Spring Break
9/11 Panel looks forward, reflects back
Sara Brooks
Issue date: 9/16/02 Section: News
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The roundtable discussion, hosted by the Department of Political Science, was entitled "September 11, 2002: One Year into America's War on Terrorism."
After opening remarks by Dean Bryan Le Beau of the School of Arts and Sciences, a panel of UMKC professors discussed 9/11-related topics and fielded questions from the audience.
Reginald Bassa, who spoke on domestic security, began the discussion.
"I was shocked like everyone else, but to be honest, I wasn't surprised," said Bassa. He went on to describe the advent of what he called "modern terrorism," which ranges from the first plane hijacking in 1961 to an eerily prescient attempt in 1994 to fly an Air France jet into the Eiffel Tower. He dismissed as "patently false" claims that we had no warnings of our own attack, citing the letter by FBI Agent Colleen Crowly.
"If headquarters had given the field office more authority," said Bassa, "they would have been able to crack [terrorist Zacharias] Moussaoui's laptop, get to the other hijackers, and prevent this crime."
David Atkinson discussed civil liberties since 9/11, focusing primarily on statutes in the U.S. Patriot Act. Passed on Oct. 29, he said the act "augmented the power of the attorney general like never before." It also granted sweeping new powers to intelligence and law-enforcement agencies, while cutting some of the judicial supervision of these same agencies. He cited domestic surveillance as an example, stating that the government can now tap your telephone and monitor Internet activities without probable cause and, in the case of computer tapping, without any accountability.
Atkinson also questioned the legal status of Jose Padilla and Yaser Esam Hambi, who bear the nebulous label "enemy combatant" and are still in a military prison.
"As U.S. citizens they are entitled to a trial," Atkinson said, "but that has not happened yet."
On the panel to discuss the bio-terrorism threat was Todd Krueger of the School of Pharmacy. He said the international ban on biological weapons since 1975 had lulled the country into a sense of security. When last year's anthrax attack occurred, he said, "Our health system and our emergency response system were quickly overwhelmed."
One reason for the widespread panic was that the anthrax symptoms closely resemble early flu.
"The spores were released in the middle of cold and flu season," said Krueger. "I'm sure that was not a fluke." Emergency response groups like the The Center for Disease Control and Federal Emergency Management Agency did learn a lot from this scare, he said, and are now stockpiling antiviruses in case of a future attack.
Robert Evanson discussed international relations since 9/11. He described the cold-war mentality of the Bush administration, which, he says, now sees world issues only through the prism of the War on Terror.
"Chechnya used to be viewed as a centuries-old local resistance to Russian oppression," Evanson said. "Now, because there is an small al-Qaeda presence there, it's terrorism." He mentioned the Palestine and Kashmir issues as well, where we have allied ourselves with questionable regimes simply because they are "opposing terrorism."
Evanson also discussed the impending war on Iraq, asking if it was possible to sell it to the rest of the world, or for that matter, the American public.
"I am still waiting for evidence of Saddam's support or involvement in 9/11" he said, also questioning the Bush line that Iraq presents a serious threat to our national security. The final speaker of the night was Mohammed Hafez, who discussed U.S.-Muslim relations since 9/11. He faulted much of the mistrust between the two groups to a difference in perception.
"The common view of Americans as to why 9/11 occurred is because we are free and prosperous, and you [the Muslim world] envy us."
Most Muslims, he contrasted, would laugh at this attitude, and instead say that we were attacked due to our foreign policies.
Another issue, Hafez said, is Americans' perceived tendency to gloss over Muslim deaths.
"America's deaths were considered more important," he said. "Whereas the Afghans were 'collateral damage.'"
Finally, he said, many Americans hold the belief that Muslim societies are backwards, archaic and undemocratic. However, Muslims would argue that they come from a proud, rich culture, and "blame the [political] regimes on America, which they see as propping up their dictators."
