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Today's Stories April 7 -9, 2006 Jeffrey St. Clair The Saga of Magnequench: Outsourcing US Missile Technology to China April 6, 2006 John Ross Mexico's Most Toxic Presidential Election Ever Dave Lindorff Time to Get on Message with the Sissy French Don Monkerud The Strange Case of the American Worker Robert McDonald The Texas Railroad to Death Row: How Prosecutors Fabricated a Case Against Rodney Reed Boris Kagarlitsky A Marriage of Convenience in Ukraine Remi Kanazi The Assault on Cynthia McKinney Niranjan Ramakrishnan Untangling the Issues in the Immigration Debates Robert Fisk A Lesson from the Holocaust for Us All   April 5, 2006 Dick J. Reavis Pancho Bin Laden and the Terrorists' Tombs Mark Brenner Workers in the Aftermath of Katrina: Survival of the Fittest Brian Cloughley Nailing the Lies: Come Clean, Mr. Bush Jozef Hand-Boniakowski Why Democrats Are At Least Half of the Problem Matt Vidal Republican Bliss: the Selfish Road to Happiness Juan Santos The Politics of Immigration: a Nation of Colonists and Race Laws Alan Maass Week of the Walkouts JoAnn Wypijewski Malevolent Power at Ft. Sill: the Army Slays Its Own Website of the Day My Life in the Bush of Ghosts   April 4, 2006 Jackson Thoreau How the Hammer Got Nailed: Taking Down Tom DeLay Gary Corseri Osama's Favorite Writer?: an Interview with William Blum Dave Lindorff Provocative Humanitarianism?: Bashing Hugo Chavez at the NYT Paul Craig Roberts Belligerent to the Bitter End Norman Solomon When War Crimes Are Unspeakable: Bush, Always the Accuser, Never the Accused Michael Carmichael The Christocrat: Condi Does Britain Winslow T. Wheeler Is the F-22 Worth the Price-Tag? Ingmar Lee Is Another World Possible?: Report from Karachi Michael Neumann The Israel Lobby and Beyond Website of the Day West Point Graduates Against the War   April 3, 2006 Saul Landau Vietnam Diary: "What Socialism?" Richard Thieme The CIA: Cowboys, Indians and Whistleblowers, an Interview with David MacMichael Timothy B. Tyson Race, Class and Rape at Duke Omar Barghouti The Israeli Elections: a Decisive Vote for Apartheid Iwasaki Atsuko "As Israelis, We Also Fight for Palestinians:" an Interview with Jeff Halper Julian Edney A Terrible Weapon in the Hands of the Rich Roger Morris Catfight Among the Conservatives   April 1 / 2, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Truth and Fiction in Elie Wiesel's "Night" Ralph Nader Exxon/Mobil: the Corporate Superpower of Superpowers Dave Zirin The Press Mob, Their Rope and Barry Bonds: Damn Right Race Matters David Underhill Walkin' to New Orleans Earl Ofari Hutchinson Do Immigrants Really Take Jobs from Urban Poor? Dave Lindorff Sen. Orrin Hatch: Defender of Presidential Lawlessness P. Sainath Where India's Brave New World is Headed Fred Gardner Debunking "Amotivational Syndrome" Clancy Chassay Hamas or Al Qaeda? The Gun or the Ballot Box? Heather Gray The Inspiring Face of Immigration: Australia and the American Rural Southeast Greg Moses Austin Students Walkout: "We're a Group This Country Needs" John Chuckman When the Violent Enforce the Peace: America's Brutal Tactics in Iraq Ron Jacobs Leaving Iraq Now is the Only Sensible Solution Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Holt, Engel, Subiet, Ford and Davies Website of the Weekend Pentagon Thievery   March 31, 2006 Gary Leupp Better Off Under Saddam: an Inventory Patrick Cockburn Mosul Slips Out of Control Saree Makdisi Israeli Elections Big Winner: Avigdor Lieberman Ron Jacobs Where Capital is Not God: France Shows the Way Mark Engler There's Much More to be Done on Third World Debt Relief Curtis F.J. Doebbler An Appeal to International Lawyers: Hold Bush Accountable for Flauting International Law Laith al-Saud Iraq is Not in Civil War (Yet); It's Under Occupation Website of the Day Boobies, Dolphins and Flying Fish: Sailing the African Coast     March 30, 2006 Uri Avnery Israeli Elections: What the Hell Has Happened? Sen. Russell Feingold A Fact Check on a Presidential Crime: Myth vs. Reality on Bush's Warrantless Wiretapping Program Winslow T. Wheeler The Saga of the Joint Strike Fighter: Just Because Its High Tech and Costs $247 Billion Doesn't Mean It Works Dave Lindorff A Strategy of Massacres? Juan Santos The Ghost of George Wallace: Immigration and White Racism Frida Berrigan Privatizing the Apocalypse Joshua Frank War in Search of a Justification Vonnie Edwards Letter from the LA County Jail Neve Gordon Does Kadima's Victory Put the Peace Process in Reverse? Website of the Day The Women of New Orleans Speak   March 29, 2006 CounterPunch News Service Fake Saddam Interview Put Out by Israel Lobby Catspaw, Endorsed by NeoCons' Pet Cassandra, Now Wiping Egg From Face Patrick Cockburn Bush's Call for Ouster of Iraq PM Widens Rift with Shias John Ross When Water is Not a Human Right Omar Barghouti When is Killing Arab Civilians Considered a Massacre? William S. Lind Truth in Advertising from the Army? Missy Comley Beattie Missing in America Earl Ofari Hutchinson AWOL: Black Leaders and Immigration Website of the Day Colombia Support Network Needs Your Help   March 28, 2006 Sharon Smith Liberal Hypocrisy on Immigration: Krugman and Clinton Say Shut the Door Paul Craig Roberts Bush is No Conservative Tariq Ali Karachi Social Forum: NGOs or WGOs? Manuel Garcia, Jr. God's Torturers: from Torquemada to Opus Dei Ramzy Baroud False Impressions: the Media and the Middle East Evelyn Pringle Fentanyl's Body Count: the FDA's Math Problem Seth Sandronsky Inflation and Speculation Patrick Cockburn Shias May Now Turn on US Forces   March 27, 2006 Patrick Cockburn War Crime in a Mosque Joshua Frank The Democrats' Daddy Warbucks Ron Jacobs The Case of the Anti-Minutemen Five Jeff Lays Eternal Spending for a Never-Ending War Davey D. We Didn't Cross the Border, the Border Crossed Us Robert Billyard "I Did Not Join the British Army to Conduct US Foreign Policy" Jim Rigby Why We Let an Atheist Join Our Church Lisa Viscidi Justice and Impunity in Latin America: the Case of Rios Montt Nick Dearden Refugees: Thirty Years in the Western Sahara Gideon Levy Are We Done Killing Children, Yet? Website of the Day "Love Me, I'm a Liberal " (Updated) March 25 / 26, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Why There's No Strategy to End This War Patrick Cockburn The Battle for Baghdad: It's Already Begun Ralph Nader Bush's Divorce from Reality Christopher Reed Slave Labor and Hell Ships: Mitsubishi Awaits Judgment for Its War Crimes Jeff Ballinger Memo to Walter Mosley: the Crisis in Black Leadership Joseph Massad Blaming the Israel Lobby Brian Cloughley The Fifth Afghan War Chris Floyd Death in the Village of Isahaqi Elaine Cassel Abortion Politics: The FDA and Plan B Dave Zirin Death Row Talks Back to Etan Thomas John Chuckman Sorry, Prime Minister, Afghanistan is Not Canada's War Sharon Smith "Si Se Puede!": On Chicago's Streets Christopher Fons A City With Latinos Chris Kromm Coretta Scott King a Communist? There's a History Here John Bomar Neurotic-in-Chief: Bush's "Change of Course" Ron Jacobs More Than Just a Band Maymanah Farhat What MoMA Does to "Islamic" Art St. Clair / Walker / Vest Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Harley, Davies, Engel and Subiet Website of the Weekend Peacecast   March 24, 2006 Cockburn / Sengupta / Duff How the CPT Hostages were Freed P. Sainath Bribe or Die Todd Chretien Jim Crow Goes Fishing: the Racist War on Immigrants Marty Omoto The Other California Michael Carmichael Islamophobia at Downing Street: Tony Blair's Bipolarity Peter Phillips Impeachment Movement Grows; Media Yawns Gabriel Kolko The US Empire vs. Reality Website of the Day Music for Peace   March 23, 2006 Charles V. Peña Bush's Pro-Terrorism Defense Budget Joe DeRaymond El Salvador 2006: a Broken Nation Robert Fisk "US Authorities Say..." Jonathan Cook The Emerging Jewish Consensus in Israel Tom Engelhardt Whatever Happened to Congress?: an Interview with Chalmers Johnson Joshua Frank Political Lemmings: the Democrats and the Precipice Norman Solomon The Ultimate Scapegoat: Blaming the Media for Bad War News Robert Fitch / Joe Allen An Exchange on the State of Organized Labor Patrick Cockburn Kirkuk's Dr. Death CounterPunch News Service On the Proper Way to Address a Bible-Waving Republican State Senator from Maryland Website of the Day Bird-Dogging Kerry   March 22, 2006 David MacMichael Iranian Nuclear Showdown: an Unnecessary Crisis Juan Santos Brown Skin, Yellow Star: Making Latinos Illegal Paul Craig Roberts Hollow Nation: Americans Don't Live Here Anymore Patrick Cockburn Iraq's My Lai?: Shooting Any Iraqi Who Moves Ramzy Baroud The Jericho Raid Jason Leopold The Mysterious "Official One": Woodward's Plame-Leak Deep Throat Dennis Perrin Killer Lies from Cheney's Harlot William Blum The Cuban Punching Bag Jeffrey St. Clair Contract Casino Website of the Day Bird Flu: Will It Cross Over?   March 21, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Bush's Delusional Speech Winslow Wheeler Lipstick on the Pig: the Fiasco of Congressional Earmark Reform Tom Engelhardt Cold Warrior in a Strange Land: an Interview with Chalmers Johnson Arnold Oliver To the Guy Who Called Me a Traitor: Dissent and the Iraq War Earl Ofari Hutchinson When Black Cops Go Bad: the Killing of Elio Carrion Mike Whitney Death Squad Democracy William A. Cook Israeli Human Rights: Starve the Palestinians Sophia A. McLennen Assault on Higher Education: the Conservative Push for the Right Student   March 20, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts A Collapsing Presidency Dave Lindorff Howard Dean Tells CounterPunch: DNC No Foe of Impeachment Ralph Nader The DNC's "Grassroots Agenda": Howard Dean's Plea for Advice Diane Christian License to Lie: Over to You, Dante Jeff Halper "To Hell with All of You": the Power of Saying No Harry Browne Unhappy St. Patrick's Day: Bush's Crackdown on Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein Norman Solomon Why are We Here?: Is There a Right Way to Wage a Wrong War? Patrick Cockburn Death Squads on the Prowl; Iraq Convulsed by Fear Website of the Day Abugate   March 18 / 19, 2006 Cockburn / St. Clair Three Years On: Where's the Resistance Here on the Home Front? Werther Bombs and Butchers: "Where Do We Get Such Men?" Chris Kromm Katrina Aid Package: Much Too Little; Much Too Late Patrick Cockburn Halabja: Kurds Destroy Monument to Victims of Saddam's Poison Gas Attack Elaine Cassel Abortion Politics and Animus for Women: Can Justice Kennedy be Swayed? S. Brian Willson Iraq Vets and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Fred Gardner The War on Kids Brian Cloughley General Insanity: the Prevarications of Gen. Peter Pace Laura Carlsen Challenging Disparity: Toward a New US Policy in Latin America Eamon Martin Life in the Shadows of the Empire: Mysterious Photographers of Nothing Julie Hilden Free Speech in the Classroom: Teachers Don't Enjoy Enough Legal Protection Alison Weir So Much for "Sunshine Week": AP Erases Video of Israeli Soldier Shooting Palestinian Boy Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement LaMorticella, Krieger, Louise, and Engek Website of the Weekend Are the Elites Turning Against the Effects of the Israel Lobby?   March 17, 2006 Eduardo Galeano Abracadabra: Uruguay's Desaparecidos Begin to Appear Greg Moses Bush and Nuclear Preemption: Do You Feel Safe With This Man's Finger on the Button? Richard Falk / David Krieger The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is Dying: What Now? Cindy and Craig Corrie Three Ways to Remember Rachel Amira Hass Hamas's Haniyeh: "I Never Sent Anyone on a Suicide Mission" Mike Marqusee Reasons to March James Petas and Robin Eastman-Abaya Philippines: the Killing Fields of Asia Website of the Day Black Shamrock   March 16, 2006 Norman Solomon Hook, Line and Sinker: War-Loving Pundits Tom Philpott Neoliberalism at the Garden Gate: Community Farming in LA Heather Gray Anne Braden: the South's Rebel Without a Pause Amira Hass Is Hamas Playing into the Hands of Israeli Hardliners? Missy Comley Beattie Dangerous-to-Society Women: Locked Up in the Tombs Sen. Russell Feingold President Bush has Broken the Law; He Must be Held Accountable Lucinda Marshall President Ken Doll: Bush Insults Women on Intl. Women's Day Andrew Bosworth From the Man Who Voted Against Katrina Aid: Joe Barton's War on CITGO Clancy Sigal In Celebration of Dachau's 73rd Anniversary, Halliburton Gets Concentration Camp Contract Website of the Day Help Rebuild the New Orleans Public Library March 15, 2006 Jonathan Cook Israel's Raid on the Jericho Jail Winslow Wheeler Hiding the Cost of War: Paying for Iraq with Supplemental Funding Diane Christian Sharon's Stroke Ron Jacobs New Tenants for Abu Ghraib?: a Cell for Kissinger and Haig Missy Comley Beattie How Many Brinks to Pass? Jared Bernstein The Minority Wealth Gap Noam Chomsky The Crumbling Empire Website of the Day French Students Reclaim the Streets of Paris   March 14, 2006 Earl Ofari Hutchinson No Requiem for a Black Conservative: the Fall of Claude Allen Dave Lindorff Why the Gitmo Tribunals are a Bad Idea: Exhibit A, t he Moussaoui Case Kevin Zeese Divide and Rule in Iraq Gone Awry Todd Chretien Counting the Dead in Iraq: Why is the Left Understating the Carnage? Jason Kunin Canada in Afghanistan: "We're Here Because We're Here" Thomas Palley The Economics of Outsourcing Cockburn / St. Clair Pages from the Liberals' War Website of the Day Golf Courses and Swimming Pools   March 13, 2006 Uri Avnery The Missing Word Dave Lindorff Extra, Extra! Media Reports on Censure Motion Mike Whitney South Dakota's Taliban: the Fanatics are on the Loose David Green Questions of Solidarity: Blacks and Jews in Neo-Con America Jeremy Scahill Rest Easy, Bill Clinton: Slobo Can't Talk Any More Mike Ferner Up Against the Wall, Son: Hungering for Justice During My First Congressional Testimony Corey Harris Memories of Ali Farka Touré Paul Craig Roberts Killing Off Milosevic: Was Serbia a Practice Run for Iraq? Website of the Day Prayer Flags for Peace March 11 / 12, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Democrats: When the War Was Lost Ralph Nader Bush at the Tipping Point Paul Craig Roberts Why Did Bush Destroy Iraq? Ben Tripp My Night at the Oscars: the Happy People Speak Out John Strausbaugh The Cowboys and the Village Voice: Alt Press Flagship Goes Corporate Landau / Hassen Why "We" Fight "Their" Wars Robert Bryce A Thousand Pages of Rage Gary Leupp Why They Really Think They Must Defeat Iran Fred Gardner "But He's Good on Our Issue" Ron Jacobs Condi and Iran: Folly, Tragedy and Farce Jonathan Scott Science Fiction's Black Oracle: the Genius and Courage of Octavia Butler Ramzy Baroud Who Will Stop Bush's Militant Militarists? Jordan Flaherty Gitmo on the Mississippi: Life Under the Klan Wasn't This Bad John Chuckman Parable of the Hatchet: the Fallacy of Nation-Building in Afghanistan Joe Allen Smearing Ron Carey and the TDU: Bob Fitch's Hatchet Job Julia Kendlbacher Amazonia: Where All Life Matters St. Clair / Walker / Pollack / Vest Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Hassen, Harley, Ford and Subiet Website of the Weekend No Hay Ser Humano Ilegal   March 10, 2006 Ben Rosenfeld The Great Green Scare and the Fed's Case Against Rod Coronado: a War on the First Amendment Lila Rajiva The Gitmo Documents: Miller, Boykin, Cambone and Feith Saree Makdisi From Rachel Corrie to Richard Rogers: the Wall, the Javits Center and the Bullying of an Architect Elena Shore FBI Grills US Professor Over Support for Venezuela Joshua Frank How the Green Party Slays Their Own Dave Zirin Lynching Barry Bonds Aura Bogado An Interview with Subcomandate Marcos   March 9, 2006 John Walsh Neocon Daniel Pipes Advocates Civil War in Iraq as Strategic Policy Annie Zirin Leftwing Generals: the Dark Side of Liberal Imperialism Brian McKenna We All Live in Poletown Now: GM and the Corporate Uses of Eminent Domain Chris Floyd Scar Tissue: How the Bushes Brought Bedlam to Iraq Rachard Itani "Over There": Iraq as Soap Opera Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Action Thing Wylie Harris Immigration and Jeffersonian Democracy: Free Borders Make Good Neighbors Alexander Cockburn Ex-State Department Security Officer Charges Pre-9/11 Cover-Up Website of the Day About Pace: Expelling Anti-War Students   March 8, 2006 Patrick Bond The Loans of Mass Destruction: Wolfowitz's Anti-Corruption Hoax at the World Bank Brian Concannon, Jr. Elusive Victories in Haiti Pat Williams Buyer's Remorse: Bush, the View from the Purple States Lance Selfa The Democrats and Dubai: the Politics of Distraction Mokhiber / Weissman Have You Ever Been Convicted of a Felony? Walter Brasch Compromising Civil Liberties Vijay Prashad For Them Indian Mangoes: Anatomy of an Agreement Website of the Day Rachel Corrie: a Call to Action   March 7, 2006 Werther Half a Trillion Dollars: It's an Awful Lot of Money to Make Us Less Safe and Less Free John Blair Dr. Strangelove is Our President: Global Peace Through Nuclear Weapons Dave Lindorff The Impeachment Groundswell and Bush's Last Hope: the Democrats Mike Whitney No Immunity: Israel's Policy of Targeted Assassination Warren Guykema Who is Afraid of Rachel Corrie? Sen. Russell Feingold Misleading Testimony About NSA Domestic Spying Robert Jensen Why I am a Christian (Sort Of) Norman Solomon Digitalized Hype: a Dazzling Smokescreen? Bernie Dwyer Hopeful Signs Across Latin America: an Interview with Noam Chomsky Website of the Day Golem Song March 6, 2006 Ralph Nader Bush and Katrina: "Situational Information?" Dave Zirin Why Did Pat Tillman Die? an Investigation Reopens Vanessa Redgrave Censorship of the Worst Kind: the Second Death of Rachel Corrie Walter A. Davis Theater, Ideology and the Censorship of "My Name is Rachel Corrie" Joshua Frank Down By Law: the Mysterious Case of David Cobb Nate Mezmer A Second Look at "Crash": More Myths About Blacks and Racist Cops Paul Craig Roberts America's Bleak Jobs Future Website of the Day Crossroads: Race, Class and Art March 4 / 5, 2006 Alexander Cockburn The Dubai Ports Purchase: National Insecurity, Imported or Homegrown? Jennifer Van Bergen Bush's NSA Spying Program Violates the Law Steven Higgs Dying for Their Work: Westinghouse Workers and the Highest Level of PCBs Ever Recorded Winslow T. Wheeler The Generals, the Legislators and the Gulfstream VIP Transports Ron Jacobs Stealing Back Adam's Rib Rev. William E. Alberts Remember Damadola Colin Asher Goodbye, Dubai: the Teamsters and the Ports Fred Gardner Denney's Law "Pariah" Scapegoats and Shunning: Sexual Fascism in Progressive America John Scagliotti Brokeback Mountain: Pain is Not Enough Seth Sandronsky When the White House Walks Away: Bush, Arnold and the Flood Risk in the Central Valley Joan Roelofs A Challenge to Rebuild the World Arjun Makhijani The US / India Nuclear Pact: a Bad and Dangerous Deal Ardeshr Ommani Destroying the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Diana Barahona An Open Letter to Freedom House: Release Info on Your Federal Grants Ben Tripp Bonzo, Wherefore Art Thou? St. Clair / Socialist Worker Staff Playlist: What We're Listening To Poets' Basement Engel, Davies, Buknatski Website of the Weekend The Return of Pearl Jam March 3, 2006 Laura Carlsen Mexico: the Power of Corruption and the Corruption of Power John V. Whitbeck Two States or One? Chris Floyd The Monolith Crumbles: Reality and Revisionism About Iran Mohamed Hakki Wolfowitz at the World Bank: Cronyism and Corruption Pratyush Chandra Bush in India: Dinner with George and Manmohan John Scagliotti Why are There No Real Gays in "Brokeback Mountain"? Website of the Day Support the IRC!   March 2, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts How the Economic News is Spun Dave Lindorff Troops to Bush: Get Us Out of Here! Ramzy Baroud Middle East Democracy: the Hamas Factor Saul Landau Halfway Down the Road to Hell Joe Allen The Murder of George Jackson: an Interview with His Lawyer, Stephen Bingham Steve Shore Berlusconi on Capitol Hill: "I Am Italy!" Denise Boggs Roadless and Clueless: Wilderness Logging Greenwashed by Enviro Groups Norman Finkelstein The Attacks on Beyond Chutzpah Website of the Day ScreenHead   March 1, 2006 Mairead Corrigan Maguire The Human Right to a Nuclear Free World Niranjan Ramakrishnan The India That Can No Longer Say No Faheem Hussain Bush in Pakistan Antony Loewenstein Spinning Us to War with Iran: an Aussie Perspective Elizabeth Schulte The Charge to Overturn Roe Has Begun Mike Whitney Sudan: Beware Bolton's Sudden Humanitarianism John Ryan Canada and the American Empire Michael Donnelly Brokeback Mountain: a No Love Story Tom Reeves Haitian Election Aftermath Website of the Day Mardi Gras Index: Reuilding of New Orleans Stalled         Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition April 7--9, 2006 "Ideologies of Hatred" What Does Condi Mean? By GARY LEUPP On NBC's "Meet the Press" March 26 Condoleezza Rice told Tim Russert, "Saddam was not related to the events of 9/11. But if you really believe that the only thing that happened on 9/11 was people flew airplanes into buildings, I think you have a very narrow view of what we faced on 9/11. We faced the, the outcome of an ideology of hatred throughout the Middle East that had to be dealt with. Saddam Hussein was a part of that old Middle East. The new Iraq will be a part of a new Middle East, and we will all be safer." Russert might have asked whether the new, liberated Afghanistan and Iraq represent any improvement in the hatred department. In the former, to the administration's embarrassment and the consternation of its Christian fundamentalist supporters, people face death for conversion to Christianity. In the latter, women are now obliged to follow a religious dress code or risk attack. These countries are in Bush-theory "free and democratic" now, apparently solely because their regimes have been changed by U.S. military force. They're free by definition, much like the countries of the "Free World" labeled such during the Cold War. Rice's statement has drawn a lot of comment, which is appropriate, since this is a concentrated expression of the administration's logic as it proceeds to target other Middle East nations with no role in 9-11. But it's not new. Rice has been saying that the Middle East "provides a fertile ground for ideologies of hatred" since at least August 2003. She told U.S. troops in Afghanistan last May: "We are going to build a different kind of Middle East, a different kind of broader Middle East that is going to be stable and democratic and where our children will one day not have to be worried about the kind of ideologies of hatred that led those people to fly those planes into those buildings on Sept. 11." I suggested at the time that this was tantamount to saying that Islam itself generates hatred and is the problem. What other ideology extends from Morocco to the Khyber Pass? (The neocons like to talk about the "Greater Middle East" in order to include some Muslim nations outside the conventional geographer's Middle East.) Of course she used the plural form, ideologies, suggesting that hatred unites such diverse systems of thought as Syrian and Iraqi Baathism, the political Shiism of the Iranian mullahs and Hizbollah, the Sunni Islam of Hamas, the quasi-Marxism of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine founded by the Christian George Habash, etc. But the administration's strategy all along has been to conflate disparate foes, subliminally linking them to 9-11. In seeking support for ongoing war it banks on the geographical and historical confusion of the masses and the Islamophobia promoted by popular preachers like Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham. But the administration denies that it's anti-Islam. It finds the Christian right's anti-Muslim sermonizing useful, to the extent that it sustains support for U.S. aggression in the Middle East. But officially, it avers that "Islam is a religion of peace" and not one of hatred. So what does the former Stanford provost mean by "ideology of hatred"? And what is the object of the hate? "They hate our freedoms," the president has declared, "our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other." He was referring, soon after 9-11, specifically to al-Qaeda. But surely he wanted us to apply his charge to lots of others too. In any case Osama bin Laden disputed the allegation: "Let [Bush] tell us why we did not strike Sweden, for example We fought you because we want to restore freedom to our nation."This sort of statement resonates in places like the occupied Palestinian territories. There is surely distaste in much of the Middle East for some western freedoms, particularly those that challenge Islamic tradition or law. Some may hate "our freedom of religion"---those in Afghanistan who demonstrated in favor of the Christian convert's death penalty, for example. Some may hate "our freedom of speech"---when it allows insulting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, for example. But such hatreds are matched by our homegrown ones. A lot of Americans hate the fact that gay people have the freedom to marry in Massachusetts. Bush declares that it threatens heterosexual marriage. There are people in this country who go to military funerals waving signs declaring "God Hates Fags!" Talk about an ideology of hatred. So it shouldn't surprise Americans that some people from societies where women don't show their faces in public (and haven't for centuries) may feel revulsion at some of our freedoms. But if Condi were to look for hatreds reflected in ideologies in the Middle East, I'd imagine America's freedoms of religion, speech, and assembly actually rank low on the list. (Indeed, a Zogby poll taken in June 2002 showed that in nine Muslim countries the most admired country in the world was the U.S.) Getting real, what more substantial hatreds flourish in the "old Middle East"? And do any of them by their very existence threaten our children's future or require American intervention to eradicate? In no particular order: The Middle East has its share of ethnic and religious animosities, many of them longstanding. There is anti-Semitism, surely. But as one scholar points out, "Until the late 19th century, anti-Semitism as an ideology remained largely absent from Arab and Muslim culture."Twentieth century events, notably the establishment of the state of Israel and simultaneous dispossession of around 750,000 Palestinian refugees, have exacerbated this problem. Hatreds involving Jews, or Berbers or Kurds for that matter, have their analogues around the world. Americans and other westerners are not in a position to lecture the people of the Middle East about such hatreds, which in any event don't threaten "our freedoms." Many people in the Middle East hate the regimes under which they live. That of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, for example. If you read Human Rights Watch reports on the torture of imprisoned antiwar demonstrators you'll get some inkling of why many fear and despise Mubarak's government. That sentiment is reflected in the ideology of, for instance, the Muslim Brotherhood which, while de facto the largest opposition political party, is banned from fielding candidates for office. It's perfectly understandable. They don't hate others' freedoms but their own lack of them. Many hate western imperialism, which carved up the Arab lands after World War I, abetted the formation of Israel, installed puppet rulers, intervened arrogantly into inter-Arab quarrels, and (with the U.S. in the lead) insisted on maintaining sanctions against Iraq that killed half a million children. They hate U.S. Middle East policy. Opinion surveys make this clear. Between 2002 and 2004 the percentage of Egyptians expressing a negative attitude towards the U.S. rose from 76 to 98; Morrocans, 61 to 88; Saudis, 87 to 94. According to the Washington Post, "Those polled said their opinions were shaped by U.S. policies, rather than by values or culture. When asked: 'What is the first thought when you hear 'America'?' respondents overwhelmingly said: 'Unfair foreign policy.' And when asked what the United States could do to improve its image in the Arab world, the most frequently provided answers were 'Stop supporting Israel' and 'Change your Middle East policy.'" Now this "negative attitude" felt by tens of millions of reasonable people doesn't produce a single ideology. It factors into ideologies in the Middle East as diverse as Baathism, militant Shiism, Marxism and the worldview of the 9-11 hijackers. Hatred of unfairness is not itself an ideology but a very common human characteristic. 9-11 was "the outcome of an ideology of hatred" in the sense that the attacks were pulled off by men sharing a hatred of U.S. policy and the conviction that it was morally justifiable to slaughter thousands of civilians to express that hatred. The former feeling they share with the great majority of people throughout the Middle East (and world); the latter they share with relatively few. The al-Qaeda operatives hoped to spark a global jihad against the U.S., provoking responses to 9-11 that would generate more hatred on both sides. They probably figured that the more hatred there is, the less qualms jihadis would feel in targeting innocent people indiscriminately. That goes for their opponents as well. Thousands in Abu Ghraib, overwhelmingly innocent, have been subjected to humiliation and torture reflecting their captors' racist-tinged hatred. Bin Laden must be delighted at how the Bush administration has responded to 9-11. Condi may think the region and world "safer" as a result of the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, the saber-rattling at Syria and Iran, the tougher line towards the Palestinian Authority. But the overwhelming evidence suggests the "War on Terror" has generated both more hatred and more terror. That war too reflects an ideology, expressed in the New National Security Strategy document of September 2002 and other official papers. Its components include the insistence that the U.S. should maintain global primacy through "full spectrum dominance," that it's well and good to engage in unprovoked ("preemptive") attacks on other nations in order to acquire geopolitical advantage, that "regime change" orchestrated by the U.S. is justifiable, and that existing international laws and treaties can and should be ignored if to so is in the interest of corporate America. The current ideology of capitalist imperialism draws upon Christian fundamentalism, including Christian Zionist and millenarianism. It is the mother of ideologies of hate, and "must be dealt with." Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion. He is the author of Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan; Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan; and Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's merciless chronicle of the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, Imperial Crusades. He can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu

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"