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Coming Soon! From Common Courage Press Recent Stories June 24, 2003 Elaine Cassel Supreme Indemnity Holocaust Denial at the High Court Roya Monajem A Message from Tehran: Is It Worth It to Risk One's Life? John Chuckman The Real Clash of Civilizations David Lindorff WMD Damage Control at the Times Steve Perry Bush's Wars Web Log 6/24   June 23, 2003 Marc Pritzke Washington Lied: an Interview with Ray McGovern Conn Hallinan The Consistency of Sharon Wayne Madsen Commercials, Disney & Amistad Edward Said The Meaning of Rachel Corrie Steve Perry Bush's Wars Web Log 6/23 June 21 / 22, 2003 Alexander Cockburn My Life as a Rabbi William A. Cook The Scourge of Hopelessness Standard Schaefer The Wages of Terror: an Interview with R.T. Naylor Ron Jacobs US Prisons as Strategic Hamlets Harry Browne The Pitstop Ploughshares Lawrence Magnuson WMD: The Most Dangerous Game Harold Gould Saddam and the WMD Mystery David Krieger 10 Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Avia Pasternak The Unholy Alliance in the Occupied Territories CounterPunch Summer Reading: Our Favorite Novels Todd Chretien Return to Sender: Todd Gitlin, the Duke of Condescension Maria Tomchick Danny Goldberg's Imaginary Kids Adam Engel The Fat Man in Little Boy Poets' Basement Guthrie, Albert & Hamod June 20, 2003 Walter Brasch Down on Our Knees Robert Meeropol The Son of the Rosenbergs on His Parents Death and Bush's America Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman Grannies and Baby Bells Norman Madarasz Pierre Bourgault: the Life of a Quebec Radical Gary Leupp Bush on "Revisionist Historians" Steve Perry Bush's Lies Marathon: the Finale   June 19, 2003 Elaine Cassel Bush Plays the Racial Profiling Card: It's a Smokescreen Brian Cloughley Punch-and-Judy in the West Wing: The Powell-Rice Show David Lindorff What's Next? Mark Jacobs A Serious Conversation: a Former Foreign Service Officer on Diplomacy in the Age of Bush Alfredo Castro Bloodbath in Colombia: The Army and the Death Squads Saul Landau Lying, Flag Waving and Redefining Conservative Values Steve Perry Bush's Wars Web Log, 6/19   June 18, 2003 Wendell Berry Small Destructions Add Up Elaine Cassel Dark Star Chambers: Secret Trials, Nameless Defendents, Veiled Threats to Defense Lawyers Col. Daniel Smith Iraq's WMDs: Integrity, Ethics and Intelligence Chris Fagen Ignoring the World's Bloodiest War Rick Fantasia and Kim Voss Bush's Low Intensity War on Labor Sam Hamod Theater of Deception: Bush, Sharon, Abbas M. Shahid Alam Illuminating Tom Friedman Jon Brown Greens & Dems: a Reply to Publius Steve Perry Bush's Wars Web Log, 6/18   June 17, 2003 Dr. Susan Block Sex, Lies and WMDs Elaine Cassel Scalia, the Rumsfeld of the Supremes Roger Burbach Brazil Under Lula Dan Bacher The WTO's War on Salmon Peter Phillips and Jason Spencer Entertainment Media 2003 Nuclear Age Peace Foundation The Challenge of Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century Wayne Madsen Outting Ashcroft's Latest Hypocrisy Larry Kearney Starlight Steve Perry The Bush Administration Lies Marathon, Day 3 June 16, 2003 Frida Berrigan Death in Aceh: US Weapon Aid the Repression Publius Candidate Dem and Citizen Green Tarif Abboushi Roadmap or Roadkill? Rep. John Conyers Bush's Deceptions about Iraq Threaten Democracy at Home Julian Samuel A Review of Pilger's The New Rulers of the World Uri Avnery The Children of Death Steve Perry Bush's Lies, Part 2   June 14 / 15, 2003 Edward Said A Roadmap to What and Where? Jeffrey St. Clair Pryor Unrestraint: Killer Bill Pryor's Mad Quest for the Federal Bench David Lindorff Rumsfeld v. Belgium Jennifer Loewenstein Suicide's Most Willing Accomplice Lee Sustar US Tax System: Rigged for the Rich Ben Tripp Of Dissidents and Dissonance William S. Lind Lies, Damned Lies and Military Intelligence Joanne Mariner Rebellious Judges Gila Svirsky A Macabre Alliance Mickey Z. Where We Are Chris Floyd Metaphysics as a Guide to Murder Noah Leavitt Peru as Our Crystal Ball? Yves Engler and Bianca Mugyenyi The G8 and Africa Dr. Gerry Lower Dear Rudy, Let's Get Those Damned Liberals Ted Dace A Review of Kovel's The Enemy of Nature Adam Engel Midnight at the Apocalyptic Pancake Poets' Basement Smith, Greeder, Albert, and O'Hayer Website of the Weekend AEI: Starts Wars; Creates Poverty June 13, 2003 David Vest Bush Roadmap to What? Ron Jacobs The Iranian Revolution, Reloaded? John Chuckman The Man Who Wasn't There Jason Leopold Six Months Before War White House Silenced Critics of WMD Intelligence Michael Leon Missing Weapons, Shrinking Bush and the Media Negar Azimi Ashcroft's Cruel Version of America Saul Landau Shiite Happens Hammond Guthrie Then and Now Steve Perry Bush's Wars Web Log 6/13   June 12, 2003 Gary Leupp The Intel-gate Row in Britain: a Chronology Ahmad Faruqui The Tragic Legacy of the Six Day War Wayne Madsen Unfit for Office: Time for Rumsfeld to Resign Laura Carlsen Hunger and Security Tarif Abboushi Warm and Fuzzy in Aqaba Ray McGovern Deceived into War: Reflections of a Former CIA Analyst Steve Perry Counting Bush's Lies, part 2 Hot Stories CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Elaine Cassel Civil Liberties Watch Michel Guerrin Embedded Photographer Says: "I Saw Marines Kill Civilians" Uzma Aslam Khan The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War: What America Says Does Not Go Paul de Rooij Arrogant Propaganda Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.   Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

Victory at Little Big Horn Day June 25, 2003 "Success is Not the Issue Here" Waiting for the Whole Narrative to Unfold By ADAM FEDERMAN Q: You said you know a lot more now. Do you mean by that you know a lot more of what you don't know? Dayton: No, we know a lot more -- Q: If you know a lot more, you would have found these things [WMD]; is that right? Dayton: Remember, my mission is not only WMD, but it's all kinds of things. And we know more about what people think they saw, we know more about where people were, we know more about -- again, it's a beginning process. We've put a lot of pieces together on this. And so, yes, of course we know more. We've interviewed a lot of people. Hasn't always been successful? Of course, hasn't been successful in many cases, but that's not the issue here. Briefing on the Iraq Survey Group Friday May 30, 2003. (Briefing on the Iraq Survey Group. Participating were Stephen A. Cambone, under secretary of defense for intelligence, and Army Maj. Gen. Keith W. Dayton, director for operations, Defense Intelligence Agency.) The war against Iraq waged here in America is part of a larger narrative, the latest chapter being the war on terror, which began in earnest after the attacks of September 11. The real story has been so obfuscated, buried beneath a myriad of lies and facts, official documents and dossiers that it has become difficult to separate the fictional narrative from the truth, especially if one is not inclined to dig beneath the surface. The American Heritage Dictionary defines narrative as "A narrated account; a story." As a global audience the world has been offered a narrative, a story that outlines why the United States is waging war against a poor, defenseless, and occupied nation. The narrative is really quite simple and not all that inventive given the range of power and willingness to manipulate information that the current administration has. Something more along the lines of Paul Verhoeven's prescient film Starship Troopers (based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein) would have been more exciting and given sci-fi fans a reason to support the war. Certainly U.S. intelligence could have come up with evidence revealing the existence of brain sucking bugs inhabiting the far off deserts of Iraq, hiding in underground caves, and plotting to take over the world. Indecipherable photos could have been used to support the cause along with some intercepted noises indicating a plot to sabotage the United States. Hell, they could have just used footage from the movie. Most likely no one at the UN had seen it anyway. That's basically what Saddam was doing we are told. Preparing to wage war against the United States in some way. So the narrative goes. Saddam is a despot. He possesses weapons of mass destruction and he's willing to sell them or give them away to terrorist organizations that are fundamentally opposed to his own existence. That would be kind of like the United States giving biological and chemical materiel to Iraq? Back to the narrative. Not only does this evil tyrant possess such weapons but he has used them on his own people. This is a powerful narrative device showing that even if Saddam doesn't have weapons of mass destruction now, he did at one time and is capable of acquiring them again. The United States has nuclear weapons and is willing to use them. This is also a powerful narrative device. But of course we would only use nuclear weapons to promote freedom and to save lives like we did when we devastated Japan, razed two of its cities, and killed hundreds of thousands of people. But that's not really part of the narrative, unless perhaps you're interested in revisionist history. The final piece of the narrative, tacked on toward the end, is the liberation of Iraq. It is a key element to the whole story because without it the whole enterprise would collapse (Like that big statue of Saddam Hussein pulled down by all those Iraqi people). If it became known that the United States had no interest in the Iraqi people we would be forced to return to the less heroic elements of the narrative like weapons of mass destruction, that can't be found, and Saddam Hussein the despot, who also can't be found. But liberating Iraq is proving to be more difficult than the war planners thought and it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to justify a war based on lies and backed up with documents and "intelligence" that are plainly false. They will do their best to hold on to the narrative, to add new chapters, new characters, and information privy up until now only to the authors. But as each installment is defrauded the author's credibility diminishes. The narrative becomes tired and heavy. It no longer flows. It should have ended sooner but now there are some unexpected plot twists, an epilogue, and an appendix. Maybe even cliff notes and a couple of study guides to clarify some of the inconsistencies. But the audience is also tired. Some are burning their books, furious that an author could so mislead them. Others are demanding that it be rewritten. And still others read on hoping that the last page reveals some unknown truth. The coup de grace? What will it be? What piece of information, what reason for waging war will be issued next? Whatever it is we can rest assured that, as our National Security Adviser recently stated, "we will put together this whole picture and when the whole story is told, we will know how Saddam Hussein managed to deceive the world in the length of time that he did." Adam Federman can be reached at: adam@incamail.com Weekend Edition Features Alexander Cockburn My Life as a Rabbi William A. Cook The Scourge of Hopelessness Standard Schaefer The Wages of Terror: an Interview with R.T. Naylor Ron Jacobs US Prisons as Strategic Hamlets Harry Browne The Pitstop Ploughshares Lawrence Magnuson WMD: The Most Dangerous Game Harold Gould Saddam and the WMD Mystery David Krieger 10 Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Avia Pasternak The Unholy Alliance in the Occupied Territories CounterPunch Summer Reading: Our Favorite Novels Todd Chretien Return to Sender: Todd Gitlin, the Duke of Condescension Maria Tomchick Danny Goldberg's Imaginary Kids Adam Engel The Fat Man in Little Boy Poets' Basement Guthrie, Albert & Hamod   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /