Wars
of the Laptop Bombers
Today's
Stories
February 7,
2005
Tariq Ali
Imperial
Delusions
February 5
/ 6, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ward
Churchill and the Mad Dogs
Kurt Nimmo
A Ward Churchill Kind of Day
Joshua Frank
Liberals Trash Ward Churchill
P. Sainath
Mumbai's Man-Made Tsunami
Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Triumph; Allawi's Bust
Laura Carlsen
Bush, Rice and Latin America
Dave Lindorff
How the NYT Killed the Bush Bulge Story
Pamela Olson
West Bank Story
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Future of Sudanese Refugees in the West
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
A Threatened UN in King George's Court
Roger Burbach
World Social Forum: a Tale of Two Presidents
Robert Fisk
History by Laptop
David Swanson
James Forman and the Liberal-Labor Syndrome
Justin E.H. Smith
Gay Marriage: a Report from Canada
Cacie Hart
The "State" of the Union: More War and a Ban on Love
Ron Jacobs
Chairman Bob Avakian: a Revolutionary Life
Mickey Z.
Viewing America from the Outside
Ben Tripp
Republican Heroes: a New Breed of Good Guy
Ben Sonnenberg
France at the End of the Devil's Decade: Renoir's Rules of the
Game
Poets' Basement
Smith-Ferri, Davies, Collins, & Albert
Website of
the Weekend
John Trudell: How to Earn a 17,000 Page FBI File
February 4,
2005
Brian Cloughley
The
Army Symphonist: "Sometimes the Only Way to Change the Behavior
of Someone Like That is to Kill Them"
Bill Christison
Election
Parallels: Vietnam, 1967; Iraq, 2005
Elaine Cassel
Did Zoloft Make Him Do It?
Jacob Levich
Chomsky and the Draft
Kanak Mani Dixit
Return of the Royalists in Nepal
Ron Jacobs
The
Downward Spiral in Iraq
February 3,
2005
Ward Churchill
On
the Injustice of Getting Smeared: a Campaign of Fabrications
and Gross Distortions
Sharon Smith
Resisting
Soldiers Need Our Support
Mickey Z.
Leslie
Gelb Asks Iraq: Who's Your Daddy?
Mike Whitney
President of Alienation: a Desperate State of the Union
Jenna Orkin
9/11 the Sequel: the Toxic State of Lower Manhattan
Saul Landau
Elections Won't Prevent Civil War in Iraq
Yitzhak Laor
Strange is the Silence
Dave Lindorff
The
Assault on Social Security: a New Campaign of Lies
February 2,
2005
David Domke
/ Kevin Coe
Bush's
Brand of Christianity
Noam Chomsky
Iraq
After the Elections
M. Shahid Alam
O'Reilly's
Fatwah on "Un-American" Professors: FoxNews Puts Me
in Its Crosshairs
Richard Oxman
Ringing in 1984 with Ward Churchill and Derrick Jensen
Joshua Frank
The Suckering of Howard Dean
Dave Lindorff
A History Lesson from the NYT
Nina Hartley
Feminists for Porn
Website of the Day
War is a Racket
February 1,
2005
Joshua L. Dratel
The
Torture Memos
Patrick Cockburn
New Doubts About Allawi
Robert Fisk
"The Only Decent Food We Get is at Funerals"
Uri Avnery
The Stalemate
Col. Dan Smith
"W" Stands for Withdrawal
Alison Weir
Making America as "Secure" as Israel
Alan Farago
Heaven and Hell in the Everglades
Ray Hanania
Low Voter Turnout of Iraqi Expatriates: Less Than 10% of Qualified
Voters
Paul Craig
Roberts
American
Police State
Website of the Day
Statisticians Refute Official Rationale for Exit Poll Errors
January 31,
2005
Dave Zirin
Mr.
Frank's Fatwah: New Republic Writer Calls for Death & Torture
of Arundhati Roy and Stan Goff
Robert Fisk
Amid
Tragedy, Defiance
Chyng Sun
Gonzales: Chief Prosecutor of Porn?
Greg Moses
The Real Scandals of the Texas Election
Mike Whitney
Cheney at Auschwitz
Ali Tonak
Turkey and the EU: Fantasies and Ultimatums
Patrick Cockburn
A
Victory for the Shia
Website of
the Day
Voting by the Script: Where Did the 8 Million Voter Turnout Figure
Come From?
January 29
/ 30, 2005
Manuel Yang
/ Peter Linebaugh
A
Dialogue About Murder in Toledo
Gabriel Kolko
Wilsonian
and Neoconservative Myths
Patrick Cockburn
Baghdad: City of Empty Streets
Robert Fisk
This Election Will Change the World, But Not as the US Wanted
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Con Job: Bush Pledges on Racism Lack Realism
Bernard Chazelle
Why the Children of Iraq Make No Sound When They Fall
Gary Leupp
"This Kind of Subject Matter": Bush's New Ed Secretary
vs. Vermont's Lesbians
JoAnn Wypijewski
The Passion of Paul Shanley
Alexander Cockburn
The Case of Father Jerry
Ron Jacobs
Ballot of the Puppets in Iraq
Brian Cloughley
Smart Bombs; Wrong House: Iraq's Civilian Dead
Fred Gardner
Peron May Split
Sister Dianna
Ortiz
Memo to Bush from a Survivor of the Guatemalan Torturers: Stop
the Torture!
Tom Reeves
How Bush Brings Freedom to the World: the Case of Haiti
Fran Quigley
Report: Haiti Now "More Violent and More Inhuman"
Suzan Mazur
"Mr. Garsin from Kinshasa": an Old Hand Weighs In on
the Murder of Lumumba
Kurt Nimmo
Condi Rice and the Neocon Plan for the Palestinians
Lenni Brenner
Holocaust History: Beyond the UN's Rhetoric
Gilad Atzmon
The
Politics of Auschwitz
Luis Gomez
Power and Autonomy in Bolivia
Mark Gaffney
NASA Searches for a Snowball in Hell: Why Velikovsky Matters
Ben Tripp
Lament of the Mnemonopath
Richard Oxman
Meet the Fuqers
Poets' Basement
Louise, Collins, Shanahan and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
Chemical Industry: Deceit and Denial
January 28,
2005
Rachard Itani
Tsunami
Aid By the Numbers: the US Really is a Miser
Jensen / Youngblood
Iraq's
Non-Election
Patrick Cockburn / Elizabeth
Davies
Attacks on Polling Places Leave 13 Dead
Dave Zirin
The Great Donovan McNabb: Proud "Black Quarterback"
Dave Lindorff
Suicide by State Execution?
Karyn Strickler
A Corporate Death Penalty Act?
Jorge Mariscal
Fighting
the Poverty Draft
January 27,
2005
Seymour Hersh
We've
Been Taken Over By a Cult
Cockburn /
Sengupta
The
US's Bloodiest Day in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Juke Box Journalism: Shilling for Bush
Ignacio Chapela
/ John F. García
The Laws of Nature
Mike Whitney
The Widening Chasm Among Conservatives
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
Those Liberal Southern Baptists!
Ray McGovern
Reining In Cheney
Russ Wellen
Marginalizing Bin Laden
Christopher
Brauchli
The
FBI's Carnival of Errors
Website of
the Day
Informed Eating
January 26,
2005
Saree Makdisi
An
Iron Wall of Colonization: Fantasies and Realities About the
Prospects for Middle East Peace
Scott Fleming
In Good Conscience: an Interview with Concientious Objector Aidan
Delgado
Dave Lindorff
Filling Saddam's Shoes: the Puppet Regime Return's to Torture
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Salazar and Obama: Two Dismal Debuts
Toni Solo
The
US and Latin America: a Not-So-Magical Reality
William James Martin
Condoleezza Rice: Confused About the Middle East
William A.
Cook
Bush's Second Inaugural Address: the Lost Ur-Version
Eric Hobsbawm
Delusions
About Democracy
Alexander Cockburn
The CIA's New Campus Spies
January 25,
2005
Brian Cloughley
Iraq
as Disneyland
Mike Roselle
Satan is My Co-Pilot
Josh Frank
/ Merlin Chowkwanyun
The War on Civil Liberties
John Chuckman
Freedom on Steroids
Paul Craig
Roberts
A
Party Without Virtue
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
The
Intolerance of Christian Conservatives
James Petras
The
US / Colombia Plot Against Venezuela
Website of the Day
Lowbaggers for the Environment
January 24,
2005
Fred Gardner
Last
Monologue in Burbank
Lori Berenson
On the Politicization of My Case
Uri Avnery
King
George
January 22
/ 23, 2005
Jennifer Van
Bergen / Ray Del Papa
Nuclear
Incident in Montana
Alexander Cockburn
Prince
Harry's Travails
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Company That Runs the Empire: Lockheed and Loaded
Stan Goff
The Spectacle
Saul Landau
Nothing Succeeds Like Failure
Gary Leupp
Official Madness and the Coming War on Iran
Fred Gardner
Is GW Getting the Runaround?
Phil Gasper
Clemency Denied: the Politics of Death in California
Stanley Heller
A Kill-Happy Government: Connecticut Chooses Death
Greg Moses
The Heart of Texas: an Inauguration Day Betrayal on Civil Rights
Justin Taylor
The Folk-Histories of John Ross
Daniel Burton-Rose
One China; Many Problems
Elaine Cassel
Try a Little Tyranny: Questions While Watching the Inaugural
Mike Whitney
Failing Upwards: the Rise of Michael Chertoff
Mark L. Berenson
My Daughter Has Been Wrongly Imprisoned
Christopher
Brauchli
It Doesn't Compute: a $170 Million Mistake
Gilad Atzmon
Zionism and Other Marginal Thoughts
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Day of the Rats
Mark Donham
The Secret Messages of Rahm Emmanuel
Ben Tripp
Adventures in Online Dating
Walter Brasch
Hollywood's Patriots: Soulless Kooks, Mr. Bush?
Poets' Basement
Wuest, Landau, Ford, Albert & Drum
January 21,
2005
Dave Lindorff
A
Great American Journalist:
John L. Hess (1917-2005)
Sharon Smith
The
Anti-War Movement and the Iraqi Resistance
Don Santina
Baseball, Racism and Steroid Hysteria
Ron Jacobs
Locked Out and Pissed Off: Protesting the Bush Inauguration
Kurt Nimmo
The Problem with Mike Ruppert
Don Monkerud
Once They Were Cults: Bush's Faith-Based Social Services
Alan Farago
Swimming Home from the Galapagos
Derek Seidman
An
Interview with Army Medic and Anti-War Activist Patrick Resta
January 20,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Dying
for Sycophants
William Cook
The
Bush Inauguration: A Mock Epic Fertility Rite
Joshua Frank
The Democrats and Iran: Look Who's Backing Bush's Next
Eric Ruder
Why Andres Raya Snapped: Another Casualty of Bush's War
Mike Whitney
Coronation in a Garrison State
Robert Jensen
A Citizens Oath of Office
Peter Rost
Bush Report on Drug Imports: Good Data, Bad Conclusions
David Underhill
Is It Torture Yet?: the Eclectic Fool Aid Torture Test
James Reiss
Adieu, Colin Powell: Pea Soup in Foggy Bottom
CounterPunch
Staff
Voices
from Abu Ghraib: the Injured Party
January 19,
2005
Marta Russell
Social
Security Privatization & Disability: 8 Million at Risk
Mike Ferner
Marines
Stretching Movement: Protesting Urban Warfare in Toledo
Nancy Oden
The
Nuremberg Principles, Iraq and Torture
Tony Paterson
A Catalogue of British Abuses in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Divide-and-Conquer Plan to Destroy Social Security
Doug Giebel
BS and CBS: When 60 Minutes Helped Promote WMD Fantasies
Alexander Cockburn
Will
Bush Quit Iraq?
January 18,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
Americans Were Seduced by War: Empire and Militant Christianity
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Federal
Judge: Abu Ghraib Abuses Result of Decision to Ignore Geneva
Conventions
Douglas Lummis
It's a No Brainer; Send Graner: a Rap for Our Time
Ron Jacobs
Syria Back in the Crosshairs?
Seth DeLong
Enter the Dragon: Will Washington Tolerate a Venezuelan-Chinese
Oil Pact?
Lance Selfa
Stolen Election?: Most Democrats Didn't Even Bother to Inquire
Paul D. Johnson
Mystery Meat: a Right-to-Know About Food Origins
Elisa Salasin
An Open Letter to Jenna Bush, Future Teacher
January 17,
2005
Heather Gray
Misconceptions
About King's Methods for Social Change
Robert Fisk
Hotel Room Journalism: the US Press in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
What the NYT Death Chart Omitted: Civilians Slaughtered by US
Military
Jason Leopold
Sam Bodman's Smokestacks: Bush's Choice for Energy Czar is One
of Texas's Worst Polluters
Gary Leupp
A Message from the Iraqi Resistance
Douglas Valentine
An Act of State? the Execution of Martin Luther King
Harvey Arden
Welcome to Leavenworth: My First Encounter with Leonard Peltier
Greg Moses
King
and the Christian Left: Where Lip Service is Not an Option
January 15
/ 16, 2005
James Petras
The
Kidnapping of a Revolutionary
Robert Fisk
Flying Carpet Airlines: My Return to Baghdad
Ron Jacobs
Unfit for Military Service
Brian Cloughley
Smack Daddies of the Hindu Kush: Afghanistan's Drug Bonanza
Fred Gardner
The Allowable-Quantity Expert
Dr. Susan Block
The Counter-Inaugural Ball: Eros Day, 2005
John Ross
Zapatista Literary Llife
Suzan Mazur
Unspooking Frank Carlucci
M. Shahid Alam
America's New Civilizing Mission
Frederick B. Hudson
Jack Johnson's Real Opponent: "That I Was a Man"
Mike Whitney
Bush's Grand Plan: Incite Civil War in Iraq
Tom Crumpacker
A Constitutional Right to Travel to Cuba
Bob Burton
The Other Armstrong Williams Scandal
John Callender
La Conchita and the Indomitable 82-Year Old
Lila Rajiva
Christian Zionism
Saul Landau
An Imperial Portrait: a Visit to Hearst's Castle
Doug Soderstrom
A Touch of Evil: the Morality of Neoconservatism
Poets' Basement
Davies, Louise, Landau, Albert, Collins and Laymon
January 14,
2005
Robert Fisk
"The
Tent of Occupation"
Lee Sustar
Bush's Social Security Con Job
José
M. Tirado
The Christians I Know
Dave Zirin
The Legacy of Jack Johnson
Sheldon Rampton
Calling John Rendon: a True Tale of "Military Intelligence"
Tracy McLellan
Under the Influence
Yves Engler
The Dictatorship of Debt: the World Bank and Haiti
Tom Barry
Robert
Zoellick: a Bush Family Man
Website of
the Day
Ryan for the Nobel Prize?
January 13,
2005
Mark Chmiel
/ Andrew Wimmer
Hearts
and Minds, Revisited
Joe DeRaymond
The Salvador Option: Terror,
Elections and Democracy
Greg Moses
Every Hero a Killer?...Not
Dave Lindorff
The Great WMD Fraud: Time for an Accounting
Jorge Mariscal
Dr. Galarza v. Alberto Gonzales: Which Way for Latinos?
Christopher Brauchli
Gonzales and the Death Penalty: the Executioner Never Sleeps
Gary Leupp
"Fighting
for the Work of the Lord": Christian Fascism in America
January 12,
2005
Robert Fisk
Fear
Stalks Baghdad
Josh Frank
The
Farce of the DNC Contest
Jack Random
Casualties
of War: the Untold Stories
John Roosa
Aceh's Dual Disasters: the Tsunami and Military Rule
Carol Norris
In the Wake of the Tsunami
Mike Whitney
Pink Slips at CBS
Alan Farago
Can
the Everglades be Saved?
Paul Craig
Roberts
What's
Our Biggest Problem in Iraq...the Insurgency or Bush?
January 11,
2005
Tom Barry
The
US isn't "Stingy"; It's Strategic: Aid as a Weapon
of Foreign Policy
James Hodge
and Linda Cooper
Voice
of the Voiceless: Father Roy Bourgeois and the School of the
the Americas
Linda S. Heard
Farah Radio Break Down: Joseph Farah's Messages of Hate and Homophobia
Derrick O'Keefe
Electoral Gigolo?: Richard Gere and the Occupied Vote
Gila Svirsky
A Tale of Two Elections
Harry Browne
Irish
"Peace Process", RIP
January 10,
2005
Ramzy Baroud
Faith-Based
Disasters: Tsunami Aid and War Costs
Talli Nauman
Killing
Journalists: Mexico's War on a Free Press
Uri Avnery
Sharon's Monologue
Dave Lindorff
Tucker
Carlson's Idiot Wind
Dave Zirin
Randy
Moss's Moondance
Dave Silver
Left Illusions About the Democratic Party
Charles Demers
Plan Salvador for Iraq: Death Squads Come in Waves
William A.
Cook
Causes
and Consequences: Bush, Osama and Israel
January 8 /
9, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Say,
Waiter, Where's the Blood in My Margarita Glass?
John H. Summers
Chomsky
and Academic History
Greg Moses
Getting Real About the Draft
Walter A. Davis
Bible Says: the Psychology of Christian Fundamentalism
Victor Kattan
The EU and Middle East Peace
John Bolender
The Plight of Iraq's Mandeans
Robert Fisk
The Politics of Lebanon
Fred Gardner
Situation NORML
Joe Bageant
The Politics of the Comfort Zone
Mickey Z.
I Want My DDT: Little Nicky Kristof Bugs Out
Ben Tripp
CounterClockwise Evolution
Ron Jacobs
Elvis and His Truck: Out on Highway 61
Saul Landau
Sex
and the Country
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Time to End the Blackout
Ellen Cantarow
NPR's Distortions on Palestine
Richard Oxman
Bageantry Continued
Poets' Basement
Gaffney, Landau, Albert, Collins
January 7,
2005
Omar Barghouti
Slave
Sovereignty: Elections Under Occupation
Kent Paterson
The Framing of Felipe Arreaga: Another Mexican Environmentalist
Arrested
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Old
Vijay Merchant and the Tsunami
David Krieger
Cancel the Inauguration Parties
Gideon Levy
New Year, Old Story
Dave Lindorff
Ohio Protest: First Shot Fired by Congressional Progressives
Christopher
Brauchli
Privatizing the IRS
Roger Burbach
/ Paul Cantor
Bush,
the Pentagon and the Tsunami
January 6,
2005
Brian J. Foley
Gonzales:
Supporting Torture is not His Greatest Sin
Greg Moses
Boot
Up America!: Gen. Helmly's Memo Leaks New Bush Deal
Petras / Chomsky
An
Open Letter to Hugo Chavez
Alan Maass
The Decline of the Dollar
Dave Lindorff
Colin Powell's Selective Sense of Horror
Jenna Orkin
The EPA and a Dirty Bomb: 9/11's Disastrous Precedent
P. Sainath
The
Tsunami and India's Coastal Poor
January 5,
2005
Alan Farago
2004:
An Environmental Retrospective
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Oversight
Detected?: Sen. McCain and the Boeing Tanker Scam
Jean-Guy Allard
Gary Webb: a Cuban Perspective
Fred Gardner
Strutting, Smirking, As If The Mad Plan Was Working
David Swanson
Albert Parsons on the Gallows
Richard Oxman
The Joe Bageant Interview
Bruce Jackson
Death
on the Living Room Floor
January 4,
2005
Michael Ortiz
Hill
Mainlining
Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
They
Say They Can Lock You Up for Life Without a Trial
Yoram Gat
The
Year in Torture
Martin Khor
Tragic
Tales and Urgent Tasks from the Tsunami Disaster
Gary Leupp
Death
and Life in the Andaman Islands
January 3,
2005
Ron Jacobs
The
War Hits Home
Dave Lindorff
Is
There a Single Senator Who Will Stand Up for Black Voters?
Mike Whitney
The Guantanamo Gulag
Joshua Frank
Greens and Republicans: Strange Bedfellows
Maria Tomchick
Playing Politics with Disaster Aid
Rhoda and Mark
Berenson
Our Daughter Lori: Another Year of Grave Injustice
David Swanson
The Media and the Ohio Recount
Kathleen Christison
Patronizing
the Palestinians
January 1 /
2, 2005
Gary Leupp
Earthquakes
and End Times, Past and Present
Rev. William
E. Alberts
On "Moral Values": Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian
Tendencies
M. Shahid Alam
Testing Free Speech in America
Stan Goff
A Period for Pedagogy
Brian Cloughley
Bush and the Tsunami: the Petty and the Petulant
Sylvia Tiwon
/ Ben Terrall
The Aftermath in Aceh
Ben Tripp
Requiem for 2004
Greg Moses
A Visible Future?
Steven Sherman
The 2004 Said Awards: Books Against Empire
Sean Donahue
The Erotics of Nonviolence
James T. Phillips
The Beast's Belly
David Krieger
When Will We Ever Learn
Poets' Basement
Soderstrom, Hamod, Louise and Albert
December 23,
2004
Chad Nagle
Report
from Kiev: Yushchenko's Not Quite Ready for Sainthood
David Smith-Ferri
The
Real UN Disgrace in Iraq
Bill Quigley
Death
Watch for Human Rights in Haiti
Mickey Z.
Crumbs
from Our Table
Christopher Brauchli
Merck's Merry X-mas
Greg Moses
When
No Law Means No Law
Alan Singer
An
Encounter with Sen. Schumer: a Very Dangerous Democrat
David Price
Social
Security Pump and Dump
Website of the Day
Gabbo Gets Laid
December 22,
2004
James Petras
An
Open Letter to Saramago: Nobel Laureate Suffers from a Bizarre
Historical Amnesia
Omar Barghouti
The Case for Boycotting Israel
Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond
They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit
Harry Browne
Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge
Richard Oxman
On the Seventh Column
Kathleen Christison
Imagining
Palestine
Website of the Day
FBI Torture Memos
December 21,
2004
Greg Moses
The
New Zeus on the Block: Unplugging Al-Manar TV
Dave Lindorff
Losing
It in America: Bunker of the Skittish
Chad Nagle
The View from Donetsk
Dragon Pierces
Truth*
Concrete
Colossus vs. the River Dragon: Dislocation and Three Gorges Dam
Patrick Cockburn
"Things Always Get Worse"
Seth DeLong
Aiding Oppression in Haiti
Ahmad Faruqui
Pakistan and the 9/11 Commission's Report
Paul Craig
Roberts
America
Locked Up: a System of Injustice
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Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
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Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
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Corrie
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Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
February 7, 2005
Military Officials are on Notice
Pinochet:
Fit to be Tried
By
STACIE JONAS
Just when it looked as though former
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet might never be brought to justice,
surprising new developments and legal decisions in Chile are
putting the general back in the hot seat. Bolstered by unexpected
historical twists, the new victories in the struggle for accountability
are largely the result of the dedication of human rights advocates
in Chile and around the world who have demanded truth and justice
for more than three decades.
History
of the Pinochet Case
When Pinochet relinquished
most of his power in 1990, hopes for truth and justice were high.
The release of an official Truth and Reconciliation Report in
1991, under the country's first elected government in more than
17 years, was a significant but partial victory. The report detailed
over 3,000 murders and disappearances committed during Pinochet's
military dictatorship. It did not include, however, cases of
torture committed during the military regime or identify those
responsible for the violations. The government pulled these punches
at a time when Pinochet was entrenched in Chile's political landscape
as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and future "lifetime Senator,"
and the military continued to leave at least one booted foot
outside the barracks. Chile's new President, Patricio Aylwin,
advocated justice for human rights violations "to the extent
possible." Given that the 1978 military-decreed Amnesty
Law allowed most human rights abusers to escape trial or imprisonment
and the continued political power that Pinochet had secured for
the military and his right-wing supporters during the transition
back to democracy, that possibility seemed remote.
Unable to see justice done
in Chile, dictatorship victims turned to the Spanish courts.
The 1998 detention of Pinochet in London based on an arrest warrant
issued by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón and the subsequent
16-month extradition proceedings marked a major blow to impunity
and a victory for human rights that reverberated around the world.
In addition to opening new public debate on human rights in Chile,
the arrest led to the filing and reactivation of other cases
against Pinochet and Chilean military officers in courts in Europe
and the United States. These cases, in turn, helped create political
space in Chile, allowing for new progress in human rights cases
in the Chilean courts, as well.
Although Pinochet was ultimately
released in 2000 on the basis of highly-contested medical reports
suggesting he was unfit for trial, his legal troubles did not
end with his return to Chile. In fact, shortly after returning
to Santiago, the Chilean courts stripped the former dictator
of the immunity from prosecution he enjoyed as an unelected lifetime
Senator and "Former President of the Republic." Shortly
thereafter, Chilean Judge Juan Guzman indicted Pinochet and placed
him under house arrest for his role in the "Caravan of Death"
case, involving the 1973 kidnapping and murder of several political
opponents. The victory was short lived; on the basis of new medical
exams and under pressure from some political and military officials,
the Chilean Supreme Court suspended the case against Pinochet
in 2002, declaring him mentally unfit for trial.
New Developments
That might have been the end
of the story. But victims groups and lawyers were unwilling to
give up the fight for justice. Day after day, they continued
pushing the Chilean courts to reconsider stripping Pinochet's
immunity from prosecution in a number of different human rights
cases. Their arguments that Pinochet was, in fact, fit for trial
were strengthened by Pinochet's own inability to keep a low profile.
Although he resigned from the
Senate and largely disappeared from public life after the Caravan
of Death case was suspended, Pinochet continued to make headlines
signing autographs during beach vacations and making trips to
local bookstores. The final straw came shortly after the 30th
anniversary of the September 11, 1973 military coup, which had
once again generated intense public debate about human rights
abuses during the dictatorship. Two months later, in November
2003, Pinochet gave an hour-long interview to a Miami television
station, speaking clearly and coherently about events that had
occurred 30 years earlier. In the interview, the aging General
claimed he had been an "angel," not a dictator. He
said he had no reason to ask for forgiveness.
Human rights lawyers pounced
on the interview as a sign of Pinochet's lucidity and once again
brought their case to the courts. Despite three previous rulings
declaring Pinochet unfit for trial, in May 2004, the Santiago
Appeals Court upheld a new request from Judge Juan Guzman to
strip Pinochet's immunity from prosecution for a case involving
crimes committed by "Operation Condor."
The fact that this was a Condor
case may have played a role in the Court's decision. Operation
Condor was a coordinated campaign uniting the security forces
of South American dictatorships to carry out joint operations
against political opponents, including kidnapping and assassinations
that took place abroad. The 1974 Buenos Aires assassination of
Chilean General Carlos Prats and his wife Sofia Cuthbert and
the 1976 Washington, D.C. assassination of Chilean diplomat Orlando
Letelier and American Ronni Karpen Moffitt, are two well-known
Operation Condor crimes. (Disclosure: At the time of their murders,
Letelier and Moffitt worked for the Institute for Policy Studies.
IPS runs Foreign Policy In Focus in partnership with the International
Relations Center.)
Pinochet's right-hand man and
secret police chief Manuel Contreras had already served jail
time in Chile for his role in the Letelier-Moffitt murders, and
the Spanish case resulting in Pinochet's 1998 detention had placed
heavy emphasis on Condor crimes, as well. Argentina, France,
Italy, and the United States had also investigated Operation
Condor, and information from those cases combined with recently
declassified U.S. documents strengthened the Chilean case against
the former dictator.
As Pinochet's lawyers scrambled
to challenge the decision, an unexpected revelation once again
turned the tide against them. In July 2004, a U.S. Senate Subcommittee
released a report revealing million dollar bank accounts that
Pinochet held at Riggs Bank under a number of false names. Further
investigations by a Chilean judge exposed that Pinochet, aka
"Daniel Lopez," had amassed a nearly $16 million fortune
despite his modest annual income as Commander-in-Chief of the
Army. The highly-publicized "Pinochecks" case led to
interrogations of Pinochet's entire extended family, and eventually
to an order to freeze several of Pinochet's bank accounts. Both
the Spanish and Chilean courts continue to pursue cases against
Pinochet, his family, and even his financial adviser on charges
including misuse of public funds, embezzlement, and tax fraud.
Blatant corruption was more
than even many of Pinochet's supporters could bear. Those who
had defended him in the face of allegations of human rights violations
began to shy away. Somehow they were not convinced by the Pinochet
family's suggestion that the money came from "donations."
Nor did they believe Pinochet's lawyer's argument that it was
"quite common" for Americans to use false names on
their bank accounts. It was against the backdrop of this scandal
that the Chilean Supreme Court in August 2004 decided to affirm
the decision to strip Pinochet's immunity for the Condor case.
Stripped of immunity and the
myth that his dictatorship had at least been fiscally responsible,
Pinochet was soon subject to an interrogation by Judge Guzman
and new medical exams. As Judge Guzman considered the findings
of the new medical reports, another human rights shockwave hit
Chile in the form of an official report on torture. The Valech
Report, named for the Bishop who headed up the Commission on
Torture and Political Imprisonment, detailed over 35,000 individual
cases of torture committed during the dictatorship. In response
to the report, released in late November 2004, some military
commanders and politicians acknowledged for the first time that
the abuses of the regime had been systematic and institutional.
After 30 years of denying that
torture had taken place aboard the Chilean navy training vessel
La Esmeralda, Naval Commander Miguel Angel Vergara finally admitted
the ship had been used as a torture chamber in the early days
of the military regime. Even Pinochet's daughter was taken aback
by the gruesome descriptions. Calling the torture committed during
the dictatorship "barbarity without justification,"
Lucia Pinochet claimed "I knew there had been detainees
and that pressure was appliedbut nothing like what I've heard
about recently."
Also in November 2004, the
five-member Criminal Chamber of the Chilean Supreme Court upheld
the conviction of several high-level military officials, including
former secret police chief Manuel Contreras, for the 1975 disappearance
of Miguel Angel Sandoval. The milestone verdict marked the Supreme
Court's first decision not to apply the Amnesty Law in the sentencing
phase of a forced disappearance case. It also represented a unique
development in Chilean jurisprudence by extensively citing international
law to support its conclusions. Just a few months later, in January
2005, Contreras and other high-level members of Pinochet's secret
police were jailed for this crime.
In the new political climate
created by the Torture Report and the Sandoval decision, and
shortly after yet another decision to strip Pinochet's immunity
for the 1974 Buenos Aires assassination of Gen. Carlos Prats,
Judge Guzman announced his decision to indict 89-year-old Pinochet
for nine kidnappings and murders committed by Operation Condor.
After analyzing at length the new medical findings, Judge Guzman
concluded: "Augusto Pinochet Ugarte is mentally fit to face
criminal trial in Chile."
Just days before the Santiago
Appeals Court was set to rule on Judge Guzman's indictment, Pinochet
was hospitalized for a stroke. Instead of ending his legal troubles,
however, the rumors about the former dictator's impending demise
only led to a confirmation by high-level government officials
that Pinochet would not receive official honors at his funeral
or a national holiday upon his death. The Appeals Court, relying
on Judge Guzman's assessment, went right ahead and upheld the
indictment, and the Chilean Supreme Court denied Pinochet's request
for habeas corpus in early January.
The former dictator was, for
a third time, placed under house arrest. To add insult to injury,
according to his lawyers, he had to turn to friends to raise
bail money because so many of his bank accounts had been frozen
as part of the Riggs investigation. He has thus far been spared
the indignity of being fingerprinted and having his mug shots
taken, though Judge Guzman assures that this will take place
if the indictment survives the next round of appeals.
And thus Pinochet is set to
end his days facing another round of legal challenges for both
human rights violations and corruption charges. According to
recent reports, at least 160 of his cohorts are also being investigated
in over 350 human rights cases.
New Challenges
While there are signs of hope
for justice in Chile, considerable challenges remain. President
Ricardo Lagos' administration has pushed a law through Congress
stipulating that official accounts and documents gathered for
the torture report cannot be made public or given to the courts
for 50 years. This law, criticized by human rights groups and
even some Supreme Court Justices, deprives potential legal cases
against torturers of critical evidence. And despite the Torture
Report's finding that the judiciary branch had both implicitly
and explicitly supported the military regime, the Chilean Supreme
Court issued a statement in December 2004 refusing to accept
responsibility for the human rights violations that were committed
during the dictatorship.
An even bigger threat to recent
progress in human rights cases emerged in January 2005 when the
Chilean Supreme Court ordered lower court judges to conclude
all human rights investigations within six months. This highly
controversial decision, which has been denounced by human rights
groups and Parliamentarians as unconstitutional and contrary
to international law, enjoys the full support of President Lagos
and two front-runners in Chile's 2005 Presidential race.
Conclusion
Despite these new setbacks,
it is clear that the individuals who courageously documented
abuses and filed cases in Chile during the dictatorship and who
continued to insist that the truth be told and justice be done
after the transition to democracy have made significant headway
in their struggle. Their efforts to date have sent a clear message
that any attempt to put an artificial end to the "human
rights question" will likely be futile. A much fuller accounting
of the dictatorship years is now available to Chilean society
and future generations. Military officials are on notice. They
will not be assured impunity for human rights crimes in the future.
And maybe, just maybe, Pinochet will finally be tried in 2005.
Stacie Jonas is an Associate Fellow at the Institute
for Policy Studies (IPS), online at www.ips-dc.org,
former director of the IPS Bring Pinochet to Justice Campaign
and an analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF), online at
www.fpif.org. She is currently
a student at Yale Law School.
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