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Coming Soon from CounterPunch Books Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY Click Here to Order! Today's Stories April 8, 2005 Hom Raj Acharya / Sally Acharya The Elephant in Nepal's Parlor Felice Pace A Golden Opportunity for Justice on the Klamath Neve Gordon Israel is the Key to Iraq Vicente Navarro Opus Dei and John Paul II: a Profoundly Rightwing Pope   April 7, 2005 Joshua Frank The DeLay Scandal Isn't a Partisan Issue Yitzhak Laor Racism by Any Other Name Alan Maass Tug of War with Terri Schiavo Steven Sherman An Open Letter to Daniel Okrent: Why the Times is Not "Assertively Left" Dave Lindorff Bush's Potemkin Town Meetings Gerry Adams The IRA Should Change from "Volunteers" to "Activists" John Chuckman Hanoi Jane and the City of God Michael Dickinson Two Weddings and a Funeral John Ross Lost and Found in the Arizona Desert Website of the Day Genetically-Engineered Small Pox?   April 6, 2005 Peter Camejo The Crisis in the Green Party Kevin Wehr The Eco-Terror Hoax: Domestic Security and the Culture of Fear Matt Vidal Bush's Legacy: Dead Bodies, Dead Wrong, Dead Logic Robert Creeley / Bruce Jackson On the Subject of Company Nikolas Kozloff Chavez's Oil Gambit Sea Shepherd Crew Attack of the Hak-a-Piks Brenda Child Ojibwe Have Dealt With Grief Before: From Boarding School Abuse to School Shootings Terry Eagleton The Pope with Blood on His Hands David Swanson Why the Media Can't Read the Banktuptcy Bill Cindy Ellen Hill On the Lists: What's the Patriot Act in Belfast Website of the Day The New Nike?   April 5, 2005 Jim Connolly The Pope Who Revived the Office of the Inquisition: an American Catholic on the Papacy of John Paul II Paul Craig Roberts "Partnering" the Destruction of the American Economy Gary Leupp Bombing the Malwiya Minaret Dave Lindorff The Grassroots Resistance to the Patriot Act Ron Jacobs The Terrorism of War Dan Smith Riding the Dragon, Soaring on the Eagle: US Economic Decline and the Rise of China Mark Engler John Paul II's Economic Ethics: Moral Values and Global Capitalism Richard Oxman Bono for Pope Greg Moses Narcowars vs. Civil Rights Website of the Day Impeach Cheney and Bush   April 4, 2005 Kevin Zeese Liberals and Neocons for a Draft Paul Craig Roberts American Rot: When Opposing Voices Do Not Oppose Larry Birns / Sarah Schaffer Bush's Arms Sales Hypocrisy Karyn Strickler Blood on Ice: Seal Pup Slaughter on the St. Lawrence Joshua Frank The Minuteman Project: Paramilitaries on the Border Michael Dickinson It's Too Late Now for John Paul II to Repent Surendra R. Devkota Ending the Deadlock in Nepal Derrick O'Keefe Haiti, Yesterday and Today: an Interview with Laura Flynn Uri Avnery Djinn in the Box Website of the Day Libby, Montana: America's Most Toxic Town?   April 2 / 3, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Death, Depression and Prozac Jeffrey St. Clair Trippwired Stan Goff A Trojan Jackass for the Anti-War Movement John Ross How to Change the World Without Taking Power Saul Landau Guns, Vitamins and God Robert Creeley Goodbye Mike Roselle Riding Shotgun with Woody Harrelson Joshua Frank Dead Wrong Intelligence Fred Gardner The Obvious Green Issue Greg Moses Photo ID Movement as White Privilege Fran Quigley The Economics of Global Poverty: an Interview with Jeffrey Sachs Kurt Nimmo The Strange Allure of Paul Wolfowitz Nicole Colson Pentagon Greenlights Murder in Iraq Chris Genovali Killing Grizzlies for Fun Alan Farago Dirty Water and Land Speculators in the Florida Keys Lawrence Reichard The M-19 and the Siege of Bogota Ben Tripp Civilization and War Avantika Regmi Chaos in Nepal Lee Sustar Off the Script in Kyrgyzstan Ron Jacobs Death of a Revolutionary: Vermont Loses an Honest Man Dave Lindorff The Black Arrow: a Review Poets' Basement Smith-Ferri, Curtis, Louise, Engel and Albert Website of the Day O2 Collective: No Breathing Tube Required       April 1, 2005 Tom Barry Michael Chertoff: Legal Storm Trooper Rahul Mahajan WMD Commission: Yet Another Intelligence Failure Charlie Cray / Jim Vallette Dancing with Wolfowitz Dave Lindorff News Media Anguish Over Schiavo's Death Zeynep Toufe The Terri Schiavo Success