Ten Questions for President George W. Bush

by Martin A. Lee, author of Acid Dreams and The Beast Reawakens.

Published in the Philadelphia Citypaper, November 8 - 15, 2001 issue.

 

      If we had an aggressive, independent press corps in the United States, our

      national conversation about the terrorist attacks that demolished the

      World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon would be far more probing and

      informative. Here are some examples of questions that reporters might ask

      President Bush:

 

      1.) By making the war on terrorism your top priority, aren’t you signaling

      to abusive governments around the world that they need not worry about

      their human-rights performance as long as they join the anti-terrorist

      crusade?

 

      2.) Terrorists finance their operations by laundering money through barely

      regulated foreign banks and other hot-money outlets. Yet your

      administration has undermined international efforts to crack down on tax

      havens. Why did you withdraw support in May for a comprehensive initiative

      launched by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that

      sought greater transparency in tax and banking practices?

 

      3.) Do you think the War on Drugs has distorted U.S. foreign policy in

      Southwest Asia and other regions?

 

      4.) With U.S. intelligence agencies reporting that Osama bin Laden has

      tried to buy nuclear weapons, why has your administration proposed cutting

      funds for a program to help safeguard nuclear materials in the former

      Soviet Union?

 

      5.) Exactly who is a terrorist, and who is not? When the CIA was doling

      out more than $2 billion to support the Afghan mujahedeen in the 1980s,

      bin Laden and his colleagues were hailed as anti-communist freedom

      fighters. Now they are terrorists. The State Department previously

      denounced Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National Congress, as a

      terrorist. Today Mandela, South Africa’s former president, is considered a

      great statesman.

 

      6.) Many U.S. officials attribute the CIA’s inability to thwart the

      terrorist attacks in New York and Washington to rules that discouraged the

      CIA from utilizing gangsters, death-squad leaders and other unwholesome

      characters as sources and assets. But didn’t enlisting unsavory characters

      set the stage for tragic events on Sept. 11? The CIA trained and financed

      Islamic extremists to topple the Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan. Now,

      some of these same extremists have turned their psychotic wrath against

      the United States. Instead of adding billions of dollars to the CIA’s

      budget, shouldn’t you hold accountable the shortsighted U.S. intelligence

      officials who ran the covert operation in Afghanistan?

 

      7.) Shortly after Sept. 1, John Negroponte became U.S. ambassador to the

      United Nations. During the mid-1980s, Negroponte was accused of covering

      up right-wing death-squad activity and other human-rights abuses in

      Honduras when he served as ambassador to that country. Does his reputation

      in aiding and abetting state terrorism in Central America undermine the

      moral authority of the United States as it embarks upon a crusade against

      international terrorism?

 

      8.) If terrorists hit a nuclear power plant in the United States, it could

      result in a public health disaster. In the interest of protecting national

      security, shouldn't your administration emphasize safe, renewable energy

      alternatives, such as solar and wind power, that would not invite

      terrorism?

 

      9.) Sept. 11 will be remembered as a day of infamy in the United States

      because of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. In Chile,

      Sept. 11 is remembered as the day when a U.S.-backed coup toppled a

      democratically elected government in 1973, initiating a reign of terror by

      Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Will you cooperate with the various international

      legal cases that are homing in on former Secretary of State Henry

      Kissinger for colluding with Pinochet’s murderous regime?

 

      10.) Has U.S. behavior has contributed to the spread of fanaticism around

      the globe, and shouldn’t that be acknowledged?