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Today's
Stories
December 6 / 7, 2003
Saul Landau
"Reality
Media": Michael Jackson, Bush and Iraq
December 5, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
A
Natural Eye: the Photography of Brett Weston
Jeremy Scahill
Bremer
of the Tigris
Jeremy Brecher
Amistad
Revisited at Guantanamo?
Norman Solomon
Dean
and the Corp Media Machine
Norman Madarasz
France
Starts Facing Up to Anti-Muslim Discrimination
Pablo Mukherjee
Afghanistan:
the Road Back
December 4, 2003
M. Junaid Alam
Image
and Reality: an Interview with Norman Finkelstein
Adam Engel
Republican
Chris Floyd
Naked Gun: Sex, Blood and the FBI
Adam Federman
The US Footprint in Central Asia
Gary Leupp
The
Fall of Shevardnadze
Guthrie / Albert
RIP Clark Kerr
December 3, 2003
Stan Goff
Feeling
More Secure Yet?: Bush, Security, Energy & Money
Joanne Mariner
Profit Margins and Mortality Rates
George Bisharat
Who Caused the Palestinian Diaspora?
Mickey Z.
Tear Down That Wal-Mart
John Stanton
Bush Post-2004: a Nightmare Scenario
Harry Browne
Shannon
Warport: "No More Business as Usual"
December 2, 2003
Matt Vidal
Denial
and Deception: Before and Beyond Iraqi Freedom
Benjamin Dangl
An Interview with Evo Morales on the Colonization of the Americas
Sam Bahour
Can It Ever Really End?
Norman Solomon
That
Pew Poll on "Trade" Doesn't Pass the Sniff Test
Josh Frank
Trade
War Fears
Andrew Cockburn
Tired,
Terrified, Trigger-Happy
December 1, 2003
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Unholy
Alliances: Zionism, US Imperialism and Islamic Fundamentalism
Dave Lindorff
Bush's
Baghdad Pitstop: Memories of LBJ in Vietnam
Harry Browne
Democracy Delayed in Northern Ireland
Wayne Madsen
Wagging the Media
Herman Benson
The New Unity Partnership for Labor: Bureaucratizing to Organize?
Gilad Atzmon
About
"World Peace"
Bill Christison
US
Foreign Policy and Intelligence: Monstrous Messes
November 29 / 30, 2003
Peter Linebaugh
On
the Anniversary of the Death of Wolfe Tone
Gary Leupp
Politicizing War on Fox News: a Tale of Two Memos
Saul Landau
Lying and Cheating:
Bush's New Political Math
Michael Adler
Inside a Miami Jail: One Activist's Narrative
Anthony Arnove
"They Put the Lie to Their Own Propaganda": an Interview
with John Pilger
Greg Weiher
Why Bush Needs Osama and Saddam
Stephen Banko, III
A Soldier's Dream
Forrest Hylton
Empire and Revolution in Bolivia
Toni Solo
The "Free Trade" History Eraser
Ben Terrall
Don't Think Twice: Bush Does Bali
Standard Schaefer
Unions
are the Answer to Supermarkets Woes
Richard Trainor
The Political Economy of Earthquakes: a Journey Across the Bay
Bridge
Mark Gaffney
US Congress Does Israel's Bidding, Again
Adam Engel
The System Really Works
Dave Lindorff
They, the Jury: How the System Rigs the Jury Pool
Susan Davis
Framing the Friedmans
Neve Gordon
Arundhati Roy's Complaint for Peace
Mitchel Cohen
Thomas Jefferson and Slavery
Ben Tripp
Capture Me, Daddy
Poets' Basement
Kearney, Albert, Guthrie and Smith
November 28, 2003
William S. Lind
Worse Than Crimes
David Vest
Turkey
Potemkin
Robert Jensen / Sam Husseini
New Bush Tape Raises Fears of Attacks
Wayne Madsen
Wag
the Turkey
Harold Gould
Suicide as WMD? Emile Durkheim Revisited
Gabriel Kolko
Vietnam
and Iraq: Has the US Learned Anything?
South Asia Tribune
The Story
of the Most Important Pakistan Army General in His Own Words
Website of the Day
Bush Draft
November 27, 2003
Mitchel Cohen
Why
I Hate Thanksgiving
Jack Wilson
An
Account of One Soldier's War
Stefan Wray
In the Shadows of the School of the Americas
Al Krebs
Food as Corporate WMD
Jim Scharplaz
Going Up Against Big Food: Weeding Out the Small Farmer
Neve Gordon
Gays
Under Occupation: Help Save the Life of Fuad Moussa
November 26, 2003
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: the Case of a Rape Foretold
Bruce Jackson
Media
and War: Bringing It All Back Home
Stew Albert
Perle's
Confession: That's Entertainment
Alexander Cockburn
Miami and London: Cops in Two Cities
David Orr
Miami Heat
Tom Crumpacker
Anarchists
on the Beach
Mokhiber / Weissman
Militarization in Miami
Derek Seidman
Naming the System: an Interview with Michael Yates
Kathy Kelly
Hogtied
and Abused at Ft. Benning
Website of the Day
Iraq Procurement
November 25, 2003
Linda S. Heard
We,
the Besieged: Western Powers Redefine Democracy
Diane Christian
Hocus
Pocus in the White House: Of Warriors and Liberators
Mark Engler
Miami's
Trade Troubles
David Lindorff
Ashcroft's
Cointelpro
Website of the Day
Young McCarthyites of Texas
November 24, 2003
Jeremy Scahill
The
Miami Model
Elaine Cassel
Gulag
Americana: You Can't Come Home Again
Ron Jacobs
Iraq
Now: Oh Good, Then the War's Over?
Alexander Cockburn
Rupert Murdoch: Global Tyrant
November 14 / 23, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
Clintontime:
Was It Really a Golden Age?
Saul Landau
Words
of War
Noam Chomsky
Invasion
as Marketing Problem: Iraq War and Contempt for Democracy
Stan Goff
An Open Letter to GIs in Iraq: Hold on to Your Humanity
Jeffrey St. Clair
Bush Puts Out a Contract on the Spotted Owl
John Holt
Blue Light: Battle for the Sweetgrass Hills
Adam Engel
A DC Lefty in King George's Court: an Interview with Sam Smith
Joanne Mariner
In a Dark Hole: Moussaoui and the Hidden Detainees
Uri Avnery
The General as Pseudo-Dove: Ya'alon's 70 Virgins
M. Shahid Alam
Voiding the Palestinians: an Allegory
Juliana Fredman
Visions of Concrete
Norman Solomon
Media Clash in Brazil
Brian Cloughley
Is Anyone in the Bush Administration Telling the Truth?
William S. Lind
Post-Machine Gun Tactics
Patrick W. Gavin
Imagine
Dave Lindorff
Bush's
Brand of Leadership: Putting Himself First
Tom Crumpacker
Pandering to Anti-Castro Hardliners
Erik Fleming
Howard Dean's Folly
Rick Giombetti
Challenging the Witch Doctors of the New Imperialism: a Review
of Bush in Babylon
Jorge Mariscal
Las Adelitas, 2003: Mexican-American Women in Iraq
Chris Floyd
Logical Conclusions
Mickey Z.
Does William Safire Need Mental Help?
David Vest
Owed to the Confederate Dead
Ron Jacobs
Joe: the Sixties Most Unforgiving Film
Dave Zirin
Foreman and Carlos: a Tale of Two Survivors
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Albert, Greeder, Ghalib and Alam
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher David Vest: Winner of 2 Muddy Awards for Best
Blues Pianist in the Pacific Northwest!
November 13, 2003
Jack McCarthy
Veterans
for Peace Booted from Vet Day Parade
Adam Keller
Report
on the Ben Artzi Verdict
Richard Forno
"Threat Matrix:" Homeland Security Goes Prime-Time
Vijay Prashad
Confronting
the Evangelical Imperialists
November 12, 2003
Elaine Cassel
The
Supremes and Guantanamo: a Glimmer of Hope?
Col. Dan Smith
Unsolicited
Advice: a Reply to Rumsfeld's Memo
Jonathan Cook
Facility
1391: Israel's Guantanamo
Robert Fisk
Osama Phones Home
Michael Schwartz
The Wal-Mart Distraction and the California Grocery Workers Strike
John Chuckman
Forty
Years of Lies
Doug Giebel
Jessica Lynch and Saving American Decency
Uri Avnery
Wanted: a Sharon of the Left
Website of the Day
Musicians Against Sweatshops
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
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for More Stories.
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December
6 / 7, 2003
Stockpile a Six Pack
of al-Chark
On Purchasing Syrian Beer
By GARY LEUPP
Congress has decided to impose sanctions
on Syria, thereby cooperating with the Bush administration's
program for regime change in Damascus and the complete remaking
of the Middle East. I think that's unreasonable, and just another
step on a "road to Damascus" that doesn't lead to Jesus
(see Acts 9:3-9) but to more hell à la Iraq.
If one were to propose a modest strategy
to resist that effort, one might begin by exploring ways to buy
Syrian beer. In doing so one might express solidarity with
the Syrian people targeted for attack, while promoting international
cultural exchange.
Syrian beer? You ask incredulously. They're
not supposed to have that sort of thing, being Muslims and all.
But in fact the Syrians
in ancient times pioneered in brewing. Today
10% of the Syrian population is Christian, and there are even
small Jewish communities in Damascus and Aleppo; these folks
of course face no religious ban on alcohol. Muslims do, theoretically,
face such a ban, but Syria (like Saddam's Iraq) is a secular
state, and the government so vilified by the Bush administration
could care less if good Muslims want to chug down a couple cold
ones on a hot day while watching the World Cup or washing the
car, or whatever.
Now, I can't give specific information
about how to order Syrian beer, because I'm a law-abiding citizen,
and I know that while Syria retains diplomatic representation
in Washington it's still considered a "terror-sponsoring"
nation, and I'm aware that according to some extremely vague
and stupid laws in this country, if I give "material support"
to a "terrorist organization" (which is whatever the
government wants that to be) I could be arrested just for advocating
Syrian beer consumption. I mean, even though the bill hasn't
gone into effect yet, they could say that the Syrian breweries
I'm suggesting one might hypothetically patronize (see how carefully
I'm choosing my words?) are connected to terrorism (just because
they're Syrian), and so my suggestion itself would be advocacy
of terrorism. I have a wife and kids, so I can't do more than
what I'm doing here, which is to suggest you surf the net and
pursue the theoretical possibility of procuring some Syrian
brews to share with your friends; show your solidarity with the
good, decent innocent people of the next neocon-targeted nation;
and generate in your next back-yard barbecue some discussion
of the complexity of the world the Manichaean Bushites want to
split neatly in two. Just imagine:
"Whatcha got there?" Your
neighbor will ask curiously.
"Oh, this? Pretty decent lager."
"What's the writing on it?"
"Arabic. It's a Syrian brew, actually."
"No shit. They don't drink in those
countries."
"Sure 'nuf they do. They invented
the stuff, y'know"
"Not! Germans invented beer."
"Wrong. Arabs were brewing it a
thousand years before the first European chugged it down
from a drinking horn..."
Then, seizing the opportunity to politically
educate your friend, you can go on to explain that the Baathist
Party governing Syria (and Saddam's Iraq) is committed to secularism,
which means not enforcing Islamic law, and maybe drive
home the more important point that these secularists targeted
by the religious fundamentalists now in power in the U.S.
(who often lie, very deliberately, about the Middle East)
actually have nothing to do with al-Qaeda and its program.
If I were to advise you on how to acquire
your Syrian beer (which again I won't do, lest I violate
some anti-terrorism law), I'd suggest you first go to the website
www.bottledbeer.co.uk
and become familiar with the Syrian products available. Reviewer
Silk Tork is harsh on Barada, which he judges a "foul,
sewerage filled trickle," but some of your friends and neighbors
might like that, everybody being different. Al-Chark
on the other hand is (in Tork's estimation) "a wonderful
beerastonishingly excellent," flavored with pineapple and
grapefruit. Just 4.6% alcohol. It sounds to me rather like a
Sam Adams Summer Ale, but I haven't tried it yet. I haven't found
information on Dunia, a Syrian Pilsner, but I'm sure with
some web-surfing you can get details.
I can't find, on the net, an easy way
to order cases of al-Chark. So if Syria weren't being
targeted for the neocons; and if I didn't risk arrest for supporting
terrorism in so doing, I'd suggest the following procedure. Fax
the Syrian Embassy in Washington (there still is one) at 202-234-9548.
Write something like:
To whom it may concern:
I am interested in acquiring information
about how to legally procure the beer labeled "al-Chark"
produced in your country, which I understand has a fine international
reputation. I would like to buy at least one case, not only to
expand my knowledge of world beers in doing so, but to also take
a stand against the thoroughly unfair, bellicose policies that
the government ruling my country is taking towards yours.
I would greatly appreciate any help you
could lend me in this cultural exchange activity.
With all best wishes to the Syrian people,
[name]
I don't know if it will be possible to
order directly from Syria. Maybe the embassy will point you to
some European or Canadian distributors.
Gary Leupp
is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor
of Comparative Religion. He can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu
Weekend
Edition Features for Nov. 29 / 30, 2003
Peter Linebaugh
On
the Anniversary of the Death of Wolfe Tone
Gary Leupp
Politicizing War on Fox News: a Tale of Two Memos
Saul Landau
Lying and Cheating:
Bush's New Political Math
Michael Adler
Inside a Miami Jail: One Activist's Narrative
Anthony Arnove
"They Put the Lie to Their Own Propaganda": an Interview
with John Pilger
Greg Weiher
Why Bush Needs Osama and Saddam
Stephen Banko, III
A Soldier's Dream
Forrest Hylton
Empire and Revolution in Bolivia
Toni Solo
The "Free Trade" History Eraser
Ben Terrall
Don't Think Twice: Bush Does Bali
Standard Schaefer
Unions
are the Answer to Supermarkets Woes
Richard Trainor
The Political Economy of Earthquakes: a Journey Across the Bay
Bridge
Mark Gaffney
US Congress Does Israel's Bidding, Again
Adam Engel
The System Really Works
Dave Lindorff
They, the Jury: How the System Rigs the Jury Pool
Susan Davis
Framing the Friedmans
Neve Gordon
Arundhati Roy's Complaint for Peace
Mitchel Cohen
Thomas Jefferson and Slavery
Ben Tripp
Capture Me, Daddy
Poets' Basement
Kearney, Albert, Guthrie and Smith
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