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Coming Soon from CounterPunch Books Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY Click Here to Order! Today's Stories April 2 / 3, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Death, Depression and Prozac April 1, 2005 Tom Barry Michael Chertoff: Legal Storm Trooper Rahul Mahajan WMD Commission: Yet Another Intelligence Failure Charlie Cray / Jim Vallette Dancing with Wolfowitz Dave Lindorff News Media Anguish Over Schiavo's Death Zeynep Toufe The Terri Schiavo Success Story Suzan Mazur Pension Funds and the Price of Oil Michael Dickinson Shut Your Mouth or Go to Prison! Stan Cox Iraq Reconstruction Funds Invested on Wall Street Ra Ravishankar Et Tu, George? Daniel Wolff Patti Scialfa's Conversation with America   March 31, 2005 Sharon Smith Leftwing Apologists for the Occupation Ron Jacobs Rounding Out Iraq's History Tariq Ali British Elections: Punish the Warmongers Michael Dickinson Cartoon Capers: Turkey's War on Political Cartoonists Kanak Mani Dixit The Struggle for Nepal's Future Mitchell Zimmerman The Bizarre Legal Philosophy of Justice Janice Rogers Brown Xuan-Trang Ho Guatemala and CAFTA: Return to the Bad Old Days? Dave Zirin Pay the Damn Players! Joe Bageant In Praise of Holy Madness Jeff Halper The End of a Viable Palestinian State Website of the Day Free Nepal   March 30, 2005 Gary Leupp Curing Those People of Their Hatred: Condi's Pitch for a "Different Kind" of Middle East Ralph Nader / Kevin Zeese Report on Iraq Intelligence Failure: No One to Blame Chase Madar Wolfowitz's Career Move: From Failed Warrior to Humanitarian Banker Toni Solo Bush in Latin America Jackie Corr Blessed are the Rich: George Bush's Montana Visit Ahmad Faruqui Much Ado About F-16s Mike Roselle Refuting Dave Foreman: Days of Whine and Posers Jude Wanniski America's Gunboat Diplomacy Francis A. Boyle Why You Should Boo Illinois Jeffrey St. Clair Downwinders be Damned Website of the Day Help! Nicaraguan Workers Are Being Poisoned March 29, 2005 Ralph Nader Is the End of the Iraq War / Occupation Near? Gary Leupp Terri Schiavo's Death and the Birth of an "Elected" Iraqi Government Sonia Cardenas A Pandora's Box of Abuses: the Geneva Trap Stew Albert Take Back the Life Force! Mark Weisbrot Owning Up to the "Ownership Society" Dave Lindorff China's Report on Human Rights in US is No Cariacture Carl G. Estabrook The Subversive Commandments   March 28, 2005 Jeremy Scahill Sgrena Sets the Record Straight: "There was No Checkpoint; No Self-Defense" Sonali Kolhatkar Forgetting Afghanistan...Again Sasha Kramer The UN's Betrayal of Haiti Kevin Zeese Don't Just Blame the Democrats Tom Stephens Sacred Law; Traditional Wisdom: Environmental Justice and Indigenous Peoples Dr. Teresa Whitehurst We're Walking Into a Trap Newton Garver Reflections on Bolivia Paul Craig Roberts A Bail Out Draft for a Cakewalk War? Website of the Day Stumped? Ask a Librarian, 24/7     March 26 / 27, 2005 Gary Leupp God's Imperialists Peter Linebaugh To Render, to Impeach, to Habeas Corpus Marc Robert A European Student's Experience at Columbia University Laura Carlsen The Threesome in Crawford: Summit as Traveling Stage Show Saul Landau / Puja Patel The Price of Privatized "Development" Dave Foreman Nature's Crisis Fred Gardner Will San Francisco Pander to the Prohibitionists? Jennifer Matsui Terri Schiavo: America's Most Desperate Housewife? Dave Lindorff Provoking Iran Dharma Adhikari The Reversal of Democracy in Nepal Joshua Frank The Howard Dean Doctrine Patrick Barr Have Box Cutter, Will Travel: a True Story Christopher Brauchli F-16s to Pakistan Ramzy Baroud Israel's Record is "Not Reassuring" Jackie Corr When the Gov. of Montana Declared Martial Law in Butte Ben Tripp Off with Your Appurtenances! Dr. Susan Block Break a Taboo for Easter: Springtime for Sex and God Mickey Z. How Three Unrelated Books Relate Justin Taylor Beware of "Beware of God" Richard Joseph