Today's Stories

February 9, 2009

Vicente Navarro
Why Sanjay Gupta is the Wrong Man for Top US Health Job

Paul Craig Roberts
Ship of Fools

February 6-8, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Obama's First Bad Week

Ishmael Reed
Saint Thelma's Book

James Abourezk
Obama, Mitchell and the Palestinians

William Blum
Obama and the Empire

Patrick Cockburn
Maliki's Triumph

Henry A. Giroux
Educating Obama

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Darwin's Living Legacy

Mouin Rabbani
A New Low on Gaza?

David Yearsley
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Springsteen!

Saul Landau
The Wrestler: an American Tragedy

Jules Rabin
Israel's Disproportionate Responses

Raymond J. Lawrence
A Country Awash in Money But Going Broke

Janette Habel
Castro's Socialism in Crisis

Dave Lindorff
Economy on a Thread

Missy Beattie
Blackout at the Gaza Zoo Massacre

Dale Gieringer
The Opium Exclusion Act of 1909: Marking 100 Years of Failed Drug Prohibition

John Ross
Davos vs. Belem; Swine vs. Pearls

Richard Rhames
Jobs is a Four Letter Word

Bob Wing
Obama, Race and the Future of U.S. Politics

Robert Bryce
Corn Dog Update: Another Study Exposes Bio-Fuel Scam

David Macaray
AFL-CIO and Change to Win in "Re-Wed" Talks

James L. Secor
Inaugural Questions Nobody Asks: Notes from Kuala Lumpur

Jason Flom /
Anthony Papa
The Scourging of Michael Phelps

Norm Kent
Ten Reasons to Get High About Pot in 2009

Kim Nicolini
When Utopia Crumbles: Why Revolutionary Road was Shut Out of the Oscars

Lorenzo Wolff
Ridiculous Flow: How Cee Lo Green Sells Soul

Poets' Basement
Emily Dickinson (with Commentary by Daniel Wolff)

Website of the Weekend
S.J. Gould: Darwin's Untimely Burial

February 5, 2009

Michael Mandel
Self-Defense Against Peace

Saul Landau /
Philip Brenner
Killing the Monroe Doctrine

Ralph Nader
Tax the Speculators!

Robert Bryce
The Unraveling of the Ethanol Scam

Russell Mokhiber
Occupied Territory

Sameh Habeeb /
Janet Zimmerman
Innocents Lost

Dave Lindorff
Small Change

Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero
Beyond Green Capitalism

George Ochenski
A Blow to Big Coal in Montana

Website of the Day
Putting CEO Pay in Context

February 4, 2009

Arno J. Mayer
On Corruption

Paul Craig Roberts
The War on Terror is a Hoax

Patrick Cockburn
The Iraqi Elections

Jonathan Cook
An IDF Jihad?

Fred Gardner
Obama's Mixed Messages on Marijuana

Stan Cox
Slumwrecking Millionaires: India's Fragile New Temples

Margaret Kimberley
The Deepening Economic Crisis

Lawrence Velvel
Agony & Desperation: Madoff's Victims

Dave Lindorff
A Generals' Revolt?

Doug Giebel
A Helping of Bitter Beltway Baloney

Serge Quadruppani
Student Protests Sweep Italy

Website of the Day
The San Francisco 8

February 3, 2009

David Price
Counterinsurgency & Anthropology: Roberto Gonzalez on Human Terrain Systems

Bill Moyers
Obama's Wars: an Interview with Pierre Sprey and Marilyn Young

Kirkpatrick Sale
Obama's Lincoln Thing

Conn Hallinan
When Mind Wounds Don't Count

Peter Morici
The Slippery Slope of Stimulus

George Ciccariello-Maher
From Oakland to Santa Rita: "Fired Up, Can't Take It No More"

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
The BBC's Nadir

Allan Nairn
What Does It Take to Get a Meal Here, an Earthquake?

Norman Solomon
Why are We Still at War?

David Macaray
The Late, Great UAW

Website of the Day
The Bloody Cove

February 2, 2009

Uri Avnery
Under the Black Flag: Israeli War Crimes

Ralph Nader
What to Do About Wall Street

Gareth Porter
Generals Move to Obstruct Obama's Iraq Withdrawal Orders

Paul Craig Roberts
The Death of American Leadership

Harvey Wasserman
The Nuclear Industry's Latest Money Grab

Rannie Amiri
Gaza and the Crimes of Mubarak

Cal Winslow
Stern's Gang Seizes UHW Union Hall

Steve Early
Checking Out of Stern's Hotel California

Alan Farago
Superbowl as Panopticon

Diane Farsetta
Banning Domestic Propaganda

January 30 / February 1, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Obama and the Oddsmakers

Michael Hudson
Obama's New Bank Giveaway

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
"Too Big to Fail:" a Bailout Hoax

Dave Lindorff
The Ugly Truth: the American Economy is Not Coming Back

Saul Landau
Freedom Fighters, Terrorists or Schlemiels?

Andy Worthington
Blame the Chef: How Cooking for the Taliban Can Get You Life in Gitmo

Subcomandante Marcos
Gaza Will Survive

Robert Jensen
Future Farming: an Interview with Wes Jackson

Ron Jacobs
Return of the Democrats

Gareth Porter
Is Gates Undermining Another Opening to Iran?

Allan Nairn
Hope for the Dump Cities?

Laura Carlsen
NAFTA's Dangerous Security Agenda

Rev. William E. Alberts
The Feelings of a Stranger

Christopher Brauchli
From Gitmo to Supermax?

Jules Rabin
Israel and the Bomb

Col. Dan Smith
Thoughts From an Inauguration Refugee

Missy Beattie
The US Garden of Evil

Tom Barry
Obama's Immigration Challenge

J. Michael Cole
The Downfall of an Academic

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Burning the First Amendment

Dan Bacher
How Dam Removal Can Save the Klamath River

David Rosen
Last Gasp of the Culture Wars?

Don Monkerud
Religion in the American Bedroom

Binoy Kampmark
Updike: Apostle of the Middlebrows

Lorenzo Wolff
Playing Down a Bad Reputation: the Lovin' Spooful's Near Perfect Record

David Yearsley
When Orfeo and Euridice Lived Happily Ever After in Upstate New York

Poets' Basement
Valentine and Rihn

January 29, 2009

Peter Linebaugh
Tom Paine's Birthday

Paul Craig Roberts
Is It Time to Bail Out of America?

Riz Khan
The Future of Gaza: an Interview with Jimmy Carter

M. Reza Pirbhai
Pakistan: a New Cambodia?

Wajahat Ali
Obama's Al-Arabiya Interview

Gregory Vickrey
What About the Environment? Cap and Trade and Selling Out

Dina Jadallah-Taschler
Whither the Two State Solution?

Alison Weir
Killing Palestinians Doesn't Count: Fact-Checking Ceasefire Breaches

Alan Farago
Economy Without Escape Routes

Walter Brasch
Taxing a House of Cards

Website of the Day
Madoff Inc.

January 28, 2009

Norman Finkelstein
Behind the Bloodbath in Gaza

Noam Chomsky
Obama's Emerging Policies on Israel, Iraq and the Economic Crisis

Patrick Cockburn
Is Mitchell's Mission Already Doomed?

Rob Larson
The Clinton Foundation Donors

George Wuerthner
Who Will Speak for the Forests?

Allan Nairn
South-East Asian Groups Threaten Retaliation Over Gaza Invasion

M. Junaid
Levesque-Alam
A Muslim's Memo to Obama

Stefan Simanowitz
The Silent Trade

Charles R. Larson
The Autumn of the Patriot

Website of the Day
Veggie Love: PETA's Banned Superbowl Ad

January 27, 2009

Winslow T. Wheeler
Save the Economy by Cutting the Defense Budget

Yigal Bronner /
Neve Gordon
Fueling the Cycle of Hate

Joshua Frank
Obama's Neocon: the Curious Case of Richard Holbrooke

Jordan Flaherty
Torture at a Louisiana Prison

Ralph Nader
Access to Economic Justice

Rev. José M. Tirado
How Iceland Fell: a Hundred Days of (Muted) Rage

Benjamin Dangl
Bolivia Looking Forward

Russell Mokhiber
What If Israel Were in Your Neighborhood?

Martha Rosenberg
Who Says Technology Transfer Doesn't Pay?

C. G. Estabrook
The Inaugural Address: the Digested Read

Website of the Day
Who Profits From the Occupation?

January 26, 2009

Paul Craig Roberts
Speaking the Truth is a Career-Ending Event

Deepak Tripathi
The BBC's Day of Shame

Vijay Prashad
The India Lobby: Drunk with the Sight of Power

Peter Lee
Geithner's Pop Gun Volley at China

Allan Nairn
The Torture Ban That Doesn't Ban Torture

Uri Avnery
On the Wrong Side of History

John Sayen
The Next Shoe to Drop

Dave Lindorff
Afghanistan is No Threat to America

Lawrence R. Velvel
Investing with Madoff

David Macaray
Obama vs. Labor

Roger Burbach
Winds of Change in Cuba

Norman Solomon
The Ghost of LBJ

Website of the Day
Landscapes of Occupation

January 23 / 25, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
The Ghosts at Obama's Side

P. Sainath
The Freefalling Economy

Patrick Cockburn
In Israel, Detachment From Reality is the Norm

Saul Landau
Reasons for War?

Sasan Fayazmanesh
Our Current Economic Crisis: the Monks' Cure

Alan Farago
The Problem with the Stimulus

Christopher Brauchli
When Due Diligence is a One-Way Street

Andy Worthington
Return to Law?

Ron Jacobs
Obama's Pentagon: Bowing to the Masters of War?

Lawrence Velvel
Investing with Madoff: My Experience (Part Four)

Henry A. Giroux
The Audacity of Educated Hope

David Yearsley
The Music That Wasn't There: Chamber Music for Obama's Masses

Raymond F. Gustavson
Here We Go Again: General Shinseki and Veterans

Dave Lindorff
The Way Forward

Roberto Rodriguez
Fighting for Migrant Justice in the Desert

Dina Jadallah-Taschler
The Struggle of an Un-People

Fidel Castro
Meeting Cristina

J. Michael Cole
Can Obama's Shift on Terror Succeed?

Bob Fitrakis /
Harvey Wasserman
It's Time to Free Leonard Peltier

Ramzy Baroud
Breaking Gaza's Will

Mohammad Ali Shabani
The Aftermath of the War on Gaza

Richard Rhames
Panning for Pyrite on a Cold Day at the Mall

Stephen Martin
Voices in the Mirror

Lorenzo Wolff
Jurassic Radio

Kim Nicolini
Katrina's Endless Loop

Poets' Basement
Fleming, Henson, First, Jaramillo and Glendinning

Website of the Weekend
Cartoon Love

January 22, 2009

Paul Craig Roberts
Another Real Estate Crisis is About to Hit

Kathy Kelly
Worse Than an Earthquake

Allan Nairn
US Intel Nominee Lied About Church Murders

Lawrence Velvel
Investing with Madoff: My Experience (Part Three)

Andy Worthington
Halting the Gitmo Trials

Peter Morici
How to Fix the Banks

Joseph G. Davis
The First MBA Presidency and the Business Academy: a Damage Assessment

Adriana Kojeve
The Democrats on Israel: a Brief Oral History

Benjamin Dangl
Bolivia Poised for Historic Vote

Website of the Day
Support the Gaza Community Mental Health Program

January 21, 2009

Gabriel Kolko
Understanding Gaza

Harry Browne
Obama's Work Ethic

Michael Colby
Ready. Aim. Organize.

Lawrence R. Velvel
Investing with Madoff: My Experience

Audrey Stewart
Starting Over in Gaza

Wajahat Ali
Obama and the Muslims

Binoy Kampmark
The Marketing of Hope

David Kεr Thomson
Abolition

John Ross
In My Own Bones

Allan Nairn
Killer in Chief: Will This President Murder Civilians?

Sheldon Richman
The Peaceful Transfer of Violent Power

Website of the Day
Globistan

January 20, 2009

Chuck Spinney
Hosing Obama Israeli Style

Kathy Kelly
The Strongest Weapon of All

Raymond Deane
The EU, Gaza and the Lisbon Treaty

Ralph Nader
State Terrorism Against Gaza

Audrey Stewart
Why I am in Gaza

Jonathan Cook
Israel's Doctrine of Destruction

Harvey Wasserman
A Ten-Point Solar Agenda for Obama

Christopher Ketcham
Inauguration Ad Nauseam

Robert Jensen
A Citizen's Oath of Office

Dave Lindorff
Commie Chorus on the Mall: This Land Really is Made for You and Me

David Macaray
SAG Watches It All Slip Away

February 9, 2009

An Interview with Hollman Morris

The Threat of Peace in Colombia

By JULIO SANCHEZ and FELIZ de BEDOUT

Translated by Forrest Hylton

“What is troubling Defense Minister Santos so deeply, and what has certain sectors in this country so worried? That there are journalists, senators, and public opinion leaders talking about peace.” 

-- Hollman Morris

Translator’s note: On February 1, through the mediation of Senator Piedad Córdoba, the FARC guerrillas (Revolutionary Armed forces of Colombia) unilaterally released one soldier and three police officers in compliance with promises made public on December 21, 2008. The Colombian government, for its part, violated its agreement not to fly over the airspace where the hostage release was to take place, thereby putting the release in jeopardy and delaying it for two hours. The government then denied it had done this, choosing instead to denounce the journalists who exposed the violation. The FARC has since released two more prisoners: Alan Jara, a former departmental governor who was held for seven and a half years, on February 3, and Sigifredo López, a former departmental legislator held for a similar length of time, on February 5. Having executed eleven of López’s colleagues in June 2007, the FARC has no politicians left in its custody.

Hollman Morris, one of Colombia’s top investigative journalists and a distinguished peace activist, was alleged to have received from the FARC, in advance, the co-ordinates of the site where the prisoners were to be released, and was then publicly denounced by Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos as a “collaborator” of the FARC. Predictably, this has led to death threats against him. Below is the text of an interview Morris gave on February 3 to Julio Sánchez and Félix de Bedout on La W., one of Colombia’s leading radio stations, along with a brief introductory paragraph written by the Social Web of Communication and Foreign Relations for Truth and Life, of the Association of Indigenous Cabildos of Northern Cauca [ACIN], which posted the text of the interview on the web (www.prensaindigena.org.mx).

On February 7, Gustavo Adolfo Ulcué, a member of ACIN’s Social Web of Communication and Foreign Relations, received death threats from armed gunmen who broke into his house, threatened his brother, and stole his laptop when he was not there. Speaking from Villavicencio, Meta, President Uribe warned that “the FARC’s intellectual bloc” was seeking to “disorient” and “deceive” public opinion by “talking of peace,” thereby amplifying Defense Minister Santos’s charge against an individual journalist (Morris) to include anyone working for peace or even discussing it. The ante has been upped. 

* * *

The interview speaks for itself: journalist Hollman Morris defends himself against a new attack launched by Juan Manuel Santos, Minister of Defense. We reiterate our support for Hollman, for the freedom of expression, for his work as a journalist, for “Contravía” [“Against the Current”: www.contravia.tv], and for the Freedom of the Word, which is so costly for us, and which threatens those who have much to hide; those who benefit from manipulating and covering up the truth. We keep on, Hollman, en contravía (against the current).

February 3, 2009

Julio Sánchez: I want to say hello to Hollman Morris who is in the eye of the hurricane, like the journalist Jorge Enrique Botero, for what happened yesterday [Feb. 2]. Hollman, buenos días.

Hollman Morris: Muy buenos días Julio, Félix and Alberto, muy buenos días. Julio, there’s something worse that Defense Minister Santos said. He accused me publicly of being a collaborator of the FARC. And I want to say to you Julio, and to my colleagues, I have received various threatening messages since thanks to this type of irresponsible pronouncement. But let’s get to the bottom of it, Julio, let’s answer the question: at no point did the FARC give me the co-ordinates of the site. Completely false. I don’t go in for “shows” [in English in the original], whether orchestrated by the guerrilla, the paramilitaries, or the government. My work has been completely independent.

For months we’d been trying to establish contact with the FARC guerrillas and that contact came more than a week before the liberation of the soldiers. For over a week, more like 10 days, I was in the jungles of the south seeking an interview they had promised me. Things evolved until it happened that we appeared in the place where the hostages were to be freed. Now I find out that that what they are telling journalists, in the end, is that we need to ask the government for permission to enter zones of conflict, or to interview guerrillas.

Julio Sánchez: Hollman, before you go on, if I understand you correctly, what happened yesterday was a coincidence?

Hollman Morris: It was a coincidence. That’s to say that I was looking for an interview with one of the top FARC commanders, and they say to me, “It’s coming, you have to go to such and such a place, you have to travel, to walk,” then walking and walking, putting up with thirst, heat, until we get there, and they tell us, “No, look, this is going to go down instead, take it or leave it. Are you interested?” In terms of news, I was interested. And for the documentary, the goal of which was to get that interview, we are quite interested, because its theme was and is kidnapping.

Félix de Bedout: Hollman, but in the end you never got the interview.

Hollman Morris: In the end, I didn’t get the interview. They promise us one thing, they promise us another, and we see they’re moving us, they’re moving us, until we get to a place and we’re listening to the radio, with what little signal we had, that the liberation had been postponed. Remember that it had already been postponed once already: it was programmed several days ago and then got drawn out.

Julio Sánchez: Hollman, what is the basis of the charges Minister Santos makes in relating all this to you as a journalist, so to speak?

Hollman Morris: Look Julio, I don’t know, I don’t know what basis he has. But it’s worth remembering several facts: during the presidential campaign of Álvaro Uribe [for re-election in 2006], Minister Santos accused [former Senator and current presidential candidate] Rafael Pardo of having contact with the FARC, and it turned out to be completely false. And he’s been doing the same with Senator Piedad Córdoba. It was out of the Ministry of Defense—the Minister himself—that a series of e-mail’s emerged that supposedly showed that she had contact with, and ties to the FARC.

What is troubling Defense Minister Santos so deeply, and what has certain sectors in this country so worried? There are journalists, senators, and public opinion leaders talking about peace. And to speak of peace, we must first recognize that there’s an armed conflict in this country. And journalists who enter the conflict zones, who show or denounce the reality of the guerrilla, like the reality of the paramilitaries, like the reality of narcotrafficking; we continue to discomfort a government that has made systematic efforts to deny the existence of an armed conflict, and which is only interested in showing and giving visibility to acts of war, as far as I can tell.

I see what happened this week as a humanitarian act, and to my way of thinking, it needed visibility in the media. And just because guerrillas give us journalists an interview, or paramilitaries or narcotraffickers or para-politicians give us an interview, does not necessarily mean that we get involved with, or are close to, the para-politician, the narcotrafficker, or the guerrilla.

Félix de Bedout: Hollman, yesterday in conversation with the freed hostages, one of them said that the guerrilla intended for them to be interviewed by media in the area, and they were to give scripted responses. Aren’t you worried that you would be used like that by the FARC?

Hollman Morris: Correct. Yes, it does worry me, and for that reason journalists always have the opportunity to decide what to put on the air and what not to put on the air. This is the tool and the weapon of journalists. It’s how journalists protect themselves, at least the way I see it. One decides what to publish, what to make visible, and what images to show. I’m surprised: I still haven’t used a single image on the air and I’m already in the eye of the hurricane! I did two reports for Radio France International in which, in spite of having spoken to the young men who were freed, I did not at any point use their words for my reports. Why not? For the simple reason that I decided against it. Those young men were under pressure from the guerrilla, and I wasn’t interested in that material. And for that reason the material never came to light, and still hasn’t been used on the air. The young man says they scripted the responses, and certainly that could be. I have seen proofs of survival that came to us totally scripted….

When we get to the place, perhaps an hour went by, when they said to us, “Look, here come the soldiers.” And I say, “Fine, where are they?” And they show up with the first police officer, and I ask him some questions, and I tell the second one, “No, I’m not interested, just tell me your name and how long you were in captivity, nothing more.” And the proof is in the images we shot. Why? Because, quite simply, the young men were still in guerrilla hands, so for me, what they said there had no journalistic value, because they were under pressure.

Félix de Bedout: Hollman, among the many atrocious weapons that the FARC utilizes, there is one they use successfully, which is lying. And they lie constantly; the lies of the FARC are constant and incalculable. Aren’t you worried that that they’ll try to use you to disseminate their lies?

Hollman Morris: Look Félix, if I’ve learned anything from fifteen years of journalism, fifteen years of crisscrossing the country—I think I’m one of few journalists who’s riding on mules, taking small boats, covering all corners of the country week after week, and above all in “Contravía” [www.contravia.tv], giving a voice to the victims of this conflict. And I say it with all due respect and affection. If I’ve learned anything from crisscrossing this country, it is that the hearts of the warriors were damaged beyond repair some time ago. And I mean all of them: the armed forces, the paramilitaries, the guerrillas. And if they have to lie, they do it. All of them. Read the epigraph at the beginning of Operación Jaque [a book published by Juan Carlos Torres in Bogotá in late 2008, about the freeing of Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. mercenaries]. It says, “Deception is the art of war.” And all of them, at any moment, can deceive journalists. You don’t allow yourself to be deceived, though, Félix. And in order not be deceived, you have to be in the places where things are happening, you have to see the places.
 
That’s another reason that motivated me to go there and see the reality that I observed during ten days hiking through the jungles of Caquetá, and seeing the reality of the campesino, the reality of Plan Patriota [a U.S.-supported Colombian military offensive in the FARC heartlands, the largest in Colombian history], seeing the reality of the guerrilla. The guerrilla will surely continue to have the will to deceive us, to manipulate us, just like the other actors in the conflict. But journalists, I repeat, have the opportunity to decide what to publish and what to emit. Fortunately, the experience I have with “Contravía” is that it’s not a rush to go on the air. We don’t play that game. There’s time for reflection and analysis, which allows us to filter out what is deceptive or manipulative.

Félix de Bedout: Hollman, in this case, because we know your work very well during this entire period, wouldn’t it have been better not to be there?

Hollman Morris: No, I don’t think so Félix, I don’t think so. I think that in humanitarian acts in which both sides can come together, particularly acts in which hostages are freed, you should go there. I think those are the things that need greater visibility, greater reflection in the cameras. Because we’re talking about giving visibility to peace. Sometimes we like giving visibility to the war, and I don’t think we can build the country our children deserve that way; the country that future generations deserve is a country that needs to talk about peace. But to speak about peace, we journalists, and I say it Julio to all our colleagues with due respect, we have to begin to show the barbarity of war. And to show the barbarity of war, we have to go to the far corners of the country where there are thousands of victims of paramilitarism, of the guerrilla, and sadly, of sectors of the armed forces.

If this country doesn’t figure out that there’s an armed conflict here, one that is barbarous, we will never be able to discuss peace. You know, there are people in Bogotá and Medellín who say this country is not at war. If there’s no war it’s because we are not showing it. And the few of us who do show it end up being labeled allies of the guerrilla….We always criticize the FARC, and we have to because of their demented and barbarous acts. But when they commit a humanitarian act, we’re not there, there are no cameras. At bottom what we want is that these people put down their weapons and join the political process. And we have to show that these are the acts the country needs.

Julio Sánchez: Hollman, muchas gracias for talking with us.

Hollman Morris: Julio, I hope for the best, but right now I’m in the city of Florencia [capital of Caquetá department], the Minister of Defense just called me a FARC auxiliary, and you know what such a declaration implies here [in Colombia]. Hollman Morris will continue to be an undesirable witness in this country for all those who want to hide the truth of the conflict and the conflict’s victims. Muchas gracias, Julio and Félix.

Tejido de Comunicación y Relaciones Externas para la Verdad y la Vida. Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Norte del Cauca – ACIN. Telefax: 0928 - 290958 – 293999. Email: acincauca@yahoo.es . Web: www.nasaacin.org/index.htm . Santander de Quilichao Cauca, Colombia

Forrest Hylton is the author of Evil Hour in Colombia (Verso 2006).

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