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Today's
Stories
December 9,
2005
Andrew Cockburn
Meet
Rahm Emmanuel, the Democrats' New Gatekeeper
December 8,
2005
Kathy Kelly
Blessed
are the Merciful in Baghdad
James Petras
The Venezuelan Election: Chavez Wins, Bush Loses (Again)
William S.
Lind
Questionable Assumptions: Dissecting the Stategy for Victory
Laura Carlsen
The Strange Mission of Vicente Fox: Free Trade and Mexico
Justin Akers
Bush's Border War
Thomas Graham, Jr
A Nuclear Pearl Harbor in Outer Space?
Norman Solomon
Rumsfeld's Handshake Deal with Saddam
Tariq Ali /
Robin Blackburn
The
Lost John Lennon Interview
Website of
the Day
Pigs at the Trough of War
December 7,
2005
John Ryan
Dershowitz vs. Chomsky: a Review of the Harvard Debate
Gary Leupp
Suicide
Before Dishonor in Occupied Iraq
Fran Quigley
How the ACLU Didn't Steal Christmas
Jeremy Brecher
/ Brendan Smith
Bush
War Crimes: the Posse Gathers
Joshua Frank
Bird Dogging Hillary
William W.
Morgan
Rendition, Torture and Democracy
Dave Lindorff
A Stunning Win for Mumia Abu Jamal
Patrick Cockburn
Saddam: "Come Visit My Cage"
Harold Pinter
Art, Truth and Politics: the Nobel Lecture
Website of
the Day
Witnesses to Torture
December 6,
2005
Ron Jacobs
No
One is Illegal; No One is an Infidel
Patrick Cockburn
Inside
Saddam's Trial: Tales of the Human Meat Grinder
Yifat Susskind
Death, Politics and the Condom: African Women Confront Bush's
AIDS Policy
Mike Whitney
How Greenspan Skewered America
Pat Williams
Public Land Should Stay Public
Paul Craig
Roberts
Condi
to Europe: Trust Us
Website of
the Day
Debunking Woodward
December 5,
2005
John Walsh
The
Lies of John Edwards: What Did the Democrats Know and When Did
They Know It?
Brian Cloughley
The Poor Dead: the Relative
Value of Human Lives
Mokhiber /
Weissman
The Corporate Crime Quiz
Robert Jensen
How Big Money Eviscerates the First Amendment
Norman Solomon
Hidden in Plane Sight: US Media Ignores Iraq Air War Plan
Peter Rost, MD
An Open Letter to the Justice Department: Pfizer May Have Violated
Federal Laws When They Fired Me
Lila Rajiva
The
Torture-Go-Round: CIA's Rendition Flights to Secret Prisons
Website of the Day
National Day of Counter-Recruitment
December 3 / 4, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
The
Revolt of the Generals
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Iraq,
Brains and Lies
Rev. William Alberts
The Forgotten Christmas Story: Saying No to King Herod
Saul Landau
Latino
Troops Have Parents
Ralph Nader
Consumerama
Paul Craig
Roberts
Don't Confuse the Jobs Hype with the Facts
Mike Whitney
Blood Feast: Celebrating Executions in America
Allan Lichtman
The DeLay Scheme: Blatantly Buying Our Government
Dave Lindorff
A Sudden Rush for the Exits?
Brian Concannon,
Jr.
Haiti's Elections
Fred Gardner
Oregon NORML Honors Growers
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
On Freeing the CPT
Carol Wolman
Remembering the 60s
St. Clair /
Vest / Walker / Pollack
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert, Engel and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Free the CPT
December 2,
2005
Stan Goff
An
Open Letter to Congress from a Veteran and Military Dad
Mike Ferner
Beware Iraqization: Melvin Laird, Vietnam and Christmas Bombings
Over Baghdad?
Christopher Brauchli
Bush's Constitutional Kamikazes: Padilla's No-Win Dilemma
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Questions
for the President
Manuel Talens
The Chávez Theorem
Peter Phillips
Death By Torture: Media Ignores the Hard Evidence
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Alabama's
Taliban: Judge Roy Moore, Preachers and Dixie Hypocrisy
Website of
the Day
Support the Hampton University Peace Activists!
December 1,
2005
John Walsh,
MD
The
God Gaps
Ron Jacobs
Hard Rain: Toward a Greater Air War in Iraq?
Jenna Orkin
EPA's
Latest Betrayal at Ground Zero
Joshua Frank
Howard Dean's Blunt Message: Forget Palestine
Tiffany Ten
Eyck
Rank and File Resistance to Delphi
Missy Comley Beattie
Home on the Range: Where the Fear and the Animus Play
Eli Stephens
The Reed and Kerry Show
Elaine Cassel
A Government Game of "Gotcha" with Jose Padilla
Website of
the Day
Rare Erotica
November 30,
2005
Allen / D'Amato
Incident
at Oglala 30 Years Later: the Long Struggle of Leonard Peltier
Mike Whitney
The Cheerleader at Annapolis
Kevin Zeese
The Hallucinations of Joe Lieberman
Norman Solomon
Colin Powell: Still Craven After All These Years
Ramzy Baroud
Sharon's New Party
Dave Lindorff
What Happened to All Those Bush/Cheney Bumperstickers?
Stephen Soldz
Mental
Health Workers in Iraq
November 29,
2005
Phil Gasper
Live
from Death Row: an Interview with Tookie Williams
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Ghost of Sangatte
Joshua Frank
Jack Abramoff's Bi-partisan Sleaze
Walter A. Davis
Life on Death Row: a Monologue
Gary Leupp
Bush the Dupe?
Len Colodny
Woodwardgate: Still Protecting the Rightwing
Jeffrey St.
Clair
The
Duke and the Enterprise: Randy Cunningham's Crash Landing
Bill Quigley
Human Rights Leaders Call for Release of Haiti's Political Prisoners
Website of
the Day
Watch Chomsky vs. Dershowitz Live, Tonight at 7PM, EST!
November 28,
2005
Chris Reed
The
"Bomb Al Jazeera" Documents Trial
David Isenberg
Cooked
Intelligence: the Dog that Didn't Bark
Ron Jacobs
Contraindications: a Review of Blood on the Border
Norman Solomon
The
Woodward Scandal Must Not Blow Over
Justin E.H. Smith
Schwarzenegger's Curious Power
Mickey Z.
Abbie Hoffman at 70: Steal This City
Mike Whitney
The Pentagon's Domestic Spying Operation
David Swanson
Is Impeachment an Election Issue?
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Grave Threat of the Bush Administration
Website of
the Day
"Don't Bomb Us!": a Blog by Al Jazeera Staffers
November 26
/ 27, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
How
the Democrats Undercut John Murtha
Saul Landau
Who We Are: Torture and the Empire
Ralph Nader
Junk Television: Excluding Voices That Save Lives
Brian Cloughley
What Are They Dying For?
John Ross
When a Language Dies
Gary Leupp
The Nepal Pact
Fred Gardner
Dr. Denney Goes to Arkansas
Christopher Brauchli
Compassion for Corporations: Northrup Grumman and Katrina's Victims
Dave Lindorff
US War Crimes List Keeps Growing
P. Sainath
See, Neoliberalism Really Works: Net Worth of India's Billionaires
Soars!
Timothy J.
Freeman
The Price of Freedom
Lila Rajiva
Of Mice, Men and GM Peas
Eric Ruder
Beat the Needle: Saving Tookie Williams
Seth Sandronsky
Working Toward Whiteness: an Interview with David Roediger
Joaquin Bustelo
What Really Happened at Mar del Plata
Lewis Alper
Is the President's Soul in Jeopardy?: an Evangelical Christian
Looks at Bush's Skull and Bones Initiation
Will Youmans
In Search of Paradise
Phyllis Pollack
The Stones' Rough Justice in Bush Time
St. Clair /
Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Barbara LaMorticella
Poetry and the City of Ideas
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Buknatski, Engel, Albert and Davies
Website of the Weekend
NLR: The Chequered Rainbow
November 25,
2005
David Price
How
US Anthropologists Planned "Race-Specific" Weapons
Against the Japanese
Brian McKenna
Will
Bush Miss the Next Bhopal?
Jeff Halper
Peretz or Bust?
Ray McGovern
Will
the US Seize the Opportunity for Troop Withdrawal?
Leigh Saavedra
Thanksgiving at Camp Casey
Ingmar Lee
How Have the Mighty Fallen?
Website of the Day
Saving Cathedral Grove
November 24,
2005
James Petras
How
to Think About War and Peace
Bob Shirley
Thanksgiving
Torture: What the Puritans Fled
Mike Fox
Torture
Survivors Speak for Themselves
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Adrift?
Perhaps. A Draft? Never!
Greg Moses
Thanksgiving Delayed: TX High Court Blesses Inequality
Alexander Cockburn
Turkeys
in the Larger Scheme of Things
November 23,
2005
Ramzy Baroud
The
Great Gaza Border Deal: What Does It Mean?
Mike Whitney
Bush, Padilla and Thomas More
Stan Cox
Red, White and Blue Dawn: What a Bad Hollywood Film Can Teach
Americans About Life Under Occupation
Linda S. Heard
Targeting Al Jazeera
November 22,
2005
Kevin Gray
/ Mike Hersh
Maxine
Waters, the Real Leader of the Anti-War Caucus
Ralph Nader
What Do Dems Stand For?
Michael Donnelly
The "Vetting" of Bernard Kerik
Mike Ferner
The CIA's "Torture Taxi" in the Spotlight
Pierre Tristam
The Justice Deficit
Marshall Auerback
Bush's "Compassionate Conservativism": Neither Compassionate
Nor Conservative
Website of
the Day
I Don't Like Geldof
November 21,
2005
Mike Marqusee
Clinton's
Hypocrisies on Iraq
Josh Frank
Democratic Hawks: the Avian Flu of the Antiwar Movement
Mike Whitney
Hugo Chavez vs. the King of Vacations
Norman Solomon
Getting Out of Iraq
Russ Baker
Woodward's Weakness
Robert Jensen
A National Day of Atonement
Paul Craig
Roberts
Lies
and Official Secrets
November 19
/ 20, 2005
Fred Gardner
The
Raid on MendoHealing
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
The House GOP Has Done a Heinous Thing: Stop Playing Politics;
Get the Troops Out Now
Ron Jacobs
A Pathetic Congress: If It Walks and Talks Like a Withdrawal
Resolution, Why Won't You Vote For It?
