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Today's
Stories
January 2,
2008
Jeff Taylor
The
Left and Ron Paul
January 1,
2008
Iain A. Boal
City
of Disappearances
B. R. Gowani
Benazir's Death in Crisistan
Shahid Mahmood
Bhutto and the Press
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Old Injustices Endure: From Crack Sentences to Racial Profiling
Harvey Wasserman
Taking Leonard Peltier to Iowa: the Moral Low Point of the Clinton
Era
John Ross
2008, Already a Year to Forget
Website of the Day
The Thrill is Gone: BB and Gladys
December 31,
2007
Alexander Cockburn
Goodbye
2007 and Good Riddance!
Tariq Ali
Pakistan, the Aftermath
Liaquat Ali Khan
The Perfidy of Pakistan's Rulers
Wajahat Ali
After Bhutto, a Nuclear Pakistan?
Robert Fisk
Who Killed Bhutto?
Ajai Sahni
Myths and Realities About Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan's Dark
Future
Marwan Bishara
You Say Talk, I Say Attack: The Middle East and the US Presidential
Election Campaigns
Uri Avnery
The Beilin Syndrome
Mark T. Harris
Does This Happen in Canada?
Brenda Norrell
Resistance and Censorship
Website of the Day
A People United Will Never Be Defeated
December 29
/ 30, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Options
in America: Kill Yourself or Have a Baby
Tariq Ali
Indignation and Fear Stalk Pakistan
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
My Encounter with Benazir Bhutto
Gary Leupp
The U.S. and Pakistan After 9/11: Blowback from an Unholy Alliance
China Hand
Pakistan Stares Into the Abyss
Jacob Hornberger
Stop Medddling in Pakistan
John Chuckman
Pakistan and the Failure of Quick-Fix Politics
Missy Beattie
Evaluating Bush with the Bhutto Corruption Standard
Ralph Nader
Who Will Take the Next Step?
Fidel Castro
There Hasn't Been a Day in My Life When I Haven't Learned Something
Robert Fantina
The Sham of Homeland Security
Greg Moses
Beauty from the Heart of Texas
Catherine Lutz
What We Can Not See: Art and Bombing
Kristin Van
Tassel
Seeing in the Dark
Kim Nicolini
Redacted: Brian DePalma's Scream of Outrage
Phyllis Pollack
Keith Richards Runs With Rudolph Once More
Poets' Basement
Landau, Gibbons and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
Driving Karachi in Search of the Perfect Naan
December 28,
2007
Farzana Versey
The
Complex Electra
Wajahat Ali
A
Pakistani Requiem
Binoy Kampmark
Death in Rawalpindi: Bhutto and Her Legacy
Ayesha Ijaz
Khan
Not Dead Yet: The Pakistan People's Party Still Survives
Anthony DiMaggio
Turkey's Bombing of Iraq
Ray McGovern
Creeping
Fascism
Jim Goodman
Biofuels, the Biggest Scam Going
Ron Jacobs
Transcending the Colonizer's History: Iran, a People Interrupted
Russell Hoffman
Mini-Nukes by Toshiba
John Murphy
Greens Gone Wild
Website of the Day
Guiliani Campaign Official: "Only Rudy Can Defeat the Muslims"
December 27,
2007
Dilip Hiro
A
Tragedy Foretold: Will Bhutto's Death be a Boost for Her Party?
Murtaza Shibli
Who Killed Bhutto?
Stephen Soldz
Fallujah,
the Information War and U.S. Propaganda
Bill Quigley
Locked
Outside the Gates
Paul Craig Roberts
The Great American Lock-Up
Omer Subhani
Killing Bhutto: What Happens Next in Pakistan?
Marjorie Cohn
The Torture Tape Cover-Up: How High Does It Go?
Allan Nairn
Cataclysm By Money Whim
Jacob G. Hornberger
Smearing Ron Paul: Shame on the NYT
Norman Solomon
Channeling Suze Orman
Patrick Irelan
Rumsfeld Spills the Ink
Ben Tripp
Pass the Razor Blades
Website of the Day
Quagmire, For What It's Worth
December 26, 2007
Charles Tripp
From
One Saddam to Fifty
Paul Armentano
No-Knock, You're Dead
Rannie Amiri
Lebanon in Search of a Government
Stanley Heller
Brzezinski and Charlie Wilson's War
John Walsh
Two Unreasonable Men
Martha Rosenberg
The Strange Career of Scott Gottlieb
Norman Madarasz
Bolivia Amends New Constitution and Faces Mutiny from Within
Website of
the Day
Cockburn at the Battle of Ideas
December 25,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
Conscience
and Empire
December 24,
2007
Andrea Peacock
A
Dark Ride on the Border
Tariq Ali
Thinking of Edward Said
Uri Avnery
Help! A Ceasefire!
