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Today's
Stories
September 8,
2004
Stan Goff
Body
Count: 1001
September 7,
2004
Diane Christian
Hostage Tactics: a Game of Mortal Poker
Joshua Frank
Greens
Unravel from Within
Patrick Cockburn
Fallujah
Erupts Again: US Death Toll in Iraq Nears 1000
Ron Jacobs
Bush and Putin: "We're Not Girlie Men"
Chris Floyd
Cry Havoc: Bush's Own Personal Janjaweed
Dr. Carol Wolman
No Blood for Oil at Paul Bunyan Day Parade
John Ross
The
Politics of Darkness North / South
September 6,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
An
Anti-Labor Day That Lives in Infamy: How Many Democrats Voted
For Taft-Hartley?
Ralph Nader
The
Cruel Legacy of Taft-Hartley: a Labor Day Call for Rights for
Working People
Lee Sustar
What's Driving the Attack on Pensions?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Dual
Loyalties: the Bush Necons and Israel
September 4-5,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
Elephants
and Gramsci
Ted Honderich
The
Way Things Are
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The
Holy Empire: Who We Are and What We Do
Douglas Valentine
What the World Should Know About Guantanamo
Patrick Cockburn
New Iraqi Police State Flexes Its Muscles
Gary Leupp
Neo Cons Under Fire
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: the Hempstead T-Shirt
William A.
Cook
The
Day of the Lemming
Dave Zirin
Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom
John Chuckman
The Day the World Ended
Karyn Strickler
God Save the Endangered Species Act
Vanessa Jones
Bad Day with an Ikea Cup
Mike Whitney
Kerry: the "Better" War Candidate
Mark Donham
Dear John (Kerry): Start Explaining and Fast
Mickey Z.
McBypass Nation: Feeling Clinton's Pain
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades be Fixed?
Poets' Basement
Landau and Albert
September 3,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
Rahul Mahajan
Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response
Carl Estabrook
The
Book of Slaughter and Forgetting
Joshua Frank
The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again
Gary Leupp
Music to My Ears: Sunday's March
James Hollander
Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide?
Mark Engler
Republicans
Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out
Jesse Sharkey
Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education
Jane Stillwater
Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves
in Guatemala
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote
Twice, Let Them"
Todd Chretien & Jessie
Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?
Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
Christa Allen
Contre Bush
Website of
the Day
[Redacted]
September 1,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Stench of Doom
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Poor Larry Franklin
Dave Lindorff
Kerry's Litmus Test
Josh Frank
Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up
John L. Hess
Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops
Mike Whitney
Deconstructing Arnold
Jack Random
Kindergarten Night at the RNC
Andrew Wilson
War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words
August 31,
2004
Joseph Nevins
Escapism
and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs
Matt Vidal
Beyond
Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy
Neve Gordon
Kerry and the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
Bush
the Peace Candidate?
Mike Whitney
NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran
Jack Random
Opening Night: Playing the War Card
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One)
CounterPunch Photo of the Day
Pete Seeger in NYC
August 30,
2004
Justin Podhur
The
Disappeared Mayor
Shaun Joseph
The
Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com
Mike Whitney
Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly
Want?
Ron Jacobs
Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate
David Lindorff
Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy
Dave Zirin
USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate
Sam Husseini
Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History
August 28 /
29, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Zombies
for Kerry
Patrick Cockburn
Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US
Ray McGovern
Blowing Smoke on Intelligence
Dr. Juan Romagoza
From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor
Ray Hanania
An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous!
Fred Gardner
Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot
Diane Christian
Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live
William S. Lind
The Desert Fox
Paul D'Amato
The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry
Joshua Frank
Greens at the Crossroads
Mickey Z.
Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests
Winslow T. Wheeler
Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange
Justin E.H.
Smith
The New Age Racket and the Left
Thomas St. John
Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God"
Ali Tonak
Help the NYPD?
Mark Engler
New York Says "No"
Justin Felux
Haiti: the Attica of the Americas
Poets' Basement
Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod
August 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
Neocon
Musings
Robin Cook
The
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Diane Christian
Disarming
Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?
Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters
Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"
Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners
Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"
August 26,
2004
M. Shahid Alam
The
Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?
Diane Christian
War
Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu
Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get
Organized
David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally
Christopher
Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble
Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity
Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
Website of
the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So
Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib
Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues
Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin
Fred Gardner
Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants
Dave Zirin
Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot
Josh Saxe
Witnessing Police Brutality in LA
Yanar Mohammed
Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings
Helen Williams
Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad
Michael Donnelly
Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery
Elizabeth Schulte
The Crisis in Affordable Housing
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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September 8,
2004
War, the CIA and Narco-Trafficking
Afghanistan,
American Drug Colony
By
MIKE WHITNEY
"More than 10 million
citizens have registered to vote in the October presidential
election, a resounding endorsement of democracy. Despite ongoing
acts of violence Iraq now has a strong prime minister, a national
council and national elections are scheduled for January. Our
nation is standing with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq because
when America gives its word, America must keep its word.
Young men will hear the message
that national progress and dignity are found in liberty, not
tyranny and terror. Reformers and political prisoners and exiles
will hear the message that their dream of freedom cannot be denied
forever. And as freedom advances, heart by heart and nation by
nation, America will be more secure and the world more peaceful."
President Bush; Republican
Convention
The US doesn't control a scrap of ground
in Afghanistan outside the capital. Now, with the up tick in
violence and bombings in Kabul, even that is in doubt.
Despite President Bush's delusional
palavering at the Republican Convention, the US has no reasonable
expectation of succeeding in Afghanistan. The countryside is
dominated by warlords, the commitment of troops and resources
is insufficient, and the farcical American stooge, Hamid Karzai,
must be shadowed by an entourage of 400 mercenaries just to keep
him among the living. Karzai's tenure as king of Afghanistan
won't last 24 hours after America finally picks up and goes home.
The notion that the Afghanistan
mission was a "success" is just one of the more glaring
fictions initiated by the establishment media. Certainly, the
facts are plain enough for anyone to draw the obvious conclusions.
Instead, the American public is inundated with information that
is "liberally seasoned" with White House spin. What
passes as analysis in America's editorial pages is rarely more
than a rehashing of the hard-right platitudes issuing from Washington
framed in flashier language.
The real situation in Afghanistan
is dramatically different than the one being offered by the PR
wizards in the White House.
William Thomas nailed it in
an article in 2003, "Why Afghanistan was Invaded":
"The Caspian Sea basin's 200 billion barrels of untapped
"black gold" appeared to offer Washington a strategic
counterbalance equal to Saudi Arabia's immense oil reserves"
(Those who have studied the war in Afghanistan know that George
Bush actually signed orders to invade the country "PRIOR
TO 9-11".) Thomas continues with a revelation that is
scrupulously omitted from American newspapers:
"Now, after war crimes that included the
slaughter of thousands of unarmed prisoners, and cluster bomb
and radioactive cruise missile attacks against thousands more
defenseless civilians, the return to rapacious rule by warlords
worse than the Taliban is being overlooked by American occupiers
preoccupied with three exploratory oil wells.
Guess what? These new findings
shrank the Caspian oil ocean to a more modest subterranean lake
of just 10 to 20 billion barrels of poor quality, high-sulphur
crude."
"Oops! No oil": another
slight miscalculation.
This explains why the US commitment
is so trifling and why no real effort to secure the countryside
has even been attempted. It also explains why Iraq appeared on
the radar screen soon after.
(I should note that the degree
of anxiety we see in the administration's relentless pursuit
of oil is no small matter. It's clear from industry records that
2004 my well be the "peak year" for oil production,
meaning that entire economies will henceforward be vulnerable
to dramatic shifts in pricing and availability. This is compounded
by the fact that many reports indicate that Saudi Arabia's main
wells are nearly exhausted. Cheney and Co. decided that the only
way to resolve this situation was to get "ahead of the curve"
and seize the world's oil by force of arms. The results so far
are less than spectacular.)
CIA and the
US Banking Establishment involved in Drug trade?
Afghanistan's opium production
has skyrocketed. Although the Taliban had virtually stamped out
poppy production, the country now accounts for two-third of the
world's heroin. As hard as it may be to believe, there is compelling
evidence that the US (via the CIA) may be directly involved in
narco-trafficing.
A report in Portland Independent
Media gives us some idea of how this works in their summary of
the writings of investigative journalist Mike Ruppert:
"Before 1980, Afghanistan
produced 0% of the world's opium. But then the CIA moved in,
and by 1986 they were producing 40% of the world's heroin supply.
By 1999, they were churning out 3,200 TONS of heroin a year
nearly 80% of the total market supply. But then something
unexpected happened. The Taliban rose to power, and by 2000 they
had destroyed nearly all of the opium fields. Production dropped
from 3,000+ tons to only 185 tons, a 94% reduction! This enormous
drop in revenue subsequently hurt not only the CIA's Black Budget
projects, but also the free-flow of laundered money in and out
of the Controller's banks"
And, this from Mike Ruppert's
"From the Wilderness" (FTW):
"Until February, Afghanistan
had been the world's largest producer of opium/heroin, claiming
close to 70% of the world's total production. That opium, consumed
largely in Western Europe and smuggled through the Balkans, was
a direct source of cash deposits in Western financial institutions
and markets.
The Taliban's actions this
year (destroying the opium crop) severed the ruling military
junta in Pakistan from its primary source of foreign revenues
and made bin Laden and the Taliban completely expendable in the
eyes of the Pakistani government. It also cut off billions of
dollars in revenues that had been previously laundered through
western banks and Russian financial institutions connected to
them.
... Prior to the WTC attacks,
credible sources, including the U.S. government, the IMF, Le
Monde and the U.S. Senate placed the amount of drug cash flowing
into Wall Street and U.S. banks at around $250-$300 billion a
year.
In that context, the real history
of Osama bin Laden, as America's useful terrorist-du-jour reveals
a long and continuous history, interwoven with the drug trade
and the Bush family, of supporting conflicts that have benefited
U.S. military and economic interests."
"THE TALIBANS DESTRUCTION
OF THAT (OPIUM) CROP WAS APPARENTLY THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT
ACT OF ECONOMIC WARFARE AGAINST US ECONOMIC INTERESTS THAT THE
TALIBAN HAD EVER COMMITTED".
It invited the war that would
come shortly after.
The facts related to CIA involvement
are fairly well documented at this point. (Although, I haven't
seen these particular allegations before.) It seems unlikely
that this level of "economic activity" would continue
to flourish without US participation. Also, the parasitic relationship
of the major banking institutions to the drug trade is hardly
anecdotal.
We shouldn't be surprised that
America's "new friend" Pakistan is deeply involved
as well. Before the Taliban's rise to power, a "whopping"
60% of Pakistan's GDP is estimated to have come from the illicit
trafficking of drugs; making it a factor that penetrated every
area of Pakistan society. (The ISI, the equivalent of the CIA,
was a particularly large beneficiary of drug receipts)
What is striking about these
charges of US involvement in narco trafficking is that suggests
a compelling interest on the part of the banking establishment
to prosecute the war in Afghanistan. Up to this point, many critics
had alleged that the Energy giants were driving the bus. Now,
it appears that there was a confluence of interests (Big Energy,
Banks, Wall Street and arms dealers) who elected to steer the
country towards war.
With the giants of industry
on board, there's no need to wonder why the Forth Estate followed
suit and "whipped up pre-war hysteria" on front pages
and TVs across the nation.
This should give us all some
idea of the (almost) insurmountable task in front of us; to extricate
America from its new imperial wars. Virtually, every major institution
in American life (including the Congress) is committed to this
new crusade. This illustrates the gravity and the magnitude of
the "Iraq-Afghanistan" campaign. The principle players
involved in this global war really believe that America's future
depends on its success and will employ any means necessary to
achieve their objectives. (as Abu Ghraib clearly proves)
Everything from the solvency
of the dollar, to our economic fortunes for the next millennia,
to our securing reliable energy resources, to our unchallenged
military dominance, to our foothold in the world's most vital
economic region (Asia) has been recklessly gambled on the current
wars.
Simply put, they've bet everything
on their plan and will fight "tooth and nail" to make
sure it succeeds.
It will be a monumental task
to turn this train around.
The unanticipated lack of vital
resources (oil) implies that we may be looking at Afghanistan's
"final status"; a fractured country broken into regional
fiefdoms (ruled by warlords) to facilitate the ever-burgeoning
drug trade. As we have seen, the narco dealing provides crucial
resources and liquidity to American markets and the banking industry.
The dearth of troops and reconstruction money strongly indicates
that no change in this scurrilous policy is forthcoming.
Aside from the "lofty
rhetoric" of the Prevaricator and chief, Afghanistan is
being condemned to a future of unending violence and neglect
by powerful constituencies in the US. It's critical that we shed
as much light as possible on the institutions in our society
that are underwriting aggression to perpetuate their economic
dominance and to keep the entire fraudulent system afloat.
Thanks to Mike Ruppert's "From
The Wilderness" FTW's story, The Bush-Cheney drug Empire
in October, 2000. That story is online at www.copvcia.com/stories/previous/bush-cheney-drugs.html.
Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can
be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com
Weekend
Edition Features for August 7 / 8, 2004
James Petras
The
Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of
Abu Ghraib
Fred Gardner
Run
Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain
Justin Delacour
Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela
Brian Cloughley
Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd?
Joshua Frank
The
Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader
Iain A. Boal
On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection
Chris Floyd
All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome
Andrew Fenton
Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti
Aseem Shrivastava
Saga of an Anguished Afghan
Neil Corbett
See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush
Carol Miller
/ Forrest Hill
Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only
12% of the Vote
Tarek Milleron
Breaking the Principled Voter
Donald Macintyre
The
Battle of Najaf
Ron Jacobs
Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies
Mickey Z.
Kid
Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO
Poets' Basement
Adler, Ford and Albert
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