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Today's
Stories
May
19, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Politics and Economics of Outsourcing
May
18, 2005
Jean
Bricmont
Vive La France?
Laura
Carlsen
Bush's Posada Carriles Quandry: an
Anti-Cuba Terrorist is Still a Terrorist
Mike
Whitney
The Secret Raids of Alberto Gonzales: 10, 000 Swept Up
Joshua
Frank
Flushing the Koran: Why Newsweek Got It Right
George
Galloway
Thusly, I Humiliated Norm Coleman (and Christopher Hitchens)
Manuel
Garcia, Jr.
Writing Tickets for American War Crimes
Dwight
D. Eisenhower
How the GOP will Destroy Itself
Dave
Lindorff
The Plot to Make the PATRIOT Act
Even Worse
May
17, 2005
Mickey
Z.
GIs Behaving Badly
Petuuche
Gilbert
The People of Acoma Still Fight to
be Free
Paul
Craig Roberts
Lies That Kill: Why Isn't Bush in
the Dock?
Ramzy
Baroud
The New Palestinian Uprising
Robert
Jensen / Pat Youngblood
Pinning the Blame on Newsweek
Stan
Cox
Poisoning Patancheru: the Severe Side Effects of India's Drug
Industry
Dave
Zirin
American Anthem: Ozzie Guillen and Fining for Freedom
Diana
Barahona
Reporters Without Borders Unmasked
Website
of the Day
Revolutionary Flower Pot Society
May
16, 2005
Michael
Gillespie
The Family Released a Statement:
Death Notices for the Warrior Theocracy
Jason
Leopold
BP Stains the Arctic
Jesse
Muldoon
How Many Schools Left Behind?
Norman
Solomon
Media and the War: "The Bombs in Iraq Explode at Home"
Robert
Cray
Twenty
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq is a Bloody No Man's Land
Website
of the Day
Bolton's Divorce Papers: She Took It All Away, Including Most
of the Furniture
May
14 / 15, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Join the 14 Per Cent Club!
Saul
Landau
Lessons from Vietnam: Wars Kill Empires as Well as People
Gary
Leupp
Whither Yale? Towards the Imperial University
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The Glory that is Lockhart, Texas
Ben
Tripp
The Wayward Airplane: a Cautionary Tale
Brian
J. Foley
Was Jesus Gay?
Tom
Barry
Bolton the Eavesdropper
Mitchell
Verter
Barbarous Oaxaca: Indigenous Rights Groups Meet the "Law
of the Club"
Mike
Ferner
War on COs: Army Files Additional Charges Against Kevin Benderman
Dan
Smith
Perceiving Darfur
Mark
Scaramella
Death with Pitfalls
Don
Fitz
Mommy, Is This a Finger in My Rice Puffs?: Splicing Human DNA
into the Food Chain
Diane
Farsetta
PR Industry Imitates Big Tobacco: the Senate's "Fake News"
Hearings
Michael
Dickinson
Soldier Crawling: Military Conscription in Turkey
Ron
Jacobs
The Jackson State Murders
Fred
Gardner
"Hydroponics? Ridiculous!": A Real Farmer Looks at
Medical Marijuana
Farrah
Hassen
Far From Heaven: a Review of Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of
Heaven"
Douglas
Valentine
50 Cent's Plea
Poets'
Basement
Louise, Ford, Engel, & Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Military Base Closings and the South
May
13, 2005
Tom
Stephens
A Chronology of US War Crimes and Torture, 1975-2005
Patrick
Cockburn
"They Destroyed Everything"
Mike
Whitney
Tom Friedman, Imperial Chronicler
Chris
Floyd
Miami Vice: the Sleazy World of Jeb Bush
Jenna
Orkin
Ground Zero's Toxic Dust
Dave
Lindorff
Googling for Fun
Joshua
Frank
Yale Fires an Acclaimed Anarchist Scholar:
an Interview with David Graeber
Website
of the Day
Botero: Pinta El Horror de Abu Ghraib
May
12, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
America is Losing: More Phony Jobs
Hype
Uri
Avnery
Death of a Myth
Greg
Moses
Neo-Con Logic at the Border
Carolyn
Baker
The Politics of Dominionism: the New Religious Right in America
Pat
Williams
Amateurish High Jinks on Roadless Areas
William
S. Lind
Reality Gap: the Myth of US Invincibilty
Jack
Random
The Dubious Wisdom of George W. Bush
Gary
Leupp
Douglas Feith Bares His Soul to Jeffrey Goldberg
May
11, 2005
Patrick
Cockburn
The Rise, Fall and Rise of Ahmed
Chalabi: King of Jordan to Pardon His $300 Million Bank Swindle
Kevin
Zeese
The Occupation Gets More Saddam-like
Every Day
Christopher
Brauchli
Coffee, Tea or Torture?: A One Way Ticket to Uzbekistan
Zalman
Amit
The Collapse of Academic Freedom in
Israel: Tantura, Teddy Katz and Haifa University
Robert
Shull
Carte Blanche for the Terror Cops:
Senate Gives DHS Power to Waive All Laws
Mike
Whitney
God, Gays, and George Bernard Shaw
Dr.
Teresa Whitehurst
Anti-Arabic Week at a Southern High School
Norman
Solomon
Political Bluster and the Filibuster
May
10, 2005
Richard
Drayton
The Imperial Mythology of WW II:
an Ethical Blank Check
Dave
Zirin
Steve Nash's Brilliant Year: Anti-War
Hoopster Wins NBA's MVP
Jackie
Corr
The Medicare Catch: Mrs. O'Hara's Windfall
Dave
Lindorff
Silence of the Scams: Economists
on China
Michael
Donnelly
From Roadless to Clueless: the Great
Stillborn Eco Victory
Reza
Fiyouzat
Nomadic Abstracts
Scott
Parkin
Taking Direct Action Against Halliburton
Stephen
Babcock
The Burden of Knowing Better
Alan
Farago
Florida, Water and Lobbyists
Michael
Neumann
Naomi's Courage
Website
of the Day
One Nation Under Plagiarism
May
9, 2005
Louis
Proyect
Shilling for Chevron: Jared Diamond,
Greenwasher
Robert
Fisk
"Mission Accomplished": the Occupation, Year Two
Kevin
Zeese
Concientious Objection on Trial: the Court Martial of Keith Benderman
Joshua
Frank
Kerry Bashes Gay Marriage
Sasha
Kramer
A Mother's Day Call for Justice in Haiti's Prisons
Andrew
Wimmer
Create and Resist
Jeffrey
Webber
Back to the Streets in Bolivia?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Straight to Bechtel
May
7 / 8, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Who Beat Hitler?
Gary
Leupp
Biblical Prophecy and Christian Zionism
Saul
Landau
Pope Torquemada: Purges, Pedophiles and Cover-Ups
Joe
DeRaymond
Autumn of the Revolutionary: Another Look at Daniel Ortega
Daniela
Ponce
Seeing Chile in Nepal
Heather
Williams
Hollywood Does Enron
Gregory
Elich
Zimbabwe's Fight for Justice
Anis
Memon
To Cuba and Back
John
Chuckman
The Peculiar State: "Criticism of Israel is a Form of Anti-Semitism"
Mike
Whitney
Hard Right Rage Against the Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Re-Reading "Born on the Fourth of July" as the Iraq
War Grinds On
Colin
Kalmbacher
Whither Disorder? Ann Coulter and the Texas Police State, Cont.
Lance
Selfa
Uprising in Mexico City
Fred
Gardner
"Getting High is a Little Like Cuba"
Ben
Tripp
Letters on Wittgenstein
Mickey
Z.
The Mother of All Days
Richard
Joseph
Those Patriotic Magnets
Dr.
Susan Block
Come As You Are: Masturbation 101
Poets'
Basement
Smith-Ferri, Louise, Nettnin, Engel and Albert
May
6, 2005
Patrick
Cockburn
Baghdad Diary: a Week of Bombs and
Blood
Erin
Yoshioka
Another "3 Strikes" Travesty:
Why is Santo Reyes Facing Life in Prison?
Sam
Husseini
Talking with Syrians
Dave
Lindorff
Ernie Pyle Where Are You? When Reporters were Reporters
Kevin
Zeese
Circus Trials of Abu Ghraib: When Even the Fall Girl Can't Plead
Guilty
Joshua
Frank
An Overextended US Military? It Won't Stop Another War
Dan
Bacher
Tribes and Salmon Win One: Bush Backs Off Trinity River Water
Raid
P.
Sainath
India's Bloody Water Wars
May
5, 2005
Carles
Mutaner
Is Chavez's Venezuela "Socialist"
or "Populist?"
Carl
G. Estabrook
Is There Any Hope for the Pope?
Farrah
Hassen
The US's Syrian Obsession
Kevin
Zeese
"Sent Into Combat Unequipped and Unprepared": an Interview
with Patrick Resta
Michael
Leonardi
May Day with an American Soldier in Rome
Bennett
Ramberg
The Future of Nuclear Terror: Coming to a Reactor Near You
Ray
McGovern
The Smoking Gun on White House Deceit
Norman
Solomon
Nuclear Fundamentalism, the New York Times and Iran
Nicole
Colson
The Back Alley Attack on Abortion Rights
Brian
Concannon, Jr.
Clearing the Fences in Haiti
May
4, 2005
Colin
Kalmbacher
Ann Coulter and the Police State:
Heckle a Racist, Get Arrested
John
Walsh
Al Franken is a Big Fat Phony: Lying
on Air America to Support the War
Greg
Moses
Vigilante Wedge: Schwarzenegger Reprises
"Birth of a Nation"
Ali
Khan
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Poised to Fall Apart
Chris
Floyd
Ring Them Bells
Linda
S. Heard
D-Day for Tony Blair: Bogeymen and Scare Tactics
Dave
Zirin
The NFL, Congress and the Male Cheerleader Principle
William
S. Lind
Fool's Paradise
Gary
Leupp
Bolton's Proudest Moment: Breaking
the UN's Anti-Zionist Resolution
Website
of the Day
Kent State, May 4, 1970
May
3, 2005
Dave
Lindorff
Bush has Grasped the Third Rail,
Now Turn on the Juice
Brian
Cloughley
Halliburton's War Loot
Ira
Kurzban
Death Squad Diplomacy: How Bolton Armed Haiti's Thugs and Killers
Seth
Sandronsky
Towards Debtors' Prisons?
Gilad
Atzmon
The Labour Party Isn't an Option Any More
Michael
Donnelly
Branding Eco Collapse
Alex
Sanchez
Chile's Man at the OAS: a Blow to Bush?
Peter
Linebaugh
Magna Carta and May Day
May
2, 2005
Ron
Jacobs
Toward an Anti-Imperialist Movement
Stan
Goff
The Case of Hasan Akbar
Karyn
Strickler
Achieving Gender Balance in US Politics
Joshua
Frank
Leaked UK Memo Indict's Blair's Iraq Folly
Kevin
Zeese
Getting Out of Iraq will Prove Tougher Than Getting Out of Vietnam
Vicente
Navarro
Pope Benedict: a Rightwing Politician
April
30 / May 1, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Marla Ruzicka, Rachel Corrie and
"Credibility"
Gabriel
Kolko
Lessons from a Total Defeat: the End
of the Vietnam War, 30 Years Later
Jennifer
Loewenstein
The Disengaged: Gaza and the Fragmentation of Palestinian Nationhood
Lee
Sustar
City for Sale: Richard Daley's Chicago
Saul
Landau
The Bush-DeLay Axis of Naked Power
T.W.
Croft
The Undiscovered Country: the High Tide of the Neo-Con Confederacy
Nikolas
Kozloff
Fox News v. Hugo Chavez
William
Blum
Never-Ending Double Standards
Dave
Lindorff
Judicial Jury Tampering in Philly
Joshua
Frank
The Bi-Partisan Assault on Teenage Girls
Doug
Giebel
Saving Jane Fonda
Steven
Erlanger
A Response to Kathy Christison, from the NYT Jerusalem Bureau
Chief
Fred
Gardner
Washington State Doctor Harassed
Mike
Whitney
Another Mad Bush Press Conference
Kurt
Nimmo
Putin Pussyfoots in Palestine
Joe
DeRaymond
A Short History of the 15th Congressional District of Pennsylvania
Michael
Dickinson
Flags
Mickey
Z.
May Day at Yankee Stadium
Justin
Taylor
The Crawling Chaos: HP Lovecraft's Polymorphous Legacy
Poets
Basement
Krieger, Engel, Albert, St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
Save Barbados's Cowpastor
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.
|
May 19, 2005
Nazi-like Experiments at N.I.H.
Testing
AIDS Drugs on Unwitting Foster Children
By
ANDREW FREEDMAN
On May 4 AP reporter John Solomon reported
the unthinkable.AIDS drugs
had been tested on foster care children in Illinois, NewYork,
Maryland,
and Texas during the 1990's.The National Institutes of Health,
which is a federal agency under the jurisdiction of the Health
and Human services department, allowed states to decide if they
wanted to take foster children who were H.I.V. positive and perform
an experiment with them. The way the experiment worked was as
follows, drugs that weren't yet considered safe enough for the
general H.I.V. positive population were used on these kids. If
the kids H.I.V. levels went down after taking the drugs, then
they could then sell the drugs to the general population and
take credit for healing sick kids. If the children died during
the experiments, since they were H.I.V. positive before the experiments
were performed, the deaths could either be written off as the
H.I.V.naturally progressing to A.I.D.S., "Blood poisoning",
"Pneumonia", or numerous other explanations, which
won't legally hold the Doctors accountable. While poor kids of
all races were used in the
experiments, a disproportionate number of the kids were either
African-American or Latino.
After this story was reported
on May 4 by John Solomon my hometown paper "The Chicago
Sun Times", also picked up the story. The Sun Times however
omitted a very important fact that Ap reported.The name of the
Doctor here in Chicago who performed these experiments was Ram
Yogev.Ap also put a picture of Yogev's face on the front page
of article.Ap also reported it was Children's memorial hospital
in Chicago that performed the experiments or in politically correct
jargon the studies.The fact that the Suntimes omitted Yogev's
name and picture from their reprint of the Ap story, to me is
another example of journalists repressing important facts.
While I was angry that Texas,
while George W.Bush was Governor, along with my home state
of Illinois participated in these atrocities against children,
I was even more disappointed to discover that the state of Maryland,
also participated, under the supervision of Gov. Kathleen Kennedy
Townsend, Bobby Kennedy's daughter. As someone who admires Bobby
Kennedy, that cut like a knife. I also, was enraged to discover
that the National Institutes of Health is under the jurisdiction
of the Health and Human Services department. Meaning the federal
government officials who gave the states permission to do this
were Clinton administration apointees. So I wrote the following
letter to the editor to the Chicago Sun Times.The Sun Times won't
run it, but here's what I said.
I am responding to your May
5 article, "U.S. tested AIDS drugs on 200 ILL foster children."
What makes these facts so disturbing, is that by picking the
most vulnerable members of society to use in tests, the Doctors,
the National Institutes of Health, and everyone else involved
in these tests decided the lives of poor foster kids were worth
risking-if it could lead to medical advances for the general
population. Since an untested drug can be a miracle cure or can
have unthinkable side effects, medical researchers, in sane
societies, don't use human subjects. I think it's important
to remember that it is normally Guinea Pigs and rats not human
children who have drugs tested on them. If an untested drug after
being tried on a Guinea Pig or laboratory rat has a positive
outcome, then the rat or Guinea Pig becomes healthier and the
drug is then sold to humans for profit.
If the drug has a negative
side effect, animal researchers comfort themselves with the
fact that only an animal was harmed in the experiment. Which
of course means that the elites of the medical profession, DCFS
caseworkers, and the National Institutes of health, are so
elitist that they see no difference between the life of a foster
child and that of an animal.Also as someone who feels racism
is wrong, I find it disturbing that a large number of the kids
used in these tests were minority children. While I do not believe
our free and Democratic society is the same as a Nazi Germany.
It is a fact that in Nazi Germany Jewish children and Gentile
children, who happened to have Physical and mental disabilities,
were subjected to medical experiments by the infamous Dr.Mengle.
Here in the U.S. H.I.V. positive
foster children who are African-American, Latino, or white
but poor, are also used in experiments. Any similarity between
our free and democratic society and Nazi Germany should frighten
all decent people. Apologists for these experiments will of course
point to the cases where children got better after being given
the drugs. Illinois officials are already exercising spin control
by pointing out that their decision to enroll foster kids has
brought about a decline in deaths in some cases.However despite
those positive instances in other cases testing drugs on foster
kids led to an increase in deaths. In some studies there was
a decline of infection fighting blood cells and a higher death
rate among kids who had the drugs given to them. Since most A.I.D.S.'s
deaths are classified as "Pneumonia", " Blood
Infection", e.t.c. It may not be possible to legally prove
that some of these studies killed children. But nonetheless it's
commonsense that if an H.I.V. positive child after being given
an experimental drug sees a drop in infection fighting cells,
develops A.I.D.S, and dies, the drug helped kill the kid.
Despite his talk about "A
culture of life", Texas while George W.Bush was Governor
was one of the states, besides Illinois, that willingly participated
in this horrific conduct. I think President Bush should explain
why he allowed this to occur in Texas back when he was Governor,
since he has made it clear he wants to be a leader in the area
of respect for human life.I also found it to be disappointing
that the National Institutes of Health, is under the jurisdiction
of the Health and Human services department. Health and Human
services is of course a federal agency. Since the studies occurred
back in the 1990's, it was Clinton administration officials,
not Republicans, who allowed the states to do this to foster
children. I am a loyal Democrat who feels betrayed. I always
supported the Democrats, because I believed they had the best
interest of poor people, minorities, and children at heart.
And then they along with Republican officials participate in
something like this. I would expect more from an administration
who's leader claimed to be "America's first black
President."
Also besides being First lady,
Hillary Clinton also played a role in shaping administration
policy, especially policies pertaining to children. She had
made it clear she wanted to be an advocate for children like
Eleanor Roosevelt and use her position as First lady to implement
more child friendly policies. So how did this happen under her
nose then? I would love an explanation. I also am very upset
and disappointed that the state of Maryland, while the late
Robert Kennedy's daughter was Lieutenant Governor, participated
in the studies as well. Bobby Kennedy, despite the fact I wasn't
born yet when he ran for President, has always been one of my
political heroes. As someone who sees Bobby Kennedy as a last
great champion of poor people, minorities, outsiders, and
children I am saddened that his daughter would participate in
something like this.
In cases where children's infection
fighting blood cells went down after the studies, the Doctors
and DCFS officials should be prosecuted to the full extent of
the law if the obvious can be legally proven. And even in cases
where children got better, the fact the children's condition
improved doesn't change the fact that these children were treated
like laboratory rats by the elites of the medical and social
service professions.
Andrew Freedman can be reached
at: andrewfreedman@SBCGlobal.net
|
