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Today's
Stories
April
21, 2004
Bill
Christison
Only Major Policies Changes
Can Help Washington Now
April
20, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Bush and Kerry Share a Problem
Stan
Cox
Wal-Mart's Magic Numbers
Bruce
Anderson
On Listening to Air America
Joseph
Kalvoda
Czech Mate for Condi
Greg
Moses
Yesterday's Intelligence
Stan
Goff
The Democrats and Iraq
Website
of the Day
Santorum Happens
April 19, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The "Central Hand" of the
Resistance
Mike
Whitney
Bob Woodward's Imperial Trifles
Douglas
Valentine
52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1
Rule
John
Chuckman
The Sharon Annex: Evil Does Often
Triumph
Doug
Giebel
Welcome to the Club
Rahul
Mahajan
Hospital Closings and War Crimes
April
16 / 18, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Bush Legitimizes Terror
Saul
Landau
Subverting Brazil and Cuba
Dave
Lindorff
Paying for War: $2,150 per Family
and Counting
Brandy
Baker
Fallujah's Collateral Damage
Mickey
Z.
The Left Attacks from the Right
Bruce
Jackson
The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit
Uns
Norman
Solomon
How the "NewsHour" Changed
History
Alexander
Cockburn
Bush, Kerry and Empire
April
15, 2004
Greg
Moses
Follow the Families, Not the Script
Virginia
Tilley
The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt:
Just Change the Channel
Ron
Jacobs
They Coulda Been Champions of the
World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic
Michael
Neumann
A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes
Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail
April
14, 2004
Tom
Reeves
Return to Haiti: an American Learning
Zone
Reza
Fiyouzat
Japan and Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
What Bush Really Said
Diane
Christian
The Real Passion
April 10 /
12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Greatest Radical Journalist of His Age
Patrick Cockburn
Ambush, Kidnap, Murder: Another Day in "Post War" Iraq
Ellen Cantarow
Health Under Siege on the West Bank
Tariq Ali
Iraqi
Resistance: a New Phase
Werther
Pseudoconservatism Revisited: When God is Pro War & Other
Delicacies
Robert Fisk
Bush's War Lords to Their Critics: "Just Shut Up"
Gary Leupp
Indian Wars, Vietnam and Orientalist Fantasy
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Cont.
Jorge Mariscal
Perils of the Bootstrap
Phil Gasper
Defying Stereotypes About Death Row
Dave Zirin
Bringing the Black Freedom Struggle Into Sports: an Interview
with Lee Evans
Brandy Baker
The Revolution is Playing at a Theater Near You
Mickey Z.
Underground Music is Free Media: an Interview with Twiin
Ali Tonak
Get Ready for the Million Worker March
Harry Browne
Asking the Wrong Question About Richard Clarke & 9/11
Gideon Samet
The Sharonizing of America
Conn Hallinan
Remote Control Warriors
Website of
the Weekend
Taboo
Tunes
April 9, 2004
Robert Fisk
This
War's Simple Truth: Iraqis Do Not Want Us
John L. Hess
The
Non-Confessions of a Warrior Princess: Condi on the Stand
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Condoleezza's Condescensions
Christopher Brauchli
Holes in the Sky: Bush's Crazed Missile Defense Plan
Don Santina
Forget the Alamo!: Glorifying the Fight for Slavery in Texas
William S. Lind
The 4G Warfare Seminar, Cont.
Bill Christison
9/11
Commission is Bush's New Lapdog
Website of the Day
What We've Done to Fallujah
April 8,
2004
Wayne Madsen
Rice
(and the Record) Proves It: Bush Knew, But Failed to Act
Kurt Nimmo
Will
Bush Flatten Fallajuh?
Patrick Cockburn
Guided
Missile; Misguided War
Laura Flanders
Steamed
Rice
Larry Everest
What Condi Rice is Hiding
Adam Federman
Sacred Capitalism Hits Russia
M. Junaid Alam
The Iraqi Intifada Begins
Norman Solomon
The Quest for a Monopoly on Violence
Douglas Valentine
Echoes
of Vietnam: Phoenix, Assassination and Blowback in Iraq
Website of the Day
Xispas: Chicano Art, Culture and Politics
April 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Those
Pulitzers!
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Deeper
into the Mouth of Hell: We Must Find the Exit from Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Tet
in Iraq: Closer to the Cosmic Disaster?
Patrick Cockburn
Battles
Across Iraq: US Death Toll Mounts
Kathy Kelly
Pacification: Worth the Price?
Sonali Kolhatkar
What Are You Doing About Afghanistan?
Rahul Mahajan
Report from Baghdad: Opening the Gates of Hell
Robert Fisk
US Airlifts Saddam to Qatar
Mike Whitney
America Out of Iraq, Now!
Sam Hamod
Bush, Pandora's Box and the Tiger
April 6,
2004
C.G. Estabrook
Mercenaries
and Occupiers
William Blum
The
Anti-Empire Report: the Israel Lobby
Col. Dan Smith
The
Language of Disbelief: 1.3 Billion Still Live in War Zones
Dr. Bulent Gokay
The Coming Islamic Republic of Iraq?
Lynn Landes
Faking Democracy: Americans Don't Vote; Machines Do
Sheila Samples
What Would Royko Write?
Jason Leopold
Condi's Blind Spot: Rice Never Mentioned al-Qaeda
Mickey Z.
A Reality Show with No End in Sight
Robert Fisk
Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
April 5, 2004
John Farrell
Lessons
from El Salvador and Iraq
Robert Fisk
Bloodbath
a Bad Omen for Bush
Gary Leupp
Shiites Say No: Another "Nightmare
Scenario"
April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
April 2, 2004
Dave Lindorff
Barbaric
Relativism: the Press and Fallujah
Kurt Nimmo
Wherever
Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow
Emma Miller
The
Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide
Dr. Susan Block
Same
Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition
Norman Solomon
Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick
Sacha Guney
The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey
Christopher
Brauchli
The
Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee
Website of the Day
Mercenaries, Inc.
April 1, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Dying in Vain in Iraq
Harry Browne
No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree
Chris Floyd
Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons
Nicole Colson
Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo
Charles Arthur
Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers
Laura Flanders
Elaine
Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son
March 31, 2004
M. Junaid Alam
Israel:
Suicide Nation?
John L. Hess
Condi
Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters?
Fernando Suarez
del Solar
A
Year Since My Son's Death in Iraq
Sofia Perez
Spain's
U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action
David Vest
Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath
Tanya Reinhart
As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination
Mike Whitney
Time to Dump the Pledge
Donald Kaul
Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI
Milt Bearden
Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great
Marjorie Cohn
The
Illegal Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated
US and International Law
Website of the Day
New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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April
21, 2004
A National Intelligence
Czar, a New Domestic Intelligence Agency & Fake WMD are Dumb
Ideas
Only
Major Policy Changes Can Help Washington Now
By BILL CHRISTISON
former CIA analyst
By November, the Roman circus of this
U.S. election year may rival the old Barnum-and-Bailey "Greatest
Show on Earth."
A couple of acts in the great
show have recently been getting new publicity in the nation's
capital. Both the Bush administration and the 9/11 Commission
(already part of the circus) have talked about establishing a
National Intelligence Director and possibly even organizing a
new Domestic Intelligence Agency, in what is quite clearly an
attempt to distract the attention of voters from more important
foreign and domestic policy issues. Actually implementing either
of these proposals would in fact be a waste of time and money.
Of course, in the absence of other deficiencies, wastefulness
alone would not stop either the Republicans or the Democrats
if they felt a little waste could improve the distractive potential
of the circus.
In the last few years, the
U.S. government has already increased its annual spending on
intelligence matters from something under $30 billion to nearly
$40 billion. Setting up two new agencies -- one to support a
national intelligence czar, and another for domestic intelligence
-- would increase the already absurd number of bureaucracies
in the so-called intelligence community from 15 to 17 and would
raise spending levels even higher. People are already falling
over each other in this mess of agencies. In addition to CIA
stations in most embassies around the world, the FBI now has
its own facilities in many of the same embassies. It is a safe
bet that fewer people and agencies are needed, not more.
Most Americans do not realize
it, but the massive intrusions of both our intelligence and our
military operations around the world are seen by other peoples
as a mockery of our supposed ideals of democracy and freedom.
Inside the U.S., establishing a separate domestic agency for
intelligence would inevitably reduce still further the degree
of real democracy, freedom, and privacy available to citizens.
Why do citizens of the United
States even consider allowing these things to happen? The answer
seems be that most Americans do not care much about either the
foreign or the domestic policies of their own government, unless
those policies directly and immediately hurt them or their families.
Most have so far simply acquiesced in Bush's view that the only
good responses outside our borders to September 11 are warfare
and covert actions wherever the administration decides they are
necessary. Similarly, most have also acquiesced -- as long as
they personally are not seriously inconvenienced -- in the view
that repressive actions against civil liberties are necessary
here at home to keep "evil" people from crossing our
borders and carrying out further acts of terror.
But neither present nor future
military and covert adventures abroad, nor expanded internal
security measures at home, will prevent future terrorism against
the U.S. and its allies. Specifically in the area of intelligence,
it is utterly impossible that unlimited funding and any conceivable
reorganizing of the U.S. intelligence establishment will give
advance warning of all or even 90 percent of future terrorism
against us. We have already reached spending levels that go well
beyond the law of diminishing returns. My own estimate is this:
the intelligence community today probably has a 65-percent chance
of learning in advance about any specific terrorist act before
it happens, but even a doubling of spending on intelligence from
$40 billion to $80 billion a year would probably increase that
65-percent chance to no more than 75 percent. In too many cases,
intelligence never gets better than that, no matter how great
the effort. Anyone who believes the contrary is living on arrogance
or stupidity.
There is another development
in the intelligence arena that may add to the distractions of
the 2004 election. In the past month or so, several reports have
been received of special U.S. units in Iraq having received shipments
of unknown types of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). These
U.S. units have allegedly hidden the weapons in various locations,
where they can then be "found" at some future date
and announced to the world in a major PR coup for Bush. These
reports have come from Iranian sources, and they may in fact
be provocations from Iranian intelligence, intended to discourage
the administration from indulging in such fraudulence.
On the other hand, Bush himself,
in his prime-time news conference on April 13, talked at some
length and quite repetitiously in one of his responses about
"how deceptive the Iraqis had been . . . deceptive at hiding
things. We knew they were hiding things." Was it a little
odd for the President to be talking this way at such a late stage
in the Iraqi WMD game? Was it just one more puerile and meaningless
response at the press conference, or is it conceivable that Bush
was preparing his audience for a later "I told you so"
statement -- a statement he knew he would be able to make fairly
soon? If any WMD do turn up, arguments over their legitimacy
could exhaust (and distract) the media and the defectively thinking
faithful of both parties for a long time. Bush could easily come
out the winner, unless the evidence that he was lying was incontrovertible.
* *
*
Just as in Roman times the
fights among gladiators and other spectacles did not really matter,
none of the issues discussed above really matters either. Not
one contributes meaningfully to solving the problems of war,
terrorism, hatred, and injustice that plague the world. To work
on such problems -- undeniably the important ones -- we first
have to recognize that the U.S. itself perpetrates most of the
warfare and injustice that in turn provokes most of the hatred
and terrorism, and therefore that it needs to change its own
foreign and military policies. So far, the Bush administration
has refused to recognize any of this, and in just the past few
weeks has caused the hatred against us to grow further, by widening
the conflict in Iraq and forging a closer Bush-Sharon partnership
that makes a just resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict
less likely than ever.
The following truths should
be branded into the brain of every U.S. elected or appointed
official possessing any influence over future U.S. foreign and
military policies: a majority of the world's people believe that
the chief culprit in the world today--that is, the chief pursuer
of unjust, aggressive foreign and military policies--is the United
states itself, and particularly the Bush administration. Beyond
the very near future (no more than one or two years from now),
this situation will almost certainly make the present U.S. position
in the world untenable.
Bill Christison joined the CIA in 1950 and worked
on the analysis side of the Agency for over 28 years. In the
1970s he served as a National Intelligence Officer (principal
adviser of the Director of Central Intelligence) for Southeast
Asia, South Asia, and Africa. Before his retirement in 1979,
he was Director of the CIA's Office of Regional and Political
Analysis, a 250-person unit. He can be reached at: christison@counterpunch.org.
Weekend
Edition Features for April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
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