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Exclusive to CounterPunch Newsletter Subscribers! How Bill (and Monica) Saved Hillary from a Federal Indictment Here's the second in Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair's series as they describe Hillary Clinton's years in Little Rock and her narrow escape from federal charges that would have destroyed her political career for ever. PLUS KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY on how Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are failing Black America even as they hunt for votes in So uth Carolina's "Black Primary." Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Remember contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now Order CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year and Receive a Free Copy of "Imperial Crusades: a Diary of Three Wars" by Cockburn and St. Clair

Today's Stories August 14, 2007 Paul de Rooij Humanitarian Wars and Associated Delusions August 13, 2007 Jeremy Scahill The Mercenary Revolution F. William Engdahl The Hidden Agenda Behind Bush's Biofuel Plan Alexander Cockburn The Veldt Will Never Be the Same Kathy Kelly Iraq's Refugees: "et to Work" Chris Floyd No Light, Light Tunnel: the Bipartisan Guarantee of More War in Iraq Paul Craig Roberts Hegemony of the Cockroach William Blum First Pullout, Then Bloodbath? Kenneth Couesbouc The Language of Dominion Rannie Amiri Tancredo's Screedo: a Lethal Mix of Ignorance and Insanity Brenda Norrell Priests Expose Secret Cycle of US Torture Fran Shor All Fall Down Ron Jacobs Dr. Strangelove Meets Dubya's Double Buzz Twofer Website of the Day The Beauty of Defiance   August 11 / 12, 2007 Alexander Cockburn How the Democrats Blew It in Only 8 Months Stan Goff The Cover-Up of Pat Tillman's Death Ralph Nader GM Radio: Payola to Rightwing Talk Shows? Vijay Prashad Destination Darfur: a New Cold War for Oil Greg Moses SubPrime People: Behind the Banking Crisis Alan Farago The Cratering Mortgage Market, WCI Communities and Amb. Al Hoffman Patrick Cockburn The Cracks in Saddam's Dam Ben Tripp On Fleeing the Country Robert Fantina Romney's Dance: The Rightwing Flip-Flop John Ross The Guelaguetza Strategy in Oaxaca Seth Sandronsky Organizing Nurses Paul Krassner Assholes of the Week: From Mitt Romney to Bill Richardson Website of the Weekend Pearl Jam: Censored by ATT   August 10, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts China's Threat to the Dollar is Real Stan Goff How Pat Tillman Died Marjorie Cohn A Blank Check for Domestic Spying Saul Landau In the Age of Immigrant Panic Chris Floyd Goading Xerxes: the Coming Strike on Iran Daniel Ellsberg A Vision for Cindy Sheehan's Campaign Anthony Papa The Upside Down Flag: a Country in Distress Farzana Versey On the Heels of Sir Salman Sgt. Kevin Benderman Freedom or Totalitarianism? Nuri Nuri Memories of T99 Nelson Website of the Day Lessons in Obfuscation from Sen. Larry Craig: How to Talk About Looting the Public Domain   August 9, 2007 Stan Goff The Fog of Fame: Pat Tillman as Everyone's Political Football Paul Craig Roberts In the Hole to China Alan Farago The Terror of the Mortgage Pools William S. Lind The Surge's New Math: One Step Forward, Two Back Doug Giebel Letter from Montana: What the Bushvolk Have Done to America Harvey Wasserman Radioactive Bailout in Advance Jacob Hill The Tail End of Free Trade: NAFTA's Impact on the Manufacturing Sector Raul Zibechi The Dark Side of Agrofuels Dave Zirin The Making of Barry bin Laden Website of the Day "Babies Just Come with the Scenery"   August 8, 2007 Andy Worthington Backing Up Lt. Col. Abraham on Gitmo Abuse Jeff Halper The Catch in Israel's "Generous Offers" at Jericho Greg Moses No Light in August for Texas Refugees: Judge Orders Baby Sent to Palestine Nurit Peled-Elhanan The Murder of Abir Aramin, 9 Years Old Sukant Chandan British Prisons as Islamic Universities Robert Fisk A Lebanese Surprise George H. Strauss The Military Society D.K. Wilson Bonds, the Haters and 756: Why Bob Costas Can't be Trusted Bill Day Leonardo DiCaprio's Baggage: the Perils of Celebrity Environmentalism Tim Campbell Monkey See, Monkey Do Politics Website of the Day Periodic Table of Visualization Methods   August 7, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Why the Surge Has Failed Andy Worthington Why Do We Need the Democrats?: They Have Failed to Restrain Bush on Gitmo, Iraq and Domestic Spying Kathy Kelly The Little Girl of Hiroshima Stan Cox The Antiwar Majority: Look Quickly, You Might Miss It Sonja Karkar Israel's Settlement Project Sen. Russ Feingold A License to Wiretap--Anyone Alan Farago Dancing in the Light of Florida Norman Solomon Let Us Now Praise an Infamous Woman Binoy Kampmark Giving Good Face: What Jeremy Bentham and Facebook Have in Common Dave Lindorff The Gelding Congress John Stauber Coffee with the Troops at Yearly Kos Website of the Day George Carlin on Education August 6, 2007 Bill Quigley Fighting for the Right to Learn in New Orleans Kathy Rentenbach Guatemalan Gold, Guatemalan Bones Uri Avnery White Elephants: Bush's Middle East Arms Deals Col. Dan Smith Of Time and Iraq Ralph Nader Cruise Ship Blues James Neshewat War? What War?: a Report from the New SDS Confab in Detroit D.K. Wilson Barry, Bud and 755 Greg Moses Safe Passage for Willie Nelson Fidel Castro Hard and Obvious Realities Mike Whitney Judgment Week on Wall Street   August 4 / 5, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Rupert Murdoch and the Luck of the Bancrofts Peter Linebaugh Speaking in Irish Tongues Saul Landau Faith-Based War Alan Farago The Candidates and the Collapsing Economy Dave Zirin When Domes Attack: Even in Minnesota Barucha Calamity Peller Oaxaca is Not Over Anthony DiMaggio Double Standards in U.S. Aid to the Middle East Dave Lindorff Spy Power: Bush Demands, Democrats Deliver--Again and Again and Again Fred Gardner Write Off Your Congressman Nicola Nasser The Iranian Option Benjamin Dangl Privatizing Repression in Paraguay Rannie Amiri Bribe, Divide and Conquer Daniel Gross CSR on Trial: Starbucks Behind the Brand Sherwood Ross Obama Renounces Use of Nuclear Weapons Manuel Garcia, Jr A Bridge Truth Movement?: From 9/11 to Minneapolis Missy Beattie The First Mannequin and the "Crime Scene" Ron Jacobs The Outlaw Trip to Mexico: Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad Website of the Weekend Photos: Texas Immigrant Prison   August 3, 2007 Gabriel Matthew Schivone An Interview with Noam Chomsky on Responsibility, War Guilt and Intellectuals Jonathan Cook Israel's Jewish Problem in Tehran Patrick Cockburn Sunnis Walk Out of Iraq Government Little Steven Van Zandt Die, Greedy Swine! Die! Die!: How the Record Companies are Killing Rock Music Christopher Brauchli Bush Makes Putin Look Like James Madison D. K. Wilson Two Sides and a Middle: Michael Vick Ain't the One to Ask Linda Ford and Ira Glunts Maxwell's Silver Hammer: Syracuse University Enlists in the Global War on Terror Kelly Overton The Casualties of Green Scare: the Feds' War on the Animal Rights Mvt. Monica Benderman In Freedom's Name Manuel Garcia, Jr. Minneapolis Bridge Collapse: Was Cheney at the Scene? Website of the Day A Cinematic Look at the Police State in Action   August 2, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts The Return of the Robber Barons Stanley Heller Report from the Land of Apartheid Eric Ruder Fighting PTSD; Fighting the Army Robert Fantina Still Getting It Wrong: the NYT and Iraq Alan Farago The Toxic Mortgage Waste Crisis Chris Floyd Chertoff, Chiquita and Death Squads Franklin Lamb Lebanon's Crucial Special Elections Sen. Russ Feingold Closing the Book on the Abramoff Era Anthony Papa Drug Treatment isn't a Silver Bullet Norman Solomon The Big Guns of August Website of the Day Louie, Louie Video Contest   August 1, 2007 Debbie Nathan More Secret Payments by Former NYT Reporter to Web Porn Star Surface in Nashville Courtroom Fred Gardner Ciao, Michelangelo Gary Leupp Why Iraq's Best-Loved Athlete Can't Go Home David Rosen America's Top 10 Political Sex Scandals Winston Warfield Is the Tillman Case Still a Coverup? Daniel McBride Lessons from Bomber Harris: If the US Strikes Pakistan Glen Ford The Corporate Plan to Crush Black Resistance Thomas P. Healy The Toxic Career of Indiana's Environmental Commissioner John V. Whitbeck The Five Percent Solution David Krieger Nuclear Weapons and the University of California Website of the Day The Tragic Story of Hisham Mohammed   July 31, 2007 Kathy Kelly Dancing in the Darkness: the Story of Abu Mahmoud Clancy Sigal The Ghosts of Passchendaele Paul Krassner Assholes of the Week: From Baby Doll to Cheney Joe DeRaymond Return to the Republic of Death? Diane Christian "Winning": What Bush Could Learn from the Shade of Achilles Chris Floyd Good News is No News: Why the Bush Adm. Buries Accounts of Extremist Recantations Ramzy Baroud Bush's Real Agenda in Palestine Alan Farago Battle for the Soul of Florida Fidel Castro In Spite of Everything: Reflections on the Pan American Games Dan Bacher The Fish Terminator: Schwarzenegger's Campaign to Build the Delta Canal and More Dams   July 30, 2007 Marjorie Cohn: Independent Counsel Time Patrick Cockburn Four Million Iraqis on the Run Peter Quinn Irish in America Uri Avnery A Warning to Tony Blair John Ross Zapatista Intergalatica Lands on Earth Ron Jacobs Free the San Francisco 8 David Vest Farewell, Old Friend: Another Legend of the Blues is Gone Jeffrey St. Clair T99 Nelson: Seduced by a Legend of the Blues Website of the Day Collateral Repair Project   July 28 / 29, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Now the NYT is Selling "Bloodbath" as a Rationale to Stay in Iraq Ralph Nader Rotten Justice Robert Fantina American Lies and Iraqi Nationalism Fred Gardner Prohibitionists Attack, Reformers Fundraise   July 27, 2007 John Ross Bombing Pemex--or Not? Arthur Neslen Gaza was a Gas for Blair Dave Lindorff Declaring the US a Battlefield: Martial Law is Now a Real Threat Julene Blair The Environmentalist Within Christopher Brauchli Bush Uses Children as Shock Troops in His War on Socialized Medicine Jesse Hagopian Fund the Wounded, Not the War Charles Modiano Manufacturing a Villain: Sports Illustrated's Vilification of Barry Bonds Bill Day The Hollow Environmentalism of Leonardo DiCaprio Walter Brasch Leaders Afraid to Lead M.D. Mitchell Farm Based Camps Website of the Day Fighting Sarcoma   July 26, 2007 Kathleen Christison The Siren Song of Elliot Abrams Andy Worthington Why the Pentagon's Gitmo Study is a Joke Clancy Chassay How the Bush White House Seeks to Destroy Lebanon Marjorie Cohn Showdown Over Executive Privilege Susie Day Apartheid Americana David Price Tour de Witch Hunt: Drugs, Diaries and Purges Marie Trigona Argentina's "Dirty War" Crimes Trial: The Torturer Priest Norman Solomon Media Spin on Iraq: We're Leaving (Sort Of) William S. Lind How to Win in Iraq Natsu Saito Ward Churchill and the Regents at the University of Colorado John Stauber Netroots and the Iraq War: Does Ending It Matter to Them Anymore? Website of the Day Sticking It to the Man   July 25, 2007 Andy Worthington Gains and Losses at Gitmo Gary Leupp Bush Speechwriter, Michael Gerson, Calls for Attack on Syria Ray McGovern The Sad Decline of John Conyers Dr. Susan Block Bonobo Bashing in the New Yorker Joshua Frank Hillary's Neocon: the Imperial Vision of Richard Holbrooke Tina Richards What Harry Reid Doesn't Know About His Own Bill Ben Terrall Indonesia's Bloody Brand of CounterTerrorism Farzana Versey God Acquitted!: Lessons from the Case of Darwood Ibrahim Mohammad Ali Salih A Bomb in My Briefcase? Laura Carlsen A Strange Homecoming: Reflections on the First US Social Forum Ron Jacobs Come to Kennebunkport! Sunsara Taylor Knocked Up is F**ked Up Website of the Day Wal-Mart's Flip Flops: Feet Killers July 24, 2007 Saul Landau How to Walk in Bushtime Kathy Kelly The Plight of Iraqi Refugees in Jordan Russell Mokhiber The Michael Vick / George Bush Thing M. Shahid Alam Islam Now, China Then Patrick Cockburn and Anne Penketh Meeting in Baghdad Dave Lindorff Overcoming John Conyers Binoy Kampmark You Tube You Can't: Failure of a Medium Richard Neville Murdoch's Transplant: a Warning to the Wall Street Journal Cindy Sheehan We Must Move Beyond Politics as Usual Evelyn Pringle Anti-Depressants and Birth Defects: Why is the CDC Downplaying the Risks? Norman Solomon Media Corrections We'd Like to See CP Newswire Reading Harry Potter Not Sinful Website of the Day Sea Islands Black Heritage Festival   July 23, 2007 Andy Worthington Narcolepsy on Gitmo Detainees Uri Avnery A Trap for Fools Patrick Cockburn Turkish Prime Minister Threatens to Invade Northern Iraq Sousan Hammad The Children Without a Title John Walsh Todd Gitlin's Nader Fixation Harvey Wasserman Spinning Kashiwazaki: PR Flacks Rush to Aid of Crippled Nuke Martha Rosenberg The Life and Times of a Hog-Hanging Farmer Collin Baber Here Come the MRAPs: Resurrecting Apartheid Armor for Iraq Reza Fiyouzat Iran's Forgotten Anti-Nuke Movement Stephen Lendman Saving a President: Scare-Mongering and Executive Orders Website of the Day The Port Huron Project   July 21 / 22, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Giuliani and the Dogs of War Werther How to Read a National Intelligence Estimate Ralph Nader Atomic Blowback David Keen Buy Hard: How to Sell an Endless War Fred Gardner Karl Rove, Pothead: When Good Drugs Happen to Bad People Gary Leupp Edelman's Edict: Is Hillary "Reinforcing Enemy Propaganda?" Robert Fantina Fear in Iraq Saker The Future of Palestine: an Interview with Jonathan Cook Rannie Amiri Nasrallah in the Crosshairs: How will the Third Lebanon War Start? Mike Whitney The Crisis in Hedgistan Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD The Hidden Injuries of Powerlessness: Linking Alienation and Dissociation Monica Benderman Facing the Truth Dan Bacher Deltagate: the Politics of Fish Kills Michael Baney Fujimori's Long Race From Justice Missy Beattie Here, There and Everywhere Ron Jacobs Tremble, Tyrants Adam Engel Radical Language: an Introduction Thomas Naylor California Split: an Open Letter to Schwarzenegger Poets' Basement Landau, Ford and Engel Website of the Weekend Surge in Action   July 20, 2007 Eliza Szabo Fatal Neglect: Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan Pam Martens Doctoring the News: CNN's Sanjay Gupta, Laura Bush and Merck Alan Farago Winners and Losers in the Housing Market Crash Harvey Wasserman Lies and Leaks: The Earthquake That Screamed "No Nukes!" Marjorie Cohn Iraqis will be the Deciders Dave Zirin White Noise and the Black Athlete Anthony DiMaggio American Public Opinion and Israel Scott Liebertz Oaxaca on Edge Linn Washington, Jr. British Cops Assault Rape Allegations Bill Piper / Anthony Papa Flying High?: The Political Junkets of Bush's Drug Czar Ramzy Baroud Bush's War Policy: When Time Heals Nothing Website of the Day The Prankster Art of Mark Jenkins   July 19, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Next Invasion of Iraq Remi Kanazi Is This Ben Gurion or Hell?: a Palestinian Adventure Through Israel's Largest Airport Winslow T. Wheeler The Surging Costs of the Iraq War Sharon Smith Democrats and Health Care: Behind the Rhetoric Dave Lindorff Killing Cabbies in Iraq Conn Hallinan Have Gun, Will Travel: Mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan D. K. Wilson The Michael Vick Case Pulls Back the Veil on Who We Really Are Joshua Frank Democrats as Leviathan: Another Step Toward War with Iran Norman Solomon The Ghost of Wayne Morse Russell Hoffman Rattling the Reactor: Quakes, Fires and Leaks at the World's Largest Nuke Ray McGovern Bush's Wooden Headedness Kills Website of the Day Protesting Power July 18, 2007 Brenda Norrell Spy Towers on the US Border Col. Dan Smith How the US Could "Lose" Saudi Arabia Martha Rosenberg Lord of Crookharbour: the Trial of Conrad Black Conn Hallinan Bombing and Spraying Afghanistan Binoy Kampmark The SIM Card Terror Case Patrick Bond / Rehana Dada Who Killed Sajida Khan? Tom Johnson The Long Road ... to Nowhere Paul Craig Roberts A Free Press or a Ministry of Truth? Bob Quellos Pushing the Poor Out of House and Home Felice Pace Falling for Lieberman's Iran Resolution Robert Weissman National Health Insurance: More Humane and More Efficient CP Newswire Shocking Report Showing Involvement of US Psychologists in Torture Website of the Day Gilad Atzmon Live!   July 17, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Just Another Day in Iraq: 100 Fathers, Mothers and Children Killed Marjorie Cohn Out of Control: Executive Power Plays Evelyn Pringle Inside Bush's FDA David Rosen Moral Hypocrisy on the Hill: the Christian Right, Sexual Scandal and the Pleasures of the Courtesan Susan Miller Width Matters: Displacement and Israel's Wall Franklin Lamb Did the UN Cave to Israel on Lebanon's Shabaa Farms? Don Monkerud Considering Victory in Iraq Harvey Wasserman Nuclear Surge Russell Hoffman Japan Dodges a Radioactive Bullet Dave Lindorff Feingold Turns to Dross Dave Zirin Reclaiming Sports as True Fiction Website of the Day Che at the UN: 1964   July 16, 2007 Gary Leupp Cheney Urges Bush to Strike Iran Ellen Cantarow The Untold Story of Iraqi Women Paul Craig Roberts Impeach Now Allan J. Lichtman The D.C. Madam's Public Service Dan Bacher Cheney and the Klamath: Was the Veep Behind the Nation's Worst Salmon Kill? Patrick Cockburn The Killing of Khalid W. Hassan Manuel Garcia, Jr. Property is Racism James Brooks AIPAC and Mahmoud Abbas: the Undemocratic Road to Defeat Liaquat Ali Khan The Judicial Crisis in Pakistan Julie Flint Suleiman Jamous in Limbo Website of the Day Free Suleiman Jamous!   July 14 / 15. 2007 Alexander Cockburn Support Their Troops? Andy Worthington Gitmo's Tangled Web: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Majhid Khan, Dubious US Convictions and a Dying Man Ralph Nader Lawlessness, Waste and Incompetence Robert Fantina The Illegalities of the Iraq War Ron Jacobs Architecture as Military Strategy Joshua Frank Eat, Fight, Screw, Pray: An Interview with Joe Bageant Conn Hallinan Guns, Foundations and Free Trade: How the Right Targets Africa Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD War and Dissociation John Ross No En Nuestro Nombre!: a Letter to the Mexican Antiwar Movement Fred Gardner Who's Afraid of Cannabidiol? Rannie Amiri A Primer on Israeli Doublespeak Charles Modiano ESPN's Rap Sheet: Pacman as Black Man Anthony DiMaggio America's Parochial Press China Hand Executive Orders and Coercive Diplomacy Missy Comley Beattie Reprobate Rhetoricians Dr. James J. Murtagh, Jr. Harry Potter Battles Big Brother Kenneth Rexroth On Thomas More's "Utopia" Poets' Basement Engel, Davies and Orloski Website of the Weekend GOP Sex Hypocrites: a Slideshow   July 13, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Decider in Denial Winslow T. Wheeler Bush's Iraq Benchmarks Assessment: Grading on a Curve for the Wrong Test Imran Khan When Dictators Serve US Interests Todd Chretien The Wal-Mart of Garbage Sam Husseini Killing the Constitution Dr. Herman Mindshaftgap Why, in Truth, There is No Surge Anthony Papa The Hard Road Home D. K. Wilson The Wonderful World of Mike Greenberg and Barry Bonds David Michael Green In the Last Throes, Judiciously Website of the Day Strange Attraction: Mrs. Thompson and Mr. Wolfowitz   July 12, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Restoring the People's Power Robert Jensen Lessons from the Lal Masjid Tragedy Dr. Susan Block Hookergate II: The Senator and the Veep Joshua Frank The Liberal Thrashing of Ward Churchill John Chuckman How Terror Lost Its Meaning Corporate Crime Reporter The Problem with Bribeline Mike Whitney Demonizing Putin Nicola Nasser Will New Delhi's Palestinian Policy be Neutralized? Richard Rhames Requiem for the Paxilated William S. Lind Not Fourth Generation Warfare Website of the Day Video: World's Largest Nuclear Explosion     July 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Benchmark Blame Game Richard Neville Is This Man a Psychopath? Bomber McNeill, the Faceless Pol Pot of the Sky Debra McNutt Privatizing Women: Military Prostitution and the Iraq Occupation John V. Walsh A Plea to Ralph Nader Scott Liebertz Where's the Outcry? Mexico's Monitor Radio vs. RCTV George C. Wilson Beware the Iran Hawks James McEnteer My Impossible Dream Candidate Philip Rizk Submission or Resistance in Gaza? Johnny Hazard Mexico Commemorates a Fraud Dave Lindorff On the Road with Impeachment Website of the Day Sly Stone's Higher Power   July 10, 2007 James Ridgeway True North: Big Oil in the Arctic Tariq Ali New Clashes in Islamabad: Judges and Jihadis Torment the Regime Javed Hussein Pakistan's Waco?: The Storming