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Special Report (for Adults Only) on the Politics of Oil by Jeffrey St. Clair in the New Print Edition of CounterPunch!

Kerry and the Oil Men: "Drill Everywhere Like Never Before"; Bush's Oil Cabinet: 27 Political Appointees from Big Oil; Getting Paid for Plunder: the Profitable Life of Steve Griles; The Race for the Arctic: How Clinton Opened the Gate; Enron's Political Partners: Bush Gave Ken Lay His Nickname and Teresa Heinz Gave Him a Seat on Her Green Foundation's Board; Kerry's Energy Guru: How He Screwed California and Oregon. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a (tax deductible) donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now!

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Today's Stories

October 11, 2004

Paul Craig Roberts
The Debates and the Big Lie

October 9 / 10, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
"There Are No Innocents"

Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry Adams

M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times

Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America

Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court

Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap

Paul Craig Roberts
Faith-Based Economics

Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?

Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left

Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement

Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium

William A. Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell

Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later

Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford

Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes

 

October 8, 2004

Jennifer Loewenstein
The Israeli Invasion of Gaza

Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities

David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition to Iraq War

Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!

Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery

William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up

Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine

Jim Ingalls and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan

 

October 7, 2004

Dave Lindorff
All Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air

Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar

Christopher Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay

Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?

Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida

Meredith Kolodner
Where is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge

October 6, 2004

Jeffrey St. Clair
"Please, Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah

Ron Jacobs
Going Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives

Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?

Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates

Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood

Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs

John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia

Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"

Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target

Patrick Cockburn
Elections Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq

Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?

October 5, 2004

Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"

Mark Clinton and Tony Udell
The Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran

Greg Bates
Trading Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman

Dave Lindorff
What's the Frequency, Karl?

Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers

Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children

Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government

Gary Leupp
What Edwards Should Ask Cheney

Website of the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate

 

 

October 4, 2004

Diane Christian
The Gates of Hell

Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb

Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?

John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump

Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage

Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM

Sean Donahue
Outsourcing Terror: Kerry and Special Forces

Website of the Day
Mapping Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks

 

October 2 / 3. 2004

Paul Wright
John Kerry on Criminal Justice

Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris

Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill

Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia

Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio

Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"

Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia

Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock

William S. Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces

Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC

Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate

Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway

Zoe Moskovitz & Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti

Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned Cuban Academics

Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades

Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?

Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years

Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries

Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert

 

October 1, 2004

Steve Breyman
Kerry's Missed Opportunities

Rose Gentle
My Son Died for a Lie

Lee Sustar
Iran in the Crosshairs

Ralph Nader
What We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?

Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever

Mike Whitney
Pandora's Government

Mickey Z.
Debate This

Saul Landau
The Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases

 

September 30, 2004

Ralph Nader
10 Ways to Beat Bush: a Gift to the Kerry/Edwards Campaign

Patrick Cockburn
The Kidnap Capital of the World: Iraq's One Growth Industry

Gideon Levy
When You Have Breast Cancer in Gaza

Joshua Frank
Presidential Debates? Pass the Remote

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
I Dreamed They Had a Debate

Ali Khan
Dershowitz's Jihad: Inventing Exceptions to International Law

Steve Perry
An Interview with Sibel Edmonds

 

September 29, 2004

Behrooz Ghamari
Playing Politics with Nukes: A Collision Course with Iran?

Ray McGovern
More Troops to Iraq...After the Election

Walter Brasch
Tinseltown Traitors?: Applauding Only the Right Entertainers

Chris Floyd
The Deceivers: Chronicle of a Quagmire Foretold

Stacey Reynolds
The Story of a Mercury-Poisoned American

M. Junaid Alam
Disrupting America's Fateful Non-Debate on the Roots of Terrorism

John L. Hess
They've Already Called It

Paul Craig Roberts
Delusion Rules: War, Outsourcing an Debt

 


September 28, 2004

Mike Whitney
Kerry's Moral Compass

Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: the Civics Teacher

Dan Meek
How Democrats Kicked Nader Off the Oregon Ballot

Greg Bates
Choking on Progressives for Kerry

Alan Farago
Jeanne in Haiti: Where is the World?

Lori Berenson
The Cajamarca Protest

Wayne Madsen
Where is the Florida National Guard?

Robert Fisk
Why Have We Suddenly Forgotten Abu Ghraib?

 

 

September 27, 2004

Gary Leupp
The Expulsion of Cat Stevens

Patrick Cockburn
As British Muslims Plead for Bigley's Life, US Airstrikes Pound Fallujah

Sam Husseini
The Problem with Public Opinion Polls

Lee Sustar
Putting Bosses First: Latter Day Democrats and Labor

Dave Lindorff
A Progressive Case for (Gag) Kerry?

Norman Madarasz
Talking International: Contra Kerry

Kevin Pina
The Tragedy of Gonaives, Haiti

 

September 25 / 26, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
C'mon Ralph, You've Got Nothing to Lose

Dave Zirin
The Courage of the NBA's Etan Thomas: "I Am Totally Against This War"

Saul Landau
The Reality of Empire and Campaign Rhetoric

Dave Lindorff
Our Heroic Baby-Killers

Brian J. Foley
Bush at the UN: the Sound of No Hands Clapping

William Blum
Progressives and the Election

Alan Maass
Why is Kerry Running Such a Lame Campaign? You Can't Blame It All on Bob Shrum

Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Another Lost Story

Solange Echeverria
An Interview with Kevin Pina on the Floods in Haiti

Nicole Colson
What About the Supreme Court?

Justin Smith
The New Sparta

Joshua Frank
Iraq: From Clinton to Bush

Karyn Strickler
Momma, Don't Let Your Babides Grow Up to be Cannon Fodder

Michael Donnelly
Rather Disingenuous: "Remember in November"

Greg Bates
The Politics of Nader's Republican Support

Todd Chretien
Lesser Evilism: We Are Living in the Logical Conclusion

William Loren Katz
Dire Warnings from the Past: From Wilson to Bush

Omar Barghouti
Americans, You've Lost Your Alibi!

Poets' Basement
Holt, Clarke, Albert, Laymon and Ford

Website of the Weekend
Carnival of Chaos

 

September 24, 2004

Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
The Value of One Life: Keeping Up Appearances and Leaving Hostages to the Wolves

William S. Lind
Destroying the National Guard

Mike Whitney
The Bush Tent Show

Nancy Welch
What's at Stake for Women in 2004?

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Logical Limbo

Joshua Frank
Fear Mongering 101

Victor Kattan
An Interview with Afif Safieh

Ben Terrall
Kerry and Haiti: Will He Stand Up?

Kathleen and Bill Christison
"Finally It Broke My Heart": Random Impressions from Palestine

 

 

September 23, 2004

Patrick Cockburn
Why Are They Still Holding "Mrs. Anthrax?"

Christopher Brauchli
Ashcroft's "Distressing Lack of Care": Hamdi and the Phony War on Terrorism

Derek Seidman
Fighting for a Union at Starbucks: an Interview with Daniel Gross

Michael Neumann
Three Years and Counting? How Time Flies

 

September 22, 2004

Patrick Cockburn
Zarqawi's War: the Mysterious Sadist from Jordan

Neve Gordon
The Wall, the Court and Sharon

Joshua Frank
History Repeating: New York, 1832 and Now

Ron Jacobs
Stormy Seas on the Citizen Ship

Jack Random
Defending Dan? Rather Not

Tarif Abboushi
Kerry's Final Straw: Confessions of a Despairing Voter

Mickey Z
Stupid White Guy Quiz

John L. Hess
Faking the Difference: a Serious Debate?

Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: The House Rules

 

 

September 21, 2004

Gary Leupp
"We Are Not Secure": Kerry's "Unwavering Commitment" to Securing a Middle East Realm

Robert Jensen
Large Dams in India: Temples or Burial Grounds?

Elaine Cassel
Fourth Circuit to Moussouai: Ask Your Questions; Prepare to Die

Stanley Heller
Reagan and the Killing Fields of Lebanon

Adam Federman
America Will Disappoint the World, Again

David Whitehouse
What's Behind the Horror in Darfur?

M. Junaid Alam
How to Avoid Becoming an Anti-American

Paul Craig Roberts
Attention Deficit America

Website of the Day
True American War Heroes: the Iraq Refuseniks

 

 

September 20, 2004

Cockburn / Buncombe
Get Fallujah

David Price
Relying on Phonies: What If The Problem with Phone Polls is That They Are Phone Polls

Dave Lindorff
How Dems Fight: Tigers Against Nader, Pussycats Against Bush

Harry Browne
Pre-Nup at Leeds: Talked Out, But Does IRA Give Up?

Mark Wesibrot
Bush's Ownership Society: No Taxes for Owners, Only Workers

Karyn Strickler
The Keys to the White House v. the Shrum Curse?

Uri Avnery
The Temple Mount Bombers

 

 

 

September 18 / 19, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries, Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery

Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy

Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart

Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)

Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets Against the War

George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication

Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus

Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya

Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia

Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...

Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East

John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates

Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?

Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions

Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert

Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs

 

 

 

Septemeber 17, 2004

Ray McGovern
Gossing Over the Record

Patrick Cockburn
The New Iraqi Economy: Baghdad's Thriving Kidnapping Industry

Lee Sustar
The State of Working America: an Autopsy of the American Dream

Mike Whitney
John Kerry: 195 Lbs. of Political Helium, Not an Ounce of Sincerity

Victor Kattan
Black September

Ray Hanania
Israel's Demographics

Greg Bates
Nader's Victories: a Mid-Campaign Assessment

Website of the Day
The Road to Hell

 

 

September 16, 2004

Landau / Hassen
Meet the New Villain: Syria

Joanne Mariner
Inside Darfur: a Photo Essay

Patrick Cockburn
US Offers Conflicting Accounts of Baghdad Bloodbath

Greg Moses
Four Million Children Might Be News

Joshua Frank
Nader in the Battleground States

Christopher Brauchli
The Bush Drug Lottery Flops

David Himmelstein
Folke Bernadotte: a Rosh Hashonah Remembrance

Website of the Day
The Abu Ghraib Index

 

 

September 15, 2004

Patrick Cockburn
Hell on Haifa Street

Ron Jacobs
Oppose War, Not Just Bush

David Lindorff
Blanking Out Dissent

Joanne Mariner
Talking About Darfur: Is Genocide Just a Word?

Angela Godfrey-Goldstein
An Open Letter to Madonna: Please Don't Support Israeli Apartheid

Dave Zirin
Is the NFL Ready for Us?

Yigal Bronner
"They Are Building Walls Around Us"

 

 

September 14, 2004

Gary Leupp
The Problem of Chechnya

Jennifer van Bergen
What's Wrong with Torture?

Stan Goff
Wake Up and Smell the Jungle Rot

Patrick Cockburn
The Punishment of Fallujah: US Precision Strickes...on Ambulances

Anis Memon
Nader in Michigan

Michael Donnelly
The Nuance Comes Off: Former Naderites Beg for Kerry Votes

Werther
Zell Miller: the Peckerwood Pericles

Website of the Day
Osama Bin Forgotten?

 

 

 

September 13, 2004

Gabriel Kolko
Elections, Alliances and the American Empire

Phillip Cryan
How Do You Say "Death Squad?": Language in Colombia's War

Patrick Cockburn
One of Baghdad's Bloodiest Days: "I'm a Journalist! I'm Dying! I'm Dying"

Noah Leavitt
The War on Civil Liberties

Robert Jensen
Highjacking Catastrophe: Bush, the Neo-Cons and 9/11

Mike Whitney
Alan Greenspan: Fed-Master to the Wealthy

John Chuckman
Stop Talking About the "Election"

Mike Burke
Kerry/Edwards Website Censors Discussion of Israel/Palestine Issues

CounterPunch Wire
The Quotations of David Cobb: "I Don't Care How Many Votes I Get"

Website of the Day
Keep It In Your Pants: the Bush Plan to Combat Teen Promiscuity

 

 

September 11 / 12, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
Swatting at Flies

Fred Gardner
Yet Another Prozac Scandal

Saul Landau
When Our Assassins Go Free

Jennifer Van Bergen
How to Beat Bush: a Simple Strategy for the Average American

Roger Burbach / Jim Tarbell
The Real Dead Enders: Iraq and the Crisis of Empire

Christopher Reed
9/11 in an Historical Context: a Minor Event When Compared to Worldwide War Casualties

Francisc Catalin
An ABC of American Interventions

Carl Estabrook
Big Science and Government Terror

Bernard Chazelle
Anti-Americanism: a Clinical Study

Sharon Smith
Third Party Blues

Dave Lindorff
Perhaps This Time We're the Silent Majority

Mike Whitney
Fallujah: an Iraqi Beslan?

Frederick B. Hudson
Their Sons Perished in the Flames, But Not Their Faith

Mickey Z.
Round Up the Usual Suspects: a Look Back at 9/11

Ron Jacobs
Redneck Music for the New Century

Greg Moses
Soap Opera Moments in Texas School Funding Trial

Benjamin Dangl / Andrew Kennis
An Interview with Leslie Cagan

Poets Basement
Del Papa, Albert, Gelman

 

 

September 10, 2004

Patrick Cockburn
Disappointment at Samarrah?

Michael Donnelly
Democrats v. Democracy

Alan Farago
Mosquitoes in a Hurricane

Doug Giebel
Karl Rove's Terror Playbook

Mike Whitney
Bob Graham's Political Tsunami

David Domke
God's Will, According to the Bush Administration

 

 

 

September 9, 2004

Joe Bageant
Karaoke Night in Bush's America

Ed Kinane
Abducted in Baghdad

Peter Bohmer
The Cuban Revolution: Present and Future

Todd May
The Emerging Case for a Single-State Solution

Jeremy Scahill
The New York Model: Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad

Joshua Frank
Green House Party Gasses

Fran Shor
The Crisis in Public Dissent: When Protest is Considered a Terrorist Act

Patrick Cockburn
Welcome to the Dirtiest City in the World: Despair in Baghdad

Website of the Day
Liberty Street Protest: No to War at Ground Zero

 

September 8, 2004

Patrick Cockburn
This Doesn't Smell Like Victory: A War on Two Fronts in Iraq

Dave Lindorff
Bush Confuses; Kerry Mute: Spinning 1000 Dead

Bulent Gokay
Russian and Chechnia After Beslan

Lisa Viscidi
Land Reform and Conflict in Guatemala

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Byrd's Eye View

Mike Whitney
Afghanistan: American's Drug Colony

Stan Goff
Body Count: 1001

Website of the Day
Bush and the Love Doctors

 

 

September 7, 2004

Diane Christian
Hostage Tactics: a Game of Mortal Poker

Joshua Frank
Greens Unravel from Within

Patrick Cockburn
Fallujah Erupts Again: US Death Toll in Iraq Nears 1000

Ron Jacobs
Bush and Putin: "We're Not Girlie Men"

Chris Floyd
Cry Havoc: Bush's Own Personal Janjaweed

Dr. Carol Wolman
No Blood for Oil at Paul Bunyan Day Parade

John Ross
The Politics of Darkness North / South

 

 

September 6, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
An Anti-Labor Day That Lives in Infamy: How Many Democrats Voted For Taft-Hartley?

Ralph Nader
The Cruel Legacy of Taft-Hartley: a Labor Day Call for Rights for Working People

Lee Sustar
What's Driving the Attack on Pensions?

Kathleen and Bill Christison
Dual Loyalties: the Bush Necons and Israel

 

 

September 4-5, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
Elephants and Gramsci

Ted Honderich
The Way Things Are

Sasan Fayazmanesh
The Holy Empire: Who We Are and What We Do

Douglas Valentine
What the World Should Know About Guantanamo

Patrick Cockburn
New Iraqi Police State Flexes Its Muscles

Gary Leupp
Neo Cons Under Fire

Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: the Hempstead T-Shirt

William A. Cook
The Day of the Lemming

Dave Zirin
Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom

John Chuckman
The Day the World Ended

Karyn Strickler
God Save the Endangered Species Act

Vanessa Jones
Bad Day with an Ikea Cup

Mike Whitney
Kerry: the "Better" War Candidate

Mark Donham
Dear John (Kerry): Start Explaining and Fast

Mickey Z.
McBypass Nation: Feeling Clinton's Pain

Alan Farago
Can the Everglades be Fixed?

Poets' Basement
Landau and Albert

 

 

September 3, 2004

Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb

Rahul Mahajan
Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response

Carl Estabrook
The Book of Slaughter and Forgetting

Joshua Frank
The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again

Gary Leupp
Music to My Ears: Sunday's March

James Hollander
Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide?

Mark Engler
Republicans Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out

Jesse Sharkey
Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education

Jane Stillwater
Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid

Stephen Green
Serving Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel

 

 

September 2, 2004

Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks

Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves in Guatemala

James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities

Christopher Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote Twice, Let Them"

Todd Chretien & Jessie Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?

Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer

Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam

Christa Allen
Contre Bush

Website of the Day
[Redacted]

 

 

September 1, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
The Stench of Doom

Kathleen and Bill Christison
Poor Larry Franklin

Dave Lindorff
Kerry's Litmus Test

Josh Frank
Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up

John L. Hess
Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops

Mike Whitney
Deconstructing Arnold

Jack Random
Kindergarten Night at the RNC

Andrew Wilson
War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us?

Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words

 

 

August 31, 2004

Joseph Nevins
Escapism and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs

Matt Vidal
Beyond Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy

Neve Gordon
Kerry and the Middle East

Dave Lindorff
Bush the Peace Candidate?

Mike Whitney
NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran

Jack Random
Opening Night: Playing the War Card

Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One)

CounterPunch Photo of the Day
Pete Seeger in NYC

 

 

August 30, 2004

Justin Podhur
The Disappeared Mayor

Shaun Joseph
The Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com

Mike Whitney
Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly Want?

Ron Jacobs
Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate

David Lindorff
Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy

Dave Zirin
USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate

Sam Husseini
Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History

 

 

August 28 / 29, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
Zombies for Kerry

Patrick Cockburn
Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US

Ray McGovern
Blowing Smoke on Intelligence

Dr. Juan Romagoza
From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor

Ray Hanania
An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous!

Fred Gardner
Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot

Diane Christian
Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live

William S. Lind
The Desert Fox

Paul D'Amato
The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry

Joshua Frank
Greens at the Crossroads

Mickey Z.
Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests

Winslow T. Wheeler
Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange

Justin E.H. Smith
The New Age Racket and the Left

Thomas St. John
Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

Ali Tonak
Help the NYPD?

Mark Engler
New York Says "No"

Justin Felux
Haiti: the Attica of the Americas

Poets' Basement
Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod

 

 

August 27, 2004

Gary Leupp
Neocon Musings

Robin Cook
The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

Diane Christian
Disarming

Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?

Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters

Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"

Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners

Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"


 

August 26, 2004

M. Shahid Alam
The Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?

Diane Christian
War Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu

Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get Organized

David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally

Christopher Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble

Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity

Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court

Saul Landau
Pinochet: the Al Capone of the Southern Cone

Website of the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See

 

 

August 25, 2004

Amelia Peltz
Can I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?

Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture

Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About Democracy

James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan

Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"

Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism

Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia

CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door

 

 

August 24, 2004

Jeremy Scahill
John Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate

Gary Leupp
"We Want Them to Go Away"

David Domke
God Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism

William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in Venezuela

Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media

Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah

Joe Bageant
Driving on the Bones of God

Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC


 

August 23, 2004

Winslow Wheeler
Don't Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror

John Pilger
Bush May Be the Lesser Evil

Stan Goff
Swift Boat Dogfight

Bill and Kathleen Christison
Notes from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild

Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan

William Blum
Brave New World of Iraqi Sovereignty

Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial

 

 

August 21 / 22, 2004

Cockburn / St. Clair
"They Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on Drugs

Landau / Hassen
Failing the Mission? Form a Commission

Brian Cloughley
The Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts

Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So

Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib

Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues

Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin

Fred Gardner
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October 11, 2004

An Interview with Dov Weisglass, Sharon's Lawyer

He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day

By ARI SHAVIT

In a certain sense, a superficial one, Ariel Sharon and Dov Weisglass are an odd couple. Sharon is a rancher from the western Negev, Weisglass a lawyer from Lilienblum Street in Tel Aviv. Sharon is the son of a Russian agronomist, Weisglass the son of a Polish fur merchant. Sharon is flesh of the flesh of the fighting rooted land-settlement movement, Weisglass is the embodiment of the speculator immigrant bourgeoisie. Sharon is brutal frontier Zionism, Weisglass is urban real estate Zionism.

However, in another, deeper sense, the source of the soulmates' alliance between the farmer and the lawyer is perfectly clear. Between the fighter and the fixer. Between the crass authenticity of Sharon and the wheeling and dealing of Weisglass, because when Sharon was a leper, after Sabra and Chatila, Weisglass stood by his side. When Sharon found himself in new battlefields in which he was at a complete loss (commission of inquiry, courts, hostile press), Weisglass fought his battle. When Sharon understood that the world had changed and was ruled by new mega-authorities (Aharon Barak, Time magazine, Yedioth Ahronoth), he also understood that Weisglass was the person who would know how to represent him before those new super-authorities. He understood that Weisglass supplemented him.

So that over the years the rural commander developed a growing dependence on his Tel Aviv lawyer who became a personal advocate, a family advocate, a policy advocate. The advocate who for the past 30 months has represented Ariel Sharon vis-a-vis the American mega-authority, the advocate who in the past 30 months, in his official capacity as a senior adviser to the Prime Minister , has almost single-handedly conducted the delicate relationship between the White House and Sycamore Ranch. Which is to say, between the United States of America and the State of Israel.

Is it Dov Weisglass who brought about Sharon's reversal of policy? Is he the eminence grise who imposed on the emperor of the settlements the decision to evacuate settlements? The settlers themselves are convinced that he is. They are certain that Weisglass is a devious Rasputin who found some dark way to make the czar do things that the czar himself, by himself, would never do.

However, Weisglass himself shrugs off these contentions. He doesn't deny that he supported the disengagement from the start. He doesn't hide the fact that he placed the facts on Sharon's desk. The political problem, the economic problem, the problem of refusenik soldiers. And he made it clear to the boss that the international community will never let up. That the Americans will not be able to support us for all time. But in the end I wasn't the one who made the decision, Weisglass says. The prime minister made the decision. While he, the bureau chief, was simply there at his side. He, the faithful advocate, simply sat with his client in the room throughout the entire process.

Weisglass was born in October 1946, in Tel Aviv. He grew up and was educated in 1950s Ramat Gan, in a family that moved quickly from poverty to affluence. At age 19, draft age, he was already studying law. At age 24, he was working in the Moritz-Margolis law firm. Thirteen years later he (along with his partner, Ami Almagor) bought the practice from its founders and made it one of the country's leading law firms. In 1980 he represented Yitzhak Rabin against the French magazine L'Express. In 1983 he represented Sharon against the Kahan Commission of Inquiry, which investigated the Sabra-Chatila massacre. In 1985-86 he represented Sharon in his suit against Time magazine (Sharon sued the magazine over a report implicating him in the massacre). At first he specialized in representing security personnel who testified before commissions of inquiry (Yossi Ginossar, Shaul Mofaz, Hezi Callo, Alik Ron). He then also specialized in representing ministerial directors-general accused of corruption (Shimon Sheves, Moshe Leon, Avigdor Lieberman). Also among his clients: Ehud Yatom, Rafi Eitan and Avigdor Kahalani. And the Shin Bet security service and the Mossad espionage agency. Not to mention the kibbutz movement.

Weisglass's critics claim he is not a distinguished lawyer, that he's messy, superficial, shoots from the hip, lacks an aura of dignity, is without a moral center of gravity. Others, though, note his common sense, his humane understanding. And no one doubts his ability to charm people he considers important. Or his ability to conclude a deal, tie up loose ends, make the right call to the right person. Because the lawyer with a thousand hats is not only a very cordial fellow, he is also very well-connected, across the length and breadth of the Israeli establishment.

We begin our conversation at a Tel Aviv cafe and then go on to his run-down office on Lilienblum Street. Dressed in gray trousers and a white shirt topped by a shiny bald pate, he looks older than his age. Quickly, though, he floods me with his historical knowledge and musical education. He is in total control, and one can accept that or not, but it can't be ignored, because it is now shaping the reality we are living.

Daily call to Rice

Tell me about Condoleezza Rice. What sort of woman is she?

"She is an amazing woman. Intelligent, smart, very fair. Both educated and extraordinarily pleasant. But beneath that deep courtesy and culture, she can also be very firm. She can be decisive."

Does she ever raise her voice at you, yell at you?

"What do you mean, raise her voice? I'm older than she is, you know. The Americans don't talk like we do here."

Tell me about the dynamics of the relationship between you, and whether it's an unusual relationship.

"I am in ongoing and continuous contact with Rice. In complex times it could be every day, by phone. In less complex times it's a phone call a week. On average, I meet with her once a month. Since May 2002 I have met with her more than 20 times. And every meeting is a meeting. The shortest one was an hour and a half."

What does she call you?

"Dubi."

What do you call her?

"Condy."

And how does it work between you?

"The channel between Rice and me has two main purposes. One is to advance processes that are initiated, to examine our ideas and their ideas. The road map, for example, or the disengagement plan. But there is an equally important function, which is troubleshooting. If something happens - an unusual military operation, a hitch, a targeted assassination that succeeded or one that didn't succeed - before it becomes an imbroglio, she calls me and says, `We saw so-and-so on CNN. What's going on?' And I say, `Condy, the usual 10 minutes?' She laughs and we hang up. Ten minutes later, after I find out what happened, I get back to her and tell her the whole truth. The whole truth. I tell her and she takes it down: this is what we intended, this is how it came out. She doesn't get worked up. She believes us. The continuation is damage control."

Rice looks like a tough cookie. Can you really talk to her freely? Can you tell her the jokes that you like to tell so much?

"We are always joking. Always. Whenever I come to Washington, I tell her stories about what's going on in Israel. I speak freely. Almost the way I'm talking to you. There is no awe, no honor. Each of us cuts into the other. I wouldn't say we are pals, but our working relationship is very friendly."

Would you say that the Weisglass-Rice channel is a strategic asset? Has it made Dov Weisglass indispensable?

"As you know, the cemeteries are full of indispensable people. I don't want to boast. But the importance of this relationship is that it enables the president to speak with the prime minister and the prime minister to speak with the president without their speaking to one another. You have to understand that presidents and prime ministers don't prattle every day. For the president to phone the prime minister is an event. It is an act of state significance. So those conversations are very heavy. In large measure they are constrained. Whereas in this channel everything is more direct. Immediate.

"For the Americans, it's convenient. They know they have someone who is ensconced not in the jaws of the lion but in the very gullet of the lion. It's also convenient for us. It makes it possible for us to talk to them in real time, informally. When my conversation with Rice ends, she knows that I walk six steps to Sharon's desk and I know that she walks twelve steps to Bush's desk. That creates an intimate relationship between the two bureaus and prevents a thousand entanglements."

Have you become one of the family at the White House?

"Look, the first time you enter the White House your heart skips a beat. Anyone who tells you different is not being truthful. After all, that's where the world's chief executive sits. But today, after 20 visits, I walk about pretty freely there. They know me well, from the Marine who stands at the entrance to the secretaries and the girls. And that makes my job at lot easier. When you are in awe, like a lawyer making his first appearance before a court, you stammer and you forget the remarks you prepared. After a time, when you feel free and relaxed, that is a tremendous advantage. We speak totally freely. I tell her that something is right or that it's not so. Completely freely."

 

 

Have you ever had occasion to see President Bush?

"I have, but I won't talk about that. Unplanned meetings with the president are not something one talks about. For them, the concept of dropping in is the holy of holies."

What impression did you form of him?

"The president is a person of great personal charm. Focused. In control of himself. A great sense of humor. He likes jokes."

Does he like your jokes? When he sees you, does he expect a good joke?

"He has told some of my jokes to others. We heard about them afterward at second and thirdhand."

He's said to be limited.

"Why limited? Because he didn't remember the name of the president of the Czech Republic? That's very primitive criticism. President Bush is a person of character, with his own inner truth. He is sure of himself, cool, smiling. He is aware of his power. There is a lot of similarity between the way he and Arik [Sharon] manage things. They are both people with a certain inner maturity."

What about the great gap in age and experience?

"True, and I can't tell you how the president handles the question of health insurance in America. But on the issues having to do with us he has a very clear worldview. Like Arik, he has a loathing of violence; a loathing of everything having to do with terrorism and the use of force. And he has a loathing for untruthfulness and for failure to carry out commitments. He doesn't accept the Middle Eastern political style in which you come and say something and then forget what you said. From that point of view he is very American. He doesn't tolerate nonsense. He can't stand the Middle Eastern jabbering with nothing underlying it."

Are you saying that at a certain point in the past two years the Palestinians simply lost him, that they were erased from his map?

"I will not tell you anything that has not been published. But according to what has been published, two things happened. The first was the `Karine A' weapons ship. The second was a certain piece of intelligence that I sent them that shows clearly Arafat's full awareness of financial aspects of the perpetration of terrorist acts. When those things became clear about a person who swore 16,000 times to the Americans that he would make every effort to fight terrorism, he was erased. From that moment he was as good as dead."

