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Today's Stories September 4, 2007 Jean Bricmont Why Bush Can Get Away with Attacking Iran September 3, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Brits Flee from Basra Eamon McCann Qana, Derry: The Dead Lie in Familiar Shapes Joshua Frank The End of the Green Party? Chris Floyd Post-Mortem America: Bush's Year of Triumph Marjorie Cohn A Look at Bush's Iran War Plans Walter Brasch The News Drones: How Fake Photos Helped Lead the US to War in Iraq Matt Reichel Redefining the American Dream Website of the Day Don't Get Fooled Again   September 1 / 2, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Entrapment Snares Larry Craig Andy Worthington Britain's Guantánamo Saul Landau The Tragic Ordeal of the Cuban Five David Keen An Occident Waiting to Happen: Intellectuals and the War on Terror Patrick Cockburn The Collapse of Iraq's Health Care Services Diana Johnstone Back in Uncle Sam's Pocket George Longstreth, MD & Karen Longstreth, RN The Sorrows of Occupation: Life in the West Bank Linda M. Woolf A Sad Day for Psychologists--a Sadder Day for Human Rights Ralph Nader Wrapping the World with Advertising Fred Gardner The Trial of Mollie Fry, MD Ben Tripp Enquiry in America Today David Michael Green American Indigestion: Why Bush Governs from the Gut Missy Comley Beattie Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: What the GOP Hasn't Learned About Tolerance Michael Dickinson Who's Cheating: Remembering Princess Diana Paul Krassner Assholes of the Week: From Larry Craig to Wesley Clark Ron Jacobs A Sports Nation of Millions Poets' Basement Buknatski, Davies and Mickey Z   August 31, 2007 Jeff Gibbs Why I Am Not Going to the Protest Paul Craig Roberts The War Criminal in the Living Room Ray McGovern Do We Have the Courage to Stop War with Iran? Robert Weissman The Benchmarks Iraq is Missing Matt Vidal Subprime Lending and Shady Mortgages Robin Mittenthal The Biofuels Trap Chris Kutalik Auto Makers Push Health Care Trust Solution for Industry in Crisis Richard Forno Watching Freedom's Watch Binoy Kampmark Dianified Dave Zirin Kenneth Foster Lives Website of the Day Free the Jena 6   August 30, 2007 Gary Leupp Larry Craig on the Seat John Ross Dead Forest Defenders Anthony DiMaggio Arabic as a Terrorist Language: the Right-Wing Assault on the Gibran Academy Jordan Flaherty Racism and Criminal Justice in New Orleans Michael Donnelly The Sierra Club Greenwashes Al Gore (and Desecrates John Muir) Russell Mokhiber Whiskey is for Drinking, Water is for Fighting Dennis Brutus and Patrick Bond Global Financial Apartheid William S. Lind The Truth Tellers Martha Rosenberg They Call Him Dr. Cruel Jeff Leys / Brian Terrell Seasons of Discontent: a Presidential Occupation Project Website of the Day Bragg: "Old Clash Fan Fight Song" August 29, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Maliki and The Mass Shia Pilgrimage to Kerbala Winslow T. Wheeler The Costs of the Afghanistan War David Rosen The GOP's Outed All-Stars: The Forced Freeing of Gay Men from the Republican Closet Dave Zirin Confronting Katrina Paul Craig Roberts More Shame, More Sorrow Diane Farsetta Christie Todd Whitman's Nuclear Spinning Wheel Ben Davis Who Won't Stand Up for Kenneth Foster?: Charles Rangel, For One Alan Farago The Housing Crisis and the Environment Jenna Orkin Echoes of 9/11: Another Fire at Ground Zero Don Monkerud The Vanishing American Vacation Richard Nasser Surfing Gaza: More Uplifting News from NPR Website of the Day Don't Sleep on the Struggle   August 28, 2007 Uri Avnery The Language of Force Bill Quigley Katrina, Two Years Later Joshua Frank The Fight to Save the Rocky Mountains China Hand "I am Alden Pyle:" Bush's Vietnam Fantasy Firmin DeBrabander Drug Wars: From Afghanistan to Baltimore Charles Peña Nuclear Fear Factor Andy Worthington Good Riddance, Gonzales Ramzy Baroud Abbas and the Abyss Anthony Papa Roger Stone's New Patsy Ashley Smith Drawing the Line at Kennebunkport Website of the Day B is for Bomb August 27, 2007 Jorge Mariscal The General Reports Bill Christison Why the US and Israel Should Lose Middle East Wars Manuel Garcia, Jr. 911 Emergency! Calling Robert Fisk!: You are Now Entering a Black Hole Anthony DiMaggio Chronicle of a Coup Foretold?: Bush, al-Maliki and the Press Bruce A. Roth India and the New Nuclear Era John Walsh Abe Foxman's Genocide Denial Roadshow, Part 2 Dave Lindorff Gonzo's Gone Ron Jacobs