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Today's
Stories
March 28, 2008
Saul Landau
Growing
Dread About Iraq
March 27, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Basra
Erupts
Binoy Kampmark
Free Market Apostates
Joanne Mariner
"Was George Washington a Terrorist?"
Norman Solomon
NPR News: National Pentagon Radio?
William S. Lind
Mars Only Knocks Once: a Prognosis for Iraq
John V. Walsh
Obama's Speech: a Touch of Bigotry?
Robert Weissman
How Things Work
Ron Jacobs
Meeting Charlie Ehlen
Ralph Nader
Put Impeachment Back on the Table
David Macaray
Court Rules Against Grocery Workers
John Borowski
Clearcutting the History of Forest Destruction
Website of
the Day
Going Out for an English
March 26, 2008
Stan Cox
The
Germs Next Door
Sharon Smith
Greed
Pays: Welfare on Wall Street
Anita Sinha / Jill Tauber
Dreams Turned into Rubble in New Orleans
Matt Vidal
So Much for the Self-Regulating Market
William S. Lind
Operation Cassandra
Joe Mowrey
The Audacity of Hypocrisy: Obama's Pandering to Israel
Dave Lindorff
Duck and Cover (Up): Hillary Under Fire
Ray McGovern
Frontline's War: Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late
Justin Smith
Why Race and Gender are Separate Issues
Sam Husseini
The Winter Soldier Hearings and Indy Media
Martha Rosenberg
Blood on Ice: Gentlemen, Pick Up Your Clubs
Michael Dickinson
Politicians as Dogs
Website of the Day
The Wal-Mart Virus: How the Infection Spread
March 25, 2008
Ishmael Reed
The
Crazy Rev. Wright
Corey D. B.
Walker
The Politics of Jeremiah Wright
Linn Washington Jr.
Racism in America and Other Uncomfortable Facts
Alan Farago
The Money Launderers: a Picnic for Wall St. Insiders
Vijay Prashad
A Glimmer of Hope From the Gulf Coast
Joshua Frank
A Silver Lining to the Bush Years?
Ralph Nader
How Public Servants Can Help End This War
David Rovics
If I Can't Dance: Why is the Left So Boring?
Peter Morici
America's Banks are Broken
Dave Zirin
Olympic Flames: China's Crackdown in Tibet
David Krieger
The Crisis in Tibet
Website of
the Day
Memorializing Iraq
March 24, 2008
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Blonde
Ambition: Hillary's Berserker Campaign for 2012
Peter Morici
Digging Out of the Recession
Uri Avnery
Two Americas
Wajahat Ali
First of the Mohicans: an Interview with Rep. Keith Ellison
Paul Craig Roberts
Inside the Shell Game
George Ciccariello-Maher
The Coming War on Venezuela
Stephen Lendman
Sami Al-Arian's Long Ordeal
Christopher
Brauchli
Possessing Someone Else's Country
Cat Woods
A Letter to Mom on Obama
Stacey Warde
Tax Burden
Dave Lindorff
The American Dead Hits 4,000, But Who's Counting?
Website of
the Day
Live from the Longest Walk
March 22 /
23, 2008
Ralph Nader
Bush
Blisters the Truth on Iraq
Nicole Colson
Can You Afford to Feed Your Family?
James Petras
The Cost of Unilateral Humanitarian Initiatives
Laura Carlsen
From Bombs to Markets: The Andean Crisis and the Geopolitics
of Trade
Greg Moses
Tolerance and the American Pulpit
Andy Worthington
Torture Stories Dog Guantánamo Trials
Michael Dickinson
Art on Trial
John Ross
Bush's Surge Hits Mosul
Missy Comley Beattie
Killer Economics
David Michael
Green
Happy Anniversary, America!
Ramzy Baroud
The Coming Uncertain War on Iran
Martha Rosenberg
Easter Egg Shells from Hell
Paul Watson
Evolution is Going to the Dogs in the Galapagos
Isabella Kenfield
Monsanto's
Raid on Brazil
James Murren
Logging v. Water in Honduras
Jacob Hornberger
Sex and the Immigration Officer
Kathlyn Stone
Ben Heine, Master of the Art of Resistance
Seth Sandronsky
Rethinking New Mexico's History
Kim Nicolini
Class, Gender and Abortion in Communist Romania
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up: What I'm Reading This Week
Poets' Basement
Wilson, Woods, Gibbons and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Merci, McCain!
March 21, 2008
Marleen Martin
Land
Behind Bars: the Hidden Casualties of America's "War on
Crime"
Peter Montague
Run
Your Car on Coal? Maybe Not
Saul Landau
Monroe's
Deadly Doctrine
Anis Hamadeh
Merkel in the Knesset
Jacob Hornberger
McCain's Al Qaeda Scare: Slip or Tactic?
Khalil Nakhleh
Al Nakba of 1948: How Long Will It Persist?
