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Exclusive to CounterPunch Newsletter Subscribers! WHAT DID ISRAEL KNOW IN ADVANCE OF THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS? * Those Celebrating "Movers" and Art Student Spies * Who were the Israelis living next to Mohammed Atta? * What was in that Moving Van on the New Jersey shore? * Was the Mossad Tracking the 9/11 Hijackers in the US? * How did two hijackers end up on the Watch List weeks before 9/11? At last, the answers. Read Christopher Ketcham's exclusive expose in CounterPunch special double-issue February newsletter. Plus, Cockburn and St. Clair on how this story was suppressed and ultimately found its home in CounterPunch. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Remember contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now Get CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year Landau at UC Santa Cruz; Cockburn in San Francisco

Today's Stories February 26, 2007 Bill Quigley The Right to Return to New Orleans February 24 / 25, 2007 Jeffrey St. Clair Frightening Tales of Endangered Species R. T. Naylor Inside Islamic Charity Gary Leupp AIPAC Demands "Action" on Iran Saul Landau Modern Day Miracle: Rev. Haggard Cured! Thank You, Jesus! Ron Jacobs Missile Defense Redux Jeffrey Blankfort A Debate on the Israel Lobby Chris Sands Afghanistan in Winter: Where Death Comes Cheap Gary Freeman The N-Word and Black History Month Larry Portis Zionism and the United States: the Cultural Connection P. Sainath Two Million People in "Maximum Distress" Lee Sustar What Next for the Immigrants' Rights Movement? Kevin Wehr Liberal vs. Radical Enviros: the Thrill isn't Gone, It's Just Moved Ken Couesbouc The African Card Soffiyah Elijah FBI Hunting Dead Panthers: Can John Bowman Ever Rest in Peace? Kathlyn Stone Iraqi Labor vs. Big Oil Dave Lindorff Breaking the Dam in Olympia Jason Kunin Criticizing Israel is Not an Act of Bigotry Kevin Zeese Can Hillary be Trusted? Remi Kanazi All Roads Lead to Checkpoints Missy Beattie Five Words That Change Lives Poets' Basement Davies, Holt and Rodriguez Website of the Weekend Caught on Tape: an Anti-War Movement Finding Its Feet?   February 23, 2007 Franklin Spinney Top Gun vs. the Axis of Evil: Is This What We Have Become? Jonathan Cook Watching the Checkpoints Patrick Cockburn The True Extent of Britain's Failure in Basra Kathy Kelly Do Something Good Chris Dols Islamophobia at Urban Outfiters: the Case for Keffiyehs Evelyn Pringle The Neurontin Suicides: Risks Kept Hidden for Years Stephen Pearcy If Bush is a War Criminal, What About the Troops? Dan Brook Making Poverty History Yifat Susskind Iraqi Police Commit Rapes Website of the Day A Citizens Arrest of Patty Murray   February 22, 2007 Robert Fantina Repeating History Tariq Ali Prodi's Soap Operatic Fall: Neoliberalism and War in Italy Michael Shank An Interview with Noam Chomsky on Iran, Iraq, the Democrats and Climate Change John Ross Calderon's War on Drugs Christopher Brauchli Stockcars on Dope: How NASCAR and the Tour de France are Bring the World Together Cindy Litman Paying for the Damage Done to Iraq Niranjan Ramakrishnan Mr. Jefferson's Inheritors: Caution, Calculation and Cold Feet Kevin Zeese Finally, a Populist Antiwar Candidate for President Aseem Shrivastava The New Indian Way?: a Developer's Model of Development Reza Fiyouzat A Letter to the Israeli People: We are All Led by Mad Men Illinois Students Against the War Why We Protested at Obama's Speech Website of the Day An Interview with Mike Gravel   February 21, 2007 Maass / St. Clair The Clintons: the Art of Politics Without Conscience Sharon Smith Inside the Imperial Budget Greg Moses Showdown Over Texas Immigrant Prisons Margaret Kimberly America the Stupid Ralph Nader Making Cancer Cool: Tobacco and Hollywood Nicola Nasser Evasive Diplomacy: Bush Adm. Shuns Middle East Peace Talks Mike Whitney The Second Great Depression Tao Ruspoli Revolutionary But Gangsta: a Conversation