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SHOULD SCOOTER LIBBY'S LAWYER BE DISBARRED? Law school dean Lawrence Velvel says, Maybe he should, if he sat idly by while client Libby spouted lies. What lies at the core of Zionism? Michael Neumann tortures Alan Dershowitz, without a warrant! "Sex-mad adulterer from British aristocracy claims to have 'revolutionized' philosophy." Yes, Bertrand Russell, they mean you! Alexander Cockburn on Smearing 101 in the British press. Get the answers you're looking for in the 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! or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 |
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November 19 / 20, 2005 Fred Gardner St. Clair / Vest / Walker
November 18, 2005 Michael Neumann Dave Lindorff Michael Donnelly Mark Chmiel
/ Andrew Wimmer Don Monkerud Tom Kerr Trish Schuh
November 17, 2005 John Walsh Rep. John Murtha Brian J. Foley CounterPunch
News Service Dave Lindorff Mark T. Harris Cockburn /
St. Clair
November 16, 2005 John F. Sugg Noam Chomsky Dave Lindorff Evelyn Pringle Sam Husseini Pierre Tristam Greg Bates Farrah Hassen Bill Christison Website of
the Day
November 15, 2005 Todd Chretien Leah Caldwell Frederick Hudson Harry Browne Jason Leopold Ingmar Lee Diana Barahona Tom Andre Website of the Weekend
November 14, 2005 Diana Johnstone Paul Craig Roberts Conn Hallinan Joshua Frank Christopher
Reed
November 11 / 13, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Gwyneth Leech Elmas Mallo Michael Neumann Saul Landau Sam Husseini Brian Cloughley Ron Jacobs Lila Rajiva Michael Donnelly Joe Allen Roland Sheppard Justin E.H.
Smith Ben Tripp St. Clair /
Vest Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
November 10, 2005 Peterside,
Ogon, Watts and Zalik Pat Williams Steve Higgs Jimmy Massey Lucson Pierre-Charles Anthony Newkirk Lawrence R.
Velvel Website of the Day November 9, 2005 Gary Leupp Tariq Ali Chris Floyd Elaine Cassel Joshua Frank Alison Weir Diana Johnstone
Paul Craig
Roberts Roger Burbach Ron Jacobs Ralph Nader Jim McGrath David Bloom Stan Goff
November 7, 2005 Dick Reavis Jason Leopold Dave Lindorff Eli Stephens David Swanson M. Junaid Alam Matt Reichel Naima Bouteldja Jeff Halper Website of the Day
November 5 / 6, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Lawrence R.
Velvel Diana Johnstone Roosa / Nevins Niranjan Ramakrishnan John Ross Mike Whitney Mark Engler Juliano Mer-Khamis Ron Jacobs Jill S. Farrell Missy Comley
Beattie Mitchel Cohen Evelyn J. Pringle Reza Fiyouzat Charles Sullivan Zachary Richard Ben Tripp St. Clair / Vest
November 4, 2005 Jeffrey St.
Clair Dave Lindorff Phillip Cryan Christopher Brauchli William S.
Lind Daryl G. Kimball George Beres Peter Montague
November 3, 2005 James Petras Saul Landau Rep. Cynthia McKinney Michael Dickinson Joshua Frank Remi Kanazi Reza Fiyouzat Website of the Day
November 2, 2005 Cockburn /
St. Clair Robert Oscar Lopez John Walsh Brian J. Foley Ramzy Baroud M. Junaid Alam Todd Chretien Bruce K. Gagnon Website of the Day
November 1, 2005 Ron Jacobs Gary Leupp John Ross Bill Quigley Joseph Nevins Dave Lindorff Linda S. Heard Heather Gray Michael Dickinson Jeffrey St. Clair
October 31, 2005 Elaine Cassel Mark Weisbrot Mike Whitney Norman Solomon Farooq Sulehria Nicole Colson Madis Senner Paul Craig
Roberts
Cockburn /
St. Clair Peter Linebaugh Tim Wise John Chuckman Steven Higgs Brian Cloughley M. Shahid Alam Nikki Robinson Ralph Nader Joe DeRaymond Joshua Frank Laura Santina Fred Gardner Michael Dickinson Ron Jacobs Dr. Susan Block Vanessa S. Jones Jeffrey St.
Clair Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
October 28, 2005 Jared Bernstein Virginia Tilley Phil Gasper Jennifer Matsui Manual Garcia,
Jr. Monica Benderman Jason Leopold Dave Lindorff
Saul Landau Stuart Hodkinson Ingmar Lee Lila Rajiva Ilan Pappe Niranjan Ramakrishnan Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Cockburn / St. Clair
October 26, 2005 Kathy Kelly Gary Leupp Mike Marqusee Eric Ruder Patrick Cockburn Joshua Frank J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Website of
the Day
October 25, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts Ken Sengupta / Patrick Cockburn Conn Hallinan Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed Jackie Corr Robert Day John Sugg
October 24, 2005 Dave Lindorff Michael Donnelly Patrick Cockburn Mike Whitney Norman Solomon Bill and Kathleen
Christison
October 22 / 23, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Billy Sothern Saul Landau Ralph Nader Behrooz Ghamari Brian Cloughley Diana Barahona Fred Gardner Lee Sustar Patrick Cockburn Laura Carlsen James Petras Joshua Frank Manuel Garcia,
Jr. Michelle Bollinger Missy Comley
Beattie Kona Lowell Ben Tripp Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Website of
the Day
October 21, 2005 Dave Lindorff Winslow T. Wheeler Col. Dan Smith Norman Solomon Madis Senner Michael Donnelly
Dave Lindorff Ray McGovern Jeremy Brecher
/ Patrick Cockburn Kevin Zeese Ross Eisenbrey Randy Shields Justine Davidson After Lucas
Cranach Joe Allen
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Weekend Edition China and Mexico Pummel Each Other in Punishing Trade WarThe Dragon Flies High, But Not Over MexicoBy JOHN ROSS Perhaps the most indelible moments of Chinese Prime Minister Hu Jintao's September stopover in the Mexican capitol, were the ones he spent stuck in a balky elevator during a courtesy visit to the nation's Supreme Court. For over 15 minutes, Hu dangled there in the gilded elevator cage until rescuers arrived. Mexican-Chinese trade relations bear an uncanny similarity to that incident, stalled in mid-air, suspended against the breath-taking panorama of new Chinese investment in Latin America. What Mexico and China are at loggerheads about is, of course, access to the U.S. market. At the turn of the millennium, Mexico, enervated by the North American Free Trade Agreement, was still the U.S.'s number one supplier of imported goods but by 2002, the Peoples Republic of China had nudged the Aztecs off the top of the heap and has never relinquished its position since, although the competition between the two remains brutal. While Hu traverses Latin America doling out upwards of $30 billion USD in mew Chinese investments, Mexico gets the scraps--an agreement to swap its grapes for Chinese pears and to build a tortilla factory in Shanghai. For China, Mexico is a key beachhead in the global trade war over meaningful access to free-spending U.S. consumers. But Mexico looks upon China as a suspicious intruder seeking to nullify trade advantages that accrued to the United States' southern neighbor as the result of the now 12 year-old NAFTA agreement. Although NAFTA swelled the number of maquiladoras (foreign-owned assembly plants) along the U. S. -Mexican border, China soon had lured over 600 of them to relocate to its 30-U.S.-cents-an-hour industrial complexes in the inscrutable Orient, leaving Mexico with 250,000 unemployed workers on its hands. Moreover, Chinese textile exports to the U.S. now outstrip Mexico's ($10 billion to $8 in 2004) and Mexican farmers cannot compete against state-subsidized agriculture--Chinese chilies now dominate the Mexican market. Although China is Mexico's
second supplier of imported goods behind the U.S., relations
between the two feel more like a hostile takeover than an equitable
arrangement. In 2004, Mexico sold $1.9 billion worth of goods
to Beijing while China sent a whopping $9.1 billion back to The trade imbalance includes about $6 billion USD in hard goods to keep Chinese-owned factories in Mexico churning out consumer goods for the U.S. market. But the inequities are not restricted to legitimate commerce. In Mexico, China has become a code word for pirate goods. Tens of thousands of containers overflowing with counterfeit products stack up in West Coast ports each year and make their way to big city thieves kitchen markets like the brawling Tepito bazaar in the capitol. To Mexico's unflagging shame, an astute Shanghai impresario now owns the copywrite on the image of the country's most venerated icon, the Virgin of Guadalupe and Mexico is flooded with Guadalupana knock-offs "made in China." 19 times over the past decade, Mexico has filed dumping charges with the World Trade Organization against China--the Mexican government was the last to sign on to Chinese membership in the WTO. At various moments in its history, Mexico has singled out its tiny Chinese population, mostly shopkeepers and restaurateurs, for retaliation against imagined evils and even today, Chinese free traders are drawn by political cartoonists here as racist stereotypes. While Mexico and China square off in an ugly turf war, the Dragon is wheeling and dealing for oil, iron ore, bauxite, timber, precious metals, and new markets all over Latin America. Chinese investments in Latin America, $12 billion USD in 2002, rose to $40 billion USD this year and are expected to soar to $100 billion USD by 2010. Kirschner's Argentina (rebaptized by wags "Argenchina") has just inked a $20 billion USD trade deal with the Far East powerhouse for development of its railroads and hydrocarbon production with. Lula's Brazil--China is its second-most important trade partner--will build a Petrobras pipeline with Chinese money. And even Castro's Cuba picked up a half billion for nickel production on Hu Jintao's recent swing through the region. Chile and China have signed 19 bi-lateral agreements and Santiago now sends more copper to Beijing then it does to Washington. Hu also took a look at prospects in Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia for oil infrastructure development on his September spending spree. At an international conference in the Yangtze river delta port of Tanzhau last year, China disclosed it is looking at the development of three Latin American ports as possible trade hubs--Iquique Chile, Santos Brazil, and Ensenada on Mexico's Baja California peninsula. But the big winner in the Chinese sweepstakes has been Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Last January, Chavez journeyed to Beijing (his third trip) to unveil a statue of Simon Bolivar and sign a series of joint accords that opens up the previously inaccessible Venezuelan oil industry to the Chinese. Both countries will cooperate in the renovation of 15 depleted oil fields in eastern Venezuela. In addition, China will go partners in the development of the San Cristobal field and in preliminary exploration on the Orinoco. Venezuela will also export 120,000 barrels of fuel oil to China each week--a drop in the bucket for a nation that guzzles 2.7 million barrels daily (second only to the U.S.) Finally, China will build a refinery in Venezuela and finance 700,000 units of worker housing. The deal grooves nicely with President Chavez's moves to make Venezuela more independent of U.S. oil demands. Venezuela sells 60% of its petroleum production to Washington and twice in recent months when confronted by perceived U.S. aggressions, Chavez has threatened to cut off the oil flow north. The Chinese opening will give the Bolivarian president more room in which to maneuver. U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, head of the influential foreign relations committee, recently declared that a Venezuela cut-off constituted a threat to Washington's national security. Washington has indeed grown more fretful about Chinese intentions in Latin America. The Bush administration recently used the national security card to prevent the sale of the oil giant Unocal to the Chinese and Pentagon documents speak of Beijing as "an inevitable foe." In another less globalized time, China's incursions in Latin America might have triggered charges of Monroe Doctrine meddling. China's thirst for oil fuels all sorts of political paranoias. Without sufficient supply to feed 9% growth rates over the past two decades (Latin America's were 0%), China will lose steam in global markets. In the first six months of 2005, Chinese oil consumption boomed 40% in a $60-a-barrel market and only the U.S. uses more imported oil (12 million out of 20 million daily.) Like a an unslakable giant, China stalks the earth seeking fresh infusions and with no significant Latin American suppliers in his oil basket (Africa and Iran are key sources), the once-red Dragon has its sights set on that southern continent. Mexico, the world's eighth largest oilocracy, which ships 90% of its production to the U.S., is not exempt from Chinese offers. During his recent stay in this capitol, Hu Jintao is thought to have discreetly inquired about the privatization of PEMEX, the nationalized oil monopoly. PEMEX remains as impervious as ever to all privatization schemes but that could change radically after the 2006 presidential elections. If the Chinese and the Mexicans overcome the Great Trade Wall between them and patch things up (both are APEC members), the one-time Commies from Beijing might even be in line to pick up a little PEMEX action. John Ross is the author of Murdered
By Capitalism.
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from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann  Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair          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.               |
