-CTF Editorial: July 12, 1999

The treatment of women in Afghanistan by the Taliban regime has become nothing less than inhumane, and I urge you to contact President Clinton, as well as your Congressional Representatives regarding this matter. This is an urgent human rights issue which must be addressed.

As a world leader, the United States MUST begin to act on these matters. To quote Amnesty International, "The Women‘s Human Rights Treaty (CEDAW) is helping women throughout the world, but the fact that the US is one of the very few countries in the world that has not ratified CEDAW is hurting women! The treaty establishes a minimum set of standards for combating discrimination against women. It has been ratified by over 160 countries. And, its universality counters inevitable claims that in certain cultures discrimination, domestic violence, and other forms of oppression are acceptable. Without the United States as a party to the treaty, however, repressive governments can easily discount the treaty‘s provisions."

Today in Afghanistan, a woman has no basic right to vote, to pursue an education, to join the job force, even to leave their homes and walk unescorted by a male relative. Thousands of women have been raped or beaten for even the most minor violations, and men who oppose such laws have been massacred. In one horrific case 8,000 died as a result of Taliban oppression.

AID workers in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan have reported a dramatic increase in the number of women committing suicide because they can no longer bear the country's all-pervasive Islamic code. In the worst cases, women have taken their own lives by swallowing caustic soda - an agonizing and lingering death. In addition, the number of women admitted to mental hospitals with severe depression has more than doubled since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, 20 months ago and forbade women to work. There has also been a rise in domestic violence as frustration builds up in families, already in dire economic straits. And there are reports of prostitution among street children as young as eight or nine.

These oppressive laws have been made by the Taliban, a political group that gained control of the country in the power vacuum left there following the Soviet withdrawal, and America's subsequent neglect under George Bush. Taliban's insistence on secluding women from public life is a political maneuver disguised as "Islamic" law. Such a view has no basis in the Qur'an, yet it has been promoted by Taliban as "Islamic." This situation is very distressing considering that women were given rights in the Qur'an to contribute to the economy by owning and selling property 1400 years ago:

"Men shall have a benefit from what they earn, and women shall have a benefit from what they earn." (Sura 4:32)

If you feel compelled to act as I did, please copy/paste the following letters into an email, sign your name, and send to the following address: president@whitehouse.gov

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Dear President Clinton,

Thank you for condemning the Taliban's treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan, and for increasing the number of Afghan refugees admitted to the United States.

I firmly believe that United Nations sanctions against the Taliban are imperative for the restoration of the rights of Afghan women and girls. I urge the United States to support these sanctions and to make sure that the sanctions are conditioned on the Taliban's brutal gender apartheid policies and obscene human rights violations as well as Osama bin Laden and terrorism.

The Taliban militia should be isolated not only because of Osama bin Laden and terrorism, but also because of their violations of international human rights principles and laws and their abhorrent treatment of women and girls.

With both the U.S. sanctions and the proposed United Nations sanctions, we are concerned that if the Taliban turns over bin Laden that the sanctions would be removed and that the ability of the U.S. and the international community to pressure the Taliban to restore women's human rights would be severely diminished.

Your support for Afghan women is important to me, and it is important to U.S. women.

Thank you,

 

Signed _____________________________
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UPDATE

Afghan Hindus Told To Wear Label

-AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer: May 22, 2001

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban intend to require Hindus to wear identity labels on their clothing to distinguish them from Muslims, a proposal sharply denounced by India and the United States.

The Taliban said the measure - which would also require Hindu women to be veiled for the first time - was aimed at keeping non-Muslims from being harassed by religious police enforcing Islamic law. Hindus in Afghanistan have not been the target of persecution and have been allowed to practice their religion without interference, even using music, which is otherwise banned. However, over decades of war, the number of Hindus has dwindled from a high of about 50,000 during the 1970s to 500 in the capital and small pockets elsewhere. The Taliban's reclusive supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, must still approve the law as he does all edicts. The head of the religious police, Mohammed Wali, told The Associated Press it would be implemented soon.

The proposal - reminiscent of Nazi policies forcing Jews in Europe to wear a yellow Star of David - brought quick condemnation from Washington. A U.S. State Department spokesman called the requirement "the latest in a long list of outrageous oppressions'' by the Taliban. "We want to make quite clear that forcing social groups to wear distinctive clothing or identifying marks stigmatizes and isolates those groups and can never, never be justified,'' spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington.

