Wars
of the Laptop Bombers
Today's
Stories
January 22
/ 24, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Prince
Harry's Travails
January 21,
2005
Dave Lindorff
A
Great American Journalist:
John L. Hess (1917-2005)
Sharon Smith
The
Anti-War Movement and the Iraqi Resistance
Don Santina
Baseball, Racism and Steroid Hysteria
Ron Jacobs
Locked Out and Pissed Off: Protesting the Bush Inauguration
Kurt Nimmo
The Problem with Mike Ruppert
Don Monkerud
Once They Were Cults: Bush's Faith-Based Social Services
Alan Farago
Swimming Home from the Galapagos
Derek Seidman
An
Interview with Army Medic and Anti-War Activist Patrick Resta
January 20,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Dying
for Sycophants
William Cook
The
Bush Inauguration: A Mock Epic Fertility Rite
Joshua Frank
The Democrats and Iran: Look Who's Backing Bush's Next
Eric Ruder
Why Andres Raya Snapped: Another Casualty of Bush's War
Mike Whitney
Coronation in a Garrison State
Robert Jensen
A Citizens Oath of Office
Peter Rost
Bush Report on Drug Imports: Good Data, Bad Conclusions
David Underhill
Is It Torture Yet?: the Eclectic Fool Aid Torture Test
James Reiss
Adieu, Colin Powell: Pea Soup in Foggy Bottom
CounterPunch
Staff
Voices
from Abu Ghraib: the Injured Party
How
the Press & the CIA
Killed Gary Webb's Career
January 19,
2005
Marta Russell
Social
Security Privatization & Disability: 8 Million at Risk
Mike Ferner
Marines
Stretching Movement: Protesting Urban Warfare in Toledo
Nancy Oden
The
Nuremberg Principles, Iraq and Torture
Tony Paterson
A Catalogue of British Abuses in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Divide-and-Conquer Plan to Destroy Social Security
Doug Giebel
BS and CBS: When 60 Minutes Helped Promote WMD Fantasies
Alexander Cockburn
Will
Bush Quit Iraq?
January 18,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
Americans Were Seduced by War: Empire and Militant Christianity
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Federal
Judge: Abu Ghraib Abuses Result of Decision to Ignore Geneva
Conventions
Douglas Lummis
It's a No Brainer; Send Graner: a Rap for Our Time
Ron Jacobs
Syria Back in the Crosshairs?
Seth DeLong
Enter the Dragon: Will Washington Tolerate a Venezuelan-Chinese
Oil Pact?
Lance Selfa
Stolen Election?: Most Democrats Didn't Even Bother to Inquire
Paul D. Johnson
Mystery Meat: a Right-to-Know About Food Origins
Elisa Salasin
An Open Letter to Jenna Bush, Future Teacher
January 17,
2005
Heather Gray
Misconceptions
About King's Methods for Social Change
Robert Fisk
Hotel Room Journalism: the US Press in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
What the NYT Death Chart Omitted: Civilians Slaughtered by US
Military
Jason Leopold
Sam Bodman's Smokestacks: Bush's Choice for Energy Czar is One
of Texas's Worst Polluters
Gary Leupp
A Message from the Iraqi Resistance
Douglas Valentine
An Act of State? the Execution of Martin Luther King
Harvey Arden
Welcome to Leavenworth: My First Encounter with Leonard Peltier
Greg Moses
King
and the Christian Left: Where Lip Service is Not an Option
January 15
/ 16, 2005
James Petras
The
Kidnapping of a Revolutionary
Robert Fisk
Flying Carpet Airlines: My Return to Baghdad
Ron Jacobs
Unfit for Military Service
Brian Cloughley
Smack Daddies of the Hindu Kush: Afghanistan's Drug Bonanza
Fred Gardner
The Allowable-Quantity Expert
Dr. Susan Block
The Counter-Inaugural Ball: Eros Day, 2005
John Ross
Zapatista Literary Llife
Suzan Mazur
Unspooking Frank Carlucci
M. Shahid Alam
America's New Civilizing Mission
Frederick B. Hudson
Jack Johnson's Real Opponent: "That I Was a Man"
Mike Whitney
Bush's Grand Plan: Incite Civil War in Iraq
Tom Crumpacker
A Constitutional Right to Travel to Cuba
Bob Burton
The Other Armstrong Williams Scandal
John Callender
La Conchita and the Indomitable 82-Year Old
Lila Rajiva
Christian Zionism
Saul Landau
An Imperial Portrait: a Visit to Hearst's Castle
Doug Soderstrom
A Touch of Evil: the Morality of Neoconservatism
Poets' Basement
Davies, Louise, Landau, Albert, Collins and Laymon
January 14,
2005
Robert Fisk
"The
Tent of Occupation"
Lee Sustar
Bush's Social Security Con Job
José
M. Tirado
The Christians I Know
Dave Zirin
The Legacy of Jack Johnson
Sheldon Rampton
Calling John Rendon: a True Tale of "Military Intelligence"
Tracy McLellan
Under the Influence
Yves Engler
The Dictatorship of Debt: the World Bank and Haiti
Tom Barry
Robert
Zoellick: a Bush Family Man
Website of
the Day
Ryan for the Nobel Prize?
January 13,
2005
Mark Chmiel
/ Andrew Wimmer
Hearts
and Minds, Revisited
Joe DeRaymond
The Salvador Option: Terror,
Elections and Democracy
Greg Moses
Every Hero a Killer?...Not
Dave Lindorff
The Great WMD Fraud: Time for an Accounting
Jorge Mariscal
Dr. Galarza v. Alberto Gonzales: Which Way for Latinos?
Christopher Brauchli
Gonzales and the Death Penalty: the Executioner Never Sleeps
Gary Leupp
"Fighting
for the Work of the Lord": Christian Fascism in America
January 12,
2005
Robert Fisk
Fear
Stalks Baghdad
Josh Frank
The
Farce of the DNC Contest
Jack Random
Casualties
of War: the Untold Stories
John Roosa
Aceh's Dual Disasters: the Tsunami and Military Rule
Carol Norris
In the Wake of the Tsunami
Mike Whitney
Pink Slips at CBS
Alan Farago
Can
the Everglades be Saved?
Paul Craig
Roberts
What's
Our Biggest Problem in Iraq...the Insurgency or Bush?
January 11,
2005
Tom Barry
The
US isn't "Stingy"; It's Strategic: Aid as a Weapon
of Foreign Policy
James Hodge
and Linda Cooper
Voice
of the Voiceless: Father Roy Bourgeois and the School of the
the Americas
Linda S. Heard
Farah Radio Break Down: Joseph Farah's Messages of Hate and Homophobia
Derrick O'Keefe
Electoral Gigolo?: Richard Gere and the Occupied Vote
Gila Svirsky
A Tale of Two Elections
Harry Browne
Irish
"Peace Process", RIP
January 10,
2005
Ramzy Baroud
Faith-Based
Disasters: Tsunami Aid and War Costs
Talli Nauman
Killing
Journalists: Mexico's War on a Free Press
Uri Avnery
Sharon's Monologue
Dave Lindorff
Tucker
Carlson's Idiot Wind
Dave Zirin
Randy
Moss's Moondance
Dave Silver
Left Illusions About the Democratic Party
Charles Demers
Plan Salvador for Iraq: Death Squads Come in Waves
William A.
Cook
Causes
and Consequences: Bush, Osama and Israel
January 8 /
9, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Say,
Waiter, Where's the Blood in My Margarita Glass?
John H. Summers
Chomsky
and Academic History
Greg Moses
Getting Real About the Draft
Walter A. Davis
Bible Says: the Psychology of Christian Fundamentalism
Victor Kattan
The EU and Middle East Peace
John Bolender
The Plight of Iraq's Mandeans
Robert Fisk
The Politics of Lebanon
Fred Gardner
Situation NORML
Joe Bageant
The Politics of the Comfort Zone
Mickey Z.
I Want My DDT: Little Nicky Kristof Bugs Out
Ben Tripp
CounterClockwise Evolution
Ron Jacobs
Elvis and His Truck: Out on Highway 61
Saul Landau
Sex
and the Country
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Time to End the Blackout
Ellen Cantarow
NPR's Distortions on Palestine
Richard Oxman
Bageantry Continued
Poets' Basement
Gaffney, Landau, Albert, Collins
January 7,
2005
Omar Barghouti
Slave
Sovereignty: Elections Under Occupation
Kent Paterson
The Framing of Felipe Arreaga: Another Mexican Environmentalist
Arrested
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Old
Vijay Merchant and the Tsunami
David Krieger
Cancel the Inauguration Parties
Gideon Levy
New Year, Old Story
Dave Lindorff
Ohio Protest: First Shot Fired by Congressional Progressives
Christopher
Brauchli
Privatizing the IRS
Roger Burbach
/ Paul Cantor
Bush,
the Pentagon and the Tsunami
January 6,
2005
Brian J. Foley
Gonzales:
Supporting Torture is not His Greatest Sin
Greg Moses
Boot
Up America!: Gen. Helmly's Memo Leaks New Bush Deal
Petras / Chomsky
An
Open Letter to Hugo Chavez
Alan Maass
The Decline of the Dollar
Dave Lindorff
Colin Powell's Selective Sense of Horror
Jenna Orkin
The EPA and a Dirty Bomb: 9/11's Disastrous Precedent
P. Sainath
The
Tsunami and India's Coastal Poor
January 5,
2005
Alan Farago
2004:
An Environmental Retrospective
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Oversight
Detected?: Sen. McCain and the Boeing Tanker Scam
Jean-Guy Allard
Gary Webb: a Cuban Perspective
Fred Gardner
Strutting, Smirking, As If The Mad Plan Was Working
David Swanson
Albert Parsons on the Gallows
Richard Oxman
The Joe Bageant Interview
Bruce Jackson
Death
on the Living Room Floor
January 4,
2005
Michael Ortiz
Hill
Mainlining
Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
They
Say They Can Lock You Up for Life Without a Trial
Yoram Gat
The
Year in Torture
Martin Khor
Tragic
Tales and Urgent Tasks from the Tsunami Disaster
Gary Leupp
Death
and Life in the Andaman Islands
January 3,
2005
Ron Jacobs
The
War Hits Home
Dave Lindorff
Is
There a Single Senator Who Will Stand Up for Black Voters?
Mike Whitney
The Guantanamo Gulag
Joshua Frank
Greens and Republicans: Strange Bedfellows
Maria Tomchick
Playing Politics with Disaster Aid
Rhoda and Mark
Berenson
Our Daughter Lori: Another Year of Grave Injustice
David Swanson
The Media and the Ohio Recount
Kathleen Christison
Patronizing
the Palestinians
January 1 /
2, 2005
Gary Leupp
Earthquakes
and End Times, Past and Present
Rev. William
E. Alberts
On "Moral Values": Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian
Tendencies
M. Shahid Alam
Testing Free Speech in America
Stan Goff
A Period for Pedagogy
Brian Cloughley
Bush and the Tsunami: the Petty and the Petulant
Sylvia Tiwon
/ Ben Terrall
The Aftermath in Aceh
Ben Tripp
Requiem for 2004
Greg Moses
A Visible Future?
Steven Sherman
The 2004 Said Awards: Books Against Empire
Sean Donahue
The Erotics of Nonviolence
James T. Phillips
The Beast's Belly
David Krieger
When Will We Ever Learn
Poets' Basement
Soderstrom, Hamod, Louise and Albert
December 23,
2004
Chad Nagle
Report
from Kiev: Yushchenko's Not Quite Ready for Sainthood
David Smith-Ferri
The
Real UN Disgrace in Iraq
Bill Quigley
Death
Watch for Human Rights in Haiti
Mickey Z.
Crumbs
from Our Table
Christopher Brauchli
Merck's Merry X-mas
Greg Moses
When
No Law Means No Law
Alan Singer
An
Encounter with Sen. Schumer: a Very Dangerous Democrat
David Price
Social
Security Pump and Dump
Website of the Day
Gabbo Gets Laid
December 22,
2004
James Petras
An
Open Letter to Saramago: Nobel Laureate Suffers from a Bizarre
Historical Amnesia
Omar Barghouti
The Case for Boycotting Israel
Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond
They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit
Harry Browne
Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge
Richard Oxman
On the Seventh Column
Kathleen Christison
Imagining
Palestine
Website of the Day
FBI Torture Memos
December 21,
2004
Greg Moses
The
New Zeus on the Block: Unplugging Al-Manar TV
Dave Lindorff
Losing
It in America: Bunker of the Skittish
Chad Nagle
The View from Donetsk
Dragon Pierces
Truth*
Concrete
Colossus vs. the River Dragon: Dislocation and Three Gorges Dam
Patrick Cockburn
"Things Always Get Worse"
Seth DeLong
Aiding Oppression in Haiti
Ahmad Faruqui
Pakistan and the 9/11 Commission's Report
Paul Craig
Roberts
America
Locked Up: a System of Injustice
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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Weekend Edition
January 22 / 24, 2005
Failing Upwards
The
Rise of Michael Chertoff
By
MIKE WHITNEY
Michael Chertoff's record at the Justice
Dept. has followed the same downward arc as a belly-flop. He's
managed to botch every major case he's handled and elicit the
well-deserved scorn of civil liberties groups. Only in the gravity-defying
world of G.W. Bush, where reality is routinely run through a
public relations shredder, would a bungler like Chertoff reach
the top-spot at Homeland Security. Even so, his appointment should
come as no surprise to the wary American public. It's just one
more horse-nugget added to an already ample mound of political
manure.
Chertoff is credited with authoring
the Patriot Act, the 300-plus page blueprint for the modern National
Security State; patterned to great extent on the successes of
the KGB in the Soviet system. He's admired among his Bush cadres
for making sure that government surveillance operates at maximum
efficiency. Under his stewardship at the Dept of Justice, the
4th amendment has withered like summer grass. The long-held belief
that citizens, have a right to a "reasonable expectation
of privacy" has buckled under the demands of "Big Brother"
and the new "intrusive" security paradigm.
Chertoff is a member in good
standing in the Federalist Society; a cabal of radical lawyers
devoted to the systematic dismantling of the Bill of Rights.
Already, they've provided much of the legal rationale for the
unlawful detention of aliens, the enhanced powers of the Executive,
the indefinite incarceration of POW's and the cruel and unusual
treatment of prisoners. They've also made strides in crushing
what few regulations still exist to protect both consumers and
environment.
Chertoff has been an effective
conduit for the Federalist ideology. Following 9-11, he masterminded
the round-up of 1100 Muslim suspects; dumping them in prison
without bothering to file charges. None of the suspects were
provided with attorneys or allowed to challenge the terms of
their detention. Instead they were held in solitary confinement,
abused, and either deported or released after secret tribunals.
Chertoff effectively rescinded the Bill of Rights to pursue his
blinkered witch-hunt. His actions made no one any safer, nor
were they intended to. They were designed to show how easily
legal protections are eviscerated during a national emergency.
Don't think Chertoff and co. haven't monitored the affects of
hysteria on public sensibilities. For the Bush team, demagoguery
is the primary tenet of good governance.
Months after the illegal detentions,
the Justice's Dept's Inspector General harshly criticized the
draconian and unproductive steps that Chertoff authorized. The
General dismissed the arrests as "indiscriminate and haphazard";
a clear violation of basic human rights and civil liberties.
His reprimand was shrugged off by the impervious Chertoff, who
later admitted to Congress that he would have done the same thing
all over again.
In Chertoff's world, due process
takes a backseat to the arbitrary assertion of state power. Even
the hint of terrorism and the rule of law is breezily tossed
overboard.
Did we mention that not one
terror suspect was ever charged or convicted in this blundering,
ham-fisted dragnet? Instead, Chertoff's recklessness galvanized
the Muslim community against us and reinforced feelings that
the war on terror is underscored by racist and sectarian hatred.
So far, both the media and
Senate Democrats are enthralled with Bush's latest selection.
A simple Google search rings-up about 200 stories with the same
by-line: "Bush Picks Federal Judge for Homeland Security"
or "Bush makes Safe Pick"; all of them equally flattering
except for a few Muslim or civil liberties sites.
President Bush has also expressed
his enthusiasm for his newly-minted Homeland Chief:
"Mike has shown a deep commitment to the cause of justice
and an unwavering determination to protect the American people,"
Bush beamed. "He's also been a key leader in the war on
terror."
Indeed, he has. Chertoff led
the charge on a number of high-profile cases.
In the widely publicized Detroit
"Terror-Cell" case Chertoff's team botched the case
through "prosecutorial misconduct"; the INTENTIONAL
WITHHOLDING OF INFORMATION THAT WOULD HAVE ACQUITTED THE ACCUSED.
Chertoff was attempting to
put an innocent man behind bars just to chalk-up a victory in
the war on terror. Fortunately, a DOJ insider blew the whistle
and the case was dismissed, but not before it was plain that
Chertoff was willing to break the rules to achieve his ends.
Does this sound like someone
you,d want to put in charge of the nation's largest public welfare
institution?
Another case fumbled by Chertoff
was that of a Muslim college student in Idaho who was charged
with running an "internet network that fostered Islamic
extremists and helped recruit potential terrorists".
Whoa! Sounds like serious stuff?
As it turns out, the charges
were entirely bogus and the student was AQUITTED BY THE UNANIMOUS
DECISION OF A JURY after an exhaustive review of the evidence.
Like all of the DOJ's cases, the story was catapulted to the
front page when it broke, (irreparably scarring the student's
reputation) and hastily banished to the back pages when the case
fizzled. The media operates by the same standard as Chertoff;
the "presumption of innocence" is never a serious concern.
There was an intriguing twist
to this story, too. Three months after the student was acquitted,
the DOJ put Immigration on the case and shipped the young man
out of the country. In other words, the DOJ's targets are never
safe even if they've been vindicated by a jury. It's a sobering
lesson in the flagrant abuse of power.
Chertoff also mishandled the
Zacarias Moussaoui case. Moussaoui was allegedly the "20th
hijacker" whose case was considered by many to be a "slam
dunk". This explains why Chertoff decided to allow it to
go through the criminal justice system, to demonstrate the evenhandedness
of the American judicial system. Unfortunately, the state made
a hash of the proceedings and has been unable to convict a man
who, (by his own admission) belonged to terror organizations
in France, and who was clearly in the country to mount an attack
against the US. Instead of compiling the evidence he needed for
a conviction, Chertoff used the case to batter the 6th amendment.
(The government refuses to allow captured Al Qaida members to
testify in Moussaoui's defense, even though they can provide
evidence that will clear him of all charges) The case has deteriorated
into a 3 year long travesty; pitting a self-proclaimed terrorist
against the ineffectual prosecution of the Justice Dept.
Chertoff's record of failure
at Justice is second only to that of Ashcroft. His 4 year tenure
hasn't produced even one identifiable success. (Check out his
"obstruction of justice" in the John Walker Lindh case
on Democracy Now) Instead, his personal ineptitude and his palpable
contempt for the law have only showered more disgrace on the
institution of American justice. That probably explains why
he's being moved up the bureaucratic dog-pile to the top rung
of Homeland Security. In Bush-world "failing upwards"
is more commonplace than cowboy boots at a Crawford tent-show.
Chertoff's appointment puts
the finishing touches on the 2005 Bush Politburo. He'll take
his place among the demagogues, torturers and death-squad aficionados
that fill out the ranks of the current administration. His slavish
devotion to duty will guarantee his tenure at the right hand
of the throne; nuzzled up to the ear of the beloved commander-in-chief.
After all, Chertoff served his time in the trenches; leading
the Republican Congress in their legal jihad against Bill Clinton.
( note: The Whitewater investigation that consumed $40 million
of taxpayers money and miles of column space in the "free
press" to prove absolutely nothing) And, he's made impressive
contributions to the increasing volumes of repressive legislation
emerging almost weekly from the Congress. In other words, he's
earned his stripes and established himself as a valuable cog
in the mighty wheel of state.
We can expect that Chertoff's
assault on the Bill of Rights will only intensify in his new
role at Homeland Security. Aside from trying to stomp out union
activity, and privatize whatever parts of the agency can be farmed
out to Bush's corporate buddies, Chertoff will be in charge of
the "color-coded" terror-alert system; a program that
is skillfully manipulated for purely political purposes. If the
administration's charade starts to unravel, Bush will need a
good man like Chertoff in place to go "Code Red" and
announce the transition to martial law.
Until then, Chertoff will have
to satisfy himself with the task of savaging the institutions
that make democracy possible. He's already established his bone
fides as an enemy of personal freedom and an opponent of an independent
judiciary. He'll probably try to expand on those themes; winning
greater applause from the feckless Congress.
The ACLU summarized Chertoff's
checkered commitment to the rule of law when they issued a statement
last week saying, "We are troubled that his public record
suggests he sees the Bill of Rights as an obstacle to national
security, rather than a guidebook for how to do security properly."
Regrettably, the ACLU is wrong
in their assumption that Chertoff sees the Bill of Rights as
an obstacle. Rather, he sees it as a minor inconvenience; like
a wall that needs to be removed block by block.
Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can
be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com
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