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Today's
Stories
November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
November
26, 2004
Peter
Feng
Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine?
Greg
Moses
It's the White Vote, Stupid
Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry
of Immigration
Dave
Lindorff
Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the
Way
Gary
Corseri
When Black Friday Comes...
Paul
Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Conservatives?
Website
of the Day
Iraq Pipeline Watch
November
25, 2004
Willliam
Loren Katz
Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks
to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today"
Mitchel
Cohen
Why I Hate Thanksgiving
Mike
Ferner
An Uncommon Mom
November
24, 2004
Gila
Svirsky
License to Kill: the Example of Violence
is Set by the State
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The
Other Mess in Congress
Christopher
Brauchli
The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay
Dave
Lindorff
Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony
Ron
Jacobs
The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem
Ken
Sengupta
Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah
Diana
Barahona
The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader
John
L. Hess
Safire the Shameless
Jason
Leopold
Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear
War
Map
of the Day
Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860
November
23, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
Bush and Uribe at the Beach
November
22, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage
in Detroit
Paul
Craig Roberts
On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again?
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada
Kathie
Helmkamp
Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill
Ken
Sengupta
The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place
in Iraq"
Mike
Whitney
Greenspan's Hammer
Roger
Burbach
Why They Hate Bush in Chile
Website
of the Day
Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?
November
20 / 21, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Poisoned Chalice
Todd
May
Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear
Abbas
Ahmed Ibrahim
The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account
Kevin
Zeese
Mishandling Nader
Landau
/ Hassen
After Arafat
Tom
Barry
The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley
Fred
Gardner
Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd
Justin
E.H. Smith
Triumph of the Will: the Sequel
Carl
Estabrook
Where We Are Now
Gary
Leupp
Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue
Dave
Lindorff
Apocalypse Soon
Jenna
Michelle Liut
Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower
and Lives
Mickey
Z.
The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William
Blum
Greg
Moses
The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America
Sharon
Smith
Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now?
Ron
Jacobs
Sandwiches and Car Bombs
Ben
Tripp
Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days
Richard
Oxman
Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules!
Gilad
Atzmon
Politics and Jazz
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon.
Website
of the Day
Voice of the Forest
November
19, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Mementos You Won't Find in the Clinton
Library: Back in the 90s When We Were Happy
Kevin
Alexander Gray
Soul Brother: the Exhibit You Won't
See at the Clinton Library
Paul
Craig Roberts
There's No One to Stop Them Now
Jack
Z. Bratich
Digging Out Kerry and Burying the Bones(men)
Greg
Bates
The Implosion of the Dems and the Death of Pragmatism (Hurray!)
Christopher
Brauchli
Terror by Night: Waking Up to Darfur?
Forrest
Hylton
At a Loss: for Margaret Hassan
James
Petras
The Crushing of Fallujah
November
18, 2004
Brian
Cloughley
Iraq War as Video Game: "I
Got My Kills...I Just Love My Job"
Hugh
Urban
America, "Left Behind": Bush,
the Neo-Cons and Evangelical Christian Fiction
Luis
A. Gómez
The Bolivian Crisis Deepens
Robert
Fisk
The Murder of Margaret Hassan
Suzan
Mazur
The New York Times Fesses Up to a Rip Off
Prof.
Francis Boyle
Dems Cave on Gonzales: War Criminal as Attorney General?
Mike
Ferner
Sign Here, Kid
November
17, 2004
Christian
Harleman / Jan Oberg
Who and What Killed Our Friend Margaret
Hassan?
Dave
Lindorff
Bring Them Home Before They Kill
Again
Larry
Birns
Condi Rice and Latin America: She Sees
Enemies Everywhere
Toni
Solo
Rumsfeld in Nicaragua
Omar
Barghouti
Snuff Films and War Crimes in Iraq
Clancy
Sigal
"How to Take a Beating": Gen. Stilwell's Lessons for
Iraq
Brita
May Rose
America's Radioactive War: DU in Iraq
Ben
Terrall
"We Must Kill the Bandits!": Lula's Troops in Haiti
Sam
Hamod
The New Mongols
David
Krieger
An Open Letter to the Regents of
the University of California on Nuclear Weapons Research
Pierre
Tristam
It Has Happened Here
John
Marciano
Oppose the War and the Warriors:
"Iraqis are a Cancer. An We're the Chemotherapy"
Website
of the Day
Fallujah: the Real Story
November
16, 2004
Paul
Craig Roberts
Declining Superpower Act: the Coming
Currency Shock
Mike
Whitney
The Goss Purge: Night of the Long Knives at CIA
Uri
Avnery
Rejoice Not: Arafat's Funeral
Andrew
Buncombe
Murder in a Fallujah Mosque
Dr.
Teresa Whitehurst
On Refusing to be Silenced: Sen. Bill Frist v. John Quincy Adams
Rudy
Rimando
Cousins of Color: Black Soldiers in the Philippines, 1899
Jordan
Green
Fighting Jim Crow in Cincy: The Old South Lives ... Across the
River
Hugh
Urban
The Ohio "Vote": Ken Blackwell Has Some Explaining
to Do
Steve
Breyman
Challenges for the Peace Movement
John
Ross
Bush in Rapture
Website
of the Day
We
Doomed?
November 15, 2004
Larry
Birns
A Resignation Without Meaning: Powell
and Latin America
Walt
Brasch
On the (Far) Right Hand of God
John
Pilger
The Greatest Political Scandal of
Our Time
John
Chuckman
Welcome to Ripley's Believe It or Not of Christianity
Francis
A. Boyle
Obliterating Fallujah: War Crime in Real Time
Georgy
/ Sengupta
Fallujah in Ruins: The Air is Polluted with the Stench of Death
Ralph
Nader
Voters v. Sports Fans
Neve
Gordon
The "No Partner" Myth
Donna
J. Volatile
So What Are You Going to Do About It?
Werther
On Reading the Duelfer Report
November
13 / 14, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
"Let Them Drink Sand!"
David
Domke
Bush, God and the Election: a Theology
of War?
James
Petras
The Politics of Imperialism: Neoliberalism and Latin America
Carl
G. Estabrook
How to Stop the GWOT: "Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil!"
Stan
Goff
Torture and the Cinema
Dave
Lindorff
The Ruins of Fallujah
Mike
Whitney
Fallujah and the Erosion of American Power
Ron
Jacobs
Waiting for the Last War to End
Alan
Maass
The Rise and Fall of Gingrich: a Parable for Our Times
Lenni
Brenner
"Next"...a Prison Tale
Gary
Leupp
France's Little Vietnam: Imperialist France Destroys an African
Air Force
Jessica
Leight / Larry Birns
Haiti: the New Regime Shows Its Colors
Heather
Gray
Whistling Dixie: Bush's Reelection, a Perspective from the South
Jordan
Green
Ohio's Provisional Ballots: the State of Play
Robert
Fisk
Arafat Ruled by Emotion and Cronyism
Omar
Barghouti
The Death of Arafat and the Two-State SOlution
Fred
Gardner
Marijuana: an Election Scorecard
Christopher
Brauchli
When a POW Isn't a POW: the Other Torture Memo
Joanne
Mariner
A Preview of the Scalia Court
Dr.
Susan Block
Blue Values
Patrick
Timmons
Violence at the Ballot Box: the War on Gay Rights
Mickey
Z.
Rumor Club
Poets
Basement
Hasan, Albert, Kent, St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
The Hand of God?
November
12, 2004
Forrest
Hylton / Sinclair Thomson
Insurgent Bolivia: the Roots of Rebellion
November
11, 2004
Peggy
Thomson
Encounters with Arafat
Joe
Bageant
Hung Over in the End Times: Heaven's
Foot Soldiers Escape the Dog Patch
Ben
Tripp
The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grief
Edwin
Krales
Cuba's Response to AIDS: a Model for
the Developing World
Jordan
Green
How They Tried to Suppress the Black
Vote in South Carolina
Gary
Leupp
Guzman's Fist
Mike
Whitney
Meet Your New AG: Alberto Torquemada
Sam
Bahour
Palestine is Bigger Than Arafat
Sylvia
Shihadeh and Robert Jensen
The Irony of Arafat
Russ
Wellen
Why Do They Laugh at Us?
Mark
Scaramella
Kerry's Enablers: the Clinton
Cult Factor
November
10, 2004
Joshua
Frank
The Bright Side of Bush's Reelection
Mickey
Z.
The Worst President Ever?: Bush +
Clinton = Bubya
Stan
Goff
Debating a Neo-Con
Mike
Whitney
Exit Ashcroft
Dave
Lindorff
Taking a Leak on the Bush Bulge
Ghada
Karmi
After Arafat
Fr.
Gerard Jean-Juste
Letter from a Haitian Jail
Rev.
Bob Jones, III
A Letter to President Bush: "God Has Granted America a Reprieve"
Bernestine
Singley
Tampa Vote: Dispatches from the Ground
Website
of the Day
Free Camilo Mejia
November
9, 2004
Meredeth
Kolodner
Rebuilding the Anti-War Movement
Saul
Landau
The Appeal of George W. Bush: a Mystery for the World to Solve
Brian
Cloughley
Diego Garcia and Freedom, Bush-Style
Charles
Glass
US is Failing the Test of History in
Iraq
Robert
Fisk
Arafat Died Years Ago
Paul
Craig Roberts
The American Century is Over
Adam
Federman
Witch Hunt at Columbia: Middle East Profs Smeared as Anti-Semites
M.
