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Today's
Stories
June
19, 2007
Ralph
Nader
Hillary's Stock and Trade
June
18, 2007
John
Ross
The Annexation of Mexico
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Reign of the Tyrants is at Hand
Martha
Rosenberg
Let Cheney at Him: Richardson the Oryx Hunter
Norman
Solomon
War at the Remote
Don
Santina
Memo to the Queen: Bobby Sands Died for Your Sins
Isabella
Kenfield
Landless Rural Workers Confront Lula
James
Brooks
America's Guilty Silence
Eva
Liddell
Planning to Lose: Democratic Stratagems
Sam
Husseini
Clinton Health Care Scam Revisited
Akiva
Eldar
Ariel Sharon's Dream
Website
of the Day
Frank
Zappa: the Cop Interview
June 16 / 17, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The Psychopathology of Shrinks
John
Halle
Finkelstein and "The Progressive"
Robert
Fisk
Welcome to "Palestine"
Andy
Worthington
Return to Torture?
Uri
Avnery
The Gaza Cage
Fred
Gardner
Paris Hilton's Punishment: a False
Parable
Saul
Landau
Our Gang of Thugs: The 1970s as a
Context for Terrorist Violence
P.
Sainath
Heaven Can Wait: Creditors and the
Widows of Vidharbha
Missy
Comley Beattie
Calling Evil Its Name
Alan
Gregory
When ADM Comes to Town: Killer Tax
Breaks for Wildlife Destruction
Walter
Brasch
Bush and the Philosophy of Swiss Cheese
Website
of the Weekend
Obama Girl
June
15, 2007
Alan
Farago
View from the Construction Crane:
Sex, Taxes and Real Estate Scams in Miami
Andy
Worthington
The Ordeal of Ali al--Marri
Michael
Simmons
Terrorizing Artists in the USA
Franklin
Lamb
Blowback Across Lebanon: The Failed
Sunni Army Solution
Gary
Leupp
The Day After We Attack Iran
John
Ross
Ballot Burning Time in Ol' Mexico
Website
of the Day
The American Rationalist
June 14, 2007
Michael
Donnelly
Charred SUVs and the End of Citizen
Eco--Activism
Faisal
Kutty
Scare Canada: The No--Fly List's False
Sense of Security
Harry
Browne
Ireland's Green Party Sells Out
Charles
Jonkel
From the Arctic to Yellowstone: Bears in a World of Indifference
Steven
Higgs
Murder in a Small Town: "Gay Panic"
in Indiana?
Bruce
Dixon
Black Power Through Low Power Radio
Bruce
K. Gagnon
What Do We Do Now? A 10--Step Plan
for Antiwar Activists
Website
of the Day
Finkelgate
June 13,
2007
Glen Ford
Obama's
Siren Song
Marjorie Cohn
Repression
in Oaxaca
Bill Christison
A Grave Injustice at DePaul University
Charles Jonkel
Bears in a World of Indifference
Silvia Cattori
"I Was Not Prepared for the Horrors I Saw": an Interview
with Hedy Epstein
Richard Gott
Racism and TV in Venezuela
Firmin DeBrabander
How the Neocons Misread Machiavelli
William S. Lind
The Perfect (Sine) Wave: Bombing Railroad Stations in Iraq
Keith Rosenthal
Workers Score a Victory at Harvard
Website of the Day
GOP and Monty Python Explain: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"
June 12,
2007
Jeffrey St.
Clair
How
to Sell a War
Paul Craig
Roberts
The Neocon Threat to American Freedom
P. Sainath
India's
Plutocrats and the Press
Ralph Nader
The Biggest Scam in the World
Omar Waraich
A Black Day for Pakistan's Press
Dave Lindorff
Things Your Media Momma Didn't Tell You
Harvey Wasserman
Confessions of an Anti-Nuke Jerk
Malini Johar
Schueller
It Takes a Bomb
Ramzy Baroud
War Foretold: Mark Twain and the Sins of Empire
Website of
the Day
Palestinian Chronicle Needs Our Help!
June 11,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
The
War on Journalists
Paul Craig
Roberts
Losing the Economy to Mythology
Uri Avnery
40 Bad Years: the Rot of Occupation
Norman Solomon
The Silence of the Bombs
Eva Liddell
Paris Hilton Doesn't Do Dishes: How Barbie Stood Up to Allen
Ginsberg
Rannie Amiri
Groundhog Day in Pakistan
Rachel Voss
Poetry and Politics in Nassau County
Christopher
Brauchli
A Wild West Tale, Starring Rev. Dobson and Bill O'Reilly
D. K. Wilson
Untangling Michael Vick from the Dogs
Website of
the Day
Paris, Mixed Up
June 9 / 10, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Dissidents
Against Dogma
George Ciccariello-Maher
Behind
Venezuela's "Student Rebellion": Who's Pulling the
Strings?
Saul Landau
An
Interview with Ricardo Alarcon, Vice President of Cuba
Robert Fisk
Believe It or Not in the Middle East
Brian Cloughley
Troop Support: Deceptions and Insipid Sentiments
Ron Jacobs
Condoleezza Rice Names the System
Ward Boston
Searching for the Truth About the USS Liberty
Conn Hallinan
Dark Plots in Byzantine Beirut
Leonard Peltier
The Ongoing War on Native American Religious Practices
Lawrence Davidson
Israel's New Anti-Boycott Task Force
John Ross
Mass Nude-In Complicates Church-State Scuffling in Mexico
Kate Allan
Some People Think the Internet is a Bad Thing
Fred Gardner
Ignorance Marches On
Stephen Fleischman
Little Boy, Fat Man and Iran
Monica Benderman
Reading Tom Paine in a Time of Crisis
Geoff Bailey
A Real Oil Conspiracy: Gouged at the Pump
Missy Beattie
Faith and War
Patrick Dyer
A Democrat Revs Up Ohio's Death Machine
Tim Lengerich
Dispelling the Cowboy Myth: an Interview with George Wuerthner
James Irani
and David Rahni
Perspectives on the Arrests of Iran-Americans in Tehran
Gary Leupp
The Unfair Treatment of Paris Hilton
Michael Tillery
The Heart of a Sportswriter: an Interview with David Aldridge
Michael Simmons
Beating Off the Squares: the Hipness of Anton Rosenberg
Poets' Basement
Laymon, Davies and Ford
Website of the Weekend
This is Sea Shepherd!
June 8,
2007
Serge Halimi
What
Sarkozy Learned About Politics from the US
Patrick Cockburn
The Turkish Incursion
Jeffrey St. Clair
Israel's Attack on the USS Liberty, Revisited
Paul Craig Roberts
The Secret War
William Blum
What If NBC Cheered on a Military Coup Against Bush?
Joshua Frank
Swing-State Strategy: Looking for a Spoiler
Lance Selfa
How the Six Day War Changed the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
A "Criminal Conspiracy" in the White House
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
The Summer of Love: Flashbacks of a Human Be-In
Website of the Day
Robert Pollin: "Making the Federal Minimum Wage a Living
Wage"
June 7, 2007
Marjorie Cohn
The
Prison is the War Crime
Soldz, Reisner
and Olson:
A Q & A on Psychologists and Torture
Soldz, Reisner
and Olson, et al:
An
Open Letter to Sharon Brehm, President of the American Psychological
Association
Paul Craig Roberts
Losing Iraq, Nuking Iran
Bill Quigley
"How Long Must We Support a Mistake?"
Silvia Cattori
Sailing to Gaza
Carl G. Estabrook
What the June Bug Is: Politics in the Dismal Season
Ellen Taylor
Free the Tweakers!: The Good News About Meth
Corporate Crime
Reporter
BAE Systems, Prince Bandar and the $2 Billion Account at the
Riggs Bank
Brenda Norrell
Torture Training at Ft. Huachuca: Two Priests Face Prison for
Exposing Torture in Arizona
D. K. Wilson
What Gary Sheffield Really Said
Kevin Zeese
Iraq Occupation Coming to a Head Over Oil
Website of
the Day
How the Press Expired
June 6, 2007
Alain Gresh
Countdown
to War on Iran
Gary Leupp
Poddy's Crazy Prayer: Bomb Iran, For Israel and America!
Steven Sherman
The Perils of Humanitarian Intervention
Bruce Dixon
Is Bill Gates Trying to Hijack Africa's Food Supply?
Corporate Crime Reporter
The Professor and the Nukes
Brian M. Downing
The Iraq War and Presidential Politics
Ron Jacobs
Luv n' Hate: a Different Take on the Summer of Love
George Bisharat
The Mirage of the Two State Solution
Nicole Colson
Over to You, Dante: Falwell's Ministry of Hate
Bruce K. Gagnon
From Italy to Guam: A Global Peace Movement is Taking Shape
Website of the Day
How the Democrats Should Treat Bush
June 5,
2007
Michael Neumann
Canada
in Afghanistan
Jonathan Cook
The Shin Bet and the Persecution of Azmi Bishara
David Vest
The Democrats' War
Robert Fantina
America's Cuba Policy
Hoffman, Parsneau and Chowdhury
CounterTerrorism as International Healthcare
John V. Walsh
Shaming the Official Antiwar Movement
Richard Cretan
Yellow Dog: The Strange Love of Martin Amis and Tony Blair
Adam Engel
Days of Dread: an American Tale
William S. Lind
The News from Anbar: Has Al Qaeda Over-Reached?
Myles Hoenig
Free the Oaks! Cut Down Those Yellow Ribbons!
Jim Minick
Lead-Foot Nation
Website of
the Day
Punk Rock Soap Opera
June 4, 2007
Nizar Latif
An
Interview with Moqtada al-Sadr
Diana Johnstone
Sarko
and the Ghosts of May, 1968
Gregory Wilpert
RCTV and Freedom of Speech in Venezuela
Paul Watson
The Anchorage Whale Killing Bureaucrats Summit
Susan Rosenthal,
MD
How Cindy Sheehan Unmasked the Democrats
Richard Ward
The Right of Return to New Orleans
Eva Liddell
Don't Support the Troops
Zahi Khouri
Four Decades of Occupation
Evelyn Pringle
The FDA, GlaxoSmithKline and the Avandia Disaster
China Hand
About Those North Korean Benjamin Franklins ...
Karyn Strickler
George W. Bush: a "Ficeist" Leader
Website of the Day
The Guantanamo Files
June 2 /
3, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
The
Last of the Texas Outsiders
Marc Levy
Iraq
Dead Ahead: a Brief Military History and Civilian Guide to Arlington
National Cemetery
Martin Smith
Camilo Mejía's War: From Foot Soldier for Empire to Rebel
for Peace
Diana Johnstone
Great Power Meddling in Kosovo
John Ross
The Oaxaca Volcano Stews
Uri Avnery
On Generals and Admirals
Sunsara Taylor
This is Not a Story About Cindy Sheehan
Richard Neville
Were the Hippies Right?
P. Sainath
The Farm Crisis and 100,000 Indian Widows
Missy Comley
Beattie
Let's Roar
Nisrine Abiad
and Victor Kattan
The Hariri Tribunal: a Fait Accompli?
Rannie Amiri
Lebanon, Bush and the Three Stooges
Margot Pepper
Deconstructing "Return to Sender"
Eric Stewart
Censorship and Cop Brutality in the New Bison Wars
Ralph Nader
The Halberstam Camp
Dan Bacher
A Victory for the Fish
Shaun Harkin
and Sandy Boyer
Irish War Protesters on Trial
Richard Rhames
Selling Five Acres in Crawford
Frederick Hudson
The Rediscovery of Ella Fitzgerald
Poets' Basement
Lindorff, Landau and Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
Gimme Shelter
June 1, 2007
Dave Marsh
The
FBI and the Godfather (of Soul): James Brown's FBI Files
Saul Landau
Return
to Cuba: 47 Years Later in Havana
David Phinney
How the Baghdad Embassy Was Built: Forced Labor and Worker Abuse
Robert Jensen
The Bigot and the Boycott
Stanley Heller
Arrest Robert McNamara
Yifat Susskind
Indigenous Women Fight Back
Robert Weissman
Corporate Power Since 1980
Paul Buchheit
Africa and Its Discontents
William S.
Lind
The Folly of Maximalist Objectives
Sherwood Ross
78,000 Iraqis Have Been Killed by Coalition Airstrikes
Stephen Lendman
Terrorism Defined
Website of the Day
Desert Autonomous Zone
May 31, 2007
Robert Bryce
The
Language Barrier
Patrick Cockburn
Killing with Impunity: Iraq's Militias Under the Surge
Gary Leupp
Appropriate Disillusionment: the Despair of Cindy Sheehan and
Andrew Bacevich
Kathy Kelly
Being Hope
Marjorie Cohn
The Unitary King George
Chris Kutalik
and Tiffany Ten Eyck
Fallout from the Sale of Chrysler: Jobs, Health Care, Pensions,
All in Jeopardy
Corporate Crime Reporter
Zheng Xiaoyu Meet Lester Crawford
Dave Lindorff
Our Monica: a Hero of the Constitution
Website of the Day
Know Your Rights!
May 30,
2007
James Ridgeway
The
Bi-Partisan Con on Synthetic Fuels
Franklin Lamb
Lebanon and the Planned US Airbase at Kaleiaat
Terrence E. Paupp
Withdrawal Symptoms
Uri Avnery
To the Shores of Tripoli
Alan Maass
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Green Masquerade: Corporate America's Latest Counter-Attack
Rock and Rap
Confidential
Watching the Detectives: the Political Censorship of Hip Hop
Ralph Nader
Taming the Giant Corporation
Nirmal Ghosh
China, CITES and the Fate of the Tiger
Jean Daniels
Dealing Democrats: Folding to Mr. 28%
Tom Barry
Meet Robert Zoellick: Bush's Pick to Head World Bank
Website of the Day
Petuuche Gilbert on the Rights of Indigenous People
May 29, 2007
Stephen Soldz
Shrinks
and the SERE Technique at Guantanamo
Eliza Ernshire
Refugees
Forever: Inside Bedawi Camp
Ron Jacobs
The Exit of Cindy Sheehan
Dave Lindorff
Whatever Happened to Signing Statements?
Evelyn Pringle
What Qualifies Bush to Lead Iraq War
Mike Whitney
Bush's New Middle East
David Swanson
How We Got Here: The Democrats and the Antiwar Movement
John Holt
Gating Montana, Part Two: the Feedback Loop
Cynthia McKinney
Dreaming of a True Memorial Day
Martha Rosenberg
Mad Cows, Mad Pigs and the Horse Slaughter Lobby
Website of the Day
The Ruminant
May 28, 2007
Bill Quigley
Katrina
Activists: "Less Meeting, More Fighting"
Col. Dan Smith
The Paranoid and the Dead
Cindy Sheehan
Why I Am Leaving the Democratic Party
Dr. Susan Block
Dr. Laura's Little Monster
Jeeni Criscenzo
What I Learned About Being a Dickhead
Douglas Valentine
Memorial Day: a Poem
Website of the Day
Peace TV
May 26 /
27, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
The
Greenhousers Strike Back and Out
Michael Donnelly
Green
Sabotage as "Terrorism"
Patrick Cockburn
Sadr's Dramatic Reappearance
Franklin Lamb
Inside Nahr el-Bared: "Another Waco in the Making"
Jean Bricmont
The Moral Collapse of the Moral Left
Gary Leupp
Cheney, Israel and Iran
James Petras
Imperial Rot: The Beginning of the End of the American Empire?
William Peace
Ashley Unlawfully Sterilized
Judith and John Sharpe
The Saga of Our Son, Lt. Commander John Sharpe: Under Investigation
for Antiwar Sentiments
Saul Landau
Four Dead in Ohio: From Kent State to Tiannamen Square
Paul Craig Roberts Democracy
in Iraq, Tyranny at Home?
Jonathan M.
Feldman
Congress and the Iraq War Vote
Dave Lindorff
Democratic Blood Money
Missy Beattie
Congress Plays Dead
Mike Whitney
Swan Song of the Democrats
Badruddin Khan
AIPAC Intervenes on Iran and Congress Folds, Again
Ron Jacobs
The Crime of Silence
Zoe Blunt
The Antidote to Despair
Arjun Chowdhury,
Mark Hoffman
and Kevin Parsneau
The Can-Do Troops and the New Anti-Politics
Heather Gray
The 1969 Riots Against the Chinese in Malaysia: a New Explanation
N. D. Jayaprakash
Disarmament Negotiations: A History and Prospectus
Joe Allen
and Paul D'Amato
Cartoons with Class
Poets' Basement
Gowani, Ford, Anderson and Simon
Website of
the Weekend
Addicted to War
May 25, 2007
Robert Jensen
What
the Finkelstein Tenure Fight Tells Us About the State of Academia
David Vest
So
You Thought They'd End the War
John Stauber
Democratic Spin Won't End the War in Iraq
Evelyn Pringle
Congress Gives War Profiteers Another $100 Billion
Corporate Crime Reporter
Why Corporate Social Responsibility Programs are a Fraud
Susan Rosenthal,
MD
What's Missing from the Health Care Debate
Roberto Rodriguez
Us vs. Them in the Immigration Debate
Steve Fournier
Goodie, Goodie Goodling
Patrick McElwee
Venezuela and RCTV: Is Free Speech Really at Stake?
Robert Weissman
Resisting the Commercialization of Public Schools
Website of the Day
New DNC
Motto: "We Suck"
May 24, 2007
Franklin Lamb
Who's
Behind the Fighting in North Lebanon
Corporate Crime
Reporter
House Democrats Buckle to Big Oil: Strip Down Price Gouging Bill
Robert Fantina
Giuliani: Righteous, Indignant and Wrong
Norman Solomon
Deadly Illusions, Rest in Peace
Dave Lindorff
Kerrycrats All!: Now It's a Democratic War
Sen. Russell
Feingold
We are Moving Backwards on Iraq
Fred Gardner
Doctor of Last Resort
Mike Whitney
Paulson in China
Kevin Parsneau, Arjun Chowdhury
and Mark Hoffman
Becoming Imperialist: a Warning to Iraq War Critics
Caroline Paul
My Brother the "Terrorist": Animal Liberation and Prosecutorial
Overkill
Eva Liddell
In Defense of Lying on Job Applications
Website of
the Day
Johnny's
Jumped the Shark
May 23, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
Opium:
Iraq's Newest Export
Rev. William
Alberts
Faith-Based Imperialism
Joe DeRaymond
Colombia's Civil War and the US
Sudhanva Deshpande
and Vijay Prashad
The Political Economy of a Crisis
Paul Craig Roberts
Republicans in Self-Destruct Mode
Glen Ford
A
Less "White" USA
Rannie Amiri
The Great Bank Heist of Tripoli
China Hand
China's Great Wall of Cash?
Zoe Blunt
Tales from the Tree Tops: Veteran Tree Sitter Tells All
Nivien Saleh
Who's to Blame for Iraq?
Website of the Day
Debating the Israel Lobby
May 22, 2007
Robert Fisk
A
Front Row Seat for the Bloodbath in Lebanon
Joshua Frank
Hillary Clinton's Achilles Heel?
Harvey Wasserman
Drop Dead, New Yorkers: Giuliani and the Toxic Fallout from 9/11
David Mos Masumoto
An Orchard Without Workers
Sonja Karkar
Israeli Forest Named After Australian Prime Minister
Conn Hallinan
The Afghan Quagmire
Dave Lindorff
A Widening Chasm on Impeachment
Jeffrey Kolakowski
Meet Us in Detroit: an Open Letter to John Konyers
Evelyn Pringle
A Misleading Suicide Warning
Jim Baumer
Politics Gary, Indiana-Style
Website of the Day
Should the Democrats Fear Mike Gravel?
May 21, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
The
Secret US Plot to Kill Sadr
Nicole Colson
Much Ado About the Fort Dix Pizza Plot
John Ross
Shooting for the Top: Mexico's Drug Gangs Take Aim at Calderon
Stephen Fleischman
Werewolf of Washington: Wolfowitz Comes Full Circle
M. Shahid Alam
Chosenness and Israeli Exceptionalism
Ron Jacobs
Green Mountain Days: Return to Vermont
Peter Rost, MD
Pfizer CFO Resigns
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades Save Florida?
Paul Buchheit
The Dark Side of Democracy Promotion
Website of
the Day
Code Monkey: Live!
May 19 /
20, 2007
Andrew Cockburn
Why
America Lost the War in Iraq
Uri Avnery
The Next War
Peter Gelderloos
My Arrest in Spain: The Easy Road from Tourism to Terrorism
Saul Landau
Bush's Accomplishments
Robert Fantina
Iraq's History: Lessons for the Present and the Future
Fred Gardner
Hemp vs. Pot, a False Dichotomy
Ralph Nader
Timid Democrats and the Antiwar Movement
Jean Daniels
Waiting for Obama
Reza Fiyouzat
Vietnam Syndrome: Dead or Alive?
Missy Beattie
Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani and Osama's Fatwah
Robert Alvarez
Magical Thinking About Nuclear Waste
Sonja Karkar
The Palestinians of Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Mumia Case on Hold
Jeff Sher
Keep Workers Healthy and Reduce Health Care Cost: Eliminate Co-Pays
Julian C. Holmes
Torture, Maine Style
Clancy Sigal
Red Mutiny: 11 Fateful Days on the Battleship Potemkin
Prairie Miller
The Murder of Fred Hampton
James Murren
The Dog Ate Karl Rove's Homework: When Turd Blossom Met the Teachers
of the Year
Poets' Basement
Davies, Valentine and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Yellowstone's Shame: Harassing Newborn Bison
May 18,
2007
Adam Jones
When
Does Genocide Purify? Ask the Pope
Sharon Smith
The Death of Triangulation Politics?
Christopher Brauchli
Cheney's Middle East Adventure
Peter Rost,
MD
Bribes and Spies in the Drug Industry
Denise Maloney Pictou
The Murder of Our Mother, Anna Mae Pictou Aquash: After 31 Years,
It is Time for Justice
David Swanson
Of Snoops and Dupes
Ali Khan
The Lawyers' Mutiny in Pakistan
Susan Rosenthal,
M.D.
Cho Seung-Hui Delivers His Message
Samer Assad
Israel and the Refugees: Fifty-Nine Years of Dispossession
CP News Service
Bidding for Extinction: Ivory Trade on eBay Threatens Survival
of Elephants
Website of the Day
Another War Criminal Goes to Harvard
May 17,
2007
Tariq Ali
The
General vs. the Judge
Yifat Susskind
Honor
Killings in the New Iraq: The Murder of Du'a Aswad
Dave Zirin
Being Ali or Being Owned: an Open Letter to LeBron James
Brian J. Foley
Hell, No, Harry Won't Go!
W. John Green
The Godfather of Colombia: Uribe and the Para Scandal
Eric Johnson-DeBaufre
Challenges for the New Sanctuary Movement
Badruddin Khan
Rebirthing the Neocons: Bernard Lewis' Latest Call to Arms
Martha Rosenberg
From Cockfighting to Foie Gras: On the Menu and on the Docket
China Hand
Pope Rat in Brazil: "The Amazon Tribes Longed for Christianity!"
Dan Vojir
Falwell's Tinky Winky Legacy: Who Will Battle the Telebubby Threat
Now?
Website of the Day
Welcome to the Terrordome
May 16, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
Chalabi
Speaks
Ashley Dawson
Who's Afraid of Wolfowitz?
Joshua Frank
Obama's Cash Flow: Maverick or Kidder?
Corporate Crime
Reporter
Corporate Drug Pushers
Ray McGovern
A Four-Letter Word for Tenet
Glen Ford
Black Labor and the Big Mission
Joe Bageant
The Ghosts of Timothy Leary and Hunter S. Thompson
Sonja Karkar
The 59-Year Catastrophe
Mickey S. Huff
Preaching Hate: Farewell, Falwell
John Chuckman
Falwell's Lone Act of Kindness
Kaz Dziamka
What Ever Happened to Rogerian Argument?
Website of
the Day
We're All Going to Hell
May 15,
2007
Michael Neumann
Two
States, One State and Snake Oil
Patrick Cockburn
An American Nightmare
Ashley Smith
How the US Set Iraq on Fire
Marc Gardner
Parole and the Long-Distance Trucker
Dave Lindorff
and Linn Washington, Jr
Mumia Case Reaches Its Climax
Ben Terrall
Benchmark as Theft: Iraq Oil Workers Strike to Stop Privatization
Ron Jacobs
Cheney Threatens More War
Harvey Wasserman
The Legacy of Seabrook
Marcus Mabry
Shopping During Katrina
Dr. Susan Block
Cheney and the DC Madam's Cookie Jar
Website of the Day
Save Jean Klock Park from the Mega-Developers!
May 14,
2007
Jennifer Roesch
Giuliani
Time: the Mussolini of Manhattan
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Humans,
CO2 and Climate Change
George Bisharat
For Palestinians, Memory Matters
Diane Wachtell
The Real Imus Lesson
Ramzy Baroud
From Palestine to Rotterdam
Rosemary and
Walter Brasch
When the National Guard Goes Missing: An Ill Wind and American
Policy
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Blair's Exit
Roberto Rodriguez
The Elusive Bars of Justice
Jonathan Culp
Cutting Out Collage: Copyright and Art in Canada
Website of
the Day
Uranium Rock
May 12 /
13, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Who
are the Merchants of Fear?
Patrick Cockburn
State of Surge
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Line Fever: a Trip Across the Dark Side of Montana
Diane Farsetta
Untold Stories from the Pat Tillman / Jessica Lynch Hearings
Ralph Nader
Strip Mining the Newsroom: Mr. Zell and the Tribune Company
Jean Bricmont
The Great Illusion: Sarkozy and the "Decline" of France
Marcus Breen
Cheering Sarkozy: the US Media and the Rightwing Takeover of
France
Joe Bageant
Rising Above Politics
Conn Hallinan
European Missiles and the Camel's Nose
Fred Gardner
The Unreported I-880 Fire
Juan Santos
and Leslie Radford
Public Terror: Escalating the War on Migrants
Eve Bachrach
Inside Colombia's Flower Industry
Missy Comley
Beattie
Shame
Ron Jacobs
The Bitterness of Regis Debray
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Sepoy Mutiny After 150 Years
Susie Day
Jesus Christ Weds Pat Robertson
Poets' Basement
Newberry, Engel, Landau, Katz and Davies
Website of the Weekend
The Shipyard: Recycling as Art
May 11,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
Blair's
Depature: the View from Baghdad
Kathleen Christison
Playing at Peace
Mike Ferner
Collateral Genocide
John Holt
Gating Montana: A Ghastly Disneyland with High Rise Outhouses
Laurie Hasbrook
This Minute and Then the Next: a Plea from an Antiwar Mother
Christopher
Brauchli
The Children of Limbo: Will the Pope Finally Set Them Free?
Margaret Kimberley
GOP Openly Embraces Gipper Values: Racism, Violence and Control
Dave Lindorff
Use It or Lose It: The Democrats and the Impeachment Clause
Nicole Colson
Anger Erupts at Conditions in For-Profit Indiana Prison
John V. Walsh
Beware the Do-Gooders in Body Armor
Website of the Day
Take the Terrorist Quiz!
May 10,
2007
Tariq Ali
Adieu,
Blair, Adieu
Patrick Cockburn
Killing of Teachers Turns Iraqi Sunnis Against al--Qa'ida
Neve Gordon
and Yigal Bronner
In Israel Not All Blood is the Same: The Death of Samir Dari
Marjorie Cohn
Fighting Terror Selectively: Washington and Posada Carriles
David Rosen
The New Disappeared: Sex Offenders, Civil Confinement and the
Resurrection of "Evil"
Alan Farago
Why the Everglades Have Dried Up: Developers and the South Florida
Drought
John Hellman
France: From Pétain to Sarkozy
Kathy Rentenbach
A 100 Days of Rafael Correa
BANCO
The Stage is Set for Sentencing Another Innocent Black Man
Richard Rhames
Is Paris Burning?
Website of the Day
Tame the Corporation
May 9, 2007
Jeff Leys
Iraq
and Afghanistan Supplemental Spending, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign Minister on Iran and Iraq
Glen Ford
No Black Plan for America's Cities
Paula Rothenberg
Feminism Then and Now
Kathryn Weber
A Conversation with Norman Finkelstein
John Chuckman
The Likely Historical Significance of the War in Iraq
Jordan Flaherty
Looking for Justice in Jena, Louisiana
Dave Lindorff
Pelosi's Toothless Threat to Sue Bush
Stephen Lendman
Criminalizing Speech: the War on Free Expression in a Post-9/11
World
Website of
the Day
"Fifth and Market": a Short Film About the Iraq War
May 8, 2007
Dave Lindorff
The
Great Oil Robbery
Patrick Cockburn
The Horrific Stoning Death of a Yazidi Girl Sparks Waves of Revenge
Killings
Corporate Crime Reporter
Snuff Politics: Democrats Escalate Attack on Single Payer
Ralph Nader
The People's Crusade of Mike Gravel
Malini Johar Schueller
Decoding Harlan Ullman: Shock and Awe as Sexual Fantasy
Juan Santos
The Hate Equation: Targeting Migrant Children in LA
Dave Zirin
Jason Whitlock, the Clarence Thomas of Sportswriters?
Joshua Frank
The Price of Fire in Latin America
Evelyn Pringle
Serotonin Syndrome
Eamonn McCann
Irish Peace Dividend for Discredited Premiers
Website of the Day
The Pagan Science Monitor
May 7, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
The
Great Wall of Baghdad Rises
Monica Benderman
Land of Opportunity
Greg Moses
Hutto Prison Rebuffs UN Rapporteur
Rannie Amiri
The Sham at Sheikh: Iraq Regional Conference a Flop
Fitrakis / Wasserman
Media Silence on Kent State Revelations
Fred Wilhelms
Another Royalty Forfeiture From SoundExchange: And This Time
It's Secret!
Ramzy Baroud
The Hourglass of Blood: Darfur Revisited
Bruce K. Gagnon
The Democrats Don't Own the Antiwar Movement
T. W. Croft
Home Movies from a Weekend in Paris--And Related Dreamscapes
Sonja Karkar
Prizes for Supporting Israel?
Website of the Day
Posada Carriles: the Declassified Record
May 5 / 6, 2007
Alexander Cockburn
Trying
to Catch Up with the Voters
William Blum
How America Has Changed Iraq
Uri Avnery
Exercise in Escapism
Franklin Lamb
Harvard's Twisted Report on Israel's Invasion of Lebanon
Fred Gardner
Elective Surgeries Kill
Lawrence R.
Velvel
The American Moral Meltdown Accelerates
Missy Beattie
Lying and Dying: The Moral Sensibility
of Military Recruiters
Robert Fantina
Bush's Veto: Hypocritical Words and Actions
Carla Blank
American Massacres and the Media
Linn Washington,
Jr.
The Long Ordeal of Harold Wilson
Stephen F. Jackson
Taking It to Drummond: Paramilitaries and Mining Companies in
Colombia
P. Sainath
The Jailing of Indian Farmers
Anthony Papa
Time to End New York's War on Itself
James T. Phillips
Blather Cancer
John Ross
Last Days of the Willie Loman of the EZLN
Stephen Lendman
Chavez's Oil Policy Sparks Panic at Wall Street Journal
Ben Terrall
Iggy Pop at 60
CounterPunch
Newswire
Advice from a Geezer Assassin
Poets' Basement
Valentine, Engel and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
Mountain Justice Summer
May 4, 2007
Patrick Cockburn
How
the Surge is Failing
Col. Dan Smith
From Watergate to Gonzogate
Norman Solomon
FOX on Wall Street
Azmi Bishara
Why is Israel After Me?
Ron Jacobs
Sitting in on Senator Kohl and the War
Dave Lindorff
Clinton and Byrd are Calling for Revocation of the Wrong AUMF
Kevin Zeese
The Democrats Cave to Bush
Bob Fitrakis
Why Four Died in Ohio: Kent State, Gov. Rhodes and the FBI
Janet Kauffman
"Stop the Mudness!" Bare Earth is Scorched Earth
Website of
the Day
Let Us Gather in Missouri!
May 3, 2007
Jeff Halper
The
Livni-Rice Plan for the Middle East: a Just Peace or Apartheid?
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's
Best and Brightest: From Dr. Keroack to Bernard Kerik
Dave Zirin
Talking Sports from Death Row: an Interview with Kevin Cooper
Corporate Crime
Reporter
Big Pharma Gets Its Hooks into Seton Hall Law School
Robert Fisk
Olmert Comes Undone
Mike Ferner
Bush Veto, Right for the Wrong Reasons?
Mike Whitney
A Stock Market Post-Mortem
Pham Binh
The Democrats and War Funding
Dave Lindorff
Kucinich's Impeachment Train: Look Who Just Stepped Aboard
Michael A.
Johnson
Tenet on 60 Minutes
Website of the Day
Olivia Wilde: the Interview
May 2, 2007
Saul Landau
Would
Jesus Wear a Rolex on His TV Show?
Dr. Susan Block
Hookergate II: Madame Julia's Big Black Book of Cheesy Republican
Sex Acts
Carla Blank
Historical Amnesia: Worst U.S. Massacre?
Margaret Kimberly
The Candor of Mike Gravel: "These People Frighten Me"
Kevin Zeese
Durbin Gives Edwards More to Apologize For
Carlos Villareal
How "Law and Order" Covers for Bigotry in the Immigration
Debate
Michael Dickinson
Trouble in Turkey: Criminalizing Political Art
Tim Shorrock
A Raw Deal Between Washington and Seoul: Corporate Interventionism
as Trade Policy
Alevtina Rea
The Myth-Makers of Estonia
William S.
Lind
General Incompetence: Col. Yingling and the Military Brass
Website of the Day
Good News: Rost's "ZubeGate Exposé Prompts Congressional
Inquiry
May 1, 2007
Andrew Cockburn
How
Rumsfeld Micromanaged Torture
Fred Gardner
Affirmative Abstinence: Adios, Randall Tobias, the Man Who Turned
His Wife's Suicide into a Sales Pitch for Prozac
Chase Madar
Are Working Class Jobs Bad for Your Health?
Ralph Nader
Cheney and the BYU 25: Faith, Accountability and Protest in Utah
John V. Walsh
Edgy Dems Snarl at Their Antiwar Base
Joshua Frank
Obama, Incorporated
Leslie Radford
The Migrant Trap and the Migrant's Way Out
Shaun Harkin
An Interview with Nativo López on Immigration Bills and
Protests
Dave Lindorff
Murtha Talks Impeachment
Peter Rost,
MD
Inspector General Requests Meeting with Pfizer Whistleblower
Peter Linebaugh
May Day and Magna Carta
Website of
the Day
Impeachment? Why Bother?
|
June
19, 2007
How Not to Do It
Countering
Terrorism
By Veterans Intelligence
Professionals for Sanity
MEMORANDUM
FROM: Veteran Intelligence
Professionals for Sanity
SUBJECT: Countering Terrorism;
How Not To Do It
On June 6, 2002, former FBI
Special Agent Coleen Rowley testified before the Senate Committee
on the Judiciary about the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and how
the FBI could do a better job detecting and disrupting terrorism.
Time magazine had acquired (not from Rowley) a long letter she
wrote to FBI Director Mueller listing a string of lapses in the
month before 9/11 that helped account for the failure to prevent
the attacks. As painful and embarrassing as it was after such
tragedy to unravel the mistakes, Rowley insisted that the unraveling
was necessary in order to address effectively the threat of further
terrorist attacks. Her VIPS colleagues asked Rowley to review
what has happened in the five years since her testimony, and
we have contributed to this memorandum. In what follows, Rowley
outlines how the primacy given to PR and other political factors
has encumbered still further the FBI's ability to deal in reasonable
and effective ways with the challenge of terrorism.
Given the effort that many
of us have put into suggestions for reform, how satisfying it
would be, were we able to report that appropriate correctives
have been introduced to make us safer. But the bottom line is
that the PR bromide to the effect that we are "safer"
is incorrect. We are not safer. What follows will help explain
why.
Wrong-headed actions and ideas
had already taken root before that Senate hearing on June 6,
2002. Post 9/11 dragnet-detentions of innocents, official tolerance
of torture (including abuse of U.S. citizens like John Walker
Lindh), and panic-boosting color codes, had already been spawned
from the mother of all slogans-"The Global War on Terror"-rhetorically
useful, substantively inane. GWOT was about to spawn much worse.
Within a few hours of the Senate
hearing five years ago, President George W. Bush reversed himself
and made a surprise public announcement saying he would, after
all, create a new Department of Homeland Security. The announcement
seemed timed to relegate to the "in-other-news" category
the disturbing things reported to the Senate earlier that day
about the mistakes made during the weeks prior to 9/11. More
important, the president's decision itself was one of the most
egregious examples of the doing-something-for-the-sake-of-appearing
to-be-doing-something-against-terrorism syndrome.
As anyone who has worked in
the federal bureaucracy could immediately recognize, the creation
of DHS was clearly a gross misstep on a purely pragmatic level.
It created chaos by throwing together 22 agencies with 180,000
workers-many of them in jobs vital to our nation's security,
both at home and abroad. It also enabled functionaries like
the two Michaels-Brown and Chertoff-to immobilize key agencies
like the previously well-run Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA), leading to its feckless response to Hurricane Katrina.
Radical,
Reckless Departures From the Law
There were so many other missteps,
so much playing fast and loose with the law, that it is hard
to know where to begin in critiquing the results. One transcendent
error was the eagerness of senior political appointees to exploit
the "9/11-Changed-Everything" chestnut to prime people
into believing that effective detection and disruption of terrorism
required radical departures from rules governing our criminal
justice and intelligence collection systems. Departures from
established law and policies were introduced quickly. Many of
the worst of these came to light only later-extraordinary rendition,
"black-site" imprisonment, torture, and eavesdropping
without a warrant. (We now know that senior Justice Department
officials strongly objected to the eavesdropping program.)
The first protests came from
those most concerned with human rights and constitutional law.
But, by and large, the fear-laden populace "didn't get
it." The prevailing attitude seemed to be, "Who cares?
I want to be safe." Everyone wants security. But all
too few recognize that security and liberty are basically flip
sides of the same coin. Just as there can be no meaningful liberty
in a situation devoid of security, there can be no real security
in a situation devoid of liberty. It took a bit longer for pragmatists
to observe and explain how the draconian steps departing from
established law and policy-not to mention the knee-jerk collection
and storing of virtually all available information on everyone-
are not, for the most part, helping to improve the country's
security.
The parallel with the introduction
of officially sanctioned torture is instructive. TV programs
aside, many if not most Americans instinctively know there is
something basically wrong with torture-that it is immoral as
well as illegal and a violation of human rights. Pragmatists
(experienced intelligence and law enforcement professionals,
in particular) oppose torture because it does not work and often
is counterproductive. Nevertheless, the president grabbed the
headlines when he argued on Sept. 6, 2006 that "an alternative
set of procedures" (already outlawed by the U.S. Army) for
interrogation is required to extract information from terrorists.
He then went on to intimidate a supine Congress into approving
such procedures.
Virtually omitted from media
coverage were the same-day remarks of the pragmatist chief of
Army intelligence, Lt. Gen. John Kimmons, who conceded past "transgressions
and mistakes" and made the Army's view quite clear: "No
good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices. I
think history tells us that. I think the empirical evidence
of the last five years, hard years, tells us that."
Who should enjoy more credibility
in this area, Bush or Kimmons?
The War
on [fill in the blank]
"War! Huh... What is
it good for? Absolutely nothing!" This 1969 song lyric
turns out to be even more applicable to Bush's "global war
on terror" than to the Vietnam War. As for "The War
on Drugs," that one was readily recognized as little more
than a catchy metaphor helpful in arguing for budget increases.
But the use of our armed forces for war in Iraq was guaranteed
to be self-defeating and to increase the terrorist threat.
-- Military weapons are inherently
rough, crude tools. Our rhetoric makes bombs and missiles out
to be capable of "surgical strikes," but such weapons
also injure and kill innocent men, women, and children, taking
us down to the same low level inhabited by terrorists who rationalize
the killing or injuring of civilians for their cause. Civilian
casualties also serve to radicalize people and swell the terrorist
ranks to the point where it becomes impossible for us to kill
more terrorists than U.S. policy and actions create. (In one
of his leaked memos, former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld
asked about that; he should have paused long enough to listen
to the answer.) This inherent "squaring of the error"
problem in applying military force in this context has been a
boon to terrorist recruitment, and has spurred activity to the
point of having actually quadrupled significant terrorist incidents
worldwide.
-- Declaring "war"
on the tactic of terrorism elevates to statehood what actually
may be scattered, disorganized individuals, sympathizers, and
small groups. It empowers the terrorists as they add to their
numbers and provides the status of statehood to what often should
be regarded and treated as a rag-tag group of criminals.
-- There is, of course, political
advantage for a "war president" to rally Americans
around the flag, but the negatives of the axioms "truth
is the first casualty of war" and "all's fair in love
and war" far outweigh any positives. Ultimately, the recklessness
and cover-up mid-wived by the "fog of war" (everything
from the friendly fire that killed Pat Tillman to the torture
at Abu Ghraib and other atrocities) just magnify the "squaring
the error" effect. Judiciousness-and just plain smarts-tend
to be sacrificed for quick action.
-- Perhaps the most insidious
blowback from war is that it weakens freedom and the rule of
law inside the country waging it. James Madison was typically
prescient in warning of this: "No nation can preserve its
freedom in the midst of continual warfare;" and "If
Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise
of fighting a foreign enemy."
From
Fire Hose to Niagara to Tsunami
Administration pressure on
intelligence collection agencies, together with an extraordinary
lack of professionalism and courage in the senior ranks of such
agencies, have resulted in not only over-reaching the law, but
over-collecting information. Those on the front lines striving
to prevent future attacks face the kind of pressure a soccer
goalie would feel trying to keep the other team from scoring
when his own team's offense is off playing in an adjacent field-as
when President George W. Bush sent our offense to invade Iraq,
the wrong country with negligible ties to terrorism. Facing
that kind of pressure, and lacking strong professional coaching,
the defense can feel hopelessly outmatched, leading to still
further mishap.
Former Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld spoke of the difficulty of getting a sip from the fire
hose of intelligence being collected and flowing through the
system. The stream of intelligence before 9/11 was also described
by others as gushing from a fire hose, rendering it hard to find
the dots, much less connect them-making it impossible, for example,
to find, translate, and disseminate until 9/12 a key 9/11-related
intercept acquired shortly before the attacks. Compounding the
problem is the FBI's unenviable record in acquiring computer
technology to facilitate its work-witness the junking of a computerized
records system two years ago after wasting $170 million on defense
contractors hired to create the system.
But the fire hose soon became
Niagara Falls. FBI Director Robert Mueller set the tone early
on as he kept telling Congress, "The greatest threat is
from al-Qaeda cells in the US that we have not yet identified."
(sic) Blindly following Mueller's White House-induced fixation
with the "greatest" (though not yet "identified")
threat, the FBI diverted about half its agents and other resources
from areas like violent crime to work on terrorism.
Small wonder, then, that tons
of additional data have been collected as a result, for example,
of the "No-Tip-Will-Go-Uncovered" policy and the hundreds
of thousands of National Security Letter requests. And who is
surprised that most of that tonnage will never be evaluated?
There is no denying that the threat from Al Qaeda has grown
over the past five years, and today probably better fits the
earlier inflated warnings of multiple terrorist cells already
in place in the U.S. Hard questions must be asked, however,
when it appears as though collectors are being paid by the ream,
while the drowning analysts go down for the third time.
Extraneous, irrelevant data
clutter the system, making it even harder for analysts to make
meaningful future connections. A needle is hard enough to find
in the proverbial haystack, without adding still more hay. And
once the extra hay is piled onto the stack-by adding still more
names to the 40,000-plus already on the "no-fly list,"
for example-there doesn't seem to be any way of reducing it.
Ask Northfield (Minnesota) Police Chief Gary Smith and other
law enforcement officers whose very common names have gotten
onto this seemingly indelible list and who get stopped every
time they try to fly.
The
Ghost of Poindexter: "Total Information Awareness"
Revisited
Just when it appears this insanity
cannot get any worse, here come still more dots. Recent news
reports indicate that the FBI-presumably having hired different
contractors this time around-is compiling a massive computer
database that will hold 6 billion records by 2012. This equals
20 separate "records" for each man, woman and child
in the United States. "The universe of subjects will expand
exponentially" is the proud spin being put on this recycled
version of the Pentagon's discredited "Total Information
Awareness" program.
Data-mining experts are not
convinced this program is worth the effort. Since there are
so few known terrorist patterns of behavior, one specialist has
written that this kind of search would not only needlessly infringe
on privacy and civil liberties, but also waste taxpayer dollars
and misdirect still more time and energy by "flood[ing]
the national security system with false positives-suspects who
are truly innocent." If this were not enough, we learn
that the terrorist watch list compiled by the FBI and the National
Counterterrorism Center is out of control, having apparently
swelled to include more than half a million names. So instead
of trying to get a sip from a fire hose, or from Niagara Falls,
the data-mining challenge is going to be more like sipping from
a tsunami.
The good news is that this
predicament is creating unusual consensus among people concerned
with human rights and those dealing with pragmatic law enforcement.
As one specialist on civil liberties observed recently, "There's
a reason the FBI has a 'Ten Most Wanted' list, right? We need
to focus the government's efforts on the greatest threats. When
the watch list grows to this level, it's useless as an anti-terror
tool."
Quantity cannot substitute
for quality. Higher quality data collection depends not only
on better guidance with respect to relevance, but also on judiciousness
applied from the beginning and throughout the collection process.
Unfortunately, case and statutory law has come to be regarded
as some kind of nicety-or a barrier that needs to be overcome.
Not so. That law sets standards of relevancy for collection
that used to hold down data clutter. One might view the process
of investigation, intelligence collection, increased intrusiveness,
and erosion of liberties as a pyramid with the least intrusive
actions and methods on the bottom of the pyramid entailing little
or no interference with one's civil liberties. As a suspect
proceeds up the pyramid from being the target of an investigation,
to temporary detention, interview, search, arrest, and finally
subject to criminal charges and long-term incarceration, each
higher level of intrusiveness should correspond to a greater
amount of evidence. What the "war on terrorism" has
done, however, to a large extent, is simply invert this pyramid
on its head, allowing long-term incarceration with little or
no corresponding evidence.
In the past, general awareness
that collected data could either become publicly known through
criminal processes (criminal discovery), or through a plain Freedom
of Information/Privacy Act request, built an extra degree of
judiciousness into data collection. Classifying all information
about international terrorism secret, perpetually secret, which
is the current practice, removes this natural safeguard.
Former FBI agent Mike German,
whose life depended on government secrecy when he was working
under cover in domestic terrorism investigations, has an acute
understanding of the need for operational secrecy in undercover
work. At the same time, German has pointed to the pitfalls of
secrecy where it is not essential, and has emphasized the importance
of transparency within the government, even when conducting sensitive
operations:
"While my activities were
covert during the operational phase of
my undercover work, I knew from day one that I would have to
be able to defend in court my actions. This gave me extra incentive
to do everything by the book, so as to avoid the kind of mistakes
or over-reaching that could prejudice efforts to bring domestic
terrorists to justice. Operations designed with the understanding
that they can remain forever secret do not require this kind
of diligence and this can easily lead to abuse."
But What
About Emergencies?
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