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* "Put a bra and panties on this guy's head" * His "Do This" List for Abu Ghraib * Driving Jose Padilla Insane
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Exclusive to CounterPunch Newsletter Subscribers! HOW RUMSFELD MICROMANAGED TORTURE! * Real-time grilling of Lindh by satellite
* "Put a bra and panties on this guy's head"
* His "Do This" List for Abu Ghraib
* Driving Jose Padilla InsaneRead Andrew Cockburn's devastating report in Our New CounterPunch Newsletter. PLUS: Robert Bryce on Frank Gaffney, Halliburton and Iran. Still available: WHAT DID ISRAEL KNOW IN ADVANCE OF THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS? 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
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Today's Stories March 3 / 4, 2007 Alexander Cockburn March 2, 2007 Roger Morris Phil Gasper Mike Roselle Robert Bryce John V. Walsh Sherwood Ross China Hand David Rosen Chris Genovali Peter Harley Website of the Day
March 1, 2007 Laura Carlsen Paul Craig
Roberts Ray McGovern Christopher
Brauchli Najum Mustaq Brent Bowden Tina Richards Ethan Nadelman Mike Stark Wadner Pierre
/ Jeb Sprague Mike Whitney Website of
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February 28, 2007 Peter Linebaugh Tao Ruspoli China Hand Marjorie Cohn Sarah Olson Susan Van Haitsma Nicole Colson Harvey Wasserman William S. Lind Nicola Nasser Website of the Day
February 27, 2007 Tariq Ali Tom Barry Uri Avnery Antonia Juhasz / Raed Jarrar Jeff Nygaard Hugh O'Shaughnessy Mitchell Kaidy Carl Finamore Anne McElroy
Dachel Ramzy Baroud Andrew Rouse Website of the Day
February 26, 2007 Franklin Lamb Bill Quigley Greg Moses Col. Dan Smith Ralph Nader Paul Buchheit Jeff Leys Dave Zirin Mike Whitney Michael Dickinson Website of the Day
February 24 / 25, 2007 Jeffrey St.
Clair R. T. Naylor Gary Leupp Saul Landau Ron Jacobs Jeffrey Blankfort Chris Sands Gary Freeman Larry Portis P. Sainath Lee Sustar Kevin Wehr Ken Couesbouc Soffiyah Elijah Kathlyn Stone Dave Lindorff Jason Kunin Kevin Zeese Remi Kanazi Missy Beattie Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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 /
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St. John Mitchel Cohen Website of
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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
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Weekend
Edition The Future is UnwrittenFour Years of an Unjust WarBy SUNSARA TAYLOR In four years the Bush Administrations has, in our names, waged an unimaginably destructive and cruel war on Iraq that has claimed more than half a million lives, is now driving more than 100,000 people out of Iraq each month, and is pushing the whole Middle East towards balkanization. Now, as Iraq spins out of their control -- with the strategic interests of an empire at stake -- Bush's logic is to double down, escape forward, and to fight this out in a larger (regional) theater. Preparations are under way for a massive assault on Iran. Seymour Hersch recently revealed that plans have been drawn up to begin a bombing campaign within 24 hours of Bush's say-so and Craig Unger wrote that, "Bush can count on the military to carry out [a really punishing air-force and naval attack] even without congressional authorization." A war on Iran would not only mean vastly expanded bloodshed, but would escalate the situation where increasingly humanity is being confronted with two intolerable choices: Bush's crusade for empire or a reactionary Islamic fundamentalist response. The Bush regime has committed crimes on a far greater scale and is the greater danger to humanity, but both are complete nightmares. Both reinforce and feed off each other and as they grow they suck up the air to breath for secular and progressive forces in this country and around the world. Anyone who whistles past the great and unprecedented dangers this poses for humanity does so at the peril of all of our futures! People in their hundreds of millions -- in this country and around the world - must be presented with a third option, an option that refuses to choose between crusading McWorld or reactionary Jihad, but instead manifests our determination to bring this to a halt! On March 17th everyone with a conscience needs to mark the four year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq with their presence at the Pentagon demanding: Stop the war now! Prevent the next one! Impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney for war crimes and crimes against humanity! The Democrats, including John Conyers, say that impeachment is a distraction from ending the war. But George Bush has made it abundantly and redundantly clear that this war will not end on his watch so ending the war is completely bound up with ending his watch. The Democrats also argue that impeachment is unnecessary since Bush is only in office for two more years and that instead we should focus on getting a Democrat elected in '08. But the idea that Iran will be plunged into the same nightmare as Iraq and that innocent people around the world will continue to be rendered and tortured -- chained to ceilings, beaten for days, water boarded and religiously and sexually persecuted -- for two more years so that a Democrat can rise to the helm of a new Rome is unconscionable. Besides, if the Bush regime is not driven from office before '08, then everything they have done -- the doctrine of preemptive war, the legalization of torture, the stripping of habeas corpus, the abandonment of people of New Orleans, the stripping away of women's right to birth control and abortion, the construction of theocracy -- is legitimated and codified no matter who becomes the next president. If you doubt this, take a look at the democratic front-runners: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards. The Republicans have shamelessly thrown down over everything for six years: passing midnight laws to keep Terri Schiavo alive, threatening a "nuclear option" to force through Supreme Court Justices, even filibustering the symbolic, non-binding Senate resolution against Bush's troop "surge." Which of these Democratic candidates is raising a hue and cry against torture? Which of them filibustered the Military Commissions Act? Which of them shut down the Senate to prevent the troop surge? Instead of doing this, they -- and their party as a whole -- have spent their legislative power capitulating and conceding to fascist laws and war crimes. And all three, Edwards, Obama and Clinton, have insisted that all options - including nuclear options - remain on the table in dealing with Iran!! 2004... 2006... 2008...its the same shell game. By the time the elections arrive people will have to swallow all their principles and vote for the "lesser evil" that is legitimating what should be well beyond the pale. There is a lesson in this. As Bob Avakian has said, "If you try to make the Democrats be what they are not and never will be, you will end up being more like what the Democrats actually are." If people's energies, resources, and time get funneled into supporting or trying to influence these Democrats -- rather than breaking free of their calculations and acting independently of their limits to bring this to a halt now -- they will find themselves learning or being forced to live with even greater horrors for the people of the world. On the other hand, there are those who, in the name of saying about the Democrats and the Republicans "they're all the same," whistle past the fascist way the Bush regime is remaking the world. There is more than one way to stay on the sidelines when history is calling. I've heard some who see Bush as part of a system of imperialism accuse World Can't Wait of simply "bush-bashing" for calling people to drive out the Bush regime. I don't speak for everyone represented in World Can't Wait, but I believe Bush is part of an imperialist system. But does recognizing that mean we should ignore the unending war for empire, the remaking society in a fascist way, the dragging of women, gays, and sciences back to the stone ages, and the dangerous encroachment of a hateful brand of Christianity into public and private life? Does it mean we should be indifferent to a regime that has overseen the destruction of Bagdad, Falluja and the decimation and racial cleansing of New Orleans? Recognizing this country's imperialism and crimes -- from the enslaving millions of Africans and genocide of the Native Americans to having sent troops, committed acts of war and carried out CIA interventions more than 150 times on foreign soil -- ought to make one more capable of understanding that this system would have no restraint in transitioning to an even more devastating (and repressive) form of rule if it served their interests. Including, if it is allowed to be consolidated, closing off any space in society from which to mount any meaningful opposition - including revolutionary opposition. On the other hand, if we succeed in reversing this program, this will open up much more room for people to go forward to create a better world - including space for those who want to get beyond imperialism by bringing into being a radically emancipated world through revolution. There are reasons why the core around Bush with their grand strategy for an unchallenged and unchallengeable global empire has initiative within the ruling class right now. In a world undergoing rapid, dramatic, and destabilizing transformations driven by capitalist globalization and competition, the emergence of the U.S. as the sole-superpower has provided it with tremendous opportunities but also with a great deal of necessity and a lot of risks. If they don't reconfigure the world, in particular starting with the strategic areas of the Middle East that hold 80% of the world's energy resources, then some other power will do so in ways that create big obstacles for them. And there are reasons why -- in the face of major strains on the internal cohesion of this country: the influx of immigrants, the loss of major industry, the breakdown of the traditional (read: patriarchal) family and other major shifts -- the highly repressive theocratic and fascist cores around Bush have initiative domestically. If you want to go after imperialism right now, you have to go after the program that is predominating, the program that has initiative, the program that is reshaping the whole world. As for the fact that the Democrats are complicit in this program, that is one of the brilliant things about the Call for the World Can't Wait. It calls out YOUR GOVERNMENT as a whole for its policies of torture, unjust wars, police-state measures, and theocracy and calls for a movement aimed at driving out the regime sledge-hammering this forward while repudiating this program as a whole. This is something that everyone, from those who believe in the principles upon which this country was founded to those who see injustice and exploitation rooted in those very principles, can and must come together now to accomplish. In the process we should have many debates over where these problems came from and what kind of world we should bring into being, but if we don't do so as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the struggle to drive out this regime and repudiate its program then we are complicit in its crimes. Right now, as the Bush Administration, with the silence and complicity of Congress, readies a new and even more dangerous war the world needs to see people in this country bursting forth in massive protests. Right now, the world needs us united, not diminished or spread out in many small demonstrations that will not make the needed impact, in the Nations Capitol and at the Pentagon. Right now, what we do is going to make a decisive difference one way or the other. Lets not settle for routine or puny. Lets mobilize with the intent and commitment to stop this war and prevent the next one. Out of the huge reservoir of discontent and agonizing, lets bring forward a great wave to repudiate this President in a collective voice loud enough to be heard across this country and around the world. If we do, the possibility of turning things around and onto a much more favorable direction will take on a whole new dimension of reality. It will go from something only vaguely hoped for, by millions of isolated individuals, and acted on by thousands so far, to something that has undeniable moral force and unprecedented political impact. This is something we can achieve or it is a hope for humanity we could squander. As my best friend's favorite, if severely tattered, Clash t-shirt reads, "The future is unwritten." What it will look depends on what we do. Sunsara Taylor writes for Revolution Newspaper and sits on the Advisory Board of The World Can't Wait--Drive Out the Bush Regime. She can be reached at: sunsarasworld@yahoo.com
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CounterPunch Books The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Jeffrey Goldberg, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained!  Buy End Times Now! CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal  Click Here to Order!  Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair           The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn           Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh                  |
