Coming
in October
From Common Courage Press
Today's
Stories
Vicente Navarro
Media
Double Standards: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush
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
Recent
Stories
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!
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
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
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
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
21, 2003
The US Media's Double
Standard
The
Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush
By VICENTE NAVARRO
Can you imagine the response of the U.S. media
if the president of the governing party of Poland were to say
that Stalin was the former Soviet Union's greatest leader? Or
if the president of the German government had never condemned
the Hitler regime, or if a founder of the governing party in
Germany was a person who had written a prologue to a book denying
the existence of the Holocaust? Surely the media would hit the
ceiling immediately and call for these person's resignations.
Well, the U.S. government and the U.S.
media have been welcoming a man who has done something similar,
a man they have referred to as "a great friend of the U.S."
and "a representative of the New Europe" (in Rumsfeld's
narrative), and a man that leading Democrats (not to be perceived
as less welcoming) have referred to in equally laudatory terms.
Even the Democratic-controlled California Assembly gave him a
standing ovation. His man's is Mr. Jose Maria Aznar; he is the
president of the Spanish government and leader of the governing
party, the Popular Party (PP). More critical media would have
made some inquiries about the PP and about Mr. Aznar. Let's start
with the Party.
The PP was founded by Mr. Fraga Iribarne,
Minister of the Interior in Franco's fascist regime (in charge
of Spain's political police); he is still the president of the
Party. He has always professed great admiration for General Franco
and has never condemned Spain's fascist regime, responsible for
one of Europe's cruelest dictatorships (more than 200,000 Spaniards
were killed or died in concentration camps during Franco's regime).
Actually, Fraga Iribarne has defined the Franco government as
Spain's best regime in the twentieth century. His most recent
contribution to "setting history straight" was to write
a prologue to a book (The Historical Lie Finally Denounced
in Spanish by a friend of his, Mr. T. M. Bereiro) that denies
the existence of the Holocaust.
Such a gentleman has been the mentor
of Jose Maria Aznar, choosing him as his successor as leader
of the PP. In a poll in 1982, 54% of PP members thought the Franco
regime had been good for Spain. Aznar was himself a member of
the fascist party during Franco's rule, and he has never denounced
or criticized that regime in which his father and grandfather
played a critical and prominent role. When democracy was reinstated
in Spain in 1978, Aznar opposed the new Constitution that established
the new democracy. And he denounced the newly democratic municipality
of Guernica (made famous worldwide by Picasso's painting of its
destruction by Hitler's aviation) for changing the name of the
town's main square from "General Franco Square" to
"Liberty Square." Aznar wanted to keep the old name.
Today, the Supreme Court of Spain, named by Aznar's government,
is refusing to change the legal status of those killed by the
Franco dictatorship (for opposing the dictatorship), who are
still defined as criminals in Spain. Aznar has also disobeyed
the instructions of the U.N. Human Rights Agency to find the
bodies of those who disappeared during the Franco regime (more
than 30,000 people). And just two weeks ago, Aznar's government
approved the imposition on all primary and secondary school students
of religion classes (basically classes on Catholicism), which
will consume almost as many hours of the curriculum as mathematics.
How is it possible that none of these
facts have been published in the U.S.? To what level have the
U.S. media sunk? They have reported, sometimes critically, on
Berlusconi, who governs in alliance with Fini, an admirer of
Mussolini. But among Berlusconi's many faults we do not find
a fascist past of which he is proud. Aznar is proud of his fascist
past, and no one in the U.S. media has made any comment on this.
Quite remarkable!
Vicente Navarro
is the author of The Political Economy of Social Inequalities:
Consequences for Health and Quality of Life and Dangerous
to Your Health. He teaches at Johns Hopkins University. He
can be reached at navarro@counterpunch.org.
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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