---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 14:31:33 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Charles Saltz <msaltz at gladstone.uoregon.edu> To: Brenda Saltz <bsaltz at uci.edu>, BSaltz1215 <BSaltz1215 at aol.com>,
Joy Danielle Marcotte <jdm at gladstone.uoregon.edu>,
Scott Richard Vogel <vogue at gladstone.uoregon.edu>,
Eric Howard <ehowardo at yahoo.com>, forteverum at aol.com,
"Laura L. Clark" <llclark at darkwing.uoregon.edu>,
Ryan Lininger <lining_r at cc.denison.edu> Subject: Interesting news
I was watching Fox News and they had on Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies, grilling her on the bombings. She pointed out that the planning for this took place only days after the capture of the first suspect-a Pakistani. He was said to have been seriously tortured (I blieve she said BEFORE being handed over to the FBI) and this is the main source for claiming it was that Saudi? millionaire (forget his name) that was involved. To believe ANYONE that was tortured into saying it is a serious problem!
Further, the millionaire was first trained in terrorist techniques (confirmed by Fox News reporter) by the CIA in Afghanistan in order to fight the Soviets. Hardly a "communist", huh? So, he was our guy for a while.
Some of the so called proof of Sudan's involvement was their increase in fertilizer production (used in production bombs like in Oklahoma City). This may be true (we're asked to just have faith in what the US is saying) but it is also true that Sudan is in the midst of a horrible drought and famine! So, we just don't know. Perhaps, everything is true but how can we American people just believe that this was a just act and to support more if this investigation was done so quickly and with unknown evidence?
Lastly, as Bennet was saying, bombings like this do not help. We need to look at different options...terrorism is one of desperation and instead of just jumping on the bandwagon and meeting violence with violence is to understand why this is happening. It is not irrational like our feeble minded friend, Reagan would like to say...whether in Palestine, Ireland, or the Muslim countries...there is a rationality to it. THIS DOES NOT MEAN IT IS JUSTIFIED. It is a disgusting solution. However, our interference and imperialism within these countries (Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the mid east) create the conditons favorable toward terrorism. Does anyone seriously think that people driven by desperation will feel less desperate by the Mother Country (AKA United States) bombing the hell out of them? I know, it's just a leftist talking but we need to think deeper and have brains in these situations. It's a shame that the powers that be within the US will play with all of our lives by peretuating this problem. In peace and justice Mike
-------------------------- Michael Saltz
"The scale [the IQ scale], properly speaking, does not permit the measure of the intelligence, because intellectual qualities are not superposable, and therefore cannot be measured as linear surfaces are measured." --Alfred Binet, inventor of the IQ test
"The white race appears to be the most progressive, as being the most retarded." --Louis Bolk, biological determinist and racist.
"The system used the nonviolent themes of Martin Luther King's life to present a strategy designed to protect its own interests-imagine the most violent nation on earth, the heir of Indian and African genocide, the only nation ever to drop an atomic bomb on a civilian population, the world's biggest arms dealer, the country that napalmed over ten million people in Vietname (to 'save' it from communism), the world's biggest jailer, waving the corpse of King, calling for nonviolence!" -Mumia Abu-Jamal