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Exciting New Print Edition of CounterPunch Bolivia's Third Revolution Confused by Bolivia's upheavals? CounterPunch's Newton Garver gives you the history, the politics and a roadmap through the present great upsurge of Indians who say NO to centuries of theft and oppression. On the track of Guatemala's killers: a searing report from John Ross on the US-backed monsters who turned Guatemala into a charnel house and on the heroes who hunt them down. The rise and rise of a corporation called Halliburton: Jeffrey St Clair scours some of Texas' history's dirtiest pages and tells how Halliburton's cash helped put two presidents to the White House. Get the answers you're looking for in the latest subscriber-only edition of CounterPunch ... CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Show the New York Times You Don't Believe a Word of It: CounterPunch's New 14 Per Cent Club T-Shirts Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Now Available! Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY Click Here to Order the Hot New CounterPunch Book by 3-time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Kathy Kelly! Today's Stories Bond / Brutus / Setshedi How Bono and Trojan Horse NGOs Sabotage the Struggle Against Neoliberalism June 16, 2005 John Walsh The Iraq War Polls: Dems' Stance Even Less Popular Than Bush's Dave Lindorff Work 'Till You Die: the Bush Retirement Plan Adrian Lomax Torture in U.S. Prisons: Common, Lethal, Unreported Tom Crumpacker The CIA, Posada and the Bombing of Cubana Flight 455 Jeffrey Kolakowski The Kinsley Paradigm: Downsizing the Downing St. Memo Julene Bair Turning Off the Ogallala Spigot: Toward a New Way to Farm on the Great Plains Michael Dickinson As We Forgive Our Debtors: the Madness of Money Francois Houtart / Isabel Parra, et al. Against Terrorism; In Defense of Humanity: an Appeal Tom Barry Meet Bolton's Replacement: Robert "First Strike" Joseph   June 15, 2005 Stan Goff An Open Letter to US Troops on Loyalty Daniel Wolff The Palace at 4 A.M. Tim Wise Discover the Nutwork: David Horowitz and the Politics of Ad Hominem Distortion Ricardo Alarcón The New CIA Revelations About Posada Joshua Frank House Republicans vs. Bush: "This is Not a Conservative War" John Hilary Bloodsuckers' Summit: Why the Left Should Rendezvous at the G8 Norman Solomon Iran's Reformers: a Threat to Theocrats and Neocons Alexander Cockburn / Jeffrey St. Clair Juries and Lynch Mobs Website of the Day What It Feels Like to be Tasered (Turn Up the Volume)   June 14, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Enabling Evil: Bush's Willing Executioners Forrest Hylton Stalemate in Bolivia Richard Gott The Crisis in Bolivia Fred Gardner The Raich Decision: All Power to the Feds Steve Breyman Doing the Right Thing is Also Politically Expedient Dave Zirin Sacred Hoops: Basketball in the Barrio Robert Kent Outsourcing Torture and the Stop-Loss Program Paul Craig Roberts Enabling Evil: Bush's Willing Executioners   June 13, 2005 Gary Leupp Another Damning Document Dave Lindorff The Inca and Us John Stauber Mad Cow USA: the Cover-Up Begins to Unravel Fred Gardner Supreme Indignity: Medical Pot Doctors Respond to Justice Stevens Evelyn J. Pringle TeenScreen: the Lawsuits Begin Norman Solomon Letter From Tehran Winslow T. Wheeler Neo-Con Unfurls the Big Picture   June 10 / 12, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Thomas Friedman's Imaginary World Sharon Smith Torturers and Liars: Masters of Deception Brian Cloughley "Support Our Torturers!" Chris Kromm Home Cookin': Pentagon's Base Relignment Plan Would Increase South's Share Heather Gray A Day in Mississippi: Some Things Have Changed; Some Remain the Same Kevin Zeese What the Left Must Learn from 2004: an Interview with Josh Frank Mickey Z. The Pentagon Papers, 34 Years Later Gary Leupp A Review of Sison's "At Home in the World" Eli Stephens The Asshole in El Paso: Why Posada Carriles Matters Nick Dearden A Scottish Band in the Occupied Territories Oscar Olivera Recovering Bolivia's Oil and Gas Robert Fisk Screening "Kingdom of Heaven" in Beirut Michael Dickinson Oh My God!: Gunning for Blasphemers Poets' Basement Engel, Albert, Louise, Ford Website of the Weekend Gravity's Rainbow, Illustrated June 9, 2005 Len Colodny Felt Was Asked Under Oath in 1975 If He Was "Deep Throat" Christopher Brauchli From Baseballs to Hand Grenades Ron Jacobs Light a Candle; Curse the Darkness Dave Lindorff US Media Shamed by Brit Journalist Katrina Yeaw / Alex Schmaus Repression 101: Anti-War Students Sanctioned at SFSU Alan Farago Spin Machine Busts a Gasket in the Everglades: Fed Judge Whacks Jeb Saul Landau The Charmed Life of a Mass Murderer June 8, 2005 Jim Hougan Strange Bedfellows Deep Throat, Bob Woodward and the CIA Alan Maass Is Bolivia on the Edge of Revolution? an Interview with Tom Lewis Jason Leopold Enron Lives!: Former Army Sec. White Wants Govt. Money for New Energy Scam Niranjan Ramakrishnan Exit Right, Advani: Unpardonable Acts of Statesmanship Dave Zirin The Rotting Soul of the 49ers Derrick O'Keefe Bush's Terrorist: the Case of Posada Carriles Diana Johnstone Non, Neen, Angelene! Why Defenders of the "Oui" are Wrong Website of the Day The Meatrix   June 7, 2005 Forrest Hylton Bolivia's Agony of the Stalement Continues Greg Moses / Susan van Haitsma Pushing Back the Violence Lenni Brenner What Madison Would Think About the Air Force Academy's Offical Fanatics Col. Dan Smith Liberation vs. Survival in Iraq Joshua Frank Dean at the DNC: the Establishment vs. the Elites Dave Lindorff Fair-Weather Allies: US Denies French Fighters Emergency Landing Rights Margot Veranes / Adrian Navarro Xenophobia in the Desert: Racist Fever Becomes Law in Arizona Michael Neumann Sharing Music: Property Gone Wild   June 6, 2005 Stew Albert Everybody Must Get Busted: Supremes Rule Against the Sick Paul Craig Roberts Federal Bureau of Entrapment Nicole Colson Inside Walter Reed Hospital Ali Khan Friendly Renditions to Muslim Torture Chambers Jason Leopold When Will Rumsfeld Be Indicted? Charles Walker Poff Rumsfeld, China and Hypocrisy Ramzy Baroud My Grandpa's Right of Return Rep. John Conyers Did Bush Deliberately Deceive America About Iraq? Evelyn Pringle TeenScreen's Top Pusher Gary Corseri 25 Reasons to Impeach Bush Website of the Day Save This 200 Year Old Burr Oak from Bible Thumpers with Chainsaws   June 4 / 5, 2005 Alexander Cockburn France's Magnificent Non! James Petras The Centrality of Peasant Movements in Latin America Robert Fisk Who Killed Samir? Patrick Cockburn My Father, Claud Cockburn, the MI5 Suspect Rev. William Alberts When Pride in Power Corrupts: the Story of a Methodist President, His Bishops and an "Incompatible" Lesbian Minister Saul Landau 40 Interns and a Mule: Will the Dems Ever Take Advantage of the Republicans' Blunders? Mario Lamo Jimenez Dante with a Brush: Botero Immortalizes Bush Dave Lindorff What is the Media Running From? Lance Selfa Why Bush is Getting Away with Murder Tom Crumpacker On the Use of State Terrorism: the Posada Precedent Joshua Frank How Beltway Dems Sank Dean for America Fred Gardner Don't Bogart That Taxable Commodity Michael Dickinson Roll Out the Barrel: Blood, Oil and Baku Roger Martin We Can See, But Not Far Enough Reza Fiyouzat Welcome to the Third World Ben Tripp Romance: Advice from a Pro Graeme Greenback Pardon Me, While I Piss on this Bible Poets' Basement Smith-Ferri, Albert, Engel, Smith       June 3, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Welcome to a Has-Been Country Joseph Massad Witch Hunt at Columbia Jeff Halper The Process of Transfer Continues Tom Barry The Immigration Debate: Whose Side Are You On? Bruce K. Gagnon Bush Seeks Military Control of Space: "It's Our Destiny" Joshua Frank Bombing Iran: Facts Don't Matter Mickey Z. 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Weekend Edition June 18 / 19, 2005 Leave Iranian Politics to Iranians Fueling Mistrust Between Iran and the US By ROGER HOWARD Imagine your reaction if, during last November's presidential contest, the mullahs of Iran had suddenly launched a tirade of criticism against the American system of democracy and beamed their message onto our television sets and radios for all of us to hear: democracy in the United States, the mullahs might perhaps have claimed, is a corrupt process that is determined largely by the influence of the wealthiest donors, and a process that wholly fails to address the religious needs of a secular, materialist culture. Most ordinary Americans, it can be fairly said, would be outraged by the sanctimonious tone and intrusive nature of those who know nothing first-hand of what they condemn. They would probably deeply resent such comments as unwarranted and deeply unfair, and view the Iranian regime with even more mistrust, and perhaps loathing, than ever before. Now listen to some of the comments ventured by administration spokesmen about Iran's pending presidential elections, which are due to be held on Friday, June 17 th. The election, as State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 19, "will represent another setback for democracy because the political process and the media are controlled and manipulated by an unselected few." Such control and manipulation, he continued, inevitably frustrated President Bush's declared aim of sponsoring democratic reforms "from Damascus to Tehran" that would make the wider world a better and safer place. The strong criticisms of Iran's domestic politics that have been expressed by the President and his spokesmen are also being beamed into Iran more vigorously than ever before: since late last year the administration has granted millions of dollars to fund satellite television and radio stations that, from their studios in the United States, transmit often radical messages straight into the homes of ordinary Iranians. What's more, Washington is now actively funding political groups that, from their exiles, support the cause of democracy inside Iran. The real criticism of this highly sanctimonious tone is not that such comments are in any way unfounded. Iran's elections will be, as administration spokesmen claim, not far from a sham. The clerical regime has already barred more than 1,000 hopefuls from standing in the race in the same way that, in February last year, thousands of potential candidates in the parliamentary elections were similarly barred by hardliners who feared the reforms they championed. This week there is only one presidential candidate who is standing with an openly "reformist" agenda; Mustafa Moin, and his supporters have been subjected to a vicious campaign of harassment and intimidation by the regime's vigilantes-or thugs-who carry out its dirty work. The trouble with voicing such strong, brazen criticisms of another country's domestic politics is not that they are without foundation but that they fuel mutual mistrust and suspicion. Amongst ordinary Iranians they are more likely to irk, stirring resentment at foreign interference, in the same way as the mullah's imaginary tirade against our own ways. Amongst the leadership, however, they can only heighten fears that Washington is committed to regime change in Iran, perhaps with the same insidiousness that was once deployed against Mohammed Mossadeq, the Iranian prime minister who was toppled by the CIA in 1953. If Tehran's fears of American aggression are heightened even more, the prospect of some diplomatic rapprochement between the two countries, more than 25 years since they were broken off, inevitably becomes even more illusory. Not only that, the Iranians could start to take preventive measures against a possible U.S. assault, covert or otherwise, that would create a dangerous Catch-22 situation by convincing Washington that Tehran is determined to undermine American strategic interests in the Middle East. Imagine this scenario. Deeply alarmed by the sharp tone and heightened pitch of American criticism, Tehran secretly deploys more Revolutionary Guards into Iraq, hoping to build up close contact and cooperation amongst the Shia peoples who could take Iran's side in the event of an American assault. Detecting this deployment, however, Washington becomes even more certain that Iran lies at the heart of the Iraqi insurgency against the post-Saddam government, and orders a punitive raid against suspected militant hideouts right along the border with Iran. This is hardly a recipe for peace in the Middle East. It is more like the darkest days of the Cold War, when both East and West remained convinced of each others' bad intent only to find that the mistrust between them was creating, rather than just manifesting, the "threat" each other posed. How, then, can American politicians reconcile their interest in promoting democracy and freedom across the world with the need to defuse, not fuel, the dangerous state of mistrust between Iran and the United States? Instead of making more precise references to "democracy," "the barring of candidates," and "harassment," perhaps it would be less intrusive simply to implore the mullahs not to frustrate the will of the Iranian people. If we return to the imagined scenario with which we began, it would be hard to protest at the Iranian mullahs if they merely expressed a comparable wish to see a new president be fairly elected in the United States. Let the American people freely decide what's good for them, this message might more succinctly be saying, and leave Iranian politics to the Iranians. Roger Howard is a freelance journalist covering security and international affairs and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus. He is the author of Iran in Crisis (Zed Books, 2004).