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Today's Stories May 20 / 21, 2006 Patrick Cockburn iraq is Disintegrating May 19, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler Democrats and the Defense Budget: Just as Ruinous as the Republicans José Pertierra Posada Carriles: Extradite or Prosecute, There's No Other Option John Ross The Marcos Factor: Mexico's Electoral Wildcard Dave Lindorff Virtual America Jeff Juel Ecological Extortion in the National Forests? Alan Farago Defanging the Endangered Species Act Eric Johnson-DeBaufre Building a New Sanctuary Movement José Martî Letter to Manuel Mercado: "The Revolution Desires Complete Freedom" Jonathan Cook Marriage Ban Closes the Gates to Palestinians Website of the Day Fix the Movie and Revolutionize the Movie Industry!   May 18, 2006 Bill Simpich Building a Movement that will be Stronger After the US is Out of Iraq: Lessons from the 1970 Student Strike Patrick Cockburn The Carnage in Basra Christopher Brauchli The Needle and the Damage Done: the Death Penalty's Ministers Nora Barrows-Friedman The Nakba in Palestine Victoria Buch In the Name of Israel's State Security Eric Ruder Nuclear Hypocrites George Wuerthner The Ice Cream Wilderness? Juan Santos The Border War Comes Home Website of the Day Help Stop Animal Torture at Devore   May 17, 2006 Lenni Brenner The Lobby and the Great Protestant Crusader Carlos Villarreal Immigrant Scapegoats and the Manufacturing of a Crisis Larry Everest Catching Rumsfeld Red-Handed: an Interview with Ray McGovern CounterPunch News Service Hugo Chavez: the London Sessions Lee Sustar Compromise and Conquer? Inside the Senate Immigration Bill Anthony Papa Dealing with the Rockefeller Drug Laws: a Tale of Two DAs William S. Lind Ink Blots and Super Fortresses: More Contradictions from Iraq War Bruce K. Gagnon Where are the Real Leaders? JoAnn Wypijewski Has Anything Really Changed at Fort Sill? Website of the Day The Pacific Northwest: Animated   May 16, 2006 Ward Churchill Punishing Free Speech Ted Honderich The Moral Barbarism of Blair and Bush Paul Craig Roberts Ministry of Fear Annie Nocenti "Jesus was a Zombie?": Letter from Haiti Charles V. Peña Regime Change Redux: US Plans for Iran Go Far Beyond Nuclear Efforts Ron Jacobs Circling the Wagons and Building Walls: Bush and Co.'s Immigration Policy Norman Solomon A Sick, Hungry Well-Armed Nation Harvey Wasserman Why the Fundamentalists Are Freaking Out Over the Da Vinci Code Michael George Smith Bush, Immigration and the Democrats Harry Browne New Frontiers of Shamelessness: Bono's Independent Website of the Day Seeger: "Bring Them Home"   May 15, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Abe Rosenthal's Times William Blum Appealing to the US is Not Very Appealing Tanya Golash-Boza and Douglas A. Parker Dehumanizing the Undocumented: an Immigration Policy Statement by Sociologists Without Borders Dave Lindorff Gen. Hayden's Sedition Against the Consitution Debra Schaffer Hubert The Battle Cry of G.I. Jesus: Capital Punishment for Gays? Patrick Cockburn Now It's Shia Troops Versus Kurdish Troops in Iraq Tom Turnipseed The Messianic Presidency Ken Livingstone Welcome to London, President Chavez! Gideon Levy Game Theory: Hamas is Winning Mickey Z. Is Impeachment Too Good for Bush? Jeff Faux What Bush's Speech Will Miss: Immigration and the Desperate Mexican Economy Website of the Day Iraq War Images Uncensored   May 13 / 14, 2006 Vijay Prashad The Indian Road: Left Triumph Joan Roelofs Why They Hate Our Kind Hearts, Too Kathy Kelly Imagining Survival Michael Neumann On the Value and Stability of Israel Dr. Susan Block Hookergate Daniel Cassidy How the Irish Invented Poker Christopher Reed Rebel Journalist: the Memoirs of Wilfred Burchett Mike Roselle The Fallacies of Greenpeace Saul Landau Up the Mekong to Cambodia Robert Fisk The Inescapable Beat: US Military Bases in Brazil Ralph Nader Sally Mae and the Student Loan Swindle Evelyn Pringle Rove and Fitzgerald Play Monopoly Fred Gardner The Marketing of "Cannabis Americana" Stanley Heller Is Another Mass Murder of Arabs in the Offing? Conn Hallinan China: a Troubled Dragon Valentina Palma Novoa "They Ordered Me to Lay My Head in a Pool of Blood" David Krieger Why Nuclear Weapons Should Matter Col. Dan Smith The Senate's Peace Quilt Christopher Brauchli Mister Bush and Mister Zarqawi: Video Stars Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Davies, Ford, Engel, Guthrie, Orloski and Louise Website of the Weekend Not Your Soldier!   May 12, 2006 Michael Snedeker Death by Snitch: the Attempted Murder of Michael Morales Dave Lindorff What Fourth Amendment? Leah Fishbein / RJ Schinner Santorum vs. Santorum-Lite: In Pennsylvania, Abortion is Absent from the Debate Brian Kwoba The Immigrant Rights Movement: Birth of a New New Left? Chris Kromm Why Southern Progressives Should Support an Estate Tax Kai Diekmann 45 Minutes with Bush: the BILD Interview David Swanson Bush Tops Nixon: the Most Despised President in History Virginia Tilley Hamas and Israel's "Right to Exist" Website of the Day The CounterPunch Story That Made the Front Page of the NYT Today   May 11, 2006 Sunsara Taylor Battle Cry for Theocracy: Meet the Shock Troops of the Christian Youth Jonathan Cook A Short History of Unilateral Separation Tariq Ali High-Octane Rocket-Rattling Against Iran Won't Work Wayne S. Smith Recycled Non Sequiturs: State Dept. Presents No Evidence Cuba is a "Terrorist State" Mike Whitney Secretary of Lies Pratyush Chandra The Royal Nepalese Army and the Imperialist Agency Joshua Frank Save Darfur? Not So Fast Mickey Z. Does Property Destruction Equal Eco-Terrorism? Francis Boyle Abe Rosenthal Stole My Kill Fee! Edward S. Herman / David Peterson US Aggression-Time Once Again: Target Iran Website of the Day The Missing Papers of John Roberts   May 10, 2006 Werther Axiom of Evil Larry Birns / Michael Lettieri Is Venezuela the New Niger?: the Bush Administration is Trying to Link Hugo Chavez to Iran's Nuclear Program Ramzy Baroud Iran and the US: Nuclear Standoff or Realpolitik? Kevin Zeese The Corporate Takeover of Iraq's Economy Evelyn Pringle Peter Rost vs. Goliath: an Ex-Pfizer VP Takes on Big Pharma Amira Hass Hungry and Shell-Shocked Michael Donnelly Nature Loses a Champion Ron Jacobs Singers in a Dangerous Time: Dylan and Haggard Take the Stage Sharon Smith Abstinence Backfires Website of the Day Camp In with Ray and Cindy   May 9, 2006 Ray McGovern My Encounter with Rumsfeld M. Shahid Alam The Muslims America Loves Moshe Adler Mayor Bloomberg: Even Worse Than Giuliani Walter MIgnolo Beyond Populism: Natural Gas and Decolonization of the Bolivian Economy Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Blacks, Latinos and the New Civil Rights Movement William S. Lind The Other War Heats Up: Fighting on Afghan Time Todd Chretien Does It Really Matter Who Runs the CIA? Dave Lindorff Pelosi is in for a Big Surprise in November Ishmael Reed Furor Over the "Colored Mind Doubles" Website of the Day Two Years for One Joint   May 8, 2006 Kate McCabe "No Less Courage": Political Prisoners' Resistance from Ireland to Gitmo Paul Craig Roberts A Nation of Waitresses and Bartenders Col. Dan Smith Privatizing West Point: "Duty, Honor, Trademarks..." Norman Solomon Gag and Smear: the Misuses of "Anti-Semitism" Ingmar Lee Bush's Destabilizing Nuke Deal with India Robert Jensen "Covering" and the Law Ricardo Alarcon The Struggle for Immigrant Rights in a Neo-Liberal Economy Will Youmans / M. Kay Siblani The Danders of Misunderstanding Sudan Alexander Cockburn The Row Over the Israel Lobby Website of the Day Labelle Does The Who: We Don't Get Fooled Again   May 6 / 7, 2006 Jeffrey St. Clair The Rise and Possible Fall of Richard Pombo Ariel Dorfman Mission Akkomplished: the Secret History of George W. Bush Joe Allen Death Row at the "Castle": Inside the Military's Judicial System Fred Gardner From Ritalin to Cocaine: Steve Howe's Untold Story Jeff Taylor Democratic Masqueraders: Plutocracy and the Party of the People Saul Landau The Immigration Malaise Stephen Philion Lessons from the Fordham 9: Challenging CIA and Military Recruiters on Campus Trish Schuh Islamophobia, a Retrospective Ralph Nader The Tragedy of False Confessions Robert Fisk Through a Syrian Lens: Is the US Provoking Civil War in Iraq? Paul Cantor Parody of a Protest: We Came, We Marched, And ... ? John Holt "This Goddamn Place Looks Like Hell" James Ryan When is a West Point Grad, No Longer a West Point Grad? Lawrence R. Velvel Harvard and Its Presidents: Plagiarism, Ghostwriting, and the Character of Larry Summers Greg Moses Canto for a Cinco de Mayo Weekend Laray Polk Homeland Security Spending: a Dallas Case Study Ron Jacobs Subterranean Fire: a Review Ben Tripp No News is Good News Mickey Z. 9/11 Movies, Anti-War Protests and "Illegal" Humans Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: My Own Private, Springsteen-Free JazzFest (Week Two) Poets' Basement Kirbach, Landau, Davies, Engel, Buknatski, Subiet, Ford and Thoreau Website of the Week Lawrence Welk Meets the Velvet Underground   May 5, 2006 Vijay Prashad The Charmless Inconveniences of the Bourgeoisie Robert Fisk Sy Hersh versus the Bush Administration (and the DC Press Corps) David Swanson Washington Post Writer Rushes to Rummy's Defense Against Ray McGovern Mearsheimer / Walt The Storm Over "the Israel Lobby" Dave Lindorff They're Back!: The Looters of Social Security Sarah Ferguson A Day Without Gringos: Immigrants Flooded the Streets of NYC on May, But Where Were the White Peaceniks? CounterPunch News Service Costs of US Wars: Bush's GWOT Now Fifth Most Expensive in US History Corporate Crime Reporter David Sirota: Still Shackled to the Democrats Website of the Day Watch Ray KO Rummy   May 4, 2006 John F. Sugg Sami al-Arian's Final Persecution Will Potter Green is the New Red: How the Bush Administration is Using Terror Laws to Prosecute Nonviolent Environmental Activists Jonathan Cook The Long Path Back to Umm al-Zinat Roger Burbach Bolivia's Radical Realignment Chris Dols Colbert's Moment (And Why the Beltway Gang Didn't Get It) Christopher Brauchli Sen. Frist Without Clothes Tony Swindell "Our Descent into Hell has Begun" Website of the Day The Two Lobbies   May 3, 2006 Robert Bryce The Self-Locking F-22 Paul Craig Roberts John Kenneth Galbraith, a Great American James Petras The Rise of the Migrant Workers' Movement Lee Sustar Democrats and Immigrants: the Grand Evasion David Bolton The War on Drugs is a War on Ourselves Joshua Frank Challenging Hillary Jeffery R. Webber Evo Morales' Historic May Day: Bolivia Nationalizes Gas! Website of the Day Happy Birthday, Pete Seeger!   May 2, 2006 Evelyn Pringle Gouge and Profit: Will Big Oil Destroy Tariq Ali On the Death of Pramoedya Ananta Toer: Indonesia's Greatest Writerthe US Economy? Saul Landau Life in the Mekong Delta Paul Craig Roberts Endgame for the Constitution Gary Leupp "Out of Iraq, Into Darfur?" Ron Jacobs May Day in Asheville Sen. Russell Feingold Our Presence is Destabilizing Iraq Anthony Papa Rush Limbaugh and the Politics of Drug Addiction Website of the Day Rainbow Books     May Day, 2006 Norman Finkelstein The Israel Lobby: It's Not Either / Or Christopher Reed Mercury's Message, 50 Years On Michael Donnelly Rummy's Not the Only One Who Should Go: What About the War's Liberal Enablers? Dave Zirin A Day Without Pujols Mike Whitney The "N' Word: Take Back the Oil Companies! Gilad Atzmon Self-Haters Unite! Missy Comley Beattie Marching for Peace Alexander Cockburn The War on Terror on the Lodi Front Website of the Day In Your Face, Mr President   April 29 / 30, 2006 Peter Linebaugh May Day with Heart Ralph Nader Break Up the Big Oil Cartel Robert Bryce The Scandal of the V-22: It Kills, It Crashes, But It Won't Die Rev. William Alberts Praying for Peace or Preying on Peace? Time for People of Faith to Censure Bush Lee Sustar Opening a New Movement John Chuckman Xenophobia in a Land of Immigrants Eric Ruder An Interview with Camilo Meija on the War and Immigrants Seth Sandronsky Securing the Homeland for Whom Ron Jacobs Neil Young's Call to Arms Ben Tripp A Fork in the American Road Fred Gardner Forgotten Memories: Personal and Political Don Monkerud Corruption Reform in the Age of Abramoff: Not a Roar, But a Whimper Tommy Stevenson JazzFest, Tears and the Renewal of New Orleans Lettrist International Proposals for Rationally Improving the City of Paris Contratiempo Back to the Back of the Yards: the Jungle, 100 Years Later St. Clair, Vest and D'Antoni CounterPunch Playlist: What We're LIstening to This Week Poets' Basement Engel, Orloski and Guthrie Website of the Weekend Survival of the Fattest   April 28, 2006 James Ridgeway What You Won't See in Flight 93, the Film Ramzy Baroud Hamas' Impossible Mission Sarah Knopp An Interview with Nativo Lopez on the May Day Protests William S. Lind Off With His Head!: But Rumsfeld's Should Not be the Only One That Rolls Werther Operation Canned Meat and Its Derivatives April 27, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler How Much is the War Costing? How Many US Troops are Really in Iraq? Robert Fisk The United States of Israel? Juan Santos Immigration Endgame Robert Jensen Why Leftists Distrust Liberals Dave Lindorff Making America Safer: One Released War Crime Victim at a Time Jose Pertierra Honor and Injustice:the Case of the Cuban Five   April 26,2006 Robin Philpot The Rich Life of Jane Jacobs Sherry Wolf Democrats, Their Apologists and Abortion: the Jig is Up Pratyush Chandra Nepal: a Saga of Compromise and Struggle Joshua Frank Zig-Zagging Through the War With John Kerry Gary Leupp The Neo-Cons and Iran: No Negotiations Bill Quigley Katrina: Eight Months Later     April 25, 2006 Gary Leupp Wilkinson Speaks Out About the Coming War on Iran Paul Craig Roberts The World is Uniting Against the Bush Imperium Linda S. Heard Is the US Waging Israel's Wars?: the Prophecy of Oded Yinon Ralph Nader Political Science: Gingrich, "Futurism" and the Abolition of the OTA Mike Whitney Preparing for the Economic Typhoon Michael Donnelly Lutherans Betray Michigan's Loon Lake Wetlands for Pieces of Silver Sharon Smith Breathing New Life Into May Day Website of the Day SDS Ver. 2   April 24, 2006 Tim Wise What Kind of Card is Race? John Stanton Strike Iran, Watch Pakistan and Turkey Fall Dave Lindorff Dangerous Times Ahead Steve Shore Berlusconi Defeated: The Long Wait is Over ... Or Is It? Amadou Deme Hotel Rwanda: Setting the Record Straight Mickey Z. 15 Minutes of Radical Fame: America Meets Bill Blum and Ward Churchill Ralph Nader Lee Raymond's Unconscionable Platinum Parachute Alexander Cockburn Obama's Game Website of the Day Too Stupid to Be President?         Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition May 20 / 21, 2006 Exposing Military Incompetence "United 93": a Review By SAUL LANDAU and FARRAH HASSEN FAA: "Hi. Boston Center TMU [Traffic Management Unit], we have a problem here. We have a hijacked aircraft headed towards New York, and we needsomeone to scramble some F-16s or something up there, help us out. NEADS: Is this real-world or exercise? FAA: No, this is not an exercise, not a test." (9/11 Commission Report, pg. 20) Yes, no exercise or test for the almost 3,000 people who died on 9/11/01! Scrambling F-16s doesn't sound like much of a request, given that the taxpayers shell out over $600 billion for "defense" (counting Iraq, Afghanistan and intelligence). But military ground commanders could not communicate with those who send jets "scrambling." Indeed, NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) received notice of American 11's hijacking 9 minutes before it struck the World Trade Center's north tower. Minutes later, millions around the world would watch United 175 hit New York's second WTC tower. The President - enthralled in the aftermath of his literary ecstasy, My Pet Goat, which he read to Florida schoolchildren - remained unreachable; the Vice President, desperately seeking shelter. The Air Force, occupied with maneuvers, finally freed two unarmed F-15s. But they could neither locate nor shoot down the other two purloined aircraft, one of which hit the Pentagon. Subsequently, two other armed jets flew in the wrong direction. American 77, the third plane, hit the Pentagon. A fourth, United 93, the subject of a new movie, crashed in rural Pennsylvania, killing all 37 aboard. A docu-drama based on available facts, "United 93" shows an expensive, bloated military establishment, lacking the most minimal capability of responding to security needs. Are you listening, Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN)? He urged Democrats to defeat Republicans "on their own ground" by showing they were tougher than Bush on security issues. (Washington Post, May 9) Instead, we suggest they see the film, which should convince rational people to demand a forceful reduction of the "defense" budget. The 9/11 Commission Report and previously published stories also indicated that the communication-challenged "intelligence community" failed to coordinate and then interpret intelligence that could have prevented the 9/11 attacks. In mid 2006, Americans should feel less safe than they did five years ago. The dead and wounded multiply in "liberated" Iraq and Afghanistan. Christopher D. Baker, a man with past criminal convictions, "won" for his Shirlington Limousine and Transportation Inc., a $25 million contract with the Department of Homeland Security to provide expensive limousines to senior officials. "Civil servants" used the limos to go to hooker appointments and elite poker games. The May 7 New York Times reported that FBI agents have interviewed Shirlington employees who drove "prostitutes to hotel poker parties" attended by former California Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham and other Republican notables. Thus, yet another shocking scandal characterizes the "security anxiety age," where TSA airport screeners at checkpoints play musical chairs with plastic trays filled with shoes, cell phones and laptops. Despite routine "wanding" of suspicious passengers, Government Accountability Office investigators, who conducted tests at 21 airports between October 2005 and January 2006, passed through airport "security" with bomb-making materials in tow. (MSNBC, March 17, 2006) Democrats fear that if they challenge Bush's vacuous war on terrorism, he might label them "weak." Meanwhile, Super Spender Bush reveals himself as President Incompetent, unable to direct the evacuation of people from New Orleans or help them find refuge after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their homes. His ineptitude in Iraq and Afghanistan costs taxpayers nearly $10 billion a month. (Washington Post, April 20, 2006) His Administration's plan for a predicted bird flu pandemic: throw the problem to the bankrupt local authorities. In light of Bush disasters, why would Americans fear to face a movie -- a much-needed reality check? "United 93" transcends predictable Hollywood recreations of doomed flights. It shows tragedy arising from banality; how high-tech "security" evaporates, literally, from the radar screen when confronted by everyday reality ­ hijackers flying jumbo jets below the radar. Director Paul Greengrass ("Bloody Sunday," "The Bourne Supremacy") dissects the impenetrable façade of security lingo by focusing on everyday behavior: people involved in all aspects of the tragic event, those on the ground and on board the planes. The opening scene shows four hijackers played by Khalid Abdalla, Lewis Alsamari, Omar Berdouni and Jamie Harding reciting morning prayers in a hotel room. They bow and invoke God, hardly stereotyped terrorists; rather, fervent men completing routine ritual. Then, one decrees: "It's time." Travelers at Newark airport have no inclination that 9/11/01 will become an unforgettable day. They maneuver through airport security, chat on cell phones and read newspapers as they wait for United 93 to depart. The benign-looking hijackers sit unnoticed in the same waiting lounge. In FAA headquarters and a military control center, the scenario unfolds. 46 minutes after take off, four men take over the airline. The 9/11 Commission report says that one hijacker announced: "Ladies and Gentlemen: Here the captain, please sit down keep remaining sitting. We have a bomb on board. So sit." (pg. 12) Rapid cuts juxtapose shock and confusion at FAA's control center in Herndon, Virginia (Ben Sliney plays himself as operations manager) and at NEADS in Rome, New York. The scenes reveal serious communication problems. Those who must act on the hijackings cannot reach commanders who provide ROE (Rules of Engagement) for shooting down passenger planes that could hit other buildings. Military officials, in turn, couldn't reach Bush or Cheney for orders. Instead, a bureaucratic morass encases those trying to respond to planes crashing populated buildings. The film doesn't show Bush continuing to read My Pet Goat after the second plane hit the WTC. But, we do see FAA flight controllers watching CNN to get late news. Indeed, archival footage of the flaming twin towers reveals the air traffic controllers' shock. "Jesus Christ," one mutters. "Holy shit," says another, "we haven't had a hijacked plane in over 30 years." This recorded material establishes the dramatic context for unfolding the hijacking story. Once the hijackers seized United 93, flight attendants and passengers surreptitiously phoned friends and relatives and discovered that other hijacked craft had hit the WTC. The film's actors don't seem to act. The "bad guys" who prayed and slipped box cutters into their belts look effortlessly determined, not cocky and self-assured. Later, one sneaks into the airplane bathroom and assembles an ersatz bomb. They murder the pilots and one flight attendant, but Greengrass doesn't spatter the screen with blood. Instead, he presents driven men overcoming fear through faith that God will reward their actions. Several stunned passengers gradually recover enough wit to plan to retake the plane. As the 9/11 Report mentions, one of the passengers ended a phone call with a loved one by saying, "Everyone's running up to first class. I got to go. Bye." (p. 13) These individuals are not Bruce Willis or Tom Cruise characters who risk their lives to prevent 93 from hitting its Washington target and thus save their country; rather, these passengers revolted because they realized that retaking and landing the plane had become their chance to survive and see their families. They provided the United States with its only resistance to the hijacking of four airplanes ­ three of which did immense damage. The film contrasts their expressions of hope with other passengers' unwillingness to accept reality. One insists: "We can negotiate with them." Ultimately, "United 93" illustrates how a high-tech military could not defend the country. So, why waste hundreds of billions of dollars on "security" that offers no security against primitively armed individuals ­ not nations? The February 6, 2006 DOD Quadrennial Defense Review Report purportedly responds to the defects shown in the reenactments in "United 93." "To strengthen forces to defeat terrorist networks, the Department will increase Special Operations Forces by 15% and the number of Special Forces Battalions by one-third. U.S. Special Operations Command (U.S. SOCOM) will establish the Marine Corps Special Operations Command. The Air Force will establish an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron under U.S. SOCOMThe Department will also expand Psychological Operations and Civil Affairs units by 3,700 personnel, a 33% increase." (pg. 5) These recommendations will not deter attacks against giant shopping malls, railroad stations or crowded office buildings. Defense against terrorism has little to do with military hardware or high technology. With all the NSA monitoring of phones and CIA's signal intelligence operations, no Bush administration official recognized the imminence of the 9/11 attack. Nor did high-tech weapons and Special Forces prove capable of winning previous engagements in Korea or Vietnam; nor tame Afghanistan or Iraq. Rather than professing their ability to do a "better job" than the Republicans on the "war on terror," the Democrats must dare to call for the dismantling of the real emperor ­ the military-scientific-industrial complex -- that has wasted our fortunes and given so little in return. Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies Fellow. Farrah Hassen is a Seymour Melman fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. She can be reached at fhuisclos1944@aol.com

Now Available from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Click Here to Order Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz WHAT'S INSIDE Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair   CounterPunch Speakers Bureau 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. The Book on 9/11 the White House Denounced as "ABSOLUTE GARBAGE"