Today's
Stories
October 6,
2006
Alison Weir
Just
Another Mother Murdered
Tiffany Ten
Eyck / Mark Brenner
Made
in (DeUnionized) America
Juan Antonio
Montecino
Cleaving a False Divide in Latin America
Walden Bello
A Siamese Tragedy
Jonathan Cook
The Struggle for Palestine's Soul
October 5, 2006
John Walsh
Turn
the Page
Carol Norris
The
Radical Right, the Myth of the Gay Child Abuser and You: a Psychotherapist
on the Hysteria Over Foley
Paul Craig Roberts
Will November Bring Hope or Another Stolen Election?
Ricardo Alarcón
The
Truth About the Embargo of Cuba
James Abourezk
Waterboarding the Constitution: After Torture, What's Next?
Nicola Nasser
Removing Hamas: Brinksmanship or Coup d'Etat?
Kirkpatrick Sale
Breaking Away: the First North American Secessionist Conference
Uri Avnery
Peace
with Syria: Lunch in Damascus
Website of the Day
More Naughty GOP Messages
October 4, 2006
Elizabeth Terzakis
The
Walls That Racism Built: Blood Revenge, the Death Penalty and
Kevin Cooper
Paul Wolf
The
Mushy Rebellion: Pakistan Under Musharraf
Sean Penn
The
Arrogant, the Misguided and the Cowards
Dave Lindorff
Outrage as Misdirection: The Real Scandal isn't Foley
Diane Farsetta
For Sale: Iraqi Kurdistan
Sharon Smith
Democrats:
Yes to War, No to Pedophilia
Felice Pace
Revoking 1776
Sara Roy
The Economy of Gaza
Website of
the Day
Alexander Cockburn: the Video Interview (Part Two)
October 3, 2006
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Compassionate
Conservative Pedophiles
Greg Moses
The Infallible Empire: Junking Habeas Corpus
Stan Cox
Real Bad ID: a National Driver's License and the Fading Right
of Anonymity
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
How Empires Die
Evelyn Pringle
Big Pharma Takes a Hit: Alaska's Supreme Court Outlaws Forced
Drugging
Fred Wilhelms
SoundExchange and Unpaid Music Artists: Help Us Find These Musicians
and Get Them Paid!
Michael Abelman
Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food: the Risks of Convenience and
Consolidation
Gary Leupp
The Foley Follies
Website of the Day
Bush and Blair: Endless Love
October 2,
2006
Eric Hazan
Roadmap
to Nowhere: an Interview with Tanya Reinhart on Israel/Palestine
Since 2003
Mike Whitney
Bloodbath on 60 Minutes: Court
Stenographer Finally Comes Clean
Norman Solomon
American Narcissism and Iraq
Assaf Kfoury
Meeting Nasrallah
Missy Beattie
The Meaning of "ummmm": Speaker Hasert and the Over-Friendly
Congressman
Arthur Neslen
Lie Less in Gaza
Paula J. Caplan
How
the Supreme Court Mangled My Research
Website of the Day
Predator Drones Target Bechtel
Sept. 30 /
0ct. 1, 2006
Weekend Edition
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
New Face of Class War
Marjorie Cohn
Rounding Up US Citizens: a Consitutional Shredding
Ben Tripp
Deviant Conservative Males: an Analysis
Ron Jacobs
A Dismal and Chaotic Place: Iraq According to Patrick Cockburn
Ralph Nader
Torturer-in-Chief
Mike Whitney
Iraq: The Breaking Point
Christopher Reed
It Pays to Raise a Ruckus
Seth Sandronsky
The Housing Bust: Excess Investment and Its Discontents
Fred Gardner
The Chancellor's Wife
Mokhiber /
Weissman
Hewlett Packard and the Erosion of Privacy
Michael Dickinson
My Escape Attempt from Prison Transfer: Extract from a Diary
in Turkish Police Custody
Alan Gregory
Fake Green: Top 10 Ways Politicians Pretend to be Environmentalists
Poets' Basement
Gardner, Landau, Lindorff, Davies,& Buknatski
September 29,
2006
Bruce Jackson
Chavez's
Reading, Bush's Reading
Michael J.
Smith
The
Lobby Debate Does Manhattan
Emira Woods
Oil Trip: Record Profits for Exxon, Deprivation for Africa
William S.
Lind
The Sanctuary Illusion: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq as Theme
Parks for 4GW
David Swanson
Mommy, What's Waterboarding?
Jonathan Cook
Bad
Faith and the Destruction of Palestine
Website of the Day
Jesus: the Recruitment Tapes
September 28, 2006
Sen. Russ Feingold
The
Flaws in the Military Commissions Act
Ron Jacobs
The
Generals, the Democrats and Iraq: One Policy, Two Parties
Mokhiber /
Weissman
Scenes from Laura's Book Festival: Elmo Will Not Save You
Lee Sustar
A Left Challenge to Lula
Robert Jensen
Finding My Way Back to Church--and Getting Kicked Out
John Chuckman
America Has Just Lost Two More Wars
Evelyn Pringle
Inside America's Nursing Homes: a Hidden Tragedy of Neglect and
Abuse
Nicola Nasser
Bush and Islam: Words vs. Deeds
Uri Avnery
Political
Corruption in Israel
Website of the Day
Art Against the Empire
September 27, 2006
Patrick Cockburn
A
Final Explosion Looms in Mosul
Camilo Mejia
Blowback From Iraq: Giving Terrorism a Reason to Exist
Pat Williams
Tax Burdens and Cheaters in the Rockies: Send Those IRS Mercenaries
in Search of Montana's Land Barons and Oil Drillers
Ben Terrall
Failing Haiti: Another Bungled UN Mission
Ridgeway /
Ng
Paul Weyrich Explaines His Opposition to the Patriot Act: a Short
Film
Joe Allen
Where are the Mass Protests?
Andrew Wimmer
Don't Disappear Into a Black Hole
Franklin C. Spinney
Rumsfeld's AutoCarterization: Skullduggery in the Pentagon's
Budget
Website of
the Day
Model Nukes: the Photo Contest
September 26, 2006
Hani Shukrallah
The
American Mind: When Historical Analysis is Reduced to Whim
William Blum
If It's Election Season, It Must Be Time for a Terror Alert
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Torturing the Obvious
Barbara Becnel
Witness to an Execution: a Slow and Very Painful Death
Paul Rockwell
Judicial Complicity in US War Crimes: the Watada Case
Dave Lindorff
Bush and Iran: Going to War to Save His Own Ass?
Rich Gibson
Lessons from the Detroit Teachers' Strike
Anthony Papa
The Danger of Meth Registries: "Have a Cold? Prove It, Then
Sign Here"
Nate Mezmer
New Orleans is Back ... Without Blacks: Monday Night Football
at the Superdome
Uri Avnery
Mohammed's
Sword
Website of the Day
Only YOU Can Stop the Sale of Public Lands to Mining, Timber
and Real Estate Corporations
September 25, 2006
Patrick Cockburn
The
Most Dangerous Place in the World: a Journey to Iraq's "Taliban
Republic"
Jonathan Cook
Human Rights Watch: Still Missing the Point on Lebanon
Joshua Frank
Did
Maria Cantwell's Campaign Try to Buy Off Aaron Dixon?
Paul Craig
Roberts
Is
the Bush Administration Itching to Nuke Iran?
Robert Jensen
Defending Chavez on FoxNews
Dave Lindorff
Horowitz on Campus: This Mouth for Hire
Norman Solomon
Media Tall Tales for Next War
Dr. Charles
Jonkel
Save a Grizzly, Visit a Library: "People like the Croc Hunter
are Worse Than the Most Bloodthirsty Slob Hunter
Michael Dickinson
"The King's New Clothes:" a Play Written in a Turkish
Jail
Alexander Cockburn
Flying
Saucers and the Decline of the Left
Website of
the Day
Great Bear Foundation
September 23
/ 24, 2006
Weekend Edition
Jonathan Cook
How
Israel is Engineering the "Clash of Civilizations"
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Star Wars Goes Online ... Crashes
Dr. Anon
A Doctor's Life in Baghdad
Tom Barry
Oil and Political Opportunism
Carl G. Estabrook
The Darfur Smokescreen
Laura Carlsen
Mexico's Two Presidents
Todd Chretien
The Axis of Lesser Evilism
Dr. Charles
Jonkel
From Grizzly Man to the Croc Hunter: the Global Media and the
Death of Bears
Debbie Nathan
I Was Disappeared By Salon
Fred Gardner
Dustin Costa Struggles Against Invisibility
Fred Wilhelms
The Money Belongs to the Artists Who Created the Music
Seth Sandronsky
The Cruel Economics of Health Care in America
Ralph Nader
Mavericks at Work
Rev. William
Alberts
"Specks" and "Logs" and 9/11
Jon Van Camp
Who is Hezbollah?
Heather Gray
Conservatives and Technology
David Vest
Jerry Lightfoot, RIP
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listenting to This Week
Poets' Basement
Landau / Davies
Website of
the Weekend
Meet
Me In The Morning: C. Wonderland & J. Lightfoot
Video of the Weekend
Is It a Bird? A Missile? Or, Just Perhaps, a Friggin' Plane?
September 22,
2006
Patrick Cockburn
Republic
of Fear: Torture in Bush's Iraq, Worse Than Under Saddam
Michael Donnelly
It's
the Manipulated Economy, Stupid!
Ramzy Baroud
The Next Palestinian Struggle
Evo Morales
"We Need Partners, Not Bosses": Address to the United
Nations
Stanley Howard
Torture and Justice in Chicago
Sarah Leah
Whitson
Hezbollah's Rockets and Civilian Casualties: a Reply to Jonathan
Cook
JoAnn Wypijewski
Conservations
at Ground Zero
Website of the Day
Cockburn in Atlanta: the Video Interview
September 21, 2006
Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad
"No
Nation Should Have Superiority Over Others:" UN Address
Justin E. H.
Smith
Ending
the Death Penalty: Outline of an Abolitionist Program
Rick Kuhn
Australian Government Steps Up Attacks on Muslims: "I Certainly
Don't Want That Type of People in Australia"
Mike Roselle
Ed
Wiley's Long March: the Elementary School vs. the Strip Mine
Amira Hass
In the Name of Security: What Israeli Police Files Reveal About
the Occupation of Palestine
Deborah Rich
From the Kitchen of Dr. Frankenstein: the Consumption of Gene-Engineeered
Foods
Mickey Z.
10 Reasons Cars Suck
Saul Landau
Terrorism at Sheridan Circle
Website of
the Day
Stop
the Decapitation of Mountains!
September 20, 2006
Sharon Smith
Elections, Detentions and Deportations
Christopher
Reed
Goodbye
Koizumi, Hello Abe
John Ross
Mexico:
Does AMLO Have a Future?
Joshua Frank
A Wasted Campaign: How Jonathan Tasini Helped Hillary Clinton
and Distracted the Antiwar Movement
Arthur Neslen
The Clenched Fist of the Phoenix: What Made Israel Burn Lebanon,
Again?
Norman Solomon
The Hollow Promise of Digital Technology
Michael Carmichael
The Vatican's Tyrant
Evelyn Pringle
The Merck Vioxx Litigation: a Scorecard
Hugo Chavez
Rise Up Against the Empire: Address to the United Nations
Website of the Day
Before You
Enlist: Watch This Video!
September 19, 2006
Patrick Cockburn
Deadly
Harvest: Lebanese Fields Sown with Israeli Cluster Bombs
Jeff Leys
Economic
Warfare: Iraq and the IMF
Brian M. Downing
War,
Taxes and Democracy
Col. Dan Smith
Dispelling
Brutality
Liaquat Ali
Khan
Presidential Incitements: Did Bush's Speech Violate Geneva Conventions
on Genocide?
Ron Jacobs
Just Sign on the Dotted Line: Iraqi Oil and Production Sharing
Agreements
Nik Barry-Shaw
/ Yves Engler
Canada in Haiti: Torture, Murder and Complicity
Lucinda Marshall
Air Paranoia: the Great Toothpaste and Hair Gel Scare
Saul Landau
The Pinochet Syndicate
Photo of the Day
Hold That Bridge!
Website of
the Day
Scenarios for an Iranian War
September 18, 2006
Carl Boggs
Crimes of Empire
Uri Avnery
Peace
Panic
Mike Stark / Jim Bullington
Ann Richards, the Original Texacutioner
Joshua Frank
Corporate E. Coli
John Murphy
The Price of Free Speech
Ramzy Baroud
Murdoch Almighty
Dave Lindorff
On Constitution Day
Bill Quigley
Showing Conviction at Echo 9
Website of the Day
Tutorial: How to Hack a Diebold Voting Machine
September 16 / 17, 2006
Weekend Edition
Tariq Ali
A
Bavarian Provocation
Eliza Ernshire
Death
and Tears in Nablus
Jeffrey St.
Clair
The Remaking of Cataract Canyon (Part 7): To Tilted Park
Mairead Corrigan Maguire
A Nobel Laureate Visits with Israeli
Nuclear Whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu
Brian Cloughley
"Let Them Drink Coke!": Losing Hearts and Minds in
Afghanistan
Ben Tripp
November Prognostication: Republicans Sweep!
Laura Carlsen
Bush and Latin America: War on Terrorism or Fight for Social
Justice
Ralph Nader
Terror on the Road
Ron Jacobs
Shooting Sgrena
John Chuckman
Imperial Entropy
Robert Fisk
The American Military's Cult of Cruelty
Gary Leupp
The Pope's New Crusade: Defender of the West, Scourge of Islam
Lawrence R.
Velvel
The Pretexter in Chief: Learning About Bush from Hewlett-Packard
Missy Comley Beattie
The Insecurity of Immorality
Adrienne Johnstone
Deporting Widows: the Nightmare of a Kenyan Immigrant
Mickey Z.
Why I Hate America
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Kearney, Orloski, Engel, Louise and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
Still
Life with Killpecker
September 15, 2006
Diana Johnstone
In
Defense of Conspiracy: 9/11, in Theory and in Fact
Diane Christian
On
Retaliation
William S. Lind
General Puffery: When the Military Brass Deceives
Lee Sustar
Bosses Take Aim at Undocument Workers
Dave Lindorff
Retroactive Immunity for Bush?
Ramzy Baroud
Presidential PR: Lost in the Bush Spin Cycle
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Cesspool
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Glow,
River, Glow: Radioactive Leaks and Plumbers at Hanford
Website of the Day
F-22: The Most Expensive Piece of Junk Ever Built?
September 14, 2006
Franklin Lamb
Israel's
Use of American Cluster Bombs: a Walk Through the Rubble
Tim Wilkinson
Alan Dershowitz's Sinister Scheme
Dick J. Reavis
Mexico's
Time of Troubles: Who Benefits?
Sam Husseini
9/11 Five Years Later: a Conspiracy to Silence
Doug Giebel
Democracies of Death: Why John Adams Wouldn't Recognize His Own
Country
Bill Berkowitz
The Messaging Strategy of the Iraq War
Diane Farsetta
What Media Democracy Looks Like
Mary Turck
Targeting Refugees and Human Rights Workers in Colombia
Patrick Cockburn
Amnesty Intl Accuses Hizbollah of War Crimes, But Katyusha Damage
"Much Less" Than Israel Claimed
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Ah,
Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?
Website of
the Day
The Shocking Truth About Inequality
September 13, 2006
Jack Bratich
Eyes
Put a Spell on You: Signs of Surveillance in the Public Secret
Sphere
John Ross
Welcome
to the Nightmare: Al Qaeda de Mexico?
Christopher
Brauchli
"You Had to Have Been There": Teaching Iraq and Iran
Dave Lindorff
Mourning in America: Bush Weeps? Who are They Kidding?
Antony Loewenstein
My Israel Question
Al Krebs
The Gates Foundation and African Agriculture
Leonard Peltier
Crazy Horse in Chains
Jim Bensman
My
Adventures with the FBI: How I Was Targeted as a Terrorist
Website of the Day
FreedomWalk: Take a Moment for Leonard Peltier
September 12, 2006
Norman Finkelstein
Kill
Arabs, Cry Anti-Semitism
Seth Sandronsky
The War on Nurses
John Walsh
Khatami
Comes to Harvard
Alan Maass
"Islamic Fascism": the New Hysteria
David Krieger
Troubling Questions About Missile Defense
Nate Mezmer
September 12th, America
Kathleen Christison
The
Coming Collapse of Zionism
September 11, 2006
Uri Avnery
State
of Chutzpah
Patrick Cockburn
Palestinians
Forced to Scavenge Rubbish Dumps for Food
Col Dan Smith
The
Centrality of War in the Presidency of George W. Bush
Dr. Susan Block
Beyond Terror
Anthony Alessandrini
Forgetting 9/11
Dave Lindorff
Bush After 9/11: Five Years of High Crimes and Misdemeanors
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
What Happened?
Joshua Frank
Proving Nothing: How the 9/11 "Truth" Movement Helps
Bush & Cheney
Jean Bricmont
The
End of the "End of History"
Sprague / Emesberger
"You Are a Dog. You Should Die": Death Threats Against
Lancet's Haiti Investigator
Website of
the Day
Web Piracy
September 9/10,
2006
Weekend Edition
Alexander Cockburn
The
9/11 Conspiracy Nuts: How They Let the Guilty Parties of 9/11
Off the Hook
Jeffrey St.
Clair
The
Remaking of Cataract Canyon: In the Footsteps of Vladimir Putin
(Part Six)
Greg Grandin
Good
Christ, Bad Christ: Testament of the Death Squads
Peter
Stone Brown
Bob Dylan's Swing Time Waltz in the
Face of the Apocalypse
Ralph
Nader
X-Raying Greed
Brian
Cloughley
Rumsfeld at the American Legion:
Dead Babies and Nazi Propaganda
Col.
Chet Richards
Crossroads at the Litani
David
Model
Tailoring the Case Against Iran: Cut
from the Same Old Pattern
Dave
Himmelstein
From Bil'in to Birmingham
Ron
Jacobs
War and the Power of Words
Fred
Gardner
Is Medical Pot Image a Turn-Off to
Teens?
Mike
Whitney
America's Economic Meltdown
Josh
Gryniewicz
In the Belly of the Bentonville Beast:
Working for Wal-Mart
Daniel
Gross /
Joe Tessone
An IWW Story at Starbucks
Joe
Bageant
Inside the Iron Theater
Nicole
Colson
The Colbert Factor: Some Truthiness,
At Last
Alexander
Billet
Thirty Years of "White Riot":
Long Live The Clash!
Poets'
Basement
Engel, Louise, Buknatski, Davies, &
Orloski
September
8, 2006
Uri
Avnery
"I'm a Leftist, But ...":
the Liberals' War on Lebanon
Paul
Craig Roberts
Books Are Our Salvation
Bill
Quigley
Judge Says: "No Clowning Around Our WMDs!"
Robert
Jensen
Parallel Purges: Academic Freedom
in Iran and the US
Norman
Solomon
Perception Gap: The War on Terror as Others See It
Keith
Bolin
September
8, 2006
Uri
Avnery
"I'm a Leftist,
But ...": the Liberals' War on Lebanon
Paul
Craig Roberts
Books Are Our Salvation
Bill
Quigley
Judge Says: "No Clowning Around Our WMDs!"
Robert
Jensen
Parallel Purges: Academic Freedom
in Iran and the US
Norman
Solomon
Perception Gap: The War on Terror as Others See It
Keith
Bolin
The Future of the Family Farm
Kristin
S. Schafer
The Global Trade in Deadly Pesticides
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Remaking of Cataract Canyon (Part Five)
Patrick
Cockburn
Gaza is Dying
Website
of the Day
Help the Bismark 3!
September 7, 206
Marjorie
Cohn
Why Bush Really Came Clean About the
CIA's Secret Torture Prisons
Sharon
Smith
Downward Mobility: No Recovery for Workers
René
Drucker Colín
The Fraud in Mexico
Michael
Donnelly
Bush Family Values: About Those Nazi Appeasers
John
Borowski
Scholastic Peddles a Fictitious Path to 9/11 to Kids
Lucinda
Marshall
Bombing Indiana
Charles
Sullivan
Katrina and the New Jim Crow: Ethnic Cleansing in New Orleans
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Remaking of Cataract Canyon: Part Four
Jonathan
Cook
How Human Rights Watch Lost Its Way
in Lebanon
Website
of the Day
Rasta!
Reggae's Joe Hill
September
6, 2006
Stephen
Soldz
Protecting the Torturers: Bad Faith
and Distortions frm the American Psychological Assocation
Dave
Zirin
Cops vs. Jocks: the Shooting of Steve
Foley
Ramzy
Baroud
The Gaza Maze: Who Gained Most from the Fox Reporters' Kidnapping
Noel
Ignatiev
Democrats, Pwogs and the Lesser Evil Folly
Dave
Lindorff
Bombing Without Regrets: The US and Cluster Bombs
Norman
Solomon
Spinning Troop Levels in Iraq
Binoy
Kampmark
The Death of Steve Irwin and the Politics of the Zoo
Jeffrey
St. Clair
A Premature Burial: the Remaking of Cataract Canyon (Part Three)
John
Ross
The Death of Mexican Presidency
Website
of the Day
Flaming Arrows
September
5, 2006
Jonathan Cook
Will Robert Fisk tell us the whole story? Time For A Champion
of Truth to Speak Up
Patrick Cockburn
Better Not Meet at the Casbah
Mike Whitney
The Worst Secretary of Defense in U.S. History? You Be the Judge
Roland Sheppard
The Civil Rights Movement is Dead and So is the Democratic Party
James Petras
As Bush Regime Faces Twilight Slide, How Much Havoc Can Paulson
Wreak?
Alexander Cockburn
Will Bush Bomb Teheran?
September 4,
2006
Clancy Sigal
The Women Who Gave Us Labor Day
Jeffrey St.
Clair
The
Remaking of Cataract Canyon: Part 2
Anthony Alessandrini
The
Great Debate about Aroma Coffee: Why I Boycott
Dennis Perrin
The
Great Debate in Tarrytown: Straight Zion, No Chaser
Daniel Cassidy
'S
lom to Slum
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
War Is Lost
September 2
/ 3, 2006
Uri Avnery
When
Napoleon Won at Waterloo
Jeffrey St.
Clair
A
Premature Burial: the Remaking of Cataract Canyon
Ralph Nader
The
No-Fault White House
Noam Chomsky
Viewing the World from a Bombsight
Allan Lichtman
Arrested Democracy: Letter from the Baltimore County Jail
Stanley Heller
When Criticism of Cluster Bombs is "Anti-Semitic"
Rana el-Khatib
Invasion's Child: the Making of Issa
Peter Montague
Taking on the Pentagon: Chemical Weapons to Burn
Laura Carlsen
Mexico on a Collision Course
Dr. Susan Block
Bush Hate Rising
Joe Bageant
Roy's People: Why Progressives Need to Listen to Orbison, Not
Policy Wonks
Scott Stedjan / Matt Schaaf
A New Generation of Landmines?
Gary Leupp
The Emperor Has Been Exposed
Stephen Fleischman
The Great American Oligarchy
Paul Balles
Has Ahmadinejad Already Checkmated Bush?
Ingmar Lee
Canada's $450 Million Gift to Bush: the Softwood Lumber Slush
Fund
Jane Stillwater
Burning Man: the Good, the Bad and the Evil Twin
Ron Jacobs
Dylan Faces the Apocalypse, Again
St. Clair /
Bossert
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Grima, Engel, Orloski and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
To New Orleans: a Photo Journal
September 1,
2006
Uri Avnery
Olmert
Agonistes
Paul Craig
Roberts
Of
Wolves and Men (and Impotent Democrats)
Bill Ayers
Exclusionary Signs of the Times
Kevin Zeese
The Best War Ever
Xochitl Bervera
The Forgotten Children of New Orleans
Norman Solomon
Bush vs. Ahmadinejad: a TV Debate We'll Never See
Alexander Cockburn
Hezbollah Denounces Nasrallah Interview as a Fake
Richard Neville
Rupert
Murdoch's Victims
Website of the Day
The Uranium Flood
October
6, 2006
Rank Invitations
Dining
with Bush
By CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI
O nce again we are reminded of the importance
of invitations. Who among us has not breathlessly awaited the
advent of the sought after invitation, the arrival of which signifies
that the recipient has arrived. Of course not all invitations
are as public as those offered in Washington and none is more
sought after than an invitation from George Bush's White House.
For Mr. Bush, invitations to
lunch or dinner (or best of all, the ranch) are subtle ways of
letting world leaders know how important they are. Ranch trumps
dinner and dinner trumps lunch every time. Just ask the president
of China, Hu Jintao. He only got lunch when he visited the United
States in April.
During the last week of September
three very important people ate at the White House. Two had dinner
(together) and one had lunch. One of the two who had dinner is
not all that strong on human rights but nonetheless, Mr. Bush
considers him a worthy dinner table companion. The two were Pervez
Musharraf, the self-made president of Pakistan and Hamid Karzai,
president of Afghanistan. The two men don't like speaking to
each other but each likes basking in the reflected glory of being
in the presence of their patron.
According to an Indian newspaper,
The Hindu, the meal was not entirely cordial. President Karzai
accused President Musharraf of supporting the Taliban and harboring
Osama bin Laden. President Musharraf in turn compared Mr. Karzai
to an ostrich and said he had nothing better to do than point
fingers at others. For good measure he threw in that Mr. Karzai
was lacking decision-making ability and courage. (Mr. Musharraf
was so taken with his description of Mr. Karzai qua ostrich that
he repeated it in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.)
The next guest didn't rate
dinner. It's a bit of a wonder he even got lunch until one remembers
that if there's one thing Mr. Bush doesn't have, it's principles.
Expediency is his watchword. His guest was President Nursultan
A. Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan has proved itself
a good friend to Mr. Bush since 9/11. He has let NATO airplanes
going to Afghanistan over fly his country and has sent a bunch
of soldiers to Iraq to help fight Mr. Bush's war against the
Iraqi people. In addition he has huge reserves of oil and gas
that are being taken out by American companies and that is the
sort of thing that has the power to make most anyone one of Mr.
Bush's good, if not best, friends.
When Dick Cheney paid Kazakhstan
a courtesy call in the spring he said he admired its "political
development." One of those developments happened the day
before he arrived. The government shut down two American democracy
organizations active in that country, The National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs and the International Republican
Institute. It said they had violated a law that forbids "material
assistance" to political parties. The institutes were also
accused of 'the handing over of materials' and 'illegal instances
of transport' while working with political and civic groups.
Mr. Bush's dinner guest has
complete control over television in his country and, to no one's
surprise the medium is lavish in its praise of Mr. Nazarbayev.
So generous is its praise that in the December 2005 election,
official results showed Mr. Nazarbayev receiving 91% of the popular
vote. (The International Republican Institute reported he only
got 82 percent of the vote, a reported difference that might
account for its being shut down by the government after the election.)
Before lunch Mr. Bush praised
the visiting president saying the nation was "a free nation."
He said he and Mr. Nazarbayev had pledged to "support the
forces of moderation throughout the world" and in return
Mr. Nazarbayev said his country and the U.S. had "truly
become close partners".
Some might have questioned
Mr. Bush's description of Kazakhstan as a free nation, given
its lack of free elections, restriction on the news media, etc.
They needn't have. Mr. Bush heaped those complements on Mr. Nazarbayev
on the same day Congress passed a law Mr. Bush wanted that, among
other things, rid the president of the troublesome writ of
habeas corpus for folks in military prisons, permits coerced
evidence if a judge thinks it reliable and in general goes a
long way to destroying what has long made the United States a
great example for the rest of the world.
Commenting on things in Kazakhstan,
Yevgeny A. Zhovtis of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for
Human Rights and Rule of Law said "There are four enemies
of human rights: oil, gas, the war on terror and geopolitical
considerations.. And we have all four."
So, thanks to Mr. Bush, does
the United States.
Christopher Brauchli is a lawyer in Boulder, Colorado. He
can be reached at: Brauchli.56@post.harvard.edu.
Visit his website: http://hraos.com/
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