|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
Also this issue: So Insecure The Headline, One Year Later Dicked Again |
|
|
|
|
 |
|||||||||
September 12-18, 2002
mailbag
(Re: "The Truth About Sept. 11" by Ted Rall and related articles, Sept. 5, 2002)
Thank you. I have become a victim of the government-led destruction of Arab-Americans' civil rights in this country since 9/11. It's about time someone asked us all publicly to stop and seek answers, not blame.
I went on a business trip this summer to L.A., and upon check-in was intercepted by US Air employees, who acted as if the computer screen had frozen and only a manager was able to "unlock it." After about half a dozen other employees had walked by and noticed the screen with a look of muted shock, I had realized that this was no software glitch. It doesn't take much to figure out that I am an Arab, with an Arab first and last name, flying to LAX. I had become a suspect. And a non-American.
Apparently, the FAA and the FBI cooperate to form a "Terrorist Watch List" to which my name had been added. I didn't learn anything about this until 50 minutes later, while in tears, when Philadelphia police intercepted my ID and "updated my profile," whatever that means. Then the shift manager for US Air walked over and told me not to "sweat it" and that this was no big deal. It's just a formality of the new security since 9/11. My name matched a name that was similar to a name that could be something like the name of someone who might be associated with terrorists. Right.
After being detained in plain view of the plain old black, white and other non-threatening Americans checking in, all the while becoming increasingly upset with police standing close and focusing on me, the last thing I was thinking about was 9/11. Instead, I thought of my future children and how I would have to explain to them that this might happen to them someday, and why. I felt sad for my father and I wondered if the police would have acted differently if it had been him standing there, or my brother, or my cousin. I never thought we would be perceived as the enemy. I thought about the barriers that went up between me and the rest of America, and how I did nothing to put them there. I cried for all of that.
So in summation, I'm sure the government is watching us, and to people like Ann Coulter who call the passenger profiling non-existent, I'll send her the apology letter from US Air if she wants it. And to the FAA and the FBI, who I'm sure are wildly updating my profile as we speak, calm down, I'm just being an American.
Sorry for the rant, but after reading your column, the need to vent was overwhelming.
Alia N. Rizk
Philadelphia
After Sept. 11, our political leaders, our courts and our press, those institutions entrusted by our society with the task of keeping our government from abusing its power both at home and abroad, abandoned their responsibilities. I applaud City Paper for raising many important issues. But there are many more. Why haven't the press or our government seriously debated any of the following questions?
Why should the Taliban have immediately responded to U.S. demands to turn over Osama bin Laden when the U.S. had no diplomatic relations with the Taliban government and bin Laden was an ally of the Afghans who assisted both the Afghan people (and the U.S.) to defeat the Soviet Union during the '80s, without evidence that he was responsible for the terror attacks of Sept. 11?
The U.S. initiated bombing of Afghanistan 26 days after Sept. 11. Was 26 days an adequate amount of time to have a thoughtful debate on waging war against a sovereign nation and removing its government to capture a person or persons who committed criminal acts? Would we have done this to any other country in the world (when we know that most or all of the terrorists involved in Sept. 11 came from Saudi Arabia and Egypt)?
Why is there any reason to believe that the Northern Alliance is capable of ruling Afghanistan when the Afghan people were so desperate for law and order after the Northern Alliance controlled the country between 1989 and 1996 that they turned to the Taliban as their best alternative?
Why would Afghans be any more willing to accept the leadership of Hamid Karzai, a man whose selection and decisions appear to be made by the U.S., than they were to accept the leadership influenced by the Soviet Union?
The U.S. government stated that this was not a war against Afghans or Muslims. Will Afghans who have lost husbands, fathers, brothers and friends in the massive U.S. bombing assault be able to make this subtle distinction when most are illiterate and have no access to mass communications?
How much of the Afghan infrastructure was destroyed, including bridges, hospitals, roads, electrical plants, reservoirs, etc.?
Why didn't the U.S. send adequate foreign aid to Afghanistan to assist in rebuilding their country in 1989 instead of allowing it to deteriorate in fertile soil for years of civil war and for terrorist insurgency?
The U.S. has shown that it can conquer a Third World country in a short time with minimal loss of American lives by the use of massive air power and surrogate ground troops. This works well when the military in control of the geography is that of the enemy. Can we use this massive air power when our troops occupy cities and have fixed bases on the ground?
Why are so many Muslims from all classes of Arab society willing to die in their struggle to rid the Middle East of foreign influences?
As Americans, we believe in the vigorous clash of ideas. Since the end of World War II the U.S. government has actively supported dictatorships throughout the Middle East, with economic and military aid, and still does. When will the focus of U.S. policy be the legitimate economic and political needs of the people of the Middle East and not just the U.S. oil needs?
Marc Pachtman
Philadelphia
Michael Ruppert’s so-called article (“No Way Out”) is little more than a catalog of paranoid conspiracy theories. As usual with you conspiracy theory fanatics, you provide a list of unrelated events without any evidence of any secret plot.
So Cynthia McKinney and Bob Barr were defeated “in a very well executed conspiracy.” That’s funny; I know friends who contributed to McKinney’s defeat; they would be surprised to learn that their writing a check constituted “a very well executed conspiracy.” Rep. McKinney’s own father appeared on national TV on primary night and blamed his daughter’s defeat on the “Jews, J-E-W-S, Jews!” I guess he was part of your “very well executed conspiracy” too!
Tonight, before you go to sleep, make sure you check under your bed and in your closet for CIA agents. And don’t forget to look out your window to check for black helicopters!
Joseph Chudzinski
Philadelphia
Re: Howard Altman's "Democracies Die Behind Closed Doors": No they don't, asshole! They die when we allow our borders to be overrun by people who don't believe in democracy and destroy us from within. Let's make one thing perfectly clear (and this is something you libs fail to acknowledge): Not all cultures and people are equal. We are the best country on earth and Western civilization is the greatest culture that has ever been known to man. We should do our damnedest to keep these Islamic hordes out of this country. Right now, many countries in Europe are getting the Islamic makeover. They'll be unrecognizable soon. But that's a battle we'll fight another day. Stop worrying about Bush and company, your own political correctness has done more to rob people of their rights than President Bush ever has. We're trying to win a war here, so you liberal assholes need to just shut the fuck up and stay out of our way.
Weston Veith
via e-mail
-- Respond to this article in our Forums -- click to jump there
