home / subscribe / donate / tower / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events / faq

Exclusive to CounterPunch Newsletter Subscribers! How Bill (and Monica) Saved Hillary from a Federal Indictment Here's the second in Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair's series as they describe Hillary Clinton's years in Little Rock and her narrow escape from federal charges that would have destroyed her political career for ever. PLUS KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY on how Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are failing Black America even as they hunt for votes in So uth Carolina's "Black Primary." Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Remember contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now Order CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year and Receive a Free Copy of "Imperial Crusades: a Diary of Three Wars" by Cockburn and St. Clair

Today's Stories August 14, 2007 Paul de Rooij Humanitarian Wars and Associated Delusions August 13, 2007 Jeremy Scahill The Mercenary Revolution F. William Engdahl The Hidden Agenda Behind Bush's Biofuel Plan Alexander Cockburn The Veldt Will Never Be the Same Kathy Kelly Iraq's Refugees: "et to Work" Chris Floyd No Light, Light Tunnel: the Bipartisan Guarantee of More War in Iraq Paul Craig Roberts Hegemony of the Cockroach William Blum First Pullout, Then Bloodbath? Kenneth Couesbouc The Language of Dominion Rannie Amiri Tancredo's Screedo: a Lethal Mix of Ignorance and Insanity Brenda Norrell Priests Expose Secret Cycle of US Torture Fran Shor All Fall Down Ron Jacobs Dr. Strangelove Meets Dubya's Double Buzz Twofer Website of the Day The Beauty of Defiance   August 11 / 12, 2007 Alexander Cockburn How the Democrats Blew It in Only 8 Months Stan Goff The Cover-Up of Pat Tillman's Death Ralph Nader GM Radio: Payola to Rightwing Talk Shows? Vijay Prashad Destination Darfur: a New Cold War for Oil Greg Moses SubPrime People: Behind the Banking Crisis Alan Farago The Cratering Mortgage Market, WCI Communities and Amb. Al Hoffman Patrick Cockburn The Cracks in Saddam's Dam Ben Tripp On Fleeing the Country Robert Fantina Romney's Dance: The Rightwing Flip-Flop John Ross The Guelaguetza Strategy in Oaxaca Seth Sandronsky Organizing Nurses Paul Krassner Assholes of the Week: From Mitt Romney to Bill Richardson Website of the Weekend Pearl Jam: Censored by ATT   August 10, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts China's Threat to the Dollar is Real Stan Goff How Pat Tillman Died Marjorie Cohn A Blank Check for Domestic Spying Saul Landau In the Age of Immigrant Panic Chris Floyd Goading Xerxes: the Coming Strike on Iran Daniel Ellsberg A Vision for Cindy Sheehan's Campaign Anthony Papa The Upside Down Flag: a Country in Distress Farzana Versey On the Heels of Sir Salman Sgt. Kevin Benderman Freedom or Totalitarianism? Nuri Nuri Memories of T99 Nelson Website of the Day Lessons in Obfuscation from Sen. Larry Craig: How to Talk About Looting the Public Domain   August 9, 2007 Stan Goff The Fog of Fame: Pat Tillman as Everyone's Political Football Paul Craig Roberts In the Hole to China Alan Farago The Terror of the Mortgage Pools William S. Lind The Surge's New Math: One Step Forward, Two Back Doug Giebel Letter from Montana: What the Bushvolk Have Done to America Harvey Wasserman Radioactive Bailout in Advance Jacob Hill The Tail End of Free Trade: NAFTA's Impact on the Manufacturing Sector Raul Zibechi The Dark Side of Agrofuels Dave Zirin The Making of Barry bin Laden Website of the Day "Babies Just Come with the Scenery"   August 8, 2007 Andy Worthington Backing Up Lt. Col. Abraham on Gitmo Abuse Jeff Halper The Catch in Israel's "Generous Offers" at Jericho Greg Moses No Light in August for Texas Refugees: Judge Orders Baby Sent to Palestine Nurit Peled-Elhanan The Murder of Abir Aramin, 9 Years Old Sukant Chandan British Prisons as Islamic Universities Robert Fisk A Lebanese Surprise George H. Strauss The Military Society D.K. Wilson Bonds, the Haters and 756: Why Bob Costas Can't be Trusted Bill Day Leonardo DiCaprio's Baggage: the Perils of Celebrity Environmentalism Tim Campbell Monkey See, Monkey Do Politics Website of the Day Periodic Table of Visualization Methods   August 7, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Why the Surge Has Failed Andy Worthington Why Do We Need the Democrats?: They Have Failed to Restrain Bush on Gitmo, Iraq and Domestic Spying Kathy Kelly The Little Girl of Hiroshima Stan Cox The Antiwar Majority: Look Quickly, You Might Miss It Sonja Karkar Israel's Settlement Project Sen. Russ Feingold A License to Wiretap--Anyone Alan Farago Dancing in the Light of Florida Norman Solomon Let Us Now Praise an Infamous Woman Binoy Kampmark Giving Good Face: What Jeremy Bentham and Facebook Have in Common Dave Lindorff The Gelding Congress John Stauber Coffee with the Troops at Yearly Kos Website of the Day George Carlin on Education August 6, 2007 Bill Quigley Fighting for the Right to Learn in New Orleans Kathy Rentenbach Guatemalan Gold, Guatemalan Bones Uri Avnery White Elephants: Bush's Middle East Arms Deals Col. Dan Smith Of Time and Iraq Ralph Nader Cruise Ship Blues James Neshewat War? What War?: a Report from the New SDS Confab in Detroit D.K. Wilson Barry, Bud and 755 Greg Moses Safe Passage for Willie Nelson Fidel Castro Hard and Obvious Realities Mike Whitney Judgment Week on Wall Street   August 4 / 5, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Rupert Murdoch and the Luck of the Bancrofts Peter Linebaugh Speaking in Irish Tongues Saul Landau Faith-Based War Alan Farago The Candidates and the Collapsing Economy Dave Zirin When Domes Attack: Even in Minnesota Barucha Calamity Peller Oaxaca is Not Over Anthony DiMaggio Double Standards in U.S. Aid to the Middle East Dave Lindorff Spy Power: Bush Demands, Democrats Deliver--Again and Again and Again Fred Gardner Write Off Your Congressman Nicola Nasser The Iranian Option Benjamin Dangl Privatizing Repression in Paraguay Rannie Amiri Bribe, Divide and Conquer Daniel Gross CSR on Trial: Starbucks Behind the Brand Sherwood Ross Obama Renounces Use of Nuclear Weapons Manuel Garcia, Jr A Bridge Truth Movement?: From 9/11 to Minneapolis Missy Beattie The First Mannequin and the "Crime Scene" Ron Jacobs The Outlaw Trip to Mexico: Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad Website of the Weekend Photos: Texas Immigrant Prison   August 3, 2007 Gabriel Matthew Schivone An Interview with Noam Chomsky on Responsibility, War Guilt and Intellectuals Jonathan Cook Israel's Jewish Problem in Tehran Patrick Cockburn Sunnis Walk Out of Iraq Government Little Steven Van Zandt Die, Greedy Swine! Die! Die!: How the Record Companies are Killing Rock Music Christopher Brauchli Bush Makes Putin Look Like James Madison D. K. Wilson Two Sides and a Middle: Michael Vick Ain't the One to Ask Linda Ford and Ira Glunts Maxwell's Silver Hammer: Syracuse University Enlists in the Global War on Terror Kelly Overton The Casualties of Green Scare: the Feds' War on the Animal Rights Mvt. Monica Benderman In Freedom's Name Manuel Garcia, Jr. Minneapolis Bridge Collapse: Was Cheney at the Scene? Website of the Day A Cinematic Look at the Police State in Action   August 2, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts The Return of the Robber Barons Stanley Heller Report from the Land of Apartheid Eric Ruder Fighting PTSD; Fighting the Army Robert Fantina Still Getting It Wrong: the NYT and Iraq Alan Farago The Toxic Mortgage Waste Crisis Chris Floyd Chertoff, Chiquita and Death Squads Franklin Lamb Lebanon's Crucial Special Elections Sen. Russ Feingold Closing the Book on the Abramoff Era Anthony Papa Drug Treatment isn't a Silver Bullet Norman Solomon The Big Guns of August Website of the Day Louie, Louie Video Contest   August 1, 2007 Debbie Nathan More Secret Payments by Former NYT Reporter to Web Porn Star Surface in Nashville Courtroom Fred Gardner Ciao, Michelangelo Gary Leupp Why Iraq's Best-Loved Athlete Can't Go Home David Rosen America's Top 10 Political Sex Scandals Winston Warfield Is the Tillman Case Still a Coverup? Daniel McBride Lessons from Bomber Harris: If the US Strikes Pakistan Glen Ford The Corporate Plan to Crush Black Resistance Thomas P. Healy The Toxic Career of Indiana's Environmental Commissioner John V. Whitbeck The Five Percent Solution David Krieger Nuclear Weapons and the University of California Website of the Day The Tragic Story of Hisham Mohammed   July 31, 2007 Kathy Kelly Dancing in the Darkness: the Story of Abu Mahmoud Clancy Sigal The Ghosts of Passchendaele Paul Krassner Assholes of the Week: From Baby Doll to Cheney Joe DeRaymond Return to the Republic of Death? Diane Christian "Winning": What Bush Could Learn from the Shade of Achilles Chris Floyd Good News is No News: Why the Bush Adm. Buries Accounts of Extremist Recantations Ramzy Baroud Bush's Real Agenda in Palestine Alan Farago Battle for the Soul of Florida Fidel Castro In Spite of Everything: Reflections on the Pan American Games Dan Bacher The Fish Terminator: Schwarzenegger's Campaign to Build the Delta Canal and More Dams   July 30, 2007 Marjorie Cohn: Independent Counsel Time Patrick Cockburn Four Million Iraqis on the Run Peter Quinn Irish in America Uri Avnery A Warning to Tony Blair John Ross Zapatista Intergalatica Lands on Earth Ron Jacobs Free the San Francisco 8 David Vest Farewell, Old Friend: Another Legend of the Blues is Gone Jeffrey St. Clair T99 Nelson: Seduced by a Legend of the Blues Website of the Day Collateral Repair Project   July 28 / 29, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Now the NYT is Selling "Bloodbath" as a Rationale to Stay in Iraq Ralph Nader Rotten Justice Robert Fantina American Lies and Iraqi Nationalism Fred Gardner Prohibitionists Attack, Reformers Fundraise   July 27, 2007 John Ross Bombing Pemex--or Not? Arthur Neslen Gaza was a Gas for Blair Dave Lindorff Declaring the US a Battlefield: Martial Law is Now a Real Threat Julene Blair The Environmentalist Within Christopher Brauchli Bush Uses Children as Shock Troops in His War on Socialized Medicine Jesse Hagopian Fund the Wounded, Not the War Charles Modiano Manufacturing a Villain: Sports Illustrated's Vilification of Barry Bonds Bill Day The Hollow Environmentalism of Leonardo DiCaprio Walter Brasch Leaders Afraid to Lead M.D. Mitchell Farm Based Camps Website of the Day Fighting Sarcoma   July 26, 2007 Kathleen Christison The Siren Song of Elliot Abrams Andy Worthington Why the Pentagon's Gitmo Study is a Joke Clancy Chassay How the Bush White House Seeks to Destroy Lebanon Marjorie Cohn Showdown Over Executive Privilege Susie Day Apartheid Americana David Price Tour de Witch Hunt: Drugs, Diaries and Purges Marie Trigona Argentina's "Dirty War" Crimes Trial: The Torturer Priest Norman Solomon Media Spin on Iraq: We're Leaving (Sort Of) William S. Lind How to Win in Iraq Natsu Saito Ward Churchill and the Regents at the University of Colorado John Stauber Netroots and the Iraq War: Does Ending It Matter to Them Anymore? Website of the Day Sticking It to the Man   July 25, 2007 Andy Worthington Gains and Losses at Gitmo Gary Leupp Bush Speechwriter, Michael Gerson, Calls for Attack on Syria Ray McGovern The Sad Decline of John Conyers Dr. Susan Block Bonobo Bashing in the New Yorker Joshua Frank Hillary's Neocon: the Imperial Vision of Richard Holbrooke Tina Richards What Harry Reid Doesn't Know About His Own Bill Ben Terrall Indonesia's Bloody Brand of CounterTerrorism Farzana Versey God Acquitted!: Lessons from the Case of Darwood Ibrahim Mohammad Ali Salih A Bomb in My Briefcase? Laura Carlsen A Strange Homecoming: Reflections on the First US Social Forum Ron Jacobs Come to Kennebunkport! Sunsara Taylor Knocked Up is F**ked Up Website of the Day Wal-Mart's Flip Flops: Feet Killers July 24, 2007 Saul Landau How to Walk in Bushtime Kathy Kelly The Plight of Iraqi Refugees in Jordan Russell Mokhiber The Michael Vick / George Bush Thing M. Shahid Alam Islam Now, China Then Patrick Cockburn and Anne Penketh Meeting in Baghdad Dave Lindorff Overcoming John Conyers Binoy Kampmark You Tube You Can't: Failure of a Medium Richard Neville Murdoch's Transplant: a Warning to the Wall Street Journal Cindy Sheehan We Must Move Beyond Politics as Usual Evelyn Pringle Anti-Depressants and Birth Defects: Why is the CDC Downplaying the Risks? Norman Solomon Media Corrections We'd Like to See CP Newswire Reading Harry Potter Not Sinful Website of the Day Sea Islands Black Heritage Festival   July 23, 2007 Andy Worthington Narcolepsy on Gitmo Detainees Uri Avnery A Trap for Fools Patrick Cockburn Turkish Prime Minister Threatens to Invade Northern Iraq Sousan Hammad The Children Without a Title John Walsh Todd Gitlin's Nader Fixation Harvey Wasserman Spinning Kashiwazaki: PR Flacks Rush to Aid of Crippled Nuke Martha Rosenberg The Life and Times of a Hog-Hanging Farmer Collin Baber Here Come the MRAPs: Resurrecting Apartheid Armor for Iraq Reza Fiyouzat Iran's Forgotten Anti-Nuke Movement Stephen Lendman Saving a President: Scare-Mongering and Executive Orders Website of the Day The Port Huron Project   July 21 / 22, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Giuliani and the Dogs of War Werther How to Read a National Intelligence Estimate Ralph Nader Atomic Blowback David Keen Buy Hard: How to Sell an Endless War Fred Gardner Karl Rove, Pothead: When Good Drugs Happen to Bad People Gary Leupp Edelman's Edict: Is Hillary "Reinforcing Enemy Propaganda?" Robert Fantina Fear in Iraq Saker The Future of Palestine: an Interview with Jonathan Cook Rannie Amiri Nasrallah in the Crosshairs: How will the Third Lebanon War Start? Mike Whitney The Crisis in Hedgistan Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD The Hidden Injuries of Powerlessness: Linking Alienation and Dissociation Monica Benderman Facing the Truth Dan Bacher Deltagate: the Politics of Fish Kills Michael Baney Fujimori's Long Race From Justice Missy Beattie Here, There and Everywhere Ron Jacobs Tremble, Tyrants Adam Engel Radical Language: an Introduction Thomas Naylor California Split: an Open Letter to Schwarzenegger Poets' Basement Landau, Ford and Engel Website of the Weekend Surge in Action   July 20, 2007 Eliza Szabo Fatal Neglect: Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan Pam Martens Doctoring the News: CNN's Sanjay Gupta, Laura Bush and Merck Alan Farago Winners and Losers in the Housing Market Crash Harvey Wasserman Lies and Leaks: The Earthquake That Screamed "No Nukes!" Marjorie Cohn Iraqis will be the Deciders Dave Zirin White Noise and the Black Athlete Anthony DiMaggio American Public Opinion and Israel Scott Liebertz Oaxaca on Edge Linn Washington, Jr. British Cops Assault Rape Allegations Bill Piper / Anthony Papa Flying High?: The Political Junkets of Bush's Drug Czar Ramzy Baroud Bush's War Policy: When Time Heals Nothing Website of the Day The Prankster Art of Mark Jenkins   July 19, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Next Invasion of Iraq Remi Kanazi Is This Ben Gurion or Hell?: a Palestinian Adventure Through Israel's Largest Airport Winslow T. Wheeler The Surging Costs of the Iraq War Sharon Smith Democrats and Health Care: Behind the Rhetoric Dave Lindorff Killing Cabbies in Iraq Conn Hallinan Have Gun, Will Travel: Mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan D. K. Wilson The Michael Vick Case Pulls Back the Veil on Who We Really Are Joshua Frank Democrats as Leviathan: Another Step Toward War with Iran Norman Solomon The Ghost of Wayne Morse Russell Hoffman Rattling the Reactor: Quakes, Fires and Leaks at the World's Largest Nuke Ray McGovern Bush's Wooden Headedness Kills Website of the Day Protesting Power July 18, 2007 Brenda Norrell Spy Towers on the US Border Col. Dan Smith How the US Could "Lose" Saudi Arabia Martha Rosenberg Lord of Crookharbour: the Trial of Conrad Black Conn Hallinan Bombing and Spraying Afghanistan Binoy Kampmark The SIM Card Terror Case Patrick Bond / Rehana Dada Who Killed Sajida Khan? Tom Johnson The Long Road ... to Nowhere Paul Craig Roberts A Free Press or a Ministry of Truth? Bob Quellos Pushing the Poor Out of House and Home Felice Pace Falling for Lieberman's Iran Resolution Robert Weissman National Health Insurance: More Humane and More Efficient CP Newswire Shocking Report Showing Involvement of US Psychologists in Torture Website of the Day Gilad Atzmon Live!   July 17, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Just Another Day in Iraq: 100 Fathers, Mothers and Children Killed Marjorie Cohn Out of Control: Executive Power Plays Evelyn Pringle Inside Bush's FDA David Rosen Moral Hypocrisy on the Hill: the Christian Right, Sexual Scandal and the Pleasures of the Courtesan Susan Miller Width Matters: Displacement and Israel's Wall Franklin Lamb Did the UN Cave to Israel on Lebanon's Shabaa Farms? Don Monkerud Considering Victory in Iraq Harvey Wasserman Nuclear Surge Russell Hoffman Japan Dodges a Radioactive Bullet Dave Lindorff Feingold Turns to Dross Dave Zirin Reclaiming Sports as True Fiction Website of the Day Che at the UN: 1964   July 16, 2007 Gary Leupp Cheney Urges Bush to Strike Iran Ellen Cantarow The Untold Story of Iraqi Women Paul Craig Roberts Impeach Now Allan J. Lichtman The D.C. Madam's Public Service Dan Bacher Cheney and the Klamath: Was the Veep Behind the Nation's Worst Salmon Kill? Patrick Cockburn The Killing of Khalid W. Hassan Manuel Garcia, Jr. Property is Racism James Brooks AIPAC and Mahmoud Abbas: the Undemocratic Road to Defeat Liaquat Ali Khan The Judicial Crisis in Pakistan Julie Flint Suleiman Jamous in Limbo Website of the Day Free Suleiman Jamous!   