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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! |
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Today's Stories June 1, 2006 Jonathan Cook 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
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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
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May 22, 2006 Alan Maass William Blum Elaine C. Hagopian Stan Cox Chris Floyd Alexander Cockburn Website of the Day
May 20 / 21, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Kathy Kelly Ralph Nader Hugh O'Shaughnessy Greg Grandin P. Sainath Greg Moses Stephen Philion Landau / Hassen Fred Gardner Missy Comley
Beattie Michael Dickinson Seth Sandronsky Luke Young John Zavesky Ben Tripp Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement
May 19, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler José Pertierra John Ross Dave Lindorff Jeff Juel Alan Farago Eric Johnson-DeBaufre José Martî Jonathan Cook Website of the
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May 18, 2006 Bill Simpich Patrick Cockburn Christopher Brauchli Nora Barrows-Friedman Victoria Buch Eric Ruder George Wuerthner Juan Santos Website of the Day
May 17, 2006 Lenni Brenner Carlos Villarreal Larry Everest CounterPunch News Service Lee Sustar Anthony Papa William S. Lind Bruce K. Gagnon JoAnn Wypijewski Website of the Day
May 16, 2006 Ward Churchill Ted Honderich Paul Craig Roberts Annie Nocenti Charles V. Peña Ron Jacobs Norman Solomon Harvey Wasserman Michael George
Smith Harry Browne Website of the
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May 15, 2006 Alexander Cockburn William Blum Tanya Golash-Boza
and Douglas A. Parker Dave Lindorff Debra Schaffer
Hubert Patrick Cockburn Tom Turnipseed Ken Livingstone Gideon Levy Mickey Z. Jeff Faux Website of the Day
May 13 / 14, 2006 Vijay Prashad Joan Roelofs Kathy Kelly Michael Neumann Dr. Susan Block Daniel Cassidy Christopher Reed Mike Roselle Saul Landau Robert Fisk Ralph Nader Evelyn Pringle Fred Gardner Stanley Heller Conn Hallinan Valentina Palma Novoa David Krieger Col. Dan Smith Christopher Brauchli Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
May 12, 2006 Michael Snedeker Dave Lindorff Leah Fishbein
/ RJ Schinner Brian Kwoba Chris Kromm Kai Diekmann David Swanson Virginia Tilley Website of the
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May 11, 2006 Sunsara Taylor Jonathan Cook Tariq Ali Wayne S. Smith Mike Whitney Pratyush Chandra Joshua Frank Mickey Z. Francis Boyle Edward S. Herman
/ David Peterson Website of the
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May 10, 2006 Werther Larry Birns / Michael Lettieri Ramzy Baroud Kevin Zeese Evelyn Pringle Amira Hass Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Sharon Smith Website of the Day
May 9, 2006 Ray McGovern M. Shahid Alam Moshe Adler Walter MIgnolo Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor William S. Lind Todd Chretien Dave Lindorff Ishmael Reed Website of the
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May 8, 2006 Kate McCabe Paul Craig Roberts Col. Dan Smith Norman Solomon Ingmar Lee Robert Jensen Ricardo Alarcon Will Youmans / M. Kay Siblani Alexander Cockburn Website of the
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May 6 / 7, 2006 Jeffrey St. Clair Ariel Dorfman Joe Allen Fred Gardner Jeff Taylor Saul Landau Stephen Philion Trish Schuh Ralph Nader Robert Fisk Paul Cantor John Holt James Ryan Lawrence R. Velvel Greg Moses Laray Polk Ron Jacobs Ben Tripp Mickey Z. Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Website of the Week
May 5, 2006 Vijay Prashad Robert Fisk David Swanson Mearsheimer / Walt Dave Lindorff Sarah Ferguson CounterPunch
News Service Corporate Crime Reporter Website of the
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May 4, 2006 John F. Sugg Jonathan Cook Roger Burbach Chris Dols Christopher Brauchli Tony Swindell Website of the Day
May 3, 2006 Robert Bryce Paul Craig Roberts James Petras Lee Sustar David Bolton Joshua Frank Jeffery R. Webber Website of the
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May 2, 2006 Evelyn Pringle Tariq Ali Saul Landau Paul Craig Roberts Gary Leupp Ron Jacobs Sen. Russell
Feingold Anthony Papa Website of the
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May Day, 2006 Norman Finkelstein Christopher Reed Michael Donnelly Dave Zirin Mike Whitney Gilad Atzmon Missy Comley Beattie Alexander Cockburn Website of the
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April 29 / 30, 2006 Peter Linebaugh Ralph Nader Robert Bryce Rev. William
Alberts Lee Sustar John Chuckman Eric Ruder Seth Sandronsky Ron Jacobs Ben Tripp Fred Gardner Don Monkerud Tommy Stevenson Lettrist International Contratiempo St. Clair, Vest
and D'Antoni Poets' Basement Website of the
Weekend
April 28, 2006 James Ridgeway Ramzy Baroud Sarah Knopp William S. Lind Werther April 27, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler Robert Fisk Juan Santos Robert Jensen Dave Lindorff Jose Pertierra
April 26,2006 Robin Philpot Sherry Wolf Pratyush Chandra Joshua Frank Gary
Leupp Bill
Quigley
April 25, 2006 Gary
Leupp Paul
Craig Roberts Linda
S. Heard Ralph
Nader Mike
Whitney Michael
Donnelly Sharon
Smith Website
of the Day
April 24, 2006 Tim
Wise John
Stanton Dave
Lindorff Steve
Shore Amadou
Deme Mickey
Z. Ralph Nader Alexander
Cockburn Website
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June 1, 2006 Return of the Petri Dish WarriorsA New Biowar Arms Race Begins in MarylandBy KEVIN ZEESE
The United States has come along way since our British ancestors used small pox poisoned blankets as a biological weapon against Indians. But, sadly, biological weapons are still with us--indeed they are becoming a major thrust of the U.S. military and a threat to humanity. Ft. Detrick in Frederick, MD, just 45 miles away from the nation's capitol, is going through a massive expansion into the largest bio-weapons facility in the world. The federal government is installing a 220 acre campus that will bring together numerous federal agencies anchored by a massive U.S. Army building--22 acres in size. The National Interagency Biodefense Campus (NIBC) is likely to ignite a bio-weapons arms race.
Not only is this a multi-billion dollar misuse of federal funds, but it will encourage our adversaries to develop similar programs, lead to the invention of new, infectious agents and increase the risk of diversion of U.S. made bio-weapons to our adversaries. If the government really want to increase the safety of Americans the U.S. would invest in the public health system, strengthen international controls and work to remove pathogens from the face of the earth, rather than creating new ones. The only modern bio-weapons attack was the use of anthrax in letters to Senators Daschle and Leahy at the time the Patriot Act was being considered. There is no question the anthrax used in this attack was produced in the United States and came through Ft. Detrick. The type of anthrax used was the "Ames strain," with a concentration and dispersability of one trillion spores per gram--a technology that is only capable of production by U.S. scientists. It is not surprising that the only bio-weapons attack originated in U.S. laboratories. As advocates Barry Kissin and Richard Ochs point out:
Now, the U.S. is expanding the number of laboratories involved in bio-weapons development by the hundreds, the number of individuals involved by the thousands thereby increasing exponentially the number of people who have access to these weapons and the risk of diversion of the material. The U.S. may end up spending billions of dollars and provide those who oppose the United States with weapons they could not produce themselves. The U.S. is also developing new methods of using bio-weapons. Attorney and Congressional candidate Barry Kissin testified recently that,
International Controls Weakened By the Bush Administration The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) bans the development, production, stockpiling, acquisition and retention of microbial or other biological agents or toxins, in types and in quantities that have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes. The Convention also bans weapons, equipment or means of delivery designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict. The actual use of biological weapons is prohibited by the 1925 Geneva Protocol and Article VIII of the BTWC recognizes that nothing contained in the Convention shall be construed as a derogation from the obligations contained in the Geneva Protocol. The investment in bio-weapons that is likely to spur a bio-weapons arms race is occurring at a time when the Bush administration is blocking the strengthening of international controls of such weapons. In 2001, the U.S. rejected an effort to conclude an inspections protocol for the BTWC. The United States was the only country to favor terminating efforts to create a legally binding inspection and verification mechanism. Further, on October 23, 2002, when the UN Disarmament Committee adopted a resolution reaffirming the 1925 Geneva Protocol "prohibiting the use of poisonous gases and bacteriological methods of warfare," the resolution passed unanimously, with two abstentions: the U.S. and Israel. The U.S. abstention amounts to a veto: banning the resolution from being reported. The combination of massive new investment in bio-weapons facilities and the blockage of international controls on such weapons could be a deadly one for the world.
