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Inside Iraq's Resistance HOT HOT HOT New CounterPunch Print Edition! Meet actual Iraqis and not just Western caricatures. Laith al-Saud interviews top man in Iraq's national resistance. It's not just Abu Ghraib and bids to kill Fidel Castro. Torture and assassination are integral parts of America's imperial machine. Don't miss Andrew Wimmer's searing journey into the soul of a nation that tortures as a way of life. Plus Alexander Cockburn on the killing of General Kassem. PLUS Sam Sillen's rollicking exhumation of Edmund Wilson as Malthusian Trostskyite. Get the answers you're looking for in the latest subscriber-only edition of CounterPunch ... CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch Writer Daniel Wolff in Portland on Race, Music and Ashbury Park Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Today's Stories October 8 / 9, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Rhetoric and Reality in the Business of Getting Rid of Black People Ralph Nader Katrina and the Growls of Greed Saul Landau An Oily Religious Dream Jeff Halper Setting Up Abbas   October 7, 2005 Larry Johnson The Plame Case: the Real Issues Will Youmans Why Do We Hate Our Freedom? Recruiters and Thugs on Campus Dave Lindorff Bird Flu: Evolution or Intelligent Design? Judith Scherr Haiti's Children's Prison Russell D. Hoffman Nukes for Peace, Revisited?: Nobel Prize Debacle Jared Bernstein Katrina and Jobs Jennifer Van Bergen New American Law: the Case of Dr. Dhafir Website of the Day FBI Witchhunt October 6, 2005 P. Sainath "Take That, Tom Friedman": Indian Masses Reject NYT's Neoliberal Idol Again Scott Parkin When Antiwar Activists Get Mugged Paul Craig Roberts Blundering into Syria Andréa Schmidt Haiti's Biometric Elections: a High-Tech Experiment in Exclusion Dave Lindorff Easy Money in the Big Easy Joshua Frank In Defense of Lew Rockwell M. Junaid Alam Jackboots at George Mason Matthew Koehler Cock and Bull on the Bitterroot Robert Pollin Is the Dollar Still Falling?   October 5, 2005 Heather Gray Militarization is Not an Answer for Reconstruction: the Case of the Philippines Robert Jensen Is Bush a Racist? Ramzy Baroud Bush's Final Choice: America or the Empire Col. Dan Smith Keeping Promises to Iraq: "Everything is Bad" Dave Zirin Barry Bonds Laughs Last Paul Craig Roberts Liberal Guilt? How the Neocons Took Over Alan Maass Doing the Right Wing's Dirty Work   October 4, 2005 Nikolas Kozloff Shocking the Two Party System: a Political Opportunity for Sheehan and the Antiwar Mvt. Mike Roselle Houston, You've Got a Problem Joshua Frank The Scoop on Harriet Miers John Chuckman War Porn: What the Gruesome Images Say Alan Farago Storm Warning for Jeb: Developers, Hurricanes and the Keys Mickey Z. An Interview with Thaddeus Rutkowski Christine & Ethan Rose Home Depot Exploits Hurricane Victims Gary Leupp An Earlier Empire's War on Iraq: a Lesson from Roman History Website of the Day Rodney Crowell on Bob Dylan   October 3, 2005 Vijay Prashad Desperation at Holyoke Paul Craig Roberts Condi Rice: Gunslinger Joshua Frank An Interview with Cindy Sheehan Seth Sandronsky The Hiring Crisis for Black Teens Jeffrey St. Clair The Great Green Scare   October 1 / 2, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Democrats Sink Deeper into the Ooze Dave Marsh A Direction Home: a Message from Bob Dylan Ralph Nader Gutless, Spineless and Clueless Flavia Alaya Showdown at Sheriff's Plaza Uri Avnery The Gladiators: Sharon's Victory Chris Kutalik The Battle at Northwest Airlines Greg Moses Bill Bennett's Book of Cracker Virtues Brian J. Foley I Gave My Copy of the Constitution to a Pro-War Vet Nicole Colson Hunger Strike at Gitmo Ray McGovern Abu Ghraib is a Command Responsibility Fred Gardner Ricky Williams Takes a Late Hit Justin Felux Save America from Crime: Abort Every White Baby! Will Youmans "Free the P": Hip-Hop for Palestine Mike Ferner What Else Shall We Do? David Krieger The War in Iraq: a Broken Covenant Agustin Velloso Samson Returns to Gaza Saul Landau The Constant Gardener: Serious Cinema Ben Tripp Right Down the Middle Poets Basement Peddibone, Crowell, Engel and Albert Website of the Weekend Holler If Ya Hear Me   September 30, 2005 Mary Geddry Why I Marched: They Made My Son Kill Paul Craig Roberts Bush is Cooking Up Two New Wars Dave Lindorff Judith Miller's Strange Voluntary Jail Time Gregory Wilpert "The Osama Bin Laden of Latin America" Benjamin Dangl "Gringo, Go Home:" an Interview with Orlando Castillo James McMurtry We Can't Make It Here Anymore T.R. Johnson Return to the Ninth Ward   September 29, 2005 Sen. Russ Feingold Bush's Iraq War is Weakening America Carl G. Estabrook Obama the Enabler Ramzy Baroud Rhetoric and Reality of War Dave Lindorff What Opposition Party? Mike Whitney Brownie's Comic Opera Jozef Hand-Boniakowski What Noble Cause? Gary Handschumacher Getting Arrested with Cindy Sheehan Winslow T. Wheeler No Leaders in Congress Against This War: Lame Democrat and Tame Republicans   September 28, 2005 Dr. Eyad Serraj Letter from Gaza: What Disengagement Sounds Like William A. Cook Bush's Security Barrier Liaquat Ali Khan The Invention of Porno Torture Mike Whitney Apartheid Justice in America Joshua Frank Sheehan and the Democrats: Anybody Home? CounterPunch Wire New Orleans Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters Chris Genovali Cutting the Bears Out of the Great Bear Rainforest Linn Washington, Jr. White Affirmative Action: How John Roberts Got to the Top   September 27, 2005 Forrest Hylton Political Murder in Puerto Rico: a Matter for Our Movement Jason Leopold The Decline and Fall of Bill Frist Jennifer K. Harbury Torture is US Policy, Not an Aberration Ray McGovern Torture and Cowardice: Why are American Religious Leaders Silent? Mike Ferner Bringing the War Home: Arrested at the Pentagon Antony Loewenstein When the Truth Comes to Town: What You Can't Say About Israel in Australia Harry Browne Live from Hollywood: the IRA Disarms   September 26, 2005 Rafael Rodriguez Cruz Assassination in Puerto Rico: the FBI Murders a Legend Joshua Frank Democrats Flee Peace Protests Lamis Andoni The Railroading of Taysir Alony Mike Marqusee Those Pesky "Urban Intellectuals": Blair, Spiro Agnew and the Antiwar Movement Rep. Cynthia McKinney They Can't Fool Us Anymore Ron Jacobs A Small March for Me, a Giant March for the Antiwar Movement Norman Solomon The Media and the Antiwar Movement John Chuckman Bush in a Bottle Paul Craig Roberts America is Running Out of Time   September 24 / 25, 2005 Kathy and Bill Christison Polluting Palestine: Settlements & Sewage Ralph Nader Stealing the Moment: How Corporations Cashed in on Katrina Saul Landau The Terrorist Resumé of Luis Posada Greg Moses A Movement Gathers Power on the Sorrow Plateau Roger Burbach Hugo Chavez's Mission Vijay Prashad America's Shame Laura Carlsen After NAFTA Robert Fisk When Man and Nature Conspire to Expose the Lies of the Powerful Dave Lindorff A Gusher Called Katrina: They Fix Oil Prices, Don't They? Kirkpatrick Sale / Thomas Naylor Secession from the Empire: the Middlebury Declaration Maj. Anthony Milavic The US Military and Torture: the View of a Former Interrogator Brian Concannon, Jr. Haiti: the Time for Action is Now   September 23, 2005 CounterPunch News Service In Which, Phil Donahue Demolishes Bill O'Reilly Diane Farsetta Katrina and Right-Wing Think Tanks Robert Sandels Militarizing the Market Christopher Brauchli Bush: the Good Samaritan for Corporations Alan Farago Bird Flu Takes Flight Dave Zirin When Sports & Politics Collided: Redeeming the Olympic Martyrs of 1968 Maxine Conant A Simple Test for Bush David Price Workers Get Hit Twice: Katrina and Davis-Bacon Profiteering   September 22, 2005 Smith, Wood, Leas, and Greenfield Which Way Forward for the Green Party? a Report from Tulsa Patrick Cockburn Iraqis: This Government has No Authority Manuel Garcia, Jr. Thinking is Religious Freedom Lucia Dailey Trial of the St. Patrick's Four: Day One Mokhiber / Weissman Are You a Speed Freak? Russell D. Hoffman The Nukes in Rita's Path Kona Lowell God's Hurricane? Jason Leopold GOP Fiscal Policy and Katrina Website of the Day Robert Pollin on the Global Economy   September 21, 2005 Jorge Mariscal Military Recruiters: Counselers or Salesmen? Linda S. Heard Double Standards in Iraq: Basra Brit Jailbreak Joshua Frank NYPD Unplugs Cindy Sheehan Eric Ruder "The Problem in Iraq is the US": an Interview with Camilo Mejia Pierre Tristam The Struts and Bull Presidency Dave Lindorff The Real Story of the German Elections Mike Ferner Sit Down in DC Missy Comley Beattie Bush's Katrina Bling Bling Jeffrey St. Clair W Marks the Spot Website of the Day New Orleans: Survivor Stories   September 20, 2005 Steve Breyman Toxic Gumbo: Katrina and Environmental Justice George Galloway Et Tu, Greg Palast? Patrick Cockburn What Happened to Iraq's Missing $1 Billion? M. Shahid Alam Gen. Musharraf and Israel: Is Pakistan Selling Out? Mike Whitney The Gitmo Hunger Strikers Winslow T. Wheeler It's Not Rocket Science Niranjan Ramakrishnan Back to the Future: North Korea's Gambit Paul Craig Roberts Will Neocon Fanaticism Destroy America?         Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition October 8 / 9, 2005 The Great Melodrama A View from Cajun Country By JOHN GAUTREAUX Katrina has turned people into jokes. The middle class of South Louisiana has become America's grand manifestation of melodramatic, self-serving, fear-mongering, dimwits using tragic events to fulfill insecure emotional needs and justify racial prejudice. OK, let me take a breath and tell you what I mean. We have become a region of know-it-alls. Since the hurricane, everyone is suddenly an expert civil engineer, an expert economist, an expert political scientist, or an expert in water dynamics, shelter planning, oceanography, levee construction, and criminology. Everyone here has a fucking opinion, no matter how insane or unfounded, they usually spout these opinions in public and very loudly without adequate articulation. They may as well pick up a piping hot pile of dog shit and exclaim to the world, "Look what I almost stepped into!" The work place, the lines at gas stations, the supermarket, it's everywhere. You cannot escape the shitty opinions of people who have no more than a 12th grade education yet try to appear to have a keen grasp on corporate finance and geophysics. Everyone proclaims to know what should be done with state money. Everyone has a fucking opinion on how to rebuild the city. Everyone knows why the events unfolded the way they did. Everyone claims they know where the blame should be placed. How about 34% on the Gov, 48% on the President, and lets give the Mayor 18%. People have visual pie charts in their head, color coordinated to which piece of the blame gets designated to which person. And they go on for days and days telling others about who did what wrong. What none of them can understand is the looting and shooting at helicopters and ambulances. They have no idea why these "animals" "barbarians" and let's not forget Louisiana's favorite word, "niggers" would conduct such acts of "savagery." They have no clue why these things are happening in a crisis, yet they all agree, the criminals "should be shot." A piece of me roots for the "criminals." We'll most of me roots for the criminals. I understand why they would shoot at a helicopter or ambulance, and I don't think the people who can't comprehend it deserve an explanation. Shit, I'd like a plasma TV too and some drugs, shit, no better time to get high than when you're living in an apoca! lyptic Mad-Max world with no end to your suffering in sight. Damn, I want get high just writing about it. I'd steal as much shit as possible, hide it in an attic, and sell it when things get back to normal. It's a perfect plan. Why can't these middle class simpletons wrap their minds around these simple concepts? When the system that has failed the poor for generations and generations breaks down and is vulnerable, stupid Americans expect them not to exploit it? Let's get real. I'd want no part of law, government, capitalism, or civil order, especially after feeling like I've been abandoned to die by the same powers that have systematically discriminated and exploited me for centuries. It's funny though, how everybody feels a need to attach themselves to the whole crisis somehow. It's the new thing. New Orleans is the flavor of the month!. It's the Macarena with Mardi Gras beads. People from all over the country are mailing me boxes of clothes to give out, gift certificates to Walmart , and sometimes checks maid payable to cash! People trust me. It's a bummer too because I can only steal from people who don't trust me. Therefore, I go to the shelter and am forced to yell out things like, "which one of you dirty hoes where's a size 6?... you do? baby sit yo fat ass down, I said a size six, not a size sixteen!" and the shelter erupts with laughter. Then I throw a size s! ix skirt at the girl who wants it. I feel like I'm on a float. I go to the Walmart with the gift certificate, throwing clothes and personal items in the basket. I'm like, "damn, I need a new anchor for my boat!" but I don't buy it. I just keep walking. I cash the checks, and give out money to people who I deem need it. I feel like an asshole, "Here's 40 bucks, just because I think you need it." I never know how bad the other guy needs it, because I can't talk to everyone. It's so stupid. Who am I to decide who gets what? Just because I showed up to help? I hope they know I'm getting paid for this, a lot! People treat me like I'm a some kind of Saint. Fuck, I sell drugs and live selfishly on the weekends, and I only help the world on the weekdays because they pay me to. But that's better or no worse than the lot of them. Most people help because they want to FEEL like they are helping, they don't actually care if the actually are. People who spend 10 dollars of gas in their car to co! me drop off 2 dollars worth of used socks. People who drive down from Idaho only to give out a van full of coloring books and take some pictures. I'm not angry at them, but I think they are stupid--but then again. It doesn't matter what I think. But, hey, maybe one day I can write a book off this and then sell it, and make even more money off this storm. That's the way things like this go, right? Figure out a new diet scheme, get a book deal. Get captured in Iraq and get rescued, get a book deal. Suck the President's dick, get a book deal. Everyone in the news or out of the state is trying to fabricate some type of deep-seeded bond with New Orleans. It reminds me of right after 9-11 when everyone suddenly became an expert on NYC, thanks to the four days they vacationed there in 1987. When this shit first jumped off, I could not stand to hear the news stations playing intense orchestra music as the led in to their lead story, "Catastrophe in New Orleans!" They used words like "putrid toxic sludge" to describe the water, and "bands of vicious bloodthirsty gangs" to describe the looters. It was appalling at first, to see which station would sensationalize it the most, but after a while, I kind of started to like it. It was a fun, cinematic way to take in the information. It was more like a movie and less like real life. I think if Bob Breck would have come on TV and said, "Shit is real fucked up, man. It don't look good" I would have freaked out even more and became very unstable. But when they said, "Cataclysmic, unprecedented events of biblical proportions are unfolding in the Big Easy" it kind of gave me solace. It became more like a movie, less like reality. I suddenly started enjoying all those montages on the internet and TV, with pictures of suffering people, accompanied by dark music. That's how you know we have shit under control. If it can be montaged, it can be fixed! Praise GAWWD! The finality of my fears was when Dr. Phil did a special in New Orleans. Now this man is not an actual doctor, nor has he undergone any formal training in helping people, yet he gets to fly in to New Orleans and ride around with the police. I pictured me attempting the same thing. I drive up at the checkpoint in my pimped out Lincoln, "who are you and why do you want to come into the city?" a guard with a double digit I.Q. demands. "I'm Dr. Jean. I've come to help." "Can I see some I.D?" I show him my Save-a-Center grocery store discount card. "What's this, are you a doctor or what?" "Not actually, but I solve problems using good ol Midwestern common sense and portray a homely, good-guy image who understands people and tells it like it is." "Ohhhh" the guard says, letting it all sink in. "So can I get in the city or what?" "Yup, sure can buddy, you seem like my kind of fellow" "Thanks Private" I say as I peel out,, headed straight for the Best Buy. I've got a plasma TV with my name all over it. And I shit you not. I stuck around to see just how Dr. Phil would help the city. He went around the 9th ward, trying to coax people out of their homes, because as we know these people were surrounded by "putrid toxic sludge." "Hello in there, this is DOCTOR PHIL!" he would yell through windows, "YOU GERTA GIT OUTA DER! IT'S DANGEROUS!" I imagined, if that was me in there, refusing to leave, only to have Doctor fucking Phil knocking on my window. How odd is that? I laughed for about five minutes. That's the last thing those people in that house were expecting." "Honey, pass the canned corn--.wait, wait, is that-- couldn't be--.is that doctor Phil out there?" And I laughed even harder picturing the kind of people who were watching the show and not laughing. And what really cracked me up was when I hear, "And when we come back after commercial, Dr Phil goes looking for looters--.WITH NIGHT VISION!" And then a sneak preview of Dr. Phil is shown with him wearing night vision goggles and he is flanked by two policeman brandishing shotguns. I laughed so hard, I think part of my brain fell out my nose. I'm not going to comment. Just envision what I just described: Night Vision Goggles. Dr. Phil. Policemen with shotguns. That's when I realized that it was back to normal. America is moving on. It's same old same old. I was suddenly engulfed in both comfort and misery. I hate the way this country operates, but I'm comforted by it. Driving a diesel truck for days filled with refugees seems comical now. I can barely drive my own car half the time, yet they trusted me with all these lives, fucking idiots. I'm not that strong, but they trusted me to move 300lb women who are so fat they sweat butter. And I've picked up people so water logged, their skin literally peeled off in my hands as I placed them down, people who sat in the water so long they were wetter than Oprah's belly button after bowflexing. They even put me in charge of a room full of mental patients for a day. The stories are funny now, not tragic. Things are getting back to normal. I've brushed a man's dentures only to have him spit them back at me, exclaiming I didn't do a good enough job. At the time, it was deep. I remember finding some deep symbolism in that, but I can't even remember what it was now; I'm too busy laughing at it. John Gautereaux is a social worker in southern Louisiana. He can be reached at: johngautreaux@yahoo.com                                       CLARIFICATION ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH We published an article entitled "A Saudiless Arabia" by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the "Article"), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the "Website"). Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network. We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism. As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi's lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website. We are pleased to clarify the position. August 17, 2005

Coming in the Fall from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Click Here to Advance Order Philosopher Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz WHAT'S INSIDE Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair