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EX-STATE DEPT.SECURITY OFFICER SPELLS OUT 9/11 COVER-UP

Official Describes "Hands Off" CIA/FBI Response to Al Qaeda 1994 Assassination Plan for Clinton in Manila, Says It Points to Pakistan's ISI Involvement in 9/11 Attack, Passed Over by 9/11 Commission Vijay Prashad reports on Neoliberalism-as-Theft, defied by India's Left in fierce strikes Paul Craig Roberts Dissects US Jobs Decline and NYT's PollyAnna Reporting Gabriel Kolko on How Crazed America Will Destroy NATO Smearing Hugo Chavez as Anti-Semite
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Today's Stories

February 20, 2006

Cockburn / St. Clair
The FBI and the Myth of Fingerprints

February 18 / 19, 2006

Werther
A Half-Dozen Questions About 9/11 They Don't Want You to Ask

Uzma Aslam Khan
Live from Lahore: Watching with Glee

Joe DeRaymond
A Case of Injustice in Pennsylvania: the Prosecution of Dennis Counterman

Edward F. Mooney
Is Liberalism a Failing Religion? The Case of the Danish Cartoons

Paul Craig Roberts
From Conservatives to Brownshirts

Elaine Cassel
The Sentencing of Zacarias Moussaoui: an Issue of Competency

P. Sainath
Soaring Suicides in Vidharbha

Thomas P. Healy
An Interview with Ann Wright

Brian Concannon, Jr.
Haiti's Elections: Right Result; Wrong Procedure

Fred Gardner
Health Savings Accounts: a Boon for the Bosses

Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Katrina's New Underclass

Brian Tokar
WTO vs. Europe: Less (and More) Than It Seems

Chan Chee Khoon
Privatizing the World Bank?

Andrew Freedman
Chicago's Panopticon

St. Clair / Walker
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week

Poets' Basement
Hassen, Anderson, Engel and Guthrie

Website of the Weekend
Depictionary

 

February 17, 2006

Floyd Rudmin
Secret War Plans and the Malady of American Militarism

Gervasio Rodríguez
FBI Home Invasions in Puerto Rico

Gary Leupp
The Mad is No Longer Out of the Question: Stopping the War on Iran Before It Starts

Ramzy Baroud
Weathering the Globalization Storm

Amira Hass
Apartheid Gates: IDF Establishes "Israeli Only" Crossings

Matthew Koehler
Forest Abuse on the Kootenai: an Intervention in Montana

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Deadeye Dick: Who Dares Call Him Chickenhawk Now?

Debbie Nathan
ABC's Primetime "Teen Sex Slaves" Scam

Website of the Day
Black Mesa Defense

 

Febrauary 16, 2006

Lila Rajiva
Torture Pictures That Didn't Make the Exhibition

Norman Solomon
Dick Cheney's Fox Trot

Ron Jacobs
An Interview with Antiwar Faster Mike Ferner

Paul Craig Roberts
Their Own Economic Reality

Website of the Day
This Ain't No Video Game


February 15, 2006

Brian Conacnnon, Jr.
Haiti's Elections: Chaos, Supression and Fraud

Dave Lindorff
Democrats Shoot Their Own, Too

Saree Makdisi
Israeli Ultimatums

Joshua Frank
The Rhetorical Gore

Amira Hass
Down the Expulsion Highway

CounterPunch Wire
Winter of Discontent: a 34-Day Fast Against the War

Robert Bryce
The United States of Enron

Website of the Day
Osama's Game: an Interview with Michael Scheuer

February 14, 2006

John Sugg
Those Cartoons and the Neo Con: Daniel Pipes and the Danish Editor

Don Santina
DiFi and the Royal Democrats: the Curious Withdrawal of Cindy Sheehan

William A. Cook
Shaming Sharon

Ray McGovern
Who Will Blow the Whistle About Iran?

John Ross
Bush's Mexican Poodle

Website of the Day
Willie Nelson Records CPer Ned Sublette's "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly"


February 13, 2006

Lila Rajiva
Axis of Child Abusers: UK Troops Beat Up Barefoot Iraqi Teens

Christopher Brauchli
Whistleblowers and Witch Hunters: the Bush Inquisition

Dave Lindorff
Deadeye Dick: If Stupidity Were Impeachable, Cheney Would Be History

Ron Jacobs
Black Liberation

Mike Whitney
Riding High with Hugo Chavez

Michael Neumann
Respectful Cultures and Disrespectful Cartoons

Website of the Day
Virtual Resistance

 

February 11 / 12, 2006

Alexander Cockburn
How Not to Spot a Terrorist

Ralph Nader
Bringing Democracy to the Federal Reserve

Paul Craig Roberts
Nuking the Economy

Pat Williams
John Boehner's Dirty Little Secret: Flying Lobbyist Air at $4,000 a Junket

Fred Gardner
Dr. Mikuriya's Appeal: a Last Minute Twist

Saul Landau
From Munich to Hamas

John Chuckman
Cartoons and Bombs: Was Rice Right for Once?

Roger Burbach
Evo Morales: the Early Days

Seth Sandronsky
Economy on Ice

Website of the Weekend
Just Say Know

 

February 10, 2006

Carl G. Estabrook
A US War Plan for Khuzestan?

Sen. Russell Feingold
A Raw Deal on the Patriot Act

Roxanne Dunbar----Ortiz
How Did Evo Morales Come to Power?

Saree Makdisi
The Tempest Over the Hamas Charter

Website of the Day
The New York Art Scene: 1974----1984

 

 

February 9, 2006

Dave Lindorff
Bush and Yamashita: War Crimes and Commanders-in-Chief

Mike Marqusee
The Human Majority was Right About Iraq

Paul Craig Roberts
How Conservatives Went Crazy: the Rightwing Press

Peter Phillips
Inside the Global Dominance Group: 200 Insiders Against the World

William S. Lind
Rumsfeld the Maximalist: the Long War

Christine Tomlinson Innocent Targets in the "Long War": False Positives and Bush's Eavesdropping Program

Will Youmans
Church of England Votes to Divest from Israel

Robert Robideau
An American Indian's View of the Cartoons

Richard Neville
The Cartoons That Shook the World: All This from the Danes, the Least Funny People on Earth

Peter Rost
The New Robber Barons

Website of the Day
Eyes Wide Open

 

February 8, 2006

Ron Jacobs
The Once and Future Sly Stone: Soundtrack to a Riot

Stan Cox
Making and Unmaking History with General Myers

Sen. Russ Feingold
Why Bush's Wiretapping Program is Illegal and Unconstitutional

Robert Jensen
Horowitz's Academic Hit List: Take a Class from One of the CounterPunch 16

Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Bush Should Have Wiretapped FEMA and Chertoff

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Alberto Gonzales Channels Mark Twain

Don Monkerud
Covenant Marriage on the Rocks

David Swanson
Inequality and War

C.L. Cook
Nuking Ontario

Christopher Fons
Chill Out Jihadis: They're Just Cartoons!

Jeffrey Ballinger
The Other Side of Nike and Social Responsibility

Website of the Day
Encyclopedia of Terrorism in the Americas

 

February 7, 2006

Edward Lucie-Smith
An Urgent Plea to Save a Small Estonian Museum from Neo-Nazis

Robert Fisk
The Fury: Now Lebanon is Burning

Paul Craig Roberts
Colin Powell's Career as a "Yes Man"

Neve Gordon
Why Hamas Won

Joshua Frank
The Hillary and George Show: Partners in War

Peter Montague
The Problem with Mercury: a History of Regulatory Capitulation

Jackie Corr
The Last Best Choice: Public Power and Montana

Jeffrey St. Clair
Rumsfeld's Enforcer: the Secret World of Stephen Cambone

Website of the Day
Negroes with Guns

 

February 6, 2006

Christopher Brauchli
Spilling Blood: Two Sentences

Robert Fisk
Don't Be Fooled: This Isn't About Islam vs. Secularism

John Chuckman
What Did Stephen Harper Actually Win?

Jenna Orkin
Judge Slams EPA for Lying About 9/11's Toxic Air

Paul Craig Roberts
Who Will Save America: My Epiphany

 

February 4 / 5, 2006

Alexander Cockburn
"Lights Out in Tehran": McCain Starts Bombing Run

Mike Ferner
Pentagon Database Leaves No Kid Alone

James Petras
Evo Morales's Cabinet: a Bizarre Beginning in Bolivia

Alan Maass
Scare of the Union: Dems Collaborate with Bush on Surveillance

Fred Gardner
Annals of Law Enforcement: a Look Inside the San Francisco DA's Office

Ralph Nader
Bush's Energy Escapades

Bill Glahn
RIAA Watch: Speaking in Tongues

Saul Landau
Freedom 2006: Buying Sex on the Net or Those Older Freedoms?

Laura Carlsen
Bad Blood on the Border: Killing Guillermo Martinez

James Brooks
Our Little Shop of Diplomatic Horrors

Mike Roselle
Hippies and Revolutionaries in Carcacas

John Holt
Black Gold, Black Death: Canada's Oil Sands Frenzy

Sarah Ferguson
Cops Suing Cops ... for Spying on Cops

William S. Lind
Beware the Ides of March

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Price of Globalization: Free Trade or Free Speech?

Seth Sandronsky
The Color of Job Cuts in the Auto Industry

Derrick O'Keefe
Rumsfeld's Hitler Analogy

Michael Donnelly
Hop on the Bus

Ron Jacobs
Religion and Political Power

Elisa Salasin
RSVP to Bush

St. Clair / Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week

Stew Albert
God's Curse: Selected Poems

Poets' Basement
Guthrie, LaMorticella and Engel

Website of the Weekend
Killer Tells All!

 

February 3, 2006

Toufic Haddad
A Parliament of Prisoners

Heather Gray
Working with Coretta Scott King

Tim Wise
Racism, Neo-Confederacy and the Raising of Historical Illiterates

Conn Hallinan
Nuclear Proliferation: the Gathering Storm

Eva Golinger
Rumsfeld and Negroponte Amp Up Hositility Toward Venezuela

Daniel Ellsberg
The World Can't Wait: Invitation to a Demonstration

Dave Zirin
Detroit: Super Bowl City on the Brink

Robert Bryce
The Problem with Cutting US Oil Imports from the Middle East

Website of the Day
The Chavez Code

 

February 2, 2006

Winslow T. Wheeler
Pentagon Pork: How to Eliminate It

Stan Cox
Outsourcing the Golden Years

Rachard Itani
Danes (Finally) Apologize to Muslims (For the Wrong Reasons)

Mike Whitney
Afghanistan Five Years Later: Buildings Down, Heroin Up

Amira Hass
In the Footsteps of Arafat: an Interview with Hamas' Ismail Haniya

Norman Solomon
When Praise is Desecration: Smothering King's Legacy with Kind Words

Michael Simmons
Stew Lives!

Christopher Reed
Japan's Dirty Secret: One Million Korean Slaves

Website of the Day
State of Nature

 

February 1, 2006

Sharon Smith
The Bluff and Bluster Dems: Alito and the Faux Filibuster

Jason Leopold
Enron and the Bush Administration

Cindy Sheehan
Getting Busted at the State of the Union: What Really Happened

Joseph Grosso
Oprah and Elie Wiesel: a Match Made in "Neutrality"

Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Coretta Scott King was More Than Just Dr. King's Wife

Steven Higgs
Life After Roe. v. Wade

Robert Robideau
"God Given Rights": Palestine and Native America

R. Siddharth
Tales of Power: When Gandhi Rejected a Faustian Bargain with Henry Ford

Jim Retherford
Remembering Stew Albert: the Quiet Genius

Rep. Cynthia McKinney
The Legacy of Coretta Scott King

Paul Craig Roberts
The True State of the Union

Website of the Day
Candide's Notebooks

 

January 31, 2006

Jeffrey St. Clair
Revolutionary for the Hell of It: the Good Life of Stew Albert

Clancy Chassay
US Prods Lebanon Towards Civil War

Dave Lindorff
The Democrats' Alito Debacle

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Alito: Harry-Kerry in the Senate

Oren Ben-Dor
Hamas' Victory: a New Hope?

Winslow Wheeler
Pentagon Pork: What is It? Who Cooks It Up?

John Ryan
Canada: a Chilling Echo of Bush's Republicans

Mike Marqusee
Privatizing Health Care: the Poor Pay the Price

Ron Jacobs
For Stew

Andrew Cockburn
Why Bush Probably Won't Attack Iran

Website of the Day
Celebrating Stew Albert

 

January 30, 2006

Paul Craig Roberts
Bush, Fox News and the Coming War on Iran

Winslow Wheeler
Inside the Pork Shop: the Defense Budget and Congressional Earmarks

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Development Interrupted

Marcus Dam
"The Real Threat is from Imperial Fundamentalism": an Interview with Tariq Ali

John Bomar
Message to Democrats: the Case Against Pre-War Lying is a Slam Dunk, Stupid

Ben Beachy
Swindling the Sick: the IMF Debt Relief Sham

Gideon Levy
The Good News About Hamas' Victory

Michael Carmichael
Alito and Opus Dei

Missy Comley Beattie
Of Losses and Lies

Norman Solomon
The Question Journalists Refuse to Ask Bush

Brian Concannon, Jr.
Finally Some Good News From Haiti

Michael Ratner
Tomorrow is Today; the Time for Resistance is Now

Website of the Day
"I'm So Bored with Capitol Hill"

 

January 28 / 29, 2006

Alexander Cockburn
Nicholas Kristof's Brothel Problem

Ralph Nader
The Impeachable Mr. Bush

Col. Dan Smith
Spying and Lying by the Pentagon

Paul Craig Roberts
Blind Ignorance: Polls Show Many Americans Simply Dumber Than Bush

Tammara Rosenleaf
Homefront War Diary: On Monday, My Husband Didn't Call

Ron Jacobs
Google This!

Harry Browne
Irish "Peace" Process at Recriminations Stage

Fred Gardner
Grover Norquist, Drug Policy Reformer?

Christopher Reed
North Korean Forgeries

Bernard Chazelle
France's Colonial Blowback

Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money, 2005: How Entergy Gets Its Way at Indian Point

Tom Kerr
Small Fry: If You're Not in Power, You'd Better Not Lie

Asad Abu Khalil
The Demise of Fatah

Chris Murphy
The Medicare Disaster

Dr. Susan Block
America Wants a Divorce

Kathy Deacon
Hippocratic Oaf

St. Clair / Walker / Palmer / Shields
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week

Poets' Basement
Laymon, Engel, Holt, Davies and Buknatski

Website of the Weekend
Your Child Can Be a NSA Spook!


January 27, 2006

Suren Pillay
Making the World Safe for Nuclear Violence, Again

Lawrence R. Velvel
The NYT and Alito: Journalistic Schizophrenia

J.L. Chestnut, Jr
The Cold Hard Truth: Marching Backwards on Civil Rights

Uri Avnery
To Talk with Hamas

Gary Leupp
Hamas's Victory: "the Power of Democracy"

Samar Assad
A New Political Landscape in Palestine

Jeffrey St. Clair
King of the Hill: Sen. Ted Steven's Empire of Corruption

Website of the Day
Bush Jobs Program: You Too Can Be an FBI Snitch

 

January 26, 2006

Robert Robideau
An AIM Activist's View of Jack Abramoff: Another Racist Out to Defraud Native Tribes

Paul Craig Roberts
Bolton Orders Syria to Do the Impossible

Gilad Atzmon
Hamas' Victory

Jason Leopold
A Vaster Conspiracy?: Fitzgerald Probes Niger Forgeries

Joshua Frank
Iran, Nukes and Oil

Dave Lindorff
Bush Calls Hamas Kettle Black

Susan Lee
An Open Letter to the State Dept. on the Cuban Five

Missy Comley Beattie
A Plea to the Marines: Stop Sending Recruiting Letters to Our House!

Michael Carmichael
Extraordinary Alito

Michael Neumann
The Core of Zionism

Website of the Day
Who Will Stop the Slaughter of Yellowstone's Bison?

 

January 25, 2006

Saul Landau
Domestic Spying, Now and Then: When Hoover Bugged Phone Calls with My Father

James Petras
Is Chile's Bachelet Washington's Best New Ally?

Lawrence R. Velvel
Alito and Roberts' Self-Gag Rule is a Phony

Vijay Prashad
From Chennai with Love

Kevin Zeese
Gen. William Odom Supports the Empire, But Opposes the War

Alison Weir
When a Mother Gets Killed Does She Make a Sound? Anatomy of a Cover-Up

Bruce K. Gagnon
Bush War Economy: Exporting Jobs and Security

Joan Roelofs
Military Contractor Philanthropy

Website of the Day
Bob Marley Does Dylan

 

January 24, 2006

Paul Craig Roberts
The Patriot Police: the Unfathomed Dangers of Patriot Act Reauthorization

Kathy Kelly
Liberation and Deliverance

Jorge Mariscal
Bush's War Viewed from the South

Winslow T. Wheeler
Smoke and Mirrors in the Defense Budget

John Walsh
Why We Picket John Kerry: Join Us Friday in Boston

Youmans / Muaddi
The Growing Israel Divestment Movement

Roger Burbach
Bolivia's Evo Morales: Original Mandate for Social Revolution

Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste
Letter from a Haitian Prison

Noam Chomsky
The Terrorist in the Mirror

Website of the Day
Big Brother Watch


January 23, 2006

Uri Avnery
Pity the Orphan: Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Elections

Susan Pynchon
Diebold in Florida: "I Saw It Hacked"

William Loren Katz
Harry Belafonte Reaffirms a Proud Tradition

Christopher Brauchli
Bush's IRS: Squeezing the Poor

Chris Floyd
The Goon Show

Joshua Frank
Tre Arrow and ELF: Environmentalism on Death Row

Norman Solomon
The Other Shoe Drops: Classified Leaks and Journalists

Jackie Corr
Working for the Railroad: Racicot and the Burlington Northern

Paul Craig Roberts
Inside Cheney's War Workshop

Website of the Day
Arms Against War

 

January 21/22, 2006

Tim Shorrock
Why the Buses Didn't Come: Bush-Linked Florida Company and the Katrina Evacuation Fiasco

Ralph Nader
Congressional Ethics After Abramoff

Peter Feng
Casualties of War: Neoliberalism, Katrina and the Asian Tsunami

Brian Cloughley
CIA Bombs Pakistan, Hits America

Michael Donnelly
Tapes and Snitches: Feds Hand Down Eco-Sabotage Indictments

Tom Kerr
Crackdown in San Quentin: Why are They Rounding Up Tookie Williams' Friends?

Tim Matson
Best Not Drive While Black on I-91 (But Walk Tall With the Bloody Chainsaw You Just Topped Your Neighbor With)

Dave Lindorff
Rumsfeld: Venezuela "Overspending" on Military

Daniel Wolff
Hour of Reckoning: the Gospel Roots of Wilson Pickett

Fred Gardner
"Metabolic Syndrome" is to "Clinical Depression" as Acomplia is Prozac

Jason Leopold
How Cheney Used the NSA to Spy on Americans Prior to 9/11

Matthew Koehler
Betting on Biscuit: Does Post-Fire Logging Make Ecological (or Economic) Sense?

John Bomar
The Emperor's Clothes: from Bonaparte to Bush

Ron Jacobs
When Miners March: Struggle and Lose, Struggle and Win!

Becky Akers
Debunking Democracy

Joanne Mariner
Security, Terrorism and Human Rights

St. Clair / Walker / Pollack
CounterPunch Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week

Poets' Basement
Albert, Holt, Engel and Davies

Website of the Day
Osama's Book Club: Featured Selection


January 20, 2006

Brian J. Foley
What Kind of War Doesn't Allow for a Truce?

Richard Gott
Revolution in the Andes

Joshua Frank
Israel and US Threats Against Iran

Pierre Tristam
Imperial Mongers: From Gladstone to "King George"

Bernstein / Allegretto
Hourly Wages Have Fallen in 18 of the Last 20 Months

Elizabeth Schulte
Abortion Before Roe

Website of the Day
This Dog Bites

 

January 19, 2006

Paul Craig Roberts
Political Machines: Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

Bill Simpich
Those Damn Democrats: To End War, Don't Ask for What You Don't Want

Kevin Alexander Gray
Reclaiming King Day (From the NAACP)

Sam Husseini
Rot at the Top: If the Democrats Really Want to Stop Bush, They Need New Leadership

Sam Smith
The Real Chocolate City

Monica Benderman
Dare to Make a Stand

Winslow T. Wheeler
Just How Big is the Defense Budget?

Website of the Day
Leave My Child Alone

 

January 18, 2006

Paul Craig Roberts
Gore's Speech: a Challenge That Cannot be Ignored

Norman Solomon
The Crime of Giving the Orders: Executing Clarence Ray Allen

Jonathan M. Feldman
The System Doesn't Work Anymore

Michael Carmichael
"Extraordinary Circumstances": the Case Against Alito

Paul D'Amato
The Crimes of Jimmy Carter

Cynthia McKinney
King's Mission Endures

Norman Finkelstein
Why an Economic Boycott of Israel is Justified

Website of the Day
The Planetary Movement

 

January 17, 2006

M. Shahid Alam
"Real Men Go to Tehran": Has al-Qaeda's Gambit Paid Off?

John Ross
Latin America's Indians on the Move--in Different Directions

Tariq Ali
God, Blood, Oil and Iraq

Michael Donnelly
Killing Anna Mae Aquash, Smearing John Trudell

Amira Hass
No Child Left Unharassed: the Obstacle Course to School in Palestine

Doug Giebel
Alito's CAP: Either He Lied on His Resumé or There's a Cover-Up

Bill Quigley
MLK Day in a Haitian Prison

Ron Jacobs
Meet the Son of Jim Crow: MLK Day Below the Mason/Dixon Line

Mike Stark
Governor on a Killling Spree

Werther
The Liberties of the Subject


January 16, 2006

John Walsh
Tears of a Neocon: The Good News from Daniel Pipes

Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Black Students Under Fire: Racial Profiling in Public Schools

Roger Burbach
Bachelet's Victory: Leftward Drift in Chile?

Norman Solomon
Ted Koppel, NPR and Henry Kissinger: a Natural Fit?

Robert Jensen
Dreams and Nightmares: How Would King Judge America?

Sam Husseini
Martin Luther King and the Deeper Malady

Paul Craig Roberts
Bush Crosses the Rubicon

Website of the Day
MLK: Beyond Vietnam

 

January 14 / 15, 2006

Alexander Cockburn
What the FBI Repairman Wore When He Tried to Bug Edward Said

JoAnn Wypijewski
What is an Antiwar Movement?

James Petras
The State of the Empire, 2006

Ron Jacobs
Fifteen Years of War: Who's Better Off?

Brian Cloughley
Fly Boys and Lie Boys: Smart-Bombing Iraqi Families While They Sleep

Marianne McDonald
The Madness of Ajax: a Play for Our Time

Bruce Tyler Wick
Bush on Torture Echoes Charles I on Arbitrary Imprisonment

Fred Gardner
A Last, Desperate Plea to Stay in Canada

Flavia Alaya
Victory at Passaic County Jail

Gary Leupp
A Neocon Plan to Plant WMDs?

Dr. Susan Block
Peeping Tom in the Bush: Nonconsenual Voyeurism and the NSA

Nicole Colson
The House Jack Built: The Abramoff Giude to Buying Friends and Influencing Politics

Jeffrey Kolakowski
Senator as Illusionist: the Hypocrisies of John McCain

Missy Comley Beattie
The Stepford Hearings of Samuel Alito: The Senator, the Weepy Wife and a Secret Annoiting

Charles Thomson
Is Serota Dead in the Water?: the Ofili Scandal at the Tate

St. Clair / Walker / Vest
Playlsts: What We're Listening to This Week

Poets' Basement
Albert, Engel, Ford and Davies

Website of the Weekend
Historians Against the War

 

January 13, 2006

Ralph Nader
The Two Questions the Senate Should Have Asked Alito

Leonard Weinglass
The Singular Story of the Cuban Five

Amira Hass
Prisoners in Their Own Land: 800,000 Palestinians Sealed Off by IDF in West Bank

Chris Kutalik / Jennifer Biddle
Airline Workers Fight Back

Lawrence R. Velvel
Alito and the Democrats

Dave Lindorff
Eight Who Dared: a (Short) Congressional Honor Roll

Mike Whitney
Countdown to War with Iran?

David Price
How the FBI Spied on Edward Said

 

January 12, 2006

Jennifer Van Bergen
The Unitary Executive: Why the Bush Doctrine Violates the Constitution

Jeremy Brecher / Brendan Smith
Command Responsibility: Torture and Legal Accountability

Lawrence R. Velvel
Alito Refuses to Answer Fundamental Questions

Ralph Nader / Robert Weissman
Corporations, Originalism and the Bill of Rights: an Open Letter to Justice Scalia

Jackie Corr
Killing the Big Sky's Golden Goose: Marc Racicot and the Deregulation of Montana Power

Jared Bernstein
The Wage Doldrums

Russell D. Hoffman
New Horizons in Space, New Lows in Government

Aubrey Streit
I Was Born in a Small Town: the Fate of Rural America

Clancy Sigal
Hugh Thompson and My Lai: He Broke Ranks; He Did the Right Thing

Website of the Day
Nukes in Space

 

January 11, 2006

Kevin Zeese
NSA Spied on Baltimore Peace Group (And They've Got the Documents That Prove It)

Ray McGovern
The Big Wiretap

Allan Maass / Joe Allen
Schwarzenegger's Hit List: Smearing Mandela, Killing Tookie

Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Snatching at King's Legacy: Mythmaking, Profiteering & Outright Distortions

Annie Murphy
Evo Morales' Sweater

Allan Lichtman
Abramoff's Kind of Big Government

Ramzy Baroud
Politics of Chaos: Gaza's Turmoil in Context

Joshua Frank
MoveOn Surrenders to Hillary

Kathleen and Bill Christison
"Eating Palestine for Breakfast": the Real Sharon

Website of the Day
Memoirs of Rummy's Geisha

 

January 10, 2006

Uri Avnery
The Post-Sharon Landscape: Three Fingers, No Fist

Saul Landau
Different Americas

Noam Chomsky
Beyond the Ballot: Iraq, Iran and China

Brian J. Foley
Playing with Fire: Congress and Executive Power

Lenni Brenner
The War Within the Antiwar Movement

Ronan Sheehan
Sheehan to Sheehan: Cindy Sheehan's Irish Interview

Paul Craig Roberts
Bush's Con Jobs

 

January 9, 2006

Behzad Yaghmaian
Who is to Blame for the Deaths of the Sudanese Refugees?

George Bisharat
US Aid to Israel is Out of Hand

Dave Lindorff
How the US Press Squelches Bush Impeachment Drive

Norman Solomon
Smoke a Marlboro, Then an Iraqi: How Media War Images Distort Not Inform

Christopher Brauchli
The Generosity of Credit Card Companies

Aharon Shabtai
A Poet's Letter on the Occupation

Andrew Cockburn
How Many Iraqis Have Died Since the US Invasion in 2003?

 

January 7 / 8, 2006

Lawrence Velvel
The NYT's Unconscionable Decision to Sit on the NSA Story for a Year

James Petras
AIPAC on Trial: Them or US

J.L. Chestnut
Racism and Injustice in Alabama's Courts

Mike Ely
The Dead Miners in Sago

Andrew Wilson
The Dying of Ariel Sharon

Lila Rajiva
Two Moms Go to Capitol Hill

William Cook
The Rape of Palestine

Ramor Ryan
The Sub Motorcycle Diaries: On the Road with the Zapatistas

Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff
An Interview with Michael Scheuer on the CIA's Rendition Program

Peter Montague
Inherit the Wind: the Global Spread of GMO Crops

Ron Jacobs
Would Ethan Allen Pay to Protest?

Neve Gordon
Images of Real Eco-Terrorism in Twaneh

Fred Gardner
Business as Usual in San Diego

Josh Mahon
Idaho Timber Industry Leader Advocates Violence Against Green's Mom

Dr. Susan Block
Abramoff Family Values: the Lobbyist Who Screwed Us All

Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week

Poets' Basement
Albert and Engel

Website of the Weekend
Bush Crimes Commission

 

January 6, 2006

José Pertierra
Posada Carriles May Soon Hit the Streets

Joe Allen
Gary Freeman's Struggle: a Black Radical from the 1960s Fights Extradition to the US

Winslow T. Wheeler
Huge Defense Budget, Lousy Equipment

John Bomar
A Former NSA Officer on Snoopgate: the Squawkers Should be Congratulated

Jason Leopold
Snoop and Shred

Norman Solomon
Axis of Fanatics: Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad

Robert Pollin
Remembering Harry Magdoff: the Man Who Explained the Empire

 

January 5, 2006

Scott Boehm
Big Profits, Buried Lives: Bulldozing the Dead in New Orleans

Zoltan Grossman
New Challenges for the Antiwar Movement

Heather Gray
Whistling Dixie Yet Again

Haninah Levine
Simple is Dangerous: the Pentagon's Plan for a Manhattan Project on IEDs

Pierre Tristam
The Sham of Homeland Security: a West Virginia Parable

Remi Kanazi
Stroke of Luck?: Political Hemorrhage in Israel

Gilad Atzmon
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February 20, 2006

What Uncle Sam Sees, You Must See

What the US Ambassador Taught Nepalis

By PRATYUSH CHANDRA

Recently, the United States has been anxiously trying to pre-empt every possible uncomfortable situation in South Asia. Its ambassadors are actively intervening in internal political debates in South Asian countries. Of course, it is nothing new for the US, but in order to understand specific implications of this activism in specific contexts, the peeping tom has to be caught red-handed at the site of the crime and interrogated. The ambassador in India was recently in the dock for threatening Indians to behave well on the Iran issue. Now it is the turn of the ambassador in Nepal, James F. Moriarty. However, for our convenience, Moriarty has been too explicit in his conduct.

In his speech to the Ganesh Man Singh Academy (Kathmandu) on February 15, 2006, Moriarty clearly stated that the US wanted "reconciliation and compromise" between Monarchy and parliamentary parties, and any other arrangement is unacceptable to it. And what is unacceptable to it needs to be checked with all its might. (1) Moriarty cleared away the confusion that the US statement after the royalty's failed attempt to conduct elections to municipal bodies in the beginning of February 2006 engendered among a few people. They thought that the US seemed to be drifting away from its support to monarchy. Moriarty's speech much be welcomed in this regard. He made clear that the US thought the elections could have been a successful exercise; "unfortunately" it was proved "hollow" and "yet another missed opportunity", with the Maoists' violence and parties' boycott being the main culprits. In the Question-Answer session of his speech, in answer to a particular question, Moriarty immediately tried to reinstall the ambiguity. Such kind of ambiguity allows a hegemonic power to opportunistically play various contradictory forces at the same time.(2)

Moriarty presented a comprehensive overview of the American perceptions of the Nepalese crisis. Firstly, for the US, the main task of the Nepalese politicians must be to eliminate the Maoists, not to bring in a stable democracy. The latter could be just an instrument in this regard. The "authoritarian rule" imposed by Monarchy per se was not wrong, If it had eliminated the Maoists, it would have been declared successful. Monarchy proved to be wrong in its "envisioning". Secondly, the US really thinks that the recent agreement between the "parties" and the Maoists is a result of the frustration of the former, who are trying to use the latter as "political leverage against the palace". In fact, within the US' scheme of things, the King and the "parties" are equally obstinate "locked in a circle of mistrust" using the Maoists as "bargaining chip in their ongoing struggle of wills". Thirdly, in this struggle of wills and fancies, of course, "the Maoists will only continue to gain advantage". Fourthly, of course, speaking for the Big Brother (BB), Moriarty feels free to philosophise, "wishing that something were so does not make it that way, as we all learn in life". And with BB watching and judging, how did Nepalese politicians dare to make judgement on their own that the insurgents would renounce violence? BB thinks that the Maoists are "committed to violence to achieve political ends", so they must be; believe it or else you are doomed! Don't talk about the revolutionaries of Nicaragua or El Salvador whose struggles contributed in stabilising democracy in those countries, BB knows better!

To teach the Nepalis, Moriarty makes a list of FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs) and, of course, supplied with answers, too. His first question is: "Are the Maoists truly committed to peace and democracy, as the 12-point understanding suggests?" Moriarty comes out with a "Bushy" style of argumentation. When Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai talks about "absolute democracy" and about attacking the "autocratic monarchy", can't you see what he means? He means "murder, extortion, and intimidation". If you don't see that, Uncle Sam sees that; hence, you must see that. Don't you remember Bhattarai said something about the simultaneity of armed and unarmed struggle to achieve the goal of absolute democracy? Why did he call for an armed struggle to complement the unarmed? What if the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) and the police shoot at your demonstrations and protests? You must never defend yourself because Uncle Sam himself trained them to do that.

The second question, which Moriarty supplies with an answer, is "Are the Maoists committed to joining the political mainstream?" The argumentation is similar. Because he has found "that the insurgents seek to bring the parties further into their sphere, and to the Maoists' advantage", so everybody must see the "common sense". How did he find that? Somewhere Baburam Bhattarai said, "since our working policy [with the parties] is now the same, we have forged this partnership," and also that "tomorrow if the nature of the political intercontradiction changes, the nature of our relations could change as well." So the conclusion is "icy". Actually, the parties didn't have any mind when they signed the 12-point agreement with the Maoists. Look Uncle Sam has done the homework for them, he has "translated" "Maoist thinking" for these illiterate Nepalis, and it is icy because he himself was frozen by its implications. Did you say, even Uncle Sam changes his colours frequently as "the nature of the political intercontradiction changes" - that he supported all kinds of dictatorial regimes to eliminate nationalists, democrats and people's movements all over the world? He fed Pinochet, Talibans, Osama, Saddam, literally everybody against whom he claims to wage the War on terrorism todayOh, boy! You can't even understand that! Firstly, because he is big he can dare to do this; secondly, if you go on telling his own story to him, he might do what he did in Chile, beware!

The last FAQ is "If the parties and Maoists were ever able to topple the monarchy, what then?" Of course, "the answer here is particularly worrisome: The Maoists would be armed; the parties would be unarmed." Here comes a major revelation: "the Royal Nepalese Army" is "the parties' one logical source of defense". So what if all these days it has terrorised you? Once you become the King's compliant little brothers, you will find them handy and playful. Don't listen to the Maoists! In fact, the RNA is the King's private army and it is not professional because it is in the best interest of you and the Nepalese people in general. You all are very innocent and young; you could have misused the Army and its arms. BP Koirala (the first and only prime minister to serve during Nepal's first fling of democracy (1959-60) was overthrown because he dared to support some land reform measures) was not in his mind when he questioned the compatibility of the democratic system in Nepal with the preponderance of the Nepalese Army. You must be happy with the "elections", that's democracy. More regularly you are ousted by the King and his army, you will have more elections, and hence, more democracy You don't understand the logic, boy! Moreover, "we like elections".

