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Bush's Worst Appointment Yet? Read Jeffrey St Clair's blazing expose of the new Interior Secretary nominee , Dirk Kempthorne, and make up your own mind. Even in the dingy history of Idaho's predators, Kempthorne stood proud as the dingiest of them all. Now he's poised to seize his place in history. Will he be the sleaziest Interior Secretary in history, sleazier than Watt, fouler than Fall? More on the great Israel Lobby debate! Norman Finkelstein blazes a new path, asks "Are the Neo-Cons really committed Zionists?" "Bliss was it in that dawn" Not in Michigan! Raymond Garcia describes Dem governor's appalling plan to scapegoat youth and teachers. Plus the full print version of Virginia Tilley's savage dissection on this website of the double-standard onslaught on Hamas by the US and EU. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! |
Today's Stories May 20 / 21, 2006 Patrick Cockburn 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
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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
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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
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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
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Edition Back to IraqThe Eve of DepartureBy KATHY KELLY Amman, Jordan. Yesterday, I eagerly awaited a visit from a friend who had just arrived from Iraq. We greeted each other warmly and marveled over having managed to stay in touch with each other through ten years, this in spite of distance, siege, warfare, occupation and his recent, acute need to maintain a low profile. Then he showed me his passport. Success! In it was a stamp allowing him to travel for six months to another land. "Tomorrow, we go!" he said, his usual upbeat and cheerful derring-do apparently intact. When I last saw him, in early April, he told me that he had received a letter threatening him with death if he didn't leave his home. Believing the threat was serious, he quickly moved his family to a village where they could live with in-laws. This was only a temporary solution. His best bet was to build a one room home for his family, adjacent to the home of other relatives living in a more remote village, and then to join the hundreds of Iraqis seeking visas to flee Iraq. I asked him to tell me what had happened since his hasty departure from Amman five weeks ago, when he had dropped a quick email to say there was an emergency in Iraq and he had to leave. Instead, he pulled out his camera. "I have pictures," he said, --indeed he did. He showed me at least 100 pictures. His youngest daughter playing with goats outside her new home. His oldest son patting a duck. The older daughter helping dig the foundation for the new home. His wife bringing food to those working in the field. One after another, the pictures flashed on a tiny screen. A steady narrative accompanied the pictures. The children are adjusting to living in a one room home, just built, without tiles or plaster. Nylon sheets cover the windows. They'll deal with the matter of schooling later; just now, schools are on vacation. The children play with three sheep, the neighbor's cows and two dogs. They run in the open air, and a bevy of children live nearby. At first, they didn't have a toilet, --we laugh over pictures of his children squatting in an open field. He's worried about mosquitoes at night. I was puzzled about why it was so important for me to see all of these pictures when what I really wanted to know pertained to current situations in Baghdad and other cities. Finally it dawned on me. I should understand that these pictures are the prized possession he'll carry with him as he leaves his beloved family, abruptly facing a future laden with uncertainty. When will he see them again? Later, he told me that when he and his family first moved out of the city, his father and his youngest son had been separated for three months. When they were finally reunited, my friend snapped a photo that captured the grandfather embracing the little boy. My friend wanted me to see this picture as clearly as possible. He tinkered with the camera, trying to enlarge the photo. How typical of my friend to understate his own distress, hoping I'll understand by studying the picture of his father who openly wept when he held the grandson. Cathy Breen sat us down for a home-cooked meal in the small hotel where we stay. Following dinner, my friend began to explain the events leading to his departure. He translated for his traveling companion, adding his own anecdotes from time to time, as they told us the gruesome, all too familiar accounts of people, some of whom they knew personally, who had been abducted, tortured and killed. Toward the end of a three hour conversation, my friend's companion relied on his own English to articulate the pain. "If I stay, I will be killed. What can I do?" he asks. "Maybe I will find some chance. Every day, I miss my wife, my children, my family. Before, my father, my mother, my brother, and I, and our children, we all live together. I cook for all. Now, all the people are afraid." He shows us how they cower, how U.S. soldiers aim at them and shout at them. Trying to control his agitation, he asks, "Why? Why am I here now? I have two children, very beautiful. I have wife, very beautiful. I want to sleep with my wife, make the dinner, --my wife is in one place, my mother in another, my brother still another place, I am here. All these problems, Why? For the freedom?!" He continues with the long list of indignities suffered by Iraqis whose infrastructure only deteriorates. The occupiers have done almost nothing to help rebuild while, in his view, new rulers will continue looting Iraq. "Believe me, this is the blackest point in American history," he says. "But please," he pleads, "send our voice to honest American people." And what is it that honest American people can do? The honest Americans can put the U.S. administration on notice that "staying the course" is not a strategy, that this course has been bloody, dirty, reckless, and wrong. The honest Americans can feel wretched remorse over every dime handed over to the warmongers who lead the U.S. and do their best to stop the hemorrhaging flow of dollars that fuels ongoing war. As countless Iraqis flee from their homes, we must beg one another, in the U.S., to slow down and think about where our country is going. As the majority of Iraqis live without basic securities, we must insist that the U.S. government pay for reparations rather than continue to bankroll the military expense accounts. We bade goodbye to our friends on the eve of their departure. My friend added our photos to his collection of family portraits. Kathy Kelly is the author of Other Lands Have Dreams and a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a Chicago based campaign to end U.S. military and economic war against Iraq, www.vcnv.org She can be reached at: Kathy@vcnv.org
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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. |