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PREPARING FOR A NEW WAR ... AND A NEW AMERICA

In this, perhaps the most tragic time in American history, there's no way to express the horror we've felt at hearing reports of the human devastation in the terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Terrorists won. America lost. It's the dawn of a new era in the Western world.

There's no reason to place blame unless such blame is reasonable and effective in preventing terrorism in the future.

So let's place blame:

The FAA has not done its job. There are major holes in the US airport security systems, erring in favor of the market-friendly view that relatively hassle-free business and carefree vacation air travel is important to the airline industry. For too long, government agencies have been protecting rather than regulating the industries over which they're charged.

Boarding a plane will become tougher, to the detriment of airline commodities and the ease of air travelers. Low paid airport workers are targets for terrorist infiltration.

Pay rates must rise for airport and flight workers, but most important, thorough background checks must be instituted. If lives are saved, it's worth it. No more putting our lives in the hands of people unchecked, underpaid, indifferent and vulnerable, making us vulnerable.

Deregulation, at its heart, is a noble free-market idea. But there are limits to free markets, and it may be time to reconsider the almost 20-year deregulation of airlines, at least until airlines companies institute reforms to protect customers and increase customer service.

The US intelligence community has failed its own people. There are small indications that government officials had some warning that something big was happening in national security, but no national warning of imminent threat.

But the intelligence community has been decimated in the name of "democracy."

US leadership, especially under former President Bill Clinton, essentially ignored the persistent threat of terrorists such as Osama bin Laden and terrorist sponsors like Iraq, Iran and related organizations. This too fails Americans. It did so Tuesday.

The Clinton administration occasionally warned of the importance of the terrorism threat, but when you have a new topic or "talking point" every day, it's hard to distinguish the importance of any topic.

But Clinton did little to beef up security and the military to answer such proverbial attacks on the US.

Talk -- that was the essence of the Clinton years. Talk the "correct" talk, don't worry about walking the walk.

Congress, without adequate vision, has let America down by not having a more focused view -- or the political will -- to revise their constituents' view of the threat of terrorism.

And of course there's Osama bin Laden and his international terrorism supporters, from Iran to Iraq to Libya to Palestinians.

Bin Laden, the one man who has enough money and hatred and enough syphilis-infected, wild-eyed fanatics at his disposal to hurl unwarranted violence at his stated enemy.

Oh, yes, his stated enemy -- the "Great Satan," which "idolizes" Jesus Christ and money "too much" and "ignores" Islamic law (the two religions are so close in principle that division is almost ludicrous and mass murder of innocents in both concepts is the worst of all in the eyes of God).

Oh yes, the stated enemy of Islam is America, "the Friend of Israel." Remembering the toll taken against the Jewish people over thousands of years, remembering the number of Islamic militants who died by their own hands, it puts the lie to so many US liberals who feared American Christians and their supposed Inquisitions more than Islamic fanatics.

Bin Laden and his ilk must be understood and destroyed, as must all the cowardly people who kill by suicide for political reasons, psychotically obliterating thousands of people, destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and portions of civilizations along the way.

But hindsight is easy. Foresight is tough -- and essential.

What now?

A resurgence of Americanism. Not isolationism by any means.

In the rise and fall of civilizations, there is always a point at which historians can determine the beginning of that decline.

That point has not been reached in America yet, I believe. Despite talk of the nation's decline, it's still The Great Nation it always was, because freedom here, more than anywhere else, thrives.

Despite watching our leaders wreck their personal and professional lives with peccadilloes while blatantly lying to the people, despite sitting back while decadence ruled during some of the '80s and all of the '90s, despite political broken promises on all sides, despite increasing acceptance of deviant sexual behavior, despite increasing fears of a government out of control, there are still few signs that America is on the decline.

The hearts of so very many go out to the families of victims in the devastating destruction of the World Trade Center.

The resolve of many goes to the heart of justice that must be found in the unthinkable terrorist attacks against the US over the past 30 years.

"Unthinkable" to Americans, who are a gentle, kind people who value life, freedom and God, no matter how harsh seems their rhetoric or manner or demeanor.

There is a new war, just like the old wars, just like World Wars I and II, Korea -- a war against those who kill the innocent.

The United States is the same America that helped win those three wars. And there is every reason to believe the resolve shown during those wars will resurface in the next few weeks, with a realignment of priorities, a stronger sense of the value of freedom that we have for so long taken for granted and a renewed belief that fools -- no matter how clever -- cannot truly threaten the freedoms that are at the heart of the US.

But then there is the toll. Besides the heart-wrenching, devastating loss of tens of thousands of lives the September 11th World Trade Center and Pentagon destruction wrought.

There are the tradings of freedoms for the overall security of the nation.

Airports could be nationalized, to bring their security under direct federal control.

Borders could remain closed indefinitely, because there are many more unchecked immigrants than the impoverished Mexicans for whom many Americans sympathize. There are terrorists among us because of lax immigration standards. This must change.

A resurgence of governmental control even as our president and portions of Congress and the majority of Americans rage against the ever-growing governmental bureaucracy could mean a resurging fear of fascism even in the US.

But as the population of the US continues to grow massively, so do the massive problems of managing such a large number of people. Already, political concerns are out of control, as the partisan past ten years have shown: Politics wrongly have outstripped statesmanship.

The world has changed dramatically over the past ten years, not often for the good. But are we willing to give up more freedoms for the national good?

Only in wartime. And this is war. Against those who kill indiscriminately. Or who ambush and kill innocents after psychotic interpretations of God's will.

Giving up freedoms for the national good is an old philosophic argument that's healthy as any civilization renews itself. That must be the new national topic, among others.

I call on Americans not to target American Arabs for derision or undue suspicion.

I call on Americans, nevertheless, to report anything reasonably suspicious that could threaten national security: nothing is too small to report -- and there is a website to do so: http://www.ifccfbi.gov/

I call on anyone who can buy US stocks to do so right away. A strong national showing on the stock markets is important now. A huge selloff, and the resulting continuing economic decline, is the last thing the US needs in the wake of the New York and Washington devastation.

I call on everyone to stock their food cabinets and gas up their cars just to make themselves feel better, but remember this is still the safest nation in the world and supplies are plentiful.

This is not the beginning of the new depression, it is a renewal of the American spirit in memory of those who died. So relax and remember the innocent.

It's not the beginning of the end. It's a re newed beginning, a realignment of priorities, a snap from the Old America to the New, more prepared United States of the 21st century.

A better America, with the enemies of freedom of worship, trade and belief again our renewed adversaries.

The old fights about special interest issues, the political demagoguery of interest groups such as senior citizens and Baby Boomers and Generation Xers should end. The interest of American citizens as a whole should emerge, ending the overwhelming infighting politicians have been indulging in, ending the tolerance of incompetence at high levels.

And it's a time for a new Individualism in the great freewheeling American tradition in which the cancerous elitist, mind-numbing, thought-controlling fascism of "political correctness" must end. We need to open our minds and hearts to new ideas and re-examine old ones.

It's the virtual realignment of America for the first portion of the 21st century reality. Brought, as renewal so often is, by tragedy.

Russia is no longer our biggest enemy, though they may be implicated somehow in the September 11th tragedy. China threatens but needs us. The Middle East is volatile but always has been and will be. The European Union is gathering but there is yet no momentum.

Deliberate justice is left to the United States, still the world's leader.

This is a time to be proud. Not the insolent pride religions decry, but the time to be proud that we are courageous, philosophical descendents of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Paine, Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Reagan.

There is deep pain in the nation. Thousands are dead and we grieve with heartbroken confusion and anger.

If we wonder how to carry on, it is this: Their deaths must not be in vain. We will learn and move forward and remember them forever.

TV journalists say "we're a changed America" after the terrorist attacks. Headline: Terrorism has come to America. Hoo-hah.

Terrorism came to America years ago -- and TV journalists don't rule our conscious: we're not changed at heart.

We are the most diverse people in the world, and we don't like having thousands of our innocents killed because someone from afar decides their "god" doesn't like us.

America and freedom are undiminished.

There are great obstacles ahead, but the democratic process -- and the unyielding will of free people to remain and expand the world's freedoms -- will see the Republic through.

-- Mike Shiloh
Editor, TheLatest.Net

NOTE: An ABC/Washington Post poll released Wednesday showed 66-percent of those asked would give up freedoms for more security.

Just in:

IRAQ DID IT, ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE INDICATES

TEN TERRORISTS STILL AT LARGE

"AUTHORITIES" IN AFGHANISTAN NOW SAY THEY'VE PLACED TERRORIST OSAMA BIN LADEN UNDER HOUSE ARREST

THE LATEST:

Taliban leaders in Afghanistan Wednesday   claimed they had Osama bin Laden in a communications "quarantine," unable to communicate with his minions. Now they claim the fake-Muslim mass murderer is "confined to his home" near Islamabad.
          The claim is seen by most to be a desperate attempt to head off a coming allied attack and to deflect criticism for harboring bin Laden for 5 years.
          Western diplomatic sources say the US will accept nothing less than full surrender by bin Laden and his accomplices.

IT WAS IRAQ THAT RECRUITED OSAMA BIN LADEN -- who gets his money from his rich Saudi daddy -- and accomplices to carry out the World Trade Center disaster, according to Israeli intellegence, reports WorldTribune.com.
          The Middle East nation's intelligence indicates the Trade Center explosions were too big an operation to be carried out by any one terrorist organization -- it was likely a coalition of terrorist "cells" with direction from a Middle East government. Most likely Iraq.
          "All the steps lead" to bin Laden, one expert said. "Of all the countries, Iraq seems the most reasonable" candidate for starting it all.

THE TALIBAN "GOVERNMENT" OF AFGHANISTAN CLAIMS it was "forced" into training 14 men in the piloting of Boeing planes. The Afghan government, of course, has been harboring bin Laden for years.

AFGHAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS are reported to be on the move, like puppets dancing on a cardboard stage, hoping to escape an all-out allied attack, while having moved what little military hardware available into place.

A US STRIKE FORCE IS PREPARING FOR A RESPONSE TO THE TRADE CENTER DISASTER.

PRESIDENT BUSH is building an international coalition to respond to the Trade Center horror.

IN THE TRADE CENTER AND PENTAGON ATTACKS, US INTELLIGENCE YIELDED LITTLE. BUT THE TERRORISTS KNEW A FRIGHTENING LOT ABOUT US SECRET CODE AND PROCEDURES, columnist William Safire explains. IS THERE A MOLE FOR THE TERRORISTS IN THE US GOVERNMENT?

A NEW FEAR FOR MANY: As reported Tuesday at TheLatest.Net, there are likely asbestos particles in the dust that blew throughout lower Manhattan in the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings. The dust was inhaled by countless thousands of people who were exposed to the cloud that billowed through the southern portions of the city in the aftermath of the collapse.

That's why you'll see news reporters wearing surgical masks when reporting from the scene. But those commenting to TheLatest.Net say those masks are useless in keeping asbestos out of the lungs. OSHA-issue masks are needed.

More frightening, New Yorkers are complaining that that the whole city "smells" like the smoke still billowing from the Trade Center disaster site.

Most frightening: a theory advanced by a TheLatest.Net contributor Tuesday that there may have been anthrax aboard the planes that crashed into the Trade Center.

HAMBURG, GERMANY -- One arrest after authorities have been going through an apartment thought to have been once occupied by two of the men suspected in the Trade Center terrorist attacks. Those two men haven't lived in the apartment for a year, but German police are looking for clues anyway. The two men have reportedly been living in Florida for the past year.

THERE WERE AS MANY AS 50 FOREIGN NATIONALS in America who were involved in the explosions that destroyed the World Trade Center. The FBI says almost all of them have been identified. Ten of those suspects are still on the loose. -- The Los Angeles Times

THERE ARE REPORTS THAT AT LEAST ONE HIJACKER ON EACH PLANE HAD A RAMP PASS, MEANING HE COULD HAVE HAD TOTAL ACCESS TO THE PLANE BEFORE TAKEOFF, ALLOWING HIM TO SMUGGLE PRACTICALLY ANYTHING ONTO THE JET

RAIDS on homes in California are expected Thursday for clues to the whereabouts of terrorist suspects.

The FBI raided homes in Florida Wednesday for clues to suspects' locations.

AN AMERICAN AIRLINES CREW HAD ITS UNIFORMS AND SECURITY BADGES STOLEN SEVERAL MONTHS AGO. The airline wrote a memo warning pilots to be on the lookout for bogus pilots.

MORE THAN SEVEN-THOUSAND FBI agents have been assigned to the investigation.

IN UNION CITY, NEW JERSEY, five people are said to have trained a video camera on the World Trade Center just before the explosions, taped it, the howled at the explosions and congratulated each other. No world on how authorities know this.

SUICIDE NOTES HAVE BEEN FOUND, left by men identified as among the hijackers who died in the terrorist explosions that brought down the Trade Center.

There are reports that some of the terrorist team may have been residing in the US for more than a year.

THE TERRORIST TEAMS WERE TO CARRY OUT THEIR MISSIONS NO MATTER WHAT: One -- possibly two -- of the terrorists obtained flight training in the US and fully half of the terrorists had some flight training, according to authorities, citing Arabic flight training manuals found in a car at a Florida airport linked to at least one of the terrorists. They are believed to have killed or incapacitated pilots of the hijacked planes and taken controls themselves.

AFGHANISTAN, the nation known to be harboring bin Laden, is preparing for a allied attack. -- The Washington Post

THE BIN LADEN BOSTON CONNECTION: The pseudo-Islamist's brother was a cab driver at Boston Cab Company for a while; he is reported to have another relative in the area. Bin Laden's father is said to be funneling money to bin Laden through that brother. It was in Boston where at least two of the deathplanes originated.

ANTI-ARAB SENTIMENT is reported in several states in the wake of the Trade Center attack. TheLatest.Net reminds all that there were Arab-Americans in the World Trade Center when it collapsed, there are Arab-Americans in the armed forces, there are Arab-Americans among the rescue crews trying to save lives among the Trade Center rubble.

THERE ARE REPORTS THAT PRESIDENT CLINTON RECEIVED INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION NAMING THE WHEREABOUTS OF OSAMA BIN LADEN AS LATE AS JANUARY, 2001, BUT CLINTON, AFTER ARGUING WITH ADVISORS, DECIDED AGAINST AN AIRSTRIKE AGAINST BIN LADEN.

FOR ANALYSIS OF THE WAYS THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION MAY HAVE HELPED OSAMA BIN LADEN and his accomplices accomplish the Trade Center disaster, see WorldNet.com.

CLINTON IS IN AUSTRALIA under heavy Secret Service guard.

CONGRESS is releasing more than 20-billion dollars for the US war on terrorism effort.

THE FLIGHT THAT EXPLODED INTO THE PENTAGON was targeting the White House, according to the Bush administration. Another flight, which exploded into the ground in Pennsylvania, was also reportedly aimed at the White House.

There is speculation that three passengers aboard the Pennsylvania flight overwhelmed the terrorists and crashed the plane rather than allow it to destroy the White House, a plan which terrorists announced aboard the plane. If so, those passengers are being hailed as heroes. The passenger who called in the report of the airborne insurgency: Jeremy Glick.

NINE PEOPLE HAVE SO FAR BEEN FOUND ALIVE among the rubble of the Trade Center. One of them said he was on the 82nd floor and "rode" the building down as it collapsed Tuesday. He has two broken legs.

RESCUE WORKERS -- MANY OF THEM VOLUNTEERS -- SAY THERE COULD BE PEOPLE LEFT ALIVE in the underground parking garage. Some rescue workers claim they've shined flashlights into portions of the rubble and seen return lights that could be survivors holding flashlights. Others say it could be hallucinations on the part of tired rescuers.

WORKERS ARE CONTINUING TO WORK THROUGH THE RUBBLE of the World Trade Center, pulling up chunks of concrete and handing it to a human chain, dropping it onto barges that move down the Hudson River. This, despite indications that nearby buildings might collapse:

FEARS CONTINUE THAT TWO BUILDINGS along the Trade Center plaza, One LIberty Plaza and the Millennium Hotel, could collapse any time, their foundations shaken by the earthquake-like collapse of the Trade Center. There could be other nearby buildings that could have weakened foundations, as yet unknown by building inspectors.

The Millennium Hotel was where some of the evacuees were taken after escaping the Trade Center towers, before the collapse.

NEW YORK MAYOR RUDY GIULIANI has requested from federal officials six-thousand body bags for those killed in the Trade Center tragedy, to augment the thousands of body bags already on hand.

NEARLY THE ENTIRE WORLD TRADE CENTER PLAZA HAS COLLAPSED. The four stories of the South Tower that remained following the deathplane attack Tuesday finally collapsed Wednesday evening. World Trade buildings 7, 4 and 5 have also collapsed, according to authorities. Rescuers were evacuated just before the buildings fell.

WORLD FINANCIAL MARKETS APPEAR TO HAVE STABILIZED after volatile sessions Tuesday -- the day of the World Trade Center terrorism -- and Wednesday.

THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE will likely reopen Monday. US bond markets may reopen for limited trading Thursday.

SOME NEWS MEDIA CLAIM that a New York Port Authority has admitted, on condition of anonymity, that as many as 20-thousand -- or more -- may have died in the Trade Center destruction.

NEW YORK UNDER SEIGE: THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING and Penn Station in New York City were evacuated last night because of bomb threats. There are reports that police found "something" in Penn Station.

IN A DISPLAY OF SOLIDARITY with the families of those who lost loved ones in the Trade Center, more than 1500 radio stations staged a moment of silence early Wednesday morning.

FBI SEARCHES FOR INFORMATION leading to suspects in the Trade Center bombing have now taken place in at least 20 locations, from Maine down to Virginia. There have been an unspecified number of arrests.

AIRPORTS ARE EXPECTED TO REOPEN THURSDAY with the return of flights that were redirected Tuesday to their original destinations. Full resumption of national air flights could take place by Monday.

US AND ISRAELI BORDERS ARE STILL CLOSED. Israeli airspace also remains closed to all air travel except El Al planes.

SENATOR KAYE BAILEY HUTCHISON is to introduce legislation putting a federal marshal on all commercial domestic flights.

CHURCHES THROUGHOUT THE NATION responded to the Trade Center tragedy by holding memorial services Tuesday and Wednesday nights for those who died. Turnout is said to have been overwhelming in many areas of the US heartland.

THE PENTAGON REOPENED Wednesday after a plane hijacked by terrorists crashed into a corner of the building Tuesday. There could be 200 or more dead in that attack. The fire that kept cropping up in the portion of the Pentagon that was struck by the terrorist plane is finally out.

THE UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL SUMMIT FOR CHILDREN, set to follow the UN "summit" on racism, has been cancelled amid security concerns.

THE MAYOR OF SEATTLE WEDNESDAY RECEIVED AN INVITATION FROM THE NEW YORK MAYOR TO ATTEND A DISASTER PREPAREDNESS CONFERENCE NEXT MONTH AT THE WORLD TRADE CENTER.

IRAQI STATE TELEVISION'S VIEW OF THE TRADE CENTER HORROR, as reported by WorldTribune.com:

"The massive explosions in the centers of power in America, notably the Pentagon, is a painful slap in the face of U.S. politicians to stop their illegitimate hegemony and attempts to impose custodianship on peoples.

"It was no coincidence that the World Trade Center was destroyed in suicidal operations involving two planes that have broken through all U.S. security barriers to carry the operation of the century and to express rejection of the reckless U.S. policy."

"The collapse of U.S. centers of power is a collapse of the U.S. policy, which deviates from human values and stands by world Zionism at all international forums to continue to slaughter the Palestinian Arab people and implement U.S. plans to dominate the world under the cover of what is called the new [world] order. These are the fruits of the new U.S. order."

The death of terrorism is the New World Order now.

-- Mike Shiloh

YOUR COMMENTS:

GOD BLESS ALL WHO DIED. -- Sadd, UT

This wasn't terrorism, this was war. Why isn't Bush doing anything yet? -- Dimmie, MO

Usama bin Laden reminds me of Lee Harvey Oswald, a patsy for a great crime who was set up by forces much larger than he can imagine. -- KillLaden, IL

Buy a flag and remember those who died. -- DL, AL

The military have our full support. Go. -- xx, FL

TheLatest: Thank you for your consistent coverage of this. -- Julanny, AK

Nostradamus, 1654:

"In the year of the new century and nine months
From the sky will come the King of Terror
The sky will burn at 45 degrees
Fire approaches the great new city...

"There will be a great thunder (collapsing buildings)
Two brothers (The World Trade Center) torn apart by Chaos,
While the fortress (America) endures.
The great leader will succumb.
A third great war will begin when the big city (New York) is burning."

-- Joy, TX

Interesting to see how much New York and the rest of America had tied up in those two buildings (the World Trade Center). -- ToneR, AZ

This is apocalypse. -- Martovina, UT

There's got to be a way anyone's alive in the debris (of the World Trade Center) -- Moll, AZ

To Jolly, who worked in the TC, Please be alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -- Alga, PA

Congress should pass an emergency law freezing gas prices at $1.25 a gallon and should do so immediately. Let the greedy bastards that are profiting from this nation's misery suffer for a year or two. -- Viejo, TX

BOMBS AWAY -- JX, FL

Timothy McVeigh would be proud. -- Johnson, AL

Has it occurred to anyone that this whole thing could be a setup by the gubment to put us into a war and put lots of money into the pockets of oil companies? -- AxToGrind, NM

Buy gold. -- xx, FL

Buy stocks. -- MS

Buy oil stocks. -- JO, TX

By golly, buy bonds. -- MS

IN MEMORY OF BARBARA OLSEN, who gave us a lot. -- GS, OH

Author Barbara Olsen was aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon, but she wasn't supposed to be on that plane. She was set to go to Los Angeles, but took a different (fatal) flight in order to have breakfast with her husband, Solicitor General Ted Olson, on his birthday. Barbara Olson is the author of a new book about the final days of the Clinton administration, always had the excesses and transparencies of the Clinton administration nailed. Please get her new book, The Final Days, to remember her brilliance. -- MS

President Bush visiting the decimated portion of the Pentagon Wednesday

THE LATEST.NET
Email: Mail@TheLatest.Net

Mike Shiloh, editor

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