By David Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University and author of Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism (THE WASHINGTON POST, 05/05/06):
After four years, numerous appeals, millions of dollars, and a massive investment of government personnel and resources, the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui concluded Wednesday with a life sentence. Many have cited the case as an example of how difficult it is to try terrorists in civilian courts. In fact, it is an object lesson in how the government's overreaching has undermined our security.
Four years ago Moussaoui was on the verge of pleading guilty to offenses that would have resulted in a life sentence.… Seguir leyendo »
AS HE WAS led on Wednesday from the Virginia courtroom he has variously tormented and bemused for the past four years, Zacarias Moussaoui had a final taunt for his audience.
“America: You lost. I won,” he shouted in response to the jury’s verdict that he should serve life in prison rather than the death penalty for his part in the September 11 plot that killed 3,000 people.
It was an odd boast for a man who embraced death, who craved martyrdom, whose fantasies were filled with visions of burning infidels on earth and pliant virgins in heaven.… Seguir leyendo »
Enough of them got it right in the end. And perhaps in trials like this the end justifies the means. But the completed jury verdict form in the just-completed Zacarias Moussaoui terror conspiracy trial is notable as much for its contradictions and oddities as for its insights into the case.
As you know by now, Moussaoui's federal jury was unable after more than 41 hours of deliberations to unanimously agree that the confessed al Qaeda operative deserved the death sentence for whatever role he may have played in the planning and preparation for the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.… Seguir leyendo »
By David Thomson, the author of The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 30/04/06):
In the week or so before the film "United 93" opened, there were fretful questions being asked, like "Is America ready?" and "Is such a movie a form of exploitation?"
Now that it has opened — and Paul Greengrass's film is a good one — a small wave of self-congratulation has begun to break across the country. "We watched our first 9/11 movie," we seem to be saying. "It was hard but we made it all the way through. Good for us."… Seguir leyendo »
‘Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.” In the most important prayer in Christendom, the Lord’s Prayer, there are only seven requests and that is one of them. Forgiveness is central to Christianity (it is important in other faiths, too). Christians are taught that Christ sacrificed himself on the cross on Good Friday so that they might be forgiven for their sins and that they in turn, in the imitation of Christ, must forgive others. I was taught this myself as a child and I always found it incomprehensible.
I could imagine, just about, that God in his mysterious way, if he existed, could forgive whatever he chose, but I could not understand the meaning of human forgiveness, at least not in extreme cases.… Seguir leyendo »
By John Farmer, a former attorney general of New Jersey, was a senior counsel to the 9/11 commission (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 11/04/06):
THE courtroom atmosphere was electric, the evidence of atrocity overwhelming. The prosecution presented first-hand accounts that victims "frequently remained in the burning buildings and jumped out of the windows only when the heat became unbearable." Graphic images of mass slaughter were shown. Civic leaders attested to their helplessness as they watched the death throes of innocents. People who had escaped death, and family members of those who perished, recounted unspeakable horror, irretrievable loss.
This description is not of the penalty phase trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, although it certainly could be.… Seguir leyendo »
Por Fred Halliday, profesor visitante del Cidob (Barcelona) y profesor de la London School of Economics. Autor de El islam y el mito del enfrentamiento y de Cien mitos sobre Oriente Medio. Traducción: José María Puig de la Bellacasa (LA VANGUARDIA, 27/03/06):
Cuando el muy honorable Alberto Gonzales, fiscal general estadounidense, sube al estrado para pronunciar un discurso sobre la política antiterrorista estadounidense y la necesidad de la cooperación internacional en este terreno, es posible que no atraiga tal vez atención inmediata, sea en calidad de máxima autoridad legal en la principal democracia del mundo o bien de responsable político que -en tanto que consejero legal de la Casa Blanca y en la actualidad fiscal general- supervisó y en considerable medida contribuyó a autorizar una serie de polémicas políticas de detención, desde Guantánamo hasta Abu Ghraib, desde el envío de prisioneros a terceros países hasta diversas técnicas de maltrato y tortura propiamente dicha en el curso de interrogatorios.… Seguir leyendo »
By Andrew D. Cohen (THE WASHINGTON POST, 06/03/06):
Don't expect the looming trial of confessed Al Qaeda trainee Zacarias Moussaoui to answer your remaining questions about the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Do not expect it to satisfy your desire for revenge, or justice, or whatever people mean when they use the word "closure." He's the wrong guy, and this is the wrong case, to accomplish those meaningful things despite the collective cathartic exercise we all are about to endure.
Moussaoui's federal sentencing proceeding is really just a hollow shell -- he's a prop and little more -- and when it is over the government, win or lose, will have paid a terribly high price to dispatch a dyspeptic loser who has proven to be as undisciplined a criminal defendant as he was a low-level terror operative.… Seguir leyendo »
Por Jesse Jackson, pastor baptista y excandidato demócrata a la presidencia de EEUU (EL PERIÓDICO, 03/03/03):
Los norteamericanos tienen motivos más que suficientes para estar preocupados por el traspaso de la gestión de 21 puertos a una empresa propiedad de Emiratos Árabes Unidos. Pero no por la trampa de la retórica impulsiva, xenófoba y antiárabe de políticos que corren para ponerse a cubierto. No. Esto no tiene nada que ver con arabofobia. Tiene que ver con la triste incapacidad de EEUU para garantizar la seguridad de sus puertos y fronteras.
Dubai Ports World compra una empresa británica que gestiona seis de los puertos más importantes de EEUU, y la Administración lo trata como una transacción comercial más.… Seguir leyendo »
Is Osama Bin Laden winning after all? Until recently I would have derided such a thought. How could a tinpot fanatic who is either dead or shut in some mountain hideout hold the world to ransom for five years? It would stretch the imagination of an Ian Fleming.
Now I am beginning to wonder. Not a day passes without some new sign of Bin Laden’s mesmeric grip on the governments of Britain and America. His deeds lie behind half the world’s headlines. British policy seems obsessed with one word: terrorism. The West is equivocating, writhing, slithering in precisely the direction most desired by its enemy.… Seguir leyendo »
By Joseph J. Ellis, professor of history at Mount Holyoke College and the author, most recently, of His Excellency: George Washington (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 28/01/06):
In recent weeks, President Bush and his administration have mounted a spirited defense of his Iraq policy, the Patriot Act and, especially, a program to wiretap civilians, often reaching back into American history for precedents to justify these actions. It is clear that the president believes that he is acting to protect the security of the American people. It is equally clear that both his belief and the executive authority he claims to justify its use derive from the terrorist attacks of Sept.… Seguir leyendo »
Death to America. Oh, wait. Thank you, America. Love you, big guy. No, hold on. Where's that "Death to America" banner? What have they done for us lately?
Pakistani mobs are back in the streets denouncing American military strikes aimed at terrorists sheltering in Pakistan. The carefully staged fury of those mobs eclipses the public opinion polls of a few weeks ago reporting significant gratitude from Pakistanis for U.S. military help after a catastrophic earthquake.
Easy come, easy go? Not exactly. The suffering villagers expressing gratitude have not suddenly morphed into the well-fed, bearded zealots marching in Peshawar.… Seguir leyendo »
Milt Bearden worked in the C.I.A.'s Directorate of Operations for three decades until 1994 (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 04/11/05):
Today the Supreme Court justices are expected to debate whether they will hear a case involving a Yemeni named Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who is accused of being Osama bin Laden's driver. A federal appeals court found that Mr. Hamdan, who was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and is being held at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, was not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions; he has appealed to the high court.
If the court does not choose to review the appellate court's decision, and then overturn it, America's national security will be endangered.… Seguir leyendo »
Andrew J. Bacevich, a professor of international relations at Boston University, is the author of "The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War." (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 31/10/05)
When senators this month asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about possible military action against Syria or Iran, she recited the administration's standard response: all options remain "on the table." Pressed on whether any such action might require congressional authorization, Ms. Rice demurred. "I don't want to try and circumscribe presidential war powers," she said, adding that "the president retains those powers in the war on terrorism and in the war in Iraq."… Seguir leyendo »
Sami Naïr es eurodiputado y profesor invitado de la Universidad Carlos III (EL PAIS, 13/09/04)
Desde luego, habrá que acordarse durante mucho tiempo todavía del 11 de septiembre. Y de la tragedia. A la que habrá que añadir a los mártires del 11 de marzo en España; los torturados de Abu Ghraib en Irak y los niños de Osetia. Y otras matanzas desconocidas que nos aguardan. Habrá que rememorar a nuestros muertos. Y su inocencia. Víctimas sacrificadas sobre el altar de la rapiña, el cinismo, la manipulación de los pueblos a manos de los poderosos. ¿Qué queda del 11 de septiembre?… Seguir leyendo »
Craig Unger es autor del libro House of Bush, House of Saud, que ha inspirado parcialmente la película de Michael Moore Fahrenheit 9/11 sobre el presidente de EEUU (EL MUNDO, 13/09/04)
¿Dónde está George Orwell cuando le necesitamos? Porque los estadounidenses le necesitamos. Le necesitamos desesperadamente. Véase si no: en agosto de 2001, inmediatamente después de leer un memorándum titulado Bin Laden decidido a cometer atentados en los Estados Unidos, el presidente George W. Bush se fue a pescar lubinas y jamás se le ocurrió convocar una reunión sobre este tema.
Un mes después, el 11 de septiembre, cuando le dijeron que los terroristas habían cometido los atentados, Bush pasó los siete minutos siguientes leyendo un libro infantil, The Pet Goat (La cabrita), con un grupo de niños en una escuela.… Seguir leyendo »
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. es historiador estadounidense (EL PAIS, 12/09/04)
Amigos europeos, no perdáis la esperanza con respecto a Estados Unidos. Sigue siendo el país audaz e idealista de Franklin D. Roosevelt y de John F. Kennedy, aunque últimamente la audacia y el idealismo se han convertido más bien en belicosidad y arrogancia. Es la consecuencia de dos experiencias históricas. Una es la victoria de la democracia sobre el comunismo en la guerra fría. La disolución de la Unión Soviética ha convertido a EE UU en la potencia imbatida e imbatible del planeta; no sólo en el sentido militar e ideológico, sino también en el de la economía, la tecnología y la cultura popular.… Seguir leyendo »
Timothy Garton Ash es historiador británico (EL PAIS, 12/09/04)
Amigos estadounidenses: no hemos olvidado. Nunca nos olvidaremos. Todos sabemos dónde estábamos en el momento en que nos enteramos del atentado contra las Torres Gemelas. Aquella solidaridad entre Europa y EE UU duró aproximadamente tres meses, hasta la derrota de Al Qaeda en Afganistán. ¿Pero dónde está ahora, tres años después del 11-S? No está desaparecida para siempre, sino a la espera de reaparecer. Esperando a un EE UU que le permita reaparecer. El país que volvió a mostrar su grandeza de corazón tras el 11-S. El que evoca Arthur Schlesinger. El país cuya esperanza más reciente es un hombre algo acartonado pero maduro y con cualidades de estadista, John Kerry.… Seguir leyendo »
Javier Marías es escritor. Este artículo fue escrito para el diario estadounidense The New York Times, que lo publicó el 11/09/04 (EL PAIS, 12/09/04)
Sí, la percepción del tiempo es demasiado variable, y hay factores que la alteran exagerada y anómalamente. Son los que rompen el hilo de la continuidad, como lo he llamado en mis novelas y en la vida real. Cuando una relación amorosa se acaba, por ejemplo -una vez que se la da por perdida y se abandona toda esperanza, o se libera uno de la tela de araña en que ha quedado prendido-, cuanto perteneció al periodo de esa relación pasa súbitamente a ser "pasado", todo en bloque, y lo ocurrido hace sólo un año junto a la persona que nos da o a la que damos de baja, nos parece lejano, incongruentemente remoto; y no digamos aquel viaje de seis años atrás, que veíamos como parte de un presente continuado mientras la persona en cuestión seguía a nuestro lado: ahora se aparece como propio de otra existencia, de pronto desteñida y difusa y caduca.… Seguir leyendo »
1. ¿Por qué, dos años y medio después, Nueva York sigue marcada por el 11-S, mientras que Madrid (y España en general) parecen haber elaborado el duelo por el 11-M en tres meses? La pregunta surgió en una conversación con Margarita Gutman y Michael Cohen, dos profesores de la New School de Nueva York. La zona cero no ha dejado de ser lugar de peregrinaje. Los proyectos para tan sacralizado espacio han sido objeto de intenso debate ciudadano. La espesa nube de polvo que aquel día cubrió la punta de Manhattan todavía no se ha disipado: el 11-S está presente prolongándose, además, en la densa atmósfera de la guerra.… Seguir leyendo »
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