Cochabamba!: the Water War in Bolivia Poets' Basement Martin, Smith, Ford, Bortz and Albert     March 25, 2005 Scott Richard Lyons Horror and Hope at Red Lake Nation Yoshie Furuhashi No Troops; No Wars Pat Williams How a Town Got Poisoned: Libby, MT and the Labor Movement Mark Engler Remembering Archbishop Romero: 25 Years After His Assassination Rahul Mahajan Culture of Life or Culture of Living Death? Lance Selfa Can the Democrats be Moved to the Left? Ralph Nader Corporate Cyborg: Cal Nurses Take on Schwarzenegger John R. Llewellyn Why Utah's Prosecutors are Soft on Polygamy: a Former Sheriff Speaks Out Jo Guldi Beyond Belief: Holy Week in France   March 24, 2005 Joshua Frank The Selling (Out) of the Antiwar Movement Talli Nauman Vicente and George: Security by Any Other Name Would Smell Sweeter Martin Espada Why I Refused Coke's Money: a Poet Speaks Out About Colombia Dave Lindorff Another Social Security Snow Job Elaine Cassel When Fools Rush In: the Legal Implications of the Schiavo Case Jack McCarthy Jeb Bush's Mob: Snatch, Grab, Insert Tube Jack Random Juxtaposition: Terri Schiavo and the Red Lake Massacre Barbara Ferguson Wolfowitz Dating Muslim Woman and World Bank Employee Suzan Mazur Peak Oil: Debate or Vendetta? Dorreen Yellow Bird Suffering Red Lake Nation Endures the Worst of Days Andrew Wimmer and Mark Chmiel Torture: Old Hat or Open Wound?   March 23, 2005 Patrick Bond A New War? On Wolfowitz's World Bank Mike Whitney Railroading Moussaoui Becky White Why I Hung from a Bridge to Defend the Wild Forests of the Siskiyou Mountains Michael Donnelly Dissecting the Changeling: How the AuCoin Express Was Really Derailed Niranjan Ramakrishnan Remembering Ram Manohar Lohia: the Che of Non-Violence Ashley Smith Bush is What Hypocrisy Looks Like David Swanson The More Bush Talks, the Less Popular Privatization Becomes Derrick O'Keefe Enter Bono, Stage Right Paul A. Moore The Fire This Time: the Bush Bros. Racist Crackdown in Florida Dalton Walker My Reservation Will Never Be the Same Patrick Cockburn The US Frees Iraqi Kidnappers to Become Spies     March 22, 2005 William Blum Anti-Empire Report: Democracy--or is it the US Military--on the March Jim Vallette Cheney's Oil Change at the World Bank Greg Moses A Palm Sunday Chat with Sis Levin John Farley Bush's Culture of Life: Let the Insurance Companies Pull the Plug When the Sick Cost Too Much Ron Jacobs Halt the Anniversary Rallies and Stop the Damn War M. Junaid Alam How the Democratic Party Fosters Conservatism Rep. Cynthia McKinney An Immoral and Illegal War: Destroying Iraq Isn't Enough for Them Dave Lindorff "Saving" Schiavo; Killing the News James Petras Fateful Quadrangle: Cuba and Venezuela Face Off Against the US and Colombia     March 21, 2005 John Walsh In the Bars on the Road to Fayettevile: War Support Paper Thin Werther The Legacy of George Kennan, Chief Architect of the Cold War Mike Stark Where is the "Culture of Life" in Maryland? Time is Running Out for Vernon Evans David Swanson Feeding Tubes for the Third World: Put the Hungry into Comas, Then Feed Them! James T. Phillips Happy Meals: Behind the Grill at a Baltimore Diner Mike Ferner Serving, Refusing, Impeaching Robert Jensen The World Waits for an Answer Paul Craig Roberts A Threat Greater Than Terrorism Stew Albert Vegetable Nation Website of the Day American Press Blotter: Jacko, Terry and Steroids vs. the World     March 19, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Three-Card Monte and the One-Party State Tom Reeves Exposing the Coming Draft: a Draft by Any Other Name is Still Wrong Saul Landau The Grandchildren of Roy Cohn: the Politics of the Repressed Alan Maass Making Bankruptcy a Life Sentence Ron Jacobs Submit or Else: the Nuclear Demon that Won't Go Awayy David Green The Holocaust Industry Comes to the University of Illinois John Blair Hey, Dick! I'm Still Free: a Blow for Freedom of Speech in Indiana Steve Greenfield The Decline of the Green Party: the Numbers are In Ben Tripp Nature isn't Real Mike Roselle A History of White People in the Conservation Movement Joshua Frank Hope in Red State America: Lessons from the Big Sky Country Mark Weisbrot The World Bank: a Bigger Problem Than Wolfowitz Dave Lindorff Congress on Steroids Sarah Schaffer Lula's Nukes: Bush Bullies Iran, Ignores Brazil's Nuclear Ambitions Warren Hastings Why the Queen Should Chop Off Tony Blair's Head for Treason Poets' Basement Lodge, Albert. Landau, Engel, Davies, Capaccio   March 18, 2005 Dave Zirin The Congressional Urine Testers: Baseball's Theater of the Absurd Richard Thieme The Church Committee Candidate: I was a Victim of the KGB John Walsh Misdirecting the Anti-War Movement David Swanson Hunger Striking for a Living Wage at Georgetown Ben Terrall In the Spirit of Rachel Corrie: Confronting Caterpillar in San Leandro David Boyle Just Say "No" to Harvard Dorreen Yellow Bird Coping with Teen Suicide on the Standing Rock Reservation Mokhiber / Weissman Global Bully Goes to Guatemala Greg Moses They Don't Shoot Donkeys...Do They? Website of the Day 800 Protests: Find One Near You   March 17, 2005 Christopher Brauchli Rendered Unto Caesar: the Etymology of Torture Bill Quigley The St. Patrick's Four and the Resistance to the War in Iraq Brian Cloughley Bush's Herds: Willing to Kick Anyone in the Face Gary Bass / Adam Hughes Inside the Bush Budget: Rhetoric vs. Reality Dave Lindorff The Incredible Shrinking Coalition Jude Wanniski Wolfowitz at the World Bank: a Perfect Fit Alexander Billet Irish Republicanism at the Crossroads John Ross Wal-Mart Invades Mexico Website of the Day Campus Resistance   March 16, 2005 Ralph Nader Filling the Congressional Cop-Out Gap: an Idea for Local Peace Activists William Cook Resurrecting the Neo-Con Failures Kevin Zeese Two Years of Occupation: Both US and Iraq are Worse Off Jackie Corr Why is Dick Cheney Laughing? The New Tax Cut Patriotism Alan Maass Bush's Class War Budget David R. Kolker Jailed Without Charges in Haiti Cindy Ellen Hill Speculative Policing in Northern Ireland Paul Craig Roberts America's Has-Been Economy     March 15, 2005 Gary Leupp The Plan is Still on Track Dave Lindorff Free John Walker Lindh! Greg Moses The Fix-It Guys and Their Electoral Filters Hadas Their / Katrina Yeaw Military Recruiters Target Campus Activists Alison Weir Uprising on the Anniversary of Rachel Corrie's Death Matt Koehler A Line in the Ancient Forest: 50 Arrested in Blockade to Save the Siskiyous Evelyn Pringle Labeling Kids Mentally Ill for Profit Harry Browne War and Peace in Ireland     March 14, 2005 Ralph Nader Restarting the Anti-War Movement David Miller Ministry of Defence in the Control Booth: Did the BBC Broadcast Fake News Reports? Stan Cox Look Deeper, Mr. Moyers Mike Roselle Why Women Should Take Over the Environmental Movement David Swanson Nursing Against the Odds: the Workers' View Simona Sharoni To End the War, Listen to Soldiers Dave Lindorff Corporate Surveillance Dorreen Yellow Bird Incidents at Standing Rock: Suicide on the Reservation Tom Barry John Bolton's Baggage Website of the Day Spinwatch     March 12 / 13, 2005 David H. Price The CIA's Campus Spies Noam Chomsky The Toothpaste Election Laura Carlsen Women's Rights Eroding in Latin America Stan Goff On Revolutionary Optimism: the View from Cumberland Co, NC Valentina Nicoli The Game of Role-Playing and the Ambush of Giuliana Sgrena Michael Leonardi Head Shot: Lifting the Veil on the Sgrena / Calipari Incident Saul Landau / Sarah Anderson Blood Money and the Riggs Bank: Pinochet's Bank Finally Pays Up Joe Bageant It Ain't Easy Being White Manuel García, Jr. The Question of American Guilt Greg Moses Electoral Lessons from Cuyahoga and Harris Counties James J. Brittain Run, Fight or Die in Colombia Ben Tripp Communist Watch Joshua Frank A Red State Paradox: Montana on the Cusp Fred Gardner Pesticides Made Her Sick; Pot Got Her Well Walter Brasch Bush's Horse Killers Ramzy Baroud Reining in Syria on Behalf of Israel Christopher Brauchli Going All the Way for Usurers Michael Donnelly The Humiliation of Les "Timber Toad" AuCoin Ron Jacobs ZAP Comics: Still Kicking US Culture in the Ass Richard Oxman The Eternal Reciprocity of Tears Poets' Basement Smith-Ferri, Davies, Ford, Louise and Albert   March 11, 2005 Jerry Fresia Targeting Giuliana Ron Jacobs Making Lebensraum in the Middle East for Tel Aviv's Fears & Washington's Dollars Dave Lindorff America's Magical Kingdom William James Martin Ben Gurion and the Origin of the "Pushing into the Sea" Myth Muqtedar Khan Modi's Operandi: American Business and Genocide Linked Again Kathryn Ledebur Bolivia on the Brink Mike Whitney Saddam's Capture: Just Another Bush Lie? Dave Zirin Neo-McCarthyism Slugs Baseball Website of the Day William Rivers Pitt, Another Hack for the Occupation     March 10, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts So Much for the New Bush Economy John Marc Leas, Colleen McLaughlin and Ashley Smith Vermont Vs. the War Larry Birns The Pathological John Bolton Michael Donnelly The Re-Reinvention of an Oregon Timber Beast Luis Gomez In Bolivia, Reality Changes Once Again Jackie Corr Whatever Happened to the Social Security Trust Fund? Uri Avnery Bush's Guru: Natan Sharansky Website of the Day Red Alert in the Siskiyous!     March 9, 2005 Jeffrey St. Clair Dirty Harry's Fear of Flying: Making Love, War and Profits at Boeing Ward Churchill Who's the Terrorist? Robert Fisk Another Species of Cedar: a Half Million Lebanese March for Syria Bernice Powell Jackson No Justice for America's Nuclear Guinea Pigs in the Marshall Islands Mickey Z. The Revolutionary of Potential Art Dave Zirin NHL Says: "Bring On the Scabs!" Michael Donnelly Standing Up to Ecocide in Oregon James Reiss Stopping by Words in Favor of Privatizing Social Security Vijay Prashad Get Modi: a State Terrorist Visits Florida   March 8, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Bush's Syrian Delusion Robert Fisk Lebanon's Nightmare Kurt Nimmo War is Peace: John Bolton to the UN Suzan Mazur Time for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Polygamy? Evelyn Pringle Neil Bush and Crest: Another Profiteering Scheme Giuliana Sgrena My Truth: "The Americans Don't Want You to Return" Elaine Cassel The Appalling Case of Abu Ali     March 7, 2005 Dave Zirin Bloodlust in Annapolis: Gov. Ehrlich Wants to Kill Vernon Lee Evans Brian Cloughley More War Crimes John Chuckman The Creature Walks Among Us Mike Whitney Jose Padilla and the 10 Commandments Mark Weisbrot Haiti's Torment: Why Are US Human Rights Groups Silent? Fred Gardner The Cannabinoid Messenger Richard Neville The Italian Job Uri Avnery The Next Crusades     March 5 / 6, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Arnold vs. the Nurses Gary Leupp What's Happening in Lebanon: an Interview with Fadi Agha, Advisor to President Lahoud Ron Jacobs Lies Military Recruiters Tell Tom Reeves Haiti: One Year After the Coup Jenna Orkin Memories of Kawaggi, Saudi Arabia Tom Barry Negroponte: Intel Czar or Policy Hack? Joshua Frank The Trials of Max Baucus Moshe Adler When Pfizer Came to New London: Corporate Giveways vs. Eminent Domain Jane Stillwater My Jury Questionnaire: "Do You Agree that a Corporation is a Person?" Omar Barghouti / Jacqueline Sfeir Double Standards on S. Africa and Israel: an Open Letter to UNESCO Christopher Brauchli Target: Al Jazeera John Pilger The Fall of Saigon: 30 Years Later Raúl Zibechi Colombia: Militarism and Social Movements David Krieger Saving the Nuclear Nonproliferation Agreement Three Takes on Nepal Surendra R. Devkota Another Blow to the King of Nepal Bhishma Karki Nepal in Twilight Joseph Pietri Murder at the Palace Ben Tripp The Good Old Days Poets' Basement Hassen, Chief Running Late, Wuest, Albert and Collins Website of the Weekend O'Shaughnessy's: All About Medical Pot     March 4, 2005 Frederick Hudson Caught in a Cage   March 3, 2005 Pat Williams "Social Security Protects the Young as Much as the Old" Brian Cloughley Headlines, Beliefs and Deceptions Dave Lindorff Why Do the Democrats Pamper Greenspan? Amira Hass Oslo All Over Again Greg Moses In Oscar Texas: One Down, One to Go? Lynne Landes Exit Poll Madness Nelson P. Valdés Rapture Takes Leftists John Ross Mexico's Fox Schemes to Jail Front-Running Leftist   March 2, 2005 Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen The "Noble Liars" Attack Syria Mike Roselle The State of Oregon vs. Mike Roselle: Criminalizing Environmental Dissent M. Junaid Alam Columbia University and the New Anti-Semitism Suzan Mazur Inside the Polygamy Cults of Southern Utah Jackson Thoreau Texas Congressman Calls for "Nuking Syria" Michael Donnelly No Love for Teresa Heinz; John Edwards Gets a Pass Jeffrey St. Clair Uncle Bucky Makes a Killing Website of the Day The Ghosts of Karl Marx & Ed Abbey     March 1, 2005 Scott Richard Lyons Million Dollar Bigotry David Lindorff Stealing Workers' Pensions Patrick Cockburn / David Enders Bloodbath in Iraq Ron Jacobs The Last Poets Recalled Tanya Garcia USA Next: the Industry Front Group to Privatize Social Security Joseph Pietri The Drug Trail Ends in Kathmandu: Golden Tar Heroin and the Black Prince Kona Lowell Woody: Broken in Vietnam Paul Craig Roberts The Coming End of the American Superpower Website of the Day Petition: No US Intervention in Iran                                                     Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con! Subcomandante Marcos The Death Train of the WTO Norman Finkelstein Hitchens as Model Apostate Steve Niva Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings? Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams CounterPunch Exclusive: 20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians Steve J.B. Prison Bitch Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War Wendell Berry Small Destructions Add Up CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition April 2 / 3, 2005 What's Driving the Uprising? Off the Script in Kyrgyzstan By LEE SUSTAR Chicago, Illinois A mass uprising that chased the authoritarian president of Kyrgyzstan out of his country March 24 went beyond Washington's scripted "people power revolutions" in the republics of the former USSR. But newly empowered opposition leaders quickly closed ranks against the protesters. The new government--based on a rigged parliamentary election that sparked the protests to begin with--has dispersed protesters who demanded an election rerun, promising only to move forward presidential elections previously scheduled for October. The new parliament--dominated by supporters of ousted President Askar Akayev, including his daughter and son--will hold power. Demonstrations began after the March 13 vote to protest the exclusion of opposition candidates from the ballot. Then, 30,000 protesters stormed the presidential building known as the White House, in the capital city of Bishkek. Akayev fled. Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous country of just 5 million people, lacks the oil and gas of its Central Asian neighbors. However, its border with China and proximity to Afghanistan give it an outsized strategic importance. Both the U.S. and Russia maintain air bases there and contend for influence. As in Georgia's "Rose Revolution" in late 2003 and Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" last winter, U.S. nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) lavishly funded the opposition, printing its newspapers and training its candidates. Washington apparently had aimed for a smoother transition later this year by holding Akayev to his word about not seeking a third presidential term--and backing a pro-U.S. candidate. Thus, both the divided opposition and U.S. officials appeared to be as stunned as Akayev by the uprising. "The U.S. has not endorsed this change," Pakistani journalist and Central Asia expert Ahmed Rashid told Socialist Worker. "This has been a big shock. They said, 'We want calm.'" Boris Kagarlitsky, the Russian author and activist, agreed. "On the one hand, the U.S. State Department is definitely involved," he said in an interview from Moscow. "On the other, I'm sure they didn't want to get rid of Akayev. They wanted to prepare the ground to replace him [following presidential elections] one year from now, but it got out of control." The post-election protests were fueled not only by political frustration, but by the poverty that grips at least half the population. Looting across Bishkek targeted the big retail establishments owned by Akayev's son, highlighting the resentment against the tiny circle of family members and cronies who dominate the economy. The opposition, however, are former ruling-class insiders cast aside by Akayev. They promptly split upon seizing power, with both the outgoing and newly elected parliaments claiming power. Felix Kulov, former mayor of Bishkek and head of the ex-KGB security forces, quickly emerged as a major player. Freed from prison by the protesters, he took control of the security services--and immediately threatened to arrest members of the outgoing parliament if they organized further demonstrations. With tensions mounting, a deal was cut in which the old parliament was dismissed. Kulov, whose base is in Bishkek and the country's North, kept his powerful security ministry. The post of prime minister and acting president went to Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who comes from the impoverished South. Another key player--and Washington's favorite--is Roza Otunbayeva, a former foreign minister and ambassador to the U.S. and Britain who has taken control of the foreign ministry. The infighting reflects the clan and regional character of politics in the country, where the population is 60 percent Kyrgyz, a Turkic people, with large minorities of Russians, Uzbeks and Uighurs comprising most of the rest. Ironically, Kyrgyzstan was Washington's earliest and closest ally in Central Asia following the collapse of the USSR in 1991. As head of the country at independence and subsequently elected, Akayev followed every neoliberal prescription of the International Monetary Fund and welcomed the establishment of Western NGOs. After the September 11 attacks, Akayev immediately granted the U.S. an air base, funds for which reportedly account for 5 percent of Kyrgyzstan's Gross Domestic Product. Yet U.S. support for "democracy" in Central Asia, as in the Middle East, is highly selective. Washington had little to say when the dictatorial regime of Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan held sham parliamentary elections last year. "The 'war on terror' has strengthened repression [in Central Asia], and the alliance with the U.S. has strengthened the regimes," said Rashid. But as Akayev became increasingly authoritarian, Washington began hedging its bets, using NGOs to funnel money to the opposition. In response, Akayev edged closer to Moscow. He allowed the Russians to establish an air base just 70 miles from the U.S. one and refused to allow Washington to base AWACS surveillance aircraft in Kyrgyzstan. "Akayev understood one thing," said Kagarlitsky, "that the Americans are very clearly looking for new friends, especially since their old friends in power are getting shaky." The U.S. and Russia will continue to maneuver to suit their aims--and ignore the demands of those who took to the streets. "They have stolen the peoples' victory," Alla Shabayeva, a protest organizer, told the Christian Science Monitor. "This new government is turning out just like the old one. If they don't do what the people want, we will stage a second revolution." Lee Sustar is a regular contributor to CounterPunch and the Socialist Worker. He can be reached at: lsustar@ameritech.net