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Now Available from CounterPunch for Only $11.50 (S/H Included) Today's Stories December 20 / 21, 2003 Kurt Nimmo Bush Gets Serious About Killing Iraqis December 19, 2003 Elaine Cassel Courts Rebuke Bush for Trampling the Constitution Robert Fisk Raid on Fantasyville: Shooting Samarra's Schoolboys in the Back Zoltan Grossman The Occupation Has Failed to "Capture" the Loyalty of Iraqis Mike Whitney Bush's Afghan Highway to Nowhere Harold Gould Has the Radical Arab Strategy Really Worked? Gary Leupp The Neocon's Dream Memo   December 18, 2003 Ann Harrison A Landmark Victory for Medical Pot John L. Hess Catfish Blues: The SOB's from Out of Town Karyn Strickler Ebola is Good for You! Niranjan Ramakrishnan Duryodhana Dies Harry Browne Hail Jim Hickey, the "Irish Hero" of the Colonial Occupation of Iraq Hammond Guthrie Captured in Abasement December 17, 2003 Robert Fisk Saddam's Cold Comforts Gideon Levy "Don't Even Think About the Children" Marjorie Cohn The Fortuitous Arrest of Saddam: a Pyrrhic Victory? Andrew Cockburn Saddam's Last Act December 16, 2003 Robert Fisk Getting Saddam...15 Years Too Late Mahajan / Jensen Saddam in Irons: The Hard Truths Remain John Halle Matt Gonzalez and Me Josh Frank The Democrats and Saddam Tariq Ali Saddam on Parade: the New Model of Imperialism December 15, 2003 Robert Fisk The Capture of Saddam Won't Stop the Guerrilla War Dave Lindorff The Saddam Dilemma Abu Spinoza Blowback on the Stand: The Trial of Saddam Hussein Norman Solomon For Telling the Truth: the Strange Case of Katharine Gun Patrick Cockburn The Capture of Saddam Stew Albert Joy to the World   December 13 / 14, 2003 Bill and Kathleen Christison Chickenhearts at Notre Dame: the Pervasive Fear of Talking About the Israeli Connection Stan Goff Jessica Lynch, Plural Tariq Ali The Same Old Racket in Iraq Jeffrey St. Clair The Map is not the Territory Marty Bender / Stan Cox Dr. Atkins vs. the Planet Christopher Brauchli Mercury Rising: the EPA's Presents to Industry Gary Leupp On Marriage in "Recorded History", an Open Letter to Gov. Mitt Romney Sasan Fayazmanesh The Saga of Iran's Alleged WMD Larry Everest Saddam, Oil and Empire: Supply v. Demand William S. Lind How to Fight a 4th Generation War Fran Shor From Vietnam to Iraq: Counterinsurgency and Insurgency Ron Jacobs Child Abuse as Public Policy Omar Barghouti Relative Humanity and a Just Peace in the Middle East Adam Engel Pretty Damn Evil: an Interview with Ed Herman Kristin Van Tassel Breastfeeding Compromised Ben Tripp On Getting Stabbed Susan Davis "The Secret Lives of Dentists", a Review Dave Zirin Does Dylan Still Matter? an Interview with Mike Marqusee Norman Madarasz Searching for the Barbarians Poets' Basement Guthrie and Albert Website of the Weekend Dean on Race   December 12, 2003 Josh Frank Halliburton, Timber and Dean Chris Floyd The Inhuman Stain Dave Lindorff Infanticide as Liberation: Hiding the Dead Babies Benjamin Dangl Another Two Worlds Are Possible? Jean-Paul Barrois Two States or One? an Interview with Sami Al-Deeb on the Geneva Accords David Vest Bush Drops the Mask: They Died for Halliburton December 11, 2003 Siegfried Sassoon A Soldier's Declaration Against War Douglas Valentine Preemptive Manhunting: the CIA's New Assassination Program John Chuckman The Parable of Samarra Peter Phillips US Hypocrisy on War Crimes: Corp Media Goes Along for the Ride James M. Carter The Merchants of Blood: War Profiteering from Vietnam to Iraq December 10, 2003 Kurt Nimmo The War According to Newt Gingrich Pat Youngblood / Robert Jensen Workers Rights are Human Rights Jeff Guntzel On Killing Children CounterPunch Wire Ashcroft Threatens to Subpoena Journalist's Notes in Stewart Case Dave Lindorff Gore's Judas Kiss December 9, 2003 Michael Donnelly A Gentle Warrior Passes: Craig Beneville's Quiet Thunder Chris White A Glitch in the Matrix: Where is East Timor Today? Abu Spinoza The Occupation Concertina: Pentagon Punishes Iraqis Israeli Style Laura Carlsen The FTAA: a Broken Consensus Richard Trainor Process and Profits: the California Bullet Train, Then and Now Josh Frank Politicians as Usual: Gore Dean and the Greens Ron Jacobs Remembering John Lennon   December 8, 2003 Newton Garver Bolivia at a Crossroads John Borowski The Fall of a Forest Defender: the Exemplary Life of Craig Beneville William Blum Anti-Empire Report: Revised Inspirations for War Tess Harper When Christians Kill Thom Rutledge My Next Step Carol Wolman, MD Nuclear Terror and Psychic Numbing Michael Neumann Ignatieff: Apostle of He-manitariansim Website of the Day Bust Bob Novak   December 6 / 7, 2003 Alexander Cockburn The UN: Should Be Late; Never Was Great CounterPunch Special Toronto Globe and Mail Kills Review of "The Politics of Anti-Semitism" Vicente Navarro Salvador Dali, Fascist Saul Landau "Reality Media": Michael Jackson, Bush and Iraq Ben Tripp How Bush Can Still Win Gary Leupp On Purchasing Syrian Beer Ron Jacobs Are We Doing Body Counts, Now? Larry Everest Oil, Power and Empire Lee Sustar Defying the Police State in Miami Jacob Levich When NGOs Attack: Implications for the Coup in Georgia Toni Solo Game Playing by Free Trade Rules: the Results from Indonesia and Dominican Republic Mark Scaramella How to Fix the World Bank Bruce Anderson The San Francisco Mayor's Race Brian Cloughley Shredding the Owner's Manual: the Hollow Charter of the UN Adam Engel A Conversation with Tim Wise Neve Gordon Fuad and Ezra: an Update on Gays Under the Occupation Kurt Nimmo Bush Gives "Freedom" Medal to Robert Bartley Tom Stephens Justice Takes a Holiday Susan Davis Avast, Me Hearties! a Review of Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" Jeffrey St. Clair A Natural Eye: the Photography of Brett Weston Mickey Z. Press Box Red Poets' Basement Greeder, Orloski, Albert T-shirt of the Weekend Got Santorum?     December 5, 2003 Jeremy Scahill Bremer of the Tigris Jeremy Brecher Amistad Revisited at Guantanamo? Norman Solomon Dean and the Corp Media Machine Norman Madarasz France Starts Facing Up to Anti-Muslim Discrimination Pablo Mukherjee Afghanistan: the Road Back December 4, 2003 M. Junaid Alam Image and Reality: an Interview with Norman Finkelstein Adam Engel Republican Chris Floyd Naked Gun: Sex, Blood and the FBI Adam Federman The US Footprint in Central Asia Gary Leupp The Fall of Shevardnadze Guthrie / Albert RIP Clark Kerr December 3, 2003 Stan Goff Feeling More Secure Yet?: Bush, Security, Energy & Money Joanne Mariner Profit Margins and Mortality Rates George Bisharat Who Caused the Palestinian Diaspora? Mickey Z. Tear Down That Wal-Mart John Stanton Bush Post-2004: a Nightmare Scenario Harry Browne Shannon Warport: "No More Business as Usual"   December 2, 2003 Matt Vidal Denial and Deception: Before and Beyond Iraqi Freedom Benjamin Dangl An Interview with Evo Morales on the Colonization of the Americas Sam Bahour Can It Ever Really End? Norman Solomon That Pew Poll on "Trade" Doesn't Pass the Sniff Test Josh Frank Trade War Fears Andrew Cockburn Tired, Terrified, Trigger-Happy December 1, 2003 Fawzia Afzal-Khan Unholy Alliances: Zionism, US Imperialism and Islamic Fundamentalism Dave Lindorff Bush's Baghdad Pitstop: Memories of LBJ in Vietnam Harry Browne Democracy Delayed in Northern Ireland Wayne Madsen Wagging the Media Herman Benson The New Unity Partnership for Labor: Bureaucratizing to Organize? Gilad Atzmon About "World Peace" Bill Christison US Foreign Policy and Intelligence: Monstrous Messes November 29 / 30, 2003 Peter Linebaugh On the Anniversary of the Death of Wolfe Tone Gary Leupp Politicizing War on Fox News: a Tale of Two Memos Saul Landau Lying and Cheating: Bush's New Political Math Michael Adler Inside a Miami Jail: One Activist's Narrative Anthony Arnove "They Put the Lie to Their Own Propaganda": an Interview with John Pilger Greg Weiher Why Bush Needs Osama and Saddam Stephen Banko, III A Soldier's Dream Forrest Hylton Empire and Revolution in Bolivia Toni Solo The "Free Trade" History Eraser Ben Terrall Don't Think Twice: Bush Does Bali Standard Schaefer Unions are the Answer to Supermarkets Woes Richard Trainor The Political Economy of Earthquakes: a Journey Across the Bay Bridge Mark Gaffney US Congress Does Israel's Bidding, Again Adam Engel The System Really Works Dave Lindorff They, the Jury: How the System Rigs the Jury Pool Susan Davis Framing the Friedmans Neve Gordon Arundhati Roy's Complaint for Peace Mitchel Cohen Thomas Jefferson and Slavery Ben Tripp Capture Me, Daddy Poets' Basement Kearney, Albert, Guthrie and Smith     November 28, 2003 William S. Lind Worse Than Crimes David Vest Turkey Potemkin Robert Jensen / Sam Husseini New Bush Tape Raises Fears of Attacks Wayne Madsen Wag the Turkey Harold Gould Suicide as WMD? Emile Durkheim Revisited Gabriel Kolko Vietnam and Iraq: Has the US Learned Anything? South Asia Tribune The Story of the Most Important Pakistan Army General in His Own Words Website of the Day Bush Draft November 27, 2003 Mitchel Cohen Why I Hate Thanksgiving Jack Wilson An Account of One Soldier's War Stefan Wray In the Shadows of the School of the Americas Al Krebs Food as Corporate WMD Jim Scharplaz Going Up Against Big Food: Weeding Out the Small Farmer Neve Gordon Gays Under Occupation: Help Save the Life of Fuad Moussa   November 26, 2003 Paul de Rooij Amnesty International: the Case of a Rape Foretold Bruce Jackson Media and War: Bringing It All Back Home Stew Albert Perle's Confession: That's Entertainment Alexander Cockburn Miami and London: Cops in Two Cities David Orr Miami Heat Tom Crumpacker Anarchists on the Beach Mokhiber / Weissman Militarization in Miami Derek Seidman Naming the System: an Interview with Michael Yates Kathy Kelly Hogtied and Abused at Ft. Benning Website of the Day Iraq Procurement   November 25, 2003 Linda S. Heard We, the Besieged: Western Powers Redefine Democracy Diane Christian Hocus Pocus in the White House: Of Warriors and Liberators Mark Engler Miami's Trade Troubles David Lindorff Ashcroft's Cointelpro Website of the Day Young McCarthyites of Texas November 24, 2003 Jeremy Scahill The Miami Model Elaine Cassel Gulag Americana: You Can't Come Home Again Ron Jacobs Iraq Now: Oh Good, Then the War's Over? Alexander Cockburn Rupert Murdoch: Global Tyrant   Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con! Subcomandante Marcos The Death Train of the WTO Norman Finkelstein Hitchens as Model Apostate Steve Niva Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings? 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 Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

Weekend Edition December 20 / 21, 2003 Is Havana Laughing? Bush Tries Farce as Cuba Policy By SAUL LANDAU The United States appears to be destined by Providence to plague Latin America with misery in the name of liberty. Simon Bolivar "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce." Karl Marx, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon. Did Marx inspire the comedy writer in the White House Press Secretary Office to issue a December 8 press release entitled: "Fact Sheet: Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba?" Perhaps, he meant the word "Fact" to read "Farce." For 100 plus years, the White House has rarely uttered a fact about Cuba--no less a whole sheet. But covering real facts with pious language does make for farce--on stage anyhow. For example, in 1898, President William McKinley sent US troops to our neighboring island to "help Cuba gain independence from Spain." To allay suspicions of McKinley's imperial agenda, Congress passed the Teller Amendment, renouncing intentions of annexing Cuba. But in 1901 Senator Orville Platt's amendment to an appropriations bill allowed the United States to intervene as it wished in Cuban affairs and to lease a naval station -- which soon becam the base in Guantanamo. Washington then forced Cuba to include the Platt amendment's provisions in its new Constitution. President Theodore Roosevelt withdrew US troops from Cuba in 1902, but re-dispatched them in 1906 to reverse an election he didn't like--that is "restoring order." The occupiers stayed for three years and returned again in 1912, to crush an armed uprising against the government--which did not ask for US help. From 1917-23, US Marines insured that Cubans didn't revert to revolutionary behavior--as Russians had done after 1917. Marines also "protected US property" by breaking strikes. By 1925, Washington had found a "democratic caretaker," Gerardo Machado, who earned the nickname of "the Butcher" by killing and torturing those who dissented. Revolutionaries overthrew Machado in 1932. Faced with deep social unrest in Cuba and fearing yet another revolution, newly elected President Franklin Roosevelt announced a Good Neighbor Policy. No more armed intervention in Latin America, he promised. Instead, in March 1933, FDR dispatched Sumner Welles to Cuba to prevent a left-wing government from taking power. To add punch to Welles' mission, US warships dropped anchor off the Cuban coast. Welles' discovered an ideal leader, Fulgencio Batista, an army sergeant whose main virtue was loyalty to the Americans. With a new surrogate in power, Washington repealed the Platt Amendment, but kept the base at Guantanamo. Cuba became "democratic." Elected governments obedient to Washington felt "free" to steal from the Cuban people, as successive Presidents and their entourages did, without serious disapproval from Washington. In 1952, Batista staged a fraudulent election and made himself President again. In the ensuing years, Batista tortured, murdered and imprisoned dissidents, but behaved obsequiously to the power in Washington and the Mafia in Havana. When revolutionary anger manifested itself throughout the island, the United States allowed the dictator to use its Guantanamo base to refuel and provide bullets and bombs for his planes, which bombed supposed rebel positions -- often defenseless rural areas and towns that suspected of "sympathy" with the rebels. These historical sketches illustrate the past Administrations' evolving understanding of "free Cuba." "Free" euphemistically means "obedient." So, in 1898, Washington "freed" Cuba from Spain, and called it "independent." The 1959 revolution "freed" Cuba--it began to disobey -- from US domination. So, Washington again announced it wanted to "free" the island from the new Cuban government which had not asked permission to make a revolution. By 1960, after the Soviet Union offered aid to Cuba, Washington changed its line: "free" Cuba from communist domination. By 1990, the USSR having imploded, President Bush (41) tried to "free" Cubans from the social benefits they had achieved over thirty years and replace them with Miami-based Cubans who would privatize ("free") everything. From 1959 on, some of these Florida-based, Castro-hating and freedom-loving Cubans had committed thousands of acts of terrorism against the people they loved on the island--how else can you show true love? Backed by the freedom-loving CIA, the terrorist activity continued sporadically. Currently, US agencies "fail" to detect "freedom-loving" conspiracies, like the bombing of Cuban hotels in the 1990s. For sheer farcical consistency, however, President Bush (43) decided he had to create something new. On October 10, he announced a new Commission would "plan for the happy day when Castro's regime is no more and democracy comes to the island." US Presidents as members of the "They'll Say Anything Club" claim that US policy always aims to spread democracy. US military interventions in Cuba in the 20th Century in Iran, Guatemala, Haiti, Vietnam, Nicaragua, -- well, there's hundreds of them--certainly achieved that goal--didn't it? Spreading democracy also meant showing Cuba how to manage its resources. From the 1920s through the 1950s, Congress, for example, controlled Cuba's economy by manipulating the sugar quota--guaranteed prices for Cuba -- so that Cuba became dependent on the US sugar purchase. If it seemed less than democratic to give vast military and political support to dictator Batista--well, look at the Big Picture: he was anti-Communist and very obedient. Under his "democratic days" happiness reigned in business and Mafia circles. Indeed, in pre 1959 Cuba, the Mafia Don and the US Ambassador were arguably two of the most powerful people in Havana. On December 5, 2003, with this history in mind, I'm certain, co-chairs Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez convened the President's Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba. Also present were leading Cabinet members. The team that showed its dedication to truth, peace, democracy and law in Iraq will plan for similar results in Cuba. "United States policy regarding Cuba is clear -- hasten Cuba's peaceful transition to a representative democracy and a free market economy -- ending decades of an oppressive dictatorship." Thus, the Commission has decided that US-style democracy (no vote counting necessary for Floridians) and economic arrangements must prevail in Cuba as well. The Commission's unwritten agenda, winning the 2004 election, means that words must appeal to anti-Castro donating blocks and tested vote counting intimidators who seek "means by which the United States can help the Cuban people bring about an expeditious end of the dictatorship." To get support from the Florida-based anti-Castro Cubans who continue to show their love of the island through violence, the Commission will advise the President on how to "establish democratic institutions, respect for human rights, and the rule of law" and "create the core institutions of a free economy." The 2000 elections in Florida illustrated the evolving fine points of freedom: erasing opposition voters from the register; preventing others from voting; not counting all votes. Cubans now know how fair elections work. "Freedom" now includes concentration camps in Guantanamo, a new US method for "securing" human rights. Even habeas corpus has evolved to the point where Bush detains US citizens without charges or right to lawyers. In November, both Houses of Congress voted to lift the ban on travel to Cuba, but White House staffers made phone calls and the Congressional conference committee nullified the will of Congress. The evolution of US democracy! Do I hear laughing from Havana? US Administrations always avoid the question: "who invited us?" Does Bush have a massive secret petition from the Cuban people asking for his help? Evidence of Cubans desiring US-style change comes form those who directly or indirectly receive material aid from the US Interests Section in Havana or from other US agencies--defined as "freedom loving Cubans." The 11,000 signatures (out of 8 million eligible) on the Varella petition to demand of Cuba's Parliament a more US style system, for Washington constitutes solid evidence for yet another intervention in Cuban affairs. One wit speculated that Cuban state security agents composed only half of the Varella signers. The new Commission also plans to help Cubans "meet basic needs in the areas of health, education, housing, and human services." In the Big Rock Candy Mountain landlords reduce rents, the coal industry stops smelting, bosses raise pay and benefits. Hey, look how the US has helped our neighbors in the past! Well, it certainly helped big US businesses and banks. In 1933, Marine Corps General Smedley Butler opted out of the farce. "I helped make Mexico... safe for American oil interests in 1914," he said, "Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street." Not funny? How about Castro creating a "Free the United States Commission." Demand electoral reform, investigate Dick Cheney and Halliburton for illegal war conspiracy in Iraq. The Commission could --- oh, what's the use. The country that "freed: Cuba in 1898 and wants to "free" it again now has a Commission. For farcical regularity, the writer could add: "To maintain the quest for honesty and democracy, the Administration will repudiate its past naughty behavior toward Cuba." That would get a laugh. Saul Landau is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. He teaches at Cal Poly Pomona University. For Landau's writing in Spanish visit: www.rprogreso.com. His new book, PRE-EMPTIVE EMPIRE: A GUIDE TO BUSH S KINGDOM, has just been published by Pluto Press. He can be reached at: landau@counterpunch.org Weekend Edition Features for Dec. 13 / 14, 2003 Bill and Kathleen Christison Chickenhearts at Notre Dame: the Pervasive Fear of Talking About the Israeli Connection Stan Goff Jessica Lynch, Plural Tariq Ali The Same Old Racket in Iraq Jeffrey St. Clair The Map is not the Territory Marty Bender / Stan Cox Dr. Atkins vs. the Planet Christopher Brauchli Mercury Rising: the EPA's Presents to Industry Gary Leupp On Marriage in "Recorded History", an Open Letter to Gov. Mitt Romney Sasan Fayazmanesh The Saga of Iran's Alleged WMD Larry Everest Saddam, Oil and Empire: Supply v. Demand William S. Lind How to Fight a 4th Generation War Fran Shor From Vietnam to Iraq: Counterinsurgency and Insurgency Ron Jacobs Child Abuse as Public Policy Omar Barghouti Relative Humanity and a Just Peace in the Middle East Adam Engel Pretty Damn Evil: an Interview with Ed Herman Kristin Van Tassel Breastfeeding Compromised Ben Tripp On Getting Stabbed Susan Davis "The Secret Lives of Dentists", a Review Dave Zirin Does Dylan Still Matter? an Interview with Mike Marqusee Norman Madarasz Searching for the Barbarians Poets' Basement Guthrie and Albert Website of the Weekend Dean on Race   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /