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Featuring Essays by:
Edward Said, Robert Fisk, Michael Neumann, Shahid Alam, Alexander
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Recent
Stories
August
8, 2003
Dave
Lindorff
Snoops Night Out
August
7, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
It the US a "Terrorist Magnet?"
Toni
Solo
Neo-liberal Nicaragua: a New Banana
Republic
Adam Lebowitz
Hiroshima Commemorated: the View from Japan
Hanan
Ashrawi
When the Bully Whines
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Conscience Takes a Holiday
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Lets Slip: Iraq Not Behind 9/11; No Ties to Al-Qaeda
Mike Kimaid
What's the Score?
Elaine
Cassel
The Smell of VICTORY: Ashcroft's Latest Stinkbomb
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
August 6, 2003
Steve
Higgs
Going to Jail for the Cause: It's Not
Easy Confronting King Coal
David
Krieger
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Robert
Fisk
The Ghosts of Uday and Qusay
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's War on the National Forests
Elaine
Cassel
No Fly Lists
Stan
Goff
Military Equipment and Pneumonia
Hugh Sansom
An Open Letter to Nicholas Kristof on the Nuking of Japan
August
5, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Prisoner of Ramallah: Arafat at
74
Forrest
Hylton
Terrorism and Political Trials: the
View from Bolivia
Ray
McGovern
"We Cook Estimates to Go"
David
Morse
Poindexter's Gambit
Edward
Said
Orientallism: 25 Years Later
George
W. Bush
My Darn Good Resumé
Hammond
Guthrie
It's Incremental, Watson!
Website
of the Day
National Prayer Day
August 4, 2003
Bruce
K. Gagnon
Another Peace Activist Detained by
Airport Cops: My Story
David
Lindorff
Fear-Mongering About Social Security
Mark
Zepezauer
George F. Will: Descent into Self-Parody
James
Plummer
Tracking You Through the Mail
Mickey
Z.
Marriage Insecurity from Sharon to Bush
Bruce
Jackson
News that Isn't News: How the NYT's
Pimps for the White House
August
2 / 3, 2003
Tamara
R. Piety
Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down
Francis
Boyle
My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool
David
Vest
Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side
Neve Gordon
Nightlife in Jerusalem
Uri
Avnery
Their Master's Voice:
Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus
Robert
Fisk
Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq
Jerry
Kroth
Israel, Yellowcake and the Media
Noah Leavitt
What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to
Intervene?
Saul
Landau
The Film Industry: Business and Ideology
Ron Jacobs
One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson
Thomas
Croft
In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta
Amadi Ajamu
Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader?
Poets'
Basement
Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming
August
1, 2003
Joanne
Mariner
Stopping Prison Rape
Alex Coolman
Who Moved My Soap: Trivializing
Prison Rape
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Stan Goff
Injury and Decorum: The Missing Wounded in Iraq
Wayne
Madsen
Europe Unplugs from the Matrix
Robert
Fisk
Wolfowitz the Censor
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft Loses Big in Puerto Rico
Website
of the Day
Stop Prisoner Rape
July
31, 2003
Ray
McGovern
The Prostitution of Intelligence
Brian
Cloughley
Wolfowitz's Operative Statement
Sheldon
Hull
The RIAA's Jihad:
The Devil's Music (Industry)
Elaine
Cassel
The Next Time You Crack a Lawyer Joke, Think of These Attorneys
Sheldon
Rampton
and John Stauber
True Lies: Propaganda and Bush's
Wars
Hammond
Guthrie
Speculation Blues
Website
of the Day
Army of One?
July
30, 2003
David
Lindorff
Poindexter the Terror Bookie
Marjorie
Cohn
Why Iraq and Afghanistan? It's About
the Oil
Elaine
Cassel
How Ashcroft Coerces Guilty Pleas
in Terror Cases
Zvi
Bar'el
The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War
Lisa Walsh
Thomas
Killing Mustafa Hussein: Death of a Child, Birth of a Legend?
Sean
Carter
Pat Robertson's Prayer Jihad: God, Sodomy and the Supremes
ND Jayaprakash
India and Ariel Sharon
Steve
Perry
Bush's Top 40 Lies
Standard
Schaefer
Correction about Bloomberg and Outscourcing
Website
of the Day
Bring Them Home Now!
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
July
29, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
"Journalist Spotted! Journalist
Dead!" Guatemala Bleeds; US Press Yawns
Thomas
J. Nagy
The Belligerent Dr. Pipes
Kurt Nimmo
Tom Delay Goes to Jerusalem
Chris
Floyd
Dead Reckoning: Bush Warriors Sign Off on War Crimes
Robert
Fisk
Another Botched Raid; Another Massacre
Jason Leopold
Did Chalabi Help Write Bush's State of the Union Address?
Conn Hallinan
Food Bully: Bush's Biotech Shock and Awe Campaign
Dan
Bacher
Sacramento's War on Free Speech
Ray
McGovern
Cheney Chicanery
Website
of the Day
Julie Hilden Caught on Tape
Hot Stories
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
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J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
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Wire
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I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
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Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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August
9, 2003
Taking
Responsibility?
Bush, Bribery and
Berlusconi
By CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI
"The unexpected always happens."
Common saying
It's one of those months in which the pundit doesn't
know which way to turn. So much to observe, so little space in
which to report. Consider the following events.
In Mid-July a beaming President Bush
was pictured at his ranch with his arm affectionately placed
on the shoulders of Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
who had not been convicted of corruption charges for which he
was being tried during the month before he headed off for the
ranch. Described by the British news weekly, The Economist, as
Europe's "most extreme case of the abuse by a capitalist
of the democracy within which he lives and operates," Mr.
Bush's new found friend is Italy's wealthiest man and there are
those who say his acquisition of wealth can be traced to questionable
business deals made before he became prime minister.
On June 17, he was in court in Milan
defending himself against charges he had bribed Roman judges
to influence a multimillion pound merger deal involving a state-controlled
food company, SME, two decades earlier. Whether he did or not
will not be known for several more years. The trial of Mr. Berlusconi
came to an abrupt halt days before it would have ended in a verdict
because of a new law pushed through the Italian parliament by
Mr. Berlusconi's supporters that gives him and four other top
officials immunity from prosecution so long as they are in office.
Mr. Bush is not friends with Mr. Berlusconi
because he's rich although being rich never hurt anyone wanting
to befriend the president. Mr. Bush is friends with Mr. Berlusconi
because Mr. Berlusconi thought invading Iraq was the thing to
do. There's no reason for Mr. Bush to withhold his affection
just because Mr. Berlusconi has an unsavory reputation back home.
He is not much different from Admiral John Poindexter who was
appointed to a high position in the Bush administration. Whereas
Mr. Berlusconi is only accused of being a crook, Adm. Poindexter's
crook-credentials are firmly established. He was convicted in
the 1980s of lying to Congress, destroying official documents
and obstructing congressional inquiries into the Iran-Contra
affair. His conviction was overturned because Congress promised
him immunity if he testified before it about his criminal acts.
A criminal record not being a bar to
employment in the Bush administration in 2002 Adm Poindexter
was named Director of Information Awareness Office of the Defense
Advance Research Projects Agency. In that capacity he came up
with a number of great ideas, one of which was unveiled the last
week in July. It was the creation of a futures market in Mideast
terrorism.
The idea has been so widely reported
as to need but brief comment here. It was a program designed
to make people rich from acts of terrorism and was available
to participant and observer alike. In the case of a person wanting
to be both terrorist and rich, the person could bet on the date
of the assassination of some prominent political figure, carry
out the assassination on the selected day and collect his winnings
thus killing, as it were, two birds with one stone. As great
as that idea was, it cost Adm. Poindexter his job, he announcing
his resignation shortly after announcing the plan.
At almost the same time that Adm. Poindexter's
resignation was announced another surprising announcement was
made. Mr. Bush let it be known that having passed the buck around
the administration for the better part of July, someone had explained
to him that the buck stopped with him.
The buck in question was the allegation
made in the State of the Union speech that Saddam Hussein had
sought significant quantities of uranium from an African nation.
That statement was the subject of endless comment and when it
became apparent that it was inflicting damage on the administration,
C.I.A. director George Tenet courageously fell on his sword on
July 11 saying that "I am responsible for the approval process
in my agency. . . . These 16 words should never have been included
in the text written for the president. . . .This did not rise
to the level of certainty which should be required for presidential
speeches, and C.I.A. should have ensured that it was removed."
When the blood was wiped from Mr. Tenet's
sword and it was discovered that the controversy continued, another
sword was produced for Deputy National Security Adviser, Stephen
Hadley. On July 22 he said he had forgotten about warnings he
had received in October about the lack of reliability of the
statement. "I should have recalled at the time of the State
of the Union speech that there was controversy associated with
the uranium issue" he said. He reported that he had apologized
to the president for having permitted the words to remain in
the speech. When those two confessions of error did not quiet
the controversy, Mr. Bush himself stepped up to the plate.
In a press conference on July 30 Mr.
Bush said, somewhat surprisingly: "I take personal responsibility
for everything I say, absolutely." That was the first time
it had been suggested that Mr. Bush was responsible for any words
uttered by him. Until that time, it was widely accepted that
Mr. Bush was little more than a mouthpiece for assorted advisors
such as Condoleeza Rice, Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Some may
wonder why it took almost a month for him to acknowledge that
he was responsible for the words he spoke. It is probably because
no one had bothered to tell him.
Christopher Brauchli is a Boulder, Colorado lawyer. He can be reached
at: brauchli.56@post.harvard.edu
Weekend
Edition Features for August 2/3, 2003
Tamara
R. Piety
Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down
Francis
Boyle
My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool
David
Vest
Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side
Neve Gordon
Nightlife in Jerusalem
Uri
Avnery
Their Master's Voice:
Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus
Robert
Fisk
Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq
Jerry
Kroth
Israel, Yellowcake and the Media
Noah Leavitt
What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to
Intervene?
Saul
Landau
The Film Industry: Business and Ideology
Ron Jacobs
One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson
Thomas
Croft
In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta
Amadi Ajamu
Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader?
Poets'
Basement
Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming
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