Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
Now Available!
Today's
Stories
June 21,
2004
Gary Leupp
Putin's Helpful Remarks
Uri Avnery
Irreversible Mental Damage
June 19
/ 20, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Inside the Green Zone: US is Paranoid
and Isolated
Bruce
Anderson
Frozen Gringos
Diane
Christian
Morality and Death: a Meditation on
Bush and Blake
Walter
A. Davis
Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib
Josh
Frank
How Democrats Helped Bush Rape Mother Nature
Col. Dan
Smith
Respectable Genocide?: the Crisis in Sudan
Brian
Cloughley
A Profound Disruption of the Senses
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Timken Plant, a Year Later
Prudence
Crowther
Mr. Ashcroft, Deport Me!
Poets'
Basement
Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and Albert
Kathy
Kelly
Dying to See Their Kids
June 18,
2004
Chris
Floyd
Blood Victory
Dave Zirin
Danielle Green, Basketball Player &
Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against War
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Christian Question in American Politics
Gary
Leupp
The "Long-Established" Link?:
Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi
June
17, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
16, 2004
Lenni
Brenner
A Question for Kerry Supporters
Davey
D
Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan
Daniel
Wolff
Why Did Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner
Abuse?
Bruce
Jackson
Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake
Patrick
Cockburn
Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power
Facilities
Gary
Handschumacher
Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads
JG
Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop
Mario
Benedetti
Obituary with Cheers
Vicente
Navarro
Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who
is Rodrigo Rato?
Website
of the Day
Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch
June
15, 2004
Harry
Browne
Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe
Neve
Gordon
The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
David
Palmer
Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI
John
Blair
Lovelock's Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming
Dave
Lindorff
God Wins in TKO
Bill
Quigley
Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step
In
Patrick
Cockburn
Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast
John
Chuckman
John Kerry, Political Placebo
June
14, 2004
John
Stanton / Wayne Madsen
Torture, Inc: Oliver North Joins
the Party
Kathy
Kelly
Requiems: What Happens When Compassion Dies?
Bruce
Jackson
Bush Gets Testy About Torture
Lee
Sustar
Strikers Defy Visteon's Company Thugs
Kurt
Nimmo
The Desperate Censors: the Republican Plot to Kill Farhenheit
9/11
Jim
Davis
Hard Right Nativism
Eliot
Katz
Death and War
Uri
Avnery
The Nightmare Comes True
Website
of the Day
Instruments of Statecraft
June 12 / 13, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto
and Runnymede
Team
CounterPunch
CP's Favorite Albums
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Troy, Now and Then
Gary
Leupp
Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq?
Brian
Cloughley
US Military in Crisis
Antonio
Ponvert, III
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben
Tripp
The Polls Get Stupider
Joe
Bageant
Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron
Jacobs
The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher
Brauchli
Federal Bureau of Errors
Kurt
Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi, Again
Wayne
Madsen
Israel's Slap at Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World
Michael
Donnelly
A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg
Moses
Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan
Davis
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Joseph
Ramsey
Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The 18th Brumaire in the 21st
Century
Wayne
Saunders
The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup
Poets'
Basement
Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Insurgent Music
| June
21, 2004
Insurgents
Control Baghdad Airport Road
Saddam May
Face Death Penalty
By
PATRICK COCKBURN
and STEPHEN KHAN
Iraq
could execute former leader Saddam Hussein if he is found guilty, the
director of the country's war crimes tribunal system said yesterday.
Salem
Chalabi, in charge of setting up a tribunal to try members of the ousted
regime, said that after the Iraqi government gains sovereignty on 30
June, it will have the power to end the suspension of the death penalty
decreed by the US occupation chief, Paul Bremer.
"The
Iraqi government has to affirmatively take that step to lift the suspension,"
Mr Chalabi said on television yesterday. "If the suspension imposed
by Ambassador Bremer is lifted there is the possibility of the death
penalty being imposed", on those convicted of murder or rape.
Mr
Chalabi said tribunal officials were "negotiating quite intensively
with the coalition forces" about taking custody of Saddam and other
detained members of his regime after the handover of power.
Reports claimed that coalition sources said a deal had been done for
the new Iraqi administration, which would take legal custody of Saddam
when it assumes control of the country on 30 June. US forces will continue
to guard him.
