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Today's
Stories
February 19,
2008
Uri Avnery
Blood
and Champagne
Paul Craig
Roberts
Paying
Insurgents Not to Fight
Gary Leupp
The Independence of Kosovo
David Macaray
Management's Dirty Little Secret
February 18,
2008
Wajahat Ali
Free
Pakistan: an Interview with Imran Khan
Diana Johnstone
NATO's
Kosovo Colony
Paul Craig Roberts
What Do We Stand For?
Andy Worthington
Gitmo: "We're Making This Up as We Go Along"
Debbie Nathan
Bernie Ward's Sex Tapes
Anthony DiMaggio
Following the Money Trail: the Democratic Party and the Business
of Elections
Bill Simpich
Ten Years Ago, People Power Stopped Clinton in Iraq
Eva Liddell
A Short History of Super-Delegates: Hope, Yes! But Pay in Cash
Christopher Brauchli
The President Who Couldn't Keep His Word: Short-Changing Veterans
Stephen Soldz
Wikileaks is Under Attack!
Johann Rossouw
The Ouster of Thabo Mbeki: South Africa and the Costs of Neoliberalism
Website of
the Day
Sick of It Day!
February 16
/ 17, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
The
Terrorists Still at Ground Zero, 7 World Trade Tower, Lower Manhattan
Ralph Nader
We
the Corporations ...
David Macaray
The Big Buy Out: Did GM Drive Another Nail in Labor's Coffin?
William J.
Peace
Wheelchair Dumping
Ron Jacobs
War on the Psyche: Shellshock and Redemption
Diane Christian
War Corrupts
Alan Maass
Oil, Blood and Greed: Taking Upton Sinclair to the Big Screen
(and Beyond)
Ramzy Baroud
Iraq and the US Elections
Michael Donnelly
Genitalia First! Old Guard Feminists Play the XX Card
Cpt. Paul Watson
The Art of Finding Whalers
James L. Secor
China Diary: Spring Festival and New Year 2008
Eve Bachrach
Bush Returns to Africa
Nikolas Kozloff
Hugo Chávez's Anti-Imperialist Army
Stephen Gowans
Steven Spielberg, Faux-Humanitarian
Missy Beattie
To Vote or Not to Vote?
David Michael
Green
Warming Slowly to Obama
Wajahat Ali
Attack of the Info-tainment Circus
Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Willson, Mickey Z., Orloski and Reuther
Website of the Day
Yellowstone's Bison Need Your Help--NOW!
February 15,
2008
George Szamuely
The
Absurdity of "Independent" Kosovo
Patrick Cockburn
Ground-Truthing the Surge: Is the US Really Bringing Stability
to Baghdad?
Wajahat Ali
Pakistan is Burning: an Interview with Steve Coll on the Taliban,
Bin Laden and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
Henry Paulsen's Wild Ride on the Economic Hindenberg
Alan Farago
God and the Democrats
Chris Genovali
Alberta's Black Gold Rush
Jacob Hornberger
Courting Injustice: Scalia on Torture
Dave Lindorff
Snoops Always Ring Twice: Bush's Protect America Bill Bull
Website of the Day
Live From the Land of Hopes and Dreams
February 14,
2008
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Palestine
in the Mind of America
Mike Whitney
Swan Song for NATO
Clancy Sigal
Strike Notes from a Screenwriter
George Wuerthner
A Bloody Sham: the Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
Peter Morici
Is Bernanke Headed for the Exit?
John Ross
Drug War Mayhem Boils Over from Border to Border
Allan Nairn
Mafia Rules in the Middle East: If You're Big Enough, You Can
Whack Anyone
Rannie Amiri
Lebanon's Warmongers
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The New Tractatus: Where Wittgenstein Meets Feinstein
Donna Volatile
Be Careful What You Vote For, You Just Might Get It
Seth Sandronsky
The Student Squeeze: Fighting California's Tuition Hikes
Website of
the Day
Conventions: the Land Around Us
February 13,
2008
Nikolas Kozloff
Meet
John McCain: Mr. Big Stick in Latin America
Alan Farago
Hell to Pay: Warren Buffett on the Goal Line
Christina Kasica
King's Dream Foreclosed: the Subprime Crisis in Black America
Vicente Navarro
How to Read the U.S. Primaries
Hall Greenland
Australia's Finest Hour
Lee Sustar
Strange Stimulation: Too Little for Those Who Need It Most
David Macaray
The Writers' Strike Finally Ends
Roderick Frazier
Nash
Celebrating Wilderness
Patrick Irelan
Hugo Chávez and High Anxiety at the NYT
Anthony Papa
Mean Mister Mukasey: AG Tries to Block Crack Cocaine Releases
Carl Finamore
Another Parade Passes Me By: Don't Let Your Movement be Coopted
by Politicians
Website of
the Day
John He Is
February 12,
2008
Frank J. Menetrez
The
Case Against Alan Dershowitz
Paul Craig
Roberts
War Without End
Dr. Trudy Bond
The Elephant at Gitmo: Camp 7 and the Torturer's Shrink
Andy Worthington
The Guantánamo Six: Why Charge Them Now? What About the
Torture?
Col. Dan Smith
The Psychology of Killing: Close In or Far Away?
Ronnie Cummins
Globalization: Standing at the End of the Road
Ralph Nader
Open the Government
John V. Walsh
Antiwarriors, Divided and Conquered
Dave Lindorff
Obama and Progressive Change: Let's Hope the Movement Transforms
the Candidate
Michael Donnelly
Who's Pimping Whom? The Clintons' Selective No Talk Rules
Ron Jacobs
La Lucha Continua: Castro's "Life"
Ben Tripp
Beggars Collide
Website of the Day
Springsteen and Youngstown
February 11,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Lessons
for Obama: When is a Delegate Not a Delegate?
Wajahat Ali
A Discussion with Walt and Mearsheimer on the Israel Lobby
Ray McGovern
Waterboarding for God and Country
Allan Nairn
The Shooting of Jose Ramos Horta
Uri Avnery
An End Foreseen?
Chris Floyd
American
Psycho: the Meaning of Mitt Romney's Exit Speech
Martha Rosenberg
School Lessons in a Lunchbox: Lunchmeat from Tortured Cows
Stephen Fleischman
The Bonnie and Clyde of American Politics
Marc Lamont Hill
Not My Brand of Hope
Liliana Segura
Obama and Torture: the Sounds of Silence and Equivocation
Peter Morici
Challenges for the New President
Christopher
Brauchli
A Drug Rant from a Former Taker
Website of the Day
Annie vs. the Blue Angels
February 8
/ 10, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Does
the GOP Have Aces Up Its Sleeves?
Patrick Cockburn
Will Moqtada al-Sadr's Truce Hold?
Mike Whitney
The Great Bust of '08
Anthony DiMaggio
How the Press Covers Waterboarding
Andy Worthington
The Guántanamo Trials: Where are the Terrorists?
Linn Cohen-Cole
Hillary, Will You Renounce Your Ties to Monsanto?
Firmin DeBrabander
Notes from the Foreclosure Front: Suing Your Way to Solvency
Cpt. Paul Watson
The Other Whaling Industry: How Greenpeace Cashes In on the Suffering
and Deaths of the Great Whales
Kenneth S. Pope
Why I Resigned from the American Psychological Association
Jacob G. Hornberger
American Soldiers Will Pay the Price for Bush's Torture Policy
Robert Bryce
Beyond Group Think on Climate Change: If More CO2 is Bad ...
Then What?
P. Sainath
The Last of the Buccaneer Editors
Allan Nairn
Give Me Back My Land
Fred Gardner
/
Pebbles Trippet
"The District Attorney of Shasta County Doesn't Know the
Law!"
Andrew Wimmer
Growing Up Catholic: Ignorance is Death
Robert Fantina
America's Disgrace: the Case of Omar Khadr
David Michael Green
Partycide in Six Easy Steps: Watch the Democrats Destroy Themselves
Kevin Zeese
Is Dennis Kucinich Being McKinney'd?
Peter Morici
Wall Street Gives Bernacke a Vote of No Confidence
Chris Driscoll
Could Nader be the Come-Back Kid of 2008?
Prairie Miller
Black August: Bringing George Jackson's Life to the Screen
Poets Basement
Davies and Buknatski
February 7,
2008
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Baghdad Will Explode Again
Bill Christison
Potholes Bigger Than Ever for Palestinians
David Anderson
NBC's "To Entrap" a Predator: Perverting Justice for
the Sake of Ratings
Ron Jacobs
Innocent Flesh: Recruiting Kids to Kill
Nikolas Kozloff
Hugo Chávez's Coca: It's the Real Thing
Jane Rockefeller
The Moral Economy of an Anti-Poverty Foundation
Andy Worthington
On Waterboarding: Two Questions for Michael Hayden
Dave Zirin
Instep Intifada
Saul Landau
The "Honestest" Candidate Since Lincoln
Susie Day
Our Blob in the White House
Website of the Day
George Carlin on Voting
February 6,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Super
Tuesday's Vote for Chaos
Ben Rosenfeld
Informant Games: The Disturbing GreenScare Case of Briana Waters
Vijay Prashad
An Intellectual Hustler Lays It All Out
Joe Bageant
Nine Billion Little Feet on the Highway of the Damned
Michael Donnelly
What White Women Do In Private Voting Booths
Allan Nairn
Does the US Need a Civilizing Mayan Invasion?
Kathryn Gray
Wilderness on Edge: The Fate of Donner Summit
Ray McGovern
Powell's UN Fiasco
Sheldon Richman
The Whining Empire
Paul Cantor
/ Roger Sparks
A
Presidential Aptitude Examination
John Chuckman
Political Bits and Pieces
Website of
the Day
Save the Albatross
February 5,
2008
Winslow T.
Wheeler
The
Chaos in America's Vast Security Budget
Tariq Ali
Why I Will Not Participate in the Turin Book Fair
Stephen Soldz
The Secret Rules of Engagement in Iraq: Did Rumsfeld Authorize
War Crimes?
Chris Floyd
Strange
Fruit: America's Gulag and the Good War
William S. Lind
Saddam's Secret War Strategy: Die and Win
Martha Rosenberg
Live From the Killing Floor
Heather Gray
Conversations with Georgia Voters
Ayesha Ijaz
Khan
Obama, Bhagwandas and the Battle for a Secular Politics
David Macaray
Unions Need to Stop Being So Nice
Eliza Ernshire
Making Music and Laughing Till the Tears Run
Brenda Norrell
Hated Nation
Website of
the Day
The Things I Used to Do
February 4,
2008
Marc Levy
Winter
in America
Patrick Cockburn
The Bird Market Bombings
Saree Makdisi
Strangling Gaza
Uri Avnery
From Stalingrad to Winograd
Alan Farago
Let's Get Bambi! Someone is Slaughtering Florida's Key Deer
Ben Tripp
Spare Change: the Whine of the Progressive Voter
Paul Wolf
Civil Wars North and South
Paul Craig
Roberts
Why Were the 9/11 Tapes Destroyed?
Joshua Frank
MoveOn's Obama Endorsement: Why There's No Hope for Change
John Halle
Whither Progressive Democrats?
Website of the Day
How to Cheat in School
February 2
/ 3, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Hot
Democratic Properties
Pam Martens
Bankers
Gone Bonkers: Global Finance and the Insanity Defense
Ralph Nader
The Great Clinton-Obama Debate: Questions They Weren't Asked
John Ross
Hilaria
vs. "El Moreno"
Wajahat Ali
Hillary, Obama and the Clash of Civilizations: an Interview with
Imam Zaid Shakir
Robert Fantina
A Colony by Any Other Name: Iraq as Stepchild of the American
Empire
B. R. Gowani
Not All Veils and Guns
James L. Secor
China in Winter: On the Western Edge of the Great Snow
John V. Walsh
The Invisible Green Primary
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Barack's Bubble, Bubba's Trouble
Dave Zirin
Who Stole the Super Bowl's Soul?
