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April 7, 2002
Tariq
Ali
Who
Killed Daniel Pearl?
April 6, 2002
Philip Farruggio
War, Snake Oil and Circuses
Viktor
Litovkin
Russian
Generals Raise Questions About Pentagon Victories in Afghanistan
Patrick Cockburn
CIA Survey of Iraqi Airfields
May Herald Attack
Walt Brasch
Oil
Slick George:
Bush-whacking the Environment
Ralph Nader
Campaign Finance Sham
Sam Bahour
The
Blind Leading the Criminal
Bill Christison:
A Former CIA Official on
Oil and the Middle East
April 5, 2002
Charmaine
Seitz
In
Ramallah: The Grueling Reoccupation Grinds On
Nancy Stohlman
The Invasion of Bethlehem
and Our Tax Dollars at Work
Beth Daoud
The
Siege of Bethlehem:
"What Do You Mean God Is Punishing Me?"
Fareed Marjaee:
Demonizing Iran
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Philip
Morris to Canada:
"Drop Dead"
Alex Lynch
Tampa Campus Mirrors
Middle East Strife
Alexander
Cockburn
Sharon's
Wars: How the
News Gets Through
April 4, 2002
Ray Hanania
Sharon's Latest Lie About the Church
of the Nativity
Mike Leon
Rightwing
Assault on Madison Progressives Misfires
Tom Turnipseed
Stop the Killing Now!
Nancy
Stohlman
An
American Under Siege in a West Bank Refugee Camp
Christopher Reilly
Kissinger, Chile and Justice
at Long Last?
M. Shahid
Alam
The
Lies of Thomas Friedman
April 3, 2002
Don Henley
Dear Loathsome Trade Hacks
Bernard
Weiner
An
American Jew Talks
About His Shame
David Vest
Sting of Stings
Tzaporah
Ryter
Under
Fire: an American Student in Ramallah
Gabriel Ash
America's Bravest
John Chuckman
Of
War, Islam and Israel
Robert Fisk
The Siege of Bethlehem
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Sins of the Church
April 2, 2002
Uri Avnery
Murdering Arafat?
Jeff Chang
Is
Protest Music Dead?
Lev Grinberg
Israel's State Terrorism
Norman
Madarasz
Bullying
Brazil
Robert Fisk
Farce and Terror
in Ramallah
Steve
Perry
Let's
Roll! ®:
The Marketing of Lisa Beamer
April 1, 2002
Stanton / Madsen
America's War Inc.
Rep. Dennis
Kucinich
Peace
and Nuclear Disarmament: a Call to Action
Bahour / Dahan
Bloodshed in Palestine:
A Way Out
Molly
Secours
Tennessee's
Kangaroo Court
Phyllis Pollack
The Making of Exile
on Main Street
Dave Marsh
DeskScan:
This Week's
Top 10 CDs
Francis Boyle
The Big Lie:
Palestine, Palestinians
and International Law
March 31, 2002
Jordan
Flaherty
Last
Night the Israeli
Military Tried to Kill Me
Kristen Schurr
Live from Bethlehem
Maha Sbitani
The
Israeli Army Took Over My House
Robert Fisk
Lies Leaders Tell When
They Want to Go to War
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
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Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
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Photos by Allan Sekula
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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
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Reviews of Gore:
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April 7, 2002
After the Invasion:
The
Search for Bread Among the Ruins
By Nancy Stohlman
in Bethlehem
[Dictated over phone]
Today was the first day that the military curfew
was lifted a few hours. With a few internationals I left the
hotel and walked around town.
We walked down the center of the road
scouting around for tanks or soldiers. It was the first time
we had witnessed the damage inflicted to the little town of Bethlehem.
Chunks of rubble sat baking in the sun, smashed cars glittered
from the center of broken window mosaics, a blue phone booth
lay demolished nearly unrecognizable if not for the dislocated
key pad abandoned on the sidewalk.
While walking a Palestinian family peaked
out their front door. "Where are you from?" "United
States," we answer. "Oh good Americans," they
encourage with big smiles. "You crazy to walk around."
I smile and point to my head, "Good crazy." They ask
if they can give us money to buy them bread. Apparently a convent
around the corner has a bakery but they're afraid to go into
the streets.
We refused the money and tiptoe in the
direction of their pointed fingers towards Manger Square. I'm
hoping it is only a few blocks. The white stone buildings that
line the narrow streets are adorned in charred battle scars.
Chunks of rubble are scattered on the stone pavement. Squashed
fruits and vegetables collect in corners and doorways. A large
water pipe was flooding the deserted street, spraying into the
dented entrances of empty businesses. Beth and I recognize a
disembodied piece of tank lying on the road covered with smashed
lemons and trash. Finally we spot a church.
A metal gate was twisted into some sort
of post-bombing sculpture. We slipped between the bars and rang
the back bell of the church. Glass crunched under our boots as
we waited for a response. The door cracked open and a timid looking
priest in little glasses peaked nervously out. He visibly relaxed
when he saw us. We asked him the location of the convent and
he points back to where we came from. As an afterthought, "I
come with, I need bread to." He's looking over both soldiers
as he slips into the open like a beaten dog flinching at every
noise.
The press milling around look like soldiers
themselves wearing helmets and flack jackets with "Press"
or "TV" written on them, even the 36 inch zoom lenses
seem intimidating from a distance.
We walk quickly to a closed storefront.
The priest banged on the metal door and yelled someone's name.
No answer. Again. No answer.
We attempted to go to another bakery.
The priest was clearly afraid of snipers. Instead we decide not
to go any further and promise to bring him bread if we find any.
We're disappointed to return to the original
family's house empty handed. But the family is delighted to see
us and immediately we're ushered into have tea. Over tea we hear
the pain of the family. "For one and a half years we do
not sleep," our host shares with us. In one and half years
Bethlehem has been invaded four times. This most recent invasion
following less than a month on the heels of the last, the tank
dust not even completely settled.
"This town need tourist, but in
one and a half years no tourist," he continued. I don't
have to ask what that means. No tourist, no income. No income,
no bread. The holy town of Bethlehem is shell-shocked and terrorized,
the brutality reining from hundreds of olive green tanks.
Nancy Stohlman
is one of four Coloradans in Palestine in solidarity with Palestinians
under siege by the Israeli military. More information about their
trip can be found at http://www.ccmep.org/palestine.html
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