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Today's Stories November 28, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Iraq Nears the "Saigon Moment" November 27, 2006 Kathleen and Bill Christison Genocide or Erasure of Palestinians: Does It Matter What You Call It? Uri Avnery An Evening in Jounieh Nikolas Kozloff The Rise of Rafael Correa: Ecuador and the Contradictions of Chavismo Michael Donnelly Freedom Air: Keeping the Skies Safe from Nipples and Muslims Ben Terrall / John Miller Bush's Big Indonesian Photo-Op Robert Jensen Digging In and Digging Deep Sol Littman Missing Canada's Health Care System in Tucson Website of the Day State Minimum Wages: a Policy That Works   November 25 / 26, 2006 Gabriel Kolko Factors in Our Colossal Mess Saul Landau Republic of the Repressed William Blum New Congress, Same Quagmire Ralph Nader The Trouble with the Bubble Fred Gardner The War on Us: Another 1.9 Million Victims Daniel Wolff Return to District 8, New Orleans M. Shahid Alam Pitting the West Against Islam James J. Brittain Censorship in Colombia: the Arrest of Freddie Muñoz George Ciccariello-Maher Contingency and Counter-Contingency in Venezuela Aseem Shrivastava India on 20 Cents a Day Seth Sandronsky The Washington Post's War on Social Security Julian Assange The Curious Origins of Political Hacktivism Christopher Brauchli The Rout and the Honeymoon: In and Out of Bed with Bush Michele Naar-Obed A Letter to the Judge Who Sentenced My Husband to Federal Prison for Protesting Nuclear Weapons Ramzy Baroud Reclaiming America Christiane Passevant / Larry Portis Women in the Israeli Army: Two New Films Adam Engel Striving of His Day-Days: a Prose Poem Jeffrey St. Clair / David Vest Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Davies, Gibbons, Louise, Buknatski, Orloski Website of the Weekend The Black Agenda   November 24, 2006 Charles Glass How to Let Lebanon Live Gideon Levy A Prayer in Paradise Jonathan Cook Syria as Fallguy Ron Jacobs Build a Fire on Main Street: Stop the War, Now! Brian McKenna Native Resurgence Spurs Hope: Giving Thanks to America's Indians Kim Ives The UN Fails Haiti, Again   November 23, 2006 Alexander Cockburn The Democrats and the Slaughterhouse November 22, 2006 Kathleen Christison The Massacre at Beit Hanoun Paul Craig Roberts Bush's Lone Victory: Defeating the Bill of Rights Mike Roselle Green Muscle on Election Day: Now is the Time for Boldness Dave Lindorff The First Task of the New Congress Greg Moses Up From Chiapas: Giving Thanks to Women's Question Dave Zirin Born Under Punches: the Pimping of Mike Tyson Nadia Martinez Dealing with Ortega Sherwood Ross Why the World Needs Trade Unions Now More Than Ever David Kalbfeisch I Am A Navy Veteran Against Wars Gilad Atzmon Palestinian Solidarity in a Time of Massacres Website of the Day Sorry, Charlie: No Draft   November 21, 2006 Robert Bryce The Ongoing Myth of Energy Independence John V. Walsh Spoilers of the World Unite! Luis Hernandez Navarro Lessons from the Teachers of Oaxaca Kevin Zeese An Interview with Michael Isikoff on Iraq Peter Rost, MD Rules of the Game: How Big Corporations Avoid Paying Their Taxes Evelyn Pringle Drug Your Fetus: How Big Pharma Hits on Pregnant Women Roger Morris Reason in an Age of Folly (and Felony) Don Monkerud Here Come the Democrats ... So? Website of the Day The Grind   November 20, 2006 David H. Price American Anthropologists Stand Up Against Torture and the Occupation of Iraq Col. Dan Smith Usurpation of Power Katherine Hughes Compassion on Trial in War on Terror: Muslim Charities and the Case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir Dave Himmelstein Ziodammerung: Netanyahu and the End Times Robert Jensen Opportunities Lost Joe Mowrey America's Progressive Nightmare: Here Come the Armani Democrats Mike Whitney Housing Bubble Smack Down: Alan Greenspan, Homewrecker Carl N. McDaniel Living Within Limits Robert Fisk Shia Walk Ramzy Baroud Killing Hope in Beit Hanoun Website of the Day Iraq: the Hidden Story   November 18 / 19, 2006 Weekend Edition Alexander Cockburn Top Dems to Voters: "Shut Up! We've Got a War to Run!" Ralph Nader The Hole in Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Lost the Senate Barucha Calamity Peller Who Will Live on in the Oaxaca Uprising? John Ross Halliburton Wrecks Mexico Dave Lindorff The Albatross: Why the Democrats Should Cut Loose Joe Lieberman Fred Gardner The Adverse Effects of Marijuana: California Medical Survey Ron Jacobs Back in the Aether Again: Thomas Pynchon's Stunning Return Larry Portis The Songs of Basilio Martin Patino: Father of the New Spanish Cinema Frida Berrigan The Weapons Bonanza: a Perfect Storm of Profit Wes Enzinna Ghosts of Dictatorships Past: the School of the America's and Memory in Latin America Elizabeth Schulte The Fall of Donald Rumsfeld: Architect of a Disaster Peter Rost, MD The Credit Card Trap Martha Rosenberg We're Drinking What? Milk, rBST and Monsanto's Rats Seth Sandronsky University Unity: California's Professors and Students Unite Missy Beattie Explore This! Adam Engel Data Days Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Newberry and Curtis Website of the Weekend A Modest Proposal for the Art World   November 17, 2006 Greg Grandin The Road from Serfdom: Milton Friedman and the Economics of Empire Joseph Massad Pinochet in Palestine: Fateh's Unholy Alliance Kevin Zeese George McGovern's Return to Capitol Hill: "A Down-to-Earth Disengagement Plan" Gideon Levy After the Rain of Death Bill Quigley WMDs Protected!: Blood-Pouring Anti-Nuke Clowns Sent to Prison David Swanson Last Chance for the Democrats?: a Tale of Two Conyers Sherry Wolf Gay Rights: When Will the US Catch Up with Africa? Jerry Beisler What James Webb Knows Website of the Day Thanks for the False Memories!   November 16, 2006 Kathy Kelly Sources of Violence Col. Douglas MacGregor Was It Only Rumsfeld? Norman Solomon Operation Last Resort: the Media Offensive to Prolong the Iraq War Nikki Thanos From Oaxaca to Portland Cindy Sheehan Impeachment Proceedings Lena Khalaf Tuffaha Jimmy Carter and the "A" Word: Will the Democrats Listen to Carter on Palestine? Gloria La Riva Where is the Justice? Anti-Castro Terrorist Gets Only 4 Years Pat Williams How the Democrats Won the West Kerry Joyce From Rummy to Rahmmy: Bob Novak's New Source CP News Service Wal-Mart Charged with Selling Non-Organic Food as "Organic" David Letterman Top 10 Slogans for Wal-Mart Wine James Ridgeway Did Robert Gates' Planning Help Bring Black Hawk Down? Website of the Day A Conversation with West Point Grads Against the War   November 15, 2006 Jennifer Loewenstein Alice in Erez: the Gaza Crossing David Rosen Rev. Ted Haggard and the Eclipse of Evangelical Fury Ashley Smith A Socialist in the Senate? Landau / Hassen Talking Tough on Iraq Isn't Courageous Walden Bello Iraq After November 7: New Challenges for the AntiWar Movement Sibel Edmonds The Highjacking of a Nation Austin / Bernstein Why Bill Cosby is Wrong to Link Black Culture to Economic Decline Yitzhak Laor This Merchandise, Security James Rothenberg Unimpeachable: a Brief Argument Why Gail Dines "Borat": It's a Guy Thing Website of the Day Kakistocracy November 14, 2006 Werther Beltway Bromo-Seltzer: a Sneak Peak at the Baker Report Ray McGovern Benching Scowcroft John Walsh Korea, Vietnam and Iraq Syndrome: Alive, Well and Gaining Strength David MacMichael Gates to the Pentagon William S. Lind Lose a War, Lose an Election Sharon Smith Democrats, Born to Compromise Laura Carlsen Oaxaca Fights Back Ron Jacobs The Perishing Republic Peter Rost, MD Whistleblowers: Who Are They? Carol Norris Post-Campaign Ad Stress Disorder? Website of the Day A Map of the US Nuclear Arsenal     November 13, 2006 Kathleen and Bill Christison Screw the Palestinians, Full Steam Ahead Bill Quigley Robin Hood in Reverse: the Corporate Looting of the Gulf Coast Paul Craig Roberts The Democrats and Civil Liberties: Will They Turn a Blind Eye? Uri Avnery Call It What It Is: a Massacre! Joe DeRaymond The Strange Return of Daniel Ortega Norman Finkelstein Jimmy Carter's Roadmap Col. Dan Smith The Pentagon's Revolving Gates: Out with the Old, In with the Old Shepherd Bliss After the Party Dave Lindorff What Vote-Theft Conspiracy? Missy Beattie For Better / For Worse: Will Laura Stay the Course? Trenticosta / Fleming Vindication for the Angola 3   Weekend Edition November 11 / 12, 2006 John Walsh Rahm's Losers Barucha Calamity Peller Oaxaca at Any Cost Al Krebs Be Careful What You Wish For Niall Meehan Ireland's Freedom Struggle and the Foster School of Historical Falsification Conn Hallinan The Ills of War: Shafting the Vets Patrick Cockburn "We Worry About Staying Alive, Not the U.S. Elections" Gary Leupp Democrats Can Be NeoCons, Too P. Sainath India High and Low: the Anatomy of a Tiger Nikolas Kozloff The Return of Tom Lantos: Beware Venezuela, Here Come the Democratic Hawks Lawrence R. Velvel Throwing Rumsfeld Under the Bus Fred Gardner Marijuana, the Anti-Drug Ralph Nader Taking on the Boss: Claybrook vs. the Chamber Ben Terrall / John Miller East Timor: 15 Years After the Massacre Mike Whitney Cheney in a Box Joshua Frank Post-Electoral Deliriums Mukul Dube The Death Penalty Case of Mohd. Afzal Jason Hribal Jesse: Eulogy for a Working Dog Daniel Wolff The Unseen Springsteen Michael Donnelly Red Rock Blues: the Moab Folk Festival Lord Montague A Dissenting Note on the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917 Poets' Basement Davies, Louise, Buknatski and Orloski   November 10, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Lame Duck Marjorie Cohn The War Crimes Case Against Rumsfeld Jorge Mariscal What Veterans See Gregory Elich The Trial of Saddam: Who Will Pass Judgment on the Judges? Joshua Frank Blue Dog Group: Bye-Bye Coke, Hello Pepsi Megan Boler The Joke is On Us: How "Borat" Lowers the Bar of Political Satire Ramzy Baroud The Treacherous Road to Oslo Begins Here Farzana Versey An Iraqi in India Roberto Rodriguez A Thumpin' or a Whippin'? Cartoon of the Day Splat!   November 9, 2006 Jennifer Loewenstein How Gaza Offends Us All Patrick Cockburn War of the Snipers Paul Craig Roberts Will Democrats Become Part of the Problem? Manuel Garcia, Jr. The Roots of Corruption Mike Whitney Bush's Chernobyl Economy Alan Maass The Repudiation of One-Party Rule Robert Jensen Blood on the Tracks: the Elections and the Coming Train Wreck Nicola Nasser Saddam's Trial in Context John Chuckman As I Lay Dying: Watching the US Elections from Canada Jamal Juma Between Resistance and Deception in Palestine Felice Pace Can the Klamath be Restored? Website of the Day The Robert Gates Files   November 8, 2006 Alexander Cockburn / Jeffrey St. Clair Count Your Blessings: NeoCons and NeoLibs Take Big Hit as Voters Say No to Bush, War and Free Trade Lawrence E. Walsh Robert Gates and Iran/Contra: Lies, Cover Ups and Slanted Intelligence Bruce K. Gagnon What's Next for the Peace Movement?: Confront the Democrats, Now! Neve Gordon Anti-Semitism? Mr. Dershowitz, You Just Don't Like What I Say Dave Lindorff Election Post-Mortem: What's Next? Arthur Neslen Another Tragic Day in Palestine Joshua Frank An Election Hangover: Thank God It's Over James Goodman The Corporate Food System is Broken Charles Sullivan Voting in the Absence of Choice David Swanson Subpoena Envy: The Dems Have the Power, But Will They Use It? Missy Beattie The Electorate Speaks and Barney Barks! Dr. Susan Block American Voters Say, "Bush Sucks!" Website of the Day Stealing Olive Groves from Palestinians   November 7, 2006 Michael Neumann Cut and Run from Iraq: Sooner Rather Than Later Paul Wolf Saddam Must Die: A Pre-Ordained Verdict Nikolas Kozloff In Nicaragua, a Chavez Wave? Eliza Ernshire The Women of Beit Hanoun William S. Lind The Smile on Saddam's Face: He's Tan, Rested and Ready Mike Ferner Pick a Number: Greater Than 47,615 Felice Pace Pumping the Klamath Dry Chris Genovali The Problem with PBDEs: Why Canada's Proposed Ban Won't Protect People or Wildlife Gilad Atzmon Watching Borat Dick J. Reavis Going to Class War with the Proletariat We Got ... Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Lives (and Votes) Lost: the Ordeal of Larry Peterson Website of the Day Magic Sam: a Sure Cure for the Election Day Blues Question of the Day Is Bush Gay?   November 6, 2006 Alexander Cockburn The Message of Campaign 2006 Norman Solomon Saddam's Unindicted Co-Conspirator: Donald Rumsfeld Robert Fisk A Guilty Verdict on America, as Well Marjorie Cohn The Banana Election: From Hanging Chads to Hanging Saddam Paul Craig Roberts The Goose and the Gander: Is Bush Next? Nikolas Kozloff Election Eve Jitters: the Chavez Factor Newton Garver The Progress in Bolivia: Morales' Stunning Victory Over Big Oil Mike Whitney Bush's Carnival of Blood Jesse Hagopian From the Black Panthers to the Green Party: an Interview with Aaron Dixon Dr. Peter Rost, MD The Genocide Election: When a Life Saving Industry Cheats, People Die Website of the Day Robert Pollin vs. Rick Wolff: Is Pomo Marxism Marxism?   November 4 / 5, 2006 Dave Zirin Political Players: Where Athletes Give Their Money Patrick Cockburn When Does Incompetence Become a Crime? Sanho Tree War Timing and Opportunism Ralph Nader Failure Across All Fronts Lee Sustar The Obama Myth Dr. Shepherd Bliss Torture Memories Adam Elkus Babies and Banks: Celebrity Colonialism in Africa Seth Sandronsky Is Another Recession Looming? Fred Gardner 10 Years of Medical Pot in California: Dr. Mikuriya's Observations Joshua Sperber How the US Lost Latin America Evelyn Pringle Ohio Redux: Mr. Blackwell and the Henhouse Mitchel Cohen The Left and the Environment: Notes on the Ecological Dimension Missy Beattie The Medium is the Massage Michael Dickinson Watching the Guards: a Prison Diary John Holt The Silk Road to Ruin Dr. Susan Block The Beastly Bombing Poets' Basement LaMorticella, Engel, Orloski and Davies November 3, 2006 Laura Carlsen Day of the Dead in Oaxaca Stephan Said Honoring Bradley Will John Stauber "Victory in Iraq:" The PR Machine Behind Bush's Favorite Slogan Mike Whitney Baghdad is Surrounded Joshua Frank DNC Deja Vu Victoria Furio More Than Timetables Tammara~85,441 They Say He is Coming Home Stuart Croswaithe Beatings and Sugar Plums: New Labor's War on the Kurds Missy Beattie Bush Shock Website of the Day Howlin' Wolf November 2, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler The US Body Count in Iraq: an Analysis of Who is Dying and How Paul Craig Roberts Evil is as Evil Does Dave Lindorff Kerry Out: the Joke's Still on Us Uri Avnery The Lovable Man? Lieberman and the Decline of Israeli Democracy Jeff Birkenstein Smearing Harold Ford in Black Face John Ross Slave Labor in Private Prisons Zoltan Grossman Recharging the Anti-War Movement Eveyln Pringle The SEC's Probe of Halliburton: Is Cheney Being Fitted for a Striped Jumpsuit? Christopher Brauchli Drug Profits and PACs: Why Big Pharma Pushes the GOP   November 1, 2006 Alan Dershowitz v. Bruce Jackson On Torture Brian Tokar Running on Hype: the Real Scoop on Biofuels Fred Leonhardt Democrats, Sex Crimes and the Press: the Goldschmidt Affair Richard W. Behan Triumph of the Petropublicans: Bush's Other Civil War Brenda Norrell Indigenous Opposition to the Border Wall Charles Sullivan Spoils of Corruption: Who Will Stand Up When America Goes Wrong? Ron Jacobs Hell is Rising in Oaxaca: interview with a Oaxacan Rebel Mike Knapp Green Stench in Minnesota: the Commissioner and the Hog Lot Moshe Adler The Temptations of a Union Boss: the Case of Brian McLaughlin Walden Bello Chain Gang Economics Lee Ballinger The Collapse of Hip Capitalism: How Tower Records Committed Suicide Joshua Frank Party in a Cage: Snake Oil and the Midterm Elections Carl Gelderloos Cheerleading the Massacre in Oaxaca: an Open Letter to the Washington Post Peter Rost, MD Panic in Big Pharma Saul Landau Bush's Anti-Terrorism Record: Don't Look Too Close Website of the Day The Meatrix October 31, 2006 William S. Lind The Third and Final Act: Iran Stephen S. Pearcy Dem Candidate's Wife Urges Cindy Sheehan Not to Protest Iraq War Uri Avnery Who's Afraid of an Iranian Bomb? Michael Colby Corporations Win Again!: Bush Opens National Parks to Bio-Prospecting Sunsara Taylor A No-Win Election for Women Ben Beachy Targeting Nicaraguans' Stomachs: 11th Hour Election Meddling by the US Edward Humes Nine Words: America's Disservice to Veterans Roger Burbach The Meaning of Lula's Victory in Brazil Subcomandante Marcos A Communique from the EZLN on Oaxaca Niranjan Ramakrishnan Funny Business in the Booth: Vote for James H. 'Jim' Sharon Smith Those Damned Democrats Website of the Day Parks Not for Sale   October 30, 2006 Robert Fisk Dirty Bombs Over Lebanon: Did Israel Use Uranium Weapons? Bruce Jackson Normalizing Torture Norman Solomon I Was Wrong About Thomas Friedman, the World's Wealthiest Pundit Lance Selfa Liberal Doormats: Tread on Us Ali Khan The Veil and the British Male Elite Lee Sustar European Islamophobia: Fanning the Flames of Hate Robert Jensen The Death of Empathy Akiva Eldar Lieberman: Making Haider Look Good Tim Montague The Natural Step to Eco-Villages Brian M. Downing Evil in the Valley: Civilian Massacres, From Vietnam to Iraq Website of the Day Alien Impeachment October 27 / 29, 2006 Weekend Edition Jeffrey St. Clair Hogwash: Fecal Factories in the Heartland Maher Arar The Horrors of Extraordinary Rendition: a Personal Account David Rosen Perversions of Power: Mark Foley and the Bush Administration Gregory Elich "A Bursting Boiler at Russia's Doorstep:" Why Bush is Seeking Confrontation with N. Korea Tom Barry Fear and Loathing in the North: an Apartheid Fence in America? Jeff Taylor Democrats By Default? Dave Lindorff Why Nancy Pelosi is Wrong Ron Jacobs The General Who Called Out the Devil: the Politics of Hugo Chavez Maurus Chino Hauba Hanu: Oppression Affects All People Christopher Brauchli Veiled Threats: the Global War on Fashion Sherwood Ross The Wages of Whistleblowing: Why Bunny Greenhouse Sits in a Corner Rev. William Alberts In Search of a Real Inter-Religious Dialogue on War and Justice Aseem Shrivastava Pushing India Toward a "Dollar Democracy" Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen Bush's Mea Culpa Speech, First Draft Russ Fine / Dee Fine Of Peters and Principles: Learning About Sex and Hypocrisy from the GOP Seth Sandronsky Social Security: the Distortions of Sebastian Mallaby Michael Carmichael Rogue President: Midterm Meltdown Joe Allen The Legacy of Gillo Pontecorvo: a Maker of Questionary Films David Vest Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Landau, Engel and Buknatski Website of the Weekend Safely Home   October 26, 2006 Ismael Hossein-zadeh Islamic Fascism?: Inflammatory Ironies Carlos Zorrilla The Police Raid on My House: Trumped Up Charges and Collusion Between a Mining Company and the Government of Ecuador Paul Craig Roberts The Crimes of Greed vs. the Crimes of Government: If Enron's Skilling Gets 24 Years in Prison, How Many Should Bush and Cheney Get? Mike Whitney The Charnel House of Baghdad Lily Hughes A Cruel and Unusual Reality: Inside the Texas Death House Jennifer Matsui Madonna's African Safari: The Great White Baby Hunter Tim Matson How to Save Vermont Stephen Fleischman Like a Soldier: Benchmarks, Timelines and Lies Missy Beattie The Blood of October: Are We Sure Barney Still Supports This War? Patrick Cockburn From "Mission Accomplished" to "Mission Impossible" in Iraq Website of the Day Open Letter to The Nation   October 25, 2006 Michael Donnelly Ethnicity and Baseball John Stanton The Vindication of Sibel Edmonds John Ross Upheaval from the Bottom Conn Hallinan Hunting Hugo: When It's About Oil Nothing is Off the Table--Not Even Assassination Robert Jensen Academic Freedom on the Rocks Johnny Barber Drinking Tea with Hizbullah Bruce K. Gagnon Space Cowboy: Bush's War on Heaven Daniel McGowan Elie Wiesel for Israeli President? James J. Brittain Uribe's Failure to Learn from Colombia's Past Peter Harley Afghanistan in 3-D Jonathan Cook Israel's Minister of Strategic Threats Shepherd Bliss The Bioneers and the New York Times Website of the Day The Price of Staying the Course   October 24, 2006 John Walsh The Book of Rahm: Emanuel's War Plan for Democrats M. Shahid Alam Not All Terrorists Are Muslim: the Latest Falsehood from the Advocates of Civilizational War Dr. Trudy Bond The Silence at Home, as America Eats Her Young Michael Phillips The Story of My Kidnapping in Nablus: "I Never Feared for My Life" Dave Lindorff Truth and Consequences on Iraq: Bush's Latest Cut-and-Paste War Plan David Phinney A US Fortress Rises in Baghdad: Asian Labor Trafficking Used to Build World's Largest Embassy Laura Carlsen Food Insecurity: the World Needs Its Small Farmers Pierre Tristam The American Way of Gore Marguerite Rose Jimenez "About That Trip to Cuba:" When the FBI Came Calling Website of the Day Tampon Terrorists   October 23, 2006 Saree Makdisi Israel's Cluster Bomb War: "What We Did Was Insane and Monstrous" Joshua Frank The Antiwar Movement and Independent Politics: an Interview with Cindy Sheehan Fred Gardner What Have California Doctors Learned About Cannabis? Ralph Nader The End of Habeas Corpus and the Belligerent Despot-in-Chief Ron Jacobs Bush's Clark Clifford: James Baker Wants a Kinder, Gentler War Norman Solomon Punditry Without Consequences: Channeling Thomas Friedman Richard Manning Outside the Market: We Need and Owe Rural People Neil Kitson Canadians in Afghanistan: Bloody, Unbowed, Stoned? William MacDougall The Socialist, the Columnist, His Wife and the Prostitute Gilad Atzmon Surviving the Board of Deputies Werther The Evening of Empire Website of the Day Different Drummer: Internet Coffeehouse Movement   October 20 / 22, 2006 Alexander Cockburn The Myth of Microloans Gary Leupp How the US Declared War on North Korea Brian Cloughley What Are They Dying For? Dave Zirin Pat Tillman's Brother Breaks His Silence William Blum Don't Look Back: Who Said Clinton Didn't Kill Anybody? Christopher Brauchli The Cronies' War Winslow Wheeler The Mad Logic of Pentagon Spending: As Costs Rise, Readiness Declines Michael Donnelly GOP Death Slide: Is the Party Really Over? Fred Gardner Corporate Drugs Useless Against Alzheimer's Susie Day How to Stay Out of Gitmo Lucinda Marshall Behind Closed Doors: the Invisibility of Domestic Violence Fred Wilcox The Second Palestinian Intifada: History of a Struggle for Survival Alan Maass Standing Up Against Racism at Columbia: a Wake Up Call to the Passive Left Lee Sustar A Bipartisan Border Wall: New Phases in the Crackdown on Immigrants Ariadna Theokopoulos Shame on You, Dr. Warf: Hail the Epidemiologist in Chief Missy Beattie Surges: the Dow and the Death Count CP News Wire Bush's Paraguay Land Grab: Hideout or Water Raid? CP News Services Sexually Repressed Republicans: Robert Bork, Riveted Poets' Basement Davies, Engel, Buknatski and Orloski Website of the Weekend Scenes from Oaxaca   October 19, 2006 Elaine Cassel The Bush Administration's Assault on Defense Lawyers Col. Dan Smith Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine: Cracks in the Bush / Blair Axis Manuel Garcia, Jr. North Korea's Nuclear Test: a Q & A Josh Gryniewicz Wal-Mart Tightens the Squeeze on Workers Amira Hass What is 20 Tons of Explosives? Eric Holt-Gimenez Poison and Famine in the Fields: How the Agri-Food Industry's Deadly Cycle Feeds Immigration Jesse Hagopian Arrested Democracy: On Trying to Ignore Aaron Dixon Sam Husseini How Third Parties Can Solve the "Spoiler" Problem and Win Elections John Weisheit A Gathering of Water Buffaloes: Feds Celebrate Death of the Colorado River CP News Service A Plea to U2 From Africa's Children: Stop Bono Before He Kills Again Website of the Day George W. Bush: Hollywood Producer Art Gallery of the Day Botero's Abu Ghraib Paintings in Manhattan   October 18, 2006 Joshua Frank Cindy Sheehan's Lesser Evilism: Democrats or Bust? Dr. Curran Warf, MD Slandering Sound Science: Bush's Attack on the Lancet Iraq War Death Study Saul Landau Bush's Foley: Will the Dems Blow It? Tom Barry The Politics of Fear Bruce Jackson Thundersnow: a Report from Buffalo Dave Lindorff Loveless Among the Ruins: Even Repubs Flee Bush's Failed Middle East Policy Frederico Fuentes When Cochabamba Said "Enough": Bolivia's Blow to Neoliberalism Michael Simmons Greetings from Echo Park: an Open Letter to Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner Daryll E. Ray The Root Problems in American Agriculture Kate Doyle The Dead of Tlatelolco Website of the Day The Lynne Stewart Defense Committee   October 17, 2006 Michael Neumann Hit and Run: Guerrilla Reviewing Manuel Garcia, Jr. Nuclear Test, Political Flare: Interpreting the Physics and Politics of N. Korea's Nuclear Test Stephen S. Pearcy The Interrogation of Julia Wilson: Secret Service Grills 14 Year-Old Artist Sharon Smith Afghanistan Reconsidered: The Taliban Aren't Gone, Women Haven't Been Liberated Al Krebs The Corporate Assault on Zoning David Underhill Politicus Interruptus: Come Back, Jo Bonner Daniel Wolff NY's Iraq Veterans Against the War Needs Your Help ... Now James Brooks Desirable Duds: Israeli / US Cluster Bombs Litter Lebanon Website of the Day Stop Torture Now   October 16, 2006 Gary Leupp North Korea as a Religious State Patrick Cockburn General Mutinies Against Blair David Wilson Where Have All the Doctors Gone?: the Collapse of Iraq's Health Care Services Robert Fisk Confronting Turkey's Armenian Genocide Robert Jensen Racism and Cheap Thrills at U. of Texas Law School Ingmar Lee / Krista Roessingh An Appeal for S. India's Wild Elephants Mike Whitney America's Other War Party Jake Whitney The Courageous Dr. Rost Sanho Tree Sugar Daddy Politics: Was Foley Blackmailed to Secure His Vote on CAFTA? Website of the Day Best War Ever   October 14/15, 2006 Weekend Edition Uri Avnery Gaza as Laboratory: the Great Experiment John Walsh How Rahm Emmanuel Has Rigged a Pro-War Congress Jean Bricmont A Fable About Palestine Jennifer Van Bergen Bush's Military Commissions Act and the Future of America Ralph Nader Wilted Yankees: the Fruits of Checkbook Baseball Floyd Rudmin The Logic of Proliferation: How Bush's Belligerence Prompted N. Korea to Pursue Nuclear Weapons Mark Weisbrot Correcting the Facts on US/Venezuela Relations Laura Carlsen Building a Future in the Mixteca Hani Shukrallah A Stroll Through the Cairo Mall: Shopping as Cultural Pursuit Dr. Susan Block The Spent Milk of Human Foley John Chuckman North Korea's Bomb: Still 1,126 Nuke Tests Behind the US Lucinda Marshall Is Betty Ugly?: the Profits of Denigration Don Monkerud The Case Against Depleted Uranium Missy Comley Beattie What Bush Means By Tolerable Violence in Iraq Ron Jacobs Shouting "No One is Illegal" in a Crowded Theater Website of the Weekend Ratfink Raunchfest   October 13, 2006 Jorge Mariscal PowerPoint Racism: How Military Recruiters Pitch to Latinos Stephen Philion The Myth of the Spat Upon Vets: an Interview with Jerry Lembcke John Blair Strip Mining Wildlife Preserves: Black Beauty's Filthy Lucre Col. Dan Smith Oil, Atoms and War Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry How Hezbollah Defeated Israel: Part Two, Winning the Ground War Stephen Fleischman Journalism Then and Now Charles Perroud The Death Penalty's Invisible Victims Anne E. Brodsky Return to Afghanistan: Where the Rhetoric Doesn't Match the Reality Website of the Day Underwater Nuke Test   October 12, 2006 Jonathan Cook Israel's Plan for a Military Strike on Iran Norman Solomon The Pundit Path to Death in Iraq M. Shahid Alam On Colonialism and Colleagues Paul Craig Roberts Can We Call It Genocide Now? Meredith Schafer / Chris Kutalik Is a General Transportation Strike Looming for 2008? Can Labor Seize the Moment? Carl Gelderloos Images of Occupation: Teaching in Nablus Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry How Hezbollah Defeated Israel: Part One, Winning the Intelligence War Charles Sullivan Assassins of Truth William S. Lind Why Do We Still Fight a Lost War? CP News Service The South Turns Against the War Website of the Day There's a Riot Goin' On   October 11, 2006 John Feffer Pyongyang 1, Bush 0 Dave Lindorff A Killing Occupation Jackson Katz Gunning Down Women: Coverage of "School Shootings" Misses Central Issue April Howard / Ben Dangl The Tin War in Bolivia Michael Carmichael World War W Ken Couesbouc The New Witchcraft: Marvin Harris on the War on Terror Gregory Afghani Sleepless on Skid Row: Guilty of Being Homeless in America Alexander Cockburn 600,000 Dead in Iraq: Chortles in the New Yorker for Slaughter's Cheerleader, C. Hitchens Website of the Day Petition: Defend Columbia Students Who Confronted the Minutemen   October 10, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Lost Wars and a Lost Economy Robert Robideau The Myth Keepers of Columbus Joshua Frank The Democrats and the War on Civil Liberties Dave Lindorff Free the Press Free Linda Greenhouse Dave Zirin Brother of the Fist Heather Gray Where Votes Matter: My Experience in South Africa James Knotwell Big Ag in the Heartland: the Future of Nebraska's Family Farms Missy Beattie The Return of James Baker, III Mike Whitney Bush and North Korea: Bumbling Toward Disaster David Rosen Sex Panic on Capitol Hill: Mark Foley and the Politics of Sex in America Website of the Day Eno / Byrne: Music to Enjoy the Foley Scandal By   October 9. 2006 Robert Fisk The Age of Terror Norman Solomon Welcome to the Nuclear Club Ron Jacobs The Boom Heard Around the World Gideon Levy The Mystery of America Walter Brasch Their Back Pages: Sex, Lies and Family Values Mickey Z. Who Killed Michael Moore? John Holt Grizzlies in Our Midst: Can Humans and Bears Coexist? Lucinda Marshall Not So Pretty in Pink: Profits and Breast Cancer Saul Landau Post-Castro Cuba Website of the Day War, Inc.     October 7 / 8, 2006 Weekend Edition Alexander Cockburn Wargasms and Orgasms Peter Kwong The Chinese Face of Neoliberalism Ralph Nader Revolt of the Generals Mark Donham What Cynthia McKinney Means to Me Dave Lindorff Philly's Police Snoops Peter Bosshard World Bank Shuts Out Dissident Voices: Big Dams, Huge Profits & Political Corruption Ron Jacobs Evil Hour in Colombia Lawrence R. Velvel Governmental Derelicts: Moral Meltdown in America Fred Gardner Arnold Vetoes Hemp Bill David Green The US, Israel and the Invasion of Lebanon Jim B. Activism, Incorporated: Outsourcing Grassroots Politics? Missy Beattie Prayers for Peace at the Edge of the Abyss Michael Donnelly Blame the Page: Grand Old Perverts Go on Offensive Jackson Thoreau Enter Newt Jon Hung Revisiting Korematsu: Denying Civil Rights Based on National Origin CounterPunch News Service Why We Confronted the Minutemen at Columbia Tom D'Antoni Playlist Poets' Basement Orloski, Davies, Tirado, Gaffney and Ford Website of the Weekend Reagan Gone Wild   October 6, 2006 Alison Weir Just Another Mother Murdered Tiffany Ten Eyck / Mark Brenner Made in (DeUnionized) America Corporate Crime Reporter Look Who's Behind "37 Reasons" to Vote for Big Business: Former Clinton PR Flak Mike McCurry Juan Antonio Montecino Cleaving a False Divide in Latin America Walden Bello A Siamese Tragedy Christopher Brauchli Rank Invitations: Dining with Bush Brynne Keith-Jennings Dan Burton in Nicaragua: the Congressman, His Stick and the Elections Jonathan Cook The Struggle for Palestine's Soul Website of the Day Fighting Hog Farms and Clearcuts in the Heartland   October 5, 2006 John Walsh Turn the Page Carol Norris The Radical Right, the Myth of the Gay Child Abuser and You: a Psychotherapist on the Hysteria Over Foley Paul Craig Roberts Will November Bring Hope or Another Stolen Election? Ricardo Alarcón The Truth About the Embargo of Cuba James Abourezk Waterboarding the Constitution: After Torture, What's Next? Nicola Nasser Removing Hamas: Brinksmanship or Coup d'Etat? 