Coming
in September
From AK Press
Featuring Essays by:
Edward Said, Robert Fisk, Michael Neumann, Shahid Alam, Alexander
Cockburn, Uri Avnery, Bill and Kathy Christison and More
Today's
Stories
August 13, 2003
Linville and Ruder
Tyson Strike Draws the Line
Gary Leupp
Condi's Speech: From Birgmingham
to Baghdad, Imperialism's Freedom Ride
Recent
Stories
August 13, 2003
Joanne Mariner
A Wall of Separation Through the
Heart
Donald Worster
The Heavy Cost of Empire
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Elaine Cassel
Murderous Errors: Executing the Innocent
Ralph Nader
Make the Recall Count
Alexander Cockburn
Ted Honderich Hit with "Anti-Semitism" Slur
Website of the Day
Defending Yourself Against DirectTV Lawsuits: 9000 and Counting
August 12, 2003
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Ron Jacobs
Revisionist History: the Bush Administration, Civil Rights and
Iraq
Josh Frank
Dean's Constitutional Hang-Up
Wayne Madsen
What's a Fifth Columnist? Well, Someone Like Hitchens
Ray McGovern
Relax,
It Was All a Pack of Lies
Wendy Brinker
Hubris in the White House
Website of the Day
Black
Mustache
August
11, 2003
Douglas
Valentine
Homeland Security for Whom?
Mickey
Z.
Bush's Progress
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: Meet the New Bitch, Same
as the Old
Elaine
Cassel
Indicting DNA
Dr. Mohammad
Omar Farooq
Civil Liberties and Uncivil Super-Patriotism
Uri
Avnery
Who Will Save Abu Mazen?
Website
of the Day
RIAA Subpoena Clearinghouse
August
9 / 10, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
California's Glorious Recall!
Saul
Landau
Bush and King Henry
Gary
Leupp
On Terrorism, Methodism, "Wahhabism"
and the Censored 9/11 Report
Paul de
Rooij
The Parade of the Body Bags
Michael
Egan
History and the Tragedy of American Diplomacy
Rob Eshelman
A Home of Our Own
Daoud
Kuttab
Life as an ID Card
Philip
Agee
Terror and Civil Society: Instruments of US Policy in Cuba
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man
Walt Brasch
Schwarzenegger, "Hollyweird"
and the Rigtheous Right
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush, Bribery and Berlusconi
Josh Frank
Mean, Mean Howard Dean
Elaine
Cassel
Will the Death Penalty Ever Die?
Sean Carter
Total Recall
Poets'
Basement
Hamod, Engel, Albert
August
8, 2003
John
Chuckman
What the US Says Goes
Roberto
Barreto
Defend the Vieques 12!
Bruce Gagnon
Iraq War Emboldens Bush Space Plans
Elaine
Cassel
The Reign of John Ashcroft
Dave
Lindorff
Snoops Night Out
Website
of the Day
Zero Boy
August
7, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
It the US a "Terrorist Magnet?"
Toni
Solo
Neo-liberal Nicaragua: a New Banana
Republic
Adam Lebowitz
Hiroshima Commemorated: the View from Japan
Hanan
Ashrawi
When the Bully Whines
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Conscience Takes a Holiday
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Lets Slip: Iraq Not Behind 9/11; No Ties to Al-Qaeda
Mike Kimaid
What's the Score?
Elaine
Cassel
The Smell of VICTORY: Ashcroft's Latest Stinkbomb
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
August 6, 2003
Steve
Higgs
Going to Jail for the Cause: It's Not
Easy Confronting King Coal
David
Krieger
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Robert
Fisk
The Ghosts of Uday and Qusay
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's War on the National Forests
Elaine
Cassel
No Fly Lists
Stan
Goff
Military Equipment and Pneumonia
Hugh Sansom
An Open Letter to Nicholas Kristof on the Nuking of Japan
August
5, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Prisoner of Ramallah: Arafat at
74
Forrest
Hylton
Terrorism and Political Trials: the
View from Bolivia
Ray
McGovern
"We Cook Estimates to Go"
David
Morse
Poindexter's Gambit
Edward
Said
Orientallism: 25 Years Later
George
W. Bush
My Darn Good Resumé
Hammond
Guthrie
It's Incremental, Watson!
Website
of the Day
National Prayer Day
August 4, 2003
Bruce
K. Gagnon
Another Peace Activist Detained by
Airport Cops: My Story
David
Lindorff
Fear-Mongering About Social Security
Mark
Zepezauer
George F. Will: Descent into Self-Parody
James
Plummer
Tracking You Through the Mail
Mickey
Z.
Marriage Insecurity from Sharon to Bush
Bruce
Jackson
News that Isn't News: How the NYT's
Pimps for the White House
August
2 / 3, 2003
Tamara
R. Piety
Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down
Francis
Boyle
My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool
David
Vest
Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side
Neve Gordon
Nightlife in Jerusalem
Uri
Avnery
Their Master's Voice:
Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus
Robert
Fisk
Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq
Jerry
Kroth
Israel, Yellowcake and the Media
Noah Leavitt
What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to
Intervene?
Saul
Landau
The Film Industry: Business and Ideology
Ron Jacobs
One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson
Thomas
Croft
In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta
Amadi Ajamu
Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader?
Poets'
Basement
Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming
August
1, 2003
Joanne
Mariner
Stopping Prison Rape
Alex Coolman
Who Moved My Soap: Trivializing
Prison Rape
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Stan Goff
Injury and Decorum: The Missing Wounded in Iraq
Wayne
Madsen
Europe Unplugs from the Matrix
Robert
Fisk
Wolfowitz the Censor
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft Loses Big in Puerto Rico
Website
of the Day
Stop Prisoner Rape
July
31, 2003
Ray
McGovern
The Prostitution of Intelligence
Brian
Cloughley
Wolfowitz's Operative Statement
Sheldon
Hull
The RIAA's Jihad:
The Devil's Music (Industry)
Elaine
Cassel
The Next Time You Crack a Lawyer Joke, Think of These Attorneys
Sheldon
Rampton
and John Stauber
True Lies: Propaganda and Bush's
Wars
Hammond
Guthrie
Speculation Blues
Website
of the Day
Army of One?
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
July
30, 2003
David
Lindorff
Poindexter the Terror Bookie
Marjorie
Cohn
Why Iraq and Afghanistan? It's About
the Oil
Elaine
Cassel
How Ashcroft Coerces Guilty Pleas
in Terror Cases
Zvi
Bar'el
The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War
Lisa Walsh
Thomas
Killing Mustafa Hussein: Death of a Child, Birth of a Legend?
Sean
Carter
Pat Robertson's Prayer Jihad: God, Sodomy and the Supremes
ND Jayaprakash
India and Ariel Sharon
Steve
Perry
Bush's Top 40 Lies
Standard
Schaefer
Correction about Bloomberg and Outscourcing
Website
of the Day
Bring Them Home Now!
Hot Stories
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
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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August
14, 2003
The Strange Congressman Behind the CIA's
Most Expensive War
Charlie Wilson and Pakistan
By BRIAN CLOUGHLEY
'Charlie
Wilson's War', written by George Crile of 'Sixty Minutes',
is a good book about a bad man motivated by vanity and arrogance
to assist in producing billions of dollars to counter the Soviet
occupation of Afghanistan.
Crile describes people whose ethical
decrepitude was complemented by unmitigated desire to be regarded
as influential. There is hardly a person he mentions whom you
would have in your house to polish your boots, but they have
a weird fascination engendered by their total dedication to self-importance.
The main character in this rattling good
yarn, Charlie Wilson, was a US Congressman when the Cold War
was raging. Rarely can the prefix 'The Honourable' have been
less appropriate. The man was a drunken, shiftless, ignorant,
lying, drug-taking, zipper-flipping, corrupt, power-crazed cretin.
His only value was his ability, through membership of influential
Congress  Committees, to move large sums of money,
legally and often otherwise, as subsidies and to purchase weapons
and equipment for groups fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan.
The fact that most of the cash was wasted meant nothing to him.
Enormous quantities of weapons and money
were stolen by individuals and organizations within and outside
Afghanistan. Recently I was asked how a Pakistani former brigadier
could afford to live in the west in the style he does. His family
was poor, he had no land, and retired early with a tiny pension.
Yet he lives comfortably with no apparent means of support --
apart from the few million dollars he stashed away against a
rainy day when he was involved in the US/Saudi-Pakistan- mujahideen
supply chain. And he is only one of the many who took advantage
of their positions to dip their fingers in that ever-open cash
box, thanks to Wilson and his greasy associates. Little wonder
Wilson is regarded as a hero by some odd people.
In 1991, after the Russians left Afghanistan,
it was intended in Washington that the flow of cash should cease.
And not only in Washington, as Crile records, for Bob Oakley,
a most effective US ambassador to Islamabad who I much respect,
"drew the conclusion that America's national interests were
not being served" by continuing to throw money and weapons
into the eager grasp of the increasingly factious and murderous
mujahideen. Congressman Wilson thought otherwise, and as a member
of the House Intelligence Committee was able to waste many more
millions of US taxpayers' dollars propping up such luminaries
as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar whom the CIA later tried to assassinate.
Wilson was also a member of the Defense
Appropriations Committee to which bunch of self-important prats
the US armed forces pay court because they need money and the
best way to obtain it was (and is) to cultivate committee members,
no matter how nauseating and pompous they might be.
It was ever thus, and I am reminded of
the wonderful 'Don't Go Near the Water' written by William Brinkley
(Jonathan Cape, 1957), caricaturing a US Navy public relations
unit in the Pacific during the war against Japan. Brinkley's
description of dignitaries visiting the region is pointed. "VIP
treatment", he wrote, "varied according to rank. Ordinary
congressmen, for example, were met by, in addition to a Correspondents'
Aide, a captain and a station wagon and given corner rooms in
the VIP [accommodation], while a congressman who happened to
be a member of the Naval Affairs Committee was met by flag rank
and a Buick and put up in the guest room of Com-Fleets. When
[the HQ] was alerted that the chairman of the Senate Naval Affairs
Committee was en route, the preparations took on the aspects
of those for the Second Coming..."
Steeped in tradition, the US Navy maintains
its customs, and Crile notes that in 1985 the sleazebag Charlie
Wilson was entertained for a weekend on the aircraft carrier
USS Saratoga with a beautiful strumpet called Annelise Ilschenko,
together with "three of his Texas drinking pals [and] his
twenty-seven-year old defense aide, Molly Hamilton".
According to Crile, "Hamilton .
. . was not exactly a good-time girl, and was frankly appalled
by what she perceived to be a clear abuse of congressional power."
Another objectionable aspect of this shoddy little jamboree was
that although the Navy forbids alcohol on board, the slimey Wilson
took his own large supply. Rules don't apply to those who make
the rules. Throughout his squalid career Wilson thoroughly abused
congressional privilege, misusing it to take luxurious jaunts
round the world, and, on one occasion, in a particularly disgusting
episode, even for Wilson, to escape prosecution for a drunk driving
car smash.
I first heard of Wilson in the mid-Eighties
in connection with the US embassy in Islamabad where he behaved
in a bizarrely immature fashion. Zia ul-Haq knew how to manipulate
Americans in the game of flattery, and lushed up Wilson and his
floozies (who rotated, as it were, on all his publicly-funded
junkets) in order to obtain more and more weapons and cash.
Zia was clean -- not even Benazir Bhutto, who hated him deeply,
has ever suggested otherwise -- and knew human weakness very
well. He played on the egos of ingenuous knaves like Wilson and
turned a blind eye when his own in-house jackals corruptly stashed
away the goodies, in cash and kind. Pakistani officers and Afghan
leaders who became rich during the Wilson/CIA/Saudi years of
fabulous generosity may have thought their activities discreet,
but Zia knew what was going on and quietly laughed up his sleeve
while continuing to fool the unbelievers.
Wilson controlled the cash taps, and
Zia wasn't going to turn them off even if it meant acting contrary
to his own principles. Zia sometimes remarked that lying and
dissembling in the interests of Islam is permissible, and saw
Wilson as just another vulgar oaf who could be useful to further
his long-term plans. Crile seems to understand this, but doesn't
quite come out with it all. (His statement that one of Charlie's
trollops, Joanne Herring, "was awarded [the] country's highest
honour, the title of Quaid-e-Azam . . ." is regrettably
absurd, as the honorific is that of only one person: Mohammad
Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, but doesn't detract from
the overall picture.)
At the end of 1986 Wilson had another
Congressional freebie to Pakistan, this time with a tart called
'Sweetums' in tow. (He later wanted to marry Sweetums, but went
on a political junket without her. When Sweetums telephoned him
in the early morning she was answered by another tart. No wedding
bells for Charlie.) Wilson intended to fly from Rawalpindi to
Lahore (for a party) by the embassy aircraft, which is provided
by the Defense Department, and took it for granted that politicians'
scrubbers were allowed on board. The defence attaché said
words to the effect of Not on your life: she is not a member
of a branch of the US government, nor is she the spouse of such
a member; she is not on anyone's staff in any capacity other
than that of floozie so she is not going to travel on a DOD airplane.
(I know of this incident from first-hand sources.) The attaché
was in the right. Wilson shrieked his fury at the ambassador,
an honourable man who agreed with his DA: official airplanes
are not for transport of tarts. So no go for Sweetums.
Wilson managed to get his frippet to
Lahore on a plane provided by Zia, who laughed at the vulgarity
of his antics, and when he got back to Washington, as recorded
by Crile, took revenge by having the DOD aircraft withdrawn from
the embassy. His words to his fellow buffoons in his US Congress
Committee were "They have insulted me and they have insulted
my true love, Sweetums. I want you to give me my revenge",
which they did. (It is a sobering thought that these people were
America's legislators.)
There are other splendid descriptions
in Crile's book, including some of CIA officials who believe
in witchcraft (and actually try to use it; quite amazing) and
have chips on their shoulders the size of telegraph poles. (In
particular a man called Gust [sic] Avrakatos who is unbelievably
crass and boorish and very scary indeed.) The book is a thoroughly
good read, and adds to understanding of the corrupt committee
system on Capitol Hill and the attitude of some CIA employees.
These freaks are not representative of the CIA, for which organisation
I have considerable regard; but Crile's account of aberrations
sends shivers up the spine when one realises that there are many
oddballs still working for the Agency -- some of them in Afghanistan
and Iraq. But the wonder is that a piece of Neanderthal filth
such as Charlie Wilson could have exercised influence on the
foreign policy of the United States for so long.
Are there other Charlies still around?
Brian Cloughley
writes about defense issues for CounterPunch, Dawn and other
international publications. He can be reached at: beecluff@aol.com
Weekend
Edition Features for August 9 / 10, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
California's Glorious Recall!
Saul
Landau
Bush and King Henry
Gary
Leupp
On Terrorism, Methodism, "Wahhabism"
and the Censored 9/11 Report
Paul de
Rooij
The Parade of the Body Bags
Michael
Egan
History and the Tragedy of American Diplomacy
Rob Eshelman
A Home of Our Own
Daoud
Kuttab
Life as an ID Card
Philip
Agee
Terror and Civil Society: Instruments of US Policy in Cuba
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man
Walt Brasch
Schwarzenegger, "Hollyweird"
and the Rigtheous Right
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush, Bribery and Berlusconi
Josh Frank
Mean, Mean Howard Dean
Elaine
Cassel
Will the Death Penalty Ever Die?
Sean Carter
Total Recall
Poets'
Basement
Hamod, Engel, Albert
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