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Today's
Stories
November 4
/ 5, 2006
Ralph Nader
Failure
Across All Fronts
November 3,
2006
Laura Carlsen
Day
of the Dead in Oaxaca
Stephan Said
Honoring Bradley Will
John Stauber
"Victory in Iraq:" The PR Machine Behind Bush's Favorite
Slogan
Mike Whitney
Baghdad is Surrounded
Joshua Frank
DNC Deja Vu
Victoria Furio
More Than Timetables
Tammara~85,441
They Say He is Coming Home
Stuart Croswaithe
Beatings and Sugar Plums: New Labor's War on the Kurds
Missy Beattie
Bush Shock
Website of
the Day
Howlin' Wolf
November 2, 2006
Winslow T.
Wheeler
The
US Body Count in Iraq: an Analysis of Who is Dying and How
Paul Craig
Roberts
Evil
is as Evil Does
Dave Lindorff
Kerry Out: the Joke's Still on Us
Uri Avnery
The
Lovable Man? Lieberman and the Decline of Israeli Democracy
Jeff Birkenstein
Smearing Harold Ford in Black Face
John Ross
Slave Labor in Private Prisons
Zoltan Grossman
Recharging the Anti-War Movement
Eveyln Pringle
The SEC's Probe of Halliburton: Is Cheney Being Fitted for a
Striped Jumpsuit?
Christopher
Brauchli
Drug Profits and PACs: Why Big Pharma Pushes the GOP
November 1,
2006
Alan Dershowitz
v. Bruce Jackson
On
Torture
Brian Tokar
Running
on Hype: the Real Scoop on Biofuels
Fred Leonhardt
Democrats,
Sex Crimes and the Press: the Goldschmidt Affair
Richard W.
Behan
Triumph
of the Petropublicans: Bush's Other Civil War
Brenda Norrell
Indigenous Opposition to the Border Wall
Charles Sullivan
Spoils of Corruption: Who Will Stand Up When America Goes Wrong?
Ron Jacobs
Hell is Rising in Oaxaca: interview with a Oaxacan Rebel
Mike Knapp
Green Stench in Minnesota: the Commissioner and the Hog Lot
Moshe Adler
The Temptations of a Union Boss: the Case of Brian McLaughlin
Walden Bello
Chain Gang Economics
Lee Ballinger
The Collapse of Hip Capitalism: How Tower Records Committed Suicide
Joshua Frank
Party in a Cage: Snake Oil and the Midterm Elections
Carl Gelderloos
Cheerleading the Massacre in Oaxaca: an Open Letter to the Washington
Post
Peter Rost,
MD
Panic
in Big Pharma
Saul Landau
Bush's
Anti-Terrorism Record: Don't Look Too Close
Website of the Day
The Meatrix
October 31, 2006
William S.
Lind
The
Third and Final Act: Iran
Stephen S.
Pearcy
Dem Candidate's Wife Urges Cindy Sheehan Not to Protest Iraq
War
Uri Avnery
Who's
Afraid of an Iranian Bomb?
Michael Colby
Corporations Win Again!: Bush Opens National Parks to Bio-Prospecting
Sunsara Taylor
A No-Win Election for Women
Ben Beachy
Targeting Nicaraguans' Stomachs: 11th Hour Election Meddling
by the US
Edward Humes
Nine Words: America's Disservice to Veterans
Roger Burbach
The Meaning of Lula's Victory in Brazil
Subcomandante Marcos
A Communique from the EZLN on Oaxaca
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Funny Business in the Booth: Vote for James H. 'Jim'
Sharon Smith
Those
Damned Democrats
Website of
the Day
Parks Not for Sale
October 30,
2006
Robert Fisk
Dirty
Bombs Over Lebanon: Did Israel Use Uranium Weapons?
Bruce Jackson
Normalizing
Torture
Norman Solomon
I Was Wrong About Thomas Friedman, the World's Wealthiest Pundit
Lance Selfa
Liberal Doormats: Tread on Us
Ali Khan
The Veil and the British Male Elite
Lee Sustar
European Islamophobia: Fanning the Flames of Hate
Robert Jensen
The Death of Empathy
Akiva Eldar
Lieberman: Making Haider Look Good
Tim Montague
The Natural Step to Eco-Villages
Brian M. Downing
Evil in the Valley: Civilian Massacres, From Vietnam to Iraq
Website of the Day
Alien Impeachment
October 27 / 29, 2006
Weekend Edition
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Hogwash:
Fecal Factories in the Heartland
Maher Arar
The
Horrors of Extraordinary Rendition: a Personal Account
David Rosen
Perversions of Power: Mark Foley and the Bush Administration
Gregory Elich
"A Bursting Boiler at Russia's Doorstep:" Why Bush
is Seeking Confrontation with N. Korea
Tom Barry
Fear and Loathing in the North: an Apartheid Fence in America?
Jeff Taylor
Democrats By Default?
Dave Lindorff
Why Nancy Pelosi is Wrong
Ron Jacobs
The General Who Called Out the Devil: the Politics of Hugo Chavez
Maurus Chino
Hauba Hanu: Oppression Affects All People
Christopher
Brauchli
Veiled Threats: the Global War on Fashion
Sherwood Ross
The Wages of Whistleblowing: Why Bunny Greenhouse Sits in a Corner
Rev. William
Alberts
In Search of a Real Inter-Religious Dialogue on War and Justice
Aseem Shrivastava
Pushing India Toward a "Dollar Democracy"
Saul Landau
/ Farrah Hassen
Bush's Mea Culpa Speech, First Draft
Russ Fine / Dee Fine
Of Peters and Principles: Learning About Sex and Hypocrisy from
the GOP
Seth Sandronsky
Social Security: the Distortions of Sebastian Mallaby
Michael Carmichael
Rogue President: Midterm Meltdown
Joe Allen
The Legacy of Gillo Pontecorvo: a Maker of Revolutionary Films
David Vest
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Landau, Engel and Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
Safely Home
October 26,
2006
Ismael Hossein-zadeh
Islamic
Fascism?: Inflammatory Ironies
Carlos Zorrilla
The
Police Raid on My House: Trumped Up Charges and Collusion Between
a Mining Company and the Government of Ecuador
Paul Craig Roberts
The Crimes of Greed vs. the Crimes of Government: If Enron's
Skilling Gets 24 Years in Prison, How Many Should Bush and Cheney
Get?
Mike Whitney
The Charnel House of Baghdad
Lily Hughes
A Cruel and Unusual Reality: Inside the Texas Death House
Jennifer Matsui
Madonna's African Safari: The Great White Baby Hunter
Tim Matson
How to Save Vermont
Stephen Fleischman
Like a Soldier: Benchmarks, Timelines and Lies
Missy Beattie
The Blood of October: Are We Sure Barney Still Supports This
War?
Patrick Cockburn
From
"Mission Accomplished" to "Mission Impossible"
in Iraq
Website of the Day
Open Letter to The Nation
October 25,
2006
Michael Donnelly
Ethnicity
and Baseball
John Stanton
The
Vindication of Sibel Edmonds
John Ross
Upheaval from the Bottom
Conn Hallinan
Hunting Hugo: When It's About Oil Nothing is Off the Table--Not
Even Assassination
Robert Jensen
Academic
Freedom on the Rocks
Johnny Barber
Drinking Tea with Hizbullah
Bruce K. Gagnon
Space Cowboy: Bush's War on Heaven
Daniel McGowan
Elie Wiesel for Israeli President?
James J. Brittain
Uribe's Failure to Learn from Colombia's Past
Peter Harley
Afghanistan in 3-D
Jonathan Cook
Israel's
Minister of Strategic Threats
Shepherd Bliss
The Bioneers and the New York Times
Website of
the Day
The Price of Staying the Course
October 24,
2006
John Walsh
The
Book of Rahm: Emanuel's War Plan for Democrats
M. Shahid Alam
Not All Terrorists Are Muslim: the Latest Falsehood from the
Advocates of Civilizational War
Dr. Trudy Bond
The Silence at Home, as America Eats Her Young
Michael Phillips
The Story of My Kidnapping in Nablus: "I Never Feared for
My Life"
Dave Lindorff
Truth and Consequences on Iraq: Bush's Latest Cut-and-Paste War
Plan
David Phinney
A US Fortress Rises in Baghdad: Asian Labor Trafficking Used
to Build World's Largest Embassy
Laura Carlsen
Food Insecurity: the World Needs Its Small Farmers
Pierre Tristam
The American Way of Gore
Marguerite
Rose Jimenez
"About
That Trip to Cuba:" When the FBI Came Calling
Website of
the Day
Tampon Terrorists
October 23,
2006
Saree Makdisi
Israel's
Cluster Bomb War: "What We Did Was Insane and Monstrous"
Joshua Frank
The
Antiwar Movement and Independent Politics: an Interview with
Cindy Sheehan
Fred Gardner
What Have California Doctors Learned About Cannabis?
Ralph Nader
The End of Habeas Corpus and the Belligerent Despot-in-Chief
Ron Jacobs
Bush's Clark Clifford: James Baker Wants a Kinder, Gentler War
Norman Solomon
Punditry Without Consequences: Channeling Thomas Friedman
Richard Manning
Outside the Market: We Need and Owe Rural People
Neil Kitson
Canadians in Afghanistan: Bloody, Unbowed, Stoned?
William MacDougall
The Socialist, the Columnist, His Wife and the Prostitute
Gilad Atzmon
Surviving the Board of Deputies
Werther
The
Evening of Empire
Website of
the Day
Different Drummer: Internet Coffeehouse Movement
October 20
/ 22, 2006
Alexander Cockburn
The
Myth of Microloans
Gary Leupp
How
the US Declared War on North Korea
Brian Cloughley
What Are They Dying For?
Dave Zirin
Pat Tillman's Brother Breaks His Silence
William Blum
Don't Look Back: Who Said Clinton Didn't Kill Anybody?
Christopher
Brauchli
The
Cronies' War
Winslow Wheeler
The
Mad Logic of Pentagon Spending: As Costs Rise, Readiness Declines
Michael Donnelly
GOP Death Slide: Is the Party Really Over?
Fred Gardner
Corporate Drugs Useless Against Alzheimer's
Susie Day
How
to Stay Out of Gitmo
Lucinda Marshall
Behind Closed Doors: the Invisibility of Domestic Violence
Fred Wilcox
The Second Palestinian Intifada: History of a Struggle for Survival
Alan Maass
Standing Up Against Racism at Columbia: a Wake Up Call to the
Passive Left
Lee Sustar
A Bipartisan Border Wall: New Phases in the Crackdown on Immigrants
Ariadna Theokopoulos
Shame on You, Dr. Warf: Hail the Epidemiologist in Chief
Missy Beattie
Surges: the Dow and the Death Count
CP News Wire
Bush's Paraguay Land Grab: Hideout or Water Raid?
CP News Services
Sexually Repressed Republicans: Robert Bork, Riveted
Poets' Basement
Davies, Engel, Buknatski and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Scenes from Oaxaca
October 19,
2006
Elaine Cassel
The
Bush Administration's Assault on Defense Lawyers
Col. Dan Smith
Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine: Cracks in the Bush / Blair
Axis
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
North Korea's Nuclear Test: a Q & A
Josh Gryniewicz
Wal-Mart Tightens the Squeeze on Workers
Amira Hass
What is 20 Tons of Explosives?
Eric Holt-Gimenez
Poison and Famine in the Fields: How the Agri-Food Industry's
Deadly Cycle Feeds Immigration
Jesse Hagopian
Arrested Democracy: On Trying to Ignore Aaron Dixon
Sam Husseini
How Third Parties Can Solve the "Spoiler" Problem and
Win Elections
John Weisheit
A
Gathering of Water Buffaloes: Feds Celebrate Death of the Colorado
River
CP News Service
A Plea to U2 From Africa's Children: Stop Bono Before He Kills
Again
Website of
the Day
George W. Bush: Hollywood Producer
Art Gallery
of the Day
Botero's Abu Ghraib Paintings in Manhattan
October 18,
2006
Joshua Frank
Cindy
Sheehan's Lesser Evilism: Democrats or Bust?
Dr. Curran
Warf, MD
Slandering Sound Science: Bush's Attack on the Lancet Iraq War
Death Study
Saul Landau
Bush's
Foley: Will the Dems Blow It?
Tom Barry
The
Politics of Fear
Bruce Jackson
Thundersnow: a Report from Buffalo
Dave Lindorff
Loveless Among the Ruins: Even Repubs Flee Bush's Failed Middle
East Policy
Frederico Fuentes
When Cochabamba Said "Enough": Bolivia's Blow to Neoliberalism
Michael Simmons
Greetings from Echo Park: an Open Letter to Rolling Stone's Jann
Wenner
Daryll E. Ray
The Root Problems in American Agriculture
Kate Doyle
The Dead of Tlatelolco
Website of
the Day
The
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
October 17, 2006
Michael Neumann
Hit
and Run: Guerrilla Reviewing
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
Nuclear
Test, Political Flare: Interpreting the Physics and Politics
of N. Korea's Nuclear Test
Stephen S.
Pearcy
The Interrogation of Julia Wilson: Secret Service Grills 14 Year-Old
Artist
Sharon Smith
Afghanistan
Reconsidered: The Taliban Aren't Gone, Women Haven't Been Liberated
Al Krebs
The Corporate Assault on Zoning
David Underhill
Politicus Interruptus: Come Back, Jo Bonner
Daniel Wolff
NY's Iraq Veterans Against the War Needs Your Help ... Now
James Brooks
Desirable
Duds: Israeli / US Cluster Bombs Litter Lebanon
Website of the Day
Stop Torture Now
October 16,
2006
Gary Leupp
North
Korea as a Religious State
Patrick Cockburn
General
Mutinies Against Blair
David Wilson
Where Have All the Doctors Gone?: the Collapse of Iraq's Health
Care Services
Robert Fisk
Confronting Turkey's Armenian Genocide
Robert Jensen
Racism and Cheap Thrills at U. of Texas Law School
Ingmar Lee
/ Krista Roessingh
An Appeal for S. India's Wild Elephants
Mike Whitney
America's Other War Party
Jake Whitney
The Courageous Dr. Rost
Sanho Tree
Sugar Daddy Politics: Was Foley Blackmailed to Secure His Vote
on CAFTA?
Website of
the Day
Best
War Ever
October 14/15, 2006
Weekend Edition
Uri Avnery
Gaza
as Laboratory: the Great Experiment
John Walsh
How
Rahm Emmanuel Has Rigged a Pro-War Congress
Jean Bricmont
A Fable About Palestine
Jennifer Van Bergen
Bush's Military Commissions Act and the Future of America
Ralph Nader
Wilted Yankees: the Fruits of Checkbook Baseball
Floyd Rudmin
The Logic of Proliferation: How Bush's Belligerence Prompted
N. Korea to Pursue Nuclear Weapons
Mark Weisbrot
Correcting the Facts on US/Venezuela Relations
Laura Carlsen
Building a Future in the Mixteca
Hani Shukrallah
A Stroll Through the Cairo Mall: Shopping as Cultural Pursuit
Dr. Susan Block
The Spent Milk of Human Foley
John Chuckman
North Korea's Bomb: Still 1,126 Nuke Tests Behind the US
Lucinda Marshall
Is Betty Ugly?: the Profits of Denigration
Don Monkerud
The Case Against Depleted Uranium
Missy Comley
Beattie
What Bush Means By Tolerable Violence in Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Shouting "No One is Illegal" in a Crowded Theater
Website of
the Weekend
Ratfink Raunchfest
October 13,
2006
Jorge Mariscal
PowerPoint
Racism: How Military Recruiters Pitch to Latinos
Stephen Philion
The
Myth of the Spat Upon Vets: an Interview with Jerry Lembcke
John Blair
Strip Mining Wildlife Preserves: Black Beauty's Filthy Lucre
Col. Dan Smith
Oil, Atoms and War
Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry
How Hezbollah Defeated Israel: Part Two, Winning the Ground War
Stephen Fleischman
Journalism Then and Now
Charles Perroud
The Death Penalty's Invisible Victims
Anne E. Brodsky
Return
to Afghanistan: Where the Rhetoric Doesn't Match the Reality
Website of the Day
Underwater Nuke Test
October 12,
2006
Jonathan Cook
Israel's
Plan for a Military Strike on Iran
Norman Solomon
The Pundit Path to Death in Iraq
M. Shahid Alam
On Colonialism and Colleagues
Paul Craig
Roberts
Can We Call It Genocide Now?
Meredith Schafer / Chris Kutalik
Is a General Transportation Strike Looming for 2008? Can Labor
Seize the Moment?
Carl Gelderloos
Images of Occupation: Teaching in Nablus
Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry
How Hezbollah Defeated Israel: Part One, Winning the Intelligence
War
Charles Sullivan
Assassins of Truth
William S. Lind
Why Do We Still Fight a Lost War?
CP News Service
The South Turns Against the War
Website of
the Day
There's a Riot Goin' On
October 11,
2006
John Feffer
Pyongyang
1, Bush 0
Dave Lindorff
A Killing Occupation
Jackson Katz
Gunning Down Women: Coverage of "School Shootings"
Misses Central Issue
April Howard / Ben Dangl
The Tin War in Bolivia
Michael Carmichael
World War W
Ken Couesbouc
The New Witchcraft: Marvin Harris on the War on Terror
Gregory Afghani
Sleepless on Skid Row: Guilty of Being Homeless in America
Alexander Cockburn
600,000 Dead in Iraq: Chortles in the New Yorker for Slaughter's
Cheerleader, C. Hitchens
Website of
the Day
Petition: Defend Columbia Students Who Confronted the Minutemen
October 10,
2006
Paul Craig
Roberts
Lost
Wars and a Lost Economy
Robert Robideau
The
Myth Keepers of Columbus
Joshua Frank
The
Democrats and the War on Civil Liberties
Dave Lindorff
Free the Press Free Linda Greenhouse
Dave Zirin
Brother of the Fist
Heather Gray
Where Votes Matter: My Experience in South Africa
James Knotwell
Big Ag in the Heartland: the Future of Nebraska's Family Farms
Missy Beattie
The Return of James Baker, III
Mike Whitney
Bush and North Korea: Bumbling Toward Disaster
David Rosen
Sex Panic on Capitol Hill: Mark Foley and the Politics of Sex
in America
Website of the Day
Eno / Byrne: Music to Enjoy the Foley Scandal By
October 9. 2006
Robert Fisk
The
Age of Terror
Norman Solomon
Welcome to the Nuclear Club
Ron Jacobs
The
Boom Heard Around the World
Gideon Levy
The Mystery of America
Walter Brasch
Their Back Pages: Sex, Lies and Family Values
Mickey Z.
Who Killed Michael Moore?
John Holt
Grizzlies in Our Midst: Can Humans and Bears Coexist?
Lucinda Marshall
Not So Pretty in Pink: Profits and Breast Cancer
Saul Landau
Post-Castro
Cuba
Website of the Day
War, Inc.
October 7 /
8, 2006
Weekend Edition
Alexander Cockburn
Wargasms
and Orgasms
Peter Kwong
The Chinese Face of Neoliberalism
Ralph Nader
Revolt of the Generals
Mark Donham
What Cynthia McKinney Means to Me
Dave Lindorff
Philly's Police Snoops
Peter Bosshard
World Bank Shuts Out Dissident Voices: Big Dams, Huge Profits
& Political Corruption
Ron Jacobs
Evil Hour in Colombia
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Governmental Derelicts: Moral Meltdown in America
Fred Gardner
Arnold Vetoes Hemp Bill
David Green
The US, Israel and the Invasion of Lebanon
Jim B.
Activism, Incorporated: Outsourcing Grassroots Politics?
Missy Beattie
Prayers for Peace at the Edge of the Abyss
Michael Donnelly
Blame the Page: Grand Old Perverts Go on Offensive
Jackson Thoreau
Enter Newt
Jon Hung
Revisiting Korematsu: Denying Civil Rights Based on National
Origin
CounterPunch
News Service
Why We Confronted the Minutemen at Columbia
Tom D'Antoni
Playlist
Poets' Basement
Orloski, Davies, Tirado, Gaffney and Ford
Website of the Weekend
Reagan Gone Wild
October 6, 2006
Alison Weir
Just
Another Mother Murdered
Tiffany Ten
Eyck / Mark Brenner
Made
in (DeUnionized) America
Corporate Crime Reporter
Look Who's Behind "37 Reasons" to Vote for Big Business:
Former Clinton PR Flak Mike McCurry
Juan Antonio
Montecino
Cleaving a False Divide in Latin America
Walden Bello
A Siamese Tragedy
Christopher
Brauchli
Rank Invitations: Dining with Bush
Brynne Keith-Jennings
Dan Burton in Nicaragua: the Congressman, His Stick and the Elections
Jonathan Cook
The Struggle for Palestine's Soul
Website of the Day
Fighting Hog Farms and Clearcuts in the Heartland
October 5, 2006
John Walsh
Turn
the Page
Carol Norris
The
Radical Right, the Myth of the Gay Child Abuser and You: a Psychotherapist
on the Hysteria Over Foley
Paul Craig Roberts
Will November Bring Hope or Another Stolen Election?
Ricardo Alarcón
The
Truth About the Embargo of Cuba
James Abourezk
Waterboarding the Constitution: After Torture, What's Next?
Nicola Nasser
Removing Hamas: Brinksmanship or Coup d'Etat?
Kirkpatrick Sale
Breaking Away: the First North American Secessionist Conference
Uri Avnery
Peace
with Syria: Lunch in Damascus
Website of the Day
More Naughty GOP Messages
October 4, 2006
Elizabeth Terzakis
The
Walls That Racism Built: Blood Revenge, the Death Penalty and
Kevin Cooper
Paul Wolf
The
Mushy Rebellion: Pakistan Under Musharraf
Sean Penn
The
Arrogant, the Misguided and the Cowards
Dave Lindorff
Outrage as Misdirection: The Real Scandal isn't Foley
Diane Farsetta
For Sale: Iraqi Kurdistan
Sharon Smith
Democrats:
Yes to War, No to Pedophilia
Felice Pace
Revoking 1776
Sara Roy
The Economy of Gaza
Website of
the Day
Alexander Cockburn: the Video Interview (Part Two)
October 3, 2006
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Compassionate
Conservative Pedophiles
Greg Moses
The Infallible Empire: Junking Habeas Corpus
Stan Cox
Real Bad ID: a National Driver's License and the Fading Right
of Anonymity
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
How Empires Die
Evelyn Pringle
Big Pharma Takes a Hit: Alaska's Supreme Court Outlaws Forced
Drugging
Fred Wilhelms
SoundExchange and Unpaid Music Artists: Help Us Find These Musicians
and Get Them Paid
Michael Abelman
Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food: the Risks of Convenience and
Consolidation
Gary Leupp
The Foley Follies
Website of the Day
Bush and Blair: Endless Love
October 2,
2006
Eric Hazan
Roadmap
to Nowhere: an Interview with Tanya Reinhart on Israel/Palestine
Since 2003
Mike Whitney
Bloodbath on 60 Minutes: Court
Stenographer Finally Comes Clean
Norman Solomon
American Narcissism and Iraq
Assaf Kfoury
Meeting Nasrallah
Missy Beattie
The Meaning of "ummmm": Speaker Hasert and the Over-Friendly
Congressman
Arthur Neslen
Lie Less in Gaza
Paula J. Caplan
How
the Supreme Court Mangled My Research
Website of the Day
Predator Drones Target Bechtel
Sept. 30 /
0ct. 1, 2006
Weekend Edition
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
New Face of Class War
Marjorie Cohn
Rounding Up US Citizens: a Consitutional Shredding
Ben Tripp
Deviant Conservative Males: an Analysis
Ron Jacobs
A Dismal and Chaotic Place: Iraq According to Patrick Cockburn
Ralph Nader
Torturer-in-Chief
Mike Whitney
Iraq: The Breaking Point
Christopher Reed
It Pays to Raise a Ruckus
Seth Sandronsky
The Housing Bust: Excess Investment and Its Discontents
Fred Gardner
The Chancellor's Wife
Mokhiber /
Weissman
Hewlett Packard and the Erosion of Privacy
Michael Dickinson
My Escape Attempt from Prison Transfer: Extract from a Diary
in Turkish Police Custody
Alan Gregory
Fake Green: Top 10 Ways Politicians Pretend to be Environmentalists
Poets' Basement
Gardner, Landau, Lindorff, Davies,& Buknatski
September 29,
2006
Bruce Jackson
Chavez's
Reading, Bush's Reading
Michael J.
Smith
The
Lobby Debate Does Manhattan
Emira Woods
Oil Trip: Record Profits for Exxon, Deprivation for Africa
William S.
Lind
The Sanctuary Illusion: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq as Theme
Parks for 4GW
David Swanson
Mommy, What's Waterboarding?
Jonathan Cook
Bad
Faith and the Destruction of Palestine
Website of the Day
Jesus: the Recruitment Tapes
September 28, 2006
Sen. Russ Feingold
The
Flaws in the Military Commissions Act
Ron Jacobs
The
Generals, the Democrats and Iraq: One Policy, Two Parties
Mokhiber /
Weissman
Scenes from Laura's Book Festival: Elmo Will Not Save You
Lee Sustar
A Left Challenge to Lula
Robert Jensen
Finding My Way Back to Church--and Getting Kicked Out
John Chuckman
America Has Just Lost Two More Wars
Evelyn Pringle
Inside America's Nursing Homes: a Hidden Tragedy of Neglect and
Abuse
Nicola Nasser
Bush and Islam: Words vs. Deeds
Uri Avnery
Political
Corruption in Israel
Website of the Day
Art Against the Empire
September 27, 2006
Patrick Cockburn
A
Final Explosion Looms in Mosul
Camilo Mejia
Blowback From Iraq: Giving Terrorism a Reason to Exist
Pat Williams
Tax Burdens and Cheaters in the Rockies: Send Those IRS Mercenaries
in Search of Montana's Land Barons and Oil Drillers
Ben Terrall
Failing Haiti: Another Bungled UN Mission
Ridgeway /
Ng
Paul Weyrich Explaines His Opposition to the Patriot Act: a Short
Film
Joe Allen
Where are the Mass Protests?
Andrew Wimmer
Don't Disappear Into a Black Hole
Franklin C. Spinney
Rumsfeld's AutoCarterization: Skullduggery in the Pentagon's
Budget
Website of
the Day
Model Nukes: the Photo Contest
September 26, 2006
Hani Shukrallah
The
American Mind: When Historical Analysis is Reduced to Whim
William Blum
If It's Election Season, It Must Be Time for a Terror Alert
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Torturing the Obvious
Barbara Becnel
Witness to an Execution: a Slow and Very Painful Death
Paul Rockwell
Judicial Complicity in US War Crimes: the Watada Case
Dave Lindorff
Bush and Iran: Going to War to Save His Own Ass?
Rich Gibson
Lessons from the Detroit Teachers' Strike
Anthony Papa
The Danger of Meth Registries: "Have a Cold? Prove It, Then
Sign Here"
Nate Mezmer
New Orleans is Back ... Without Blacks: Monday Night Football
at the Superdome
Uri Avnery
Mohammed's
Sword
Website of the Day
Only YOU Can Stop the Sale of Public Lands to Mining, Timber
and Real Estate Corporations
September 25, 2006
Patrick Cockburn
The
Most Dangerous Place in the World: a Journey to Iraq's "Taliban
Republic"
Jonathan Cook
Human Rights Watch: Still Missing the Point on Lebanon
Joshua Frank
Did
Maria Cantwell's Campaign Try to Buy Off Aaron Dixon?
Paul Craig
Roberts
Is
the Bush Administration Itching to Nuke Iran?
Robert Jensen
Defending Chavez on FoxNews
Dave Lindorff
Horowitz on Campus: This Mouth for Hire
Norman Solomon
Media Tall Tales for Next War
Dr. Charles
Jonkel
Save a Grizzly, Visit a Library: "People like the Croc Hunter
are Worse Than the Most Bloodthirsty Slob Hunter
Michael Dickinson
"The King's New Clothes:" a Play Written in a Turkish
Jail
Alexander Cockburn
Flying
Saucers and the Decline of the Left
Website of
the Day
Great Bear Foundation
September 23
/ 24, 2006
Weekend Edition
Jonathan Cook
How
Israel is Engineering the "Clash of Civilizations"
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Star Wars Goes Online ... Crashes
Dr. Anon
A Doctor's Life in Baghdad
Tom Barry
Oil and Political Opportunism
Carl G. Estabrook
The Darfur Smokescreen
Laura Carlsen
Mexico's Two Presidents
Todd Chretien
The Axis of Lesser Evilism
Dr. Charles
Jonkel
From Grizzly Man to the Croc Hunter: the Global Media and the
Death of Bears
Debbie Nathan
I Was Disappeared By Salon
Fred Gardner
Dustin Costa Struggles Against Invisibility
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Weekend
Edition
November 4 / 5, 2006
A Prison Diary
Watching
the Guards
By MICHAEL DICKINSON
In September 2006 I was arrested in
Istanbul for displaying a collage picture I had made of the Turkish
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in the role of a pet dog owned
by George W Bush. Charged with insulting to the dignity of the
Turkish authorities' I spent 10 days in Turkish police custody
3 days in prison, and seven days in the Detention Centre for
Foreigners' where I was called a guest', and instead of being
put inside the overcrowded holding center along with the other
foreign detainees, had to endure the company of the Turkish police
who detained them, sharing their company and sleeping on a row
of chairs in a windowless office.
After 10 days I was suddenly
released without charge and told to leave the country my residence
permit no longer valid.
The following is extracts from
a diary I kept during my enforced stay with the guards at the
detention center.
Saturday
16th September 2006
I'd been given the impression
that I was to be released in the morning, but that turned out
to be a lie. Instead, I was told that I was to spend two more
nights here (it's the weekend) and that I am to be deported to
England on Monday, after someone, (a friend') has been sent to
get my passport from my flat! Or if I want to stay, I will have
to be taken to Ankara for some reason, to appear before something
or someone.
A poor young Somali has been
here most of the day, wanting to speak to some friends in the
lock-up. They won't let him in with them because he's only 16.
He'd already spent 15 days in a prison cell himself (lucky fella!)
after having been picked up with no passport. The chief asked
for money for a photo of him to send to the United Nations to
help him. After getting change from a 10 Euro note he was left
with only 5 YTL in the world, so I gave him a tenner.
The Turkish news (the little
I see of it in my present circumstances) is featuring heavy on
the comment by Pope Benedict that Islam had nothing really new
to add to religion, and Mohammed had used force to establish
it. Prime Minister Erdogan is asking for an apology, and there
have been protests around the world.
It's 8 pm and the guards have
changed (some cocky, false-faced cheeky ones). And I'm stuck
here for the night again. It's Hell.
Sunday 17th
September 2006
Last night a (mostly Somali)
lot of men were called into the office one by one to collect
a document with the photos I'd seen them having taken the day
before; the Turkish police making condescending comments about
each of them, the chief telling them individually in English
(after asking me if the phrase was correct) to "Go Home!"
He asked one to show where Somalia was on the wall map. Poor
fellow couldn't find it immediately. There are so many here
because they are trying to escape the civil war in their country,
between the 3 main tribes, although they are all Muslim.
I was allowed to push a couple
of the 3 seat benches together, so I had more room to bed down
at 12 pm. The light was on all night, and I was subjected to
sleep-deprivation by a barrage of noise. The police were in
and out of the office, playing something on the computer in here
and on the one in the hall outside, shouting to each other and
laughing, talking at the same time. The TV was on full volume
and the radio; loud banging of metal doors, scraping of chairs
on the marble floor; rapping, knocking, pounding, thumping, all
magnified perhaps by my state of mind, so that I hardly slept
at all.
And now I'm up and the guards
have changed, they with cups of tea, and none offered me. There
was no water in the cooler upstairs so I had to settle for tap
water with its heavily chlorinated flavor. Yesterday I was
given nothing to eat until I asked about 4 pm for one of the
cheese sandwiches that were being given to the prisoners in the
lockup.
The chief on duty last night
said he'd seen me on telly showing my poster and being arrested.
"Which channel?" I asked. "All of them!"
he laughed so the university should know why I haven't turned
up for work, at least.
It's 6.40 pm now. Again I
didn't get anything given to eat till about 4 o'clock when a
trustee casually handed me one of the stale half-loaves left
over in the boxes from feeding those in the lockup, stuffed with
a few inferior black olives. I ate it to avoid hunger pangs,
because I reckon I won't be being given anything else today.
The cop who shot at me appeared
this afternoon, limping from a wound to his knee that he'd got
when he fell over in the chase. He'd been off for a couple of
days because of his injuries. He showed me the arm, which was
badly scraped and red, and he had a plaster on his thumb. He
wasn't swearing or threatening any more, but still angry and
blaming me. I said I was sorry, but had merely taken my chance
at escape and failed. I told him he was probably considered
a hero because he'd managed to catch me; would probably have
been fired if I'd escaped.
Monday 18th
September 2006
Today's chief just came into
the room to talk to the cop at the desk, and I asked him about
my situation. He told me not to worry, then called another cop
into the room and pointed at me, asking if he knew who I was.
The cop looked blankly at me, so the chief held up an imaginary
poster, saying "Protesto! Pankart!" and the cop cottoned
on. "Bush" he said so I guess I must be even more
famous in the outside world.
Last night I became very depressed
for a while, and snapped back at Yilmaz (the humanist' guard
who speaks good English) when he asked what I was thinking as
I stared at the revolving electric fan, full of gloom; but later
I pulled myself out of it and we talked (not deeply) about things
such as books (he hates Orhan Pamuk for saying that Turks had
massacred Armenians at the beginning of the last century); music
(he hates singer Ibrahim Tatlises because he supports the Kurdish
Resistance Movement); and spirits (he believes that djinns sometimes
try to possess him.) But otherwise he is a very intelligent
man apart from believing in miracles such as the parting of
the Red Sea by Moses.
He told me not to put two rows
of chairs together to sleep on when I went to bed down at 12.30
because he said he might want to use one himself to kip on during
the night; so I spent a tortuous time trying to keep my balance
on the restricted space and got no sleep also because the cops
had the telly blaring with football matches all night. Eventually,
about 5.30 am I noticed Yildiz was sleeping with his head on
the desk, so I did put two rows together and was a little more
comfortable. The only snatched dream I had was of going onto
a beach covered with rotten rubbish and a dead cat, and masses
of flies swarmed around me, pregnant with disease probably a
Freudian interpretation of this dump.
This morning, sitting in the
reception hall, as I was finishing writing my rhyming couplet
playlet The King's New Clothes' (finished! And good, I think,)
they dragged a guy out of the lockup (one who had been working
as a kind of trustee, clearing up, serving tea and bringing deliveries.)
Apparently they'd found some narcotic stuff hidden in a tube
of toothpaste. He was carted off into the stairwell by the particularly
nasty group of cops on duty today, who kicked and beat the shit
out of him.
Later they did the same to
a guy accused of stealing someone's money in the lockup. As
they dragged him out, one cop who didn't even know the charge
slapped him really hard twice across the face and another punched
him as he was carted off to the stairwell, one cop grabbing a
baton along the way. I think he prodded the guy in the chest
or stomach with it, because I heard him coughing and rasping
as though winded.
And later this afternoon twice,
two troops of new prisoners arrived. As they were let onto this
floor, the chief cop (older than the others, and who had been
polite and courteous to me before, making me think he might be
a nice man,) was waiting at the gate, kicking viciously at the
poor souls as they came running in one by one, sending some sprawling
across the floor, much to the delight of the other cops, who
laughed and applauded. Obviously his party trick.
The last was a group of small-sized
Bangladeshis, who are now seated cowering on the stairs, waiting
to go through the humiliation of being frisked and barked out
by the (just as nasty) cops on duty tonight. They've already
been slapped and beaten upstairs. Welcome to Turkey!
I went into the lockup for
the first time today, as the chief had sent out a minion to buy
me a phone-card so I could use one of the phones inside at last.
Although it is extremely crowded in there, the floor crowded
with bodies lying on blankets on the floor and others roaming
around, at least the men in there are people, rather than the
devils out here. I decided I wanted to be in there and asked
Uncle Chief but he said no, I was a guest', and it wasn't suitable
for me.
12pm.
Suddenly loads more people
arrived and are lined up in ranks on the stairs up and down,
about 200, still in the process of being checked to enter into
the lockup, almost too many for the cops to enjoy their sadism;
this is a bit too much of a chore.
Most of the men are young and
black or dark brown. I spoke to one guy on crutches. He'd arrived
yesterday from Bangladesh to have some new false legs fitted
at a hospital in Ankara, and his passport and money have been
stolen by mafya'. He has the phone number of the doctor, so
that may be a help.
At 11 pm everyone was sneezing
and coughing because one of the cops sprayed pepper-spray in
the face of a bolshie detainee very clever in such a confined
space. So - all these extra people are going into the lockup
with those already there, which will bring the number up to about
500! Going over the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount
tonight, I can't help identifying these detainees as the poor
in spirit', the meek', they who hunger and thirst after righteousness',
the pure in heart', those which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake'
There's a picture of Ataturk
(obligatory) on the office wall, and I was staring at it earlier
while the cops were maliciously persecuting the prisoners, thinking
"what do you think of your children now, Mr Ataturk?"
And how will these people describe the Turks when they return
to their own countries, based on their treatment here? Cruel
and horrible.
Tuesday
19th
8.45
They didn't get all the new
arrestees processed (too many) so all the upstairs, step by step,
are still crammed with dark-skinned detainees who spent the whole
night crouched there. In comparison, (although I hardly slept
a wink) it must have seemed to them (able to see me through the
open office door) that I was in the lap of luxury, stretched
out on the two rows of chairs that I'd managed to push together.
The filth were in for a little
cake party in the office here in the early hours, chatting and
giggling away, playing loud music, laughing and boasting about
people they'd slapped and kicked, imitating the plaintive pleas
of their victims. "Brother! Brother!" I had my face
covered with my shirt so they weren't aware that I was listening.
Yildiz has arrived for the
day shift with an "Oh my friend! How are you?"
"How do you think?"
I asked, and told him he worked with devils.
Another guard asked what was
wrong with my face, and indeed my skin has become red, blotchy
and flaky. (I suspect scabies, not having had any fresh fruit
or vegetables for so many days.") Itchy too.
"Allerji," said the
cop.
"Yeah," said I.
" - To this place."
I twisted my ankle coming
downstairs this morning while trying to pass a bottle of water
surreptitiously to one of the Pakistanis on the stair. I noticed
him holding an empty bottle which he'd hopefully indicated to
the day chief, who'd been sitting reading his football paper.
He and his mates had just had a little tea party with peanuts
at the table in front of the desk, and he imperiously signaled
for the man to clear the tabletop off and put the rubbish in
a bin bag. One of the discarded things left was a plastic beaker
full of water, and the Pakistani looked at it longingly, but
the chief clicked his fingers for him to drop that into the bag
too, and then sent the guy back to his place with his empty bottle.
I decided to go upstairs to
the toilet (I've since been told always to ask when I want to
go, and must be accompanied) and as I passed I took the bottle
from the guy and filled it in the kitchen. As I was coming down
several cops were congregated at the foot of the stair talking.
I quickly passed the man the bottle, but missed the last two
steps and landed wrong on my foot with a painful twist. The
guards noticed that instead, and one said: "Be careful."
Earlier last night, with the
lockup so full, there sounded like what might have turned into
a riot, with screaming, shouting, chanting and banging from the
prisoners inside. I lay and listened and imagined the barking
sadists charging in with their batons being seized by the furious
inmates and torn limb from limb in revenge for their brutality.
A bit unChristian of me perhaps, but it didn't happen anyway.
I was in there today, allowed
to make a phone call. The fetid stench was awful. I was approached
by a black guy speaking good English, saying he'd seen me on
the telly (the Israeli protest.) He'd been in 4 months and said
some had been there for more than a year. He said someone should
come in and take pictures of the place. It is a scandal. Told
him I'd report what I'd seen when I got out.
Today I felt listless and tired,
again given nothing to eat until 7.15 when I mentioned that I
hadn't eaten all day. Yildiz, about to go off duty, brought
me a tray, saying "My friend, my friend!" He says that
to everyone. I asked him why.
"Am I not your friend?"
he asked.
"I don't think so,"
I said, eating and not looking at him. As I said this morning,
how can he work with such monsters, without condemning or reporting
them for their cruelty? Again a little unChristian, but hope
it might make him think on his way home.
The new lot on tonight is a
nasty lot again. I heard some slapping and banging in the hall
and went out to investigate but was told to go back into the
office and sit down. A little later a Pakistani with a bleeding
nose was escorted upstairs, splashing blood on the way, cleaned
up with a mop by one of the trustees.
They don't like to see me watching.
The other day the chief took some new inmates into the office
for a slapping while I was in the hall, but positioned so I could
see through the door. He told me to move my seat further away.
"But I can still hear!"
I warned defiantly as I shifted out of eyesight.
Apart from the meanies there
are the wishy-washy ones who don't hit, but smile on the antics
of the others, and don't criticize them.
The Pakistanis who were on
the stairs last night and who this morning suddenly disappeared
are back on the stairs again, having been stored in a room upstairs,
about to be processed to go into the slammer now a batch of prisoners
have been deported.
20th
Sep.
8.50
Just bedded down last night
on my pushed together chairs, with my shirt covering my face
to keep out the light, when I heard: "Do you speak English?"
Whack! "Do you speak English?" Whack!
I took my shirt away from my
eyes and saw one of the guards with a long stick, whacking the
open outstretched palms of the Pakistani detainees crouched on
the stairs.
"What do you think you're
doing?" I shouted twice before the head man looked at me
but carried on, selecting victims and taking them upstairs, where
I'd seen a line of lads standing facing the wall earlier when
I was escorted up to the toilet. When I asked why, my guardian
said he didn't know. "Torture," I said. "No,"
he said. "Yes," I said. And it is.
I woke about 6 am and heard
slapping still going on the staircase; then the cops decided
to have a coffee break and a giggle before going back for more
slapping and degradation
Hassan Bey, the duty officer
today, said that I didn't have to ask to go to the toilet when
he was on, but when I went to get a cup of water I was told I
had to ask for that, which pissed me off.
One good thing I discovered
in the late afternoon is a wide terrace on the top floor, and
I asked permission of chief Metin Bey to be able to use it now
and again. Went out and discovered the Bangladesh crowd out
there (so that's where they got to!), but they will be back on
the stairs for the night (although hopefully not terrorized like
last night, as there is a friendlier crew of guards on tonight
- I think.) Chatted with a couple of Banglas, but my main delight
was to be out in the open air again after a week locked away.
The fresh air, the wide sky, the green of the trees in the park
(military) opposite, still with their leaves; the swallows still
gaming, the young seagulls almost perfect in their flight; and
the fascination of watching the people coming and going in the
street. Free! I noticed kids in school uniforms must have
gone back this week. I will try to get out on the terrace as
much as I can
Yildiz on duty tonight, sitting
at the table next to the desk eating a sandwich.
"Hello my friend!"
I greeted him. He looked at me sulkily.
"You said you weren't
my friend," he said.
"That was yesterday,"
I said. "I was in a very bad mood."
"When you are in a good
mood, I am in a bad; and when you are in a bad, I am in a good,"
he said. But we've patched it up, and he's just given me half
of a chocolate egg he'd brought, along with a plastic spaceship
toy inside.
The group on duty tonight is
not a cruel lot, and it makes a difference: none of the screaming
and shouting and hitting, even allowing some of the inmates to
sit out in the hall and drink tea. I went into the slammer to
make a call. It really is amazingly crowded, hardly any space
left, the floor littered with the bodies on blankets, but there
is a comradeship and fairness amongst them. I hear there are
close on to 600. The Bangladeshi with the false legs has now
found himself in there, not in a very good position (in a chair
next to the busy stinking toilet but beggars can't be choosers.)
One of the 2 phones is out of order due to the frustrated reaction
of a caller smashing it after not getting through. There is
a constant queue for the remaining one all day and night. Another
guy said he'd seen me on TV, so I learn that there is one in
there somewhere.
Thur 21
Not a bad night compared to
others. I retired about 12 with the 2 rows of chairs together.
Managed to find the correct switch out of the choice of 6 on
the wall, and turned out the light and nobody turned it on after
that, or came and played music on the computer. The electric
fan was on me. During the night a young prisoner was laid to
sleep on newspaper spread on the floor of the office next to
my bed'.
Last night the Bangladeshis
were put back on the stairs, but after a visit from someone important
(all the police stood up when he arrived) and a meeting called
upstairs, they disappeared again (back on the terrace?)
They were on the terrace this
morning when, after making myself a tea (no-one in the kitchen)
I took it through the computer room and out there myself. I
sat on a bench around the corner alone, looking at the blue sky
and piles of clouds and thought to myself: "This is the
life!"
"Not for much longer,"
said a quiet voice inside, and it was right, for suddenly appeared
one of the duty guards and said: What are you doing here? Get
downstairs!"
I said Metin Bey had told me
I could use the terrace yesterday, and I needed air. Rafik Bey,
chief on duty today, was summoned and I told him the same. He
said no; I pleaded and told him Hassan Bey had also told me I
didn't need to keep asking for permission to go to the toilet.
Rafik Bey didn't want to lose face, so he told me not to sit
in that place because it was near to a ventilation fan from the
lockup and dirty air was coming from it. He told me to move
the bench around to the front and I could sit there. I did,
but in my hurry pulled a muscle in my lower back, suddenly and
painfully. After sitting for a while, hoping the strain wasn't
too bad, I went to the parapet and was enjoying watching the
morning street life below, when the nasty cop who was beating
the Bangladeshis with the stick the other night came up and told
me to go inside. He wanted to check my story with Metin Bey,
who hadn't arrived yet.
So I was sitting in the upstairs
waiting room when Rafik Bey comes and offers me a glass of tea.
I declined, but asked if he could get someone to go out and
get me some things if I gave him a list, and he said of course.
Went down to the office and the boy on the floor was gone.
While I was separating the bed chairs, dragging one row away
to put against the wall - ouch!' my back went again. Now I'm
sitting gingerly in my corner of the office, which also functions
as a visiting room for the people who come and go. When it gets
too full I go out into the hall, and vice versa.
I gave Rafik Bey my list along
with 15 YTL, asking for a bar of soap, a razor, a small towel,
earplugs from the chemist, a Turkish Daily News, a small notebook
and pen, and half a kilo of apples. He said he'd send someone
to get the stuff today, but it won't be quick. He professes
to be my friend. - "You are our friend!" - But he
said I will probably be here for quite a while longer because
of getting documents from Ankara. "The law's delay,"
as Hamlet says
Big ruckus at noon. One of
the black guys who was ill, gasping for breath the other day,
was even more ill today, and there was a commotion inside, shouting
and banging until he was let out, where he was retching and screaming
"My God! My God!" wanting to be taken to hospital.
A trustee spent ages trying to make him swallow a tablet (one
they give inmates sometimes) to try to calm him down, but he
refused. Some guards forced it into his mouth but he spat it
out.
Again there was furious banging
and chanting from inside, and some of his friends were let out,
saying he should be taken to hospital, outraged that some of
the cops were laughing. Anyway, now he's been taken off to Bakirkoy
hospital. The black friends are still sitting in the hall.
One is particularly big and rebellious. I like him. I think
they're there to help carry in the cans which are arriving now
for lunch.
Lots more arrestees arrived;
men, women and children, and there was more violence, punching,
slapping and shouting. Groups of barefoot shirtless Pakistanis
were brought out of the lockup and taken upstairs, coming down
later proudly sporting new sweaters and boots, fitted out for
the approaching winter season, gratis I suppose.
An Iranian guy in a very bad
condition was allowed out to sit in the hall again, almost collapsing
in a coma (drug-induced from pills given him?), he kept falling
forward almost onto his head on the floor. Police gave him a
cigarette to make him better, but I've noticed him with his head
in his hands for the last couple of days. In fact he's ill and
should be put to hospital. Too many sad and violent moments
to relate. The whole atmosphere reeks of them
Fri 22
9.55
The Iranian was carried out
of the slammer in a coma last night and laid on a row of chairs
in the hall. He looked close to death, his eyes glazed and unseeing,
and his breath coming in great snorts after intervals. I said
he should be taken to hospital or his death would be on their
hands, but after they'd called a doctor (or someone who said
he was) from the slammer, who slapped him about the face a bit
(a familiar sound around here!), they made him sit up and gave
him a cigarette. I helped him to drink water and he came around.
His problem was he's a heroin
junkie with withdrawal symptoms and wanted/needed some pills
from the cupboard. They allowed him to look through their selection,
and he staggered and searched, rummaging through what |