Jill Jameson
Burma is Not Back to Normal: A Trip from Rangoon to Mae Sot
Steve Melendez
Russell Means Goes to Washington
Mike Whitney
The Big Fix
Chuck Munson
Not Getting It About New Orleans
John Walsh
Clueless Crusaders
Farzana Versey
Tony Blair and the Hawking of Religion
Richard Neville
Dreaming of a White House Christmas
Website of the Day
Back in the USSR
December 22 / 23, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Mike
Huckabee's Ascending Chariot
Ralph Nader
Politics
and Profits: How the Oil Cartel Gets Its Way
Andy Worthington
Intelligence Failures, Battlefield Myths and Unaccountable Prisons
in Afghanistan
Ahmad Faruqui
The Comedian of Pakistan
Bill Moyers
Society on Steroids
Rev. William
E. Alberts
Blessed are the Peacemakers
Timothy J. Freeman
From Kant to Lennon: Can War Really be Over?
Anthony DiMaggio
Democrats Continue to Capitulate on Iraq
Fred Gardner
Molecule of the Year, Cannabiodiol
Paul Krassner
Enhanced Hazing Techniques
Seth Sandronsky
17 Years of Meanness: Repealing California's Three Strikes Law
William Loren
Katz
Christmas Eve Freedom Fighters: Recalling the Battle of Lake
Okeechobee
Michael Dickinson
In the Dungeon of the Zabita
Ron Jacobs
Why Leon Russell Still Matters
David Vest
Doyle Bramhall's "Is It News?"
Poets' Basement
Orloski, Davies and Ford
Website of the Weekend
George W. Hates Santa
December 21,
2007
John Ross
New Massacres Loom in Mexico
Jacob Hornberger
Nothing Can Morally Justify the Invasion of Iraq
Dick J. Reavis
A
Way Out of the Newspaper Abyss
Jeff Cohen
and Norman Solomon
The 2007 P.U.-litzer Prizes
Peter Morici
Business as Usual as Recession Looms
Jack McCarthy
Let Us Now Praise Judith Regan (Even If She Did Sleep with Bernie
Kerik)
Raúl Zibechi
Sex and Revolution
Steve Early
How the Presidential Candidates Made Me an Atheist
David Macaray
Union Aftermath
Patrick Bond
Zuma, the Center-Left and the Left-Left in S. Africa
Lakota Freedom Delegation
A Declaration of Independence from the USA
Website of
the Day
Solomon v. Beck: Tale of the Tape
December 20,
2007
David Rosen
Mitt
Romney's Secret Life as a Pornographer
Alan Farago
The
Huckster and the Wreckage: Jeb Bush and the Subprime Mortgage
Crisis
Laura Carlsen
Standing Up to NAFTA
Ashley Dawson
The Return of the Bread Riot
Wayne Smith
and Jennifer Schuett
Cuba Changes, US Policy Stagnates
Website of
the Day
How to Talk to a FoxNews Reporter
December 19,
2007
Saul Landau
Is
the NIE Bush's Watergate?
Paul W. Lovinger
Hillary the Hawk
Norman Solomon
The Mad Corporate World of Glenn Beck
Dave Zirin
George Mitchell's Drugs of Choice
Marjorie Cohn
Bush Still Spinning Iranian Nukes
Sen. Russell
Feingold
The Iraq War is Exhausting Our Nation
Sonja Karkar
A Christmas Reflection on Palestine
Anthony Papa
Open the Drug Gulags
Christopher Ketcham
Pave the Holy Lands with Good Intentions
Davey D
Britney's Little Sister is Pregnant: Should We Blame Hip Hop?
Website of
the Day
When Republicans Use the F-Word on TV
December 18,
2007
R. F. Blader
The
Politics of Teen Pregnancy
George Wuerthner
Gunning for Wolves in Idaho
Steven Higgs
Can the NAFTA Superhighway be Stopped?
Vijay Prashad
Encounters with Ghadar
David Macaray
The Free Rider Problem
Ralph Nader
Nine Books That Make a Difference: a Reading List for the Holidays
Eva Liddell
Privatizing War Abroad, Invading Privacy at Home
Martha Rosenberg
While the Bodies are Still Warm: Drugs, Shrinks and Shooters
Dave Lindorff
When Impeachment is Out of Print
Peter Morici
The Consequences the Trade Deficit
Website of
the Day
Ron Paul: How Fascism Will Come to America
December 17,
2007
Mike Whitney
Staring
Into the Abyss
Tom Barry
Planning
the War on Immigrants
Uri Avnery
A
Gaza Masada?
Greg Moses
Crossing the Line in Texas
Allan Nairn
Terrorism; Counter-
Terrorism: Excuses for Murder
Patrick Bond
South Africa's Fight Between Hostile Brothers
Stephen Lendman
Police State America
Charles Jonkel
Grizzly Right of Way
Laray Polk
An Inside-Out Crisis in Gaza
Stephen Fleischman
Pawns in Their Game
December 15
/ 16, 2007
Peter Linebaugh
A
People's Penny for the Magna Carta
Howard Zinn
Bomb After Bomb
Standard Schaefer
The Greening of Big Tobacco
Raymond J.
Lawrence
Let's Take Christ Out of Christmas
Alan Farago
Down on Desolation Row: the Vultures and the Growth Machine
Saul Landau
Lord Byron and the Bad Tourists
Jenna Orkin
Lying to "Reassure" the Public: Bush's EPA and the
Post-9/11 Toxic Air Cover-Up
Ahmad Samih
Khalidi
Why a Palestinian "State" is a Punitive Construct
Robert Fantina
Politics By Photo-Op
Missy Comley
Beattie
Resistance Amid the Ruins
Ramzy Baroud
Of Mormons and Muslims
James L. Secor
A Vision for China's Future
Elijah Wald
Ike Turner's Music Won't be Forgotten
Website of
the Weekend
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies Needs (and Deserves) Your Support
December 14,
2007
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Dirty Cad: What Giuliani's Sex Life Tells Us About Him
John Ross
Iraqi
Refugees Return: One Cruel Hoax
Jacob Hornberger
Terror Suspects Belong in Federal Court
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the Supreme Court: What Happened?
Allan Nairn
"Shoot Them on the Spot": Rewarding War Crimes
Dave Zirin
The Mitchell Report: Absolving the Owners
Dave Lindorff
The First Cut is the Deepest
Misty MacDuffee
Toxic Grizzlies
Ben Terrall
What Happened to Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine?
Dr. Mustafa
Barghouthi
Prerequisites for Peace
Website of the Day
Sen. Kit Bond: "Waterboarding is Like Swimming"
December 13,
2007
Paul Craig
Roberts
Shrinking
the Dollar from the Inside-Out
Mike Whitney
Dershowitz for the Defense--of Waterboarding
Ron Jacobs
Blank Check DemocratsL the Great War Funding Conspiracy
Norman Solomon
The USA's Human Rights Daze
Peter Morici
The Dragon and the Toothless Dog: China Doesn't Flinch
Sandy Mayes
Blocking the Strykers: 13 Days of War Resistance at Port Olympia
Franklin Lamb
The UN in Lebanon: Whose Mission Is It Fulfilling?
Jacob Hornberger
Don't Reform the CIA, Abolish It
Nadim Rouhana
An Interloper in My Own Land
Dave Zirin
On Pigskin and Petrol
Website of the Day
Rachel's Needs (and Deserves) Your Support!
December 12, 2007
Allan
Nairn
US Intelligence is Tapping Indonesian
Phones
Alan
Farago
How Sprawl Eats Its Young
Ray
McGovern
Torture, Lies and Videotape
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The Phony Pentagon Budget Cuts
Evan
Jones
The Raid on Great Western: Why an Australian Bank Might Spell
Doom for the US Farm Belt
James
Petras
An Open Letter to Sarkozy on the Exchange of Political Prisonsers
Joel
Hirschorn
The Horserace Fiction: Clinton, Obama and the Democratic Machine
Joshua
Frank
Why Ron Paul Deserves Our Attention
Sherry
Wolf
Why the Left Should Reject Ron Paul
Dan
Bacher
Survey of a Fish Graveyard
Website
of the Day
Men Eating Bugs
December
11, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
What's Really Happened During
the Surge?
Diana
Johnstone
The Next Kosovo War
Paul
Craig Roberts
It's Waco All Over Again: Preventive Detention and the Constitution
David
Macaray
Impasse in Hollywood
Ralph
Nader
Gail Collins Versus the Underdogs
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo Britons to be Released: a Mixed Result
Martha
Rosenberg
No Holiday for High Risk Sex Workers
Steve
Champion /
Anthony Ross
Words for Our Brother, Tookie Williams
Kim
Nicolini
Tangled Up in Dylan
Michael
Dickinson
Say Goodbye to Purgatory: Pope Rat Gets Indulgent
Website
of the Day
A Charming (and Worthy)
Pitch
December 10, 2007
Uri
Avnery
How They Stole the Bomb From Us
Debbie
Nathan
The Perils of Journalism and Child
Porn
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Is There a Left Here Left?
If So, What Can It Do?
Steve
Kelly
Cheap Chips, Counterfeit Wilderness
Donna
J. Volatile
Welcome to the Revolution
December
8 / 9, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The Coup Against Bush and Cheney
Brenda
Norrell
Seize the Land, Chain the Peace Activists
Saul
Landau
The Ruins of Empire
R.
F. Blader
A Rape in Every Drink?
Ray
McGovern
Spinning Iran's Centrifuges
Allan
Nairn
Imposed Hunger in Gaza, the Army in
Indonesia
Linn
Washington, Jr
Spotlight on Death Row
Paul
Craig Roberts
When Will Bush Come Clean?
December
7, 2007
Sean
Penn
Piano Wire Puppeteers
Arthur
Versluis
Mining Water in the Desert
M.
G. Piety
Racism and the American Psyche: Some
Thoughts on Race and Intelligence
Pam
Martens
Banksters Gone Wild
Alan
Farago
Will the Free Market Kill Suburbia?
Sprawl and the Credit Crisis
Allan
Nairn
It Takes (Out) a Village
Col.
Dan Smith
Bush, Iran and the Politics of Doomsday
Alice
Slater
The Iran Opening
Robert
Weissman
The Story of Stuff
Website
of the Day
Something
About Mitt
December
5, 2007
Mike
Whitney
Why the CFR Hates Putin
Sharon
Smith
The Anti-War Enablers: Tom Hayden
and the Dead End Democrats
James
Petras
Venezuela in the Aftermath
Ron
Jacobs
The Iran Charade
Dave
Zirin
Kicking a Dead Man: the Sliming of Sean Taylor
John
V. Whitbeck
Two States or One? Time to Choose
Peter
Zinn
Covered in New Orleans
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Impeach Pelosi Instead
Alan
Farago
The Credit Bomb Detonates in Florida
Heather
Gray
US Meddling in Australian Politics
Website
of the Day
A Donner Summit Night Before Xmas
December
4, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Jackboot State Stubs Its Toe in
Ann Arbor
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo and the Supreme
Court
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Lies at the End of the American
Dream
Ray
McGovern
No-Nuke Iran
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Admiral Mullen and the Defense Budget: When White Elephants are
Too Small
Allan
Nairn
The Regime Still Stands in Burma, Where "the People Just
Want Food"
Russell
Mokhiber
The USA v. Al Arian
Nikolas
Kozloff
As Chávez Falters: Raising the Stakes for the South American
Left
John
V. Walsh
Peace Movement Paralyzed
Ghada
Ageel
Will Peace Cost Me My Home?
Stephen
Soldz
The Facts be Damned!: Psychologists' President Defends Psychologist
Involvement in Interrogations
Website
of the Day
Hands Off the People of Iran
December
3, 2007
Tariq
Ali
Venezuela After the Referendum
Bill
Quigley
New Orleans: Bulldozers for the Poor,
Tax Credits for Developers
Eric
Walberg
The Bible and Middle East History
Uri
Avnery
After Annapolis
Marjorie
Cohn
Operation Iraqi Freedom Exposed
Dave
Lindorff
Vengeance Isn't Sweet
Stephen
Fleischman
Homeless in Paradise
Martha
Rosenberg
Perp Walks for the Mink Clad on Chicago's Mag Mile
Website
of the Day
So Just Lead!
December
1 / 2, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Emblems of the Bush Age: Adrift
in a Sea of Booze
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Bear Minimum: the Grizzly and
the Future of the Rocky Mountain West
Mike
Whitney
"Iraq Doesn't Exist Anymore": an Interview with Nir
Rosen
Shemon
Salam
A Visit From the FBI
Roger
Burbach
The Battle in Bolivia
Benjamin
Dangl
New Politics in Old Bolivia
Brian
M. Downing
The Quiet on the Middle Eastern Front: How Much Credit Goes to
the Surge?
Greg
Moses
Night of the Living Redneck: a Texas Horror Story
Sonja
Karkar
The "Never-Never" Peace Conference
Saul
Landau
Ethics and Evil in South Boston
Margaret
Kimberley
Black America Left Behind
John
Ross
What are the Prospects for a New Mexican Revolution?
Reza
Fiyouzat
Exit on the Left: When Che's Children Visited Iran
Judith
Scherr
Berkeley Turns Right for the Holidays
Lance
Olsen
Of Forests and Finance: Logging for the Wealthy
Christopher
Brauchli
Mr. Bush and the Despots
Robert
Fantina
Iraq as U.S. Colony
Dan
Bacher
Fish Triage on Prospect Island
Michael
Donnelly
Remembering How to be Human: John Trudell and the Music of Urgency
Website
of the Weekend
Appalachian Voices
November
30, 2007
Peter
Stone Brown
The Re-Packaging of Bob Dylan
Wajahat
Ali
The Volatile Mistress: an Interview with Javed Jabbar, Pakistan's
Former Minister of Information
Allan
Nairn
Cold-Blooded Celebrity: Thomas L. Friedman and the Bali Bombers
Alan
Farago
The Sorrows of Suburbia: Politics, Sprawl and the Housing Crash
John
Ross
The Death of Latin America's First Revolution
Corporate
Crime Reporter
America's Corporate Crime Capitals
Lucia
Alvarez
Diego Gonzalez
Argentina's Political Future
James
Rothenberg
The Iraqi Miracle
Website
of the Day
Bio-Bling?
November
29, 2007
R.
F. Blader
The Most Dangerous Kind of Bribe
Ismael
Hossein-Zadeh
Distorting Fascism to Demonize Iran
Stephen
Soldz
War on the Couch: Fear, Aggression and Empire
Sheldon
Richman
Iraq 3.0
George
Wuerthner
Forest Fires, Lies and Chainsaws
Felice
Pace
Did All Things Considered Self-Censor on Annapolis?
Col.
Dan Smith
The Meaning of Annapolis
Harvey
Wasserman
Terror Target Nukes
Nikolas
Kozloff
Primetime Hate Debate: Lou Dobbs, Immigration and Campaign '08
Paul
Krassner
Huffington Post Bloggers Go On Strike!
Dave
Lindorff
News Not Fit to Print: US Coup Planned for Venezuela?
CP
News Service
The One State Declaration
Website
of the Day
A Native View of Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
November
28, 2007
James
Petras
CIA Destabilization Memo Surfaces
on Venezuela
Jeff
Halper
Annapolis: When the Roadmap is a One
Way Street
Pam
Martens
Crashing Citigroup
Peter
Morici
Economy in Crisis: Avoiding a Recession
Mohammed
Khatib
Separate and Unequal in Palestine
Helen
Redmond
The Horror and the Hope: Health Care in America
William
S. Lind
In the Fox's Lair: Quiet Before a New Iraq Storm?
Ben
Tripp
We, the People: a Trope for All Seasons
Liaquat
Ali Khan
Pakistan: First, Restore the Constitution and Reinstate the Judges
Jeff
Berg
Holbrooke Says Bush Won't Attack Iran
Website
of the Day
The Lies of Joe Klein
November
27, 2007
Joe
DeRaymond
On the Road to the Torture School
Paul
Craig Roberts
Meet the Only Two Candidates Worse Than Bush and Cheney: Hillary
and Rudy
Marjorie
Cohn
Remembering Victor Rabinowitz
Mike
Whitney
A Dollar the Size of a Postage Stamp
Ron
Jacobs
The Myths of Military Progress
Col.
Dan Smith
The Pentagon's "People System" Still Doesn't Work
Ralph
Nader
Family Learning
Karim
Makdisi
Annapolis and the Unholy Alliance: the View from Beirut
Christopher
Ketcham
Memo to Hollywood Writers: Strike Until You Drop
Ronan
Bennett
Martin Amis Does a Coulter
Website
of the Day
Celebrating the Uncensored Media
November
26, 2007
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Heading for Annapolis
Paul
Craig Roberts
The End of All That
David
Macaray
Enter Mediator
Sameer
Dossani
Pakistan's Wounded Dictator
Roger
Burbach
The Final Battle in Bolivia
Mark
Scaramella
Guns and Greed in the Emerald Empire
Brian
McKinlay
Howard's End
Rick
Kuhn
The Fall of a Racist Union Buster
Binoy
Kampmark
Ruddslide and Dull Alec
Monica
Benderman
What Do You Know of War?
Brenda
Norrell
Return to Alcatraz
Website
of the Day
Ghostworld by DJ Spooky
November
24 / 25, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The Ordeal of Catherine Wilkerson,
MD
Robert
Fisk
Darkness Falls on the Middle East
Saul
Landau
Norman Mailer will Not R.I.P.
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Justice Stephen Breyer, Cancer Bonds and the Origins of Neoliberal
Environmentalism
Rannie
Amiri
Beirut's Black Friday
Christopher
Brauchli
Iraq Embassy as Gilded Palace
Daniel
Gross
The Gap and Black Friday
Mike
Whitney
"A Generalized Meltdown of Financial Institutions"
Marjorie
Cohn
Iran and the 2008 Elections
David
Rosen
Senior Sex: the Real Sexual Life of Aging Americans
David
Michael Green
If Conservatism is the Ideology of Freedom ....
Kenneth
Rexroth
When Euripides Played the Hindu Kush: Greeks and Buddhists in
Afghanistan
Muhammad
Iqbal
Trans. Shahid Alam
Ghazal
Website
of the Day
Aerial Footage of Delta Fish Kill
November 23, 2007
Gary
Leupp
Killing the Buddha in Pakistan's Swat
Valley
Laura
Carlsen
Coming to Terms with Diversity in
Bolivia: an Interview with Alvaro Garcia, Bolivia's VP
David
Macaray
Keeping Labor Unions Out
Andy
Worthington
Former Guantánamo Detainee Seeks Asylum in Sweden
Clifton
Ross
Trashing Chavez: Keith Olberman's Toxic Rant
Seth
Sandronsky
Battling Sodexho
Dan
Bacher
Death in the Delta: Thousands of Fish Stranded by Bureau of Reclamation
William
A. Cook
The Myth of Middle East Peace
Website
of the Day
Waiting for the Guards: Stress Techniques as Torture, a Short
Film
November
22, 2007
Alan
Farago
Who Lost America's Everglades?
Greg
Moses
A Thanksgiving Basting
Dave
Lindorff
Impeachment is Back on the Table
Mike
Ely
Native Blood: the Myth pf Thanksgiving
Omar
Azfar
Gore for President of Pakistan?
November
21, 2007
Vijay
Prashad
Our Dictator, Their Democracy
Martha
Rosenberg
Undercover at a Turkey Slaughtering Plant
Manuel
Garcia, Jr.
Epiphany on the Glacier
John
Ross
The Last Days of Mexican Corn
Brian
McKenna
Cancer Terrorists Unmasked
Stephen
Soldz
Isolation Torture Routine at Guatánamo
Monica
Benderman
Needing Peace
Ben
Terrall
Slavery in the Fields: The Real Price of Sugar
Website
of the Day
Mercy for Animals
|
January
2, 2008
A Pakistani Tragedy
The
Life and Death of Benazir Bhutto
By M. SHAHID ALAM
On December 27, a little more than two
months after her return to Pakistan from years of exile, Benazir
Bhutto was killed while leaving the grounds of Liaquat Bagh after
addressing a rally of party faithfuls. Daughter of the charismatic
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, with no inconsiderable charisma of her own,
driven, talented, distinguished, the career of Pakistan's best-loved
political leader had been cut short by unknown assassins. She
was still young at 53.
Did Benazir Bhutto's life have
to end this way?
Benazir Bhutto had entered
politics to 'avenge' her father's hanging in April 1979 by Zia-ul-Haq,
Pakistan's third military dictator. Having twice avenged her
father's murder by assuming the office of Pakistan's prime
minister in April 1988 and October 1993 she has now paid
with her life trying to reach that office a third time.
Sadly, the truth is that her
violent end could have been foretold with near certainty. What
are the circumstances that made her violent end very nearly a
certainty? She did not have the military security and luck,
one must add that has shielded General Parvez Musharraf
from several assassination attempts. With some expense and planning,
Benazir Bhutto too could have made better security arrangements,
but, fatefully, she seemed to be in too much of a haste to be
slowed down even by 150 deaths during the first attack on her
life in Karachi.
Immediately after her death,
a spokesman for Al-Qa'ida operations in Afghanistan claimed that
this was their work. "We terminated," the spokesman
claimed ominously, "the most precious American asset which
vowed to defeat mujahideen."1
That Benazir Bhutto was a 'precious
American asset' perhaps, even the 'most precious'
few anywhere would deny, least of all the Americans. It is widely
known that her return to Pakistan was brokered by the United
States. She could return to Pakistan's politics and, most
likely, to the prime minister's office by dropping her
opposition to another term of five years for President Musharraf.
 Indeed, Benazir Bhutto instructed
the members of her party not to resign from their seats in the
national assembly but abstain from voting. This defeated the
opposition's plan to deny the quorum necessary for the deeply
flawed presidential elections.
One of the most remarkable
developments in Pakistani politics since the events of 9-11 is
the transparency shall we say, daring with which
the United States now intervenes in Pakistan's affairs. Conversely,
Pakistani leaders also work openly to advance American interests
in Pakistan. In an earlier era, the Americans generally took
care to conceal their meddling in Pakistani politics. As a result,
only the politically astute understood the depth of their influence
over Pakistan. Now, this knowledge has become commonplace.
Although greatly weakened since
the protests that erupted over his firing of Pakistan's Chief
Justice in March 2007, the Americans believe that General Parvez
Musharraf is still the best person to lead their war against
the militants in Pakistan. However, they were now convinced that
the General's badly battered reputation had to be salvaged: and
a partnership with the pro-American Benazir Bhutto would do just
that. In turn, the General, under duress, had accepted a partnership
with Bhutto as the price he must pay or lose US support.
A tripartite deal was brokered
involving the US, General Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto. This
deal freed Bhutto from the corruption cases pending against her
in Pakistani courts. She was also allowed to return to Pakistan
to lead her party to she was convinced a nearly certain
electoral victory: and a third term as Pakistan's prime minister.
The elections would give the General the democratic veneer that
he now so badly needed.
As the New York Times
reveals in a recent article, "How Bhutto won Washington,"
Benazir Bhutto's deal-making with the Americans has a long history.2
She had decided quite early that she would return her party to
power by trolling the corridors of power in Washington.
In the words of her friend
from Oxford days, Peter Galbraith, who was on the staff of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time, Benazir Bhutto
first began her campaign in Washington in the spring of 1984.
She was on a mission to persuade the Reagan administration that
"she would much better serve American interest in Afghanistan
than Zia." Under the tutelage of Galbraith and his friend,
Mark Siegel formerly executive director of the Democratic
National Convention she cultivated the friendship of important
power brokers in Washington.
These Washington contacts paid
off handsomely. In the parliamentary elections of November 1988
Benazir Bhutto's party gained only a plurality of seats. Since
Pakistan's military establishment looked upon her with considerable
distrust, they could easily have pulled strings to deny her the
right to form the government. US pressure, however, persuaded
Ghulam Ishaq Khan, the President at the time, to invite Benazir
Bhutto to form the government.
Benazir Bhutto never gave up
on this winning strategy. As the NYT writes, "she
kept up her visits to Washington, usually several a year."
She continued to cultivate friends amongst the Washington elite,
including the Congress and the media. In the first six months
of 2007 alone, Benazir Bhutto spent $250,000 in lobbying fees
to gain access to Washington insiders.
Once again, to win American
backing for her return to Pakistan in 2007, which could only
happen with US pressure on General Musharraf, Benazir Bhutto
used the same strategy that had worked before: she would promise
to do better than General Musharraf in advancing American interests
in Pakistan.
Over the past year, Benazir
Bhutto has repeatedly pointed out that General Musharraf's war
against terrorism in Pakistan was failing. Instead of curbing
terrorism, the militants had become more daring during the General's
tenure. She promised to do better. She would wipe out the "religious
extremists," shut down "extremist" madrasas, and
even hand over Dr. Qadeer Khan the architect of Pakistan's
nuclear program to the US for questioning. Insistently,
and loudly, Benazir Bhutto was seeking to assure the United States
that she would do a lot better than their General.
This strategy won her the support
of the United States, but it was fatally flawed. If Musharraf
had not acted more vigorously against the militants that was
not because he had gone soft in his commitment to America's
plan. Instead, it was because he faces restraints on three fronts:
the opposition within the army, especially from its lower ranks;
the very real fear that stronger measures against the militants
would provoke a domestic outcry and, worse, a more determined
response from those militants; and, there are concerns too that
defeating the Taliban would entrench Indian influence over Afghanistan.
Would these constraints be any different for Benazir Bhutto?
In presenting herself as the
only Pakistani politician to openly challenge the militants,
wasn't Benazir Bhutto in effect also daring them
to target her? Since these Islamists were regularly targeting
the Pakistan military itself even inside the security of
their cantonments would they hold back from attacking a
politician who threatened to take even stronger actions against
them than General Musharraf?
General Musharraf's decision
to make Pakistan the leading partner in America's war against
terrorism had already revealed its deep flaws. Most ominously,
it had provoked the Islamists into targeting the Pakistani military.
Already there were defections from the army, and if the clashes
continued, there could be rebellion in the ranks of the army:
or clashes between Pukhtoons and the Punjabis within the army.
In pushing Benazir Bhutto into
this dangerous corner, a corner in which she could not have survived,
the US too has shown its gross ineptitude. By openly anointing
her as the American candidate, the US had effectively hastened
the violent end that she has now met. The US helped to bring
about the untimely death of the 'Daughter of the East' by transforming
her into the 'Daughter of the West.' In the process, Pakistan
too has lost a flawed but charismatic leader, who might have
risen to the occasion at a time of crisis.
Benazir Bhutto crafted her
political career by embracing her father's populism, but decisively
rejected what was its natural complement: his independent foreign
policy. Could she have followed a different path? Was she free
to claim the legacy of her father's independent foreign policy?
Benazir Bhutto's embrace of
her father's populism was indispensable: without it, she could
not lay claim to his charismatic following amongst Pakistan's
largely illiterate masses. On the other hand, by rejecting an
independent foreign policy, she opened a path to the centers
of American power without losing any of her popularity. The mostly
poor and illiterate Pakistanis could not have cared much for
the arcana of foreign politics.
Benazir Bhutto saw her courting
of the US as necessary to her ascent to power? The Americans
have long cultivated Pakistan's military as the best vehicle
for subordinating Pakistan to its ends: first, Pakistan's military
became a US partner in the Cold War, and since 9-11 it has been
drafted as a leading ally in the 'global war against terror.'
The 1990s the interim between the two wars was a
window of opportunity for Pakistan's politicians.
But Benazir Bhutto first had
to neutralize the Pakistani generals whose power had been
challenged only once by her father, and, who, therefore, were
opposed to the return of his populist party to power. She had
used this strategy to neutralize Pakistan's military establishment
before. Now, with the generals in trouble, she struck the same
bargain.
Tragically, this time, it was
fatal mistake. Benazir Bhutto was binding herself to a strategy
waging America's war against the militants that had
already pushed Pakistan to the brink of a civil war and disintegration.
In her impetuous quest for power, she had acted in blind disregard
of realities.
But did Benazir Bhutto have
an alternative?
Perhaps she did. Pakistan has
a chance of averting a civil war, but only by distancing itself
from the United States. This distancing is now vital for Pakistan:
and one could argue, for the United States too. Only by distancing
itself from the United States does any Pakistani government
now have a chance of preventing the militants from overwhelming
Pakistan itself. No government that cleaves to the United States
and Israel has a chance of winning popular support in its efforts
to contain the spread of the Islamist insurgency. Sadly, Benazir
Bhutto too like Musharraf has cultivated the Israeli
lobby in the United States.3
It is perhaps unrealistic to
expect that Benazir Bhutto, had she had wanted to, could have
done this on her own. However, if she had joined a pro-democracy
and nationalist partnership with Nawaz Sharif and perhaps
some of the other parties in the opposition together they
had a fair chance of sending the Pakistani generals back to the
barracks. It would not take Hazrat 'Ali's oratory to convince
the Pakistanis that this partnership and an independent
foreign policy were at this juncture indispensable for
the integrity of Pakistan.
Sadly, this was an option that
Benazir Bhutto rebuffed. She did not want to remove the
generals: she sought to join their fight against the Islamist
militants as a civilian cheerleader. Perhaps, she could not think
of another option, given how much of her political capital she
had invested in gaining the support of the United States. Trapped
in her myopia, she saw this as the easier option, the only option.
Sadly, she had chosen to enter a blind alley. Worse: it was a
death trap.
That is what makes her death
a Pakistani tragedy. It is a tragedy because she was the only
political figure in Pakistan who commanded the charisma to try
to galvanize Pakistanis into a vital coalition that could reverse
the damage done by the military generals. But, instead, she chose
to outdo the failed generals.
That was Benazir Bhutto's fatal
flaw; but it was not only a personal flaw. Behind this fatal
flaw lay the a sad history of a country whose elites time and
again chose to prostitute the state, to compromise national interests,
and sacrifice the lives of Pakistanis for their personal gains.
That is what makes Benazir Bhutto's murder a Pakistani tragedy.
In a single tragic event, it crystallizes the malfeasance of
Pakistan's political classes and the failure of Pakistanis to
bring them to account for their treasonous crimes.
M. Shahid Alam is professor of economics at Northeastern
University, and author of Challenging the New Orientalism: Dissenting Essays on America's
'War Against Islam'.
He may be reached at alqalam02760@yahoo.com.
Footnotes
1. Syed Saleem Shehzad, "Al-Qaeda
claims Bhutto killing," Asia Times (December
29, 2007).
2. Elisabeth Bumiller, "How
Bhutto won Washington," New York Times (December
27, 2007).
3. According to Dan Gillerman,
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Benazir Bhutto send him a copy
of new autobiography, Daughter of Destiny, including "a
warm dedication to Israel." He added, " She {Benazir
Bhutto] wrote me of how she admired Israel and of her desire
to see a normalization in the relations between Israel and Pakistan,
including the establishment of diplomatic ties," Tali Rabinovsky,
"Gillerman:
Bhutto told me she feared for her life," (December 28,
2007).
© M. Shahid Alam
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