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Today's
Stories
October 13,
2004
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
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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October 13, 2004
Forcing Exile;
Revoking Citizenship
The
Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
By
MIKE WHITNEY
The Yasir Hamdi case has been resolved
in favor of the Bush Administration, delivering a stinging blow
to the Bill of Rights. For the first time in American history
a citizen has been stripped of his citizenship and deported without
ever having been charged with a crime. Hamdi's expulsion fulfills
the long-sought objective of right wing groups that have worked
tirelessly to ramrod deportation legislation through the Congress.
Now, with Hamdi being shuffled off to Saudi Arabia they,ve hit
the Mother Lode; the precedent is set for robbing American's
of their citizenship and shipping them out of the country. It
is an incalculable victory for despotism.
At this point, the allegations
against Hamdi almost seem irrelevant. It's obvious that Bush
and co. had nothing concrete they could pin on him, so they labeled
him an "enemy combatant" and tossed him in jail as
a threat to national security. (The term "enemy combatant"
has subsequently achieved a level of acceptability among the
American people although it has no legal meaning and, in fact,
indicates the suspension of all civil liberties by order of the
president.) More than likely Hamdi was just an unlucky chap who
could be used to unravel the nettlesome legal obstacles that
protect the citizen from the state. He became the unfortunate
lab-rat for Bush's draconian revamping of the law.
Hamdi's case has only attracted
modest attention from the media. They would rather scrutinize
every inane barb on the campaign trail then defend the country's
founding document. The press has kept the details of this landmark
case tucked away on its back pages where the story can be used
to offset advertisements for laundry detergent and panty liners.
Civil liberties continue to take a back seat to both sensationalized
news and consumerism.
Less then three months ago
the Supreme Court decided that Hamdi could "not be held
indefinitely without some access to the legal system". Once
again, the majority of the judges demonstrated their meager appreciation
of the Constitution. Needless to say their ruling did nothing
to mitigate the suffering of Hamdi who spent the last two and
a half years in solitary confinement. Nor did it clarify how
the law was to be implemented. It simply provided a nebulous
admission that, "Yes, we do accept the concept of habeas
corpus in principle; we just refuse to do anything to ensure
that it is applied."
Their ruling proved to be the
"blank check" the Administration needed to pursue their
dubious policies. Secretary Rumsfeld responded immediately to
this by convening his "kangaroo" tribunals at Guantanamo
Bay. He was undoubtedly emboldened by the Court's unwillingness
to issue a clear statement of how the law should be carried out.
As for Hamdi, the ruling provided no relief at all. The old saying
that "justice delayed is justice denied" is particularly
poignant in this case where the court effectively suspended the
process that allows justice to be realized.
Even more astonishing is the
fact that the Bush administration hammered out a deal with Saudi
Arabia to deport Hamdi and strip him of his citizenship in full
view of the High Court without a word of dissent from the bench.
The court's culpability in this crime cannot be overstated. By
refusing to force the government to either release Hamdi or charge
him with a crime, they deprived him of his most basic due process
rights and endorsed the tyrannical behavior of the Bush administration.
Their inaction paved the way for an innocent man to be punished
and for the Bush clan to add yet another weapon to their arsenal;
the threat of exile. (The Court's conduct in this case poses
a serious constitutional crisis. By any standard, Hamdi's deportation
is a clear violation of the Bill of Rights. The collusive relationship
of the government and the court must be thoroughly examined and
remedied. We must at least consider the obvious, though daunting
task of removing judges from the bench. A system that cannot
provide even basic protections for its citizens, or allows the
state to strip them of their "inalienable" rights,
is terminally dysfunctional.)
The Bush Administration is
offering the pitiable excuse that Hamdi was given a choice in
renouncing his citizenship. Nothing could be further from the
truth. Hamdi forfeited his citizenship in exchange for his freedom.
He had no other option. He could either comply with the demands
of the government or subject himself to indefinite incarceration.
It was a clear case of coercion
The fact that Hamdi posed no
serious threat to national security should be a red flag for
Americans. It's an admission that the case has a deeper meaning
than what appears on the surface. The real significance of Hamdi's
case is to establish the precedents for revoking citizenship
and forcing exile; two more repressive tools for the Bush work
chest.
Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can
be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com
Weekend
Edition Features for September 18 / 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
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