America: The Good Neighbor ( from
a Canadian newspaper)
Widespread but only partial news
coverage was given recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by
Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator. What follows is the full
text of his trenchant remarks as printed in the Congressional Record:
"This Canadian thinks it is
time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least
appreciated people on all the earth.
Germany, Japan and, to a lesser
extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans
who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of
these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the
United States.
When France was in danger of
collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward
was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When earthquakes hit distant
cities, it is the United States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59
American communities were flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped.
The Marshall Plan and the Truman
Policy pumped billions of dollars! into discouraged countries. Now newspapers
in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans.
I'd like to see just one of those
countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build
its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the
Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10? If so, why don't
they fly them? Why do all the International lines except Russia fly American
Planes?
Why does no other land on earth
even consider putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese
technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get
automobiles.
You talk about American
technocracy, and you find men on the moon -! not once, but several times - and
safely home again.
You talk about scandals, and the
Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even
their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets,
and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American
dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.
When the railways of France,
Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who
rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went
broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke.
I can name you 5000 times when the
Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even
one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think
there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbors have faced it alone,
and I'm one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around.
They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they
are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their
present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those."
Stand proud, America!
____________________________________
By KAREN GULLO ( The
Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (Sept.
12)
From broken bits of hijacked
airplanes to intelligence intercepts, the FBI is collecting evidence in its
search for those responsible for Tuesday's twin terrorist attacks. Officials
said early evidence pointed to Saudi exile Osama bin Laden.
At the Pentagon and World Trade
Center, agents sifted through the rubble.
''The FBI evidence recovery team
has found parts of the fuselage outside'' the Pentagon, Fairfax County chief
Michael Tamillow said Wednesday. ''As we go in we're now identifying smaller
parts of the plane. Everyone is looking for the black box recorders.'' Those
recorders could contain conversations from the cockpits of the doomed planes.
One investigative focus was in
Florida, where agents sought search warrants amid evidence that suspected
sympathizers of the accused terrorist were operating in the area, officials
said.
''Everything is pointing in the
direction of Osama bin Laden,'' said Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on
the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A flight manifest from one of the
ill-fated flights included the name of a suspected bin Laden supporter. And
U.S. intelligence intercepted communications between bin Laden supporters discussing
Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, Hatch
told The Associated Press.
''They have an intercept of some
information that included people associated with bin Laden who acknowledged a
couple of targets were hit,'' he said. Hatch declined to be more specific.
Officials cautioned it was too
early to definitively assign blame but said early evidence was pointing toward
bin Laden.
Ruling Taliban leaders in
Afghanistan, where bin Laden is believed to be hiding, said they doubted the
wealthy Arab could have been behind the attacks. Bin Laden previously has been
tied to terrorist attacks against Americans overseas.
Whatever the case, each detail
gathered in the hours immediately after the breathtaking devastation in New
York and Washington pointed toward a carefully planned plot executed by
knife-wielding hijackers to ensure the maximum casualties at two of Americas
most famous landmarks.
Law enforcement officials told the
AP that early evidence suggested the attackers may have studied how to operate
large aircraft and targeted transcontinental flights with large fuel supplies
to ensure spectacular explosions - and maximum destruction.
Thousands were believed dead in
New York and Washington.
''These heinous acts of violence
are an assault on the security of our nation,'' Attorney General John Ashcroft
declared as thousands of federal investigators fanned out across the country
pursuing leads.
''We will expend every effort and
devote all the necessary resources to bring the people responsible for these
acts, these crimes, to justice,'' he said.
Farewell phone calls from
passengers and at least one flight attendant on the four targeted flights
described a similar pattern:
hijackers working in groups of
three to five, wielding knives, in some cases stabbing flight crews as they
took control of the cockpit and forced the planes toward their intended
targets.
One of the passengers was Barbara
Olson, the wife of Solicitor General Theodore Olson, who called her husband as
the hijacking was occurring. She was aboard American Airlines Flight 77 that
left Washington Dulles International Airport heading for Los Angeles but which
eventually crashed into the Pentagon.
