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Today's Stories November 3, 2005 Saul Landau Torn Families and Shot Down Planes: a Cuba Story November 2, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Holy Alito!: Not as Crazy as Scalia, But Just as Bad Robert Oscar Lopez Saving Rosa Parks from American Hypocrisy John Walsh The Philosophy of Mendacity: From Leo Strauss to Scooter Libby Brian J. Foley Why Most Americans Don't Care About Gitmo (and Why They Should) Ramzy Baroud Rolling Back Syria M. Junaid Alam What Moral Values? Todd Chretien Judgment Day for the Governator Bruce K. Gagnon The Democrats' Slap Happy Day Website of the Day Hands Off Dave!   November 1, 2005 Ron Jacobs An Interview with Kent State's Dave Airhart Gary Leupp The Plame Affair Leads to Rome John Ross Days of the Dead on the Border Bill Quigley Why Are They Making New Orleans a Ghost Town? Joseph Nevins From a Boundary of Death to One of Life Dave Lindorff Thinking About Impeachment Linda S. Heard Bashing Syria: Another Trojan Horse from the UN? Heather Gray Thank You, Mrs. Parks Michael Dickinson To Di For: Charlie and Camilla Cross the Pond Jeffrey St. Clair Kent State: Wise Up and Back Off   October 31, 2005 Elaine Cassel Libby's Lies Mark Weisbrot Pop Goes the Bubble: Bernancke and the Fed Mike Whitney Carry On, Patrick Fitzgerald Norman Solomon After the Libby Indictment, the Press Acquits Itself Farooq Sulehria Trading Weapons While Kashmir Burns Nicole Colson Scapegoating Immigrants Madis Senner Dhafir Sentenced to 22 Years: Another Erosion of Civil Rights Paul Craig Roberts Scooter and the Neocons October 29 / 30, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair The Libby Indictment: Gotterdammerung for the Bushies? Peter Linebaugh The Wedges of Hephaestus Tim Wise Framing the Poor: Katrina, Conservative Myth-Making and the Media John Chuckman Bushspeak: Dark and Garbled Words Steven Higgs Green Hoosiers: Forging a New Democracy in the Heartland Brian Cloughley The Fifth Afghan War M. Shahid Alam Israel and the Consequences of Uniqueness Nikki Robinson Crack Down at Kent State Ralph Nader Let the PIRGs Begin!: Student Activism Thrives Joe DeRaymond Requiem for Bethlehem Steel? Joshua Frank Karl's Great Escape: Did Rove Rat on Scooter? Laura Santina Tongue-Tied on Iraq: Why Aren't the Dems Screaming Bloody Murder? Fred Gardner Death of an Organizer Michael Dickinson Insult Your Country Ron Jacobs Autumn in America Dr. Susan Block Fear and Sex: a Halloween Greeting Vanessa S. Jones Self-Portrait, 1994. Bronte Beach Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Marbet, Gardner, Ford, Albert, Engel, Krieger & St. Clair Website of the Weekend Red State Update   October 28, 2005 Jared Bernstein Inflation Up; Wages Down: Fastest Decline in Wages on Record Virginia Tilley Embracing the Anti-Aparthied Movement in Israel/Palestine Phil Gasper The Race to Execute Tookie Williams Jennifer Matsui It's Mardi Graft Time! Manual Garcia, Jr. Is the US Really Against Torture? Monica Benderman In the Name of Justice Jason Leopold Fitzgerald Focuses on the Forgeries Dave Lindorff Suddenly, Bush Endorses Right of Fair Trials Otober 27, 2005 Saul Landau The Scandal Isn't the Leak, But the Illegal War Stuart Hodkinson Bono and Geldoff: "We Saved Africa" Oh No, They Didn't! Ingmar Lee Stop the Troops!: No Glory or Honor in Iraq Lila Rajiva License to Bill: Gates Does India Ilan Pappe The Last Moment of Hope Niranjan Ramakrishnan Waiting for Fitzgerald Michael Donnelly Look Who's Talking Now: the GOP on Perjury Ron Jacobs Escape the Weight of Your Corporate Logo Cockburn / St. Clair White House in Meltdown   October 26, 2005 Kathy Kelly For Whom They Toll Gary Leupp Dialectics of the Plame Affair Mike Marqusee Empire of Denial Eric Ruder War Crimes in Afghanistan Patrick Cockburn Iraq: a Constitutionally Divided Nation Joshua Frank Fitzgerald v. the Bushies: Hold Your Elation in Check J.L. Chestnut, Jr. The Legacy of Rosa Parks Website of the Day Decent Work in America: the 2005 Work Environment Index     October 25, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Condi and Syrian Regime Change: Could Somebody Recommend a President? Ken Sengupta / Patrick Cockburn Attack on the Palestine Hotel Conn Hallinan Sleight of Hand: Iran, India and the US Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed Pulling the Court Strings Jackie Corr Barbara Bush: Poster Gorgon of the Houston Astros Robert Day Talk to Strangers John Sugg Judith Miller and Me   October 24, 2005 Dave Lindorff Revoke Judy Miller's Pulitzer Michael Donnelly Shades of Iran/contra Patrick Cockburn A Nation Stands on Trial Mike Whitney Apres Rove Norman Solomon Iraq is Not Vietnam, But... Bill and Kathleen Christison US Foreign Policy and Palestine   October 22 / 23, 2005 Alexander Cockburn When Divas Collide: Maureen Dowd v. Judy Miller Billy Sothern Letter from the Circle Bar, New Orleans Saul Landau Bush, an Assessment Ralph Nader An Open Letter to Bush on Harriet Miers Behrooz Ghamari Whose Justice Does Saddam's Trial Serve? Brian Cloughley Bush the Strategist: Pyrrhus Without a Victory? Diana Barahona Venezuela's National Workers' Union Fred Gardner Dershowitzed! Lee Sustar What the War on Terror is Really About Patrick Cockburn Murder of Saddam Trial Defense Lawyer Laura Carlsen Mexico City Seamstresses Recall 1985 Quake James Petras China Bashing and the Loss of US Competitiveness Joshua Frank Invading Iran: Who is to Stop Them? Manuel Garcia, Jr. Disasters are Us Michelle Bollinger When Abortion Was Illegal Missy Comley Beattie CSI: Iraq Kona Lowell Intelligent Design: Making High School Fun Ben Tripp Tanks for the Memories Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening To This Week Poets' Basement Albert and Engel Website of the Day Indictment Watch   October 21, 2005 Dave Lindorff The Democrats' Abortion Hypocrisy Winslow T. Wheeler Paying for Their Mistakes: Incompetence, Deception and the Defense Budget Col. Dan Smith The Destruction of the National Guard Norman Solomon Media at Crossroads: 25 Years After Reagan's Triumph Madis Senner Abusing Katrina Michael Donnelly Richard Pombo: DeLay in Cowboy Boots October 20, 2005 Dave Lindorff Impeachment Comes to NYC Ray McGovern 16 Fatal Words: Cheney's Chickens Come Home to Roost Jeremy Brecher / Brendan Smith Attack Syria? Invade Iran?: By What Constitutional Right? Patrick Cockburn Saddam Refuses to Recognize Court Kevin Zeese Was the Iraqi Constitution Vote Fixed? Ross Eisenbrey Millions Would Lose Pay and Protections Under Enzi Amendment Randy Shields James McMurtry Makes It in Dayton Justine Davidson Prosecuting Bush in Canada for Torture: a Small Victory After Lucas Cranach Judy and Holofernes Joe Allen The Scandalous History of the Red Cross   October 19, 2005 Christopher Reed Koizumi and the Rape of Nanking Stephen Soldz Bush and Avian Flu: the Excuses Begin to Fly Chet Richards War and Intelligence Patrick Cockburn Saddam on Trial Scott Richard Lyons Multicultural Columbus? Ralph Nader An Interview with Rev. William Sloane Coffin Website of the Day Shocking Video: Why Birds May Be Taking Viral Vengeance on Humans   October 18, 2005 Chet Flippo Merle Haggard: "Let's Get Out of Iraq" Ron Jacobs Dual Devotions: the Catholic Church and the US Flag Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor A Tale of Two Cities: From DC to Toledo Dave Lindorff Judy Miller: Little Miss Run Amok Virginia Rodino A Winter Patriot: Reflections on the Antiwar Movement Thomas Healy The Weather in Goshen: Still Radical After All These Years Ralph Nader A New New Orleans Stephen Lendman The Sorrows of Haiti Patrick Cockburn On the Eve of Saddam's Trial: a Divided Iraq   October 17, 2005 Peter Linebaugh Spinoza and the Black Limos Norman Solomon Judith Miller, the Fourth Estate and the Warfare State Cockburn / Sengupta "If the Sunnis Don't Like It, That's Their Problem" Mike Whitney Miller's Confession: Last Gasp Before Indictments? Uri Avnery Iraq Now: What Awaits Samira? Harold Pinter Torture & Misery in the Name of Freedom Website of the Day Al Joudi v. Bush   October 15 / 16, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Ayatollahs of the Apocalypse Patrick Cockburn "This Constitution Won't Get Me a Job" Saul Landau Two Terrorists and a Lush: Osama, Posada and Bush's Drinking Neve Gordon "Beyond Chutzpah": Exposing Grave Moral Distortions Moshe Adler Poverty in New York City Christopher Brauchli Lynndie England's Burden Diane Farsetta The Emperor Doesn't Disclose: the Fight Against Fake News Sam Husseini Notes on Current Reporting About Judith Miller Monica Benderman From Chaos to Conscience to Peace Mickey Z. POW Abuse by US: Nothing New Going On Here Douglas C. Smyth George W. Bush, the Honorius of Our Time Lee Sustar Will Delphi Bust the UAW? Fred Gardner Cannabinoids Arrive in Realm of Established Fact Elizabeth Schulte A Former Panther's Georgia Campaign: an Interview with Elaine Brown Joshua Frank Will the Democrats Save Harriet Miers? David Vest Down with Formalism! Up with Values! Ben Tripp Epistle II: the Reawakenign Poets Basement Engel, Albert, Ford and Louise Website of the Weekend The Hidden Canyon   October 14, 2005 Farrah Hassen A Somber Ramadan in Syria Ron Jacobs The Black Panthers: They Haven't Forgotten; Neither Should We Sasha Kramer USAID and Haiti: the Friendly Face of Imperialism? Katrina Yeaw The Student Struggle in Italy Nicole Colson Bird Flu: Militarizing Health Care Raúl Zibechi Survival and Existence in El Alto Nikolas Kozloff Hugo Chávez and the Politics of Race Website of the Day LA Filmmakers Cooperative October 13, 2005 Jeremy Scahill Mr. Bush Goes to Tikrit (Sort Of) Jeff Birkenstein A Thoreau for Our Time: Why Cindy Sheehan Matters Brendan Smith / Jeremy Brecher Harriet Miers: Bush or the Constitution? Stan Cox Did You Know This About Iraq? Anis Memon The Curious Case of Russ Feingold Gary Leupp Miller, Libby and the June Notes Dave Zirin A Tribute to August Wilson Matthew Koehler America's Endangered Forests Werther The Two-Headed Monster Website of the Day Hurricane Song October 12, 2005 Omar Waraich Britain and the Quake: Mean and Stingy William Cook Voices Behind the Entombment Wall Phil Gasper Countdown to a Legal Lynching Dave Lindorff Impeachment Now and Then: Clinton, Bush and the Polls Matt Vidal Capital, Power and Class John Gautreaux New Orleans will Never be the Same Diana Johnstone Srebrenica Revisited: Using War as an Excuse for War Mark Weisbrot The IMF Has Lost Its Influence Brian J. Foley Gitmo Tribunals Endanger Public Safety Website of the Day Columbus Day Lies   October 11, 2005 Roger Morris / Steve Schmidt Strategic Demands of the 21st Century Lila Rajiva Live from New Orleans: Abu Ghraib Bill Quigley New Orleans: Leaving the Poor Behind Again Paul Craig Roberts Natural Born Liars Dave Lindorff Recruiters in Schools: No Lie Left Untried Dr. Teresa Whitehurst Suspect Thy Neighbor Mitchel Cohen Showdown at Chuck E. Cheese Tariq Ali Pakistan will Never Forget This Horror Website of the Day L'Heure Americaine   October 10, 2005 Cindy and Craig Corrie Rachel's Words Live Joshua Frank Washington's War Dems Gideon Levy The Beautiful Life Without Arafat Alan Wallis The Fight for Free Speech at Union Square Mickey Z. In Defense of Liars CounterPunch News Service Vermont Independence Convention Paul Craig Roberts The Police State is Closer Than You Think Website of the Day Dylan's Chronicles   October 8 / 9, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Rhetoric and Reality in the Business of Getting Rid of Black People Ralph Nader Katrina and the Growls of Greed Jennifer Van Bergen New American Law: Legal Strategies in the Dharfir Case Saul Landau An Oily Religious Dream Jeff Halper Setting Up Abbas Lenni Brenner The Millions More Movement and Zionism Nikolas Kozloff Bird Flu and Bush Brian Cloughley Training Soldiers in Iraq Alice Slater A Nobel Prize for Chernobyl? John Gautreaux A View from Cajun Country Fred Gardner Does the Controlled Substances Act Mean What It Says? Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Leveethan Approach M.G. Piety Rot in the Ivory Tower: Collusion, Cover-Up and Kierkegaard Tom Gorman The Hitchens Doctrine Mike Whitney Bunker Days with George Aseem Shrivastava Beyond the Wasteland: Lessons from Afghanistan Ben Tripp Religion, an Epistle Poets' Basement Albert, Engel and Ford   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             Subscribe Online

Red Alert for CounterPunchers! Annual Fundraising Appeal We interrupt your regular reading habits to bring you the following important announcement: CounterPunch needs your financial support! We're not in the habit of making idle threats and this isn't one. Either we meet our fundraising goal of $60,000 over the next three weeks or we'll be forced to drastically curtail the operation of our website. It's near the end of our year and the wolf is at the door. CounterPunch's website is supported almost entirely by subscribers to the print edition of our newsletter. We don't clutter the site by selling annoying popup ads. We tried getting money out of Google, but they gave us the boot. We aren't on the receiving end of six-figure grants from big foundations. George Soros doesn't have us on retainer. And we don't sell tickets on cruiseliners. The continued existence of CounterPunch depends solely on the support and dedication of our readers. And we know there are a lot of you. 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To contribute by phone you can call Becky or Deva toll free at: 1-800-840-3683 Onward, Alexander, Jeffrey, Becky and Deva November 3, 2005 A Cuba Story Torn Families and Shot Down Planes By SAUL LANDAU How does downing two airplanes in 1996 relate to suffering Cuban families in 2005? In a new report ("Families Torn Apart"), Human Rights Watch blames both sides for dividing families. A "ruthless" Cuban government restricts travel while a "democratic" US regime limits visits by US-based Cubans to their relatives in Cuba. Last year, to "punish" that "unreasonable" Fidel Castro, the Bush Administration limited family visits to the closest relatives ­ no aunts, uncles or cousins -- to once every three years. Bush officials claim that a hard line will remove Castro and bring democracy to the island. To illustrate their contention of Castro's ruthlessness, they cite the downing of two airplanes on February 24, 1996. Ironically, that event did prove that Castro meant what he said. It also dramatized the bizarre nature of almost forty-seven years of hostile relations between the two countries. Cuban leaders had decided before that fateful day to shoot down intruding aircraft flown by the militantly anti-Castro "Brothers to the Rescue," (BTTR). So, after issuing repeated warnings to BTTR and the US government about the consequences of another overflight, Cuban MIGs had advance orders to fire their missiles at intruding aircraft. The pilots and co-pilots of two of the three planes died as the projectiles hit their targets. The third plane escaped. The details are well known. The facts remain in dispute. Official opinions have hardened. A day before that encounter, Richard Nuccio, White House Cuba spokesman attended a Cuban dance performance in Washington DC. During intermission, he told reporters that the Brother planned to fly the next day. One reporter then asked Fernando Remirez for comments. As head of the Cuban Interest Section, Remirez obviously reported the conversation to Havana. Nuccio also notified the FAA and e-mailed Deputy National Security Adviser Sandy Berger that Cuba would shoot down planes flown by the Miami-based exile group. In the early 1990s,BTTR began to fly small planes over the Florida Straits to spot Cuban rafters adrift and radio their locations to nearby ships for rescue. The US-Cuban migration accords of 1994-95 stemmed the rafter surge. So, BTTR changed their mission and began to fly, unauthorized, over Cuban territory. Twice in 1995, they dropped anti-Castro leaflets over urban