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July 16, 2002
Salam al-Marayati
When
is Terrorism
Not Defined as Terrorism?
Kathleen Christison
The
Image Problem:
Anti-Palestinian Bias
from Wilson to Bush
July 15, 2002
Gavin Keeney
In One
of Safire's Ears,
Out the Other
CounterPunch Wire
Nader in
Cuba
Ralph Nader
The Secret
World of Banking
Dave Marsh
Vincible:
Michael Jackson, Racism and the Music Cartel
Rahul Mahajan
Justice
for Bhopal
Jeffrey St. Clair
Seduced
by a Legend
The Return of Jimmy T99 Nelson
July 14, 2002
Bill Christison
The
DOA (Poem)
David Vest
I'll Never
Get Out of This Band Alive
July 13, 2002
M. Junaid Alam
A Process
of Dehumanization
Gavin Keeney
Go Tell
Karl Rove!
Matt Vidal
Corporate
"Ethics" Red Herrings
Ed Whitfield
Lessons
from Independence Day
July 12, 2002
Sean Donahue
The Other
Harken Energy Scandal: Oil, Death Squads
and Colombia
Walt Brasch
Sin Tax
Scam
"Psst. Cigarettes. A Buck Each."
Steve Perry
A Tale
of Two Twits
Wall Street Burns, Bush Fiddles, But Where's Wellstone?
July 11, 2002
Lloyd Marbet
Arrested
by the Chamber
of Commerce
David Krieger
Law vs.
Force
David Vest
Fountain
of Foo:
Strike Three Called
Irit Katriel
A Deep
Ideological Crisis
Richard Glen Boire
Dangerous
Lessons:
Public School Drug Testing
July 10, 2002
CounterPunch Wire
Third Party
Woes
South Carolina Denies Kevin Alexander Gray Ballot Status
Nassar Ibriham &
Majed Nassar
Bush's
Middle East Plan: Always Changing, Never Changing
Robert Fisk
Ain't That
America:
A Strange Kind of Freedom
Dave Marsh
The Return
of CREEP:
Record Cartel Accounting
Bernard Weiner
Hope and
Despair in
the Body Politic
Gary Leupp
European
Worries and
Bush's Terror War
July 9, 2002
St. Clair / Cockburn
The Atomic
Clock is Ticking:
All Roads Lead to Yucca Mtn.
Jack McCarthy
Florida:
a Terrorist Sanctuary for Bush's Bloody Pals?
Robert Fisk
How a Saudi
Billionaire
Does Beirut
Stanton and Madsen
God, Incorporated
Kurt Nimmo
IDF, Gangbanging
with Tanks
Bill Christison
Disastrous
Foreign Policies
of the US Part 3:
What Can We Do About It?
July 8, 2002
Rick Mercier
Yucca
Mountain Bound
Lev Grinberg
The
BUSHARON Global War
Tariq Ali
How Bush
Used 9/11 to Remap the World
Lori Allen
The Tugs
of War:
Palestinian Life Under Curfew
July 7, 2002
Alexander Cockburn
White
House Crooks

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The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff

The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey



A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
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July
16, 2002
The "Distraction"
that Takes
the Heat off al-Qa'ida
by Robert Fisk
The
Independent
How better to distract Pakistan's army from supporting
America's "war on terror" than by promoting, yet again,
a war in Kashmir?
Whether or not the mysterious "Hindu"
holy men who turned into mass murderers in the slums of Jammu
on Saturday night were Islamist gunmen, a suspicion is growing
in Pakistan that supporters of Osama bin Laden would be happy
to provoke another crisis with India if it relieved the pressure
on al-Qa'ida along the Pakistan-Afghan frontier.
In the past two weeks, two major gun
battles have been fought in the tribal territories along the
Afghan border between Pakistani troops and al-Qa'ida men, in
the last of which four Islamists, all apparently from Chechnya,
were shot dead near the Jarma Bridge in Kohat.
A Pakistani policeman and a soldier were
also killed. The authorities in Islamabad have been boasting
that their para-military forces have penetrated some areas of
the semi-autonomous tribal territories along the frontier for
the first time in 100 years--a claim which probably says as
much about the last days of the British Empire as it does about
modern Pakistan.
But al-Qa'ida knows that these battles
are being encouraged by the FBI, whose officers are urging the
Pakistanis to move ever deeper into the hitherto untouchable
Pashtun tribal zones whose rule has always been entrusted to
local village chieftains.
In recent days, credible reports have
described how some local Pakistani tribal elements have been
seized by US special forces inside Pakistan, in effect, kidnapping
them then taking them for interrogation in Kandahar.
Little wonder, therefore, that al-Qa'ida
might want to hit back. By indulging in a new round of guerrilla
warfare and killing along the old Line of Control in Kashmir,
Islamists can achieve several objectives. They can force President
Pervez Musharraf to withdraw his troops from the Afghan border
to reinforce the Pakistan army opposite the Indian front line.
They can once more force the world's eyes away from the guerrilla
battles in Afghanistan.
Most of all, they can force Washington
to pay more attention to the dangers of a nuclear confrontation
between India and Pakistan than to its continuing and still
far-from-successful campaign in Afghanistan.
At the same time, a resurgence of violence
in Kashmir reminds 150 million Pakistanis that it is the nation's
most serious wound and the source of constant humiliation.
General Musharraf's latest tinkering with the constitution--
along with his continued support for the US--is creating renewed
anger in the country's cities.
The massacre of 24 civilians by attackers
dressed as holy men can only concentrate the minds of those
who are losing faith in General Musharraf, not to mention those
Muslim religious extremists who always opposed him.
It was surely not by coincidence that
the attack came at the moment when US and Indian intelligence
officers were concluding two days of talks on "counter-terrorism"
in Washington, a conference--the fifth of its kind--which ended
with a joint statement that "the two sides agreed to further
intensify intelligence sharing and co-ordinate action in pursuit
of the remains [sic] of al-Qa'ida members and associated terrorist
groups".
In reality, any militant Islamic group
can regard itself as part of al-Qa'ida if it wishes--bin Laden's
"foundation" is not a formal institution with card-carrying
members-- although this is still not apparent to the US.
Saturday's killings will therefore serve
to recreate all the old ambiguities.
India and Pakistan will have to pretend
to be more interested in crushing "terrorism" far
from Afghanistan than ending the Kashmir dispute, while the
Americans--anxious to encourage the continued assistance of
both sides against al-Qa'ida--will have to pretend to be more
interested in Kashmir than in their "war on terror".
All of which will be good news for Osama bin Laden.
Today's Features
Salam al-Marayati
When
is Terrorism
Not Defined as Terrorism?
Kathleen Christison
The
Image Problem:
Anti-Palestinian Bias
from Wilson to Bush
Gavin Keeney
In One
of Safire's Ears,
Out the Other
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