NEW YORK (EPN) -- Camera-snapping tourists, tambourine-banging evangelists, grimacing survivors and thousands of other people are flocking to see the jagged, smoldering pyre of "Ground Zero" where thousands of people are entombed.

Uptown, meanwhile, New York's first anti-war demonstration brought about 2,000 shouting activists to Times Square where poignant shrines to the dead were guarded by truncheon-wielding police in riot helmets.

One shrine's picture showed the green Statue of Liberty holding up her middle finger instead of a torch, above a caption which read: "We're coming, motherfuckers."

Throughout this traumatized town, shops display posters which demand: "Wanted Dead or Alive, Osama bin Laden, For Mass Murder in New York City."

The posters, which show Mr. bin Laden's smiling, big-eyed face, were published by the tabloid New York Post newspaper.

"It's martial law! Go home!" screamed a shaven-headed man taunting anti-war demonstrators who marched on Friday (Sept. 21) evening.

Above the heads of the protestors and police, Times Square's larger-than-life, outdoor video screens showed a "Tribute to Heroes" concert praising rescuers and others who perished in the attacks, pictured above flowing electronic news headlines which updated America's threat to attack Afghanistan.

Some protestors' signs demanded: "Get The Terrorist Out of The White House," "Don't Fight Terrorism With Terrorism" and "Who Will Profit From War?"

"Bush, admit to 60 years of White House manipulation of Mid-East governments, and then ask survivors of the deceased and the American people to support sending troops to clean up White House mistakes," demanded a computer-printed paper handed out by New York City librarian Brad Campbell.

"It is embarrassing and saddening to turn on the TV and get a monochrome viewpoint with no acknowledgement of the complicity by U.S. administrations for the past 60 years," Mr. Campbell, 30, said in an interview while dodging police in and around Times Square.

"They talk of protecting the people, but all the while they are drawing up lists of names, carrying out raids and putting vast new Big Brother measures into place," stated a tract handed out by Joe Urgo, who said he was a Vietnam veteran and member of the Revolutionary Communist Party of the USA -- an obscure Maoist group.

"They want us to unite with them and wave their flag. No," the communist tract added.

"These imperialists -- who have perpetrated countless crimes and rained havoc on the people of the world through their relentless global exploitation and their military actions -- have created a situation where millions of people all around the world hate the government of the United States," it said.

Many protestors said they were anti-globalization activists who supported previous demonstrations in Seattle, Washington and Genoa, Italy.

Daniel O'Connor, 55, bellowed at stunned pedestrians via a hand-held, battery-powered Radio Shack loudspeaker: "This alleged war that is going to start is going to make a lot of billionaires into multi-billionaires and a lot of body bags."

"I am a Direct Action Network member," Mr. O'Connor said in an interview, referring to a vigorous anti-globalization group.

The anti-war protest indicated various disaffected, alienated and anti-government organizations will be using the war as a wedge to influence and recruit others at a time when many Americans are frightened, confused and willing to be led one way or the other.

The protestors also announced bus schedules from New York City to a "national rally at the White House" in Washington on Sept. 29, followed by "international days of coordinated activities against war and racism" on Oct. 12 and 13.

"I'm an anarchist," Brenna Bell, a 26-year-old lawyer who helped organize the Times Square protest said in an interview.

"It started organically. We knew the government was going to declare war. We don't have a name yet" for the organization which will lead the new anti-war movement, Miss Bell added.

While receiving updates via a walkie-talkie strapped to her blouse, Miss Bell said organizers would meet this week in New York to coordinate future rallies.

She then paused to implore arriving police reinforcements: "Please don't hit anyone! Please don't hit anyone!"

Nearby, a tall blonde woman was locked in a loud streetcorner shouting match with a short Palestinian mother.

The blonde woman hysterically laughed at fears that Washington might "bomb Taliban babies."

The blonde yelled: "Why not? They are only going to grow up to be adult Talibans and attack us!"

The Palestinian mother muttered a curse in Arabic and departed.

Charlotte Bormann, 31, an accessories designer watching the protest, lamented, "On 34th Street, there is table after table of T-shirts that say, 'bin Laden, Wanted Dead or Alive.' I think its revolting that they're making money off of a tragedy. It's like a novelty for us."

Most New Yorkers are grieving over the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon by unidentified suicide pilots on Sept. 11.

"The birds are on fire," some distraught children told their teachers while expressing what they witnessed, according to an education official.

Many New Yorkers support U.S. military retaliation against whoever was responsible for the murderous, surprise attacks.

The anti-war demonstration, however, was the first public crack to appear in New York over the way President Bush has responded to the assaults.

The New York Post, meanwhile, published a commentary by Andrea Peyser which blasted "CNN war slut Christiane Amanpour" because Mrs. Amanpour allegedly "spewed her bias" against the United States while analyzing the deadly acts.

Back at Ground Zero, troops carrying gas masks against an acrid stench of smoke allowed the public to stroll within a few blocks of the obliterated World Trade Center site.

Thousands of dazed people wandered the surrounding ghost town area on Saturday (Sept. 22), strolling down streets walled by gigantic buildings -- including the city, state and federal institutions which control their lives.

Elaborate untouched facades displayed pristine concrete statues and fat Grecian columns, but the buildings were deserted due to a lack of electricity and other infrastructure.

At the core of the devastated financial district, troops in camouflage uniforms guarded emergency workers and the worst of the wreckage, but also offered the public choice viewing opportunities.

"Folks, take a picture and move on, please," a police officer said, ushering the sidewalk-bound public.

Tourists and residents bathed the Ground Zero scene in a strobe of camera flashes.

Some people wore newly minted, souvenir T-shirts illustrated with the World Trade Towers and a U.S. flag.

One man's commercially printed T-shirt said: "America Under Attack. I Can't Believe I Survived."

Instead of window shopping, people wandered lower Broadway photographing window displays of shoes and other common items which were individually encased in thick white ash, like a surreal 21st century Pompeii.

Countless people used their fingers to write slogans and names on the walls and windows of the ash-caked buildings.

The most miserable view of Ground Zero was on Liberty Street.

Several of the World Trade Center's huge lattice-like vertical beams stabbed upwards from the rubble through wafting smoke, surrounded by charred skyscrapers.

Onlookers jostled to angle their photos to include the wreckage, an American flag in the background, and a line of U.S. Army soldiers in the foreground.

"I got my body armor on," said one chatty, unarmed National Guard trooper, unbuttoning his shirt to expose some padding.

A visitor told him, "A reporter came up to a woman wiping the ash off a car and he said to her, 'Oh, is this your car?' And she pointed to the ash and said, 'No, these are my friends'."

Amid the relatively solemn mood, African-American evangelists banged tambourines and shouted promises that Jesus could save people at New York's Alive Chapel International where "cripples get healed" while other "miracles" are also performed.

A group of Mother Teresa's nuns from India -- clad in traditional white saris bordered by blue stripes -- handed out a "prayer for the canonization" of the Albanian-born Agnes "Mother Teresa" Bojaxhiu, who died on Sept. 5, 1997 in Calcutta.

Members of California-based Family Radio, meanwhile, offered pamphlets which insisted "bumper stickers that say, 'God Loves You'," are true.

An Irish woman, ignoring the missionaries, pointed to where the World Trade Center's twin 110-story towers once stood and said, "Up there they were jumping out of the windows. It's too horrible to even think about."

Asked if she was a tourist, she replied: "Just for the day."