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

Exclusive to CounterPunch Newsletter Subscribers! WHAT DID ISRAEL KNOW IN ADVANCE OF THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS? * Those Celebrating "Movers" and Art Student Spies * Who were the Israelis living next to Mohammed Atta? * What was in that Moving Van on the New Jersey shore? * Was the Mossad Tracking the 9/11 Hijackers in the US? * How did two hijackers end up on the Watch List weeks before 9/11? At last, the answers. Read Christopher Ketcham's exclusive expose in CounterPunch special double-issue February newsletter. Plus, Cockburn and St. Clair on how this story was suppressed and ultimately found its home in CounterPunch. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Remember contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now Get CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year Landau at UC Santa Cruz; Linebaugh in LA; Cockburn in San Francisco

Today's Stories February 28, 2007 Peter Linebaugh An Amazing Disgrace February 27, 2007 Tariq Ali The Khyber Impasse: the Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan Tom Barry America's Crusaders: Santorum and Lieberman Uri Avnery The Next War Antonia Juhasz / Raed Jarrar Oil Grab: the Secret Scheme to Split Iraq Jeff Nygaard Howard Hunt and the National Memory System Hugh O'Shaughnessy Grenada: an Invasion Revisited Mitchell Kaidy Israel's Cluster Bombs: Made in USA, Ground-Tested in Lebanon Carl Finamore Airline Bankruptcies, Mergers and Profits Anne McElroy Dachel The Really Big Lie About Autism Ramzy Baroud Who is Really in Control? Andrew Rouse The Queen, Her Apothecary and the War on Iraq Website of the Day New York City Skyline   February 26, 2007 Franklin Lamb US Israel Lobby Targets Lebanon's Jihad al-Bina Bill Quigley The Right to Return to New Orleans Greg Moses Suzi Hazahza in Haskell Hell Col. Dan Smith Calling All Carriers Ralph Nader The Bush Administration is a Threat to Our National Security Paul Buchheit The Income Gap Jeff Leys How Democrats Are Buying the Iraq War Dave Zirin Bojangling for Bigots: an Open Letter to Jason Whitlock Mike Whitney Doomsday Dick and the Plague of Frogs Michael Dickinson Free Kareem Amer! Website of the Day Beware the Chickenhawks!   February 24 / 25, 2007 Jeffrey St. Clair Frightening Tales of Endangered Species R. T. Naylor Inside Islamic Charity Gary Leupp AIPAC Demands "Action" on Iran Saul Landau Modern Day Miracle: Rev. Haggard Cured! Thank You, Jesus! Ron Jacobs Missile Defense Redux Jeffrey Blankfort A Debate on the Israel Lobby Chris Sands Afghanistan in Winter: Where Death Comes Cheap Gary Freeman The N-Word and Black History Month Larry Portis Zionism and the United States: the Cultural Connection P. Sainath Two Million People in "Maximum Distress" Lee Sustar What Next for the Immigrants' Rights Movement? Kevin Wehr Liberal vs. Radical Enviros: the Thrill isn't Gone, It's Just Moved Ken Couesbouc The African Card Soffiyah Elijah FBI Hunting Dead Panthers: Can John Bowman Ever Rest in Peace? Kathlyn Stone Iraqi Labor vs. Big Oil Dave Lindorff Breaking the Dam in Olympia Jason Kunin Criticizing Israel is Not an Act of Bigotry Kevin Zeese Can Hillary be Trusted? Remi Kanazi All Roads Lead to Checkpoints Missy Beattie Five Words That Change Lives Poets' Basement Davies, Holt and Rodriguez Website of the Weekend Caught on Tape: an Anti-War Movement Finding Its Feet?   February 23, 2007 Franklin Spinney Top Gun vs. the Axis of Evil: Is This What We Have Become? Jonathan Cook Watching the Checkpoints Patrick Cockburn The True Extent of Britain's Failure in Basra Kathy Kelly Do Something Good Chris Dols Islamophobia at Urban Outfiters: the Case for Keffiyehs Evelyn Pringle The Neurontin Suicides: Risks Kept Hidden for Years Stephen Pearcy If Bush is a War Criminal, What About the Troops? Dan Brook Making Poverty History Yifat Susskind Iraqi Police Commit Rapes Website of the Day A Citizens Arrest of Patty Murray   February 22, 2007 Robert Fantina Repeating History Tariq Ali Prodi's Soap Operatic Fall: Neoliberalism and War in Italy Michael Shank An Interview with Noam Chomsky on Iran, Iraq, the Democrats and Climate Change John Ross Calderon's War on Drugs Christopher Brauchli Stockcars on Dope: How NASCAR and the Tour de France are Bring the World Together Cindy Litman Paying for the Damage Done to Iraq Niranjan Ramakrishnan Mr. Jefferson's Inheritors: Caution, Calculation and Cold Feet Kevin Zeese Finally, a Populist Antiwar Candidate for President Aseem Shrivastava The New Indian Way?: a Developer's Model of Development Reza Fiyouzat A Letter to the Israeli People: We are All Led by Mad Men Illinois Students Against the War Why We Protested at Obama's Speech Website of the Day An Interview with Mike Gravel   February 21, 2007 Maass / St. Clair The Clintons: the Art of Politics Without Conscience Sharon Smith Inside the Imperial Budget Greg Moses Showdown Over Texas Immigrant Prisons Margaret Kimberly America the Stupid Ralph Nader Making Cancer Cool: Tobacco and Hollywood Nicola Nasser Evasive Diplomacy: Bush Adm. Shuns Middle East Peace Talks Mike Whitney The Second Great Depression Tao Ruspoli Revolutionary But Gangsta: a Conversation with Stic.Man of Dead Prez Byeong Jeongpil Beyond the "Protection Facility", Another Prison Corporate Crime Reporter Why Hillary, Obama and Edwards Oppose Single-Payer Health Care Josh Mahan The Lost Art of Shattuck: a Good, Old-Fashioned Drinking Story Website of the Day Time to Free the Puerto Rican Nationalists February 20, 2007 Sgt. Martin Smith Structured Cruelty: Learning to be a Lean, Mean Killing Machine Werther How to be a Washington Expert Corporate Crime Reporter Exposing SAIC Carl G. Estabrook Common Sense About the Recent Past China Hand Setting Sun: The Diverging US-Japan Relationship Joshua Frank Cleaning Up Exxon's Greenpoint Oil Spill Megan Boler The Daily Show and Political Activism John Feffer People Power vs. Military Power in East Asia Daryll E. Ray What's Inside the New Farm Bill Alan Gregory Midwest Wolves Fall Prey to Slob Hunters' PR Scam Website of the Day "Not a Target Rich Environment?"   February 19, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Economists in Denial: Blind to the Consequences of Offshoring Gary Leupp "A Genocidal, Suicidal Nation:" Mitt Romney Joins Iran's Hysterical Accusers Ron Jacobs The Mecca Agreements: the Future Remains Bleak Michael F. Brown The Peace Process Industry Robert Jensen Liberal Icons and War: Bi-Partisan Empire-Building Roger Burbach Ecuador Stands Up to US Monica Benderman America, Where Are You Now? Sonja Karkar Apocalyptic Archaeology: Israel's Provocations Threaten Jerusalem John Walsh Some Good News from Beantown Talli Nauman Colorado Delta Blues: Challenging the Law of the River Website of the Day "The Best Place to be in Town"   Feburary 17 / 18, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Sold to Mr. Gordon, Another Bridge! Tao Ruspoli CounterViews: a Conversation with Patrick Cockburn, Part Two Gary Leupp Iran: A Chronology of Disinformation Jeffrey St. Clair Dark Mesas in an Ancient Light Roger Morris The Undertaker's Tally: the Tragedy of Donald Rumsfeld Uri Avnery Facing Mecca James Brooks Palestinians and the "Diplomatic Horizon" Sen. Russell Feingold Congress Must Defund the Iraq War Linn Washington, Jr. "Death Row is a Web That Catches Only the Poor" Michele Brand Iran: the Proxy War? Fred Gardner Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Music and Basketball in the Harlem Renaissance Mitchel Cohen Storming the Pentagon: Lessons from 1967 Mike Ferner Democrats Keep Ohio Refugee Free: "No Iraqis in Our Backyards!" David Swanson Memo to Don Young: What Lincoln Really Said P. Sainath In the Theater of the Jungle Belt Mike Stark GoreAid: Gore Plans Concert with Musicians He and Tipper Betrayed in the 80s Missy Beattie The Object of My Disaffection Jonathan Franklin Carnival: Where Dance is Hope Website of the Weekend The Godfather and the Tenor: "It's a Man's World" February 16, 2007 Marc Levy Turning Point: Veterans' Voices Trigger Response Andrew Cockburn In Iraq, Anyone Can Make a Bomb Glen Ford Powell, Rice and Obama: Putting Black Faces on Imperial Aggression Greg Moses The Terror of Suzi Hazahza: Why Her Family Must Be Freed Ron Jacobs Marching on the Pentagon: Then and Now John W. Farley Hook, Line and Sinker: The Press and Stephen Hadley James Marc Leas Vermont Legislature Says: "Bring Them Home Now!" Tim Rinne The Most Dangerous Place on the Face of the Earth?: StratCom and the Coming War on Iran Albert Wan Star-Cross'd Lovers?: The Strange Romance of Hillary and David Brooks Website of the Day Did Wal-Mart Murder Tweety Bird?   February 15, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Who is Muqtada al-Sadr? Saul Landau How to Obsess Your Enemies Stephen Lendman The Rules of Imperial Management Evelyn Pringle More Zyprexa Postcards from the Edge Michael Simmons Is the Joke Over?: an Evening with Ralph Steadman Kevin Zeese A Congressional Kabuki Show Dave Lindorff The Co-Dependent Congress Pete Shanks They Want You to Eat Cloned Meat--And They Don't Want You to Know It Peter Rost The Michelle Manhart Affair: the Air Force Listens! Lenni Brenner / Gilad Atzmon An Exchange Website of the Day Barack Obama vs. Huey P. Newton   February 14, 2007 Tao Ruspoli CounterViews: A Conversation with Patrick Cockburn Dick J. Reavis War Without a Name Margaret Kimberly Medical Apartheid in America Christopher Brauchli The Perils of Charity: You Can be Prosecuted for Funding Terror Even If the Designation of the Group as a Terrorist Organization was Wrong! Paul Craig Roberts Cracks in the Pentagon John Ross The Plot Against Mexican Corn Michael F. Brown The Democrats and Palestine: New Chairman, Old Rules Dave Lindorff The Press Bites, Again: a Word of Caution on Those Iranian Weapons J.L. Chestunut, Jr. Texas-style Injustice in Black and White Don Fitz Hybrids, Biofuels and Other False Idols Michael Donnelly Give Love, Give Life Dr. Susan Block The Chemistry of Love Website of the Day Code Pink Drops By Hillary's Office   February 13, 2007 Uri Avnery Three Provocations: the Method in the Madness Patrick Cockburn Targeting Tehran Ralph Nader When Wall Street Whines (You Know They're Making a Killing) Marjorie Cohn Fool Us Twice? From Iraq to Iran Col. Dan Smith Iran Bashing Goes Prime Time Col. Douglas MacGreagor Empty Vessels: Gen. Patraeus and Other Hollow Men Thomas Power Coal Ambivalence: Mining Montana Nicola Nasser The Politics of Archaeology in Jerusalem David Swanson Iran War Talking Points Columbia Coalition Against the War Why We Are Striking Website of the Day Our Friends at Antiwar.com Need Your Help   February 12, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Scapegoating Iran Paul Craig Roberts How the World Can Stop Bush: Dump the Dollar! John Walsh A Splintered Antiwar Movement: Nader and Libertarians Not Welcome Dr. John Carroll, MD What Next for Haiti's Cite Soliel?: a Journey Through the World's Most Miserable Slum Greg Moses An Outrageously Sickening Immigration Policy Nicole Colson The Frame-Up That Fell Apart: Jury See Through Another Botched Federal "Terrorism" Case Dave Lindorff Acting in Bad Feith: Inappropriate Behavior and Impeachment Ray McGovern The Kervorkian Administration: Are Bush and Cheney the Biggest Threats to the Existence of Israel? Doug Giebel Rampant Cyncism David Swanson Twisted: Sex and Torture in America Website of the Day The Texas Model: Executing Women in Iraq   February 10 /11, 2007 Weekend Edition Alexander Cockburn Will They Nuke Iran? Gabriel Kolko Israel, Iran and the Bush Administration Patrick Cockburn Now It's War on the Shia Jeffrey St. Clair Till the Cows Come Home: How the West was Eaten Kevin Alexander Gray Barack Obama: Not a Bold Bone in His Body M. Shahid Alam The Pacification of Islam Greg Moses The Words of Mohammad: an 11 Year-Old Prisoner Paul Craig Roberts Brzezinski's Damning Indictment George Ciccariello-Maher Coups and Democracy in Venezuela Kevin Zeese "You Can't Oppose the War and Fund the War:" a Conversation with Anthony Arnove Turner / Kim The World's Factory: China's Filthiest Export George Duke Has Jazz Lost Its African-American Core? Walter Brasch A Dream Still Unfulfilled: America Remains Divided Shepherd Bliss Veterans' Love Story Missy Beattie Fear and Diversions: Anna Nicole, Wolf Blitzer and the Missing Body Count in Iraq Peter Harley Mr. Hyde and Uncle Sam: Reading Stevenson in an Age of Shock and Awe Pat Wolff Oprah's Strange Endorsement of "The Secret" Poets' Basement Davies, Holt, Engel and Louise Website of the Day The 25 Most Corrupt Members of Bush Administration February 9, 2007 Conn Hallinan The Najaf Massacre: an Annotated Fable Gary Leupp Charging Iran with "Genocide" Before Nuking It Lee Sustar An Interview with Patrick Cockburn Nikolas Kozloff Bombing Venezuela's Indians Newton Garver Politics and Apartheid Yitzhak Laor Under the Steamroller Dave Lindorff Truth or Consequences: Some Questions for Bush David Swanson The Politics of Self-Congratulation: Democrats Change Gas, Claim It's a New Car Website of the Day Why Corporate Social Responsibility is Not Working for Workers   February 8, 2007 John V. Walsh Filibuster to End the War Now! Marjorie Cohn Watada Beats Government Trish Schuh The Salvador Option in Beirut Ron Jacobs The Case of the San Francisco 8 Laura Carlsen Mexico at Davos: the Split with Latin America Widens Ramzy Baroud Countdown for Iran Brenda Norrell "Leave It in the Ground": Indigenous Peoples Call for Global Ban on Uranium Mining Bryan Farrell The Splinter and the Beam: Violence in the Eye of the Beholder Judith Scherr BP Beds Down with Cal-Berkeley Website of the Day Peace TV   February 7, 2007 Daniel Wolff "The Road Home is a Joke": Playing Politics with the Recovery of New Orleans Tao Ruspoli CounterViews: A Conversation with Oliver Stone on Art, Politics and the Future of Cinema in Bush's America Tony Swindell The Looming Shadow of Nuremberg Sharon Smith Why Protest Matters Ken Couesbouc Delenda Est Baghdad: Why Republics End Up as Empires Jeff Cohen Jonah Goldberg's Gambling Debt Col. Dan Smith The Self-Destructive Logic of War Tom Kerr McCain to Wounded Soldiers: When Words Fail Fundamentally Joshua Frank The Democrats and Iran Adam Elkus Surging Right Into Bin Laden's Hands Stephen Fleischman The Good News About War on Iran Website of the Day Vote Vets: Battling Escalation   February 6, 2007 Diana Johnstone Frenzy in France Over Iranian Threat Gregory Wilpert Did Chavez Over-reach?: Venezuela's Enabling Law Could Enable Opposition Norman Solomon A Kangaroo Court Martial: Making an Example of Ehren Watada Dave Lindorff Borat Goes to Washington: Don't Experiment with the Economy? William Blum Space Cowboys: Full Spectrum Dominance Mike Ferner War Opponents Occupy Congressional Offices CP News Service Nader's CNN Interview: "Hillary's a Panderer and a Flatterer" Evelyn Pringle Eli Lilly and Zyprexa: Even the Insurance Companies are Bailing Christopher Brauchli Corporate Advice from the Office of Detainee Affairs Alan Cabal How Charles Manson Kept Me Out of Vietnam Website of the Day Free Josh Wolf: the Longest Jailed Journalist in US History February 5, 2007 Dave Zirin Super Bore: When Hawks Cry Uri Avnery The Fatal Kiss: Wars and Scandals Ron Jacobs The Looming War on Iran: It's Not About Democracy Paul Craig Roberts The Real Failed States Newton Garver Bush and the Old Hands: Decider vs. Negotiator Bruce Anderson The Genocidal Namesake of the Hastings School of Law Saul Landau The Golden Globes After a Mud Bath Ralph Nader The Good Fight of Molly Ivins James T. Phillips Road Outrageous: Tailgating and Iraq Mike Whitney Quarantine USA: Bird Flu Panic and Profiteering Kenneth Rexroth Clowns and Blood-Drinking Perverts: Imperial History According to Tacitus Website of the Day Richard Thompson's Anti-War Song: "'Dad's Gonna Kill Me" February 3 /4, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Who Can Stop the War? Tao Ruspoli CounterViews: a Conversation with Dr. Susan Block on Sex, Censorship and Liberation Jeffrey St. Clair The Thrill is Gone: the Withering of the American Environmental Movement Patrick Cockburn Iraqis on the Run P. Sainath They Take the Early Train Sen. Russell Feingold A Symbol of a Timid Congress Diane Christian Dying Well: Why Killing Saddam Backfired on Bush Brian Cloughley Space Missiles Away!: the Irony of Bush's Indignation Diana Barahona How to Turn a Priest into a Cannibal: US Reporting on the Coup in Haiti Timothy J. Freeman The Iraq War Hits Hawai'i: the Stryker Brigade and the Watada Case Conn Hallinan The Vishnu Strategy John Ross Felipe's First Fifty Days Greg Moses The Government Blinks: Freedom for the Ibrahim Family Missy Beattie No More Rebukes or Non-Binding Resolutions Joshua Frank Unsafe in Any Seas: Cruising with Ralph Nader? Evelyn Pringle "These Drugs are Poison to Some People" Stephen Fleischman Let's Hear It for Chuck Hagel! Muhammad Idrees Ahmad Iraq in Fragments Poets' Basement Holt, Engel, Ford and Saavedra Website of the Day Flamenco Dali February 2, 2007 Chris Kutalik The Meanest Industry R. Gibson / E. W. Ross Cutting the Schools-to-War Pipeline Pam Martens America's "Money Honey" as Corporate Matchmaker: Maria Bartiromo and the Co-Branding of CNBC and Citigroup John Feffer Picturing the President Daryll E. Ray Why the Family Farm is Good for Rural America Ronald Bruce St. John Apartheid By Any Other Name Mitchel Cohen Listen Gore: Some Inconvenient Truths About the Politics of Environmental Crisis Website of the Day The Real Issue is Empire February 1, 2007 Diane Farsetta An Army Thousands More: How PR Firms and Major Media Military Recruiters Marjorie Cohn Bush Targets Iran: Cruise Missile Diplomacy Mark Scaramella Our Founding War Profiteers Ranni Amiri Senator Prejudice: the Day Joe Biden Threatened to Kick My Ass Christopher Ketcham Die, TV! Winston Warfield Art Panic Hits Boston! Corporate Crime Reporter Jailing the Artists, Not the Executives: the Great Boston Art Panic, Turner Broadcasting and the AG Who Won't Pursue Corporate Crime Thomas P. Healy Adios Molly Ivins: Populist Journalism and Never Dull Website of the Dau The Ordeal of Gary Tyler   January 31, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Waco of Iraq?: US "Victory" Cult Leader was a "Massacre" Jean Bricmont What is the Decisive "Clash" of Our Time? Tao Ruspoli CounterViews: a Conversation with Dr. Susan Block on Sex, Politics and Liberation James T. Phillips Flashbacks de Jour: Photographing War William Johnson Worker Reistance at Smithfield Foods Tim Wilkinson A Hawk in Drag: Dershowitz and the Iraq War Evelyn Pringle The Judge, the Reporter and the Secret Zyprexa Documents Joshua Frank What America Really Needs to Hear Ramzy Baroud Shameless in Gaza Mickey Z. Nader Still in the Crosshairs Website of the Day What's Goin' On?         Subscribe Online

February 28, 2007 Engagement and Confrontation in the Middle East US Turnabout? By NICOLA NASSER Two-pronged U.S. tactics of confrontation and engagement unfolded last week and described by some media as "turnabouts" in the strategy of containment of what Washington perceives as adverse regional roles in the Middle East, but in the Iraqi context and in historical perspective these tactics are revealed only as old diplomatic manoeuvres in the drawers of the State Department. In remarks before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Unite States will engage Iran and Syria, previously condemned by President George W. Bush as two pillars of the world "axis of evil," in two meetings of Iraq neighbours and the veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSEC) next March and April and expressed hope they "will seize this opportunity." In face-saving remarks Rice noted her administration was just responding to a "new diplomatic initiative" by the Government of Iraq because "Prime Minister (Noori) Maliki believes and President Bush and I agree that success in Iraq requires the positive support of Iraq's neighbours." She did not miss the opportunity to remind that, "This is one of the key findings, of course of the Iraq Study Group." In fact this finding was also recommended recently by Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Angela Merkel among other world powers, mainly Russia, and by friendly Arab states as well as the U.S. bipartisan James Baker-Lee Hamilton Iraq Study Group. However Rice stressed that this seemingly "turnabout" was just an "additional component" to an U.S. "diplomatic offensive" aimed at cementing concrete action on the ground, including upgraded military naval presence in the Arabian Gulf ("Persian" to Iran) and a surge of 21.000 troops in Iraq, to guarantee "the security and stability of the Gulf region" and the success of the recently-launched "security plan" in Iraq. (1) Two weeks on, the U.S.