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Recent
Stories
June
13, 2003
David
Vest
Bush
Roadmap to What?
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Reloaded?
John
Chuckman
The Man Who Wasn't There
Jason Leopold
Six Months Before War White House Silenced Critics of WMD Intelligence
Michael
Leon
Missing Weapons, Shrinking Bush and the Media
Negar Azimi
Ashcroft's Cruel Version of America
Saul
Landau
Shiite Happens
Hammond
Guthrie
Then and Now
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/13
June
12, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Intel-gate Row in Britain: a Chronology
Ahmad Faruqui
The Tragic Legacy of the Six Day
War
Wayne
Madsen
Unfit for Office: Time for Rumsfeld to Resign
Laura Carlsen
Hunger and Security
Tarif
Abboushi
Warm and Fuzzy in Aqaba
Ray
McGovern
Deceived into War: Reflections of
a Former CIA Analyst
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/12
June
11, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Attack of the Hog Killers: Why the
Generals Hate the A-10
Elaine
Cassel
Meet Michael Chertoff: Ashcroft's
Top Gremlin
David Lindorff
The Republican Drive to Eliminate Overtime Pay
Tom
Gorman
Greens, the Antiwar Movement and 2004
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia: The Most Dangerous Place
on Earth for Trade Unionists
Nnimo
Bassey and Lawrence Bohlen
Bush Must Stop Telling Us What to
Eat!
Julie Hilden
Spike Lee v. Spike TV
CounterPunch
Wire
Blair Bros. Change Jobs!
Eric
Hobsbawm
The Empire Expands, Wider and Still
Wider
Steve
Perry
DHS: As Big
a Planning Snafu as Iraq?
June
10, 2003
Benjamin
Shepard
A Season in the Anti-War Movement
Chris
Floyd
Bush Family Lies About Iraq and Nazi
Germany
Wayne
Madsen
Weaponsgate
Jason Leopold
Powell's Denials Ring Hollow
Richard
Lichtman
Whining, Whimpering Leftists Confront the Logic of American World
Domination
Ray
Close
A CIA Analyst on Why the Lies About
WMD Matter
Hammond
Guthrie
Banking on Saddam?
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/10
June
9, 2003
Alex
Coolman
Male Rape in US Prisons
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft is Coming!
Lee
Sustar
Is Iran Next?
Agustin
Velloso
Equatorial Guinea: Few Rich, Many
Poor
Gila
Svirsky
Some Lives Are Worth Less Than Others
Dr. Gerry
Lower
Human Worth in Bush's America
Michael
S. Ladah
A True Liberation
Ishmael Reed
Iraqi Slaughter, Mayhem and Plunder
Steve
Perry
How to Beat Bush, part 1
June
7 / 8, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Terrible Truth
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Going Critical: Bush's War on Endangered Species
Joanne
Mariner
Ashcrofts Sides with Torturers
Steven
Sherman
A Different Theory of Everything
Ron Jacobs
Sports, Politics and the 60s
M.
Shahid Alam
Pauperizing the Periphery
Amelia
Peltz
If This is the Road, I'd Rather be Lost
Shelton
Hull
Another Powell, Another Capitulation
Binoy Kampmark
Nuclear Deterrence and North Korea
Ben
Tripp
A Fish Story
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Where is the Outrage?
Robin
Philpot
Congo Distortions
Julie Hilden
Murder and the Matrix
Laura
Flanders
An Interview with Isabel Allende
David Lindorff
The Last Byline
Adam
Engel
Talk Dirty Scary Monsters
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Reiss, Guthrie, Albert and Hamod
June
6, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft the Insatiable
David
Krieger
The Big Lie
Ramzy
Baroud
Sharon and the Myth of the Peacemakers
Anthony
Gancarski
Sharansky: "Crucifixion is a Privilege"
Sam
Hamod
His Own Little Country
Sean Carter
Why Indict Martha Stewart and Not Ken Lay?
David
Lindorff
Cracks in the Consensus
Stew Albert
Ari's Great Set
Steve
Perry
Greens and
Moore in 04? No
June
5, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Pools of Fire: The Looming Nuclear
Nightmare in the Woods of North Carolina
Imraan
Siddiqi
Ann Coulter's Foul Mouth
Michael
Leon
Clinton, Reno & Waco: Remember What They've Done
Robert
Jensen
Texas Pledge Law Undermines Democracy
Ann Harrison
Rosenthal is Free, But the Fight isn't Over
Paul
Dean
How You Can Be Deliriously Happy in the Age of Bush
Gary Leupp
When Spooks Speak Out
Website
of the Day
Evidence in Black and White?
Hot Stories
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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June
14, 2003
Rumsfeld v. Belgium
"Leave
Us Alone or We'll Move NATO"
By DAVID LINDORFF
Is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld an idiot
or just an unbelievable boor? And do the Times and the Associated
Press have historical memories that reach past the prior day's
news?
What prompted these ruminations was a
comment made by our pompous war secretary during his current
European tour, as reported in the NYT. Miffed by a 1994 Belgian
law that empowers prosecutors to go after any war criminal regardless
of nationality, for crimes against humanity wherever they may
have occurred, Rumsfeld, who along with the rest of the U.S.
government has been opposing inclusion of the U.S. in the jurisdiction
of the International Criminal Court, actually groused that Belgium
"appears not to respect the sovereignty of other countries."
He went on to threaten removal of NATO hq to another jurisdiction
if Belgian law wasn't changed.
This assertion comes from a guy who just
weeks ago ignored the will of the United Nations and invaded,
conquered and now occupies a country, Iraq, which posed no threat
to the U.S.! Talk about respecting sovereignty!
And remember, this was no one-time transgression.
We're talking about the United States of America, a country that,
along with the former Soviet Union, surely shares honors as the
biggest violator of national sovereignty in modern history, and
which since the end of the Cold War holds that title alone.
A country that is illegally holding prisoners
from its war in Afghanistan (including children ) even though
that conflict is  over, and which still
refuses even to recognize them as prisoners of war.
A country that has repeatedly, in recent
memory, invaded other nations that posed no threat--Grenada and
Panama, --not to mention North Vietnam and Cambodia, where the
casualties numbered in the millions--and which actually kidnapped
the head of state of Panama, brought him to the U.S., and tried,
convicted and jailed him for crimes allegedly committed in his
own country.
A country that a few years back bombed
two foreign nations--the Sudan and Afghanistan--with no warning,
and which did the same more recently in Yemen.
A country that for decades has engaged
in an illegal embargo--an act of war under international law--
against Cuba, causing untold damage to that country's people
and economy.
A country that has repeatedly violated
the sovereignty of other lands by forcing them (on pain of devastating
trade sanctions), to permit the advertising of cigarettes, despite
efforts in those nations to reduce smoking by banning such advertising.
A country that today talks casually of
invading Syria and/or North Korea, and which is openly discussing
the adoption of a policy of undermining the government of a sovereign
nation, Iran, and which for decades has just as casually overthrown
governments it didn't like, including democratically elected
ones in states like Guatemala and Chile.
The point should by now be clear: Rumsfeld,
who has had a hand in a fair number of the above gross violations
of national sovereignty (and in plenty more that haven't been
listed here), may be legitimately worried that he and a host
of American military leaders may find themselves being charged
under Belgium's statute, but he clearly has no business complaining
about any country's concept of what is fair game when it comes
to respecting sovereignty.
But what about the Times and the AP?
Times reporter Craig S. Smith focussed on European diplomats'
complaints about Rumsfeld's "tactlessness." He and
his editors let Rumsfeld's comment slide past without a line
of comment about America's own history of trampling on national
sovereignty. Meanwhile, Pauline Jelinek, writing for the AP (as
published in the Philadelphia Inquirer), didn't even mention
any complaints about tactlessness. She seemed more concerned
that Iraqi theater commander Gen. Tommy Franks, 1991 Gulf War
commander Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Vice President Dick Cheney
and Secretary of State Colin Powell have already been sued under
the Belgian law (the Franks suit was subsequently tossed out
by the court).
Is this because Smith, Jelinek and their
bosses are ignorant?
Possibly.
More likely though, they just don't think
that Belgium and the U.S. operate by the same set of rules.
Under this editorial theory, other nations
of the world are bound by a stern set of behavior guidelines,
enshrined in the U.N. Charter and other global treaties--and
of course enforceable by us, the world's self-appointed global
prosecutor and cop.
The U.S., however, doesn't operate under
these same rules. When we invade another country, meddle in its
political affairs, impede its health or environmental or labor
reform efforts, or kidnap its leader, it is not a violation of
sovereignty. It is our right.
We can't expect someone like the strutting
Rumsfeld to change, but we can insist that the Times and AP do
better than operate as the defense secretary's recording secretary
and PR flak.
Dave Lindorff
is the author of Killing
Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.
A collection of Lindorff's stories can be found here: http://www.nwuphilly.org/dave.html
Yesterday's Features
David
Vest
Bush
Roadmap to What?
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Reloaded?
John
Chuckman
The Man Who Wasn't There
Jason Leopold
Six Months Before War White House Silenced Critics of WMD Intelligence
Michael
Leon
Missing Weapons, Shrinking Bush and the Media
Negar Azimi
Ashcroft's Cruel Version of America
Saul
Landau
Shiite Happens
Hammond
Guthrie
Then and Now
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/13
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