographer Finally Comes Clean
Norman Solomon
American Narcissism and Iraq
Assaf Kfoury
Meeting Nasrallah
Missy Beattie
The Meaning of "ummmm": Speaker Hasert and the Over-Friendly
Congressman
Arthur Neslen
Lie Less in Gaza
Paula J. Caplan
How
the Supreme Court Mangled My Research
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November
20, 2006
Muslim Charities and the Trial of Dr.
Rafil A. Dhafir
Criminalizing
Compassion in the War on Terror
By KATHERINE HUGHES
"The first question which
the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this
man, what will happen to me?' But ... the good Samaritan reversed
the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen
to him?'
Martin Luther King, Jr.[1]
"The truth shall set you
free? Maybe. But first the Truth must be set free."
Wole Soyinka, Nigerian playwright,
educator.[2]
Since the events of 9/11 the government
has implemented powerful new prosecutorial tools to gain convictions
in its War on Terror. In an article entitled, "Terrorist
Financing," Jeff Breinholt, Deputy Chief of the Department
of Justice's Counterterrorism Section, explains these tools and
how they are being used to win convictions.[3]
On page thirty-one of the article
he lists the statutes being used in the criminal prosecution
of terrorist financing and among these statutes is the International
Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which Breinholt also labels
as "United States economic sanctions."[4] IEEPA provides
the President of the United States with authority to deal with
any "unusual and extraordinary threat" that has its
source in whole or substantial part outside the United States;
this includes threat to "national security, foreign policy,
and the economy."[5]
Prosecutors armed with the
statutes listed in Breinholt's paper are further empowered by
using them in conjunction with the "material support of
terrorism" laws, Executive Order 13224, and civil asset
forfeiture laws, particularly those under IEEPA, which were amended
by the PATRIOT Act. Under the IEEPA civil asset forfeiture provisions
the government can close down an organization and seize its assets
while an investigation is ongoing, without probable cause of
criminal activity and without any charges ever being brought
against anyone.[6]
E.O. 13224 was issued on September
23, 2001, and introduced a blacklist of organizations and individuals
suspected of terrorism, materially aiding terrorism, or associating
with terrorists. IEEPA and international law permit humanitarian
assistance for these suspects, including food, clothing and medicine,
but this humanitarian aid is outlawed under the E.O. 13224.[7]
The penalty, for an IEEPA violation, for organizations that knowingly
engage in terrorist financing already carries a sentence of twenty
years to life in prison. What this new provision does is "drastically
increase the penalties for knowing violations of non-terrorism-related
IEEPA offenses."[8] People with a concern for civil liberties
are troubled by the fact that the government provides no legal
definition of what they consider a "specially designated
terrorist" and by the broad manner in which the government
is interpreting the new rules.[9]
Muslim charities and individuals
connected with these charities are bearing the brunt of the effects
of this new law.[10] Since September 11, 2001, six major U.S.
Muslim charities and several smaller Muslim charities have been
shut down.[11] And working in close collaboration with the U.S.
government does not provide charities with protection from this
fate. In 2002 a new charity, KindHearts (KH), was established
after the U.S. government had closed the three largest Muslim
charities in the country in December 2001, accusing each of supporting
terror.[12] Despite working closely with government agencies
to ensure it complied with all the new rules, KH has suffered
the same consequences as the other charities. In February 2006,
KH's assets were seized and its operation frozen because of dubious
allegations of financing terror.[13]
In a March 2006 article in
The Washington Post, Laila al-Marayati and Basil Abdelkarim,
board members of Kinder USA, a Muslim-American nonprofit humanitarian
organization said,
"We are among those American
Muslims who decided that because it is our right as Americans
to fulfill our religious obligation to help the needy both here
and abroad, we would start a new charity. We did so in 2002
and have experienced our fair share of government harassment
as a result. None of us is interested in engaging in illegal
activity; it is immoral, unethical and un-Islamic, and it serves
no useful purpose whatever. Our crime is that we care about
what happens to the children of Palestine. Who knows what price
we will have to pay for our hot-breakfast program for hungry
kids in Gaza, for our playground project in the West Bank, for
our psychological trauma center in Hebron."[14] THE EFFECT
ON MUSLIM CHARITY
In a report titled, "Muslim
Charities and the War on Terror," OMB Watch,[15] documented
its concerns about the treatment of Muslim charities and the
people involved with the charities.[16] Among the many concerns
OMB voiced are use of questionable evidence to shut down the
largest U.S.-based charities that has resulted in much needed
humanitarian assistance not reaching people who desperately need
it, use of anti-terrorist financing policies that deny Muslim
charities the right of due process and are unequally enforced,
and holding of organizations and individuals associated with
humanitarian work "guilty until proven innocent."
They conclude that despite the new investigative powers the authorities
have failed to produce evidence of terror financing by U.S.-based
charities.[17]
In May 2005, David Cole, professor
of law at Georgetown University and legal counsel in several
"material support" cases, testified before the U.S.
Senate Committee on the Judiciary about the constitutional implications
of use of these statutes. Speaking about how the statutes impose
"guilt by association" and therefore violate the First
and Fifth Amendments, Cole said,
"The statutes described
above prohibit virtually all associational support to selected
political organizations, while granting executive branch officials
effectively unreviewable discretion to target disfavored groups.
These laws make it a crime to write an op-ed, provide legal advice,
volunteer one's time, or distribute a magazine of any 'designated'
group, even if there is no connection whatsoever between the
individual's support and any illegal activity of the proscribed
group.
"Under these statutes,
an American citizen who sends a treatise on nonviolence to the
Kurdistan Workers' Party to encourage it to forgo violence for
peace can be sent to prison for fifteen years. This is so even
if he proves that he intended the treatise to be used only for
peaceful ends, and that it was in fact used solely for that purpose.
Such a moral innocent can be said to be 'guilty by association."
[18] THE "HELP THE NEEDY" CASE
This is precisely the situation
in which Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir found himself. In direct response
to the humanitarian catastrophe created by brutal sanctions on
Iraq, Dhafir, a man of Iraqi descent and Muslim faith, and an
American citizen for almost thirty years, started the charity
Help the Needy (HTN). According to United Nations (UN) statistics,
every month throughout the 1990s almost 6,000 children under
the age of five in Iraq were dying from lack of food and access
to simple medicines.[19] Three senior UN officials resigned because
of what they considered a "genocidal" policy against
Iraq.[20]
When Madeleine Albright, then
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., was asked in a CBS interview if
the deaths of half a million children was a price worth paying
to punish Saddam Hussein, she infamously replied, "I think
this is a very hard choice, but the pricewe think the price
is worth it."[21] When the deaths of children over the
age of five and adults are added, the number killed as a direct
result of the sanctions rises to between 1.5 and 2 million dead
civilians.[22]
Dr. Dhafir is a pillar of the
Muslim community in Central New York. He was a founding member
of the local mosque, and he served as the imam at Syracuse University
until they hired a full time imam. He paid a substantial amount
of the running costs of the mosque and provided free medical
consultation to those at the mosque without health insurance.
His medical practice was in Rome, New York, an underserved area
in which he was the sole oncologist. In his practice he provided
free health care to people without insurance, and he paid for
their expensive chemotherapy medicine out of his own pocket.[23]
For thirteen years Dhafir worked
tirelessly to help publicize the plight of the Iraqi people and
to raise funds to help them.[24] According to the government,
Dhafir donated 1.25 million dollars of his own money over the
years.[25] As an oncologist, he was also concerned about the
effects of depleted uranium on the Iraqi population that experienced
skyrocketing cancer rates.[26] For the crime of breaking the
U.S. and U.K. sponsored UN sanctions on Iraq and sending humanitarian
aid to sick and starving civilians, Dhafir was held without bail
for thirty-one months and then sentenced to twenty-two years
in prison.[27]
Since the day of Dhafir's arrest,
February 26th, 2003, when eighty-five agents went to his home,
government officials at national and state levels have portrayed
Dhafir's humanitarian work as support of terrorism.[28] Simultaneous
to Dhafir's arrest, between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 a.m.,
others associated with HTN were arrested in Syracuse, New York;
Boise, Idaho; and Amman, Jordan. At the same time about 150,
mainly Muslim, families who had donated to HTN were interrogated
by government agents.[29] On the same day, Attorney General John
Ashcroft announced that supporters of terrorism" had been
apprehended, a completely unfounded assertion that was reiterated
by New York Governor George Pataki in August 2004, just prior
to the start of Dhafir's trial.[30]
At the same time, and throughout
the trial, local government officials, the prosecutors and District
Attorney, denied that the case had any connection to terrorism
and instead portrayed Dhafir as a common thief.[31] District
Attorney Glenn Suddaby said: "there's no evidence that any
of the Help the Needy money went to al-Qaida, the Iraqi government,
or to buy arms and bullets that could be used against U.S. soldiers."[32]
The inconsistencies in the
government's position have been a startling feature of this case
from its inception, and they suggest two possibilities: either
one hand of the government doesn't know what the other is doing
or the government is aiming deliberately to deceive. No media
outlet has challenged the government directly and demand that
it provide an explanation for its contradictory assertions, although
Michael Powell of the Washington Post drew attention to them
shortly before the trial began:
"There is a shadow-boxing
quality to the terror allegations lodged against Dhafir. In August,
Gov. George E. Pataki (R) described Dhafir's as a 'money laundering
case to help terrorist organizations . . . conduct horrible acts.'
Prosecutors hinted at national security reasons for holding Dhafir
without bail. But no evidence was offered to support the allegations."[33]
Despite Pataki's pre-trial
announcement, which was perfectly timed to reach potential jurors,
the prosecution successfully petitioned Judge Norman Mordue not
to allow the charge of terrorism to be part of the trial.[34]
Not surprisingly the specter of terrorism hung over the trial
throughout the proceedings, and prosecutors could hint at more
serious charges but the defense lawyers were never allowed to
follow this line of questioning.[35]
Dhafir's seventeen-week court
case was conducted as a sixty-count case of white-collar crime
with no charges of terrorism, and as a direct result of this
only the local Syracuse newspaper, the Post Standard, covered
the proceedings. The paper proved to be little more than a mouthpiece
for the government; on the rare occasion that it did provide
coverage of cross examination, it immediately followed with a
re-statement of the charges in the indictment.[36] During the
seventeen weeks of daily coverage of the proceedings the paper
failed to give more than a passing mention to an ecumenical group
that met every morning outside the federal building to worship
for half an hour before the trial commenced at 8.30 a.m., or
to the ACLU court watchers who were present in court every day.[37]
Concern has been expressed about reporters being embedded in
war zones; there should be equal concern about them being embedded
in federal buildings.
Of the sixty counts in the
indictment, most were related to breaking the sanctions: conspiracy,
mail and wire-fraud, money laundering, and tax evasions. These
charges are easily explained when viewed in the context of the
sanctions, but the government did everything it could to prevent
the condition of Iraq during the sanctions from being referred
to at the trial.
According to the government,
the investigation of HTN began with a Suspicious Activity Report
(SAR) from a bank. The government encourages financial institutions
to report "suspicious activity" by watching out for
money transfers between related accounts of related entities.
But many non-profit organizations that have nothing to do with
supporting terrorism make these kinds of transfers on a regular
basis.[38] Because of the SAR report seven government agencies
investigated Dhafir and HTN for five years. They intercepted
mail, email, and faxes; bugged his office and hotel rooms; and
conducted physical surveillance.
Because the government was
unwilling to prosecute Dhafir for sanctions-related charges alone,
the last twenty-five counts of the indictment are related to
Medicare fraud. The government evidence for this part of the
case was extremely weak. For example, a bar chart that supposedly
compared the dollar amount of Dhafir's billing of Medicare with
other doctors' billing was completely meaningless. It showed
Dhafir's bar as being very tall and the other doctors' bars being
much smaller, but when the witness was asked by the defense to
say what types of doctors the other doctors were, or what their
geographic location was, she could not answer.[39]
The whole of the Medicare case
revolved around a single rule called "incident to,"
meaning any treatment performed by someone other than the doctor.
The government claimed that Dhafir had filled out the forms
incorrectly, and was therefore entitled to no reimbursement from
Medicare, despite the fact that patients had received treatment
and chemotherapy drugs. The defense contended that even if Dhafir's
office had filled out the forms wrongly, which they did not believe
he had; Medicare had only overpaid 15% of $1102.80--the difference
between what they pay for a doctor's time as opposed to a nurse
practitioner's time--a total overpayment of $166.[40] This was
not fraud but merely incorrect billing. Medicare fraud usually
involves fictitious patients and made-up illnesses; Dhafir's
case had none of this.
The government presented the
Medicare evidence in the same way they presented the evidence
related to the sanctions. After weeks of testimony following
checks from bank to bank, they then turned to day after day of
testimony regarding Medicare forms, asking individuals from Dhafir's
office to validate their signatures on the forms, thus proving
that they had indeed signed the forms, but nothing else.[41]
The defense presented one witness for fifteen minutes, Dr. Edward
Cox, head of the carrier organization that processes claims for
Medicare.[42] Reading from the New York State Handbook Cox confirmed
the defense's contention that in order to bill Medicare under
the "incident to" rule, a non-physician was required
to have a license or training.[43] Thus, according to the handbook,
Dhafir's billing of Medicare was proper.
The Post Standard reported
this testimony correctly the day after it was given, but on the
following day the paper had a front-page correction with a picture
of the witness who was apparently contradicting his testimony
of the day before.[44] And despite the testimony of this witness,
the judge in his "charge to the jury" told them that
under New York law a laboratory technician required a license;
in other words, training alone was not sufficient.[45]
On the day of the sentencing
of Mrs. Dhafir, she was ordered to pay back $62,000 to Medicare.
Mrs. Dhafir worked in the billing department of her husband's
practice with several other people. Asked on the same day how
much of that money had actually been spent on chemotherapy medicine
that was administered to patients, Michael Olmstead, the head
prosecutor, was unable to say. When Dhafir was asked the same
question, he said that 90% of this money had been spent on medicine.[46]
This leaves 10% of the money for the doctor's time, the nurse's
time, and blood work. Dhafir also said that in 2002 Medicare
reimbursed him less than he had spent on medicine alone. A look
at the records would confirm or refute this, but Dr. Dhafir has
been continually denied access to his own records that were taken
from his house and office on the day of the arrest.
Jennifer Van Bergen, a journalist
with a law degree and author of The Twilight of Democracy[47]
has written a two-part article on Dhafir's case entitled "New
American Law: The Case of Dr. Dhafir" and "New American
Law: Legal Strategies and Precedents in the Dhafir Case."[48]
In this article and other writings Van Bergen warns about the
danger of civil liberties being undermined when the government
uses parallel legal tracks not intended to be mixed.[49] She
notes that, as happened in Dhafir's case, conspiracy laws and
money laundering laws used "creatively" with the PATRIOT
Act and IEEPA can be used to construct a vast distorted picture.
Dhafir's case sets a legal precedent and means that others who
provide humanitarian and medical assistance to those in need
could, like Dhafir, end up being put away for the rest of their
lives. THE GOVERNMENT STRATEGY REVEALED
In November 2005, just weeks
after Dhafir was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison for
white-collar crimes, the government presented a lecture to a
group of third-year law students at Syracuse University Law School
in which Dhafir and the HTN case were highlighted. Jeff Breinholt,
author of the article on terrorist financing mentioned above,
and Greg West, one of the Dhafir prosecutors, presented the lecture,
which was entitled, "A Law Enforcement Approach to Terrorist
Financing."[50] The other two Dhafir prosecutors, Michael
Olmstead and Steve Green were also present, along with law school
faculty and representatives from the Institute for National Security
and Counterterrorism (INSCT), a sponsor of the lecture.[51]
The slant of this lecture,
along with Breinholt's 2003 "Terrorist Financing" article,
and the fact that Dhafir and the other HTN defendants are listed
on the FBI's list of "terrorism convictions since September
11, 2001," give credence to the idea that the government's
creative use of parallel legal tracks was a strategy from the
outset.[52]
Breinholt told the students
at this lecture that Dhafir's case had been under-prosecuted.
In the context of the lecture title -- "A Law Enforcement
Approach to Terrorist Financing" -- the implication was
clear. He told students about the statutes being used as powerful
tools for prosecution of terrorist financing and explained that
these tools were not widely known even among prosecutors. And
he voiced a hope that law schools could serve as a kind of farm
system educating students in this new field of law and that this
in turn would create lawyers who would be familiar with and who
could use these new prosecution tools.[53]
He explained that because the
"American public won't tolerate anything less than the rule
of law," creative ways had to be figured out to draft laws
that can be used to prosecute what they are trying to prevent.[54]
According to Breinholt, this task was a |
