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* Who were the Israelis living next to Mohammed Atta? * What was in that Moving Van on the New Jersey shore? * Was the Mossad Tracking the 9/11 Hijackers in the US? * How did two hijackers end up on the Watch List weeks before 9/11?
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Exclusive to CounterPunch Newsletter Subscribers! WHAT DID ISRAEL KNOW IN ADVANCE OF THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS? * Those Celebrating "Movers" and Art Student Spies
* Who were the Israelis living next to Mohammed Atta?
* What was in that Moving Van on the New Jersey shore?
* Was the Mossad Tracking the 9/11 Hijackers in the US?
* How did two hijackers end up on the Watch List weeks before 9/11?At last, the answers. Read Christopher Ketcham's exclusive expose in CounterPunch special double-issue February newsletter. Plus, Cockburn and St. Clair on how this story was suppressed and ultimately found its home in CounterPunch. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Remember contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now
Get CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year Cockburn in Tucson / Landau at UC Santa Cruz
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Today's Stories Feburary 17 / 18, 2007 Alexander Cockburn
Marc Levy Andrew Cockburn Glen Ford Greg Moses Ron Jacobs John W. Farley James Marc Leas Tim Rinne Albert Wan Website of
the Day
Patrick Cockburn Saul Landau Stephen Lendman Evelyn Pringle Michael Simmons Kevin Zeese Dave Lindorff Pete Shanks Peter Rost Lenni Brenner
/ Gilad Atzmon Website of the Day
February 14, 2007 Tao Ruspoli Dick J. Reavis Margaret Kimberly Christopher Brauchli Paul Craig
Roberts John Ross Michael F.
Brown Dave Lindorff J.L. Chestunut,
Jr. Don Fitz Michael Donnelly Dr. Susan Block Website of
the Day
February 13, 2007 Uri Avnery Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader Marjorie Cohn Col. Dan Smith Col. Douglas
MacGreagor Thomas Power Nicola Nasser David Swanson Columbia Coalition
Against the War Website of the Day
February 12, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Paul Craig
Roberts John Walsh Dr. John Carroll,
MD Greg Moses Nicole Colson Dave Lindorff Ray McGovern Doug Giebel David Swanson Website of the Day
February
10 /11, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Gabriel Kolko Patrick Cockburn Jeffrey St.
Clair Kevin Alexander Gray M. Shahid Alam Greg Moses Paul Craig
Roberts George Ciccariello-Maher Kevin Zeese Turner / Kim George Duke Walter Brasch Shepherd Bliss Missy Beattie Peter Harley Pat Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Day
Conn Hallinan Gary Leupp Lee Sustar Nikolas Kozloff Newton Garver Yitzhak Laor Dave Lindorff David Swanson Website of the Day
February 8, 2007 John V. Walsh Marjorie Cohn Trish Schuh Ron Jacobs Laura Carlsen Ramzy Baroud Brenda Norrell Bryan Farrell Judith Scherr Website of
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February 7, 2007 Daniel Wolff Tao Ruspoli Tony Swindell Sharon Smith Ken Couesbouc Jeff Cohen Col. Dan Smith Tom Kerr Joshua Frank Adam Elkus Stephen Fleischman Website of
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February 6, 2007 Diana Johnstone Gregory Wilpert Norman Solomon Dave Lindorff William Blum Mike Ferner CP News Service Evelyn Pringle Christopher Brauchli Alan Cabal Website of the Day
Dave Zirin Uri Avnery Ron Jacobs Paul Craig Roberts Newton Garver Bruce Anderson Saul Landau Ralph Nader James T. Phillips Mike Whitney Kenneth Rexroth Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn Tao Ruspoli Jeffrey St.
