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9/11 Media Roundup

Phase One
March 26-28

9/11 MEDIA ROUNDUP - Mar 12 - 18, 2004

Note: This week's roundup includes what I think are some of the most incisive quotes from some of the most incisive articles of the last week. Note especially the three articles that foreshadow or predict a terrorist attack on the United States in October or November of this year, just before the election. The conservative argument goes that Spain appeased "the terrorists" when it voted in a Socialist government this week. If such an attack takes place in the United States this fall, the same argument about appeasement will be put forward as the one of the central mainstreams lines of propaganda.

Note, as well, that one of the loudest "appeasement" voices is Robert Kagan, co-founder of the PNAC. In U.S. foreign policy there are two central narratives when it comes to defense: Pearl Harbor - the surprise attack and "Day of Infamy" - and Munich '38 - a ruthless amoral enemy cannot be negotiated with, and concessions must never be made.

John A. McCurdy

* * *

Fri, Mar 12, 2004 - 9/11

The Great Escape
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=121&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Questions for President Bush
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=122&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Open Letter From September 11 Families For Peaceful Tomorrows
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=123&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Implications of the Ron Motley Led "Saudi Suit"
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=124&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

3/11
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51847-2004Mar11.html


"The horror of Madrid only confirms that a broad and determined alliance is the only answer to terrorism. It reminds us that the United States neither fights, nor suffers, alone."

A Catastrophe "like the twin towers"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51632-2004Mar11.html


Jonathan Cuenca: "'It was like the twin towers -- it's even the same date, the 11th. It's really amazing'."

Spain's 3-11: Basques, bin Laden, or Both?
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FC13Aa01.html


"Europe's 3-11: exactly two and a half years after America's 9-11, this is the largest terrorist attack perpetrated on European soil in modern times."

"Madrid Became Manhattan": What the Spanish Papers Say
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1168127,00.html


Fri, Mar 12, 2004 - 9/11-Related

Al Qaeda Letter Claims Spain Bombings
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/120304letterclaims.html


"A letter purporting to come from al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the train bombings in Spain and says plans for a major attack on the United States are almost complete, a London-based Arabic newspaper says ... 'We bring the good news to Muslims of the world that the expected Winds of Black Death strike against America is now in its final stage...90 percent (ready) and God willing near. There was no way of authenticating the letter independently' ... It said 'Zionist Masonic' leaders had been the target."

[Spain's] Aznar "rules nothing out" in Hunt for Killers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1167922,00.html

Massacre in Madrid
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1167840,00.html

The Clues That Point Toward Al Qaeda
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1167842,00.html

Bombing Clues Point to Islamist Terrorists
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51633-2004Mar11.html

From Bali to Madrid, Attackers Seek to Inflict Ever-Greater Casualties
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1167839,00.html


Sat, Mar 13, 2004 - 9/11

9/11 Families Prevented From Attending Rally
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=125&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0


"Yesterday in Westbury, Long Island, 9/11 victim families members and others planning on attending the Rally organized by 9/11 CitizensWatch were blocked from access to the Rally site on the edge of Eisenhower Park by Nassau County Police Department on order from the Secret Service despite have been granted permission in advance by Sergeant O’Leary of the Special Investigations Section of the Nassau County Police Department."

Heroes of 9/11
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/031004Hasty/031004hasty.html

U.S. Won't Raise Terror Threat Level After Madrid Blasts
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/03/12/homeland.security/index.html

How the U.S. Fostered Taliban Terror
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040313/BKGHOST13/TPEntertainment/Books


