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New Special Double-Issue Print Edition of CounterPunch: Alexander Cockburn's India Journal: Travels with Sainath Fakers and fakirs of the Indian neoliberal disaster, from the Indian elites to Bill Gates to Bill Clinton to the New York Times; heroes and villains of the Indian press; 5,000 suicides in Andhra Pradesh and the rise and fall of Chandrababu Naidu, World Bank posterboy; what the British did to India, from Warren Hastings to the Falkland Road; what Indians did to architecture, from the Taj Mahal to the dawn of concrete; making weight in upland Kerala; why America needs south Indian cooking; homage to the great peasant rebellion of 1857; can India recover from "reform"? Get the answers you're looking for in the latest subscriber-only edition of CounterPunch... CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Show the New York Times You Don't Believe a Word of It: CounterPunch's New 14 Per Cent Club T-Shirts Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Now Available! Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY Click Here to Order the Hot New CounterPunch Book by 3-time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Kathy Kelly! Today's Stories June 16, 2005 Tom Barry Meet Bolton's Replacement: Robert "First Strike" Joseph June 15, 2005 Stan Goff An Open Letter to US Troops on Loyalty Daniel Wolff The Palace at 4 A.M. Tim Wise Discover the Nutwork: David Horowitz and the Politics of Ad Hominem Distortion Ricardo Alarcón The New CIA Revelations About Posada Joshua Frank House Republicans vs. Bush: "This is Not a Conservative War" John Hilary Bloodsuckers' Summit: Why the Left Should Rendezvous at the G8 Norman Solomon Iran's Reformers: a Threat to Theocrats and Neocons Alexander Cockburn / Jeffrey St. Clair Juries and Lynch Mobs Website of the Day What It Feels Like to be Tasered (Turn Up the Volume) June 14, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Enabling Evil: Bush's Willing Executioners Forrest Hylton Stalemate in Bolivia Richard Gott The Crisis in Bolivia Fred Gardner The Raich Decision: All Power to the Feds Steve Breyman Doing the Right Thing is Also Politically Expedient Dave Zirin Sacred Hoops: Basketball in the Barrio Robert Kent Outsourcing Torture and the Stop-Loss Program Paul Craig Roberts Enabling Evil: Bush's Willing Executioners June 13, 2005 Gary Leupp Another Damning Document Dave Lindorff The Inca and Us John Stauber Mad Cow USA: the Cover-Up Begins to Unravel Fred Gardner Supreme Indignity: Medical Pot Doctors Respond to Justice Stevens Evelyn J. Pringle TeenScreen: the Lawsuits Begin Norman Solomon Letter From Tehran Winslow T. Wheeler Neo-Con Unfurls the Big Picture     June 10 / 12, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Thomas Friedman's Imaginary World Sharon Smith Torturers and Liars: Masters of Deception Brian Cloughley "Support Our Torturers!" Chris Kromm Home Cookin': Pentagon's Base Relignment Plan Would Increase South's Share Heather Gray A Day in Mississippi: Some Things Have Changed; Some Remain the Same Kevin Zeese What the Left Must Learn from 2004: an Interview with Josh Frank Mickey Z. The Pentagon Papers, 34 Years Later Gary Leupp A Review of Sison's "At Home in the World" Eli Stephens The Asshole in El Paso: Why Posada Carriles Matters Nick Dearden A Scottish Band in the Occupied Territories Oscar Olivera Recovering Bolivia's Oil and Gas Robert Fisk Screening "Kingdom of Heaven" in Beirut Michael Dickinson Oh My God!: Gunning for Blasphemers Poets' Basement Engel, Albert, Louise, Ford Website of the Weekend Gravity's Rainbow, Illustrated June 9, 2005 Len Colodny Felt Was Asked Under Oath in 1975 If He Was "Deep Throat" Christopher Brauchli From Baseballs to Hand Grenades Ron Jacobs Light a Candle; Curse the Darkness Dave Lindorff US Media Shamed by Brit Journalist Katrina Yeaw / Alex Schmaus Repression 101: Anti-War Students Sanctioned at SFSU Alan Farago Spin Machine Busts a Gasket in the Everglades: Fed Judge Whacks Jeb Saul Landau The Charmed Life of a Mass Murderer   June 8, 2005 Jim Hougan Strange Bedfellows Deep Throat, Bob Woodward and the CIA Alan Maass Is Bolivia on the Edge of Revolution? an Interview with Tom Lewis Jason Leopold Enron Lives!: Former Army Sec. White Wants Govt. Money for New Energy Scam Niranjan Ramakrishnan Exit Right, Advani: Unpardonable Acts of Statesmanship Dave Zirin The Rotting Soul of the 49ers Derrick O'Keefe Bush's Terrorist: the Case of Posada Carriles Diana Johnstone Non, Neen, Angelene! Why Defenders of the "Oui" are Wrong Website of the Day The Meatrix   June 7, 2005 Forrest Hylton Bolivia's Agony of the Stalement Continues Greg Moses / Susan van Haitsma Pushing Back the Violence Lenni Brenner What Madison Would Think About the Air Force Academy's Offical Fanatics Col. Dan Smith Liberation vs. Survival in Iraq Joshua Frank Dean at the DNC: the Establishment vs. the Elites Dave Lindorff Fair-Weather Allies: US Denies French Fighters Emergency Landing Rights Margot Veranes / Adrian Navarro Xenophobia in the Desert: Racist Fever Becomes Law in Arizona Michael Neumann Sharing Music: Property Gone Wild   June 6, 2005 Stew Albert Everybody Must Get Busted: Supremes Rule Against the Sick Paul Craig Roberts Federal Bureau of Entrapment Nicole Colson Inside Walter Reed Hospital Ali Khan Friendly Renditions to Muslim Torture Chambers Jason Leopold When Will Rumsfeld Be Indicted? Charles Walker Poff Rumsfeld, China and Hypocrisy Ramzy Baroud My Grandpa's Right of Return Rep. John Conyers Did Bush Deliberately Deceive America About Iraq? Evelyn Pringle TeenScreen's Top Pusher Gary Corseri 25 Reasons to Impeach Bush Website of the Day Save This 200 Year Old Burr Oak from Bible Thumpers with Chainsaws   June 4 / 5, 2005 Alexander Cockburn France's Magnificent Non! James Petras The Centrality of Peasant Movements in Latin America Robert Fisk Who Killed Samir? Patrick Cockburn My Father, Claud Cockburn, the MI5 Suspect Rev. William Alberts When Pride in Power Corrupts: the Story of a Methodist President, His Bishops and an "Incompatible" Lesbian Minister Saul Landau 40 Interns and a Mule: Will the Dems Ever Take Advantage of the Republicans' Blunders? Mario Lamo Jimenez Dante with a Brush: Botero Immortalizes Bush Dave Lindorff What is the Media Running From? Lance Selfa Why Bush is Getting Away with Murder Tom Crumpacker On the Use of State Terrorism: the Posada Precedent Joshua Frank How Beltway Dems Sank Dean for America Fred Gardner Don't Bogart That Taxable Commodity Michael Dickinson Roll Out the Barrel: Blood, Oil and Baku Roger Martin We Can See, But Not Far Enough Reza Fiyouzat Welcome to the Third World Ben Tripp Romance: Advice from a Pro Graeme Greenback Pardon Me, While I Piss on this Bible Poets' Basement Smith-Ferri, Albert, Engel, Smith       June 3, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Welcome to a Has-Been Country Joseph Massad Witch Hunt at Columbia Jeff Halper The Process of Transfer Continues Tom Barry The Immigration Debate: Whose Side Are You On? Bruce K. Gagnon Bush Seeks Military Control of Space: "It's Our Destiny" Joshua Frank Bombing Iran: Facts Don't Matter Mickey Z. Deep Throat as Sideshow Gary Leupp "Peddling Lies About How They Were Mistreated" Website of the Day Tattoo on My Heart: Warriors of Wounded Knee, 1973     June 2, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts The Slave Traders of the Gitmo Gulag Forrest Hylton Bolivia: the Agony of Stalemate Mike Whitney Post-Mortem on the 4th Amendment: Warrants without Judges Brian Cloughley Anarchy in Afghanistan; Ignorance in America Mazin Qumsiyeh A Two-State Solution is No Solution Russell D. Hoffman High Tension at San Onofre Norman Madarasz "Le Jolie Mois de Mai": the Meaning of the French "Non" Norman Solomon War Made Easy: from Vietnam to Iraq David Price The Shallowness of Deep Throat Website of the Day Fallujah on Film     June 1, 2005 James Petras Beyond Hypocrisy: the Deeper Meaning of Posada Justin Delacour Framing Venezuela: US Media Bias Against Chavez Edward Jay Epstein Was "Deep Throat" a Fictoid? Omar Barghouti / Lisa Taraki The AUT Boycott: Freedom vs. "Academic" Freedom Dave Lindorff When War Goes Off the Script Kevin Zeese Reality Check: Who to Believe on Iraq War and Gitmo? Jason Leopold When Presidents Lie William S. Lind Wreck It and Run     May 31, 2005 Sen. Mike Gravel Thank You, Mark Felt: We Need a New Deep Throat David Krieger US Nuclear Hypocrisy Tad Daley The Nuclear Me-Too Club Joshua Frank Pelosi at AIPAC: Israel Comes First Richard Gott Chavez Leads the Way Norman Solomon Time to Get Serious About Impeachment Tom Segev Our Man in the Territories Walter Brasch Killing Americans with Secrecy Diana Johnstone The French "Non"     May 28 / 30, 2005 Alexander Cockburn There's Their Way or the Galloway Richard Lichtman We Wuz Framed! the Consolations of George Lakoff Sharon Smith The Road to Abu Ghraib Paul Craig Roberts Bush Opts for Civil War in Iraq Dave Lindorff Whigged Out: the Dems Have Become Merely a Vestigial Opposition Party Ramzy Baroud Muslims Were Desecrated, Not Just Their Holy Book Brian Cloughley Why Are Nukes OK for You, But Not for Us? Fred Gardner Advice from a Lawyer About Medical Pot Lee Sustar Chavez Gets Proactive Joshua Frank Isikoff Comes Clean: "Nobody in the US Said a Word, Until the Riots" Justin E.H. Smith What About the People? a Report from Romania Jackie Corr A Montana History Lesson on Assfulness Michael Kimaid Bush as Ahab Toufic Haddad Lessons from the Reversal of the AUC Boycott Justin Taylor The Fear of Paul Virilio Amir Butler Searching for a Saladin Ben Tripp Insomnia and Sarcasm Poets' Basement Albert, Engel, Davies and Louise   May 27, 2005 Gary Leupp It Really is a Crusade! Daniel Estulin Infiltrating Bilderberg 2005 Kevin Zeese Iraq Withdrawal Vote: If Walter "Freedom Fries" Jones Can See the Light, Why Can't Nancy Pelosi? Robert Fisk Mubarak's Goon Squads Dave Zirin Why Pat Tillman's Parents Are No Longer Silent Website of the Day Stuckists                                                   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.     Subscribe Online

June 16, 2005 The Real American Gulag Torture in U.S. Prisons: Common, Lethal, Unreported By ADRIAN LOMAX With American military personnel being sentenced to prison for abusing Iraqi prisoners of war and Amnesty International calling the military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay a "gulag," the world's attention is being drawn to this nation's treatment of the prisoners it takes on foreign battlefields. That's an encouraging development, but as someone who's spent more than his share of time in prisons right here in the U.S., I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. More than 2 million people languish in prisons and jails here, frequently enduring conditions of confinement that rise to the level of torture. Torture in American prisons takes many forms, but one ever-present manifestation is the denial of adequate medical care. In Wisconsin prisons, death by refusal of medical treatment in the case of asthma attack has become a frighteningly common spectacle in the past several years. In 2000, Michelle Greer, a 29-year-old inmate at Wisconsin's Taycheedah Correctional Institution (TCI), suffered severe asthma attacks. As a result, she had a regular appointment at the prison's Health Services Unit (HSU). Every morning at 8 a.m., Greer reported to the HSU to have prison nurses check her condition. At 6:30 a.m. on February 2, the inmates in Greer's housing unit were released from their cells for breakfast. During the meal, Greer approached a guard captain in the dining hall and reported that she was suffering an asthma attack. She said her inhaler was not functioning properly and she needed medical attention. At 7 a.m., the captain called the HSU and spoke to nurse Todd Graff, who instructed the captain to tell Greer to return to her cell, relax, use her inhaler and report for her regular appointment at 8 a.m. The captain relayed these instructions to Greer--who by that time was screaming, demanding that she required immediate medical attention. At 7:10 a.m., Greer left the dining hall and entered her housing unit. According to a guard sergeant on duty there, Greer was crying and screaming, saying she couldn't breathe and that she needed medical attention. But the guard also told Greer to calm down and return to her cell, which she did. At 7:25 a.m., the sergeant called the HSU and spoke to nurse Deborah Federer and told her that Greer said she was unable to breathe and appeared to be in bad shape. Federer told the sergeant that she would see Greer at 8 a.m. At 7:50 a.m., a guard released Greer from her cell so that she could report to the HSU. The prison dining hall is 325 feet from the housing unit where Greer lived, and the HSU is an additional 575 feet away. Greer entered the dining hall at 8 a.m., and inmate janitors were cleaning the area. Greer approached one of the janitors, stumbling and clutching at her chest. "Please help me," she said and then collapsed. She died there on the floor of the dining hall. On the outside, a person suffering an asthma attack can call an ambulance or go to an emergency room. In prison, however, an inmate suffering a medical emergency can only report their problem to a guard--and hope that prison employees react properly. It is particularly disturbing that, in Greer's case, it wasn't prison guards who neglected her needs, but the medical professionals who lethally ignored their duties. * * * More commonly, guards refuse to report inmates' emergency medical concerns to medical staff. David Urban was serving a 30-day sentence in the Winnebago County Jail in Oshkosh, Wis., in early 1995. At 1 p.m. on January 13, the 35-year-old Urban began complaining to guards that he felt ill and needed medical attention. The guards thought Urban was faking, and they refused to summon help. Urban died of a heart attack 20 hours later. Urban was able to use a dayroom telephone, and he called his girlfriend, Vanessa Miller, several times during that afternoon and evening. At 11:00 p.m., Urban told Miller that he felt like his chest was caving in. In another call, Urban was screaming, saying, "I feel like I'm dying. All they've done is take my blood pressure and pulse." Patty Strassen, a clerk at the jail, testified at the inquest proceeding that on his last afternoon alive, Urban was vomiting, grabbing his stomach and chest, and talking to himself, saying, "My God, I'm sick. Someone help me." No one was prosecuted for Urban's death, and there is nothing unusual in that. Wisconsin authorities routinely refuse to hold prison employees accountable in the deaths of inmates. In fact, Kristine Krenke, who was the TCI warden at the time of Michelle Greer's death, was promoted six months after Greer died. In 1990, guards at Wisconsin's maximum-security Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI) completely immobilized inmate Donald Woods by using several restraining belts to strap Woods' body to the steel-frame bed in his cell. In the process of this strap-down, a 250-pound guard knelt on Woods' chest while cinching a restraining belt. Restraining an inmate in that extreme fashion can lead to health problems, and Wisconsin law requires that a nurse check on immobilized inmates every 30 minutes. WCI nurse Beth Dittman was working the day guards strapped Donald Woods down, and she did check on Woods every half hour. Woods failed to respond every time she checked. Dittman did not give Woods any medical attention, summon a doctor or instruct the guards to release Woods from the strap down. Instead, she faithfully wrote "nonresponsive" in the logbook every time she checked him. And that was all she did. Donald Woods died of asphyxiation that day. The Wisconsin Medical Examiners Board suspended Dittman's license for 30 days for "conduct below the standards of the profession." But again, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections did not fire Dittman, but promoted her. After Woods' death, Dittman became the director of the HSU at Wisconsin's Dodge Correctional Institution. Beth Dittman is no less a criminal than Lynndie England, the Army private who earlier this year pled guilty to abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Yet because Dittman works in a prison inside the U.S. rather than in an American military prison in Iraq, her abuse of the human rights of inmates is treated in a manner strikingly different than the fate meted out to England. ADRIAN LOMAX spent 24 years in prison in Wisconsin until he was paroled last August. Behind bars, he became a jailhouse lawyer, prisoner-rights activist and prolific writer. His articles have appeared in the book The Celling of America: An Inside Look at the U.S. Prison Industry, the Isthmus newspaper of Madison, Wis., and other publications. Since his release, he has continued his involvement in the fight against the criminal injustice system. This essay originally appeared in the Socialist Worker.