|
July 17, 2002
Mike Ferner
War
Incorporated
Gary Leupp
Bush, Burqas
and the Oppression of Afghan Women
July 16, 2002
Pierre Tristam
Faith-based
Capitalism in
the Ruins of the Market
Kurt Nimmo
How My
35mm Camera Almost Became a Tool of Treason
Robert Fisk
The Kashmir
Distraction
Salam al-Marayati
When
is Terrorism
Not Defined as Terrorism?
Kathleen Christison
The
Image Problem:
Anti-Palestinian Bias
from Wilson to Bush
July 15, 2002
Gavin Keeney
In One
of Safire's Ears,
Out the Other
CounterPunch Wire
Nader in
Cuba
Ralph Nader
The Secret
World of Banking
Dave Marsh
Vincible:
Michael Jackson, Racism and the Music Cartel
Rahul Mahajan
Justice
for Bhopal
Jeffrey St. Clair
Seduced
by a Legend
The Return of Jimmy T99 Nelson
July 14, 2002
Bill Christison
The
DOA (Poem)
David Vest
I'll Never
Get Out of This Band Alive
July 13, 2002
M. Junaid Alam
A Process
of Dehumanization
Gavin Keeney
Go Tell
Karl Rove!
Matt Vidal
Corporate
"Ethics" Red Herrings
Ed Whitfield
Lessons
from Independence Day
July 12, 2002
Sean Donahue
The Other
Harken Energy Scandal: Oil, Death Squads
and Colombia
Walt Brasch
Sin Tax
Scam
"Psst. Cigarettes. A Buck Each."
Steve Perry
A Tale
of Two Twits
Wall Street Burns, Bush Fiddles, But Where's Wellstone?
July 11, 2002
Lloyd Marbet
Arrested
by the Chamber
of Commerce
David Krieger
Law vs.
Force
David Vest
Fountain
of Foo:
Strike Three Called
Irit Katriel
A Deep
Ideological Crisis
Richard Glen Boire
Dangerous
Lessons:
Public School Drug Testing
July 10, 2002
CounterPunch Wire
Third Party
Woes
South Carolina Denies Kevin Alexander Gray Ballot Status
Nassar Ibriham &
Majed Nassar
Bush's
Middle East Plan: Always Changing, Never Changing
Robert Fisk
Ain't That
America:
A Strange Kind of Freedom
Dave Marsh
The Return
of CREEP:
Record Cartel Accounting
Bernard Weiner
Hope and
Despair in
the Body Politic
Gary Leupp
European
Worries and
Bush's Terror War
July 9, 2002
St. Clair / Cockburn
The Atomic
Clock is Ticking:
All Roads Lead to Yucca Mtn.
Jack McCarthy
Florida:
a Terrorist Sanctuary for Bush's Bloody Pals?
Robert Fisk
How a Saudi
Billionaire
Does Beirut
Stanton and Madsen
God, Incorporated
Kurt Nimmo
IDF, Gangbanging
with Tanks
Bill Christison
Disastrous
Foreign Policies
of the US Part 3:
What Can We Do About It?
July 8, 2002
Rick Mercier
Yucca
Mountain Bound
Lev Grinberg
The
BUSHARON Global War
Tariq Ali
How Bush
Used 9/11 to Remap the World
Lori Allen
The Tugs
of War:
Palestinian Life Under Curfew
July 7, 2002
Alexander Cockburn
White
House Crooks
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published March 15, 2002
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
|
July
17, 2002
9/11 and Fortress Europe:
the Drama of the New Moslem
Diaspora
by Behzad Yaghmaian
The anti-immigration crusade in the West reached
new levels in recent weeks. On July 12, the liberal government
of Britain finally got its wish when it reached an agreement
with the conservative-dominated government of France to close
down the Sangatte Red Cross camp by April 2003. Months of fierce
negotiations and lobbying came to an end. The camp will be no
more. The asylum seekers_nearly 1500 Afghanis, Kurds, Iraqis,
and Iranian_will be "voluntarily" returned home.
A bill passed in the lower house of Italy
early last month is to make fingerprinting mandatory for non-EU
immigrants. Of course, provisions are being made to exclude those
holding a U.S. passport. The anti-immigrant forces gained momentum
after the arrival here of 1000 mainly Iraqi-Kurd asylum seekers
in March. Similar tough policies enacted in Denmark, Spain, and
 elsewhere in Europe. In England, isolated
camps are built in remote areas to house those seeking refuge
from unbearable economic and political conditions at home. An
educational apartheid is proposed in England by the labor government
efforts to build separate schools for the children of asylum
seekers.
Though directed against asylum seekers
from the Third World and former Soviet-block countries, migrants
from Moslem countries are at the heart of this continent-wide
policy. Moslem migrants are increasingly the targets of the "war
against terror" in Europe. Afghani and Iraqi terrorists
are claimed to have infiltrated refugees and asylum seekers:
living among them, crossing borders with them, and seeking refugee
status in the West.
The new policy is leading to unprecedented
human rights abuses and the mistreatment of those already subjected
to extreme forms of political and economic violence. It is closing
doors to those desperately in need of protection: the victims
of war, fundamentalism, and economic violence.
While war and instability continue in
Afghanistan, Afghani asylum seekers and refugees are "voluntarily"
sent home. With the downfall of the Taliban, Afghanis lost all
opportunities for gaining refugee status in the West. Over night,
nearly three million displaced Afghanis were transformed into
"economic migrants," lacking any legitimate cause for
asylum. The violence-ridden Afghanistan was now a sanctuary for
the displaced in the eyes of the West. Extreme poverty, post-war
devastation, hunger, and the repeated U.S. bombing were no longer
sufficient for granting Afghanis a home away from home. They
are now considered human shield for the terrorists.
The Iraqis face similarly hostile situations.
War, political dictatorship, economic sanction, and poverty have
caused the dislocation of a growing number of Iraqis in recent
years. The continuous threat of a U.S. invasion is already causing
more stress and the possibility of a new Iraqi exodus. Preparing
for the new influx, the UNHCR and the Iranian government have
been shipping blankets and other supplies to border areas with
Iraq. A disastrous human movement similar to the 1991 mass escape
by the Kurds is expected to occur. But, this time, the uprooted
people carry with them a stigma deeply engraved in European attitude
and policy: they are potential terrorists; among them are the
enemies of the West. Driven away from their homes, they will
be kept outside the fortress Europe.
The displaced Iraqi and Afghani people
are expected to be joined by tens of thousands of Iranians. An
unprecedented number of educated Iranians have been leaving home
due to political repression, unemployment, decline in standard
of living, and the lack of hope for economic revival and political
opening. The continuous hostility between the U.S. and Iran,
and the declaration of Iran as an "Axis of Evil" by
George Bush have produced a new wave of Iranians leaving home
in fear of a possible U.S. attack. Once again, war has become
a daily preoccupation, a worry, and a cause of fear by a population
already subjected to extreme forms of political and social instability.
Fleeing home to find a sanctuary away
from war and economic malaise, the Iranians are interrogated,
criminalized, and treated as potential terrorists. They are fingerprinted
in the U.S., Germany, and Italy. Iranian passengers of Turkish
Airline are routinely removed from the plane, asked to stand
by their luggage on the runway while the anti-terror forces search
for explosive sand other life-threatening objects.
Palestinians, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis,
Algerians, Moroccans, and immigrants from other Moslem countries
are treated with similar discriminatory policies. The continuation
of this situation is expected to lead to new forms of violence.
Many will use the services of smugglers and human traffickers
to escape their devastating conditions and reach Europe. The
Middle Eastern migrants are trafficked through Turkey, the Balkan
States, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Poland to Western
Europe. Having survived the Sahara, the North African migrants
continue their great escape on flimsy fishing boats through the
turbulent waters of the Strait of Gibraltar. They pay their life
savings to smugglers to take them to freedom on the other side
of the Strait_only 14 kilometers away. Many never lay foot on
soil. The short distance to Europe becomes their last journey.
The closing of borders will increase
the dangers of the journey of migration. The future is bleak
for many.
Behzad Yaghmaian
is a Professor of Economics at Ramapo College of New Jersey.
He is the author of Social
Change in Iran: an eyewitness account of Dissent, Defiance and
a New Movement for Human Rights (SUNY PRESS, 2002). He can
be reached at: behzad_yaghmaian@hotmail.com
Today's Features
Mike Ferner
War
Incorporated
Gary Leupp
Bush,
Burqas and the Oppression of Afghan Women
Pierre Tristam
Faith-based Capitalism's Plunge into
the Abyss of the Market
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|