From the WSJ Opinion Archives
America's
Most Wanted
President Bush and the FBI issue a list of the "22
most wanted terrorists." They include suspects in the 1985 hijacking
of TWA flight 847, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a 1995 plot to bomb
aircraft in the Far East, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing and the 1998 bombings
of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Osama
bin Laden, implicated in the embassy bombings, tops the list. The Weekly
Standard's Web site has a biography
of bin Laden.
Hold
the Jihad
Reuters reports "Osama bin Laden's call for a holy war against America found
little resonance in much of the Muslim world." Anti-American protests in Pakistan
and Indonesia have been smaller than expected, and the Organization of the Islamic
Conference demurred from Iraq's demand to condemn America's strikes against
targets in Afghanistan, because leaders of other Muslim states "are fed up with
the Taliban and their interpretation of Islam."
Bin
Laden's Bluster
Al Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Bu Ghaith declares Osama bin Laden's followers plan
to hijack and crash a "storm of planes" à la Sept. 11. This is surely
bluster; even if terrorists were able to smuggle weapons on board, passengers
and crew would resist, as the heroes of flight 93 did on Sept. 11.
Yesterday's New York Post reported that the FBI believes only half a dozen of the 19 hijackers knew they were on a suicide mission. "About six" of the hijackers--all of whom had pilot training--left behind letters to their families saying they were going to "meet Allah," but no evidence has surfaced that any of the other hijackers did so. If it's true that two-thirds of the hijackers didn't know they were going to die, that's clearly good news, for it suggests that recruiting men willing to die for this "cause" is more difficult than we'd thought. Perhaps Susan Sontag will want to re-evaluate her admiration for the hijackers' "courage."
Our
Friends the Pakistanis
Yesterday we
noted a report from a Pakistani newspaper that Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmad had
been fired as head of Islamabad's Inter-Services Security agency after U.S.
linked him to a militant allied with terrorists who hijacked an Indian Airlines
plane in 1999. Now the Times of India says Ahmad is connected to the Sept. 11
attacks:
Top sources confirmed here on Tuesday, that the general lost his job because of the "evidence" India produced to show his links to one of the suicide bombers that wrecked the World Trade Centre. The US authorities sought his removal after confirming the fact that $100,000 were wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the instance of Gen Mahumd.
Senior government sources have confirmed that India contributed significantly to establishing the link between the money transfer and the role played by the dismissed ISI chief. While they did not provide details, they said that Indian inputs, including Sheikh's mobile phone number, helped the FBI in tracing and establishing the link.
Terrorist Stag Parties
The Boston Herald reports that one of the Sept. 11 hijackers had a visit from
a prostitute in a Chestnut Hill, Mass., hotel room on Sept. 9. The paper quotes
an unnamed driver for a pair of local "escort" services--including
one service that advertises escorts "for the most discriminating of gentlemen
and their most important occasion"--as saying that the escort, a blond
woman in her early 20s, had a 20-minute tryst in the hotel room with one of
the hijackers and was paid $180 in cash. "The FBI has interviewed the driver
and the call girl and has seized records from the two escort services, the driver
said. The woman, shaken by her sudden involvement in the international probe,
has hired a lawyer, he added."
The newspaper notes that this "is just the latest link between the Koran-toting killers and America's seedy sex scene":
In Florida, several of the hijackers--including reputed ringleader Mohamed Atta--spent $200 to $300 each on lap dances in the Pink Pony strip club. . . .
And in Las Vegas, at least six of the hijackers spent time living it up on the Strip on various occasions between May and August. Marwan Al-Shehhi, who was aboard the second plane that slammed into the World Trade Center, frequently got lap dances at the Olympic Garden Topless Cabaret where he had a reputation as a lousy tipper, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
FBI agents have also reportedly questioned the owners of Nardone's Go-Go Bar in Elizabeth, N.J. Several of the terrorists spent time in nearby Paterson and Newark and reportedly patronized the club.
What Price Coalition-Building?
On Sept. 6, Sen. Mitch McConnell introduced a bill called the Middle
East Peace Compliance Act, which would require America to punish the Palestine
Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority if they failed to abide
by their commitment to renounce the use of terrorism. The bill had strong bipartisan
support; sponsors ranged from McConnell and Jesse Helms to Hillary
Clinton and Barbara Boxer.
But USA Today reports that Secretary of State Colin Powell wrote to its sponsors on Sept. 21, arguing that the bill "would be counterproductive to our coalition-building and peace process efforts and we would like to see it withdrawn." The senators complied. So let's see, an antiterrorism bill is withdrawn in the name of building a coalition in the war against terrorism. Isn't there something wrong with this picture?
Profile in Vanity
The Weekly Standard's Richard Starr dissects Rep. Jim McDermott's statement
questioning the American attacks on targets in Afghanistan. "Yes, in case
you missed it, McDermott made headlines in his hometown Seattle
Times yesterday by becoming the first member of Congress to criticize the
ongoing military action in Afghanistan," Starr writes. "The McDermott
press release carries not even a whiff of courage or independence or critical
thinking, but rather reeks of vanity."
Starr is right; McDermott's two-paragraph statement, as quoted in the Times, is just dopey. "The destruction of the infrastructure did not work in Iraq a decade ago," the statement said. "This sounds an awful lot like Iraq. Saddam Hussein is still in power! It is Iraq's citizenry, not Saddam, which continues to suffer the consequences of those air and missile strikes during the Gulf War and the sanctions we subsequently imposed against that nation." McDermott says he wonders if President Bush has "thought this action out completely or fully examined America's cause." We wonder if McDermott has thought.
Breeder
Reactor
Mark Steyn in the National Post takes on one of the clichés the war has
bred:
What have we learned since September 11th? We've learned that poverty breeds despair, despair breeds instability, instability breeds resentment and resentment breeds extremism.
Yes, folks, these are what we in the trade call "root causes." Which cause do you root for? "Poverty breeds instability" (The Detroit News)? Or "poverty breeds fanaticism" (Carolyn Lochhead in The San Francisco Chronicle)? Bear in mind that "instability breeds zealots" (John Ibbitson in The Globe And Mail), but that "fanaticism breeds hatred" (Mauve MacCormack of New South Wales) and "hatred breeds extremism" (Mircea Geoana, Romanian Foreign Minister).
Above all, let's not forget that "desperation breeds resentment" (Howard Zinn in The Los Angeles Times) and "resentment breeds terrorism" (Eugene G. Wollaston of Naperville, Illinois) but sometimes "desperation breeds terrorism" (a poster in Lower Manhattan) as surely as "despair breeds terrorism" (Ian Lawson in the San Diego Union-Tribune), though occasionally "despair breeds pestilence" (James Robertson of Ashland, Oregon).
Steyn continues in this vein for several more paragraphs, but you get the idea. One thing that is true of this cliché is that its familiarity breeds contempt.
Berkeley's
Useless Idiots
The Daily Californian reports that the Berkeley City Council is likely to approve
a resolution denouncing America for defending itself against terrorism. Councilwoman
Dona Spring uttered what may be the most idiotic comment we've heard in the
past month: "Berkeley has always been an island of sanity in terms of the
war madness that has prevailed in this country. The U.S. is now a terrorist.
According to the Taliban these are terrorist attacks."
But check out the photo of Spring that accompanies the Californian piece, or the one on her Web site. For all her sympathy with the Taliban, she's not wearing a burkha, the tent-like head-to-toe garment the mullahs make Afghan women wear.
The Oakland Tribune, meanwhile, reports on an anti-Ameircan rally at UC Berkeley, which was interrupted by a smaller contingent of Berkeley patriots. The closing exchange is priceless:
Another [student], favoring peace [sic], said in the heat of argument, "Look, it's not like they attacked the U.S."
"They did," a pro-USA student replied.
"Uh, oh yeah, they did," the other said, flashing an embarrassed grin.
Duking
It Out
Nadeen Al-jijakli, head of New York University's Arab
Students United has egg on her face after sending an e-mail to the club's
members containing an article by David Duke, NYU's Washington Square News reports.
The article, predictably enough, blamed Sept. 11 on U.S. support for Israel.
Al-jijakli, says she didn't know Duke was a former grand dragon of the Ku Klux
Klan. "If I had known his history I would not have sent it out," she tells
the News. "I feel like the article is valid. I don't feel like whether
the article is anti-Semitic is something I need to explain."
Looking over the original article on Duke's Web site, the following passage jumped out at us:
Calling the attackers "cowards" is, of course, untrue. The terrorists committed an indescribably horrible and ruthless act against the American people, but certainly they are not cowards. Kamikazes may be misguided, but sacrificing one's own life for a cause is not cowardice. And calling the perpetrators cowards or madmen doesn't answer the question of why these horrendous acts occurred, unless one thinks every coward and madman wants to blow up the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Is this where Susan Sontag gets her ideas?
PR
Genius
The Times of London reports that Jo Moore, a British government adviser, sent
an e-mail to colleagues on Sept. 11--"about an hour after the second passenger
jet struck the World Trade Centre in New York"--noting that it was "a
good day to get out anything we want to bury."
Zero-Tolerance
Watch
Aaron Petitt, a junior at Ohio's Fairview High School, is back in school after
a federal judge overturned his 10-day suspension. Petitt's offense? He hung
patriotic posters on his locker, including one that depicts an
eagle shedding a tear over the burning World Trade towers. "According
to the lawsuit, Associate Principal James Haughtaling said the signs were inappropriate
and could offend Middle Eastern students," the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.
The Wisconsin State Journal reports the Madison school board has backed off from its decision, which we noted yesterday, to ban the Pledge of Allegiance.
It Takes a Licking and Keeps On Ticking
The New York Post reports that in his video press release, Osama bin Laden was
wearing a Timex Ironman Triathlon watch. A Timex press release claims the model is "the best-selling watch
in the world," and it notes that it has also been worn by Bill Clinton,
George H.W. Bush, and Dan Quayle.
Correction
Yesterday's item
on the Anthrax scare at the office of supermarket-tabloid publisher American
Media misstated the location of the office. It is in Boca Raton, Fla.; Bob Stevens,
the man who died of Anthrax, lived in Lantana.
Tabloid
Readers Spooked
Advertising Age reports supermarkets have been "flooded" with calls
from frightened readers of American Media tabloids, which are not printed in
Florida:
"People are afraid to pick up [the titles]," said a top industry executive who had been in touch with American Media CEO David Pecker today.
The executive said people feared that "if they go into stores they're going to contract the disease."
Mr. Pecker was taking the extraordinary step of contacting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta in order to get the agency to issue a statement reassuring consumers that anthrax contamination from such sources was impossible.
Sounds as if these tabloid readers are almost dumb enough to live in Berkeley.
(Ira Stoll helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Rosslyn Smith, Rob Harvie, Brad Cloven, Edward Martin Schulze, John Parker, Jonathan Wishnia, Jack Burke, James Morrow, Francesca Watson, David Arredondo, Robert Rogowsky and Rick Walsh. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
