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Recent
Stories
July
16, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Back to the Future in Guatemala:
The Return of Gen. Ríos Montt
July
15, 2003
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Why We Resigned from VIPS
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft's War on Legal Whistleblowers:
the Ordeal of Jesselyn Radack
Chris
Floyd
Barge Poles: Oil Wars and New Europe's Mercenaries
Jason
Leopold
CIA Warned White House Last October that Niger Docs were Forgeries
Gaius Publius
Considering the Obvious: Fool Us Once, Fool Us Twise...Please
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Troyer
The Niger Syndrome
Becky Gillette
No Conspiracy at Coffeen Nature Preserve: a Response to David
Orrr
Uri
Avnery
The Bi-National State: The Wolf Shall
Dwell with the Lamb
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of the Day
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July
14, 2003
Lisa
Taraki
Hot Days in Ramallah
Walter
Brasch
Bush: the Pretend Captain
SOA
Watch
Training Colombia's Killers in the US
Dan Bacher
Yurok Tribe Denounces Klamath River Salmon Killers
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
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of the Day
Coalition for Democratic Rights and Civil Liberties
July 12 / 13, 2003
Arthur
Mitzman
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Standard
Schaefer
The Coming Financial Reality: an
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John Feffer
A Fearful Symmetry: Washington and Pyongyang
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Jacobs
Shades of Gray in Iran
Elaine
Cassel
Judicial Terrorism Against the Bill of Rights
Tom
Stephens
Civil Liberties After 9/11
David Lindorff
New White House Slogan: "Case Closed. Just Move On"
Jason
Leopold
The Mini-War Against Iraq Prior to 9/11
Lee Sustar
What's Behind the Crisis in Liberia?
Mickey
Z.
AIDS Dissent and Africa
Sam Hamod
Semitic is a Language Group, Not a Race or Ethnic Group
Ramzy
Baroud
Awaiting Justice on an Old Blanket
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Savage Incongruities: the Photographic Life of Lee Miller
Adam
Engel
Parable of the Lobbyist
Robert
Sanders
A Review of Ralph Lopez's American Dream
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Witherup, Guthrie
July
11, 2003
Conn
Hallinan
The Coin of Empire
Tim
Wise
God Responds to Bush
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
The Two Faces of Bush in Africa
Edward
S. Herman
Whitewashing Sandra Day O'Connor
David Orr
Coffeen-gate: What's Going on at the Sierra Club Foundation?
David
Lindorff
An Iraq War & Occupation Glossary
Website
of the Day
Dead Malls
July
10, 2003
Ron
Jacobs
Dealing with the Devil: the Bloody
Profits of General Dynamics
Sean
Donahue
Bush and the Paramillitaries: Coddling Terrorists in Colombia
Yemi
Toure
Who Outted Bush in Afrika?
Robert
Jensen
Politics and Sustainability: an Interview
with Wes Jackson
Ali
Abunimah
US Leaves Injured Iraqis Untreated
Joanne
Mariner
Federal Courts, Not Military Commissions
Website
of the Day
Electronic Iraq
July
9, 2003
David
Lindorff
Is the Media Finally Turning on
Bush?
David
Krieger and Angela McCracken
10 Myths About Nuclear Weapons
Mickey
Z.
Why Speak Out?
Lee Sustar
The Great Medicare Fraud
John
Chuckman
The Worst Kind of Lie
Gary Leupp
"Pacifist" Japan and the Occupation of Iraq
Website
of the Day
Hail to the Thief:
Songs for the Bush Years
July
8, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Bully on the Bench: the Pathological
Dissents of Scalia
Alan
Maass
Nights of Fire and Rage in Benton Harbor
Chris
Floyd
Troubled Sleep: Getting Used to the American Gulag
Linda
S. Heard
America's Kangaroo Justice
Brian
Cloughley
They Tell Lies to Nodders
Charles
Sullivan
Bush the Christian?
Saul
Landau
The Intelligence Culture in the National Security Age
Website
of the Day
Occupation Watch
July
7, 2003
William
Blum
The Anti-Empire Report
Harvey
Wasserman
The Nuke with a Hole in Its Head
Ramzy
Baroud
Peace for All the Wrong Reasons
Simon
Jones
What Progressives Should Think About
Iran
Lesley
McCulloch
Fear, Pain and Shame in Aceh
Uri
Avnery
The Draw
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
July
4 / 6, 2003
Patrick
Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July
Frederick
Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?
Martha
Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation
and Neglect
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and
the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture
Standard
Schaefer
Rule by Fed: Anyone But Greenspan in 2004
Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today
Elaine
Cassel
Fucking Furious on the Fourth
Ben Tripp
How Free Are We?
Wayne
Madsen
A Sad Independence Day
John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War
Jim
Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment
John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim
David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite
Adam
Engel
Queer as Grass
Poets'
Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
The Lipstick Librarian
July
3, 2003
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Meaning of Gettysburg
Thomas
W. Croft
There Was a Reason They Called It the Casino Economy
David
Lindorff
Outlawing Subversives: Hong Kong
and the US
John
Chuckman
Lessons from the American Revolution
Jackson
Thoreau
New Far-Right Scheme: Impeach Supreme Court Justices
Stan
Goff
"Bring 'Em On?": a Former
Special Forces Soldier Responds to Bush's Invitation for Iraqis
to Attack US Troops
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
July 2, 2003
Diane
Christian
Good Killing and Bad Killing
Richard
Falk
After Iraq, Does UN War Prevention Have a Future?
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Bush Administration: Causing Repetitive Stress
Justin
Podur
Uribe's Onslaught Across Colombia
Reuven
Kaviner
Prosecuting Ben-Artzi, the Refusenik
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/2
July
1, 2003
Sasan
Fayamanesh
Weapon of Choice: Nukes, Israel and
Iran
Elaine
Cassel
Sex and the Supreme Moralizer: Scalia
and the Sodomy Cops
Susan
Block
A Love Supreme: Our Assholes Belong
to Ourselves
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: No, No Bono
David Lindorff
Weapons in Search of a Name
Gary
Leupp
Occupation, Resistance and the Plight of the GIs
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/1
June
30, 2003
Karyn
Strickler
The Do-Nothings: an Exposé
of Progressive Politics in America
Col. Dan
Smith
The Occupation of Iraq: Descending into the Quagmire
Tim
Wise
Race and Destruction in Black and White
Neve Gordon
The Roadmap and the Wall
Chris
Floyd
The Revelation of St. George: "God Told Me to Strike Saddam"
Elaine
Cassel
Kentucky Woman
Uri
Avnery
Hope in Dark Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/30
Website
of the Day
Bush El Hombre
June
28 / 29, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
Bernard Lewis: Scholarship or Sophistry?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Meet Steven Griles: Big Oil's Inside
Man
Laura
Carlsen
Democracy's Future: From the Polls or the Populace?
Alan Maass
You Call These Democrats an Alternative?
C.Y.
Gopinath
Bush and Kindergarten
Noah Leavitt
Bush, the Death Penalty and International Law
Joanne
Mariner
Rehnquist Family Values
Ignacio
Chapela
Tenure, Censorship and Biotech at Berkeley
Bob
Scowcroft
Bush's Squeeze on Organic Farmers
Jon Brown
Tom Delay: "I am the Government"
Kam
Zarrabi
Keep Your Hands Off Iran, Please!
Ron Jacobs
Big Bill Broonzy's Conversation with the Blues
Julie
Hilden
Fear Factor: Art, Terror and the First Amendment
Adrien
Rain Burke
The Anarchists' Wedding Guide
Adam
Engel
US Troops Outta Times Square
Poets'
Basement
Witherup, Guthrie, Albert, Hamod
June
27, 2003
Jason
Leopold
CIA: Seven Months Prior to 9/11 Iraq
Posed No Threat to US
David
Vest
Supreme Silence: Bush's Bunker-Hunker
David
Lindorff
The Catch and Release of "Comical
Ali"
Ray McGovern
Cheney, Forgery and the CIA
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/26
Website
of the Day
John Kerry, Teresa Heinz & Ken Lay: The Politics of Hypocrisy
June
26, 2003
Sen.
Robert Byrd
The Road of Cover-Up is a Road to Ruin
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Instructed the CIA to Investigate
Hans Blix
Paul
de Rooij
Ambient Death in Palestine
Chris Floyd
Mass Graves and Burned Meat in Bush's New Iraq
Elaine
Cassel
Wolfowitz as Lord High Executioner
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Wire
Musicians Unite Against Sweatshops
Sheldon
Hull
Squatting in Mansions
Ben Tripp
A Guide to Hating Almost Anyone
Uri
Avnery
The Best Show in Town
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
Ordinary Vistas:
The Photographs of Kurt Nimmo
June
25, 2003
Bruce
Jackson
Buffalo Cops Wage War on Pedal Pushers
Mickey
Z.
The New Dark Ages
David Lindorff
Indonesia's War on Journalists
Dan
Bacher
Butterflies and Farmworkers Confront USDA and Riot Cops
Adam Federman
"Success is Not the Issue Here"
Elaine
Cassel
"Ain't No Justice": Fed Judge Quits, Assails Sentencing
Guidelines
Bill Kauffman
My America vs. the Empire
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
You Are Being Watched:
Elevator Moods
June
24, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Supreme Indemnity
Holocaust Denial at the High Court
Roya
Monajem
A Message from Tehran: Is It Worth
It to Risk One's Life?
John
Chuckman
The Real Clash of Civilizations
David Lindorff
WMD Damage Control at the Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/24
June
23, 2003
Marc
Pritzke
Washington Lied: an Interview with
Ray McGovern
Conn
Hallinan
The Consistency of Sharon
Wayne Madsen
Commercials, Disney & Amistad
Edward
Said
The Meaning of Rachel Corrie
Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/23
June
21 / 22, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
My Life as a Rabbi
William
A. Cook
The Scourge of Hopelessness
Standard
Schaefer
The Wages of Terror: an Interview with R.T. Naylor
Ron Jacobs
US Prisons as Strategic Hamlets
Harry
Browne
The Pitstop Ploughshares
Lawrence
Magnuson
WMD: The Most Dangerous Game
Harold
Gould
Saddam and the WMD Mystery
David Krieger
10 Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Avia
Pasternak
The Unholy Alliance in the Occupied Territories
CounterPunch
Summer Reading:
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Todd Chretien
Return to Sender: Todd Gitlin, the Duke of Condescension
Maria
Tomchick
Danny Goldberg's Imaginary Kids
Adam Engel
The Fat Man in Little Boy
Poets'
Basement
Guthrie, Albert & Hamod
June 20, 2003
Walter
Brasch
Down on Our Knees
Robert
Meeropol
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Russell
Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
Grannies and Baby Bells
Norman
Madarasz
Pierre Bourgault: the Life of a
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Gary
Leupp
Bush on "Revisionist Historians"
Steve
Perry
Bush's Lies
Marathon: the Finale
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Wire
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Corrie
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Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
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Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
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Arrogant
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Gore Vidal
The
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Francis Boyle
Impeach
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Click Here
for More Stories.
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July
16, 2003
Wolfowitz's Fingerprints
on Niger Claim
Pentagon
Committee Told White House to Hype Dubious Uranium Claims
By JASON LEOPOLD
WASHINGTON, D.C
A Pentagon committee led by Paul Wolfowitz, the
Deputy Secretary of Defense, advised President Bush to include
a reference in his January State of the Union address about Iraq
trying to purchase 500 tons of uranium from Niger to bolster
the case for war in Iraq, despite the fact that the CIA warned
Wolfowitz's committee that the information was unreliable, according
to a CIA intelligence official and four members of the Senate's
intelligence committee who have been investigating the issue.
The Senators and the CIA official said
they could be forced out of government and brought up on criminal
charges for leaking the information to this reporter and as a
result requested anonymity. The Senators said they plan to question
CIA Director George Tenet Wednesday morning in a closed-door
hearing to find out whether Wolfowitz and members of a committee
he headed misled Bush and if the President knew about the erroneous
information prior to his State of the Union address.
Spokespeople for Wolfowitz and Tenet
vehemently denied the accusations. Dan Bartlett, the White House
communications director, would not return repeated calls for
comment.
The revelations by the CIA official and
the senators, if true, would prove that Tenet, who last week
said he erred by allowing the uranium reference to be included
in the State of the Union address, took the blame for an intelligence
failure that he was not responsible for. The lawmakers said it
could also lead to a widespread probe of prewar intelligence.
At issue is a secret committee set up
in 2001 by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called the Office
of Special Plans, which was headed by Wolfowitz, Abrum Shulsky
and Douglas Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, to
probe allegations links between Iraq and the terrorist organization
al-Qaeda and whether the country was stockpiling a cache of weapons
of mass destruction. The Special Plans committee disbanded in
March after the start of the war in Iraq.
The committee's job, according to published
reports, was to gather intelligence information on the Iraqi
threat that the CIA and FBI could not uncover and present it
to the White House to build a case for war in Iraq. The committee
relied heavily on information provided by Iraqi defector Ahmad
Chalabi, who has provided the White House with reams of intelligence
on Saddam Hussein's weapons programs that has been disputed.
Chalabi heads the Iraqi National Congress, a group of Iraqi exiles
who have pushed for regime change in Iraq.
The Office of Special Plans, according
to the CIA official and the senators, routinely provided Bush,
Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser
Condoleeza Rice with questionable intelligence information on
the Iraqi threat, much of which was included in various speeches
by Bush and Cheney and some of which was called into question
by the CIA.
In the months leading up to the war in
Iraq, Rumsfeld became increasingly frustrated that the CIA could
not find any evidence of Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear
weapons program, evidence that would have helped the White House
build a solid case for war in Iraq.
In an article in the New York Times last
October, the paper reported that Rumsfeld had ordered the Office
of Special Plans to "to search for information on Iraq's
hostile intentions or links to terrorists" that might have
been overlooked by the CIA.
The CIA official and the senators said
that's when Wolfowitz and his committee instructed the White
House to have Bush use the now disputed line about Iraq's attempts
to purchase 500 tons of uranium from Niger in a speech the President
was set to give in Cincinnati. But Tenet quickly intervened and
informed Stephen Hadley, an aide to National Security Adviser
Rice, that the information was unreliable.
Patrick Lang, a former director of Middle
East analysis at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in an
interview with the New Yorker magazine in May that the Office
of Special Plans "started picking out things that supported
their thesis and stringing them into arguments that they could
use with the President. It's not intelligence. It's political
propaganda."
Lang said the CIA and Office of Special
Plans often clashed on the accuracy of intelligence information
provided to the White House by Wolfowitz.
Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh,
the author of a May New Yorker story on the Office of Special
Plans, reported, "former CIA officers and analysts described
the agency as increasingly demoralized. George knows he's being
beaten up," one former officer said of George Tenet, the
CIA director. "And his analysts are terrified. George used
to protect his people, but he's been forced to do things their
way." Because the CIA's analysts are now on the defensive,
"they write reports justifying their intelligence rather
than saying what's going on. The Defense Department and the Office
of the Vice-President write their own pieces, based on their
own ideology. We collect so much stuff that you can find anything
you want."
"They see themselves as outsiders,
" a former <C.I.A>. expert who spent the past decade
immersed in Iraqi-exile affairs said of the Special Plans people,
told Hersh. He added, "There's a high degree of paranoia.
They've convinced themselves that they're on the side of angels,
and everybody else in the government is a fool."
By last fall, the White House had virtually
dismissed all of the intelligence on Iraq provided by the CIA,
which failed to find any evidence of Iraq's weapons programs,
in favor of the more critical information provided to the Bush
administration by the Office of Special Plans
Hersh reported that the Special Plans
Office "developed a close working relationship with the
(Iraqi National Congress), and this strengthened its position
in disputes with the <C.I.A>. and gave the Pentagon's pro-war
leadership added leverage in its constant disputes with the State
Department. Special Plans also became a conduit for intelligence
reports from the <I.N.C>. to officials in the White House."
In a rare Pentagon briefing recently,
Office of Special Plans co-director Douglas Feith, said the committee
was not an "intelligence project," but rather an group
of 18 people that looked at intelligence information from a different
point of view.
Feith said when the group had new "thoughts"
on intelligence information it was given; they shared it with
CIA director Tenet.
"It was a matter of digesting other
people's intelligence," Feith said of the main duties of
his group. "Its job was to review this intelligence to help
digest it for me and other policy makers, to help us develop
Defense Department strategy for the war on terrorism."
Weekend Edition Features for July 12/13, 2003
Arthur
Mitzman
The Double Wall Before the Future
Standard
Schaefer
The Coming Financial Reality: an
Interview with Michael Hudson
John Feffer
A Fearful Symmetry: Washington and Pyongyang
Ron
Jacobs
Shades of Gray in Iran
Elaine
Cassel
Judicial Terrorism Against the Bill of Rights
Tom
Stephens
Civil Liberties After 9/11
David Lindorff
New White House Slogan: "Case Closed. Just Move On"
Jason
Leopold
The Mini-War Against Iraq Prior to 9/11
Lee Sustar
What's Behind the Crisis in Liberia?
Mickey
Z.
AIDS Dissent and Africa
Sam Hamod
Semitic is a Language Group, Not a Race or Ethnic Group
Ramzy
Baroud
Awaiting Justice on an Old Blanket
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Savage Incongruities: the Photographic Life of Lee Miller
Adam
Engel
Parable of the Lobbyist
Robert
Sanders
A Review of Ralph Lopez's American Dream
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Witherup, Guthrie
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