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January
28, 2002
Mokhiber/Weissman
Tyranny
of the Bottom Line
George
E. Curry
Civil
Rights Nominee Called Affirmative Action "Racist"
Sen. Russ
Feingold
Campaign
Finance Reform?
Think Enron
John Chuckman
Liberal?
Media?
January
27, 2002
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Enron's
Drip, Drip, Drip
Tom Turnipseed
MLK
Jr.'s Dream Perverted
January
26, 2002
Norman
Madarsz
Adieu,
Bourdieu
January
25, 2002
National
Lawyers Guild
Know
Your Rights
Alexander
Cockburn
You
Call This Terrorism?
CounterPunch
Wire
Cal
Energy Crisis Hoax:
It Wasn't A Shortage,
It Was a Shakedown
Tariq
Ali
Kashmir,
Klinghoffer,
the Kurds and Chomsky
Nadine
Strossen
Protecting
MLK Jr.'s Legacy:
Justice and Liberty After 9/11
January
24, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Turkey
Targets Chomsky
Dean Baker
Lying
on Top:
Ken Lay One of Many
David
Vest
Idiot
Wind
January
23, 2002
Terry
Waite
Guantanamo
Prisoners:
Justice or Revenge?
Molly
Secours
The
Case of Abu-Ali:
Racism and the Death Penalty
Robert
Jensen
Speak
Out, Get Slimed
January
22, 2002
Brendan
Cooney
Moby-Dick
and the Hunt
for Osama bin Laden
Rick Giombetti
Progressive
Pols for Enron?
Judith
Resnik
Invading
the Courts?
Kevin
Alexander Gray
The
Crisis in Black Leadership
January
21, 2002
Marjorie
Cohn
Will
Walker's Words
Be Used Against Him?
Ahmad
Faruqui
MLK
Jr. and the Palestinians
January
19. 2002
Jordan
Green
Enron
Stole Our Future
January
18, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
The
Enron Model
Walt Brasch
Enron
at the White House
CounterPunch
Wire
Human
Rights Group Says Guantanamo Prisoners Must
Be Treated as POWs
January
17, 2002
Gideon
Levy
Bulldozing
Rafah
Uri Avnery
That
Weapons Shipment
January
16, 2002
John Chuckman
The
Angel and the Pretzel
Lawrence
McGuire
Subverting
the
Geneva Convention
Kathy
Kelly
An
Open Letter to
Richard Perle on Iraq
January
15, 2002
George
Monbiot
Greenpeace,
Lord Melchett
and the Business of Betrayal
Jack McCarthy
Follow
the Pretzel
William
Blum
Atta
and the Times:
Follow the Changing Story
Edward
Said
Emerging
Alternatives
in Palestine
January
14, 2002
David
Vest
Open
Bag. Eat Pretzels.
Patrick
Cockburn
Collapse
of Georgia
Ignored by the World
Mokhiber/Weissman
Enron's
Accountants:
When In Doubt, Shred It
January
13, 2002
C.G. Estabrook
Why
We Kill People
January
12, 2002
Cockburn/St.
Clair
Forbidden
Truths
January
11, 2002
Lee Balllinger/Dave
Marsh
Neil
Young's Duet with Ashcroft
January
10, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Bush,
Enron, UNOCAL
and the Taliban
St. Clair/Cockburn
Greenpeace
to Greenwash?
Hans von
Sponek
Iraq:
Is There an Alternative
to Military Action?
Jim Lobe
Israeli
Human Rights Group Assails Army
Marina Mayakova
Russia's
Top Military Astrologer Predicts More Attacks from OBL
January
9, 2002
David
Vest
The
Super-Burqa
and the Big Tent
ND Jayaprakash
Winnable
Nuclear War?
Rafiq
Kathwari
Kashmir
Will Make Ground Zero Look Like a Bonfire
January
8, 2002
Prudence
Crowther
Sting
Like a B-52
Nelson
Valdés
Al-Qaeda
at Guantanamo Bay
John Chuckman
Dark
Tales from the
Ministry of Truth
Richard
Corn-Revere
Do
We Fear Freedom?
Joan Hoff
The
Nixon You Haven't Heard
January
7, 2002
Lawrence
McGuire
Confusing
Economic Tales About Argentina
Wael Masri
They
Are Taking
Our Rights Away
Philip
Farruggio
Better
Medicine
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
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TO
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Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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January
28, 2002
Brosnahan v.
Bush
Shootout at the Marin Hot Tub Club
By Larry Chin
YellowTimes.org
In a rare television appearance a couple of days
ago, former (or some say still current) president George Herbert
Walker Bush lashed out personally at John Walker Lindh, the American
who took up arms with the Taliban. Shaking with rage, the elder
Bush spit venomously about how he has "absolutely no sympathy"
for the Taliboy teenager, and how sick he was of "liberal
Marin County hot tubbers."
The former CIA Director veered like a
hijacked jetliner into ramblings about "liberal" critics
alleging prisoner mistreatment (we can assume he was referring
to "liberals" like the Red Cross and European government
leaders who have a problem with Guantanamo), and the need to
"get tough and get behind the military" (as if the
mass goose stepping isn't quite "getting" enough for
his tastes).
Pure vindictiveness may explain some
of the Carlyle Group senior adviser's lust to see the young Taliboy's
neck in a noose. More likely, Poppy Bush is angry that his son,
President W., is being confronted by a nemesis from his own dark
Iran-Contra past: James Brosnahan.
James Brosnahan, former federal prosecutor
and former member of the Lawrence Walsh Independent Counsel team,
is John Walker Lindh's attorney.
Recall that the elder Bush hated no one
on earth more than Walsh. In his book Shadow, Bob Woodward describes
how, during the height of the Walsh inquiry, Bush received a
"Lawrence Walsh" doll as a gag Christmas gift from
a member of his staff. Bush slammed the doll repeatedly against
his desk, shouting, "Take that, Walsh!"
Recall that Bush and his minions did
everything possible to obstruct Walsh's investigation. Walsh's
team had discovered notes written by Caspar Weinberger which
disproved Bush's claim that he had been "out of the loop."
These notes proved that Weinberger had knowledge of $25 million
in Saudi Arabian contributions to the Nicaraguan contras.
Recall that it was Brosnahan who spoke
out against White House attacks against Walsh as blatant obstruction
of justice. In a piece written by Robert Parry (from Mother Jones
January 1993):
"It was all so transparent that
I was disappointed more people didn't pick up on the fact that
all they were really trying to do was obstruct the trial of Weinberger.
It was going to be a hell of a trial," Brosnahan said. V"The
full story would have been told, as it pertained to the [obstruction]
counts of the indictment. They [senior Reagan-Bush officials]
couldn't have a trial. The cross- examination of Caspar Weinberger
was going to be an event."
According to Brosnahan, the trial would
have shown that Weinberger knew as early as summer 1985 that
President Ronald Reagan had personally authorized missile shipments
to Iran in violation of the Arms Control Export Act, and that
this potentially impeachable act was concealed by constructing
a false record. "The August [1985] meeting [of Reagan's
National Security Council] discussed having Israel send the missiles
to Iran and replenishing them out of U.S. stocks," says
Brosnahan. "Weinberger is responsible for all missiles.
The Secretary of Defense is the guy."
Another guy who stood to lose his exalted
standing in Washington if the trial took place was General Colin
Powell, who was Weinberger's principal aide in 1985. In an affidavit,
Powell said he "saw virtually all the papers that went in
and out of [Weinberger's] office" and thus would have had
direct access to the evidence of missile replenishment. Early
in the investigation, Powell gave conflicting accounts of his
knowledge of Weinberger's extensive personal notes, denying knowledge
of their existence (when Weinberger was claiming he didn't take
any), and then saying in 1992 that the notes were no secret and
describing them in detail (after Weinberger was forced to cough
them up).
One of the prosecution's star witnesses
would have been White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan, who
finally would have recounted the frantic Oval Office scrambling
to contain the scandal in November 1986, Brosnahan says. "Regan
would say that when it broke, he denied things. But there came
a point when he knew it was out of control. At some point, in
December [1985] or January [1986], he wanted to get the whole
thing out."
In his notorious final act as president,
George H.W. Bush pardoned Caspar Weinberger. He also pardoned
the rest of his Iran-Contra gang. Elliott Abrams, his former
assistant secretary of state for Inter- American affairs. Former
National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane. And CIA agents and
friends Dewey Clarridge, Alan Fiers, and Clair George.
In defending John Walker, Brosnahan has
vowed to fight the current Bush administration every step of
the way. Brosnahan has many points to raise. For example, Walker
Lindh joined the Taliban during a period in which the Bush (and
Clinton) administration considered the Taliban to be an ally.
And that the Bush administration handed over $100 million in
aid to the Taliban, including a $43 million check in May 2001.
All of which, by objective reason, makes
George W. Bush and his entire administration guilty of the same
charges leveled against Lindh, including "providing material
support" and "willfully and knowingly contributing
goods and services to, and for the benefit of, the Taliban"
and "supplying directly and indirectly goods and services
to the territory of Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban."
When faced with stress, scandal and opposition,
Bush family members don't like it. They wind up vomiting on the
laps of Japanese officials, or having bruising Pretzel-gate fainting
spells. And starting wars.
It is time for all of us to sit back,
in our "liberal Marin County" hot tubs, and witness
the spectacle of Bush vs. Brosnahan: The Sequel. And look out
for dirty tricks.
Larry Chin
is a freelance journalist and a columnist for YellowTimes.
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