home / subscribe / donate / about us / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events

 

New Edition of CounterPunch

The Return of Robert Rubin: Kerry, Jobs and the Economy by Alexander Cockburn; Party Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe by Jeffrey St. Clair; The Kill Zone: Caring for the Wounded in Fallujah by David Martinez. In April, CounterPunch Online was read by 16.1 million viewers--by far our biggest month ever. 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 (tax deductible) donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now!

Or Call Toll Free 1-800-840 3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Cockburn / St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
Now Available!

Today's Stories

May 5, 2004

Gilbert Achcar
Bush's Cakewalk into the Iraq Quaqmire

 

May 4, 2004

Human Rights Watch
A Timeline of Torture and Abuse Allegations and Responses

Kurt Nimmo
The CIA Privatized Torture

David Peterson
CBS, Self-Censorship & Iraq

Barry Lando
CACI's Private Torture Chambers

Patrick Cockburn
Torture: Iraqis Disgusted, But Not Surprised

Dr. Susan Block
Indecent Insurgents: Watch What You Say

Fidel Castro
A Mindless, Unnecessary War

Mike Whitney
Empire of Torture

Sonali Kolhatkar
How to Stop the War: Demonstrate Against John Kerry

Josh Frank
The Lost Sierra Club

Stan Goff
The Role: Another Open Letter to US Troops in Iraq

Agustin Velloso
Spare Us Your Disgusting Ethics

Stew Albert
American Know-How

Website of the Day
Scenes from a Cover-Up

May 3, 2004

Virginia Tilley
Let the Wall of Silence Fall

May 1 / 2, 2004

Patrick Cockburn
An Army in Disgrace, a Policy in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat

Robert Fisk
"Good Guys" Who Can Do No Wrong

Alexander Cockburn
Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders, Useless Spies, Angry World

Heather Williams
Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin American Troops Flee Iraq

Diane Rejman
An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq: Abu Ghraib as My Lai?

Diane Christian
Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and Sharon Speak the Same Language

Patrick Cockburn
Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah

Dave Lindorff
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked, Shocked, Shocked

Chris Floyd
Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists and Annihilation

April 29 / 30, 2004

Dave Zirin
A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome Death of Pat Tillman

Kathy Kelly
The Warden's Tour

Greg Weiher
Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the Banality of Evil

Michael S. Ladah
Terrorism and Assassination: the Ultimate Depception

Patrick Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies

 

April 28, 2004

Christopher Brauchli
Meet Congressman Know-Nothing: Tom Tancredo

Wendy Brinker
The Politics of the Numb

Faisal Kutty
The Dirty Work of Canadian Intelligence

John Chuckman
Seeking the Evil One

Mike Whitney
Flag-Draped Coffins and the Seattle Times

Tom Mountain
Rwanda and the F***** Word

Graeme Greenback
The Iraqi Alamo: a CNN/CIA Production

Tracy McLellan
The War Comes Home

M. Junaid Alam
We are the Barbarians

William Loren Katz
Iraq, the US and an Old Lesson


April 27, 2004

James Davis
The Colombia 3 Acquitted

Dave Lindorff
Chalabi as Prosecutor

Bruce Schneier
Terrorist Threats and Political Gain

Cockburn / Sengupta
British Generals Resist Calls for More Troops to Aid Americans in Iraq

Walt Brasch
Presidential Letters: The Day I Was Asked to Feed an Elephant

Saul Landau
The Empire in Denial and the Denial of Empire

 


April 26, 2004

Patrick Cockburn
Crossing the Shia Line: US Troops Prepare to Enter Najaf

Wayne Madsen
Trading Places: Will the US Go the Way of the USSR?

Grover Furr
Protest, Rebellion, Commitment

Elaine Cassel
Lies About the Patriot Act

Mickey Z.
Inspired by Pat Tillman?

Greg Moses
Bremer's De-De-Ba'athjfication Gambit

Gila Svirsky
Anarchy in Our Souls

Uri Avnery
Vanunu and the Terrible Secret


April 24 / 25, 2004

William A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry and Bush Melt into One

Jeffrey St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank

Brandy Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So

Robert Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free Speech

Ben Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios

Nelson Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg

Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future

Kurt Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman

Mark Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?

Patrick Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals

Gary Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas

Col. Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush

Greg Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...

Elaine Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review

Vanessa Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney

Jim French
Agriculture's Bullied Market

Hammond Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles

Poets' Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella


April 23, 2004

Ron Jacobs
The Only Solution is Immediate Withdrawal

Dave Lindorff
Imagination Deficit Disorder

Mokhiber / Weissman
Contractors and Mercenaries: the Rising Corporate Military Monster

Norman Solomon
Country Joe Band, 2004: "What Are We Fighting For?"

Cynthia McKinney
All Things Are Not Equal: the Perils of Globalization

CounterPunch Wire
A Bitch Called Wanda

Karyn Strickler
Sierra Club, Inc.

Hammond Guthrie
Yellow Caked in the Face

Paul de Rooij
Graveyard of Justifications: Glossary of the Iraqi Occupation

 


April 22, 2004

Patrick Cockburn
When Terror Came to Basra: "I Saw a Minibus of Children on Fire"

Tanya Reinhart
The Wall Behind Disengagement

Lance Selfa
Why is Kucinich Still in the Race?

Josh Frank
Street Fighting Man? Kucinich's Pulled Punches

Sen. Robert Byrd
Bush Owes America Answers on Iraq

William S. Lind
Why We Get It Wrong

Mickey Z.
Undoing the Latches

Robert Jensen
Why They Fast: Remembering the Victims of the World Bank

John L. Hess
The New York Times from 30,000 Feet

 

April 21, 2004

Gary Leupp
Yeats on Iraq

Alfredo Castro
Colombia's Forgotten Prisoners

Dr. Susan Block
Bush's Taliban Drug Deal

William A. Cook
George 1 to George 2

Jack Random
Iraq and Vietnam

Jean-Guy Allard
Alarcon Meets the Editors

Mike Whitney
Charade in the Desert

Bill Christison
Only Major Policies Changes Can Help Washington Now

 


April 20, 2004

Dave Lindorff
Bush and Kerry Share a Problem

Stan Cox
Wal-Mart's Magic Numbers

Bruce Anderson
On Listening to Air America

Joseph Kalvoda
Czech Mate for Condi

Greg Moses
Yesterday's Intelligence

Stan Goff
The Democrats and Iraq

Website of the Day
Santorum Happens

 

 


April 19, 2004

Kurt Nimmo
The "Central Hand" of the Resistance

Mike Whitney
Bob Woodward's Imperial Trifles

Douglas Valentine
52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1 Rule

John Chuckman
The Sharon Annex: Evil Does Often Triumph

Doug Giebel
Welcome to the Club

Rahul Mahajan
Hospital Closings and War Crimes

 

April 16 / 18, 2004

Robert Fisk
Bush Legitimizes Terror

Saul Landau
Subverting Brazil and Cuba

Dave Lindorff
Paying for War: $2,150 per Family and Counting

Brandy Baker
Fallujah's Collateral Damage

Mickey Z.
The Left Attacks from the Right

Bruce Jackson
The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit Uns

Norman Solomon
How the "NewsHour" Changed History

Alexander Cockburn
Bush, Kerry and Empire

 

April 15, 2004

Greg Moses
Follow the Families, Not the Script

Virginia Tilley
The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt: Just Change the Channel

Ron Jacobs
They Coulda Been Champions of the World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic

Michael Neumann
A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail

 

April 14, 2004

Tom Reeves
Return to Haiti: an American Learning Zone

Reza Fiyouzat
Japan and Iraq

Ron Jacobs
What Bush Really Said

Diane Christian
The Real Passion


 

Hot Stories

Alexander Cockburn
Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con!

Subcomandante Marcos
The Death Train of the WTO

Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens as Model Apostate

Steve Niva
Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?

Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians

Steve J.B.
Prison Bitch

Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War

Wendell Berry
Small Destructions Add Up

CounterPunch Wire
WMD: Who Said What When

Cindy Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From

Gore Vidal
The Erosion of the American Dream

Francis Boyle
Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution

Click Here for More Stories.

 

 

Subscribe Online

 

May 5, 2004

The Powerful are Exempt from the Label

Terrorists R US

By PATRICK B. BARR

"We do not want the Filipinos. We want the Philippines. The islands are enormously rich, but unfortunately, they are infested with Filipinos."

-- The influential San Franciso Argonaut (early 1900s)

It's normal, over time, that words change their meanings. In the early 20th century, gay didn't mean homosexual. And just a few years ago, bad actually meant bad.

And, at a time when there may have been a bit less dishonesty in the land, the United States of America actually had a Department of War! But it has long morphed into the Department of Defense, which has conferred on the world's most powerful nation, the right to even wage defense from space.

During the past several years, the words "terrorist" and "terrorism" has been effectively nuanced. So cleverly has the transformation been made that whatever the actions of the major powers, they are never called terrorists. Waging an unprovoked war in Iraq is not terrorism; but opposing that occupation, is.

The word has been reserved solely for the weak who strike back in desperation.

Even the dictionaries are playing along, not recognizing that state terror exists:

The systematic use of violence as a means of intimidating or coercing societies or governments.

-- Worldnet(R) 1.6 (C)1997 Princeton University

The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.

-- The American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., (C)2000

It would seem that these companies associate themselves with the state and, thus, cannot see the forest for the trees.

In that context, Israel's policy of killing leaders of Palestinian organizations is not considered state terror, even though the Palestinians must be terrified of the overwhelming power of the state of Israel. The fact is that it is the Palestinians who are responding to Israeli state terror and not Israel responding to the suicide bombers from Palestinian. Note the behavior of Israel when things seem to be getting too quiet to satisfy Sharon's designs: another targeted killing.

On cursory examination, it should be painfully obvious to anyone that it is in the interest of Ariel Sharon to keep turmoil on the front burner, especially now that he has embedded President Bush, whose sympathy with Israeli tactics knows no bounds.

And in the case of the brutal war being waged against Iraq, not a single reporter, or talking head, has ever referred to the invasion as an act of terrorism. Unprovoked by Iraq, The USA travels across the ocean to unleash a deadly mix of weapons of mass destruction on innocent Iraqis, but it is the people resisting the brutal occupation who are labeled terrorists, both by the media and the perpetrators in the White House.

George Orwell may have foreseen 1984, but could anyone have conjured up 2004? Apart from the neo-conservatives, that is.

Patrick B. Barr, formerly with The Daily Gleaner, Kingston, Jamaica. He can be reached at barrybar@hotmail.com



Weekend Edition Features for April 24 / 25, 2004

William A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry and Bush Melt into One

Jeffrey St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank

Brandy Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So

Robert Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free Speech

Ben Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios

Nelson Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg

Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future

Kurt Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman

Mark Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?

Patrick Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals

Gary Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas

Col. Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush

Greg Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...

Elaine Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review

Vanessa Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney

Jim French
Agriculture's Bullied Market

Hammond Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles

Poets' Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella

Google
WWW http://www.counterpunch.org

 

Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!

home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /