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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers! ISRAEL'S IRON HEEL It began when Harry Truman was in the White House. It has continued under every U.S. President since, and in this extended report we lay out the consequences of 60 years of brutal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. Feroze Sidhwa details the human price of systematic, intentional destruction of the Palestinian social and economic fabric: physical and mental deterioration, traumatized youth, a savaged environment. Nancy Glass and Reem Salahi describe the Kafka-esque conditions in which Palestinian lawyers try to defend their people in Israel's courts. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Note: Thanks to a last minute surge of donations from CounterPunchers across the globe we met and surpassed the goal of our annual funding appeal. More than 2,000 CounterPunchers helped us raise $76,175! A heartful thanks to one and all! Remember, if you haven't yet donated, contributions to CounterPunch are tax deductible and CounterPunch books and gear make great holiday presents. Order CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year and Receive a Free Copy of "Imperial Crusades: a Diary of Three Wars" by Cockburn and St. Clair

Today's Stories November 29, 2007 R. F. Blader The Most Dangerous Kind of Bribe November 28, 2007 James Petras CIA Destabilization Memo Surfaces on Venezuela Jeff Halper Annapolis: When the Roadmap is a One Way Street Pam Martens Crashing Citigroup Peter Morici Economy in Crisis: Avoiding a Recession Mohammed Khatib Separate and Unequal in Palestine Helen Redmond The Horror and the Hope: Health Care in America William S. Lind In the Fox's Lair: Quiet Before a New Iraq Storm? Ben Tripp We, the People: a Trope for All Seasons Liaquat Ali Khan Pakistan: First, Restore the Constitution and Reinstate the Judges Jeff Berg Holbrooke Says Bush Won't Attack Iran Website of the Day The Lies of Joe Klein   November 27, 2007 Joe DeRaymond On the Road to the Torture School Paul Craig Roberts Meet the Only Two Candidates Worse Than Bush and Cheney: Hillary and Rudy Marjorie Cohn Remembering Victor Rabinowitz Mike Whitney A Dollar the Size of a Postage Stamp Ron Jacobs The Myths of Military Progress Col. Dan Smith The Pentagon's "People System" Still Doesn't Work Ralph Nader Family Learning Karim Makdisi Annapolis and the Unholy Alliance: the View from Beirut Christopher Ketcham Memo to Hollywood Writers: Strike Until You Drop Ronan Bennett Martin Amis Does a Coulter Website of the Day Celebrating the Uncensored Media   November 26, 2007 Kathleen and Bill Christison Heading for Annapolis Paul Craig Roberts The End of All That David Macaray Enter Mediator Sameer Dossani Pakistan's Wounded Dictator Roger Burbach The Final Battle in Bolivia Mark Scaramella Guns and Greed in the Emerald Empire Brian McKinlay Howard's End Rick Kuhn The Fall of a Racist Union Buster Binoy Kampmark Ruddslide and Dull Alec Monica Benderman What Do You Know of War? Brenda Norrell Return to Alcatraz Website of the Day Ghostworld by DJ Spooky   November 24 / 25, 2007 Alexander Cockburn The Ordeal of Catherine Wilkerson, MD Robert Fisk Darkness Falls on the Middle East Saul Landau Norman Mailer will Not R.I.P. Jeffrey St. Clair Justice Stephen Breyer, Cancer Bonds and the Origins of Neoliberal Environmentalism Rannie Amiri Beirut's Black Friday Christopher Brauchli Iraq Embassy as Gilded Palace Daniel Gross The Gap and Black Friday Mike Whitney "A Generalized Meltdown of Financial Institutions" Marjorie Cohn Iran and the 2008 Elections David Rosen Senior Sex: the Real Sexual Life of Aging Americans David Michael Green If Conservatism is the Ideology of Freedom .... Kenneth Rexroth When Euripides Played the Hindu Kush: Greeks and Buddhists in Afghanistan Muhammad Iqbal Trans. Shahid Alam Ghazal Website of the Day Aerial Footage of Delta Fish Kill November 23, 2007 Gary Leupp Killing the Buddha in Pakistan's Swat Valley Laura Carlsen Coming to Terms with Diversity in Bolivia: an Interview with Alvaro Garcia, Bolivia's VP David Macaray Keeping Labor Unions Out Andy Worthington Former Guantánamo Detainee Seeks Asylum in Sweden Clifton Ross Trashing Chavez: Keith Olberman's Toxic Rant Seth Sandronsky Battling Sodexho Dan Bacher Death in the Delta: Thousands of Fish Stranded by Bureau of Reclamation William A. Cook The Myth of Middle East Peace Website of the Day Waiting for the Guards: Stress Techniques as Torture, a Short Film   November 22, 2007 Alan Farago Who Lost America's Everglades? Greg Moses A Thanksgiving Basting Dave Lindorff Impeachment is Back on the Table Mike Ely Native Blood: the Myth pf Thanksgiving Omar Azfar Gore for President of Pakistan?   November 21, 2007 Vijay Prashad Our Dictator, Their Democracy Martha Rosenberg Undercover at a Turkey Slaughtering Plant Manuel Garcia, Jr. Epiphany on the Glacier John Ross The Last Days of Mexican Corn Brian McKenna Cancer Terrorists Unmasked Stephen Soldz Isolation Torture Routine at Guatánamo Monica Benderman Needing Peace Ben Terrall Slavery in the Fields: The Real Price of Sugar Website of the Day Mercy for Animals   November 20, 2007 Oren Ben-Dor Why Israel Has No "Right to Exist" as a Jewish State Wajahat Ali An Interview with Norman Finkelstein Alan Farago The Dark Arts and the Bush Dynasty Marjorie Cohn Musharraf Plays Bush for a Fool Ralph Nader Green is Gold? Andy Worthington Guantánamo Whistleblower Launches a New Attack on Rigged Tribunals Sara Olson When Going AWOL is the Only Escape Dave Lindorff Likelihood of Iran Attack Gains Credence Paul Krassner The First Amendment, a Dialogue Website of the Day Joanne Mariner on Torture November 19, 2007 Winslow T. Wheeler Why Congress Won't Reform China Hand The U.S. Game Plan in Pakistan Allan Nairn Sitting Around Talking, in Indonesia Uri Avnery How to Get Out? David Macaray The Chalice that Poisoned the Labor Movements Dave Lindorff Democrats in Future Shock: They Could Lose It All in 2008! Bill Quigley Twenty Thousand Protest at Ft. Benning; Eleven Face Federal Criminal Trials Ron Jacobs Sitting on the Group W Bench: War, Thanksgiving and Arlo Guthrie Sunsara Taylor Legalized Rights for Fertilized Eggs? Binoy Kampmark Why Steve Irwin--You're Dead! Heather Gray Another Look at W.E.B. DuBois Website of the Day The Meat Market     November 17 / 18, 2007 P. Sainath Neoliberalism's Price Tag: 150,000 Farm Suicides in India David Rosen The Scarlet Hypocrites: Republicans, Christians and the Politics of Adultery Mike Whitney Pentagon Cover Up: 15,000 or More US Deaths in Iraq War? George Wuerthner Saving the Big Wild Brenda Norrell The Case of Jim Main, Jr: In Montana, Indians are Guilty Until Proven Innocent George Ciccariello-Maher Of Submarines and Loose Screws Karim Makdisi Lebanon is Hanging by a Thread Marie Trigona Wal-Mart in Argentina Valerio Volpi The Catholic Church, Incorporated Fred Gardner The Straight-Ahead Runner Robert Fantina The White House Press Office Mike Ferner Thank God for the Senate Republicans! Missy Comley Beattie The Radical Majority Kenneth Couesbouc Circles of Power Patrick O'Hayer A Portrait of Mailer and a Young Poet Poets' Basement Davies, Buknatski and Ford   November 16, 2007 Cockburn / St. Clair The Vices of Hillary Clinton: Secrecy, Intransigence and War Dave Zirin The Indictment of Barry Bonds: Busted by a Broken System Gary D. Barnett A Day in the Life of an Unwilling Federal Agent Alan Farago Sprawl, Mortgage Fraud and Political Corruption Dave Lindorff Two Brothers and Two Scandals Russell Mokhiber Pelosi and Me: "What Should be Done with Those Protesters?" Robert Ovetz Cargo Ships in Paradise: Shipping Lanes Threaten the Yosemite of the Sea Brenda Norrell "Today We Experienced America:" Arresting Indigenous People on the Border David Swanson Wolf Blitzer Loses Democratic Debate Peter Letheby Outside the Box on the Great Plains Website of the Day Why Activism Fails   November 15, 2007 Cockburn / St. Clair Hillary Clinton in Arkansas Adolfo Gilly The Spirit of Revolt Peter Bohmer 10 Days That Shook Olympia Andy Worthington The Trials of Omar Khadr: Gitmo's Child Soldier Gray / Derks Obama's Pitch to South Carolina's Black Churches Affronts Gay Groups Liaquat Ali Khan Liberating Pakistan Dave Lindorff Where's the Party? Christopher Brauchli Tipping Point: the Politics of Gossip Anthony Papa Racism as Law: Crack Cocaine Sentences Martha Rosenberg Merck's Big Write Off Ben Terrall Thank You, Ehren Watada Website of the Day On the Colorado: Drought, Climate Change and Water Supplies November 14, 2007 Cockburn / St. Clair The Making of Hillary Clinton James Petras Venezuela Between Ballots and Bullets Al Giordano Campaign 08: Don't Trust Anyone Over 50 Paul Craig Roberts The Lobby Andy Worthington Innocents and Foot Soldiers Stephen Lendman Torturing Palestinian Detainees Fatima Bhutto Aunt Benazir's False Promises: the Dismantling of Pakistani Democracy Martin Smith Norman Mailer and the "Good War" Jeff Leys Slip Sliding Away: House Votes on War Funding Website of the Day Why the Writers are Striking November 13, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Hillary's Big Problem and How Bill Can Fix It Jeffrey St. Clair Mailer and Us: the Writer as Fighter Robert Bryce The Pakistan Fuel Connection David Macaray The Teamsters and the Hollywood Strike Mike Whitney Bulletins from the Titanic Ralph Nader Pakistani Lawyers vs. American Lawyers Nikolas Kozloff Chavez Blasts the Spanish King Jordan Flaherty Education Versus Incarceration in Tallulah, Louisiana B. R. Gowani Dear Mrs. Bhutto Website of the Day Monty Python: "Fuck You, Very Much FCC"   November 12, 2007 Vicente Navarro Why Hillary's Health Care Plan Really Failed Ben Brown Letter from Ho Chi Minh City: a Tribute to My Vietnam Vet Father Omar K. A Pakistani Lawyer's Testimony: Life Under the Brutal Emergency Sadia Abbas The Roots of Pakistan's Political Crisis: Corrupt Elites and a Kleptocratic Military Farzana Versey Mailer's Miasma Richard W. Behan The Political Crimes of Complicity Paul Krassner Asshole of the Year: Congratulations Tim Russert! Cindy Sheehan Faith and War Peter Stone Brown The Return of Levon Helm Dave Lindorff Dennis, You are Not Alone Website of the Day Police Attack in Olympia   November 10 / 11, 2007 Alain Gresh Uncle Sam's New Backyard: How to Turn a Region into a Graveyard Mike Whitney For Whom the Closing Bell Tolls: the Last Dead Bull on Wall Street Ron Jacobs A View from the Pakistani Left: an Interview with Farooq Tariq Jeffrey St. Clair The First Dambuster: a Coyote Story Alan Farago Tangled Up in Blue: a Brief History of Florida Environmentalism Binoy Kampmark When Language Drowns: Torture in America Robert Fantina Legitimizing Torture Fred Gardner Psychological Torture in the Name of Family Values Ayesha Ijaz Khan The General in His Labyrinth Nicola Nasser NATO's Southward Drift Philip Rizk The Blame Game in Gaza Michael Dickinson Condom Nation: the Pope vs. Terry Higgins Joel S. Hirschhorn The Grand Delusion: a Conspiracy of Two Parties Paul Krassner Flunking Out of the Electoral College Wadner Pierre / Joe Emersberger The Ongoing War on Journalists in Haiti   November 9, 2007 Patrick Cockburn In the Kandil Mountains with the PKK Mohammed Hanif Musharraf and the Drunk Uncle John Ross Blackwater Goes to Mexico Mike Whitney Ron Paul, Big Media's Invisible Candidate Tom Barry In Latin America, the Hillary Clinton Policy is the Bush Policy Corporate Crime Reporter Is the AFL Trying to Derail Single Payer Health Care? Badruddin Khan Pakistan and the Israel Lobby David Macaray The WGA STrike: the Empire Strikes Back Martha Rosenberg The Blood Sport of Vice Presidents Website of the Day Stryker Blockade!   November 8, 2007 Kathleen & Bill Christison Meeting the Other in Israel and Palestine William Loren Katz Waterboarding in American History Mike Whitney The Long Fall: a Market Without Parachutes Sheldon Richman Why Woodstock May Have Saved John McCain's Life Liaquat Ali Khan Solidarity with Pakistan's Lawyers Marc Gardner The Victims of "Jessica's Law": Parolees Without Rights (or Homes) Jackie Corr The Big Fish from Whitefish: Montana, the Last Retreat of the Investment Banker? Brenda Norrell Between Bombs and Border Walls Dave Lindorff Ridiculing Impeachment at the New York Times China Hand Rewriting the History of the Sudan Calamity Sen. Russ Feingold FISA and America's Basic Freedoms: Let's Not Repeat the Mistakes of the Patriot Act Website of the Day The Welfare Poets Meet Hugo Chavez   November 7, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Dollar's Fall Collapses the American Empire Russell Mokhiber Pelosi and Me: Can't the Democrats End the War By Not Bringing the Funding Bill to the Floor? Vijay Prashad The Apotheosis of Bobby Jindal Niranjan Ramakrishnan Educating Pakistan: What Mukasey Can Teach Musharraf Alan Farago To Bee or Not to Bee? The Politics of Colony Collapse David Macaray The Writers' Guild Strike: Is There an Ice-Breaker? Nikolas Kozloff The Case of the Slimy Senator: Chuck Schumer Greenlights Mukasey Charlotte Laws What We Learned from Stephen Colbert's Presidential Campaign Daniel White Zahid's Story William Cook The Politics of Servility: Congress and the Israel Lobby Website of the Day Safe Lawns   November 6, 2007 Mike Whitney Welcome to Year 27 of the Reagan Revolution Ralph Nader Who Determines the Price of Oil? Andy Worthington The Torture of Ali al-Marri Pam Martens Wall Street Metes Out Street Justice to Citigroup Liaquat Ali Khan Pakistan's Dark Future William Schroder The Return of Water Torture Stephen Lendman Punishing Gaza William Blum Cuba and Original Sin Former US Intelligence Officers A Memo on Torture, Intelligence and Mukasey   November 5, 2007 Alexander Cockburn How I Spent the Eighth Brumaire Russell Mokhiber Pelosi and Me: The Democrats and Single Payer David Macaray How to Turn Workers Against Each Other (and Make Them All Poorer) Gary Leupp General Musharaff's "State of Emergency" Dave Lindorff Those Minot Nukes Ludwig Watzal Israel's Dilemma in Palestine Patrick Cockburn Tensions Ease in Iraqi Kurdistan Peter Stone Brown John Fogerty Makes Peace with His Past Michael Simmons Yo! What Happened to Peace? Website of the Day Petition: In Defense of the Morton West HS Antiwar Students   November 3 / 4, 2007 Tariq Ali Pakistan Sinks Deeper into Night David Price Army's Price Salesman of Counterinsurgency Manual Seeks to Defend Stolen Scholarship Jeffrey St. Clair Splitsville Alan Farago The Housing Crash, Suburban Sprawl and the Crisis of the American Middle Class Paul Krassner He's Back! Don Imus Meets Michael Richards Rannie Amiri Why the U.S. is Safeguarding Iraq's War Criminals P. Sainath Indexing Humanity, Indian Style Ayesha Ijaza Khan Pakistan in a Daze Robert Fantina Is the Bush Administration Talking Itself Into a War With Iran? Seth Sandronsky The Politics of Health Care in California Ron Jacobs The Bebop of Baraka Ramzy Baroud A Case for Arab Dignity Heather Gray When Capitalists Get a Free Ride   November 2, 2007 Dr. Mary Pipher Acting on Conscience: Psychologists and Abusive Interrogations Saul Landau How Pete Stark Became a Pariah Andy Worthington Guantánamo as House Arrest Sharon Smith A Tale of Two Stadiums Gary Leupp Fascist Beatifications: the History and Politics of Sainthood Gregory Harms The Chorus of Slander on Palestine Christopher Brauchli Racism in High Places Peter Morici The Falling Dollar and the Stubborn Trade Deficit Dave Lindorff The Easy Way to Stop the Looming US Attack on Iran David Penner Zombie Nation Website of the Day Fall in Yosemite   November 1, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts The Wages of Hegemony Patrick Cockburn The Most Dangerous Dam in the World Dave Lindorff The Air Force Report on the Minot-Barksdale Nuclear Missile Flight Jonathan Feldman The Strange Political Economy of Death in the South Mike Ferner They Met the Resistance in Iraq William S. Lind A Question for Would-Be Presidents Diana Johnstone "Fascislamism" Versus "Shoah Business" Jacob Hornberger The War on Telephone Privacy A..K. Gupta The Apocalypse will be Televised Lyuba Zarsky / Kevin Gallagher The Enclave Economy of Mexico's Silicon Valley Felice Pace Does the SPLC Equate Anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism? Website of the Day This One's for You, Ed Abbey   October 31, 2007 Bill Quigley New Orleans' Broken Criminal Justice System Rev. William E. Alberts A Trail of American Blood: From the White House to CBS News Ray McGovern Attacking Iran for Israel Eric Walberg Poisonous Espionage: Litvinenko and the New Cold War V. G. Smith The Second Death of Guy Môquet Luis J. Rodriguez "Social Cleansing" from Guatemala to LA Sheldon Richman Bush has Time to Run the World Walter Brasch A Real Halloween Scare Website of the Day Boogie Rocks! October 30, 2007 David Price Pilfered Scholarship Devastates Gen. Petraeus's Counterinsurgency Manual M. Shahid Alam The Pakistan Question Andy Worthington The Epiphany of Matthew Waxman: a Government Insider Turns Against Gitmo Patrick Cockburn The Bicycle Bomber of Baquba Anthony Papa The Twisted Logic of Drug Laws Floyd Rudmin What "All Options are on the Table" Really Means Sherwood Ross Giuliani and Torture Website of the Day The Worst Lobby? You Decide   October 29, 2007 Lisa Hajjar Inside Israel's Military Courts Joe DeRaymond The Politics of Lethal Injections Patrick Cockburn The High Stakes in Iraqi Kurdistan Isabella Kenfield / Roger Burbach Corporate Murder in Brazil Fred Gardner The Frivolous Investigation of Dr. Sterner Farzana Versey Caricaturing Islam Stephen Fleischman The Greening of the Oligarchy Marcelle Cendrars The Congressional Rip Cord Eamonn McCann Dan Keating, the Last of the Republican Irreconcilables Martha Rosenberg For Halloween, Ann Coulter Dresses as .... Ann Coulter! Website of the Day Campaign 2008   October 27 / 28, 2007 Alexander Cockburn So Much for Islamo-Fascism Awareness Jeffrey St. Clair The Dam That Isn't There James Bovard Breaking Down an Innocent Man: The FBI's Right to Threaten Torture Ralph Nader Beyond the Rule of Law M. Reza Pirbhai The Wahhabis are Coming, the Wahhabis are Coming! Robert Sandels Pay the Invaders! Cuba, Claims and Confiscations Jacob G. Hornberger Ruling By Decree Missy Beattie The Arsonists in the West Wing John Ross U.S. Eyes on Oaxaca Robert Fantina Condi Rice, the Imperial Cheerleader Ron Jacobs Labor at the Crossroads Ali Moayedian In Search of Logic About Iran David Michael Green What If We Had a President Who Didn't Give a Damn About Terrorism? Poets Basement Block, Davies and Ford Website of the Day Bring 'Em Home: a Music Video   October 26, 2007 Brian Cloughley Revenging Bloodshed Saul Landau Portrait of Rudy Ahmad Al-Akras Getting Justice in the HLF Case Franklin Lamb Does "Loving" Lebanon Mean Never Having to Say You're Sorry? Mike Whitney Murdoch's Cuckoo's Nest Dave Lindorff Home of the Brave? Reducing US Casualties By Killing More Civilians Alan Farago A Castro Behind Every Bush Yifat Susskind Conscripting Feminism into the War on Terror Website of the Day Dead Life in a Political Prison October 25, 2007 Jeffrey St. Clair / Joshua Frank Iraq's Environmental Crisis Manuel Garcia, Jr. Homes of the Crash Test Dummies Paul Craig Roberts The Fraudulent War on Terror Col. Dan Smith The Politics of Paranoia: Jane Harman's War on the First Amendment Alan Farago The Way to Paradise? Chris Kutalik The Lesson of the Chrysler Rebels Brian McKinlay John Howard and the Curse of Bush Cindy Sheehan Pete, Nancy, George and WW III Website of the Day Support the America's Program!   October 24, 2007 Natalie Washington-Weik White Fantasies About Race-Based Intelligence Andy Worthington The Guantánamo Suicides Michael Birmingham What Happened in Nahr Al Bared? Corporate Crime Reporter The Nuclear Democrats Tariq Ali Bush's Cuba Detour Farzana Versey Imagining Serfdom in a Scarf Dave Zirin White Noise James Murren What "Support Our Troops" Means Todd Chretien Looking Reality in the Face Martha Rosenberg What Came First, the Chicken or the Cage? Website of the Day Hillary Clinton on Nuclear Power   October 23, 2007 Ralph Nader Bush's Catastrophic Rhetoric Lawrence R. Velvel Goldsmith Stands Convicted--By His Own Mouth: How a Harvard Law Professor Justified Rendition at the Bush Justice Dept. Vijay Prashad The Nuke Deal is Dead Bonnie Bricker / Adil E. Shamoo The True Cost of War for Oil Dave Lindorff Christopher Dodd's Make or Break Moment Mike Whitney The Big Squeeze Farzana Versey Race with the Devil Stanley Heller / Ben George Something New from the Antiwar Movement Marcelle Cendrars You Too Can Confront the Holy Executive Regan Boychuk Burma and Haiti: Comparing the Media Response Website of the Day King Corn   October 22, 2007 Ishmael Reed Should Blacks Go Green? Marjorie Cohn Mukasey and the Constitution: Another Loyal Bushie Rannie Amiri Is There a Method to Bush's Middle East Madness? Diane Farsetta Time to Pay for Payola: the FCC and Pundit-for-Hire Armstrong Williams Todd Alan Price Renewing No Child Left Behind: A Hurricane Katrina Aimed at Public Education Robert Jensen The Quagmire of Masculinity Stephen Lendman The UAW Leadership Sells Out Its Workers Jemima Khan The Kleptocrat in an Hermes Headscarf Sunsara Taylor David Horowitz Can't Handle the Truth Binoy Kampmark No Ideas, Please: the Australian Elections Website of the Day Support the Center for International Policy     October 20 / 21, 2007 Alexander Cockburn The Man Who Builds Hillaryworld Tariq Ali A Massacre Foretold Jeffrey St. Clair Greetings from Echo Park Andy Worthington The Shame of Diego Garcia Mike Whitney Housing Flameout Daniel Wolff Play It As It Lays David Rosen Deviants on Parade: Folsom St. Fair and America's 4th Sexual Revolution Saul Landau David and Goliath in Iraq Ron Jacobs COINTELPRO and the Panthers Robert Fantina The Strange Love of Mitt Romney and Bob Jones David Heleniak Erring on the Side of Hidden Harm Joe Allen Hoffa Brown-Nosing at UPS Prairie Miller Lions for Lambs Poets' Basement Gibbons, Holt and Buknatski Website of the Weekend Crash!   October 19, 2007 John Ross Che's Mexican Legacy Sheldon Rampton Shared Values Revisited: a Case Study in the Limits of Propaganda Rahul Mahajan A Tale of Two Atrocities: Blackwater and Haditha Devra Davis Deadly Secrets: Chemical Pollution and Cancer Christopher Brauchli Blasphemous Science Wadner Pierre Haiti After the Deluge Bill Quigley Jailed for Justice Website of the Day Textbook Sticker Shock   October 18, 2007 Saree Makdisi Academic Freedom is at Risk Meg Dwyer What I Learned from 9/11: Who Wouldn't Want Us Dead? Alevtina Rea Sketches of Russian Life Norman Solomon The United States of Violence Kristoffer Larsson Something is Rotten in Sweden Harvey Wasserman Nukes are Back and So are We Website of the Day Eve Ensler: "A Filibuster Would Stop This War"   October 17, 2007 Steve Niva Counter-Insurgency, American-Style Andy Worthington The Case of Mohamed Jawad Alan Farago The Credit Shock Russell Mokhiber The New Billionaire-Criminal Class Sharon Smith Democrats, AWOL When It Mattered Mike Whitney Time for the Banks to Face the Hangman Robert Fantina Iraq, Iran and the US: Business as Usual Chris Irwin Where Have All the Rednecks Gone? Website of the Day Sex Ed at Oral Roberts University October 16, 2007 Peter Linebaugh Doris Lessing and the Dynamite Prize Paul Findley Follow the Leader: The Open Secret About the Israel Lobby Robert Bryce Inconvenient Corrections: Al Gore's Wacky Facts Uri Avnery The Mother of All Pretexts Paul Craig Roberts The Iraqi Genocide Ray McGovern What Did Nancy Pelosi Know About NSA Spying and When Did She Know It? Norman Solomon The Pro-War Undertow of the Blackwater Scandal Martha Rosenberg The Curse of Cymbalta William S. Lind Out of the Frying Pan Joel S. Hirschborn Time to Boycott Voting Website of the Day Pipeline Through Paradise: Big Oil's Arctic Play         Subscribe Online

November 29, 2007 The Beaverhead-Deerlodge Deceit Forest Fires, Lies and Chainsaws By GEORGE WUERTHNER The sprawling 3.3 million acre Beaverhead Deerlodge National Forest (BDNF) is one of the most spectacular pieces of public domain in America. It contains outstanding scenery, superlative fisheries, abundant wildlife, and unparalleled wildlands. The forest is high, dry, and generally unproductive in terms of timber production, which is one reason why the majority of its lands remain roadless. Of the total 3.3 million acres, 1.8 million are still essentially roadless, but only 220,000 are currently designated wilderness. The BDNF is not the nation's woodbox, but it could be and should be the nation's wilderness heartland. In attempt to divvy up lands on the BDNF, the Montana Wilderness Association (MWA), National Wildlife Federation (NWF), and Trout Unlimited (TU) have reached a joint agreement with representatives of the timber industry and other interest groups called the Beaverhead Deerlodge Partnership (BDP). With the support of these conservation groups, this plan proposes logging up to 730,000 acres of the BDNF in exchange for timber industry support of 570,000 acres of new wilderness areas. Not only is this proposal a tripling of logging over what the BDNF originally determined as suitable for timber cutting in its forest plan, but it also involves potential entry into 200,000 acres of roadless lands. The BDP is based upon false premises. To justify this increased logging, these conservation groups have adopted the pejorative language of the timber industry, including words such as "unhealthy" forests, "catastrophic" fires, and other terms that feed public misconceptions about our forests and associated natural processes like wildfire and periodic insect population increases. And in what can only be called Orwellian, these conservation groups also support increased logging to fund rehabilitation of past, present and future logging impacts. This is like advocating the construction of casinos and using their profits to fund rehabilitation of gamblers. Nearly all of the roadless lands proposed for wilderness lie outside of what the FS considers the suitable timber base. In other words, the timber industry would never get to log these lands anyway. With the full complicity of the MWA, TU, and NWF, the timber industry is getting access to more logs than they could even get from the Forest Service, while giving up virtually nothing by supporting wilderness. What we are getting as protected wilderness in this plan is essentially the highest, steepest, rocks and ice country like the West Big Hole-with heavily forested roadless areas with gentle terrain (read good for logging) such as the West Pioneers gaining only a small core proposed as wilderness. All of this is justified by flawed science, faulty economics, and deceptive ecological accounting. Here's the some of the details that MWA, TU, and NWF, along with their "partners" in the timber industry don't want you to know. LOGGING JUSTIFIED ON FALSE PREMISE Flawed assumption number one is the assertion that forests of the BDNF have missed multiple fire cycles as a consequence of fire exclusion, and thus have unnatural accumulations of fuels that are responsible for large blazes. However, the majority of the BDNF forests consist of higher elevation forest types like lodgepole pine, subalpine fir, aspen, and other species that are naturally dominated by mixed to high intensity blazes that occur at long intervals. In other words, these forests don't burn frequently, but when they do, the fires tend to be large and intense. For the most part, even if fire suppression were always successful, which clearly it is not, the past fifty years or so of active fire suppression has not been long enough to significantly alter historic fire regimes in most of these forests. Even the lower elevation Douglas fir forests on the BDNF may not be seriously out of whack. New research is calling into question the assumption that fire exclusion is responsible for increasing stand density of lower elevation forests. For instance, one recent study on the Black Hills NF in South Dakota found that it was wet years that increased seedling survival, rather than fire exclusion, that has led to higher tree density. Other studies are calling into question the entire validity of fire history studies, particularly lower elevation forests. Some researchers now believe that fire intervals may have been longer than previously assumed, and that stand replacement blazes may not be unheard of in these forests. All these new insights into fire ecology suggest that the forests of the BDNF may not have experienced a significant departure from historic conditions; therefore they are not "unhealthy" and there is no problem that needs fixing, particularly by logging. DROUGHT AND WIND--NOT FUEL--DRIVES LARGE BLAZES The second flawed assumption is that fuel accumulations drive large blazes. Rather than fuels, it is drought, wind, and low humidity that drive all large fires. When these conditions prevail, large blazes are the natural outcome. Prominent fire ecologist Tom Swetnam, long an advocate of that the fuels due to fire exclusion is driving large blazes, has reconsidered his opinion. Swetnam is now convinced, as are an increasing number of fire ecologists that climatic conditions are the driving force behind most large blazes we see today. With global warming we are seeing a lengthening of the fire season and drier conditions, which in turn creates ideal fire conditions. Drought and higher temperatures are also the reason insect populations like mountain pine beetle have swelled in recent years. If climate is the driving force in tree establishment and large blazes, this calls into question whether forests are truly out of balance and "unhealthy" as the timber industry and groups like TU, MWA, and NWF would have you believe. In fact, large fires, insect outbreaks, and other changes that some are mistakenly characterizing as "unhealthy," are really indicative of a healthy forest response to changing climate. And the assumption that fuels are driving large blazes ignores the fact that we had plenty of big fires in the past, and well before fire suppression had any influence. The huge 1910 Burn raced across more than 3 million acres of western Montana and northern Idaho long before the Forest Service even thought about suppressing fires. THINNING DOES NOT STOP LARGE BLAZES This brings us to flawed assumption number three. There is a growing body of anecdotal and scientific evidence to suggest that thinning, or fuels management-by whatever euphemism logging is called-does not slow or reduce the likelihood of large blazes. Again, this goes back to the fact that large blazes are primarily a consequence of climatic conditions. You can have a ton of fuels on the ground, but if you don't have the right conditions for a fire to spread, fuels don't matter; it won't burn. On the other hand, if climatic conditions are severe, with extended drought, high temperatures, low humidity, and most importantly high winds, then fires will burn through all kinds of fuel loadings, including forests with very light fuels. Wildfires will roar through clearcuts, thinned forests, and even naturally thin forest stands with surprising vigor. We have seen many examples of this in recent years, including some of the larger blazes that burned in western Montana this summer. The Jocko Lakes fire by Seeley Lake, Montana, and the Black Cat fire by Frenchtown, Montana are only two of many recent fires that burned through heavily logged and managed forest stands. In fact, there is some evidence to suggest that thinning the forest can actually acerbate fire spread and intensity. Remember that fires spread quickest and burn hottest under conditions of drought, wind, and high temperatures. When you thin the forest, you open it up to solar radiation which dries out fuel, and increased temperatures result in additional heat stress on trees which respond with greater evaporative transpiration from needles and leaves, further drying soils and wood. Both of these factors increase flammability. And thinning allows the wind to penetrate further into a stand so that even a small 10 mph increase in wind speed can lead to a huge increase in fire spread, since wind increases fire spread exponentially. In addition, opening up the canopy by thinning increases available sunlight, and the reduced competition for nutrients spurs rapid growth of small trees and fine fuels like grasses, thereby increasing the relative flammability of the forest stand. LOGGING--BY ANY NAME-- IS NOT BENIGN The fourth problem is that while conservation groups have adopted the deceptive language of the timber industry, using "Stewardship Logging" to mask what is nothing more than the same old logging with a new twist, they gloss over the many proven negative impacts that come with logging. For instance, logging roads are major vectors for the spread of weeds. They are major sources of sedimentation. Logging equipment compacts soils, reducing infiltration of water, resulting in more surface runoff and erosion. Roads alter surface and subsurface water drainage patterns. Roads provide access to hunters and ORVs ensuring additional impacts and disturbance to wildlife. Logging removes woody debris (i.e. logs) from the forest that results in a loss to wildlife habitat and nutrient cycling. Logging disturbance can negatively impact mollusks, ants and other invertebrates that are important to forest ecosystem function. And, of course, logging alters natural processes like wildfire and insect populations which have proven positive benefits to the forest ecosystem. Logging proponents counter by suggesting all logging roads will be temporary, and will be "restored." However, this ignores the on going negative effects summarized above that will occur while the "temporary" road is being used, plus the fact that full restoration of soil column, slope, and natural vegetation is very expensive and takes decades-- if ever-to be successful. Given the rather poor timber growing conditions on the BDNF, it is doubtful that any logging program can pay for full restoration of roads. In addition, logging will be concentrated in the most productive sites valley bottoms and lower elevations, and the most critical aquatic and wildlife habitats on the BDNF. Thus any logging and human intrusion has a disproportional impact on the biological integrity of the forest. By contrast the proposed wilderness areas are dominated by high elevation subalpine forests and peaks-nice to look at it, but having little biological value. Plus, disturbance of wildlife from logging activities extends from roads and logging operations to affect far more than the acres actually being cut, another point glossed over by BDP proponents. Elk and bear, for instance, have been shown to avoid areas for up to a mile from intensive human activities, thereby removing considerable potential habitat from these animals. OTHER NON-INTRUSIVE METHODS IGNORED The fifth problem with the BDP is that the plan immediately defaults to a very intrusive proposed action-namely logging-as its method of choice to reduce the threat of so called "catastrophic" fires to private property. BDP supporters conveniently ignore less intrusive alternative means of reducing fire risk such as prescribed burning or reducing house flammability. Studies by Jack Cohen at the Missoula Fire Lab have shown that reducing house flammability is the most cost effective and, in fact, may be the only effective means of reducing fire risk. Retrofitting homes with metal roofs, removing of fine fuels from the proximity of homes, and other procedures can significantly increase the chances that any individual home will survive a blaze, even a crown fire. LOGGING NOT IMPORTANT TO ECONOMY The sixth faulty assertion made by BDP proponents is that logging is important to the regional economy, and that greater logging of the BDNF will have a positive economic impact on communities. Again, this is more wishful thinking and propaganda from the timber industry than truth. The most important values on the BDNF are fisheries, wildlife, scenery and wildlands. As University of Montana economist Tom Power and others have shown the economy of western Montana is now and will be in the future driven by these amenity values, all of which will be degraded and compromised by logging. Plus, all indicators suggest that the timber industry will continue to employ fewer and fewer people due to automation as well as a general decline in the industry-regardless of timber supply. Building an economic future based upon timber production while degrading the very things that are truly valuable like wildlands and wildlife of the BDNF is insanity. STEWARDSHIP LOGGING IS A DANGEROUS EUPHENISM Like the Bush administration's use of "Clear Skies Initiative" which is actually designed to promote dirty air, the new positive-sounding euphemism for logging bantered around is "Stewardship Contracts." But like Clear Skies, stewardship logging is equally deceptive. Stewardship logging, or logging by any other name is not benign. Stewardship contracts will direct all of the profits from logging back to the forest instead to the federal treasury. Proponents see this as a funding source for the forest, but it can easily be abused, since local forest officials will have a direct financial incentive to log. In a perverse way this may ultimately lead to even more logging of the BDNF as the agency seeks to maximize financial returns by selling off more of the public forests. ORV AND LIVESTOCK THREATS IGNORED Finally the BDP supports ORV use on more than 1.6 million acres and leaving 2.2 million acres to snowmobiles, despite a litany of negative impacts that these machines cause to our collective natural heritage. And the "partners" say nothing about the detrimental effects of livestock grazing, especially its impacts upon riparian areas and wetlands, all the while giving lip service about the need for restoring aquatic ecosystems. RESOURCE ADVISORY COUNCIL (RAC) Another long-term problem with the BDP is that it proposes creation of a Resource Advisory Council to be made up of industry, recreation, livestock and conservation interests to advise the agencies about how to spend money from logging receipts. Such a stacked deck ensures that RACs represent local economic interests. Keep in mind that conservationists chosen to serve on RACs are typically those known to be sympathetic to ranching, logging, and other extractive industries. The dominance by extractive interests ensures that RACs are a vehicle of local control of public lands. Though these councils are technically only "advisory," most federal employees know that they can only ignore the RAC at their peril. MORE WILDERNESS NEEDED Most of the US is already developed, given over to human industry. Ninety percent of Montana is already roaded and developed. We are fighting over the last few scraps of relatively undeveloped landscapes. If we were to really have a genuine compromise we would be advocating the closure of all roads, termination of all logging, grazing, ORV use, and mining so that restoration of the entire BDNF back to wilderness-like conditions could occur. To reiterate the BDNF has some of the finest wildlands in the nation. It is not the nation's woodbox, nor should it continue to be a livestock feedlot or an ORV "abusement park." What is truly valuable on the BDNF, and nationally significant, are its fisheries, wildlife, and wildlands. Instead of pandering to local parochial cultural and economic interests, we need conservation groups that will fight for every last acre of wild country by promoting ecologically based comprehensive legislation like NREPA, rather than promoting timber industry propaganda and building compromises based upon misinformation. The biggest compromises made with this BDP have been truth, courage and the long-term public interest. Comments on this scheme can be submitted to the Forest Service's website: www.b-dpartnership.org George Wuerthner is an ecologist, photographer, and writer. He is the author and/or editor of 34 books, including Wild Fire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy and Montana Magnificent Wilderness. He has visited 15 out of the 16 proposed wilderness areas in the BDP draft legislation. Your Ad Here

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