with Stic.Man of Dead Prez Byeong Jeongpil Beyond the "Protection Facility", Another Prison Corporate Crime Reporter Why Hillary, Obama and Edwards Oppose Single-Payer Health Care Josh Mahan The Lost Art of Shattuck: a Good, Old-Fashioned Drinking Story Website of the Day Time to Free the Puerto Rican Nationalists February 20, 2007 Sgt. Martin Smith Structured Cruelty: Learning to be a Lean, Mean Killing Machine Werther How to be a Washington Expert Corporate Crime Reporter Exposing SAIC Carl G. Estabrook Common Sense About the Recent Past China Hand Setting Sun: The Diverging US-Japan Relationship Joshua Frank Cleaning Up Exxon's Greenpoint Oil Spill Megan Boler The Daily Show and Political Activism John Feffer People Power vs. Military Power in East Asia Daryll E. Ray What's Inside the New Farm Bill Alan Gregory Midwest Wolves Fall Prey to Slob Hunters' PR Scam Website of the Day "Not a Target Rich Environment?"   February 19, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts Economists in Denial: Blind to the Consequences of Offshoring Gary Leupp "A Genocidal, Suicidal Nation:" Mitt Romney Joins Iran's Hysterical Accusers Ron Jacobs The Mecca Agreements: the Future Remains Bleak Michael F. Brown The Peace Process Industry Robert Jensen Liberal Icons and War: Bi-Partisan Empire-Building Roger Burbach Ecuador Stands Up to US Monica Benderman America, Where Are You Now? Sonja Karkar Apocalyptic Archaeology: Israel's Provocations Threaten Jerusalem John Walsh Some Good News from Beantown Talli Nauman Colorado Delta Blues: Challenging the Law of the River Website of the Day "The Best Place to be in Town"   Feburary 17 / 18, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Sold to Mr. Gordon, Another Bridge! Tao Ruspoli CounterViews: a Conversation with Patrick Cockburn, Part Two Gary Leupp Iran: A Chronology of Disinformation Jeffrey St. Clair Dark Mesas in an Ancient Light Roger Morris The Undertaker's Tally: the Tragedy of Donald Rumsfeld Uri Avnery Facing Mecca James Brooks Palestinians and the "Diplomatic Horizon" Sen. Russell Feingold Congress Must Defund the Iraq War Linn Washington, Jr. "Death Row is a Web That Catches Only the Poor" Michele Brand Iran: the Proxy War? Fred Gardner Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Music and Basketball in the Harlem Renaissance Mitchel Cohen Storming the Pentagon: Lessons from 1967 Mike Ferner Democrats Keep Ohio Refugee Free: "No Iraqis in Our Backyards!" David Swanson Memo to Don Young: What Lincoln Really Said P. Sainath In the Theater of the Jungle Belt Mike Stark GoreAid: Gore Plans Concert with Musicians He and Tipper Betrayed in the 80s Missy Beattie The Object of My Disaffection Jonathan Franklin Carnival: Where Dance is Hope Website of the Weekend The Godfather and the Tenor: "It's a Man's World" February 16, 2007 Marc Levy Turning Point: Veterans' Voices Trigger Response Andrew Cockburn In Iraq, Anyone Can Make a Bomb Glen Ford Powell, Rice and Obama: Putting Black Faces on Imperial Aggression Greg Moses The Terror of Suzi Hazahza: Why Her Family Must Be Freed Ron Jacobs Marching on the Pentagon: Then and Now John W. Farley Hook, Line and Sinker: The Press and Stephen Hadley James Marc Leas Vermont Legislature Says: "Bring Them Home Now!" Tim Rinne The Most Dangerous Place on the Face of the Earth?: StratCom and the Coming War on Iran Albert Wan Star-Cross'd Lovers?: The Strange Romance of Hillary and David Brooks Website of the Day Did Wal-Mart Murder Tweety Bird?   