"Steve Coll's Ghost Wars is a remarkable account of the Afghan covert operation and all the evils that subsequently blighted that unhappy country. Coll's research is extensive; his access to senior officials of all the principal countries involved in Afghanistan is nothing short of astounding ... In the tangled story of international intervention in Afghanistan, the U.S. role is but one dark thread. As Coll makes clear, U.S. action lacked a broad strategic vision and remained unconcerned about where its covert action might ultimately lead ... It was a classic proxy war and probably will stand in history, ironically, as the best case, this side of Cuba, against engaging in covert operations. Covert operations never have a successful end game for the simple reason that they set in motion dynamic political and economic changes that can be neither controlled nor foreseen ... other players ... the ISI ... Saudi Arabia ... poured more money into the Afghan war than did the United States, and worried even less than the Americans about where it went ... The post-1989 history of Afghanistan was a story of terrible missed opportunities. Coll recounts them in fascinating detail, including missed opportunities to combat the Taliban and to capture or assassinate Osama bin Laden."


Sat, Mar 13, 2004 - 9/11-Related

Bombings Lead U.S. to Raise Security on Trains
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/13/national/13ATTA.html?hp


"the Madrid bombings underscored the fact that rail security had lagged woefully behind aviation improvements since the 9/11 attacks. And Democrats in Congress quickly proposed a $500 million commitment for rail security to help narrow the gap."


"If Al Qaeda does turn out to have been responsible for the Madrid attacks, said Gil Kerlikowske, the Seattle police chief, "I think there's going to be a lot of reconsideration in this country about modes of transportation other than airplanes. I think there really needs to be some serious rethinking on that."


U.S. Passenger Trains Vulnerable to Terrorist Attacks, Bulletin Warns
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53873-2004Mar12.html

Easier Internet Wiretaps Sought [by U.S.]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54512-2004Mar12.html

"The Justice Department wants to significantly expand the government's ability to monitor online traffic, proposing that providers of high-speed Internet service should be forced to grant easier access for FBI wiretaps and other electronic surveillance, according to documents and government officials."


Mahajan, Terrorism's Future
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=5142


"Whether yesterday's attacks in Spain, in which 190 people were killed and nearly 1500 wounded, were carried out by the Basque separatist ETA or by al-Qaeda, they make one thing very clear: terrorism cannot be fought by military means."


Mon, Mar 15, 2004 - 9/11

A Delicate Dance Over 9/11
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=128&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

9/11 Families Make Their Voices Heard
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=129&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Suspect in Madrid Bombing Linked to Sept. 11 Suspect, Court Documents Show
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040314.wsuspe0314/BNStory/Front/


"One of the three Moroccans arrested in the Madrid train bombings was a follower of a suspected al-Qaeda member jailed in Spain for allegedly helping plan the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, according to court documents reviewed by The Associated Press."


Mon, Mar 15, 2004 - 9/11-Related

Election Blow to Bush's War on Terror
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/15/welec15.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/15/ixnewstop.html


"Spain's socialists defeated the conservative government in the general election last night, delivering a serious blow to the American-led war on terror."


Al-Qaeda Goes to the Polls
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FC16Aa02.html


"For some time now the global jihad has been a mutant virus. The whole thing is smoothly evolving in terms of terror franchising: small cells or groups organized around Arab-Afghan operatives (jihad veterans who have been in touch with the original al-Qaeda), and all of them operating autonomously."

"Only one day before M-11, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had finished the simulation of an Islamist attack against a Dutch chemical plant, leaving 200 dead. But what really happened the day after was even more unprecedented: the global jihad directly influencing the outcome of a general election in a Western democracy."

Spain's Elections Show Why Radical Islam Can Win
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FC16Aa01.html


"Radical Islam has scored its first unambiguous victory against the West ... The Europeans are not so much defeatist as resigned to extinction." [RE: Demographic trends]


Shock Waves Travel Around the Globe
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FC16Aa03.html


"The demise of Spain's powerful Popular Party also clearly demonstrates that Iraq has become an unpredictable factor in global politics. After September 2002's unexpected re-election victory of anti-war German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, this is the second major European election in which the result has been significantly influenced by the conflict in Iraq. Ironically, while Bush's Iraq policy may not succeed in its stated aim of redrawing the political map of the Middle East, it is definitely having a huge impact in Europe."


