Now
Available from
CounterPunch for Only $11.50 (S/H Included)
Today's
Stories
March 17, 2004
Peter Linebaugh
Bush: Blanc Blanc
March 16, 2004
Lenni Brenner
James
Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights
Scott Boehm
Madrid
Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days
Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History
Behind the Spanish Elections
Sam Hamod and Alfredo
Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way:
Executing David Clayton Hill
Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran
Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War
on Terror"
Bill Christison
The
Aftershocks from Madrid
CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa
Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!
March 15, 2004
Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe
Mike Whitney
Justice
Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism
Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation
Greg Moses
Lessons
from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs
Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health
Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL
in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer
CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!
March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
March 11, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Bedtime
for Democracy
Bill Kauffman
Hey,
Ralph! Why Not Another Party of the People?
James Hollander
Slaughter
in Madrid: Consolidating an Ally?
Norman Solomon
They
Shoot Journalists, Don't They?
Patrick Gavin
The Salvation of Dan Quayle: Family Values Return
Becky Burgwin
You're
Messing with the Wrong Generation
John Sugg
The FBI is on My Trail
March 10, 2004
Hammond Guthrie
Read
This Book!: "Who the Hell is Stew Albert?"
Chris Floyd
Operation Enduring Sweatshop: Another
Bush Brings Hell to Haiti
Elizabeth Corrie
Remembering the Death of Rachel Corrie
Mike Whitney
US Press Torpedoes Aristide
M. Junaid Alam
An Anti-Civilizational War?
Bob Feldman
The Occupation of Haiti: Recalling 1915-1934
John L. Hess
An Overload of Crises
Gary Leupp
On Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi and the Uses of al-Qaeda "Links"
March 9, 2004
Greg Weiher
The
Zarqawi Gambit, Part 2
Ben Tripp
Word Up! Let's Have a Conversation
Tom Barry
Neo-Cons Target Syria
Sharon Smith
The Hypocrites in the Catholic Church
Robert Fisk
The Same Old Iraq
Doug Giebel
The Bush Strategy: Laughing All the Way
Ralph Nader
Pension Rights, the Trail of Broken Promises
Daniel Estulin
In Memory of Ricardo Ortega: a Great Journalist, Killed in Haiti
Dave Lindorff
Martha Stewart's Cloudy Day
Saul Landau
Will the Filthy Rich Dump Bush?
Website of the Day
Imperial Armies in the Garden
March 8, 2004
Amy Goodman
An
Interview with Aristide
Eric Ruder
An Interview
with Robert Fatton on the Coup in Haiti
Robert Jensen
The Presidential Library Terrorist
Connection
Mike Whitney
Expel the US from the Security Council
Jason Leopold
How Cheney Helped Cover Up Pakistan's
Nuclear Proliferation
Mazin Qumsiyeh
Why is Apartheid Touted as a Solution?
Kevin Alexander Gray
The Legacy of Strom Thurmond
Derek Seidman
Radical Continuity: an Interview with Paul Buhle
Steve Perry
Kerry Fiddles While He Could be Burning Bush
Website of the Day
Patriot
Act Game
March 6 / 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Understanding the World with
Paul Sweezy
Robert Pollin
Remembering Paul Sweezy
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Politics of Timber Theft
Tom Reeves
Bush's Mass Deportations: 63,000 and Counting
Charles Lewis
Who Mugged Howard Dean in Iowa:
Kerry, Torricelli and a Mysterious Frontgroup
Tom Jackson
My Breakfast with Sen. Judd Gregg
Kurt Nimmo
Is Venezuela Next?
Alan Cisco
A Report from Caracas
Jack Random
Haitian Democracy be Damned
Colin Piquette
Oh, Canada: the Coup Coalition
Lee Sustar
Labor's State of Emergency
William D. Hartung
Iraq and the Costs of War
David Sally
Rebuilding
Amérique
Mark Scaramella
When God Mooned Moses: Test Your Bible Knowledge
Mickey Z.
