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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 10 / 11,
2006 Robert Fisk June 9, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Paul Craig Roberts Gary Leupp Eric Ruder Evelyn Pringle Mickey Z. Michael J. Smith Patrick Cockburn Website of the
Day
June 8, 2006 Chris Floyd Michael Dickinson Ron Jacobs William S. Lind Joshua Frank Missy Comley Beattie Lloyd Williams Bill Christison Website of the Day
June 7, 2006 Dave Lindorff Sunsara Taylor John Walsh David MacMichael Mickey Z. Evelyn Pringle Myles Palmer Laura Ribeiro Website of the Day
June 6, 2006 Diane Christian Paul Craig Roberts Ralph Nader Norman Solomon Darmont / Genovali Manuel Garcia,
Jr. Subcomandante Marcos Patrick Cockburn Website of the Day
June 5, 2006 Bruce Jackson Chris Floyd Michael Neumann Heather Gray William Hughes David Swanson Alexander Cockburn Website of the Day
June 3 / 4, 2006 Robert Fisk James Petras Rosemary Radford Ruether Harry Clark Jeffrey St. Clair Ron Ridenour Ron Jacobs Fred Gardner Peter Montague John Walsh Greg Moses Sean Donahue Mike Whitney Dave Patten Ali Khan Robert Dotson,
MD Hammond Guthrie St. Clair / D'Antoni Poets' Basement Website of the
Day
June 2, 2006 Kathy Kelly Alan Maass Mickey Z. Dave Lindorff Chris Kutalik Sunsara Taylor Sam Husseini Mike Ferner Website of the
Day
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
Day
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
Day
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Weekend
Edition Invitation to a Sanitized BeheadingZarqawi's FaceBy DIANE CHRISTIAN Zarqawi's face looks peaceful in death. He resembles Pavarotti. His death face portrait has been broadcast in two versions. The first shows him pacific, just slightly bruised, like a medieval Russian icon, somber, slightly fleshy, still. In the second he's more battered and slightly bloodied, less poised, awkward. We see only his head. Major General Caldwell in his military press conference pointed out that we cleaned him up. We wouldn't defile and flaunt bodies as they did, the Major General said. In response to reporters' questions, the military allowed Zarqawi had been cleaned though not Photoshopped for viewing. Caldwell noted there were horrific unviewable pictures unfit for televising. The picture not only demonstrates
Zarqawi's death, as did the bizarrely iced and displayed bodies
of Saddam's sons, it gives us only the head and reminds us of
Zarqawi's barbaric beheadings. Our government figures didn't
gloat by holding up his head or sending it down the Euphrates.
They were Severing heads was one of Zarqawi's barbarisms. Brandishing genitals or ears has often been a warrior boast, or scalping or drinking defeated blood. In the Indian epic The Mahabharata, Draupadi, the noblest person of her family, swears she will bind her hair until she washes it in the blood of those who have shamed her. She does. Our ritual in Baghdad looks tame by comparison, civilized. Looking at death is tabooed in our culture. The US, the greatest, bloodiest dealer of violence in the history of the world, sanitizes image presentation. Most people have not seen pictures of the atomic bomb strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki except for the mushroom clouds. The images of humans melting, peeling faces, women with kimono patterns seared into their skins and children mutilated, were classified by the Pentagon until almost 1970, and they are virtually unknown to the general public now. Barnow's short documentary of the Japanese footage, Hiroshima-Nagasaki 1945, is almost unbearable to watch. In all our wars, pictures of the dead are censored. Our present government attempts to block us from seeing flag-draped coffins, much less macerated bodies. All humans die. Medieval monks and nuns ate in silence with skulls on their refectory tables so they would consider their end. The ascetical practice was to prompt good behavior-i..e. even as you eat and live, remember you will die, so behave accordingly, with restraint. Others take contrary inspiration-'eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die.' Why are we invited to stare at Zarqawi's dead head? Not, I think, to improve our behavior or to enhance our pleasure. We are invited to stare at Zarqawi's dead head for standard warrior and political reasons. Like the medieval heads atop the pikes to warn of the punishment for treason (Thomas More), or the 200 Philistine foreskins David used to buy the king's daughter, or the scalps or genitals or ears in the notched belts of conquerors, the enemy body is a bounty harvested by the victors who win by killing. Be they the king's good servants, the fearless and untamed warriors, the men or women without restraint, they're the living, the enemy is dead. The message is we win. The message is a lie. Diane Christian is SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor
at University at Buffalo and author of the new book Blood
Sacrifice. She can be reached at: engdc@acsu.buffalo.edu
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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. |