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March 31, 2002
Robert Fisk
Lies Leaders Tell When
They Want to Go to War
March 24/30, 2002
Alexander Cockburn
The Year
of the Yellow Notepad:
Plagiarism and History
Rep. Ron Paul
Slavery and the Draft
Fidel
Castro
A
Better World is Possible
Edward Said
What Price Oslo?
José
Saramago
Justice
and Democracy Denied
Azmi Bishara
Talking to Tanks
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Clearcutting
Montana
Alexander Cockburn
50 Years of James Bond
Wilhelm
Reich
Gethsemane
Claud Cockburn
The Horror of It All
Dave Marsh
What's
Playing at My Houe
David Vest
Remembering Tammy Wynette
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Waylon
Jennings:
an Honest Outlaw
March 23, 2002
Mokhiber/Weissman
A
Corporate Lawyer
Speaks Out
Saeed Vaseghi
The US and Iran's Quest
for Democracy
Brian
J. Foley
Does
Pedophilia Scandal Spell an Opportunity for Catholics?
Sheperd Bliss
American Soul and Empire
James
Packard Winkler
Occupation
and Terror:
Politics from a Gun Barrel
M. Shahid Alam
A New International Division
of Labor
T.W. Croft
Enron's
Attack on Our
Economic Security
March 22, 2002
Robert Jensen
Corporate Power is a
Threat to Democracy
Tommy
Ates
The
Future of Black Academia
Rep. Ron Paul
Why are We in Ukraine?
March 21, 2002
McQuinn,
Munson, & Wheeler
Stars
and Stripes:
Killing for the Flag?
John Chuckman
How Change is Wrought
David
Vest
Hail
to the Chaff
March 20, 2002
Kay Lee
Censorship at Angelfire
Robert
Jensen
The
Politics of Pain
and Pleasure
Sheperd Bliss
Notes from Hawai'i:
Trouble in Paradise
Rick Giambetti
Prozac
and Suicide:
an Interview with
Dr. David Healy
Philip Farruggio
Bullies
Lori Allen
Live
from Ramallah:
The Madness of Occupation
March
19, 2002
Tariq
Ali
Nuke
Iraq?
Phyllis
Pollack
Roger
Daltrey's LA Surprise
Amir Ahmadi
War-Mongering
Academics:
The New Tartuffe
Ben White
Bomber
Blair
Fran Shor
Child-Murderers
and Madmen
March
18, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Crazy
is Cool
Dave Marsh
DeskScan:
What's Playing At My House
Armen
Khanbabyan
The
Pentagon in the Caucasus:
Georgia Is Only the Beginning
Gabriel
Ash
Abdullah
v. Osama
Bernard
Weiner
Middle
East for Dummies
Alexander
Cockburn
Tipping
in America
March
17, 2002
David
Vest
The
Politics of Packaging
Tariq
Ali
The
Left's New Empire Loyalists
March
16, 2002
Chris
Floyd
Ashcroft's
Secret Snatches
March 15, 2002
Doron Rosenblum
Israel's Settler Warlords
Alex Lynch
Rhetorical
Attacks On Iraq
Norman Madarasz
Neo-Con Propaganda
and the National Review
Paul-Marie
de La Gorce
Making
Enemies
March
14, 2002
Dr. Susan
Block
RIP
Danny Pearl
Francis
Boyle
Bush
Nuke Plan Violates International Law, Again
Wayne
Saunders
Memo
to Paul McCartney:
There Are Two Kinds
of Freedom, Sir
H.P. Albarelli
Anthrax
Cover-up?
March
13, 2002
Amira
Hass
Are
the Occupied Protecting the Occupier?
CounterPunch
Wire
National
Review Editors Suggest Nuking Mecca
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Personal
Responsibility
for Corporate Elites?
