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Today's
Stories
April
24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
April
23, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
The Only Solution is Immediate Withdrawal
Dave
Lindorff
Imagination Deficit Disorder
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Contractors and Mercenaries: the Rising Corporate Military Monster
Norman
Solomon
Country Joe Band, 2004: "What Are We Fighting For?"
Cynthia
McKinney
All Things Are Not Equal: the Perils of Globalization
CounterPunch
Wire
A Bitch Called Wanda
Karyn
Strickler
Sierra Club, Inc.
Hammond
Guthrie
Yellow Caked in the Face
Paul
de Rooij
Graveyard of Justifications: Glossary
of the Iraqi Occupation
April 22, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
When Terror Came to Basra: "I
Saw a Minibus of Children on Fire"
Tanya
Reinhart
The Wall Behind Disengagement
Lance
Selfa
Why is Kucinich Still in the Race?
Josh
Frank
Street Fighting Man? Kucinich's Pulled Punches
Sen.
Robert Byrd
Bush Owes America Answers on Iraq
William
S. Lind
Why We Get It Wrong
Mickey
Z.
Undoing the Latches
Robert
Jensen
Why They Fast: Remembering the Victims of the World Bank
John
L. Hess
The New York Times from 30,000 Feet
April
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Yeats on Iraq
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia's Forgotten Prisoners
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's Taliban Drug Deal
William
A. Cook
George 1 to George 2
Jack
Random
Iraq and Vietnam
Jean-Guy
Allard
Alarcon Meets the Editors
Mike
Whitney
Charade in the Desert
Bill
Christison
Only Major Policies Changes Can
Help Washington Now
April 20, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Bush and Kerry Share a Problem
Stan
Cox
Wal-Mart's Magic Numbers
Bruce
Anderson
On Listening to Air America
Joseph
Kalvoda
Czech Mate for Condi
Greg
Moses
Yesterday's Intelligence
Stan
Goff
The Democrats and Iraq
Website
of the Day
Santorum Happens
April 19, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The "Central Hand" of the
Resistance
Mike
Whitney
Bob Woodward's Imperial Trifles
Douglas
Valentine
52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1
Rule
John
Chuckman
The Sharon Annex: Evil Does Often
Triumph
Doug
Giebel
Welcome to the Club
Rahul
Mahajan
Hospital Closings and War Crimes
April
16 / 18, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Bush Legitimizes Terror
Saul
Landau
Subverting Brazil and Cuba
Dave
Lindorff
Paying for War: $2,150 per Family
and Counting
Brandy
Baker
Fallujah's Collateral Damage
Mickey
Z.
The Left Attacks from the Right
Bruce
Jackson
The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit
Uns
Norman
Solomon
How the "NewsHour" Changed
History
Alexander
Cockburn
Bush, Kerry and Empire
April
15, 2004
Greg
Moses
Follow the Families, Not the Script
Virginia
Tilley
The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt:
Just Change the Channel
Ron
Jacobs
They Coulda Been Champions of the
World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic
Michael
Neumann
A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes
Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail
April
14, 2004
Tom
Reeves
Return to Haiti: an American Learning
Zone
Reza
Fiyouzat
Japan and Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
What Bush Really Said
Diane
Christian
The Real Passion
April 10 /
12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Greatest Radical Journalist of His Age
Patrick Cockburn
Ambush, Kidnap, Murder: Another Day in "Post War" Iraq
Ellen Cantarow
Health Under Siege on the West Bank
Tariq Ali
Iraqi
Resistance: a New Phase
Werther
Pseudoconservatism Revisited: When God is Pro War & Other
Delicacies
Robert Fisk
Bush's War Lords to Their Critics: "Just Shut Up"
Gary Leupp
Indian Wars, Vietnam and Orientalist Fantasy
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Cont.
Jorge Mariscal
Perils of the Bootstrap
Phil Gasper
Defying Stereotypes About Death Row
Dave Zirin
Bringing the Black Freedom Struggle Into Sports: an Interview
with Lee Evans
Brandy Baker
The Revolution is Playing at a Theater Near You
Mickey Z.
Underground Music is Free Media: an Interview with Twiin
Ali Tonak
Get Ready for the Million Worker March
Harry Browne
Asking the Wrong Question About Richard Clarke & 9/11
Gideon Samet
The Sharonizing of America
Conn Hallinan
Remote Control Warriors
Website of
the Weekend
Taboo
Tunes
April 9, 2004
Robert Fisk
This
War's Simple Truth: Iraqis Do Not Want Us
John L. Hess
The
Non-Confessions of a Warrior Princess: Condi on the Stand
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Condoleezza's Condescensions
Christopher Brauchli
Holes in the Sky: Bush's Crazed Missile Defense Plan
Don Santina
Forget the Alamo!: Glorifying the Fight for Slavery in Texas
William S. Lind
The 4G Warfare Seminar, Cont.
Bill Christison
9/11
Commission is Bush's New Lapdog
Website of the Day
What We've Done to Fallujah
April 8,
2004
Wayne Madsen
Rice
(and the Record) Proves It: Bush Knew, But Failed to Act
Kurt Nimmo
Will
Bush Flatten Fallajuh?
Patrick Cockburn
Guided
Missile; Misguided War
Laura Flanders
Steamed
Rice
Larry Everest
What Condi Rice is Hiding
Adam Federman
Sacred Capitalism Hits Russia
M. Junaid Alam
The Iraqi Intifada Begins
Norman Solomon
The Quest for a Monopoly on Violence
Douglas Valentine
Echoes
of Vietnam: Phoenix, Assassination and Blowback in Iraq
Website of the Day
Xispas: Chicano Art, Culture and Politics
April 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Those
Pulitzers!
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Deeper
into the Mouth of Hell: We Must Find the Exit from Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Tet
in Iraq: Closer to the Cosmic Disaster?
Patrick Cockburn
Battles
Across Iraq: US Death Toll Mounts
Kathy Kelly
Pacification: Worth the Price?
Sonali Kolhatkar
What Are You Doing About Afghanistan?
Rahul Mahajan
Report from Baghdad: Opening the Gates of Hell
Robert Fisk
US Airlifts Saddam to Qatar
Mike Whitney
America Out of Iraq, Now!
Sam Hamod
Bush, Pandora's Box and the Tiger
April 6,
2004
C.G. Estabrook
Mercenaries
and Occupiers
William Blum
The
Anti-Empire Report: the Israel Lobby
Col. Dan Smith
The
Language of Disbelief: 1.3 Billion Still Live in War Zones
Dr. Bulent Gokay
The Coming Islamic Republic of Iraq?
Lynn Landes
Faking Democracy: Americans Don't Vote; Machines Do
Sheila Samples
What Would Royko Write?
Jason Leopold
Condi's Blind Spot: Rice Never Mentioned al-Qaeda
Mickey Z.
A Reality Show with No End in Sight
Robert Fisk
Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
April 5, 2004
John Farrell
Lessons
from El Salvador and Iraq
Robert Fisk
Bloodbath
a Bad Omen for Bush
Gary Leupp
Shiites Say No: Another "Nightmare
Scenario"
April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
April 2, 2004
Dave Lindorff
Barbaric
Relativism: the Press and Fallujah
Kurt Nimmo
Wherever
Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow
Emma Miller
The
Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide
Dr. Susan Block
Same
Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition
Norman Solomon
Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick
Sacha Guney
The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey
Christopher
Brauchli
The
Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee
Website of the Day
Mercenaries, Inc.
April 1, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Dying in Vain in Iraq
Harry Browne
No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree
Chris Floyd
Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons
Nicole Colson
Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo
Charles Arthur
Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers
Laura Flanders
Elaine
Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son
March 31, 2004
M. Junaid Alam
Israel:
Suicide Nation?
John L. Hess
Condi
Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters?
Fernando Suarez
del Solar
A
Year Since My Son's Death in Iraq
Sofia Perez
Spain's
U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action
David Vest
Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath
Tanya Reinhart
As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination
Mike Whitney
Time to Dump the Pledge
Donald Kaul
Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI
Milt Bearden
Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great
Marjorie Cohn
The
Illegal Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated
US and International Law
Website of the Day
New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks
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.
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Weekend
Edition
April 24 / 25, 2004
Blowback in
Afghanistan
The CIA Killed
Pat Tillman
By KURT NIMMO
Indirectly, of course.
Tillman, an ex-NFL star who
threw away his career and a $3.6 million contract with the Arizona
Cardinals to fight Bush's war as an Army Ranger, was killed in
Afghanistan this week.
According to the Bush Ministry
of Disinformation, Fox News division, Tillman was killed during
a search-and-destroy operation near Khost, Afghanistan. Tillman's
unit, the 75th Ranger Regiment, "was acting on intelligence
about possible Taliban or Al Qaeda fighters when a firefight
erupted. Tillman was the only Ranger killed in his unit, although
military officials said two other U.S. soldiers were injured."
So, how did the CIA indirectly
kill Pat Tillman? It's quite simple, actually -- the CIA created
and provided sustenance for both the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
After the Soviets unwisely
invaded Afghanistan, the CIA and its Pakistani client, the ISI,
recruited the most vile and demented Muslim fundamentalists it
could scrounge up. For instance, guys like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar,
"a particularly fanatical fundamentalist and woman-hater,"
as journalist Tim Weiner writes. "[Hekmatyar's] followers
first gained attention by throwing acid in the faces of women
who refused to wear the veil."
So enamored was Jimmy Carter,
Zbigniew Brezinski, Harold Brown, Pakistan's military dictator
General Zia-ul-Haq, Ronald Reagan -- he liked to call Hekmatyar
and his cutthroat associates "freedom fighters" - William
Casey and the CIA with the so-called Afghan rebels, they spent
a whopping $6 billion grooming them. Between 1982 and 1992, some
35,000 Muslim radicals from 43 Islamic countries in the Middle
East, North and East Africa, Central Asia, and the Far East were
recruited.
Reagan was so excited about
the idea of the mujahideen killing conscripted Soviet teenagers
he issued National Security Decision Directive 166,29, a secret
plan to significantly escalate covert action in Afghanistan.
Reagan's directive came bundled with all sorts of fancy high-tech
equipment and military assistance. "Beginning in 1985, the
CIA supplied mujahideen rebels with extensive satellite reconnaissance
data of Soviet targets on the Afghan battlefield, plans for military
operations based on the satellite intelligence, intercepts of
Soviet communications, secret communications networks for the
rebels, delayed timing devices for tons of C-4 plastic explosives
for urban  sabotage,
and sophisticated guerrilla attacks, long-range sniper rifles,
a targeting device for mortars that was linked to a U.S. Navy
satellite, wire-guided anti-tank missiles, and other equipment,"
writes Phil Gasper. "By 1987, the annual supply of arms
had reached 65,000 tons, and a 'ceaseless stream' of CIA and
Pentagon officials were visiting Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI) headquarters in Rawalpindi and helping to plan mujahideen
operations."
One of these radical Muslims
was Osama bin Laden.
In 1984, bin Laden was running
Maktab al-Khidamar, an ISI created organization devised to funnel
money into Reagan's war against the Soviets. Although the Bush
Ministry of Disinformation likes to claim Reagan and the CIA
did not directly support bin Laden, defendants accused of the
1998 U.S. embassy bombing in Kenya have revealed the CIA shipped
high-powered sniper rifles directly to bin Laden's operation
in 1989, a fact confirmed by the Tennessee-based manufacturer
of the rifles. "In 1988, with U.S. knowledge, bin Laden
created al-Qaeda (the Base): a conglomerate of quasi-independent
Islamic terrorist cells spread across at least 26 countries,"
explains Indian journalist Rahul Bhedi. "Washington turned
a blind eye to al-Qaeda, confident that it would not directly
impinge on the U.S."
Of course, on September 11,
2001, everything changed.
As for the Taliban, they were
nurtured by the ISI and the Pakistani army. According to Selig
Harrison, the creation of the Taliban was "actively encouraged
by the ISI and the CIA." Glyn Davies, State Department spokesperson,
saw "nothing objectionable" in the Taliban's plans
to impose strict Islamic law on the war-battered people of Afghanistan.
Strict Islamic law, naturally,
is good for business, just like it is in Saudi Arabia.
"The Taliban will probably
develop like the Saudis," a US diplomat predicted in 1997.
"There will be Aramco, pipelines, an emir, no parliament
and lots of Sharia law. We can live with that." As well,
they could live with the Taliban executing people for listening
to music and women teachers. In May 2002, after Bush invaded,
Hamid Karzai, the handpicked "interim ruler" of Afghanistan,
held talks with his counterparts in Pakistan and Turkmenistan
to finalize details on an 850-kilometer gas pipeline.
But it wasn't simply gas pipelines
that motivated the CIA and the ISI -- it was, as well, the profits
to be gained from drug production and smuggling. "The proposed
pipelines were not the only motive for Pakistani support of the
Taliban," writes Chris Slee in a review of Ahmed Rashid's
Taliban: The Story of the Afghan Warlords. "Sections of
the Pakistani ruling class were heavily involved in the smuggling
of drugs and other goods between Afghanistan and Pakistan. They
preferred to deal with the Taliban rather than a multitude of
competing warlords, each demanding a share of the profits."
In his book, Rashid documents how an "immense narcotics
trade had developed under the legitimizing umbrella of the CIA-ISI
covert supply line to the Afghan mujaheddin." In other words,
Reagan's favored thugs were not only killing Soviets, but growing
and selling opium that would eventually show up as heroin on
the streets of America and Europe.
Now that al-Qaeda and the Taliban
are official enemies, after billions of dollars of investment
-- and an undetermined amount of money earned by the CIA and
the ISI in the Afghan drug trade -- Bush is spending billions
more to hunt 'em down and smoke 'em out in true Texas cowboy
fashion. It is never mentioned by the Bush Ministry of Disinformation,
who will undoubtedly and disgustingly play up the "all-American
hero" end of Pat Tillman's death, that the CIA created the
"monster," as Selig Harrison termed it, currently killing
Americans the same way it killed Soviets two decades ago.
For millions of Americans,
conditioned daily by the corporate pro-war media, the Taliban
and al-Qaeda came out of nowhere, a rabble of terrorists united
simply by their undivided hatred of our way of life and revulsion
for our so-called freedom, as Dubya the Christian Zionist Crusader
would have it.
Never mentioned is the possibility
that Pat Tillman was murdered by militant Islamic warriors trained
by the CIA at Camp Peary, Virginia, also known as the "Farm"
(see Giles Foden, Blowback chronicles, the Guardian, September
15, 2001). Instead of attributing Tillman's death to blowback
and failed policies, the Bushites wasted little time elevating
the misguided and brainwashed football star's "patriotism"
to mythical proportions and, unfortunately, they have cynically
exploited it as an example of selfless "sacrifice"
in the "war on terrorism," in other words the neocon
war against Islam in the name of Israel, oil, neoliberalism,
and corporate carpetbaggerism. "Pat Tillman was an inspiration
both on and off the football field," the White House declared
soon after news of his death was released for public consumption.
"As with all who made the ultimate sacrifice in the war
on terror, his family is in the thoughts and prayers of President
and Mrs. Bush."
According to Tim Layden, a
senior writer for Sports Illustrated, Tillman "viewed life
through a different prism than a lot of other people do."
In fact, Pat Tillman viewed life precisely the same way millions
of Americans do, that is to say he uncritically bought into Bush's
lies and warmongering. As if to underscore the complete lack
of reality Americans endure, a poll conducted by the University
of Maryland this week reveals that 82 percent of Americans still
believe Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda conspired together and Saddam
had WMD, even though this fantasy was completely discredited
months ago, most notably by the testimony of David Kay, the administration's
chief weapons inspector. Of this percentage, according to the
poll, 72 percent said they would vote for Bush in November.
Down the road, as Bush continues
and intensifies the occupation of Iraq and plots invasions of
Syria and Iran, to name but two on the neocon hit list, more
Pat Tillmans will arrive at Dover Air Force base in Delaware,
victims who stared into Bush's distorted and fractured prism
one too many times.
As for their flag-draped coffins,
don't expect Fox News to show them.
Kurt Nimmo is a photographer and multimedia developer
in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Visit his excellent no holds barred
blog at www.kurtnimmo.com/blogger.html
. Nimmo is a contributor to Cockburn and St. Clair's,
The
Politics of Anti-Semitism. A collection of his essays
for CounterPunch, Another
Day in the Empire, is now available from Dandelion Books.
He can be reached at: nimmo@zianet.com
Weekend Edition
Features for April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
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