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Today's
Stories
March 20 / 21, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Gay
Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path
March 19, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Zapatero
to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home
Ann Harrison
So
Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights?
William MacDougall
Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants"
Greg Moses
Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote
Cynthia McKinney
Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup,
Mr. Bush
Norman Solomon
Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future
John L. Hess
"Missing" Evidence and the NYTs
Vicente Navarro
The
End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend
Website of the War
Naming the Dead
March 18, 2004
Gila Svirsky
Rachel
Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency
Christopher Brauchli
Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million
from Saddam
William Kulin
Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing
Mike Whitney
Resistance: a Moral Imperative
Rep. Ron Paul
Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment
Josh Frank
The Nader Question
Jack Random
They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy
Greg Bates
What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey
Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes
Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain
Gary Leupp
The
Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost
Website of the Day
Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key
March 17, 2004
Marjorie Cohn
Spain, the EU and the US: War on
Terror or Civil Liberties?
David MacMichael
Untruth
and Consequences
Michael Donnelly
Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer
Tom Stephens
"Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware
Wayne Madsen
Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out
Karyn Strickler
Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections
Peter Linebaugh
Bush:
Blanc Blanc
March 16, 2004
Lenni Brenner
James
Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights
Scott Boehm
Madrid
Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days
Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History
Behind the Spanish Elections
Sam Hamod and Alfredo
Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way:
Executing David Clayton Hill
Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran
Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War
on Terror"
Bill Christison
The
Aftershocks from Madrid
CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa
Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!
March 15, 2004
Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe
Mike Whitney
Justice
Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism
Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation
Greg Moses
Lessons
from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs
Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health
Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL
in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer
CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!
March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
March 11, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Bedtime
for Democracy
Bill Kauffman
Hey,
Ralph! Why Not Another Party of the People?
James Hollander
Slaughter
in Madrid: Consolidating an Ally?
Norman Solomon
They
Shoot Journalists, Don't They?
Patrick Gavin
The Salvation of Dan Quayle: Family Values Return
Becky Burgwin
You're
Messing with the Wrong Generation
John Sugg
The FBI is on My Trail
March 10, 2004
Hammond Guthrie
Read
This Book!: "Who the Hell is Stew Albert?"
Chris Floyd
Operation Enduring Sweatshop: Another
Bush Brings Hell to Haiti
Elizabeth Corrie
Remembering the Death of Rachel Corrie
Mike Whitney
US Press Torpedoes Aristide
M. Junaid Alam
An Anti-Civilizational War?
Bob Feldman
The Occupation of Haiti: Recalling 1915-1934
John L. Hess
An Overload of Crises
Gary Leupp
On Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi and the Uses of al-Qaeda "Links"
March 9, 2004
Greg Weiher
The
Zarqawi Gambit, Part 2
Ben Tripp
Word Up! Let's Have a Conversation
Tom Barry
Neo-Cons Target Syria
Sharon Smith
The Hypocrites in the Catholic Church
Robert Fisk
The Same Old Iraq
Doug Giebel
The Bush Strategy: Laughing All the Way
Ralph Nader
Pension Rights, the Trail of Broken Promises
Daniel Estulin
In Memory of Ricardo Ortega: a Great Journalist, Killed in Haiti
Dave Lindorff
Martha Stewart's Cloudy Day
Saul Landau
Will the Filthy Rich Dump Bush?
Website of the Day
Imperial Armies in the Garden
March 8, 2004
Amy Goodman
An
Interview with Aristide
Eric Ruder
An Interview
with Robert Fatton on the Coup in Haiti
Robert Jensen
The Presidential Library Terrorist
Connection
Mike Whitney
Expel the US from the Security Council
Jason Leopold
How Cheney Helped Cover Up Pakistan's
Nuclear Proliferation
Mazin Qumsiyeh
Why is Apartheid Touted as a Solution?
Kevin Alexander Gray
The Legacy of Strom Thurmond
Derek Seidman
Radical Continuity: an Interview with Paul Buhle
Steve Perry
Kerry Fiddles While He Could be Burning Bush
Website of the Day
Patriot
Act Game
March 6 / 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Understanding the World with
Paul Sweezy
Robert Pollin
Remembering Paul Sweezy
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Politics of Timber Theft
Tom Reeves
Bush's Mass Deportations: 63,000 and Counting
Charles Lewis
Who Mugged Howard Dean in Iowa:
Kerry, Torricelli and a Mysterious Frontgroup
Tom Jackson
My Breakfast with Sen. Judd Gregg
Kurt Nimmo
Is Venezuela Next?
