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Today's
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February 17, 2004
Greg Bates
Nader Ambush: a New Low for The
Nation
Ximena Ortiz
A Bush
Doctrine, of Sorts
Gary Leupp
Whatever Happened to Gen. Khazraji?
February 16, 2004
James Johnston
Huddling
with the Cheeseheads in a NASCAR World
Sara Eltantawi
To
Wear the Hijab or Not
Bruce Anderson
Kevin
Cooper and the Midnight Needle
Elaine Cassel
Feds
on Campus: the Drake Subpoenas
Rahul Mahajan
Bush,
Is the Tide Finally Turning?
Kevin Cooper
The Ritual of Death
Stan Cox
Goodbye, Howard Dean
Larry David
My War
Steve Perry
Bush and the Guard: the Cover-Up's the Thing
Website of the Day
Prison Patriots: Help This Vital Film Get Made
February 14/15, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Milk Bars, Hollywood and the
March of Empires
Jeffrey St. Clair
Oil Grab in the Arctic
William A. Cook
Faith-Based Fanatics
Stan Goff
Beloved
Haiti
Dave Marsh / Lee Ballinger
Rock, Rap & the Election
Hughes / Weiher
Tupac, the Patriot Act and Me
Michael Colby
Bush v. Kerry: the Power Elite's Dream Ballot
Mickey Z.
Michael Moore's Lesser Party: the General and the Lieutenant
Josh Frank
Dean's Demise No Big Loss for the Left
Peter Wolson
The Politics of Narcissism
William James Martin
Clean Break with the Road Map
Daniel Estulin
Religious Extremism in Africa
Standard Schaefer
The Privatization of Culture: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Dave Zirin
Maurice Clarett Gets Off the Plantation
Tracy McLellan
Oprah's Birthday Greedfest
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Guthrie, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Progressives Scorecard: Where Do the Dems Rank on the Issues
That Matter?
February 13, 2004
Alan Maass
Kevin
Cooper's Fight to Live
Karyn Strickler
McCarthyism in the Sierra Club
Annie Higgins
On
a Street in America
Adam Federman
Democratic Snipers Target Nader
Mike Whitney
George W. Faces the Nation
Brian Cloughley
Our Imperial Leader Has Spoken
Website of the Day
Lying Action Figure Doll
February 12, 2004
Ray McGovern
George
Tenet's Spin Cycle
Robert Jensen
Bush's
Nuclear Hypocrisy
Saul Landau
Elegy to the Salton Sea
February
11, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Hail, Kerry: Senator Facing-Both-Ways
Steve Perry
Bush
v. Bush?
February
10, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
Inquisition in Iowa
Ron Jacobs
Politics and the Beatles: Don't
You Know You Can Count Me Out (In)
Elizabeth
Schulte
The Many Faces of John Kerry
Mickey
Z
Meet the Oxmans: "The Rich
Shouldn't Sleep at Night Either"
February
9, 2004
Michael
Donnelly
Will Skull and Bones Really Change
CEOs? Inside John Kerry's Closet
Chris Floyd
Smells Like Team Spirit: the Bush
B-Boys Replay Their Greatest Hits
Bill
Christison
What's Wrong with the CIA?
Dr. Susan
Block
Janet Jackson's Mammary Moment:
Boob Tube Super Bowl
February
7/8, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
Offending Valerie: Dealing with
Jewish Self-Absorption
Jeff Ballinger
No Sweat Shopping
Dave
Lindorff
Spray and Pray in Iraq: a Marine
in Transit
Alexander
Cockburn
McNamara: the Sequel
February
6, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Are the Kurds in the Way?
Joanne
Mariner
Anita Bryant's Legacy
Saul
Landau
Happiness and Botox
Kurt Nimmo
Horror Non-fiction: A How-To Guide
from Perle and Frum
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Real Intelligence Failure:
Our Own
February
5, 2004
Benjamin
Shepard
Turning NYC into a Patriot Act Free
Zone
Khury
Petersen-Smith
A Report from Occupied Iraq: "We Don't Want Army USA"
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
Teresa
Josette
The Exeuctioner's Pslam? Christian Nation? Yeah, Right
David Krieger
Why Dr. King's Message on Vietnam is Relevant to Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Monkey Business: Of Recess and Evolution in Georgia Schools
Norman
Solomon
The Deadly Lies of Reliable Sources
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Presenting President Edwards!
February
4, 2004
Brian
McKinlay
Bush's Australian Deputy: Howard's
Last Round Up?
Mark
Gaffney
Ariel Sharon's Favorite Senator: Ron Wyden and Israel
Judith
Brown
Palestine and the Media
Frederick
B. Hudson
Moseley-Braun and the Butcher: Campaign for Justice or Big Oil's
Junta?
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's Independent Commission: Exonerating
the Spooks
M.
Junaid Alam
Philly School Workers Fight for Fair Contract
Fran Shor
Whose Boob Tube?
Kevin
Cooper
This is Not My Execution and I Will Not Claim It
February
3, 2004
Alan
Maass
The
Dems' New Mantra: What They Really Mean by "Electability"
Nick
Halfinger
How the Other Half Lives: Embedded
in Iraq
Rahul
Mahajan
Our True Intelligence Failure
Neve Gordon
The Only Democracy in the Middle East?
Laura
Carlsen
Mexico: Two Anniversaries; Two Futures
Terry
Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Powell from the Boobs & Body Parts
Fairness Campaign
Hammond
Guthrie
Investigating the Meaningless
Website
of the Day
Waging Peace
February
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
The Buddhist Nun in Tom Ridge's Jail
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Manners of Their Deaths: Capital Punishment in a Smoke-Free
Environment
Tom
Wright
The Prosecution of Captain Yee
Winslow
Wheeler
Inside the Bush Defense Budget
Lee Ballinger
Janet Jackson's Naked Truth
Leonard
Pitts, Jr
For Blacks, the Game of Justice is
Rigged
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Hollow Candidate:
The Trouble with Howard Dean
Website
of the Day
Resistance:
In the Eye of the American Hegemon
Jan. 31 / Feb 1, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate
Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities
Bernard
Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium
Jack
Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks
Christopher
Reed
Broken Ballots
Michael
Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear
Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War
Lee
Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement
George
Bisharat
Right of Return
Ray
McGovern
Nothing to Preempt
Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks
Conn
Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs
Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons
Phillip
Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit
Christopher
Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read
John
Holt
War in the Great White North
Mickey
Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley
Mark
Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key
Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif
Ben
Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert
January 30, 2004
Saul
Landau
Cuba High on Neo-Con Hit List
Michael
Donnelly
Bush's Second Front: The War in
the Woods
Elaine
Cassel
Worse Than Jacko: Child Abuse at Gitmo
David Vest
More Halliburton News, Brought to You by Halliburton
Mike
Whitney
The Kay Report: Still Defending Aggression
David
Miller
The Hutton Whitewash
Sam
Husseini
How Many People Must Die Because of This "Mistake",
Senator Kerry?
January 29, 2004
Patricia
Nelson Limerick
John Ehrlichman, Environmentalist
Ron
Jacobs
Homeland Security and "Legalized"
Immigration
Rahul Mahajan
New Hampshire v. Iraq
Greg
Weiher
Bush Calls for Preemptive Strike on
Moon and Mars
Norman
Solomon
The State of the Media Union
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Does NH Mean Anything?
January
28, 2004
Kathy
Kelly
Bearing Witness Against Teachers of
Torture and Assassination
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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February
17, 2004
War of Terrorism
(Part One)
The
Countryside Murders
By MIKE FERNER
AUTHORS' NOTE: While writing the essay,
"Terror by Another Name," I realized that we apply
this most potent term in the American political vocabulary very
unevenly. We define terrorism as tactics used against us, but
deny that it applies to our own actions taken to purposely and
unmistakably instill terror. Our denial is compounded daily when
the U.S. government promotes and the media report news from a
"War on Terrorism." Our "War of Terrorism"
deserves its due.
ABU HISHMA, IRAQ.
This is the farm village that Cliff Kindy, leader
of the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT), refers to as the "razor
wire place." It's actually a small town, around half of
which the U.S. Army has unrolled concertina razor wire, and completed
the effect with a checkpoint and curfew. Six CPT members are
returning for an update from the residents on the latest U.S.
raids and detentions.
On the 30-mile trip from Baghdad, the
city falls away as we drive into open countryside. Approaching
Abu Hishma, we pass a small house about 150 feet from the road
that is now a pile of rubble. Our interpreter, Sattar, said the
house was destroyed because "it was too close to the road
and coalition forces destroy it."
With a minivan stuffed full of westerners,
we arrive 10 minutes before the 5pm curfew, wondering if we'll
be allowed to pass the checkpoint into the district cordoned
off by the wire. Just before reaching the gate, our driver spots
his brother, coming in from the fields in a pickup. They exchange
a few words and we follow his brother closely through the checkpoint
staffed by the ICDC, the Iraq Civil Defense Corps. They look
into the van briefly, smile, and wave us through.
Inside the wire, kids of all ages spill
into the narrow streets from all directions, smiling, laughing,
and waving joyfully. The streets are all dirt, barely more than
lanes, some still quite muddy from rains several days ago. The
minivan bounces along, perilously close to the edge of the ditch
to let vehicles coming towards us pass. There is really nothing
resembling a berm, and the kids back up on mere inches of muddy
lane to let us by, still laughing and waving. Some shout "Saddam,
Saddam" but it's not clear how much of the shouting is a
political statement and how much is kids being kids for a rare
carload of westerners. Each time we turn a c! orner it appears
we're about to run over a youngster, or at least knock one into
the ditch, but somehow, just as Baghdad drivers avoid accidents
in the most impossible situations, the children remain unscathed.
Our contact, Aziz Musla Hussain, a local
journalist, is nowhere to be found. We are creeping along narrow
lanes with a boisterous bunch in tow, moments before the curfew
hour, not sure where we are going to stay. The driver offers
the hospitality of his home as a last resort. The CPT members
decide to call on the local sheik responsible for the welfare
of about 25,000 residents of Abu Hishma, some inside and some
outside the wire.
We are welcomed warmly by Sheik Mohammed
Abbas Alawa's oldest son, Shalon. He is nearly fluent in English,
learned while studying Recent U.S. History at the University
of Baghdad. Sheik Alawa enters momentarily. After discussing
the issues of the day in Abu Hishma, we are served our second
chicken and rice dinner of the evening. The first was only two
hours ago in the village of Abu Siffa.
After eating, drinking tea, and further
discussion, fabric cushion mats and blankets are brought in for
bedtime. Sheik Alawa makes sure everyone is comfortable, leans
his AK-47 against the wall next to his pillow, and retires.
The next day begins early. We are soon
on our way to listen to more stories from the people of Abu Hishma.
Cliff says this is a farming village,
but it is unlike any farm or village I've seen in the U.S. There,
rural population centers range in size from hamlets of a few
homes, to small cities with their emblematic water towers. The
farmhouses are always widely scattered, single-family homes with
accompanying barns and outbuildings_the typical white frame house
and red barn_often surrounded by enough lawn to require a miniature
tractor.
But in this place north of Baghdad, a
farm village is something completely different. The homes are
much smaller. A few have postage stamp-sized yards, but in most
cases lawns are replaced by barnyards_meaning that the chickens,
goats, cows, manure piles, and mud-hut outbuildings are literally
a few steps out the back, or sometimes front, door. Mixed in
with the animals and sheds are bundles of neatly stacked fruit
tree prunings, dead cotton plant stalks, and other material that
appears ready for the stove. The roads are not more than single
dirt lanes. Hard up against either side of! these lanes are earthen
walls about four feet tall, with rounded edges. Colorful blankets
air on second-story balconies.
The muddy lanes pose too much of an obstacle
for the usually unstoppable local drivers, so we walk. The kids
mug for the camera, run and jump in front of, alongside, and
behind us. Some wear light jackets against the chilly morning
air. Most are barefoot, oblivious to several varieties of manure
dotting the trail.
First stop on our Abu Hishma walking
tour is ahead on the left, a victim of what the Glossary of Military
Terms & Slang from the Vietnam War refers to as "H &
I," or harassment and interdiction fire: "Random artillery
(or aerial) bombardments used to deny the enemy terrain which
they might find beneficial to their campaign; general rather
than specific, confirmed military targets."
An outline of a house foundation frames
a perfectly-centered bomb crater 15 feet deep and 30 feet wide.
Destroyed 10 days ago at 8:00 a.m., by a single bomb, the dwelling
was home to a family of seven who miraculously were not there
at the time. But the youngsters bring other evidence of the blast
to our attention.
One of their pals, Hahmed Fadhil, wears
a gauze patch taped over the right eye he said he lost when the
bomb exploded. Two boys poke a stick at an orange and white cat
that has achieved immortality for having died in a bombing. We're
shown window frames in homes two blocks away, where cardboard
replaces the glass reportedly shattered by the same explosion.
A hundred feet up the lane, a smaller
bomb crater is off to the side. Before we hear its story, we're
distracted by six U.S. helicopter gunships roaring low overhead.
They pass quickly.
We return to the cars and drive a short
distance to our next stop, a slightly larger farmhouse on the
edge of the village. It is the home of Yasseen Taha, a 33 year-old
farmer who attended evening classes at the University of Baghdad's
Islamic Studies program.
On October 17, Yasseen's brother, Aziz,
and his wife, Majida, were shot and killed by troops from Lt.
Col. Sassaman's base, according to Yasseen's uncle, Muhnna Azazzal,
who spoke with us.
On that day at about 4:00 p.m., U.S.
troops and tanks stationed at the former Iraqi airfield three
kilometers south of the Taha home, came from that direction toward
the village, "firing randomly," said Azazzal.
Yasseen's younger brother, Aziz, a fourth-year
student in the University of Baghdad's English Studies department,
was struck by one of the bullets and mortally wounded. Yasseen's
wife, Majida, knelt to help her brother-in-law and was hit by
a bullet and killed instantly. She left three children, the youngest
15 days old. Aziz died within two hours, but in the meantime,
Azazzal said, U.S. soldiers surrounded the scene, telling neighbors
to keep back and denying Aziz any first-aid.
Aziz' sister, Asmaa, said that she witnessed
the carnage that day. Seeing her brother shot and bleeding to
death, she began to cry hysterically. An American soldier responded
by firing his rifle into the ground near Aziz' dying body "to
mock my grief," she said.
Just then, we witnessed what looked like
another H & I incident. Two helicopters flew low over the
village, circled, and fired machine gun bursts into an open pasture
a couple hundred meters away. "They do it just to scare
us," one villager shrugged, or as a former Iraqi soldier
later told me, "we used to call it 'showing the teeth.'"
Muhnna Azazzal resumed his narrative.
Ten days after the October double murder, U.S. troops arrested
Yasseen. Soldiers had been attacked in the vicinity, Azazzal
explained, and Yasseen was a prime suspect, having just lost
two family members to Army shootings. Three months later, the
farmer from Abu Hishma still sits in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison,
still denied visitors. Azazzal, his uncle, said he later heard
from released detainees that Yasseen was accused of "terrorist
acts."
A rooster crows in the Taha farmyard.
Chickens scratch in a small, neatly-fenced grass front yard.
Three helicopter gunships roar overhead. In the dirt side yard
are two red heifers, an earthen oven, a mud brick outhouse and
piles of stacked brush. Several small Holstein dairy cows graze
in a narrow, rich pasture just beyond the lane. Yasseen's uncle,
Muhnna says with equal parts hurt, disappointment and anger in
his voice, "soldiers that do these kinds of things don't
deserve to be called Americans." Two more helicopters roar
in from another direction. They circle a few hundred meters to
the west and go on their way.
Mike Ferner
spent the month of February, 2003 in Baghdad and Basra, with
Voices in the Wilderness, a Chicago-based campaign to nonviolently
resist economic and military warfare against Iraq. He returned
recently to write about the current situation in Iraq. He is
a member of Veterans for Peace and works for the Program on Corporations,
Law & Democracy. He can be reached at: mferner2003@yahoo.com
Weekend
Edition Features for February 14 / 15, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Milk Bars, Hollywood and the
March of Empires
Jeffrey St. Clair
Oil Grab in the Arctic
William A. Cook
Faith-Based Fanatics
Stan Goff
Beloved
Haiti
Dave Marsh / Lee Ballinger
Rock, Rap & the Election
Hughes / Weiher
Tupac, the Patriot Act and Me
Michael Colby
Bush v. Kerry: the Power Elite's Dream Ballot
Mickey Z.
Michael Moore's Lesser Party: the General and the Lieutenant
Josh Frank
Dean's Demise No Big Loss for the Left
Peter Wolson
The Politics of Narcissism
William James Martin
Clean Break with the Road Map
Daniel Estulin
Religious Extremism in Africa
Standard Schaefer
The Privatization of Culture: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Dave Zirin
Maurice Clarett Gets Off the Plantation
Tracy McLellan
Oprah's Birthday Greedfest
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Guthrie, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Progressives Scorecard: Where Do the Dems Rank on the Issues
That Matter?
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