Coming in From the Cold

A CounterPunch Special Investigation

Ketcham's Story
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR

"In this special report we print a carefully reported narrative by Christopher Ketcham. He's a journalist whom publications such as Harper's and Salon.com have been happy to publish. Indeed, it was in May of 2002 that Salon featured on its site a 9,000-word story by Ketcham on the so-called Israeli "art students" whose curious activities before 9/11/2001 around U.S. government offices and in locations in many cases identical to those frequented by the 9/11 hijackers had been the subject of much speculation......

It is not as though Ketcham is alone in probing the background and activities of the celebrating Israelis. Justin Raimondo, of Antiwar.com has been a pioneer in exploring this same series of events and questions and he deserves great credit for his spirited stories on the matter, which can be found on his site and in his concise and powerful book, The Terror Enigma. The Israeli connection has also been the topic of a fine piece of investigation published in The Forward in 2002. The Forward's sensational discoveries were studiously ignored by the press. ("Old story.", "unsubstantiated") Similarly, the saga of the "art students" has been the object of careful investigation and broadcast pieces by Fox News' Carl Cameron.

Yes, when it comes to Israel and the U.S. press we are familiar with obstructions to raising edgy topics. That's why we're glad we have CounterPunch, to welcome good reporters like Ketcham in from the cold."