September11

You can shortcut to this page by linking to http://www.istori.com/sept11/.

Minoru Yamasaki World Trade Center quote and links moved to Humanity Dignity Cooperation Greatness.

Articles about how we got into this mess

 * Saladin Crusaders Bin Laden
 * The Politics of Rage: Why Do They Hate Us?, Newsweek
 * PJ O'Rourke Interview, The Telegraph
 * Roots of Rage, Time


 * Fight to the Finish, U.S. News & World Report
 * What should be the Response to Violence?, Michael Jennings
 * INSIDE JIHAD U. The Education of a Holy Warrior, New York Times, June 2000

Compendia of Resources

 * http://kgate.virtual.net/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi?action=Browse&id=SeptemberDisaster
 * Journalist's Resources

Images

 * condolences around the world:: http://thankyou.fast-networks.net/ (local mirror: http://www.istori.com/sept11/thankyou/)


 * images from the WTC:: http://www.worldtradecenterimages.org/


 * newspaper front pages:: http://www.poynter.org/Terrorism/PDF1.htm


 * links to a large number of infographics prepared to explain the events:: http://www.nixlog.com/infographics/


 * US flag graphic:: http://www.thepartycow.com/flag/

Essays by others

 * /David Pryce Jones: Excerpt: "Democracy alone is able to supplant that sort of sterile hate and transform Us or Them into the Us and Them that we all deserve."


 * /Henry Kissinger: Excerpt: "Of course there should be some act of retaliation, and I would certainly support it, but it cannot be the end of the process and should not even be the principal part of it. The principal part has to be to get the terrorist system on the run, and by the terrorist system I mean those parts of it that are organized on a global basis and can operate by synchronized means."


 * /Jay Ambrose: Excerpt: "Any economist worth the academic degree he brandishes can tell you that our wealth makes others wealthier, just as our economic system would serve them much better than charity if they would adopt it. This country's culture - our openness, our embrace of individualism and disdain for self-important authority, our pluralism, our relatively high degree of tolerance for all sorts of differences, our secularism in civic affairs, our pragmatism, our joy in liberty - is anathema to many whose own understandings are more monolithic and less yielding."


 * /John Leo: Excerpt: "Now that everyone seems to agree that we are at war, it's important to make clear just what that war is about. ... this is a global cultural war, pitting a pan-Islamic movement of fundamentalist extremists against the modern world and its primary cultural engine, America, 'the Great Satan.' But that does not mean we are in a battle against Islam. The vast majority of Muslims want no part of terrorism, and many Muslim states are as nervous about extremism as we are. The problem is a religious subculture that cannot cope with openness, change, rules, democracy, secularism, and tolerance–and that wishes to destroy those who can."


 * /Kevin Kelly: Excerpt:"Radical Islam will become the new communism, if it isn't that already. It has a deep appeal, even to those subjugated to it. There are aspects about it that even supporters don't like and can't stand, but they will submit to it because they believe it is better overall than the alternative of 'western capitalism.'"


 * /Lord Howell Of Guildford: Excerpt: "... power has been transferred away from responsible governments or even irresponsible governments into the hands of some good but some extremely dangerous organisations. It may be said that flying airliners into skyscrapers is not new technology, but the whole organisation of this devilish plot was driven by e-mail, Internet, modern secret communication, coding and ciphering of a kind which would not have been possible 10 or even five years ago. It enabled these people simply to programme their aeroplanes, once they had seized them, to drive straight into the World Trade Centre. So technology has transferred power and the sooner democracies and governments understand that point the sooner we shall be able to cope with the entirely new situation."


 * /Matthew Parris: Excerpt: "...with every year that passes, every thousandth link-up to the Internet, every millionth new mobile phone, it becomes less necessary for conspirators to meet physically in one place in order to conspire. The day is coming, perhaps has already come, when terrorists will not need to gather in camps. There will be no HQs to bomb, no cells to track down, no tents to ransack. The concept of 'host' country as geographical location for a terrorist group may already be too weak to bear weight, certainly too weak to justify revenge-bombing of the uninvolved."


 * /Noam Chomsky: Excerpt: "Today's attacks were major atrocities. In terms of number of victims they do not reach the level of many others, for example, Clinton's bombing of the Sudan with no credible pretext, destroying half its pharmaceutical supplies and probably killing tens of thousands of people (no one knows, because the US blocked an inquiry at the UN and no one cares to pursue it). Not to speak of much worse cases, which easily come to mind. But that this was a horrendous crime is not in doubt."


 * /Pervez Hoodbhoy: Excerpt: "This not an argument for inaction: Osama and his gang, as well as other such gangs, if they can be found, must be brought to justice. But indiscriminate slaughter can do nothing except add fuel to existing hatreds. Today, the U.S. is the victim, but a carpet-bombing of Afghanistan will cause it to squander the huge swell of sympathy in its favour the world over. Instead, it will create nothing but revulsion and promote never-ending tit-for-tat killings. Ultimately, the security of the United States lies in its re-engaging with the people of the world, especially with those that it has grievously harmed. As a great country, possessing an admirable constitution that protects the life and liberty of its citizens, it must extend its definition of humanity to cover all peoples of the world. It must respect international treaties such as those on greenhouse gases and biological weapons, stop trying to force a new Cold War by pushing through national missile defense, pay its UN dues, and cease the aggrandizement of wealth in the name of globalization."


 * /Salman Rushdie: Excerpt: "The point is to decide ... not to let fear rule our lives. To tell those bullies who would terrorise us that we aren't scared of them. And to thank our secret protectors, but to remind them, too, that in a choice between security and liberty, it is liberty that must always come out on top."


 * /Stratfor No Easy Battle: Excerpt: "One [school of thought] argues that the attackers are essentially agents of some foreign government that enables them to operate. Therefore, by either defeating or dissuading this government from continuing to support the attackers, they will be rendered ineffective and the threat will end. ... The second school of thought argues that the entity we are facing is instead an amorphous, shifting collection of small groups, controlled in a dynamic and unpredictable manner and deliberately without a clear geographical locus."


 * /Tamim Ansary: Excerpt: "But the Taliban and Ben Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political criminal with a plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think 'the people of Afghanistan' think 'the Jews in the concentration camps.'"


 * /Todd Boyle: Excerpt: "The economy has always had various means to route around governments. This decentralization must reach further into the Islamic nations, so that their peoples can achieve their own aspirations and desires. Bluntly, we need to napsterize the whole economy so that their governments and our governments cannot organize into warfare."


 * /Vinton Cerf: Excerpt: "Now, more than ever, the Internet must be wielded along with other media to cast bright lights on all who would destroy freedom in the world. Information is the torch of truth and its free flow is the bloodstream of democracy."


 * /War Resisters League: Excerpt: "We are one world. We shall live in a state of fear and terror or we shall move toward a future in which we seek peaceful alternatives to conflict and a more just distribution of the world's resources. As we mourn the many lives lost, our hearts call out for reconciliation, not revenge."

Essay by Peter Kaminski

 * /Centralism Vs Decentralism: Excerpt: "Networks and communications technologies help to perfect democracy and free markets, and are relatively blind to national borders. ...  Democracy is the best way to aggregate brain power.  Free markets are just the economic form of natural selection."

Other Stuff

 * Humanity Dignity Cooperation Greatness: A little about the World Trade Center buildings and their architect.