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America's First Terror War
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Today's Stories May 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn
May 10, 2007 Tariq Ali Patrick Cockburn Neve Gordon Marjorie Cohn David Rosen Alan Farago John Hellman Kathy Rentenbach BANCO Richard Rhames Website of the Day
Jeff Leys Patrick Cockburn Glen Ford Paula Rothenberg Kathryn Weber John Chuckman Jordan Flaherty Dave Lindorff Stephen Lendman Website of
the Day
May 8, 2007 Dave Lindorff Patrick Cockburn Corporate Crime Reporter Ralph Nader Malini Johar Schueller Juan Santos Dave Zirin Joshua Frank Evelyn Pringle Eamonn McCann Website of the Day
May 7, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Monica Benderman Greg Moses Rannie Amiri Fitrakis / Wasserman Fred Wilhelms Ramzy Baroud Bruce K. Gagnon T. W. Croft Sonja Karkar Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn William Blum Uri Avnery Franklin Lamb Fred Gardner Lawrence R.
Velvel Missy Beattie Robert Fantina Carla Blank Linn Washington,
Jr. Stephen F. Jackson P. Sainath Anthony Papa James T. Phillips John Ross Stephen Lendman Ben Terrall CounterPunch
Newswire Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
May 4, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Col. Dan Smith Norman Solomon Azmi Bishara Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Kevin Zeese Bob Fitrakis Janet Kauffman Website of
the Day
May 3, 2007 Jeff Halper Christopher
Brauchli Dave Zirin Corporate Crime
Reporter Robert Fisk Mike Ferner Mike Whitney Pham Binh Dave Lindorff Michael A.
Johnson Website of the Day
May 2, 2007 Saul Landau Dr. Susan Block Carla Blank Margaret Kimberly Kevin Zeese Carlos Villareal Michael Dickinson Tim Shorrock Alevtina Rea William S.
Lind Website of the Day
Andrew Cockburn Fred Gardner Chase Madar Ralph Nader John V. Walsh Joshua Frank Leslie Radford Shaun Harkin Dave Lindorff Peter Rost,
MD Peter Linebaugh Website of
the Day
April 30, 2007 Frank Menetrez Paul Craig
Roberts Ray McGovern Manuel Garcia,
Jr. Diana Johnstone Sherwood Ross Peter Rost, MD Robert Jensen Kevin Zeese Jane Stillwater Website of
the Day
April 28 / 29, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St.
Clair Fred Gardner David Orchard
Alan Maass Joe Bageant Robert Fantina Hanan Ashrawi Ron Jacobs Nicole Colson Ben Terrall Missy Beattie Harvey Wasserman Cindy Beringer Mike Roselle RAWA James McEnteer Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
Eva Liddell Phyllis Bennis Mike Whitney Michael F.
Brown Jordan Flaherty Margaret Kimberly Christopher Brauchli Jacob Mundy Website of the Day
Andrew Cockburn Franklin Lamb Patrick Cockburn Roger Morris Henry Siegman Alevtina Rea Paris Nikolas Kozloff Alan Farago Matthew S. Miller Website of
the Day
Sharon Smith David Price Diana Johnstone Brendan Cooney Sonja Karkar Brian Concannon Lee Gaillard Leah Fishbein Dave Lindorff Neal Galloway Website of the Day
April 24, 2007 Ishmael Reed Lila Rajiva Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader Mike Whitney Website of the Day
April 23, 2007 Saul Landau Patrick Cockburn Robert Fantina Sam Husseini Corporate Crime Reporter Elizabeth Lalasz Harvey Wasserman Dave Lindorff Gary Leupp Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn Fred Gardner Kristoffer Larsson Barbara Rose
Johnston Manuel Garcia, Jr. John Scagliotti Marjorie Cohn Patrick Cockburn Diana Johnstone Ron Jacobs Evelyn Pringle BANCO Paul Richards Dan Bacher Ben Terrall Sherwood Ross Remi Kanazi Aseem Shrivastava Poets' Basement Website of
the Day
April 20, 2007 Doug Peacock Diane Farsetta Tom Clifford Amira Hass Nicole Colson Sonja Karkar Heather Gray Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban Agustin Velloso Matthew Koehler Website of
the Day
April 19, 2007 Emad Mekay
/ Patrick Cockburn Larry C. Johnson Norman Solomon Saul Williams Sunsara Taylor Harvey Wasserman Christopher
Brauchli Anthony Papa Dave Lindorff Website of the Day
April 18, 2007 Lila Rajiva Landau / Hassen Charles Fisher
/ Diane Christian Kevin Prosen China Hand Peter Rost,
MD Justin Akers Chacón Jerry Kroth Sherwood Ross Niranjan Ramakrishnan Alice Cherbonnier Website of
the Year?
April 17, 2007 Jean Bricmont
/ Paul Craig
Roberts Frida Berrigan Alison Weir John Walsh Jason Hribal Evelyn Pringle Ben Terrall Stan Cox Soren Ambrose Website of the Day
April 16, 2007 John F. Sugg Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Carl G. Estabrook Paul Craig Roberts Uri Avnery Ralph Nader Eamon McCann Lee Sustar Mike Whitney Don Fitz Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
April 14 / 15, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Jorge Mariscal Jeffrey St. Clair Dave Marsh Dr. Trudy Bond Joe Bageant Fidel Castro Alfredo Molano Alan Farago Michael Neumann Fred Gardner Ron Jacobs Gail Dines Linda Ford Missy Beattie Dan La Botz Giuliana Sgrena Laura Carlsen Abu Spinoza Elizabeth Schulte Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
April 13, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Stephen Soldz George Ciccarriello-Maher Laith al-Saud Dave Zirin John Ross Ramzy Baroud Harvey Wasserman Lopez, Olivo and Garcia Dols, Fukumori,
Judd and Tillett-Saks Website of the Day
April 12, 2007 JoAnn Wypijewski Paul Craig
Roberts Marjorie Cohn Evelyn Pringle Ron Jacobs Norman Solomon Joe DeRaymond Nicola Nasser Nikolas Kozloff William S.
Lind Siegfried L. Sassoon Website of
the Day
R. T. Naylor Vijay Prashad Patrick Cockburn Winslow T. Wheeler Jack Balkwill Alan Farago Russell D.
Hoffman Peter Rost, MD Mike Whitney Dave Lindorff Susie Day Website of the Day
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May 11, 2007 New Mexico Holds a Fake Peace ConferencePlaying at PeaceBy KATHLEEN CHRISTISON New Mexico is holding a two-day peace conference on May 16-17. Sounds nice. Entitled "Building a Culture of Peace," it will feature two Nobel Peace laureates -- Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala and anti-landmine activist Jody Williams -- as well as Gandhi's grandson Arun Gandhi and a videotaped address by the Dalai Lama. Five "peace councils" will allow attendees to say whatever they like in such areas as violence among youth, relating to other peoples and cultures, the spiritual elements of peace work, the politics of peacemaking, and finally -- the only concrete forum, established as a sop to those many activists in New Mexico who vigorously oppose the state's huge role in the military-industrial-nuclear complex -- demilitarization and building "an economy based on peace." What could be wrong with this
lovely picture, this mom-and-apple-pie scenario? Who could oppose
raising "a new generation of youth who are conscious and
committed peacebuilders," to quote from the conference literature?
Who could oppose moving "from a separation mindset to one
of interdependence and unity," or discovering how to "awaken
the seed of peace that lies within us all," or investigating
how we "shift our Consider this background: Two years ago, a well meaning state legislator, deciding it would be nice for New Mexico to sponsor a "peace conference" in order to put the state on the map, persuaded the legislature to appropriate $450,000 for such a conference. For reasons fathomable only to those not actually interested in opposing war and militarism, the event was put under the jurisdiction of the Department of Tourism. That's right -- the Department of Tourism. Without a real mission beyond a vague assignment from the legislature to advance peace (and an implicit assignment to advance tourism, as well as the presidential fortunes of Gov. Bill Richardson), and ultimately unable to reconcile the dissonance involved in holding a peace-promoting event in a state at the heart of the nation's war-making machine without discussing that machine, conference organizers gave up in 2006 after wasting almost half the appropriated monies and decided to reschedule the conference for 2007. For this year's version of the conference, the Department of Tourism hired a self-described "professional peacebuilder" and mediator who has organized a newly imagined conference centered on the five peace councils mentioned. It is worth keeping in mind that, although New Mexico is one of the poorest states in the nation -- ranking 48th in per capita income and near the bottom on all other indices of prosperity and well being -- it is the birthplace of the atom bomb, home to two giant nuclear weapons development laboratories in Los Alamos and Albuquerque, and storage location for one of the largest concentrations of nuclear weapons in the world, at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque. New Mexico is a critical cog in the U.S. machine of war and empire -- supported by its politicians, Democratic as well as Republican -- and most of the state's antiwar and antinuclear activists concluded that participation in a conference that does not take serious account of that grim reality would be meaningless and ineffectual at best, and at worst would lend legitimacy to an expensive effort that would actually reinforce the war industry. Working personally on our inner selves as the conference proposes, working to tame society's impulse to violence, coming to a recognition that "responsibility for peace on earth starts with self, not with the 'bad guys' out there," getting together to talk about the elements of a peace economy and how to make peace work "financially viable for those who undertake it," are all laudable consciousness-raising goals, but this peace conference as designed in fact merely distracts from what should be serious work toward dismantling New Mexico's war industry. It wastes scarce energy and resources that should be directed urgently at stopping war and New Mexico's war-making potential. It seriously undermines real justice and peace work. Real justice and peace work recognizes and actively opposes war and war industries, rather than merely putting forth sweetness and light about the virtues of peace. Anyone willing to pay the $65 conference fee may, under the conference's loose, so-called "open-space technology" format, propose to lead a discussion in any of the peace councils. This means that anyone may propose to discuss New Mexico's place in the U.S. war machine, and a few peace activists intend to do just that. But it is clear, from the very format of the conference and the guidelines for the particular "demilitarization and peace economy" council, that these activists will simply be talking to themselves. Guidelines suggest that discussion should center on the vague, inward-looking concept of "transform[ing] our lives so that we are supporting and supported by peace rather than war and violence." Discussing the specifics -- educating the citizenry on what the U.S. drive for perpetual war and global domination mean for peace in the world, informing politicians of our outrage at their support for the imperial agenda -- is not part of the program. How, for instance, to oppose the planned production at Los Alamos of a new generation of plutonium warhead cores or "pits"; or how to combat the increased privatization and profiteering of federal nuclear agencies and of the U.S. war machine in general; or how to eliminate the nuclear weapons depot, just 60 miles south of the conference location, that stores 2,500 warheads right in or near Albuquerque; or how to uncover, and neutralize, any ties that foreign nations such as Israel and India may have with New Mexico's nuclear labs; or how to stop the increasingly potent rightwing, Christian fundamentalist campaign to demonize and make war on Muslims everywhere; or how to address the abdication of the nation's churches from the fight against war and empire; or how to stop the torture that the U.S. government and its ally Israel sanction; or how to get the U.S. out of Iraq, out of Afghanistan, out of Palestine, out of the 700+ U.S. military bases around the world. No victims of the decades of U.S. warfare -- whether survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or innocents maimed by Agent Orange in Vietnam, or civilians bombed and starved in Iraq, or torture victims at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo -- will be introduced to the assembled gathering at this peace conference. Protest against war has its place, the conference organizer acknowledges, but she clearly implies that positive movement is more important. The former, she writes, "calls attention to the evils of war, oppression, and injustice and says 'NO!' while the other calls attention to the new and better ways of living together on this planet that would make those systems obsolete, and says 'YES!'" Yet those who feel some urgency about precisely the need to say "NO!" to war, oppression, and injustice -- particularly today when these horrors are escalating and particularly in New Mexico where war-facilitating is a way of life and the engine of the state's economy -- cannot wait. Promoting peace as an aspect of tourism is busy work, a feel-good way to attract revenue to the state while making a cost-free statement about a meaningless goal -- all the while ignoring the vicious wars the U.S. wages throughout the world, ignoring the nuclear weapons labs and depots, the military bases, the weapons test ranges scattered throughout the state, ignoring the support that Bill Richardson is giving to U.S. foreign adventurism as he campaigns for president. Spending scarce time and energy and money on working to reform ourselves, not the war machine, is merely a way to keep the powerless busy while the powerful continue on with their agenda. The poor of New Mexico could have made far better use of the nearly half million dollars being expended on this conference. Kathleen Christison is a former CIA political analyst
and has worked on Middle East issues for 30 years. She is the
author of Perceptions
of Palestine and The
Wound of Dispossession. She can be reached at kathy.bill.christison@comcast.net.
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