Coming
in October
From Common Courage Press
Today's
Stories
August 20, 2003
Edward Said
The Imperial Bluster of Tom Delay
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!
Recent
Stories
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
August 14, 2003
Peter Phillips
Inside
Bohemian Grove: Where US Power Elites Party
Brian Cloughley
Charlie Wilson and Pakistan: the Strange Congressman Behind the
CIA's Most Expensive War
Linville and Ruder
Tyson
Strike Draws the Line
Jim Lobe
Bush Administration Divided Over Iran
Ramzy Baroud
Sharon Freezes the Road Map
Tom Turnipseed
Blowback in Iraq
Gary Leupp
Condi's
Speech: From Birgmingham to Baghdad, Imperialism's Freedom Ride
Website of the Day
Tony Benn's Greatest Hits
August 13, 2003
Joanne Mariner
A Wall of Separation Through the
Heart
Donald Worster
The Heavy Cost of Empire
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Elaine Cassel
Murderous Errors: Executing the Innocent
Ralph Nader
Make the Recall Count
Alexander Cockburn
Ted Honderich Hit with "Anti-Semitism" Slur
Website of the Day
Defending Yourself Against DirectTV Lawsuits: 9000 and Counting
August 12, 2003
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Ron Jacobs
Revisionist History: the Bush Administration, Civil Rights and
Iraq
Josh Frank
Dean's Constitutional Hang-Up
Wayne Madsen
What's a Fifth Columnist? Well, Someone Like Hitchens
Ray McGovern
Relax,
It Was All a Pack of Lies
Wendy Brinker
Hubris in the White House
Website of the Day
Black
Mustache
August
11, 2003
Douglas
Valentine
Homeland Security for Whom?
Mickey
Z.
Bush's Progress
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: Meet the New Bitch, Same
as the Old
Elaine
Cassel
Indicting DNA
Dr. Mohammad
Omar Farooq
Civil Liberties and Uncivil Super-Patriotism
Uri
Avnery
Who Will Save Abu Mazen?
Website
of the Day
RIAA Subpoena Clearinghouse
August
9 / 10, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
California's Glorious Recall!
Saul
Landau
Bush and King Henry
Gary
Leupp
On Terrorism, Methodism, "Wahhabism"
and the Censored 9/11 Report
Paul de
Rooij
The Parade of the Body Bags
Michael
Egan
History and the Tragedy of American Diplomacy
Rob Eshelman
A Home of Our Own
Daoud
Kuttab
Life as an ID Card
Philip
Agee
Terror and Civil Society: Instruments of US Policy in Cuba
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man
Walt Brasch
Schwarzenegger, "Hollyweird"
and the Rigtheous Right
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush, Bribery and Berlusconi
Josh Frank
Mean, Mean Howard Dean
Elaine
Cassel
Will the Death Penalty Ever Die?
Sean Carter
Total Recall
Poets'
Basement
Hamod, Engel, Albert
August
8, 2003
John
Chuckman
What the US Says Goes
Roberto
Barreto
Defend the Vieques 12!
Bruce Gagnon
Iraq War Emboldens Bush Space Plans
Elaine
Cassel
The Reign of John Ashcroft
Dave
Lindorff
Snoops Night Out
Website
of the Day
Zero Boy
August
7, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
It the US a "Terrorist Magnet?"
Toni
Solo
Neo-liberal Nicaragua: a New Banana
Republic
Adam Lebowitz
Hiroshima Commemorated: the View from Japan
Hanan
Ashrawi
When the Bully Whines
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Conscience Takes a Holiday
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Lets Slip: Iraq Not Behind 9/11; No Ties to Al-Qaeda
Mike Kimaid
What's the Score?
Elaine
Cassel
The Smell of VICTORY: Ashcroft's Latest Stinkbomb
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20, 000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
August 6, 2003
Steve
Higgs
Going to Jail for the Cause: It's Not
Easy Confronting King Coal
David
Krieger
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Robert
Fisk
The Ghosts of Uday and Qusay
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's War on the National Forests
Elaine
Cassel
No Fly Lists
Stan
Goff
Military Equipment and Pneumonia
Hugh Sansom
An Open Letter to Nicholas Kristof on the Nuking of Japan
August
5, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Prisoner of Ramallah: Arafat at
74
Forrest
Hylton
Terrorism and Political Trials: the
View from Bolivia
Ray
McGovern
"We Cook Estimates to Go"
David
Morse
Poindexter's Gambit
Edward
Said
Orientallism: 25 Years Later
George
W. Bush
My Darn Good Resumé
Hammond
Guthrie
It's Incremental, Watson!
Website
of the Day
National Prayer Day
August 4, 2003
Bruce
K. Gagnon
Another Peace Activist Detained by
Airport Cops: My Story
David
Lindorff
Fear-Mongering About Social Security
Mark
Zepezauer
George F. Will: Descent into Self-Parody
James
Plummer
Tracking You Through the Mail
Mickey
Z.
Marriage Insecurity from Sharon to Bush
Bruce
Jackson
News that Isn't News: How the NYT's
Pimps for the White House
August
2 / 3, 2003
Tamara
R. Piety
Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down
Francis
Boyle
My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool
David
Vest
Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side
Neve Gordon
Nightlife in Jerusalem
Uri
Avnery
Their Master's Voice:
Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus
Robert
Fisk
Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq
Jerry
Kroth
Israel, Yellowcake and the Media
Noah Leavitt
What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to
Intervene?
Saul
Landau
The Film Industry: Business and Ideology
Ron Jacobs
One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson
Thomas
Croft
In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta
Amadi Ajamu
Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader?
Poets'
Basement
Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming
August
1, 2003
Joanne
Mariner
Stopping Prison Rape
Alex Coolman
Who Moved My Soap: Trivializing
Prison Rape
Steve
J. B.
Prison Bitch
Stan Goff
Injury and Decorum: The Missing Wounded in Iraq
Wayne
Madsen
Europe Unplugs from the Matrix
Robert
Fisk
Wolfowitz the Censor
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft Loses Big in Puerto Rico
Website
of the Day
Stop Prisoner Rape
July
31, 2003
Ray
McGovern
The Prostitution of Intelligence
Brian
Cloughley
Wolfowitz's Operative Statement
Sheldon
Hull
The RIAA's Jihad:
The Devil's Music (Industry)
Elaine
Cassel
The Next Time You Crack a Lawyer Joke, Think of These Attorneys
Sheldon
Rampton
and John Stauber
True Lies: Propaganda and Bush's
Wars
Hammond
Guthrie
Speculation Blues
Website
of the Day
Army of One?
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
July
30, 2003
David
Lindorff
Poindexter the Terror Bookie
Marjorie
Cohn
Why Iraq and Afghanistan? It's About
the Oil
Elaine
Cassel
How Ashcroft Coerces Guilty Pleas
in Terror Cases
Zvi
Bar'el
The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War
Lisa Walsh
Thomas
Killing Mustafa Hussein: Death of a Child, Birth of a Legend?
Sean
Carter
Pat Robertson's Prayer Jihad: God, Sodomy and the Supremes
ND Jayaprakash
India and Ariel Sharon
Steve
Perry
Bush's Top 40 Lies
Standard
Schaefer
Correction about Bloomberg and Outscourcing
Website
of the Day
Bring Them Home Now!
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
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
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
20, 2003
Life and Death on
the Front Lines
The
Things That Keep Us Here
By CAOIMHE BUTTERLY
in Baghdad
Anwar Adel Khardom points to her heavily pregnant,
shrapnel-sprayed stomach as she fluctuates between composure
and frantic, inconsolable grief: "what sort of life will
this child be born into?" Her thirteen year old daughter
Hadil, frail arms bruised and scarred with shrapnel, head bandaged
with white gauze, remains wide-eyed and observant, fanning
her mother with a woven fan as the heat of an oppressive, airless
day reaches it's midday climax. The room is crowded with relatives
and friends who drink the bitter coffee and cry and keen in memory
of Anwar's husband, Adel, her 18-year old son Haider, 17-year
old daughter Ola, and 8-year old daughter Mervat: all shot dead
by U. S. soldiers seven days before.
"How could they, why did they do
it-they must of known we were a family-how could they kill my
babies?", Anwar asks continually as she holds a picture
of her beautiful, smiling children-immortalised on the black
banners hung on the outside walls of her family home, each of
their names with shaheed (martyr) scripted next to it, proclaiming
the family's tragedy to the hushed street outside.
The car that carried Anwar's family into
a line of fire that pumped more than twenty bullets through the
windshield and chassis into the warm living flesh, vital organs
and skulls of her husband and children remains outside. The
seats and headrests were ripped apart by bullets and remain covered
in faded, darkened bloodstains. Hadil's blood-stained handprints
on the outside of the car are the same colour, left there as
she groped her way out of the car that held dead Ola and Haider
and dying Adel and Mervat, trying to follow her mother as Anwar
ran towards the house they had just come from, screaming for
help.
No help came, at 9:30 p. m. on August
7 in Hyatt al Tunis, a residential neighborhood in Baghdad.
U. S. soldiers continued to shoot so erratically at anyone
attempting to aid the wounded that they proceeded to injure at
least five other civilians and two of their own soldiers, as
other troops stationed in a military base stationed at the end
of the street joined in. Ground troops from the First Brigade,
First Armoured Division started to fire round after round into
the darkened street, shattering the quiet of a summer night
and destroying the remnants of tolerance held by that, and many
other communities, towards an occupational presence whose benign
veneer grows thinner by the day.
When the twenty minutes of constant shooting
stopped, three civilians were dead and more wounded. Saef A.
, a 21-year old university student , who drove in a car with
two friends down the same road into the path of U. S. occupational
forces (who were in the process of raiding and searching a local
store, and, having been subjected to the standard continual
diet of misinformation and racism, suitably terrified enough
to view all Iraqis as potential or actual enemies) was shot repeatedly
and then--as his two friends, both wounded, leapt out of the
car, witnesses report seeing a soldier approaching the car,
point a gun with a grenade-launcher attached at the still-living
Saef, and shoot, causing the car, and Saef's body to be engulfed
in flames.
Adel Abdul Kareem and his 8-year old
daughter, Mervat were taken from the scene, still living, by
a U. S. military ambulance, at ten p. m. They were not delivered
to nearby Medical City Hospital until 11 p. m. , shortly after
which they both died from their injuries and heavy blood loss.
Ali Hussein Ali, 18 years old and Abbas Shamarwi, 19, the
wounded occupants of Saef's car were-according to witnesses-beaten
by U. S. soldiers, hand-cuffed, had hoods put over their heads,
taken into military custody and detained for two days at a nearby
military base. They were then disappeared for over a week.
Abbas is now been held in administrative detention at the Airport
prison, Ali's location is still unknown. Anwar's remaining
daughter Hadil, was grabbed by a female soldier as she stumbled
away from the car. She was shaken violently by the soldier,
who then--Hadil testifies--pulled Hadil's gold earrings from
her ears and pocketed them, before Hadil ran away back to her
grandmother's house, alone, bleeding from her own wounds and
covered with the blood of her dead brother and sisters.
The August 7 killing of six civilians
is not an isolated event--excessive use of force by Occupation
forces, breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, live ammunition
being used as a form of crowd control, and civilians killed
at checkpoints has become a regularity, as those responsible
are not brought to justice, and a growing sense of unaccountability
reigns. What distinguishes the shooting on the 7th, is more
the horrific nature of all of the deaths and the terrible loss
that they have left Anwar and Hadil, in particular, struggling
to deal with. Distinctive, too, is the blatancy in which a
high-level cover-up is being orchestrated. The causes of death
on the death certificates of all of those killed have been left
blank. The Forensics doctors of two hospitals are rumoured to
have come under pressure from the U. S. Army. The doctors are
not available for comment. Neither are officials from the Occupational
Administration. The only people in the U. S, army who have
commented on the incident have lied. We interviewed Captain
John Mostellar, commanding officer of the military base where
the soldiers responsible for perpetuating the killings are thought
to be stationed. Dismissive of the incident, Mostellar claimed
that an internal investigation had taken place, which would
not be made public. His seniors are denying knowledge of the
investigation. We were directed by Mostellar to visit official
army spokespeople at the airport prison, and promised that official
co-ordination would take place to ensure the meeting took place.
Upon arrival we were not allowed past the front gate. One eye-witness
at the scene claims that Mostellar, whom he had met the week
before at the military base, was present while the raid on the
shop took place and present during the subsequent killings.
Iraqi police officers stationed at the First Brigade's base,
who had contact with Ali and Abbas while they were detained believe
that they were disappeared because they witnessed too much. "They
don't want the true story known-the soldiers are to blame for
the deaths"stated one policeman.
The families of those killed have decided,
with support and endorsement from Voices In the Wilderness, Occupation
Watch and Belfast-based law firm Madden and Finucane, to launch
a call and campaign demanding justice. Tomorrow Anwar and Hadil,
Abu Saef and others along with representatives from the groups
participating in the campaign, will hold a press conference to
demand an independent, international, transparent, public investigation
into the killings, and others like them. The families are apprehensive,
though determined. So are we. As volunteers with Voices, as solidarity
activists on the ground we have become increasingly more critical
of the hostile and violent nature of this occupation, which can
only elicit a response of growing hostility and violence. Our
response to the escalating violence is to support the growing
civil society currents of grassroots organizing and non-violent
resistance, and we too are being subtly targeted and intimidated.
In our accompianment of communities at risk, through months
of endless meetings, discussion, debate with human rights groups,
trade unions, students, religious groups, Marxists, artists,
the unemployed, neighbours, friends and foes, we are trying to
make the connections and forge essential links of support between
social justice groups outside and a growing movement within Iraq,
to break the isolation and heighten the security of the growing
voices of dissent here. This support is being viewed as a threat
by those in whose interests it serves to promote prolonged chaos,
instability and violence. We have been participating daily with
the Union of the Unemployed in Iraq for the past nineteen days
in colourful, creative, powerful sit-ins outside Bremmer's H.
Q. and actions such as marches and teach-ins. The union is demanding
jobs or, in their absence emergency social security benefits
of 100 dollars a month per family. U. S. soldiers have arrested,
detained, brutalized and intimidated over 70 of the union members,
including the Union's leadership, calling them thieves and demanding
the immediate suspension of the protest. A participant in the
sit-ins, the founder of the Iraqi Womens'Freedom Organisation,
Yanar Mohammud is continually verbally abused by soldiers for
her presence. Yanar, an incredibly brave, articulate returned
exile has spearheaded a campaign to challenge the legitimacy
of honour killings and to highlight the soaring increase, post-war,
of abduction and rape. She shares office space, in a squatted
bank, with theWorkers' Communist Party, who broadcast daily community
pirate radio. In negotiations with a subordinate of Bremmer's,
high-ranking U. S. officials tried to convince her and other
Union representatives that we are Israeli spies and provocateurs
who "do not really care about the welfare of Iraqis. "
When this failed to convince another official claimed that we
were undercover journalists trying to provoke "violence"
and "disorderly behaviour"in order to gain an exclusive
story. Following the unsuccessful attempts at smearing us, as
we continued to participate in the sit-ins, -which we believe
received more media coverage and were kept a little bit safer
with internationals present-we were threatened with arrest and
deportation. One soldier stuck a gun to a friend's chest, threatening
"accidents do happen in this part of the world. "
We are slowly, gradually walking beside
men and women who are speaking truth to power and we are being
made aware of the risks. The threat of an occupying presence
of total impunity as well as a backdrop of escalating, senseless,
unpredictable violent crime is forcing us to examine our own
fears and vulnerability. A member of our household was shot in
the back of the head, probably mistaken for a soldier, another
volunteer attacked and robbed. I was nearly abducted at gun-point,
but managed to escape. Another friend , a journalist, was killed
last night. We hear of gang rapes and horrible violations every
day. Our sleep, as is that of five million other people is punctuated
by the sounds of unexplained gunfire and explosions. The fear
in Baghdad is corrosive and tangible-one can literally breath
it in--as a society struggles through a period of extreme terror
and uncertainty. I am, perhaps for the first time in my life,
deeply afraid. There is seldom refuge for vulnerable human
flesh here, now. I have confronted death so many times now,
of friends, of those around me, in Zimbabwe, in Latin America,
in Jenin, that I do not fear it. I am afraid, however of
a senseless death, a stray or intended bullet. I want desperately--as
do most human beings--to live, to love, to continue to struggle,
to resist the policies and practices that deny so many people
the right to live with dignity.
The killing goes on--the assaults are
numerous. It is not only the bullets and boots and racism of
the occupation but the continual reminders that U. S. foreign
policy will not respect the sanctity of Iraqi life, human rights,
sovereignty and genuine self-determination anymore now than
they have in the past. The assault of poverty and unemployment--the
over 60% of Iraqis currently unemployed, the vital monthly rations
being half of what families received before the war. The assault
of a complete lack of security and material well-being. A day
without electricity constitutes a state of emergency in the U.
S. Families sweltering for almost five months in 120 degree
temperatures, confined to spend long airless, breathless,
nights in the confines of their homes--kept there by curfews
and fear--does not. The assault on freedom of speech and expression--the
seeming lack of awareness within the Occupational Administration
that Iraqis do not need newspapers to incite them to violence--that
witnessing, daily, the increasing brutality of this occupation
is provocation enough. The assault on the living memories of
Iraqis--that the victims of an in incredibly brutal dictatorship
are not given the time or space to process, to examine what
allows a or any Saddam to consolidate power. No time to examine,
to record their narratives--nor time to heal, before being
plunged--collectively--into another chapter of uncertainty and
insecurity.
As counter-balance to the continuing
assault on Iraq, civil society and activism currents are emerging
and evolving and gaining cohesion and sophistication. This is
what keeps me here. I fluctuate between fear and a crystal clarity
that there is no other place I should be now. That witnessing
and accompanying, and supporting the emergence of a non-violent
resistance movement here is vital. That love, compassion,
commitment and rage--for Anwar and every other brother and sister
like her--will keep me here. That a front-line is never an easy
but sometimes necessary place to inhabit.
Caoimhe Butterly
is an Irish human rights activist in Baghdad with Voices In the
Wilderness. For more information about the Relatives and Friends
for Justice Campaign, or about the Union of the Unemployed's
continued sit-in protest, please contact her at: masasa73@hotmail.
com
Weekend
Edition Features for 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
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