If so, you were the one who prompted the Americans to adopt a political policy that is very close to yours: without Arafat, without terrorism, without the present Palestinian government.

"The Americans were here for four months in 2003. Through [assistant secretary of state] John Wolf they were involved in the process in the most intimate way. Wolf reported directly to Rice. Those four months had tremendous pedagogical value. The Americans saw for themselves what the Palestinians' most solemn promises really meant. They saw the Palestinians' detailed working plans and their splendid diagrams and they saw how nothing came of it. Nothing. Zero. When you add to that the trauma of September 11 and their understanding that Islamic terrorism is indivisible, you understand that they reached their conclusions by themselves. They didn't need us to understand what it's all about. So, when we came to them and told them that there is no one to talk to, we didn't have any problems. They already knew that as of now, there is no one to talk to."

The formaldehyde formula

Is that what you really think - and Sharon, too - that there is no one to talk to?

"We reached that conclusion after years of thinking otherwise. After years of attempts at dialogue. But when Arafat undermined Abu Mazen at the end of the summer of 2003, we reached the sad conclusion that there is no one to talk to, no one to negotiate with. Hence the disengagement plan. Because when you're playing solitaire, when there is no one sitting across from you at the table, you have no choice but to deal the cards yourself."

In 2001 you were still of a different opinion - you tried to reach an agreement with the Palestinian leadership.

"Because of his trenchant realism, Arik never believed in permanent settlements: he didn't believe in the one-fell-swoop approach. Sharon doesn't think that after a conflict of 104 years, it's possible to come up with a piece of paper that will end the matter. He thinks the other side had to undergo a deep and extended sociopolitical change. But when we entered the Prime Minister's Office, he still believed that he would be able to achieve a very long-term interim agreement. An agreement of 25, 20, 15, 10, 5 years. There were some Palestinians who preferred that approach to the approach of [former prime minister Ehud] Barak. They were the ones we talked to. But very quickly we discovered that we were up against a stone wall, that when you get to the decision-making center, nothing happens."

Still, in 2002 you accepted the initiative of President Bush, the road map, and the principle of a Palestinian state, didn't you?

"For a great many years the accepted view in the world was that people turned to terrorism because their situation was bad. So that if you make things better for them, they will abandon terrorism. The Palestinian assumption was that when the Palestinian majority gets national satisfaction, they will lay down their arms and the occupiers and the occupied will emerge from the trenches and embrace and kiss. "Arik thought differently. He understood that in the Palestinian case the majority has no control over the minority. He understood that the ability of a central Palestinian administration to enforce its will on the entire Palestinian society is all but nonexistent. He understood that Palestinian terrorism is in part not national at all, but religious. Therefore, granting national satisfaction will not solve the problem of this terrorism. This is the basis of his approach that first of all the terrorism must be eradicated and only then can we advance in the national direction. Not to give a political slice in return for a slice of stopping terrorism, but to insist that the swamp of terrorism be drained before a political process begins.

"President Bush's speech of June 24, 2002, expressed exactly that approach. We didn't write it, but it articulated in the best way what we believed. That is why Sharon accepted the implicit principle of the speech immediately. He saw it as a historical turnabout. He saw it is a paramount policy achievement. For the first time the principle was accepted that before we enter the negotiating room, the pistols have to be left outside."

But didn't the road map translate that principle into a very crowded timetable?

"Arik would have preferred that the first stage of the road map go on for three years, the second stage five years and the third stage six years. But because the road map stipulated that it was based on performance and not on sacrosanct dates, he was able to accept it. He understood that the important thing was the principle. What's important is the formula that asserts that the eradication of terrorism precedes the start of the political process."

If you have American backing and you have the principle of the road map, why go to disengagement?

"Because in the fall of 2003 we understood that everything is stuck. And even though according to the Americans' reading of the situation, the blame fell on the Palestinians and not on us, Arik grasped that this state of affairs would not last. That they wouldn't leave us alone, wouldn't get off our case. Time was not on our side. There was international erosion, internal erosion. Domestically, in the meantime, everything was collapsing. The economy was stagnant, and the Geneva Initiative garnered broad support. And then we were hit with letters of officers and letters of pilots and letters of commandos [letters of refusal to serve in the territories]. These were not weird kids with green ponytails and a ring in their nose who give off a strong odor of grass. These were people like Spector's group [Yiftah Spector, a renowned Air Force pilot who signed the pilot's letter]. Really our finest young people."

What was your main concern in those months, what was the main factor that pushed you to the disengagement idea?

"The concern was the fact that President Bush's formula was stuck and this would lead to its ruin. That the international community would say: You wanted the president's formula and you got it; you wanted to try Abu Mazen and you tried. It didn't work. And when a formula doesn't work in reality, you don't change reality, you change the formula. Therefore, Arik's realistic viewpoint said that it was possible that the principle that was our historic policy achievement would be annulled - the principle that eradication of terrorism precedes a political process. And with the annulment of that principle, Israel would find itself negotiating with terrorism. And because once such negotiations start it's very difficult to stop them, the result would be a Palestinian state with terrorism. And all this within quite a short time. Not decades or even years, but a few months."

I still don't see how the disengagement plan helps here. What was the major importance of the plan from your point of view?

"The disengagement plan is the preservative of the sequence principle. It is the bottle of formaldehyde within which you place the president's formula so that it will be preserved for a very lengthy period. The disengagement is actually formaldehyde. It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that's necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians."

Is what you are saying, then, is that you exchanged the strategy of a long-term interim agreement for a strategy of long-term interim situation?

"The American term is to park conveniently. The disengagement plan makes it possible for Israel to park conveniently in an interim situation that distances us as far as possible from political pressure. It legitimizes our contention that there is no negotiating with the Palestinians. There is a decision here to do the minimum possible in order to maintain our political situation. The decision is proving itself. It is making it possible for the Americans to go to the seething and simmering international community and say to them, `What do you want.' It also transfers the initiative to our hands. It compels the world to deal with our idea, with the scenario we wrote. It places the Palestinians under tremendous pressure. It forces them into a corner that they hate to be in. It thrusts them into a situation in which they have to prove their seriousness. There are no more excuses. There are no more Israeli soldiers spoiling their day. And for the first time they have a slice of land with total continuity on which they can race from one end to the other in their Ferrari. And the whole world is watching them - them, not us. The whole world is asking what they intend to do with this slice of land."

Maneuver of the century

I want to remind you that there will also be a withdrawal in the West Bank.

"The withdrawal in Samaria is a token one. We agreed to only so it wouldn't be said that we concluded our obligation in Gaza."

You gave up the Gaza Strip in order to save the West Bank? Is the Gaza disengagement meant to allow Israel to continue controlling the majority of the West Bank?

"Arik doesn't see Gaza today as an area of national interest. He does see Judea and Samaria as an area of national interest. He thinks rightly that we are still very very far from the time when we will be able to reach final-status settlements in Judea and Samaria."

Does the evacuation of the settlements in Gaza strengthen the settlements in the West Bank or weaken them?

"It doesn't hurt the isolated, remote settlements; it's not relevant for them. Their future will be determined in many years. When we reach a final settlement. It's not certain that each and every one of them will be able to go on existing.

"On the other hand, in regard to the large settlement blocs, thanks to the disengagement plan, we have in our hands a first-ever American statement that they will be part of Israel. In years to come, perhaps decades, when negotiations will be held between Israel and the Palestinians, the master of the world will pound on the table and say: We stated already ten years ago that the large blocs are part of Israel."

If so, Sharon can tell the leaders of the settlers that he is evacuating 10,000 settlers and in the future he will be compelled to evacuate another 10,000, but he is strengthening the other 200,000, strengthening their hold in the soil.

"Arik can say honestly that this is a serious move because of which, out of 240,000 settlers, 190,000 will not be moved from their place. Will not be moved."

Is he sacrificing a few of his children in order to ensure that the others remain permanently where they are?

"At the moment he is not sacrificing anyone in Judea and Samaria. Until the land is quiet and until negotiations begin, nothing is happening. And the intention is to fight for every single place. That struggle can be conducted from a far more convenient point of departure. Because in regard to the isolated settlements there is an American commitment stating that we are not dealing with them at the moment, while for the large blocs there is genuine political insurance. There is an American commitment such as never existed before, with regard to 190,000 settlers."

If what you are saying is correct, the settlers themselves should organize demonstrations of support for Sharon, because he did a tremendous service to the settlement enterprise.

"They should have danced around and around the Prime Minister's Office."

And Sharon himself actually didn't undergo a de Gaulle-type reversal. He didn't make a U-turn. He remained loyal to the approach of the national camp.

"Arik is the first person who succeeded in taking the ideas of the national camp and turning them into a political reality that is accepted by the whole world. After all, when he declared six or seven years ago that we would never negotiate under fire, he only generated gales of laughter. Whereas today that same approach guides the president of the United States. It was passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 405-7, and in the Senate by 95-5."

From your point of view, then, your major achievement is to have frozen the political process legitimately?

"That is exactly what happened. You know, the term `political process' is a bundle of concepts and commitments. The political process is the establishment of a Palestinian state with all the security risks that entails. The political process is the evacuation of settlements, it's the return of refugees, it's the partition of Jerusalem. And all that has now been frozen."

So you have carried out the maneuver of the century? And all of it with authority and permission?

"When you say `maneuver,' it doesn't sound nice. It sounds like you said one thing and something else came out. But that's the whole point. After all, what have I been shouting for the past year? That I found a device, in cooperation with the management of the world, to ensure that there will be no stopwatch here. That there will be no timetable to implement the settlers' nightmare. I have postponed that nightmare indefin