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Today's
Stories
February 14/15, 2004
Stan Goff
Beloved Haiti
February 13, 2004
Alan Maass
Kevin
Cooper's Fight to Live
Karyn Strickler
McCarthyism in the Sierra Club
Annie Higgins
On
a Street in America
Adam Federman
Democratic Snipers Target Nader
Mike Whitney
George W. Faces the Nation
Brian Cloughley
Our Imperial Leader Has Spoken
Website of the Day
Lying Action Figure Doll
February 12, 2004
Ray McGovern
George
Tenet's Spin Cycle
Robert Jensen
Bush's
Nuclear Hypocrisy
Saul Landau
Elegy to the Salton Sea
February
11, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Hail, Kerry: Senator Facing-Both-Ways
Steve Perry
Bush
v. Bush?
February
10, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
Inquisition in Iowa
Ron Jacobs
Politics and the Beatles: Don't
You Know You Can Count Me Out (In)
Elizabeth
Schulte
The Many Faces of John Kerry
Mickey
Z
Meet the Oxmans: "The Rich
Shouldn't Sleep at Night Either"
February
9, 2004
Michael
Donnelly
Will Skull and Bones Really Change
CEOs? Inside John Kerry's Closet
Chris Floyd
Smells Like Team Spirit: the Bush
B-Boys Replay Their Greatest Hits
Bill
Christison
What's Wrong with the CIA?
Dr. Susan
Block
Janet Jackson's Mammary Moment:
Boob Tube Super Bowl
February
7/8, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
Offending Valerie: Dealing with
Jewish Self-Absorption
Jeff Ballinger
No Sweat Shopping
Dave
Lindorff
Spray and Pray in Iraq: a Marine
in Transit
Alexander
Cockburn
McNamara: the Sequel
February
6, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Are the Kurds in the Way?
Joanne
Mariner
Anita Bryant's Legacy
Saul
Landau
Happiness and Botox
Kurt Nimmo
Horror Non-fiction: A How-To Guide
from Perle and Frum
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Real Intelligence Failure:
Our Own
February
5, 2004
Benjamin
Shepard
Turning NYC into a Patriot Act Free
Zone
Khury
Petersen-Smith
A Report from Occupied Iraq: "We Don't Want Army USA"
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
Teresa
Josette
The Exeuctioner's Pslam? Christian Nation? Yeah, Right
David Krieger
Why Dr. King's Message on Vietnam is Relevant to Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Monkey Business: Of Recess and Evolution in Georgia Schools
Norman
Solomon
The Deadly Lies of Reliable Sources
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Presenting President Edwards!
February
4, 2004
Brian
McKinlay
Bush's Australian Deputy: Howard's
Last Round Up?
Mark
Gaffney
Ariel Sharon's Favorite Senator: Ron Wyden and Israel
Judith
Brown
Palestine and the Media
Frederick
B. Hudson
Moseley-Braun and the Butcher: Campaign for Justice or Big Oil's
Junta?
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's Independent Commission: Exonerating
the Spooks
M.
Junaid Alam
Philly School Workers Fight for Fair Contract
Fran Shor
Whose Boob Tube?
Kevin
Cooper
This is Not My Execution and I Will Not Claim It
February
3, 2004
Alan
Maass
The
Dems' New Mantra: What They Really Mean by "Electability"
Nick
Halfinger
How the Other Half Lives: Embedded
in Iraq
Rahul
Mahajan
Our True Intelligence Failure
Neve Gordon
The Only Democracy in the Middle East?
Laura
Carlsen
Mexico: Two Anniversaries; Two Futures
Terry
Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Powell from the Boobs & Body Parts
Fairness Campaign
Hammond
Guthrie
Investigating the Meaningless
Website
of the Day
Waging Peace
February
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
The Buddhist Nun in Tom Ridge's Jail
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Manners of Their Deaths: Capital Punishment in a Smoke-Free
Environment
Tom
Wright
The Prosecution of Captain Yee
Winslow
Wheeler
Inside the Bush Defense Budget
Lee Ballinger
Janet Jackson's Naked Truth
Leonard
Pitts, Jr
For Blacks, the Game of Justice is
Rigged
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Hollow Candidate:
The Trouble with Howard Dean
Website
of the Day
Resistance:
In the Eye of the American Hegemon
Jan. 31 / Feb 1, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate
Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities
Bernard
Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium
Jack
Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks
Christopher
Reed
Broken Ballots
Michael
Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear
Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War
Lee
Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement
George
Bisharat
Right of Return
Ray
McGovern
Nothing to Preempt
Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks
Conn
Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs
Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons
Phillip
Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit
Christopher
Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read
John
Holt
War in the Great White North
Mickey
Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley
Mark
Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key
Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif
Ben
Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert
January 30, 2004
Saul
Landau
Cuba High on Neo-Con Hit List
Michael
Donnelly
Bush's Second Front: The War in
the Woods
Elaine
Cassel
Worse Than Jacko: Child Abuse at Gitmo
David Vest
More Halliburton News, Brought to You by Halliburton
Mike
Whitney
The Kay Report: Still Defending Aggression
David
Miller
The Hutton Whitewash
Sam
Husseini
How Many People Must Die Because of This "Mistake",
Senator Kerry?
January 29, 2004
Patricia
Nelson Limerick
John Ehrlichman, Environmentalist
Ron
Jacobs
Homeland Security and "Legalized"
Immigration
Rahul Mahajan
New Hampshire v. Iraq
Greg
Weiher
Bush Calls for Preemptive Strike on
Moon and Mars
Norman
Solomon
The State of the Media Union
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Does NH Mean Anything?
January
28, 2004
Kathy
Kelly
Bearing Witness Against Teachers of
Torture and Assassination
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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Weekend
Edition
February 14/15, 2004
Faith-Based Fanatics
The
Other Intelligence Failure
By WILLIAM A. COOK
"Man is the only animal that has
the true religion--several of them."
Mark Twain
As even the conservative talk show hosts scramble
to unravel truth from fiction emanating from the White House,
another intelligence failure goes unmentioned and uninvestigated.
Which of the monotheistic faiths has the ear of God? Who among
the various exponents of truth--ministers, rabbis, or mullahs--gather
the "real" intelligence from the purported "sacred"
texts that provide God's directions to His creatures? Who bears
responsibility for this "Intelligence" community as
it makes its case for eternal war? Should the President create
yet another selective investigating committee, composed of trusted
friends of truth like Henry Kissinger, Tom Delay, Richard Perle,
or Trent Lott (there are no "Muslims" resident in this
administration), to search out fact from fiction in the "other"
rationale that brought America to invade Iraq, God's directive
that guides America to bring His gift of freedom to the Iraqi
people while insuring that Israel regains its right to the covenant
land given by G-d to them in perpetuity?
As we watch Pat Robertson's version of
the news on the 700 Club, and listen to him "forgive"
George his sins of omission in not telling the American people
that he was manufacturing the truth about Iraq's WMD and connections
to Osama, and hear him extol God's purpose in placing George
in the President's throne at this moment in time the better to
ensure that God's prophecies be fulfilled, we have an unsettling
realization that this man, and others of like cloth--Franklin
Graham, Jerry Falwell, Benny Hinn, Hal Lindsey, Pastor Hagee--influence
thousands upon thousands who wallow in their righteousness and
leave the Cornerstone Church secure in belief that God speaks
to these men just as He talks to Pat assuring him that George
will be reelected by a huge majority.
Must these men bear no responsibility
for the meaningless deaths of more than 535 American soldiers,
the pain and suffering of thousands mutilated in missile and
bomb attacks, the continuing agony of those sick unto death with
DU poisoning, not to mention the wanton destruction of innocent
Iraqi civilians, estimated now in excess of 10,000? What intelligence
did they omit when they exhorted their followers to rush to war
against the infidels? What fabrications of truth did they extract
from their Bibles, assuring the faithful that they had "received"
the word of God in dreams, that He called upon them to fulfill
His prophecies as recorded in the Book of Revelation, that He
cursed the Islamic faith and charged that it be wiped from the
face of the earth? What resident inmates of our nations mental
hospitals also hear God speaking to them but have neither the
gift-of-gab nor the wealth to air their views before the world?
What understanding of the Creator do
we receive from these self-proclaimed "Ministers of the
one true God"? Let's listen to Osama bin Laden, the alleged
"mastermind" of the chaos inflicted on America and
the roaming "evildoer" who haunts the underworld caverns
of the mid-east eluding our Texan cowboy who vows to bring him
in "dead or alive." "We will impose our religion
on AmericaGod wills it," he proclaimed in his "Letter
to America," November 24, 2002. And in the fullness of his
vehemence he yells, "Do you fear them? Allah has more right
that you should fear Him if you are believers. Fight against
them so that Allah will punish them by your hands and disgrace
them and give you victory over them and heal the breasts of believing
people." But that is not all; "It is He Who has sent
His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth (Islam),
to make it victorious over all other religions even though the
Polytheists hate it." (Quran 61:9). And, finally, this last
bit of chutzpah, "The Islamic Nation wishes to remove your
evils, and is prepared to fight you. You are well aware that
the Islamic Nation, from the very core of its soul, despises
your haughtiness and arrogance."
As an ardent student of Sayyid Qutb,
one of the founders of militant Islam, Osama understands that
"Islam and the West (are) incompatible, two camps between
which coexistence (was) is impossible. There could only be a
struggle between believers and non-believers, between secularism
and capitalism and Islam and the West with its emphasis on science
and technology obliterate(s) the validity of religion."
Thus we find others of similar mind to Osama, the Muslim Brotherhood,
for example, that calls for armed confrontation with Israel (Gregorian,
Islam: a Mosaic Not a Monolith)) or Ayatullah Khomeini
who called for a holy war against the "Great Satan,"
the United States. One turns with some degree of relief from
these fanatical fulminations to the expected peace of the other
two monotheistic faiths only to find that they too have entered
the lists with lances at the ready, swords at their sides, and
hate in their eyes.
Consider Sharon's dependence on the National
Religious Party headed by Effi Eitan, a self-proclaimed rabid
Zionist who brazenly and shamelessly shouts that Palestinians
are not ordinary people, but "uncircumcised," "little
people," and "evil." The Jews, on the other hand,
are "blessed." And they (the Jews) will come with "vengeance
against (their) terrible evil" and "make a reckoning
with them." (L.A.Times). But Effi is not the worst.
Gush Emunim rabbis teach that "Jews who kill Arabs should
be free from all punishment Arabs living in Palestine are thieves
because the land was Jewish and belongs to them." (Prof.
Israel Shehak). Add to these zealots those who design their own
versions of the Talmud citations and preach to their followers
hate, vengeance, and annihilation. Their hubris defies understanding:
"Whosoever disobeys the rabbis deserves death and will be
punished by being boiled in hot excrement in hell" (Erubin
21b), and "All gentile children are animals" (Yebamoth
98a), and "According to the Talmud, Jesus was executed by
a proper rabbinical court for idolatry, inciting other Jews to
idolatry, and contempt of rabbinical authority" (Hoffman
and Critchley), and "Those who read the New Testament will
have no portion in the world to come" (Sanhedrin 90a), and
"Jews must destroy the books of the Christians" (Shabbath
116a). These and more, more venomous than those cited, fill the
various commentaries that constitute the on-going words of the
living Talmud.
It would appear that Osama finds a sick
solace in his God that will bring havoc to unbelievers and victory
to Islam while the Zionist right-wing Jewish cohort divide G-d's
creation into the blessed and the animals who, as unbelievers,
will suffer a steaming and malodorous sauna in the hereafter.
How does one describe these gods? Having created humans with
the capacity to reason and choose, Allah damns all who disbelieve
the militant mullahs while the G-d of the Jews destroys all who
disbelieve the right-wing Zionists; if each can be believed,
all would be destroyed and none would ascend to heaven! Indeed,
the Gods they worship are brutish, sadistic, and perverse! But
lest we think that the Christian right exhorts its worshipers
to "turn the other cheek" and "do unto others
as you would have them do unto you" and "love thy neighbor
as thyself," think again.
For a paltry $25.00, you can purchase
three audiotapes from Pastor John Hagee of the Cornerstone Church
in San Antonio, Texas, tapes of sermons that focus on "Allah
and America." Add another $20.00 and you can get the video
version that permits you to witness the paunchy pastor lift the
Quran high above his head as he cites chapter and verse, in an
ever more excited crescendo, condemning the words of Allah as
interpreted by Pastor Hagee.
It's a marvelous scene; a few thousand
of his 17,000 congregation sitting in rapt attention in this
hotel-like conference center church, absorbing the truths of
the one true God as conveyed by this minister of war who sees
the anti-Christ rising against God's chosen in the final battle
prophesied in the Book of Revelation. What is the purpose of
this exhortation? Is it to bring his congregation to peace and
reconciliation with their wayward brothers and sisters? God forbid,
"No!" This 21st Century Prophet rises on his tiered
altar steps (he is the altar!) demanding that his parishioners
recognize the grave threat they face as he extracts passages
from the Quran that give credibility to his twisted interpretation
of Mohammad's visions. What does he see? His evangelical Christian
Zionist church is engaged in a spiritual war for survival; that
the demonic driven mullahs of the Islamic faith are waging everlasting
war against freedom of religion, against freedom of speech, against
the western world! "We are not a sister faith!" he
cries over and over again as his congregants lift their arms
and eyes to the chandeliers that bathe the hall in celestial
light. What must they do to these demented hordes that "want
to kill as many Americans as possible," that are developing
"long range missiles," that have "suit case atomic
bombs"? They must fight; "Victory must be our only
objective!"
"No relationship of any kind exists
or can exist between Islam and Christianity," he shouts
in stunned and somber tones as he levels his final accusations
on this faith of more than a billion people around the world.
This false religion serves as Satan's means to present "a
false path to Paradise" when Jesus Himself is the "only
way to heaven"; He alone is the one true God; "Christ
is the only savior on the planet!" Thus does he echo Osama
and Eitam in the absoluteness, no, the infallibility of his belief.
"Islam," he cries, "says Christ did not die on
the cross and he is not divine." But, strangely enough,
he does not condemn the Jewish faith for similar beliefs. He
can't. His need to convince his faithful that Revelation demands
the existence of the Israeli state if the rapture is to ensue
requires that he support the Israeli state as God's means of
fulfilling His prophecy. Ironically, Hagee does not make public,
especially to the Jewish community, that the consequences resulting
from the fulfillment of Revelation's prophecies would save only
144,000 Jews leaving the remaining millions to eternal perdition.
With friends like Hagee, who needs enemies!
Monotheism breeds men who wish to bed
with God, to bathe themselves in His glory the better to reveal
to all how blessed they are in the eyes of the Almighty. Since
God communicates with humans only through a chosen few--Moses,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Mohammad--and, conveniently, only
in abstruse words and images, these men become the conduits of
His meaning. They, like the CIA, must intercept and interpret
God's meaning. They, like the CIA, can surreptitiously maneuver
political forces to do their will by guaranteeing thousands of
votes, thousands of dollars, and allegiance to policies that
support their agenda. They, like the CIA, can effect regime change
and control governments; witness Sharon's coalition, the Iranian
Islamic state, and the Bush regime's dependence on the Christian
right-wing Zionists. And they, like the CIA, must be investigated!
The havoc currently wrenching the United
States, Israel, and Iraq arises as much from faith based fanatics
in all three religions as it does from political drives motivated
by acquisition of natural resources and dominance of geographical
areas to insure ultimate power. These fanatics resort to documents
1300 to 2500 years old, documents relevant to their time, and
use them to manufacture relevance in the 21st century. The metaphorical
narratives of these ancient documents, designed originally to
represent the interaction of tribes with the forces of nature,
how to live in a community with respect to social, economic,
and political realities, and how to understand the energies that
conflict within our beings, become, in the rantings of these
madmen, reality today despite the intrusion of science, reason,
technological advances, and hundreds of years of political change.
In the process, they must negate the simple yet elegant teachings
of those faiths that give promise to the potential of human harmony.
Here, in the words of Theodore Parker (in 1841), as he dismantled
organized religion that "fetters a man" in favor of
the spirit that Christ taught, a spirit equally at home in the
Jewish traditon and the Islamic, reside the permanent truths
that express the fullness of the human spirit:
"(That spirit) is absolute, pure
morality; absolute pure religion, - the love of man; the love
of God acting without let or hindrance. The only creed it lays
down is the great truth which springs up spontaneous in the holy
heart, - there is a God. Its watchword is, Be perfect as your
Father in heaven. The only form it demands is a divine life,
- doing the best thing in the best way, from the highest motives;
perfect obedience to the great law of God. Its sanction is the
voice of God in your heart; the perpetual presence of him who
made us Examine the particular duties it enjoins, - humility,
reverence, sobriety, gentleness, charity, forgiveness, fortitude,
resignation, faith, and active love summed up in the command,
'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind; thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself' The end seems to be to make all men one with God
It allows perfect freedom. It does not demand all men to think
alike, but to think uprightly not all men to live alike, but
to live holy"
Faith based fanatics offer no humility
only arrogance, no reverence only hypocrisy, no gentleness only
castigation, no charity only self-indulgence, no forgiveness
only condemnation, no faith only fear, and no love only hate.
They represent a small minority of the believers who find refuge
in these faiths. Of the adult population in the US and Canada,
75% are Christians, and of that number only 35% are born again
and of that number even a smaller percent are Evangelical Christian
Zionists of the Robertson/ Pastor Hagee stripe that exhort our
nation to take up arms against the infidels. Each of these fanatical
groups demands exclusivity for their membership, an exclusivity
that turns plowshares into swords. By contrast, those who heed
the spirit of faith understand in the words of the Psalmist,
"Publish His glory among all nations. His marvellous works
among all peoples"(96:3). "Mohammad preached a message
that was intensely democratic. He was insisting that in the sight
of the Lord all peoples were equal." (Houston Smith, Islam).
A Creator does not destroy His creation without destroying Himself.
No minister, rabbi, or mullah should preach destruction; it is
anathema to the purpose of religion.
Hearken to the words of Yonathan Shapira,
an Israeli pilot who refuses to fly. He bases his refusal on
two of the basic values of the Israeli Defense Forces, only one
of which I will cite here: "Human Dignity: The IDF and its
soldiers are obliged to honor human dignity. Each human being
should be respected, regardless of his race, creed, nationality,
gender, status or his social role." Nothing taught by Gush
Emunim appears in this statement; yet it is Effi Eitam and his
like that control Sharon's coalition. Where is the investigation
that will expose this reality? The vast majority of Jews hear
Yonathan's plea, but it is Sharon's savagery that speaks in their
name. "Islam's religious revivalists often express alienation
and anger about the 'ravages' of secularism, perceived amorality,
and the loss of 'traditional values' in the modern world."
(Gregorian). Osama and his ilk carry out that anger demanding
of their followers an uncompromising adherence to a rigid, literal
interpretation of the Quran forgetting that there are a multitude
of interpretations with that of the Sunnies dependent on reason
not unquestioned faith. And they represent the majority of Muslims.
No unified religions exist; there are 19 major religions in the
world with more than 270 large religious groups including 34,000
separate Christian groups. Such diversity requires separation
of church and state. And that is why Jefferson found organized
religion a threat to democracy; religion is not by nature tolerant
especially when more than one claims they have access to the
one true God.
Now if these men have incited their congregations
to overlook the deception of the Bush administration as it brought
America to an unjust war, if they insert their warmongering views
in pulpit, TV programs, and politics, have they no responsibility
for the consequences of their acts? If they cannot demonstrate
the source of their interpretations that served as a base for
their allegations demanding Bush and America complete God's prophecy,
should they not be brought before the courts for inciting mayhem
and levied appropriate damages to pay for the havoc they generated?
And should not Bush demand the same of Sharon and his coalition
since his brutality against the Palestinians is considered the
major source of terrorism in the world and has made America a
target of that hatred? Perhaps a little intelligence on this
matter would bring to light how an administration can be coerced
into a foreign policy built on superstition and fear.
Weekend
Edition Features for February 1, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate
Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities
Bernard
Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium
Jack
Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks
Christopher
Reed
Broken Ballots
Michael
Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear
Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War
Lee
Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement
George
Bisharat
Right of Return
Ray
McGovern
Nothing to Preempt
Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks
Conn
Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs
Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons
Phillip
Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit
Christopher
Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read
John
Holt
War in the Great White North
Mickey
Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley
Mark
Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key
Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif
Ben
Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert
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