Spain to Bring Troops Home From Iraq [by June 30]
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040315.wspain0315/BNStory/International/

European Leaders Urge Cooperation to Fight Terror [ie. Continent-wide intelligence agency]
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040315.wfranceeu0315/BNStory/International/


"European Union leaders on Monday urged faster work on unified anti-terrorism measures — including a continentwide intelligence service and a European arrest warrant — in response to the Madrid train bombings."


Furious Voters Oust Spanish Government
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1169401,00.html

Angry Voters Demand to Know Truth Behind Carnage
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1169417,00.html

Inside Europe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1169274,00.html


Osama bin Laden, went the jokey-but-serious [assertion] after America's 9/11, did more for European integration than anyone since Jacques Delors, accelerating initiatives on cross-border crime and terrorism that would otherwise have taken years to deliver ... will the Madrid bombings galvanise a complacent Europe into working more effectively to fight ruthless and fanatical enemies? Ordinary people in London, Warsaw and Rome will be hoping so."


Take No Comfort in This Warm Blanket of Security
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1169277,00.html


"The pre-emptive strike doctrine which is at the heart of Bush's foreign policy is now moving into Home Office thinking, with David Blunkett floating the proposal that those who might become suicide bombers, whether British citizens or not, should be arrested on the basis of intelligence and incarcerated before they do anything nasty ... In the new thinking, the moral component of law is absent, and the very high risk of innocent people losing their liberty is simply "collateral damage."

Pakistan Leader: Al-Qaeda Tried to Kill Me
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4532258/

"President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Monday that a Libyan member of al-Qaida was behind two assassination attempts against him in December, and vowed to rid Pakistan’s tribal regions of hundreds of suspected foreign terrorists."

Hidden Truths
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17005
 

Blaming the Iraq war's questionable rationale on bad intelligence will not conceal the fact that it was primarily a political choice.

"If, as the President implies, we are still in a war situation, will intelligence again be tailored for political purposes? That is the deeply urgent question implied by the reports of Hans Blix and Lord Hutton."

Tues, Mar 16, 2004 - 9/11

Europe Faces a New Era
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62387-2004Mar16.html

"For Europe, March 11 equals September 11. The mass terror attacks in Madrid last week, say European online commentators, mark the beginning of a new era in which Europe will have to learn to defend itself from al Qaeda-style terror operations ..."

"In Spain, the Madrid attacks helped to defeat a pro-U.S. incumbent with an unpopular stand on the war in Iraq. Americans now have to contemplate a scenario that al Qaeda leaders may already be planning: What effect would a terrorist attack in the United States have on voters choosing between Sen. John F. Kerry and President George W. Bush? Will America have its own March 11 next October?"

 Third Possibility in Madrid Bombings
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CON403A.html
 

"a third possible suspect, having its roots in the post-World War II 'Operation Gladio' ... In 1948, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) set up a clandestine army in Italy. This was called "Operation Gladio" (from Latin, gladius, meaning sword). Italy was torn between the left (Communists) and the right (Fascists). Operation Gladio's purpose was to overthrow the Italian government if it went Communist."

Tues, Mar 16, 2004 - 9/11-Related

 The Emergence of Hyperterrorism
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FC17Aa04.html

"According to intelligence estimates in Brussels, there may be an invisible army of up to 30,000 holy warriors spread around the world, which begs the question: how will Western democracies be able to fight them? ...

"Antoine Basbus, director of the Observatory of Arab Countries, and Olivier Roy, a research director at the French Center of Scientific Research ... agree that al-Qaeda is now operating on three layers: the originals, or Arab-Afghans who were part of the anti-Soviet jihad in the 1980s; the franchised local groups; and the recent "converts" who provide the crucial link between the "base" and the local outfits."

But "Al-Qaeda's biggest problem is that it has no legitimacy in the Middle East as far as the key issues, Palestine and Iraq, are concerned."

"other al-Qaeda objectives ... remain very much in place: the departure of all American soldiers from Saudi soil; the fall of the House of Saud; and the expulsion of Jews from the Middle East. Al-Qaeda's ultimate objective is a caliphate." 

"All the evidence now screams that reshaping the Middle East from a base in occupied Iraq is not leading to less terrorism: it is leading to hyperterrorism."

U.S. Foes Set to Pounce
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FC17Df03.html
 

"the aim of the US is to catch Osama bin Laden dead or alive and leave Afghanistan, saving face by handing over the reins of power to 'moderate Taliban'."

"The International Islamic Front's global operations are likely to kick off when the Afghan resistance clashes with US coalition forces in major Afghan cities in the coming weeks. It is then that the network is expected to exert pressure on the US and its allies through more terror attacks, a new game that is likely to begin in Pakistan."

"There is, once again, a likelihood that the coming months will see a major attack: a plane hitting a skyscraper in the US or a "dirty bomb" being detonated in a strategic place in the United Kingdom."

 The Al-Qaeda Franchise
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FC17Aa03.html

Pakistani Troops Kill 24 in Al-Qaeda Raids on Afghanistan Border
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/03/16/afghanistan.conflict/index.html

Pakistani Troops Kill 24 in Hunt for Al-Qaeda and Taliban
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040316.wqaeda0316/BNStory/International/

London [Terrorist] Attack Inevitable, Says Police Chief
http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1170514,00.html 

"Britain's ability to cope with a major terrorist strike was called into question today, as the commissioner of the Metropolitan police warned that such an attack was 'inevitable' despite the best efforts of the security services. Sir John Stevens said while anti-terror officers were 'working three times harder than ever' to defend against atrocities such as that committed in Madrid last week, it would be a matter of time before 'some sort of attack gets through'."


Six Moroccans Suspected of Madrid Attack
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1170380,00.html

Attack on U.S. Consulate in Pakistan Foiled
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,2763,1170224,00.html 

"An attack on the US consulate in Karachi was thwarted yesterday when a bomb was discovered in a van parked next to the building two days before a visit to the country by Colin Powell, the US secretary of state."

Political Fallout Likely to Embolden Al-Qaeda
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1170200,00.html 

"Rohan Gunaratna, author of Inside al-Qaida, one of the most detailed accounts of the organisation to be published, predicted that al-Qaida would be intent on launching an attack in the US during the presidential election campaign. 'They realise it will be difficult but they will try to do it. A group like al-Qaida has the ability to infiltrate,' he said."

"Two-and-a-half years after September 11, Bin Laden is still at large, hunted by US and Pakistani forces along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. His arrest or confirmed death would make Mr Bush's re-election a near certainty."  

 Krugman, Weak on Terror
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/16/opinion/16KRUG.html 

"Polls suggest that a reputation for being tough on terror is just about the only remaining political strength George Bush has. Yet this reputation is based on image, not reality. The truth is that Mr. Bush, while eager to invoke 9/11 on behalf of an unrelated war, has shown consistent reluctance to focus on the terrorists who actually attacked America, or their backers in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan ... Why, after all, has his inner circle tried so hard to prevent a serious investigation of what happened on 9/11? There has been much speculation about whether officials ignored specific intelligence warnings, but what we know for sure is that the administration disregarded urgent pleas by departing Clinton officials to focus on the threat from Al Qaeda.

"reports about the all-out effort to capture Osama that started, finally, just a few days ago. Why didn't this happen last year, or the year before? ... It's now clear that by shifting his focus to Iraq, Mr. Bush did Al Qaeda a huge favor. The terrorists and their Taliban allies were given time to regroup; the resurgent Taliban once again control almost a third of Afghanistan, and Al Qaeda has regained the ability to carry out large-scale atrocities.

But Mr. Bush's lapses in the struggle against terrorism extend beyond his decision to give Al Qaeda a breather. His administration has also run interference for Saudi Arabia — the home of most of the 9/11 hijackers, and the main financier of Islamic extremism — and Pakistan, which created the Taliban and has actively engaged in nuclear proliferation.

Some of the administration's actions have been so strange that those who reported them were initially accused of being nutty conspiracy theorists. For example, what are we to make of the post-9/11 Saudi airlift? Just days after the attack, at a time when private air travel was banned, the administration gave special clearance to flights that gathered up Saudi nationals, including a number of members of the bin Laden family, who were in the U.S. at the time. These Saudis were then allowed to leave the country, after at best cursory interviews with the F.B.I.

And the administration is still covering up for Pakistan, whose government recently made the absurd claim that large-scale shipments of nuclear technology and material to rogue states — including North Korea, according to a new C.I.A. report — were the work of one man, who was promptly pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf. Mr. Bush has allowed this farce to go unquestioned.

So when the Bush campaign boasts of the president's record in fighting terrorism and accuses John Kerry of being weak on the issue, when Republican congressmen suggest that a vote for Mr. Kerry is a vote for Osama, remember this: the administration's actual record is one of indulgence toward regimes that are strongly implicated in terrorism, and of focusing on actual terrorist threats only when forced to by events."

"The danger is that Europe's reaction to a war that has now reached its soil will be retreat and appeasement rather than strengthened resolve. "It is clear that using force is not the answer to resolving the conflict with terrorists," European Commission President Romano Prodi said yesterday. Should such sentiments prevail, the next U.S. administration -- whether led by President Bush or Sen. John F. Kerry -- may have no alternative to unilateralism." 

Wed, Mar 17, 2004 - 9/11

 Drone May Have Spotted bin Laden in 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/03/17/predator.video/index.html

2 President's Aides Will Start Testifying Next Week on 9/11
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/17/politics/17PANE.html 

"Senior officials of the Bush and Clinton administrations will testify next week before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and they will be asked to explain their decisions on terrorist threats and "how they handled the most pressing security threat to our country," the panel said Tuesday. The witness list for next Tuesday and Wednesday includes George J. Tenet, director of central intelligence in both administrations; Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and his predecessor, Madeleine K. Albright; Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his predecessor, William S. Cohen; and President Bill Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel R. Berger. The list is notable for the absence of Condoleezza Rice ... national security adviser, who has refused an invitation from the commission to testify in public."

Wed, Mar 17, 2004 - 9/11-Related

White House Officials Worry of Pre-Election Attack
http://iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=41030&lang=en

"Even before the bombings in Madrid, White House officials were worrying that terrorists might strike the United States before the November elections. Now, with the Socialists' surprise election victory in Spain, analysts believe the ballot box rebuke of one of President Bush's closest allies in the war in Iraq could embolden terrorists to try the same tactics in the United States to create fear and chaos."


"'That's an amazing impact of a terrorist event, to change the party in power,' said Jerrold Post, a former CIA profiler who directs the political psychology program at George Washington University. 'The implications of this are fairly staggering,' agreed political psychologist Stanley Renshon of City University of New York. 'This is the first time that a terrorist act has influenced a democratic election. This is a gigantic, loud wakeup call. There's no one they'd like to have out of office more than George W. Bush.' In political terms, the question is whether an attack would cause Americans to rally around Bush or blame him for the nation's vulnerabilities."

 Salim Lone [ie. in support of Spain's decision to withdraw from Iraq]
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040317.wxlone17/BNStory/International/

"It is the Iraq war itself that has for a year provided terrorists with a great boost. Spain's exit has nothing to do with lack of commitment to fight terror: rather, it was at the heart of the Socialists' electoral platform, and was in tune with the 90 per cent of Spaniards who opposed the war. The incoming prime minister's policy — making fighting terrorism his first priority without being embroiled in Iraq, and pushing for UN leadership for the Iraqi transition — is exactly what's needed to make the world safer."

"A new poll suggested yesterday that Ralph Nader's independent presidential bid represented a serious threat to the Democratic candidate, Senator John Kerry."

 Spain Got the Point
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1170857,00.html

"Put aside the imprecision (and worse) that comes with the abuse of the word "appeasement": the menace of al-Qaida is real and serious enough without making hyperbolic comparisons to the Third Reich. Focus instead on the two grave errors that underlie this latest argument from the right. One is a misunderstanding of democracy, the other is a failure to make crucial distinctions.

The first mistake ... is the more surprising, for no word is invoked more often in support of the "war on terror" than democracy. Yet these insults hurled at the Spanish show a sneaking contempt for the idea. For surely the Spanish did nothing more on Sunday than exercise their democratic right to change governments ... The right's greater error is its failure to distinguish between the war against al-Qaida and the war on Iraq. About 90% of the Spanish electorate were against the latter; there is no evidence that they were, or are, soft on the former ... 36 hours before the election, about 11 million Spaniards took to the streets to swear their revulsion at terrorism. It takes some cheek to accuse a nation like that of weakness and appeasement."

"The US and Britain now find themselves that bit more isolated. Spain's exit from the ranks of supporters of the Iraq war may have been surprising, but hardly unexpected. Its government, in its support of the invasion, defied not simply half the population, as in the case of Britain, but the overwhelming majority."

Thurs Mar 18, 2004 - 9/11

None

Thurs Mar 18, 2004 - 9/11-Related

Al-Qaeda Warns of 'attack on UK'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3523432.stm 

"A statement claiming to come from al-Qaeda has warned of imminent terrorist attacks in Britain and other countries ... signed by a group which said it carried out attacks in Madrid and Istanbul. It warned the UK, Australia and Saudi Arabia that a "brigade of death" was targeting them and other countries. But it also said it was freezing its operations in Spain as a reward for the new government's stance on Iraq."

"For neo-conservative and other right-wing US hawks, Madrid has suddenly become Munich in 1938 and Spain's prime minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is former British prime minister Neville Chamberlain." ... "The image was starkly drawn as well by Robert Kagan, the neo-conservative who coined the phrase 'Americans are from Mars, and Europeans are from Venus.' Warning that the bombings and the election results in Spain "have brought the United States and Europe to the edge of the abyss", the co-founder of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), whose alumni include the most powerful hawks in the Bush administration, poured scorn on European Commission President Romano Prodi's comment after the attacks that "it is clear that using force is not the answer to resolving the conflict with terrorists". "Are Europeans prepared to grant all of al-Qaeda's conditions in exchange for a promise of security?" asked Kagan. "Thoughts of Munich and 1938 come to mind." 

Anti-Terror Report Card: Malaysia vs. Thailand
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/FC19Ae01.html

Anti-Terror Report Card: Malaysia vs. Thailand
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040318.walqe0318/BNStory/International/

Pakistani Forces Corner 'high value' Target
http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,1172706,00.html

Last Rites for the Bush Doctrine 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1171937,00.html

Pakistan Leader Says Al-Qaeda Target is Surrounded
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/18/international/asia/18CND-STAN.html?hp

Axis of Appeasement
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/18/opinion/18FRIE.html?hp 

"Spain is planning to do something crazy: to try to appease radical evil by pulling Spain's troops out of Iraq." 

Pakistani Troops Launch Fresh Al-Qaeda Assault 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3548-2004Mar18.html

Democracy, Not Appeasement 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3956-2004Mar18.html 

"International online commentators from Madrid to Manila are rejecting the suggestion that Spanish voters who voted out the country's pro-U.S. ruling party in the wake of the March 11 terrorist attack resemble the Europeans who sought to appease Adolf Hitler in the late 1930s. The accusation, says the Parisian daily, Le Monde, is 'contemptuous.'"