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Today's
Stories
July 31, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
July 30, 2004
Kolhatkar /
Ingalls
Shattering
Illusions: Kerry's Speech Tells Anti-War Activists They're Not
Wanted
Dave Lindorff
Murder
Not So Foul?
Bruce Jackson
Walt Whitman on the Sound of Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Fidel Castro
The
Pathology of George W. Bush
Maximilien Robespierre
Memo to Kerry and Bush: Why They Resist
Saul Landau
Bush
Charges Castro with Sex Tourism; JFK Rolls Over in His Grave
Sex, Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
July 29, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Hail,
the Conquering War Criminal: What Kerry Really Did in Vietnam
Frank Bardacke
What
Michael Moore Left Out of F9/11
Tom Barry
Shallow and Formulaic: Kerry's Latin America Plan
Ron Jacobs
Kerry
and Lennon: Hawking the CounterCulture
Robert Fisk
The Unreported War
Lichtman /
Kellis-Borok
What Kerry Must Do to Win (But Probably Won't)
William S. Lind
The 9/11 Commission Report: Cashing in on Failure
CounterPunch
Wire
Doonesbury Onto John Kerry in 1971!
Website of
the Day
Jabbing JibJab: Copyright Madness
July 28, 2004
Robert Fisk
The
Occupation at 114 Degrees: Baghdad is Swamped in the Smell of
the Dead
Kevin Mink
Kerry's Misperception of Palestine
Ray McGovern
Israel and the Iraq War: How the 9/11 Report Soft-Pedals Root
Causes
United for
Peace & Justice
An
Open Letter to John Kerry: Winter Soldiers and Summer Patriots
Mike Ferner
Vets Demand End to Occupation: "Pull the Troops or Face
Impeachment Mvt."
Imraan Siddiqi
Turning Tricks with Ann Coulter
Alexander Cockburn
Candidate
Kerry
Website of
the Day
Iraq Vets Against the War
July 27, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
the Democrats Deserve Nader
Dave Lindorff
Back to the 19th Century: Globalization's Coming!
Mike Whitney
Control Room: Inside Al Jazeera
Ali, Anderson, Bello, et al.
If We Were Venezuelan, We'd Vote for Chavez
Stefan Wray
Texas Plan to Grab Los Alamos Takes Hold, as DOE Shuts Down Labs
Louis Proyect
Reflections on Nicaragua: First Came the Contra Butchers, Then
the Sweatshops
Rick Giombetti
Faith in Freedom: the Challenge of Thomas Szasz
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
The
9/11 Report and Its Weak-Kneed Consensus: Dogding Israel/Palestine;
Blinkered on Causes of Terrorism
July 26, 2004
Todd Chretien
Green
Resistance: a Reply to Normon Solomon & Medea Benjamin
Robert Fisk
Terror
by Video
Richard Forno
Security
Theater in Boston: Security Expert Harrassed by DHS for Exposing
Flaws at the Fleet Center
Mitchel Cohen
Report from a Boston Demo: Arresting the Curious
Richard Moreno
Rockers
for Justice: an Interview with Tom Morello and Serj Tankian
Alexander Cockburn
Boston
Awaits a Dead Party
July
24 / 25, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Democrats and Their Conventions:
Part One
Dennis
Hans
Those 16 Words Still Smell, Mr. Bush
Patrick
Cockburn
The Struggle for Iraq is Only Beginning
Josh
Frank
The War Path of Unity: Dems Reject
the Peace Movement
Justin
E.H. Smith
Christianity and the Left: the Latin
American Experience
Tariq
Ali
What's at Stake in Venezuela
Fred
Gardner
The Politics of Pot: Year of the
Antagonist
Mark
Scaramella
There's Dope and There's Dope
Ron
Jacobs
The Weather Underground's Prairie
Fire Statement...35 Years On
July
23, 2004
Lee
Sustar
Revolution in Nicaragua: 25 Years
On
Dave
Lindorff
Battle for NYC: Bush 1, Protesters
0
Saul
Landau
Zaniest President in US History: Bush
Beats Reagan
Mike
Whitney
The 9/11 Whitewash: Blaming No
One
Mickey
Z
Get On the Bus: 150 Years After Elizabeth
Jennings
Gary
Leupp
The 9/11 Commission and the Looming
War on Iran
July
22, 2004
M.
Junaid Alam
Ten Ways to Build a Better Democrat
Brian
McKinlay
Rusted On Down Under: Howard, Bush and Sharon
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Lobbied for Easing of Sanctions on Terrorist Regimes While
CEO of Halliburton
Chris
Floyd
Mob Rule: Ripping the Lid Off of America's Pious Myths
Uri
Avnery
Chirac v. Sharon
July
21, 2004
Paula
J. Caplan
The Emotional Casualities of War:
Psychologists Can't Heal All the Damage
Joshua
Frank
Nader Sleeping with the Enemy? Let's
be Fair
Ron
Jacobs
American Exceptionalism
Reza
Ghorashi
The Elections, Iran and al-Qaeda
Amy
Martin
Will Congress Rearm the Guatemalan Generals?
John
Ross
Bush May Lose, But His Wars Will Go
On and On
July
20, 2004
Stan
Cox
The Bush / Kerry War Ticket
Chris
Randolph
An Open Letter to Dr. Ehrenreich: It's Over, Barb!
Forrest
Hylton
The Ghosts of Gonismo: "Popular
Patricipation" and Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Mark
Scaramella
It's Official! Mendocino County is Crazier and Fatter Than the
Rest of California
Sam
Bahour
The World is Knocking on Israel's Door
George
Reiter
A Defense of David Cobb
John
Ross
Burying Iraq, Burying Bush
John
L. Hess
Girlie Stuff: Media Tolerance of Arnold & Co.
Website
of the Day
This Land is Your Land
July
19, 2004
Uri
Avnery
Marie and the Ghosts: the Hoax of
Paris
Col.
Dan Smith
What Has Been Accomplished?
Mike
Whitney
Allawi: Our Puppet with a Pistol
Karyn
Strickler
Just Marriage, Not Gay Marriage
Robert
Fisk
The Crisis of Information in Baghdad
David
Swanson
Media Blackout of US Labor Opposition
to Iraq War
Jennifer
van Bergen
The Death of the Great Writ of Liberty
July
17 / 18, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations
is Must Reading
Ghada
Karmi
Vanishing the Palestinians
Lenni
Brenner
When Cattle Unite, Lions Go Hungry: Notes for Ralph Nader
Ben
Tripp
Man on a Bridge: a Ghost Story
Brandy
Baker
What Would Elizabeth Cady Stanton Make of John Kerry?
M.
Shahid Alam
Israel Builds Another Wall
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Nuclear Hypocrisy: Israel, Iran and the IAEA
Patrick
Bond
The George Bush of Africa
Fred
Gardner
Politics of Marijuana: Cannabiniod Therapuetics
William
Blum
Bush and Thucydides
Ben
Terrall
Carter and the Indonesia Elections: "I Don't See Anything
Wrong with a General Running the Country"
Tom
Barry
John Lehman on the War Path
David
Vest
Dylan Without the Music
Phyllis
Pollack
Return to Sin City: Keith Richards Does Gram Parsons
Ron
Jacobs
Smearing Muhammad Ali: Bob Feller Strikes Out
Joshua
Frank
Kerry to Edwards: "Let's Lose!"
David
Nally
A Call for Sudan: Our Georgraphical Blindspot
Toni
Solo
Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Landau,
Hassan, Prashad & Lindorff
Three Reviews of Moore's F911
Poets's
Basement
Ford, Smith and Albert
July
16, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Adonal Foyle: Master of the Lefty Lay-Up
Shervan
Sardar
Dershowitz, the ICJ and Jim Crow Laws
Ron
Jacobs
The Lil' Engine That Couldn't: Kucinich Surrenders on Anti-War
Plank
Robert
Fisk
Iraq, According to Edgar Allen Poe:
Coffin Bombs in Baghdad
Greg
Moses
The Forts of Iraq
Mickey
Z.
