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Today's
Stories
December
12, 2007
Alan
Farago
How Sprawl Eats Its Young
December
11, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
What's Really Happened During
the Surge?
Diana
Johnstone
The Next Kosovo War
Paul
Craig Roberts
It's Waco All Over Again: Preventive Detention and the Constitution
David
Macaray
Impasse in Hollywood
Ralph
Nader
Gail Collins Versus the Underdogs
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo Britons to be Released: a Mixed Result
Martha
Rosenberg
No Holiday for High Risk Sex Workers
Steve
Champion /
Anthony Ross
Words for Our Brother, Tookie Williams
Kim
Nicolini
Tangled Up in Dylan
Michael
Dickinson
Say Goodbye to Purgatory: Pope Rat Gets Indulgent
Website
of the Day
A Charming (and Worthy)
Pitch
December 10, 2007
Uri
Avnery
How They Stole the Bomb From Us
Debbie
Nathan
The Perils of Journalism and Child
Porn
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Is There a Left Here Left?
If So, What Can It Do?
Steve
Kelly
Cheap Chips, Counterfeit Wilderness
Donna
J. Volatile
Welcome to the Revolution
December
8 / 9, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The Coup Against Bush and Cheney
Brenda
Norrell
Seize the Land, Chain the Peace Activists
Saul
Landau
The Ruins of Empire
R.
F. Blader
A Rape in Every Drink?
Ray
McGovern
Spinning Iran's Centrifuges
Allan
Nairn
Imposed Hunger in Gaza, the Army in
Indonesia
Linn
Washington, Jr
Spotlight on Death Row
Paul
Craig Roberts
When Will Bush Come Clean?
December
7, 2007
Sean
Penn
Piano Wire Puppeteers
Arthur
Versluis
Mining Water in the Desert
M.
G. Piety
Racism and the American Psyche: Some
Thoughts on Race and Intelligence
Pam
Martens
Banksters Gone Wild
Alan
Farago
Will the Free Market Kill Suburbia?
Sprawl and the Credit Crisis
Allan
Nairn
It Takes (Out) a Village
Col.
Dan Smith
Bush, Iran and the Politics of Doomsday
Alice
Slater
The Iran Opening
Robert
Weissman
The Story of Stuff
Website
of the Day
Something
About Mitt
December
5, 2007
Mike
Whitney
Why the CFR Hates Putin
Sharon
Smith
The Anti-War Enablers: Tom Hayden
and the Dead End Democrats
James
Petras
Venezuela in the Aftermath
Ron
Jacobs
The Iran Charade
Dave
Zirin
Kicking a Dead Man: the Sliming of Sean Taylor
John
V. Whitbeck
Two States or One? Time to Choose
Peter
Zinn
Covered in New Orleans
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Impeach Pelosi Instead
Alan
Farago
The Credit Bomb Detonates in Florida
Heather
Gray
US Meddling in Australian Politics
Website
of the Day
A Donner Summit Night Before Xmas
December
4, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Jackboot State Stubs Its Toe in
Ann Arbor
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo and the Supreme
Court
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Lies at the End of the American
Dream
Ray
McGovern
No-Nuke Iran
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Admiral Mullen and the Defense Budget: When White Elephants are
Too Small
Allan
Nairn
The Regime Still Stands in Burma, Where "the People Just
Want Food"
Russell
Mokhiber
The USA v. Al Arian
Nikolas
Kozloff
As Chávez Falters: Raising the Stakes for the South American
Left
John
V. Walsh
Peace Movement Paralyzed
Ghada
Ageel
Will Peace Cost Me My Home?
Stephen
Soldz
The Facts be Damned!: Psychologists' President Defends Psychologist
Involvement in Interrogations
Website
of the Day
Hands Off the People of Iran
December
3, 2007
Tariq
Ali
Venezuela After the Referendum
Bill
Quigley
New Orleans: Bulldozers for the Poor,
Tax Credits for Developers
Eric
Walberg
The Bible and Middle East History
Uri
Avnery
After Annapolis
Marjorie
Cohn
Operation Iraqi Freedom Exposed
Dave
Lindorff
Vengeance Isn't Sweet
Stephen
Fleischman
Homeless in Paradise
Martha
Rosenberg
Perp Walks for the Mink Clad on Chicago's Mag Mile
Website
of the Day
So Just Lead!
December
1 / 2, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Emblems of the Bush Age: Adrift
in a Sea of Booze
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Bear Minimum: the Grizzly and
the Future of the Rocky Mountain West
Mike
Whitney
"Iraq Doesn't Exist Anymore": an Interview with Nir
Rosen
Shemon
Salam
A Visit From the FBI
Roger
Burbach
The Battle in Bolivia
Benjamin
Dangl
New Politics in Old Bolivia
Brian
M. Downing
The Quiet on the Middle Eastern Front: How Much Credit Goes to
the Surge?
Greg
Moses
Night of the Living Redneck: a Texas Horror Story
Sonja
Karkar
The "Never-Never" Peace Conference
Saul
Landau
Ethics and Evil in South Boston
Margaret
Kimberley
Black America Left Behind
John
Ross
What are the Prospects for a New Mexican Revolution?
Reza
Fiyouzat
Exit on the Left: When Che's Children Visited Iran
Judith
Scherr
Berkeley Turns Right for the Holidays
Lance
Olsen
Of Forests and Finance: Logging for the Wealthy
Christopher
Brauchli
Mr. Bush and the Despots
Robert
Fantina
Iraq as U.S. Colony
Dan
Bacher
Fish Triage on Prospect Island
Michael
Donnelly
Remembering How to be Human: John Trudell and the Music of Urgency
Website
of the Weekend
Appalachian Voices
November
30, 2007
Peter
Stone Brown
The Re-Packaging of Bob Dylan
Wajahat
Ali
The Volatile Mistress: an Interview with Javed Jabbar, Pakistan's
Former Minister of Information
Allan
Nairn
Cold-Blooded Celebrity: Thomas L. Friedman and the Bali Bombers
Alan
Farago
The Sorrows of Suburbia: Politics, Sprawl and the Housing Crash
John
Ross
The Death of Latin America's First Revolution
Corporate
Crime Reporter
America's Corporate Crime Capitals
Lucia
Alvarez
Diego Gonzalez
Argentina's Political Future
James
Rothenberg
The Iraqi Miracle
Website
of the Day
Bio-Bling?
November
29, 2007
R.
F. Blader
The Most Dangerous Kind of Bribe
Ismael
Hossein-Zadeh
Distorting Fascism to Demonize Iran
Stephen
Soldz
War on the Couch: Fear, Aggression and Empire
Sheldon
Richman
Iraq 3.0
George
Wuerthner
Forest Fires, Lies and Chainsaws
Felice
Pace
Did All Things Considered Self-Censor on Annapolis?
Col.
Dan Smith
The Meaning of Annapolis
Harvey
Wasserman
Terror Target Nukes
Nikolas
Kozloff
Primetime Hate Debate: Lou Dobbs, Immigration and Campaign '08
Paul
Krassner
Huffington Post Bloggers Go On Strike!
Dave
Lindorff
News Not Fit to Print: US Coup Planned for Venezuela?
CP
News Service
The One State Declaration
Website
of the Day
A Native View of Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
November
28, 2007
James
Petras
CIA Destabilization Memo Surfaces
on Venezuela
Jeff
Halper
Annapolis: When the Roadmap is a One
Way Street
Pam
Martens
Crashing Citigroup
Peter
Morici
Economy in Crisis: Avoiding a Recession
Mohammed
Khatib
Separate and Unequal in Palestine
Helen
Redmond
The Horror and the Hope: Health Care in America
William
S. Lind
In the Fox's Lair: Quiet Before a New Iraq Storm?
Ben
Tripp
We, the People: a Trope for All Seasons
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Pakistan: First, Restore the Constitution and Reinstate the Judges
Jeff
Berg
Holbrooke Says Bush Won't Attack Iran
Website
of the Day
The Lies of Joe Klein
November
27, 2007
Joe
DeRaymond
On the Road to the Torture School
Paul
Craig Roberts
Meet the Only Two Candidates Worse Than Bush and Cheney: Hillary
and Rudy
Marjorie
Cohn
Remembering Victor Rabinowitz
Mike
Whitney
A Dollar the Size of a Postage Stamp
Ron
Jacobs
The Myths of Military Progress
Col.
Dan Smith
The Pentagon's "People System" Still Doesn't Work
Ralph
Nader
Family Learning
Karim
Makdisi
Annapolis and the Unholy Alliance: the View from Beirut
Christopher
Ketcham
Memo to Hollywood Writers: Strike Until You Drop
Ronan
Bennett
Martin Amis Does a Coulter
Website
of the Day
Celebrating the Uncensored Media
November
26, 2007
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Heading for Annapolis
Paul
Craig Roberts
The End of All That
David
Macaray
Enter Mediator
Sameer
Dossani
Pakistan's Wounded Dictator
Roger
Burbach
The Final Battle in Bolivia
Mark
Scaramella
Guns and Greed in the Emerald Empire
Brian
McKinlay
Howard's End
Rick
Kuhn
The Fall of a Racist Union Buster
Binoy
Kampmark
Ruddslide and Dull Alec
Monica
Benderman
What Do You Know of War?
Brenda
Norrell
Return to Alcatraz
Website
of the Day
Ghostworld by DJ Spooky
November
24 / 25, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The Ordeal of Catherine Wilkerson,
MD
Robert
Fisk
Darkness Falls on the Middle East
Saul
Landau
Norman Mailer will Not R.I.P.
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Justice Stephen Breyer, Cancer Bonds and the Origins of Neoliberal
Environmentalism
Rannie
Amiri
Beirut's Black Friday
Christopher
Brauchli
Iraq Embassy as Gilded Palace
Daniel
Gross
The Gap and Black Friday
Mike
Whitney
"A Generalized Meltdown of Financial Institutions"
Marjorie
Cohn
Iran and the 2008 Elections
David
Rosen
Senior Sex: the Real Sexual Life of Aging Americans
David
Michael Green
If Conservatism is the Ideology of Freedom ....
Kenneth
Rexroth
When Euripides Played the Hindu Kush: Greeks and Buddhists in
Afghanistan
Muhammad
Iqbal
Trans. Shahid Alam
Ghazal
Website
of the Day
Aerial Footage of Delta Fish Kill
November 23, 2007
Gary
Leupp
Killing the Buddha in Pakistan's Swat
Valley
Laura
Carlsen
Coming to Terms with Diversity in
Bolivia: an Interview with Alvaro Garcia, Bolivia's VP
David
Macaray
Keeping Labor Unions Out
Andy
Worthington
Former Guantánamo Detainee Seeks Asylum in Sweden
Clifton
Ross
Trashing Chavez: Keith Olberman's Toxic Rant
Seth
Sandronsky
Battling Sodexho
Dan
Bacher
Death in the Delta: Thousands of Fish Stranded by Bureau of Reclamation
William
A. Cook
The Myth of Middle East Peace
Website
of the Day
Waiting for the Guards: Stress Techniques as Torture, a Short
Film
November
22, 2007
Alan
Farago
Who Lost America's Everglades?
Greg
Moses
A Thanksgiving Basting
Dave
Lindorff
Impeachment is Back on the Table
Mike
Ely
Native Blood: the Myth pf Thanksgiving
Omar
Azfar
Gore for President of Pakistan?
November
21, 2007
Vijay
Prashad
Our Dictator, Their Democracy
Martha
Rosenberg
Undercover at a Turkey Slaughtering Plant
Manuel
Garcia, Jr.
Epiphany on the Glacier
John
Ross
The Last Days of Mexican Corn
Brian
McKenna
Cancer Terrorists Unmasked
Stephen
Soldz
Isolation Torture Routine at Guatánamo
Monica
Benderman
Needing Peace
Ben
Terrall
Slavery in the Fields: The Real Price of Sugar
Website
of the Day
Mercy for Animals
November
20, 2007
Oren
Ben-Dor
Why Israel Has No "Right to Exist"
as a Jewish State
Wajahat
Ali
An Interview with Norman Finkelstein
Alan
Farago
The Dark Arts and the Bush Dynasty
Marjorie
Cohn
Musharraf Plays Bush for a Fool
Ralph
Nader
Green is Gold?
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo Whistleblower Launches a New Attack on Rigged
Tribunals
Sara
Olson
When Going AWOL is the Only Escape
Dave
Lindorff
Likelihood of Iran Attack Gains Credence
Paul
Krassner
The First Amendment, a Dialogue
Website
of the Day
Joanne Mariner on Torture
November
19, 2007
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Why Congress Won't Reform
China
Hand
The U.S. Game Plan in Pakistan
Allan
Nairn
Sitting Around Talking, in Indonesia
Uri
Avnery
How to Get Out?
David
Macaray
The Chalice that Poisoned the Labor Movements
Dave
Lindorff
Democrats in Future Shock: They Could Lose It All in 2008!
Bill
Quigley
Twenty Thousand Protest at Ft. Benning; Eleven Face Federal Criminal
Trials
Ron
Jacobs
Sitting on the Group W Bench: War, Thanksgiving and Arlo Guthrie
Sunsara
Taylor
Legalized Rights for Fertilized Eggs?
Binoy
Kampmark
Why Steve Irwin--You're Dead!
Heather
Gray
Another Look at W.E.B. DuBois
Website
of the Day
The Meat Market
November
17 / 18, 2007
P.
Sainath
Neoliberalism's Price Tag: 150,000
Farm Suicides in India
David
Rosen
The Scarlet Hypocrites: Republicans,
Christians and the Politics of Adultery
Mike
Whitney
Pentagon Cover Up: 15,000 or More US Deaths in Iraq War?
George
Wuerthner
Saving the Big Wild
Brenda
Norrell
The Case of Jim Main, Jr: In Montana, Indians are Guilty Until
Proven Innocent
George
Ciccariello-Maher
Of Submarines and Loose Screws
Karim
Makdisi
Lebanon is Hanging by a Thread
Marie
Trigona
Wal-Mart in Argentina
Valerio
Volpi
The Catholic Church, Incorporated
Fred
Gardner
The Straight-Ahead Runner
Robert
Fantina
The White House Press Office
Mike
Ferner
Thank God for the Senate Republicans!
Missy
Comley Beattie
The Radical Majority
Kenneth
Couesbouc
Circles of Power
Patrick
O'Hayer
A Portrait of Mailer and a Young Poet
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Buknatski and Ford
November
16, 2007
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
The Vices of Hillary Clinton: Secrecy,
Intransigence and War
Dave
Zirin
The Indictment of Barry Bonds: Busted by a Broken System
Gary
D. Barnett
A Day in the Life of an Unwilling Federal Agent
Alan
Farago
Sprawl, Mortgage Fraud and Political Corruption
Dave
Lindorff
Two Brothers and Two Scandals
Russell
Mokhiber
Pelosi and Me: "What Should be Done with Those Protesters?"
Robert
Ovetz
Cargo Ships in Paradise: Shipping Lanes Threaten the Yosemite
of the Sea
Brenda
Norrell
"Today We Experienced America:" Arresting Indigenous
People on the Border
David
Swanson
Wolf Blitzer Loses Democratic Debate
Peter
Letheby
Outside the Box on the Great Plains
Website
of the Day
Why Activism Fails
November
15, 2007
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Hillary Clinton in Arkansas
Adolfo
Gilly
The Spirit of Revolt
Peter
Bohmer
10 Days That Shook Olympia
Andy
Worthington
The Trials of Omar Khadr: Gitmo's Child Soldier
Gray
/ Derks
Obama's Pitch to South Carolina's Black Churches Affronts Gay
Groups
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Liberating Pakistan
Dave
Lindorff
Where's the Party?