Story Suzan Mazur Pension Funds and the Price of Oil Michael Dickinson Shut Your Mouth or Go to Prison! Stan Cox Iraq Reconstruction Funds Invested on Wall Street Ra Ravishankar Et Tu, George? Daniel Wolff Patti Scialfa's Conversation with America     March 31, 2005 Sharon Smith Leftwing Apologists for the Occupation Ron Jacobs Rounding Out Iraq's History Tariq Ali British Elections: Punish the Warmongers Michael Dickinson Cartoon Capers: Turkey's War on Political Cartoonists Kanak Mani Dixit The Struggle for Nepal's Future Mitchell Zimmerman The Bizarre Legal Philosophy of Justice Janice Rogers Brown Xuan-Trang Ho Guatemala and CAFTA: Return to the Bad Old Days? Dave Zirin Pay the Damn Players! Joe Bageant In Praise of Holy Madness Jeff Halper The End of a Viable Palestinian State Website of the Day Free Nepal     March 30, 2005 Gary Leupp Curing Those People of Their Hatred: Condi's Pitch for a "Different Kind" of Middle East Ralph Nader / Kevin Zeese Report on Iraq Intelligence Failure: No One to Blame Chase Madar Wolfowitz's Career Move: From Failed Warrior to Humanitarian Banker Toni Solo Bush in Latin America Jackie Corr Blessed are the Rich: George Bush's Montana Visit Ahmad Faruqui Much Ado About F-16s Mike Roselle Refuting Dave Foreman: Days of Whine and Posers Jude Wanniski America's Gunboat Diplomacy Francis A. Boyle Why You Should Boo Illinois Jeffrey St. Clair Downwinders be Damned Website of the Day Help! Nicaraguan Workers Are Being Poisoned   March 29, 2005 Ralph Nader Is the End of the Iraq War / Occupation Near? Gary Leupp Terri Schiavo's Death and the Birth of an "Elected" Iraqi Government Sonia Cardenas A Pandora's Box of Abuses: the Geneva Trap Stew Albert Take Back the Life Force! Mark Weisbrot Owning Up to the "Ownership Society" Dave Lindorff China's Report on Human Rights in US is No Cariacture Carl G. Estabrook The Subversive Commandments     March 28, 2005 Jeremy Scahill Sgrena Sets the Record Straight: "There was No Checkpoint; No Self-Defense" Sonali Kolhatkar Forgetting Afghanistan...Again Sasha Kramer The UN's Betrayal of Haiti Kevin Zeese Don't Just Blame the Democrats Tom Stephens Sacred Law; Traditional Wisdom: Environmental Justice and Indigenous Peoples Dr. Teresa Whitehurst We're Walking Into a Trap Newton Garver Reflections on Bolivia Paul Craig Roberts A Bail Out Draft for a Cakewalk War? Website of the Day Stumped? Ask a Librarian, 24/7     March 26 / 27, 2005 Gary Leupp God's Imperialists Peter Linebaugh To Render, to Impeach, to Habeas Corpus Marc Robert A European Student's Experience at Columbia University Laura Carlsen The Threesome in Crawford: Summit as Traveling Stage Show Saul Landau / Puja Patel The Price of Privatized "Development" Dave Foreman Nature's Crisis Fred Gardner Will San Francisco Pander to the Prohibitionists? Jennifer Matsui Terri Schiavo: America's Most Desperate Housewife? Dave Lindorff Provoking Iran Dharma Adhikari The Reversal of Democracy in Nepal Joshua Frank The Howard Dean Doctrine Patrick Barr Have Box Cutter, Will Travel: a True Story Christopher Brauchli F-16s to Pakistan Ramzy Baroud Israel's Record is "Not Reassuring" Jackie Corr When the Gov. of Montana Declared Martial Law in Butte Ben Tripp Off with Your Appurtenances! Dr. Susan Block Break a Taboo for Easter: Springtime for Sex and God Mickey Z. How Three Unrelated Books Relate Justin Taylor Beware of "Beware of God" Richard Joseph Cochabamba!: the Water War in Bolivia Poets' Basement Martin, Smith, Ford, Bortz and Albert     March 25, 2005 Scott Richard Lyons Horror and Hope at Red Lake Nation Yoshie Furuhashi No Troops; No Wars Pat Williams How a Town Got Poisoned: Libby, MT and the Labor Movement Mark Engler Remembering Archbishop Romero: 25 Years After His Assassination Rahul Mahajan Culture of Life or Culture of Living Death? Lance Selfa Can the Democrats be Moved to the Left? Ralph Nader Corporate Cyborg: Cal Nurses Take on Schwarzenegger John R. Llewellyn Why Utah's Prosecutors are Soft on Polygamy: a Former Sheriff Speaks Out Jo Guldi Beyond Belief: Holy Week in France   March 24, 2005 Joshua Frank The Selling (Out) of the Antiwar Movement Talli Nauman Vicente and George: Security by Any Other Name Would Smell Sweeter Martin Espada Why I Refused Coke's Money: a Poet Speaks Out About Colombia Dave Lindorff Another Social Security Snow Job Elaine Cassel When Fools Rush In: the Legal Implications of the Schiavo Case Jack McCarthy Jeb Bush's Mob: Snatch, Grab, Insert Tube Jack Random Juxtaposition: Terri Schiavo and the Red Lake Massacre Barbara Ferguson Wolfowitz Dating Muslim Woman and World Bank Employee Suzan Mazur Peak Oil: Debate or Vendetta? Dorreen Yellow Bird Suffering Red Lake Nation Endures the Worst of Days Andrew Wimmer and Mark Chmiel Torture: Old Hat or Open Wound?   March 23, 2005 Patrick Bond A New War? On Wolfowitz's World Bank Mike Whitney Railroading Moussaoui Becky White Why I Hung from a Bridge to Defend the Wild Forests of the Siskiyou Mountains Michael Donnelly Dissecting the Changeling: How the AuCoin Express Was Really Derailed Niranjan Ramakrishnan Remembering Ram Manohar Lohia: the Che of Non-Violence Ashley Smith Bush is What Hypocrisy Looks Like David Swanson The More Bush Talks, the Less Popular Privatization Becomes Derrick O'Keefe Enter Bono, Stage Right Paul A. Moore The Fire This Time: the Bush Bros. Racist Crackdown in Florida Dalton Walker My Reservation Will Never Be the Same Patrick Cockburn The US Frees Iraqi Kidnappers to Become Spies     March 22, 2005 William Blum Anti-Empire Report: Democracy--or is it the US Military--on the March Jim Vallette Cheney's Oil Change at the World Bank Greg Moses A Palm Sunday Chat with Sis Levin John Farley Bush's Culture of Life: Let the Insurance Companies Pull the Plug When the Sick Cost Too Much Ron Jacobs Halt the Anniversary Rallies and Stop the Damn War M. Junaid Alam How the Democratic Party Fosters Conservatism Rep. Cynthia McKinney An Immoral and Illegal War: Destroying Iraq Isn't Enough for Them Dave Lindorff "Saving" Schiavo; Killing the News James Petras Fateful Quadrangle: Cuba and Venezuela Face Off Against the US and Colombia     March 21, 2005 John Walsh In the Bars on the Road to Fayettevile: War Support Paper Thin Werther The Legacy of George Kennan, Chief Architect of the Cold War Mike Stark Where is the "Culture of Life" in Maryland? Time is Running Out for Vernon Evans David Swanson Feeding Tubes for the Third World: Put the Hungry into Comas, Then Feed Them! James T. Phillips Happy Meals: Behind the Grill at a Baltimore Diner Mike Ferner Serving, Refusing, Impeaching Robert Jensen The World Waits for an Answer Paul Craig Roberts A Threat Greater Than Terrorism Stew Albert Vegetable Nation Website of the Day American Press Blotter: Jacko, Terry and Steroids vs. the World     March 19, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Three-Card Monte and the One-Party State Tom Reeves Exposing the Coming Draft: a Draft by Any Other Name is Still Wrong Saul Landau The Grandchildren of Roy Cohn: the Politics of the Repressed Alan Maass Making Bankruptcy a Life Sentence Ron Jacobs Submit or Else: the Nuclear Demon that Won't Go Awayy David Green The Holocaust Industry Comes to the University of Illinois John Blair Hey, Dick! I'm Still Free: a Blow for Freedom of Speech in Indiana Steve Greenfield The Decline of the Green Party: the Numbers are In Ben Tripp Nature isn't Real Mike Roselle A History of White People in the Conservation Movement Joshua Frank Hope in Red State America: Lessons from the Big Sky Country Mark Weisbrot The World Bank: a Bigger Problem Than Wolfowitz Dave Lindorff Congress on Steroids Sarah Schaffer Lula's Nukes: Bush Bullies Iran, Ignores Brazil's Nuclear Ambitions Warren Hastings Why the Queen Should Chop Off Tony Blair's Head for Treason Poets' Basement Lodge, Albert. Landau, Engel, Davies, Capaccio   March 18, 2005 Dave Zirin The Congressional Urine Testers: Baseball's Theater of the Absurd Richard Thieme The Church Committee Candidate: I was a Victim of the KGB John Walsh Misdirecting the Anti-War Movement David Swanson Hunger Striking for a Living Wage at Georgetown Ben Terrall In the Spirit of Rachel Corrie: Confronting Caterpillar in San Leandro David Boyle Just Say "No" to Harvard Dorreen Yellow Bird Coping with Teen Suicide on the Standing Rock Reservation Mokhiber / Weissman Global Bully Goes to Guatemala Greg Moses They Don't Shoot Donkeys...Do They? Website of the Day 800 Protests: Find One Near You   March 17, 2005 Christopher Brauchli Rendered Unto Caesar: the Etymology of Torture Bill Quigley The St. Patrick's Four and the Resistance to the War in Iraq Brian Cloughley Bush's Herds: Willing to Kick Anyone in the Face Gary Bass / Adam Hughes Inside the Bush Budget: Rhetoric vs. Reality Dave Lindorff The Incredible Shrinking Coalition Jude Wanniski Wolfowitz at the World Bank: a Perfect Fit Alexander Billet Irish Republicanism at the Crossroads John Ross Wal-Mart Invades Mexico Website of the Day Campus Resistance   March 16, 2005 Ralph Nader Filling the Congressional Cop-Out Gap: an Idea for Local Peace Activists William Cook Resurrecting the Neo-Con Failures Kevin Zeese Two Years of Occupation: Both US and Iraq are Worse Off Jackie Corr Why is Dick Cheney Laughing? The New Tax Cut Patriotism Alan Maass Bush's Class War Budget David R. Kolker Jailed Without Charges in Haiti Cindy Ellen Hill Speculative Policing in Northern Ireland Paul Craig Roberts America's Has-Been Economy     March 15, 2005 Gary Leupp The Plan is Still on Track Dave Lindorff Free John Walker Lindh! Greg Moses The Fix-It Guys and Their Electoral Filters Hadas Their / Katrina Yeaw Military Recruiters Target Campus Activists Alison Weir Uprising on the Anniversary of Rachel Corrie's Death Matt Koehler A Line in the Ancient Forest: 50 Arrested in Blockade to Save the Siskiyous Evelyn Pringle Labeling Kids Mentally Ill for Profit Harry Browne War and Peace in Ireland     March 14, 2005 Ralph Nader Restarting the Anti-War Movement David Miller Ministry of Defence in the Control Booth: Did the BBC Broadcast Fake News Reports? Stan Cox Look Deeper, Mr. Moyers Mike Roselle Why Women Should Take Over the Environmental Movement David Swanson Nursing Against the Odds: the Workers' View Simona Sharoni To End the War, Listen to Soldiers Dave Lindorff Corporate Surveillance Dorreen Yellow Bird Incidents at Standing Rock: Suicide on the Reservation Tom Barry John Bolton's Baggage Website of the Day Spinwatch     March 12 / 13, 2005 David H. Price The CIA's Campus Spies Noam Chomsky The Toothpaste Election Laura Carlsen Women's Rights Eroding in Latin America Stan Goff On Revolutionary Optimism: the View from Cumberland Co, NC Valentina Nicoli The Game of Role-Playing and the Ambush of Giuliana Sgrena Michael Leonardi Head Shot: Lifting the Veil on the Sgrena / Calipari Incident Saul Landau / Sarah Anderson Blood Money and the Riggs Bank: Pinochet's Bank Finally Pays Up Joe Bageant It Ain't Easy Being White Manuel García, Jr. The Question of American Guilt Greg Moses Electoral Lessons from Cuyahoga and Harris Counties James J. Brittain Run, Fight or Die in Colombia Ben Tripp Communist Watch Joshua Frank A Red State Paradox: Montana on the Cusp Fred Gardner Pesticides Made Her Sick; Pot Got Her Well Walter Brasch Bush's Horse Killers Ramzy Baroud Reining in Syria on Behalf of Israel Christopher Brauchli Going All the Way for Usurers Michael Donnelly The Humiliation of Les "Timber Toad" AuCoin Ron Jacobs ZAP Comics: Still Kicking US Culture in the Ass Richard Oxman The Eternal Reciprocity of Tears Poets' Basement Smith-Ferri, Davies, Ford, Louise and Albert   March 11, 2005 Jerry Fresia Targeting Giuliana Ron Jacobs Making Lebensraum in the Middle East for Tel Aviv's Fears & Washington's Dollars Dave Lindorff America's Magical Kingdom William James Martin Ben Gurion and the Origin of the "Pushing into the Sea" Myth Muqtedar Khan Modi's Operandi: American Business and Genocide Linked Again Kathryn Ledebur Bolivia on the Brink Mike Whitney Saddam's Capture: Just Another Bush Lie? Dave Zirin Neo-McCarthyism Slugs Baseball Website of the Day William Rivers Pitt, Another Hack for the Occupation     March 10, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts So Much for the New Bush Economy John Marc Leas, Colleen McLaughlin and Ashley Smith Vermont Vs. the War Larry Birns The Pathological John Bolton Michael Donnelly The Re-Reinvention of an Oregon Timber Beast Luis Gomez In Bolivia, Reality Changes Once Again Jackie Corr Whatever Happened to the Social Security Trust Fund? Uri Avnery Bush's Guru: Natan Sharansky Website of the Day Red Alert in the Siskiyous!     March 9, 2005 Jeffrey St. Clair Dirty Harry's Fear of Flying: Making Love, War and Profits at Boeing Ward Churchill Who's the Terrorist? Robert Fisk Another Species of Cedar: a Half Million Lebanese March for Syria Bernice Powell Jackson No Justice for America's Nuclear Guinea Pigs in the Marshall Islands Mickey Z. The Revolutionary of Potential Art Dave Zirin NHL Says: "Bring On the Scabs!" Michael Donnelly Standing Up to Ecocide in Oregon James Reiss Stopping by Words in Favor of Privatizing Social Security Vijay Prashad Get Modi: a State Terrorist Visits Florida   March 8, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Bush's Syrian Delusion Robert Fisk Lebanon's Nightmare Kurt Nimmo War is Peace: John Bolton to the UN Suzan Mazur Time for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Polygamy? Evelyn Pringle Neil Bush and Crest: Another Profiteering Scheme Giuliana Sgrena My Truth: "The Americans Don't Want You to Return" Elaine Cassel The Appalling Case of Abu Ali     March 7, 2005 Dave Zirin Bloodlust in Annapolis: Gov. Ehrlich Wants to Kill Vernon Lee Evans Brian Cloughley More War Crimes John Chuckman The Creature Walks Among Us Mike Whitney Jose Padilla and the 10 Commandments Mark Weisbrot Haiti's Torment: Why Are US Human Rights Groups Silent? Fred Gardner The Cannabinoid Messenger Richard Neville The Italian Job Uri Avnery The Next Crusades     March 5 / 6, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Arnold vs. the Nurses Gary Leupp What's Happening in Lebanon: an Interview with Fadi Agha, Advisor to President Lahoud Ron Jacobs Lies Military Recruiters Tell Tom Reeves Haiti: One Year After the Coup Jenna Orkin Memories of Kawaggi, Saudi Arabia Tom Barry Negroponte: Intel Czar or Policy Hack? Joshua Frank The Trials of Max Baucus Moshe Adler When Pfizer Came to New London: Corporate Giveways vs. Eminent Domain Jane Stillwater My Jury Questionnaire: "Do You Agree that a Corporation is a Person?" Omar Barghouti / Jacqueline Sfeir Double Standards on S. Africa and Israel: an Open Letter to UNESCO Christopher Brauchli Target: Al Jazeera John Pilger The Fall of Saigon: 30 Years Later Raúl Zibechi Colombia: Militarism and Social Movements David Krieger Saving the Nuclear Nonproliferation Agreement Three Takes on Nepal Surendra R. Devkota Another Blow to the King of Nepal Bhishma Karki Nepal in Twilight Joseph Pietri Murder at the Palace Ben Tripp The Good Old Days Poets' Basement Hassen, Chief Running Late, Wuest, Albert and Collins Website of the Weekend O'Shaughnessy's: All About Medical Pot     March 4, 2005 Frederick Hudson Caught in a Cage   March 3, 2005 Pat Williams "Social Security Protects the Young as Much as the Old" Brian Cloughley Headlines, Beliefs and Deceptions Dave Lindorff Why Do the Democrats Pamper Greenspan? Amira Hass Oslo All Over Again Greg Moses In Oscar Texas: One Down, One to Go? Lynne Landes Exit Poll Madness Nelson P. Valdés Rapture Takes Leftists John Ross Mexico's Fox Schemes to Jail Front-Running Leftist   March 2, 2005 Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen The "Noble Liars" Attack Syria Mike Roselle The State of Oregon vs. Mike Roselle: Criminalizing Environmental Dissent M. Junaid Alam Columbia University and the New Anti-Semitism Suzan Mazur Inside the Polygamy Cults of Southern Utah Jackson Thoreau Texas Congressman Calls for "Nuking Syria" Michael Donnelly No Love for Teresa Heinz; John Edwards Gets a Pass Jeffrey St. Clair Uncle Bucky Makes a Killing Website of the Day The Ghosts of Karl Marx & Ed Abbey     March 1, 2005 Scott Richard Lyons Million Dollar Bigotry David Lindorff Stealing Workers' Pensions Patrick Cockburn / David Enders Bloodbath in Iraq Ron Jacobs The Last Poets Recalled Tanya Garcia USA Next: the Industry Front Group to Privatize Social Security Joseph Pietri The Drug Trail Ends in Kathmandu: Golden Tar Heroin and the Black Prince Kona Lowell Woody: Broken in Vietnam Paul Craig Roberts The Coming End of the American Superpower Website of the Day Petition: No US Intervention in Iran                                                     Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con! Subcomandante Marcos The Death Train of the WTO Norman Finkelstein Hitchens as Model Apostate Steve Niva Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings? Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams CounterPunch Exclusive: 20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians Steve J.B. Prison Bitch Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War Wendell Berry Small Destructions Add Up CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online

April 8, 2005 Opus Dei and John Paul II A Profoundly Rightwing Pope By VICENTE NAVARRO Baltimore, Maryland The predominant perception of John Paul II, as extensively reproduced in most of the Western media, is that he was very conservative ("traditional" is the term widely used) in religious subjects but progressive in social matters, as evidenced by his defense of the poor and his concern for human and social rights. His key ideological role in the demise of the Soviet Union is put forward as further proof of his commitment to liberty and democracy. John Paul's support for the Polish trade union Solidarnosc, his numerous speeches in support of the poor and of those left behind by capitalism or globalization, and his frequent calls for human solidarity ­ not to mention his opposition to the invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces ­ all are presented as examples of his progressiveness in the social arena. In this perception of Pope John Paul II, some critical elements are forgotten. Let's detail them. He was groomed for the Papacy, long before he was elected Pope, by the ultra-right-wing sect Opus Dei. This secret organization was founded by Monsignor Escrivá, a Spanish priest who was formerly a private confessor to General Franco, organizing spiritual meetings for the Spanish fascist leadership. Opus Dei chose John Paul as the candidate for Pope very early in his career, when he was bishop of Krakow. His conservatism and anti-communism were very attractive to this sect. John Paul traveled extensively at that time on trips organized and funded by Opus Dei, developing a very close working relationship with the sect. Opus Dei was the organization that developed the strategy to make him the Pope, assisted by the bishop of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger; the U.S. cardinals close to Opus Dei, Joseph Krol and Patrick Cody; and a cardinal then close to Opus Dei, Cardinal Franz König from Vienna (who later distanced himself from Opus Dei and from the Pope). The center of operations for this campaign was Villa Tevere, the Opus Dei headquarters in Rome. Immediately after his election as Pope, John Paul designated Opus Dei as a special order directly accountable to him, not to the bishops. He surrounded himself with members of the order, the most visible being Navarro-Valls, an Opus Dei journalist who had worked for Abc, an ultra-conservative Spanish paper that had been supportive of the Franco regime. Navarro-Valls is well-known for selecting journalists to cover the Pope's international visits who would report on them favorably. He constantly vetoed critical voices, such as that of Domenico del Rio of the Italian paper La Repubblica. The Pope later named another Opus Dei member, Angelo Sodano, as Secretary of State of the Vatican. Sodano had been the Vatican's ambassador in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship, becoming a close friend and advisor to the dictator. He was responsible for the Pope's visit to the Pinochet dictatorship in 1987. During this visit, the Pope never called publicly for liberty or democracy in Chile. By contrast, when John Paul visited Cuba he was publicly critical of the Cuban regime. But he remained silent when he visited Pinochet. Later, when Pinochet was detained in London (awaiting extradition to Spain at the request of the Spanish Judge Baltazar Garzon), the Vatican, under Sodano's influence, asked the British Government to let Pinochet return to Chile. This same Sodano had referred to liberation theologian Leonardo Boff ­ one of the most popular priests in Latin America ­ as "a traitor to the Church, the Judas of Christ." Under Pope John Paul II, the founder of Opus Dei was made a saint just twenty seven years after his death (one of the fastest such processes ever). Meanwhile, Pope John XXIII and Bishop Romero, assassinated in El Salvadore because of his support for the poor of that country, have been waiting in line for sainthood for a much longer time. Opus Dei and its Pope were profoundly hostile to liberation theology. John Paul condemned it at the II Latin American Conference, presided over by Opus Dei member Monsignor Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, Secretary General and later president of that Conference. John Paul also was displeased with the Jesuits who had become increasingly concerned about identification of the Church with the strong oligarchical regimes of Latin America. He changed the leadership of the order, appointing very conservative priests as its new leadership. As reported by the ex-Jesuit Luis de Sebastian in the Spanish Daily El Periodico (5 April 2005), the Pope received periodical reports from U.S. CIA Director William Casey (a Roman Catholic) on the "distressing" Jesuit movements in Latin America. John Paul's speeches on the poor were highly generic and sanctimonious, humanistic in character, without ever touching on the cause of poverty. As the Brazilian Bishop Helder Camara once said, "When I called for the role of the Church to be with the poor, I am called a saint; when I'm asked to do something about the causes of poverty, I am called a communist." John Paul was profoundly political, always on the side of the powerful in Latin America and in Spain. He never touched on the political causes of poverty, he marginalized and ostracized the mass religious movements in Latin America that called for major social reforms in favor of the poor, and (with Cardinal Ratzinger, the guardian of the Church orthodoxy) he condemned such movements, ordering their leading figures ­ Gustavo Gutierrez, Leonardo Boff, Jon Sobrino, and others ­ to remain silent. Bishop Romero wrote in his personal notes that, when he denounced the brutal repression carried out by the fascist dictatorship in El Salvador, the Pope reprimanded him for not being sufficiently balanced in his criticisms of the Salvadorian dictatorship, whom John Paul referred to as the legitimate government of El Salvador. In Spain, John Paul was political to an extreme. He was openly supportive of the post-Francoist party, the Popular Party (whose founder is Fraga Iribarne, ex-Minister of the Interior of the Franco fascist regime) and just a few months before his death he gave a speech against the Zapatero government that was actually written by the pro­Popular Party leadership of the Spanish Church. Although he opposed the invasion of Iraq and the bombing of the Iraqi population, he never condemned the Franco regime (which the Spanish Church supported), nor did he ever condemn the bombing of Spain's civilian population by the Franco Air Force, with the help of German Nazi bombers. When he was asked to condemn the bombing of Spanish cities by the Church-supported fascist forces of Spain, he declined to do so. Rather than pushing a social agenda worldwide, Pope John Paul II became a major obstacle to such an agenda by making conservative issues (anti-abortion, anti-contraception, anti-homosexuality, and others) rather than social ones the center of political debate. The evolution of the U.S. political debate among Catholics is an example of this. In the past, Catholics in the U.S. voted Democrat more than Republican, but this is no longer the case. In the 2004 presidential election, more Catholics voted for Bush (52%) than for Kerry (47%), and they indicated that the primary reason they supported Bush was the "values" issue. Based on all this evidence, it is remarkable that John Paul II, Opus Dei's Pope, can be considered a progressive icon. Vicente Navarro is Professor of Public Policy at Johns Hopkins University, USA and Pompeu Fabra University, Spain. Navarro contributed an essay on Salvidor Dali's fascist ties for CounterPunch's collection on art, culture and politics: Serpents in the Garden. He can be reached at: navarro@counterpunch.org