Hindu-dominated India also denounced the measures. Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Raminder Singh Jassal told reporters in New Delhi, "We absolutely deplore such orders which patently discriminate against minorities.'' Dozens of protesters marched down a busy thoroughfare in the central Indian city of Bhopal carrying an effigy of a bearded Taliban soldier. "Taliban, die!'' shouted some of the marchers, members of the Hindu fundamentalist movement Bajrang Dal. There are around 500 Sikhs and Hindus living in Kabul, the Afghan capital. There are Hindu populations in other Afghan cities, but no reliable figures on exactly how many.

Anar, an Afghan Hindu in Kabul who uses one name, said he does not want to wear a label. "It will make us vulnerable and degrade our position in society,'' he said.

In March, the Taliban destroyed ancient Buddha statues they said were forbidden by Islam. That also raised international condemnations - on top of longtime criticism of the Taliban for banning education for girls, beating men for trimming their beards and other rules in the name of Islam. The Taliban's Bakhtar news agency said the latest measure was intended "to prevent disturbance to non-Muslim citizens'' who might be stopped by the religious police. Unlike Muslim women, Hindu women in Afghanistan have not been forced to wear the head-to-toe covering called a burkah.

Wali, the religious police minister, said the restrictions were required by Islam. "Religious minorities living in an Islamic state must be identified,'' he said. However, other Islamic nations - including Iran and Indonesia, which have many minority groups - have not required such a step.

Most of the Islamic world, including pro-Taliban Pakistan, has differed with the Taliban's narrow interpretation of Islam and say the militia is tarnishing Islam's image. It has also not yet been decided what sort of identity label Hindus would have to wear, Wali said. He said the new order would be meant only for Hindus because there are no Christians or Jews in Afghanistan, and most Sikh men can be easily recognized by their turbans and distinctive beards. However, at least one Jew is known to live in Kabul and there may also be some Christians.

There is precedent for the Taliban move. Islamic law requires protection for religious minorities and assigns them certain rights and responsibilities. So Islamic rulers have at times in the past tried to distinguish minorities from the Muslim population. The Ottoman Empire required Jews and Christians to wear distinctive clothing. The general secretary of Pakistan's Islamic political party Jamaat-e-Islami praised the Taliban move. "Providing protection to religious minorities is a must in any Islamic country and this step seems in line with this concept,'' said Munawaar Hasan.

The rules on Hindus are the latest restriction imposed by the Taliban. Some have said the heavier hand is in reaction to U.N. sanctions that bar their leaders from traveling abroad, freeze their foreign assets and keep them from importing weapons to fight their civil war.

The sanctions were imposed because of the Taliban's failure to hand over Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden, accused of terrorism by the United States. The Taliban has closed four of six U.N. political offices in Afghanistan to protest sanctions. Hindus and Sikhs first came from India to Afghanistan in 1747. They numbered some 50,000 in the 1970s, but most left after the Soviets sent troops into Afghanistan in 1979. Fighting in 1992 destroyed five of the seven temples used jointly by Hindus and Sikhs in Kabul.

UPDATE

Declare War on Stupidity

-CTF Editorial: July 18, 2001

Travel Security

Security in our airports is a joke. Anyone who travels for more than five minutes knows it's a joke.

In Berlin, for example, the terminal has a catwalk above the airline ticket counters where German military personnel with HK's patrol. Israeli security is more likely to give you a cavity search than look at you. I compare this with our "security" personnel, who chat while baggage goes by not even looking at the x-ray screen, and furthermore, get minimum wage at best to do that. These folks MUST be better trained, much more serious about their position, better educated, and better paid. Our safety is in their hands.

Airplanes themselves have WAY to easy access to the cockpit. The door and surrounding walls should be bulletproof, and have multiple reinforced steel deadbolt locks that can be triggered remotely by either the captain or copilot from a button directly on the stick. They shouldn't even have to reach for that lock.

Armed Federal Marshals with advanced hand-to-hand combat training, and outstanding sharp-shooting capabilities should be on flights at random. And for God's sake, make them blend in. Nine times out of ten, Feds are frighteningly obvious.

What To Do

Beyond Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban should have been stopped a long time ago, just because of how they abuse their OWN people. Women in particular. It is abhorrent. It is, in fact, in opposition to the word of the Quran. It violates the Islamic faith. In fact, Bin Laden's Jihad itself is a perversion of the words of the Prophet Muhammad who said specifically NOT to destroy buildings, or kill women, children, and old people.

My anger at this act is visceral and positively seething, but I've heard the words "carpet bombing" used WAY too much in the last few days. I don't support carpet bombing, because plenty of the average people in such nations as Afghanistan are themselves victims of terrorism conducted against them by their OWN government. I do NOT seek to punish them anymore than they are already being hurt by their own governments.

And the talk of using nuclear weaponry is downright irresponsible. On a radio program I listened to recently, a caller and the host demanded not only that we "use nukes", but that we "stop wasting time and act now", because after all, "It's been a week!" You MORONS. You self-absorbed, short attention-spanned IDIOTS. Firstly, I think when considering mass murder -- which IS what nuclear weaponry causes, taking innocent and guilty alike -- I think we can stop and spare at least a week to consider it's implications. And HELLO, it's called FALLOUT. Look it up. Which way does the air drift? TOWARDS US. And I'm sure other countries that are even closer, like India, won't appreciate the resulting hair loss either. Half the continent would end up in the Hair Club for Men, and that doesn't strike me as fair or just. Yet there was Billy Graham's son advocating weapons of mass destruction at a church ceremony. I find THAT obscene, duplicitous, and weak. ESPECIALLY from a Christian. And don't even get me started about the trail of stupidity that has flowed from Jerry Falwell's mouth regarding this tragedy.

Additionally, and more importantly, it won't solve the problem. The difficulty is that this man has camps in over 30 countries. He is like some multi-headed hydra.

What I do propose at an absolute minimum are as we find out where these guilty individuals are that we send in elite hit teams at random to take out the camps where these terrorists are trained, punish those who provide money or safe harbor for these murderers, and finally, go in and kill the leadership of these rogue states. Cut off the head and kill the snake. Exact a price that communicates that if you lead a nation and allow this hatred to grow, fester, and strike out against other nations from within your borders, you will PERSONALLY pay a price, not just your soldiers or citizens, YOU.

Minimize the collateral damage as much as possible. Random death is the province of terrorists. We are better than that. We should and CAN exercise more skill and care.

So let's talk honestly about tactics for a moment.

There has traditionally been a really lousy track record with trying to apply large scale conventional military tactics to fight a small, low-tech, tribal group of intensely committed people. It didn't work for us in Vietnam, and it didn't work for the Soviets when they attacked Afghanistan. These boys in Afghanistan are using some serious ninjutsu tactics here, and like brash samurais we have totally been playing into their hands. I know Osama Bin Laden has probably read Sun Tzu, I doubt very much if Bush has. I THANK GOD he won't be the one making the actual day-to-day tactical decisions, or we'd be monumentally screwed.

Terrorism is an asymmetrical type of strategy. They know they can't take us head-on, so they look for another way. Which is why at this point, possibly the safest place you could be is on a plane or in a tall building. Osama bin Laden is enough of a tactician to never attack the same way twice.

So how do we deal with this? What I'm about to discuss is brutal, and if you don't want to think about such things, stop reading now.

What I'm about to propose is appalling. You, as a civilized human should be appalled by it. It is medieval. But despite the fact that the men we are dealing with are educated, and know how to use 21st century technology, from a cultural standpoint, their heads are in the 11th Century. Some have suggested that a medieval world view may demand a medieval response just to be heard.

So let's talk about that. In Islam, if a body is mutilated, the soul never makes it to Allah.

There's been a lot of talk about how this will be a long, protracted struggle. That this must be more than a war in words. That it cannot be a hollow war (ie. the so-called "War on Drugs"). And that we're going to have to be willing to get very nasty here. The Islamic radicals don't think we have the stones for this. They view us as weak. They DON'T FEAR US.

Let's examine this culturally. These men's entire lives are wrapped up in their religion. They are NOT AFRAID TO DIE. In fact, they look forward to it because they think they will go to paradise with Allah for their actions. By mutilating the body, that avenue is cut off. THAT will scare the fuck out of them more than carpet bombing ever will. That's the kind of thing I mean when I say KNOW YOUR ENEMY. And frankly, that response is in DIRECT proportion to the crime committed. After all, they aren't pulling whole bodies out of the rubble in NYC, they're pulling out body parts.

Perhaps the first thing we should do is cover the countryside of Afghanistan with leaflets saying exactly that - you denied our people any possibility of getting to Allah (even the other Muslims Osama Bin Laden killed in this attack) now we're going to skin you alive and take you apart joint by mother fucking joint and spread your body to the four corners of the earth as a warning never to even THINK about doing this again. Perhaps the threat would be enough get them to give up the terrorists and not become ones in the future (I would hope so, but...).

The problem is that Americans don't think of themselves in terms like I just described, and there may be greater consequences to such actions. To Americans in OUR culture, such tactics would be dishonorable and uncivilized. Despite how Bin Laden views us, 99% of the American people are generous, honest, peaceful people. And I would question the general American public's willingness to and ability to stomach such a tactic. A politician would have virtually no hope of putting a positive spin on it. So the problem becomes either, how to execute that tactic, without the American people finding out (virtually impossible in the age of CNN), or risk telling them up front that you're going to do this and hope the backlash doesn't shut it down, because truly, it would be a VERY effective tactic.

The temptation will be to do such things in secret, but going behind the American public's back with something like that tactic is dangerous too, because the other cultural characteristic we possess is that of honesty. If we actually did something like that, and it was found out later, I shudder to think of the ramifications. The blowback internationally would be equally awful.

This is what I meant, when I said that we as Americans must open our eyes. War is nasty, beyond that, evil, and Americans need to face up to that. Such an appalling act MIGHT be one of the most effective tactics, but it forces us to ask the question again, "How do we fight evil without becoming evil ourselves?" Is that even possible? And the question has been raised more than once, "How do you fight men who have no fear of death?"

I don't want stuff like that done in my name, but what if that's the only way to stop terrorism from happening again? How do you weigh the potential lives that might be saved? We must also question whether or not this will cause our enemy to back down, or further enrage him. Remember, as badly as you might want revenge, if your goal is to solve the problem, we have to figure out a way to cut off the fuel that fires their violence, not feed that fire.

To begin with, I am proposing that we face up to that fact of war BEFORE we fight. We have to confront these questions BEFORE battle, because we can't afford them in the middle of it. The problem as I see it, is that we aren't even CLOSE to confronting them, and we won't be if we just sit around drum beating, and flag waving, and all that other crap.

We say we want to end terrorism but we don't have the political will to commit to the policy actions that address it's root causes in peacetime. We say we're willing to go to war, but we can barely, if at all, face what that really means in death and destruction and REAL brutality. We say nothing merited this attack, but we ourselves have contributed to it by giving weapons to everyone to fight off still other evil men. We say we believe in nonviolence, yet many of our more stupid citizens are hurting any Arab they can find. We say we believe in Christ, but we don't have the strength to be radical enough to turn the other cheek as he commanded.

I look at a man like His Holiness, the Dalai Lama with wonder every time a situation like this arises. Here is a man for whom those convictions are actually unwavering. He lost his whole country, yet still he doesn't call for violence against China. Why? Because that man has a REAL long-term view of the world. I doubt very seriously if he even thinks he's lost. I don't he has, because before, hardly anyone knew of Tibetan culture, and Buddhism was virtually non-existent in the West. Now Buddhism is practiced by easily five times the population of Tibet, and I can walk not even a block and find a Tibetan store selling food, artwork, clothing, religious items etc. So who really has lost there?

And furthermore, a million monks and nuns were slaughtered by the Chinese. Where was OUR outrage towards China? Our outrage seems to be tempered by our overwhelming greed for money apparently. Militant Islamic terrorists have nothing to bribe us with. Think these words are too strong? I don't.

On the one hand we have 40 years of sanctions and isolation against the total non-threat of Cuba, but we kiss China's ass and give them most-favored-nation status even after they brutalize not only the Tibetans, but their own people on worldwide television! And we have the nerve to be righteously angry when the terrorists call us duplicitous and weak?

We ARE duplicitous and weak. And it's about damn time we face it before any more lives are sacrificed. We either live by those ideals we claim to hold, or we pack up, and go home!

My point in all of this isn't to be unpatriotic. In fact, it is to BE patriotic. To demand that we pony up and cut the crap.

We propose to lead the world? Then dammit, we better know what REAL leadership means.

Osama Bin Laden

The man's a millionaire. 300 million to be precise. I don't think he's got that money under his mattress. It is probably under fake names at major financial institutions, however, there's still a paper trail. If we can track down the "hidden" funds of drug dealers, then we can track down Bin Laden's money too. For instance, we've frozen the assets of Iranians before, and this is the kind of thing I am referring to. It requires a tremendous amount of international cooperation, but we're more likely to get that now, than we were before.

I believe in nonviolence as a general rule, but the horror of this crime does demand a price, and it should be physical and uniquely painful. If Osama Bin Laden is even remotely responsible for this, we should comb the planet for him, kill him very dead, revive him, kill him again, and (pardon my language) salt the fucking earth where he dies.

It is highly likely that he planned it, but even if he didn't "directly", I have no doubt he funded those who did. He basically is a rich, spoiled brat who has been disowned by his family and his own country, Saudi Arabia. He is a man who acts like a funding agency giving grants of training, planning, money, etc., for any groups wanting to carry out an attack on the Americans or Israelis. Like the coward he is, he stays several levels removed from those who actually carry out the attacks, and even had the nerve yesterday to suggest that Americans were the terrorists aboard the planes. He doesn't even have the courage to claim responsibility. It's pathetic.

Regrettably, the only language men like this understand is that of violence, but by doing that, we risk becoming like them. Like the Japanese saying, "When setting out on revenge, dig two graves." It is difficult to fight evil and resist the temptation to use their methods.

How do you adequately punish something this horrific without turning into a monster yourself? This is very much God's job. It's too big for men to make a truly moral decision in response. And yet we must.

We better go into this war with open eyes. If it turns out to be a war with Afghanistan, we damn well better. A lot of Americans are running around with testosterone-driven bravado yelling about "turning it into a parking lot", but they'd do well to consider that Afghanistan was the Soviet Union's Vietnam. We may possess enough military might to stop them militarily, but the real war will be one of ideas, and if we lose the moral high ground through irresponsible or careless acts of violence, we may never get it back.

Some Of Us Aren't Naive

The other thing we've seen is a parade of self-important politicians engaging in what only loosely could be called "oratory", but more accurately could be defined as completely lame grandstanding. I haven't seen this many drama queens since the Pride Day Parade.

And enough with the machismo and mindless jingoism. I've already had my fill of Bush's redneck crap talking about how he's, HE'S gonna "smoke 'em outta their holes."

A.) You National Guard deserting weenie, YOU aren't gonna do shit. Some poor grunt G.I. from Fort Lee, New Jersey or Wallacoochie, Georgia is gonna be the one putting his life on the line.
B.) Stop talking about it like you're hunting some fucking cowboy bank robber in Texas. You're not going to be "ridin' 'cross th' prairie" on your damn horse after them. This is a VERY mountainous region full of tribal people who've basically had every army since Genghis Kahn blow through their country and they're still there. You have NO hope of defeating your enemy if you don't even know them, or worse, underestimate them. The only person to defeat them outright was Alexander the Great. And [Sarcasm Alert] "Mr. Bush, I've met Alexander the Great. He was a friend of mine, and YOU'RE NO ALEXANDER THE GREAT."

Enough of this "Rah! Rah!" shit. First of all, it's insulting to me to insinuate that I need any further motivation to wanna kick somebody's ass over this than the mere sight of all those people dying. And I damn sure don't need to see the disaster a hundred and thirty times on the news every day for a week. All that shit does is desensitize people to it.

And I also just want to put this question out there. Where the fuck did the $40 billion come from??

Not a week before this attack, we didn't have enough money for the regular budget thanks to the Shrub's worthless tax cut to "stimulate the economy". His administration blew the surplus we worked 8 years to earn in a mere 8 months (and don't even BEGIN to think we've forgotten that), and were talking about cutting open the lockbox on social security. Suddenly Congress finds $40 billion extra for our defense department?

These are "emergency funds"? From where? And why the fuck didn't think you about using these emergency funds to stimulate the economy rather than raping my future by shredding what little is left of social security?

How is it that you suddenly have funds for defense, but you had no funds for domestic programs? These are but a few of my many questions.

How The Terrorists Win

What we CANNOT allow within this country is for our fear to cost us our freedom. Wired News is reporting that a bill permitting Internet surveillance without a warrant has been passed by the Senate.

Unfortunately I have been expecting this kind of overreaction.

The words, "The world has changed. We're going to have to sacrifice some of our freedoms," have been used WAY too much in the last couple days. The world HASN'T changed. The world was like this before, Americans were just blind to it. What we as Americans should fear far more than the act of these insane terrorist is that as a result, we're going to sell our freedom down the river to fear. Then the terrorists will win a victory far bigger than the lives they cost in this attack.

There is a VAST difference between tightening up security, or giving more funding to intelligence to prevent these kinds of attacks from being successful in the first place, and completely freaking out and enacting laws that will end up costing us the very freedom we seek to protect.

I'm going to say this as strongly as I possibly can, BE WATCHFUL. Pay CLOSE attention to what your government is doing now. Bitch about it when they go too far.

Tell your representatives to EXERCISE CAUTION. In fact, at this point, as perhaps at no point in the past, CAUTION should be our watchword.

People Can Change, and Peace Begins At Home

In the midst of all the anger over the sight of those fools in Palestine cheering at the destruction of the WTC, I also wanted to comment on how people can change for the better. Many folks have drawn a parallel between this disaster and Pearl Harbor. Innocent Japanese in the U.S. at the time faced hatred and worse yet incarceration due to our fears, and many Japanese were fanatically devoted to the Emperor, willing to die to the last man, even in the face of the bomb.

Yet as the reporters on local television here were talking about how Major League Baseball was cancelled for the first time since D-Day, I was struck by one of the images they were playing.

Ichiro is now quite the sports superstar not only in Japan but here in America, as a part of the Seattle Mariners. And the image which struck me was the American fans waving a Japanese flag at a game of our national pastime, baseball. The symbolism of such a change in sentiment over the past 50 years was stunning. Additionally, Germans in Berlin have been laying flowers by the HUNDREDS at the gates of the American Embassy there.

So I guess what I'm saying is that while the images of these people in Palestine have angered many, including myself, it does us well to think about the human capacity to change for the better. I hope the angels of our better nature win out, and there won't be anymore nonsense like the vandalism of mosques by individuals just as cowardly as the terrorists themselves.

The Future

This is a multi-faceted problem. How we reconcile that with the real need to punish those who committed this atrocity, will distinguish us.

1.) We may "like our illusions" but we can't afford to have them.
2.) We need to be more thoughtful about how we hand out information on military tools, tactics, techniques and advanced training to individuals from disturbed nations. This is a "prime directive".
3.) We need to be more thoughtful and cognizant of the historical, cultural, and social ramifications of our intervention in other countries before we intervene and create brand new "disturbed nations" through our own actions.
4.) However we cannot disengage from the world either. We need to recognize at long last, that we are IN IT. These are not things that just happen "over there". That the ripples will hit our shores one way or another.
5.) With all that said, there is no excuse for this violence. Period. Nothing merits terrorist violence, even in retribution for either perceived or real injuries inflicted by the U.S. The cycle of violence, both on an individual level, a national level, and an international level -- MUST END. It's time for not just America, but the human race to grow up.
6.) We must recognize that the primary cause of ALL violence and hate is poverty. Until we TRULY face that reality, none of this will change in the long term. Only the names will.
7.) The other cause for this insanity is the collective delusion of religious extremism. It's not just good Muslims who must contend with this. We have our share of Christian and Jewish fundamentalists who are equally irrational. We must address the problem of fundamentalism, and the wall it erects preventing people from reaching real faith. Faith comes only on the other side of doubt and questioning of authority, and fundamentalism doesn't allow such questioning. Instead it clings desperately to the literal word, and reacts violently to any who challenge it. Such people cannot ever be truly faithful, for they can never risk loss and trust that God will catch them. This fundamentalist viewpoint must be confronted and it's influence significantly diminished, not just for faith, but for our national security as well.

Conclusion

I know a lot of folks are praying for the firefighters and cops that were lost in the collapse, as they should and so am I, but personally I'm also praying for the men who search for evidence as to who was responsible, and have to make the plans as to how to respond, because their souls are very much at risk here. They must act morally in response to the most profound immorality. God give them strength, and a healthy portion of luck. They're going to need it.

And I do thank God that there are some very gifted and courageous, military, healthcare professionals, law enforcement, firemen and women, and intelligence personnel who will be the real people fighting this and helping those who have been hurt. I take comfort in them.

My prayers are with everyone in New York and D.C. as well as with the families of those aboard the planes which tragically passed. We all share in your grief. We are behind you and will do everything we can to help. Even if it's only to listen. This is America, and we will prevail.