Selves and Others

Editor’s Note: President Bush promised a "modern, maximum-security prison" in Iraq — and the destruction of the notorious Abu Ghraib complex — as a way of giving Iraq a more humane prison system. But so-called "supermax" prisons in the United States are far from humane, the writer says.

To: Marc Racicot, Chairman, Bush-Cheney ’04

Thanks for including me on your mailing list. I’m very interested in mass communications, and I realize that millions of people have also received the same piece of direct mail this spring. So I was impressed by the personal touch at the top of your letter — where it says "Dear Friend" but a line is drawn through "Friend" and hand-lettering says "Norman."

Since we’re already on a first-name basis, Marc, here are some thoughts in response to your letter:

* "Will you become one of the first to join the Bush-Cheney ’04 Team as a Charter Member in California? I would be thrilled to tell the President you are with us."

Marc, why does your pitch letter’s first paragraph set a tone that treats voting-age recipients like gullible children? What adult is supposed to believe that a $100 or $1,000 check would thrill you enough to share your excitement with the president? (...)

Common Dreams is a wonderful resource for progressives. I am, nevertheless, occasionally surprised by what the editors of Common Dreams deem progressive content. (...)

Here’s a rock-solid truth that our culture tries to deny: we don’t choose the people we love.

Despite what we’re shown on television shows like HBO’s "Sex and the City," UPN’s "Girlfriends" and NBC’s "Friends" - an endless series of overly picky dating rituals designed to help us find "the right one," - much less the angry posters carried by homophobes in the streets, the truth is that few of us can explain how we ended up loving the one we’re with.

We may pine for the tall, dark and good-looking investment banker (of either sex) who drives the splashy car, we may chase after free love until we discover how expensive it really is, but who we end up loving is usually a big surprise.

The truth is, we have no power over love. As Bob Dylan recognized, "It falls on strangers, travels free." Love chooses us. And woe to those who mess with it - they learn love’s real power. (...)

The most striking element of President George W. Bush’s May 24 speech to the nation regarding the situation in Iraq was that it could come across as quite convincing as long as you agreed with the following assumptions:

* Only the continued U.S. military presence in Iraq would lead to “The rise of a free and self-governing Iraq.”

* Conversely, if the U.S. forces withdrew, either unilaterally or as part of a transfer to United Nations authority, the result would be a totalitarian government which would “embolden the terrorists, leading to more bombings, more beheadings and more murders of the innocent around the world.”

Such assumptions, however, are extremely dubious. (...)

Of course there are good soldiers out there. But, says Corn, the "few rotten apples" theory seems to be falling apart as patterns of abuse emerge. Is Abu Ghraib an exception or is this what war and occupation are all about?

The new U.S.-British drafted Security Council resolution is a scam. Under cover of a "transfer of sovereignty," it seeks to have the United Nations give the United States legal authority to continue the occupation indefinitely.

You wouldn’t know that listening to Bush or from following most media but it’s there in black and white in the text of the draft resolution. (...)

In the aftermath of last week’s raid by Iraqi’s police and US forces on the elegant Baghdad mansion currently inhabited by Ahmad Chalabi (it actually belongs to his sister), his angry spokesman cited as evidence of the intruders’ barbarity the fact that they seized "even his holy Koran - his personal holy Koran was taken as a document". (...)

On May 18, John Philo and I sent a letter to Congressman John Conyers, asking that he begin the process of seeking appointment of a special counsel to investigate the top figures in the Bush/Cheney Administration, as well as a few of their most notorious co-conspirators, for war crimes, conspiracy, and cover-up. Specifically, we suggested that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Stephen Cambone, Douglas Feith, Lewis Libbey, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, Michael Ledeen, James Woolsey, Newt Gingrich, and John Ashcroft should be investigated.

At least two out of the many Internet responses to this modest proposal should be shared here. One writer suggested that we add Tony Blair and Ariel Sharon to the list. And a Canadian correspondent, who will remain unnamed, but who admits to the questionable personal information of being a Calgary Flames professional hockey fan, cited the letter to Congressman Conyers as proof that "not all Americans are morons." (...)

In a new book, well known theologian David Ray Griffin, alleges the Pentagon may have been hit by a missile on Sept. 11 and that the Twin Towers collapsed from a controlled explosion. The book has been hailed by many who question the official record of what happened on Sept. 11. But Chip Berlet of the Public Research Associates, who has studied conspiracy theory movements, charges Griffin’s book doesn’t hold up because it is based on faulty premises and unreliable sources. Today we have a debate on the book and what happened on 9/11.

[Comments on this debate]

Former CIA analyst and retired University of California professor Chalmers Johnson examines the concept of blowback — the unintended costs and consequences of American imperialism and how it is connected to the Sept. 11 attacks.

In our new book The Exception To the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers and the Media That Love Them we titled one chapter "The Lies of the Times" to examine how The New York Times coverage on Iraq and its alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction helped lead the country to war. Today, The New York Times, for the first time, raised questions about its own coverage in an 1,100-word editor’s note. Here is an excerpt from our section of the book on the New York Times and Iraq.

As many as nine peaceful demonstrators were killed in Haiti on May 18th, as tens of thousands of people took to the streets despite the risk [and reality] of violent repression by international forces and a militarized Haitian police force. These demonstrators were calling for and end to the illegal occupation by US, Canadian and French forces, and for the return of overthrown leader, President Jean Bertrand Aristide. [see: http://www.haitiaction.net]

The mainstream media has already done its best to cover this up, which isn’t difficult considering that most corporations no longer have "journalists" covering Haiti, save for AP, Reuters, and the Miami Herald, and that their readership has not been privy to scarcely any of the realities in Haiti for eons. (...)

Tony Blair jumped the gun yesterday when he unequivocally promised that the new government in Baghdad will be able to exercise a veto over controversial US-led military operations after the handover of sovereignty on June 30. (...) [page 1 | News]

Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi leader accused by the CIA of passing US secrets to Tehran, claimed to have close links with Iranian intelligence seven years ago, according to a former UN weapons inspector. (...) [page 4 | News]

in Baghdad

Washington is to replace its most senior general in Iraq, Ricardo Sanchez, after he came under intense political pressure to explain the prison abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib. (...) [page 4 | News]

A leading British engineering company, which now boasts a BBC governor and the former Nato secretary general, Lord Robertson, on its board, has been identified by US investigators as one of hundreds of firms alleged to have agreed to pay illicit kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime. (...) [page 4 | News]

The occupation of Iraq has provided a "potent global recruitment pretext" for al-Qaida and probably increased worldwide terrorism, a leading thinktank said yesterday.

Despite some losses, al-Qaida has more than 18,000 potential terrorists at large and its ranks are growing, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said, adding that al-Qaida now had a presence in more than 60 countries. (...) [page 4 | News]

The Sudanese government and rebels in the south have resolved obstacles in their peace talks and are expected to sign an accord today paving the way for an end to 21 years of civil war which has claimed 2 million lives. (...) [ page 13 | International]

in Rafah

Analysis

Rafah’s residents are inclined to take Israel’s military at its word when it says the assault on the town and refugee camp is not over and the army is just "taking a deep breath".

But beyond that there is little agreement over Operation Rainbow, which has shuddered to a halt short of its original aims. (...) [page 14 | International]

in Jerusalem

The graffiti artists have barely begun. There are a few slogans sprayed in red or black on the tall slabs of grey concrete - "Welcome to the Ghetto" and the like - but the elaborate murals and lurid colours of the Berlin wall or Belfast peace line are yet to appear. This wall is too new for that. (...) [page 21 | Comment]

President Bush’s major Iraq policy address on Monday night seemed a recitation of earlier themes, but towards the end there was something new: Abu Ghraib prison was to be razed. There was "disgraceful conduct [there] by a few American troops who dishonoured our country and disregarded our values". Antennas went up to hear more about how the president might address continuing revelations of US torture and bestial treatment of Iraqis that have shredded American standing around the world. There was nothing. (...) [page 21 | Comment]

The allegation that the United States was duped by Iranian intelligence, operating through the Pentagon’s client Ahmad Chalabi, into removing Saddam Hussein, is an intriguing one. The CIA apparently has "hard evidence" that Chalabi’s intelligence chief Aras Karim Habib was an Iranian double agent. (...) [page 22 | Comment]

Iraq

United Nations resolutions on Iraq have a habit of turning into drama, as both George Bush and Tony Blair know well. The latest one, which their two governments produced on Monday, is no exception. In Iraq and the Arab world, as well as in France and Russia - the two council members which gave Washington so much difficulty last year - scepticism is the dominant note. (...) [page 23 | Comment]

Pakistan was readmitted to the Commonwealth on Saturday after a four-and-a-half-year suspension. The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) announced its decision on the condition that the offices of president and chief of army staff are separated. The Pakistani government hailed the decision as a "political and moral victory", and President Pervez Musharraf promised to relinquish his role as the head of the army in December. (...) [page 24 | The Editor]

It is one of the paradoxes of Michael Moore’s career that by railing against the vested interests that make the rich richer, he has himself become incredibly wealthy. So when he became one of the handful of Americans to benefit substantially from George Bush’s tax cut last year, he said it would be "a sin" to use the money in any way other than to defeat the very man who had given it to him in the first place. (...) [pages 10 - 11 | G2 features]

In the aftermath of last week’s raid by Iraqi’s police and US forces on the elegant Baghdad mansion currently inhabited by Ahmad Chalabi (it actually belongs to his sister), his angry spokesman cited as evidence of the intruders’ barbarity the fact that they seized "even his holy Koran - his personal holy Koran was taken as a document". (...) [pages 2 - 3 | G2 features]

Tony Blair called yesterday for a "real and genuine" transfer of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government as he put pressure on the Bush administration to allow the Iraqis a veto over the allies’ military operations.

His comments appeared to open up an immediate ­ and rare ­ public disagreement with America as Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, insisted that its forces will remain under American control. Asked if the new government could veto a US operation, General Powell told a news conference with the Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel: "Obviously, we would take into account whatever they might say at a political and military level. (...)

The US and British occupation of Iraq has accelerated recruitment to the ranks of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network and made the world a less safe place, according to a leading London-based think-tank. (...)

Hours after setting out his goals for a stable, democratic Iraq, George Bush began the uphill task yesterday of rallying international support for an enterprise on which the future of his presidency now largely depends. (...)

in Baghdad

Iraq’s most sacred Shia shrine was damaged for the second time in fighting between American forces and the militia of the cleric Muqtada Sadr yesterday, provoking fury among Iraq’s Shia majority. (...)

The explosion shook me awake fast and had me out of bed and running for the door before I knew what had happened. You felt the blast in your chest before you heard it; it rattled the windows so hard you thought they would burst out of their frames. (...)

The fallout from the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib finally reached the Pentagon yesterday when it was announced that the senior military commander in Iraq was being shifted and the officer who was in charge of the jail had been suspended. (...)

At least 200 people have been killed in floods that have hit the Dominican Republic and Haiti over the past two days, with many swept to their deaths after heavy rain caused rivers to burst their banks on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola that they share. (...)

in Rafah

The Israeli Army finally pulled out of Rafah yesterday - for the moment at least - after a week-long operation, that has left 45 Palestinians dead, 67 homes demolished, and a trail of destroyed or damaged farmland, roads and infrastructure. (...)

President Bush’s speech on Monday evening setting out his Iraq policy was addressed to several different audiences. It was designed to still the audible murmurings of disquiet among the Republican faithful in Congress, to convince sceptical Iraqis that the US is sincere in its determination to hand over control of their country, and to persuade the anxious international community that America was, at last, taking account of the opinion of others. His most important audience, however, was the wider American public, which will pass its own judgement upon Mr Bush in November, and is increasingly fearful that the Iraq mission is becoming a disaster.

Mr Bush offered a predictable show of resolution. As usual, there was not the slightest admission of error or misjudgement. Once again, he attempted to present his Iraq campaign as part of the "war on terror". And at every juncture, the glass was presented as more than half full, rather than half empty. There was no mention of Washington’s abandonment of Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi exile leader whose false promises helped draw a gullible administration into today’s mess.

The only genuine news in the speech, that the infamous prison of Abu Ghraib would be destroyed (with the permission, naturally, of the new Iraqi government), had itself been heavily trailed. Only briefly did the President mention the despicable behaviour of US troops at Abu Ghraib, whose name he unfortunately but typically mangled. Otherwise, Mr Bush repackaged existing policy into a five-step plan that was intended to convey the impression, at least, of a firm hand at the tiller.

Peer a little closer, however, and the "plan" proves to be an edifice constructed on the most fragile foundations. Sovereignty will be handed over to Iraqis on 30 June, Mr Bush assured - but what if Ayatollah Sistani, the Shia leader who is the most powerful Iraqi politician, rejects the new transitional government assembled by the United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi?

The US-led multinational force will continue to guarantee security for as long as needed. But its performance so far leaves a lot to be desired, to put it mildly. What guarantee exists of improvement? And if the violence persists, Mr Bush’s third commitment, to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure, will ring even more hollow.

Everyone agrees on the fourth element of the President’s plan, the expansion of international support. But after initial polite applause, the French and the Russians are already picking holes in the draft resolution before the UN Security Council.

Finally, part five, the achievement that seals Mr Bush’s entire Iraqi enterprise - elections by next January, at the latest, for a constituent assembly that will produce a constitution under which a permanent national government will be elected by the end of 2005. But will Iraq be a safe enough place to permit this, and can Shias, Sunnis and Kurds achieve enough common ground for the process to go forward? The hard truth is that a President who prides himself on his ability to shape the agenda is utterly at the mercy of events. No wonder Mr Bush gave no firm deadline for US troops to leave Iraq, and took a pass on the crucial question of relations between the "sovereign" Iraqi government and the US military after 30 June.

It is possible that the President has achieved his minimum objective of shoring up morale at home, for a short while at least, and halting the slide in his approval ratings. No Bush speech was ever going to win over the 45 per cent or so of the electorate whose only desire is to evict him from the White House. There will be five more "major" presidential addresses on Iraq before the 30 June hand-over. But if there are many more suicide bombings, urban insurgencies and US casualties, even far finer words that those Mr Bush uttered on Monday evening will not matter a whit, and he will end up a one-term President like his father.

I can’t wait to see Abu Ghraib prison reduced to rubble by the Americans - at the request of the new Iraqi government, of course. It will be turned to dust in order to destroy a symbol of Saddam’s brutality. That’s what President Bush tells us. So the re-writing of history still goes on.

Last August, I was invited to Abu Ghraib - by my favourite US General Janis Karpinski, no less - to see the million-dollar US refurbishment of this vile place. Squeaky clean cells and toothpaste tubes and fresh pairs of pants for the "terrorist" inmates. But now, suddenly, the whole kit and caboodle is no longer an American torture centre. It’s still an Iraqi torture centre, and thus worthy of demolition. (...)

The U.S. is losing the war in Iraq. The Bush administration has lost the battle for Iraqi hearts and minds; four out of five Iraqis hold a negative view of the U.S. occupation authority and U.S. troops. The U.S. has, with the expose of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, lost whatever shreds of moral authority it once claimed in Iraq, the Arab world, or the international community. And at home, President Bush is losing support faster than ever before; a majority of Americans believe the war was not worth the price, and 64% of Americans believe the president does not have a clear plan for Iraq. (...)

LONDON: Addressing the American people on May 24, US President George W. Bush admitted that “disgraceful conduct by a few American troops” had dishonored the US, but he seemed not to recognize its disastrous effect on the whole Iraq war effort. The publication of the pictures of the Iraqi detainees in the Abu Ghraib jail run by the Pentagon - described by defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld as ‘blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane’ - is likely to prove the tipping point in the Iraq War and its aftermath. With Iraq’s supposed links to Al Qaida and its possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) already discredited, the pictures of humiliated, naked prisoners stripped away Bush’s last public justification for his invasion of Iraq. (...)

Dave Dellinger’s journey began in Wakefield, Massachussetts, a suburb of Boston. His dad was a well-connected Republican lawyer and a friend of the state’s governor, Calvin Coolidge - a native Vermonter, by the way, who went on to become president. One of his grandmothers was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. His father’s ancestors can be traced back to North Carolina, before the American Revolution. In fact, Benjamin Franklin was a direct ancestor, by way of one of Franklin’s grand nephews and a full-blooded Cherokee Indian. Quite a pedigree for an American radical! (...)

I’m in shock. I just received an email from a very good friend here in Vermont telling me that David Dellinger died the afternoon of May 25th. Dave was a lifelong antiwar activist who refused to fight in World War Two and actively opposed every US war since then. He was 88 years old and had been suffering from worsening health. Indeed, he had just been moved to a nursing home not more than two or three months ago. (...)