areas. Nuccio claimed that Berger didn't answer his urgent that the Brothers "may be planning another in a series of violations of Cuban air space tomorrow." Nuccio knew that on February 24 Concilio Cubano, an organization of various dissident groups planned to meet in Havana ­ against Cuban government wishes. He saw the political significance of BTTR planes dropping anti-Castro leaflets on that occasion. His e-mail also referred to previous BTTR overflights of Cuban territory. Jose Basulto formed this flying club, claiming "humanitarian purposes." But Cubans remembered Basulto from his participation in an August 1962 raid that killed twenty people. Previous invasions of Cuban air space, Nuccio noted, "have been met with restraint by Cuban authorities. Now, however, Tensions are sufficiently high within Cuba" because of the anticipated flyover coinciding with the Concilio meeting. "We feel this may finally tip the Cubans toward an attempt to shoot down or force down the planes" (Reuters 2-21-99). Berger admitted that he didn't read Nuccio's email until it was too late to stop the planes from flying. I entered the story with my partner Scott Armstrong while we were in Cuba on a project to improve US-Cuban relations. Cuban Vice President Ricardo Alarcon asked us to take a message to Mort Halpern, who held the Cuba portfolio at the National Security Council. Alarcon emphasized that for more than a year BTTR planes had penetrated Cuban airspace. In January 1996, they overflew Havana twice and, at low altitude, dropped anti-Castro leaflets on urban areas. Alarcon said that grave consequences would ensue from the next penetration of Cuban airspace: the planes would be shot down. When we reported the warnings to Halpern, he said that several people had already alerted him. On January 18, Armstrong learned that Halperin had sent a letter to the FAA chief, asking him to revoke the BTTR flying licenses. They had consistently filed false flight plans. Halperin left his job at the end of January. His assistant assured us that the FAA had ordered informed their Miami office to revoke the licenses. In January 1996, Castro had grown sufficiently concerned that he raised the issue with US Marine Corps General John J. Sheehan, (Commander in Chief-U.S. Atlantic Command at the time of the shootdown). Castro recalled how in the past anti-revolutionary pilots had flown small planes from Miami and dropped bombs on Cuba. Should he assume that men with terrorist histories like Basulto would not repeat their past behavior? Any government would defend its territory, he stated,. If the Brothers returned, Cuba would respond appropriately. On January 17, UN Ambassador Bill Richardson flew to Havana as Clinton's emissary. Cuban officials told me that he assured Castro that the US government would take appropriate steps to stop future overflights. Retired Admiral Eugene Carroll told CNN that between February 5 and 9 he had "long discussions with [Cuban] General Rosales del Toro and his staff, the question came up about these overflights from private airplanes operating out of Miami. "They asked us, `What would happen if we shot one of these down? We can, you know'." Carroll and former Ambassador Robert White who had also made the trip to Cuba reported this "calculated warning" to high officials at State and Defense (CNN 2/25/96). By February 23, Cuban authorities knew from several sources that BTTR planned to flaunt Cuba's warning the next day. Cuba prepared. On Saturday, February 24, three planes filed flight plans for the Bahamas and then headed south for Cuba. Havana air traffic control told the Brothers to turn around, that they had not cleared them to enter a Cuban defense zone. Basulto, the lead pilot, advised the other pilots to ignore the warning. From here on, Cuban and U.S. authorities disagree on the facts. Washington insists that only one plane was in Cuban airspace when the MIGs fired their missiles. Moreover, the MIGs ignored that craft, flown by Basulto, and hit the two in international waters. Cuba maintains that all three planes were in Cuban airspace. Admiral Carroll provided CNN with an analogy. "Suppose we had the planes flying over San Diego from Mexico, dropping leaflets and inciting against Governor Wilson. How long would we tolerate these overflights after we had warned them against it? Such logic had little impact on anti-Castro militants. They mobilized Republicans like Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) and Representative Dan Burton (R-IN), allied with Democrats like Robert Torricelli and Bob Menendez, both New Jersey Democrats. All the legislators had links with the Cuban American National Foundation and other anti-Castro groups. Together, they put pressure on the White House. With elections some eight months away, Clinton could ill afford to look weak His options: a military response or sign the Helm-Burton bill into law, which would both tighten and codify the embargo. It seems strange that Clinton would sign a bill ceding power to Congress to control the embargo and travel to Cuba. This would make it more difficult to alter the ossified relations between the two countries. In April, a month after Clinton signed Helms-Burton, Sandy Berge admitted to Armstrong that he had not read the codification clause. He mistook the penultimate version for the final one he submitted to the President "I made a mistake," he said. Dan Fisk, Helms' aide who guided the bill through Congress, felt uneasy as a conservative over the codification clause. "We put it in there for negotiating purposes. We didn't think the White House would sign it," he told us. In 2004, at a seminar on US-Cuba relations, a former White House aide compared the "unreasonable Cuban government" with the Vietnamese. "We had given them a tough draft of a commercial accord, expecting to negotiate. They sat down immediately as reasonable people," the former aide concluded. Did this mean that we needn't have fought the Vietnam War, I inquired, given that Vietnam's government had not changed its ideology? The former aide looked befuddled. Another former high official said. "I'm tired of us making all the initiatives. Why doesn't Castro make concessions?" Did he mean, I asked, that Fidel should stop punching our fist with his face and lift the four plus decade embargo on the United States? Remove the Cuban base from US territory? Yes, US-Cuba relations are absurd. Nine presidents ­ from Kennedy to GW Bush ­ have inherited a "punish Castro" policy. Cuban families have felt the whip of separation because none of the presidents had courage enough to change the policy.. In "Familes Torn Apart," Human Rights Watch misses the point. US punishment, not Cuban ruthlessness has defined the policy. The US sponsored an invasion in 1961, embargoed the island from 1962 on, and launched thousands of acts of terrorism against Cubans and their property. Washington refuses to allow routine travel by its citizens to the island. Castro's refusal to allow intruding aircraft into Cuban territory in 1996 and eschewing US economic and political dictates for four plus decades ­brought about Washington's Pavlovian castigation response. This has meant the cruel division of Cuban families. Fidel has yet to miss a meal or a conjugal opportunity. Such is the "logic" of Washington's Cuba policy. Saul Landau is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. His 1968 documentary, FIDEL, is available through Cinema Guild in New York City.   What You're Missing in the Special Expanded Print Edition The War So Far: a Failure Worse Than Vietnam by Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad "The need for the White House to produce a fantasy picture of Iraq is because it dare not admit that it has engineered one of the greatest disasters in American history. It is worse than Vietnam because the enemy is punier and the original ambitions greater." 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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