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Today's
Stories
August 14 /
15, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
War
on the Poor: "A Risk No Sane Person Would Take"
M. Shahid Alam
The Civilizing Mission: Some Economic Results
Saul Landau
God and Botox
John Ross
Echoes of Mexico City, 1968
Katherine Lahey
"Uh!
Ah! Chávez No Se Va!": Democracy and Venezuela
Medea Benjamin
Hugo Chavez and the Poor of Venezuela
Yves Engler
The Media and the Venezuela Referendum
Justin Podur
The NYTs and Chavez: More Than the Usual Bias
Eric Drooker
Gaza Stripped
Dave Lindorff
A29 Could be a Very Slow Day
Rebecca Brigham
The Aftermath of Guatemala's Strike: Promises Still Unfulfilled
August 13,
2004
Lee Sustar
Report
from Caracas
Mickey Z.
McProtests R Us: Why are the Dems Trying to Gag Anti-War Protesters?
Stan Goff
There
He Goes Again: Kerry's "Energy" Plan
Norman Madarasz
Thoughts on Najaf: How Could the US Ever Be Considered a "Terrorist"
State?
Victor Kattan
Press Freedom, Censorship and the War on Terror
Oscar Heck
Is Mendoza Off His Rocker? Chavez Opponents Pledge to Post Results
Online Before Polls Close
CounterPunch
Wire
Military Families File "Stop Loss" Suit
Milan Rai
Najaf: Bush Started It
Website of
the Day
The Yes Men
August 12,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
How
Bush Got (and Lost) His Wings
Lenni Brenner
Take
It on Faith: Kerry's See-Through-Monk's Robe
Lee Ballinger
The Coors and the Kerrys: Drink Up, Kids!
Tariq Ali
The
Handover Fiction
Yves Engler
What's at Stake in Venezuela
William S.
Lind
Seeing
Through the Other Side's Eyes
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Bush's Goat
Website of
the Day
The Sucker Puncher
August 11,
2004
Ceylon Mooney
Who
Woke Up Sen. Joe?: Watchers of the NJ Turnpike
Voices in the
Wilderness
Hands
Off Najaf
Ray McGovern
Porter
Goss as CIA Director?
Robert Jensen
US
Supports Anti-Democratic Forces in Venezuelan Recall
Annie Higgins
In Memory of Nick Pretzlik: As Good as It Gets
Alexander Cockburn
Bush
v. Kerry: Not Even a Dime's Worth of Difference
Website of the Day
Nick Pretzlik
August 10,
2004
William A.
Cook
Silencing
the Voice of the People
Todd Chretien
California Greens at the Crossroads: Will It Be Nader or Cobb?
Dave Lindorff
Chicago on the Hudson?
Richard Gott
Loathed
by the Rich: Why Chavez is Headed for a Big Win
Toni Solo
Bluebeard's
Castle: Disappearing the Right to Development
Dave Zirin
Carl Eller's Plea
Rep. Ron Paul
Police State, USA
Patrick Cockburn
If the Chalabis Were Corrupt, They Weren't Alone
Website of
the Day
The Surveillance-Industrial Complex
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
August 9, 2004
Tito Tricot
Pinochet
Must Still be Tried: a Murderer and a Thief on the Loose
Ron Jacobs
In
Memory of Deep Throat: the Day Nixon Was Gone
Norm Dixon
Crisis in Sudan: Oil Profits Behind West's Tears for Darfur
Kurt Nimmo
The Politics of Entrapment
Elaine Cassel
Welcome to Bush's America
Gary Leupp
Why
Iraqi Christians are Moving to Syria
August 7 /
8, 2004
James Petras
The
Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of
Abu Ghraib
Fred Gardner
Run
Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain
Justin Delacour
Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela
Brian Cloughley
Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd?
Joshua Frank
The
Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader
Iain A. Boal
On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection
Chris Floyd
All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome
Andrew Fenton
Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti
Aseem Shrivastava
Saga of an Anguished Afghan
Neil Corbett
See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush
Carol Miller
/ Forrest Hill
Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only
12% of the Vote
Tarek Milleron
Breaking the Principled Voter
Donald Macintyre
The
Battle of Najaf
Ron Jacobs
Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies
Mickey Z.
Kid
Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO
Poets' Basement
Adler, Ford and Albert
August 6, 2004
Joshua Frank
David
Cobb's Soft Charade: the Greens and the Politics of Mendacity
Derek Seidman
An
Interview with Stan Goff
Mike Whitney
The
Arbitrary Imprisonment of Jose Padilla
William S. Lind
Corruption in the Marine Corps
David Price
In
the Shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
August 5, 2004
Mike Ferner
The Kerry Show: When Peace is Off
Message
Bruce Anderson
Two
Rejections
Robert Fisk
The Tale of Saddam's Cameraman
Todd Chretien
Florida
Comes to California: the Democrats' Plot Against Nader
Peter Linebaugh
Doing Time for Political Crime:
Paul and Silas, Bound in Jail
August 4, 2004
Mickey Z.
Two
Traditions: WMD and Disinformation
Justin Huggler
The Hunt for Bin Laden
John Ross
Mexico's
Dirty War Never Ended: Inside Puente Grande Prison
August 3, 2004
Uri Avnery
The
Oligarchs
Ray McGovern
The 9/11 Commission Chimera
Jack McCarthy
Sexual Politics in Jeb's Florida
Eric Ruder
Meet Barak Obama: the Democrats' New Liberal Star
John L. Hess
Crying Wolf: Orange Alert!
Elaine Cassel
Civil Liberties Elections: 1800 v. 2004
Jules Rabin
The Man Who Didn't Walk By
Website of the Day
No Wall
August 2, 2004
Robert Jensen
Kerry's
Hypocrisy on the Vietnam War
Joshua Frank
Greens, Kerry and the Politics of Mendacity
Mike Whitney
The 9/11 Commission and Civil Liberties: "We Need an American
Police State"
Gary Leupp
Beyond
Good and Evil: Some Thoughts on Invasions
July 31 / Aug.
1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
Merlin Chowkwanyun
Five Questions with Noam Chomsky: "The Savage Extreme of
a Narrow Policy Spectrum"
David Lindorff
The Shame of the DNC
John Chuckman
The
Disturbing Words of John Edwards
Brian Cloughley
All Slam and No Dunk; All Blame and No Responsibility
Christopher Brauchli
"Being Poor is a State of Mind": the Frowning Face
of Compassionate Conservatism
Fred Gardner
A World of Pain
Michael Donnelly
How Big Pharma Bilks the Elderly
David Nally
Genocide in Darfur?
Joshua Frank
Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon
Sam Bahour
Colin Powell and My Grandmother
Diane Farsetta
The IMF and the Indonesian Elections: The Invisible Hand in the
Voting Booth
Harold Gould
Was Iraq a Mutual Charade?
Van Bergen / Stephens
Election 9/11: Surreal Political Theater
Lee Sustar
A New Model for the Labor Movement?
Ron Jacobs
The Lost Art of Hitchhiking
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview with Palestinian-American Rapper, The Iron Sheik
Poets Basement
Albert, Ford, Krieger, St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Cross Cultural Poetics
July 30, 2004
Kolhatkar /
Ingalls
Shattering
Illusions: Kerry's Speech Tells Anti-War Activists They're Not
Wanted
Dave Lindorff
Murder
Not So Foul?
Bruce Jackson
Walt Whitman on the Sound of Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Fidel Castro
The
Pathology of George W. Bush
Maximilien Robespierre
Memo to Kerry and Bush: Why They Resist
Saul Landau
Bush
Charges Castro with Sex Tourism; JFK Rolls Over in His Grave
July 29, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Hail,
the Conquering War Criminal: What Kerry Really Did in Vietnam
Frank Bardacke
What
Michael Moore Left Out of F9/11
Tom Barry
Shallow and Formulaic: Kerry's Latin America Plan
Ron Jacobs
Kerry
and Lennon: Hawking the CounterCulture
Robert Fisk
The Unreported War
Lichtman /
Kellis-Borok
What Kerry Must Do to Win (But Probably Won't)
William S. Lind
The 9/11 Commission Report: Cashing in on Failure
CounterPunch
Wire
Doonesbury Onto John Kerry in 1971!
Website of
the Day
Jabbing JibJab: Copyright Madness
July 28, 2004
Robert Fisk
The
Occupation at 114 Degrees: Baghdad is Swamped in the Smell of
the Dead
Kevin Mink
Kerry's Misperception of Palestine
Ray McGovern
Israel and the Iraq War: How the 9/11 Report Soft-Pedals Root
Causes
United for
Peace & Justice
An
Open Letter to John Kerry: Winter Soldiers and Summer Patriots
Mike Ferner
Vets Demand End to Occupation: "Pull the Troops or Face
Impeachment Mvt."
Imraan Siddiqi
Turning Tricks with Ann Coulter
Alexander Cockburn
Candidate
Kerry
Website of
the Day
Iraq Vets Against the War
July 27, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
the Democrats Deserve Nader
Dave Lindorff
Back to the 19th Century: Globalization's Coming!
Mike Whitney
Control Room: Inside Al Jazeera
Ali, Anderson, Bello, et al.
If We Were Venezuelan, We'd Vote for Chavez
Stefan Wray
Texas Plan to Grab Los Alamos Takes Hold, as DOE Shuts Down Labs
Louis Proyect
Reflections on Nicaragua: First Came the Contra Butchers, Then
the Sweatshops
Rick Giombetti
Faith in Freedom: the Challenge of Thomas Szasz
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
The
9/11 Report and Its Weak-Kneed Consensus: Dogding Israel/Palestine;
Blinkered on Causes of Terrorism
July 26, 2004
Todd Chretien
Green
Resistance: a Reply to Normon Solomon & Medea Benjamin
Robert Fisk
Terror
by Video
Richard Forno
Security
Theater in Boston: Security Expert Harrassed by DHS for Exposing
Flaws at the Fleet Center
Mitchel Cohen
Report from a Boston Demo: Arresting the Curious
Richard Moreno
Rockers
for Justice: an Interview with Tom Morello and Serj Tankian
Alexander Cockburn
Boston
Awaits a Dead Party
July
24 / 25, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Democrats and Their Conventions:
Part One
Dennis
Hans
Those 16 Words Still Smell, Mr. Bush
Patrick
Cockburn
The Struggle for Iraq is Only Beginning
Josh
Frank
The War Path of Unity: Dems Reject
the Peace Movement
Justin
E.H. Smith
Christianity and the Left: the Latin
American Experience
Tariq
Ali
What's at Stake in Venezuela
Fred
Gardner
The Politics of Pot: Year of the
Antagonist
Mark
Scaramella
There's Dope and There's Dope
Ron
Jacobs
The Weather Underground's Prairie
Fire Statement...35 Years On
July
23, 2004
Lee
Sustar
Revolution in Nicaragua: 25 Years
On
Dave
Lindorff
Battle for NYC: Bush 1, Protesters
0
Saul
Landau
Zaniest President in US History: Bush
Beats Reagan
Mike
Whitney
The 9/11 Whitewash: Blaming No
One
Mickey
Z
Get On the Bus: 150 Years After Elizabeth
Jennings
Gary
Leupp
The 9/11 Commission and the Looming
War on Iran
July
22, 2004
M.
Junaid Alam
Ten Ways to Build a Better Democrat
Brian
McKinlay
Rusted On Down Under: Howard, Bush and Sharon
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Lobbied for Easing of Sanctions on Terrorist Regimes While
CEO of Halliburton
Chris
Floyd
Mob Rule: Ripping the Lid Off of America's Pious Myths
Uri
Avnery
Chirac v. Sharon
July
21, 2004
Paula
J. Caplan
The Emotional Casualities of War:
Psychologists Can't Heal All the Damage
Joshua
Frank
Nader Sleeping with the Enemy? Let's
be Fair
Ron
Jacobs
American Exceptionalism
Reza
Ghorashi
The Elections, Iran and al-Qaeda
Amy
Martin
Will Congress Rearm the Guatemalan Generals?
John
Ross
Bush May Lose, But His Wars Will Go
On and On
July
20, 2004
Stan
Cox
The Bush / Kerry War Ticket
Chris
Randolph
An Open Letter to Dr. Ehrenreich: It's Over, Barb!
Forrest
Hylton
The Ghosts of Gonismo: "Popular
Patricipation" and Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Mark
Scaramella
It's Official! Mendocino County is Crazier and Fatter Than the
Rest of California
Sam
Bahour
The World is Knocking on Israel's Door
George
Reiter
A Defense of David Cobb
John
Ross
Burying Iraq, Burying Bush
John
L. Hess
Girlie Stuff: Media Tolerance of Arnold & Co.
Website
of the Day
This Land is Your Land
July
19, 2004
Uri
Avnery
Marie and the Ghosts: the Hoax of
Paris
Col.
Dan Smith
What Has Been Accomplished?
Mike
Whitney
Allawi: Our Puppet with a Pistol
Karyn
Strickler
Just Marriage, Not Gay Marriage
Robert
Fisk
The Crisis of Information in Baghdad
David
Swanson
Media Blackout of US Labor Opposition
to Iraq War
Jennifer
van Bergen
The Death of the Great Writ of Liberty
July
17 / 18, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations
is Must Reading
Ghada
Karmi
Vanishing the Palestinians
Lenni
Brenner
When Cattle Unite, Lions Go Hungry: Notes for Ralph Nader
Ben
Tripp
Man on a Bridge: a Ghost Story
Brandy
Baker
What Would Elizabeth Cady Stanton Make of John Kerry?
M.
Shahid Alam
Israel Builds Another Wall
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Nuclear Hypocrisy: Israel, Iran and the IAEA
Patrick
Bond
The George Bush of Africa
Fred
Gardner
Politics of Marijuana: Cannabiniod Therapuetics
William
Blum
Bush and Thucydides
Ben
Terrall
Carter and the Indonesia Elections: "I Don't See Anything
Wrong with a General Running the Country"
Tom
Barry
John Lehman on the War Path
David
Vest
Dylan Without the Music
Phyllis
Pollack
Return to Sin City: Keith Richards Does Gram Parsons
Ron
Jacobs
Smearing Muhammad Ali: Bob Feller Strikes Out
Joshua
Frank
Kerry to Edwards: "Let's Lose!"
David
Nally
A Call for Sudan: Our Georgraphical Blindspot
Toni
Solo
Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Landau,
Hassan, Prashad & Lindorff
Three Reviews of Moore's F911
Poets's
Basement
Ford, Smith and Albert
July
16, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Adonal Foyle: Master of the Lefty Lay-Up
Shervan
Sardar
Dershowitz, the ICJ and Jim Crow Laws
Ron
Jacobs
The Lil' Engine That Couldn't: Kucinich Surrenders on Anti-War
Plank
Robert
Fisk
Iraq, According to Edgar Allen Poe:
Coffin Bombs in Baghdad
Greg
Moses
The Forts of Iraq
Mickey
Z.
Ad Infinitum?: Presidential Campaigns in the Age of TV
Dan
Bacher
A Landmark Win for Salmon and the Tribes
Dave
Lindorff
The Mumia Case: Support from NAACP,
But a Movement in Shambles
Paul
McGeough
Did Allawi Shoot Inmates in Cold Blood?
Website
of the Day
10 Reasons to Fire Bush (and 9 Reasons Kerry Won't Be Any Better)
July
15, 2004
Heather
Williams
McMissing
the Point: Supersize Me Crashes on Its Message
Werther
Iraq: Follow the Money
Tom
Crumpacker
The Birds of Guantanamo
Brian
Cloughley
What Does the Bush Regime Object To?
Bill
Christison
Reorganize the CIA? Of Course,
But...
July
14, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Chronicle of a Nomination Foretold:
the Green Deceivers
Neve
Gordon
Of Socrates and the Apartheid Wall
Diane
Christian
The Priesthood of Death
Stefan
Wray
Who Benefits from Missing Data at Los Alamos Nuclear Lab?
Josh
Frank
The Nader / Dean Debate
Conn
Hallinan
Divide and Conquer as Imperial Rules
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Bring My Brother Home!: Class, War
and Education
Website
of the Day
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of US Empire
July
13, 2004
Ray
McGovern
The CIA and Iraq: an Intelligence
Debacle...and Worse
Mark
Donham
The Sierra Club's Inexplicable Treatment of Cynthia McKinney
Ben
Tripp
Politus Interruptis: With Friends Like
These, Who Needs Electorates?
Mark
Gaffney
Slipping Towards Armageddon: Israel
in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Osama Wins! Election Postponed!
Chris
White
Double Think: the Bedrock of Marine
Indoctrination
July
10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
July
9, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Carlos Delgado on Deck: Blue Jays Slugger
Stands Up Against War
Justin
Delacour
Wishing Kerry Would Shut Up About
Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Iraq in Reverse: Martial Laws Fuel Insurgency
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Two Congresses and a Funeral
William
S. Lind
The October Surprises
Sibel
Edmonds
Our Broken System: John Ashcroft's War on Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Reading Tea Leaves: What Vietnam Tells Us About Iraq's Future
Gary
Leupp
The Lie That Will Not Die: Cheney and
the Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
July
8, 2004
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Inexplicable John McCain
Toufic
Haddad
Protesting Israel's Apartheid Wall:
a Letter from the Hunger Strikers' Tent
Dave
Lindorff
Liberation as Martial Law
Joshua
Frank
The Fall: How Beltway Dems Sank Howard
Dean
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush & Cheney Play the Hitler Card
James
Petras
The Truth About Jimmy Carter
July
7, 2004
John
Chuckman
Kerry's BBQ: a Deafening Silence
of Meaning
Virginia
Tilley
A Line in the Sand: Azmi Bishara's
Hunger Strike
Susan
Martinez
A Letter to Bill Cosby
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Strange Parade
Michael
Donnelly
Our Own Private Wilderness: Trusting the Land in the Inland Empire
Sean
Donahue
Boston Social Forum: the Dems aren't the Only Show in Beantown
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
Legacy of Deceit: If Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
July
5, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
US Imperialism in Latin America: Sept.
11, July 4 and Systematic Torture
Chris
White
A Former Marine Sgt. on the Meaning
of Independence Day
Joe
Bageant
Cranky Reflections on the 4th of July
Robert
Jensen
Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore
Misses About the Empire
Kathy
Kelly
"Two Days an' a Wake-Up"
July
3 / 4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
Website
of the Day
Global Peace Solution
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam's
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain't Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
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
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
Weekend
Edition
August 14 / 15, 2004
An
Israeli / Rove Connection?
The
McGreevey Scandal
By
WAYNE MADSEN
Here we go again. Another political
bombshell hits the American people and there is yet another connection
to the subterranean labyrinth of possible Israeli intelligence
activities. New Jersey Democratic Governor Jim McGreevey's announcement
on August 12 that he was resigning because of his involvement
in a gay relationship with an Israeli national may be the tip
of an iceberg that represents another high-level Israeli attempt
to burrow into the most sensitive areas of U.S. national security
and our political process. The surprise announcement is also
being used by a number of neo-conservative news outlets to tarnish
the Democratic Party and absolve Israel of any connection to
the New Jersey political scandal.
The ties between Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's Russian-mafia infused government and
shadowy Israeli and Eastern European ex-intelligence agents are
beyond a doubt, according to international law enforcement officials.
But what is not readily apparent is the fact that a number of
Israeli off-the-books intelligence operatives are active inside
the United States and they do not have U.S. national interests
in mind. In particular, the Israeli-Russian mobsters and their
allies within the Sharon government have adopted one of the most
successful intelligence ploys used by the former KGB and East
German Stasi--the use of prostitutes or "swallows"
to gain intimate access to high Western politicians, so-called
"sexpionage." In the case of Israel, which welcomed
a number of émigré former Eastern bloc intelligence
agents during and after the Cold War, this has entailed the use
of both female and male prostitutes. The fact that White House
chief dirty tricks operator Karl Rove has close connections to
the political spin machine run out of Sharon's Jerusalem office
is also a concern when it comes to Israeli-connected dirty tricks
operations being run against Democratic politicians in the United
States.
It should be remembered that
New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Torricelli was forced to
drop out of his re-election race in 2002 because of leaks about
his involvement with a contributor indicted on federal charges.
Torricelli's major problems in New Jersey arose after he was
chastised for missing an important Senate vote supporting Israel.
The Senate, at the time, was tenuously in the hands of the Democrats,
who had a one-seat majority. However, Torricelli was replaced
on the ticket by Frank Lautenberg, who went on to win the seat
for the Democrats.
Jim McGreevey was a rising
star in Democratic politics. As Mayor of Woodbridge, a New York
City commuter suburb, McGreevey decided to opt for statewide
political office. At the same time he appeared on the Israeli
intelligence radar screens. In 2000, with his eye on the New
Jersey statehouse, Mayor McGreevey joined a large delegation
of New Jersey Jewish supporters in a political "mega pilgrimage"
to Israel, where he met Golan Cipel, said to be a tour guide/information
officer for the mayor of the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Le-Zion,
the first Zionist settlement in Palestine. However, Cipel had
previously been the press secretary for the Israeli consulate
general in New York City. In 1999, Cipel, who is now being described
as a one-time low-level Israeli government employee in New York
and a "poet," gave a speech on behalf of the Israeli
government at a meeting at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Madison
Avenue offices on some very high profile issues, including the
implications of the recent death of King Hussein of Jordan, the
upcoming Israeli elections, and the peace process with the Palestinian
Authority.
Cipel was also a former Israeli
naval officer, leaving the service with the rank of lieutenant.
How a person goes from an influential position with one of the
most important Israeli diplomatic missions abroad to a mere Jerusalem
area tour guide seems, on the surface, extraordinary. But in
the world of intelligence, such career changes are driven by
political necessity, not by choice. McGreevey's admitted lifelong
homosexuality also made him a likely target for an intelligence
approach--and Cipel, who, as a 1998 graduate of the New York
Institute of Technology and the New York Israeli consulate's
press spokesman, was more than familiar with north Jersey's political
and social terrain. And Cipel was no stranger to right-wing Republican
politics. In 1995, Cipel and future Washington Times reporter
Joshua Mitnick edited an Israeli consulate news wire called "Israel
Line." The Washington Times, owned by Rev. Sun Myung
Moon, is a money-losing outlet for neo-conservative political
opinion.
After McGreevey returned to
New Jersey from Israel, Cipel also moved to Iselin, New Jersey
and was hired by a billionaire Florham Park land developer and
Democratic fundraiser named Charles Kushner, an individual who
became the source for $250,000 for McGreevey's campaign for the
governor's mansion. Kushner sponsored Cipel for a temporary work
visa. After McGreevey was sworn in as governor, he named Kushner
to the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey,
the original owners of the World Trade Center. Kushner was recently
indicted on federal charges of corruption involving a land deal
and illegal campaign contributions.
Soon after McGreevey announced
his candidacy for the governorship, Cipel became one of his campaign
advisers. During 2001, in his role as McGreevey's Jewish liaison
adviser, Cipel received another temporary work visa that was
sponsored by the New Jersey State Democratic Committee.
After McGreevey's election,
Cipel was named homeland security director for New Jersey, a
$110,000 per year job. New Jersey sponsored Cipel for yet another
temporary work visa just four months after a number of Israelis
were rounded up and arrested by New Jersey police and Federal
agents for photographing and celebrating the collapse of the
Twin Towers on September 11. Cipel, who had no verifiable security
experience, was touted by McGreevey's administration as having
gained his anti-terrorist credentials as a member of the Israeli
Defense Force. An Israeli military expert told the Bridgewater,
New Jersey Courier News that Cipel's military record was
"routine, at best." In addition, Kathryn Flicker, an
assistant attorney general for New Jersey, was appointed by McGreevey
to head of the state counter-terrorism office but only after
Cipel was strangely named as a parallel counter-terrorism official.
After both Republican and Democratic
New Jersey legislators complained about Cipel's lack of qualifications
and the Federal government refused to grant him a security clearance
because he was not a U.S. citizen, the Israeli national left
his position as homeland security czar and took up his previous
campaign job as McGreevey's Jewish affairs adviser and special
counsel at the same $110,000 salary. Inexplicably, Cipel maintained
a staff of three assistants for a staff job that had no real
responsibilities.
There was some thought given
by McGreevey to appointing Cipel as the Executive Director of
the New Jersey-Israel Commission, an entity created in 1989 to
science and technology trade between Israel and New Jersey and
which maintains an office in Raanana, Israel. Eventually, Andrea
Yonah, an Israeli-U.S. citizen who was raised in Cherry Hill,
New Jersey, but studied and worked in Israel for a number of
years, was named to head the commission at an undisclosed salary.
Yonah had been product marketing director for Princeton eCom,
a software company that provides billing software for various
Fortune 500 companies, including telecommunications firms like
AT&T. During a 2000-2001 Drug Enforcement Administration
investigation of Israeli art students who were working illegally
in the United States and who were suspected of being espionage
agents, links were discovered between them and Israeli companies
that also provided billing and other services for telecommunications
companies, including AMDOCS -- which had a relationship with
Nextel -- and Comverse Infosys.
In August 2002, Cipel helped
arrange for a trip by McGreevey to Israel. On August 4, the Asbury
Park Press's investigative reporter, Sandy McClure, ran a
damaging expose of Cipel's secretive position in the McGreevey
administration. The August 11, 2002 edition of the Asbury
Park Press reported that after McClure's piece ran, Cipel
became "uncloseted." McGreevey's trip to Israel was
hurriedly canceled after the Cipel expose ran in the Asbury Park
paper. McGreevey's office stated that the trip was canceled after
the State Department informed Trenton that they had concerns
over unspecified "hostilities" in the Middle East.
But McClure's story on McGreevey had also appeared in Hebrew
in Israel the day before the governor's trip was canceled. It
was apparent that someone wanted to tamp down any speculation
about McGreevey's ties with Cipel and scuttle a potentially politically
embarrassing trip to Israel.
Cipel soon resigned from the
New Jersey state government and took a job with MWW Group, a
public relations firm close to McGreevey, as the head of its
New York-based Israeli division. After a month at MWW, Cipel
left to join the Trenton lobbying firm, State Street Partners.
After only a few months there, Cipel went back to work for Kushner.
After Kushner's federal indictment, rumors surrounding McGreevey's
connection to the tainted businessman began to swirl around the
state capital. After the McGreevey scandal broke, the neo-conservative
World Net Daily, in an August 13 report, merely referred
to Cipel as "Middle Eastern born," without any reference
to his being an Israeli national. Yael Kohen, writing in the
neo-conservative New York Sun, merely referred to Cipel
as an "Israeli poet." An editorial in the same August
13 edition of the Sun condemning McGreevey did not once
mention that Cipel was an Israeli. After McGreevey's resignation
announcement, Cipel did not answer the door at his West Manhattan
apartment and there were reports that Cipel was preparing to
sue McGreevey for sexual harassment. An aide to McGreevey said
Cipel threatened the legal action unless McGreevey paid the Israeli
millions of dollars--an act the aide called "extortion."
There may be good reasons why
the neo-conservatives want to play down Cipel's Israeli roots--McGreevey
may have been set up in an attempt to ruin him and influence
the upcoming U.S. presidential election. When foreign nations
are found to be influencing American politics, there is an almost
uniform tendency for the American people to react negatively
to such meddling. One must merely recall the wailing and crying
raised over alleged Chinese political contributions to Democrats
and Republicans during the Clinton administration.
New Jersey was considered a
swing state by the Bush campaign early in the campaign cycle.
As John Kerry leaped to a double-digit lead over Bush in the
Garden State, the rumors surrounding McGreevey and Kushner were
unleashed. Now, with the Governor announcing his resignation
amid a gay sex scandal, one is instinctively forced into suspecting
the involvement of chief Bush dirty tricks operator Karl Rove
in the affair. Rove is attracted to such sordid affairs as a
fly is attracted to a pile of horse manure.
Republicans in New Jersey are
not happy that McGreevey is not resigning until November 15,
which means a special election will for New Jersey's governor
will not be held on November 2, the same date of the presidential
election. It certainly would have been a Rovian tactic to make
McGreevey's sexual orientation a campaign issue in order to get
out the conservative vote on Election Day in a gambit to increase
the right-wing fundamentalist voter turnout for George Bush and
appeal to anti-gay conservative Democrats in the state while
also hoping to get a Republican into the governor's seat in Trenton.
No sooner had McGreevey announced his resignation, right-wing
talk show hosts were demanding he resign immediately and allow
the anti-choice Republican former mayor of Jersey City, Brent
Schundler, to run for governor on November 2. McGreevey handily
defeated Schundler in 2001 with 15 percent of the vote. Schundler
had already filed the paperwork to take on Schundler in 2005.
The New Jersey situation is reminiscent of California, where
Gray Davis won re-election with 6 percentage points over conservative
Republican Bill Simon in 2002 only to be defeated in a recall
election in less than a year by Republican body builder and actor
Arnold Schwarzenegger. Republicans do not seem satisfied with
the normal electoral process but seek ways to upend it.
While McGreevey deserves condemnation
for allowing his relationship with a foreign national gay partner
to influence his decisions and cloud his judgment on important
matters dealing with the security of New Jersey during a time
of increasing terror threats, he should also be praised for not
succumbing to Republican pressure to resign immediately and permit
the Karl Rove dirty trick machine to use this tragedy for the
McGreevey family to influence in what column New Jersey's 15
electoral votes land in November.
Wayne Madsen is the author of the forthcoming book:
Jaded Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops, and Brass Plates. He
was with the National Security Agency during the Reagan administration
and is a native of New Jersey. He can be reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com
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