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Now Available from CounterPunch for Only $10.50 (S/H Included) Today's Stories October 25 / 26, 2003 Karyn Strickler Down with Big Brother's Spying Eyes October 24, 2003 Kurt Nimmo Ashcroft's War on Greenpeace Lenni Brenner The Demographics of American Jews Jeffrey St. Clair Rockets, Napalm, Torpedoes and Lies: the Attack on the USS Liberty Revisited Sarah Weir Cover-up of the Israeli Attack on the US Liberty David Krieger WMD Found in DC: Bush is the Button Mohammed Hakki It's Palestine, Stupid!: Americans and the Middle East Harry Browne Northern Ireland: the Agreement that Wasn't   October 23, 2003 Diane Christian Ruthlessness Kurt Nimmo Criticizing Zionism David Lindorff A General Theory of Theology Alan Maass The Future of the Anti-War Movement William Blum Imperial Indifference Stew Albert A Memo   October 22, 2003 Wayne Madsen Religious Insanity Runs Rampant Ray McGovern Holding Leaders Accountable for Lies Christopher Brauchli There's No Civilizing the Death Penalty Elaine Cassel Legislators and Women's Bodies Bill Glahn RIAA Watch: the New Morality of Capitalism Anthony Arnove An Interview with Tariq Ali October 21, 2003 Uri Avnery The Beilin Agreement Robert Jensen The Fundamentalist General David Lindorff War Dispatch from the NYT: God is on Our Side! William S. Lind Bremer is Deaf to History Bridget Gibson Fatal Vision Alan Haber A Human Chain for Peace in Ann Arbor Peter Linebaugh On the Bicentennial of the Hanging of Thomas Russell October 20, 2003 Standard Schaefer Chile's Failed Economy: an Interview with Michael Hudson Chris Floyd Circus Maximus: Arnie, Enron and Bush Maul California Mark Hand Democrats Seek to Disappear Chomsky & Nader John & Elaine Mellencamp Peaceful World Elaine Cassel God's General Unmuzzled   October 18 / 19, 2003 Robert Pollin Clintonomics: the Hollow Boom Gary Leupp Israel, Syria and Stage Four in the Terror War Saul Landau Day of the Gropenfuhrer Bruce Anderson The California Recall John Gershman Bush in Asia: What a Difference a Decade Makes Nelson P. Valdes Bush, Electoral Politics and Cuba's "Illicit Sex Trade" Kurt Nimmo Shock Therapy and the Israeli Scenario Tom Gorman Al Franken and Al-Shifa Brian Cloughley Public Propaganda and the Iraq War Joanne Mariner A New Way to Kill Tigers Denise Low The Cancer of Sprawl Mickey Z. The Reverend of Doom John Chuckman US Missiles for Israeli Nukes? George Naggiar A Veto of Public Diplomacy Alison Weir Death Threats in Berkeley Benjamin Dangl Bolivian Govt. Falling Apart Ron Jacobs The Politics of Bob Dylan Fidel Castro A Review of Garcia Marquez's Memoir Adam Engel I Hope My Corpse Gives You the Plague Poets' Basement Jones, Albert, Guthrie and Greeder   October 17, 2003 Stan Goff Piss On My Leg: Perception Control and the Stage Management of War Newton Garver Bolivia in Turmoil Standard Schaefer Grocery Unions Under Attack Ben Terrall The Ordeal of the Lockheed 52 Ron Jacobs First Syria, Then Iran David Lindorff Michael Moore Proclaims Mumia Guilty   October 16, 2003 Marjorie Cohn Bush Gunning for Regime Change in Cuba Gary Leupp "Getting Better" in Iraq Norman Solomon The US Press and Israel: Brand Loyalty and the Absence of Remorse Rush Limbaugh The 10 Most Overrated Athletes of All Time Lenni Brenner I Didn't Meet Huey Newton. He Met Me Website of the Day Time Tested Books   October 15, 2003 Sunil Sharma / Josh Frank The General and the Governor: Two Measures of American Desperation Forrest Hylton Dispatch from the Bolivian War: "Like Animals They Kill Us" Brian Cloughley Those Phony Letters: How Bush Uses GIs to Spread Propaganda About Iraq Ahmad Faruqui Lessons of the October War Uri Avnery Three Days as a Living Shield Website of the Day Rank and File: the New Unity Partnership Document JoAnn Wypijewski The New Unity Partnership: A Manifest Destiny for Labor October 14, 2003 Eric Ridenour Qibya & Sharon: Anniversary of a Massacre Elaine Cassel The Disgrace That is Guantanamo Robert Jensen What the "Fighting Sioux" Tells Us About White People David Lindorff Talking Turkey About Iraq Patrick Cockburn US Troops Bulldoze Crops VIPS One Person Can Make a Difference Toni Solo The CAFTA Thumbscrews Peter Linebaugh "Remember Orr!" Website of the Day BRIDGES   October 11 / 13, 2003 Alexander Cockburn Kay's Misleading Report; CIA/MI-6 Syrian Plot; Dershowitz Flaps Broken Wings Saul Landau Contradictions: Pumping Empire and Losing Job Muscles Phillip Cryan The War on Human Rights in Colombia Kurt Nimmo Cuba and the "Necessary Viciousness" of the Bushites Nelson P. Valdes Traveling to Cuba: Where There's a Will, There's a Way Lisa Viscidi The Guatemalan Elections: Fraud, Intimidation and Indifference Maria Trigona and Fabian Pierucci Allende Lives Larry Tuttle States of Corruption William A. Cook Failing America Brian Cloughley US Economic Space and New Zealand Adrian Zupp What Would Buddha Do? Why Won't the Dalai Lama Pick a Fight? Merlin Chowkwanyun The Strange and Tragic Case of Sherman Marlin Austin Ben Tripp Screw You Right Back: CIA FU! Lee Ballinger Grits Ain't Groceries Mickey Z. Not All Italians Love Columbus Bruce Jackson On Charles Burnett's "Warming By the Devil's Fire" William Benzon The Door is Open: Scorsese's Blues, 2 Adam Engel The Eyes of Lora Shelley Walt Brasch Facing a McBlimp Attack Poets' Basement Mickey Z, Albert, Kearney October 10, 2003 John Chuckman Schwarzenegger and the Lottery Society Toni Solo Trashing Free Software Chris Floyd Body Blow: Bush Joins the Worldwide War on Women   October 9, 2003 Jennifer Loewenstein Bombing Syria Ramzi Kysia Seeing the Iraqi People Fran Shor Groping the Body Politic Mark Hand President Schwarzenegger? Alexander Cockburn Welcome to Arnold, King for a Day Website of the Day The Awful Truth about Wesley Clark   October 8, 2003 David Lindorff Schwarzenegger and the Failure of the Centrist Dems Ramzy Baroud Israel's WMDs and the West's Double Standard John Ross Mexico Tilts South Mokhiber / Weissman Repub Guru Compares Taxes to the Holocaust James Bovard The Reagan Roadmap for Antiterrorism Disaster Michael Neumann One State or Two? A False Dilemma   October 7, 2003 Uri Avnery Slow-Motion Ethnic Cleansing Stan Goff Lost in the Translation at Camp Delta Ron Jacobs Yom Kippurs, Past and Present David Lindorff Coronado in Iraq Rep. John Conyers, Jr. Outing a CIA Operative? Why A Special Prosecutor is Required Cynthia McKinney Who Are "We"? Elaine Cassel Shock and Awe in the Moussaoui Case Walter Lippman Thoughts on the Cali Recall Gary Leupp Israel's Attack on Syria: Who's on the Wrong Side of History, Now? Website of the Day Cable News Gets in Touch With It's Inner Bigot   October 6, 2003 Robert Fisk US Gave Israel Green Light for Raid on Syria Forrest Hylton Upheaval in Bolivia: Crisis and Opportunity Benjamin Dangl Divisions Deepen in Third Week of Bolivia's Gas War Bridget Gibson Oh, Pioneers!: Bush's New Deal Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman The Bush-Rove-Schwarzenegger Nazi Nexus Nicole Gamble Rios Montt's Campaign Threatens Genocide Trials JoAnn Wypijewski The New Unity Partnership: A Manifest Destiny for Labor Website of the Day Guerrilla Funk   October 3 / 5, 2003 Tim Wise The Other Race Card: Rush and the Politics of White Resentment Peter Linebaugh Rhymsters and Revolutionaries: Joe Hill and the IWW Gary Leupp Occupation as Rape-Marriage Bruce Jackson Addio Alle Armi David Krieger A Nuclear 9/11? Ray McGovern L'Affaire Wilsons: Wives are Now "Fair Game" in Bush's War on Whistleblowers Col. Dan Smith Why Saddam Didn't Come Clean Mickey Z. In Our Own Image: Teaching Iraq How to Deal with Protest Roger Burbach Bush Ideologues v. Big Oil in Iraq John Chuckman Wesley Clark is Not Cincinnatus William S. Lind Versailles on the Potomac Glen T. Martin The Corruptions of Patriotism Anat Yisraeli Bereavement as Israeli Ethos Wayne Madsen Can the Republicans Get Much Worse? Sure, They Can M. Junaid Alam The Racism Barrier William Benzon Scorsese's Blues Adam Engel The Great American Writing Contest Poets' Basement McNeill, Albert, Guthrie     October 2, 2003 Niranjan Ramakrishnan What's So Great About Gandhi, Anyway? Amy Goodman / Jeremy Scahill The Ashcroft-Rove Connection Doug Giebel Kiss and Smear: Novak and the Valerie Plame Affair Hamid Dabashi The Moment of Myth: Edward Said (1935-2003) Elaine Cassel Chicago Condemns Patriot Act Saul Landau Who Got Us Into This Mess? Website of the Day Last Day to Save Beit Arabiya! October 1, 2003 Joanne Mariner Married with Children: the Supremes and Gay Families Robert Fisk Oil, War and Panic Ron Jacobs Xenophobia as State Policy Elaine Cassel The Lamo Case: Secret Subpoenas and the Patriot Act Shyam Oberoi Shooting a Tiger Toni Solo Plan Condor, the Sequel? Sean Donahue Wesley Clark and the "No Fly" List Website of the Day Downloader Legal Defense Fund   September 30, 2003 After Dark Arnold's 1977 Photo Shoot Dave Lindorff The Poll of the Shirt: Bush Isn't Wearing Well Tom Crumpacker The Cuba Fixation: Shaking Down American Travelers Robert Fisk A Lesson in Obfuscation Charles Sullivan A Message to Conservatives Suren Pillay Edward Said: a South African Perspective Naeem Mohaiemen Said at Oberlin: Hysteria in the Face of Truth Amy Goodman / Jeremy Scahill Does a Felon Rove the White House? Website of the Day The Edward Said Page September 29, 2003 Robert Fisk The Myths of Western Intelligence Agencies Iain A. Boal Turn It Up: Pardon Mzwakhe Mbuli! Lee Sustar Paul Krugman: the Last Liberal? Wayne Madsen General Envy? Think Shinseki, Not Clark Benjamin Dangl Bolivia's Gas War Uri Avnery The Magnificent 27 Pledge Drive of the Day Antiwar.com   September 26 / 28, 2003 Alexander Cockburn Alan Dershowitz, Plagiarist David Price Teaching Suspicions Saul Landau Before the Era of Insecurity Ron Jacobs The Chicago Conspiracy Trial and the Patriot Act Brian Cloughley The Strangeloves Win Again Norman Solomon Wesley and Me: a Real-Life Docudrama Robert Fisk Bomb Shatters Media Illusions M. Shahid Alam A Muslim Sage Visits the USA John Chuckman American Psycho: Bush at the UN Mark Schneider International Direct Action The Spanish Revolution to the Palestiniana Intifada William S. Lind How $87 Billion Could Buy Some Real Security Douglas Valentine Gold Warriors: the Plundering of Asia Chris Floyd Vanishing Act Elaine Cassel Play Cat and Moussaoui Richard Manning A Conservatism that Once Conserved George Naggiar The Beautiful Mind of Edward Said Omar Barghouti Edward Said: a Corporeal Dream Not Yet Realized Lenni Brenner Palestine's Loss is America's Loss Mickey Z. Edward Said: a Well-Reasoned Voice Tanweer Akram The Legacy of Edward Said Adam Engel War in the Smoking Room Poets' Basement Katz, Ford, Albert & Guthrie Website of the Weekend Who the Hell is Stew Albert?     September 25, 2003 Edward Said Dignity, Solidarity and the Penal Colony Robert Fisk Fanning the Flames of Hatred Sarah Ferguson Wolfowitz at the New School David Krieger The Second Nuclear Age Bill Glahn RIAA Doublespeak Al Krebs ADM and the New York Times: Covering Up Corporate Crime Michael S. Ladah The Obvious Solution: Give Iraq Back to the Arabs Fran Shor Arnold and Wesley Mustafa Barghouthi Edward Said: a Monument to Justice and Human Rights Alexander Cockburn Edward Said: a Mighty and Passionate Heart Website of the Day Edward Said: a Lecture on the Tragedy of Palestine The Great Alejandro Escavedo Needs Your Help! September 24, 2003 Stan Goff Generational Casualties: the Toxic Legacy of the Iraq War William Blum Grand Illusions About Wesley Clark David Vest Politics for Bookies Jon Brown Stealing Home: The Real Looting is About to Begin Robert Fisk Occupation and Censorship Latino Military Families Bring Our Children Home Now! Neve Gordon Sharon's Preemptive Zeal Website of the Day Bands Against Bush September 23, 2003 Bernardo Issel Dancing with the Diva: Arianna and Streisand Gary Leupp To Kill a Cat: the Unfortunate Incident at the Baghdad Zoo Gregory Wilpert An Interview with Hugo Chavez on the CIA in Venezuela Steven Higgs Going to Jail for the Cause--Part 2: Charity Ryerson, Young and Radical Stan Cox The Cheney Tapes: Can You Handle the Truth? Robert Fisk Another Bloody Day in the Death of Iraq William S. Lind Learning from Uncle Abe: Sacking the Incompetent Elaine Cassel First They Come for the Lawyers, Then the Ministers Yigal Bronner The Truth About the Wall Website of the Day The Baghdad Death Count September 20 / 22, 2003 Uri Avnery The Silliest Show in Town Alexander Cockburn Lighten Up, America! Peter Linebaugh On the Bicentennial of the Execution of Robert Emmet Anne Brodsky Return to Afghanistan Saul Landau Guillermo and Me Phan Nguyen Mother Jones Smears Rachel Corrie Gila Svirsky Sharon, With Eyes Wide Open Gary Leupp On Apache Terrorism Kurt Nimmo Colin Powell: Exploiting the Dead of Halabja Brian Cloughley Colin Powell's Shame Carol Norris The Moral Development of George W. Bush Bill Glahn The Real Story Behind RIAA Propaganda Adam Engel An Interview with Danny Scechter, the News Dissector Dave Lindorff Good Morning, Vietnam! Mark Scaramella Contracts and Politics in Iraq John Ross WTO Collapses in Cancun: Autopsy of a Fiasco Foretold Justin Podur Uribe's Desperate Squeals Toni Solo The Colombia Three: an Interview with Caitriona Ruane Steven Sherman Workers and Globalization David Vest Masked and Anonymous: Dylan's Elegy for a Lost America Ron Jacobs Politics of the Hip-Hop Pimps Poets Basement Krieger, Guthrie and Albert Website of the Weekend Ted Honderich: Terrorism for Humanity? Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con! Subcomandante Marcos The Death Train of the WTO Norman Finkelstein Hitchens as Model Apostate Steve Niva Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings? Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams CounterPunch Exclusive: 20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians Steve J.B. Prison Bitch Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War Wendell Berry Small Destructions Add Up CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

October 25, 2003 Return of the Thought Police Down with Big Brother's Spying Eyes By KARYN STRICKLER "Down With Big Brother," wrote the fictitious character Winston Smith in his secret diary, a thought-crime seen as an "all-inclusive offense," whose punishment was extermination. Big Brother, the dictator of the totalitarian society in George Orwell's terrifying, classic novel, Nineteen Eighty Four, was unapologetically watching Smith. How big is the step from the electronic cameras that have proliferated in our daily lives to the telescreen in Winston Smith's own living room through which the Thought Police monitored his every action and sound? For all of our diversity, Americans share a common culture and history where our liberty and freedom are built on a solid base of privacy for our citizens. As patriotic American voters, it's our civic duty to watch over our government and hold them accountable--not the other way around. Here in America as we approach the year 2004, local, state and federal governments are watching their citizens through electronic cameras everywhere we go--at 50 yard intervals as we drive down the highway, at banks, grocery stores and state and federal government buildings. George W. Bush actively impedes our ability to access information necessary to keep his administration under the control of American citizens. He does not believe in government transparency that would allow us to do our patriotic duty as citizens. Even after the biggest corporate scandal that robbed workers of their pensions, rewarded CEO's with huge payoffs and ultimately brought down the Enron energy company, Bush would not release the details of the meeting between his administration and leaders of Enron which helped to shape our national energy policy. So we can't watch his shenanigans, but he is watching us, by God. Historically when the American government wanted to monitor its citizens, it had to do so covertly through wiretapping or opening their mail as with Operation Cointelpro, which secretly spied on and harassed anti-war groups during the Vietnam War. It had to do so against the resistance of at least a minority of citizens and certainly contrary to our rule of law. The congressional investigations during the 1970's revealed violations of civil liberties so blatant and widespread that it almost destroyed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). But these electronic cameras that are watching us at every intersection are so blatant and our citizens are compliant if not joyful to have them. At a meeting of our neighborhood citizen's association, my neighbors were almost giddy with excitement at the prospect of getting an electronic camera to "watch over" our community, as though we were talking about a kindly mother figure. I rose to ask whether anyone was concerned about the privacy infringement that these cameras posed, only to be shocked that no one shared my concern. To the contrary, my point fell on defiant ears and I was entirely unable to influence my neighbors. It felt like I was speaking a foreign language. An elderly woman whom I respect approached me after the meeting and shook her finger in my face and said, "Young lady, those cameras are for your protection." The government tells us that they must watch us for our own safety; while the National Institute of Health wants to build a bioterrorism laboratory in my neighborhood which they say poses no danger to our families or community. I don't believe that deadly pathogens possibly including live tuberculosis, anthrax and Ebola that will likely be used in this laboratory should be in anyone's backyard and most certainly has no place on the corner of an extremely high-traffic, intersection in a highly populated, suburban center a few miles from the Nation's Capital. But we're asked to believe that deadly pathogens in vulnerable locations are perfectly safe and electronic eyes do not violate our liberties. It begins to sound like the double-speak in Winston Smith's party's slogans: "WAR IS PEACE; FREEDOM IS SLAVERY; IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH." Covert spying that the government does on its citizens has been accepted by the public in times of trouble, but retrospectively reviled. These cameras are so overt, why do we tolerate them? We're asked to believe that these cameras are going to stop terrorists. If you want to scare people into giving up their liberties for security, just say, "terrorism." Let's be real. Cameras are not going to stop or catch a terrorist who is willing to die for their cause. Those cameras don't stop people on area highways that regularly tailgate and weave in and out of traffic at speeds often exceeding 100 mph. I see this behavior regularly, which is no less dangerous than wielding a loaded gun. In Nineteen Eighty Four when thinking back over time, Winston Smith does not remember a period without war, but since no official records now exist, the war officially never happened. Winston realizes that this knowledge existing in his consciousness will soon be annihilated. The Party slogan, "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past," is frightening to him. Since Americans have never gotten the straight scoop on the war in Iraq from the Bush Administration, I have an idea: Let's turn all these cameras on the White House. We can all tune in on our home TV sets and get the information we need to do our most fundamental duty, putting citizens back in charge of our democratic process. Since we can't advance the cause of liberty by cutting the cables to these cameras which act as the electronic eyes of government, for fear of being charged with an "all-inclusive offense," we'll have to settle for the sharp edge of words to cut into the blind majority support of these spying eyes. To paraphrase Ben Franklin: they who would trade liberty for security, deserve neither. Karyn Strickler is a writer and political activist living outside of Washington, DC. Copyright Karyn Strickler. Weekend Edition Features for Oct. 18 / 19, 2003 Robert Pollin Clintonomics: the Hollow Boom Gary Leupp Israel, Syria and Stage Four in the Terror War Saul Landau Day of the Gropenfuhrer Bruce Anderson The California Recall John Gershman Bush in Asia: What a Difference a Decade Makes Nelson P. Valdes Bush, Electoral Politics and Cuba's "Illicit Sex Trade" Kurt Nimmo Shock Therapy and the Israeli Scenario Tom Gorman Al Franken and Al-Shifa Brian Cloughley Public Propaganda and the Iraq War Joanne Mariner A New Way to Kill Tigers Denise Low The Cancer of Sprawl Mickey Z. The Reverend of Doom John Chuckman US Missiles for Israeli Nukes? George Naggiar A Veto of Public Diplomacy Alison Weir Death Threats in Berkeley Benjamin Dangl Bolivian Govt. Falling Apart Ron Jacobs The Politics of Bob Dylan Fidel Castro A Review of Garcia Marquez's Memoir Adam Engel I Hope My Corpse Gives You the Plague Poets' Basement Jones, Albert, Guthrie and Greeder Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /