Coming
in September
From AK Press
Featuring Essays by:
Edward Said, Robert Fisk, Michael Neumann, Shahid Alam, Alexander
Cockburn, Uri Avnery, Bill and Kathy Christison and More
Recent
Stories
August
4, 2003
Bruce
Jackson
News that Isn't News: How the NYT's
Pimps for the White House
August
2 / 3, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Meet the Real WMD Fabricator: Rolf
Ekeus
Tamara
R. Piety
Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down
Francis
Boyle
My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool
David
Vest
Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side
Neve Gordon
Nightlife in Jerusalem
Uri
Avnery
Their Master's Voice:
Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus
Robert
Fisk
Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq
Jerry
Kroth
Israel, Yellowcake and the Media
Noah Leavitt
What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to
Intervene?
Saul
Landau
The Film Industry: Business and Ideology
Ron Jacobs
One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson
Thomas
Croft
In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta
Amadi Ajamu
Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader?
Poets'
Basement
Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming
August
1, 2003
Joanne
Mariner
Stopping Prison Rape
Alex Coolman
Who Moved My Soap: Trivializing
Prison Rape
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Stan Goff
Injury and Decorum: The Missing Wounded in Iraq
Wayne
Madsen
Europe Unplugs from the Matrix
Robert
Fisk
Wolfowitz the Censor
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft Loses Big in Puerto Rico
Website
of the Day
Stop Prisoner Rape
July
31, 2003
Ray
McGovern
The Prostitution of Intelligence
Brian
Cloughley
Wolfowitz's Operative Statement
Sheldon
Hull
The RIAA's Jihad:
The Devil's Music (Industry)
Elaine
Cassel
The Next Time You Crack a Lawyer Joke, Think of These Attorneys
Sheldon
Rampton
and John Stauber
True Lies: Propaganda and Bush's
Wars
Hammond
Guthrie
Speculation Blues
Website
of the Day
Army of One?
July
30, 2003
David
Lindorff
Poindexter the Terror Bookie
Marjorie
Cohn
Why Iraq and Afghanistan? It's About
the Oil
Elaine
Cassel
How Ashcroft Coerces Guilty Pleas
in Terror Cases
Zvi
Bar'el
The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War
Lisa Walsh
Thomas
Killing Mustafa Hussein: Death of a Child, Birth of a Legend?
Sean
Carter
Pat Robertson's Prayer Jihad: God, Sodomy and the Supremes
ND Jayaprakash
India and Ariel Sharon
Steve
Perry
Bush's Top 40 Lies
Website
of the Day
Bring Them Home Now!
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
July
29, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
"Journalist Spotted! Journalist
Dead!" Guatemala Bleeds; US Press Yawns
Thomas
J. Nagy
The Belligerent Dr. Pipes
Kurt Nimmo
Tom Delay Goes to Jerusalem
Chris
Floyd
Dead Reckoning: Bush Warriors Sign Off on War Crimes
Robert
Fisk
Another Botched Raid; Another Massacre
Jason Leopold
Did Chalabi Help Write Bush's State of the Union Address?
Conn Hallinan
Food Bully: Bush's Biotech Shock and Awe Campaign
Dan
Bacher
Sacramento's War on Free Speech
Ray
McGovern
Cheney Chicanery
Website
of the Day
Julie Hilden Caught on Tape
July 26 / 27, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
NYT's Screws Up Again; Uday and
Qusay Deaths Bad for Bush; Gen. Hitchens at the Front
Gary
Leupp
Faith-Based Intelligence
Saul Landau
A Report from Syria
Stan
Goff
Bring 'Em On Home, Now!
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Book Cooking at Boeing
Andrew
Cockburn
The Sons Are Dead; Now the Blood Feud
Begins
Jason Leopold
CIA Points the Finger at the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans
Robert
Fisk
The Power of Death
Joanne
Mariner
Monsieur Moussaoui
Standard
Schaefer
Joblessness and the Invisible Hand
M. Shahid
Alam
The Global Economy Since 1800: a Short History
Harry
Browne
Northern Ireland: the Other Faltering Peace Process
Fidel Castro
Moncada, 50 Years Later
Lula
Democracy Requires Social Justice
Edward
S. Herman
Refuting Brad DeLong's Smear Job on Noam Chomsky
Ron Jacobs
Guided by a Great Feeling of Love: a Review of Gordon's The Company
You Keep
Julie
Hilden
A Photographer, an Offer and Cameron Diaz's Topless Photos
Adam Engel
Man Talk
Poets'
Basement
Keeney, Witherup, Short, Nimba, Guthrie and Albert
Hot Stories
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
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.
|
August
4, 2003
Don't
Do Interviews Before Flying
I
Was Detained by Airport Cops
By
BRUCE GAGNON
On July 28 I was returning home after two days
of speaking in Louisville, Kentucky. While in the Louisville
airport, after having just received my boarding pass, I got a
call on my cell phone from a reporter with the Columbus Post-Dispatch
(Ohio) who wanted my comments about the Global Network's position
on NASA's "Project Prometheus"--the nuclear rocket
to Mars.
The interview lasted 10 minutes at the
most and in it I outlined these three key points:
1) The exponential escalation of launches
of nuclear power into space dramatically escalates the chance
of an accident
2) DoE has a long and sad track record
of local contamination of workers and communities building bombs.
Can we expect anything else as they now ramp up the labs to produce
more plutonium for nuclear space missions?
3) NASA has announced that from now on
all space missions will be "dual use", meaning that
each NASA mission will be both military and civilian. Thus the
development of nuclear reactor technology for space missions
will also become a military technology.
Immediately after finishing the interview
I bought a newspaper and headed for the airport security screening
line and my boarding gate. Just as I entered the line two policemen
asked if I was Bruce Gagnon. They then directed me to follow
them to the other end of the airport and would only say that
I had been overhead making dangerous statements.
Amazingly they knew my name and had a
copy of my boarding pass. All of this within 12 minutes after
checking in at the airport.
As we walked to their office I racked
my brain to understand what I might have said and to whom! Once
inside the police inner sanctum I was questioned by three cops
who wanted by name, my ID, my reason for being in Louisville,
where I had spoken, to whom had I spoken.
Then they informed me that I had been
overheard talking about bombs and contamination.
They searched by bag and one officer
found my copy of the constitution and asked if I always carried
it with me. I told him "Yes, you never know when you might
need it."
It took me a moment to realize that someone
must have heard my statements to the reporter about the nuclear
rocket. So I explained the situation to them. Luckily I had remembered
the name of the reporter and I gave that to them as well. One
of the cops then called information and got the number for the
Columbus newspaper and called the reporter. He verified that
I had just spoken to him about bombs and contamination and suggested
they let me go.
But the cops were not done.
They then ran a national ID check on
me to make sure I was not on some terrorist wanted list. Then
they let me go and I headed for my gate.
I still made my plane but as I was boarding
one of the cops stood by the door at the gate to make sure I
got on the plane. (Must have thought I'd slip out the back way
or something.)
The remarkable thing to me is just how
paranoid everyone has become that people are now reporting anyone
that says any "key" word in airports, or probably anywhere
else. I told the cops that I thought potential terrorists were
not likely to stand in the middle of an airport and talk on the
phone about bombs and contamination.
My trip to Louisville was sponsored by
the local Fellowship of Reconciliation chapter. On Sunday, July
27 (my birthday) I spoke at the Central Presbyterian Church about
the militarization of space and then on Monday at noon a different
group heard me talk about the "Price of Endless War"
at a local restaurant. Veteran activist Jean Edwards was the
leading organizer of the trip and I stayed in the home of retired
Presbyterian minister David Bos.
Just the week before David Bos has arranged
for me to fly to Daytona Beach, Florida to deliver two workshops
at the annual conference of the National Association of Ecumenical
& Interreligious Staff. This was an important opportunity
to present our message to religious leaders from throughout the
nation.
One person who attended one of my workshops,
and added much to it, was former Congressman Bob Edgar, now the
General Secretary of the National Council of Churches.
My Louisville airport experience underscored
to me the dangers we face in our nation today. While we all are
concerned about terrorist attacks, I am frankly much more concerned
about the loss of our civil liberties in the name of protecting
us from terrorism.
The constitution is a very fragile document.
It is something we should all carry with us and fight to hold
onto.
Bruce K. Gagnon
is coordinator of Global
Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space based
in Brunswick, ME. He can be reached at: globalnet@mindspring.com
Weekend Edition Features for August 2/3, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Meet the Real WMD Fabricator: Rolf
Ekeus
Tamara
R. Piety
Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down
Francis
Boyle
My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool
David
Vest
Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side
Neve Gordon
Nightlife in Jerusalem
Uri
Avnery
Their Master's Voice:
Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus
Robert
Fisk
Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq
Jerry
Kroth
Israel, Yellowcake and the Media
Noah Leavitt
What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to
Intervene?
Saul
Landau
The Film Industry: Business and Ideology
Ron Jacobs
One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson
Thomas
Croft
In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta
Amadi Ajamu
Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader?
Poets'
Basement
Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming
Keep CounterPunch
Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|