What We Can Learn from Ashcroft's Gallbladder
Ron Jacobs
Politics and Baseball
Dave Zirin
The Longest Jump: the Blackballing of Phil Shinnick
Poets' Basement
John Holt and Larry Kearney
Website of the Weekend
National Day of Action for Rachel Corrie
March 5, 2004
Chris Floyd
Uncle
Sugar: How the WMD Scam Put Money in Bush Family Pockets
Ron Jacobs
Chaos
Reigns: Haiti and Iraq
Lisa Viscidi
Guatemalan
Refugees: a Difficult Return
Yves Engler
Canada and the Coup in Haiti
Mike Legro
Those Bush Ads: Some Dead Bodies Are Worth More Than Others
Javier Armas
A Night of Inspiration: Oakland Benefit for Grocery Workers Strike
Bennett Hoffman
"Who Cares About Haiti, Anyway?"
Bill Christison
Faltering Neo-Cons Still Dangerous
Website of the Day
Haiti Support Group
March 4, 2004
Diane Christian
Sex
and Ideals
Sen. Robert Byrd
Stop the Stonewalling, Mr. President: Fairy Tales, Bush and the
9/11 Commission
Norman Solomon
Assuming the Right to Intervene: The US Press and Haiti
Jack Brown
A Fragrant Saga of Mexico's Greens
Hal Cranmer
The
John Kerry Experience
David Lindorff
Greenspan's Pension
Sam Smith
The Election is Over, We Lost
Christopher Brauchli
Goin'
to the Chapel: The Gay and the Dead
Brian D. Barry
The "Perfect" World of E-Voting: A Computer Scientist
Reports from the Polling Booth
Richard Oxman
Arsonists for Haiti?
Peter Phillips
Haitian
Fantasies: Mainstream Media Fails Itself, Again
Tariq Ali
Notes on Anti-Semitism, Zionism and
Palestine
Website of the Day
What If Boeing Ads Told the Truth?
March 3, 2004
Heather Williams / Karl
Laraque
Marines
Retake Haiti
Jack McCarthy
Guy's
Our Guy: "I am the Chief. My Hero is Pinochet."
Robert Sandels
The
Purloined Label: The Struggle Over the Havana Club Trademark
Juliana Fredman / James Davis
Israeli Organized Crime
JG
The Yuppie Silence on Haiti
Emilio Sardi
The
Colombia/US Free Trade Deal: It's About More Than Trade
Alan Farago
Swimming in Sewage
Mike Whitney
"Blood
Will Have Blood": 143 Murdered in Liberated Iraq
CounterPunch Wire
Nader's Legislative Record in the 1960s
Steve Perry
Kerry
Advisory: Remember Lena Guerrero
Nelson George/ Marcus Miller
Miles Davis & Hip Hop: a Conversation
Website of the Day
$10,000 Is Yours for the Taking: The USS Liberty Challenge
March 2, 2004
William Blum
If Kerry's
the Answer, What's the Question?
Conn Hallinan
Haiti:
the Dangerous Muddle
JoAnn Wypijewski
The Bravo
H-Bomb Test: One WMD They Couldn't Hide
Mike Whitney
Regime Change in Haiti: the Bush Dominos Keep Falling
Ra Ravishankar
Afghanistan, the Liberation That Isn't: an Interview with Mariam
from RAWA
Dan Bacher
Merle Haggard & the Politics of Salmon: "Clearcutting
is Rape"
Greg Moses
Oscar White
Brandy Baker
Mel Gibson's Minstrelsy Show
Little Tucker Carlson
What I Did on My Vacation
Robert Fisk
All This
Talk of Civil War, Now This
Merle Haggard
Kern River
Website of the Day
Rebel Edit
March 1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Morris
Thanks War Criminal in Front of Billions
Richard Oxman
Oscar's
Obit: Thanking Bob McNamara
Elaine Cassel
Writing and Reading as "Terrorism"
Mickey Z
Thomas Friedman's Education
Mike Whitney
George Will and Anti-Semitism: a Cul-de-Sac of Prejudice
Heather Williams
Haiti
as Target Practice: How the US Press Missed the Story
Cathy Crosson
Chanson d'amour haïtienne
Website of the Day
God Hates Shrimp
February 28 / 29, 2004
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: Neo-Cons, Israel and the Bush Team
Gary Leupp
Another Senseless Bush Battle: Defining and Protecting Marriage
William A. Cook
Israel:
America's Albatross
Ron Jacobs
Kucinich: Good Fight; Wrong Battlefield
Ben Tripp
A Nosegay of Posies: Queer Weddings at Last!
Leilla Matsui
Dances with Crucifixes
Mike Whitney
Dismantle
the Military Goliath
Yoel Marcus
Down and Out in the Hague
Uri Avnery
The Dancing Bear
Linda S. Heard
Britons and Americans Condemned to a Hobson's Choice
Al Krebs
Unmasking a Secret American Empire: Land, Water & Cotton
Stan Cox
Life (Pat. Pend.): Genetic Commandeering
JG
The Haiti Boomerang: "After The Looting & Pillaging,
Your Hunger Will Remain"
Rick Giombetti
Censorship at the Seattle P-I on Forced Psychiatry
Keith Hoeller
The Bankruptcy of Mental Health Insurance Parity
Dave Zirin
Colorado Football: Buffalo Swill
NADERAMA
Alan Maass
Nader and the Politics of Lesser
Evils
Michael Donnelly
Regime
Rotation: Anybody But Bush...Again?
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Exeunt Serenaders; Enter Nader
Doug Giebel
So Nader's Running? Get Over It
Bruce Jackson
An Open Letter to Naderites
CounterPunch Wire
Stalinists for Kerry! and Other Roars from the Crowd
Poets' Basement
Davies, Scarr, Kearney & Albert
February 27, 2004
Thomas C. Mountain
A
White Jesus During Black History Month?
Laura Carlsen
Americans
Abroad: Bush is Persona Non Grata
John B. Anderson
Nader's Campaign Brings Back Memories: Creating an Open Electoral
Process
Jason Leopold
Spying
on Kofi Annan
John Chuckman
Nader,
Risk and Hope
Standard Schaefer
An
Interview with Michael Hudson on Putin's Russia
Ray McGovern
Punished
for Honest Intelligence
Saul Landau
The
Haiti Redux
Website of the Day
Bush: Why I'm Running for Re-election
February 26, 2004
Brandy Baker
Is Nader
on to Something?
Jacques Kinau
AEI
to Colombia: "Can't Give You Anything But Guns, Baby"
Norman Solomon
Bugging Kofi Annan: UN Spying
and the Evasions of US Journalism
Greg Weiher
A Purloined Letter: the Zarqawi Gambit
Walt Brasch
Janet Jackson, Bush & No. 542: There are No Halftime Shows
in War
Shadi Hamid
The Music World Explodes in Anger
Norman Madarasz
As Canadian as Corruption
Chris Floyd
Bullets and Ballots
Virginia Tilly
The
Deeper Meaning of the Wall
Amy Goodman / Jeremy
Scahill
Haiti's
Lawyer Says US is Arming Haiti's Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries
Website of the Day
Clear Channel Sucks
February 25, 2004
Dr. Susan Block
Saddam's
Sex Therapist and the Rape of Free Speech
Bruce Anderson
Treacherous Bastards: The Greens and the Dems and Nader
Ron Jacobs
Our Power is on the Streets and
in Our Hearts
Mike Whitney
Bush
and Gay America: the Politics of Duplicity
Sam Husseini
Jesus in 100 Words
John L. Hess
Kick Off or Flub?
Sam Hamod
Bush's Newest Red Herring
Cockburn / St. Clair
Winning
with Nader
Website of the Day
VotePact
February 24, 2004
Ralph Nader
Why
I'm Running for President
Greg Moses
Rally
the Mob! Bush, Gay Marriage and the Constitution
Douglas O'Hara
The
Merchants of Fear: Smearing Nader
Phillip Cryan
Frozen in Time: The WSJ's Paranoid
Lens on Latin America
David Lindorff
John Kerry's China Connection
Jason Leopold
Cheney's Shame: Halliburton Faces New Charges
Gary Younge
Haiti: Throttled by History
Kromm, Masri & Purohit
Why No Democracy in Iraq?
Steve Perry
Tangled Up in Red and Blue: Beware the Electoral College
February 23, 2004
Neve Gordon
Israel's Apartheid Wall on Trial
at The Hague
Kurt Nimmo
Richard Perle, Executioner: "Heads Should Roll"
Jonathan Franklin
US Soldier Seeks Refugee Status in Canada
Al Krebs
The Liberal "Intelligentsia" v. Nader
Josh Frank
Nader's Nadir? Not a Chance
Bruce Jackson
Nader, Another View: "He's as Evil as Bush"
Gary Leupp
A Misguided
Attack, The Passion, Rabbi Lerner and the Gospels
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.
|
St.
Patrick's Day Edition
March 17, 2004
Spain, the EU and the US
War
on Terror or War on Liberties?
By MARJORIE COHN
Once again, the eyes of the world are focused
on a brutal and devastating terrorist attack on innocent civilians,
this time in Spain. But instead of demanding tougher anti-terrorism
laws, the Spaniards on Sunday voted out the center-right government
that supported the Iraq war. The Spanish people, who had overwhelmingly
opposed the war, were evidently moved by Al Qaeda's statement
that the attack was "a response to your collaboration with
the criminals Bush and his allies."
As the Spanish national elections approached
last week, the center-right government had tried to lay blame
for the vicious rail attack on the Basque separatist movement
ETA, hoping that the people would respond by voting for the existing
government. But when the evidence pointed to Al Qaeda, the Spanish
people unseated the old government, and replaced it with the
Socialists.
On Sunday, the New York Times analyzed
Spain's readiness to sign onto George W. Bush's war on terror:
"Spain, like Britain, embraced the American approach, principally
in order to place its fight against ETA in the context of a global
war on terrorism." The soon-to-be Prime Minister Jose Luis
Rodriguez Zapatero recognizes this well. "This [former]
government," he told journalists, "doesn't serve Spaniards
any more, it only serves the interests of Bush."
Spain was one of the few European countries
that stood by Bush in his war on Iraq. After September 11, 2001,
under the guise of the "war on terror," the Bush administration
had launched a war on civil liberties. Although unable to convince
most European countries to participate in its Iraq war, Washington
successfully pressured the European Union to enact a framework
law on terrorism reminiscent of the repressive anti-terrorist
legislation in the United States.
At the end of February, I participated
in a colloquium in Brussels on the struggle against terrorism
and the protection of fundamental rights. Invited by the Belgian
Progress Lawyers Network, I was tasked with explaining the post-September
11 anti-terrorism laws in the United States to a large gathering
of European lawyers.
Three days before the colloquium, United
States Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige called the largest
teachers union in the U.S. a "terrorist organization."
This characterization alarmed the lawyers at the colloquium,
who fear that their own anti-terrorism laws will be used to suppress
labor struggles.
As lawyers and law professors from country
after country rose to speak about their anti-terrorism laws,
I felt an ominous deja-vu. The geography was different but the
themes were familiar: vague laws that criminalize dissent, authorize
preventive detention, and blur the separation of powers.
Many of the new anti-terrorism laws in
Europe, as in the United States, were in the works before September
11. The 342-page Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism
Act, or USA Patriot Act, rushed through Congress a month after
September 11, contains detailed provisions that had to have been
a long time in the drafting. Similarly, my European colleagues
explained that their governments, looking for ways to criminalize
trade union activity throughout the 1990s, took advantage of
the September 11 attacks to pass laws that will facilitate attacks
on labor.
In June 2002, the European Union enacted
a framework decision on combating terrorism. It establishes a
joint definition of "terrorism" that member states
are expected to insert in their national legislation. This definition
is so broad, it proscribes many social, political and labor movements.
It says that committing or threatening to (a) cause extensive
damage to a government or public facility, transport system,
infrastructure facility, or private property likely to result
in major economic loss, which may damage a government or international
organization, constitutes a terrorist offense, when committed
with the intent either (a) to compel the organization to perform
or abstain from any act, or (b) to seriously destabilize or destroy
the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social
structure of a country or international organization. A general
strike or a large demonstration against the World Trade Organization,
where property is damaged and considerable expense is incurred
to mobilize a police force, could be punished as terrorism under
this definition.
The framework decision contains a clause
that aims to protect civil liberties: "Nothing in this Framework
Decision may be interpreted as being intended to reduce or restrict
fundamental rights or freedoms such as the right to strike, freedom
of assembly, of association or of expression, including the right
of everyone to form and to join trade unions with others for
the protection of his or her interests and the related right
to demonstrate." But the European lawyers at the colloquium
were of the mind that this disclaimer merely provides lip service
to the protection of basic civil rights. They pointed out that
the Nazi occupiers attached the word "terrorist" to
the political prisoners interned at the Breendonk concentration
camp near Brussels, and Nelson Mandela was called a terrorist
before he was released from prison and elected president of the
newly liberated South Africa.
Six European Union member states have
enacted specific legislation to comply with the framework decision.
All consider the destabilization of political or economic power
an element of terrorist crime. Other member states are using
their existing laws on criminal conspiracy to punish not just
participation in terrorist acts, but also simply being a member
of prohibited organizations.
In December 2003, the Belgian Parliament
enacted an anti-terrorism law to comply with the framework decision.
Under its terms, someone painting graffiti in an urban environment
can be considered a terrorist, if the public prosecutor and judge
decide that the destruction of property was undertaken with the
purpose of "destabilizing or destroying the fundamental
political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a
country" and it caused "considerable economic damage."
The United Kingdom passed the Anti-Terrorism,
Crime and Security Act 2001 in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
A person can be indefinitely detained if the Home Secretary issues
a certificate stating he has (a) a reasonable belief that a person's
presence in the United Kingdom is a risk to national security,
and (b) a reasonable suspicion that the person is a terrorist.
"Terrorism" in the United Kingdom encompasses the use
or threat, "for the purpose of advancing a political, religious
or ideological cause," of action "designed to influence
a government or to intimidate the public or a section of the
public," which involves serious violence against any person
or serious damage to property, endangers the life of any person,
or "creates a serious risk to the health or safety of the
public or a section of the public, or is designed seriously to
interfere with or seriously disrupt an electronic system."
The law professors from the United Kingdom
felt that this definition is so broad, it is unworkable, and
blurs the line between protest and terrorist groups.
In Italy, the anti-terrorism law provides
for five to ten years imprisonment for simply participating in
organizations that "aim to commit violent actions with subversive
purposes against the democratic order." An Italian lawyer
complained that the provision does not define "subversive
purpose" or delineate what level of participation is required
to run afoul of this statute. He said the Italian law harkens
back to the Fascist code on terrorism. Likewise, some pointed
out that the Spanish definition of terrorism is the same as the
one in effect during Franco's regime.
Two hundred European lawyers, magistrates
and jurists signed a statement complaining that the European
framework decision threatens democratic rights. Last year, members
of the United Nations Human Rights Commission expressed concern
at the "broad use of the word terrorism" and the "increasing
attack on human rights" in the struggle against terrorism.
Lawyers at the colloquium observed that
in Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom, the executive branch
had enacted anti-terrorist laws, which place all power in the
executive, blurring the separation of powers.
Many also expressed concern at the absence
of guarantees that the privacy of databases shared by European
countries with the United States would be protected. A British
lawyer observed that providing sophisticated security devices
will be quite profitable; he called it the "security-industrial
complex."
Some pointed out that whereas the European
Union defines terrorism as a crime, the United States sees terrorism
as an act of war. International state terrorism, or regime change
(such as the United States' war on Iraq), however, is conveniently
excluded from the definitions of terrorism.
Most people in Europe opposed the war
on Iraq, and they do not see a war on civil liberties as an effective
antidote to terrorism. David, a young Spaniard, told the New
York Times why he changed his vote to Socialist: "Maybe
the Socialists will get our troops out of Iraq, and Al Qaeda
will forget about Spain, so we will be less frightened."
During the election campaign, Zapatero
vowed to change the government's policy toward ETA, saying, "We
have to sell the idea that Spain can be more democratic and that
it can understand the needs of the Basque country." He understands
that long as poverty, repression and imperialism are the norm,
terrorism will be the frightening response.
Marjorie Cohn,
a professor at Thomas Jefferson School in San Diego, is executive
vice president of the National Lawyers Guild, and the U.S. representative
to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists.
She can be reached at: cohn@counterpunch.org.
Weekend
Edition Features for March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|