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Did Oprah Pick Another Fibber? Truth and Fiction in Elie Wiesel's Night In his special report Alexander Cockburn interviews former Wiesel colleague and Holocaust survivor Eli Pfefferkorn. What Raul Hilberg, the Holocaust's greatest historian, really thinks about Wiesel's "Night". Also in this special issue: Is Hugo Chavez Hitler or Father Christmas? Larry Lack tells the full story of Venezuela's hand-outs to Uncle Sam's Shivering Poor. Plus, Jeffrey St Clair profiles the Endangered Visigoth and traces the rise and possible fall of Rick Pombo, destroyer of nature. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! |
Today's Stories March 7, 2006 Bernie
Dwyer March 6, 2006 Ralph
Nader Dave
Zirin Vanessa
Redgrave Walter
A. Davis Joshua
Frank Nate
Mezmer Paul
Craig Roberts Website
of the Day
Alexander
Cockburn Jennifer
Van Bergen Steven
Higgs Winslow
T. Wheeler Ron
Jacobs Rev.
William E. Alberts Colin
Asher Fred
Gardner "Pariah" John
Scagliotti Seth
Sandronsky Joan
Roelofs Arjun
Makhijani Ardeshr
Ommani Diana
Barahona Ben
Tripp St.
Clair / Socialist Worker Staff Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
March 3, 2006 Laura
Carlsen John
V. Whitbeck Chris
Floyd Mohamed
Hakki Pratyush
Chandra John
Scagliotti Website
of the Day
March 2, 2006 Paul
Craig Roberts Dave
Lindorff Ramzy
Baroud Saul
Landau Joe
Allen Steve
Shore Denise
Boggs Norman
Finkelstein Website
of the Day
March 1, 2006 Mairead
Corrigan Maguire Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Faheem
Hussain Antony
Loewenstein Elizabeth
Schulte Mike
Whitney John
Ryan Michael
Donnelly Tom
Reeves Website
of the Day
February 28, 2006 Sen.
Russ Feingold Ralph
Nader Joshua
Frank Aziz
Haniffa Benjamin Dangl Norman Solomon Mike
Ferner Sharon
Smith Website
of the Day
February 27, 2006 Buncombe
/ Cockburn Paul
Craig Roberts Ingmar
Lee Ron
Jacobs Dave
Lindorff Pat
Wolff Lila
Rajiva Website
of the Day
February 25 / 26, 2006 Alexander
Cockburn Lila
Rajiva Lee
Sustar Jennifer
Van Bergen / Madis Senner Justin
E.H. Smith Paul
Craig Roberts Jason
Leopold Gilad
Atzmon Zahid
Shariff Fred
Gardner Dick
J. Reavis David
Stocker John
Bomar Mike
Marqusee Pratyush
Chandra Ben
Tripp Dr.
Susan Block Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
February 24, 2006 Alan
Maass William
S. Lind Dave
Lindorff Pierre
Tristam Meg
Bannerji Robert
Jensen Mark
Engler Jennifer
Loewenstein Website
of the Day
February 23, 2006 Chet
Richards Jonathan
Feldman Joshua
Frank Ron
Jacobs Amira
Hass Samah
Sabawi Norman
Solomon Christopher
Reed Website
of the Day
February 22, 2006 Robert
Pollin Phil
Doe Pirouz
Azadi Saul
Landau Brian
McKinlay Sam
Smith Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Diane
Farsetta Website
of the Day
February 21, 2006 Paul
Craig Roberts Franklin
Spinney Dave
Lindorff Alevtina
Rea Bruce
K. Gagnon Dave
Zirin Bill
Quigley Website
of the Day
February 20, 2006 Jennifer
Van Bergen Rachard
Itani Gideon
Levy Joshua
Frank Newton
Garver Pratyush
Chandra Seth
Sandronsky Cockburn
/ St. Clair Website
of the Day
February 18 / 19, 2006 Werther Uzma
Aslam Khan Joe
DeRaymond Edward
F. Mooney Paul
Craig Roberts Elaine
Cassel P.
Sainath Thomas
P. Healy Brian
Concannon, Jr. Fred
Gardner Rep.
Cynthia McKinney Brian
Tokar Chan
Chee Khoon Andrew
Freedman St.
Clair / Walker Poets'
Basement Website
of the Weekend
February 17, 2006 Floyd
Rudmin Gervasio
Rodríguez Gary
Leupp Ramzy
Baroud Amira
Hass Matthew
Koehler Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Debbie
Nathan Website
of the Day
Febrauary 16, 2006 Lila
Rajiva Norman
Solomon Ron
Jacobs Paul
Craig Roberts Website
of the Day
February 15, 2006 Brian
Conacnnon, Jr. Dave
Lindorff Saree
Makdisi Joshua
Frank Amira
Hass CounterPunch
Wire Robert
Bryce Website
of the Day February 14, 2006 John
Sugg Don
Santina William
A. Cook Ray
McGovern John
Ross Website
of the Day
Lila
Rajiva Christopher
Brauchli Dave
Lindorff Ron
Jacobs Mike
Whitney Michael
Neumann Website
of the Day
February 11 / 12, 2006 Alexander
Cockburn Ralph
Nader Paul Craig
Roberts Pat Williams Fred Gardner Saul Landau John Chuckman Roger Burbach Seth Sandronsky Website of
the Weekend
February 10, 2006 Carl
G. Estabrook Sen.
Russell Feingold Roxanne
Dunbar----Ortiz Saree Makdisi Website of
the Day
February 9, 2006 Dave Lindorff Mike Marqusee Paul Craig Roberts Peter Phillips William S. Lind Christine Tomlinson Innocent Targets in the "Long War": False Positives and Bush's Eavesdropping Program Will Youmans Robert Robideau Richard Neville Peter Rost Website of the Day
February 8, 2006 Ron Jacobs Stan Cox Sen. Russ Feingold Robert Jensen Rep. Cynthia McKinney Niranjan Ramakrishnan Don Monkerud David Swanson C.L. Cook Christopher
Fons Jeffrey Ballinger Website of
the Day
February 7, 2006 Edward Lucie-Smith Robert Fisk Paul Craig Roberts Neve Gordon Joshua Frank Peter Montague Jackie Corr Jeffrey St.
Clair Website of the Day
February 6, 2006 Christopher
Brauchli Robert Fisk John Chuckman Jenna Orkin Paul Craig
Roberts
February 4 / 5, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Mike Ferner James Petras Alan Maass Fred Gardner Ralph Nader Bill Glahn Saul Landau Laura Carlsen James Brooks Mike Roselle John Holt Sarah Ferguson William S.
Lind Niranjan Ramakrishnan Seth Sandronsky Derrick O'Keefe Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Elisa Salasin St. Clair / Vest Stew Albert Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
February 3, 2006 Toufic Haddad Heather Gray Tim Wise Conn Hallinan Eva Golinger Daniel Ellsberg Dave Zirin Robert Bryce Website of
the Day
February 2, 2006 Winslow T.
Wheeler Stan Cox Rachard Itani Mike Whitney Amira Hass Norman Solomon Michael Simmons Christopher
Reed Website of the Day
February 1, 2006 Sharon Smith Jason Leopold Cindy Sheehan Joseph Grosso Earl Ofari Hutchinson Steven Higgs Robert Robideau R. Siddharth Jim Retherford Rep. Cynthia
McKinney Paul Craig
Roberts Website of
the Day
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March 7, 2006 It's an Awful Lot of Money to Makes Us Less Safe and Less FreeHalf a Trillion DollarsBy WERTHER Ever since President Eisenhower's farewell address, there have been sporadic warnings about the Military Industrial Complex. Over the last couple of decades, critics like Ernest Fitzgerald and Chuck Spinney have performed a valuable public service by uncovering the Pentagon's lunatic potlatch schemes and dragging them before the bar of public opinion. Lately, organizations such as the Project on Government Oversight, the Center for Defense Information, and the Committee against Government Waste have been in a continuous pother about the riot of pork-barrel spending in the military budget. These critiques, entirely accurate as far as they go, yet lull us into a false sense of security. If only we were to institute reform of the Congressional appropriations process, or ban earmarks, or establish a line-item veto, the "good" defense spending (the paean in these critiques is always to "readiness accounts") would no longer be at the mercy of the "bad" defense spending (inserted in the black of night by such felonious rogues as Duke Cunningham). Let us be plain. Any organization that employs lethal force, operates in secrecy, always gets what it wants, and is unaccountable to the citizens is indistinguishable from a protection racket. And if, in return for surrendering their wallets, the citizenry is made less safe (as the more objective intelligence reports have repeatedly warned about the $300+ billion Iraq war), then some hole-in-corner reform is not going to get us anywhere. The Soviet Union in its senile post-Brezhnev phase had numerous anti-corruption drives, to no avail. The whole rotten edifice collapsed only when the Russian people ceased to believe in the system they had suffered under and placed such childish hopes in. Although the Duke Cunningham saga achieved screaming headlines, one aspect of it gained almost no notice. When it did, its importance was misinterpreted: Precisely what was MZM Corp., and its spin-off ADCS, ostensibly doing when they weren't pillaging the taxpayers? According to Marcus Stern, the Copley News Service reporter who broke the corruption story, Cunningham was handing out contracts to MZM involving CIFA, the Pentagon's secretive Counterintelligence Field Activity. Discussing this matter with Brian Lamm on C-Span's 3 March 2006 Washington Journal, Stern misconstrued the significance of the MZM-CIFA link. As Stern would have it, the connection demonstrated Cunningham's perfidy in so far as he was compromising post-9/11 national security by bestowing contracts on a corrupt business that overcharged the government for conducting activity intended to keep us safe from terrorists. Would that it were that simple, but that would be the facile interpretation. CIFA, as we now know, is a Department of Defense organization that spies on American citizens, in violation of post-Vietnam directives prohibiting the military from conducting surveillance against U.S. citizens on American soil. Precisely replicating the abuses that instigated the ban in the first place, CIFA is collecting dossiers on citizens engaged in lawful political activity, e.g., a group of elderly Quakers in Lakeland, Florida who opposed the government's policy in Iraq. The charitable interpretation is that a lot of shiftless bureaucrats at the Office of the Secretary of Defense have way too much time and money on their hands.[1] It's not enough that they do a miserable job at what they are constitutionally charged to do -- fight wars -- they apparently can spare the manpower to poke through people's dresser drawers even as they complain about how thin they are stretched due to the Iraq war. But it is no coincidence that a secret organization which abuses constitutional rights would be mired in corrupt contracting. Inevitably, secrecy without accountability leads to abuse, which in turn leads to rampant corruption. It is a prevalent myth that "toughness," or, if you like, "taking the gloves off," is a sign of business-like efficiency and rectitude. A police department that routinely beats suspects and covers it up is invariably a corrupt one, with officers casually perjuring themselves in trials and valuables conveniently disappearing from evidence lockers. Thus it is no surprise that CIFA, whose reason for being is abuse of the Constitution, is connected with criminals like Duke Cunningham and Brent Wilkes, ADCS's CEO. Nor should it surprise us that Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, the Executive Director of the CIA, is under investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general for his links to Wilkes. [2] Is it an occasion for shocked disbelief that Halliburton, the beneficiary of billions of dollars of no-bid contracts, should charge the government (meaning you, the taxpayer) for meals never provided for U.S. troops, gouge for fuel, and simultaneously threaten employees who object to these practices? It is merely an illustration of the nexus between greed and abuse. The people at the top who ultimately order such things are insulated from accountability by multiple layers of bureaucratic operatives. At the sharp end of the spear, unlettered lieges carry out the plans, and take the fall should anything go wrong. While Kapos (not S.S. men, but the criminal element among prisoners) actually ran the concentration camps and squeezed the prisoners of their possessions and paid off the S.S. guards, Reinhard Heydrich played the violin (by all accounts well) and joked with his staff. While the criminal element ran the Gulag, Director of the KGB Andropov gulled the Western media with stories about his affinity for single malt Scotch and jazz. So it is with our National Security State: poor West Virginia hillbillies in reserve units are ordered to carry out the wet work. Should plans go awry, they take the fall. A slap on the wrist, perhaps a career-killing reprimand, might be meted out to junior officers. General officers are probably secure from even a hint of opprobrium, regardless of what they ordered or knew. Although responsibility ultimately rests with the Secretary of Defense (who in October 2001 made a big public point of saying that prisoners -- does this mean in all future wars? -- would not be treated according to the Geneva Convention), he has insulated himself, or so he thinks, by not writing down the specific orders. Like his historical models, Secretary Rumsfeld keeps well clear of the sordid details of what trouble our half trillion dollars is buying. By choice, he would rather turn his full attention to dressing down Pentagon stewards who fail to slice the garnishes in the approved manner, or humiliate career officers who fail to grasp the crony capitalist potential of Transformation for the corporate bottom line. But the principal effect of his half trillion dollar protection racket is to make us all a little less prosperous, and to stir up such insensate hatred abroad as will trouble the sleep of our grandchildren when they are adults. Werther is the pen name of a Northern Virginia-based defense analyst. [1] Yes, we know they all work nominal 14-hour days. They simply do not produce anything remotely useful to the republic. Staff meetings to determine the amount of loot to pry out of a somnolent Congress, memo-writing on how to evade the Geneva Convention, and fending off tirades from the Secretary of Defense about meal presentation in the executive dining room do not count. [2] "Exclusive:
Top CIA Official Under Investigation," ABC News, 3 March
2006.
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from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org. |