And today, in the wake of "America Under Attack," we have a segment of the U.S. Administration supporting the enhancing of the US security system by recruiting criminal informers for the FBI and the CIA. And this kind of security system follows the present administration's will to go ahead with the ABM defence system to intercept incoming missiles from abroad. I think that there is some mix up in the setting of our top social priorities when economist Paul Krugman states that our airports are guarded by "security personnel who are paid about $6 an hour, less than they could earn serving fast food. These guardians of our lives receive only a few hours of training, and more than 90 percent of the people screening bags have been on the job for less than six months."

Statistical surveys, released today, reveal a strong support for an immediate military retaliatory action. However, the U.S. Administration has become aware that this is not a traditional war as the previous one against Japan; this is a new war against international terrorism, that is a war against an invisible enemy. And yesterday, as I corresponded with Timothy Shire, publisher of Ensign, I recalled the terrorist cells of the Red Brigades in Italy. These Red Brigade cells began their terrorist operations in the early 70s and were characterized by cells operating anonymously (invisibly) and independently from each other, coordinated by the ideological slogan to overthrow the state, and characterized by cell members conducting exemplary civil lives. Now we can only imagine the degree of invisibility and power of the fundamentalist and fanatic terrorist groups originating in Afghanistan and the Middle East when we consider the invisible power of the Internet communication, the invisible power of the international corporative world, the impeccable civil lives conducted by the international terrorists, and their visible slogan of waging the 'Holy War' or 'Jihad' as understood by Osama Bin Laden and his followers.

Osama Bin Laden has been linked to these despicable terrorist attacks against America, and there is evidence that the U.S. military will attack Afghanistan unless their Taliban's leaders will extradite Bin Laden. The war against this kind of Terrorism cannot be won with the 'smoking out' of Bin Laden and in fact retired U.S. general Abramson has stated in a CBC radio interview that this terrorist war may take two or three more generations before it is won. And to emphasize the invisibility of the enemy, general Colin Powell has stated this morning on CNN that he cannot rule out the present working of terrorist cells in the U.S.

It is comforting to know that a commitment to a ceasefire is going to emerge in the Middle East as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres are expected to meet soon.

References

RECKONINGS. Paying the Price, by Paul Krugman, New York Times, September 16, 2001 http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/16/opinion/16KRUG.html?todaysheadlines

Red Brigades, Federation of American Scientists, FAS http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/br.htm

Revealed: British bank's links to bin Laden's global empire, Jason Allardyce and Francis Elliott http://www.scotlandonsunday.co.uk/index.cfm?id=SS01035936&feed=N

Who is Osama bin Laden?, Katie MacGuire, CBC News Online | September 2001 http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/background/binladen_osama.html

War will be 'sweeping, sustained': Bush, CBC Canada, September 16, 2001 http://www.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/09/15/bush010915