of the Red Mosque William Blum Neocons, Theocons, Demcons, Excons and Future Cons Ralph Nader Grown in China Jay Arena New Orleans, Public Housing and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex Anthony DiMaggio A Begrudging Reversal: The New York Times and the "Anti-War" Turn Eva Liddell Has Ann Coulter Got the Hots for John Edwards? Jerry Kroth Democratic Defectors and the Israel Lobby Alice Woodward White Supremacy and the Jena Six Nikolas Kozloff Where's Jerry?: On Cheney Impeachment, Rep. Nadler's a No Show Paul Shannon It's Time to Reform Sex Offender Laws Website of the Day March for Remembrance   July 9, 2007 Fidel Castro The Killing Machine: Reflections from a Target of the CIA Diana Johnstone King Sarko the First John Walsh Will the Greens Seize the Moment? Uri Avnery The Jordanian Option Ramzy Baroud The Palestinian Left: a Lost Opportunity? John Ripton The New West Bank Palestinian State Stephen Lendman Making Gaza Scream Bruce Jackson Bush Going Down: the Correct Way to Affix a Stamp Michael Donnelly What's the Matter with Winchester? Doug Giebel Wanted: Old Men with Nothing to Lose Website of the Day Ron Paul on This Week with George   July 7 / 8, 2007 Saul Landau Blame the Puppet Ismael Hossein-zadeh Parasitic Imperialism Fawzia Afzal-Khan What Lies Beneath: Dispatches from the Frontlines of t he Burqa Brigade Alan Maass Will "Sicko" Spark a Movement?: a Film, Militant Nurses and a New Opportunity for Single Payer Health Care John Ross The Fire Last Time Pat Williams The Supreme Court and Mr. Peanut Rannie Amiri The Unbreakable Mordechai Vanunu Farzana Versey Does the Taj Mahal Deserve to be a Wonder of the World? Bart Gruzalski Bush, the Revolution and the Iraq War Paul Rockwell An Army of None Reza Fiyouzat Tax Cuts for the Rich Only Benefit the Economy of the Rich Monica Benderman Americans, Honestly! Kenneth Couesbouc Total War: From Clausewitz to Clinton and Bush Dave Lindorff Poll: Impeach the Bastards Charles Modiano History's Hit Job on Thomas Paine Missy Beattie King Cretin Dal LaMagna A Peacemaker's View of Baghdad Jean Gerard Those So-Called Oil Contracts in Iraq Anne Dachel Autism: an Epidemic of Fairly Recent Origin Ron Jacobs Modes and Melodies of Resistance Poets' Basement Gibbons, Orloski, Engel and Buknatski Website of the Day Van Morrison and Bob Dylan in Athens July 6, 2007 Daniel Ellsberg When the Crimes of the White House are Unpunishable Gary Leupp The Cracks in Cheney's World Harvey Wasserman Leonard Peltier vs. Scooter Libby: the Hero and the Henchman Omer Subhani Our Dead are Not the Same: Ignoring Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan Marjorie Cohn Compassion, Conspiracy and Commutation Christopher Brauchli Kingly Edicts: Bush's Executive Orders David Michael Green Scalia Time: the Wrecking Ball Court China Hand Catfish Blues: Food Safety, the FDA and the Emerging Trade War with China Renee Saucedo and Todd Chretien The New Challenges Facing the Immigrant Rights Movement Corporate Crime Reporter The Crime Wave Behind the Media Curtain Website of the Day Jean Bricmont on the Humanitarian Interveners   July 5, 2007 Andy Worthington Two Americas, Both Unjust: Scooter Libby vs. the "Enemy Combatants" Mike Stark Double Standards of North Carolina "Justice" Norman Solomon The Keyboard Hawks: a Bloody Media Mirror Michael Schwartz Killing 10,000 Iraqis Every Month Susie Day Killer Lesbians Mauled by Killer Court (and Media Wolfpack) Jacob Hornberger A Tangled Web of Lies: Bush and the Libby Case Bill Hatch Smoking with Arnold: The Strange Return of Toxic Mary Nichols Don Fitz When Building Green Ain't So Green John Wright The Crisis of Imperialism Website of the Day Anti-Flag and Tom Morello: "This Land is Your Land"   July 4, 2007 St. Clair / Frank Obama's Nuclear Ambitions Vijay Prashad Democrat (Punjab): Obama and Outsourcing Carl G. Estabrook The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Exist Ron Jacobs Texas Wants to Kill Another Man, the Law be Damned: the Disturbing Case of Kenneth Foster David R. Dow The Quality of Bush's Mercy: the Ghosts of Texas Claudia Johnson Is My Doctor a Terrorist? William S. Lind What Israel's Defeat in Lebanon Means for Defense Industry Fat Cats Gregory Afghani Truth and Tenure: Finkelstein and the Perils of Impeccable Scholarship Paul Edwards End It Now! D. K. Wilson The Sliming of Tank Johnson Niranjan Ramakrishnan Thank You, Mr. President: Bush/Cheney for Dummies Thomas Jefferson The Spirit of Resistance: Lethargy is the Forerunner of the Death of Public Liberty Cindy Sheehan Call Out the Instigator Website of the Day Springsteen: 4th of July, Ashbury Park July 3, 2007 Bill Quigley Injustice in Jena: Black Nooses Hanging from the "White" Tree Gary Leupp Civil Strife in Palestine: a Broader Context Lynda Brayer Norman Finkelstein and the Catholic Church Richard Thieme Mind Wars: Brain Research, Nanotech and the Military Helen Redmond They Don't Come Back the Same: the Mind of the Returning Iraq War Vet David Swanson Scooter and the Commuter: When Presidents Pardon Their Own Crimes Jacob Hornberger Martha Stewart vs. Scooter Libby: Commutation as Cover-Up Ayesha Ijaz Khan Pakistan's New Jihad Franklin Lamb The Edginess of Lebanon Ray McGovern Unimpeachably Impeachable: Start with Cheney Kevin Zeese The Air Force vs. Rev. Lennox Yearwood Dave Lindorff Nancy Pelosi and the Low Bar Democrats Website of the Day A Military Guide to the Iraq War         Subscribe Online

August 14, 2007 From Scotland to Caracas The Politics of Democracy Promotion By MUHAMMAD IDREES AHMAD The temperature on the night bus from Caracas to Mérida is uncomfortably low. Venezuelans relish the opportunity to escape the tropical heat by snuggling under their blankets during these long distance journeys. On this occasion however the atmosphere is warm with the enthusiasm exuded by some of our fellow passengers. Clad in red t-shirts bearing the symbols of Movimiento Quinta Republica (The Fifth Republic Movement)--Hugo Chavez's political umbrella--they are still ebullient with the energy of the day's events. The young boy on the adjacent seat seems keen to talk; his grandmother sitting next to him more focused on catching a wink of sleep. He tells me he is returning from the launch rally of Chavez's presidential campaign which he had come along with his grandmother to attend. I had seen the rally earlier in the day. The scale was impressive and the enthusiasm infectious--the kind that is reserved only for celebrity events in Europe and America, or, more recently, for antiwar rallies (The only Euro-American politician to achieve anything close was Ralph Nader with his super-rallies in 2000--and he didn't win). Here, the spirit is one of confidence and possibility. These people have come from all corners of the country, feeling that they are agents of their country's destiny. They come because it matters. They come because they matter. The May 2007 elections in Scotland were similarly charged with expectation, even if despair more than hope drove the desire for change. Disillusionment with the status quo was widespread. While the Scottish Left had collapsed under the combined weight of media hostility and its own myopia, the disillusionment only increased the likelihood of a Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) victory. For its opposition to the war, opposition to the Trident boondoggle, calls for subsidized education, and its pro-independence agenda, the party was well placed to rake in the votes from the remnants of the Scottish Left on top of its traditional, more conservative, nationalist constituency. The possibility of a party outside the Tory-Labour consensus winning power on the British mainland seemed real. In a democracy as old as Britain's one would have expected such plurality to be welcomed. Except it wasn't, and the electorate showed little of the verve of the Venezuelan voter. Imagine this scenario: In the upcoming Venezuelan elections polls show the main opposition party with a clear lead; each one of the country's large circulation newspapers is editorially hostile to the opposition, producing a barrage of propaganda which culminates in alarmist front page stories on election day; newspapers carry explicit instructions on voting for the ruling party; the president personally intervenes in various constituencies to dissuade citizens from voting against his party; the ballot design is confusing, and invariably favours the governing party and 7 percent of all votes cast are spoilt as a result; the governing party wins seats no one expected it to, and when in one instance the result is challenged, the recount brings victory for the opposition; the electronic counting machines, it transpires, are provided by a company with links to former leaders of the ruling party. International election monitors declare the electoral process a disgrace. Were this to transpire in Venezuela--or for that matter any country with policies at odds with Washington and her allies--the international media (read Anglo-American media) would be up in arms. There would be widespread condemnation of the process; rivers of ink would spill forth on the deficiencies of the country's democratic tradition; expert-commentators would expatiate on the flaws in its citizens' character. In the event, none of this came to pass because the country in question was not Venezuela, but Scotland and the protests of a feeble few soon dropped off the column inches and airwaves of Britain's docile media. Even by 'Third World' standards, the elections were a farce. Preceded by months of tabloid propaganda verging on the defamatory, the establishment resorted to its time-tested strategy of wholesale scaremongering. Support for the SNP was gradually eroded through months of hostile coverage exaggerating the costs of independence and the proposed replacement for the hated community charge. However, by election day support for SNP, though diminished, was still widespread enough to lead major tabloids to attempt one final act of sabotage: Sun, Daily Mail, and Daily Record--three rags with circulations exceeding those of all the rest combined--synchronized their attacks on their front pages; one depicting the SNP symbol as a noose, another calling party leader Alex Salmond 'the man who wants to destroy Great Britain', and the third sporting a sinister image of Salmond. While