Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
Now Available!
Today's
Stories
May
26, 2004
Robert
Fisk
The Things Bush Didn't Say in His Speech
May
25, 2004
Joe
Bageant
The Covert Kingdom: On Earth as It
is in Texas
Col.
Dan Smith
A Question of Human Dignity
Gary
Handschumacher
Visiting Lori Berenson: Time to Bring Her Home
Toni
Solo
A Developing War in the Andes
Marc
Estrin
September Song: Disturbing Questions
About 9/11
Stephen
Banko, III
A Vietnam Vet on "Supporting the
Troops"
Website
of the Day
The Wizard of Whimsy
May
24, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Dan Senor is Safe!
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Tricks & TortureGate: the
Missing Taguba Pages
Sam
Hamod
Gen. Zinni: "Wrong War, Wrong
Place, Wrong Time"
Mike
Whitney
The Wedding was a Bomb
Stan
Goff
Open Season on MAMs
Image
of the Day
A Photo from Abu Ghraib We Didn't See on the Front Page of the
NYTs
May
22 / 23, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
Colin Powell, a Political Obituary
Jeffrey
St. Clair
When War is Swell: Bush and the Carlyle Group
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Her Son Was Told He Wouldn't See Combat; Now He's Dead: an Interview
with Sue Niederer
Brian
Cloughley
America is Committing War Crimes in Iraq
Saul
Landau
Democracy in Latin America: Great for Investors; Not So Good
for People
Brandy
Baker
Feminists Stand By Their Man: Abortion, Judges and Kerry
Randall
Robinson
Bushwhacked in the Caribbean
Uri
Avnery
The Rape of Rafah
Ben
Tripp
Assume the Worst
Bruce
Anderson
News from Ecotopia: the Truth About the Wine Business
Josh
Ruebner
Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers
Peter
Wolson, Ph. D.
Exhibitionistic Revenge at Abu Ghraib
Chloe
Cockburn
In Defense of "Troy": What Hector Could Teach Rummy
Linda
Burnham
Sexual Domination in Uniform: an American Value
Adrien
Rain Burke
War of the Necrophiliacs: Spc. Sabrina Harman and Her Corpse
David
Krieger
Charting a New Course for US Nuclear Policy
Ron
Jacobs
Turnaround
Poets'
Basement
Ford, Albert & LaMorticella
May 21, 2004
Ray
Close
The Canards of the Apologists
Christopher
Brauchli
"The Object of Torture is Torture"
Amira
Hass
Darkness at Noon
Jack
McCarthy
Camilo Mejia: Can the Son of a Sandinista Get a Fair Trial from
the US Army?
Bill
Kauffman
Nader v. Bush
Omar
Barghouti
No More Tears for America
Ghali
Hassan
Moral Failure of the "Free World" in Gaza
Christopher
Reed
How the CIA Taught the Portuguese to
Torture
Website
of the Day
Eric Idle on the Bush Administration: Fuck You, So Very Much
May
20, 2004
Andrew
Cockburn
The Truth About Chalabi
Kathy
Kelly
A Visit from the FBI
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Brown and Bored of Education in India
Tom
Stephens & John Philo
The War Crimes of Bush, Cheney & Co.
Sam
Bahour / Michael Dahan
Genocide by Public Policy
Robert
Ovetz
Ending the Race for the Last Turtle
Billy
Wilson
The Most Important Thing I Learned at School This Year
Website
of the Day
Rafah Today
May
19, 2004
Elizabeth
W. Corrie
Caterpillar Should Do the Right Thing,
Now
Bill
and Kathleen Christison
The US Can't Win
Vijay
Prashad
For Whom the Polls Toll: the Indian Elections of 2004
Ray
Hanania
Israeli War Crimes: Who to Believe, AIPAC or Amnesty Intl.?
Greg
Moses
Man President Kisses Up at AIPAC
Michael
Gillespie
Who is Kenneth deGraffenried?
Josh
Frank
Homes Destroyed; Death Toll Mounts: But Where's John Kerry?
Gary
Corseri
Out of Iraq and Plato's Cave
Kevin
Alexander Gray
If Malcolm Were Alive
May
18, 2004
Neve
Gordon
The Gaza Debacle
Doug
Stokes
Imperial Policing: Why Abu Ghraib
Shouldn't Surprise Us
Bob
Wing
The Color of Abu Ghraib
Vanessa
Jones
Man on a Leash
Thomas
P. Healy
Chemical Trespass: the Body Burden
Zeynep
Toufe
Torture and Moral Agency: the Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations
Kenneth
Roth
Mistreatment of Detainees in US Custody: a Letter to Bush
Elaine
Cassel
Pre-empting the Bill of Rights: The Other War, One Year Later
Website
of the Day
Truth Against Truth
May
17, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The John-John Ticket: Kerry Woos McCain
Laura
Santina
Military Conditioning and Abu Ghraib
Mickey
Z.
With Friends Like These: More Election 2004 Madness
Frederick
B. Hudson
Police Terror: Three Mothers Search for Justice
Shakirah
Esmail-Hudani
Inside Abu Ghraib: the Violence of the Camera
Boris
Leonardo Caro
The Revelations of Mr. W.
Alex
Dawoody
Iraq: From Saddam to Occupation
Victor
Kattan
On Watching the Execution of Nick Berg
Ron
Jacobs
Rumsfeld's Sovereignty Shell Game
May
15 / 16, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Green Lights for Torture
Douglas
Valentine
ABCs of American Interrogation: Phoenix Program, Revisited
John
Stanton
Kings of Pain: UK, US and Israel
Ben
Tripp
Torture: a Fond Reminiscence
Brian
Cloughley
Where are You Heading, America? Taking a Closer Look at the Patriot
Act
Justin
E. H. Smith
Islam and Democracy: the Lesson from Turkey
Brandy
Baker
Equal Opportunity Torture: Lynddie England, the Right and Feminism
John
Chuckman
Peep Show on Capitol Hill: Sex, Lies and Videotape
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: Goon Squad
John
Holt
Fencing the Sky
Ron
Jacobs
The Power of Patti Smith
Brian
J. Foley
Why the Outrage Over Abu Ghraib?
Robin
Philpot
Re-writing the History of the Rwandan Genocide
Eric
Leser
The Carlyle Empire
Ray
Hanania
From Abu Ghraib to Nick Berg: There's No Such Thing as a Good
War Crime
Jeff
Halper
Dozers of Mass Destruction
Joe
Surkiewicz
Inside the Baltimore Detention Center
John
Whitlow
Iraq Goddamn
Michael
Leon
Invitation to a Beheading: Why Bush Should Watch the Berg Video
Poets'
Basement
Krieger, Ford, LaMorticella, Smith and Albert
May
14, 2004
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's POW Porn
Ron
Jacobs
Secret History of the War on Drugs
William
Blum
God, Country and Torture
Michael
Donnelly
The People v. Corporate Greed: A Victory on the North Coast
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
India Shines
Stephen
Gowans
Building Democracy in Iraq and Other
Absurdities
May
13, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Where is Kerry?
Colm
O'Laithian
Torture and Degradation: Revenge American Style?
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassan
Wal-Mart: Scrooge with Hi-Tech Accounting
Practices
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush on the Inhumane Treatment of Iraqi Prisoners
Willliam
James Martin
Deir Yassin Massacre Recalled
Marc
Salomon
Reality TV Bites
Forrest
Hylton
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
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.
|
May
26, 2004
2
+ 2 is on My Mind
More
on Morons and War Crimes
By
TOM STEPHENS
"One did not know what
happened inside the Ministry of Love, but it was possible to
guess: tortures, drugs, delicate instruments that registered
your nervous reactions, gradual wearing-down by sleeplessness
and solitude and persistent questioning. ..."
* * *
"...[T]here had been a
moment ... of luminous certainty, when each new suggestion ...had
filled up a patch of emptiness and become absolute truth, and
when two and two could have been three as easily as five, if
that were what was needed. ..."
* * *
"Almost unconsciously
he traced with his finger in the dust on the table: 2 + 2 = 5.
'They can't get inside you,' she had said. But they could get
inside you. 'What happens to you here is forever...' "
- George Orwell, 1984
On May 18, John Philo and I sent a letter to Congressman John Conyers,
asking that he begin the process of seeking appointment of a
special counsel to investigate the top figures in the Bush/Cheney
Administration, as well as a few of their most notorious co-conspirators,
for war crimes, conspiracy, and cover-up. Specifically, we suggested
that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld,
Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Stephen Cambone,
Douglas Feith, Lewis Libbey, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, Michael
Ledeen, James Woolsey, Newt Gingrich, and John Ashcroft should
be investigated.
At least two out of the many
Internet responses to this modest proposal should be shared here.
One writer suggested that we add Tony Blair and Ariel Sharon
to the list. And a Canadian correspondent, who will remain unnamed,
but who admits to the questionable personal information of being
a Calgary Flames professional hockey fan, cited the letter to
Congressman Conyers as proof that "not all Americans are
morons."
Only 2 days later, on May 20,
the ever-responsive People's champion on Capitol Hill Rep. Conyers
of Detroit, along with all the other Democrats on the House Judiciary
Committee, sent a letter to Ashcroft, requesting that he "appoint
a special counsel to investigate whether high ranking officials
within the Bush Administration violated the War Crimes Act, 18
USC 2441, by approving the use of torture techniques banned by
international law."
On May 24, a journalist in
Detroit asked me whether I expected any of this to actually happen.
This is the full answer.
2 + 2 =
4
There are two big things going
on simultaneously, they are related, and they are a basis to
believe that accusing the US Government's top-ranking morons
of war crimes is worth the time and effort. They are:
1. The issue of war crimes
and US responsibility in the so-called "war on terror,"
in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, immigration sweeps here
at home, and elsewhere, has clearly taken on a life of its own
in mass corporate media and in the public mind. There have been
countless articles and leaks of major secret government documents
(such as Major General Antonio Taguba's report with pictures
regarding tortures employed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, ongoing
investigations of prisoners' deaths in US custody, and White
House Counsel Alberto Gonzalez' memo referring to the Geneva
Conventions as "obsolete" and "quaint").
The publication of such damning evidence indicates that there
are those in the US Government and the military who are now apparently
trying to stop the Bush regime by revealing its sordid secrets.
This is something we in the peace movement should be taking full
advantage of by demanding justice. <2.Meanwhile> the imperial
crusade for oil and world domination via
Iraq is completely falling
apart. The occupation of Iraq now lacks any shred of credibility
it ever had, with increasing violence and assassinations in the
run up to the fraudulent June 30 "transfer of sovereignty."
After the torture revelations, massacres of Sunnis in Fallujah,
and the uprising of Shia in the south around the cities of Najaf,
Karbala, Kufa, and the extreme fundamentalist cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr, it can truly be seen by anybody with eyes that the emperor
has no clothes. The idea that George W. Bush can give a series
of speeches and put this turkey back in flight only reveals the
vast distance between his administration and the reality of the
world we live in at this point. News flash to Dubyah, Rove and
their mind control apparatus spinning out of control: two and
two does not equal three, or five. Imperial occupation is not
"sovereignty," "liberation, "freedom"
or "democracy." You can't fool all the People all the
time, and your act is wearing very thin.
In the above context, the letter
John Philo and I sent to Congressman Conyers raised two closely
related key issues that deserve special attention, in addition
to the ugly reality of torture throughout the secret dungeons
of the US gulag:
<1.The> full criminal
responsibility lies with officials at the very top of the US
Government for these war crimes, not just with "the seven
morons who lost the war" by posing for sadistic photographs
in Abu Ghraib, or even with the generals and other command officers
who supervised the torture; and <2.The> illegal war against
Iraq is itself a crime, and the major source of torture as well
as all the other war crimes of the US Government and military
in the so-called "war on terror." In other words, it
is not "merely" the use and approval of "torture
techniques banned by international law" (as horrifying and
critical as this issue in fact is), that should constitute the
full war crimes scandal, properly understood. Rather, unilateral
preemptive war in Iraq raises the issue of personal criminal
responsibility of top US Government policy makers, under the
Nuremberg Principles, the UN Charter's prohibition of aggression,
crimes against peace and crimes against humanity.
What's the
Use?
I don't know, and neither can
anybody else, if Ashcroft's Justice Department after one of their
daily prayer breakfasts, or an awakened majority of congresspersons,
or perhaps even a court presented with a petition seeking an
investigation, can be persuaded to actually order appointment
of a special counsel to investigate war crimes at the top of
the US Government. With the stakes this high, there are obviously
no guarantees of anything. But there are at least four reasons
why the peace movement, its sister movement for global justice,
and others should loudly take up this call:
1. Condemning the war crimes
of Bush, Cheney & Co., as described above, even without appointment
of a special counsel, could help deprive the Bush pirates of
what tiny remnants of credibility they may still possess in some
isolated pockets of US public opinion, which they desperately
need to continue their policies. The catastrophic failure of
the Iraq fiasco pretty much accomplishes this all by itself for
the vast majority of the world's People. Especially if they continue
to prosecute and punish military underlings, while Ashcroft and
his bosses refuse to subject their own misconduct to any independent
official investigation, this issue frames the pirates' humiliating
defeat not only with their monumental arrogance of power and
their staggering incompetence, but with their systematic and
continuing criminality & hypocrisy as well.
A broad discussion of the war
crimes of Bush, Cheney & Co, on the Internet and in other
media, is a classic "win-win." If a special counsel
is appointed, the advantages are obvious. If not, any opportunity
they might otherwise have to rehabilitate their credibility is
even further undermined. Turning up the heat on those ultimately
responsible for the Iraq disaster by calling for them to be prosecuted
for war crimes could be one of the most promising ways to keep
this mess from getting even worse.
2. It makes strategic sense
to take advantage of the logic of scapegoating that's been adopted
by the pirates themselves to deal with the Abu Ghraib prison
torture scandal and their broader failures in Iraq. The administration
has clearly stated for years, and demonstrated by their actions
that they have nothing but contempt for any restrictions the
rule of law places on their power. That contemptuous attitude
and the policies that flow from it are the source of the crimes,
which they are now trying to limit to a handful of scapegoats.
The top would-be scapegoat himself, the "splendid"
secretary of defense, has ridiculously tried to distinguish "abuse"
in Abu Ghraib from "torture." Under these circumstances,
they should not be heard to claim that the documented misconduct
of their subordinates does not fairly represent acts and policies
of those at the top.
Responsibility for human rights
abuses should clearly extend far beyond and above a few "bad
apples" in one military police unit. Spc. Jeremy Sivits
plead guilty to participating in the prison abuse, and was given
a year in prison and dishonorable discharge. SSgt. Camilo Mejia
went AWOL because he refused to continue participation in the
atrocities he witnessed in Iraq, including abuse of prisoners.
He too was given a year in prison and dishonorable discharge
(subject to appeal, based on the court martial's refusal to let
him challenge the illegality of the war and the atrocities he
refused to participate in). How long can the chickenhawk high
command and their partners in crime maintain both that kind of
harsh punishment regime against their own troops, and also deny
and escape legal scrutiny of much more authoritative contributions
they personally made to the same crimes? Write your congresspersons
and editors, raise hell about it and see if we can find out.
3. This is the "exit strategy,"
folks. It's impossible to tell when the rapidly escalating bloodshed,
cost, and moral & intellectual bankruptcy of "Operation
Iraqi Freedom" will result in its liquidation. At this point
it seems virtually certain that this will eventually happen.
Carping in the US corporate media about the supposed "lack
of an exit strategy" reflects the spinelessness of those
who still seem unwilling to hold the Bush Administration's feet
to the fire of accountability, for what has come to be seen in
many quarters as one of the most remarkable, appalling and massive
failures of judgment and power in history. The politically expedient
sacrifice of Rumsfeld's office would serve only as a last-ditch
attempt to insulate Bush and Cheney themselves from the fallout.
If the American People are to firmly stand apart from this administration's
crimes, and begin the long-term process of getting out of the
quagmire of terrorism and Iraq, much more will be required. What
John Philo and I said in our letter a week ago on May 18 bears
repeating in this connection, again and again until it is heard
by everyone and judged on its merits:
"Everywhere today we hear
the question: "How will America regain its credibility?"...
Investigate their crimes pursuant to law, indict them based on
the massive record of facts supporting such an indictment, and
put the top architects of this illegal and deadly policy of permanent,
"pre-emptive" war on public trial."
In light of the utter fiasco
in Iraq, the incredible pain and suffering of the Bush/Cheney
administration's many victims, and the resultant devastating
damage to US credibility virtually everywhere, it may well be
that nothing less will do the trick.
4. This is the message: It's
the Bush/Cheney Administration, not the American People, who
declared, in their "National Security Strategy" in
September 2002 what is, in effect, a policy of systematically
and intentionally flouting laws. It's the Bush/Cheney Administration,
not the American People, who planned, propagated, executed and
are responsible for the military and political disaster that
is Iraq. It's the Bush/Cheney Administration, not the American
People, who need to be seen by the rest of the world and by future
generations as responsible. And it's the Bush/Cheney Administration,
not the American People, who should personally pay the full price
for their moronic, racist and hateful policies. If we let them
get away with what they have done in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo
Bay, and in our own backyards, the consequences will be even
more horrible, and we deserve whatever we get.
The power of the Bush/Cheney
administration depends on a manufactured reality. This sophisticated
illusion can be effectively fought by exposing the many intimate
connections between: 1) the tortures and other human rights abuses
that have recently come to light; 2) the criminal wars of aggression
that led directly to these crimes; and 3) their criminal motivations
for control of oil and imperial power projection, by establishing
strategically located military bases. Both the command responsibilities
for the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal, and the dramatic unraveling
of the Iraqi occupation over the past couple months, have the
quality of "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,"
an unsurpassed "teachable moment." The levers and sources
of illegitimate power are being revealed. Whether the-powers-that-think-they-be
have the guts to take action is a separate point. It's up to
us as the opponents of such power to publicly and insistently
call its proponents to account for their many crimes.
This result may not be achieved,
one way or the other, before the election in November, and (ugh)
maybe not even then. It may not ever be achievable through criminal
prosecutions of the lead henchmen. It will certainly take a while,
at best. Americans too often want instant results, which in view
of the powerful and entrenched interests behind these horrendous
crimes of State, is a patently unreasonable expectation. But
at least the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are asking
the right questions, which is a good start. By actively and persistently
seeking to hold those truly responsible for some of the most
horrible misdeeds of our times fully accountable under law for
their actions, we can begin to give meaning to the concept of
"justice" for a world that sorely needs it.
"...[Orwell's 1984] was,
as many have noticed, a warning: a warning about the future of
human freedom in a world where political organization and technology
can manufacture power in dimensions that would have stunned the
imaginations of earlier ages. ... And we hear echoes of that
warning chord in the constant demand for greater security and
comfort, for less risk in our societies. We recognize, however
dimly, that greater efficiency, ease, and security may come at
a substantial price in freedom, that law and order can be a doublethink
version of oppression, that individual liberties surrendered
for whatever good reason are freedom lost."
- from Walter Cronkite's Preface
to 1984
Tom Stephens is a lawyer in Detroit. He can be
reached at: lebensbaum4@earthlink.
Weekend Edition
Features for May 22 / 23, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
Colin Powell, a Political Obituary
Jeffrey
St. Clair
When War is Swell: Bush and the Carlyle Group
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Her Son Was Told He Wouldn't See Combat; Now He's Dead: an Interview
with Sue Niederer
Brian
Cloughley
America is Committing War Crimes in Iraq
Saul
Landau
Democracy in Latin America: Great for Investors; Not So Good
for People
Brandy
Baker
Feminists Stand By Their Man: Abortion, Judges and Kerry
Randall
Robinson
Bushwhacked in the Caribbean
Uri
Avnery
The Rape of Rafah
Ben
Tripp
Assume the Worst
Bruce
Anderson
News from Ecotopia: the Truth About the Wine Business
Josh
Ruebner
Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers
Peter
Wolson, Ph. D.
Exhibitionistic Revenge at Abu Ghraib
Chloe
Cockburn
In Defense of "Troy": What Hector Could Teach Rummy
Linda
Burnham
Sexual Domination in Uniform: an American Value
Adrien
Rain Burke
War of the Necrophiliacs: Spc. Sabrina Harman and Her Corpse
David
Krieger
Charting a New Course for US Nuclear Policy
Ron
Jacobs
Turnaround
Poets'
Basement
Ford, Albert & LaMorticella
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