Say it loud: no more support until Israel agrees to pull out. Afghanistan may not be resolved unless Palestine also gets justice

Polly Toynbee, Wednesday October 24, 2001, The Guardian

The little town of Bethlehem does not lie still in deep or dreamless sleep. Instead a Palestinian altar boy was machine-gunned to death in Manger Square when Israeli tanks stormed in and occupied six Palestinian towns, leaving many others dead in their wake. Israeli hit-squad assassinations of suspected Palestinian terrorist leaders have now reached over 40 dead.

The war against terrorism is also a struggle for oil and regional control

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 23rd October 2001

"Is there any man, is there any woman, let me say any child here", Woodrow Wilson asked a year after the First World War ended, "that does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry?". In 1919, as US citizens watched a shredded Europe scraping up its own remains, the answer may well have been no. But the lessons of war never last for long.

Public figures should speak out against these indefensible raids

Jonathan Steele, The Guardian, Wednesday 17 October 2001

Mary Robinson's call for a pause in the bombing of Afghanistan, backed by her authority as the UN human rights commissioner, needs to be heeded - even if she half-retracted it later. The original explanation for the American and British air strikes was that the Taliban's air defences had to be eliminated so that special forces could fly in by helicopter to capture Osama bin Laden without risk. Three days after the strikes began, the US defence secretary announced the US had air supremacy over Afghanistan. What then justifies going on with the bombing of cities?

By Jerry White, 16 October 2001

President Bush is flatly rejecting offers from the Taliban government to hand Osama bin Laden over for trial if the United States stops bombing Afghanistan and provides proof that the Saudi exile was involved in the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

On Sunday, Afghan Deputy Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Kabir told a group of international journalists in Jalalabad that if the US stopped bombing Afghanistan, We would be ready to hand him over. Kabir called for negotiations, saying, If proof is provided, a third country could be chosen which is under the influence of neither the United States nor the Taliban.

(Islamabad) 15 October 2001

Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri, Chairman of Pakistan Awami Tehreek, PAT (political wing of Minhaj ul Quran Movement) a leading political party of Pakistan has warned that the world might see an enlarged scale of protests if the number of Afghans being killed in the recent strikes rises, and if Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair continued with their careless and irresponsible statements.

Generals at odds with politicians on strategy

Julian Borger in Washington and Richard Norton-Taylor, Monday 15 October 2001, The Guardian

The Bush administration is growing increasingly alarmed by the direction of the military campaign in Afghanistan after a week of almost continuous bombing has failed to dislodge either Osama bin Laden or the Taliban leadership.

In the absence of new intelligence on the whereabouts of the Saudi-born extremist accused of masterminding the September 11 terrorist attacks, US generals are under pressure from civilian defence officials to send greater numbers of special forces into Afghanistan to try to accomplish what the bombing failed to do - flush out a target.

The Independent, 11 October 2001

Was Sulemain Abu Gheit's statement a code? No wonder the Americans asked the Arabic Al-Jazeera channel last night to censor the group's statements off the air. Or was it just a strident appeal? Or a declaration of war? Surely, you might say, Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida group - the "foundation'' might be a better translation than the "base'' - had said it all before. Weren't the suicide aircraft attacks of 11 September the declaration of war?

Or last Sunday's American attacks - plus British missiles - our declaration of war on Mr bin Laden? But Mr bin Laden's spokesman appeared to want the last word. "America has opened a door that, God willing, will not be closed,'' he said.

The Independent. 11th October. 2001

In the West Bank city of Nablus, Ali al Masri, a 72-year-old shopkeeper, says he plans to hang a picture of Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted man, on his wall. When Iyad Musmar, a 28-year-old carpenter, saw the Saudi dissident on TV lambasting the US, he was delighted and cried out "Allahu Akbar" "God is great". Amani Khader, the 10-year-old daughter of a local politician, says she now loves bin Laden like a father.

These are just a few of the voices to rise out of the desperate landscape of the West Bank in the past few days. Suddenly we have a new "saviour" on the streets of Palestine, and it is a man who, the West believes, murdered at least 6,000 people.

BBC Thought for the Day, 11 October 2001: Hamza Yusuf

The Afghans tell a humorous tale of an American who sought enlightenment in their land. When he arrived he asked the first Afghan he saw, " who is the most enlightened man in your land?" The Afghan who knew no english replied "namai safman" which in their language means, I don't know what you're talking about.

The American set out looking for this fellow named Namai Fafman. He soon came upon a funeral procession and out of curiosity asked an onlooker who it was who had died. The Afghan not knowing english replied "Namai Safman." Again, "I don't know what you're talking about." The American cried; "And to think, I just missed him."

Linda A. Malone, October 11, 2001

(Linda A. Malone teaches at William and Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Va. She is author of two law review articles on the Sabra and Shatila massacres.)