Alan Cisco
A Report from Caracas
Jack Random
Haitian Democracy be Damned
Colin Piquette
Oh, Canada: the Coup Coalition
Lee Sustar
Labor's State of Emergency
William D. Hartung
Iraq and the Costs of War
David Sally
Rebuilding
Amérique
Mark Scaramella
When God Mooned Moses: Test Your Bible Knowledge
Mickey Z.
What We Can Learn from Ashcroft's Gallbladder
Ron Jacobs
Politics and Baseball
Dave Zirin
The Longest Jump: the Blackballing of Phil Shinnick
Poets' Basement
John Holt and Larry Kearney
Website of the Weekend
National Day of Action for Rachel Corrie
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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Weekend
Edition
March 20 / 21, 2004
The Plot Against Syria
An
Irresponsible Accountability Act
By SAUL LANDAU and
FARRAH HASSEN
The United States has made a terrible error in
its Middle East policy. On December 12, 2003, with little fanfare,
George W. Bush signed the Syria Accountability (and Lebanese
Sovereignty Restoration) Act SAA -- which empowers the president
to place economic and diplomatic sanctions on Syria as punishment
for its policies of "harboring terrorists," "developing
weapons of mass destruction" and "occupying Lebanon."
Administration officials on March 5, 2004 confirmed of an "imminent"
announcement regarding what type of sanctions Bush would impose
and when.
Reminiscent of the Administration's earlier
campaign to invade Iraq, the charges have no factual basis. Indeed,
the Bush Administration did not even present evidence to Congress
about Syria's supposed accumulation of WMDs; nor did it support
the allegation accusing Damascus of occupying  Lebanon. The Administration did, however,
commit a sin of omission by not presenting documentation about
Syria's delivery to US authorities of valuable intelligence on
anti-American terrorists in the post 9/11 period.
Instead of rewarding Syria for cooperating,
Bush and Congress punished the Damascus regime with the SAA and
then deceitfully labeled the Act a tool to "strengthen the
ability of the United States to conduct an effective foreign
policy."
In fact, the SAA retarded the war against
terrorism by moving a strategically cooperative Damascus into
the realm of non-cooperative. This discreditable legislation
does, however, constitute a victory for Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon's Likud government and, indirectly, for the Al-Qaeda
gang that no longer has to worry about Syria delivering information
to Washington as to its plans and whereabouts.
Syrians use the Likud-Bush connection
to explain the declining state of US-Syrian relations following
the Iraq invasion. In a December 2003 interview, Syrian Minister
for Emigrant Affairs Dr. Bouthaina Shabaan called the Syria Accountability
Act "a new obstacle in the way of Syrian-American relations."
US Middle East policy "underestimates the intelligence of
people and their right to a better life," she said. "Arab
people see US policy in the region totally informed by Israeli
sources and what Sharon really wants to do."
By making Syria a pariah nation, Bush
has helped to realize a goal of current Israeli policy: to secure
US help in weakening its unfriendly neighbors. In addition, by
getting Congress to condemn Syria for alleged weapons development,
Israel refocused attention away from its own nuclear arsenal.
Indeed, Syria had tried to expose Israeli
nukes as the threat to regional stability. On December 29, 2003,
in a little publicized Security Council resolution, Syria called
for a Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone. Washington will
assuredly veto the resolution given its half century old "defend
Israel" posture.
Nonetheless, International Atomic Energy
Agency chief Mohamed el-Baredei saw "a lot of frustration
in the Middle East due to Israel sitting on nuclear weapons ...
while others in the Middle East are committed to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty."
Israel's nuclear capacity has provided
its government with the confidence to attack its weaker neighbor.
On October 5, 2003, Israel bombed an alleged Palestinian camp
near Damascus, an event that occurred the same day the US Congress
began deliberating the SAA. Minister Shabaan dismissed Israeli
charges that the base was being used to attack Israeli settlements
and noted that Washington's failure to condemn Israeli aggression
showed the "green light by the US government," as well
as Israel's demonstration of unchallenged military power in the
region. Instead of retaliating futilely against a more powerful
military, Syria took its case to the UN Security Council, where
the US blocked a resolution condemning the strike from reaching
the floor.
The Israeli and US governments won the
diplomatic and media battles. Syria enjoys little international
support--even less in the press. But the battle for Middle Eastern
hearts and minds proceeds less than splendidly for the Bush administration.
In July 2003, in a lush field in Bosra,
near the Jordan border renowned for its centuries old Roman ruins,
we met Syrian Bedouins carrying loads of cucumbers on their heads.
The women pickers talked of high numbers of Iraqi casualties
in the US-led war and showed surprisingly keen awareness of the
deteriorating political situation in the Middle East.
One middle aged woman showing off her
basket of freshly picked cukes called Bush "crazy."
Another decried him as anti-Arab. On the Damascus and Aleppo
streets and with academics and professionals alike, people reiterated
their disdain for US policies in the region. "How could
the United States align itself with a small country like Israel,
which has such peculiar and narrow interests in a region where
Americans have a major strategic stake?" asked an engineer
at a Damascus dinner party. "I know the American people,"
he said, "because I go to the United States to visit my
children in the university. Americans would not approve the policy
if only they knew how the Israeli lobby twists them."
A Catholic priest in Maloula, just outside
Damascus where villagers still speak Aramaic, called US policy
cruel. "Syrians sympathize with the plight of the Palestinians.
The US government has done a very foolish thing to follow the
lead of Israel."
More sophisticated policy analysts have
read Seymour Hersh's July 28, 2003 New Yorker article ("The
Syrian Bet"), which details Syria's unreciprocated cooperation
with US intelligence. In one instance, according to Hersh, "Syrians
learned that Al Qaeda had penetrated the security services of
Bahrain and had arranged for a glider loaded with explosives
to be flown into a building at the U.S. Navy's 5th fleet headquarters."
Former National Security Council staffer Flynt Leverett also
confirmed to Hersh that Syria "let us thwart an operation
that, if carried out, would have killed a lot of Americans."
US policy has also marginalized some
of the very people who stand for western democracy and free market
ideas. In July 2003, University of Damascus British-educated
Professor Amr-Al Azm conceded that Syria might need a shove to
unglue it from its decades-old status quo, but questioned the
value of invading Iraq or passing the Syrian Accountability Act.
Such measures, he opined, "distract attention away from
the need to reform."
Syria has little to lose economically
from the sanctions since annual trade with the US is less than
$300 million. But some entrepreneurs hope to free themselves
from the outdated state heavy economy and thus bemoan such policies
that vitiate progress toward opening the society and economy.
By focusing on the "terrorist-weapons"
issue, as he did in Iraq, Bush's rhetoric fits the neo-con scenario
for regime change throughout the Middle East. In 1996, leading
neo-cons Richard Perle and Douglas Feith had already projected
a policy that would allow Israel to shape "its strategic
environment...by weakening, containing, and even rolling back
Syria." In the report entitled, "A Clean Break: A New
Strategy for Securing the Realm," Perle and Feith argued
for the removal of "Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, an
important Israeli strategic objective in its own right, as a
means of foiling Syria's regional ambitions."
Those who smell the proverbial rat in
the push to "get Syria" will correctly look at AIPAC,
the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, as the source of
the stink. This so-called "Zionist lobby," lauded by
the New York Times as "the most powerful, best-run and effective
foreign policy interest group in Washington," pushed heavily
for the SAA.
Just as US Administration officials began
to recognize Syrian contributions in support of Bush's war on
terror, AIPAC undermined their statements in a July 31, 2002
Memo: "Syria Undermining America's War on Terrorism."
Syria worked with Hezbollah and Al Qaeda to "perpetrate
terrorist attacks," the memo falsely charged and was "reaching
out to Iraq and the other nations the president has said comprise
an axis of evil" and "stocking arms and developing
weapons of mass destruction that could be used against Israel
and other U.S. allies in the region"similar charges cited
in the congressional findings of the SAA.
A September 5, 2002 document, "Working
to Secure Israel: The Pro-Israel Community's Legislative Goals,"
later confirmed AIPAC's intention to "sanction Syria for
its continuing support of terrorism" by working "with
Congress to pass the Syria Accountability Act."
Sure enough, in November 2003, AIPAC
successfully convinced an overwhelming majority in Congress to
pass the <SAA.AIPAC> has a "remarkable system,"
said Paul Weyrich, head of the extreme right wing Free Congress
Foundation. "If you vote with them, or make a public statement
they like, they get the word out fast through their own publications
and through editors around the country who are sympathetic to
their cause...If you say something they don't like, you can be
denounced or censured through the same network. That kind of
pressure is bound to affect Senators' thinking, especially if
they are wavering or need support."
For decades the United States and Israel
have pursued parallel tracks in the Middle East. It is beyond
unhealthy to have these tracks converge into an identical policy
that serves the temporary goals of a right wing Israeli political
party, but has little to do with short, medium or long term US
interests in the region.
Saul Landau
is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. He teaches at
Cal Poly Pomona University. For Landau's writing in Spanish visit:
www.rprogreso.com.
His new book, PRE-EMPTIVE
EMPIRE: A GUIDE TO BUSH S KINGDOM, has just been published
by Pluto Press. His new film is Syria: Between Iraq and a Hard
Place, now available from the Cinema
Guild. He can be reached at: landau@counterpunch.org
Farrah Hassen
is a senior Political Science student at Cal Poly Pomona University
and was associate producer of the Syria film.
Weekend
Edition Features for March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
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