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Today's
Stories
October 11,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
September 30,
2004
Ralph Nader
10
Ways to Beat Bush: a Gift to the Kerry/Edwards Campaign
Patrick Cockburn
The
Kidnap Capital of the World: Iraq's One Growth Industry
Gideon Levy
When You Have Breast Cancer in Gaza
Joshua Frank
Presidential Debates? Pass the Remote
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
I Dreamed They Had a Debate
Ali Khan
Dershowitz's
Jihad: Inventing Exceptions to International Law
Steve Perry
An Interview with Sibel Edmonds
September 29,
2004
Behrooz Ghamari
Playing
Politics with Nukes: A Collision Course with Iran?
Ray McGovern
More
Troops to Iraq...After the Election
Walter Brasch
Tinseltown
Traitors?: Applauding Only the Right Entertainers
Chris Floyd
The
Deceivers: Chronicle of a Quagmire Foretold
Stacey Reynolds
The Story of a Mercury-Poisoned American
M. Junaid Alam
Disrupting America's Fateful Non-Debate on the Roots of Terrorism
John L. Hess
They've Already Called It
Paul Craig
Roberts
Delusion
Rules: War, Outsourcing an Debt
September 28, 2004
Mike Whitney
Kerry's
Moral Compass
Fred Gardner
Pot
Shots: the Civics Teacher
Dan Meek
How Democrats Kicked Nader Off the Oregon Ballot
Greg Bates
Choking on Progressives for Kerry
Alan Farago
Jeanne in Haiti: Where is the World?
Lori Berenson
The Cajamarca Protest
Wayne Madsen
Where
is the Florida National Guard?
Robert Fisk
Why Have We Suddenly Forgotten Abu Ghraib?
September 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Expulsion of Cat Stevens
Patrick Cockburn
As British Muslims Plead for Bigley's Life, US Airstrikes Pound
Fallujah
Sam Husseini
The Problem with Public Opinion Polls
Lee Sustar
Putting Bosses First: Latter Day Democrats and Labor
Dave Lindorff
A Progressive Case for (Gag) Kerry?
Norman Madarasz
Talking International: Contra Kerry
Kevin Pina
The Tragedy of Gonaives, Haiti
September 25
/ 26, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
C'mon
Ralph, You've Got Nothing to Lose
Dave Zirin
The Courage of the NBA's Etan Thomas:
"I Am Totally Against This War"
Saul Landau
The Reality of Empire and Campaign Rhetoric
Dave Lindorff
Our Heroic Baby-Killers
Brian J. Foley
Bush at the UN: the Sound of No Hands Clapping
William Blum
Progressives and the Election
Alan Maass
Why is Kerry Running Such a Lame Campaign? You Can't Blame It
All on Bob Shrum
Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Another Lost Story
Solange Echeverria
An Interview with Kevin Pina on the Floods in Haiti
Nicole Colson
What About the Supreme Court?
Justin Smith
The New Sparta
Joshua Frank
Iraq: From Clinton to Bush
Karyn Strickler
Momma, Don't Let Your Babides Grow Up to be Cannon Fodder
Michael Donnelly
Rather Disingenuous: "Remember in November"
Greg Bates
The Politics of Nader's Republican Support
Todd Chretien
Lesser Evilism: We Are Living in the Logical Conclusion
William Loren
Katz
Dire Warnings from the Past: From Wilson to Bush
Omar Barghouti
Americans, You've Lost Your Alibi!
Poets' Basement
Holt, Clarke, Albert, Laymon and Ford
Website of the Weekend
Carnival of Chaos
September 24,
2004
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
The
Value of One Life: Keeping Up Appearances and Leaving Hostages
to the Wolves
William S.
Lind
Destroying
the National Guard
Mike Whitney
The Bush Tent Show
Nancy Welch
What's
at Stake for Women in 2004?
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Logical Limbo
Joshua Frank
Fear Mongering 101
Victor Kattan
An Interview with Afif Safieh
Ben Terrall
Kerry and Haiti: Will He Stand Up?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
"Finally
It Broke My Heart": Random Impressions from Palestine
September 23,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Are They Still Holding "Mrs. Anthrax?"
Christopher Brauchli
Ashcroft's "Distressing Lack of Care": Hamdi and the
Phony War on Terrorism
Derek Seidman
Fighting for a Union at Starbucks: an Interview with Daniel Gross
Michael Neumann
Three
Years and Counting? How Time Flies
September 22,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Zarqawi's
War: the Mysterious Sadist from Jordan
Neve Gordon
The
Wall, the Court and Sharon
Joshua Frank
History Repeating: New York, 1832 and Now
Ron Jacobs
Stormy Seas on the Citizen Ship
Jack Random
Defending Dan? Rather Not
Tarif Abboushi
Kerry's Final Straw: Confessions of a Despairing Voter
Mickey Z
Stupid White Guy Quiz
John L. Hess
Faking the Difference: a Serious Debate?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: The House Rules
September 21,
2004
Gary Leupp
"We
Are Not Secure": Kerry's "Unwavering Commitment"
to Securing a Middle East Realm
Robert Jensen
Large
Dams in India: Temples or Burial Grounds?
Elaine Cassel
Fourth Circuit to Moussouai: Ask Your Questions; Prepare to Die
Stanley Heller
Reagan and the Killing Fields of Lebanon
Adam Federman
America Will Disappoint the World, Again
David Whitehouse
What's Behind the Horror in Darfur?
M. Junaid Alam
How to Avoid Becoming an Anti-American
Paul Craig
Roberts
Attention
Deficit America
Website of the Day
True American War Heroes: the Iraq Refuseniks
September 20,
2004
Cockburn /
Buncombe
Get
Fallujah
David Price
Relying
on Phonies: What If The Problem with Phone Polls is That They
Are Phone Polls
Dave Lindorff
How
Dems Fight: Tigers Against Nader, Pussycats Against Bush
Harry Browne
Pre-Nup at Leeds: Talked Out, But Does IRA Give Up?
Mark Wesibrot
Bush's
Ownership Society: No Taxes for Owners, Only Workers
Karyn Strickler
The Keys to the White House v. the Shrum Curse?
Uri Avnery
The Temple Mount Bombers
September 18
/ 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
Septemeber
17, 2004
Ray McGovern
Gossing
Over the Record
Patrick Cockburn
The New Iraqi Economy: Baghdad's Thriving Kidnapping Industry
Lee Sustar
The State of Working America: an Autopsy of the American Dream
Mike Whitney
John Kerry: 195 Lbs. of Political Helium, Not an Ounce of Sincerity
Victor Kattan
Black September
Ray Hanania
Israel's Demographics
Greg Bates
Nader's Victories: a Mid-Campaign Assessment
Website of
the Day
The Road to Hell
September 16,
2004
Landau / Hassen
Meet
the New Villain: Syria
Joanne Mariner
Inside
Darfur: a Photo Essay
Patrick Cockburn
US
Offers Conflicting Accounts of Baghdad Bloodbath
Greg Moses
Four Million Children Might Be News
Joshua Frank
Nader in the Battleground States
Christopher Brauchli
The Bush Drug Lottery Flops
David Himmelstein
Folke Bernadotte: a Rosh Hashonah Remembrance
Website of the Day
The Abu Ghraib Index
September 15,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Hell
on Haifa Street
Ron Jacobs
Oppose War, Not Just Bush
David Lindorff
Blanking Out Dissent
Joanne Mariner
Talking About Darfur: Is Genocide Just a Word?
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein
An Open Letter to Madonna: Please Don't Support Israeli Apartheid
Dave Zirin
Is the NFL Ready for Us?
Yigal Bronner
"They
Are Building Walls Around Us"
September 14,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Problem of Chechnya
Jennifer van
Bergen
What's
Wrong with Torture?
Stan Goff
Wake Up and Smell the Jungle Rot
Patrick Cockburn
The
Punishment of Fallujah: US Precision Strickes...on Ambulances
Anis Memon
Nader
in Michigan
Michael Donnelly
The Nuance Comes Off: Former Naderites Beg for Kerry Votes
Werther
Zell Miller: the Peckerwood Pericles
Website of
the Day
Osama Bin Forgotten?
September 13,
2004
Gabriel Kolko
Elections,
Alliances and the American Empire
Phillip Cryan
How Do You Say "Death Squad?": Language in Colombia's
War
Patrick Cockburn
One of Baghdad's Bloodiest Days: "I'm a Journalist! I'm
Dying! I'm Dying"
Noah Leavitt
The War on Civil Liberties
Robert Jensen
Highjacking Catastrophe: Bush, the Neo-Cons and 9/11
Mike Whitney
Alan Greenspan: Fed-Master to the Wealthy
John Chuckman
Stop Talking About the "Election"
Mike Burke
Kerry/Edwards Website Censors Discussion of Israel/Palestine
Issues
CounterPunch
Wire
The Quotations of David Cobb: "I Don't Care How Many Votes
I Get"
Website of the Day
Keep It In Your Pants: the Bush Plan to Combat Teen Promiscuity
September 11
/ 12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Swatting
at Flies
Fred Gardner
Yet Another Prozac Scandal
Saul Landau
When Our Assassins Go Free
Jennifer Van Bergen
How to Beat Bush: a Simple Strategy for the Average American
Roger Burbach
/ Jim Tarbell
The Real Dead Enders: Iraq and the Crisis of Empire
Christopher Reed
9/11 in an Historical Context: a Minor Event When Compared to
Worldwide War Casualties
Francisc Catalin
An ABC of American Interventions
Carl Estabrook
Big Science and Government Terror
Bernard Chazelle
Anti-Americanism: a Clinical Study
Sharon Smith
Third Party Blues
Dave Lindorff
Perhaps This Time We're the Silent Majority
Mike Whitney
Fallujah: an Iraqi Beslan?
Frederick B.
Hudson
Their Sons Perished in the Flames, But Not Their Faith
Mickey Z.
Round Up the Usual Suspects: a Look Back at 9/11
Ron Jacobs
Redneck Music for the New Century
Greg Moses
Soap Opera Moments in Texas School Funding Trial
Benjamin Dangl
/ Andrew Kennis
An Interview with Leslie Cagan
Poets Basement
Del Papa, Albert, Gelman
September 10,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Disappointment
at Samarrah?
Michael Donnelly
Democrats v. Democracy
Alan Farago
Mosquitoes in a Hurricane
Doug Giebel
Karl Rove's Terror Playbook
Mike Whitney
Bob Graham's Political Tsunami
David Domke
God's
Will, According to the Bush Administration
September 9,
2004
Joe Bageant
Karaoke
Night in Bush's America
Ed Kinane
Abducted in Baghdad
Peter Bohmer
The Cuban Revolution: Present and Future
Todd May
The Emerging Case for a Single-State Solution
Jeremy Scahill
The New York Model: Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad
Joshua Frank
Green House Party Gasses
Fran Shor
The Crisis in Public Dissent: When Protest is Considered a Terrorist
Act
Patrick Cockburn
Welcome
to the Dirtiest City in the World: Despair in Baghdad
Website of
the Day
Liberty Street Protest: No to War at Ground Zero
September 8,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
This
Doesn't Smell Like Victory: A War on Two Fronts in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush Confuses; Kerry Mute: Spinning 1000 Dead
Bulent Gokay
Russian and Chechnia After Beslan
Lisa Viscidi
Land Reform and Conflict in Guatemala
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Byrd's Eye View
Mike Whitney
Afghanistan: American's Drug Colony
Stan Goff
Body
Count: 1001
Website of
the Day
Bush and the Love Doctors
September 7,
2004
Diane Christian
Hostage Tactics: a Game of Mortal Poker
Joshua Frank
Greens
Unravel from Within
Patrick Cockburn
Fallujah
Erupts Again: US Death Toll in Iraq Nears 1000
Ron Jacobs
Bush and Putin: "We're Not Girlie Men"
Chris Floyd
Cry Havoc: Bush's Own Personal Janjaweed
Dr. Carol Wolman
No Blood for Oil at Paul Bunyan Day Parade
John Ross
The
Politics of Darkness North / South
September 6,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
An
Anti-Labor Day That Lives in Infamy: How Many Democrats Voted
For Taft-Hartley?
Ralph Nader
The
Cruel Legacy of Taft-Hartley: a Labor Day Call for Rights for
Working People
Lee Sustar
What's Driving the Attack on Pensions?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Dual
Loyalties: the Bush Necons and Israel
September 4-5,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
Elephants
and Gramsci
Ted Honderich
The
Way Things Are
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The
Holy Empire: Who We Are and What We Do
Douglas Valentine
What the World Should Know About Guantanamo
Patrick Cockburn
New Iraqi Police State Flexes Its Muscles
Gary Leupp
Neo Cons Under Fire
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: the Hempstead T-Shirt
William A.
Cook
The
Day of the Lemming
Dave Zirin
Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom
John Chuckman
The Day the World Ended
Karyn Strickler
God Save the Endangered Species Act
Vanessa Jones
Bad Day with an Ikea Cup
Mike Whitney
Kerry: the "Better" War Candidate
Mark Donham
Dear John (Kerry): Start Explaining and Fast
Mickey Z.
McBypass Nation: Feeling Clinton's Pain
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades be Fixed?
Poets' Basement
Landau and Albert
September 3,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
Rahul Mahajan
Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response
Carl Estabrook
The
Book of Slaughter and Forgetting
Joshua Frank
The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again
Gary Leupp
Music to My Ears: Sunday's March
James Hollander
Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide?
Mark Engler
Republicans
Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out
Jesse Sharkey
Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education
Jane Stillwater
Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves
in Guatemala
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote
Twice, Let Them"
Todd Chretien & Jessie
Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?
Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
Christa Allen
Contre Bush
Website of
the Day
[Redacted]
September 1,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Stench of Doom
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Poor Larry Franklin
Dave Lindorff
Kerry's Litmus Test
Josh Frank
Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up
John L. Hess
Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops
Mike Whitney
Deconstructing Arnold
Jack Random
Kindergarten Night at the RNC
Andrew Wilson
War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words
August 31,
2004
Joseph Nevins
Escapism
and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs
Matt Vidal
Beyond
Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy
Neve Gordon
Kerry and the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
Bush
the Peace Candidate?
Mike Whitney
NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran
Jack Random
Opening Night: Playing the War Card
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One)
CounterPunch Photo of the Day
Pete Seeger in NYC
August 30,
2004
Justin Podhur
The
Disappeared Mayor
Shaun Joseph
The
Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com
Mike Whitney
Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly
Want?
Ron Jacobs
Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate
David Lindorff
Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy
Dave Zirin
USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate
Sam Husseini
Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History
August 28 /
29, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Zombies
for Kerry
Patrick Cockburn
Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US
Ray McGovern
Blowing Smoke on Intelligence
Dr. Juan Romagoza
From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor
Ray Hanania
An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous!
Fred Gardner
Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot
Diane Christian
Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live
William S. Lind
The Desert Fox
Paul D'Amato
The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry
Joshua Frank
Greens at the Crossroads
Mickey Z.
Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests
Winslow T. Wheeler
Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange
Justin E.H.
Smith
The New Age Racket and the Left
Thomas St. John
Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God"
Ali Tonak
Help the NYPD?
Mark Engler
New York Says "No"
Justin Felux
Haiti: the Attica of the Americas
Poets' Basement
Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod
August 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
Neocon
Musings
Robin Cook
The
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Diane Christian
Disarming
Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?
Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters
Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"
Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners
Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"
August 26,
2004
M. Shahid Alam
The
Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?
Diane Christian
War
Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu
Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get
Organized
David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally
Christopher
Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble
Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity
Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
Website of
the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
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October 11, 2004
One Man's Democracy,
Another Man's Chains
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
By
KEVIN PINA
A recounting of recent events in Haiti
is reminiscent of a statement written by an American Marine private
during the first U.S. occupation of Haiti that began in 1915
and lasted nineteen years. The homesick marine wrote:
''Dear Mother,
All is well for me here. I
have taken well to my duties in Haiti but I still can't believe
how they let the niggers have the run of the place.''
