Coming
in August!
Dime's
Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils
Order Now!
Today's
Stories
August 7 /
8, 2004
Joshua Frank
The
Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader
Donald Macintyre
The
Battle of Najaf
August 6, 2004
Joshua Frank
David
Cobb's Soft Charade: the Greens and the Politics of Mendacity
Derek Seidman
An
Interview with Stan Goff
Mike Whitney
The
Arbitrary Imprisonment of Jose Padilla
William S. Lind
Corruption in the Marine Corps
David Price
In
the Shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
August 5, 2004
Mike Ferner
The Kerry Show: When Peace is Off
Message
Bruce Anderson
Two
Rejections
Robert Fisk
The Tale of Saddam's Cameraman
Todd Chretien
Florida
Comes to California: the Democrats' Plot Against Nader
Peter Linebaugh
Doing Time for Political Crime:
Paul and Silas, Bound in Jail
August 4, 2004
Mickey Z.
Two
Traditions: WMD and Disinformation
Justin Huggler
The Hunt for Bin Laden
John Ross
Mexico's
Dirty War Never Ended: Inside Puente Grande Prison
August 3, 2004
Uri Avnery
The
Oligarchs
Ray McGovern
The 9/11 Commission Chimera
Jack McCarthy
Sexual Politics in Jeb's Florida
Eric Ruder
Meet Barak Obama: the Democrats' New Liberal Star
John L. Hess
Crying Wolf: Orange Alert!
Elaine Cassel
Civil Liberties Elections: 1800 v. 2004
Jules Rabin
The Man Who Didn't Walk By
Website of the Day
No Wall
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
August 2, 2004
Robert Jensen
Kerry's
Hypocrisy on the Vietnam War
Joshua Frank
Greens, Kerry and the Politics of Mendacity
Mike Whitney
The 9/11 Commission and Civil Liberties: "We Need an American
Police State"
Gary Leupp
Beyond
Good and Evil: Some Thoughts on Invasions
July 31 / Aug.
1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
Merlin Chowkwanyun
Five Questions with Noam Chomsky: "The Savage Extreme of
a Narrow Policy Spectrum"
David Lindorff
The Shame of the DNC
John Chuckman
The
Disturbing Words of John Edwards
Brian Cloughley
All Slam and No Dunk; All Blame and No Responsibility
Christopher Brauchli
"Being Poor is a State of Mind": the Frowning Face
of Compassionate Conservatism
Fred Gardner
A World of Pain
Michael Donnelly
How Big Pharma Bilks the Elderly
David Nally
Genocide in Darfur?
Joshua Frank
Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon
Sam Bahour
Colin Powell and My Grandmother
Diane Farsetta
The IMF and the Indonesian Elections: The Invisible Hand in the
Voting Booth
Harold Gould
Was Iraq a Mutual Charade?
Van Bergen / Stephens
Election 9/11: Surreal Political Theater
Lee Sustar
A New Model for the Labor Movement?
Ron Jacobs
The Lost Art of Hitchhiking
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview with Palestinian-American Rapper, The Iron Sheik
Poets Basement
Albert, Ford, Krieger, St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Cross Cultural Poetics
July 30, 2004
Kolhatkar /
Ingalls
Shattering
Illusions: Kerry's Speech Tells Anti-War Activists They're Not
Wanted
Dave Lindorff
Murder
Not So Foul?
Bruce Jackson
Walt Whitman on the Sound of Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Fidel Castro
The
Pathology of George W. Bush
Maximilien Robespierre
Memo to Kerry and Bush: Why They Resist
Saul Landau
Bush
Charges Castro with Sex Tourism; JFK Rolls Over in His Grave
July 29, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Hail,
the Conquering War Criminal: What Kerry Really Did in Vietnam
Frank Bardacke
What
Michael Moore Left Out of F9/11
Tom Barry
Shallow and Formulaic: Kerry's Latin America Plan
Ron Jacobs
Kerry
and Lennon: Hawking the CounterCulture
Robert Fisk
The Unreported War
Lichtman /
Kellis-Borok
What Kerry Must Do to Win (But Probably Won't)
William S. Lind
The 9/11 Commission Report: Cashing in on Failure
CounterPunch
Wire
Doonesbury Onto John Kerry in 1971!
Website of
the Day
Jabbing JibJab: Copyright Madness
July 28, 2004
Robert Fisk
The
Occupation at 114 Degrees: Baghdad is Swamped in the Smell of
the Dead
Kevin Mink
Kerry's Misperception of Palestine
Ray McGovern
Israel and the Iraq War: How the 9/11 Report Soft-Pedals Root
Causes
United for
Peace & Justice
An
Open Letter to John Kerry: Winter Soldiers and Summer Patriots
Mike Ferner
Vets Demand End to Occupation: "Pull the Troops or Face
Impeachment Mvt."
