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America's Unfree Press
[Note: The following was received from an acquaintance via email.]

(Transmitted below are excerpts from Kofi Annan's address yesterday to the UN Security Council -- in the presence of Colin Powell. He says a lot, diplomatically, in very few words.)

"Internationally, we are seeing an increasing use of what I call the "T' word -- "terrorism" -- to demonize political opponents, to throttle freedom of speech and the press and to delegitimize political grievances. Any sacrifice of freedom or the rule of law within states -- or any generation of new disputes between states in the name of anti-terrorism -- is to hand the terrorists a victory that no act of theirs could possibly bring....

"Important and urgent questions are being asked about the collateral damage from the 'war on terrorism' -- damage to the presumption of innocence, to precious human rights, to the rule of law and to the very fabric of democratic governance.... There is a danger that, in pursuit of security, we end up sacrificing crucial liberties, thereby weakening our common security, not strengthening it, and thereby corroding the vessel of democratic government from within....

"Just as terrorism must never be excused, so must genuine grievances never be ignored.... We must act with determination to address, indeed solve, the political disputes and long-standing conflicts which underlie, fuel and generate support for terrorism."

The New York Times article on yesterday's UN Security Council session, as reproduced in today's International Herald Tribune, quoted exhaustively from Colin Powell's remarks on the need for war against Iraq. It did not mention that Kofi Annan spoke at all. For these quotes, I am indebted to Agence France Presse. [JW]

posted by LoZo 6:47 PM