-Iraqi "Baghdad security plan" unfolds as pursuing an elusive enemy (2) amid an exacerbated insecurity, while revealing an evasive non-committal Iraqi government. It is antagonizing the so far allied "Shiite" militias and at the same time showing indications pointing to what the prominent investigative reporter Seymour M. Hersh described as a "redirected strategic shift" by the Bush administration, within the context of an "open confrontation with Iran," towards realignment with what he also described as "Sunni extremist groups that ... are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda." (3) This second "turnabout" on the ground has yet, if ever, to be officially confirmed. Gradually but emphatically the facts of the U.S. policy of first igniting the sectarian divide in Iraq then playing the emerging sectarian protagonists against each other are unfolding by the day to reveal the context as well as the real goals of the American strategy in the occupied country, which the anti-occupation national resistance is rendering more elusive than in any time since the invasion of the country in 2003, in as much as the alleged WMD and the al-Qaedi links to the Sddam Hussein-led Baath regime had unfolded as merely lies of a covertly planned propaganda campaign drawn to mislead the American public into supporting their country,s devastating invasion of another people. The Washington Post highlighted the elusiveness of the "enemy": "I don't know who I'm fighting most of the time. I don't know who is setting what IED," it quoted Staff Sgt. Joseph Lopez, 39, a soldier based in the northern outskirts of the capital. (4) The evasive commitment of the Iraqi government to the "security plan," which Bush announced it was an "Iraqi" one, was highlighted by a widely reported leaked confidential letter Prime Minister al-Maliki sent to the leaders of two of the most notorious militias warning them of the impending American crackdown and advising them to go underground or abroad to outmanoeuvre the coming storm, especially the powerful Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr whose whereabouts are still unknown; al-Sadr is the main ally of al-Maliki and is represented by 30 members of parliament and six cabinet ministers in the government in whose name the security plan is carried out. The instrumental role played in Baghdad,s security plan by the pro-Iran militias who dominate the army, police and security agencies of the Iraqi government (5), could only be interpreted as using the American involvement to serve their own ends, i.e. to "clean" the Iraqi capital from both the national resistance and their sectarian foes alike. Once that is done Baghdad would be secured as their pro-Iran sectarian capital. Meanwhile it looks unrealistic that Bush,s reported "strategic shift" could win over their Sunni counterparts. His shifting of focus from one side of the extreme sectarian divide to the other aims first at containing then revoking Iran,s regional role in Iraq either per se or as a prelude to confronting the Iranians inside their own country. "The White House is not just doubling the bet in Iraq, it,s doubling the bet across the region. This could get very complicated. Everything is upside down," Hersh quoted the director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, Martin Indyk, as saying. "The Middle East is heading into a serious Sunni-Shiite Cold War," Indyk warned. The Iranian Factor Ironically Iran has gained her prominent role in Iraq thanks to the U.S. Washington has adopted, financed, equipped and promoted pro-Iran militias as the alternative to the Saddam Hussein-led regime, knowing beforehand they were without exception nurtured militarily, financially and logistically by Iran and were either drawing on sectarian or ethnic divides for recruitment and support against the secular and the Pan-Arab ideology of the ruling Baath party, the only ideology other than the Islamic one that could secure a national majority consensus uniting all sects and ethnicities against foreign threats. The aim was to neutralize an Iraqi pro-Iran Shiite base as a tactic to buy Iranian collusion with the invasion. That aim was fulfilled, but entailed the current Iranian prominence, which has become a counterproductive U.S. burden that should be removed. Ironically also Iraq,s regional role was one of the main targets of the U.S. occupation. The sectarian power struggle in Iraq in the post-Saddam era was exactly the US-sought pretext to stay in the country and use the divide as a realistic excuse to promote federalism as solution and accordingly install a weak central governing authority that depends internally more on regional federal security than on a strong national central source of authority and externally on the U.S. occupying power, which entails both a small Iraqi army and a weak federally-divided economy, thus dooming a major Arab state that was a founder of the League of Arab States and the United Nations to a minor regional role or no role at all in regional, especially Arab, politics. Five months ahead of the invasion, Michael Eisenstadt, a senior fellow military and security expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said: "A government organized along federal lines would rely on local law enforcement for internal security, alleviating the need for a large army or security apparatus. Such changes could foster a less aggressive Iraq that is less likely to assert a leadership role in the Arab world. The United States, not Iraq, will ensure regional stability and provide a counterbalance to Iran." (6) Like many Arab governments, Iran has converged with the U.S. strategy of containing the Iraqi regional role. Tehran maintained armed formations, such as the Badr Corps, inside Iraq prior to the U.S. invasion. In 2004, the assistant commander of the Iranian Republican Guard announced, during his visit to London, that Iran has two brigades and other militia in Iraq in order to protect the national security of Iran. Tehran anticipated and welcomed the U.S. invasion since it would destroy her chief enemy in the region. Now that the Iraqi enemy has been destroyed as a state irrespective of the ruling regime, "Iraq is considered to be the first line of defense for Iran against any foreign invasion." (7) Containment of Regional Roles All U.S. administrations whether Republican or Democrat have been always ready to confront the regional roles of non-Middle Eastern powers, like Russia, or of Arab and Islamic states in Middle East in two cases: When those roles are in conflict with the Israeli security prerequisites and when they could compromise the American free access to the "vital" oil interests. Late Saddam Hussein and Jamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt did both. Now Iran and Syria are also portrayed as threats to both U.S. interests. The American diplomatic rhetoric about defending their regional "moderate" friendly and allied governments against the regional roles of both countries is merely meant to be sold to American voters, Arab public as well as to other unforthcoming world powers and public opinion. The Iranian hosts of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a two-day visit to Tehran last week said the U.S. and Israel are trying to undermine the regional positions of Iran and Syria by questioning their roles in Iraq, Lebanon and with Palestinians so they remain the sole players in the region. When the U.S. bipartisan James Baker-Lee Hamilton group recommended engaging the regional roles of both countries where those roles are mostly felt, particularly in Iraq, the Bush Administration opted instead for containment through confrontation with both countries, encouraged both overtly and covertly, directly and indirectly, by Israel and other regional players who are adversely affected by their cross-border influences, in a pattern that reminds historians and observers of a similar reaction to the over-borders political and military roles of late Iraqi and Egyptian presidents Saddam Hussein