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November 2, 2001
Alexander Cockburn
FBI Eyes
Torture
November 1, 2001
Dean Baker
Dying
for Patents
Sami Amarah
US Attempts
to Recruit
Russian Vets of Afghan War
Molly Secours
Where
Are the Voices of Reason? Let the Women
Be Heard
William Blum
Unleashing the
CIA
October 31, 2001
Tom Turnipseed
Terrorize
the Poor,
Subsidize the Rich
Chris Clarke
Thank God
for Berkeley
Steve
Perry
The
Silent Genocide
October 30, 2001
Rep. Ron Paul
War on Terror
Bad as War on Drugs
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Flying
Blind:
The Predator's Problem
Ali Abunimah
Dear Colin
Powell
St. Clair/Cockburn
Atomic
Trains Grounded
Maud Hurd
We Need a Real
Stimulus Package
Dr. Susan
Block
We're
All Afghans Now
Tariq Ali
Busted in Munich
Francis
Beer
Toward
the Terrorist
Anti-World
October 29, 2001
Alexander Cockburn
The Left
and the Just War
John Pilger
Hidden
Agenda
of the War on Terror
David Krieger
Nukes on
the Loose
Jack McCarthy
Neo-Nazis
and 9/11
Marina Kalashnikova
The Brzezinski
Interview
Richard
Manning
Terrorism:
a definitive history
October 27, 2001
Edward
Said
A
Vision to Lift the Spririt
October 26, 2001
CounterPunch
Wire
Genocide
Scholar Gagged
Over Comments on the
Bombing of Afghanistan
Rahul
Mahajan
Poisoning
the Well
Sen. Russ Feingold
Why I Opposed
the
Anti-Terrorism Bill
John Troyer
Put
the War to a Vote
Norman Madarasz
What It
Means to be
Against the War
Patrick
Cockburn
Northern
Alliance Attacks
US Bombing Strategy
Richard Lloyd Parry
Terrible Images
of a "Just" War
October 25, 2001
Ghassan
Andoni
Raid
on Bethlehem
N.D. Jayaprakash
From
Hiroshima to NYC
Evan Schultz
Memo
to Ashcroft:
Read Marbury
The Sunshine
Project
Assault
on the BioWeapons
Convention
Sarah
Turner
Cashing
In on Patriotism
Latin American Colloquium
on Systemology
The Meridia Manifesto
Noam Chomsky
The
New War on Terror
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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8-Page Special
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War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a
History of Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden
and Bush Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden
Hype of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh
on Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin
Tells Bush: Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
Responses to 9/11:
Chomsky, Russell Banks,
Zinn, and Alice Walker
A Free ebook from
Seven Stories Press
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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November 3,
2001
The Cheats at the RIAA and the
FBI
Who Me?
Yeah, You
By Dave Marsh
Maybe when the Recording Industry Association
of America (RIAA) hires new employees-millionaire former Congressional
stooges like lobbyist Mitch Glazier or mealy-mouthed PR flacks
or even receptionists-they learn a theme song. The Coasters'
"Charlie Brown," most likely so they can moan, "Why's
everybody always pickin' on me?" whenever the record label
cartel's front group gets nabbed cheating. Cheating is what the
RIAA's hired to do: Cheat artists out of royalties; cheat artists
out of reasonable contracts in California; cheat music listeners
out of their right to control the recorded sounds they buy; cheat
the public out of its right to debate changes in the law that
benefit only the cartel and its fellow corporate copyright owners.
In another dead of night deal, Glazier
and company tried to sneak one of the cartel's "anti-piracy"
clauses into the already hideous anti-terrorism bill. This change
actually just confirmed what the cartel believes is its right
to steal than ever; it would leave you defenseless if record
companies decided to invade your home computer and wreak havoc
because your hard drive contained material it considered
illegal.
The RIAA, which lies about as well as
six-year-old holding a baseball in front of a broken window,
insists that it just wanted to insert another of its famed "technical
corrections." The last one repealed a key clause of the
copyright act, robbing performers of all hope of ever recapturing
possession of their work. It proved so embarrassing to the cartel
that the RIAA itself was forced to campaign to repeal it.
The new one, again stuck in without a
smidgen of public debate and in essence, on the backs of the
thousands murdered in the 9 11 attacks, pissed off everybody
but Tommy Mottola and Doug Morris. One Republican legislative
aide referred to the RIAA's "vigilantism," and Virginia
Congressman Rick Boucher, who's about as hostile to big business
as I am to Bruce Springsteen, read the recording lobbyists the
riot act in an interview with Billboard's Bill Holland: "I
think it's time the RIAA respect the legislative process.Nobody
goes behind the scenes as much as the RIAA does, and I think
it's a disservice to the legislative process for them to continue
to do this."
Unfortunately, even though the RIAA vigilantes
lost, the legislative process failed to stop the anti-terrorism
bill from repealing much of the Bill of Rights. To speak only
of those issues directly germane to the music world, the bill
says the government no longer has to get a search warrant to
invade your home; it virtually repeals privacy rights for computer
users; it makes all business and most personal records subject
to government scrutiny, violating even doctor-patient privilege.
As Senator Russ Feingold said just before he became the only
Senator to oppose the law: "Under this provision, the government
can apparently go on a fishing expedition and collect information
on virtually anyone." (I urge you to read Senator
Feingold's entire speech.)
But there's worse. Under the new law,
cops need only define a song like "Cop Killer" as "advocating
terrorism" to get rid of it and put its maker in jail. This
makes the threats the FBI once flung at NWA over "F--- Tha
Police" much more tangible.
The FBI had pleaded for such powers for
decades, so it's going to use them. And since the FBI maintains
an 'anti-piracy" squad that operates at the beck and call
of corporate copyright holders, these powers are effectively
granted to the RIAA, anyhow.
Maybe we'd all better learn "Charlie
Brown." CP
Dave Marsh
is coeditor of the excellent Rock
and Rap Confidential. The entire October issue focuses on
music's relationship to war and terrorism. They would be happy
to send you a copy. Just email them at rockrap@aol.com
with your name and a postal address.
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