Robert
Fisk
Arabs
Don't Want US
to Strike Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
When
Billy Graham Wanted
to Kill One Million People
March
12, 2002
Kay Lee
Dangerous
Changes in
California's Prisons
John Patrick
Leary
The
Return of Otto Reich
Wole Akande
US
is Being Discredited
in the Eyes of Africa
March
11, 2002
Hani Shukrallah
This
is the Way the World Ends
Tommy
Ates
Bush's
New Nuke Policy:
Target Allies and Enemies
Lidia Andrusenko
The Great
Chicken War:
Bush v. Putin
Dave Marsh
10
CDs Playing On My Desk
John Chuckman
Footprints
in the Dust
Norman
Madarasz
Max
Steel in a Time of Chaos
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
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TO
COUNTERPUNCH
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Published March 1, 2002
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
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
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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March 31, 2002
Live Report from
Ramallah
The Israelis Took Over My House
CNN reported this morning:
"Israeli forces imposed a curfew in Ramallah shortly before
2 p.m. (6 a.m. EST) Sunday, threatening to kill anyone on
the streets." Anyone.
By Maha Sbitani
Yesterday at 5:00am I was awakened by what sounded like
huge trucks. When I looked out the window I saw several tanks.
A half hour later the Israeli soldiers rang the bell--we did
not answer--then I heard them coming up the steps after breaking
down the main door. They pounded the door to the house. My husband
opened the door and was confronted by huge guns pointed at
us. They pushed the door open and distributed themselves throughout
our house and office.
Over 50 heavily0armed soldiers were now
in the office and home (which are adjacent). We asked what they
wanted and they told us to shut up and sit down. I explained
that I was American. They said that they did not care what I
was. I insisted that they leave the house and told them as an
American I protest to what they are doing. They said, "This
in no worse than what your country is doing in Afghanistan."
I told them to use the steps and the roof if they insisted on
staying and to get out of the house and office. They said, "Shut
up and sit down, we will do what we want, wherever we want."
I got my passport out and asked for
the commanding officer.
The officer said that they are thinking
about leaving. When I asked "when," he said "soon".
Then this soldiers started ripping the curtains and breaking
things. I asked them not to do that and gave them an ashtray
to put out their cigarettes instead of the floor. One took the
ashtray from me and threw it in the hallway. At that point I
realized they were out of control. I went to the phone to call
the American Consul. Three soldiers attacked me one pushing one
twisting my arm and the other taking the phone away from me.
As I went to the office to get my computer
they kept on pushing me, poking me with their guns and telling
me to get back in the house. I started screaming at them: "I
cannot believe you are doing this. Don't you realize I am American?"
The commanding officer asked them to
leave me alone and gave permission for me to get my laptop.
They started laughing and calling me "Bush".
As I was getting my laptop I heard a
crashing noise, I ran back to the house and found my husband
on the floor with three guns pointed at him. I screamed for
the commanding officer, who finally came and pushed them away.
The soldiers were everywhere and doing whatever they felt like
doing, including urinating on the floor.
I went to the kitchen to get coffee and
found olive oil spilled all over the place. They were just being
vulgar and uncivilized, and became extremely annoyed when I
complained about the barbaric behavior.
The commanding officer took me in my
bedroom where four soldiers were sitting and asked me about
some buildings. I told him that most of the houses around us
are full of children. One said, "Area A has no children".
I kept on trying to make phone calls
from different phones only to get more physically abused and
have the phones taken away from me and the batteries remained.
Then I asked to go to the bathroom and had a mobile in my robe
pocket. I called some officials while the soldiers broke in
the bathroom and tried to take the phone. Within a half hour,
they got a phone order to clear out of the house and office,
leaving the places in shambles.
As soon as they left I tried to talk
to the Consul General by cellphone, but only reached his voice
mail. I left a message informing him of what has taken place.
I also called his office and insisted that I talk to him personally.
They put me on the phone with the American Citizens Services
section, Ms. Victoria Coffineau (Chief of section). She told
me I was one of dozens of American citizens making such complaints.
The details of the disturbing phone call and response will
follow soon to help other Americans in understanding what our
offices abroad are about and what we actually get for our tax
dollars. And how we allow ourselves to be treated by so called
allies.
That number of tanks is growing by the
second. I have to get the message to you while I can. I will
try to write later. They are trying to kill Yasser Arafat. I
can see it from my window.
God help the innocent. And help Americans
in seeing the truth.
Maha Sbitani
is a Palestinian-American living in Ramallah, next to Yasser
Arafat's compound.
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