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 January 2011
This past Saturday, when I managed to pull myself away from Al Jazeera for a half an hour so I could run an errand, I discovered that the TV at the dry-cleaning store was on the same station. No Muslims work there and, although the TV is usually on, this was the first tim...
If the recent events in Tunisia and Egypt tell us anything it is that predicting the beginning of mass unrest is very difficult. Indeed, it is probably easier to predict the stock market. What one can do, however, is describe conditions that are likely to create a context...
Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History and Director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, CT His most recent book, ...
In response to the mass protests of recent days, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has appointed his first Vice President in his over 30 years rule, intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. When Suleiman was first announced, Aljazeera commentators were describing him as a “...
As I write this on January 31, 2011, Al-Jazeera English is ireporting that six of its reporters have been arrested by the Egyptian military. Meanwhile there has been ongoing speculation as to whether or not the Egyptian military will support the ongoing protests again...
Maybe “whitewash” is too bland of a term to apply to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission’s (FCIC) report, but it certainly doesn’t break any new ground. Nor does it achieve its real purpose, which is to figure out what triggered the financial m...
The Arab world is the beating heart of the overwhelmingly Muslim Middle East, and the Arab masses are angrily moving for a change in the status quo, practically dictated by the military, economic or political hegemony of the United States, which in turn is whipped by the ...
The United States has had it in for al-Jazeera at least since 2000, when the Qatar-based news network began reporting on Israel’s harsh treatment of Palestinians during the intifada and, a year later, covered the start of U.S. war-making in the Middle East, revealing to...
Nazareth.
With the 18-year-long Middle East peace process finally pronounced dead, is the Palestinian Authority finished too?
That is the question being asked by Palestinians in the wake of a week of damaging revelations that Palestinian negot...
Luis Posada Carriles’ attorney dedicated the entire day to the cross-examination of Gilberto Abascal, the witness who testified that he traveled to Miami on the Santrina with Posada in March of 2005. The interrogation went on far too long, despite what appeared to b...
During his brilliantly run campaign of 2008, Barack Obama electrified the world with vague promises of change in foreign policy as well as domestic policy. (My take on his campaign strategy can be found here.) Two and a half years later, those promises are ashes. Nowhere ...
One of the most enduring of media-created myths is that of mass suicide amongst lemmings, the little rodents that live mostly in and around the Arctic. A 1958 Disney documentary film, White Wilderness, staged scenes of large numbers of lemmings marching mindlessly off a...
The peoples’ revolution is brewing in Tunisia, Yemen, and Egypt. These nations, unlike the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, have established state constitutions that promise a democratic form of government and espouse the principle of popular sovereignty. Article 3 of the Tunis...
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:
We are the American family. And we are exceptional. This is what sets us apart as a nation. (Applause.)
We measure progress by the success of our people....
Two recent news stories suggest that the question of the end of the British Empire is far from academic. The first is the astounding revelation from the leaked “Palestine Papers” that the British government has not only funded Palestinian security service...
"The policy set for GE alfalfa will most likely guide policies for other GE crops as well. True coexistence is a must."
– Whole Foods Market, Jan. 21, 2011
In the wake of a 12-year battle to keep Monsanto’...
Hunger strikes. These were the last resort for Tunisian activists as they fought against a brutal and highly oppressive regime. Prior to the ousting of Zineal-Abidine Ben Ali by an unprecedented people’s uprising on January 14, there seemed to be no end in sigh...
Difficult to write a biography of a recluse. I understand the problem fully, from my own attempt to write a joint biography of Nella Larsen and Jean Toomer, two writers of the Harlem Renaissance who "disappeared" after the Renaissance was over. J. D. Saling...
New York is once again buried in snow, but this time more Brooklyn streets are plowed and trains are running, if delayed, to the outer boroughs. While everything slows down for the weather, it’s worth noting that the city’s managed to be prepared for the ...
Liam puts his hand into the jar of frosted cereal, grabs some chunks, and can’t get his hand out through the narrow opening.
“My hand somehow enlarged,” says Liam, who is ten in human years but younger in monkey years.&n...
The Tucson massacre yielded the media and politicians weeks of fodder for their nattering mills. Yes, Americans hate violence and love guns, just as we stand for peace and practice non-stop war. It’s not hypocrisy. We are two nations – at least – livi...
A Touch of Babbittry
Bruce Babbitt’s inglorious role in brokering the Deal of Shame, which restarted logging in the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest, shocked many greens. After all, Babbitt was viewed as one of them. He had been pr...
Treasury yields are "blinking red", but the Fed keeps acting like nothing’s wrong. What’s the deal?
Let’s explain: Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s bond purchasing program (QE2) has sent the yield on the 30-year Tre...
All afternoon, the defense tried to convince the jury that one of the prosecution’s key witnesses, Gilberto Abascal, cannot be trusted. Attorney Arturo Hernández needs to impeach Abascal’s credibility, because his testimony against Luis Posada Carriles i...
January 27 marks 60 years since the first atomic bomb test in Nevada. Codenamed "Able" it was tiny for a nuclear weapon: the equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT, about 1/15 the size of the bomb that killed upwards of 130,000 people in Hiroshima. Anniversaries a...