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January
10, 2002
Marina Mayakova
Russia's
Top Military Astrologer Predicts More Attacks from OBL
January
9, 2002
David
Vest
The
Super-Burqa
and the Big Tent
ND Jayaprakash
Winnable
Nuclear War?
Rafiq
Kathwari
Kashmir
Will Make Ground Zero Look Like a Bonfire
January
8, 2002
Prudence
Crowther
Sting
Like a B-52
Nelson
Valdés
Al-Qaeda
at Guantanamo Bay
John Chuckman
Dark
Tales from the
Ministry of Truth
Richard
Corn-Revere
Do
We Fear Freedom?
Joan Hoff
The
Nixon You Haven't Heard
January
7, 2002
Lawrence
McGuire
Confusing
Economic Tales About Argentina
Wael Masri
They
Are Taking
Our Rights Away
Philip
Farruggio
Better
Medicine
January
6, 2002
Ralph
Nader
Students
Put the Heat on Foreign Sweatshops
Tariq
Ali
Battleground
Kashmir
January
5, 2002
Mark Schneider
Kifah:
The Movie Star
Israel Killed
Edward
Said
Is
Israel More Secure Now?
January
4, 2002
CG Estabrook
Anti-War
= Anti-Globalization
Jordan
Green
What's
Changed in New York
January
3, 2002
Walt Brasch
Exit
Cheney, Enter Ridge
Mokhiber
and Weissman
The
10 Worst Corporations
of 2001
Robert
Hunter Wade
America's
Empire Rules an Unbalanced World
Shahid
Alam
Is
There an Islamic Problem?
January
2, 2002
Ross Regnart
Patriot
Act Redefines the Mob as "Terrorist Associates"
John Chuckman
The
Republicans' Secret Plan X
David
Vest
Turn,
Turn, Turn
January
1, 2002
Kathy
Kelly
Iraq's
New Year
December
31, 2001
John Absood
An
Alternative to War in Iraq
Ramzi
Kysia
Iraq
Goes Radioactive
December
28, 2001
John Chuckman
Observing
George Bush
Suren
Pillay
Civilian
Bodies
Aaron
Lehmer
Inviting
Future Terrorism
December
27, 2001
Patrick
McNamara
Palestinian
Children Bear Brunt of Mideast Violence
Nelson
Valdés
A
Possible Scenario on the Location of bin Laden
Jensen
and Mahajan
Remember
the Afghan Dead
Philip
Farruggio
A
New Year's Resolution
Ramzi
Kysia
The
People of the Valley
December 26, 2001
John Chuckman
In
Praise of the Unspeakable
Sam Bahour
2002:
Year of the Twos
December 25, 2001
Jennifer Loewenstein
Israel's
Human Rights Record
December 24, 2001
Sam Bahour
It
Happened One Morning
Yair Khilou
Why I Resisted
Being Drafted into the Israeli Army
Michael
Chisari
War
as Diversionary Tactic
Cockburn/St. Clair
Enron
and the Green Seal
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
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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Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
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 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
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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January
10, 2002
Neil Young:
Give Up Your Rights
Broken Arrow
By Lee Ballinger and Dave
Marsh
People for the American Way, which once described
the goal of the PMRC censors as "to bring children and parents
together on music selection," gave Neil Young its Spirit
of Liberty award at a December 11 Beverly Hills banquet. Young
used the occasion to proclaim his support of the USA/Patriot
Act, which became law on October 26. "To protect our freedoms,"
Young said, "it seems we're going to have to relinquish
some of our freedoms for a short period of time."
Young is certainly correct that we are
relinquishing some of our freedoms. For instance, for any of
the millions of non-citizens residing legally in the U.S., the
Patriot Act allows the government to merely allege "terrorism"
in order to try suspects without an attorney by a military tribunal
anywhere in the world, including on ships at sea. The Act also
allows defendants to be convicted--hell, executed--without the
presentation of any evidence, "even if a third of the officers
disagree." The bill defines terrorism by anyone--citizen
or not--as "activities that.appear to be intended to influence
the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion."
By this definition, the sit-ins, boycotts, and marches that characterized
the civil rights and anti-war movements are terrorism. That tag
could be applied to the upcoming May 1 nationwide hospital sit-ins
that will demand health care for all. The FBI can now search
your home or business without a warrant and jail you if you tell
anyone they did it.
Under the Patriot Act, the Justice Department
can prosecute any computer hacker anywhere in the world for breaking
any law. "It's a massive expansion of U.S. sovereignty,"
said Mark Rasch, a former Justice Department computer crime prosecutor.
A recent memo from Justice says the new law "creates the
option, where appropriate, of prosecuting such criminals in the
United States." This means a kid in Belgium or Bangkok could
be extradited to stand trial for downloading MP3 files that some
corporation claims that it owns. Several Americans and one Russian
have been arrested in this country for this "crime"
over the past two years.
The manufactured post-September 11 hysteria
has had effects that go well beyond the passage of the Patriot
Act (including the bombing deaths of Afghan civilians which,
according to a study by University of New Hampshire professor
Marc Herold, totaled 3,767 between October 7 and December 10).
While the bombs were falling, FBI agents paid a visit to the
Art Car Museum in Houston after a museum patron complained about
an exhibit that examined war and warmakers. The gumshoes took
particular interest in "Empty Trellis," a charcoal
drawing by Tim Glover that contains a bust of George Bush encased
in a steel trellis in the shape of a half globe. Glover says
it highlights the destruction of the environment. While the feds
ultimately decided that the drawing was not a threat to President
Bush's life, the FBI is now explicitly in the business of determining
what art can be shown in America. This extends the process that
began with the Bureau's attempts to silence N.W.A., but at least
back then what it was doing was illegal.
The bi-partisan American Council of Trustees
and Alumni, founded by Lynne Cheney (wife of the Republican vice-president)
and Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman, has
issued a list of 117 "unpatriotic" acts by university
faculty, including the president of Wesleyan University. Typical
of those coming under fire was a professor emeritus at the University
of Oregon, whose crime was to recommend that "we need to
understand the reasons behind the terrifying hatred directed
against the U.S. and find ways not to foment more hatred for
generations to come." Administrators will definitely be
checking that list to see who's been naughty and who's been nice
because Cheney/Leiberman's Council gives out over $3 billion
a year to colleges and universities.
Neil Young says not to worry, that this
is just temporary and "that these are our rights and we
can get them back." But the so-called "war on terrorism"
is only two months old and there's no reason to believe the government
will not further gut the Constitution. And besides, who will
make sure we get our rights back when the powers in the bill
expire in 2005? The Republicans, who rammed through the Patriot
bill without even giving the House of Representatives a chance
to read it first? The Democrats, whose most recent standard bearer,
Al Gore, describes George W. Bush as "my commander in chief"?
A more realistic assessment than Neil
Young's can be found on Rage Against the Machine's first album:
"Settle for nothing now/And we'll settle for nothing later."
Lee Ballinger
and Dave Marsh are editors of Rock
and Rap Confidential.
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