February 15, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Who is Muqtada al-Sadr? Saul Landau How to Obsess Your Enemies Stephen Lendman The Rules of Imperial Management Evelyn Pringle More Zyprexa Postcards from the Edge Michael Simmons Is the Joke Over?: an Evening with Ralph Steadman Kevin Zeese A Congressional Kabuki Show Dave Lindorff The Co-Dependent Congress Pete Shanks They Want You to Eat Cloned Meat--And They Don't Want You to Know It Peter Rost The Michelle Manhart Affair: the Air Force Listens! Lenni Brenner / Gilad Atzmon An Exchange Website of the Day Barack Obama vs. Huey P. Newton   February 14, 2007 Tao Ruspoli CounterViews: A Conversation with Patrick Cockburn Dick J. Reavis War Without a Name Margaret Kimberly Medical Apartheid in America Christopher Brauchli The Perils of Charity: You Can be Prosecuted for Funding Terror Even If the Designation of the Group as a Terrorist Organization was Wrong! Paul Craig Roberts Cracks in the Pentagon John Ross The Plot Against Mexican Corn Michael F. Brown The Democrats and Palestine: New Chairman, Old Rules Dave Lindorff The Press Bites, Again: a Word of Caution on Those Iranian Weapons J.L. Chestunut, Jr. Texas-style Injustice in Black and White Don Fitz Hybrids, Biofuels and Other False Idols Michael Donnelly Give Love, Give Life Dr. Susan Block The Chemistry of Love Website of the Day Code Pink Drops By Hillary's Office   February 13, 2007 Uri Avnery Three Provocations: the Method in the Madness Patrick Cockburn Targeting Tehran Ralph Nader When Wall Street Whines (You Know They're Making a Killing) Marjorie Cohn Fool Us Twice? From Iraq to Iran Col. Dan Smith Iran Bashing Goes Prime Time Col. Douglas MacGreagor Empty Vessels: Gen. Patraeus and Other Hollow Men Thomas Power Coal Ambivalence: Mining Montana Nicola Nasser The Politics of Archaeology in Jerusalem David Swanson Iran War Talking Points Columbia Coalition Against the War Why We Are Striking Website of the Day Our Friends at Antiwar.com Need Your Help   February 12, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Scapegoating Iran Paul Craig Roberts How the World Can Stop Bush: Dump the Dollar! John Walsh A Splintered Antiwar Movement: Nader and Libertarians Not Welcome Dr. John Carroll, MD What Next for Haiti's Cite Soliel?: a Journey Through the World's Most Miserable Slum Greg Moses An Outrageously Sickening Immigration Policy Nicole Colson The Frame-Up That Fell Apart: Jury See Through Another Botched Federal "Terrorism" Case Dave Lindorff Acting in Bad Feith: Inappropriate Behavior and Impeachment Ray McGovern The Kervorkian Administration: Are Bush and Cheney the Biggest Threats to the Existence of Israel? Doug Giebel Rampant Cyncism David Swanson Twisted: Sex and Torture in America Website of the Day The Texas Model: Executing Women in Iraq   February 10 /11, 2007 Weekend Edition Alexander Cockburn Will They Nuke Iran? Gabriel Kolko Israel, Iran and the Bush Administration Patrick Cockburn Now It's War on the Shia Jeffrey St. Clair Till the Cows Come Home: How the West was Eaten Kevin Alexander Gray Barack Obama: Not a Bold Bone in His Body M. Shahid Alam The Pacification of Islam Greg Moses The Words of Mohammad: an 11 Year-Old Prisoner Paul Craig Roberts Brzezinski's Damning Indictment George Ciccariello-Maher Coups and Democracy in Venezuela Kevin Zeese "You Can't Oppose the War and Fund the War:" a Conversation with Anthony Arnove Turner / Kim The World's Factory: China's Filthiest Export George Duke Has Jazz Lost Its African-American Core? Walter Brasch A Dream Still Unfulfilled: America Remains Divided Shepherd Bliss Veterans' Love Story Missy Beattie Fear and Diversions: Anna Nicole, Wolf Blitzer and the Missing Body Count in Iraq Peter Harley Mr. Hyde and Uncle Sam: Reading Stevenson in an Age of Shock and Awe Pat Wolff Oprah's Strange Endorsement of "The Secret" Poets' Basement Davies, Holt, Engel and Louise Website of the Day The 25 Most Corrupt Members of Bush Administration February 9, 2007 Conn Hallinan The Najaf Massacre: an Annotated Fable Gary Leupp Charging Iran with "Genocide" Before Nuking It Lee Sustar An Interview with Patrick Cockburn Nikolas Kozloff Bombing Venezuela's Indians Newton Garver Politics and Apartheid Yitzhak Laor Under the Steamroller Dave Lindorff Truth or Consequences: Some Questions for Bush David Swanson The Politics of Self-Congratulation: Democrats Change Gas, Claim It's a New Car Website of the Day Why Corporate Social Responsibility is Not Working for Workers   February 8, 2007 John V. Walsh Filibuster to End the War Now! Marjorie Cohn Watada Beats Government Trish Schuh The Salvador Option in Beirut Ron Jacobs The Case of the San Francisco 8 Laura Carlsen Mexico at Davos: the Split with Latin America Widens Ramzy Baroud Countdown for Iran Brenda Norrell "Leave It in the Ground": Indigenous Peoples Call for Global Ban on Uranium Mining Bryan Farrell The Splinter and the Beam: Violence in the Eye of the Beholder Judith Scherr BP Beds Down with Cal-Berkeley Website of the Day Peace TV   February 7, 2007 Daniel Wolff "The Road Home is a Joke": Playing Politics with the Recovery of New Orleans Tao Ruspoli CounterViews: A Conversation with Oliver Stone on Art, Politics and the Future of Cinema in Bush's America Tony Swindell The Looming Shadow of Nuremberg Sharon Smith Why Protest Matters Ken Couesbouc Delenda Est Baghdad: Why Republics End Up as Empires Jeff Cohen Jonah Goldberg's Gambling Debt Col. Dan Smith The Self-Destructive Logic of War Tom Kerr McCain to Wounded Soldiers: When Words Fail Fundamentally Joshua Frank The Democrats and Iran Adam Elkus Surging Right Into Bin Laden's Hands Stephen Fleischman The Good News About War on Iran Website of the Day Vote Vets: Battling Escalation   February 6, 2007 Diana Johnstone Frenzy in France Over Iranian Threat Gregory Wilpert Did Chavez Over-reach?: Venezuela's Enabling Law Could Enable Opposition Norman Solomon A Kangaroo Court Martial: Making an Example of Ehren Watada Dave Lindorff Borat Goes to Washington: Don't Experiment with the Economy? William Blum Space Cowboys: Full Spectrum Dominance Mike Ferner War Opponents Occupy Congressional Offices CP News Service Nader's CNN Interview: "Hillary's a Panderer and a Flatterer" Evelyn Pringle Eli Lilly and Zyprexa: Even the Insurance Companies are Bailing Christopher Brauchli Corporate Advice from the Office of Detainee Affairs Alan Cabal How Charles Manson Kept Me Out of Vietnam Website of the Day Free Josh Wolf: the Longest Jailed Journalist in US History February 5, 2007 Dave Zirin Super Bore: When Hawks Cry Uri Avnery The Fatal Kiss: Wars and Scandals Ron Jacobs The Looming War on Iran: It's Not About Democracy Paul Craig Roberts The Real Failed States Newton Garver Bush and the Old Hands: Decider vs. Negotiator Bruce Anderson The Genocidal Namesake of the Hastings School of Law Saul Landau The Golden Globes After a Mud Bath Ralph Nader The Good Fight of Molly Ivins James T. Phillips Road Outrageous: Tailgating and Iraq Mike Whitney Quarantine USA: Bird Flu Panic and Profiteering Kenneth Rexroth Clowns and Blood-Drinking Perverts: Imperial History According to Tacitus Website of the Day Richard Thompson's Anti-War Song: "'Dad's Gonna Kill Me" February 3 /4, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Who Can Stop the War? Tao Ruspoli CounterViews: a Conversation with Dr. Susan Block on Sex, Censorship and Liberation Jeffrey St. Clair The Thrill is Gone: the Withering of the American Environmental Movement Patrick Cockburn Iraqis on the Run P. Sainath They Take the Early Train Sen. Russell Feingold A Symbol of a Timid Congress Diane Christian Dying Well: Why Killing Saddam Backfired on Bush Brian Cloughley Space Missiles Away!: the Irony of Bush's Indignation Diana Barahona How to Turn a Priest into a Cannibal: US Reporting on the Coup in Haiti Timothy J. Freeman The Iraq War Hits Hawai'i: the Stryker Brigade and the Watada Case Conn Hallinan The Vishnu Strategy John Ross Felipe's First Fifty Days Greg Moses The Government Blinks: Freedom for the Ibrahim Family Missy Beattie No More Rebukes or Non-Binding Resolutions Joshua Frank Unsafe in Any Seas: Cruising with Ralph Nader? Evelyn Pringle "These Drugs are Poison to Some People" Stephen Fleischman Let's Hear It for Chuck Hagel! Muhammad Idrees Ahmad Iraq in Fragments Poets' Basement Holt, Engel, Ford and Saavedra Website of the Day Flamenco Dali February 2, 2007 Chris Kutalik The Meanest Industry