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/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
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Today's
Stories
May
13, 2004
Forrest
Hylston
Law 'n Order in La Paz: All Quiet
on the Southern Front?
May
12, 2004
Blanton
/ Kornbluh
Prisoner Abuse: Cheney Warned in
1992
Virginia
Tilley
So, Who's to Blame?
Bruce
Jackson
James Inhofe, the Dumbest Senator
of Them All
Thomas
P. Healy
No Enemies: Making Peace with Bert Sacks
Linda
S. Heard
Racism and Ignorance: a Lethal Cocktail in Iraq
Norman
Solomon
Spinning Torturegate
Lisa
Viscidi
The People's Voice: Community Radio in Guatemala
Jack
Heyman
View from the Bay Bridge: Longshoremen Plan Mass Workers March
on DC
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Rummy's Reprieve
CounterPunch
Wire
Teamsters Corruption Scandal: Hoffa Exec. Assistant Alleged to
Have Quashed Investigation into Mob Influence
Christopher
Brauchli
Detention Camp, USA
William
S. Lind
Bush's Waterloo?
May 11, 2004
Mark
Engler
On the "Necessity" of Torture
Ray
McGovern
More Troops? A March of Folly
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Nukes and Jefferson's Grand Experiment
Mickey
Z.
Less Than Hero
Christopher
Reed
Torture on the Homefront: America's Long History of Prison Abuse
Dennis
Hans
When John Negroponte was Mullah Omar
Bruce
Jackson
Pete Seeger at 85
Mike
Whitney
Killing al Sadr
Simon
Helweg-Larsen
Shrinking the Guatemalan Military
William
A. Cook
The Unconscious Country: Righteous Indignation,
Nakedly Displayed
May
10, 2004
Robert
Fisk
From Hollywood to Abu Ghraib: Racism
and Torture as Entertainment
Wayne
Madsen
The Israeli Torture Template: Rape,
Feces and Urine-Soaked Cloth Sacks
Col.
Dan Smith
The Shame of Abu Ghraib
Joe
Bageant
John Ashcroft, Keep Your Mouth Off My Wife!
Ron
Jacobs
Rummy's Prisongate Blues: Don't Leave Mad; Just Leave
Ben
Tripp
Getting in Touch with Your Inner Savage
Ray
Hanania
Why They Hate Us: Racism, Bigotry and Abuse
Reza
Fiyouzat
"Mishandled" Invasions
Diane
Christian
Images & Abstractions &
Genitals
Website
of the Day
Crushing Iraqi Skulls with Tanks for Sport?
May
8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
May
7, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
10 Prisons; 9,000 Prisoners: US Detention
Facilities in Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
UnAmerican? I Wish It Were So
Robert
Fisk
An Illegal and Immoral War
Ahmad
Faruqui
The 50th Anniversary of Dien Bien
Phu
Alexander
Zaitchik
From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib: Doesn't It Ring a (Prison)
Bell?
Mike
Whitney
The Price of Victory
Norman
Solomon
This War, Racism and Media Denial
M.
Shahid Alam
A Comic Apology
May
6, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
They Did It for Jessica: Smeared with
Shit; Kicked to Death
Kathy
Kelly
May Day in Pekin Prison: Prison Labor
for the War Machine
Werther
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: War as Vegas
Casino Game
Lawrence
Ferlinghetti
Totalitarian Democracy
Robert
Fisk
"Smoke Him": Video Shows Wounded
Men Being Shot by US Helicopter
John
Janney
Torturing the Way to Freedom?
Christopher
Ketcham
Outlaw Heterosexual Marriage Now!
Alan
Farago
Dead Oceans: So Long, Thanks for the Fish
Sam
Hamod
Bush on Arab TV: Worthless and Demeaning
James
Brooks
Sullen Spring
William
S. Lind
On the Brink of Defeat in Iraq
May
5, 2004
Maj.
Gen. Antonio M. Taguba
Complete US Army Report on Abuse of
Iraqi Prisoners
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Kerry: a Lost Cause for Progressives?
Will
Youmans
Deal with the Devil: a Palestinian
Zionist and the End of the World
Patrick
B. Barr
Terrorists R Us: the Powerful are Exempt from the Label
Lawrence
Magnuson
Nightline's All-American Morgue
Greg
Moses
Pocketbook of Denuded Ideals
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Tormenting Prisoners, Torturing
Truth
Lee
Ballinger
Cinco de Mayo and Unity
Gilbert
Achcar
Bush's Cakewalk into the Iraq Quaqmire
Website
of the Day
Operation Phoenix & Iraq
May
4, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
A Timeline of Torture and Abuse Allegations
and Responses
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Privatized Torture
David
Peterson
CBS, Self-Censorship & Iraq
Barry
Lando
CACI's Private Torture Chambers
Patrick
Cockburn
Torture: Iraqis Disgusted, But Not Surprised
Dr.
Susan Block
Indecent Insurgents: Watch What You Say
Fidel
Castro
A Mindless, Unnecessary War
Mike
Whitney
Empire of Torture
Sonali
Kolhatkar
How to Stop the War: Demonstrate Against
John Kerry
Josh
Frank
The Lost Sierra Club
Stan
Goff
The Role: Another Open Letter to US Troops in Iraq
Agustin
Velloso
Spare Us Your Disgusting Ethics
Stew
Albert
American Know-How
Website
of the Day
Scenes from a Cover-Up
May
3, 2004
Virginia
Tilley
Let the Wall of Silence Fall
May
1 / 2, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
An Army in Disgrace, a Policy
in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat
Robert
Fisk
"Good Guys" Who Can Do No
Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders,
Useless Spies, Angry World
Heather
Williams
Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin
American Troops Flee Iraq
Diane
Rejman
An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq:
Abu Ghraib as My Lai?
Diane
Christian
Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and
Sharon Speak the Same Language
Patrick
Cockburn
Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked,
Shocked, Shocked
Chris
Floyd
Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists
and Annihilation
April
29 / 30, 2004
Dave
Zirin
A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome
Death of Pat Tillman
Kathy
Kelly
The Warden's Tour
Greg
Weiher
Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the
Banality of Evil
Michael
S. Ladah
Terrorism and Assassination: the
Ultimate Depception
Patrick
Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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May
13, 2004
Law n' Order
in La Paz
All Quiet on
the Southern Front?
By FORREST HYLTON
"The Beast and the Whore rule without
control."
William Blake (1798)
During the past year or so, I've tried
to describe the nature of the Beast in Bolivia, and in previous
articles I've mentioned its hunger for a credible "terrorist"
threat, which comes in the unlikely shape of a diminutive, fortyish
man with a reedy, nasal voice, named Francisco "Pacho"
Cortés. Pacho led peasant and human rights struggles on
the agrarian frontier in eastern Colombia for over twenty years
until fleeing paramilitary persecution in April 2003. Arrested
four days after arriving in Bolivia (where he had hoped to settle
his family), according to District Attorney René Arzabe,
Pacho Cortés is the leader of the Colombian ELN's southern
front, which has yet to appear either in action or words, but,
the theory has it, that is merely testament to expert police
work on the part of Bolivian authorities.
The absence of evidence, in
other words, does not suggest the evidence of absence. Piece
by piece, Bolivian poilice and intelligence operatives, undoubtedly
aided by their colleagues in the US Embassy, have revealed an
international terrorist conspiracy of daunting proportions: last
week, another twelve were added to a list that keeps getting
longer. Although it's unlikely that Arzabe reads the independent
press in English or Spanish, he most certainly looks over the
visitor's list at Chonchocoro Maximum Security Prison and San
Pedro Minimum Security Prison. Last Wednesday, May 5, he declared
to the Bolivian press that as members of the Colombian ELN, Pacho's
"foreign" visitors were part of the larger plot.
We knew who he was talking
about, René and I. He wasn't talking about a compañero
who teaches at L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris. He visited
Pacho a couple times with us last year. So did my professor at
NYU, but Arzabe wasn't talking about him, either. Nor was he
talking about a compañero, now retired from the UNAM,
who was a political prisoner for six years in Lecumberri, Mexico.
He came to Bolivia en route to his native Argentina, visited
Pacho at Chonchocoro, and wrote about it in a mass-circulation
daily when he got home to Mexico City.
So René must have been
talking about us. My compañera, who's Colombian. A compañero
who's Mexican. And me. (Plus the Colombian lawyers and human
rights activists who've visited.) René said they'd arrest
us if we tried to visit Pacho at San Pedro, which, as the authorities
know, is right next to our neighborhood, Sopocachi.
Why us? And why now? It appears
that through constant pressure---and, I imagine, threats---Arzabe
convinced the two coca growers and MAS activists arreststed with
Pacho to turn state's evidence on him.* They would get off, he
would get 30 years. No burden of proof for the DA's office; the
connection between MAS and "narcoterrorism" would be
established once and for all. A done deal, then, unless pesky
Lefty types who support Pacho---connected in varying degrees
to MAS Senator Filemón Escobar and the Spanish IU (United
Left) delegation within the European Parliament---get word of
it, call a press conference, and expose the DA for the mafioso
he is. Which, as Arzabe knows, is what we would normally do.
But not this time. We've been warned. Pacho will be isolated
from his supporters y punto. As anyone who's dealt with
mafiosos knows, it's always best to heed the threats,
even if they turn out to be idle.
In the current "world-historical"
conjuncture, this should not surprise. Preventive measures that
are violent, aggressive, and uncalled for are taken all the time,
and led by people like Rumsfeld, or Ariel Sharon; people who
know the drill. No distinction between combatants and civilians
in a climate of total planetary war. Human rights activists in
prisons? Might get in the way of guards---or District Attorneys---doing
their job. Without going into the issues of racism, torture,
and sadism in the US military, staying closer to home, in September
2003, speaking to the Colombian military, President Álvaro
Uribe said human rights activists were working "in service"
of terrorism. (Which may be what paramilitary killers thought
about the seventeen human rights activists they murdered in Colombia
in 2002.) Before former Bolivian president Gonzalo Sánchez
de Lozada fell in October 2003, he said that sympathizers of
indigenous and coca growers' movements were either "foreign
ingénues" used by the "narco-terrorists"
to generate funds, or "foreign terrorists"---Colombians,
Peruvians: either or both would do---arrived in Bolivia to overthrow
the government, destroy state institutions, and replace them
with a "narcosyndicalist dictatorship" under the leadership
of Evo Morales and MAS. ¿Se murió el Che? ¡Que
viva el Che! ¡Que viva!
Another irony is that MAS is
betting on the municipal elections in December 2004 and the presidency
in 2007. Influenced by developments in Brazil and Venezuela,
Evo Morales and his party believe in the parliamentary road to
socialism---or state administration---as much as anyone in Latin
America today. The people who led and sustained last October's
insurrection, relying on extra-parliamentary forms of struggle,
have no use for would-be armed vanguards, either. Perhaps that
explains the need to invent them or exagerrate their reach, since
they're easily crushed by state violence and lawlessness, whereas
Bolivia's social movements, now parliamentary, now insurrectionary,
are not. Thus two MAS activists and coca growers might well,
in accordance with the DA's theory, confess that, while they
were involved in the clandestine organization of armed peasant
struggle, which appears to have been infiltrated from day one,
Pacho was the mastermind. Pacho and the Peruvians (MRTA? Sendero?
Does it matter?). Now Arzabe has threatened to throw another
Colombian, a Mexican, and even a gringo into the mix, just for
good measure. International terrorism and so forth.
Since we plan to keep quiet
for now, I'm sure we'll be fine, but am less certain about Pacho
and the future of peasant and human rights activism in South
America, where, as many readers know, progressive resistance
to neoliberalism runs deeper than anywhere else in the world.
If the Beast can halt the forward momentum of movements for social
change here, in Bolivia and South America, the planet will become
that much darker. The stakes, so to speak, is high.
*The supposition is based on
discussions with prisoners in Chonchocoro Maximum Security Prison
and with the lawyers involved in the case. Though it may prove
to be to erroneous, in which case I will gladly apologize to
Pacho's compañeros for spreading unsubstantiated rumors,
evidence to support the assumption has increased rather than
diminished over time.
Forrest Hylton is conducting doctoral research in
history in Bolivia. He can be reached at forresthylton@hotmail.com.
Weekend
Edition Features for May 8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
|