Taking It to the Streets Binoy Kampmark Poshed Up: Why the Beckhams Should Go Back to Brighty Russell D. Hoffman My Favorite Scientist: John Gofman, Bane of the Nuclear Industry Website of the Day George W. Told the Nation   August 25 / 26, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Don't Carpool with Nouri al-Maliki James Petras The Great Financial Crisis Jeffrey Buchanan / Chris Kromm Where Did the Katrina Money Go? Marjorie Cohn Turning Iraq into Vietnam Rev. William E. Alberts Jesus, the Theological Prisoner of Christianity Robert Fantina Ari Fleischer, Freedom Watch and the Pro-War Lobbyists Brian Concannon Whitewashing the History of Abolition Ralph Nader What Do They Have to Hide? Laura Carlsen Extending NAFTA's Reach Fred Gardner Notes from Hempfest David Michael Green History, the Last Refuge of Scoundrels Stephen Soldz Why Mary Pipher Returned Her APA Award Mike Ferner Combatants for Peace: Former Enemies Find New Way Forward Paul Krassner Mort Sahl's Punchline Ben Tripp Resistance is Impossible--But Not Futile Missy Beattie President Druzilla Website of the Weekend Blue Print for Gulf Renewal   August 24, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts A Hegemonic Hubris Greg Moses A Cruel and Unusual Excuse William Schroder Bush, Vietnam and Iraq Alan Farago The Pain of Paper Millionaires Jackie Corr Uncle Ben Bernacke and the Nanny State Jeff Ballinger Naomi Klein and the Path Not Taken Bill Quigley Pere Jean-Juste Comes Home Dave Zirin Inching Toward Insanity Richard Rhames Deaver and the Making of Reagan Ryan Haygood How Newark Can Mend Website of the Day Lindorff's Iraq Rag   August 23, 2007 Kathy Kelly We Shouldn't be Causing This P. Sainath Meeting the Mahatma Ron Jacobs Bush, Vietnam and 14 More GIs Dead Christopher Brauchli Beyond Kafka: Mistakes, Soreheads and Eavesdropping D.K. Wilson When Sports Journalists Talk Race Joshua Frank The Weeds of Willapa Bay Dan Bacher Schwarzenegger's True Lies About Dams and Canals Brenda Norrell Bush's House of Snakes: Indians, Border Biometrics and Migrating Corporations John Wright The Ongoing Tragedy of Afghanistan David Vest Elvis and Racism, Round 2 Website of the Day Urgent Plea: the Black Agenda Report Needs Your Help!   August 22, 2007 Norman Finkelstein Remembering Raul Hilberg Marc Levy Sleepless in Iraq Lawrence R. Velvel When Courts Bow Down to Secrecy Ray McGovern Bush's Iran War Drums Beating Louder Norman Solomon How to Survive at the Pentagon on $2 Billion a Day John Walsh Abe Foxman's Genocide Denial Road Show Michael Dickinson Little Brother is Watching You William S. Lind Operation Kabuki?: the Credibility of David Petraeus Bill Hatch A Short Walk into the Valley of Death Kenneth E. Foster and John Joe Amador How We Will Protest Our Executions David Vest Predictable Parallels: CNN and PBS Website of the Day The Once and Future Steve Perry August 21, 2007 Saul Landau The FBI's New Power Alan Farago Sand Houses and Missing Beaches John Stauber Iraq: the Gift that Keeps on Bleeding Phillip Rizk Gaza and the Jordanian Option Debbie Nathan Giuliani's Garden District Binoy Kampmark The Art of Sinning Martha Rosenberg The Fastow Economy Sunsara Taylor Back to School During Wartime Website of the Day Coffee with the Troops   August 20, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Padilla Jury Opens Pandora's Box Uri Avnery Stumbling Toward Another War Rannie Amiri Nasrallah's Surprise: a Warning from Beirut's No Bluff Zone John Ross The Fine Art of Bad Elections Harvey Wasserman The Senate's Radioactive Rip-Off Robert Billyard Canada's Disgrace: the Cases of Maher Arar and Omar Khadr Dave Lindorff Excuse Us, Nancy Pelosi James Rothenberg Why Your Vote Will Never Matter David "DC" Larson To Smear a King Website of the Day Bird Cinema August 18 / 19, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Exit Karl Rove, Everyone's Useful Demon Saul Landau The FBI in War and Peace Ralph Nader Greed and Folly on Wall Street Patrick Cockburn A Bloody Week in Iraq Robert Fantina Cannon Fodder: Beau Biden and other "Deployable Assets" Robert S. Eshelman Azar's Story: an Iraqi Refugee Living in Syria P. Sainath The Last Battle of Laxmi Panda Dave Lindorff Tossing Fuel on a Fire: US Military Aid to Israel Anthony DiMaggio Iraq, Iran & the Vanishing Context in American News Fred Gardner The Politics of Schizophrenia Ron Jacobs The Virtues of Resistance Tom Turnipseed War Profiteering and Corruption: From Lexington, S.C. to the White House Paul Krassner Assholes of the Week: Special Preachers, Priests and Clerics Edition! Ben Tripp I'm So Screwed Andrew Wimmer Living With Grief Nancy Oden Where Inmates Can Grow for Free N.D. Jayaprakash India Backtracks on Disarmament Rick Smith Reflections on Cuba: an Interview with Doug Morris Missy Beattie The Suicide Bomber Poets' Basement Engel, Ford, Orloski and McLellan Website of the Weekend Imperial Storm Troopers in Action August 17, 2007 Joanne Mariner Terrorizing Social Protest Paul Craig Roberts China is not the Problem Shepherd Bliss Returning to the Scene of the Crime: Chile, 30 Years Later Dave Lindorff Convicting Padilla: Bad News for All Americans John Muthyala The Water and the Road: Katrina, Poverty and the American Dream Patrick Cockburn Deepening Divsions in Iraq Sherwood Ross Military Interrogators are Posing as Lawyers at Gitmo Phil Doe The Old West Moves East: the Political Science of Colorado River Water David Michael Green Karl Rove and the Damage Done Website of the Day Gorilla Slaughter: a Personal Account August 16, 2007 Jonathan Cook The Second Lebanon War, a Year Later Christopher Brauchli Babes in Toxic Toyland Norman Solomon Backspin for War Lee Sustar / Orlando Sepuldeva Victory on the Picket Line: How Immigrant Workers Won Their Strike Against Cygnus George Bisharat Boycott Movement Targets Israel Binoy Kampmark Tasteless: Gordon Ramsey and the Death of Gastronomy Evelyn Pringle Protection Racket?: the FDA and Avandia Hugo Blanco The Epic Struggle of Indigenous Andean / Amazonian Website of the Day Burning Man: the Field Recordings         Subscribe Online

September 4, 2007 The Continuing Saga of Steve Champion and Anthony Ross in the Wake of Tookie Williams' Execution Buried Alive on San Quentin's Death Row By TOM KERR When death row inmates are subjected to degrading and grossly unjust treatment, the rest of us ought to pay close attention, whether we subscribe to Mathew:40 or not: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Prisons officials are public officials, acting on our behalf, presumably for our benefit. If through our inattention or neglect we license prison officials to mistreat prisoners-some of the most helpless, abject souls among us-we license public officials to treat the public at large with contempt. In its broad outline, Steve and Anthony's story, which I first began to tell in January 2006 (see "Why are They Rounding Up Tookie Williams' Friends?"), is straightforward. A few days prior to William's execution on December 13, 2005, they along with several other inmates were rounded up and detained in the Adjustment Center, San Quentin death row's "hole," on charges they had conspired to retaliate against prison officials for their friend's execution. For the past twenty months, they have been held there in stark cells on property control and with no phone privileges. From day one, both men have vehemently denied involvement in any kind of conspiracy. Indeed, judging by their many and varied writings, both have long-since transcended their violent gang pasts, explicitly repudiating, as did their friend Tookie Williams, the sorts of values, beliefs, and behaviors that fuel gangs and destroy communities. Both men, however, are award-winning prison writers and outspoken critics of San Quentin and the prison industrial complex in general. And therein lies the rub. As I reprise their never-ending story, over a year and a half in now, the question of credibility looms large. Why should I, much less anyone else, believe two condemned men, two people who have nothing to lose by lying, and, perhaps, something to gain in the form of winning the sympathies of supporters and drawing the attention of prison critics. But the same kind of logic can be used to establish the credibility of our informants. Unlike many of us living "free," they have nothing to lose-jobs or social standing-by telling the bald truth. In a recent letter to me, Anthony Ross notes: "We have nothing to hide, which is more than I can say about them." As with any institution, the more corrupt a prison, the greater its stake in polishing its image, preserving it legitimacy, and squelching stories that subvert the official one it tells the public about itself. And near-absolute power, of the kind prison officials hold over death row inmates, can too easily, through all manner of manipulation, cripple the people who would tell subversive stories. If you think corporate whistler blowers take risks, imagine blowing the whistle from inside a death row prison cell. In becoming well-read, self-reflective thinkers and accomplished writers while in the hell of death row, these two men, like Tookie Williams himself, have symbolically defeated the system designed to dehumanize and, ultimately, to destroy them. Through their essays, stories, and poems, they have vehemently insisted on their humanity and steadfastly maintained their dignity. Such self-redemptive effort undermines the familiar and necessary assumption that men sentenced to death have, by their own conduct, forfeited their humanity-have become, as is often suggested, "animals." And we can kill animals, so the magical thinking goes, without becoming animals ourselves. If we can kill them with impunity, all the more reason we can mistreat them in the meantime. Who will care? Who will defend them? People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals? The human voices of Ross and Champion put the whole inhumane, barbaric American killing apparatus on trial, and such a reversal cannot stand. The darkly ironic truth revealed by Steve and Anthony's interminable ordeal is that San Quentin officials themselves are the ones conspiring to retaliate-against the late Tookie Williams and his friends! For what? For liberating themselves and for expressing their humanity in writing-while still in confinement on America's morally bankrupt death row. Of course, the ins and outs of the tale are complicated, involving false charges, time-devouring grievance procedures, published articles, various letters and documents, and lots of bone crushing time in the hole for Anthony and Steve. The opaque complexity of disciplinary procedures and appeals in prison is itself very often strategic, yet another way to punish inmates and confound transparency and accountability. Who on the outside can possibly stay abreast of internal prison proceedings? Who can possibly bear witness? On occasion, however, moments of clarity present themselves, and Anthony Ross has seized upon one of these as the occasion for the following article, which I quote below in its entirety. I received this article and a copy of the document Ross refers to (Form # CDC-128-B (4-74)) on August 28, 2007. Although I cannot reproduce the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) document here, I can attest to its prima facie authenticity and official form and format. Writing Under Fire: Resisting the Regime by Anthony Ross "Neither hegemony nor power can determine truth." -Prof. Molefi Kete Asante In May 2007, my brother Steve Champion and I co-authored an articled entitled "The Paradigm of Abuse: San Quentin's Adjustment Center Revisited," which was published in The San Francisco Bay View newspaper. In this article, we mention George Jackson to illustrate the stark similarities between the hostile environment of the Adjustment Center (AC) in 1971 and the hostile environment of the AC in 2007. This comparison was based on factual events and personal experience and is demonstrative of both eras. Now we have received a CDCR 128 Report that targets us for investigation into gang activity. According to the report, the basis for this is our use of the word "comrade" in relation to George Jackson. According to Agent T. De La Rosa, this constitutes gang sympathy or association, and anyone who uses the term "comrade" (a name descriptive of George Jackson) must be, ipso facto, a gang member. This notion of a priori culpability, whereby one's very philosophy, ideas, or character renders them criminal, suggests an insidious and racist mindset within the CDCR. Yet such flights of myopic thinking are common features of a system wherein humanity and justice have been supplanted by degrading abuse and repressive prison policies [see the Bay View article mentioned above]. I am reminded of the weeks and days leading up to the execution of our brother Stanley Tookie Williams. San Quentin Spokesman Vernell Crittenden went on a virulent smear campaign to paint Tookie as an active gang member, offering no proof and despite the fact that Tookie had been cleared of any gang association by the former Warden, Jennie S. Woodford. Then, of course, in his statement justifying his denial of clemency, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger argued that since Tookie had mentioned Malcolm X, Assata Shukur, George Jackson, and Geronimo Pratt in his book on prison life, Life in Prison, he could not have redeemed himself. This pattern of criminalizing and vilifying black leaders and personages is an old one. And some San Quentin officials are taking this practice a step farther by making the mere mention of a name a gang offense. This bizarre leap of flawed logic provides them with an erroneous catalyst for action against us. It sets in motion a malicious process that can disrupt our mail, personal property, visits, and trust account-indefinitely! There is a real and present danger here. This intentional misreading of language makes it possible to write up any prisoner who elects to use certain appellations in his writings, such as comrade, chairman, minister, brother, homeboy, etc. The retaliatory targeting of prison writers has a clear objective: to intimidate and discourage those voices willing to expose violations of basic human rights and degrading conditions in prison. If successful, this strategy becomes an unwritten policy for censorship and will eventually leave only one version, one interpretation, of life in the CDCR-that of the CDCR! It is worth noting that our Bay View article consisted of over 1,300 words, yet only three-"comrade George Jackson"-were plucked from their context and reinterpreted as something criminal or, worse, seditious. Agent T. De La Rosa's semantic alchemy defies the criteria for gang activity as defined in the CDCR rules and regulations, as well as the standard set forth in the 1994 case Castillo v. Alameida, Jr. [No. 94-2974], which establish specific guidelines for gang identification. The use of the word "comrade" is not included in either of these sources. It is a relatively easy matter to persecute us. There is no real redress here. The inmate appeal process is controlled by the very people who violate policy and abuse prisoners. Now, the intent is to silence truth. P.S. During a unit search on July 11, 2007, all of my writing paper was confiscated and all of Steve Champion's reference books were taken. We were never given a reason for this. We believe it was a blatant attempt to disrupt the writing projects we are currently working on. Since December 2005, we have been isolated in the Adjustment Center on the bogus allegation of conspiracy to assault staff in the wake of Stanley Tookie Williams' execution. We are in an on-going legal battle to fight this false charge and regain our dignity and the very modest "privileges" afforded to death row prisoners. To these ends, we are seeking legal assistance and/or monetary donations [see contact information at the end of this article]. When we consider how hard it is to confront the deceptions and lies of this country's leaders, including Bush, Cheney, Libby, Gonzales and others, we can only imagine the daunting challenge faced by death row prisoners confronting deceptions and lies perpetrated by their keepers. There are no meaningful checks and balances. And with the exception of some mainstream, highly sensationalized and largely pro-prison, media depictions of life inside our prison industrial complex, the system, as a whole and in its parts, remains a closed book-a black hole in a putatively open society. As their editor and long-time correspondent, I am convinced that Steve Champion and Anthony Ross, with no help from San Quentin, have in their twenty-five years on death row made themselves over. They have evolved from young, admittedly violent gang members into mature, thoughtful men who have reflected long and hard on their past lives and on their present circumstances as black men on death row in America. Although they might, like most of us, defend themselves if attacked, both have become strong advocates of non-violent remedies to personal and political problems. They have become writers who can tell the stories of their transformation and defend themselves against degrading treatment and excessively punitive prison policies, and for this they have been buried alive on death row. You can write either man to express your concern or offer support at these addresses: Anthony Ross, C-58000, San Quentin State Prison, San Quentin, CA 94964 Steve Champion, C-58001, San Quentin State Prison, San Quentin, CA 94964 Tom Kerr is Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric and Ithaca College. You can email him at tkerr@ithaca.edu. Your Ad Here

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