and Jamal Abdul Nasser during the second half of the twentieth century. However the U.S. case against Iran and Syria this time is essentially flawed. When Saddam Hussein crossed the American red line and pushed Iraqi forces to sit on the Kuwaiti oil fields in 1990, in retaliation to what he perceived as a U.S. and regional ungratefulness after eight bloody years in a war, during which the only human fodder were Iraqis, to contain a perceived Iranian military and political threat to the historic American regional "sphere of influence" in the Arabian Gulf as well as to Iraq, both countries stood pragmatically firm on the opposite side. Syria in particular is promoting a regional role to gain a better negotiating position in pursuit of peace with Israel as "a strategic option" since 1971 when late President Hafez al-Assad assumed power to end a split in the ruling Baath party early in the seventies of the last century over the issue of peace with Israel, but Israel nonetheless has been unforthcoming. The U.S.-.initiated current crisis with Syria has everything to do with her containment strategy than with the U.S. allegations that Damascus is a "terrorist-supporting" country regionally. Syria,s regional leading role is the target. Once this role is neutralised Washington will certainly leave the Syrians to their internal potentially Iraqi-style divides. The same U.S. strategy applies to Iran. As for the U.S. oil interests the self-sufficient Syria and Iran are not and never have been a threat. Moreover Syria in particular has been a regional stabilizing factor particularly to the U.S.-allied GCC oil-producing countries as well as through her close coordination with them. Her military intervention in Lebanon, which ended the first civil war there, was supported diplomatically and financially by those same countries, green-lighted by the United States and grudgingly accepted by Israel, though unexpectedly it had become the incubator that nurtured another extension of Iran,s regional role. The "containment strategy" has been always a national bipartisan U.S. strategy against what she labels as "rogue" states, which do not identically fall in line with the American strategies abroad. This strategy has become dangerously destabilising worldwide after the collapse of the balancing and deterring power of the former USSR and the emergence of the United States as the world,s only super power because the military intervention has been added as a feasible risk-free addition to sanctions within the containment strategy. The United States however tolerates even military regional roles played by strategic allies like Israel and encourages political roles regionally by friendly allied Arab states, which move and act within the U.S. strategy in the Middle East. Nicola Nasser is a veteran Arab journalist based in Ramallah, West Bank of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. Notes (1) Remarks by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Washington, DC, Feb. 27, 2007. (2) The Washington Post, Feb. 26, 2007. (3) Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, Issue of 2007-03-05, Feb. 25, 2007. (4) Ibid (2) (5) Mounir Elkhamri, "Iran,s Contribution to the Civil War in Iraq," Jamestown Foundation, Jan. 2007. Elkhamri is a former aide, "cultural adviser" and translator for Major General Rodriguez, the commander of Task Force Freedom, General George Casey, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. (6) Michael Eisenstadt, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, POLICYWATCH, NO. 681, Nov. 25, 2002. (7) Ibid, Mounir Elkhamri.

Coming in March from CounterPunch Books The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Jeffrey Goldberg, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained! Buy End Times Now! Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal Click Here to Order!   "The Case Against Israel" 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     The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn   Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh The Book on 9/11 the White House Denounced as "ABSOLUTE GARBAGE"