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* Who were the Israelis living next to Mohammed Atta? * What was in that Moving Van on the New Jersey shore? * Was the Mossad Tracking the 9/11 Hijackers in the US? * How did two hijackers end up on the Watch List weeks before 9/11?
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Exclusive to CounterPunch Newsletter Subscribers! WHAT DID ISRAEL KNOW IN ADVANCE OF THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS? * Those Celebrating "Movers" and Art Student Spies
* Who were the Israelis living next to Mohammed Atta?
* What was in that Moving Van on the New Jersey shore?
* Was the Mossad Tracking the 9/11 Hijackers in the US?
* How did two hijackers end up on the Watch List weeks before 9/11?At last, the answers. Read Christopher Ketcham's exclusive expose in CounterPunch special double-issue February newsletter. Plus, Cockburn and St. Clair on how this story was suppressed and ultimately found its home in CounterPunch. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Remember contributions to CounterPunch 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 Landau at UC Santa Cruz; Cockburn in San Francisco
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Today's Stories February 24 / 25, 2007 Jeffrey St.
Clair
February 23, 2007 Franklin Spinney Jonathan Cook Patrick Cockburn Kathy Kelly Chris Dols Evelyn Pringle Stephen Pearcy Dan Brook Yifat Susskind Website of
the Day
February 22, 2007 Robert Fantina Tariq Ali Michael Shank John Ross Christopher Brauchli Cindy Litman Niranjan Ramakrishnan Kevin Zeese Aseem Shrivastava Reza Fiyouzat Illinois Students Against the
War Website of
the Day
February 21, 2007 Maass / St.
Clair Sharon Smith Greg Moses Margaret Kimberly Ralph Nader Nicola Nasser Mike Whitney Tao Ruspoli Byeong Jeongpil Corporate Crime
Reporter Josh Mahan Website of
the Day
February 20, 2007 Sgt. Martin
Smith Werther Corporate Crime Reporter Carl G. Estabrook China Hand Joshua Frank Megan Boler John Feffer Daryll E. Ray Alan Gregory Website of the Day
February 19, 2007 Paul Craig
Roberts Gary Leupp Ron Jacobs Michael F.
Brown Robert Jensen Roger Burbach Monica Benderman Sonja Karkar John Walsh Talli Nauman Website of the Day
Feburary 17 / 18, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Tao Ruspoli Gary Leupp Jeffrey St.
Clair Roger Morris Uri Avnery James Brooks Sen. Russell
Feingold Linn Washington, Jr. Michele Brand Fred Gardner Mitchel Cohen Mike Ferner David Swanson P. Sainath Mike Stark Missy Beattie Jonathan Franklin Website of the Weekend
Marc Levy Andrew Cockburn Glen Ford Greg Moses Ron Jacobs John W. Farley James Marc Leas Tim Rinne Albert Wan Website of
the Day
Patrick Cockburn Saul Landau Stephen Lendman Evelyn Pringle Michael Simmons Kevin Zeese Dave Lindorff Pete Shanks Peter Rost Lenni Brenner
/ Gilad Atzmon Website of the Day
February 14, 2007 Tao Ruspoli Dick J. Reavis Margaret Kimberly Christopher Brauchli Paul Craig
Roberts John Ross Michael F.
Brown Dave Lindorff J.L. Chestunut,
Jr. Don Fitz Michael Donnelly Dr. Susan Block Website of
the Day
February 13, 2007 Uri Avnery Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader Marjorie Cohn Col. Dan Smith Col. Douglas
MacGreagor Thomas Power Nicola Nasser David Swanson Columbia Coalition
Against the War Website of the Day
February 12, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Paul Craig
Roberts John Walsh Dr. John Carroll,
MD Greg Moses Nicole Colson Dave Lindorff Ray McGovern Doug Giebel David Swanson Website of the Day
February
10 /11, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Gabriel Kolko Patrick Cockburn Jeffrey St.
Clair Kevin Alexander Gray M. Shahid Alam Greg Moses Paul Craig
Roberts George Ciccariello-Maher Kevin Zeese Turner / Kim George Duke Walter Brasch Shepherd Bliss Missy Beattie Peter Harley Pat Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Day
Conn Hallinan Gary Leupp Lee Sustar Nikolas Kozloff Newton Garver Yitzhak Laor Dave Lindorff David Swanson Website of the Day
February 8, 2007 John V. Walsh Marjorie Cohn Trish Schuh Ron Jacobs Laura Carlsen Ramzy Baroud Brenda Norrell Bryan Farrell Judith Scherr Website of
the Day
February 7, 2007 Daniel Wolff Tao Ruspoli Tony Swindell Sharon Smith Ken Couesbouc Jeff Cohen Col. Dan Smith Tom Kerr Joshua Frank Adam Elkus Stephen Fleischman Website of
the Day
February 6, 2007 Diana Johnstone Gregory Wilpert Norman Solomon Dave Lindorff William Blum Mike Ferner CP News Service Evelyn Pringle Christopher Brauchli Alan Cabal Website of the Day
Dave Zirin Uri Avnery Ron Jacobs Paul Craig Roberts Newton Garver Bruce Anderson Saul Landau Ralph Nader James T. Phillips Mike Whitney Kenneth Rexroth Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn Tao Ruspoli Jeffrey St.
Clair Patrick Cockburn P. Sainath Sen. Russell Feingold Diane Christian Brian Cloughley Diana Barahona Timothy J. Freeman Conn Hallinan John Ross Greg Moses Missy Beattie Joshua Frank Evelyn Pringle Stephen Fleischman Muhammad Idrees Ahmad Poets' Basement Website of the Day
Chris Kutalik R. Gibson /
E. W. Ross Pam Martens John Feffer Daryll E. Ray Ronald Bruce
St. John Mitchel Cohen Website of
the Day
Diane Farsetta Marjorie Cohn Mark Scaramella Ranni Amiri Christopher Ketcham Winston Warfield Corporate Crime Reporter Thomas P. Healy Website of the Dau
January 31, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Jean Bricmont Tao Ruspoli James T. Phillips William Johnson Tim Wilkinson Evelyn Pringle Joshua Frank Ramzy Baroud Mickey Z. Website of the Day
Werther Kathy Kelly Uri Avnery Franklin Spinney William S. Lind Pariah Mike Whitney Rev. William
E. Alberts Fran Shor Anthony Arnove Website of the Day
Nurit Peled-Elhanan Patrick Cockburn JoAnn Wypijewski Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Kevin Zeese Reza Fiyouzat Pat Williams Website of the Day
January 27 / 28, 2007 Diana Johnstone Eliza Ernshire Patrick Cockburn David Rosen Greg Moses Bernard Chazelle Tao Ruspoli Hermán
Uribe Ralph Nader Paul Craig
Roberts Fred Gardner Brian Cloughley James Abourezk John V. Whitbeck Seth Sandronsky Alan Cabal Pam Martens Website of
the Weekend
Charlotte Laws Mike Ely /
Linda Flores Joe DeRaymond Phil Donahue Zia Mian Jeb Sprague Evelyn Pringle Missy Beattie Martha Rosenberg Website of
the Day
Patrick Cockburn John Ross Jeremy Scahill Frida Berrigan Paul Craig Roberts Jason Yossef
Ben-Meir Christopher Brauchli Holger W. Henke Dave Lindorff Julia Landau Website of the Day
January 24, 2007 Tao Ruspoli Paul Craig
Roberts Lt. Gen. William Odom Sharon Smith Brian M. Downing Heather Gray Ron Jacobs James Brooks Robert Day Website of
the Day
Trish Schuh Robert Bryce
Stephen Soldz John Blair Gloria La Riva Joshua Frank Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Uri Avnery Website of the Day
January 22, 2007 Manuel Garcia,
Jr. Jen Marlowe George McGovern Paul Craig
Roberts Norman Solomon Amira Hass Mike Whitney Ramzy Baroud John Walsh Website of
the Day
January 20/21 2007 Alexander Cockburn
Gail Dines
Newton Garver
Gilad Atzmon
Seth Sandronksy
Raphaelle Bail
Jim Goodman Larry Portis
Website of
the Weekend
Jonathan Cook
Glen Ford Dave Lindorff
Larry Portis
Website of
the Day
William Peace
Virginia Tilley
Michael Donnelly
B.R. Gowani
Larry Portis
Jason Hribal
Website of
the Day
Franklin Spinney John Ross Susan George Paul Craig
Roberts Joshua Frank David Lindorff
Col. Sam Gardiner
Marjorie Cohn
Saul Landau
Ron Jacobs
Susan Block Ken Couesbouck Website of
the Day
Roger Morris Paul Craig
Roberts Kathy Kelly William Blum Ralph Nader Saul Landau January 12 / 14, 2007 Patrick Cockburn David Rosen William S.
Lind Laith al-Saud Paul Craig
Roberts John Ross George Ciccariello-Maher Christopher Brauchli Robert Buzzanco Evelyn Pringle Peter Rost,
MD. Mike Whitney Yifat Susskind Saul Cohen Missy Beattie Stephen Lendman Website of
the Weekend
January 11, 2007 Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Paul Craig
Roberts Kathy Kelly Dave Lindorff Jeff Leys Richard W.
Behan Col. Douglas MacGregor Website of
the Day Speech of the Day
Peter Linebaugh Robert Fantina Patrick Cockburn Paul Craig Roberts Col. Dan Smith Ben Tripp Evelyn Pringle Ron Jacobs Mike Ferner Dave Zirin Website of
the Day Bootleg of the Day
R. T. Naylor Jonathan Cook Mike Ely and Linda Flores Joshua Frank Norman Solomon Sen. Russell
Feingold Joe Allen James T. Phillips Brian Concannon Leonard Peltier Website of the Day
January 8, 2007 Werther Jeff Leys Paul Craig Roberts Shulamit Aloni Dave Lindorff Sunsara Taylor Seth Sandronsky Dr. Susan Block Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn Franklin C.
Spinney Paul Craig
Roberts Ralph Nader Walden Bello Marleen Martin Brian Cloughley Uri Avnery Saul Landau Ron Jacobs Joseph Nevins William S. Lind Gary Leupp Elisa Salasin George Ciccariello-Maher Beyond Chavistas and Anti-Chavistas: Deepening the Bolivarian Revolution Stefan Wray Michael Leonardi Richard Rhames Jeffrey St. Clair Barbara LaMorticella Website of the Weekend Song of the
Weekend
Jorge Mariscal John Walsh Christopher Brauchli Travis Sharpe Tom Barry Linda Schade
/ Kevin Zeese Tiffany Ten Eyck Mahmoud El-Yousseph Lucinda Marshall Website of
the Day
Patrick Cockburn Winslow T.
Wheeler M. Shahid Alam Raed Jarrar Bert Sacks Kathy Rentenbach Stephen Fleischman George Bisharat Peter Rost, MD Evelyn Pringle Website of the Day
January 3, 2007 Kathy Kelly Paul Craig
Roberts William Johnson Stan Cox Trita Parsi Declan McKenna Joe Bageant Nicola Nasser Missy Beattie Website of
the Day
Michael Watts Amina Mire James Brooks Alevtina Rea Al Krebs Peter Rost Niranjan Ramakrishnan John Stanton Website of the Day
January 1, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Uri Avnery Joshua Frank
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February 24 / 25, 2007 Stepping Up the PressureWhat Next for the Immigrants' Rights Movement?By LEE SUSTAR Amid ramped-up federal raids on undocumented workers and a raft of new anti-immigrant legislation at the state level, the immigrant rights movement is building grassroots emergency response networks--while debating what to demand from expected immigration legislation in Congress. What is emerging is a strategy encapsulated in the phrase "legalization for all"--a rejection of any legislative proposal that would limit eligibility for guest-worker programs to undocumented workers who have been in the U.S. for a specified time period, while excluding the rest. The approach is intended to keep in one camp both organizations that have accepted guest-worker proposals and more militant immigrant groups that oppose such measures as second-class citizenship, according to Nativo López, president of the Mexican American Political Association. "Legalization for all, as well as demilitarization of the border, have became the minimum basis for the alliance," López said in an interview. Based on his experiences at recent conferences in Los Angeles on January 19-20 and in Phoenix on February 3, which brought together a wide range of immigrant rights groups and labor unions, López said he believes that most activists "don't accept the notion that we have to give up existing rights--due process and judicial review--for a temporary visa." As an alternative to guest-worker proposals, López advocates opening the way for all immigrants to pursue employment under the existing Labor Department certification program. The guest-worker issue has been contentious since the immigrant rights movement reached a new level in the mass mobilizations of last spring. Those protests reflected the unity of the immigrant rights movement in opposition to HR 4437--a bill sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) that would have criminalized the estimated 12 million undocumented workers and all who assisted them. But the movement split over business-backed legislation proposed in the Senate that would have both ratcheted up enforcement and created a new three-tier guest-worker program tying workers' immigration status to their employers. The final bill--known as Hagel-Martinez for its two Senate sponsors--was seen as so bad that even some of its initial supporters in the immigrant rights movement concluded it would be better if no legislation was passed before the November elections. Now, Corporate America is driving for a new immigration law from the Democratic Congress--and once again, its push is being supported by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and UNITE HERE, the textile and hotel union. Calling itself the Alliance for Immigration Reform 2007, this coalition held a telephone press conference January 18 to call for reviving legislation based on the core principles of Hagel-Martinez. Packaged into the S 2611 bill that passed the Senate but failed to become law, Hagel-Martinez would have divided immigrant workers into three categories--with at least 2 million forced to leave the U.S. immediately. This three-tiered categorization of immigrants will likely be the model for new legislation, according to Tamar Jacoby of the neoconservative Manhattan Institute. "There is a view that with Democrats [in control of Congress], the three tiers will be scrapped," she said at the press conference. "I don't think any of us expects that to happen. This has to be a right-left bill." SEIU Vice President Eliseo Medina, who was also on the press conference call, didn't disagree with Jacoby, even though the union has finally gone on record opposing the three-tiered system in Hagel-Martinez--long after the bill expired with the close of the last Congress. Hagel-Martinez would have created a difficult "path to citizenship" for those in the country five years or more; forced those more than two years but less than five years in the U.S. to leave the country and re-enter to apply for temporary status; and excluded the rest. The National Council of La Raza has again endorsed such a guest-worker program as part of what the organization's officials say is a necessary compromise. The SEIU, however, has shifted its tone. Although the union supported Hagel-Martinez, SEIU President Andrew Stern and Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger recently wrote to Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) that since the bill "fortunately died," the new Congress should take a different approach. "Congress should not be satisfied with a program that would legalize an estimated 6 to 8 million, when an estimated 11 to 12 million individuals are undocumented and living within our borders," they wrote. "We must face reality that long-term undocumented, but otherwise law-abiding workers will not leave the country voluntarily." However, the SEIU's call for a "new worker" program--the union has dropped the word "guest"--hasn't changed the fact that it is still collaborating with employers to create a vast new category of workers with substandard rights, said Renee Saucedo of La Raza Central, a community law center in San Francisco that works with day laborers. "They are trying to sugarcoat it," said Saucedo, herself an SEIU member. "They are saying that it is not the old guest-worker program where you're tied to one employer. But that doesn't make it any more innocuous, unfortunately. Inherently, guest-worker programs are tying employment status to immigration status, which creates an exploitative situation for immigrant workers." "I can't see why a union would be behind that when there are other options," such as a simple residency requirement, she said. Ana Avendaño, associate general counsel for the AFL-CIO, agreed that repackaging Hagel-Martinez wouldn't challenge the emerging legal framework for creating second-class citizenship for undocumented workers. She rejected the argument made by some advocates of Hagel-Martinez, such as Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), that a guest-worker program at least provides a humane alternative to the often deadly desert border crossing. "It's tragic that there are deaths in the desert, but one Mexican worker dies on the job in the U.S. every day, and that's equally tragic," she said. "We can't just focus on the deaths in the desert and ignore the deaths in our workplaces. And by establishing a new guest-worker program, that's exactly what you're doing." Even if the tiered system proposed by Hagel-Martinez is scrapped, the fact is that guest-workers will lack full rights. Since the strategy of "legalization for all" could be interpreted as including a guest-worker plan, unity around that slogan could shift to the right some immigrant groups that in the past have called for amnesty. So as Congress debates immigration legislation that will create a guest-worker system, the immigrant rights movement will once again be engaged in its own internal debates over whether compromise is acceptable. Whatever legislation does emerge from Congress, it's certain to contain more harsh enforcement provisions--in order to entice the votes of congressional Republicans and give Democrats political cover on the right. Thus, at the Alliance for Immigration Reform press conference, the Manhattan Institute's Jacoby declared, "Tough enforcement and the rule of law has to be restored." Tough enforcement, of course, is already in full swing--from worksite raids carried out by the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to local police forces that have begun enforcing federal immigration law under pressure from anti-immigrant politicians. State legislatures proposed 550 anti-immigrant laws in 2006, and 75 became law, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Lawmakers in Georgia, Arizona, Virginia, Colorado, Texas, South Carolina and elsewhere have fashioned their own Sensenbrenner-style bills that seek to bar the undocumented from public aid, schools, access to drivers licenses and much more. An Arizona legislator wants to put before voters a referendum that would make undocumented status into a criminal act under state law. And even without legislation from Congress, the Feds set the tone for these attacks with high-profile crackdowns--most notably, the ICE raids on Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in six states last December, resulting in 1,282 arrests. Some 247 workers were charged with identity theft, and 300 had been deported as of mid-February, with the rest to follow, according to ICE. Martín Unzueta, who heads the Chicago Workers Collaborative, an immigrant rights group, argued that the identity theft charges are a pretext. "The workers who buy a false number have no idea who it belongs to--and most incorrect numbers don't exist," said Unzueta, who is helping to organize an emergency response network for those affected by the raids in the Chicago area. Moreover, in the Swift raids, Latino workers were racially profiled--separated from Black and white workers by heavily armed ICE agents--the AFL-CIO's Avendaño pointed out. The workplace crackdown hasn't involved more than token punishment of employers of immigrant labor, however. On the contrary, Homeland Security officials have been urging employers to become virtual enforcers of immigration laws themselves. This involves expanding the Basic Pilot program to verify Social Security numbers in an online database--which is often inaccurate--to a much more extensive program, known as the ICE Mutual Agreement Between Government and Employers program, or IMAGE. Under IMAGE, employers allow ICE to audit immigration status documents, known as I-9 forms, as well as Social Security numbers. "The upside for those who...participate is that they're better equipped to know whether their workforce is legal, and ICE is less likely to be on their doorstep unexpectedly, interfering with their business," ICE official Matthew Allen told the Washington Post. "It's an investment in making sure that their workforce is secure." Smithfield Foods got a return on its investment in IMAGE in January when ICE agents arrested 21 workers at its huge pork processing plant in Tar Heel, N.C., where the company has been fiercely resisting a union drive for years. "One can say that [ICE officials] are trying to make employers more compliant with the employers database verification program and the president's option for a massive temporary worker program," López said. Justin Akers Chacón, co-author of the book No One Is Illegal, agreed. "While individual employers may be 'punished' for their actions, they are not the real targets," he said. "Identifying and arresting undocumented workers--or demonstrating the potential to do so--is a strategy to corral union compliance with a guest-worker program, and passivity among the workers themselves." Avendaño expects this pattern to continue. While employers can't do without immigrant labor, they can avoid penalties by collaborating with Homeland Security and targeting selected workers to keep workers intimidated, wages low and unions out--maintaining "a never-ending pool of workers that they can exploit," she said. "Workers rights and civil rights are ignored during these enforcement actions," she added. "And now we see more memoranda of understanding so that local police can act as ICE agents." In the future, a steady stream of "no match" letters from the government noting discrepancies between workers' Social Security numbers and those on file with the government will further raise the pressure. So while the U.S. isn't about to deport 12 million undocumented workers, it has created an enforcement apparatus that could deport any one of them at any time--which gives employers enormous leverage. Congress isn't interested in hearing about the civil rights violations involved. "There isn't a single ear" in Congress for taking action on such issues, Avendaño said, pointing out that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) recently got a 94-0 vote in favor of amending a minimum wage bill to ban companies that hire undocumented workers for seven years--unless they participate in the Basic Pilot program, which would make them immune from such penalties. Beyond the workplace, ICE agents have moved aggressively into immigrant communities with Operations Wrangler, targeting alleged drug dealers and smugglers--and Return to Sender, aimed at those who have failed to comply with orders of deportation. In fact, it was none other than Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff who let slip that the raids were part of a good cop-bad cop approach to immigration by the Bush administration. "Every time a Border Patrol officer is transporting a load of future housekeepers and landscapers to someplace to be returned, he's not looking for drug dealers or drug loads," Chertoff told reporters in Mexico City February 16. "So to me, total immigration reform that addresses economic migrants is actually an enforcement enabler because it lets us focus more on the people that we don't want in the country under any circumstances--namely, the criminals and the dangerous folks." With the hard line from ICE and state governments on one side and political maneuvers in Congress on the other, the immigrant rights movement is mapping out plans for protests, lobbying and defense campaigns in the weeks and months ahead, said José Artemio Arreola, a member of the executive board of SEIU Local 73 in Chicago and a key figure in the city's March 10 Movement, which organized the first of last year's mass marches. While few of the immigrant rights groups that led last year's marches have taken up the call to repeat last year's May Day boycott, the day will likely to become a focus for renewed activism for immigrant rights. "I am against anyone being excluded" from immigration legislation, Arreola said. "We need to step up the pressure." Lee Sustar is a regular contributor to CounterPunch
and the Socialist Worker.
He can be reached at: lsustar@ameritech.net
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