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Today's
Stories
October 22
/ 24, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
October 21,
2004
Ben Tripp
The
Undecided Voter Examined
Joshua Frank
Kerry
and the Environment:
It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green
Stan Cox
What
the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses
Bill Martinez
State
Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply
Mark Engler
The War and Globalization
Lina Britto
and Lucia Suarez
Bolivia:
a Year After the October Insurrection
Website of the Day
Two Pampered Children of Wealth
October 20,
2004
Yitzhak Laor
"Did
You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian
Child
Jason Leopold
Sinclair
Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception
Jesse Sharkey
A
Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School
Students
Col. Dan Smith
Choking
Free Speech About the Draft
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Using My Religion
David Vest
If
Bush Wins, Blame Me
Jack Random
The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny
Ron Jacobs
Time
to Kick It Up a Notch
James Brittain
Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside?
Christopher
Dols
Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest
Dave Lindorff
First They Came for the Nurses...
Website of
the Day
Banana Republican Catalogue
October 19,
2004
Jeff Taylor
Confessions
of a Swing State Voter
Matt Vidal
American
Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket"
Victor Kattan
"It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For":
Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum
William Loren
Katz
What Goes Around Comes Around
Sean Carter
O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims
CounterPunch Wire
Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Party
Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
October 18,
2004
Saul Landau
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
Dave Lindorff
Bulletin
on the Bush Bulge
Diane Christian
Sheep
and Goats: On the Language of Goodness
Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff
Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
Peter LaVenia
Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank
Mike Whitney
O'Reilly at the Whipping Post
Elaine Cassel
The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
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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Weekend Edition
October 22 / 24, 2004
Tarnished Legacy
Pinochet
and the Chilean Military
By
REBECCA EVANS
Chilean Defense Minister Michelle Bachelet
is a former exile and daughter of a legendary air force general
who was tortured to death by the Pinochet regime for opposing
the coup. On September 30, she participated in a solemn ceremony
marking the thirtieth anniversary of the assassination of another
general killed by the military regime, former commander-in-chief
Carlos Prats. Bachelet joined Chile's current commander in chief,
General Juan Emilio Cheyre, who has been widely praised for proclaiming
that the military must "never again" allow political
enemies to be slaughtered and for declaring that the military
was not the heir of any particular regime. While General Cheyre
has gone further than other high-ranking military officials in
admitting military culpability for systematic human rights violations
under the dictatorship, he has simultaneously sought to put the
past behind in the mind of the nation while restoring the military's
reputation. The past, however, refuses to easily fade away, as
can be clearly seen in renewed efforts to bring former dictator
Augusto Pinochet to trial. Whereas Pinochet was able to artfully
avoid standing trial in the past, his prospects appear much weaker
this time around and regardless of his legal fate, the general's
historical legacy is certain to be justly tarnished by the scrolling
of his human rights violations and corruption charges that can
only serve to smirch him.
In August, the Chilean Supreme
Court decided to strip Pinochet of the immunity which he enjoyed
as a former head of state, paving the way for his possible indictment
in the case of "Operation Condor," a covert Southern
Cone conspiracy designed and coordinated by the rogue military
regimes of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay
to hunt down prominent political refugees who were sought in
each other's countries. This led to kidnapping, murder and disappearances.
Despite stalling efforts by Pinochet's defense team, investigating
Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia was able to question the retired
general on September 25, a step required under Chilean law prior
to any indictment. According to transcripts of the interrogation,
Pinochet claimed that he had no prior knowledge of the program
and that as head of the ruling junta, he was not informed about
"trivial matters" such as kidnappings, tortures or
disappearances. On September 30, Pinochet was examined by a team
of doctors to determine whether his medical condition had deteriorated
sufficiently to rule out a trial. Their findings, released October
15, were mixed; it is no surprise that the defense-appointed
doctor found Pinochet to be unfit, while the doctor selected
by victims of Operation Condor declared him competent to stand
trial. The key diagnosis made by the judge-appointed doctor,
said that Pinochet suffered from mild dementia. Judge Guzmán
must now decide whether or not to go forth with a trial.
In many ways, Pinochet's current
legal troubles seem to echo the retired general's experiences
several years ago, when he was also stripped of immunity, interrogated
and indicted as the intellectual author of the notorious Caravan
of Death, a special body of military officers who traveled to
various locations in Chile in the first few weeks following the
1973 coup. Once there, they removed certain political activists
from their local holding cells, and then proceeded to torture
and kill them. Pinochet's loss of immunity in the Caravan of
Death case was confirmed by the Chilean Supreme Court in August
2000, only a few months after the now-indicted general was allowed
to return to Chile following his London arrest. In January 2001,
Pinochet finally consented to undergo medical examinations to
determine whether he was medically fit to stand trial--but only
after a visit from then Commander-in-Chief Ricardo Izurieta,
who insisted that Pinochet comply with the law in order to avoid
losing whatever military support he still retained.
Pinochet was also forced to
answer questions from the same investigating judge who is currently
overseeing the Operation Condor case, Judge Guzmán. In
his interrogation, the haughty general disavowed all responsibility
for the Caravan of Death and blamed regional commanders for it,
prompting a vehement denial from another retired general who
charged that Pinochet was fully informed about the killings at
the time. Judge Guzmán decided several days later to formally
charge Pinochet with being the "intellectual author"
of the Caravan of Death. Pinochet was spared being actually arrested
thanks to the Supreme Court's determination that his "light
to moderate vascular dementia" rendered the general unable
to defend himself in a trial. At the same time, the logic of
Pinochet's defense dictated that the retired general was unfit
to return to his lifetime seat in the Senate and in 2002, he
negotiated the terms of his resignation to ensure that he would
retain immunity from prosecution. But with the Supreme Court's
decision in August of this year to once again strip Pinochet
of his immunity, the increasingly despised figure now has to
hope that he will once again be exempted on medical grounds from
standing trial.
However, a decision against
Pinochet appears increasingly likely. For one thing, the composition
of the Supreme Court has changed, with fewer justices ideologically
predisposed to defend Pinochet; for another, Pinochet's medical
examination this time will be conducted by independent experts
rather than military doctors, as in 2001. Finally, Pinochet's
personal credibility has been damaged by his own actions and
statements. In November 2003, he granted a rare interview to
a Spanish-language television station based in Miami in which
he lucidly recalled events which occurred thirty years earlier.
In his characteristically provocative style, Pinochet not only
refused to ask for pardon, but claimed that he had acted like
an "angel", insisting that his opponents should be
the ones asking for pardon for trying to assassinate him.
In July 2004, Pinochet's personal
plight took a dramatic turn for the worse when a U.S. Senate
Congressional subcommittee issued an investigative report that
revealed information about a secret, multi-million dollar bank
account which he and his wife had at the Washington, D.C.-based
Riggs Bank. The scandal not only raised questions about the source
of Pinochet's secret funds--which have recently been estimated
to have been as high as $16 million--but also about his ability
to stand trial, given the fact that Pinochet himself apparently
signed and cashed $1.9 million worth of checks that had been
drawn from his Riggs Bank account. These financial transactions
occurred between 2000-2002, at a time when the Pinochet account
was frozen by order of Spanish investigating magistrate Baltazar
Garzón and after Pinochet had been deemed medically demented.
Chilean authorities also began
to belatedly look into charges of money laundering and tax evasion
against Pinochet--a move that would have been denounced as persecution
in the past. The investigating judge assigned to the case, Sergio
Muñoz, also has looked into possible kickbacks that Pinochet
may have received from European weapons manufacturers who won
major contracts from the Chilean military as well as from Chilean
firms who had sold weapons to Iran. In light of these investigations,
politicians on the Right and Left have raised questions about
the propriety of Pinochet's conduct in office. Former President
Patricio Aylwin noted that Pinochet's extravagant lifestyle had
already been apparent during the military regime and that Pinochet
"had not been consistent with the tradition of austerity
traditionally associated with presidents of Chile." Indeed,
Pinochet built luxurious residences in several parts of the country
for himself and his family, including a particularly grandiose
estate in Lo Curro, which was constructed in the midst of the
1983 economic crisis. Aylwin also pointed to the fact that Pinochet
had consistently protected not only his military "family,"
but his immediate personal family, ensuring their material success
and arranging for them to be protected from anti-corruption investigations.
Indeed, Pinochet orchestrated military maneuvers in 1990 and
1993 to intimidate the civilian government, aimed at pressuring
the government to void pending human rights trials and also to
drop investigations into charges of corruption against one of
his sons, who was accused of accepting a $3 million payoff from
a munitions company.
Charges of corruption arguably
have done more to damage Pinochet's legacy than his human rights
violations. Whereas Pinochet's supporters were willing to concede
that human rights abuses were necessary in the "war against
communism," they rigidly believed that the military regime
was not corrupt and that its economic management of the nation
was impeccable. Senate President and UDI (Unión Democrática
Independiente) member Hernán Larraín noted that
this scandal goes to the very heart of the military regime's
own ideological defense, namely that the individuals who participated
in the military government did not enrich themselves but governed
"honorably." Should an investigation into the source
of Pinochet's funds reveal improprieties or illegalities, the
historical judgment of the conservative backers of the military
regime "would be blemished because a black mark would be
added to a history that has been perceived to be very good in
this respect."
Pinochet's current troubles,
as well as the ongoing legal proceeding against other officials
of the former regime, demonstrate that the unfinished business
left over from the era of the military rule continues to preoccupy
Chile. This has frustrated military officials like General Cheyre,
who recently criticized the fact that the military has been made
the scapegoat for all the excesses committed under the military
regime and called for an end to interminable human rights trials.
Yet so long as officials from the previous regime deny responsibility
and information on the fate of the disappeared only comes to
light in periodic, fortuitous finds--such as the recent discovery
of sections of rail track that had been used to weigh down the
bodies of dissidents dumped at sea--the search for truth and
justice will have to continue.
Rebecca Evans is a senior research fellow at the
Council on Hemispheric Affairs.
Weekend
Edition Features for October 16 / 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
/
|