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Inside Iraq's Resistance HOT HOT HOT New CounterPunch Print Edition! Meet actual Iraqis and not just Western caricatures. Laith al-Saud interviews top man in Iraq's national resistance. It's not just Abu Ghraib and bids to kill Fidel Castro. Torture and assassination are integral parts of America's imperial machine. Don't miss Andrew Wimmer's searing journey into the soul of a nation that tortures as a way of life. Plus Alexander Cockburn on the killing of General Kassem. PLUS Sam Sillen's rollicking exhumation of Edmund Wilson as Malthusian Trostskyite. Get the answers you're looking for in the latest subscriber-only edition of CounterPunch ... 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! CounterPunch Writer Daniel Wolff in Portland on Race, Music and Ashbury Park Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Today's Stories October 8 / 9, 2005 Ralph Nader Katrina and the Growls of Greed   October 7, 2005 Larry Johnson The Plame Case: the Real Issues Will Youmans Why Do We Hate Our Freedom? Recruiters and Thugs on Campus Dave Lindorff Bird Flu: Evolution or Intelligent Design? Judith Scherr Haiti's Children's Prison Russell D. Hoffman Nukes for Peace, Revisited?: Nobel Prize Debacle Jared Bernstein Katrina and Jobs Jennifer Van Bergen New American Law: the Case of Dr. Dhafir Website of the Day FBI Witchhunt October 6, 2005 P. Sainath "Take That, Tom Friedman": Indian Masses Reject NYT's Neoliberal Idol Again Scott Parkin When Antiwar Activists Get Mugged Paul Craig Roberts Blundering into Syria Andréa Schmidt Haiti's Biometric Elections: a High-Tech Experiment in Exclusion Dave Lindorff Easy Money in the Big Easy Joshua Frank In Defense of Lew Rockwell M. Junaid Alam Jackboots at George Mason Matthew Koehler Cock and Bull on the Bitterroot Robert Pollin Is the Dollar Still Falling?   October 5, 2005 Heather Gray Militarization is Not an Answer for Reconstruction: the Case of the Philippines Robert Jensen Is Bush a Racist? Ramzy Baroud Bush's Final Choice: America or the Empire Col. Dan Smith Keeping Promises to Iraq: "Everything is Bad" Dave Zirin Barry Bonds Laughs Last Paul Craig Roberts Liberal Guilt? How the Neocons Took Over Alan Maass Doing the Right Wing's Dirty Work   October 4, 2005 Nikolas Kozloff Shocking the Two Party System: a Political Opportunity for Sheehan and the Antiwar Mvt. Mike Roselle Houston, You've Got a Problem Joshua Frank The Scoop on Harriet Miers John Chuckman War Porn: What the Gruesome Images Say Alan Farago Storm Warning for Jeb: Developers, Hurricanes and the Keys Mickey Z. An Interview with Thaddeus Rutkowski Christine & Ethan Rose Home Depot Exploits Hurricane Victims Gary Leupp An Earlier Empire's War on Iraq: a Lesson from Roman History Website of the Day Rodney Crowell on Bob Dylan   October 3, 2005 Vijay Prashad Desperation at Holyoke Paul Craig Roberts Condi Rice: Gunslinger Joshua Frank An Interview with Cindy Sheehan Seth Sandronsky The Hiring Crisis for Black Teens Jeffrey St. Clair The Great Green Scare   October 1 / 2, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Democrats Sink Deeper into the Ooze Dave Marsh A Direction Home: a Message from Bob Dylan Ralph Nader Gutless, Spineless and Clueless Flavia Alaya Showdown at Sheriff's Plaza Uri Avnery The Gladiators: Sharon's Victory Chris Kutalik The Battle at Northwest Airlines Greg Moses Bill Bennett's Book of Cracker Virtues Brian J. Foley I Gave My Copy of the Constitution to a Pro-War Vet Nicole Colson Hunger Strike at Gitmo Ray McGovern Abu Ghraib is a Command Responsibility Fred Gardner Ricky Williams Takes a Late Hit Justin Felux Save America from Crime: Abort Every White Baby! Will Youmans "Free the P": Hip-Hop for Palestine Mike Ferner What Else Shall We Do? David Krieger The War in Iraq: a Broken Covenant Agustin Velloso Samson Returns to Gaza Saul Landau The Constant Gardener: Serious Cinema Ben Tripp Right Down the Middle Poets Basement Peddibone, Crowell, Engel and Albert Website of the Weekend Holler If Ya Hear Me   September 30, 2005 Mary Geddry Why I Marched: They Made My Son Kill Paul Craig Roberts Bush is Cooking Up Two New Wars Dave Lindorff Judith Miller's Strange Voluntary Jail Time Gregory Wilpert "The Osama Bin Laden of Latin America" Benjamin Dangl "Gringo, Go Home:" an Interview with Orlando Castillo James McMurtry We Can't Make It Here Anymore T.R. Johnson Return to the Ninth Ward   September 29, 2005 Sen. Russ Feingold Bush's Iraq War is Weakening America Carl G. Estabrook Obama the Enabler Ramzy Baroud Rhetoric and Reality of War Dave Lindorff What Opposition Party? Mike Whitney Brownie's Comic Opera Jozef Hand-Boniakowski What Noble Cause? Gary Handschumacher Getting Arrested with Cindy Sheehan Winslow T. Wheeler No Leaders in Congress Against This War: Lame Democrat and Tame Republicans   September 28, 2005 Dr. Eyad Serraj Letter from Gaza: What Disengagement Sounds Like William A. Cook Bush's Security Barrier Liaquat Ali Khan The Invention of Porno Torture Mike Whitney Apartheid Justice in America Joshua Frank Sheehan and the Democrats: Anybody Home? CounterPunch Wire New Orleans Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters Chris Genovali Cutting the Bears Out of the Great Bear Rainforest Linn Washington, Jr. White Affirmative Action: How John Roberts Got to the Top   September 27, 2005 Forrest Hylton Political Murder in Puerto Rico: a Matter for Our Movement Jason Leopold The Decline and Fall of Bill Frist Jennifer K. Harbury Torture is US Policy, Not an Aberration Ray McGovern Torture and Cowardice: Why are American Religious Leaders Silent? Mike Ferner Bringing the War Home: Arrested at the Pentagon Antony Loewenstein When the Truth Comes to Town: What You Can't Say About Israel in Australia Harry Browne Live from Hollywood: the IRA Disarms   September 26, 2005 Rafael Rodriguez Cruz Assassination in Puerto Rico: the FBI Murders a Legend Joshua Frank Democrats Flee Peace Protests Lamis Andoni The Railroading of Taysir Alony Mike Marqusee Those Pesky "Urban Intellectuals": Blair, Spiro Agnew and the Antiwar Movement Rep. Cynthia McKinney They Can't Fool Us Anymore Ron Jacobs A Small March for Me, a Giant March for the Antiwar Movement Norman Solomon The Media and the Antiwar Movement John Chuckman Bush in a Bottle Paul Craig Roberts America is Running Out of Time   September 24 / 25, 2005 Kathy and Bill Christison Polluting Palestine: Settlements & Sewage Ralph Nader Stealing the Moment: How Corporations Cashed in on Katrina Saul Landau The Terrorist Resumé of Luis Posada Greg Moses A Movement Gathers Power on the Sorrow Plateau Roger Burbach Hugo Chavez's Mission Vijay Prashad America's Shame Laura Carlsen After NAFTA Robert Fisk When Man and Nature Conspire to Expose the Lies of the Powerful Dave Lindorff A Gusher Called Katrina: They Fix Oil Prices, Don't They? Kirkpatrick Sale / Thomas Naylor Secession from the Empire: the Middlebury Declaration Maj. Anthony Milavic The US Military and Torture: the View of a Former Interrogator Brian Concannon, Jr. Haiti: the Time for Action is Now   September 23, 2005 CounterPunch News Service In Which, Phil Donahue Demolishes Bill O'Reilly Diane Farsetta Katrina and Right-Wing Think Tanks Robert Sandels Militarizing the Market Christopher Brauchli Bush: the Good Samaritan for Corporations Alan Farago Bird Flu Takes Flight Dave Zirin When Sports & Politics Collided: Redeeming the Olympic Martyrs of 1968 Maxine Conant A Simple Test for Bush David Price Workers Get Hit Twice: Katrina and Davis-Bacon Profiteering   September 22, 2005 Smith, Wood, Leas, and Greenfield Which Way Forward for the Green Party? a Report from Tulsa Patrick Cockburn Iraqis: This Government has No Authority Manuel Garcia, Jr. Thinking is Religious Freedom Lucia Dailey Trial of the St. Patrick's Four: Day One Mokhiber / Weissman Are You a Speed Freak? Russell D. Hoffman The Nukes in Rita's Path Kona Lowell God's Hurricane? Jason Leopold GOP Fiscal Policy and Katrina Website of the Day Robert Pollin on the Global Economy   September 21, 2005 Jorge Mariscal Military Recruiters: Counselers or Salesmen? Linda S. Heard Double Standards in Iraq: Basra Brit Jailbreak Joshua Frank NYPD Unplugs Cindy Sheehan Eric Ruder "The Problem in Iraq is the US": an Interview with Camilo Mejia Pierre Tristam The Struts and Bull Presidency Dave Lindorff The Real Story of the German Elections Mike Ferner Sit Down in DC Missy Comley Beattie Bush's Katrina Bling Bling Jeffrey St. Clair W Marks the Spot Website of the Day New Orleans: Survivor Stories   September 20, 2005 Steve Breyman Toxic Gumbo: Katrina and Environmental Justice George Galloway Et Tu, Greg Palast? Patrick Cockburn What Happened to Iraq's Missing $1 Billion? M. Shahid Alam Gen. Musharraf and Israel: Is Pakistan Selling Out? Mike Whitney The Gitmo Hunger Strikers Winslow T. Wheeler It's Not Rocket Science Niranjan Ramakrishnan Back to the Future: North Korea's Gambit Paul Craig Roberts Will Neocon Fanaticism Destroy America?         Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition October 8 / 9, 2005 The President and the Rev An Oily Religious Dream By SAUL LANDAU In September, the body count and property damage assessment mounted steadily along the Gulf Coast. After watching TV news images of the carnage, the Rev. Jerry Pat Flatulence had one of his many epiphanies ­after eating his dinner in his home in Lynchemhighburg, Virginia. Millions of religious broadcast watchers knew Jerry Pat's fleshy cheeks, impish eyes and beatific smile. Over the decades, he had saved countless souls for Christ and coincidentally collected hundreds of millions of dollars in Jesus' name. Even before becoming one of George W. Bush's spiritual advisers, Jerry Pat worked TV miracle cures, helping the blind to see and the lame to walk. Cynics said he used actors instead of real people, but true believers maintained their faith: "Hallelujah!" Indeed, Bush himself took the Reverend's cure for alcoholism: abstinence, physical exercise, video golf and prayer -- infinitely preferable to going forever to AA meetings. Most of those "recovering alcoholics" did not exactly fit into the president's family circle. Like Bush, Jerry Pat claimed that God had spoken to him. When catastrophic events occurred, Jerry Pat orated to his flock at the Absolute Baptist Church. The TV audience watched the same sermon. "God has punished the USA, which has become a haven for homosexuality, atheism, and false religions," Jerry Pat said he got this from God, who had also inflicted the events of 9/11 on New Yorkers because they had an unusually high level of devil's advocates. "The ACLU in has more members than in all of southern Virginia," he announced. No one inquired about the source of his figures. Indeed, Jerry Pat had made a world wide reputation for saying unpleasant things about others ­ especially Muslims. Logically, his fame spread to Israel, although it disturbed him that the bearded, black-clad men who applauded enthusiastically also talked to each other or slept through his entire sermon. But they did contribute handsomely to his various causes. He did, after all, support Israel 100% even though he had warned his flock to be cautious before doing business with "those people whose prayers God does not hear." On this September day, the TV news images had upset him. Bleeding bodies from suicide bombings in the Middle East and bloated ones floating in the flood waters of Louisiana and Texas sent Jerry Pat to the dinner table, a place to calm upset nerves. He consumed three portions of his wife's extra fried chicken, two sides of baked oyster pie with cream and two helpings of whiskey pudding. Coping with indigestion, he prayed in his study, He requested the Good Lord for stomach relief because the Alka Seltzer didn't seem to help. As he mumbled his final prayers, he dropped into a heavy sleep on his comfortable couch. Soon, he began to dream. A stormy black cloud formed over his head, followed by blinding rays of lightning and deafening thunder. Wait! The thunder disguised a booming voice, a basso profundo exhorting. "Follow the oily brick road," it said. "Then shall you know your transgressions." In the dream, he stared at the cloud, waiting for more explanation. In the past, he had not exactly had such direct conversations with God. Rather, he reconstructed what he thought God should have said to him. Jerry Pat was not the kind of man to quibble over small details. But this dream frightened him and he could not force himself to wake up. The big voice belched loudly again. "The oily brick road. Your president has lied in order to wage war in my name. Your disciple in the White House has raised my ire. Now I have shown him what I can do to his oil. Talk to him." The dream took on nightmarish qualities. He awakened with a start. Did the Lord mean he had sent Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to wreak havoc on the Louisiana and Texas coasts because the oil industry does its major drilling and refining there? In the dream, The Lord never mentioned abortion, gay marriage, carnality or any of Jerry Pat's favorite Godly themes. Only that echoing phrase, "The oily brick road." Jerry Pat's aching stomach took second place on his bio-discomfort list to his throbbing brain. He picked up the phone and dialed the special number W had given him in case urgent messages from above came through. After a brief and unpleasant round with Karl Rove, who screened all religious hot line calls, the familiar voice resonated in the earpiece. "Flatty," W said. "How y'doin?" The Reverend Jerry Pat Flatulence shuddered over the nickname, but he also knew that you can take Texas out of the boy, but you can't take the boy out of Texas ­ or whatever. "Mr. President," he said hesitatingly, "I have just received a very disturbing message, one that I believe requires your urgent attention." "Is this for real?" "Mr. President," Jerry Pat sad gravely, "this is truly serious." Jerry Pat phoned his pilot and his private jet took him to Washington. Within minutes, Secret Service agents ushered him into the Oval Office. The two men fell to their knees and prayed silently. Jerry Pat's prayer involved a request: "Please God, don't appear ever again in my dream or give me any real messages. Please let me just keep interpreting what I think you should be telling me rather than what you really told me in that last dream." Bush's prayed silently for peace. "Please God, give me a little peace from that Cindy Sheehan woman resentful woman whose son died in Iraq and now nags the heck out of me not to send other mothers' sons over there. God, you know how difficult it is for me to deal with death and suffering. Well, strong angry women are even worse. I also beg you not to hit us with any more hurricanes ­ at least until I'm out of office. I really hate going into those places with lots of poor people, dirty, some 'em diseased -- especially while I'm on vacation. Well, you know what I mean God and I await your message, which I hope will come as months of good weather and success on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan." They shook hands after praying and sipped Diet Pepsi. Jerry Pat related his dream. "This message could not have been clearer," he told Bush. "Heck, Flatty," Bush responded, "that's just one dream. And knowing you, it probably came after you ate too much of your wife's home cooking." "But, really," Jerry Pat pleaded, "the oily brick road message, I couldn't have invented something like that. "Flatty, we didn't go to war for oil. Even though I'm practically sure God told me to invade Iraq and tell the folks at home that it was about weapons of mass destruction and all that, He knew that Saddam was sitting on all that oil and that Saddam didn't deserve all that oil and that we good Christians did. So, go on home and relax, Flatty. And tell the folks out in TV land that they should keep the pressure up on those liberals and Democrats on abortion and taxes and homosexual marriages." The Reverend Flatulence returned to Lynchemhighburg. Depressed about his inability to convince Bush, he feasted on his wife's cooking and again he dreamed. This time an even angrier bass voice burst through the dark cloud. "You have failed me," it said. "You and your disciple who says the stupidest prayers in the world will slip on the oily brick road. It will lead you to your doom." Jerry Pat woke up, frightened. He consulted with Robbem "Robby" Paterson, a fellow televangelist, who shared his elite status ­ at the bank, anyway. Robby had become a realist after getting caught on several occasions with underage hookers. After the third bust he vowed to God never to get caught again. Robby had a way of putting Jerry Pat at ease. "Flatty," he said, imitating the President, "what you gonna believe, all the money you got in the bank or a bad dream about oil? If God wanted to send you a message, your stock would go down. If he wants to send Bush a message, his approval ratings would go down." "But they have gone down." "Yes, but if He really wanted to send Bush a message, He'd put those twin girls of his in the centerfold of Playboy. If God wanted to take his anger out on Bus, the cover of Playboy would read `A Tale of Two Bushes" ­ heh, heh." Jerry Pat smiled. He thanked Robby and then phoned the White House. "Mr. President, things are alright. You don't have to follow the oily brick road. I mean..." He thought. "I mean watch your daugh..." He hung up. He no longer knew what he meant. It was all so oily. In 1982 Saul Landau made QUEST FOR POWER, Sketches of the New American Right, a film starring starring Jerry Falwell.                                       CLARIFICATION ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH We published an article entitled "A Saudiless Arabia" by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the "Article"), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the "Website"). Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network. We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism. As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi's lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website. We are pleased to clarify the position. August 17, 2005

Coming in the Fall from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Click Here to Advance Order Philosopher 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