home / subscribe / donate / tower / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events

Inside Iraq's Resistance HOT HOT HOT New CounterPunch Print Edition! Meet actual Iraqis and not just Western caricatures. Laith al-Saud interviews top man in Iraq's national resistance. It's not just Abu Ghraib and bids to kill Fidel Castro. Torture and assassination are integral parts of America's imperial machine. Don't miss Andrew Wimmer's searing journey into the soul of a nation that tortures as a way of life. Plus Alexander Cockburn on the killing of General Kassem. PLUS Sam Sillen's rollicking exhumation of Edmund Wilson as Malthusian Trostskyite. Get the answers you're looking for in the latest subscriber-only edition of CounterPunch ... CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Get CounterPunch's Print Edition By Email! Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Today's Stories October 13, 2005 Werther The Two-Headed Monster October 12, 2005 Omar Waraich Britain and the Quake: Mean and Stingy William Cook Voices Behind the Entombment Wall Phil Gasper Countdown to a Legal Lynching Dave Lindorff Impeachment Now and Then: Clinton, Bush and the Polls Matt Vidal Capital, Power and Class John Gautreaux New Orleans will Never be the Same Diana Johnstone Srebrenica Revisited: Using War as an Excuse for War Mark Weisbrot The IMF Has Lost Its Influence Brian J. Foley Gitmo Tribunals Endanger Public Safety Website of the Day Columbus Day Lies   October 11, 2005 Roger Morris / Steve Schmidt Strategic Demands of the 21st Century Lila Rajiva Live from New Orleans: Abu Ghraib Bill Quigley New Orleans: Leaving the Poor Behind Again Paul Craig Roberts Natural Born Liars Dave Lindorff Recruiters in Schools: No Lie Left Untried Dr. Teresa Whitehurst Suspect Thy Neighbor Mitchel Cohen Showdown at Chuck E. Cheese Tariq Ali Pakistan will Never Forget This Horror Website of the Day L'Heure Americaine   October 10, 2005 Cindy and Craig Corrie Rachel's Words Live Joshua Frank Washington's War Dems Gideon Levy The Beautiful Life Without Arafat Alan Wallis The Fight for Free Speech at Union Square Mickey Z. In Defense of Liars CounterPunch News Service Vermont Independence Convention Paul Craig Roberts The Police State is Closer Than You Think Website of the Day Dylan's Chronicles   October 8 / 9, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Rhetoric and Reality in the Business of Getting Rid of Black People Ralph Nader Katrina and the Growls of Greed Jennifer Van Bergen New American Law: Legal Strategies in the Dharfir Case Saul Landau An Oily Religious Dream Jeff Halper Setting Up Abbas Lenni Brenner The Millions More Movement and Zionism Nikolas Kozloff Bird Flu and Bush Brian Cloughley Training Soldiers in Iraq Alice Slater A Nobel Prize for Chernobyl? John Gautreaux A View from Cajun Country Fred Gardner Does the Controlled Substances Act Mean What It Says? Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Leveethan Approach M.G. Piety Rot in the Ivory Tower: Collusion, Cover-Up and Kierkegaard Tom Gorman The Hitchens Doctrine Mike Whitney Bunker Days with George Aseem Shrivastava Beyond the Wasteland: Lessons from Afghanistan Ben Tripp Religion, an Epistle Poets' Basement Albert, Engel and Ford   October 7, 2005 Larry Johnson The Plame Case: the Real Issues Will Youmans Why Do We Hate Our Freedom? Recruiters and Thugs on Campus Dave Lindorff Bird Flu: Evolution or Intelligent Design? Judith Scherr Haiti's Children's Prison Russell D. Hoffman Nukes for Peace, Revisited?: Nobel Prize Debacle Jared Bernstein Katrina and Jobs Jennifer Van Bergen New American Law: the Case of Dr. Dhafir Website of the Day FBI Witchhunt October 6, 2005 P. Sainath "Take That, Tom Friedman": Indian Masses Reject NYT's Neoliberal Idol Again Scott Parkin When Antiwar Activists Get Mugged Paul Craig Roberts Blundering into Syria Andréa Schmidt Haiti's Biometric Elections: a High-Tech Experiment in Exclusion Dave Lindorff Easy Money in the Big Easy Joshua Frank In Defense of Lew Rockwell M. Junaid Alam Jackboots at George Mason Matthew Koehler Cock and Bull on the Bitterroot Robert Pollin Is the Dollar Still Falling?   October 5, 2005 Heather Gray Militarization is Not an Answer for Reconstruction: the Case of the Philippines Robert Jensen Is Bush a Racist? Ramzy Baroud Bush's Final Choice: America or the Empire Col. Dan Smith Keeping Promises to Iraq: "Everything is Bad" Dave Zirin Barry Bonds Laughs Last Paul Craig Roberts Liberal Guilt? How the Neocons Took Over Alan Maass Doing the Right Wing's Dirty Work   October 4, 2005 Nikolas Kozloff Shocking the Two Party System: a Political Opportunity for Sheehan and the Antiwar Mvt. Mike Roselle Houston, You've Got a Problem Joshua Frank The Scoop on Harriet Miers John Chuckman War Porn: What the Gruesome Images Say Alan Farago Storm Warning for Jeb: Developers, Hurricanes and the Keys Mickey Z. An Interview with Thaddeus Rutkowski Christine & Ethan Rose Home Depot Exploits Hurricane Victims Gary Leupp An Earlier Empire's War on Iraq: a Lesson from Roman History Website of the Day Rodney Crowell on Bob Dylan   October 3, 2005 Vijay Prashad Desperation at Holyoke Paul Craig Roberts Condi Rice: Gunslinger Joshua Frank An Interview with Cindy Sheehan Seth Sandronsky The Hiring Crisis for Black Teens Jeffrey St. Clair The Great Green Scare   October 1 / 2, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Democrats Sink Deeper into the Ooze Dave Marsh A Direction Home: a Message from Bob Dylan Ralph Nader Gutless, Spineless and Clueless Flavia Alaya Showdown at Sheriff's Plaza Uri Avnery The Gladiators: Sharon's Victory Chris Kutalik The Battle at Northwest Airlines Greg Moses Bill Bennett's Book of Cracker Virtues Brian J. Foley I Gave My Copy of the Constitution to a Pro-War Vet Nicole Colson Hunger Strike at Gitmo Ray McGovern Abu Ghraib is a Command Responsibility Fred Gardner Ricky Williams Takes a Late Hit Justin Felux Save America from Crime: Abort Every White Baby! Will Youmans "Free the P": Hip-Hop for Palestine Mike Ferner What Else Shall We Do? David Krieger The War in Iraq: a Broken Covenant Agustin Velloso Samson Returns to Gaza Saul Landau The Constant Gardener: Serious Cinema Ben Tripp Right Down the Middle Poets Basement Peddibone, Crowell, Engel and Albert Website of the Weekend Holler If Ya Hear Me   September 30, 2005 Mary Geddry Why I Marched: They Made My Son Kill Paul Craig Roberts Bush is Cooking Up Two New Wars Dave Lindorff Judith Miller's Strange Voluntary Jail Time Gregory Wilpert "The Osama Bin Laden of Latin America" Benjamin Dangl "Gringo, Go Home:" an Interview with Orlando Castillo James McMurtry We Can't Make It Here Anymore T.R. Johnson Return to the Ninth Ward   September 29, 2005 Sen. Russ Feingold Bush's Iraq War is Weakening America Carl G. Estabrook Obama the Enabler Ramzy Baroud Rhetoric and Reality of War Dave Lindorff What Opposition Party? Mike Whitney Brownie's Comic Opera Jozef Hand-Boniakowski What Noble Cause? Gary Handschumacher Getting Arrested with Cindy Sheehan Winslow T. Wheeler No Leaders in Congress Against This War: Lame Democrat and Tame Republicans   September 28, 2005 Dr. Eyad Serraj Letter from Gaza: What Disengagement Sounds Like William A. Cook Bush's Security Barrier Liaquat Ali Khan The Invention of Porno Torture Mike Whitney Apartheid Justice in America Joshua Frank Sheehan and the Democrats: Anybody Home? CounterPunch Wire New Orleans Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters Chris Genovali Cutting the Bears Out of the Great Bear Rainforest Linn Washington, Jr. White Affirmative Action: How John Roberts Got to the Top   September 27, 2005 Forrest Hylton Political Murder in Puerto Rico: a Matter for Our Movement Jason Leopold The Decline and Fall of Bill Frist Jennifer K. Harbury Torture is US Policy, Not an Aberration Ray McGovern Torture and Cowardice: Why are American Religious Leaders Silent? Mike Ferner Bringing the War Home: Arrested at the Pentagon Antony Loewenstein When the Truth Comes to Town: What You Can't Say About Israel in Australia Harry Browne Live from Hollywood: the IRA Disarms   September 26, 2005 Rafael Rodriguez Cruz Assassination in Puerto