|
Today's
Stories
December
12, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
What's Really Happened During
the Surge?
December 10 / 11, 2007
Uri
Avnery
How They Stole the Bomb From Us
Debbie
Nathan
The Perils of Journalism and Child
Porn
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Is There a Left Here Left?
If So, What Can It Do?
Steve
Kelly
Cheap Chips, Counterfeit Wilderness
Donna
J. Volatile
Welcome to the Revolution
December
8 / 9, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The Coup Against Bush and Cheney
Brenda
Norrell
Seize the Land, Chain the Peace Activists
Saul
Landau
The Ruins of Empire
R.
F. Blader
A Rape in Every Drink?
Ray
McGovern
Spinning Iran's Centrifuges
Allan
Nairn
Imposed Hunger in Gaza, the Army in
Indonesia
Linn
Washington, Jr
Spotlight on Death Row
Paul
Craig Roberts
When Will Bush Come Clean?
December
7, 2007
Sean
Penn
Piano Wire Puppeteers
Arthur
Versluis
Mining Water in the Desert
M.
G. Piety
Racism and the American Psyche: Some
Thoughts on Race and Intelligence
Pam
Martens
Banksters Gone Wild
Alan
Farago
Will the Free Market Kill Suburbia?
Sprawl and the Credit Crisis
Allan
Nairn
It Takes (Out) a Village
Col.
Dan Smith
Bush, Iran and the Politics of Doomsday
Alice
Slater
The Iran Opening
Robert
Weissman
The Story of Stuff
Website
of the Day
Something
About Mitt
December
5, 2007
Mike
Whitney
Why the CFR Hates Putin
Sharon
Smith
The Anti-War Enablers: Tom Hayden
and the Dead End Democrats
James
Petras
Venezuela in the Aftermath
Ron
Jacobs
The Iran Charade
Dave
Zirin
Kicking a Dead Man: the Sliming of Sean Taylor
John
V. Whitbeck
Two States or One? Time to Choose
Peter
Zinn
Covered in New Orleans
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Impeach Pelosi Instead
Alan
Farago
The Credit Bomb Detonates in Florida
Heather
Gray
US Meddling in Australian Politics
Website
of the Day
A Donner Summit Night Before Xmas
December
4, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Jackboot State Stubs Its Toe in
Ann Arbor
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo and the Supreme
Court
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Lies at the End of the American
Dream
Ray
McGovern
No-Nuke Iran
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Admiral Mullen and the Defense Budget: When White Elephants are
Too Small
Allan
Nairn
The Regime Still Stands in Burma, Where "the People Just
Want Food"
Russell
Mokhiber
The USA v. Al Arian
Nikolas
Kozloff
As Chávez Falters: Raising the Stakes for the South American
Left
John
V. Walsh
Peace Movement Paralyzed
Ghada
Ageel
Will Peace Cost Me My Home?
Stephen
Soldz
The Facts be Damned!: Psychologists' President Defends Psychologist
Involvement in Interrogations
Website
of the Day
Hands Off the People of Iran
December
3, 2007
Tariq
Ali
Venezuela After the Referendum
Bill
Quigley
New Orleans: Bulldozers for the Poor,
Tax Credits for Developers
Eric
Walberg
The Bible and Middle East History
Uri
Avnery
After Annapolis
Marjorie
Cohn
Operation Iraqi Freedom Exposed
Dave
Lindorff
Vengeance Isn't Sweet
Stephen
Fleischman
Homeless in Paradise
Martha
Rosenberg
Perp Walks for the Mink Clad on Chicago's Mag Mile
Website
of the Day
So Just Lead!
December
1 / 2, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Emblems of the Bush Age: Adrift
in a Sea of Booze
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Bear Minimum: the Grizzly and
the Future of the Rocky Mountain West
Mike
Whitney
"Iraq Doesn't Exist Anymore": an Interview with Nir
Rosen
Shemon
Salam
A Visit From the FBI
Roger
Burbach
The Battle in Bolivia
Benjamin
Dangl
New Politics in Old Bolivia
Brian
M. Downing
The Quiet on the Middle Eastern Front: How Much Credit Goes to
the Surge?
Greg
Moses
Night of the Living Redneck: a Texas Horror Story
Sonja
Karkar
The "Never-Never" Peace Conference
Saul
Landau
Ethics and Evil in South Boston
Margaret
Kimberley
Black America Left Behind
John
Ross
What are the Prospects for a New Mexican Revolution?
Reza
Fiyouzat
Exit on the Left: When Che's Children Visited Iran
Judith
Scherr
Berkeley Turns Right for the Holidays
Lance
Olsen
Of Forests and Finance: Logging for the Wealthy
Christopher
Brauchli
Mr. Bush and the Despots
Robert
Fantina
Iraq as U.S. Colony
Dan
Bacher
Fish Triage on Prospect Island
Michael
Donnelly
Remembering How to be Human: John Trudell and the Music of Urgency
Website
of the Weekend
Appalachian Voices
November
30, 2007
Peter
Stone Brown
The Re-Packaging of Bob Dylan
Wajahat
Ali
The Volatile Mistress: an Interview with Javed Jabbar, Pakistan's
Former Minister of Information
Allan
Nairn
Cold-Blooded Celebrity: Thomas L. Friedman and the Bali Bombers
Alan
Farago
The Sorrows of Suburbia: Politics, Sprawl and the Housing Crash
John
Ross
The Death of Latin America's First Revolution
Corporate
Crime Reporter
America's Corporate Crime Capitals
Lucia
Alvarez
Diego Gonzalez
Argentina's Political Future
James
Rothenberg
The Iraqi Miracle
Website
of the Day
Bio-Bling?
November
29, 2007
R.
F. Blader
The Most Dangerous Kind of Bribe
Ismael
Hossein-Zadeh
Distorting Fascism to Demonize Iran
Stephen
Soldz
War on the Couch: Fear, Aggression and Empire
Sheldon
Richman
Iraq 3.0
George
Wuerthner
Forest Fires, Lies and Chainsaws
Felice
Pace
Did All Things Considered Self-Censor on Annapolis?
Col.
Dan Smith
The Meaning of Annapolis
Harvey
Wasserman
Terror Target Nukes
Nikolas
Kozloff
Primetime Hate Debate: Lou Dobbs, Immigration and Campaign '08
Paul
Krassner
Huffington Post Bloggers Go On Strike!
Dave
Lindorff
News Not Fit to Print: US Coup Planned for Venezuela?
CP
News Service
The One State Declaration
Website
of the Day
A Native View of Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
November
28, 2007
James
Petras
CIA Destabilization Memo Surfaces
on Venezuela
Jeff
Halper
Annapolis: When the Roadmap is a One
Way Street
Pam
Martens
Crashing Citigroup
Peter
Morici
Economy in Crisis: Avoiding a Recession
Mohammed
Khatib
Separate and Unequal in Palestine
Helen
Redmond
The Horror and the Hope: Health Care in America
William
S. Lind
In the Fox's Lair: Quiet Before a New Iraq Storm?
Ben
Tripp
We, the People: a Trope for All Seasons
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Pakistan: First, Restore the Constitution and Reinstate the Judges
Jeff
Berg
Holbrooke Says Bush Won't Attack Iran
Website
of the Day
The Lies of Joe Klein
November
27, 2007
Joe
DeRaymond
On the Road to the Torture School
Paul
Craig Roberts
Meet the Only Two Candidates Worse Than Bush and Cheney: Hillary
and Rudy
Marjorie
Cohn
Remembering Victor Rabinowitz
Mike
Whitney
A Dollar the Size of a Postage Stamp
Ron
Jacobs
The Myths of Military Progress
Col.
Dan Smith
The Pentagon's "People System" Still Doesn't Work
Ralph
Nader
Family Learning
Karim
Makdisi
Annapolis and the Unholy Alliance: the View from Beirut
Christopher
Ketcham
Memo to Hollywood Writers: Strike Until You Drop
Ronan
Bennett
Martin Amis Does a Coulter
Website
of the Day
Celebrating the Uncensored Media
November
26, 2007
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Heading for Annapolis
Paul
Craig Roberts
The End of All That
David
Macaray
Enter Mediator
Sameer
Dossani
Pakistan's Wounded Dictator
Roger
Burbach
The Final Battle in Bolivia
Mark
Scaramella
Guns and Greed in the Emerald Empire
Brian
McKinlay
Howard's End
Rick
Kuhn
The Fall of a Racist Union Buster
Binoy
Kampmark
Ruddslide and Dull Alec
Monica
Benderman
What Do You Know of War?
Brenda
Norrell
Return to Alcatraz
Website
of the Day
Ghostworld by DJ Spooky
November
24 / 25, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The Ordeal of Catherine Wilkerson,
MD
Robert
Fisk
Darkness Falls on the Middle East
Saul
Landau
Norman Mailer will Not R.I.P.
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Justice Stephen Breyer, Cancer Bonds and the Origins of Neoliberal
Environmentalism
Rannie
Amiri
Beirut's Black Friday
Christopher
Brauchli
Iraq Embassy as Gilded Palace
Daniel
Gross
The Gap and Black Friday
Mike
Whitney
"A Generalized Meltdown of Financial Institutions"
Marjorie
Cohn
Iran and the 2008 Elections
David
Rosen
Senior Sex: the Real Sexual Life of Aging Americans
David
Michael Green
If Conservatism is the Ideology of Freedom ....
Kenneth
Rexroth
When Euripides Played the Hindu Kush: Greeks and Buddhists in
Afghanistan
Muhammad
Iqbal
Trans. Shahid Alam
Ghazal
Website
of the Day
Aerial Footage of Delta Fish Kill
November 23, 2007
Gary
Leupp
Killing the Buddha in Pakistan's Swat
Valley
Laura
Carlsen
Coming to Terms with Diversity in
Bolivia: an Interview with Alvaro Garcia, Bolivia's VP
David
Macaray
Keeping Labor Unions Out
Andy
Worthington
Former Guantánamo Detainee Seeks Asylum in Sweden
Clifton
Ross
Trashing Chavez: Keith Olberman's Toxic Rant
Seth
Sandronsky
Battling Sodexho
Dan
Bacher
Death in the Delta: Thousands of Fish Stranded by Bureau of Reclamation
William
A. Cook
The Myth of Middle East Peace
Website
of the Day
Waiting for the Guards: Stress Techniques as Torture, a Short
Film
November
22, 2007
Alan
Farago
Who Lost America's Everglades?
Greg
Moses
A Thanksgiving Basting
Dave
Lindorff
Impeachment is Back on the Table
Mike
Ely
Native Blood: the Myth pf Thanksgiving
Omar
Azfar
Gore for President of Pakistan?
November
21, 2007
Vijay
Prashad
Our Dictator, Their Democracy
Martha
Rosenberg
Undercover at a Turkey Slaughtering Plant
Manuel
Garcia, Jr.
Epiphany on the Glacier
John
Ross
The Last Days of Mexican Corn
Brian
McKenna
Cancer Terrorists Unmasked
Stephen
Soldz
Isolation Torture Routine at Guatánamo
Monica
Benderman
Needing Peace
Ben
Terrall
Slavery in the Fields: The Real Price of Sugar
Website
of the Day
Mercy for Animals
November
20, 2007
Oren
Ben-Dor
Why Israel Has No "Right to Exist"
as a Jewish State
Wajahat
Ali
An Interview with Norman Finkelstein
Alan
Farago
The Dark Arts and the Bush Dynasty
Marjorie
Cohn
Musharraf Plays Bush for a Fool
Ralph
Nader
Green is Gold?
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo Whistleblower Launches a New Attack on Rigged
Tribunals
Sara
Olson
When Going AWOL is the Only Escape
Dave
Lindorff
Likelihood of Iran Attack Gains Credence
Paul
Krassner
The First Amendment, a Dialogue
Website
of the Day
Joanne Mariner on Torture
November
19, 2007
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Why Congress Won't Reform
China
Hand
The U.S. Game Plan in Pakistan
Allan
Nairn
Sitting Around Talking, in Indonesia
Uri
Avnery
How to Get Out?
David
Macaray
The Chalice that Poisoned the Labor Movements
Dave
Lindorff
Democrats in Future Shock: They Could Lose It All in 2008!
Bill
Quigley
Twenty Thousand Protest at Ft. Benning; Eleven Face Federal Criminal
Trials
Ron
Jacobs
Sitting on the Group W Bench: War, Thanksgiving and Arlo Guthrie
Sunsara
Taylor
Legalized Rights for Fertilized Eggs?
Binoy
Kampmark
Why Steve Irwin--You're Dead!
Heather
Gray
Another Look at W.E.B. DuBois
Website
of the Day
The Meat Market
November
17 / 18, 2007
P.
Sainath
Neoliberalism's Price Tag: 150,000
Farm Suicides in India
David
Rosen
The Scarlet Hypocrites: Republicans,
Christians and the Politics of Adultery
Mike
Whitney
Pentagon Cover Up: 15,000 or More US Deaths in Iraq War?
George
Wuerthner
Saving the Big Wild
Brenda
Norrell
The Case of Jim Main, Jr: In Montana, Indians are Guilty Until
Proven Innocent
George
Ciccariello-Maher
Of Submarines and Loose Screws
Karim
Makdisi
Lebanon is Hanging by a Thread
Marie
Trigona
Wal-Mart in Argentina
Valerio
Volpi
The Catholic Church, Incorporated
Fred
Gardner
The Straight-Ahead Runner
Robert
Fantina
The White House Press Office
Mike
Ferner
Thank God for the Senate Republicans!
Missy
Comley Beattie
The Radical Majority
Kenneth
Couesbouc
Circles of Power
Patrick
O'Hayer
A Portrait of Mailer and a Young Poet
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Buknatski and Ford
November
16, 2007
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
The Vices of Hillary Clinton: Secrecy,
Intransigence and War
Dave
Zirin
The Indictment of Barry Bonds: Busted by a Broken System
Gary
D. Barnett
A Day in the Life of an Unwilling Federal Agent
Alan
Farago
Sprawl, Mortgage Fraud and Political Corruption
Dave
Lindorff
Two Brothers and Two Scandals
Russell
Mokhiber
Pelosi and Me: "What Should be Done with Those Protesters?"
Robert
Ovetz
Cargo Ships in Paradise: Shipping Lanes Threaten the Yosemite
of the Sea
Brenda
Norrell
"Today We Experienced America:" Arresting Indigenous
People on the Border
David
Swanson
Wolf Blitzer Loses Democratic Debate
Peter
Letheby
Outside the Box on the Great Plains
Website
of the Day
Why Activism Fails
November
15, 2007
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Hillary Clinton in Arkansas
Adolfo
Gilly
The Spirit of Revolt
Peter
Bohmer
10 Days That Shook Olympia
Andy
Worthington
The Trials of Omar Khadr: Gitmo's Child Soldier
Gray
/ Derks
Obama's Pitch to South Carolina's Black Churches Affronts Gay
Groups
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Liberating Pakistan
Dave
Lindorff
Where's the Party?
Christopher
Brauchli
Tipping Point: the Politics of Gossip
Anthony
Papa
Racism as Law: Crack Cocaine Sentences
Martha
Rosenberg
Merck's Big Write Off
Ben
Terrall
Thank You, Ehren Watada
Website
of the Day
On the Colorado: Drought, Climate Change and Water Supplies
November 14, 2007
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
The Making of Hillary Clinton
James
Petras
Venezuela Between Ballots and Bullets
Al
Giordano
Campaign 08: Don't Trust Anyone Over 50
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Lobby
Andy
Worthington
Innocents and Foot Soldiers
Stephen
Lendman
Torturing Palestinian Detainees
Fatima
Bhutto
Aunt Benazir's False Promises: the Dismantling of Pakistani Democracy
Martin
Smith
Norman Mailer and the "Good War"
Jeff
Leys
Slip Sliding Away: House Votes on War Funding
Website
of the Day
Why the Writers are Striking
November
13, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Hillary's Big Problem and How Bill
Can Fix It
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Mailer and Us: the Writer as Fighter
Robert
Bryce
The Pakistan Fuel Connection
David
Macaray
The Teamsters and the Hollywood Strike
Mike
Whitney
Bulletins from the Titanic
Ralph
Nader
Pakistani Lawyers vs. American Lawyers
Nikolas
Kozloff
Chavez Blasts the Spanish King
Jordan
Flaherty
Education Versus Incarceration in Tallulah, Louisiana
B.
R. Gowani
Dear Mrs. Bhutto
Website
of the Day
Monty Python: "Fuck You, Very Much FCC"
November
12, 2007
Vicente
Navarro
Why Hillary's Health Care Plan Really
Failed
Ben
Brown
Letter from Ho Chi Minh City: a Tribute to My Vietnam Vet Father
Omar
K.
A Pakistani Lawyer's Testimony: Life Under the Brutal Emergency
Sadia
Abbas
The Roots of Pakistan's Political Crisis: Corrupt Elites and
a Kleptocratic Military
Farzana
Versey
Mailer's Miasma
Richard
W. Behan
The Political Crimes of Complicity
Paul
Krassner
Asshole of the Year: Congratulations Tim Russert!
Cindy
Sheehan
Faith and War
Peter
Stone Brown
The Return of Levon Helm
Dave
Lindorff
Dennis, You are Not Alone
Website
of the Day
Police Attack in Olympia
November
10 / 11, 2007
Alain
Gresh
Uncle Sam's New Backyard: How to Turn
a Region into a Graveyard
Mike
Whitney
For Whom the Closing Bell Tolls: the Last Dead Bull on Wall Street
Ron
Jacobs
A View from the Pakistani Left: an Interview with Farooq Tariq
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The First Dambuster: a Coyote Story
Alan
Farago
Tangled Up in Blue: a Brief History of Florida Environmentalism
Binoy
Kampmark
When Language Drowns: Torture in America
Robert
Fantina
Legitimizing Torture
Fred
Gardner
Psychological Torture in the Name of Family Values
Ayesha
Ijaz Khan
The General in His Labyrinth
Nicola
Nasser
NATO's Southward Drift
Philip
Rizk
The Blame Game in Gaza
Michael
Dickinson
Condom Nation: the Pope vs. Terry Higgins
Joel
S. Hirschhorn
The Grand Delusion: a Conspiracy of Two Parties
Paul
Krassner
Flunking Out of the Electoral College
Wadner
Pierre /
Joe Emersberger
The Ongoing War on Journalists in Haiti
November
9, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
In the Kandil Mountains with the
PKK
Mohammed
Hanif
Musharraf and the Drunk Uncle
John
Ross
Blackwater Goes to Mexico
Mike
Whitney
Ron Paul, Big Media's Invisible Candidate
Tom
Barry
In Latin America, the Hillary Clinton Policy is the Bush Policy
Corporate
Crime Reporter
Is the AFL Trying to Derail Single Payer Health Care?
Badruddin
Khan
Pakistan and the Israel Lobby
David
Macaray
The WGA STrike: the Empire Strikes Back
Martha
Rosenberg
The Blood Sport of Vice Presidents
Website
of the Day
Stryker Blockade!
November
8, 2007
Kathleen
& Bill Christison
Meeting the Other in Israel and
Palestine
William
Loren Katz
Waterboarding in American History
Mike
Whitney
The Long Fall: a Market Without Parachutes
Sheldon
Richman
Why Woodstock May Have Saved John McCain's Life
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Solidarity with Pakistan's Lawyers
Marc
Gardner
The Victims of "Jessica's Law": Parolees Without Rights
(or Homes)
Jackie
Corr
The Big Fish from Whitefish: Montana, the Last Retreat of the
Investment Banker?
Brenda
Norrell
Between Bombs and Border Walls
Dave
Lindorff
Ridiculing Impeachment at the New York Times
China
Hand
Rewriting the History of the Sudan Calamity
Sen.
Russ Feingold
FISA and America's Basic Freedoms: Let's Not Repeat the Mistakes
of the Patriot Act
Website
of the Day
The Welfare Poets Meet Hugo Chavez
November
7, 2007
Paul
Craig Roberts
Dollar's Fall Collapses the American
Empire
Russell
Mokhiber
Pelosi and Me: Can't the Democrats End the War By Not Bringing
the Funding Bill to the Floor?
Vijay
Prashad
The Apotheosis of Bobby Jindal
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Educating Pakistan: What Mukasey Can Teach Musharraf
Alan
Farago
To Bee or Not to Bee? The Politics of Colony Collapse
David
Macaray
The Writers' Guild Strike: Is There an Ice-Breaker?
Nikolas
Kozloff
The Case of the Slimy Senator: Chuck Schumer Greenlights Mukasey
Charlotte
Laws
What We Learned from Stephen Colbert's Presidential Campaign
Daniel
White
Zahid's Story
William
Cook
The Politics of Servility: Congress and the Israel Lobby
Website
of the Day
Safe Lawns
November
6, 2007
Mike
Whitney
Welcome to Year 27 of the Reagan
Revolution
Ralph
Nader
Who Determines the Price of Oil?
Andy
Worthington
The Torture of Ali al-Marri
Pam
Martens
Wall Street Metes Out Street Justice to Citigroup
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Pakistan's Dark Future
William
Schroder
The Return of Water Torture
Stephen
Lendman
Punishing Gaza
William
Blum
Cuba and Original Sin
Former
US Intelligence Officers
A Memo on Torture, Intelligence and Mukasey
November
5, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
How I Spent the Eighth Brumaire
Russell
Mokhiber
Pelosi and Me: The Democrats and Single Payer
David
Macaray
How to Turn Workers Against Each Other (and Make Them All Poorer)
Gary
Leupp
General Musharaff's "State of Emergency"
Dave
Lindorff
Those Minot Nukes
Ludwig
Watzal
Israel's Dilemma in Palestine
Patrick
Cockburn
Tensions Ease in Iraqi Kurdistan
Peter
Stone Brown
John Fogerty Makes Peace with His Past
Michael
Simmons
Yo! What Happened to Peace?
Website
of the Day
Petition: In Defense of the Morton West HS Antiwar Students
November
3 / 4, 2007
Tariq
Ali
Pakistan Sinks Deeper into Night
David
Price
Army's Price Salesman of Counterinsurgency
Manual Seeks to Defend Stolen Scholarship
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Splitsville
Alan
Farago
The Housing Crash, Suburban Sprawl and the Crisis of the American
Middle Class
Paul
Krassner
He's Back! Don Imus Meets Michael Richards
Rannie
Amiri
Why the U.S. is Safeguarding Iraq's War Criminals
P.
Sainath
Indexing Humanity, Indian Style
Ayesha
Ijaza Khan
Pakistan in a Daze
Robert
Fantina
Is the Bush Administration Talking Itself Into a War With Iran?
Seth
Sandronsky
The Politics of Health Care in California
Ron
Jacobs
The Bebop of Baraka
Ramzy
Baroud
A Case for Arab Dignity
Heather
Gray
When Capitalists Get a Free Ride
November
2, 2007
Dr.
Mary Pipher
Acting on Conscience: Psychologists
and Abusive Interrogations
Saul
Landau
How Pete Stark Became a Pariah
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo as House Arrest
Sharon
Smith
A Tale of Two Stadiums
Gary
Leupp
Fascist Beatifications: the History and Politics of Sainthood
Gregory
Harms
The Chorus of Slander on Palestine
Christopher
Brauchli
Racism in High Places
Peter
Morici
The Falling Dollar and the Stubborn Trade Deficit
Dave
Lindorff
The Easy Way to Stop the Looming US Attack on Iran
David
Penner
Zombie Nation
Website
of the Day
Fall in Yosemite
November
1, 2007
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Wages of Hegemony
Patrick
Cockburn
The Most Dangerous Dam in the World
Dave
Lindorff
The Air Force Report on the Minot-Barksdale Nuclear Missile Flight
Jonathan
Feldman
The Strange Political Economy of Death in the South
Mike
Ferner
They Met the Resistance in Iraq
William
S. Lind
A Question for Would-Be Presidents
Diana
Johnstone
"Fascislamism" Versus "Shoah Business"
Jacob
Hornberger
The War on Telephone Privacy
A..K.
Gupta
The Apocalypse will be Televised
Lyuba
Zarsky /
Kevin Gallagher
The Enclave Economy of Mexico's Silicon Valley
Felice
Pace
Does the SPLC Equate Anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism?
Website
of the Day
This One's for You, Ed Abbey
October
31, 2007
Bill
Quigley
New Orleans' Broken Criminal Justice
System
Rev.
William E. Alberts
A Trail of American Blood: From the White House to CBS News
Ray
McGovern
Attacking Iran for Israel
Eric
Walberg
Poisonous Espionage: Litvinenko and the New Cold War
V.
G. Smith
The Second Death of Guy Môquet
Luis
J. Rodriguez
"Social Cleansing" from Guatemala to LA
Sheldon
Richman
Bush has Time to Run the World
Walter
Brasch
A Real Halloween Scare
Website
of the Day
Boogie Rocks!
October 30, 2007
David
Price
Pilfered Scholarship Devastates Gen.
Petraeus's Counterinsurgency Manual
M.
Shahid Alam
The Pakistan Question
Andy
Worthington
The Epiphany of Matthew Waxman: a Government Insider Turns Against
Gitmo
Patrick
Cockburn
The Bicycle Bomber of Baquba
Anthony
Papa
The Twisted Logic of Drug Laws
Floyd
Rudmin
What "All Options are on the Table" Really Means
Sherwood
Ross
Giuliani and Torture
Website
of the Day
The Worst Lobby? You Decide
October
29, 2007
Lisa
Hajjar
Inside Israel's Military Courts
Joe
DeRaymond
The Politics of Lethal Injections
Patrick
Cockburn
The High Stakes in Iraqi Kurdistan
Isabella
Kenfield /
Roger Burbach
Corporate Murder in Brazil
Fred
Gardner
The Frivolous Investigation of Dr. Sterner
Farzana
Versey
Caricaturing Islam
Stephen
Fleischman
The Greening of the Oligarchy
Marcelle
Cendrars
The Congressional Rip Cord
Eamonn
McCann
Dan Keating, the Last of the Republican Irreconcilables
Martha
Rosenberg
For Halloween, Ann Coulter Dresses as .... Ann Coulter!
Website
of the Day
Campaign 2008
October
27 / 28, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
So Much for Islamo-Fascism Awareness
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Dam That Isn't There
James
Bovard
Breaking Down an Innocent Man: The FBI's Right to Threaten Torture
Ralph
Nader
Beyond the Rule of Law
M.
Reza Pirbhai
The Wahhabis are Coming, the Wahhabis are Coming!
Robert
Sandels
Pay the Invaders! Cuba, Claims and Confiscations
Jacob
G. Hornberger
Ruling By Decree
Missy
Beattie
The Arsonists in the West Wing
John
Ross
U.S. Eyes on Oaxaca
Robert
Fantina
Condi Rice, the Imperial Cheerleader
Ron
Jacobs
Labor at the Crossroads
Ali
Moayedian
In Search of Logic About Iran
David
Michael Green
What If We Had a President Who Didn't Give a Damn About Terrorism?
Poets
Basement
Block, Davies and Ford
Website
of the Day
Bring 'Em Home: a Music Video
October
26, 2007
Brian
Cloughley
Revenging Bloodshed
Saul
Landau
Portrait of Rudy
Ahmad
Al-Akras
Getting Justice in the HLF Case
Franklin
Lamb
Does "Loving" Lebanon Mean Never Having to Say You're
Sorry?
Mike
Whitney
Murdoch's Cuckoo's Nest
Dave
Lindorff
Home of the Brave? Reducing US Casualties By Killing More Civilians
Alan
Farago
A Castro Behind Every Bush
Yifat
Susskind
Conscripting Feminism into the War on Terror
Website
of the Day
Dead Life in a Political Prison
October 25, 2007
Jeffrey
St. Clair /
Joshua Frank
Iraq's Environmental Crisis
Manuel
Garcia, Jr.
Homes of the Crash Test Dummies
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Fraudulent War on Terror
Col.
Dan Smith
The Politics of Paranoia: Jane Harman's War on the First Amendment
Alan
Farago
The Way to Paradise?
Chris
Kutalik
The Lesson of the Chrysler Rebels
Brian
McKinlay
John Howard and the Curse of Bush
Cindy
Sheehan
Pete, Nancy, George and WW III
Website
of the Day
Support the America's Program!
|
December
12, 2007
Dreaming of Diplomacy,
Waiting for War
The
Next Kosovo War
By DIANA JOHNSTONE
The United States and its European allies
have announced that diplomacy has failed to solve the Kosovo
problem. When diplomacy fails, that means war. Especially in
so serious a matter as unilaterally declaring the independence
of a part of another country's territory.
But the next Kosovo war is
supposed to be such a small, muted, insignificant war that nobody
will notice. NATO is occupying the potential battlefield with
over 16,000 men, backed by air power, and is poised, it says,
to "avoid violence". The overwhelming military advantage
of NATO may indeed prevent any eventual violence from reaching
the status of a "war". The confidence that comes of
wielding decisive military force has allowed the United States
and its NATO allies to pursue a policy that normally would be
a sure-fire formula for war.
War results when the opposing
parties have totally conflicting views of reality. The Albanians
and Serbs have totally opposing views of the very history of
the disputed province of Kosovo. The role of diplomacy is to
take such conflicting views of reality into account. It means
avoiding pushing one party to a dispute into a humiliating corner.
It involves seeking to promote mutual respect and understanding,
at least enough to accept compromise.
Instead, the United States,
followed by its irresponsible European allies, has from the start
endorsed the extreme Albanian nationalist view, treating Serbia
as a "rogue state" that does not deserve the normal
protection of international law. Washington has orchestrated
two rounds of totally sham "negotiations", whose conclusions
it dictated from the start, on behalf of its Albanian clients.
The first round took place at Rambouillet, leading to the 1999
NATO bombing of Serbia and occupation of Kosovo. The second
round took place this year, leading to what could be another,
more muted but longer, unpredictable conflict.
Long and
short sham negotiations
At the end of the 1990s, the
Clinton administration was not really concerned with solving
the Kosovo problem. It wanted to solve its own NATO problem.
Its NATO problem was this: What is the use of this military
alliance, now that the Communist bloc, which it was created to
deter, no longer exists? To preserve  NATO, a new raison d'être
had to be found. This was "humanitarian intervention".
From now on, NATO would exist in order to rescue oppressed minorities
in foreign countries--especially those with some geostrategic
or economic value, of course. The deep-rooted Kosovo conflict
between the Serbian State and an Albanian secessionist movement,
marked by spasmodic violence on both sides, provided the experimental
terrain for this new policy. The Kosovo problem was proclaimed
to be a crisis, requiring international intervention, only weeks
before NATO's 50th anniversary meeting, when this U.S.-designed
policy was officially adopted.
To provide a casus belli, the
Clinton administration orchestrated sham negotiations at the
French château in Rambouillet. The U.S. abruptly promoted
Hashim Thaqi, the head of the armed "Kosovo Liberation Army",
to head the Kosovo Albanian delegation, shoving aside more reputable
Albanian leaders such as Ibrahim Rugova. No direct encounters
between the Serbian and Albanian delegations were even allowed.
Both were ordered to accept a comprehensive plan drafted by
the United States, allowing for NATO occupation of Kosovo. Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright bullied Thaqi into reluctantly accepting
the ultimatum, with back-stage assurances that he would eventually
get his own "independent Kosova". The Serbs had agreed
to the principle of autonomy of Kosovo, and their parliament
had drafted a proposal--totally ignored at Rambouillet. But
the Serbian delegation rejected the ultimatum, which included
an annex that would have allowed NATO occupation of the whole
of Serbia. This rejection was the result Ms Albright sought.
On the pretext that Serbia had "refused to negotiate",
NATO could wage its victorious little "humanitarian"
war.
This year, the world has been
provided with the spectacle of much more prolonged sham negotiations.
For weeks and months, the West's semi-official media have put
out "news" reports that the negotiations to settle
the Kosovo problem were not getting anywhere. This was not news
because the negotiations were framed in such a way that they
could not possibly succeed.
"The Serbian and Albanian
sides can't agree", the pseudo-diplomats say of their pseudo-diplomacy.
They mean, the Serbian side has not agreed to the Albanian demand
for an independent Kosovo. This was the only proposal with U.S.
support. It amounted to yet another ultimatum to the Serbs.
The Albanians knew they had the support of the United States
and NATO, who are occupying Kosovo militarily. They had no incentive
to bargain. They could just wait for the negotiations to fail,
sure they would be given what they want by occupying Great Powers.
Russia supports
diplomacy and international law
The West is putting the blame
for this failure on Vladimir Putin. The servile press is puffing
up Putin's status as the latest world class bad guy, motivated
by "power" and a perverse desire to annoy the virtuous
Americans. Since the Americans back the Albanian demand for independence,
the Russians, out of contrariness, back the Serbian position.
This is not exactly accurate.
The Serbian position is to offer very comprehensive autonomy
to Kosovo, a self-government just short of formal independence.
The Russian position is to be ready to support any agreement
reached between the two sides.
Western reporters and commentators refuse to grasp what this
means. It means that the Russians are insisting on genuine negotiations,
between the two parties, the Serbian government and Kosovo Albanian
separatists. They are not saying what the outcome of such genuine
negotiations would be. They might reach some sort of compromise
providing for some sort of independence. The point is that such
an agreement, reached by both parties, would be legal under international
law. Independence proclaimed unilaterally by Kosovo Albanians,
without negotiated agreement with Serbia, would constitute a
clear violation of international law. Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov has repeatedly warned that a unilateral proclamation
of independence could provoke further interethnic violence in
the region and set a dangerous precedent for many other countries
with ethnic minorities.
In the level of principles,
the contrast is not between the U.S. backing Albanian Kosovo
independence and Russia backing Serbia. It is between Russia
backing diplomacy and the United States backing force.
A "NATO
State"
But how much "independence"
will Kosovo really enjoy? In private, European governments know
that Kosovo is not a viable independent state. This has been
demonstrated during eight years of international protectorate.
Kosovo's economy is almost entirely dependent on remittances
from emigrés to their families, international aid (including
Saudia Arabian mosque building projects) and flourishing crime
(drug and sex trafficking in particular).
Since official international endorsement of unilateral Serbian
guilt has made reconciliation between Serb and Albanian inhabitants
impossible, NATO forces, under the guise of the European Union,
are expected to stay on "to protect the human rights of
minorities". In terms of security, the "independent"
Kosovo will be a NATO satellite. Formal independence from Serbia,
following eight years of de facto independence from Serbia, will
do nothing to improve the miserable state of the economy. The
huge number of unemployed young Albanians like to hope independence
will bring jobs and prosperity. But it is hard to see how closed
borders with a hostile Serbia will do more for Kosovo's economy
than decades of preferential Yugoslav development funds. Some
sources of income may even diminish, notably foreign aid, as
"humanitarian" NGOs move elsewhere. Even foreign remittances
may be cut back if certain European governments decide to send
their Albanian guest workers back to their "liberated"
homeland. Only organized crime seems certain to prosper.
Last August, as the long round
of sham negotiations got underway, Slobodan Samardzic, the Serbian
minister for Kosovo, said that a Kosovo state created with the
U.S. support "would only serve the interests of America
and the local mafia clans." Samardzic belongs to the younger,
pro-Western generation that tended to attribute the West's hostility
to Serbia to Slobodan Milosevic. But Milosevic has been gone
for years, and Western policy remains unchanged.
Samardzic said that NATO plans
to make Kosovo virtually its own territory, "a satellite,
an army barracks state on foreign territory". The main source
of power in Kosovo would be the huge U.S. military base, Camp
Bondsteel, built immediately after NATO occupied the territory
in June 1999, without asking permission from anyone.
As the latest round of sham
negotiations ended, Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica
said events prove that the real reason NATO bombed Serbia in
1999 was in order to conquer Kosovo as a "NATO puppet state".
And what has Serbia been offered
in return for loss of its historic territory? Merely a vague
suggestion that, if it behaves, it may eventually obtain EU membership.
In short, in return for losing sovereignty over Kosovo, it may
be allowed to give up more of its sovereignty to the European
Union. But even this is a hazy prospect.
It is quite possible that Serbia
could manage better economically without Kosovo, which was always
the poorest and least developed part of Yugoslavia, despite massive
development funds from the rest of the country. But Serbia's
reasons for wanting to retain Kosovo are not economic, but moral.
The West has refused to take these into account, brushing them
all aside with the single argument that Serbia "lost its
right" to the territory because of Milosevic's repression
of Albanian separatists. More realistically, NATO "won
its right" to dispose of Kosovo by bombing Serbia. The Western
argument comes down to might makes right, or rather, superior
might makes right.
Serbia's
case
The Serbian reasons to reject
Kosovo's secession are legal and moral:
1. International law. Even
after NATO bombed Serbia into allowing Kosovo to be occupied,
its sovereignty over the province was officially confirmed under
international law. As the one-sided war ended, the United Nations
Security Council adopted Resolution 1244 which reaffirmed "the
commitment of all Member States to the sovereignty and territorial
integrity" of Yugoslavia, of which Serbia is the successor
State. Resolution 1244, which remains the existing basis for
the legal status of Kosovo, also speaks of "substantial
autonomy and meaningful self-administration"--which is what
Serbia has agreed to and proposed. It does not speak
of independence.
What has Serbia done since the fall of Milosevic to merit worse
treatment than was prescribed in 1999?
2. The impossibility of abandoning
the Serbian minority to almost certain persecution and expulsion.
Nor can Serbia abandon its historic monuments, the precious medieval
monasteries of Decani, Gracanica, Pec and many others.
3. The deep, truly painful sense of injustice and humiliation
at the manner in which the Great Powers are orchestrating the
amputation of this most cherished part of Serbia's historic territory.
Serbs are blamed for something they never did, something even
Milosevic never did: the attempted "genocide" or at
least "expulsion" of Albanians from Kosovo. This is
no more than wartime propaganda, which by now is probably believed
by most Albanians, since the Great Powers endorse it. The official
line, criminalizing Serbia, echoed daily by more or less ignorant,
but well-coached, editorialists and commentators, heaps unbearable
insult on injury. Sometimes insult is harder to take than injury.
This last reason, which may
be the strongest of all, is virtually invisible to Americans
and Europeans who have swallowed whole the official line of wicked
Serbs persecuting innocent Albanians, in willful ignorance of
the complexities of history and culture of the region.
If these perfectly legitimate Serb concerns were taken into consideration,
patient diplomacy could in all probability achieve a compromise
settlement that would differ from the initial negotiating positions
of both sides, but which, with international guarantees and incentives,
could satisfy at least part of the demands of both sides.
Dreaming
of what might have been
Even after the disaster of
NATO bombing and occupation of Kosovo made the situation far
worse, by exacerbating hostility between the Albanian and Serbian
communities to the boiling point, diplomacy might have been able
to play a constructive role. That would simply require a bit
of good will and constructive imagination--qualities to which
current U.S. leaders do not even aspire, preferring to rely on
the iron fist.
Let us imagine that the United
States had not managed to subvert the peace-making functions
of international organizations such as the OSCE and the United
Nations. Let us imagine the existence of a real "international
community", which could give serious backing to diplomatic
efforts to find a compromise solution for Kosovo. Instead of
uniting a "Troika" made up of the United States, the
European Union and Russia, let us suppose that India, China and
Brazil could appoint a group of diplomats, for instance, former
ambassadors to Yugoslavia (including, perhaps, both the former
East and West German ambassadors to pre-disintegration Yugoslavia,
former Canadian ambassador James Bissett and former British ambassador
Ivor Roberts, as well as former ambassadors from non-European
countries) to facilitate open-ended negotiations between Serbs
and Albanians. There would be no preconditions except one: the
negotiations would last until the two parties agreed to a compromise
solution.
My own personal belief is that
genuine, patient negotiations could arrive at some sort of overall
agreement involving border changes and partition, as well as
some sort of union between the secessionist Albanian part of
Kosovo and Albania itself. The arguments for such a solution
are overwhelming, and have been stated most convincingly by Dobrica
Cosic, Serbia's most distinguished novelist and a former President
of Yugoslavia, well before the Kosovo problem exploded into armed
conflict in 1998-99.
It is true that both the Albanian
and Serbian sides reject partition, more or less vehemently.
But that is natural at the start of negotiations. The Albanians
adamantly demand all of Kosovo within its present borders. This
demand is supported by the United States, which also insists
that there be no union between Kosovo and Albania. This is the
point on which some compromise could be worked out.
Serbia's position has been
to offer a degree of autonomy that would in fact be tantamount
to total internal independence. This is understandable as a
bargaining position, but it is hard to see how it would be favorable
to Serbia itself. Serbia would risk bearing a financial burden
for a territory over which it exercises no control.
On the other hand, the Albanians'
expectations for independence, and most of all, the hatred they
foster for Serbia, makes a return to Serbian rule impossible
in practical terms. Moreover, Serbia has one of Europe's lowest
birth rates, while Kosovo Albanians have the highest. After
being outnumbered by Albanians in Kosovo, Serbs might eventually
be outnumbered by Albanians in Serbia.
The welfare of both Serbs and
Albanians could be ensured best by an overall agreement to end
the hostilities between the two populations, something that clearly
has not been accomplished in eight years of U.N.-NATO protectorate.
This should involve some territorial rearrangements, as well
as economic and cultural agreements between the parties concerned.
Neighboring countries should also be brought into the negotiations.
Agreements should be made on the basis of practical realities,
not on presumptions of "guilt" and "innocence".
Finally, identity needs to
be detached from particular territories and particular events.
Future generations of Serbs and Albanians must be able to live
their lives freed from the burdens of past resentments and ancestral
vendettas.
Diana Johnstone is the author of Fools' Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and
Western Delusions,
Monthly Review Press. She can be reached at diana.josto@yahoo.fr
|
Now Available!
How the Press Led
the US into War
Buy End Times Now!
New From
CounterPunch Books
The Secret
Language
of the Crossroads:
HOW THE IRISH
INVENTED SLANG
By Daniel Cassidy
WINNER
OF THE
AMERICAN BOOK AWARD!
Click Here to Buy!
Cassidy
on Tour
Click Here for Dates & Venues
"The Case Against
Israel"
Michael
Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz
Click Here to Buy!
Saul Landau's
Bush and Botox World
with a Foreword by Gore Vidal
Click Here to Order!
Grand Theft Pentagon
How They Made a Killing on the War on Terrorism
The Occupation
by Patrick Cockburn
Humanitarian Imperialism
By Jean Bricmont
CITY BEAUTIFUL
By Tennessee Reed
Bruce Springsteen On Tour
By Dave Marsh
The Book on 9/11 the White House Denounced
as "ABSOLUTE GARBAGE"
|
