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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.


CounterPunch: Complete Coverage of 9/11 and the War on Afghanistan

New Print Edition of CounterPunch Published November 28: Kevin Alexander Gray explores the crisis in America's black leadership; an FBI agent's torture confession; liberals see "silver lining" in war; married to a muslim truck driver. Note: CounterPunch has fallen victim to the @home bankruptcy, leaving us without internet access since Friday. Things may not be entirely back to speed for another week. For those of you trying to reach Jeffrey St. Clair, his new email address is: sitka@attbi.com. Subscribe Now!

December 11, 2001

Robert Fisk
Why I Was Beaten

December 10, 2001

Robert Dunham
Race and the Death Penalty:
Partners in Injustice

Andy Kershaw
Chamber of Horrors
Near the Garden of Eden

John Touchie
Isaac's on Chomsky

December 9, 2001

Jo Dillon
Journalist: The CIA Wanted
Me Killed

John Chuckman
High-Tech Puritanism

December 8, 2001

Laurence Tribe
Military Tribunals
Undermine the Constitution

Patrick Cockburn
The End of a Strange War

December 7, 2001

John Troyer
Blacklist Me!

Sen. Edwards v. Ashcroft
Military Tribunals

George Naggiar
Occupation as Terrorism

Hugo von Sponek
and Denis Halliday
Iraq the Hostage Nation

David Vest
The Coen Brothers'
Minstrel Show

Alexander Cockburn
Sharon or Arafat:
Who's the Terrorist?

December 6, 2001

CounterPunch Wire
Hampshire College the First
to Condemn the War

Robert Jensen
University Teaching After
September 11

Jack McCarthy
Does Tom Friedman Read
the New York Times?

Sam and Leila Bahour
The Psychology of a Suicide Attacker

December 5, 2001

Edward Hammond
The Only Real Way to
Prevent Biowarfare

Harvey Wasserman
Atomic Treason in the House

Carl Estabrook
America's Israel

Don Williams
Questions Barbara Walters Didn't Ask George Bush

Cockburn/St. Clair
Liberals Hail War as
Return of Big Government

Robert Fisk
The Last Colonial War?

Bahour/Dahan
It's About the Occupation

December 4, 2001

Dave Marsh
A Plea for Byron Parker

Rep. Ron Paul
Keep Your Eye on the Target

Susan Herman
Ashcroft and the Patriot Act

Tariq Ali
The Afghan King and the Nazis

November 30, 2001

Jordan Green
Disappeared in the Southland

Willliam Blum
Rebuilding Afghanistan?

November 29, 2001

Phillip Cryan
Defining Terrorism

Robert Fisk
We Are the War Criminals Now

November 28, 2001

Tom Turnipseed
A Continuum of Terror

Patrick Cockburn
Tribal Council:
Don't Blame It All on Taliban

Robert Fisk
At Last, The Truth about the Sabra and Chatila Massacres

Harry Browne
The Bill of Rights:
They Threw It All Away

Sunil Sharma
Suffer Palestine's Children

November 27, 2001

Paul Coggins
Kafka and the Patriot Act

Tariq Ali
Tigris and Euprhates

November 26, 2001

Robert Fisk
Blood and Tears in Kandahar

Jeffrey St. Clair
Boeing's Sweet Deal

CounterPunch Wire
Human Rights Abuses and
Nuke Waste Shipments

Alexander Cockburn
Harry Potter and Terrorism


A Photographic Journal of Life in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann

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 Oct. 15, 2001

8-Page Special Issue

War Diary

CIA's Assassination Plan a History of Torture in US Prisons

bin Laden and Bush Business Connections

Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype of US Food Bombs

Peter Linebaugh on Pakistan

Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher

Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em


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

December 11, 2001

Cleansing the National Soul

By Philip A. Farruggio

Our nation just memorialized the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. It was the spark that lit the explosion called "the good war". Conspicuously absent from most history books are some startling facts:

American investments in Nazi Germany at the time of Pearl Harbor were astronomical! Standard Oil of New Jersey had $120 million invested there; General Motors had $35 million; ITT had $30 million; Ford had $17.5 million.

In Charles Higham's riveting 1983 book "Trading with the Enemy" he states: "What would have happened if millions of American and British people (during WW2), struggling with coupons and lines at the gas stations, had learned that in 1942 Standard Oil of New Jersey shipped the enemy's fuel through neutral Switzerland and that the enemy was using Allied fuel? Suppose the public had discovered that Chase Bank of Nazi occupied Paris (after Pearl Harbor) was doing millions of dollars worth of business with the enemy with the full knowledge of its main office in Manhattan? Or that Ford trucks were being built for German occupation troops in France with authorization from Dearborn, Michigan? Or the ITT built the Focke-Wulfs planes that dropped bombs on American and British troops? Or that crucial ball bearings were shipped to Nazi-associated customers in Latin America with the collusion of the vice-chairman of the U.S. War Production Board?"

So what have we learned from history? How has the seed of "corporate greed" grown into what we experience today? The total lack of any semblance of patriotism, choosing instead the mantra: "the business of business is business". There are no borders to these elites, only bridges toward increased profits. These are the "puppeteers" who pull the strings of the "bought and paid for politicians", regardless of political party. These are the "war industrialists" who sell arms to both sides of many struggles, loan money to all the governments doing battle, and sit back to watch "Uncle Sam's armies" protect their corporate posteriors!

This new "war on terrorism" should have been fought decades ago, by most of the world's nations in conjunction with one another. "Search and destroy" missions conducted by our country should be replaced by "seek and arrest" actions by a United Nations police force. Any country that should somehow refuse to cooperate would be ostracized through total economic means. Believe you me, when lots of money is at stake, "principles go out the window along with the fugitives."

After that scenario our nation could truly send a new message to the world, by pulling back our troops, our airbases, and our Navy closer to home. The billions saved would go to rebuild our cities, grant every American the health care our politicians have, fix our educational system, etc., etc., etc. Then, we would discontinue foreign aid to any country that represses its citizens (which means not much aid at all). That ridiculous adage of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" has created terrible alliances with no substance. Isn't it time we redefine the manifesto our founders scripted for this republic, both morally and spiritually? Our leaders would acknowledge to the world that elements of our governments past did in fact act against our own national precepts, i.e., "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness", through many different and illegal covert actions.

Cleansing our national soul is the only recourse this nation has to redeem our past and build a true "Golden Age".

Philip A. Farruggio is a free lance writer, radio talk show host and small businessman. He can be reached at brooklynphilly@aol.com