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Today's
Stories
May
6, 2004
Werther
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: War as Vegas
Casino Game
Robert
Fisk
"Smoke Him": Video Shows Wounded
Men Being Shot by US Helicopter
Alan
Farago
Dead Oceans: So Long, Thanks for the Fish
William
S. Lind
On the Brink of Defeat in Iraq
May
5, 2004
Maj.
Gen. Antonio M. Taguba
Complete US Army Report on Abuse of
Iraqi Prisoners
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Kerry: a Lost Cause for Progressives?
Will
Youmans
Deal with the Devil: a Palestinian
Zionist and the End of the World
Patrick
B. Barr
Terrorists R Us: the Powerful are Exempt from the Label
Lawrence
Magnuson
Nightline's All-American Morgue
Greg
Moses
Pocketbook of Denuded Ideals
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Tormenting Prisoners, Torturing
Truth
Lee
Ballinger
Cinco de Mayo and Unity
Gilbert
Achcar
Bush's Cakewalk into the Iraq Quaqmire
Website
of the Day
Operation Phoenix & Iraq
May
4, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
A Timeline of Torture and Abuse Allegations
and Responses
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Privatized Torture
David
Peterson
CBS, Self-Censorship & Iraq
Barry
Lando
CACI's Private Torture Chambers
Patrick
Cockburn
Torture: Iraqis Disgusted, But Not Surprised
Dr.
Susan Block
Indecent Insurgents: Watch What You Say
Fidel
Castro
A Mindless, Unnecessary War
Mike
Whitney
Empire of Torture
Sonali
Kolhatkar
How to Stop the War: Demonstrate Against
John Kerry
Josh
Frank
The Lost Sierra Club
Stan
Goff
The Role: Another Open Letter to US Troops in Iraq
Agustin
Velloso
Spare Us Your Disgusting Ethics
Stew
Albert
American Know-How
Website
of the Day
Scenes from a Cover-Up
May
3, 2004
Virginia
Tilley
Let the Wall of Silence Fall
May
1 / 2, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
An Army in Disgrace, a Policy
in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat
Robert
Fisk
"Good Guys" Who Can Do No
Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders,
Useless Spies, Angry World
Heather
Williams
Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin
American Troops Flee Iraq
Diane
Rejman
An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq:
Abu Ghraib as My Lai?
Diane
Christian
Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and
Sharon Speak the Same Language
Patrick
Cockburn
Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked,
Shocked, Shocked
Chris
Floyd
Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists
and Annihilation
April
29 / 30, 2004
Dave
Zirin
A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome
Death of Pat Tillman
Kathy
Kelly
The Warden's Tour
Greg
Weiher
Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the
Banality of Evil
Michael
S. Ladah
Terrorism and Assassination: the
Ultimate Depception
Patrick
Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies
April
28, 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
Meet Congressman Know-Nothing:
Tom Tancredo
Wendy
Brinker
The Politics of the Numb
Faisal
Kutty
The Dirty Work of Canadian Intelligence
John
Chuckman
Seeking the Evil One
Mike
Whitney
Flag-Draped Coffins and the Seattle Times
Tom
Mountain
Rwanda and the F***** Word
Graeme
Greenback
The Iraqi Alamo: a CNN/CIA Production
Tracy
McLellan
The War Comes Home
M.
Junaid Alam
We are the Barbarians
William
Loren Katz
Iraq, the US and an Old Lesson
April 27, 2004
James
Davis
The Colombia 3 Acquitted
Dave
Lindorff
Chalabi as Prosecutor
Bruce
Schneier
Terrorist Threats and Political
Gain
Cockburn
/ Sengupta
British Generals Resist Calls for
More Troops to Aid Americans in Iraq
Walt
Brasch
Presidential Letters: The Day I
Was Asked to Feed an Elephant
Saul
Landau
The Empire in Denial and the Denial
of Empire
April 26, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Crossing the Shia Line: US Troops
Prepare to Enter Najaf
Wayne
Madsen
Trading Places: Will the US Go the Way of the USSR?
Grover
Furr
Protest, Rebellion, Commitment
Elaine
Cassel
Lies About the Patriot Act
Mickey
Z.
