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 February 2011
Demonstrations and uprisings against authoritarian rulers are moving across the Middle East. Tunisia and Egypt have driven longtime strong men from office, Libya and Bahrain are in tumult, and Iran is experiencing a return of the demonstrations that to...
Although very rusty, I’m range-qualified on the M-1 rifle, .30-caliber carbine, recoil-less rocket-propelled anti-tank weapon (bazooka), .30- and .50-calibre machine guns, M-2 flamethrower, Thompson "Tommy" submachinegun (beloved of Dillinger-er...
"Meet me at the bottom, don’t lag behind Bring me my boots and shoes You can hang back or fight your best on the front line Sing a little bit of these workingman’s blues"
– "Workingmen Blues #2-Bob...
We should take a small measure of satisfaction in former President George W. Bush’s cancellation of his trip to Switzerland after human-rights groups threatened to bring legal action against him for authorizing torture. Persons detained by the U....
In 1969, Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi (age 27) surprised the aged King Idris, then in Turkey for medical treatment. Inspired by the Free Officers in Egypt, Qaddafi and his fellow Colonels force-marched the fragile Libyan State and even more fragile Libya...
Israel is becoming a liability to the United States, bringing US into the same international isolation into which Israel itself was cast.
The so-called "Israel Lobby", which prevents Israeli misconduct from ever being co...
Nazareth.
Israel has been indulging in a sustained bout of fear-mongering since the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak was toppled earlier this month. The ostensible aim has been to warn the international community that the lengthy &...
Superior Court, Ukiah, California
When last we saw Eldon Hogan he was on his way to San Quentin. Eldon was only going for a visit, an evaluation to see if the people at the state prison thought young Eldon, 18, was their kind of guy, the kind of...
From across North Africa to Wisconsin, activists are navigating a new terrain of global protest and relationships with their governments. Whether in ousting old tyrants or dealing with new allies in office, the example of Bolivia holds many lessons for...
Teachers. These are the people who put Obama in office. They handed out the pamphlets, went from door to door, stuffed the envelopes, and manned the phone banks. They buttonholed people outside grocery stores, waved posters atop freeway overpasses, and...
Chen Guangcheng, a blind, 39 year old, self-taught, human rights lawyer in China who was recently released after years in prison has been put in home detention, isolated and beaten by authorities. Winner of numerous human rights awards, Mr....
There are many different campaigns to preserve biodiversity here on Earth, and they all seemed to come together when two spunky Florida Atlantic University alumnus decided to climb a tree and fight for 700 acres of endangered Florida forest. While the ...
Oil has become the principal wealth in the hands of the great Yankee transnationals; through this energy source they had an instrument that considerably expanded their political power in the world. It was their main weapon when they decided to ea...
Talk about getting caught in a Big Lie. So desperate has been the US effort to get the killer Raymond Davis sprung from police custody in Lahore, Pakistan following his execution-style slaughter of two Pakistani intelligence operatives in broad dayligh...
Progressivess look at Wisconsin – and labor struggles to come in Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey and elsewhere – and rightly see Republicans on the attack. The Supreme Court’s dreadful Citizens United ruling gave corporations and labor unions carte...
Already the week is shaping up as a time when even slow learners will finally begin to understand reality. This is the week when things get out of control—a deadly precursor of the rest of the year. Not just overseas, where Middle Eastern governments...
“After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.”
–Nelson Mandela
January 25 was the date the Egyptian youth decided to launch their revolution. As the...
The 18 day non-violent Egyptian protests for freedom raise the question: is America next? Were Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine around, they would likely say "what are we waiting for?" They would be appalled by the concentration of economic ...
Within a week of the launching of the people’s revolution in Bahrain, the number of martyrs has reached eight, all murdered in cold blood by the riot police and soldiers. Since the first peaceful demonstration at sunrise on Monday 14th February (...
By Sunday evening, the fighting in Libya was spreading to Tripoli, and the nation’s second largest city, Benghazi, appeared to be in the hands of the protestors. Over 200 people had been killed and hundreds more wounded by security forces, and Mu...
Among the wonderfully silliest manifestations of solidarity in the Wisconsin Capitol Rotunda today was a brief troupe of four blow-up raindeer, 8 feet high, with a sign, WHITE TAILS FOR WORKERS. The issues of the deer populations never leave Wisconsin ...
There are many different campaigns to preserve biodiversity here on Earth, and they all seemed to come together when two spunky Florida Atlantic University alumnus decided to climb a tree and fight for 700 acres of endangered Florida forest. While the ...
Day five and six in Madison and momentum continues to build as finally Milwaukee Public School teachers, the largest district in the state, called in sick en masse and shut down the district. The nation has now been inspired by Wisconsinites as t...
On Monday, February 14, protesters returned to the streets of Tehran and a number of other cities (including Shiraz, Isfahan, Mashhad, and Rasht) in response to a call by the leaders of the Green Movement. While the presence of the Basij and the ...
Israel is becoming a liability to the United States, bringing US into the same international isolation into which Israel itself was cast.
The so-called "Israel Lobby", which prevents Israeli misconduct from ever being co...