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Today's
Stories
April 18, 2008
John Ross
The
Bush Legacy: Losing Latin America
April 17, 2008
Michael Hudson
Hillary
Joins the Vast Rightwing Financial Conspiracy
Robert Bryce
The
Ethanol Apologists
Kathy Kelly
Weary of War? Don't Collaborate
Madis Senner
The Carrion Feeders' Ball: How Hedge Funds Reap Billions Off
Economic Misery
Peter Morici
The G7, the Banks and GE
Ron Jacobs
Washington, al-Maliki and the Militias
William S. Lind
A Confirming Moment in Basra
James Murren
Obama's Disconnect with Small Town America
Ben Terrall
Losing Haiti
Walter Brasch
Political Log Rolling in Clinton County, PA
Website of the Day
Stealth Attack: Homegrown "Terrorism" Bill
April 16, 2008
Bill Kauffman
The
Candidates from Nowhere
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Colonization and Massacres
Saul Landau
How to Leave Iraq
Peter Morici
McCain's Economic Plan: GOP Out of Ideas (But So are the Democrats)
Eric Toussaint /
Damien Millet
Bankers Saved, Human Rights Sacrificed
Jeff Ballinger
Inside Nike's Asian Sweatshops: Squeezed Vietnamese Workers Strike
Back
David Macaray
Union Strikes and Replacement Workers
Gary Leupp
Electoral Revolution in Nepal
Richard Morse
The Food Riots in Haiti
George Ciccariello-Maher
Einstein Turns in His Grave
Dave Lindorff
Letters from the Bitter Belt
Website of
the Day
Surviving Prozac
April 15, 2008
Ralph Nader
The
Politics of Distraction in an Age of Gotcha Capitalism
Uri Avnery
Manifest
Destiny and Israel
Brian Cloughley
Arrogant
Lies
David Price
Outrageous
Pre-Tour de France Ban
Joe Bageant
Bitter America: Media Shit Storms and Heartland Reality
Steve Early
The Purple Punch-Out in Dearborn
Mats Svensson
To Create Something from Nothing: the Making of a Palestinian
State
Michael Donnelly
Dead-Eye Hil and the Elitist
April Howard /
Benjamin Dangl
Dissecting the Politics of Paraguay's
Next President
Laray Polk
Let's Not Put the Torch in a Bubble
Charles Modiano
What Does a Woman Have to Do to Get on the Cover of Sports Illustrated?
Website of
the Day
The $3 Trillion Shopping Spree
April 14, 2008
Carl Finamore
Airline
Deregulation Makes a Hard Landing
Michael Hudson
A
Trillion Dollar Rescue for Wall Street Gamblers
M. Shahid Alam
Hizbullah's Big Win: Has Israel Finally Met Its Match?
Patrick Cockburn
A
Cleric, a Pol and a Warrior
Paul Craig Roberts
Petraeus Sets Up Iran
Joanne Mariner
Redition to Jordan: What Happens When the Gloves Come Off?
Martha Rosenberg
Suicide and Cymbalta
Dave Lindorff
The Bitterness Thing: Is Obama Channeling Nader
P. Sainath
Hot Messages to Sex Dancer Doom Condi's New Finnish Pal
John V. Whitbeck
On Hypocrisy Over Tibet: a Personal Reflection
Website of the Day
Spying on Environmental Groups
April 12 /
13, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Olympic
Torch Toasts US Candidates
Patrick Cockburn
Warlord:
the Rise of Muqtada al-Sadr
Mike Whitney
Want to Save the Economy?
David Yearsley
Film Scores and Westerns: the Stealth Cavalry of Empire
Robert Fantina
Bush's Brand of Morality
Conn Hallinan
Another Defining Moment in Iraq
Bill Hatch
In Praise of Hippies and the Counter-Culture
Ramzy Baroud
The Basra Battles
George S. Hishmeh
Back to Square One
Ron Jacobs
The New New Left in Latin America
Nikolas Kozloff
Olympic Torch in Buenos Aires
Charles Thomson
The British Prime Minister and the Tate's Tin of Shit
Alexander Billet
The Disney-fication of CBGB
Missy Beattie
Huffing and Puffing to Failure
David Michael Green
America's Jones for War
Seth Sandronsky
Education Entrepreneurs
Prairie Miller
Meeting David Wilson
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up
Poets' Basement
Ko Un, Ibn Salma and Greaves
Website of
the Weekend
Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights
April 11, 2008
Nikolas Kozloff
The Clintons and Their Sordid
Colombia Advocacy
Wajahat Ali
Revenge of the Ghetto Nerd: an Exclusive Interview with Junot
Diaz
Sharon Smith
Let
Them Eat Ethanol!
Yigal Bronner
/ Neve Gordon
Digging for Trouble: the Politics of Archaeology in East Jerusalem
Alan Farago
Eating South Florida
Dave Lindorff
On Waking Sleeping Giants: Lessons for America from China
George Wuerthner
Money for Nothing? The Problems with the Conservation Reserve
Program
Christopher
Brauchli
Prostitutes Don't Do Funerals
Website of the Day
Animals Explain the Insurance Industry: a Health Care Video
April 10, 2008
Mathieu Vernerey
Tibet
for the Tibetans!
Elizabeth Schulte
Slavery
in the Fields
David Macaray
Labor
Unions Will Never Get a Fair Shake
Ashley Smith
The Rise of Muqtada al-Sadr
Peter Morici
Driving Up Debt and Dragging Down Growth
Jacob Hornberger
The Military's Distintegrating Family Life
Harold Austin
Snitch or Else: Prison Officials Threaten Gang Drop Outs
Website of the Day
Hillary: the Wal-Mart Videos
April 9, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Fading American Economy
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Congressional
Theater: the Petraeus / Crocker Hearings
C. Hand
Why Dave Marash Left Al Jazeera
Paul Krassner
Sex and Violins
Paul Wolf
Colombian "Magnicidio" Remains a Mystery After 60 Years
Wajahat Ali
Alien Invasion!
Karyn Strickler
Lost in the Fumes: the Sierra Club Sells Out to Clorox
Dan La Botz
Confronting the Economic Crisis
Eric Walberg
The Shadow of Munich: Another NATO Flop
Robin Millenthal
Enough Already! Growth and the Tar Sands Economy
Website of the Day
Conservative
Nanny State
April 8, 2008
Mike Whitney
Should
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed be Set Free?
Nikolas Kozloff
Bush
Bullies Congress on Colombia Deal
Greg Moses
Migrant Detention in South Texas
Joshua Frank
The Other Military Draft
John Ross
Mexico City's Urban Tribes Go on the Warpath Against EMOS
Michael Donnelly
Hillary's Western Swing
John V. Walsh
Why Obama Lost Massachusetts
Jeff Nygaard
Health, Security and Mandates
Bill Piper
Last Shot for a Bush Legacy?
Sen. Russ Feingold
Legal Representation and the Death Penalty
Website of the Day
Catonsville 9, Forty Years Later
April 7, 2008
Ishmael Reed
The
Irish Black Thing
Harry Browne
Irish
Peace Activist Acquitted; Deported
Uri Avnery
Tibet and Palestine
Lenni Brenner
Obama's Constitution, His Pastor and His Unbelieving Mom in Heaven
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
America Must Respect Pakistan's Democracy
Robert Fisk
Fearful Lives in the Land of the Free
Edwin Krales
Ensuring the Success of Fascism in Spain: the US Corporate Role
Chris Genovali
Vancouver Island's Dwindling Ancient Forests
Website of the Day
LA Artists Against War
April 5 / 6,
2008
Alexander Cockburn
Did
the Elites Want MLK Dead?
Ramzy Baroud
There
are No Checkpoints in Heaven
Ralph Nader
Runaway Bailouts
David Yearsley
How Scott Joplin Had Wall Street Down
Saul Landau
Sex Politics in America
Paul Craig
Roberts
The Petraeus and Crocker Show
Lawrence Korb / Ian Moss
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a True Patriot
Seth Sandronsky
Meet America's Promise Alliance: Colin Powell's New Gig
John Ross
La Cumbia de la Doctrina Bush: Colombia Kills Four Mexican Students
in Ecuador Bombing
Robert Fantina
McCain, Republicans and Family Values
David Michael Green
Back to Disaster: Hoover at Home, Tet Abroad
Missy Beattie
McCan't
Patrick Bond
Vultures Circle Zimbabwe
Dr. Susan Block
The New American Pot Dealers
Phyllis Pollack
The Stones Meet the Press
Adam Engel
The Boobus in the Lie
Jeffrey St. Clair
Booked Up
Poets' Basement
Diamand
and St. Clair
Website of the Weekend
Richard Pryor Goes to the Gun Shop
April 4, 2008
Dave Lindorff
The
Night I Heard King Had Been Shot
Greg Moses
Missing
King
Ron Jacobs
Two Murders, 40 Years On: Bobby Hutton and Martin Luther King,
Jr.
Alan Farago
Show Me the Size of Your Bail Out and I'll Show You Mine
Alison Weir
Funding
Our Decline: U.S. Aid to Israel
David Rosen
Rape as an Instrument of Total War
Robert Weissman
The Unrealized Dream
Jacob Hornberger
Was Killing Iraqi Children Worth It?
Jackie Corr
Hillary and Obama Head for Butte
Carl Finamore
Taking On United Airlines
Laray Polk
We Are All Dith Pran
Susie Day
Advice for the War-Torn
Website of
the Day
Winter Soldiers: a Video Portrait
April 3, 2008
Peter Morici
The Deepening Recession
Joe Bageant
The Audacity of Depression
Andy Worthington
Cleared But Still Detained:
The Ordeal of Moroccan Prisoner Said al-Boujaadia
Nikolas Kozloff
Condi's Divide and Rule Strategy in South America
Rannie Amiri
The U.S. Disdain for Mideast Democracy
David Macaray
More Labor Strife in Hollywood
Stephen Lendman
Lynne Stewart's Long Struggle for Justice
Website of
the Day
The
True Face of Da Vinci?
April 2, 2008
Diane Farsetta
Indian
Point on the Potomac
Harry Browne
Bertie
Ahern Laid Low by Secretary
Wajahat Ali
The Folly of Attacking Iran: a Conversation with Steven Kinzer
George Wuerthner
Open Season on Wolves
Col. Dan Smith
The
Militarization of America
Philippe Marlière
The Politics of Bling-Bling in France: Sarkozy's Cultivated Anti-Intellectualism
Steve Early
A Purple Uprising in Oakland
Bernard Chazelle
Saving the American Left
Reza Fiyouzat
Bowling in Hell
April 1, 2008
Jeff Leys
Fracturing
the Peace to End the War
Thomas P. Healy
Restoring the Constitution: a Conversation with Daniel Ellsberg
Winslow T. Wheeler
When Pigs Sprout Wings: Mangled Rationales for a Fatter Defense
Budget
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
New Deal Nostalgia
Patrick Irelan
Cocaine, Colombia and the Cartels
Andy Worthington
The Case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
John V. Walsh
The Shunning of Ralph Nader
Michael J.
Smith
Woolly Mamet
Robert Weissman
The New Philip Morris--Even Worse Than the Old?
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Defining Moments
Martha Rosenberg
Brain Mist Disease: Boss Hog's Gift to Humanity
Website of
the Day
Support Briana!
March 31, 2008
Mike Whitney
Dead
on Arrival: Paulson's Fixit Plan for Wall Street
Mats Svensson
Walls,
Tunnels and Daily Humiliations
Paul Rockwell
Hillary's
Lies About Outsourcing
Paul Craig Roberts
A Third American War in the Making?
Patrick Cockburn
Sadr
Calls for Ceasefire
Peter Dale Scott
The Showdown
Alfredo Molano
Cultura Mafiosa in Colombia
Peter Morici
Why Paulson's Reform Plan Falls Short
Uri Avnery
Day of the Land, 32 Years Later
Michael Simmons
The American Bard in New Orleans
Betsy Roberts
/ Karen Orr
The Clorox Coup
Phyllis Pollack
First the Sun and Then the Moon: Scorsese Does the Stones
Website of
the Day
Five Years Too Many
March 29 / 30, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
When
They Pick Up the Phone at 3 AM, What Will They Say?
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Police Refuse to Back Maliki's Attacks on Medhi Army
Mike Whitney
Bernanke's Next Big Bail Out Plan
Christopher Brauchli
The Pastor of Armageddon and the Slave Sale: McCain, Lieberman
and Rev. Hagee
William Blum
China, Tibet and the Propaganda Olympics
Robert Fantina
Iraq
Troika: McCain, Obama and Clinton
John Ross
AMLO, the Comeback Kid? Fighting the Privatization of Mexico's
Oil
Allison Kilkenny
Shady Lending Hits Home
Nelson P. Valdés
Cuba, the Beatles and Historical Context
Suzanne Baroud
The Great Lake of Gaza: a New Crisis in the Making
Richard Rhames
Social Security: Throwing Granny from the Gravy Train
Christopher Fons
Transcending the 60s? Obama and the Baby Boomers
Carl Finamore
Misery at 35,000 Feet: Mergers Stall, Fares Soar, Services Slump
and Consumers Sour
Eamonn McCann
Hillary Misremembers Again!
Missy Beattie
Justice and the Monsters of War
Fred Gardner
Jim Thorpe, All-American
Kim Nicolini
Cock Chuggers and Cheese Curls: Richard Kelly's "Southland
Tales"
David Yearsley
"All the World's a Hospital"
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up
Poets' Basement
Valentine and Ko Un
Website of
the Weekend
Hidden Iraq
March 28, 2008
Saul Landau
Growing
Dread About Iraq
Alan Farago
Other People's Money: the Chop Shop Economy
Peter Morici
Knocking Down False Economic Gods
Andy Worthington
Plight of the Uyghus: a Chinese Muslim's Desperate Plea from
Guantánamo
Felice Pace
Ashes of Lies: Why No One Trusts the US Forest Service
Peter Montague
Sierra Club Cleans House -- With Clorox!
Dave Lindorff
The Mumia Exception
March 27, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Basra
Erupts
Binoy Kampmark
Free Market Apostates
Joanne Mariner
"Was George Washington a Terrorist?"
Norman Solomon
NPR News: National Pentagon Radio?
William S. Lind
Mars Only Knocks Once: a Prognosis for Iraq
John V. Walsh
Obama's Speech: a Touch of Bigotry?
Robert Weissman
How Things Work
Ron Jacobs
Meeting Charlie Ehlen
Ralph Nader
Put Impeachment Back on the Table
David Macaray
Court Rules Against Grocery Workers
John Borowski
Clearcutting the History of Forest Destruction
Website of
the Day
Going Out for an English
March 26, 2008
Stan Cox
The
Germs Next Door
Sharon Smith
Greed
Pays: Welfare on Wall Street
Anita Sinha / Jill Tauber
Dreams Turned into Rubble in New Orleans
Matt Vidal
So Much for the Self-Regulating Market
William S. Lind
Operation Cassandra
Joe Mowrey
The Audacity of Hypocrisy: Obama's Pandering to Israel
Dave Lindorff
Duck and Cover (Up): Hillary Under Fire
Ray McGovern
Frontline's War: Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late
Justin Smith
Why Race and Gender are Separate Issues
Sam Husseini
The Winter Soldier Hearings and Indy Media
Martha Rosenberg
Blood on Ice: Gentlemen, Pick Up Your Clubs
Michael Dickinson
Politicians as Dogs
Website of the Day
The Wal-Mart Virus: How the Infection Spread
March 25, 2008
Ishmael Reed
The
Crazy Rev. Wright
Corey D. B.
Walker
The Politics of Jeremiah Wright
Linn Washington Jr.
Racism in America and Other Uncomfortable Facts
Alan Farago
The Money Launderers: a Picnic for Wall St. Insiders
Vijay Prashad
A Glimmer of Hope From the Gulf Coast
Joshua Frank
A Silver Lining to the Bush Years?
Ralph Nader
How Public Servants Can Help End This War
David Rovics
If I Can't Dance: Why is the Left So Boring?
Peter Morici
America's Banks are Broken
Dave Zirin
Olympic Flames: China's Crackdown in Tibet
David Krieger
The Crisis in Tibet
Website of
the Day
Memorializing Iraq
March 24, 2008
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Blonde
Ambition: Hillary's Berserker Campaign for 2012
Peter Morici
Digging Out of the Recession
Uri Avnery
Two Americas
Wajahat Ali
First of the Mohicans: an Interview with Rep. Keith Ellison
Paul Craig Roberts
Inside the Shell Game
George Ciccariello-Maher
The Coming War on Venezuela
Stephen Lendman
Sami Al-Arian's Long Ordeal
Christopher
Brauchli
Possessing Someone Else's Country
Cat Woods
A Letter to Mom on Obama
Stacey Warde
Tax Burden
Dave Lindorff
The American Dead Hits 4,000, But Who's Counting?
Website of
the Day
Live from the Longest Walk
March 22 /
23, 2008
Ralph Nader
Bush
Blisters the Truth on Iraq
Nicole Colson
Can You Afford to Feed Your Family?
James Petras
The Cost of Unilateral Humanitarian Initiatives
Laura Carlsen
From Bombs to Markets: The Andean Crisis and the Geopolitics
of Trade
Greg Moses
Tolerance and the American Pulpit
Andy Worthington
Torture Stories Dog Guantánamo Trials
Michael Dickinson
Art on Trial
John Ross
Bush's Surge Hits Mosul
Missy Comley Beattie
Killer Economics
David Michael
Green
Happy Anniversary, America!
Ramzy Baroud
The Coming Uncertain War on Iran
Martha Rosenberg
Easter Egg Shells from Hell
Paul Watson
Evolution is Going to the Dogs in the Galapagos
Isabella Kenfield
Monsanto's
Raid on Brazil
James Murren
Logging v. Water in Honduras
Jacob Hornberger
Sex and the Immigration Officer
Kathlyn Stone
Ben Heine, Master of the Art of Resistance
Seth Sandronsky
Rethinking New Mexico's History
Kim Nicolini
Class, Gender and Abortion in Communist Romania
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up: What I'm Reading This Week
Poets' Basement
Wilson, Woods, Gibbons and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Merci, McCain!
March 21, 2008
Marleen Martin
Land
Behind Bars: the Hidden Casualties of America's "War on
Crime"
Peter Montague
Run
Your Car on Coal? Maybe Not
Saul Landau
Monroe's
Deadly Doctrine
Anis Hamadeh
Merkel in the Knesset
Jacob Hornberger
McCain's Al Qaeda Scare: Slip or Tactic?
Khalil Nakhleh
Al Nakba of 1948: How Long Will It Persist?
Adam Isacson
Colombia, Paramilitary Threats and Assassinations
Kenneth Couesbouc
Money for Nothing
Madis Senner
Will the Feds Underwrite the Stock Market?
Monica Benderman
The Costs of Freedom: What Are You Willing to Pay?
Website of the Day
Stop Foreclosures and Evictions
March 20, 2008
Damien Millet
/
Eric Toussaint
The
Triple Failing of the Big Private Banks
Mike Whitney
Winding
Up Bear
John Ross
What Do We Owe Iraq?
Dave Lindorff
Paying the Piper: the Bodies and Bills are Piling Up
Wajahat Ali
Pakistan on Fire
Jill Nagle
Memo to Sex Workers: Stop Financing Shock Journalism
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Obama and the Psychic Auto-Shrink-Wrapping Called Race in America
Dan La Botz
Obama's Race Speech
Robert Weissman
Alternative Power: Shutting Down the API
Stella Dallas
/
Jennifer Matsui
Apostasy Now! Mamet, Enter Stage Right
Website of the Day
The Angry Monk
March 19, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
A
War of Lies
Robert Fisk
The Little Men and the Inferno
Jeff Taylor
Five Years of War in Iraq
Ed Ruggero
From Pinkville to Iraq: the Dark Anniversary of My Lai
Ron Jacobs
Who'll Stop the Rain?
Christopher
Fons
Obama Takes the Race Bait
Sherwood Ross
In Defense of Rev. Wright
Cynthia McKinney
An Urgent Crisis: Confronting America's Racial Disparities
Joshua Frank
The Kool-Aid That Kills
Robert Weissman
Monsanto's Genetic Food Gamble
Walter Brasch
It's a Welfare State--If You're Rich
Yifat Susskind
Iraqi Women Resist the Occupation
Andrew Wimmer
War Demands Its Due
Website of
the Day
Glimpses of Nature
March 18, 2008
David Price
The
Military "Leveraging" of Cultural Knowledge
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Collapse of American Power
Tim Wise
Of National Lies and Racial America: Jeremiah Wright, Barack
Obama and the Unacceptability of Truth
Patrick Cockburn
One of the Most Disastrous Wars Ever Fought
Conn Hallinan
Afghanistan, a River Running Backward
James T. Phillips
Monsters: Past, Present and Wannabe
Uri Avnery
The Killing in Bethlehem
David Macaray
Could Wal-Mart Revive the Labor Movement?
Marjorie Cohn
Beware an Attack on Iran
Peter Zinn
Obama in New Orleans
Dan La Botz
The Economic Crisis, Labor and the Left
Monica Benderman
Where are We Going?
March 17, 2008
Pam Martens
The
Fed's Wall Street Dilemma
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The US, Iran and the Policy of Dual Containment
Nelson P. Valdés
The Imperial Branding of Simon Bolivar and the Cuban Revolution
Peter Morici
The Corrosive Consequences of the Trade Deficit
Wajahat Ali
Disrobing the Nine: a Conversation with Jeffrey Toobin on the
Supreme Court Since 9/11
Ronnie Cummins
Beyond Progressive Malpractice: Taking Down Big Pharma
Shaun Harkin
Saint Patrick's Day in Fortress America
Ali Khan
No Pardon for Musharraf
Robert Jensen
Beyond Peace
P. Sainath
Oh, What a Lovely Waiver!
Greg Moses
Jeremiah was a Bullhorn
Dr. Susan Block
Advice for Eliot Spitzer
Website of the Day
No Cowboys
March 15 /
16, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
How
to Destroy a Country in Five Years
Mike Whitney
Bearly
Alive: Investment Giant Rushed to ICU by Panicky Fed Chief
Ralph Nader
Of
Laws and Men
Robert Pollin
It's Still the Economy, Stupid
Diane Christian
The Poetics of Perversity: From Boccaccio to Spitzer
Wajahat Ali
Faking the Hood: a Conversation with Ishmael Reed
Tom Wright
/
Therese Saliba
Rachel Corrie's Case for Justice
Alan Farago
Back to Florida: Where Bushtime Began
Greg Moses
Raiding the Family Room in Texas
Michael Hudson
A Grand Global Bargain?
Martha Rosenberg
Why Hillary's Favorite Chicken Company is Eying China
John Goekler
Fourth Generation Warfare in a Fifth Generation Conflict
Uzma Aslam
Khan
A Letter to Barack Obama: Where's the Change, Barack?
Oren Ben-Dor
The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon
David Underhill
Mammon, Morals and the Mobile Tanker Deal
Fred Gardner
The Education of Eliot Spitzer
David Michael
Green
Why Spitzer Should Have Resigned (and Why He Shouldn't Have)
Rev. William E. Alberts
Jesus, Entombed in Heaven
Gail Dines
It's All About the John: Prostitution and Male Power
David Yearsley
Conducting, Anarchy and the Problem of When to Begin
Chris Clarke
Walking with Zeke: the Luckiest of Dogs
Poets' Basement
Anderson, Lodge & Subiet
Website of
the Day
Deviant Art
March 14, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Watching
the Dollar Die
Don Santina
Vichy
Democrats: Pelosi and the Politics of Collaboration
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Mother Vows Revenge on US: How She Lost Her Husband and Her Sons
Tim Rinne
StratCom
Rules! The Next War Will Start in Nebraska
Robert Fantina
In
Torture We Trust
Saul Landau
Letter
to the Presidents-in-Waitings
David Macaray
Common
Myths About Labor Unions
Franklin Lamb
Is
the Bush Administration Switching Horses in Lebanon
Michael Neumann
The
One State Illusion: Reply to My Critics
March 13, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Republicans
and "Free Market" Zealots Bring Disaster to America
Mike Whitney
Meltdown
Looms Larger As Credit Markets Freeze
Assaf Kfoury
"One-State
or Two State?"- Sterile Debate on False Alternatives
Andy Worthington
Afghan
Hero Who Died in Guantánamo: The Background to the Story
Adam Federman
From
Autopia to Autogeddon: Cars Reach the End of the Road
March 12, 2008
Dave Lindorff
Bringing
Down Spitzer: It's the Big Brother Who Should Bother US
R.F. Blader
The
Spitzer Backlash
Yonatan Mendel
How
to be an Israeli Journalist. Never Write "Murder" or
"Palestine"
Jonathan Cook
One
State or Two? Neither. The Issue is Zionism
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Fallon
and Gates -- At Least One Cheer
James J. Brittain
Was
the U.S. Involved in Killing the FARC-EP Leaders
Ron Jacobs
"All
the Money You Make Will Never Buy Back Your Soul"
March 11, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
to End the Subprime Crisis
Ed O'Loughlin
How
Israeli Troops Invade Homes in Gaza, Brutalize, Smash and Steal
Ramzy Baroud
'Unwavering
Commitment' to Inequality
Kathy Christison
One
State or Two? The Debate Over Israel and Palestine
China Hand
PRC
Plays it Cool, as U.S. Tries to Amp Up Pressure on Iran
John Joslin
Thank
You, Nafta! Welcome to Weirton, Home of the Discount Cigarette
Mike Averko
Serb
Politics, Kosovo and the Moscow-Washington Divide
Ben Rosenfeld
Gavin
Newsom's Kneejerk Plan
Thierry Paquot
High
Rise, Low Spirits:The Curse of the Tower Block
March 10, 2008
Uri Avnery
"Kill
A Hundred Turks and Rest": The Five-Day War in Gaza
Col. Dan Smith
Scoring
the "Surge" and What Lies Beyond
R.F. Blader
Why
"Lock Them Up and Throw Away the Key" is Losing its
Sheen
Michael Neumann
The
One-State Illusion: More is Less
Bob Fitrakis
and Harvey Wasserman
Did
the Republicans Give Hillary Her Victory in Ohio?
James J. Brittain
Anti-Uribe
Protests in Colombia and the World
Missy Comley
Beattie
The
Passion of John McCain
March 8-9,
2008 Weekend Edition
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Only Way to Fight the Clintons
Mike Whitney
Sorting
Through the Rubble in Post Bubble America
Peter Morici
Fed
and Treasury Fiddle as Economy Plummets
Ralph Nader
The
Silent Violence of Gaza's Suffering that Candidates Ignore
Jonathan Cook
The
Meaning of Gaza's Shoah
Steve Niva
Behind
the Israeli Escalation in Gaza
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Crisis
over Teheran's Alleged Nuclear Plans Nearing Climax
Hervé
Do Alto and Franck Poupeau
Bolivia:
Morales is Checked
Eric Walberg
To
Leave and Stay at the Same Time: Putin to Medvedev to…?
Scott Johnson
City
of A Thousand Foreclosures
Mark Scaramella
James
Brown's Gate
Bill Clinton
President
Clinton's Remarks on Naming William M. Daley as NAFTA Task Force
Chairman
Poet's Basement
St.
Thomasino, Engel, Davies and Willson
Website of
the Weekend
Hillary
Blackens Barack
March 7, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Iraq Could Blow-Up in John McCain's Face
Robin Blackburn
Question
for Barrack Obama: Why Afghanistan is the'Right War'?
Saul Landau
The
Stupid Economy
Binoy Kampmark
When
Competition is Good: McCain and the Muddled Democrats
Chris Floyd
Crushing
the Ants: Admiral Fallon and His Empire
Andy Worthington
Spanish
Drop "Inhuman" Extradition Request for Guantánamo
Britons
Will Potter
Before
the Smoke Even Clears in Seattle: Bringing Out the T Word
March 6, 2008
March 6, 2008
Vincent Navarro
The
Next Failure of Health Reform
Forrest Hylton
High Stakes in the Andes: Colombia's Cornered President
Peter Morici
Why the Dollar is So Cheap
George Ciccariello-Maher
Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats
John Ross
Taxi! Taxi! The Dark Side of the Oscars
Jacob Hornberger
No Standing to Lecture on Justice
Paul Watson
Illegal Japanese Whaling by the Numbers
Dan Bacher
Off the Deep End
Website of the Day
A Katrina Reader Online
March 5, 2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Great Day for John McCain (and Maybe Nader)
Joanne Mariner
After Guantanamo
Fidel Castro
The Raid on Ecuador: Underestimating Rafael Correa
Christopher
Brauchli
The Turkish Invasions
Steven Sherman
Obama and the Prospects for a Renewal of the Left
Dave Lindorff
Busting Bush & Co. in New England
James Murren
Bombing Somalia
Adam Engel
Necropolis Now
Website of Day
Remember Song
March 4, 2008
Wajahat Ali
Mumbo
Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed
William Blum
How Could Hillary Have Known?
Bill Quigley
The Cleansing of New Orleans
Ralph Nader
The Prince Harry Solution
Patrick Irelan
Oil and Health in Venezuela
James J. Brittain
/
R. James Sacouman
Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America
Norman Solomon
The War Election
Jacob Hornberger
Hillary in Waco: the Missing Apology
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the European Parliament
Mike Averko
Kosovo and the Press
Website of the Day
Tex-Mex Primary
March 3, 2008
Jennifer Loewenstein
Gazan Holocaust
Alan Farago
American Politics and the Faltering Economy
Richard Gott
Colombian Deaths in Ecuador
Wajahat Ali
Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup
Poll with John Esposito
Paul Craig Roberts
The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution
Robert Weissman
When Multinationals Say Adieu
Uri Avnery
Good Morning, Hamas
Martha Rosenberg
When Your Meat is a Downer
Eva Liddell
Leave the Next Dance for Bill
Michael Donnelly
Will Ferrell Does Flint
Website of the Day
Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home Blues
|
Apri1
18, 2008
An Interview with
Robert Fisk
"Just
as the Wall is Called a Fence, So are the Mercenaries Called
Contractors"
By DAN GLAZEBROOK
Robert Fisk has a well-earned reputation
as one of the most honest and hard hitting foreign correspondents
in the British media. He has worked in Northern Ireland, where
he exposed the presence of the SAS in the mid-1970s, as well
as Bosnia, Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon. It was here, as a witness
to the immediate aftermath of the Israeli-organised Sabra and
Shatila massacre of 2000 Palestinian refugees, that his journalism
took on its current form: angry, passionate, and as he puts it
"partial on the side of the victims"--a style of journalism
which, unfortunately, is not shared by many of his colleagues
in the profession. In the midst of a torrent of lies and propaganda
emanating from our media about British and US policy on the Middle
East, Fisk's writings are a breath of fresh air--although the
hellish reality he depicts does not always make for pleasant
reading.
When I met Fisk in Christchurch
College, sandwiched between an earlier speaking engagement in
Bristol, and a lecture at the Oxford Literary Festival--seemingly
without a moment's rest--we began by talking about the role of
journalism in times of war. Firstly, I wanted to know, does journalism,
by sanitising or justifying war, also have a role in perpetuating
it?
There are several things. First
of all, there's the inability of many journalists from the United
States to actually tell the truth about the Israel-Palestine
situation--hence, occupied territories are called disputed territories,
the wall is called the security barrier, a colony or settlement
is called a neighbourhood or an outpost. Which means that if
you see a Palestinian chucking a stone, if it's about an occupation,
you can understand it, but if it's about a dispute, which
you can presumably settle over a cup of tea, then obviously the
Palestinians are generically violent. So you demean one side
in this appalling conflict.
Then you have this business
where television will not show what we see, for reasons of so-called
"bad taste". I remember once being on the phone to
a TV editor in London when Jazeera were asked to feed some tape
of children killed and wounded by British shell fire in Basra,
and the guy started saying, "there's no point feeding us
this, we can't show this"the first excuse was, "people
will be having their tea, so we can't put it on", and then
it was, "this is sort of pornography, we don't show this".
And it ended up--it is mesmeric to listen to this stuff - the
last thing was "We have to show respect for the dead".
So we don't show any respect for them when they are alive,
we blow them to bits, and then we show respect for themSo
because of this - and these bloodless sandpits with ex-generals
pontificating - it becomes a game; you start propagating this
idea that war is primarily about victory or defeat - when in
fact, it's about death, and the infliction of massive pain.
I was in Iraq in 1991, when
the British and Americans had been bombing one of the highways.
There were women and children dead and in bits, and all these
dogs came out of the desert and started eating themIf you saw
what I saw you would never ever think of supporting war of any
kind against anyone again.
But of course, the politicians--our
leaders--are very happy that these pictures are not shown, because
they make war more attractive, less painful.
Do the British public never
get to see this, more realistic, picture of war?
Look, if an Iraqi soldier is
obliging enough to die by the side of the road in a romantic
pose, and you can get him against the skyline without any boiled
flesh - you know, "the price of war: an Iraqi soldier lies
dead", you know the sort of caption by now - you can do
that." But that's about it.
Journalistic standards are
degenerating rapidly in other areas too. Watching the news two
weeks ago, I was shocked to see Yassin Nassari and Abdul Patel
referred to by the BBC as 'terrorists'--not "alleged"
or "suspected", but straight down the line "terrorists"
- when the only charges they faced related to "possession
of materials" (Islamist literature and video), and they
had not even been accused of planning terrorist attacks,
let alone carrying any out. Has 'terrorism' become a 'catch-all'
phrase?
I've seen cases in the United
States where the evidence of terrorism is a copy of a Lebanese
newspaper.
I've just had an interesting
example of what's going on. I was lecturing in Ottawa to 600
Muslim Canadians, and I said to them "you are absolutely
right to exercise your right to free speech to attack the United
States and Israel when they kill people, commit torture, occupy
other people's lands- but why don't I ever hear you condemning
the regimes in Egypt, Damascus, Libya and so on?" Silence.
I couldn't work it out.
So what was going on?
Later, I was driving across
Canada with two Muslims and they told me. In Canada, if they
speak out against these regimes--the Syrian regime, or the Egyptian--what
happens is that these various countries have their own muhabarat
people in Canada--security people--who will then pass home the
message that certain people are speaking up against Mubarak,
Assad, or whoever. Then, under the new friendship between intelligence
services, the Syrian or Egyptian regime tells the Canadians that
there is a potential terrorist--anti-regime, right?--and CSIS,
the Canadian version of the FBI, starts putting taps on them.
So, by exercising their freedom of speech against dictatorships,
they end up being suspected of terrorism by their new country
of citizenship. So the result is, at the end of the day, they
are silent. As I would be too, in their position.
What about the silence of the
rest of us, who are not so easily excused? With ever dwindling
numbers on the anti-war demonstrations, have we forgotten what
is really going on in those countries suffering Western "liberation"?
You keep having to say to people
in London, "but it's real"--because most people don't
have any experience of war in the West anymore. There isn't a
single one of our political leaders with any experience of war.
Bush dodged it, Cheney dodged it, Powell was in Vietnam, but
he's gone. Hollywood is their experience of war. And when you
send people off to war, and your experience is Hollywood, you
might be a bit shocked when they start dying. At the end of the
day, it isn't real to them.
But it's all too real to the
inhabitants of the Middle East, who have been subject to Western
sponsored blitzkrieg and massacre for decades--from the ongoing
nakbah against the Palestinians, through Israel's 1982 invasion
of Lebanon, the US arming of Iraq in the 8 year war against Iran,
the 1991 Gulf 'War', and subsequent economic genocide of UN sanctions
on Iraq--not to mention the West's backing for the dictatorships
in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. All of this has been witnessed
first hand by Fisk, who believes the Muslim world has shown incredible
restraint in the face of all this oppression:
I'm surprised 9-11 didn't happen
before, that it took that long. Now, whether that is because
it took a lot of planning, I don't know, but I am amazed that
you can knock on a front door in the West Bank and not have them
slap you in the face--instead of that, they offer you in for
coffee and a meal. Can you imagine putting it the other way around--if
we were being bombed and occupied by Arab armies and a friendly
Arab reporter turned to chat, I don't know if I would open the
door; would you?
The true extent of occupation
in Iraq and Afghanistan has been masked by the massive use of
mercenaries--hidden from the troop figures. Estimates suggest
1000 have been killed in Iraq alone. Fisk is one of very few
journalists to call them by their name, as opposed to the "contractor"
euphemism:
"Just as the wall is called
a fence instead of a wall, and it's a neighbourhood not a settlement,
so these are now contractors rather than mercenaries. I've always
called them mercenaries. When they say two 'contractors' have
been murdered, the idea that they are going around in an armoured
humvee loaded with weapons doesn't come into the brain pod immediately
does it?"
What is your experience with
these mercenaries?
I noticed that in 2003, they
were popping up with belts loaded with machine gun bullets in
the hotel I was in. It was obvious they were going to attract
attacks like honey. So I went to some of them and said "look,
for god's sakes, can't you just keep your weapons in your room?"
- in those days, you weren't being attacked in the street - "you're
making this out to be a barracks--you're endangering yourselves
and you're endangering us" And this guy walked up to me
with two rifles--he'd overheard the conversation--and he said,
"well when you're in trouble mate, don't come asking me
for help". I said, "I don't want your fucking help,
I want you to leave."
But they didn't leave. And
the big excuse for staying now is, of course, the looming spectre
of civil war. Is there, then, a functional value to the occupation
of the "civil war theory"?
The first man I ever heard
mention the danger of civil war in Iraq was Dan Semor, spokesman
for the occupying power in the Green Zone in August 2003. No
one had ever heard about the danger of civil war before, no Iraqi
ever mentioned it. I remember thinking, what are they trying
to do, frighten the Iraqis into obedience?
I'm not suggesting that the
American military are trying to stir up sectarian strife, but
it's not impossible that there are certain institutions operating
either at one remove--i.e. with Iraqis or not - in order to
get militias to fight each other rather than fight the Americans.
The French did that in Algeria--it's a fact. I don't know if
the same thing is happening in Iraq, but given everything else
that's gone on--murder, torture, etc--who knows?
But you don't actually have
to set off car bombs to do this. Look at the way we as journalists
publish all these maps, you know--Shi'ites at the bottom, Sunnis
in the middle, Kurds at the top. The British did the same in
Belfast - green for Catholics, Orange for protestants, medium
sherry colour for mixed areas, for people who are inconsiderate
enough to marry across the religious divide. But we don't, obviously,
do these ethnic maps about Birmingham or Bradford or Washington.
I could draw you an ethnic map of Toronto, with the suburb of
Mississauga green for Muslim. But they wouldn't print it. Because
in our superior, civilised Western society, we don't acknowledge
it. In their society, we spend our time pointing it out to them.
I was in New York some months ago, and on the front cover of
Time was "How to tell a Sunni from a Shia." Can you
imagine it? And one of the ways was look at the licence plate
of the car. So, you know, we contribute to civil strife, by constantly
saying, "look at the guy in the next village". So you
don't need to set up car bombs to divide people, you can do it
quite successfully just by constant repetition - civil war, Shiites,
militias, Sunnis, power. You create the narrative. And then in
due course, people fall into line because it is the only one
they get.
I once asked the brother of
s Sunni dentist who had been shot dead, "So, will there
be civil war?" He replied, "Why do you people want
us to have a civil war? I'm married to a Shi'ite--do you want
me to kill my wife?" He said, "We're not a sectarian
society, we're a tribal society--the Duleimis have got lots of
Sunnis and Shias." And that was a response, you see,
to an idea that had been set off by Dan Senor, the official spokesman
for the occupying power.
Unfortunately, the sectarian
lines are becoming clearer in Iraq by the day, with the US army
building walls to create separate ghettoes in Baghdad, and with
the Kurdish north now negotiating its own oil deals. The Western
imposed solution for Bosnia was full-scale ethnic partition.
Will this be the future of Iraq?
Bosnia was in Europe, so eventually,
we wanted to switch the war off. Iraq is a different matter--we're
in Iraq for oil. If the national product of Iraq was asparagus,
we would not be there, I promise. There are parallels with Bosnia,
not least indifference towards the Muslim victims--we did nothing
for them until the war had consumed a quarter of a million of
them--and we don't care about the Iraqis. But I think there are
big differences with Bosnia. There are more parallels, I think,
between the NATO-Serb Kosovo war, because that is where we got
people used to the idea that bombing civilian trains on railway
bridges, bombing hospitals, bombing TV stations was OK. So when
we hit lots of civilians in Iraq, it was "well, we were
doing that back in Serbia, weren't we?". We bombed Al-Jazeera
in Kabul, they bombed Al-Jazeera in Baghdad, which was not even
an Iraqi station. So I think the Kosovo war started off the acceptability
of doing these things.
Whatever the occupier's plans
for Iraq, and whatever barbarities it imposes, one thing is for
sure--the future of that country is not entirely in their hands.
Even with their full scale promotion of sectarian violence in
1950s Algeria, the French were still forced to leave. The dilemma
for the US in Iraq, as Fisk puts it, is that "they must
leave, they will leave, but they can't leave--that is the equation
that turns sand into blood". For those who want to understand
this process, and what it means in human terms, rather than simply
be lied to about it, Robert Fisk's reporting is a good place
to start.
Dan Glazebrook writes for the Morning Star
newspaper and is one of the co-ordinators for the British branch
of the International Union of Parliamentarians for Palestine.
He can be contacted at danglazebrook2000@yahoo.co.uk
|
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