R. Gibson / E. W. Ross Cutting the Schools-to-War Pipeline Pam Martens America's "Money Honey" as Corporate Matchmaker: Maria Bartiromo and the Co-Branding of CNBC and Citigroup John Feffer Picturing the President Daryll E. Ray Why the Family Farm is Good for Rural America Ronald Bruce St. John Apartheid By Any Other Name Mitchel Cohen Listen Gore: Some Inconvenient Truths About the Politics of Environmental Crisis Website of the Day The Real Issue is Empire February 1, 2007 Diane Farsetta An Army Thousands More: How PR Firms and Major Media Military Recruiters Marjorie Cohn Bush Targets Iran: Cruise Missile Diplomacy Mark Scaramella Our Founding War Profiteers Ranni Amiri Senator Prejudice: the Day Joe Biden Threatened to Kick My Ass Christopher Ketcham Die, TV! Winston Warfield Art Panic Hits Boston! Corporate Crime Reporter Jailing the Artists, Not the Executives: the Great Boston Art Panic, Turner Broadcasting and the AG Who Won't Pursue Corporate Crime Thomas P. Healy Adios Molly Ivins: Populist Journalism and Never Dull Website of the Dau The Ordeal of Gary Tyler   January 31, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Waco of Iraq?: US "Victory" Cult Leader was a "Massacre" Jean Bricmont What is the Decisive "Clash" of Our Time? Tao Ruspoli CounterViews: a Conversation with Dr. Susan Block on Sex, Politics and Liberation James T. Phillips Flashbacks de Jour: Photographing War William Johnson Worker Reistance at Smithfield Foods Tim Wilkinson A Hawk in Drag: Dershowitz and the Iraq War Evelyn Pringle The Judge, the Reporter and the Secret Zyprexa Documents Joshua Frank What America Really Needs to Hear Ramzy Baroud Shameless in Gaza Mickey Z. Nader Still in the Crosshairs Website of the Day What's Goin' On?         Subscribe Online

February 26, 2007 Bojangling for Bigots An Open Letter to Jason Whitlock By DAVE ZIRIN (Note to Reader: Over the last decade, Jason Whitlock has been one of the most prominent African American sports columnists in the United States. He writes for the Kansas City Star and AOL Sports. For reasons unclear, he often refers to himself as "Big Sexy") Dear Jason, I start with long overdue thanks. Thanks for inspiring me to be a sportswriter. Thanks for showing all of us that the sports page could be more than blather and box scores. For that you have my sincere gratitude. But the sad truth is that in recent months you've changed. You've been acting like the love child of Clarence Thomas and Haystacks Calhoun. It's time for an intervention. It's actually long overdue. I didn't speak out when you called the great Scoop Jackson a "bojangling fake ghetto posturing clown." I didn't say anything when you wrote that there needed to be a "new civil rights movement" directed at "black idiots." I didn't type a word as week after week you provided African American cover for white sportswriters to rip Pro Basketball for being too "gangsta," too "violent," and too "hip hop" with all the subtlety of Strom Thurmond. Shame on me. But your recent work on the NBA's All Star weekend in Vegas is just beyond the pale. When you have the unholy arrogance to compare your crusade against "ghetto acting" black people to the actions of Rosa Parks, when you call young African American kids "the Black KKK", and when you liken walking the Vegas strip to being in "the yard at a maximum security prison", it's simply time to say, "enough." In your own words, "Instead of wearing white robes and white hoods, the new KKK has now taken to wearing white Ts and calling themselves gangsta rappers, gangbangers and posse members. Just like the White KKK of the 1940s and '50s, we fear them, keep our eyes lowered, shut our mouths and pray they don't bother us." Please, please, please take a moment to listen to yourself. The Klan at its peak had 4.5 million members. They organized campaigns of lynching and terror to keep people of color from voting, holding jobs, or even existing in peace. To compare an NBA player's entourage with this bloody nightmare makes you sound scared, small, and simple. But we're all aware you are anything but simple. You know there are far more fights in hockey and football than basketball with nowhere near the hysteria. You know there are more brawls at NASCAR events than at Madison Square Garden. You must realize that there is zero proof the friends and family of NBA players are any more violent than anyone else. But you bleat redundantly for "a new civil rights movement" to drive them out. You actually write, "This must be the way Rosa Parks felt on that bus. She was just tired of eating white racist (spit). I'm tired of eating black racist (spit)." Wow. You, Jason Whitlock. The new Rosa Parks. I suppose it is Black History Month, the one time we hear a great deal about Ms. Parks and her contribution to building a better world. I don't quite recall her droning on about strip clubs and lap dances the way you do (maybe I just missed it). I don't remember her reveling in the excess that seems to define your personal life. I'm not positive but I don't think she ever referred to herself as "Big Sexy". I do know she cared more about fighting for the less fortunate than cozying up to power. Maybe she was just "bojangling." Jason: it's time for you and your sports writing brethren, all hot and bothered over All Star Weekend, to take a long overdue reality check. You rail against the violence of NBA "posses" yet turn your back to the fact that this is one of the most violent nations on earth. This is a country that imprisons 2 million of its citizens. This is a nation that spends 1.7 billion dollars a day on the military. This is the country that started an unnecessary war in Iraq that's killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and more than 3,000 troops. Surely a fan of Rosa Parks like yourself is familiar with the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who said, "I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government." As you heroically churn out columns in between trips to the local gentleman's club, a very real world beats with injustice. Black unemployment is three times that of whites. Unemployment today for young Black men aged sixteen to nineteen tops out at more than 30 percent, double that of young whites. And the latest Bush budget will mean all of this will get worse. By devoting your column to the amplification of the worst racial stereotypes, you actually divert attention from the real issues Black America faces. In this post-Katrina world, it should be all too clear that the problem is institutionalized racism and poverty, not a kid in baggy jeans. And I'm sorry Jason, but one last comment on comparing yourself to Rosa Parks. Rosa stood up to the Klan, the Southern Police, and three centuries of violence and hate. Rosa risked her life. You are making bank by "bojangling" for bigots. There is certainly a new civil rights movement to be built. But it won't be based on the sanctimonious spew you're selling. Instead, it will need to involve the very people you shower with scorn. Sincerely, Dave Zirin www.edgeofsports.com Dave Zirin is the author of the forthcoming book: "Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports" (Haymarket). You can receive his column Edge of Sports, every week by e-mailing edgeofsports-subscribe@zirin.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com

Coming in March from CounterPunch Books The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Jeffrey Goldberg, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained! Buy End Times Now! Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal Click Here to Order!   "The Case Against Israel" Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz WHAT'S INSIDE Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair     The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn   Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh The Book on 9/11 the White House Denounced as "ABSOLUTE GARBAGE"