Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
Now Available!
Today's
Stories
May
15 / 16, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Green Lights for Torture
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
Here for More Stories.
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Weekend
Edition
May 15/16, 2004
Peep Show on
Capitol Hill
Sex, Lies and
Videotapes
By JOHN CHUCKMAN
Among the hoard of pictures from Iraq
viewed by members of America's Senate in a top-secret, eavesdrop-proof
room--a rather grandiose version of one of those smelly little,
stained booths for which patrons of Times Square shops used to
pay to watch "hot stuff"--were pictures of a young
female soldier, already recognized worldwide for her smiling-Nazi
poses with abused prisoners, having sex with a gang of fellow
soldiers.
One of the exalted Senator
spectators, with all the dignity he could summon, was quoted,
"She was having sex with numerous partners. It appeared
to be consensual. Almost everyone was naked all the time."
Well, I am relieved to learn
that it was all consensual, having feared that gang sex without
consent was what had attracted the secret gathering of scores
of America's highest officials to spend hours gawking at pornographic
videotapes. Equally reassuring was the Senator's observation
that everyone was naked. The level of depravity would be hard
to imagine were soldiers having group sex with their clothes
on. I suppose rumors of such a remarkable occurrence might have
boosted attendance at the sessions.
I have to remind myself sharply
that these astute observations come from the lips of an American
Senator before getting too picky about fine points. Senators
receive lifetime sinecures from wealthy benefactors who aren't
in the business of rewarding brains or independence or critical
thought.
It is hard to imagine a more
pompous and foolish group than America's existing and recent-past
stock of Senators. Whenever I hear Senator John Warner, I think
he should change his name to something along the lines of Senator
Quackenbush or Blunderbuss. Either of these names seems more
fitting for a man who regularly delivers obvious trivialities
with baritone gravity. The man is a walking Mount Rushmore figure
with the brain of a gnat.
Another light unto the world,
Senator Norm Coleman, added, "It was pretty disgusting,
not what you'd expect from Americans. There was lots of sexual
stuff, not of the Iraqis, but of our troops."
I'm sure glad he added that
clarification about not involving Iraqis, but you have to wonder
how anyone could entertain the notion of handcuffed men, beaten
and peed-on, with hoods tied around their necks managing "sexual
stuff."
You wouldn't expect much in
the arts of seduction from a chunky-faced throwback who hails
from a trailer park and probably enjoys ripping heads off chickens
while watching The Price is Right. The idea of her having sex
with prisoners recalls a Lina Wertmuller film in which a sadistic
and disgustingly-ugly German prison-guard takes off her uniform
and leather straps and boots and orders her pitiable Italian
prisoner--played by Giancarlo Giannini, who has attempted to
win a few crusts of bread by flattering her--"Now, you fuck!"
Poor Giancarlo.
Why would a Senator say it's
not what you expect from Americans? He could be in trouble back
home if he's interpreted as questioning the red-bloodedness of
American troops. Senator, have you forgotten how the troops used
to relish duty in the Philippines or Thailand where they qualified
as doing patriotic duty while engaged in the kind of predatory
sexual tourism other people get arrested for? After turning about
half the female population under fourteen within a twenty-mile
radius of Subic Bay into prostitutes, America was finally thrown
out by the Philippines' government.
Coleman also might reflect
on the heritage of his own august institution. The late Senator
John Tower had to give up his cabinet post after revelations
about years of chasing women around desks in a state of stupefied
drunkenness. Senator Bob Packwood became known for greeting attractive
female visitors by thrusting his tongue into their mouths and
reaching under their skirts. Senator Ted Kennedy is reported
once as having ducked under his linen-and-crystal-covered table
for a quick one with a female reporter in a fancy Washington
restaurant. A KGB report, recorded in a history of the Cuban
missile crisis, tells of Robert Kennedy asking his Soviet Intourist
guide to send a prostitute to his room.
A few more names confirm the
illustrious moral character of the American Senate: David Dorenberger,
Dan Quayle, Trent Lott, Roman Hruska. Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond,
Bob Smith, Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Robert Torricelli, and
Carol Moseley Braun--certainly not all associated with "sexual
stuff," but offering an interesting mix of fraud, lunacy,
and dangerous stupidity.
Then there's the simple statistic
that the United States has the highest rate of illegitimacy of
any developed country.
One of the world's leading
pompous windbags, Senator Joe Lieberman, was quoted as saying,
"It just deepens the conclusion that this was a cell block
that had gone wild." I'm grateful to the Senator for pointing
that out. It must have been difficult for a man of Lieberman's
high character to endure hours of depraved lunacy in order to
reach such a profound judgment. It shows real dedication to the
job.
I may risk being labeled a
quibbler, but I do have to ask why the grotesque pictures already
in the public domain aren't more than sufficient evidence for
the Senator's point? Maybe in Senator Lieberman's state, piles
of naked men in hoods, dog leashes on prostrate men, and black-and-blue
corpses stuffed into plastic bags with ice cubes are regarded
as something less than wild? It must have required that extra
bit about group sex to put things over the top for Senator Lieberman.
Killing has never been known to bother him greatly, but he's
always touchy about sex.
The interesting part of Lieberman's
comment is his use of "cell block." Note how that neatly
limits responsibility. It's not the prison as a whole, not the
army, not the brutal occupation, and not the bloody, pointless
invasion. It's a cellblock. Of course, this ignores the fact
that these pictures had been circulating among American troops
in Iraq for months, and it ignores persistent reports of widespread
abuse from independent human-rights agencies. You might think
that a Jewish man of Lieberman's generation would be at least
slightly reluctant to promote the idea that only local juniors
are responsible for horror.
Why would Lieberman want to
make his sleazy little point? Because Senator Lieberman always
supports the dumb use of force, the fist in the face of disagreeable
foreigners, at least when that fist is connected to the United
States..
Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell
added, "I don't know how the hell these people got into
our army." Hello, Senator Campbell, remember Lieutenant
Calley?
It is interesting that for
many of the Senators, the object of disgust is the "sexual
stuff," not evidence of torture or abuse or murder. In fact,
there is every reason to believe that many of these pictures
show acts far more ghastly than group sex with a consenting cretin.
By emphasizing the "sexual stuff," these American politicians
assure themselves some public support for not releasing the images.
Heavens, we sure don't want group sex on television during dinner
hour!
The Senators seem to agree
with Secretary Rumsfeld that America might be violating the Geneva
Conventions by releasing tapes and pictures that demean prisoners.
In other words, if you beat, torture, and shoot prisoners, you
must observe the niceties by not releasing any pictures you take.
That's what I like so much about America, its high moral tone
in the midst of sickening horror.
Weekend
Edition Features for 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
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