Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
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Today's
Stories
May
4, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Privatized Torture
May
3, 2004
Virginia
Tilley
Let the Wall of Silence Fall
May
1 / 2, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
An Army in Disgrace, a Policy
in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat
Robert
Fisk
"Good Guys" Who Can Do No
Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders,
Useless Spies, Angry World
Heather
Williams
Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin
American Troops Flee Iraq
Diane
Rejman
An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq:
Abu Ghraib as My Lai?
Diane
Christian
Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and
Sharon Speak the Same Language
Patrick
Cockburn
Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked,
Shocked, Shocked
Chris
Floyd
Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists
and Annihilation
April
29 / 30, 2004
Dave
Zirin
A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome
Death of Pat Tillman
Kathy
Kelly
The Warden's Tour
Greg
Weiher
Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the
Banality of Evil
Michael
S. Ladah
Terrorism and Assassination: the
Ultimate Depception
Patrick
Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies
April
28, 2004
April
28, 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
Meet Congressman Know-Nothing:
Tom Tancredo
Wendy
Brinker
The Politics of the Numb
Faisal
Kutty
The Dirty Work of Canadian Intelligence
John
Chuckman
Seeking the Evil One
Mike
Whitney
Flag-Draped Coffins and the Seattle Times
Tom
Mountain
Rwanda and the F***** Word
Graeme
Greenback
The Iraqi Alamo: a CNN/CIA Production
Tracy
McLellan
The War Comes Home
M.
Junaid Alam
We are the Barbarians
William
Loren Katz
Iraq, the US and an Old Lesson
April 27, 2004
James
Davis
The Colombia 3 Acquitted
Dave
Lindorff
Chalabi as Prosecutor
Bruce
Schneier
Terrorist Threats and Political
Gain
Cockburn
/ Sengupta
British Generals Resist Calls for
More Troops to Aid Americans in Iraq
Walt
Brasch
Presidential Letters: The Day I
Was Asked to Feed an Elephant
Saul
Landau
The Empire in Denial and the Denial
of Empire
April 26, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Crossing the Shia Line: US Troops
Prepare to Enter Najaf
Wayne
Madsen
Trading Places: Will the US Go the Way of the USSR?
Grover
Furr
Protest, Rebellion, Commitment
Elaine
Cassel
Lies About the Patriot Act
Mickey
Z.
Inspired by Pat Tillman?
Greg
Moses
Bremer's De-De-Ba'athjfication Gambit
Gila
Svirsky
Anarchy in Our Souls
Uri
Avnery
Vanunu and the Terrible Secret
April 24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank
Brandy
Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So
Robert
Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free
Speech
Ben
Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios
Nelson
Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman
Mark
Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
Col.
Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush
Greg
Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...
Elaine
Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review
Vanessa
Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney
Jim
French
Agriculture's Bullied Market
Hammond
Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella
April 23, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
The Only Solution is Immediate Withdrawal
Dave
Lindorff
Imagination Deficit Disorder
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Contractors and Mercenaries: the Rising Corporate Military Monster
Norman
Solomon
Country Joe Band, 2004: "What Are We Fighting For?"
Cynthia
McKinney
All Things Are Not Equal: the Perils of Globalization
CounterPunch
Wire
A Bitch Called Wanda
Karyn
Strickler
Sierra Club, Inc.
Hammond
Guthrie
Yellow Caked in the Face
Paul
de Rooij
Graveyard of Justifications: Glossary
of the Iraqi Occupation
April 22, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
When Terror Came to Basra: "I
Saw a Minibus of Children on Fire"
Tanya
Reinhart
The Wall Behind Disengagement
Lance
Selfa
Why is Kucinich Still in the Race?
Josh
Frank
Street Fighting Man? Kucinich's Pulled Punches
Sen.
Robert Byrd
Bush Owes America Answers on Iraq
William
S. Lind
Why We Get It Wrong
Mickey
Z.
Undoing the Latches
Robert
Jensen
Why They Fast: Remembering the Victims of the World Bank
John
L. Hess
The New York Times from 30,000 Feet
April
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Yeats on Iraq
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia's Forgotten Prisoners
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's Taliban Drug Deal
William
A. Cook
George 1 to George 2
Jack
Random
Iraq and Vietnam
Jean-Guy
Allard
Alarcon Meets the Editors
Mike
Whitney
Charade in the Desert
Bill
Christison
Only Major Policies Changes Can
Help Washington Now
April 20, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Bush and Kerry Share a Problem
Stan
Cox
Wal-Mart's Magic Numbers
Bruce
Anderson
On Listening to Air America
Joseph
Kalvoda
Czech Mate for Condi
Greg
Moses
Yesterday's Intelligence
Stan
Goff
The Democrats and Iraq
Website
of the Day
Santorum Happens
April 19, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The "Central Hand" of the
Resistance
Mike
Whitney
Bob Woodward's Imperial Trifles
Douglas
Valentine
52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1
Rule
John
Chuckman
The Sharon Annex: Evil Does Often
Triumph
Doug
Giebel
Welcome to the Club
Rahul
Mahajan
Hospital Closings and War Crimes
April
16 / 18, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Bush Legitimizes Terror
Saul
Landau
Subverting Brazil and Cuba
Dave
Lindorff
Paying for War: $2,150 per Family
and Counting
Brandy
Baker
Fallujah's Collateral Damage
Mickey
Z.
The Left Attacks from the Right
Bruce
Jackson
The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit
Uns
Norman
Solomon
How the "NewsHour" Changed
History
Alexander
Cockburn
Bush, Kerry and Empire
April
15, 2004
Greg
Moses
Follow the Families, Not the Script
Virginia
Tilley
The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt:
Just Change the Channel
Ron
Jacobs
They Coulda Been Champions of the
World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic
Michael
Neumann
A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes
Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail
April
14, 2004
Tom
Reeves
Return to Haiti: an American Learning
Zone
Reza
Fiyouzat
Japan and Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
What Bush Really Said
Diane
Christian
The Real Passion
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.
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May
4, 2004
Empire of Torture
America's Dirty
Secret
By MIKE WHITNEY
The now famous picture of the hooded
Iraqi prisoner standing precariously on a box with electrical
wires dangling from both hands is affixed to my refrigerator
with the bold subtext; "Join the Bush War on Terror."
There's something otherworldly about the skeletal figure draped
in sackcloth, something eerily symbolic in his pose. For many,
this spectral image will undoubtedly be the foremost reminder
of the ill-fated Iraqi crusade.
The victim in the picture is
obviously engaged in his first seminar in American foreign policy.
Other graduates of the program can be found in Vietnam, Nicaragua,
El Salvador, Guatemala and virtually any other region of the
world where America's corporate interests require an advanced
studies curricula for dissidents.
The suspicion of torture at
Abu Ghraib prison is really not a surprise to anyone who has
reviewed the human rights reports produced by Amnesty International.
American violations of treaties against physical coercion have
been suspected for some time now, with a plethora of anecdotal
evidence in both Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the pictorial
proof in this case goes well beyond the norm and is already causing
tremors around the world.
Brigadier General Janis Karpinski,
who formally presided over Abu Ghraib prison, has been reassigned
and may be charged under military justice. She has accepted responsibility
for the misbehavior of her subordinates but is refusing to be
made the scapegoat for the activities beyond her control.
Those activities (torture)
were allegedly carried out routinely ever since the prison was
reopened under US control. As Karpinski admitted, agents from
the CIA, private contractors and Military Intelligence carried
on "sessions" with prisoners at all hours of the day
and night in restricted cellblock 1A.
"This was no 9 to 5 job,"
said Karpinski.
The six enlisted soldiers under
her command, all members of the 372nd Military Police Company,
who were photographed with the prisoners, are all facing charges
and possibly courts-martial. They have, however, defended themselves
by suggesting that they were encouraged in their behavior by
Army Intelligence.
Sergeant Ivan Frederick is
quoted as saying, "This is how the military wants it."
Their belief was that they were "softening up" the
prisoners so they would break down faster during interrogation.
(Or, as the Army report puts it, "They were setting the
physical and mental conditions for the favorable interrogation
of witnesses.")
It's clear that we are not
dealing with an isolated situation, but "systemic and illegal
abuse" that goes right up the chain of command and involves
many higher-ups in the intelligence-security apparatus. Already,
the CIA, independent contractors and Military Intelligence have
been implicated in the allegations of sponsoring torture, which
suggests that the practices were sanctioned at much higher levels
then military bigwigs are currently willing to admit.
Torturers are not free agents
operating on their own authority. They are the custodian's of
state power, applying their heinous art to anyone who may even
vaguely resemble a threat to their authority.
What is so compelling about
this case is the fact that there is a photographic record of
the crimes and humiliations, which will dispel any doubt that
the US engages in the inhumane treatment of prisoners.
The "numerous incidents
of sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuse...inflicted on
several detainees," strongly suggest that these are not
isolated incidents, but a widely accepted methodology for dealing
with potential threats. This is not an issue of six rogue enlisted
men going haywire. It is a red flag signaling the broader policy
decisions that have been made at the upper reaches of the military
and government establishments.
Americans who still want to
believe the best about themselves, will want to accept the media
narrative that these abuses are not the norm but simply the aberrant
behavior of sick soldiers. Nothing could be further from the
truth. America has perfected the culture of murder and torture
under the rubric of National security. How else do we explain
3 decades of SOA (School of the Americas) which operates quite
openly, teaching the lethal arts of psy-ops, counterinsurgency,
repression and torture? They've even produced a manual that details
how to successfully apply all of these nefarious skills. This
can hardly be regarded as mere aberration. It is a concerted
effort by the state to employ whatever criminal tools are at
its disposal to assert its dominance around the world.
The "School of the Assassins"
(as it is known) is the brightest flower in the American garland;
and one that is forever nurtured by the blood of innocent third
world men and women. It functions as an adjunct to the conventional
institutions of economic and military power, but is no less a
part of that basic structure of domination. Its primary function
is to remove whatever obstacles may appear in the path of American
corporations and to insure their continued preeminence throughout
the world.
Like everything else in the
National security apparatus, torture is an institution that is
invoked to protect the interests of the few from the foul grasp
of the many.
Torture is the empire's dirty
little secret. Behind the facade of respectability and commitment
to human rights the practice has been going on for decades almost
in full view of the American public. Counterinsurgency, assassination
and torture have all become integral parts of maintaining a global
system that functions in the interests of American industry.
It's puzzling that many appear to be "shocked" by this
transparent reality.
The real damage to America's
prestige is the photographs themselves, not the reality behind
them. It is like the serial "wife beater" who is well
respected about town until he undiplomatically brings his battered
spouse a public gathering. They all knew his secret already,
but the reality leaves them shaken.
Americans, steeped in denial,
are now equally shaken.
America is that "wife
beater" and can no longer hide behind the illusion of moral
superiority. That superiority has served us well and will be
missed a great deal. We now find ourselves stretched out in the
mud and looking eye to eye with those who we condemned just weeks
earlier.
It's a view of the world that
Bush and Co. are making sure that we get used to.
Weekend Edition
Features for April 24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank
Brandy
Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So
Robert
Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free
Speech
Ben
Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios
Nelson
Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman
Mark
Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
Col.
Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush
Greg
Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...
Elaine
Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review
Vanessa
Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney
Jim
French
Agriculture's Bullied Market
Hammond
Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella
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