Wars
of the Laptop Bombers
Today's
Stories
February 18,
2005
Mickey Z.
"One
Man Has Stopped Killing"
February 17,
2005
Joshua Frank
Hogtying
of the Deaniacs
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
Willing Sychophants: the Conservative Media
Robert Fisk
Under
the Shadow of Death in Lebanon
Christopher
Brauchli
Where
Time Stands Still: Kinsey and Darwin in Cobb County, GA
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
Military
Recruitment TV: Why Send Them to College, When Your Kid Can be
Cannon Fodder?
Alison Weir
Russia, Israel and Media Omissions
Ahrar Ahmad
A Review of Shahid Alam's "Is There an Islamic Problem?"
Saul Landau
An
Interview with Cuban VP Ricardo Alarcon: "The US Tramples
the Laws It Wrote"
Website of the Day
Petition to Support Ward Churchill
February 16,
2005
Robert Fisk
Lebanon:
a Battlefield for the Wars of Others
Kevin Zeese
Creating a Real Ownership Society: Share the Wealth; Protect
Retirement
Gary Leupp
Meanwhile, in Nepal...
Ron Jacobs
Why the Iranian Opposition Should Not Trust the Bush Administration
Jessica Leight
Oil-Flush Chavez Begins to Strut His Stuff
Greg Moses
Houston, You've Got a Problem: Documenting Voting Irregularities
in Texas
Mark Engler
The Last Porto Alegre
Jack McCarthy
Where's the Outrage About Pat? Buchanan Does a Churchill
Bill Christison
US
Foreign Policy Dangerously Slanted Toward Israel
Website of the Day
The
World is Melting: a Photo Survey by Gary Braasch
February 15,
2005
CounterPunch
News Service
Dean
a "Safe" Moderate, Says NYT Citing CounterPunch
Robert Fisk
The
Killing of Mr. Lebanon
Uri Avnery
"Sharm-al-Sheikh,
We Have Come Back Again"
Stan Cox
Fighting Big Pharma in Little Digwal
Mickey Z.
Radio
Active North of the Border: an Interview with Chris Cook
Dave Zirin
Bashing Bush: Jose Canseco Comes Clean
Nadia Martinez
Ending
World Poverty? Opening at the World Bank, Apply Now
Lila Rajiva
"Little Eichmanns" and the 'Harijan': the Danger of
Magical Thinking in Politics
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
American Job Sell Out
February 14,
2005
Robert Jensen
Ward
Churchill: Right to Speak Out; Right About 9/11
Brian Cloughley
Kuwait's Freedom, Bush-style
Patrick Cockburn
Outcome
of the Iraqi Elections: Shortages, Corruption, Guerrilla War
Gary Leupp
Post-election Iraq: What Next?
Michael Donnelly
Sacred Nature: Just Another Commodity?
Dave Lindorff
When Bush Came to My Neighborhood
Elaine Cassel
The
Lynne Stewart Verdict
February 12
/ 13, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ward
Churchill's Genes
Saul Landau
Alarcon
Speaks: an Interview with the Vice President of Cuba
Paul Craig
Roberts
Nothing
to Fear But Bush Himself
Patrick Cockburn
Two Years After the Fall of Saddam, the Resistance Controls All
Major Roads into Baghdad
John Feffer
Bush
v. N. Korea: Round Two
Mickey Z.
Right to Remain Silent; Duty to Speak
Kurt Nimmo
Viva la Cucaracha!
Fred Gardner
Waiting for Raich
Dave Zirin
Fighting the New Republic(ans)
John Chuckman
Hiroshima, Mon Amour
Ben Tripp
A Leftist on the Bush Payroll
Carol Norris
"Buddy, Can You Spare a Dwarf?"
Robert Fisk
No Middle East Peace Without Justice
Frank / Chowkwanyun
Muzzled Activist in an Age of Terror: the Case of Sherman Austin
Mike Whitney
Condi's Euro Tour
Deborah Frisch
A Psychologist's Defense of Ward Churchill
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Reading Khomeini in Colorado
Christine TenBarge
What's So Special About Ward?
Ron Jacobs
Curtis Mayfield's Train to Jordan
Dr. Susan Block
Chemistry of Love: a Valentine's Greeting
Poets' Basement
Louise, Smith-Ferri, Ford and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Free Sherman
February 11,
20055
Manuel Garcia,
Jr
The
Eight Percent War
Kurt Nimmo
Ann
Coulter's Racism: Where's Geronimo When You Really Need
Him?
Dave Lindorff
Guckert
or Gannon? The Perfect Plant; He Fit Right In
Larry Birns
War is Peace; Slavery is Freedom: Democracy According to Elliott
Abrams
Bill Quigley
Twenty Questions: a Social Justice Quiz
Tom Barry
Bush's State of Delusion
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Lynne
Stewart's Conviction Hurts Us All
February 10,
2005
Dave Lindorff
What
Academic Freedom?
Christopher Brauchli
The Love of Slaughter: From Rwanda to Iraq
Patrick Cockburn
In Baghdad, It's Easy to Get Killed
Nicole Colson
Have the Democrats Surrendered on Abortion Rights?
Suzan Mazur
More
on the Assassination of Lumumba from Mr. Garsin of Kinshasha
Michael Donnelly
Salvaging an Opposition
Mike Stark
Driving Ossie Davis: "Give Them a Little Truth, a Little
Hope"
Greg Moses
Taking
Jesus Back from the Hijackers
Website of
the Day
The Missionary Positions
February 9,
2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Duck
and Cover Redux: Bunker Busters and City Levellers
Mickey Z.
