Today's Stories

January 13, 2009

Norman Finkelstein
The Facts About Hamas and the War on Gaza

January 12, 2009

Uri Avnery
The Blood-Stained Monster Enters Gaza

Paul Craig Roberts
Our Collapsing Economy

Mike Whitney
Israel's Moral and Political Insanity

Ewa Jasiewicz
Oh, Quiet Night: Only Six Homes Were Bombed

Bill Quigley
A Day in Gaza

Dave Lindorff
From Vietnam to Gaza

Bill and Kathleen Christison
Blowback From a Tragic Error: a Message to Barack Obama

Jonathan Cook
Israel Ponders the Third Stage

Andy Worthington
Seven Years of Guantánamo

Kara N. Tina
Oakland on Fire

Brenda Norrell
Palestinians and American Indians: Russell Means Breaks the Silence on Obama

Nour Kharma
A Plea From a Teen in Gaza: "Will I Die, Too?"

Website of the Day
The Villages Group: an Antiwar Alliance in Sderot

January 9/11, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Israel's Onslaught on Gaza: Criminal, for Sure; But Also Stupid

Kathy Kelly
Tunnel Vision: Report from Arish, Egypt

Bill Quigley
Report From Rafah: Doctors Stopped at the Border

George Ciccariello-Maher
Oakland's Not for Burning?

Elaine C. Hagopian
Gaza: History Matters

Mike Roselle
Drowning in a Toxic River: What Can be Done to Save Appalachia?

Steve Hendricks
The Torturer-Elect?

Gary Leupp
Revisiting the Tale of Samson

Jonathan Cook
Outcry Over Israel's War Crimes

Karim Makdisi
The Ceasefire Plan: the UN Finally Acts, But Does It Mean Anything?

Rannie Amiri
Livni's Big Lie

Peter Morici
In the Jaws of a Depression

Peter Montague
Can Chemicals be Regulated?

Ralph Nader
Move Fast to Restore the Rule of Law

Andy Worthington
The Dying Days of the Guantánamo Trials

Nadia Hijab
A Music School Silenced in Gaza

Dan Bacher
Unholy Alliance: Nature Conservancy Backs Schwarzenegger's Big Ditch

Catherine Fenton
The American Peace Movement and Israel

David Macaray
Wal-Mart Caught Stealing

Valia Kaimaki
Why Greek Youths Took to the Streets

Richard Morse
Haiti's Gas Gang

David Yearsley
To Gotham City with Dexter Gordon

Charles R. Larson
The Horror, the Horror

Richard Rhames
Gaza and the Goon Squad Meet the Wizard

Stephen Martin
Meltdown Memo to Come?

Lorenzo Wolff
What They Sing About When They Sing About Love

Poets' Basement
Anderson, Beatty and Valentine

Website of the Weekend
Gaza Protest

January 8, 2009

Jean Bricmont /
Diana Johnstone
Gaza Seen From Paris

Franklin Lamb
How Dershowitz Misstates, Misrepresents and Misapplies the Law

Paul Craig Roberts
The Difficulty of Being an Informed American

Kevin Alexander Gray
Give Burris His Seat

Chris Floyd
The Enduring Priorities in Obama's Time of Change

Ewa Jasiewicz
Riding on Fire in Gaza

Steve Conn
Sanjay Gupta and Obama

Harvey Wasserman
Kill the Nuclear Stimulus!

Wayne S. Smith
An Opening to Cuba?

Linda Mamoun
Re-settling Gaza: the Real Goal of the Israeli Invasion?

Adam Turl
Unions and Young Workers

Chris Papaleonardos
Mourning Maria Dimitriadi

Website of the Day
On the Wing

January 7, 2009

Saree Makdisi
What Kind of Security Will This Barbarism Bring Israel?

Franklin Lamb
Bend Over Professor Dershowitz, It's Time for Your Check Up

William Blum
America's Other Glorious War

Belén Fernández
The Trauma Vortex: Israel's Monopoly on Psychological Suffering

Lawrence Davidson
What is New About Gaza?

Allan Nairn
Adm. Dennis Blair and the Church Killings in East Timor

Jonathan Cook
What is Israel's Objective?

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad
Watching the War on BBC

Deepak Tripathi
Bush, as He Leaves

Cal Winslow
Now is the Hour to Defend Democracy in the Labor Movement!

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
To Students Planning Careers: Be Mindful

Dr. Hannah Safran
No More Recycled Military Solutions

Website of the Day
CNN: Israel Broke the Ceasefire First

January 6, 2009

Pam Martens
It's All One Big Lie

Victoria Buch
Real Estate War in Gaza: the History and "Morals" of Ethnic Cleansing

Neve Gordon
Israel's New War Ethic

Tami Sarfatti /
Yonatan Mendel
What Silence Says: Gaza is Still Waiting on Obama

Mike Whitney
The Gaza Bloodbath

Alan Farago
After the Fall

Gary Leupp
A Hamas Coup d'Etat in 2007?

Larry Everest
Silent Partner: the US-Backed War on Gaza

Ron Jacobs
The New Iraqi Sovereignty

David Macaray
Union-Busting is Alive and Well

Stephanie Basile
Where's Anna's Money?

Stacey Warde
An Uncle's Unrest

Website of the Day
Israeli Refusenik on Gaza

January 5, 2009

Paul Craig Roberts
Will There be a Recovery?

Sousan Hammad
Phoning Home to Gaza

Wajahat Ali
Flying While Brown

Mats Svensson
Longing in Gaza

Jen Marlowe
Abeer's Baby

Muhammad Ali Khalidi
Gaza Phone Tag

Brian Cloughley
Israel is Immune From Criticism

Faheem Hussain
Gaza and India: a View From Pakistan

William Cook
Consider the Realities of Gaza

Dr. Trudy Bond
The Madness Among Us

Christopher Ketcham
The Revenge of the Blogger at the National Press Club: a Rotten Washington Interlude

Steve Early
Who Rules SEIU?

Dave Lindorff
When It Comes to Terrorism and POW Cases, Equal Justice Under Law is a Joke

Website of the Day
The Endangered Fish of the Colorado River Basin

January 2 - 4, 2009

Alexander Cockburn
Diary of 2008: an Incredible, Hope-Filled Year

Uri Avnery
Molten Lead in Gaza

Jonathan Cook
The Real Goal of the Gaza Assault

Paul Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Western Morality?

Brian Eno
Stealing Gaza: an Experiment in Provocation

Ralph Nader
America Must Stop Shirking Its Responsibility on Gaza

Omar Barghouti
UN Complicity in Israel's Massacre in Gaza

Graham Usher
Where Pakistan's Generals and the ISI Draw Their Lines

P. Sainath
The Economy is Worse Than It Appears

Belén Fernández
Pardon Our Dust: Israel's PR Campaign for Gaza

Deb Reich
Shiv'a in Gaza, December 2008

Gary Leupp
Defacing Mr. Jefferson's Wall: Preachers and the Inauguration

Michael Yates
Top Chef or Top Wage Thief? Tom Colicchio and the Economics of Restaurants

Joanne Mariner
How to Close Guantánamo

Seth Sandronsky
Funding the Israeli Military: the US Pipeline

Cynthia McKinney
We Lived to Tell the Story

Sonja Karkar
Israel's Dogs of War

Deepak Tripathi
Gaza in Perspective

Robert Fantina
Obama, Afghanistan and Israel

John Ross
The Year No One Can Remember

Norm Kent
The Heat on Duval Street: Why Head Shop Raids are Unfair and Unjust

Larry Portis
Syria and the Arab Barbie Doll--Before the Deluge

Richard Rhames
Is Conscience Dead?

Dee C. Lubell
We Come From the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright

David Yearsley
A Gay German at the Courts of the Medici and Hanover, and of Course the BBC

Lorenzo Wolff
Joe Ely, the Fighting Rooster of Rock

Marc Catone
Looting Lennon's Legacy

Poets' Basement
Five Poems by Grzegorz Wróblewski

Website of the Weekend
Earth in High Rez

January 1, 2008

Jennifer Loewenstein
If Hamas Did Not Exist

Oren Ben-Dor
The Self-Defense of Suicide

Wajahat Ali
The U.S. Response to the Gaza Crisis: Unfair and Unbalanced

Saul Landau
In Cuba No One Man Could Steal $50 Billion From Other People

David Michael Green
What to Expect While We're Expecting

Website of the Day
Morbid Anatomy

December 31, 2008

Pam Martens
Wall Street's Collapse and the Ownership Society

Neve Gordon /
Jeff Halper
Where's the Academic Outrage Over the Bombing of a University in Gaza?

Ted Honderich
The First Casualty of Israel's War

Brian Cloughley
Five Little Girls on a Sofa: Gaza's One-Sided Images

Ron Jacobs
What is Hamas, Really?

Vijay Prashad
Hot Rod and His Sikh Warrior: Blago's Indian Connections

Franklin Lamb
Mr. Mubarak, Tear Down That Wall!

Mike Whitney
My Brilliant Career

David Macaray
What Really Killed the Auto Bailout

Richard Thieme
The Betrayal of the Commons

Mary Lynn Cramer
Who Wins What in Gaza?

Stephen Lendman
The Troubling Case of the Fort Dix Five

Worthy Group of the Day
Western Shoshone Defense Project

December 30, 2008

Paul Craig Roberts
May We No Longer Be Silent

Tariq Ali
The Gaza Ghetto and Western Cant

Robert Bryce
The $775,000-a-Year GI

Jonathan Cook
Electioneering with Bombs

Gary Leupp
The Fishbarrel War

Dave Lindorff
Tough Guys Don't Walk: Will Cheney Seek a Pardon?

Brian McKenna
Ted Downing and Troublemaker Anthropology

John Walsh
The End of the Green Party

Ramzy Baroud
Gaza and the World

Bob Sommer
The Education of David Frost

Worthy Activist of the Day
Support Marie Mason

December 29, 2008

Jennifer Loewenstein
Israel's Attempted Endgame in Gaza

Neve Gordon
What, Exactly, is Israel's Mission?

Joshua Frank
Obama and the "Special Relationship"

George Salzman /
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
The War Against Palestine: Exception From Humanity

Norman Solomon
A Hundred Eyes for an Eye

Ewa Jasiewicz
Gaza Today: "This is Just the Beginning"

Rob Larson
The Banks Laugh All the Way to the Bank

Kenneth Libby
Arne Duncan's Dark Years in Chicago

Robert Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2008

Elsa Johnson
High Noon at Black Mesa: Bush's Farewell Gift to Peabody Coal

Nicola Nasser
Resolution 1850: Bush's Parting Gift

Belén Fernández
Hanukkah Games

Worthy Group of the Day
Nuclear Information and Resource Service

December 26-28, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
The Medusa's Head

Dr Eyad Al Serraj
The Boming of Gaza: "An Earthquake on Top of Your Head"

Jeffrey St. Clair
Cancerous Air

Bradley Simpson
Obama's New Intel Chief, Dennis Blair, Ran Interference for Indonesia's Butchers

Ralph Nader
Government Without Laws

Gary Leupp
Obama and the Graveyard of Empires

Ellen Cantarow
Richard Falk, Israel and the NYT

Matt Landon
The Great Coal Ash Flood: a Report From Swan Pond Road

David Macaray
SAG's Terrible Dilemma

Patrick Bond
End of Neoliberalism? Sorry, Not Yet

Norm Kent
Invoking Bigotry: Obama and Rick Warren

Brian T. Ketcham
Fuel Efficiency is Easy--Just Don't Let Detroit Tell You How to Do It

Rannie Amiri
War Clouds Over Gaza

Larry Portis
Changing the Ethnic Vocabulary

Richard Rhames
Welcome to Soup Kitchen America

Stephen Lendman
29 Red Flags: Early Suspicions About Bernard Madoff

James L. Secor
Unheralded Coup

Ramzy Baroud
Iraq, the Plot Thickens

Harold Pinter
Art, Truth and Politics: the Nobel Lecture

Cpt. Paul Watson
Tracking the Cetacean Death Star

Howard Lisnoff
Nixon's Cambodian Shock Treatment

Michael Dee
The Bill of Rights, Killed in Action by the War on Drugs

Steve Conn
Eight Predictions for 2009

Poets' Basement
Valentine, Kaung, Moser and Graham

Worthy Group of the Weekend
United Mountain Defense

December 25, 2008

Judy Gumbo Albert
What Were Those 1960s Terrorists Thinking, Anyway?

Rev. William E. Alberts
The Sole of Christmas

Hannah Mermelstein
Caution: Settlers Ahead

Worthy Group of the Day
Citizens' Coal Council

December 24, 2008

Bill Quigley
Five Bailout Lessons From Katrina

Saul Landau
Then and Now: Venezuela and Cuba, 1960-2008

Sam Smith
Evangelism and Politics

Brian Cloughley
Torture, Slaughter and Lies

John Ross
Where's al-Zaidi's Pulitzer?

Eric Walberg
Cold War Shivers

Norm Kent
What Will Obama Do About Marijuana?

Stephen Martin
Reasons for Cheerfulness

Worthy Group of the Day
Collateral Repair Project

December 23, 2008

Michael Hudson
The Ponzi Paradigm

Michael Yates
The Tombstone Economy

Chuck Spinney
The New York Times Flames Out in Defense Dogfight

Vijay Prashad
India's Reckless Road to Washington, Through Tel Aviv

Brian Horejsi
Interior Decorating: Obama, Salazar and the Future of America's Public Lands

David Macaray
Obama's Best Pick?

Neil Watkins /
Sarah Anderson
Ecuador's Conscientious Default

David Michael Green
Hey, Reagan Democrats! Now Do You Get It?

Worthy Group of the Day
Focus on the Corporation

January 13, 2009

The Changeling

An Obama Nightmare

By SAUL LANDAU

My wish for Obama’s New Year’s resolutions: Lose the empire! Stop giving military aid and special treatment to Israel; demand Israel behave responsibly under international laws; get out of Iraq and Afghanistan -- quickly.

Yes, Obama has repeatedly pledged to expand the U.S. role in Afghanistan after more than eight years of failure. But in light of the facts, he could disavow his pledges. In the Fall of 2001, Bush and allies invaded Afghanistan. The so-called Northern Alliance, supported by U.S. air and ground forces, took Kabul; the infamous Taliban disappeared -- probably into Pakistan. Hooray!!!

Then, a sour smell began to seep from Bush’s victory. Even before football hero Pat Tillman got whacked in 2004 by members of his own unit -- “friendly fire”? -- rebel forces within that fractious Muslim nation had sent their message: Get Out!

Bush’s war has now endured eight plus years, almost double U.S. involvement in World War II. The military hoo hahs have not yet seen light at the end of Khyber tunnel.

So, why should Obama stake his reputation on winning, no less rebuilding that country while the United States undergoes the worst economic downturn since the 1930s?

Obama recounts one of his nightmares to a trusted associate. It begins with President Bush receiving an award for giving democracy a bad name. William Randolph Hearst presents the certificate citing Bush’s contribution to massive death, destruction, torture and lying.

Pat Buchanan emerges to advise Obama. “You can save yourself and the country. Liquidate the Empire,” he whispers (echoing words from his October 13 syndicated column).

“The American Empire has become a vast extravagance,” he cajoles. “With U.S. markets crashing and wealth vanishing, what are we doing with 750 bases and troops in over 100 countries?” “The Cold War strategy faded away two decades ago,” he barks, “but military inventors continue to fashion zany programs like a vast new missile defense in Europe against possible Iranian attacks at some future date and planes, ships, and upscale nuclear weapons that have as much relevance to U.S. defense as moats and drawbridges.”

“Instead of playing with expensive and dangerous toys, why not assign the Pentagon R&D staff (which should be reduced by 95% along with a general 50% reduction of the whole Pentagon) to read history,” Pat continues. The researchers could teach lessons from the experiences of 19th Century British imperial forces who invaded Afghanistan and invented a puppet ruler, like Bush’s Hamid Karzai who controls several blocks in Kabul today. Afghan mobs assaulted His Majesty’s remaining subjects. The Union Jack retreated to India. Britain lost some 16,000 English soldiers to the insurgents. Like the Washington elite, the geniuses also learn slowly, if at all. Pat finishes his dream sermon.

He morphs into Tony Blair, who is dressed like a cheerleader. “We will kill Osama Bin Laden and conquer the Taliban, yes we can, yes we can.” Obama asks Blair about the whereabouts of Bin Laden and why the Taliban have returned to control large parts of the country, and even reap rewards from bumper opium crops. The Taliban, a muted Blair now counsels, no longer need to train terrorists. Indeed, terrorists find training grounds in English cities, and on the web. They can buy explosive ingredients from hardware or agricultural stores -- lest anyone forget where the Christian Oklahoma City bombers (pre 9/11) got their explosives.

Timothy McVeigh appears in the dream. “But you were executed for your role in the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing,” Obama objects. McVeigh chuckles and whispers. “Mr. President elect, you didn’t undergo basic Army training in Fort Benning, Georgia, where they teach you all about explosives. I am a ‘survivalist.’ Some call us terrorists, but we understand weapons as necessary to keep food and other needs from reckless vandals as the U.S. economy goes south. I despise the government for its massacre policies at Waco (against the religious nuts) and at Ruby Ridge (killing fellow survivalists). There are many more like me out there. My comrades bought huge amounts of ammonium nitrate at the Mid-Kansas Coop in McPherson, Kansas. That’s fertilizer that explodes under proper conditions. A few blasting caps and some liquid to set off the fertilizer and poof, there went the federal building. Watch out for the Aryan Republican Army,” warns McVeigh. “They also plan revenge against the Government. And remember, I did it for less than $10,000 without training in Afghanistan.”

The dream shifts to Afghanistan, where Soviet soldiers die at the hands of people determined to resist. (Approximately 15,000 Red Army soldiers died from 1979 until 1988 when the Soviets withdrew. The humiliation speeded the implosion of the Soviet Union.)

In the dream Obama screams at the intelligence services for telling him less than he already knows. “We have failed thus far in Afghanistan,” he bleats. “Why have I repeatedly vowed to increase U.S. presence in that quicksand? Why can’t I learn?” Korea, Vietnam, Iraq -- lost wars that veterans cannot explain with facts or logic to their kids.

U.S. troops in the dream kill the Taliban, who reemerge like zombies. “You cannot win,” they chant. “You cannot understand us and never will. We shall remain here and you shall leave -- if not now, then in a year, two, ten or twenty. No matter. Your B-52 will fly away. We shall remain.”

General Petraeus tells the sleeping Obama that he will need more than the 54,000 troops he now has, plus those of the allies, as devout Taliban members use the drug profits to buy weapons to kill the Americans. Militarily, he informs Obama, the Taliban have grown stronger than they were in 2001. They now plague half the country and have sanctuaries in Pakistan.

“Air strikes,” advises an old Bush neo con who appears in the dream. “Wait,” shouts Buchanan. “U.S. air strikes have already killed so many Afghan civilians that even puppet President Karzai has had to condemn the raids. By trying to bomb the Taliban, our pilots have made enemies of the people in Afghan villages and in Pakistan. Even our supply lines have grown insecure. We read this in our press.”

Generals appear with Defense Secretary Gates. “Give us four more years!” they confidently plead, “and we’ll have an Afghan force we can rely on.”

Taliban zombies answer them. “Yes, stay here four more years and surely our people will magically change their minds, forget their history and fall in love with your wonderful democratic capitalism that serves your people so well.” They shriek with laughter.

Obama recalls some lines from Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “The Young British Soldier,” which he learned in high school:

“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,

And the women come out to cut up what remains,

Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains

An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.”

The President elect awakens. His associate asks him how he will interpret his dream. Will he withdraw U.S. troops or ignore the words and images and escalate?

Obama’s choice will have impact around the world. From villages and cities in Pakistan, the loosely knit al-Qaida militants await a U.S. troop escalation. It will increase recruitment. Let the foreign devils come, they chant, and we shall change the intelligent Obama into a version of stupid Bush. Yes, he promised change. We shall see.

Saul Landau received the Bernardo O’Higgins award from the Republic of Chile for his work on human rights. His latest book is A Bush and Botox World (AK/CounterPunch Press).

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