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CounterPunch's Scorching New History of a Decade of War Order Now / Available in April   Today's Stories April 7, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Those Pulitzers! April 6, 2004 C.G. Estabrook Mercenaries and Occupiers William Blum The Anti-Empire Report: the Israel Lobby Col. Dan Smith The Language of Disbelief: 1.3 Billion Still Live in War Zones Dr. Bulent Gokay The Coming Islamic Republic of Iraq? Lynn Landes Faking Democracy: Americans Don't Vote; Machines Do Sheila Samples What Would Royko Write? Jason Leopold Condi's Blind Spot: Rice Never Mentioned al-Qaeda Mickey Z. A Reality Show with No End in Sight Robert Fisk Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy   April 5, 2004 John Farrell Lessons from El Salvador and Iraq Robert Fisk Bloodbath a Bad Omen for Bush Gary Leupp Shiites Say No: Another "Nightmare Scenario" April 3 / 4, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Anti-Depressants a Problem? We're Shocked Jeffrey St. Clair How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business Without Really Trying Gary Leupp On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God Lawrence Davidson Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine Frederick B. Hudson Condi Rice: the Family Retainer Phillip Cryan The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising Dave Zirin Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney Ben Tripp Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard Bruce Anderson Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless Bill Fletcher, Jr. Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti Mark Scaramella Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld Quiz Sharon Smith Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay? Rick Giombetti Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time Nader/Kerry Quandary Stephen Gowans Communists for Capitalism? Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto Mickey Z Turn ON Saul Landau Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist? Richard Oxman Nader and/or Death? Poets' Basement Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp Website of the Weekend Missing     April 2, 2004 Dave Lindorff Barbaric Relativism: the Press and Fallujah Kurt Nimmo Wherever Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow Emma Miller The Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide Dr. Susan Block Same Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition Norman Solomon Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick Sacha Guney The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey Christopher Brauchli The Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee Website of the Day Mercenaries, Inc.   April 1, 2004 Ron Jacobs Dying in Vain in Iraq Harry Browne No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree Chris Floyd Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons Nicole Colson Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo Charles Arthur Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers Laura Flanders Elaine Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son March 31, 2004 M. Junaid Alam Israel: Suicide Nation? John L. Hess Condi Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters? Fernando Suarez del Solar A Year Since My Son's Death in Iraq Sofia Perez Spain's U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action David Vest Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath Tanya Reinhart As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination Mike Whitney Time to Dump the Pledge Donald Kaul Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI Milt Bearden Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great Marjorie Cohn The Illegal Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated US and International Law Website of the Day New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks     March 30, 2004 William S. Lind An Occurrence in Pakistan: the Battle That Wasn't Ron Jacobs Assassinations, Hate Mail & Justice Mickey Z. Tommy Boy Friedman Does "Imagine" Neve Gordon Strategic Motives of the Yassin Assassination Mark Scaramella The Founding Scam: Insider Trading is the American Way John Chuckman The Countessa of Empire: Condi Rice's Idea of Democracy Greg Moses Live from Pasadena: Silhouettes of New Order Rai O'Brien What Kind of Democracy to Expect if the Opposition Takes Power in Venezuela Bill Christison The 9/11 Commission: Dangerous Harbinger for the Future Website of the Day Ghost Town: Riding Through Chernobyl   March 29, 2004 John Maxwell Crisis in the Caribbean: a Miasma Foretold J. Michael Springmann Email Spying & Attorney Client Privilege Robert Fisk / Severin Carrell Coalition of the Mercenaries The Black Commentator Haiti's Troika of Terror Doug Giebel Candide in the Wilderness: How Bush Policy Was Made David Krieger The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Bargain Mike Whitney Rejecting the Language of Terrorism Richard Oxman The Pitts: a 9/11 Burrow of an American Family Kim Scipes The AFL-CIO in Venezuela: Deja Vu All Over Again Michael Donnelly End Game for Northwest Forests Norman Solomon The Media Politics of 9/11 Kathy Kelly Last Lines Before Vanishing Website of the Day Swans: Can Money Buy Everything?     