Alternet on Sept. 11 (part two)

A Time for Peace, Not Retaliation Elijah Wald, TomPaine.com
Understanding Osama bin Laden William O. Beeman, Pacific News Service
Bush, the CIA and the Roots of Terrorism Michael Moore, AlterNet

A Time for Peace, Not Retaliation

Elijah Wald, TomPaine.com
September 11, 2001

As I write, another expert is on television, saying that tougher security
measures are needed to prevent future terrorist acts. He is saying that the
United States has always put civil liberties ahead of security, and now may
have to rethink that.

If there is one lesson in the destruction of the World Trade Center and
damage to the Pentagon, it is that such talk is idiocy. Technology has made
it possible for a couple of individuals to destroy the largest building in
the world with nothing but the will to do so and whatever it takes to hijack
a passenger plane. Likewise, a biological or chemical bomb that would kill
thousands of people could be carried in a suitcase.

If we want a safer world in this situation, we cannot achieve it militarily.
For decades, the United States has acted as if, as the world's most powerful
nation, it could safely explore violent solutions to international issues,
while itself remaining inviolate. Every time the United States has bombed a
major city -- be it Hiroshima, Hanoi, Baghdad, or Tripoli -- people on the
ground must have wished that they could do the same to New York or
Washington. As United States operatives facilitated and supported murderous,
terrorist regimes throughout Latin America, Africa, and Asia, millions of
"innocent" civilians must, in their pain and anger, have wished that similar
death and destruction could be visited on us. As we learned in Oklahoma
City, such feelings are felt even here in the United States, raging at
deadly governmental assaults on homegrown cults and militias.

President Bush has been arguing that the way to avoid attacks on our cities
is a missile shield. One has to assume that even now he is trying to figure
out where this assault came from, and how to retaliate. It is the dogma of
American leaders that violence must be met with violence. Whether such
responses are moral or immoral is arguable; what is certain is that they do
not make anyone safer. Those of us who argue for dramatic action to reduce
world poverty, to destroy the international arms trade, to rein in the
awesome powers of American, European, or other major capital, are often
called utopian dreamers.

Quite the contrary, the dreamers are those who think that brut force will
bring any kind of lasting safety and peace anywhere, anytime. It would be
absurd and insane to say that the death and destruction in New York was
deserved, but it was certainly fueled by the same sort of logic that has
informed much U.S. policy in the last few decades -- that overwhelming
military strikes are a valid way of advancing policy. It would be insane to
say that it was our turn to be confronted with tragic loss of civilian life,
but it was a fantasy that we could be spared forever. This time, no "weapons
of mass destruction" were used, and yet the death toll seems certain to be
in the thousands.

Will this persuade our leaders that this is no time to tear up arms control
treaties and let nuclear weapons proliferate as never before? That this is
not a time to reduce United States diplomatic outreach to the rest of the
world and increase military might? To try to take steps that would reduce
the hopeless misery that fuels insane responses from people throughout the
world, rather than supporting virtually any oppressive regime that
guarantees profits to American businesses? Or will this tragedy just plunge
us deeper into fear, violence, and the senseless pursuit of invulnerability
through military force?

I cannot claim to have a solution to the world's woes, but anyone not
criminally insane will have to grant that we cannot fight and bomb our way
out of this problem, that force will not bring a solution.

Elijah Wald is a musician and writer currently completing a book on Mexican
drug culture, to be published by Harper Collins next year.
____________________________________________________________________________

Understanding Osama bin Laden

William O. Beeman, Pacific News Service
September 12, 2001

Providence, Rhode Island -- The United States risks a severe miscalculation
in dealing with the destruction of the World Trade Center and the attack on
the Pentagon on Tuesday.

This event is not an isolated instance of violence. This is not an "act of
war." It is one symptom of a cancer that threatens to metastasize.

The root cause is not terrorist activity, as has been widely stated. It is
the relationship between the United States and the Islamic world. Until this
central cancerous problem is treated, Americans will never be free from
fear.

Merely locating and hunting down a single "guilty party" in this case will
not stop future violence: such an action will not destroy the organization
of terrorist cells already established throughout the world. Of greater
importance, it will do nothing to alleviate the residual enmity against
America.

The perpetrators of the original attack on the World Trade Center in 1993
were caught and convicted. This did not stop the attack on Tuesday.

The chief suspect is the Saudi Arabian Osama bin Laden, or his surrogates.
He has been mischaracterized as an anti-American terrorist. He should rather
be thought of as someone who would do anything to protect Islam.

Bin Laden began his career fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in
1979, when he was 22 years old. He has not only resisted the Soviets, but
also the Serbians in Yugoslavia. His anger was directed against the United
States primarily because of the U.S. presence in the Gulf region, more
particularly in Saudi Arabia itself -- the site of the most sacred Islamic
religious sites.

According to bin Laden, during the Gulf War America co-opted the rulers of
Saudi Arabia to establish a military presence in order to kill Muslims in
Iraq. In a religious decree issued in 1998, he gave religious legitimacy to
attacks on Americans in order to stop the United States from "occupying the
lands of Islam in the holiest of places." His decree also extends to
Jerusalem, home of the sacred Muslim site the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Bin Laden will not cease his opposition until the United States leaves the
region. Paradoxically, his strategy for convincing the United States to do
so seems drawn from the American foreign policy playbook. When the United
States disapproves of the behavior of another nation, it "turns up the heat"
on that nation through embargoes, economic sanctions or withdrawal of
diplomatic representation. In the case of Iraq following the Gulf War,
America employed military action, resulting in the loss of civilian life.

The State Department has theorized that if the people of a rogue nation
experience enough suffering, they will overthrow their rulers, or compel
them to adopt more sensible behavior.

The terrorist actions in New York and Washington are a clear and ironic
implementation of this strategy against the United States.

Bin Laden takes no credit for actions emanating from his training camps in
Afghanistan. A true ideologue, he believes that his mission is sacred, and
he wants only to see clear results. For this reason, the structure of his
organization is essentially tribal, or cellular, in modern political terms.
His followers are as fervent and intense in their belief as he is. They
carry out their actions because they believe in the rightness of their
cause, not because of bin Laden's orders or approval. Groups are trained in
Afghanistan, and then establish their own centers in places as far-flung as
Canada, Africa and Europe. Each cell is technologically sophisticated, and
may have a different set of motivations for attacking the United States.

Palestinian members of his group see Americans as supporters of Israel in
the current conflict between the two nations. In the Palestinian view, Ariel
Sharon's ascendancy to leadership of Israel has triggered a new era, with
U.S. government officials failing to pressure the Israeli government to end
violence against Palestinians. Palestinian cell members will not cease their
opposition until the United States changes its relationship with the Israeli
state.

Above all, Americans need to remember that the rest of the world has an
absolute right to self-determination that is as defensible as our own. A
despicable act of terror such as that committed in New York and Washington
is a measure of the revulsion that others feel at U.S. actions that
seemingly limit those rights. If we perpetuate a cycle of hate and revenge,
this conflict will escalate into a war that our great-grandchildren will be
fighting.

William O. Beeman is a specialist on Middle East culture at Brown
University. He has worked for the past four years in Tajikistan, where he
has monitored developments in Afghanistan.
____________________________________________________________________________

Bush, the CIA and the Roots of Terrorism

Michael Moore, AlterNet
September 12, 2001

I was supposed to fly Tuesday afternoon on the 4:30 p.m. American Airlines
flight from Los Angeles to JFK. But I found myself stuck in LA with an
incredible range of emotions over what has happened on the island where I
work and live in New York City.

My wife and I spent the first hours of the day -- after being awakened by
phone calls from our parents at 6:40 a.m. -- trying to contact our daughter
at school in New York and our friend JoAnn who works near the World Trade
Center.

I called JoAnn at her office. As someone picked up, the first tower
imploded, and the person answering the phone screamed and ran out, leaving
me no clue as to whether or not she or JoAnn would live. It was a sick,
horrible, frightening day.

On December 27, 1985, I found myself caught in the middle of a terrorist
incident at the Vienna airport -- which left 30 people dead, both there and
at the Rome airport. (The machine-gunning of passengers in each city was
timed to occur at the same moment.)

I do not feel like discussing that event now because it still brings up too
much despair and confusion as to how and why I got to live -- a fluke, a
mistake, a few feet on the tarmac and I am still here ...

Safe. Secure. I'm an American, living in America. I like my illusions.

I walk through a metal detector, I put my carry-ons through an x-ray machine
and I know all will be well.

Here's a short list of my experiences lately with airport security:

* At the Newark Airport, the plane is late at boarding everyone. The counter
can't find my seat. So I am told to just "go ahead and get on" -- without a
ticket!

* At Detroit Metro Airport, I don't want to put the lunch I just bought at
the deli through the x-ray machine so, as I pass through the metal detector,
I hand the sack to the guard through the space between the detector and the
x-ray machine. I tell him, "It's just a sandwich." He believes me and
doesn't bother to check. The sack has gone through neither security device.

* At LaGuardia in New York, I check a piece of luggage, but decide to catch
a later plane. The first plane leaves without me, but with my bag -- no one
knowing what is in it.

* Back in Detroit, I take my time getting off the commuter plane. By the
time I have come down its stairs, the bus that takes the passengers to the
terminal has left -- without me. I am alone on the tarmac; free to wander
wherever I want. So I do. Eventually, I flag down a pick-up truck and an
airplane mechanic gives me a ride the rest of the way to the terminal.

* I have brought knives, razors, and once, my travelling companion brought a
hammer and chisel. No one stopped us.

Of course, I have gotten away with all of this because the airlines consider
my safety SO important, they pay rent-a-cops $5.75 an hour to make sure the
bad guys don't get on my plane.

That is what my life is worth -- less than the cost of an oil change.

Too harsh, you say? Well, chew on this: a first-year pilot on American Eagle
(the commuter arm of American Airlines) receives around $15,000 a year in
annual pay. That's right -- $15,000 for the person who has your life in his
hands.

Until recently, Continental Express paid a little over $13,000 a year.

There was one guy, an American Eagle pilot, who had four kids so he went
down to the welfare office and applied for food stamps -- and he was
eligible! Someone on welfare is flying my plane? Is this for real?

Yes, it is. So spare me the talk about all the precautions the airlines and
the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) is taking. They, like all
businesses, are concerned about one thing -- the bottom line and the profit
margin.

Four teams of 3-5 people were all able to penetrate airport security on the
same morning at three different airports and pull off this heinous act? My
only response is -- that's all?

Well, the pundits are in full diarrhea mode, gushing on about the "terrorist
threat" and today's scariest dude on planet earth -- Osama bin Laden.

Hey, who knows, maybe he did it. But, something just doesn't add up. Am I
being asked to believe that this guy who sleeps in a tent in a desert has
been training pilots to fly our most modern, sophisticated jumbo jets with
such pinpoint accuracy that they are able to hit these three targets without
anyone wondering why these planes were so far off path?

Or am I being asked to believe that there were four religious/political
fanatics who JUST HAPPENED to be skilled airline pilots who JUST HAPPENED
to want to kill themselves today? Maybe you can find one jumbo jet pilot
willing to die for the cause -- but FOUR? OK, maybe you can -- I don't know.

What I do know is that all day long I have heard everything about this bin
Laden guy except this one fact -- WE created the monster known as Osama bin
Laden! Where did he go to terrorist school? At the CIA! Don't take my word
for it -- I saw a piece on MSNBC last year that laid it all out.

When the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, the CIA trained him and his
buddies in how to commit acts of terrorism against the Soviet forces. It
worked! The Soviets turned and ran. Bin Laden was grateful for what we
taught him and thought it might be fun to use those same techniques against
us.

We abhor terrorism -- unless we're the ones doing the terrorizing. We paid
and trained and armed a group of terrorists in Nicaragua in the 1980s who
killed over 30,000 civilians. That was OUR work. You and me.

Thirty thousand murdered civilians and who the hell even remembers!

We fund a lot of oppressive regimes that have killed a lot of innocent
people, and we never let the human suffering THAT causes to interrupt our
day one single bit. We have orphaned so many children, tens of thousands
around the world, with our taxpayer-funded terrorism (in Chile, in Vietnam,
in Gaza, in Salvador) that I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised when
those orphans grow up and are a little whacked in the head from the horror
we have helped cause.

Yet, our recent domestic terrorist bombings have not been conducted by a guy
from the desert but rather by our own citizens: a couple of ex-military guys
who hated the federal government.

From the first minutes of today's events, I never heard that possibility
suggested. Why is that? Maybe it's because the A-rabs are much better foils.
A key ingredient in getting Americans whipped into a frenzy against a new
enemy is the all-important race card. It's much easier to get us to hate
when the object of our hatred doesn't look like us.

Congressmen and Senators spent the day calling for more money for the
military; one Senator on CNN even said he didn't want to hear any more talk
about more money for education or health care -- we should have only one
priority: our self-defense.

Will we ever get to the point that we realize we will be more secure when
the rest of the world isn't living in poverty so we can have nice running
shoes? In just eight months, Bush gets the whole world back to hating us
again.

He withdraws from the Kyoto agreement, walks us out of the Durban conference
on racism, insists on restarting the arms race -- you name it and Baby Bush
has blown it all.

The Senators and Congressmen tonight broke out in a spontaneous version of
"God Bless America." They're not a bad group of singers! Yes, God, please do
bless us. Many families have been devastated tonight. This just is not
right. They did not deserve to die. If someone did this to get back at Bush,
then they did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE FOR HIM!

Boston, New York, DC, and the planes' destination of California -- these
were places that voted AGAINST Bush! Why kill them? Why kill anyone? Such
insanity ...

Let's mourn, let's grieve and when it's appropriate let's examine our
contribution to the unsafe world we live in. It doesn't have to be like
this.