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New Special Double Issue on the War Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively to Subscribers: The US vs. Iraq: the Thirteen Year War; The Sanctions That Killed; Bombing Iraq Every 3 Days Since the Ceasefire of 1991; What Would Gore Have Done?; The Rise of the Neocons; Israel's Proxy War Plan; Why Did It End So Quickly?; The Coming Occupation; Re-educating Iraqis, American-style; Those Reconstruction Contracts; Media Hawks; Christian Crusaders; Democratic Candidates and the War; Smart Bombs Go Haywire; Inside the Mind of Santorum; Gore Vidal on John Kerry; Thomas Pickering: the Bad Seed. Remember, the CounterPunch website is supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide web audience is soaring, with more than 60,000 visitors a day. This is inspiring news, but the work involved also compels us to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Or Call Toll Free 1-800-840 3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Recent Stories May 13, 2003 Saul Landau Clear Channel Fogs the Airwaves Michael Neumann Has Islam Failed? Not by Western Standards Uri Avnery My Meeting with Arafat Steve Perry The Saudi Arabia Bombing Jacob Levich Democracy Comes to Iraq: Kick Their Ass and Grab Their Gas William Lind The Hippo and the Mongoose: a Question of Military Theory The Black Commentator Fraud at the Times: Blaming Blacks for White Folks' Mistakes Stew Albert Asylum Hammond Guthrie An Illogical Reign Website of the Day Sy Hersh: War and Intelligence   May 12, 2003 Chris Floyd Bush, Bin Laden, Bechtel, and Baghdad Dave Lindorff America's Dirty Bombs Sam Hamod and Elaine Cassel Resisting the Bush Administration's War on Liberty Uzi Benziman Sharon and Sons, Inc. Jason Leopold The Decline and Fall of Thomas White Rich Procter George Jumps the Shark Federico Moscogiuri Going to Israel? Sign or Else Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 5/12 Book of the Day Fooling Marty Peretz Website of the Day T-Shirts to Protest In   May 10 / 11, 2003 Alexander Cockburn Rosenthal Faces the Music in Key Med Marijuana Case JoAnn Wypijewski Labor in the Dawn of Empire Annie C. Higgins The Last Time I Saw Mus'ab Ron Jacobs The Devil in New England William Mandel One on One with Sen. Joe McCarthy Jason Leopold Halliburton Still Flouts the Law as It Profits from Terror Patrick Cockburn The Iraqi Quagmire Larry Magnuson William Bennett: Next Viceroy of Iraq? Sasan Fayazmanesh The Good Terrorists? Anthony Gancarski Chalabi: Drowning in Ba'ath-water? Steven Sherman A Letter to My European Friends Khaled El-Bizri Mr. Bush Comes to Santa Clara Bruce Jackson How Fear Curdles the Soul Adam Engel Flag in the Rain Poets Basement Reiss, Guthrie, Hamod & Albert Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 5/10 Website of the Weekend Killing Again   May 9, 2003 Rahul Mahajan Don't Lift the Sanctions Yet Wayne Madsen When Lying Pays Off: Neo-Con Fabricators Chris Floyd The Karamazov Question Don Monkerud The Great Christian Schism: War or Peace? Sam Hamod and Elaine Cassel Drunk on Power: Bush, Power and the Pathology of the Dry Drunk Hammond Guthrie Bombastic Promise Keeping Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 5/09   May 8, 2003 Julie Hilden When It's a Crime to Visit Your Son Mickey Z. Partisan Protests? Mark Zepezauer Evil is as Evil Does David Lindorff The Coming Senior Revolution Abu Spinoza The Detention of Dr. Huda Ammash Ben Tripp The Other "F" Word Norman Madarasz God in the Service of the Security State: a Dispatch from Brazil Stew Albert Pushovers Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 5/08 Website of the Day Department of Sexual Security   May 7, 2003 Alexander Cockburn Quoting Under the Influence: Breasts, Martinis, Hitchens David Krieger Winning the War; Alienating the World Sen. Robert Byrd Bush's Troubling Speech Bruce Jackson Bill Kunstler's Last Big Speech Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 5/07 Website of the Day The Truth About Bush's Military Records   May 6, 2003 Paul de Rooij An Activist in the Trenches: an Interview with Gretta Duisenberg Anthony Gancarski Money to Burn: in Defense of Bill Bennett John Stanton Bush's War on Jesus Sam Hamod W. Bush: the Little Snot, the Little Bully Robert Fisk Bush Says the War is Over: Tell It to the Shi'a Kathleen Christison A Roadmap to Nowhere Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 5/06   May 5, 2003 Gary Leupp Phase Two: Syria and Iran Jorge Mariscal The Militarization of US Culture Ishmael Reed A Family Values Man Tarif Abboushi Sharon's Confidence: Bush Won't Come to Shove on Roadmap Leila Matsui Regime Change Begins at Home...Literally Steve Perry Bush's Wars Sam Smith Coalition of the Shilling   May 3, 2003 Ron Jacobs Tears of Rage: Remembering May 1970 Elaine Cassel William Bennett, a Freudian Perspective Sam Hamod Understanding the Shi'a of Lebanon Scott Fleming Getting Shot on the Oakland Docks Mickey Z. Cuba and Puerto Rico: 100 Years of Terror William S. Lind Don't Take Col. John Boyd's Name in Vain Dr. Bruce Blair The New Nuclear Terrorism Threat Joanne Mariner Cluster Bombs Over Iraq Anthony Gancarski Hot Fun in the Summertime Ilian Pappe Searching Jenin William MacDougall America's Kids Are All Right: Pre-Teen Conservative Commentators Seth Sandronsky Incarcerated and Invisible Rich Procter Over Our Dead Bodies Lenni Brenner How Bob Dylan Found His Voice Adam Engel American Bulk Poets' Basement Reiss, Guthrie, Albert Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 5/03   May 2, 2003 Caoimhe Butterly Crowd Control American-style Neve Gordon US: No Right to Know About the Disappeared John Chuckman Tom Friedman's Life as a Pet Hamster Bradley Burston Betting on Abu-Mazen...To Lose Harvey Wasserman Bush's Military Defeat John Troyer Question Those Writing History Saul Landau The Cuba Conundrum Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 5/02 Website of the Day Moussaoui's Quiz   May 1, 2003 Jeffrey St. Clair Santorum: That's Latin for Asshole Iain Boal A May Day Message to the FCC: "We Are Many; They are Few" Diana Johnstone About Cuba Sam Hamod Killings at Al Fallujah, City of Mosques Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity Intelligence Fiasco Lee Sustar Greed Air: Airline Workers Agree to Pay Cuts, While Bosses Stuff Their Pockets Peter Linebaugh May Day at Kut and Kienthal Stew Albert Straight Shooters Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 5/01 Website of the Day South Bay Mobilization   April 30, 2003 Ashley Smith Under Uncle Sam's Thumb: a History of Washington's Occupations Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/30 Gary Leupp Shooting Schoolboys: Preliminary Thoughts on the Fallujah Massacre Robert Jensen Fighting Alienation in the USA Wayne Madsen The Four Horsemen of Propaganda Ahmad Faruqui Bush's Strategic Myopia About the Middle East Gabriel Kolko Iraq, the US and the End of the European Coalition Adolfo Perez Esquivel A Nobel Laureat's Letter to Bush: "You Talk of Freedom; You Detest Freedom"   April 29, 2003 Gary Leupp Disorder and Opportunity: the Results of the Iraq War Uri Avnery Don't Envy Abu-Mazen Anthony Gancarski Brush with the Law Mickey Z. POWs: Then and Now CounterPunch Wire How to Spin Israel on the Hill: Internal Lobbying Documents Robert Fisk Did the US Murder Journalists? Chris Floyd Bush Telegraphs His Punches on Syria Wayne Madsen About Those Iraqi Intelligence Documents Wallace Gagne Pilgrimage or Demolition Derby? Eliot Katz Playing Catch with Cracked Globes Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/29     Hot Stories Elaine Cassel Civil Liberties Watch Michel Guerrin Embedded Photographer Says: "I Saw Marines Kill Civilians" Uzma Aslam Khan The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War: What America Says Does Not Go Paul de Rooij Arrogant Propaganda Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.   Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

May 14, 2003 Fighting the Patriot Act Now It's Alaska! By DAVID LINDORFF The Bush Administration and Attorney General John Ashcroft may have been able to pull a fast one in the wake of 9/11, winning passage of the draconian and grotesquely named USA PATRIOT Act, but a grass-roots resistance movement is starting to blow up in the administration's face. As of today, 104 towns, cities and even the state of Hawaii, have passed resolutions in defense of the Bill of Rights which in often forceful language instruct state and local law enforcement not to participate in the act's assaults on civil liberties. The latest jurisdiction to consider such fight-back legislation is the state of Alaska, a bastion of conservative libertarianism. The city of Fairbanks has already passed its own resolution, and another is being considered in Anchorage, where key sponsors are representatives of the NAACP and the NRA. But the language of the bill just passed by the state's House of Representatives, and now being debated by the state Senate, is powerful indeed.   House Joint Resolution No. 22 reads, in part: "It is the policy of the State of Alaska to oppose any portion of the USA PATRIOT Act that would violate the rights and liberties guaranteed equally under the state and federal constitutions; and S in accordance with Alaska state policy, an agency or instrumentality of the State of Alaska, in the absence of reasonable suspicion of criminal activity under Alaska State law, may not (1) initiate, participate in, or assist or cooperate with an inquiry, investigation, surveillance, or detention, (2) record, file, or share intelligence information concerning a person or organization, including library lending and research records, book and video store sales and rental records, medical records, financial records, student records, and other personal data, even if authorized under the USA PATRIOT Act, (3) retain such intelligence information; (and that) an agency or instrumentality of the state may not, (1) use state resources or institutions for the enforcement of federal immigration matters, which are the responsibility of the federal government; (2) collect or maintain information about the political, religious, or social views, associations, or activities of any individual, group, association, organization, corporation, business, or partnership, unless the information directly relates to an investigation of criminal activities and there are reasonable grounds to suspect the subject of the information is or may be involved in criminal conduct; (3) engage in racial profiling; law enforcement agencies may not use race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin as factors in selecting individuals to subject to investigatory activities except when seeking to apprehend a specific suspect whose race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin is part of the description of the suspect." The bill goes on to say the state legislature implores the United States Congress "to correct provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act and other measures that infringe on civil liberties, and opposes any pending and future federal legislation to the extent that it infringes on Americans' civil rights and liberties." If passed by the state legislature's upper house, copies of resolution--a powerful slap at the civil liberties assault by the federal government--will be officially sent to the President Bush, Attorney General Ashcroft, the governor of Alaska, Frank Murkowski, and to the state's three-member congressional delegation. Ashcroft and his minions appear to be worried about the wildfire civil liberties defense movement that has sprung up against his campaign to gut the Bill of Rights. When Ithaca, NY's city council recently passed its own version of a Bill of Rights defense resolution, it promptly received a letter from the FBI's Albany regional office claiming that the bill was not needed, since "As you know, FBI investigations are scrutinized by the courts to ensure that proper Constitutional standards are maintained," and that "Unlike foreign intelligence services, FBI investigative techniques must be sanctioned by judges." Of course, this is a blatant falsehood, since Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act expressly allows G-men to rifle through library and video store records without a warrant and without showing "probably cause"--precisely the kind of thing that has prompted all these state and local resolutions. The strategy behind the Bill of Rights protection movement is to present congressional delegations with evidence of widespread support for civil liberties, so that they will develop the spine needed to overturn the USA PATRIOT Act, or at least let it expire in 2004. So far over 11 million Americans live in jurisdictions which have passed such resolutions, and the campaign is scarcely a year old as yet. David Lindorff is the author of Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. A collection of Lindorff's stories can be found here: http://www.nwuphilly.org/dave.html Yesterday's Features Saul Landau Clear Channel Fogs the Airwaves Michael Neumann Has Islam Failed? Not by Western Standards Uri Avnery My Meeting with Arafat Steve Perry The Saudi Arabia Bombing Jacob Levich Democracy Comes to Iraq: Kick Their Ass and Grab Their Gas William Lind The Hippo and the Mongoose: a Question of Military Theory The Black Commentator Fraud at the Times: Blaming Blacks for White Folks' Mistakes Stew Albert Asylum Hammond Guthrie An Illogical Reign Website of the Day Sy Hersh: War and Intelligence   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /