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New Edition CounterPunch The Empire Viewed from Oceanside by Alexander Cockburn; Rumsfeld's Enforcer: the Mysterious Career of Stephen Cambone by Jeffrey St. Clair; "We Want to Kill Westerners": Inside the Saudi Oil Bombings: by Patrick Cockburn; The Last Straw? Kerry, Judges and Abortion: Brandy Baker. In May, CounterPunch Online was read by over 20 million viewers! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a (tax deductible) donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Now Available: Hot New CounterPunch T-Shirts! Or Call Toll Free 1-800-840 3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Cockburn / St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War Now Available! Today's Stories June 10, 2004 Patrick Cockburn The Iraqi Street Has Spoken: New Govt. Made Up of CIA Pawns Saul Landau Force-Feeding Lies About Free Trade June 9, 2004 Mustafa Barghouthi Israel's Common Use of Torture Must be Exposed Mike Whitney Alan Dershowitz, Still Defending Torture John Chuckman Why the CIA will Always be a Costly Flop Jim Tarbell / Roger Burbach Bush's Democratic Charade in Iraq Dave Lindorff Put Reagan on the $3 Bill Miguel D'Escoto Reagan was the Butcher of My People Becky Burgwin The Betrayal of Smarty Jones: Flogging a Natural Born Hero Patrick Cockburn The Rich Have Been Warned to Leave Baghdad June 8, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair The Nature of Ronald Reagan: Will the Earth Accept His Corpse? Dave Lindorff The March on Rumsfeld's House: Is the US Anti-War Movement Running Out of Steam? Phillip Cryan Torture, Bombings & the Press in Colombia Mark Zepezauer Getting Reagan Wrong Mickey Z. Reagan, Radicals and Repetitive Reactions John L. Hess Reagan and Bush in Normandy Alex Dawoody Reagan and Saddam: the Unholy Alliance Christopher Fons Reagan in a Word: Mean Niranjan Ramakrishnan Some Tenets are More Important Than Others Ahmed Bouzid Nothing New Under the Israeli Sun Michael Leon Bush the Narcissist June 7, 2004 Jason Leopold New Enron Docs Show Lay and Skilling Knew of California Trading Schemes Patrick Cockburn The Baghdad Bombings: the Pattern of Attacks is Changing Dennis Hans From Afghanistan to El Salvador: Reagan's Dark Global Legacy Tracy McLellan Nader at the National Press Club: a Glimpse at a Different Kind of Politics Bill Blum The Myth of the Gipper: Reagan Didn't End the Cold War Ben Tripp What I Owe Reagan: the Brylcreemed Bullshitter Susan Davis Reagan, In a Nutshell Phil Gasper Reagan: Goodbye and Good Riddance Website of the Day A Child's ABCs of Terrorism   June 5 / 6, 2004 C. Douglas Lummis Toward a Universal Declaration of Human Wrongs Saul Landau Five Cubans in Prison, Victims of Bush's Obsession Dave Lindorff John Walker Lindh, Revisited Brian Cloughley Apologies, Please, From Those Who Got It Wrong Rich Gibson The Grenada 17: the Last Prisoners of the Cold War are Black Elaine Cassel A Sorry FBI Cathrin Schütz On the Ruins of Yugoslavia Ben Tripp Call Me, Mr. Cassandra Kurt Nimmo The Madness of King George Ron Jacobs They Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Unless We Make It So) Laura Flanders The Lynne Cheney Show? Lenni Brenner Renaissance Noir: Caravaggio at the Met Abigail Jones Whatever Happened to Lori Berenson, President Toledo's Trophy Prisoner? Mark Latham Nothing Bush Said Has Changed Our Hopes Gerry Adams I Was Photographed While Tortured, Too Toni Solo Venezuela 2004, Nicaragua's Contra War Reprised Derek Seidman Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old M. Junaid Alam Torture is Just the Symptom Matt Siegfried An American Way of War Dave Zirin The Politics of Charles Barkley Poets' Basement Albert, Krieger, St. Clair Website of the Weekend Overnight Sensations     June 4, 2004 Chris Floyd Masked and Anonymous: Inside America's Animal House Cornwell / Penketh Exit Tenet: the Fall of a Fall Guy Wayne Madsen Apprehension & Frustation: Neo-Cons on the Brink Greg Moses Agitating for Workers' Rights in Iraq Yitzak Laor Before Rafah Ghali Hassan Ambassador to Death Squads: Who is Negroponte? Jane Stillwater God, the Rapture and Vera Casey CounterPunch Wire D-Day Reconsidered: Was It Really Worth the Carnage? John Borowski Woo-Wooism v. Meteorites: Why the Dems Are No Match for Bush Mike Griffin Caterpillar's Assault on the UAW Alexander Cockburn Has Bush Gone Over the Edge? Website of the Day Aquae Urbis Romae: Water and Empire   June 3, 2004 Ron Jacobs Iran's Nuclear Dilemma Dr. Susan Block America in tha Hood Michael Donnelly The Bully and the Brahmin John Chuckman Insanity in America: US Ranks Number One in the Deranged Christopher Brauchli The Return of Cardinal Law: Rome on $12,000 a Month Samia Nassar Melki Caravaggio in Iraq Mike Whitney Subverting Justice: Pre-Trial Ruminations in the Padilla Case Diane Rejman Memorial Day Isn't Just About the Dead Scott Morris "WMDs" in Cuba Paul de Rooij Palestinian Misery in Perspective     June 2, 2004 Brian Cloughley The Liars are Winning Ray McGovern How Far Would They Go? Beware "Credible Intelligence" Josh Frank The Anybody But Bush Offensive Mike Whitney The Afghanistan Failure: Bush's Warlord Patriots Jackie Corr Iraq and Ireland: Three Tales from Butte, Montana Robert Jensen The US Lost the Iraq War...and It's a Good Thing, Too Alexander Cockburn "Bye, Bye Boonville!"   June 1, 2004 Gary Leupp Instant Karma: Bush's Sins Catch Up with Him William A. Cook Manufacturers of Fear and Loathing in Rafah Dave Lindorff Will the Times Clean House? Kevin Zeese Inside the Kerry / Nader Meeting: Did the Kerry Campaign Lie About What Was Discussed? Jacob Levich Coming Soon: Return of the Draft, a Bipartisan Production Kathy Kelly Voices in the Wilderness v. the US Government Website of the Day Remind Us     May 29 / 31, 2004 Lee Ballinger / Dave Marsh The Origins of Memorial Day Janine Pommy Vega Memo for Memorial Day Mike Ferner On Their Way to Abu Ghraib Alfred W. McCoy The Cruel Shadow: the Long History of CIA Torture Research Douglas Valentine An Open Letter to the NYT: Questions, Questions, Questions Chris White First to Fight Culture: a Former Marine on the Marine Motto Bruce Anderson The Awful Injustice to Tai Abreu David Vest Get Ready for Kerry's War: the 100 Year Quagmire Saul Landau Torture: the Logical Outcome of Bush's War for Democracy? Kurt Nimmo Abu Hamza al-Mazri, Made in the USA Elaine Cassel The Secrets of Surveillance: Ashcroft, Snoops, and Gag Orders Will Potter The New War on "Terror": Protest the Torture of Chimps; Get Arrested as a "Terrorist" Ben Tripp They Fiddled While Nero Got the Matches Dr. Susan Block Save Abu Ghraib! Kia Kojouri Nukes, the US, Israel and Iran: an Interview with Sasan Fayazmanesh Mickey Z D-Day: 60 Years is Enough! Jon Brown Correcting the Correction at the Times Patrick B. Barr Pre-emptive War Insurance Stephen Gowans Bad Apples in a Bad Barrel Tom Gorman Gore on Bush in Iraq: the Approach May be Exotic, But It's Hardly New Dave Zirin Fighting for Boxers' Rights: an Interview with Eddie Mustafa Muhammad Gregory Weiher Bush to Arabs: "Go Get Yourself Some Democracy" Erik Cummings Jung Meets Bush Poets' Basement Davies, Ford, Kearney, McLellan and Albert   May 28, 2004 Rafael Rodriguez Cruz Curtain of Silence on the Cuban 5 Greg Moses Bush's Misleading Speech on Abu Ghraib Dave Lindorff Dissing Independent Contractors: Those Who Do the Dirty Work Norman Solomon Leaping for Lies at the Times Rep. Bill Delahunt Bush's Cruel New Rules on Cuba Paul McGeough Chalabi Baba and the 40 Thieves Niranjan Ramakrishnan India and Nehru: 40 Years After Alexander Cockburn NYTs: "Maybe We Did Screw Up...a Little"     May 27, 2004 Amy Goodman / David Goodman Fatal Errors: the Lies of Our Times Douglas Valentine Ragging the Dogs of War at the NYTs John L. Hess The Times Confesses...Kind Of Stew Albert Dellinger, the Wrestling Pacifist Dave Dellinger a 1993 Interview Christopher Brauchli Tax Breaks for Scions...to Hell with Poor Kids Rampton / Stauber Banana Republicans: Pumping Irony     May 26, 2004 Ron Jacobs Goodbye, David Dellinger: He Was a Friend of Ours Robert Fisk The Things Bush Didn't Say in His Speech Zeynep Toufe New Draft UN Resolution Permits Perpetual Occupation Conn Hallinan Bush and Sharon: the Oil Connection Tom Stephens 2 + 2 is On My Mind: More Morons and War Crimes Derek Medley Protesting Gov. Bigot CounterPunch Wire FBI Abducts Artist; Seizes Art Andrew Cockburn The Trail to Tehran   May 25, 2004 Joe Bageant The Covert Kingdom: On Earth as It is in Texas Col. Dan Smith A Question of Human Dignity Gary Handschumacher Visiting Lori Berenson: Time to Bring Her Home Toni Solo A Developing War in the Andes Marc Estrin September Song: Disturbing Questions About 9/11 Stephen Banko, III A Vietnam Vet on "Supporting the Troops" Website of the Day The Wizard of Whimsy May 24, 2004 Ron Jacobs Dan Senor is Safe! Kurt Nimmo Dirty Tricks & TortureGate: the Missing Taguba Pages Sam Hamod Gen. Zinni: "Wrong War, Wrong Place, Wrong Time" Mike Whitney The Wedding was a Bomb Stan Goff Open Season on MAMs Image of the Day A Photo from Abu Ghraib We Didn't See on the Front Page of the NYTs     May 22 / 23, 2004 Paul de Rooij Colin Powell, a Political Obituary Jeffrey St. Clair When War is Swell: Bush and the Carlyle Group Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Her Son Was Told He Wouldn't See Combat; Now He's Dead: an Interview with Sue Niederer Brian Cloughley America is Committing War Crimes in Iraq Saul Landau Democracy in Latin America: Great for Investors; Not So Good for People Brandy Baker Feminists Stand By Their Man: Abortion, Judges and Kerry Randall Robinson Bushwhacked in the Caribbean Uri Avnery The Rape of Rafah Ben Tripp Assume the Worst Bruce Anderson News from Ecotopia: the Truth About the Wine Business Josh Ruebner Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers Peter Wolson, Ph. D. Exhibitionistic Revenge at Abu Ghraib Chloe Cockburn In Defense of "Troy": What Hector Could Teach Rummy Linda Burnham Sexual Domination in Uniform: an American Value Adrien Rain Burke War of the Necrophiliacs: Spc. Sabrina Harman and Her Corpse David Krieger Charting a New Course for US Nuclear Policy Ron Jacobs Turnaround Poets' Basement Ford, Albert & LaMorticella   May 21, 2004 Ray Close The Canards of the Apologists Christopher Brauchli "The Object of Torture is Torture" Amira Hass Darkness at Noon Jack McCarthy Camilo Mejia: Can the Son of a Sandinista Get a Fair Trial from the US Army? Bill Kauffman Nader v. Bush Omar Barghouti No More Tears for America Ghali Hassan Moral Failure of the "Free World" in Gaza Christopher Reed How the CIA Taught the Portuguese to Torture Website of the Day Eric Idle on the Bush Administration: Fuck You, So Very Much   May 20, 2004 Andrew Cockburn The Truth About Chalabi Kathy Kelly A Visit from the FBI Niranjan Ramakrishnan Brown and Bored of Education in India Tom Stephens & John Philo The War Crimes of Bush, Cheney & Co. Sam Bahour / Michael Dahan Genocide by Public Policy Robert Ovetz Ending the Race for the Last Turtle Billy Wilson The Most Important Thing I Learned at School This Year Website of the Day Rafah Today         Hot Stories 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 Wendell Berry Small Destructions Add Up CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online

June 10, 2004 Force-Feeding Lies About Free Trade Really Bad Trade News Obscured by Distractingly Bad News on Other Fronts By SAUL LANDAU "The poor and the marginalized are most commonly denied justice and would benefit most from the fair application of the rule of law and human rights. Yet despite the increasing discourse on the indivisibility of human rights, in reality economic, social and cultural rights are neglected, reducing human rights to a theoretical construct for the vast majority of the world's population. It is no mere coincidence that, in the Iraq war, the protection of oil wells appears to have been given greater priority than the protection of hospitals." Amnesty International Annual Report, May 2004 On May 29, supposed Al Qaeda terrorists took Western hostages in Saudi Arabia and killed more than a score of them. This confirmed the skeptics' view that Bush's war on terrorism has made the world more dangerous, rather than safer. Coinciding with ongoing bad news from Iraq, where Bush concedes turf and prestige to the "terrorists", "insurgents" or whatever you want to call "those people," Amnesty International blamed the United States for the sustained erosion of human rights and international law the worst in 50 years. "The global security agenda promulgated by the U.S. Administration is bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle," the report declared. "Sacrificing human rights in the name of security at home, turning a blind eye to abuses abroad and using preemptive military force when and where it chooses have neither increased security nor ensured liberty." Instead of bringing liberty and security to Iraq, Bush's war on terrorism has resulted in the systematic use of torture at Abu Ghraib prison the tip of the proverbial iceberg of US torture use in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush heavies tried to distract the public from the daily dirge from Baghdad with alarmist messages at home. Attorney General John Ashcroft issued yet another dire terrorist warning, while forgetting to inform the Department of Homeland Security about the impending but as always, vague -- threat. And the ubiquitous "breaking news" screams of new developments in the Kobe Bryant, Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson trials. Weapons of mass distraction obscure truly important news. Unfortunately, no major newspaper or TV news show offered prime space to the UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) biannual report. This document calls into question the entire "globalization" or "free market" system. Increased international trade, it concludes, has not led to reduction in poverty in the world's poorest countries. Indeed, during this boom of world trade poverty has increased, as has the income gap between rich and poor. The study found little linkage to show that trade had enlarged the income of the poorest in the world's 50 least developed countries. UNCTAD officials confirmed that trade had helped integrate some poor countries into the world economy; but their negative trade balances had grown more distressing as a result of the neo-liberal trade policies. So opening up markets does not spread benefits? Why does it take a panel of experts to state what observant people already knew: world trade investment--without tariffs, taxes or government regulation harms the world's 3 billion plus neediest people and helps the wealthiest. Data to back this conclusion comes from a recent report from the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. The report's authors estimate that 227 million Latin American and Caribbean citizens live below the limits of poverty. In the first years of 21st Century, this region recorded an unemployment rate of 10.3 percent almost akin to the depression of the 1930s. Interamerican Bank President Enrique Iglesias confirms that 44 percent of Latin America's population lives below poverty levels. The region, he concedes, experiences a ghastly wealth distribution gap, severe unemployment and "social exclusion influenced by ethnic and racial factors." Conversely, on the editorial and business pages of the New York Times and Wall St. Journal, financial experts debate whether former NYSE head Richard Grasso merited his $188.5 million "compensation package" after being forced to leave his post prematurely and whether CEOs should get $10 or $20 million bonuses for laying off thousands of low-paid workers. Celebrities, whose contributions to world culture we need not debate, regularly accept or reject deals for hundreds of millions of dollars. One basketball player "earns" millions of dollars by endorsing shoes, which may sell for $100 or more. Half the world's population does not earn that much in six months; hundreds of millions don't make $100 a year. In Africa, Asia and Latin America hundreds of millions somehow manage to stay alive on less than a dollar a day. A cow on a US government subsidized dairy farm receives more than a child in a Nicaraguan slum. Welcome to the supposedly reasonable and democratic world of free trade. In this system, the neediest receive "tests" to qualify for loans that will ultimately make the wealthiest even wealthier. IMF and World Bank economists routinely demand that poor governments invest in "export opportunities." They advise leaders of poor third world countries to drop all the "nonsense of self sufficiency" and cultivate crops for export flowers instead of corn, macadamia nuts instead of beans. IMF officials typically withhold loans until begging governments agree to follow their harsh rules. For example, to qualify for an IMF loan, the Jamaican government in the mid 1970s had to prove it had cut subsidies to the poor, devalued the currency, making the poor even poorer, and reduced spending on social services to those who most needed them. "Don t worry," crooned the IMF salesmen, "private capital will soon rush in to create jobs and fuel overall economic growth." Countries that followed such counsel now find themselves hosts of low-wage-low-cost textile plants. Honduras, for example has become a Wal-mart super supplier, but does not receive super dividends. Little of the "invested" capital actually stays in the country and the jobs pay typically less than the amount required to sustain a human being. Honduran workers earn approximately 70 cents an hourafter getting a big raise. Agriculture in much of the third world has also dissipated as a result of "integrating" third world countries in the global economy. Indeed, countries once self-sufficient have become importers. Under the free trade model, food-processing plants in Watsonville, California, moved to Irapuato Mexico to take advantage of much lower wages and to avoid paying benefits. In turn, Irapuato farmers began to cultivate strawberries and broccoli instead of corn and beans. The people of Irapuato now rely on imports of US corn and beans to satisfy their needs. In other areas of Mexico, farmers could not compete with the super-subsidized US agri-business giants and simply abandoned their land. The drum beat to lift tariffs and subsidies on agriculture in Latin America goes on, while the US government lavishes agri-business with hundreds of billions of dollars. The Nicaraguan government -- next to Haiti, the poorest country in the Hemisphere -- signed the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in late May. This may signal the end of farming there. How can small corn farmers compete against the US giants who use taxpayers' financial support to manipulate prices in order to capture weaker markets? In addition, Nicaraguan corn, like that grown in Mexico, has both religious and biological importance. The genetically altered corn offered by the US companies quickly pollutes and destroys whatever native strains farmers may have protected. This aspect of globalization worries environmentalists, just as the increase in poverty worries serious economists and all humans whose hearts continue to retain that empathy valve for human suffering. Ashley Seager, writing in the May 28 Guardian, extrapolates from the most recent Amnesty report that "the number of people in the least developed countries living in absolute poverty, or less than $1 a day, would rise to 471 million in 2015 from 334 million now," should trends continue. Think of the oft-repeated promises (lies) by government officials and "experts". Free trade is rational and good and NAFTA, CAFTA, FTAA and other such free market treaties will create jobs, bring healthy development and create stability. Right! And the US went to war in Iraq to stop Saddam Hussein from using and sharing his weapons of mass destruction with terrorists and to bring democracy, liberty and stability to the Middle East! Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote about the USSR that "force feeding with lies is now the most agonizing aspect of existence in our country." The free trade lies have obfuscated the dire facts of life: instead of improving the condition of the poor majority in the world, the free market has made them worse. It's time for fair trade. Saul Landau directs the Digital Media Arts program at Cal Poly Pomona University. His new book is The Business of America. Weekend Edition Features for June 5 / 6, 2004 C. Douglas Lummis Toward a Universal Declaration of Human Wrongs Saul Landau Five Cubans in Prison, Victims of Bush's Obsession Dave Lindorff John Walker Lindh, Revisited Brian Cloughley Apologies, Please, From Those Who Got It Wrong Rich Gibson The Grenada 17: the Last Prisoners of the Cold War are Black Elaine Cassel A Sorry FBI Cathrin Schütz On the Ruins of Yugoslavia Ben Tripp Call Me, Mr. Cassandra Kurt Nimmo The Madness of King George Ron Jacobs They Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Unless We Make It So) Laura Flanders The Lynne Cheney Show? Lenni Brenner Renaissance Noir: Caravaggio at the Met Abigail Jones Whatever Happened to Lori Berenson, President Toledo's Trophy Prisoner? Mark Latham Nothing Bush Said Has Changed Our Hopes Gerry Adams I Was Photographed While Tortured, Too Toni Solo Venezuela 2004, Nicaragua's Contra War Reprised Derek Seidman Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old M. Junaid Alam Torture is Just the Symptom Matt Siegfried An American Way of War Dave Zirin The Politics of Charles Barkley Poets' Basement Albert, Krieger, St. Clair Website of the Weekend Overnight Sensations WWW http://www.counterpunch.org   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /