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What You're Missing in our subscriber-only CounterPunch newsletter EX-STATE DEPT.SECURITY OFFICER SPELLS OUT 9/11 COVER-UP Official Describes "Hands Off" CIA/FBI Response to Al Qaeda 1994 Assassination Plan for Clinton in Manila, Says It Points to Pakistan's ISI Involvement in 9/11 Attack, Passed Over by 9/11 Commission Vijay Prashad reports on Neoliberalism-as-Theft, defied by India's Left in fierce strikes Paul Craig Roberts Dissects US Jobs Decline and NYT's PollyAnna Reporting Gabriel Kolko on How Crazed America Will Destroy NATO Smearing Hugo Chavez as Anti-Semite 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 donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Get CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year

Today's Stories February 18 / 19, 2006 Werther A Half-Dozen Questions About 9/11 They Don't Want You to Ask   February 17, 2006 Floyd Rudmin Secret War Plans and the Malady of American Militarism Gervasio Rodríguez FBI Home Invasions in Puerto Rico Gary Leupp The Mad is No Longer Out of the Question: Stopping the War on Iran Before It Starts Ramzy Baroud Weathering the Globalization Storm Amira Hass Apartheid Gates: IDF Establishes "Israeli Only" Crossings Matthew Koehler Forest Abuse on the Kootenai: an Intervention in Montana Niranjan Ramakrishnan Deadeye Dick: Who Dares Call Him Chickenhawk Now? Debbie Nathan ABC's Primetime "Teen Sex Slaves" Scam Website of the Day Black Mesa Defense   Febrauary 16, 2006 Lila Rajiva Torture Pictures That Didn't Make the Exhibition Norman Solomon Dick Cheney's Fox Trot Ron Jacobs An Interview with Antiwar Faster Mike Ferner Paul Craig Roberts Their Own Economic Reality Website of the Day This Ain't No Video Game February 15, 2006 Brian Conacnnon, Jr. Haiti's Elections: Chaos, Supression and Fraud Dave Lindorff Democrats Shoot Their Own, Too Saree Makdisi Israeli Ultimatums Joshua Frank The Rhetorical Gore Amira Hass Down the Expulsion Highway CounterPunch Wire Winter of Discontent: a 34-Day Fast Against the War Robert Bryce The United States of Enron Website of the Day Osama's Game: an Interview with Michael Scheuer February 14, 2006 John Sugg Those Cartoons and the Neo Con: Daniel Pipes and the Danish Editor Don Santina DiFi and the Royal Democrats: the Curious Withdrawal of Cindy Sheehan William A. Cook Shaming Sharon Ray McGovern Who Will Blow the Whistle About Iran? John Ross Bush's Mexican Poodle Website of the Day Willie Nelson Records CPer Ned Sublette's "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly" February 13, 2006 Lila Rajiva Axis of Child Abusers: UK Troops Beat Up Barefoot Iraqi Teens Christopher Brauchli Whistleblowers and Witch Hunters: the Bush Inquisition Dave Lindorff Deadeye Dick: If Stupidity Were Impeachable, Cheney Would Be History Ron Jacobs Black Liberation Mike Whitney Riding High with Hugo Chavez Michael Neumann Respectful Cultures and Disrespectful Cartoons Website of the Day Virtual Resistance   February 11 / 12, 2006 Alexander Cockburn How Not to Spot a Terrorist Ralph Nader Bringing Democracy to the Federal Reserve Paul Craig Roberts Nuking the Economy Pat Williams John Boehner's Dirty Little Secret: Flying Lobbyist Air at $4,000 a Junket Fred Gardner Dr. Mikuriya's Appeal: a Last Minute Twist Saul Landau From Munich to Hamas John Chuckman Cartoons and Bombs: Was Rice Right for Once? Roger Burbach Evo Morales: the Early Days Seth Sandronsky Economy on Ice Website of the Weekend Just Say Know   February 10, 2006 Carl G. Estabrook A US War Plan for Khuzestan? Sen. Russell Feingold A Raw Deal on the Patriot Act Roxanne Dunbar----Ortiz How Did Evo Morales Come to Power? Saree Makdisi The Tempest Over the Hamas Charter Website of the Day The New York Art Scene: 1974----1984     February 9, 2006 Dave Lindorff Bush and Yamashita: War Crimes and Commanders-in-Chief Mike Marqusee The Human Majority was Right About Iraq Paul Craig Roberts How Conservatives Went Crazy: the Rightwing Press Peter Phillips Inside the Global Dominance Group: 200 Insiders Against the World William S. Lind Rumsfeld the Maximalist: the Long War Christine Tomlinson Innocent Targets in the "Long War": False Positives and Bush's Eavesdropping Program Will Youmans Church of England Votes to Divest from Israel Robert Robideau An American Indian's View of the Cartoons Richard Neville The Cartoons That Shook the World: All This from the Danes, the Least Funny People on Earth Peter Rost The New Robber Barons Website of the Day Eyes Wide Open   February 8, 2006 Ron Jacobs The Once and Future Sly Stone: Soundtrack to a Riot Stan Cox Making and Unmaking History with General Myers Sen. Russ Feingold Why Bush's Wiretapping Program is Illegal and Unconstitutional Robert Jensen Horowitz's Academic Hit List: Take a Class from One of the CounterPunch 16 Rep. Cynthia McKinney Bush Should Have Wiretapped FEMA and Chertoff Niranjan Ramakrishnan Alberto Gonzales Channels Mark Twain Don Monkerud Covenant Marriage on the Rocks David Swanson Inequality and War C.L. Cook Nuking Ontario Christopher Fons Chill Out Jihadis: They're Just Cartoons! Jeffrey Ballinger The Other Side of Nike and Social Responsibility Website of the Day Encyclopedia of Terrorism in the Americas   February 7, 2006 Edward Lucie-Smith An Urgent Plea to Save a Small Estonian Museum from Neo-Nazis Robert Fisk The Fury: Now Lebanon is Burning Paul Craig Roberts Colin Powell's Career as a "Yes Man" Neve Gordon Why Hamas Won Joshua Frank The Hillary and George Show: Partners in War Peter Montague The Problem with Mercury: a History of Regulatory Capitulation Jackie Corr The Last Best Choice: Public Power and Montana Jeffrey St. Clair Rumsfeld's Enforcer: the Secret World of Stephen Cambone Website of the Day Negroes with Guns   February 6, 2006 Christopher Brauchli Spilling Blood: Two Sentences Robert Fisk Don't Be Fooled: This Isn't About Islam vs. Secularism John Chuckman What Did Stephen Harper Actually Win? Jenna Orkin Judge Slams EPA for Lying About 9/11's Toxic Air Paul Craig Roberts Who Will Save America: My Epiphany   February 4 / 5, 2006 Alexander Cockburn "Lights Out in Tehran": McCain Starts Bombing Run Mike Ferner Pentagon Database Leaves No Kid Alone James Petras Evo Morales's Cabinet: a Bizarre Beginning in Bolivia Alan Maass Scare of the Union: Dems Collaborate with Bush on Surveillance Fred Gardner Annals of Law Enforcement: a Look Inside the San Francisco DA's Office Ralph Nader Bush's Energy Escapades Bill Glahn RIAA Watch: Speaking in Tongues Saul Landau Freedom 2006: Buying Sex on the Net or Those Older Freedoms? Laura Carlsen Bad Blood on the Border: Killing Guillermo Martinez James Brooks Our Little Shop of Diplomatic Horrors Mike Roselle Hippies and Revolutionaries in Carcacas John Holt Black Gold, Black Death: Canada's Oil Sands Frenzy Sarah Ferguson Cops Suing Cops ... for Spying on Cops William S. Lind Beware the Ides of March Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Price of Globalization: Free Trade or Free Speech? Seth Sandronsky The Color of Job Cuts in the Auto Industry Derrick O'Keefe Rumsfeld's Hitler Analogy Michael Donnelly Hop on the Bus Ron Jacobs Religion and Political Power Elisa Salasin RSVP to Bush St. Clair / Vest Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Stew Albert God's Curse: Selected Poems Poets' Basement Guthrie, LaMorticella and Engel Website of the Weekend Killer Tells All!   February 3, 2006 Toufic Haddad A Parliament of Prisoners Heather Gray Working with Coretta Scott King Tim Wise Racism, Neo-Confederacy and the Raising of Historical Illiterates Conn Hallinan Nuclear Proliferation: the Gathering Storm Eva Golinger Rumsfeld and Negroponte Amp Up Hositility Toward Venezuela Daniel Ellsberg The World Can't Wait: Invitation to a Demonstration Dave Zirin Detroit: Super Bowl City on the Brink Robert Bryce The Problem with Cutting US Oil Imports from the Middle East Website of the Day The Chavez Code   February 2, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler Pentagon Pork: How to Eliminate It Stan Cox Outsourcing the Golden Years Rachard Itani Danes (Finally) Apologize to Muslims (For the Wrong Reasons) Mike Whitney Afghanistan Five Years Later: Buildings Down, Heroin Up Amira Hass In the Footsteps of Arafat: an Interview with Hamas' Ismail Haniya Norman Solomon When Praise is Desecration: Smothering King's Legacy with Kind Words Michael Simmons Stew Lives! Christopher Reed Japan's Dirty Secret: One Million Korean Slaves Website of the Day State of Nature   February 1, 2006 Sharon Smith The Bluff and Bluster Dems: Alito and the Faux Filibuster Jason Leopold Enron and the Bush Administration Cindy Sheehan Getting Busted at the State of the Union: What Really Happened Joseph Grosso Oprah and Elie Wiesel: a Match Made in "Neutrality" Earl Ofari Hutchinson Coretta Scott King was More Than Just Dr. King's Wife Steven Higgs Life After Roe. v. Wade Robert Robideau "God Given Rights": Palestine and Native America R. Siddharth Tales of Power: When Gandhi Rejected a Faustian Bargain with Henry Ford Jim Retherford Remembering Stew Albert: the Quiet Genius Rep. Cynthia McKinney The Legacy of Coretta Scott King Paul Craig Roberts The True State of the Union Website of the Day Candide's Notebooks   January 31, 2006 Jeffrey St. Clair Revolutionary for the Hell of It: the Good Life of Stew Albert Clancy Chassay US Prods Lebanon Towards Civil War Dave Lindorff The Democrats' Alito Debacle Niranjan Ramakrishnan Alito: Harry-Kerry in the Senate Oren Ben-Dor Hamas' Victory: a New Hope? Winslow Wheeler Pentagon Pork: What is It? Who Cooks It Up? John Ryan Canada: a Chilling Echo of Bush's Republicans Mike Marqusee Privatizing Health Care: the Poor Pay the Price Ron Jacobs For Stew Andrew Cockburn Why Bush Probably Won't Attack Iran Website of the Day Celebrating Stew Albert   January 30, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Bush, Fox News and the Coming War on Iran Winslow Wheeler Inside the Pork Shop: the Defense Budget and Congressional Earmarks Niranjan Ramakrishnan Development Interrupted Marcus Dam "The Real Threat is from Imperial Fundamentalism": an Interview with Tariq Ali John Bomar Message to Democrats: the Case Against Pre-War Lying is a Slam Dunk, Stupid Ben Beachy Swindling the Sick: the IMF Debt Relief Sham Gideon Levy The Good News About Hamas' Victory Michael Carmichael Alito and Opus Dei Missy Comley Beattie Of Losses and Lies Norman Solomon The Question Journalists Refuse to Ask Bush Brian Concannon, Jr. Finally Some Good News From Haiti Michael Ratner Tomorrow is Today; the Time for Resistance is Now Website of the Day "I'm So Bored with Capitol Hill"   January 28 / 29, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Nicholas Kristof's Brothel Problem Ralph Nader The Impeachable Mr. Bush Col. Dan Smith Spying and Lying by the Pentagon Paul Craig Roberts Blind Ignorance: Polls Show Many Americans Simply Dumber Than Bush Tammara Rosenleaf Homefront War Diary: On Monday, My Husband Didn't Call Ron Jacobs Google This! Harry Browne Irish "Peace" Process at Recriminations Stage Fred Gardner Grover Norquist, Drug Policy Reformer? Christopher Reed North Korean Forgeries Bernard Chazelle France's Colonial Blowback Daniel Wolff Radioactive Money, 2005: How Entergy Gets Its Way at Indian Point Tom Kerr Small Fry: If You're Not in Power, You'd Better Not Lie Asad Abu Khalil The Demise of Fatah Chris Murphy The Medicare Disaster Dr. Susan Block America Wants a Divorce Kathy Deacon Hippocratic Oaf St. Clair / Walker / Palmer / Shields Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Laymon, Engel, Holt, Davies and Buknatski Website of the Weekend Your Child Can Be a NSA Spook! January 27, 2006 Suren Pillay Making the World Safe for Nuclear Violence, Again Lawrence R. Velvel The NYT and Alito: Journalistic Schizophrenia J.L. Chestnut, Jr The Cold Hard Truth: Marching Backwards on Civil Rights Uri Avnery To Talk with Hamas Gary Leupp Hamas's Victory: "the Power of Democracy" Samar Assad A New Political Landscape in Palestine Jeffrey St. Clair King of the Hill: Sen. Ted Steven's Empire of Corruption Website of the Day Bush Jobs Program: You Too Can Be an FBI Snitch   January 26, 2006 Robert Robideau An AIM Activist's View of Jack Abramoff: Another Racist Out to Defraud Native Tribes Paul Craig Roberts Bolton Orders Syria to Do the Impossible Gilad Atzmon Hamas' Victory Jason Leopold A Vaster Conspiracy?: Fitzgerald Probes Niger Forgeries Joshua Frank Iran, Nukes and Oil Dave Lindorff Bush Calls Hamas Kettle Black Susan Lee An Open Letter to the State Dept. on the Cuban Five Missy Comley Beattie A Plea to the Marines: Stop Sending Recruiting Letters to Our House! Michael Carmichael Extraordinary Alito Michael Neumann The Core of Zionism Website of the Day Who Will Stop the Slaughter of Yellowstone's Bison?   January 25, 2006 Saul Landau Domestic Spying, Now and Then: When Hoover Bugged Phone Calls with My Father James Petras Is Chile's Bachelet Washington's Best New Ally? Lawrence R. Velvel Alito and Roberts' Self-Gag Rule is a Phony Vijay Prashad From Chennai with Love Kevin Zeese Gen. William Odom Supports the Empire, But Opposes the War Alison Weir When a Mother Gets Killed Does She Make a Sound? Anatomy of a Cover-Up Bruce K. Gagnon Bush War Economy: Exporting Jobs and Security Joan Roelofs Military Contractor Philanthropy Website of the Day Bob Marley Does Dylan   January 24, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts The Patriot Police: the Unfathomed Dangers of Patriot Act Reauthorization Kathy Kelly Liberation and Deliverance Jorge Mariscal Bush's War Viewed from the South Winslow T. Wheeler Smoke and Mirrors in the Defense Budget John Walsh Why We Picket John Kerry: Join Us Friday in Boston Youmans / Muaddi The Growing Israel Divestment Movement Roger Burbach Bolivia's Evo Morales: Original Mandate for Social Revolution Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste Letter from a Haitian Prison Noam Chomsky The Terrorist in the Mirror Website of the Day Big Brother Watch January 23, 2006 Uri Avnery Pity the Orphan: Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Elections Susan Pynchon Diebold in Florida: "I Saw It Hacked" William Loren Katz Harry Belafonte Reaffirms a Proud Tradition Christopher Brauchli Bush's IRS: Squeezing the Poor Chris Floyd The Goon Show Joshua Frank Tre Arrow and ELF: Environmentalism on Death Row Norman Solomon The Other Shoe Drops: Classified Leaks and Journalists Jackie Corr Working for the Railroad: Racicot and the Burlington Northern Paul Craig Roberts Inside Cheney's War Workshop Website of the Day Arms Against War   January 21/22, 2006 Tim Shorrock Why the Buses Didn't Come: Bush-Linked Florida Company and the Katrina Evacuation Fiasco Ralph Nader Congressional Ethics After Abramoff Peter Feng Casualties of War: Neoliberalism, Katrina and the Asian Tsunami Brian Cloughley CIA Bombs Pakistan, Hits America Michael Donnelly Tapes and Snitches: Feds Hand Down Eco-Sabotage Indictments Tom Kerr Crackdown in San Quentin: Why are They Rounding Up Tookie Williams' Friends? Tim Matson Best Not Drive While Black on I-91 (But Walk Tall With the Bloody Chainsaw You Just Topped Your Neighbor With) Dave Lindorff Rumsfeld: Venezuela "Overspending" on Military Daniel Wolff Hour of Reckoning: the Gospel Roots of Wilson Pickett Fred Gardner "Metabolic Syndrome" is to "Clinical Depression" as Acomplia is Prozac Jason Leopold How Cheney Used the NSA to Spy on Americans Prior to 9/11 Matthew Koehler Betting on Biscuit: Does Post-Fire Logging Make Ecological (or Economic) Sense? John Bomar The Emperor's Clothes: from Bonaparte to Bush Ron Jacobs When Miners March: Struggle and Lose, Struggle and Win! Becky Akers Debunking Democracy Joanne Mariner Security, Terrorism and Human Rights St. Clair / Walker / Pollack CounterPunch Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Albert, Holt, Engel and Davies Website of the Day Osama's Book Club: Featured Selection January 20, 2006 Brian J. Foley What Kind of War Doesn't Allow for a Truce? Richard Gott Revolution in the Andes Joshua Frank Israel and US Threats Against Iran Pierre Tristam Imperial Mongers: From Gladstone to "King George" Bernstein / Allegretto Hourly Wages Have Fallen in 18 of the Last 20 Months Elizabeth Schulte Abortion Before Roe Website of the Day This Dog Bites   January 19, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Political Machines: Was the 2004 Election Stolen? Bill Simpich Those Damn Democrats: To End War, Don't Ask for What You Don't Want Kevin Alexander Gray Reclaiming King Day (From the NAACP) Sam Husseini Rot at the Top: If the Democrats Really Want to Stop Bush, They Need New Leadership Sam Smith The Real Chocolate City Monica Benderman Dare to Make a Stand Winslow T. Wheeler Just How Big is the Defense Budget? Website of the Day Leave My Child Alone   January 18, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Gore's Speech: a Challenge That Cannot be Ignored Norman Solomon The Crime of Giving the Orders: Executing Clarence Ray Allen Jonathan M. Feldman The System Doesn't Work Anymore Michael Carmichael "Extraordinary Circumstances": the Case Against Alito Paul D'Amato The Crimes of Jimmy Carter Cynthia McKinney King's Mission Endures Norman Finkelstein Why an Economic Boycott of Israel is Justified Website of the Day The Planetary Movement   January 17, 2006 M. Shahid Alam "Real Men Go to Tehran": Has al-Qaeda's Gambit Paid Off? John Ross Latin America's Indians on the Move--in Different Directions Tariq Ali God, Blood, Oil and Iraq Michael Donnelly Killing Anna Mae Aquash, Smearing John Trudell Amira Hass No Child Left Unharassed: the Obstacle Course to School in Palestine Doug Giebel Alito's CAP: Either He Lied on His Resumé or There's a Cover-Up Bill Quigley MLK Day in a Haitian Prison Ron Jacobs Meet the Son of Jim Crow: MLK Day Below the Mason/Dixon Line Mike Stark Governor on a Killling Spree Werther The Liberties of the Subject January 16, 2006 John Walsh Tears of a Neocon: The Good News from Daniel Pipes Earl Ofari Hutchinson Black Students Under Fire: Racial Profiling in Public Schools Roger Burbach Bachelet's Victory: Leftward Drift in Chile? Norman Solomon Ted Koppel, NPR and Henry Kissinger: a Natural Fit? Robert Jensen Dreams and Nightmares: How Would King Judge America? Sam Husseini Martin Luther King and the Deeper Malady Paul Craig Roberts Bush Crosses the Rubicon Website of the Day MLK: Beyond Vietnam   January 14 / 15, 2006 Alexander Cockburn What the FBI Repairman Wore When He Tried to Bug Edward Said JoAnn Wypijewski What is an Antiwar Movement? James Petras The State of the Empire, 2006 Ron Jacobs Fifteen Years of War: Who's Better Off? Brian Cloughley Fly Boys and Lie Boys: Smart-Bombing Iraqi Families While They Sleep Marianne McDonald The Madness of Ajax: a Play for Our Time Bruce Tyler Wick Bush on Torture Echoes Charles I on Arbitrary Imprisonment Fred Gardner A Last, Desperate Plea to Stay in Canada Flavia Alaya Victory at Passaic County Jail Gary Leupp A Neocon Plan to Plant WMDs? Dr. Susan Block Peeping Tom in the Bush: Nonconsenual Voyeurism and the NSA Nicole Colson The House Jack Built: The Abramoff Giude to Buying Friends and Influencing Politics Jeffrey Kolakowski Senator as Illusionist: the Hypocrisies of John McCain Missy Comley Beattie The Stepford Hearings of Samuel Alito: The Senator, the Weepy Wife and a Secret Annoiting Charles Thomson Is Serota Dead in the Water?: the Ofili Scandal at the Tate St. Clair / Walker / Vest Playlsts: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Albert, Engel, Ford and Davies Website of the Weekend Historians Against the War   January 13, 2006 Ralph Nader The Two Questions the Senate Should Have Asked Alito Leonard Weinglass The Singular Story of the Cuban Five Amira Hass Prisoners in Their Own Land: 800,000 Palestinians Sealed Off by IDF in West Bank Chris Kutalik / Jennifer Biddle Airline Workers Fight Back Lawrence R. Velvel Alito and the Democrats Dave Lindorff Eight Who Dared: a (Short) Congressional Honor Roll Mike Whitney Countdown to War with Iran? David Price How the FBI Spied on Edward Said   January 12, 2006 Jennifer Van Bergen The Unitary Executive: Why the Bush Doctrine Violates the Constitution Jeremy Brecher / Brendan Smith Command Responsibility: Torture and Legal Accountability Lawrence R. Velvel Alito Refuses to Answer Fundamental Questions Ralph Nader / Robert Weissman Corporations, Originalism and the Bill of Rights: an Open Letter to Justice Scalia Jackie Corr Killing the Big Sky's Golden Goose: Marc Racicot and the Deregulation of Montana Power Jared Bernstein The Wage Doldrums Russell D. Hoffman New Horizons in Space, New Lows in Government Aubrey Streit I Was Born in a Small Town: the Fate of Rural America Clancy Sigal Hugh Thompson and My Lai: He Broke Ranks; He Did the Right Thing Website of the Day Nukes in Space   January 11, 2006 Kevin Zeese NSA Spied on Baltimore Peace Group (And They've Got the Documents That Prove It) Ray McGovern The Big Wiretap Allan Maass / Joe Allen Schwarzenegger's Hit List: Smearing Mandela, Killing Tookie Earl Ofari Hutchinson Snatching at King's Legacy: Mythmaking, Profiteering & Outright Distortions Annie Murphy Evo Morales' Sweater Allan Lichtman Abramoff's Kind of Big Government Ramzy Baroud Politics of Chaos: Gaza's Turmoil in Context Joshua Frank MoveOn Surrenders to Hillary Kathleen and Bill Christison "Eating Palestine for Breakfast": the Real Sharon Website of the Day Memoirs of Rummy's Geisha   January 10, 2006 Uri Avnery The Post-Sharon Landscape: Three Fingers, No Fist Saul Landau Different Americas Noam Chomsky Beyond the Ballot: Iraq, Iran and China Brian J. Foley Playing with Fire: Congress and Executive Power Lenni Brenner The War Within the Antiwar Movement Ronan Sheehan Sheehan to Sheehan: Cindy Sheehan's Irish Interview Paul Craig Roberts Bush's Con Jobs   January 9, 2006 Behzad Yaghmaian Who is to Blame for the Deaths of the Sudanese Refugees? George Bisharat US Aid to Israel is Out of Hand Dave Lindorff How the US Press Squelches Bush Impeachment Drive Norman Solomon Smoke a Marlboro, Then an Iraqi: How Media War Images Distort Not Inform Christopher Brauchli The Generosity of Credit Card Companies Aharon Shabtai A Poet's Letter on the Occupation Andrew Cockburn How Many Iraqis Have Died Since the US Invasion in 2003?   January 7 / 8, 2006 Lawrence Velvel The NYT's Unconscionable Decision to Sit on the NSA Story for a Year James Petras AIPAC on Trial: Them or US J.L. Chestnut Racism and Injustice in Alabama's Courts Mike Ely The Dead Miners in Sago Andrew Wilson The Dying of Ariel Sharon Lila Rajiva Two Moms Go to Capitol Hill William Cook The Rape of Palestine Ramor Ryan The Sub Motorcycle Diaries: On the Road with the Zapatistas Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff An Interview with Michael Scheuer on the CIA's Rendition Program Peter Montague Inherit the Wind: the Global Spread of GMO Crops Ron Jacobs Would Ethan Allen Pay to Protest? Neve Gordon Images of Real Eco-Terrorism in Twaneh Fred Gardner Business as Usual in San Diego Josh Mahon Idaho Timber Industry Leader Advocates Violence Against Green's Mom Dr. Susan Block Abramoff Family Values: the Lobbyist Who Screwed Us All Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Albert and Engel Website of the Weekend Bush Crimes Commission   January 6, 2006 José Pertierra Posada Carriles May Soon Hit the Streets Joe Allen Gary Freeman's Struggle: a Black Radical from the 1960s Fights Extradition to the US Winslow T. Wheeler Huge Defense Budget, Lousy Equipment John Bomar A Former NSA Officer on Snoopgate: the Squawkers Should be Congratulated Jason Leopold Snoop and Shred Norman Solomon Axis of Fanatics: Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad Robert Pollin Remembering Harry Magdoff: the Man Who Explained the Empire   January 5, 2006 Scott Boehm Big Profits, Buried Lives: Bulldozing the Dead in New Orleans Zoltan Grossman New Challenges for the Antiwar Movement Heather Gray Whistling Dixie Yet Again Haninah Levine Simple is Dangerous: the Pentagon's Plan for a Manhattan Project on IEDs Pierre Tristam The Sham of Homeland Security: a West Virginia Parable Remi Kanazi Stroke of Luck?: Political Hemorrhage in Israel Gilad Atzmon Sharon Meets His Maker Kathleen and Bill Christison What Hillary Clinton Doesn't Know About Palestine   January 4, 2006 Ron Jacobs Pity the Miner: A-Diggin' My Bones Lila Rajiva Terror Hits Bangalore Huibin Amee Chew Why the War is Sexist Pat Williams How the West Turned: Biting the Hands That Steal Linda Milazzo The House That George and Jack Built: Ownership Society Meets the Entrepreneurial Style Nick Dearden The Fantasy of "Even-Handedness": Blair's Cynical Policy on Palestine James Petras Evo Morales: All Growl, No Claws? Website of the Day Rat Out a Lobbyist for Jesus   January 3, 2006 James Ridgeway Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and 9/11: How Much Did the Bush Administration Know? Laith al-Saud Iraqi Intellectuals and the Occupation: an Interview with Dr. Saad Jawad Dick J. Reavis Border Walls: the View from Mexico Joshua Frank Hillary Clinton, AIPAC and Iran Rochelle Gause Inside Rafah: Collective Punishment as Normalcy Missy Comley Beattie How My Mother Went from a Republican to a Screaming Progressive Paul de Rooij A Glossary of Dispossession   January 2, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts A Gestapo Administration Clancy Sigal A Trip to the Far Side of Madness Cindy Sheehan A Tour of Europe: Friends Don't Let Friends Commit War Crimes Alexander Cockburn A NYT Editorial Contemplates Iraq         Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition February 18 / 19, 2006 Less (and More) Than It Seems WTO vs. Europe By BRIAN TOKAR In the late Spring of 2003, amidst the political fallout of "Old Europe's" refusal to support the US invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration threw down a gauntlet that threatened to permanently aggravate transatlantic hostilities. As a political favor to its agribusiness allies in the Midwestern farm belt, the administration filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) seeking to overturn Europe's de facto five-year moratorium on approvals of new genetically engineered crop varieties. The governments of Argentina and Canada also signed on to the complaint; together these three countries grow roughly 80 percent of the world's genetically engineered crops. Just last week, the substance of the WTO's decision on this case was released to the parties involved, and almost immediately leaked to the press. As nearly everyone expected, the WTO's anonymous three-judge panel ruled that some of Europe's restrictions on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) violate global trade rules, and that any attempt to regulate this technology requires strict compliance with the trade body's exacting and often industry-biased scientific risk assessment procedures. Perhaps more than any previous WTO decision, the ruling confirmed many people's fears about the role this secretive and unaccountable trade body would play in today's world. The response to the decision from both sides of the global GMO debate was immediate. Supporters of the technology were quick to declare victory, and denounce European concerns about genetic engineering as mere protectionism for European vs. American agricultural products. They predicted that the WTO would impose penalties of over a billion dollars to compensate US companies for lost European exports, and claimed this decision 'proved' that opposition to GMOs has no scientific basis. Critics of the biotech industry denounced the WTO's violation of people's right to make appropriate choices about their food and how it is grown, and pointed out that Europeans would not begin consuming genetically engineered corn or soybeans as a result of this decision. Its main impact would be on other countries still struggling to address the implications of this technology. "[T]he WTO suit is clearly an effort to chill other nations from pursuing any regulations on GE foods," explained an alliance of 15 US-based NGOs in a statement that immediately preceded the ruling. African and Asian governments are by far the most conspicuous targets. On one hand, the WTO panel ruled against the European Union (EU) in each of the three substantive areas addressed by the US complaint. First, the unnamed trade judges declared that Europe had indeed imposed a sweeping moratorium on new genetically engineered crop varieties, in violation of the international trade agreement on "Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures." Second, they ruled that approvals of 24 specific GMO crop varieties had been illegally delayed. Third, the judges declared that additional prohibitions imposed by six countries-Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and Luxemburg-are inconsistent with these countries' obligations as members of the global trade body. But on the other hand, the WTO officials were careful to point out that they had dismissed most aspects of the US complaint. This is clear from the concluding 22 pages of the 1050 page decision, the only portion that has been publicly released. The decision, for example, explicitly does not address the safety of biotech products, their similarity (or not) to conventional crop varieties, countries' right to require pre-market approval of GE varieties, nor even the European Union's specific regulatory procedures. The WTO panel affirmed that member countries have the right to consider all possible hazards of GMOs in their risk assessments, even those that are perceived to be "highly unlikely to occur." The defending countries' principal violation was a "failure to complete individual approval procedures without undue delay," no more, no less. Other aspects of the US, Canada and Argentina's complaints were largely rejected. The EU was found to have acted inconsistently with only one clause of the international sanitary measures agreement, having to do with the timeliness of GMO approvals. In six other areas, including the scientific validity of Europe's regulations, the decision refutes US assertions that Europeans acted inconsistently with their WTO obligations. The claim that European regulations discriminated against US imports in a protectionist manner was explicitly rejected, and the panel upheld European regulators' non-approval of three GMO varieties developed by Aventis Crop Science, now part of Bayer. The six countries with additional prohibitions on GMOs were found to have violated WTO rules by enacting measures that trumped EU risk assessment protocols. Thus the WTO implicitly endorsed the principle of pre-emption: that no member state can impose regulations more stringent than those of the European Union as a whole. There is no claim that countries introduced invalid or insufficient scientific evidence; their only offense was to enact a political decision that the interests of their people are best served by keeping many genetically engineered foods out of the country. It is precisely these kinds of precautionary political decisions that international trade rules aim to prohibit, even though a precautionary approach has been endorsed by parties to the United Nations' Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. European officials' defense was that they never actually imposed a moratorium on GMOs, only that companies were not complying with the existing approval process, leading to unanticipated delays. This argument was apparently rejected by the trade officials. However, during the three years that this case has been pending, EU officials clarified and streamlined their approval processes for engineered crop varieties. One new genetically engineered sweet corn has already been approved, though no one realistically expects it to be grown or marketed in Europe. The Union has implemented detailed GMO labeling and traceability rules designed to conform to WTO requirements. These protections still go far beyond anything seen in the US, and the Bush administration has repeatedly threatened a new complaint to challenge them. But first, according to Friends of the Earth, the EU will have 30 days to file a response to the WTO ruling, and is entitled to seek a "reasonable period of time" to comply, followed by another six-month review. What does this decision mean for people who mainly want to know what's in their food? That still depends on where in the world you live. In Europe, genetically engineered ingredients have been virtually eliminated from processed foods, even products imported by US companies and sold under US brand names. Any ingredient that is more than 0.9 percent genetically engineered needs to be clearly labeled as such. European countries import engineered soybeans from the US and Brazil for animal feed, but there is growing pressure on meat processors and retailers to curtail this practice. Some 3500 cities, towns and regions in Europe have declared themselves GMO-Free Zones, and just last November, Swiss voters endorsed a measure that prohibits the growing of engineered crops for five years. In the US, new varieties of genetically engineered corn, soy, canola and cotton continue to be marketed and approved for sale with only a cursory, and often voluntary, examination of company data by federal regulators. Most Hawaiian papayas are genetically engineered, as are just a few varieties of summer squash. Milk from cows injected with Monsanto's recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone also continues to be sold in many regions of the country. Nearly 100 New England towns have voted in favor of a moratorium and labeling of GMOs, and four California counties have banned the raising of engineered crops or livestock. But attempts to more comprehensively regulate this technology have languished under the pressure of Monsanto's potent political influence, especially at the federal level. The rest of the world may be up for grabs now. People throughout Asia, Africa, and parts of Latin America have raised a determined opposition to GMOs, viewing the technology as a fundamental threat to food sovereignty and the survival of traditional agriculture. Numerous countries have labeling and testing requirements that reach far beyond what is acceptable to Monsanto or the Bush administration. One hundred thirty countries (excluding the US) have ratified the UN's Biosafety Protocol, which requires prior informed consent before seeds or other living engineered organisms can be shipped into any country. It is in the so-called developing world that the pressure from the WTO's decision may be most felt, particularly in Africa, where Zambia and other countries have steadfastly resisted the introduction of GMOs, especially in the form of US food aid. "We made a decision based on facts and those facts have not changed," Zambian Agriculture Minister Mundia Sikatana told Reuters, "We do not want GM foods [and we] hope no one in Africa feels they have to change their views based on that ruling." Brian Tokar's latest book is Gene Traders: Biotechnology, World Trade and the Globalization of Hunger (www.genetraders.org).

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