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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

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Landau at UC Santa Cruz

Today's Stories

Feburary 17 / 18, 2007

Alexander Cockburn
Sold to Mr. Gordon, Another Bridge!


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?


January 30, 2007

Werther
Slapstick on Jenkins Hill: DC's Botoxed Golems

Kathy Kelly
Engagement with War

Uri Avnery
"If Arafat Were Alive"

Franklin Spinney
Embedded Without Blending: Humvees and Tactical Madness in Iraq

William S. Lind
The Real Game in Iraq

Pariah
An Iron Curtain is Descending--and Most Americans Don't Know

Mike Whitney
The Mother of All Bubbles

Rev. William E. Alberts
Hiding America's Surging Militarism Behind Children

Fran Shor
Shadow of a Resistance: Can the Anti-War Mvt. Dismantle the War Machine?

Anthony Arnove
The Logic of Withdrawal: There's Nothing Precipitous About It

Website of the Day
Our Boys in Iraq


January 29, 2007

Nurit Peled-Elhanan
"We Are All Victims of the Occupation"

Patrick Cockburn
Raid on the Soldiers of Heaven

JoAnn Wypijewski
The Demo in DC: Chirpy Slogans, Empty City

Ron Jacobs
Our Fire, Congress's Feet

Dave Lindorff
The Missing Word at the Anti-War Demo

Kevin Zeese
A Republican Peace Candidate?: Chuck Hagel's Challenge to America

Reza Fiyouzat
Iran, Bush and the Banging of the Ironsmiths

Pat Williams
Turnout and Same-Day Voting: Did It Sink Conrad Burns?

Website of the Day
Galloway's Indictment of Blair

 

January 27 / 28, 2007

Diana Johnstone
Do We Really Need an International Criminal Court?

Eliza Ernshire
Exiled from Palestine

Patrick Cockburn
Slaughter in Baghdad's Bird Market

David Rosen
Pay-to-Play: the Double Life of Prostitution in America

Greg Moses
Children Without a Country: Maryam Ibrahim Remains in a Texas Jail

Bernard Chazelle
Bush the Empire Slayer

Tao Ruspoli
CounterViews: a Video Interview with Jeffrey St. Clair, Part Two

Hermán Uribe
Murdering Journalists in Latin America

Ralph Nader
Democracy in Crisis

Paul Craig Roberts
Why Can't Americans See What's Coming?

Fred Gardner
The Suppression of Collective Joy: Barbara Ehrenreich at the Commonwealth Club

Brian Cloughley
Dying for Lies

James Abourezk
The High Cost of Congressional Trips to Israel

John V. Whitbeck
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine: Ilan Pappe and the Nakba Deniers

Seth Sandronsky
Peace-In Politics: Localizing the Anti-War Movement

Alan Cabal
Mayday from the Circus Tent

Pam Martens
America's Money Honey Does Davos

Website of the Weekend
Gil Scott-Heron: Winter in America


January 26, 2007

Charlotte Laws
Are You the Terrorist Next Door?: AETA and the New Green Scare

Mike Ely / Linda Flores
The Workers at Smithfield

Joe DeRaymond
Paying for Health Care and Not Getting It

Phil Donahue
Get Sarah Olson!

Zia Mian
The Three US Armies in Iraq: Grunts, Contractors and Laborers

Jeb Sprague
Haiti Struggles to Defend Justice

Evelyn Pringle
Eli Lilly, the Habitual Offender

Missy Beattie
Inside the Criminal Mind of George Bush: He Thinks; Therefore, It is So

Martha Rosenberg
Cloned Food: From Designer Hens to the Transgenic Omega-3 Pig

Website of the Day
Save Grand Canyon from Glen Canyon Dam!


January 25, 2007

Patrick Cockburn
What's Really Going on in Baghdad

John Ross
Mexico Under Calderon: Fake Left, Rule Right

Jeremy Scahill
Our Mercenaries: Blackwater, Inc and the Privatization of Bush's War Machine

Frida Berrigan
"Hearts Ruptured with Sadness:" Protesting Gitmo

Paul Craig Roberts
Bush's State of Deception

Jason Yossef Ben-Meir
Iraq Reconstruction Failure

Christopher Brauchli
Why Bush is Arming Fatah: When in Doubt, Start Another Civil War

Holger W. Henke
Cuba at the Crossroads?

Dave Lindorff
Falling Dominos and Failing Presidencies

Julia Landau
From Your Young Cousin

Website of the Day
The Mighty Edwards Sisters

 

January 24, 2007

Tao Ruspoli
CounterViews: a Filmed Interview with Jeffrey St. Clair

Paul Craig Roberts
The Empire Turns Its Guns on the Citizenry

Lt. Gen. William Odom
What Can be Done in Iraq?

Sharon Smith
Health Care Reform for the Insurance Industry

Brian M. Downing
Two Americas: the Grunts and the War Profiteers

Heather Gray
Surviving War

Ron Jacobs
SOTUS Quo

James Brooks
Out of Europe, Out of Time

Robert Day
Translating Snow

Website of the Day
Defend Sarah Olsen


January 23, 2007

Trish Schuh
Lebanon on the Brink of Civil War, Again

Robert Bryce
The Politics of Cheap Oil

Stephen Soldz
Aliens in an Alien Land

John Blair
King Coal's Latest Con Job: Clean Coal is Not Clean

Gloria La Riva
Miami: a Place of Refuge for Anti-Castro Terrorists

Joshua Frank
Turning Silence into Gold: Hillary and Israel Lobby

Patrick Cockburn
In Iraq, All Foreigners are Targets

Ralph Nader
Questions for Bush on Iraq

Dave Lindorff
Pelosi and Iraq: Blunder or Treason?

Uri Avnery
Israel and Apartheid

Website of the Day
Down By the River

 

January 22, 2007

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
China's New Chip in Space War Poker

Jen Marlowe
Trapped in Darfur: the Ordeal of Suleiman Jamous

George McGovern
War of the Belligerent Professors: Get Out of Iraq

Paul Craig Roberts
Only Impeachment Can Save Us from More War

Norman Solomon
The Pentagon vs. Press Freedom

Amira Hass
Life Under Prohibition in Palestine

Mike Whitney
A Fool's Errand in Baghdad

Ramzy Baroud
The Things We Take for Granted

John Walsh
Support Jimmy Carter in Boston!

Website of the Day
The Hagelian Dialectic

 

January 20/21 2007

Alexander Cockburn
First Bomb Carter; Then Nuke Iran!

Gail Dines
I Was Ambushed by Paula Zahn

Newton Garver
Evo Morales' First Year

Gilad Atzmon
100 Years of Jewish Solitude

Seth Sandronksy
New Push For Social Security "Reform"

Raphaelle Bail
Where Nicaraguans Go to Work

Jim Goodman
Round Up the Usual Experts: Make Them Live on a Dollar a Day

Larry Portis
Chouraki's Oh Jerusalem

Website of the Weekend
Press Poodles Play it Safe


January 19, 2007

Jonathan Cook
Jimmy Carter Doesn't Tell the Half of It

Glen Ford
Barack Obama: The Mania and the Mirage

Dave Lindorff
Bush Blinks on Illegal Spying--Don't let him off the hook

Larry Portis
Zionism in the Cinema: Part Two

Website of the Day
For Whistleblowers


January 18, 2007

William Peace
Protest From a Bad Cripple

Virginia Tilley
The Steady March to War on Iran: What It Would Take to Stop It

Michael Donnelly
The Real Reason I Can't Stand Obama

B.R. Gowani
Democracy: Everywhere and Nowhere

Larry Portis
Zionism in the Cinema: Part One

Jason Hribal
A Horse is Worth More than Riches

Website of the Day
Baghdad Clampdown


January 17, 2007

Franklin Spinney
Why Time is not on Bush's Side

John Ross
Oaxaca's Rising: Vibrant as the Paint on the Walls

Susan George
Can World Trade Ever Be Fair? Back to Keynes!

Paul Craig Roberts
Attacking Iran: What's In It For Bush

Joshua Frank
Obama and the Middle East

David Lindorff
Towards Oil at $200 a Barrel


January 16, 2007

Col. Sam Gardiner
Escalation Against Iran

Marjorie Cohn
Stimson's Outrageous Threat

Saul Landau
Gore Vidal in Havana: Part 2

Ron Jacobs
Welcome Back to 1965

Susan Block
From Snowjob to Blowjob

Ken Couesbouck
Year of the Pig

Website of the Day
Amazon's Hit on Jimmy Carter


January 15, 2007

Roger Morris
Another War the Voters Hoped to End

Paul Craig Roberts
Bush Must Go

Kathy Kelly
Umm Heyder's Story

William Blum
The Anti-Empire Report

Ralph Nader
The Class War's New Map

Saul Landau
Gore Vidal In Havana

January 12 / 14, 2007

Patrick Cockburn
"21,500 More Troops": Will America Ever Leave Iraq?

David Rosen
Bush's Domestic Sex Policy: the Teen Abstinence-Only Crusade

William S. Lind
Less Than Zero

Laith al-Saud
The Ironies of Bush and Iraq

Paul Craig Roberts
Surge and Mirrors: What Bush Really Said

John Ross
Celebrating the "Sum of the World" in Chiapas

George Ciccariello-Maher
The Case of Venezuela's RCTV: Not About Free Speech

Christopher Brauchli
How to Avoid an IRS Audit: Become a Millionaire!

Robert Buzzanco
Rogue State, Redux

Evelyn Pringle
The Secrets in Eli Lilly's Cabinet

Peter Rost, MD.
Promises, Promises: Playing Politics with Drug Reimportation

Mike Whitney
Baghdad Crackdown

Yifat Susskind
Beyond the Surge: Demanding an End to Bush's Wars

Saul Cohen
Latin America's Real Mr. Danger: Negroponte's Latest Gig

Missy Beattie
A Day of Action and Questions

Stephen Lendman
Holiday Hypocrisy

Website of the Weekend
Bruegel on Bush War Plan

 

January 11, 2007

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
The Profits of Escalation

Paul Craig Roberts
Carter's Inconvenient Truths

Kathy Kelly
Refugee Dreams

Dave Lindorff
Blood for Face

Jeff Leys
The War Widens

Richard W. Behan
Barrels and Bodies

Col. Douglas MacGregor
Surging Right Into Al-Sadr's Hands

Website of the Day
An Explanation from Google

Speech of the Day
Is There Even One Politician Alive Who Could Give This Speech?


January 10, 2007

Peter Linebaugh
A Walk in Oaxaca

Robert Fantina
Punishing Deserters: Prosecution or Persecution?

Patrick Cockburn
Why Troop Escalation Won't Bring Peace to Iraq

Paul Craig Roberts
Distracting Congress: Troop Escalation and Iran

Col. Dan Smith
Why U.S. Policy is Failing

Ben Tripp
The Politics of Bad Karma

Evelyn Pringle
How the FDA Protects Big Pharma

Ron Jacobs
Coalition of the Lunatics: Trying to Create the Next World War

Mike Ferner
If Not Now, When?

Dave Zirin
Judgment of the Juiced: Why McGwire Wasn't Elected to the Hall of Fame

Website of the Day
Revolting Students!

Bootleg of the Day
Bob Dylan: Live at Scotia Bank Place


January 9, 2007

R. T. Naylor
The Somalian Labyrinth

Jonathan Cook
Israel's Purging of Palestinian Christians

Mike Ely and Linda Flores
The Smithfield Strikers: No Longer Hidden, No Longer Hiding

Joshua Frank
The Democrats and Iran: More Bellicose Than Bush

Norman Solomon
The Headless Horseman of the Apocalypse

Sen. Russell Feingold
An Open Letter to President Bush: So Now You Want to Snoop Through Our Mail?

Joe Allen
Justice for the Omaha Two: Black Power, Racism and COINTELPRO in the Heartland

James T. Phillips
"Lasciate Ogne Speranza, Voi Ch'Intrate": The Hell That is Iraq

Brian Concannon
Resolutions for Haiti

Leonard Peltier
When the Truth Doesn't Matter: 30 Years of FBI Harassment and Misconduct

Website of the Day
Kick Out the Jams, MFers!: Meet the New RRC

 

January 8, 2007

Werther
Why We Fight

Jeff Leys
The Occupation Project: a Campaign of Civil Disobedience to End Iraq War Funding

Paul Craig Roberts
Nuking Iran

Shulamit Aloni
Israeli Apartheid: Sorry, This Road is For Jews Only

Dave Lindorff
The Party of Invertebrates Reverts to Form

Sunsara Taylor
The Democrats' First Day: Same As It Ever Was

Seth Sandronsky
Syndicated Error: George Will and the Minimum Wage

Dr. Susan Block
Baghdad Cockfight Ends in Snuff Film

Website of the Day
Watch CounterPuncher Sunsara Taylor Take on Bill O'Reilly!


January 6 / 7, 2007

Alexander Cockburn
The War and the NYT

Franklin C. Spinney
Stalingrad on the Tigris

Paul Craig Roberts
The Urge to Surge

Ralph Nader
Democrats in the Spotlight

Walden Bello
Globalization in Retreat?

Marleen Martin
The Needle and the Damage Done: Tortured in the Death Chamber

Brian Cloughley
We Do What We Like: Return Our Rapist or Else ...

Uri Avnery
The Kiss of Death

Saul Landau
Fidel Castro in the Fields

Ron Jacobs
From Cointelpro to the Patriot Act: a Legacy of Torture

Joseph Nevins
Crimes Against Humanity from Ford to Saddam

William S. Lind
A State Restored? Somalia and 4GW

Gary Leupp
Attention John Conyers: Impeach the President!

Elisa Salasin
Bringing Life to Numbers

George Ciccariello-Maher Beyond Chavistas and Anti-Chavistas: Deepening the Bolivarian Revolution

Stefan Wray
Confronting Recruiters: the Story of the Bush Street Raiders

Michael Leonardi
Toward an International Moratorium: Italy's Crusade Against the Death Penalty

Richard Rhames
Reality TV: Triumph of the Thugs

Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week

Barbara LaMorticella
Two Poems

Website of the Weekend
FBI Witch Hunts

Song of the Weekend
End Times: a Soundtrack


January 5, 2007

Jorge Mariscal
Growing the Military: Who Will Serve?

John Walsh
Clash of the Elites: Beltway Insiders vs. Neo-Cons!

Christopher Brauchli
The Great Relaxer: Bush and Federal Regulations

Travis Sharpe
No More New Nukes, Please

Tom Barry
Hawk for Hire: Roger Noriega's New Gig

Linda Schade / Kevin Zeese
Americans Voted for Peace: Has the New Congress Already Let Them Down?

Tiffany Ten Eyck
Workers' Centers and Unions: a New Alliance

Mahmoud El-Yousseph
A Challenge to Pelosi

Lucinda Marshall
3003 Funerals: "And They're Still Burying Ford!"

Website of the Day
Van the Man: Warm Love


January 4, 2007

Patrick Cockburn
The Martyrdom of Saddam Hussein

Winslow T. Wheeler
A Guide to Earmarks: Will the Democrats' Reforms Do Anything to Curb Pork Barrel Spending?

M. Shahid Alam
Has Regime Change Boomeranged?

Raed Jarrar
So This is Plan B? The US Attack on Saleh Al-Mutlaq's Headquarters

Bert Sacks
Can the US Legally Kill Iraqi Children?: a Challenge to the Supreme Court

Kathy Rentenbach
Report from Oaxaca

Stephen Fleischman
The Rain of Riches: Bonuses, Then and Now

George Bisharat
Carter's Truths

Peter Rost, MD
Hail the Hangman, Jail the Cameraman!

Evelyn Pringle
Can Eli Lilly be Held Criminally Liable for Zyprexa?

Website of the Day
Courage to Resist

 

January 3, 2007

Kathy Kelly
Wrapped Around a Bullet

Paul Craig Roberts
His Last Hurrah: Bush Cuts and Runs from Reason

William Johnson
No Worker is Illegal: SEIU Members Push Their Union to Change Its Policy on Immigration

Stan Cox
Under a Brown Cloud: Money vs. the Monsoon

Trita Parsi
A Lose-Lose Situation with Iran

Declan McKenna
Ireland's Slavish Hostility Toward Cuba

Joe Bageant
Dispatch from the Chinese Landfill

Nicola Nasser
Somalia: New Hotbed of Anti-Americanism

Missy Beattie
Dead Wrong

Website of the Day
Pharmed Out


January 2, 2007

Michael Watts
Oil Inferno

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Weekend Edition
February 17 / 18, 2007

Europe and the Weakened Superpower

Iran, the Proxy War?

By MICHELE BRAND

Why does the US continue to prepare for war against Iran, given the increasing internal--and dead-set international--opposition to further US military intervention, and given its failure in Iraq?

In order for the anti-war and anti-imperialist movements to orient our opposition to this threat of aggression against the Iranian people, which should be taken seriously, we need to understand the inter-imperialist tensions that are provoking it. The "Iran dossier" is a microscope for the current geostrategic situation in which the highly developed, capitalist nations can be seen jockeying for status as American hegemony falters and the cold-war consensus is finished. Just as in the war on Iraq, the US interest in Iran has little to do with weapons of mass destruction, nor even immediate access to oil, but rather the long-term need to prevent its rivals from securing a friendly access to the country's natural resources and from getting a stable foothold in the region. I wrote an analysis of the US-EU tensions, and the EU-Iran relationship, in CounterPunch in early April, 2006, and I believe that the analysis is still accurate and helps clarify the stakes in this unprecedented situation. The international progressive Left needs to recognize the relative weakness of the US, and the aspirations of its rivals, in order to act effectively.

The disagreements (and "molasses-like pace") in the security council over the past year stem from the fact that the US wants to maintain and reinforce sanctions against Iran, while the rest of the world wants to lift the existing sanctions, no matter what the European countries disingenuously say. Far from being true "allies," the US and the EU are grinning at one another through their teeth, and signs of their tensions during the year of closed-door negotiations can be read by an attentive observer even in the sparse information given by the international press. The famous "rapprochement" between the two, after the Iraq falling-out of 2002-2003, is only cosmetic. It arises from the fact that the Iraq fiasco forced the US into a stance of "diplomacy" in Bush's second term, Europe knows it, and is only overwilling to accommodate, from a heightened position of power. It doesn't annul their deeper divergences. For why do the carrots always come from Europe, and the sticks from the US? Because in their uninterrupted negotiations with Iran since 2003, Europe (that is, the E-3, acting in the name of Europe: Germany, France and Britain) has worked to secure a diplomatic accord which would allow the further opening and above all the guaranteeing of economic relations with Iran. The US, on the other hand, has worked to undermine this process.

Both Europe and the US want "friendly regimes" in the gulf states, in order to have preferential access to their resources"and if possible, regimes that will accept the terms set by their western "friends" under which their markets are opened. The Iraqi insurgency has prevented the US from implanting one of these "friendly" regimes in Iraq, and so beyond Israel, the US lacks a solid foothold in the region. But even if unable to secure Iraq, as long as it keeps the region unstable for investment and trade, either militarily or economically, it freezes out its rivals as well. The last thing the US wants next to its burning colony is a stable and growing Iranian economy whose investment and energy contracts are locked in by the Europeans, Russians and Chinese.

The sanctions imposed on Iran by the US are intended first and foremost to make its economy inaccessible to America's rivals, and thus to make the US presence necessary as a gate-keeper to its development. If the US cannot succeed in "regime change" and install a friendly government in Iran, willing to privilege it over other countries in the long term, then at least it wants to make it difficult if not impossible for its rivals to establish a secure relationship with Iran. It seems ready to do this even by setting fire to the region, if it can't get its way through sanctions. When the US talks about "isolating" Iran, its purpose is to keep it away from Europe, Russia and China. The way it can isolate Iran from them is by enforcing multilateral sanctions. The term "isolation" is not one of the ones used by the Europeans in their negotiation process; rather, they repeat that the doors must be left open.

According to the neo-con logic, apparently, financial sanctions such as those used on North Korea would then cripple the economy so much that it might provoke the desired regime change from within. And, in alluding constantly to "the other option" as well as reinforcing its warships in the gulf, the US maintains the pressure necessary to make the effort credible, both to Iran and to its rivals. As Patrick Clawson, deputy director for research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said: "What means of enforcement is credible if you start out by saying in the beginning that 'oh, by the way, we're not going to do the one thing that you're most afraid of?' (Washington Post, November 5 2006). Although this explains the contradictory stance, it should not be assumed that the US will not attack, only that its immediate goal seems to be to isolate Iran economically, pushing its "allies" to implement sanctions beyond the (weakened) measures detailed in the December security council resolution. The American strategy is volatile, like a desperate bully who is losing and threatening irrational violence, and this very volatility keeps its rivals at bay. An attack on Bushehr or Natanz would be accompanied by attacks on Iranian infrastructure, making things very difficult also for European, Chinese and Russian interests. At the very least the schizophrenic strategy effectively postpones their investments, which otherwise would be increasing at a steady pace.

Europe's position, then, as the party that drafted the security council resolution of December 23 that allowed for minor sanctions, might seem to be more contradictory than America's, but it is anything but irrational. Although it has publicly advocated sanctions, it knew that Russia would never allow "sanctions with teeth." Russia effectively declawed the sanctions resolution (and even walked away with the US agreeing to support its entrance into the WTO). This is why the US is now insisting on sanctions that go beyond the resolution and pressuring its "allies" to adopt them as well. U.S. Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns made the US point clear: "We don't want to put all our eggs in the U.N. basket"; the vote "would open the way for further action outside the Security Council." According to the New York Times on January 29, ''We are telling the Europeans that they need to go way beyond what they've done to maximize pressure on Iran,'' said a senior administration official. ''The European response on the economic side has been pretty weak.'' The US is taking steps to make its sanction laws extraterritorial, or binding in other countries. "European countries have opposed moves by the United States to apply the principle of extraterritoriality, a term referring to cases when American law can affect dealings entirely within another country. But the Bush administration recently has stepped up its use of various laws and directives to press forward with the concept," wrote the Times on January 10. Exactly what the US wants is to make its crippling sanctions laws binding in rival countries, to put the teeth back into them. European foreign ministers met on February 12 in Brussels and decided to make effective only the light sanctions voted by the security council, despite US pressure to go beyond them. And in a document obtained by the AFP on February 13, the 27 EU member countries were asked "to consider how best to entice Iran back to the negotiating table, following the collapse of talks last year over the Islamic republic's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. They assert that the EU must continue with its current approach; dangling the carrot of political and trade incentives in negotiations while pushing ahead with the UN measures." European and Iranian representatives met again for talks on February 11 in Munich.

To understand more deeply the apparent contradictions in Europe's stance, advocating sanctions it doesn't want, it's necessary to delve into the depths of its disingenuity and look at its process of negotiations with Iran. At the moment of the US invasion of Iraq, and Iraq's loss to French and other investors as well as its loss to Europe as a source of future energy resources, the EU made an aggressive move to bring Iran into a privileged economic, political and possibly military cooperation. This diplomatic endeavor, undertaken in the context of offering Iran the "incentives" to give up its nuclear program, was intended to give Europe preferential access to its market, its labor, and especially its oil and gas. The final offer of August 2005, rejected as "insulting" by Iran (which according to European officials was "very generous"), had been negotiated during the months of Iran's voluntary suspension of uranium. In my previous article in Counterpunch, I described this overture to Iran in detail.

Iran made it clear to the E-3 when it rejected its first offer that any deal ultimately hinges on getting its needed "security guarantees" from the US. In other words, it wants an official promise that the US will not invade Iran, will acknowledge and leave in peace the current regime, and will not try to mess with its borders. If these fears were not justified, given its location between Iraq and Afghanistan, the E-3 might have gotten further with its original offer. This fact in itself goes a long way to explaining why the US cannot afford to take the military option off the table. It needs to make these fears justified, wanting at all costs to sabotage the European attempt at rapprochement with Iran.

Because US participation in any real negotiations was clearly necessary, the E-3 then entered into a process of corralling the US to the negotiating table, which it succeeded in doing in late May, 2006. This allowed the EU to show Iran that it was able to get results, and therefore the Europeans seemed sincerely to hope that Iran would accept their second official offer of "incentives" brought in person by Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, to Teheran on June 5. The "U-turn" on May 29th that Condoleeza Rice was given credit or blame for, overturning the long-standing US policy of refusing any negotiations with the country, was entirely disingenuous since the US knew that at this point Iran's regime would never accept its precondition to negotiations, the suspension of uranium enrichment. This is especially true since the text omitted any promises on the part of the US that if Iran did so, it would get the security guarantees it needs. Iran rejected the offer for the same reasons as the last: it involved their quasi-indefinite suspension of enrichment, and it didn't include any security promises. The contents of this second offer were kept much more secret than the first, but one thing that we can deduce that it contained was some form of effort to get around the US economic sanctions"as well as the "economic and political cooperation" that had been offered a year before.

Although the US sabotaged this European effort as well, its own weakness is apparent in the fact that this document contained no concrete "sticks" to apply if the deadline to suspend enrichment passed, and that when it inevitably did on August 31, the Europeans were able to continue to negotiate with Iran for another 5 weeks. During this time, Solana met at least 4 times and for over 20 hours with Ali Larijani, Iran's national security secretary, while at the same time the US was impatient to get sanctions approved by the security council. ''Larijani and Solana have been engaged in this minuet,'' a senior Bush administration official said. ''The U.S. view is that those talks are worthwhile, but not sufficient. We will be moving early in the week to move forward on a sanctions resolution'' (New York Times, Sept. 17). During this time Chirac even suggested that negotiations might begin without first suspending enrichment, in direct contradiction with the US stance. Iran proposed that a "consortium" of countries (and, reportedly, specifically France) could oversee its nuclear facilities in order to verify their peaceful nature, as a way to break the impasse of the US's insistence on suspension as a precondition for talks.

But despite certain "progress," these talks broke down in early October over the same issue: the US didn't accept this progress. Larijani explained this collapse in an interview on November 8, reported by BBC: "But you might wonder what happened next and why there was a change of opinion later? Well, we said in the beginning that some parties should be involved in the talks which could take the ultimate decision over this issue. This is because we did not wish to hold superficial negotiations. However the gentleman said that he [Solana] was their plenipotentiary envoy. But apparently they later decided not to accept our agreement system. I heard that the Americans exerted a lot of pressure on him over this issue. He was not happy with the final outcome either. At any rate, the development shows that they were not committed to the talks. That is, their envoy admitted that we had made progress and had come closer to reaching a conclusion, but they chose another direction." Iran learned its lesson after the first round of "incentives" given by the Europeans to get Iran to give up its nuclear program: not only are the Europeans weak militarily and unable themselves to provide the needed security guarantees (and obviously unwilling to provoke the US so starkly) but also the carrot and stick strategy is entirely disingenuous and condescending. The EU wants a privileged relationship with Iran, but has been relying for leverage in its negotiations on the possibility of punitive measures that itself it doesn't want. Larijani continued: "We would like to have long-term cooperation. However, it is very bad when they say that they wish to conduct some sort of negotiations whose outcome is known from the start. Such an approach means everything is totally superficial from the start. On the basis of their talks with us, they wish to play a greater role in the Middle East. They say that they do not wish to remain as passive as in the past. Moreover, they say that they would like to benefit from Iran's spiritual influence - be it in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Lebanon or Palestine. However such aspirations would not be possible if they continue to yell at us. On the one hand they say that they wish to cooperate with Iran, but on the other hand, they raise their voice. A person, who is asking for cooperation, should utter logical words."

The European interest in Iran, again, has nothing to do with helping the country, but with keeping the US out, along the same imperialist logic as the US. Europe and especially Germany has major interests in Iran that it needs to protect from economic or military punishments, and especially Europe needs a friendly and secure access to energetic resources. The EU has insisted on "unity" in the security council since as long as the US stays at the negotiating table, it cannot so easily justify spinning off into unilateral actions. The superpower "consensus" bringing Iran to the security council may be an international compromise that is as much about getting the US to play by international rules as it is about Iran. The neocons are entirely aware of this and are furious, because they can't refuse to participate after the failed unilateralism in Iraq. The US's interest in the "unity" of the security council, then, is in forcing Europe, when its minuet is through, toward stronger punitive measures against the country. After these got "watered down" in December, the neocons seem ready now to start acting unilaterally again, if only so far by stepping up the sanctions and pressuring Europe to adopt them as well. This will play out in the next few weeks since the next deadline for Iran to quit enriching uranium is on February 21, and since it will pass, the fighting parties will have to meet again to decide whether they will go further in the sanctions or not. The neocons may be expecting this to work in their favor, for they will feel more justified in insisting on stronger sanctions, but nothing says that Europe, Russia and China will agree to them. Eventually, if Iran doesn't back down, we will see more and more tension becoming apparent in the superficial "unity" and it may break down. Europe may be faced soon with a decision as to whether it wants to give up the disingenuity and refuse outright to step up the sanctions, but this would mean the open admittance of that which all parties have been hiding: the real divergent interests of the major powers. Chirac has been much less discreet about this than, for example, Merkel, with his aborted attempt in mid-January to send his foreign minister to Iran purportedly to talk about Lebanon, and his "gaffe" (which many Europeans are saying wasn't a gaffe) 2 weeks ago when he said that it wouldn't be so terrible if Iran had a military nuclear capability.

There is a call among American "realists" for a "grand bargain" with Iran: not only direct talks but an entire reopening of relations, which would involve security guarantees, normalizing economic relations and possibly Iran's cessation of enrichment. But such a grand bargain wouldn't serve America's purpose in the middle east, which is not just to establish a relationship with the country, but to establish a privileged relationship to the exclusion of its rivals. Ultimately the US needs regime change, because the regime of the mullahs is probably not disposed at this point to privileging the US under any circumstance. They would probably not privilege the US in the according of contracts. The hydrocarbons would remain carefully controlled. If they want investment, they would get that elsewhere. The situation in Iraq would not seriously improve as long as the occupation lasts. Of course, how would such a direct talk about Iran's meddling in Iraq play out? US: stop meddling outside your borders. Iran: look at yourself. Iran would love this opportunity. Robert Gates admitted that talks would yield nothing for the US in January when he said, "'Frankly, right at this moment there's really nothing the Iranians want from us, and so in any negotiation right now we would be the supplicant."

The only "bargain" the US wants with Iran (or with any of its colonies) is a bargain-basement bargain, where it can dictate investment and other economic policy. And this is not out of simple imperialism, but rather out of the logic of inter-imperialist rivalry: it is the only way it can shut out its rivals. Any other bargain would help its rivals to normalize and improve relations. Therefore the US won't provide the security guarantees that are the sine qua non for Iran, since it's simply not in its interest to give them. It's much more in its interest to be irrationally threatening and keep the region insecure. It may provoke Iran into a conflict, allowing the US to "retaliate" with Lebanon-style bombing, justifying its action by the slowness of the security council. A way to say to the world: we may be weakened in Iraq, etc, but we still rule it with force; you cannot enter where we say don't enter.

Michele Brand is an independent journalist and reseacher based in Paris, and can be contacted at michele.brand @yahoo.fr

 

 

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