Berkshire Eagle Column 4-22-05
Berkshire Eagle
I, Publius

A nightmare named Osama
By Alan Chartock
Special to The Eagle


Friday, May 21, 2004 - Listening to the 9/11 Commission hearings on public radio has left me really worried.

No matter what you think about the Iraqi invasion, you certainly have to recognize that Osama Bin Laden is a dedicated maniac. This guy is out to get us, no two ways about it. He says so and means it. What's more, his group is populated with a bunch of would-be martyrs who would like to take out as many of us as they possibly can. The more they frighten us, the more damage they do. We can either just keep on keeping on with our heads buried in the sand or we can mobilize as we have never done before.

You can catch 99 of these guys but if a single one gets through, the game is over. One suitcase filled with chemicals so deadly that they can poison an entire city or a briefcase with a small nuclear device can make even the great tragedy at Ground Zero pale by comparison. Put yourself in Bin Laden's place and ask yourself what he is doing. He is, by any definition, quite mad. The problem is, he believes this country has violated him and he will try to get back at us anyway he can. Worst of all, even if we get him, there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, more like him.

I have a recurring nightmare that he will strike next where he can do the most damage. He and his people will go where they can instill the most fear.

It may be Athens during the Olympics. Athens, of course, is a notoriously open city. Just to make that point, someone recently set off a few small bombs, suggesting to everyone that anytime they want to they can do far worse damage.

But New York, the capital of the world, keeps coming up. What are our options? Just ask the Israelis. They know full well what it is like to have their backs to the wall. They know that for them, living under the continual threat of terrorism is seemingly inevitable. Buses will blow up, children will die and every person knows that every day could be their last. Israelis know that there can be no compromise, that no accommodation will ever be seen as anything but weakness. So they just have to grit their teeth and fight fire with fire. This just makes the vicious cycle worse. Palestinian children raised to hate from day one will blow themselves up when the time comes. There don't seem to be any viable choices.

The Republican National Convention will be coming to New York in early September. If there was ever a big target circle that will be attractive to Bin Laden and his madmen, this will be it. The streets around Madison Square Garden will be cordoned off. Many police officers will be there. Americans wishing to protest the policies of the wrong-headed Republican administration will be out in force -- as they should be when the President keeps talking about bringing democracy to a country that doesn't seem particularly excited about getting it. All it will take is one guy with dynamite under his clothes or a little vial of some very bad substance and there will be chaos.

Right under Madison Square Garden is Penn Station.

That place will be crawling with cops and the National Guard. Every conceivable breed of bomb- sniffing police dog and electronic detection device will be there. So here's my bad daydream. I'm sitting on the train coming into Penn Station. There's a guy sitting next to me who doesn't look right. He has something under his clothes that sort of looks like a life jacket. I've got the window seat and I'm in a panic, so very politely, I ask to be excused to go to the parlor car. I even ask him if he'd like something to drink. As soon as I get past him, I run to find the conductor or a policeman that I saw patrolling the train. I tell the cop about my suspicions and he says, "Show me," so I do. But just as we get to the guy, he sees us coming and pulls the rip cord under his clothes.

Do you think this is far-fetched? Tell it to the Amtrak conductor who came up to me at a speech one day, holding his wife's hand with tears in his eyes. He told me that virtually nothing is being done to protect him. He feels like he has a target drawn on his back. He said that at least people are screened before they're allowed onto an airplane.

It's clear to me that we just have to do better. We know what's coming.

Anybody with a scintilla of common sense knows that Bin Laden and his cronies are just waiting for another chance. It's just a matter of time.

We've caught some terrorists already, but there are many more still out there.

I was born and raised in New York City. I love and treasure the place. If you were Bin Laden, New York would be your target. Instead of spending billions in Iraq, we should be paying a lot more attention to protecting ourselves right here at home. The way to do that is to use every device that we can think of, not to give librarians through the Patriot Act the power to release information on what we borrow, jeopardizing our right to confidentiality.

Unfortunately, Bin Laden is giving the Bush administration the rationale for doing just that and a lot of fools are falling for it. I hope I'm wrong. I hope nothing happens. I just think we have to do better.




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Alan Chartock, a Great Barrington resident, is President and CEO of WAMC Northeast Public Radio and a professor of communication at SUNY-Albany.
His web site is www.alanchartock.com


- posted by Alan @ 5/24/2004 06:04:00 AM