Exclusively in the new print issue of CounterPunch
HOLLYWOOD AND THE CIA — Film historian Ed Rampell details Hollywood’s entangled relationship with the CIA and the Pentagon; HOUSES OF THE DEAD: Nancy Kurshan exposes the cruel human rights offenses taking place inside America’s vast gulag of Control Unit Prisons; BROTHERHOOD OF SUMMER: David Macaray charts the history of the most powerful union in the US: the Baseball Players Association; TAR SANDS COME TO AMERICA: Steve Horn explains how the Keystone Pipeline debates have diverted attention from Big Oil’s other plans to transport Alberta’s oil into the US. PLUS: Jeffrey St. Clair on CONSTITUTIONAL ENTROPY; Mike Whitney on HOW THE BANKS TARGETED BLACKS; Chris Floyd on THE RISE OF BRITAIN’S TEA PARTY; Kristin Kolb on THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE; Kim Nicolini on the FILMS OF WILLIAM FRIEDKIN; and Lee Ballinger on POETS VS. THE ONE PERCENT.
Archives from August 2002
We left Palestine, 3 days ago, but of course, not without incident. After visiting our friend’s family up the hill in Nablus, on Friday, they arranged an ambulance to get back to the old city for the night. Curfewed was lifted for 4 hours that day, and you s...
There is a direct telephone connection between heaven and hell. I can prove it. The idea crossed my mind last Sunday, when I was climbing to a snow-covered peak in the alpine region of Italy, where I was the guest at a political conference. The sun was shin...
Dear Bruce, First of all, let me express my deep love and respect for you. I’ve been a fan of yours since the 1970s, when as a grad student in Hawai’i I heard “Factory” over my car radio. Yes! I thought, this is the music we need. My...
The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) deplores this week’s decision by the Israeli High Court of Justice against permitting judicial review for families of Palestinians whose homes are targeted for demolition because a family member has bee...
In signing corporate reform legislation on July 30, President Bush said that the new law “says to every American: there will not be a different ethical standard for corporate America than the standard that applies to everyone else.” The corporat...
Alas: the pitter-pat of shuffling feet on the stair that Martha Stewart hears each day when she awakes is not the stirring of guests invited for a festive country weekend; it’s the SEC closing in. Last month ImClone boss and “family friend” Sam W...
They are honoured as saints. Beneath the grey mounds of dust and dried mud lie the “martyrs” of al-Qa’ida. Here, among these 150 graves, lie the three men who held out to the end in the Mirweis hospital, shooting at the Americans and their Afghan ...
I was wearing a pro-Palestinian T-shirt; he was wearing a yarmulke. As we sat at the airport waiting for the same flight, he glanced at my shirt and asked me to turn so he could read the message: “Palestine — 50 years of dispossession, 1948-1998″...
At the opening show of Bruce Springsteen’s new tour, the first 30 feet of floor space was separated from the rest by a bike rack barricade. Right behind the bike rack, a fellow in maybe his early forties, long hair, beard, motorcycle style t-shirt and jeans,...
Aside from the obvious physical discomforts, being ill for a long period of time fills the spirit with a terrible feeling of helplessness, but also with periods of analytic lucidity, which, of course, must be treasured. For the past three months now I have been in...
In an August 9 piece in the Telegraph entitled “Why the West Must Strike First Against Saddam Hussein”, Richard Perle attempts to teach the British a thing or two about embracing their imperialist prerogative and the corollary doctrine of preemptive wa...
When Greens talk to each other about how they’re disappointed with Senator Paul Wellstone, you rarely hear criticism of his decision to break the term limits pledge he made in 1990 and reiterated in 1996. You’re much more likely to hear references to W...
CounterPunch’s Favorite Films Last week Sight and Sound released its list of “the top 10 films of all time.”...
In 1945, the world’s largest democracy became the world’s first country to use weapons of mass destruction on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. An estimated 200,000 non-combatants were either killed immediately or afterwards. The bombs left a lasting genetic imp...
Anthony “Tony” Green is a 38-year old African American man who is scheduled to be executed by the state of South Carolina on August 23, 2002. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1987 for the botched robbery and murder of Susan Babich in Charlest...
Colorado is my home, sort of. I spent childhood summers on my grandmother’s ranch in the Front Range of the Rockies. My cousins and I ran in packs, unhindered by grown-ups all day long, riding horses, fishing, building forts, or hunting for buried gold bars ...
We are in the last stages of preparation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September this year. Four PrepComs (or preparatory meetings) have examined the critical issues facing the earth and h...
Avoiding surprise seems the order of the day when it comes to Iraq. Invasion plans are out in the open. The Bush Administration has pledged against any “October Surprise” — war to boost Republicans in November elections. Yet potential R...
This morning the military pulled out most, but not all, of its presence from Nablus. Though still officially under curfew, many people started coming out into the streets and opening their shops. Internationals, including the two of us from Colorado, purchased sev...
While the Bush Administration prepares for war on Iraq with full-scale weapons production and troop deployments, more insidious conditioning for the public acceptance of war continues. In the face of repeated statements by Bush and the hawkish members of his rulin...
Scholars do empirical work based on theories and hypotheses. Journalists profess to describe reality. Diplomats are supposed to know countries and policies by being present. Western embassies in Moscow were particularly important during the Cold War. This h...
The Buffalo News is owned by Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in America, revered by investors the world over. On the front page of the Buffalo News for July 30, 2002, what did the people of Buffalo see? They saw large above-the-fold color photographs of Eri...
I used to say that I grew up where the Bible Belt buckles, but these days I wonder if that quintessentially American expression has any meaning. Uncle Sam doesn’t just have a religious accessory now, a Bible Belt strapped around his Southern waist, he sports...
I You expected more when I had nothing left for trips to the mall to buy trinkets; an hour’s pay, a moment’s thought and gone, gone throughout the city. These wailing, dead languages. White people aren’t willing to tell the truth and mend thos...
Wake up America!…Special interest groups, news media, and money hungry politicians are duping you into profiling all Arabs as bad Arabs.. Often, the news media tell us the polls show Americans support Israelis over Palestinians. Based on what? How many of th...