Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
Now Available!
Today's
Stories
June
29, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Hamdi, Padilla & Rasul: Who Really
Won?
June
28, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn / Leyla Linton
Grisly Rituals in Iraq
Amira
Hass
Confronting Myths and Deadly Power
June
26 / 27, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Venezuela: the Gang's All Here
Patrick
Cockburn
Iyad Allawi, the CIA's New Stooge
in Iraq
Dennis
Hans
Once They Were Sweethearts: Cheney,
the NYTs and the Myth of an Iraq Link to 9/11
Ben
Tripp
Adventures in Fuel Efficiency
Dave
Lindorff
That State Department Terrorism
Report: What They Knew, But Didn't Tell You
Chris
Floyd
Cold Irons Bound: the Russian Gambit
Ali
Tonak
Contamination at Berkeley: Profit Motives,
Academic Freedom and the Case of Ignacio Chapela
Keith
Rosenthal
The Withering of the Anti-War Movement
Bryan
Sacks
The Failure of the 9/11 Commission
Wayne
Madsen
Another Case of Blowback
Thomas
St. John
L. Frank Baum, Racist: Indian-Hating
in the Wizard of Oz
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
American Swadeshi
June
25, 2004
Stephen
Gowans
US to North Korea: "Trust Us"
Saul
Landau
2006 Pentagon Budget as Sacrilege:
Bush Invests the National Treasure in Death and Destruction
Amir
Butler
Iraq: the Deadly Embrace
Jack
McCarthy
Another Times Plagiarism Scandal?
Did Maureen Dowd Lift from the World Weekly News?
Greg
Bates
Chomsky and Zinn Plan to Vote Nader
June 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
John
Lehman on the Iraq / al-Qaeda Links
Patrick Cockburn
A
Day in the Life of Col. Abu Mohammed: Defusing Bombs, Facing
Death Threats
Harry Browne
On
the Rebound: Bush Bounces Back...in Europe
Bill Kaufman
Another
Marxist for Kerry: Joel Kovel's Sad Smear of Ralph Nader
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush,
Cheney and the 9/11 Commission: What Did They Know? What Did
They Tell?
Rick Gioimbetti
Andrea Yates: Victim of Psychiatric Violence?
John Chuckman
Call Center ID Hypocrisy
Diane Johnstone
Kerry
and Kosovo: the Lie of a "Good War"
June 23, 2004
Laura Carlsen
Bush
and Castro Face Off
Dave Zirin
Barry
Bonds vs. Boston: "A Flea Market of Racism"
Kurt Nimmo
From
Saddam, With Love
Patricia Wolff
Foundation Wars
Mahboob A. Khawaja
"They Had Me Arrested and Shackled My Son"
Patrick Cockburn
The
Pretense of an Independent Iraq
Website of the Day
The Road to Abu Ghraib
June 22, 2004
Dave Lindorff
The
Meaning of Putin's Pronouncement: Mutually Assured Pre-emption
Ron Jacobs
Nuclear Plants in US Protectorate of Iraq?
Vanessa Jones
Coogee, Peter Garrett and Valium Earrings
Mickey Z
An Open Letter to the People of Iraq
John L. Hess
Clinton Exhales
Pedro Marset/Ex-Solidarity
Committee for Pacho Cortés
An Exchange on the Case of Pacho Cortés
Bruce Jackson
Saying
No to Prosecutors: Why Steve Kurtz's Colleagues Refused to Testify
Website of the Day
From Boot Camp to Boot Hill
June
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Putin's Helpful Remarks
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti After the Press Went Home: Chaos
Upon Chaos
Cockburn
/ Khan
Saddam May Face Death Penalty
Uri
Avnery
Irreversible Mental Damage
June
19 / 20, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Inside the Green Zone: US is Paranoid
and Isolated
Bruce
Anderson
Frozen Gringos
Diane
Christian
Morality and Death: a Meditation
on Bush and Blake
Walter
A. Davis
Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib
Josh
Frank
How Democrats Helped Bush Rape Mother
Nature
Col.
Dan Smith
Respectable Genocide?: the Crisis
in Sudan
Brian
Cloughley
A Profound Disruption of the Senses
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Timken Plant, a
Year Later
Prudence
Crowther
Mr. Ashcroft, Deport Me!
Poets'
Basement
Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and Albert
Kathy
Kelly
Dying to See Their Kids
June
18, 2004
Chris
Floyd
Blood Victory
Dave
Zirin
Danielle Green, Basketball Player
& Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against War
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Christian Question in American
Politics
Gary
Leupp
The "Long-Established" Link?:
Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi
June
17, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
18, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
16, 2004
Lenni
Brenner
A Question for Kerry Supporters
Davey
D
Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan
Daniel
Wolff
Why Did Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner
Abuse?
Bruce
Jackson
Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake
Patrick
Cockburn
Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power
Facilities
Gary
Handschumacher
Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads
JG
Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop
Mario
Benedetti
Obituary with Cheers
Vicente
Navarro
Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who
is Rodrigo Rato?
Website
of the Day
Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch
June
15, 2004
Harry
Browne
Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe
Neve
Gordon
The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
David
Palmer
Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI
John
Blair
Lovelock's Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming
Dave
Lindorff
God Wins in TKO
Bill
Quigley
Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step
In
Patrick
Cockburn
Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast
John
Chuckman
John Kerry, Political Placebo
June
14, 2004
John
Stanton / Wayne Madsen
Torture, Inc: Oliver North Joins
the Party
Kathy
Kelly
Requiems: What Happens When Compassion Dies?
Bruce
Jackson
Bush Gets Testy About Torture
Lee
Sustar
Strikers Defy Visteon's Company Thugs
Kurt
Nimmo
The Desperate Censors: the Republican Plot to Kill Farhenheit
9/11
Jim
Davis
Hard Right Nativism
Eliot
Katz
Death and War
Uri
Avnery
The Nightmare Comes True
Website
of the Day
Instruments of Statecraft
June 12 / 13, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto
and Runnymede
Team
CounterPunch
CP's Favorite Albums
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Troy, Now and Then
Gary
Leupp
Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq?
Brian
Cloughley
US Military in Crisis
Antonio
Ponvert, III
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben
Tripp
The Polls Get Stupider
Joe
Bageant
Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron
Jacobs
The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher
Brauchli
Federal Bureau of Errors
Kurt
Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi, Again
Wayne
Madsen
Israel's Slap at Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World
Michael
Donnelly
A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg
Moses
Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan
Davis
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Joseph
Ramsey
Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The 18th Brumaire in the 21st
Century
Wayne
Saunders
The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup
Poets'
Basement
Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Insurgent Music
June
11, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Reagan in Truth and Fiction
Ron
Jacobs
Ray Charles' Legacy of Spirit
Chris
Floyd
Funeral Games
Steven
Sherman
How Reagan Destroyed the Democrats and Paved the Way for Clinton
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Remembering Reagan
Norman
Solomon
Media's Mourning in America
Paul
Alexander
The Kerry Fantasies of Chalmers Johnson
CounterPunch
Wire
The Terror Hour: Miami TV Station Invites Commandoes to Talk
About Planned Attacks on Cuba
June
10, 2004
Noam
Chomsky
The Apotheosis of Reagan : Divinity
Through Marketing
Gary
Leupp
Bush, the Religious Scholar
Patrick
Cockburn
The Iraqi Street Has Spoken: New
Govt. Made Up of CIA Pawns
Saul
Landau
Force-Feeding Lies About Free Trade
Scott
Evans
Settling for the System: How Punkvoter.com Became Just Another
Tool of the Democrats
Jacob
Levich
John Kerry's World of Hurt: Senator Supports Beam Weapons
Zeynep
Toufe
Reagan, Neo-Cons and the "Intelligence Failures"
Nico
Pitney
Reform at Wal-Mart?
Dave
Zirin
Son of a Reagan: What a Sporty 6-Year Old Saw at the Revolution
Jack
McCarthy
Where Were You When Reagan Croaked?
Gary
Corseri
Nouns That Should be Acronyms
David
Price
Reagan and the Black Budget
Website
of the Day
Inequality by the Numbers
June
9, 2004
Mustafa
Barghouthi
Israel's Common Use of Torture
Must be Exposed
Mike
Whitney
Alan Dershowitz, Still Defending
Torture
John
Chuckman
Why the CIA will Always be a Costly Flop
Jim
Tarbell / Roger Burbach
Bush's Democratic Charade in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Put Reagan on the $3 Bill
Miguel
D'Escoto
Reagan was the Butcher of My People
Becky
Burgwin
The Betrayal of Smarty Jones: Flogging a Natural Born Hero
Patrick
Cockburn
The Rich Have Been Warned to Leave
Baghdad
June
8, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Nature of Ronald Reagan: Will
the Earth Accept His Corpse?
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
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
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.
|
June
29, 2004
'Chicken
George' in Ireland
Bush
Off and Don't Come Back
By
HARRY BROWNE
George W. Bush won't fondly recall this
weekend's close encounter with Ireland--and the feeling is mutual.
On the eve of his arrival the
normal Irish hostility to Bush had settled at the level of a
disgruntled murmur rather than an angry roar. But Bush himself
turned out to be the best cheerleader--or, rather, roarleader--that
anti-war activists could have hoped for: while numbers at demonstrations
were only middling (10,000-plus in Dublin was the most we mustered,
a small fraction of what Ronald Reagan attracted in the now-forgotten
protests of 1984), the radio phone-ins and Sunday newspapers
suggest a new level of bitterness toward Dubya. Boston may be
the next parish west, but John Kerry must wish Ireland had its
own electoral votes, because he'd sweep them in a landslide.
The president roused Middle
Ireland from its indifference mainly with a nasty, tetchy performance
in a pre-journey TV interview on RTE's Prime Time, and with the
White House's crybaby reaction to it--including refusing the
relevant journalist, Carole Coleman, a previously agreed interview
with the First Lady. Resentment was already simmering here about
the costly and over-the-top security arrangements for the visit,
with many residents around Shannon Airport and Dromoland Castle
refusing to use the special 'passes' issued to them by the police,
and newspaper readers horrified at images of all the Irish army's
tanks rolling in convoy through Clare, as though Al-Qaeda were
planning to form battle ranks with its own armoured divisions
moving in from Galway. Join the security paranoia and the media
petulance together and the weekend's inevitable headline, used
at least twice by tabloids, is "Chicken George".
Coleman is perhaps the least
likely journalist to find herself in the midst of this sort of
flap. ("Savaged by a sheep" is the phrase that springs
to mind.) Reporting from Washington for RTE for a few years now,
she's never appeared particularly interested in the place or
in her work. She's the sort of foreign correspondent who is content
to find her line in the local mainstream media, regurgitating
wisdom about the world as seen by CNN and the Washington Post.
To be sure, as the US media has found a small amount of election-year
aggression, her work has reflected that, albeit faintly and soporifically.
But the White House would have felt safe to assume that her 12
allotted minutes with the president--something of a tradition
for the national broadcaster in the event of such a visit--would
consist of softball questions about our nations' historic links,
the peace process blah blah blah, stuff even Bush could handle
in his sleep.
Instead, Coleman looked like
she'd downed six cups of coffee to steady her nerves and launched
an aggressive-if-slightly-vapid line of questions about the deadly
consequences of the Iraq invasion, interrupting Bush when he
waffled or wandered. Bush wagged a finger at her and interrupted
her back. By the time they got to her pointed question about
whether he felt he was guided by God, he finished his evasive
stammerings about his "personal relationship with the Good
Lord" by declaring "that doesn't make me a better person
than you"--and you could tell he didn't mean it: he hated
her.
Some people, to be sure, reckon
Coleman went over the top. But many saw a mad-eyed belligerence
in Bush that was surprising in light of his June 'statesman'
act. Then came the bullying attacks on Coleman, including the
withdrawal of the Laura Bush interview--and even US network veterans
reckoned the White House was throwing its weight around against
a puny opponent in an astonishingly ugly fashion.
And if that weren't enough
to steam Dubya up good, a lucky photographer at Dromoland got
a picture of Bush in his underwear closing the curtains for beddy-by
time, before 10pm--i.e. 5pm Washington time, after a short day's
travel--and the tabloids ran it with glee. (Irish police were
reportedly carpeted by US secret service for the security lapse.)
And Bush's final press conference was held up 20 minutes because
'AmBush 2004' protesters rather inadvertently blocked press buses
en route to the castle.
These Bush troubles and the
reporting of them have inevitably led to accusations and breast-beating
about 'left-wing media bias'. Is there any need to tell Counterpunch
readers that these are complete and utter bollocks? (Yours truly
is particularly sensitive on the subject since I was dropped
from the Irish Times after a series of political arguments) Irish
media are of course marginally better than US media at reflecting
the views of the vast majority of the earth's population about
the Bush administration and its foreign policy, but the difference
is marginal. And as in the US, those who shout about 'left-wing
media bias' have much more access to the media than anyone left-wing:
Coleman's predecessor in Washington, Mark Little, writes painfully
pompous best-sellers about how Ireland misunderstands the US,
and ex-US diplomat George Dempsey has written another similar
polemic built around a handful of debatable citations. Both of
them are feted with enormous uncritical interviews across the
media (though also, of course, with challenging reviews). Dempsey
got 10 easy minutes on Ireland's most popular radio show on the
very morning of Bush's arrival.
The next day, Bush still in
situ, a 'Republicans Abroad' representative recited an absurd
list of distortions about the US 'achievement' in Iraq, from
electricity to education, and the interviewer came up with no
more than "But accepting all that"
Without doubt, the media here
stifled genuine debate about Bush--beyond the pathetic 'Democrats
Abroad' level--and suppressed information about protest. Perhaps
the most pernicious example of this was one that most media consumers
would never know about. RTE, as host broadcaster for the Dromoland
summit, was responsible for providing footage for use by other
broadcasters, including US networks. On Friday evening as Air
Force One touched down, despite widespread international-press
interest in protests (the only story, really) RTE offered no
footage whatsoever of that evening's airport march and rally,
attended by more than 1,000 people who braved the menacing security
arrangements and a typical spitting rain. (One intrepid CBS producer,
on seeing this omission, did manage to grab a crew and get some
last-minute, end-of-protest video for that network.) Was this
a case of RTE losing its nerve after the Coleman debacle? RTE's
only shareholder is the Irish state, and with the government
reportedly siding with the White House on the interview, it's
not surprising that the broadcaster might try to be on its best
behaviour. At any rate, the result was that most people around
the world had no chance to see the Irish protests on television.
Some of the popular disquiet
about the Bush visit has been nationalistic. 'Our' broadcaster
bullied by the White House. 'Our' army at the disposal of a foreign
power. 'Our' police commissioner dressed down in his own country
by the US secret service. We were temporarily living the reality
of 'occupied territory'.
In the end, 'our' security
forces, perhaps touched by this sort of nationalist pride, were
much less hostile to anti-Bush protesters than anyone who was
water-cannoned on May Day this year, or bludgeoned on May Day
2002, would have been prepared to forecast. Perhaps it was a
case of 'Mission Accomplished': the latest May Day confrontation,
and the frightening pictures of a thoroughly militarised County
Clare, had scared away all but the most hardened protesters.
The priority, to minimise most people's sense of their capacity
to participate in radical action, was already in place by the
time we began to arrive in the area. The 6,000 police and army
personnel looked bored, at worst, and one cop shouted out "Thanks
for the overtime!"
It was not entirely a case
of good-cop-good-cop: on Friday afternoon police raided a 'Peace
Camp' several miles from the airport and burst protesters' balloons--literally.
The good-humoured anarchists video'ed the event and proceeded
to demonstrate shorn of several hundred black balloons (though
some of the stash survived the Garda boots).
By Saturday afternoon the unthinkable
was happening: cops chatted with protesters as they walked together
along the various roads near the airport. At one point I found
myself driving, caught behind a group of demonstrators, and a
cop was outraged at my cautious attempt to drive past. "This
is your protest!" he declared, rather mysteriously. (My
front-seat companion was a Palestinian cameraman, and I was browner
after a dusty, sunny day, so perhaps he took us both for visiting
Arabs.) "I have to protect your protesters!"
Riot police did make a fleeting
and passive appearance, tolerating the handful of folks who danced
past their lines. More bizarrely, at one point Irish army APCs
drove toward a group of protesters, who quickly got over their
fear and bafflement, clambered on top and sprayed the vehicles
with graffiti. Some over-enthusiastic anarchists proceeded to
regale the rest of us for hours about how they "captured
two tanks".
In the absence of truly massive
mass protest in Clare (numbers never exceeded about 2,000), such
creativity was the order of the day. Former Irish army commandant
Ed Horgan, now a committed peace activist, brought a boat into
Shannon estuary with two comrades, and all three were arrested
for their efforts. Horgan's bail conditions reportedly included
a 20-mile exclusion zone around the airport, which if enforced
rigorously would have meant he couldn't go to his own home.
Even with Bush gone, Shannon
remains the focus for many anti-war activists here. More than
10,000 US soldiers pass through every month, going to and from
Iraq and Afghanistan. Cargo planes refuel too, as has a jet believed
to be used by the CIA snatch-squads ferrying 'high-value targets'
around the world.
So it's with good reason that
a sign pointing the way to the local McDonald's was carefully
amended to read 'SHANNON D I E THRU'. Shannon is an important
link in the chain of corruption and brutality that runs from
the boardrooms of America, through the White House, and into
the oil fields of Iraq. Breaking that link would give encouragement
to others resisting the Empire, and it would weaken the chain.
If passionate creative effort
could build a successful movement, we'd have won by now. A wonderful
20-foot long Iraqi flag was lovingly inscribed in Arabic, "We
don't want occupation, we want peace"--and was a favourite
with that Palestinian cameraman. A guy who planned to lead a
contingent walking from the surfers' beach at Lahinch, more than
20 miles away, found only one friend willing to join him, but
trudged along strumming his guitar anyway. A slightly larger
group carried a Guatanamo-style cage, complete with orange jumpsuit,
and demanded access to Bush to make a citizen's arrest for war
crimes. (Bananas were thoughtfully hung on the cage bars for
the intended prisoner.)
Perhaps most successful of
all, at least in attracting media attention, was 'MacBush', in
which the final scene of Shakespeare's Macbeth was enacted between
the village of Clarecastle and the castle at Dromoland, where
Bush was staying. Protesters advanced on the castle carrying
cardboard cut-out trees, Birnam Wood come to Dunsinane--each
tree bearing the name of a dead Iraqi civilian. Caoimhe Butterly,
well known for her brave activism in the Israeli-occupied territories,
was Lady Macbeth, warning that "all the perfumes of Arabia
will not sweeten this little hand", and Catholic Worker
Ciaron O'Reilly was in US-army fatigues as Banquo's ghost. (See
www.indymedia.ie for more details and great images of the weekend
events.)
But for all the sense of tragic
importance and occasional high spirits among protesters, there
was a sense that we had been successfully boxed in by the authorities.
Condoleezza Rice, in an interview with Irish journalists prior
to the visit, had reminded Irish protesters that they were enjoying
the benefits of democracy, of the sort soon to be visited on
Iraq. But as one leaflet doing the rounds put it, we had simply
reached the "Free Speech Compound", where our protests
could echo off the 12-foot cement walls.
Maggie Roynayne of Global Women's
Strike pointed to the walls, to the helicopters, police horses
and dogs, the weapons unseen but no doubt ready for us, and asked,
"Is this democracy?... We don't accept any of this as normal!"
For once, the activist's sentiment
seemed to be shared by most people in Ireland.
Harry Browne is a journalist and lecturer in the
school of media at Dublin Institute of Technology: harrybrowne@eircom.net
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