Coming
in October
From Common Courage Press
Today's
Stories
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)!
Matt Siegfried
The Bush Administration in Context
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
18, 2003
CounterPunch Diary
Judy
Miller's War
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
Lay all Judith Miller's New York Times stories
end to end, from late 2001 to June 2003 and you get a desolate
picture of a reporter with an agenda, both manipulating and being
manipulated by US government officials, Iraqi exiles and defectors,
an entire Noah's Ark of scam-artists.
And while Miller, either under her own
single by-line or with NYT colleagues, was touting the bioterror
threat, her book Germs, co-authored with Times-men Steven Engelberg
and William Broad was in the bookstores and climbing the best
seller lists. The same day that Miller opened an envelope of
white powder (which turned out to be harmless) at her desk at
the New York Times, her book was #6 on the New York Times best
seller list. The following week (October 21, 2001), it reached
#2. By October 28, --at the height of her scare-mongering campaign--it
was up to #1. If we were cynical...
We don't have full 20/20 hindsight yet,
but we do know for certain that all the sensational disclosures
in Miller's major stories between late 2001 and early summer,
2003, promoted disingenuous lies. There were no secret biolabs
under  Saddam's palaces; no nuclear factories
across Iraq secretly working at full tilt. A huge percentage
of what Miller wrote was garbage, garbage that powered the Bush
administration's propaganda drive towards invasion.
What does that make Miller? She was a
witting cheer-leader for war. She knew what she was doing.
And what does Miller's performance make
the New York Times? Didn't any senior editors at the New York
Times or even the boss, A.O. Sulzberger, ask themselves whether
it was appropriate to have a trio of Times reporters touting
their book Germs on tv and radio, while simultaneously running
stories in the New York Times headlining the risks of biowar
and thus creating just the sort of public alarm beneficial to
the sales of their book. Isn't that the sort of conflict of interest
prosecutors have been hounding Wall Street punters for?
The knives are certainly out for Miller.
Leaked internal email traffic disclosed Miller's self-confessed
reliance on Ahmad Chalabi, a leading Iraqi exile with every motive
to produce imaginative defectors eager to testify about Saddam's
biowar, chemical and nuclear arsenal. In late June Howard Kurtz
of the Washington Post ran a long story about Miller's ability
in recent months to make the US Army jump, merely by threatening
to go straight to Rumsfeld.
It was funny, but again, the conflicts
of interest put the New York Times in a terrible light. Here
was Miller, with a contract to write a new book on the post-invasion
search for "weapons of mass destruction", lodged in
the Army unit charged with that search, fiercely insisting that
the unit prolong its futile hunt, while simultaneously working
hand in glove with Chalabi. Journalists have to do some complex
dance steps to get good stories, but a few red flags should have
gone up on that one.
A brisk, selective timeline:
December 20, 2001, Headline, "Iraqi
Tells of Renovations at Sites For Chemical and Nuclear Arms".
Miller rolls out a new Iraqi defector,
in the ripe tradition of her favorite, Khidir Hamza, the utter
fraud who called himself Saddam's Bombmaker.
Story:
"An Iraqi defector who described
himself as a civil engineer said he personally worked on renovations
of secret facilities for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons
in underground wells, private villas and under the Saddam Hussein
Hospital in Baghdad as recently as a year ago.
"The defector, Adnan Ihsan Saeed
al-Haideri, gave details of the projects he said he worked on
for President Saddam Hussein's government in an extensive interview
last week in Bangkok. The interview with Mr. Saeed was arranged
by the Iraqi National Congress, the main Iraqi opposition group,
which seeks the overthrow of Mr. Hussein.
"If verified, Mr. Saeed's allegations
would provide ammunition to officials within the Bush administration
who have been arguing that Mr. Hussein should be driven from
power partly because of his unwillingness to stop making weapons
of mass destruction."
Notice the sedate phrase "if verified".
It never was verified. But the story served its purpose.
September 7, 2002: Headline: "US
says Hussein intensifies quest for a-bomb parts".
This one was by Miller and Michael Gordon,
promoting the aluminum tube nonsense: "In the last 14 months,
Iraq has sought to buy thousands of specially designed aluminum
tubes, which American officials believe were intended as components
of centrifuges to enrich uranium." All lies of course. Miller
and Gordon emphasize "Mr. Hussein's dogged insistence on
pursuing his nuclear ambitions, along with what defectors described
in interviews as Iraq's push to improve and expand Baghdad's
chemical and biological arsenals".
Another of Miller's defectors takes a
bow:
"Speaking on the condition that
neither he nor the country in which he was interviewed be identified,
Ahmed al-Shemri, his pseudonym, said Iraq had continued developing,
producing and storing chemical agents at many mobile and fixed
secret sites throughout the country, many of them underground.
"All of Iraq is one large storage
facility," said Mr. Shemri. Asked about his allegations,
American officials said they believed these reports were accurate."
A final bit of brazen chicanery from
Gordon and Miller:
"Iraq denied the existence of a
germ warfare program entirely until 1995, when United Nations
inspectors forced Baghdad to acknowledge it had such an effort.
Then, after insisting that it had never weaponized bacteria or
filled warheads, it again belatedly acknowledged having done
so after Hussein Kamel, Mr. Hussein's brother-in-law, defected
to Jordan with evidence about the scale of the germ warfare program."
What Gordon and Miller leave out (or
lacked the enterprise or desire to find out) is that Hussein
Kamel told UN Inspectors that he had destroyed all Iraq's WMDs,
on Saddam Hussein's orders.
September 13, 2002, headline: "White
House Lists Iraq Steps To Build Banned Weapons".
Miller and Gordon again, taking at face
value the administration's claims that it was "the intelligence
agencies' unanimous view that the type of [aluminum]tubes that
Iraq has been seeking are used to make such centrifuges."
If nothing else this shows what rotten
reporters Miller and Gordon are, because it now turns out the
intelligence analysts across Washington were deeply divided on
precisely this issue.
September 18, 2002: "Verification
Is Difficult at Best, Say the Experts, and Maybe Impossible".
This is Miller helping the War Party
lay down a preemptive barrage against the UN Inspectors: "verifying
Iraq's assertions that it has abandoned weapons of mass destruction,
or finding evidence that it has not done so, may not be feasible,
according to officials and former weapons inspectors"
A cameo appearance by Khidhir Hamza reporting
his supposed knowledge that "Iraq was now at the 'pilot
plant' stage of nuclear production and within two to three years
of mass producing centrifuges to enrich uranium for a bomb."
December 3, 2002, a Miller Special, murky
with unidentified informants: "C.I.A. Hunts Iraq Tie to
Soviet Smallpox".
Classic Miller: "The C.I.A. is investigating
an informant's accusation that Iraq obtained a particularly virulent
strain of smallpox from a Russian scientist who worked in a smallpox
lab in Moscow during Soviet times"
January 24, 2003:"Defectors Bolster
U.S. Case Against Iraq, Officials Say".
Another Miller onslaught on the UN inspectors:
"Former Iraqi scientists, military
officers and contractors have provided American intelligence
agencies with a portrait of Saddam Hussein's secret programs
to develop and conceal chemical, biological and nuclear weapons
that is starkly at odds with the findings so far of the United
Nations weapons inspectors."
Al-Haideri is still in play: "Intelligence
officials said that some of the most valuable information has
come from Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, a contractor who fled
Iraq in the summer of 2001. He later told American officials
that chemical and biological weapons laboratories were hidden
beneath hospitals and inside presidential palaces. Mr. Haideri
was relocated anonymously to a small town in Virginia."
We'll leave al-Haideri in well-earned
retirement and Miller heading towards her supreme triumph of
April 20, 2003, relaying the allegations of chemical and bio-weapon
dumps made by an unnamed Iraqi scientist she'd never met.
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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