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May 23, 2002
Dean Baker
Attack of the Clowns:
The Real Bush is Back
Susan Abulhawa
Israel
and South Africa:
Apartheid's Accidental Prophecy
Uri Avnery
Sharon the Great Reformer?
Behzad Yaghmaian
Travails
of a Middle Eastern Migrant: Accosted at the Border
May 22, 2002
Brian J. Foley
Dick Cheney's Obscenity
Gavin Keeney
Bete Noire
Enron & the Great Game
Fran Shor
Follow the Money
Bush, bin Laden & Carlyle
May 21, 2002
George Monbiot
Riddle
of the Spores:
The FBI and Anthrax
Yulie Khromchenko
Displaced Reality:
Impressions from Jenin
Bernard Weiner
Kenny
Boy to Bush:
"Welcome to the Club"
Ron Jacobs
Confusing the Face
of the Enemy
Gary Leupp
"War
on Terrorism" in Yemen
May 20, 2002
Rep. Ron Paul
Say No to Military Draft
Dave Marsh
Music Monopolies
Jordy Cummings
Israel, Jews and the Left
Francis Boyle
In Defense
of a Divestment
Campaign Against Israel
Christian Salmon
The Bulldozer War
Edward Said
Crisis for
American Jews
May 19, 2002
Philip Farruggio
Where's Twain's Protector Government
Now?
Norman Madarasz
Canada,
NAFTA and Kyoto
May 18, 2002
M.G. Piety
Economic Fiction:
From Here to Annuity?
Michael Colby
Bush Fiddled
While
New York Burned
May 17, 2002
Wayne Madsen
Fox News Flashback:
Defending McKinney
James T. Phillips
Ceasefires
and Terrorists
Phillipe Dambournet
The Truth at Last:
Bush as the Energizer Bunny
Lori Berenson
In Defense
of Political Prisoners
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Terrorist Warnings
Hussein Ibish
Clarifying
the Obstacles
to Peace in Palestine
Alexander Cockburn
Israel and "Anti-Semitism"
May 16, 2002
Marylin Robinson
A Garden
in Tent City, But Where Do You Bathe?
Paul de Rooij
Worse than CNN?
The BBC and Israel
David Krieger
The Bush/Putin
Agreement:
Nuclear Dangers Remain
Steve Perry
Unsafe at Any Speed:
Youth, Sex and the Heresies
of Judith Levine
May 15, 2002
Ahmad Faruqui
Revisiting
Camp David
Rick Giombetti
Spiderman v. Pentagon:
Working Class Hero Battles Corrupt Defense Contractors
Stanton / Madsen
When the
War Hits Home:
Planning for Martial Law, Telegovernance and Suspension of Elections
May 14, 2002
Jacob Levich
Leaving the Truth Out?
Alternative Online Publication
Tells the Big Lie about Palestine
Michael Colby
Bush's
Cuba Blunder
Dave Marsh
Scapegoats: the Music Industry's War
on Cassettes
Jensen / Mahajan
US Power
Mideast Power Plays
May 13, 2002
Robert Fisk
Why Does John Malkovich
Want to Kill Me?
Mokhiber / Weissman
IMF
and World Bank:
Out of Control
Dean Baker
Will Darth Vader do Time?
The Enron Saga Continues
Nelson Valdés
American
Democracy:
A Lesson for Cubans
May 12, 2002
Bernard Weiner
Why Is America Acting Like This? A
Letter to European Friends
John Patrick Leary
Aiding Colombia
Kathleen Christison
Israel
and Ethics
May 11, 2002
Joady Guthrie
The Holy Lands:
A Peace Vision
Patrick Cockburn
Bombing
Iraq:
the Pentagon Prepares a Prolonged Campaign
George Sunderland
CounterPunch Special
Our
Vichy Congress: Israel's Stranglehold on Capitol Hill
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 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
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This Explosive
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Reviews of Gore:
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May
24, 2002
Bush Administration
Scandals
The Beginning of the End?
by Mark Weisbrot
Back in January, when the Enron scandal threatened
to ensnare the Bush Administration, White House press secretary
Ari Fleischer bragged to NBC's Tom Brokaw after a hard day of
managing the news. "Did you notice all the Enron stuff that
everybody was asking about? Look what made it on the air -- the
business-scandal side of it."
Fleischer had succeeded in burying the
political-scandal side of the story, and it was a remarkable
professional achievement in the world of spin. Here was an Administration
that was locked in "a carnal embrace" with Enron: President,
Vice-President, top economic and political advisers, Secretary
of the Army, US Trade Representative -- and more. But the political
fallout was barely registering.
Now Fleischer's magic, and President
Bush's teflon coating, may finally be fading. The discovery that
there were numerous  warning signs leading up to the massacre
of September 11, that went unheeded, could mark the beginning
of a Great Unraveling.
The Bush Administration and its allies
have shamelessly exploited September 11 to get what they want,
from mountains of new pork at the Pentagon to Fast Track authority
for negotiating new foreign commercial agreements. The latter
passed the House by one vote last December, after a threat from
House speaker Dennis Hastert: "This Congress will either
support our president -- who's fighting a courageous war on terrorism
and redefining American world leadership -- or it will undercut
the president at the worst possible time."
They have been quick to question the
patriotism of their opponents, and it has worked. The Democratic
leadership was cowed into silence, which gave President Bush
very high approval ratings -- they remain at 76 percent. Many
observers attribute these results to the "War Against Terrorism,"
but this is exaggerated. A public that hears only praise and
no criticism will predictably answer "yes" to pollsters
who ask whether the President is doing a good job.
This unfortunate dynamic has encouraged
a President who couldn't get a majority of the popular vote to
govern as though he had won an overwhelming mandate from the
electorate.
Vice President Dick Cheney has lashed
out hard at his critics, calling their actions "thoroughly
irresponsible and totally unworthy of national leaders in a time
of war."
But it's not working any more. The Democrats
softened their rhetoric, but Senate majority leader Tom Daschle
is still demanding that an independent commission be set up to
investigate what our government knew and did before September
11.
The Bush Administration has been less
than forthright about what was known about possible attacks,
and when it became known. For example, National Security Adviser
Condoleeza Rice told reporters last week that US intelligence
officials were focused on overseas threats in the months prior
to September 11. But according to the Washington Post, a secret
briefing memo presented to President Bush on August 6 -- headlined
"Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.," -- was focused
on attacks within the United States.
Meanwhile, Senator Joseph Lieberman is
threatening to subpoena White House officials for information
on their contacts with Enron officials. And there is yet another
scandal in the making, over the role of the Administration in
supporting the military coup last month against the democratically
elected President of Venezuela.
This is currently under internal investigation
at the State Department and Pentagon, and Senate hearings could
follow. Lest anyone think that foreign policy scandals don't
have legs, recall that the Iran-Contra investigation came close
to toppling the Reagan presidency in 1987. Ironically, two of
the suspects in the Venezuelan coup are re-treads from Iran-Contra:
Assistant Secretary of State Otto Reich, and National Security
Council official Elliot Abrams, who was convicted of lying to
Congress.
The Bush administration may survive all
of these challenges and more. But once the teflon is gone, its
whole agenda could very well collapse. Most Americans are concerned
with bread and butter issues, such as prescription drug costs,
health insurance, and education -- issues for which this Administration
offers them nothing. Cheney's vision of a war without end, a
replacement for the Cold War that will justify any overseas military
adventure -- Iraq, Somalia, Colombia -- appeals to the national
security establishment and some private sector beneficiaries.
But it won't attract many voters.
Mark Weisbrot
is co-Director of the Center
for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.
He is co-author (with Dean Baker) of Social
Security: The Phony Crisis (University of Chicago Press).
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