Imraan Siddiqi
Turning Tricks with Ann Coulter
Alexander Cockburn
Candidate
Kerry
Website of
the Day
Iraq Vets Against the War
July 27, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
the Democrats Deserve Nader
Dave Lindorff
Back to the 19th Century: Globalization's Coming!
Mike Whitney
Control Room: Inside Al Jazeera
Ali, Anderson, Bello, et al.
If We Were Venezuelan, We'd Vote for Chavez
Stefan Wray
Texas Plan to Grab Los Alamos Takes Hold, as DOE Shuts Down Labs
Louis Proyect
Reflections on Nicaragua: First Came the Contra Butchers, Then
the Sweatshops
Rick Giombetti
Faith in Freedom: the Challenge of Thomas Szasz
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
The
9/11 Report and Its Weak-Kneed Consensus: Dogding Israel/Palestine;
Blinkered on Causes of Terrorism
July 26, 2004
Todd Chretien
Green
Resistance: a Reply to Normon Solomon & Medea Benjamin
Robert Fisk
Terror
by Video
Richard Forno
Security
Theater in Boston: Security Expert Harrassed by DHS for Exposing
Flaws at the Fleet Center
Mitchel Cohen
Report from a Boston Demo: Arresting the Curious
Richard Moreno
Rockers
for Justice: an Interview with Tom Morello and Serj Tankian
Alexander Cockburn
Boston
Awaits a Dead Party
July
24 / 25, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Democrats and Their Conventions:
Part One
Dennis
Hans
Those 16 Words Still Smell, Mr. Bush
Patrick
Cockburn
The Struggle for Iraq is Only Beginning
Josh
Frank
The War Path of Unity: Dems Reject
the Peace Movement
Justin
E.H. Smith
Christianity and the Left: the Latin
American Experience
Tariq
Ali
What's at Stake in Venezuela
Fred
Gardner
The Politics of Pot: Year of the
Antagonist
Mark
Scaramella
There's Dope and There's Dope
Ron
Jacobs
The Weather Underground's Prairie
Fire Statement...35 Years On
July
23, 2004
Lee
Sustar
Revolution in Nicaragua: 25 Years
On
Dave
Lindorff
Battle for NYC: Bush 1, Protesters
0
Saul
Landau
Zaniest President in US History: Bush
Beats Reagan
Mike
Whitney
The 9/11 Whitewash: Blaming No
One
Mickey
Z
Get On the Bus: 150 Years After Elizabeth
Jennings
Gary
Leupp
The 9/11 Commission and the Looming
War on Iran
July
22, 2004
M.
Junaid Alam
Ten Ways to Build a Better Democrat
Brian
McKinlay
Rusted On Down Under: Howard, Bush and Sharon
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Lobbied for Easing of Sanctions on Terrorist Regimes While
CEO of Halliburton
Chris
Floyd
Mob Rule: Ripping the Lid Off of America's Pious Myths
Uri
Avnery
Chirac v. Sharon
July
21, 2004
Paula
J. Caplan
The Emotional Casualities of War:
Psychologists Can't Heal All the Damage
Joshua
Frank
Nader Sleeping with the Enemy? Let's
be Fair
Ron
Jacobs
American Exceptionalism
Reza
Ghorashi
The Elections, Iran and al-Qaeda
Amy
Martin
Will Congress Rearm the Guatemalan Generals?
John
Ross
Bush May Lose, But His Wars Will Go
On and On
July
20, 2004
Stan
Cox
The Bush / Kerry War Ticket
Chris
Randolph
An Open Letter to Dr. Ehrenreich: It's Over, Barb!
Forrest
Hylton
The Ghosts of Gonismo: "Popular
Patricipation" and Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Mark
Scaramella
It's Official! Mendocino County is Crazier and Fatter Than the
Rest of California
Sam
Bahour
The World is Knocking on Israel's Door
George
Reiter
A Defense of David Cobb
John
Ross
Burying Iraq, Burying Bush
John
L. Hess
Girlie Stuff: Media Tolerance of Arnold & Co.
Website
of the Day
This Land is Your Land
July
19, 2004
Uri
Avnery
Marie and the Ghosts: the Hoax of
Paris
Col.
Dan Smith
What Has Been Accomplished?
Mike
Whitney
Allawi: Our Puppet with a Pistol
Karyn
Strickler
Just Marriage, Not Gay Marriage
Robert
Fisk
The Crisis of Information in Baghdad
David
Swanson
Media Blackout of US Labor Opposition
to Iraq War
Jennifer
van Bergen
The Death of the Great Writ of Liberty
July
17 / 18, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations
is Must Reading
Ghada
Karmi
Vanishing the Palestinians
Lenni
Brenner
When Cattle Unite, Lions Go Hungry: Notes for Ralph Nader
Ben
Tripp
Man on a Bridge: a Ghost Story
Brandy
Baker
What Would Elizabeth Cady Stanton Make of John Kerry?
