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Today's
Stories
March 27 / 28, 2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
A Journey to Rafah
March 26, 2004
Christopher Brauchli
There's
a Chill Over the Country
Robert Fisk
The Man Who Knew Too Much: the Ordeal
of Mordechai Vanunu
Joe DeRaymond
Democracy in El Salvador? Think Again
Mike Whitney
Lessons on Apartheid from Ariel Sharon
Mickey Z.
Somalia and Iraq: Looking Back and Ahead
Chris Floyd
The Pentagon Archipelago
CounterPunch Photo Wire
Cheney's Close Shave?
John Breneman
Bush's Comic Bomb
Website of the Day
Dick
is a Killer
March 25, 2004
Lee Sustar
Who
is to Blame for Lost Jobs?
Standard Schaefer
An
Interview with Michael Hudson on Offshore Banking Centers
Roger Burbach
Lula vs. the IMF: Brazil Begins
to Throw Off the Austerity Planners
Jimmer Endres
Elections Without Politics: The Military Budget Is Not an "Issue"
Larry Tuttle
Acting in Your Name: Identity Theft and Public Interest Groups
Toni Solo
Misreporting Venezuela
Dan Bacher
A Memorial Wall for Iraq War's Dead and Wounded
Saul Landau
Is
Venezuela Next?
Website of the Day
The Spiral Railway
March 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
General
Musharraf's IOU
Richard Oxman
Shakespeare
for Kerry
William Lind
The Beginning
of Phase Three: 4G Warfare Hits Iraq
Rep. Ron Paul
Iraq One Year Later
Michael Dempsey
Killing Rachel Corrie Again
Alan Farago
The Bad Math of Mercury: Bush's War on the Unborn
Benjamin Dangl
and April Howard
Media
in Cuba
John L. Hess
No Lie Left Behind: Judy Miller Does Dick Clarke
Greg Weiher
Two Cheers for Dems: "We're Not as Bad as George"
Eva Golinger
An Open Letter to John Kerry on Venezuela
Grayson Childs
Where's Cynthia McKinney?
Steve Niva
Israel's Assassinations will Only
Fuel More Suicide Bombings
Website of the Day
The Bushiad and the Idiossey
March 23, 2004
Phillip Cryan
The
Drug War's Next Casualty: Colombia's National Parks
Ron Jacobs
They Shoot Men in Wheelchairs, Too?
Dave Lindorff
A Spanish Parallel: Scare Tactics and Elections
Mike Whitney
Richard Clarke and Teflon George
Brian McKinlay
Bush's Lil' Buddy in Trouble: John Howard Starts to Wobble
JG
Driving Mr. Koon: "Jim Crow Lives Next Door"
Phyllis Pollack
Gettin' Jigga with Metallica: the Battle Over the Double Black
CD
Ahmed Bouzid
Sharon's One-Way Track
Sean Carter
The G-Word Goes to Court: One Nation Under [Your Logo Here]
M. Shahid Alam
World's Greatest Country: Do the Facts Lie
March 22, 2004
Mazin Qumsiyeh
On Extrajudicial
Executions
Uri Avnery
The
Assassination of Sheikh Yassin is Worse Than a Crime
Gilad Atzmon
Sharon's Rampage
Mike Whitney
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the Story of Captain James Yee
Jason Leopold
Firm With Ties to Cheney Faces Criminal Indictment in Cal Energy
Scam
Greg Moses
Stop
Walling and Stalling: a Report from Houston's Peace March
Phil Gasper
San Francisco: 25,000 March for an End to the Occupation
Lenni Brenner
Report
from NYC: Old and Young Parade for Peace
Julian Borger
The Clarke Revelations
Steve Perry
Karl Rove's Moment
Website of the Day
Enviros Against War
March 20 / 21, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Gay
Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path
Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne
Do?
Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act
Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"
William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall
Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism
Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War
John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon
Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man
Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity
Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss
Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?
Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism
Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun
Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!
Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill
Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet
Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility
Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis
Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election
March 19, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Zapatero
to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home
Ann Harrison
So
Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights?
William MacDougall
Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants"
Greg Moses
Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote
Cynthia McKinney
Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup,
Mr. Bush
Norman Solomon
Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future
John L. Hess
"Missing" Evidence and the NYTs
Vicente Navarro
The
End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend
Website of the War
Naming the Dead
March 18, 2004
Gila Svirsky
Rachel
Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency
Christopher Brauchli
Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million
from Saddam
William Kulin
Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing
Mike Whitney
Resistance: a Moral Imperative
Rep. Ron Paul
Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment
Josh Frank
The Nader Question
Jack Random
They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy
Greg Bates
What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey
Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes
Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain
Gary Leupp
The
Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost
Website of the Day
Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key
March 17, 2004
Marjorie Cohn
Spain, the EU and the US: War on
Terror or Civil Liberties?
David MacMichael
Untruth
and Consequences
Michael Donnelly
Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer
Tom Stephens
"Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware
Wayne Madsen
Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out
Karyn Strickler
Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections
Peter Linebaugh
Bush:
Blanc Blanc
March 16, 2004
Lenni Brenner
James
Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights
Scott Boehm
Madrid
Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days
Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History
Behind the Spanish Elections
Sam Hamod and Alfredo
Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way:
Executing David Clayton Hill
Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran
Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War
on Terror"
Bill Christison
The
Aftershocks from Madrid
CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa
Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!
March 15, 2004
Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe
Mike Whitney
Justice
Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism
Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation
Greg Moses
Lessons
from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs
Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health
Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL
in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer
CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!
March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
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
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Weekend
Edition
March 27 / 28, 2004
Disturbing Signals
Kerry
and Latin America
By LARRY BIRNS and
JESSICA LEIGHT
In a series of foreign policy formulations in
recent days, the presumptive Democratic party presidential nominee,
Senator John Kerry, has issued a number of statements on Latin
American-related subjects which, if anything, appear to outflank
on the right the Bush administration's extremist regional policymakers,
as he shamelessly panders to the anti-Castro paranoia of a group
of aging but wealthy Cuban-American ideologues in South Florida,
and rich Venezuelan expatriates in Coral Gables. His two primary
targets have been President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Cuba's
Fidel Castro. While commendably finding fault with Bush policy
regarding Secretary of State Powell's failure to protect the
Aristide government in Haiti, Kerry's rhetoric regarding Cuba
and Venezuela is reminiscent of barren Cold War strictures which,
for all purposes, places him in the same extremist ideological
bracket as the administration's two chief Latin American policy
makers; the State Department's Roger Noriega and the Bush White
House's Otto Reich.
Strong on Haiti Regarding Haiti, Kerry
has said, "This administration has been engaged in very
manipulative and wrongful ways. They have a theological and an
ideological hatred for Aristide. They always have. They approached
this so the [anti-Aristide] insurgents were empowered by this
administration." He also has observed in reference to Haiti,
"People will know I'm tough and I'm prepared to do what
is necessary to defend the United States of America, and that
includes the unilateral deployment of troops if necessary."
Such declarations have raised hopes that a Kerry administration
will take a more forceful stand in favor of Haitian democracy
and commit the resources needed to stabilize the country's battered
institutions and uphold its constitution, which has been all
but ignored by Powell.
Kerry's Cuba and Venezuela
Policies Duplicate those of Noriega and Reich
Regarding Castro, Kerry called for the
continuation and intensification of Washington's near-universally
acknowledged failed embargo policy towards Havana. ''I'm pretty
tough on Castro, because I think he's running one of the last
vestiges of a Stalinist secret police government in the world,''
Kerry remarked in recent days. When asked whether he endorsed
lifting the embargo, he answered, "Not unilaterally, not
now, no." In truth, any action would have to be unilateral,
since the embargo is not honored by any other country in the
world. As for sending back Elian to his father in Cuba several
years ago, Kerry observed, "I don't agree with that. I didn't
like the way they did it." Regarding the virulently anti-Castro
Helms-Burton measure, Kerry said, "I voted for the Helms-Burton
legislation to be tough on companies that deal with him [Castro]."
Having endeavored throughout the Democratic
primaries to establish his credentials as an advocate of a more
principled and professional method of international engagement,
in contrast to the interventionist and unilateralist blunderings
of the current administration when it came to the Iraq war, the
senator is now in danger of tarnishing that reputation through
his reckless endorsement of the White House's long discredited
Latin America policies that are now even opposed by conservative
farm state Republican legislators and businessmen. The positions
staked out by Kerry are so far to the right that they even challenge
Noriega and Reich for their extremism and irrationality. By so
flagrantly tacking to the prevailing political winds in South
Florida, Kerry risks alienating voters from elsewhere in the
country who want not a reprise of Bush and Powell's tainted foreign
policy, but a bold and visionary alternative. Kerry's statements
could also potentially deal a heavy blow against Democratic efforts
to mobilize some of the more disaffected members of its party
base in a year where the drop out of even a handful of previously
committed Democratic dissidents could prove deadly to his electoral
prospects.
Kerry Panders to the
Ideologues
Kerry's regrettable baiting of Bush on
being soft on Castro and Chavez borders on the irresponsible
and could have dangerous implications for peace in the region.
In 1989, when the first President Bush was confronting deteriorating
relations between the U.S. and Manuel Noriega's Panama, the president
admirably attempted to contain the situation without having to
resort to military force against the Panamanian dictatorship.
At the same time, Bush was being mercilessly attacked by Senate
liberals, including Leahy, Dodd and Kennedy, for being too soft
on Manual Noriega. Since there appeared to be no defined constituency
supporting a peaceful settlement of the conflict with Panama,
and since there was no formidable bloc that opposed turning to
a military resolution of the dispute - quite to the contrary
- it can be argued that it was the U.S. Senate liberals who helped
to bring on the conflict, because there were few political costs
to initiating a conflict, while there were many not to.
The same could be said of Kerry's provocative
attacks against Cuba and Venezuela at a time when Roger Noriega
has been warning Castro that "he's playing with fire,"
and both he and Reich, without producing any evidence whatsoever,
are publicly denouncing Chavez and Castro for working to destabilize
the rest of Latin America. Kerry's tilt to the right when it
comes to Latin American policy may be attributable to confusion,
given the clarity of his charges against the Bush administration's
controversial Haiti policy. While this may account for his resorting
to aimless babble concerning Venezuela, and pandering for donations
and Florida's votes when it comes to Castro, it doesn't entirely
explain the inevitably heavy domestic political costs he seems
prepared to risk, given the fund raising harangues he is apparently
prepared to make to Cuban-American audiences and his eagerness
to submit to South Florida's political calculus.
Superficial Posturing If his recent statements
are any guide, it is obvious that the Kerry campaign has not
given any serious consideration to the issues at stake in Washington's
relations with Cuba or Venezuela. In fact, prior to the beginning
of his presidential campaign, Kerry generally had called for
a more moderate and principled Latin America policy from his
seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a stance that
he now appears ready to sacrifice for short-term political objectives.
Having stated in a newspaper interview in 2000 that the embargo
was a product only of the "politics of Florida" and
should be reconsidered, Kerry recently reversed himself and declared
in favor of a tough line against Castro after meeting with prominent
Cuban-American exile leaders in Miami six months ago. This reversal
only helps to confirm the Bush campaign's damaging accusations
that Kerry is a political dandy who is deft at flip-flopping
when such an action is to his benefit. Apparently, the politics
of Florida are not as distasteful for the senator as they once
were.
Over the past week, he has sweetened
his stance toward Cuban community leaders, perhaps driven by
the desire not to repeat Gore's Palm Beach County election debacle,
as well as buoyed by polls stating that only 60% of Cuban-Americans
in Miami-Dade and Broward counties_historically a solid Republican
constituency_ plan to vote for Bush this November, reflecting
the growing conviction among older Cubans that while Bush regularly
bashes Castro, he does little to bring him down. In Kerry's estimation,
the road to capturing the disaffected 40% lies in emulating candidate
Clinton's first presidential race against Bush I, when the latter
galloped around his adversary's rightwing flank by accusing Bush
of being soft of Havana, and making denunciations of the Castro
regime, and by extension, any government that has cordial relations
with it.
Kerry Strikes out when it Comes to Evidence
Embattled President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who, ironically
enough, recently declared himself a strong supporter of Kerry,
stands accused by the senator of undermining democracy in Venezuela
and supporting "narco-terrorists" in neighboring Colombia.
Unless Kerry has information that is not being shared with Colombian
specialists, no evidence exists to buttress this charge and his
attack against the Venezuelan leader is totally specious and
without merit.
It is quite clear, however, that the
real issue here is not the state of democracy in Venezuela, a
subject in which Kerry previously has not taken any sustained
interest. On the contrary, the most devastating accusation that
the Kerry camp seeks to level against Chavez is that his "close
relationship with Fidel Castro has raised serious questions about
his commitment to leading a truly democratic government."
This formulation is pure rubbish. Presumably, Kerry would not
extend his theory by questioning the bona fides of President
Lula de Silva of Brazil or Argentina's Nestor Kirchner, both
of whom have referred to both Castro and Chavez as their friend.
Chavez's complex populist nationalism doesn't permit this kind
of trivialized analysis, which is both simplistic and represents
a vulgarized comprehension of the present balance of forces existing
in today's Venezuela.
Nor does the spirit of Kerry's rhetoric
take into account the practical basis of Chavez's relationship
with Castro, with the latter providing subsidized oil deliveries
to Cuba and the former providing thousands of badly needed doctors
and technicians to Caracas. Kerry's attacks on Chavez are a transparent
attempt to win the backing of the most conservative factions
of Miami's Cuban-American community as well as its large population
of wealthy Venezuelan expatriates who own condos or other second
homes in the area, by promising to crack down harder than even
Bush has managed to do on the two pesky Latin American leaders.
If this is a preview of the Kerry administration's hemispheric
policy, there appears to be little reason for optimism that the
choice of the Democratic contender over Bush will represent a
significant change in direction in present U.S. policy, at least
when it comes to Latin America.
The Nader Factor
Kerry's self-serving hemispheric strategy
could have very grave implications for his political fate. When
it comes to Latin American issues, there exists a very substantive,
vocal and highly sophisticated political constituency in this
county - in the hundred of thousands - regarding the region.
This bloc repeatedly has denounced Bush, Secretary of State Powell,
Noriega and Reich for the extremist policies being directed against
Cuba, Venezuela and other left-of-center governments and movements
in the region. The prospect of Ralph Nader attracting what normally
would have been Kerry's votes, particularly in a year when many
Democrats had pledged to close their ears to Nader's electoral
blandishments, makes it clear that the cause for Democratic officials'
concern could be very real. At this point, Nader's gravitational
pull had been faltering as normally Democratic voters, unlike
four years ago, seem to be rallying to the presumed Democratic
candidate's ranks, motivated by the fear that a pro-Nader tide
could mean four more years of Bush rule.
The Nader Threat Could
Be Formidable
Kerry could be making a mortal mistake
by assuming that hundreds of thousands of former Nader voters,
who at the present time are not in the mood to again "waste"
their votes on the latter, will stick with the former at whatever
price. On the contrary, Senator Kerry's calculation that embracing
a reactionary policy towards Latin America will bring about a
win-win situation for him politically could be dangerously misguided.
Ever since the Central American wars of the 1980s, there has
been an increasingly vocal constituency within the Democratic
Party_ including labor, students, farm interests, multinational
businesses and minorities_that has been calling for more enlightened
policies towards the region. This coalition has advocated the
adoption of a Latin America policy that is less belligerent,
more balanced, and reflective of greater sensitivity to the region's
yearning for authentic democratization as well as its other political
and economic aspirations, including the addressing issues of
social justice throughout the region. If Kerry persists on his
current move to the political right on hemispheric issues, he
risks alienating this exceedingly important sector of his Democratic
base, imperiling party cohesion and prospects for a high turnout
that are essential if the Democrats are to hold any hope of defeating
Bush and his huge campaign war chest in the upcoming election.
Time for Kerry to
Look Within
There is still time for Kerry to review
his simplistic and unimaginative formulations on regional issues
and abandon his mimicking of Roger Noriega and Otto Reich's positions
by beginning to articulate a clear alternative to the Bush administration's
disastrous Latin America policy. This approach would be far more
enlightening than his present one in which Kerry accused Bush
of "sending mixed signals by supporting undemocratic processes
in our own hemisphere." Kerry should also be denouncing
the administration's involvement in a coup attempt in Venezuela,
its stubbornness in maintaining a Cuba policy that has not been
reviewed since its inception almost five decades ago, and its
persistent ignorance of social justice concerns. Kerry also should
be condemning the White House's bankrupt trade policy, its attempt
to arm-twist its hemispheric counterparts into supporting its
Middle East misadventures, and the general direction of Bush's
high-handed regional policy, including its fundamental intolerance
for differing points of view.
Until his campaign begins to trumpet
these criticisms and offer a clear agenda for change, Kerry's
Latin American policy will appear as nothing more than an echo
of Bush's_a position that could disaffect hundreds of thousands
of Democratic voters living north of Miami-Dade County, as well
as encourage the migration of tens of thousands of liberal Democrats
back to Nader, at great cost to Kerry's presidential prospects.
Larry Birns is
director of the Washington-based Council
on Hemispheric Affairs,and Jessica Leight is a COHA
Research Fellow.
Weekend
Edition Features for March 20 / 21, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Gay
Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path
Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne
Do?
Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act
Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"
William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall
Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism
Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War
John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon
Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man
Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity
Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss
Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?
Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism
Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun
Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!
Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill
Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet
Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility
Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis
Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election
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