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Today's
Stories
December
12, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
What's Really Happened During
the Surge?
December 10 / 11, 2007
Uri
Avnery
How They Stole the Bomb From Us
Debbie
Nathan
The Perils of Journalism and Child
Porn
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Is There a Left Here Left?
If So, What Can It Do?
Steve
Kelly
Cheap Chips, Counterfeit Wilderness
Donna
J. Volatile
Welcome to the Revolution
December
8 / 9, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The Coup Against Bush and Cheney
Brenda
Norrell
Seize the Land, Chain the Peace Activists
Saul
Landau
The Ruins of Empire
R.
F. Blader
A Rape in Every Drink?
Ray
McGovern
Spinning Iran's Centrifuges
Allan
Nairn
Imposed Hunger in Gaza, the Army in
Indonesia
Linn
Washington, Jr
Spotlight on Death Row
Paul
Craig Roberts
When Will Bush Come Clean?
December
7, 2007
Sean
Penn
Piano Wire Puppeteers
Arthur
Versluis
Mining Water in the Desert
M.
G. Piety
Racism and the American Psyche: Some
Thoughts on Race and Intelligence
Pam
Martens
Banksters Gone Wild
Alan
Farago
Will the Free Market Kill Suburbia?
Sprawl and the Credit Crisis
Allan
Nairn
It Takes (Out) a Village
Col.
Dan Smith
Bush, Iran and the Politics of Doomsday
Alice
Slater
The Iran Opening
Robert
Weissman
The Story of Stuff
Website
of the Day
Something
About Mitt
December
5, 2007
Mike
Whitney
Why the CFR Hates Putin
Sharon
Smith
The Anti-War Enablers: Tom Hayden
and the Dead End Democrats
James
Petras
Venezuela in the Aftermath
Ron
Jacobs
The Iran Charade
Dave
Zirin
Kicking a Dead Man: the Sliming of Sean Taylor
John
V. Whitbeck
Two States or One? Time to Choose
Peter
Zinn
Covered in New Orleans
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Impeach Pelosi Instead
Alan
Farago
The Credit Bomb Detonates in Florida
Heather
Gray
US Meddling in Australian Politics
Website
of the Day
A Donner Summit Night Before Xmas
December
4, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Jackboot State Stubs Its Toe in
Ann Arbor
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo and the Supreme
Court
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Lies at the End of the American
Dream
Ray
McGovern
No-Nuke Iran
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Admiral Mullen and the Defense Budget: When White Elephants are
Too Small
Allan
Nairn
The Regime Still Stands in Burma, Where "the People Just
Want Food"
Russell
Mokhiber
The USA v. Al Arian
Nikolas
Kozloff
As Chávez Falters: Raising the Stakes for the South American
Left
John
V. Walsh
Peace Movement Paralyzed
Ghada
Ageel
Will Peace Cost Me My Home?
Stephen
Soldz
The Facts be Damned!: Psychologists' President Defends Psychologist
Involvement in Interrogations
Website
of the Day
Hands Off the People of Iran
December
3, 2007
Tariq
Ali
Venezuela After the Referendum
Bill
Quigley
New Orleans: Bulldozers for the Poor,
Tax Credits for Developers
Eric
Walberg
The Bible and Middle East History
Uri
Avnery
After Annapolis
Marjorie
Cohn
Operation Iraqi Freedom Exposed
Dave
Lindorff
Vengeance Isn't Sweet
Stephen
Fleischman
Homeless in Paradise
Martha
Rosenberg
Perp Walks for the Mink Clad on Chicago's Mag Mile
Website
of the Day
So Just Lead!
December
1 / 2, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Emblems of the Bush Age: Adrift
in a Sea of Booze
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Bear Minimum: the Grizzly and
the Future of the Rocky Mountain West
Mike
Whitney
"Iraq Doesn't Exist Anymore": an Interview with Nir
Rosen
Shemon
Salam
A Visit From the FBI
Roger
Burbach
The Battle in Bolivia
Benjamin
Dangl
New Politics in Old Bolivia
Brian
M. Downing
The Quiet on the Middle Eastern Front: How Much Credit Goes to
the Surge?
Greg
Moses
Night of the Living Redneck: a Texas Horror Story
Sonja
Karkar
The "Never-Never" Peace Conference
Saul
Landau
Ethics and Evil in South Boston
Margaret
Kimberley
Black America Left Behind
John
Ross
What are the Prospects for a New Mexican Revolution?
Reza
Fiyouzat
Exit on the Left: When Che's Children Visited Iran
Judith
Scherr
Berkeley Turns Right for the Holidays
Lance
Olsen
Of Forests and Finance: Logging for the Wealthy
Christopher
Brauchli
Mr. Bush and the Despots
Robert
Fantina
Iraq as U.S. Colony
Dan
Bacher
Fish Triage on Prospect Island
Michael
Donnelly
Remembering How to be Human: John Trudell and the Music of Urgency
Website
of the Weekend
Appalachian Voices
November
30, 2007
Peter
Stone Brown
The Re-Packaging of Bob Dylan
Wajahat
Ali
The Volatile Mistress: an Interview with Javed Jabbar, Pakistan's
Former Minister of Information
Allan
Nairn
Cold-Blooded Celebrity: Thomas L. Friedman and the Bali Bombers
Alan
Farago
The Sorrows of Suburbia: Politics, Sprawl and the Housing Crash
John
Ross
The Death of Latin America's First Revolution
Corporate
Crime Reporter
America's Corporate Crime Capitals
Lucia
Alvarez
Diego Gonzalez
Argentina's Political Future
James
Rothenberg
The Iraqi Miracle
Website
of the Day
Bio-Bling?
November
29, 2007
R.
F. Blader
The Most Dangerous Kind of Bribe
Ismael
Hossein-Zadeh
Distorting Fascism to Demonize Iran
Stephen
Soldz
War on the Couch: Fear, Aggression and Empire
Sheldon
Richman
Iraq 3.0
George
Wuerthner
Forest Fires, Lies and Chainsaws
Felice
Pace
Did All Things Considered Self-Censor on Annapolis?
Col.
Dan Smith
The Meaning of Annapolis
Harvey
Wasserman
Terror Target Nukes
Nikolas
Kozloff
Primetime Hate Debate: Lou Dobbs, Immigration and Campaign '08
Paul
Krassner
Huffington Post Bloggers Go On Strike!
Dave
Lindorff
News Not Fit to Print: US Coup Planned for Venezuela?
CP
News Service
The One State Declaration
Website
of the Day
A Native View of Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
November
28, 2007
James
Petras
CIA Destabilization Memo Surfaces
on Venezuela
Jeff
Halper
Annapolis: When the Roadmap is a One
Way Street
Pam
Martens
Crashing Citigroup
Peter
Morici
Economy in Crisis: Avoiding a Recession
Mohammed
Khatib
Separate and Unequal in Palestine
Helen
Redmond
The Horror and the Hope: Health Care in America
William
S. Lind
In the Fox's Lair: Quiet Before a New Iraq Storm?
Ben
Tripp
We, the People: a Trope for All Seasons
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Pakistan: First, Restore the Constitution and Reinstate the Judges
Jeff
Berg
Holbrooke Says Bush Won't Attack Iran
Website
of the Day
The Lies of Joe Klein
November
27, 2007
Joe
DeRaymond
On the Road to the Torture School
Paul
Craig Roberts
Meet the Only Two Candidates Worse Than Bush and Cheney: Hillary
and Rudy
Marjorie
Cohn
Remembering Victor Rabinowitz
Mike
Whitney
A Dollar the Size of a Postage Stamp
Ron
Jacobs
The Myths of Military Progress
Col.
Dan Smith
The Pentagon's "People System" Still Doesn't Work
Ralph
Nader
Family Learning
Karim
Makdisi
Annapolis and the Unholy Alliance: the View from Beirut
Christopher
Ketcham
Memo to Hollywood Writers: Strike Until You Drop
Ronan
Bennett
Martin Amis Does a Coulter
Website
of the Day
Celebrating the Uncensored Media
November
26, 2007
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Heading for Annapolis
Paul
Craig Roberts
The End of All That
David
Macaray
Enter Mediator
Sameer
Dossani
Pakistan's Wounded Dictator
Roger
Burbach
The Final Battle in Bolivia
Mark
Scaramella
Guns and Greed in the Emerald Empire
Brian
McKinlay
Howard's End
Rick
Kuhn
The Fall of a Racist Union Buster
Binoy
Kampmark
Ruddslide and Dull Alec
Monica
Benderman
What Do You Know of War?
Brenda
Norrell
Return to Alcatraz
Website
of the Day
Ghostworld by DJ Spooky
November
24 / 25, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The Ordeal of Catherine Wilkerson,
MD
Robert
Fisk
Darkness Falls on the Middle East
Saul
Landau
Norman Mailer will Not R.I.P.
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Justice Stephen Breyer, Cancer Bonds and the Origins of Neoliberal
Environmentalism
Rannie
Amiri
Beirut's Black Friday
Christopher
Brauchli
Iraq Embassy as Gilded Palace
Daniel
Gross
The Gap and Black Friday
Mike
Whitney
"A Generalized Meltdown of Financial Institutions"
Marjorie
Cohn
Iran and the 2008 Elections
David
Rosen
Senior Sex: the Real Sexual Life of Aging Americans
David
Michael Green
If Conservatism is the Ideology of Freedom ....
Kenneth
Rexroth
When Euripides Played the Hindu Kush: Greeks and Buddhists in
Afghanistan
Muhammad
Iqbal
Trans. Shahid Alam
Ghazal
Website
of the Day
Aerial Footage of Delta Fish Kill
November 23, 2007
Gary
Leupp
Killing the Buddha in Pakistan's Swat
Valley
Laura
Carlsen
Coming to Terms with Diversity in
Bolivia: an Interview with Alvaro Garcia, Bolivia's VP
David
Macaray
Keeping Labor Unions Out
Andy
Worthington
Former Guantánamo Detainee Seeks Asylum in Sweden
Clifton
Ross
Trashing Chavez: Keith Olberman's Toxic Rant
Seth
Sandronsky
Battling Sodexho
Dan
Bacher
Death in the Delta: Thousands of Fish Stranded by Bureau of Reclamation
William
A. Cook
The Myth of Middle East Peace
Website
of the Day
Waiting for the Guards: Stress Techniques as Torture, a Short
Film
November
22, 2007
Alan
Farago
Who Lost America's Everglades?
Greg
Moses
A Thanksgiving Basting
Dave
Lindorff
Impeachment is Back on the Table
Mike
Ely
Native Blood: the Myth pf Thanksgiving
Omar
Azfar
Gore for President of Pakistan?
November
21, 2007
Vijay
Prashad
Our Dictator, Their Democracy
Martha
Rosenberg
Undercover at a Turkey Slaughtering Plant
Manuel
Garcia, Jr.
Epiphany on the Glacier
John
Ross
The Last Days of Mexican Corn
Brian
McKenna
Cancer Terrorists Unmasked
Stephen
Soldz
Isolation Torture Routine at Guatánamo
Monica
Benderman
Needing Peace
Ben
Terrall
Slavery in the Fields: The Real Price of Sugar
Website
of the Day
Mercy for Animals
November
20, 2007
Oren
Ben-Dor
Why Israel Has No "Right to Exist"
as a Jewish State
Wajahat
Ali
An Interview with Norman Finkelstein
Alan
Farago
The Dark Arts and the Bush Dynasty
Marjorie
Cohn
Musharraf Plays Bush for a Fool
Ralph
Nader
Green is Gold?
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo Whistleblower Launches a New Attack on Rigged
Tribunals
Sara
Olson
When Going AWOL is the Only Escape
Dave
Lindorff
Likelihood of Iran Attack Gains Credence
Paul
Krassner
The First Amendment, a Dialogue
Website
of the Day
Joanne Mariner on Torture
November
19, 2007
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Why Congress Won't Reform
China
Hand
The U.S. Game Plan in Pakistan
Allan
Nairn
Sitting Around Talking, in Indonesia
Uri
Avnery
How to Get Out?
David
Macaray
The Chalice that Poisoned the Labor Movements
Dave
Lindorff
Democrats in Future Shock: They Could Lose It All in 2008!
Bill
Quigley
Twenty Thousand Protest at Ft. Benning; Eleven Face Federal Criminal
Trials
Ron
Jacobs
Sitting on the Group W Bench: War, Thanksgiving and Arlo Guthrie
Sunsara
Taylor
Legalized Rights for Fertilized Eggs?
Binoy
Kampmark
Why Steve Irwin--You're Dead!
Heather
Gray
Another Look at W.E.B. DuBois
Website
of the Day
The Meat Market
November
17 / 18, 2007
P.
Sainath
Neoliberalism's Price Tag: 150,000
Farm Suicides in India
David
Rosen
The Scarlet Hypocrites: Republicans,
Christians and the Politics of Adultery
Mike
Whitney
Pentagon Cover Up: 15,000 or More US Deaths in Iraq War?
George
Wuerthner
Saving the Big Wild
Brenda
Norrell
The Case of Jim Main, Jr: In Montana, Indians are Guilty Until
Proven Innocent
George
Ciccariello-Maher
Of Submarines and Loose Screws
Karim
Makdisi
Lebanon is Hanging by a Thread
Marie
Trigona
Wal-Mart in Argentina
Valerio
Volpi
The Catholic Church, Incorporated
Fred
Gardner
The Straight-Ahead Runner
Robert
Fantina
The White House Press Office
Mike
Ferner
Thank God for the Senate Republicans!
Missy
Comley Beattie
The Radical Majority
Kenneth
Couesbouc
Circles of Power
Patrick
O'Hayer
A Portrait of Mailer and a Young Poet
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Buknatski and Ford
November
16, 2007
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
The Vices of Hillary Clinton: Secrecy,
Intransigence and War
Dave
Zirin
The Indictment of Barry Bonds: Busted by a Broken System
Gary
D. Barnett
A Day in the Life of an Unwilling Federal Agent
Alan
Farago
Sprawl, Mortgage Fraud and Political Corruption
Dave
Lindorff
Two Brothers and Two Scandals
Russell
Mokhiber
Pelosi and Me: "What Should be Done with Those Protesters?"
Robert
Ovetz
Cargo Ships in Paradise: Shipping Lanes Threaten the Yosemite
of the Sea
Brenda
Norrell
"Today We Experienced America:" Arresting Indigenous
People on the Border
David
Swanson
Wolf Blitzer Loses Democratic Debate
Peter
Letheby
Outside the Box on the Great Plains
Website
of the Day
Why Activism Fails
November
15, 2007
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Hillary Clinton in Arkansas
Adolfo
Gilly
The Spirit of Revolt
Peter
Bohmer
10 Days That Shook Olympia
Andy
Worthington
The Trials of Omar Khadr: Gitmo's Child Soldier
Gray
/ Derks
Obama's Pitch to South Carolina's Black Churches Affronts Gay
Groups
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Liberating Pakistan
Dave
Lindorff
Where's the Party?
Christopher
Brauchli
Tipping Point: the Politics of Gossip
Anthony
Papa
Racism as Law: Crack Cocaine Sentences
Martha
Rosenberg
Merck's Big Write Off
Ben
Terrall
Thank You, Ehren Watada
Website
of the Day
On the Colorado: Drought, Climate Change and Water Supplies
November 14, 2007
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
The Making of Hillary Clinton
James
Petras
Venezuela Between Ballots and Bullets
Al
Giordano
Campaign 08: Don't Trust Anyone Over 50
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Lobby
Andy
Worthington
Innocents and Foot Soldiers
Stephen
Lendman
Torturing Palestinian Detainees
Fatima
Bhutto
Aunt Benazir's False Promises: the Dismantling of Pakistani Democracy
Martin
Smith
Norman Mailer and the "Good War"
Jeff
Leys
Slip Sliding Away: House Votes on War Funding
Website
of the Day
Why the Writers are Striking
November
13, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Hillary's Big Problem and How Bill
Can Fix It
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Mailer and Us: the Writer as Fighter
Robert
Bryce
The Pakistan Fuel Connection
David
Macaray
The Teamsters and the Hollywood Strike
Mike
Whitney
Bulletins from the Titanic
Ralph
Nader
Pakistani Lawyers vs. American Lawyers
Nikolas
Kozloff
Chavez Blasts the Spanish King
Jordan
Flaherty
Education Versus Incarceration in Tallulah, Louisiana
B.
R. Gowani
Dear Mrs. Bhutto
Website
of the Day
Monty Python: "Fuck You, Very Much FCC"
November
12, 2007
Vicente
Navarro
Why Hillary's Health Care Plan Really
Failed
Ben
Brown
Letter from Ho Chi Minh City: a Tribute to My Vietnam Vet Father
Omar
K.
A Pakistani Lawyer's Testimony: Life Under the Brutal Emergency
Sadia
Abbas
The Roots of Pakistan's Political Crisis: Corrupt Elites and
a Kleptocratic Military
Farzana
Versey
Mailer's Miasma
Richard
W. Behan
The Political Crimes of Complicity
Paul
Krassner
Asshole of the Year: Congratulations Tim Russert!
Cindy
Sheehan
Faith and War
Peter
Stone Brown
The Return of Levon Helm
Dave
Lindorff
Dennis, You are Not Alone
Website
of the Day
Police Attack in Olympia
November
10 / 11, 2007
Alain
Gresh
Uncle Sam's New Backyard: How to Turn
a Region into a Graveyard
Mike
Whitney
For Whom the Closing Bell Tolls: the Last Dead Bull on Wall Street
Ron
Jacobs
A View from the Pakistani Left: an Interview with Farooq Tariq
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The First Dambuster: a Coyote Story
Alan
Farago
Tangled Up in Blue: a Brief History of Florida Environmentalism
Binoy
Kampmark
When Language Drowns: Torture in America
Robert
Fantina
Legitimizing Torture
Fred
Gardner
Psychological Torture in the Name of Family Values
Ayesha
Ijaz Khan
The General in His Labyrinth
Nicola
Nasser
NATO's Southward Drift
Philip
Rizk
The Blame Game in Gaza
Michael
Dickinson
Condom Nation: the Pope vs. Terry Higgins
Joel
S. Hirschhorn
The Grand Delusion: a Conspiracy of Two Parties
Paul
Krassner
Flunking Out of the Electoral College
Wadner
Pierre /
Joe Emersberger
The Ongoing War on Journalists in Haiti
November
9, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
In the Kandil Mountains with the
PKK
Mohammed
Hanif
Musharraf and the Drunk Uncle
John
Ross
Blackwater Goes to Mexico
Mike
Whitney
Ron Paul, Big Media's Invisible Candidate
Tom
Barry
In Latin America, the Hillary Clinton Policy is the Bush Policy
Corporate
Crime Reporter
Is the AFL Trying to Derail Single Payer Health Care?
Badruddin
Khan
Pakistan and the Israel Lobby
David
Macaray
The WGA STrike: the Empire Strikes Back
Martha
Rosenberg
The Blood Sport of Vice Presidents
Website
of the Day
Stryker Blockade!
November
8, 2007
Kathleen
& Bill Christison
Meeting the Other in Israel and
Palestine
William
Loren Katz
Waterboarding in American History
Mike
Whitney
The Long Fall: a Market Without Parachutes
Sheldon
Richman
Why Woodstock May Have Saved John McCain's Life
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Solidarity with Pakistan's Lawyers
Marc
Gardner
The Victims of "Jessica's Law": Parolees Without Rights
(or Homes)
Jackie
Corr
The Big Fish from Whitefish: Montana, the Last Retreat of the
Investment Banker?
Brenda
Norrell
Between Bombs and Border Walls
Dave
Lindorff
Ridiculing Impeachment at the New York Times
China
Hand
Rewriting the History of the Sudan Calamity
Sen.
Russ Feingold
FISA and America's Basic Freedoms: Let's Not Repeat the Mistakes
of the Patriot Act
Website
of the Day
The Welfare Poets Meet Hugo Chavez
November
7, 2007
Paul
Craig Roberts
Dollar's Fall Collapses the American
Empire
Russell
Mokhiber
Pelosi and Me: Can't the Democrats End the War By Not Bringing
the Funding Bill to the Floor?
Vijay
Prashad
The Apotheosis of Bobby Jindal
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Educating Pakistan: What Mukasey Can Teach Musharraf
Alan
Farago
To Bee or Not to Bee? The Politics of Colony Collapse
David
Macaray
The Writers' Guild Strike: Is There an Ice-Breaker?
Nikolas
Kozloff
The Case of the Slimy Senator: Chuck Schumer Greenlights Mukasey
Charlotte
Laws
What We Learned from Stephen Colbert's Presidential Campaign
Daniel
White
Zahid's Story
William
Cook
The Politics of Servility: Congress and the Israel Lobby
Website
of the Day
Safe Lawns
November
6, 2007
Mike
Whitney
Welcome to Year 27 of the Reagan
Revolution
Ralph
Nader
Who Determines the Price of Oil?
Andy
Worthington
The Torture of Ali al-Marri
Pam
Martens
Wall Street Metes Out Street Justice to Citigroup
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Pakistan's Dark Future
William
Schroder
The Return of Water Torture
Stephen
Lendman
Punishing Gaza
William
Blum
Cuba and Original Sin
Former
US Intelligence Officers
A Memo on Torture, Intelligence and Mukasey
November
5, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
How I Spent the Eighth Brumaire
Russell
Mokhiber
Pelosi and Me: The Democrats and Single Payer
David
Macaray
How to Turn Workers Against Each Other (and Make Them All Poorer)
Gary
Leupp
General Musharaff's "State of Emergency"
Dave
Lindorff
Those Minot Nukes
Ludwig
Watzal
Israel's Dilemma in Palestine
Patrick
Cockburn
Tensions Ease in Iraqi Kurdistan
Peter
Stone Brown
John Fogerty Makes Peace with His Past
Michael
Simmons
Yo! What Happened to Peace?
Website
of the Day
Petition: In Defense of the Morton West HS Antiwar Students
November
3 / 4, 2007
Tariq
Ali
Pakistan Sinks Deeper into Night
David
Price
Army's Price Salesman of Counterinsurgency
Manual Seeks to Defend Stolen Scholarship
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Splitsville
Alan
Farago
The Housing Crash, Suburban Sprawl and the Crisis of the American
Middle Class
Paul
Krassner
He's Back! Don Imus Meets Michael Richards
Rannie
Amiri
Why the U.S. is Safeguarding Iraq's War Criminals
P.
Sainath
Indexing Humanity, Indian Style
Ayesha
Ijaza Khan
Pakistan in a Daze
Robert
Fantina
Is the Bush Administration Talking Itself Into a War With Iran?
Seth
Sandronsky
The Politics of Health Care in California
Ron
Jacobs
The Bebop of Baraka
Ramzy
Baroud
A Case for Arab Dignity
Heather
Gray
When Capitalists Get a Free Ride
November
2, 2007
Dr.
Mary Pipher
Acting on Conscience: Psychologists
and Abusive Interrogations
Saul
Landau
How Pete Stark Became a Pariah
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo as House Arrest
Sharon
Smith
A Tale of Two Stadiums
Gary
Leupp
Fascist Beatifications: the History and Politics of Sainthood
Gregory
Harms
The Chorus of Slander on Palestine
Christopher
Brauchli
Racism in High Places
Peter
Morici
The Falling Dollar and the Stubborn Trade Deficit
Dave
Lindorff
The Easy Way to Stop the Looming US Attack on Iran
David
Penner
Zombie Nation
Website
of the Day
Fall in Yosemite
November
1, 2007
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Wages of Hegemony
Patrick
Cockburn
The Most Dangerous Dam in the World
Dave
Lindorff
The Air Force Report on the Minot-Barksdale Nuclear Missile Flight
Jonathan
Feldman
The Strange Political Economy of Death in the South
Mike
Ferner
They Met the Resistance in Iraq
William
S. Lind
A Question for Would-Be Presidents
Diana
Johnstone
"Fascislamism" Versus "Shoah Business"
Jacob
Hornberger
The War on Telephone Privacy
A..K.
Gupta
The Apocalypse will be Televised
Lyuba
Zarsky /
Kevin Gallagher
The Enclave Economy of Mexico's Silicon Valley
Felice
Pace
Does the SPLC Equate Anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism?
Website
of the Day
This One's for You, Ed Abbey
October
31, 2007
Bill
Quigley
New Orleans' Broken Criminal Justice
System
Rev.
William E. Alberts
A Trail of American Blood: From the White House to CBS News
Ray
McGovern
Attacking Iran for Israel
Eric
Walberg
Poisonous Espionage: Litvinenko and the New Cold War
V.
G. Smith
The Second Death of Guy Môquet
Luis
J. Rodriguez
"Social Cleansing" from Guatemala to LA
Sheldon
Richman
Bush has Time to Run the World
Walter
Brasch
A Real Halloween Scare
Website
of the Day
Boogie Rocks!
October 30, 2007
David
Price
Pilfered Scholarship Devastates Gen.
Petraeus's Counterinsurgency Manual
M.
Shahid Alam
The Pakistan Question
Andy
Worthington
The Epiphany of Matthew Waxman: a Government Insider Turns Against
Gitmo
Patrick
Cockburn
The Bicycle Bomber of Baquba
Anthony
Papa
The Twisted Logic of Drug Laws
Floyd
Rudmin
What "All Options are on the Table" Really Means
Sherwood
Ross
Giuliani and Torture
Website
of the Day
The Worst Lobby? You Decide
October
29, 2007
Lisa
Hajjar
Inside Israel's Military Courts
Joe
DeRaymond
The Politics of Lethal Injections
Patrick
Cockburn
The High Stakes in Iraqi Kurdistan
Isabella
Kenfield /
Roger Burbach
Corporate Murder in Brazil
Fred
Gardner
The Frivolous Investigation of Dr. Sterner
Farzana
Versey
Caricaturing Islam
Stephen
Fleischman
The Greening of the Oligarchy
Marcelle
Cendrars
The Congressional Rip Cord
Eamonn
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December
12, 2007
A Mixed Result
Guantánamo
Britons to be Released
By ANDY WORTHINGTON
I was at a mosque in Glasgow on Friday
evening, talking about Guantánamo to a large, engaged
crowd in the company of James Yee, the former Muslim Chaplain
at the prison, who was wrongly imprisoned as a spy in 2003. In
an attempt to demonstrate that Guantánamo was not an issue
related solely to American foreign policy, I briefly outlined
the stories of the six British residents still held in Guantánamo.
What I said was along the following lines:
Saudi-born Shaker Aamer, 38,
who has been a British resident since 1996, is married with five
children, the youngest of whom was born after his capture. In
2001, he traveled with his family from his home in south London
to Afghanistan, where he shared a house in Kabul with released
British national Moazzam Begg and his family, and worked to establish
a girls' school. After 9/11 and the US-led invasion, he arranged
for his family to flee Afghanistan, but was captured in Jalalabad
and sold to the Northern Alliance, who in turn sold him to the
Americans.
In Guantánamo, his charisma,
his mastery of English and his relentless campaigning on behalf
of his fellow detainees led the US authorities to conclude, erroneously,
that he was "The Professor," a major player in al-Qaeda.
Since leading a short-lived "Prisoners' Council" in
August 2005, which was encouraged and then suppressed by the
authorities, he has been held in solitary confinement, and has
been on a hunger strike for the last year, a desperate course
of action, which has provoked a savage response from the prison's
commanders.
Like all the long-term hunger
strikers (of whom there are several dozen), twice a day Shaker
is strapped into a restraint chair -- a process that involves
18 separate straps -- and force-fed liquid food through a thick
tube inserted into his stomach through his nose. This is an agonizing
process, made worse by the authorities' insistence, as an attempt
to "break" the strikers, that the tube is removed after
each feeding, and not kept in place as it was in the early days
of the hunger strikes.
Omar Deghayes, 37, was born
in Libya, and arrived in the UK with his family as a teenager
in 1986, after his father, a prominent lawyer and trade union
activist, had been tortured and murdered by Colonel Gaddafi's
secret police. A law student at Wolverhampton University, he
took a break from his studies in 2000 to travel to Afghanistan,
where he married an Afghan woman and had a child, but was captured
after crossing into Pakistan after the US-led invasion began.
Blinded in one eye during an
assault by armed guards in Guantánamo, he has also been
threatened by Libyan intelligence agents, who were flown to Guantánamo
on a CIA-chartered plane. The only justification for his continued
 imprisonment is a claim that
he was identified on a videotape as a Chechen militant, even
though his lawyers in the UK, with the help of journalists from
the BBC's Newsnight, proved in 2005 that it was a case
of mistaken identity.
Jamil El-Banna, 45, who was
born in Jordan, arrived in the UK in 1994, and was granted asylum
in 2000. Like Shaker Aamer, he is married with five children,
and his youngest child was born after his capture. With Bisher
al-Rawi, a British resident from Iraq, El-Banna was seized in
November 2002 by US agents in the Gambia, where the two men had
traveled to establish a mobile peanut-processing plant with al-Rawi's
brother Wahab.
Shockingly, they were captured
after the British intelligence services provided false information
to their American counterparts, claiming that both men were involved
in terrorism (which they were not), neglecting to mention that
al-Rawi had been working for MI5 as an informer, keeping tabs
on the radical cleric Abu Qatada, and ignoring the fact that
both men had been informed, before their departure, that they
were not under suspicion.
"Rendered" to Afghanistan,
El-Banna and al-Rawi were first held in the "Dark Prison,"
a secret, CIA-run prison near Kabul, whose medieval savagery
was supplemented by the addition of non-stop amplified music
and noise, and were transferred to Guantánamo in March
2003.
Under pressure from the men's
lawyers, who discovered the part played by the British intelligence
services in their kidnapping and "extraordinary rendition,"
the government broke with its long-standing declaration that
it would not act on behalf of the British residents in Guantánamo,
and accepted the return of Bisher al-Rawi in March 2007, although
it refused, initially, to press for the return of El-Banna, even
though a military review board had cleared him for release.
Despite the fact that El-Banna
has a British wife and five British children, and that the intelligence
services were complicit in his capture, the government initially
hoped to test its newly unveiled attempts to shred international
treaties preventing the return of foreign nationals to countries
where they face the risk of torture by returning El-Banna to
Jordan (which he had fled because of religious persecution),
on the basis of a "memorandum of understanding," allegedly
guaranteeing that any returned nationals would be treated humanely,
which lawyers and human rights activists have condemned as worthless.
Binyam Mohammed al-Habashi,
29, a refugee from Ethiopia who arrived in the UK with his father
in 1995, was a janitor at a mosque in west London. Captured in
Pakistan in April 2002, he was then handed over to the US authorities,
who, in what appears to be one of the most devastatingly inept
failures of intelligence in the whole of the "War on Terror,"
decided -- apparently based on a "confession" extracted
under torture by Abu Zubaydah, a "high-value" al-Qaeda
suspect, who was had recently been captured -- that he was a
major al-Qaeda terrorist, who was planning to explode a radioactive
"dirty bomb" in a US city.
In a successful attempt to
force a confession out of him, al-Habashi was "rendered"
to Morocco, whose notoriously brutal interrogators, working on
behalf of the Americans, tortured him for 18 months, repeatedly
cutting his penis with razor blades, and he was then transferred
to the "Dark Prison" in Afghanistan. Scheduled to face
a Military Commission (a show trial in which secret evidence
is withheld from the accused), his case was dropped in June 2006
after the Supreme Court ruled that the Commissions were illegal,
and has not been reinstated.
Abdulnour Sameur, 34, an Algerian
refugee, was granted asylum in the UK in April 2000, after deserting
from the Algerian army, because, he said, he was "made to
go in the streets and shoot innocent people." He had been
living in the London suburb of South Harrow, but traveled to
Afghanistan after a crisis of faith, when someone he met at a
mosque suggested that he would find a purer life in Afghanistan,
and that, if he liked it, "he would help me figure out how
to build a house there."
Accused of having advance knowledge
of 9/11, he explained in Guantánamo that he made this
up in the US prison in Kandahar airbase, when the interrogators
threatened to withhold medical treatment. "I told them this
in Kandahar during the interrogations because the interrogators
were dogs," he said. "I had an injury in my leg. I
had metal sticking out of my leg and they would not clean the
wound; they would not give me treatment ... I just told them
anything, whatever they wanted to hear because I wanted them
to treat my leg. I saw other people whose legs had to be cut
off. I did not want my leg to be cut off ... If you were in my
place, if you were in Kandahar you would have done the same thing.
Just like a small child."
Ahmed Belbacha, 37, is a former
professional footballer in Algeria. After retiring from the game,
he worked as an accountant for a government-owned oil company,
Sonatrach, but was called up for military service and threatened
by members of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), the Islamist militants
opposed to the government. Fearing for his safety, he fled to
the UK in 1999, and settled in the seaside town of Bournemouth,
where he found a job as a waiter in a hotel, and where, after
being vetted by MI5, he was working during the Labour Party conference
in 1999. According to a Guardian article in 2006, "His
friends recall[ed] his pride at receiving a £30 tip and
a personal letter of thanks from John Prescott," after he
had helped the Deputy Prime Minister during the conference.
In autumn 2001, Belbacha took
a month's vacation to visit Pakistan and an Afghan refugee camp,
but was captured near Peshawar, after crossing back into Pakistan,
by villagers who sold him to the Pakistani authorities. Once
he was in American custody, he was transported to the prison
in Kandahar airbase, where he was "repeatedly beaten,"
and was then taken to Guantánamo, where he was falsely
accused of attending a training camp in Jalalabad and meeting
Osama bin Laden on two occasions, even though, at the time of
his vacation, he was waiting to hear from the British government
if his application for asylum had been successful. With a grim
irony, his application was turned down, but he was granted exceptional
leave to remain in the UK in June 2003, when he had already been
in Guantánamo for over a year.
What I didn't realize, while
I was explaining these men's stories and encouraging the audience
to take action on their behalf, was that the BBC was about to
break the news that four of these men were soon to be released.
As the BBC described it, Jamil El-Banna, Omar Deghayes and Abdulnour
Samuer were to return to the UK, while Shaker Aamer would return
to his native Saudi Arabia.
While this seems to be extraordinarily
good news for those who have campaigned for the men's release
for nearly six years -- and also for the Gordon Brown's government,
which broke with its predecessor's refusal to act on behalf of
the residents by formally requesting the return of five of the
men in August -- it's also apparent that an announcement is not
the same as the realization of these men's freedom. While various
news sources began speculating immediately on the date of their
return (they "could be back by Christmas," chirped
the Daily Mirror), the BBC scrupulously maintained that
the British government had "not confirmed" the move
and that a release date was "unknown."
This was indeed the case. When
the Foreign Office finally issued a statement, a spokesman cautiously
declared, "We have held detailed discussions with the Americans.
We considered the circumstances of each case with the US and
we are in contact with the families and the legal representatives
of the five. While the discussions are ongoing we are not going
to make further comment." Clive Stafford Smith of Reprieve,
the legal charity that represents dozens of Guantánamo
detainees, including the British residents, explicitly told the
BBC, "There's no doubt that the agreement has been struck,
that they will return home. The question is, when? There's no
reason why they couldn't come home tomorrow, but the US are insisting
on a lot of red tape."
Even if the men are home by
Christmas, however, Shaker Aamer's repatriation to Saudi Arabia
remains troubling. A source close to his family explained to
me that Shaker has "expressed for some time that he would
like to be returned to Saudi Arabia," pointing out that,
if he were to return to the UK, it is feared that he "would
face a travel ban, if not some form of control order, which would
prevent him from being reunited with the rest of his family in
Saudi Arabia, or moving back at some point in future should he
wish to do so." Given that the Saudi government has shown
a commitment to helping former detainees to reintegrate into
Saudi society after a period of "reeducation," even
going so far as to provide financial assistance as the men begin
to rebuild their lives, it's understandable that Mr. Aamer has
chosen this option, although, as my source also explained, it
remains unclear "how easy it would be for his wife and children
to settle there or visit him in this period" -- a potentially
appalling trade-off for someone who, as Moazzam Begg has pointed
out, was absolutely devoted to his family.
More troubling still, of course, is the ongoing detention of
the two residents who are not scheduled to be released: Binyam
Mohammed al-Habashi, the only one of the five whose return was
requested in August, and Ahmed Belbacha, whose return was not
requested at all.
As the Independent explained,
"the reasons for Mr. al-Habashi's continued detention remain
unclear," but "the US is believed to be determined
that he should face one of Guantánamo's military commissions
which could jail him for life." Describing his predicament,
Clive Stafford Smith reiterated that there was "no evidence"
against his client. "He was taken to Morocco and had a razorblade
taken to his penis," he explained. "Naturally, as any
human being would do, he made statements saying whatever they
wanted to hear. They [the US authorities] believed that stuff."
He added, "I've seen no evidence in Binyam's case that isn't
evidence that was tortured out of him. The bottom line is that
we're happy for him to face a fair trial, if that's what everyone
wants to do. But the problem we do have is that trying him using
torture evidence, using secret evidence, is giving him an unfair
trial. The British Government has made it perfectly clear, the
military commissions are unfair."
In the case of Ahmed Belbacha,
who, like Jamil El-Banna, has officially been cleared for release
from Guantánamo, the British government has refused to
act on his behalf, because, technically, he was not actually
a British resident at the time of his capture. In August, I wrote
to the Foreign Office to complain, explaining that "the
refusal to act on Mr. Belbacha's behalf would, I believe, portray
the new administration, of which you are a key part, in a very
unfavourable light, and would suggest that the government is
only prepared to act -- as in Mr. al-Rawi's case -- when faced
with the possibility of being shamed by revelations that the
detainee in question was actually working for the British intelligence
services."
In September, I received a
reply from Nicolas Jankowski, of the Counter Terrorism Policy
Department, who explained that the decision to request the return
of the British residents was "limited to those who were
lawfully resident in the UK prior to their detention. We believe
we have identified all of those to whom this relates who are
currently detained at Guantánamo Bay. Mr Ahmed Belbacha
does not fall into this category."
As I wrote at the time, I was
disappointed by the "meanness of spirit expressed on behalf
of the Foreign Office by Mr. Jankowski," and added that,
"because, technically, Mr. Belbacha was not a British resident
at the time of his capture, this innocent man, who has been through
five and a half years of extraordinarily bleak treatment at the
hands of his US captors, will not be rescued from the prospect
of further ill-treatment in the country of his birth because
the government has turned its back on the decision it made to
welcome him to stay in Britain while he was suffering in Guantánamo.
This rather makes a mockery of the supposedly principled stance
made by Gordon Brown's new administration when it requested the
return of the other five men, and does little to persuade me
that the government is as concerned with justice as it is with
PR."
My opinion has not changed.
While I await the release of four of the residents, and urge
anyone concerned with the ongoing injustice of Guantánamo
not to forget that Binyam Mohammed al-Habashi remains mired in
a dark and disturbing netherworld of spectral allegations obtained
through torture, in which the British intelligence services were
at least partly complicit, I also maintain that the government's
intransigence in Mr. Belbacha's case shows, only too clearly,
the hard, unyielding edge of the government's policy towards
refugees. It's a situation faced every day by families and individuals
in the UK, who are threatened with being returned to countries
where they face the risk of torture or worse, and is highlighted
in Mr. Belbacha's case by the fact that he would rather remain
in Guantánamo -- in one of the most lawlessly isolated
prison environments in the western world -- than return to the
country of his birth.
Note
Readers who are concerned about
Binyam Mohammed al-Habashi's continued imprisonment, and the
refusal of the British government to act on behalf of Ahmed Belbacha,
are encouraged to make their feelings clear by writing to the
Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who can be reached at: milibandd@parliament.uk.
Andy Worthington is a British historian, and the author
of 'The
Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in
America's Illegal Prison' (to be published by Pluto Press
in October 2007). Visit his website at: www.andyworthington.co.uk
He can be reached at: andy@andyworthington.co.uk
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