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 April 2003
People in Florida who voted for Nader still occasionally get "thanked" by Gore supporters for the War in Iraq. Such are the perils of supporting third-party candidates, though many Nader supporters in Florida and elsewhere insist that they chose correctl...
The clash between Abu-1 and Abu-2–Abu-Amar v. Abu-Mazen–is not a personal matter, as it is presented by journalists in Israel and all over the world. Of course, the egos of the two personalities do play a role, as in all political fights. But the contr...
Sodomy is illegal in Texas Number 3 Republican monster Senator Rick Santorum wants to keep it that way. Ricky figures that if it’s legal for consenting men to have sex in their own home, next thing you know mothers will b...
Dear Sisters and Brothers, I’m sorry. I’m going to try to explain why I was a part of a movement that opposed the war that freed you of this tyrant. Many of you may be wondering why many decent people around the world marched against this...
It is clear that the Saddam Hussein regime has breathed its last, although there is undoubtedly enough pulse left along the fringes to delay the business of pacification and consolidation a bit longer. As we move to this concluding phase, an interesting question a...
One million marched to mourn ancient death in Karbala rejoicing, chanting, dancing and slashing their bodies frenzied blood ritual homage to Mohammed’s grandson adding prayers that their "liberators" might disappear The great Com...
The televangelizing Rev. Dr. Pat Robertson’s charm beamed into his live audience at Temple Beth Sholom in Framingham, Mass. on the Sunday before Passover, while the mandatory yalmulke he pinned vertically to the very back of his head evaded journalists’...
My subject is Franklin Graham, one of President Bush’s very-public religious confidants. Franklin’s father, Billy, served President Nixon in a similar capacity. Billy’s efforts were crowned with a kind of earthly immortality: he’s on those ...
That which is a crime in the conceptual stage remains a crime in the execution stage. The war on Iraq was a violation of international law, regardless of its "success." I have little respect for Henry Kissinger, but I agree with him that the attack "...
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld, Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned at recent reports that at least three children, ages thirteen to fifteen, are among the detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay. We assume that like adult detainees, these children are unable to...
As a million Shi’ite pilgrims streamed toward Karbala earlier this week, shouting "No to America, no to Saddam, no to tyranny, no to Israel!" (slogans recorded by a reporter for Agence France Presse) can’t you just imagine the plash of compla...
Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick Head of the U.S. Delegation to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and Ambassador Kevin E. Moley Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva respond to questions from the ...
i think i can never surpass a poem as lovely as the grass on whose quivering blades ride drops of dew that merge and slide into the a mat so fresh so complete velvet green that kisses the feet a mat for lovers to wander the day a sward where the drag...
Since becoming principal officer at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana in September 2002, James Cason has increased official U.S. connections with Cuban dissidents. Entering directly into Cuba domestic politics, Cason helped launch the youth wing of the dissiden...
Ironically, the Bushites will eventually regret getting rid of Saddam Hussein. In short order, Iraq will turn from a Ba’athist dictatorship into a Muslim theocracy. It’s happening now, even with the US occupation. On Saturday tens of thousands of Shi&#...
Republicans have big expensive plans giving legitimacy to Emperor George. They are going to nominate him right around September 11 in New York City. Dubya will be bouncing from the Convention to Ground Zero like a plastic...
The omnipresent neo-conservative kingmakers are at it again, this time with the eloquent and dashing Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, eldest son of the former enigmatic Iranian King of Kings, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi, who ruled Iran from 1941 until his exile in 1979. ...
Saddam didn’t blow any bridges, didn’t use any of the 100s of airplanes he had, didn’t set any major oil wells on fire, his troops left thousands of weapons, rounds of ammunition, tanks, armored vehicles behind and never used them in battle. Some...
Some thoughts on Judith Miller’s piece "Illicit Arms Kept Till Eve of War, an Iraqi Scientist Is Said to Assert" (New York Times, April 21). I recommend this article for everyone’s careful reading. Imagine you are Donald Rumsfeld, Secr...
George W. Bush proclaims himself a born-again Christian. However, Bush and fellow self-anointed neo-Christians like House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, John Ashcroft, and sports arena Book of Revelations carnival hawker Franklin Graham appear to wallow in a "Chr...
Editors’ note: This is a fuller version of what originally ran on the CounterPunch site on April 21. In a scarcely reported speech given on the Senate floor on March 19, the day the war was launched against Iraq, Robert Byrd,...
It was an almost unbelievable news story: in order to trim the national budget, the Ministry of Education had decided to dismiss hundreds of teachers. A private company got the job of delivering the bitter news to the dismissed teachers. Two days before Passover &...
The "Democratic Left", aka Leftists Against the Same Stuff as Bush (LASSAB for short) are at it again. You know these folks-Leo Casey, Michael Berube, Eric Alterman, Todd Gitlin In recent times they have bravely stood against such forces as the Taliban a...
Rather than commenting on the specifics of the war with Iraq, I thought it might be a good time to lay out a framework for understanding that and other conflicts. The framework is the Four Generations of Modern War. I developed the framework of the first th...
Sonny Rollins once said that if Nina Simone was a jazz singer, then he didn’t understand jazz. Nevertheless, a lot of her obituaries call her a jazz singer. They also refer to her as singing pop, cabaret, rhythm and blues, soul, blues, classical art song and...