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Today's Stories August 2, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts The Return of the Robber Barons Robert Fantina Still Getting It Wrong: the NYT and Iraq Chris Floyd Chertoff, Chiquita and Death Squads Franklin Lamb Lebanon's Crucial Special Elections Anthony Papa Drug Treatment isn't a Silver Bullet   August 1, 2007 Debbie Nathan More Secret Payments by Former NYT Reporter to Web Porn Star Surface in Nashville Courtroom Fred Gardner Ciao, Michelangelo Gary Leupp Why Iraq's Best-Loved Athlete Can't Go Home David Rosen America's Top 10 Political Sex Scandals Winston Warfield Is the Tillman Case Still a Coverup? Daniel McBride Lessons from Bomber Harris: If the US Strikes Pakistan Glen Ford The Corporate Plan to Crush Black Resistance Thomas P. Healy The Toxic Career of Indiana's Environmental Commissioner John V. Whitbeck The Five Percent Solution David Krieger Nuclear Weapons and the University of California Website of the Day The Tragic Story of Hisham Mohammed   July 31, 2007 Kathy Kelly Dancing in the Darkness: the Story of Abu Mahmoud Clancy Sigal The Ghosts of Passchendaele Paul Krassner Assholes of the Week: From Baby Doll to Cheney Joe DeRaymond Return to the Republic of Death? Diane Christian "Winning": What Bush Could Learn from the Shade of Achilles Chris Floyd Good News is No News: Why the Bush Adm. Buries Accounts of Extremist Recantations Ramzy Baroud Bush's Real Agenda in Palestine Alan Farago Battle for the Soul of Florida Fidel Castro In Spite of Everything: Reflections on the Pan American Games Dan Bacher The Fish Terminator: Schwarzenegger's Campaign to Build the Delta Canal and More Dams   July 30, 2007 Marjorie Cohn: Independent Counsel Time Patrick Cockburn Four Million Iraqis on the Run Peter Quinn Irish in America Uri Avnery A Warning to Tony Blair John Ross Zapatista Intergalatica Lands on Earth Ron Jacobs Free the San Francisco 8 David Vest Farewell, Old Friend: Another Legend of the Blues is Gone Jeffrey St. Clair T99 Nelson: Seduced by a Legend of the Blues Website of the Day Collateral Repair Project   July 28 / 29, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Now the NYT is Selling "Bloodbath" as a Rationale to Stay in Iraq Ralph Nader Rotten Justice Robert Fantina American Lies and Iraqi Nationalism Fred Gardner Prohibitionists Attack, Reformers Fundraise   Yves Engler Handwashing and the Bottomline   July 27, 2007 John Ross Bombing Pemex--or Not? Arthur Neslen Gaza was a Gas for Blair Dave Lindorff Declaring the US a Battlefield: Martial Law is Now a Real Threat Julene Blair The Environmentalist Within Christopher Brauchli Bush Uses Children as Shock Troops in His War on Socialized Medicine Jesse Hagopian Fund the Wounded, Not the War Charles Modiano Manufacturing a Villain: Sports Illustrated's Vilification of Barry Bonds Bill Day The Hollow Environmentalism of Leonardo DiCaprio Walter Brasch Leaders Afraid to Lead M.D. Mitchell Farm Based Camps Website of the Day Fighting Sarcoma   July 26, 2007 Kathleen Christison The Siren Song of Elliot Abrams Andy Worthington Why the Pentagon's Gitmo Study is a Joke Clancy Chassay How the Bush White House Seeks to Destroy Lebanon Marjorie Cohn Showdown Over Executive Privilege Susie Day Apartheid Americana David Price Tour de Witch Hunt: Drugs, Diaries and Purges Marie Trigona Argentina's "Dirty War" Crimes Trial: The Torturer Priest Norman Solomon Media Spin on Iraq: We're Leaving (Sort Of) William S. Lind How to Win in Iraq Natsu Saito Ward Churchill and the Regents at the University of Colorado John Stauber Netroots and the Iraq War: Does Ending It Matter to Them Anymore? Website of the Day Sticking It to the Man   July 25, 2007 Andy Worthington Gains and Losses at Gitmo Gary Leupp Bush Speechwriter, Michael Gerson, Calls for Attack on Syria Ray McGovern The Sad Decline of John Conyers Dr. Susan Block Bonobo Bashing in the New Yorker Joshua Frank Hillary's Neocon: the Imperial Vision of Richard Holbrooke Tina Richards What Harry Reid Doesn't Know About His Own Bill Ben Terrall Indonesia's Bloody Brand of CounterTerrorism Farzana Versey God Acquitted!: Lessons from the Case of Darwood Ibrahim Mohammad Ali Salih A Bomb in My Briefcase? Laura Carlsen A Strange Homecoming: Reflections on the First US Social Forum Ron Jacobs Come to Kennebunkport! Sunsara Taylor Knocked Up is F**ked Up Website of the Day Wal-Mart's Flip Flops: Feet Killers July 24, 2007 Saul Landau How to Walk in Bushtime Kathy Kelly The Plight of Iraqi Refugees in Jordan Russell Mokhiber The Michael Vick / George Bush Thing M. Shahid Alam Islam Now, China Then Patrick Cockburn and Anne Penketh Meeting in Baghdad Dave Lindorff Overcoming John Conyers Binoy Kampmark You Tube You Can't: Failure of a Medium Richard Neville Murdoch's Transplant: a Warning to the Wall Street Journal Cindy Sheehan We Must Move Beyond Politics as Usual Evelyn Pringle Anti-Depressants and Birth Defects: Why is the CDC Downplaying the Risks? Norman Solomon Media Corrections We'd Like to See CP Newswire Reading Harry Potter Not Sinful Website of the Day Sea Islands Black Heritage Festival   July 23, 2007 Andy Worthington Narcolepsy on Gitmo Detainees Uri Avnery A Trap for Fools Patrick Cockburn Turkish Prime Minister Threatens to Invade Northern Iraq Sousan Hammad The Children Without a Title John Walsh Todd Gitlin's Nader Fixation Harvey Wasserman Spinning Kashiwazaki: PR Flacks Rush to Aid of Crippled Nuke Martha Rosenberg The Life and Times of a Hog-Hanging Farmer Collin Baber Here Come the MRAPs: Resurrecting Apartheid Armor for Iraq Reza Fiyouzat Iran's Forgotten Anti-Nuke Movement Stephen Lendman Saving a President: Scare-Mongering and Executive Orders Website of the Day The Port Huron Project   July 21 / 22, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Giuliani and the Dogs of War Werther How to Read a National Intelligence Estimate Ralph Nader Atomic Blowback David Keen Buy Hard: How to Sell an Endless War Fred Gardner Karl Rove, Pothead: When Good Drugs Happen to Bad People Gary Leupp Edelman's Edict: Is Hillary "Reinforcing Enemy Propaganda?" Robert Fantina Fear in Iraq Saker The Future of Palestine: an Interview with Jonathan Cook Rannie Amiri Nasrallah in the Crosshairs: How will the Third Lebanon War Start? Mike Whitney The Crisis in Hedgistan Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD The Hidden Injuries of Powerlessness: Linking Alienation and Dissociation Monica Benderman Facing the Truth Dan Bacher Deltagate: the Politics of Fish Kills Michael Baney Fujimori's Long Race From Justice Missy Beattie Here, There and Everywhere Ron Jacobs Tremble, Tyrants Adam Engel Radical Language: an Introduction Thomas Naylor California Split: an Open Letter to Schwarzenegger Poets' Basement Landau, Ford and Engel Website of the Weekend Surge in Action   July 20, 2007 Eliza Szabo Fatal Neglect: Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan Pam Martens Doctoring the News: CNN's Sanjay Gupta, Laura Bush and Merck Alan Farago Winners and Losers in the Housing Market Crash Harvey Wasserman Lies and Leaks: The Earthquake That Screamed "No Nukes!" Marjorie Cohn Iraqis will be the Deciders Dave Zirin White Noise and the Black Athlete Anthony DiMaggio American Public Opinion and Israel Scott Liebertz Oaxaca on Edge Linn Washington, Jr. British Cops Assault Rape Allegations Bill Piper / Anthony Papa Flying High?: The Political Junkets of Bush's Drug Czar Ramzy Baroud Bush's War Policy: When Time Heals Nothing Website of the Day The Prankster Art of Mark Jenkins   July 19, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Next Invasion of Iraq Remi Kanazi Is This Ben Gurion or Hell?: a Palestinian Adventure Through Israel's Largest Airport Winslow T. Wheeler The Surging Costs of the Iraq War Sharon Smith Democrats and Health Care: Behind the Rhetoric Dave Lindorff Killing Cabbies in Iraq Conn Hallinan Have Gun, Will Travel: Mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan D. K. Wilson The Michael Vick Case Pulls Back the Veil on Who We Really Are Joshua Frank Democrats as Leviathan: Another Step Toward War with Iran Norman Solomon The Ghost of Wayne Morse Russell Hoffman Rattling the Reactor: Quakes, Fires and Leaks at the World's Largest Nuke Ray McGovern Bush's Wooden Headedness Kills Website of the Day Protesting Power July 18, 2007 Brenda Norrell Spy Towers on the US Border Col. Dan Smith How the US Could "Lose" Saudi Arabia Martha Rosenberg Lord of Crookharbour: the Trial of Conrad Black Conn Hallinan Bombing and Spraying Afghanistan Binoy Kampmark The SIM Card Terror Case Patrick Bond / Rehana Dada Who Killed Sajida Khan? Tom Johnson The Long Road ... to Nowhere Paul Craig Roberts A Free Press or a Ministry of Truth? Bob Quellos Pushing the Poor Out of House and Home Felice Pace Falling for Lieberman's Iran Resolution Robert Weissman National Health Insurance: More Humane and More Efficient CP Newswire Shocking Report Showing Involvement of US Psychologists in Torture Website of the Day Gilad Atzmon Live!   July 17, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Just Another Day in Iraq: 100 Fathers, Mothers and Children Killed Marjorie Cohn Out of Control: Executive Power Plays Evelyn Pringle Inside Bush's FDA David Rosen Moral Hypocrisy on the Hill: the Christian Right, Sexual Scandal and the Pleasures of the Courtesan Susan Miller Width Matters: Displacement and Israel's Wall Franklin Lamb Did the UN Cave to Israel on Lebanon's Shabaa Farms? Don Monkerud Considering Victory in Iraq Harvey Wasserman Nuclear Surge Russell Hoffman Japan Dodges a Radioactive Bullet Dave Lindorff Feingold Turns to Dross Dave Zirin Reclaiming Sports as True Fiction Website of the Day Che at the UN: 1964   July 16, 2007 Gary Leupp Cheney Urges Bush to Strike Iran Ellen Cantarow The Untold Story of Iraqi Women Paul Craig Roberts Impeach Now Allan J. Lichtman The D.C. Madam's Public Service Dan Bacher Cheney and the Klamath: Was the Veep Behind the Nation's Worst Salmon Kill? Patrick Cockburn The Killing of Khalid W. Hassan Manuel Garcia, Jr. Property is Racism James Brooks AIPAC and Mahmoud Abbas: the Undemocratic Road to Defeat Liaquat Ali Khan The Judicial Crisis in Pakistan Julie Flint Suleiman Jamous in Limbo Website of the Day Free Suleiman Jamous!   July 14 / 15. 2007 Alexander Cockburn Support Their Troops? Andy Worthington Gitmo's Tangled Web: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Majhid Khan, Dubious US Convictions and a Dying Man Ralph Nader Lawlessness, Waste and Incompetence Robert Fantina The Illegalities of the Iraq War Ron Jacobs Architecture as Military Strategy Joshua Frank Eat, Fight, Screw, Pray: An Interview with Joe Bageant Conn Hallinan Guns, Foundations and Free Trade: How the Right Targets Africa Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD War and Dissociation John Ross No En Nuestro Nombre!: a Letter to the Mexican Antiwar Movement Fred Gardner Who's Afraid of Cannabidiol? Rannie Amiri A Primer on Israeli Doublespeak Charles Modiano ESPN's Rap Sheet: Pacman as Black Man Anthony DiMaggio America's Parochial Press China Hand Executive Orders and Coercive Diplomacy Missy Comley Beattie Reprobate Rhetoricians Dr. James J. Murtagh, Jr. Harry Potter Battles Big Brother Kenneth Rexroth On Thomas More's "Utopia" Poets' Basement Engel, Davies and Orloski Website of the Weekend GOP Sex Hypocrites: a Slideshow

August 2, 2007 Beirut Diary Lebanon's Crucial Special Elections By FRANKLIN LAMB With Lebanon's first election since the 2006 July War presently scheduled for Sunday, August 5, 2007 pundits and observers are dizzy with speculations. Some go as far as to say that this special election to fill the seats of the two recently assassinated Members of Parliament, Pierre Gemayel (son of Amin) and Walid Eido, will determine Lebanon's foreseeable future. The leading candidate in in the Mount Lebanon Christian District of Metn is former President Amin Gemayel. He sees the by-election as a means to reclaim the seat of his slain son, Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel. The Free Patriotic Movement [FPM] headed by MP Michel Aoun considers the by-election a means to measure its popularity (as part of the opposition led by Hezbollah) on the Christian political scene. "It's a referendum on Bush, Siniora, Hariri and Hasan Nassrallah" one Gemayal campaign worker opined. The issue is whether the opposition, led by Hezbollah and comprised of Christians, Shia and some Sunni, can defeat the Saudi and Welch Club- supported Hariri group, of which Gemayel is a part. According to a statement by one Beirut District Two candidate made on July 28, 2007, the Welch Club, through certain Saudi contacts, channeled vast sums during the past few months to support the Majority Government and weaken Hezbollah. Part of that money is expected to fund the pro-government campaigns in the two districts. Announcing his election less than two weeks ago on July 17, 2007 Gemayei, who gained stature in the eyes of the public for his comments at his beloved son's funeral ( in contrast to Samir Geagea and Wallid lumblatt's thinly disguised calls to hang Syria's Bashar Assad and Lebanon's Shia,) quipped " Its not everyday in the middle east that the father succeeds the son" His audience chuckled for they were mindful that sons, Barshar, (Syria) Abdullah (Jordan) Mohammad ' VI (Morocco) Gamel (Egypt), Islam (Libya) Abdullah (Saudi Arabia) and countless other Middle East dynasties, sons succeeding fathers is indeed the norm. Even with the sympathy vote, the Metn District looks tough for the Bush administration even though it is 80 per cent Christian and former President Amin Gemayel is the favorite son. Three recent polls are worrying the Welch Club. One shows Gemayel losing Metn by 5,000 votes, another one shows him losing by 8,000 votes and the most recent one released today shows a 20,000 vote loss. The Welch Club reckons that if Gemayel can win on August 5, they will immediately run him for President in September. One problem the Israel lobby sees with Amin Gemayel is that although he has been involved in Lebanese politics for nearly 30 years, he is still untested in a competitive election at the ballot box. Some in Lebanon call Amin the 'professional inheritor'; he inherited his seat in Parliament from his father Pierre, then inherited the Presidency of Lebanon when his brother Bachir was murdered, then inherited the leadership of the Phalange Party when his father died, and now he stands to inherit another seat in Parliament as a result of his son's death. The other seat to be decided on August 5 is Beirut's Second district. Recently it has been a March 14 / Future Party Sunni area, where during the 2005 elections 47 per cent of the Sunni voters turned out, 34 per cent of the Shia, and 10 per cent of the Christians. The low Christian turnout was caused by the Armenians and Maronites who supported Michel Aoun, generally boycotting the election. The Second District Seat has been pro-Hariri since the 2000 election when the murdered Walid Eido first won it with the help of the murdered Rafic Hariri. Hezbollah is not participating in the by-elections because it considers the Siniora government illegal and President Lahoud has not signed off on the special election as required by Lebanese law. Nonetheless, every voter knows which candidate they would like to see win. Beirut's Second District campaign brings to mind Tammany Hall and Richard Daily Sr.'s Chicago. This weekend boxes filled with internationally donated food, clothing and household items (meant to aid last summer's war victims but instead stored in warehouses) are being dusted off and Future Movement (Hariri) labels hastily pasted over the names of the donor NGO's and governments. These gift parcels are being handed out only to voters who support the US backed Siniora government and who are known to be pro-Hariri voters. Opposition and pro-Hezbollah voters will receive none of the July War donated relief parcels, even though Beirut's Second District was not bombed by Israel. Another Second District Pro-government electioneering technique, widely used in the 2005 election in Christian areas North of Beirut, and elsewhere, is the $100-600 per vote bribe. Several campaign workers explained to this observer how the system works. Any voter willing to sell his vote goes to the Future Movement (pro-Siniora/Feltman government) campaign Headquarters. The voter picks up an Official Interior Ministry Ballot Envelope.These are illegally made available to pro-Government Future Movement Campaign HQ. Under Lebanese law the envelopes are only to be issued to voters as they enter the polling station and pick up the blank ballot while observed by poll watchers. The corrupt Ministry employees make them available to Saad Hariri's organization a week before the election. The voter is given an envelope by Hariri staff which the vote seller secretes on his person. When the voter goes to vote the election official gives the voter a ballot and envelope. Once in the booth, the voter marks his ballot and puts it in the Hariri envelope and seals it. The voter hides the other envelope in a pocket etc. The voter exits the voting booth and inserts it in the ballot box slot. The voter then goes to Hariri HQ presents the other envelope proving he voted and is paid the bribe in cash. In District Two, where this practice will be most in play, there are 234 Vote Boxes used in 15-20 polling stations. Locals say this technique works best in close elections because only about 5 per cent of Lebanese voters are willing to sell their votes. In addition to brochures, radio and TV spots and sound trucks, this election features some none too subtle slogans and billboards. The Hariri-financed Future Movement has as its slogan for Beirut: "Beirut is a Red Line" Among its meanings is "'Shia Not Welcome"' because this is strictly a Sunni area. Another pro-government billboard shows just 4 tombstones to remind voters of the four murdered MPs from Beirut. The opposition has countered these billboards with their own saying "lack of electricity is a red line" and "lack of clean drinking water is a red line", inadequate health care and poor schools are a red line." Known in the Middle East for their political sophistication and knowledge of what's happening in the region the local electorate in this by-election appears interested in discussing the following national-international issues: * whether the Siniora Government conspired with the Bush administration to prolong the destruction of Lebanon during the July war; * why the Bush administration is now sending weapons to Lebanon for the Siniora government (for use against Hezbollah?) when a year ago they were rushing them to Israel for the same purpose; * why the American Embassy is touting the 25 per cent increase in military aid to Israel knowing the weapons will likely be used again against Lebanon; * why the US government was planning to build a mega--Embassy on the property it bought in 2005 for $22 million near the Baabda Presidential Palace where some say it planned to control Lebanon's president while spying on nearby Hezbollah. According to State Department spokesman Sean McCormick, on July 7, 2007 the State Department suspended the project after Feltman advised Washington that Hezbollah controlled the Baabda region and could cut the roads to the Embassy whenever it wanted. McCormick's reasoning seemed a little bizarre since any number of groups could do the same thing with the roads leading to the current Embassy site. * why the US Embassy refuses to order the Israelis to stop their violations of Lebanese airspace and deliver landmine and cluster bomb maps so the numbers of civilians being killed and wounded from unexploded ordnance will decrease'. Conditions in Iraq are an issue as more Iraqi refugees come to Lebanon. One out of every seven Iraqis have fled the US invasion. Oxfam reports this week that there are also more than 2,000,000 internally displaced Iraqis, and that 60 per cent of the Iraqis registered to receive food and water are not getting it, and that more than one-third of the Iraqi population is in urgent need of aid. As the summer heat draws citizens to the beaches, last summer's oil spill is an emotional issue because the Lebanese coastline remains heavily polluted from last year's Jiyyeh oil spill and cleaning efforts have not achieved the desired result. The ominous new information was issued by the NGOs Green Line and Bybios Ecologia on the first anniversary of Israel's bombing of the Jiyyeh power plant, which dumped about 15,000 tons of crude oil into the Mediterranean. "The beaches are still very toxic," said Richard Steiner, a conservation specialist from the University of Alaska. "The oil spill is more toxic than other known spills." He concluded that Lebanon's rocky beaches were still heavily polluted, with much oil still embedded in the rocks. While sandy beaches fared better, Steiner said some oil remained under the sand and on the sea bed. Steiner collected samples from 120 kilometers of shoreline. Ali Darwish, president of Green Line, also criticized the government and the ministry. Dr. Franklin Lamb is an international lawyer and author of "Israel's War in Lebanon: Eyewitness Chronicles of the Invasion and Occupation." He can be reached at fpiercelamb@aol.com

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