Olson told her husband the
attackers had used knifelike instruments to take over the plane, and forced
passengers to the back.
''She called from the plane while
it was being hijacked. I wish it wasn't so but it is,'' Theodore Olson said.
A father in Easton, Conn.,
received a similar harrowing call from his adult son, who was flying with his
wife and child on a plane that left Boston and eventually crashed into the
World Trade Center.
Lee Hanson told authorities his
son Peter called twice in short cell phone calls that cut off. In the first
call, the businessman said a flight attendant had been stabbed. In the second
call, the son said his plane was going down, law enforcement officials said.
''He called to his parents' home,
and so in that way they were so together in that moment,'' the Rev. Bonnie
Bardot told a memorial service held Tuesday night in Easton.
A flight attendant aboard the
second jetliner that struck the World Trade Center managed to call an emergency
number from the back of the airplane, an American Airlines source said. The
source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the flight attendant reported
her fellow attendants had been stabbed, the cabin had been taken over and they
were going down in New York.
And a San Francisco woman told
KTVU-TV that her son, Mark Bingham, 31, called her from aboard United Airlines
Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania. ''We've been taken over. There are
three men that say they have a bomb,'' Alice Hoglan quoted her son as saying.
Hatch and several law enforcement
officials confirmed they had linked at least one of the suspected hijackers who
showed up on one of the flights' manifests to bin Laden's organization.
The FBI was seeking search
warrants in Broward County in southern Florida and Daytona Beach in central
Florida. A car was towed by authorities at one of those locations.
Other leads were being pursued.
Authorities examined a van seized in New York for possible clues, while a car
found at the Boston airport where one of the planes was hijacked reportedly
contained an Arabic language flight manual.
Ashcroft briefed about 250 members
of Congress late Tuesday on the progress of the investigation. Lawmakers
referred repeatedly to the terrorist attacks as an act of war warranting retaliation.
''This is a war situation we're
in,'' Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said, adding that Tuesday's tragedy likely
would alter Americans' sense of security and lead them to forgo some freedoms
for added safety in the future.
_______________________________
ON
MONDAY... then ON TUESDAY...
On Monday there were people
fighting against praying in schools
On Tuesday you would have been hard
pressed to find a school where
someone was not praying
On Monday there were people who
were trying to separate each other by race, sex, color and creed
On Tuesday they were all holding
hands
On Monday we thought that we were
secure
On Tuesday we learned better
On Monday we were talking about
heroes as being athletes
On Tuesday we learned what
"hero" really means
On Monday people went to work at
the World Trade Centers as usual
On Tuesday they died
On Monday people were fighting
about the "Ten Commandments" on government property
On Tuesday the same people all
said "God help us all" while thinking "Thou shall not kill"
On Monday people argued with their
kids about picking up their room
On Tuesday the same people could
not get home fast enough to hug their kids
On Monday people picked up
McDonalds for dinner
On Tuesday they stayed home
On Monday people were upset with
their busy schedules and lack of time
On Tuesday they dropped everything
and were lining up to give blood for the dying
On Monday politicians argued about
budget surpluses
On Tuesday, grief stricken, they
sang "God Bless America"
On Monday we worried about the
traffic and getting to work late
On Tuesday we worried about a
planes crashing into our homes or place of business
On Monday some children had solid
families
On Tuesday they were orphans
On Monday the president was going
to Florida to read to children
On Tuesday he returned to
Washington to protect our children
On Monday we e-mailed jokes
On Tuesday we did not
It is sadly ironic how it takes
horrific events to place things into perspective. The "Attack on
America" has done this. The lessons learned, the things taken for granted,
the things forgotten or overlooked, will never be again.
On Monday - pray and be thankful
On Tuesday - pray and be thankful
On Wednesday - pray and be
thankful
On Thursday - pray and be thankful
On Friday - pray and be thankful
On Saturday - pray and be thankful
On Sunday - pray and be thankful