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Inside the New Print Edition of CounterPunch: a Special Report from Baghdad on the Occupation and Elections Occupation on Borrowed Time: the Resistance Grows Daily: by Patrick Cockburn; Big Migra: People Will Cross the Border No Matter How Hard It Gets by John Ross; Bush's Cardiac Problem by Alexander Cockburn. The CounterPunch List of Words We Won't Print. Remember these stories are available exclusively in the print edition of CounterPunch. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

How the Press & the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career   Today's Stories January 15 / 16, 2005 James Petras The Kidnapping of a Revolutionary January 14, 2005 Robert Fisk "The Tent of Occupation" Lee Sustar Bush's Social Security Con Job José M. Tirado The Christians I Know Dave Zirin The Legacy of Jack Johnson Sheldon Rampton Calling John Rendon: a True Tale of "Military Intelligence" Tracy McLellan Under the Influence Yves Engler The Dictatorship of Debt: the World Bank and Haiti Tom Barry Robert Zoellick: a Bush Family Man Website of the Day Ryan for the Nobel Prize?   January 13, 2005 Mark Chmiel / Andrew Wimmer Hearts and Minds, Revisited Joe DeRaymond The Salvador Option: Terror, Elections and Democracy Greg Moses Every Hero a Killer?...Not Dave Lindorff The Great WMD Fraud: Time for an Accounting Jorge Mariscal Dr. Galarza v. Alberto Gonzales: Which Way for Latinos? Christopher Brauchli Gonzales and the Death Penalty: the Executioner Never Sleeps Gary Leupp "Fighting for the Work of the Lord": Christian Fascism in America   January 12, 2005 Robert Fisk Fear Stalks Baghdad Josh Frank The Farce of the DNC Contest Jack Random Casualties of War: the Untold Stories John Roosa Aceh's Dual Disasters: the Tsunami and Military Rule Carol Norris In the Wake of the Tsunami Mike Whitney Pink Slips at CBS Alan Farago Can the Everglades be Saved? Paul Craig Roberts What's Our Biggest Problem in Iraq...the Insurgency or Bush?   January 11, 2005 Tom Barry The US isn't "Stingy"; It's Strategic: Aid as a Weapon of Foreign Policy James Hodge and Linda Cooper Voice of the Voiceless: Father Roy Bourgeois and the School of the the Americas Linda S. Heard Farah Radio Break Down: Joseph Farah's Messages of Hate and Homophobia Derrick O'Keefe Electoral Gigolo?: Richard Gere and the Occupied Vote Gila Svirsky A Tale of Two Elections Harry Browne Irish "Peace Process", RIP January 10, 2005 Ramzy Baroud Faith-Based Disasters: Tsunami Aid and War Costs Talli Nauman Killing Journalists: Mexico's War on a Free Press Uri Avnery Sharon's Monologue Dave Lindorff Tucker Carlson's Idiot Wind Dave Zirin Randy Moss's Moondance Dave Silver Left Illusions About the Democratic Party Charles Demers Plan Salvador for Iraq: Death Squads Come in Waves William A. Cook Causes and Consequences: Bush, Osama and Israel   January 8 / 9, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Say, Waiter, Where's the Blood in My Margarita Glass? John H. Summers Chomsky and Academic History Greg Moses Getting Real About the Draft Walter A. Davis Bible Says: the Psychology of Christian Fundamentalism Victor Kattan The EU and Middle East Peace John Bolender The Plight of Iraq's Mandeans Robert Fisk The Politics of Lebanon Fred Gardner Situation NORML Joe Bageant The Politics of the Comfort Zone Mickey Z. I Want My DDT: Little Nicky Kristof Bugs Out Ben Tripp CounterClockwise Evolution Ron Jacobs Elvis and His Truck: Out on Highway 61 Saul Landau Sex and the Country Rep. Cynthia McKinney Time to End the Blackout Ellen Cantarow NPR's Distortions on Palestine Richard Oxman Bageantry Continued Poets' Basement Gaffney, Landau, Albert, Collins January 7, 2005 Omar Barghouti Slave Sovereignty: Elections Under Occupation Kent Paterson The Framing of Felipe Arreaga: Another Mexican Environmentalist Arrested Niranjan Ramakrishnan Old Vijay Merchant and the Tsunami David Krieger Cancel the Inauguration Parties Gideon Levy New Year, Old Story Dave Lindorff Ohio Protest: First Shot Fired by Congressional Progressives Christopher Brauchli Privatizing the IRS Roger Burbach / Paul Cantor Bush, the Pentagon and the Tsunami     January 6, 2005 Brian J. Foley Gonzales: Supporting Torture is not His Greatest Sin Greg Moses Boot Up America!: Gen. Helmly's Memo Leaks New Bush Deal Petras / Chomsky An Open Letter to Hugo Chavez Alan Maass The Decline of the Dollar Dave Lindorff Colin Powell's Selective Sense of Horror Jenna Orkin The EPA and a Dirty Bomb: 9/11's Disastrous Precedent P. Sainath The Tsunami and India's Coastal Poor     January 5, 2005 Alan Farago 2004: An Environmental Retrospective Winslow T. Wheeler Oversight Detected?: Sen. McCain and the Boeing Tanker Scam Jean-Guy Allard Gary Webb: a Cuban Perspective Fred Gardner Strutting, Smirking, As If The Mad Plan Was Working David Swanson Albert Parsons on the Gallows Richard Oxman The Joe Bageant Interview Bruce Jackson Death on the Living Room Floor       January 4, 2005 Michael Ortiz Hill Mainlining Apocalypse Elaine Cassel They Say They Can Lock You Up for Life Without a Trial Yoram Gat The Year in Torture Martin Khor Tragic Tales and Urgent Tasks from the Tsunami Disaster Gary Leupp Death and Life in the Andaman Islands   January 3, 2005 Ron Jacobs The War Hits Home Dave Lindorff Is There a Single Senator Who Will Stand Up for Black Voters? Mike Whitney The Guantanamo Gulag Joshua Frank Greens and Republicans: Strange Bedfellows Maria Tomchick Playing Politics with Disaster Aid Rhoda and Mark Berenson Our Daughter Lori: Another Year of Grave Injustice David Swanson The Media and the Ohio Recount Kathleen Christison Patronizing the Palestinians     January 1 / 2, 2005 Gary Leupp Earthquakes and End Times, Past and Present Rev. William E. Alberts On "Moral Values": Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian Tendencies M. Shahid Alam Testing Free Speech in America Stan Goff A Period for Pedagogy Brian Cloughley Bush and the Tsunami: the Petty and the Petulant Sylvia Tiwon / Ben Terrall The Aftermath in Aceh Ben Tripp Requiem for 2004 Greg Moses A Visible Future? Steven Sherman The 2004 Said Awards: Books Against Empire Sean Donahue The Erotics of Nonviolence James T. Phillips The Beast's Belly David Krieger When Will We Ever Learn Poets' Basement Soderstrom, Hamod, Louise and Albert     December 31, 2004 Farrah Hassen The Palestinian Right of Return: a View from Syria Dave Lindorff US Air's Bold New Idea: Work for Your Boss for Free! George Capaccio Tsunami Hits Iraq Mike Whitney Iraq v. Tsunami: Media Duplicity Peter Phillips The Tsunami and the Corporate Media: Waves of Hypocrisy Christopher Deliso War and the Tsunami: Putting It in Perspective       December 30, 2004 Lila Rajiva Unnatural Disaster? Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Nuclear Testing Robert Fisk The Ghosts of Vietnam Roger Burbach Argentina v. the IMF Stan Cox 9/11 and 12/26: How to React Walter Brasch Bush and Tsunamis: Heartless in Crawford Christopher Brauchli Empire of the Misers Alexandra Spieldoch NAFTA Through a Gender Lens: "Free Trade" Pacts and Women Paul Kincaid Jameison Grief, Relief and the Stingy West Dan Bacher The Water Kings of California Paul Craig Roberts Unbecoming Conduct     December 29, 2004 Dave Lindorff Us, Stingy?: It's All Relative M. Shahid Alam America and Islam: Seeking Parallels Ronald D. Hoffman Tsunamis and Nuclear Power Plants Sam Bahour / Todd May Elections Without Democracy Fred Gardner Ricky Does 60 Minutes Ali Khan Who's Feeding the Bin Laden Legend? John Hansen Family Farms Are Being Fed to Corporate Sharks Sam Lewin How the Justice Department Continues to Screw the Sioux Richard Oxman As Time Goes By With Andy Goldsworthy Mickey Z. A Wave of Questions: Putting a Disaster in Context Website of the Day Banking While Muslim     December 28, 2004 Brian Cloughley The Chief Weirdo at the Pentagon: Rumsfeld Must Go Joshua Frank Privacy Piracy? What Howard Dean May Bring to the DNC Jessica Leight The Chilean Miracle: Less Than Meets the Eye Dave Lindorff A Shameful Response to Disaster John Walsh Disappearing the Anti-War Movement at the NYTs Dave Zirin The Death of Reggie White: an Off the Field Obituary Dr. Teresa Whitehurst Be Careful Not to Get Too Much Education: It's Happened to a Lot of Good Christians Ron Jacobs Iran 2004: The Resistance and the Western Anti-War Movement     December 27, 2004 M. Junaid Alam "Civilization v. Barbarism": an Interview with Noam Chomsky Michael Donnelly Greens and Greenbacks: How Nonprofit Careerism Derailed the "Revolution" Greg Moses Texas Election Scandal: Forty Faxes and a Whisper Toni Solo Colombia's Appalling Vista: Justice With Eyes Wide Open Brian Kwoba Blaming the Victims of the 2004 Elections Genna Goodman-Campbell Honduras Validates Its Banana Republic Status, Again Mike Whitney Disappearing Act: Fallujah and the Media Ari Shavit "Zionism Has Exhausted Itself": an Interview with Amos Elon Richard Oxman Reflections on a Handful of Activists Saul Landau James Cason's Cuban Delusions     December 25 / 26, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Yup, It's Moral Outrage Time Diane Christian The Christmas Christ Dr. Susan Block Faith-Based Sex Gary Leupp Rumsfeld, His Critics and the Draft Ron Jacobs Music in Wartime Elaine Cassel Articles I Didn't Write Jim Minick Beyond Organic Poets Basement Louise, Landau, Orloski, Albert and Collins     December 24, 2004 Diane Christian Winning: Rummy and John Milton Chad Nagle Ukraine's Real Underdog Saul Landau My Friend Richard Barnet Greg Moses Ramsey Muniz Speaks Joe DeRaymond The Endless War in Colombia: a View From Within Borzou Daragahi Iraq's Christians: Tolerated by Saddam; Targets Under Occupation Mike Whitney Rummy's Quagmire of Lies Francis A. Boyle O Little Town of Bethlehem: Another Christmas Under Occupation William Loren Katz Florida 1837: Christmas Eve Resistance to the First US Occupation     December 23, 2004 Chad Nagle Report from Kiev: Yushchenko's Not Quite Ready for Sainthood David Smith-Ferri The Real UN Disgrace in Iraq Bill Quigley Death Watch for Human Rights in Haiti Mickey Z. Crumbs from Our Table Christopher Brauchli Merck's Merry X-mas Greg Moses When No Law Means No Law Alan Singer An Encounter with Sen. Schumer: a Very Dangerous Democrat David Price Social Security Pump and Dump Website of the Day Gabbo Gets Laid   December 22, 2004 James Petras An Open Letter to Saramago: Nobel Laureate Suffers from a Bizarre Historical Amnesia Omar Barghouti The Case for Boycotting Israel Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit Harry Browne Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge Richard Oxman On the Seventh Column Kathleen Christison Imagining Palestine Website of the Day FBI Torture Memos     December 21, 2004 Greg Moses The New Zeus on the Block: Unplugging Al-Manar TV Dave Lindorff Losing It in America: Bunker of the Skittish Chad Nagle The View from Donetsk Dragon Pierces Truth* Concrete Colossus vs. the River Dragon: Dislocation and Three Gorges Dam Patrick Cockburn "Things Always Get Worse" Seth DeLong Aiding Oppression in Haiti Ahmad Faruqui Pakistan and the 9/11 Commission's Report Paul Craig Roberts America Locked Up: a System of Injustice     December 20, 2004 Gary Leupp Japan in Iraq Robert Fisk An Army Without Compassion Uri Avnery The Mountain and the Mouse Francisco Letelier My Case Against Pinochet Patrick Cockburn The Polls of Fear Bill Conroy Charles Bowden on the Legacy of Gary Webb: "He Drew Blood" Yoshie Furuhashi Chokeholds of a Giant: Attacking Wal-Mart's Supply Chain David Swanson Media Blackout of Bush's War on Labor Chad Nagle Did Yushchenko Poison Himself?     December 18 / 19, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Why They Hated Gary Webb Saul Landau Gen. Pinochet Should Also Face Charges in DC Patrick Cockburn Losing Mosul: Once They Called It a Model for the Occupation Douglas Valentine Wolves and Revolution in Venezuela: a Caracas Romance Ray McGovern Laughing Dragon, Dancing Bear: the New China / Russia Alliance Fred Gardner DEA Upholds Grower's Marijuana Monopoly Jean-Guy Allard Locked Up Naked in a Hole Within a Hole: Have the Cuban 5 Been Tortured in US Prisons? Ron Jacobs Drifters Escape, Again: Encounters with Berkeley's Police Raymond G. Helmick, S.J. The Law and Peace in the Middle East Sean Sellers Values Voters, Desperate Housewives and Sweatshop Tacos Lee Sustar Christmas on the Picket Line at CNH: "They Want to Break Our Unions" Richard Thieme Webb's Wife: "Gary Was Never the Same After They Attacked Him" Sam Bahour WANTED: Middle East Negotiator Joshua Frank The Spin Doctor: an Interview with Mickey Z. Dave Lindorff A Man Who Confers with God Should Have Good Hearing Stan Cox What Kids Cost: Dallas v. Delhi Chris Frasier Farming By Numbers: More Poets, Fewer MBAs Poets' Basement Katz, Melek, Harley, Albert and Ford     December 17, 2004 Cockburn / St. Clair CounterAttack: How the Press and the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career Dave Lindorff Racism: Philly Style Dan Bacher Bush Abandons Salmon Restoration Marisa Jacott NAFTA and the Environment: Trade Still Runs Roughshod Francis Thicke How Now, Industrial Cow? Rupert Cornwell The Inuit Strike Back Website of the Day Franz Boas Unrolls Over in His Grave     December 16, 2004 Michael Neumann How We Became Barbarians Merlin Chowkwanyun An Interview with Ralph Nader Gabriel Espinoza Gonzales The Dubious Career of John Bolton Christopher Brauchli Louis Freeh's New Gig: Usurer Patrick Cockburn Allawi's Pre-Election Ploy: Putting "Chemical Ali" on Trial Mike Whitney Gearing Up for a Draft? Walter Brasch Hillbilly Humvees and Rumsfeld's New Physics Bill Conroy How Gary Webb Saved My Ass from the FBI Website of the Day Saturday Memorial for Gary Webb     December 15, 2004 Robert Fisk Who Killed Baha Mousa? Jennifer Van Bergen The Monster Under the Bed Heather Gray Will the Real Christians Please Stand?: a Personal Testimony Dave Lindorff The DNC, Albright and the Iraq Elections Luis Hernandez Navarro To Die a Little: Migration and Coffee in Mexico and Central America Joshua Frank The Ohio Recount: an Exercise in "Dumbocracy" Greg Moses Eighty-Sixing Civil Rights in Ohio? George Caffentzis The Petroleum Commons   December 14, 2004 Dave Lindorff DNC Meddling in the Ukraine Elections Larry Birns / Seth DeLong Haiti is Unraveling and No One is Saying Anything Richard Thieme My Last Talk with Gary Webb: "I Knew It Was the Truth and That's What Kept Me Going" Patrick Cockburn A Year After Saddam's Capture, Iraq is Getting Worse Chris Floyd Client State: Moral Values and Voluntary Servitude in Bush's America Akiva Eldar A One-time Hanukkah Miracle Burbach / Cantor The Legacy of Pinochet: Kissinger and the Teflon Tyrant     December 13, 2004 Cockburn / St. Clair Gary Webb: a Great Reporter, Trashed by the CIA's Claque David Phinney "Contract Meal Disaster" for Iraqi Prisoners: Rancid Food Sparked Abu Ghraib Riots Paul Craig Roberts A Dose of Non-Delusional Reality for Douglas Feith M. Junaid Alam The War is the War Crime Robert Jensen The US Has Lost the Iraq War...and That's a Good Thing Richard Oxman Kafkaesque Lessons for the Left Greg Moses Send No Messengers of Defeat Douglas Lummis The Pentagon's Neurosis: Fallujah Gulag   December 11 / 12, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Running an Empire on the Cheap Ron Jacobs The Drugs of War: Getting High in the Green Zone? Saul Landau Listening and Talking to God About Invading Other Countries Gary Leupp Bush's Capital Sharon Smith The Horrible Toll on US Troops Dave Lindorff Deja Vu All Over Again: 5,000 Desertions and Counting Uri Avnery The Boss Has Gone Crazy Jude Wanniski The Neo-Con Smear on Kofi Annan: What Food-for-Oil Scandal? Heather Gray How the South Became Republican: an Interview with John Egerton Patrick Cockburn / Ken Sengupta Fallujah: the Homecoming and the Homeless John Pilger Return to Kosovo: Calling the Humanitarian Bombers to Account Joshua Frank All the Rage: Mr. Solomon, Say You're Sorry Ben Tripp O Canada!: the Truth About the Election of 2004 John Stanton God Speaks! Laura Nathan Porn Stars are People, Too: a Talk with Christi Lake Poets' Basement Capaccio, Davies, Louise, Ford and Albert Website of the Day Fallujah Photos: Killed in Their Beds   December 10, 2004 Ralph Nader President Bush, Stop Destroying the Mosques of Iraq Greg Moses Whitewashing Voter Fraud Nicole Colson Rebellion in the Ranks: Grunts Are Resisting Stop-Loss Orders Frederick B. Hudson "They Still Got Those Dogs": A New Book Probes Old Civil Rights Lessons Patrick Cockburn Iraq's Insurgents Oppose the Occupation, Not the Elections Kathy Kelly From Haiti to Iraq: Burying Water     December 9, 2004 Greg Moses Ask Not Who Bankrolled Fallujah Joshua Frank Cobb and the Ohio Recount: Vote Fraud as Fundraiser! Ralph Nader An Open Letter to Bush: It's Time to Disclose the Real Casualty Figures Lee Sustar Bhopal: the Making of a Disaster Tom Barry Restrictionist Resurgence Mickey Z. Sander Hicks and the 9/11 Truth Movement Christopher Brauchli Bush in the Bubble Mark Donham Why are House Democrats Trying to Deny Cynthia McKinney Seniority? Gary Corseri On the Anniversary of John Lennon's Death, 2012 Paul de Rooij The Voices of Sharon's Little Helpers       December 8, 2004 Ralph Nader Will the Real Michael Moore Ever Re-Emerge? Ann Harrison The Ohio Recount: Reluctant Officials and Few Rules Paul Craig Roberts War Crime Dave Lindorff They've Got a Secret: Inside the $40 Billion Black Budget for Spying Patrick Cockburn / Andrew Buncombe CIA Warning on Iraq: Fallujah Did Not Break the Back of the Insurgency Col. Dan Smith Rules of Engagement in Iraq Emily Alves / Michael Johnson Paradise Lost: Corruption and Clientelism in Costa Rica Richard Oxman The Dylan Bob Wouldn't Mention: Up With Dylan Thomas Ron Jacobs In Fallujah, Freedom Isn't Free     December 7, 2004 Patrick Cockburn Running Battles in Baghdad Behrooz Ghamari Lost Muslim Voices of Dissent Dave Lindorff American Fantasies: Psst! Hey Buddy, Did You Hear How Well the War's Going? Joshua Frank Dean at the DNC? Richard Oxman Down with Dylan: the Insufferable Interview Ray McGovern All Mosquitoes, No Swamp John Chuckman The Invasion of Hallifax: The Imperial Wizard Visits Canada James Petras Latin America: the Empire Changes Gears Website of the Day ToxMap: Who's Poisoning You     December 6, 2004 Paul Craig Roberts Paranoia and Pre-emption: Is the Bush Administration Certifiable? December 4 / 6, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Politicize the CIA? You've Got to be Kidding Joe Bageant Dining with the Rhinos Alan Maass Reporting from the Ground in Iraq: an Interview with Patrick Cockburn Brian Cloughley Democracy, Bush-style, in the Gulf Laura Carlsen Latin America Shifts Left Lenni Brenner Jefferson, Madison, Bush and Religion Anna Ioakimedes Brazil's Haitian Mission: Doing God's Work or Washington's? Uri Avnery Widow of Opportunity? Fred Gardner Supreme Court Hears Medical Pot Case Dave Zirin Steroids to Heaven Jackie Corr Mining Camp Blues: the Red State Variation Don Fitz Will Greens Abandon IRV? Lucy Herschel "Art can be a Weapon of the Oppressed": an Interview with Artist Anthony Papa Richard Oxman No Angels in America: Bashing the Gay Play Ron Jacobs Holiday Greeting Card Poets' Basement Collins, Albert, LaMorticella   December 3, 2004 Dave Lindorff Lie Then Escalate Ben Tripp Fun With Boycotts: How to Shop in a Time of Crisis Joe Allen Murder in El Salvador: the Assassination of Teamster Organizer Gilberto Soto Matthew B. Riley Human Rights Court Fails Lori Berenson Meir Shalev In the End, It is the Violin that Wins Bob Wing The White Elephant in the Room: Race and Election 2004 Christopher Brauchli When McCain Bit His Tongue Sasan Fayazmanesh The EU, the US, Israel and Iran   December 2, 2004 Tito Tricot No Justice in Chile: I'm a Torture Survivor in a Country Where Torturers Still Run Free Behzad Yaghmaian The Murder of Theo Van Gogh and Muslim Migration Dr. Susan Block Lana and Me: Meetings with Remarkable Apes Frank / Chowkwanyun Liberalism and Its Bounds Lee Sustar Standoff in Ukraine: the Bad v. the Corrupt Patrick Cockburn Another Grim Record in Iraq Mark Engler Seattle at Five Michael Donnelly Something Stinks in South Bend: the Firing of Tyrone Willingham Nate Collins The Bay Area Mall on an Ohlone Burial Grounds Saul Landau The Assassination of Danilo Anderson   December 1, 2004 Phillip Cryan Associated with Whom? Rightist Bias in Wire Coverage of Colombia Dave Zirin What's the Matter with "Leon"?: Budweiser's Racist Commercial Ghali Hassan Iraq's Health Care Under the Occupation: 200 Children Die Every Day Donna J. Volatile Beware Western Nations Threatening "Democracy" Patrick Cockburn How Saddam Tried to Arm the Insurgency Nick Meo Chemical War Over Afghanistan Mike Ferner The Battle of Toledo Mokhiber / Weissman Shame and Determination on Global AIDS Day: 40 Million and Rising Kathy Kelly Looking the Other Way: the Real Crimes of the UN in Iraq   November 30, 2004 Jennifer Van Bergen The Veil of Secrecy Toni Nelson Herrera Meeting Kurtz: When Art is a Crime Paul Craig Roberts The Bush Delusions: Successful at Incompetence Patrick Cockburn The Insurgency Strikes Back: There Are No Safe Havens in Iraq Chuck Munson WTO Protests Five Years Later: Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization Movement Adam Williams Citizenship Sold: Back to Business in Indiana Gregory Elich A Dangerous Turn in the US Plans for North Korea Website of the Day Read Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Novel Online!   November 29, 2004 Dave Lindorff Blowback in Ukraine: The Hand of the CIA? Omar Barghouti "The Pianist" of Palestine: Roadblock Concerto at Gunpoint Mike Whitney The US Media and Fallujah: How to Market a Siege Uri Avnery The Abu Mazen Style: "Give Me Some Credit!" Matt Vidal Globalization and Economic Inequality: a Look at the Numbers Patrick Cockburn An Interview with Iraq's Foreign Minister Alan Farago Sex Change and Salvation: God, Girly Men and Endocrine Disrupters Justin Huggler Bhopal 20 Years Later Antony Loewenstein How Australia Reported Arafat's Death and Legacy Gary Leupp Ukraine: Poll Results Aren't the Real Issue Website of the Day Mosul: Images from a Kill Zone     November 27 / 28, 2004 Peter Linebaugh Torture & Neo-Liberalism with Sycorax in Iraq Alexander Cockburn What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa? Fred Gardner Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court Kathy Kelly What We Can Control Diane Christian The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts" Gary Leupp One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea Lenni Brenner Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York Times Ron Jacobs Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of the AMS Clerics Joshua Frank An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd Toni Solo The Murder of Danilo Anderson Saul Landau Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica JoAnn Wypijewski Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are No Cure for Homophobia Justin Taylor Empire's Lawless Opportunities Amos Harel The Case of Captain R. Walter A. Davis Tabloid Justice Stephen Hendricks God's Kind of Men Poets' Basement Albert, LaMorticella and Ford     November 26, 2004 Peter Feng Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine? Greg Moses It's the White Vote, Stupid Liaquat Ali Khan The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments Michael Mandel / Gail Davidson Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry of Immigration Dave Lindorff Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the Way Gary Corseri When Black Friday Comes... Paul Craig Roberts Whatever Happened to Conservatives? Website of the Day Iraq Pipeline Watch     November 25, 2004 Willliam Loren Katz Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today" Mitchel Cohen Why I Hate Thanksgiving Mike Ferner An Uncommon Mom     November 24, 2004 Gila Svirsky License to Kill: the Example of Violence is Set by the State Winslow T. Wheeler The Other Mess in Congress Christopher Brauchli The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay Dave Lindorff Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony Ron Jacobs The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem Ken Sengupta Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah Diana Barahona The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader John L. Hess Safire the Shameless Jason Leopold Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal? Jeffrey St. Clair The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear War Map of the Day Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860   November 23, 2004 Forrest Hylton Bush and Uribe at the Beach         November 22, 2004 Dave Zirin Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage in Detroit Paul Craig Roberts On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again? Michael Mandel / Gail Davidson Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada Kathie Helmkamp Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill Ken Sengupta The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place in Iraq" Mike Whitney Greenspan's Hammer Roger Burbach Why They Hate Bush in Chile Website of the Day Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?     November 20 / 21, 2004 Alexander Cockburn The Poisoned Chalice Todd May Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear Abbas Ahmed Ibrahim The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account Kevin Zeese Mishandling Nader Landau / Hassen After Arafat Tom Barry The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley Fred Gardner Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd Justin E.H. Smith Triumph of the Will: the Sequel Carl Estabrook Where We Are Now Gary Leupp Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue Dave Lindorff Apocalypse Soon Jenna Michelle Liut Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower and Lives Mickey Z. The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William Blum Greg Moses The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America Sharon Smith Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now? Ron Jacobs Sandwiches and Car Bombs Ben Tripp Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days Richard Oxman Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules! Gilad Atzmon Politics and Jazz Poets' Basement LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon. Website of the Day Voice of the Forest                                                     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. 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Weekend Edition January 15 / 16, 2005 Pot Shots The Allowable-Quantity Expert By FRED GARDNER You can sing the praises of many courageous doctors, growers, lawyers, dispensary operators and patients' advocates, but who has done more to implement California's medical marijuana law than Chris Conrad in his role as an expert witness? Where the rubber really meets the road -in a rural county courthouse with a zealous district attorney trying to convince a jury that Mr. Smith's x number of plants plus y amount of dried marijuana is proof of intent to sell- you'll find Conrad delivering the salient facts in a knowledgeable, persuasive manner. Conrad, 51, is from rural Maryland, and came to California in the mid-1970s. His primary and secondary education was in Catholic schools; he got his BA from Cal State (Dominguez Hills In 1980 and began making his living as a writer. In the late '80s he found himself focused on cannabis after a niece shared some disinformation provided by a DARE instructor. Since then Conrad has written extensively about cannabis and its cultivation, and, in the process developed his expertise. In 1992 he and his wife, activist Mikki Norris, spent six weeks in Nijmegen, Holland working for Sensi Seed Bank, a government-approved cannabis research and breeding facility. The next year they visited hemp farms in France, Holland and Hungary, and spent six months in Amsterdam running the Hash-Marijuana-Hemp Museum. In '95 he took 20 hours of classes in "cannabis botany, agriculture, pharmo-chemistry, industrial technologies and medical use" at a symposium in Frankfurt organized by German hempsters Conrad was first qualified as an expert witness in '94 in the Superior court of Madera County on an industrial hemp case. "Ron Kizzenski and two of his friends decided to challenge the ban on growing hemp by growing by planting 4,000 seeds on somebody's land," Conrad recalls. "The judge wasn't letting in the information about hemp. I was allowed to testify to the judge, but he wouldn't let the jury hear my testimony... the jury acquitted Kizzenski but admonished him not to do it again." Conrad and Norris were in the wide around Dennis Peron that helped plan and carry out the Prop 215 campaign in '95-96. No sooner had it passed than attorney general Dan Lungren tried to impose very low limits on the amounts of cannabis that patients and caregivers could grow and possess. In '97 the expert-witness phase of Conrad's career began in earnest. He was -and is- typically called in to refute a prosecutor's projection of how much medical-grade cannabis a given garden will yield, and/or how much a given patient should use. To date he has appeared in about 100 cases in more than 30 counties. Numerous cases have been dismissed or settled when prosecutors got wind of the fact that Conrad would testify. Conrad recently published a booklet called "Cannabis Yields and Dosage" that, in 20 pages, discusses every aspect of the contentious "allowable quantity" issue. It explains the reasoning behind the guidelines adopted by Sonoma, Humboldt and Santa Cruz counties (100 square feet of plant canopy and three pounds of bud per patient). It also provides a useful analysis of SB 420, the bill passed by the California legislature in 2003 to "clarify" Prop 215. SB-420, as summarized by Conrad: Established a voluntary and confidential patient ID card program administered by the Department of Health Services but not yet implemented. Defines medical marijuana as dry mature female cannabis buds or conversion (to edibles, tinctures, etc.) Creates two legal categories: "qualified patients" protected by Prop 215 and "persons with an identification card" with distinct rights and responsibilities. Sets criminal penalties for abuse of the card system Allows cardholder-caregivers to have more than one patient in their home county, but only one patient from out of county Sets a default guideline of six mature plants and eight ounces of bud or conversion as a safe harbor from arrest for patients and caregivers with valid cards. Counties and cities and empowered to adopted new guidelines, as long as the amounts are no lower than the state floor. A physician may authorize unspecified amounts greater than the state and local guidelines. Conrad says he wrote the booklet with "people involved in setting policy" in mind. He asks rhetorically, "Why should any locality enact guidelines greater than the SB-420 floor? Because to do so is cost-effective, reasonable and compassionate, The six-plant, eight-ounce limit is neither scientific nor adequate for many patients. A compassionate policy would be to stop arresting patients, leave them their medicine, and not ruin them financially by causing prohibitive legal costs. The counties would benefit enormously -prosecuting a marijuana case can cost $100,000." The booklet should prove useful to growers seeking to confirm that their gardens are within the legal limits. Conrad advises growers not to have guns on the premises. "They might think that it puts them at risk in terms of a strong-armed robbery, but to tell you the truth, I don't hear about people saying that having a gun helped out. I DO know of a number of cases of people getting extra time or injuring themselves. Guns bring in the feds --a large-scale grow or the presence of a gun. I don't think the benefit is worth it." Conrad is not anti-gun in general. "When I was growing up in Maryland we had guns to shoot at ground hogs, which destroyed crops," he says with a no-BFD shrug. An organization founded by Conrad and Ralph Sherrow, Safe Access Now, maintains a website (safeaccesnow.net) that lists the allowable-quantity guidelines in effect county-by-county. Mendocino allows a 100-foot canopy for cultivation but possession of only two pounds. Del Norte allows 100 square feet but only one pound. Tehama allows three pounds but only 10 plants. In most counties, however, the six-plant, eight-ounce "default" limit applies. The Cannabis Yields and Dosage booklet costs $5 (shipping included) if you send a check to Chris Conrad at pob 1716 El Cerrito CA 94530, or $7 if you order through safeaccesnow.net. It's printed on 8-1/2 by -11" high-gloss paper that looks like it could stand up to the humidity of a greenhouse. When we'd talked in December, Conrad was waiting for a verdict from Humboldt. "This woman would have had a great case if she hadn't told the cop in an initial interview that she only uses a gram a day -which is 12 ounces a year, and she's growing six pounds. I made a real good argument that it was a personal garden, based on how it was laid out, but I don't know what the jury is going to make of it." Now the verdict was in. " It was a split verdict," Conrad explained, "convicted of cultivation but acquitted of intent to sell, which I interpreted as the jury telling her that she was, indeed, growing too much but also telling the DA that simply having a large supply does not prove intent to distribute marijuana. This distinction is also borne out by the Arbacauskas Appellate decision, that although the defendant was growing more than his "current medical need" would warrant, this was due to inexperience rather than criminal intent. In that case, all charges were dismissed, the Appeals court reviewed the facts, wrote favorably of my testimony, and ruled that it was improper for the DA to re-file the same charges without any new evidence. That decision affects all criminal proceedings in the state." Dr. Fry Gets a Slap on the Wrist Marian "Mollie" Fry, MD, is back in the USA and has started seeing patients again after accepting a settlement offer by the Medical Board of California. Fry was accused of making "extreme departures from the standard of care" in 21 cases. In early October, in the midst of a hearing in Oakland before Administrative Law Judge Ruth Astle, Fry left for Holland with her husband, attorney Dale Shafer, and their three teenagers, plus one of Shafer's grown children from a previous marriage. While they were gone, Lawrence Lichter continued representing Fry. All but two of the cases were thrown out by Astle on the grounds that the Board had violated the patients' privacy rights in obtaining their files. "The judge relied on the Bearman precedent," says Shafer, thankfully. The two patients whose treatment was deemed admissible by Astle had revealed details about their dealings with Fry to Del Norte authorities (in an attempt to get their cannabis back following a raid). They'd said she didn't conduct a physical exam but did review records of their diagnoses by other doctors. The Board's expert witness, Dr. Barbara Neyhart, testified that the files revealed Fry's "extreme departures." Lichter cross-examined Neyhart for three days and says she revealed "hostility towards marijuana and general lack of knowledge on the subject." Lichter thinks that news about the deadly damage caused by Cox inhibitors subtly influenced the mood in Judge Astle's hearing room. He asked Neyhart a series of questions "about the estrogen replacement therapy and Vioxx that she had been touting for many years." Neyhart testified, says Lichter, that one of Fry's patients was taking 12 Vicodin a day. "The judge said, 'that's not what [the file] says, look at it closely, that's what the patient answered to "Which drugs have you stopped doing since using marijuana?"'" Before Astle issued her ruling, one of the prosecutors called to propose that Fry accept a public reprimand, pay $1,500 towards the cost of the Board's investigation of her, and take a record-keeping course at UC San Diego med school. "We accepted gladly," says Shafer. "In San Diego we're going to use the opportunity to make sure that the Cannabis Research Medical Group questionnaire comports with all their requirements." Elsewhere in the News Last week we remarked the meaningless (or worse) puns in a Washington Post story by Peter Carlson about Keith Stroup's departure from the helm of NORML. The L.A. Times ran Carlson's piece Sunday 1/9 under the headline "Turning a New Leaf," which implies that NORML will be taking a different approach under Stroup's successor (a subject the story did not address at all). Some of these headline writers are so addicted to puns that they'll abandon meaning, clarity, relevance, professional responsibility... just so they can get their damned fix. Here's another one from the SF Chronicle Jan. 14, the headline on Chip Johnson's column: "Pot-using politician did dopey thing." Actually, Oakland attorney Dan Siegel, did a very intelligent and unusual thing by telling the truth. He was departing for a two-day trip to L.A. when airport police ticketed him because a search of his luggage -not his carry-on bag- had turned up less than an ounce. Siegel said he uses marijuana for stress and doesn't have a doctor's letter to do so. He accepted the citation and caught his plane. The episode was the occasion for 25-inches of tsk-tsking by Johnson. "The epitome of poor judgment just plain stupid a sophomoric prank" Johnson phoned Siegel for a comment and Siegel repeated his calm, grown-up line: "I'm not hiding the fact that I use marijuana occasionally, and I don't think it should be illegal As long as my ability isn't impaired by the use of alcohol or marijuana, I think it's my business." Johnson opines that Siegel isn't entitled to privacy because he's a "public person," a member of the Oakland school board and a likely candidate for mayor. "His opponents will surely have a field day with this misstep," writes Johnson. The bright side is that even if Siegel runs for Mayor and loses, he can go home, roll a joint, and just saw screw it, dude." Johnson expresses concern that "Students who have been taught to 'just say no' in drug awareness classes may be wondering who or what to believe." It's not a bad thing, Chip, if the kids rethink that phony drugwar propaganda. Why conceal from them the fact the tens of millions of perfectly American citizens like Dan Siegel use marijuana and cause no harm to themselves or others? It was admirable that Siegel didn't try to bluff or bullshit. The real outrage was the cops going through his luggage. *** The Chronicle Sunday magazine ran a Q&A 1/9 with Javier Pena, the new Special Agent in Charge of the DEA office. Reporter Sam Whiting asked the questions. Here are three exchanges of special interest... Whiting: so what is it all about? Pena: We go after drug-trafficking organizations. There's a myth that we're after the users, the peddlers on the streets. We go after major organizations. Whiting: What are the DEA priorities in San Francisco? Pena: The main one is medicinal marijuana. It's legal here to buy marijuana, which contradicts federal law. Whiting: What about pot clubs? Pena: What we're seeing is these dispensaries are not in it for the health benefits. They're in it to make money. We had a few follow-up Qs for Whiting but he wouldn't A.   Mad Cackle Syndrome One of the most influential psychiatrists of our time, Robert Spitzer, MD, was profiled in the New Yorker Jan. 3 by Alix Spiegel. Spitzer was the driving force behind the 1980 and 1987 editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the "bible" of the American Psychiatric Association. The DSM provides a definition and a number for every ailment of the mind and spirit for which psychotherapists provide treatment, MDs prescribe medication, and insurance companies reimburse. By increasing the number of disorders and the broadness of the definitions, the DSM-III authors (establishment psychiatrists chosen by Spitzer) defined millions more Americans as sick, thus qualifying them for prescription drugs. This was the hidden, ultimate goal of the corporations that underwrote the "research" cited by the DSM authors. Spiegel doesn't convey the pompous fake rigor that permeates the DSM (she calls it "a scientific instrument") but she does give a few tidbits about Spitzer's own whacko personality. "His mother was a 'professional patient' who cried continuously, and his father was cold and remote," Spiegel writes, having gotten it, obviously, from Spitzer (a severe case of Unresolved Parental Resentment Disorder). As a young man Spitzer paid for Reichian therapy in an "orgone accumulator." A former colleague says of Spitzer, "He would never say hello. You could stand right next to him and be talking to him and he wouldn't even hear you. He didn't seem to recognize that anyone was there." Another says, "He doesn't understand people's emotions. He knows he doesn't. But that's actually helpful in labeling symptoms. It provides less noise." According to Spiegel, "Spitzer is in his seventies but seems much younger; his graying hair is dyed a deep shade of brown." (Symptom number one in Excessive Vanity Disorder.) "He admits that the patients he saw as a practicing psychoanalyst rarely seemed to improve... 'I was always uncomfortable listening and empathizing, I just didn't know what the hell to do.'" So this fiercely ambitious loser did "research." Robert Spitzer was the anti-hero of a great expose published in 1992 called The Selling of DSM by Stuart Kirk and Herb Kutchins. Spiegel of the NYer is not out to muckrake, but her description of the process by which DSM-III was compiled is devastating: "Because there are very few records of the process, it's hard to pin down exactly how Spitzer and his staff determined which mental disorders to include in the new manual and which to reject. Spitzer seems to have made many of the final decisions with minimal consultation." The original DSM, published in 1952, defined 106 disorders. Spitzer's DSM-IIIR listed 292, including attention-deficit disorder, autism, anorexia nervosa, bulimia, panic disorder and post-traumatic distress disorder, and others that are now household words and for which the pharmaceutical industry provides "medication." Spitzer's editions of the DSM simplified and made more inclusive the definition -or should we say the net- for many more conditions, including clinical depression, just as Eli Lilly was preparing Prozac for the market. One day Spiegel of the NYer summoned the courage to ask Spitzer to explain the criteria for listing a new disorder in the DSM. "'How logical it was,' he said vaguely. 'Whether it fit in... For most of the categories it was just the best thinking of people who seemed to have expertise in the area.'" If you define "expertise" as "the biggest drug-company grants" -which Spitzer literally did when he selected psychiatrists to write the DSM-III definitions - the intellectual corruption of the whole enterprise becomes clear. "By far the most radical innovation" in Spitzer's DSM, according to Spiegel, was the handy checklist of symptoms for each disorder enabling the harried practitioner to make a quick, easy diagnosis. She doesn't point out that this, like all his other innovations, served to facilitate sales of corporate drugs. The profile ends with Spiegel asking if Spitzer "ever feels a sense of ownership" when he comes across a reference in a newspaper to one of the disorders he defined. "He admitted that he does on occasion feel a small surge of pride. 'My fingers were on the typewriter that typed those. They might have been changed somewhat, but they all went through my fingers,' he said. 'Every word.'" (Mad Cackle Syndrome.) Fred Gardner can be reached at journal@ccrmg.org   WWW http://www.counterpunch.org