Today's
Stories
March
14, 2006
Thomas
Palley
The Economics of Outsourcing
Earl
Ofari Hutchinson
No Requiem for a Black Conservative:
the Fall of Claude Allen
March
13, 2006
Uri
Avnery
The Missing Word
Dave
Lindorff
Extra, Extra! Media Reports on Censure
Motion
Mike
Whitney
South Dakota's Taliban: the Fanatics are on the Loose
David
Green
Questions of Solidarity: Blacks and Jews in Neo-Con America
Jeremy
Scahill
Rest Easy, Bill Clinton: Slobo Can't
Talk Any More
Mike
Ferner
Up Against the Wall, Son: Hungering for Justice During My First
Congressional Testimony
Corey
Harris
Memories of Ali Farka Touré
Paul
Craig Roberts
Killing Off Milosevic: Was Serbia
a Practice Run for Iraq?
Website
of the Day
Prayer Flags for Peace
March 11 / 12, 2006
Alexander
Cockburn
Democrats: When the War Was Lost
Ralph
Nader
Bush at the Tipping Point
Paul
Craig Roberts
Why Did Bush Destroy Iraq?
Ben
Tripp
My Night at the Oscars: the Happy People Speak Out
John
Strausbaugh
The Cowboys and the Village Voice: Alt Press Flagship Goes Corporate
Landau
/ Hassen
Why "We" Fight "Their" Wars
Robert
Bryce
A Thousand Pages of Rage
Gary
Leupp
Why They Really Think They Must Defeat Iran
Fred
Gardner
"But He's Good on Our Issue"
Ron
Jacobs
Condi and Iran: Folly, Tragedy and Farce
Jonathan
Scott
Science Fiction's Black Oracle: the Genius and Courage of Octavia
Butler
Ramzy
Baroud
Who Will Stop Bush's Militant Militarists?
Jordan
Flaherty
Gitmo on the Mississippi: Life Under the Klan Wasn't This Bad
John
Chuckman
Parable of the Hatchet: the Fallacy of Nation-Building in Afghanistan
Joe
Allen
Smearing Ron Carey and the TDU: Bob Fitch's Hatchet Job
Julia
Kendlbacher
Amazonia: Where All Life Matters
St.
Clair / Walker / Pollack / Vest
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets'
Basement
Hassen, Harley, Ford and Subiet
Website
of the Weekend
No Hay Ser Humano Ilegal
March
10, 2006
Ben
Rosenfeld
The Great Green Scare and the Fed's
Case Against Rod Coronado: a War on the First Amendment
Lila
Rajiva
The Gitmo Documents: Miller, Boykin,
Cambone and Feith
Saree
Makdisi
From Rachel Corrie to Richard Rogers:
the Wall, the Javits Center and the Bullying of an Architect
Elena
Shore
FBI Grills US Professor Over Support for Venezuela
Joshua
Frank
How the Green Party Slays Their Own
Dave
Zirin
Lynching Barry Bonds
Aura
Bogado
An Interview with Subcomandate Marcos
March
9, 2006
John
Walsh
Neocon Daniel Pipes Advocates Civil
War in Iraq as Strategic Policy
Annie
Zirin
Leftwing Generals: the Dark Side of
Liberal Imperialism
Brian
McKenna
We All Live in Poletown Now: GM and the Corporate Uses of Eminent
Domain
Chris
Floyd
Scar Tissue: How the Bushes Brought Bedlam to Iraq
Rachard
Itani
"Over There": Iraq as Soap Opera
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Action Thing
Wylie
Harris
Immigration and Jeffersonian Democracy: Free Borders Make Good
Neighbors
Alexander
Cockburn
Ex-State Department Security Officer
Charges Pre-9/11 Cover-Up
Website
of the Day
About Pace: Expelling Anti-War Students
March
8, 2006
Patrick
Bond
The Loans of Mass Destruction: Wolfowitz's
Anti-Corruption Hoax at the World Bank
Brian
Concannon, Jr.
Elusive Victories in Haiti
Pat
Williams
Buyer's Remorse: Bush, the View from the Purple States
Lance
Selfa
The Democrats and Dubai: the Politics of Distraction
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Have You Ever Been Convicted of a Felony?
Walter
Brasch
Compromising Civil Liberties
Vijay
Prashad
For Them Indian Mangoes: Anatomy
of an Agreement
Website
of the Day
Rachel Corrie: a Call to Action
March
7, 2006
Werther
Half a Trillion Dollars: It's an
Awful Lot of Money to Make Us Less Safe and Less Free
John
Blair
Dr. Strangelove is Our President: Global Peace Through Nuclear
Weapons
Dave
Lindorff
The Impeachment Groundswell and Bush's Last Hope: the Democrats
Mike
Whitney
No Immunity: Israel's Policy of Targeted Assassination
Warren
Guykema
Who is Afraid of Rachel Corrie?
Sen.
Russell Feingold
Misleading Testimony About NSA Domestic Spying
Robert
Jensen
Why I am a Christian (Sort Of)
Norman
Solomon
Digitalized Hype: a Dazzling Smokescreen?
Bernie
Dwyer
Hopeful Signs Across Latin America:
an Interview with Noam Chomsky
Website
of the Day
Golem Song
March 6, 2006
Ralph
Nader
Bush and Katrina: "Situational
Information?"
Dave
Zirin
Why Did Pat Tillman Die? an Investigation Reopens
Vanessa
Redgrave
Censorship of the Worst Kind: the Second Death of Rachel Corrie
Walter
A. Davis
Theater, Ideology and the Censorship of "My Name is Rachel
Corrie"
Joshua
Frank
Down By Law: the Mysterious Case of David Cobb
Nate
Mezmer
A Second Look at "Crash": More Myths About Blacks and
Racist Cops
Paul
Craig Roberts
America's Bleak Jobs Future
Website
of the Day
Crossroads: Race, Class and Art
March 4 / 5, 2006
Alexander
Cockburn
The Dubai Ports Purchase: National
Insecurity, Imported or Homegrown?
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush's NSA Spying Program Violates
the Law
Steven
Higgs
Dying for Their Work: Westinghouse Workers and the Highest Level
of PCBs Ever Recorded
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The Generals, the Legislators and the Gulfstream VIP Transports
Ron
Jacobs
Stealing Back Adam's Rib
Rev.
William E. Alberts
Remember Damadola
Colin
Asher
Goodbye, Dubai: the Teamsters and the Ports
Fred
Gardner
Denney's Law
"Pariah"
Scapegoats and Shunning: Sexual Fascism in Progressive America
John
Scagliotti
Brokeback Mountain: Pain is Not Enough
Seth
Sandronsky
When the White House Walks Away: Bush, Arnold and the Flood Risk
in the Central Valley
Joan
Roelofs
A Challenge to Rebuild the World
Arjun
Makhijani
The US / India Nuclear Pact: a Bad and Dangerous Deal
Ardeshr
Ommani
Destroying the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Diana
Barahona
An Open Letter to Freedom House: Release Info on Your Federal
Grants
Ben
Tripp
Bonzo, Wherefore Art Thou?
St.
Clair / Socialist Worker Staff
Playlist: What We're Listening To
Poets'
Basement
Engel, Davies, Buknatski
Website
of the Weekend
The Return of Pearl Jam
March
3, 2006
Laura
Carlsen
Mexico: the Power of Corruption and
the Corruption of Power
John
V. Whitbeck
Two States or One?
Chris
Floyd
The Monolith Crumbles: Reality and Revisionism About Iran
Mohamed
Hakki
Wolfowitz at the World Bank: Cronyism and Corruption
Pratyush
Chandra
Bush in India: Dinner with George and Manmohan
John
Scagliotti
Why are There No Real Gays in
"Brokeback Mountain"?
Website
of the Day
Support the IRC!
March
2, 2006
Paul
Craig Roberts
How the Economic News is Spun
Dave
Lindorff
Troops to Bush: Get Us Out of Here!
Ramzy
Baroud
Middle East Democracy: the Hamas Factor
Saul
Landau
Halfway Down the Road to Hell
Joe
Allen
The Murder of George Jackson: an Interview with His Lawyer, Stephen
Bingham
Steve
Shore
Berlusconi on Capitol Hill: "I
Am Italy!"
Denise
Boggs
Roadless and Clueless: Wilderness Logging Greenwashed by Enviro
Groups
Norman
Finkelstein
The
Attacks on Beyond Chutzpah
Website
of the Day
ScreenHead
March
1, 2006
Mairead
Corrigan Maguire
The Human Right to a Nuclear Free
World
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The India That Can No Longer
Say No
Faheem
Hussain
Bush in Pakistan
Antony
Loewenstein
Spinning Us to War with Iran: an Aussie Perspective
Elizabeth
Schulte
The Charge to Overturn Roe Has Begun
Mike
Whitney
Sudan: Beware Bolton's Sudden Humanitarianism
John
Ryan
Canada and the American Empire
Michael
Donnelly
Brokeback Mountain: a No Love Story
Tom
Reeves
Haitian Election Aftermath
Website
of the Day
Mardi Gras Index: Reuilding of New Orleans Stalled
February
28, 2006
Sen.
Russ Feingold
Renewing the Patriot Act: a Sham
Process and a Rotten Deal
Ralph
Nader
The Dark Age of the Auto Industry
Joshua
Frank
The Palazzo Feinstein: the Mansion
the War Bought?
Aziz
Haniffa
Why India Should Choose Iran, Not the US: an Interview with Dr.
Ajun Makhijani
Benjamin Dangl
Bolivian Human Rights Leader Barred from Entering the US
Norman Solomon
Mahatma Bush
Mike
Ferner
Seven Arrested at White House Antiwar Protest
Sharon
Smith
Racism Thrives
Website
of the Day
Creek Running North
February
27, 2006
Buncombe
/ Cockburn
And Now Come the Death Squads
Paul
Craig Roberts
Twilight of the Hegemony
Ingmar
Lee
Bush Mired in India's Nuclear Fallout: the Smiling Buddha Blast
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads, Shrine Bombs, Civil War: Iraq Going According to
the Plan?
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Bunker Days
Pat
Wolff
Sleeper Cells in South Dakota? The State of Mandatory Motherhood
Lila
Rajiva
Double Standards on Foreign Owners: Amdocs vs. DP World
Website
of the Day
Get Ya Hustle On!
February
25 / 26, 2006
Alexander
Cockburn
Quail in War and Peace
Lila
Rajiva
Chertoff Strikes Again
Lee
Sustar
Target: Iran
Jennifer
Van Bergen / Madis Senner
The Case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir
Justin
E.H. Smith
David Horowitz's Odd Gripe
Paul
Craig Roberts
Bush Hides Behind Supply-Side Economics to Reward His Cronies
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Exposed?: New Emails in Plame Case Point to Veep's Role
Gilad
Atzmon
In Support of My Mayor
Zahid
Shariff
What's Going On in Pakistan?
Fred
Gardner
Investigating Dr. Denney
Dick
J. Reavis
What the UAE / Seaports Deal Teaches Us
David
Stocker
Snow Job: the Privatization of US Ports
John
Bomar
Losing on Every Front
Mike
Marqusee
The Marchers Were Right
Pratyush
Chandra
Bush's Passage to India
Ben
Tripp
Rewriting History
Dr.
Susan Block
Life, Death and Cartoons
Poets'
Basement
Landau, Guthrie, LaMorticella, Engel and Mazza
Website
of the Weekend
Toward Freedom
February
24, 2006
Alan
Maass
War Crimes and Hunting Misdemeanors
William
S. Lind
The Coming Fall of Pakistan
Dave
Lindorff
Useless Democrats: a Whig's Worth of Difference?
Pierre
Tristam
Iraq's Cambodian Jungle
Meg
Bannerji
Bush's Port Deal: Who's the Dummy?
Robert
Jensen
The Failures of Our First Amendment Successes
Mark
Engler
How Costly is Too Costly?: Finding the Budgetary Tipping Point
for Iraq
Jennifer
Loewenstein
Watching the Dissolution of Palestine
Website
of the Day
Katrina and the Failure of Black Leadership
February
23, 2006
Chet
Richards
Rumsfeld's New Model Military: Creating
Stability or Insurgency?
Jonathan
Feldman
Dubaigate Deconstructed
Joshua
Frank
The Democrats' Pull Out Method: Another Election Year Stunt?
Ron
Jacobs
Volunteers of America: the Politics of the Weather Underground
Amira
Hass
Separate and Unequal: Forbidden to Go Home Together
Samah
Sabawi
Hamas and the Missing Video: Editorial Delusions at the Globe
and Mail
Norman
Solomon
The Unreal Death of Journalism
Christopher
Reed
Japan's Neo-Militarists
Website
of the Day
Is the Pentagon Making an Anthrax Bomb in Utah?
February
22, 2006
Robert
Pollin
Reaganomics Revisited: Beyond the
Glow of Nostalgia
Phil
Doe
How to Pay for War and Cut Taxes for the Rich: Sell Off the Public
Lands
Pirouz
Azadi
Looking Middle Eastern? You are a Prime Suspect
Saul
Landau
Memo to the Dems: Doesn Anyone Give a Damn?
Brian
McKinlay
Howard's End?: Trouble Down Under
Sam
Smith
Real Holocaust Denial
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Could You Please Pass the Port?
Diane
Farsetta
The Pentagon's Media Contracts:
the Wages of Spin
Website
of the Day
Port of No Return: Bin Laden, the Taliban and the UAE
February
21, 2006
Paul
Craig Roberts
Would Someone Please Interfere in
Our Elections?
Franklin
Spinney
Arab Democracy American-Style: Or
How to Lose a 4th Generation War
Dave
Lindorff
Chasing Cheney in the Ambulance
Alevtina
Rea
Ethics, Morals and Empire
Bruce
K. Gagnon
The Dems' Latest Stall Strategy: "Strategic Redeployment"
Dave
Zirin
Whiteblindness: the Winter Olympics, Bryant Gumbel and Racism
at ESPN
Bill
Quigley
Six Months After Katrina: Who Was Left Behind Then? Who is Being
Left Behind Now?
Website
of the Day
Soldiers and Students
February
20, 2006
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Perversions of the Bush Administration:
Sexual Humiliation and Mother Murder in the War on Terror
Rachard
Itani
The Bigoted Wombat: John Howard Does Abu Ghraib
Gideon
Levy
A Chilling Heartlessness
Joshua
Frank
Cindy Sheehan's Message to the Democrats
Newton
Garver
The Challenges and Opportunities Confronting Evo Morales
Pratyush
Chandra
What the US Ambassador Taught Nepalis
Seth
Sandronsky
Bubblicious: the US Real Estate Market
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
The FBI and the Myth of Fingerprints
Website
of the Day
Chickenhawks Hall of Shame
February
18 / 19, 2006
Werther
A Half-Dozen Questions About 9/11
They Don't Want You to Ask
Uzma
Aslam Khan
Live from Lahore: Watching with Glee
Joe
DeRaymond
A Case of Injustice in Pennsylvania: the Prosecution of Dennis
Counterman
Edward
F. Mooney
Is Liberalism a Failing Religion? The Case of the Danish Cartoons
Paul
Craig Roberts
From Conservatives to Brownshirts
Elaine
Cassel
The Sentencing of Zacarias Moussaoui: an Issue of Competency
P.
Sainath
Soaring Suicides in Vidharbha
Thomas
P. Healy
An Interview with Ann Wright
Brian
Concannon, Jr.
Haiti's Elections: Right Result; Wrong Procedure
Fred
Gardner
Health Savings Accounts: a Boon for the Bosses
Rep.
Cynthia McKinney
Katrina's New Underclass
Brian
Tokar
WTO vs. Europe: Less (and More) Than It Seems
Chan
Chee Khoon
Privatizing the World Bank?
Andrew
Freedman
Chicago's Panopticon
St.
Clair / Walker
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets'
Basement
Hassen, Anderson, Engel and Guthrie
Website
of the Weekend
Depictionary
February
17, 2006
Floyd
Rudmin
Secret War Plans and the Malady of
American Militarism
Gervasio
Rodríguez
FBI Home Invasions in Puerto Rico
Gary
Leupp
The Mad is No Longer Out of the Question:
Stopping the War on Iran Before It Starts
Ramzy
Baroud
Weathering the Globalization Storm
Amira
Hass
Apartheid Gates: IDF Establishes "Israeli Only" Crossings
Matthew
Koehler
Forest Abuse on the Kootenai: an Intervention in Montana
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Deadeye Dick: Who Dares Call Him Chickenhawk Now?
Debbie
Nathan
ABC's Primetime "Teen Sex Slaves" Scam
Website
of the Day
Black Mesa Defense
Febrauary
16, 2006
Lila
Rajiva
Torture Pictures That Didn't Make
the Exhibition
Norman
Solomon
Dick Cheney's Fox Trot
Ron
Jacobs
An Interview with Antiwar Faster Mike
Ferner
Paul
Craig Roberts
Their Own Economic Reality
Website
of the Day
This
Ain't No Video Game
February
15, 2006
Brian
Conacnnon, Jr.
Haiti's Elections: Chaos, Supression
and Fraud
Dave
Lindorff
Democrats Shoot Their Own, Too
Saree
Makdisi
Israeli Ultimatums
Joshua
Frank
The Rhetorical Gore
Amira
Hass
Down the Expulsion Highway
CounterPunch
Wire
Winter of Discontent: a 34-Day Fast
Against the War
Robert
Bryce
The United States of Enron
Website
of the Day
Osama's
Game: an Interview with Michael Scheuer
February
14, 2006
John
Sugg
Those Cartoons and the Neo Con: Daniel
Pipes and the Danish Editor
Don
Santina
DiFi and the Royal Democrats: the
Curious Withdrawal of Cindy Sheehan
William
A. Cook
Shaming Sharon
Ray
McGovern
Who Will Blow the Whistle About
Iran?
John
Ross
Bush's Mexican Poodle
Website
of the Day
Willie
Nelson Records CPer Ned Sublette's "Cowboys Are Frequently
Secretly"
February 13, 2006
Lila
Rajiva
Axis of Child Abusers: UK Troops
Beat Up Barefoot Iraqi Teens
Christopher
Brauchli
Whistleblowers and Witch Hunters:
the Bush Inquisition
Dave
Lindorff
Deadeye Dick: If Stupidity Were
Impeachable, Cheney Would Be History
Ron
Jacobs
Black Liberation
Mike
Whitney
Riding High with Hugo Chavez
Michael
Neumann
Respectful Cultures and Disrespectful
Cartoons
Website
of the Day
Virtual Resistance
February
11 / 12, 2006
Alexander
Cockburn
How Not to Spot a Terrorist
Ralph
Nader
Bringing
Democracy to the Federal Reserve
Paul Craig
Roberts
Nuking
the Economy
Pat Williams
John
Boehner's Dirty Little Secret: Flying Lobbyist Air at $4,000
a Junket
Fred Gardner
Dr.
Mikuriya's Appeal: a Last Minute Twist
Saul Landau
From
Munich to Hamas
John Chuckman
Cartoons
and Bombs: Was Rice Right for Once?
Roger Burbach
Evo
Morales: the Early Days
Seth Sandronsky
Economy
on Ice
Website of
the Weekend
Just
Say Know
February 10,
2006
Carl
G. Estabrook
A US War Plan for Khuzestan?
Sen.
Russell Feingold
A Raw Deal on the Patriot Act
Roxanne
Dunbar----Ortiz
How Did Evo Morales Come to Power ?
Saree Makdisi
The
Tempest Over the Hamas Charter
Website of
the Day
The
New York Art Scene: 1974----1984
February 9,
2006
Dave Lindorff
Bush
and Yamashita: War Crimes and Commanders-in-Chief
Mike Marqusee
The
Human Majority was Right About Iraq
Paul Craig Roberts
How Conservatives Went Crazy: the Rightwing Press
Peter Phillips
Inside
the Global Dominance Group: 200 Insiders Against the World
William S. Lind
Rumsfeld the Maximalist: the Long War
Christine Tomlinson Innocent
Targets in the "Long War": False Positives and Bush's
Eavesdropping Program
Will Youmans
Church of England Votes to Divest from Israel
Robert Robideau
An American Indian's View of the Cartoons
Richard Neville
The Cartoons That Shook the World: All This from the Danes, the
Least Funny People on Earth
Peter Rost
The New Robber Barons
Website of the Day
Eyes Wide Open
February 8,
2006
Ron Jacobs
The
Once and Future Sly Stone: Soundtrack to a Riot
Stan Cox
Making
and Unmaking History with General Myers
Sen. Russ Feingold
Why
Bush's Wiretapping Program is Illegal and Unconstitutional
Robert Jensen
Horowitz's
Academic Hit List: Take a Class from One of the CounterPunch
16
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Bush Should Have Wiretapped FEMA and Chertoff
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Alberto Gonzales Channels Mark Twain
Don Monkerud
Covenant Marriage on the Rocks
David Swanson
Inequality and War
C.L. Cook
Nuking Ontario
Christopher
Fons
Chill Out Jihadis: They're Just Cartoons!
Jeffrey Ballinger
The Other Side of Nike and Social Responsibility
Website of
the Day
Encyclopedia of Terrorism in the Americas
February 7,
2006
Edward Lucie-Smith
An
Urgent Plea to Save a Small Estonian Museum from Neo-Nazis
Robert Fisk
The Fury: Now Lebanon is Burning
Paul Craig Roberts
Colin Powell's Career as a "Yes Man"
Neve Gordon
Why Hamas Won
Joshua Frank
The Hillary and George Show: Partners in War
Peter Montague
The Problem with Mercury: a History of Regulatory Capitulation
Jackie Corr
The
Last Best Choice: Public Power and Montana
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Rumsfeld's
Enforcer: the Secret World of Stephen Cambone
Website of the Day
Negroes with Guns
February 6,
2006
Christopher
Brauchli
Spilling
Blood: Two Sentences
Robert Fisk
Don't
Be Fooled: This Isn't About Islam vs. Secularism
John Chuckman
What Did Stephen Harper Actually Win?
Jenna Orkin
Judge Slams EPA for Lying About 9/11's Toxic Air
Paul Craig
Roberts
Who
Will Save America: My Epiphany
February 4
/ 5, 2006
Alexander Cockburn
"Lights
Out in Tehran": McCain Starts Bombing Run
Mike Ferner
Pentagon
Database Leaves No Kid Alone
James Petras
Evo Morales's Cabinet: a Bizarre Beginning in Bolivia
Alan Maass
Scare of the Union: Dems Collaborate with Bush on Surveillance
Fred Gardner
Annals of Law Enforcement: a Look Inside the San Francisco DA's
Office
Ralph Nader
Bush's
Energy Escapades
Bill Glahn
RIAA Watch: Speaking in Tongues
Saul Landau
Freedom 2006: Buying Sex on the Net or Those Older Freedoms?
Laura Carlsen
Bad Blood on the Border: Killing Guillermo Martinez
James Brooks
Our Little Shop of Diplomatic Horrors
Mike Roselle
Hippies and Revolutionaries in Carcacas
John Holt
Black Gold, Black Death: Canada's Oil Sands Frenzy
Sarah Ferguson
Cops Suing Cops ... for Spying on Cops
William S.
Lind
Beware the Ides of March
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Price of Globalization: Free Trade or Free Speech?
Seth Sandronsky
The Color of Job Cuts in the Auto Industry
Derrick O'Keefe
Rumsfeld's Hitler Analogy
Michael Donnelly
Hop on the Bus
Ron Jacobs
Religion and Political Power
Elisa Salasin
RSVP to Bush
St. Clair / Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Stew Albert
God's Curse: Selected Poems
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, LaMorticella and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Killer
Tells All!
February 3,
2006
Toufic Haddad
A
Parliament of Prisoners
Heather Gray
Working with Coretta Scott King
Tim Wise
Racism,
Neo-Confederacy and the Raising of Historical Illiterates
Conn Hallinan
Nuclear Proliferation: the Gathering Storm
Eva Golinger
Rumsfeld and Negroponte Amp Up Hositility Toward Venezuela
Daniel Ellsberg
The World Can't Wait: Invitation to a Demonstration
Dave Zirin
Detroit: Super Bowl City on the Brink
Robert Bryce
The
Problem with Cutting US Oil Imports from the Middle East
Website of
the Day
The Chavez Code
February 2,
2006
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Pentagon
Pork: How to Eliminate It
Stan Cox
Outsourcing
the Golden Years
Rachard Itani
Danes
(Finally) Apologize to Muslims (For the Wrong Reasons)
Mike Whitney
Afghanistan Five Years Later: Buildings Down, Heroin Up
Amira Hass
In
the Footsteps of Arafat: an Interview with Hamas' Ismail Haniya
Norman Solomon
When Praise is Desecration: Smothering King's Legacy with Kind
Words
Michael Simmons
Stew Lives!
Christopher
Reed
Japan's
Dirty Secret: One Million Korean Slaves
Website of the Day
State of Nature
February 1,
2006
Sharon Smith
The
Bluff and Bluster Dems: Alito and the Faux Filibuster
Jason Leopold
Enron and the Bush Administration
Cindy Sheehan
Getting
Busted at the State of the Union: What Really Happened
Joseph Grosso
Oprah
and Elie Wiesel: a Match Made in "Neutrality"
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Coretta Scott King was More Than Just Dr. King's Wife
Steven Higgs
Life After Roe. v. Wade
Robert Robideau
"God Given Rights": Palestine and Native America
R. Siddharth
Tales of Power: When Gandhi Rejected a Faustian Bargain with
Henry Ford
Jim Retherford
Remembering Stew Albert: the Quiet Genius
Rep. Cynthia
McKinney
The Legacy of Coretta Scott King
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
True State of the Union
Website of
the Day
Candide's Notebooks
March
14, 2006
Exhibit
A: the Moussaoui Trial
Why the Gitmo Tribunals are a Bad Idea
By DAVE LINDORFF
T he Justice Department's vile and underhanded
attempt to rig the penalty-phase trial of Zacarias Moussaoui
and nail him with a death penalty is Exhibit A for why Bush and
Rumsfeld should not be allowed to handle the Guantanamo detainee
and other detainee cases through military tribunals.
What the government did in
the Moussaoui case was try to undermine a defendant's fundamental
right to a fair trial by secretly coaching prosecution and defense
witnesses in how to testify.
This was the government's star
terrorism case. Not only has Moussaoui admitted that he was working
with Al Qaeda--he admitted he was trying to learn how to fly
large passenger planes into buildings. The government's argument
for having him executed is that "if only" he had admitted
to FBI investigators, after his arrest, that he was learning
to fly so he could participate in the suicide crashing of airplanes
into tall buildings, Washington would not have been so clueless
about the approach of the 9-11 attacks.
It's not so much about killing
Moussaoui, then, as providing a cover for the administration's
incredible ineptness, or worse, in the weeks leading up to 9-11,
when all kinds of warnings about a major terror attack were coming
into intelligence offices, and nothing was being done about them.
The trouble is, the government's
case is worse than weak. First of all, there is no indication
that even if Moussaoui had laid it all out that the FBI would
have done anything differently (after all, the agency's bureau
in Minnesota had the information that he was learning to fly
and had shown no interest in take-offs or landings, and that
had gone nowhere in the FBI bureaucracy). The prosecution attorney
who coached government witnesses, all from the Federal Aviation
Administration and the Transportation Security Administration,
felt the need to provide them with detailed transcripts of what
had transpired earlier at the trial, and to tell them what to
and what not to say, because, as she put it, the prosecution's
case for a death penalty had holes in it so big that "the
defense can drive a truck through."
So this is how the Bush/Gonzales
Justice Department operates, and how it views our vaunted legal
system. In order to win a case, it is willing to lie, cheat,
coach witnesses--whatever it takes to get its way.
Fortunately, Federal District
Judge Leonie Brinkema has stood up for the Constitution, even
for a man as demented and bent on evil as Moussaoui, and has
threatened to abort the trial--actually a penalty phase hearing
since Moussaoui has already admitted his guilt on the charges.
Given the level of passion involved in this case, which is being
attended by relatives of some of the victims of 9-11--it took
a lot of courage for Judge Brinkema to act as she did.
Who is going to act so boldly
though, in defense of the innocent captives at Guantanamo, though?
If the government has its way,
the 500 people who are held there, many of whom have been locked
up, tortured, and abused for over four years, and some of whom
were as young as seven when they were captured by U.S. forces
in Afghanistan and elsewhere and renditioned to the US Naval
base on the island of Cuba, will never have a trial or a judge.
If the bush administration has its way they will instead face
a panel of military "judges," will not have the benefit
of the Constitutional presumption of innocence, will not have
the right to question their accusers or to call their own witnesses.
They will be railroaded. Many could end up being renditioned
on to countries where they could face torture or death. Others
could end up being executed by the U.S.
Yet studies have already shown
that most of those held are probably innocent of any crime--indeed
may not have even been fighting at all in Afghanistan. A key
problem is that the U.S. offered bounties to people who turned
in "terrorists" in Afghanistan, and in that impoverished,
war-torn, and tribally factionalized land, there were plenty
of people willing to turn in neighbors, personal enemies, political
rivals, or someone with a legitimate grievance against them,
for a stack of dollars, no questions asked.
At this point though, it's
not in the administration's interest to admit its mistakes. Better
to set up kangaroo tribunals to "prove" that everyone
held at Guantanamo is guilty.
Their attempt to do it with
Moussaoui's trial was exposed and luckily, a judge did her duty
and blocked the effort to kill him and hide the government's
bungling.
Who will stop them in Guantanamo?
Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing
Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal . His new
book of CounterPunch columns titled "This
Can't be Happening! " is published by Common Courage
Press. Lindorff's new book, "The
Case for Impeachment ",
co-authored by Barbara Olshansky, is due out May 1.
He can be reached at: dlindorff@yahoo.com
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