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Today's
Stories
April
27, 2004
Saul
Landau
The Empire in Denial and the Denial
of Empire
April
26, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Crossing the Shia Line: US Troops
Prepare to Enter Najaf
Wayne
Madsen
Trading Places: Will the US Go the Way of the USSR?
Grover
Furr
Protest, Rebellion, Commitment
Elaine
Cassel
Lies About the Patriot Act
Mickey
Z.
Inspired by Pat Tillman?
Greg
Moses
Bremer's De-De-Ba'athjfication Gambit
Gila
Svirsky
Anarchy in Our Souls
Uri
Avnery
Vanunu and the Terrible Secret
April 24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank
Brandy
Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So
Robert
Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free
Speech
Ben
Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios
Nelson
Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman
Mark
Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
Col.
Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush
Greg
Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...
Elaine
Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review
Vanessa
Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney
Jim
French
Agriculture's Bullied Market
Hammond
Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella
April 23, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
The Only Solution is Immediate Withdrawal
Dave
Lindorff
Imagination Deficit Disorder
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Contractors and Mercenaries: the Rising Corporate Military Monster
Norman
Solomon
Country Joe Band, 2004: "What Are We Fighting For?"
Cynthia
McKinney
All Things Are Not Equal: the Perils of Globalization
CounterPunch
Wire
A Bitch Called Wanda
Karyn
Strickler
Sierra Club, Inc.
Hammond
Guthrie
Yellow Caked in the Face
Paul
de Rooij
Graveyard of Justifications: Glossary
of the Iraqi Occupation
April 22, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
When Terror Came to Basra: "I
Saw a Minibus of Children on Fire"
Tanya
Reinhart
The Wall Behind Disengagement
Lance
Selfa
Why is Kucinich Still in the Race?
Josh
Frank
Street Fighting Man? Kucinich's Pulled Punches
Sen.
Robert Byrd
Bush Owes America Answers on Iraq
William
S. Lind
Why We Get It Wrong
Mickey
Z.
Undoing the Latches
Robert
Jensen
Why They Fast: Remembering the Victims of the World Bank
John
L. Hess
The New York Times from 30,000 Feet
April
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Yeats on Iraq
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia's Forgotten Prisoners
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's Taliban Drug Deal
William
A. Cook
George 1 to George 2
Jack
Random
Iraq and Vietnam
Jean-Guy
Allard
Alarcon Meets the Editors
Mike
Whitney
Charade in the Desert
Bill
Christison
Only Major Policies Changes Can
Help Washington Now
April 20, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Bush and Kerry Share a Problem
Stan
Cox
Wal-Mart's Magic Numbers
Bruce
Anderson
On Listening to Air America
Joseph
Kalvoda
Czech Mate for Condi
Greg
Moses
Yesterday's Intelligence
Stan
Goff
The Democrats and Iraq
Website
of the Day
Santorum Happens
April 19, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The "Central Hand" of the
Resistance
Mike
Whitney
Bob Woodward's Imperial Trifles
Douglas
Valentine
52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1
Rule
John
Chuckman
The Sharon Annex: Evil Does Often
Triumph
Doug
Giebel
Welcome to the Club
Rahul
Mahajan
Hospital Closings and War Crimes
April
16 / 18, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Bush Legitimizes Terror
Saul
Landau
Subverting Brazil and Cuba
Dave
Lindorff
Paying for War: $2,150 per Family
and Counting
Brandy
Baker
Fallujah's Collateral Damage
Mickey
Z.
The Left Attacks from the Right
Bruce
Jackson
The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit
Uns
Norman
Solomon
How the "NewsHour" Changed
History
Alexander
Cockburn
Bush, Kerry and Empire
April
15, 2004
Greg
Moses
Follow the Families, Not the Script
Virginia
Tilley
The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt:
Just Change the Channel
Ron
Jacobs
They Coulda Been Champions of the
World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic
Michael
Neumann
A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes
Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail
April
14, 2004
Tom
Reeves
Return to Haiti: an American Learning
Zone
Reza
Fiyouzat
Japan and Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
What Bush Really Said
Diane
Christian
The Real Passion
April 10 /
12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Greatest Radical Journalist of His Age
Patrick Cockburn
Ambush, Kidnap, Murder: Another Day in "Post War" Iraq
Ellen Cantarow
Health Under Siege on the West Bank
Tariq Ali
Iraqi
Resistance: a New Phase
Werther
Pseudoconservatism Revisited: When God is Pro War & Other
Delicacies
Robert Fisk
Bush's War Lords to Their Critics: "Just Shut Up"
Gary Leupp
Indian Wars, Vietnam and Orientalist Fantasy
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Cont.
Jorge Mariscal
Perils of the Bootstrap
Phil Gasper
Defying Stereotypes About Death Row
Dave Zirin
Bringing the Black Freedom Struggle Into Sports: an Interview
with Lee Evans
Brandy Baker
The Revolution is Playing at a Theater Near You
Mickey Z.
Underground Music is Free Media: an Interview with Twiin
Ali Tonak
Get Ready for the Million Worker March
Harry Browne
Asking the Wrong Question About Richard Clarke & 9/11
Gideon Samet
The Sharonizing of America
Conn Hallinan
Remote Control Warriors
Website of
the Weekend
Taboo
Tunes
April 9, 2004
Robert Fisk
This
War's Simple Truth: Iraqis Do Not Want Us
John L. Hess
The
Non-Confessions of a Warrior Princess: Condi on the Stand
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Condoleezza's Condescensions
Christopher Brauchli
Holes in the Sky: Bush's Crazed Missile Defense Plan
Don Santina
Forget the Alamo!: Glorifying the Fight for Slavery in Texas
William S. Lind
The 4G Warfare Seminar, Cont.
Bill Christison
9/11
Commission is Bush's New Lapdog
Website of the Day
What We've Done to Fallujah
April 8,
2004
Wayne Madsen
Rice
(and the Record) Proves It: Bush Knew, But Failed to Act
Kurt Nimmo
Will
Bush Flatten Fallajuh?
Patrick Cockburn
Guided
Missile; Misguided War
Laura Flanders
Steamed
Rice
Larry Everest
What Condi Rice is Hiding
Adam Federman
Sacred Capitalism Hits Russia
M. Junaid Alam
The Iraqi Intifada Begins
Norman Solomon
The Quest for a Monopoly on Violence
Douglas Valentine
Echoes
of Vietnam: Phoenix, Assassination and Blowback in Iraq
Website of the Day
Xispas: Chicano Art, Culture and Politics
April 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Those
Pulitzers!
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Deeper
into the Mouth of Hell: We Must Find the Exit from Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Tet
in Iraq: Closer to the Cosmic Disaster?
Patrick Cockburn
Battles
Across Iraq: US Death Toll Mounts
Kathy Kelly
Pacification: Worth the Price?
Sonali Kolhatkar
What Are You Doing About Afghanistan?
Rahul Mahajan
Report from Baghdad: Opening the Gates of Hell
Robert Fisk
US Airlifts Saddam to Qatar
Mike Whitney
America Out of Iraq, Now!
Sam Hamod
Bush, Pandora's Box and the Tiger
April 6,
2004
C.G. Estabrook
Mercenaries
and Occupiers
William Blum
The
Anti-Empire Report: the Israel Lobby
Col. Dan Smith
The
Language of Disbelief: 1.3 Billion Still Live in War Zones
Dr. Bulent Gokay
The Coming Islamic Republic of Iraq?
Lynn Landes
Faking Democracy: Americans Don't Vote; Machines Do
Sheila Samples
What Would Royko Write?
Jason Leopold
Condi's Blind Spot: Rice Never Mentioned al-Qaeda
Mickey Z.
A Reality Show with No End in Sight
Robert Fisk
Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
April 5, 2004
John Farrell
Lessons
from El Salvador and Iraq
Robert Fisk
Bloodbath
a Bad Omen for Bush
Gary Leupp
Shiites Say No: Another "Nightmare
Scenario"
April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
April 2, 2004
Dave Lindorff
Barbaric
Relativism: the Press and Fallujah
Kurt Nimmo
Wherever
Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow
Emma Miller
The
Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide
Dr. Susan Block
Same
Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition
Norman Solomon
Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick
Sacha Guney
The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey
Christopher
Brauchli
The
Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee
Website of the Day
Mercenaries, Inc.
April 1, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Dying in Vain in Iraq
Harry Browne
No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree
Chris Floyd
Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons
Nicole Colson
Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo
Charles Arthur
Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers
Laura Flanders
Elaine
Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son
March 31, 2004
M. Junaid Alam
Israel:
Suicide Nation?
John L. Hess
Condi
Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters?
Fernando Suarez
del Solar
A
Year Since My Son's Death in Iraq
Sofia Perez
Spain's
U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action
David Vest
Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath
Tanya Reinhart
As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination
Mike Whitney
Time to Dump the Pledge
Donald Kaul
Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI
Milt Bearden
Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great
Marjorie Cohn
The
Illegal Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated
US and International Law
Website of the Day
New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks
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.
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April
27, 2004
Terror Case
Against Irish Men Never Materialized
The Colombia
Three Acquitted
By JAMES DAVIS
Three Irish men arrested on leaving
FARC territory in Colombia during august 2001 were acquitted
of the most serious charge of providing training to FARC rebels
yesterday in Bogotá. Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and
James Monaghan were convicted on the less serious charge of traveling
on false identification. For this charge they were sentenced
to between 26 and 44 months each, though it is not yet clear
whether the three will be released immediately having served
that much time already since their capture.
The arrests came just a month
before September 11th and threw the Irish peace process into
something of a tail spin as both the British and Irish media
went into paroxysms over the alleged duplicity and conspiratorial
scheming of the IRA. Indeed it seemed at the time as if the provos
had wandered into an exceedingly well laid trap, one sprung by
shadowy renegades of British and American intelligence bent on
undermining the peace process and dealing a coup de grace to
the credibility of Sinn Fein. Similarly such a tidy narco-terrorist
conspiracy found many backers in the Colombian establishment
who at the time favored a military rather than diplomatic solution
to Colombia's own peace process. Within hours of the arrests
in 2001 a senior British diplomat had denounced the three as
IRA members when in fact only one of the three had ever been
confirmed as such.
Their arrest and detention
was botched from the get go. They were detained and searched
by the Colombian army at Bogotá airport without the Colombian
police ever becoming involved. Contents of their bags were tested
positive for explosive residue inside the US embassy by a US
agent, tests later revealed to be inaccurate, largely undocumented
and sloppily executed. Further tests carried out by the Colombian
Administrative Department of Security found no explosive traces.
Throughout the legal process defense lawyers were routinely impeded
and intimidated while the prosecution case floundered and revealed
itself to be completely without substance. Prosecution witnesses
failed to appear and the defense was instructed to proceed without
having heard the prosecutions case.
Colombian Attorney-General
Osorio said in an interview shortly after the arrests that 'they
[the three accused] have the right to admit to their crimes",
publicly announcing their presumed guilt. The former president
of Colombia, Andres Pastrana, wrote in an article published on
the 15th April, 2002 in the Washington Post, "Colombia has
become the theatre of operations in which the global campaign
against terrorism is being waged in Latin America. We are fighting
a multi-national terrorist network. Some months ago, IRA members
were captured in Colombia after training FARC guerillas in urban
terrorism".
It was also widely advertised
that the CIA had photos of the three suspects detonating fuel
air bombs along with FARC guerillas in the misty Colombian mountains.
This particular story provides something of an archeologists
introduction to spooky media manipulation. It was most sensationally
reproduced by The London Times political editor David
Cracknell. The Times, a notorious public relations outfit
for the British Intelligence services, claimed that Ministry
of Defense technicians had constructed and detonated such a device,
designed from a blueprint passed on to them by the CIA. The CIA
in turn had received the design from the three narco-terror IRA
instructors then in Colombian custody. According to Cracknell,
"A senior source in Special Branch, which works closely
with MI5 and the Ministry of Defense in Northern Ireland, said:
"It is a relatively simple bomb to construct because the
ingredients are available in abundance and are not illegal or
difficult to acquire." The source claimed the recipe for
the bomb was passed to IRA operatives by the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC) in exchange for training in the construction
and use of remote detonation mechanisms. Although the Colombian
terrorists developed the bomb, they did not have the know-how
to detonate it electronically from a distance or to employ it
in a mortar."
In fact the appalling concoction
described by Cracknell sounds suspiciously like Napalm, the recipe
for which is available on the internet.
Nevertheless it was necessary
to remind his readers that "The combination of glue and
petrol means that burning globules stick to victims. The intense
explosion also has the effect of collapsing people's lungs and
inflicting damage to internal organs because it sucks up large
amounts of air". The story went the whole way upstairs to
Bush himself who "warned Sinn Fein and the IRA that they
will be held responsible if any US citizen is ever harmed by
such a Colombian-made device".
Bush was less concerned about
the use of napalm by his forces as they entered Iraq last year.
Australia's The Age quoted a grunt who reflected
on how "the generals love napalm", for its devastating
psychological effects. The generals at least were conscious of
its inhumanity denying to the end that it had been deployed.
The CIA photos promised by
the Colombian prosecution, like most of their case, never materialized.
Nevertheless the New Scientist managed to thicken the
pot with the introduction of the maximum shibboleth: Al Queda.
"Designs for a fuel-air device were also acquired by the
CIA from three alleged IRA members on trial in Colombia. The
three are said to have been developing the bomb in conjunction
with the country's FARC guerrilla group. "Although an IRA/Al-Queda
collaboration seems unlikely, the bottom line is that their respective
manuals are probably in circulation," says David Ritzel,
an explosives expert. A heady mix indeed, and quite a propaganda
coup for those intelligence elements intent on promoting this
scenario: the IRA, rather than looking for a peaceful exit from
the conflict in Ireland, were instead figuring out ways to collapse
peoples lungs while supplying cocaine to US inner cities. Sinn
Fein, on the defensive in the US, found themselves forced to
hang their cadres out to dry. Quite a 'black op' altogether.
Meanwhile the proceedings limped
along in Bogotá. While their comrades in Sinn Fein had
abandoned the troika to their fate their families and supporters
had harnessed support from some unlikely quarters. Several Irish
parliamentarians attended the trial as well as prominent jurists
from Europe and the US. The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs,
not often given to helping out suspected provos, performed impressively
and pressured the Colombians somewhat more than might have been
expected. Ironically it was a senior Irish diplomatic secretary
who provided an alibi for Connolly, placing him at dinner in
Mexico City when a police witness for the prosecution had him
palling about with guerillas in Farclandia.
The three defendants admitted
to traveling on false passports. Connolly was resident in Cuba
and was known as Sinn Fein's fixer there. For this reason he
claimed it would have been impossibly difficult for him to travel
in Colombia legitimately. The other two defended their impersonation
claiming that as known Irish republicans they would have difficulty
traveling anywhere in Latin America as themselves. The reason
for visiting the FARC zone was given as an interest in the Colombian
peace process and an exchange of political strategies, an intercambio
if you will, regarding the differing experiences of the Irish
and Colombian efforts. Plus an abiding interest in Colombian
nature and wildlife. How they thought they would slip into FARC
controlled territory without coming to the attention of the CIA,
busy spending some of the billions of dollars from Plan Colombia,
was not explained.
Connolly had no criminal convictions
against him and was not known as a militant. Jim Monaghan was
convicted of IRA membership more than 15 years ago. He has stated
that he is a supporter of the peace process in Ireland and in
recent years has worked with an organisation involved in the
education of former prisoners.
Martin McCauley was never convicted
on IRA membership charges and is a victim of a British army and
RUC `shoot to kill' policy which resulted in his suffering serious
and permanent injury after he was shot at the age of 17 years
in 1982. Another teenager with him, Michael Tighe, was killed
in that shooting.
Following the press coverage
of the case the House International Relations Committee in DC
decided to look into the alleged FARC/IRA contacts. Initially
the committee staff prepared a report titled "International
Global Terrorism: Its Links With Illicit Drugs as Illustrated
by the IRA and Other Groups in Colombia." The staff report
was led by John P. Mackey, committee investigative counsel, and
an important bureaucratic promoter of Plan Colombia. Mackey insisted
that the US government was convinced of IRA involvement in Colombia
and collaboration with the FARC. He furthermore claimed that
various ordinance techniques used by the FARC had their roots
in the IRA's playbook. Neither the DEAs administrator Asa Hutchinson
nor the deputy director of the State Department's counter terrorism
office supported Mackey's conclusions, despite the title of his
report. Pressed by Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) another witness,
Colombian Joint Chiefs of Staff Head Gen. Fernando Tapias, said
he had no information about any organizational links between
the IRA and the FARC. Nor had the Colombian government detected
any terrorist assistance or training in his country by Iran or
Cuba, another fantasy suggested by Mackey.
Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.)
said he had asked Colombia, Britain and the U.S. intelligence
community "if there is even one scintilla of evidence of
connection between the IRA or Sinn Fein," the IRA's political
arm, with the FARC, "and the answer is no."
The prosecutions case amounted
essentially to the press campaign carried out in Europe and in
Colombia. Their star witness, beyond a couple of informers who
were easily dispensed with by defense cross examination, was
one Major Carlos Eduardo Matiz who identified himself as a senior
officer with the Colombian Military Intelligence.
He identified two manuals--one
in Spanish and one in English which were sent to him from "somebody
in his superiors' office" and which were allegedly found
on FARC guerrillas. He did not know what the circumstances were
but he stated that they described military mechanisms for bombs
similar to those used by the Irish Republican Army. And that
was it.
It remains to be seen whether
the three will be forced to serve more time in Colombia's notorious
jails. The prosecution has requested their continued detention
pending an appeal. Currently they are housed with 40 FARC prisoners
among some 3000 right wing paramilitary prisoners. They take
turns guarding their group from attacks which are not uncommon.
Many FARC prisoners were killed in one such incident last year.
While the international attention their case has attracted to
the justice system is hardly welcomed by the Colombian state
it may be difficult for the Colombians to climb down completely.
It may be more difficult for Sinn Fein's leadership to explain
why, were it not for a grassroots family campaign, these three
activists might be looking at a very long time away from home.
James Davis is a documentary filmmaker. He can
be reached at: jamesdavisfilm@hotmail.com
Weekend Edition
Features for April 24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank
Brandy
Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So
Robert
Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free
Speech
Ben
Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios
Nelson
Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman
Mark
Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
Col.
Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush
Greg
Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...
Elaine
Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review
Vanessa
Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney
Jim
French
Agriculture's Bullied Market
Hammond
Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella
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