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August 10/11, 2002
Bruce Jackson
Buffalo
in Black and White
Robert Fisk
US Bombs
Still Killing Civilians
Lawrence McGuire
How Does
Christianity Work?
Ralph Nader
The Quest
for the
Fuel Efficient Car
Frank Fugate
The Arabs
I Know
Jan Oberg
Visit Iraq
Jill Drier
Dodging
Bullets in Nablus
Walt Brasch
The Bush
2 Legacy...So Far
Poetry
M. Shahid Alam
Death by
Sanctions
Anthony Gancarski
Coin of the Realm
David Krieger
Einstein's
Regret
August 9, 2002
Robert Fisk
Gul Agha:
the UN's Warlord of the Year
Nelson P. Valdés
An Open
Letter to Bush
on Cuba Policy
Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporate
Crime:
More Shareholder Power
Not the Solution
Ansar Ahmed
The Waning
of the
Pax Americana
Alexander Cockburn
War,
the Military and the Hunt for the "Violence Gene"
August 8, 2002
Ron Jacobs
Iraq:
The Final Storm?
Dave Marsh
Now Ain't
the Time
for Your Tears
Mark Weisbrot
Bush
Administration Tries to Hide Role in Venezuela Coup
Anthony Gancarski
AIPAC,
Congress and Iraq
Robert Fisk
Families
of the Disappeared Demand Answers
Gary Leupp
Karzai's
Bodyguard
August 7, 2002
Anis Shivani
The First
21st Century
Police State
Jeffrey St. Clair
Fallon's
Fallen
Is the US Navy Killing
Children in Nevada?
Robert Fisk
For the
Forgotten Afghans,
the UN Offers a Fresh Hell
Dr. Susan Block
Rigas in
Cuffs
Bill Christison
Disastrous
Foreign Policies of the US Part 5: the Call of Democracy?
August 6, 2002
Philip Farruggio
Signs
of the Elites
Bruce Gagnon
We Must
Come Alive
David Krieger
From
Hiroshima to Hope
Jerre Skog
Global
Reach of Corporate Crime or What the Hell are
They Teaching at Harvard?
Robert Fisk
Return to
Afghanistan:
Collateral Damage
Alexander Cockburn
The
Fox in the Pension Fund
August 5, 2002
Rahul Mahajan
Iraq
and the New Great Game
Jordy Cummings
The
Last Frontier of
Israel and Palestine
Bernard Weiner
Inside
Saddam's Diary
Mike Leon
US Mute
to Israeli Brutality
Norman Madarasz
Brazil:
the Most Important Election of 2002?
August 4, 2002
Susan Davis
Fat Americans
August 3, 2002
David Krieger
Nuclear
Apartheid
Gilad Atzmon
The End
of Innocence
Gavin Keeney
Everybody's
a Critic
Alexander Cockburn
Can the Times' Jeff Gerth
Save Dick Cheney?
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
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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!)
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
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This Explosive
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Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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Weekend
Edition
August 11, 2002
Sunday Bloody
Sunday
Bono Betrays
Ireland
by Andrew Cockburn
The people of Ireland, currently suffering under
the deluges of a terrible summer, are being further depressed
by an avalanche of mendacious propaganda urging them to vote
"Yes" in a referendum on the Treaty of Nice to be held
this October. A torrent of homilies from agents of Big Capital,
including the major parties, the German Chancellor, the Economist,
and, predictably and nauseatingly, Jesse Helms best friend: U2
warbler Bono.
Most people assume that this treaty,
negotiated by the member governments of the European Union in
2000, simply providers for the admission of new member to the
EU -- up to 13 -- from Eastern Europe. Propagandists for the
new order like to stress that this enlargement is what Nice is
all about. It is not. Nice is essentially about a sinister overhaul
of the system by which the people of the EU are governed. The
most important provisions of the agreement changed the system
for governing the Union, which currently gives small and big
countries a roughly equal voice, to one in which the big countries
-- particularly France, Germany, Italy and Britain -- have the
decisive say
EU procedures require that the treaty
be ratified by all member states before it can come into force.
For most European regimes, this posed no problem, the document
being duly rubber stamped by pliant Parliaments. The Irish, however,
have an irritating constitutional stipulation requiring that
changes in the way the country is governed be submitted directly
to the people for ratification in a referendum. In June last
year the people duly tramped to the polls and resoundingly rejected
the treaty, 54% to 46%.
Bellows of dismay rang through the chanceries
of Europe. Gerhardt Schroeder came to Dublin and pronounced that
the Irish people would have to vote again until they came up
with the right answer. The Washington Post wagged an admonitory
editorial finger, repeating the conventional official wisdom
that the Irish had exhibited disgraceful selfishness in basing
their rejection on a desire to stop Poles, Czechs, Rumanians
and other prospective members from gaining access to the payouts
from Brussels hitherto enjoyed by the Irish.
As might be expected, this analysis was
wholly false. Basically, the Irish rejected the treaty not because
they wanted to keep Polish farmers and other East Europeans away
from the trough, but because, like most European citizens, they
are increasingly outraged at the attrition of European democracy
in favor of rule by unelected officials in Brussels issuing edicts
on everything from tax policy to the composition of Ireland's
incomparably superior pork sausages. They noted that, under Nice,
Ireland would lose its automatic right to select one of the powerful
European commissioners and would have its representation on the
Council of Ministers severely diluted. Nor were they happy at
the creation, under Nice, of a 60,000 man Rapid Reaction Force
under EU command and slated for intervention abroad. Encouraged
by a skillful No campaign spearheaded by the Green Party and
Sinn Fein, the voters delivered their wise verdict.
That should have been the end of it.
The people had spoken But the Irish ruling clique, notoriously
corrupt, bowed the head and bent the knee in humble obedience
to orders from their betters. Disgracefully, Prime Minister Bertie
Ahern apologized to his fellow European leaders for the indiscipline
of his voters and announced that Schroeder's admonition would
be followed: Ireland would vote again.
Little is being left to chance. Last
time, an over confident government allowed state funds to be
used for the presentation of arguments on both sides. That will
not happen again. P.J. Mara, Dublin's pre-eminent political fixer,
has been enlisted to run the yes campaign. The President, Mary
McAleese, has unconstitutionally intervened in a political debate
by indicating her preference for a yes decision. There has thus
been much for the people to bear, and then....Bono.
With a typical blend of arrogance and
ignorance, the butcher shrike of the Liffey went on Irish radio
and declared that the Irish people had voted the way they did
because they were not properly informed on the issues. Ever eager
to brag about his access to the corridors of power, he declared
that "I go to meetings with politicians in Europe, they
always bring it up.....I think to vote No is going to make Ireland
look very selfish." He concluded by echoing the official
lie that the issue had been only about the enlargement of the
EU.
Thus Bono reiterated the dogma, endlessly
pounded into Irish heads, that they have been the welfare queens
of Europe, fattened on handouts from Brussels, giving little
in return and now racing to deny the same largesse to the suffering
masses of Ljubliana and Cracow.
This is absolutely not the case. To cite
just one example, arduous investigation by Irish marine biologist
and entrepreneur John King lays bare the figures on the pillaging
of a vital resource. Over the thirty years since Ireland joined
Europe, the Irish have received some twenty billion pounds (the
currency that was replaced by the Euro at the beginning of this
year) from Brussels. Not a small chunk of change. However, in
joining, Ireland agreed to give up territorial control of its
immensely rich fishing grounds, leaving them open to plunder
by other European fishing fleets. In consequence, those fleets,
especially the Spaniards, have extracted an average of 14 billion
pounds worth of fish every year since 1972. This state of affairs
is indeed coming to an end, as Irish waters are now swept clear,
with barely a fish left to nurture what was once the Irish fishing
industry.
The only ray of hope in this sorry tale
is that, despite the barrage of persiflage, polls indicate that
the Irish voter will once again stand up for democracy, once
more sending Ahern and Bono scurrying off to make what excuses
they can to their overseers.
Weekend Features
Bruce Jackson
Buffalo
in Black and White
Robert Fisk
US Bombs
Still Killing Civilians
Lawrence McGuire
How Does
Christianity Work?
Ralph Nader
The Quest
for the
Fuel Efficient Car
Frank Fugate
The Arabs
I Know
Jan Oberg
Visit Iraq
Jill Drier
Dodging
Bullets in Nablus
Walt Brasch
The Bush
2 Legacy...So Far
Poetry
M. Shahid Alam
Death by
Sanctions
Anthony Gancarski
Coin of the Realm
David Krieger
Einstein's
Regret
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