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Coming Soon! From Common Courage Press Recent Stories June 17, 2003 Peter Phillips and Jason Spencer Entertainment Media 2003 Wayne Madsen Outting Ashcroft's Latest Hypocrisy 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   June 11, 2003 Jeffrey St. Clair Attack of the Hog Killers: Why the Generals Hate the A-10 Elaine Cassel Meet Michael Chertoff: Ashcroft's Top Gremlin David Lindorff The Republican Drive to Eliminate Overtime Pay Tom Gorman Greens, the Antiwar Movement and 2004 Alfredo Castro Colombia: The Most Dangerous Place on Earth for Trade Unionists Nnimo Bassey and Lawrence Bohlen Bush Must Stop Telling Us What to Eat! Julie Hilden Spike Lee v. Spike TV CounterPunch Wire Blair Bros. Change Jobs! Eric Hobsbawm The Empire Expands, Wider and Still Wider Steve Perry DHS: As Big a Planning Snafu as Iraq?   June 10, 2003 Benjamin Shepard A Season in the Anti-War Movement Chris Floyd Bush Family Lies About Iraq and Nazi Germany Wayne Madsen Weaponsgate Jason Leopold Powell's Denials Ring Hollow Richard Lichtman Whining, Whimpering Leftists Confront the Logic of American World Domination Ray Close A CIA Analyst on Why the Lies About WMD Matter Hammond Guthrie Banking on Saddam? Steve Perry Bush's Wars Web Log 6/10   June 9, 2003 Alex Coolman Male Rape in US Prisons Elaine Cassel Ashcroft is Coming! Lee Sustar Is Iran Next? Agustin Velloso Equatorial Guinea: Few Rich, Many Poor Gila Svirsky Some Lives Are Worth Less Than Others Dr. Gerry Lower Human Worth in Bush's America Michael S. Ladah A True Liberation Ishmael Reed Iraqi Slaughter, Mayhem and Plunder Steve Perry How to Beat Bush, part 1   June 7 / 8, 2003 Alexander Cockburn The Terrible Truth Jeffrey St. Clair Going Critical: Bush's War on Endangered Species Joanne Mariner Ashcrofts Sides with Torturers Steven Sherman A Different Theory of Everything Ron Jacobs Sports, Politics and the 60s M. Shahid Alam Pauperizing the Periphery Amelia Peltz If This is the Road, I'd Rather be Lost Shelton Hull Another Powell, Another Capitulation Binoy Kampmark Nuclear Deterrence and North Korea Ben Tripp A Fish Story Sen. Robert Byrd Where is the Outrage? Robin Philpot Congo Distortions Julie Hilden Murder and the Matrix Laura Flanders An Interview with Isabel Allende David Lindorff The Last Byline Adam Engel Talk Dirty Scary Monsters Poets' Basement Kearney, Reiss, Guthrie, Albert and Hamod   June 6, 2003 Elaine Cassel Ashcroft the Insatiable David Krieger The Big Lie Ramzy Baroud Sharon and the Myth of the Peacemakers Anthony Gancarski Sharansky: "Crucifixion is a Privilege" Sam Hamod His Own Little Country Sean Carter Why Indict Martha Stewart and Not Ken Lay? David Lindorff Cracks in the Consensus Stew Albert Ari's Great Set Steve Perry Greens and Moore in 04? No   June 5, 2003 Jeffrey St. Clair Pools of Fire: The Looming Nuclear Nightmare in the Woods of North Carolina Imraan Siddiqi Ann Coulter's Foul Mouth Michael Leon Clinton, Reno & Waco: Remember What They've Done Robert Jensen Texas Pledge Law Undermines Democracy Ann Harrison Rosenthal is Free, But the Fight isn't Over Paul Dean How You Can Be Deliriously Happy in the Age of Bush Gary Leupp When Spooks Speak Out Website of the Day Evidence in Black and White?       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

June 18, 2003 Theater of Deception Bush, Sharon and Abbas By SAM HAMOD George W. Bush, it appears is an adept thespian. Look at the way he kept telling the world that he was "doing all I can not to go to war with Iraq"--when in fact, he'd made the decision months earlier to definitely go to war against Iraq. We now have the famous theatre of the Aqaba Summit. Here was GW, Ariel and Mahmoud Abbas--all smiling, shaking hands, making promises--even promises Mahmoud should never have made just to please GW and Sharon. But it now appears that Ariel and GW had their own plan that Mahmoud was not privy to--that Aqaba was pure theatre of the absurd for GW had told Ariel, go ahead, kill all the Hamas group and let's get rid of them once and for all. GW made a light protest when Sharon made his bold announcement, but within 24 hours, GW made clear that Sharon was right to go after all those "terrorists" who were trying to fight for