Today's
Stories
October 16,
2006
Gary Leupp
North
Korea as a Religious State
October 14/15,
2006
Weekend Edition
Uri Avnery
Gaza
as Laboratory: the Great Experiment
John Walsh
How
Rahm Emanuel Has Rigged a Pro-War Congress
Jean Bricmont
A Fable About Palestine
Jennifer Van Bergen
Bush's Military Commissions Act and the Future of America
Ralph Nader
Wilted Yankees: the Fruits of Checkbook Baseball
Floyd Rudmin
The Logic of Proliferation: How Bush's Belligerence Prompted
N. Korea to Pursue Nuclear Weapons
Mark Weisbrot
Correcting the Facts on US/Venezuela Relations
Laura Carlsen
Building a Future in the Mixteca
Hani Shukrallah
A Stroll Through the Cairo Mall: Shopping as Cultural Pursuit
Dr. Susan Block
The Spent Milk of Human Foley
John Chuckman
North Korea's Bomb: Still 1,126 Nuke Tests Behind the US
Lucinda Marshall
Is Betty Ugly?: the Profits of Denigration
Don Monkerud
The Case Against Depleted Uranium
Missy Comley
Beattie
What Bush Means By Tolerable Violence in Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Shouting "No One is Illegal" in a Crowded Theater
Website of
the Weekend
Ratfink Raunchfest
October 13,
2006
Jorge Mariscal
PowerPoint
Racism: How Military Recruiters Pitch to Latinos
Stephen Philion
The
Myth of the Spat Upon Vets: an Interview with Jerry Lembcke
John Blair
Strip Mining Wildlife Preserves: Black Beauty's Filthy Lucre
Col. Dan Smith
Oil, Atoms and War
Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry
How Hezbollah Defeated Israel: Part Two, Winning the Ground War
Stephen Fleischman
Journalism Then and Now
Charles Perroud
The Death Penalty's Invisible Victims
Anne E. Brodsky
Return
to Afghanistan: Where the Rhetoric Doesn't Match the Reality
Website of the Day
Underwater Nuke Test
October 12,
2006
Jonathan Cook
Israel's
Plan for a Military Strike on Iran
Norman Solomon
The Pundit Path to Death in Iraq
M. Shahid Alam
On Colonialism and Colleagues
Paul Craig
Roberts
Can We Call It Genocide Now?
Meredith Schafer / Chris Kutalik
Is a General Transportation Strike Looming for 2008? Can Labor
Seize the Moment?
Carl Gelderloos
Images of Occupation: Teaching in Nablus
Alastair Crooke / Mark Perry
How Hezbollah Defeated Israel: Part One, Winning the Intelligence
War
Charles Sullivan
Assassins of Truth
William S. Lind
Why Do We Still Fight a Lost War?
CP News Service
The South Turns Against the War
Website of
the Day
There's a Riot Goin' On
October 11,
2006
John Feffer
Pyongyang
1, Bush 0
Dave Lindorff
A Killing Occupation
Jackson Katz
Gunning Down Women: Coverage of "School Shootings"
Misses Central Issue
April Howard / Ben Dangl
The Tin War in Bolivia
Michael Carmichael
World War W
Ken Couesbouc
The New Witchcraft: Marvin Harris on the War on Terror
Gregory Afghani
Sleepless on Skid Row: Guilty of Being Homeless in America
Alexander Cockburn
600,000 Dead in Iraq: Chortles in the New Yorker for Slaughter's
Cheerleader, C. Hitchens
Website of
the Day
Petition: Defend Columbia Students Who Confronted the Minutemen
October 10,
2006
Paul Craig
Roberts
Lost
Wars and a Lost Economy
Robert Robideau
The
Myth Keepers of Columbus
Joshua Frank
The
Democrats and the War on Civil Liberties
Dave Lindorff
Free the Press! Free Linda Greenhouse!
Dave Zirin
Brother of the Fist
Heather Gray
Where Votes Matter: My Experience in South Africa
James Knotwell
Big Ag in the Heartland: the Future of Nebraska's Family Farms
Missy Beattie
The Return of James Baker, III
Mike Whitney
Bush and North Korea: Bumbling Toward Disaster
David Rosen
Sex Panic on Capitol Hill: Mark Foley and the Politics of Sex
in America
Website of the Day
Eno / Byrne: Music to Enjoy the Foley Scandal By
October 9. 2006
Robert Fisk
The
Age of Terror
Norman Solomon
Welcome to the Nuclear Club
Ron Jacobs
The
Boom Heard Around the World
Gideon Levy
The Mystery of America
Walter Brasch
Their Back Pages: Sex, Lies and Family Values
Mickey Z.
Who Killed Michael Moore?
John Holt
Grizzlies in Our Midst: Can Humans and Bears Coexist?
Lucinda Marshall
Not So Pretty in Pink: Profits and Breast Cancer
Saul Landau
Post-Castro
Cuba
Website of the Day
War, Inc.
October 7 /
8, 2006
Weekend Edition
Alexander Cockburn
Wargasms
and Orgasms
Peter Kwong
The Chinese Face of Neoliberalism
Ralph Nader
Revolt of the Generals
Mark Donham
What Cynthia McKinney Means to Me
Dave Lindorff
Philly's Police Snoops
Peter Bosshard
World Bank Shuts Out Dissident Voices: Big Dams, Huge Profits
& Political Corruption
Ron Jacobs
Evil Hour in Colombia
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Governmental Derelicts: Moral Meltdown in America
Fred Gardner
Arnold Vetoes Hemp Bill
David Green
The US, Israel and the Invasion of Lebanon
Jim B.
Activism, Incorporated: Outsourcing Grassroots Politics?
Missy Beattie
Prayers for Peace at the Edge of the Abyss
Michael Donnelly
Blame the Page: Grand Old Perverts Go on Offensive
Jackson Thoreau
Enter Newt
Jon Hung
Revisiting Korematsu: Denying Civil Rights Based on National
Origin
CounterPunch
News Service
Why We Confronted the Minutemen at Columbia
Tom D'Antoni
Playlist
Poets' Basement
Orloski, Davies, Tirado, Gaffney and Ford
Website of the Weekend
Reagan Gone Wild
October 6, 2006
Alison Weir
Just
Another Mother Murdered
Tiffany Ten
Eyck / Mark Brenner
Made
in (DeUnionized) America
Corporate Crime Reporter
Look Who's Behind "37 Reasons" to Vote for Big Business:
Former Clinton PR Flak Mike McCurry
Juan Antonio
Montecino
Cleaving a False Divide in Latin America
Walden Bello
A Siamese Tragedy
Christopher
Brauchli
Rank Invitations: Dining with Bush
Brynne Keith-Jennings
Dan Burton in Nicaragua: the Congressman, His Stick and the Elections
Jonathan Cook
The Struggle for Palestine's Soul
Website of the Day
Fighting Hog Farms and Clearcuts in the Heartland
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
Weekend
Edition
October 14-15, 2006
The Courageous Dr. Rost
Lone
Wolf Takes on the Pharma Pack
By JAKE WHITNEY
E arly in Dr. Peter Rost's new book,
The
Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman , Rost compares
corporate culture to running with a wolf pack. "Everyone
helps out and is friendly as long as it benefits the group,"
he writes, "but each wolf cares only about himself and will
do anything to survive."
Rost is talking about the bad
guys -- the greedy corporate executives and gutless, backstabbing
coworkers who either take part in or turn a blind eye to corporate
malfeasance. Rost, as the title indicates, is the good guy, and
The Whistleblower recounts his career exposing corporate wrongdoing.
But the question that lingers over his 200-page David vs. Goliath
story is this: Is Rost, too, a wolf, attracted to whistleblowing
by reasons more self-serving than altruistic?
Rost's career as a whistleblower
began at the pharmaceutical giant Wyeth, where, as a top executive,
he sued the company after blowing the whistle on tax fraud. His
book skips this part (for legal reasons) and picks up a few years
later, in the summer of 2002, when Rost was a successful vice
president at Pharmacia -- a mid-sized, New Jersey-based drug
firm. In July of that year, Pfizer, the biggest pharmaceutical
company in the world, announced it would acquire Pharmacia, and
Rost's book takes us through the acquisition up until his firing,
on Dec. 1, 2005.
According to Rost, his termination
from Pfizer was the final blow in a prolonged period of retaliation
for his whistleblowing, which included shedding light on a string
of illegal and/or unethical business practices: illegal marketing
of Genotropin, a human growth hormone; wholesaler stuffing (to
inflate sales numbers); and sexual liaisons among Pfizer management.
But it was Rost's position on drug importation that made him
famous.
While still a vice president
at Pfizer, Rost infuriated his bosses by appearing before Congress
and on 60 Minutes advocating the importation of drugs from Canada
as a way to reduce pharmaceutical costs for Americans. This was
a direct contradiction of the industry's (and the Bush administration's)
line, which declared importation to be unsafe. But Rost, a native
Swede, shot holes in the industry's argument by pointing out
that drug importation had been taking place safely in Europe
for 20 years.
All of this is recounted in
fascinating detail in The Whistleblower, much of which reads
more like a detective novel than a memoir. This is due in no
small part to the fact that, as Rost's responsibilities at Pfizer
were slowly removed, he was left with little to do but detective
work. His account of what he discovered is alternately hilarious
and terrifying.
In the book, Rost recounts
how, following his appearance on 60 Minutes, Pfizer retaliates
by disabling his corporate email, killing his cell phone and
dropping his annual bonus. In response, Rost pens emails to Pfizer's
general counsel and IT department demanding an explanation --
and he attaches an electronic tracer to the messages. The emails
bounce around the company and then on to three "world-class
law firms" and a huge communications company. Within a few
days his emails are opened over 100 times, and Rost realizes
he may be "outgunned" in his battle with Goliath.
Perhaps Rost's scariest discovery
comes after pushing Pfizer management to address Pharmacia's
illegal marketing of Genotropin. He uncovers a mysterious document
stuck in his personnel file which turns out to be authored by
a private investigator, hired by Pfizer, reporting on whether
Rost ever purchased a weapon and whether he might be a danger
to himself or others. It is around this time, Rost says, "I
vowed I would expose the pharmaceutical industry and their methods."
Rost's critics say his whistleblowing
has been more about seeking fame and fortune (the latter in the
form of book deals and lawsuit settlements) than helping people.
In fact, Rost does have an uncanny habit of making headlines
by exposing deviousness wherever he goes -- most recently at
HuffingtonPost.com, where he was "fired" after unmasking
a frequent critic as the Post's very own technology manager.
But criticizing Rost's motives
is off base, for two reasons. For one, every time Rost has spoken
out, he's lost more than he's gained. By taking on Pfizer and
publicly advocating importation, he insured he would never work
in the industry again; at Wyeth, he lost what he said was the
best job of his life. "I've never had more fun than when
I was the managing director of the Nordic region," he said
in a recent interview. "Nothing I've done since compares
with that."
Second, Rost's book is about
more than just himself. Much of the latter half, in fact, has
nothing to do with Rost's battle with Pfizer, but is rather a
litany of recent drug company corruption, and Rost argues convincingly
that the FDA and America's major medical journals have been co-opted
by the industry. When he moves on to examine the American economy
at large, where he lays out some eye-opening statistics comparing
skyrocketing CEO salaries with the static ones of American workers,
we realize Rost has reached his destination.
Ultimately, The Whistleblower
is an impassioned jeremiad against corporate greed, with Rost
our inside man. The book's overriding theme is that the American
political system is in danger of degenerating into a plutocracy
(or "kleptocracy," as he dubs it) -- if it hasn't already.
"The American democracy has been stolen by our new class
of robber barons -- the CEOs of our largest corporations,"
he writes.
These assertions aren't new,
but when spoken by a former vice president at the world's largest
drug company, they take on added weight. Rost, after all, was
reeling in almost a million dollars a year with Pfizer, and conceivably
one day could've joined this ruling class. Instead, he chose
to break away from the pack, and become a lone wolf. And we're
all the better for it.
Jake Whitney is a freelance writer from New York.
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