Christopher
Brauchli
Tipping Point: the Politics of Gossip
Anthony
Papa
Racism as Law: Crack Cocaine Sentences
Martha
Rosenberg
Merck's Big Write Off
Ben
Terrall
Thank You, Ehren Watada
Website
of the Day
On the Colorado: Drought, Climate Change and Water Supplies
November 14, 2007
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
The Making of Hillary Clinton
James
Petras
Venezuela Between Ballots and Bullets
Al
Giordano
Campaign 08: Don't Trust Anyone Over 50
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Lobby
Andy
Worthington
Innocents and Foot Soldiers
Stephen
Lendman
Torturing Palestinian Detainees
Fatima
Bhutto
Aunt Benazir's False Promises: the Dismantling of Pakistani Democracy
Martin
Smith
Norman Mailer and the "Good War"
Jeff
Leys
Slip Sliding Away: House Votes on War Funding
Website
of the Day
Why the Writers are Striking
November
13, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Hillary's Big Problem and How Bill
Can Fix It
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Mailer and Us: the Writer as Fighter
Robert
Bryce
The Pakistan Fuel Connection
David
Macaray
The Teamsters and the Hollywood Strike
Mike
Whitney
Bulletins from the Titanic
Ralph
Nader
Pakistani Lawyers vs. American Lawyers
Nikolas
Kozloff
Chavez Blasts the Spanish King
Jordan
Flaherty
Education Versus Incarceration in Tallulah, Louisiana
B.
R. Gowani
Dear Mrs. Bhutto
Website
of the Day
Monty Python: "Fuck You, Very Much FCC"
November
12, 2007
Vicente
Navarro
Why Hillary's Health Care Plan Really
Failed
Ben
Brown
Letter from Ho Chi Minh City: a Tribute to My Vietnam Vet Father
Omar
K.
A Pakistani Lawyer's Testimony: Life Under the Brutal Emergency
Sadia
Abbas
The Roots of Pakistan's Political Crisis: Corrupt Elites and
a Kleptocratic Military
Farzana
Versey
Mailer's Miasma
Richard
W. Behan
The Political Crimes of Complicity
Paul
Krassner
Asshole of the Year: Congratulations Tim Russert!
Cindy
Sheehan
Faith and War
Peter
Stone Brown
The Return of Levon Helm
Dave
Lindorff
Dennis, You are Not Alone
Website
of the Day
Police Attack in Olympia
November
10 / 11, 2007
Alain
Gresh
Uncle Sam's New Backyard: How to Turn
a Region into a Graveyard
Mike
Whitney
For Whom the Closing Bell Tolls: the Last Dead Bull on Wall Street
Ron
Jacobs
A View from the Pakistani Left: an Interview with Farooq Tariq
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The First Dambuster: a Coyote Story
Alan
Farago
Tangled Up in Blue: a Brief History of Florida Environmentalism
Binoy
Kampmark
When Language Drowns: Torture in America
Robert
Fantina
Legitimizing Torture
Fred
Gardner
Psychological Torture in the Name of Family Values
Ayesha
Ijaz Khan
The General in His Labyrinth
Nicola
Nasser
NATO's Southward Drift
Philip
Rizk
The Blame Game in Gaza
Michael
Dickinson
Condom Nation: the Pope vs. Terry Higgins
Joel
S. Hirschhorn
The Grand Delusion: a Conspiracy of Two Parties
Paul
Krassner
Flunking Out of the Electoral College
Wadner
Pierre /
Joe Emersberger
The Ongoing War on Journalists in Haiti
November
9, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
In the Kandil Mountains with the
PKK
Mohammed
Hanif
Musharraf and the Drunk Uncle
John
Ross
Blackwater Goes to Mexico
Mike
Whitney
Ron Paul, Big Media's Invisible Candidate
Tom
Barry
In Latin America, the Hillary Clinton Policy is the Bush Policy
Corporate
Crime Reporter
Is the AFL Trying to Derail Single Payer Health Care?
Badruddin
Khan
Pakistan and the Israel Lobby
David
Macaray
The WGA STrike: the Empire Strikes Back
Martha
Rosenberg
The Blood Sport of Vice Presidents
Website
of the Day
Stryker Blockade!
November
8, 2007
Kathleen
& Bill Christison
Meeting the Other in Israel and
Palestine
William
Loren Katz
Waterboarding in American History
Mike
Whitney
The Long Fall: a Market Without Parachutes
Sheldon
Richman
Why Woodstock May Have Saved John McCain's Life
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Solidarity with Pakistan's Lawyers
Marc
Gardner
The Victims of "Jessica's Law": Parolees Without Rights
(or Homes)
Jackie
Corr
The Big Fish from Whitefish: Montana, the Last Retreat of the
Investment Banker?
Brenda
Norrell
Between Bombs and Border Walls
Dave
Lindorff
Ridiculing Impeachment at the New York Times
China
Hand
Rewriting the History of the Sudan Calamity
Sen.
Russ Feingold
FISA and America's Basic Freedoms: Let's Not Repeat the Mistakes
of the Patriot Act
Website
of the Day
The Welfare Poets Meet Hugo Chavez
November
7, 2007
Paul
Craig Roberts
Dollar's Fall Collapses the American
Empire
Russell
Mokhiber
Pelosi and Me: Can't the Democrats End the War By Not Bringing
the Funding Bill to the Floor?
Vijay
Prashad
The Apotheosis of Bobby Jindal
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Educating Pakistan: What Mukasey Can Teach Musharraf
Alan
Farago
To Bee or Not to Bee? The Politics of Colony Collapse
David
Macaray
The Writers' Guild Strike: Is There an Ice-Breaker?
Nikolas
Kozloff
The Case of the Slimy Senator: Chuck Schumer Greenlights Mukasey
Charlotte
Laws
What We Learned from Stephen Colbert's Presidential Campaign
Daniel
White
Zahid's Story
William
Cook
The Politics of Servility: Congress and the Israel Lobby
Website
of the Day
Safe Lawns
November
6, 2007
Mike
Whitney
Welcome to Year 27 of the Reagan
Revolution
Ralph
Nader
Who Determines the Price of Oil?
Andy
Worthington
The Torture of Ali al-Marri
Pam
Martens
Wall Street Metes Out Street Justice to Citigroup
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Pakistan's Dark Future
William
Schroder
The Return of Water Torture
Stephen
Lendman
Punishing Gaza
William
Blum
Cuba and Original Sin
Former
US Intelligence Officers
A Memo on Torture, Intelligence and Mukasey
November
5, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
How I Spent the Eighth Brumaire
Russell
Mokhiber
Pelosi and Me: The Democrats and Single Payer
David
Macaray
How to Turn Workers Against Each Other (and Make Them All Poorer)
Gary
Leupp
General Musharaff's "State of Emergency"
Dave
Lindorff
Those Minot Nukes
Ludwig
Watzal
Israel's Dilemma in Palestine
Patrick
Cockburn
Tensions Ease in Iraqi Kurdistan
Peter
Stone Brown
John Fogerty Makes Peace with His Past
Michael
Simmons
Yo! What Happened to Peace?
Website
of the Day
Petition: In Defense of the Morton West HS Antiwar Students
November
3 / 4, 2007
Tariq
Ali
Pakistan Sinks Deeper into Night
David
Price
Army's Price Salesman of Counterinsurgency
Manual Seeks to Defend Stolen Scholarship
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Splitsville
Alan
Farago
The Housing Crash, Suburban Sprawl and the Crisis of the American
Middle Class
Paul
Krassner
He's Back! Don Imus Meets Michael Richards
Rannie
Amiri
Why the U.S. is Safeguarding Iraq's War Criminals
P.
Sainath
Indexing Humanity, Indian Style
Ayesha
Ijaza Khan
Pakistan in a Daze
Robert
Fantina
Is the Bush Administration Talking Itself Into a War With Iran?
Seth
Sandronsky
The Politics of Health Care in California
Ron
Jacobs
The Bebop of Baraka
Ramzy
Baroud
A Case for Arab Dignity
Heather
Gray
When Capitalists Get a Free Ride
November
2, 2007
Dr.
Mary Pipher
Acting on Conscience: Psychologists
and Abusive Interrogations
Saul
Landau
How Pete Stark Became a Pariah
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo as House Arrest
Sharon
Smith
A Tale of Two Stadiums
Gary
Leupp
Fascist Beatifications: the History and Politics of Sainthood
Gregory
Harms
The Chorus of Slander on Palestine
Christopher
Brauchli
Racism in High Places
Peter
Morici
The Falling Dollar and the Stubborn Trade Deficit
Dave
Lindorff
The Easy Way to Stop the Looming US Attack on Iran
David
Penner
Zombie Nation
Website
of the Day
Fall in Yosemite
November
1, 2007
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Wages of Hegemony
Patrick
Cockburn
The Most Dangerous Dam in the World
Dave
Lindorff
The Air Force Report on the Minot-Barksdale Nuclear Missile Flight
Jonathan
Feldman
The Strange Political Economy of Death in the South
Mike
Ferner
They Met the Resistance in Iraq
William
S. Lind
A Question for Would-Be Presidents
Diana
Johnstone
"Fascislamism" Versus "Shoah Business"
Jacob
Hornberger
The War on Telephone Privacy
A..K.
Gupta
The Apocalypse will be Televised
Lyuba
Zarsky /
Kevin Gallagher
The Enclave Economy of Mexico's Silicon Valley
Felice
Pace
Does the SPLC Equate Anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism?
Website
of the Day
This One's for You, Ed Abbey
October
31, 2007
Bill
Quigley
New Orleans' Broken Criminal Justice
System
Rev.
William E. Alberts
A Trail of American Blood: From the White House to CBS News
Ray
McGovern
Attacking Iran for Israel
Eric
Walberg
Poisonous Espionage: Litvinenko and the New Cold War
V.
G. Smith
The Second Death of Guy Môquet
Luis
J. Rodriguez
"Social Cleansing" from Guatemala to LA
Sheldon
Richman
Bush has Time to Run the World
Walter
Brasch
A Real Halloween Scare
Website
of the Day
Boogie Rocks!
October 30, 2007
David
Price
Pilfered Scholarship Devastates Gen.
Petraeus's Counterinsurgency Manual
M.
Shahid Alam
The Pakistan Question
Andy
Worthington
The Epiphany of Matthew Waxman: a Government Insider Turns Against
Gitmo
Patrick
Cockburn
The Bicycle Bomber of Baquba
Anthony
Papa
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Floyd
Rudmin
What "All Options are on the Table" Really Means
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Ross
Giuliani and Torture
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of the Day
The Worst Lobby? You Decide
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29, 2007
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Hajjar
Inside Israel's Military Courts
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DeRaymond
The Politics of Lethal Injections
Patrick
Cockburn
The High Stakes in Iraqi Kurdistan
Isabella
Kenfield /
Roger Burbach
Corporate Murder in Brazil
Fred
Gardner
The Frivolous Investigation of Dr. Sterner
Farzana
Versey
Caricaturing Islam
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Fleischman
The Greening of the Oligarchy
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Cendrars
The Congressional Rip Cord
Eamonn
McCann
Dan Keating, the Last of the Republican Irreconcilables
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Rosenberg
For Halloween, Ann Coulter Dresses as .... Ann Coulter!
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Campaign 2008
October
27 / 28, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
So Much for Islamo-Fascism Awareness
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Dam That Isn't There
James
Bovard
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Nader
Beyond the Rule of Law
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Reza Pirbhai
The Wahhabis are Coming, the Wahhabis are Coming!
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Sandels
Pay the Invaders! Cuba, Claims and Confiscations
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G. Hornberger
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Beattie
The Arsonists in the West Wing
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Ross
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Fantina
Condi Rice, the Imperial Cheerleader
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Jacobs
Labor at the Crossroads
Ali
Moayedian
In Search of Logic About Iran
David
Michael Green
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Basement
Block, Davies and Ford
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26, 2007
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Landau
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Whitney
Murdoch's Cuckoo's Nest
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Lindorff
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Farago
A Castro Behind Every Bush
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Pete, Nancy, George and WW III
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December
12, 2007
Why an Australian
Bank Might Spell Doom for the American Farm Belt
The
Raid on Great Western
By EVAN JONES
The privately held Great Western Bancorporation
has just been bought by the National Australia Bank for $798
million. Great Western, chartered in 1907, is a successful byproduct
of American populism. The NAB is a successful byproduct of Australian
corporatism.
With head office in South Dakota,
Great Western's 100 branches span Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri,
and a foothold in Arizona. Last financial year GWB earned $35
million net profit on a deposit-based $2.6 billion loan book
(83% of which is business lending including 11% agricultural),
with $3.4 billion gross assets and net equity of $223 million.
GWB appears to be a smartly and conservatively managed institution.
To September 2007 NAB delivered
A$4.6 billion (approx. $4 billion) net profit on a A$395 billion
loan book and A$565 billion gross assets with net equity just
under A$30 billion. The NAB is the largest of the four deposit-taking
commercial banks that dominate Australia's financial sector.
A relative giant is taking over a minnow.
The NAB is Australia's largest
agribusiness lender (A$41 billion) and the largest lender to
'small and medium enterprises'. GWB is community-oriented, and
NAB also spends on community activities. Is NAB a suitable parent?
The NAB is a complex beast.
The profit mass indicates that the bank must be doing something
right. But the bank has its thick dark side. The NAB has been
a persistent exemplar of managerial incompetence and malpractice.
Do GWB management and customers know what is in store? Some examples:
Systems management
In 1996, NAB entered into a
contract with Idoport to purchase the latter's AUSMAQ software
and associated management to streamline managed funds administration.
The relationship soon soured dramatically, and Idoport principal
John Maconochie sued NAB for breach of consultancy and technology
contracts.
The case still simmers, with
NAB having run up an estimated A$80+ million in litigation costs.
In 1997, NAB bought a US mortgage
processor called HomeSide. The presumption was that HomeSide's
technology would provide a common platform across the bank's
global operations and savings in home mortgage offerings. NAB
was finessed by its vendor, as goodwill constituted 65% of the
$1.7 billion purchase price. HomeSide was an early securitizor.
But the model was both complex and fragile, and the value of
the 'mortgage servicing rights' package underpinning block securitization
varied dramatically with interest rate changes, supposed to be
offset by sophisticated hedging. Losses escalated in the early
2000s. HomeSide operated from Florida (on the highest salaries
in the entire company) without internal risk management procedures
and without oversight from Australia. Homeside was eventually
sold by late 2002, with NAB running up over A$3.6 billion in
losses. Curiously, the financial brokers that took NAB into this
fiasco, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, are the advisors on the
current takeover of GWB.
In 1999, NAB bought SAP software
off the shelf with the aim of integrating the myriad personnel
and ledger systems operating domestically and across its acquired
overseas subsidiaries. The 'integrated systems implementation'
process was an expensive fiasco, with multiple external consultants
benefiting without delivering, and write-offs of at least A$400
million.
Lending
control
In the late 1990s, NAB lent
a certain Tony Mokbel A$5.7 million to pursue various business
interests. The suburban Melbourne bank manager's credit reports
described Mokbel thus: 'Visionary Mokbel's integrity is beyond
reproach Business associates hold Mokbel in the highest esteem'.