David Vest
The Politics of Surrender: It's as American as Robert E. Lee
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Condi Rice's Disdain for the Civil Rights Movement
John R. Bomar
Staying the Course on "Freedom's Frontier": a Vietnam
Vet on Iraq
John Ross
The
Dragon Flies High, But Not Over Mexico
Phillip Cryan
Colombia: "Political Kidnapping" and Murder in Cauca
Dave Lindorff
RIP In These Times
Dick J. Reavis
The Future of the Daily Press
Jeremy Scahill
Vegetarian Between Meals: This War Can't Be Stopped by a Loyal
Opposition
Dan Wright
Cleaning Up Alaska's Scan Bay
John Stanton
Scowcroft Talks Turkey; Edmounds Fights Fascism
St. Clair / Vest / Walker
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Phyllis Pollack
The Stones: Rarities
Dr. Susan Block
Our Night of Weimar Love
Poets Basement
Albert, Engel, Ford, Harley and Louise
November 18,
2005
Michael Neumann
The
Palestinians and the Party Line
Dave Lindorff
Murtha and the L Word
Michael Donnelly
Black November 15
Mark Chmiel
/ Andrew Wimmer
Uncrucify Them
Don Monkerud
A Decent Workplace
Tom Kerr
Grant Clemency to Tookie Williams
Trish Schuh
Faking
the Case Against Syria
November 17,
2005
John Walsh
A
Fractured Anti-War Movement
Rep. John Murtha
Iraq Must Be Freed from the US
Occupation
Brian J. Foley
We Are All In GITMO Now
CounterPunch
News Service
Guardian
Apologizes to Chomsky; Publishes Total Retraction of Brockes'
Slurs
Dave Lindorff
In Post-Saddam Iraq, There are No Civilians
Mark T. Harris
Coming Out in an Up-and-Coming Sport
Cockburn /
St. Clair
From
Reporter to Courtier: the Decline of Bob Woodward
November 16,
2005
John F. Sugg
Al-Arian
Speaks: In His First Interview Since the Trial Began, Al-Arian
Talks About What the Jury Didn't Hear
Noam Chomsky
Putting Out the Englightenment
Dave Lindorff
Shake
and Bake: Pentagon Admits Using Phosphorous Bombs on Fallujah
Evelyn Pringle
Laurie Mylroie's War
Sam Husseini
Trying to Look a Female Suicide Bomber in the Eye
Pierre Tristam
Toturers' Theater
Greg Bates
Waffling Alito Charms DiFi
Farrah Hassen
Moustapha
AkkadDavid Lean of the Middle East Killed in Amman Blast
Bill Christison
Evidence
Mounts That Bush Wants New Wars
Website of
the Day
Violent Oscillations
November 15,
2005
Todd Chretien
My
Evening in the No Spin Zone; Or Why Bill O'Reilly Hates San Francisco
Leah Caldwell
Death
of the Jailhouse Press
Frederick Hudson
Rosa's Wreath: Miss Parks and Robert Williams
Harry Browne
Bush-Linked Judge Bows Out: Another Mistrial in Irish Ploughshares
Case
Jason Leopold
Secret CIA Testimony: Iraq Posed No Threat
Ingmar Lee
Logging Lackies vs. Canada's Most Endangered Species
Diana Barahona
Showdown on the Silver Coast
Tom Andre
New Orleans, Two Months Later
Website of the Weekend
Ernest Crichlow: 1914-2005
November 14,
2005
Diana Johnstone
The
Origins of the Guardian's Attack on Chomsky
Paul Craig Roberts
Power Over All: Unlimited Detentions and the End of Habeas Corpus
Conn Hallinan
Provoking
Syria: Cambodia All Over Again?
Joshua Frank
Off She Goes: Hillary in Israel
Christopher
Reed
The
Persistence of Racism in Koizumi's Japan
November 11
/ 13, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
First
the Lying, Then the Pardons
Gwyneth Leech
Cross Connections: a Painter Reimagines the Passion of Christ
in the Wake of Abu Ghraib
Elmas Mallo
Chillin' in the Blazin' Texas Sun: Inside the Texas Prison System
Michael Neumann
The Rebel King of Bluegrass: Jimmy Martin, an Appreciation
Saul Landau
Leakgate: the Screenplay
Sam Husseini
Bush and Zarqawi Bomb Because We Let Them
Brian Cloughley
Sleaze, Deceit and Torture
Ron Jacobs
Rep. McGovern's Withdrawal Resolution: a Step in the Right Direction?
Lila Rajiva
Dover Bitch: the Curses of Pat Robertson
Michael Donnelly
Hypocrisy Watch
Joe Allen
Murder in El Salvador: Who Killed Gilberto Soto?
Roland Sheppard
Lessons from the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Justin E.H.
Smith
Another Monkey Trial?
Ben Tripp
The Cost of War
St. Clair /
Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Jones, Louise, Ford, Smith, Albert and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Iraq Vets and Against the War Need Your Help!
November 10,
2005
Peterside,
Ogon, Watts and Zalik
Delta
Blues Again: Ken Saro-Wiwa, 10 Years Gone
Pat Williams
Will Alito Cost the Republicans the Senate?
Steve Higgs
Bush Crony Targets Indiana's Forests: 400% Hike in Logging
Jimmy Massey
Is Ron Harris Telling the Truth?
Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Insanity Takes Over
Anthony Newkirk
Syria in the Crosshairs
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Why Did Libby Lie?
Website of the Day
Imperial Margarine
November 9,
2005
Gary Leupp
The
Niger Deception / Plame Affair: an Incomplete Chronology
Tariq Ali
Blair Defeated on Terror Laws
Chris Floyd
The
Philosopher's Stone
Elaine Cassel
The
Shocking Trial of an American Citizen: the Case of Ahmed Abu
Ali
Joshua Frank
Sen. Max Baucus's NASCAR Pay Day
Alison Weir
Memo to Jon Stewart: Glad You're Against Torture, So Why'd You
Give Israel a Pass?
Diana Johnstone
Rage
in the Banlieue
November 8, 2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Still
No Jobs
Roger Burbach
Bush
v. Chavez: the Imperial President Meets the Bolivarian Democrat
Ron Jacobs
An Interview with Behzad Yaghmaian on the Paris Uprising
Ralph Nader
"The Worst Marketed Disease on the Planet"
Jim McGrath
Voter Beware: a Cautionary Tale for Election Day
David Bloom
McCain, Israel and Torture: Setting the Record Straight
Stan Goff
Jimmy Massey, Ron Harris, and Ambush Journalism
November 7,
2005
Dick Reavis
The
Origins of Mr. Danger
Jason Leopold
Cheney and the Cover Up: the Vice President Lied
Dave Lindorff
What Country was Bush Talking About?
Eli Stephens
A Tale of Two Generals: the Lies of Colin Powell
David Swanson
The Bush-Cheney Ethics Refresher Course: a Syllabus
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview Stan Goff
Matt Reichel
Paris Uprising: a Rebellion in Real Time
Naima Bouteldja
Paris is Burning
Jeff Halper
Israel
as an Extension of American Empire
Website of the Day
Dispatches from Paris
November 5
/ 6, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Storm
Over Brockes' Fakery: Guardian Fabricates Chomsky Quotes
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Lying,
Law Schools and Executive Power: What Senators Should Ask Alito
Diana Johnstone
Srebrenica: a Response to Certain Criticisms of My Essay
Roosa / Nevins
The
Mass Killlings in Indonesia, 40 Years Later
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Missing
the Bus: When Conscience Bows to Calculation
John Ross
The Zapatistas' Otra Campaign for Mexico's Presidential Elections
Mike Whitney
Globalizing Sadism: the United States of Torture
Mark Engler
Will Big Business Turn On Bush?: the Economic Nightmare Unfolds
Juliano Mer-Khamis
They Shoot at Children, Too
Ron Jacobs
When Gen. Westmoreland Visited
Jill S. Farrell
Bird Flu and the Posse Comitatus Act
Missy Comley
Beattie
Trent Lott's Untroubled Sleep
Mitchel Cohen
People of the Dome, Revisited
Evelyn J. Pringle
Bush-Cheney and Big Oil's Big Summer
Reza Fiyouzat
Signs of Life or Last Gasp? Structural Problems in the Democratic
Party
Charles Sullivan
When Courage Fails: a White Southerner on Rosa Parks
Zachary Richard
Return to Louisiana
Ben Tripp
Beginning of the End? Don't Start Cheering Just Yet
St. Clair / Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
November 4,
2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Blood
on the Tundra, Betrayal in the Rotunda: Losing ANWR
Dave Lindorff
A Majority Now Favors Impeachment: If He Lied, He Must Be Tried
Phillip Cryan
Crackdown
in Colombia
Christopher Brauchli
Katrina and Tax Breaks for the Very Rich
William S.
Lind
Exit Strategy: You Can't Stay the Course in a Lost War
Daryl G. Kimball
Of Madmen and Nukes
George Beres
Laurels for Negroponte?
Peter Montague
Why We Can't Prevent Cancer
November 3,
2005
James Petras
The
Libby Affair and the Internal War
Saul Landau
Torn
Families and Shot Down Planes: a Cuba Story
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
An Occurrence at Gretna Bridge
Michael Dickinson
Bang! Bang! You're Deaf! Sonic Weapons Over Palestine
Joshua Frank
Sham Behind Closed Doors
Remi Kanazi
Dancing with Perseverance
Reza Fiyouzat
Taxation or Racketeering?
Website of the Day
CIA Leak Investigation: Bigger Fish, Deeper Water?
November 2,
2005
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Holy
Alito!: Not as Crazy as Scalia, But Just as Bad
Robert Oscar Lopez
Saving Rosa Parks from American Hypocrisy
John Walsh
The Philosophy of Mendacity: From Leo Strauss to Scooter Libby
Brian J. Foley
Why Most Americans Don't Care About Gitmo (and Why They Should)
Ramzy Baroud
Rolling Back Syria
M. Junaid Alam
What Moral Values?
Todd Chretien
Judgment Day for the Governator
Bruce K. Gagnon
The Democrats' Slap Happy Day
Website of the Day
Hands Off Dave!
November 1,
2005
Ron Jacobs
An
Interview with Kent State's Dave Airhart
Gary Leupp
The Plame Affair Leads to Rome
John Ross
Days
of the Dead on the Border
Bill Quigley
Why
Are They Making New Orleans a Ghost Town?
Joseph Nevins
From a Boundary of Death to One of Life
Dave Lindorff
Thinking About Impeachment
Linda S. Heard
Bashing Syria: Another Trojan Horse from the UN?
Heather Gray
Thank You, Mrs. Parks
Michael Dickinson
To Di For: Charlie and Camilla Cross the Pond
Jeffrey St. Clair
Kent State: Wise Up and Back Off
October 31,
2005
Elaine Cassel
Libby's
Lies
Mark Weisbrot
Pop Goes the Bubble: Bernancke and the Fed
Mike Whitney
Carry On, Patrick Fitzgerald
Norman Solomon
After the Libby Indictment, the Press Acquits Itself
Farooq Sulehria
Trading Weapons While Kashmir Burns
Nicole Colson
Scapegoating Immigrants
Madis Senner
Dhafir Sentenced to 22 Years: Another Erosion of Civil Rights
Paul Craig
Roberts
Scooter
and the Neocons
October 29 / 30, 2005
Cockburn /
St. Clair
The
Libby Indictment: Gotterdammerung for the Bushies?
Peter Linebaugh
The
Wedges of Hephaestus
Tim Wise
Framing the Poor: Katrina, Conservative Myth-Making and the Media
John Chuckman
Bushspeak: Dark and Garbled Words
Steven Higgs
Green Hoosiers: Forging a New Democracy in the Heartland
Brian Cloughley
The Fifth Afghan War
M. Shahid Alam
Israel and the Consequences of Uniqueness
Nikki Robinson
Crack Down at Kent State
Ralph Nader
Let the PIRGs Begin!: Student Activism Thrives
Joe DeRaymond
Requiem for Bethlehem Steel?
Joshua Frank
Karl's Great Escape: Did Rove Rat on Scooter?
Laura Santina
Tongue-Tied on Iraq: Why Aren't the Dems Screaming Bloody Murder?
Fred Gardner
Death of an Organizer
Michael Dickinson
Insult Your Country
Ron Jacobs
Autumn in America
Dr. Susan Block
Fear and Sex: a Halloween Greeting
Vanessa S. Jones
Self-Portrait, 1994. Bronte Beach
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Marbet, Gardner, Ford, Albert, Engel, Krieger & St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Red State Update
October 28,
2005
Jared Bernstein
Inflation
Up; Wages Down: Fastest Decline in Wages on Record
Virginia Tilley
Embracing
the Anti-Aparthied Movement in Israel/Palestine
Phil Gasper
The
Race to Execute Tookie Williams
Jennifer Matsui
It's Mardi Graft Time!
Manual Garcia,
Jr.
Is the US Really Against Torture?
Monica Benderman
In the Name of Justice
Jason Leopold
Fitzgerald
Focuses on the Forgeries
Dave Lindorff
Suddenly, Bush Endorses Right of Fair Trials
Otober 27, 2005
Saul Landau
The
Scandal Isn't the Leak, But the Illegal War
Stuart Hodkinson
Bono
and Geldoff: "We Saved Africa" Oh No, They Didn't!
Ingmar Lee
Stop
the Troops!: No Glory or Honor in Iraq
Lila Rajiva
License
to Bill: Gates Does India
Ilan Pappe
The
Last Moment of Hope
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Waiting for Fitzgerald
Michael Donnelly
Look Who's Talking Now: the GOP on Perjury
Ron Jacobs
Escape the Weight of Your Corporate Logo
Cockburn / St. Clair
White House in Meltdown
October 26,
2005
Kathy Kelly
For
Whom They Toll
Gary Leupp
Dialectics
of the Plame Affair
Mike Marqusee
Empire of Denial
Eric Ruder
War Crimes in Afghanistan
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq: a Constitutionally Divided Nation
Joshua Frank
Fitzgerald v. the Bushies: Hold Your Elation in Check
J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
The Legacy of Rosa Parks
Website of
the Day
Decent Work in America: the 2005 Work Environment Index
October 25,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Condi
and Syrian Regime Change: Could Somebody Recommend a President?
Ken Sengupta / Patrick Cockburn
Attack on the Palestine Hotel
Conn Hallinan
Sleight of Hand: Iran, India and the US
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Pulling the Court Strings
Jackie Corr
Barbara Bush: Poster Gorgon of the Houston Astros
Robert Day
Talk to Strangers
John Sugg
Judith
Miller and Me
October 24,
2005
Dave Lindorff
Revoke
Judy Miller's Pulitzer
Michael Donnelly
Shades of Iran/contra
Patrick Cockburn
A Nation Stands on Trial
Mike Whitney
Apres Rove
Norman Solomon
Iraq is Not Vietnam, But...
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
US
Foreign Policy and Palestine
October 22
/ 23, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
When
Divas Collide: Maureen Dowd v. Judy Miller
Billy Sothern
Letter
from the Circle Bar, New Orleans
Saul Landau
Bush, an Assessment
Ralph Nader
An
Open Letter to Bush on Harriet Miers
Behrooz Ghamari
Whose Justice Does Saddam's Trial Serve?
Brian Cloughley
Bush the Strategist: Pyrrhus Without a Victory?
Diana Barahona
Venezuela's National Workers' Union
Fred Gardner
Dershowitzed!
Lee Sustar
What the War on Terror is Really About
Patrick Cockburn
Murder of Saddam Trial Defense Lawyer
Laura Carlsen
Mexico City Seamstresses Recall 1985 Quake
James Petras
China Bashing and the Loss of US Competitiveness
Joshua Frank
Invading Iran: Who is to Stop Them?
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
Disasters are Us
Michelle Bollinger
When Abortion Was Illegal
Missy Comley
Beattie
CSI: Iraq
Kona Lowell
Intelligent Design: Making High School Fun
Ben Tripp
Tanks for the Memories
Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening To This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert and Engel
Website of
the Day
Indictment Watch
October 21,
2005
Dave Lindorff
The
Democrats' Abortion Hypocrisy
Winslow T. Wheeler
Paying for Their Mistakes: Incompetence, Deception and the Defense
Budget
Col. Dan Smith
The Destruction of the National Guard
Norman Solomon
Media at Crossroads: 25 Years After Reagan's Triumph
Madis Senner
Abusing Katrina
Michael Donnelly
Richard
Pombo: DeLay in Cowboy Boots
October 20, 2005
Dave Lindorff
Impeachment
Comes to NYC
Ray McGovern
16
Fatal Words: Cheney's Chickens Come Home to Roost
Jeremy Brecher
/
Brendan Smith
Attack Syria? Invade Iran?: By What Constitutional Right?
Patrick Cockburn
Saddam Refuses to Recognize Court
Kevin Zeese
Was the Iraqi Constitution Vote Fixed?
Ross Eisenbrey
Millions Would Lose Pay and Protections Under Enzi Amendment
Randy Shields
James McMurtry Makes It in Dayton
Justine Davidson
Prosecuting Bush in Canada for Torture: a Small Victory
After Lucas
Cranach
Judy and Holofernes
Joe Allen
The
Scandalous History of the Red Cross
|
December 9, 2005
Flays Commander-in-Chief's
Claims
Murtha Returns to
the Attack
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
On the heels of the second in Bush's
series of four speeches on the war in Iraq, Rep John Murtha
returned to the attack in a press conference, responding to Bush's
claims. Armed with graphs, bar charts and intimate knowledge
of what is actually happening on the ground in Iraq, the former
US Marine shredded Bush's claims, blazing a path for his fellow
Democrats, which most of them continue to shun.
Once again Murtha relayed what
the four star generals are telling him. Among his disclosures.
Logistical planning and supplies
for US forces has all but disintegrated. Murtha:
"We had National Guard
security people without radios -- couldn't talk to the front,
the back of the convoy, endangering their lives... Forty thousand
troops didn't have body armor."
Substandard recruitment and
poor training have produced an army incapable of fighting or
even defending itself effectively. Murtha: "we have 112,000
shortages in critical MOSs. Now, what are those shortages? Number
one, they're in demolition experts; number two, special forces
people; number three, intelligence experts, which are absolutely
essential; and fourth is translators. Now could there be any
more important specialties than that? And we're short in every
one of those fields.
* The Army's manpower crisis
has resulted in unsustainable budgetary outlays. Murtha:
"They are now paying $150,000
for somebody that's in special forces, in one of the specialties,
in order to get them to re- enlist. They missed their goal. And
one of the biggest reasons that I'm so concerned about this --
and I talk to the military all the time -- is the future of the
military. They missed their goal in recruiting by 6,600 this
last time. "
The political impossibility
of reviving the draft has produced an army overloaded with substandard
recruits. Murtha:
"They're accepting 20
percent last year in category four. Now, this is a highly technical
service we're dealing with, And yet they lowered the standards
to category four, which they said when we had the volunteer army,
that would eliminate all the category four. "
* Venturing on ground normally
shunned by his fellow Democrats, Murtha derided Bush's description
of resistance in Iraq as terrorism. He insisted it is an insurgency,
powered by the US military presence and by US tactics. Murtha:
"For instance, in Fallujah,
which happened about the same time -- the first Fallujah happened
about the same time as Abu Ghraib -- we put 150,000 people outside
their homes in Fallujah. If you remember in Jordan, the bomber
said that the reason she became a bomber was because two of her
relatives were killed in Fallujah. We lost the hearts and minds
of the people. "
Murtha dismissed the claims
of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld that the resistance in Iraq comes
primarily or even substantively from outside the country. Murtha:
"We [ie US intelligence
estimates inside Iraq] think that foreign fighters are about
7 percent -- might be a little bit more, a little bit less. Very
small proportion of the people that are involved in the insurgency
are terrorists or how I would interpret them as terrorists."
Murtha reiterated the view
he put forward at his first bombshell news conference on November
17 that withdrawal on an accelerated schedule is a certainty,
and one that will entail continuing heavy casualties. Though
he did not characterize it as such, Murtha is predicting a bloody
rout for US forces, to which there is no alternative. Murtha:
"They're going to withdraw.
There's no question they're going to withdraw. I predict a big
proportion of the troops will be out by next year. But the problem
is they're just as vulnerable. The biggest vulnerability we have
in Iraq is the convoys. Every convoy is attacked. When I was
in Anbar, at Haditha, every single convoy was attacked that goes
there to bring the logistics and supplies that they need. That's
the most vulnerable part of our deployment. And if you have half
the troops there, you're going to still have to supply them,
resupply them on the ground and they're going to be attacked.
When I said we can't win a military victory, it's because the
Iraqis have turned against us."
The full transcript of Murtha's
remarks follows.
Let me start by going through
a timeline and then get to what the president said.
In May 1, 2003, the president
declared it was a major -- end of major operations. Then he sent
John Hamre to Iraq. John Hamre was undersecretary of defense
in the Clinton administration. And he found all kinds of problems.
He said: You got three months, three critical months to get this
thing under control if you want to control the security; 12 months
at the most, but three months are crucial, the first three months.
He said small things like sewage
and water and things that a lot of people don't pay attention
to -- I pay attention, because in my district that's important.
But a lot of people paid no attention to that report.
I went there -- now this was
July that Hamre made his report and it was a very prescient report.
I mean, it was a very accurate report about the predictions of
what was going to happen. And we have a copy of it here for you.
In August 16th, I went to Iraq,
from August 16th to the 20th. When I came back, I said to Secretary
Rumsfeld: We require immediate attention of body armor. They
said they were prepared. They said they had what they needed.
Forty thousand troops didn't
have body armor. They needed armored Humvees. They needed jammers
and Kevlar blankets they asked for. This was all levels of people
in Iraq at the time.
And then I wrote to the president
on September 4th and I said, "I believe you have miscalculated
the magnitude of the effort we are facing. We should energize,
Iraqitize and internationalize this effort."
And we have copies of that
letter in there.
Then we had the $87 billion
supplemental in October of 2003.
I said on the floor that I
felt the most important part of that supplemental was the construction
money. A lot of people voted against it because they didn't think
we should be spending money in Iraq for construction when Wolfowitz,
Assistant Secretary Wolfowitz, had said: It's going to be paid
for by oil money.
So a lot of people opposed
it on the floor, but it passed handily.
Then I went back to Iraq and
I told Ambassador Bremer, General Sanchez and General Odierno
and the young general that was their public relations guy, "You
guys are way too optimistic about this. You're not being honest
with the American people."
They took umbrage. I got some
nasty letters, as I usually do when I say something like this.
Now, you remember, I wrote
to the president in September 4th of 2003. I got a letter back
in April 6th, 2004. The president didn't write back. I received
a response from a deputy undersecretary -- paints a totally rosy,
unrealistic picture, saying 200,000 Iraqis -- now, hear what
I'm saying -- 200,000 Iraqis under arms, reconstruction projects
and 70 percent of Iraqis feel -- or 2,200 reconstruction projects
-- 70 percent of Iraqis feel life is good.
The irony is that this was
the month with the most U.S. deaths; 137 were killed. But that's
what they wrote to me.
Then we have Abu Ghraib that
very year.
Now I said to the secretary
of defense: You have got a shortage of people in specialty, MOS
specialties, that's a military specialist. We had truck drivers
who couldn't back up a truck. We had security guards who weren't
trained in security at all. We had National Guard security people
without radios -- couldn't talk to the front, the back of the
convoy, endangering their lives.
We got radios over there and
we tried to address this very problem. And we had a press conference.
Nancy Pelosi and I did. We said, "the military's overstretched
and there's poor planning." And I said at that time I did
not think we could win this militarily.
I got a lot of criticism. DeLay
got up on the floor and said I was a traitor. What I said to
him, publicly, I won't tell you.
Now, here's the way I measure
progress. The president said we got slow progress. We want to
help the government of Iraq -- this is the State Department --
provide essential services, crude oil production.
Now, the green line you see here is the goal -- and they got
charts here that you can get copies of. This is what we actually
had in oil production.
Now, you remember, Secretary
Wolfowitz said, we're going to have oil -- going to pay for this.
And this is all we've gotten. We didn't get up to prewar level
in oil production.
Today they said we're making
progress.
I can only measure progress
by what I see and the things that I can actually measure, not
by what they say are brigades and so forth and so on.
Now, water production: We put
$2.1 billion into water production. They're short of water all
over the country. And they have only spent $581 billion -- or
$581 million.
Now, that's why Hamre's report
was so important. You had to get this insurgency under control
immediately. You had to win the hearts and minds of the people.
That's the key in a guerrilla-type war.
This is electricity overview.
This is the demand. The yellow line is the demand. The red line
is the prewar level. And you can see that occasionally you got
up to prewar level. That's the way I measure progress.
Now, there's one other area
where I measure progress, and that's incidents. Incidents have
increased fivefold in the period of time that -- well, a year
ago. A year ago there were five times less than today.
And at Abu Ghraib -- now, again,
we didn't have the right people in the right kind of specialties.
We didn't have them trained. So at Abu Ghraib, we had people
untrained that were taking care of prisoners. And you see the
result of that.
The secretary offered to resign
at that time. I would have accepted his resignation, because
I think this was a Defense Department responsibility. And we
had many other (inaudible).
Right now, GAO says in a report
of November -- November? -- November -- we have 112,000 shortages
in critical MOSs. Now, what are those shortages?
Number one, they're in demolition
experts; number two, special forces people; number three, intelligence
experts, which are absolutely essential; and fourth is translators.
Now could there be any more
important specialties than that? And we're short in every one
of those fields.
And you know what? We're paying
someone to go into the Army. When I was in, they paid $72 a day.
I volunteered in the middle of the Korean War. They are now paying
$150,000 for somebody that's in special forces, in one of the
specialties, in order to get them to re- enlist.
They missed their goal. And
one of the biggest reasons that I'm so concerned about this --
and I talk to the military all the time -- is the future of the
military. They missed their goal in recruiting by 6,600 this
last time.
But you have to look at that,
because there's a retention, there's a stop-loss, plus the problem
that we had with the people not in the right specialties. And
they enlisted people in the higher levels who were probably going
to enlist anyway that they wouldn't normally have re-enlisted.
They have lowered the standards.
They're accepting 20 percent last year in category four. Now,
this is a highly technical service we're dealing with, And yet
they lowered the standards to category four, which they said
when we had the volunteer army, that would eliminate all the
category four.
Now, let me tell you the major
problem we have. You heard the president talk today about terrorism.
Every other word was "terrorism."