M.
Shahid Alam
Israel Builds Another Wall
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Nuclear Hypocrisy: Israel, Iran and the IAEA
Patrick
Bond
The George Bush of Africa
Fred
Gardner
Politics of Marijuana: Cannabiniod Therapuetics
William
Blum
Bush and Thucydides
Ben
Terrall
Carter and the Indonesia Elections: "I Don't See Anything
Wrong with a General Running the Country"
Tom
Barry
John Lehman on the War Path
David
Vest
Dylan Without the Music
Phyllis
Pollack
Return to Sin City: Keith Richards Does Gram Parsons
Ron
Jacobs
Smearing Muhammad Ali: Bob Feller Strikes Out
Joshua
Frank
Kerry to Edwards: "Let's Lose!"
David
Nally
A Call for Sudan: Our Georgraphical Blindspot
Toni
Solo
Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Landau,
Hassan, Prashad & Lindorff
Three Reviews of Moore's F911
Poets's
Basement
Ford, Smith and Albert
July
16, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Adonal Foyle: Master of the Lefty Lay-Up
Shervan
Sardar
Dershowitz, the ICJ and Jim Crow Laws
Ron
Jacobs
The Lil' Engine That Couldn't: Kucinich Surrenders on Anti-War
Plank
Robert
Fisk
Iraq, According to Edgar Allen Poe:
Coffin Bombs in Baghdad
Greg
Moses
The Forts of Iraq
Mickey
Z.
Ad Infinitum?: Presidential Campaigns in the Age of TV
Dan
Bacher
A Landmark Win for Salmon and the Tribes
Dave
Lindorff
The Mumia Case: Support from NAACP,
But a Movement in Shambles
Paul
McGeough
Did Allawi Shoot Inmates in Cold Blood?
Website
of the Day
10 Reasons to Fire Bush (and 9 Reasons Kerry Won't Be Any Better)
July
15, 2004
Heather
Williams
McMissing
the Point: Supersize Me Crashes on Its Message
Werther
Iraq: Follow the Money
Tom
Crumpacker
The Birds of Guantanamo
Brian
Cloughley
What Does the Bush Regime Object To?
Bill
Christison
Reorganize the CIA? Of Course,
But...
July
14, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Chronicle of a Nomination Foretold:
the Green Deceivers
Neve
Gordon
Of Socrates and the Apartheid Wall
Diane
Christian
The Priesthood of Death
Stefan
Wray
Who Benefits from Missing Data at Los Alamos Nuclear Lab?
Josh
Frank
The Nader / Dean Debate
Conn
Hallinan
Divide and Conquer as Imperial Rules
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Bring My Brother Home!: Class, War
and Education
Website
of the Day
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of US Empire
July
13, 2004
Ray
McGovern
The CIA and Iraq: an Intelligence
Debacle...and Worse
Mark
Donham
The Sierra Club's Inexplicable Treatment of Cynthia McKinney
Ben
Tripp
Politus Interruptis: With Friends Like
These, Who Needs Electorates?
Mark
Gaffney
Slipping Towards Armageddon: Israel
in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Osama Wins! Election Postponed!
Chris
White
Double Think: the Bedrock of Marine
Indoctrination
July
10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
July
9, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Carlos Delgado on Deck: Blue Jays Slugger
Stands Up Against War
Justin
Delacour
Wishing Kerry Would Shut Up About
Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Iraq in Reverse: Martial Laws Fuel Insurgency
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Two Congresses and a Funeral
William
S. Lind
The October Surprises
Sibel
Edmonds
Our Broken System: John Ashcroft's War on Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Reading Tea Leaves: What Vietnam Tells Us About Iraq's Future
Gary
Leupp
The Lie That Will Not Die: Cheney and
the Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
July
8, 2004
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Inexplicable John McCain
Toufic
Haddad
Protesting Israel's Apartheid Wall:
a Letter from the Hunger Strikers' Tent
Dave
Lindorff
Liberation as Martial Law
Joshua
Frank
The Fall: How Beltway Dems Sank Howard
Dean
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush & Cheney Play the Hitler Card
James
Petras
The Truth About Jimmy Carter
July
7, 2004
John
Chuckman
Kerry's BBQ: a Deafening Silence
of Meaning
Virginia
Tilley
A Line in the Sand: Azmi Bishara's
Hunger Strike
Susan
Martinez
A Letter to Bill Cosby
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Strange Parade
Michael
Donnelly
Our Own Private Wilderness: Trusting the Land in the Inland Empire
Sean
Donahue
Boston Social Forum: the Dems aren't the Only Show in Beantown
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
Legacy of Deceit: If Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
July
5, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
US Imperialism in Latin America: Sept.