their homes, land and families--in the same way GW is sure that those Iraqis who are resisting his "liberation" (aka occupation) are "Saddam loyalists" (not Iraqis), and anyone else who doesn't believe in and follow GW is nothing but a trouble maker who should be "punished" (as he told France, Germany and Turkey). So now the theatricality is over with, GW's mask is off, he is on the stage of the world embracing Ariel Sharon's dastardly actions. Any hope for this phony "roadmap" is gone, and the executioner seen is Sharon, but the one behind Sharon, the one who could stop him, but who instead supports him, is the real mover--GW Bush, or own little Georgie boy. When Sharon made his famous speech to the Knesset last week, he stated, "We must rid ourselves of Hamas if there is to be peace. We shall hunt them down until all these terrorists are killed." At first, GW made a comment, "This is not helpful." But within 24 hours, he reversed himself and said he agreed with his hero, Sharon, and wished him Godspeed in is mission to kill the members of Hamas. It defies logic to think then of Bush as an honest broker, but it allows me and several other friends, some of whom are people who have abandoned Israel is a fraudulent dream, to believe that it was all staged so that Bush could keep his promsie of a "roadmap" to Blair, Straw, the EU and the Arab and Muslims "friendly nations" as he had promised; after the staging, Sharon was once again, as he has been for the past two years, let on the loose to go on another rampage of killing in Palestine in the name of "security." It gets to be a tired song, a repetitious lie that even children can see through, though not the U.S. media!?? One must never forget that soon after taking office, GW met with Sharon, dubbed him a "real peacemaker" and shortly after Sharon returned to Israel, GW bought a silver grey coat of the type that Sharon wore. It appeared that careful real father, GUSH senior, was replaced by a bloodthirsty, power-hungry, surrogate father, Ariel Sharon. From that time on, with the aid of the opportunity of 9/11, GW has followed Sharon's lead on every matter in the Middle East, has imported Mossad agents to help the FBI and CIA, has allowed the Mossad to interrogate prisoners at Guantanamo and to teach our American boys how it's done, and has even allowed American troops to learn from the Israeli military of "how to treat those Arabs"--with unending brutality, be they children, women, elderly or anything else. Remember the days of the Clinton presidency? When Bill lied to the public about how little the Israelis were really giving up, and about the bantustans the Palestinians were getting for all their years of the "peace process." Clinton loved the process aspect of it; in that way, little had to be done exept keep the two sides talking while Israel did what it wanted in terms of destruction of Palestininan homes, lives and rights. All the while, Clinton hoped to come off as a great peacemaker, while having done nothing but aiding Israel to keep up their process while their actions spoke louder to those who knew the truth on the ground. Clinton knew that Barak was putting in hundreds of settlements while the Middle East "peace process " dragged on--but kept stressing that the Palestinians would get a small amount of Jerusalem and some of their own land back. Clinton rarely told the truth, but always covered his ass with lies, and never took off his mask of bias until he left the presidency--at which time he began raising money for Israel in NYC and in other parts of America and the world (and does to this day.) Clinton even went so far, in a recent speech, to say that if the Palestinians ever really attacked that he "would be in the trenches fighting for Israel." But GW has now taken off the American mask, and as the poet Robert Bly says, we now "see the teeth mother, at last." But Bush hadn't even kept up this pretense until just before the invasion of Iraq when he wanted Arab, Muslim and Turkish help--and received it. The Arab and Muslim nations, as did the British and some in the EU believed he would actually put forth a "roadmap for peace" and help implement it. Ah, but they were fooled by this two-faced thespian. What is terrible about all this is