it is nearly impossible to find a Scottish voter who publicly professes support for Labour, and while early forecasts had predicted a Labour rout, its curiously narrow defeat understandably surprised many. One could attribute this to New Labour's successful use of scare tactics--and the 'money and muscle poured into key seats to fend off the SNP', as Michel White of the Guardian put it--but the deeply flawed electoral process suggests it may have taken more than scary headlines to diminish the scale of its defeat. Against expert advice the Labour-controlled Scottish executive chose to hold both local council and national elections on the same day. In the ensuing chaos, there were the technical problems of the electronic counting machines, organizational problems of the electoral ballots not delivered on time in sufficient quantities, and the design problems of a ballot with two different voting systems on a single sheet. While it is acknowledged that nearly 140,000 votes--almost 7 percent of the total cast--were spoilt, it has yet to be confirmed if there are any discernible trends (other than the fact that the vote rejection invariably disadvantaged smaller parties). As the Guardian reported, in Edinburgh Central, "Labour's deputy environment minister, Sarah Boyack, held her seat with a majority of 1,193 but there were 1,501 rejected papers. In Glasgow Baillieston, the rejected total of 1,850 was more than 10 per cent of the votes accepted, and most constituencies saw at least 1,000 papers rejected - 10 times the norm." On the rare occasion where a result was challenged, it once again transpired that the 'irregularity' favored the ruling party, casting further doubts over the transparency of the process. If it weren't for a timely intervention by an SNP candidate--David Thompson of Highlands and Islands--which led to a recount reversing the result handing the seat to a Labour candidate, Blairites would still be in power. The commission's excuse for the blunder did little to alleviate concern. The computer file was 'misread' by 'exhausted vote counters', it claimed. Further questions are raised by the fact that Neil Kinnock, the former Labour leader, sits as a non-Executive Director on the board of DRS, the firm providing the electronic vote counting machines at the middle of this controversy. Despite expressing dissatisfaction with the process earlier on, SNP seems to have been sufficiently mollified by its victory to show any discernable vigor in the pursuit of an independent inquiry. While an independent commission was instituted for a review into the electoral fiasco headed by former UN observer Ron Gould, its findings will only become public in August. Given the history of official whitewashes in Britain, it would be wise not to expect much from the process. The time assigned the inquiry itself suggests a lack of urgency. What is remarkable however is the complete absence of media interest in the matter. Taking its cue from the media, the public remains equally indifferent. A greater cause for concern is the absence of any international outcry. The NGOs--which have assumed today the role played by Christian missionaries during the period of European colonization--remain completely silent, even though the elections were slammed by international observers. According to the Observer, Robert Richie, executive director of Fair Vote, who was in Scotland as a guest of the Electoral Reform Society said, 'It's totally unacceptable to have so many votes spoiled. There are parallels with the problems in the presidential election in Florida in 2000 We were also very concerned about the lack of uniform standards in judging what votes were rejected and which were deemed to be valid'. Europe and US hold other nations to standards that they themselves do not feel obliged to abide by. Venezuela has long been the target of myriad 'democracy promotion' programs; its opposition funded through various shady NGOs, some with links to the US State Department. With 'democracy' in the West being synonymous with the ratification of a ruling elite every four years, Venezuela's participatory model, however flawed, is deemed a 'threat of a good example' (to use an old State Department phrase first used in relation to the Sandanista government in Nicaragua) best kept at bay. So it is with some amusement that one watches representatives from countries where people still get excluded from the democratic process based on race and class (as they frequently are in the US) preach democratic empowerment to citizens of a country where every election has been ratified by respected international monitors, such as the Carter Centre. In the wake of the Church Commission inquiry in the '70s that exposed the CIA's role in many overthrows and assassinations of democratically elected governments and leaders, the US government instituted a less obtrusive apparatus for destabilizing governments deemed unfriendly to US interests, primarily relying on NGOs funded by the State Department. National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and USAID, the best known of these, have a long pedigree of subversion in Latin America and in Venezuela they have been funnelling funds to trade unions and other opposition groups in the guise of 'empowering' democratic institutions. A Freedom of Information request last year revealed that USAID has siphoned millions of dollars to the Venezuelan opposition through its Office of Transition Initiatives. These included grants of '$47,459 for a "democratic leadership campaign"; $37,614 for citizen meetings to discuss a "shared vision" for society; and one of $56,124 to analyse Venezuela's new constitution.' What USAID claims is merely an innocuous part of Bush's 'Freedom Agenda', is referred to by the US think tank Council on Hemispheric Affairs as 'diplomatic warfare', whereas the Venezuelan-American lawyer Eva Golinger calls it an attempt at 'regime change'. The recent ruckus over the closing down of Venezuela's RCTV raises many similar questions; the notion of 'free speech' was bandied about by many critics. In the West, 'free speech', like 'democracy', carries a narrow definition which focuses on the particularity of its institutional practice, rather than its universal meaning. It did not matter that the coup that RCTV supported was undermining the free expression of the millions who had voted for Chavez; 'free speech' was only invoked when a media institution that had helped suppress the voice of the multitudes by drowning it out in its relentless misleading coverage of the coup had its license not renewed. The defense of free speech in other words is merely the defense of the privileges of a media corporation--including that to lie--even if it impinges on the free expression of the public at large. To be sure, institutions are entitled to free speech just as much as individuals. However, this freedom is not license for them to use their unique powers to subvert public interest. The media should be allowed full leeway to speak truth to power; but should it turn into an instrument of power (a foreign one, no less) undermining democracy, the public must retain the right to impeach. As an accessory to a foreign power in its attempt to overthrow their elected government, Venezuelans are well within their rights to demand RCTV to be discipline. The question then is not of 'free speech', but of the level of public support for the government's action. For International NGOs--several deriving funds from the most unsavoury of sources--'free speech' figured as the single most important issue in their condemnations with the issue being stripped of its political context. Perhaps understandably, as some of the more vocal ones--Inter American Press Association (IAPA), Reporters Without Borders (RWB), Article 19--either have a history of association with the CIA (IAPA), or are funded by the State Department and the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office through NED and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (RWB, Article 19)--all entities invested in the earlier failed coup. If free speech were really the issue, their energies would be better spent fighting threats to it closer home, such as the muzzling of media on Iraq; the Hutton Inquiry; or the gagging of the press through the Official Secrets Act (as in the case of the Mirror, which was muzzled after publishing contents of a memo revealing Bush confiding his wish to bomb Al Jazeera's offices in Qatar to Tony Blair. The bus snakes languidly up the Andean foothills as the first rays of the sun fall on the sleeping valley. As we roll into Mérida the haze clears with the early morning sun highlighting features of the rugged terrain that forms the backdrop to the splendor of the city's colonial architecture. The monotony of the pastel walls is only broken by the exuberant hues of a mural celebrating the people's struggle, and another offering solidarity to the people of Lebanon and Palestine resisting the latest Israeli assault. As we settle down for breakfast in the centre of this university town--in clear view of the ubiquitous statue of Simone Bolivar--I notice a frail old man standing in the corner with expectant eyes. Before I can get up, one student has placed money in his hand, and another bought him food. It is a welcome relief from the callousness I had witnessed in some of the more affluent quarters of Caracas, where a Thatcherite worldview still prevails. Individual acts of generosity aside, poverty is still rife and despite the government's encouragement for the citizens to form their own cooperatives which are then be funded by the state, the bloated bureaucracy still impedes progress. Remnants of the ancien régime while accommodating themselves to the new political reality, are merely biding time, and have little interest in the country's progress. 'The problem with the Fifth Republic is that its administration is still reliant on the political apparatus from the fourth republic', the co-founder of Clase Media Revolucionarios observes. 'The idea has taken off, but the system has yet to catch up'. Back in Scotland one only hopes ideas would some day catch up with a runaway system. Muhammad Idrees Ahmad is a researcher at Spinwatch. His regular commentaries appear on The Fanonite. Your Ad Here

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