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CHINA'S GREAT LEAP BACKWARDS Peter Kwong gives us the "New China" without illusions: from the "millionaires' fair" in Shanghai, with $60,000 diamond-studded dog leashes to one of the most savagely repressed working class and peasantry on the planet. How China's leaders swapped Marx and Mao for Milton Friedman. Alexander Cockburn on What's wrong with the U.S. left. They're sitting in darkened rooms weaving conspiracy fantasies about 9/11; they're blogging; they're confusing a medium with a movement; they're not doing enough to stop the war in Iraq. John Ross takes us along the stormy trail of the Mexican election. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! |
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Today's Stories July 14 / 15, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Ramzy Baroud July 13, 2006 Rev. William
Alberts Ramzi Kysia Rep. John P. Murtha Radford / Santos Stan Cox Saul Landau José
Pertierra Website of
the Day
July 12, 2006 John Ross John Stauber Robert Boston Wayne S. Smith John Graham Kevin Prosen Jonathan Cook Website of
the Day
July 11, 2006 Dave Lindorff Dave Zirin Mokhiber / Weissman Amira Hass Clare Hanrahan Brian Cloughey Felice Pace Raed Jarrar Website of the Day
July 10, 2006 Paul Craig
Roberts Uri Avnery Roger Burbach Ron Jacobs Joshua Frank Missy Comley Beattie Alexander Cockburn
Stephen Green Paul Craig
Roberts Greg Moses Ralph Nader Laura Carlsen Conn Hallinan John Chuckman Fred Gardner Dr. Tod Mikuriya Pierre Tristam Lucinda Marshall David Swanson Heather Gray Dave Zirin
/ John Cox Mark Engler Michael Lettieri Ron Jacobs Jamal Juma' Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement
July 7, 2006 John Ross July 6, 2006 Nick Dearden John Stanton Ralph Nader Laray Polk Saul Landau Joshua Frank William S. Lind Adelman / Lindorff Jonathan Cook Website of
the Day
Mike Whitney Saul Landau Ramzy Baroud Missy Comley Beattie Arthur Neslen Vincent Maruffi Paul Cantor Paul D. Johnson David Price
Col. Dan Smith Chris Floyd Marjorie Cohn James Brooks Medea Benjamin Matt Reichel Elisa Salasin Rick Wilhelm Paul Craig
Roberts Website of the Day
July 3, 2006 Robert Bryce Dr. Bouthaina Shaban Julia Olmstead Dave Lindorff Andres Gomez Alan Singer Alexander Cockburn
Paul Craig
Roberts Stephen T.
Banko Daniel Cassidy Fawzia Afzal-Khan Jeff Taylor John Ross Greg Moses Laura Carlsen Justin E.H.
Smith Brian Cloughley Anthony Papa Mike Ferner Jerry Tucker Jane Goodall / Rick Asselta Phyllis Pollack Poets' Basement
June 30, 2006 Marjorie Cohn Heather Williams Burbach / Cantor Nick Dearden Michael J.
Smith Brian Concannon Virginia Tilley
Bill Quigley Ron Jacobs Paul Craig
Roberts June 28, 2006 Jorge Mariscal Greg Moses Mark Weisbrot Ramzy Baroud Dave Lindorff William S.
Lind Mike Ferner Zoltan Grossman
Marjorie Cohn Benjamin /
Jarrar William Hughes Doug Giebel Uri Avnery Alexander Cockburn
June 26, 2006 Don Santina Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Rafael Rodriguez-Cruz Evelyn Pringle Jonathan Cook
June 23, 2006 Youmans / Erakat Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Col. Dan Smith
June 22, 2006 Marjorie Cohn Winslow T.
Wheeler Tanya Reinhart Mike Marqusee William Blum
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Bastille
Day Weekend Edition Homeland Security's War on Civil LibertiesRailroading Your RightsBy ELIZABETH WEILL-GREENBERG Like a twisted elementary school class of show-and-tell, this week the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) demonstrated its latest effort to search commuters and, they say, thwart an attack on New Jersey and New York City's transit lines. From July 13 to 27 the Department of Homeland Security will be forcing passengers at the Exchange Place PATH station in Jersey City to be searched using millimeter wave technology. During rush hour, passengers will be selected at random for screening; at other times all PATH riders will be screened. Approximately 15,000 people use the Exchange Place PATH station daily. Passengers will either walk through an open area lined with sensors or stand in what looks like a glass elevator. An image of the person is generated on a computer screen and is supposed to detect large objects hidden under the person's clothing. The screening should take no more than a couple minutes, DHS officials said. This is the second phase of a congressionally mandated program called the Rail Security Pilot Project; its results will be reported to Congress in the fall. The federal price tag is $10 million. "The technology we're testing today is designed to look for larger objects like a suicide belt vest and not smaller objects," DHS spokesman Christopher Kelly told City Belt. "It's calibrated to look for bigger things." Kelly said that the images generated also "protect one's individual privacy." "There's no way you can see any kind of body part," said Kelly. "You can't see any underwear. It's designed to look at big bulky objects that may not typically be there. This is really just designed to check on explosives." Reporters at the DHS press briefing at Exchange Place were told not to take photos of the computer images for "security reasons." The image generated is highly pixilated -- the person's body, or even gender, cannot be made out. If an anomaly is detected it is shown as a colored splotch. From there, the screener, a TSA-certified contractor with at least six months of airport experience, performs a secondary screening, where the suspect will be wanded and subjected to a pat-down search, according to Kelly. Much like the widespread NSA wiretapping program and the random searches in New York City's subways, the new program at Exchange Place shows that the government is casting its surveillance net wider and wider. "It always troubles us to see a trend in which citizens are encouraged to waive their constitutional rights in the course of their daily affairs," said Scott Morgan, associate director of Flex Your Rights, a Washington, D.C. based organization opposed to unconstitutional searches. Security vs. Civil Liberties? The surveillance debate is often framed as civil liberties versus security, as if the two are mutually exclusive. But there are serious questions as to the effectiveness of random searches and omniscient government spying. Since New York instituted its random search policy on the subways a year ago, there have been five arrests all unrelated to terrorism -- for drug possession, disorderly conduct and other minor charges -- according to the Associated Press. (July 9, 2006) City Belt requested information from the Department of Homeland Security and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on how many terror suspects were apprehended, and how many people were arrested on charges unrelated to terror, since the random bag search policy was instituted last July for travelers using the Port Authority's PATH system, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, AirTrain JFK and AirTrain Newark. We have not yet received an answer. "Suspicionless searches -- of anyone walking by, searches with no particularized suspicion, no probable cause to suspect the individual being searched is likely to be involved in a specific crime as the 4th amendment requires -- these searches are always going to have a very, very low hit rate," said Morgan. "It's very hard to find what you're looking for when you don't use any criteria to decide who to scrutinize." War on Terror, Meet War on Drugs While the pilot program at Exchange Place is supposedly only looking for explosives, if "illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia are found during the screening process, a Port Authority law enforcement officer will respond," according to informational literature published by DHS. As Lee Tien, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, pointed out, these searches tell PATH users: "anything you carry may be used against you." That was certainly Larry Bailey's fear in February when DHS tested the first phase of the Rail Security Pilot Program at Exchange Place. Commuters were asked to go through screening devices similar to those found at airports. Bailey was carrying a small bag of marijuana. Bailey, a comedian and blogger now living in Long Island, refused to be searched and left the station. "I really don't think there's anything you can do aside from completely stripping away peoples' civil liberties and rights," he told City Belt. "What we're trying to do is stop up all the leaks. But one pops up somewhere else." (For instance, there is another PATH station five blocks away.) He added: "I'd rather take my chances than to live the way they live in Israel You have to worry about the joint you forgot about or worry about the weed that's been in your pocket for two months. For me it's not worth it." But despite the serious questions as to the effectiveness of random searches, the surveillance machine still pushes ahead. After all, DHS puts on a great show. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg is co-publisher of City
Belt, an independent, progressive magazine for NJ. She's
also editor of 10
Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military, published in
May by The New Press. She can be reached at: elizabeth@citybelt.org
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from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann  Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair          Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.                    |
