Posted March 25, 2002

'Opened My Eyes'

Your site has really opened my eyes! Unfortunately I'm pissing a lot of people off now.

~ P.B.

'Murderers'

You want murderers? Look to the suicide bombers who intentionally blow up women, children, babies, anybody who happens to be within their radius, the more the better. And their Palestinian compatriots dance in the streets at the sight of Jewish flesh splattered across the streets. That's murder.

You welcome me to your website with the over-the-top headline "Israeli Troops Murder Mother of 5" [which linked to the CBC video, "Israeli army embarrassed by video broadcast"], when a simpler headline would have done just fine. As a law student, I learned that "murder" requires the intention to kill, it requires a particular state of mind. These Israeli soldiers are not murderers in any court of law. Not murderers by any means. So your choice of headlines is biased at best, hysterical at worst.

Look to your Palestinians for the real murderers.

~ David Batlle, Texas

Webmaster Eric Garris replies:

Murder includes killing someone while in the commission of another related crime (i.e., blowing open someone's door with dynamite when they are not even suspects). I do not believe that dancing, however much it may be in bad taste, is murder (as any law student should know).

I agree that suicide bombers are murderers, and our site regularly reports them as such. However, as a Jewish American I am more upset about killings committed with my tax dollars and in the name of my faith.

Rhetorical Enemies

...In your last response to my letters . . . [Justin Raimondo] said that the suggestion of Saudi involvement "makes absolutely no sense" -- despite their extreme uncooperativeness in the wake of the attacks (flying Saudi nationals out of the U.S. before they could be questioned, for example), and despite the connections that respected sites like Stratfor.com (whom Antiwar.com apparently relies on quite a bit for insight, judging by the frequent links) have pointed out between members of the Saudi royal family and al-Qa'eda. You've dismissed all of that by simply saying that Riyadh and al-Qa'eda are (rhetorical) mortal enemies.

But now that your own efforts seem to have exposed an instance in which a government that, by all appearances, is even more inimical to the goals of al-Qa'eda, has in fact been cooperating with them, are you now willing to re-evaluate that criticism just a tad?

~ Daniel Basken

Freedom of Speech

I just wanted to commend you on the fine investigative research conducted by Antiwar.com. Freedom of speech . . . is exactly what we need more of in these dark days of censorship and intentional omission.

~ Alsace H.

Why the DEA?

[Regarding Justin Raimondo's column of March 22, "The Truth at Last":]

You seem hesitant to make another conjecture about what the Israeli spying was about. Here we have all these "students" spying on mostly the DEA and at the same time living a short distance from the Atta crowd. It seems to me anyway, they wanted to keep track of the "watchers", to see how much they new of the fateful operation. They'd only do this if they were in collusion with the Atta crowd. If they (DEA) had found out, they would have canned the operation. Why the DEA? Perhaps the Israeli government wasn't directly involved -- maybe some extremist rightwingers in the government -- so they funded it using illegal drugs, just like the CIA did with the terrorist Contras against Nicaragua. They had an example. This would also explain why one student didn't want the FBI to tell the Israeli government because he was afraid he'd be arrested.

~ Richard H., Massachusetts

Human Bait

[Regarding Justin Raimondo's column of March 22, "The Truth at Last":]

"[....W]e are faced with only two possible explanations: The Israelis knew, but didn’t tell us [ . . .] or: The Israelis knew and did tell us, but the incompetence of the US government got in the way of effective preventive action."

Incompetence perhaps, but if the men on the Battleship Maine and the Pacific Fleet can be used as human bait, what prevents political leaders from using the Twin Towers as same? This supposition at least accounts for the inexplicable standing down of fighter aircraft on 9/11 -- with the exception of the one shoot-down in Pennsylvania. Cui bono? Washington too stands to gain by realizing its drang to the Caucasus.

~ Petar M.