Day: September 12, 2001

PETA Terrorist Spin Endangers Lives

PETA takes the terrorist attack as an opportunity to slam Giuliani’s supposed lack of caring about the animals, which is bad enough. But they’re urging people to call the Mayor’s office to urge him to take action to save companion animals. What the hell is wrong with these people? We’ve got probably 10,000+ people dead in New York and massive phone problems already, and they want people to add to that mess by demanding that someone rescue their pet cat trapped in a nearby building? Unbelievable. This is the height of irresponsibility (emphasis added),

New York City’s Animals Desperately Need Your Voice

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Obviously our hearts go out to every human being affected by the tragedy at the World Trade Center. This terrible tragedy has serious repercussions for animals, too. Due to the tremendous loss of human lives, there will undoubtedly be many animals left orphaned. Other animals are trapped in buildings that have been evacuated and to which people have learned they are unable to return. PETA’s headquarters is receiving calls from desperate New York City residents whose companion animals are trapped inside now vacated apartments, some so close to the World Trade Center that the animals inside can only be highly traumatized by the explosions, the sirens, the noise, the shaking ground, the smoke, and now the unexplained absence of their families. We know of at least one 13-floor building, 120 Greenwich Street, practically across the street from the World Trade Center, where more than 20 dogs and an undetermined number of other companion animals are locked inside apartments without food or water or comfort.

These animals need your immediate help.

Mayor Giuliani has a poor record when it comes to animals. In 1998 he refused to allow desperate New Yorkers whose apartment building’s scaffolding collapsed, the opportunity to tend to or rescue their beloved animals for more than five days, leaving animals to become dehydrated and starving.

Please urge Mayor Giuliani to set up a task force to locate and rescue animals in need. To many of this disaster’s victims and their families, these beloved animals are members of the family and would be a great source of comfort.

PETA and other animal protection groups are willing to send trained rescuers into the buildings to take the animals out, if given the chance. We will sign waives of liability in the event of any injury or death. United Animal Nations (UAN.org), can offer assistance with mobilizing volunteers and rescuing and caring for abandoned animals.

Mayor Giuliani’s address is:

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
Tel.: 212-788-9600
Fax: 212-788-7476
E-Mail: http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html

If you have a difficult time getting through to Mayor Giuliani due to phone line trouble, please don’t give up; keep trying.

Will Taliban Get a Chance to Hand over Bin Laden?

It’s kind of amazing to see how quickly the FBI, etc., have managed to track down those responsible for the World Trade Center/Pentagon attacks. Not only did U.S. intelligence officials apparently intercept calls to Osama bin Laden about the targets hit by the terrorists, but the FBI has apparently already identified all of the hijackers onboard the planes, including a few who were on a special “watch” list distributed to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

And now, CNN is reporting that the FBI has made several arrests both in Florida and Massachussetts.

All of this seems to point to a likely attack on Afghanistan sooner rather than later. Afghanistan is reportedly taking precautions in case of such an attack.

I’d be very surprised if an attack isn’t launched very quickly. For political and symbolic reasons, Geroge W. Bush is probably going to feel it necessary to take military action as soon as possible after there is no longer any doubt about bin Laden’s involvement.

Will the Taliban Hand Over Bin Laden

United Press International reports that Pakistan is actively trying to convince the Taliban to hand over Osama Bin Laden on the theory that the United States is likely to find Bin Laden responsbile and launch an overwhelming attack on Afghanistan.

The UPI notes that Pakistan is one of only three countries that recognizes the Taliban, which only tells half the story. It is unlikely the Taliban would exist as we know it were it not for the support it received from Pakistan after the Soviet withdrawal. The short version is that Pakistan was concerned about the infighting between the various factions who had fought the Soviet government, and put its weight behind the upstart Taliban (although some people like to blame the U.S. for helping to create the Taliban, the reality is that it was an extremely radical faction that didn’t emerge until well after U.S. involvement in Afghanistan had largely ended).

The problem for the Taliban, though, is that just a few days ago, suicide bombers believed to be part of bin Laden’s group assassinated Ahmad Shah Mas’ud who was the leader of the only group in Afghanistan left that was a serious challenge to the Taliban. The Taliban resistance is reportedly in chaos after Mas’ud’s death.

This is sort of a damned if you do, damned if you don’t. If they don’t hand over bin Laden, they’re likely to face an overwhelming military response from the United States. Hand him over, however, and Taliban leaders themselves will certainly be the targets of terrorist attacks by bin Laden’s group.

Revenge, American Style: Rebuild the Towers

It’s been very interesting reading people’s reactions to the terrorist attacks, including some of the undiluted rage and anger. That’s a pretty natural reaction, though I hope cooler heads prevail and we don’t get engaged in some sort of war with Afghanistan.

After repeated watchings of the horrific video of these planes smashing into the World Trade Center, however, there is one form of revenge I’d like to see — whatever else the United States does, we need to rebuild the World Trade Center Towers.

Sure we can drop cruise missiles over Afghanistan, we could carpet bomb the hell out of that country, given the right intelligence we could probably even seize Osama Bin Laden and bring him back to this country for trial.

But longer term, if we really want to make a powerful statement that we will not live in fear of these sorts of cowardly acts, rebuild the towers and let them stand as a symbol of our national resolve.

Boston Herald: 9/11 Suspects Identified; Used Horrific Methods to Lure Pilots

The Boston Herald is reporting that five Arab men have been identified as suspects in the hijacking of four planes in the United States yesterday.

The disgusting part is how the men apparently lured the pilots out of the cockpit,

Once in the air, the hijackers in one plane began killing flight attendants in order to lure a pilot from the cockpit and seize the plane, said one source.

“They started killing stewardesses in the back of the plane as a diversion. The pilot came back to help and that is how they got into the cockpit,” said the source. The source could not specify whether those events took place on the American Airlines flight that left Logan, or the United Airlines flight. Both planes were plunged into the World Trade Center roughly an hour after they departed Boston.

The suspects had no guns, but used shaving kits and other carry-on luggage to smuggle knife-like weapons made up of plastic handles embedded with razor blades, sources familiar with last night’s developments said. That finding is consistent with reports of a flight attendant’s cell-phone call from one of the doomed airliners.

As if public opinion weren’t already inflamed enough.