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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers! 400 FEMALE MURDERS ON THE US-MEXICO BORDER Who's been killing hundreds of girls around Juarez since the 1990s: Satanists, organ traffickers, drug gangs, cops? Debbie Nathan lays bare the political and psychic economy of femicide. PLUS R.F.Blader on why feminists shouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton. Plus Michael Neumann on the One-State Illusion. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great holiday presents. Order CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year !

Today's Stories January 21, 2008 Kevin Alexander Gray PLaying the Race Card January 19 / 20, 2008 Alexander Cockburn The Campaign in Black and White Saul Landau Good Time Charlie's War China Hand Endgame for Pakistan? Conn Hallinan Desert Mirage: What Was the Bombing of Syria Really About? Ron Jacobs No Retreat Dave Lindorff A Tax Rebate Won't Fix This Mess Andy Worthington Canada's Humiliating Double Standard on Torture Paul Armentano What's the Going Price for a Joint? More Than You Might Think Seth Sandronsky High Crimes and Economics Michael Donnelly Dodging Ecocide Patrick Irelan The Ordeal of Dr. Safdar Sarki Martha Rosenberg The Drug Industry Takes Another Hit Sherwood Ross Making the World Safe for Despots: Bush's Global Arms Trade David Michael Green So You Want to be My President, Eh? James Rothenberg Unimpeachable: Under House Protection Daniel Gross Starbucks Shortchanges Dr. King Peter N. Carroll In Memory of Milton Wolff Susie Day Croakin' on Hudson Paul Krassner Woody Allen Meets Tongue Fu Poets' Basement Wolff, Buknatski and Orloski Website of the Day Rocky Mountain Blues   January 18, 2008 Allan Nairn Killing Civilians, Carefully Ralph Nader When the Big Boys Get in Trouble, Who Pays the Ultimate Bill? Joanne Mariner Terrorism and Preventative Detention Alan Farago The Stimulus and the Meltdown P. Sainath Pity the Brahmins R.F. Blader Beyond Steinem's Feminism Andy Worthington A Letter from Guantánamo John Jonik Private Insurance is Bad for Your Health Brian McKenna Where Even Sharing is Prohibited: Notes from Inside a Michigan Women's Prison Daoud Kuttab This Time Next Year? Website of the Day Those South Carolina Voting Machines   January 17, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Leader and Vassal Christopher Brauchli The FBI's Bills Come Due Robert Fantina Leadership, Bush and the New York Times Patrick Irelan Eternal War Paul A. Moore When the Rich Pay No Taxes Stephen Lendman Institutionalized Spying on Americans Beena Sarwar Bhutto and the "State Within a State" Walter Brasch Buzzwords in the Echo Chamber: Change and the Establishment Brenda Norrell Bush Legacy in Texas Sours Adam Federman End of the Left? Website of the Day Democrats for Romney   January 16, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair Return of the Native Franklin Lamb The Bombing at Qarantina Julian Sanchez David Weigel Who Wrote Ron Paul's Newsletters? Sharon Smith Ron Paul and the Left: a Slippery Slope? Allan Nairn Economic Indicator: No Free Lunch, No Free Market Ayesha Ijaz Khan How the American Media Enables Bush's Iran Fixation Andy Worthington A Strategic Call to Close Guantánamo Richard Behan Nancy Pelosi, You Must Impeach! Website of the Day Obama the New JFK? He's Not That Bad!       January 15, 2008 Andrea Peacock Breach of Trust in America's Most Toxic Town: How the EPA is Rubbing Poison Into Libby's Wounds Wajahat Ali An Interview with Seymour Hersh on Iraq, Bush Foreign Policy and the Prospects of War with Iran Joe Bageant Getting Out the Bling Vote Ralph Nader The Candidate Taboos John Ross Zero Hour: NAFTA and Mexico's Agrarian Apocalypse Elaine Cassel Jose Padilla vs. John Yoo: Can a National Disgrace be Rectified? Peter Morici The Fed Needs More Than a New Communications Strategy Beena Sarwar Pakistan's Dirty Tricks Brigade Robert Weissman Big Business is Even More Unpopular Than You Thought Binoy Kampmark Going Tata in India Dave Zirin Dennis Brutus Smacks Down the Hall of Fame Website of the Day David Lynch on the iPhone   January 14, 2008 Ishmael Reed Ma and Pa Clinton Flog Uppity Black Man Roger Morris Burials in the Sind Uri Avnery The Hands of Esau Mike Whitney Bush's Voodoo Stimulus Package Allan Nairn General Suharto of Indonesia: One Small Man Leaves a Million Corpses William Blum Oh, By the Way, the Iraqis Don't Really Want Us Alan Farago A Subprime Wake Up Call David Macaray Are Labor Unions Ready for Prime Time? Eva Liddell Getting Drunk with Obama Zoe Blunt Road Kill: New Highway Blocked by Protesting Raccoons Website of the Day Doug and Andrea Peacock on Grizzlies   January 12 / 13, 2008 Andrew Cockburn How the New England Journal of Medicine Undercounted Iraqi Civilian Deaths Saul Landau 60 Years of Empire Corey D. B. Walker Barack Obama and the Crisis of the White Intellectual Col. Dan Smith Bush, Iran and the Magician of the Tarot Eric Toussaint The US Subprime Crisis Goes Global Ron Jacobs Television, Murder and Vietnam Fred Gardner The People vs. Christopher James Chakos Stan Cox Don't Take That Pill! Jacob G. Hornberger The Warfare State Ramzy Baroud The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Joseph Grosso The Anglosphere: a Special Relationship of Elites David Díaz-Arias Imagining An/Other Latin American Left Stacey Warde Before We Move On ... Dan Bacher Pumped to Extinction: the Decline of the Delta Smelt Michael Dickinson Georgie in Jesusland Website of Weekend CounterPunchers Protest Outside NYT Offices   January 11, 2008 Dave Lindorff Did Hillary Really Win New Hampshire? More Questions About Diebold Voting Machines Paul Craig Roberts No Escape from War and Unemployment Andy Worthington Six Years of Guantánamo Kenneth Couesbouc Banking on Thin Ice Jeff Ballinger Inside the Vienna Consensus Christopher Brauchli Lethal Injection, the Supremes and China Manuel Garcia, Jr. Paying No Attention to the Presidential Campaigns Andrew Silverstein Bush's Weepy Visit to Jerasulem Marwan Bishara Bush in the Middle East Robert Weissman The First Amendment Gone Wild Patrick Irelan Damn the Small Boats! Website of the Day Hillary and the Superdelegates: Or Why She Wins Even When She Loses     January 10, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Now Nader Claims He Didn't Endorse Edwards Bob Wing Marqueece Harris-Dawson Race Within the Race: Obama, the NH Vote and the Specter of Tom Bradley Michael Donnelly White Women Gone Wild? David Macaray Three Big Reasons for the Decline of Labor Unions China Hand Bush's Delusional Policy Pushes Pakistan to Brink of Catastrophe Ayesha Ijaz Khan Saudi Arabia and Pakistan: Brotherly, Friendly Countries? Rannie Amiri Obama, Man of Kansas or Kenya? Website of the Day Iranian Video of the Hormuz Incident   January 9, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair The Empire Strikes Back Dave Lindorff The Bad News from New Hampshire: Death By Triangulation John Chuckman Pardon My Laughter: Watching the US Primaries from Canada James Bovard Stomping Freedom: Inside the Martial Law Act of 2006 Alan Farago As Florida Sinks: the View from the Titanic Russell Mokhiber Why Picket the New York Times in DC on Friday? William S. Lind Kicking the Can Down the Road in Iraq Peter Morici Beyond the Sophistry: Why the Trade Deficit Matters Josh Reubner Sudan vs. Israel: Double Standard on Divestment Mike Roselle The Pursuit of Happiness Website of the Day Bottles of Tears on the Wall: Steve Perry on NH   January 8, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts No Jobs for the New Economy (or the Old) Russell Mokhiber The Black Hillary: Obama is Just Another Political Sedative Robert Fantina The Gulf of Tonkin and the Strait of Hormuz Dave Zirin Butts on Parade Shamako Nobel I Am an Emcee: the Politics of Hip Hop John Ross Zapatista Women Encounter Themselves Brenda Norrell Apaches Defend Homeland from Homeland Security Laura Carlsen Why Bolivia Matters Patrick Irelan Remember the Maine! Evelyn J. Pringle The Holes in Bush's FDA Jonathan M. Feldman After Iowa and New Hampshire: a Strategy for Rebuilding the Peace Movement Michael Dickinson Playing Soldier Website of the Day Sean Hannity on the Run!   January 7, 2008 Chris Floyd There Will Be Blood: But No Justice for Iraq Atrocities John Blair Remove That Man! Creeping Fascism in Indiana Uri Avnery The Case of the White Bird Andy Worthington Who Are the Gitmo Saudis? Binoy Kampmark Needling the Convict: Lethal Injection and the Supreme Court David Macaray Women on Strike Ralph Nader Obamarama: the Politics of the Smooth Mood Michael Donnelly It's the War Vote(s), Stupid! Ron Jacobs Ron Paul's Run: Is Being Against the War Enough? Gideon Levy The Hostile President Dave Lindorff A Real 9/11 Cover-Up? Sibel Edmonds, Turkey and the Bomb Website of the Day Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea   January 5 / 6, 2008 Douglas Valentine Good Guys in Black Hoods Kevin Young The US Occupation and Popular Opinion in Iraq Richard Rhames Saddam Who? Saul Landau Bush Snatches Defeat from Victory Marc Lynch Why Bush's Iran Strategy is Failing Robert Fantina Iowa, Democrats and the Iraq War Donna Volatile Antiwar Soldier: an Interview with Jonathan Hutto, Sr. Jelle Bruinsma Norman Finkelstein in The Netherlands Bob Sutcliffe Remembering Andrew Glyn, Rebel Economist Harvey Wasserman Anti-Nuclear Renaissance Missy Beattie Why Obama Can't Save Us David Swanson Remembering the Separation of Powers Jacob Hornberger The Importance of the Padilla Case Shepherd Bliss Survival Tools from Kokopelli Farms Ron Jacobs Bleeding Kansas Poets' Basement Patti Smith, B.R. Gowani and Peter Buknatski Website of the Weekend Jimmy Dean Sausage Call Complaint   January 4, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair A Good Night in Iowa Jonathan Cook War Crimes Airbrushed from History Paul Craig Roberts Thinking for Yourself is Now a Crime Stan Goff Ron Paul's Monkeywrench Dave Lindorff Clinton's Iowa Flop Exposes DLC Myths as Frauds Niranjan Ramakrishnan To Pindi Station Allan Nairn U.S. Elections Over Before They Began Joshua Frank The Failures of Sectarianism Peter Morici Economy on the Skids Mary McInnis Iowa Cocky-Us: How to be a Caucus Tease Website of the Day The Return of Obama Girl   January 3, 2008 Fatima Bhutto Farewell to Wadi Bua Pam Martens The Free Market Myth Dissolves into Chaos Joanne Mariner The Presidential Candidates and Torture Zoltan Grossman Remember the '80s: Social Movements Between Woodstock and the Web David Domke The Echoing Press and Huckabee Norman Solomon Edwards Reconsidered Nikolas Kozloff Return of the Faux Liberal Jacob G. Hornberger The Padilla Case and the Future of Habeas Corpus Martha Rosenberg Quit Picking on Huckabee's Son, Michael Vick Russell Means This Property is Condemned: a Notice to Those Occupying Lakotah Lands Website of the Day WolfQuest   January 2, 2008 Jeff Taylor The Left and Ron Paul M. Shahid Alam The Life and Death of Benazir Bhutto: a Pakistani Tragedy Gary Leupp Madness Compounding Madness: Calls for Intervention in Pakistan Paul Craig Roberts Criminals with Badges Heather Gray Georgia's Racist Death Penalty Fred Gardner and Shobhit Arora Dr. Strangelove's Nemesis David Macaray Labor Unions and Taft-Hartley Benjamin Dangl Fear and Loathing in Bolivia     January 1, 2008 Iain A. Boal City of Disappearances B. R. Gowani Benazir's Death in Crisistan Shahid Mahmood Bhutto and the Press Linn Washington, Jr. Old Injustices Endure: From Crack Sentences to Racial Profiling Harvey Wasserman Taking Leonard Peltier to Iowa: the Moral Low Point of the Clinton Era John Ross 2008, Already a Year to Forget Website of the Day The Thrill is Gone: BB and Gladys   December 31, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Goodbye 2007 and Good Riddance! Tariq Ali Pakistan, the Aftermath Liaquat Ali Khan The Perfidy of Pakistan's Rulers Wajahat Ali After Bhutto, a Nuclear Pakistan? Robert Fisk Who Killed Bhutto? Ajai Sahni Myths and Realities About Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan's Dark Future Marwan Bishara You Say Talk, I Say Attack: The Middle East and the US Presidential Election Campaigns Uri Avnery The Beilin Syndrome Mark T. Harris Does This Happen in Canada? Brenda Norrell Resistance and Censorship Website of the Day A People United Will Never Be Defeated   December 29 / 30, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Options in America: Kill Yourself or Have a Baby Tariq Ali Indignation and Fear Stalk Pakistan Fawzia Afzal-Khan My Encounter with Benazir Bhutto Gary Leupp The U.S. and Pakistan After 9/11: Blowback from an Unholy Alliance China Hand Pakistan Stares Into the Abyss Jacob Hornberger Stop Medddling in Pakistan John Chuckman Pakistan and the Failure of Quick-Fix Politics Missy Beattie Evaluating Bush with the Bhutto Corruption Standard Ralph Nader Who Will Take the Next Step? Fidel Castro There Hasn't Been a Day in My Life When I Haven't Learned Something Robert Fantina The Sham of Homeland Security Greg Moses Beauty from the Heart of Texas Catherine Lutz What We Can Not See: Art and Bombing Kristin Van Tassel Seeing in the Dark Kim Nicolini Redacted: Brian DePalma's Scream of Outrage Phyllis Pollack Keith Richards Runs With Rudolph Once More Poets' Basement Landau, Gibbons and Davies Website of the Weekend Driving Karachi in Search of the Perfect Naan   December 28, 2007 Farzana Versey The Complex Electra Wajahat Ali A Pakistani Requiem Binoy Kampmark Death in Rawalpindi: Bhutto and Her Legacy Ayesha Ijaz Khan Not Dead Yet: The Pakistan People's Party Still Survives Anthony DiMaggio Turkey's Bombing of Iraq Ray McGovern Creeping Fascism Jim Goodman Biofuels, the Biggest Scam Going Ron Jacobs Transcending the Colonizer's History: Iran, a People Interrupted Russell Hoffman Mini-Nukes by Toshiba John Murphy Greens Gone Wild Website of the Day Guiliani Campaign Official: "Only Rudy Can Defeat the Muslims"   December 27, 2007 Dilip Hiro A Tragedy Foretold: Will Bhutto's Death be a Boost for Her Party? Murtaza Shibli Who Killed Bhutto? Stephen Soldz Fallujah, the Information War and U.S. Propaganda Bill Quigley Locked Outside the Gates Paul Craig Roberts The Great American Lock-Up Omer Subhani Killing Bhutto: What Happens Next in Pakistan? Marjorie Cohn The Torture Tape Cover-Up: How High Does It Go? Allan Nairn Cataclysm By Money Whim Jacob G. Hornberger Smearing Ron Paul: Shame on the NYT Norman Solomon Channeling Suze Orman Patrick Irelan Rumsfeld Spills the Ink Ben Tripp Pass the Razor Blades Website of the Day Quagmire, For What It's Worth   December 26, 2007 Charles Tripp From One Saddam to Fifty Paul Armentano No-Knock, You're Dead Rannie Amiri Lebanon in Search of a Government Stanley Heller Brzezinski and Charlie Wilson's War John Walsh Two Unreasonable Men Martha Rosenberg The Strange Career of Scott Gottlieb Norman Madarasz Bolivia Amends New Constitution and Faces Mutiny from Within Website of the Day Cockburn at the Battle of Ideas   December 25, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Conscience and Empire December 24, 2007 Andrea Peacock A Dark Ride on the Border Tariq Ali Thinking of Edward Said Uri Avnery Help! A Ceasefire! Jill Jameson Burma is Not Back to Normal: A Trip from Rangoon to Mae Sot Steve Melendez Russell Means Goes to Washington Mike Whitney The Big Fix Chuck Munson Not Getting It About New Orleans John Walsh Clueless Crusaders Farzana Versey Tony Blair and the Hawking of Religion Richard Neville Dreaming of a White House Christmas Website of the Day Back in the USSR December 22 / 23, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Mike Huckabee's Ascending Chariot Ralph Nader Politics and Profits: How the Oil Cartel Gets Its Way Andy Worthington Intelligence Failures, Battlefield Myths and Unaccountable Prisons in Afghanistan Ahmad Faruqui The Comedian of Pakistan Bill Moyers Society on Steroids Rev. William E. Alberts Blessed are the Peacemakers Timothy J. Freeman From Kant to Lennon: Can War Really be Over? Anthony DiMaggio Democrats Continue to Capitulate on Iraq Fred Gardner Molecule of the Year, Cannabiodiol Paul Krassner Enhanced Hazing Techniques Seth Sandronsky 17 Years of Meanness: Repealing California's Three Strikes Law William Loren Katz Christmas Eve Freedom Fighters: Recalling the Battle of Lake Okeechobee Michael Dickinson In the Dungeon of the Zabita Ron Jacobs Why Leon Russell Still Matters David Vest Doyle Bramhall's "Is It News?" Poets' Basement Orloski, Davies and Ford Website of the Weekend George W. Hates Santa   December 21, 2007 John Ross New Massacres Loom in Mexico Jacob Hornberger Nothing Can Morally Justify the Invasion of Iraq Dick J. Reavis A Way Out of the Newspaper Abyss Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon The 2007 P.U.-litzer Prizes Peter Morici Business as Usual as Recession Looms Jack McCarthy Let Us Now Praise Judith Regan (Even If She Did Sleep with Bernie Kerik) Raúl Zibechi Sex and Revolution Steve Early How the Presidential Candidates Made Me an Atheist David Macaray Union Aftermath Patrick Bond Zuma, the Center-Left and the Left-Left in S. Africa Lakota Freedom Delegation A Declaration of Independence from the USA Website of the Day Solomon v. Beck: Tale of the Tape   December 20, 2007 David Rosen Mitt Romney's Secret Life as a Pornographer Alan Farago The Huckster and the Wreckage: Jeb Bush and the Subprime Mortgage Crisis Laura Carlsen Standing Up to NAFTA Ashley Dawson The Return of the Bread Riot Wayne Smith and Jennifer Schuett Cuba Changes, US Policy Stagnates Website of the Day How to Talk to a FoxNews Reporter   December 19, 2007 Saul Landau Is the NIE Bush's Watergate? Paul W. Lovinger Hillary the Hawk Norman Solomon The Mad Corporate World of Glenn Beck Dave Zirin George Mitchell's Drugs of Choice Marjorie Cohn Bush Still Spinning Iranian Nukes Sen. Russell Feingold The Iraq War is Exhausting Our Nation Sonja Karkar A Christmas Reflection on Palestine Anthony Papa Open the Drug Gulags Christopher Ketcham Pave the Holy Lands with Good Intentions Davey D Britney's Little Sister is Pregnant: Should We Blame Hip Hop? Website of the Day When Republicans Use the F-Word on TV   December 18, 2007 R. F. Blader The Politics of Teen Pregnancy George Wuerthner Gunning for Wolves in Idaho Steven Higgs Can the NAFTA Superhighway be Stopped? Vijay Prashad Encounters with Ghadar David Macaray The Free Rider Problem Ralph Nader Nine Books That Make a Difference: a Reading List for the Holidays Eva Liddell Privatizing War Abroad, Invading Privacy at Home Martha Rosenberg While the Bodies are Still Warm: Drugs, Shrinks and Shooters Dave Lindorff When Impeachment is Out of Print Peter Morici The Consequences the Trade Deficit Website of the Day Ron Paul: How Fascism Will Come to America   December 17, 2007 Mike Whitney Staring Into the Abyss Tom Barry Planning the War on Immigrants Uri Avnery A Gaza Masada? Greg Moses Crossing the Line in Texas Allan Nairn Terrorism; Counter- Terrorism: Excuses for Murder Patrick Bond South Africa's Fight Between Hostile Brothers Stephen Lendman Police State America Charles Jonkel Grizzly Right of Way Laray Polk An Inside-Out Crisis in Gaza Stephen Fleischman Pawns in Their Game December 15 / 16, 2007 Peter Linebaugh A People's Penny for the Magna Carta Howard Zinn Bomb After Bomb Standard Schaefer The Greening of Big Tobacco Raymond J. Lawrence Let's Take Christ Out of Christmas Alan Farago Down on Desolation Row: the Vultures and the Growth Machine Saul Landau Lord Byron and the Bad Tourists Jenna Orkin Lying to "Reassure" the Public: Bush's EPA and the Post-9/11 Toxic Air Cover-Up Ahmad Samih Khalidi Why a Palestinian "State" is a Punitive Construct Robert Fantina Politics By Photo-Op Missy Comley Beattie Resistance Amid the Ruins Ramzy Baroud Of Mormons and Muslims James L. Secor A Vision for China's Future Elijah Wald Ike Turner's Music Won't be Forgotten Website of the Weekend The Alliance for the Wild Rockies Needs (and Deserves) Your Support   December 14, 2007 JoAnn Wypijewski The Dirty Cad: What Giuliani's Sex Life Tells Us About Him John Ross Iraqi Refugees Return: One Cruel Hoax Jacob Hornberger Terror Suspects Belong in Federal Court Andy Worthington Guantánamo and the Supreme Court: What Happened? Allan Nairn "Shoot Them on the Spot": Rewarding War Crimes Dave Zirin The Mitchell Report: Absolving the Owners Dave Lindorff The First Cut is the Deepest Misty MacDuffee Toxic Grizzlies Ben Terrall What Happened to Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine? Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi Prerequisites for Peace Website of the Day Sen. Kit Bond: "Waterboarding is Like Swimming"   December 13, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Shrinking the Dollar from the Inside-Out Mike Whitney Dershowitz for the Defense--of Waterboarding Ron Jacobs Blank Check DemocratsL the Great War Funding Conspiracy Norman Solomon The USA's Human Rights Daze Peter Morici The Dragon and the Toothless Dog: China Doesn't Flinch Sandy Mayes Blocking the Strykers: 13 Days of War Resistance at Port Olympia Franklin Lamb The UN in Lebanon: Whose Mission Is It Fulfilling? Jacob Hornberger Don't Reform the CIA, Abolish It Nadim Rouhana An Interloper in My Own Land Dave Zirin On Pigskin and Petrol Website of the Day Rachel's Needs (and Deserves) Your Support! December 12, 2007 Allan Nairn US Intelligence is Tapping Indonesian Phones Alan Farago How Sprawl Eats Its Young Ray McGovern Torture, Lies and Videotape Winslow T. Wheeler The Phony Pentagon Budget Cuts Evan Jones The Raid on Great Western: Why an Australian Bank Might Spell Doom for the US Farm Belt James Petras An Open Letter to Sarkozy on the Exchange of Political Prisonsers Joel Hirschorn The Horserace Fiction: Clinton, Obama and the Democratic Machine Joshua Frank Why Ron Paul Deserves Our Attention Sherry Wolf Why the Left Should Reject Ron Paul Dan Bacher Survey of a Fish Graveyard Website of the Day Men Eating Bugs                 Subscribe Online

MLK Day January 21, 2008 Getting Beyond Vain Hopes for Impeachment Protest and Trial in Washington, D.C. By JOE DeRAYMOND There are still writers and activists making the case for impeachment. They make the earnest, comprehensive and correct case that Bush and/or Cheney should be impeached by Congress. I believe it is time to get the message that "impeachment is off the table", both politically and practically. Nancy Pelosi stated so quite clearly in 2006, and has carried through on this statement while not carrying through on her commitments to change Bush administration policies. In practical terms, with less than one year left till a new President is elected, this Congress does not have time for impeachment, even if the will existed. The political loss in not pursuing impeachment has been an institutionalization of the Bush program. By not challenging the crimes of this President, the Congress has granted impunity to the executive branch of government. It is an impunity that none of the current batch of wannabe's have expressed any interest in modifying for the next administration. The executive privileges to ignore legislation, practice torture, spy on citizens, imprison beyond the reach of habeas corpus have been established, and have been acceded to by Congress. I have just gone through a two-day trial in the District of Columbia, the latest in a series of political trials in which I have been a defendant for doing nothing more than speaking out against war crimes and crimes against humanity. My experience in this trial and in previous trials leads me to the conclusion that we are now living in a nation in which dissenters are guilty by arrest. I believe that there is a vertical integration between law enforcement and the Courts that places justice in the hands of those who are ordered simply to clear the public spaces of our nation of any dissent that would incommode the policy makers, the architects of crimes against humanity. There is a strong and persistent current of resistance in this country that is unreported in our press, and is dismissed as strange or irrelevant by the majority of the citizenry. However, the movement has the potential to change US policies, if it is allowed to grow, if it is supported by those who know this government has embarked on a criminal journey. The movement includes Voices for Creative Nonviolence, School of the Americas Watch, Jonah House, National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, War Resisters International, National War Tax Resistance Organizing Committee, and other groups and thousands of people who believe that we have a citizen responsibility to protest with insistence and with our very lives, in the tradition of Martin Luther King, Dave Dellinger, Kathy Kelly, Roy Bourgeois and Brian Willson to end the criminality of the US government. This movement is covered in publications like "The Nuclear Resister", and catalogued by activists on their websites. A partial list of actions and people who have participated is an article published by Max Obuszewski of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, available here. On September 20 of 2007, I joined 33 other US citizens in a public space of the Capitol in Washington, DC, to protest the war in Iraq. Two of our number held a banner that stated, "RIVERS OF BLOOD START HERE". The remaining, one by one, stated the name of an Iraqi civilian victim while holding a picture of that person, and then fell to the floor in a "die-in". We wore shirts splotched with red paint to simulate the blood spilled in this war. Within minutes, we were arrested and hauled out of the building, and charged with Disorderly Conduct and Unlawful Assembly. We made this statement against the war in a room of the Capitol called "the Crypt". It is a circular room about 96 feet in diameter, through which tourists circulate to look at exhibits such as a model of the Capitol, Settlers of the East Coast, or a Suffrage Sculpture. Our demonstration got the attention of the public present at the time, for sure, but no one was burdened by it, no one missed an exhibit or had their day ruined by this graphic, dramatic and peaceful statement. The first Judge that we appeared before in the Superior Court, Judge Ringell, just wanted to dispose of the case. He suggested to Prosecutor Jeffrey Shapiro that he simply extract a commitment from us to make a contribution to the cause or charity of our choice in lieu of commencing a criminal trial. The government would have none of that ­ justice demanded we face punishment for our crimes, at least according to Attorney Shapiro's bosses. Jeffrey was not a happy person. He was an eye rolling, sighing, retributive voice for punishment, who wanted jail time for the whole group. We had sullied the halls of Congress, the sanctity of the Capitol. Our group was diverse. There were Catholic Workers like Peter DeMott of Ithaka, NY, an Army and Marine veteran of Vietnam who has dedicated himself to speaking out against the war. There were Jewish activists like Levanah Ruthschild, who grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust and spoke about the parallels between Germany in the 1930's and the United States of the early 21st Century. There was Malachy MacBride, a Quaker activist who had faced down Mr. Shapiro on prior occasions and engaged him forthrightly on the witness stand. There was Max Obuszewski, of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR, which had organized the protest), who has a firm grasp on courtroom procedures and an affirmative and respected presence in the courtroom. There was Judith Kelly of Pace y Bene and Steve Cleghorn, a Pennsylvania farmer. There was Don Muller from Alaska, Virgine Lavinger of Wisconsin, Susan Crain from Jonah House in Baltimore, and Janet Ashby, a resident of Cambodia who has worked there for many years, and who had never before been arrested. We represented ourselves without an attorney. We pleaded our First Amendment right to make this statement in this public space, and that we had a duty under international law to make such a case. The government never suggested that we were trespassing, but took the position that our behavior was a breach of the peace. International law was ruled irrevelant by the Court, in the person of Judge Ann O'Regan Keary. No citizen was called to testify to any inconvenience or shock at our demonstration. One police officer, who was unable to identify us without using photos taken at arrest, testified as to the nature of the act. As I sat in the courtroom, I remembered my first time in the DC courts, in 1987, when I was on trial with 17 others, including David Dellinger, for protesting in the Rotunda that Congress had turned its back on the judgment of the World Court and funded the war against Nicaragua by supporting the "contras". Our Judge was Luke Moore, known in the DC system as, "Forever Moore", as his approach to justice was so deliberative as to be glacial. Every day, we would sit through a string of cases for disposition before he took up our case. We learned by heart his lecture about PCP, the street drug of choice in those days. He would intone, "Do you know what that does to your brain?" He, too, ruled that international law was irrelevant, and forbade any mention of Nicaragua or law in the courtroom. There were several very intimidating Marshalls present who, we were promised, would beat us if they had to haul us out of the Court. In a 6-week trial before a jury, we enlisted the testimony of former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Daniel Ellsberg and former CIA officer David MacMichael. The jury was not allowed to hear their testimony, and was finally bullied into a guilty verdict by the Marshalls after a three-day deliberation. The guilty verdict was upheld by the DC Court of Appeals. There was a similar result in my 2006 Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, State Court trial for being one of a group of nine constituents who read the names of Iraqi and US dead in Congressman Charles Dent's office, after 5 PM. International law was irrelevant, according to Judge Platt, a personal friend of Mr. Dent, who refused to recuse himself from this Misdemeanor case. Guilty. We appealed to the Superior Court and heard Judge Michael Joyce dismiss our case with these words, "You are fine up to the point you are told by the police you are breaking the law." Guilty. Many first-time defendants are surprised that Judges so cavalierly dismiss international law. After all, Article 6, section 2 of the US Constitution clearly states that treaties are the law of the land, and shall be obeyed by all US Judges. How can these same Judges so casually state that the State has a right to keep passageways open and maintain public order, even if citizens are trying to simply raise the issue, non-violently and with dignity, that their government is committing crimes against humanity. Yet, it is a rare exception when a group is allowed to use Constitutional defenses before a jury. The maintenance of an artificial sanctity of our public spaces means more to these judicial civil servants than the flesh and blood activation of the ideals they are pledged to uphold. In our "Rivers of Blood" trial, Judge Keary acquitted us of the Disorderly Conduct charge, since the government was using the charge of "loud and boisterous" against 11 of us, general disorder against the other 20. Attorney Shapiro complained that the loud and boisterous charge was a clerical error, and asked the Judge to reconsider - she had the sense to at least not change her mind about a delivered verdict. She found us guilty of Unlawful Assembly by agreeing with the prosecution that the banner and our demonstration threatened a breach of the peace, on the basis that we could have provoked a rightwing tourist into a violent rage. She sentenced us to between 7 and 15 days in jail, suspended; 6 months unsupervised probation; a payment of between $50 and $100 to the Washington, DC, Victims of Violent Crime fund. It is a sentence designed to intimidate those who would participate in any similar activity during the probation period. There will be an appeal by some of the defendants. There is a quixotic quality to such actions as "Rivers of Blood Start Here", an attempt to bring life to ideals that have a marginal place in this culture of mini-malls and I-phones, video poker and American Idol. We tilt at the machinery of our government and courts, hoping to trigger the citizenry into action to resist the madness of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia, Palestine, Lebanon, Somalia, etc; and the madness of a domestic policy that can allow the destruction of New Orleans, the pillaging of the economy and the conversion of an industrial, producing nation to a retail strip mall of consumption. How can I convince you of the value of joining the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance on March 12, in another petition to our nation? I can do no better than present the testimony of a co-defendant, Janet Ashby, on January 17, in the courtroom before a Judge who ruled her testimony irrelevant: Your Honor, My name is Janet Ashby. I have worked in Cambodia and with Cambodians since 1981, as my personal contribution to reparation for the illegal acts of war of the US in that country. (In fact, I just came back from Cambodia on Monday for this hearing, and am jet lagged, so please don't feel offended if I look sleepy.) I have worked in refugee border camps, refugee resettlement, integrated community development, supporting the re-emergence of civil society, reducing the masses of illegal post-conflict weapons, and supporting police, judges, and prosecutors in their efforts to stop human trafficking. That experience partly underlies my conviction that my country is engaged in an illegal, immoral, and extremely counter-productive war in Iraq. Because of my conviction, I was part of this group expressing ourselves about that war in a peaceful, legal, and orderly way on September 20th, 2007. I was arrested that day, for the first time in my life. I have struggled with what to say today. I know I must be brief, so instead of listing all of the ways in which we are not guilty of any of the charges against us, I am happy to affirm that the clarifications about this by my fellow defendants have been accurate. In particular, I want to clarify my intentions when I exercised my freedom of expression on September 20th. I was acting on my conviction that I am called and obligated, as a person blessed with US citizenship, to take action when I see that my country is committing international crimes and folly. My fellow defendants are addressing many points of law on this. My intentions in participating on September 20th were rooted in direct experience ­ my husband was a victim of and refugee from ethnic cleansing during World War II, and I personally interviewed and recorded the testimony of hundreds of Cambodians who applied for refuge in the US in the early 1980's. On September 20th, as today, I was convinced in every fiber of my being that I must speak out. Indeed, September 20th was not my first time to speak out. In 2002 I worked with other American citizens to organize vigils and to petition the US Embassy in Cambodia to not invade Iraq illegally. I have worked for peace in Iraq in many other ways since then, including lobbying members of Congress in their offices during the week of September 17th 2007. As I was going to the crypt on September 20th, I was thinking of several things: - First, my sure knowledge that the US is violating international laws which the US Constitution says constitute our highest laws, and my pain that this is naked for all the world to see ­ for example, I have discussed this with an international lawyer who worked directly under the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; - Second, my sorrow that the US actions in Iraq justify the opinion of so many of my friends from other countries that the US is a hypocrite for telling other countries to respect the rule of law but blatantly failing to do so itself. Since the pre-emptive attack on Iraq and then Abu Ghraib and the visible erosion of civil liberties in the US, the moral standing of the US has simply melted away; - Third, my outrage that the US continues to squander US and Iraqi lives, as well as dollars and the economic well-being of our next generation; - Fourth, my grief at the long and awful reconstruction that I know Iraq faces, because I know how incredibly hard it is to recreate trust, peace, infrastructure, education, health, rule of law, and social justice in a society devastated by war and occupation; - Fifth, my certainty that the war we were protesting on September 20th is utterly counter-productive, because invasion, occupation, and torture polarize and transform ordinary citizens into people willing to undertake extreme measures, people called terrorists - the illegal US bombs in Cambodia were fabulous recruiters for the Khmer Rouge. When I went to the Capitol building on September 20th, I carried with me several things: - The concerns I had expressed in my other lobbying efforts; - The knowledge that the Senators and Congresspersons who are supposed to represent us are not yet moved enough to take the decisions that are needed; - A T-shirt that looked bloodied, like those you see here ­ captivating but not offensive; and - As you can see in Prosecution Exhibit 1, I was carrying a picture of an Iraqi man and woman, who looked to me to be grieving for a child. I chose that picture as it best represented to me both the current illegal war and the many debts to the future that we are building up ­ an arresting picture, but not a reason to be arrested. It was an honor to go to the Capitol in fellowship with the people who are today my co-defendants at this hearing, and who take so seriously their obligations to secure peace and stop crimes against humanity. I am glad that, because our expression was in a public place during public hours and conducted in such a respectful way, we were able to gain the interested and sympathetic attention of some of the other members of the public who were also there. I neither sang nor chanted in the crypt. I simply spoke in the name of Iraqi parents grieving for their dead, then lay down quietly as if dead. I really did appreciate that some of the arresting police officers were gentle, but I did not appreciate at all being arrested on unwarranted charges. Many people in Cambodia know that I am on trial now. I look forward to being able to report to them that justice was exercised today. Thank you. Joe DeRaymond of Freemansburg, PA, jderaymond@rcn.com, who thanks Janet for the use of her testimony and all his co-defendants for their witness   Your Ad Here

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