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Today's
Stories
June 21,
2004
Gary Leupp
Putin's Helpful Remarks
June 19
/ 20, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Inside the Green Zone: US is Paranoid
and Isolated
Bruce
Anderson
Frozen Gringos
Diane
Christian
Morality and Death: a Meditation on
Bush and Blake
Walter
A. Davis
Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib
Josh
Frank
How Democrats Helped Bush Rape Mother Nature
Col. Dan
Smith
Respectable Genocide?: the Crisis in Sudan
Brian
Cloughley
A Profound Disruption of the Senses
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Timken Plant, a Year Later
Prudence
Crowther
Mr. Ashcroft, Deport Me!
Poets'
Basement
Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and Albert
Kathy
Kelly
Dying to See Their Kids
June 18,
2004
Chris
Floyd
Blood Victory
Dave Zirin
Danielle Green, Basketball Player &
Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against War
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Christian Question in American Politics
Gary
Leupp
The "Long-Established" Link?:
Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi
June
17, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
16, 2004
Lenni
Brenner
A Question for Kerry Supporters
Davey
D
Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan
Daniel
Wolff
Why Did Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner
Abuse?
Bruce
Jackson
Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake
Patrick
Cockburn
Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power
Facilities
Gary
Handschumacher
Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads
JG
Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop
Mario
Benedetti
Obituary with Cheers
Vicente
Navarro
Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who
is Rodrigo Rato?
Website
of the Day
Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch
June
15, 2004
Harry
Browne
Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe
Neve
Gordon
The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
David
Palmer
Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI
John
Blair
Lovelock's Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming
Dave
Lindorff
God Wins in TKO
Bill
Quigley
Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step
In
Patrick
Cockburn
Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast
John
Chuckman
John Kerry, Political Placebo
June
14, 2004
John
Stanton / Wayne Madsen
Torture, Inc: Oliver North Joins
the Party
Kathy
Kelly
Requiems: What Happens When Compassion Dies?
Bruce
Jackson
Bush Gets Testy About Torture
Lee
Sustar
Strikers Defy Visteon's Company Thugs
Kurt
Nimmo
The Desperate Censors: the Republican Plot to Kill Farhenheit
9/11
Jim
Davis
Hard Right Nativism
Eliot
Katz
Death and War
Uri
Avnery
The Nightmare Comes True
Website
of the Day
Instruments of Statecraft
June 12 / 13, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto
and Runnymede
Team
CounterPunch
CP's Favorite Albums
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Troy, Now and Then
Gary
Leupp
Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq?
Brian
Cloughley
US Military in Crisis
Antonio
Ponvert, III
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben
Tripp
The Polls Get Stupider
Joe
Bageant
Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron
Jacobs
The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher
Brauchli
Federal Bureau of Errors
Kurt
Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi, Again
Wayne
Madsen
Israel's Slap at Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World
Michael
Donnelly
A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg
Moses
Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan
Davis
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Joseph
Ramsey
Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The 18th Brumaire in the 21st
Century
Wayne
Saunders
The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup
Poets'
Basement
Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Insurgent Music
| June
21, 2004
"Everybody's
Scratching Their Heads"
Putin's
Helpful Remarks
By
GARY LEUPP
Friday,
June 18, 2004. About 1:00 p.m.
Now
this is really interesting. Vladimir Putin, in response to a journalist’s
question during a visit to Kazakhstan, casually confirms an Interfax
report, citing an unnamed Russian intelligence officer, that Russia
passed on intelligence to the U,S., during the interval between 9-11
and the U.S. invasion, relating to an Iraqi attack threat. “I
can confirm,” states the Russian president (and, by the way, former
KGB chief), according to CNN, “that after the events of September
11, 2001, and up to the military operation in Iraq, Russian special
services and Russian intelligence several times received ... information
that official organs of Saddam’s regime were preparing terrorist
acts on the territory of the United States and beyond its borders, at
U.S. military and civilian locations.”
Wow.
Another blockbuster, maybe the biggest yet. Just when the Bushites seem
in a corner, their claims of Iraq-al-Qaeda ties effectively discredited
by journalists and the 9-11 Commission report, from an unlikely corner
comes such welcome succor. And it’s so much better than mere evidence
for Saddam-bin Laden cooperation. “Official organs of Saddam’s
regime were preparing terrorist acts on the territory of the United
States…!”
Voilà!
Instant validation for the war; regardless of the true nature of Iraq-al
Qaeda relations and the embarrassing WMDs issue. None further needed.
But,
some preliminary questions:
Why
didn’t Bush or Cheney mention this earlier, given the extraordinary
utility of the report, especially in the face of doubts about the Iraqi
threat mounting since the first several months of the invasion?
Did
the Kremlin find the “information” credible, or was it just
passing on “several” reports it might have suspected originated
from doubtful sources anxious to encourage U.S. war plans?
Where did the information come from, and will we ever be able to find
out if it originated with (say) Ahmad Chalabi’s Iraqi National
Congress, now on the outs with the Bush administration and suspected
of collaborating with Iran?
Did
the Russian government tell Washington, “We believe that the Iraqi
government plans to attack you, but even so, we oppose your invasion
of Iraq”?
Why
does Mr. Putin, a very shrewd operator (repeat: former KGB chief), announce
this to a journalist in Kazakhstan (following a security meeting with
in Tashkent with Chinese, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Tajiki leaders designed
in part to counter U.S. inroads into Central Asia) at this time?
The
CNN story contains an ellipsis: “Russian intelligence several
times received ... information.” What’s left out of the
Putin statement?
Why
on earth would Baghdad, after 9-11, while the U.S. was planning to invade
and occupy, and while in desperation Baghdad sought to avoid war by
offering unprecedented concessions to the U.S., have been planning terrorist
attacks on U.S. soil?
How
much help does Putin’s statement lend Bush?
What
help might Putin, in turn, receive?
Friday,
about 5:30 p.m.
The plot
thickens. Reuters reports: “Putin’s remarks looked certain
to help President Bush, but officials at the State Department expressed
bafflement, saying they knew of no such information from Russia.”
“‘Everybody’s
scratching their heads,’ said one State Department official, who
asked not to be named.”
One possible
take on this (just thinking aloud here) is that Putin is trying to help
Bush, as Reuters implies, but administration officials lack the alacrity
to just fake it and say, “Oh, yeah, we had that information, but
because of our bilateral intelligence agreements with Russia were unable
to reveal it to the public until the Russians did” or some such
nonsense sufficiently plausible to diehard Bush supporters.
As it
is, whatever the Bushites do, Putin might be able to say, “Hey,
I tried to help you” and thus strive to continue to curry favor
as he undertakes controversial actions in Chechnya, and throughout the
Russian Federation, which under other circumstances might invite U.S.
criticism. He seems politically stronger than Bush right now, and like
so many Russians, is a capable chess player. Bush perhaps does not understand
chess, and may himself be scratching his head wondering how next to
move.
Weekend Edition June 12 / 13, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto and Runnymede
Team CounterPunch
CP's Favorite Albums
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Troy, Now and Then
Gary Leupp
Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq?
Brian
Cloughley
US Military in Crisis
Antonio
Ponvert, III
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben
Tripp
The Polls Get Stupider
Joe Bageant
Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron
Jacobs
The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher
Brauchli
Federal Bureau of Errors
Kurt Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi, Again
Wayne
Madsen
Israel's Slap at Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World
Michael
Donnelly
A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg Moses
Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan
Davis
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Joseph
Ramsey
Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The 18th Brumaire in the 21st Century
Wayne
Saunders
The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup
Poets'
Basement
Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Insurgent Music
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