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 October 2005
It was payback–cheap political payback by the administration for an article I had written contradicting an assertion President Bush made in his 2003 State of the Union address. Payback, not just to punish me, but to intimidate other critics as w...
The media is filled with Republican pundits, right-wring Christians, and arrogant politicians lambasting Patrick Fitzgerald for prosecuting Scooter Libby for lying to the FBI and the grand jury. Not a "real" crime, sniffs Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who, ...
Investigators called them "ready-made victims"–the six men killed and six others gravely injured at the end of a night of robberies in southern Georgia. They were mostly migrant workers who scraped by working long hours in cotton fields and on pean...
Ben Bernanke’s first promise upon being nominated for Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve was that he would "maintain continuity with the policies and policy strategies established during the Greenspan years." Of course, he was speaking to ...
Patience fellow Kashmiris. Islamabad is buying six high-tech Saab 2000 jets to help you out. ‘Why the heck high-tech jets instead of helicopters if Islamabad has Kashmir in mind?’ fellow Kashmiris might wonder. Because, the Saab 2000 turbo-propelled ai...
A lot of media outlets are now scrutinizing some of the lies told by the Bush administration before the invasion of Iraq. Yet the same news organizations are bypassing their own key roles in the marketing of those lies. A case in point is the New York Times. ...
On October 27, 2005 Judge Norman Mordue sentenced Dr. Rafil Dhafir, founder of the Help the Needy Charity, to 22 years in prison. Judge Mordue noted that he had received 41 letters and 69 letters previously from a bail motion in support of Dr. Dhafir from t...
Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to vice president Richard B. Cheney and assistant to the president, has been indicted for a cover up. As US attorney Patrick Fitzgerald made clear at the October 28 press conference announcing Libby’s in...
Patience fellow Kashmiris. Islamabad is buying six high-tech Saab 2000 jets to help you out. ‘Why the heck high-tech jets instead of helicopters if Islamabad has Kashmir in mind?’ fellow Kashmiris might wonder. Because, the Saab 2000 turbo-propelled ai...
Years ago, we made steel here in Bethlehem. This is a statement of consequence, for the making of steel is not a cottage industry, it is an industry that builds nations and requires the labor and capital of a nation. The Bethlehem Steel enterprise stretched for ov...
Who are the brownshirts in Toledo? A few carloads of the Nazi white supremacists pulled into north Toledo, Ohio, on 10/15, maybe two dozen. Shortly thereafter, a vast, heterogeneous, and youthful crowd assembled and sent them packing. The police liked to take the ...
and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR Scooter Libby was the lawyer who got the charges dropped against billionaire scamster Marc Rich back in Clintontime. But that had more to do with Rich’s billions than with any legal talents Libby may have. On the evidence of ...
During the flooding of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, many a voice praised the media for its supposedly aggressive coverage. The fact that Anderson Cooper cried on camera, or that Geraldo evinced outrage (imagine that), or that even Fox’s Shep...
1. Wayne Shorter Beyond the Sound Barrier (Verve/2005) 2. David Vest — ...
Ask a Washington, DC taxi driver about student activism in the United States and you will likely hear about student involvement in the Civil Rights movement and student opposition to the war in Vietnam. If you push a bit, the driver may mention Earth Day. D...
Imagine it. You live in a democratic country that has ratified both the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the European Convention on Human Rights, both of which value freedom of expression as central. Surely you think&...
Washington’s war in Afghanistan is going badly, and the Taliban, or, rather, the insurgents who are Taliban leftovers and all the new insurgents who have now been labeled as Taliban, have increased their attacks on US troops and everyone they suspect of supp...
Jane Weirick died this week. She was 46. An organizer who could either lead or follow with competence. The devoted mom of a grown-up daughter of whom she was very proud. The opposite of a snob. Jane had been one of Dennis Peron’s lieutenants at 1444 M...
"If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not, Speak then to me." Shakespeare, Macbeth, I, 3 1. Why did the creation of Israel engender such deep but opp...
Iraq war veteran and Kent State student, Dave Airhart, is under attack for opposing the war he considers "unjust" and for attempting to stop any more students from being used as "cannon fodder." On October 19, the Kent State Anti-War Com...
At a Critical Mass bike ride here in Albany, New York on Friday, I decided to turn the Halloween theme into a political one, at least for myself. I’m not much for costumes and makeup. So I just slapped a sign on the back of my jacket and off I rode. My sign ...
A recent Boston Globe article focused on the fact that the Democrats are struggling to find one voice on Iraq. We don’t need one voice from the Democrats. We need every Democrat who voted for this war to apologize for this illegal and immoral war and to insi...
Halloween is almost here, so let’s consider sex and fear. Isn’t that what it’s all about? Forget the candy, the costumes. It’s the fear that captivates your soul. Fear is one of those feelings that makes you feel really alive, your heart be...
Let’s see. Two thousand plus US dead. Tens of thousands of Iraqis dead. one hundred and sixty-one thousand troops now in Iraq–more than ever. Troops continue to kick in doors of civilian homes. US troops taking over civilian homes in Iraq much like the...
Bill Stant has a vision for a new American democracy. In it, power flows from the people, not the almighty dollar. And the people are responsible, active, and engaged. "I know it’s quaint," he told a meeting of the Monroe County Green Party ...