Jeremy Scahill
Blackwater and Blood
Fidel Castro
Reflections on Lula
Joe Allen
Tet Reconsidered: the Turning Point in the Vietnam War
Stephen Lendman
Life in Occupied Gaza
Patrick Irelan
What Happened to the Streetcars?
Andrej Grubacic
Ziga Vodovnik
Caligula's Horse: the USA, New Europe and Kosovo
Josh Karpoff
Dead Soldiers and the Antiwar Movement
Ron Jacobs
Carl Oglesby's War
Paul Krassner
Tom Waits Meets Super-Joel
Website of the Weekend
Company Woman: Hillary and Wal-Mart
February 1,
2008
Ray McGovern
The
Iniquities and Inequalities of War
Diane Farsetta
The Wild Career of James "Dow 36,000" Glassman
Patrick Cockburn
The
Most Dangerous Country in the World for Journalists
Tariq Ali
Et
Tu, New York Times?
Allan Nairn
Eating Dirt for Lunch in Haiti
Rannie Amiri
Collective Punishment in Beirut
Ramzy Baroud
People Power in Gaza: They Simply Did It
Kenneth Couesbouc
The Mother of All Snowballs
Peter Morici
Recession Looms
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Witha "Brutha" Like This: Bill Clinton as White Negro
Rosemary Jackowski
27 Reasons Nader Should Run for President
Scott Campbell
Direct Action to Stop the War Re-emerges
Website of the Day
Betes et Hommes
January 31,
2008
Saul Landau
Return
to Afghanistan
Andy Worthington
Horror at Guantánamo
Mike Whitney
Rate Cut as Dagger: America's Teetering Banking System
Jeff Ballinger
Sustainability for Dictators Initiative? Clinton Praises the
"Suharto of the Steppe"
Tiffany Ten
Eyck
The Saga of the Freightliner Five
William Loren
Katz
Waterboarding:
Torure or Mystery?
Alan Farago
Why the Republicans are in Deep Trouble
Col. Dan Smith
Oh Say Can You See the 2009 Budget?
China Hand
Slouching Toward Islamabad
Dave Lindorff
The Usual Suspects Once Again
Wadner Pierre
Fake Democracy in Haiti
Website of the Day
One Big Union
January 30,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
McCain
vs. Clinton?
Christopher
Ketcham
The Genius of the Development Industrial-Complex
Robert Weissman
America By the Numbers: The Shameful State of the Union
Neve Gordon
An Experiment in Famine
Paul Craig Roberts
Regulation or Deregulation, Which is Worse?
Joanne Mariner
How Anti-Terror Laws Threaten Free Speech
David Macaray
Labor's Only Real Weapon
Liaquat Ali
Khan
Is NATO Committing Genocide in Afghanistan?
Raymond J. Lawrence
Prankster-in-Chief: Bush's Troubling Non-Verbal Communication
Dan Bacher
The Collapse of the Central Valley Salmon
Website of the Day
Onward Through the Fog
January 29,
2008
Franklin C.
Spinney
Bush's
New War Budget: the $70 Billion Hand-Off
Mike Whitney
The Great Credit Unwind of 2008
Alan Farago
Buyer Beware: Florida, the Candidates and the Latin Builders
Association
Patrick Cockburn
"The Americans Bring Us Only Destruction"
Gary Leupp
"We Can't Afford to Let Them Spill the Beans:" a Sibel
Edmonds Timeline
R. F. Blader
A
World Without Abortion: USA v. Romania
Ahmad Faruqui
Musharraf's Post-Electoral Prospect
Fran Shor
Obama, the Kennedys and "Change We Can Believe In"
Jeremy Scahill
Secret Trials and Criminal Convictions: the Ordeal of the Blackwater
Protesters
Allan Nairn
Bush's
SOTU: Entitlement, Justice and the War of All Against All
Website of the Day
The Ghost of Rambo
January 28,
2008
Patrick Cockburn
Return
to Fallujah
Paul Craig
Roberts
The End of American Liberty
Allan Nairn
The Breaking of the Gaza Wall
Eyad al-Sarraj
/ Sara Roy
Ending the Stranglehold on Gaza
Martha Rosenberg
Obit for the "Front Page" City
Corporate Crime
Reporter
How They Rip Us Off
David Michael Green
Kristolizing Iraq: What a Great Freakin' War
Jennifer Van
Bergen
What's Left?
Nancy Oden
Survival Tips for Hard Times
Divya Karnad
Saving India's Sea Turtles
James L. Secor
Pissed About Pistorious: Why the Olympics Needs a Gimp
Website of
the Day
Yellow Journalism?
January 26
/ 27, 2008
Uri Avnery
Worse
Than a Crime
JoAnn Wypijewski
How the Clintons Lost It, Whatever the Outcome in S. Carolina
Ralph Nader
Ambition, Power and the Clintons
Paul Craig
Roberts
How Bush Destroyed the Dollar
Paul Watson
I'm Proud to be a Pirate!
John Ross
Murder and Cover-Up in Mexico
Fred Gardner
Ross v. Raging Wire: Employer's Right to Fire Workers Held Sacred
by California Supreme Court
Allan Nairn
Little Hands with Fever: Some Consequences of Poverty Death
Joshua Frank
Why Bush Wants to Legalize the Nuke Trade with Turkey
Binoy Kampmark
Société Générale and the Economic
Meltdown
James T. Phillips
America's Sick Comedy: Bringing the War Home
Stan Cox
The Depressing Truth About Anti-Depressants
Eamonn McCann
Hillary's Lie: "I Brought Peace to Northern Ireland"
Ron Jacobs
The Horizons of History: What's at Stake in Bolivia
Seth Sandronsky
California's Health Care Crisis
Ben Terrall
The Future is Unwritten
Poets' Basement
Tripp, Gardner, Gibbons and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
City of Immigrants
January 25,
2008
Douglas Valentine
Operation
Two-Fold: How the CIA Infiltrated the DEA
Patrick Cockburn
US Troops Will Be In Iraq for 10 More Years: an Interview with
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari
JoAnn Wypijewski
Down to the Wire in South Carolina
Heather Gray
Are We Seeing a Racial Shift in the South? Conversations with
South Carolina Voters
Marjorie Cohn
Senate Democrats Poised to Fold to Cheney on FISA
Erica Rosenberg
Environmentalists Out on a Limb: the Perils of Collaboration
Alan Farago
Jeb Bush Goes Nuclear
Robert Weissman
Reclaiming Economic Freedom
Laura Carlsen
Wild Cards: Mining the Hispanic Vote in Nevada
Stephen Lendman
Israeli Repression in the Hebron
Website of the Day
The FIX is In
January 24,
2008
JoAnn Wypijewski
Obama
as Anthologist of Uplift
Paul Craig
Roberts
President Hillary
Alexander Cockburn
Hillary Wants to Talk About Dirty Legal Dealings? Remember Her
Nursing Home Scam?
Kathleen Christison
One and Two State Solutions and the Myth of International Consensus
Jeff Halper
Power to the (Palestinian) People!
Stanley Heller
The Siege of Gaza is Broken
George Wuerthner
The Moronic Sport: ORVs on the Public Lands
Patrick Cockburn
Desperate Iraqi Farmers Turn to Opium
Jeff Sher
Just How "Good" is Your Health Insurance?
Patrick Irelan
Musharraf, the Steadfast Ally?
Charles Modiano
Restoring the Anti-War King
Website of
the Day
An Illustrated History of Trepanation
January 23,
2008
David Rosen
The
Great Disappearing Act: the Presidential Candidates and the Politics
of Sex
David Isenberg
Is
It Really So Hard to Believe That Iran Stopped Its Nuclear Weapons
Program?
Farzana Versey
Hillary's
Harem
Paul Craig
Roberts
The Empire That Must Be Obeyed
Alan Farago
Where Did All the Good Times Go?
Allan Nairn
Indonesian Intelligence Service Threatens to Kill Human Rights
Activist
Kenneth Couesbouc
Another Turn of the Screw
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
How the West was Re-Sold
Michael Donnelly
Obama Strikes Back
Norman Solomon
The Power of Love
Website of the Day
Rafah Today
January 22,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Farewell
to Old Economic Nostrums
JoAnn Wypijewski
King Day in Columbia, South Carolina
Al Giordano
Divide and Conquer Politics: How the Clinton Campaign Armed a
Black-Latino Time Bomb in Nevada
Felice Pace
Power Politics in the Klamath: Water, Dams and Salmon
Paul Wolf
Bolívar's Sword
Robert Weissman
Deregulation and the Financial Crisis
Dave Lindorff
The Bush Dollar Trap
Marjorie Cohn
Cheney Impeachment Gains Traction
Richard Neville
Keeping Shakespeare in a Box
Don Fitz /
Zaki Baruti
St. Louis Mayor Booed Off MLK Platform
Ben Terrall
Cindy Sheehan and the Virtues of Divisiveness
Sam Husseini
Stoning Martin Luther King, Jr.
Website of
the Day
Defend the Mapuche!
January 21,
2008
Kevin Alexander
Gray
Playing
the Race Card
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Deferring Dreams, Delusions of Democracy
Pam Martens
How Wall Street Blew Itself Up
David Macaray
Labor's Grim Dilemma: Do We Need a Labor Party?
Uri Avnery
Look Who's Talking
Omar Barghouti
Europe's Collusion in Israel's Slow Genocide
Joe DeRaymond
Protest and Trial in D.C.
B.R. Gowani
Why Islam Should Tolerate Images
Shepherd Bliss
The False U.S. Economy
Jean-Guy Allard
Philip Agee Versus the CIA
Dan Bacher
Leaping Steelhead!
Website of
the Day
Destroyed
By a Rising Flood
January 19
/ 20, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
The
Campaign in Black and White
Saul Landau
Good Time Charlie's War
China Hand
Endgame for Pakistan?
Conn Hallinan
Desert Mirage: What Was the Bombing of Syria Really About?
Ron Jacobs
No Retreat
Dave Lindorff
A Tax Rebate Won't Fix This Mess
Andy Worthington
Canada's Humiliating Double Standard on Torture
Paul Armentano
What's the Going Price for a Joint? More Than You Might Think
Seth Sandronsky
High Crimes and Economics
Michael Donnelly
Dodging Ecocide
Patrick Irelan
The Ordeal of Dr. Safdar Sarki
Martha Rosenberg
The Drug Industry Takes Another Hit
Sherwood Ross
Making the World Safe for Despots: Bush's Global Arms Trade
David Michael
Green
So You Want to be My President, Eh?
James Rothenberg
Unimpeachable: Under House Protection
Daniel Gross
Starbucks Shortchanges Dr. King
Peter N. Carroll
In Memory of Milton Wolff
Susie Day
Croakin' on Hudson
Paul Krassner
Woody Allen Meets Tongue Fu
Poets' Basement
Wolff, Buknatski and Orloski
Website of the Day
Rocky Mountain
Blues
January 18,
2008
Allan Nairn
Killing
Civilians, Carefully
Ralph Nader
When
the Big Boys Get in Trouble, Who Pays the Ultimate Bill?
Joanne Mariner
Terrorism and Preventative Detention
Alan Farago
The Stimulus and the Meltdown
P. Sainath
Pity the Brahmins
R.F. Blader
Beyond Steinem's Feminism
Andy Worthington
A Letter from Guantánamo
John Jonik
Private Insurance is Bad for Your Health
Brian McKenna
Where Even Sharing is Prohibited: Notes from Inside a Michigan
Women's Prison
Daoud Kuttab
This Time Next Year?
Website of the Day
Those South Carolina Voting Machines
January 17,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Leader
and Vassal
Christopher
Brauchli
The FBI's Bills Come Due
Robert Fantina
Leadership, Bush and the New York Times
Patrick Irelan
Eternal War
Paul A. Moore
When the Rich Pay No Taxes
Stephen Lendman
Institutionalized Spying on Americans
Beena Sarwar
Bhutto and the "State Within a State"
Walter Brasch
Buzzwords in the Echo Chamber: Change and the Establishment
Brenda Norrell
Bush Legacy in Texas Sours
Adam Federman
End of the Left?
Website of the Day
Democrats for Romney
January 16,
2008
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Return
of the Native
Franklin Lamb
The Bombing at Qarantina
Julian Sanchez
David Weigel
Who Wrote Ron Paul's Newsletters?
Sharon Smith
Ron Paul and the Left: a Slippery Slope?
Allan Nairn
Economic Indicator: No Free Lunch, No Free Market
Ayesha Ijaz
Khan
How the American Media Enables Bush's Iran Fixation
Andy Worthington
A Strategic Call to Close Guantánamo
Richard Behan
Nancy Pelosi, You Must Impeach!
Website of the Day
Obama the New JFK? He's Not That Bad!
January 15,
2008
Andrea Peacock
Breach
of Trust in America's Most Toxic Town: How the EPA is Rubbing
Poison Into Libby's Wounds
Wajahat Ali
An Interview with Seymour Hersh on Iraq, Bush Foreign Policy
and the Prospects of War with Iran
Joe Bageant
Getting Out the Bling Vote
Ralph Nader
The Candidate Taboos
John Ross
Zero Hour: NAFTA and Mexico's Agrarian Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
Jose Padilla vs. John Yoo: Can a National Disgrace be Rectified?
Peter Morici
The Fed Needs More Than a New Communications Strategy
Beena Sarwar
Pakistan's Dirty Tricks Brigade
Robert Weissman
Big Business is Even More Unpopular Than You Thought
Binoy Kampmark
Going Tata in India
Dave Zirin
Dennis Brutus Smacks Down the Hall of Fame
Website of
the Day
David Lynch on the iPhone
January 14,
2008
Ishmael Reed
Ma
and Pa Clinton Flog Uppity Black Man
Roger Morris
Burials in the Sind
Uri Avnery
The
Hands of Esau
Mike Whitney
Bush's Voodoo Stimulus Package
Allan Nairn
General Suharto of Indonesia: One Small Man Leaves a Million
Corpses
William Blum
Oh, By the Way, the Iraqis Don't Really Want Us
Alan Farago
A Subprime Wake Up Call
David Macaray
Are Labor Unions Ready for Prime Time?
Eva Liddell
Getting Drunk with Obama
Zoe Blunt
Road Kill: New Highway Blocked by Protesting Raccoons
Website of the Day
Doug and Andrea Peacock on Grizzlies
January 12
/ 13, 2008
Andrew Cockburn
How
the New England Journal of Medicine Undercounted Iraqi Civilian
Deaths
Saul Landau
60
Years of Empire
Corey D. B. Walker
Barack Obama and the Crisis of the White Intellectual
Col. Dan Smith
Bush, Iran and the Magician of the Tarot
Eric Toussaint
The US Subprime Crisis Goes Global
Ron Jacobs
Television, Murder and Vietnam
Fred Gardner
The People vs. Christopher James Chakos
Stan Cox
Don't Take That Pill!
Jacob G. Hornberger
The Warfare State
Ramzy Baroud
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Joseph Grosso
The Anglosphere: a Special Relationship of Elites
David Díaz-Arias
Imagining An/Other Latin American Left
Stacey Warde
Before We Move On ...
Dan Bacher
Pumped to Extinction: the Decline of the Delta Smelt
Michael Dickinson
Georgie in Jesusland
Website of
Weekend
CounterPunchers Protest Outside NYT Offices
January 11,
2008
Dave Lindorff
Did
Hillary Really Win New Hampshire? More Questions About Diebold
Voting Machines
Paul Craig
Roberts
No
Escape from War and Unemployment
Andy Worthington
Six Years of Guantánamo
Kenneth Couesbouc
Banking on Thin Ice
Jeff Ballinger
Inside the Vienna Consensus
Christopher
Brauchli
Lethal Injection, the Supremes and China
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Paying No Attention to the Presidential Campaigns
Andrew Silverstein
Bush's Weepy Visit to Jerasulem
Marwan Bishara
Bush in the Middle East
Robert Weissman
The First Amendment Gone Wild
Patrick Irelan
Damn the Small Boats!
Website of
the Day
Hillary and the Superdelegates: Or Why She Wins Even When She
Loses
January 10,
2008
Alexander Cockburn
Now
Nader Claims He Didn't Endorse Edwards
Bob Wing
Marqueece Harris-Dawson
Race Within the Race: Obama, the NH Vote and the Specter of Tom
Bradley
Michael Donnelly
White Women Gone Wild?
David Macaray
Three Big Reasons for the Decline of Labor Unions
China Hand
Bush's Delusional Policy Pushes Pakistan to Brink of Catastrophe
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan: Brotherly, Friendly Countries?
Rannie Amiri
Obama, Man of Kansas or Kenya?
Website of the Day
Iranian Video of the Hormuz Incident
January 9,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
The
Empire Strikes Back
Dave Lindorff
The Bad News from New Hampshire: Death By Triangulation
John Chuckman
Pardon My Laughter: Watching the US Primaries from Canada
James Bovard
Stomping Freedom: Inside the Martial Law Act of 2006
Alan Farago
As Florida Sinks: the View from the Titanic
Russell Mokhiber
Why Picket the New York Times in DC on Friday?
William S. Lind
Kicking the Can Down the Road in Iraq
Peter Morici
Beyond the Sophistry: Why the Trade Deficit Matters
Josh Reubner
Sudan vs. Israel: Double Standard on Divestment
Mike Roselle
The Pursuit of Happiness
Website of the Day
Bottles of Tears on the Wall: Steve Perry on NH
|
February
19, 2008
Land of the Long
White Lie
The
New Zealand Terror Raids
By VALERIE MORSE
On October 15 2007, the New Zealand
police carried out unprecedented nation-wide raids arresting
17 indigenous rights activists and anarchists and raiding some
60 different locations. The arrests were based on surveillance
and interception warrants obtained under the Terrorism Suppression
Act. This was the first time that the police used this Act, a
law passed immediately after 9/11 and a direct result of it.
The raids were staged on a
Monday morning starting at approximately 5am. At 5:45 am, the
Police knocked on my door. Then they nearly broke it down. When
I opened it, 15 officers swarmed in, waving an 80-page search
warrant in my face. When I said, 'this isn't signed,' the detective
responded 'here, here's the signed copy.' Then they ransacked
my room, pulling my plants out of their containers, removing
the back of my refrigerator and collecting a raft of documents,
photographs, electronic gear and clothing. Finally, they arrested
me and told me that I was going to be charged with participating
in a terrorist group.
The raids came as a huge shock
to me, to most of the country and to the world that follow such
events. New Zealand, also known as Aotearoa-the 'land of the
long white cloud' in the indigenous language of the M_ori people-has
a reputation for amicable race relations, a progressive government
and an enviable settlement process for indigenous claims against
breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, the founding treaty between
Maori and the British Crown, signed in 1840 by some 500 chiefs.
What is actually happening
in Aotearoa beneath the government's clever 'clean, green, 100
per cent pure' marketing campaign is not at all what they would
lead you to believe.
On day one of the raids, there
was a media frenzy as the police carefully leaked tantalizing
nuggets of evidence including reports of napalm bombs, assassination
plots against Prime Minister Helen Clark and President George
W Bush, and an 'IRA-style war plan.' The 17 arrestees were brought
before District Court judges in four different cities to respond
to the charges. One was dealt with immediately by the courts
and dismissed, the remaining 16 all went to prison that night,
remanded in custody as bail was vigorously opposed by the Crown
prosecution.
We were deemed a threat to
'national security.' In the cloud of terrorism hysteria and secret
evidence, our lawyers would not even attempt an application for
bail.
The New Zealand Government
has signed up for all of Bush's post-9/11 terrorism requirements.
At the same time, it imported the US Government's brutal tactics
of repression, surveillance technologies and police hyper-paranoia
about political activity, particularly when it comes from indigenous
activists who dare to speak of aspirations of sovereignty.
Of the 17 arrested on 15 October,
12 were Maori, many from the Tuhoe iwi (tribe). Tuhoe is known
for its long history of resistance to colonization. They never
signed the Treaty of Waitangi. There is a story that the Crown
agent was advised that he would be eaten if he attempted to come
into Tuhoe land in order to get the Treaty signed. Today, Tuhoe
have the one of the highest ratios of native speakers of the
Maori language (called 'te reo') among tribal groups and have
a strong cultural identity that is intimately linked to the land
in an area that they call 'Te Urewera,' land of the mist. There
are about 20,000 people who claim Tuhoe ancestry, many of whom
are still living in relatively isolated communities within Te
Urewera.
The raids and arrests were
the culmination of an $8 million dollar, two-year long operation
dubbed 'Operation Eight'. On the day of the raids, some 300 police
were involved. Most had little knowledge of the investigation
or the suspects; none it seems had any knowledge of the history
of the Crown's scorched earth policy, murder, and land theft
which prompted fierce resistance by Tuhoe more than 100 years
ago.
The forces of the state have
a convenient way of forgetting things that don't suit the current
narrative. Such was the case on October 15. In a spectacular
display of force, armed, balaclava-clad police known as the 'armed
offenders squad' quite literally invaded the small Tuhoe town
of Ruatoki and blockaded the entire community. On an elaborate
quest for terrorists and evidence, they stopped all vehicles
coming in or out of the community and photographed the drivers
and occupants. In the process of conducting house raids, they
severely traumatized many people, including locking a woman and
five children in a shed for six hours while the man of the family
was questioned, taking a woman's underwear as evidence, and boarding
a local school bus.
In one South Auckland raid,
the police held an entire family, including a 12 year old girl,
on their knees with hands behind their heads for some 5 hours,
asking the young woman if she was a terrorist. This was the pattern
for raids in the Maori communities.
For the non-indigenous arrestees
(referred to herein as 'pakeha' a word that means white New Zealander),
the situation was starkly different. In my case, I was not even
handcuffed as I was walked to the car. No white neighborhoods
were blockaded, nor were white bystanders stopped and photographed
as they went about their daily business that cool Monday morning
in October. It was only Maori.
The institutional racism of
the police and justice system came as no surprise to Maori people
and particularly to Tuhoe who have been subject to its arbitrary
acts for some 160 years. For pakeha throughout the country, it
was a wake-up call. Unfortunately, it was less a wake-up call
about racism than it was about the growing power of the state
against political dissidents. I say it was unfortunate because
it is clear from the nearly 10,000 pages of evidence I have now
seen, that it is Maori sovereignty that they fear. It is the
political force of unified indigeneity that scares the ruling
class of New Zealand.
For Maori in Aotearoa New Zealand,
the 'war on terrorism' and these raids are part of a long history
of colonization in Aotearoa New Zealand, and they have not been
forgotten.
In the 1860s, the Suppression
of Rebellion Act was passed with strikingly similar language
to the Terrorism Suppression Act of 2002. This earlier Act was
used by the fledgling New Zealand State to launch a series of
vicious attacks on Maori communities in order to appropriate
their land for settlement. People and whole tribes were defined
as 'in rebellion' in order that the State could then exercise
a range of repressive and exploitative measures against them.
I was arrested, I believe,
to provide a cloak for the racist nature of the operation.
By arresting some pakeha activists,
the government could deflect criticism that this was an operation
against Maori. I was also arrested because I am associates with
the Maori accused in the case, and because as an anarchist I
have caused enough problems and embarrassments for the state
that they would like to put me out of their misery. In June of
last year, I published a book detailing the New Zealand government's
involvement in the 'war on terrorism.' In it, I suggested that
both dissidents and Maori were targets of the war, along with
refugees and migrants. It was not without a sense of bizarre
irony and a certain grim satisfaction that I sat in my prison
cell and congratulated myself on being right.
Needless to say, in a country
of 4 million people, there are not six degrees of separation,
but usually only one or two. There most certainly is a connection
between anarchists, environmentalists, anti-war and indigenous
rights activists: most of them know each other and work together
regularly. One would have to exist in a state of utter delusion
not to make the connections between these issues, particularly
in New Zealand where the effects of the self-imposed neo-liberal
structural adjustment of the 1980s is being felt more acutely
everyday.
The New Zealand Parliament
is Westminster-style with mixed-member proportional representation.
At present, the governing Labor party maintains power through
a delicate balance of negotiated agreements, some formal, some
informal, with other smaller parties that give support on vital
confidence and supply votes.
As with the British Labor Party,
the New Zealand Labor party long ago shed any resemblance to
a working-class based party and has wholeheartedly embraced neo-liberal
economics. This has had major implications for Maori who in the
main reject its ubiquitous commodification, particularly with
regard to flora, fauna, land and intellectual property. Nevertheless,
up until very recently Maori had continued to support Labor generally,
and all of the Maori electorate seats in Parliament were held
by the Labour Party.
In 2004, the Government passed
the Foreshore and Seabed Act, which had the effect of extinguishing
Maori rights to claim customary ownership of the land between
the high tide and low tide marks, and to the seabed. In contravention
of international law and despite condemnation by the UN, the
Government pressed ahead with the law, with near unanimous support
in parliament. The following year the Treasury began to include
a line-item in the annual financial accounts for these newly
acquired Crown assets. This grotesque confiscation was considered
a declaration of war by some Maori. It ruptured the Labor Party
and brought about the formation of the Maori Party. This now
presents a significant threat to Labor's hold on the Maori vote,
and more importantly, to their hold on power.
Politically, this is one of
the primary factors behind the raids. In the lead up to the 2008
election, it is crucial that Labour cast radical Maori as a dangerous
threat to the stability of New Zealand. This was a gamble by
Prime Minister Helen Clark and her cabal to secure a third term
through a tactic of divide and conquer. In the media Clark repeatedly
stated that the raids were 'an operational matter for the police,'
but behind the scenes in Wellington, every politico knows that
nothing of consequence happens without her direct and explicit
nod.
Another significant political
factor prompting the raids is the government's relationship with
the US and its other close defense partners. As a member of the
exclusive five-nation UKUSA intelligence network (along with
the US, UK, Canada and Australia), New Zealand's security and
police are intimately tied to a distinctive post-War relationship
with the US. This relationship, and the resultant organizational
links, has played a significant role in New Zealand's response
to US terrorism hysteria. Further, the New Zealand government
has separate, internal reasons for adopting much of the new terrorism
legislation.
Prior to 9/11, the Terrorism
Suppression Bill was before the Select Committee and was simply
intended to ratify two existing UN conventions against terrorism.
After 9/11, the law was radically re-written, kept secret from
the public, while the Government and the opposition rushed to
appear resolute in support of the US.
Fortunately, the changes were
leaked and there was significant public opposition that eventually
mitigated the worst aspects of the Act. Unfortunately, there
were many more Acts that followed. These Acts mirror changes
to US law and include the Border Security Act, the Maritime Security
Act, the Telecommunications (Interception Capability) Act, the
Identity (Citizenship and Passports) Act, the Security Intelligence
Act and amendments to both the Immigration Act and the Crimes
Act.
Along with these legislative
changes, the state's security and surveillance services received
massive funding injections and personnel increases all
in the name of fighting terrorism. Given this environment with
all their new toys, eventually, the police and spooks had to
find a terrorist. They tried desperately to pin that label on
exiled Algerian politician Ahmed Zaoui who came to New Zealand
at the end of 2001 on a false passport. When that failed, as
it did in 2006 when the security risk certificate against him
was revoked, they set to work finding others to fill the 'terrorist'
role. The culture of these agencies is such that they view ex-parliamentary
political activity as dangerous; they view Maori politically
activity as particularly dangerous.
So the stage was set and the
roles cast when some 300 police mounted the first ever 'terror
raids' late last year.
The Terrorism Suppression Act
was the tool to obtain extensive interception warrants for bugging
cell phones and cars, but the people who were arrested were initially
charged only for joint possession of firearms and restricted
weapons under the Arms Act. In order for the Terrorism charges
to be laid, the police first had to get the approval of the Attorney
General.
In the first week following
the raids, I sat in solitary confinement with no access to news
or information. I was in shock. I have been arrested several
times in the past for political activity, but have never been
to prison. I was scared. I was also lucky because one of my dearest
friends had been arrested that morning and was there with me.
We had adjoining cells and could communicate by yelling over
a 25 foot concrete wall in the yard outside between our cells.
After the third day, I got a book to read: Kurt Vonnegut's Jailbird.
It made me laugh so hard I had tears in my eyes.
When they finally moved us
to the general population at the end of the first week, it felt
like a glorious place - which just goes to demonstrate how quickly
and easily solitary confinement breaks down your resistance and
your tether on reality. It was beautiful to hear voices, to hear
music, to go outside and to be able to see the hills and sky.
By the end of that first week,
our lawyers managed to put forward an application for bail. We
arrived at the Wellington District Court to a mass of supporters
and media. Within minutes of the start of the hearing, everyone
except the media was excluded from the courtroom. It was an ominous
beginning to one of the most disturbing and difficult days of
my life.
In the hours that followed,
the Crown prosecutor painted a picture of us as a group of people
who had been training to commit terrorist acts. We were accused
of attending camps in the Urewera area where we used guns, Molotov
cocktails and napalm. The fact that my three immediate co-accused
had no convictions of any kind, and I had very minor ones, was
used to prove our ill intention to get out of prison and carry
out that which we had been planning. Once the terror label was
used, no judge in the country, or indeed the world, would bail
us. We went back to prison that Friday evening and I felt very,
very dark.
On Monday 29 October, the police
finally put their evidence to the Solicitor General in order
that the charge of 'participating in a terrorist group' could
be brought against us. That night, I was interned in my new cell
with no one to talk to or to question about what might happen
next. I had been moved 500 miles north to the Auckland women's
correctional facility in a secretive mission worthy of bin Laden
or at least his best mate.
By Wednesday, Prime Minister
Helen Clark could no longer hold her tongue and waded into the
debate. She arrogantly breached the sub judice standard
the term used for the right to a fair trial commenting
that those arrested 'at the very least had been training with
firearms and napalm'. The media circus continued.
Throughout the country, protests,
rallies, fundraising and awareness raising gigs were organized
and what remains of the political left in New Zealand rallied
around the arrestees. The political analysis ranged from debate
about indigenous sovereignty to civil rights and surveillance.
The mainstream media continued its tradition of sensationalist
reporting, ill-informed conclusions and downright fabrications.
The media concentration in Aotearoa New Zealand is one of the
highest in the world, with nearly all the major dailies owned
by two multinational corporations. Everyone was singing from
the same song sheet, so to speak.
The day before I was due to
have another bail hearing, after now nearly a month in jail,
I had a long conversation with my lawyer. We discussed his strategy
going into the hearing and the possible Crown arguments. At the
end of that conversation, he said, 'Oh, there was something else
I was meaning to tell youoh, that's right, the Solicitor-General
is about to announce his decision. Valerie, they are going to
lay the terrorism charges against you.'
I hung up the phone and I found
Emily, my co-accused and dear friend. I told her that, 'we must
prepare ourselves for this because it is going to happen'. I
was manic, frantic, deeply disturbed and shaken. We sat for a
little while before I went to my cell and tuned in National Radio.
The four o'clock news immediately went to a live broadcast of
the Solicitor-General's press conference. I sat on my bed rigid
with fear. He announced, 'I cannot authorize the laying of charges
under the Terrorism Suppression Act.' I ran out of my cell, screaming
and running around the prison wing, 'they're not going to do
it; they're not going to do it.' I yelled up to Emily who had
retreated to her cell. I could hardly get the words out.
Her immediate response, 'for
all of us?' and I thought, 'oh no, I don't know.' In my excitement
I hadn't listened to his whole speech. I ran back to my cell
where she joined me.
We tuned back in to hear him
say that there was 'insufficient evidence' that none of us would
be charged, and that the terrorism law was 'complex, incoherent
and unworkable'. I was ecstatic. Moments later I got a call from
the lawyer saying that the Crown was no longer opposing our bail.
We would be out tomorrow.
It was surreal. I have never
in my life felt the kind of joyous relief that I felt that night.
I couldn't sleep. I couldn't concentrate. I just sat there in
wonder at the events of the previous month.
On Friday, November 9, we were
bailed from the High Court in Auckland. We are not free, however.
Sixteen of us still face charges under the Arms Act. We continue
to have onerous bail conditions including curfews, reporting
conditions and non-association orders. They are the State's tactics
for control and punishment.
As I have suggested, the evidence
indicates that the raids were politically motivated by the long-standing
fear of indigenous assertions of power. In this election year,
it suits the Labor Government to find 'bad Maori' in order to
fulfill the old colonial divide and rule strategy. They will
assimilate those they can through propaganda and persuasion;
those that resist will be brutalized and criminalized as they
have been for more than a century. Maori political activists
are under State surveillance because they are Maori.
It comes as little surprise
that the United Nations has now accepted a complaint from indigenous
lawyers and will investigate the New Zealand Government's conduct
over the raids, although it is the first time that a complaint
by a group against a state (rather than vice versa) has been
investigated. While this is unlikely to have any substantive
effect either on the situation for Maori or on the arrestees,
it is another blow to the idealized utopia of the South Seas.
In the coming months, the case
of the 'Urewera 16' will be heard in the District Court in Auckland.
My great hope for this trial and for the future of Aotearoa New
Zealand is that the raids will contribute to disrupting the false
peace of this colonial state and radicalize people to struggle
for justice and freedom.
*For more information about the Crown's invasion of Tuhoe lands,
please see:
Tuhoe: A history of resistance at http://october15thsolidarity.info/node/221
Other sources for information
about the raids:
Back in the mists of fear: A Primer On The Allegations
Of Terrorism Made During The Week 15-19 October, 2007. By Moana Jackson.
'Full
Coverage: the Terrorists camps on the East Cape.' Scoop.
Other sources of information
about tino rangatiratanga and Maori struggle:
Aotearoa
Café
Conscious collaborations
Te
Mana Motuhake o Tuhoe
Valerie Morse is a Wellington-based anarchist and
writer. She spent most of her 36 years in and around Tucson Arizona
and Washington DC but left the US during the Clinton era in disgust.
She is currently facing three charges under the Arms Act for
possession of guns, restricted weapons (molotov cocktails) and
ammunition resulting from the October 15, 2007 raids. As a result
of her life as a so-called 'terrorist', her passports have been
confiscated and her life as an anarcho-tourist rather severely
curtailed. She is a member of Rebel Press, an anarchist publishing
collective. Her book, 'Against Freedom: the war on terrorism
in everyday_New Zealand life' and prison 'zine 'Can't hear me
scream', are available for free download on www.rebelpress.org.nz
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