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 December 2002
We export Democracy big time, in the form of ideology (hold elections like ours and you’ll take a step toward political health or risk joining the axis of evil), entertainment (see Bay Watch, Dallas and Jerry Springer the finest quality T&A, treachery a...
Lockheed Martin, beware. There are property-destroying anarchists out there who may want to throw a monkey wrench in the works. These anarchists are determined to stop you from manufacturing the high-tech grist Bush and his neo-con world conquerors need to invade ...
The Bush/Rove Dynasty of Darkness understands the power of audacity. They want it ALL, RIGHT NOW, FOREVER, and they’re daring the Democrats to step up and stop them. And instead of stopping them, the Democrats are saying, “Ah, me too! Sort of…...
“If you do not like the image in the mirror do not break the mirror, break your face.” —Persian proverb Although the deceits and the corruption of the mainstream media is no secret, the ironies...
In October 1990, when the George H.W. Bush administration was cranking up public support for the Gulf War, the House Human Rights Caucus took much-publicized testimony from a 15-year-old girl who told of having been a volunteer worker in the al-Addan hospital in K...
Canada is in the midst of yet another debate on anti-Semitism. This time, the uproar was spurred by statements made by David Ahenakew a native leader and recipient of the Order of Canada. Mr. Ahenakew’s statement that Hitler was right “to fry 6 million...
Nicole Gaouette recently presented a view of soldiers seeking healing after serving time in the occupied Palestinian territories [Where Israeli soldiers go to heal, The Christian Science Monitor, December 17, 2002]. On very rare occasions, they make attempts to be...
As the 12/18 GUARDIAN put it, “Clinton Boisvert, a newly enrolled student at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, was arrested this week and charged with reckless endangerment after dreaming up one of the more provocative art projects of the post-Septembe...
The weeks immediately following the tragedy of 9/11 showed some of the best features of the American spirit. Led by the White House, the media took pains to distinguish between the actions of a few and the beliefs of the many. Assuring the Muslim majority that the...
On November 18, 2002, Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, the Program on Justice and Peace, and the Young Arab Leadership Alliance (YALA) co-sponsored a talk by Norman G. Finkelstein entitled “Prospects for Justice in Israel/P...
On the night of 19 December 2002, a group of men entered the home of Mohammed Sadiq in Hast village, Rajouri district, in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. They killed his twenty-year old daughter Nosen Kousar. They then went down the road to Khalid AhmedR...
"To say someone is a Johnson means he keeps his word and honors his obligations. He’s a good man to do business with and a good man to have on your team. He is not a malicious, snooping, interfering self-righteous trouble-maki...
Taking a walk on a snowy white Christmas morning, kicking up powdery snow and watching it settle on the white surface, seeing your shadow and footsteps moving on the face of the earth in the traditional season of peace and good will. Wondering about the inner jour...
On page A37 of the December 19 Boston Globe I found a Reuters article under the understated headline, “Egypt Conference: Activists share their concerns about war.” I had just flown home from Cairo, from this very significant event organized by the Po...
North Korea, part and parcel of the Dubya declared axis of evil, has torn the seals off its mothballed nuke plants, much to the dismay of the US, South Korea, and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The assumption is the sinister Stalinists in Pyongyang will s...
Children like to see things shot up, blown up, dismembered, distempered and digested, mayhem being their genes’ fresher remembrance of things Paleolithic than any more recent babble-tattle on sharing, caring and hugging. So every Christmas, while peace on Ea...
Jerusalem. At around 9:00 am, the first fifty Israelis passed the military checkpoint and climbed over the dirt barricade. They were entering Bethlehem, which is considered “Area A” of the Palestinian territories and therefore out of bounds for Israeli...
Two years ago, the Supreme Court was the Grinch that stole Christmas, stealing the election right out of the hands of the voters and giving the gift of the presidency to their appointee, George II. This year, it is George II himself who stole Christmas, iss...
Dear President Bush: Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned by allegations of torture and other mistreatment of suspected al-Qaeda detainees described in the Washington Post (“U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations”) on December 26. The a...
Cairo was host to the most important anti-war congress held in the Arab world to date on December 18-19. Organized in haste given the imminent US strike and declared invasion of Iraq, not to mention the utter devastation of Palestinians and Palestinian land by Sha...
The international meeting organized by the Egyptian Popular Campaign to Confront U.S Aggression was convened in Cairo on December 18 and 19 to launch the International Campaign. We, the participants reaffirm our resolve to stand in solidarity with the people of Ir...
Nathan Musselman and I boarded the public bus that travels from Baghdad to Amman on Christmas Eve after an absurdly hurried packing job. Nathan had discovered, much to our dismay, that he unwittingly let his visa expire. "Sorry," said the Iraqi immigrati...
Benjamin Netanyahu’s nephew is in jail. Having refused to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces–an army whose actions, he believes, betray its name–this twenty-year-old relative of Israel’s ultra-nationalist foreign minister is currently in d...
A few years back I wrote a column about this fellow who works at the local nursing home. Name’s Kenny Hamilton–a 30 something fellow who has a unique situation. It seems that ole Kenny (sounds like another “Kenny Boy”, no?) is a janitor. H...
Here’s one straight out of the twilight zone of Dicken’s worst nightmares. Nestle Corporation, which last year earned 5.5 billion dollars in profits is demanding 6 million dollars from Ethiopia, a country facing famine. That over 14 million peo...