September 2001

America and Americans on September 11 experienced the full horror of what must surely be the greatest display of grotesque cunning in human history. Its essence consisted in transforming the benign, everyday technology of commercial jet aircraft into weapons of mass destruction. There has been much talk about Americans discovering the vulnerability of their heartland in a manner that far exceeds the collective trauma associated with the attack on Pearl Harbor. But the new vulnerability is radically different and far more threatening. It involves the comprehensive vulnerability of technology closely tied to our global dominance, pervading every aspect of our existence. To protect ourselves against the range of threats that could be mounted by those of fanatical persuasion is a mission impossible. The very attempt would quickly turn the United States into a prison-state. And yet who can blame the government for doing what it can in the coming months...

The terrorist attacks against the United States have shocked the world and left Americans feeling vulnerable and fearful of future attacks. The US has made a major military deployment to the Middle East and seems intent on military action against Osama bin Laden and possibly Afghanistan and other states that may harbor terrorists or be linked to these attacks. But the military is a blunt instrument that could easily increase the cycle of violence by causing the deaths of more innocent civilians. The US response to the attacks should adhere to three basic criteria: it should be legal, moral and thoughtful. a) It should be legal under both domestic and international law, sanctioned by the United Nations, and multilateral in scope. b) It should be moral in not taking more innocent lives. c) And it should be thoughtful in asking why this has happened and what can be done to...

Constructive thoughts Continued from PressInfo 129 Global brainstorm on a humanity-oriented Western policy Imagine that we begin a global brainstorm where people of all walks of life can contribute their opinions freely on questions such as: how can the United States, and the West in general, make a more efficient contribution to a world in peace, justice and human development? What new forums do we need — in the fields of politics, religion, education, culture, etc — to balance the globalisation in the economic sphere? How must we re-structure the world system to promote global democracy and democratic governance (for, by and with the peoples) to benefit all and not mainly Western people? We are talking about a new global policy for us all and not just for the biggest countries. We are talking about taking the idea of a global human family seriously when making decisions at home. We...

Constructive thoughts two weeks after September 11 We shall be happy if you find any inspiration here and we invite your constructive thoughts to tff@transnational.live. Two weeks have passed. We mourn the tragedy in New York and Washington. Innocent lives were taken by mad men who could not find intelligent, non-violent ways to make their point. No civilised goals can ever be promoted by such methods. No ideology and no religion in the world can justify them. There are those who argue that, at this very moment, the discussion should only be about "Who" (guilt) and "How" (technique) and not about "Why" (causes). Some consider it inappropriate to ask whether, over the years, the United States foreign policy establishment and other Western governments have contributed in some ways to a tragedy like this and, if so, what role it may have played in the minds of the madmen. Some consider...

LONDON – Menachem Begin, the rightist Israeli politician, wrote in his account of the Jewish Irgun movement, active in Palestine against the British colonial power during the 1930s and 1940s: “Our enemies called us terrorists. People who were neither friends nor enemies, like the correspondents of the New York Herald Tribune, also used this Latin name, either under the influence of British propaganda or out of habit. Our friends, like the Irishman O’Reilly, preferred, as he wrote in a letter to “get ahead of history” and called us by a simpler, though also Latin name: “patriots”.” Yesterday’s terrorists can become today’s freedom fighters – – and in the Israeli case- today’s imperial oppressors. The very word fills us with dread yet it is replete with its own contradictions. The Russian czar killers were the first to bring the word into common political usage. But, ironically, although they claimed that political murder...

(B) Continued from PressInfo 129 Global brainstorm on a humanity-oriented Western policy Imagine that we begin a global brainstorm where people of all walks of life can contribute their opinions freely on questions such as: how can the United States, and the West in general, make a more efficient contribution to a world in peace, justice and human development? What new forums do we need — in the fields of politics, religion, education, culture, etc — to balance the globalisation in the economic sphere? How must we re-structure the world system to promote global democracy and democratic governance (for, by and with the peoples) to benefit all and not mainly Western people? We are talking about a new global policy for us all and not just for the biggest countries. We are talking about taking the idea of a global human family seriously when making decisions at home. We are...

(B) PressInfo 129 and 130 is our contribution to questions we find essential now: Can something positive come out of the terrible events in New York and Washington on September 11? Can the innocent victims of many nationalities and walks of life be honoured by hard thinking about a more peaceful world? Can this particular violence teach us something about the civilisational necessity to reduce violence before it is too late? We shall be happy if you find any inspiration here and we invite your constructive thoughts to tff@transnational.live. Two weeks have passed. We mourn the tragedy in New York and Washington. Innocent lives were taken by mad men who could not find intelligent, non-violent ways to make their point. No civilised goals can ever be promoted by such methods. No ideology and no religion in the world can justify them. There are those who argue that, at this very...

For the arrogance of power America now pays a terrible price By JONATHAN POWER TFF PressInfo 127 September 12, 2001 LONDON – The American nation appears not only immensely distressed and angry about the bombings but surprised too. It cannot understand why anyone should be moved by such hatred against it and, inured from the rest of us by the isolationism of most of its political representatives and its media, it has little idea of the currents swirling against it. An event of this magnitude was not only unimagined, it was unimaginable. Yet long before George Bush became president with his forceful in-your-face, take-it-or-leave-it attitude to the world outside on issues as diverse as global warming and anti-missile defences, America has been turning in on itself, to the point of self-destructiveness. William Pfaff, the astute American commentator, wrote recently that "America is a dangerous nation while remaining a righteous one"...

Is it possible for America to say ‘Sorry’? By JONATHAN POWER TFF PressInfo # 127 September 20, 2001 LONDON – How should the United States fight Osama bin Laden? It could start by saying sorry. Despite two centuries of rapid immigration pulling in people from all over the world, America remains a predominantly Christian nation. It is not a Jewish one and certainly not an Islamic one. It draws its inspiration from another book, mightier, it believes, than the Old Testament or the Koran, although it shares common roots with both these religions and worships the same God. If Christianity is not about saying sorry and turning the other cheek what, at the end of the day, is so special about it? We have a lot to be sorry for. After all it was Christian societies that practised slavery. It was a Christian society that tolerated the long persecution and...

Ferencz is a former prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial By Katy Clark,September 19, 2001 See other articles, letters and analyses by Benjamin Ferencz at http://www.benferencz.org Ferencz: Perhaps some of the tears have dried and people can begin to think rationally about the horrors of the past week and what we can do to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies. Katy Clark: Ben Ferencz has spent most of his 82 years doing just that. He was a prosecutor for the United States during the Nuremberg war crimes trials of Nazi leaders. Ferencz’s response to the Vietnam War was to withdraw from his private law practice and spend the rest of his life studying and writing about world peace. He founded the Pace Peace Center at Pace University, where he is Adjunct Professor of International Law. Ben Ferencz lives in New Rochelle, New York. You wrote this letter because you believe that...

Det er kun få forundt selv at rejse til konfliktområder og udvikle en egen forståelse og danne en egen opfattelse. De fleste er afhængige af dagblade, radio og TV. Derfor står medierne mellem os og begivenhederne. Hvad vi får er derfor ikke nødvendigvis en opfattelse af virkeligheden, men et billede af den, af en del af den, af nogle aspekter af den og vinkler på den og netop ikke af visse andre aspekter og vinkler. Det kan nok hverken være eller blive anderledes. Men! Hvad hvis dækningen er systematisk skæv, hvis der er en tendens i, hvad der dækkes og ikke dækkes? Nu er der igen en Balkankrise og igen er der nogen af os, som har været på åstedet i omkring 10 år, der spørger: har vi nu også en fri presse, som dem hjemme faktisk kan stole på ? Her kommer ca 20 spørgsmål/emner, som kunne have haft...

By Scott Taylor  espritdecorp@idirect.comwww.espritdecorps.on.ca   TETOVO, Macedonia – August 09, 2001 As international envoys and Macedonian government officials try to hammer out a last-minute peace deal in the holiday resort Ohrid, fighting and violence continues to escalate across the country. On Wednesday, the ethnic-Albanian rebels (UCK) mounted a major offensive to cut the main highway between the capital of Skopje and the city of Tetovo. After suffering heavy casualties – 10 dead and 14 wounded in an ambush – Macedonian Security forces battled throughout the night to regain control of this vital route. Helicopter gunships pounded rebel villages and armoured columns inched their way up steep mountain paths to engage the UCK. By Thursday morning the highway was proclaimed secure, but a handful of still smoldering vehicles bore stark testimony to the violence of the previous day’s attacks. Angered by the news of the initial ambush, mobs of Macedonian citizens took...