Who he?
Interesting discoveries about the guy who was executive director of the 9/11 Commission, the official inquiry into the events of Sept 11th 2001, Philip Zelikow. He was appointed by George Bush, and was and is effectively part of the administration. Bearing in mind that as executive director he had complete control over what questions they did or didn't ask (mostly didnt), it's interesting to read that:
"Prof. Zelikow's area of academic expertise is the creation and maintenance of, in his words, “public myths” or “public presumptions," which he defines as “beliefs thought to be true (although not necessarily known to be true with certainty), and shared in common within the relevant political community." In his academic work and elsewhere he has taken a special interest in what he has called “‘searing’ or ‘molding’ events [that] take on ‘transcendent’ importance and, therefore, retain their power even as the experiencing generation passes from the scene." (Wikipedia)
And then an article co authored by Zelikow in 1998, called Catastrophic Terrorism: Tackling the New Danger:
"A successful attack with weapons of mass destruction could certainly take thousands, or tens of thousands, of lives. If the device that exploded in 1993 under the World Trade Center had been nuclear, or had effectively dispersed a deadly pathogen, the resulting horror and chaos would have exceeded our ability to describe it. Such an act of catastrophic terrorism would be a watershed event in American history. It could involve loss of life and property unprecedented in peacetime and undermine America's fundamental sense of security, as did the Soviet atomic bomb test in 1949. Like Pearl Harbor, this event would divide our past and future into a before and after. The United States might respond with draconian measures, scaling back civil liberties, allowing wider surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects, and use of deadly force. More violence could follow, either further terrorist attacks or U.S. counterattacks. Belatedly, Americans would judge their leaders negligent for not addressing terrorism more urgently." (Foreign Affairs newsletter)
Prophetic huh?
"Prof. Zelikow's area of academic expertise is the creation and maintenance of, in his words, “public myths” or “public presumptions," which he defines as “beliefs thought to be true (although not necessarily known to be true with certainty), and shared in common within the relevant political community." In his academic work and elsewhere he has taken a special interest in what he has called “‘searing’ or ‘molding’ events [that] take on ‘transcendent’ importance and, therefore, retain their power even as the experiencing generation passes from the scene." (Wikipedia)
And then an article co authored by Zelikow in 1998, called Catastrophic Terrorism: Tackling the New Danger:
"A successful attack with weapons of mass destruction could certainly take thousands, or tens of thousands, of lives. If the device that exploded in 1993 under the World Trade Center had been nuclear, or had effectively dispersed a deadly pathogen, the resulting horror and chaos would have exceeded our ability to describe it. Such an act of catastrophic terrorism would be a watershed event in American history. It could involve loss of life and property unprecedented in peacetime and undermine America's fundamental sense of security, as did the Soviet atomic bomb test in 1949. Like Pearl Harbor, this event would divide our past and future into a before and after. The United States might respond with draconian measures, scaling back civil liberties, allowing wider surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects, and use of deadly force. More violence could follow, either further terrorist attacks or U.S. counterattacks. Belatedly, Americans would judge their leaders negligent for not addressing terrorism more urgently." (Foreign Affairs newsletter)
Prophetic huh?
posted by John at 1:05 pm
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