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THE INSIDE HISTORY OF THE ISRAEL LOBBY Former top CIA analysts Kathleen and Bill Christison give CounterPunchers the real scoop on the Israel lobby and precisely how powerful it is. Read how US presidents from Wilson, through FDR to Truman were manipulated by the Zionist lobby; how Israel bent LBJ, Reagan and Clinton to its purpose; how Bush's White House has been the West Wing of the Israeli government; how Washington's revolving doors send full-time Israel lobbyists from think-tanks to the National Security Council and the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans. For all who want a true measure of the Lobby's power, the Christisons' 8-page dossier, exclusive to CounterPunch newsletter subscribers, is a MUST read. 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 June 2, 2006 Kathy Kelly June 1, 2006 Brian Cloughley David Peterson Lee Ballinger Jonathan Cook Mike Whitney Paul Rockwell Clifton Ross Kevin Zeese Website of the
Day
May 31, 2006 Dave Lindorff Joshua Frank Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz P. Sainath Ramzy Baroud Seth Sandronsky Mickey Z. Ralph Nader Jeffrey St. Clair Website of the Day
May 30, 2006 Lee Ballinger Jonathan Cook Gary Leupp John Ross Robert Jensen Michael Dickinson Michael Carmichael Tim Wise Harry Browne Website of the
Day
May 27 / 29,
2006 Paul Craig Roberts Kathleen Christison Kathy Kelly Christopher
Reed Lawrence R. Velvel Tom Barry Gary Leupp Col. Dan Smith Ron Jacobs Don Fitz Fred Gardner Peter Montague Raymond Garcia John Farley Seth Sandronsky Tia Steele Lenni Brenner Dr. Susan Block Scott Michael Perey Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Recipe of the
Weekend Website of the Weekend
May 26, 2006 Col. Douglas
MacGregor Brian J. Foley Michael Dickinson Missy Comley Beattie Pierre Tristam Joe Allen Kona Lowell Roger Burbach Website of the
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May 25, 2006 Les AuCoin Jeff Halper Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Bob Wing Elise Gould Robert Bryce Website of the Day
May 24, 2006 Michael Donnelly Patrick Cockburn Lucinda Marshall Dave Lindorff Shmuel Rosner Moshe Adler Heather Gray Pratyush Chandra Paul Craig Roberts Floyd Rudmin Website of the Day
May 23, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Sharon Smith Sunsara Taylor Joel Whitney Alice Cherbonnier Ron Jacobs Kristen Ess Patrick Cockburn Website of the
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May 22, 2006 Alan Maass William Blum Elaine C. Hagopian Stan Cox Chris Floyd Alexander Cockburn Website of the Day
May 20 / 21, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Kathy Kelly Ralph Nader Hugh O'Shaughnessy Greg Grandin P. Sainath Greg Moses Stephen Philion Landau / Hassen Fred Gardner Missy Comley
Beattie Michael Dickinson Seth Sandronsky Luke Young John Zavesky Ben Tripp Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement
May 19, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler José Pertierra John Ross Dave Lindorff Jeff Juel Alan Farago Eric Johnson-DeBaufre José Martî Jonathan Cook Website of the
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May 18, 2006 Bill Simpich Patrick Cockburn Christopher Brauchli Nora Barrows-Friedman Victoria Buch Eric Ruder George Wuerthner Juan Santos Website of the Day
May 17, 2006 Lenni Brenner Carlos Villarreal Larry Everest CounterPunch News Service Lee Sustar Anthony Papa William S. Lind Bruce K. Gagnon JoAnn Wypijewski Website of the Day
May 16, 2006 Ward Churchill Ted Honderich Paul Craig Roberts Annie Nocenti Charles V. Peña Ron Jacobs Norman Solomon Harvey Wasserman Michael George
Smith Harry Browne Website of the
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May 15, 2006 Alexander Cockburn William Blum Tanya Golash-Boza
and Douglas A. Parker Dave Lindorff Debra Schaffer
Hubert Patrick Cockburn Tom Turnipseed Ken Livingstone Gideon Levy Mickey Z. Jeff Faux Website of the Day
May 13 / 14, 2006 Vijay Prashad Joan Roelofs Kathy Kelly Michael Neumann Dr. Susan Block Daniel Cassidy Christopher Reed Mike Roselle Saul Landau Robert Fisk Ralph Nader Evelyn Pringle Fred Gardner Stanley Heller Conn Hallinan Valentina Palma Novoa David Krieger Col. Dan Smith Christopher Brauchli Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
May 12, 2006 Michael Snedeker Dave Lindorff Leah Fishbein
/ RJ Schinner Brian Kwoba Chris Kromm Kai Diekmann David Swanson Virginia Tilley Website of the
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May 11, 2006 Sunsara Taylor Jonathan Cook Tariq Ali Wayne S. Smith Mike Whitney Pratyush Chandra Joshua Frank Mickey Z. Francis Boyle Edward S. Herman
/ David Peterson Website of the
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May 10, 2006 Werther Larry Birns / Michael Lettieri Ramzy Baroud Kevin Zeese Evelyn Pringle Amira Hass Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Sharon Smith Website of the Day
May 9, 2006 Ray McGovern M. Shahid Alam Moshe Adler Walter MIgnolo Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor William S. Lind Todd Chretien Dave Lindorff Ishmael Reed Website of the
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May 8, 2006 Kate McCabe Paul Craig Roberts Col. Dan Smith Norman Solomon Ingmar Lee Robert Jensen Ricardo Alarcon Will Youmans / M. Kay Siblani Alexander Cockburn Website of the
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May 6 / 7, 2006 Jeffrey St. Clair Ariel Dorfman Joe Allen Fred Gardner Jeff Taylor Saul Landau Stephen Philion Trish Schuh Ralph Nader Robert Fisk Paul Cantor John Holt James Ryan Lawrence R. Velvel Greg Moses Laray Polk Ron Jacobs Ben Tripp Mickey Z. Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Website of the Week
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News Service Corporate Crime Reporter Website of the
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May 4, 2006 John F. Sugg Jonathan Cook Roger Burbach Chris Dols Christopher Brauchli Tony Swindell Website of the Day
May 3, 2006 Robert Bryce Paul Craig Roberts James Petras Lee Sustar David Bolton Joshua Frank Jeffery R. Webber Website of the
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May 2, 2006 Evelyn Pringle Tariq Ali Saul Landau Paul Craig Roberts Gary Leupp Ron Jacobs Sen. Russell
Feingold Anthony Papa Website of the
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May Day, 2006 Norman Finkelstein Christopher Reed Michael Donnelly Dave Zirin Mike Whitney Gilad Atzmon Missy Comley Beattie Alexander Cockburn Website of the
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April 29 / 30, 2006 Peter Linebaugh Ralph Nader Robert Bryce Rev. William
Alberts Lee Sustar John Chuckman Eric Ruder Seth Sandronsky Ron Jacobs Ben Tripp Fred Gardner Don Monkerud Tommy Stevenson Lettrist International Contratiempo St. Clair, Vest
and D'Antoni Poets' Basement Website of the
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April 28, 2006 James Ridgeway Ramzy Baroud Sarah Knopp William S. Lind Werther April 27, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler Robert Fisk Juan Santos Robert Jensen Dave Lindorff Jose Pertierra
April 26,2006 Robin Philpot Sherry Wolf Pratyush Chandra Joshua Frank Gary
Leupp Bill
Quigley
April 25, 2006 Gary
Leupp Paul
Craig Roberts Linda
S. Heard Ralph
Nader Mike
Whitney Michael
Donnelly Sharon
Smith Website
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Stanton Dave
Lindorff Steve
Shore Amadou
Deme Mickey
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June 2, 2006 Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater in New Orleans"A Mercenary Army"By ALAN MAASS Jeremy Scahill is an independent journalist who reports frequently for the Nation magazine and the Pacifica radio program Democracy Now! His investigations have exposed the role of the Blackwater USA security firm in the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Scahill: BLACKWATER USA is the most rapidly growing and, arguably, the most successful mercenary firm in the world today. A few years ago, no one had ever heard of it. The company was founded by a very right-wing fundamentalist Christian and former Navy SEAL by the name of Erik Prince. Prince comes from a family that was a major bankroller of far-right-wing causes. His father was a close friend of Gary Bauer and helped him to found the Family Research Council. Blackwater started in the late 1990s as a firm that was going to train law enforcement, and supplement the work of the U.S. military. When the Bush administration took power and then September 11 happened, the company absolutely exploded--and turned into an all-out mercenary firm. Blackwater was awarded the prize contract in Iraq to provide security for the original head of the U.S. occupation, Paul Bremer. At the time, it was a $21 million contract, but more important than the money was the prestige that came with being the guys who were guarding the head of the U.S. occupation. Then in March 2004, four Blackwater contractors were ambushed and killed in the Iraqi city of Falluja, with two of their bodies hung from a bridge. That really put Blackwater on the map. The company viewed this as a great moment to profit. The day after those guys were killed, Erik Prince hired the Alexander Strategy Group, a very powerful lobbying and p.r. firm. Now, it's a disgraced firm, but at the time, it was very powerful--it had been set up and staffed by former senior aides to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. And that really began a massive
war profiteering and disaster profiteering boom for Blackwater--not
just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but here at home as well. Maass: YOU WERE probably the first journalist to discover that Blackwater was on the scene in New Orleans, in the days right after Hurricane Katrina struck. How did you come across them? Scahill: BLACKWATER'S MEN actually beat the federal government, FEMA, the Red Cross and all these organizations to the hurricane zone. In fact, I interviewed Cofer Black--the former head of counterterrorism at the CIA, and now one of the top people at Blackwater--at a mercenary conference, and he told me that they sent a helicopter and a bunch of their guys down there without any contracts at first. Clearly, they saw this as an opportunity to really cash in on the disaster of Katrina. Within days of their guys deploying down there, Blackwater was handed a very lucrative $409,000 contract--literally to guard a morgue in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Fourteen guys, four vehicles, for 22 days--and they were paid $409,000. That contract, which was not open to public bids, was awarded to Blackwater, and it would kick off a contract spree that in just four months would amount to over $30 million for Blackwater. They were billing the federal government some $950 per day per man in the hurricane zone. I had Blackwater men who told me that they were getting paid $350 a day, plus a modest per diem. So that's $600 that Blackwater had to play with, above what they were paying their guys. I came across Blackwater quite by accident. I was in the French Quarter talking to two New York police officers, when this car with no license plates sped up, and these huge mercenary types--wearing all khaki, carrying M4 machine guns, with ammo strapped to every part of their body, wearing sunglasses with the foam strap around the back--got out. And they asked the officers, "Do you know where the rest of the Blackwater guys are?" The police officers said, "Yeah, they're all over the place," and one sort of pointed them in the direction down the street where they needed to go. Then, an hour later, we saw those guys again, and went up and started talking to them. I don't know for what reason, but they ended up talking to me for an an hour and a half. We had a wide-ranging discussion. Some of them had been on Paul Bremer's security detail. One guy had gotten back from Iraq two weeks before being deployed in New Orleans. He said, "When they told me I was going to New Orleans, I asked what country that was in." So these guys who literally had just been in the thick of things in Iraq were now marching around the streets of New Orleans, with automatic weapons. They told me that one of their roles was to stop looters and confront criminals. One of the guys showed me a Louisiana state law enforcement badge and said they'd been deputized. The reporting that I did down there ended up sparking a congressional demand for an investigation. So the Department of Homeland Security did, in fact, investigate Blackwater, but what came out of that internal investigation was a whitewashing of the situation. Ultimately, the Department of Homeland Security's inspectors general's office defended Blackwater's contract.
Scahill: THAT'S A very good question. We don't know at this point, and one of the reasons that we don't know is that not even members of Congress can see these contracts. We were able to get about four months of Blackwater's contracts, but that's only because of the uproar that was created by the presence of mercenaries on the streets of a U.S. city. I was just in Washington, meeting with some congresspeople, and one member of Congress told me that she's not even allowed to see any of the contracts in general, but when she is, she has to go into a padded room. She's not allowed to bring in any kind of writing equipment or paper, and she's not allowed to say what she saw in that room after she's viewed the contracts. That should be a cause of great concern among people, because what little oversight actually did exist in the federal government in this country has really been thrown out the window by this administration. So the answer to your question is that we don't know what Blackwater is tasked with doing at this very moment. I did have Cofer Black confirm to me that Blackwater's men are still deployed in New Orleans and in the hurricane zone, but he wouldn't say what they were doing.
MAASS: HOW DOES the tens of millions that Blackwater is making compare to what is being spent in New Orleans on school reconstruction or affordable housing? Scahill: WE REALLY don't know how much Blackwater has been paid. We know that they were paid $30 million for the first four months. Well, now we're nearing the first year anniversary of the hurricane, and we don't have the updated amount of money that they've been paid. But this is just is just one company. There are scores of private security companies on contract with the federal government. This other company, DynCorp, is itching to get more of the action, offering their guards at $700 per day. There's very little irony in all that, given that we're talking about a place that has been utterly devastated, and people are being told that we don't have the resources to rebuild their homes, and they're going to have to live somewhere else in the country. Yet they have all the money in the world to pour into guns and mercenaries. Chris Kromm, who is one of the editors of the really great Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, points out that there are tons of projects that have received basically no money. Among those are education programs, repatriation programs to bring people back into the city, health care, food distribution. And perhaps most importantly, they still haven't reconstructed the levees to withstand anything more than a Category 2 hurricane, and hurricane season is here.
Scahill: THIS BECOMES very frightening on a number of levels. On the one hand, you have this happening across the board. For example, this administration is attacking the public school system--de-funding it, and putting resources in the hands of fundamentalist Christian schools instead of bolstering the public school system. You see the Wal-Martization of U.S. society. And now you have contractors being used all over Iraq and Afghanistan. They are alleged to have been involved in the torture at Abu Ghraib. They have acted with impunity. Not a single contractor has been prosecuted for any crimes committed in Iraq. So you're left with one of two conclusions. Either they haven't committed any crimes, which I think we have the evidence to show isn't the case. Or no one's paying attention to accountability issues right now. But it's not just about accountability. What we see happening is the federal budget being pilfered by friends of the administration, and that's what we see in the case of Blackwater, where they're billing $950 a day. This is a very, very frightening prospect that we face in this country. Bush is talking about sending 6,000 National Guard troops down to the border, and Blackwater is itching to get involved in those operations. They're itching to get involved in Darfur right now. We have to step back from this
and say: Do we want to live in a country that runs a mercenary
army. I think that most people, if they were asked if they wanted
these kinds of trained killers patrolling their streets and interacting
with ordinary folks, would say no. We've seen the consequences
of their impunity in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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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. |