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July 18, 2002
Alexander Cockburn
Drivel
and Squawk:
Can the Times' Jeff Gerth
Save the White House?
July 17, 2002
Philip Farruggio
The
New Role Model:
Remember Jesus, George?
Zara Gelsey
Who's
Reading Over
Your Shoulder?
Behzad Yaghmaian
9/11 and
Fotress Europe:
the Drama of the New
Moslem Diaspora
Mike Ferner
War, Incorporated
Gary Leupp
Bush, Burqas
and the Oppression of Afghan Women
July 16, 2002
Pierre Tristam
Faith-based
Capitalism in
the Ruins of the Market
Kurt Nimmo
How My
35mm Camera Almost Became a Tool of Treason
Robert Fisk
The Kashmir
Distraction
Salam al-Marayati
When
is Terrorism
Not Defined as Terrorism?
Kathleen Christison
The
Image Problem:
Anti-Palestinian Bias
from Wilson to Bush
July 15, 2002
Gavin Keeney
In One
of Safire's Ears,
Out the Other
CounterPunch Wire
Nader in
Cuba
Ralph Nader
The Secret
World of Banking
Dave Marsh
Vincible:
Michael Jackson, Racism and the Music Cartel
Rahul Mahajan
Justice
for Bhopal
Jeffrey St. Clair
Seduced
by a Legend
The Return of Jimmy T99 Nelson
July 14, 2002
Bill Christison
The
DOA (Poem)
David Vest
I'll Never
Get Out of This Band Alive
July 13, 2002
M. Junaid Alam
A Process
of Dehumanization
Gavin Keeney
Go Tell
Karl Rove!
Matt Vidal
Corporate
"Ethics" Red Herrings
Ed Whitfield
Lessons
from Independence Day
July 12, 2002
Sean Donahue
The Other
Harken Energy Scandal: Oil, Death Squads
and Colombia
Walt Brasch
Sin Tax
Scam
"Psst. Cigarettes. A Buck Each."
Steve Perry
A Tale
of Two Twits
Wall Street Burns, Bush Fiddles, But Where's Wellstone?
July 11, 2002
Lloyd Marbet
Arrested
by the Chamber
of Commerce
David Krieger
Law vs.
Force
David Vest
Fountain
of Foo:
Strike Three Called
Irit Katriel
A Deep
Ideological Crisis
Richard Glen Boire
Dangerous
Lessons:
Public School Drug Testing
July 10, 2002
CounterPunch Wire
Third Party
Woes
South Carolina Denies Kevin Alexander Gray Ballot Status
Nassar Ibriham &
Majed Nassar
Bush's
Middle East Plan: Always Changing, Never Changing
Robert Fisk
Ain't That
America:
A Strange Kind of Freedom
Dave Marsh
The Return
of CREEP:
Record Cartel Accounting
Bernard Weiner
Hope and
Despair in
the Body Politic
Gary Leupp
European
Worries and
Bush's Terror War
July 9, 2002
St. Clair / Cockburn
The Atomic
Clock is Ticking:
All Roads Lead to Yucca Mtn.
Jack McCarthy
Florida:
a Terrorist Sanctuary for Bush's Bloody Pals?
Robert Fisk
How a Saudi
Billionaire
Does Beirut
Stanton and Madsen
God, Incorporated
Kurt Nimmo
IDF, Gangbanging
with Tanks
Bill Christison
Disastrous
Foreign Policies
of the US Part 3:
What Can We Do About It?
July 8, 2002
Rick Mercier
Yucca
Mountain Bound
Lev Grinberg
The
BUSHARON Global War
Tariq Ali
How Bush
Used 9/11 to Remap the World
Lori Allen
The Tugs
of War:
Palestinian Life Under Curfew
July 7, 2002
Alexander Cockburn
White
House Crooks
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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Reviews of Gore:
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July
18, 2002
Spain
and Morroco
The
Rising Tensions
by Mahbubul Karim (Sohel)
A tiny island, "Perejil" for the Spaniards,
and Leila for the Moroccans, have come to the forefront of news
for the last few days. For many, this is an alarm bell since
it resembles very much like England and Argentina's scuffle
on Falkland Island years ago.
This disputed island that both Spain
and Morocco claim to be their own, is interestingly an uninhabited,
tiny island, about 200 meters off Morocco's coast, and its diameter
is less than a kilometer. The incident began a few days back,
when Morocco sent few of its soldiers to this remote island
officially stating its purpose of the all encompassing fight
against terrorism and drug and immigration trafficking. Spain
protested immediately, and European Union followed the suit.
The European Union called the tiny island as the EU territory;
they even uttered the threat of harsh sanctions against Morocco
if it didn't withdraw from the islet immediately.
This is one of the rarest moments for
the EU, "the EU's position underscores its progress away
from the notion that it consists of a mere trading bloc toward
the idea of a political entity, with a single territory and
common borders which separate its members as a single political
unit from third countries. The idea of common EU borders, on
which Greece _ a typical border country _ has long insisted,
is now being adopted in practice: Even a disputed, rugged rock
which is very near the coastline of a third country is still
European territory. Disputing its territorial integrity prompted
a common EU response and unreserved solidarity with the individual
member state." [3]
International Herald Tribunal also notes,
"The European reaction in the Perejil crisis is not, of
course, a huge advance in terms of political unification. Such
a development would presuppose a solid consensus over the commonality
of vital interests and the existence of European bodies which
would define who the common "enemy" is and decide
on a single response. Even though the EU is still far from reaching
this point, its insistence on a single European territory and
common borders is still substantial progress." [3]
EU's economic threat is very much real
for Morocco, "about three-quarters of Morocco's exports
went to the EU last year, generating $6.2 billion." [6]
On the Morocco's side, a predominantly
Muslim state, the old "Moors" by the Pravda columnist
[4], the Arab nations expressed their full solidarity on its
claim of the island. Morocco's foreign minister referred to
the historical documents dating back to 1860, said, "islet
Leila has always been an integral part of the Moroccan territory"
and that no Spanish official document referred to it as being
part of Spain. [5]
Spain countered Morocco's claim, in which
it also sited other larger enclaves in the region, namely, Ceuta
and Melilla, "the status of Ceuta and Melilla is not up
for discussion, Palacio said. Spain's centuries-old rule over
the two enclaves is "undisputed and indisputable,"
she said. [5]
This dispute goes centuries back during
the time of Spanish and French colonial rules in Africa. When
the Spanish and French colonial rules came to an end, they relinquished
all their claims from their "North African Possessions",
French and Spain signed a treaty in 1956, in which Spain retained
the rights of Ceuta and Melilla. However, Morocco always strongly
disputed on the status of these islands, claiming historical
documents that they belong to Morocco.
"The latest row comes as Madrid
is locked in complicated negotiations with Britain aimed at
sharing sovereignty over the disputed colony of Gibraltar on
Spain's southern coast, and visible from the Moroccan coast."
[5]
Today, July 17, Spain sent its troops,
and taken the control of the disputed island forcefully, though
previously it claimed it would apply diplomatic pressure on
Morocco, prompting the anticipated Moroccan protests, "The
Moroccan government urges the immediate and unconditional withdrawal
of Spanish forces," the statement read. "The island
is an integral part of Moroccan territory." [2]
Though the colonial rules are supposedly
ended many years from now, the ghosting remnants from that ignominious
era are still haunting world politics, it seems.
References:
1. "Beware the Diplomatic Storm
Brewing in the Mediterranean", The Independent, July 17,
2002.
2. "Morocco wants Spanish Forces
Out", Yahoo News, July 17, 2002.
3. Kathimerini, "All for One",
The International Herald Tribune, July 16, 2002.
4. Vasity Bubnov, "Spaniards Recaptures
the Islands from the Moors", Pravda July 17, 2002.
5. "Morocco, Spain still at loggerheads
over Ceuta", Jordan Times, July 16, 2002.
6. "Island is Integral Part of Morocco,
Rabat Insists" Associated Press, July 16, 2002.
Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) can be reached
at: shomudrok@hotmail.com
Today's Features
Alexander Cockburn
Drivel
and Squawk:
Can the Times' Jeff Gerth
Save the White House?
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