What Ward Churchill Didn't Say
John Ross
Hecho
en Mexico: the Iraqi Election
Tom Barry
Ambassador of Lies: Elliott Abrams, the Neocon's Neocon
Conn Hallinan
The
Coup in Nepal: Nursing the Pinion
Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Vision for Iraq: Cricket is Fine, But Chess is "Absolutely
Forbidden"
Steen Sohn
Danish PM Says It's OK for Israel to Violate UN Resolutions
Tim Wise
Reflections on Empire and Uppity Indians
Website of
the Day
Support Antiwar.com
February 8,
2005
Patrick Cockburn
Shia/Kurd
Coalition to Dominate New Iraqi Govt.: "It's an Electoral
Pact, Not a Party"
Brian Cloughley
Out
of the Mouths of Generals: "It's Fun to Shoot Some People"
Steve Breyman
Against the Selfishness of the "Ownership Society"
Harry Browne
"Don't
Get on that Plane!": Soldiers Seek Asylum in Ireland
Doug Giebel
"We Love Free Speech in America": the People, the President
and Ward Churchill
Nate Collins
The Censorship of Ward Churchill and Dancehall Reggae: It's the
Same Beast
Dave Lindorff
It's Time for a Labor-Oriented Newspaper
David Smith-Ferri
Sanctions and the Health Crisis in Iraq
February 7,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
War on Jobs
Carolyn Baker
The New McCarthyism on Campus: Churchill and the Attack on Higher
Ed
Joshua Frank
Marc Cooper's Hit List: First Mumia; Now Ward Churchill
Mickey Z.
Warning: More Hate Speech from W. Churchill
Patrick Cockburn
The
Kidnapping Gangs of Iraq
Mike Whitney
Tom Friedman: Scribe for New Age Imperialism
Stacie Jonas
Pinochet: Fit to be Tried
Dave Zirin
A Miserable Super Sunday: Clinton, Bush and the FBI
Tariq Ali
Imperial
Delusions
February 5
/ 6, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ward
Churchill and the Mad Dogs
Kurt Nimmo
A Ward Churchill Kind of Day
Joshua Frank
Liberals Trash Ward Churchill
P. Sainath
Mumbai's Man-Made Tsunami
Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Triumph; Allawi's Bust
Laura Carlsen
Bush, Rice and Latin America
Dave Lindorff
How the NYT Killed the Bush Bulge Story
Pamela Olson
West Bank Story
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Future of Sudanese Refugees in the West
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
A Threatened UN in King George's Court
Roger Burbach
World Social Forum: a Tale of Two Presidents
Robert Fisk
History by Laptop
David Swanson
James Forman and the Liberal-Labor Syndrome
Justin E.H. Smith
Gay Marriage: a Report from Canada
Cacie Hart
The "State" of the Union: More War and a Ban on Love
Ron Jacobs
Chairman Bob Avakian: a Revolutionary Life
Mickey Z.
Viewing America from the Outside
Ben Tripp
Republican Heroes: a New Breed of Good Guy
Ben Sonnenberg
France at the End of the Devil's Decade: Renoir's Rules of the
Game
Poets' Basement
Smith-Ferri, Davies, Collins, & Albert
Website of
the Weekend
John Trudell: How to Earn a 17,000 Page FBI File
February 4,
2005
Brian Cloughley
The
Army Symphonist: "Sometimes the Only Way to Change the Behavior
of Someone Like That is to Kill Them"
Bill Christison
Election
Parallels: Vietnam, 1967; Iraq, 2005
Elaine Cassel
Did Zoloft Make Him Do It?
Jacob Levich
Chomsky and the Draft
Kanak Mani Dixit
Return of the Royalists in Nepal
Ron Jacobs
The
Downward Spiral in Iraq
February 3,
2005
Ward Churchill
On
the Injustice of Getting Smeared: a Campaign of Fabrications
and Gross Distortions
Sharon Smith
Resisting
Soldiers Need Our Support
Mickey Z.
Leslie
Gelb Asks Iraq: Who's Your Daddy?
Mike Whitney
President of Alienation: a Desperate State of the Union
Jenna Orkin
9/11 the Sequel: the Toxic State of Lower Manhattan
Saul Landau
Elections Won't Prevent Civil War in Iraq
Yitzhak Laor
Strange is the Silence
Dave Lindorff
The
Assault on Social Security: a New Campaign of Lies
February 2,
2005
David Domke
/ Kevin Coe
Bush's
Brand of Christianity
Noam Chomsky
Iraq
After the Elections
M. Shahid Alam
O'Reilly's
Fatwah on "Un-American" Professors: FoxNews Puts Me
in Its Crosshairs
Richard Oxman
Ringing in 1984 with Ward Churchill and Derrick Jensen
Joshua Frank
The Suckering of Howard Dean
Dave Lindorff
A History Lesson from the NYT
Nina Hartley
Feminists for Porn
Website of the Day
War is a Racket
February 1,
2005
Joshua L. Dratel
The
Torture Memos
Patrick Cockburn
New Doubts About Allawi
Robert Fisk
"The Only Decent Food We Get is at Funerals"
Uri Avnery
The Stalemate
Col. Dan Smith
"W" Stands for Withdrawal
Alison Weir
Making America as "Secure" as Israel
Alan Farago
Heaven and Hell in the Everglades
Ray Hanania
Low Voter Turnout of Iraqi Expatriates: Less Than 10% of Qualified
Voters
Paul Craig
Roberts
American
Police State
Website of the Day
Statisticians Refute Official Rationale for Exit Poll Errors
January 31,
2005
Dave Zirin
Mr.
Frank's Fatwah: New Republic Writer Calls for Death & Torture
of Arundhati Roy and Stan Goff
Robert Fisk
Amid
Tragedy, Defiance
Chyng Sun
Gonzales: Chief Prosecutor of Porn?
Greg Moses
The Real Scandals of the Texas Election
Mike Whitney
Cheney at Auschwitz
Ali Tonak
Turkey and the EU: Fantasies and Ultimatums
Patrick Cockburn
A
Victory for the Shia
Website of
the Day
Voting by the Script: Where Did the 8 Million Voter Turnout Figure
Come From?
January 29
/ 30, 2005
Manuel Yang
/ Peter Linebaugh
A
Dialogue About Murder in Toledo
Gabriel Kolko
Wilsonian
and Neoconservative Myths
Patrick Cockburn
Baghdad: City of Empty Streets
Robert Fisk
This Election Will Change the World, But Not as the US Wanted
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Con Job: Bush Pledges on Racism Lack Realism
Bernard Chazelle
Why the Children of Iraq Make No Sound When They Fall
Gary Leupp
"This Kind of Subject Matter": Bush's New Ed Secretary
vs. Vermont's Lesbians
JoAnn Wypijewski
The Passion of Paul Shanley
Alexander Cockburn
The Case of Father Jerry
Ron Jacobs
Ballot of the Puppets in Iraq
Brian Cloughley
Smart Bombs; Wrong House: Iraq's Civilian Dead
Fred Gardner
Peron May Split
Sister Dianna
Ortiz
Memo to Bush from a Survivor of the Guatemalan Torturers: Stop
the Torture!
Tom Reeves
How Bush Brings Freedom to the World: the Case of Haiti
Fran Quigley
Report: Haiti Now "More Violent and More Inhuman"
Suzan Mazur
"Mr. Garsin from Kinshasa": an Old Hand Weighs In on
the Murder of Lumumba
Kurt Nimmo
Condi Rice and the Neocon Plan for the Palestinians
Lenni Brenner
Holocaust History: Beyond the UN's Rhetoric
Gilad Atzmon
The
Politics of Auschwitz
Luis Gomez
Power and Autonomy in Bolivia
Mark Gaffney
NASA Searches for a Snowball in Hell: Why Velikovsky Matters
Ben Tripp
Lament of the Mnemonopath
Richard Oxman
Meet the Fuqers
Poets' Basement
Louise, Collins, Shanahan and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
Chemical Industry: Deceit and Denial
January 28,
2005
Rachard Itani
Tsunami
Aid By the Numbers: the US Really is a Miser
Jensen / Youngblood
Iraq's
Non-Election
Patrick Cockburn / Elizabeth
Davies
Attacks on Polling Places Leave 13 Dead
Dave Zirin
The Great Donovan McNabb: Proud "Black Quarterback"
Dave Lindorff
Suicide by State Execution?
Karyn Strickler
A Corporate Death Penalty Act?
Jorge Mariscal
Fighting
the Poverty Draft
January 27,
2005
Seymour Hersh
We've
Been Taken Over By a Cult
Cockburn /
Sengupta
The
US's Bloodiest Day in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Juke Box Journalism: Shilling for Bush
Ignacio Chapela
/ John F. García
The Laws of Nature
Mike Whitney
The Widening Chasm Among Conservatives
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
Those Liberal Southern Baptists!
Ray McGovern
Reining In Cheney
Russ Wellen
Marginalizing Bin Laden
Christopher
Brauchli
The
FBI's Carnival of Errors
Website of
the Day
Informed Eating
January 26,
2005
Saree Makdisi
An
Iron Wall of Colonization: Fantasies and Realities About the
Prospects for Middle East Peace
Scott Fleming
In Good Conscience: an Interview with Concientious Objector Aidan
Delgado
Dave Lindorff
Filling Saddam's Shoes: the Puppet Regime Return's to Torture
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Salazar and Obama: Two Dismal Debuts
Toni Solo
The
US and Latin America: a Not-So-Magical Reality
William James Martin
Condoleezza Rice: Confused About the Middle East
William A.
Cook
Bush's Second Inaugural Address: the Lost Ur-Version
Eric Hobsbawm
Delusions
About Democracy
Alexander Cockburn
The CIA's New Campus Spies
January 25,
2005
Brian Cloughley
Iraq
as Disneyland
Mike Roselle
Satan is My Co-Pilot
Josh Frank
/ Merlin Chowkwanyun
The War on Civil Liberties
John Chuckman
Freedom on Steroids
Paul Craig
Roberts
A
Party Without Virtue
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
The
Intolerance of Christian Conservatives
James Petras
The
US / Colombia Plot Against Venezuela
Website of the Day
Lowbaggers for the Environment
January 24,
2005
Fred Gardner
Last
Monologue in Burbank
Lori Berenson
On the Politicization of My Case
Uri Avnery
King
George
January 22
/ 23, 2005
Jennifer Van
Bergen / Ray Del Papa
Nuclear
Incident in Montana
Alexander Cockburn
Prince
Harry's Travails
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Company That Runs the Empire: Lockheed and Loaded
Stan Goff
The Spectacle
Saul Landau
Nothing Succeeds Like Failure
Gary Leupp
Official Madness and the Coming War on Iran
Fred Gardner
Is GW Getting the Runaround?
Phil Gasper
Clemency Denied: the Politics of Death in California
Stanley Heller
A Kill-Happy Government: Connecticut Chooses Death
Greg Moses
The Heart of Texas: an Inauguration Day Betrayal on Civil Rights
Justin Taylor
The Folk-Histories of John Ross
Daniel Burton-Rose
One China; Many Problems
Elaine Cassel
Try a Little Tyranny: Questions While Watching the Inaugural
Mike Whitney
Failing Upwards: the Rise of Michael Chertoff
Mark L. Berenson
My Daughter Has Been Wrongly Imprisoned
Christopher
Brauchli
It Doesn't Compute: a $170 Million Mistake
Gilad Atzmon
Zionism and Other Marginal Thoughts
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Day of the Rats
Mark Donham
The Secret Messages of Rahm Emmanuel
Ben Tripp
Adventures in Online Dating
Walter Brasch
Hollywood's Patriots: Soulless Kooks, Mr. Bush?
Poets' Basement
Wuest, Landau, Ford, Albert & Drum
January 21,
2005
Dave Lindorff
A
Great American Journalist:
John L. Hess (1917-2005)
Sharon Smith
The
Anti-War Movement and the Iraqi Resistance
Don Santina
Baseball, Racism and Steroid Hysteria
Ron Jacobs
Locked Out and Pissed Off: Protesting the Bush Inauguration
Kurt Nimmo
The Problem with Mike Ruppert
Don Monkerud
Once They Were Cults: Bush's Faith-Based Social Services
Alan Farago
Swimming Home from the Galapagos
Derek Seidman
An
Interview with Army Medic and Anti-War Activist Patrick Resta
January 20,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Dying
for Sycophants
William Cook
The
Bush Inauguration: A Mock Epic Fertility Rite
Joshua Frank
The Democrats and Iran: Look Who's Backing Bush's Next
Eric Ruder
Why Andres Raya Snapped: Another Casualty of Bush's War
Mike Whitney
Coronation in a Garrison State
Robert Jensen
A Citizens Oath of Office
Peter Rost
Bush Report on Drug Imports: Good Data, Bad Conclusions
David Underhill
Is It Torture Yet?: the Eclectic Fool Aid Torture Test
James Reiss
Adieu, Colin Powell: Pea Soup in Foggy Bottom
CounterPunch
Staff
Voices
from Abu Ghraib: the Injured Party
January 19,
2005
Marta Russell
Social
Security Privatization & Disability: 8 Million at Risk
Mike Ferner
Marines
Stretching Movement: Protesting Urban Warfare in Toledo
Nancy Oden
The
Nuremberg Principles, Iraq and Torture
Tony Paterson
A Catalogue of British Abuses in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Divide-and-Conquer Plan to Destroy Social Security
Doug Giebel
BS and CBS: When 60 Minutes Helped Promote WMD Fantasies
Alexander Cockburn
Will
Bush Quit Iraq?
January 18,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
Americans Were Seduced by War: Empire and Militant Christianity
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Federal
Judge: Abu Ghraib Abuses Result of Decision to Ignore Geneva
Conventions
Douglas Lummis
It's a No Brainer; Send Graner: a Rap for Our Time
Ron Jacobs
Syria Back in the Crosshairs?
Seth DeLong
Enter the Dragon: Will Washington Tolerate a Venezuelan-Chinese
Oil Pact?
Lance Selfa
Stolen Election?: Most Democrats Didn't Even Bother to Inquire
Paul D. Johnson
Mystery Meat: a Right-to-Know About Food Origins
Elisa Salasin
An Open Letter to Jenna Bush, Future Teacher
January 17,
2005
Heather Gray
Misconceptions
About King's Methods for Social Change
Robert Fisk
Hotel Room Journalism: the US Press in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
What the NYT Death Chart Omitted: Civilians Slaughtered by US
Military
Jason Leopold
Sam Bodman's Smokestacks: Bush's Choice for Energy Czar is One
of Texas's Worst Polluters
Gary Leupp
A Message from the Iraqi Resistance
Douglas Valentine
An Act of State? the Execution of Martin Luther King
Harvey Arden
Welcome to Leavenworth: My First Encounter with Leonard Peltier
Greg Moses
King
and the Christian Left: Where Lip Service is Not an Option
January 15
/ 16, 2005
James Petras
The
Kidnapping of a Revolutionary
Robert Fisk
Flying Carpet Airlines: My Return to Baghdad
Ron Jacobs
Unfit for Military Service
Brian Cloughley
Smack Daddies of the Hindu Kush: Afghanistan's Drug Bonanza
Fred Gardner
The Allowable-Quantity Expert
Dr. Susan Block
The Counter-Inaugural Ball: Eros Day, 2005
John Ross
Zapatista Literary Llife
Suzan Mazur
Unspooking Frank Carlucci
M. Shahid Alam
America's New Civilizing Mission
Frederick B. Hudson
Jack Johnson's Real Opponent: "That I Was a Man"
Mike Whitney
Bush's Grand Plan: Incite Civil War in Iraq
Tom Crumpacker
A Constitutional Right to Travel to Cuba
Bob Burton
The Other Armstrong Williams Scandal
John Callender
La Conchita and the Indomitable 82-Year Old
Lila Rajiva
Christian Zionism
Saul Landau
An Imperial Portrait: a Visit to Hearst's Castle
Doug Soderstrom
A Touch of Evil: the Morality of Neoconservatism
Poets' Basement
Davies, Louise, Landau, Albert, Collins and Laymon
January 14,
2005
Robert Fisk
"The
Tent of Occupation"
Lee Sustar
Bush's Social Security Con Job
José
M. Tirado
The Christians I Know
Dave Zirin
The Legacy of Jack Johnson
Sheldon Rampton
Calling John Rendon: a True Tale of "Military Intelligence"
Tracy McLellan
Under the Influence
Yves Engler
The Dictatorship of Debt: the World Bank and Haiti
Tom Barry
Robert
Zoellick: a Bush Family Man
Website of
the Day
Ryan for the Nobel Prize?
January 13,
2005
Mark Chmiel
/ Andrew Wimmer
Hearts
and Minds, Revisited
Joe DeRaymond
The Salvador Option: Terror,
Elections and Democracy
Greg Moses
Every Hero a Killer?...Not
Dave Lindorff
The Great WMD Fraud: Time for an Accounting
Jorge Mariscal
Dr. Galarza v. Alberto Gonzales: Which Way for Latinos?
Christopher Brauchli
Gonzales and the Death Penalty: the Executioner Never Sleeps
Gary Leupp
"Fighting
for the Work of the Lord": Christian Fascism in America
January 12,
2005
Robert Fisk
Fear
Stalks Baghdad
Josh Frank
The
Farce of the DNC Contest
Jack Random
Casualties
of War: the Untold Stories
John Roosa
Aceh's Dual Disasters: the Tsunami and Military Rule
Carol Norris
In the Wake of the Tsunami
Mike Whitney
Pink Slips at CBS
Alan Farago
Can
the Everglades be Saved?
Paul Craig
Roberts
What's
Our Biggest Problem in Iraq...the Insurgency or Bush?
January 11,
2005
Tom Barry
The
US isn't "Stingy"; It's Strategic: Aid as a Weapon
of Foreign Policy
James Hodge
and Linda Cooper
Voice
of the Voiceless: Father Roy Bourgeois and the School of the
the Americas
Linda S. Heard
Farah Radio Break Down: Joseph Farah's Messages of Hate and Homophobia
Derrick O'Keefe
Electoral Gigolo?: Richard Gere and the Occupied Vote
Gila Svirsky
A Tale of Two Elections
Harry Browne
Irish
"Peace Process", RIP
January 10,
2005
Ramzy Baroud
Faith-Based
Disasters: Tsunami Aid and War Costs
Talli Nauman
Killing
Journalists: Mexico's War on a Free Press
Uri Avnery
Sharon's Monologue
Dave Lindorff
Tucker
Carlson's Idiot Wind
Dave Zirin
Randy
Moss's Moondance
Dave Silver
Left Illusions About the Democratic Party
Charles Demers
Plan Salvador for Iraq: Death Squads Come in Waves
William A.
Cook
Causes
and Consequences: Bush, Osama and Israel
January 8 /
9, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Say,
Waiter, Where's the Blood in My Margarita Glass?
John H. Summers
Chomsky
and Academic History
Greg Moses
Getting Real About the Draft
Walter A. Davis
Bible Says: the Psychology of Christian Fundamentalism
Victor Kattan
The EU and Middle East Peace
John Bolender
The Plight of Iraq's Mandeans
Robert Fisk
The Politics of Lebanon
Fred Gardner
Situation NORML
Joe Bageant
The Politics of the Comfort Zone
Mickey Z.
I Want My DDT: Little Nicky Kristof Bugs Out
Ben Tripp
CounterClockwise Evolution
Ron Jacobs
Elvis and His Truck: Out on Highway 61
Saul Landau
Sex
and the Country
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Time to End the Blackout
Ellen Cantarow
NPR's Distortions on Palestine
Richard Oxman
Bageantry Continued
Poets' Basement
Gaffney, Landau, Albert, Collins
January 7,
2005
Omar Barghouti
Slave
Sovereignty: Elections Under Occupation
Kent Paterson
The Framing of Felipe Arreaga: Another Mexican Environmentalist
Arrested
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Old
Vijay Merchant and the Tsunami
David Krieger
Cancel the Inauguration Parties
Gideon Levy
New Year, Old Story
Dave Lindorff
Ohio Protest: First Shot Fired by Congressional Progressives
Christopher
Brauchli
Privatizing the IRS
Roger Burbach
/ Paul Cantor
Bush,
the Pentagon and the Tsunami
January 6,
2005
Brian J. Foley
Gonzales:
Supporting Torture is not His Greatest Sin
Greg Moses
Boot
Up America!: Gen. Helmly's Memo Leaks New Bush Deal
Petras / Chomsky
An
Open Letter to Hugo Chavez
Alan Maass
The Decline of the Dollar
Dave Lindorff
Colin Powell's Selective Sense of Horror
Jenna Orkin
The EPA and a Dirty Bomb: 9/11's Disastrous Precedent
P. Sainath
The
Tsunami and India's Coastal Poor
January 5,
2005
Alan Farago
2004:
An Environmental Retrospective
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Oversight
Detected?: Sen. McCain and the Boeing Tanker Scam
Jean-Guy Allard
Gary Webb: a Cuban Perspective
Fred Gardner
Strutting, Smirking, As If The Mad Plan Was Working
David Swanson
Albert Parsons on the Gallows
Richard Oxman
The Joe Bageant Interview
Bruce Jackson
Death
on the Living Room Floor
January 4,
2005
Michael Ortiz
Hill
Mainlining
Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
They
Say They Can Lock You Up for Life Without a Trial
Yoram Gat
The
Year in Torture
Martin Khor
Tragic
Tales and Urgent Tasks from the Tsunami Disaster
Gary Leupp
Death
and Life in the Andaman Islands
January 3,
2005
Ron Jacobs
The
War Hits Home
Dave Lindorff
Is
There a Single Senator Who Will Stand Up for Black Voters?
Mike Whitney
The Guantanamo Gulag
Joshua Frank
Greens and Republicans: Strange Bedfellows
Maria Tomchick
Playing Politics with Disaster Aid
Rhoda and Mark
Berenson
Our Daughter Lori: Another Year of Grave Injustice
David Swanson
The Media and the Ohio Recount
Kathleen Christison
Patronizing
the Palestinians
January 1 /
2, 2005
Gary Leupp
Earthquakes
and End Times, Past and Present
Rev. William
E. Alberts
On "Moral Values": Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian
Tendencies
M. Shahid Alam
Testing Free Speech in America
Stan Goff
A Period for Pedagogy
Brian Cloughley
Bush and the Tsunami: the Petty and the Petulant
Sylvia Tiwon
/ Ben Terrall
The Aftermath in Aceh
Ben Tripp
Requiem for 2004
Greg Moses
A Visible Future?
Steven Sherman
The 2004 Said Awards: Books Against Empire
Sean Donahue
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Death
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Merck's Merry X-mas
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When
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An
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Social
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An
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The Case for Boycotting Israel
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They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit
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Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge
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On the Seventh Column
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"Things Always Get Worse"
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February 18, 2005
Disarmament, Extradition and Amnesty
The
Future of Colombia's Paramilitary Death Squads
By
SAMUEL LOGAN and JOHN MEYERS
Bogotá.
Born and raised in the slums of Medellín,
Diego Fernando Murillo became known in the crime world as a ruthless
killer. In 1992, he narrowly escaped Colombian authorities when
his boss, Pablo Escobar, went into hiding. The resulting manhunt
eventually killed Mr. Escobar but launched Diego Murillo's career
in the Colombian drug world. After switching alliances between
various drug cartels, he has arrived at the top of the pyramid
power structure of Colombia's right wing paramilitary forces,
known as the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC).
Mr. Murillo, now known by his
alias "Adolfo Paz," is among a group of AUC negotiators
expecting to make an amnesty deal with the Colombian government
as part of a peace process that began in December of 2002. Since
the signing of the Santa Fe de Ralito Accord in July of 2003,
the government has established a 115 square mile demilitarized
zone in the department of Córdoba to negotiate with the
AUC. Unfortunately for Mr. Paz, currently the AUC's "inspector
general," he is one of ten AUC officials whose extradition
has been ordered by the United States government. He and several
of his colleagues are considered to be international "narco-terrorists"
responsible for up to 40 percent of Colombia's prolific trade
in illicit drugs.
The current demobilization,
disarmament and reintegration (DDR) process of thousands of soldiers
fighting for Colombia's notorious paramilitary forces is the
latest attempt to gain traction since this peace process began.
In 2004, some 2,624 soldiers agreed to turn in their weapons,
subject themselves to judicial scrutiny, and enter job-training
programs designed to reintegrate them into normal civilian life.1
Proponents for the current
DDR program argue that it buoys hopes for peace and facilitates
increased security since guns are delivered to the government
for destruction. Soldiers stop fighting and contribute to the
legal economy. They also argue that mustering the political will
to engage the AUC and seriously talk about DDR reflects well
upon the Colombian government. And if 20,000 AUC fighters are
successfully removed from combat by December 2005, a stated goal,
this process promises to eliminate one of the largest challenges
to peace and prosperity in Colombia by next Christmas.2
Critics argue, however, that
the DDR program in Colombia is feebly executed and holds unrealistic
goals. Some see it to be little more than a poorly planned attempt
to consolidate government popularity in an election year, while
convincing the U.S. to provide more financial assistance at a
critical juncture in the bilateral relationship between the two
governments. President Álvaro Uribe has already achieved
the first step in an effort to amend the Colombian constitution
so that he may run for an unprecedented second term. Just months
before his possible reelection in November of 2005, Plan Colombia
will expire and give way to an undetermined future assistance
package.
While the Bush administration
would like to see Uribe reelected, a DDR process involving amnesty
for internationally recognized terrorists will not have much
support in Washington. Uribe, however, cannot expect to get far
with AUC leaders without some promise of amnesty. Engaged in
a risky venture, the Colombian president is playing the middle
man between two parties that will not budge.
A win-win situation for both
the government and the AUC would mean that Adolfo Paz, and other
well-known drug lords like Salvatore Mancuso, get to retire with
their ill-gotten wealth and security while having only traded
in a small portion of their overall force, and President Uribe
gains a second term. But the U.S. government is holding several
wild cards close to its chest in the form of extradition requests.
Things could get very complicated.
Challenges
to the Demobilization Plan
Several major challenges persist.
Here are a few of the biggest:
* The process faces a current
funding shortfall. President Uribe's DDR program as outlined
means that even if $3.25 million comes from USAID through the
2005 Andean Counterdrug Initiative (ACI), total program costs
far outweigh current resources. According to U.S. Ambassador
William B. Wood, demobilizing 20,000 paramilitaries at $8,500
per soldier will total $170 million, or 52 times the USAID contribution.3
Furthermore, it is not clear how the Colombian government will
be able to afford "severance" payments of U.S.$125
per soldier per month for the entire two year (transition) term
as promised by government negotiators.
* Legal ambiguity saddles the
demobilization process with doubt. As it currently stands, no
legal framework exists for AUC soldiers who turn themselves in
but cannot receive amnesty due to human rights violations or
other outstanding arrest warrants. While current law provides
amnesties for certain crimes and economic benefits for soldiers
who have not been charged with serious offenses such as kidnappings
and massacres, there are no legal requirements that demobilized
soldiers must cooperate with authorities in investigations, turn
over illegal assets or disclose information about the group's
structure, past crimes, and financial sources. Soldiers who manage
to avoid detection, or are otherwise clean, are processed and
receive amnesty. They are required to produce little more than
identification to register in the program that will walk them
back onto the legal side of Colombian life.
* Human rights groups in Colombia
are concerned about impunity. According to Horacio Arango, the
director of peace programs for the NGO CODHES, "The process
should be based on the victim's rights. Some argue that peace
requires impunity. A peace process with impunity, however, results
in the victims [civilians] paying twice. Built upon a foundation
of destroyed lives and goods expropriated with bullets, a wall
will be perversely constructed to protect the very perpetrators
whose unacceptable crimes have been pardoned by this ongoing
and sinister war." Executive Director of Human Rights Watch/Americas,
José Miguel Vivanco agrees, "[Demobilized soldiers]
are not even required to confess their crimes," he said,
highlighting the omission of a possibly helpful truth commission
component.
* Paramilitaries have shown
wanton disregard for the ceasefire. According to the Colombian
Commission of Jurists, as of August 2004, paramilitaries had
killed or forced the disappearance of 1,899 people since declaring
a ceasefire December 1, 2002.4
* Nobody wants to fund a volatile
peace process of questionable legality. With several well-known
drug traffickers recently becoming influential paramilitary "commandantes,"
the credibility of this peace process has been called into question
by the international community. Supporting a peace process that
engages unreformed cartel leaders is not a high priority for
most donors without vital interests at stake in the region.
* Demobilization could lead
to the growth of insurgency while leaving the power of major
paramilitary leaders virtually intact. Assuming the DDR process
continues as planned, there exists great concern in Colombia
regarding how to assure security throughout the country and particularly
in insurgent zones. Established during the 1980s, Colombia's
paramilitary brigades have traditionally been associated with
doing the Colombian Army's dirty work fighting leftist rebel
groups in the country's remote rural areas. Without drastically
increasing government presence and establishing stronger institutions
across the country's impoverished countryside, these areas, if
left neglected, could become lawless breeding grounds for Colombia's
other insurgent groups.
* There is grave concern that
the AUC has built-in troop redundancies and that many parallel
units are not demobilizing. This argument suggests that AUC leaders
are simply bargaining with extra soldiers perceived not essential
to critical AUC functions. Furthermore, current disarmament is
sketchy at best because no one knows how many weapons the AUC
actually has inventoried. Weapons collected may be surplus. And
there has been no talk of destroying the weapons. Destruction
is a necessary component to any disarmament program as it assures
an absolute reduction of illicit arms in circulation.
* Past demobilizations of AUC
forces in Colombia have not been particularly successful. The
In the final months of 2003 a small force of 868 paramilitary
soldiers, based in Medellín, agreed to lay down their
arms and re-integrate into society. A year later, just over 50
hold full-time jobs. Many are working again with the same criminal
groups they left to help pull off the much-praised disarmament.
The collected weapons were rusted, broken, and allegedly not
even used by the AUC. This staged farce cost the government much
political capital. Adolfo Paz was the paramilitary leader who
orchestrated the whole process and it was his Nutibara Cacique
Unit that staged the disarmament.
On the Ground:
the Role of the OAS Mission in Colombia
Shortly after the demobilization
of Adolfo Paz's Cacique Nutibara Block in November of 2003, the
Organization of American States (OAS) created a Mission to Support
the Peace Process in Colombia. At the behest of policy makers
in Bogotá and Washington, former Colombian President César
Gaviria, as the head of the OAS, appointed Argentine delegate
Sergio Caramagna to lead the mission. To the dismay of several
OAS members, including Canada, Brazil and Mexico, the appointment
appeared to be a political maneuver intended to bolster confidence
in the DDR process and galvanize international support. While
popular support for the process appears high-it is alleged that
the DDR process enjoys an approval rating between 70 and 80 percent
in Colombia-the OAS mission has many critics and faces an uncertain
future.5
Officially, the OAS' role as
a third party in Colombia is to "verify" the demobilization
process and ceasefire. While it does not mediate the DDR process
nor facilitate dialogue between parties, the OAS has a place
"at the table," to monitor and observe agreements reached
between AUC negotiators and the Colombian government.
Despite surveys which purport
high approval for the DDR process at the national level, the
OAS and the DDR process enjoy little support at the international
level. Caramagna, as the Mission head and official cheerleader,
has not hesitated to express his discontent with international
donors.
"These are indispensable
steps toward peace in Colombia. The international community should
support it," Caramagna told the Associated Press in December.
"To this day the world has opposed this process, but it's
worth embracing."6
Colombian journalist and sociologist
Alfredo Molano sees things differently.
"The OAS' role looks absolutely
to be one of justification," Molano stated in a recent interview
from his home outside Bogotá.
"The OAS is the voice
of the United States in Latin America," continued Molano.
"Caramagna is very passive. He totally accepts the government's
official version and is afraid to challenge it. This is not a
role that allows one to have confidence in the process."
Caramagna argues that it is
easy to stand on the outside of this peace process and throw
rocks at it, but the fact of the matter is that thousands of
soldiers are turning over their guns and allowing themselves
to be subjected to judicial scrutiny. More importantly, however,
the OAS' Head of Mission points to reduced levels of violence
in municipalities where groups have demobilized.
One major point of contention
so far has been the OAS' reluctance to "verify" that
the ceasefire-a condition set by the government for beginning
the talks with the paramilitaries-is not being observed. So far,
the OAS has failed to respond to a report by the Colombian Commission
of Jurists indicating that paramilitary forces are responsible
for several thousand forced disappearances and murders since
declaring the ceasefire. The biggest obstacle for the OAS in
the eyes of the international community is the impression that
it is currently endorsing a process that will grant immunity
to well-known narco-terrorists and human rights abusers.
"The debate is whether
we're going to have a process that will be based on the principle
of ''forgive and forget,'' or one based on truth, justice, and
reparations," said historian Daniel García-Peña,
head of the NGO Planeta Paz and Colombia's high peace commissioner
from 1995-1998.7
"When the OAS' verification
process began, I was hopeful that it could be a step toward eliminating
paramilitarism. . . but to really verify a peace process, at
some point you must be critical."
If Caramagna's verification
mission is to be successful, he needs both the U.S. and the EU
to get on board, providing political and financial resources.
The problem, however, is that no one wants to board a hijacked
peace process. European aid will clearly be conditioned on peace
talks taking place within a much more stringent legal framework-one
that requires adherence to international human rights standards.8
The U.S. government will need much stronger reassurances that
paramilitary forces are actually demobilizing and, more importantly,
that internationally recognized drug traffickers/terrorists are
not slipping through their extradition requests.
International
Considerations and Prospects for Peace in Colombia
The international court has
moved along. It now has higher expectations for justice and human
rights than it did a decade ago. Drug bosses in Colombia will
never again receive the same leniency afforded to Pablo Escobar,
whose imprisonment in "La Catedral," virtually a private
five-star hotel, is regarded as being one of the most brazen
judicial stunts of all time.9 Escobar's former hitman, Adolfo
Paz, wants to avoid extradition and retire with amnesty and his
wealth intact. He will find it difficult, if not impossible,
to achieve this goal.
Many critics argue that the
proceedings in Santa Fe de Ralito do not constitute a peace process
because the government and the AUC are not fighting against each
other.10 What differentiates paramilitary groups from other armed
actors is their relationship with the state.11 According to some,
paramilitarism is an example of the state condoning blatant acts
of terrorism. For others, the rise of the paramilitaries is a
justified response to the guerilla-induced violence that has
characterized Colombia's forgotten rural areas for years. In
either case, whether through action or omission, the state's
role in paramilitarism is of paramount concern.12
The current effort to disarm,
demobilize, and reintegrate paramilitary soldiers is a bold gesture
and a measure of clever political maneuvering. In the short-term,
there has been a small measure of success. In the long term,
however, many questions remain. To gain legitimacy and seek truth,
this process needs the support of Colombian civil society and
the international community. The far reaching implications of
this dispute must be subject to a broad, inclusive, and open
public debate. Anything else is unacceptable.
Samuel Logan is a journalist in Rio de Janeiro
and a frequent contributor to the IRC's Americas
Program.
John Myers is a freelance journalist who covers
security, energy, and the environment. He reports from Bogotá.
Footnotes
1. "La Hora de la Verdad,"
Cambio (Bogota: January 20, 2005).
2. Ibid.
3. Isacson, "Paramilitary
Talks (6): Extradition and the U.S. Role," December,
2004.
4. Comisisión Colombiana de Juristas, "En
Contravía de las Recomendaciones Internacionales, Seguridad
Democrática, Derechos Humanos, y Derecho Humanitario en
Colombia: Agosto de 2004,"December 9, 2004. p.18
5. Associated Press "OAS
Reproaches U.S., EU Over Colombia" Margarita Martines, (Bogota:
December 2, 2004).
6. Associated Press "OAS
Reproaches U.S., EU Over Colombia" Margarita Martines, (Bogota:
December 2, 2004).
7. Constanza Vieira, Inter
Press Service News Agency, "NGOs Question OAS Role in Paramilitary
Demobilisation," (Bogota: December 21, 2004).
8. There are currently competing
proposals on the table. If the "Pardo legislation,"
which includes a more robust legal framework than the Uribe administration's
proposal, is passed, (which still looks to be months away), the
EU may be willing to put some resources toward this negotiation.
Uribe will have presented a draft of the government's latest
proposal at the donor's conference in Cartagena, February 3rd
and 4th, 2005.
9. La Catedral de Envigado
was the name given to the "maximum security" prison
Escobar built for himself outside Medellín during his
alleged imprisonment in 1991 and 1992. Most accounts of the prison
indicate that it resembled a five star hotel. Escobar was allowed
to receive visitors and occasionally permitted to leave to attend
soccer games. Ironically, it was Colombian President Cesar Gaviria
who made the decision which allowed Escobar to "serve time"
at La Catedral as opposed to being extradited to the United States.
10. Human Rights Watch, "Letting
Paramilitaries off the Hook," January, 2005.
11. Daniel García-Peña
Jaramillo, "La relación del Estado colombiano con
el fenómeno paramilitar: por el esclarecimiento histórico."
(Bogota October 4, 2004).
12. Ibid.
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