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What You're Missing in our subscriber-only CounterPunch newsletter Did Oprah Pick Another Fibber? Truth and Fiction in Elie Wiesel's Night In his special report Alexander Cockburn interviews former Wiesel colleague and Holocaust survivor Eli Pfefferkorn. What Raul Hilberg, the Holocaust's greatest historian, really thinks about Wiesel's "Night". Also in this special issue: Is Hugo Chavez Hitler or Father Christmas? Larry Lack tells the full story of Venezuela's hand-outs to Uncle Sam's Shivering Poor. Plus, Jeffrey St Clair profiles the Endangered Visigoth and traces the rise and possible fall of Rick Pombo, destroyer of nature. 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! Get CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year

Today's Stories March 7, 2006 Bernie Dwyer Hopeful Signs Across Latin America: an Interview with Noam Chomsky 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   February 28, 2006 Sen. Russ Feingold Renewing the Patriot Act: a Sham Process and a Rotten Deal Ralph Nader The Dark Age of the Auto Industry Joshua Frank The Palazzo Feinstein: the Mansion the War Bought? Aziz Haniffa Why India Should Choose Iran, Not the US: an Interview with Dr. Ajun Makhijani Benjamin Dangl Bolivian Human Rights Leader Barred from Entering the US Norman Solomon Mahatma Bush Mike Ferner Seven Arrested at White House Antiwar Protest Sharon Smith Racism Thrives Website of the Day Creek Running North   February 27, 2006 Buncombe / Cockburn And Now Come the Death Squads Paul Craig Roberts Twilight of the Hegemony Ingmar Lee Bush Mired in India's Nuclear Fallout: the Smiling Buddha Blast Ron Jacobs Death Squads, Shrine Bombs, Civil War: Iraq Going According to the Plan? Dave Lindorff Bush's Bunker Days Pat Wolff Sleeper Cells in South Dakota? The State of Mandatory Motherhood Lila Rajiva Double Standards on Foreign Owners: Amdocs vs. DP World Website of the Day Get Ya Hustle On!   February 25 / 26, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Quail in War and Peace Lila Rajiva Chertoff Strikes Again Lee Sustar Target: Iran Jennifer Van Bergen / Madis Senner The Case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir Justin E.H. Smith David Horowitz's Odd Gripe Paul Craig Roberts Bush Hides Behind Supply-Side Economics to Reward His Cronies Jason Leopold Cheney Exposed?: New Emails in Plame Case Point to Veep's Role Gilad Atzmon In Support of My Mayor Zahid Shariff What's Going On in Pakistan? Fred Gardner Investigating Dr. Denney Dick J. Reavis What the UAE / Seaports Deal Teaches Us David Stocker Snow Job: the Privatization of US Ports John Bomar Losing on Every Front Mike Marqusee The Marchers Were Right Pratyush Chandra Bush's Passage to India Ben Tripp Rewriting History Dr. Susan Block Life, Death and Cartoons Poets' Basement Landau, Guthrie, LaMorticella, Engel and Mazza Website of the Weekend Toward Freedom   February 24, 2006 Alan Maass War Crimes and Hunting Misdemeanors William S. Lind The Coming Fall of Pakistan Dave Lindorff Useless Democrats: a Whig's Worth of Difference? Pierre Tristam Iraq's Cambodian Jungle Meg Bannerji Bush's Port Deal: Who's the Dummy? Robert Jensen The Failures of Our First Amendment Successes Mark Engler How Costly is Too Costly?: Finding the Budgetary Tipping Point for Iraq Jennifer Loewenstein Watching the Dissolution of Palestine Website of the Day Katrina and the Failure of Black Leadership   February 23, 2006 Chet Richards Rumsfeld's New Model Military: Creating Stability or Insurgency? Jonathan Feldman Dubaigate Deconstructed Joshua Frank The Democrats' Pull Out Method: Another Election Year Stunt? Ron Jacobs Volunteers of America: the Politics of the Weather Underground Amira Hass Separate and Unequal: Forbidden to Go Home Together Samah Sabawi Hamas and the Missing Video: Editorial Delusions at the Globe and Mail Norman Solomon The Unreal Death of Journalism Christopher Reed Japan's Neo-Militarists Website of the Day Is the Pentagon Making an Anthrax Bomb in Utah?   February 22, 2006 Robert Pollin Reaganomics Revisited: Beyond the Glow of Nostalgia Phil Doe How to Pay for War and Cut Taxes for the Rich: Sell Off the Public Lands Pirouz Azadi Looking Middle Eastern? You are a Prime Suspect Saul Landau Memo to the Dems: Doesn Anyone Give a Damn? Brian McKinlay Howard's End?: Trouble Down Under Sam Smith Real Holocaust Denial Niranjan Ramakrishnan Could You Please Pass the Port? Diane Farsetta The Pentagon's Media Contracts: the Wages of Spin Website of the Day Port of No Return: Bin Laden, the Taliban and the UAE   February 21, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Would Someone Please Interfere in Our Elections? Franklin Spinney Arab Democracy American-Style: Or How to Lose a 4th Generation War Dave Lindorff Chasing Cheney in the Ambulance Alevtina Rea Ethics, Morals and Empire Bruce K. Gagnon The Dems' Latest Stall Strategy: "Strategic Redeployment" Dave Zirin Whiteblindness: the Winter Olympics, Bryant Gumbel and Racism at ESPN Bill Quigley Six Months After Katrina: Who Was Left Behind Then? Who is Being Left Behind Now? Website of the Day Soldiers and Students   February 20, 2006 Jennifer Van Bergen The Perversions of the Bush Administration: Sexual Humiliation and Mother Murder in the War on Terror Rachard Itani The Bigoted Wombat: John Howard Does Abu Ghraib Gideon Levy A Chilling Heartlessness Joshua Frank Cindy Sheehan's Message to the Democrats Newton Garver The Challenges and Opportunities Confronting Evo Morales Pratyush Chandra What the US Ambassador Taught Nepalis Seth Sandronsky Bubblicious: the US Real Estate Market Cockburn / St. Clair The FBI and the Myth of Fingerprints Website of the Day Chickenhawks Hall of Shame   February 18 / 19, 2006 Werther A Half-Dozen Questions About 9/11 They Don't Want You to Ask Uzma Aslam Khan Live from Lahore: Watching with Glee Joe DeRaymond A Case of Injustice in Pennsylvania: the Prosecution of Dennis Counterman Edward F. Mooney Is Liberalism a Failing Religion? The Case of the Danish Cartoons Paul Craig Roberts From Conservatives to Brownshirts Elaine Cassel The Sentencing of Zacarias Moussaoui: an Issue of Competency P. Sainath Soaring Suicides in Vidharbha Thomas P. Healy An Interview with Ann Wright Brian Concannon, Jr. Haiti's Elections: Right Result; Wrong Procedure Fred Gardner Health Savings Accounts: a Boon for the Bosses Rep. Cynthia McKinney Katrina's New Underclass Brian Tokar WTO vs. Europe: Less (and More) Than It Seems Chan Chee Khoon Privatizing the World Bank? Andrew Freedman Chicago's Panopticon St. Clair / Walker Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Hassen, Anderson, Engel and Guthrie Website of the Weekend Depictionary   February 17, 2006 Floyd Rudmin Secret War Plans and the Malady of American Militarism Gervasio Rodríguez FBI Home Invasions in Puerto Rico Gary Leupp The Mad is No Longer Out of the Question: Stopping the War on Iran Before It Starts Ramzy Baroud Weathering the Globalization Storm Amira Hass Apartheid Gates: IDF Establishes "Israeli Only" Crossings Matthew Koehler Forest Abuse on the Kootenai: an Intervention in Montana Niranjan Ramakrishnan Deadeye Dick: Who Dares Call Him Chickenhawk Now? Debbie Nathan ABC's Primetime "Teen Sex Slaves" Scam Website of the Day Black Mesa Defense   Febrauary 16, 2006 Lila Rajiva Torture Pictures That Didn't Make the Exhibition Norman Solomon Dick Cheney's Fox Trot Ron Jacobs An Interview with Antiwar Faster Mike Ferner Paul Craig Roberts Their Own Economic Reality Website of the Day This Ain't No Video Game February 15, 2006 Brian Conacnnon, Jr. Haiti's Elections: Chaos, Supression and Fraud Dave Lindorff Democrats Shoot Their Own, Too Saree Makdisi Israeli Ultimatums Joshua Frank The Rhetorical Gore Amira Hass Down the Expulsion Highway CounterPunch Wire Winter of Discontent: a 34-Day Fast Against the War Robert Bryce The United States of Enron Website of the Day Osama's Game: an Interview with Michael Scheuer February 14, 2006 John Sugg Those Cartoons and the Neo Con: Daniel Pipes and the Danish Editor Don Santina DiFi and the Royal Democrats: the Curious Withdrawal of Cindy Sheehan William A. Cook Shaming Sharon Ray McGovern Who Will Blow the Whistle About Iran? John Ross Bush's Mexican Poodle Website of the Day Willie Nelson Records CPer Ned Sublette's "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly" February 13, 2006 Lila Rajiva Axis of Child Abusers: UK Troops Beat Up Barefoot Iraqi Teens Christopher Brauchli Whistleblowers and Witch Hunters: the Bush Inquisition Dave Lindorff Deadeye Dick: If Stupidity Were Impeachable, Cheney Would Be History Ron Jacobs Black Liberation Mike Whitney Riding High with Hugo Chavez Michael Neumann Respectful Cultures and Disrespectful Cartoons Website of the Day Virtual Resistance   February 11 / 12, 2006 Alexander Cockburn How Not to Spot a Terrorist Ralph Nader Bringing Democracy to the Federal Reserve Paul Craig Roberts Nuking the Economy Pat Williams John Boehner's Dirty Little Secret: Flying Lobbyist Air at $4,000 a Junket Fred Gardner Dr. Mikuriya's Appeal: a Last Minute Twist Saul Landau From Munich to Hamas John Chuckman Cartoons and Bombs: Was Rice Right for Once? Roger Burbach Evo Morales: the Early Days Seth Sandronsky Economy on Ice Website of the Weekend Just Say Know   February 10, 2006 Carl G. Estabrook A US War Plan for Khuzestan? Sen. Russell Feingold A Raw Deal on the Patriot Act Roxanne Dunbar----Ortiz How Did Evo Morales Come to Power? Saree Makdisi The Tempest Over the Hamas Charter Website of the Day The New York Art Scene: 1974----1984     February 9, 2006 Dave Lindorff Bush and Yamashita: War Crimes and Commanders-in-Chief Mike Marqusee The Human Majority was Right About Iraq Paul Craig Roberts How Conservatives Went Crazy: the Rightwing Press Peter Phillips Inside the Global Dominance Group: 200 Insiders Against the World William S. Lind Rumsfeld the Maximalist: the Long War Christine Tomlinson Innocent Targets in the "Long War": False Positives and Bush's Eavesdropping Program Will Youmans Church of England Votes to Divest from Israel Robert Robideau An American Indian's View of the Cartoons Richard Neville The Cartoons That Shook the World: All This from the Danes, the Least Funny People on Earth Peter Rost The New Robber Barons Website of the Day Eyes Wide Open   February 8, 2006 Ron Jacobs The Once and Future Sly Stone: Soundtrack to a Riot Stan Cox Making and Unmaking History with General Myers Sen. Russ Feingold Why Bush's Wiretapping Program is Illegal and Unconstitutional Robert Jensen Horowitz's Academic Hit List: Take a Class from One of the CounterPunch 16 Rep. Cynthia McKinney Bush Should Have Wiretapped FEMA and Chertoff Niranjan Ramakrishnan Alberto Gonzales Channels Mark Twain Don Monkerud Covenant Marriage on the Rocks David Swanson Inequality and War C.L. Cook Nuking Ontario Christopher Fons Chill Out Jihadis: They're Just Cartoons! Jeffrey Ballinger The Other Side of Nike and Social Responsibility Website of the Day Encyclopedia of Terrorism in the Americas   February 7, 2006 Edward Lucie-Smith An Urgent Plea to Save a Small Estonian Museum from Neo-Nazis Robert Fisk The Fury: Now Lebanon is Burning Paul Craig Roberts Colin Powell's Career as a "Yes Man" Neve Gordon Why Hamas Won Joshua Frank The Hillary and George Show: Partners in War Peter Montague The Problem with Mercury: a History of Regulatory Capitulation Jackie Corr The Last Best Choice: Public Power and Montana Jeffrey St. Clair Rumsfeld's Enforcer: the Secret World of Stephen Cambone Website of the Day Negroes with Guns   February 6, 2006 Christopher Brauchli Spilling Blood: Two Sentences Robert Fisk Don't Be Fooled: This Isn't About Islam vs. Secularism John Chuckman What Did Stephen Harper Actually Win? Jenna Orkin Judge Slams EPA for Lying About 9/11's Toxic Air Paul Craig Roberts Who Will Save America: My Epiphany   February 4 / 5, 2006 Alexander Cockburn "Lights Out in Tehran": McCain Starts Bombing Run Mike Ferner Pentagon Database Leaves No Kid Alone James Petras Evo Morales's Cabinet: a Bizarre Beginning in Bolivia Alan Maass Scare of the Union: Dems Collaborate with Bush on Surveillance Fred Gardner Annals of Law Enforcement: a Look Inside the San Francisco DA's Office Ralph Nader Bush's Energy Escapades Bill Glahn RIAA Watch: Speaking in Tongues Saul Landau Freedom 2006: Buying Sex on the Net or Those Older Freedoms? Laura Carlsen Bad Blood on the Border: Killing Guillermo Martinez James Brooks Our Little Shop of Diplomatic Horrors Mike Roselle Hippies and Revolutionaries in Carcacas John Holt Black Gold, Black Death: Canada's Oil Sands Frenzy Sarah Ferguson Cops Suing Cops ... for Spying on Cops William S. Lind Beware the Ides of March Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Price of Globalization: Free Trade or Free Speech? Seth Sandronsky The Color of Job Cuts in the Auto Industry Derrick O'Keefe Rumsfeld's Hitler Analogy Michael Donnelly Hop on the Bus Ron Jacobs Religion and Political Power Elisa Salasin RSVP to Bush St. Clair / Vest Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Stew Albert God's Curse: Selected Poems Poets' Basement Guthrie, LaMorticella and Engel Website of the Weekend Killer Tells All!   February 3, 2006 Toufic Haddad A Parliament of Prisoners Heather Gray Working with Coretta Scott King Tim Wise Racism, Neo-Confederacy and the Raising of Historical Illiterates Conn Hallinan Nuclear Proliferation: the Gathering Storm Eva Golinger Rumsfeld and Negroponte Amp Up Hositility Toward Venezuela Daniel Ellsberg The World Can't Wait: Invitation to a Demonstration Dave Zirin Detroit: Super Bowl City on the Brink Robert Bryce The Problem with Cutting US Oil Imports from the Middle East Website of the Day The Chavez Code   February 2, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler Pentagon Pork: How to Eliminate It Stan Cox Outsourcing the Golden Years Rachard Itani Danes (Finally) Apologize to Muslims (For the Wrong Reasons) Mike Whitney Afghanistan Five Years Later: Buildings Down, Heroin Up Amira Hass In the Footsteps of Arafat: an Interview with Hamas' Ismail Haniya Norman Solomon When Praise is Desecration: Smothering King's Legacy with Kind Words Michael Simmons Stew Lives! Christopher Reed Japan's Dirty Secret: One Million Korean Slaves Website of the Day State of Nature   February 1, 2006 Sharon Smith The Bluff and Bluster Dems: Alito and the Faux Filibuster Jason Leopold Enron and the Bush Administration Cindy Sheehan Getting Busted at the State of the Union: What Really Happened Joseph Grosso Oprah and Elie Wiesel: a Match Made in "Neutrality" Earl Ofari Hutchinson Coretta Scott King was More Than Just Dr. King's Wife Steven Higgs Life After Roe. v. Wade Robert Robideau "God Given Rights": Palestine and Native America R. Siddharth Tales of Power: When Gandhi Rejected a Faustian Bargain with Henry Ford Jim Retherford Remembering Stew Albert: the Quiet Genius Rep. Cynthia McKinney The Legacy of Coretta Scott King Paul Craig Roberts The True State of the Union Website of the Day Candide's Notebooks     Subscribe Online

March 7, 2006 An Letter to Alberto Gonzales Misleading Testimony About NSA Domestic Spying By Sen. RUSSELL FEINGOLD The Honorable Alberto R. Gonzales Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20530 Dear Attorney General Gonzales: I write in response to your letter of February 28, 2006, regarding your February 6 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee and responding to specific requests for information by Senators during the hearing. In particular, I would like to follow up on your response to my question about the testimony of then-Associate Attorney General David Kris before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 10, 2002. His testimony stated: "Thus, both before and after the Patriot Act, FISA can be used only against foreign powers and their agents, and only where there is at least a significant foreign intelligence purpose for the surveillance. Let me repeat for emphasis: We cannot monitor anyone today whom we could not have monitored at this time last year." (The emphasis was in the original testimony.) However, we now know as a result of your letter that in October 2001 the President authorized wiretaps of individuals inside the United States without getting a court order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. At the hearing, I asked you who in the White House and Justice Department reviewed Mr. Kris' testimony because I was concerned that individuals who were aware of the President's authorization allowed a senior Justice Department official to mislead Congress about whether the Administration was complying with FISA. Instead of responding to my question, you argued that the testimony was technically accurate. I disagree with your argument, but, in any event, it is irrelevant. You cannot dispute that from the point of view of the Judiciary Committee, which had not been made aware of the NSA program, Mr. Kris' statement was at best misleading. And Mr. Kris was not aware that it was misleading, since, as far as we know, he did not know about the program either. It was therefore incumbent upon senior officials who reviewed the testimony to make sure that the Committee was not misled. It is unacceptable, under the circumstances, for you to decline to answer my specific question simply because it is normally against DOJ policy to disclose who approved testimony by Administration officials. The Judiciary Committee is entitled to know what senior officials allowed misleading testimony to be presented at the hearing on September 10, 2002. In that connection, I will revise my request so that individuals who reviewed the testimony but were not aware of the NSA program need not be identified. Therefore, please inform me whether anyone who reviewed or approved the David Kris testimony was aware of the President's authorization of wiretaps inside the U.S. without a court order under FISA, and, if so, identify all such persons. I am sure that you can appreciate the seriousness of concerns that executive branch officials misled Congress, especially about such a serious national security issue. In fact, you were apparently concerned enough about the accuracy of your own February 6 testimony that you felt it necessary to write a letter to the Committee clarifying some of your statements and suggesting what many of us already suspected based on your carefully worded testimony at the hearing: that there may well be other secret surveillance programs that the President has authorized in addition to what he has acknowledged publicly. It is of the utmost importance that testimony presented by all Administration officials be accurate. Prepared testimony can easily avoid disclosing classified information without being actively misleading. As the chief law enforcement officer in our country, you should take this responsibility particularly seriously. Please provide the information that I requested as soon as possible. Sincerely, Russell D. Feingold United States Senator

Finally 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"