|
April 6, 2002
Bill Christison:
A Former CIA Official on
Oil and the Middle East
April 5, 2002
Charmaine
Seitz
In
Ramallah: The Grueling Reoccupation Grinds On
Nancy Stohlman
The Invasion of Bethlehem
and Our Tax Dollars at Work
Beth Daoud
The
Siege of Bethlehem:
"What Do You Mean God Is Punishing Me?"
Fareed Marjaee:
Demonizing Iran
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Philip
Morris to Canada:
"Drop Dead"
Alex Lynch
Tampa Campus Mirrors
Middle East Strife
Alexander
Cockburn
Sharon's
Wars: How the
News Gets Through
April 4, 2002
Ray Hanania
Sharon's Latest Lie About the Church
of the Nativity
Mike Leon
Rightwing
Assault on Madison Progressives Misfires
Tom Turnipseed
Stop the Killing Now!
Nancy
Stohlman
An
American Under Siege in a West Bank Refugee Camp
Christopher Reilly
Kissinger, Chile and Justice
at Long Last?
M. Shahid
Alam
The
Lies of Thomas Friedman
April 3, 2002
Don Henley
Dear Loathsome Trade Hacks
Bernard
Weiner
An
American Jew Talks
About His Shame
David Vest
Sting of Stings
Tzaporah
Ryter
Under
Fire: an American Student in Ramallah
Gabriel Ash
America's Bravest
John Chuckman
Of
War, Islam and Israel
Robert Fisk
The Siege of Bethlehem
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Sins of the Church
April 2, 2002
Uri Avnery
Murdering Arafat?
Jeff Chang
Is
Protest Music Dead?
Lev Grinberg
Israel's State Terrorism
Norman
Madarasz
Bullying
Brazil
Robert Fisk
Farce and Terror
in Ramallah
Steve
Perry
Let's
Roll! ®:
The Marketing of Lisa Beamer
April 1, 2002
Stanton / Madsen
America's War Inc.
Rep. Dennis
Kucinich
Peace
and Nuclear Disarmament: a Call to Action
Bahour / Dahan
Bloodshed in Palestine:
A Way Out
Molly
Secours
Tennessee's
Kangaroo Court
Phyllis Pollack
The Making of Exile
on Main Street
Dave Marsh
DeskScan:
This Week's
Top 10 CDs
Francis Boyle
The Big Lie:
Palestine, Palestinians
and International Law
March 31, 2002
Jordan
Flaherty
Last
Night the Israeli
Military Tried to Kill Me
Kristen Schurr
Live from Bethlehem
Maha Sbitani
The
Israeli Army Took Over My House
Robert Fisk
Lies Leaders Tell When
They Want to Go to War
March 24/30, 2002
Alexander Cockburn
The Year
of the Yellow Notepad:
Plagiarism and History
Rep. Ron Paul
Slavery and the Draft
Fidel
Castro
A
Better World is Possible
Edward Said
What Price Oslo?
José
Saramago
Justice
and Democracy Denied
Azmi Bishara
Talking to Tanks
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Clearcutting
Montana
Alexander Cockburn
50 Years of James Bond
Wilhelm
Reich
Gethsemane
Claud Cockburn
The Horror of It All
Dave Marsh
What's
Playing at My Houe
David Vest
Remembering Tammy Wynette
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Waylon
Jennings:
an Honest Outlaw
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
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published March 15, 2002
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 Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
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
|
April 6, 2002
New CIA Survey of Iraqi Airfields
May Herald Attack
By Patrick Cockburn
In the first concrete sign that the US is planning
military action against Iraq despite objections from its allies,
CIA officers have surveyed three key airfields in northern Iraq.
The airfields, situated in northern Iraq
near the cities of Arbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah in Kurdistan--the
only part of Iraq not held by Saddam Hussein--could be used
to receive arms and troops in the event of a conflict between
the US and Iraq, an Iraqi source has told The Independent.
The US is pursuing its military strategy
and, at the same time, trying to persuade Iraq to accept UN
weapons inspectors back into the country, which could theoretically
avert the need for a military campaign.
But America has made it clear that it
is prepared to act alone, if necessary, against Saddam Hussein,
even though the US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, has heard strong
objections to its plans for a military campaign aimed at overthrowing
President Saddam during the tour of Arab states that he is
currently finishing.
The CIA visit, at the end of last month,
will deeply worry Baghdad and has infuriated Iran and Syria.
Both countries are concerned that an American attack on Iraq
will endanger their own security.
President Saddam has shown in the last
few weeks that he takes American threats to attack him very
seriously by telling householders in Baghdad to stockpile food.
Militia and paramilitary groups as well as the army have been
put on high alert.
In addition, the regular Iraqi army has
been issued with plentiful supplies of ammunition. Regular units,
in contrast with the elite Republican Guard, are usually only
given small supplies to ensure that they do not take part in
a coup d'etat against the government.
The largest of the airfields examined
by the CIA is near Arbil, the biggest Kurdish city, about 20
miles from the Iraqi front line. "It has good modern runway
about 1.6 miles [2.5 km] long, built for the Iraqi airforce
in the 1980s," said a member of the Iraqi opposition, who
did not want his name published.
The other airfields are at Bamarnii outside
Dohuk in western Kurdistan, which was used by Gulf War allies
in Operation Provide Comfort, launched to help the Kurds after
they had been routed by President Saddam's army in 1991. A third
airfield is in Sulaimaniyah province in eastern Kurdistan,
not far from the Iranian border.
The Kurds, who have repeatedly risen
against Iraqi governments in the past, have enjoyed de facto
independence since the 1991 Gulf War. Protected by US and British
aircraft, which maintain a no-fly zone over Kurdistan, they
have tried in recent years to steer a neutral course between
President Saddam and his enemies.
One scenario being pushed in Washington
is for the US to try to repeat its success in Afghanistan by
using its air power to support opposition forces. But the Kurdish
forces number about 15,000 fighters and are no match for the
400,000 soldiers in the Iraqi army.
Late last year a high-level delegation
from the US State Department visited Kurdistan. They were told
by the two most important Kurdish leaders--Massoud Barzani,
who heads the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Jalal al-Talabani,
the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan--that the Kurds
would not act against Saddam Hussein unless they were certain
that the US was determined to overthrow him and had a plan to
do so.
The CIA visit has seriously embarrassed
the two leaders. "The news of the CIA visit has created
a furore among the Kurds," said an Iraqi source. Mr al-Talabani
has made a rushed visit to Damascus to reassure the Syrians
that his party is not joining an attempt to topple President
Saddam. Mr Barzani sent two senior members of the KDP politburo,
Azad Barawi and Favel Mirani, to make the same point to Syria.
Patrick Cockburn
is the co-author of Out
of the Ashes: the Resurrection of Saddam Hussein.
|