11.30.2001
Chris M. writes:
I'm watching my copy of 'A Hard Day's Night' as I type. The scene where George is the subject of a creepy focus-group researcher into teen trends just gets sharper and more prescient with each passing year.
It's funny, I once quipped in Nadine that George had grown into a rather cantankerous old man -- that the "quiet Beatle" now wouldn't shut up. He was given to snide interviews in which he slagged current pop phenoms like George Michael and, later, Oasis. (Not that George Michael and Oasis didn't deserve some measure of puncturing at the time.) But despite his weary-of-it-all facade, which only grew crustier as he left the Beatles behind, it's important to recall that George, possibly even more than John, was the least cynical Beatle when it came to his approach to his own life: the transcendentalism was never just a trend or a pose for him; his friend Bob Dylan could take a few pointers from George in his steadfast devotion to one approach to faith and man's place in the universe.
For me, though, George will forever be encapsulated in a song that most casual fans consider a drag, "Within You Without You," which comes smack-dab in the middle of 'Sgt. Pepper' and is often considered the filler track by critics. It's actually the most melodically beautiful and fully realized of the trilogy of Indian-flavored tracks George recorded with the Beatles (the others being "The Inner Light" and "Love You To"), and I think it nicely summarizes his approach to life and his understanding that whatever his fame, human life was meant for greater things. "When you've seen beyond yourself/Then you may find peace of mind/Is waiting there/And the time will come when you see/We're all one, and life flows on within you and without you."
Peace and love,
CMM
11.29.2001
Subject: Australia considers shrinking civil liberties to fight terror
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 12:27:50 +1100
From: [email protected]
Australian Broadcasting Corporation LATELINE Late night news & current affairs
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT LOCATION: abc.net.au
Broadcast: 27/11/01 A-G defends new anti-terrorism laws
The person responsible for overseeing the drafting of these new anti-terror laws is the Federal Attorney-General Daryl Williams. Tony Jones asked Mr Williams what was the purpose of giving ASIO [Australian Security Intelligence Organisation] new powers to detain people?
DARYL WILLIAMS, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, we're dealing with potentially quite extraordinary situations where there may be a great number of lives at risk, there may be a very serious risk of major property damage. What we need to do is to be able to get maximum information, maximum intelligence, in order to prevent any terrorist acts being committed. Now, if we don't suspect a person of being engaged in planning for a terrorist act, there is no capacity for the police to arrest them. They may be unwilling to participate in questioning. We need to have a power to coerce people to answer questions, or to provide information.
TONY JONES: That power is effectively detention without charge, as it's been interpreted. Is that correct?
DARYL WILLIAMS: We envisage a range of situations. In some cases, we would expect that people would voluntarily assist. If they refuse to assist, they could be detained without arrest and without charge. If they commit an offence in the process of failing to respond appropriately, they may be arrested on that charge. We would need to have access to people who may not be themselves involved in doing anything, but who may have information.
TONY JONES: Now it has been reported that under these proposals a person could be held for 48 hours and interrogated without legal representation. Is that correct?
DARYL WILLIAMS: Well, that's a situation we envisage. It may not always be like that, but it certainly may be necessary in some cases to keep the person being interrogated incommunicado so that people who may be at that time be planning or doing things are not warned of the fact that the agencies are closing in.
TONY JONES: But in these cases these are people who are not suspected of involvement with any terrorist activity. Why does ASIO need coercive powers for people who aren't suspected of anything?
DARYL WILLIAMS: Well, they may have information that will be very useful in countering any proposed terrorist act and if they're not willing to provide it voluntarily, then we need a power to require it.
TONY JONES: Your critics have claimed, of course, that this would be open to abuse and it's giving ASIO for the first time the powers to arrest which some critics describe as "re-creating ASIO as a secret police force".
DARYL WILLIAMS: Well, the way we envisage it working is that any arrest would be done by the relevant police. Any detention would be done by the relevant police. It would only be done under a warrant that would be sought by the Director-General of Security, that is the head of ASIO, with the consent of the Attorney-General and it would be issued or approved by what we've referred to as a prescribed authority. Prescribed authority would be either a federal magistrate or a senior legal member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the magistrate, or the legal member, would be the ones to supervise the interrogation and to ensure the conditions under which the warrant was issued are met.
TONY JONES: So the suggestion is that a prescribed authority, a magistrate say, for example, would be there for the entire 48-hour period of this detention?
DARYL>WILLIAMS: Well, that's a matter to be worked out yet. We're still in the process of developing the legislation and there are quite a few details like that that need to be addressed.
TONY JONES: Can you give us an example, if you like a hypothetical case, of someone against who those powers might be used, those coercive powers?
DARYL WILLIAMS: I would hope that it would only be used in serious cases against those who have highly relevant information about proposed terrorist acts and if someone were an associate or a supporter of Osama bin Laden's network, they would be an appropriate person.
TONY JONES: There's talk here of getting documents or, as I said before, things, although that's unspecified, from these sort of people. Could it also include, for example, professionals like lawyers, or bankers, accountants or journalists, for example?
DARYL WILLIAMS: Well, we're not envisaging that there will be particular categories of people either included or excluded. We seek to have a general power to deal appropriately with any person -- whoever they may be -- who may have information that would assist in preventing or hindering a proposed terrorist act.
TONY JONES: So, hypothetically, a lawyer or a journalist could be arrested, mandatorily detained for 48 hours and forced to hand over documents?
DARYL WILLIAMS: Anybody who has information that may assist in preventing a large number of lives being lost or very serious property damage being done would be an appropriate person to provide information.
TONY JONES: But you wouldn't be making exceptions for certain professions -- lawyers and journalists are the ones I've chosen -- there are many others, of course.
DARYL WILLIAMS: I can't understand why you've chose lawyers and journalists but I wouldn't envisage there being exceptions in their cases.
TONY JONES: I've chosen them because they might have information in the form of documents or statements from people who do not wish to be named, for example in the case of a journalist.
DARYL WILLIAMS: Well, we're talking about life and death situations. I don't think the interests of journalism weigh heavily in the balancing exercise that we're engaging in here.
TONY JONES: Lawyers the same?
DARYL WILLIAMS: Lawyers the same.
Trucks of the Taliban
Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban's supreme leader, co-equal on America's most-wanted list with Osama bin Laden, is partial to Chevrolet Suburbans with darkened windows. Mr. bin Laden, like many of the sheiks and princes of Saudi Arabia among whom he grew up, likes Toyota Land Cruisers, as did his military commander, Muhammad Atef, a former Egyptian policeman who is believed to have been killed by American bombing last week.
There is a hierarchy of vehicles among the more important lieutenants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, Mr. bin Laden's terrorist organization. Not for them anything discreet and durable, to go with the austerity of their faith: nothing but a Land Cruiser will serve. For ordinary fighters, men with long beards and longer barrels on their ubiquitous Kalashnikovs, the vehicle of choice is the Toyota Hilux, a compact pickup truck popular throughout the developing world.
Mullah Omar, a man so elusive that he has not been photographed in years, and has only granted one interview, was spotted in early October in his Suburban, a white vehicle with no outside embellishments. This was according to villagers outside the eastern city of Jalalabad, who reported seeing him stepping out of the vehicle, accompanied by Mr. bin Laden, in an area near an Al Qaeda training camp two days after the American bombing began on Oct. 7.
. . . .
Other extras visible on the tape, made earlier this year, were the smokestack-like air inductors running up the windshield pillars; Toyota distributes these on vehicles that operate mostly in the sand-choked air of desert regions. The Al Qaeda leaders' vehicles appeared to be free of the side-door graphics favored by many of their followers, whose tastes run to trucks in flame red or electric blue with words like "Rodeo" or "Pick Up" lettered on the sides, with fancy wheels and chromed roll bars.
The article takes issue with the Taliban's use of such trucks when they are "at odds with the rulers' theological commitment to a no-tech world." I haven't read anything in the Times that suggests that the Taliban's use of modern weapons, for instance, is similarly incongruous.
This is a moving account of a volunteer working in a shelter at Ground Zero. Many things to be thankful for in this holiday season -- especially knowing at all of my loved ones are safe right now. Stay that way.
xo Hannah
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 21:57:45 EST
A volunteer recently wrote a friend of mine. here is what she said:
Last night was hard. One of the big cranes you see on TV fell into the pit. The "pit" is the underground shopping concourse and parking lots that were uncovered last week or so. Most of the firemen currently work there rather than on the pile. Miraculously, no one was injured. The chaps ran like hell and the crane operator was on a break. But now it's an enormous undertaking to get it out.
Also, five of my firemen came in for beds at 4 am or so. I had one bed free (did I tell you? My usual job is checking chaps into the "beds" -- horrible cots eight to a room-- changing linen, and waking them up when they have to go out there again -- usually in 3 hours or less). As always, none of them would take it. No fireman takes a bed if one of his "brothers" (the universal term) has to sleep on the floor. It's beautiful to see the way they care for one another. They bunked down on the filthy floor with blankets, sheets and pillows and asked me to turn the lights down.
I have constant fights with the head of the place -- I turn the lights down or off and he screams because (get this) it is a fire hazard for firemen to sleep in darkness in the main lobby area. It is also a fire hazard for them to sleep in cots. It is not a fire hazard for them to sleep on the filthy floor. (It's only cruel and stupid.) And of course, the fire marshall, the site supervisor, the Red Cross head, and all the people who believe in these asinine rules are never around when it's time to tell an exhausted team of cold wet firemen that they can't have cots and I can't turn the lights down.
When Lou, a sweet lieutenant (I love the lieutenants -- they break my heart -- they take such care of the men working under them) took me aside, grabbed my shoulders and begged me to turn the lights down "for my boys," and when he used all the logical arguments I've been using all along ("These are FIREmen," "They've been working like dogs," etc.,) I'm the one who has to enforce the idiot rules. I did turn down the lights, and my supervisor came roiling out to make me turn them back on.
The poor team lay there miserably for the two hours they had, got up without complaint, and insisted on helping me put away the blankets and pillows they'd used. Then they strapped on what little gear they hadn't slept in and headed back out to the pit. Lou stopped to give me a big hug and to thank me. Thank me! I felt as if I'd assaulted them.
That was last night (Friday). Tonight I amused myself by finagling beds away from well-rested cops on overtime and giving them to firemen. I was abetted by a prodigious snorer who cleared out one entire bedroom when I had no beds left to give out. (I like the cops, but they don't do the work the firemen do. The cops' work is dull and cold and depressing. The firemen's work is dangerous, misery-inducing, filthy, wet, backbreaking and -- Matt, they work in hell. Remember, on a "good" day at Ground Zero, they find bodies.)
One sweet fireman got an hour and a half's rest tonight. When I went in to wake him, I knelt down, touched his hand, and said his name, and (as many of them do) he jumped. It has to be so hideously disorienting to wake up after far too little sleep to find yourself at Ground Zero, in a horrid cot, in a room with 7 other men, being awakened by a stranger and to know you have to go back out there. (And they all thank me for it.) This particular fireman simply grabbed my hand and clung to it. So I stayed there for several minutes. Neither of us spoke or moved. We just held hands in the darkness.
I could go on forever. These men are astonishing. I am hugely proud to know them even the tiny bit I do.
The guy who asks for change in front of our bodega wears fatigues. I didn't notice until a few days ago, when he started talking to me after I asked him how he was doing. "I'm all messed up," he said, shaking his head, and tells me his story.
One of the firefighters from Squad One used to tell him that he looked familiar. They never figured out why. This firefighter was one of the twelve who died in the World Trade Center, of a company of thirty. Just that morning, some of the firefighter's remaining bretheren stopped by the bodega with an old photograph they found in the firefighter's locker. The picture was of the firefighter's father in Vietnam, along with a group of other soldiers -- including the homeless guy himself. "Of all of them in that picture, I'm the only one left alive." He had served with the firefighter's father, but neither of them made the connection until it was too late.
"The things I could have told him about his dad," he kept repeating. "The things I could have told him."