that the Palestinians, Arab and Muslim leaders ever believed anything that Bush said after his lies and his attack upon Iraq. They struggled to put a new person in charge, to lessen Arafat's authority, to try to silence Hamas and to calm matters down so as to get along with Israel. And what did they get for it? Only more treachery, more lies and more betrayal, as is evidenced by these recent threats from Sharon and support of these threats by Bush and his national security council. Even the allegedly even-handed Colin Powell, who just recently addressed many Arab and Muslim leaders and their ambassdors, joined the chorus of "we must be rid of those terrorists in Palestine if peace is to come." Unfortunately, the truth was once again destroyed because many Palestinians, as with Iraqis in Iraq, are not Hamas or Saddam members or loyalists, they are simply people who want to defend their families, their homes and their lands. They are not terrorists, they are simply human beings trying to protect and preserve what is theirs. But to Sharon, Bush and Powell, they are "terrorists" and must be wiped out--the same thing that happened to the Native Americans on this continent--so I guess little has changed in 300 years (or 3000 years for that matter) in terms of name-calling, sterotyping and killing in the name of security (Pharaoh did it to the Jews, now the Israelis are doing it to the Philistines (aka Palestinians today). This is happening not only in the Middle East. Recently, the Arab American Anti Discrimination Committee held their annual convention, inviting several Zionists to speak and also the reknowned Colin Powell. They felt it was a real coup to get Powell to be a featured speaker. Colin, I can call him by his first name because I've known him since 1989--came and just glossed over matters, was asked some polite questions that he gave the same pat answers, and the Arabs were thrilled that he had graced their conference, and he could go away saying, "Well, I've talked with the Arabs now, so now no one can say I'm pro Zionist (even though I am)". Even the Arab Americans must soon realize that there is no reasoning; Colin Powell and Bush understand the Palestinian and Arab and Muslim positons, but they simply don't want to hear them because they don't have the votes or the political clout through financial PACs in DC to matter. Until they do, nothing will change; money talks, and peaceful people get the raw end of the stick. So, at every level, the Arabs have lost, the Israelis have won, and the American mask is off once and for all. It is now up to the Arab states, the Muslim states as well, to realize that there may be some kind of anti-Arab and anti-Islamic war going on--at least from Israel and Bush. I am aware that most Muslims and Arabs in the world do not want ot make war on the West or on America--but they may have no choice if this type of Bush, Sharon and imperialistic anti-Arab and anti-Muslim behavior continues. Most Arab and Muslims regimes have tried to continue believing in America, but many must consider by now that they have been duped--that America has no ally in the world except Israel--not matter how much any Arab or Muslim country does for America, it will never be enough because they are not the "chosen people" (who must be either born a Jew or be an Evangelical or born again Christian). The attempts at theatre continue from Washington, but only a fool would follow this play and not see it for what it is--false to the core, deception built on deception, built on a script full of lies, but a cast, headed by GW Bush, Colin Powell and others in the Bush administration who take their cue from Sharon, their director and leading man. Sam Hamod is an expert in world affairs, especially the Arab and Muslim worlds. He is also the former Director of The National Islamic Center in Washington, DC and editor of Third World News. He publishes often in CounterPunch and todaysalternativenews.com;he may be reached at shamod@cox.net Today's Features 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   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /   Weekend Edition Features 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   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /