Today's Stories

December 27, 2006

Nikolas Kozloff
Saving Caracas

December 26, 2006

Peter Stone Brown
James Brown: Please Don't Go

Tito Tricot
Chile: the Ghosts of Torture

Gary Leupp
Cowboys Differ on Iran Attack: Cheney/Bush vs. the Baker Commission

John V. Walsh
Dershowitz vs. Carter in Beantown: Peace Movement AWOL, Again

Reza Fiyouzat
Red Christmas: Why Santa Was Hot in China This Year

Ron Jacobs
The Golem: a Conversation with Marc Estrin

Website of the Day
JB: Prisoner of Love

December 25, 2006

Saul Landau
A Jeep Trip with Fidel

Lang / McGovern
To Surge or Not to Surge?

Michael Dickinson
Should Stupid Thoughts Be Crimes?: Deny Santa If You Will, But ...

Website of the Day
James Brown, RIP

December 23 / 24, 2006

Marjorie Cohn
What's Going On?

Jeffrey L. Gould
The Capital of Salvadoran Memory: El Mozote After 25 Years

Diane Christian
The Rape of Iraq

William Loren Katz
From the Raid on "Fort Negro" to Iraq: Lessons from the First US Invasion

Greg Moses
This War Can't be Made Right by Winning

M. Shahid Alam
An Islamic Civil War: Chaos by Design?

Fred Gardner
Exposé as Inoculant: HRT, Zyprexa, Lilly and the Press

Dave Lindorff
Crime of the Century

Azmi Bishara
Ways of Denial

Ralph Nader
The BCS: a Monopoly on College Football

Seth Sandronsky
Fiscally Imperiled Social Security?

William Hughes
Cop Assaults Activists at Lockheed Protest

Ron Jacobs
Making Stones Weep

Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to on New Year's Eve

December 22, 2006

David Rosen
Bush's Foreign Sex Policy: Imperialism's Second Front

Christopher Brauchli
When the Secret is the Question: Secret Prisons, Top Secret Interrogations

John Ross
Flashlights in the Tunnel of Hate

J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
Political Sell-Outs in Black and White

Rahul Mahajan
Dennis Kucinich: Maverick or Stalking Horse?

Arthur Neslen
Provoking Civil War in the Occupied Territories

Peter Rost, MD
The Secrets of His Success: Fired Pfizer CEO Walks Away with $198 Million

Website of the Day
10 Ways to Change the World in 2007

December 21, 2006

Rosa Mariam Elizalde
An Interview with Gore Vidal: "I am Jealous of Cuba"

Arundhati Roy
Breaking the News

Brian Cloughley
Poppies Rising: Afghanistan's Drug Catastrophe

Daniel White
Jimmy Carter in Austin: Time to Come Clean on the Shoot Down of That Itavia DC-9

John V. Whitbeck
On Israel's Right to Exist

Sam Smith
Still Smearing Ralph Nader for 2000

Paris Reidhead
GM Ice Cream: Something's Fishy in Your Good Humor Bar

Kevin Wehr
Denying Disaster: Katrina and the Case for Impeachment

Website of the Day
Pesticides and Amphibians: a Vital New Database

December 20, 2006

Gabriel Kolko
Rumsfeld and the American Way of War

Winslow T. Wheeler
The Pentagon Measures the Chaos in Iraq

Tariq Ali
The War is Lost

Saree Makdisi
Israel, Apartheid and Jimmy Carter

Bruce Jackson
Saying "Oh!": John Mohawk and the Power to Make Peace

Dave Lindorff
Democrats Walk Into a Bush Trap on Iraq

Leslie Radford
The Winter Harvest of the South Central Farmers

Dave Jansson
Divided We Stand, United We Fall: Secessionists Confront the Empire

Johnny Barber
Jesus is a Terrorist

Website of the Day
Is It for Freedom?

December 19, 2006

Alexander Cockburn
Democrats Prepare to Fund Longer War

Jonathan Cook
End of the Strongmen

Greg Moses
Globalized Gulag: Palestinian Refugees and Children Held in Hutto, TX Jail

Sean Penn
Georgie, There's a Crowd Downstairs

Dave Lindorff
Innocents Abroad: Cracking Down on Gitmo Detainees Despite Overwhelming Evidence Most Are Not Terrorists

Ralph Nader
Going Postal

Laura Carlsen
Latin America's Pink Tide?

Carlos Villarreal
The Well is Poisoned: Victory Requires an Immediate Pull-Out

Website of the Day
Chuck Spinney on the Pentagon

December 18, 2006

Luis J. Rodriguez
En Lak Ech: Chicanos, Mayans and Mel Gibson

Norman Solomon
Washington Refuses to End the War: Powell, Baker, Hamilton--Thanks for Nothing!

Uri Avnery
Lebanon: War Without a Plan

Ron Jacobs
More Troops, More Body Bags

Phil Gasper
Afghanistan: Bush's Other War Unravels

Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Iran's Elections: The World Isn't Florida and Bush Isn't Its Supreme Leader

William Blum
The United States of Punishment

Jim Goodman
So What's the Big Deal If Wal-Mart Makes a Mistake?

James Brooks
Talking Surge: Let's Kill Some More Before We Go

Maria C. Khoury
Walking Into the Art World: Designing a Palestinian Academy for the Arts

Website of the Day
Got Powell

December 16 / 17, 2006
Weekend Edition

Vijay Prashad
A Perilous Way to Socialism

Saul Landau
Filming Fidel

Anthony Arnove
The US Occupation of Iraq: Act III of a Tragedy of Many Parts

Paul Cantor
The Puppet and the Puppeteer: Pinochet and Kissinger

Annie Nocenti
Baluchistan's Fight: The Khan of Kalat Gathers the Tribes

Nicole Colson
Hard Times on the Killing Floor: Smithfield's Rotten Record

Stephen Gowans
Tehran's Holocaust Conference

Jordan Flaherty
A Catastrophic Failure: Foundations, Nonprofits and the Second Looting of New Orleans

Fred Gardner
Dustin Costa Faces 15 to Life

P. Sainath
There's No Such Thing as a Free Cow

Seth Sandronsky
The Democrats and Social Security: Watch What the Party Says and Does

Nadia Hijab
An AIPAC Shot Across Baker's Bow?

Deb Reich
Dear Santa, (Or Someone): Greetings from the Occupied Holy Lands

Susie Day
Cops Shoot Another Rich White Man!

Albert Wan
Why Does It Take 50 Bullets?

Missy Beattie
Will the Next Leader Stand Up? Please!

Martha Rosenberg
Kicking the Wyeth Habit Saves Women's Lives

Lee Ballinger
The Devil's Highway: Clinton, Border Checkpoints and the Deaths of the Yuma 14

Michael Dickinson
Kingdom of Fear

Jeffrey St. Clair
Live/Evil: Listening to Miles Davis

Poets' Basement
Davies, Buknatski and Ford

Website of the Weekend
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine"

December 15, 2006

Eliza Ernshire
Palestinian "Civil War" and the Israeli Chocolate Ration

Virginia Tilley
What Are You Going to Do Now, Israel?

Mike Ferner
Roll Call for the Choir: If They Vote for War, Occupy 'Em!

John Ross
Mad Mel's Mayan Apocalypse

Fred Wilhelms
The Flip Side of Ahmet Ertegun: Where Did You Get Those Shoes?

Kevin Zeese
Dennis Kucinich's Strange Mission: Can You Be a Real Anti-War Candidate in a Pro-War Party?

David Severn
Social Engineering Begins at Home: Jeffrey Skoll, Billionaire Philantropist

Dave Lindorff
Sen. Tim Johnson Death Watch: Senate Gridlock May Be Best Outcome

Sunsara Taylor
As American as Shopping and Torture

Website of the Day
June 2, 2004: When Iraq Was There For The Looting

December 14, 2006

Jonathan Cook
The Recognition Trap

Riz Khan
An Interview with Jimmy Carter

Jason Hribal
Kasatka, the Sea World Orca

Pennick / Gray
The Plight of Black Farmers: Racism in the US Farm Program

Richard Levins
That Embezzled Anti-Castro Money

Pat Williams
The College Crisis: Universal Access, Student Loan Debts and Pell Grants

Peter Rost, MD
Simply Irresistible: Do Women Prefer Bad Boys?

Website of the Day
The Sound of Rummy

December 13, 2006

Patrick Cockburn
Iraq is Beyond Repair

Greg Moses
The Dixie Chicks Come Home to Roost

Elizabeth Schulte
Hungry for the Holidays

Joshua Frank
Death By Coke

Debra Eschmeyer
Corporations Control Your Dinner

Leon Hadar
Baker's Rescue Mission: Too Little, Too Late

Peter Rost, MD
I've Been a Very Bad Boy

Margaret Knapke
Mow bé and Malachi, Presenté!

Reza Fiyouzat
Are Cows Free?

Fred Wilhelms
A Last Minute Appeal: If You Know One of These Musicians Let Them Know They Are Owed Money--By Friday!

Website of the Day
The Crimes of Augusto Pinochet

December 12, 2006

Fernando A. Torres
The Last Man of the Junta: an Open Letter to Kissinger from One of Pinochet's Political Prisoners

Paul Craig Roberts
America's Injustice System is Criminal

Stephen Soldz
Abusive Interrogations

Uri Avnery
Baker's Cake

William S. Lind
Knocking Opportunity: From Vulcans to Vultures in Iraq

Missy Beattie
Convicted for Our Convictions: Trespassing for Truth at the UN

Dave Lindorff
The 35-Year Long Scream: Torture, Impeachment and a Vietnam Vet's Tears

George Pyle
Our Perverse Farm Plan: Where Christmas Comes Every Five Years

Norman Solomon
Is the USA the Center of the World?

Website of the Day
Citizens' War Tribunal

December 11, 2006

Virginia Tilley
Banning Mandela

Roger Burbach
The Condor Model: the Atrocities of Pinochet and the US

Col. Douglas MacGregor
There's Only One Option Left: Leave!

Fawwas Traboulsi
Lebanon on the Brink

Ron Jacobs
Death of a Pig: Poetic Justice for Pinochet

Gideon Levy
The Cruel Line into Gaza: Elbow to Elbow, Like Cattle

Mary McGrane
Burning Books at Harvard Law

Bernardo Ruiz
The Disappeared of Oaxaca: a Message from One of the Actors in Apocalypto

Website of the Day
La Cancion de la Unidad

Video of the Day
Killing Castro: Congresswoman as Contract Killer?

December 9 / 10, 2006
Weekend Edition

Alexander Cockburn
Liberal Consensus for More Troops in Iraq

Sen. Gordon Smith
Out of Iraq: Cut and Run or Cut and Walk

Greg Grandin
Jeane Kirkpatrick, Mid-Wife of the Neo-Cons

Paul Craig Roberts
How Many More Will Die for Bush's Ego?

Col. Dan Smith
The Vietnamization of Iraq: Inside the Military Training Program

Ralph Nader
The Man from NAM: John Engler's Trail of Destruction

Behrooz Ghamari
The Donkey and the Date: Iran's Upcoming Municipal Elections

Rev. Willliam Alberts
Doing Unto Others: Pastor Haggard and President Bush

James T. Phillips
The James Gang: "Did You Kill Her?"

Bennis / Leaver
A Bi-Partisan Occupation

Dave Lindorff
A Congress of Hucksters and Pipsqueaks

Nikolas Kozloff
Robert Gates and Venezuela: Another Saber Rattler in Latin America

Seth Sandronsky
Activating White Racism

Lucinda Marshall
McKinney and Karpinsky: Silenced for Telling the Truth

Mike Whitney
Something's Gotta Give: James Baker vs. the Lobby

John V. Whitbeck
Recommendation No. 80

Faisal Kutty
Is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Merely a Western Construct?

Hugh Sansom
Smearing Jimmy Carter: an Open Letter to the New York Times

Robert Gold
My South American Journey: Impunity in Colombia

Boots Riley
Crash and Burn: an Urgent Message from The Coup

Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week

Poets' Basement
Engel & Buknatski

Website of the Weekend
Alive in Mexico

December 8, 2006

Patrick Cockburn
The Iraq Study Group's Cautious Appraisal

Leutisha Stills
Just How Progressive is the Congressional Black Caucus?

Norman Finkelstein
The Media Lynching of Jimmy Carter

Will Youmans
Mr. Lieberman Comes to Washington: Brookings Hosts an Ethnic Cleanser

Peter Rost, MD
What Went Wrong at Pfizer?

Jonathan Demme
My Friend Bruce Langhorne: a Great Musician Needs Your Help!

Ray McGovern
Senate Democrats Give Gates a Free Pass

Lucinda Marshall
What She Wore

Tariq Ali / Robin Blackburn
The Lost John Lennon Interview

Website of the Day
John Lennon's FBI Files

December 7, 2006

Alex Friedman
Rev. Phelps' Hate-Fueled Fanatics Find a Home in the Kansas Prison Industry

Maureen Webb
Risk Scoring and the National Insecurity State

Paul Craig Roberts
Catastrophe Still Awaits

Dave Lindorff
Prosecutor Admits: Mumia Abu-Jamal Had "No True Defense"

Matt Vidal
Drug Pushers, Inc.: Power and Profit in the Legal Drug Trade

Yifat Susskind
Looking for a Few Good Principles: What Should be Done in Iraq

Rodriguez / Jones
NYPD's Death Squads: From Diallo to Sean Bell

Website of the Day
2006, Remixed

December 6, 2006

Robert Bryce
Omitting the Obvious with James Baker: From the S&L Crisis to the Iraq Study Group

William S. Lind
The Boomerang Effect: When Will the First IED Strike Cincy?

Zoe Blunt
The Clearcut Truth About the Great Bear Rainforest

Corporate Crime Reporter
The New Conventional Wisdom: Prosecute Individuals, Not Corporations

Amira Hass
A Regrettable Indifference: Israel's Treatment of Palestinian Prisoners

Richard W. Behan
The Surreal Politics of Premeditated War

Sophie McNeill
Why Hezbollah is Broadcasting Sunday Mass

December 5, 2006

Virginia Tilley
Apartheid Israel: a Beacon of Hope?

Sharon Smith
The New Washington Consensus: Blame the Victims in Iraq

Joe Bageant
Somewhere a Banker Smiles

Ron Jacobs
A War Washington Can't Win

Norman Solomon
Media Consensus, Stay in Iraq!

Mike Whitney
Rumsfeld's Final Snowflake: "I Was Just About to Change Everything ... "

Derrick O'Keefe
Regimes Unchanged: Chavez's Victory Strengthen's Cuba

Julian Assange
The Road to Hanoi

Missy Beattie
Bush, the Unhappy Helmsman

Website of the Day
Lessons of Suez and Iraq

December 4, 2006

Alexander Cockburn
Gaza and Darfur

George Ciccariello-Maher
Tears of the Escualidos: Election Diary, Venezuela

Ray McGovern
Lame Ducks, Hold That Nomination!: a CIA Insider's Take on Gates

John Ross
Repression on the Menu in Mexico

Walden Bello
Hurricane Milton: Friedman, Bayonets and Markets

Peter Rost, MD
Pfizer's Clueless Executives

Stephen Lendman
The Withering of the Bush Dynasty

Gideon Levy
This Ceasefire will Go Up in Flames

Website of the Day
The "Babes" of Hizbullah?

December 2 / 3, 2006
Weekend Edition

Barucha Calamity Peller
The Dirty War of Oaxaca

Paul Craig Roberts
Is Bush Sane?: When Denial Goes Pathological

Ralph Nader
The Big Boys of Financial Crime

Winslow T. Wheeler
Committee of Enablers: Is Gates Fit to Serve? Are the Senators?

Amira Hass
The Checkpoint Generation

Maymanah Farhat
Depoliticizing Arab Art: Christie's and the Rush to "Discover" the Arab World

Dave Lindorff
Fighting the Iraq War--At Home

Fred Gardner
Dr. Jimenez Defends His Practice Methods

Col. Dan Smith
The Semantics of Civil War

Raed Jarrar
Maliki's Monopoly of Power

Seth Sandronsky
US Prison Nation: Locking Up Surplus Labor

K.-Y. Taylor
The Bride Wore Black: the Shooting of Sean Bell and the Resurgence of American Racism

Yifat Susskind
Greed, Dogma and AIDS

David Rosen
Made in China: the Global Trade in Sex Toys

Ron Jacobs
All Hands on Deck!: the New Pirates of the Caribbean

Nikolas Kozloff
Venezuela Prepares to Vote

Talli Nauman
Fighting La Choya: the Secret Toxic Dump on the Border

Alan Gregory
Shadow Trout: Why Hatchery Fish Aren't Real

Joe Allen
RFK and Hollywood Mythmaking: Emilio Estevez's Beatification of Bobby Kennedy

St. Clair / D'Antoni
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week

Poets' Basement
Davies, Engel, Ford and Orloski

Website of the Day
Demo for Oaxaca

December 1, 2006

Greg Grandin
Midnight in Mexico: Calderón's Inauguration Behind Closed Doors

Linn Washington, Jr.
The Mumia Case After 25 Years: Still More Keystone Kops Antics

George Ciccariello-Maher
Sleeping with the Enemy: At Home with the Anti-Chavistas

Brian J. Foley
Taking Responsibility for Iraq

Dave Zirin
Rebel Athletes: Organizing the Jocks for Justice

Joshua Frank
The Montana Formula: Jon Tester's Neopopulism

Chris Floyd
Hideous Kinky: Thomas Friedman Comes Undone

Ingmar Lee
Atomic Porker Strikes Indian Point Nuke Plant

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Dark Fire: the Fall of WTC 7

Website of the Day
No Gun Ri Revisited

Video of the Day
Drunken Hack Goes Ape at Aussie "Pulitzers"

November 30, 2006

Jonathan Cook
Palestinians Are Being Denied the Right of Non-Violent Resistance

Tariq Ali
Axis of Hope: Venezuela and the Bolivarian Dream

Winslow T. Wheeler
Confirmation Hearings as Kabuki Dance

Manuel Garcia, Jr
Heat and Steel: the Thermodynamics of 9/11

William S. Lind
More Troops Into a Lost War?

Ray McGovern
Gates is Rumsfeld Lite

Fidel Castro
"It is Our Duty to Save Our Species"

Agustin Velloso
Equatorial Guinea: So Close to the West, So Far From Democracy

CP News Service
The Arrest of Gerardo Bonilla: Muralist Among Oaxaca's Disappeared

Website of the Day
The Life and Times of H-Bomb Ferguson

November 29, 2006

Glen Ford
Barack Obama and the Winds of War

Chris Sands
Blood, Snow and NATO: the Latvian Summit Viewed from Afghanistan

Rochelle Gause
Dispatch from Oaxaca: Where Murderers Still Stalk the Streets, Protected by Police

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
The Physics of 9/11

Norman Finkelstein
HRW's Shameful Press Release on Palestine

Peter Rost, MD
Pfizer's Shell Game: the Contraction Begins

Gary Leupp
CIA Report: No Evidence of Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program

Joe DeRaymond
From Norman Morrison to Malachai Ritscher: Self-Immolation as Anti-War Protest

Christopher Fons
Prostituting Democracy: History, Latvia and Bush's Night on the Town in Riga

Sibel Edmonds
Auctioning Off Former Statesmen and Dime-a-Dozen Generals

Website of the Day
Bombing a Mosque

November 28, 2006

Patrick Cockburn
Iraq Nears the "Saigon Moment"

Winslow T. Wheeler
SASC-ing Robert Gates

Michael Ratner
The War Crimes Case Against Rumsfeld: a Q&A

John Ross
The War on Rebel Journalists

Molly Secours
Racism Kills: From Michael Richards to the NYPD

Peter Rost, MD
Big Pharma and "the Pill": Profits, Branding and Experimentation on Women

Lucinda Marshall
War Chic

Website of the Day
"Action" in Iraq

November 27, 2006

Kathleen and Bill Christison
Genocide or Erasure of Palestinians: Does It Matter What You Call It?

Uri Avnery
An Evening in Jounieh

Nikolas Kozloff
The Rise of Rafael Correa: Ecuador and the Contradictions of Chavismo

Michael Donnelly
Freedom Air: Keeping the Skies Safe from Nipples and Muslims

Ben Terrall / John Miller
Bush's Big Indonesian Photo-Op

Robert Jensen
Digging In and Digging Deep

Sol Littman
Missing Canada's Health Care System in Tucson

Website of the Day
State Minimum Wages: a Policy That Works

November 25 / 26, 2006

Gabriel Kolko
Factors in Our Colossal Mess

Saul Landau
Republic of the Repressed

William Blum
New Congress, Same Quagmire

Ralph Nader
The Trouble with the Bubble

Fred Gardner
The War on Us: Another 1.9 Million Victims

Daniel Wolff
Return to District 8, New Orleans

M. Shahid Alam
Pitting the West Against Islam

James J. Brittain
Censorship in Colombia: the Arrest of Freddie Muñoz

George Ciccariello-Maher Contingency and Counter-Contingency in Venezuela

Aseem Shrivastava
India on 20 Cents a Day

Seth Sandronsky
The Washington Post's War on Social Security

Julian Assange
The Curious Origins of Political Hacktivism

Christopher Brauchli
The Rout and the Honeymoon: In and Out of Bed with Bush

Michele Naar-Obed
A Letter to the Judge Who Sentenced My Husband to Federal Prison for Protesting Nuclear Weapons

Ramzy Baroud
Reclaiming America

Christiane Passevant /
Larry Portis
Women in the Israeli Army: Two New Films

Adam Engel
Striving of His Day-Days: a Prose Poem

Jeffrey St. Clair /
David Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week

Poets' Basement
Davies, Gibbons, Louise, Buknatski, Orloski

Website of the Weekend
The Black Agenda

November 24, 2006

Charles Glass
How to Let Lebanon Live

Gideon Levy
A Prayer in Paradise

Jonathan Cook
Syria as Fallguy

Ron Jacobs
Build a Fire on Main Street: Stop the War, Now!

Brian McKenna
Native Resurgence Spurs Hope: Giving Thanks to America's Indians

Kim Ives
The UN Fails Haiti, Again

November 23, 2006

Alexander Cockburn
The Democrats and the Slaughterhouse

November 22, 2006

Kathleen Christison
The Massacre at Beit Hanoun

Paul Craig Roberts
Bush's Lone Victory: Defeating the Bill of Rights

Mike Roselle
Green Muscle on Election Day: Now is the Time for Boldness

Dave Lindorff
The First Task of the New Congress

Greg Moses
Up From Chiapas: Giving Thanks to Women's Revolution

Dave Zirin
Born Under Punches: the Pimping of Mike Tyson

Nadia Martinez
Dealing with Ortega

Sherwood Ross
Why the World Needs Trade Unions Now More Than Ever

David Kalbfeisch
I Am A Navy Veteran Against Wars

Gilad Atzmon
Palestinian Solidarity in a Time of Massacres

Website of the Day
Sorry, Charlie: No Draft

November 21, 2006

Robert Bryce
The Ongoing Myth of Energy Independence

John V. Walsh
Spoilers of the World Unite!

Luis Hernandez Navarro
Lessons from the Teachers of Oaxaca

Kevin Zeese
An Interview with Michael Isikoff on Iraq

Peter Rost, MD
Rules of the Game: How Big Corporations Avoid Paying Their Taxes

Evelyn Pringle
Drug Your Fetus: How Big Pharma Hits on Pregnant Women

Roger Morris
Reason in an Age of Folly (and Felony)

Don Monkerud
Here Come the Democrats ... So?

Website of the Day
The Grind

November 20, 2006

David H. Price
American Anthropologists Stand Up Against Torture and the Occupation of Iraq

Col. Dan Smith
Usurpation of Power

Katherine Hughes
Compassion on Trial in War on Terror: Muslim Charities and the Case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir

Dave Himmelstein
Ziodammerung: Netanyahu and the End Times

Robert Jensen
Opportunities Lost

Joe Mowrey
America's Progressive Nightmare: Here Come the Armani Democrats

Mike Whitney
Housing Bubble Smack Down: Alan Greenspan, Homewrecker

Carl N. McDaniel
Living Within Limits

Robert Fisk
Shia Walk

Ramzy Baroud
Killing Hope in Beit Hanoun

Website of the Day
Iraq: the Hidden Story

November 18 / 19, 2006
Weekend Edition

Alexander Cockburn
Top Dems to Voters: "Shut Up! We've Got a War to Run!"

Ralph Nader
The Hole in Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Lost the Senate

Barucha Calamity Peller
Who Will Live on in the Oaxaca Uprising?

John Ross
Halliburton Wrecks Mexico

Dave Lindorff
The Albatross: Why the Democrats Should Cut Loose Joe Lieberman

Fred Gardner
The Adverse Effects of Marijuana: California Medical Survey

Ron Jacobs
Back in the Aether Again: Thomas Pynchon's Stunning Return

Larry Portis
The Songs of Basilio Martin Patino: Father of the New Spanish Cinema

Frida Berrigan
The Weapons Bonanza: a Perfect Storm of Profit

Wes Enzinna
Ghosts of Dictatorships Past: the School of the America's and Memory in Latin America

Elizabeth Schulte
The Fall of Donald Rumsfeld: Architect of a Disaster

Peter Rost, MD
The Credit Card Trap

Martha Rosenberg
We're Drinking What? Milk, rBST and Monsanto's Rats

Seth Sandronsky
University Unity: California's Professors and Students Unite

Missy Beattie
Explore This!

Adam Engel
Data Days

Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week

Poets' Basement
Newberry and Curtis

Website of the Weekend
A Modest Proposal for the Art World

November 17, 2006

Greg Grandin
The Road from Serfdom: Milton Friedman and the Economics of Empire

Joseph Massad
Pinochet in Palestine: Fateh's Unholy Alliance

Kevin Zeese
George McGovern's Return to Capitol Hill: "A Down-to-Earth Disengagement Plan"

Gideon Levy
After the Rain of Death

Bill Quigley
WMDs Protected!: Blood-Pouring Anti-Nuke Clowns Sent to Prison

David Swanson
Last Chance for the Democrats?: a Tale of Two Conyers

Sherry Wolf
Gay Rights: When Will the US Catch Up with Africa?

Jerry Beisler
What James Webb Knows

Website of the Day
Thanks for the False Memories!

November 16, 2006

Kathy Kelly
Sources of Violence

Col. Douglas MacGregor
Was It Only Rumsfeld?

Norman Solomon
Operation Last Resort: the Media Offensive to Prolong the Iraq War

Nikki Thanos
From Oaxaca to Portland

Cindy Sheehan
Impeachment Proceedings

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Jimmy Carter and the "A" Word: Will the Democrats Listen to Carter on Palestine?

Gloria La Riva
Where is the Justice? Anti-Castro Terrorist Gets Only 4 Years

Pat Williams
How the Democrats Won the West

Kerry Joyce
From Rummy to Rahmmy: Bob Novak's New Source

CP News Service
Wal-Mart Charged with Selling Non-Organic Food as "Organic"

David Letterman
Top 10 Slogans for Wal-Mart Wine

James Ridgeway
Did Robert Gates' Planning Help Bring Black Hawk Down?

Website of the Day
A Conversation with West Point Grads Against the War

November 15, 2006

Jennifer Loewenstein
Alice in Erez: the Gaza Crossing

David Rosen
Rev. Ted Haggard and the Eclipse of Evangelical Fury

Ashley Smith
A Socialist in the Senate?

Landau / Hassen
Talking Tough on Iraq Isn't Courageous

Walden Bello
Iraq After November 7: New Challenges for the AntiWar Movement

Sibel Edmonds
The Highjacking of a Nation

Austin / Bernstein
Why Bill Cosby is Wrong to Link Black Culture to Economic Decline

Yitzhak Laor
This Merchandise, Security

James Rothenberg
Unimpeachable: a Brief Argument Why

Gail Dines
"Borat": It's a Guy Thing

Website of the Day
Kakistocracy

November 14, 2006

Werther
Beltway Bromo-Seltzer: a Sneak Peak at the Baker Report

Ray McGovern
Benching Scowcroft

John Walsh
Korea, Vietnam and Iraq Syndrome: Alive, Well and Gaining Strength

David MacMichael
Gates to the Pentagon

William S. Lind
Lose a War, Lose an Election

Sharon Smith
Democrats, Born to Compromise

Laura Carlsen
Oaxaca Fights Back

Ron Jacobs
The Perishing Republic

Peter Rost, MD
Whistleblowers: Who Are They?

Carol Norris
Post-Campaign Ad Stress Disorder?

Website of the Day
A Map of the US Nuclear Arsenal

November 13, 2006

Kathleen and Bill Christison
Screw the Palestinians, Full Steam Ahead

Bill Quigley
Robin Hood in Reverse: the Corporate Looting of the Gulf Coast

Paul Craig Roberts
The Democrats and Civil Liberties: Will They Turn a Blind Eye?

Uri Avnery
Call It What It Is: a Massacre!

Joe DeRaymond
The Strange Return of Daniel Ortega

Norman Finkelstein
Jimmy Carter's Roadmap

Col. Dan Smith
The Pentagon's Revolving Gates: Out with the Old, In with the Old

Shepherd Bliss
After the Party

Dave Lindorff
What Vote-Theft Conspiracy?

Missy Beattie
For Better / For Worse: Will Laura Stay the Course?

Trenticosta / Fleming
Vindication for the Angola 3

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December 27, 2006

Iraqis By the Numbers

Is There a Sunni Majority in Iraq?

By FARUQ ZIADA

The United States based its policy on Iraq on two primary so-called facts:

1. The Sunnis are a 20 % minority.

2. The Sunni minority and Saddam Hussein ruled the Shiite majority in Iraq.

Thus, the U.S. Iraq policy -- as set by the Bush Administration, and the Neoconservatives--both before and after the 2003 war and occupation, was based on this false premise. Because of this, the Sunnis were marginalized and power was handed over to the Shiite religious parties and Kurdish parties by the occupation force CPA, Ambassador Bremer, and later Ambassador Negroponte.

Based on this false premise, the U.S. policy failed miserably. Still, the Bush Administration continued and still is continuing this policy. Bush called it "Stay the course"

For this reason, and to bring to light information that should help inform a new policy, it is of the utmost importance to correct this fallacy. We need to put the facts in front of all who will try to correct the course, find the correct necessary policies to end the bloodshed, and end the catastrophe that has befallen Iraq.

The Correct Percentages of Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs, and Kurds

The actual, real percentages of various groups in Iraq is outlined below. Statistics come from the Al- Quds Press Research Center, London Study (www.qudspress.com) and, with reference to the map on the distribution of religious groups, from the Baker--Hamilton Committee report page, 102).

As Nationalities
Arabs 82 - 84%
Kurds, Turks, etc. 16 - 18%

Religions
Moslems 95 - 98%
Christians and others 2 - 5%

Moslem Sects
Sunnis 60 - 62%
Sunni Arabs 42 - 44%
Sunni Kurds and Turks 16 - 18%
Shiites 38 - 40%
Shiite Kurds and Turks 2 - 4%
Percentage of Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs, and Kurds

The Election of January 31,2005

The results of the elections on January 31, 2005 provide a very clear indication of Sunni majority and Shiite minority. For instance:

The majority of Sunnis boycotted the elections. Those who voted gave their votes to the slates of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, or Adnan Al- Pachachi, or to the Royalist.

All the Shiite parties or groups united on one slate, the Unified Iraqi Coalition.

Ayatollah Al-Sistani and all other Shiite religious leaders issued an edict (fatwah) that Shiites must vote and must vote for the Shiite slate. The edict also stated that if a married man or woman did not vote, they would no longer be legally considered husband and wife.

The media showed long lines of women in southern Iraq, waiting to vote, just as they depicted ill people in wheel chairs being pushed to the election boxes.

The Coalition Provisional Authority (the U.S.) and the Elections Committee claimed that 95% of Shiites participated in the vote.

The CPA gave its full backing to the elections. President Bush hailed the elections as one of the greatest events in Middle East history, a great democratic achievement.

However, the election results were a fiasco and a big scandal for all those who participated in the elections. The results were delayed for more than five weeks, during which time the United States and the Shiite filled the media with daily statements about how fantastic they were and how the Shiites had won more than two-thirds of the seats.

Using convoluted logic, some attempted to use this to prove the Shiites accounted for more than 60 % of the population.

The Results of the January 31 Election

According to the official Election Committee, the numbers involved in the 2005 voting are as follows:

Iraqis eligible to vote 15,450,000

Iraqis inside Iraq 14,200,000

Iraqis outside Iraq 1,250,000

In addition, the following numbers were provided:

Iraqis (Shiites, Kurds, and a few Sunnis) who participated in the vote = 8,456,266, or 54 %

Iraqis who boycotted, primarily Sunnis = 6,693,734, or 46 %

It should be noted that Iraq was considered as one electoral unit. Therefore, a Shiite voting for the Shiite slate in the Arab areas, governates, the Kurdish area, or abroad will be counted for the Shiite slate.. The same for the Kurds etc. The Kurdish votes in Baghdad (more than a million) went for the Kurdish slate etc.

The Vote for the Slates: Total Votes % of Eligible Voters
Unified Iraqi Slate (Shiite/ Sistani) 4,075,295 26.3 %
The Kurdish Slate 2,175,551 14.0 %
Iraqiyah Slate (PM Ayad Allawi) 1,168,943 7.5 %
Iraqiyon (President Ghazi Al-Yawer) 150,650 0.9 %
The Communist Party 69,920
Adnan Al-Pachachi Slate 23,302
The Royalists (Shareef Ali) 13,740

It is worth noting here that the Kurdish provisional government announced that 98% of Kurds participated in the voting and that the Shiite leadership announced that 95% of Shiites voted in the election.

The Elections of the Council of Representatives, December 15,2005

The election of the Council of Representatives (present Parliament) was on December 15, 2005. Shiites and Kurds participated in the elections overwhelmingly.

However, Sunnis who supported the Muslim Scholars Association boycotted the elections. Sunnis who participated were the supporters of:

The Islamic Party (present Vice President Tariq Al-Hashimi)

The Hiwar National Iraqi Front (Dr. Saleh Al- Mutlaq)

Those who voted for National Iraqi List (ex- Prime Minister Ayad Allawi).

The Results of the Elections of the Council of Representatives

We shall concentrate only on the Shiites to show once again that they are the MINORITY in Iraq, based on the official final report of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (www.ieciraq.gov) issued on February 10, 2006.

The number of eligible voters 15,568,702

The number participating in the vote 11,895,756

The number voting for the Unified Iraqi Coalition 5,021,137

The Shiite Bloc
Percentage of eligible voters 32.2 %
Percentage of those who voted 42.2 %

The announcement of the results of the elections were delayed for nearly two months (the elections were held on December 15, 2005, and the results were announced on February 10, 2006), because of accusations of mass forgery in the Shiite governates; the militias took over the ballot boxes and filled them with ballots. All other parties threatened that they would boycott the new Council of Representatives if the situation was not rectified.

Under this pressure, an International Investigation Committee was set up jointly by the United Nations and the Arab League to check the accusations. The Committee came under open threats from the Shiite parties (SCIRI of Abdul Aziz Al- Hakeem, and Al-Dawah of Al-Maliki). The Committee was also under pressure from the Bush administration, which was desperate to have the election results announced, to demonstrate that the democratic process was on track.

Under these threats the Committee had to announce its findings from Amman, Jordan.

The Committee announced that there were grave violations committed in the Shiite governates, but also said it could not determine who committed them. The U.S. then pressured the parties contesting the election results to accept them, promising that it would exert pressure on the Shiite coalition to accept changes in the Constitution, etc. The protesting parties then acquiesced to the U.S. pressures and the results were finally announced nearly two months after the elections.

Conclusion

With the full backing of Shiite religious leaders and all efforts by the Shiite political parties, groups and factions, regardless of whether they were religious or liberal (Ahmed Al-Chalabi), and uniting under one banner (Shiite), the numbers that the Shiites could muster were meager. It can be clearly seen that they are a minority in Iraq, and not a majority:

They received 26.3 % of the votes of eligible voters in the January 31 2005 elections.

They received 32.2% of the votes of eligible voters (regardless of all election violations, forgeries and filled ballots boxes) in the December 15, 2005 elections

Therefore, one of the main reasons for the drastic failure of U.S. policy in Iraq must be attributed to the reliance on the false premise that the Sunnis are a minority and the Shiites are a majority in Iraq. It is very clear from the official numbers taken from the results of the elections of January 31, 2005, and December 15, 2005, that: the Sunnis are 60--62 % of the population of Iraq (42-44% Arab, and 16-18% Kurd and Turk Iraqis), and only 38--40 % are Shiites.

Faruq Ziada served as an ambassador in Iraq's Foreign Ministry from 1992 to 2000.

Written in collaboration with Jennifer Hicks