Clair Patrick Cockburn P. Sainath Sen. Russell Feingold Diane Christian Brian Cloughley Diana Barahona Timothy J. Freeman Conn Hallinan John Ross Greg Moses Missy Beattie Joshua Frank Evelyn Pringle Stephen Fleischman Muhammad Idrees Ahmad Poets' Basement Website of the Day
Chris Kutalik R. Gibson /
E. W. Ross Pam Martens John Feffer Daryll E. Ray Ronald Bruce
St. John Mitchel Cohen Website of
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Diane Farsetta Marjorie Cohn Mark Scaramella Ranni Amiri Christopher Ketcham Winston Warfield Corporate Crime Reporter Thomas P. Healy Website of the Dau
January 31, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Jean Bricmont Tao Ruspoli James T. Phillips William Johnson Tim Wilkinson Evelyn Pringle Joshua Frank Ramzy Baroud Mickey Z. Website of the Day
Werther Kathy Kelly Uri Avnery Franklin Spinney William S. Lind Pariah Mike Whitney Rev. William
E. Alberts Fran Shor Anthony Arnove Website of the Day
Nurit Peled-Elhanan Patrick Cockburn JoAnn Wypijewski Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Kevin Zeese Reza Fiyouzat Pat Williams Website of the Day
January 27 / 28, 2007 Diana Johnstone Eliza Ernshire Patrick Cockburn David Rosen Greg Moses Bernard Chazelle Tao Ruspoli Hermán
Uribe Ralph Nader Paul Craig
Roberts Fred Gardner Brian Cloughley James Abourezk John V. Whitbeck Seth Sandronsky Alan Cabal Pam Martens Website of
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Charlotte Laws Mike Ely /
Linda Flores Joe DeRaymond Phil Donahue Zia Mian Jeb Sprague Evelyn Pringle Missy Beattie Martha Rosenberg Website of
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Patrick Cockburn John Ross Jeremy Scahill Frida Berrigan Paul Craig Roberts Jason Yossef
Ben-Meir Christopher Brauchli Holger W. Henke Dave Lindorff Julia Landau Website of the Day
January 24, 2007 Tao Ruspoli Paul Craig
Roberts Lt. Gen. William Odom Sharon Smith Brian M. Downing Heather Gray Ron Jacobs James Brooks Robert Day Website of
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Trish Schuh Robert Bryce
Stephen Soldz John Blair Gloria La Riva Joshua Frank Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Uri Avnery Website of the Day
January 22, 2007 Manuel Garcia,
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Roberts Norman Solomon Amira Hass Mike Whitney Ramzy Baroud John Walsh Website of
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January 20/21 2007 Alexander Cockburn
Gail Dines
Newton Garver
Gilad Atzmon
Seth Sandronksy
Raphaelle Bail
Jim Goodman Larry Portis
Website of
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Jonathan Cook
Glen Ford Dave Lindorff
Larry Portis
Website of
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William Peace
Virginia Tilley
Michael Donnelly
B.R. Gowani
Larry Portis
Jason Hribal
Website of
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Franklin Spinney John Ross Susan George Paul Craig
Roberts Joshua Frank David Lindorff
Col. Sam Gardiner
Marjorie Cohn
Saul Landau
Ron Jacobs
Susan Block Ken Couesbouck Website of
the Day
Roger Morris Paul Craig
Roberts Kathy Kelly William Blum Ralph Nader Saul Landau January 12 / 14, 2007 Patrick Cockburn David Rosen William S.
Lind Laith al-Saud Paul Craig
Roberts John Ross George Ciccariello-Maher Christopher Brauchli Robert Buzzanco Evelyn Pringle Peter Rost,
MD. Mike Whitney Yifat Susskind Saul Cohen Missy Beattie Stephen Lendman Website of
the Weekend
January 11, 2007 Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Paul Craig
Roberts Kathy Kelly Dave Lindorff Jeff Leys Richard W.
Behan Col. Douglas MacGregor Website of
the Day Speech of the Day
Peter Linebaugh Robert Fantina Patrick Cockburn Paul Craig Roberts Col. Dan Smith Ben Tripp Evelyn Pringle Ron Jacobs Mike Ferner Dave Zirin Website of
the Day Bootleg of the Day
R. T. Naylor Jonathan Cook Mike Ely and Linda Flores Joshua Frank Norman Solomon Sen. Russell
Feingold Joe Allen James T. Phillips Brian Concannon Leonard Peltier Website of the Day
January 8, 2007 Werther Jeff Leys Paul Craig Roberts Shulamit Aloni Dave Lindorff Sunsara Taylor Seth Sandronsky Dr. Susan Block Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn Franklin C.
Spinney Paul Craig
Roberts Ralph Nader Walden Bello Marleen Martin Brian Cloughley Uri Avnery Saul Landau Ron Jacobs Joseph Nevins William S. Lind Gary Leupp Elisa Salasin George Ciccariello-Maher Beyond Chavistas and Anti-Chavistas: Deepening the Bolivarian Revolution Stefan Wray Michael Leonardi Richard Rhames Jeffrey St. Clair Barbara LaMorticella Website of the Weekend Song of the
Weekend
Jorge Mariscal John Walsh Christopher Brauchli Travis Sharpe Tom Barry Linda Schade
/ Kevin Zeese Tiffany Ten Eyck Mahmoud El-Yousseph Lucinda Marshall Website of
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Patrick Cockburn Winslow T.
Wheeler M. Shahid Alam Raed Jarrar Bert Sacks Kathy Rentenbach Stephen Fleischman George Bisharat Peter Rost, MD Evelyn Pringle Website of the Day
January 3, 2007 Kathy Kelly Paul Craig
Roberts William Johnson Stan Cox Trita Parsi Declan McKenna Joe Bageant Nicola Nasser Missy Beattie Website of
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Michael Watts Amina Mire James Brooks Alevtina Rea Al Krebs Peter Rost Niranjan Ramakrishnan John Stanton Website of the Day
January 1, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Uri Avnery Joshua Frank
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Weekend
Edition "Death Row is a Web That Catches Only the Poor"Mumia Addresses the World Death Penalty ConferenceBy LINN WASHINGTON, Jr. Paris, France. During the opening ceremony of the 3rd World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris recently--a session featuring top diplomats and dignitaries--only one actual death row inmate addressed the delegates from over 120 nations: Pennsylvania death row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu-Jamal delivered brief remarks recorded from his Pa death row cell that echoed criticisms of the death penalty contained in presentations during the opening session by top officials from France, Germany, Italy and the Council of Europe. "Death row is a web that catches only the poor. Race and poverty are excellent predictors of who ends up on death row," said Abu-Jamal, recognized internationally as a symbol of injustice in the US yet considered by some Americans as simply a 'cop killer.' Abu-Jamal is now in his 25th year on death row for the December 1981 murder of Philadelphia, Pa Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal is known widely as the "Voice of the Voiceless" for his work as a journalist before his arrest and during his decades on death row. He has consistently maintained his innocence yet rarely speaks or writes about his case despite having published and broadcast thousand of commentaries from prison on various subjects including the death penalty. Abu-Jamal told Congress delegates that he was "honored" to be able to speak on behalf of the 3,344 on death rows across America. Pennsylvania contains America's fourth largest death row with 228 inmates. Death rows worldwide contain nearly 25,000 persons according to estimates by Amnesty International. Human Rights activist and former French First Lady Danielle Mitterrand introduced Abu-Jamal's remarks. Mitterrand's late husband, Francois Mitterrand, abolished the death penalty in France in 1981 during the first year of his fourteen year presidency. Abu-Jamal, during his remarks, criticized death penalty practices in the US like regularly assigning inept attorneys to defendants in capital cases. Abu-Jamal gave an example of a black defendant in Georgia assigned an elderly lawyer who slept throughout the trial and who was the former Imperial Wizard of that state's Ku Klux Klan. Errors by trial lawyers resulted in the releases of two of the four persons freed from Pa death row during this decade. Those two inmates were from Philadelphia. The other two Pa death row releases resulted from judicial error and misconduct by prosecutors respectively. Errors by trial counsel, prosecutors and judges are all elements in Abu-Jamal's series of appeals. Abu-Jamal's trial prosecutor acknowledged during a newspaper interview last year that Abu-Jamal could have escaped the death penalty if his trial defense had been better. Evidence of innocence and other serious trial errors have resulted in the release of 123 persons from American death rows since the US Supreme Court reinstated executions in the mid-1970s, according to figures compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center. Six persons have been released from Pa's death row during this period, the seventh largest release total nationwide. Abu-Jamal also praised the Philippines for its abolition of the death penalty last year while pointing out problems in nations like Kenya where the condemned languish in dank cells for decades awaiting execution. Abu-Jamal's appeal attorney, Robert R. Bryan of San Francisco, said, "One thing that's impressive about him is that he speaks out against human rights abuses." Bryan escorted Danielle Mitterrand onto the stage. Most of the diplomats and dignitaries speaking during the Congress' opening ceremony offered observations on death penalty inequities similar to those offered by Abu-Jamal. Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, said the "death penalty always discriminates" Discrimination in the death penalty extends beyond the race and/or class of the defendant. Arbitrariness in application of this ultimate charge is another form of discrimination, experts contend. Abu-Jamal, for example, faced the death penalty for the fatal confrontation that prosecutors admit began as a chance encounter triggered by Abu-Jamal seeing his brother being beaten by Officer Faulkner. However, a drug dealer who killed an off-duty Philadelphia policeman in May 1981 in a premeditated murder scheme to steal a car the officer was selling did not face capital prosecution. That drug dealer received a life sentence. Commissioner Hammarberg said ample evidence exists that the death penalty does not deter crime. "In the United States where no death penalty exists, the crime rate is lower," Hammarberg. "There is a strange contradiction to punish murderers by murdering them!" An unfair trial is an element in too many death sentences stated Sidiki Kaba, President of the International Federation for Human Rights. "Rarely are persons from wealthy backgrounds sentenced to death," Kaba said while delivering the results of fifteen death penalty investigations the Federation conducted during 2006 in countries including the US. "The death penalty is torture." French President Jacques Chirac said "the very concept of justice is incompatible with the death penalty" in a letter to the Congress read by France's Foreign Affairs Minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy. The World Congress Against the Death Penalty, held at a university in Paris, occurred at a time when the government of Italy is advocating United Nations adoption of a universal abolition against the death penalty and French President Chirac is proposing that his nation place a death penalty ban in that nation's constitution. Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley recently announced his support for a legislative proposal in that state to repeal the death penalty. Last year, New Jersey became the first state in the nation to legislatively approve a moratorium on executions, citing issues of fairness and expense of the death penalty. The death penalty exists in 38 of America's fifty states although only a handful of states regularly conduct executions. Also last year, for the first time, a Gallup poll recorded more Americans supporting life without parole than executions for heinous crimes. The countries with the most active death penalty are China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States, nations accounting for 96% of all recorded executions last year, stated Piers Bannister, death penalty team Coordinator for Amnesty International, during his opening session presentation. Bannister authored Amnesty's 2000 report on the Abu-Jamal case which documented gross improprieties by police, prosecutors, the trial judge and Pa appellate court jurists. This AI report concluded that the Philadelphia born Abu-Jamal deserves a new trial because the 1982 "proceedings used to convict and sentence [Abu-Jamal] to death were in violation of minimum international standards that govern fair trial procedures and the use of the death penalty." Mayor Catherine Peyge of Bobigny, France told those attending the opening session that "Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death during a trial whose standards face international challengeWe have to tell our American friends to abolish the death penalty." A hearing on the Abu-Jamal case is expected within the next few months before the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals, headquartered in Philadelphia. This hearing could produce a new trial for the death row journalist or reaffirm his death sentence. Allegations of racial discrimination in the selection of Abu-Jamal's predominately white trial jury and pro-prosecution bias by Abu-Jamal's trial judge during a 1995 appeals hearing are among four items under review by the Third Circuit. The Abu-Jamal case garners a lot of attention throughout France. Abu-Jamal, for example, is an honorary citizen of Paris and Bobigny. Since 1995, protestors have held a vigil every Wednesday evening outside the US Consulate in Paris demanding a new trial for the man who was an award-winning journalist before his arrest and who has published five books while on death row. Protestors maintained their vigil at the Consulate on the evening before the Congress's opening session. "The Abu-Jamal case represents an observation that French historian Tocqueville made when he traveled to Philadelphia in the 1830s: the law is unable to enforce the rights of minorities," said Diarapha H. Diallo-Gibert, the founder of the first French support group for Abu-Jamal: Just Justice created in October 1993 in the city of Tours. The naming of a block-long street in the Paris suburb of St. Denis last year honoring Abu-Jamal produced vociferous demands to remove Abu-Jamal's name by the US House of Representatives, the Pennsylvania State Senate and Philadelphia's City Council. "Mumia can count on a lot of support in this country and we feel proud that we are a target," said Jacky Hortaut, co-director of the Collective, a coalition of eighty pro-Abu-Jamal organizations in France. "Mumia is not an assassin. The US system must stop putting roadblocks in the path of due process in this case," continued Hortaut, speaking a few hours after the opening session during remarks at a Congress panel entitled "Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Symbol of the Fight Against the Death Penalty." Another panel presenter, British activist Niki Adams released the draft of a Letter In Support of Abu-Jamal planned for circulation among journalists worldwide. This letter protests the targeting of Mumia Abu-Jamal for his independent, campaigning journalism. "We hope journalists who also refuse to be embedded with any government will act in the best traditions of their profession and speak out for Mr. Abu-Jamal's right to a fair trial," said Adams of the London based Legal Action for Women, one of the groups initiating the Support letter. French activist Julia Wright, daughter of legendary African-American author Richard Wright, circulated a Open Letter at the Congress calling on the US House of Representatives to conduct an inquiry into the unusual procedures utilized in the December 2006 approval of the Resolution condemning St. Denis for the street naming. During the brief December congressional debate on that Resolution, Rep. John Conyers, currently head of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, complained that the measure was fast-tracked to a vote "without the benefit of a single hearing, markup or any other considerations or discussion by our committee." That Amnesty report documented unusual procedures and double standards rampant throughout the Abu-Jamal case. The Pa Supreme Court, the AI report stated, has consistently applied a "contradictory series of precedents [leaving] the disturbing impression that the Court invented a new series of procedure to apply it to one case only: that of Mumia Abu-Jamal." The Philadelphia and US mainstream news media ignores this AI report. Opponents of Abu-Jamal stress the fact that his conviction has been repeatedly upheld by trial and appellate courts in Pennsylvania. Opponents also point to the fact that Abu-Jamal was arrested at the crime scene, wounded by a bullet from Faulkner's gun, as proof of guilt. Opponents like Pa. Governor Ed Rendell consistently say Abu-Jamal's conviction is an 'open and shut case' of guilt, calling his far-flung supporters misinformed'duped by Mumia's propaganda machine.' Rendell was Philadelphia's District Attorney during Abu-Jamal's trial and the city's Mayor during Abu-Jamal's widely criticized 1995 appeals hearing. Overt bias by Judge Albert Sabo during that appeal hearing prompted even anti-Mumia press pundits in Philadelphia to harshly criticize both Sabo's antics and the state Supreme Court for refusing to remove Sabo from presiding despite Sabo's 1982 trial bias being an appeal issue. Sabo rejected the appeal and the state high court upheld Sabo's action. That 'open-&-shut case' response has proven incorrect in scores of Philadelphia homicide cases including two murders that occurred seven months before Abu-Jamal's 1981 arrest. Police arrested a teenager for the sniper murder of a Philadelphia policeman, reporting at the time that this teen confessed to participating in the officer's killing. However, that teen was acquitted during a trial the following year and that policeman's murder remains unsolved. Police also arrested a man for murdering a Philadelphia organized crime figure. This man, Neil Ferber, was later released from death row after evidence proved that police framed him. Ferber eventually received a $1.9-million settlement from the City of Philadelphia for his false imprisonment. While Rendell responded to public pressure to release Ferber from death row--on his last day as DA--when Rendell served as Philadelphia's Mayor, his Administration vigorously opposed Ferber's lawsuit seeking compensation for that false incarceration where Ferber had a nervous breakdown and developed ulcers. "The US so often gives themselves the right to lecture other countries yet it joins China in leading the world in executions," said French Senator Nicole Borvo Cohen-Seat during her presentation at the Abu-Jamal panel. "Mumia is a symbol for
the three million people in US jailsmost of them black and poor."
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