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November 28, 2006 The Nature of the Complaint The War Crimes Case Against Rumsfeld By MICHAEL RATNER On November 14, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the International Federation for Human Rights, Germany's Republican Attorneys' Association, and other groups and individuals filed a formal complaint with the German Federal Prosecutor to open an investigation and, ultimately, a criminal prosecution of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other major U.S. officials. The complaint argues that Rumsfeld and other high-ranking civilian and military officials named as defendants in the case have committed war crimes, and in particular torture, against prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay. Following is an interview by the staff of Revolution with Michael Ratner, president of the CCR, who was among those in Germany on November 14 to file the complaint. Question: Let's begin with the nature of this complaint and what it's designed to accomplish. Rumsfeld is a major focus, but the lawsuit seems to go well beyond him in its scope and intentions. Michael Ratner: Well, European countries have a way of going after people in criminal cases that we're not familiar with in the U.S. They have a procedure where human rights groups and others, as well as the victims themselves, can go and ask a prosecutor to investigate someone for criminal liability. In the U.S., of course, you can knock on a prosecutor's door but then he shuts it in your face and it's all over. In Germany and other European countries, if the prosecutor shuts the door in your face you can go to court and the prosecutor must have a valid reason for not investigating. So that's a big difference. Germany also has a law, like some other European countries are beginning to have, that says certain crimes are subject to prosecution no matter where in the world they're committed, and even if there's no connection between that particular country and the alleged crime. And certain crimes are considered so serious and so heinous that every country is considered to have an interest in prosecuting them. One of those crimes involves violation of the Geneva Conventions. And these countries have universal jurisdiction, which means they can prosecute the person no matter where he or she committed the war crimes. Germany has very good law on that, and that's why we decided to go there to try to get an investigation of the key U.S. government officials who were involved in setting up and implementing what I call the torture program in the U.S. post-9/11. Normally, you would stay in the U.S. to do that if you could, but of course there's now a complete block here. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is on one side as the person who would have to prosecute people criminally, but he's deeply involved himself in the torture program. And on the other side there's Rumsfeld, who has resigned but is still in office at this time and is also deeply involved in the torture program. And Congress has done nothing, with neither Republicans nor Democrats issuing a complaint about this. There's also Bush, who's insisting he wants to continue to have the right to use torture. And my view, and the view of the others who have filed this complaint, is that you must have accountability on the part of those in this country who have supported torture. We still have a torture program in place and we have to do something about it. Question: Who, exactly, are the plaintiffs and defendants in this case? Michael Ratner: We decided to go after people high up in the chain of command, led by Donald Rumsfeld. In regard to Rumsfeld himself, we're alleging that he committed war crimes by approving various interrogation techniques. That's what he and the others call them, interrogation techniques, but they're really torture techniques--everything from stress positions, stripping, sexual humiliation, dogs, hypothermia, sleep deprivation, etc. And we have Rumsfeld approving, essentially, using these techniques, in his own handwriting. Rumsfeld has been involved, clearly, with Guantánamo and Iraq, as well as Baghram prison in Afghanistan. And among the other named defendants we also have General Ricardo Sanchez, who was in charge of the Iraq war at the outset and authorized these torture techniques. There's also George Tenet, who was head of the CIA, and that of course involves the CIA's secret detention sites around the world, where waterboarding and other kinds of torture went on. Those are three of the people at the top who we've named as defendants. Then we have the lawyers, former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo in particular, who basically set up the legal framework. There was a case during the Nuremburg trials in Germany after World War 2 in which German lawyers were gone after because they implemented the Nazi program of murder. People