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Read Cockburn and St. Clair's Whiteout: the CIA, Drugs and the Press and discover how the CIA gave a helping hand to the opium lords who took over Afghanistan, thus ushering the Taliban into power.

New Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively to Subscribers: Welcome to the Capitalist System! Love It or Change It: Cooking the Balance Sheets? We're So-o Shocked; Martha Stewart's Tips for Prison Décor? Don't Bet on It; Fiddling While Rome Burns: Liberals Pledge Allegiance to Ethic of Greed and Exploitation; Ridge Suggests Big Labor is Tool of Terrorism; Drink Water in Vegas and Glow in the Dark: Senate Okays Mad Yucca Mountain Plan; When Giants Walked: Jim Abourezk Recalls His Senate Years; Vanessa's Postcard from Down Under. Remember, the CounterPunch website is supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Or Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683

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

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Published March 15, 2002

  • Facing Down Rehnquist and Scalia:
  • Jennifer Harbury at the Supreme Court;
  • ADL Throws in Towel, Pays Up:
  • How They Worked for Apartheid Regime and Spied on NAACP:
  • Cockburn on America the Bully:
  • From Teddy Roosevelt to George W.
  • St. Clair on Musicians Against the Death Penalty & The Legacy of the Mekons.


    Search CounterPunch

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


Private Warriors
by Ken Silverstein

CounterPunch's Booktalk

July 17, 2002

Remember Jesus, George?

The New Role Model

by Philip Farruggio

"The man who would be President", during his campaign, picked the "Man from Nazareth" as his role model, causing this writer to almost fall out of my chair. On election eve, I sadly realized how almost 50% of the voters bought into this obviously shallow man. Of course, the "other side of the aisle" had their own shallow man. I guess voting for one of my role models, Ralph Nader (others include: George Seldes; Michael Parenti; Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky) should only be construed as tipping the balance from "corporate A candidate" to "corporate B candidate".

Interesting how a President who did perhaps his own "insider trading", with a VP under that same cloud, should now condemn a practice he and his "kind" have profited from for generations. A President who referred to (this year's) "corporate enemy #1 as "Kenny Boy", while his VP included "Kenny Boy's" people in those secret U.S. energy policy meetings. Then they chose a corporate (securities industry) attorney to head our SEC. If I recall the new testament, the "man from Nazareth" chased (and ridiculed) the moneylenders from the temple. Since this nation was blessed by our Creator, perhaps we should look upon our government structure, with our Constitution and Bill of Rights, as our "Temple of Truth, Justice and Democracy". Is it democratic when the CEOs of our Fortune 100 corporations earn, on average, over 400 times their lowest employee's salary, while millions struggle to just stay afloat? Does such greed fit with Bush's role model's legacy?

The majority of our population is made up of working folk--people who have to get up each day and punch out 6, 8 or 10 hours. Our median income for a full time worker is way less than $40k a year. That's peanuts with what the dollar can buy in this year 2002. Families of four usually must have both parents working in order to make that mortgage, or more likely, rental payment. Factor in the car payments (usually two), the ever increasing health insurance premium (my own went up 40% after just one year), the utility bills and on and on. My confusion is how in the heck would anyone who fits the above stated criteria ever have voted for the "man from Midland via Nazareth"? Why would a beaten down American working person, taken over the coals with this "free trade" nightmare everyday, support a group that only cares about its corporate sponsors? Even our "watered down" mainstream media is revealing how deeply these corporate scandals knife our economy.

Please be advised: this is not an essay supporting the current Democratic Party. With the exception of the Progressive Caucus, that party is not much better than the "Bushes". The Dems gave us Nafta, Gatt, the Telecommunications act of 96, the Welfare Reform Act, the bombing of Yugoslavia, increased weaponry spending, and other counter democratic measures. No, this is not an essay supporting that alternative. Rather, this is a plea to the real "silent majority' of our Republic. It's time to reject both these parties. It's time to think as independents and refuse to vote for people who do not have working folk's interests at heart. Start by standing up to these "bought and paid for" hacks. Run against them. Coerce them to institute clean election laws--to get private monies out of political campaigns. If a conservative state like Maine could implement them in 1996, any state could do it. Make this one issue the only issue. Refuse to support for any candidate that will not formally, in writing, agree to vote for clean election laws. Start petition drives in your towns and cities. Have meetings at the library or any place that gives free space. Write or e-mail the local papers, continually flooding them with demands for true election reform. Get a group together and show up at city council meetings, and the offices of State and Federal reps, demanding their support of this one issue. If they give you the usual "lip service", vote no to their re-election bids.

Yes, we all need good and truthful role models. Someday perhaps, you the reader will become more active in getting this corrupt and polarizing system to change. Think of what a role model you will become.

Philip Farruggio, son of a longshoreman, is "Blue Collar Brooklyn" born, raised and educated (Brooklyn College, Class of '74). A former progressive talk show host, Philip runs a mfg. rep. business and writes for many publications. He lives in Port Orange, FL. You can contact Mr. Farruggio at e-mail: brooklynphilly@aol.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

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