11, July 4 and Systematic Torture
Chris
White
A Former Marine Sgt. on the Meaning
of Independence Day
Joe
Bageant
Cranky Reflections on the 4th of July
Robert
Jensen
Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore
Misses About the Empire
Kathy
Kelly
"Two Days an' a Wake-Up"
July
3 / 4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
Website
of the Day
Global Peace Solution
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam's
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain't Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
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.
|
August
7 / 8, 2004
Fighting
for Justice & Democracy in Haiti
An
Interview with Brian Concannon, Jr.
By
ANDREW FENTON
Fenton: Why did you feel
it was necessary to form the Institute for Justice and Democracy
in Haiti [IJDH]?[1]
Concannon: The IJDH was formed
in response to both the unconstitutional regime change in Haiti
in February and the inadequate response, by civil society both
inside and outside of Haiti. Our mission is to promote democracy
and human rights in Haiti, and we have three main areas of activity:
working with grassroots groups in Haiti and the solidarity community
abroad,; documenting human rights abuses in Haiti and disseminating
that information; and pursuing legal actions in Haitian and international
courts to support the democratization of Haiti and to help victims
of human rights abuses find justice.
Fenton: Are there any cases
that you are actively pursuing right now?
Concannon: Yes. We have lawyers
on the ground who are trying to get political prisoners out of
jail; we've had some successes, there have been some people released
out of jail; we hope that by applying pressure in the US and
working within the system that we can get the justice system
to recognize detainee's rights under Haitian and International
law. So far it's been an uphill battle, but we're going to keep
working on that.
Fenton: One can't help but
notice that the IJDH report is not exactly consistent with mainstream
version of events that would have us believe that the human rights
abuses are not something we should be concerned with in the 'post-Aristide'
Haiti.
Concannon: I think our report
is not completely out of the mainstream. There are some mainstream
organizations, for instance Amnesty International [2] and the
Committee to Protect Journalists [3] that have documented the
systematic persecution of Lavalas supporters, but that reality
has not been accepted by the people who actually have a duty
to act in that situation, namely the Haitian government and the
governments that propped up the current Haitian government, including
the governments of the US and Canada. They have ignored it because
it's an inconvenient fact.
If they do admit that these
persecutions are happening then they would be required to act.
Haiti is not the first time that this has happened; we're seeing
it right now in Darfur, Sudan, where there was a very slow international
response. In fact, decision makers are avoiding calling it a
genocide because international law requires affirmative actions
to prevent genocide.. Go back to 1994 in Rwanda, where you even
had a Canadian General saying there was a genocide and these
horrible things were happening, but the world refused to admit
it was a genocide, because that would have required them to take
action to stop it. In this case, the governments of the US and
Canada, they just do not want to recognize the mess they've made
of things [in Haiti] because that would require them to admit
that their regime change is not working, and to put a lot of
pressure on the government and their paramilitary allies to stop
the persecution.
Fenton: What can be done
with the horrific information detailed in the IJDH and other
reports?
Concannon: We need to confront
the world with these facts. We write this report to prove beyond
a doubt that large scale atrocities are happening, as a way of
pushing reluctant people into action. We also need to take organizational
action, with solidarity groups like the Let Haiti Live Campaign,
and individual action like writing to newspapers and our elected
representatives.
Fenton: Commander of the
Canadian Forces in Haiti, Lieutenant-colonel Jim Davis recently
called into question the "credibility and validity"
of the IJDH report [4]. How do you respond to this? Is it "credible
and valid"?
Concannon: The report was prepared
by lawyers who have been trained in some of the world's best
law schools. We've been working for eight years in Haiti. We
have a very good system of collecting and verifying information,
and it is up to the highest standards. I actually would prefer
that this report was all wrong. If the people who came into our
office were not really victims' relatives, if they had invented
the stories, and we had faked the photographs if all those people
reported dead or disappeared are alive and well, that would make
my day; that would make me extremely happy, because then a lot
fewer people would have suffered persecution.
But the reality is that very
good information, from us and from anyone else who has seriously
investigated, shows that there is widespread persecution. If
the Canadian, or any other military on the ground in Haiti does
not believe this information, their obligation is to go out and
check. Their obligation is to go in and talk to people in poor
neighbourhoods, to go to the prisons and ask who's a Lavalas
supporter, and find out if there are any warrants for those people's
arrest. They'll find that there are no warrants; they'll find
that they've not been brought before a judge, that the Constitution
has not been respected in many ways. We'd be perfectly happy
to cooperate with the Canadian government or anyone else who
was looking into these questions. If they don't believe us their
obligation is to conduct their own investigation rather than
just putting their hands over their ears and closing their eyes,
seeing no evil, hearing no evil.
Fenton: This same colonel
denied that a "cleansing" of supporters of Haiti's
Constitution has or is taking place, while at the same time acknowledging
that 1000 bodies were buried in a mass grave by March 28th, one
month after the coup. He admitted this and other things [such
as a March 12th massacre carried out by occupying forces in the
neighborhood of Belair] during a well-attended media teleconference
call. None of the mainstream outlest picked up on this context.
Why do you suppose this is the case and what are your thoughts
on the work of mainstream [corporate] journalists?
Concannon: I think that journalists
covering Haiti have a moral and professional obligation to look
into these atrocities, and that for the most part they have not
fulfilled that obligation. Obviously if they're put on notice
by the fact that a Canadian colonel admitted that a massacre
happened and that there were a thousand bodies, then journalists
need to ask where these bodies came from. They need to go to
Haiti and check.. They need to go beyond staying in the nice
hotels and speaking with Haitians who drive nice cars or speak
good French or English. They need to go into the poor areas where
the persecution is happening. The people who are doing the repressing
are very clever; they're not killing prominent people; some of
the prominent people are being arrested and put in jail, but
the killing is being done to anonymous people, to poor people
in the poor neighbourhoods that support President Aristide and
they are being targeted in ways that the press won't see because
the press isn't going into those neighbourhoods and is not making
the effort to talk to the victims.
For both the press and for
governments, finding this information is not hard. We did not
aggressively solicit information. For the most part people justcame
by our office. Once the word got out through the grapevine that
we were taking down these stories, our office was inundated with
people and it would not be very hard for a journalist or a foreign
government in Haiti to put the word out that they're taking testimony
about these things and I'm sure they'd also be inundated very
quickly with information.
Fenton: In a recent interview
Pierre Esperrance, director of the National Coalition for Haitian
Rights [NCHR], said "I can tell you right now that there
are no political prisoners in Haiti." Can you put the NCHR
into context?
Concannon: The NCHR also needs
to investigate these things. They may be telling the truth in
saying they haven't received reports of persecution, but they've
also admitted that they haven't gone out and looked. One problem
is that they're considered by many of the victims of persecution
to be hostile to their interests, partly because NCHR has been
denouncing people who were subsequently arrested and imprisoned
illegally, and partly because when you go into NCHR offices there
are wanted posters for people associated with the Lavalas government
and they don't have posters of people who've even been convicted
of human rights violations against lavalas supporters and are
roaming free.
If NCHR and others are going
to claim that this persecution is not happening they have to
out and conduct an investigation. I think that a lot of the mainstream
human rights organisations in Haiti, which are also not coincidentally
supported by USAID and by other wealthy governments, have been
systematically biased in their human rights reporting, in terms
of over reporting accusations against Lavalas members and underreporting
or ignoring accusations of persecution of Lavalas members.
Fenton: What else is going
on on the ground to help Haitian's achieve their human right
to self-determine?
Concannon: One thing that's
happening is that Haitian civil society is starting to reorganize,
that is, the democratic [legitimate] civil society. It's not
an easy thing to do given that the whole purpose of this repression
is to either kill or arrest activists, and to decapitate the
civil society organizations, but despite that they are still
managing to organize. I think you will see an increased effort
on behalf of Haitian organizations to insist on democracy and
sovereignty and Haitian independence. There are accompanying
efforts outside of Haiti. I think that the solidarity community
did oppose the coup as it was arriving but I don't think we that
did it as effectively as we could have.
The solidarity community is
starting to do more outreach, and making its message more effective.
I also think that we are gradually getting more people on board.
It's been a bitter disappointment for me that people who would
not accept the US and other countries overthrowing an elected
government elsewhere in the Americas did nothing to stop it from
happening to Haiti. And people who would not believe Bush Administration
propaganda with respect to other countries believe and recirculate
it with respect to Haiti. Many of those people are starting to
come around, they're seeing that this puppet [Gerard Latortue-Boniface
Alexandre] regime is in fact not functioning and is not providing
any benefit to the Haitian people.We're hoping that some of those
people will 'jump on the bandwagon' and start supporting Haiti's
sovereignty and popular democracy.
Fenton: A number of Haitian
organizations who claim to represent 'the people' and left-of-center
viewpoints were calling for Arisitde's resignation before the
coup, allying themselves with the right wing elements. Please
discuss this context.
Concannon: Haitian society
has a few different divisions. The biggest division is between
the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. A lot of people who espouse
left of center ideas do so from comfortable offices and homes,
and when push comes to shove they stick to their primary alliance
with others of their class, in spite of their espoused politics.
I think this certainly happened in the months leading up to Haiti's
coup. You saw incongruous alliances with former communists, and
anti-neoliberal activists holding hands with sweatshop owners,
calling for a common platform. Those people aren't happy now;
they're not getting what they wanted, except for the ones who
received ministerial posts, or director-general posts. It's obvious
that the government is not advancing their espoused political
agenda. But there still is this division, where people pick sides,
almost like tribalism, where you pick a side of your economic
class over your espoused views.
Fenton: It strikes me that
Batay Ouvriye falls under this category. They've said about Aristide's
agreeing to be returned by Clinton in 1994: "The return
of Aristide under US/UN occupation was a futherance of this process
of placing Haiti gradually under US imperialist tutelage."
And, in the context of the recent coup they've said "The
current U.S. led intervention in Haiti was first called for by
the Lavalas government, desperately seeking a way to stay in
power by any concessionnecessary. But the U.S. had more servile
lackeys in mind while taking advantage of the invitation to intervene."[5]
Concannon: Batay Ouvriye's
criticism of Aristide coming back in the 1994 under US occupation,
is certainly a legitimate issue for debate. I think to a large
extent that debate was settled , by the fact that the Lavalas
party continued to win a landslide in every election. I think
that shows that the Haitian people did in fact approve of that
decision, even though many of those voters probably struggled
with that issue, they did come down in favour of having the Lavalas
back in office. But in any event the issue should be debated
within the democratic, constitutional framework: through public
discussion in the press and elsewhere, and by putting the issue
in front of the voters. Violent regime change simply does not
advance that debate.
Fenton: In the context of
a 'post-9/11' world and the subsequent new 'war on terrorism',
put into context what Noam Chomsky has expressed as the "Tragedy
of Haiti".
Concannon: One closely related
theme to all of this is imperialism. After the 9/11 attacks there
was a lot of talk about whether poverty breeds terrorism, and
I think that that link is not necessarily a strong one. But there
is a very strong link between injustice and terrorism, and I
think you can also make a link between injustice and the inability
of a country to maintain a stable government. If you look at
all the 'trouble spots' in the world, you'll see there's a large
disparity in wealth and there's also a lot of injustice both
within those societies and between those societies and the wealthy
countries of the world. I think that this is at the root of a
lot of the problems that are afflicting poor countries as well
as the wealthy ones.
One of Haiti's fundamental
problems is the class divide. Although different elements of
the anti-Lavalas sector had different motivations, the most powerful
actors wanted Aristide removed because he was governing on behalf
of the poor.If you look at Haile Selassie's famous 1963 speech
to the United Nations, that Bob Marley transformed into his excellent
song "War", where he proclaimed that as long as there's
injustice, as long as there's racism, as long as people's autonomy
and sovereignty are not respected, there will be war. Bob Marley's
song said "War in the East, War in the West, War in the
North, War in the South," meaning that sometimes the war
will be contained in places like Cite Soleil and Soweto, but
sometimes it will not. And I think we're seeing that. As long
as the wealthy and powerful countries of the world continue to
ignore the principles of justice in their international relations,
we're going to have war.[6]
Fenton: If John Kerry is
elected can or will this have a positive impact on the Haiti
solidarity struggles?
Concannon: Certainly John Kerry's
election will make a difference. He espouses a more multilateral,
more cooperative, and a more just approach to foreign policy.
I don't think that it will necessarily make all the difference,
nor can solidarity activists rest on their laurels if Kerry is
elected. For example, if you go back to President Clinton, when
he was a candidate in 1992 talking about the de facto regime
[CIA-supported Cedras junta] that was in place at the time, and
the US policy of illegally sending refugees back to that regime,
he called that policy illegal and immoral, and he promised to
change it. But even before he became President, a couple of days
before his inauguration, he issued a statement reversing this
position, saying he was going torepatriate Haitian refugees,
the same thing that as illegal and immoral for the first President
Bush to do...So, we certainly can't rest, we must continue to
push for a just foreign policy toward Haiti, even if Kerry is
in the White House.
Fenton: Speaking of Clinton,
his administration originated the "Failed State" terminology
that people like Canada's Paul Martin are now parroting as if
the rhetoric was going out of style
Concannon: I think that the
rhetoric is highly cynical. The fact that there were problems
with Haiti's government is no surprise.There certainly were
problems - many of them can be traced directly back to the policies
of Canada and the US and the rest of the wealthy countries. Not
coincidentally, most of these countries are former slave-holding
countries and there was a three-year embargo against Haiti's
democratically elected government. There was also diplomatic
isolation, there was persistent support for people who were trying
to overthrow that government both violently and non-violently.
Calling Haiti a "failed state" is a way of deflecting
attention away from the international community's failed policies.
It is also an excuse to suspend the commitment to democracy that
wealthy countries always preach, but so often fail to put into
practice.
Despite the challenges of the
embargo, and figting an intermittent but persistent armed attack,
the Haitian government was continuing to provide many basic services.
There were impressive, if still inadequate successes in terms
of educational reform. Although they weren't anywhere near to
filling the needs of the country, there were unprecedented advances
in terms of building schools, training teachers, adult literacy
programs. There were also great successes in terms of justice,
some of our work. We had some of the best human rights cases
ever done in Haiti and probably in the entire hemisphere over
the last twenty years or so. Some of these happened with international
support. Had the international community provided more consistent
support, there would have been more consistent successes. Perhaps
most important, before 1996, no Haitian President in history
had served his original term in office and left voluntarily at
the end of it, no more no less. That happened in 1996, and again
in 2001.
Haiti's Constitutional regime
eventually foundered not because of competence, but because of
politics: the governments insisted on implementing a mandate
that had been given by the Haitian electorate but with which
the wealthy countries [and wealthy Haitians] didn't agree.
Fenton: On June 1st you
wrote an article called "Haiti's Coup and the Constitution,"[7]
Please summarize where constitutional issues stand in Haiti today.
And how has this affected you personally considering all the
work that you've done over the last nine years in Haiti?
Concannon: In terms of the
Constitution and the current government, it came to power through
unconstitutional means and is continuing to govern in a completely
unconstitutional way. As in the U.S. and Canada, there are certain
ways to deal with constitutional crises and interruptions in
the normal order. None of these were followed in Haiti. The Prime
Minister was not selected in a constitutional way; the President
was the closest thing to being constitutional, in that he was
the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the Constitution
does provide for the Chief Justice to fill a Presidential vacancy.
It wasn't a vacancy because President Aristide did not resign;
his letter was not a resignation letter. The US State Department
hired a Creole expert to translate it who said that it was not
a translation letter.
Even if there had been a vacancy,
the interim President is supposed to serve for a maximum of three
months. We are close to double that now, and there is no talk
of elections before the end of 2005. The Prime Minister, who
was appointed by a process not recognized by the Constitution,
is filling most of the President's roles. He has the real power,
because he has the ties to the international community.
As far as my personal reaction
goes, I am of course bitterly disappointed with these results.
We'd been working within the Haitian justice system since 1995
to try to make the system work, using the tools of democracy.
We were successful in many ways. The places where we were most
successful was when we were able to convince people to take a
gamble on democracy, we convinced people to testify in open court.
We argued that prosecuting human rights violators under the law
rather than engaging in some kind of extra judicial vengeance,
would help establish the rule of law and break the cycle of violence.
We told people that the rule of law would be the bulwark against
these kinds of things happening again.
And the victims very courageously
took the gamble, and now they're looking like suckers because
the people they put in jail are now out, and in power, and are
threatening them. This is demonstrated by several reports, not
just ours [Amnesty, etc], that the former human rights abusers,
who've actually been convicted, are back outside on the streets
doing the same things to the same people. And they got back out
on the streets with the help of the wealthy countries that supposedly
promote democracy and the rule of law.
It's obviously a bitter disappointment
to see Haiti' nine-year experiment in democracy thrown out like
that. It was not a perfectly successful experiment, but it was
in fact working. People for the first time ever had a role in
their destinies. Democratic institutions were being developed
through painstaking labor. Now we're not back to zero, we're
back to less than zero, since there is not only a completely
undemocratic government in place, you also have a lot of people
who are now going to say 'I'm not going to be fooled again, I'm
not going to take the bet on democracy next time'.
Fenton: The Haitian Constitution
doesn't say that in the event of an 'interim govenrment' the
Prime Minister--in
this case Gerard Latortue--becomes the de facto head of State,
does it?
Concannon: Where Alexandre
at least has a veneer of constitutional support, Latortue has
none; it's clear that Latortue is running the country. The constitution
does divide executive power between the President and the Prime
minister, and in fact Latortue is doing most of the things that
are on the President's side of the divide. It's clear that Latortue
is the US man. He's probably spent more time in the United States
in his life than I have. He's the Haitian Ahmad Chalabi, and
he's there to do the US bidding.
Fenton: The EPICA"People's
fact-finding mission to Haiti" finds that what we see in
Haiti now is an effective return to the conditions of 1915. Many
see US ambassador James Foley as the de facto 'governor' of Haiti.
Would you agree with this characterization?[8]
Concannon: There's another
report that came out this week from the Haiti Accompaniment Project
[9], which came to similar conclusions as EPICA. When you look
at the detailed workings, everything from the airport to the
ministries, you have Americans that are involved in important
oversight positions throughout the Haitian government. In that
sense, it is a lot like in 1915, which was the beginning of a
19-year occupation.
It seems like in many of these
[current] cases, people are settling in for the long haul. One
person named Terry Stewart was a prison official in Arizona who
was extremely controversial because of torturing and other mistreatment
that went on on hs watch. He was then sent to Iraq and subsequently
sent out of Iraq because he was too controversial, because of
his past history of involvement in torture. He was then sent
to Haiti. I'm not sure if he's still there but this is an example
of the type of American practices that are being exported to
Haiti. [10]
Fenton: What are your thoughts
on attempting a new [or continued] 'democratic experiment' in
Haiti? Do you agree with Jean Saint-Vil and others who see the
struggle ahead as a long term one?
Concannon: I think that the
most hopeful sign is that the Haitian electorate has always been
highly mobilized and very clear in their desires. I've observed
a lot of elections in Haiti--I was an official observer with
the OAS in Haiti for several elections, and I've unofficially
observed several others, and in almost every instance, the rate
of participation of Haitian voters was way above that of any
participation rate you'd have in U.S. elections, and higher than
most elections in Latin America.
That shows that despite the
challenges to their democracy, the Haitian electorate really
does care. That is by far the most hopeful sign, although a lot
of what has happened over the last years have been intended to
demobilize the population, to make them care less about democracy
so they're less likely to defend it. I think that this has not
completely worked, and I think that whenever you do have elections
the Haitian people will speak very clearly. This is why the plan
is to delay elections as long as possible. But I think that the
people will keep fighting and I agree with Jean Saint-Vil that
solidarity activists need to be fighting too. We need to take
the long-term view of this and fight over the long haul for the
return of real democracy in Haiti, in which the poor majority
has the say, that has the weight in public affairs that's consistent
with their numbers. Together, we can in fact get Haitian democracy
back on track.
Brian Concannon Jr., human
rights lawyer and activist, Director of the Institute
for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH). Brian has co-managed
the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux [BAI] in Port-au-Prince
since 1996, after coming to Haiti in 1995 with the United Nations.
Concannon is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center,
and held a Brandeis International Fellowship in Human Rights,
Intervention and International Law from 2001-2003. Since Haiti's
coup d'etat in February, the BAI has switched gears to document
continuing human rights violations. The BAI also runs a training
program for Haitian law school graduates.Mr. Concannon writes
and speaks often about justice, human rights and the democratic
transition in Haiti. He can be reached at brianhaiti@aol.com.
Anthony Fenton, is an investigative
journalist and activist, living near Vancouver, B.C. Fenton has
written for ZNet
and The Dominion,
'Canada's Grassroots National Newspaper'. He can be reached at
apfenton@ualberta.ca.
[1] Download the latest IJDH
reports at http://www.haitiaction.net.
See also, forthcoming, http://www.ijdh.org
[2] See Amnesty's reports at
http://web.amnesty.org
.
[3] The CPJ's latest can be
found here: http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2004/haiti_7_04/haiti_7_04.html
[4] During a July 29, 2004
media teleconference from Port au Prince.
[5] Batay Ouvriye said this
in a May 25, 2004 interview: http://www.axisoflogic.com/
See also http://www.batayouvriye.org.
[6] On Selassie's speech and
Bob Marley go to: http://www.bobmarley.com/life/rastafari/war_speech.html
[7] Originally published in
the Boston Reporter, June 1, 2004, available at: http://haitiaction.net/News/bc6_1_4.html"
[8] Ecumenical Program in Central
America and the Caribbean. Go to: http://www.epica.org/haiti/action_haiti.htm"
See also the Quixote Center's "Emergency
Haiti Observation Mission" report.
[9] The HAP report is available
at http://haitiaction.net/News/hap6_29_4.html
[10] For more on Terry Stewart
in the context of Haiti, see Dominique Esser and Kim Ives' "Haiti
and Abu Ghraib: The US is to "clean up" Haiti's prisons
-- just like it did Iraq's" .
Weekend
Edition Features for July 31 / August 1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
Merlin Chowkwanyun
Five Questions with Noam Chomsky: "The Savage Extreme of
a Narrow Policy Spectrum"
David Lindorff
The Shame of the DNC
John Chuckman
The
Disturbing Words of John Edwards
Brian Cloughley
All Slam and No Dunk; All Blame and No Responsibility
Christopher Brauchli
"Being Poor is a State of Mind": the Frowning Face
of Compassionate Conservatism
Fred Gardner
A World of Pain
Michael Donnelly
How Big Pharma Bilks the Elderly
David Nally
Genocide in Darfur?
Joshua Frank
Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon
Sam Bahour
Colin Powell and My Grandmother
Diane Farsetta
The IMF and the Indonesian Elections: The Invisible Hand in the
Voting Booth
Harold Gould
Was Iraq a Mutual Charade?
Van Bergen / Stephens
Election 9/11: Surreal Political Theater
Lee Sustar
A New Model for the Labor Movement?
Ron Jacobs
The Lost Art of Hitchhiking
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview with Palestinian-American Rapper, The Iron Sheik
Poets Basement
Albert, Ford, Krieger, St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Cross Cultural Poetics
Keep
CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home
/ subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|