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Today's
Stories
October 18,
2004
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
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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October 18, 2004
"Support
Our Mercenaries"
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
By
SAUL LANDAU
Instead of "sifting and winnowing
by which alone the truth may be found," much of the media
repeats distortions that flow from the mouths of Administration
officials. Bush, the worst President in US history I apologize
to Ulysses Grant, James Buchanan and Warren Harding detractors
--must gloat when his proclamations make headlines. Editors don't
subject his continuing claims that Saddam Hussein threatened
US security for example, to the same criteria of accuracy, consistency
or clear definition that they do for "non-authorities."
Indeed, the media routinely repeats lies generated by the White
House.
For example, The New York Times, "the paper of record"
printed an op-ed (September 26) by Mahdi Obeidi in which the
former Iraqi nuclear scientist repeats a Bush Administration
myth. "By 1998, when Saddam Hussein evicted the [UN] weapons
inspectors from Iraq"
Was the Times fact checker on vacation? Had amnesia set
in at the op-ed section? A ten second Google search would have
shown that the Times ran a story on December 18, 1998,
which stated that "the most recent irritant was [UN Weapons
Inspection Chief] Mr. Butler's quick withdrawal from Iraq on
Wednesday of all his inspectors and those of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iraqi nuclear programs,
without Security Council permission. Mr. Butler acted after a
telephone call from Peter Burleigh, the American representative
to the United Nations, and a discussion with Secretary General
Kofi Annan, who had also spoken to Mr. Burleigh."
On February 2, 2000 the Times corrected its own previous
front-page story on Iraq "that misstated the circumstances
under which international weapons inspectors left that country
before American and British air strikes in December 1998. While
Iraq had ceased cooperating with the inspectors, it did not expel
them. The United Nations withdrew them before the air strikes
began."
In other words, the Times like all other major news sources
reported the true story and then ignored it and began to echo
Bush's lie. Yes, that the United States asked the UN to withdraw
the weapons team, which it did. Saddam did not kick
them out. Yet, on August 3, 2002, less than four years later,
as Bush beat the war drums, the Times editorialized that
"America's goal should be to ensure that Iraq is disarmed
of all unconventional weapons.... To thwart this goal, Baghdad
expelled United Nations arms inspectors four years ago."
Did repeating the lie that Saddam kicked out the inspectors have
the super Goebbels effect: not only does the public believe it,
but it convince the Times' editors as well? Bush and Dick
Cheney continue to repeat this myth and other Bushies like Bill
"The Gambler" Bennett highlights it while defending
the invasion of Iraq.
The august press screamed over Dan Rather's use of "forged"
documents (60 Minutes, September 8) concerning Bush's
National Guard record. But it has not insisted that Cheney find
the forger of the paper alleging that Saddam Hussein tried to
buy yellowcake uranium from Niger one of Bush's now discredited
claims that led him to invade Iraq. Nor does the media demand
that Cheney reveal who faked the document he refers to in his
claim that Saddam had tight links to Al-Qaeda, which 9/11 Commission
investigators found to be concocted. Indeed, Cheney travels the
country repeating these prevarications. Perhaps Defense Secretary
Rumsfeld will claim that someone faked the 1983 photo of him
shaking hands with Saddam Hussein?
Without mass media to inform the public that the President and
Vice President routinely lie, the "rally round the flag"
gang that the Bushies promote has grown to sickening proportions.
"Support Our Troops" bumper stickers proliferate. But
do the carriers of these red, white and blue decals define soldiers
of fortune as troops?
Under Bush, the privatized military sector has grown and salaries
for these mercenaries the old fashioned word for them --
have risen. So, I conclude that Bush includes mercenaries as
troops. And, according to the June 14, 2004 Washington Post,
the US government has engaged between 20,000 and 30,000 "contractors"
in Iraq, more than four army divisions.
These hired guns and administrators govern Iraqi daily life and
sometimes torture and kill Iraqis. This behavior pays up to $200,000
a year in the case of retired generals, who now head these
semi-covert profit operations. Financing for this "how to
become a millionaire in Iraq" scheme comes from secret CIA
and DOD budgets, paid for by ignorant taxpayers.
A Pentagon report accused two of these "troops" of
illegally abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. Steven
Stephanowicz of Arlington Virginia's "CACI International,"
and John B. Israel of San Diego's "Titan Corp." have
not faced criminal charges as some of the regular "troops"
have for torturing prisoners.
Jonathan Turley (LA Times September 16, 2004) describes MPRI
as yet another contracting company with "dozens of former
generals and 10,000 former soldiers in the field, including many
former members of the Special Forces." Such contractors
have fielded armies in Croatia and Bosnia, where they were "linked
to abuses ranging from ethnic cleansing to the trafficking of
sex slaves."
Privatizing war circumvents congressional limits. Congress authorized
only 20,000 troops for Bosnia. So, the Pentagon contracted with
private mercenary companies to get an additional 2,000.
These higher-paid troops face similar dangers to those confronted
by reservists or volunteers. Indeed, more than 120 have died
in Iraq since May 2003, when Bush "accomplished his mission."
Mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan have like some other
troops -- also tortured and murdered. On September 15 Afghan
judges sentenced three members of one private army to 8 to 10
years in prison for running a private jail and torturing prisoners.
They claimed they worked for a Pentagon counterterrorist group
led by Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, the deputy undersecretary
of defense for intelligence, who last October called Bush's wars
a clash between Christianity and Islam. Muslims, according to
Boykin worship an idol, not a ''real God.''
Jonathan K. Idema, 48, a former Special Forces operative, provided
journalists with taped conversations to show that the convicted
men had at least General Boykin's acknowledgement of if
not blessing for -- their actions. Videos taken in Kabul by one
of the team showed Idema with Boykin's staff on two occasions,
discussing rounding up terrorists. Should we give full support
to Idema, who remained in fax and phone contact with high Defense
officials and went on missions with NATO forces in Kabul?
The government didn't deny that another former Special Forces
operative, now working as a mercenary, used a flashlight to beat
an Afghan prisoner to death. On June 19, 2003 David Passaro,
a contractor working for the CIA" got orders to extract
information from Abdul Wali, and in the process murdered him.
(Los Angeles Times September 16, 2004.)
As Passaro awaits trial, should we make bumper stickers offering
support to him as one of our troops? Should we offer full support
to the Abu Ghraib officers, soldiers and mercenaries who tortured?
Or take MPRI, yet another beneficiary of the privatization of
Bush's war. A score of ex generals earn healthy six figure salaries
and thousands of Special Forces veterans make more than they
could as security guards at a local Safeway. Deregulation has
accompanied privatization of military operations in recent years.
The Pentagon finds them convenient, however, to circumvent federal
restrictions on the size of military operations. Should we offer
full support for these troops?
Bush has certainly fulfilled his promise to privatize public
affairs. His invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq
have rescued the declining mercenary sector from oblivion. Idema,
who occupies the gray area between official and semi-official
"contractor," actually showed how effective mercenaries
can be at showing what democracy means to the idol-worshipping
heathens. Did he try to prove General Boykin's assertion and
use torture and murder to show that our God was at least as tough
as Saddam's idol?
Jonathan Turley correctly observed
that the US public has never held "a national debate on
the use of mercenaries or on the rules governing their conduct.
And, if some powerful forces in Washington have their way, there
never will be." The mercenaries-for-hire corporations receive
billions of the taxpayers' dollars, and employ tens of thousands.
"Like many nations in history, we may find that it is far
easier to hire mercenaries than to be rid of them.
Perhaps "SUPPORT OUR MERCENARIES" or "I SUPPORT
OUR TROOPS MORE THAN YOU DO" bumper stickers might provoke
the public into at least discussing what the mainstream media
hasn't told them about Bush's vanity wars.
Saul Landau is the Director of Digital Media and International
Outreach Programs for the College of Letters, Arts and Social
Sciences. His new book is The
Business of America.
Weekend
Edition Features for September 18 / 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
/
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