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December 15, 2001
Yusuf Agha
Tale of the Tape:
Osama Gump?
December 14, 2001
Don Atapattu
A Conversation with
Norman
Finkelstein
December 13, 2001
Trojanow and Hoskote:
Nonsense
Mantras of Our Times
Dr. A.
Tajudeen
Afghanistan
and Zaire
Michael Williams
Prohibit
Prohibition
December 12, 2001
Jack McCarthy
Hitchens,
Walker
and Osama's Tape
Laura W. Murphy
Ashcroft's
Jihad
Shahid
Alam
Race
and Visibility
December 11, 2001
Joshua Orton
University
of Wisconsin
Won't Aid FBI Interviews
Philip
Farruggio
Cleansing
the Nation's Soul
Robert Fisk
Why I Was
Beaten
December 10, 2001
Robert
Dunham
Race
and the Death Penalty:
Partners in Injustice
Andy Kershaw
Chamber of
Horrors
Near the Garden of Eden
John Touchie
Isaac's
on Chomsky
December 9, 2001
Jo Dillon
Journalist:
The CIA Wanted
Me Killed
John Chuckman
High-Tech
Puritanism
December 8, 2001
Laurence Tribe
Military Tribunals
Undermine the Constitution
Patrick
Cockburn
The
End of a Strange War
December 7, 2001
John Troyer
Blacklist Me!
Sen. Edwards
v. Ashcroft
Military
Tribunals
George Naggiar
Occupation
as Terrorism
Hugo von
Sponek
and Denis Halliday
Iraq
the Hostage Nation
David Vest
The Coen
Brothers'
Minstrel Show
Alexander
Cockburn
Sharon
or Arafat:
Who's the Terrorist?
December 6, 2001
CounterPunch Wire
Hampshire
College the First
to Condemn the War
Robert
Jensen
University
Teaching After
September 11
Jack McCarthy
Does
Tom Friedman Read
the New York Times?
Sam and
Leila Bahour
The
Psychology of a Suicide Attacker
December 5, 2001
Edward Hammond
The Only
Real Way to
Prevent Biowarfare
Harvey
Wasserman
Atomic
Treason in the House
Carl Estabrook
America's
Israel
Don Williams
Questions
Barbara Walters Didn't Ask George Bush
Cockburn/St. Clair
Liberals
Hail War as
Return of Big Government
Robert
Fisk
The
Last Colonial War?
Bahour/Dahan
It's About
the Occupation
December 4, 2001
Dave Marsh
A
Plea for Byron Parker
Rep. Ron Paul
Keep Your
Eye on the Target
Susan
Herman
Ashcroft
and the Patriot Act
Tariq Ali
The Afghan
King and the Nazis
November 30, 2001
Jordan
Green
Disappeared
in the Southland
Willliam Blum
Rebuilding
Afghanistan?
November 29, 2001
Phillip
Cryan
Defining
Terrorism
Robert Fisk
We Are the
War Criminals Now
November 28, 2001
Tom Turnipseed
A
Continuum of Terror
Patrick Cockburn
Tribal
Council:
Don't Blame It All on Taliban
Robert
Fisk
At
Last, The Truth about the Sabra and Chatila Massacres
Harry Browne
The Bill of
Rights:
They Threw It All Away
Sunil
Sharma
Suffer
Palestine's Children
November 27, 2001
Paul Coggins
Kafka and
the Patriot Act
Tariq
Ali
Tigris
and Euprhates
November 26, 2001
Robert Fisk
Blood and
Tears in Kandahar
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Boeing's
Sweet Deal
CounterPunch Wire
Human
Rights Abuses and
Nuke Waste Shipments
Alexander
Cockburn
Harry
Potter and Terrorism
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
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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
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December 15,
2001
Zinni's Doomed
Mission
Another One Bites the Dust
by Sam Bahour and Michael
Dahan
U.S. envoy to the Middle East, retired
marine general Anthony Zinni's announcement of his decision to
end his cease-fire mission following his meeting Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon adds yet another blunder to the numerous
failed attempts throughout history for the U.S. to act as a genuine
peace broker between Palestinians and Israelis.
As General Zinni shuttled back and forth
between Israel and Palestine his efforts were marred by an increased
intensity of violence. Israeli F-16's greeted his visit only
24 hours prior to his arrival, a wave of suicide bombers entertained
him while here, and F-16 strikes on Palestinian cities wished
him farewell. The series of events that propelled the cycle of
violence comes as no surprise to those living the daily horrors
of Israel's 34 years of occupation policy.
Blind to the facts on the ground being
created by Israeli Prime Minister Sharon, and Israel's previous
administrations, General Zinni came riding into the Middle East
on Secretary of State Powell's white horse. Armed with the newest
U.S. Middle East initiative, he had the mandate to "prod"
and "present ideas". It seems the U.S. naively believed
that a decorated U.S. General could speak sense into a desecrated
Israeli General.
Once again, the U.S. fails in mediation,
leaving the region in a "might is right" mode. Zinni's
mission, and the hundreds before him, did not have to end in
failure. The tools to solve the conflict reside in Washington
D.C., but no U.S. Administration has had the political will or
moral courage to employ them.
With U.S. taxpayer dollars freely flowing
into Israel to a tune of $3 billion per year, the U.S. has the
financial clout to stop aid to Israel until steps are taken toward
ending Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinians. These funds
are directly responsible for the freeing of other funds that
Israel uses to build illegal settlements and fund its continued
gross violations of human rights.
U.S. provided armaments, F-16's, Apache
helicopters, M-16's, etc, are being indiscriminately used to
attack Palestinians, both civilians and Authority. While U.S.
decision-makers publicly "demand" explanation for Israel's
continued air strikes, which are, or have, destroyed any possibility
for peace, the U.S. refuses to stop arming Israel, even though
U.S. Law requires its weapons not be used in such cases.
As Israel's economy dramatically fails
as it wages war on Palestinians, the U.S. refuses to take additional
economic measures to bring Israel in line with the will of the
world. Instead, Israel's free trade agreement status stands unscathed
providing an economic safety net for any Israeli aggression.
Most importantly, the U.S. fails to puts
its weight behind the countless number of UN resolutions that
call for the end to Israel's military occupation of the West
Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Instead, Secretary of State
Powell reiterated the U.S. position that, "The only lasting
peace will be the peace the parties make themselves." It
is interesting how the occupied are required to reach an agreement
with the occupier, while in Iraq and Afghanistan no agreement
was required by the parties before the U.S. flexed its muscles.
As the Israeli occupation generates more
and more Palestinians that have equated life under occupation
to death, it is no wonder the phenomena of suicide bombers exist.
Ten years of Oslo, diplomacy and civil disobedience got the Palestinians
nowhere. Fifteen months of Intifada and sadly, six months of
suicide attacks have, for all practical purposes, stopped the
expansion of settlements, alerted the Israeli citizens that their
government is still oppressing their neighbors, seriously damaged
the Israeli economy, reduced Jewish immigration to Israel and
brought the U.S. to recognize the "P" word, Palestine.
Instead of forging forward a new path,
the U.S. thrust has been to join an Israeli character assassination
of elected Palestinian President Yaser Arafat. The U.S. would
be well advised to address the core issue of ending occupation
rather than meddle in domestic Palestinian affairs. After all,
it was former President Jimmy Carter that monitored and certified
the election of President Arafat.
We wish General Zinni a nice life and
we can promise him one thing. As long as Israeli occupation is
permitted to survive, he can come back in 10 months or 10 years
and would have not missed much - Palestinians, stripped of their
dignity, land and freedom will continue to struggle, with Arafat
or without.
Sam Bahour
is a Palestinian-American living in the besieged Palestinian
City of Al-Bireh in the West Bank and can be reached at sbahour@palnet.com.
Michael Dahan is an Israeli-American political scientist
living in Jerusalem and can be reached at mdahan@attglobal.net.
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