Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
Now Available!
Today's
Stories
May
26, 2004
Robert
Fisk
The Things Bush Didn't Say in His Speech
May
25, 2004
Joe
Bageant
The Covert Kingdom: On Earth as It
is in Texas
Col.
Dan Smith
A Question of Human Dignity
Gary
Handschumacher
Visiting Lori Berenson: Time to Bring Her Home
Toni
Solo
A Developing War in the Andes
Marc
Estrin
September Song: Disturbing Questions
About 9/11
Stephen
Banko, III
A Vietnam Vet on "Supporting the
Troops"
Website
of the Day
The Wizard of Whimsy
May
24, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Dan Senor is Safe!
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Tricks & TortureGate: the
Missing Taguba Pages
Sam
Hamod
Gen. Zinni: "Wrong War, Wrong
Place, Wrong Time"
Mike
Whitney
The Wedding was a Bomb
Stan
Goff
Open Season on MAMs
Image
of the Day
A Photo from Abu Ghraib We Didn't See on the Front Page of the
NYTs
May
22 / 23, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
Colin Powell, a Political Obituary
Jeffrey
St. Clair
When War is Swell: Bush and the Carlyle Group
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Her Son Was Told He Wouldn't See Combat; Now He's Dead: an Interview
with Sue Niederer
Brian
Cloughley
America is Committing War Crimes in Iraq
Saul
Landau
Democracy in Latin America: Great for Investors; Not So Good
for People
Brandy
Baker
Feminists Stand By Their Man: Abortion, Judges and Kerry
Randall
Robinson
Bushwhacked in the Caribbean
Uri
Avnery
The Rape of Rafah
Ben
Tripp
Assume the Worst
Bruce
Anderson
News from Ecotopia: the Truth About the Wine Business
Josh
Ruebner
Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers
Peter
Wolson, Ph. D.
Exhibitionistic Revenge at Abu Ghraib
Chloe
Cockburn
In Defense of "Troy": What Hector Could Teach Rummy
Linda
Burnham
Sexual Domination in Uniform: an American Value
Adrien
Rain Burke
War of the Necrophiliacs: Spc. Sabrina Harman and Her Corpse
David
Krieger
Charting a New Course for US Nuclear Policy
Ron
Jacobs
Turnaround
Poets'
Basement
Ford, Albert & LaMorticella
May 21, 2004
Ray
Close
The Canards of the Apologists
Christopher
Brauchli
"The Object of Torture is Torture"
Amira
Hass
Darkness at Noon
Jack
McCarthy
Camilo Mejia: Can the Son of a Sandinista Get a Fair Trial from
the US Army?
Bill
Kauffman
Nader v. Bush
Omar
Barghouti
No More Tears for America
Ghali
Hassan
Moral Failure of the "Free World" in Gaza
Christopher
Reed
How the CIA Taught the Portuguese to
Torture
Website
of the Day
Eric Idle on the Bush Administration: Fuck You, So Very Much
May
20, 2004
Andrew
Cockburn
The Truth About Chalabi
Kathy
Kelly
A Visit from the FBI
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Brown and Bored of Education in India
Tom
Stephens & John Philo
The War Crimes of Bush, Cheney & Co.
Sam
Bahour / Michael Dahan
Genocide by Public Policy
Robert
Ovetz
Ending the Race for the Last Turtle
Billy
Wilson
The Most Important Thing I Learned at School This Year
Website
of the Day
Rafah Today
May
19, 2004
Elizabeth
W. Corrie
Caterpillar Should Do the Right Thing,
Now
Bill
and Kathleen Christison
The US Can't Win
Vijay
Prashad
For Whom the Polls Toll: the Indian Elections of 2004
Ray
Hanania
Israeli War Crimes: Who to Believe, AIPAC or Amnesty Intl.?
Greg
Moses
Man President Kisses Up at AIPAC
Michael
Gillespie
Who is Kenneth deGraffenried?
Josh
Frank
Homes Destroyed; Death Toll Mounts: But Where's John Kerry?
Gary
Corseri
Out of Iraq and Plato's Cave
Kevin
Alexander Gray
If Malcolm Were Alive
May
18, 2004
Neve
Gordon
The Gaza Debacle
Doug
Stokes
Imperial Policing: Why Abu Ghraib
Shouldn't Surprise Us
Bob
Wing
The Color of Abu Ghraib
Vanessa
Jones
Man on a Leash
Thomas
P. Healy
Chemical Trespass: the Body Burden
Zeynep
Toufe
Torture and Moral Agency: the Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations
Kenneth
Roth
Mistreatment of Detainees in US Custody: a Letter to Bush
Elaine
Cassel
Pre-empting the Bill of Rights: The Other War, One Year Later
Website
of the Day
Truth Against Truth
May
17, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The John-John Ticket: Kerry Woos McCain
Laura
Santina
Military Conditioning and Abu Ghraib
Mickey
Z.
With Friends Like These: More Election 2004 Madness
Frederick
B. Hudson
Police Terror: Three Mothers Search for Justice
Shakirah
Esmail-Hudani
Inside Abu Ghraib: the Violence of the Camera
Boris
Leonardo Caro
The Revelations of Mr. W.
Alex
Dawoody
Iraq: From Saddam to Occupation
Victor
Kattan
On Watching the Execution of Nick Berg
Ron
Jacobs
Rumsfeld's Sovereignty Shell Game
May
15 / 16, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Green Lights for Torture
Douglas
Valentine
ABCs of American Interrogation: Phoenix Program, Revisited
John
Stanton
Kings of Pain: UK, US and Israel
Ben
Tripp
Torture: a Fond Reminiscence
Brian
Cloughley
Where are You Heading, America? Taking a Closer Look at the Patriot
Act
Justin
E. H. Smith
Islam and Democracy: the Lesson from Turkey
Brandy
Baker
Equal Opportunity Torture: Lynddie England, the Right and Feminism
John
Chuckman
Peep Show on Capitol Hill: Sex, Lies and Videotape
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: Goon Squad
John
Holt
Fencing the Sky
Ron
Jacobs
The Power of Patti Smith
Brian
J. Foley
Why the Outrage Over Abu Ghraib?
Robin
Philpot
Re-writing the History of the Rwandan Genocide
Eric
Leser
The Carlyle Empire
Ray
Hanania
From Abu Ghraib to Nick Berg: There's No Such Thing as a Good
War Crime
Jeff
Halper
Dozers of Mass Destruction
Joe
Surkiewicz
Inside the Baltimore Detention Center
John
Whitlow
Iraq Goddamn
Michael
Leon
Invitation to a Beheading: Why Bush Should Watch the Berg Video
Poets'
Basement
Krieger, Ford, LaMorticella, Smith and Albert
May
14, 2004
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's POW Porn
Ron
Jacobs
Secret History of the War on Drugs
William
Blum
God, Country and Torture
Michael
Donnelly
The People v. Corporate Greed: A Victory on the North Coast
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
India Shines
Stephen
Gowans
Building Democracy in Iraq and Other
Absurdities
May
13, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Where is Kerry?
Colm
O'Laithian
Torture and Degradation: Revenge American Style?
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassan
Wal-Mart: Scrooge with Hi-Tech Accounting
Practices
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush on the Inhumane Treatment of Iraqi Prisoners
Willliam
James Martin
Deir Yassin Massacre Recalled
Marc
Salomon
Reality TV Bites
Forrest
Hylton
Law 'n Order in La Paz: All Quiet
on the Southern Front?
May
12, 2004
Blanton
/ Kornbluh
Prisoner Abuse: Cheney Warned in
1992
Virginia
Tilley
So, Who's to Blame?
Bruce
Jackson
James Inhofe, the Dumbest Senator
of Them All
Thomas
P. Healy
No Enemies: Making Peace with Bert Sacks
Linda
S. Heard
Racism and Ignorance: a Lethal Cocktail in Iraq
Norman
Solomon
Spinning Torturegate
Lisa
Viscidi
The People's Voice: Community Radio in Guatemala
Jack
Heyman
View from the Bay Bridge: Longshoremen Plan Mass Workers March
on DC
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Rummy's Reprieve
CounterPunch
Wire
Teamsters Corruption Scandal: Hoffa Exec. Assistant Alleged to
Have Quashed Investigation into Mob Influence
Christopher
Brauchli
Detention Camp, USA
William
S. Lind
Bush's Waterloo?
May 11, 2004
Mark
Engler
On the "Necessity" of Torture
Ray
McGovern
More Troops? A March of Folly
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Nukes and Jefferson's Grand Experiment
Mickey
Z.
Less Than Hero
Christopher
Reed
Torture on the Homefront: America's Long History of Prison Abuse
Dennis
Hans
When John Negroponte was Mullah Omar
Bruce
Jackson
Pete Seeger at 85
Mike
Whitney
Killing al Sadr
Simon
Helweg-Larsen
Shrinking the Guatemalan Military
William
A. Cook
The Unconscious Country: Righteous Indignation,
Nakedly Displayed
May
10, 2004
Robert
Fisk
From Hollywood to Abu Ghraib: Racism
and Torture as Entertainment
Wayne
Madsen
The Israeli Torture Template: Rape,
Feces and Urine-Soaked Cloth Sacks
Col.
Dan Smith
The Shame of Abu Ghraib
Joe
Bageant
John Ashcroft, Keep Your Mouth Off My Wife!
Ron
Jacobs
Rummy's Prisongate Blues: Don't Leave Mad; Just Leave
Ben
Tripp
Getting in Touch with Your Inner Savage
Ray
Hanania
Why They Hate Us: Racism, Bigotry and Abuse
Reza
Fiyouzat
"Mishandled" Invasions
Diane
Christian
Images & Abstractions &
Genitals
Website
of the Day
Crushing Iraqi Skulls with Tanks for Sport?
May
8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
May
7, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
10 Prisons; 9,000 Prisoners: US Detention
Facilities in Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
UnAmerican? I Wish It Were So
Robert
Fisk
An Illegal and Immoral War
Ahmad
Faruqui
The 50th Anniversary of Dien Bien
Phu
Alexander
Zaitchik
From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib: Doesn't It Ring a (Prison)
Bell?
Mike
Whitney
The Price of Victory
Norman
Solomon
This War, Racism and Media Denial
M.
Shahid Alam
A Comic Apology
May
6, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
They Did It for Jessica: Smeared with
Shit; Kicked to Death
Kathy
Kelly
May Day in Pekin Prison: Prison Labor
for the War Machine
Werther
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: War as Vegas
Casino Game
Lawrence
Ferlinghetti
Totalitarian Democracy
Robert
Fisk
"Smoke Him": Video Shows Wounded
Men Being Shot by US Helicopter
John
Janney
Torturing the Way to Freedom?
Christopher
Ketcham
Outlaw Heterosexual Marriage Now!
Alan
Farago
Dead Oceans: So Long, Thanks for the Fish
Sam
Hamod
Bush on Arab TV: Worthless and Demeaning
James
Brooks
Sullen Spring
William
S. Lind
On the Brink of Defeat in Iraq
May
5, 2004
Maj.
Gen. Antonio M. Taguba
Complete US Army Report on Abuse of
Iraqi Prisoners
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Kerry: a Lost Cause for Progressives?
Will
Youmans
Deal with the Devil: a Palestinian
Zionist and the End of the World
Patrick
B. Barr
Terrorists R Us: the Powerful are Exempt from the Label
Lawrence
Magnuson
Nightline's All-American Morgue
Greg
Moses
Pocketbook of Denuded Ideals
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Tormenting Prisoners, Torturing
Truth
Lee
Ballinger
Cinco de Mayo and Unity
Gilbert
Achcar
Bush's Cakewalk into the Iraq Quaqmire
Website
of the Day
Operation Phoenix & Iraq
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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May
26, 2004
Bush
and Sharon
The
Oil Connection
By
CONN HALLINAN
On its face, President George Bush's
recent endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's land
grab in the occupied territories makes little sense. The plan,
under which Israel would abandon Gaza while permanently annexing
most of the West Bank, has met with almost universal condemnation.
* It has stirred rage in the
Arab world, where, according to U.S. ally Egyptian President
Honsi Mubarak, "there exists a hatred of Americans never
equaled in the region."
* European Union (EU) foreign
policy spokesperson, Brian Cowen, said that the "EU will
not recognize any change to the pre-1967 borders other than those
arrived at by agreement of the parties."
* A letter by 52 former senior
British diplomats called Prime Minister Tony Blair's support
for Washington on this issue, "one-sided and illegal,"
and predicted it "will cost yet more Israeli and Palestinian
blood." A Financial Times editorial called the letter "the
most stinging rebuke ever to a British government by its foreign
policy establishment."
At a time when the U.S. is
desperate for an international bailout in Iraq, why would the
White House go out of its way to alienate allies?
The most popular explanations
are:
* The influence of pro-Israeli
lobbies, and a Republican strategy to woo Jewish voters and money
away from the Democrats;
* A bow to the Bush Administration's
Christian Evangelical wing, which is rabidly pro-Israel because
it is convinced the Second Coming is upon us.
There is no question that pleasing
evangelicals is an Administration priority, and certainly Republicans
would like to cut into traditional Jewish support for the Democrats.
But this explanation assumes foreign policy is all about partisan
politics and God.
Bush certainly has the inside
track with evangelicals. However, there is virtually no difference
between Republican and Democrats on Israel. If anything, the
latter are slightly more hawkish.
There is a simpler explanation
for the White House's posture, one the Administration laid out
four months after taking office. In May, 2001, Vice-President
Dick Cheney's National Energy Policy Development Group recommended
that the President "make energy security a priority of our
trade and foreign policy."
The recommendation was hardly
a bolt from the blue, and the Republicans didn't invent the idea.
The recent move of oil companies and the U.S. military into Central
Asia is a case in point. It was President Bill Clinton, not George
W. Bush, who crafted that strategy. It was not the Republicans
who brought Halliburton and Cheney into the Caspian region, but
Clinton advisor Richard Morningstar, now a John Kerry point man.
A flood of future Bush Administration
heavies followed in Cheney's wake. Condolezza Rice helped ChevronTexaco
nail down drilling rights for Kazakhstan's Tenez oil fields.
James Baker, who pulled off Bush's Great Florida Election steal,
helped British Petroleum get into the area.
When it comes to oil, partisan
politics stop at the U.S. coastline. And if it is about oil,
it's about the Middle East.
Oil production in the US, Mexico
and the North Sea is declining, and a recent study by the University
of Uppsala in Sweden suggests reserves may be far smaller than
the 18 trillion barrels the industry presently projects. If the
new figure of 3.5 trillion barrels is correct, sometime between
2010 and 2020, worldwide production will begin to decline.
Given that most oil geologists
think there are few, if any, undiscovered resources left, that
decline is likely to be permanent.
So the price of oil---now $41.65
a barrel, a jump of $32 since 1997---may not be a temporary spike.
World pumping capacity is going full throttle, but a combination
of economic growth, coupled with cash shortages for investment,
have kept supplies tight. Only during the Iranian revolution
and the Iran-Iraq War did oil cost more.
With U.S. consumption projected
to increase 1/3 over the next 20 years--- two thirds of which
will be imported by 2020---the name of the game is reserves.
The bulk of those lie in the Middle East. Between Saudi Arabia,
Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, the Gulf states control
65 percent of the world's reserves, or close to 600 billion barrels.
In comparison, the U.S. reserves are a little under 23 billion.
Whoever controls these reserves
essentially controls the world's economy. Consider for a moment
if the U.S. were to use its power in the Middle East and its
growing influence in Central Asia to tighten oil supplies to
the exploding Chinese economy.
China presently uses only 8
percent of the world's oil, accounts for 37 percent of consumption
growth.
Lest anyone think this scenario
is paranoid, try re- reading President Bush's June, 2002 West
Point speech that clearly states the U.S. will not allow the
development of any "peer competitors" in the world.
That is what Cheney's Energy
Policy Group meant by making "energy security" a corner
stone of US "trade and foreign policy."
So, what does this have to
do with Israel and the occupied territories?
Israel may not have any oil,
but it is the most powerful player in the Middle East. In the
great chess game that constitutes oil politics, there are only
two pieces left on the board that might check U.S. plans to control
the Middle East's oil reserves: Syria and Iran.
And that is where Ariel Sharon
comes in.
Sharon's ruling coalition has
been spoiling for a fight with Syria and Iran. The Israelis bombed
Syria late last year and leading members of the Sharon government
have routinely taken to threatening Iran.
Cabinet Minister Gideon Ezra
threatened to assassinate Damascus -based Hamas leader Khaled
Meshaal, and Sharon did the same to Hezbollah leader, Hassan
Nasrallah. On May 11, the Bush Administration levied economic
sanctions on Syria.
The Sharon government is just
as belligerent about Iran. Israeli Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe
Ya'alon says that he hopes international pressure on Iran will
halt its development of nuclear weapons, but adds ominously,
"if that is not the case we would consider our options."
Neoconservatives in the Bush
Administration have long targeted Iran. Richard Perle, former
Defense Policy Board member, and David Frum, of the neo-com Weekly
Standard, co-authored "An End to Evil," which calls
for the overthrow of the "terrorist mullahs of Iran."
Michael Ladeen of the influential American Enterprise Institute
argues that "Tehran is a city just waiting for us."
According to Irish journalist,
Gordon Thomas, the U.S. has already targeted missiles on Iranian
power plants at Natanz and Arak, and one Israeli intelligence
officer told the Financial Times, "It could be a race who
pushes the button first---us or the Americans."
If Syria and/or Iran are removed
from the board, the game is checkmate.
The Americans can ill afford
another war in the Middle East, but the Israelis might be persuaded
to take the field. Is giving Sharon a free hand in the West Bank
a quid pro quo for an eventual American-supported Israeli attack
on the last two countries in the region with any semblance of
independence?
The world, of course, is not
a chess game, and the pieces don't always do what they are told.
Sharon might indeed start a
war with Syria or Iran, but not because the Israelis are spear-carriers
for the Bush Administration. The "Greater Israel" bloc
has its own strategic interests, which for the time being, happen
to coincide with American interests.
Sharon, however, is hardly
a trusty ally. During the first Gulf War, he did his best to
sabotage the coalition against Iraq, because he felt such a victory
would eventually be used to pressure Israel for concessions in
the Occupied Territories.
Nor are all Israelis on board.
The recent round of assassinations has helped revitalize the
peace movement, which put 120,000 people into the streets of
Tel Aviv May 17.
Some Israelis are unhappy about
what they see the West Bank becoming. "Sharon has pushed
Washington into embracing an accelerated process of forming the
state of Israel as a bilateral state based on apartheid,"
Meron Benvenisti, former deputy mayor of Jerusalem told the British
Guardian.
Others are uncomfortable with
the support of Christian evangelicals. According to Rabbi David
Rosen, international director of the Inter-Religious Affairs
of the American Jewish Committee's Jerusalem office, the evangelicals
support "some of the most extreme political positions in
Israeli society."
One of those "extreme
positions" is a plan to raze the Dome of the Rock Mosque
in Jerusalem and rebuild the Jewish temple destroyed by the Romans-a
precondition, Evangelicals believe, to the Second Coming.
For the time being, the American
drive to control the bulk of the world's oil reserves, and the
Sharon government's push for a greater Israel and the elimination
of regional rivals, finds common ground. On the other hand, if
Israel crosses U.S. interests, watch how fast the lobbies and
the born-agains find themselves out in the cold.
The crisis in the Middle East
is not a clash of civilizations, less so a hijacking of American
foreign policy by the so-called "Jewish lobby" and
Christian fundamentalists: It's business as usual.
Conn Hallinan is a provost at the University of
California at Santa Cruz.
Weekend Edition
Features for May 22 / 23, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
Colin Powell, a Political Obituary
Jeffrey
St. Clair
When War is Swell: Bush and the Carlyle Group
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Her Son Was Told He Wouldn't See Combat; Now He's Dead: an Interview
with Sue Niederer
Brian
Cloughley
America is Committing War Crimes in Iraq
Saul
Landau
Democracy in Latin America: Great for Investors; Not So Good
for People
Brandy
Baker
Feminists Stand By Their Man: Abortion, Judges and Kerry
Randall
Robinson
Bushwhacked in the Caribbean
Uri
Avnery
The Rape of Rafah
Ben
Tripp
Assume the Worst
Bruce
Anderson
News from Ecotopia: the Truth About the Wine Business
Josh
Ruebner
Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers
Peter
Wolson, Ph. D.
Exhibitionistic Revenge at Abu Ghraib
Chloe
Cockburn
In Defense of "Troy": What Hector Could Teach Rummy
Linda
Burnham
Sexual Domination in Uniform: an American Value
Adrien
Rain Burke
War of the Necrophiliacs: Spc. Sabrina Harman and Her Corpse
David
Krieger
Charting a New Course for US Nuclear Policy
Ron
Jacobs
Turnaround
Poets'
Basement
Ford, Albert & LaMorticella
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