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Today's Stories September 17, 2007 Marjorie Cohn Erwin Chemerinsky and the Post-9/11 Attack on Academic Freedom Paul Craig Roberts Conservatism Isn't What It Used to Be Ricardo Alarcón The Return of C. Wright Mills Amid the Dawn of a New Era Marc Levy Fake Vets Chasing Fame Eva Liddell In 1969 We Already Knew What 2007 Would Look Like Seth Sandronsky To Rent or Own in the U.S. Website of the Day Propaganda: Your Job in Germany. Directed by Frank Capra, and written by Theodor Geisel Sept. 15-16, 2007 Alexander Cockburn The General Came to Washington Vicente Navarro How the U.S. Schemed Against Spain's Transition from Dictatorship to Democracy Mike Whitney Plummeting Dollar, Credit Crunch Herman Mindshaftgap Has There Ever Been a Surge? If so, Has it a Future? Ellen Cantarow Girls! Music! Palestine! Jordan Flaherty K-Ville: Fox's New Paean to the N.O.P.D. Zachary Hurwitz Julio Cusurichi on Amazonian Development September 14, 2007 Debbie Nathan New York Times reporter was a member of an illegal underage porn site, claims he was only "posing as online predator" Franklin Lamb Sabra-Shatilla, 25 Years Later Patrick Cockburn Greet Bush and Die: The Killing of Abu Risha Farzana Versey The World's Richest Muslim Tycoon Alan Farago This is Florida, Epicenter of the Housing Bust and of Public Corruption Hank Edson Bill's New Book is Giving Me a Headache September 13, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Petraeus Confided Presidential Ambitions to Iraqi Official Scott Vest, former Air Force Captain at Minot The Barksdale Nukes Andy Worthington Guantánamo: "Ghost" Prisoners Speak At Last Michael Baney Mr. Fixit of Quake-Stricken Peru Has Death Squad Past Dr. Susan Block Is U.S. Run by Secret Homintern? September 12, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts American Economy: RIP Stan Goff The Petraeus Report William Blum When Soldiers Mutiny...Only Those Fighting the War Can End It. Manuel Garcia Forgetting 9/11 Debbie Nathan Why One Sex Survey Didn't Make the Big Time September 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Fakery of General Petraeus Iain Boal Specters of Malthus: Scarcity, Poverty, Apocalypse Michael Dickinson Osama on 9/11 Guerry Hoddersen Free Speech is Not Given, but Taken Bill Hatch Irish Politics in Old Time California Gary Leupp The Legacy of Luciano Pavarotti Website of the Day Elisa Salasin's "My September 11th" September 10, 2007 Uri Avnery A Big Victory Against the Wall Patrick Cockburn Petraeus's Closet Saul Landau and Farrah Hassen Screwing Up In Iraq David Michael Green Why Fred Thompson is Uniquely Qualified to be the GOP's Nominee Pius Adesanmi A Solidarity Letter to a Victim of Michael Vick Betty Schneider How to Deal With Sex Offenders September 8 / 9, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Will the US Really Bomb Iran? Saul Landau The Irrational Drama of a Declining Empire Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Hurricane Katrina and Bush's Wars Ray McGovern Petraeus, the Westmoreland of Iraq Matthew Abraham Finkelstein's Legacy at DePaul Alan Farago The Governor and the Growth Machine Christopher Brauchli Grand Old Party Animals Rannie Amiri Battle of the Camps Fred Gardner Will Snoops Get Stopped? James L. Secor B-52 Flexing Nuclear Muscles: H-Bombs Over Barksdale Missy Comley Beattie Choices: Shall We Stay or Shall We Go Now? Ben Tripp Still in the Clover Francis Boyle The University of Illinois' Little Red Sambo Show Joe Allen and Paul D'Amato Jason Bourne vs. James Bond Website of the Weekend Drilling Wyoming: the View from Above September 7, 2007 Robert Fantina Those Iraq Reports: Bush vs. Reality John Ross Coca-Cola's Raid on a Sacred Mountain James Brooks The Occupation Within Russell Mokhiber Robert Reich and the Elimination of Corporate Criminal Liability Joshua Frank The Green Implosion Continues: Cyberlynching John Murphy John Walsh On the Green Party Mark Brenner New York Taxi Workers Strike Over Tracking Devices Mike Ferner "I Will Salute No More Forever" Website of the Day Help Save Osny Zachary's Life   September 6, 2007 Kathleen and Bill Christison Bush, Iran and Israel's Hidden Hand Allan J. Lichtman When General Petraeus Speaks, Don't Listen ... Norman Solomon The Secret Addiction of Thomas Friedman Yifat Susskind Hurricane Felix's First Responders: Courage and Tragedy on the Miskito Coast Catherine Fenton Why I Am Going to the Protest Laura Santina Can the War Machine be Contained? Farzana Versey Fission Kashmir Yves Engler Haiti: Where a Wage of $2 a Day is Too Much for the Lords of Industry to Pay Kelly Overton Bang Bang; Shoot Shoot: Is Hunting Racist? Michael Simmons One Jew's Views: The Strange Genius of Drew Friedman and Kominsky Crumb Website of the Day Dams and Genocide in Guatemala     September 5, 2007 Stan Goff The End Begins Michael Dickinson Working for Mother Teresa: Memoirs of a Rebellious Volunteer Matthew Abraham Standing Firm with Norman Finkelstein and DePaul's Heroic Students: a Defining Moment Patrick Cockburn The Basra Debacle Dave Lindorff Beware the Wounded Beast Paul Craig Roberts Who Are the Fanatics? Clifton Ross Ecuador and the Struggle for Latin American Unity Elizabeth Schulte Katrina's Forgotten Refugees Joseph Grosso Labor Day in New York City Ben Terrall Where's Nancy? On Trying to Protest Pelosi in San Francisco Website of the Day A Guide to Narco Dollars   September 4, 2007 Jean Bricmont Why Bush Can Get Away with Attacking Iran Patrick Cockburn Cut and Run in Iraq Ron Jacobs The Haditha Massacre: Spinning a War Crime Tom Kerr Buried Alive on San Quentin's Death Row Gary Leupp The Case of Jose Maria Sison Sonja Karkar The Weeping Olive Trees of Palestine Heather Gray The Best and Worst of America: 9/11, Joseph Lowery and the Lethal Silence of Billy Graham Fidel Castro The Super-Revolutionaries Jackie Corr Home Depot Comes to Butte--Begging Bowl in Hand Sunsara Taylor Katrina and the Progress of the System Website of the Day Colombia Journal   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             Subscribe Online

September 17, 2007 Fake Vets Chasing Fame By MARC LEVY                          "I carry my adornments on my soul. I do not dress up like a popinjay... With deeds for decorations, twirling -- thus -- A bristling wit, and swinging at my side Courage, and on the stones of this old town Making the sharp truth ring, like golden spurs!" Cyrano de Bergerac In 1998 B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitely published Stolen Valor, a book which highlighted  certain outcomes of America 's long war in Vietnam.  Among its contents is a rogue's photo gallery of fake veterans seeking undue fame from that ill time.  Profiled are sham SEALs, pseudo Special Forces, disconsolate fake grunts, and gasconade forged officers, each handsomely adorned with unearned combat regalia. A legion of web sites has sprung up, outing an ever growing battalion of fakers.   The case of Bruce Cotta is worthy of review.  In 1968 Cotta served with the 25th Infantry Division as an infantry medic.  He saw his share of combat, having won the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with V, the Soldiers Medal, and two Purple Hearts. But three times over the years Cotta petitioned the Army to upgrade his Silver Star, the third highest medal, awarded for gallantry in action, to the Medal of Honor. In 2000, by dark back channels and tech tomfoolery, Cotta scammed Rep. Patrick Kennedy into honoring him with the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest medal, awarded for extraordinary heroism.  He scammed George W. Bush, who signed into law H.R. 670, which named a USPS facility in Newport, Rhode Island, the Bruce F. Cotta Post Office Building.  Alas, a web researcher could find no record of Cotta's DSC.  Enter the Secret Service.  Enter the Army.  Exit Bruce Cotta, who got off with a hundred hours of community service and a $5,000 fine. The laws have changed. And Cotta was no Marine. Nor was Lieutenant Commander Johnson, cited for gallantry and awarded the Silver Star in 1942 when his aircraft came under intense enemy fire over New Guinea. Throughout his career, the veteran sported the medal's tricolor lapel pin on his suit jacket.  But after his death several  eyewitnesses spoke up. "No way," said retired Army Staff Sgt. Bob Marshall. "No, that story was made up, put in there in my mind by the author of the book (The Mission, 1964). 'Cause we never seen [Japanese] Zero, was never attacked. Nothing."  (CNN/2003)  Air force after action reports and surviving crew bear him out. The few and the proud need not worry. LBJ was not one of their own.  He was merely the President of the United States. The Commander in Chief who in 1965 issued the orders that sent thousands of young Marines to their fate. The Congressional Medal of Honor      The Medal of Honor is the highest combat award bestowed by the American military. It is incorrectly called the Congressional Medal of Honor since the President confers it "in the name of the Congress" on an armed forces member who distinguishes himself "conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States." It is impossible to comprehend the supernatural deeds performed by those who have won the MOH. The award citations are temperate narratives compared to the actual events.  Reflections of a Warrior, by the late Frank D. Miller is instructive.  A six tour Vietnam Green Beret, Miller lead small teams deep into enemy territory.  His slim book is not terribly well written but the quick kills, vicious attacks and cunning escapes startle like machine-gun fire.  And just when the reader thinks the battle tales cannot attain a higher pitch, they unfailingly rise an impossible level. A sensational MOH account is followed by reassignment home, where the unconquerable Miller was finally defeated. Ten years ago this writer visited Charles Michael Wilson, last seen after a nasty ambush in Cambodia. We talked war, plinked bottle caps, and spent a pleasant afternoon at the Monroe County Historical Museum, built on the site of General George Custer's home. Custer, you may recall, galloped the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry across Montana's fruited plain.   Atop the entry door hangs an enormous canvas of shrieking soldiers, shot dead horses,  Cheyenne and Sioux braves cracking skulls or taking scalps with tomahawks that drip bright red. A bug-eyed Custer whirls his gleaming cutlass round and round.  A petite brass plate declares, 'The Battle of the Little Big Horn.'     Under glass in a room filled with dusty artifacts lay the two Medals of Honor awarded to Second Lieutenant Thomas W. Custer, 'The only man ever to have attained that feat.' Later I sent the museum director a short note.  He had overlooked eighteen double recipients. "That is true," he replied, "We will correct the error." The FBI receives nearly eight hundred tips a year regarding fake vets. Congress passed the Stolen Valor Act in 2005.  The new law makes it a crime to "falsely represent oneself as having been awarded any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the armed forces or any of the service medals or badges." Ron Brown, a disabled Marine, veteran of Fallujah, had harsh words for fellow leatherneck Sgt. Tim Debusk. "I just told him that I thought what he did was despicable... I hoped he thought about the guys he disrespected who died for this country..."  Debusk had attempted to forge a Purple Heart citation.  Arrested on 25 May 2007 , he faces up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine. Former Army Corporal Richard McClanahan, 29, cuts a dashing figure in his dress uniform and jaunty beret.  Never in combat, a Marine Times photograph depicts McClanahan spangled with three Silver Stars, two Purples Hearts, and the Legion of Merit.  He also claimed the Medal of Honor. Under Stolen Valor, the maximum sentence for falsely holding the MOH is one year in prison. Even grandpa's get in on the act.  On 21 June 2007, the FBI charged Augustine Hernandez, 76, with posing as a Army Major General awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart. In fact, the elder gent had been a lowly PFC sans valorous commendations. (Marine Times, August 2007) Full Medal Jacket  But the granddaddy of them all, Army, Air Force, Navy, and the man the Marine's most fear, truly earned his two Medals of Honor.  A short, wiry fellow, from 1899 to 1919, Major General Smedley Darlington Butler rose through the ranks and killed brilliantly for his country in the Philippines, China, Haiti , Mexico, Panama, and Nicaragua . Bestowed the MOH in Mexico, then in Haiti, he went on to further fame in World War I, and a distinguished career in peace time.  Though proud of their General, the Marines, themselves made legendary at Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Hue, omit all reference to Butlers greatest triumph. The Corp's official web site only states that in 1931 "he was retired upon his own application after completion of 33 years service." On leave from 1924 to 1925 Butler was fired as Philadelphia's Director of Public Safety when he complained that Philly's corruption was worse than any battle he'd fought. After two stints in China, he commanded the Marine Barracks at Quantico, garnering much praise. But in 1931, Butler publicized rumors that Mussolini struck a child in a hit-and-run accident. The Italian government protested. President Hoover demanded the Secretary of the Navy court-martial Butler. Instead, he was reprimanded. Passed by for promotion to Corps Commander, he retired. In 1932, Butler hit the lecture circuit, giving speeches to anti-war groups. In 1934, he told Congress that a year earlier he'd been approached by several pro-Nazi industrialists, including Prescott Bush, the current President's grandfather. The group asked Butler to lead a half million veterans in a coup to topple President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Much of his testimony was verified but no action was taken. Butler is best known for his 1935 short book, War Is a Racket, a thunderous expose of war profiteering.  Elsewhere he  famously  wrote: "I spent 33 years in active military service...as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and Tampico safe for American oil interests...I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys...I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street...I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies. In China I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints." (Common Sense, Vol. 4, No. 11, 1935) Property! "Whole fuckin' thing's about property," says an embittered First Sergeant Jack Welsh, deftly played by Sean Penn in Terrence Malick's, The Thin Red Line. These days, war stocks, big oil revenue sharing, and shady contracts are the new ownership. For their troubles, whistle blowers are ignored, interrogated, jailed. It remains to be seen what skeletons DoD Inspector General Kicklighter, the Army CID, the DOJ, and the FBI will dig up in Iraq.  Soft You,    "a word or two before I go. I have done the state some service, and they know't."  So said the Moor by way of farewell.  If the US attacks a second sovereign nation, for no purpose but to save face, extend power, increase profits, what brave Marines will dare to heed Butler's avid call to arms, and thrust the truth home? Marc Levy was an infantry medic with Delta Co. 1/7 First Cavalry in Vietnam/Cambodia in 1970.  Email: silverspartan@gmail.com. For further information on the Medal of Honor, including double recipients, see http://www.cmohs.org/.  The pamphlet War is a Racket is available from Veterans for Peace at tinyurl.com/2fh9hz       Your Ad Here

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