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Today's
Stories
September 29,
2004
Chris Floyd
The
Deceivers: Chronicle of a Quagmire Foretold
Paul Craig
Roberts
Delusion
Rules: War, Outsourcing an Debt
September 28,
2004
Mike Whitney
Kerry's
Moral Compass
Fred Gardner
Pot
Shots: the Civics Teacher
Dan Meek
How Democrats Kicked Nader Off the Oregon Ballot
Greg Bates
Choking on Progressives for Kerry
Alan Farago
Jeanne in Haiti: Where is the World?
Lori Berenson
The Cajamarca Protest
Wayne Madsen
Where
is the Florida National Guard?
Robert Fisk
Why Have We Suddenly Forgotten Abu Ghraib?
September 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Expulsion of Cat Stevens
Patrick Cockburn
As British Muslims Plead for Bigley's Life, US Airstrikes Pound
Fallujah
Sam Husseini
The Problem with Public Opinion Polls
Lee Sustar
Putting Bosses First: Latter Day Democrats and Labor
Dave Lindorff
A Progressive Case for (Gag) Kerry?
Norman Madarasz
Talking International: Contra Kerry
Kevin Pina
The Tragedy of Gonaives, Haiti
September 25
/ 26, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
C'mon
Ralph, You've Got Nothing to Lose
Dave Zirin
The Courage of the NBA's Etan Thomas:
"I Am Totally Against This War"
Saul Landau
The Reality of Empire and Campaign Rhetoric
Dave Lindorff
Our Heroic Baby-Killers
Brian J. Foley
Bush at the UN: the Sound of No Hands Clapping
William Blum
Progressives and the Election
Alan Maass
Why is Kerry Running Such a Lame Campaign? You Can't Blame It
All on Bob Shrum
Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Another Lost Story
Solange Echeverria
An Interview with Kevin Pina on the Floods in Haiti
Nicole Colson
What About the Supreme Court?
Justin Smith
The New Sparta
Joshua Frank
Iraq: From Clinton to Bush
Karyn Strickler
Momma, Don't Let Your Babides Grow Up to be Cannon Fodder
Michael Donnelly
Rather Disingenuous: "Remember in November"
Greg Bates
The Politics of Nader's Republican Support
Todd Chretien
Lesser Evilism: We Are Living in the Logical Conclusion
William Loren
Katz
Dire Warnings from the Past: From Wilson to Bush
Omar Barghouti
Americans, You've Lost Your Alibi!
Poets' Basement
Holt, Clarke, Albert, Laymon and Ford
Website of the Weekend
Carnival of Chaos
September 24,
2004
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
The
Value of One Life: Keeping Up Appearances and Leaving Hostages
to the Wolves
William S.
Lind
Destroying
the National Guard
Mike Whitney
The Bush Tent Show
Nancy Welch
What's
at Stake for Women in 2004?
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Logical Limbo
Joshua Frank
Fear Mongering 101
Victor Kattan
An Interview with Afif Safieh
Ben Terrall
Kerry and Haiti: Will He Stand Up?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
"Finally
It Broke My Heart": Random Impressions from Palestine
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
September 23,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Are They Still Holding "Mrs. Anthrax?"
Christopher Brauchli
Ashcroft's "Distressing Lack of Care": Hamdi and the
Phony War on Terrorism
Derek Seidman
Fighting for a Union at Starbucks: an Interview with Daniel Gross
Michael Neumann
Three
Years and Counting? How Time Flies
September 22,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Zarqawi's
War: the Mysterious Sadist from Jordan
Neve Gordon
The
Wall, the Court and Sharon
Joshua Frank
History Repeating: New York, 1832 and Now
Ron Jacobs
Stormy Seas on the Citizen Ship
Jack Random
Defending Dan? Rather Not
Tarif Abboushi
Kerry's Final Straw: Confessions of a Despairing Voter
Mickey Z
Stupid White Guy Quiz
John L. Hess
Faking the Difference: a Serious Debate?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: The House Rules
September 21,
2004
Gary Leupp
"We
Are Not Secure": Kerry's "Unwavering Commitment"
to Securing a Middle East Realm
Robert Jensen
Large
Dams in India: Temples or Burial Grounds?
Elaine Cassel
Fourth Circuit to Moussouai: Ask Your Questions; Prepare to Die
Stanley Heller
Reagan and the Killing Fields of Lebanon
Adam Federman
America Will Disappoint the World, Again
David Whitehouse
What's Behind the Horror in Darfur?
M. Junaid Alam
How to Avoid Becoming an Anti-American
Paul Craig
Roberts
Attention
Deficit America
Website of the Day
True American War Heroes: the Iraq Refuseniks
September 20,
2004
Cockburn /
Buncombe
Get
Fallujah
David Price
Relying
on Phonies: What If The Problem with Phone Polls is That They
Are Phone Polls
Dave Lindorff
How
Dems Fight: Tigers Against Nader, Pussycats Against Bush
Harry Browne
Pre-Nup at Leeds: Talked Out, But Does IRA Give Up?
Mark Wesibrot
Bush's
Ownership Society: No Taxes for Owners, Only Workers
Karyn Strickler
The Keys to the White House v. the Shrum Curse?
Uri Avnery
The Temple Mount Bombers
September 18
/ 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
Septemeber
17, 2004
Ray McGovern
Gossing
Over the Record
Patrick Cockburn
The New Iraqi Economy: Baghdad's Thriving Kidnapping Industry
Lee Sustar
The State of Working America: an Autopsy of the American Dream
Mike Whitney
John Kerry: 195 Lbs. of Political Helium, Not an Ounce of Sincerity
Victor Kattan
Black September
Ray Hanania
Israel's Demographics
Greg Bates
Nader's Victories: a Mid-Campaign Assessment
Website of
the Day
The Road to Hell
September 16,
2004
Landau / Hassen
Meet
the New Villain: Syria
Joanne Mariner
Inside
Darfur: a Photo Essay
Patrick Cockburn
US
Offers Conflicting Accounts of Baghdad Bloodbath
Greg Moses
Four Million Children Might Be News
Joshua Frank
Nader in the Battleground States
Christopher Brauchli
The Bush Drug Lottery Flops
David Himmelstein
Folke Bernadotte: a Rosh Hashonah Remembrance
Website of the Day
The Abu Ghraib Index
September 15,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Hell
on Haifa Street
Ron Jacobs
Oppose War, Not Just Bush
David Lindorff
Blanking Out Dissent
Joanne Mariner
Talking About Darfur: Is Genocide Just a Word?
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein
An Open Letter to Madonna: Please Don't Support Israeli Apartheid
Dave Zirin
Is the NFL Ready for Us?
Yigal Bronner
"They
Are Building Walls Around Us"
September 14,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Problem of Chechnya
Jennifer van
Bergen
What's
Wrong with Torture?
Stan Goff
Wake Up and Smell the Jungle Rot
Patrick Cockburn
The
Punishment of Fallujah: US Precision Strickes...on Ambulances
Anis Memon
Nader
in Michigan
Michael Donnelly
The Nuance Comes Off: Former Naderites Beg for Kerry Votes
Werther
Zell Miller: the Peckerwood Pericles
Website of
the Day
Osama Bin Forgotten?
September 13,
2004
Gabriel Kolko
Elections,
Alliances and the American Empire
Phillip Cryan
How Do You Say "Death Squad?": Language in Colombia's
War
Patrick Cockburn
One of Baghdad's Bloodiest Days: "I'm a Journalist! I'm
Dying! I'm Dying"
Noah Leavitt
The War on Civil Liberties
Robert Jensen
Highjacking Catastrophe: Bush, the Neo-Cons and 9/11
Mike Whitney
Alan Greenspan: Fed-Master to the Wealthy
John Chuckman
Stop Talking About the "Election"
Mike Burke
Kerry/Edwards Website Censors Discussion of Israel/Palestine
Issues
CounterPunch
Wire
The Quotations of David Cobb: "I Don't Care How Many Votes
I Get"
Website of the Day
Keep It In Your Pants: the Bush Plan to Combat Teen Promiscuity
September 11
/ 12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Swatting
at Flies
Fred Gardner
Yet Another Prozac Scandal
Saul Landau
When Our Assassins Go Free
Jennifer Van Bergen
How to Beat Bush: a Simple Strategy for the Average American
Roger Burbach
/ Jim Tarbell
The Real Dead Enders: Iraq and the Crisis of Empire
Christopher Reed
9/11 in an Historical Context: a Minor Event When Compared to
Worldwide War Casualties
Francisc Catalin
An ABC of American Interventions
Carl Estabrook
Big Science and Government Terror
Bernard Chazelle
Anti-Americanism: a Clinical Study
Sharon Smith
Third Party Blues
Dave Lindorff
Perhaps This Time We're the Silent Majority
Mike Whitney
Fallujah: an Iraqi Beslan?
Frederick B.
Hudson
Their Sons Perished in the Flames, But Not Their Faith
Mickey Z.
Round Up the Usual Suspects: a Look Back at 9/11
Ron Jacobs
Redneck Music for the New Century
Greg Moses
Soap Opera Moments in Texas School Funding Trial
Benjamin Dangl
/ Andrew Kennis
An Interview with Leslie Cagan
Poets Basement
Del Papa, Albert, Gelman
September 10,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Disappointment
at Samarrah?
Michael Donnelly
Democrats v. Democracy
Alan Farago
Mosquitoes in a Hurricane
Doug Giebel
Karl Rove's Terror Playbook
Mike Whitney
Bob Graham's Political Tsunami
David Domke
God's
Will, According to the Bush Administration
September 9,
2004
Joe Bageant
Karaoke
Night in Bush's America
Ed Kinane
Abducted in Baghdad
Peter Bohmer
The Cuban Revolution: Present and Future
Todd May
The Emerging Case for a Single-State Solution
Jeremy Scahill
The New York Model: Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad
Joshua Frank
Green House Party Gasses
Fran Shor
The Crisis in Public Dissent: When Protest is Considered a Terrorist
Act
Patrick Cockburn
Welcome
to the Dirtiest City in the World: Despair in Baghdad
Website of
the Day
Liberty Street Protest: No to War at Ground Zero
September 8,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
This
Doesn't Smell Like Victory: A War on Two Fronts in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush Confuses; Kerry Mute: Spinning 1000 Dead
Bulent Gokay
Russian and Chechnia After Beslan
Lisa Viscidi
Land Reform and Conflict in Guatemala
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Byrd's Eye View
Mike Whitney
Afghanistan: American's Drug Colony
Stan Goff
Body
Count: 1001
Website of
the Day
Bush and the Love Doctors
September 7,
2004
Diane Christian
Hostage Tactics: a Game of Mortal Poker
Joshua Frank
Greens
Unravel from Within
Patrick Cockburn
Fallujah
Erupts Again: US Death Toll in Iraq Nears 1000
Ron Jacobs
Bush and Putin: "We're Not Girlie Men"
Chris Floyd
Cry Havoc: Bush's Own Personal Janjaweed
Dr. Carol Wolman
No Blood for Oil at Paul Bunyan Day Parade
John Ross
The
Politics of Darkness North / South
September 6,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
An
Anti-Labor Day That Lives in Infamy: How Many Democrats Voted
For Taft-Hartley?
Ralph Nader
The
Cruel Legacy of Taft-Hartley: a Labor Day Call for Rights for
Working People
Lee Sustar
What's Driving the Attack on Pensions?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Dual
Loyalties: the Bush Necons and Israel
September 4-5,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
Elephants
and Gramsci
Ted Honderich
The
Way Things Are
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The
Holy Empire: Who We Are and What We Do
Douglas Valentine
What the World Should Know About Guantanamo
Patrick Cockburn
New Iraqi Police State Flexes Its Muscles
Gary Leupp
Neo Cons Under Fire
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: the Hempstead T-Shirt
William A.
Cook
The
Day of the Lemming
Dave Zirin
Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom
John Chuckman
The Day the World Ended
Karyn Strickler
God Save the Endangered Species Act
Vanessa Jones
Bad Day with an Ikea Cup
Mike Whitney
Kerry: the "Better" War Candidate
Mark Donham
Dear John (Kerry): Start Explaining and Fast
Mickey Z.
McBypass Nation: Feeling Clinton's Pain
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades be Fixed?
Poets' Basement
Landau and Albert
September 3,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
Rahul Mahajan
Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response
Carl Estabrook
The
Book of Slaughter and Forgetting
Joshua Frank
The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again
Gary Leupp
Music to My Ears: Sunday's March
James Hollander
Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide?
Mark Engler
Republicans
Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out
Jesse Sharkey
Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education
Jane Stillwater
Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves
in Guatemala
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote
Twice, Let Them"
Todd Chretien & Jessie
Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?
Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
Christa Allen
Contre Bush
Website of
the Day
[Redacted]
September 1,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Stench of Doom
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Poor Larry Franklin
Dave Lindorff
Kerry's Litmus Test
Josh Frank
Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up
John L. Hess
Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops
Mike Whitney
Deconstructing Arnold
Jack Random
Kindergarten Night at the RNC
Andrew Wilson
War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words
August 31,
2004
Joseph Nevins
Escapism
and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs
Matt Vidal
Beyond
Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy
Neve Gordon
Kerry and the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
Bush
the Peace Candidate?
Mike Whitney
NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran
Jack Random
Opening Night: Playing the War Card
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One)
CounterPunch Photo of the Day
Pete Seeger in NYC
August 30,
2004
Justin Podhur
The
Disappeared Mayor
Shaun Joseph
The
Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com
Mike Whitney
Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly
Want?
Ron Jacobs
Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate
David Lindorff
Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy
Dave Zirin
USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate
Sam Husseini
Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History
August 28 /
29, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Zombies
for Kerry
Patrick Cockburn
Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US
Ray McGovern
Blowing Smoke on Intelligence
Dr. Juan Romagoza
From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor
Ray Hanania
An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous!
Fred Gardner
Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot
Diane Christian
Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live
William S. Lind
The Desert Fox
Paul D'Amato
The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry
Joshua Frank
Greens at the Crossroads
Mickey Z.
Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests
Winslow T. Wheeler
Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange
Justin E.H.
Smith
The New Age Racket and the Left
Thomas St. John
Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God"
Ali Tonak
Help the NYPD?
Mark Engler
New York Says "No"
Justin Felux
Haiti: the Attica of the Americas
Poets' Basement
Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod
August 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
Neocon
Musings
Robin Cook
The
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Diane Christian
Disarming
Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?
Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters
Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"
Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners
Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"
August 26,
2004
M. Shahid Alam
The
Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?
Diane Christian
War
Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu
Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get
Organized
David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally
Christopher
Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble
Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity
Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
Website of
the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So
Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib
Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues
Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin
Fred Gardner
Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants
Dave Zirin
Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot
Josh Saxe
Witnessing Police Brutality in LA
Yanar Mohammed
Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings
Helen Williams
Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad
Michael Donnelly
Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery
Elizabeth Schulte
The Crisis in Affordable Housing
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger
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.
|
September 29, 2004
Playing Politics
with Nukes
Is
the US on a Collision Course with Iran?
By
BEHROOZ GHAMARI
On July 20, 2004, Senator Rick Santorum
(R-PA) introduced the Iran Freedom and Support Act of 2004, a
legislation promoting the transformation of the Islamic Republic
of Iran to a democratic form of government. In justifying his
cosponsorship, with Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), of the Act, Senator
Santorum lambasted the Iranian government for its "aggressive
actions to support terrorist organizations," its "ballistic
missile program," "violence against Americans in Iraq,"
"hiding information about its nuclear activities,"
and a host of other charges that make the Islamic Republic a
threat to the national security of the United States of America.
"This legislation," Santorum concludes, "expresses
the sense of the Congress that it should be the policy of the
United States to support regime change in Iran."
The reckless brandishing of
regime change, which has become the cliché of the neo-con
politics, does not ease tensions over the Iranian nuclear technology.
The policy of regime change negates constructive engagementthe
two cannot coexist. A negotiated settlement with the Iranian
government over its nuclear technology cannot emerge from undermining
the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic. Without advocating a
scenario of Armageddon, we need to recognize that the absence
of détente in the political lexicon of the Bush Administration
is spiraling the Middle East into an irreversible nuclear arms
race.
At stake is the Iranian government's
two nuclear plants, built largely by the Russian contractors.
The government in Tehran insists that their nuclear program pursues
a peaceful purpose, and as President Khatami reiterated recently,
Iran has no interest in developing nuclear weapons. Of course
one cannot accept the assurances of an embattled president whose
two terms in office was mired with internal conflicts. Khatami's
office was powerless to challenge the Supreme Leader and the
judiciary's . The positions expressed by Iranian officials do
not guarantee that Iran would utilize its nuclear technology
solely for generating electricity and not for bomb-grade enriched
uranium. With American forces knocking on its doors from all
sides of its borders, a nuclear Pakistan in the south east, and
a nuclear Israel making daily threats of striking its enrichment
facilities, it would be naïve to think that at least some
factions in the Iranian government do not fancy nuclear weapons.
Iran is a signatory of the
Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The current crisis surfaced when
Iran failed to report the construction of a new nuclear plant
near the city of Natanz to the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA). To correct the breach of contract, the IAEA asked Iran
to agree to an additional protocol that gave it unrestricted
access to all Iranian nuclear facilities, as well as the right
to unannounced spot inspection. The Iranian parliament approved
the additional protocol and asked for assurances that in exchange
for unrestricted access and spot inspection the "Big-Three"
Europeans (UK, France, and Germany) would share nuclear technology
with Iran.
While after months of inspection
the IAEA found no evidence of a weapons program, and stated that
Iran is in no violation of the NPT, the United States and EU
remain unsatisfied with the level of transparency of the Iranian
nuclear program. The Bush Administration asserts, a view echoed
by Senator John Kerry, that the only solution for this stand
off is that Iran has to "prove they are not building weapons."
Putting the negative burden of proof that they are not
building weapons on Iranians' shoulder should be familiar to
us all. Like Saddam Hossein in the months preceding the war,
the accused bears the burden of proving his innocence.
But regardless of the exchanges
between the IAEA and the Iranian government, similar to its attitude
toward the UN inspection team in Iraq, the Bush Administration
appropriated the IAEA position as a smokescreen for its ambitions
in the region. In its last meeting in Vienna, Director General
Muhammad al-Baradei expressed satisfaction with the progress
of IAEA work in Iran, while emphasizing that there remained much
work to be done. He asked Iran to halt their enrichment activities
voluntarily, since, as an NPT signatory, Iran enjoys the
right to enrich uranium without breaching the treaty. After the
Vienna meeting, John Bolton, the under secretary of state for
arms control and international security, boasted that Iran's
conduct did not "bode well for the success of a negotiated
approach to dealing with this issue." Mr. Bolton left nothing
opaque about the meaning of a non-negotiated approach when he
compared the situation in Iran with that of South Africa and
Ukraine, both of which abandoned their military nuclear programs
after the fall of the ancien régime. If the administration's
point-man for negotiating a settlement does not believe in negotiation
and advocates the change of the regime with which he is supposed
to engage, it is easy to see why the Islamic Republic remains
skeptical of American intentions. Why should it negotiate with
a state that openly advocates its overthrow?
The US position on the Iranian
nuclear technology has also generated confusion in the media.
We know that this Administration is not a reliable source of
information. It regards intelligence as politics by other means.
Recent articles in the New York Times and reports on NPR on the
Iranian nuclear activities repeat the same kind of unconfirmed
allegations that turned authoritative journalists into drumbeaters
for war with Iraq. For example the title of Steven Weisman's
diplomatic memo in the New York Times read "Bush Aides Divided
on Confronting Iran Over A-Bomb." I wonder whether Mr. Weisman
has information about an A-bomb in Iran, of which the international
community is unaware. In the text, Weisman asserted that "Like
Iraq in its final years under Saddam Hussein, Iran is believed
by experts to be on the verge of developing a nuclear bomb. In
Iraq, that proved to be untrue, though this time the consensus
is much stronger among Western experts."
I always ask my students to
write their sentences in active tense, passive tenses invite
ambiguity and uncertainty and leads your readers to be more skeptical
of your assertions. Weisman is no student of mine, but I wonder
how his claim stands up to the test of the active reformulation
of a sentence. "Iran is believed by experts" Who are
these experts? What were the bases of their conclusions that
Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear bomb? Who are the
sources of their intelligence? (Not another Chalabi, I hope!)
If these "Western experts" were wrong the first time
around, what guarantees the validity of their conjectures this
time? Weisman adds to the currency of his scenario by offering
another piece of intelligence"Israel also warns
that Iran's nuclear program will reach a 'point of no return'
next year, after which it will be able to make a bomb without
any outside assistance."
Israel's warning appeared in
another news piece in the Times "Iran Advances Move to Nuclear
Fuel, Defying U.N." by Craig Smith. Although Mr. Smith wrote
that "Iran has offered to accept any safeguards imposed
by the United Nations agency to ensure its enrichment activities,"
he qualified his report by reminding the reader, "But some
American analysts warn that the international community has only
a year or so left to stop the Iranian program from achieving
self-sufficiency. After that, they warn, the country will have
the means to create a nuclear arsenal without outside help, forever
altering the Middle East balance of power." So, in Smith's
report the same piece of intelligence that was provided by "Israel"
in Weisman's memo reappears as the warning of "some American
analysts." This is at best sloppy journalism and at worst
journalism with an agenda.
The world community should
be concerned about the Iranian government's nuclear technology.
But on this issue, like in other matters, unilateralism, arrogance,
and disengagement will inevitably lead to disaster. It is true
that the Iranian government pursues a policy of "altering
the balance of power in the Middle East." But after all,
this is the same policy that the United States promotes and executes.
If the Iranians are discontent with the balance of power in the
Middle East, such as the open secret of the Israeli's nuclear
weapons, the world community needs to prove that it deals with
the question of non-proliferation impartially.
If the United State is wary
of the intentions of the Islamic Republic, it should follow a
policy that renders any hostile policies in Iran irrelevant.
It cannot promote regime change and offer financial support to
overthrow a sovereign government and expect cooperation at the
same time. One cannot invite secrecy and ask for transparency.
This policy failed in Iraq, and it will fail in Iran. It will
fail in Iran, not only in the context of Iran-US relations, but
also in regard to the domestic politics of reform within Iran.
American policy, deliberately or unintentionally, promotes a
war-time governance in Iran in which every voice of dissent is
silenced and every attempt for democratization crushed. The reformists
in Iran are the biggest losers of a policy the seeds of which
were planted by the President when he uttered the words "Axis
of Evil."
The nuclear threat is as real
as it ever was. Neither selling bunker-buster missiles to Israel,
nor threatening the Islamic Republic with a proxy war will deter
certain factions in the Iranian government from aspiring to a
mature weapons program. Paradoxically, current U.S. policy lends
more legitimacy to the Iranian hawks and their ambitions for
a nuclear Iran. If the logic of deterrence justified more than
fifty years of the nuclear arms race, on what geopolitical grounds
could one legitimately ask the Iranian government not to brandish
nuclear weapons to deter its regional competitors?
So, what is the solution? Nuclear
power plants generate a hazardous amount of radioactive waste,
the containment and stabilization of which remains a contentious
social and technological problem. Furthermore, these nuclear
power plants present to the United States and Israel tempting
targets for preventive strikes. The Iranian government has already
begun its perilous journey to join the nuclear club. It cannot
be persuaded to abandon its nuclear power program and adopt renewable
energy technologies. From their point of view, green technologies
are neither economically sustainable in the short term, nor politically
prestigious.
1. As a signatory of the NPT,
Iran can legally develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
The Iranian government will not voluntarily suspend its
legal enrichment program indefinitely. The best solution would
be a protocol for technology transfer from the EU to Iran in
exchange for additional international inspection.
2. The Iranian government must
demonstrate good will towards the IAEA and the "Big-Three."
If it fails to reach a verifiable agreement with the international
community, its intransigence will increase the likelihood of
Bush's reelection.
3. The U.S. must abandon its
ambition for regime change in Iran, no matter who wins the presidential
election. America must decouple its nuclear policy from its other
concerns regarding Iran's human rights abuses and support of
terrorism. Changes in the human rights situation in Iran, and
its position on Israel should not be regarded as preconditions
for nuclear cooperation. Coupling all three presupposes regime
change and thereby forces Iran to abandon the NPT.
4. Non-proliferation cannot
be selective. The exemption of Israel from international nuclear
treaties undermines the authority of the IAEA. The greatest spur
to a regional arms race is Israel's nuclear capabilities. Since
nuclear disarmament is not negotiable for Israel, the world community
should pressure Israel to fully disclose its weapons program.
The United State's pressure
to refer Iran's case to the Security Council is premature and
misguided. It will only strengthen the position of those on the
Iranian side who do not believe in a negotiated settlement. The
Iranian daily Aftab reported today that the conservative
representative of Isfahan in the Parliament announced that he
was gathering signatures to introduce a "triple urgent"
legislation asking the government to abandon the NPT.
Dr. Behrooz Ghamari is a professor of sociology at Georgia
State University. He can be reached at: bghamari@gsu.edu
Weekend
Edition Features for September 18 / 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
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