Moriarty himself found all these trivial questions "provocative, which is their aim". To "provoke" more he finds that "if ever the phrase 'politics makes strange bedfellows' was appropriate, it is in Nepal in 2006". Did all these provoke you? No, but they must, they were meant to be provocative. Look, Uncle Sam has caught you in bed, too! So what if every night he himself has strange bedfellows! You are still young and struggling. You must not sleep with bedfellows whom he finds strange. Don't sleep with his enemies! Do you know how much you have aggrieved the Big Boy Gyani, because of your "lack of leadership and unwillingness to compromise"? He too was at fault, agreed, but he is the Big Boy. Moreover, you were the one who aligned with "a separate violent force" and isolated the Big Boy, maddening him. Further don't you see Russia, North Korea, China, Cuba and others, the Maoists, Marxists etc found totalitarian states? Don't talk about Allende, Chavez, Ortega and others? It is good that Uncle Sam and his cronies fund local criminals, drug pedlars, mafias to check them or eliminate them before they are successful in building totalitarian states. And that is why you don't find totalitarianism flourishing there. You talk about Pinochet and his ilk, you must understand the logic of tit for tat. Choices are before you - decide what you want to become. Now stop provoking Uncle Sam. But are you provoked, or not?

In the speech, Moriarty clearly comes out with a warning: Behave yourself or you will impair your "democratic credentials" by aligning with the Maoists. It does not matter whether the 'demos' supported your boycott and the Maoists' General Strike, what matters is that you have not behaved according to the 'democratic' recipe that Uncle Sam proposes. Your partnership with the Maoists is "uneasy", because it makes him uneasy. It is wrongheaded, because he has been wronged. Worse for you, Uncle Sam has started believing that what you have done "is fraught with danger"? You know what this means. You have enraged Uncle Sam, and you don't know the results that are in store "for the political parties themselves, and for the future of the Nepalese people". So, start rethinking.

It is clear from the speech that the Maoists' coming out openly in the media and rising popular sympathy and support for them have forced the US to prepare for its last ditch attempt to save monarchy and buy back at least the inconsistent elements in the democracy movement. The US game plan is to downplay the Maoists' genuine stress on an effective Constituent Assembly that can decide upon the nature of the political system for Nepal in a genuinely democratic manner. Moriarty's jugglery with facts and statements by the Maoists taken out of context is meant for this. The US and its allies know quite well that the Nepalese royalty, which they fed for more than 50 years, is almost doomed, if this demand is honestly met. The royalty is their only stable agency that can keep the political economic aspirations of the enlightened Nepalese population in check, from 'harming' foreign interests in Nepal - both security and business. The royalty's doom is Nepal's complete independence, its freedom to decide its own destiny.

Moriarty uses all kinds of attacks that can make the Maoists look like the simple mindless terrorists whom the Americans trained during the Cold War and whom they utilise today to legitimise their invasion of "non-compliant" ("rogue") free nations. In the name of chasing the terrorists they can freely bombard innocent people. Of course, in order to pre-empt the rise of a future 'terrorist', they must slaughter the whole generation, as Herod "slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof" (St. Mathew, 2:16).

They themselves know that the Maoists are not like those terrorists whom they brainwashed for their own Cold War loots. That is why the Ambassador shows his desperation by evoking the logic of "common sense" so many times, without telling what sense it is. Don't you see the common sense that "the King and parties" are natural allies? Don't you see the common sense that the Maoists are violent? Don't you see the common sense that "There is no other practical, workable solution to your constitutional crisis and to effectively face the most immediate, as well as the most serious long-term, threat to your peace and prosperity ­ the insurgency", except that "at some point, for the sake of Nepal, senior party and palace leaders must gather together in a room and begin hashing out the hard details of the way forward. No one else can do it for them". So party leaders must gather in a room, not on the streets, not like Zapatistas in Mexico, who go in thousands when they go for negotiation.

Throughout the speech Moriarty is trying to entice the Democrats and the King to be ready for "hard compromise, tough give and take". "The United States, for one, would look eagerly for ways to assist a new Nepal government that respects and supports democracy, human rights, and freedom. This also could include renewing assistance for the Royal Nepalese Army." So don't you see that Uncle Sam will now onward protect both the Big Boy and the little ones, if you behave well with each other? This is the common sense. And if you don't believe Moriarty's "common sense plea", then you must listen to "the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command". You know, what it means

[Note: Most of the quotes here are from US Ambassador in Nepal, James F Moriarty's speech. Its text and audio versions are available at http://kathmandu.usembassy.gov/. The audio includes the Question-Answer session. A partial transcript of the Q-A session is available on the website of International Nepal Solidarity Network for Democratic Peace (insn.org) at http://66.116.151.85/?p=2772. The Q-A session shows the desperation of US diplomacy in Nepal, as its Ambassador in his answers had the audacity to break the basic diplomatic discursive ethos, using phrases like "with the middle fingers"]

Pratyush Chandra can be reached at: ch.pratyush@gmail.com







 


 

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