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Today's
Stories
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
September 30,
2004
Ralph Nader
10
Ways to Beat Bush: a Gift to the Kerry/Edwards Campaign
Patrick Cockburn
The
Kidnap Capital of the World: Iraq's One Growth Industry
Gideon Levy
When You Have Breast Cancer in Gaza
Joshua Frank
Presidential Debates? Pass the Remote
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
I Dreamed They Had a Debate
Ali Khan
Dershowitz's
Jihad: Inventing Exceptions to International Law
Steve Perry
An Interview with Sibel Edmonds
September 29,
2004
Behrooz Ghamari
Playing
Politics with Nukes: A Collision Course with Iran?
Ray McGovern
More
Troops to Iraq...After the Election
Walter Brasch
Tinseltown
Traitors?: Applauding Only the Right Entertainers
Chris Floyd
The
Deceivers: Chronicle of a Quagmire Foretold
Stacey Reynolds
The Story of a Mercury-Poisoned American
M. Junaid Alam
Disrupting America's Fateful Non-Debate on the Roots of Terrorism
John L. Hess
They've Already Called It
Paul Craig
Roberts
Delusion
Rules: War, Outsourcing an Debt
September 28, 2004
Mike Whitney
Kerry's
Moral Compass
Fred Gardner
Pot
Shots: the Civics Teacher
Dan Meek
How Democrats Kicked Nader Off the Oregon Ballot
Greg Bates
Choking on Progressives for Kerry
Alan Farago
Jeanne in Haiti: Where is the World?
Lori Berenson
The Cajamarca Protest
Wayne Madsen
Where
is the Florida National Guard?
Robert Fisk
Why Have We Suddenly Forgotten Abu Ghraib?
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
September 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Expulsion of Cat Stevens
Patrick Cockburn
As British Muslims Plead for Bigley's Life, US Airstrikes Pound
Fallujah
Sam Husseini
The Problem with Public Opinion Polls
Lee Sustar
Putting Bosses First: Latter Day Democrats and Labor
Dave Lindorff
A Progressive Case for (Gag) Kerry?
Norman Madarasz
Talking International: Contra Kerry
Kevin Pina
The Tragedy of Gonaives, Haiti
September 25
/ 26, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
C'mon
Ralph, You've Got Nothing to Lose
Dave Zirin
The Courage of the NBA's Etan Thomas:
"I Am Totally Against This War"
Saul Landau
The Reality of Empire and Campaign Rhetoric
Dave Lindorff
Our Heroic Baby-Killers
Brian J. Foley
Bush at the UN: the Sound of No Hands Clapping
William Blum
Progressives and the Election
Alan Maass
Why is Kerry Running Such a Lame Campaign? You Can't Blame It
All on Bob Shrum
Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Another Lost Story
Solange Echeverria
An Interview with Kevin Pina on the Floods in Haiti
Nicole Colson
What About the Supreme Court?
Justin Smith
The New Sparta
Joshua Frank
Iraq: From Clinton to Bush
Karyn Strickler
Momma, Don't Let Your Babides Grow Up to be Cannon Fodder
Michael Donnelly
Rather Disingenuous: "Remember in November"
Greg Bates
The Politics of Nader's Republican Support
Todd Chretien
Lesser Evilism: We Are Living in the Logical Conclusion
William Loren
Katz
Dire Warnings from the Past: From Wilson to Bush
Omar Barghouti
Americans, You've Lost Your Alibi!
Poets' Basement
Holt, Clarke, Albert, Laymon and Ford
Website of the Weekend
Carnival of Chaos
September 24,
2004
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
The
Value of One Life: Keeping Up Appearances and Leaving Hostages
to the Wolves
William S.
Lind
Destroying
the National Guard
Mike Whitney
The Bush Tent Show
Nancy Welch
What's
at Stake for Women in 2004?
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Logical Limbo
Joshua Frank
Fear Mongering 101
Victor Kattan
An Interview with Afif Safieh
Ben Terrall
Kerry and Haiti: Will He Stand Up?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
"Finally
It Broke My Heart": Random Impressions from Palestine
September 23,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Are They Still Holding "Mrs. Anthrax?"
