2 interesting articles from Guardian, 1 from Herald Tribune, and the life in general
Ivo Skoric
ivo at reporters.net
Wed Nov 7 20:56:51 CET 2001
Academics in US silenced.
Torture debated as a possibility.
The double-speak of American goals in the war on evil.
Meanwhile: CDC warned of the shortage of the flu vaccine in the
US - but many web sites and magazines suggested the flu vaccine
as a good way to ward yourself against the anthrax-like flu
symptoms, so that you know when the 'real thing' hits - even
Giuliani urged New Yorkers to get flu vaccine. So, now, no doctor
has it. And the department of health locations are overbooked,
meaning a lot of people simply can't get the vaccine.
http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/doh/html/imm/immclin.html
Also, there is a curious delay with payments of unemployment
compensation by the Department of Labor in New York State - I
know that since I live in the neighborhood where a lot of people
receive them - people are edgy: some didn't get their check for past
three reporting cycles, and they are arguing at the local post office.
Last week I spent in Rutland, Vermont - the city of a population
that would fit in one of the WTC towers - there nearly every house
flies American flag outside, and the general support for American
war on evil is unquestioned. But that does not mean that there is a
lack of healthy suspicion of government and foreign policy. In other
words, bombing per se is not automatically endorsed. People
would like to see OBL, Al Qaeda, Taliban and the rest of the terror
network gone. However, they are not buying into the black and
white, good and evil story. They do understand that the past and
present US foreign policy has a lot to do with existence of the
terror network. It became clear to me that people even outside of
big urban areas in the US use common sense in assessing the TV
news and comparing them with various Internet resources.
> International Herald Tribune
> Growing numbers of pundits are openly discussing allowing
U.S.
> law enforcement to use torture against suspects. That has
> critics worrying that perhaps a barrier to the mistreatment
> of the accused is in danger of falling. (11/06/01)
> http://www.free-market.net/rd/572080741.html
The Guardian Tuesday November 6, 2001
Sound of silencing
US academics who dare to discuss the Allied bombing face
censure,
says Lee Elliot Major
An academic uprising is brewing to defend the right to speak out
against US government policy, amid growing concerns that
government
and university officials are disciplining lecturers who question the
response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Hundreds of academics have signed up to a statement
advocating the
right to hear critical and dissenting voices over US foreign policy
and the Afghanistan bombing campaign, which the campaigners
are
planning to publish in the New York Times.
It follows a series of attacks on academics daring to question the
Bush administration publicly. The US government is also
planning to
introduce new powers forcing universities to disclose confidential
details about overseas students as part of a new computerised
tracking
system to prevent terrorists from entering the US on student
visas.
The statement, which is circulating widely among academics in
the US
and UK, says: "In the crisis precipitated by the terrible events of
September 11, members of academic communities across the
US have
participated in teach-ins, colloquia, demonstrations, and other
events
aimed at developing an informed critical understanding of what
happened and why.
"Unfortunately, some participants in these events have been
threatened
and attacked for speaking out. Trustees of the City University of
New
York are planning formal denunciations of faculty members who
criticised US foreign policy at a teach-in. There have been similar
efforts to silence criticism at the University of Texas at Austin,
MIT, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University
of Massachusetts at Amherst, and elsewhere."
It concludes: "We call on all members of the the academic
community
to
speak out strongly in defence of academic freedom and civil
liberties,
not just as an abstract principle but as a practical necessity. At a
moment such as this we must make sure that all informed voices
-
especially those that are critical and dissenting - are heard."
The American Association of University Professors has not
signed up
to
the statement, but its general secretary, Mary Burgan, has
warned
against an anti-intellectual backlash. "It is predictable that after
we had passed through the initial phases of reaction to
September 11,
we should want more subtle analyses. And so the discourses of
academics - passionate as well as cool - have commenced," she
said.
"And so have the voluble reactions of those who believe that
thinking
out loud in our colleges and universities is so subversive that it
ought to be stopped, somehow. A distrust of intellectuals has
always
lurked beneath the surface of American popular opinion. Now it
has
begun to leak out again."
In one of several recent attacks, academics at City University of
New
York who suggested that US foreign policy was partly to blame
for the
terrorist attacks were publicly denounced by the university's
chancellor for making "lame excuses" for the terrorists. A
professor
at the University of Texas at Austin, meanwhile, attracted the
wrath
of the university's president for publishing an article arguing that
the US itself has perpertrated "massive acts of terrorism" in its
dealings with other countries.
Students have also been calling for the heads of academics who
questioned the US government's actions. A political science
professor
speaking at a vigil at California State University, Chico, was
heckled
by students, and has been bombarded with hate letters.
A survey by Harvard University's Institute of Politics has shown
that
nearly four out of five college students support the airstrikes in
Afghanistan, and more than two-thirds back the use of US ground
troops.
The US Senate has stepped back from initial proposals to ban
new
visas
for overseas students after it was reported that one of the
September
11 hijackers entered the US on a student visa. The government is,
however, introducing a tracking system that will give police
information about the names, universities, dates of attendance
and
degree subjects of some 500,000 overseas students.
Initial indications suggest that overseas student numbers to the
UK
could be boosted by the US moves. There is little sign that UK
academics are being censured. In one incident, however, anti-war
posters were taken down at the University of Keele.
Views on how September 11 has affected the academic sector
feature
this week at www.EducationGuardian.co.uk
UK university centres related to Middle East studies
Birmingham
Cambridge
Derby
Durham
Edinburgh
Edinburgh Institute
Exeter
Glasgow
Institute of Ismaili Studies
London School of Economics
Lancaster
Leeds
Manchester
Oxford
SOAS
St Andrews
Wales Lampeter
US university centres for Middle East studies
Arizona
Binghamton
California at Berkeley
Chicago
Columbia
Harvard
Indiana
Georgetown
Michigan
New York
Pennsylvania
Portland
Texas
UCLA
Utah
Washington
Yale
Other centres for Middle East studies
Ben-Gurion
Bergen
Birzeit
Hamburg
Tel Aviv
Academic associations for Middle East studies
American Institute for Yemeni Studies
Arab Social Science Research
The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies
The Canadian Committee of the Middle East Studies Association
The European Association for Middle Eastern Studies
The Institute for Palestine Studies
Middle East Studies Association of North America
US peace studies experts
________________________________________________________
_________
Our war aims - in general
AL Kennedy
Monday November 05 2001
The Guardian
And now our daily news report from Washington - your other
national
capital. Today, in our series of Clean Cut Americans - General
Elmer
Coyote, former commander of Gamma Force:
So, General, how can you help the tiny minority who are feeling
wobbly
to understand the sad necessity of our War Against Badness, as
currently
conducted by our wise and restrained leaders?
Thank you kindly, I'd be glad. First off, I'd have to say that anyone
who is, as we put it in military circles, a real live normal human
being
will, by their very God-given nature, accept that everything we're
doing
over in Afghanistan and on the home front is absolutely for the
best.
As you know, the United States, and your United Kingdom never
interfere
with foreign powers, but once we are roused, we act. The way may
be
stony, still our will is strong and our war aims are absolutely clear,
although subject to the secrecy which must inevitably arise in
matters
of virtuous defence.
You couldn't give us a teeny clue about them, though?
We seek not to overthrow the Taliban, but to overthrow the Taliban,
which may take a while, or not that long at all, if you compare it to
Vietnam - not that you ever, ever should - and after victory we will
allow the Afghan people to elect a new government, or we will allow
them
to elect the new government provided, which will be based, or not
based,
around the Northern Alliance which is either a really keen bunch of
patriots, or a rabble of camel-jockey terrorists slightly less
well-equipped than the Taliban, and we will find Bin Laden and we
will
kill him, or bring him to justice in another deadly way resulting in his
law-abiding and perfectly reasonable death when vengeance will be
ours,
but not in a vengeful way.
And when this is all over, Afghanistan will be a happy land, full of
merry, hopping children - hopping, mind you, not because they are
amputees, but because they are living in an earthly paradise of
recognisable banking and investment systems. We are fighting to
defend
our way of life and don't you forget it. Amen.
And could you expand a little on the qualities that make our way of
life
so very, very good?
I had the honour to teach the current commander of the US forces
when he
was a student at the College of Death Studies and he is a fine,
warm
man. I think of him now, because often we would sit up nights and
discuss what made our way of life so precious. And it's, quite
simply,
this: cowards, terrorists, communists and Muslims, they kill
civilians
on purpose, whereas we in the west kill civilians as a sad
necessity. We
don't enjoy it.
Some lunatics and subversives would say that, either way, you still
end
up with innocent casualties, mutilated babies and so forth.
That is war and war is hell. And if they're so innocent, what are they
doing in Afghanistan, anyway - the place is a shithole. And if, for
example, a mother knows we decapitated her daughter with the
very best
of intentions, really as a kind of accident, it will surely make all the
difference to her. And I know your prime minister agrees. That's
part of
what makes the special relationship so special.
Yes, what about that special relationship?
It's special. It's full of specialness and it's really a relationship.
Which means?
That Britain and the Britishers, above all others, understand that UK
politicians should be able to come stateside and pretend they have
more
influence than a bucket of hog piss over the most powerful country
in
the world.
And you also understand that, when all's said and done, we're
going to
do what we damn well like, because our interests are the finest
interests in the world, but you can come along for the ride and
peripheral dividends. And we could get a little sickened by all this
whining about grenades that look like bandage rolls and "won't
people
get confused?" and "why keep bombing Red Cross stations?"
And the rumours that all US infantrymen who enter Afghanistan
carry a
length of pipe with instructions to connect and lay them in the
direction of the Caspian?
Whatever this war is about, it is not about control of the vast
Caspian
sea oil deposits. The United States has never had any interest in
oil.
President Bush has never had any interest in oil. Neither the United
States or the United Kingdom have ever cynically exploited a
conflict
for their own commercial advantage, or made a profit out of death.
So no worries there, then. Thanks.
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
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