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Today's
Stories
July
3 / 4, 2004
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam's
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain't Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
June
29, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
The Cloak-and-Dagger Handover
Robert
Fisk
Alice in an Iraqi Wonderland
Troy
Selvaratnam
New York Times Boosts Pet Developer
Harry
Browne
Bush in Ireland
Ray
McGovern
The CIA According to Anonymous
Elaine
Cassel
Hamdi, Padilla & Rasul: Who Really
Won?
June
28, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn / Leyla Linton
Grisly Rituals in Iraq
Amira
Hass
Confronting Myths and Deadly Power
June
26 / 27, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Venezuela: the Gang's All Here
Patrick
Cockburn
Iyad Allawi, the CIA's New Stooge
in Iraq
Dennis
Hans
Once They Were Sweethearts: Cheney,
the NYTs and the Myth of an Iraq Link to 9/11
Ben
Tripp
Adventures in Fuel Efficiency
Dave
Lindorff
That State Department Terrorism
Report: What They Knew, But Didn't Tell You
Chris
Floyd
Cold Irons Bound: the Russian Gambit
Ali
Tonak
Contamination at Berkeley: Profit Motives,
Academic Freedom and the Case of Ignacio Chapela
Keith
Rosenthal
The Withering of the Anti-War Movement
Bryan
Sacks
The Failure of the 9/11 Commission
Wayne
Madsen
Another Case of Blowback
Thomas
St. John
L. Frank Baum, Racist: Indian-Hating
in the Wizard of Oz
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
American Swadeshi
June
25, 2004
Stephen
Gowans
US to North Korea: "Trust Us"
Saul
Landau
2006 Pentagon Budget as Sacrilege:
Bush Invests the National Treasure in Death and Destruction
Amir
Butler
Iraq: the Deadly Embrace
Jack
McCarthy
Another Times Plagiarism Scandal?
Did Maureen Dowd Lift from the World Weekly News?
Greg
Bates
Chomsky and Zinn Plan to Vote Nader
June 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
John
Lehman on the Iraq / al-Qaeda Links
Patrick Cockburn
A
Day in the Life of Col. Abu Mohammed: Defusing Bombs, Facing
Death Threats
Harry Browne
On
the Rebound: Bush Bounces Back...in Europe
Bill Kaufman
Another
Marxist for Kerry: Joel Kovel's Sad Smear of Ralph Nader
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush,
Cheney and the 9/11 Commission: What Did They Know? What Did
They Tell?
Rick Gioimbetti
Andrea Yates: Victim of Psychiatric Violence?
John Chuckman
Call Center ID Hypocrisy
Diana Johnstone
Kerry
and Kosovo: the Lie of a "Good War"
June 23, 2004
Laura Carlsen
Bush
and Castro Face Off
Dave Zirin
Barry
Bonds vs. Boston: "A Flea Market of Racism"
Kurt Nimmo
From
Saddam, With Love
Patricia Wolff
Foundation Wars
Mahboob A. Khawaja
"They Had Me Arrested and Shackled My Son"
Patrick Cockburn
The
Pretense of an Independent Iraq
Website of the Day
The Road to Abu Ghraib
June 22, 2004
Dave Lindorff
The
Meaning of Putin's Pronouncement: Mutually Assured Pre-emption
Ron Jacobs
Nuclear Plants in US Protectorate of Iraq?
Vanessa Jones
Coogee, Peter Garrett and Valium Earrings
Mickey Z
An Open Letter to the People of Iraq
John L. Hess
Clinton Exhales
Pedro Marset/Ex-Solidarity
Committee for Pacho Cortés
An Exchange on the Case of Pacho Cortés
Bruce Jackson
Saying
No to Prosecutors: Why Steve Kurtz's Colleagues Refused to Testify
Website of the Day
From Boot Camp to Boot Hill
June
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Putin's Helpful Remarks
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti After the Press Went Home: Chaos
Upon Chaos
Cockburn
/ Khan
Saddam May Face Death Penalty
Uri
Avnery
Irreversible Mental Damage
June
19 / 20, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Inside the Green Zone: US is Paranoid
and Isolated
Bruce
Anderson
Frozen Gringos
Diane
Christian
Morality and Death: a Meditation
on Bush and Blake
Walter
A. Davis
Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib
Josh
Frank
How Democrats Helped Bush Rape Mother
Nature
Col.
Dan Smith
Respectable Genocide?: the Crisis
in Sudan
Brian
Cloughley
A Profound Disruption of the Senses
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Timken Plant, a
Year Later
Prudence
Crowther
Mr. Ashcroft, Deport Me!
Poets'
Basement
Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and Albert
Kathy
Kelly
Dying to See Their Kids
June
18, 2004
Chris
Floyd
Blood Victory
Dave
Zirin
Danielle Green, Basketball Player
& Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against War
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Christian Question in American
Politics
Gary
Leupp
The "Long-Established" Link?:
Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi
June
17, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
18, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
16, 2004
Lenni
Brenner
A Question for Kerry Supporters
Davey
D
Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan
Daniel
Wolff
Why Did Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner
Abuse?
Bruce
Jackson
Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake
Patrick
Cockburn
Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power
Facilities
Gary
Handschumacher
Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads
JG
Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop
Mario
Benedetti
Obituary with Cheers
Vicente
Navarro
Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who
is Rodrigo Rato?
Website
of the Day
Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch
June
15, 2004
Harry
Browne
Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe
Neve
Gordon
The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
David
Palmer
Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI
John
Blair
Lovelock's Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming
Dave
Lindorff
God Wins in TKO
Bill
Quigley
Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step
In
Patrick
Cockburn
Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast
John
Chuckman
John Kerry, Political Placebo
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.
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Weekend
Edition
July 3/4, 2004
ABC
of Opportunism
"Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
By
STAN GOFF
After a coup d'etat planned, coordinated,
and executed by the most reactionary elements in Haiti, with
the substantial material support of the governments of the United
States and its ever-obedient Dominican Republic, the proud nation
of Haiti is again under foreign military occupation. The shameful
fact, however, is that this time the occupation is being carried
out by not only by the French, whose savage imperial history
there is well known, and by the Canadians (perennial handmaidens
of the US), but by Argentina, Brazil, and Chile--three nations
who have themselves been victimized by the covert operations
establishment of the United States, and governments who are making
the now-specious claim that they are "progressive."
The Haitian people and their
popular organizations are utterly astonished by this grotesque
betrayal and unabashed political opportunism. More than one Haitian
with whom I spoke while there for three weeks in June posed the
question: How will these allegedly leftist governments respond
when and if we attack them?
This was not a rhetorical question.
Almost everyone with whom I
spoke said explicitly that they would welcome such an attack
as a needed catalyst to initiate another general uprising. The
spectrum of opinion on this question ranged from those who merely
asserted that attacking occupiers was a right, to those who said
it will become a patriotic duty. In the interest of full disclosure,
I did not speak with the macouto-bourgeois faction in Port-au-Prince
who had been on the payroll of the US Embassy, via the International
Republican Institute and the National Endowment for Democracy.
In fact, I spoke with few urban
dwellers at all. On this trip, it seemed appropriate -- given
the demagogy about democracy with which we are constantly assailed
-- to go where the Haitian majority lives: the countryside. I
encountered not a single peasant (at least in the Central Plateau)
who accepted Latortue or anyone else in the de facto government
appointed by  the United States. They regard
them not even with fear, but with derision as fools. What might
surprise those unfamiliar with Haiti was how well many peasants
understand the paradox of these Latin American occupiers. Almost
all had heard of the landless peasants' movement in Brazil, and
wondered if these kinds of formations in Latin America might
not rise up against their own governments for participating in
the consolidation of the coup d'etat in Haiti.
The timing of this coup d'etat--Haitians
believe, and I agree--on the bicentennial of the Haitian Revolution
constitutes an intentional humiliation of Haiti, shepherded as
it was by Roger Noriega, former aid to arch-racist Jesse Helms.
That intent festers with every passing day in the sullen and
smoldering determination that this will not stand.
The people of Argentina, Brazil,
and Chile (A,B, & C) should perhaps grasp the ABC of American
covert operations better than their ostensible leaders. Lending
the US a hand in one imperial enterprise will not protect them
from the predations of the US. In fact, it only strengthens the
hand of the US foreign policy establishment to commit the same
crimes against them when it's expedient. That applies to the
liberal US establishment -- now out of power -- that wants to
increment its domination through financial structures, but it
applies even more immediately to the black-shirted reactionaries
of this administration who, if we look closely, are an aging
replication of the self-same clique that brought us the Iran-Contra-Cocaine
scandal -- men who left thousands of Latin American bodies in
their wakes.
Has Argentina's Kirchner forgotten
the US's supportive role during the Dirty War? Has Chile's Lagos
forgotten 1973 and the CIA attack on Chilean popular sovereignty?
And has Brazil's de Silva developed amnesia with regard to Goulart's
ouster at the hands of the same CIA in 1964?
How is it, then, that these
nations, of all nations, can send their militaries to prop up
the transparent coup d'etat against yet another democratically
elected government? How have they become obliged, in the face
of their own histories of struggle against US plotters and assassins,
to support this racist subjugation of a fellow Latin American
nation?
Driving through Gonaives, I
saw pimply-faced youth in Canadian uniforms waving from atop
their armored personnel carriers in the apparent expectation
that they will be received with accolades -- a la the Chalabi
hallucination of cheering crowds in Iraq -- only to be met with
hostility and contempt from the street. The flags of A,B, &
C snapped in the wind from behind barricades at Toussaint L'Overture
Airport in Port-au-Prince, but the post-pubescent lads from those
countries will soon be pushed out into Haiti's genpop, and it
is inevitable that some will be attacked.
How will these governments
-- all claiming to be progressive -- explain themselves to their
own general populations then? The United Nations imprimatur will
be cold comfort indeed for the families of the fallen and a puny
poultice for the political wounds resulting not from the actions
of an external Right, like the manufactured crisis that culminated
in the kidnapping of Aristide in Haiti, but from the home grown
Left in A, B, & C themselves.
This acquiescence -- no, collaboration
-- with the diktat of the US will not loosen the parasitic grip
of the Imperial Center on a single Latin American, nor will it
ameliorate that Center's intent to continue exploiting the entire
region until it is used up and dead. This pious fantasy that
cooperation will be rewarded has been the downfall of many a
leader, including Aristide who was taken from his home after
calling for "peaceful mobilization" even in the faced
of murderous paramilitaries.
It looks more and more, at
least to this writer, like there are only three Latin American
leaders left with a spine -- Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Manuel
Marulanda. With the commitment of troops to the coup against
Haitian popular sovereignty, Kirchner, de Silva, and Lagos have
displayed a craven disregard for their own people and for their
own histories. They now stand objectively as allies of Jesse
Helms -- a man who praised D'Abuisson's death squads, and who
never relented in his commitment to American Apartheid.
May they all admit this terrible
error and quit Haiti now, or may history mark them with shame.
Stan Goff is the author of "Hideous
Dream: A Soldier's Memoir of the US Invasion of Haiti"
(Soft Skull Press, 2000) and of the upcoming book "Full
Spectrum Disorder" (Soft Skull Press, 2003). He
is a member of the BRING
THEM HOME NOW! coordinating committee, a retired Special
Forces master sergeant, and the father of an active duty soldier.
Email for BRING THEM HOME NOW! is bthn@mfso.org.
Goff can be reached at: sherrynstan@igc.org
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