Fort Detrick actually began in 1943 as Camp Detrick and worked with the British in creating an anthrax bomb. It became a permanent Army installation, Fort Detrick in 1956 and developed offensive bio-weapons. But, in 1969 during the Vietnam War, when the U.S. was criticized for using gas, napalm and herbicides in Vietnam, President Nixon unilaterally ended the nation's offensive biological warfare program and ordered pathogens and toxins destroyed. This also led to the signing of the Biological Weapons and Toxins Convention in 1972 which became law in 1975. It was discovered in 1975 that the CIA had disobeyed the order to destroy all bio-weapons stocks, and had retained pathogens and toxins for its own use. In the 1980's, the Reagan and Bush Administrations revived the dormant budget for "defensive" biowarfare research. It was also in the 1980's that the U.S. supplied Saddam Hussein with basis for Iraq's biowarfare capability. After 9/11 the Bush administration dramatically increased funding for bio-weapons activity. Ft. Detrick will become the National Interagency Biodedefense Campus (NIBC) bringing together the U.S Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, the National Institute of Health, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Agriculture. The campus will cost billions of dollars, cover hundreds of acres, include millions of square feet of buildings and thousands of square feet of BSL-4 (Level 4) laboratory space--laboratories used for experimentation with infectious agents which there exists neither a vaccine nor a cure. All of this in the now heavily populated Frederick County with more than 200,000 residents. As part of their efforts of "defending" the United States from bio-weapons, Ft. Detrick will be creating new weapons, as well as the means to mass-produce and disseminate them. The rationale is that to defend against the weapons we have to understand them. In the Frederick News Post, Barry Kissin, a lawyer activist who is running for Congress in Frederick, asked Col. Mary Deutsch, Fort Detrick's Commander, about the work at the base and she acknowledged that among the technology used will be "genetic engineering or recombinant DNA technology" along with many other "advanced methods." Follow up questions by Kissin's colleagues about allowing international inspections and potential violations of international treaties went unanswered. The former chief American negotiator of the Biological Weapons Convention, James Leonard, has warned that the administration's initiative could be interpreted as "development" of biological weapons in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention Of course, there are endless variations of pathogens so this is a never ending task--a constant drain of billions of U.S. tax dollars on a strategy that will never lead to safety. According to Dr. Milton Leitenberg, a veteran arms control advocate and senior scholar at the University of Maryland's Center for International and Security Studies, germ warfare agents can be genetically modified and each modification may require a different vaccine or countermeasure.
Ft. Detrick has had significant problems over the years. Before 1969 a seven story tower was used to house anthrax bacteria. When Nixon stopped production the tower was off limits. There were repeated efforts to clean the tower. A 1993 Ft. Detrick publication noted that the tower had been used to grow anthrax "a dangerous organism which can lie dormant for thousands of years in a spore state [and then become reactivated]." The Tower was demolished in 2003 and all indications are that the rubble was deposited in the Frederick County landfill. In addition, in the 1991 it was discovered that water supplies surrounding Ft. Detrick contained high levels of cancer causing agents, TCE and PCE. The Washington Post reported: "The Maryland Department of the Environment and the Frederick County Health Department tested 33 wells at homes near Area B. Half were contaminated with the two agents, six so badly that the water was unfit to drink. In a few wells, concentrations of the two chemicals exceeded Environmental Protection Agency limits many times over. In an Army monitoring well nearest the dump, the chemicals were so concentrated, "you could smell it," said Joseph Gortva, an engineer who is managing the cleanup." In 2003, The Guardian headlined "U.S. Finds Evidence of WMD--at last--Buried in Maryland." They reported:
The Washington Post report noted that deer jump through the fields and cattle roam where the poisons were found. And, in addition traces of Agent Orange. This year, the Frederick News Post, received responses to Freedom of Information Act requests that documented anthrax being found in unprotected areas outside of carefully guarded suites. They also found documentation of workers' potential exposures to biological agents between April 1, 2002, and Dec. 1, 2005. The reports also documented that adherence to and enforcement of safety and security procedures was lax. Further, 161 biological defense mishap reports were filed between April 1, 2002 and Dec. 1, 2005. Between 1989 and 2002, Ft. Detrick's clinic evaluated 234 individuals for potential exposure to agents of bioterrorism and nonbioterrorism -- 162 cases were assessed as minimal, negligible or no risk; 67 were assessed as moderate or high risk. These reports are consistent with whistleblowers who have reported sloppy procedures and missing bio-agents over the years. Neighbors have also been affected. For example in May of 2005, residents downwind of Fort Detrick woke up one morning to find their residential properties coated with flakes of a soot-like substance. And in August 2005, there was a "suspicious odor" at the Fort's wastewater treatment plant. According to the Fort's spokesperson an "unknown source" dumped an "unknown substance" into the sewer line at the steam plant.
At a time when the U.S. public health care system is unprepared for epidemics--natural flu's for example, massive funds are being spent chasing an endless variety of pathogens, of unpredictable genetic make-up, a chase the U.S. can never win. Dr. Muin Khoury, Director of the Office of Genomics and Disease Prevention at the CDC stated in February 2003: "Public health is in disarray, and this emphasis on terrorism is eroding the public health infrastructure even more." In March, 2005, more than 750 US biologists including two Nobel laureates and seven past presidents of the American Society for Microbiology, signed an open letter to NIH protesting at the excessive use of bacteriology funds for the study of bio-terror threats. "The diversion of research funds from projects of high public-health importance to projects of high biodefence relevance represents a misdirection of NIH priorities and a crisis for NIH-supported microbiological research." They conlude: "Bioweapons agents cause, on average, zero deaths per year in the United States, in contrast to a broad range of non-prioritized microbial pathogens that cause tens or hundreds of thousands of deaths per year." Essentially, misdirection of funds is making America less safe, not more. The direction of the United States is misplaced. It is time for transparent monitoring under the Bioweapons Convention, investment in the public health system and making sure pathogens are no longer produced. Kevin Zeese is Director of DemocracyRising and a candidate for U.S. Senate. For more information: Free From Terror: http://www.freefromterror.net/
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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. |