Anna Politkovskaya’s Last Article Hits Close to Home

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Russia’s Novaya Gaeta newspaper has published the last article written by murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya. It’s a short, yet unsparing, look at the use of torture on Chechens accused of terrorism. Even if you haven’t been following Russia’s long, brutal anti-terrorist campaign in Chechnya, the piece rings some depressingly familiar themes. The New York Times has a translation. It’s worth a read:

Before me everyday are dozens of files—copies of the criminal cases of people jailed for “terrorism” or of those still under investigation.

Why is the word “terrorism” in quotation marks? Because the overwhelming majority of these people are designated terrorists. The practice of “designating terrorists” did not simply supplant in 2006 some kind of earnest anti-terrorist war. It came to breed on its own potential terrorists and a desire for vengeance. When prosecutors and the courts work, not for the sake of the law, but on political commission and with the only goal of providing good reports for the Kremlin, then criminal cases are baked like pancakes.

An assembly line producing “open-hearted confessions” effectively guaranties good data on the war on terror in the North Caucasus. …

The practice of designating terrorists is the area in the sphere of “counterterrorist operations in the North Caucasus” where, head to head, two ideological approaches clash: Are we, the lawful, fighting against the unlawful? Or, are we battling “their” lawlessness with “ours?” This clash of approaches is guaranteed to exist for the present and future. The result of this “designation of terrorists” is the increase in number of those who won’t put up with it.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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