March 27 / 28, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair Empire of the Locusts Gary Leupp The Yassin Assassination: Prelude to an Attack on Syria William A. Cook The Yassin Assassination: a Monstrous Insanity Blessed by the US Faheem Hussain Some Thoughts on Waziristan: Once and Always a Colonial Army Elaine Cassel Is Playing Paintball Terrorism? Larry Birns / Jessica Leight Disturbing Signals: Kerry and Latin America John Ross Bush Tells the World: "Drop Dead" John Eskow A Memo to Karl Rove from the Hollywood Caucus Alan Maass Who Are the Real Terrorists? Dave Lindorff Spineless of US Journalists Joe Bageant Howling in the Belly of the Confederacy Dave Zirin Reasonable Doubt: Why Barry Bonds is Not on Steroids Craig Waggoner Who Would Mel's Jesus Nuke? The Kerry Quandry Joel Wendland Marxists for Kerry Josh Frank Scary, Scary John Kerry Matt Vidal Spoilers, Electability and the Poverty of American Democracy Poets' Basement LaMorticella, Hamod, Guthrie, Davies and Albert Website of the Weekend Say a Little Prayer     March 26, 2004 Christopher Brauchli There's a Chill Over the Country Robert Fisk The Man Who Knew Too Much: the Ordeal of Mordechai Vanunu Joe DeRaymond Democracy in El Salvador? Think Again Mike Whitney Lessons on Apartheid from Ariel Sharon Mickey Z. Somalia and Iraq: Looking Back and Ahead Chris Floyd The Pentagon Archipelago CounterPunch Photo Wire Cheney's Close Shave? John Breneman Bush's Comic Bomb Website of the Day Dick is a Killer   March 25, 2004 Lee Sustar Who is to Blame for Lost Jobs? Standard Schaefer An Interview with Michael Hudson on Offshore Banking Centers Roger Burbach Lula vs. the IMF: Brazil Begins to Throw Off the Austerity Planners Jimmer Endres Elections Without Politics: The Military Budget Is Not an "Issue" Larry Tuttle Acting in Your Name: Identity Theft and Public Interest Groups Toni Solo Misreporting Venezuela Dan Bacher A Memorial Wall for Iraq War's Dead and Wounded Saul Landau Is Venezuela Next? Website of the Day The Spiral Railway     March 24, 2004 Gary Leupp General Musharraf's IOU Richard Oxman Shakespeare for Kerry William Lind The Beginning of Phase Three: 4G Warfare Hits Iraq Rep. Ron Paul Iraq One Year Later Michael Dempsey Killing Rachel Corrie Again Alan Farago The Bad Math of Mercury: Bush's War on the Unborn Benjamin Dangl and April Howard Media in Cuba John L. Hess No Lie Left Behind: Judy Miller Does Dick Clarke Greg Weiher Two Cheers for Dems: "We're Not as Bad as George" Eva Golinger An Open Letter to John Kerry on Venezuela Grayson Childs Where's Cynthia McKinney? Steve Niva Israel's Assassinations will Only Fuel More Suicide Bombings Website of the Day The Bushiad and the Idiossey   March 23, 2004 Phillip Cryan The Drug War's Next Casualty: Colombia's National Parks Ron Jacobs They Shoot Men in Wheelchairs, Too? Dave Lindorff A Spanish Parallel: Scare Tactics and Elections Mike Whitney Richard Clarke and Teflon George Brian McKinlay Bush's Lil' Buddy in Trouble: John Howard Starts to Wobble JG Driving Mr. Koon: "Jim Crow Lives Next Door" Phyllis Pollack Gettin' Jigga with Metallica: the Battle Over the Double Black CD Ahmed Bouzid Sharon's One-Way Track Sean Carter The G-Word Goes to Court: One Nation Under [Your Logo Here] M. Shahid Alam World's Greatest Country: Do the Facts Lie   March 22, 2004 Mazin Qumsiyeh On Extrajudicial Executions Uri Avnery The Assassination of Sheikh Yassin is Worse Than a Crime Gilad Atzmon Sharon's Rampage Mike Whitney Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the Story of Captain James Yee Jason Leopold Firm With Ties to Cheney Faces Criminal Indictment in Cal Energy Scam Greg Moses Stop Walling and Stalling: a Report from Houston's Peace March Phil Gasper San Francisco: 25,000 March for an End to the Occupation Lenni Brenner Report from NYC: Old and Young Parade for Peace Julian Borger The Clarke Revelations Steve Perry Karl Rove's Moment Website of the Day Enviros Against War     March 20 / 21, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Gay Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path Jeffrey St. Clair Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne Do? Ted Honderich Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act Gary Leupp On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ" William A. Cook Fence, Barrier, Wall Phil Gasper Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism Ron Jacobs Fox News and the Masters of War John Stanton Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon Justin Felux Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man Mike Whitney Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity Augustin Velloso Avoiding Osama's Abyss Lawrence Magnuson Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism? Kathy Kelly Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism Tracy McLellan Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun Kurt Nimmo Emma Goldman for President! Luis J. Rodriguez The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill Mickey Z The Michael Moore Diet Jackie Corr When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility Poets' Basement Stew Albert & JD Curtis Website of the Weekend Virtual World Election   March 19, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair Zapatero to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home Ann Harrison So Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights? William MacDougall Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants" Greg Moses Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote Cynthia McKinney Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup, Mr. Bush Norman Solomon Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future John L. Hess "Missing" Evidence and the NYTs Vicente Navarro The End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend Website of the War Naming the Dead   March 18, 2004 Gila Svirsky Rachel Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency Christopher Brauchli Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million from Saddam William Kulin Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing Mike Whitney Resistance: a Moral Imperative Rep. Ron Paul Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment Josh Frank The Nader Question Jack Random They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy Greg Bates What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain Gary Leupp The Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost Website of the Day Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key   March 17, 2004 Marjorie Cohn Spain, the EU and the US: War on Terror or Civil Liberties? David MacMichael Untruth and Consequences Michael Donnelly Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer Tom Stephens "Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware Wayne Madsen Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out Karyn Strickler Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections Peter Linebaugh Bush: Blanc Blanc   March 16, 2004 Lenni Brenner James Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights Scott Boehm Madrid Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days Alexander Lynch From Franco to Aznar: the History Behind the Spanish Elections Sam Hamod and Alfredo Reyes The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way: Executing David Clayton Hill Mike Whitney The Case for a Nuclear Iran Robert Fisk The Bloody Price of the "War on Terror" Bill Christison The Aftershocks from Madrid CounterPunch Photo Wire The Passion of St. Teresa Website of the Day Join the War on Art!   March 15, 2004 Harry Browne Terror Nothing New to Europe Mike Whitney Justice Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism Lidice Valenzuela Haiti: a Coup without Consultation Greg Moses Lessons from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs Mickey Z. Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health Asaf Shtull-Trauring AWOL in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer CounterPunch Wire Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!   March 12 / 14, 2004 Gabriel Kolko The Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power Saul Landau Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie! William Blum Neo-Con(tradictions) William S. Lind Why They Throw Rocks Rahul Mahajan The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us All Less Safe Neve Gordon Demographic Wars Kurt Nimmo Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists Mickey Z. The "New" UN Blames the Poor Mike Whitney War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge Helen Scott and Ashley Smith Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup? Justin E.H. Smith Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy of the American Prison Brandy Baker Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On Robin Philpot Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana Mokhiber / Weissman The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding Dave Zirin She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith Daniel Wolff The Lord's Pier   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.     Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

April 7, 2004 A POW's Exit US Airlifts Saddam to Qatar By ROBERT FISK The Independent Baghdad. The United States has secretly flown Saddam Hussein out of Iraq and imprisoned him under high security at a vast American air base in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar. After his capture last December, he was initially taken by helicopter to a US aircraft carrier in Gulf waters for extensive interrogation. After lengthy questioning, he was transferred to Qatar, although the emirate's royal family was not even told of his presence. Amid the bloody and growing insurgency in Iraq, by Sunnis and Shias--which continued across the country yesterday with more than 20 American soldiers reported killed in clashes--US officials refused to discuss Saddam's place of imprisonment. Many Iraqis still believe he is in Iraq, possibly at the big US base at Balad, 60 miles north of Baghdad on the road to Tikrit, Saddam's home. But the increasingly sophisticated guerrilla attacks against the Americans raised fears that insurgents would try to stage a spectacular prison escape for the former Iraqi dictator, so Qatar was chosen as the safest place to hold him within the Middle East. Under international law and the Geneva Conventions, it is legal for an occupying power to move a prisoner of war outside the frontiers of the country of which he is a citizen, which is why the Americans almost immediately made Saddam an official PoW, an act which initially surprised both US politicians and members of the Iraqi Governing Council. Under the terms of the Conventions, the International Committee of the Red Cross visited Saddam earlier this year but will not say where the meeting took place. Ironically, the world knows almost less about Saddam since his capture by US special forces in northern Iraq than they did when he was still on the run. Even senior Qatari intelligence officers--who have just arrested two Russian agents for the murder of a Chechen refugee in the capital, Doha--were not informed of Saddam's presence in the emirate, home to the largest US military base in the Middle East. With thousands of US troops and hundreds of intelligence men, Saddam is as well-guarded as he would be at Guantanamo Bay. Unhappily for the Americans, however, Saddam's repeated interrogations are yielding little of interest. He does not want to help the FBI-CIA team who are questioning him and gives vague replies to many of the questions he is asked, often stating the Iraqi government's official position on the Iran-Iraq war, the invasion of Kuwait and UN sanctions. Several of the FBI interrogators have said that Saddam was surrounded by so many sycophants during his dictatorship--who said only what their master wanted to hear--that he had no real idea what was going on in Iraq. But Saddam remains equally ignorant of his immediate future. Although a war crimes tribunal was set up in Baghdad within six weeks of his capture--with 15 judges, 45 Iraqi lawyers and a team of American assistants to advise them--Iraqi legal sources say the US government is reluctant to open trial proceedings against the ex-dictator before the American elections in November. They say that an almost equal reluctance is being displayed over Tariq Aziz, Saddam's former deputy prime minister, who is being held prisoner by the US at Baghdad airport. Both men, the sources point out, have an intimate knowledge of Washington's constant support for the Baathist regime in the 1980s and would undoubtedly try to avoid responsibility for their war crimes by making speeches in court that would provide details of the close relationship between US administrations and the regime. Saddam met the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, in 1983--when Iraqi forces were using gas in the Iran-Iraq war--and Mr Rumsfeld, who was on a mission from President Ronald Reagan, later met Tariq Aziz. Mr Rumsfeld said last year that he warned Saddam at their 1983 meeting against employing chemical warfare, but American journalists later discovered US documents that proved he had made no such comments. Mr Rumsfeld then said he had given his warning to Tariq Aziz the following year. Either way, this US government is in no mood to have a public debate on the subject at a Baghdad court in the run-up to the November elections. US researchers have proved that some of the chemicals used by Saddam's army in the early 1980s were exported by US companies. Saddam's trial has been made even more problematic by the probable appearance in Iraq of the French lawyer Jacques Vergès, who says that Saddam's nephew, Ali Barzan al-Tikriti, has sent him a formal invitation to defend the former dictator. M. Verges defended the Gestapo officer Klaus Barbie in France and is head of an organisation to support Slobodan Milosevic at the Hague trials. He has already agreed to defend Tariq Aziz in Baghdad. The only war crimes trial to take place in the near future is likely to be of Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his gassing of Kurds at Halabja. Since he is also likely to be charged with war crimes against Shias, his trial would have the support of two of Iraq's principal communities at a time when the US and any new Iraqi authority will be anxious to prevent the resistance war spreading. Saddam's appearance at the "Mother of All War Crimes" trial may still be a long way away. Robert Fisk is a reporter for The Independent and author of Pity the Nation. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's hot new book, The Politics of Anti-Semitism. Weekend Edition Features for April 3 / 4, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Anti-Depressants a Problem? We're Shocked Jeffrey St. Clair How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business Without Really Trying Gary Leupp On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God Lawrence Davidson Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine Frederick B. Hudson Condi Rice: the Family Retainer Phillip Cryan The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising Dave Zirin Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney Ben Tripp Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard Bruce Anderson Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless Bill Fletcher, Jr. Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti Mark Scaramella Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld Quiz Sharon Smith Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay? Rick Giombetti Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time Nader/Kerry Quandary Stephen Gowans Communists for Capitalism? Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto Mickey Z Turn ON Saul Landau Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist? Richard Oxman Nader and/or Death? Poets' Basement Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp Website of the Weekend Missing Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /