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What You're Missing in our subscriber-only CounterPunch newsletter 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! Get CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year

Today's Stories June 9, 2006 Patrick Cockburn The Short, Strange Career of Abu Masab al-Zarqawi June 8, 2006 Chris Floyd Hubub in Hibhib: the Timely Death of al-Zarqawi Michael Dickinson Criminal Collage: the Bush Dog Case Ron Jacobs You Can't Call Me Zarqawi, Any More William S. Lind The Power of Weakness, Again: Haditha, 4GW and the Abu Ghraib Precedent Joshua Frank From Bush to Hillary: Holding the War Parties Accountable Missy Comley Beattie Ann Coulter and Rev. Fred Phelps: a Romance Lloyd Williams Ann Coulter's Blood Lust Bill Christison Proviing the Case: What Bush Wants is More War Website of the Day Bedtime for Bono?   June 7, 2006 Dave Lindorff The Iraq Money Trail: the Case of the Missing $21 Billion Sunsara Taylor CDC to Women: Prepare to Give Birth! John Walsh Flunking the Art of War: Master Sun-Tzu, President Hu and Bush David MacMichael No More Hadithas Mickey Z. Haditha and Rumsfeld's Ratio Evelyn Pringle Gagging Public Employees Myles Palmer Dark Star Chasm: a Sneak Peak at Roger Waters' Dark Side of the Moon Tour Laura Ribeiro The Israeli Boycott of Palestinian Education Website of the Day Thank You, Lt. Ehren Watada   June 6, 2006 Diane Christian Negatives: Torture, Massacres and Denial Paul Craig Roberts Outsourcing Smarts: the Death of US Engineering Ralph Nader The Battle for South Central Farm Norman Solomon The Urbanity of Evil: Tariq Aziz and Bush's Enablers Darmont / Genovali Wolf Sterilization Scheme Backfires Manuel Garcia, Jr. Blacks, Hispanics and Immigrant Bashing for Colonial Control Subcomandante Marcos The Other Campaign: a Plan for Action on June 11, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Bloodbath Beyond the Green Zone Website of the Day Greatest Music Video?   June 5, 2006 Bruce Jackson Why Haditha Happened Chris Floyd Return to Ishaqi: the Pentagon's Shaky Self-Exoneration Michael Neumann Jewish Opposition to Zionism Heather Gray War in the 20th Century: a Canadian Family's Experience William Hughes Bipartisan War Profiteers David Swanson Should We Stay or Should We Go Now? Alexander Cockburn Palestine: It's All Over Website of the Day Klamath Spring   June 3 / 4, 2006 Weekend Edition Robert Fisk Liberators as Murderers James Petras Is Latin America Really Turning Left? Rosemary Radford Ruether "We Have No One to Talk To:" Israel's Targeted Assassination Policy Harry Clark Truman and Israel: How It All Began Jeffrey St. Clair What a Miner's Life is Worth Ron Ridenour Return to Cuba Ron Jacobs Hand Wringing and Warfare: What Do Owe Iraq Fred Gardner Dr. Tashkin Makes the News Peter Montague The System in Crisis John Walsh MoveOn Rigs Its Own Vote; Betrays Its Membership Greg Moses Eyes of Texas: Neocon Border with Mexico Begins Next Week Sean Donahue Atlantica: Mainer's Won't Be Fooled Again Mike Whitney Swan Song for the Greenback? Dave Patten Final Examination Ali Khan Story of the Two Kings Robert Dotson, MD Couch Time for America Hammond Guthrie Revisiting Mondo Hollywood St. Clair / D'Antoni Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Bina, Engel, Ford and Landau Website of the Day Send Dr. Suzy Your Love   June 2, 2006 Kathy Kelly Right Livelihood Alan Maass "A Mercenary Army": an Interview with Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater in New Orleans Mickey Z. Haditha Massacre was Inevitable Dave Lindorff Don't Think Twice: Bush and Rumsfeld as Ethics Advisers Chris Kutalik Troqueros Flex Muscles at Long Beach Sunsara Taylor Countdown to a Betrayal: Making Change Without Democrats Sam Husseini Can Pacifica Live Up to Its Promise? Mike Ferner More, Lots More Website of the Day Free Daniel McGowan!   June 1, 2006 Brian Cloughley Haditha and the Farrago of Lies: War Crimes Start at the Top David Peterson Iran: a Manufactured Crisis Lee Ballinger Media Myths About the South: What Backlash Against the Dixie Chicks? Jonathan Cook Olmbert in DC: Bold Ideas and Ugly Intentions Mike Whitney Offers and Ultimatums: Endgaming Iran Paul Rockwell Smearing Ron Dellums Clifton Ross Millennium Blues Kevin Zeese Return of the Petri Dish Warriors: a New Biowar Arms Race Begins in Maryland Website of the Day The Monkees and Johnny Cash   May 31, 2006 Dave Lindorff DNC Death Wish 2006: the Do Nothing Party Joshua Frank Al Gore, Environmental Titan?: Some Inconvenient Truths About the Ozone Man Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Stop Saying This is a Nation of Immigrants! P. Sainath Three Weddings and Funeral: Farmer Suicides in Vidharbha Ramzy Baroud On Palestinian Violence Seth Sandronsky The War on Nurses: a Joint Attack by US Senate and NLRB Mickey Z. Scapegoating Mexicans is an American Tradition Ralph Nader Breakaway Bases: Keeping LIttle Leaguers Safe Jeffrey St. Clair Dirk's Dirty Money: Gale Norton in Slacks Website of the Day Storm Cloud Over New Orleans   May 30, 2006 Lee Ballinger The Real Reason Rock the Vote is Falling Apart Jonathan Cook Shin Bet and the Israeli Academy: Partners in Human Rights Abuses? Gary Leupp Now Introducing, the Office of Iranian Affairs John Ross Disappearing the Disappeared Robert Jensen The Four Fundamentalisms Michael Dickinson Silencing the Peace Protester of Parliament Square Michael Carmichael Zionist Democrats: the DLC and Israel Tim Wise Of Immigrants and "Real Amurkans" Harry Browne Ken Loach's History Lesson Website of the Day Louisiana   May 27 / 29, 2006 Weekend Edition Paul Craig Roberts The Evil Within Kathleen Christison Surrender vs. the Right to Exist Kathy Kelly Fear of Flowers in Iraq: a Report from Sulaymaniyah Christopher Reed The Abominable Dr. Ishii: the Pentagon and the Japanese Mengele Lawrence R. Velvel The Moral Rot in Congress: a Constitutional Right to Graft? Tom Barry The Politics of Tom Tancredo Gary Leupp The Latest Neocon Lies About Iran Col. Dan Smith Freezing History: Iran and the Uses of "Preventive" War Ron Jacobs Blocking Military Ports: One, Two, Three Many Olympians Don Fitz EPA Goes Lead Wild: Acceptable Levels of Poisoning Fred Gardner What's the Matter with Oregon? Peter Montague Radioactive Troika: Bush, the Nuclear Power Industry and the New York Times Raymond Garcia Teens as Political Scapegoats John Farley Euston Manifesto: the Latest Gameplan from the Pro-Imperialist Left Seth Sandronsky Mexico After NAFTA: the Washington Post's Trouble with Numbers Tia Steele A Gold Star Mother's Memorial Day Plea Lenni Brenner "Howl", 50 Years Later: Allen Ginsberg's Silly Liberal Politics Dr. Susan Block God Has Sex, Makes Big Box Office Scott Michael Perey An Open Letter to Bono: Why are You Financing a Video Game Promoting the Invasion of Venezuela? Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: Please Help Hilton Ruiz Poets' Basement Davies, Smith-Ferri, Mickey Z,, Buknatski, and Engel Recipe of the Weekend Impeach-Mint Punch Website of the Weekend Trojan Syndrome   May 26, 2006 Col. Douglas MacGregor Fire the Generals!: the Failure of Military Leadership in Iraq Brian J. Foley Who Will Stand Up to Bush's Drive to Attack Iran? Michael Dickinson Mining Glaciers: Water or Gold? Missy Comley Beattie Stuck in a Cake-Walk War Pierre Tristam The Few, the Proud, the Murderers Joe Allen Put a Disclaimer on the Bible, Not the Da Vinci Code Kona Lowell Thank You, Fox News Roger Burbach Bush Targets Chavez and Morales Website of the Day Women Resisting War from Within   May 25, 2006 Les AuCoin Faith-Based Missile Defense: the Folly of Star Wars Jeff Halper Countdown to Apartheid Dave Lindorff Bombing Without Regrets Ron Jacobs Voting Rights and Multilingual Ballots Bob Wing Finding Common Ground in New Orleans: an Interview with Malik Rahim Elise Gould College Grads Face Weak Labor Market Robert Bryce Iraq's Fuel Crisis Website of the Day Oh Lay!   May 24, 2006 Michael Donnelly Operation Backfire: Criminalizing Eco-Dissent Patrick Cockburn Why the US May Have to Quit Iraq Sooner Than It Planned Lucinda Marshall Involuntary Motherhood: the Cacophony Over RU 486 Dave Lindorff A Winning Impeachment Argument Shmuel Rosner Israeli Advice on Wall-Building: Be Ruthless Moshe Adler The Promised Land: Immigration, Israeli Style Heather Gray Land Reform and American Agriculture Pratyush Chandra Angels and Demons in Nepal Paul Craig Roberts In Memoriam: Lloyd Bentsen Floyd Rudmin Why Does the NSA Engage in Mass Surveillanc of Americans? Website of the Day Presentensing the Future   May 23, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Paranoia as Policy: How Bush Brewed the Iran Crisis Sharon Smith Shooting to Kill on the Border Sunsara Taylor Meet the New Christian Conquistadors: Ron Luce's Holy Warriors Joel Whitney The Most Tenacious Man on Capitol Hill?: an Interview with John Conyers Alice Cherbonnier Total Information Awareness for Whom? FOIA, the Press and the Spooks Ron Jacobs Optimism of the Will Kristen Ess The Crisis for Palestinian Political Prisoners Patrick Cockburn Which is the Real Iraq? Website of the Day Pearl Jam: Life Wasted     Subscribe Online

June 9, 2006 They're Not in Kansas, Anymore Our Man in Kos By MICHAEL J. SMITH I's amazing what weird situations an excess of curiosity will land you in. Here I am, for example, wearing female clothing and a false beard, impersonating a Democrat at the yearly convention of Daily Kos (www.dailykos.com), which is being held in Las Vegas, of all places. I had kind of hoped to get through life without ever being in Las Vegas. But it's not what I expected. On the flight out here, that line of Tacitus kept running through my head -- urbs quo cuncta undique atrocia confluunt, a city where all evils, from everywhere else, come and gather. But it isn't like that at all. It's oddly innocent and childlike, a kids' playground writ large. It's plastered all over with various insignia of naughtiness but it's really quite orderly and safe, and to tell the truth, it's a little bland. So it really is the perfect place for Yearly Kos, a gathering of insurgents demanding re-admittance to the sheepfold. The other thing I had expected was that the Kosniks themselves would provide abundant material for ridicule. But they don't. They're much more engaging than their posts on the Daily Kos web site would lead you to expect -- and this really should have come as no surprise, since people notoriously show their worst side online. No, the Kosniks are mostly not only sane, but obviously intelligent. A lot of them have pretty good haircuts. They're personable, kind, witty, self-deprecating, thoughtful, earnest, and generally likable. Oh, there are a few exceptions -- a 300-pound doctor, who enjoyed telling us the witty things she says to her patients, and just would not shut up; a staffer from the Drum Major Institute (http://www.drummajorinstitute.org) in pink fishnet stockings and bat-wing spectacles who looked like an extra from <I>Hairspray</I> and thought term limits were a Really Good Thing; and a hyperkinetic "trainer" from Democracy For America (www.democracyforamerica.com) who had the stage manner of a contestant on American Idol, and would probably have won. He certainly had energy enough; he talked and gesticulated and paced for seven hours almost non-stop -- I checked in every half-hour or so -- and he was still enjoying the sound of his own voice when he practically had to be dragged out of the meeting room so the next scheduled event could begin. Other not-entirely-attractive Kosniks included a staff guy fresh from beautiful defeat in Marcy Winograd's primary challenge to bloody-fanged War Democrat Jane Harman; this chap was treated with the tender deference due to a veteran with a war wound. And there was a ringlet-haired Democratic Party op from Gainesville, Florida, who apologized for his state's votes for Nader in 2000, and repeatedly referred to people like himself as "touchy-feely white guys." This phrase got a modest laugh the first time he said it. These two, interestingly, were among the most strident in insisting that the one goal of political activity is to win elections. But most of the Kosniks weren't like that. Most of them seemed to be honest, sincere, good-hearted people, baffled and dismayed by what their country has become. What, I wondered, are nice folks like this doing in a cult like Daily Kos? So I was quite curious to see the cult leader, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, in action. Moulitsas, known to his disciples as "Kos", spoke briefly to the troops at the end of the day, after we were all talked out -- well, not all; there were some brazen-lunged enthusiasts still going strong -- and mellowed out with a beer or two. "Kos" is a small, trim, birdlike guy, given to quick, fluttery gestures. He has a distinctive, shoulder- and hip-swinging walk -- what you might call a sashay, actually. The play of expression on his face reminded me strangely of Louis Farrakhan, though I suppose this is the only point of resemblance between the two. He has that same slow, deliberate smile, held a little too long for comfort. There is something in his look that says he is confident of adulation, and pleased with his own success. He read his text a little woodenly, and there wasn't much to it. His two great points of self-congratulation were 1) Howard Dean is now DNC chair and 2) Paul Hackett almost got somewhere in Ohio. (You haven't heard of Paul Hackett? Don't worry about it.) Kos confidently predicted that Joe Lieberman would lose to his anti-war primary challenger, Ned Lamont -- but then, last week Kos was saying that Francine Busby would pull an upset in San Diego. (You haven't heard of Francine Busby, either? See Paul Hackett, above.) Neither Kos nor anybody else today talked much about what you might call the content of politics. The word "progressive" was frequently invoked, but either everybody agrees on just what that means or nobody wanted to get into it. The Iraq war was mentioned, in my hearing, twice, in the context of alluding to the death of Zarqawi. Both times the crowd applauded this victory in the war on terror -- applauded solidly but not thunderously; I couldn't help thinking, wishfully perhaps, that although the Kosniks are loyal adherents of the understudy War Party, at least some of these progressives are starting to have doubts about this particular war. Nobody mentioned Israel, or Palestine, or the Israel lobby, or anything remotely connected with these topics, even once. Speaking of war, the Maximum Leader put in another appearance a little later, at a reception for ex-general and presidential candidate Wesley Clark. (What the hell, there was free booze, which is more than I've ever gotten out of any other general, or presidential candidate either.) At this event, my benign impression of the Kosniks started to fray a little. There he was, General Clark, pigeon-chested, lizard-faced, the former butcher of the Balkans, his chalky cheeks ghastly under the camera flashes -- as scary as anything I've ever seen outside an autopsy suite. And the Kosniks were loving him. Kos made his slow ceremonious way over to Clark and the two of them exchanged courtly greetings, like the Doge of Venice unexpectedly meeting the Duke of Muscovy but remembering his manners -- the least you could expect of Doges and Dukes, surely. The Kosniks were in raptures: witnesses to history. A burly six-foot chap standing next to me -- a guy who could have tied the General in knots -- gushed girlishly, "Now this is People Power! I mean, who are WE?" I wanted to ask, "Who is HE?" but remembered my disguise before I spoke. The General's free booze had slowed me down a bit, fortunately. Clark stood up, with a little help, on a table, and gave a smooth little speech. The burden of his song was, "send money." And so to bed, as Mr. Pepys says. Tomorrow we get to meet senate minority leader Harry Reid and Virginia governor and presidential aspirant Mark Warner -- if they show. Nancy Pelosi has already stood us up. A bitter disappointment, but the General's free booze has softened the pain. Michael J. Smith is a grizzled old Lefty who is trying to destroy the Democratic Party on his blog, stopmebeforeivoteagain.org. He lives in New York City.

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