Rico: the FBI Murders a Legend Joshua Frank Democrats Flee Peace Protests Lamis Andoni The Railroading of Taysir Alony Mike Marqusee Those Pesky "Urban Intellectuals": Blair, Spiro Agnew and the Antiwar Movement Rep. Cynthia McKinney They Can't Fool Us Anymore Ron Jacobs A Small March for Me, a Giant March for the Antiwar Movement Norman Solomon The Media and the Antiwar Movement John Chuckman Bush in a Bottle Paul Craig Roberts America is Running Out of Time   September 24 / 25, 2005 Kathy and Bill Christison Polluting Palestine: Settlements & Sewage Ralph Nader Stealing the Moment: How Corporations Cashed in on Katrina Saul Landau The Terrorist Resumé of Luis Posada Greg Moses A Movement Gathers Power on the Sorrow Plateau Roger Burbach Hugo Chavez's Mission Vijay Prashad America's Shame Laura Carlsen After NAFTA Robert Fisk When Man and Nature Conspire to Expose the Lies of the Powerful Dave Lindorff A Gusher Called Katrina: They Fix Oil Prices, Don't They? Kirkpatrick Sale / Thomas Naylor Secession from the Empire: the Middlebury Declaration Maj. Anthony Milavic The US Military and Torture: the View of a Former Interrogator Brian Concannon, Jr. Haiti: the Time for Action is Now   September 23, 2005 CounterPunch News Service In Which, Phil Donahue Demolishes Bill O'Reilly Diane Farsetta Katrina and Right-Wing Think Tanks Robert Sandels Militarizing the Market Christopher Brauchli Bush: the Good Samaritan for Corporations Alan Farago Bird Flu Takes Flight Dave Zirin When Sports & Politics Collided: Redeeming the Olympic Martyrs of 1968 Maxine Conant A Simple Test for Bush David Price Workers Get Hit Twice: Katrina and Davis-Bacon Profiteering   September 22, 2005 Smith, Wood, Leas, and Greenfield Which Way Forward for the Green Party? a Report from Tulsa Patrick Cockburn Iraqis: This Government has No Authority Manuel Garcia, Jr. Thinking is Religious Freedom Lucia Dailey Trial of the St. Patrick's Four: Day One Mokhiber / Weissman Are You a Speed Freak? Russell D. Hoffman The Nukes in Rita's Path Kona Lowell God's Hurricane? Jason Leopold GOP Fiscal Policy and Katrina Website of the Day Robert Pollin on the Global Economy   September 21, 2005 Jorge Mariscal Military Recruiters: Counselers or Salesmen? Linda S. Heard Double Standards in Iraq: Basra Brit Jailbreak Joshua Frank NYPD Unplugs Cindy Sheehan Eric Ruder "The Problem in Iraq is the US": an Interview with Camilo Mejia Pierre Tristam The Struts and Bull Presidency Dave Lindorff The Real Story of the German Elections Mike Ferner Sit Down in DC Missy Comley Beattie Bush's Katrina Bling Bling Jeffrey St. Clair W Marks the Spot Website of the Day New Orleans: Survivor Stories   September 20, 2005 Steve Breyman Toxic Gumbo: Katrina and Environmental Justice George Galloway Et Tu, Greg Palast? Patrick Cockburn What Happened to Iraq's Missing $1 Billion? M. Shahid Alam Gen. Musharraf and Israel: Is Pakistan Selling Out? Mike Whitney The Gitmo Hunger Strikers Winslow T. Wheeler It's Not Rocket Science Niranjan Ramakrishnan Back to the Future: North Korea's Gambit Paul Craig Roberts Will Neocon Fanaticism Destroy America?         Subscribe Online

October 13, 2005 The Dirty Dozen America's Endangered Forests By MATTHEW KOEHLER Today, the National Forest Protection Alliance - a network of 135 organizations from around the country - released its third biennial report listing twelve of the country's most endangered national forests. It could easily be argued that every single one of America's 155 national forests face mounting threats to wildlife, clean water and wild places. In part this is due to the Bush Administration's public lands policies, which have clearly titled the playing field to favor their friends and campaign contributors in the resource extraction industry. However, as any seasoned public lands activist will tell you, another part is due to the U.S. Forest Service itself, which has not only failed to confront a post-WWII legacy of industrial-style resource extraction that scared the land with over 400,000 miles of roads and the near liquidation of our ancient forests, but continues in many places to operate with a frontier mentality that clearly is out of line with 21st Century realities. "Our national forests face myriad threats from Bush administration policies and Forest Service management," said Jake Kreilick, NFPA's Endangered Forests Project Coordinator and author of the report. "Collectively, the forest profiles in this report illustrate the poor ecological state of the national forest system as a whole, in large part from Forest Service efforts to place private, industrial interests above the long-term interests of the American people who own these forests and the long-term survival of the critters that calls these forests home." This year's report, which is cleverly titled America's Endangered National Forests: Lumber, Landfill or Living Legacy?, is unique in that it offers the most up-to-date analysis of the marketplace for wood products from national forests. The major conclusion drawn from this research is that the market share of national forest wood products will likely remain near its current level - 2% of the U.S.'s total consumption - despite the federal government's efforts to increase industrial logging through higher subsidies and policies like the Healthy Forests Initiative. "This 2% of our lumber and paper supply comes at the highest ecological cost to our nation's environment," said Kreilick. "Much of the logging is still directed at the most sensitive forested habitats remaining in the U.S., including roadless areas, ancient, old-growth forests and critical fish and wildlife habitat." For example, in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, all of the wood logged from America's largest national forest comes from old-growth temperate rainforests and much of it is shipped to Asia. Since the Bush Administration exempted the Tongass from the Roadless Area Conservation Rule in 2003, the agency has made plans for fifty roadless area timber sales over the next ten years. "Most Americans would be shocked to learn that logging on the Tongass National Forest is still being scheduled at about the same yearly rate that, over the past century, has already endangered this forest," stated Larry Edwards of Greenpeace. "To force rational management of this national treasure and other national forests, we must turn to the one place where people have indomitable power - the marketplace." Another vivid example is on the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky, which has some of the highest aquatic fauna diversity in the nation and supports nearly 60% of Kentucky's native fish. This native diversity is threatened by a tree-plantation and road building boom across the forest. "The big threat we see is that the Forest Service wants to turn the Daniel Boone National Forest into the Daniel Boone National Tree Farm," said Tina Johnson, Council member of Kentucky Heartwood. "Kentuckians agree that the clean water, rare wildlife habitat, and recreation opportunities that our public forests provide are too precious to be traded away for short-term industry profits." The economic research presented in the report's market section was compiled by Dr. John Talberth, an expert on the values and benefits derived from all national forest programs and uses. "Clearly, America's national forests are far more valuable standing than cut down and converted into 2 x 4's and paper products that are of trivial importance to our nation's wood products supply," explained Dr, Talberth. "Nonetheless, through generous taxpayer subsidies of the federal timber sale program, the Forest Service is trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. These subsidies would be far better spent protecting and restoring ecological services of immense value to both existing and future generations." The National Forest Protection Alliance believes that the marketplace - and the purchasing practices of consumers ¬- provides a new and effective avenue for protecting and restoring national forests. After all, they say it's crystal clear that citizens can't rely on Congress or the Bush Administration to protect these public forests, as they are the very entities promoting more industrial logging and development. "Given the disconnect between these bigger economic trends and the federal government's pro-logging and pro-development policies, consumers have a great opportunity to demand corporate responsibility and play an increasingly important role in changing how national forests are managed," explained Jeanette Russell of NFPA. America's Most Endangered Forests: Malheur National Forest (OR), Siskiyou National Forest (OR), Oregon BLM Forests; Allegheny National Forest (PA); Bighorn National Forest (WY); Daniel Boone National Forest (KY); Los Padres National Forest (CA); George Washington & Jefferson National Forest (VA); Rio Grande National Forest (CO); Tongass National Forest (AK); National Forests in Mississippi; Bitterroot National Forest (MT). Special Mention: Black Hills National Forest (SD); Nantahala National Forest (NC). Threatened: Carson National Forest (NM); Wayne National Forest (OH); Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area (KY); Flathead National Forest (MT); Kaibab National Forest (AZ); Michigan National Forests: (Huron-Manistee, Hiawatha and Ottawa); Klamath National Forest (CA); Nez Perce National Forest (ID); Umpqua National Forest (OR). Key Ecological Findings in the Report Include: o Since 2002, the volume of the federal logging program has grown by over 300 million board feet (to visualize, image log trucks lined up end to end for nearly 500 miles) in large part to an escalation of logging in Oregon, California and the South. The USFS continues to use fire risk reduction and forest health as the primary management rationales. o Oregon has more at-risk national forests than any other state. Representing some of the nation's most diverse old-growth forests remaining, these forests contain the region's largest roadless areas, which provide critical habitat for threatened and endangered species. o Logging on national forests in the eastern U.S. continues to rise, as demonstrated in the profiles of the Allegheny, George Washington & Jefferson, Daniel Boone, and Mississippi National Forests. o Most all of the forests featured in the report face significant threats to roadless areas from logging, roadbuilding, grazing, ORVs and the Bush Administration's gutting of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Consequently, protecting roadless areas is no longer a priority of the Forest Service and many are now proposed for development. o Due to the Bush-Cheney Energy Plan, energy development for coal, oil, natural gas, and coalbed methane gas remains unchecked on a handful of national forests (Daniel Boone, Allegheny, Los Padres, Carson, Huron-Manistee) and a growing problem on many others. o Other prominent threats to the environmental quality of the national forest system include the growing impacts from the proliferation of Off-Road Vehicles (ORVs), ski area development and continuing problems from urban encroachment and transportation development. You can learn more about the National forest Protection Alliance by visiting: http://www.forestadvocate.org. Matthew Koehler is director of the Native Forest Network based in Missoula, Montana. He can be reached at: koehler@wildrockies.org                                       CLARIFICATION ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH We published an article entitled "A Saudiless Arabia" by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the "Article"), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the "Website"). Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network. We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism. As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi's lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website. We are pleased to clarify the position. August 17, 2005

Coming in the Fall from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Click Here to Advance Order Philosopher Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz WHAT'S INSIDE Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair