"They have given us their deaths. Let us give them their meaning, their meaning of peace and freedom, of reconciliation and love, of service, endurance, and hope. After all they have given us, we must give them their meaning."

To those who attacked them we say: you will not find a safe harbor. We will find you, and justice will prevail.

October 20, 2000

nsnews editorial

Terrorism is a manifestation of hatred and when it is well planned, it is purposefully executed. CNN recently reported that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh hints that bin Laden is tied to the USS Cole bombing, but Louis Freeh would not confirm or deny a possible bin Laden link. Why not? Louis Freeh claims that he is a junior partner in what is called “a joint effort being led by Yemen”. Shouldn’t Louis Freeh at least acknowledge the fact that bin Laden is a suspect? If this doesn’t smell like a cover up, we live by different standards. If Louis Freeh has the interest or the intention to get to the bottom of the USS Cole blast, he has to demonstrate it. Osama bin Laden is an indicted, criminal terrorist, and if the Director of the FBI does not express any anxiety over the fact, it is probably because bin Laden is a controversial terrorist/freedom fighter with American contacts. And so, FBI Director Louis Freeh may go to Yemen and pretend to be a junior partner, but he is a senior propaganda agent, if he wishes to focus attention away from the potential responsibility of terrorists like Osama bin Laden. Louis Freeh claims that the determination of responsibility "will be governed by facts and forensics," but he ignores the fact that Osama bin Laden is a well known international terrorist. Nobody is telling Louis Freeh to rush to judgment, but the possibilities that he is ignoring strongly suggest that the truth about the USS Cole blast is being covered up rather than adequately pursued. A narrow focus on forensics is the best way to focus attention away from an operation which was clearly well planned and purposefully executed, to one that is constrained by the absence of thorough, intelligent analysis. Is anybody recognizing the possibility that the operations of Osama bin Laden and American “freedom fighters” are too blurred to recognize distinction? In the face of a cover up, an outrageous possibility becomes a probability, and the domestic implications of an act of overseas terror are being ignored. The following message posted in our guestbook on October 17, 2000, reflects the possibilities that are being deliberately ignored. Appropriately titled October No Surprise, it reads:

George Bush betrayed his dangerously narrow-minded view of foreign policy issues during the second presidential debate, when he said:

"Maybe I'm missing something here, I mean we're going to have some kind of a nation building corp from America? -Absolutely not, our military is meant to fight and win war -that's what it's meant to do. And when it gets overextended, morale drops."

George Bush further reinforced his view during the closing statement of the second presidential debate, when he identified what he called the "warning signs" or the need to have a commander-in-chief who thinks and talks the way George Bush does. These 'talking points' that spoke of a demoralized American military that should be doing anything but taking overextended risk, provided people like Trent Lott the opportunity to ask questions like:

"Do we have failed policies of the Clinton-Gore administration? What kind of leader do we want for the future?"

If the slaughter of 17 sailors has the power to prove that the United States needs a commander-in-chief like George Bush, then he should obviously be the next President of the United States.

The ideology and the politically motivated rhetoric of elected officials stands in the way of a reasonable investigation to expose the people who are in fact responsible for the well organized and well supplied blast that ripped a massive hole in the USS Cole. Clearly, this was not a typical, unexpected, terrorist act, this was a time-bomb waiting to explode. CNN has been talking about a potential, Osama bin Laden terrorist attack on American assets for longer than memory serves.

The assault was clearly predicted, predictable and avoidable, but the intelligence that is required to stop it is buried in the secrecy maintained by a Bush administration that pardons Iran Contragate criminals and treats "freedom fighters" like Osama bin Laden, like heroes. This is clearly one act of terror that is entirely the responsibility of American citizens. When the state department in exile is desperately seeking to prove that the Clinton-Gore state department is inept, the terrorism that is repeatedly and vaguely alluded to is precisely delivered, and American citizens are directly responsible.

We do not lay blame, we demand responsibility. Clearly, when people like Dr. Rush Goebbels and Dr. Oliver Goebbels deliver a steady diet of propaganda to prove the ineptitude of the President of the United States, the source of a well organized and a well supplied act of senseless terror is anything but an October Surprise.