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 2004
CNN News Updated: 05:25 p.m. EDT (21:25 GMT) April 26, 2004 GRAEME GREENBACK reporting… It was Sunday in Basra when I got the call. I’d blown into the this British-held city a few days before, when I got "the word" that...
Weapons of mass distruction, a slam-dunk war followed by a no-end-in-sight occupation? We’ve been here before when a century ago the U.S. first sent an army overseas to accomplish regime change and liberate a resource-rich land from tyranny. It began...
Politicians are a set of men who have interests aside from the interests of the people. . . . Abraham Lincoln, 1837 Vanity, conceit and pride can substitute for integrity. Consider Congressman Tom Tancredo. Mr. Tancre...
A significant thing: it is not the head of a civilization that begins to rot first. It is the heart. -Aimé Césaire Jaw agape and fangs unsheathed, American colonialism has lashed out with severe brutality against...
Imagine a fundamentalist tent-meeting somewhere on the dusty plains of Oklahoma or Texas without the Devil? a spluttering preacher at the pulpit with nothing about which to shout and frighten people? Preaching the actual teachings of Jesus – so far as we kno...
"Some people drink Pepsi, Some people drink Coke, The wacky morning DJ says democracy’s a joke." - Cake, Comfort Eagle We’ve got to stop placing all of the peace eggs in the election basket. Ev...
On April 18, The Seattle Times ran a photograph of flag-draped coffins leaving Iraq on the front page of its Sunday edition. Since then, the photograph has been circulated around the world and its author, Tami Silicio, has become an overnight celebrity. Fo...
With the advent and passing of the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, we have been subjected to a series of television programs portraying what happened as a grotesque orgy of African tribal bloodletting. Few mentioned the subject of Rwanda and the ...
"We do not target specific communities," says a Canadian intelligence officer parroting the official line, "we [including Canadian Muslims] are all on the same team in the war on terror." The agent, who was questioning one of my clients, was at...
Another Century of War? by Gabriel Kolko, 2002, The New Press, 165 pp....
George W. Bush, for all the jokes about his intellectual challenges, has established an unsurpassed level of imperial denial, while he blithely rejects notions that he runs an empire that has run into considerable trouble. Indeed, except for the comments of a few ...
Posturing, pontifications, and partisan politics aside, the one clear generalization that emerges from the 9/11 hearings is that information–timely, accurate, and free-flowing–is critical in our nation’s fight against terrorism. Our intelligence ...
On April 21, I finally became part of the establishment. At least the Republican National Committee believes I did. I received a letter from Ed Gillespie. THE Ed Gillespie. Chairman of all the Republicans. Beneath a red and blue logo, from Ed Gilles...
The past year of war and occupation has been the occasion for much jaw dropping, but I have to say that as jaded as I have become about one dumb-ass move after another by this incredibly inept administration, I was completely stunned by the idiocy of the Bush admi...
George W. Bush, for all the jokes about his intellectual challenges, has established an unsurpassed level of imperial denial, while he blithely rejects notions that he runs an empire that has run into considerable trouble. Indeed, except for the comments of a few ...
Three Irish men arrested on leaving FARC territory in Colombia during august 2001 were acquitted of the most serious charge of providing training to FARC rebels yesterday in Bogotá. Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan were convicted on the le...
Baghdad. British military commanders are resisting pressure from Downing Street to deploy large-scale reinforcements to join American forces in Baghdad and other volatile parts of Iraq. Baghdad exploded in violence again yesterday, providing a foreta...
"Everything old is new again" The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. By July the Espionage Act had been rushed through Congress. "The law made it a crime, punishable by a $10,000 fine and 20 year...
Lakhdar Brahimi and US Generals led the way last week, both camps hinting that de-Baathification in Iraq was a policy too stridently enforced by US civilian command. And by week’s end, their remarks were answered by Paul Bremer, who, "with Iraqi resista...
I just spoke to Molly Malekar on her way to Sha’arei Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem, and here is what she reported: "We were about 60 women, only women: roughly 1/3 Israeli, 1/3 Palestinian, and 1/3 internationals. We gathered at...
Keeping up with the lies of the Bush Administration (something that Steve Perry has been doing at Bush Wars) would be a full-time job. ...
Consider the following highly-classified report about the situation on the Afghan front: "Judging by the most recent communications that we have received from Afghanistan in the form of encrypted cables, as well as by telephone conferences with...
Baghdad American troops will enter parts of the holy city of Najaf to crush the radical Shia cleric Muqtada Sadr but will avoid its sacred sites, a US general said yesterday. Shia leaders have warned there will be an explosion of anger among the 15 t...
You fasten the triggers For the others to fire Then you set back and watch When the death count gets higher You hide in your mansion As young people’s blood Flows out of their bodies And is buried in the mud....
In the darkness of a cinema, a woman’s voice: "Hey! Take your hands off! Not you! YOU!" This old joke illustrates the American policy regarding nuclear armaments in the Middle East. "Hey, you there, Iraq and Iran and Libya, stop it! Not...