Coming
in October
From Common Courage Press
Today's
Stories
August 29, 2003
Lenni Brenner
God
and the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party
Bister, Estrin and Jacobs
Howard Dean, the Progressive Anti-War Candidate? Some Vermonters
Give Their Views
August 28, 2003
Gilad Atzmon
The
Most Common Mistakes of Israelis
David Vest
Moore's
Monument: Cement Shoes for the Constitution
David Lindorff
Shooting Ali in the Back: Why the Pacification is Doomed
Chris Floyd
Cheap Thrills: Bush Lies to Push His War
Wayne Madsen
Restoring the Good, Old Term "Bum"
Elaine Cassel
Not Clueless in Chicago
Stan Goff
Nukes in the Dark
Tariq Ali
Occupied
Iraq Will Never Know Peace
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Behold, My Package
Website of the Day
Palestinian
Artists
Recent
Stories
August 27, 2003
Bruce Jackson
Little
Deaths: Hiding the Body Count in Iraq
John Feffer
Nuances and North Korea: Six Countries in Search of a Solution
Dave Riley
an Interview with Tariq Ali on the Iraq War
Lacey Phillabaum
Bush's Holy War in the Forests
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Website of the Day
The Dean Deception
August 26, 2003
Robert Fisk
Smearing the Dead
David Lindorff
The
Great Oil Gouge: Burning Up that Tax Rebate
Sarmad S. Ali
Baghdad is Deadlier Than Ever: the View of an Iraqi Coroner
Christopher Brauchli
Bush Administration Equates Medical Pot Smokers with Segregationists
Juliana Fredman
Collective Punishment on the West Bank: Dialysis, Checkpoints
and a Palestinian Madonna
Larry Siems
Ghosts of Regime Changes Past in Guatemala
Elaine Cassel
Onward, Ashcroft Soldiers!
Saul Landau
Bush:
a Modern Ahab or a Toy Action Figure?
August 25, 2003
Kurt Nimmo
Israeli Outlaws in America
David Bacon
In Iraq, Labor Protest is a Crime
Thomas P. Healy
The Govs Come to Indy: Corps Welcome; Citizens Locked Out
Norman Madarasz
In an Elephant's Whirl: the US/Canada Relationship After the
Iraq Invasion
Salvador Peralta
The Politics of Focus Groups
Jack McCarthy
Who Killed Jancita Eagle Deer?
Uri Avnery
A Drug
for the Addict
August 23/24, 2003
Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld
Does Bogota
Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity
Insults to Intelligence
Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor
Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful
Fungus
Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest
or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon
Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary
of 9/11
Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield
Dave Lindorff
Marketplace
Medicine
Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and
Free Speech
Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy
José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?
Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America
Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine
Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations
William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films
Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable
Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam
Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry
August 22, 2003
Carole Harper
Post-Sandinista
Nicaragua
John Chuckman
George Will: the Marquis of Mendacity
Richard Thieme
Operation Paperclip Revisited
Chris Floyd
Dubya Indemnity: Bush Barons Beyond the Reach of Law?
Issam Nashashibi
Palestinians
and the Right of Return: a Rigged Survey
Mary Walworth
Other People's Kids
Ron Jacobs
The
Darkening Tunnel
Website of the Day
Current Energy
August 21, 2003
Robert Fisk
The US
Needs to Blame Anyone But Locals for UN Bombing
Virginia Tilley
The Quisling Policies of the UN in Iraq: Toward a Permanent War?
Rep. Henry Waxman
Bush Owes the Public Some Serious Answers on Iraq
Ben Terrall
War Crimes and Punishment in Indonesia: Rapes, Murders and Slaps
on the Wrists
Elaine Cassel
Brother John Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Salvation Show
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Gouged by Banks
Marjorie Cohn
Sergio Vieira de Mello: Victim of Terrorism or US Policy in Iraq?
Vicente Navarro
Media
Double Standards: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush
Website of the Day
The Intelligence Squad
August 20, 2003
Robert Fisk
Now No
One Is Safe in Iraq
Caoimhe Butterly
Life and Death on the Frontlines of Baghdad
Kurt Nimmo
UN Bombing: Act of Terrorism or Guerrilla War?
Michael Egan
Revisiting the Paranoid Style in the Dark
Ramzi Kysia
Peace
is not an Abstract Idea
Steven Higgs
NPR and the NAFTA Highway
John L. Hess
A Downside Day
Edward Said
The Imperial Bluster of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Gridlock at Path 15: the California Blackouts were the "Wake
Up Call"
Website of the Day
Ashcroft's Patriotic Hype
August 19, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Blackouts Happen
Gary Leupp
"Our Patch": Australia v. the Evil Doers of the South
Pacific
Sean Donahue
Uribe's Cruel Model: Colombia Moves Toward Totalitarianism
Matt Martin
Bush's Credibility Problem on Missile Defense
Juliana Fredman
Recipe for the Destruction of a Hudna
John Ross
Fox Government's Attack on Mexican Basques
Sasan Fayazmanesh
What Kermit Roosevelt Didn't Say
Website of the Day
Tom Delay's Dual Loyalities
August 18, 2003
Uri Avnery
Hero in War and Peace
Stan Goff
The Volunteer Military and the Wicked Adventure
Cathy Breen
Baghdad on the Hudson
Michael Kimaid
Fight the Power (Companies)!
Jason Leopold
The California Rip-Off Revisited: Arnold, Milken and Ken Lay
Matt Siegfried
The Bush Administration in Context
Elaine Cassel
At Last, A Judge Who Acts Like a Judge
Alexander Cockburn
Judy Miller's War
Harvey Wasserman
The Legacy of Blackout Pete Wilson
Website of the Day
Fire Griles!
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
August 16 / 17, 2003
Flavia Alaya
Bastille
New Jersey
Jeffrey St. Clair
War Pimps
Saul Landau
The Legacy of Moncada: the Cuban Revolution at 50
Brian Cloughley
What Has Happened to the US Army in Iraq?
William S. Lind
Coffins for the Crews: How Not to Use Light Armored Vehicles
Col. Dan Smith
Time for Straight Talk
Wenonah Hauter
Which
Electric System Do We Want?
David Lindorff
Where's Arnold When We Need Him?
Harvey Wasserman
This Grid Should Not Exist
Don Moniak
"Unusual Events" at Nuclear Power Plants: a Timeline
for August 14, 2003
David Vest
Rolling Blackout Revue
Merlin Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Sherman Austin
Adam Engel
The Loneliest Number
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Hamod & Albert
Book of the Weekend
Powerplay by Sharon Beder
Hot Stories
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
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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August
29, 2003
The Thin Blue Line
How
the US Occupation of Iraq Imperils International Law
By MARJORIE COHN
The day after the truck bombing of the United
Nations headquarters in Baghdad, U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan remarked, "The blue flag has never been so viciously
assaulted as it was yesterday." Whether executed by remnants
of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party, or foreign jihadis,
or both working in concert, the attack was the result of a steady
evisceration of the United Nations and international law by the
United States.
"Preemptive War"
Violates the U.N. Charter
One year after the September 11 terrorist
attacks, George W. Bush invoked that tragedy to announce his
new national security strategy of "preemptive war."
Citing Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, and warning that
Hussein would likely share them with al-Qaeda terrorists, Bush
built his case for waging war on Iraq.
It was clear to the millions of people
who marched in the streets before the war began, and it is now
evident to most people, that there was no danger to "preempt"
in Iraq. Severely weakened by the first Gulf War, 12 years of
punishing sanctions, and intrusive weapons inspections, Hussein's
military forces mounted little resistance to the U.S.-U.K.'s
"almost biblical force" against the Iraqi people.
Moreover, Bush's preemption doctrine
violates the Charter of the United Nations, which specifies that
only the Security Council can sanction the use of force and it
can only be used in self-defense. "Operation Iraqi Freedom"
was not undertaken in self-defense and it was never authorized
by the Security Council.
The Security Council
Stands Up to Bush...Sort Of
In spite of the Bush administration's
threats and bribes in its attempts to secure the passage of a
resolution putting the U.N.'s imprimatur on an armed invasion
of Iraq, the Security Council held firm. Bush then cobbled together
prior Council resolutions, none of which authorized force in
Iraq, to justify his illegal war.
But the Security Council did not condemn
the invasion. And the Council legitimized the U.S. and the U.K.
as the occupying "Authority" of Iraq when it passed
Resolution 1483.
The resolution also provided for the
appointment of a U.N. Special Representative to coordinate, in
conjunction with "the Authority," humanitarian assistance
and reconstruction activities in Iraq. In effect, the Special
Representative would function in a secondary capacity; the occupying
power maintained ultimate authority over the occupation and the
awarding of the lucrative reconstruction contracts.
Kofi Annan appointed Sergio Vieira de
Mello, the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights, as Special
Representative. Mr. Vieira de Mello was one of the 23 people
killed in the bombing of the Baghdad U.N. headquarters last week.
On Monday, the U.S. blocked the adoption
of a Security Council resolution which would enhance the protection
of U.N. and other humanitarian aid workers, because it called
for the prosecution of war criminals in the International Criminal
Court. The Council then adopted the resolution without reference
to the ICC.
Bush removed the United States' signature
from the ICC's statute last year out of fear that he and other
officials could be prosecuted for war crimes, even though the
ICC would only act if the national courts were unwilling to do
so. The U.S. also pushed a resolution through the Security Council
which provides immunity from jurisdiction to peacekeepers from
countries which have not ratified the ICC's statute.
The U.S. has extracted immunity agreements
from 37 countries and cut off military assistance to 35 others
who refuse to sign such accords. This defiance by the U.S. further
undercuts the international rule of law.
Why Was the United
Nations Targeted?
In the wake of the worst attack on the
U.N. in its 58-year history, people are asking why the world's
premier peacekeeping organization was targeted. There is understandable
resentment against the United States for the devastating bombings
and military attacks against the people of Iraq. The occupiers
have been unable to deliver safe streets, clean water, electricity
and jobs, and they have conducted heavy-handed searches during
the occupation.
The U.N. is in Baghdad, in the words
of Mr. Vieira de Mello, "to assist the Iraqi people and
those responsible for the administration of this land to achieve
freedom, the possibility of managing their own destiny and determining
their own future."
Sergio Vieira de Mello sympathized with
the Iraqi people. "It must be one of the most humiliating
periods in their history," he observed. "Who would
like to see their country occupied?"
But, to many in the Arab world, the United
States and the United Nations are indistinguishable. They see
the U.N. as a tool of the U.S.
Mohammed Hindawi, an engineer in Cairo,
said, "The U.N. did nothing for the Iraqis during the war.
They arrived in Baghdad when the coast was clear. People expected
the U.N.'s support, and they didn't get it. It's payback time."
Mohsen Farouk, a carpenter in Cairo,
noted, "It was just a matter of time. The U.N. is just a
puppet of the U.S., and anyone who is angry with the U.S. is
likely to consider the U.N. a target."
The people responsible for the attack
on the U.N. are also likely mindful of the devastation wreaked
upon Iraqis by 12 years of sanctions.
Following the first Gulf War, the United
States manipulated the Security Council into imposing a harsh
regime of economic sanctions, which have led to the deaths of
an estimated one million Iraqis.
Give U.N. Authority
in Iraq
The Bush administration is lobbying for
a new Security Council resolution which would urge other countries
to send troops to help stabilize Iraq. The U.S., however, would
maintain military control over all forces. Such a resolution
would, in the words of The New York Times, provide "United
Nations cover to the American operation."
"Operation Iraqi Freedom" has
opened a Pandora's Box of terrorism in Iraq. The only hope for
restoring peace and security is for the United States to step
aside and allow the United Nations to take over the reconstruction.
If the U.S. continues to insist on unilateral authority in Iraq,
it will be sucked deeper into a quagmire from which there is
no exit. And it will further weaken the U.N. and international
law.
Marjorie Cohn,
a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, is
executive vice president of the National Lawyers Guild. She can
be reached at: cohn@counterpunch.org
Weekend
Edition Features for August 23 / 24, 2003
Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld
Does Bogota
Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity
Insults to Intelligence
Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor
Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful
Fungus
Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest
or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon
Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary
of 9/11
Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield
Dave Lindorff
Marketplace
Medicine
Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and
Free Speech
Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy
José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?
Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America
Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine
Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations
William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films
Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable
Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam
Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry
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