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Questions Labor's Leaders Daren't Ask: Where and Why Did We Go Wrong? by JoAnn Wypijewski; Oil on Ice: How Bush Won ANWR, with an Assist from the Dems by Jeffrey St. Clair; The Self-Rehab of George Kennan by Alexander Cockburn; The State and Terri Schiavo: a Conversation with Ralph Nader; Lisa Frittko: She Escorted Walter Benjamin Across the Pyrennes by Lawrence Reichard. Remember these stories are available exclusively in the print edition of CounterPunch. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 |
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Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY  Today's Stories April 13, 2005 Jeffrey St.
Clair April 12, 2005 John Wheat
Gibson Kevin Zeese Alan Farago Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Nelson P. Valdes Dave Zirin Website of the Day
April 11, 2005 Tom Barry Saul Landau Monique Dols Phil Gasper Mike Whitney Edwin Krales Paul de Rooij Website of the Day
April 9 / 10, 2005 Jeffrey St.
Clair William A. Cook Gary Leupp Alan Maass Laura Carlsen Joe DeRaymond Nikolas Kozloff Dave Lindorff Greg Moses Fred Gardner Justin Smith Ron Jacobs M. Junaid Alam Ira Kay Elizabeth Schulte Jackie Corr Christopher
Brauchli Leslie A. Fiedler Ben Tripp Poets Basement Website of
the Weekend
April 8, 2005 Rob Eshelman Hom Raj Acharya
/ Sally Acharya Felice Pace Neve Gordon Mike Whitney Don Monkerud Adam Engel Vicente Navarro Website of the Day
April 7, 2005 Joshua Frank Yitzhak Laor Alan Maass Steven Sherman Dave Lindorff Gerry Adams John Chuckman Michael Dickinson John Ross Website of the Day
April 6, 2005 Peter Camejo Kevin Wehr Matt Vidal Robert Creeley
/ Bruce Jackson Nikolas Kozloff Sea Shepherd Crew Brenda Child Terry Eagleton David Swanson Cindy Ellen
Hill Website of
the Day
April 5, 2005 Jim Connolly Paul Craig
Roberts Gary Leupp Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Dan Smith Mark Engler Richard Oxman Greg Moses Website of the Day
April 4, 2005 Kevin Zeese Paul Craig Roberts Larry Birns
/ Sarah Schaffer Karyn Strickler Joshua Frank Michael Dickinson Surendra R.
Devkota Derrick O'Keefe Uri Avnery Website of the Day
April 2 / 3, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Stan Goff John Ross Saul Landau Robert Creeley Mike Roselle Joshua Frank Fred Gardner Greg Moses Fran Quigley Kurt Nimmo Nicole Colson Chris Genovali Alan Farago Lawrence Reichard Ben Tripp Avantika Regmi Lee Sustar Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Poets' Basement Website of
the Day
April 1, 2005 Tom Barry Rahul Mahajan Charlie Cray
/ Jim Vallette Dave Lindorff Zeynep Toufe Suzan Mazur Michael Dickinson Stan Cox Ra Ravishankar Daniel Wolff
March 31, 2005 Sharon Smith Ron Jacobs Tariq Ali Michael Dickinson Kanak Mani
Dixit Mitchell Zimmerman Xuan-Trang
Ho Dave Zirin Joe Bageant Jeff Halper Website of
the Day
March 30, 2005 Gary Leupp Ralph Nader
/ Kevin Zeese Chase Madar Toni Solo Jackie Corr Ahmad Faruqui Mike Roselle Jude Wanniski Francis A.
Boyle Jeffrey St.
Clair Website of
the Day
March 29, 2005 Ralph Nader Gary Leupp Sonia Cardenas Stew Albert Mark Weisbrot Dave Lindorff Carl G. Estabrook
March 28, 2005 Jeremy Scahill Sonali Kolhatkar Sasha Kramer Kevin Zeese Tom Stephens Dr. Teresa Whitehurst Newton Garver Paul Craig
Roberts Website of the Day
March 26 / 27, 2005 Gary Leupp Peter Linebaugh Marc Robert Laura Carlsen Saul Landau
/ Puja Patel Dave Foreman Fred Gardner Jennifer Matsui Dave Lindorff Dharma Adhikari Joshua Frank Patrick Barr Christopher
Brauchli Ramzy Baroud Jackie Corr Ben Tripp Dr. Susan Block Mickey Z. Justin Taylor Richard Joseph Poets' Basement
March 25, 2005 Scott Richard
Lyons Yoshie Furuhashi Pat Williams Mark Engler Rahul Mahajan Lance Selfa Ralph Nader John R. Llewellyn Jo Guldi
March 24, 2005 Joshua Frank Talli Nauman Martin Espada Dave Lindorff Elaine Cassel Jack McCarthy Jack Random Barbara Ferguson Suzan Mazur Dorreen Yellow Bird Andrew Wimmer
and Mark Chmiel
Patrick Bond Mike Whitney Becky White Michael Donnelly Niranjan Ramakrishnan Ashley Smith David Swanson Derrick O'Keefe Paul A. Moore Dalton Walker Patrick Cockburn
March 22, 2005 William Blum Jim Vallette Greg Moses John Farley Ron Jacobs M. Junaid Alam Rep. Cynthia
McKinney Dave Lindorff James Petras
March 21, 2005 John Walsh Werther Mike Stark David Swanson James T. Phillips Mike Ferner Robert Jensen Paul Craig
Roberts Stew Albert Website of
the Day
March 19, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Tom Reeves Saul Landau Alan Maass Ron Jacobs David Green John Blair Steve Greenfield Ben Tripp Mike Roselle Joshua Frank Mark Weisbrot Dave Lindorff Sarah Schaffer Warren Hastings Poets' Basement
March 18, 2005 Dave Zirin Richard Thieme John Walsh David Swanson Ben Terrall David Boyle Dorreen Yellow Bird Mokhiber /
Weissman Greg Moses Website of
the Day
March 17, 2005 Christopher
Brauchli Bill Quigley Brian Cloughley Gary Bass / Adam Hughes Dave Lindorff Jude Wanniski Alexander Billet John Ross Website of the Day
March 16, 2005 Ralph Nader William Cook Kevin Zeese Jackie Corr Alan Maass David R. Kolker Cindy Ellen
Hill Paul Craig
Roberts
March 15, 2005 Gary Leupp Dave Lindorff Greg Moses Hadas Their
/ Katrina Yeaw Alison Weir Matt Koehler Evelyn Pringle Harry Browne
March 14, 2005 Ralph Nader David Miller Stan Cox Mike Roselle David Swanson Simona Sharoni Dave Lindorff Dorreen Yellow Bird Tom Barry Website of the Day
March 12 / 13, 2005 David H. Price Noam Chomsky Laura Carlsen Stan Goff Valentina Nicoli Michael Leonardi Saul Landau
/ Sarah Anderson Joe Bageant Manuel García,
Jr. Greg Moses James J. Brittain Ben Tripp Joshua Frank Fred Gardner Walter Brasch Ramzy Baroud Christopher
Brauchli Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Richard Oxman Poets' Basement
March 11, 2005 Jerry Fresia Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff William James
Martin Muqtedar Khan Kathryn Ledebur Mike Whitney Dave Zirin Website of the Day
March 10, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts John Marc Leas, Colleen McLaughlin
and Ashley Smith Larry Birns Michael Donnelly Luis Gomez Jackie Corr Uri Avnery Website of the Day
March 9, 2005 Jeffrey St.
Clair Ward Churchill Robert Fisk Bernice Powell Jackson Mickey Z. Dave Zirin Michael Donnelly James Reiss Vijay Prashad
March 8, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts Robert Fisk Kurt Nimmo Suzan Mazur Evelyn Pringle Giuliana Sgrena Elaine Cassel
March 7, 2005 Dave Zirin Brian Cloughley John Chuckman Mike Whitney Mark Weisbrot Fred Gardner Richard Neville Uri Avnery
March 5 / 6, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Gary Leupp Ron Jacobs Tom Reeves Jenna Orkin Tom Barry Joshua Frank Moshe Adler Jane Stillwater Omar Barghouti / Jacqueline
Sfeir Christopher
Brauchli John Pilger Raúl
Zibechi David Krieger Three Takes on Nepal Surendra R. Devkota Bhishma Karki Joseph Pietri Ben Tripp Poets' Basement Website of
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March 4, 2005 Frederick Hudson
March 3, 2005 Pat Williams Brian Cloughley Dave Lindorff Amira Hass Greg Moses Lynne Landes Nelson P. Valdés John Ross
March 2, 2005 Saul Landau
/ Farrah Hassen Mike Roselle M. Junaid Alam Suzan Mazur Jackson Thoreau Michael Donnelly Jeffrey St.
Clair Website of the Day
March 1, 2005 Scott Richard
Lyons David Lindorff Patrick Cockburn
/ David Enders Ron Jacobs Tanya Garcia Joseph Pietri Kona Lowell Paul Craig
Roberts Website of
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April 13, 2005 Under pressure, Bolton Cites Work in Little-Known African Colony to Defend His Record at UNBolton in the Western SaharaBy MARIA CARRIÓN Madrid, Spain With his controversial past statements on the United Nations now being used as munition against his candidacy to be the United States Ambassador at the UN, President George W. Bush's nominee John Bolton has an uphill battle in proving himself as anything but an enemy of the global body. But at his raucous confirmation hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week, Bolton pointed to his pro-bono work on a little-known area of the world as evidence that he respects the work of the UN: Africa's last colony, the Western Sahara. Bolton assisted former Secretary of State James Baker when his then-boss was appointed UN Special Envoy to the Western Sahara and given the task of organizing a referendum for self-determination in the territory, which has been occupied by Morocco for the past 30 years. For just a minute, Bolton put this tiny territory on the Senate's map. Many of the Senators attending the hearings might have never heard of the Western Sahara, a stretch of land that lies between Morocco and Mauritania. In 1975, Morocco invaded the Western Sahara following the withdrawal of Spain, its former colonial ruler. The invasion had the support of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and was facilitated by Spain with the signing of an agreement that allowed Morocco and Mauritania to take possession of the land. Mauritania later withdrew. The brutal military invasion was followed by a repopulation campaign known as the Green March, with hundreds of thousands of Moroccan citizens moving to the area with the promise of financial aid and a better life. At the same time, almost 200,000 Sahrawis, as the natives of the land are known, were forced into exile, settling in camps in Algeria, whose government has supported them financially and militarily. Others too frail to make the long trip by foot through the Sahara Desert stayed behind in the occupied lands, creating traumatic family separations that have lasted to this day. Thousands of others were killed, disappeared or jailed, while many young men and some women joined the newly-formed Polisario Front in a war against Morocco that lasted until 1991, and that produced thousands of deaths on both sides. With US aid, Morocco built a wall more like an interminable sand trench lined with over a million landmines stretching for over one thousand kilometers between the occupied lands and a small part of the Western Sahara controlled by the Polisario Front, known as the "liberated zone." Morocco refers to it as the "protective wall"; Sahrawis call it the "wall of shame." Despite several UN resolutions calling for a referendum on self-determination and a ruling by the World Court denying Morocco sovereignty over the territory, the issue has languished at the Security Council since the 1991 cease-fire, its members reluctant to annoy their close ally Morocco. The United Nations peacekeeping mission to the territory, known as MINURSO, is to expire at the end of this month. The Council will once again vote to prolong it by a few months and will thus continue to postpone a final resolution on the issue, unable to agree on a final plan and unwilling to force Morocco to abide by its international obligations to allow a referendum. As Morocco's closest ally, France supports a solution that ultimately adjudicates the land to Rabat, while the US wavers between its ties with Morocco Washington just signed a bilateral free trade agreement with Rabat that specifically excludes the Western Sahara and its resources and its newfound, post-September 11 interest in Algeria, which is becoming a strategic US ally on the war against terrorism. As the world's only superpower, the United States is key to resolving the issue. Meanwhile, the socialist government of Spain seems to be moving away from its historic support of a referendum on independence for the Sahrawis, and towards a solution more accommodating to Morocco. This is part of an all-out effort by Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to repair his country's damaged relationship with its southern neighbor, which suffered under the presidency of Jose Maria Aznar. Polisario Front representatives in Madrid have expressed deep concern over Spain's shift, saying that as a former colonial ruler with legal administrative powers in the territory, Spain has much to say about the conflict, just as Portugal's position was key to the organization of a referendum in East Timor. Spanish citizens, the large majority strongly supportive of an independent Western Sahara, are asking the Zapatero government to reconsider its position. Baker, who presented two different peace plans during his seven-year mandate, left last June after Morocco pulled out of the last agreement, which the Polisario had accepted. Along with Bolton, current Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick served on Baker's team. The agreement they drafted, known as the Baker Plan II, called for an initial vote on autonomy, followed by a second vote five years later on independence. The negotiations were continuously mired in disputes over who would have the right to vote in either referendum whether it would just involve the indigenous Sahrawis listed in a 1974 census conducted by Spain just before its withdrawal, or also include the Moroccan settlers of the Green March. The Baker Plan would have allowed only the pre-invasion Sahrawis to vote on autonomy, and would have permitted Moroccan settlers to vote on independence, an arrangement clearly favorable to Morocco. But Morocco pulled out, unwilling to take even a minimal risk at the polls. Now, approaching the 30th anniversary of the invasion, hundreds of thousands of natives of the Western Sahara continue to languish in the harshest of conditions in refugee camps in Western Algeria or under Morocco's brutal occupation, all but forgotten by the rest of the world. The Western Sahara is Africa's last remaining colony. But shareholders at the Oklahoma-based energy company Kerr-McGee are probably more than familiar by now with the issue. Kerr-McGee is the sole remaining oil company conducting offshore oil explorations in the disputed territory. Its investors are currently the target of a campaign launched by NGO's in 20 different countries asking them to force the company to abandon its agreements with the Moroccan government by not renewing its contract, due to expire on May 1st. Organized through the US-based Western Sahara Resource Watch, the campaign asks investors to sell their shares if the company does not heed their demands. In 2001, Kerr-McGee and the French oil company TotalFinElf signed contracts with Morocco to explore possible oil reserves off the coast of the Western Sahara. Total ended its activities after a Danish company conducting its pre-exploration seismic studies decided to leave due to public pressure from NGO's. Kerr-McGee thus far refuses to abandon its activities, despite an opinion issued by the UN Under-Secretary General for Legal Affairs in 2002 that while the status of the Western Sahara remains unresolved, further exploration of oil and mineral resources are "in violation of international law." Other divestment campaigns have been successful: one major Kerr-McGee investor, the Norwegian Skagenfondene, sold its shares rather than risk negative publicity, taking a two million dollar loss. Another Norwegian investor in Kerr-McGee, the government-owned Norwegian Petroleum Fund, is also considering selling its shares, valued at around $7 million. Oil is not the only valuable resource in the Western Sahara. The land is rich in phosphates, and its coasts are estimated to offer the most plentiful fishing in the Atlantic. These past few days, tensions have escalated in the occupied area between the local Sahrawi people and tens of thousands of Moroccans who have established fishing settlements along the coast with the encouragement of their government, and whom the Sahrawis accuse of depleting the ocean of its fishing resources. Oddly, despite its traditionally socialist outlook, the Polisario Front's strongest backers in Washington are mostly composed of conservatives, most of them tied to think tanks such as the Defense Forum Foundation, the American Conservative Union and the American Enterprise Institute, which houses Bolton, Richard Perle, Jeane Kirkpatrick and Newt Gingrich. Those who know Bolton say he is strongly in favor of a referendum for the Sahrawis, having visited the refugee camps. On its website, the Defense Forum Foundation, which has financed numerous trips by US members of Congress and their staff to the refugee camps, describes the Sahrawis as a "pro-Western" population that is fighting against occupation. Perhaps these groups are attracted to the cause because the Polisario Front is a profoundly secular political organization, and is thus seen by American conservatives as a counterbalance for other, more Islamic-leaning governments in the region. Much of this may also be the work of a lone activist in Washington, DC, Polisario Front representative Mouloud Said, whose work making the Sahrawi cause known in Washington is so effective that Morocco has had to pay millions of dollars to PR firms to counter Said's effect. So paradoxically, a progressive group of people see Bolton's nomination to the UN as a ray of hope for their cause. This speaks to the utter failure of the international community to resolve the problem, and points to a lack of political courage by large nations to defend a people that ask only to be given the opportunity to decide on their own fate. Long forgotten and often betrayed by leftist political parties, the Sahrawis welcome any attention to the issue. The younger generations of refugees, who have never seen their land, are restless to see the issue resolved. Most have had the opportunity to travel beyond their barren homes, thanks to a program that sends schoolchildren to Spain over the summer, and later to university in Spain, Algeria, Cuba or Russia. Many come home with degrees such as ocean engineering or architecture, inapplicable in the camps but crucial for a future life elsewhere. It is they who will rebuild their homeland, if given a chance. Maria Carrión, a freelance journalist living in
Madrid, is a former producer for Democracy Now! She can be reached
at: MARIACARRION@cs.com
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