Now
Available from
CounterPunch for Only $11.50 (S/H Included)
Today's
Stories
March 15, 2004
Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL in New York: From Refusenik
to Organizer
March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
March 11, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Bedtime
for Democracy
Bill Kauffman
Hey,
Ralph! Why Not Another Party of the People?
James Hollander
Slaughter
in Madrid: Consolidating an Ally?
Norman Solomon
They
Shoot Journalists, Don't They?
Patrick Gavin
The Salvation of Dan Quayle: Family Values Return
Becky Burgwin
You're
Messing with the Wrong Generation
John Sugg
The FBI is on My Trail
March 10, 2004
Hammond Guthrie
Read
This Book!: "Who the Hell is Stew Albert?"
Chris Floyd
Operation Enduring Sweatshop: Another
Bush Brings Hell to Haiti
Elizabeth Corrie
Remembering the Death of Rachel Corrie
Mike Whitney
US Press Torpedoes Aristide
M. Junaid Alam
An Anti-Civilizational War?
Bob Feldman
The Occupation of Haiti: Recalling 1915-1934
John L. Hess
An Overload of Crises
Gary Leupp
On Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi and the Uses of al-Qaeda "Links"
March 9, 2004
Greg Weiher
The
Zarqawi Gambit, Part 2
Ben Tripp
Word Up! Let's Have a Conversation
Tom Barry
Neo-Cons Target Syria
Sharon Smith
The Hypocrites in the Catholic Church
Robert Fisk
The Same Old Iraq
Doug Giebel
The Bush Strategy: Laughing All the Way
Ralph Nader
Pension Rights, the Trail of Broken Promises
Daniel Estulin
In Memory of Ricardo Ortega: a Great Journalist, Killed in Haiti
Dave Lindorff
Martha Stewart's Cloudy Day
Saul Landau
Will the Filthy Rich Dump Bush?
Website of the Day
Imperial Armies in the Garden
March 8, 2004
Amy Goodman
An
Interview with Aristide
Eric Ruder
An Interview
with Robert Fatton on the Coup in Haiti
Robert Jensen
The Presidential Library Terrorist
Connection
Mike Whitney
Expel the US from the Security Council
Jason Leopold
How Cheney Helped Cover Up Pakistan's
Nuclear Proliferation
Mazin Qumsiyeh
Why is Apartheid Touted as a Solution?
Kevin Alexander Gray
The Legacy of Strom Thurmond
Derek Seidman
Radical Continuity: an Interview with Paul Buhle
Steve Perry
Kerry Fiddles While He Could be Burning Bush
Website of the Day
Patriot
Act Game
March 6 / 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Understanding the World with
Paul Sweezy
Robert Pollin
Remembering Paul Sweezy
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Politics of Timber Theft
Tom Reeves
Bush's Mass Deportations: 63,000 and Counting
Charles Lewis
Who Mugged Howard Dean in Iowa:
Kerry, Torricelli and a Mysterious Frontgroup
Tom Jackson
My Breakfast with Sen. Judd Gregg
Kurt Nimmo
Is Venezuela Next?
Alan Cisco
A Report from Caracas
Jack Random
Haitian Democracy be Damned
Colin Piquette
Oh, Canada: the Coup Coalition
Lee Sustar
Labor's State of Emergency
William D. Hartung
Iraq and the Costs of War
David Sally
Rebuilding
Amérique
Mark Scaramella
When God Mooned Moses: Test Your Bible Knowledge
Mickey Z.
What We Can Learn from Ashcroft's Gallbladder
Ron Jacobs
Politics and Baseball
Dave Zirin
The Longest Jump: the Blackballing of Phil Shinnick
Poets' Basement
John Holt and Larry Kearney
Website of the Weekend
National Day of Action for Rachel Corrie
March 5, 2004
Chris Floyd
Uncle
Sugar: How the WMD Scam Put Money in Bush Family Pockets
Ron Jacobs
Chaos
Reigns: Haiti and Iraq
Lisa Viscidi
Guatemalan
Refugees: a Difficult Return
Yves Engler
Canada and the Coup in Haiti
Mike Legro
Those Bush Ads: Some Dead Bodies Are Worth More Than Others
Javier Armas
A Night of Inspiration: Oakland Benefit for Grocery Workers Strike
Bennett Hoffman
"Who Cares About Haiti, Anyway?"
Bill Christison
Faltering Neo-Cons Still Dangerous
Website of the Day
Haiti Support Group
March 4, 2004
Diane Christian
Sex
and Ideals
Sen. Robert Byrd
Stop the Stonewalling, Mr. President: Fairy Tales, Bush and the
9/11 Commission
Norman Solomon
Assuming the Right to Intervene: The US Press and Haiti
Jack Brown
A Fragrant Saga of Mexico's Greens
Hal Cranmer
The
John Kerry Experience
David Lindorff
Greenspan's Pension
Sam Smith
The Election is Over, We Lost
Christopher Brauchli
Goin'
to the Chapel: The Gay and the Dead
Brian D. Barry
The "Perfect" World of E-Voting: A Computer Scientist
Reports from the Polling Booth
Richard Oxman
Arsonists for Haiti?
Peter Phillips
Haitian
Fantasies: Mainstream Media Fails Itself, Again
Tariq Ali
Notes on Anti-Semitism, Zionism and
Palestine
Website of the Day
What If Boeing Ads Told the Truth?
March 3, 2004
Heather Williams / Karl
Laraque
Marines
Retake Haiti
Jack McCarthy
Guy's
Our Guy: "I am the Chief. My Hero is Pinochet."
Robert Sandels
The
Purloined Label: The Struggle Over the Havana Club Trademark
Juliana Fredman / James Davis
Israeli Organized Crime
JG
The Yuppie Silence on Haiti
Emilio Sardi
The
Colombia/US Free Trade Deal: It's About More Than Trade
Alan Farago
Swimming in Sewage
Mike Whitney
"Blood
Will Have Blood": 143 Murdered in Liberated Iraq
CounterPunch Wire
Nader's Legislative Record in the 1960s
Steve Perry
Kerry
Advisory: Remember Lena Guerrero
Nelson George/ Marcus Miller
Miles Davis & Hip Hop: a Conversation
Website of the Day
$10,000 Is Yours for the Taking: The USS Liberty Challenge
March 2, 2004
William Blum
If Kerry's
the Answer, What's the Question?
Conn Hallinan
Haiti:
the Dangerous Muddle
JoAnn Wypijewski
The Bravo
H-Bomb Test: One WMD They Couldn't Hide
Mike Whitney
Regime Change in Haiti: the Bush Dominos Keep Falling
Ra Ravishankar
Afghanistan, the Liberation That Isn't: an Interview with Mariam
from RAWA
Dan Bacher
Merle Haggard & the Politics of Salmon: "Clearcutting
is Rape"
Greg Moses
Oscar White
Brandy Baker
Mel Gibson's Minstrelsy Show
Little Tucker Carlson
What I Did on My Vacation
Robert Fisk
All This
Talk of Civil War, Now This
Merle Haggard
Kern River
Website of the Day
Rebel Edit
March 1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Morris
Thanks War Criminal in Front of Billions
Richard Oxman
Oscar's
Obit: Thanking Bob McNamara
Elaine Cassel
Writing and Reading as "Terrorism"
Mickey Z
Thomas Friedman's Education
Mike Whitney
George Will and Anti-Semitism: a Cul-de-Sac of Prejudice
Heather Williams
Haiti
as Target Practice: How the US Press Missed the Story
Cathy Crosson
Chanson d'amour haïtienne
Website of the Day
God Hates Shrimp
February 28 / 29, 2004
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: Neo-Cons, Israel and the Bush Team
Gary Leupp
Another Senseless Bush Battle: Defining and Protecting Marriage
William A. Cook
Israel:
America's Albatross
Ron Jacobs
Kucinich: Good Fight; Wrong Battlefield
Ben Tripp
A Nosegay of Posies: Queer Weddings at Last!
Leilla Matsui
Dances with Crucifixes
Mike Whitney
Dismantle
the Military Goliath
Yoel Marcus
Down and Out in the Hague
Uri Avnery
The Dancing Bear
Linda S. Heard
Britons and Americans Condemned to a Hobson's Choice
Al Krebs
Unmasking a Secret American Empire: Land, Water & Cotton
Stan Cox
Life (Pat. Pend.): Genetic Commandeering
JG
The Haiti Boomerang: "After The Looting & Pillaging,
Your Hunger Will Remain"
Rick Giombetti
Censorship at the Seattle P-I on Forced Psychiatry
Keith Hoeller
The Bankruptcy of Mental Health Insurance Parity
Dave Zirin
Colorado Football: Buffalo Swill
NADERAMA
Alan Maass
Nader and the Politics of Lesser
Evils
Michael Donnelly
Regime
Rotation: Anybody But Bush...Again?
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Exeunt Serenaders; Enter Nader
Doug Giebel
So Nader's Running? Get Over It
Bruce Jackson
An Open Letter to Naderites
CounterPunch Wire
Stalinists for Kerry! and Other Roars from the Crowd
Poets' Basement
Davies, Scarr, Kearney & Albert
February 27, 2004
Thomas C. Mountain
A
White Jesus During Black History Month?
Laura Carlsen
Americans
Abroad: Bush is Persona Non Grata
John B. Anderson
Nader's Campaign Brings Back Memories: Creating an Open Electoral
Process
Jason Leopold
Spying
on Kofi Annan
John Chuckman
Nader,
Risk and Hope
Standard Schaefer
An
Interview with Michael Hudson on Putin's Russia
Ray McGovern
Punished
for Honest Intelligence
Saul Landau
The
Haiti Redux
Website of the Day
Bush: Why I'm Running for Re-election
February 26, 2004
Brandy Baker
Is Nader
on to Something?
Jacques Kinau
AEI
to Colombia: "Can't Give You Anything But Guns, Baby"
Norman Solomon
Bugging Kofi Annan: UN Spying
and the Evasions of US Journalism
Greg Weiher
A Purloined Letter: the Zarqawi Gambit
Walt Brasch
Janet Jackson, Bush & No. 542: There are No Halftime Shows
in War
Shadi Hamid
The Music World Explodes in Anger
Norman Madarasz
As Canadian as Corruption
Chris Floyd
Bullets and Ballots
Virginia Tilly
The
Deeper Meaning of the Wall
Amy Goodman / Jeremy
Scahill
Haiti's
Lawyer Says US is Arming Haiti's Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries
Website of the Day
Clear Channel Sucks
February 25, 2004
Dr. Susan Block
Saddam's
Sex Therapist and the Rape of Free Speech
Bruce Anderson
Treacherous Bastards: The Greens and the Dems and Nader
Ron Jacobs
Our Power is on the Streets and
in Our Hearts
Mike Whitney
Bush
and Gay America: the Politics of Duplicity
Sam Husseini
Jesus in 100 Words
John L. Hess
Kick Off or Flub?
Sam Hamod
Bush's Newest Red Herring
Cockburn / St. Clair
Winning
with Nader
Website of the Day
VotePact
February 24, 2004
Ralph Nader
Why
I'm Running for President
Greg Moses
Rally
the Mob! Bush, Gay Marriage and the Constitution
Douglas O'Hara
The
Merchants of Fear: Smearing Nader
Phillip Cryan
Frozen in Time: The WSJ's Paranoid
Lens on Latin America
David Lindorff
John Kerry's China Connection
Jason Leopold
Cheney's Shame: Halliburton Faces New Charges
Gary Younge
Haiti: Throttled by History
Kromm, Masri & Purohit
Why No Democracy in Iraq?
Steve Perry
Tangled Up in Red and Blue: Beware the Electoral College
February 23, 2004
Neve Gordon
Israel's Apartheid Wall on Trial
at The Hague
Kurt Nimmo
Richard Perle, Executioner: "Heads Should Roll"
Jonathan Franklin
US Soldier Seeks Refugee Status in Canada
Al Krebs
The Liberal "Intelligentsia" v. Nader
Josh Frank
Nader's Nadir? Not a Chance
Bruce Jackson
Nader, Another View: "He's as Evil as Bush"
Gary Leupp
A Misguided
Attack, The Passion, Rabbi Lerner and the Gospels
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.
|
March
15, 2004
US Military Intervention Number 3
Haiti:
a Coup without Consultation
By LIDICE VALENZUELA
With its imperial perspective, the United States
is once again directing the fortune of Haiti--a small Caribbean
nation with some eight million inhabitants that first witnessed
military interference by its powerful northern neighbor in 1915,
which now, as in the past, is assuming the right to trample on
this nation's sovereignty.
For Washington--as demonstrated by its
arrogance--the Haitian people are second-class citizens, unable
to find solutions to their many serious and diverse problems;
problems that are precisely the result of the support afforded
by wealthy countries to a series of corrupt and dictatorial governments.
In the name of supposed democracy, last
February 29 the imperialist power sent in its marines to deliver
the coup de grace to the constitutional government of Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, after forcing him to resign and board a plane for an
unknown destination, in what has been described by many as a
"modern" coup d'etat and by others as a common practice
of the most powerful.
In 1915, the United States bombed Haiti
after a series of popular uprisings and invaded the western part
of the island that this nation shares with the Dominican Republic.
That occupation lasted 20 years.
Later, in 1994, 20,000 U.S. soldiers
returned to the impoverished Republic to reinstall Aristide (overthrown
in a traditional military coup), following a secret deal that
the White House had agreed with General Raoul Cedras.
The second occupation cost U.S. taxpayers
one billion dollars. For Haiti, whose annual budget is $300 million,
that sum could have resolved or alleviated its extreme poverty
or the pressure of the nation's foreign debt. The wave of immigrants
that attempt to land on U.S. shores every year--and that is one
of the White House motives for controlling this Caribbean nation--should
have disappeared or at least diminished.
And now comes the third military intervention
of the last 100 years, precisely when Haiti is commemorating
the bicentenary of its constitution as the first independent
republic in the region.
THE U.S. DID NOT CONSULT
CARICOM
Shortly before pressure from U.S. and
French diplomats to resign the president had announced that he
would continue to seek the road of dialogue with the opposition,
a position that was unattractive to Washington officials, interested
in installing a traditional puppet government in Haiti.
Analysts believe that the arrival of
approximately 1,000 U.S. soldiers in Haiti just a few hours after
the leader's departure constitutes a threat for other nations
in the Caribbean. Once again, the White House made its decision
without taking into account the views of regional organizations
such as the CARICOM, which was seeking a negotiated solution
to the crisis and is now demanding an investigation into the
circumstances of the former priest's resignation.
However, faced with CARICOM's demands,
on March 5 the Bush administration stated that there was nothing
to investigate or discuss. Richard Boucher, state department
spokesman, responded to journalists' questions by saying that,
for him, the function of the United States was clear and that
there was definitely no need for an investigation. That statement
came a few days after the U.S. Congress asked for an explanation
on the administration's actions in Haiti and thus the arrogant
U.S. position could turn into another headache for Bush, right
at a time when he is looking toward reelection.
The political media believes that Aristide
was abandoned after he had requested help from the international
organizations to resolve this conflict, the climax of which came
when hundreds of former soldiers and coup factions, organized
into armed gangs, went on a rampage of terror, leaving behind
them at least 100 people dead in less than one month of confrontations.
When the crisis began on February 5,
the Haitian government headed by the Lavalas Family Party came
under extreme pressure from opposition supporters calling for
a general election in the wake of alleged cases of fraud during
recent parliamentary assemblies, and also charging the president
with corruption. Aristide agreed to talks in order to find a
way to resolve the situation.
But the agreement was paralyzed due to
the revolt by former military personnel under the command of
Guy Phillipe, the former police chief who had already tried to
overthrow Aristide in 2001, who had returned from exile in the
neighboring Dominican Republic in order to speed up the head
of state's departure.
Nevertheless, having paved the way for
the United States, four days after his entry into Port-au-Prince,
Phillipe--self-proclaimed leader of the armed forces--was sidelined
from the national political game via a Washington decision.
A State Department communique on March
4, cited by a diplomatic source, indicated that the rebels are
not being considered for the new government. It stated that an
orderly and constitutional process was underway to assure the
country's political transition and that Washington was in favor
of holding talks with the Haitian opposition, but not with the
rebels, armed gangs, criminals, former members of the army or
death squads.
Members of Phillipe's armed gang, the
National Reconstruction and Liberation Resistance Front, began
to leave the capital after a heavily-protected U.S. colonel arrived
at the former army headquarters occupied by the band the previous
Monday and ejected them.
PHILLIPE LEFT OUT
OF THE GAME
According to witnesses, the colonel told
the former police chief to forget his plans to join the new government
or head the armed forces, a situation that Phillipe was not expecting
and one that, despite his later statement, was difficult for
him to accept.
The former Haitian military leader--who
declared that he was prepared to proclaim himself the country's
new president--reiterated to the press his disposition to lay
down arms and withdraw with his men to the north, perhaps to
Cap-Haitien. He affirmed that he would keep to his word, but
that his gangs would not disarm "and that's that",
which would lead one to suppose that being left without a finger
in the pie was not in his game plan.
Despite the heavy presence of troops
from the United States, Canada and Chile--plus those that are
to join them from seven other countries--occupying Port-au-Prince,
disorder and chaos still reign in this city, where there is only
one hospital. The facility is being managed by Cuban doctors
who are continuing to give support and solidarity to the Haitian
people having freely decided not to abandon the suffering population
to its fate.
Haiti remains virtually without government
. Boniface Alexandre, the interim president, has been virtually
hidden away in the residence of a U.S. diplomat since he assumed
the post on February 29, and has only made one decision to date:
appointing Leonce Charles--considered by Washington a trustworthy
individual--as head of the police force, the only legitimate
armed force in the country.
Likewise, the return of Mario Andresol--a
former official exiled in the United States--to Port-au-Prince,
has generated rumors regarding his appointment as minister of
the interior, given that he boasts a personal profile and style
that is to Washington's liking.
Heavily protected by the U.S. Army and
without any apparent power, Yvon Neptune, Aristide's former prime
minister, decreed a state of emergency and the subsequent suspension
of press freedom and the right to hold demonstrations. However,
the anticipated reestablishment of law and order in the wake
of Aristide's departure would seem to be a long way off.
Meanwhile, a hastily assembled tripartite
commission representing national and foreign political forces
continues working towards its sole objective: to create the conditions
for forming a new government in Haiti.
This team is to appoint an Advisory Council
of up to nine members, responsible for naming a new prime minister
and a government acceptable to all the factions involved, who
will subsequently convene early elections. This would appear
somewhat difficult in a situation in which counterposing interests
predominate.
Despite all these political maneuvers
in the interests of restoring what the United States has described
as "a lost democracy", observers state it would be
very difficult for Phillipe--an ambitious man who has demonstrated
his capacity for taking the country to the brink of chaos and
a humanitarian crisis--to resign himself to a quiet retreat.
Humanitarian aid continues to arrive
in devastated Haiti, whose month-long war has cost the nation
a total of $300 million, the equivalent of the annual national
budget.
The powers involved in Aristide's overthrow
are precisely those who supported the 1957-1987 dictatorships
of the Duvaliers, a family that stole $900 million and left the
Haitian people in the most appalling misery, without resources
and further castigated by a blockade imposed for being unable
to honor their financial commitments to creditors.
Eighty per cent of the Haitian people
live in dire poverty; 45% are illiterate; life expectancy for
men and women stands at 49 and 50 years, respectively. The country
lacks healthcare, sanitation and educational infrastructures.
The exodus to the United States is massive, as is the subsequent
return of would-be emigrants, given that the industrialized nation
has no interest in illiterate blacks, even as a source of cheap
labor.
When Aristide won the 2001 elections,
the United States believed that it would be able to reach a swift
agreement with the president in order to wipe out the ever-latent
threat of a mass wave of Haitian immigration--in 1991, 40,000
people left the island--without having to involve itself in economic
cooperation as a contribution to the country's reconstruction.
Certain media channels are questioning
whether the Haitian people are in fact the losers waiting for
a sweetened re-colonization, this time in the guise of "humanitarian
interference". Some have recalled that 200 years ago they
made a Revolution and are daring to predict that many things
could happen in the next few months. We can but wait and see.
Lidice Valenzuela writes for Granma, where this essay originally
appeared.
Weekend
Edition Features for March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|