July 14 / 15. 2007 Alexander Cockburn Support Their Troops? Andy Worthington Gitmo's Tangled Web: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Majhid Khan, Dubious US Convictions and a Dying Man Ralph Nader Lawlessness, Waste and Incompetence Robert Fantina The Illegalities of the Iraq War Ron Jacobs Architecture as Military Strategy Joshua Frank Eat, Fight, Screw, Pray: An Interview with Joe Bageant Conn Hallinan Guns, Foundations and Free Trade: How the Right Targets Africa Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD War and Dissociation John Ross No En Nuestro Nombre!: a Letter to the Mexican Antiwar Movement Fred Gardner Who's Afraid of Cannabidiol? Rannie Amiri A Primer on Israeli Doublespeak Charles Modiano ESPN's Rap Sheet: Pacman as Black Man Anthony DiMaggio America's Parochial Press China Hand Executive Orders and Coercive Diplomacy Missy Comley Beattie Reprobate Rhetoricians Dr. James J. Murtagh, Jr. Harry Potter Battles Big Brother Kenneth Rexroth On Thomas More's "Utopia" Poets' Basement Engel, Davies and Orloski Website of the Weekend GOP Sex Hypocrites: a Slideshow   July 13, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Decider in Denial Winslow T. Wheeler Bush's Iraq Benchmarks Assessment: Grading on a Curve for the Wrong Test Imran Khan When Dictators Serve US Interests Todd Chretien The Wal-Mart of Garbage Sam Husseini Killing the Constitution Dr. Herman Mindshaftgap Why, in Truth, There is No Surge Anthony Papa The Hard Road Home D. K. Wilson The Wonderful World of Mike Greenberg and Barry Bonds David Michael Green In the Last Throes, Judiciously Website of the Day Strange Attraction: Mrs. Thompson and Mr. Wolfowitz   July 12, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Restoring the People's Power Robert Jensen Lessons from the Lal Masjid Tragedy Dr. Susan Block Hookergate II: The Senator and the Veep Joshua Frank The Liberal Thrashing of Ward Churchill John Chuckman How Terror Lost Its Meaning Corporate Crime Reporter The Problem with Bribeline Mike Whitney Demonizing Putin Nicola Nasser Will New Delhi's Palestinian Policy be Neutralized? Richard Rhames Requiem for the Paxilated William S. Lind Not Fourth Generation Warfare Website of the Day Video: World's Largest Nuclear Explosion     July 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Benchmark Blame Game Richard Neville Is This Man a Psychopath? Bomber McNeill, the Faceless Pol Pot of the Sky Debra McNutt Privatizing Women: Military Prostitution and the Iraq Occupation John V. Walsh A Plea to Ralph Nader Scott Liebertz Where's the Outcry? Mexico's Monitor Radio vs. RCTV George C. Wilson Beware the Iran Hawks James McEnteer My Impossible Dream Candidate Philip Rizk Submission or Resistance in Gaza? Johnny Hazard Mexico Commemorates a Fraud Dave Lindorff On the Road with Impeachment Website of the Day Sly Stone's Higher Power   July 10, 2007 James Ridgeway True North: Big Oil in the Arctic Tariq Ali New Clashes in Islamabad: Judges and Jihadis Torment the Regime Javed Hussein Pakistan's Waco?: The Storming of the Red Mosque William Blum Neocons, Theocons, Demcons, Excons and Future Cons Ralph Nader Grown in China Jay Arena New Orleans, Public Housing and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex Anthony DiMaggio A Begrudging Reversal: The New York Times and the "Anti-War" Turn Eva Liddell Has Ann Coulter Got the Hots for John Edwards? Jerry Kroth Democratic Defectors and the Israel Lobby Alice Woodward White Supremacy and the Jena Six Nikolas Kozloff Where's Jerry?: On Cheney Impeachment, Rep. Nadler's a No Show Paul Shannon It's Time to Reform Sex Offender Laws Website of the Day March for Remembrance   July 9, 2007 Fidel Castro The Killing Machine: Reflections from a Target of the CIA Diana Johnstone King Sarko the First John Walsh Will the Greens Seize the Moment? Uri Avnery The Jordanian Option Ramzy Baroud The Palestinian Left: a Lost Opportunity? John Ripton The New West Bank Palestinian State Stephen Lendman Making Gaza Scream Bruce Jackson Bush Going Down: the Correct Way to Affix a Stamp Michael Donnelly What's the Matter with Winchester? Doug Giebel Wanted: Old Men with Nothing to Lose Website of the Day Ron Paul on This Week with George   July 7 / 8, 2007 Saul Landau Blame the Puppet Ismael Hossein-zadeh Parasitic Imperialism Fawzia Afzal-Khan What Lies Beneath: Dispatches from the Frontlines of t he Burqa Brigade Alan Maass Will "Sicko" Spark a Movement?: a Film, Militant Nurses and a New Opportunity for Single Payer Health Care John Ross The Fire Last Time Pat Williams The Supreme Court and Mr. Peanut Rannie Amiri The Unbreakable Mordechai Vanunu Farzana Versey Does the Taj Mahal Deserve to be a Wonder of the World? Bart Gruzalski Bush, the Revolution and the Iraq War Paul Rockwell An Army of None Reza Fiyouzat Tax Cuts for the Rich Only Benefit the Economy of the Rich Monica Benderman Americans, Honestly! Kenneth Couesbouc Total War: From Clausewitz to Clinton and Bush Dave Lindorff Poll: Impeach the Bastards Charles Modiano History's Hit Job on Thomas Paine Missy Beattie King Cretin Dal LaMagna A Peacemaker's View of Baghdad Jean Gerard Those So-Called Oil Contracts in Iraq Anne Dachel Autism: an Epidemic of Fairly Recent Origin Ron Jacobs Modes and Melodies of Resistance Poets' Basement Gibbons, Orloski, Engel and Buknatski Website of the Day Van Morrison and Bob Dylan in Athens July 6, 2007 Daniel Ellsberg When the Crimes of the White House are Unpunishable Gary Leupp The Cracks in Cheney's World Harvey Wasserman Leonard Peltier vs. Scooter Libby: the Hero and the Henchman Omer Subhani Our Dead are Not the Same: Ignoring Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan Marjorie Cohn Compassion, Conspiracy and Commutation Christopher Brauchli Kingly Edicts: Bush's Executive Orders David Michael Green Scalia Time: the Wrecking Ball Court China Hand Catfish Blues: Food Safety, the FDA and the Emerging Trade War with China Renee Saucedo and Todd Chretien The New Challenges Facing the Immigrant Rights Movement Corporate Crime Reporter The Crime Wave Behind the Media Curtain Website of the Day Jean Bricmont on the Humanitarian Interveners   July 5, 2007 Andy Worthington Two Americas, Both Unjust: Scooter Libby vs. the "Enemy Combatants" Mike Stark Double Standards of North Carolina "Justice" Norman Solomon The Keyboard Hawks: a Bloody Media Mirror Michael Schwartz Killing 10,000 Iraqis Every Month Susie Day Killer Lesbians Mauled by Killer Court (and Media Wolfpack) Jacob Hornberger A Tangled Web of Lies: Bush and the Libby Case Bill Hatch Smoking with Arnold: The Strange Return of Toxic Mary Nichols Don Fitz When Building Green Ain't So Green John Wright The Crisis of Imperialism Website of the Day Anti-Flag and Tom Morello: "This Land is Your Land"   July 4, 2007 St. Clair / Frank Obama's Nuclear Ambitions Vijay Prashad Democrat (Punjab): Obama and Outsourcing Carl G. Estabrook The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Exist Ron Jacobs Texas Wants to Kill Another Man, the Law be Damned: the Disturbing Case of Kenneth Foster David R. Dow The Quality of Bush's Mercy: the Ghosts of Texas Claudia Johnson Is My Doctor a Terrorist? William S. Lind What Israel's Defeat in Lebanon Means for Defense Industry Fat Cats Gregory Afghani Truth and Tenure: Finkelstein and the Perils of Impeccable Scholarship Paul Edwards End It Now! D. K. Wilson The Sliming of Tank Johnson Niranjan Ramakrishnan Thank You, Mr. President: Bush/Cheney for Dummies Thomas Jefferson The Spirit of Resistance: Lethargy is the Forerunner of the Death of Public Liberty Cindy Sheehan Call Out the Instigator Website of the Day Springsteen: 4th of July, Ashbury Park July 3, 2007 Bill Quigley Injustice in Jena: Black Nooses Hanging from the "White" Tree Gary Leupp Civil Strife in Palestine: a Broader Context Lynda Brayer Norman Finkelstein and the Catholic Church Richard Thieme Mind Wars: Brain Research, Nanotech and the Military Helen Redmond They Don't Come Back the Same: the Mind of the Returning Iraq War Vet David Swanson Scooter and the Commuter: When Presidents Pardon Their Own Crimes Jacob Hornberger Martha Stewart vs. Scooter Libby: Commutation as Cover-Up Ayesha Ijaz Khan Pakistan's New Jihad Franklin Lamb The Edginess of Lebanon Ray McGovern Unimpeachably Impeachable: Start with Cheney Kevin Zeese The Air Force vs. Rev. Lennox Yearwood Dave Lindorff Nancy Pelosi and the Low Bar Democrats Website of the Day A Military Guide to the Iraq War         Subscribe Online

August 14, 2007 Racism, Justice and Age-of-Consent Laws in America The Case of Genarlow Wilson By DAVID ROSEN America has long been scarred by racially-motivated miscarriages of justice, especially those rooted in white fear of interracial sex between a black man and a white woman. The case of Genarlow Wilson recalls this long history of injustice. In 1931, the railroading of the Scottsboro Boys for the alleged rape of a white woman rocked the nation. In 1955, the horrendous murder of Emmett Till for smiling at a white woman (and the subsequent acquittal of those charged with the crime) traumatized America. In 2000, the mysterious hanging of Raynard Johnson in Kokomo, MI, apparently because of his friendship with two white girls (and ruled a suicide) remains a bitter memory among many local African-Americans. And, of course, the 1994 trial of O.J. Simpson for the apparent murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman still makes front-page headlines. Each in its own way represents a peculiar miscarriage of justice. The first three, Scottsboro, Till and Johnson, reveal how institutional racism victimizes the innocent black men caught up in the furor of local politics; the Simpson case reveals how this same institutional racism can upend the justice system and undermine legitimate juridical procedure. The case of Genarlow Wilson reveals how institutional racism involving interracial sex among young people remains a fact of American life. This racism contributed to the imprisonment of a 17-year-old black youth for engaging in oral sex with a 15-year-old white girl. The white girl who voluntarily participated in the oral sex was under the age-of-consent law to engage in sex and, therefore, Wilson was convicted of aggravated child molestation and sentenced to 10 years in prison. This case reveals not only how interracial sexual relations remain an exposed nerve in American society, but also how age-of-consent laws serve to regulate sex, especially sex among consenting young people. * * * On New Year's Eve 2003, a group of high-school boys rented a motel room at a local Days Inn in Douglasville, GA, to host a party and, during the evening, girls showed up. With alcohol and marijuana lubricating the evening's festivities, things turned to sex. And in our ubiquitous YouTube digital media world, someone brought a video camera to capture the goings-on. The video, which became a key element in the subsequent trial, shows one 17-years-old girl having sex with boys in a bathroom, then a bedroom. Wilson is also shown having sex with this girl. Another girl, who was later revealed to be 15-years-old, is shown having oral sex with Wilson and other boys. According to court testimony, the next day the 17-year-old girl's mother called the police claiming that her daughter had been raped. The police arrested Wilson and five other boys. While the other boys accepted plea bargains for reduced sentences, Wilson insisted on his innocence. In February 2005, Wilson went on trial for charges relating to having sex with the two girls. J. David McDade, the Douglas County, GA, district attorney, acknowledged the video as critical to the case. "There is no doubt that without the videotape," he stated, "we would have to be relying on the statements of these young people, and that would have been a more difficult prosecution." As the video made clear, the rape of the 17-year old did not occur and Wilson was acquitted for this charge in less than an hour. However, with regard to the 15-year-old, Wilson was convicted of aggravated child molestation, of violating the state's age-of-consent law, a felony. In Georgia, illicit sex is taken seriously: until 1998, oral sex between a husband and wife was illegal, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Wilson was sentenced to the mandatory 10-year prison sentence and listed on the state's sex offender registry. For the last two-and-a-half years, Wilson has been inmate No. 1187055 at Georgia's Burruss Correctional Training Center, a medium security prison located less than an hour south of Atlanta. In the wake of his conviction, the Georgia legislature enacted a revised "Romeo and Juliet" exception to its age-of-consent law. Under the state's new law, the victim has to be at least 13-years but less than 16-years-of-age; the perpetrator must be 18-years and no more than four years older than the victim. Under this exception, teens convicted for consensual oral sex would be charged with a misdemeanor and receive a sentence not exceeding one year and would not be placed on the sex offender registry. Given the changes in state law, Wilson would have been convicted of a misdemeanor. In light of this, in June, a Georgia judged ordered Wilson released. However, the state's attorney general, Thurbert E. Baker, an African-American, appealed the release and Wilson remains in prison. As the case currently stands, there are two options. One involves the state legislature making the "Romeo and Juliet" exception retroactive. Last year, with appeals from former President Jimmy Carter, African-American clergy and politicians, and even some of the jurors who originally convicted Wilson, the legislature failed to approve the effort to make the exception retroactive. The other option involves the state Supreme Court overruling the attorney general's appeal. The court recently heard the appeal and a decision is awaited. This remains the most likely option for Wilson to get out of prison. However, as this formal legal process has been going on, the case moved from the tragic to the absurd. Douglas County district attorney McDade distributed DVD copies of the New Year's Eve video to state legislators in a ham-fisted effort to block legislation that could have freed Wilson. The U.S. attorney for Georgia, David E. Nahmias, who U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzales has not yet removed, noted that the distribution of the videotape "constitutes child pornography under federal law." Nahmias demanded that McDade stop distributing the video, but has not revealed whether he will prosecute McDade for distributing child porn. * * * Age-of-consent laws have a long and varied history in the West. In the medieval Europe, the earliest age-of-consent was set for girls at 12-years-old under England's 1275 Statutes of Westminster. The British laws sought to assure the chastity of the female child entering into a marriage agreement. Until recently in the secular West (and persisting in some parts of the developing world), female virginity was a form of property valuation. By the latter-part of the 19th century in both Britain and the U.S., age-of-consent became a major political issue. In the U.S., the Christian evangelical "social purity" movement (which culminated in Prohibition) waged war against female exploitation and prostitution ("white slavery") as much as against the growing culture of female sexual pleasure. Urbanization, industrialization and immigration/migration contributed to a new American culture, one that involved the redefinition of gender and sexual identities. Women were not simply being turned into sexual commodities through fashion, advertising and the media, they were also experiencing themselves in a profoundly new way, as sexual beings. This was very threatening, especially among young women. California was one of the first states to raise the age-of-consent. In 1889, it raised it from 10-years to 14-years and then, in 1897, raised it again to 16-years; in 1913, it raised it to its current level of 18 years-of-age. In the post-World War II era, especially as the '60s-'70s sexual revolution took shape, the battle over age-of-consent was redefined. This took place against a background of new contractive techniques (i.e., the pill), the Row v. Wade decision and the rise of a reinvigorated feminist movement. Unfortunately, feminist and liberals often joined with religious conservatives to restrict the sexuality of young people. The new battle replaced the demand to preserve a young girl's chastity by the need to protect her as a vulnerable minor. Either way, the unstated effort was to de-sexualize the young girl (to say nothing of the boy). Ironically, during the '60s, the issue of youth sexuality found unexpected expression as part of President Johnson's "war on poverty." After nearly two decades of struggle, liberals sought to address a critical aspect of poverty by restricting what they identified as "excess fertility." They were shocked by the relatively high birthrate among unmarried women (and especially adolescent girls) dwelling in America's black ghettos. These "sex police" liberals linked halting premarital sex with their efforts to end poverty. By the 1990s, the militant Christian movement further redefined the battle over age-of-consent. Fury over social hot-button issues like abortion, gay marriage and stem-cell research was applied to youthful sex. Where once consent was an issue of chastity and, then, youthful vulnerability, by the '90s it was reframed in term of teen-pregnancy and abstinence. The Christian right was (and is!) terrified by youthful sexual hedonism. The wildness of adolescents promoted by the cultural distraction industry (i.e., a consumerism measured by the cumulative impact of fashion, advertising, music, movies and TV) is irreconcilable with puritan virtues. This new climate of moral jurisprudence has combined with age-old Southern racism and the very deep panic among some whites about sex between a black male and white female, no matter what age, to keep Genarlow Wilson in prison. * * * A 2004 report prepared for the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services by the Lewin Group, "Statutory Rape: A Guide to State Laws and Reporting Requirements," finds that, nationally, age-of-consent laws for sexual intercourse and, by extension, other sex acts range from 16 to 18 years-of-age. According to the report, the age-of-consent is "the age at which an individual can legally consent to sexual intercourse under any circumstance." Age-of-consent laws for the fifty states and the District of Columbia are a crazy quilt: thirty-three adhere to 16-years, six to 17-years and twelve to 18-years of consent. These different age-of-consent standards are, in tern, complicated by a three additional age-related considerations: (i) the age of the victim, (ii) the age difference between the victim and the defendant or perpetrator and (iii) the age of the defendant. These age factors are further modified by individual state requirements. Most states set the age of the victim from 14-years to 18-years; however, in South Dakota it is 10-years and in Alabama 12-years-of-age. Most states set the age difference between victim and defendant at two to five years; however, Utah sets the difference at ten years. Finally, the minimum age of the defendant range from 16-years to 24-years; however, West Virginia sets it at 14-years if the victim is 11-years-of-age. [U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, December 2004] Age differences are complicated over the viewing of "adult" materials. While the age-of-consent for sexual intercourse is 16-years to 18-years, viewing porn is 18-years for forty-four states and the District. However, for seven states (Alabama, Idaho, Maine, Oklahoma, Oregon, Vermont and Washington) viewing porn is restricted to those at least 21-years-of-age. Oh yes, one can imagine a U.S. (male) soldier 18 to 20 years old returning from the battlefield of Afghanistan or Iraq being arrested for viewing porn. These age differences are further complicated by the sex act involved. While most age-of-consent laws are addressed principally to sexual intercourse, noncoital sex can involve mutual masturbation, oral sex and anal intercourse. Preliminary research reporting indicates that, in the face of an aggressive conservative Christian campaign promoting abstinence, there has been an increase in noncoital sex, especially oral sex, among teenagers. A 2005 study, "Oral Versus Vaginal Sex Among Adolescents: Perceptions, Attitudes, and Behavior," lead by Bonnie L. Halpern-Felsher, Ph.D., and associates, found that "[a]dolescents evaluated oral sex as significantly less risky than vaginal sex on health, social, and emotional consequences." They add," [a]dolescents also believed that oral sex is more acceptable than vaginal sex for adolescents their own age in both dating and nondating situations, oral sex is less of a threat to their values and beliefs, and more of their peers will have oral sex than vaginal sex in the near future." Statistically, more study participants admitted having oral sex (19.6%) than vaginal sex (13.5%) and more intended to have oral sex in the next six months (31.5%) than vaginal sex (26.3%). [Pediatrics, April 2005, pp. 845-851.] Most states set age-of-consent for heterosexual oral sex (i.e., male-female and going either way) at 16-years to 18-years comparable to sexual intercourse. However, these laws get even more complicated when the oral sex takes a homoerotic form whether it be male-male or female-female encounter. Based on 2001 data (which may well have be revised), homoerotic oral sex among minors (under 18-years) was illegal in twelve states, fourteen states had no applicable law and the rest set it at between 16-years and 18-years; however, New Mexico placed the age of homoerotic oral sex at 13-years, while heteroerotic oral sex was 17-years. * * * American sex policy, especially involving adolescents, is a literal battleground. The legacy of the Christian right's puritanism hangs over the nation like a decaying slaughter-house death stench. Innumerable state and local governments cloned Bush administration security efforts into programs intended to limit personal sexual freedom, especially youthful sexuality. Nevertheless, conservative