Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
Now Available!
Today's
Stories
May
15 / 16, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Green Lights for Torture
May
14, 2004
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's POW Porn
Ron
Jacobs
Secret History of the War on Drugs
William
Blum
God, Country and Torture
Michael
Donnelly
The People v. Corporate Greed: A Victory on the North Coast
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
India Shines
Stephen
Gowans
Building Democracy in Iraq and Other
Absurdities
May
13, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Where is Kerry?
Colm
O'Laithian
Torture and Degradation: Revenge American Style?
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassan
Wal-Mart: Scrooge with Hi-Tech Accounting
Practices
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush on the Inhumane Treatment of Iraqi Prisoners
Willliam
James Martin
Deir Yassin Massacre Recalled
Marc
Salomon
Reality TV Bites
Forrest
Hylton
Law 'n Order in La Paz: All Quiet
on the Southern Front?
May
12, 2004
Blanton
/ Kornbluh
Prisoner Abuse: Cheney Warned in
1992
Virginia
Tilley
So, Who's to Blame?
Bruce
Jackson
James Inhofe, the Dumbest Senator
of Them All
Thomas
P. Healy
No Enemies: Making Peace with Bert Sacks
Linda
S. Heard
Racism and Ignorance: a Lethal Cocktail in Iraq
Norman
Solomon
Spinning Torturegate
Lisa
Viscidi
The People's Voice: Community Radio in Guatemala
Jack
Heyman
View from the Bay Bridge: Longshoremen Plan Mass Workers March
on DC
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Rummy's Reprieve
CounterPunch
Wire
Teamsters Corruption Scandal: Hoffa Exec. Assistant Alleged to
Have Quashed Investigation into Mob Influence
Christopher
Brauchli
Detention Camp, USA
William
S. Lind
Bush's Waterloo?
May 11, 2004
Mark
Engler
On the "Necessity" of Torture
Ray
McGovern
More Troops? A March of Folly
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Nukes and Jefferson's Grand Experiment
Mickey
Z.
Less Than Hero
Christopher
Reed
Torture on the Homefront: America's Long History of Prison Abuse
Dennis
Hans
When John Negroponte was Mullah Omar
Bruce
Jackson
Pete Seeger at 85
Mike
Whitney
Killing al Sadr
Simon
Helweg-Larsen
Shrinking the Guatemalan Military
William
A. Cook
The Unconscious Country: Righteous Indignation,
Nakedly Displayed
May
10, 2004
Robert
Fisk
From Hollywood to Abu Ghraib: Racism
and Torture as Entertainment
Wayne
Madsen
The Israeli Torture Template: Rape,
Feces and Urine-Soaked Cloth Sacks
Col.
Dan Smith
The Shame of Abu Ghraib
Joe
Bageant
John Ashcroft, Keep Your Mouth Off My Wife!
Ron
Jacobs
Rummy's Prisongate Blues: Don't Leave Mad; Just Leave
Ben
Tripp
Getting in Touch with Your Inner Savage
Ray
Hanania
Why They Hate Us: Racism, Bigotry and Abuse
Reza
Fiyouzat
"Mishandled" Invasions
Diane
Christian
Images & Abstractions &
Genitals
Website
of the Day
Crushing Iraqi Skulls with Tanks for Sport?
May
8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
May
7, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
10 Prisons; 9,000 Prisoners: US Detention
Facilities in Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
UnAmerican? I Wish It Were So
Robert
Fisk
An Illegal and Immoral War
Ahmad
Faruqui
The 50th Anniversary of Dien Bien
Phu
Alexander
Zaitchik
From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib: Doesn't It Ring a (Prison)
Bell?
Mike
Whitney
The Price of Victory
Norman
Solomon
This War, Racism and Media Denial
M.
Shahid Alam
A Comic Apology
May
6, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
They Did It for Jessica: Smeared with
Shit; Kicked to Death
Kathy
Kelly
May Day in Pekin Prison: Prison Labor
for the War Machine
Werther
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: War as Vegas
Casino Game
Lawrence
Ferlinghetti
Totalitarian Democracy
Robert
Fisk
"Smoke Him": Video Shows Wounded
Men Being Shot by US Helicopter
John
Janney
Torturing the Way to Freedom?
Christopher
Ketcham
Outlaw Heterosexual Marriage Now!
Alan
Farago
Dead Oceans: So Long, Thanks for the Fish
Sam
Hamod
Bush on Arab TV: Worthless and Demeaning
James
Brooks
Sullen Spring
William
S. Lind
On the Brink of Defeat in Iraq
May
5, 2004
Maj.
Gen. Antonio M. Taguba
Complete US Army Report on Abuse of
Iraqi Prisoners
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Kerry: a Lost Cause for Progressives?
Will
Youmans
Deal with the Devil: a Palestinian
Zionist and the End of the World
Patrick
B. Barr
Terrorists R Us: the Powerful are Exempt from the Label
Lawrence
Magnuson
Nightline's All-American Morgue
Greg
Moses
Pocketbook of Denuded Ideals
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Tormenting Prisoners, Torturing
Truth
Lee
Ballinger
Cinco de Mayo and Unity
Gilbert
Achcar
Bush's Cakewalk into the Iraq Quaqmire
Website
of the Day
Operation Phoenix & Iraq
May
4, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
A Timeline of Torture and Abuse Allegations
and Responses
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Privatized Torture
David
Peterson
CBS, Self-Censorship & Iraq
Barry
Lando
CACI's Private Torture Chambers
Patrick
Cockburn
Torture: Iraqis Disgusted, But Not Surprised
Dr.
Susan Block
Indecent Insurgents: Watch What You Say
Fidel
Castro
A Mindless, Unnecessary War
Mike
Whitney
Empire of Torture
Sonali
Kolhatkar
How to Stop the War: Demonstrate Against
John Kerry
Josh
Frank
The Lost Sierra Club
Stan
Goff
The Role: Another Open Letter to US Troops in Iraq
Agustin
Velloso
Spare Us Your Disgusting Ethics
Stew
Albert
American Know-How
Website
of the Day
Scenes from a Cover-Up
May
3, 2004
Virginia
Tilley
Let the Wall of Silence Fall
May
1 / 2, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
An Army in Disgrace, a Policy
in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat
Robert
Fisk
"Good Guys" Who Can Do No
Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders,
Useless Spies, Angry World
Heather
Williams
Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin
American Troops Flee Iraq
Diane
Rejman
An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq:
Abu Ghraib as My Lai?
Diane
Christian
Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and
Sharon Speak the Same Language
Patrick
Cockburn
Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked,
Shocked, Shocked
Chris
Floyd
Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists
and Annihilation
April
29 / 30, 2004
Dave
Zirin
A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome
Death of Pat Tillman
Kathy
Kelly
The Warden's Tour
Greg
Weiher
Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the
Banality of Evil
Michael
S. Ladah
Terrorism and Assassination: the
Ultimate Depception
Patrick
Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies
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.
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Weekend
Edition
May 15 / 16, 2004
Re-writing the
History of the Rwandan Genocide
That Halo Over
Romeo Dalliare's Head Has More Than One Hole in It!
By ROBIN PHILPOT
When International Criminal Tribunal
prosecutor Carla Del Ponte learned from a Canadian newspaper
in 2000 that the Rwandan Patriotic Front and its leader Paul
Kagame were prime suspects in the April 6, 1994, assassination
of the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, she reportedly said:
"If it is the RPF that shot down the plane, the history
of genocide must be rewritten".
Hopefully others will be as
candid as Ms Del Ponte as more and more information surfaces
on events in Rwanda in the early 90s. First on that list should
be retired Canadian general and former UN peacekeeper in Rwanda
Romeo Dallaire. However, Dallaire may find it hard to swallow
his pride after enjoying such a massive PR campaign organized
for him ever since his 600-page book appeared in October 2003
(Shake Hands with the Devil, The failure of Humanity in Rwanda,
Random House Canada).
Dallaire toured Canada, parts
of the US, Belgium, France, Tanzania, where he witnessed for
the prosecution at the ICTR, and Rwanda, where he joined Paul
Kagame for commemorations in Kigali. He appeared on all the right
programs, with the right people, and his verge-of-tears attitude
protected him from the tough questions that reporters should
have been asking him. One of his Canadian government handlers
justified the enormous security for Dallaire in Tanzania by describing
him as Canada's "national treasure". He is now being
touted as the future Governor General of Canada.
The saintly halo carefully
placed over his head has also prompted Michael Ignatieff to invite
him to be a fellow of Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights
Policy, where paradoxically he will specialize in "conflict
resolution". Ignatieff probably sees the appointment as
a way to cover his own conflict-inflicting support of the US
invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Romeo Dallaire supposedly told
all in his book. However, since so many people in influential
positions have been bluntly contradicting Dallaire, it's time
he and his ghostwriters sat down and rewrote the book. These
include former the Chief of the 1994 United Nations Mission in
Rwanda the Cameroonian diplomat Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh--Dallaire
was only in charge of the military component , UN Secretary
General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the French anti-terrorist judge
Jean-Louis Bruguière, Colonel Luc Marchal, the Belgian
commander of UN troops in Kigali who worked under Dallaire and
many more. If we accept as true half what these people have said,
either most of the information in Dallaire's book can no longer
be taken seriously or the book as whole should be rejected as
base propaganda.
Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh was the UN Secretary General's Special
Representative in Rwanda, and therefore in charge of the mission
in Rwanda.
An experienced diplomat having
served as Cameroon's Ambassador to France and to the former USSR,
Booh-Booh was also very familiar with African politics, unlike
Dallaire who admits not knowing that Rwanda was in Africa when
he was appointed in 1993. Since the Rwandan tragedy, Booh-Booh
has remained silent and respected the neutrality that comes with
his position. (Dallaire of course never respected the obligation
of neutrality). Booh-Booh broke that silence in April in an interview
with the French-language monthly Africa International.
When asked to react to criticisms
leveled by Dallaire, Booh-Booh replied that General Dallaire
never accepted the fact that he was only a military officer reporting
to the civilian authority appointed by the UN Secretary General,
and that he has been inconsolable ever since because he never
obtained Booh-Booh's job though he tried very hard. In the field,
according to Booh-Booh, Dallaire abandoned his military responsibilities
to do politics, though that was not his job, and he violated
the principle of neutrality by becoming the objective ally of
the RPF. Moreover, Dallaire's "duplicity" was widely
known in UN mission circles. Booh-Booh adds that "from a
strictly military standpoint, UNAMIR controlled absolutely nothing
under Dallaire's command", citing as an example his total
failure to rid Kigali of arms and militias.
Booh-Booh's comments about
Dallaire's political involvement in Rwanda raise important questions,
especially in light of Boutros-Ghali's statements during the
10th anniversary commemorations.
Boutros-Ghali, who told me
in a 2002 interview that the Rwandan genocide was 100 percent
American responsibility, also told the French daily Libération
that one of the UN's problems in Rwanda was that "the Department
of Peacekeeping Operations [headed by Kofi Annan at the time]
was very much infiltrated by the American authorities. Since
the we [the UN] lacked money, we recruited officers who were
on their own government's payroll."
This statement should be considered
together with Dallaire's candid boasts in his book that he violated
fundamental rules of a peacekeeping mission by going over the
head of the mission chief, Booh-Booh, and communicating directly
to the DPKO leaders Kofi Annan and Maurice Baril at UN headquarters.
Can Dallaire's intense--and
unsuccessful--involvement in Rwandan politics and his pro-RPF
stance be explained by the fact that he was receiving instructions
directly from US or pro-US people in the UN's peacekeeping operations
department? This is very plausible since we know that from the
early 1990s the United States, along with Great Britain, was
openly challenging France in French-speaking Africa, and particularly
in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). The English-speaking
Rwandan Patriotic Front, based as it was in Uganda, was perceived
as a means to accomplish that end.
On the other hand, Boutros-Ghali,
whom Madeleine Albright nicknamed "Frenchie", was perceived
as an obstacle, as undoubtedly was the head of the UN mission
in Rwanda, Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh. Soon after the Rwandan tragedy,
the US unceremoniously dumped Boutros-Ghali--Albright vetoed
renewal of his mandate--and installed Kofi Annan, thereby further
advancing their strategy in French-speaking Africa.
Add to this the fact that Dallaire
was chosen for the position in 1993 mainly because the United
States demanded a French-speaking military commander, and ideally
anti-French. Obviously that excluded a French national. Anybody
who follows Canadian politics knows that that type of military
person can be found in Ottawa, where distrust and dislike of
France are at the heart of all foreign policy.
These links help explain both
Kofi Annan's and Romeo Dallaire's silence regarding the shooting
down of the plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi--both
have persisted in calling that SAM missile attack an "accident"
or a "crash", and Kofi Annan's reaction regarding the
plane's Black Box following the Bruguière revelations
was frankly insulting. All information, all research and all
investigations, and especially Judge Bruguière's, now
point to Paul Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Front. If and
when France issues international arrest warrants for the perpetrators
of that crime, Kofi Annan and Romeo Dallaire will have a lot
of questions to answer.
Another example of Romeo Dallaire
naysayers is Colonel Luc Marchal who led the UN troops in Kigali.
Unlike Dallaire who tours the world to defend Paul Kagame and
the RPF, Marchal is very critical of both. "I am personally
very convinced in the RPF's implication in the Rwandan tragedy",
writes Marchal in a 1998 letter, "because I too had been
fooled by their smart propaganda during the Arusha negotiations
[in 1993]. Once I was in Kigali, the gulf that separated what
was said and what was really happening became obvious. In fact
the RPF movement is totalitarian and it crushes absolutely everything
in its way." He also pointed out in a 2003 interview that
the shooting down of President Habyarimana's plane would have
required months to plan and carry out, and that the rapid deployment
of RPF troops in Kigali and in the North on April 7, 1994 would
also have required months to prepare. Marchal leaves no doubt
that he suspects the RPF of committing that crime and considers
it to be crucial to understanding what happened after.
In a much more honest book
about the Rwandan events published in 2001, Marchal also clearly
implicates the United States in the 10-year cover-up of the April
6, 1994, terrorist attack that triggered the terrible massacres.
"Who is powerful enough to have prevented a real international
inquiry from casting light upon the events that occurred when
President Habyarimana was flying home from a regional summit
in Dar Es-Salaam?"
Robin Philpot is a Montreal writer. His book Ça
ne s'est pas passé comme ça à Kigali (That's
not what happened in Rwanda) will soon appear in English. Robin
Philpot can be reached at rphilpot@sympatico.ca
Weekend
Edition Features for May 8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
|