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Did Oprah Pick Another Fibber? Truth and Fiction in Elie Wiesel's Night In his special report Alexander Cockburn interviews former Wiesel colleague and Holocaust survivor Eli Pfefferkorn. What Raul Hilberg, the Holocaust's greatest historian, really thinks about Wiesel's "Night". Also in this special issue: Is Hugo Chavez Hitler or Father Christmas? Larry Lack tells the full story of Venezuela's hand-outs to Uncle Sam's Shivering Poor. Plus, Jeffrey St Clair profiles the Endangered Visigoth and traces the rise and possible fall of Rick Pombo, destroyer of nature. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! |
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Today's Stories March 11 / 12, 2006 Ralph
Nader March 10, 2006 Ben
Rosenfeld Lila
Rajiva Saree
Makdisi Elena
Shore Joshua
Frank Dave
Zirin Aura
Bogado
March 9, 2006 John
Walsh Annie
Zirin Brian
McKenna Chris
Floyd Rachard
Itani Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Wylie
Harris Alexander
Cockburn Website
of the Day
March 8, 2006 Patrick
Bond Brian
Concannon, Jr. Pat
Williams Lance
Selfa Mokhiber
/ Weissman Walter
Brasch Vijay
Prashad Website
of the Day
March 7, 2006 Werther John
Blair Dave
Lindorff Mike
Whitney Warren
Guykema Sen.
Russell Feingold Robert
Jensen Norman
Solomon Bernie
Dwyer Website
of the Day
Ralph
Nader Dave
Zirin Vanessa
Redgrave Walter
A. Davis Joshua
Frank Nate
Mezmer Paul
Craig Roberts Website
of the Day
Alexander
Cockburn Jennifer
Van Bergen Steven
Higgs Winslow
T. Wheeler Ron
Jacobs Rev.
William E. Alberts Colin
Asher Fred
Gardner "Pariah" John
Scagliotti Seth
Sandronsky Joan
Roelofs Arjun
Makhijani Ardeshr
Ommani Diana
Barahona Ben
Tripp St.
Clair / Socialist Worker Staff Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend March 3, 2006 Laura
Carlsen John
V. Whitbeck Chris
Floyd Mohamed
Hakki Pratyush
Chandra John
Scagliotti Website
of the Day
March 2, 2006 Paul
Craig Roberts Dave
Lindorff Ramzy
Baroud Saul
Landau Joe
Allen Steve
Shore Denise
Boggs Norman
Finkelstein Website
of the Day
March 1, 2006 Mairead
Corrigan Maguire Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Faheem
Hussain Antony
Loewenstein Elizabeth
Schulte Mike
Whitney John
Ryan Michael
Donnelly Tom
Reeves Website
of the Day
February 28, 2006 Sen.
Russ Feingold Ralph
Nader Joshua
Frank Aziz
Haniffa Benjamin Dangl Norman Solomon Mike
Ferner Sharon
Smith Website
of the Day
February 27, 2006 Buncombe
/ Cockburn Paul
Craig Roberts Ingmar
Lee Ron
Jacobs Dave
Lindorff Pat
Wolff Lila
Rajiva Website
of the Day
February 25 / 26, 2006 Alexander
Cockburn Lila
Rajiva Lee
Sustar Jennifer
Van Bergen / Madis Senner Justin
E.H. Smith Paul
Craig Roberts Jason
Leopold Gilad
Atzmon Zahid
Shariff Fred
Gardner Dick
J. Reavis David
Stocker John
Bomar Mike
Marqusee Pratyush
Chandra Ben
Tripp Dr.
Susan Block Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
February 24, 2006 Alan
Maass William
S. Lind Dave
Lindorff Pierre
Tristam Meg
Bannerji Robert
Jensen Mark
Engler Jennifer
Loewenstein Website
of the Day
February 23, 2006 Chet
Richards Jonathan
Feldman Joshua
Frank Ron
Jacobs Amira
Hass Samah
Sabawi Norman
Solomon Christopher
Reed Website
of the Day
February 22, 2006 Robert
Pollin Phil
Doe Pirouz
Azadi Saul
Landau Brian
McKinlay Sam
Smith Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Diane
Farsetta Website
of the Day
February 21, 2006 Paul
Craig Roberts Franklin
Spinney Dave
Lindorff Alevtina
Rea Bruce
K. Gagnon Dave
Zirin Bill
Quigley Website
of the Day
February 20, 2006 Jennifer
Van Bergen Rachard
Itani Gideon
Levy Joshua
Frank Newton
Garver Pratyush
Chandra Seth
Sandronsky Cockburn
/ St. Clair Website
of the Day
February 18 / 19, 2006 Werther Uzma
Aslam Khan Joe
DeRaymond Edward
F. Mooney Paul
Craig Roberts Elaine
Cassel P.
Sainath Thomas
P. Healy Brian
Concannon, Jr. Fred
Gardner Rep.
Cynthia McKinney Brian
Tokar Chan
Chee Khoon Andrew
Freedman St.
Clair / Walker Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
February 17, 2006 Floyd
Rudmin Gervasio
Rodríguez Gary
Leupp Ramzy
Baroud Amira
Hass Matthew
Koehler Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Debbie
Nathan Website
of the Day
Febrauary 16, 2006 Lila
Rajiva Norman
Solomon Ron
Jacobs Paul
Craig Roberts Website
of the Day
February 15, 2006 Brian
Conacnnon, Jr. Dave
Lindorff Saree
Makdisi Joshua
Frank Amira
Hass CounterPunch
Wire Robert
Bryce Website
of the Day February 14, 2006 John
Sugg Don
Santina William
A. Cook Ray
McGovern John
Ross Website
of the Day
Lila
Rajiva Christopher
Brauchli Dave
Lindorff Ron
Jacobs Mike
Whitney Michael
Neumann Website
of the Day
February 11 / 12, 2006 Alexander
Cockburn Ralph
Nader Paul Craig
Roberts Pat Williams Fred Gardner Saul Landau John Chuckman Roger Burbach Seth Sandronsky Website of
the Weekend
February 10, 2006 Carl
G. Estabrook Sen.
Russell Feingold Roxanne
Dunbar----Ortiz Saree Makdisi Website of
the Day
February 9, 2006 Dave Lindorff Mike Marqusee Paul Craig Roberts Peter Phillips William S. Lind Christine Tomlinson Innocent Targets in the "Long War": False Positives and Bush's Eavesdropping Program Will Youmans Robert Robideau Richard Neville Peter Rost Website of the Day
February 8, 2006 Ron Jacobs Stan Cox Sen. Russ Feingold Robert Jensen Rep. Cynthia McKinney Niranjan Ramakrishnan Don Monkerud David Swanson C.L. Cook Christopher
Fons Jeffrey Ballinger Website of
the Day
February 7, 2006 Edward Lucie-Smith Robert Fisk Paul Craig Roberts Neve Gordon Joshua Frank Peter Montague Jackie Corr Jeffrey St.
Clair Website of the Day
February 6, 2006 Christopher
Brauchli Robert Fisk John Chuckman Jenna Orkin Paul Craig
Roberts
February 4 / 5, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Mike Ferner James Petras Alan Maass Fred Gardner Ralph Nader Bill Glahn Saul Landau Laura Carlsen James Brooks Mike Roselle John Holt Sarah Ferguson William S.
Lind Niranjan Ramakrishnan Seth Sandronsky Derrick O'Keefe Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Elisa Salasin St. Clair / Vest Stew Albert Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
February 3, 2006 Toufic Haddad Heather Gray Tim Wise Conn Hallinan Eva Golinger Daniel Ellsberg Dave Zirin Robert Bryce Website of
the Day
February 2, 2006 Winslow T.
Wheeler Stan Cox Rachard Itani Mike Whitney Amira Hass Norman Solomon Michael Simmons Christopher
Reed Website of the Day
February 1, 2006 Sharon Smith Jason Leopold Cindy Sheehan Joseph Grosso Earl Ofari Hutchinson Steven Higgs Robert Robideau R. Siddharth Jim Retherford Rep. Cynthia
McKinney Paul Craig
Roberts Website of
the Day
Subscribe Online
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Weekend
Edition Robert Fisk's "The Great War for Civilization"A Thousand Pages of RageBy ROBERT BRYCE It's 1,000 pages of rage. One thousand and thirty eight pages, to be exact. And Robert Fisk, one of the best, most courageous Westerners who writes about the ongoing military conflicts in the Middle East, justifies that rage on every page of his magnum opus, The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East. Fisk, a reporter for the British newspaper, The Independent, has covered the Middle East for nearly three decades. And he has brought formidable skills to that assignment. Fluent in Arabic, and incredibly dedicated to his job, Fisk repeatedly returns to the very front lines of the war zones, telling the stories of individual soldiers and their terrors. Fisk's willingness to repeatedly visit war zones proves his personal bravery. He takes readers with him to the battlefields of the Iran-Iraq War, the First Iraq War, and the Second Iraq War. And his unflinching descriptions of what he sees are not to be read by the squeamish. In one visit to a hospital in Baghdad, he writes "I'll leave out the description of the flies that have been clustering round the wounds in the Kindi emergency rooms, of the blood caked on the sheets and the dirty pillow cases, the streaks of blood on the floor, the blood still dripping from the wounds of those I talked to. All were civilians. All wanted to know why they had to suffer." There are dozens of other horrifying passages in this book descriptions of bodies blown apart by bomb blasts, of severed heads. There are vivid descriptions of the torture procedures used by the Iranians, the Iraqis, the Israelis and others. And by page 1,000 or so when Fisk catalogs some of Saddam Hussein's favorite methods of torture, it becomes too much to tolerate. But there's a reason for Fisk's gruesome recitations: they are graphic (perhaps pornographic) pictures of warfare and despotism. Blood and guts aside, Fisk is a graceful, passionate writer. And it's the passion that makes this book sing. Fisk plays no favorites. He is disgusted by the duplicity and mendacity of Western leaders and Arab leaders alike. His passion is for the ordinary people that he meets. And he introduces us to many: the survivors of the Armenian genocide, the Iraqi victims of American bombing attacks, the Palestinian victims of Israeli missile attacks, the Iranian soldiers who were hit by Saddam Hussein's poison gas assaults, the young Algerian who was subjected to savage torture by Algerian policemen. (Again, vivid descriptions of the torture methods that are not for the squeamish). He also provides insights into the views of Osama bin Laden, who Fisk has interviewed twice. Fisk's book is particularly
interesting for American readers like this reviewer
who seldom see news coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
that tells of the conflict from the Palestinian side. In 1982,
Fisk was among the first reporters to visit the Sabra and Shatila
refugee camps in Lebanon after several thousand Palestinians
were slaughtered by the Christian Phalangists allied with the
Israelis. Fisk repeatedly Fisk reserves special disdain for reporters from the western media outlets and particularly for the New York Times, the paper that led the American media's cheerleading in the months before the launch of the Second Iraq War in 2003. Fisk says that the Times was a "virtual mouthpiece for scores of anonymous U.S. 'officials'" all of whom supported the war. And he shows how newspapers in Britain and the U.S. trumpeted every bit of fabricated news about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction while ignoring the data coming from independent analysts which suggested that Iraq did not, in fact, have any. Fisk recounts the latest chapters of the West's ongoing militarization of the region. "In 1998 and 1999 alone, Gulf Arab military spending came to $92 billion. Since 1997, the Emirates alone had signed contracts worth more than $11 billion, adding 112 aircraft to their arsenal" He tells of meeting arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov at an Abu Dhabi arms bazaar in 2001. The man who created the AK-47, the weapon that has become a symbol of warfare around the world, was "a small, squat man with grey coiffed hair and quite a few gold teeth." And Fisk allows Kalashnikov to tell his version of history, that he is not to blame for the violence done by the rifle that bears his name, instead, "I think the policies of these countries are to blame, not the weapons designers. Man is born to protect his family" Fisk seems to have been at every important event affecting the Middle East over the past three decades. He has seen the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, the Iran-Iraq war, the defeat of the Soviet army in Afghanistan, the Algerian civil war and Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. He was at the United Nations in February of 2003 to hear Secretary of State Colin Powell presented his dubious evidence against Iraq. And of course, Fisk was in Baghdad a few weeks later when the U.S. began what he calls "this frivolous, demented conflict." The most powerful passage in this book comes on page 378, where Fisk dismantles the rhetoric being used by the Bush Administration and other politicians to justify the massive militarization of Iraq and other regions of the Middle East. Fisk strips naked Bush's vaunted "global war on terrorism" by showing how Bush and others are debasing the language. It's a passage so powerful that I dearly wish I'd written it myself. It deserves full quotation: "Terrorism" is a word that has become a plague on our vocabulary, the excuse and reason and moral permit for state-sponsored violence our violence which is now used on the innocent of the Middle East ever more outrageously and promiscuously. Terrorism, terrorism, terrorism. It has become a full stop, a punctuation mark, a phrase, a speech, a sermon, a be-all and end-all of everything that we must hate in order to ignore injustice and occupation and murder on a mass scale. Terror, terror, terror, terror. It is a sonata, a symphony, an orchestra tuned to every television and radio station and news agency report, the soap-opera of the Devil, served up on prime-time or distilled in wearingly dull and mendacious form by the right-wing "commentators" of the American east coast or the Jerusalem Post or the intellectuals of Europe. Strike against Terror. Victory over Terror. War on Terror. Everlasting War on Terror. Rarely in history have soldiers and journalists and presidents and kings aligned themselves in such thoughtless unquestioning ranks. In August 1914, the soldiers thought they would be home by Christmas. Today we are fighting for ever. The war is eternal. This is not a perfect book. I wished for better attribution and more footnotes. Fisk helpfully place his footnotes on the page in which the notes appears, rather than hiding them in the back of the book. But there are too few footnotes and too few attributions of sources and quotations. Second, and most obvious, this book is too long. Better editing could have cut the book by a third and still made it work. That said, Fisk's ability to sustain his rage for 1,030 pages is remarkable and laudable. And for the dedicated readers who finally reach page 861, they will find Fisk's personal credo. There he quotes the Pakistani national poet Allam Mohammed Iqbal, who wrote "Of God's command, the inner meaning do you know? To live in constant anger is a life indeed." Fisk's a man of constant anger. And he directs it toward the miscreants who have used their violence on the Middle East "ever more outrageously and promiscuously." And yet, amidst Fisk's rage and righteous indignation lies an unspoken, secular prayer for peace, a prayer that the violence that has haunted the entire region for decades might one day be stopped. It's a long prayer 1,038 pages but it deserves to be read by everyone interested in knowing the modern history of the Middle East. Robert Bryce is the author of Cronies:
Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate.
He may be reached at Robert@robertbryce.com.
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from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann  Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair          Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.                  |
