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 September 2004
A specter is haunting America–the specter of anti-Americanism. All the powers of patriotic America have entered into a corporate alliance to exorcise this specter: draft-deferrers and women-gropers, grammar-challenged and duel-challengers, oil diggers and gr...
How do we measure progress? How are lives improved by progress? Who benefits from — and who suffers the consequences of — progress? These are central questions today as nation-states and corporations pursue what are typically called "deve...
Many frustrated progressive Democrats have been bemoaning the lack of aggressiveness of the Democratic Party and its presidential standard bearer John Kerry in this campaign. While Republicans in Florida and Michigan work to bar or scare off black voters, and smea...
Seventy-eight-year-old bigot Ian Paisley holds the political fate of Northern Ireland in his hands as never before, and he’s not ready to let go. Three days of talks in an English castle ended at the weekend with only Paisley’s Democratic Unioni...
For years an open secret among academic researchers and polling agencies is starting to become apparent to the general public: the reliability and predictive value of telephone-based surveys is becoming increasingly questionable. In the past two weeks a hal...
Few people know the real reason why Al Gore simultaneously won and lost his bid for U.S. President in 2000. It was the clash of two mighty forces of American Presidential history that came together to create the divergence between the Electoral College and the pop...
"When you hear them say, tax the rich, be careful," warned George W. Bush in a speech on Thursday. "The rich hire lawyers and accountants for a reason, because they don’t want to pay. And you get stuck with the tab. But we’re not going t...
The Security Service is haunted by a terrible fear: that another Israeli Prime Minister will be assassinated. The extreme right-wing, which does not hide its admiration for Yigal Amir and his deed, harbors some who dream of a similar action. After all, if Amir suc...
American military commanders in Iraq are planning a series of major assaults before the end of the year to retake control of Fallujah and other cities held by insurgents. While commanders say they have not fixed a precise date for the new operation, much wi...
There’s nothing easier to fall for than a forgery, and nothing easier than to find an expert to give that same forgery a vibrant testimonial as the genuine article. The hallways of history echo with the furious assertions of authenticity from people with so ...
On August 21 in Nablus, soldiers imposed a curfew on the Old City and conducted house-to-house manhunts in the garbage-strewn streets. International observers tagged along behind the soldiers, checking up on the inhabitants. Soldiers on the roof of one hous...
Behind a recent, highly controversial indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Bush administration is maneuvering to revive military ties with the Indonesian Army (TNI), one of the world’s most oppressive institutions. In late June, U.S. Att...
The things seem inextricably linked: an SUV, a man’s arm cocked out the driver’s window, Bush-Cheney 2004 bumper sticker. Message: President George W. Bush is the candidate of Manly Men. But why do Manly Men support him? Is it because…Bus...
Four and a half years ago I was a single mom climbing the corporate ladder. I had a happy and healthy daughter, a secure job with great benefits and the respect of my colleagues. Life was good. Then I got sick. I was diagnosed with Lupus and Multiple...
Vietnam Veterans are "quite different from veterans of earlier wars," observed Ralph Nader in 1973–then at the height of his fame as a consumer advocate. No prior war, Nader pointed out, had "witnessed such a moral dissent by soldiers and new ...
Is it too late to wish listeners a happy new year? For those concerned, of course. I just hard a great Jewish joke: Why did he have to pick us as the chosen people? A joke like that is often called black humor — which ought to remind us that other pe...
And many more Destructions...
Baghdad. Where freedom was promi...
Editor’s note: The destruction of Poletown in Detroit in 1981, consequence of a deal between General Motors and Mayor Coleman Young produced a ghastly tragedy for the inhabitants, but also engendered a truly great radical documentary by Detroit&...
Q. Who gave up a life of luxury and turned his back on millions to fight in the mountains and caves of Afghanistan for what he believed in and, as a result, is revered by millions as a "hero"? A. Osama bin Laden. (Alternate answer: Pat Tillman)...
Has it come to this? Did SportsCenter really broadcasting this week from Kuwait? Are we inhaling our nightly dose of baseball, banter and "booyah" from a set designed by the US Armed Forces? Is the SportsCenter stage really designed to look like a bunker...
Richard Marino, 51, opened a cannabis dispensary in Roseville, California, a small city west of Sacramento, in January of this year, soon after Senate Bill 420 clarified the legality of such operations. Marino wanted to do everything by the book. He leased a brick...
The two weeks spent rebuilding a demolished Palestinian home at ICAHD’s (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions) summer work camp at Beit Arabiya in the West Bank town of Anata was a rare opportunity to experience a community of light and spirit in the ...
Former CIA Analyst "Have they all drunk the Kool-Aid?" asked a former CIA colleague, referring to the stampede to appoint a new director and radically restructure the intelligence community. The Kool-Aid allusion was to the "group-think" th...
First in a series. On September 14, 2004, nearly 80 leaders out of 113 who backed Nader in 2000 signed a petition urging people to vote for John Kerry. Many are luminaries of the left-Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Susan Sarandon, Studs Terkel and many others. ...