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Today's Stories March 4, 2008 Wajahat Ali Mumbo Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed March 3, 2008 Jennifer Loewenstein Gazan Holocaust Alan Farago American Politics and the Faltering Economy Richard Gott Colombian Deaths in Ecuador Wajahat Ali Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup Poll with John Esposito Paul Craig Roberts The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution Robert Weissman When Multinationals Say Adieu Uri Avnery Good Morning, Hamas Martha Rosenberg When Your Meat is a Downer Eva Liddell Leave the Next Dance for Bill Michael Donnelly Will Ferrell Does Flint Website of the Day Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home Blues   March 1 / 2, 2008 Alexander Cockburn The Race Card Paul Craig Roberts The Political Trial of Don Siegelman Kathleen and Bill Christison Nader the Best Antidote to American Imperialism Nelson P. Valdés Cuba After Fidel Christopher Brauchli Meet Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev: Friend of Bill, George and Dick Ron Jacobs Inside the Secret City: Bomb Making at Oak Ridge John Ross The New Conquistadores: Spain's Reconquest of Mexico Robert Fantina Posturing Over Patriotism: Obama and Those Lapel Pins Robert Weissman Hidden in Plain Sight: Human Rights Hypocrisy Mohammed Omer Fear in Gaza Remi Kanazi Barack Obama and the Politics of Xenophobia Bob Jackson Why is Yellowstone Destroying Its Bison Herd? Richard Rhames Casual Threats: Loaded with Mercury Franklin Lamb Lebanon Awaits the Arrival of the USS Cole Rannie Amiri Showboat Diplomacy: US Warships Steam Toward Lebanon David Michael Green The Three Faces of Hillary: the Politics of Flim-Flam Conn Hallinan Notes from the Southern Cone Faheem Hussain Prince Harry of Afghanistan and the Meaning of Normalcy Poets' Basement Gibbons, Orloski, Gardner and Ford Website of the Weekend The Palestine Chronicle Needs (and Deserves) Your Help!     February 29, 2008 Matt Gonzalez The Obama Craze Jonathan Cook Academic Freedom? Not for Arabs in Israel Joshua Frank Obama and Israel Anthony DiMaggio The Unilateral Presidency: Signing Statements and the Rollback of American Law Linn Washington, Jr. Cop Abuse in America Binoy Kampmark Hubris and Nemesis Robert Bryce Energy Efficiency May be a Good Thing, But It Won't Cut Energy Use Sonja Karkar Australia's Government Continues Its Love Affair with Israel Dave Lindorff A Manchurian Candidate in the White House? Obama or Bush? Website of the Day Olduvai George   February 28, 2008 Patrick Cockburn "Iraq" Falls Apart Fred Gardner The Birth of NAFTA Michael Levitin The Crisis in Kosovo is Just Beginning William S. Lind The Fake State of Kosovo David Macaray A Ray of Hope for Organized Labor Stephen Fleischman Nader's Latest Run: Monkey Wrench or Cattle Prod? George Wuerthner The Myths of Forest Health: Why Ecological Logging is an Oxymoron Laura Carlsen The North American Union Farce Carl Finamore Why the Delta-Northwest Deal Hasn't Taken Off Michael Dickinson The Day I Bombed the House of Commons Website of the Day Plane Stupid   February 27, 2008 David Rosen Playing the Race Card: Obama, Love Across the Color Line and Political Dirty Tricks Vijay Prashad Bomber John: McCain and the 100 Year War Harvey Wasserman Incident at Turkey Point: Did Florida Go to the Radioactive Brink? Andy Worthington Guantánamo's Shambolic Trials: Pentagon Boss Resigns, Ex-Prosecutor Joins Defense Wajahat Ali Pakistan for Sale: an Interview with Ayesha Siddiqa on Pakistan's Military Economy Peter Morici The Auction-Rate Securities Fiasco: a Drama of Greed and Betrayal Stephen Philion Conspiracy Theory, Fears of Betrayal and Today's Anti-War Movement Michael Donnelly Obama by Unanimous Decision Erica Rosenberg / Janine Blaeloch After the Land Deals: Will There be Any Wilderness Left to Protect? Website of the Day Dress Blues   February 26, 2008 Debbie Nathan Confessions of a Gitmo Guard Alan Dershowitz v. Frank Menetrez On Finkelstein Harvey Wasserman How Ohio Got Nuked Michael Colby Ralph Nader vs. the Fundamentalist Liberals Gary Leupp Condi vs. Putin on Bullying Belgrade David Orchard The New Conquistadors: Canada in Afghanistan Martha Rosenberg The Big HRT Fran Shor The Electoral Circus and Nader's Sideshow Serge Halimi The Dom Perignon Socialist Manifesto: Bernard Henri-Levy's Plan for the French Left Global Balkans Neo-Liberalism and Protectorate States in the Post-Yugoslav Balkans: an Interview with Tariq Ali Website of the Day Texistentialism   February 25, 2008 Roger Morris A Death in Damascus Anthony DiMaggio Military Bases, the Media and the Democrats Ralph Nader Why I'm Running Patrick Cockburn Iraq Broils Paul Craig Roberts Kosovo and the Empire Crazies Peter Morici Bernanke's Failing Policies: a Long Recession Looms Dave Lindorff General Welch's Whitewash: What We Still Don't Know About That Minot Nuke Incident Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen Fanatics, Mountebanks and Drillers: a Bloody Oil Film Heather Gray James Orange, Civil Rights Legend Robert Weitzel Accomodating Torture John Halle Kucinich Goes Down Website of the Day Do the Trunk Monkey! February 23 / 4, 2008 Alexander Cockburn The Mushrooming Clouds That Hang Over McCain Paul Craig Roberts Obama and Global Trade Wajahat Ali Omissions of the Commission: an Interview with Phillip Shenon on the 9/11 Commission Ralph Nader Neutering the FDA Jürgen Vsych "What Was Ralph Nader Thinking?" Fidel Castro Watching the US Presidential Campaign from Havana Andy Worthington Britain's Guantánamo David Macaray Unions Under Assault Jeremy Scahill The Real Story Behind Kosovo's Independence David Krieger Stanley Sheinbaum Caging the Cold War Monster Ron Jacobs Building for the Future Michael Garrity The Last, Best Hope for the Northern Rockies Brian McKenna Higher Ed's "Civic Engagements" Get Dumbed Down Missy Beattie Over the Hill with John McCain Fred Gardner American College of Physicians Takes Pro-Cannabis Stand (Mostly) Boris Kagarlitsky The Growth of the Russian Labor Movement Mike Ferner Kick That Barrel Dan Bacher On the Trail with the Border Angels Christopher Ketcham Hillary Goes Where Obama Fears to Tread Poets' Basement Davies and Buknatski Website of the Weekend Obama Mariachi   February 22, 2008 Mike Whitney The Bonfire of Capital Jason Hribal Elephants and the Circus: The Story of Janet Liaquat Ali Khan Arresting Musharraf Joshua Frank That Obama Glow: the Nuclear Industry's Golden Child Dave Lindorff Vicki's John: Ask Not What She Did for Him, Ask What He Did for Her! Liliana Segura When Torture is Old News: McCain's Blonde Diversion Robert Fantina Castro, Bush and Cuba: a Fiasco Waiting to Happen? Yifat Susskind The ABCs of Death: Bush vs. Africa's Women Norm Kent Pushing 60 with Pot Website of the Day Bush Gets Down in Liberia February 21, 2008 Saul Landau Fidel Steps Aside Elizabeth Schulte Left Behind, With No End in Sight: America's Long-Term Unemployed Helen Redmond Health Care as a Human Right Benjamin Dangl Undermining Bolivia Michael Levitin Kosovo's Dilemma Liam Leonard Fear and Loathing on the Emerald Isle Patrick Irelan Land and Food in Venezuela Linn Cohen-Cole Poor Ohio: a Second Letter to Hillary on Her Ties to Monsanto Michael Simmons Daydream Believer: John Stewart, the Miles Davis of Folk Music CounterPunch News Service A Message from the Women of Okinawa to US GIs Website of the Day Cop Abuse in Shreveport   February 20, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Lies and Spies Paul Krassner My Brief Encounter with Fidel Castro Fawzia Afzal-Khan The Pakistani Elections Farzana Versey The Great Dictator: Musharraf, Peace and the Autumn of the Patriarch Allan Nairn Dying for a Second Round: Israel's New Plan to Attack Lebanon John V. Whitbeck If Kosovo, Why Not Palestine? Niranjan Ramakrishnan A Balcony Seat to Our Own Balkanization? Steve Eckardt Cuba Sans Fidel: No News is Big News Lee Sustar Union-Busting at Freightliner Mike Ferner How Sick of It are You? Website of the Day The US Military Index   February 19, 2008 Uri Avnery Blood and Champagne Paul Craig Roberts Paying Insurgents Not to Fight Gary Leupp The Independence of Kosovo Fidel Castro The Moment Has Come David Macaray Management's Dirty Little Secret Reza Fiyouzat Buck the Circus! The Left and the Elections Valerie Morse The New Zealand Terror Raids: Land of the Long White Lie Walter Brasch Bush on Safari Website of the Day Don't Think Twice, It's Alright   February 18, 2008 Wajahat Ali Free Pakistan: an Interview with Imran Khan Diana Johnstone NATO's Kosovo Colony Paul Craig Roberts What Do We Stand For? Andy Worthington Gitmo: "We're Making This Up as We Go Along" Debbie Nathan Bernie Ward's Sex Tapes Anthony DiMaggio Following the Money Trail: the Democratic Party and the Business of Elections Bill Simpich Ten Years Ago, People Power Stopped Clinton in Iraq Eva Liddell A Short History of Super-Delegates: Hope, Yes! But Pay in Cash Christopher Brauchli The President Who Couldn't Keep His Word: Short-Changing Veterans Stephen Soldz Wikileaks is Under Attack! Johann Rossouw The Ouster of Thabo Mbeki: South Africa and the Costs of Neoliberalism Website of the Day Sick of It Day!   February 16 / 17, 2008 Alexander Cockburn The Terrorists Still at Ground Zero, 7 World Trade Tower, Lower Manhattan Ralph Nader We the Corporations ... David Macaray The Big Buy Out: Did GM Drive Another Nail in Labor's Coffin? William J. Peace Wheelchair Dumping Ron Jacobs War on the Psyche: Shellshock and Redemption Diane Christian War Corrupts Alan Maass Oil, Blood and Greed: Taking Upton Sinclair to the Big Screen (and Beyond) Ramzy Baroud Iraq and the US Elections Michael Donnelly Genitalia First! Old Guard Feminists Play the XX Card Cpt. Paul Watson The Art of Finding Whalers James L. Secor China Diary: Spring Festival and New Year 2008 Eve Bachrach Bush Returns to Africa Nikolas Kozloff Hugo Chávez's Anti-Imperialist Army Stephen Gowans Steven Spielberg, Faux-Humanitarian Missy Beattie To Vote or Not to Vote? David Michael Green Warming Slowly to Obama Wajahat Ali Attack of the Info-tainment Circus Poets' Basement Gibbons, Willson, Mickey Z., Orloski and Reuther Website of the Day Yellowstone's Bison Need Your Help--NOW!     February 15, 2008 George Szamuely The Absurdity of "Independent" Kosovo Patrick Cockburn Ground-Truthing the Surge: Is the US Really Bringing Stability to Baghdad? Wajahat Ali Pakistan is Burning: an Interview with Steve Coll on the Taliban, Bin Laden and the Bush Administration Mike Whitney Henry Paulsen's Wild Ride on the Economic Hindenberg Alan Farago God and the Democrats Chris Genovali Alberta's Black Gold Rush Jacob Hornberger Courting Injustice: Scalia on Torture Dave Lindorff Snoops Always Ring Twice: Bush's Protect America Bill Bull Website of the Day Live From the Land of Hopes and Dreams     February 14, 2008 Kathleen and Bill Christison Palestine in the Mind of America Mike Whitney Swan Song for NATO Clancy Sigal Strike Notes from a Screenwriter George Wuerthner A Bloody Sham: the Yellowstone Bison Slaughter Peter Morici Is Bernanke Headed for the Exit? John Ross Drug War Mayhem Boils Over from Border to Border Allan Nairn Mafia Rules in the Middle East: If You're Big Enough, You Can Whack Anyone Rannie Amiri Lebanon's Warmongers Niranjan Ramakrishnan The New Tractatus: Where Wittgenstein Meets Feinstein Donna Volatile Be Careful What You Vote For, You Just Might Get It Seth Sandronsky The Student Squeeze: Fighting California's Tuition Hikes Website of the Day Conventions: the Land Around Us   February 13, 2008 Nikolas Kozloff Meet John McCain: Mr. Big Stick in Latin America Alan Farago Hell to Pay: Warren Buffett on the Goal Line Christina Kasica King's Dream Foreclosed: the Subprime Crisis in Black America Vicente Navarro How to Read the U.S. Primaries Hall Greenland Australia's Finest Hour Lee Sustar Strange Stimulation: Too Little for Those Who Need It Most David Macaray The Writers' Strike Finally Ends Roderick Frazier Nash Celebrating Wilderness Patrick Irelan Hugo Chávez and High Anxiety at the NYT Anthony Papa Mean Mister Mukasey: AG Tries to Block Crack Cocaine Releases Carl Finamore Another Parade Passes Me By: Don't Let Your Movement be Coopted by Politicians Website of the Day John He Is   February 12, 2008 Frank J. Menetrez The Case Against Alan Dershowitz Paul Craig Roberts War Without End Dr. Trudy Bond The Elephant at Gitmo: Camp 7 and the Torturer's Shrink Andy Worthington The Guantánamo Six: Why Charge Them Now? What About the Torture? Col. Dan Smith The Psychology of Killing: Close In or Far Away? Ronnie Cummins Globalization: Standing at the End of the Road Ralph Nader Open the Government John V. Walsh Antiwarriors, Divided and Conquered Dave Lindorff Obama and Progressive Change: Let's Hope the Movement Transforms the Candidate Michael Donnelly Who's Pimping Whom? The Clintons' Selective No Talk Rules Ron Jacobs La Lucha Continua: Castro's "Life" Ben Tripp Beggars Collide Website of the Day Springsteen and Youngstown   February 11, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair Lessons for Obama: When is a Delegate Not a Delegate? Wajahat Ali A Discussion with Walt and Mearsheimer on the Israel Lobby Ray McGovern Waterboarding for God and Country Allan Nairn The Shooting of Jose Ramos Horta Uri Avnery An End Foreseen? Chris Floyd American Psycho: the Meaning of Mitt Romney's Exit Speech Martha Rosenberg School Lessons in a Lunchbox: Lunchmeat from Tortured Cows Stephen Fleischman The Bonnie and Clyde of American Politics Marc Lamont Hill Not My Brand of Hope Liliana Segura Obama and Torture: the Sounds of Silence and Equivocation Peter Morici Challenges for the New President Christopher Brauchli A Drug Rant from a Former Taker Website of the Day Annie vs. the Blue Angels   February 8 / 10, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Does the GOP Have Aces Up Its Sleeves? Patrick Cockburn Will Moqtada al-Sadr's Truce Hold? Mike Whitney The Great Bust of '08 Anthony DiMaggio How the Press Covers Waterboarding Andy Worthington The Guántanamo Trials: Where are the Terrorists? Linn Cohen-Cole Hillary, Will You Renounce Your Ties to Monsanto? Firmin DeBrabander Notes from the Foreclosure Front: Suing Your Way to Solvency Cpt. Paul Watson The Other Whaling Industry: How Greenpeace Cashes In on the Suffering and Deaths of the Great Whales Kenneth S. Pope Why I Resigned from the American Psychological Association Jacob G. Hornberger American Soldiers Will Pay the Price for Bush's Torture Policy Robert Bryce Beyond Group Think on Climate Change: If More CO2 is Bad ... Then What? P. Sainath The Last of the Buccaneer Editors Allan Nairn Give Me Back My Land Fred Gardner / Pebbles Trippet "The District Attorney of Shasta County Doesn't Know the Law!" Andrew Wimmer Growing Up Catholic: Ignorance is Death Robert Fantina America's Disgrace: the Case of Omar Khadr David Michael Green Partycide in Six Easy Steps: Watch the Democrats Destroy Themselves Kevin Zeese Is Dennis Kucinich Being McKinney'd? Peter Morici Wall Street Gives Bernacke a Vote of No Confidence Chris Driscoll Could Nader be the Come-Back Kid of 2008? Prairie Miller Black August: Bringing George Jackson's Life to the Screen Poets Basement Davies and Buknatski   February 7, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Why Baghdad Will Explode Again Bill Christison Potholes Bigger Than Ever for Palestinians David Anderson NBC's "To Entrap" a Predator: Perverting Justice for the Sake of Ratings Ron Jacobs Innocent Flesh: Recruiting Kids to Kill Nikolas Kozloff Hugo Chávez's Coca: It's the Real Thing Jane Rockefeller The Moral Economy of an Anti-Poverty Foundation Andy Worthington On Waterboarding: Two Questions for Michael Hayden Dave Zirin Instep Intifada Saul Landau The "Honestest" Candidate Since Lincoln Susie Day Our Blob in the White House Website of the Day George Carlin on Voting   February 6, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair Super Tuesday's Vote for Chaos Ben Rosenfeld Informant Games: The Disturbing GreenScare Case of Briana Waters Vijay Prashad An Intellectual Hustler Lays It All Out Joe Bageant Nine Billion Little Feet on the Highway of the Damned Michael Donnelly What White Women Do In Private Voting Booths Allan Nairn Does the US Need a Civilizing Mayan Invasion? Kathryn Gray Wilderness on Edge: The Fate of Donner Summit Ray McGovern Powell's UN Fiasco Sheldon Richman The Whining Empire Paul Cantor / Roger Sparks A Presidential Aptitude Examination John Chuckman Political Bits and Pieces Website of the Day Save the Albatross February 5, 2008 Winslow T. Wheeler The Chaos in America's Vast Security Budget Tariq Ali Why I Will Not Participate in the Turin Book Fair Stephen Soldz The Secret Rules of Engagement in Iraq: Did Rumsfeld Authorize War Crimes? Chris Floyd Strange Fruit: America's Gulag and the Good War William S. Lind Saddam's Secret War Strategy: Die and Win Martha Rosenberg Live From the Killing Floor Heather Gray Conversations with Georgia Voters Ayesha Ijaz Khan Obama, Bhagwandas and the Battle for a Secular Politics David Macaray Unions Need to Stop Being So Nice Eliza Ernshire Making Music and Laughing Till the Tears Run Brenda Norrell Hated Nation Website of the Day The Things I Used to Do     February 4, 2008 Marc Levy Winter in America Patrick Cockburn The Bird Market Bombings Saree Makdisi Strangling Gaza Uri Avnery From Stalingrad to Winograd Alan Farago Let's Get Bambi! Someone is Slaughtering Florida's Key Deer Ben Tripp Spare Change: the Whine of the Progressive Voter Paul Wolf Civil Wars North and South Paul Craig Roberts Why Were the 9/11 Tapes Destroyed? Joshua Frank MoveOn's Obama Endorsement: Why There's No Hope for Change John Halle Whither Progressive Democrats? Website of the Day How to Cheat in School   February 2 / 3, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Hot Democratic Properties Pam Martens Bankers Gone Bonkers: Global Finance and the Insanity Defense Ralph Nader The Great Clinton-Obama Debate: Questions They Weren't Asked John Ross Hilaria vs. "El Moreno" Wajahat Ali Hillary, Obama and the Clash of Civilizations: an Interview with Imam Zaid Shakir Robert Fantina A Colony by Any Other Name: Iraq as Stepchild of the American Empire B. R. Gowani Not All Veils and Guns James L. Secor China in Winter: On the Western Edge of the Great Snow John V. Walsh The Invisible Green Primary Niranjan Ramakrishnan Barack's Bubble, Bubba's Trouble Dave Zirin Who Stole the Super Bowl's Soul? Jeremy Scahill Blackwater and Blood Fidel Castro Reflections on Lula Joe Allen Tet Reconsidered: the Turning Point in the Vietnam War Stephen Lendman Life in Occupied Gaza Patrick Irelan What Happened to the Streetcars? Andrej Grubacic Ziga Vodovnik Caligula's Horse: the USA, New Europe and Kosovo Josh Karpoff Dead Soldiers and the Antiwar Movement Ron Jacobs Carl Oglesby's War Paul Krassner Tom Waits Meets Super-Joel Website of the Weekend Company Woman: Hillary and Wal-Mart   February 1, 2008 Ray McGovern The Iniquities and Inequalities of War Diane Farsetta The Wild Career of James "Dow 36,000" Glassman Patrick Cockburn The Most Dangerous Country in the World for Journalists Tariq Ali Et Tu, New York Times? Allan Nairn Eating Dirt for Lunch in Haiti Rannie Amiri Collective Punishment in Beirut Ramzy Baroud People Power in Gaza: They Simply Did It Kenneth Couesbouc The Mother of All Snowballs Peter Morici Recession Looms Mumia Abu-Jamal Witha "Brutha" Like This: Bill Clinton as White Negro Rosemary Jackowski 27 Reasons Nader Should Run for President Scott Campbell Direct Action to Stop the War Re-emerges Website of the Day Betes et Hommes   January 31, 2008 Saul Landau Return to Afghanistan Andy Worthington Horror at Guantánamo Mike Whitney Rate Cut as Dagger: America's Teetering Banking System Jeff Ballinger Sustainability for Dictators Initiative? Clinton Praises the "Suharto of the Steppe" Tiffany Ten Eyck The Saga of the Freightliner Five William Loren Katz Waterboarding: Torure or Mystery? Alan Farago Why the Republicans are in Deep Trouble Col. Dan Smith Oh Say Can You See the 2009 Budget? China Hand Slouching Toward Islamabad Dave Lindorff The Usual Suspects Once Again Wadner Pierre Fake Democracy in Haiti Website of the Day One Big Union   January 30, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair McCain vs. Clinton? Christopher Ketcham The Genius of the Development Industrial-Complex Robert Weissman America By the Numbers: The Shameful State of the Union Neve Gordon An Experiment in Famine Paul Craig Roberts Regulation or Deregulation, Which is Worse? Joanne Mariner How Anti-Terror Laws Threaten Free Speech David Macaray Labor's Only Real Weapon Liaquat Ali Khan Is NATO Committing Genocide in Afghanistan? Raymond J. Lawrence Prankster-in-Chief: Bush's Troubling Non-Verbal Communication Dan Bacher The Collapse of the Central Valley Salmon Website of the Day Onward Through the Fog   January 29, 2008 Franklin C. Spinney Bush's New War Budget: the $70 Billion Hand-Off Mike Whitney The Great Credit Unwind of 2008 Alan Farago Buyer Beware: Florida, the Candidates and the Latin Builders Association Patrick Cockburn "The Americans Bring Us Only Destruction" Gary Leupp "We Can't Afford to Let Them Spill the Beans:" a Sibel Edmonds Timeline R. F. Blader A World Without Abortion: USA v. Romania Ahmad Faruqui Musharraf's Post-Electoral Prospect Fran Shor Obama, the Kennedys and "Change We Can Believe In" Jeremy Scahill Secret Trials and Criminal Convictions: the Ordeal of the Blackwater Protesters Allan Nairn Bush's SOTU: Entitlement, Justice and the War of All Against All Website of the Day The Ghost of Rambo   January 28, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Return to Fallujah Paul Craig Roberts The End of American Liberty Allan Nairn The Breaking of the Gaza Wall Eyad al-Sarraj / Sara Roy Ending the Stranglehold on Gaza Martha Rosenberg Obit for the "Front Page" City Corporate Crime Reporter How They Rip Us Off David Michael Green Kristolizing Iraq: What a Great Freakin' War Jennifer Van Bergen What's Left? Nancy Oden Survival Tips for Hard Times Divya Karnad Saving India's Sea Turtles James L. Secor Pissed About Pistorious: Why the Olympics Needs a Gimp Website of the Day Yellow Journalism?         Subscribe Online

March 4, 2008 Whistleblower Stephen Abraham Makes His Case Guantánamo and the European Parliament By ANDY WORTHINGTON On Thursday February 28, Stephen Abraham, the US military intelligence officer whose explosive statements last year about the manifest failures of the tribunal process at Guantánamo are widely credited with persuading the Supreme Court to look once more at the detainees' rights, spoke about his experiences at a committee meeting of the European Parliament. The meeting was convened as a follow-up to a resolution, passed on December 12, 2007, in which the European Parliament called for the European Commission and the Council of Europe to "launch an initiative at the European and international level for the settlement of Guantánamo prisoners from third states that cannot be returned to their countries of origin because they risk being persecuted or tortured." Emi MacLean of the Center for Constitutional Rights focused in particular on these issues -- and urged the Parliament to act on behalf of the 50 or so detainees from countries including Algeria, China, Libya, Palestine, Somalia, Syria, Tunisia and Uzbekistan, who are caught between remaining in Guantánamo or being repatriated to face the risk of torture. Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel for Human Rights Watch, looked at the prison's history, at the legal challenges mounted against the administration, and at the egregious flaws in the system of Military Commissions established to try the detainees. Stephen Abraham demonstrated once more why the entire process used to evaluate the detainees' status was corrupt. Quite how swiftly the Parliament will move on the issues is not yet known. Many of the MEPs were upset that representatives of the Council of Ministers and the European Commission had not attended the meeting (and that the US State Department and the British Foreign Office had also failed to send representatives). Observers noticed that some of those present echoed what Emi MacLean described as "an understandable and tempting tendency to suggest that the United States should independently un-dig the hole it has dug," even though, as a CCR briefing paper makes clear, "the US has consistently been unwilling to accept Guantánamo's refugees within the US, asserting that a collection of laws -- together termed the 'material support bar' -- prevents the US from accepting refugees who have been tarnished by the label "enemy combatant." Others, however, were less circumspect. The British MEP Sarah Ludford pointedly insisted that the aim must be to "help the US to close Guantánamo Bay" by "putting its money where its mouth is" and taking in some of what Emi MacLean described as the "few stranded refugees." She also issued a press release, stating, "the European Union cannot turn its back on an opportunity to live up to its human rights principles. Galling as it is to have to pick up the pieces from a US disaster, EU member states must carry through the logic of their call for the closure of Guantánamo and offer refugee or humanitarian resettlement of detainees who languish in Guantánamo because they have no safe country to return to. It is time for Europe to muster the political will and help America finally close this shameful chapter of history." For Stephen Abraham, the issues at stake went even further than discussions about the relatively small number of cleared detainees. As he explained to me in an email the day after, "To my mind there was a bit too much emphasis placed, whether by the other speakers or MPs, on the status of those cleared for release. This ignores the fact that there are hundreds not cleared for release and many hundreds more released but with the stain of the designation as unlawful enemy combatant or, more crudely, 'terrorist.' My point was that the council should give no moment to these designations, no weight to the presumptions that preceded the determinations (NOT decisions, because that implies the product of a deliberative, intellectual process), [and] no regard to representations that sufficient evidence supported the results of the tribunals." In the interests of making Stephen Abraham's important message available to a wider audience, I reproduce below the full text of his speech. Stephen E. Abraham: Speech Before the Joint Hearing of the Committee on Civil Liberties and the Sub-committee on Human Rights on Guantánamo Bay, European Parliament, Brussels, 28 February 2008 I do not speak on behalf of the United States. I do not speak on behalf of the United States Army. I do not speak on behalf of any group or any other individual. But as a citizen of the United States, and as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for 27 of my 47 years, I can no more separate myself from them than can I from the entirety of humanity that serves as a backdrop for all that we are and all that we do. I have been invited to speak regarding controversies that now rest with various courts, including the highest court of my nation. While I would not presume to speak for that or any other court, I humbly offer the following observations, shaped by my experiences as an intelligence officer and a lawyer, and by my participation in and service as a member of the Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants ("OARDEC"), the organization the activities of which lie at the heart of the matter now before this body. In Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507 (2004), delivering the plurality opinion, Justice O'Connor wrote that while the government can exercise the power to detain unlawful combatants, due process demands that a citizen held in the United States as an enemy combatant be given a meaningful opportunity to contest the factual basis for that detention before a neutral decision maker. Of significance were two specific observations, both of which would foreshadow years of uncertainty, the latest chapter of which is the decision yet to be reached by that Court. Firstly, "the threats to military operations posed by a basic system of independent review are not so weighty as to trump a citizen's core rights to challenge meaningfully the Government's case and to be heard by an impartial adjudicator." Secondly, the Court remarked upon the "possibility that the standards articulated could be met by an appropriately authorized and properly constituted military tribunal [I]n the absence of such process, however, a court that receives a petition for a writ of habeas corpus from an alleged enemy combatant must itself ensure that the minimum requirements of due process are achieved." That same day, the Court, in Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 466 (2004), would extend the protections of the writ of habeas corpus beyond the boundaries of citizenship. With reference to a transcendent principle, Justice Stevens, delivering the Court's opinion, repeated that "Executive imprisonment has been considered oppressive and lawless since John, at Runnymede, pledged that no free man should be imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, or exiled save by the judgment of his peers or by the law of the land." Both of those opinions were delivered on June 24, 2004. Two weeks later, the Secretary of the Navy would announce the implementation of a process, admittedly created in haste, on its face intended to effectuate the decisions of the Supreme Court in Hamdi and Rasul. As described by the Secretary, the process would be "a thoughtful exercise to make sure it is fair," notwithstanding the fact that detainees would not be represented by counsel and witnesses would not be called; in fact, there was no budget for witnesses. The expectation was that the board would run concurrently, three a day, four detainees per board, six days a week, 72 detainees a week, concluding the entire process within 90-120 days. In September of 2004, a Lieutenant Colonel with twenty-two years of experience as a military intelligence officer, serving both on active duty and as a member of reserve components, I was assigned to OARDEC. Prior to my assignment, I served for one year as a Lead Counterterrorism Analyst for the Joint Intelligence Center, Pacific Command, for which I was decorated. I also came to OARDEC with more than ten years of experience as an attorney. I served at OARDEC from September of 2004 to March of 2005, the period during which nearly all of the Combatant Status Review Tribunals for detainees at Guantánamo were conducted. While there, in addition to other duties, I worked as an agency liaison, coordinating with various government agencies to gather or validate information relating to detainees for use in Tribunals. In that capacity, I was asked to confirm that the organizations did not possess "exculpatory information" relating to the subject of the Tribunal. I also served as a member of a Tribunal, and had the opportunity to observe and participate in all aspects of the Tribunal process. At the end of February 2005, my assignment at an end, I concluded my military duties, returning to my civilian life, comforted by the belief that I would have no need to reflect upon my past tour of duty or the consequences of the actions of the organization to which I had been assigned. That belief would remain untested for more than two years, though the legal tableau relating to the Guantánamo detainees continued to evolve. In September 2006, Congress approved the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The following month, the President signed the Act into law. Under the Act, the rights guaranteed by the third Geneva Convention to lawful combatants were expressly denied to unlawful military combatants (Section 948b: (g) Geneva Conventions Not Establishing Source of Rights -- No alien unlawful enemy combatant subject to trial by military commission under this chapter may invoke the Geneva Conventions as a source of rights.) The Act also held the decision of the Tribunal that a detainee was an unlawful enemy combatant to be dispositive for purposes of jurisdiction for trial by military commission. Of relevance, the Act also contained provisions that stripped the Courts of the jurisdiction to hear applications for writs of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of aliens who had been determined to have been properly detained as enemy combatants or were awaiting such determinations. On February 20, 2007, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decided the case of Boumediene v. Bush, consolidated with al Odah v. United States. The first question was whether the Military Commissions Act applies to the detainees' habeas petitions. To this question, the Court's opinion was delivered with a degree of force uncharacteristic in its tenor. "Everyone who has followed the interaction between Congress and the Supreme Court knows full well that one of the primary purposes of the Act was to overrule Hamdan. Everyone, that is, except the detainees." Excerpting statements from the Congressional Record, the answer to the first question could not have been more clear. "The Hamdan decision did not apply the [Detainee Treatment Act] retroactively, so we have about 200 and some habeas cases left unattended and we are going to attend to them now." Continuing, "[O]nce section 7 is effective, Congress will finally accomplish what it sought to do through the [Detainee Treatment Act] last year. It will finally get the lawyers out of Guantánamo Bay." Deciding that the Military Commissions Act did apply, the Court turned to the second question of whether that Act was an unconstitutional suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. Seemingly avoiding the question, the Court held that the detainees' status, both geographic and legal, foreclosed their claims to constitutional rights, ultimately concluding that federal Courts had no jurisdiction in these cases. Petitions for writ of certiorari were filed on behalf of Boumediene and al Odah in the United States Supreme Court. On April 2, 2007, having failed to obtain four votes in favor of review, the petition was denied. Three justices voted to grant review. However, two justices, in a fairly unusual move, filed separate statements, explaining that they were rejecting the appeals on procedural grounds but leaving open the possibility of hearing the case at a later date, remarking that "[t]his Court has frequently recognized that the policy underlying the exhaustion-of-remedies doctrine does not require the exhaustion of inadequate remedies." During the first week of June, I was contacted by my sister, an attorney with a law firm that served as counsel to a detainee in Bismullah v. Gates, another case then pending before the United States Court of Appeals, the same court that had previously decided Boumediene and al Odah. We spoke of a presentation that would be given by the attorneys for Bismullah and of an invitation for me to listen to that presentation and, perhaps, provide comments regarding my experiences at OARDEC. To that point, knowledge of my assignment to OARDEC was known by few people beyond my family, co-workers, and members of my temple; as to the particulars of my tour, even less was known. I was equally unaware of the activities of my sister's firm or of the particulars of any detainee case, whether before the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court. Following the presentation, I was called by two of the attorneys, the conversation culminating in my being forwarded a declaration to which I was asked to provide comments. That declaration had been submitted by Rear Admiral McGarrah in a case before the United States Court of Appeals. It purported to describe the degree to which the Tribunal process had satisfied the Supreme Court's requirement, as expressed in Hamdi and Rasul of a meaningful factual inquiry before an impartial adjudicator. My comments, setting forth in an unclassified narrative a summary of my experiences as a member of OARDEC, were at considerable odds with the statements of Admiral McGarrah, particularly as related to details of which I had personal knowledge. Those comments, ultimately set forth in declarations not only to the United States Court of Appeals but to the United States Supreme Court, to which were thereafter joined a second declaration, set forth my observations as follows: The Tribunal process had two essential components: an information-gathering component, conducted almost entirely in Washington, and the Tribunal proceedings that took place either in Guantánamo or in Washington, depending on whether the detainee elected to participate. The Recorders (military officers who presented the cases to the Tribunal panels), personal representatives (who met with detainees briefly prior to the panel proceedings), and panel members had no role in the gathering of information to support an "enemy combatant" determination. The information presented to the Tribunals was typically aggregated by individuals identified as "case writers." These case writers, in most instances, had only a limited degree of knowledge and experience relating to the intelligence community and evaluation of intelligence products. The case writers were primarily responsible for accumulating documents, including assembling documents to be used in the drafting of an unclassified summary of the factual basis for a detainee's designation as an enemy combatant. These case writers, in turn, depended entirely on government agencies to supply the information they used. The case writers and Recorders did not have access to the vast majority of information sources generally available within the intelligence community. The information used to prepare the files to be used by the Recorders frequently consisted of finished intelligence products of a generalized nature -- often outdated, often "generic," rarely specifically relating to the individual subjects of the Tribunals or to the circumstances related to those individuals' status. The content of those materials was often left entirely to the discretion of the organizations providing the information. The scope of information not included in the bodies of intelligence products was typically unknown to the case writers and Recorders, as was the basis for limiting the information. In other words, the persons preparing materials for use by the Tribunal panel members did not know whether they had examined all available information or why they possessed some pieces of information but not others. In conducting intelligence liaison duties, I was allowed only the most limited access to information, typically prescreened and filtered. The limited information provided by intelligence agencies ordinarily consisted only of distilled summaries and conclusory statements, lacking even the most fundamental indicia of credibility or, alternatively, consisted of volumes of information, most of which could not be determined to relate to a particular detainee, let alone a specific subject of my inquiry. Despite these extraordinary limitations, regulations applied to the conduct of the Tribunals required that the Tribunal presume that information presented was "genuine and accurate." Though my concerns regarding the efficacy of my reviews were communicated to my superiors, responses were dismissive and did nothing to address my concerns. Tribunal members reported ultimately to Admiral McGarrah. Any time a Tribunal determined that a detainee was not properly classified as an enemy combatant, the panel members would have to justify their finding. There would be intensive scrutiny of the finding that Admiral McGarrah would, in turn, have to explain to his superiors. Similar scrutiny was not applied to a finding that a detainee was classified as an Enemy Combatant. Considerable emphasis was placed on completing the hearings as quickly as possible. The only thing that would slow down the process was a finding that a detainee was not an enemy combatant. These conditions encouraged Tribunal members and other participants in the process to find the detainees to be enemy combatants. On one occasion, I was assigned to a Tribunal panel with two other officers. We reviewed evidence presented to us regarding the status of Abdullah Al-Ghazawy [aka Abdul Hamid al-Ghizzawi], a detainee accused in the unclassified summary of being a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. There was no credible evidence supporting the conclusion that Al-Ghazawy met the criteria for designation as an unlawful enemy combatant. The information presented to us had no substance. What were purported to be specific statements of fact lacked even the most fundamental hallmarks of objectively credible evidence. Statements allegedly made by percipient witnesses had no detail. Reports presented generalized, indirect statements in the passive voice without stating the source of the information or providing a basis for establishing the reliability or the credibility of the source. Material presented to the panel begged the conclusion that the detainee was an unlawful enemy combatant. Questions posed by members of the Tribunal yielded no answers but, instead, frustration borne out of a complete absence of factual matter. On the basis of the paucity and weakness of the information provided both during and after the hearing, we determined that there was no factual basis for concluding that the individual should be classified as an enemy combatant. The validity of our findings was immediately questioned. We were directed to reopen the hearings, to allow for additional evidence to be presented. Ultimately, in the absence of any substantive response to our questions and no basis for concluding that additional information would be forthcoming, we left unchanged our determination that the detainee could not be classified as an enemy combatant. The response to this determination was not acceptance but, rather, the expression that something had gone wrong. I was not assigned to another Tribunal panel. Based on my observations and my experience, I concluded that the Tribunal process was little more than an effort to ratify the prior exercise of power to detain individuals in the war against terror while appearing to satisfy the Supreme Court's mandate in Rasul and Hamdi. The Tribunal process was designed to validate detentions that the Executive Branch either believed it should not have to justify, could not be bothered to justify, or could not justify. I subsequently learned that the subject of the Tribunal, Al-Ghazawy, was subjected, two months later, without his knowledge or participation, to a second Tribunal that reversed my panel's unanimous determination that he was not an enemy combatant. I also learned that this particular panel also reconsidered and reversed the findings as to another detainee. So it appeared to me that this particular panel was convened precisely for the purpose of overturning prior findings favorable to the detainees. On June 29, 2007, for reasons left unstated but that consensus attributes to my affidavit filed with the Supreme Court, that Court vacated its prior order denying the petitions for writs of certiorari and, instead, granted the petitions. In the ensuing months, briefs would be submitted, literally from all corners of this Earth advocating a particular result to be reached by the Court. I would not presume to state the merit of those briefs or the weight to be accorded any of them. On December 5th, I had the honor of attending oral argument before the Supreme Court. I observed much of the time to have been spent on the question of from what source the writ of habeas corpus emanated, whether derived from common law or statute and the basis for extending the rights attending that writ to the detainees. But, from that discussion emerged very clearly the points that respect of fundamental rights required, as to the fate of the detainees, a fair hearing before an impartial decision maker. In that regard, criticisms of the Tribunal process remained largely unrefuted. As I sit here today, the Supreme Court has not yet announced a decision in the detainee cases. I would not presume to state how the Supreme Court will decide the two cases now submitted. But I am certain that near to the minds of those upon whose shoulders that task now rests are the words that first signaled the course by which our national destiny would be shaped. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." These words would resonate two centuries later in the declaration of the United Nations, that "Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world." These two statements, one penned by witnesses to the birth of a nation, the other by members of a union of nations, were not the source from which any rights emanated. Rather, common to both was and is the recognition, explicitly stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." The words that I have spoken are not intended as a disparagement of any person or of any organization. They are neither an indictment nor a criticism of a people possessed of no will nor intent to act in any particular manner towards the detainees at Guantánamo. Following the submission of my declaration, I received and otherwise became aware of an outpouring of favorable responses transcending divisions of race, of politics, of religion, or of any other distinctions that the mind might conceive. There was, in that response, an affirmation that fundamental rights of human beings, any human being, need not be subordinated to transient interests, no matter how expressed. Beyond that was the distinct message on the part of so many of an unwillingness to quietly submit to an erosion of fundamental human rights. Andy Worthingtonis a British historian, and the author of 'The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison'. Visit his website: www.andyworthington.co.uk. He can be reached at: andy@andyworthington.co.uk

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