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Towards a Global Gaza
How Israel is Rewriting Laws of WarFrom Israel, in a chilling and important report, Jeff Halper reports on how two Israeli professors are rewriting the Geneva Conventions to give legal cover for total war on civilian populations. “If you do something for long enough,” says Colonel (res.) Daniel Reisner, former head of the IDF’s Legal Department, “the world will accept it.” From Moscow, Boris Kagarlitsky profiles Russia’s economic liberals, the last true believers in pure capitalism. Welcome to the theater of the absurd. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and t-shirts make great presents.
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Today's Stories March 4, 2010 Paul Craig Roberts March 3, 2010 Norman Finkelstein Bill Quigley Franklin C. Spinney Dean Baker Mike Whitney Raed Jarrar / Adam Federman Joshua Frank Will Parrish / Darwin Bond-Graham Matt Siegfried Website of the Day March 2, 2010 Patrick Cockburn Tricia Shapiro Gareth Porter Paul Craig Roberts Ellen Brown David Macaray Stewart J. Lawrence Shamus Cooke Udi Aloni / Binoy Kampmark Stephen Soldz Website of the Day March 1, 2010 Ralph Nader Will Parrish / Mike Whitney Diana Johnstone Jayne Lyn Stahl Vijay Prashad Paul Buhle Organizing Against Empire: Where Left and Right Meet ... Amicably Robert Jensen Marga Tojo Gonzales Website of the Day February 26 - 28, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Alison Weir Will Parrish / Jason Hribal Saul Landau / Mark Weisbrot Alan Farago Suzan Mazur Martha Rosenberg Ray McGovern Rannie Amiri Dave Lindorff Ramzy Baroud David Macaray Jared Ritvo Missy Beattie Brian McKenna Don Santina Binoy Kampmark M.G. Piety Michael Dickinson Art as Defensive Weapon Charles R. Larson Ben Sonnenberg David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend February 25, 2010 Jason Hribal Clancy Sigal Tariq Ali Jonathan Cook Mike Whitney Peter Lee Russell Mokhiber Prosecuting Bush for War Crimes Deepak Tripathi Charlie Wilson's Legacy Norman Solomon Phillip Doe Website of the Day February 24, 2010 Ashley Smith Mike Whitney Garerth Porter Joe Bageant Shamus Cooke Al Benchich Harvey Wasserman Jim Goodman Ron Jacobs Stewart J. Lawrence Tom Clifford Website of the Day February 23, 2010 Uri Avnery Paul Craig Roberts William P. O'Connor Steven Higgs Marshall Auerback / L. Randall Wray Jeff Sher Carl Finamore Dave Lindorff Benjamin Dangl Anthony Papa Bob Sommer Robert Bryce Website of the Day February 22, 2010 Vincent Navarro Michael Neumann Marc Weisbrot Richard Neville P. Sainath Christopher Ketcham Marc Catone February 19 - 21, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Bill Quigley Joshua Frank / Joan Roelofs Paul Craig Roberts Peter Lee Gareth Porter Saul Landau / Mark Schuller Rev. William E. Alberts Thomas M. Power John Ross Nicola Nasser Rannie Amiri Ramzy Baroud David Macaray M. Shahid Alam George Wuerthner Missy Beattie Adam Turl Dave Lindorff Alan Cabal Farzana Versey M. G. Piety Charles R. Larson Kim Nicolini David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend February 18, 2010 Sasan Fayazmanesh Nadia Hijab David Rosen Jayne Lyn Stahl Ralph Nader Dean Baker Christopher Brauchli Charlotte Laws Dave Lindorff Harvey Wasserman Bouthaina Shaaban Katya Rodriguez Website of the Day February 17, 2010 Michael Hudson Karl Grossman Nirmal Ghosh Dean Baker Russell Mokhiber John V. Walsh Martin Lukacs Nouri Gana Heather Gray / Daniel Wolff Website of the Day February 16, 2010 Paul Craig Roberts Forrest Hylton Carl Ginsburg Jonathan Cook Robert Alvarez Deepak Tripathi George Wuerthner Shamus Cooke Robert Bryce Brian Cloughley Carl Finamore David Rovics Website of the Day February 15, 2010 David Price Michael Hudson / Ishmael Reed Conn Hallinan Yvonne Ridley Bill Quigley Patrick Cockburn Dave Lindorff David Díaz-Arias Stephanie Westbrook Harvey Wasserman Norman Solomon Website of the Day February 12-14, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Andrew Cockburn Arno J. Mayer Ishmael Reed / Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Jonathan Cook Gareth Porter William Blum Jeffrey St. Clair Saul Landau John Ross Fran Shor Marshall Auerback Dave Lindorff Ramzy Baroud Gary Leupp Joseph Sher David Swanson Randall Amster David Ker Thomson Bill Piper Missy Beattie Farzana Versey Dan Bacher Bill Worf Christopher Brauchli Dr. Susan Block Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Binoy Kampmark Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend February 11, 2010 Patrick Cockburn Mark Schuller Stephen Soldz Harvey Wasserman Stephen Fleischman Ron Jacobs Helen Redmond Steve Zhou Fatemeh Keshavarz Ahmadinejad, the Western Press and the Iranian Green Opposition Gary Goldstein Website of the Day
February 10, 2010 Jules Boykoff Paul Craig Roberts David Macaray William Blum Martine Bulard M. Shahid Alam Tolu Olorunda Jayne Lyn Stahl Cecilia Lucas Eric Walberg Website of the Day February 9, 2010 Vijay Prashad Bill Quigley Jonathan Cook Shamus Cooke Robert Jensen Laura Flanders Chris Kromm Dave Lindorff George Wuerthner Belén Fernandez Michael Donnelly Susie Day Website of the Day February 8, 2010 Pam Martens Heather Gray Paul Craig Roberts Franklin Spinney Ralph Nader Ellen Brown Sasha Kramer Richard Morse Fred Gardner Binoy Kampmark Michael Winship David Michael Green Charles R. Larson Website of the Day February 5 - 7, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Paul Craig Roberts Forrest Hylton Joanne Mariner Bill Quigley Jeffrey St. Clair Todd Gordon / Jeffrey R. Webber Consolidating the Coup in Honduras Joseph Nevins Mike Miller Mark Weisbrot Alison Weir David Swanson Missy Beattie Jonathan Cook Richard Morse David Ker Thomson Benjamin Dangl Cal Winslow Jim Goodman Michael Dickinson Bouthaina Shaaban Don Monkerud Ananya Mukherjee-Reed Doug Bevington Stephen Martin Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Day February 4, 2010 Barbara Rhine Barry Lando David Macaray Shamus Cooke P. Sainath Christopher Brauchli Ramzy Baroud Suzan Mazur Harry Clark Andy Worthington Website of the Day February 3, 2010 Paul Craig Roberts Kathleen Christison Franklin Spinney Dean Baker Marc Levy Kathy Kelly Gareth Porter Joshua Frank Rannie Amiri Gregory Vickrey Website of the Day February 2, 2010 Michael Hudson Boadiba Chris Floyd Paul A. Passavant Mike Whitney John Ross Jonathan Cook Susan Galleymore Dave Lindorff Tolu Olorunda Ron Jacobs Website of the Day February 1, 2010 Michael Hudson Stan Goff Patrick Cockburn Saul Landau Dr. Carol Paris, MD Marshall Auerback Harvey Wasserman Johanna Berrigan Peter Gelderloos David Michael Green Martha Rosenberg Kevin Zeese Alan Farago Website of the Day
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March 4, 2010 No Story Here! US Press Sits on StoryExecuting Handcuffed Afghan Kids?By DAVE LINDORFF When Charlie Company’s Lt. William Calley ordered and encouraged his men to rape, maim and slaughter over 400 men, women and children in My Lai in Vietnam back in 1968, there were at least four Americans who tried to stop him or bring him and higher officers to justice. One was helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson Jr., who evacuated some of the wounded victims, and who set his chopper down between a group of Vietnamese and Calley’s men, ordering his door gunner to open fire on the US soldiers if they shot any more people. One was Ron Ridenhour, a soldier who learned of the massacre, and began a private investigation, ultimately reporting the crime to the Pentagon and Congress. One was Michael Bernhardt, a soldier in Charlie Company who witnessed the whole thing, and reported it all to Ridenhour. And one was journalist Seymour Hersh, who broke the story in the US media. Today’s war in Afghanistan also has its My Lai massacres. It has them almost weekly, as US warplanes bomb wedding parties, or homes “suspected” of housing terrorists that turn out to house nothing but civilians. But these My Lais are all conveniently labeled accidents. They get filed away and forgotten as the inevitable “collateral damage” of war. There was, however, a massacre recently that was not a mistake--a massacre which, while it only involved fewer than a dozen people, bears the same stench as My Lai. It was the execution-style slaying of eight handcuffed students, aged 11-18, and a 12-year-old neighboring shepherd boy who had been visiting the others, in Kunar Province, on Dec. 26. Sadly, no principled soldier with a conscience like pilot Hugh Thompson tried to save these children. No observer had the guts of a Michael Brernhardt to report what he had seen. No Ron Ridenhour among the other serving US troops in Afghanistan has investigated this atrocity or reported it to Congress. And no American reporter has investigated this war crime the way Seymour Hersh investigated My Lai. There is a Seymour Hersh for the Kunar massacre, but he’s a Brit. While American reporters like the anonymous journalistic drones who wrote CNN’s December 29 report on the incident (http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/29/afghanistan.deaths/index.html), took the Pentagon’s initial cover story--that the dead were part of a secret bomb-squad--at face value, Jerome Starkey, a reporter in Afghanistan working for the Times of London and the Scotsman, talked to other sources--the dead boys’ headmaster, other townspeople, and Afghan government officials--and found out the real truth about a gruesome war crime--the execution of handcuffed children. And while a few news outlets in the US like the New York Times did mention that there were some claims that the dead were children, not bomb-makers, none, including CNN, which had bought and run the Pentagon’s lies unquestioningly, bothered to print the news update when, on Feb. 24, the US military admitted that in fact the dead were innocent students. Nor has any US corporate news organization mentioned that the dead had been handcuffed when they were shot. Starkey reported the US government’s damning admission. Yet still the US media remain silent as the grave. Under the Geneva Conventions, it is a war crime to execute a captive. Yet in Kunar on December 26, US-led forces, or perhaps US soldiers or contract mercenaries, cold-bloodedly executed eight hand-cuffed prisoners. It is a war crime to kill children under the age of 15, yet in this incident a boy of 11 and a boy of 12 were handcuffed as captured combatants and executed. Two others of the dead were 12 and a third was 15. I called the Secretary of Defense’s office to ask if any investigation was underway into this crime or if one was planned, and was told I had to send a written request, which I did. To date, I have heard nothing. The Pentagon PR machine pretended to me on the phone that they didn't even know what incident I was talking about, but without their "help" I have learned that what the US military has done--no surprise--is to pass the buck by leaving any investigation to the International Security Assistance Force--a fancy name for the US-led NATO force fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. It’s a clever ruse. The ISAF is no more a genuine coalition entity than was George Bush's Iraq War Coalition of the Willing, but this dodge makes legislative investigation of the event impossible, since Congress has no authority to compel testimony from NATO or the ISAF as it would the Pentagon. A source at the Senate Armed Services Committee confirms that the ISAF is investigating, and that the committee has asked for a “briefing”--that means nothing would be under oath--once that investigation is complete, but don’t hold your breath or expect anything dramatic. I also contacted the press office of the House Armed Services Committee to see if any hearings into this crime have been planned. The answer is no, though the press officer asked me to send her details of the incident (Not a good sign that House members and staff are paying much attention--the killings led to country-wide student demonstrations in Afghanistan, to a formal protest by the office of President Hamid Karzai, and to an investigation by the Afghan government, which concluded that innocent students had been handcuffed and executed, and no doubt contributed to a call by the Afghan government for prosecution and execution of American soldiers who kill Afghan civilians.) There is still time for people of conscience to stand up in the midst of this imperial adventure that may now appropriately be called Obama’s War in Afghanistan. Plenty of men and women in uniform in Afghanistan know that nine Afghan children were captured and murdered at America’s hands last December in Kunar. There are also probably people who were involved in the planning or carrying out of this criminal operation who are sickened by what happened. But these people are so far holding their tongues, whether out of fear, or out of simply not knowing where to turn (Note: If you have information you may contact me). There are also plenty of reporters in Afghanistan and in Washington who could be investigating this story. They are not. Don’t ask me why. Maybe ask their editors. Dave Lindorff is a Philadelphia-area journalistHis work can be found at www.thiscantbehappening.net. He can be reached at dlindorff@yahoo.com.
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