Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
Now Available!
Today's
Stories
May
14, 2004
Stephen
Gowans
Building Democracy in Iraq and Other
Absurdities
May
13, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Where is Kerry?
Colm
O'Laithian
Torture and Degradation: Revenge American Style?
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassan
Wal-Mart: Scrooge with Hi-Tech Accounting
Practices
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush on the Inhumane Treatment of Iraqi Prisoners
Willliam
James Martin
Deir Yassin Massacre Recalled
Marc
Salomon
Reality TV Bites
Forrest
Hylton
Law 'n Order in La Paz: All Quiet
on the Southern Front?
May
12, 2004
Blanton
/ Kornbluh
Prisoner Abuse: Cheney Warned in
1992
Virginia
Tilley
So, Who's to Blame?
Bruce
Jackson
James Inhofe, the Dumbest Senator
of Them All
Thomas
P. Healy
No Enemies: Making Peace with Bert Sacks
Linda
S. Heard
Racism and Ignorance: a Lethal Cocktail in Iraq
Norman
Solomon
Spinning Torturegate
Lisa
Viscidi
The People's Voice: Community Radio in Guatemala
Jack
Heyman
View from the Bay Bridge: Longshoremen Plan Mass Workers March
on DC
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Rummy's Reprieve
CounterPunch
Wire
Teamsters Corruption Scandal: Hoffa Exec. Assistant Alleged to
Have Quashed Investigation into Mob Influence
Christopher
Brauchli
Detention Camp, USA
William
S. Lind
Bush's Waterloo?
May 11, 2004
Mark
Engler
On the "Necessity" of Torture
Ray
McGovern
More Troops? A March of Folly
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Nukes and Jefferson's Grand Experiment
Mickey
Z.
Less Than Hero
Christopher
Reed
Torture on the Homefront: America's Long History of Prison Abuse
Dennis
Hans
When John Negroponte was Mullah Omar
Bruce
Jackson
Pete Seeger at 85
Mike
Whitney
Killing al Sadr
Simon
Helweg-Larsen
Shrinking the Guatemalan Military
William
A. Cook
The Unconscious Country: Righteous Indignation,
Nakedly Displayed
May
10, 2004
Robert
Fisk
From Hollywood to Abu Ghraib: Racism
and Torture as Entertainment
Wayne
Madsen
The Israeli Torture Template: Rape,
Feces and Urine-Soaked Cloth Sacks
Col.
Dan Smith
The Shame of Abu Ghraib
Joe
Bageant
John Ashcroft, Keep Your Mouth Off My Wife!
Ron
Jacobs
Rummy's Prisongate Blues: Don't Leave Mad; Just Leave
Ben
Tripp
Getting in Touch with Your Inner Savage
Ray
Hanania
Why They Hate Us: Racism, Bigotry and Abuse
Reza
Fiyouzat
"Mishandled" Invasions
Diane
Christian
Images & Abstractions &
Genitals
Website
of the Day
Crushing Iraqi Skulls with Tanks for Sport?
May
8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
May
7, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
10 Prisons; 9,000 Prisoners: US Detention
Facilities in Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
UnAmerican? I Wish It Were So
Robert
Fisk
An Illegal and Immoral War
Ahmad
Faruqui
The 50th Anniversary of Dien Bien
Phu
Alexander
Zaitchik
From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib: Doesn't It Ring a (Prison)
Bell?
Mike
Whitney
The Price of Victory
Norman
Solomon
This War, Racism and Media Denial
M.
Shahid Alam
A Comic Apology
May
6, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
They Did It for Jessica: Smeared with
Shit; Kicked to Death
Kathy
Kelly
May Day in Pekin Prison: Prison Labor
for the War Machine
Werther
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: War as Vegas
Casino Game
Lawrence
Ferlinghetti
Totalitarian Democracy
Robert
Fisk
"Smoke Him": Video Shows Wounded
Men Being Shot by US Helicopter
John
Janney
Torturing the Way to Freedom?
Christopher
Ketcham
Outlaw Heterosexual Marriage Now!
Alan
Farago
Dead Oceans: So Long, Thanks for the Fish
Sam
Hamod
Bush on Arab TV: Worthless and Demeaning
James
Brooks
Sullen Spring
William
S. Lind
On the Brink of Defeat in Iraq
May
5, 2004
Maj.
Gen. Antonio M. Taguba
Complete US Army Report on Abuse of
Iraqi Prisoners
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Kerry: a Lost Cause for Progressives?
Will
Youmans
Deal with the Devil: a Palestinian
Zionist and the End of the World
Patrick
B. Barr
Terrorists R Us: the Powerful are Exempt from the Label
Lawrence
Magnuson
Nightline's All-American Morgue
Greg
Moses
Pocketbook of Denuded Ideals
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Tormenting Prisoners, Torturing
Truth
Lee
Ballinger
Cinco de Mayo and Unity
Gilbert
Achcar
Bush's Cakewalk into the Iraq Quaqmire
Website
of the Day
Operation Phoenix & Iraq
May
4, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
A Timeline of Torture and Abuse Allegations
and Responses
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Privatized Torture
David
Peterson
CBS, Self-Censorship & Iraq
Barry
Lando
CACI's Private Torture Chambers
Patrick
Cockburn
Torture: Iraqis Disgusted, But Not Surprised
Dr.
Susan Block
Indecent Insurgents: Watch What You Say
Fidel
Castro
A Mindless, Unnecessary War
Mike
Whitney
Empire of Torture
Sonali
Kolhatkar
How to Stop the War: Demonstrate Against
John Kerry
Josh
Frank
The Lost Sierra Club
Stan
Goff
The Role: Another Open Letter to US Troops in Iraq
Agustin
Velloso
Spare Us Your Disgusting Ethics
Stew
Albert
American Know-How
Website
of the Day
Scenes from a Cover-Up
May
3, 2004
Virginia
Tilley
Let the Wall of Silence Fall
May
1 / 2, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
An Army in Disgrace, a Policy
in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat
Robert
Fisk
"Good Guys" Who Can Do No
Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders,
Useless Spies, Angry World
Heather
Williams
Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin
American Troops Flee Iraq
Diane
Rejman
An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq:
Abu Ghraib as My Lai?
Diane
Christian
Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and
Sharon Speak the Same Language
Patrick
Cockburn
Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked,
Shocked, Shocked
Chris
Floyd
Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists
and Annihilation
April
29 / 30, 2004
Dave
Zirin
A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome
Death of Pat Tillman
Kathy
Kelly
The Warden's Tour
Greg
Weiher
Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the
Banality of Evil
Michael
S. Ladah
Terrorism and Assassination: the
Ultimate Depception
Patrick
Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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May
14, 2004
The People v.
Corporate Greed
Hippies Best
MAXXAM on the North Coast
By MICHAEL DONNELLY
Once in a while, the people win one.
And while the successful effort to beat back a recall of a District
Attorney is an improbable example of a People's Victory, just
that happened recently in California's Humboldt County. From
a confluence of environmental activism, a multinational's junk
bond-financed takeover of a local firm, the public good vs. corporate
lying and a DA with a dedication to "equal justice under
the law," we have not just an improbable victory, but a
nascent paradigm shift in part of what was once an integral cog
in the Resource Extraction West.
Elected in 2002, Paul Gallegos,
42, is the District Attorney of Humboldt County, CA. Upon taking
office in January 2003, Gallegos wasted no time in advancing
a Civil Fraud lawsuit against Pacific Lumber Company, a subsidiary
of multinational giant MAXXAM. With the statute of limitations
clock ticking, Gallegos huddled with top assistant Tim Stoen
and decided to file the suit. He said at the time and since,
"I couldn't live with myself if we didn't go forward."
MAXXAM/PL immediately funded
another California Recall effort against the new DA. Ultimately
the timber giant put over $300,000 into the Recall according
to a required accounting for the Humboldt County Elections Office.
In character, PL admitted to just $40,000 in a company letter
to employees. That was offset by $270,000 raised by the Friends
of Paul Gallegos, making it by far the most expensive election
in the small county's history. The mostly volunteer effort --
hundreds volunteered -- raised that $270,000 from over 3500 donors.
Over 50,000 voters (a rarely seen 63 percent of the electorate)
turned out and rejected the Recall by a margin of 61 - 39 percent.
A mere 30,000 voted in the 2002 election in which Gallegos upset
twenty year incumbent DA Terry Farmer by a much smaller 52 -
48 percent margin despite Farmer's endorsement from the state's
attorney general.
Can you say Public Mandate?
The Setting
Prior to Europeans arriving
in the area, two million acres of Redwoods once covered the North
Coast of California and Southern Oregon. The coastal Redwood
(Sequoia sempervirens) is the tallest of evergreens, some growing
to a diameter of 25 feet and a height of over 350 feet. The trees
are naturally resistant to fire with diseases virtually unknown
and insect damage insignificant thanks to the high tannin content
of the wood. With thick bark and with branching and foliage starting
high off the ground, the coastal Redwood is safe from all but
the hottest fires, hence "sempervirens,"- ever-green.
Today there are about 80,000
acres (4%) of the original Ancient Forest remaining in state
and national parks, some in stands themselves in severely fragmented
condition.
Humboldt County covers 2.3
million acres along California's North Coast. About eighty percent
of the landbase is forested, most either protected, as in the
parks, or industrial lands owned by timber firms. About 130,000
people live in the county which has seen a growth rate of 20
percent per decade the past forty years. Thirty-five thousand
folks live in Eureka -- its county seat and largest city. The
county endures a persistent unemployment rate over seven percent.
Pacific Lumber Company, headquartered
in nearby Scotia, owns a total of 210,000 acres of Redwood and
Douglas fir forests in Humboldt County. Pacific Lumber once was
the county's largest private employer, employing 1500 as recently
as 1997. Current economic data show that less than 600 are still
employed by the firm as it continues to lay off workers and out
source work to other contractors.
Junk Bonds,
Looted Pensions and Ancient Forests
In October 1985, junk bond
king Charles Hurwitz's global corporation MAXXAM took over Pacific
Lumber with a $900 million deal that saw the notorious Ivan Boesky
pocket $3 million. Boesky later, along with Michael Milken and
broker Boyd Jeffries, was convicted and sentenced to two years
time in federal prisons. PL's Directors were given hundreds of
thousands as a result of their vote for the takeover.
MAXXAM quickly sold off many
PL assets - Victor Welding Co. ($300 million); the San Francisco
Pacific Lumber building ($35 million); and $55 million of PL's
workers' pension funds was looted. The remaining $35 million
in the pension fund was transferred to Milken's aptly named Executive
Life Insurance, which then went bankrupt. Executive Life had
purchased $300 million of PL junk bonds at the time of the takeover.
PL's workers and the US Department of Labor sued MAXXAM successfully
and got the pension funds restored.
From 1982-1988, Charles Hurwitz
was the CEO of United Financial Group, the holding company for
the United Savings Association of Texas. During that time the
Savings and Loan (S&L) lost over $1.6 billion of depositors'
money. The lawsuit that saw Milken plead guilty to mail fraud
and other crimes (FDIC vs. Milken) showed that money from the
S&L was diverted into the PL takeover. Hurwitz still owes
the government $1.2 billion as a result of the collapse of the
S&L.
Immediately upon the takeover,
PL tripled the rate of logging; liquidating over 100,000 acres.
MAXXAM has refinanced PL's debt several times. In 1998, PL collateralized
$860 million of debt with Timber Bonds and now owes approximately
$735 million -- just $15 million less than it owed in 1985. Which
means that despite all the logging, the selling off of assets
AND the public's purchase of 7500 acres for the whopping sum
of $480 million, the company is worth pretty much the same now
as at the time of the takeover.
According to the company's
10-K filed the end of March 2002 operating income was $45 million
(up from a loss of $11 million in 2001), on production of 213
million board feet (up from 160 mmbf in 2001). "Downsizing"
hundreds of jobs and closing antiquated mills (with the 10-K
predicting more), in addition to the increased logging, led to
the restored profitability.
Degradation
All this increased logging
has led to major catastrophes. The Elk River which runs through
PL lands once had a major native Coho Salmon run. As recently
as 1995, 500 Coho spawned there. By 1998, after intensive logging,
the number was down to 30.
On December 31, 1995, a landslide
blasted down off of a steep PL clearcut and wiped out seven homes
in Stafford, CA and damaged dozens of others.
From 1995 - 1998, PL committed
over 250 violations of CA's Forest Practices Act. It has lost
numerous lawsuits over violations of the Endangered Species Act
(ESA), the California Forest Practices Act and other environmental
protection laws.
Twice in the late 1980s the
California Department of Forestry suspended PL's timber cutting
license after more than 100 violations -- e.g., cutting during
wet weather and failing to control erosion.
After years of activist pressure
opposing this wreckage, in March of 1999, the Headwaters Agreement
was signed with the public paying $480 million for about 7500
acres of MAXXAM/PL's 60,000 acre Headwaters Forest. Five groves
-- including the two largest, privately owned old-growth groves
-- were transferred from Pacific Lumber Company/MAXXAM to the
State of California. The two ancient groves were permanently
saved from the saws; the others are supposedly safe for 50 years,
though logging has since occurred on the fringes.
Fighting
Back
The basic claim of the DA's
Fraud Suit, brought under the Business and Professions Code Section
17200, is: during the run up to the Headwaters deal, Pacific
Lumber told the government in its required Environmental Impact
Report (EIR) that 15 percent of landslides in the watershed occurred
during recent cutting. The truth is that over 60 percent of the
landslides occurred as a result of the logging.
This lie understating the threat
of landslides allowed PL to advance a Timber Harvest Plan (THP)
allowing the company to cut at higher rates across its holdings
in Humboldt County. The post-1999 over-logging has resulted in
more serious flooding -- on some rivers floods worse than any
in memory. The false data also allowed for the company to argue
successfully against watershed mitigation requirements.
"These acts of logging
resulted in major landslides causing destruction to ancient redwoods,
serious harm to Humboldt Bay and serious harm to streams, bridges,
roads, homes and property rights of the people of Humboldt County,"
the suit reads. Gallegos noted, "Ultimately, this is lying
for profit. It's greed. It's greed over the interests of the
people of this community."
Gallegos, a champion of equal
treatment under the law, also wrote, "It has been suggested
that we should not have filed this case against the biggest business
in Humboldt County. This suggestion is troubling and perplexing;
as it implies that we either do or should have different rules
for people based on their wealth or political power. Clearly,
this cannot be."
At the last minute, PL admitted
the figure was incorrect, but sent a revised version to an obscure
PL-friendly local forestry office in a deliberate attempt to
avoid review by the proper authorities -- state officials in
Sacramento.
The suit seeks a $2500 civil
penalty for every tree cut on the disputed parcels covered by
the 10-year Logging Plan. Over 30,000 trees have been cut, meaning
that the timber giant could be liable for as much as $75 million
in penalties (up to 100,000 trees and $250 million by some estimates).
The $64,000
Question
In addition, one would think
that the entire $64,000 per acre sweetheart Headwaters Deal,
based on lies and deceit, should also be reopened.
Some have long suggested that
PL's entire assets should be seized as compensation for the FDIC
bailout of Hurwitz.
A Right
to Lie?
MAXXAM/PL filed a demurrer
motion April 1st asking that the lawsuit be dismissed. On April
30th, a court ruled the case could go forward with minor revisions.
Perhaps the most interesting
reasoning PL raised for having the case thrown out is: "Plaintiff
alleges Pacific Lumber engaged in wrongful conduct by providing
the government misleading information as to the effects of its
timber operations by promoting its objectives in the Headwaters
agreement. Such conduct is protected under the First Amendment
and the Noerr-Pennington Doctrine and cannot serve as a basis
for liability."
To which the DA has noted,
"Their position is, they are allowed to lie."
PL attorney Edgar Washburn
has asserted that the Doctrine cited applies even if the company
did lie. He insists they did not.
Behind the
Recall
The PL front group behind the
Recall started out as the "Committee to Recall Paul Gallegos."
After bringing in slick, high-priced downstate PR flacks, the
name quickly changed to "Safety Yes! Recall Gallegos."
The recall campaign was originally
headed up by Rick Brazeau; the same political consultant who
ran Farmer's losing effort. The recall's legal advisor was Tom
Herman, a former PL vice president. Seed money came from a number
of retired timber company executives.
As the Republican assistant
DA Stoen noted, "Pacific Lumber knows the only way they
are going to get me off the case is to get rid of my boss."
All sorts of shenanigans took
place during the run-up to the Recall vote. Gallegos house was
broken into twice. Confidential documents were stolen from the
DA's office. The documents then ended up in the hands of Safety
Yes! They also were given to two of the three candidates on the
Recall ballot for replacement DA.
Safety Yes! made all sorts
of bizarre charges against the DA. "Soft on crime"
was leveled, though with the new DA having been in office less
than six weeks, it's hard to see how one could divine any such
pattern. In fact, the very fact that he filed the suit belies
the charge.
They even stated that "Gallegos
associates with criminals like Chompers Cook, who is a felon
with a rap sheet seven pages long." Cook, a fifth-generation
rancher/logger, courageously appeared in one anti-recall ad despite
his having been cited by the DA's office and paying fines related
to some minor logging violations -- "crimes" that pale
compared to PL's total of over 600 violations of the Forest Practices
Act, 220 Water Quality violations, not to mention, the Milken/Boesky
convictions.
Safety Yes! is under investigation
for multiple Fair Political Practices Commission violations related
to signature gathering and campaign disclosure rules.
People's
Victory
On March 2, 2004, those 50,000
voters spoke loudly about corporate malfeasance. On April 30th,
some 400 supporters of all ages and various backgrounds gathered
at the River Lodge in Fortuna to celebrate and help retire the
campaign's debt. Local small business supporters catered a dinner
and provided refreshments.
The "Democracy Rocks On"
event produced a fine night of music, performance art and, of
course, many speeches in honor of such a victory. A heartfelt
standing ovation rang out for Paul and Joan Gallegos as they
stood before the empowered citizenry.
Eureka mayor Peter La Vallee
noted, "We learned here that Democracy works; that corporations
can't buy their way out of wrongdoing; and, you can't remove
someone from office just because you don't like what they have
to say."
The much relieved, youthful
DA added, "What we learned here, I hope, is if we work and
sacrifice for Democracy, it will work and sacrifice for us."
MICHAEL DONNELLY, of Salem, OR has taken the advice
of his longtime friend Mike Roselle and is traveling this summer
outside the I-5 "car-shed" --one of Mike's fine observations
-- people in the US no longer are defined by watersheds, but
"car-sheds." Michael will continue to report back on
the changing face of the American West.
He can be reached at: pahtoo@aol.com
Weekend
Edition Features for May 8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
|