state legislations attempts to regulate the personal lives of an increasingly sophisticated youth population are facing growing resistance. This resistance is much like the general public's revulsion at the Bush administration's policies in Iraq, its failure over Katrina and its attitude about global warming. More and more Americans realize that the dominant conservative Republic regime is based on false hopes and contemptible lies. Unfortunately, like the Supreme Court, the legacy of the Christian right will linger on far longer than its hold on state power. In Kansas in 2000, Matthew Limon, who was diagnosed as "borderline intellectual functioning," had just turned 18-years-old when he was arrested for aggravated child molestation for having oral sex with a nearly 15-year-old -- but this youth was a boy! Limon was sentenced to 206 months (17-plus years). Had Limon had sex with a girl, he would have been released under a "Romeo and Juliet" exception. In 2004, two Florida adolescents, a 16-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy, took digital photos of themselves nude and having sex. They then sent the photos via an email account from the girl's computer to the boy's email address. Somehow, the Tallahassee police got possession of the photos and both young people were arrested and charged with producing, directing or promoting photographs featuring the sexual conduct of a child. The Florida Appeals Court in February 2007 upheld the charge against the girl. It's rationale? Either the boy or girl could sometime in the future sell their pictures to child pornographers or show them to friends. American justice at work. Last year the Utah Supreme Court took on a case in which a 13-year-old Ogden girl was charged with being both an offender and a victim for the same act; she was caught having consensual sex with her 12-year-old boyfriend. In punitive American justice fashion, both were found guilty of violating a state law that prohibits sex with someone under 14-years; she was the victim in the case against the boy, he was found guilty of the same violation by engaging in sexual activity with her. A hopeful note, last year the California Supreme Court overturned a law requiring an adult who engages in oral sex with a minor be registered for life as a sex offender. * * * The American court system is a conservative social institution. It is controlled by aging white men whose sexuality was formed, for better or worse, a half-century ago. Nevertheless, their legal decisions must be placed against equally significant social developments that are often driven by the young people they not only judge but, a half-century in the future, will supersede them. This future portends to be something quite different. According to a 2003 survey by the Centers for Disease Control, nearly half of all U.S. students in grades 9-12 have had sex. In addition, between 1995 and 2002, U.S. teen pregnancy rates declined by almost one-quarter (24%). In another study by John Santelli of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health (with Alan Guttmacher Institute support), "Explaining Recent Declines in Adolescent Pregnancy in the United States: The Contribution of Abstinence and Improved Contraceptive Use," the evidence suggest that the United States is following patterns seen in other developed countries: The increased availability and use contraceptives significantly contributes to the decline in teenage pregnancy rates. [See "Bush's Domestic Sex Policy: The Teen Abstinence-Only Crusade," Counterpunch, January 12-14, 2007] In the wake of new evidence and the self-evident failure of Bush-backed abstinence-only campaign, states across the country have begun to revise laws involving the prosecution of teens for sex offences. For example, all states are required to adopt the Adam Walsh Act of 2006 that standardizes sexual offender and registration laws. It also exempts teens convicted of consensual sex if the age difference is no more than four years and the younger participant is at least 13-years-old. Other state actions suggest things are changing. Texas revamped how it classifies youthful sex offenders; Arizona intends to end registration for some convicted teens; Oregon will not require registration if the sex partners are no more than five years apart in age; in Florida, teens may petition to keep their names off the registry if the age gap is within four years; Indiana will not prosecute teens if they are in a "dating relationship" and the age gap is four years or less; and Connecticut will not prosecute if the age gap is three years or less, up from two years. [USA Today, July 25, 2007] In the face of these developments, one can only hope that the Georgia Supreme Court will rule against the state attorney general and release Genarlow Wilson. For more information about the Genarlow Wilson case, see www.wilsonappeal.com. David Rosen can be reached at drosen@ix.netcom.com Your Ad Here

New From CounterPunch Books The Secret Language of the Crossroads: HOW THE IRISH INVENTED SLANG By Daniel Cassidy Click Here to Buy!   Now Available! How the Press Failed The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained! Buy End Times Now! Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal Click Here to Order!   "The Case Against Israel" Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz WHAT'S INSIDE Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair       The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn Humanitarian Imperialism By Jean Bricmont   CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed   Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh   The Book on 9/11 the White House Denounced as "ABSOLUTE GARBAGE"