like Bybee and Yoo argue they're just lawyers giving their legal opinions, but when you look at the context that's not what happened. What happened is that some people resisted using torture, both in the CIA and the military. They said we're not going to do this because we might get prosecuted, and therefore we want legal protection, so write us something that allows us to do this. So that's where the lawyers like Bybee and Yoo come in. Those are the main defendants, plus a few others further down the chain who were in Iraq and responsible for carrying out the orders, like Colonel Thomas Pappas. And we have a couple of people from Rumsfeld's office, like Stephen Cambone, the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, and a couple of Cheney people. There are 12 defendants in all. As plaintiffs, we have 11 Iraqi prisoners and one from Guantánamo. The Iraqis were in Abu Ghraib and other Iraqi prisons, and they tell devastating stories. For example, there was an insurgency in one village and the U.S. troops came in and targeted this particular guy's house and bombed it and went in and killed his 80-year-old father and tortured him for a week and then let him go and basically said they had the wrong guy. They never said they were sorry, just that they had the wrong guy. With the Guantánamo prisoner, we have the most direct link to Rumsfeld, although all of the plaintiffs and what happened to them represent pretty direct links to him. But for the Guantánamo prisoner, Mohammed al-Qahtani, we have an interrogation log which, while it reads with a certain banality, describes a two-month period of 48 days in which he endured sleep deprivation, was chained to a chair, had intravenous water retention so that he was forced to urinate on himself, and was stripped and had a female straddle him and abuse him sexually. And there were things done to him that are probably even much worse that we don't yet know about for sure. For example, a fake rendition, we think, where he was put on a plane and flown around and taken back to Guantánamo, but he didn't know that and thought he was in some other country, like Egypt, where he would be tortured even further. And with this Al-Qahtani interrogation, we actually have Rumsfeld essentially approving and/or supervising it in some way. And that came out not from our papers, but from the government's own report, saying that Rumsfeld was involved in that interrogation. So Rumsfeld had very, very direct links with these people in the torture program. People in Germany, when we filed our complaint on November 14, and including the press, were no longer even disputing that the U.S. has been involved in war crimes, including torture. The plaintiffs also include various human rights groups, and other organizations like the CCR (Center for Constitutional Rights), as well as a couple of Nobel Prize winners. And the other important factor is that we had Janis Karpinski as a witness on November 14. [Karpinski was commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq at the point that the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was revealed.] The first time we brought the case, in 2004, we had Janis as a defendant. But this time, she actually came to Germany and spoke about the need for people to go up the chain of command, and she said she actually saw a set of interrogation procedures taped up in Abu Ghraib, and Rumsfeld had signed off on this. She said she had her responsibility at Abu Ghraib taken out from under her at that time and no longer had any jurisdiction there, but that she did see these interrogation techniques posted that had unquestionably been authorized by Rumsfeld. And while she was the highest-level person demoted for what happened at Abu Ghraib, it's clear it didn't stop with her. It went all the way up. It's not that we're guessing about what these highest-level guys did--much of it is in writing, all this stuff. So that's the context in which we decided to bring this case in Germany, feeling that we were totally blocked from doing it in the U.S., from a legal point of view. Among other things, there's no International Criminal Court jurisdiction in this country--the U.S. government won't recognize such jurisdiction--so you have to go to Germany and you really push hard on a prosecutor to begin an investigation. Question: In regard to being blocked from filing suit in the U.S. and having to go to Germany instead, the recent passage of the pro-torture, anti-habeas corpus Military Commissions Act (MCA) also seems to be a critical factor. Michael Ratner: Right, that was key. The MCA, signed on October 17, does many different things. But one of them is to redefine war crimes, and it redefines those in a way that gives amnesty or a pardon to all of these people who committed war crimes post-9/11, through these coercive, inhumane torture interrogation techniques. What happened is that in early 2002, Attorney General Gonzales and others wrote memos saying, look, if we interrogate these people very roughly we could be subject to war crimes prosecution and we don't want to risk that. So, since war crimes are defined in the U.S. as violations of the Geneva Conventions, the best way we can avoid prosecution is to say that the conven