Christopher Brauchli
Ashcroft's "Distressing Lack of Care": Hamdi and the
Phony War on Terrorism
Derek Seidman
Fighting for a Union at Starbucks: an Interview with Daniel Gross
Michael Neumann
Three
Years and Counting? How Time Flies
September 22,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Zarqawi's
War: the Mysterious Sadist from Jordan
Neve Gordon
The
Wall, the Court and Sharon
Joshua Frank
History Repeating: New York, 1832 and Now
Ron Jacobs
Stormy Seas on the Citizen Ship
Jack Random
Defending Dan? Rather Not
Tarif Abboushi
Kerry's Final Straw: Confessions of a Despairing Voter
Mickey Z
Stupid White Guy Quiz
John L. Hess
Faking the Difference: a Serious Debate?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: The House Rules
September 21,
2004
Gary Leupp
"We
Are Not Secure": Kerry's "Unwavering Commitment"
to Securing a Middle East Realm
Robert Jensen
Large
Dams in India: Temples or Burial Grounds?
Elaine Cassel
Fourth Circuit to Moussouai: Ask Your Questions; Prepare to Die
Stanley Heller
Reagan and the Killing Fields of Lebanon
Adam Federman
America Will Disappoint the World, Again
David Whitehouse
What's Behind the Horror in Darfur?
M. Junaid Alam
How to Avoid Becoming an Anti-American
Paul Craig
Roberts
Attention
Deficit America
Website of the Day
True American War Heroes: the Iraq Refuseniks
September 20,
2004
Cockburn /
Buncombe
Get
Fallujah
David Price
Relying
on Phonies: What If The Problem with Phone Polls is That They
Are Phone Polls
Dave Lindorff
How
Dems Fight: Tigers Against Nader, Pussycats Against Bush
Harry Browne
Pre-Nup at Leeds: Talked Out, But Does IRA Give Up?
Mark Wesibrot
Bush's
Ownership Society: No Taxes for Owners, Only Workers
Karyn Strickler
The Keys to the White House v. the Shrum Curse?
Uri Avnery
The Temple Mount Bombers
September 18
/ 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
Septemeber
17, 2004
Ray McGovern
Gossing
Over the Record
Patrick Cockburn
The New Iraqi Economy: Baghdad's Thriving Kidnapping Industry
Lee Sustar
The State of Working America: an Autopsy of the American Dream
Mike Whitney
John Kerry: 195 Lbs. of Political Helium, Not an Ounce of Sincerity
Victor Kattan
Black September
Ray Hanania
Israel's Demographics
Greg Bates
Nader's Victories: a Mid-Campaign Assessment
Website of
the Day
The Road to Hell
September 16,
2004
Landau / Hassen
Meet
the New Villain: Syria
Joanne Mariner
Inside
Darfur: a Photo Essay
Patrick Cockburn
US
Offers Conflicting Accounts of Baghdad Bloodbath
Greg Moses
Four Million Children Might Be News
Joshua Frank
Nader in the Battleground States
Christopher Brauchli
The Bush Drug Lottery Flops
David Himmelstein
Folke Bernadotte: a Rosh Hashonah Remembrance
Website of the Day
The Abu Ghraib Index
September 15,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Hell
on Haifa Street
Ron Jacobs
Oppose War, Not Just Bush
David Lindorff
Blanking Out Dissent
Joanne Mariner
Talking About Darfur: Is Genocide Just a Word?
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein
An Open Letter to Madonna: Please Don't Support Israeli Apartheid
Dave Zirin
Is the NFL Ready for Us?
Yigal Bronner
"They
Are Building Walls Around Us"
September 14,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Problem of Chechnya
Jennifer van
Bergen
What's
Wrong with Torture?
Stan Goff
Wake Up and Smell the Jungle Rot
Patrick Cockburn
The
Punishment of Fallujah: US Precision Strickes...on Ambulances
Anis Memon
Nader
in Michigan
Michael Donnelly
The Nuance Comes Off: Former Naderites Beg for Kerry Votes
Werther
Zell Miller: the Peckerwood Pericles
Website of
the Day
Osama Bin Forgotten?
September 13,
2004
Gabriel Kolko
Elections,
Alliances and the American Empire
Phillip Cryan
How Do You Say "Death Squad?": Language in Colombia's
War
Patrick Cockburn
One of Baghdad's Bloodiest Days: "I'm a Journalist! I'm
Dying! I'm Dying"
Noah Leavitt
The War on Civil Liberties
Robert Jensen
Highjacking Catastrophe: Bush, the Neo-Cons and 9/11
Mike Whitney
Alan Greenspan: Fed-Master to the Wealthy
John Chuckman
Stop Talking About the "Election"
Mike Burke
Kerry/Edwards Website Censors Discussion of Israel/Palestine
Issues
CounterPunch
Wire
The Quotations of David Cobb: "I Don't Care How Many Votes
I Get"
Website of the Day
Keep It In Your Pants: the Bush Plan to Combat Teen Promiscuity
September 11
/ 12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Swatting
at Flies
Fred Gardner
Yet Another Prozac Scandal
Saul Landau
When Our Assassins Go Free
Jennifer Van Bergen
How to Beat Bush: a Simple Strategy for the Average American
Roger Burbach
/ Jim Tarbell
The Real Dead Enders: Iraq and the Crisis of Empire
Christopher Reed
9/11 in an Historical Context: a Minor Event When Compared to
Worldwide War Casualties
Francisc Catalin
An ABC of American Interventions
Carl Estabrook
Big Science and Government Terror
Bernard Chazelle
Anti-Americanism: a Clinical Study
Sharon Smith
Third Party Blues
Dave Lindorff
Perhaps This Time We're the Silent Majority
Mike Whitney
Fallujah: an Iraqi Beslan?
Frederick B.
Hudson
Their Sons Perished in the Flames, But Not Their Faith
Mickey Z.
Round Up the Usual Suspects: a Look Back at 9/11
Ron Jacobs
Redneck Music for the New Century
Greg Moses
Soap Opera Moments in Texas School Funding Trial
Benjamin Dangl
/ Andrew Kennis
An Interview with Leslie Cagan
Poets Basement
Del Papa, Albert, Gelman
September 10,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Disappointment
at Samarrah?
Michael Donnelly
Democrats v. Democracy
Alan Farago
Mosquitoes in a Hurricane
Doug Giebel
Karl Rove's Terror Playbook
Mike Whitney
Bob Graham's Political Tsunami
David Domke
God's
Will, According to the Bush Administration
September 9,
2004
Joe Bageant
Karaoke
Night in Bush's America
Ed Kinane
Abducted in Baghdad
Peter Bohmer
The Cuban Revolution: Present and Future
Todd May
The Emerging Case for a Single-State Solution
Jeremy Scahill
The New York Model: Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad
Joshua Frank
Green House Party Gasses
Fran Shor
The Crisis in Public Dissent: When Protest is Considered a Terrorist
Act
Patrick Cockburn
Welcome
to the Dirtiest City in the World: Despair in Baghdad
Website of
the Day
Liberty Street Protest: No to War at Ground Zero
September 8,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
This
Doesn't Smell Like Victory: A War on Two Fronts in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush Confuses; Kerry Mute: Spinning 1000 Dead
Bulent Gokay
Russian and Chechnia After Beslan
Lisa Viscidi
Land Reform and Conflict in Guatemala
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Byrd's Eye View
Mike Whitney
Afghanistan: American's Drug Colony
Stan Goff
Body
Count: 1001
Website of
the Day
Bush and the Love Doctors
September 7,
2004
Diane Christian
Hostage Tactics: a Game of Mortal Poker
Joshua Frank
Greens
Unravel from Within
Patrick Cockburn
Fallujah
Erupts Again: US Death Toll in Iraq Nears 1000
Ron Jacobs
Bush and Putin: "We're Not Girlie Men"
Chris Floyd
Cry Havoc: Bush's Own Personal Janjaweed
Dr. Carol Wolman
No Blood for Oil at Paul Bunyan Day Parade
John Ross
The
Politics of Darkness North / South
September 6,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
An
Anti-Labor Day That Lives in Infamy: How Many Democrats Voted
For Taft-Hartley?
Ralph Nader
The
Cruel Legacy of Taft-Hartley: a Labor Day Call for Rights for
Working People
Lee Sustar
What's Driving the Attack on Pensions?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Dual
Loyalties: the Bush Necons and Israel
September 4-5,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
Elephants
and Gramsci
Ted Honderich
The
Way Things Are
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The
Holy Empire: Who We Are and What We Do
Douglas Valentine
What the World Should Know About Guantanamo
Patrick Cockburn
New Iraqi Police State Flexes Its Muscles
Gary Leupp
Neo Cons Under Fire
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: the Hempstead T-Shirt
William A.
Cook
The
Day of the Lemming
Dave Zirin
Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom
John Chuckman
The Day the World Ended
Karyn Strickler
God Save the Endangered Species Act
Vanessa Jones
Bad Day with an Ikea Cup
Mike Whitney
Kerry: the "Better" War Candidate
Mark Donham
Dear John (Kerry): Start Explaining and Fast
Mickey Z.
McBypass Nation: Feeling Clinton's Pain
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades be Fixed?
Poets' Basement
Landau and Albert
September 3,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
Rahul Mahajan
Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response
Carl Estabrook
The
Book of Slaughter and Forgetting
Joshua Frank
The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again
Gary Leupp
Music to My Ears: Sunday's March
James Hollander
Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide?
Mark Engler
Republicans
Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out
Jesse Sharkey
Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education
Jane Stillwater
Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves
in Guatemala
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote
Twice, Let Them"
Todd Chretien & Jessie
Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?
Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
Christa Allen
Contre Bush
Website of
the Day
[Redacted]
September 1,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Stench of Doom
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Poor Larry Franklin
Dave Lindorff
Kerry's Litmus Test
Josh Frank
Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up
John L. Hess
Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops
Mike Whitney
Deconstructing Arnold
Jack Random
Kindergarten Night at the RNC
Andrew Wilson
War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words
August 31,
2004
Joseph Nevins
Escapism
and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs
Matt Vidal
Beyond
Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy
Neve Gordon
Kerry and the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
Bush
the Peace Candidate?
Mike Whitney
NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran
Jack Random
Opening Night: Playing the War Card
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One)
CounterPunch Photo of the Day
Pete Seeger in NYC
August 30,
2004
Justin Podhur
The
Disappeared Mayor
Shaun Joseph
The
Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com
Mike Whitney
Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly
Want?
Ron Jacobs
Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate
David Lindorff
Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy
Dave Zirin
USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate
Sam Husseini
Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History
August 28 /
29, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Zombies
for Kerry
Patrick Cockburn
Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US
Ray McGovern
Blowing Smoke on Intelligence
Dr. Juan Romagoza
From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor
Ray Hanania
An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous!
Fred Gardner
Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot
Diane Christian
Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live
William S. Lind
The Desert Fox
Paul D'Amato
The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry
Joshua Frank
Greens at the Crossroads
Mickey Z.
Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests
Winslow T. Wheeler
Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange
Justin E.H.
Smith
The New Age Racket and the Left
Thomas St. John
Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God"
Ali Tonak
Help the NYPD?
Mark Engler
New York Says "No"
Justin Felux
Haiti: the Attica of the Americas
Poets' Basement
Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod
August 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
Neocon
Musings
Robin Cook
The
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Diane Christian
Disarming
Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?
Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters
Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"
Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners
Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"
August 26,
2004
M. Shahid Alam
The
Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?
Diane Christian
War
Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu
Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get
Organized
David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally
Christopher
Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble
Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity
Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
Website of
the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So
Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib
Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues
Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin
Fred Gardner
Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants
Dave Zirin
Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot
Josh Saxe
Witnessing Police Brutality in LA
Yanar Mohammed
Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings
Helen Williams
Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad
Michael Donnelly
Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery
Elizabeth Schulte
The Crisis in Affordable Housing
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger
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.
|
October 2 / 3, 2004
The War on
Libraries
Save
and Burn, a Film Review
By
STEVE FESENMAIER
There is no document of civilization
which is not at the same time a document of barbarism. And just
as such a document is not free of barbarism, barbarism taints
also the manner in which it was transmitted from one owner to
another.
Walter Benjamin, "Theses
on the Philosophy of History," 1940 "Ueber den Begriff
der Geschichte", used at the beginning of this film
Julian Samuel, a Montreal-based filmmaker
born in Pakistan, continues his exploration of the contemporary
world of libraries in "Save and Burn", an 80-minute
documentary. He first investigated libraries in his instant library
classic, "The Library in Crisis." Here is the description
from the distributor's website Filmakers Library
Dense with the informed commentary
of notable scholars, this documentary in effect traces the history
of civilization through the phenomenon of the library. From ancient
China, India, Islam, and the Graeco Roman world, we see how the
library radiated knowledge and spiritual values, and facilitated
the cross fertilization of ideas from one culture to another.
http://filmakers.com/indivs/LibraryCrisis.htm
"Crisis" was made
before 9/11 and focuses on the hottest crises at that time the
effects the WTO may have on libraries, the commercialization
of libraries, mindless weeding and closing of libraries, expansion
of copyright by computer corporations, and much more. No film
I have ever seen on libraries comes close in exploring so much
in such a short period of time 46 minutes.
I contacted the filmmaker in
Canada, and sent him videotapes of interviews with leading American
library activist Sanford Berman. Originally, he was going to
interview Sandy and other American library leaders, but after
the draconian war against people from Pakistan and other East
Asian countries by the Bush Administration after 9/11, Samuel
took the official Canadian advice to NOT cross the border. Thus
this film did not include these voices but rather focused on
Irish and English libraries plus the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Unlike "The Library in
Crisis," this film looks at race and class. Various library
historians including John Feather, Professor of Library &
Information Studies, Loughborough University, author of "The
Information Society," Royal Society of Arts, London and
Alistair Black, Professor of Library History, Leeds Metropolitan
University, London discuss how public libraries were used both
to stop the locals from contemplating revolution a la Russian
Communism during and after WWI and to serve as a place for debate.
By cutting back and forth from Irish and English library events
to the history of the Library of Alexandria, Egyptian public
libraries, and current programs in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina,
like one on unemployment and youth, the viewer is counter-conditioned
to reject Western racism. Samuel wants to show the West that
we are the inheritors of the great Arab-Asian tradition of libraries
going back thousands of years not its enemy.
The facts are piled on, not
using the standard Ken Burns-style of slow discourse, but rather
throwing the facts at us, using optical printing, aiming to create
a much more complicated GESTALT in our minds. This is extremely
refreshing to someone who has watched a thousand such films,
and found them boring. His style is more like the Hong Kong master
Wong Kar-wai or Godard, demanding that the viewer has a universe
of images already in his mind, waiting for someone to link them
together in new ways.
Like all serious intellectuals,
Samuel begins with Walter Benjamin, the cornerstone of post-WWII
global analysis. By doing this he shows right from the beginning
that he is not guilty of ant-Semitism and Arab fanaticism. He
shows that he really wants truth and justice, at whatever cost.
He wants to show that libraries have been one of the few places
of truth and justice for a long time, and that there are really
only two kinds of people those who respect such sacred places
and those who do not.
The visual images of the libraries
he shows are exquisite, lingering on the walls, the books, the
people, and the spaces that libraries have used over the centuries.
He is a painter, an artist as well as a philosopher, historian,
and freedom fighter. Ambassador Taher Khalifa, Director of The
Bibliotheca Alexandrina talks about the shapes of the library
using an incomplete sun disk, the earth, a moon, the sea, and
alphabets from all over the world, none making a single sentence.
I found one scene particularly
positive, given the ocean of negative images flooding us now.
A young Arab man reads from "Dubliners" in front of
the James Joyce Wall in Dublin -in his native tongue. This brief
scene may be the clearest direct message Samuel is trying to
make we are all one people, friends, not enemies.
This film notes a key historical
possibility that I very much believe in and that is that if the
great world of the original Alexandrine Library had been allowed
to continue, our world would have been much better, and mankind
would have landed on the moon by 1000 AD. There is a new field
of alternative histories, including Philip Roth's new book, "The
Plot Against America," about a US with a Nazi Charles Lindbergh
as president. Samuel has a text crawl that states that there
was one other time when there was a possibility of a "brilliant
scientific civilization" the 700 years of the first Alexandrine
Library under the Greeks, and he notes that most of the Old Testament
comes to us from items once found in that library. Apparently
he believes, as I do, that if mankind had channeled its energy
into the arts and sciences rather than war at the time of the
world's greatest library, our world would now be a humanistic
paradise rather than a toxic corporate American hell.
During the last half of the
film he interviews Tom Twiss, Government Information Librarian,
University of Pittsburgh, who has flown to Canada for the interview.
During the next 30 minutes Twiss discusses the war against people's
access to federal government information, pointing out that as
our government has limited our access to them, they have increased
their access to us library patrons- under the Patriot Act. Twiss
is also an expert on the destruction of Palestinian libraries.
He talks about what happened to Palestinian libraries during
an Israeli invasion of the West Bank. He points out that Lutheran
libraries were also attacked without any reaction worldwide but
that there is ample proof of the events. He notes that some Israeli
newspapers even ran editorials about the "cultural cleansing"
but many Israelis deny it even happened. One gruesome story he
gives is about the Israelis taking books ordered by Palestinian
libraries being shipped to Palestinian libraries being seized
and shipped to Israeli libraries instead.
Another expert on the reality
of libraries in Palestine is Erling Bergan, Editor, Librarians
Union of Norway, Oslo, who talks about the destruction of their
libraries, and a tour by international librarians to these libraries,
seeing first hand how much the children use them. He discusses
one particular act of destruction involving The Orient House.
Bergan is like one of the thousands of Jewish Holocaust survivors
one has seen in films about Nazi Germany. (I have programmed
the local Jewish film series for 25 years), shaking his head
in disbelief. Sanford Berman is the inventor of a word that should
have been uttered bibliocide. ( Ian McLachlan uses this word
in Samuel's earlier film, "The Library in Crisis.) Some
librarians even use the term "biblio-holocaust" for
the destruction of books in our modern age.
Finally, the destruction of
Iraqi libraries is discussed, mainly by Ross Shimmon, Secretary
General, International Federation of Library Associations and
Institutions and Isam al Khafaji, ex-advisor to USA forces in
Iraq. Khafaji discusses who destroyed the books, and how important
they still are in the life of war-worn Iraqis. Shimmon talks
about writing letters to Saddam and Blair requesting that they
protect Iraqi libraries during the coming war.
The final comments in the film
are by Khafaji. Earlier in the film pictures of Iraqi libraries
that have been burned are shown, giving the viewer the reason
why this film is called "Save and Burn." It's horrific
to see the rooms of ashes, and reflect on the eternal loss the
millions of Iraqis have endured as pawns in the game between
the Arab fanatics and the America extremists now in control.
I had to recall the ashes from "The Day After," showing
a world incinerated by men of equal sadism.
Samuel has again created a
masterpiece about the contemporary library. I suggest that it
be included with the many Arab Film Festivals that have been
created by thoughtful people around the world since 9/11. As
always, non-Arabs and Arabs will discover that they have much
more in common than they realize and that they are brothers and
sisters, not enemies. All librarians should see this film, and
I am sure they will feel like I do that librarians must leave
their beautiful houses of culture, and join the fight to protect
them from the despots East and West who will eventually destroy
them. One librarian talks about how the Book of Kells was protected
from the invading English, being moved from site to site, even
in a building used by the invaders as a headquarters.
A very good companion book
to read is Matthew Battles recent, "Libraries -An Unquiet
History." I read it two summers ago on a porch near Wilmington,
North Carolina, smoking and sitting under a semi-functioning
ceiling fan with my dog. I took my time and savored the amazing
history Mr. Battles has written, taking a global perspective
somewhat akin to Mr. Samuel's. I was very impressed with his
brief history of libraries in China and England, and consider
his account of the war against my friend Sanford Berman to be
the best in any book I have read so far.
There is a brief discussion
of "libricide" in this film and now there is an excellent
book on the subject and now there is an excellent book on the
subject "Libricide: The Regime-Sponsored Destruction of
Books and Libraries in the Twentieth Century" by Rebecca
Knuth. It looks at five particular cases - Germany, Bosnia, Kuwait,
China and Tibet. Of course it doesn,t mention the uncontrolled
"weeding" of American libraries during the last decade,
most famously in San Francisco where thousands of books were
buried in a landfill.
Read together, "An Unquiet
History" and "Libricide,"" along with "Save
and Burn" would make an excellent introduction for beginning
MLS students anywhere in the world. Or as a "Continuing
Education" course for working MLS librarians. Hopefully
I will be able to show "Save and Burn" at the spring
West Virginia Library Association conference in April 2005.
To obtain a copy of "Burn
and Save," e-mail the director, Julian Samuel, at: jjsamuel@vif.com.
You can obtain "The Library
in Crisis" at Filmakers Library - http://www.filmakers.com/.
Save and Burn; 80:34, NTSC;
2004
The Library in Crisis; 46:41;
NTSC; 2002.
List of people interviewed
Ross Shimmon, Secretary General,
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions;
Isam al Khafaji, ex-advisor
to USA forces in Iraq;
(Holland) Ambassador Taher
Khalifa, Director, Bibliotheca Alexandria;
Dr Youseff Zeidan, Head of
manuscripts department, Alexandria;
Dr Hesham Abd El Moshen, Head
of architectual department, Alexandria;
Robin Adams, Librarian and
College Archivist, Trinity College, Dublin;
Bernard Meehan, Keeper of Manuscripts,
Trinity College;
Charles Benson, Keeper of Early
Printed Books and Special Collections, Trinity College;
Ken Monahan, Director, James
Joyce Center, Dublin;
Michael Ryan, Director, Chester
Beatty Library, Dublin;
Declan Kiberd, author, Inventing
Ireland, University of Dublin;
David Grattan, Manager, Canadian
Conservation Institute, Ottawa;
Paul Bégan, Conservation
Scientist, Canadian Conservation Institute, Ottawa;
John Feather, Professor of
Library & Information Studies, Loughborough University, author
of The Information Society, Royal Society of Arts, London;
Alistair Black, Professor of
Library History, Leeds Metropolitan University, London;
Erling Bergan, Editor, Librarians
Union of Norway, Olso; Peter Hoare, library historian and adviser
on historic libraries, Bromley House Library, Nottingham;
Tom Twiss, Government Information
Librarian, University of Pittsburgh.
Steve Fesenmaier is the film
reviewer for Graffiti magazine, the largest monthly in West
Virginia. He was director of The West Virginia Library Commission
Film Services 1978-1999, receiving his Masters of Library Science
in 1979. He was previously the chairman of the University Film
Society, University of Minnesota, 1972-78. He is the co-founder
of the West Virginia International Film Festival (1984), The
West Virginia Filmmakers Film Festival, (2001) and the WV Filmmakers
Guild (1979). He has worked on many films including John Sayles,
"Matewan"(1987) and presented a week of films made
in WV in March 2004 at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater in NYC.
He is the associate producer of an indie feature film, "Correct
Change"(2002) and the executive producer for "Green
Bank The Center of the Universe." He provided research information
for Mr. Samuel.
He can be reached at: fesenms@wvlc.lib.wv.us
Weekend
Edition Features for September 18 / 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
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Jeffrey St. Clair
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Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
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