Inspired by Pat Tillman?
Greg
Moses
Bremer's De-De-Ba'athjfication Gambit
Gila
Svirsky
Anarchy in Our Souls
Uri
Avnery
Vanunu and the Terrible Secret
April 24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank
Brandy
Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So
Robert
Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free
Speech
Ben
Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios
Nelson
Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman
Mark
Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
Col.
Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush
Greg
Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...
Elaine
Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review
Vanessa
Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney
Jim
French
Agriculture's Bullied Market
Hammond
Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella
April 23, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
The Only Solution is Immediate Withdrawal
Dave
Lindorff
Imagination Deficit Disorder
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Contractors and Mercenaries: the Rising Corporate Military Monster
Norman
Solomon
Country Joe Band, 2004: "What Are We Fighting For?"
Cynthia
McKinney
All Things Are Not Equal: the Perils of Globalization
CounterPunch
Wire
A Bitch Called Wanda
Karyn
Strickler
Sierra Club, Inc.
Hammond
Guthrie
Yellow Caked in the Face
Paul
de Rooij
Graveyard of Justifications: Glossary
of the Iraqi Occupation
April 22, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
When Terror Came to Basra: "I
Saw a Minibus of Children on Fire"
Tanya
Reinhart
The Wall Behind Disengagement
Lance
Selfa
Why is Kucinich Still in the Race?
Josh
Frank
Street Fighting Man? Kucinich's Pulled Punches
Sen.
Robert Byrd
Bush Owes America Answers on Iraq
William
S. Lind
Why We Get It Wrong
Mickey
Z.
Undoing the Latches
Robert
Jensen
Why They Fast: Remembering the Victims of the World Bank
John
L. Hess
The New York Times from 30,000 Feet
April
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Yeats on Iraq
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia's Forgotten Prisoners
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's Taliban Drug Deal
William
A. Cook
George 1 to George 2
Jack
Random
Iraq and Vietnam
Jean-Guy
Allard
Alarcon Meets the Editors
Mike
Whitney
Charade in the Desert
Bill
Christison
Only Major Policies Changes Can
Help Washington Now
April 20, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Bush and Kerry Share a Problem
Stan
Cox
Wal-Mart's Magic Numbers
Bruce
Anderson
On Listening to Air America
Joseph
Kalvoda
Czech Mate for Condi
Greg
Moses
Yesterday's Intelligence
Stan
Goff
The Democrats and Iraq
Website
of the Day
Santorum Happens
April 19, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The "Central Hand" of the
Resistance
Mike
Whitney
Bob Woodward's Imperial Trifles
Douglas
Valentine
52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1
Rule
John
Chuckman
The Sharon Annex: Evil Does Often
Triumph
Doug
Giebel
Welcome to the Club
Rahul
Mahajan
Hospital Closings and War Crimes
April
16 / 18, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Bush Legitimizes Terror
Saul
Landau
Subverting Brazil and Cuba
Dave
Lindorff
Paying for War: $2,150 per Family
and Counting
Brandy
Baker
Fallujah's Collateral Damage
Mickey
Z.
The Left Attacks from the Right
Bruce
Jackson
The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit
Uns
Norman
Solomon
How the "NewsHour" Changed
History
Alexander
Cockburn
Bush, Kerry and Empire
April
15, 2004
Greg
Moses
Follow the Families, Not the Script
Virginia
Tilley
The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt:
Just Change the Channel
Ron
Jacobs
They Coulda Been Champions of the
World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic
Michael
Neumann
A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes
Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail
April
14, 2004
Tom
Reeves
Return to Haiti: an American Learning
Zone
Reza
Fiyouzat
Japan and Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
What Bush Really Said
Diane
Christian
The Real Passion
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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May
6, 2004
Bush on Arab
TV
Worthless and
Demeaning
By SAM HAMOD
One of the problems with American ethnocentrism
is that many Americans assume that because others don't speak
English as well as us, that they don't think as well as us.
President Bush, Rumsfeld and
General Myers have all fallen victim to this nonsense. Bush especially
showed this ignorance in his speeches today on Al Hurrah (an
American sponsored propaganda TV station that few Arabs watch)
and Al Arabiyah (a Saudi TV station that gets only 24% of the
Arab market). In addition, Bush pointedly refused to speak on
Al Jazeera TV, the station that has over 60% of the Arab market
overseas; thus, he cut off his nose to spite an independent,
critical Arab TV station.
Add to these things that Bush,
Rumsfeld and others think that their excuses of "just a
few committed these evil deeds," " this is not the
American way," will be believed about the atrocities at
Abu Ghraib, when the same torture and inhumane treatment is going
on at Guantanamo Prison and in prisons in Afghanistan. Somehow,
Bush was not smart enough to realize that Arabs and Muslims throughout
the world relate the two, as well as the thousands of Lebanese
and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails (and all Arabs and
Muslims know that Bush is 100% behind Sharon of Israel); Arabs
and Muslims are outraged because up to now, there were never
photos of the inhumane treatment, though Arabs and Muslims have
been complaining about these matters for the past two years,
with no response from America or the West.
Our American leaders and military
officers have used the Israeli style of not allowing the Red
Cross to have free access; they have not charged the prisoners
with crimes, but have held them under captivity; the Americans
have arrested hundreds of Iraqi women, not allowing them to see
their families, again, without charges or without sanitation,
many of them being abused by American soldiers; they have hooded
prisoners, have beaten them and threatened them and in many cases
sexually abused them, killed some of the prisoners_all with no
apology, not even today from President Bush. How bizarre for
our nation, we the nation that was held up as a moral leader,
as a nation who believed in fairness, ethics, morality and freedom.
What is ironic is that this is all coming out at the same time
the Supreme Court is hearing two cases on American citizens,
Lind and Padilla, who have been held without charges in solitary
confinement without being given the right of habeas corpus, and
have not been allowed to even talk with an attorney. Yet, the
case is being tried at the Supreme Court_without the two men
being allowed to even help their cases.
The report of torture by General
Taguba, which was sent out in early February to the U.S. government
and the military. But it is in conflict, with the new man, General
Miller , who is to be in charge of the Iraqi prisons, in his
report, from last year, that he wanted to "exploit the prisoners
to the full in their interrogations." General Miller is
the same cruel taskmaster who has led the abuse of prisoners
and the brutality of those prisoners at
Guantanamo in Cuba. Thus, there
is nothing coming from America at this time that looks as if
anything is going to change for the better in the Iraqi prisons.
But mark my word, this will not go down well with the Iraqi people,
nor the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. Until CBS News broke
the story, the Pentagon and the U.S. Government had tried to
keep Taguba's report secret so that our troops could continue
torturing and abusing prisoners (none of this stopped until the
CBS TV News report).
Lest, anyone wonder, one must
remember that Iraq has a 5000 year old civilization; they are
a learned people, not heathens who live in the mud and dirt of
illiteracy. Baghdad for centuries had one of the world's finest
libraries; the works of the early Christians were collected there,
as well as the Persians and Greeks before them, then the work
of the great Muslim thinkers and scientists (many of whom practiced
in Baghdad, Basra, Najaf and Kerbala). America, this late comer
to civilization is now led by uneducated dolts, a president who
had never traveled outside the U.S. before he became president
and thought that he could impress foreign leaders by taking them
to his "ranch" (a converted pig-farm that still smells
of feces and death, this according to correspondents who have
been there on a hot Texas day). But it is because he is so ignorant
of civilized people, such as the Muslims who have always been
concerned with modesty, covering their body parts, their sexual
modesty and their sense of honor, that he has little grasp of
just how much damage these photos have done to the image of America
not only in the Arab world, but in the larger, 1.6 billion, Muslim
world. Add to this the way the other Asians view the American
behavior that is in conflict with their own sense of dress and
modesty and you can see that even non-Muslims in the East and
sophisticated Europeans were shocked and upset with American
uncivilized behavior.
Then, the fact that Bush did
not deign to go on Al Jazeera compounded his visible ignorance
and lack of political sophistication. This mistake made clear
that he didn't really want to explain or apologize, but to make
points and to smooth matters over.
But little does he realize
that he made matters worse, not better by his feeble attempt
to con the Iraqis, Arabs, Muslims and others in the world who
were aghast at the American military and mercenary behavior.
Of course, Bush and others will try to punish the woman in charge
of the prison and some of the others who smiled in their evil
behavior in the photos_but the penalties must go up the line
and the heads that must roll are those that allowed this, who
want to get away with this, and to continue the brutality in
Guantanamo_namely, General Abizaid, General Myers, General Kimmit,
Wolfowitz and finally, Rumsfeld himself. Rumsfeld's and Myers'
excuses that "they hadn't read the report" that had
been sitting on their desks since February is clearly fraudulent_downright
lies. Unless this is done, then no one in the Muslim world will
believe in the American promise to "correct" the problem.
In addition, if they really
want to "solve the problems with the Muslim world"
then it is time for Bush to divorce America from Israel and Sharon,
and tell Israel to either work for peace or lose American support.
If America continues giving Israel carte blanche, then there
will be even further conflict and anger from the Muslim world
toward America, and no speech will overcome that problem.
America must also void the
contracts that have been made by the puppet Iraqi Governing Council,
by Bremer and by others in the American government that will
take money from the Iraqi nation. Those contracts were made illegally
and under duress by the occupying American and British powers;
no court in the world will uphold them. Thus, it is best that
America disown and void them before they are voided in the world
court or by continued Iraqi military and political resistance.
Finally, America must turn
to the Arab and Muslim nations of the world to work with the
UN, to the exclusion of America and Britain, and allow the UN
to take the lead in repairing Iraq, physically, psychologically,
economically, socially and politically. If America thinks it
can keep troops in Iraq for another decade, as Michael O'Hanlon
of the Brookings Institute thinks, then they are barking up the
tree of defeat. The Iraqis will never stand for this. And, as
I commented to Dr. O'Hanlon, the Iraqis have defeated the Persians,
the Greeks, the Byzantines, the Mongols, the Turks and the British_and
they have stood strong, even with minor weapons against the might
America, the world's allegedly greatest military power. The Iraqis
will fight to the last person, men, women and children to drive
the U.S. out of Iraq and no think tank speaker who says differently
just shows that he or she doesn't understand the power of Islam
and the sense of determination in Iraq. These disclosures of
abuse do but toughen Iraqi and Muslim resolve. And yes, the Iraqi
will find thousands upon thousands of other dedicated Muslims
coming to their aid if America does not pull out. Unfortunately,
for all of us ordinary American citizens who abhor what has been
done, and that Bush most likely will not clean up, the battlegrounds
will be restricted to cities in Iraq, but to cities around the
world, wherever militant Muslims can attack America and its allies.
The situation is very dire,
and it is going to take more than soft pedaling comments from
Bush that he's "Ordered the Sec. of Defense to make a full
investigation of the matter."
That's like asking the fox
to investigate his attack on the chicken house. But before I
finish, allow me to state that if the American troops go further
into Karbala or Najaf, our troops will face a bloodbath of a
type they haven't seen since the Civil War or what met the British
troops in WWI.
Come now, wake up, my fellow
Americans. As a veteran of two wars, I tell you that what men
fought for in WWI and WWII is missing; we are now the "bad
guys", those who are abusing the rights of others, we are
the Nazis who want to control the land of others and to put them
into prisons where their citizens are tortured, and when they
fight back, as the Jews fought back in the Warsaw Ghetto, the
American media label them as "terrorists" or "insurgents"
or "foreign fighters!" Unfortunately, as I said, America
has it all upside down, including the ignorance of Bush trying
to gloss over with America's misdeeds in Muslim lands.
Sam Hamod is a former advisor to the U.S. State
Dept; founder of 3rd World News (Wash, DC);Director of The Islamic
Center (Wash, DC); Professor at Princeton, Michigan, Howard and
Iowa (ret.); he may be reached at shamod@cox.net
Weekend Edition
Features for April 24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank
Brandy
Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So
Robert
Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free
Speech
Ben
Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios
Nelson
Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman
Mark
Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
Col.
Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush
Greg
Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...
Elaine
Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review
Vanessa
Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney
Jim
French
Agriculture's Bullied Market
Hammond
Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella
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