The Freedom Tower

During the campaign, the Washington Times reports, President-elect Barack “Obama said the United States would be well served by returning to the anti-terror tactics of the Clinton years - trying suspects in court. Mr. Obama suggested that Gitmo was damaging international respect for the United States. By contrast, “in previous terror attacks, for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center [in 1993], we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated.”

If anything, the experience of the 1990s proves just the opposite - that trying terrorists in open court is laden with pratfalls that jeopardize national security.

On Feb. 26, 1993, an al Qaeda terrorist cell bombed the World Trade Center, killing six persons and injuring 1,000. From the beginning, the investigation of the bombing was hampered by the insistence of the Clinton administration on treating it as a law-enforcement problem rather than one of state sponsorship. Senior administration officials rebuffed CIA Director James Woolsey’s efforts to investigate evidence that foreign governments may have been behind the attack. The U.S. government won convictions of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman (the “blind sheik”) and members of his terror cell in the bombing of the World Trade Center, conspiracy to bomb the United nations, the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels and the FBI’s Manhattan headquarters.

Mr. Obama suggests that trying the terrorists in open court did not damage U.S. security. He neglects to mention what took place during the prosecution of the sheik.

During the trial, prosecutors turned over a list of 200 unindicted conspirators to the defense - as the civilian criminal justice system required them to do. Within 10 days, the list made its way to downtown Khartoum, and Osama bin Laden knew that the U.S. government was on his trail. By giving this information to the defense in that terrorism case, the U.S. courts gave al Qaeda valuable information about which of its agents had been uncovered.

In another case, according to then-U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey, there was seemingly innocuous testimony about delivery of a cell phone. That alerted terrorists to government surveillance. They shut down their communication network and intelligence was lost to the government forever.

Giving terrorists access to the U.S. legal system is hardly a cost-free exercise, as a seemingly naive Mr. Obama appears to believe.”

The Bush years tainted America’s reputation in the eyes of the world. But London Times Washington correspondent Sarah Baxter who grew up in the US, says the victory of Barack Obama has revealed the nation as it really is. This is her report:

On a beautiful autumn day seven years ago, I stood below the burning towers of the World Trade Center in New York and felt the world spin. The late 20th century’s period of western peace and prosperity had drawn to an end and this, it seemed, was to be its successor – an era of war and danger to compare with the horrors of my parents’ generation.
As I made my way home, shocked and covered in ash and debris from the fallen towers, I felt afraid for my children and the century they would inherit.
Eventually my optimism returned and in the freezing cold last January my husband, Jez, and I took our children out of school to watch Senator Edward Kennedy, the last of the Kennedy brothers, endorse Barack Obama for president.
It wasn’t obvious yet that Obama would win the White House, but he was already making history as the first African-Ameri-can who was in with a chance. He had said all along it was an “improbable” journey for the son of a single mother from Kansas and a Kenyan father, but with a true pioneer spirit he had embarked on it anyway.
We wanted Billie, 11, and Max, 8, to see that America really was a land of opportunity. The Kennedys were quasi-royal, but Obama was a modern 21st-century version of a candidate who was trying to make it from log cabin to White House.
“I was too young to remember John Kennedy and I was just a child when Robert Kennedy ran for president,” Obama said with the old liberal lion of the Senate at his side. “But in the stories I heard growing up, I saw how my grandparents and mother spoke about them and about that period in our nation’s life as a time of great hope and achievement.”
Perhaps that is how our children will remember election day 2008. The politics of hope has vaulted Obama, 47, from unknown Illinois senator to president and commander-in-chief of the world’s super-power in a few short years.
In Grant Park in Chicago, where he gave his victory speech on a surprisingly warm night last Tuesday, the crowd of 125,000 was on an emotional high. Denise Thomas, 38, an African-American from Chicago, told me: “I feel like I’m not here. I am floating on air. He’s a great visionary. He’s got his work cut out, but he’s going to do it. I know it.”
President-elect Obama is about to inherit two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and Osama Bin Laden is still at large. The economy is in even worse shape than when it collapsed after 9/11. The threat of terrorism has not receded.
But America feels good about itself and its future again. Its moral standing in the eyes of the world rose overnight. Feizel Mamdoo, my brother-in-law, texted me from Johannesburg: “You’d think South Africa was voting! There are allnight election parties here.”

Sadiq Green of the DigitalJournal.com reports “In 2001, after the Clinton administrations reluctance, and in the midst of the Bush administrations pre-occupation with a possible resurgent Russia and missle defense, our nation experienced a painful, hideous terrorist attack. The foreign policy blunders of the New World came to bear as two jumbo jets exploded into the World Trade Center, one crashed into the Pentagon and one fell into a field in Pennsylvania. Americans then realized that we would have to confront a loosely organized but world spread terrorist threat. The theological battle between peaceful Muslim nations and their internal radical elements, would have to play itself out on the soil of several nations across the globe.

I watched the coverage live on NBC that Tuesday, sitting in front of the television in severe disbelief with an individual who had just left a job at the World Trade Center the previous Friday. As a fairly educated, 31 year old man at the time, I realized I was poorly equipped to understand the consequences of misguided foreign policy. “It has to be the terrorists,” I concluded, demonstrating little comprehension of the word or why it equated to unthinkable violence. The TV commentators uttered many familiar names from recent terror incidents; Abu Nidal, Ramzi Yousef, Timothy McVeigh and others. Then the name Osama bin Laden became part of our national vocabulary when news outlets tied the plane hijackers to the Islamic fundamentalists known as Al Qaeda.

In some way, those men had lived an aspect of the American Dream. They trained in domestic flight schools, found sympathetic underground cohorts to support their mission, and eventually carried out the most effective strike on the United States since Pearl Harbor. The events that followed in many ways are responsible for Barack Obama’s meteoric ascent. The generation of dissatisfied, apprehensive voters witnessed government secrecy unseen in our lifetime, but certainly commonplace in American intelligence circles since the McCarthy era of the 1950’s and the COINTELPRO era of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

Shortly thereafter, the executive branch expanded its power to perpetrate an international witch hunt with the Patriot Act. The Central Intelligence Agency stood at odds with the FBI due to the information crunch applied by President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and their resident hawk, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Colin Powell and Condi Rice stood beside President Bush as he recklessly marched into Baghdad with a bogus international coalition of allies, and tepid support from the congress. The Department of Homeland Security seized responsibility from all other defense institutions.

The term ‘weapons of mass destruction’ became part of the daily vernacular from major media who lost objectivity due to blind patriotism, as it became the basis of our pinpointed invasion of Iraq. If a ragtag bunch of terrorists could make their stamp on history with planes, imagine what a nation empowered with devastating weapons and an erratic leader could do? Nearly forty years before, the U.S. had seen the Soviet Union, with the help of Fidel Casto’s Cuba, wave the nuclear bone at the big dog. Apparently W., then a student at the prestigious Phillips Prep Academy, had not learned from the lessons of pre-emption. No, he and his cohorts’ chest-beating bravado dominated our diplomacy and gradually, America conceded its real power by chasing the wrong villains in the wrong countries.

Enter Barack Obama. Only a lowly Illinois State Senator at the time he openly, and as it turned out, prophetically spoke out against the administrations bravado, stressing that our only chance to conquer the terrorist threat was to engage in a multi-faceted, truly multinational mission. Concentrating our mission in Iraq ran the risk of handcuffing the world’s most powerful military indefinitely, he concluded. The United Nations and NATO protocol behooves our vigilance even when the difficult possibility of covert terrorists stand to challenge the global accord. But as a local politician, Obama’s voice was limited to the echo chamber of the so-called disloyal anti-patriots, as labeled by the war mongers who owned the days back then.

Several events soon justified his even rationale. The 9/11 Commission findings were one. The resignation of Colin Powell, due to his feeling that he was betrayed by Bush & Co. into providing false information to the world about Iraq, sealing the deal on an invasion under false pretenses. The dismissal of Donald Rumsfeld, verified the brash nature of pursuing unfounded tips, conducting flawed military strategy and putting US soldiers in a position to become war criminals. U.S. casualties in Iraq rose continuously in a country where Americans were supposed to be greeted as liberators. Instead the military was soon engaged in a civil war between Iraqis fighting for control of their country and an outside terror threat, that did not exist before the invasion and occupation of that sovereign country.

Perhaps most significantly though, the American electorate began to view Bush/Cheney’s actions as evidence of a corrosive, single-minded effort to bully the rest of the world in order to win at all costs, regardless of no clear strategic explanation of what victory would be. As support for the effort plummeted and stranded Guantanamo “terror suspects” found legal grounds to push against their totalitarian, draconian imprisonment, young Barack Obama’s theories became less like the cries of hasty dissent, than the reasoned expressions of a thoughtful alternative.

Moreover, when the thin premises of the Iraq invasion began to unravel in the public forum, another chapter of history began writing itself. Many Americans, especially the youth, who witnessed the events of 9/11 and the Iraq invasion, now had no reason to believe in their government. Many had seen Bill Clinton nearly removed from office by personal scandal. Many watched the free press and the Supreme court get duped by a plotting cabal of insiders driven by party affiliation during the 2000 election and subsequent legal challenges. The Twin Towers collapsed while many explored the dark world of conspiracy for answers. In the wake of national tragedy, many had no reassurance that America’s leaders were working for more than vindication and a stake in the resource markets overseas.