In
Iraq yesterday, insurgents tightened their grip on the vital airport
road in Baghdad, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding 11 others -
four critically - when they detonated a bomb beside the road as a convoy
passed. The US Army concedes it no longer fully controls the road linking
Baghdad to the airport by insisting that members of the US-led Coalition
Provisional Authority, contractors and other foreigners travel on the
four-lane highway only at certain times, totalling six hours a day.
During these periods, traffic will be protected by stepped-up helicopter
and vehicle patrols.
The
airport road is probably the most important in Iraq, and the loss of
the airport to US forces last year signalled the beginnings of the regime's
collapse. The continued assertions by the Iraqi information minister
at the time that the Iraqi army still held the airport were widely derided
abroad.
Baghdad
airport is mainly used by the military but there are a small number
of civilian flights. Along the road, palm trees have been cut down and
grass and shrubs burnt to deny guerrillas cover but attacks have increased
over the past month. Roadside bombs, such as that used yesterday, typically
consist of old 155mm and 122mm shells detonated either by a command
wire or a remote control like those used to open garage doors or operate
a child's toy.
The
patrol attacked yesterday consisted of American and Iraqi soldiers.
US soldiers said the ambushers waited for them to pass, then blew up
the Iraqi vehicle. American troops took the Iraq wounded to a US medical
treatment centre. As they waited for news of the wounded, Iraqi soldiers
wept and were hugged by their American comrades, agency reports said.
"The
hard-core terrorists don't care who they kill," said Lieutenant-Colonel
Tim Ryan, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment. "These
guys are bigger targets than we are." The implication is that the
insurgents are trying to inflict losses on the fledgling Iraqi army,
still only 7,000 strong, before it can be organised.
Another
reason why an Iraqi unit was attacked yesterday is that Iraqi soldiers
are more vulnerable, because they are far less well-armed and protected
than Americans. But the US wants to show Iraqi forces playing an active
security role.
A
typical joint US-Iraqi patrol on the airport consists of a US Humvee
and, 50 yards back, a truck filled with Iraqi soldiers. The Iraqis,
generally, do not have bullet-proof vests, sometimes do not wear helmets
and carry old Kalashnikovs.
Violence
continues at a high level throughout Iraq. On Saturday, there was an
attempt to assassinate the Health Minister, Dr Aladdin al-Alwan, which
failed but was followed by a gun battle in which seven Iraqi policemen
were wounded. Ten Iraqis were killed and 12 wounded in battles with
US forces north of Baghdad. A US Marine was killed in Anbar province
west of Baghdad.
In
Baghdad there were two loud explosions in the evening, and, earlier
in the day, a mortar round landed near the Central Bank, wounding six
policemen and four civilians. A US air strike in Fallujah on Saturday
killed 22 people but there is still no agreement about who died. The
Americans say that the two houses destroyed were used by militants led
by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is blamed for leading the suicide bombing
campaign.
But
Iraqi officers in Fallujah denied this was true. "We inspected
the damage, we looked through the bodies of the women and children and
elderly. This was a family," said Brigadier Nouri Aboud of the
Fallujah Brigade, the force of former Iraqi soldiers nominally in control
of the city. He said there were no signs of foreigners in the houses,
and added: "Zarqawi and his men have no presence in Fallujah."
• A videotape showing a South Korean hostage begging for his life
and pleading with his government to withdraw its troops from Iraq was
broadcast on the Arab television network al-Jazeera last night. The
kidnappers identified themselves as belonging to a group led by Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, which is linked to al-Qa'ida. They gave South Korea
24 hours to meet its demand or "we will send you the head of this
Korean". A South Korean station said the hostage was Kim Sun-il,
33, an employee of a South Korean company. It said he was captured in
the Fallujah area.
Patrick
Cockburn and Stephen Khan write for the Independent.
Weekend Edition June 12 / 13, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto and Runnymede
Team CounterPunch
CP's Favorite Albums
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Troy, Now and Then
Gary Leupp
Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq?
Brian
Cloughley
US Military in Crisis
Antonio
Ponvert, III
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben
Tripp
The Polls Get Stupider
Joe Bageant
Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron
Jacobs
The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher
Brauchli
Federal Bureau of Errors
Kurt Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi, Again
Wayne
Madsen
Israel's Slap at Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World
Michael
Donnelly
A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg Moses
Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan
Davis
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Joseph
Ramsey
Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The 18th Brumaire in the 21st Century
Wayne
Saunders
The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup
Poets'
Basement
Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Insurgent Music
Keep CounterPunch
Alive:
Make
a Tax--Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links / |