Part of the credit involved unauthorized overdrafts and an unsecured
loan. Mokbel was arrested in 2001 on drugs charges and his assets
frozen, prompting NAB to review its credit evaluation. Mokbel,
described by the media as 'the state's most prolific amphetamines
manufacturer', fled Australia and is currently fighting extradition
from Greece.
Anthony and Peter King ran
a successful bus company in regional New South Wales. In 2000,
NAB finalized a total loan of A$100 million to the King's company
by signing off on A$44 million for the purchase and leaseback
of 140 buses. The problem was that the Kings didn't own the buses
but NAB managers didn't check the proffered documentation. The
business collapsed in 2002, and NAB has spent the succeeding
five years chasing the King brothers via expensive litigation
to overcome its managers' laxity.
Employee
fraud
To feed a 'comfort shopping'
addiction following a failed marriage, NAB employee Catherine
Asley stole $1,126,000 from her suburban Melbourne branch from
1994 over four years and covered it up by creating false accounts.
Keith Benning, business banking manager at regional Kilmore,
Victoria, stole A$5.7 million over four years from 1998 to feed
a gambling addiction. Employee fraud is a perennial dilemma in
banking, but four years is a gracious period to feed one's habit.
During 2007, suburban Melbourne business banking manager Akshay
Batra had gradually misappropriated A$22 million, directed into
false loans and channeled through a migration agent associate.
The loans were used to purchase government bonds by which potential
(Indian) migrants would beef up their reported capital assets
to enhance prospects of a successful migration application. NAB
is currently pursuing Batra in the courts, but immigration authorities
have accused NAB of delaying notification of the fraud and thus
impeding detection.
Institutional
fraud, deception and laxity
NAB's Irish subsidiary, National
Irish Bank, was discovered in 1998 to have been evading taxation
and overcharging its customers, via deceptive accounting practices,
for at least the previous ten years. A six year investigation
by the Irish regulatory authority brought down a condemnatory
report in July 2004. The authority's Director noted 'the report
is deeply disturbing in revealing the extent to which illegality
and bad practice was tolerated (and to some extent encouraged)
within the organisation between 1988 and 1998'. Tax evasion was
then widespread in Irish banks, but the NIB had institutionalized
shonky procedures.
The authority's report faults
the bank's culture: 'The branch network was target-driven but
limited support by way of systems of training to enable the achievement
of these targets. Managers felt under pressure to meet these
targets, in the setting of which they had negligible participation
and which many considered unreasonable; they feared criticism
and possible humiliation before their fellow mangers if they
did not meet the targets set'. NAB countered with a report from
the now discredited and defunct Arthur Anderson, and sued the
public broadcaster for libel, but lost the battle. NAB incurred
costs of $110 million in tax payments and customer remissions.
Over 2002-03, NAB's dealing
room traders bet heavily that the Australian and New Zealand
dollars' rise against the US dollar would run out of steam. The
rise continued, losses mounted, and the traders sought to cover
their losses with fictitious trades. Stop-loss safeguards (capitalizing
to-date losses) were ignored.
Key traders had been brought
over as a bloc from another bank but standard recruitment processes
were bypassed and their reputation for aggressive trading was
ignored. There was no independent back office to monitor trades
(a comparable failing destroyed the famous British merchant bank
Barings). Losses were belatedly estimated at A$360 million. When
the fraud was exposed, senior management attempted to minimize
its significance. At least in this case, both the Chief Executive
Officer and the Board Chairman ultimately fell on their swords
and were replaced.
NAB owned a subsidiary in Northern
Ireland called Northern Bank. In December 2004, a raid on central
Belfast branch netted A$67 million in bank notes. The raid involved
the raiders being admitted to the bank's vaults while the families
of senior staff were held as ransom. Northern Bank was in the
process of being sold to a Danish bank. The serendipitous capital
gain from sale provided an upbeat background for the NAB's claim
that the loss from the robbery was inconsequential.
NAB owns two northern British
banks, Clydesdale and Yorkshire. In 2005 Ann Davies was lured
to NAB Europe from Price Waterhouse Coopers to assist in post-Enron
compliance procedures. Within a year she had been sacked for
'behavioral' reasons. Ms Davies fault was to have discovered
a discrepancy of £178 million in ledger transfers between
the two subsidiaries. Although initially offered full support
by senior management, within a month she was removed from the
investigation. When she continued to discover further discrepancies
incidentally, she was sacked on the spot.
NAB's reporting of financials
for 2006-07 neglected to account for off-balance sheet exposure.
Pressure from an unknown source had NAB belatedly issuing an
announcement via the Australian Stock Exchange on 15 November.
Total off-balance sheet exposures at September 2007 were almost
A$33 billion. NAB net equity is under A$30 billion. This announcement
is not available on NAB's own website.
Small business
depredation
NAB malfeasance against small
business borrowers keeps appearing, mostly under the radar but
occasionally given publicity. Two dramatic examples follow.
In 1984 A semi-retired couple,
Ned and Joy Somerset, moved to provincial Queensland after a
lifetime of successful broadacre farming. They were talked into
purchasing a strawberry farm by the local NAB manager. The property
was a total lemon; the then owner faced impending foreclosure
but he was a friend of the manager. The manager misrepresented
the fecundity of the property to the Somersets. He also revalued
the property three times, from A$210,000 to A$575,000, presumably
to achieve a loan to valuation ratio that fitted within his Delegated
Lending Authority, thus escaping the necessity to submit the
proposal to higher management for scrutiny.
The Somersets duly purchased
the property, partially funded by an NAB loan, and were bust
within a year. In the subsequent court case, NAB chose to protect
rather than expose its corrupt manager. The court was presented
with falsified documents and false statements by bank staff,
but the Queensland Supreme Court judge found bank staff to be
more reliable witnesses. The Somersets went to NAB with net assets
of A$700,000 and were left penniless. They now live in rented
accommodation on a veterans' pension.
Sante and Rita Troiani came
to Australia as penniless Italian migrants in 1956. By the 1980s
the Troianis were in possession of substantial property, of which
the centerpiece was Wide Bay Brickworks in provincial Bundaberg,
Queensland, with Sante as dominant owner and manager. Troiani
was an innovator and had a keen eye for quality local materials.
Business was booming and he was exporting to the region. In 1993,
NAB assiduously sought his business, at the same time finessing
him with receipt of a national ethnic business award.
Troiani eventually moved his
business to NAB in late 1993, but not before being given assurance
that NAB had no relations with Boral. Boral was WBB's giant building
supplies competitor, but also monopoly supplier of gas to WBB's
kilns, gas of perennial contaminated quality that impeded WBB's
brick production. It turns out that NAB and Boral had directors
in common. Troiani was introduced to a person described as a
Boral representative when he attended the opening of Boral's
gas supply depot in Gladstone in 1984. In a 1987 mediation over
gas quality in the Queensland Premier's office, after which Boral
admitted fault, the same individual was again present as a 'Boral
representative'. The individual in question was NAB's then Credit
Bureau General Manager and shortly to become NAB's CEO.
One can infer from bank documents,
released (after being jumbled) by the receivers to Troiani post
bankruptcy, that NAB had set out almost immediately to divest
the Troianis of their considerable assets and of WBB itself.
Troiani was a good craftsman but left the accounts and financials
to others. What has the hallmarks of a sting operation could
only have been achieved with the assistance of some WBB insiders,
with Troiani's signature being forged on some documentation.
Troiani was foreclosed in 1998 and bankrupted in 2002. Assets
worth well over A$50 million were appropriated, and the Troianis
left penniless. Sante, in his mid-70s, died of a stroke in October,
product of long hours growing flowers to put food on the table.
Troiani publicly accused NAB
of colluding with Boral to destroy his business, first via speeches
by a Queensland State Parliamentarian in November 2005, the substance
reproduced in the Member's local paper, the Fraser Coast Chronicle;
second in a television network current affairs program, Channel
7's Today Tonight, in various States in April 2006 and January
2007. NAB chose to privately harass both media outlets, but the
claim remains in the public domain.
* *
*
Financial deregulation in Australia
in the early 1980s saw the strand of caution in banking culture
jettisoned. The dash for market share was coupled with the slashing
and unstable placement of front-line lending staff. The small
business lending model becomes one of 'easy in' at the front
end with any problems that arise to be sorted out at the back
end at the borrower's expense, with foreclosure as a key option.
What matters is the securing of the borrower's assets, especially
the family home or, in the case of farmers, the entire property.
As the largest small business
lender in Australia, NAB has exhibited a cavalier streak. Over
1999-2001, in the context of a sugar industry crisis and dairy
deregulation, NAB put a swathe through Queensland farmer borrowers.
A Legal Aid advisor, charged with the job of moving traumatized
farmers onto public welfare, was queried by one NAB agent 'Why
do you bother yourself with this rabble?, or words to that effect.
In 2002, NAB put a heavy-handed swathe through its small business
loan book on the grounds that 9/11 was likely to induce a global
recession!
NAB's often brutal foreclosure
of small business and family farmers has been facilitated by
a permissive Australian culture - a bought legal fraternity,
bought receiver/manager and valuer sectors, a compliant judiciary
and a fragmented and lax regulatory environment.
Market analyst pressure on
the banking sector's cost/income ratios has hit lending office
staffing, but hasn't touched the fat elsewhere. NAB has one of
the largest public relations outfits of any Australian company,
devoted to countering adverse publicity while fostering an image
of the soulful corporation at large. NAB sponsored the 2006 Commonwealth
Games in Melbourne. It sponsors the National Press Club. It sponsors
Professorial Chairs of Banking/Finance and other bodies at prestigious
universities. Moreover, NAB has 100 in-house lawyers, the largest
contingent of any Australian company (an honour shared with the
Commonwealth Bank of Australia), dwarfing even the mining behemoth
BHP Billiton with 30 in-house lawyers.
Public relations and litigation
are NAB's comparative advantage. And the basic skills? In the
Investor Presentation document on 29 November for the GWB takeover,
NAB claims 'relationship management expertise' on small business
banking capability and systems. NAB contrasts GWB's 'basic regulatory
and risk management processes, reflecting community bank' with
its own 'advanced regulatory and risk management capability'.
How do these claims mesh with the accumulated evidence outlined
above?
The NAB takeover of Great Western
as a great leap forward? On the contrary, the US farm belt needs
the National Australia Bank like it needs a hole in the head.
Evan Jones is a retired political economist at
Sydney University. He can be reached at: e.jones@usyd.edu.au
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