Ad Infinitum?: Presidential Campaigns in the Age of TV
Dan
Bacher
A Landmark Win for Salmon and the Tribes
Dave
Lindorff
The Mumia Case: Support from NAACP,
But a Movement in Shambles
Paul
McGeough
Did Allawi Shoot Inmates in Cold Blood?
Website
of the Day
10 Reasons to Fire Bush (and 9 Reasons Kerry Won't Be Any Better)
July
15, 2004
Heather
Williams
McMissing
the Point: Supersize Me Crashes on Its Message
Werther
Iraq: Follow the Money
Tom
Crumpacker
The Birds of Guantanamo
Brian
Cloughley
What Does the Bush Regime Object To?
Bill
Christison
Reorganize the CIA? Of Course,
But...
July
14, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Chronicle of a Nomination Foretold:
the Green Deceivers
Neve
Gordon
Of Socrates and the Apartheid Wall
Diane
Christian
The Priesthood of Death
Stefan
Wray
Who Benefits from Missing Data at Los Alamos Nuclear Lab?
Josh
Frank
The Nader / Dean Debate
Conn
Hallinan
Divide and Conquer as Imperial Rules
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Bring My Brother Home!: Class, War
and Education
Website
of the Day
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of US Empire
July
13, 2004
Ray
McGovern
The CIA and Iraq: an Intelligence
Debacle...and Worse
Mark
Donham
The Sierra Club's Inexplicable Treatment of Cynthia McKinney
Ben
Tripp
Politus Interruptis: With Friends Like
These, Who Needs Electorates?
Mark
Gaffney
Slipping Towards Armageddon: Israel
in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Osama Wins! Election Postponed!
Chris
White
Double Think: the Bedrock of Marine
Indoctrination
July
10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
July
9, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Carlos Delgado on Deck: Blue Jays Slugger
Stands Up Against War
Justin
Delacour
Wishing Kerry Would Shut Up About
Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Iraq in Reverse: Martial Laws Fuel Insurgency
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Two Congresses and a Funeral
William
S. Lind
The October Surprises
Sibel
Edmonds
Our Broken System: John Ashcroft's War on Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Reading Tea Leaves: What Vietnam Tells Us About Iraq's Future
Gary
Leupp
The Lie That Will Not Die: Cheney and
the Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
July
8, 2004
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Inexplicable John McCain
Toufic
Haddad
Protesting Israel's Apartheid Wall:
a Letter from the Hunger Strikers' Tent
Dave
Lindorff
Liberation as Martial Law
Joshua
Frank
The Fall: How Beltway Dems Sank Howard
Dean
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush & Cheney Play the Hitler Card
James
Petras
The Truth About Jimmy Carter
July
7, 2004
John
Chuckman
Kerry's BBQ: a Deafening Silence
of Meaning
Virginia
Tilley
A Line in the Sand: Azmi Bishara's
Hunger Strike
Susan
Martinez
A Letter to Bill Cosby
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Strange Parade
Michael
Donnelly
Our Own Private Wilderness: Trusting the Land in the Inland Empire
Sean
Donahue
Boston Social Forum: the Dems aren't the Only Show in Beantown
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
Legacy of Deceit: If Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
July
5, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
US Imperialism in Latin America: Sept.
11, July 4 and Systematic Torture
Chris
White
A Former Marine Sgt. on the Meaning
of Independence Day
Joe
Bageant
Cranky Reflections on the 4th of July
Robert
Jensen
Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore
Misses About the Empire
Kathy
Kelly
"Two Days an' a Wake-Up"
July
3 / 4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
Website
of the Day
Global Peace Solution
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam's
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain't Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
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.
|
July
31, 2004
Election
9/11
Surreal
Political Theater
By
JENNIFER VAN BERGEN
and TOM STEPHENS
In July 2004, only about a month after
millions of the American People began flocking to movie theaters
to see Michael Moore's incendiary exposé of the Bush administration,
"Fahrenheit 9/11," officials appointed by this administration
floated a bizarre and unprecedented proposal. Because of the
possibility of anticipated, unspecified "terrorist attacks"
somewhere in America, they said it could become "necessary"
to postpone (or even cancel?) the scheduled November 2004 presidential
election.
This has to be the final and
irrefutable proof of this administration's absolute lack of legitimacy.
No such election has ever been postponed in American history,
even during the darkest days of national emergencies during the
civil war and the world wars of the last century! This latest
outrage of the lawless Bush/Cheney regime has already met the
widespread denunciation it richly deserves in many quarters.
But that will not be enough. Even worldwide condemnation failed
to prevent the Bush pirates' insane attack on Iraq in 2003.
Only the full moral weight of "the other superpower"
public opinion has any chance of affecting their
last gasp attempts over the next few months to hold on to their
power.
There is absolutely no guarantee
that opposition to their schemes will stop the likes of Dick
Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft & Co. from continuing
to act ruthlessly and without any principles whatsoever to preserve
their grip on power. This crisis calls for a dramatic public
response from the American People, demonstrating conclusively
that we will not allow this illegitimate gang to destroy our
democracy and our freedom. The Americans who made "Fahrenheit
9/11" a surprise hit movie, the same People who packed the
streets of our cities on February 15, 2003, "the day the
world said no to war" with Iraq, will have to come out again.
On no account will we allow this government to perpetuate its
illegitimate existence by using the excuse of terrorism to delay
or prevent a lawful, democratic presidential election.
Four years ago George W. Bush
and Dick Cheney failed to receive a majority of the popular vote
in the 2000 election. Racially discriminatory vote suppression
in Jeb Bush's Florida combined with at least two other key factors
to deliver the White House to its current occupants. The balance
of power in the electoral college unfairly favors the Republicans'
fundamentalist, rural,  western and southern base. And intervention
by five of the Republican appointees to the US Supreme Court
stopped an accurate count of the extraordinarily tight Florida
race. In this important sense, they in fact did not win, but
"stole" the 2000 election through a combination of
legal and extra-legal maneuvers. 2004 is above all the first
real opportunity the American People have to take back our country
from the gang that stole America.
Having "won" power
in such a controversial, narrow, and borderline illegal manner,
one might think they would seek to govern inclusively and responsibly,
seeking to build and shore up their support and legitimacy.
But that assumption contradicts the immoral and crass political
nature of this criminal enterprise in the form of a presidential
administration. Their cynical opportunism in responding to the
historic crimes against humanity of September 11, 2001 apparently
knows no bounds. Rather than seeking to unite all Americans
for common goals, this government has shamelessly taken every
opportunity to enrich their corporate supporters and project
power by military attacks, racial profiling and threats of violence
that have severely threatened the liberty and security of the
USA and the entire world.
A Program
for Global Dominance
In the aftermath of the 9/11
atrocities, George W. Bush cluelessly wondered why People in
other countries hate US government policies that systematically
destroy their freedoms, steal their resources, kill their brethren,
and spread war and poverty throughout an unjust US corporate
empire. It was because "they hate our freedoms," he
concluded, apparently based on his speechwriters' and handlers'
instructions on the teleprompters. Meanwhile, his administration's
military, energy, tax, trade, environmental and economic policies
fuel the hatred of unjust imperial domination, and threaten the
peace, prosperity and security of the world in dramatic and unprecedented
ways. For example:
Afghanistan: Within less than
a month of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington,
the US military struck the prostrate nation of Afghanistan, former
US allies in the Taliban government, and Osama bin Laden's jihadist
terror network. Systematic human rights violations, widespread
violence inflicted on innocent civilians caught in the chaos
of war, intense human suffering throughout the winter of 2001-02,
and the beginning of construction on long-sought lucrative natural
gas and oil pipelines, accompanied the first round of their declared
"Global War on Terrorism." But even as the long term
consequences of the September 11 terrorist attacks began to sink
in, gradually displacing the shock and horror of Fall 2001, the
illegitimate US government was only beginning its drive for total
power through killing, domination and corporate oil politics.
Iraq: The "National Security
Strategy" of September 2002 spelled out this government's
imperial, militarist goals and its intention of waging perpetual
aggressive wars to enrich its base, by capitalizing on the "vast,
new opportunities" opened up for them by the September 11
crimes against humanity. Iraq would be the test case of their
new "doctrine," which failed spectacularly. The whole
world now knows that the illegal invasion of Iraq in March 2003
was based on lies about alleged weapons and nonexistent connections
to al-Quaida and other fake security threats. Bush and his chickenhawk
advisors sent over 100,000 working class Americans to kill and
die in the heart of the Middle East's coveted oil reserves.
They projected US military power into the world's most strategic
region for the benefit of their corporate funders. In the face
of vocal warnings and opposition from around the planet and across
the country, they created an obvious, bloody and ongoing disaster.
By April 2004, seven months before the election, their project
began to collapse in chaos, blood and fire. Suicide bombings,
armed resistance, kidnappings, blackmail, beheadings, and the
installation of a puppet government headed by a known CIA stooge
"Saddam Hussein Lite" define the absurd,
unstable, and completely insane second round of Bush's fanatical
and fraudulent "war on terror."
Israel/Palestine: In addition
to the direct US military assaults of the last three years, the
longstanding illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza by
US ally Israel has intensified. It supports Islamic and Arab
nationalist opposition and an escalating series of deadly attacks
against foreign outposts of US empire. Like the Bush/Cheney
gang, Ariel Sharon's criminal government has blatantly used the
aftermath of September 11 as an excuse to rewrite all the rules
of international conduct, to kill its opponents and their fellows,
and to grab power and land. US leaders have marched in lockstep
with every one of these abuses, as Palestinians' homelands, livelihoods
and their very lives are forfeit to Israeli aggression using
US-supplied arms. Still, our official leaders ask plaintively
"why they hate us." Because we and our surrogates
are stealing their lands, starving their children, and killing
them with impunity!
We the People, both as individuals
and as a nation, must look into our own hearts and minds and
determine who we are. Global dominance can sound tempting, especially
when our nightmares are filled with the threat of terrorism.
It's easy for America to be the bully and it is easy for Americans
to accept this role. In the eloquent words of singer/songwriter
Jonatha Brooke:
In the American day, you
must give and I shall take,
And I will tell you what is moral and what's just
Because I want, because I will, because I can, so will I kill.
Former US Army Sergeant Stan
Goff says, "The Army sent me to a kind of two-decade school,
and in school I learned something. The world is not fundamentally
safe." This is undeniably true. The world is not
safe, and that is a frightening thought to those Americans (such
as Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, etc.) who have lived their lives in
privilege and comfort. But the inherent risk of living in the
world does not compel us to become invaders and murderers. It
does not compel us to abandon democracy or the rule of law.
It does not compel us to give up civil liberties, or to abdicate
our right to "dissolve the political bonds" which connect
us to such a criminal administration. The very suggestion that
the 2004 election could be postponed is itself a call to arms
to defend the ideal of American democratic self-government.
The Assault
on Civil Liberty
The Bush/Cheney administration
has become identified with disdain for human rights and the rule
of law itself. Consider only the most prominent examples: Withdrawing
the US from the International Criminal Court (for fear of prosecutions
of Americans for war crimes, including human rights violations
and crimes against humanity), enacting the so-called "USA
PATRIOT" Act (which violates basic human rights), illegally
and indefinitely detaining alleged "enemy combatants"
at Guantanamo Bay and in the U.S. (struck down in landmark decisions
of the US Supreme Court this summer), the Abu Ghraib prison abuses
and arbitrary mass arrests and prosecutions of protesters, activists,
and even a defense attorney (Lynne Stewart). The so-called "war
on terrorism" has caused more human rights abuses and less
safety. Amnesty International reported recently that the US
has set an example of disregard for human rights worldwide.
The administration continues
to label suspects as "enemies," and uses that label
as a political tool, even where such identification was not relevant
to hunting down terrorists. For example, designating Iraq, Iran
and North Korea as the "Axis of Evil," and Bush's assertion
that "If you're not with us; you're against us!" Another
example: while the "USA PATRIOT" Act specifically disclaims
any bias against Muslims and Arabs, thousands of Arabic-speaking
persons or followers of Islam were rounded up and detained after
9/11 without probable cause of criminal activity, solely on the
basis of their ethnic origins and religious practices. It is
virtually impossible to imagine a program that would be better
calculated to drive People away from the kinds of cooperation
with legitimate authorities that might help prevent future
terrorist crimes!
The current, unelected US government
is cynically exploiting fear and extreme nationalist/ fundamentalist
fervor, in an attempt to retain their illegitimate hold on power.
In the name of "fighting terrorism," and in reaction
to vocal, worldwide demands for global justice, peace and democracy,
they and their corporate and ideological supporters are pursuing
a strategy of US empire-building through military force. They
are counting on the fear of terrorism, war, and economic privation
to whip people into line behind their leadership.
There simply has to be a better
alternative than this new American nightmare. We have to choose
between the government of laws enshrined in our national charter
and history, and that of unaccountable power, currently arising
out of the "war against terrorism." The recent suggestion
that some unspecified terrorist attack could "force"
the government to postpone the November 2004 presidential election,
just as it appears to be slipping away from candidate Bush because
of his unsurpassed record of lying and abuse, should be seen
by all for exactly what it is: an admission of their failure
and absolute moral bankruptcy.
It's the
Torture, Stupid
In late April and May 2004,
with the military occupation of Iraq trying unsuccessfully to
suppress a coordinated, violent uprising throughout the country,
graphic images of the reality of US "liberation" and
"freedom" for that nation burst into public view.
The revelations of torture and abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib
prison, Afghanistan's Bagram air base, Guantanamo Bay and other
secret US military torture centers, both exposed the reality
of the "war on terror," and laid the basis for the
recent suggestion that it might cause the government to postpone
the election.
There has been a flood of shocking
revelations: knowledge and approval of torture coming from the
highest levels of the US government. The New York Times reported
on a legal memorandum addressed to White House counsel Alberto
Gonzalez, assessing the "issue" of how much pain constitutes
"torture" under the law, and referring to the requirements
of the Geneva Conventions as being "obsolete" and "quaint."
Even more stunning, the Wall Street Journal revealed a memo prepared
by a team of administration lawyers, developing at length the
arguments that "torture" is not "torture,"
without "specific intent" to cause severe and long-lasting
harm (i.e., if the torturer's intent is to get information, and
pain and suffering is an unfortunate collateral consequence,
it's not and can't be - torture). Perhaps even more appalling
from a purely legal point of view, this leaked internal Justice
Department document that has become widely known as "the
torture memo" argues for a quasi-royal prerogative, that
the president as commander-in-chief of the military, is not bound
by legal prohibitions on torture. Still, the leaks haven't stopped.
The Center for Constitutional Rights posted on their web site
lengthy excerpts from an extensive Pentagon torture manual.
Its official name is "Working Group Report on Detainee Interrogations
in the Global War on Terrorism: Assessment of Legal, Historical,
Policy, and Operational Considerations." But Orwellian
and Kafkaesque word games aside, it's a torture manual.
In light of what we now know from the offensive pictures taken
inside Abu Ghraib, and also from the Bush/Cheney administration's
many coded admissions (for example, Bush's own statement in his
2003 State of the Union Address: "[M]any others have met
a different fate. Let's put it his way. They are no longer
a problem") the leaked torture documents opened coast-to-coast
floodgates of righteous democratic anger and opposition. San
Diego University law professor Marjorie Cohn has written that
these revelations mean it is now time to call for the impeachment
of Bush. Former New York City Congresswoman and prosecutor Elizabeth
Holtzman (who served on the House Judiciary Committee during
the impeachment of Nixon) has called for appointment of a Special
Prosecutor. Approximately 500 law professors signed a detailed,
reasoned letter calling for impeachment. On June18 the National
Lawyers Guild issued a press release demanding prosecution of
Bush for war crimes and torture. NLG President Michael Avery
aptly described the Justice Department's torture memorandum as
reading "like a pre-trial brief on behalf of the Nazi defendants
in the Nuremberg trial." Is it any wonder they want to
cancel the election, under these extreme circumstances?
The combined precedents set
by the USA PATRIOT Act, Guantanamo, Iraq, and the withdrawal
from ICC, amount to an attempted rolling coup-in-progress. Although
the Bush/Cheney administration has pursued this coup in the name
of freedom, compassionate conservatism, national security and
the war on terror, the main features of it are exactly the opposite:
dissolution of the rule of law, arbitrary arrests and detentions,
violations and abuses of human rights and dignity, disregard
for the sovereignty of other nations and even for the most basic
principles of widely accepted international norms, and increasing
forms of international terror and violence in many forms. Abu
Ghraib should not shock those who have witnessed the repeated
violations of domestic and international law committed by and
for the Bush/Cheney Administration. It should not surprise those
who noted how the Supreme Court put Bush into the presidency,
or those who are aware of Bush's family connections or business
dealings before 2000. Nor should it shock those who followed
events from 9/11 to the unlawful invasion of Iraq.
A lawless administration cannot be expected to engender anything
but lawless subordinates. As Human Rights Watch says:
This pattern of abuse [at Abu
Ghraib] did not result from the acts of individual soldiers who
broke the rules. It resulted from decisions made by the Bush
administration to bend, ignore, or cast rules aside.
Abu Ghraib was not the beginning.
Members of the Bush Administration showed a penchant for torture
long before Abu Ghraib. The Administration recruited and elevated
several previously indicted war criminals. Bush's frequent use
of the death penalty and his indifference to human suffering
while he was governor of Texas are well-established. John Negroponte,
who was implicated in systematic human rights abuses in Central
America in the 1980's, was appointed ambassador to Iraq. Bush
even attempted to appoint Henry Kissinger, who is under indictment
for war crimes in numerous countries, to head the 9/11 commission.
Government
of Laws, not of Corporate War Criminals
Since September 11, 2001, our
government has placed us in further danger with policies that
inflame the conditions giving rise to terrorism. We must replace
this regime, and continue to work for peace and social justice
in order to create a brighter future for our children. The U.S.
response to the September 11 crimes against humanity has led
us into even greater peril. Under these crisis conditions, George
W. Bush's incompetence and Dick Cheney's arrogance threaten our
survival. We must start acting like self-governing adults who
reject rule by the oil industry, military contractors, and other
corporate profiteers. One of our best-loved artists sings in
tribute to the unforgettable heroes of September 11, who bravely
raced into the fire in service of others and died:
May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love give us love
George W. Bush and his government
lack the moral strength to serve social justice and peace rather
than big business. They lack faith in democracy. They lack hope
for a better world for the masses of the world's People, which
is the only real answer to terrorism. And they lack the love
of humanity. Their strength is killing, making money, and lying
about it. Their faith is non-existent. They hope for apathy
of the American People. They love only money and power. George
W. Bush and his government lack legitimacy.
Jennifer Van Bergen, J.D., is the author of The
Twilight of Democracy: The Bush Plan for America, coming
out September 1, 2004, Common Courage Press. She is one of the
foremost experts on the USA PATRIOT Act and has taught anti-terrorism
law at the New School University.
Tom Stephens is a lawyer and a member of the National
Lawyers Guild in Detroit.
Weekend
Edition Features for July 10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
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