President George W. Bush’s classic non-expression as his adviser floated a whisper of the 9/11 attacks into his ear in front of a class of elementary school students is a lasting memory. With no plan in place, he proceeded from there, hidden in a shroud of secrecy, to an Air Base in Nebraska. Curiously, many fortune 500 company heads who were spared because they were not in the Trade Towers that day, but at the same Air Force base that President Bush was taken to. Sissela Bok once wrote, “Secrecy is as indispensable to human beings as fire, and as greatly feared.” The character of our government changed from repressed transparency to all-out deception.

President-elect Obama has protected his share of valuable information, no doubt, and has even sided with some of the more controversial aspects of the Bush administrations domestic policies. He voted yes on the extension of the Patriot Act, and he supported the telecom immunity provisions included in the updated FISA legislation. There are times when it is necessary for our political leaders to block the public from panic, even if that conflicts with serving the peoples needs. However, since he owes his election to the “failed policies of the last eight years”, the President-elect must reaffirm the basic trust that extends from populace to leader. He has earned the banner of correction through consensus and as President, Barack Obama must solidify his voice through policy edicts, honesty and clarity.

These should be the tenets that bind him to the generation that has bought into his cult of personality. The charisma factor will likely vanish on January 20, 2009 and America wait cautiously to see how he deals with the standing threats of blistering domestic and worldwide ideologies.”

“There must be more to life than this, figured Ulrich Schmid-Maybach, great-grandson and heir of legendary luxury-car designer Wilhelm Maybach, as he sat in a Cannes hotel room four years ago,” Bloomberg News Service reports.

“That’s when the urge hit him to use some of his family’s millions to help others less fortunate, Schmid-Maybach, 47, said during a recent interview in New York.

In 2006, he launched the Wilhelm & Karl Maybach Foundation in San Francisco, where he was born and raised, and started a mentoring program for young adults interested in careers ranging from the arts to science and medicine.

This fall, he extended the charity’s reach to help young photographers from disadvantaged backgrounds document the rebuilding of the World Trade Center in New York.

“We looked particularly for those who had faced adversity of some kind who need to be connected to people who can help them,'’ Schmid-Maybach said. “Poverty and talent aren’t mutually exclusive.'’

Clyde Novitz tells this story on www.opednews.com:
“The 911 terrorist attacks came at a politically sensitive time for our leadership in Washington, especially for George Bush and his father, and actually their friends in Saudi Arabia as well. It’s a story you’ve likely never heard because the war on terror has distracted our news media who were looking for an excuse to not report on it when the war on terror started. It was so convenient with all the players, even Osama bin Laden, being intimately connected to this one issue that none of them want the story of to come out. At least I assume Osama is on their team since it fits so well with a secret agenda to use the war on terror as camouflage to keep this story from coming out.

I’ve told the story related to what I believe is behind the attacks many times. But I don’t often refer directly to the attacks being connected to it because I don’t think many people would believe it even if they were looking at convincing arguments that there are questions that still have to be answered surrounding evidence we all witnessed first hand but no one else has ever questioned, perhaps because they never noticed what was missing from the big picture. What I’m referring to is the people falling or jumping off the World Trade Centers as the building burned before it collapsed. There was reported to be hundreds of them falling to their deaths within a half hour period. The burning question in my mind is what happened to the footage of their last moments alive.”

“While some in both parties and both campaigns may say otherwise, terrorism is not a partisan issue,” The Baltimore Sun reports. “The first World Trade Center attack happened during the first days of the Bill Clinton presidency but was planned during the closing months of the administration of George H.W. Bush. While the second World Trade Center attack happened less than eight months into the George W. Bush administration, it was planned during the waning months of the Clinton administration. Intelligence experts who study al-Qaida and its offshoots will tell you that these terrorists don’t care if you are liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat. If you are an American, you are the enemy.

During Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s first major interview as Senator McCain’s running mate, Charles Gibson of ABC News raised a topic that has been brought to my attention repeatedly by some Pentagon officials and some of my former Pentagon colleagues. They wonder and worry about what happens to the much-maligned “Bush Doctrine” - which basically amounts to (in conjunction with our allies) destroying these terrorists and their cells where they eat, sleep and plan - should Senator Obama win in November. These officials - a number of whom are not fond of Mr. Bush - worry that if a President Obama drastically scales back or seeks to repeal the Patriot Act, outlaws electronic eavesdropping, extends habeas corpus rights to terrorism suspects and deems aspects of the Bush Doctrine to be criminal, how long before the terrorists reconstitute themselves and hit the U.S. homeland again? It’s a legitimate concern that has been all but ignored by debate moderators, the candidates and the media.”

The new GI Bill passed by Congress over the summer, the Boston Globe says dramatically expands veterans benefits. It “was lauded as a sign that the country was looking after this generation of warriors. But don’t extol its virtues to Grey Adkins, who served two tours with the Navy off the coast of Iraq, is $10,000 in debt, and won’t see a dime of the new benefits.
Even though it is called the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the new legislation won’t take effect until Aug. 1, 2009 - eight years after jets felled the twin towers and other planes crashed into the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. By then, Adkins will have graduated from Towson University. And because the bill is not retroactive, it won’t help him at all.

The difference it would make is stark. Currently, he receives $1,600 a month during the school year, or about $15,000. Under the new bill, he would be eligible for up to twice that amount each school year.

So far, more than 410,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have used the current GI Bill, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs - and many, like Adkins, will finish school before the new benefits start.

Many advocates for veterans say it took too long to update a GI Bill that has not kept pace with the escalating price of college tuition. But now there is also concern that the VA won’t be able to meet the August deadline after it abruptly abandoned its plan to hire a private contractor this month and instead will implement the new program itself.”

The New York Times reports that “after the twin towers fell, they grieved together: the firefighter’s parents, his fiancée and his best friend.

Last week, seven years later, the mourners were together again, but separated — by courtroom furniture, and by one of the more bitter legal disputes the World Trade Center attack has produced.

Firefighter Kevin Prior’s fiancée, Doreen Noone, is seeking to collect $37,600 a year in his pension benefits. Firefighter Prior’s parents, Gerard and Marian Prior, say that she is not entitled to the money and that it should go to them.

Firefighter Prior’s childhood best friend, Sgt. Edward Wheeler of the New York Police Department, who was to have been the best man at the firefighter’s wedding, ended up marrying Ms. Noone three years after 9/11. On Thursday, he testified that the rift with the Priors had compounded his grief.

“Me and Doreen were the two closest people in the world to Kevin besides his family,” Sergeant Wheeler, who works in a Brooklyn precinct, said in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn. “Now we don’t talk. It’s the most surreal thing I’ve ever experienced.”

The determination of who will get the pension turns on the definition of “domestic partner” in a state law passed in 2003 to allow companions, and not just spouses, of police officers and firefighters killed on 9/11 to collect their pensions.”

The Economist says the “Saudi kingdom has long been a fountainhead of jihadist radicalism, with martyrdom-seekers going on one-way tickets to such places as Chechnya, Iraq and the Twin Towers in America. At first rather complacent about Islamist terror, the Saudi rulers rumbled into active opposition only after their own cities came under fire, starting with a series of bombings in their capital, Riyadh, in May 2003. Now, in a move that suggests growing confidence in thwarting jihadist violence, Saudi courts have begun procedures to try 991 prisoners held on terrorism charges, in the most sweeping legal action yet taken in the global campaign against the extremists.

Aside from its scale, the mass prosecution is notable because the trials will take place under Islamic law before a panel of judges who are, like all those in the arch-conservative kingdom, schooled in the strict Wahhabist interpretation that has helped to inspire the ideology of groups such as al-Qaeda itself. Saudi officials are quick to assert that sharia sentences should therefore carry greater legitimacy than those handed down by the military tribunals favoured by other countries, which many Muslims, and not just jihadist sympathisers, dismiss as suspect.”

Investor’s Business Daily says a “nation as powerful and capable as the U.S. should have finished the rebuilding by now. Instead, according to the timetables announced recently, only the 9/11 memorial will be open by the 10th anniversary of the attacks, and even it will not be fully finished.

The centerpiece of the reconstruction, the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower skyscraper, is not expected to open at least until 2013. A $3.2 billion transit hub, now $700 million over budget, will open at the site no earlier than 2014. This glaring display of can’t-do spirit may prove in the long run to be just a local scandal. But we’re not so sure it has left the nation’s confidence unscathed.

You would think (to use an old line) that a country able to put a man on the moon could get a couple of office buildings, even big ones, rebuilt in less than a decade, along with a suitable memorial. The unfinished work at Ground Zero may make the world wonder — may even make Americans wonder — if this nation could put a man on the moon again, if it can’t even do this.

Perhaps (Mayor) Mike Bloomberg is thinking that, now that he is in line to get just one more term, he can be there to cut the ribbon at the Freedom Tower in 2013. We certainly hope that some New York mayor, whoever he or she is, will get to do that before the next term is up.

But if things had gone as they should, Bloomberg would have cut all the ribbons by now and would be leaving office with his job well done.”