Junaid Alam
The Discredited Logic of ABB
Tony
Kevin
Fallujah and the Making of a War Crime
Pierre
Tristam
Zealots on the Mount: Get Voltaire on Speed Dial!
Patrick
Cockburn
Crushing Fallujah Will Not End the
Iraq War
Website
of the Day
Don't Blame the Voters!
November
8, 2004
Roger
Burbach
Out of the Ashes: Bush Win is a Defeat
for Democrats, Not the Left
Dave
Lindorff
Lessons from a Quagmire: Fallujah, the Hue of Iraq
Greg
Moses
After the Morning After: On the Homefront of the Civil War
Greg
Bates
Nader's Election Legacy: Something to Stand On
Michael
Donnelly
The Hit-and-Run Left: From ABB to CYA
Nick
Schwellenbach
Gutting FOIA: the Harm of Too Much Secrecy
Adam
Jones
Men vs. Civilians in Fallujah
Amelia
Peltz
Note from Palestine: This Is Not the Time for Despair
David
Swanson
The Media Black Out on Vote Fraud
Brian
Rainey
The Devil Made Them Do It? Elections, Religion and the American
People
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Landau, Hamod
Website
of the Day
A Report on the US Supply of Toxic Weapons to Iraq
November
6 / 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Don't
Say We Didn't Warn You
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Green Out
Carl
G. Estabrook
Who Killed Cock Robin?
Saul
Landau
Che: the Man and the Movie
Gary
Leupp
Let There Be Conflict!
Ben
Tripp
You Call This a Party?
Paul
Craig Roberts
The October Numbers: Continuing Stress on the Jobs Front
Jordan
Green
Heroin, Cocaine and Espanola, NM
Fred
Gardner
Haul of Justice
J.A.
Miller
Cults of the Jealous God: the Balfour Decision Reconsidered
Ramzy
Baroud
Life Without Arafat
Dave
Zirin
Out at the Ballgame: Pro Sports and the Gay Athelete
Ron
Jacobs
The Arrow on the Doorpost
Robert
Oscar Lopez
How White Liberals Became a New Racial Minority
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The November Surprise
Dave
Lindorff
Silver Linings
Richard
Oxman
Invitation to the Bodily Snatched
John
Whitlow
Value Wars: the View from Lexington, Kentucky
Rahul
Mahajan
Fallujah and the Reality of War
Leila
Matsui
Political "Ju-On": Carrying a Grudge
November
5, 2004
David
Vest
The Not-Bush Brothers: a Fond Farewell
Elizabeth
Boylan
The Dems and Faith-Based Politics
Conn
Hallinan
War Crimes and Iraq
David
Zonsheine
Poetry and the Courage to Refuse
Cynthia
McKinney
It's a New Day!
Elaine
Cassel
Running from the Religious Right
Chris
Geovanis
First Protect Your Vote: Lessons for Democrats on Fixing Elections
from Chicago
Rob
Ritchie
Election 2004 by the Numbers
Jo
Guldi
The Beast of History is In
November
4, 2004
Sharon
Smith
The Self-Fulfilling Prophesy of Lesser-Evilism
CounterPunch
Wire
Bush Voters: 2000 v. 2004
Ben
Tripp
My Fellow Americans...Get Stuffed!
Michael
Donnelly
Why Not Blame Rosie?
Vijay
Prashad
An Election of Homophobia and Misogyny
Jules
Rabin
De Profundis: the Morning After
Robert
Jensen
Politics and Professions of Faith:
"Your Rich Men are Full of Violence"
Zoltan
Grossman
Blue State Secession: the Only Solution?
Jonah
Birch
1968 and Today
Dave
Lindorff
What Went Wrong?
Jack
McCarthy
I Knew It Was Over When Michael Moore Showed Up: He Was For Nader...Before
He Was Against Him
Donna
J. Volatile
Ahoy Kerrycrats! Welcome to Our Nightmare
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bright Side of Black Tuesday
November
3, 2004
James
Hodge / Linda Cooper
The CIA and Abu Ghraib: 50 Years of
Training Torturers
Ann
Harrison
The Ghost Votes in the Machine: Voting Snafus Across the Nation
Greg
Moses
Blues for Fallujah
Anis
Memon
The Moral (Values) of This Election
Mickey
Z.
Post Mortem
Josh
Frank
The Dems Should be Ashamed
Chris
Floyd
No Ways Tired: Defeat, Dissent and the Bush Machine
spArk
Smoke Signals from Portland: Karmic Blowback and the Democrats
Friedrich
von Schiller
Folly, Thou Conquerest
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Democrats in End Time: Who to Blame
Now?
November
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Democratic Elections in Historical
Perspective: The Wrong Side Wins
Lance
Selfa
Selling the War on Terror
Laura
Carlsen
The US Elections and Latin America: Can the US Ever be a Good
Neighbor?
James
Davis
To Control the Event: Attention Bicyclists
Richard
Oxman
Getting Up with Osama
Dr.
Ira Kay
A Mental Map of the Bush Presidency
Jesse
Walker
Frankenstein v. Chucky: the Halloween Election
Thomas
C. Mountain
Election '24, Deja Vu?: LaFollette, Nader, & the "Most
Important Election of Our Lifetimes"
November
1, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
How Bush Was Offered Bin Laden and
Blew It
Dave
Lindorff
Bulgegate Confirmed; Press Yawns
Greg
Bates
Nader Voter Survey Results
Roger
Morris
Novel Politics: Only Fiction Can Do
This Election Justice
Diane
Christian
Death Tolls
Lenni
Brenner
Secularists Be Warned: Christlike Kerry Roams Spiritual Universe
Christopher
C. Conway
Can the Left Sink Any Lower?
Francis
Boyle
Legal Elites and the Iraq War: the Nazis Had Their Law Professors,
Too
Jason
Leopold
Rummy's Failed War Plan
Website
of the Day
Dylan Resurrects "Masters of War"
October
30 / 31, 2004
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The Long March and the Million Worker
March
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Spartacus Tells All
Bruce
Anderson
Notes from the Big Empty: When the Hippies Invaded NoCal
Vicente
Navarro
They Worked for Franco: How Sec. of State Cordell Hull and Nobel
Laureate Camilo Jose Cela Collaborated with the Fascist Regime
Robin
Blackburn
How Monica Lewinsky Saved Social Security
Greg
Bates
A Question of Character: What Makes Nader Tick?
Nancy
Welch
The American Health Care Crisis: an Interview with Dr. David
Himmelstein
William
Lind
Election Day: Which Menendez Brother Will You Vote For?
Brian
Cloughley
Uzbekistan and Bush Hypocrisies
Suzan
Mazur
Oops They Did It Again: the NYTs the Paper of Record and Rip-Offs
Greg
Moses
Standing at the Graves of Iraq
John
Chuckman
Osama's Endorsement
Richard
Oxman
Why Not Accept Osama's Offer?
Ken
Avidor
Landscape of Fear: When Ugly is Suspicious
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Bush, Ba'ath and Beyond
Hope
Bastian
Strangling Cuba's Economy
P.
Sainath
Tower of Gabble: Toward a Sustainable Rhetoric
Dave
Zirin
Bush League: Why MLB Owners Support the Prez
Jon
Swift
The Dry Drunk Thang: Put a Cork in It
Ron
Jacobs
The Joke's on Me: a Review of Bob Dylan's Chronicles Vol. 1
Alexander
Billet
Taking Theatre Back: Are the States Ready for "Stuff Happens"?
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Laymon, Norris, Ford and Albert
Website
of the Weekend
The Origins of Halloween
October
29, 2004
Harry
Browne
No Justice for Peace Activist in County
Clare
October
28, 2004
Forrest Hylton
"The Gas is Ours:" Bolivia's
Ghosts of October
Col. Dan Smith
Rebellion
in the Ranks
Alan Maass
Jon Stewart v. the Pundits
Ron Jacobs
Ecstasy
in Red Sox Nation
Alexander
Cockburn
Kerrycrats and the War
October
27, 2004
Jules
Rabin
Crammed with Distressful Politics
Dave
Lindorff
Bulgegate: the Lies Continue
Katherine
Van Tassel
On the Home Front: Both Parties
Ignore Working Parents
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Bi-Partisan Politics of Oil
October 26,
2004
Brian Cloughley
Three
Weddings and Lots of Funerals: Atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan
William Blum
Fear
Factors
Lenni Brenner
The
1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Lessons for 2004
Ben Tripp
The
Chicken Salad Election
Fidel Castro
After the Fall
Greg Bates
The Nation's Flawed Calculus
Walter Brasch
Gag the Public: the War on Dissent
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
An Open Letter to Pat Buchanan
Mickey Z.
Rumble in the Jungle at 30: Ali, Foreman and the Congo
Amir Taheri
The Boom in Conspiracy Theories
Alexander Billet
Say It Ain't So, Bruce!: the Boss Endorses Kerry
Doug Giebel
The Religion of G.W. Bush
Kathleen Christison
Why
I Liked Thomas Friedman's Latest Column Before I Didn't
October 25,
2004
Ralph Nader
Letter
from a Minnesota Highway
Werther
West
Texas Wahabbism
Dave Zirin
Boston's Killer Cops: Death of a Fan
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Oregon Revokes Dr. Leveque's License
Omar Barghouti
Executing Another Child in Rafah
William J. Nottingham
Lori Berenson's Story
John Chuckman
A Foolish Consistency
Uri Avnery
On
the Road to Civil War
October 22
/ 24, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
Rev. William Alberts
On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions
Willliam A.
Cook
Killing for Christ
Saul Landau
George W. Bush: a Man of His Words?
Bill Quigley
I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children
While Arresting Priest
Christopher Brauchli
Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really
Means
William S.
Lind
Fallujah and the Moral Level of War
Sharon Smith
Guilt Trippers for Kerry
Greg Bates
Kerrynomics: "Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us"
Justin E.H. Smith
Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil?
Rebecca Evans
Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military
Mike Whitney
Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion
M. Junaid Alam
Purchasing Individuality in America
David Krieger
Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and
Kerry
David J. Ledermann
The Emperor's New Crumbs
Lawrence Reichard
Same Old FBI Story
Website of
the Weekend
Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling
October 21,
2004
Ben Tripp
The
Undecided Voter Examined
Joshua Frank
Kerry
and the Environment:
It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green
Stan Cox
What
the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses
Bill Martinez
State
Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply
Mark Engler
The War and Globalization
Lina Britto
and Lucia Suarez
Bolivia:
a Year After the October Insurrection
Website of the Day
Two Pampered Children of Wealth
October 20,
2004
Yitzhak Laor
"Did
You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian
Child
Jason Leopold
Sinclair
Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception
Jesse Sharkey
A
Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School
Students
Col. Dan Smith
Choking
Free Speech About the Draft
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Using My Religion
David Vest
If
Bush Wins, Blame Me
Jack Random
The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny
Ron Jacobs
Time
to Kick It Up a Notch
James Brittain
Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside?
Christopher
Dols
Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest
Dave Lindorff
First They Came for the Nurses...
Website of
the Day
Banana Republican Catalogue
October 19,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Party
Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
Jeff Taylor
Confessions
of a Swing State Voter
Matt Vidal
American
Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket"
Victor Kattan
"It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For":
Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum
William Loren
Katz
What Goes Around Comes Around
Sean Carter
O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims
CounterPunch Wire
Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?
October 18,
2004
Saul Landau
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
Dave Lindorff
Bulletin
on the Bush Bulge
Diane Christian
Sheep
and Goats: On the Language of Goodness
Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff
Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
Peter LaVenia
Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank
Mike Whitney
O'Reilly at the Whipping Post
Elaine Cassel
The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
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O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
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Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
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The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
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The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
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Roberts
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Debates and the Big Lie
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Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
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Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
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Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
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Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
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Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
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to Iraq War
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CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
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and Sonali Kolhatkar
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Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
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Fear in Kandahar
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Weekend Edition
November 27 / 28, 2004
In the "Wild
South"
The
Case of Captain R.
By
AMOS HAREL
The affair of the `confirmed killing'
carried out by Captain R. may blow up into a trial concerning
the behavior of IDF soldiers in the territories in recent years.
It seems the Israeli attitude of `don't ask, don't tell' is about
to come to an end.
The charges submitted this
week at the military court of the Southern Command against Captain
R., a company commander in the Givati Brigade, contains only
two pages and five articles of indictment. The facts are described
in dry, legal language, but the story they tell threatens to
become the most significant trial in the history of the second
intifada. This is because what happened on the morning of October
5, 2004, near the Girit outpost overlooking Rafah, may have ramifications
that extend far beyond the Gaza sector in which it occurred.
Everyone agrees that the case
of R. is exceptional. It is not every day that a company commander
fires at close range at the body of a Palestinian child sprawled
on the ground before him (and the details were confirmed in his
confession). However, it seems the IDF will not be able to continue
for long to make do with dismissing the soldiers and their commanders
as "bad apples." The Girit incident has long ceased
to be only the story of R., the officer from the Druze village
in the Galilee. If a real court battle is conducted in this case,
as the defense apparently plans, the trial of the company commander
will turn into a discussion about the IDF's behavior in the Gaza
Strip during the past years and about the freedom of action it
has allowed itself in the name of confronting terror in this
war.
The R. affair has been portrayed
so far as a case of the "confirmed killing" of Iman
Alhamas, a 13-year-old girl from Rafah. The media (based on information
volunteered by soldiers in the company to the daily Yedioth Ahronoth),
and subsequently the army, have focused on one very dramatic
part of the incident. However, there are many aspects to this
case and the discussion of these other aspects only began this
week, following the broadcast of audio recordings from the IDF
communication network on Channel 2's "Fact" program.
In addition to verifying the killing, the tapes also touch upon
the soldiers' actions in the incident, the rules of engagement,
the Military Advocate General's policy of investigation and prosecution,
the values of combat in the territories and the responsibility
of the top political echelon for what is happening.
R., the man at the center of
the scandal, looked a bit confused this week by the public tempest
raging around him. His acquaintances found that he was firmly
convinced of his innocence and prepared to fight for it. They
also noted that he was extremely naive about the entire legal
and public procedure. R. was trained to storm the enemy, not
to ask questions. He was surprised by his superior officers'
reservations about the "confirmed kill" and no less
shocked to see soldiers at the Kastina base hurrying home when
the hearing in the military court extended beyond 5 P.M. From
his perspective, there is an unbridgeable gap between Rafah and
Kastina, and certainly between Rafah and the IDF General Staff
in Tel Aviv.
And these gaps are already
expressed in the basic facts of the incident. The chief of staff,
Moshe Ya'alon, and other senior officers claimed this week that
there is no "confirm kill" practiced in the IDF. How
is this claim consistent with the testimonies by dozens of combat
soldiers about the practices employed in the field, and with
the testimony of the company commander himself on the military
network? ("I confirmed the killing.") The explanation
involves another term - "neutralizing a threat" (also
referred to as "confirming neutralization"). "Confirming
the killing" in this incident had two stages: At first,
R. stormed out of the army post and, according to his testimony,
fired two bullets at the girl from close range. Then, he headed
back toward the outpost, reconsidered and returned to the girl's
body, firing another round. There is some dispute over the question
of where this second round hit. The prosecution argues that he
aimed at the girl's body. R. changed his testimony; at first,
he said he fired toward the houses in Rafah and later he claimed
he fired toward the ground, near the girl's body.
The IDF trains its fighters
to "neutralize threats" - when storming an enemy and
as long as an ostensible threat still exists, it is permitted
to fire at the enemy from close range to confirm this threat
is neutralized. It is prohibited to fire at the enemy after the
battle is over, if he is clearly in a helpless situation. R.
and others stretch this definition to include the initial two
shots, even though the girl was apparently dead already and the
company commander should have seen from close range that she
was a child. With regards to the second volley of gunfire, there
is no disagreement that it was forbidden to fire a round at her
body. The argument revolves around the facts: Did R. really aim
the second round of shots at her? Incidentally, from the remarks
made by Ya'alon Wednesday in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth,
it seems his criticism of R. focuses on this second round of
gunfire. In any case, the military prosecution is charging the
company commander with illegal use of his weapon during both
stages of the shooting.
Cursory investigations
In all of this intensive activity,
the role of the soldiers is missing. There is no mention of them
in the indictment. The prosecutor, Captain Ran Cohen, explains
that it is impossible to relate to the other soldiers because
it is not clear which of them fired the bullets that hit the
girl and what they knew when they fired. Colonel (ret.) Aharon
Shlein, who watched the "Fact" broadcast this week
in shock, finds this hard to accept. Shlein should know. He is
an experienced military judge, who served as the president of
the special military court, as well as the courts of the Southern
and Central Commands, toward the end of the first intifida.
"The real story in this
case," he says, "is the fact that soldiers receive
an instruction to fire at a distant figure, some of them know
it is a child and no one speaks up and says a word. There was
a blatantly illegal order here, which an entire company uniformly
obeys, but we are all focusing only on the confirmation of the
killing."
Recently, as a private defender,
Shlein represented a deputy battalion commander in the artillery
corps, Captain Zvika Koretzky, who was convicted in two legal
proceedings of causing the death of a Palestinian teenager through
negligence. The encounter with the military prosecution's calculations
did not leave a particularly good impression on Shlein. Koretzky,
who encountered Palestinian rioters, fired a warning shot at
what he described as a "target wall" (an object selected
at a safe distance from the crowd). The bullet hit a teenager
and killed him. The prosecution in the case argued that there
is nothing in the rules of engagement that allows for firing
at a "target wall." The prosecution retracted this
claim only after the defense presented dozens of investigations,
some of them headed by the chief of staff himself, in which this
expression appeared. This did not do much to help Koretzky, the
most senior officer to be convicted on a weapons infraction in
the current war.
Something strange happened
here, Shlein says: "For three years, the prosecution consistently
avoided Military Police investigations and indictments. Suddenly,
in the past year, there is a wave of indictments. This raises
the suspicion that somebody changed the policy without declaring
it. This is not fair to the soldiers."
Shlein, by the way, believes
the prosecution, from the outset, should have opened an investigation
into every incident in which a Palestinian civilian was killed,
as was the practice during the first intifada. He also raised
this argument (and a demand for more uniform guidelines) in the
appeal he submitted on behalf of Koretzky. At least one of the
judges apparently agreed with him - Amnon Strashnov, a retired
brigadier general who served as military advocate general during
the first intifada. This week, Strashnov publicly leveled criticism
against the IDF's policy of cursory investigations.
Double message
Returning to the case of R.,
one of the articles of indictment against him contains truly
explosive potential. The prosecution charges him with "exceeding
authority to an extent that risked lives" because he independently
defined guidelines for opening fire in a special security zone
around the outpost. R., the prosecution claims, gave directives
on a number of occasions to open fire against anyone penetrating
this zone, and after the girl was killed he declared: "Even
if it were a 3-year-old [who entered the zone - A.H.], we have
to kill him." His directives indeed go beyond the official
guidelines in the Gaza Strip, but like the matter of verifying
a killing, there is a question of the oral tradition versus the
written doctrine. Throughout much of the conflict, the actual
behavior of the IDF in the Gaza Strip has not been very different
from R.'s blunt definition. And because the Gaza Strip has become
one big security zone - encompassing military posts, settlements,
central roads and the Green Line - dozens of Palestinian civilians
have been killed in situations like these.
Only the intervention, slow
and hesitant, of the military prosecution has gradually reined
in this shooting. One of the generals on the General Staff says
the rules of engagement in the Gaza Strip "bordered on war
crimes." At the beginning of the confrontation, the commander
of a reserve tank division told his battalion commanders serving
in the Gaza Strip to ignore the rules of engagement practiced
there because they were too lenient. If the defense in R.'s case
decides to call to the witness stand the former regional commanders
and division commanders, the IDF can be expected to experience
considerable embarrassment.
And here is actually the heart
of the matter: Did the directives of the senior echelon leave
too much room for interpretation by the commanders in the field?
What did the senior brass really know about what was happening
on the ground, and how much did some of the top officers encourage,
through hints or disregard, the attitude whose unsavory results
have reached a peak in the Girit incident? Ya'alon, as chief
of staff, is much more sensitive to these questions than his
predecessor, Shaul Mofaz. But this is not always enough. The
fact is that even today, as everyone denounces R., Mofaz and
others summarize Operation Days of Penitence in the northern
Gaza Strip as a success because after 150 Palestinians killed
and dozens of homes demolished, Hamas has stopped firing Qassam
rockets. Among these casualties - and the commanders in the Gaza
Strip are well aware of this - were also dozens of civilians.
That is, to kill civilians is not always such a bad thing. What
is this if not a double message?
Few understand this better
than the chief of staff himself. During the past two weeks, Ya'alon
had devoted much time to explaining it, both within and outside
the IDF. In meetings with reporters and gatherings of commanders,
he emphatically presents his stance regarding the resignation-dismissal
of the commander of the Gaza division, Brigadier General Shmuel
Zakai. In the past days, he has also added resolute explanations
about the company commander. (The two cases are connected because
the rift between Ya'alon and Zakai grew wider as a result of
their disagreement over how to deal with R.) Ya'alon feels a
real media offensive is being waged against the IDF and him personally,
stoked by political players. This is happening now, just when
the chief of staff feels he should be reaping the fruits of his
approach, with Arafat gone from the scene and Ya'alon's favorite
Palestinian, Abu Mazen, taking over as chairman. After all, it
would seem that Abu Mazen is generating a Palestinian "searing
of consciousness" by turning to the path of negotiation
and rejecting terror. But instead of enjoying, Ya'alon opens
the newspapers every morning and finds that columnists are blaming
him for a deteriorating ethic of combat in the IDF and calling
for his resignation.
Embarrassing testimonies
The chief of staff, convinced
that the media are biased and blowing things out of proportion
(including the recordings broadcast in "Fact") is waging
a counter-campaign. His problem is that reports from the dark
corners of the occupation continue to land on him: Yesterday
Haaretz published pictures of a Palestinian forced to play his
violin for soldiers at a checkpoint near Nablus. And there were
also the horrifying pictures in Yedioth of soldiers abusing Palestinian
corpses. (At least in this case, the decision to open a military
police investigation reeks of hypocrisy. The main story in the
article, about soldiers from the ultra-Orthodox Nahal unit abusing
the body parts a suicide bomber, was published in the Kol Ha'ir
newspaper by Uri Blau three years ago. Then, the IDF did not
lift a finger to investigate.)
The flood of embarrassing testimonies
began with demobilized soldiers, members of the Shovrim Shtika
(Breaking the Silence) group. But this was followed by a letter
by four commanders from the elite Shaldag unit which focuses
on injustices the officers witnesses in Gaza. These testimonies
prompted Ya'alon to appoint a team to examine how closely the
IDF has adhered to its declared combat values during the long
war in the territories. The team, headed by the commander of
the Bahad 1 officer training base, Gal Hirsch, is still conducting
its study. One of its goals, a senior member of the General Staff
told Haaretz this week, is to provide a broader body of data
regarding the scope of what the IDF insists on continuing to
call "exceptions." Studies conducted to date indicate
a higher-than-expected level of exposure by soldiers to ethics
violations. After the questionnaires have been distributed to
most of the officer course cadets, it will be possible to assess
the severity of the situation.
During the initial months of
the war in the territories, Hirsch was the commander of the Binyamin
Brigade (Ramallah). On the brigade's headquarters in Beit El,
the slogan is proudly displayed: "To be victorious and remain
human beings." One of the senior commanders in the territories,
who is much more cynical that Hirsch, says that in the current
conflict it will be enough for him if "we don't lose and
we don't end up being despicable." It seems that for too
long, many Israelis, including senior officers and civilians,
wanted to believe that the war against Palestinian terror could
be waged in a nearly sterile fashion - occupation with the smell
of laundry detergent. But what transpired at the distant Girit
outpost makes it clear again how impossible this expectation
was.
One of the interesting reactions
to the "Fact" broadcast was from mothers of IDF officers
serving in Gaza. Some of the officers said their mothers were
shocked and openly expressed concerns that this is what was also
happening in their son's units. It seems the Israeli attitude
of "don't' ask, don't tell" - with regard to IDF soldiers
and the evils of combat in the territories during the years of
confrontation - is about to come to an end.
When the dust settles from
the case of Captain R., the tapes from Girit that were broadcast
this week will remain: the report from the lookout soldier -
"She [the girl] is behind the trench, a half a meter from
it. She's frightened to death. The shots landed really close
to her" and the apathetic wrap-up by the company commander
- "Here's the situation report: We opened fire and killed
her. I also confirmed the killing."
It seems no coincidence that
many of the most severe incidents exposed in the current war
took place in the distant Rafah area, where the Palestinians
have fought stubbornly against the IDF in an effort to ensure
the continued flow of weapons smuggled via tunnels from across
the Egyptian border. Here, in the "wild south," IDF
soldiers killed the left-wing activist Tom Hurndall (two soldiers
are even standing trial for this now for both the firing and
their attempt to cover up the affair). And here is where the
American activist Rachel Corrie was crushed by an IDF bulldozer.
But the first incident that occurred in Rafah, nearly three years
ago, provides a illustration of the gap between the declarations
by commanders about the IDF's combat norms and the implementation
of these norms in the field.
In January 2002, in response
to the deaths of four soldiers in the Africa outpost, the IDF
decided to demolish a line of houses on the other side of Rafah,
along the Philadelphi corridor. The army spoke about razing a
limited number of uninhabited houses, but the Palestinians claimed
the real number of houses destroyed was much larger, that some
of houses were inhabited and that some of the residents escaped
by the skin of their teeth from the bulldozers. The head of the
Southern Command at the time, Doron Almog, was interviewed on
television and emphatically denied the Palestinian accusations.
But when Almog began to investigate, he discovered other facts.
First, it became clear that
the number of demolished homes was closer to the Palestinian
assessment. The operation was conducted during the night and
the commander of the force, an officer with the rank of lieutenant
colonel, erred in identifying a palm tree that was designated
as the border of the area slated for demolition. The bulldozers
felled a different tree, further away, and this led to an additional
row of homes being destroyed by mistake.
Almog was also in for a surprise
with regards to the question of whether the homes were inhabited.
The major general called in all of the parties involved in the
operation, including two men named Vaknin and Dima, who operated
the D-9 armored bulldozers. "How do you verify that no one
is in the home?" Almog asked the drivers and learned that
there are two schools of thought. According to the Vaknin method:
"First, I give a small hit to a wall with the bulldozer's
blade. The wall cracks. And then, if I see people fleeing the
house, I know it is inhabited." Dima had a different method:
"The first thing I do is to knock the water tank off the
roof. If water spills out, it indicates the house is inhabited."
Amos Harel writes for Ha'aretz, where this
report originally appeared.
Weekend
Edition Features for October 30 / 31, 2004
November
6 / 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Don't
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Jeffrey
St. Clair
Green Out
Carl
G. Estabrook
Who Killed Cock Robin?
Saul
Landau
Che: the Man and the Movie
Gary
Leupp
Let There Be Conflict!
Ben
Tripp
You Call This a Party?
Paul
Craig Roberts
The October Numbers: Continuing Stress on the Jobs Front
Jordan
Green
Heroin, Cocaine and Espanola, NM
Fred
Gardner
Haul of Justice
J.A.
Miller
Cults of the Jealous God: the Balfour Decision Reconsidered
Ramzy
Baroud
Life Without Arafat
Dave
Zirin
Out at the Ballgame: Pro Sports and the Gay Athelete
Ron
Jacobs
The Arrow on the Doorpost
Robert
Oscar Lopez
How White Liberals Became a New Racial Minority
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The November Surprise
Dave
Lindorff
Silver Linings
Richard
Oxman
Invitation to the Bodily Snatched
John
Whitlow
Value Wars: the View from Lexington, Kentucky
Rahul
Mahajan
Fallujah and the Reality of War
Leila
Matsui
Political "Ju-On": Carrying a Grudge
|