Today's Stories

July 12 / 13, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Lock and Load--It's the Law!

Nicole Colson
The Ethanol Scam

Stan Cox
Fixing a Broken Agriculture

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Is There an Oil Shortage?

Wajahat Ali /
Omid Safi
The Future of Iran: an Interview with Iranian Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi

John Stauber
There May be a Left, But is it Moving? An Interview with David Sirota

Alan Farago
The Crash of the King of Liquidity

Missy Beattie
Dark Neighborhoods

Robert Fantina
Bush's Last Yes Man: Canada, Guantanamo and Yankee Poodles

Rannie Amiri
Mubarak Hires the Mosque

Gregory Kafoury
After the Obama Betrayal

Fran Shor
The Audacity of Hype

Martha Rosenberg
Why Heifer International is Rolling in Dung

David Macaray
Will There be an Actors Strike?

Andrew Wimmer
No Lies! No War!

Farzana Versey
The Kashmir Chiaroscuro

Website of the Weekend
Parsing Jesse Ventura

July 11, 2008

Kevin Alexander Gray
Why Does Barack Obama Hate My Family?

Sasan Fayazmanesh
Historical Amnesia and the Shoot Down of Iran Air Flight 655

Peter Morici
Breaking Down the Trade Deficit

Mike Whitney
Worse Than McCain?

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Oiling the War Machine

Robert Weissman
Crime, Punishment and ExxonMobil

Ramzy Baroud
The Not-So-Historic Barak-Talabani Handshake

Kelly Overton
If There is a Chimp Heaven

Adrian Burgos
In Praise of Jules Tygiel

Website of the Day
Wendell Berry on Mountaintop Removal

July 10, 2008

Brian McKenna
McCain's Melanoma Cover-Up

Paul Craig Roberts
Watching Greed Murder the Economy

Saul Landau
Mississippi River Blues

Ron Jacobs
Who Will Leave Iraq First?

Joshua Frank
Cutting Deals with Big Timber's Darth Vader

Peter Morici
What's Driving the Wall Street Rout

Alan Maass
Jesse Helms Finally Does the Right Thing

Robert Weissman
Humanitarian Failure at the G8

William Blum
Dr. Strangelove

Alan Farago
Coral Reef Meltdown

Website of the Day
Lieberman Must Go!

July 9, 2008

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Are They Really Oil Wars?

Luis Rodriguez
The Deadly Fallout from Gang Injunctions

Sheldon Richman
What's Wrong with Selling Your Vote?

Fatemeh Keshavarz
Lessons from Sa'di of Shiraz on "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"

Chad Hanson
Blowing Smoke: Logging Industry Lies on Forest Fires and Climate Change

Sen. Russ Feingold
The Problems with the FISA Bill

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Defining Deviancy Down with FISA

Dave Lindorff
Paul Krugman's Blind Spot

Stanley Heller
A Damned Good Assembly

Philip Rizk
Sick at the Gaza Crossing

Website of the Day
Mumia on Nader

July 8, 2008

Nikolas Kozloff
Riding the Colombia Gravy Train

Laura Carlsen
North America Doesn't Exist: the New Geography of Trade

Mike Whitney
Bush's Rampage in Somalia

Andy Worthington
Scandal at Diego Garcia

Patrick Irelan
The Empire Goes to the Movies

Chellis Glendinning
The Un-tied States of America

David Macaray
A Union Story

Dave Lindorff
Mumia's Long-Shot Appeal

John Chuckman
The Myths of Independence Day

Phillip Doe
FISA and the Decline of America

Website of the Day
Daniel Ellsberg on Warrantless Wiretap Bill

July 7, 2008

Patrick Bond
Can Reparations for Apartheid Profits be Won in US Courts?

Kathy Kelly
Cold Shoulders

Andy Worthington
Repatriation as Russian Roulette

Clifton Ross
A Rescue Staged for the Screen

Elizabeth Schulte
Obama's War Room

Ralph Nader
The Patriotism of Deeds

Dave Lindorff
Keeping Count

Binoy Kampmark
The World According to Jesse Helms

Stephen Fleischman
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Change

Website of the Day
Time for a Change

July 5 / 6, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Could Anyone be "Worse" Than Bush?

Jeffrey St. Clair /
Joshua Frank
Preliminary Notes from No Man's Land

Patrick Cockburn
Blowback from a Strike on Iran

Mike Whitney
Hunkering Down in Afghanistan with Field Marshall Obama

Robert Fantina
Obama, Iraq and Change

Binoy Kampmark
The Anwar Case: Snitching and Sodomizing

Rannie Amiri
Can Nasrallah Unite Lebanon?

Eric Ruder
Hidden Casualties

Brian Cloughley
Israel Flexes Its Muscles

William Blum
Some Thoughts on Patriotism

Frank Barat
The One-Word Solution

Christopher Brauchli
Bush's Phony Pollution Accounting

David Yearsley
Rubbert Shines, as US Envoy Puts Foot in His Mouth

Ron Jacobs
U.S. Blues

Karim Makdisi
On Soccer and Politics in Lebanon

Wendy Thompson /
Chris Kutalik
What Can We Learn from the American Axle Strike?

N.D. Jayaprakash
The NPT as a Roadblock to Disarmament

Ramzy Baroud
Journalistic Imperatives

Kelly Overton
Animal Rights and Obama

Richard Neville
Bitch Fights and Tomorrow's Top Model

Poets' Basement
Anderson, Gibbons, Matson and Buknatski

Website of the Weekend
Ginsberg and Cassady on "Extremists"

July 4, 2008

Kathy Kelly
Istiklal

Dave Lindorff
My War Story

Paul Krassner
Confessions of a Barista

Jackie Corr
In the Footsteps of Evel Knievel: Obama Heads Back to Butte

Laray Polk
Military-Industrial Convergence

Dan Bacher
Dead Runs: Salmon Fishing Banned in Central Valley Rivers

Walter Brasch
The Rocket's Red Glare--May be Chinese

Charles Modiano
Hall of Fame Hypocrisy

Website of the Day
Springsteen: Independence Day

July 3, 2008

Sharon Smith
Exxon's Legal Guardians

Andy Worthington
Another Torture Victim Gets Charged

Laura Carlsen
NAFTA and the Elephant in the Room

Peter Morici
Crisis Grips the Jobs Market

Ramzi Kysia
Breaking Into a Prison

Martha Rosenberg
Mandatory School Milk and the Early Death of Football Players

Anne Landman
Who Really Benefits From Voluntary Codes of Corporate Conduct?

Dave Zirin
Grand Theft Hoops

Kristin Bricker
US Contractor Leads Torture Training in Mexico

Website of the Day
Bush Tours America to Survey Damage from His Presidency

July 2, 2008

Patrick Irelan
Holy Obama

Vijay Prashad
Lunch with Karzai

Brian Cloughley
Sense of Honor, French and US Style

Ralph Nader
Economic Domino Theory

Robert Fantina
General Stupidity: McCain, Obama and Clark

Dave Lindorff
What's So Special About Veterans?

Parvez Ahmed
Obama and Those Pesky Muslim Rumors

Robert Bryce
The Democrats and Off-Shore Drilling

Website of the Day
King Corn: Q&A

July 1, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Two Months Later, Seymour Hersh Strains to Catch Up With CounterPunch

Mike Whitney
Getting to the Heart of America's Economic Crisis: an Interview with Michael Hudson

Douglas Macgregor
Obama's General?

Steven Higgs
Fighting the NAFTA Super-Highway

Andy Worthington
Guantánamo as Alice in Wonderland

Binoy Kampmark
The Global Seed Police

Dave Lindorff
Blood Money Democrats

Roger Burbach
Fighting Food Fascism

Richard W. Behan
The Story Behind George Bush's Lies

Gary Leupp
The McCain Edge Among Voters on Iraq

Website of the Day
Mountaintop Removal and the Fight for Coalfield Justice

June 30, 2008

Peter Lee
Did a Plutonium Generator End Up in the Ganges?

Jeff Sommers
Burying the Bloody Shirt; A New Age for Latvia Dawns? "Astatu Loskutovu!"

David Macaray
The AFL-CIO Votes to Endorse Obama

Martha Rosenberg
Sex Work is Different from Sex Slavery, aver Carnal Toilers

David Price
Blind Whistling Phreaks and the FBI's Historical Reliance on Phone Tap Criminality

Alexandra Early
Report from El Salvador: Why They All Keep Coming

June 28 / 29, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Guess What "Surprise" Republicans Yearn For

Jeffrey St. Clair
Nike's Bad Air

Joan P. Mencher
The Human Right to Eat

Nikolas Kozloff
Nader, Obama and White Talk

Jason Hribal
Tillie, Elephants and the Zoo

Alan Maass
Obama Swerves Right

Robert Fantina
Iraq and the New York Times

Bill Moyers /
Michael Winship
It Was Oil, All Along

Mike Whitney
A Glimmer of Light in Television Wasteland

Justin E. H. Smith
Collective Guilt and the Fate of Kosovo

Pham Binh
The Mendacity of Hope

David Yearsley
The Rest is Noise

Christopher Ketcham
19 Aphorisms

Jeremy R. Hammond
Bush and the Press vs. the Constitution

Kathleen M. Barry
An Open Letter to Barney Frank on Israel

Walter Brasch
Politics and Animal Cruelty in Pennsylvania

Brett Drugge
A Field Trip to the Reagan Library

Susie Day
Sex Sans the City

Website of the Day
How to Expose a Hypocritcal Politician

June 27, 2008

Franklin C. Spinney
The Defense Reform Trap

Jonathan Cook
Israel's Encaging of Gaza

Brian Cloughley
Chaos in Afghanistan

Saree Makdisi
Occupation by Bureaucracy

Liliana Segura
Reactionary Change: Obama and the Death Penalty

Paul Krassner
Remembering George Carlin

William S. Lind
The War and the Yellow Press

Candace Cohn
Embracing Big Brother

Ron Jacobs
What's a Voter to Do?

Binoy Kampmark
Beached in Chile

Website of the Day
Zoom Uganda

June 26, 2008

Patrick Cockburn
Who's Actually Winning in Iraq?

Nikolas Kozloff
Kinder and Gentler Assassination Techniques? Obama Waffles on School of the Americas

William P. O'Connor
The Drone of Experts

Saul Landau
McClellan's Mini Mea Culpa

Ashley Smith
Which Way Forward for the Antiwar Movement?

Dave Lindorff
Our Kids and Their Kids: Terrorists or Victims?

David Macaray
A Brief History of Union Negotiations

Binoy Kampmark
Warming Seats at the Hague: John Howard and War Crimes

Matt Reichel
There's No Hope at the Ballot Box

Remi Kenazi
You Don't Mess With the Racism!

Website of the Day
A Movement Afoot in the Heartlands

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Weekend Edition
July 12 / 13, 2008

From Dylan to Iran

Talking World War III Blues

By JAMES ABOUREZK

I’ve been listening to some old Bob Dylan songs, most notably his “Talking World War III Blues,” and “The Masters of War.”  Dylan’s protest music was a shattering wake-up call to the country back then, and it is amazing to me how similar the words to those old Vietnam era folk songs are to what we’re seeing today.  He sang of war profiteering, of the callousness of sending young men off to war to die for nothing while old men were talking.

When I was in the U.S. Senate, the CIA once held a briefing for those of us interested in Israel’s nuclear weapons program.  I rarely attended those briefings, mostly because they swore us to secrecy, then gave us the same information that we could have read in the New York Times.  In any event, in the 1970s we were told by the CIA that Israel had some 20 nuclear warheads.  Israel had developed its nuclear weapons program with the help of Apartheid South Africa, back then the only country that would allow Israel to conduct nuclear testing.

Mordechai Vanunu, who was jailed for publicly blowing the whistle on that country’s weapons program, spent years in prison for his sins.  He is now out of prison, but prevented from leaving Israel or from talking to anyone about his knowledge, which at this time is surely outdated.  But Vanunu’s offense was to disclose that Israel had some 200 nuclear weapons at their Dimona facility.

In the last few years, both Syria and Iran, fearing Israel’s nuclear capability,  have called for a nuclear weapons-free Middle East.  Both proposals were either scoffed at or ignored both by the United States and by Israel.  Of course, we would expect the Israelis to scoff, for the reason that if they were included in such a pact, they would have to give up their nukes, which now enables them to retain the title of,  “Bully of the Middle East.”

Israel has developed its nuclear weapons program out of sight of the eyes of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which it has refused to sign, but which Iran and most other countries have signed. 

What is interesting about the tough talk now coming out of Washington, as well as from the two Presidential Candidates, Obama and McCain, is that they are advocating sanctions against Iran because of their firing of long range missiles, calibrated to reach Tel Aviv.

Israel’s refusal to take part in the Treaty is an anomaly that gives George W. Bush an excuse to demonize the Iranians for developing a nuclear program, a program which, interestingly, American  intelligence agencies have said is not for making weapons, but which Israel, Bush and Sen. Joe Lieberman all say is for making weapons.

They are so certain that it is a weapons program that plans have been drawn up to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites.  Israel claims if the U.S. won’t bomb them, it will.  Now, the UN used to be an organization that would stand firm against such talk, especially if it has the potential to lead to violence, and, in this case, leading to a conflagration that threatens to light up the entire Middle East, and maybe the rest of the world as well.
 
We don’t really know how far such violence may spread, because the only other experience the world has had with nuclear war was when the U.S. “obliterated” two cities in Japan in 1945.  “Obliterate” is the word Hillary Clinton used to describe how she, as president of the U.S., would react if Iran attacked Israel.
 
But madness is the operative word here.  Israel’s war hawks, along with the Israeli Lobby, are frothing at the mouth about Iran, which has no nuclear weapons, and, as experts say, are not likely to have them for a number of years. Ahmedinejad may very well be nothing more than a loudmouth and certainly he may be crazy, but the Mullahs who really run Iran are not.  Even the thought that Iran would voluntarily commit national suicide by attacking a nuclear-armed Israel with nuclear weapons is a sign of madness in itself.   With Israel armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons, why would we be surprised that Iran would also try to develop them?  That’s a question the mainstream media refuses to ask when it reports on the bluster by American politicians.

With the same lack of foresight that went into post-war planning for the Iraq War, the Bush Administration -- and Sen. Lieberman -- cannot wait to bomb Iran’s supposed nuclear weapons sites.  The big problem here is that Iran is not Iraq.  Iran has a great many ways to retaliate, ways which Saddam Hussein did not possess.

First, there is the world oil market, already at a breaking point, fueled, not by oil shortages, but by speculators.  Iran’s potential blockade of the Persian Gulf should they be attacked would bring oil prices to new, and outrageous highs, this time as a result both of shortages and by speculation.  Some people think that the continuing tension between Bush and Iran is already the cause of skyrocketing oil prices.

Iran has other weapons other than nuclear at its disposal, and would be able to use them against a country as close as Israel.  There is little doubt that an Iranian retaliatory attack on Israel would most likely bring the United States into another Middle East war “to defend Israel” that we are currently ill-equipped to wage—but Israel doesn’t seem to care.  Simply said, because of the Iraq War, we have run out of troops to defend even ourselves, to say nothing of defending an aggressive Israel.
 
And if what the neocons are saying is true about Iran meddling in Iraq, try to imagine some real meddling by Iran with the Shiite dominated government in Iraq.  In effect, Iran is holding 150,000 U.S. troops hostage in Iraq.  Add to that what Iran might be able to do in Afghanistan, which is already teetering on the edge of disaster for U.S. interests there.

We should not forget Hezbollah, Iran’s ally in South Lebanon.  One’s imagination cannot reach far enough to picture what might happen there, but if we hearken back to the 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli war we can begin to get a picture of the result.

If we define Ahmedinejad as a big-mouthed madman, how can we define George W. Bush and Sen. Joe Lieberman, and the leaders of the Israeli Lobby?  These are nothing more, as Bob Dylan used to sing, than old men talking while young men are dying. The difference here is that George W. Bush’s threats can be backed up by the most powerful military in the world, and Israel’s threats can be backed up by the most powerful military in the Middle East. Incidentally, I find it interesting that Bush attacked Saddam Hussein for no reason except that he sat on a lot of oil.  Conversely, neither North Korea, which had more tangible nuclear weapons, nor Sudan, which is slaughtering people in Darfur, has any oil, so Bush opts for unenthusiastic diplomacy.  And neither is threatening Israel as well.
 
Should a Bob Dylan imitator once again try to make it in the music world, it’s not certain he would react the same way to the nuclear threat in the Middle East today as he did to the dangers of the Vietnam War.  America is sorely in need of another charismatic folk singer to arouse a supine Congress and a half-awake electorate to the dangers America is facing in that part of the world.

It’s apparent that our leaders have not yet learned that the outcome of wars they start are not exactly foregone conclusions.  There is no amount of post-war planning that can predict what will happen once the Middle East goes up in flames, except for the death and destruction of tens of thousands of innocent lives.  Judging from what has happened in Iraq, that’s the kind of post-war planning in which our leaders are not involved.

James G. Abourezk is a lawyer practicing in South Dakota. He is a former United States senator and the author of two books, Advise and Dissent, and a co-author of Through Different Eyes. This article runs in the current issue of Washington Report For Middle East Affairs and appears here by permission.  Abourezk  can be reached at georgepatton@alyajames.net.

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