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Today's
Stories
April 10, 2008
David Macaray
Labor
Unions Will Never Get a Fair Shake
April 9, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Fading American Economy
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Congressional
Theater: the Petraeus / Crocker Hearings
C. Hand
Why Dave Marash Left Al Jazeera
Paul Krassner
Sex and Violins
Paul Wolf
Colombian "Magnicidio" Remains a Mystery After 60 Years
Wajahat Ali
Alien Invasion!
Karyn Strickler
Lost in the Fumes: the Sierra Club Sells Out to Clorox
Dan La Botz
Confronting the Economic Crisis
Eric Walberg
The Shadow of Munich: Another NATO Flop
Robin Millenthal
Enough Already! Growth and the Tar Sands Economy
Website of the Day
Conservative
Nanny State
April 8, 2008
Mike Whitney
Should
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed be Set Free?
Nikolas Kozloff
Bush
Bullies Congress on Colombia Deal
Greg Moses
Migrant Detention in South Texas
Joshua Frank
The Other Military Draft
John Ross
Mexico City's Urban Tribes Go on the Warpath Against EMOS
Michael Donnelly
Hillary's Western Swing
John V. Walsh
Why Obama Lost Massachusetts
Jeff Nygaard
Health, Security and Mandates
Bill Piper
Last Shot for a Bush Legacy?
Sen. Russ Feingold
Legal Representation and the Death Penalty
Website of the Day
Catonsville 9, Forty Years Later
April 7, 2008
Ishmael Reed
The
Irish Black Thing
Harry Browne
Irish
Peace Activist Acquitted; Deported
Uri Avnery
Tibet and Palestine
Lenni Brenner
Obama's Constitution, His Pastor and His Unbelieving Mom in Heaven
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
America Must Respect Pakistan's Democracy
Robert Fisk
Fearful Lives in the Land of the Free
Edwin Krales
Ensuring the Success of Fascism in Spain: the US Corporate Role
Chris Genovali
Vancouver Island's Dwindling Ancient Forests
Website of the Day
LA Artists Against War
April 5 / 6,
2008
Alexander Cockburn
Did
the Elites Want MLK Dead?
Ramzy Baroud
There
are No Checkpoints in Heaven
Ralph Nader
Runaway Bailouts
David Yearsley
How Scott Joplin Had Wall Street Down
Saul Landau
Sex Politics in America
Paul Craig
Roberts
The Petraeus and Crocker Show
Lawrence Korb / Ian Moss
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a True Patriot
Seth Sandronsky
Meet America's Promise Alliance: Colin Powell's New Gig
John Ross
La Cumbia de la Doctrina Bush: Colombia Kills Four Mexican Students
in Ecuador Bombing
Robert Fantina
McCain, Republicans and Family Values
David Michael Green
Back to Disaster: Hoover at Home, Tet Abroad
Missy Beattie
McCan't
Patrick Bond
Vultures Circle Zimbabwe
Dr. Susan Block
The New American Pot Dealers
Phyllis Pollack
The Stones Meet the Press
Adam Engel
The Boobus in the Lie
Jeffrey St. Clair
Booked Up
Poets' Basement
Diamand
and St. Clair
Website of the Weekend
Richard Pryor Goes to the Gun Shop
April 4, 2008
Dave Lindorff
The
Night I Heard King Had Been Shot
Greg Moses
Missing
King
Ron Jacobs
Two Murders, 40 Years On: Bobby Hutton and Martin Luther King,
Jr.
Alan Farago
Show Me the Size of Your Bail Out and I'll Show You Mine
Alison Weir
Funding
Our Decline: U.S. Aid to Israel
David Rosen
Rape as an Instrument of Total War
Robert Weissman
The Unrealized Dream
Jacob Hornberger
Was Killing Iraqi Children Worth It?
Jackie Corr
Hillary and Obama Head for Butte
Carl Finamore
Taking On United Airlines
Laray Polk
We Are All Dith Pran
Susie Day
Advice for the War-Torn
Website of
the Day
Winter Soldiers: a Video Portrait
April 3, 2008
Peter Morici
The Deepening Recession
Joe Bageant
The Audacity of Depression
Andy Worthington
Cleared But Still Detained:
The Ordeal of Moroccan Prisoner Said al-Boujaadia
Nikolas Kozloff
Condi's Divide and Rule Strategy in South America
Rannie Amiri
The U.S. Disdain for Mideast Democracy
David Macaray
More Labor Strife in Hollywood
Stephen Lendman
Lynne Stewart's Long Struggle for Justice
Website of
the Day
The
True Face of Da Vinci?
April 2, 2008
Diane Farsetta
Indian
Point on the Potomac
Harry Browne
Bertie
Ahern Laid Low by Secretary
Wajahat Ali
The Folly of Attacking Iran: a Conversation with Steven Kinzer
George Wuerthner
Open Season on Wolves
Col. Dan Smith
The
Militarization of America
Philippe Marlière
The Politics of Bling-Bling in France: Sarkozy's Cultivated Anti-Intellectualism
Steve Early
A Purple Uprising in Oakland
Bernard Chazelle
Saving the American Left
Reza Fiyouzat
Bowling in Hell
April 1, 2008
Jeff Leys
Fracturing
the Peace to End the War
Thomas P. Healy
Restoring the Constitution: a Conversation with Daniel Ellsberg
Winslow T. Wheeler
When Pigs Sprout Wings: Mangled Rationales for a Fatter Defense
Budget
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
New Deal Nostalgia
Patrick Irelan
Cocaine, Colombia and the Cartels
Andy Worthington
The Case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
John V. Walsh
The Shunning of Ralph Nader
Michael J.
Smith
Woolly Mamet
Robert Weissman
The New Philip Morris--Even Worse Than the Old?
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Defining Moments
Martha Rosenberg
Brain Mist Disease: Boss Hog's Gift to Humanity
Website of
the Day
Support Briana!
March 31, 2008
Mike Whitney
Dead
on Arrival: Paulson's Fixit Plan for Wall Street
Mats Svensson
Walls,
Tunnels and Daily Humiliations
Paul Rockwell
Hillary's
Lies About Outsourcing
Paul Craig Roberts
A Third American War in the Making?
Patrick Cockburn
Sadr
Calls for Ceasefire
Peter Dale Scott
The Showdown
Alfredo Molano
Cultura Mafiosa in Colombia
Peter Morici
Why Paulson's Reform Plan Falls Short
Uri Avnery
Day of the Land, 32 Years Later
Michael Simmons
The American Bard in New Orleans
Betsy Roberts
/ Karen Orr
The Clorox Coup
Phyllis Pollack
First the Sun and Then the Moon: Scorsese Does the Stones
Website of
the Day
Five Years Too Many
March 29 / 30, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
When
They Pick Up the Phone at 3 AM, What Will They Say?
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Police Refuse to Back Maliki's Attacks on Medhi Army
Mike Whitney
Bernanke's Next Big Bail Out Plan
Christopher Brauchli
The Pastor of Armageddon and the Slave Sale: McCain, Lieberman
and Rev. Hagee
William Blum
China, Tibet and the Propaganda Olympics
Robert Fantina
Iraq
Troika: McCain, Obama and Clinton
John Ross
AMLO, the Comeback Kid? Fighting the Privatization of Mexico's
Oil
Allison Kilkenny
Shady Lending Hits Home
Nelson P. Valdés
Cuba, the Beatles and Historical Context
Suzanne Baroud
The Great Lake of Gaza: a New Crisis in the Making
Richard Rhames
Social Security: Throwing Granny from the Gravy Train
Christopher Fons
Transcending the 60s? Obama and the Baby Boomers
Carl Finamore
Misery at 35,000 Feet: Mergers Stall, Fares Soar, Services Slump
and Consumers Sour
Eamonn McCann
Hillary Misremembers Again!
Missy Beattie
Justice and the Monsters of War
Fred Gardner
Jim Thorpe, All-American
Kim Nicolini
Cock Chuggers and Cheese Curls: Richard Kelly's "Southland
Tales"
David Yearsley
"All the World's a Hospital"
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up
Poets' Basement
Valentine and Ko Un
Website of
the Weekend
Hidden Iraq
March 28, 2008
Saul Landau
Growing
Dread About Iraq
Alan Farago
Other People's Money: the Chop Shop Economy
Peter Morici
Knocking Down False Economic Gods
Andy Worthington
Plight of the Uyghus: a Chinese Muslim's Desperate Plea from
Guantánamo
Felice Pace
Ashes of Lies: Why No One Trusts the US Forest Service
Peter Montague
Sierra Club Cleans House -- With Clorox!
Dave Lindorff
The Mumia Exception
March 27, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Basra
Erupts
Binoy Kampmark
Free Market Apostates
Joanne Mariner
"Was George Washington a Terrorist?"
Norman Solomon
NPR News: National Pentagon Radio?
William S. Lind
Mars Only Knocks Once: a Prognosis for Iraq
John V. Walsh
Obama's Speech: a Touch of Bigotry?
Robert Weissman
How Things Work
Ron Jacobs
Meeting Charlie Ehlen
Ralph Nader
Put Impeachment Back on the Table
David Macaray
Court Rules Against Grocery Workers
John Borowski
Clearcutting the History of Forest Destruction
Website of
the Day
Going Out for an English
March 26, 2008
Stan Cox
The
Germs Next Door
Sharon Smith
Greed
Pays: Welfare on Wall Street
Anita Sinha / Jill Tauber
Dreams Turned into Rubble in New Orleans
Matt Vidal
So Much for the Self-Regulating Market
William S. Lind
Operation Cassandra
Joe Mowrey
The Audacity of Hypocrisy: Obama's Pandering to Israel
Dave Lindorff
Duck and Cover (Up): Hillary Under Fire
Ray McGovern
Frontline's War: Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late
Justin Smith
Why Race and Gender are Separate Issues
Sam Husseini
The Winter Soldier Hearings and Indy Media
Martha Rosenberg
Blood on Ice: Gentlemen, Pick Up Your Clubs
Michael Dickinson
Politicians as Dogs
Website of the Day
The Wal-Mart Virus: How the Infection Spread
March 25, 2008
Ishmael Reed
The
Crazy Rev. Wright
Corey D. B.
Walker
The Politics of Jeremiah Wright
Linn Washington Jr.
Racism in America and Other Uncomfortable Facts
Alan Farago
The Money Launderers: a Picnic for Wall St. Insiders
Vijay Prashad
A Glimmer of Hope From the Gulf Coast
Joshua Frank
A Silver Lining to the Bush Years?
Ralph Nader
How Public Servants Can Help End This War
David Rovics
If I Can't Dance: Why is the Left So Boring?
Peter Morici
America's Banks are Broken
Dave Zirin
Olympic Flames: China's Crackdown in Tibet
David Krieger
The Crisis in Tibet
Website of
the Day
Memorializing Iraq
March 24, 2008
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Blonde
Ambition: Hillary's Berserker Campaign for 2012
Peter Morici
Digging Out of the Recession
Uri Avnery
Two Americas
Wajahat Ali
First of the Mohicans: an Interview with Rep. Keith Ellison
Paul Craig Roberts
Inside the Shell Game
George Ciccariello-Maher
The Coming War on Venezuela
Stephen Lendman
Sami Al-Arian's Long Ordeal
Christopher
Brauchli
Possessing Someone Else's Country
Cat Woods
A Letter to Mom on Obama
Stacey Warde
Tax Burden
Dave Lindorff
The American Dead Hits 4,000, But Who's Counting?
Website of
the Day
Live from the Longest Walk
March 22 /
23, 2008
Ralph Nader
Bush
Blisters the Truth on Iraq
Nicole Colson
Can You Afford to Feed Your Family?
James Petras
The Cost of Unilateral Humanitarian Initiatives
Laura Carlsen
From Bombs to Markets: The Andean Crisis and the Geopolitics
of Trade
Greg Moses
Tolerance and the American Pulpit
Andy Worthington
Torture Stories Dog Guantánamo Trials
Michael Dickinson
Art on Trial
John Ross
Bush's Surge Hits Mosul
Missy Comley Beattie
Killer Economics
David Michael
Green
Happy Anniversary, America!
Ramzy Baroud
The Coming Uncertain War on Iran
Martha Rosenberg
Easter Egg Shells from Hell
Paul Watson
Evolution is Going to the Dogs in the Galapagos
Isabella Kenfield
Monsanto's
Raid on Brazil
James Murren
Logging v. Water in Honduras
Jacob Hornberger
Sex and the Immigration Officer
Kathlyn Stone
Ben Heine, Master of the Art of Resistance
Seth Sandronsky
Rethinking New Mexico's History
Kim Nicolini
Class, Gender and Abortion in Communist Romania
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up: What I'm Reading This Week
Poets' Basement
Wilson, Woods, Gibbons and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Merci, McCain!
March 21, 2008
Marleen Martin
Land
Behind Bars: the Hidden Casualties of America's "War on
Crime"
Peter Montague
Run
Your Car on Coal? Maybe Not
Saul Landau
Monroe's
Deadly Doctrine
Anis Hamadeh
Merkel in the Knesset
Jacob Hornberger
McCain's Al Qaeda Scare: Slip or Tactic?
Khalil Nakhleh
Al Nakba of 1948: How Long Will It Persist?
Adam Isacson
Colombia, Paramilitary Threats and Assassinations
Kenneth Couesbouc
Money for Nothing
Madis Senner
Will the Feds Underwrite the Stock Market?
Monica Benderman
The Costs of Freedom: What Are You Willing to Pay?
Website of the Day
Stop Foreclosures and Evictions
March 20, 2008
Damien Millet
/
Eric Toussaint
The
Triple Failing of the Big Private Banks
Mike Whitney
Winding
Up Bear
John Ross
What Do We Owe Iraq?
Dave Lindorff
Paying the Piper: the Bodies and Bills are Piling Up
Wajahat Ali
Pakistan on Fire
Jill Nagle
Memo to Sex Workers: Stop Financing Shock Journalism
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Obama and the Psychic Auto-Shrink-Wrapping Called Race in America
Dan La Botz
Obama's Race Speech
Robert Weissman
Alternative Power: Shutting Down the API
Stella Dallas
/
Jennifer Matsui
Apostasy Now! Mamet, Enter Stage Right
Website of the Day
The Angry Monk
March 19, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
A
War of Lies
Robert Fisk
The Little Men and the Inferno
Jeff Taylor
Five Years of War in Iraq
Ed Ruggero
From Pinkville to Iraq: the Dark Anniversary of My Lai
Ron Jacobs
Who'll Stop the Rain?
Christopher
Fons
Obama Takes the Race Bait
Sherwood Ross
In Defense of Rev. Wright
Cynthia McKinney
An Urgent Crisis: Confronting America's Racial Disparities
Joshua Frank
The Kool-Aid That Kills
Robert Weissman
Monsanto's Genetic Food Gamble
Walter Brasch
It's a Welfare State--If You're Rich
Yifat Susskind
Iraqi Women Resist the Occupation
Andrew Wimmer
War Demands Its Due
Website of
the Day
Glimpses of Nature
March 18, 2008
David Price
The
Military "Leveraging" of Cultural Knowledge
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Collapse of American Power
Tim Wise
Of National Lies and Racial America: Jeremiah Wright, Barack
Obama and the Unacceptability of Truth
Patrick Cockburn
One of the Most Disastrous Wars Ever Fought
Conn Hallinan
Afghanistan, a River Running Backward
James T. Phillips
Monsters: Past, Present and Wannabe
Uri Avnery
The Killing in Bethlehem
David Macaray
Could Wal-Mart Revive the Labor Movement?
Marjorie Cohn
Beware an Attack on Iran
Peter Zinn
Obama in New Orleans
Dan La Botz
The Economic Crisis, Labor and the Left
Monica Benderman
Where are We Going?
March 17, 2008
Pam Martens
The
Fed's Wall Street Dilemma
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The US, Iran and the Policy of Dual Containment
Nelson P. Valdés
The Imperial Branding of Simon Bolivar and the Cuban Revolution
Peter Morici
The Corrosive Consequences of the Trade Deficit
Wajahat Ali
Disrobing the Nine: a Conversation with Jeffrey Toobin on the
Supreme Court Since 9/11
Ronnie Cummins
Beyond Progressive Malpractice: Taking Down Big Pharma
Shaun Harkin
Saint Patrick's Day in Fortress America
Ali Khan
No Pardon for Musharraf
Robert Jensen
Beyond Peace
P. Sainath
Oh, What a Lovely Waiver!
Greg Moses
Jeremiah was a Bullhorn
Dr. Susan Block
Advice for Eliot Spitzer
Website of the Day
No Cowboys
March 15 /
16, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
How
to Destroy a Country in Five Years
Mike Whitney
Bearly
Alive: Investment Giant Rushed to ICU by Panicky Fed Chief
Ralph Nader
Of
Laws and Men
Robert Pollin
It's Still the Economy, Stupid
Diane Christian
The Poetics of Perversity: From Boccaccio to Spitzer
Wajahat Ali
Faking the Hood: a Conversation with Ishmael Reed
Tom Wright
/
Therese Saliba
Rachel Corrie's Case for Justice
Alan Farago
Back to Florida: Where Bushtime Began
Greg Moses
Raiding the Family Room in Texas
Michael Hudson
A Grand Global Bargain?
Martha Rosenberg
Why Hillary's Favorite Chicken Company is Eying China
John Goekler
Fourth Generation Warfare in a Fifth Generation Conflict
Uzma Aslam
Khan
A Letter to Barack Obama: Where's the Change, Barack?
Oren Ben-Dor
The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon
David Underhill
Mammon, Morals and the Mobile Tanker Deal
Fred Gardner
The Education of Eliot Spitzer
David Michael
Green
Why Spitzer Should Have Resigned (and Why He Shouldn't Have)
Rev. William E. Alberts
Jesus, Entombed in Heaven
Gail Dines
It's All About the John: Prostitution and Male Power
David Yearsley
Conducting, Anarchy and the Problem of When to Begin
Chris Clarke
Walking with Zeke: the Luckiest of Dogs
Poets' Basement
Anderson, Lodge & Subiet
Website of
the Day
Deviant Art
March 14, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Watching
the Dollar Die
Don Santina
Vichy
Democrats: Pelosi and the Politics of Collaboration
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Mother Vows Revenge on US: How She Lost Her Husband and Her Sons
Tim Rinne
StratCom
Rules! The Next War Will Start in Nebraska
Robert Fantina
In
Torture We Trust
Saul Landau
Letter
to the Presidents-in-Waitings
David Macaray
Common
Myths About Labor Unions
Franklin Lamb
Is
the Bush Administration Switching Horses in Lebanon
Michael Neumann
The
One State Illusion: Reply to My Critics
March 13, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Republicans
and "Free Market" Zealots Bring Disaster to America
Mike Whitney
Meltdown
Looms Larger As Credit Markets Freeze
Assaf Kfoury
"One-State
or Two State?"- Sterile Debate on False Alternatives
Andy Worthington
Afghan
Hero Who Died in Guantánamo: The Background to the Story
Adam Federman
From
Autopia to Autogeddon: Cars Reach the End of the Road
March 12, 2008
Dave Lindorff
Bringing
Down Spitzer: It's the Big Brother Who Should Bother US
R.F. Blader
The
Spitzer Backlash
Yonatan Mendel
How
to be an Israeli Journalist. Never Write "Murder" or
"Palestine"
Jonathan Cook
One
State or Two? Neither. The Issue is Zionism
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Fallon
and Gates -- At Least One Cheer
James J. Brittain
Was
the U.S. Involved in Killing the FARC-EP Leaders
Ron Jacobs
"All
the Money You Make Will Never Buy Back Your Soul"
March 11, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
to End the Subprime Crisis
Ed O'Loughlin
How
Israeli Troops Invade Homes in Gaza, Brutalize, Smash and Steal
Ramzy Baroud
'Unwavering
Commitment' to Inequality
Kathy Christison
One
State or Two? The Debate Over Israel and Palestine
China Hand
PRC
Plays it Cool, as U.S. Tries to Amp Up Pressure on Iran
John Joslin
Thank
You, Nafta! Welcome to Weirton, Home of the Discount Cigarette
Mike Averko
Serb
Politics, Kosovo and the Moscow-Washington Divide
Ben Rosenfeld
Gavin
Newsom's Kneejerk Plan
Thierry Paquot
High
Rise, Low Spirits:The Curse of the Tower Block
March 10, 2008
Uri Avnery
"Kill
A Hundred Turks and Rest": The Five-Day War in Gaza
Col. Dan Smith
Scoring
the "Surge" and What Lies Beyond
R.F. Blader
Why
"Lock Them Up and Throw Away the Key" is Losing its
Sheen
Michael Neumann
The
One-State Illusion: More is Less
Bob Fitrakis
and Harvey Wasserman
Did
the Republicans Give Hillary Her Victory in Ohio?
James J. Brittain
Anti-Uribe
Protests in Colombia and the World
Missy Comley
Beattie
The
Passion of John McCain
March 8-9,
2008 Weekend Edition
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Only Way to Fight the Clintons
Mike Whitney
Sorting
Through the Rubble in Post Bubble America
Peter Morici
Fed
and Treasury Fiddle as Economy Plummets
Ralph Nader
The
Silent Violence of Gaza's Suffering that Candidates Ignore
Jonathan Cook
The
Meaning of Gaza's Shoah
Steve Niva
Behind
the Israeli Escalation in Gaza
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Crisis
over Teheran's Alleged Nuclear Plans Nearing Climax
Hervé
Do Alto and Franck Poupeau
Bolivia:
Morales is Checked
Eric Walberg
To
Leave and Stay at the Same Time: Putin to Medvedev to…?
Scott Johnson
City
of A Thousand Foreclosures
Mark Scaramella
James
Brown's Gate
Bill Clinton
President
Clinton's Remarks on Naming William M. Daley as NAFTA Task Force
Chairman
Poet's Basement
St.
Thomasino, Engel, Davies and Willson
Website of
the Weekend
Hillary
Blackens Barack
March 7, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Iraq Could Blow-Up in John McCain's Face
Robin Blackburn
Question
for Barrack Obama: Why Afghanistan is the'Right War'?
Saul Landau
The
Stupid Economy
Binoy Kampmark
When
Competition is Good: McCain and the Muddled Democrats
Chris Floyd
Crushing
the Ants: Admiral Fallon and His Empire
Andy Worthington
Spanish
Drop "Inhuman" Extradition Request for Guantánamo
Britons
Will Potter
Before
the Smoke Even Clears in Seattle: Bringing Out the T Word
March 6, 2008
March 6, 2008
Vincent Navarro
The
Next Failure of Health Reform
Forrest Hylton
High Stakes in the Andes: Colombia's Cornered President
Peter Morici
Why the Dollar is So Cheap
George Ciccariello-Maher
Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats
John Ross
Taxi! Taxi! The Dark Side of the Oscars
Jacob Hornberger
No Standing to Lecture on Justice
Paul Watson
Illegal Japanese Whaling by the Numbers
Dan Bacher
Off the Deep End
Website of the Day
A Katrina Reader Online
March 5, 2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Great Day for John McCain (and Maybe Nader)
Joanne Mariner
After Guantanamo
Fidel Castro
The Raid on Ecuador: Underestimating Rafael Correa
Christopher
Brauchli
The Turkish Invasions
Steven Sherman
Obama and the Prospects for a Renewal of the Left
Dave Lindorff
Busting Bush & Co. in New England
James Murren
Bombing Somalia
Adam Engel
Necropolis Now
Website of Day
Remember Song
March 4, 2008
Wajahat Ali
Mumbo
Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed
William Blum
How Could Hillary Have Known?
Bill Quigley
The Cleansing of New Orleans
Ralph Nader
The Prince Harry Solution
Patrick Irelan
Oil and Health in Venezuela
James J. Brittain
/
R. James Sacouman
Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America
Norman Solomon
The War Election
Jacob Hornberger
Hillary in Waco: the Missing Apology
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the European Parliament
Mike Averko
Kosovo and the Press
Website of the Day
Tex-Mex Primary
March 3, 2008
Jennifer Loewenstein
Gazan Holocaust
Alan Farago
American Politics and the Faltering Economy
Richard Gott
Colombian Deaths in Ecuador
Wajahat Ali
Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup
Poll with John Esposito
Paul Craig Roberts
The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution
Robert Weissman
When Multinationals Say Adieu
Uri Avnery
Good Morning, Hamas
Martha Rosenberg
When Your Meat is a Downer
Eva Liddell
Leave the Next Dance for Bill
Michael Donnelly
Will Ferrell Does Flint
Website of the Day
Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home Blues
|
Apri1
10, 2008
Shia Intifada
The
Rise of Muqtada al-Sadr
By ASHLEY SMITH
At the end of March, Iraqi Prime Minister
Nuri al-Maliki, with U.S. political and military support, launched
Operation Knight's Assault to assert government control over
Basra and several other cities dominated by rebel cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. George Bush called the assault a "defining
moment in the history of a free Iraq."
The U.S. and the Iraqi government--chiefly,
Maliki's Dawa Party and his backers in the Islamic Supreme Council
of Iraq (ISCI)--hoped to assert central government control over
Basra's oil fields and port, and block the Sadrists from winning
in October's provincial elections. Success would have ensured
their ability to establish a federal structure in Iraq and implement
a new oil law allowing U.S. multinationals to invest and develop
Iraq's oil industry.
The Sadrists foiled these plans
by holding their ground in Basra. The government offensive sparked
demonstrations across Shia Iraq, with Mahdi forces launching
mortar attacks on U.S. positions inside the Green Zone in Baghdad.
After a week of fighting, Iran stepped in to broker a ceasefire.
Thus, Iran and Sadr emerged
as the victors. Sensing his advantage, Sadr has called for a
million-strong demonstration against the occupation on April
9, the anniversary of Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and the
Iraqi government are promising to crack down on "illegal
militias" and have continued their attack on Sadr strongholds
in Sadr City and elsewhere.
* *
*
HOW DID the Sadrist movement
arise, and what are the sources of its conflict with other Shia
forces, such as the clergy-dominated Dawa party and ISCI? A new
book by journalist Patrick Cockburn--called Muqtada:
Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq--provides
answers.
The Shia Islamist currents
represented by Sadr on the one hand and the ruling  Shia parites on the other were a minority
until the last few decades. Iraqi politics was dominated by various
secular forces--nationalism, Baath pan-Arabism and Communism.
As Cockburn writes, "Few
paid much attention to the radical potential of Shi'ism before
the Iranian revolution of 1978-79; the rise of Hezbollah in Lebanon
following the Israeli invasion of 1982; and the Shia uprising
in Iraq in 1991, followed by their gradual takeover of power
after the U.S. invasion of 2003."
The Sadrs, one of the great
families of the Shia clerical establishment, played a key role
in forging Shia Islamism in Iraq in the run-up to the secular
nationalist revolution in 1958. Muqtada's father-in-law, Mohammed
Baqir al-Sadr, along with a layer of radical young clerics, founded
the Dawa Party in 1957.
Mixing nationalist aims along
with a religious commitment to defend Islam and its institutions
from the secular threat, the Dawa Party aimed to build an alternative
to the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP), which recruited heavily among
impoverished Shia workers.
Dawa was the source of all
the major currents of Islamism in Iraq today, from the ISCI to
the Sadrists. Baqir was forced out of the party in 1960, but
he continued his political activism in opposition to the Baath
Party, which eventually seized power in a coup in 1968. With
U.S. backing, the Baathists mounted a relentless campaign of
persecution against all its political opponents, from the ICP
to Kurdish parties to Dawa and Baqir's Shia followers.
Baqir and Dawa's conflict with
the Baathists came to a head in 1979 after the Iranian Revolution,
when the Shia clergy led by Ayatollah Khomeini seized power.
Baqir became an open advocate of Islamic revolution in Iraq.
Faced with a Shia revolution
in neighboring Iran and within Iraq itself, Saddam Hussein seized
control of the Baath Party and the Iraqi government. The new
regime banned the Dawa party, making membership in it punishable
by death; it arrested and executed Baqir; and it launched a disastrous
eight-year war against Iran.
During the war, another great
clerical family, the Hakims, called a meeting of Shia Islamists
in Iran in 1982 to form the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution
in Iraq (SCIRI, recently changed to ISCI). The Iranian state
backed SCIRI and built up its Badr Brigades as a force it hoped
to install in Baghdad after defeating Saddam. The Badr Brigades
even fought on Iran's side in the war against Iraq. As a result,
Dawa, which had Iraqi nationalist leanings, distanced itself
from SCIRI.
Cockburn argues that SCIRI
"swiftly acquired a dubious reputation in Iraq for doing
the Iranians' dirty work. 'They tortured Iraqi prisoners during
the war,' says one professor at Najaf University. 'The Sunni
and the Shia twice as badly because they used to ask them: Why
did you join Saddam's army if you are a Shia?' In the coming
years, SCIRI never quite shook the reputation, in the minds of
many Iraqis, of being stooges of Iran who tortured their fellow
countrymen."
Inside Iraq, the clerical establishment
advocated a return to quietism, rejection of the Sadrists and
Khomeini, and accommodation to Saddam's dictatorship. This strategy
didn't resonate with the Shia masses, however. In the wake of
Saddam's defeat in his next disastrous war, the 1991 Gulf War,
Shia troops revolted in southern Iraq, setting off a regional
rebellion to accompany a Kurdish uprising in the North.
The U.S. government under George
Bush Sr. feared the development of another Islamic revolution
and therefore refused to aid the Shia. Iran, SCIRI and the Badr
brigades also balked at aiding the rebellion, out of fear of
a hopeless confrontation with the U.S. Left with a free hand,
Saddam's forces massacred 150,000 Shia. The regime also attacked
the Kurds in the North, driving millions into Turkey and Iran.
But after an international outcry, the U.S. imposed a no-fly
zone and cultivated the Kurdish parties as their key ally in
Iraq.
Despite the genocidal U.S.-UN
sanctions imposed on Iraq, Saddam was able consolidate his police
state around Sunnis from his tribe, and carried on the oppression
of both Shia and Kurds. He attempted to co-opt Baqir al-Sadr's
cousin and Muqtada's father, Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, to provide
the regime with a base among Shia.
Sadiq used the space to develop
his own distinctive brand of Islamism and never expressed support
for the regime. In contrast to Baqir's orientation on political
struggle, Sadiq pioneered a new Islamism focused on waging a
cultural revolution and advocacy for economic grievances of the
Shia poor, suffering under the sanctions.
Sadiq built a mass base in
the city that would eventually be named after him, Sadr City
in Baghdad. In his Friday sermons, he denounced U.S. imperialism,
Israel, the devil, the sins of the West and economic injustice.
He also advocated Sunni and Shia unity, thereby posing an Islamist
alternative to the more moderate clergy and the exiled parties.
SCIRI and the other exiles
abroad denounced Sadiq as an agent of Saddam and looked down
on his appeal to the Shia poor. Their base was among the elite--the
petty bourgeoisie and other expatriate ruling classes. Moreover,
Sadiq infuriated Iran by proclaiming himself supreme leader of
the Shia in Iraq. The Iranian clergy closed down his offices
in Iran and expelled his representatives.
Increasingly, however, Sadiq
came into conflict with Saddam, who feared, rightly, that the
Sadrist movement would be a threat to the regime. Saddam moved
to suppress the movement, murdering Sadiq and two of his four
sons in February 1999.
The Shia masses rose up in
the al-Sadr Intifada, and the regime again carried out mass collective
punishment against them. Once again, Iran, SCIRI and the Badr
brigades refused to lift a finger to support the uprising. Outraged
at this betrayal, the Sadrists chanted in their meetings, "Long
live al-Sadr! The al-Hakim family are traitors."
* *
*
IN THE run-up to the 2003 U.S.
invasion of Iraq, SCIRI, Dawa and prominent secular Shia collaborated
with the U.S. in the hopes of establishing themselves in the
new Iraqi government.
Sadiq's son, Muqtada al-Sadr,
pursued a different course. He survived the assassination of
his father and two brothers, went underground and maintained
a skeletal structure of his father's movement. He held SCIRI,
the Dawa Party and the clergy in contempt for collaborating with
U.S. imperialism or Iran, or standing passively by.
Once the U.S. invaded, Muqtada
emerged from the underground, quickly established control of
Sadr City and reached out to the Shia south. He rebuilt the Sadrist
mass movement among the Shia poor that advocated Shia-Sunni unity
in opposition to the occupation.
Almost immediately, the schisms
between the Shia factions emerged. SCIRI, Dawa and other Shia
formations participated in the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing
Council (IGC). In contrast, Muqtada denounced the IGC as a tool
of the occupation and set up the Madhi Army to provide security
amid the post-occupation chaos and to resist the occupation.
The U.S. immediately targeted
Muqtada. They accused him of murdering the cleric Abdul Majid
al-Khoei, repeatedly battled the Mahdi fighters and finally shut
down the Sadrists' newspaper. In response, while the Sunni resistance
rose up in Falluja, Sadr's followers rose up in Sadr City, across
the South and finally in the holy city of Najaf.
For a brief moment, a united
Arab resistance against the occupation seemed about to emerge.
But the U.S. struck a deal with the leading Shia cleric, Grand
Ayatollah al-Sistani, which enabled Muqtada to survive, but also
broke the possibility of a joint resistance.
Sistani compelled all the Shia
parties to campaign for the series of elections that eventually
established the Iraqi government, something that alienated the
Sunnis who increasingly feared a Shia majority. The Sunnis also
contributed to the breakdown of Arab nationalism by refusing
to purge al-Qaeda forces who were carrying out increasing attacks
on Shia.
Sadr shifted from military
opposition to the U.S. toward politics and used the Mahdi Army
to impose his puritanical religious edicts and self-defense against
al-Qaeda and U.S. attacks.
The Shia parties divided the
government among themselves, taking over its various institutions
as bases to compete with one another, and against the Sunnis
and Kurds. ISCI controlled the Security Ministry, filling its
forces with the Badr Brigades. The Sadrists gained control of
the Health Ministry and sent the Madhi Army into the police.
Unlike other Shia parties,
however, Muqtada maintained his opposition to the U.S. occupation,
denouncing the Americans for failing to meet the needs of the
Shia poor. As a result, as the U.S. failed to reconstruct the
society or provide basic security, Muqtada's popularity soared
among the Shia poor--while ISCI and Dawa lost support because
they were tainted by open collaboration with the occupiers.
When a full-scale civil war
broke out between Sunnis and Shia after the bombing of al-Askari
Mosque in February 2006, the Madhi Army defied Muqtada's public
call for Shia-Sunni unity and joined in an ethnic-cleansing campaign
of atrocities against Sunnis. Sadr's forces won the Battle of
Baghdad, asserting control over half the city and 80 percent
of Shia neighborhoods.
* * *
FACED WITH a failing occupation,
the Bush administration opted for the so-called "surge."
This involved making peace with the Sunni tribes, arming them
to attack al-Qaeda and setting their sites on Sadr's Madhi Army
in Baghdad and the Shia south.
The U.S. pressured Maliki to
confront the Madhi Army. Maliki had been the compromise candidate
for prime minister supported by the Sadrists, but now wholly
dependent on the U.S., he broke with Sadr and formed an alliance
with ISCI that took was based on orders from the U.S.
To avoid an unwinnable confrontation
with the U.S., Muqtada declared a ceasefire. He went underground
and implemented a plan to regain control over the loose structure
of the Mahdi Army through religious indoctrination and military
training.
The U.S., ISCI and Dawa, in
alliance with the Kurdish parties, went ahead with their plans
for the soft partition of Iraq into a federated state, with Kurdish,
Sunni and Shia super-provinces. The U.S. also pushed for a new
oil law to open Iraq's industry to foreign investment.
The Sadrists agitated for a
strong central state, opposition to the occupation and defense
of the national oil industry. They still appealed for Sunni-Shia
unity for a new Iraq--notably leaving the Kurds out of their
vision. But given the Mahdi Army's pivotal role in the ethnic
cleansing of Baghdad, the Sadrists are unlikely to forge a genuine
nationalist resistance.
Meanwhile, Iran has cultivated
relations with all the Shia parties--not only their favored sons
in ISCI, but also the Sadrists--in the hopes of positive relations
with whoever wins the intra-Shia battle.
The U.S. and Iraqi governments'
decision to attack Sadr has destabilized the country and forced
into the open the conflicts among the Shia, and between them
and the Sunnis and Kurds. This foolish gambit disrupted the temporary
peace that coincided with the U.S. surge--and tipped Iraq toward
further chaos.
Ashley Smith writes for the Socialist
Worker. He lives in Vermont.
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