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Today's
Stories
November
15, 2004
Werther
On Reading the Duelfer Report
November
13 / 14, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
"Let Them Drink Sand!"
David
Domke
Bush, God and the Election: a Theology
of War?
James
Petras
The Politics of Imperialism: Neoliberalism and Latin America
Carl
G. Estabrook
How to Stop the GWOT: "Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil!"
Stan
Goff
Torture and the Cinema
Dave
Lindorff
The Ruins of Fallujah
Mike
Whitney
Fallujah and the Erosion of American Power
Ron
Jacobs
Waiting for the Last War to End
Alan
Maass
The Rise and Fall of Gingrich: a Parable for Our Times
Lenni
Brenner
"Next"...a Prison Tale
Gary
Leupp
France's Little Vietnam: Imperialist France Destroys an African
Air Force
Jessica
Leight / Larry Birns
Haiti: the New Regime Shows Its Colors
Heather
Gray
Whistling Dixie: Bush's Reelection, a Perspective from the South
Jordan
Green
Ohio's Provisional Ballots: the State of Play
Robert
Fisk
Arafat Ruled by Emotion and Cronyism
Omar
Barghouti
The Death of Arafat and the Two-State SOlution
Fred
Gardner
Marijuana: an Election Scorecard
Christopher
Brauchli
When a POW Isn't a POW: the Other Torture Memo
Joanne
Mariner
A Preview of the Scalia Court
Dr.
Susan Block
Blue Values
Patrick
Timmons
Violence at the Ballot Box: the War on Gay Rights
Mickey
Z.
Rumor Club
Poets
Basement
Hasan, Albert, Kent, St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
The Hand of God?
November
12, 2004
Forrest
Hylton / Sinclair Thomson
Insurgent Bolivia: the Roots of Rebellion
November
11, 2004
Peggy
Thomson
Encounters with Arafat
Joe
Bageant
Hung Over in the End Times: Heaven's
Foot Soldiers Escape the Dog Patch
Ben
Tripp
The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grief
Edwin
Krales
Cuba's Response to AIDS: a Model for
the Developing World
Jordan
Green
How They Tried to Suppress the Black
Vote in South Carolina
Gary
Leupp
Guzman's Fist
Mike
Whitney
Meet Your New AG: Alberto Torquemada
Sam
Bahour
Palestine is Bigger Than Arafat
Sylvia
Shihadeh and Robert Jensen
The Irony of Arafat
Russ
Wellen
Why Do They Laugh at Us?
Mark
Scaramella
Kerry's Enablers: the Clinton
Cult Factor
November
10, 2004
Joshua
Frank
The Bright Side of Bush's Reelection
Mickey
Z.
The Worst President Ever?: Bush +
Clinton = Bubya
Stan
Goff
Debating a Neo-Con
Mike
Whitney
Exit Ashcroft
Dave
Lindorff
Taking a Leak on the Bush Bulge
Ghada
Karmi
After Arafat
Fr.
Gerard Jean-Juste
Letter from a Haitian Jail
Rev.
Bob Jones, III
A Letter to President Bush: "God Has Granted America a Reprieve"
Bernestine
Singley
Tampa Vote: Dispatches from the Ground
Website
of the Day
Free Camilo Mejia
November
9, 2004
Meredeth
Kolodner
Rebuilding the Anti-War Movement
Saul
Landau
The Appeal of George W. Bush: a Mystery for the World to Solve
Brian
Cloughley
Diego Garcia and Freedom, Bush-Style
Charles
Glass
US is Failing the Test of History in
Iraq
Robert
Fisk
Arafat Died Years Ago
Paul
Craig Roberts
The American Century is Over
Adam
Federman
Witch Hunt at Columbia: Middle East Profs Smeared as Anti-Semites
M.
Junaid Alam
The Discredited Logic of ABB
Tony
Kevin
Fallujah and the Making of a War Crime
Pierre
Tristam
Zealots on the Mount: Get Voltaire on Speed Dial!
Patrick
Cockburn
Crushing Fallujah Will Not End the
Iraq War
Website
of the Day
Don't Blame the Voters!
November
8, 2004
Roger
Burbach
Out of the Ashes: Bush Win is a Defeat
for Democrats, Not the Left
Dave
Lindorff
Lessons from a Quagmire: Fallujah, the Hue of Iraq
Greg
Moses
After the Morning After: On the Homefront of the Civil War
Greg
Bates
Nader's Election Legacy: Something to Stand On
Michael
Donnelly
The Hit-and-Run Left: From ABB to CYA
Nick
Schwellenbach
Gutting FOIA: the Harm of Too Much Secrecy
Adam
Jones
Men vs. Civilians in Fallujah
Amelia
Peltz
Note from Palestine: This Is Not the Time for Despair
David
Swanson
The Media Black Out on Vote Fraud
Brian
Rainey
The Devil Made Them Do It? Elections, Religion and the American
People
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Landau, Hamod
Website
of the Day
A Report on the US Supply of Toxic Weapons to Iraq
November
6 / 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Don't
Say We Didn't Warn You
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Green Out
Carl
G. Estabrook
Who Killed Cock Robin?
Saul
Landau
Che: the Man and the Movie
Gary
Leupp
Let There Be Conflict!
Ben
Tripp
You Call This a Party?
Paul
Craig Roberts
The October Numbers: Continuing Stress on the Jobs Front
Jordan
Green
Heroin, Cocaine and Espanola, NM
Fred
Gardner
Haul of Justice
J.A.
Miller
Cults of the Jealous God: the Balfour Decision Reconsidered
Ramzy
Baroud
Life Without Arafat
Dave
Zirin
Out at the Ballgame: Pro Sports and the Gay Athelete
Ron
Jacobs
The Arrow on the Doorpost
Robert
Oscar Lopez
How White Liberals Became a New Racial Minority
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The November Surprise
Dave
Lindorff
Silver Linings
Richard
Oxman
Invitation to the Bodily Snatched
John
Whitlow
Value Wars: the View from Lexington, Kentucky
Rahul
Mahajan
Fallujah and the Reality of War
Leila
Matsui
Political "Ju-On": Carrying a Grudge
November
5, 2004
David
Vest
The Not-Bush Brothers: a Fond Farewell
Elizabeth
Boylan
The Dems and Faith-Based Politics
Conn
Hallinan
War Crimes and Iraq
David
Zonsheine
Poetry and the Courage to Refuse
Cynthia
McKinney
It's a New Day!
Elaine
Cassel
Running from the Religious Right
Chris
Geovanis
First Protect Your Vote: Lessons for Democrats on Fixing Elections
from Chicago
Rob
Ritchie
Election 2004 by the Numbers
Jo
Guldi
The Beast of History is In
November
4, 2004
Sharon
Smith
The Self-Fulfilling Prophesy of Lesser-Evilism
CounterPunch
Wire
Bush Voters: 2000 v. 2004
Ben
Tripp
My Fellow Americans...Get Stuffed!
Michael
Donnelly
Why Not Blame Rosie?
Vijay
Prashad
An Election of Homophobia and Misogyny
Jules
Rabin
De Profundis: the Morning After
Robert
Jensen
Politics and Professions of Faith:
"Your Rich Men are Full of Violence"
Zoltan
Grossman
Blue State Secession: the Only Solution?
Jonah
Birch
1968 and Today
Dave
Lindorff
What Went Wrong?
Jack
McCarthy
I Knew It Was Over When Michael Moore Showed Up: He Was For Nader...Before
He Was Against Him
Donna
J. Volatile
Ahoy Kerrycrats! Welcome to Our Nightmare
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bright Side of Black Tuesday
November
3, 2004
James
Hodge / Linda Cooper
The CIA and Abu Ghraib: 50 Years of
Training Torturers
Ann
Harrison
The Ghost Votes in the Machine: Voting Snafus Across the Nation
Greg
Moses
Blues for Fallujah
Anis
Memon
The Moral (Values) of This Election
Mickey
Z.
Post Mortem
Josh
Frank
The Dems Should be Ashamed
Chris
Floyd
No Ways Tired: Defeat, Dissent and the Bush Machine
spArk
Smoke Signals from Portland: Karmic Blowback and the Democrats
Friedrich
von Schiller
Folly, Thou Conquerest
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Democrats in End Time: Who to Blame
Now?
November
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Democratic Elections in Historical
Perspective: The Wrong Side Wins
Lance
Selfa
Selling the War on Terror
Laura
Carlsen
The US Elections and Latin America: Can the US Ever be a Good
Neighbor?
James
Davis
To Control the Event: Attention Bicyclists
Richard
Oxman
Getting Up with Osama
Dr.
Ira Kay
A Mental Map of the Bush Presidency
Jesse
Walker
Frankenstein v. Chucky: the Halloween Election
Thomas
C. Mountain
Election '24, Deja Vu?: LaFollette, Nader, & the "Most
Important Election of Our Lifetimes"
November
1, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
How Bush Was Offered Bin Laden and
Blew It
Dave
Lindorff
Bulgegate Confirmed; Press Yawns
Greg
Bates
Nader Voter Survey Results
Roger
Morris
Novel Politics: Only Fiction Can Do
This Election Justice
Diane
Christian
Death Tolls
Lenni
Brenner
Secularists Be Warned: Christlike Kerry Roams Spiritual Universe
Christopher
C. Conway
Can the Left Sink Any Lower?
Francis
Boyle
Legal Elites and the Iraq War: the Nazis Had Their Law Professors,
Too
Jason
Leopold
Rummy's Failed War Plan
Website
of the Day
Dylan Resurrects "Masters of War"
October
30 / 31, 2004
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The Long March and the Million Worker
March
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Spartacus Tells All
Bruce
Anderson
Notes from the Big Empty: When the Hippies Invaded NoCal
Vicente
Navarro
They Worked for Franco: How Sec. of State Cordell Hull and Nobel
Laureate Camilo Jose Cela Collaborated with the Fascist Regime
Robin
Blackburn
How Monica Lewinsky Saved Social Security
Greg
Bates
A Question of Character: What Makes Nader Tick?
Nancy
Welch
The American Health Care Crisis: an Interview with Dr. David
Himmelstein
William
Lind
Election Day: Which Menendez Brother Will You Vote For?
Brian
Cloughley
Uzbekistan and Bush Hypocrisies
Suzan
Mazur
Oops They Did It Again: the NYTs the Paper of Record and Rip-Offs
Greg
Moses
Standing at the Graves of Iraq
John
Chuckman
Osama's Endorsement
Richard
Oxman
Why Not Accept Osama's Offer?
Ken
Avidor
Landscape of Fear: When Ugly is Suspicious
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Bush, Ba'ath and Beyond
Hope
Bastian
Strangling Cuba's Economy
P.
Sainath
Tower of Gabble: Toward a Sustainable Rhetoric
Dave
Zirin
Bush League: Why MLB Owners Support the Prez
Jon
Swift
The Dry Drunk Thang: Put a Cork in It
Ron
Jacobs
The Joke's on Me: a Review of Bob Dylan's Chronicles Vol. 1
Alexander
Billet
Taking Theatre Back: Are the States Ready for "Stuff Happens"?
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Laymon, Norris, Ford and Albert
Website
of the Weekend
The Origins of Halloween
October
29, 2004
Harry
Browne
No Justice for Peace Activist in County
Clare
October
28, 2004
Forrest Hylton
"The Gas is Ours:" Bolivia's
Ghosts of October
Col. Dan Smith
Rebellion
in the Ranks
Alan Maass
Jon Stewart v. the Pundits
Ron Jacobs
Ecstasy
in Red Sox Nation
Alexander
Cockburn
Kerrycrats and the War
October
27, 2004
Jules
Rabin
Crammed with Distressful Politics
Dave
Lindorff
Bulgegate: the Lies Continue
Katherine
Van Tassel
On the Home Front: Both Parties
Ignore Working Parents
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Bi-Partisan Politics of Oil
October 26,
2004
Brian Cloughley
Three
Weddings and Lots of Funerals: Atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan
William Blum
Fear
Factors
Lenni Brenner
The
1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Lessons for 2004
Ben Tripp
The
Chicken Salad Election
Fidel Castro
After the Fall
Greg Bates
The Nation's Flawed Calculus
Walter Brasch
Gag the Public: the War on Dissent
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
An Open Letter to Pat Buchanan
Mickey Z.
Rumble in the Jungle at 30: Ali, Foreman and the Congo
Amir Taheri
The Boom in Conspiracy Theories
Alexander Billet
Say It Ain't So, Bruce!: the Boss Endorses Kerry
Doug Giebel
The Religion of G.W. Bush
Kathleen Christison
Why
I Liked Thomas Friedman's Latest Column Before I Didn't
October 25,
2004
Ralph Nader
Letter
from a Minnesota Highway
Werther
West
Texas Wahabbism
Dave Zirin
Boston's Killer Cops: Death of a Fan
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Oregon Revokes Dr. Leveque's License
Omar Barghouti
Executing Another Child in Rafah
William J. Nottingham
Lori Berenson's Story
John Chuckman
A Foolish Consistency
Uri Avnery
On
the Road to Civil War
October 22
/ 24, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
Rev. William Alberts
On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions
Willliam A.
Cook
Killing for Christ
Saul Landau
George W. Bush: a Man of His Words?
Bill Quigley
I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children
While Arresting Priest
Christopher Brauchli
Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really
Means
William S.
Lind
Fallujah and the Moral Level of War
Sharon Smith
Guilt Trippers for Kerry
Greg Bates
Kerrynomics: "Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us"
Justin E.H. Smith
Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil?
Rebecca Evans
Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military
Mike Whitney
Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion
M. Junaid Alam
Purchasing Individuality in America
David Krieger
Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and
Kerry
David J. Ledermann
The Emperor's New Crumbs
Lawrence Reichard
Same Old FBI Story
Website of
the Weekend
Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling
October 21,
2004
Ben Tripp
The
Undecided Voter Examined
Joshua Frank
Kerry
and the Environment:
It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green
Stan Cox
What
the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses
Bill Martinez
State
Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply
Mark Engler
The War and Globalization
Lina Britto
and Lucia Suarez
Bolivia:
a Year After the October Insurrection
Website of the Day
Two Pampered Children of Wealth
October 20,
2004
Yitzhak Laor
"Did
You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian
Child
Jason Leopold
Sinclair
Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception
Jesse Sharkey
A
Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School
Students
Col. Dan Smith
Choking
Free Speech About the Draft
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Using My Religion
David Vest
If
Bush Wins, Blame Me
Jack Random
The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny
Ron Jacobs
Time
to Kick It Up a Notch
James Brittain
Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside?
Christopher
Dols
Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest
Dave Lindorff
First They Came for the Nurses...
Website of
the Day
Banana Republican Catalogue
October 19,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Party
Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
Jeff Taylor
Confessions
of a Swing State Voter
Matt Vidal
American
Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket"
Victor Kattan
"It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For":
Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum
William Loren
Katz
What Goes Around Comes Around
Sean Carter
O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims
CounterPunch Wire
Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?
October 18,
2004
Saul Landau
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
Dave Lindorff
Bulletin
on the Bush Bulge
Diane Christian
Sheep
and Goats: On the Language of Goodness
Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff
Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
Peter LaVenia
Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank
Mike Whitney
O'Reilly at the Whipping Post
Elaine Cassel
The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
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November 15, 2004
The Greatest
Political Scandal of Our Time
Iraq:
The Unthinkable as Normalcy
By
JOHN PILGER
Edward S. Herman's landmark essay, "The
Banality of Evil," has never seemed more apposite. "Doing
terrible things in an organised and systematic way rests on 'normalisation',"
wrote Herman. "There is usually a division of labour in
doing and rationalising the unthinkable, with the direct brutalising
and killing done by one set of individuals . . . others working
on improving technology (a better crematory gas, a longer burning
and more adhesive napalm, bomb fragments that penetrate flesh
in hard-to-trace patterns). It is the function of the experts,
and the mainstream media, to normalise the unthinkable for the
general public."
On Radio 4's Today (6
November), a BBC reporter in Baghdad referred to the coming attack
on the city of Fallujah as "dangerous" and "very
dangerous" for the Americans. When asked about civilians,
he said, reassuringly, that the US marines were "going about
with a Tannoy" telling people to get out. He omitted to
say that tens of thousands of people would be left in the city.
He mentioned in passing the "most intense bombing"
of the city with no suggestion of what that meant for people
beneath the bombs.
As for the defenders, those
Iraqis who resist in a city that heroically defied Saddam Hussein;
they were merely "insurgents holed up in the city,"
as if they were an alien body, a lesser form of life to be "flushed
out" (the Guardian): a suitable quarry for "rat-catchers,"
which is the term another BBC reporter told us the Black Watch
use. According to a senior British officer, the Americans view
Iraqis as Untermenschen, a term that Hitler used in
Mein Kampf to describe Jews, Romanies and Slavs as sub-humans.
This is how the Nazi army laid siege to Russian cities, slaughtering
combatants and non-combatants alike.
Normalising colonial crimes
like the attack on Fallujah requires such racism, linking our
imagination to "the other." The thrust of the reporting
is that the "insurgents" are led by sinister foreigners
of the kind that behead people: for example, by Musab al-Zarqawi,
a Jordanian said to be al-Qaeda's "top operative" in
Iraq. This is what the Americans say; it is also Blair's latest
lie to parliament. Count the times it is parroted at a camera,
at us. No irony is noted that the foreigners in Iraq are overwhelmingly
American and, by all indications, loathed. These indications
come from apparently credible polling organisations, one of which
estimates that of 2,700 attacks every month by the resistance,
six can be credited to the infamous al-Zarqawi.
In a letter sent on 14 October
to Kofi Annan, the Fallujah Shura Council, which administers
the city, said: "In Fallujah, [the Americans] have created
a new vague target: al-Zarqawi. Almost a year has elapsed since
they created this new pretext and whenever they destroy houses,
mosques, restaurants, and kill children and women, they said:
'We have launched a successful operation against al-Zarqawi.'
The people of Fallujah assure you that this person, if he exists,
is not in Fallujah . . . and we have no links to any groups supporting
such inhuman behaviour. We appeal to you to urge the UN [to prevent]
the new massacre which the Americans and the puppet government
are planning to start soon in Fallujah, as well as many parts
of the country."
Not a word of this was reported
in the mainstream media in Britain and America.
"What does it take to
shock them out of their baffling silence?" asked the playwright
Ronan Bennett in April after the US marines, in an act of collective
vengeance for the killing of four American mercenaries, killed
more than 600 people in Fallujah, a figure that was never denied.
Then, as now, they used the ferocious firepower of AC-130 gunships
and F-16 fighter-bombers and 500lb bombs against slums. They
incinerate children; their snipers boast of killing anyone, as
snipers did in Sarajevo.
Bennett was referring to the
legion of silent Labour backbenchers, with honourable exceptions,
and lobotomised junior ministers (remember Chris Mullin?). He
might have added those journalists who strain every sinew to
protect "our" side, who normalise the unthinkable by
not even gesturing at the demonstrable immorality and criminality.
Of course, to be shocked by what "we" do is dangerous,
because this can lead to a wider understanding of why "we"
are there in the first place and of the grief "we"
bring not only to Iraq, but to so many parts of the world: that
the terrorism of al-Qaeda is puny by comparison with ours.
There is nothing illicit about
this cover-up; it happens in daylight. The most striking recent
example followed the announcement, on 29 October, by the prestigious
scientific journal, the Lancet, of a study estimating
that 100,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the Anglo-American
invasion. Eighty-four per cent of the deaths were caused by the
actions of the Americans and the British, and 95 per cent of
these were killed by air attacks and artillery fire, most of
whom were women and children.
The editors of the excellent
MediaLens observed the rush no, stampede to smother
this shocking news with "scepticism" and silence. They
reported that, by 2 November, the Lancet report had been
ignored by the Observer, the Telegraph, the
Sunday Telegraph, the Financial Times, the Star,
the Sun and many others. The BBC framed the report in
terms of the government's "doubts" and Channel 4
News delivered a hatchet job, based on a Downing Street briefing.
With one exception, none of the scientists who compiled this
rigorously peer-reviewed report was asked to substantiate their
work until ten days later when the pro-war Observer published
an interview with the editor of the Lancet, slanted so
that it appeared he was "answering his critics." David
Edwards, a<http://www.medialens.org/> MediaLens editor,
asked the researchers to respond to the media criticism; their
meticulous demolition can be viewed on<http://www.medialens.org/alerts/2004/041102_Iraqi_Civilian_Deaths_1.HTM>
the alert for 2 November. None of this was published in the mainstream.
Thus, the unthinkable that "we" had engaged in such
a slaughter was suppressed normalised. It is reminiscent
of the suppression of the death of more than a million Iraqis,
including half a million infants under five, as a result of the
Anglo-American-driven embargo.
In contrast, there is no media
questioning of the methodology of the Iraqi Special Tribune,
which has announced that mass graves contain 300,000 victims
of Saddam Hussein. The Special Tribune, a product of the quisling
regime in Baghdad, is run by the Americans; respected scientists
want nothing to do with it. There is no questioning of what the
BBC calls "Iraq's first democratic elections." There
is no reporting of how the Americans have assumed control over
the electoral process with two decrees passed in June that allow
an "electoral commission" in effect to eliminate parties
Washington does not like. Time magazine reports that the
CIA is buying its preferred candidates, which is how the agency
has fixed elections over the world. When or if the elections
take place, we will be doused in clichés about the nobility
of voting, as America's puppets are "democratically"
chosen.
The model for this was the
"coverage" of the American presidential election, a
blizzard of platitudes normalising the unthinkable: that what
happened on 2 November was not democracy in action. With one
exception, no one in the flock of pundits flown from London described
the circus of Bush and Kerry as the contrivance of fewer than
1 per cent of the population, the ultra-rich and powerful who
control and manage a permanent war economy. That the losers were
not only the Democrats, but the vast majority of Americans, regardless
of whom they voted for, was unmentionable.
No one reported that John Kerry,
by contrasting the "war on terror" with Bush's disastrous
attack on Iraq, merely exploited public distrust of the invasion
to build support for American dominance throughout the world.
"I'm not talking about leaving [Iraq]," said Kerry.
"I'm talking about winning!" In this way, both he and
Bush shifted the agenda even further to the right, so that millions
of anti-war Democrats might be persuaded that the US has "the
responsibility to finish the job" lest there be "chaos."
The issue in the presidential campaign was neither Bush nor Kerry,
but a war economy aimed at conquest abroad and economic division
at home. The silence on this was comprehensive, both in America
and here.
Bush won by invoking, more
skillfully than Kerry, the fear of an ill-defined threat. How
was he able to normalise this paranoia? Let's look at the recent
past. Following the end of the cold war, the American elite
Republican and Democrat were having great difficulty convincing
the public that the billions of dollars spent on the war economy
should not be diverted to a "peace dividend." A majority
of Americans refused to believe that there was still a "threat"
as potent as the red menace. This did not prevent Bill Clinton
sending to Congress the biggest "defence" bill in history
in support of a Pentagon strategy called "full-spectrum
dominance." On 11 September 2001, the threat was given a
name: Islam.
Flying into Philadelphia recently,
I spotted the Kean congressional report on 11 September from
the 9/11 Commission on sale at the bookstalls. "How many
do you sell?" I asked. "One or two," was the reply.
"It'll disappear soon." Yet, this modest, blue-covered
book is a revelation. Like the Butler report in the UK, which
detailed all the incriminating evidence of Blair's massaging
of intelligence before the invasion of Iraq, then pulled its
punches and concluded nobody was responsible, so the Kean report
makes excruciatingly clear what really happened, then fails to
draw the conclusions that stare it in the face. It is a supreme
act of normalising the unthinkable. This is not surprising, as
the conclusions are volcanic.
The most important evidence
to the 9/11 Commission came from General Ralph Eberhart, commander
of the North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad).
"Air force jet fighters
could have intercepted hijacked airliners roaring towards the
World Trade Center and Pentagon," he said, "if only
air traffic controllers had asked for help 13 minutes sooner
. . . We would have been able to shoot down all three . . . all
four of them."
Why did this not happen?
The Kean report makes clear
that "the defence of US aerospace on 9/11 was not conducted
in accord with pre-existing training and protocols . . . If a
hijack was confirmed, procedures called for the hijack coordinator
on duty to contact the Pentagon's National Military Command Center
(NMCC) . . . The NMCC would then seek approval from the office
of the Secretary of Defence to provide military assistance .
. . "
Uniquely, this did not happen.
The commission was told by the deputy administrator of the Federal
Aviation Authority that there was no reason the procedure was
not operating that morning. "For my 30 years of experience
. . ." said Monte Belger, "the NMCC was on the net
and hearing everything real-time . . . I can tell you I've lived
through dozens of hijackings . . . and they were always listening
in with everybody else."
But on this occasion, they
were not. The Kean report says the NMCC was never informed. Why?
Again, uniquely, all lines of communication failed, the commission
was told, to America's top military brass. Donald Rumsfeld, secretary
of defence, could not be found; and when he finally spoke to
Bush an hour and a half later, it was, says the Kean report,
"a brief call in which the subject of shoot-down authority
was not discussed." As a result, Norad's commanders were
"left in the dark about what their mission was."
The report reveals that the
only part of a previously fail-safe command system that worked
was in the White House where Vice-President Cheney was in effective
control that day, and in close touch with the NMCC. Why did he
do nothing about the first two hijacked planes? Why was the NMCC,
the vital link, silent for the first time in its existence? Kean
ostentatiously refuses to address this. Of course, it could be
due to the most extraordinary combination of coincidences. Or
it could not.
In July 2001, a top secret
briefing paper prepared for Bush read: "We [the CIA and
FBI] believe that OBL [Osama Bin Laden] will launch a significant
terrorist attack against US and/or Israeli interests in the coming
weeks. The attack will be spectacular and designed to inflict
mass casualties against US facilities or interests. Attack preparations
have been made. Attack will occur with little or no warning."
On the afternoon of 11 September,
Donald Rumsfeld, having failed to act against those who had just
attacked the United States, told his aides to set in motion an
attack on Iraq when the evidence was non-existent. Eighteen
months later, the invasion of Iraq, unprovoked and based on lies
now documented, took place. This epic crime is the greatest political
scandal of our time, the latest chapter in the long 20th-century
history of the west's conquests of other lands and their resources.
If we allow it to be normalised, if we refuse to question and
probe the hidden agendas and unaccountable secret power structures
at the heart of "democratic" governments and if we
allow the people of Fallujah to be crushed in our name, we surrender
both democracy and humanity.
John Pilger was
born and educated in Sydney, Australia. He has been a war correspondent,
filmmaker and playwright. Based in London, he has written from
many countries and has twice won British journalism's highest
award, that of "Journalist of the Year," for his work
in Vietnam and Cambodia. His new book, Tell
Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism and Its Triumphs, is
published by Jonathan Cape next month. He can be reached through
his website: http://www.johnpilger.com/
© John Pilger
2004
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