Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
Now Available!
Today's
Stories
June
8, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
The March on Rumsfeld's House: Is
the US Anti-War Movement Running Out of Steam?
Phillip
Cryan
Torture, Bombings & the Press in
Colombia
Mark
Zepezauer
Getting Reagan Wrong
Mickey
Z.
Reagan, Radicals and Repetitive Reactions
John
L. Hess
Reagan and Bush in Normandy
Alex
Dawoody
Reagan and Saddam: the Unholy Alliance
Christopher
Fons
Reagan in a Word: Mean
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Some Tenets are More Important Than Others
Ahmed
Bouzid
Nothing New Under the Israeli Sun
Michael
Leon
Bush the Narcissist
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Nature of Ronald Reagan: Will
the Earth Accept His Corpse?
June
7, 2004
Jason
Leopold
New Enron Docs Show Lay and Skilling
Knew of California Trading Schemes
Patrick
Cockburn
The Baghdad Bombings: the Pattern
of Attacks is Changing
Dennis
Hans
From Afghanistan to El Salvador: Reagan's
Dark Global Legacy
Tracy
McLellan
Nader at the National Press Club:
a Glimpse at a Different Kind of Politics
Bill
Blum
The Myth of the Gipper: Reagan Didn't
End the Cold War
Ben
Tripp
What I Owe Reagan: the Brylcreemed
Bullshitter
Susan
Davis
Reagan, In a Nutshell
Phil
Gasper
Reagan: Goodbye and Good Riddance
Website
of the Day
A Child's ABCs of Terrorism
June
5 / 6, 2004
C.
Douglas Lummis
Toward a Universal Declaration of
Human Wrongs
Saul
Landau
Five Cubans in Prison, Victims of Bush's Obsession
Dave
Lindorff
John Walker Lindh, Revisited
Brian
Cloughley
Apologies, Please, From Those Who Got It Wrong
Rich
Gibson
The Grenada 17: the Last Prisoners of the Cold War are Black
Elaine
Cassel
A Sorry FBI
Cathrin
Schütz
On the Ruins of Yugoslavia
Ben
Tripp
Call Me, Mr. Cassandra
Kurt
Nimmo
The Madness of King George
Ron
Jacobs
They Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Unless We Make It So)
Laura
Flanders
The Lynne Cheney Show?
Lenni
Brenner
Renaissance Noir: Caravaggio at the Met
Abigail
Jones
Whatever Happened to Lori Berenson, President Toledo's Trophy
Prisoner?
Mark
Latham
Nothing Bush Said Has Changed Our Hopes
Gerry
Adams
I Was Photographed While Tortured, Too
Toni
Solo
Venezuela 2004, Nicaragua's Contra War Reprised
Derek
Seidman
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old
M.
Junaid Alam
Torture is Just the Symptom
Matt
Siegfried
An American Way of War
Dave
Zirin
The Politics of Charles Barkley
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Krieger, St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
Overnight Sensations
June
4, 2004
Chris
Floyd
Masked and Anonymous: Inside America's
Animal House
Cornwell
/ Penketh
Exit Tenet: the Fall of a Fall Guy
Wayne
Madsen
Apprehension & Frustation: Neo-Cons on the Brink
Greg
Moses
Agitating for Workers' Rights in Iraq
Yitzak
Laor
Before Rafah
Ghali
Hassan
Ambassador to Death Squads: Who is Negroponte?
Jane
Stillwater
God, the Rapture and Vera Casey
CounterPunch
Wire
D-Day Reconsidered: Was It Really Worth the Carnage?
John
Borowski
Woo-Wooism v. Meteorites: Why the Dems Are No Match for Bush
Mike
Griffin
Caterpillar's Assault on the UAW
Alexander Cockburn
Has Bush Gone Over the Edge?
Website
of the Day
Aquae Urbis Romae:
Water and Empire
June
3, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Iran's Nuclear Dilemma
Dr.
Susan Block
America in tha Hood
Michael
Donnelly
The Bully and the Brahmin
John
Chuckman
Insanity in America: US Ranks Number
One in the Deranged
Christopher
Brauchli
The Return of Cardinal Law: Rome
on $12,000 a Month
Samia
Nassar Melki
Caravaggio in Iraq
Mike
Whitney
Subverting Justice: Pre-Trial Ruminations in the Padilla Case
Diane
Rejman
Memorial Day Isn't Just About the Dead
Scott
Morris
"WMDs" in Cuba
Paul
de Rooij
Palestinian Misery in Perspective
June
2, 2004
Brian
Cloughley
The Liars are Winning
Ray
McGovern
How Far Would They Go? Beware "Credible
Intelligence"
Josh
Frank
The Anybody But Bush Offensive
Mike
Whitney
The Afghanistan Failure: Bush's Warlord Patriots
Jackie
Corr
Iraq and Ireland: Three Tales from Butte, Montana
Robert
Jensen
The US Lost the Iraq War...and It's a Good Thing, Too
Alexander
Cockburn
"Bye, Bye Boonville!"
June
1, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Instant Karma: Bush's Sins Catch Up
with Him
William
A. Cook
Manufacturers of Fear and Loathing in
Rafah
Dave
Lindorff
Will the Times Clean House?
Kevin
Zeese
Inside the Kerry / Nader Meeting: Did
the Kerry Campaign Lie About What Was Discussed?
Jacob
Levich
Coming Soon: Return of the Draft,
a Bipartisan Production
Kathy
Kelly
Voices in the Wilderness v. the US
Government
Website
of the Day
Remind Us
May
29 / 31, 2004
Lee
Ballinger / Dave Marsh
The Origins of Memorial Day
Janine
Pommy Vega
Memo for Memorial Day
Mike
Ferner
On Their Way to Abu Ghraib
Alfred
W. McCoy
The Cruel Shadow: the Long History of CIA Torture Research
Douglas
Valentine
An Open Letter to the NYT: Questions, Questions, Questions
Chris
White
First to Fight Culture: a Former Marine on the Marine Motto
Bruce
Anderson
The Awful Injustice to Tai Abreu
David
Vest
Get Ready for Kerry's War: the 100 Year Quagmire
Saul
Landau
Torture: the Logical Outcome of Bush's War for Democracy?
Kurt
Nimmo
Abu Hamza al-Mazri, Made in the USA
Elaine
Cassel
The Secrets of Surveillance: Ashcroft, Snoops, and Gag Orders
Will
Potter
The New War on "Terror": Protest the Torture of Chimps;
Get Arrested as a "Terrorist"
Ben
Tripp
They Fiddled While Nero Got the Matches
Dr.
Susan Block
Save Abu Ghraib!
Kia
Kojouri
Nukes, the US, Israel and Iran: an
Interview with Sasan Fayazmanesh
Mickey
Z
D-Day: 60 Years is Enough!
Jon
Brown
Correcting the Correction at the Times
Patrick
B. Barr
Pre-emptive War Insurance
Stephen
Gowans
Bad Apples in a Bad Barrel
Tom
Gorman
Gore on Bush in Iraq: the Approach May be Exotic, But It's Hardly
New
Dave
Zirin
Fighting for Boxers' Rights: an Interview with Eddie Mustafa
Muhammad
Gregory
Weiher
Bush to Arabs: "Go Get Yourself Some Democracy"
Erik
Cummings
Jung Meets Bush
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Ford, Kearney, McLellan and Albert
May
28, 2004
Rafael
Rodriguez Cruz
Curtain of Silence on the Cuban 5
Greg
Moses
Bush's Misleading Speech on Abu Ghraib
Dave
Lindorff
Dissing Independent Contractors:
Those Who Do the Dirty Work
Norman
Solomon
Leaping for Lies at the Times
Rep.
Bill Delahunt
Bush's Cruel New Rules on Cuba
Paul
McGeough
Chalabi Baba and the 40 Thieves
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
India and Nehru: 40 Years After
Alexander
Cockburn
NYTs: "Maybe We Did Screw Up...a
Little"
May
27, 2004
Amy
Goodman / David Goodman
Fatal Errors: the Lies of Our Times
Douglas
Valentine
Ragging the Dogs of War at the
NYTs
John
L. Hess
The Times Confesses...Kind Of
Stew
Albert
Dellinger, the Wrestling Pacifist
Dave
Dellinger
a 1993 Interview
Christopher
Brauchli
Tax Breaks for Scions...to Hell with Poor Kids
Rampton
/ Stauber
Banana Republicans: Pumping Irony
May
26, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Goodbye, David Dellinger: He Was a
Friend of Ours
Robert
Fisk
The Things Bush Didn't Say in His Speech
Zeynep
Toufe
New Draft UN Resolution Permits Perpetual Occupation
Conn
Hallinan
Bush and Sharon: the Oil Connection
Tom
Stephens
2 + 2 is On My Mind: More Morons
and War Crimes
Derek
Medley
Protesting Gov. Bigot
CounterPunch
Wire
FBI Abducts Artist; Seizes Art
Andrew
Cockburn
The Trail to Tehran
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
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
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Berry
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CounterPunch
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WMD: Who Said What When
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Corrie
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Gore Vidal
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Erosion of the American Dream
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Impeach
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June
9, 2004
The
New Baghdad Triumvirate: Allawi, Negroponte and the NED
Bush's
Democratic Charade in Iraq
By
JIM TARBELL and ROGER BURBACH
In November 2003, with US soldiers facing
mounting casualties and the search for weapons of mass destruction
largely abandoned, George W. Bush appeared before the National
Endowment for Democracy, a quasi-public institution set up to
advance US political objectives abroad. There, on the Endowment's
Twentieth anniversary, Bush proclaimed a new rationale for the
occupation of Iraq-"To build a democracy," a democracy
that "will send forth the news from Damascus to Tehran."
