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July 24, 2002
Gary Leupp
An Islam Primer
July 23, 2002
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Battle
for Zuni Salt Lake
Ansar Ahmed
Am I with You, George?
Bill Christison
The
Disastrous Foreign Policies of the US: Oppression Abroad Means
Repression at Home
July 22, 2002
Rick Giombetti
Glaxo Raises White Flag
in Paxil Case
Wayne Madsen
Forbidden
Truth
The Press, Bush, Oil
and the Taliban
July 21. 2002
Francis A. Boyle
The Rogue Elephant
Jennifer Harbury
Why are
the FBI & CIA Targeting Me?
Joan Claybrook
Time
for a Special Prosceutor
for Thomas White
Gloria Bergen
The Struggle
of Workers
in Palestine
Dave Marsh
Mr. Big Stuff:
Alan Lomax, Great White Fraud
James T. Phillips
"I'll
Tell You No Lies"
The Human Rubble of War
July 20, 2002
Gavin Keeney
The Grave
New Urbanism
World Trade Center Burlesque
Jacob Levich
"I
Was Schooled in Hate"
Confessions of a
Summer Camp Terror Tot
Thomas Croft
Augusta,
GA
Growing Up in the Deep South
Alexander Cockburn
The
Market Hogwallow:
Popgun Populism Isn't Enough
July 19, 2002
Abe Bonowitz / SueZann
Bosler
A Discussion
with Jeb Bush on the Death Penalty
Jonathan Power
No Need
for War Against Iraq
Rick Giombetti
Qwest
Death Watch
Kurt Nimmo
Of Mice,
Bullets & Bombs
M. Shahid Alam
Through
Racist Eyes:
Is Eurocentrism Unique?
July 18, 2002
Mokhiber / Weissman
Business
As Usual
Jerre Skog
I Spy: Now
Let's be Fair,
the USA Ain't East Germany
Ralph Nader
The CEO
Crimewave:
Corporate Socialism
Mahbubul Karim (Sohel)
The Rising Tensions
Between Spain and Morocco
Alexander Cockburn
Drivel
and Squawk:
Can the Times' Jeff Gerth
Save the White House?
July 17, 2002
Philip Farruggio
The
New Role Model:
Remember Jesus, George?
Zara Gelsey
Who's
Reading Over
Your Shoulder?
Behzad Yaghmaian
9/11 and
Fotress Europe:
the Drama of the New
Moslem Diaspora
Mike Ferner
War, Incorporated
Gary Leupp
Bush, Burqas
and the Oppression of Afghan Women
July 16, 2002
Pierre Tristam
Faith--based
Capitalism in
the Ruins of the Market
Kurt Nimmo
How My
35mm Camera Almost Became a Tool of Treason
Robert Fisk
The Kashmir
Distraction
Salam al--Marayati
When
is Terrorism
Not Defined as Terrorism?
Kathleen Christison
The
Image Problem:
Anti--Palestinian Bias
from Wilson to Bush
July 15, 2002
Gavin Keeney
In One
of Safire's Ears,
Out the Other
CounterPunch Wire
Nader in
Cuba
Ralph Nader
The Secret
World of Banking
Dave Marsh
Vincible:
Michael Jackson, Racism and the Music Cartel
Rahul Mahajan
Justice
for Bhopal
Jeffrey St. Clair
Seduced
by a Legend
The Return of Jimmy T99 Nelson
July 14, 2002
Bill Christison
The
DOA (Poem)
David Vest
I'll Never
Get Out of This Band Alive
July 13, 2002
M. Junaid Alam
A Process
of Dehumanization
Gavin Keeney
Go Tell
Karl Rove!
Matt Vidal
Corporate
"Ethics" Red Herrings
Ed Whitfield
Lessons
from Independence Day
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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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 Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
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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This Explosive
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Reviews of Gore:
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July
25, 2002
War on Terrorism or Police State?
by Rep. Cynthia McKinney
The attacks of September 11th, 2001 caused significant
changes throughout our society. For our military services, this
included increased force protection, greater security, and of
course the deployment to and prosecution of the War on Terrorism
in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Sadly, one of the first acts of
our President was to waive the high deployment overtime pay of
our servicemen and women who are serving on the front lines of
our new War. The Navy estimates that the first year costs of
this pay would equal about 40 cruise missiles. The total cost
of this overtime pay may only equal about 300 cruise missiles,
yet this Administration said it would cost too much to pay our
young men and women what the Congress and the previous Administration
had promised them.
In another ironic twist, the War on Terrorism
has the potential to bring the US military into American life
as never before. A Northern Command has been created to manage
the military's activity within the continental United States.
Operation Noble Eagle saw combat aircraft patrolling the air
above major metropolitan areas, and our airports are only now
being relieved of National Guard security forces. Moreover, there
is a growing concern that the military will be used domestically,
within our borders, with intelligence and law enforcement mandates
as some now call for a review of the Posse Comitatus Act prohibitions
on military activity within our country.
In the 1960s, the lines between illegal
intelligence, law enforcement and military practices became blurred
as Americans wanting to make America a better place for all were
targeted and attacked for political beliefs and political behavior.
Under the cloak of the Cold War, military intelligence was used
for domestic purposes to conduct surveillance on civil rights,
social equity, antiwar, and other activists. In the case of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Operation Lantern Spike involved military
intelligence covertly operating a surveillance operation of the
civil rights leader up to the time of his assassination. In a
period of two months, recently declassified documents on Operation
Lantern Spike indicate that 240 military personnel were assigned
in the two months of March and April to conduct surveillance
on Dr. King. The documents further reveal that 16,900 man-hours
were spent on this assignment. Dr. King had done nothing more
than call for black suffrage, an end to black poverty, and an
end to the Vietnam War. Dr. King was the lantern of justice for
America: spreading light on issues the Administration should
have been addressing. On April 4, 1968, Dr. King's valuable point
of light was snuffed out. The documents I have submitted for
the record outline the illegal activities of the FBI and its
CoIntelPro program. A 1967 memo from J. Edgar Hoover to 22 FBI
field offices outlined the COINTELPRO program well: "The
purpose of this new counterintelligence endeavor is to expose,
disrupt, misdirect, or otherwise neutralize" black activist
leaders and organizations.
As a result of the Church Committee hearings,
we later learned that the FBI and other government authorities
were conducting black bag operations that included illegally
breaking and entering private homes to collect information on
individuals. FBI activities included "bad jacketing,"
or falsely accusing individuals of collaboration with the authorities.
It included the use of paid informants to set up on false charges
targeted individuals. And it resulted in the murder of some individuals.
Geronimo Pratt Ji Jaga spent 27 years in prison for a crime he
did not commit. And in COINTELPRO documents subsequently released,
we learn that Fred Hampton was murdered in his bed while his
pregnant wife slept next to him after a paid informant slipped
drugs in his drink.
Needless to say, such operations were
well outside the bounds of what normal citizens would believe
to be the role of the military, and the Senate investigations
conducted by Senator Frank Church found that to be true. Though
the United States was fighting the spread of communism in the
face of the Cold War, the domestic use of intelligence and military
assets against its own civilians was unfortunately reminiscent
of the police state built up by the Communists we were fighting.
We must be certain that the War on Terrorism
does not threaten our liberties again. Amendments to H.R. 4547,
the Costs of War Against Terrorism Act, that would increase the
role of drug interdiction task forces to include counter intelligence,
and that would increase the military intelligence's ability to
conduct electronic and financial investigations, can be the first
steps towards a return to the abuses of constitutional rights
during the Cold War. Further, this bill includes nearly $2 billion
in additional funds for intelligence accounts. When taken into
account with the extra-judicial incarceration of thousands of
immigration violators, the transfer of prisoners from law enforcement
custody to military custody, and the consideration of a 'volunteer'
terrorism tip program, America must stand up and protect itself
from the threat not only of terrorism, but of a police state
of its own.
There does exist a need to increase personnel
pay accounts, replenish operations and maintenance accounts and
replace lost equipment. The military has an appropriate role
in protecting the United States from foreign threats, and should
remain dedicated to preparing for those threats. Domestic uses
of the military have long been prohibited for good reason, and
the same should continue to apply to all military functions,
especially any and all military intelligence and surveillance.
Congress and the Administration must be increasingly vigilant
towards the protection of and adherence to our constitutional
rights and privileges. For, if we win the war on terrorism, but
create a police state in the process, what have we won?
Cynthia McKinney
represents Georgia's Fourth Congressional District. This is article
is a reprint of her remarks before the House Armed Services Committee
on H.R. 4547, The Costs of War Against Terrorism Act.
She can be reached at: cymck@mail.house.gov
Today's Features
Gary Leupp
An Islam
Primer
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Battle
for Zuni Salt Lake
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