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Recent
Stories
July
11, 2003
David
Lindorff
An Iraq War & Occupation Glossary
July
10, 2003
Ron
Jacobs
Dealing with the Devil: the Bloody
Profits of General Dynamics
Sean
Donahue
Bush and the Paramillitaries: Coddling Terrorists in Colombia
Yemi
Toure
Who Outted Bush in Afrika?
Robert
Jensen
Politics and Sustainability: an Interview
with Wes Jackson
Ali
Abunimah
US Leaves Injured Iraqis Untreated
Joanne
Mariner
Federal Courts, Not Military Commissions
Website
of the Day
Electronic Iraq
July
9, 2003
David
Lindorff
Is the Media Finally Turning on
Bush?
David
Krieger and Angela McCracken
10 Myths About Nuclear Weapons
Mickey
Z.
Why Speak Out?
Lee Sustar
The Great Medicare Fraud
John
Chuckman
The Worst Kind of Lie
Gary Leupp
"Pacifist" Japan and the Occupation of Iraq
Website
of the Day
Hail to the Thief:
Songs for the Bush Years
July
8, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Bully on the Bench: the Pathological
Dissents of Scalia
Alan
Maass
Nights of Fire and Rage in Benton Harbor
Chris
Floyd
Troubled Sleep: Getting Used to the American Gulag
Linda
S. Heard
America's Kangaroo Justice
Brian
Cloughley
They Tell Lies to Nodders
Charles
Sullivan
Bush the Christian?
Saul
Landau
The Intelligence Culture in the National Security Age
Website
of the Day
Occupation Watch
July
7, 2003
William
Blum
The Anti-Empire Report
Harvey
Wasserman
The Nuke with a Hole in Its Head
Ramzy
Baroud
Peace for All the Wrong Reasons
Simon
Jones
What Progressives Should Think About
Iran
Lesley
McCulloch
Fear, Pain and Shame in Aceh
Uri
Avnery
The Draw
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
July
4 / 6, 2003
Patrick
Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July
Frederick
Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?
Martha
Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation
and Neglect
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and
the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture
Standard
Schaefer
Rule by Fed: Anyone But Greenspan in 2004
Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today
Elaine
Cassel
Fucking Furious on the Fourth
Ben Tripp
How Free Are We?
Wayne
Madsen
A Sad Independence Day
John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War
Jim
Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment
John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim
David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite
Adam
Engel
Queer as Grass
Poets'
Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
The Lipstick Librarian
July
3, 2003
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Meaning of Gettysburg
Thomas
W. Croft
There Was a Reason They Called It the Casino Economy
David
Lindorff
Outlawing Subversives: Hong Kong
and the US
John
Chuckman
Lessons from the American Revolution
Jackson
Thoreau
New Far-Right Scheme: Impeach Supreme Court Justices
Stan
Goff
"Bring 'Em On?": a Former
Special Forces Soldier Responds to Bush's Invitation for Iraqis
to Attack US Troops
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
July 2, 2003
Diane
Christian
Good Killing and Bad Killing
Richard
Falk
After Iraq, Does UN War Prevention Have a Future?
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Bush Administration: Causing Repetitive Stress
Justin
Podur
Uribe's Onslaught Across Colombia
Reuven
Kaviner
Prosecuting Ben-Artzi, the Refusenik
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/2
July
1, 2003
Sasan
Fayamanesh
Weapon of Choice: Nukes, Israel and
Iran
Elaine
Cassel
Sex and the Supreme Moralizer: Scalia
and the Sodomy Cops
Susan
Block
A Love Supreme: Our Assholes Belong
to Ourselves
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: No, No Bono
David Lindorff
Weapons in Search of a Name
Gary
Leupp
Occupation, Resistance and the Plight of the GIs
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/1
June
30, 2003
Karyn
Strickler
The Do-Nothings: an Exposé
of Progressive Politics in America
Col. Dan
Smith
The Occupation of Iraq: Descending into the Quagmire
Tim
Wise
Race and Destruction in Black and White
Neve Gordon
The Roadmap and the Wall
Chris
Floyd
The Revelation of St. George: "God Told Me to Strike Saddam"
Elaine
Cassel
Kentucky Woman
Uri
Avnery
Hope in Dark Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/30
Website
of the Day
Bush El Hombre
June
28 / 29, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
Bernard Lewis: Scholarship or Sophistry?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Meet Steven Griles: Big Oil's Inside
Man
Laura
Carlsen
Democracy's Future: From the Polls or the Populace?
Alan Maass
You Call These Democrats an Alternative?
C.Y.
Gopinath
Bush and Kindergarten
Noah Leavitt
Bush, the Death Penalty and International Law
Joanne
Mariner
Rehnquist Family Values
Ignacio
Chapela
Tenure, Censorship and Biotech at Berkeley
Bob
Scowcroft
Bush's Squeeze on Organic Farmers
Jon Brown
Tom Delay: "I am the Government"
Kam
Zarrabi
Keep Your Hands Off Iran, Please!
Ron Jacobs
Big Bill Broonzy's Conversation with the Blues
Julie
Hilden
Fear Factor: Art, Terror and the First Amendment
Adrien
Rain Burke
The Anarchists' Wedding Guide
Adam
Engel
US Troops Outta Times Square
Poets'
Basement
Witherup, Guthrie, Albert, Hamod
June
27, 2003
Jason
Leopold
CIA: Seven Months Prior to 9/11 Iraq
Posed No Threat to US
David
Vest
Supreme Silence: Bush's Bunker-Hunker
David
Lindorff
The Catch and Release of "Comical
Ali"
Ray McGovern
Cheney, Forgery and the CIA
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/26
Website
of the Day
John Kerry, Teresa Heinz & Ken Lay: The Politics of Hypocrisy
June
26, 2003
Sen.
Robert Byrd
The Road of Cover-Up is a Road to Ruin
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Instructed the CIA to Investigate
Hans Blix
Paul
de Rooij
Ambient Death in Palestine
Chris Floyd
Mass Graves and Burned Meat in Bush's New Iraq
Elaine
Cassel
Wolfowitz as Lord High Executioner
CounterPunch
Wire
Musicians Unite Against Sweatshops
Sheldon
Hull
Squatting in Mansions
Ben Tripp
A Guide to Hating Almost Anyone
Uri
Avnery
The Best Show in Town
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
Ordinary Vistas:
The Photographs of Kurt Nimmo
June
25, 2003
Bruce
Jackson
Buffalo Cops Wage War on Pedal Pushers
Mickey
Z.
The New Dark Ages
David Lindorff
Indonesia's War on Journalists
Dan
Bacher
Butterflies and Farmworkers Confront USDA and Riot Cops
Adam Federman
"Success is Not the Issue Here"
Elaine
Cassel
"Ain't No Justice": Fed Judge Quits, Assails Sentencing
Guidelines
Bill Kauffman
My America vs. the Empire
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
You Are Being Watched:
Elevator Moods
June
24, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Supreme Indemnity
Holocaust Denial at the High Court
Roya
Monajem
A Message from Tehran: Is It Worth
It to Risk One's Life?
John
Chuckman
The Real Clash of Civilizations
David Lindorff
WMD Damage Control at the Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/24
June
23, 2003
Marc
Pritzke
Washington Lied: an Interview with
Ray McGovern
Conn
Hallinan
The Consistency of Sharon
Wayne Madsen
Commercials, Disney & Amistad
Edward
Said
The Meaning of Rachel Corrie
Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/23
June
21 / 22, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
My Life as a Rabbi
William
A. Cook
The Scourge of Hopelessness
Standard
Schaefer
The Wages of Terror: an Interview with R.T. Naylor
Ron Jacobs
US Prisons as Strategic Hamlets
Harry
Browne
The Pitstop Ploughshares
Lawrence
Magnuson
WMD: The Most Dangerous Game
Harold
Gould
Saddam and the WMD Mystery
David Krieger
10 Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Avia
Pasternak
The Unholy Alliance in the Occupied Territories
CounterPunch
Summer Reading:
Our Favorite Novels
Todd Chretien
Return to Sender: Todd Gitlin, the Duke of Condescension
Maria
Tomchick
Danny Goldberg's Imaginary Kids
Adam Engel
The Fat Man in Little Boy
Poets'
Basement
Guthrie, Albert & Hamod
June 20, 2003
Walter
Brasch
Down on Our Knees
Robert
Meeropol
The Son of the Rosenbergs on His Parents Death and Bush's America
Russell
Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
Grannies and Baby Bells
Norman
Madarasz
Pierre Bourgault: the Life of a
Quebec Radical
Gary
Leupp
Bush on "Revisionist Historians"
Steve
Perry
Bush's Lies
Marathon: the Finale
Hot Stories
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
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July
12, 2003
How Washington Set
the Stage for War
What's
Behind the Crisis in Liberia?
By LEE SUSTAR
The rhetoric is about AIDS and poverty, but the
agenda is oil and empire. George W. Bush's mid-July tour of Africa
highlighted the ways in which the U.S. is consolidating its economic
and strategic role across the continent--from preparing a possible
deployment of American troops amid Liberia's civil war, to praising
pro-market "neoliberal" policies in Uganda, Senegal
and South Africa.
But the more involved the U.S. becomes
in the crisis-wracked continent, the clearer it is that Washington
isn't the solution--but bears responsibility for the civil wars
and social catastrophes across Africa. Exhibit A is Liberia.
Established in 1847 by wealthy Americans
determined to rid the U.S. of slaves by sending them to Africa,
Liberia functioned as a virtual American colony, ruled by a tiny
elite of the descendants of former slaves. Known as Americo-Liberians,
they worked with U.S. companies like Firestone, which established
the world's largest rubber plantation there in 1926, while the
indigenous population remained impoverished.
During the Cold War, Liberia, despite
its small population--still only 3 million today-- became a key
outpost for U.S. efforts to undermine national liberation movements
and prop up pro-Washington dictators in the name of fighting
communism. In 1980, Master Sgt. Samuel Doe took power in a coup
against the Americo-Liberian elite. When the Reagan administration
took over the White House, it immediately flooded the new regime
with millions of dollars in aid, in exchange for help in its
efforts to destabilize nearby Libya.
Doe ruled through assassinations, repression
and fraud. Once the Cold War was over, the U.S. cut him loose,
and he was assassinated by rebel forces in 1990. "Master-Sergeant
Doe is the latest victim of imperial euthanasia," wrote
Nigerian journalist Tunji Lardner. "He died because his
treatment was withheld by the United States and his life-support
system shut off."
After a civil war in the early 1990s,
the power vacuum was eventually filled by Charles Taylor, an
Americo-Liberian who used widespread hatred of Doe and ethnic
tensions to mobilize support. Taylor had backing from Libya as
well as the former French colonies of Ivory Coast and Burkina
Faso, and he successfully exploited regional rivalries to divide
a series of peacekeeping forces sent by West African nations--principally,
Nigeria--in the mid-1990s.
A combination of brutality and bribery
allowed Taylor to win presidential elections in 1997 with 75
percent of the vote. Key to Taylor's success was his control
of much of the region's diamond trade and his constant shifts
of alliances in the region.
To tighten his grip, Taylor sponsored
an insurgency by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in neighboring
Sierra Leone. The RUF seized the former British colony's diamond
mines and smuggled the gems to Liberia, where Taylor took a cut
and top Western mining companies cashed in.
Like Taylor in Liberia, the RUF--known
for amputating the limbs of its opponents--was brought into the
government in Sierra Leone in 1999, with the blessing of neighboring
countries, as well as London and Washington. When the "power-sharing"
deal threatened to unravel, a British-led contingent of some
13,000 United Nations (UN) peacekeepers moved in to prop up the
government--while RUF leader and Taylor ally Foday Sankoh was
awarded control of the ministry that controls diamonds. Taylor
also backed a militia's attempted takeover of diamond mines in
neighboring Guinea, another former French colony.
The pattern is similar in Ivory Coast,
where violence by Taylor-backed militias and an anti-immigrant
backlash has effectively split the country between a mostly Muslim
North and a Christian and animist South. Some 3,000 troops from
France--the former colonial ruler of the country--are maintaining
the status quo, leading some Ivorians to call for U.S. troops
to replace them. Meanwhile, Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo
has intervened in the Liberia civil war by sponsoring yet another
militia--the Movement for Democracy in Liberia, or MODEL.
For its part, the U.S. has been reluctant
to become directly involved in Liberia--but faces increased pressure
to do so from United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Anan, whose
native Ghana is a close U.S. ally and key player in the region.
Even France, which opposed the U.S. war on Iraq, has called on
Washington to intervene--despite their competing interests in
the region--to keep the situation from spinning out of control.
The fact that the Liberian capital of
Monrovia, a city of 1 million people, remains without running
water or electricity has led many who opposed the war on Iraq
to support a U.S. peacekeeping force on humanitarian grounds.
But anyone who believes that Washington will act out of concern
for innocent people in Liberia should take a closer look.
Until now, the U.S. has been content
to pressure Taylor by working with the government of Guinea--which
got $3 million in U.S. military aid last year--to support the
main anti-Taylor rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation
and Democracy (LURD). While Taylor has been indicted for war
crimes by a United Nations tribunal, the LURD is little different.
"There is not one person who wields
real power within the LURD who has clean hands or comes close,"
a European diplomat told the Washington Post. "The upper
tiers are filled with the perpetrators of rape, looting and cannibalism."
According to Human Rights Watch, LURD forces have been involved
in kidnapping, summary executions, looting, rape and forced recruitment--and
like Taylor and the RUF, use young boys as combatants.
So while Bush has called for the ouster
of Taylor--who has provisionally accepted an offer of exile in
Nigeria--Washington's solution is to replace one warlord with
another. If the U.S. does move to intervene militarily, it's
because Liberia sits near substantial oil reserves in the Gulf
of Guinea. U.S. oil companies--including Exxon-Mobil and Chevron-Texaco--are
expected to invest more than $10 billion in African oil this
year.
At the same time, Washington is moving
to boost its military bases in "the Arab countries of northern
Africa and in sub-Saharan Africa, through new basing agreements
and training exercises intended to combat a growing terrorist
threat in the region," the New York Times reported. Add
to this Washington's pursuit of free-market policies across Africa,
and George W. Bush's real goals in Africa become all too clear.
So does the need to oppose them.
Lee Sustar
writes for the Socialist
Worker. He can be reached at: lsustar@ameritech.net
Weekend
Edition Features
Patrick
Cockburn
Dead on the Fourth of July
Frederick
Douglass
What is Freedom to a Slave?
Martha
Honey
Bush and Africa: Racism, Exploitation
and Neglect
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Rat in the Grain: Amstutz and
the Looting of Iraqi Agriculture
Standard
Schaefer
Rule by Fed: Anyone But Greenspan in 2004
Lenni Brenner
Jefferson is for Today
Elaine
Cassel
Fucking Furious on the Fourth
Ben Tripp
How Free Are We?
Wayne
Madsen
A Sad Independence Day
John Stanton
Happy Birthday, America! 227 Years of War
Jim
Lobe
Bush's Surreal AIDS Appointment
John Blair
Return to Marble Hill: Indiana's Rusting Nuke
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
Heavy Reckoning at Qaim
David Vest
Wake Up and Smell the Dynamite
Adam
Engel
Queer as Grass
Poets'
Basement
Christian, Witherup, Albert & St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
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