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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! |
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Today's Stories March 11 / 12, 2006 Ralph
Nader March 10, 2006 Ben
Rosenfeld Lila
Rajiva Saree
Makdisi Elena
Shore Joshua
Frank Dave
Zirin Aura
Bogado
March 9, 2006 John
Walsh Annie
Zirin Brian
McKenna Chris
Floyd Rachard
Itani Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Wylie
Harris Alexander
Cockburn Website
of the Day
March 8, 2006 Patrick
Bond Brian
Concannon, Jr. Pat
Williams Lance
Selfa Mokhiber
/ Weissman Walter
Brasch Vijay
Prashad Website
of the Day
March 7, 2006 Werther John
Blair Dave
Lindorff Mike
Whitney Warren
Guykema Sen.
Russell Feingold Robert
Jensen Norman
Solomon Bernie
Dwyer Website
of the Day
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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Weekend
Edition Pot Shots"... But He's Good On Our Issue"By FRED GARDNER Pro-marijuana activists from the Beltway to Oaksterdam have been circulating, with praise and thanks, George Melloan's Feb. 21 Wall St. Journal op-ed piece, "Musings About the War on Drugs." Six of seven members of the WSJ editorial board agree with Melloan, according to a reliable source, but the owners won't allow a change of line. Letters to the paper have been heavily supportive of Melloan's libertarian and tactical arguments, which included:
The activists' admiration for Melloan was typified in a letter from Howard J. Wooldridge of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition that the Journal published March 7:
To the right of Wooldridge's letter (and a complementary one from Jack Cole, also of LEAP), ran George Melloan's latest op-ed, a four-column exercise in make-believe contending that Saddam Hussein was involved with the bombing of the World Trade Center; that the bombers mailed anthrax to recipients in the US (before taking off); and that the CIA is preventing the American people from learning the relevant facts! Melloan wants the Administration to make public "captured documents that might reveal what schemes Saddam Hussein had cooked up to retaliate against the U.S. for the indignities thrust upon him during and after his 1991 Desert Storm defeat. Those included a UN embargo, arms inspections, a no-fly zone and occasional bombing attacks." [Doctors estimate that 500,000 Iraqis, most of them children deprived of medicines, died as a result of these "indignities."] According to Melloan, "Saddam ITAL may once have END ITAL offered sanctuary to bin Laden himself," and "CIA denials to the contrary, his emissary ITAL may have END ITAL met with hijacker in chief Mohammed Atta... "If Saddam was complicit in the plot, what more likely suspect could you find than a dictator who had used poison gas against both Iran and his own people and who was suspected by the United Nations of having caches of lethal chemicals? Those truck convoys that set out for Syria before the 2003 invasion easily could have arried the entire supply. Is it so implausible that Saddam's envoy Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani, an Iraqi government official who worked at the Iraqi embassy in Prague, might have slipped terrorist Atta a packet of weaponized anthrax at the rendezvous that the CIA claims never happened?" Melloan thinks "a cabal within that dysfunctional bureaucracy [the CIA!] is doing all it can to undermine a Republican president... It has a lot to do with the political guerrilla warfare that (Valerie Plame's) Democrat husband is waging against the administration." Melloan's whacko op-ed ends with a revealing reference to "the jackal mentality that afflicts the Beltway when a president's poll numbers have been beaten down. One of the shillelaghs being used for that purpose might become far less effective if we ever learn that Saddam was part of the 9/11 plot." A shillelagh is a cudgel. The man is saying that the CIA has withheld the truth about Saddam Hussein's villainy so that George W. Bush's popularity could be "beaten down," presumably by the liberal media. Is it pure coincidence that Melloan is musing about an end to the War on Drugs as Bush's approval rating slips to 30%? Or do he and his friends on the Wall St. Journal editorial board sense the need to place a libertarian fig-leaf over the capitalist marauder's weaponry to conceal his true nature and ultimate objectives? In the instant that drug-legalization advocates praise George Melloan for supporting their agenda, they confer credibility on his, which is global control by capital enforced by the U.S. military. Credibility cuts both ways.
I did not anticipate that questioning George Melloan's ulterior motives in the Anderson Valley Advertiser would annoy "progressive" activists, but it did, thanks to the Internet. This came from Doug McVay, Director of Research, Common Sense for Drug Policy, and Editor/Webmaster, Drug War Facts:
The desire to build a coalition with rightwing politicians is prevalent among reform lobbyists on the East Coast. Their goals are finite, to be achieved via electoral politics, the media, the courts, K Street (guaranteeing ongoing employment in those sectors, and many lunches for Republican staffers). Getting marijuana moved to Schedule 2 will be hailed as the greatest victory since affirmative action (a "solution" to the "problem" that helps 1/10th of the people deserving and in need of help). "Medical marijuana" is similarly alliterative, and also has the potential to be a 10% solution, with doctors writing triplicate prescriptions according to DEA practice standards. Californians have been fortunate that a small but growing group of doctors has specialized in cannabis therapeutics. The group led by Tod Mikuriya, MD, has done more real organizing -brought more adherents to the medical marijuana movement- than all the functionaries on the payrolls of MPP, DPA et al. The patients, as Phil Denney, MD, has observed, become organizers in turn as they explain to friends, loved ones and acquaintances that their cannabis use really is medicinal and proving by their own example that getting a doctor's approval is do-able. The real movement grows by conversation and personal example. Almost anyone who has ever gotten seriously involved with a cause can recall who turned them on to it... Yet the pro-cannabis doctors, with one exception, have gotten no funding from the reform organizations that spend millions annually on lobbying efforts. I wrote to McVay that I'm not in touch with anybody who's on the WSJ wavelength to impress with quotes from Melloan. But I knew plenty of rightwing cops and DAs when I worked at the Hall of Justice, and I can imagine a conversation with a couple of them about the Melloan column. It's a plausible scenario -I had a bulletin board outside my office and instead of just posting clips about SFDA (the traditional single-issue approach) I posted other articles relevant to the law-enforcement mission, and Melloan's well might have made the board. So there I am tacking up press clips and Murphy and Clark come by and read Melloan over my shoulder. My commentary: "Why now, Murph? Why is this bloodthirsty motherfucker coming out for drug legalization now? Oh, here it is: Evo Morales! The natives are getting restless in South America! And Bush's approval ratings are down to 30%-the natives are getting restless here, too. Didn't I always tell you guys they'd reschedule pot when the ruling class really needed a sop to throw the masses? 'Let's take their jobs, take their pensions, take their medical care, and if we let them smoke their pot in peace, they'll say "Thank you."' And Murphy and Clark would laugh understandingly, I'm pretty sure.
Kubby's Out of Jail Steve Kubby was let out of Placer County jail Monday, March 6, after serving 40 days of a four-month sentence. Good behavior and overcrowding at the jail were the ostensible reasons for releasing him; the fact that he'd lost 25 pounds in custody may have factored into the decision. Kubby has a rare form of adrenal cancer that has been in remission for some 30 years thanks to cannabis use, he and his doctors are convinced. Kubby and his wife and two daughters left for Vancouver after his conviction in 2000 for possession of a peyote button and a psychedelic mushroom. The Kubbys, who lived in South Lake Tahoe, had been busted for growing 256 plants in their basement; a Placer County jury voted not to convict on cultivation-for-sale charges. Kubby's prescription for Marinol was honored during his recent stint in jail, and his blood pressure, which had spiked sharply at first, was brought under control. He left singing the praises of Sheriff Ed Bonner and the jail staff who, according to Kubby, were much less cynical about medical marijuana than their counterparts had been in 1999, when he first served time. In a letter to his jailers seeking to distance himself from the negative publicity his incarceration had generated, Kubby wrote that he had "developed a profound respect for the professional and highly dedicated staff and officers here." He still faces charges in connection with failing to appear at his sentencing in 2001, but as of this writing, Steve Kubby is a free man, and full of hope for the future. Fred Gardner is the editor of O'Shaughnessy's
Journal of the California Cannabis Research Medical Group. He
can be reached at: fred@plebesite.com
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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. |