|
July 29, 2002
Tom Stephens
Fast
Track and the
Hypocrites of the House
Linda Belanger
Why Do They Do It?
Alfredo Castro
Colombia's
Disappeared
Anne Brodsky
Inside Pakistan and
Afghanistan with RAWA
Andrew George
The Fires
of Summer:
Don't Blame the Greens
David Vest
A Blind Mule and
a Box of Medals
July 28, 2002
Bob Geary
Our Dinner
with Fidel Castro
July 27, 2002
Ian Daoust
The New
Mahler, Seattle Style
Gavin Keeney
Zizek
and Lenin
Ralph Nader
Citigroup
Heal Thyself
M. Shahid Alam
American
Presidents (Poem)
Mokhiber / Weissman
Push Back: Women Take
on the Corporate Beasts
July 26, 2002
Jerre Skog
American
Dictatorship:
It Couldn't Happen...Could It?
Philip Farruggio
Lie,
Rob and Steal
Rep. Ron Paul
Monitor
Thy Neighbor
Ron Jacobs
Thinking
About the
Weather (Underground)
Walt Brasch
Ashcroft's War on Bookstores
July 25, 2002
Norman Madarasz
Paul
Krugman's Howl:
Populism, War and
the Melting Economy
Gavin Keeney
Van Morrison: In September
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
War
on Terrorism or
Police State?
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?
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 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
|
July
31, 2002
20 Things We've
Learned Nearly
a Year After 9/11
by Bernard Weiner
As we approach the first anniversary of the 9/11
terrorist attacks, it might be useful to see how far an ordinary
citizen's knowledge has progressed one year on. So here, in
the way of a summing-up, based on journalistic documentation,
is a list of things we Americans have learned since last September
-- some of which might prove useful in the run-up to the November
elections.
1. We've learned that Bush&Co.'s
"war on terrorism" has morphed from finding and destroying
those responsible for the 9/11 mass-murders to a worldwide campaign
to install a Pax Americana, by force if necessary. In other
words, neo-imperialism, reminiscent in many ways of the old
Roman Empire or, closer to our own time, the British Empire.
2. We've learned that Bush&Co. has
no desire to rethink any of its policies abroad, the same policies
that isolate it and that generate hatred, suspicion and terrorism
in so many regions of the globe. Rather than reconsider its
pol icies, or try to accomplish its ends through diplomacy and
alliances and cultural/economic initiatives, in its arrogance
it continues to bully and threaten others, insult its European
and other allies, disregard international treaties and courts,
engage in unilateral actions without regard to the national
interests of others, and, in general, simply throw its massive
weight around. The prevailing attitude seems to be: We are the
one Superpower, get used to bending to our will.
3. We've learned that Bush's national-security
leadership was alerted months ahead of 9/11 (and, it has admitted,
no later than August 6) that a major air attack from al-Qaida
was in the works, along with the likely targets, but did nothing
to try to prevent those attacks or warn anyone about them. Caught
in their own lies, they blame "the system," especially
elements in the FBI, for "not connecting the dots."
More than 3000 Americans died as a result of this malfeasance.
4. We've learned that plans already were
in the works prior to 9/11 for the evisceration of Constitutional
guarantees of due process of law. The White House hustled the
so-called USA PATRIOT Act through a frightened Congress in a
patriotic blur, just a few days after the attacks, with few,
if any, of the legislators having had time to read the final
version.
5. We've learned that prior to September
11, the Bush Administration was negotiating with the Taliban
about a pipeline desired by a <U.S.-led> energy consortium
that would cross through Afghanistan. When the Taliban balked,
the U.S. negotiators told them they either could accept a "carpet
of gold" or face a "carpet of bombs." The Taliban
backed away from the deal and refused to hand over Osama bin
Laden; shortly after the terror attacks of 9/11, the U.S. began
bombing in Afghanistan.
6. We've learned that now with the Taliban
having been overthrown, and a <U.S.-friendly> regime installed
in Kabul, the pipeline project is back on track, designed to
carry energy supplies across Afghanistan from the Caspian Sea
area to near India. Hamid Karzai, the new leader of Afghanistan,
formerly was a consultant on the payroll of the pipeline folks;
likewise, the new U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan.
7. We've learned that Bush&Co.'s
Homeland Security Act includes programs that bear an amazing
resemblance to totalitarian programs from the fascis/communist
end of the spectrum: getting the military (restricted heretofore
to activity outside the U.S.) involved in domestic policing,
signing up neighborhood and block snoops to work for the central
government, investigating what books citizens are checking out
and buying, denouncing those deemed insufficiently patriotic
or suspicious because of their views, etc. Remind you of Stalin's
Russia, Castro's Cuba, Hitler's Third Reich, the Stasi of East
Germany? (There also are prototypes of patriotic youth leagues
being tried out in cities, which could become a national program.)
A kind of martial-law coming to a neighborhood near you.
8. We've learned that Ashcroft/Bush are
shredding Constitutional due-process guarantees in their move
toward total control: already they have compromised attorney-client
privilege, removed habeus corpus protections, locked up folks
with no charges, secreted citizens at military installations
which puts them out of reach of the judicial system, violated
privacy in rifling through personal telephone and email communications,
etc. etc. When the ambiguously-worded PATRIOT Act was first
brought up, Ashcroft and Bush told us not to worry, promising
that these rules would affect only non-citizens. Since that
time, American citizens have been handled in similar fashion.
Coming to a neighborhood near you.
9. We've learned much about the dangers
of religious fundamentalism in Islam, but we've also learned
about dangers posed by our own religious fundamentalists --
eager for a Christian theocratic society, symbolized most recently
by a Secret Service agent scrawling on a Muslim suspect's refrigerator
"Islam Is Evil, Christ Is King" -- and the extraordinary
power they wield within the Bush Administration, represented
most openly by John Ashcroft, who in frame-of-mind resembles
a Taliban mullah.
10. We've learned that the FBI, focusing
now on foreign terrorists, doesn't seem energized with the same
zeal to catch domestic terrorists, such as abortion-clinic arsonists
-- and especially the anthrax-dispenser. Though the FBI seems
to know that the anthrax villain probably worked at a government
bio-lab, nobody has been arrested, or even targeted as a prime
suspect. It may not be likely, but the unsaid is finally being
asked: Could this dangerous terrorist actually be working for
the government?
11. We've learned that the HardRight
of the Republican Party has taken control -- of the House leadership,
of the Supreme Court, of the White House, of much of the conglomerate-owned
media -- and has demonstrated its willingness to do nearly
anything to maintain that power. (Only the courageous defection
of Sen. Jim Jeffords from GOP ranks is standing in the way of
HardRight total control of all three branches of government.)
More and more truly objectionable HardRight judges are being
nominated by Bush in an e ffort to stack the judiciary for decades
to come. This by a man who lost the election by more than half-a-million
votes, coming into his White House residency, with no popular
mandate, only because his supporters on the Supreme Court installed
him there.
12. We've learned that to break the momentum
of the HardRight, all energy for the upcoming November elections
(less than 90 days away, let us not forget) must be expended
in electing Democrat candidates and defeating Republican ones.
The objective conditions are just not ripe yet for anything
more than trying to move the country back toward the middle
of the political spectrum. We progressives more in tune with
the Greens (Green candidates are being supported secretly in
many states by the Republicans, to try to defeat Democrats)
will have to wait. The difference between Democrats and Republicans
may seem small to Greens and others, but, as we've learned in
a painful way under Bush&Co., that difference is immense
when it comes to foreign and domestic policy and its actual
effects on real people, here and abroad.
13. We've learned that Cheney is up to
his ears in Halliburton irregularities, and may well be liable
for indictment for participating in financial fraud. In addition,
we've learned that Cheney, who was the head of the task force
that came up with a corporate-friendly rather than a consumer-friendly
energy policy, has refused to turn over to Congress the requested
documents that will reveal how that policy was arrived at and
which industry leaders (other than Enron's Kenny Boy) helped
shape it.
14. We've learned that Bush knew in advance,
as a member of the Harken Audit Committee, that Harken Oil was
going to release negative financial news, and sold his shares
before that, reaping a fortune. He may be liable for indictment
for insider-trading and other Harken irregularities. (Even if
Bush and Cheney are not indicted, they are the last people
on earth who should be speaking about corruption in the corporate
financial world, as these hypocrites benefitted from that very
corrupt system. As did most of Bush's corporate-derived cabinet.)
15. We've learned that Bush&Co. were
mightily opposed to any reform of corporate financial reporting,
but when more and more companies were caught in such corrupt
practices and the mood of the country shifted -- mainly because
so many folks, especially seniors, lost huge chunks of their
pensions and portfolio holdings when the Stock Market tanked
as a result of investors' losing confidence in the numbers provided
by corporations -- they jumped on the bandwagon and pretended
they were reformers all along. In the background, they are
trying to help their corporate supporters water down, and otherwise
get around, the new rules. To that end, Bush&Co. have appointed
Harvey Pitt and Larry Thompson, two tainted corporate types,
to head up the "investigations" of corporate wrongdoing.
Break out the whitewash.
16. We've learned that Bush&Co.,
having placed its chips on Ariel Sharon, continues to have no
real desire for a just peace in the Middle East. All it wants
is for the area to be quiet and controlled (thus giving carte
blanche to the Israeli Army's police-state occupation and oppression),
so that it can continue its plans for overthrowing Saddam Hussein
in Iraq. And, of course, there has been no declaration of a
State of War by the Congress, neither against Afghanistan nor
against Iraq, and no real debate about the wisdom of a war against
Saddam -- even when the top brass at the Pentagon and in Great
Britain have expressed their opposition to such military adventurism.
17. We've learned that there will be
no peace now in the Middle East because the U.S. is not fully
engaged in the peace process, also because neither extreme in
the area wants peace: Sharon thrives on war and brutality, Hamas
needs Sharon's bloody policies to justify its campaign of terror.
There are signs that moderate Palestinians finally are starting
to speak out in favor of a peaceful solution, and there are
plenty of land-for-peace Israelis (supported by many liberal
Jews in the U.S.), so the outlines of a peace are out there.
But until the U.S. and U.N. make the commitment to separate
the warring extremists and arrange an equitable treaty both
Israel and the Palestinians can live with -- secure borders
for Israel (and an end to suicide bombing), a viable state for
the Palestinians, abandoning of the settlements by Israel, reparations
for Palestinians who lost their homes and property -- there
will be only more bloodshed. And more fertile ground for new
generations of terrorists, in the Middle East and elsewhere
in the Islamic world.
18. We've learned that Bush&Co. has
been a total disaster for the environment, in every way: from
reneging on its campaign promise to cut carbon-dioxide and other
greenhouse emissions, to backing away from higher fuel-efficiency
in cars (we could cut our dependence on foreign oil 20% just
by increasing fuel efficiency by 5%), to giving breaks to corporate
polluters all across the country, to permitting increased arsenic
levels in the water, etc. etc.
19. We've learned that Secretary of State
Colin Powell -- who sees the world in something other than simplistic
black-and-white, us-versus-them dichotomies -- is a man imprisoned
in the Bush Cabinet, forced to alter his principled opinions
in the service of Bush&Co.'s stupidly aggressive and ultimately
self-defeating foreign policies. Powell, a moderate conservative,
looks like a raving progressive when measured against his masters.
He should resign but probably won't.
20. We've learned that the tax-cuts provided
to the most wealthy are not only payoffs to the corporate sector
that provides support for Bush&Co. By locking in those tax
cuts for ten years (and with humongous chunks of the budget
spent on the "war on terrorism"), Bush&Co. have
ensured that innumerable social programs that aid the less well-off
will be cut or eliminated. In short, a rollback of New Deal/Great
Society programs, so hated by the HardRight. (The HardRight
movement to detach prescription drugs for seniors fr om the
Medicare program, and, especially, to privatize Social Security
-- even in the face of recent stock-market disasters -- is part
of this same desire.)
Even after all the above shorthand summaries,
no doubt I'm leaving out lots of Bush&Co. dirt, but this
list can provide a starting point, and a handy compilation of
enough low and high crimes and misdemeanors to warrant their
removal from power, either through the ballot box or by resignation
or impeachment.
Finally, as we enter August, we know
that one of two things will happen in the summer-doldrums, with
the Congress on vacation: Either Bush&Co. will start its
Iraq war and carry out more under-the-radar attacks on important
American programs, or the media, bereft of their usual Beltway
stories, will use the down time to engage in hard-hitting investigative
reporting that will reveal in even more stark relief the machinations
of Bush&Co. illegalities and other scandalous behavior.
But, given the corporate nature of our corporate-owned media,
don't count on it. Instead, we'll probably be flooded with this
summer's Condit-like sex scandal.
Bernard Weiner,
Ph.D., has taught American politics and international relations
at Western Washington University and San Diego State University;
he was with the San Francisco Chronicle for nearly 20 years.
Today's
Features
Tom Stephens
Fast
Track and the
Hypocrites of the House
Linda Belanger
Why Do They Do It?
Alfredo Castro
Colombia's
Disappeared
Anne Brodsky
Inside Pakistan and
Afghanistan with RAWA
Andrew George
The Fires
of Summer:
Don't Blame the Greens
David Vest
A Blind Mule and
a Box of Medals
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|