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New Special Double Issue of Print Edition of CounterPunch

The Trial of Milosevic: What Does It Portend for Saddam? by Tiphaine Dickson; Dr. Dean Wraps It Up...or Does He? by Alexander Cockburn; Bush Oil Grab in Alaska: How Clinton Opened the Door by Jeffrey St. Clair; The Magnificient 9: CounterPunch's Annual List of Groups That Make a Difference; The Sabotage of Matt Gonazales by Ben Terrall; Arnold and Parole: Already Better than Gray Davis! by Scott Handelman. CounterPunch Online is read by 70,000 visitors each day, but we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a (tax deductible) donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now!

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Today's Stories

December 16, 2003

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

 

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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

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December 16, 2003

The Democrats and Saddam

Spiteful, Dazed and Confused

By JOSH FRANK

Howard Dean, like most Democrats, has plenty of faults. From his ugly death penalty posture to his Israel fetish, Dean is surely far from ideal. But the governor's latest comments regarding the US capture of the bearded Saddam have been right on the mark.

On Monday Dean fired up his Democratic opponents, and the White House by stating in a speech to the Pacific Council of International Policy; "The capture of Saddam has not made America safer. The difficulties and tragedies we have faced in Iraq show the administration launched the war in the wrong way, at the wrong time, with inadequate planning, insufficient help, and at extraordinary costs."

It should be noted Dean would have supported a multilateral invasion of Iraq, but now he is testifying to his groupies that he stands by his early decision of opposing Bush's unilateral war.

Of course, Dean vowed to keep on fighting terrorism, although he warned Saddam's demise would not make the US a safer country.

The spiteful reaction from his dreary opponents hardly comes as a shock. Joseph Lieberman, most likely still a bit peeved about Al Gore's drooling endorsement of Dean, exclaimed in a statement early Tuesday that Dean is in a "spider-hold of denial." He went on to add that, "Saddam Hussein is a homicidal maniac, brutal dictator, supporter of terrorism and enemy of the United States, and there should be no doubt that America and the world are safer with him captured." Lieberman must think Hussein's bunker was Internet ready, tied right into the counter insurgency.

John Kerry, a reluctant supporter of Bush's war, released a statement on Monday that Dean's "speech is still more proof that all the advisers in the world can't give Howard Dean the military and foreign policy experience, leadership skills, or diplomatic temperament necessary to lead this country through dangerous times."

Obviously these remarks should not come as a great surprise. The Democrats have yet to grasp a coherent platform in their feeble attempt to disarm Bush. But Dean knows he can't turn his back on the grassroots support that has brought him this far. Most of his early supporters latched onto his campaign in its infancy because Dean opposed Bush's war plans. And by standing strong, Dean is now turning into a self-proclaimed leader of the angry-wing of the Democratic Party--and if polls are an indication of his support, it's clear most Democrats hate Bush to the marrow.

However, Dean's remarks at Monday's event were far from a peacenik Vermonter's. Dean bragged about his support for the bloody wars in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia, as well as Iraq Uno. And like an earlier statement that would endorse Bill Clinton as the US's Middle East peace broker--he's now saying that it'd be sensible to send Clinton over to North Korea as well. Dean said this after alleging that President Bush is "responsible for the fact North Korea has become a nuclear power." If voters are looking to replace Bush with Howard Dean, we are likely to see a lot of neoliberal Bill Clinton, economically and foreign policy wise.

Of course, right on cue pious Bush challenged Dean's statement by saying, "I believe, firmly believe -- and you've heard me say this a lot, and I say it a lot because I truly believe it -- that freedom is the almighty God's gift to every person -- every man and woman who lives in this world. That's what I believe. And the arrest of Saddam Hussein changed the equation in Iraq. Justice was being delivered to a man who defied that gift from the Almighty to the people of Iraq."

Lord help us.

After the photographs of Saddam, a "prisoner of (an illegal) war," were paraded on global TV, Karl Rove was in the back-kitchen mixing up a tasty propaganda treat for us all.

Republican's hope it serves as an ache in the stomachs of the Democrats disheveled foreign policy platform, as well as make their opposition mute. They are also hoping it knocks the wind right out of Howard Dean, and sucker punches the rest of the Democrats on the Iraq issue just like it did prior to the 2002 elections. The Republicans know a broken opposition is no opposition at all.

One can only contemplate the possibility that the Bush team has Osama bin Laden, and Mullah Muhammad Omar, in their waiting room, up next to be examined by US Army doctors. And nope, it won't be Dr. Dean who will be seeing these fugitive patients. Rove knows this Taliban asshole and Al Queda guru, are the one-two combo that will virtually wrap up a Bush victory in 2004.

Despite Dean's chicken-hawk pose on North Korea, he's right-on when it comes to Saddam's siege. Even as harsh critics, we have to call it as we see it. And it would be smart for the rest of the Democratic hopefuls to do the same. But, as Kerry and Lieberman's comments suggest--there's not a chance of that in a cold winter's hell.

If the Democrats can't even come together on an issue like Saddam's capture, the likelihood they can forcefully oppose Bush in any coherent manner, is unlikely. The Democrats are ineffective, because the Kerrys and Liebermans are the voice of the party's elite. And the loud angry carps bellowing from centrist Howard Dean, often out of tune and off beat, won't be silencing the ghastly tone of the hopeless Democratic Party as a whole--even if Dr. Dean is right on this one.

Josh Frank is a writer living in New York. He can be reached at frank--joshua@hotmail.com

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

 


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