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Activism: 9.11: Feel, Think and Respond
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This page provides links to essays that relate in one way or another to the 9:11 bombing, its causes and aftermath, including the ensuing wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. This page is also a gateway to the the Think List, a place to share your feelings, thoughts and suggestions for response via email.
Writings, Essays, Opinions (chronological)
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of man as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.-- Helen Keller
September 1, 1939
- A poem by W.H. Auden, written at the beginning of WW2, as the Nazis trashed Poland...
- Noam Chomsky interviewed by The Humanist associate editor Rick Szykowny
Metaphor and War, Again [2003.03.18]- by George Lakoff, Linguistics Department, UC Berkeley
- The Iraq War has been in the making for over a decade [download PDF]
- A lecture by MIT Professor Noam Chomsky, world-renowned linguist, scholar and political analyst (a bit ahead of his time...)
- by Thomas J. Nagy for The Progressive.
- "Over the last two years, I've discovered documents of the Defense Intelligence Agency proving beyond a doubt that, contrary to the Geneva Convention, the U.S. government intentionally used sanctions against Iraq to degrade the country's water supply after the Gulf War. The United States knew the cost that civilian Iraqis, mostly children, would pay, and it went ahead anyway."
- "...I personally believe we need to think seriously whether a violent action is the right thing to do and in the greater interest of the nation and people in the long run."
- "You can't bomb us back into the Stone Age. We're already there. But you can start a new world war, and that's exactly what Osama bin Laden wants."
- by Rabbi Michael Lerner Editor, TIKKUN Magazine.
A clear concise summary of the enormity of the changes needed to bring a lasting peace into this world- from Thich Nhat Hanh
- An exclusive interview from Radio B92, Belgrade
- by Declan McCullough
- Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh talks about how listening is the first step towards peace.
- A Public Talk by Thich Nhat Hanh at the Riverside Church, New York
- [via Slashdot]: Bravo to News.com for telling the truth about cryptography. On a per-word basis, this may be the best summary of why calls to ban or restrict encryption technology (as with government key escrow, or constrained key sizes) has little to do with enhancing national or world security.
- by Bruce Schneier, Founder and CTO, Counterpane Internet Security, Inc.
- Well written information by Stephen Zunes, associate professor of politics and chair of the Peace & Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco.
- In the course of our discussions since the bombing of Afghanistan began, we have encountered certain questions over and over. Here we assemble those questions and provide short answers to each. In some cases we also provide a link or two for additional immediately relevant information or commentary. Much more information can be found via: ZNet's Complete Terrorism & War Coverage.
- by Chris Hables Gray
- "Despite the TV Network logos (America's New War -- CNN) and the protestations of President George W. Bush, September 11, 2001 did not mark the beginning of a new war. At the most it marks a new stage of what really should be called The Second Cold War."
- Transcribed from audio recorded at The Technology & Culture Forum at MIT
- by Steve Kubby
- "Showing solidarity with the President may seem patriotic, but no one has the right to barter away our inalienable rights, especially the Congress, since their oath requires them to defend the Constitution and the rights it guarantees. Yes it's terrible that 5,000 innocent people were so brutally slaughtered on 9/11, but we must remember that hundreds of thousands of brave American patriots also paid the ultimate price to preserve our heritage of freedom."
- On October 26, 2001, President Bush signed the USA Patriot Act (USAPA) into law. With this law we have given sweeping new powers to both domestic law enforcement and international intelligence agencies and have eliminated the checks and balances that previously gave courts the opportunity to ensure that these powers were not abused.
- A Just Cause, Not a Just War, by Howard Zinn
- The arguments he makes about the attack on Afghanistan apply if not more so to the Iraq attack.
- By Noam Chomsky (Excerpted from Lakdawala lecture, New Delhi)
- Lack of reporting civilian casualties from the war in Afghanistan is keeping Americans in the dark -- and endangering their future.
- by Roberto J. Gonzalez, San Francisco Chronicle
- Brian Whitaker reports on the network of research institutes whose views and TV appearances are supplanting all other experts on Middle Eastern issues
- This war, should it come, is intended to mark the official emergence of the United States as a full-fledged global empire, seizing sole responsibility and authority as planetary policeman.
- by William Safire
- A warning about Homeland Security and the USA PATRIOT Act.
- by Robert Fisk
- A neoconservative clique seeks to ensnare our country in a series of wars that are not in America's interest.
Concentration: Civil Liberties, especially with respect to:
Electronic Media, Networks and On-Line Freedoms
(see also: Privacy and
Cyber Rights)
Will our Liberty and Freedom be the first casualties?
- Check out their excellent chart comparing current and future surveilance powers
- Do you know your online rights? Are you concerned about liability for information that someone else posted to your online forum? Chilling Effects aims to help you understand the protections that the First Amendment and intellectual property laws give to your online activities.
- The right to free speech faces the strongest challenges during times of crisis. Whether or not any of us agree about each particular decision made to prevent public access to sensitive information, it is the Electronic Frontier Foundation's responsibility to chart any such efforts so that we as a society are at least aware of what is no longer available to us.
- a nonprofit public service research institute that publishes a journal and a weekly email newsletter
- Endorsed by EPIC and 150 other organizations
- the place to find factual, no-nonsense information about the tension between liberty and security during wartime.
The following links, collected in 1995 relating to the Persian Gulf War, still contain interesting and relevant information
Web pages on the World at War (Thanks, Pax!)
- From the Center for Defense Information
