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Today's
Stories
October 13,
2004
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
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
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
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.
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October 13, 2004
Aftermath of
a Coup
The
Other Disaster in Haiti
By
Bishop THOMAS GUMBLETON
and BILL QUIGLEY
In addition to the death and destruction
caused by the recent hurricane and floods, there is another disaster
going on in Haiti right now. It is a human rights disaster.
We just returned from Haiti
with a human rights delegation for Pax Christi USA, the Catholic
peace movement. Our media has made us aware of the human toll
from the flooding. What we are not so aware of is that there
has been a coup in Haiti that continues to take a substantial
human toll as well.
The forced exile of President
Aristide earlier this year was effectively a coup that eliminated
the constitutionally elected government of the people of Haiti.
The elected government was replaced with an illegally appointed
government of the minority with economic and military power,
supported by the U.S., France and Canada.
As a result, human rights conditions
are now worse in Haiti now then they have been in years.
The democratically elected
government leaders and their supporters are in prison or have
been made into refugees in their own country while former military,
gangs and rebels affiliated with those in power are often allowed
to do as they please.
We visited with several political
prisoners in the National Penitentiary including the highest
officials of the government of President Aristide: Prime Minister
Yvon Neptune, Minister of the Interior Jocelerme Privert, and
the former Mayor of Port au Prince. The rule of law is being
blatantly disregarded in their cases.
For example, Minister Privert
has been held in the prison for six months and has yet to see
a judge for formal charges, which by law should happen within
48 hours of arrest.
Prime Minister Neptune, who
was arrested days after giving an interview critical of the government,
has been in prison since June 2004.
An elected delegate of Parliament,
Jacques Mathlier, was reportedly arrested for arson but after
going before a judge he was ordered to be released on July 12.
Instead the Ministry of Justice ordered him transferred to the
National Penitentiary where he has remained in prison ever since.
The former mayor of Port au
Prince was detained by the US military for 20 days in a boat
offshore while the new powers established themselves - then he
was transferred to the national penitentiary where he remains.
We also visited the women's
prison in Petion-Ville where 51 women are kept in a poorly lit
concrete structure and met with activist Annette Auguste, a 69
year old folk singer also called "So Anne who supported
President Aristide. She has been in prison since May 10, 2004.
Ms. Auguste and all of her
family of fifteen, including children as young as 12, 10 and
5 years old, were illegally arrested in her home by US Marines.
The Marines used grenades to break into the house in the middle
of the night, forced black hoods onto the heads of all inside
and bound their arms behind their backs with plastic handcuffs.
While she was arrested and questioned by the US, she is now
being held by the Haitian government and has never confronted
her accusers. She told us "The Americans put me here, I
am waiting for the Americans to set me free.
It is not just political opponents
who are the victims of human rights violations.
Our delegation also visited
a local police station in Port au Prince where 36 males were
being kept in one concrete cell, 12 foot by 12 foot. None of
those in the cell had formal charges, none had a lawyer, none
had seen a judge, one had been in the cell since September 4.
There is no medical care, and no food is provided. What food
there is must be brought by families.
Mixed in the same small cell
were children, adults, and people with mental problems and epilepsy.
We met one 13 year old boy and two 15 year olds in the cell.
Prisoners showed open sores on their legs, others showed injuries
from physical brutality. Some told us no one in their family
even knows they are in jail. They sleep standing up and leaning
against the wall as there is no enough space for everyone to
even sit down together much less lay down. The criminal law
system which has never worked well for the poor is now being
used for massive arrests in the poorest neighborhoods.
We are very concerned about
the widespread re-emergence of the previously dissolved military,
which has historically been a challenge to and oppressive to
an independent civil society. The military has also often served
as an avenue through which the U.S. has exerted power over Haiti.
We also met with many poor
people in Port au Prince including some who were forced out of
communities outside of Port au Prince (communities like Petite
Goave and from the Central Plateau) as a result of the coup because
they were perceived as supporters of President Aristide, the
Fanmi Lavalas party, or protectors of human rights.
Opponents of the elected government
came to town and killed the chief of police, burned down the
police station and the prison. They then sought out supporters
of the elected government, ransacked and burned their houses,
placed black bags on their heads, executed them and dumped them
in the river.
Many from outlying towns have
fled to Port au Prince, others to the Dominican Republic. Another
young man told us how he was beaten and threatened with execution
for starting a school - he fled to Port au Prince where he now
stays in one room with 15 others.
A woman and her family were
attacked and had to flee because they were thought to have spoken
to human rights visitors and foreign journalists and voiced criticism
of the government - they have been sleeping on the roof of a
friend's house.
They showed us pictures of
their burned homes which were ransacked and destroyed by former
militaries and opposition gangs. One person who went back just
the week before to take photos of the damaged homes was murdered
for doing that.
People have lost businesses
and property - they are now homeless and living in fear and hiding
with anyone who will shelter them. They are refugees in their
own country. There are hundreds more from their area in the same
situation and thousands more from other small outlying communities.
Journalists, human rights workers,
teachers, church workers, and labor unions are being threatened
regularly and are clearly at risk.
National elected independent
union leaders reported that the situation of workers has always
been difficult with the bosses as adversaries, but now is worse
because the government is aligned with the bosses and is also
an adversary. Workers in businesses affiliated with the new
powers in government are intimidated and forced to appear to
be supportive of the new government in order to keep their jobs.
The situation for workers is much, much worse since the exile
of President Aristide.
Within days of our visit, police
with black masks attacked the office of a large labor organization
and arrested 9 people who are being held without charges.
We visited a cooperative community
school in Petion-Ville, called SOPUDEP, which educates about
700 mostly poor children. Because the school was started by
the community during the time of President Aristide, those now
in power are threatening to revoke its lease. In early September
of 2004, the newly appointed mayor of the town showed up at the
school with armed guards. Only after a demonstration by community
people and pressure by a US Senator has the pressure against
the school has been scaled back.
Our delegation strongly concluded
that the rule of law is being disregarded in the exile, arrest,
beatings, executions, and detention of the people who were democratically
chosen by the people of Haiti to govern. People affiliated with
the elected government and those concerned about human rights
have been beaten and arrested and homes burned and run off to
live in hiding. The Haitian constitution and international law
are being openly violated. We agree with the people that the
rule of law must be reinstated.
The international community
must help restore the elected representatives of the people.
This means explicitly the return of President Aristide and the
release of all political prisoners.
Human rights in Haiti needs
immediate international attention. Current people in power have
said publicly that local human rights organizations are stirring
up troubles - a threatening warning to stop human rights investigations.
International human rights groups must step up monitoring human
rights and protect those on the ground who are trying to do so.
We challenge the role of the
international community, particularly the US in Haiti. It does
not appear that the primary concern of US policy in Haiti has
been democracy, human rights, or fairness to the poor and powerless.
It should be and all Americans should insist that our policy
help protect democracy, the rule of law, human rights and the
protection of the poor.
We believe that if all the
people of the world saw what we saw, they would insist that justice
be done for Haiti. We ask the world to look at the people of
Haiti as our sisters and brothers. Recognizing that our sisters
and brothers are in serious trouble, we must all work together
to help them bring justice to their country.
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton is the Auxiliary Bishop of the Catholic
Archdiocese of Detroit.
Bill Quigley is a law professor at Loyola University
New Orleans School of Law. Bill can be contacted at quigley@loyno.edu
The full report of the Pax
Christi Haiti Human Rights Visit is available on the website
of Pax Christi USA at www.paxchristiusa.org
Weekend
Edition Features for September 18 / 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
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