The fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was marked by movies and TV specials about the tragic events.
I went to see Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, which portrays the terrible experience of Colombian-born Port Authority cop William Jimeno on that sad day in 2001. Michael Peña’s interpretation of the policeman’s suffering utterly impacted me.
I resided in Manhattan for three years in the ’80s. Frequently, I made a transfer at the Twin Towers station from MTA Red Line to the PATH train going to New Jersey. My girlfriend lived at the other side of the Hudson. So after watching the film, I had nightmares about walking empty tunnels at Ground Zero.
Tracking Sept. 11 films and TV productions, I also saw United 93 at the Birkdale theater. I tried to follow “The Path to 9/11,” the ABC miniseries, but my schedule did not work. I had better luck with the documentaries “The Final Report: Osama’s Escape,” by the National Geographic Channel and “Countdown to Ground Zero” on the the History Channel.
But the TV special about 9/11 that shocked me the most was CNN’s “In the Footsteps of bin Laden,” hosted by Christian Amanpour.
It was shown for the first time on Wednesday, Aug. 23 and contains the most chilling information I’ve seen and heard, to date, after the New York and Washington tragedies.
In a dialogue with Michael Scheuer, former chief of the CIA’s bin Laden unit, Amanpour talks about beliefs of the al Qaeda leader.
The official, who helped create the special group to go after bin Laden in 1996, said to the journalist that in order to comply with his religion, the Earth’s most wanted man has to follow several rules.
“From the Muslim perspective, the prophet always demanded that before you attack someone you warn them and you offer them a chance to convert to Islam,” says Scheuer.
Then the conversation has an appalling revelation:
Scheuer: “Bin Laden on three occasions and Zawahiri on two occasions have offered to be our guides in a conversion to Islam, saying that everything is forgiven if you convert.”
Amanpour: “Scheuer says bin Laden also believed he’s fulfilled the prophet’s last requirement for launching another, even more massive attack, a religious blessing to kill millions of Americans with weapons of mass destruction.”
Scheuer: “A judgment from a young cleric in Saudi Arabia which authorizes the Mujahideen, written large, to use nuclear weapons against the United States with — with capping the casualties at 10 million.”
Amanpour (on camera): “He’s had an approval, a religious approval for 10 million deaths?”
Scheuer: “Yes.”
If bin Laden has the blessing to kill that enormous number of human lives, I do not understand why the Congress focuses its terrorist magnifying glass on the undocumented immigrants and not on bin Laden.
The worst thing that happened to the so-called illegal aliens occurred five years ago with the cowardly action of Mohamed Ata and his associates. Just a few days before the extremist massacre, President Bush and President Fox initiated optimistic conversations to solve the problem for the undocumented workers. Legalization was a real possibility.
Since then, the restrictionists and xenophobes have used immigrants as scapegoats for political gain.
While in New York, thousands of undocumented workers who helped to clean Ground Zero are suffering from chronic, life-threatening lung-related conditions. In Washington, Congress approved to spend billions of dollars to build the wall at the Mexican border.
Locally, Mecklenburg Commissioner Bill James announced last week he will fight “illegal immigration” if the Mayor Patrick McCrory’s Immigration Study Commission does not act.
Very convenient: two months before the Nov. 7 election.
All this is happening as bin Laden is preparing his next attack to kill us. To kill citizens, legal residents, and undocumented workers — just like five years ago.
Rafael Prieto Zartha is the editor of the Charlotte-based Spanish-language newspaper Mi Gente.
This article appears in Sep 20-26, 2006.
First of all, if you just learned of the things you found shocking in the Amanpour piece, you are woefully disconnected from information regarding Islamic terrorism and bin Ladin in particular. you might want to disqualify yourself from commenting on the issue until you catch up to the last couple of years worth of news. More to the point, you are conflating two issues and linking them in an either/or fashion, when in fact they can be dealt with nice alone. (Or are you suggesting that the government should create a ranking of problems and deal with them one at a time, not moving on until each is permaanently solved?) Such simpolistic tripe is hardly necessary. And by the way,you are the clever boy who not all that long ago was calling for Congrees to “reform” immigration laws. Now you think they have better things to do than focus on immigration. Would that be because most Americans of any stripe simply don’t agree that we should allow non-citizens, resident or not, to dictate the terms of our national sovereignty?
One of the biggest problems the US has right now is the illegals coming here, working illegally, getting hurt on job, getting compensated for something illegal to begin with, making the crime rates go up, driving illegally and killing innocent people. Yes we have another problem with Osama doing the same with killing innocent people. We need to nuke any area we think Osama is and deport every last Mexican in the US.
As I read between the lines of rhetoric and usage of big words, the general meaning of this seems to be finger pointing. The illegal immigration issue is a PROBLEM. The war on terrorism isn’t the only problem we face. It is a weak stance to say, “Why bother with us when you have other, much more serious problems?” More often than not, undocumented workers are also undocumented and ILLEGAL RESIDENTS. Where is the praise for immigrants, whether Mexican or any of a hundred other nationalities, that have gone through the proper channels to gain naturalization status? I personally work with a young man from Somalia, who managed to get his entire family legally documented and are now LEGAL U.S. citizens. When an immigrant is placed with the tag “illegal”, the illegality is no different than breaking any other law such as DUI, drug possesion, larceny, illegal gun posession or assault. All of those crimes have different levels of punishment, but none of them are ignored because of a bigger picture. Should police go soft on drinking and driving during the Christmas season because shoplifting is more rampant? A very short-sighted and self-serving article. Stop playing the pity card and encourage legal residency.