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Death toll surpasses Pearl Harbor
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Fifth Column
Harry Browne's lost it...
  • The U.S. government has engaged in acts of terrorism over the past few decades — bombing and starving innocent people in foreign countries, supposedly to force their leaders to make changes the U.S. government desires. Terrorism doesn't become "policing" or "justice" merely because it is our government doing it. . . Killing innocent people in retaliation for the sins of other people isn't justice — it is terrorism. The terrorists were wrong to kill Americans to satisfy their grievances against American foreign policy. And to react to them by killing innocent foreigners would also be terrorism. (Former Libertarian Presidential Candidate Harry Browne, WorldNet Daily)
    This article starring:
    Harry Browne
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 11:54 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Jerry Falwell's lost it...
  • In another attempt to preserve his political credibility, Jerry Falwell told CNN, "I do believe, as a theologian, based upon many Scriptures and particularly Proverbs 14:23, which says 'living by God's principles promotes a nation to greatness, violating those principles brings a nation to shame,'" adding that groups "which have attempted to secularize America, have removed our nation from its relationship with Christ on which it was founded." In a prayer on the 700 Club, CNN reports, Pat Robertson also credited God's wrath for the deaths of thousands. (Virginia Postrel)
    This article starring:
    Jerry Falwell
    Pat Robertson
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Pat Robertson's lost it...
  • The Rev. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson said the United States was vulnerable to this week's terrorist attacks because the nation has insulted God and lost divine protection. "God Almighty is lifting his protection from us,'' Robertson said in a four-page statement issued Thursday by his Christian Broadcasting Network. "We have imagined ourselves invulnerable and have been consumed by the pursuit of ... health, wealth, material pleasures and sexuality.''

    Falwell said Thursday on Robertson's religious TV program "The 700 Club'' that he blames the attacks on pagans, abortionists, feminists, homosexuals, the American Civil Liberties Union and the People for the American Way. "All of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen,''' Falwell said.

    He added later, "God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.''

    "Jerry, that's my feeling,'' Robertson responded. ``I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population.'' (By CHRIS KAHN, Associated Press Writer)
    This article starring:
    Jerry Falwell
    Pat Robertson
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Lehigh University lost it and got slapped...
  • A Lehigh University official's decision to remove the American flag from a campus bus was met with anger from at least one student and the bus driver. Within an hour, by 3:30 p.m., drivers were free to fly their colors to support the victims of Tuesday's terrorism. Bill Guglielmo, a junior engineering student from Davidson, Md. was so ticked off he called Barry Gaul, the school's associate vice president of business services. Gaul explained that John Smeaton, vice provost of student affairs, ordered flags removed so non-American students would not feel uncomfortable. "This was a misunderstanding that was quickly rectified," Smeaton said. "The message was supposed to be that we are sensitive to everyone." (The Morning Call By MATT ASSAD)
    This article starring:
    Barry Gaul, the school's associate vice president of business services
    BILL GUGLIELMO, A JUNIOR ENGINIRING STUDENT
    John Smeaton, vice provost of student affairs
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    U. Mass is happy we're showing sympathy to Muslims
  • Two days after the World Trade Center and the Pentagon exploded into fiery debris at the hands of hijackers, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst faculty and students met to discuss the events and the political ramifications of terrorism.

    The act carried out on the World Trade Center "was probably carried out by Arab or Muslim countries associated with Bin Laden," announced Legal Studies professor David Mednicoff at the forum held yesterday afternoon in Thompson Hall. ...
    Mednicoff stipulated that military action is in the works and there isn't any kind of action the United States can take that will work.
    Mednicoff stipulated that military action is in the works and there isn't any kind of action the United States can take that will work. "Even a successful strike isn't going to stop terrorism and its preconditions," evaluated Mednicoff. He also expressed his belief in terrorists not being irrational or insane, but doing such an act to gain adherence and sympathizers.

    Mednicoff stressed how happy and impressed he was with the community response and "to go out of your way to be supportive and show empathy for Muslims and Arabs in the community." (Mass. Daily Collegian By Jessica May)
    This article starring:
    Legal Studies professor David Mednicoff
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Home Front
    New York: Whoever's responsible should pay
  • Thousands of grieving New Yorkers held candles aloft Friday evening in Union Square. But for every poster, Tibetan chant and John Lennon song that roared in defiance against any hard-hitting US military response to the razing of the twin towers, those gathered for the 7:00 pm vigil in Union Square -- a century-old downtown haven for social protest -- appeared divided over whether America should seek blood vengeance for Tuesday's tragedy.

    Joyce Miller, a wizened New Yorker with greying hair, growled about US President George W. Bush's Friday tour of the crumbled twin towers and efforts to recover any survivors from the wreckage. "I have no interest in seeing George Bush," Miller said and panned the president's promise of a military payback for two hijacked jets slamming into the World Trade Center. "The worst is that he's talking vengeance and retaliation," she fumed.

    Nonetheless, some mourners, who lifted candles and wore the New York bohemian chic of leather and denim jackets, offered a wish flying in the face of dovish sentiments. "We wrote 'retribution' on our car window in red lipstick in big letters," said Aimee Szparaga, a 27-year-old magazine editor, standing beside her artist boyfriend from Brooklyn. "Whoever's responsible should pay for this. It's an atrocity." (AFP)
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Backlash against Muslims
  • In the days following the attacks, local Muslim-Americans have been concerned about backlash. A mosque in Denton was firebombed and another in Irving had shots fired at it. Threats against individual Arab-Americans and mosques have been reported throughout the United States. In Houston, leaders of the Islamic society's five main mosques met to discuss security in the next days, said the group's president, Sayeed Siddiqui. Extra officers were hired for the prayer service at the central mosque. Though the Islamic society leadership has collected at least one report of verbal harassment against individuals here, Siddiqui said he has heard of no violent acts. (TARA DOOLEY Houston Chronicle Religion Writer)
    This article starring:
    Sayeed Siddiqui
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Global Jihad


    Tamim Ansary on Afghanistan
  • But the Taliban and Ben Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political criminal with a plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think "the people of Afghanistan" think "the Jews in the concentration camps." It's not only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this atrocity. They were the first victims of the perpetrators. They would exult if someone would come in there, take out the Taliban and clear out the rats nest of international thugs holed up in their country. (Mir Tamim Ansary)
    This article starring:
    Mir Tamim Ansary
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


    Civil Rights Commission urges Muslims to report harassment
  • The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on Friday urged Arab- and Muslim-Americans to report instances of harassment and bigotry in the wake of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. (JIM IRWIN, Associated Press)
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    We need to resume special ops...
  • Resuming special operations abroad is the most important thing this country can do to prevent another mass slaughter on our soil. No matter how distasteful over-educated consciences might find the idea, we must be willing to get our hands dirty. (Manchester Union-Leader)
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Woolsey sees Iraq's hand behind attacks...
  • Former CIA chief R. James Woolsey sees the hand of Iraq behind Tuesday's attacks, and he warned the White House not to shirk the hard realities of possible state sponsorship. The Washington power lawyer told UPI that he is not sure that Iraq is involved in the attacks, but added: "What we don't want to do is what the Clinton administration did and put blinders on about state involvement by focusing just on a terrorist group." (By Lou Marano UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL)
    This article starring:
    R. James Woolsey
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Baath Party


    CAIR expresses anger, sorrow...
  • On behalf of every member of the global Muslim community, I condemn the vicious acts that occurred in Washington and New York. If the evidence proves that the perpetrators were Muslims, their actions were no more Islamic than Timothy J. McVeigh's actions were Christian. Nowhere in Islamic doctrine is the killing of innocent civilians condoned. The acts of a cowardly few must not be used to stereotype or generalize about a people. At this time of numbness, anger and profound sorrow, I, along with the entire American Muslim community, extend my hand in love and peace to our friends, neighbors and children. (Arsalan Tariq Iftikhar, the Midwest communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, letter to The New York Times)
    This article starring:
    ARSALAN TARIQ IFTIKHARCAIR
    Timothy J. McVeigh
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Death toll surpasses Pearl Harbor
  • Whatever the final death toll from Tuesday, September 11, 2001, it will surpass the 2,403 killed at Pearl Harbor. Those deaths come at the hands of people who have declared war on the United States of America.

    If these murderers want war, then let's give them one. Afghanistan is already in the stone age, so let's bomb them out of existence. Then send in Marine divisions to kill whatever's left moving. But don't stop there. Libya and Iraq welcome terrorists and provide them with sanctuary. Carpet bomb them into oblivion and then send in some SEAL teams with orders to kill 'em all and let God sort it out. (Capital Hill Blue)
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 11:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Number of bodies exceeds morgue's storage space
  • As the death toll from Tuesday's attack slowly climbs, the number of bodies recovered from the wreckage has exceeded the morgue's storage capacity. Remains are now being returned to trucks and will be transported to overflow sites after medical examiners inventory their arrival and carefully catalog any details that might help families identify them.

    To ease overcrowding inside the morgue, canopies have been set up in the parking lot beside the entrance. Beneath them, scores of exhausted workers, clad in blue paper aprons, face masks and paper bonnets unload body bags from the trucks, placing them on stretchers for inspection. But trucks from the site have arrived at a slow trickle throughout the week. Finding bodies in the mountains of tangled rubble has proved difficult. Today, the city officially listed 4,700 people as missing; 184 casualties have been officially counted.

    "If there's jewelry or personal items, you separate it from the body. If there's a hand, you take finger prints," says New York Police Detective Barry Gorelick. Clothing, ID cards and other items are being put into numbered security envelopes to be given to victim's families after the bodies are identified. Medical examiners are focusing first on identifying victims through items found with remains, but soon the New York forensics lab will initiate a massive round of DNA testing. Family members have been asked to fill out forms identifying relatives who can provide DNA samples to be matched with tissue samples taken from remains. The job of identifying victims is complicated by the fact that some bodies arriving at the morgue are burned beyond recognition. And the vast majority of body bags contain only fragments. "It's nothing more than an arm here, a leg there," said one shaken police officer helping to unload trucks Thursday. (By Jane Spencer and Mary Carmichael NEWSWEEK)
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 11:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Bush: "I'm with ya!"
  • Ushered into the Oval Office, the quartet of senators expected only a brief, pro forma sit-down with a harried president. It was, after all, day three of the New World. The New York Democrats wanted $20 billion for their devastated city but doubted he'd commit to so large a number. The Republicans from Virginia, home to the Pentagon and the military elite, wanted to hear fighting words from the commander in chief but assumed the session was a photo op in the most nightmarishly momentous week since Pearl Harbor.

    THEY ALL GOT more than they bargained for. The meeting didn't last minutes, but half an hour. The president, relaxed and in control, drew Sen. Hillary Clinton into a warm, familial exchange. He treated Sen. Charles Schumer like a long-lost fraternity brother. As for their aid request, "I'm with ya," the president said eagerly—and it was approved by Congress the next day. The Virginians got promises of aid, too, and the warlike words all four senators yearned for. "When I take action," he said, "I'm not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going to be decisive." (By Howard Fineman NEWSWEEK)
    This article starring:
    Charles Schumer
    Hillary Clinton
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 11:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Mohammad Atta was a jerk...
  • Waitress Patricia Idrissi remembered that Atta had entered the bar at around 3pm with two other men. One of them wandered off to play a video machine at one end of the restaurant, while Atta and his other colleague — named as Marwan al-Shehhi — sat drinking and arguing between themselves. Al-Shehhi's drink of choice was Captain Morgan rum mixed with coke. Over the next 90 minutes, both of these supposed Islamist extremists, polished off five drinks each. But as they were preparing to leave, Atta questioned his bill of $48 and Ms Idrissi called her manager, Tony Amos, to come over to try and help sort out the problem. "I said to the guy, 'Hey, if you can't pay, let me know upfront and we'll work something out'," recalled the manager, Mr Amos.

    At this point, Atta got annoyed, pulled from his pocket a wad of $100 and $50 bills, paid his bill and left Ms Idrissi a nominal tip of just $3. Mr Amos added: "He got angry and said 'You think I can't pay my bill? I'm a pilot for American Airlines. I can pay my fucking bill'." (by Andrew Buncombe, Independent News)
    This article starring:
    her manager, Tony Amos
    MARWAN AL SHEHIal-Qaeda
    Waitress Patricia Idrissi
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 11:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


    International
    Guardian: "Where are you Mr President?"
  • "Where are you Mr President? New York has a right to know?" bellowed Newsday yesterday. That newspaper and others were incensed that two days after the World Trade Centre's twin towers had been turned into a cloud of asbestos-filled dust and rubble - and with one estimate predicting as many as 20,000 dead - George Bush had still not shown up in their city.

    He made it to the Pentagon (though not quickly) but New York, which believes it suffered in less than an hour on Tuesday what Londoners endured for years during the war, was still president-less yesterday afternoon. He'll be there today, prompted by the outcry, but many New Yorkers say it's too late. The city has taken grave offence. As one veteran New York observer put it to me yesterday, "Who needs Bush anyway? We'll get through this without him." ...

    While the world was glued to its TV sets, and while New York's firefighters were wading into burning buildings to save lives, the president was conducting a unique aerial tour of the American heartland. Advised that it was unsafe to return to Washington, he flew first from Florida to Shreveport, Louisiana, and finally to Offutt air force base in Omaha, Nebraska - touching down in each spot to read yet another scripted statement. For long spells during that eerie day, no one even knew where the president was. It was as if the Democratic slogan directed against Bush's father during the 1988 election campaign had come alive again: "Where was George?" ...

    They know Clinton would never have allowed himself to be ferried in secret around the country like a deposed head of state fleeing a coup. He would have wanted to send the message that he was in command, unafraid and defiantly denying the terrorists the pleasure of emptying the capital.

    But that is the least of it. Clinton would have known how to find the right beat, to have sensed the national mood and addressed it. That almost supernatural talent for empathy was his greatest political gift. This week has proved that his successor, though hailed for his affable, neighbour-at-the-barbecue charm, has no such talent. He seems wooden, unreflective and oddly out of tune with human emotion. Small wonder that the secret service codename for the Bush presidential zone is "the package". They don't come much more packaged than George W. (The Guardian Unlimited Jonathan Freedland)
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Europe backpedals...
  • After offering expressions of support immediately following this week's attacks on the United States, European allies are showing signs of backpedaling. The NATO allies have said they could support some military action. But now the caveats are beginning to roll in, making clear that the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon will not translate into an unconditional writ for American retaliation.

    Many politicians here have begun distancing themselves from Washington's saber rattling. While President Bush has repeatedly described the terror attacks as "acts of war," Europeans officials are going out of their way to avoid such language.

    On a radio program the Belgian foreign minister, Louis Michel, said the European Union was "on watch" and "mobilized." But he added, "We are not at war."

    In France, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has cautioned that there is no "war against Islam or the Arab-Muslim world." Moreover, he signaled that France would not automatically support military action. "Our humane, political and functional solidarity with the United States," he said, "does not deprive us of our sovereignty and freedom to make up our own minds."

    Even the French left, often thought of as reflexively anti-American seemed to soften. The daily Le Monde ran a column headlined "we are all Americans." But it is clear that the continent remains wary of a gung-ho, simplistic military retaliation, it sees America capable of.

    Since Wednesday, when the NATO alliance for the first time invoked its mutual defense clause, strongly suggesting it would offer military support if the United states should ask for it, European leaders have been stressing non-military options.

    On a visit to Russia Thursday, The French foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine, argued for a broad antiterrorism plan that might incorporate military action, but did not overlook financial and logistical networks as well as political efforts. The next day the German defense minister, Rudolph Scharping, also urged a "measured" response.

    Even Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has offered Mr. Bush his full support, insisted on Friday that any retaliation "must and will be based on hard evidence," and his spokesman has said that the support does not amount to a "blank check."

    Newspapers across the Continent are also urging the Americans to use restraint. The French daily Liberation called for "extreme severity against identifiable culprits" but cautioned against "blind vengeance."

    An editorial published today in The Guardian urged Mr. Bush to consider diplomatic coercion, painstaking investigation, interdiction of terrorist funds and economic punishment before "sending his enormous bombs."

    "There is another way," the newspaper said. "It is less dramatic, less visceral, more statesmanlike."
    This article starring:
    Belgian foreign minister, Louis Michel
    French foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine
    German defense minister, Rudolph Scharping
    Prime Minister Lionel Jospin
  • Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/14/2001 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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    Two weeks of WOT
    Fri 2001-09-14
      Death toll surpasses Pearl Harbor
    Thu 2001-09-13
      Osama bin Laden is prime suspect
    Wed 2001-09-12
      Bush addresses nation
    Tue 2001-09-11
      Terror strikes on US

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