Haitians
Running Haiti?
Now let's fast forward to last
December 31, 2003 as Luigi Einaudi of the Organization of American
States (OAS) is ushered into the lobby of the Hotel Montana for
Haiti's bicentennial celebrations. While checking into the luxury
hotel he makes this comment in front of several witnesses: "The
real problem in Haiti is that the international community is
so screwed up and divided that they are letting Haitians run
Haiti." When questioned about his objectivity given his
attendance at the opening of the Haiti Democracy Project (HDP),
a Washington think-tank funded and supported by right-wing Haitians
opposed to President John Bertrand-Aristide, he becomes defensive
and denies he had been there at all. After it is pointed out
to him that there are photos on the organization's website of
him with HDP Director James Morrell he quips, "Maybe I was
there, I don't remember, but I really think Morrell is a kook."
The exchange turns to the question of Otto Reich's role as "fixer"
for the Bush Administration in Haiti, at which time Einaudi grows
red in the face and visibly angry, shouting, "You are ignorant,
you don't know what you are talking about," as he makes
a mad dash for the Hotel's elevator.
It is duly noted that Mr. Einaudi
has since gotten his wish. Haitians no longer run Haiti.
The Golden
Rule of U.S. sponsored Democracy: He Who Owns the Gold Makes
the Rules
The forced ouster of Haiti's
president on February 29, 2004 begins with the economic and political
isolation of Aristide's party, known as Lavalas, following the
national elections of May 21, 2000. Aristide's predecessor, President
Rene Preval, delays the elections several times. Preval's stated
purpose is to insure proper voter registration. The opposition
accuses him of delaying the national elections to coincide with
the upcoming presidential elections. The opposition and several
"undisclosed diplomatic sources" claim this is being
done to give Lavalas candidates the advantage of "riding
on Aristide's coattails."
Preval finally relents despite
his continuing concerns over inadequate time for voter registration
and security preparations for polling stations throughout the
country. The elections are finally held on May 21, 2000 and initially
praised as the "most free and fair election in Haitian history"
by the U.S. State Department and the Organization of American
States (OAS). When it becomes clear that the Lavalas party has
won by a landslide, despite the absence of Aristide's mythical
coattails, these very same forces discredit the results of the
elections.
After initially praising the
process of the elections, the OAS later claims that Lavalas purposely
miscalculated the vote to favor seven of their senatorial candidates.
It is interesting to note that the OAS, and several non-governmental
organizations contracted by the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID), are at the same time deeply involved in
overseeing and monitoring these elections. They are included
and present during discussions by Haiti's Provisional Election
Council when it determines the method to tabulate the final results.
OAS representative Orlande Marville, another apostle of the HDP
and the "kook" James Morrell, eventually leaks an internal
memo criticizing the ballot counting methods to the press rather
then quietly negotiating a solution. The OAS shows its hypocrisy
when it turns a blind eye to President Alberto Fujimori's brazen
electoral fraud in Peru the same year. In Haiti, the OAS double
standard results in Lavalas ultimately forcing the seven contested
senators to resign and creating a timetable for new elections
as a formula for compromise.
Why Should
I Play if My Rich Uncle's Gonna Pay Anyway?
Any political compromise is
categorically rejected by the Haitian "political opposition"
as it becomes more emboldened and entrenched due to increasing
funding and nurturing through programs sponsored by the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the European
Union (EU). The opposition and their allies use the issue of
the seven contested senate seats to question the validity of
the entire election of May 2000. What is conveniently ignored,
especially today, is that these elections filled more then 7500
national, municipal and local positions of government largely
due to a huge investment of money and human resources by the
United States and the international community. They got the democratic
process they demanded of Haiti but when the results finally sink
in, they do their best to distance themselves and finally take
to actively supporting a minority "political opposition"
to sully the results. This policy trajectory justifies suspending
all direct international assistance and loans to the government
of Haiti. As a result, it becomes increasingly difficult for
the majority political party, Lavalas, to implement strategies
to alleviate the conditions of extreme poverty among the country's
poor majority--the party's popular base.
In November 2000, Aristide
is re-elected president of Haiti after a terror campaign of mysterious
drive-by shootings and bombings rock the capital. Despite the
violence and the political opposition's decision to boycott the
election, independent international observers rescue their validity
by pronouncing the vote free and fair despite a low turnout.
The press gives ample attention to the detractors of this election
but are conspicuously silent on the three weeks of terror that
preceded it.
Following this period, most
international press attention focuses on the negatives of the
Aristide government. The Lavalas party's land reform for the
peasants and universal literacy programs are ignored and dismissed
as insignificant by the outside world. Financial and political
isolation begins to take its toll. This becomes a period in which
anything positive about Lavalas appears to be censored while
anything that damages the credibility of the Haitian government
is magnified. In this political climate, even former "leftist"
allies of Lavalas, so-called Haitian human rights organizations
and members of Haiti's press, justify accepting tours to the
United States--paid for by the U.S. State Department. During
these tours they are encouraged to develop contacts with the
alternative media and the United States "Left" as they
preach the evils of Aristide and Lavalas to a largely uninformed
American audience.
The political and financial
isolation of Aristide and Lavalas following the May 2000 elections
also opened new and unprecedented levels of support for the "political
opposition" from the U.S. and their partners in the international
community. Although this "political opposition" was
incapable of winning at the polls, the U.S. and the international
community provide legitimacy to their Haitian surrogates by giving
them the option to paralyze the country with a veto over any
political compromise that will break the stalemate over the elections.
The final attempt to force the opposition to make a reasonable
compromise with Aristide is a power sharing solution brokered
by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in early February 2004.
The opposition, which clearly sees no advantage in negotiation
as long as the U.S. and the EU continue to support their intransigence,
once again rejects compromise.
The Death
Insurance Policy
Two years prior to CARICOM's
last ditch effort to save democracy in Haiti, new and ominous
reports emerge of killings by paramilitary forces comprised of
former death squads and disbanded military using the Dominican
Republic as a safe haven. At the same time, Haiti's small but
powerful economic elite is slowly rehabilitated as the legitimate
leadership of the opposition to Lavalas. Andre Apaid, a wealthy
owner of many sweatshops in Haiti, is suddenly touted as an indigenous
Gandhi fighting the evil dictatorship of Aristide while the press
and much of the Haitian left conveniently refrain from questioning
the conditions he imposes upon his own employees. With U.S. and
EU support, Apaid is ultimately able to turn out thousands of
demonstrators demanding Aristide's resignation. The real power
behind these numbers soon becomes apparent. Apaid's "movement"
evaporates into next to nothing following Secretary of State
Colin Powell's disingenuous statement in mid-February 2004 that
Washington will not accept removing Aristide through unconstitutional
means. In the blink of an eye, what was touted in the press as
tens of thousands, mobilized by Apaid to demand Aristide's resignation,
is reduced to a raucous and violent crowd of several hundred.
While Apaid organizes the opposition demonstrations on the ground,
it is always the U.S. State Department that holds the power of
life or death over Haiti's fledgling democracy and Aristide's
presidency. Powell's words soon turn hollow as those now infamous
"undisclosed officials" in Washington are heard from
once again. This time they claim that only a change in the way
Haiti is run, and that includes the possibility of Aristide stepping
down, will solve Haiti's "political crisis."
It is at this moment that the
aforementioned paramilitary forces in the Dominican Republic
are suddenly "discovered" in Haiti by the corporate
media amid significant fanfare. While President Aristide and
his spokesmen were left to shout at the wind about deadly armed
incursions by these same forces for more than two years, corporate
media organizations suddenly cough up nice salaries, per diems
and expense accounts in February 2004 to provide the "rebels"
with unprecedented media coverage. These well-armed and trained
forces in Haiti are led by a former Haitian military officer,
Guy Phillipe, accused of human rights abuses by organizations
such as Human Rights Watch and labeled a drug trafficker by the
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the spring of 2001.
Phillipe's fellow ringleader is Jodel Chamblain, the infamous
former second in command of the dreaded paramilitary death squad,
the Front for Advancement and Progress in Haiti (FRAPH). FRAPH
was trained by the CIA and unleashed upon the Haitian population
in the aftermath of the violent military coup against Aristide
in 1991. This band of former military and death squad killers
now wreaks havoc in the north of Haiti--the ultimate threat and
justification for the U.S. government to remove the country's
democratically elected president.
Dressing
the Stage to Orchestrate the Fall
The media's grand entrance
and belated discovery of the paramilitary forces from the Dominican
Republic ushers in what is generously described by many observers
in Port au Prince as "superb theater." Foreign embassy
after foreign embassy publicly pleads with their citizens to
flee Haiti as the "rebels surround the capital." Suddenly,
fifty U.S. marines fly into Haiti dressed in full battle gear,
ostensibly to check on security preparations at the U.S. Embassy.
Representatives of the U.S.- and EU-backed opposition to Aristide
take to the airwaves with daily pronouncements that an exit strategy
has already been prepared for the president and it is just a
matter of time before his eventual departure. Then there is the
frightened reaction of the masses of Lavalas partisans who erect
elaborate and deadly barricades at all entrances to Port au Prince
and, finally, throughout the main thoroughfares of the capital
itself. It becomes clear to most observers on the ground that
the so-called rebels never stand a chance of entering the capital
despite U.S. claims to the contrary. Supplies of diesel gasoline,
which is needed to run the mighty turbine generators that provide
electricity to the capital, begin to dwindle as nightly blackouts
combine with the sporadic gunfire of determined Aristide partisans
to create an atmosphere of fear and tension. The drama reaches
epic proportions, as the U.S. demands all of its citizens to
abandon Haiti and, for some unknown reason, suspends all commercial
airline flights to the capital. All of this despite the fact
that not a single foreign national ever receives so much as a
scratch during this period, nor is there ever any threat whatsoever
to the now seemingly sacred tarmac of the Toussaint Louverture
International Airport. The stage is now set to provide a plausible
pretext to remove Haiti's elected president. All that's needed
is one more turn of the screw to bring on the final act.
Friends
in Struggle: Venezuela and South Africa Force Washington's Hand
The second week of February
2004 President Aristide made a public pronouncement that he would
never resign his elected authority, invoking the image of the
fallen democrat Salvador Allende of Chile by announcing he was
"willing to die in office." The following week it appeared
Washington had all the pieces in place to take him out including
the final gambit of a "rebel" paramilitary army surrounding
Port au Prince. In Washington it was thought this was more than
enough to pressure Aristide into voluntarily resigning his office
and fleeing Haiti. More important was that all of Washington's
window dressing would give the impression of yet another embattled
dictator of Haiti falling upon his own sword. The State Department
needed just a little more time to close the noose around Aristide's
neck. The plan was to allow Phillipe and Chamblain's forces to
move closer to the capital and clash with defending Lavalas partisans,
thus making the scenario complete for the gullible international
press. Unfortunately, this calculation depended upon a weakened
and docile president of Haiti, paralyzed and incapable of defending
himself. Reality caught U.S. planners by surprise and led to
what history will recall as one of the greatest scandals of U.S.-sponsored
democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In the days preceding Aristide's
overthrow a press report surfaces that causes panic in the U.S.
State Department. An undisclosed Venezuelan diplomat is quoted
as saying his government is prepared to provide unilateral assistance
to the Haitian government under the terms of the Rio Treaty and
the Democratic Charter of the Organization of American States.
At about the same time a credible source working in the U.S.
Embassy in Port au Prince leaks word of intercepted phone calls
of advisors close to Aristide who are "actively procuring
additional arms and ammunition to re-supply the Haitian National
Police. These same advisors discussed releasing existing stockpiles
of arms to local auxiliary forces aligned with Lavalas."
Kevin Pina is an associate editor of the Black
Commentator, where this account originally appeared. He can
be reached at: kevinpina@yahoo.com
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