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Today's
Stories
May
17, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Rumsfeld's Sovereignty Shell Game
May
15 / 16, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Green Lights for Torture
Douglas
Valentine
ABCs of American Interrogation: Phoenix Program, Revisited
John
Stanton
Kings of Pain: UK, US and Israel
Ben
Tripp
Torture: a Fond Reminiscence
Brian
Cloughley
Where are You Heading, America? Taking a Closer Look at the Patriot
Act
Justin
E. H. Smith
Islam and Democracy: the Lesson from Turkey
Brandy
Baker
Equal Opportunity Torture: Lynddie England, the Right and Feminism
John
Chuckman
Peep Show on Capitol Hill: Sex, Lies and Videotape
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: Goon Squad
John
Holt
Fencing the Sky
Ron
Jacobs
The Power of Patti Smith
Brian
J. Foley
Why the Outrage Over Abu Ghraib?
Robin
Philpot
Re-writing the History of the Rwandan Genocide
Eric
Leser
The Carlyle Empire
Ray
Hanania
From Abu Ghraib to Nick Berg: There's No Such Thing as a Good
War Crime
Jeff
Halper
Dozers of Mass Destruction
Joe
Surkiewicz
Inside the Baltimore Detention Center
John
Whitlow
Iraq Goddamn
Michael
Leon
Invitation to a Beheading: Why Bush Should Watch the Berg Video
Poets'
Basement
Krieger, Ford, LaMorticella, Smith and Albert
May
14, 2004
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's POW Porn
Ron
Jacobs
Secret History of the War on Drugs
William
Blum
God, Country and Torture
Michael
Donnelly
The People v. Corporate Greed: A Victory on the North Coast
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
India Shines
Stephen
Gowans
Building Democracy in Iraq and Other
Absurdities
May
13, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Where is Kerry?
Colm
O'Laithian
Torture and Degradation: Revenge American Style?
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassan
Wal-Mart: Scrooge with Hi-Tech Accounting
Practices
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush on the Inhumane Treatment of Iraqi Prisoners
Willliam
James Martin
Deir Yassin Massacre Recalled
Marc
Salomon
Reality TV Bites
Forrest
Hylton
Law 'n Order in La Paz: All Quiet
on the Southern Front?
May
12, 2004
Blanton
/ Kornbluh
Prisoner Abuse: Cheney Warned in
1992
Virginia
Tilley
So, Who's to Blame?
Bruce
Jackson
James Inhofe, the Dumbest Senator
of Them All
Thomas
P. Healy
No Enemies: Making Peace with Bert Sacks
Linda
S. Heard
Racism and Ignorance: a Lethal Cocktail in Iraq
Norman
Solomon
Spinning Torturegate
Lisa
Viscidi
The People's Voice: Community Radio in Guatemala
Jack
Heyman
View from the Bay Bridge: Longshoremen Plan Mass Workers March
on DC
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Rummy's Reprieve
CounterPunch
Wire
Teamsters Corruption Scandal: Hoffa Exec. Assistant Alleged to
Have Quashed Investigation into Mob Influence
Christopher
Brauchli
Detention Camp, USA
William
S. Lind
Bush's Waterloo?
May 11, 2004
Mark
Engler
On the "Necessity" of Torture
Ray
McGovern
More Troops? A March of Folly
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Nukes and Jefferson's Grand Experiment
Mickey
Z.
Less Than Hero
Christopher
Reed
Torture on the Homefront: America's Long History of Prison Abuse
Dennis
Hans
When John Negroponte was Mullah Omar
Bruce
Jackson
Pete Seeger at 85
Mike
Whitney
Killing al Sadr
Simon
Helweg-Larsen
Shrinking the Guatemalan Military
William
A. Cook
The Unconscious Country: Righteous Indignation,
Nakedly Displayed
May
10, 2004
Robert
Fisk
From Hollywood to Abu Ghraib: Racism
and Torture as Entertainment
Wayne
Madsen
The Israeli Torture Template: Rape,
Feces and Urine-Soaked Cloth Sacks
Col.
Dan Smith
The Shame of Abu Ghraib
Joe
Bageant
John Ashcroft, Keep Your Mouth Off My Wife!
Ron
Jacobs
Rummy's Prisongate Blues: Don't Leave Mad; Just Leave
Ben
Tripp
Getting in Touch with Your Inner Savage
Ray
Hanania
Why They Hate Us: Racism, Bigotry and Abuse
Reza
Fiyouzat
"Mishandled" Invasions
Diane
Christian
Images & Abstractions &
Genitals
Website
of the Day
Crushing Iraqi Skulls with Tanks for Sport?
May
8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
May
7, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
10 Prisons; 9,000 Prisoners: US Detention
Facilities in Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
UnAmerican? I Wish It Were So
Robert
Fisk
An Illegal and Immoral War
Ahmad
Faruqui
The 50th Anniversary of Dien Bien
Phu
Alexander
Zaitchik
From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib: Doesn't It Ring a (Prison)
Bell?
Mike
Whitney
The Price of Victory
Norman
Solomon
This War, Racism and Media Denial
M.
Shahid Alam
A Comic Apology
May
6, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
They Did It for Jessica: Smeared with
Shit; Kicked to Death
Kathy
Kelly
May Day in Pekin Prison: Prison Labor
for the War Machine
Werther
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: War as Vegas
Casino Game
Lawrence
Ferlinghetti
Totalitarian Democracy
Robert
Fisk
"Smoke Him": Video Shows Wounded
Men Being Shot by US Helicopter
John
Janney
Torturing the Way to Freedom?
Christopher
Ketcham
Outlaw Heterosexual Marriage Now!
Alan
Farago
Dead Oceans: So Long, Thanks for the Fish
Sam
Hamod
Bush on Arab TV: Worthless and Demeaning
James
Brooks
Sullen Spring
William
S. Lind
On the Brink of Defeat in Iraq
May
5, 2004
Maj.
Gen. Antonio M. Taguba
Complete US Army Report on Abuse of
Iraqi Prisoners
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Kerry: a Lost Cause for Progressives?
Will
Youmans
Deal with the Devil: a Palestinian
Zionist and the End of the World
Patrick
B. Barr
Terrorists R Us: the Powerful are Exempt from the Label
Lawrence
Magnuson
Nightline's All-American Morgue
Greg
Moses
Pocketbook of Denuded Ideals
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Tormenting Prisoners, Torturing
Truth
Lee
Ballinger
Cinco de Mayo and Unity
Gilbert
Achcar
Bush's Cakewalk into the Iraq Quaqmire
Website
of the Day
Operation Phoenix & Iraq
May
4, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
A Timeline of Torture and Abuse Allegations
and Responses
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Privatized Torture
David
Peterson
CBS, Self-Censorship & Iraq
Barry
Lando
CACI's Private Torture Chambers
Patrick
Cockburn
Torture: Iraqis Disgusted, But Not Surprised
Dr.
Susan Block
Indecent Insurgents: Watch What You Say
Fidel
Castro
A Mindless, Unnecessary War
Mike
Whitney
Empire of Torture
Sonali
Kolhatkar
How to Stop the War: Demonstrate Against
John Kerry
Josh
Frank
The Lost Sierra Club
Stan
Goff
The Role: Another Open Letter to US Troops in Iraq
Agustin
Velloso
Spare Us Your Disgusting Ethics
Stew
Albert
American Know-How
Website
of the Day
Scenes from a Cover-Up
May
3, 2004
Virginia
Tilley
Let the Wall of Silence Fall
May
1 / 2, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
An Army in Disgrace, a Policy
in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat
Robert
Fisk
"Good Guys" Who Can Do No
Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders,
Useless Spies, Angry World
Heather
Williams
Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin
American Troops Flee Iraq
Diane
Rejman
An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq:
Abu Ghraib as My Lai?
Diane
Christian
Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and
Sharon Speak the Same Language
Patrick
Cockburn
Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked,
Shocked, Shocked
Chris
Floyd
Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists
and Annihilation
April
29 / 30, 2004
Dave
Zirin
A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome
Death of Pat Tillman
Kathy
Kelly
The Warden's Tour
Greg
Weiher
Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the
Banality of Evil
Michael
S. Ladah
Terrorism and Assassination: the
Ultimate Depception
Patrick
Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies
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
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May
17, 2004
Take It Easy,
George
The Revelations
of Mr. W
By BORIS LEONARDO CARO
Mr. W:
A few days ago, I read the
interviews that you gave to two Arab-language television channels.
I haven't laughed as much since I finished reading Stupid
White Men. Believe me.
I particularly enjoyed the
transcript of your interview with Al Arabiya published in The
New York Times, above all the parts where you seem to go
blank, as though you couldn't think of anything. But don't worry.
Nobody doubts now that your brain frequently produces great ideas.
Perhaps you were just a bit nervous.
Your words provoked me to an
astonished cackle. Truly, I feel overwhelmed by the evolution
of your thinking over these precious years in the White House.
You are definitely no longer that guy labeled by your detractors
as ignorant and slow. It's because of some of your statements
that I've decided to write this letter.
Apparently, the images of tortured
Iraqi prisoners have profoundly affected you, although perhaps
you're only concerned with the reaction in the Middle East. You're
right to think that the average Arab citizen would say, "This
isn't the country that I've been told about." Certainly,
the scandalous photos taken in Abu Ghraib are very different
from the propaganda on the "American way of life" projected
in the mass media. And now, to top it off, several of these same
media have published the damn photos.
Take it easy, Mr. President.
Surely, what happened in that dark corner of Baghdad is an exceptional
case. You yourself have said so: U.S. troops are made up of "decent,
honorable citizens who care about freedom and peace." And
of course, if that were to be a widespread problem in the armed
forces, as some charges that have emerged during these days indicate,
your government would put a stop to it. The world will know the
truth, even if it's after the elections, or 50 years from now.
Same difference.
With the torture issue cleared
up, let's move on to the most admirable aspect of your statements.
Allow me to extensively quote you:
"It's very important for
the peoples of the Middle East to understand that freedom doesn't
have to look like America. That is, that a free society does
not have to be the same as American society. Free societies will
develop according to the cultures of... of...of...(it seems like
you forgot the rehearsed response, like a lazy schoolboy) of
the people in the regions, in the Middle East."
You have just realized something
that your brainiest think tanks have always obviated. The idea
of interfering everywhere and trying to impose the U.S. model
is unclassifiable sheer stupidity. Eating McDonald's and listening
to the nonsense broadcast by Fox News is not the only civilized
way to live. Some people even say that living like that will
turn you into an idiot.
Notwithstanding, Mr. President,
you should personally instruct your Marines in the philosophy
of respecting other cultures. What they did in Iraq was a truly
botched job. I don't know whether you know that the invasion
resulted in the devastation of the National Library as well as
the most important museums. Just from Baghdad's Museum of Archeology,
3,000 pieces of incalculable historic value were lost. Your troops
permitted that plunder, and even participated in it.
Towards the end of your interview
with Al Hurra (the TV channel subsidized by your government to
convince Arabs how great the United States is; in other words
TV Martí for the Middle East) you reach the pinnacle of
clear-sightedness. "I believe the Iraqi people want to be
free," you say. That's giving it to 'em! Now, explain to
me how a country occupied by 150,000 foreign troops can be free.
What type of freedom exists when a legion of armed men invade
your home, rape your women, kill your children, bomb your house
of worship basically, do whatever they feel like because
they have guns?
You've admitted it. The Iraqis
want to be free. That is the basic motivation behind the resistance,
the reason why they celebrate when an U.S. patrol is obliterated.
Accept it. It's not about Hussein or Al-Sadr, it's that the people
cannot bear the occupation any longer.
Your other discovery must have
cheered your compatriots. "People want jobs," you admit
to Al Hurra. It's a shame that you've realized that so late.
During your mandate, two million jobs in the United States have
disappeared.
Let's move on, then, to your
momentous announcements.
"People who feel like
that (sic) they can wreak havoc on innocent Iraqis will be brought
to justice in Iraq, either by Iraqi citizens and/or by coalition
forces." What great news! Finally the White House has decided
to bring to trial those responsible for death and suffering in
Iraq.
It will be an arduous task.
The figures on civilian casualties during the invasion total
around 10,000. And since then, the numbers are increasing every
day. During the siege of Fallujah, for example, some 600 people
died.
While I trust in your goodwill
and your spirit of justice, I'd like to ask you something: Who
is going to be put on trial? The pilots that dropped the bombs?
Those who gave the order to fire? Your friend, the secretary
of defense? The owners of the companies that produce military
equipment? Yourself, who ordered your armies to do everything
possible to take Fallujah? While you ponder that dilemma, you
could agree to your Marines being tried by the International
Criminal Court in The Hague, or you could repeal the decree that
prohibits putting any U.S. soldier on trial for killing a civilian
in Iraq.
I've saved your most incredible
announcement for the end. "Military options are always my
last option, not the first option," you assure the Al Arabiya
reporter. "We can promote freedom without use of military."
With these words, you have gained a place in history on the good
guys' side. The books of the future will read as follows: "George
W. Bush governed prudently and abandoned the warmongering policy
maintained by the United States throughout the 20th century."
We won't have to witness any more military interventions like
Viet Nam, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Haiti,
Kosova, Afghanistan, etc., etc., etc.
And the military-industrial
complex? Well, it could be turned into a food-producing complex.
In that way, and almost without wanting to, you could do away
with hunger in the Third World.
Believe me, if you don't retract,
I will hang a portrait of you in my room and name my first son
George.
Well, Mr. W, that's about it.
I just have a couple of pieces of advice before signing off.
First, don't keep blaming Saddam Hussein for the invasion of
Iraq. Say openly that you were interested in controlling Iraqi
oil and that's it. We already know. Taking over foreign wealth
is virtually a U.S. tradition. In that sense, you haven't done
anything out of the ordinary.
One last piece of advice. Don't
repeat the words "democracy" and "freedom"
so much. People are going to think that you have a limited vocabulary,
or in the worst case, that you feel bad about stealing the presidency
during the democratic elections of 2000, or about depriving the
largest prison population in the world of their freedom.
That's it.
Say hi to Laura and the girls.
Affectionately,
Boris Leonardo Caro
P.S.: By the way, the W in
your name what does it stand for? Whiskey? War? Worst?
Boris Leonardo Caro is a staff writer for Granma International.
He can be reached at: carogonzalez79@yahoo.com
Weekend Edition
Features for May 15 / 16, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Green Lights for Torture
Douglas
Valentine
ABCs of American Interrogation: Phoenix Program, Revisited
John
Stanton
Kings of Pain: UK, US and Israel
Ben
Tripp
Torture: a Fond Reminiscence
Brian
Cloughley
Where are You Heading, America? Taking a Closer Look at the Patriot
Act
Justin
E. H. Smith
Islam and Democracy: the Lesson from Turkey
Brandy
Baker
Equal Opportunity Torture: Lynddie England, the Right and Feminism
John
Chuckman
Peep Show on Capitol Hill: Sex, Lies and Videotape
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: Goon Squad
John
Holt
Fencing the Sky
Ron
Jacobs
The Power of Patti Smith
Brian
J. Foley
Why the Outrage Over Abu Ghraib?
Robin
Philpot
Re-writing the History of the Rwandan Genocide
Eric
Leser
The Carlyle Empire
Ray
Hanania
From Abu Ghraib to Nick Berg: There's No Such Thing as a Good
War Crime
Jeff
Halper
Dozers of Mass Destruction
Joe
Surkiewicz
Inside the Baltimore Detention Center
John
Whitlow
Iraq Goddamn
Michael
Leon
Invitation to a Beheading: Why Bush Should Watch the Berg Video
Poets'
Basement
Krieger, Ford, LaMorticella, Smith and Albert
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