Let me separate terrorism from
insurgency. When I was in Iraq in 1991, president -- or King
Fahd said to me -- this was an early morning meeting, like two
or three o'clock in the morning, when he normally met with people
during the air war.
And he said: Get your troops
out of Saudi Arabia the minute this war's over. You're on sacred
ground. You're destabilizing the whole region. I reported that
back to the State Department and, as you know, we didn't get
our troops out of there. We left our troops there.
Bin Laden said he attacked
the United States because of the troops in Saudi Arabia. That's
terrorism. Terrorism was in London. Terrorism was in Spain. Terrorism
was, obviously, in the United States.
That's completely separate
from what's going on in Iraq. Iraq is an insurgency. At one of
the hearings early on, Secretary Rumsfeld denied there was an
insurgency. He said it was a gang of something or another. But
they wouldn't admit that they were having real problems over
there. They kept being unrealistic, illusionary about what was
going on in Iraq.
One of the major problems we
have in fighting an insurgency is the military and the way they
fight. And I adhere to the way they fight. They send in massive
force. They use artillery, they use air and mortars. And they
kill a lot of people in order to suppress fire and protect our
military. I'm for that.
But it doesn't make you any
friends. That's part of the problem. For instance, in Fallujah,
which happened about the same time -- the first Fallujah happened
about the same time as Abu Ghraib -- we put 150,000 people outside
their homes in Fallujah.
If you remember in Jordan,
the bomber said that the reason she became a bomber was because
two of her relatives were killed in Fallujah. We lost the hearts
and minds of the people.
Hamre said: You've got three
months to win the hearts and minds of the people, to get this
under control, to get the looting and so forth under control.
We didn't do that. There's
been poor planning from the start by the Defense Department.
The Defense Department fought to keep this planning under their
control. State Department had entirely different reasons for
wanting it. And we even voted in the House to give it to the
State Department.
And finally, in conference,
we had to agree to let the president make the decision. He made
the decision to give it to the Defense Department.
Now, in an insurgency and nation-building
-- what did President Bush say when he ran for office the first
time? "We are not into nation-building. And we're not into
nation-building because of the way our military has to operate."
It's that simple. We've got to go in and level the place, destroy
a place. And when we destroy a place, we lose the very thing
that's absolutely essential to winning the insurgency.
Now, let's talk about terrorism
versus insurgency in Iraq itself. We think that foreign fighters
are about 7 percent -- might be a little bit more, a little bit
less. Very small proportion of the people that are involved in
the insurgency are terrorists or how I would interpret them as
terrorists.
And we don't have enough troops
to guard against the border. The generals in charge of that part
of Anbar said, "I don't have enough troops. They've given
me a mission to protect against the Syrian border. I don't have
enough troops to do that."
They have never had enough
troops to get it under control. They didn't have enough troops
for the looters. And they haven't had enough troops ever since
then to get the place under control.
But the key elements, as I
see it -- you heard him say that 70 percent of the Iraqis were
satisfied, in that paper they sent me. Now, you'll see a document
that's in this package here that told me six months before --
well, in the victory document he says we have 212,000 people
trained now, Iraqi security people. Last year, we had 96,000.
Yet, they wrote to me six months
before the last year's statement that said they had 200,000.
Now, why don't I believe them when they say anything? They said
we got weapons of mass destruction. They said we got an Al Qaida
connection. They said we got nuclear weapons. They said we cross
this red line which surrounds Baghdad and we're going to have
a war with them.
Eighty percent of the people,
according to a British poll reported by the Washington Times,
says we want the United States out; 77 percent of the people
in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt say there's a better chance
of democracy if the United States is not there because we're
considered occupiers; 45 percent of the people in Iraq think
that it's justified to kill Americans. They even had an official
communique that says it's justified to attack Americans.
So in this country, when I
made my initial proposal to redeploy the troops and to make a
diplomat effort and the only way I think this will work -- I
don't think you can continue to draw down the way they're talking
about. They're going to withdraw. There's no question they're
going to withdraw. I predict a big proportion of the troops will
be out by next year.
But the problem is they're
just as vulnerable. The biggest vulnerability we have in Iraq
is the convoys. Every convoy is attacked. When I was in Anbar,
at Haditha, every single convoy was attacked that goes there
to bring the logistics and supplies that they need. That's the
most vulnerable part of our deployment.
And if you have half the troops
there, you're going to still have to supply them, resupply them
on the ground and they're going to be attacked.
When I said we can't win a
military victory, it's because the Iraqis have turned against
us. They throw a hand grenade or a rocket into American forces
and the people run into the crowd and they -- nobody tells them
where they are.
I am convinced, and everything
that I've read, the conclusion I've reached is there will be
less terrorism, there will be less danger to the United States
and it'll be less insurgency once we're out.
I think the Iraqis themselves
will turn against this very small group of Al Qaida.
They keep saying the terrorists
are going to control Iraq -- no way. Al Qaida's only 7 percent
of the people in Iraq and doing this fighting. The terrorists
-- there's several factions, but let's say Al Qaida is 7 percent
at the very most.
Iraq will get rid of them because
they'll tell the Iraqis where they are and it will be the end
of the terrorist activity.
Now, my plan says redeploy
to the periphery, to Kuwait, to Okinawa, and if there's a terrorist
activity that affects our allies or affects the United States'
national security, we can then go back in.
I'm not talking about going
back in if there's civil war, because we're in a civil war right
now. We're caught in between a civil war right now.
And with that I'll end and
answer any questions you may have.
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