Coming
in September
From AK Press
Featuring Essays by:
Edward Said, Robert Fisk, Michael Neumann, Shahid Alam, Alexander
Cockburn, Uri Avnery, Bill and Kathy Christison and More
Recent
Stories
August
8, 2003
Dave
Lindorff
Snoops Night Out
August
7, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
It the US a "Terrorist Magnet?"
Toni
Solo
Neo-liberal Nicaragua: a New Banana
Republic
Adam Lebowitz
Hiroshima Commemorated: the View from Japan
Hanan
Ashrawi
When the Bully Whines
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Conscience Takes a Holiday
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Lets Slip: Iraq Not Behind 9/11; No Ties to Al-Qaeda
Mike Kimaid
What's the Score?
Elaine
Cassel
The Smell of VICTORY: Ashcroft's Latest Stinkbomb
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
August 6, 2003
Steve
Higgs
Going to Jail for the Cause: It's Not
Easy Confronting King Coal
David
Krieger
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Robert
Fisk
The Ghosts of Uday and Qusay
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's War on the National Forests
Elaine
Cassel
No Fly Lists
Stan
Goff
Military Equipment and Pneumonia
Hugh Sansom
An Open Letter to Nicholas Kristof on the Nuking of Japan
August
5, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Prisoner of Ramallah: Arafat at
74
Forrest
Hylton
Terrorism and Political Trials: the
View from Bolivia
Ray
McGovern
"We Cook Estimates to Go"
David
Morse
Poindexter's Gambit
Edward
Said
Orientallism: 25 Years Later
George
W. Bush
My Darn Good Resumé
Hammond
Guthrie
It's Incremental, Watson!
Website
of the Day
National Prayer Day
August 4, 2003
Bruce
K. Gagnon
Another Peace Activist Detained by
Airport Cops: My Story
David
Lindorff
Fear-Mongering About Social Security
Mark
Zepezauer
George F. Will: Descent into Self-Parody
James
Plummer
Tracking You Through the Mail
Mickey
Z.
Marriage Insecurity from Sharon to Bush
Bruce
Jackson
News that Isn't News: How the NYT's
Pimps for the White House
August
2 / 3, 2003
Tamara
R. Piety
Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down
Francis
Boyle
My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool
David
Vest
Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side
Neve Gordon
Nightlife in Jerusalem
Uri
Avnery
Their Master's Voice:
Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus
Robert
Fisk
Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq
Jerry
Kroth
Israel, Yellowcake and the Media
Noah Leavitt
What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to
Intervene?
Saul
Landau
The Film Industry: Business and Ideology
Ron Jacobs
One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson
Thomas
Croft
In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta
Amadi Ajamu
Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader?
Poets'
Basement
Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming
August
1, 2003
Joanne
Mariner
Stopping Prison Rape
Alex Coolman
Who Moved My Soap: Trivializing
Prison Rape
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Stan Goff
Injury and Decorum: The Missing Wounded in Iraq
Wayne
Madsen
Europe Unplugs from the Matrix
Robert
Fisk
Wolfowitz the Censor
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft Loses Big in Puerto Rico
Website
of the Day
Stop Prisoner Rape
July
31, 2003
Ray
McGovern
The Prostitution of Intelligence
Brian
Cloughley
Wolfowitz's Operative Statement
Sheldon
Hull
The RIAA's Jihad:
The Devil's Music (Industry)
Elaine
Cassel
The Next Time You Crack a Lawyer Joke, Think of These Attorneys
Sheldon
Rampton
and John Stauber
True Lies: Propaganda and Bush's
Wars
Hammond
Guthrie
Speculation Blues
Website
of the Day
Army of One?
July
30, 2003
David
Lindorff
Poindexter the Terror Bookie
Marjorie
Cohn
Why Iraq and Afghanistan? It's About
the Oil
Elaine
Cassel
How Ashcroft Coerces Guilty Pleas
in Terror Cases
Zvi
Bar'el
The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War
Lisa Walsh
Thomas
Killing Mustafa Hussein: Death of a Child, Birth of a Legend?
Sean
Carter
Pat Robertson's Prayer Jihad: God, Sodomy and the Supremes
ND Jayaprakash
India and Ariel Sharon
Steve
Perry
Bush's Top 40 Lies
Standard
Schaefer
Correction about Bloomberg and Outscourcing
Website
of the Day
Bring Them Home Now!
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
July
29, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
"Journalist Spotted! Journalist
Dead!" Guatemala Bleeds; US Press Yawns
Thomas
J. Nagy
The Belligerent Dr. Pipes
Kurt Nimmo
Tom Delay Goes to Jerusalem
Chris
Floyd
Dead Reckoning: Bush Warriors Sign Off on War Crimes
Robert
Fisk
Another Botched Raid; Another Massacre
Jason Leopold
Did Chalabi Help Write Bush's State of the Union Address?
Conn Hallinan
Food Bully: Bush's Biotech Shock and Awe Campaign
Dan
Bacher
Sacramento's War on Free Speech
Ray
McGovern
Cheney Chicanery
Website
of the Day
Julie Hilden Caught on Tape
Hot Stories
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
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.
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August
8, 2003
Space
Warriors
Iraq War Emboldens
Bush Space Plans
By BRUCE GAGNON
Military victory in the Iraq war has emboldened
the Pentagon in their claims that space technology gives the
U.S. total advantage in time of war. According to Peter Teets,
undersecretary of the Air Force and director of the National
Reconnaissance Office (NRO), American capability in space, "must
remain ahead of our adversaries' capabilities, and our doctrine
and capabilities must keep pace to meet that challenge."
"I think the recent military conflict
has shown us, without a doubt, how important the use of space
is to national security and military operations," Teets,
a former Lockheed Martin executive recently said.
In order to accomplish the goal of technologically
leapfrogging the space program to the point of global "control
and domination" a new agreement has been signed by NASA,
U.S. Strategic Command, the NRO and the Air Force Space Command
to fully mesh all their research and development efforts together.
Thus, we witness the takeover of the U.S. space program by the
military and the weapons corporations.
One such example of this new emphasis
on technology sharing is the Bush administration announcement
of Project Prometheus, a multi-billion dollar program to create
a nuclear rocket.
NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe, who
claims everything NASA does from now on will be "dual use"
(meaning it will serve both military and civilian purposes) has
said, "propulsion power generation advances that are so
critical to the purposes of achieving our exploration and discovery
objectives are the same technologies that national security seeks
to utilize." It has long been claimed by the Pentagon that
they will require nuclear reactors in space to power space-based
weapons.
Another example of this new dual use
relationship is the effort to replace the unstable space shuttle
fleet. A $4.8 billion development program is now focusing on
the "military space plane," with the Air Force playing
a larger role in calling the shots.
A fleet of space planes will be designed
to attack and destroy future satellites of enemies and rivals.
A prototype is expected by 2005 with deployment envisioned around
2014.
According to James Roche, the U.S.A.F.
Secretary, America's allies would have "no veto power"
over projects like the military space plane that are designed
to give the U.S. military control of space.
The NRO, the super secret spy agency
that is responsible for U.S. satellites, has been given the job
to develop the strategy to ensure American allies or enemies
never gain access to space without U.S. permission. European
efforts to build the multi-billion dollar Galileo satellite navigational
system is seen as a direct threat to U.S. plans for space dominance.
In a computer wargame held at the Air
Force's Space Warfare Center at Schriever A.F.B. in Colorado
this past spring, the U.S. practiced such space "negation."
The wargame, set in the year 2017, pitted the blue team (U.S.)
against the red team (China). Its scenario was fairly complex,
incorporating several "opportunities for conflict in southwest
and southern Asia." Unlike the last such game in 2001,
this year's version urged participants not to get "bogged
down in discussions about space law and policies, which disrupted
the game's military operations," reported Aviation Week
& Space Technology. This time around the ABM Treaty
with Russia was no longer in existence.
Russia and China are renewing their call
for a global ban on weapons in space. On July 31, 2003 the two
powers delivered their pleas at a session of the U.N. Conference
on Disarmament in Geneva. Both countries worry that Bush's call
for early deployment of National Missile Defense (NMD) will create
a new and costly arms race in space that will be difficult to
call back. So far the U.S. refuses to discuss a moratorium or
ban on weapons in space saying there is no problem and
thus no need to begin negotiations.
Bush is calling for deployment of six
NMD missile interceptors in Alaska, and four in California, by
September 30, 2004. Ten more are due in Fort Greely, Alaska
by 2005. The $500 million silo construction project is headed
by Boeing and Bechtel corporations. The big problem for Bush's
deployment plan, to be carried out just prior to the 2004 national
elections, is that the testing program of the interceptor missiles
is not going well. In addition to the fact that the hit-to-kill
mechanisms are proving unreliable (trying to have a bullet hit
a bullet in deep space), the booster rockets that are supposed
to launch the "kill vehicle" into space are months
behind schedule in development. The Bush solution to the problem
has been to say that future testing will be done in secrecy.
Each of these Missile Defense Agency
(MDA) tests cost over $100 million. Boeing was recently promised
a $45 million bonus if it could carry out a successful test,
but failed to do so.
In fact Boeing has other troubles. Last
January, two Boeing managers stationed at Cape Canaveral, Florida
were charged with conspiring to steal Lockheed Martin trade secrets
involving another Air Force rocket program.
Despite such fraud, delays, cost overruns
and technology problems the U.S. House and Senate continue to
grant the Pentagon virtually every penny they request for Star
Wars. In 2004 $9.1 billion will be awarded to the MDA for space
weapons research and development.
Bush has, in his first three years in
office, created the largest budget deficit in U.S. history.
As money for education, health care, social security, environmental
clean-up, and the like are cut, military spending now accounts
for the majority of federal spending in nearly every state.
The U.S. now accounts for 43% of world military spending.
The U.S. is anxious for Australia, UK,
India, Israel, Russia, and others to become international partners
in Star Wars. The program will be so expensive (some say the
largest industrial project in the history of the planet) that
even the U.S. can't pay for it alone. By pulling in the aerospace
sectors of other countries, Bush knows he can blunt international
opposition to his goals of a new and very expensive arms race
that will clearly benefit the aerospace industry and the politicians
that get the kick-backs.
As we recall George W. Bush's post 9-11
statement that, "It's going to be a long, long war"
our eyes must turn to the larger issue of U.S. plans for global
empire. Recent disclosures in U.S. News (7/21/03) about
Pentagon "Operations Plan 5030" reveal a new war plan
for North Korea. One scenario calls for U.S. surveillance flights
bumping up alongside North Korean airspace in hopes of creating
the right incident to spark the pretext for war.
Expanding U.S. military presence worldwide
is intended to secure scarce resources like oil and water for
U.S. corporate control. Growing "global strike capability"
means smaller but more maneuverable troop deployments to rapidly
suppress any opposition to U.S. dominance. The people of the
world are being told to submit to U.S. authority or pay the price.
U.S. space technology is intended to tie this global military
package together and to ensure that no military competitor can
emerge.
The global peace movement we witnessed
prior to the recent U.S. attacks and occupation of Iraq is the
other superpower in the world today. U.S. ambitions for global
control and domination in the end will fail because the people
of the world will not allow any one nation to be the over lord
of the planet.
On October 4-11 the Global Network will
hold its annual Keep Space for Peace Week: International Days
of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space. Local events
are expected to be held on virtually every continent of the world
to show the growing consciousness within the peace movement about
the current U.S. plan for control of space. We urge local groups
to organize actions in solidarity with other groups on this day.
Check our website at www.space4peace.org
for details.
Let us all do what we can to non-violently
resist this frightening global strategy.
Bruce K. Gagnon
is coordinator of Global
Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
based in Brunswick, ME. He can be reached at: globalnet@mindspring.com
Weekend
Edition Features for August 2/3, 2003
Tamara
R. Piety
Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down
Francis
Boyle
My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool
David
Vest
Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side
Neve Gordon
Nightlife in Jerusalem
Uri
Avnery
Their Master's Voice:
Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus
Robert
Fisk
Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq
Jerry
Kroth
Israel, Yellowcake and the Media
Noah Leavitt
What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to
Intervene?
Saul
Landau
The Film Industry: Business and Ideology
Ron Jacobs
One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson
Thomas
Croft
In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta
Amadi Ajamu
Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader?
Poets'
Basement
Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming
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