Adam Isacson
Colombia, Paramilitary Threats and Assassinations
Kenneth Couesbouc
Money for Nothing
Madis Senner
Will the Feds Underwrite the Stock Market?
Monica Benderman
The Costs of Freedom: What Are You Willing to Pay?
Website of the Day
Stop Foreclosures and Evictions
March 20, 2008
Damien Millet
/
Eric Toussaint
The
Triple Failing of the Big Private Banks
Mike Whitney
Winding
Up Bear
John Ross
What Do We Owe Iraq?
Dave Lindorff
Paying the Piper: the Bodies and Bills are Piling Up
Wajahat Ali
Pakistan on Fire
Jill Nagle
Memo to Sex Workers: Stop Financing Shock Journalism
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Obama and the Psychic Auto-Shrink-Wrapping Called Race in America
Dan La Botz
Obama's Race Speech
Robert Weissman
Alternative Power: Shutting Down the API
Stella Dallas
/
Jennifer Matsui
Apostasy Now! Mamet, Enter Stage Right
Website of the Day
The Angry Monk
March 19, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
A
War of Lies
Robert Fisk
The Little Men and the Inferno
Jeff Taylor
Five Years of War in Iraq
Ed Ruggero
From Pinkville to Iraq: the Dark Anniversary of My Lai
Ron Jacobs
Who'll Stop the Rain?
Christopher
Fons
Obama Takes the Race Bait
Sherwood Ross
In Defense of Rev. Wright
Cynthia McKinney
An Urgent Crisis: Confronting America's Racial Disparities
Joshua Frank
The Kool-Aid That Kills
Robert Weissman
Monsanto's Genetic Food Gamble
Walter Brasch
It's a Welfare State--If You're Rich
Yifat Susskind
Iraqi Women Resist the Occupation
Andrew Wimmer
War Demands Its Due
Website of
the Day
Glimpses of Nature
March 18, 2008
David Price
The
Military "Leveraging" of Cultural Knowledge
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Collapse of American Power
Tim Wise
Of National Lies and Racial America: Jeremiah Wright, Barack
Obama and the Unacceptability of Truth
Patrick Cockburn
One of the Most Disastrous Wars Ever Fought
Conn Hallinan
Afghanistan, a River Running Backward
James T. Phillips
Monsters: Past, Present and Wannabe
Uri Avnery
The Killing in Bethlehem
David Macaray
Could Wal-Mart Revive the Labor Movement?
Marjorie Cohn
Beware an Attack on Iran
Peter Zinn
Obama in New Orleans
Dan La Botz
The Economic Crisis, Labor and the Left
Monica Benderman
Where are We Going?
March 17, 2008
Pam Martens
The
Fed's Wall Street Dilemma
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The US, Iran and the Policy of Dual Containment
Nelson P. Valdés
The Imperial Branding of Simon Bolivar and the Cuban Revolution
Peter Morici
The Corrosive Consequences of the Trade Deficit
Wajahat Ali
Disrobing the Nine: a Conversation with Jeffrey Toobin on the
Supreme Court Since 9/11
Ronnie Cummins
Beyond Progressive Malpractice: Taking Down Big Pharma
Shaun Harkin
Saint Patrick's Day in Fortress America
Ali Khan
No Pardon for Musharraf
Robert Jensen
Beyond Peace
P. Sainath
Oh, What a Lovely Waiver!
Greg Moses
Jeremiah was a Bullhorn
Dr. Susan Block
Advice for Eliot Spitzer
Website of the Day
No Cowboys
March 15 /
16, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
How
to Destroy a Country in Five Years
Mike Whitney
Bearly
Alive: Investment Giant Rushed to ICU by Panicky Fed Chief
Ralph Nader
Of
Laws and Men
Robert Pollin
It's Still the Economy, Stupid
Diane Christian
The Poetics of Perversity: From Boccaccio to Spitzer
Wajahat Ali
Faking the Hood: a Conversation with Ishmael Reed
Tom Wright
/
Therese Saliba
Rachel Corrie's Case for Justice
Alan Farago
Back to Florida: Where Bushtime Began
Greg Moses
Raiding the Family Room in Texas
Michael Hudson
A Grand Global Bargain?
Martha Rosenberg
Why Hillary's Favorite Chicken Company is Eying China
John Goekler
Fourth Generation Warfare in a Fifth Generation Conflict
Uzma Aslam
Khan
A Letter to Barack Obama: Where's the Change, Barack?
Oren Ben-Dor
The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon
David Underhill
Mammon, Morals and the Mobile Tanker Deal
Fred Gardner
The Education of Eliot Spitzer
David Michael
Green
Why Spitzer Should Have Resigned (and Why He Shouldn't Have)
Rev. William E. Alberts
Jesus, Entombed in Heaven
Gail Dines
It's All About the John: Prostitution and Male Power
David Yearsley
Conducting, Anarchy and the Problem of When to Begin
Chris Clarke
Walking with Zeke: the Luckiest of Dogs
Poets' Basement
Anderson, Lodge & Subiet
Website of
the Day
Deviant Art
March 14, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Watching
the Dollar Die
Don Santina
Vichy
Democrats: Pelosi and the Politics of Collaboration
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Mother Vows Revenge on US: How She Lost Her Husband and Her Sons
Tim Rinne
StratCom
Rules! The Next War Will Start in Nebraska
Robert Fantina
In
Torture We Trust
Saul Landau
Letter
to the Presidents-in-Waitings
David Macaray
Common
Myths About Labor Unions
Franklin Lamb
Is
the Bush Administration Switching Horses in Lebanon
Michael Neumann
The
One State Illusion: Reply to My Critics
March 13, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Republicans
and "Free Market" Zealots Bring Disaster to America
Mike Whitney
Meltdown
Looms Larger As Credit Markets Freeze
Assaf Kfoury
"One-State
or Two State?"- Sterile Debate on False Alternatives
Andy Worthington
Afghan
Hero Who Died in Guantánamo: The Background to the Story
Adam Federman
From
Autopia to Autogeddon: Cars Reach the End of the Road
March 12, 2008
Dave Lindorff
Bringing
Down Spitzer: It's the Big Brother Who Should Bother US
R.F. Blader
The
Spitzer Backlash
Yonatan Mendel
How
to be an Israeli Journalist. Never Write "Murder" or
"Palestine"
Jonathan Cook
One
State or Two? Neither. The Issue is Zionism
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Fallon
and Gates -- At Least One Cheer
James J. Brittain
Was
the U.S. Involved in Killing the FARC-EP Leaders
Ron Jacobs
"All
the Money You Make Will Never Buy Back Your Soul"
March 11, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
to End the Subprime Crisis
Ed O'Loughlin
How
Israeli Troops Invade Homes in Gaza, Brutalize, Smash and Steal
Ramzy Baroud
'Unwavering
Commitment' to Inequality
Kathy Christison
One
State or Two? The Debate Over Israel and Palestine
China Hand
PRC
Plays it Cool, as U.S. Tries to Amp Up Pressure on Iran
John Joslin
Thank
You, Nafta! Welcome to Weirton, Home of the Discount Cigarette
Mike Averko
Serb
Politics, Kosovo and the Moscow-Washington Divide
Ben Rosenfeld
Gavin
Newsom's Kneejerk Plan
Thierry Paquot
High
Rise, Low Spirits:The Curse of the Tower Block
March 10, 2008
Uri Avnery
"Kill
A Hundred Turks and Rest": The Five-Day War in Gaza
Col. Dan Smith
Scoring
the "Surge" and What Lies Beyond
R.F. Blader
Why
"Lock Them Up and Throw Away the Key" is Losing its
Sheen
Michael Neumann
The
One-State Illusion: More is Less
Bob Fitrakis
and Harvey Wasserman
Did
the Republicans Give Hillary Her Victory in Ohio?
James J. Brittain
Anti-Uribe
Protests in Colombia and the World
Missy Comley
Beattie
The
Passion of John McCain
March 8-9,
2008 Weekend Edition
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Only Way to Fight the Clintons
Mike Whitney
Sorting
Through the Rubble in Post Bubble America
Peter Morici
Fed
and Treasury Fiddle as Economy Plummets
Ralph Nader
The
Silent Violence of Gaza's Suffering that Candidates Ignore
Jonathan Cook
The
Meaning of Gaza's Shoah
Steve Niva
Behind
the Israeli Escalation in Gaza
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Crisis
over Teheran's Alleged Nuclear Plans Nearing Climax
Hervé
Do Alto and Franck Poupeau
Bolivia:
Morales is Checked
Eric Walberg
To
Leave and Stay at the Same Time: Putin to Medvedev to…?
Scott Johnson
City
of A Thousand Foreclosures
Mark Scaramella
James
Brown's Gate
Bill Clinton
President
Clinton's Remarks on Naming William M. Daley as NAFTA Task Force
Chairman
Poet's Basement
St.
Thomasino, Engel, Davies and Willson
Website of
the Weekend
Hillary
Blackens Barack
March 7, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Iraq Could Blow-Up in John McCain's Face
Robin Blackburn
Question
for Barrack Obama: Why Afghanistan is the'Right War'?
Saul Landau
The
Stupid Economy
Binoy Kampmark
When
Competition is Good: McCain and the Muddled Democrats
Chris Floyd
Crushing
the Ants: Admiral Fallon and His Empire
Andy Worthington
Spanish
Drop "Inhuman" Extradition Request for Guantánamo
Britons
Will Potter
Before
the Smoke Even Clears in Seattle: Bringing Out the T Word
March 6, 2008
March 6, 2008
Vincent Navarro
The
Next Failure of Health Reform
Forrest Hylton
High Stakes in the Andes: Colombia's Cornered President
Peter Morici
Why the Dollar is So Cheap
George Ciccariello-Maher
Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats
John Ross
Taxi! Taxi! The Dark Side of the Oscars
Jacob Hornberger
No Standing to Lecture on Justice
Paul Watson
Illegal Japanese Whaling by the Numbers
Dan Bacher
Off the Deep End
Website of the Day
A Katrina Reader Online
March 5, 2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Great Day for John McCain (and Maybe Nader)
Joanne Mariner
After Guantanamo
Fidel Castro
The Raid on Ecuador: Underestimating Rafael Correa
Christopher
Brauchli
The Turkish Invasions
Steven Sherman
Obama and the Prospects for a Renewal of the Left
Dave Lindorff
Busting Bush & Co. in New England
James Murren
Bombing Somalia
Adam Engel
Necropolis Now
Website of Day
Remember Song
March 4, 2008
Wajahat Ali
Mumbo
Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed
William Blum
How Could Hillary Have Known?
Bill Quigley
The Cleansing of New Orleans
Ralph Nader
The Prince Harry Solution
Patrick Irelan
Oil and Health in Venezuela
James J. Brittain
/
R. James Sacouman
Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America
Norman Solomon
The War Election
Jacob Hornberger
Hillary in Waco: the Missing Apology
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the European Parliament
Mike Averko
Kosovo and the Press
Website of the Day
Tex-Mex Primary
March 3, 2008
Jennifer Loewenstein
Gazan Holocaust
Alan Farago
American Politics and the Faltering Economy
Richard Gott
Colombian Deaths in Ecuador
Wajahat Ali
Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup
Poll with John Esposito
Paul Craig Roberts
The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution
Robert Weissman
When Multinationals Say Adieu
Uri Avnery
Good Morning, Hamas
Martha Rosenberg
When Your Meat is a Downer
Eva Liddell
Leave the Next Dance for Bill
Michael Donnelly
Will Ferrell Does Flint
Website of the Day
Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home Blues
March 1 / 2,
2008
Alexander Cockburn
The
Race Card
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Political Trial of Don Siegelman
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Nader the Best Antidote to American Imperialism
Nelson P. Valdés
Cuba After Fidel
Christopher Brauchli
Meet Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev: Friend of Bill, George and Dick
Ron Jacobs
Inside the Secret City: Bomb Making at Oak Ridge
John Ross
The New Conquistadores: Spain's Reconquest of Mexico
Robert Fantina
Posturing Over Patriotism: Obama and Those Lapel Pins
Robert Weissman
Hidden in Plain Sight: Human Rights Hypocrisy
Mohammed Omer
Fear in Gaza
Remi Kanazi
Barack Obama and the Politics of Xenophobia
Bob Jackson
Why is Yellowstone Destroying Its Bison Herd?
Richard Rhames
Casual Threats: Loaded with Mercury
Franklin Lamb
Lebanon Awaits the Arrival of the USS Cole
Rannie Amiri
Showboat Diplomacy: US Warships Steam Toward Lebanon
David Michael
Green
The Three Faces of Hillary: the Politics of Flim-Flam
Conn Hallinan
Notes from the Southern Cone
Faheem Hussain
Prince Harry of Afghanistan and the Meaning of Normalcy
Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Orloski, Gardner and Ford
Website of
the Weekend
The Palestine Chronicle Needs (and Deserves) Your Help!
February 29,
2008
Matt Gonzalez
The
Obama Craze
Jonathan Cook
Academic Freedom? Not for Arabs in Israel
Joshua Frank
Obama and Israel
Anthony DiMaggio
The Unilateral Presidency: Signing Statements and the Rollback
of American Law
Linn Washington, Jr.
Cop Abuse in America
Binoy Kampmark
Hubris and Nemesis
Robert Bryce
Energy Efficiency May be a Good Thing, But It Won't Cut Energy
Use
Sonja Karkar
Australia's Government Continues Its Love Affair with Israel
Dave Lindorff
A Manchurian Candidate in the White House? Obama or Bush?
Website of
the Day
Olduvai George
February 28,
2008
Patrick Cockburn
"Iraq"
Falls Apart
Fred Gardner
The Birth of NAFTA
Michael Levitin
The Crisis in Kosovo is Just Beginning
William S.
Lind
The Fake State of Kosovo
David Macaray
A Ray of Hope for Organized Labor
Stephen Fleischman
Nader's Latest Run: Monkey Wrench or Cattle Prod?
George Wuerthner
The Myths of Forest Health: Why Ecological Logging is an Oxymoron
Laura Carlsen
The North American Union Farce
Carl Finamore
Why the Delta-Northwest Deal Hasn't Taken Off
Michael Dickinson
The Day I Bombed the House of Commons
Website of the Day
Plane Stupid
February 27,
2008
David Rosen
Playing
the Race Card: Obama, Love Across the Color Line and Political
Dirty Tricks
Vijay Prashad
Bomber John: McCain and the 100 Year War
Harvey Wasserman
Incident at Turkey Point: Did Florida Go to the Radioactive Brink?
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo's Shambolic Trials: Pentagon Boss Resigns,
Ex-Prosecutor Joins Defense
Wajahat Ali
Pakistan for Sale: an Interview with Ayesha Siddiqa on Pakistan's
Military Economy
Peter Morici
The Auction-Rate Securities Fiasco: a Drama of Greed and Betrayal
Stephen Philion
Conspiracy Theory, Fears of Betrayal and Today's Anti-War Movement
Michael Donnelly
Obama by Unanimous Decision
Erica Rosenberg /
Janine Blaeloch
After the Land Deals: Will There
be Any Wilderness Left to Protect?
Website of
the Day
Dress Blues
February 26,
2008
Debbie Nathan
Confessions
of a Gitmo Guard
Alan Dershowitz
v. Frank Menetrez
On Finkelstein
Harvey Wasserman
How Ohio Got Nuked
Michael Colby
Ralph Nader vs. the Fundamentalist Liberals
Gary Leupp
Condi vs. Putin on Bullying Belgrade
David Orchard
The New Conquistadors: Canada in Afghanistan
Martha Rosenberg
The Big HRT
Fran Shor
The Electoral Circus and Nader's Sideshow
Serge Halimi
The Dom Perignon Socialist Manifesto: Bernard Henri-Levy's Plan
for the French Left
Global Balkans
Neo-Liberalism and Protectorate States in the Post-Yugoslav Balkans:
an Interview with Tariq Ali
Website of
the Day
Texistentialism
February 25,
2008
Roger Morris
A
Death in Damascus
Anthony DiMaggio
Military
Bases, the Media and the Democrats
Ralph Nader
Why I'm Running
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq Broils
Paul Craig Roberts
Kosovo and the Empire Crazies
Peter Morici
Bernanke's Failing Policies: a Long Recession Looms
Dave Lindorff
General Welch's Whitewash: What We Still Don't Know About That
Minot Nuke Incident
Saul Landau
/
Farrah Hassen
Fanatics, Mountebanks and Drillers: a Bloody Oil Film
Heather Gray
James Orange, Civil Rights Legend
Robert Weitzel
Accomodating Torture
John Halle
Kucinich Goes Down
Website of the Day
Do the Trunk Monkey!
February 23 / 4, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
The
Mushrooming Clouds That Hang Over McCain
Paul Craig
Roberts
Obama
and Global Trade
Wajahat Ali
Omissions of the Commission: an Interview with Phillip Shenon
on the 9/11 Commission
Ralph Nader
Neutering the FDA
Jürgen
Vsych
"What Was Ralph Nader Thinking?"
Fidel Castro
Watching the US Presidential Campaign from Havana
Andy Worthington
Britain's Guantánamo
David Macaray
Unions Under Assault
Jeremy Scahill
The Real Story Behind Kosovo's Independence
David Krieger
Stanley Sheinbaum
Caging the Cold War Monster
Ron Jacobs
Building for the Future
Michael Garrity
The Last, Best Hope for the Northern Rockies
Brian McKenna
Higher Ed's "Civic Engagements" Get Dumbed Down
Missy Beattie
Over the Hill with John McCain
Fred Gardner
American College of Physicians Takes Pro-Cannabis Stand (Mostly)
Boris Kagarlitsky
The Growth of the Russian Labor Movement
Mike Ferner
Kick That Barrel
Dan Bacher
On the Trail with the Border Angels
Christopher
Ketcham
Hillary Goes Where Obama Fears to Tread
Poets' Basement
Davies and Buknatski
Website of
the Weekend
Obama
Mariachi
February 22,
2008
Mike Whitney
The
Bonfire of Capital
Jason Hribal
Elephants and the Circus: The Story of Janet
Liaquat Ali Khan
Arresting Musharraf
Joshua Frank
That Obama Glow: the Nuclear Industry's Golden Child
Dave Lindorff
Vicki's John: Ask Not What She Did for Him, Ask What He Did for
Her!
Liliana Segura
When Torture is Old News: McCain's Blonde Diversion
Robert Fantina
Castro, Bush and Cuba: a Fiasco Waiting to Happen?
Yifat Susskind
The ABCs of Death: Bush vs. Africa's Women
Norm Kent
Pushing 60 with Pot
Website of
the Day
Bush Gets Down in Liberia
February 21,
2008
Saul Landau
Fidel
Steps Aside
Elizabeth Schulte
Left Behind, With No End in Sight: America's Long-Term Unemployed
Helen Redmond
Health Care as a Human Right
Benjamin Dangl
Undermining Bolivia
Michael Levitin
Kosovo's Dilemma
Liam Leonard
Fear and Loathing on the Emerald Isle
Patrick Irelan
Land and Food in Venezuela
Linn Cohen-Cole
Poor Ohio: a Second Letter to Hillary on Her Ties to Monsanto
Michael Simmons
Daydream Believer: John Stewart, the Miles Davis of Folk Music
CounterPunch
News Service
A Message from the Women of Okinawa to US GIs
Website of the Day
Cop Abuse in Shreveport
|
March
28, 2008
Third Circuit Court
Rejects Abu-Jamal's Appeal
The
Mumia Exception
By DAVE LINDORFF
After spending almost a year's time
deliberating following a hearing last May 17, a three-judge panel
of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has shot
down all three claims by death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal challenging
his conviction for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer
Daniel Faulkner.
At the same time, the appeals
court upheld a 2001 decision by Federal District Judge William
Yohn that had overturned former Black Panther and Philadelphia
journalist Abu-Jamal's death sentence, agreeing with the lower
court judge that the form used by the trial jury in 1982 to establish
whether jurors felt there were any mitigating circumstances was
flawed, and could have left panelists mistakenly believing that
before they could consider any such mitigating factors in their
deliberations, they would all have to agree such a factor existed.
In fact, by law if even one juror believes that there is a mitigating
factor, that factor can be considered by jurors in deciding on
death or life in prison.
The court was unanimous in
rejecting Abu-Jamal's claim that the trial judge, Albert Sabo,
had been prejudiced against him and in favor of the prosecution
when he presided over a Post-Conviction Relief Act hearing in
1995-6. It was also unanimous in rejecting Abu-Jamal's claim
that Prosecutor Joseph McGill had improperly diminished the jury's
sense of responsibility during the conviction phase of the trial
by telling them that their decision would not be final as there
would be "appeal after appeal." The appellate judges
didn't say that McGill's statement was proper, or even that it
might not have impacted jurors' decision on guilt, but rather
agreed that by court precedent they had only used evidence of
such prosecutorial misconduct to overturn death sentences, not
convictions. (Arguably, in the unlikely event that the Philadelphia
DA were successful in getting the US Supreme Court to reverse
the Third Circuit and reimpose Abu-Jamal's death penalty, he
could go back and appeal the sentence based upon this statement
to the jury by McGill.)
But on Abu-Jamal's third
claim-that the prosecution had improperly violated his Constitutional
right to a fair trial by his peers by barring 10 qualified African-American
potential jurors from serving on his jury through the use of
what are called "peremptory challenges"-there was a
dissent, making the vote 2-1.
Judge Thomas Ambro, a Clinton
appointee to the bench-chastised his two colleagues, Chief Judge
Anthony Scirica and Judge Robert Cowan-- both Reagan appointees--saying
that they were applying a different, and unattainable standard
of proof to Abu-Jamal than they had been using for other cases
brought before them.
In rejecting Abu-Jamal's claim
of racial bias in jury selection-something known as a Batson
violation, after the Supreme Court's 1986 decision in Batson
v Kentucky-the court majority wrote that Abu-Jamal had not
made a timely protest over prosecutor McGill's rejection of 10
black jurors without cause (McGill used 15 of his 20 available
peremptory challenges to remove at least 10 qualified black and
5 qualified white jurors). The majority also proposed that because
Abu-Jamal had not provided the court with the racial makeup of
the jury pool, it was impossible to know whether perhaps two-thirds
of that pool might have been black, giving an "innocent
explanation" to McGill's 66.7% black rejection rate. (Local
attorneys scoff at such a notion, saying they've never seen a
jury pool so skewed racially.)
Judge Ambro blasted this logic,
saying that the US Supreme Court had established that "excluding
even a single person from a jury because of race violated the
Equal Protection Clause of our Constitution." Significantly,
the nation's High Court just affirmed that position March 19
with a powerful 7-2 ruling in a Louisiana death penalty case
(Snyder v. Louisiana).
Judge Ambro then accused his
robed colleagues of having a double standard, saying "Our
Court has previously reached the merits of Batson claims
on habeas review in cases where the petitioner did not make a
timely objection during jury selection-signaling that our Circuit
does not have a federal contemporaneous objection rule-and I
see no reason why we should not afford Abu-Jamal the courtesy
of our precedents." He added, "Why we pick this case
to depart from that reasoning I do not know."
Going further, Judge Ambro
writes, "We have repeatedly said that a defendant can make
out a prima facie case for jury-selection discrimination by showing
that the prosecution struck a single juror because of raceIn
fact, in United States v. Clemons, we explained that `striking
a single black juror could constitute a prima facie case even
when blacks ultimately sit on the panel and even when valid reasons
exist for striking other blacks.'...Yet the majority focuses
on the absence of information about the racial composition and
total number of the venire, claiming that this statistical information-from
which one can compute the exclusion rate-is necessary to assess
whether an inference of discrimination can be discerned in Abu-Jamal's
case. Such a focus is contrary to the nondiscrimination principle
underpinning Batson, and it conflicts with our Court's precedents,
in which we have held that there is no "magic number or
percentage [necessary] to trigger a Batson inquiry,"
One thing Judge Ambro didn't
mention in his 41-page dissent was the evidence presented by
Abu-Jamal to the court of a clear history of deliberate race
purging of juries by the Philadelphia DA's office, and by prosecutor
McGill in particular. That evidence, developed by academic researchers
and by attorneys at the Federal Defenders' Office in Philadelphia,
show that between 1977 and 1986, while Ed Rendell was Philadelphia's
District Attorney, local prosecutors used peremptory challenges
to strike qualified blacks from juries in death penalty cases
58 percent of the time, compared to 22 percent of the time for
qualified whites. During the same period of time, prosecutor
McGill himself struck qualified black jurors 74 percent of the
time in death penalty cases he tried, compared to 25 percent
of qualified white jurors.
Interestingly, one of the Third
Circuit precedents referred to by Judge Ambro was a 2005 case
heard by Judge Sam Alito, now elevated to the Supreme Court.
In that case, Brinson v Vaughn, Alito overturned the appellant's
death penalty conviction, writing that "...a prosecutor
may violate Batson even if the prosecutor passes up the opportunity
to strike some African Americans jurors." Alito further
stated in that decision that "a prosecutor's decision to
refrain from discriminating against some African Americans does
not cure discrimination against others." (Significantly,
the High Court's latest Snyder decision opinion was also
penned by Justice Alito, who shows himself to be a passionate
opponent of racism in jury selection.)
What appears to be happening
here, and what obviously upset Judge Ambro, is that the other
two judges, Scirica and Cowan, are demonstrating another example
of what my colleague, Philadelphia journalist Linn Washington,
has dubbed the "Mumia Exception."
Washington has noted that on
several occasions during Abu-Jamal's epic 26-year battle to survive
Pennsylvania's death row machine, the state's courts have altered
the rules to keep him locked up and on course for execution.
Pennsylvania's top court in 1986 overturned a death sentence
where McGill, the same prosecutor in Abu-Jamal's case, had made
the same closing statement to jurors at the conclusion of a murder
trial presided over by Judge Sabo, the same trial judge who presided
in Abu-Jamal's case. The court, declaring that the prosecutor's
language had "minimize[ed] the jury's sense of responsibility
for a verdict of death," had ordered a new trial that time.
Three years later in 1989, despite this precedent and presented
with an identical situation involving the same characters, the
same court reversed itself, though, upholding Abu-Jamal's conviction.
Eleven years later, Pennsylvania's highest court reversed track
again, barring such language by prosecutors "in all future
trials," but not making their decision retroactive to include
Abu-Jamal.
Another example of this judicial
"special handling" where Abu-Jamal's case is concerned,
involves the right of allocution--the right of the convicted
to make a statement without challenge before sentencing. One
month before initially upholding Abu-Jamal's conviction in March
1989, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a ruling declaring
the right of allocution to be of "ancient origin" and
saying that any failure to permit a defendant to plead for mercy
demanded reversal of sentence. Abu-Jamal's appeal claimed Judge
Sabo, by allowing the prosecutor to question Abu-Jamal on the
stand after the convicted defendant had made just such a statement
to jurors, violated his allocution right during the '82 trial.
The state's high court, however--for the first time in its history--ruled
that the "right of allocution does not exist in the penalty
phase of capital murder prosecution."
This flip-flopping on allocution,
on acceptable language for prosecutors and on other legal precedents
all led Amnesty International to conclude in its 2001 report
on Abu-Jamal's case that the state's highest court improperly
invents new standards of procedure "to apply it to one case
only: that of Mumia Abu-Jamal."
Justice, that is to say, has
not always been blind in this case. A "Mumia Exception"
had been established.
And now this stain on Pennsylvania
jurisprudence appears to have migrated to the federal court system,
at the Third Circuit.
Says Washington, "This
decision once again shows that in the Abu-Jamal case, evidence
is not important. As with the Pennsylvania courts, this federal
court ignored its own precedents in reaching a result that is
contrary to the facts and to the law. The reason for this is
what Amnesty International pointed out in their 2001 report:
The Abu-Jamal case is hopelessly polluted by politics, which
precludes any justice in this case."
Robert Bryan, Abu-Jamal's lead
attorney, said the third Circuit Court's upholding of the death
penalty reversal was a "major victory," but he said,
"The fact that the court majority turned a blind eye to
the racially discriminatory practices of the DA's office is outrageous."