Now seven months later with
the formation of the Iraqi Interim Government and the opening
of the largest US embassy compound in the world, it has become
apparent just what kind of democracy the United States is foisting
on Iraq and the Arab world. It will be a democracy with controlled
elections, a repressive state security apparatus, and a "free
market" economy that favors US interests and the Iraqi economic
elite. The two key figures anointed to carry out this democratic
charade are the leader of the interim government, Iyad Allawi
and the US ambassador, John Negroponte. Their backgrounds and
credentials can hardly be described as democratic.
Much has been made in recent
days of the alleged friction between the United States and the
Iraqi Interim Government. This is largely staged-an effort to
give the impression to Iraqis and the world that the new government
has some legitimacy. Iyad Allawi, while publicly pushing for
more autonomy, is closely aligned with the United States, and
has been on the CIA payroll for years. He confirmed his dependence
on the US agenda and the occupation army when upon being nominated
as Prime Minister he proclaimed: "We need the support of
the multinational forces."
With the aid of the British
and American intelligence services, Allawi founded the Iraqi
National Accord in 1990, an exile group comprised largely of
Baathist and military officers who defected from Saddam. Clinton
and the CIA provided extensive support to the Accord and its
failed attempts to carry out a palace coup by military officers
close to Saddam. As the Bush administration ramped up for war
in the summer of 2002, Allawi took part in high level Pentagon
and State Department planning. Allawi finally returned to Iraq
with the invading US army after living abroad for more than thirty
years.
As a reward for his collaboration,
J. Paul Bremer appointed Allawi to the Iraqi Governing Council.
There he focused on running the Council's Security Committee,
which was responsible for building up the new Iraqi army, police
and intelligence services. The New York Times quotes one
observer as saying "Iyad is somebody who is military-minded,
wants a strong government, and believes in a strong army."
Mary Curtis of the Los Angeles Times adds: "To those
who want to build a democratic future on Iraq's authoritarian
past, Allawi's record may be worrisome."
Like his American sponsors,
Allawi is committed to a neo-liberal market economy. The Iraqi
National Accord promotes "giving permission to the private
sector to participate in all economic activities and giving permission
to the free market to specify the direction of those economic
activities." Allawi and the Interim Government will operate
under economic guidelines put in place by the Coalition Provisional
Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council. Decrees for the privatization
of all sectors of the economy remain in effect, as well as the
opening of the economy to foreign investment. Members of independent
regulatory bodies appointed by J. Paul Bremer cannot be removed
by the new ministers of the Interim Government.
Allawi himself comes from the
Shiite merchant class of Iraq that would be among the primary
beneficiaries of the US imposed economic order. The Washington
Post points out that "with their links to the bazaars
of Persia, the prominent Shiite families were often far wealthier
and more cultivated than the Sunnis" who predominated under
Saddam's rule. Allawi has wasted no time in taking advantage
of the new economic conditions. During his tenure on the Iraqi
Governing Council, rumors abounded of corruption and influence
peddling, including accusations that he collected "commissions"
to deliver government contracts.
Allawi's powerful overseer
in Baghdad, US Ambassador designate John Negroponte, has been
on the cutting edge in preserving and advancing the interests
of the US empire for years. From 1971 to 1973 Negroponte served
as the officer in charge of Vietnam on the National Security
Council. In the 1980s he became the US ambassador in the pivotal
Central American country of Honduras as the United States masterminded
wars against a popular democracy in Nicaragua to the south and
against a popular liberation movement in El Salvador to the west.
From his embassy post in Tegucigalpa Negroponte first became
known as the imperial "proconsul," a title he carries
with him to Baghdad. In Honduras he managed the largest CIA station
in the world and oversaw an increase in Honduran military aid
from $3.9 million annually to $77.4 million. He supervised the
construction of military bases and the transfer of resources
to the US financed surrogate army fighting the Nicaraguan government.
And, befitting the role he will play in Baghdad, he turned a
blind eye to the torture and abuse performed by Honduran death
squads that disappeared critics of America's wars in Central
America.
The Council on Hemispheric
Affairs, a Washington based research and information center,
says that John Negroponte "is preeminently an ends-justifies-the-means
operator." Journalist Toni Solo has called him "the
Teflon torture manager." As US Ambassador to the United
Nations under Bush, he faithfully strong-armed nations into supporting
America's preemptive war in Iraq and oversaw an intelligence
operation that included bugging the phones of allies and adversaries
alike.
The new US embassy in Baghdad,
constructed on the site of one of Saddam's palaces, will have
a staff of 1500 Americans and an equal number of Iraqis. It will
be protected by US soldiers as well as private contractors with
over 100 armored vehicles. Inside the walls of the embassy compound,
the strategy of the occupation forces will be plotted along with
the construction of fourteen US military bases around the country.
Embassy personnel will work throughout all 32 ministries of the
Interim Government, with one key adviser serving as the counterpart
to every minister. Special attention will be paid to the Oil
Ministry which will be headed by Thamir Ghadhan who was originally
appointed to the same post by the United States in May 2003.
In that position he worked closely with an advisory committee
lead by a former head of Shell Oil.
While Negroponte's embassy
is managing the military and oil aspects of the Iraqi situation,
the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is orchestrating the
"democratic" operation. But democracy at the NED is
by no means a popular democracy with broad participation. Instead
NED promotes a top-down, controlled democracy in which the elites
govern and the popular classes are only given token participation
at election time. Meanwhile private economic power reigns supreme.
The National Endowment for
Democracy grew out of the post-Vietnam-era need to attain US
national interests without depending solely on coercive military
force. At a time when the CIA had been embarrassed by intervening
in foreign elections, the NED was developed as a quasi-private
institution to carry out interventionist political policies beyond
congressional inspection. NED's chairman of the board is neoconservative
Vin Webber. He signed the statement of principles for the Project
for the New American Century (PNAC) which has promoted an American
takeover of Iraq since 1997. The hubris of PNAC, which centers
around a flawed concept of American exceptionalism, drives NED
policies installing US-friendly, controlled democracies around
the world.
Soon after 9/11 the National
Endowment for Democracy jumped into the campaign to open the
door to corporate globalization for that long swath from Morocco
to China that encompasses Iraq and the Middle East. In January
2002 NED "placed urgent and increased emphasis on programs
in the entire Muslim world." In his 2004 state of the Union
address George W. Bush called for the doubling of NED's budget,
from $40 million to $80 million, with virtually all of the new
funding going to the Middle East and Iraq in particular. Even
before Bush's speech, the NED was already funding and setting
up pro-US Iraqi organizations involved in polling, the media,
civic education, and political party building.
Critics like the Center
for Media and Democracy point out that NED promotes candidates
that favor US interests "with strong ties to the military
and who support the rights of US corporations to invest in those
countries." NED involvement in funding pro-American politicians
and destabilizing democratic governments in both Haiti and Venezuela
in recent years confirms that analysis.
However, in Iraq the triumvirate
of Allawi, Negroponte and the Endowment may flounder on the shoals
of an empire that is overstretched and traumatized by its hubris.
Since Bush spoke before the Endowment on its Twentieth anniversary,
the Iraqi insurgency has put down deep roots. The very occupation
of their country is leading Shiites and Sunni's to collaborate
in unprecedented ways. It is unclear what type of government
will eventually emerge, but it will be determined more by the
struggle of the resistance and the popular movements from below
than by the imperial designs of John Negroponte and George W.
Bush.
Jim Tarbell and Roger Burbach co-wrote
Imperial Overstretch: George W. Bush and the Hubris of Empire,
due out in the US on July 1, 2004. To order see: http://www.globalalternatives.org
Weekend Edition
Features for June 5 / 6, 2004
C.
Douglas Lummis
Toward a Universal Declaration of
Human Wrongs
Saul
Landau
Five Cubans in Prison, Victims of Bush's Obsession
Dave
Lindorff
John Walker Lindh, Revisited
Brian
Cloughley
Apologies, Please, From Those Who Got It Wrong
Rich
Gibson
The Grenada 17: the Last Prisoners of the Cold War are Black
Elaine
Cassel
A Sorry FBI
Cathrin
Schütz
On the Ruins of Yugoslavia
Ben
Tripp
Call Me, Mr. Cassandra
Kurt
Nimmo
The Madness of King George
Ron
Jacobs
They Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Unless We Make It So)
Laura
Flanders
The Lynne Cheney Show?
Lenni
Brenner
Renaissance Noir: Caravaggio at the Met
Abigail
Jones
Whatever Happened to Lori Berenson, President Toledo's Trophy
Prisoner?
Mark
Latham
Nothing Bush Said Has Changed Our Hopes
Gerry
Adams
I Was Photographed While Tortured, Too
Toni
Solo
Venezuela 2004, Nicaragua's Contra War Reprised
Derek
Seidman
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old
M.
Junaid Alam
Torture is Just the Symptom
Matt
Siegfried
An American Way of War
Dave
Zirin
The Politics of Charles Barkley
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Krieger, St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
Overnight Sensations
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