Current Philadelphia District
Attorney Lynn Abraham continued that outrageous behavior, and
gave a demonstration of the toxic politics that affects the justice
system where this case is concerned, at a press conference following
the announcement of the court's decision, where she referred
to Abu-Jamal repeatedly as an "assassin." In fact,
at no point during the trial was there ever any claim by the
prosecution, or any witness testimony, to even remotely suggest
that Abu-Jamal had "targeted" Faulkner for death. Rather,
the prosecution claimed that he had coincidentally been parked
in a taxi he was driving, across the street from where his brother
William had been stopped on a traffic violation by Faulkner,
and had come across the street when his brother and the officer
became involved in an altercation. To wrongly label the ensuing
double shooting of Faulkner and Abu-Jamal an "assassination"
as Abraham did, implying a political "hit" on Faulkner,
was clearly aimed at inflaming public sentiment against Abu-Jamal.
It was the same thing prosecutor McGill had attempted to do when,
after the verdict, during his summation to the jury in the penalty
phase of the trial back in '82, he brought out an old news clipping
of an interview with a 15-year-old Abu-Jamal in which the defendant
had quoted Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Tse-tung as saying
"power flows from the barrel of a gun." (The context
of that full article made it clear the young Abu-Jamal was referring
in that quote to the power of police, who had just "assassinated"
Panther leader Fred Hampton in his bed in a raid on a house in
Chicago.)
With all three of Abu-Jamal's
habeas claims for an overturning of his conviction rejected,
his case now moves to the US Supreme Court, with a possible stop
along the way for a hearing by the full Third Circuit bench.
Abu-Jamal's attorney Bryan says he plans to file a request for
such an en banc reconsideration of the ruling by the full
Third Circuit within the next two weeks. Neither the full Third
Circuit, nor the Supreme Court, are obligated to hear the case,
which would make the current Third Circuit decision the final
word on his conviction.
Bryan said, "Judge Ambro's
dissent in the Batson decision was very powerful, and we will
certainly be using it in our arguments to the full Third Circuit
and to the Supreme Court."
As for the overturned death
penalty ruling, which the DA's office will certainly also appeal
to the High Court, should it be sustained, there are two options.
The DA could decide to leave things at that-something McGill,
interviewed shortly after Judge Yohn's initial ruling, said was
being considered-in which case Abu-Jamal would face life in prison
with no possibility of parole. He would not, however, have to
spend more time in the near solitary confinement torture of Pennsylvania's
maximum-security death row, but would be moved to a regular prison.
Alternatively, the DA could decide to go to a Philadelphia court
and impanel a new jury to conduct just a sentencing hearing,
in hopes of winning a new death penalty. Such a limited trial
would not address guilt or innocence--only punishment.
Given fairer rules regarding
jury selection, and the larger minority population in today's
Philadelphia, and Abu-Jamal's having better legal representation,
it is hard to imagine the DA succeeding in convincing 12 fairly
chosen Philadelphia jurors to sentence journalist him to death
for a crime for which he has already served 26 hard years' time.
Moreover, because a defendant is entitled to subpoena witnesses
in his defense, the DA would run the risk that Abu-Jamal could
use such a trial to introduce new evidence of innocence, opening
the door to further appeals of his underlying conviction. For
these reasons, an effort to win a new death sentence seems unlikely.
The legal stymieing of Abu-Jamal's
efforts to win a new trial comes at a time of growing questions
regarding his guilt, or at least the veracity of the witnesses
and the evidence used to convict him on a first-degree murder
charge.
Last year, photos were discovered
that had been taken by a freelance news photographer of the crime
scene on the south side of Locust Street at 13th Street in Philadelphia's
Center City only minutes after police had arrived and after the
wounded Abu-Jamal and the clinically dead Faulkner had been taken
off to Jefferson Hospital. These photos show police tampering
with evidence, including the both Abu-Jamal's and Faulkner's
guns as well as the officer's police hat. Photos of the bloody
spot on the sidewalk where Faulkner lay as he was shot by a bullet
to the face at close range show no sign of craters where three
other shots Abu-Jamal is alleged to have fired from a position
astride the officer and that missed should have left their marks
in the concrete, raising questions about the testimony of two
alleged eyewitnesses to the shooting. Those same photos also
show no taxicab parked behind Faulkner's parked squad car in
the place one of those witnesses, Robert Chobert, claimed he
had been stopped. The missing cab raises questions about the
veracity of Chobert's claim to have witnessed Faulkner's murder.
Other witnesses are still coming
forward since the trial, who also challenge the prosecution's
story, but without a new trial, it is not clear that their evidence
will ever be heard.
Abu-Jamal's attorney says Abu-Jamal
told him this morning that he was "disappointed" in
the result, but that he "hopes the reversal of the death
penalty will help others on death row, and says, `The struggle
continues!'"
DAVE LINDORFF is author of "Killing Time: An
Investigation into the Death Penalty Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal"
(Common Courage Press, 2003). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
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