You can read the two news articles below
and consider the moral question: Where does the rational "obligation"
lay? With Jesse Jackson for offering to negotiate with the terrorists,
or with President Bush who says we never negotiate with hostage-takers? You know that those who SHOULD be reading this page
are not, but what can YOU do about this morality issue in society?
Vote, first, then, click to find out how you can help!
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)--The Rev. Jesse
Jackson will contact religious leaders in Iraq to seek the release of
Thomas Hamill, the U.S. civilian truck driver abducted in Iraq,
Hamill's wife said Saturday.
The White House maintained it would not negotiate
with leaders of Afghanistan's Taliban regime, who they believe are
harboring suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and members of his
Muslim extremist organization al Qaida.
Bush Security Advisor: No Negotiations With
Hostage-Takers
Condoleezza Rice/ AP
President Bush's national security advisor says the
United States will not negotiate with hostage-takers holding Americans
in Iraq.
Condoleezza Rice says the Bush administration will
do all it can to obtain the release of the hostages. But she makes clear
there will be no negotiations with their captors. "The president of the
United States does not negotiate with terrorists," she said.
During a series of interviews on American
television, Ms. Rice was asked if the White House would consider a
prisoner swap. She told ABC's This Week that the hostage-taking must be
seen in a broader context.
"This is an attack by regime loyalists and some
foreign terrorists on a process that is underway in Iraq," said Ms.
Rice. "They want to intimidate us, they want to intimidate our allies.
They want to intimidate the Iraqis."
Ms. Rice's appearances on three television news
programs came as another new book on the Bush administration's Iraq
policy was released. This one was written by Washington Post reporter
Bob Woodward, best known for his coverage of the Watergate scandals of
the 1970s that led to the resignation of former President Richard Nixon.
Mr. Woodward's new book focuses on the lead-up to
war in Iraq, and states that war planning began just months after the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
Condoleezza Rice told the Fox News Sunday program
that military options were discussed that November. "By the end of
November, things were starting to wind down in Afghanistan and I do
think the president's mind was beginning to move to what else he would
have to do to deal with the blow, the threat that had emerged as a
result of 9/11," said Ms. Rice.
She said the most hostile relationship the United
States had at the time in the Middle East was with Saddam Hussein's
Iraq. She said the president wanted to look at all possible courses of
action before going to the United Nations.
Mr. Bush's handling of the terrorist threat and the
war in Iraq has become a crucial issue in the U.S. presidential election
campaign. While Condoleezza Rice was defending the administration's
record, the likely Democrat Party nominee, Senator John Kerry of
Massachusetts, was leveling more criticism.
He told NBC's Meet the Press that the president has
failed to reach out to other countries, and acknowledged they are now
reluctant to help.
"That is the dilemma. That is exactly the quandary
that President Bush and this administration have put the United States
of America in," he said.
Senator Kerry said the administration's diplomacy
has been stunningly ineffective, and said if he is elected he will
pursue a more multi-lateral approach.
Wife Of US Man Kidnapped In Iraq: Jesse Jackson
Offers Aid
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
April 17, 2004 4:26 p.m.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)--The Rev.
Jesse Jackson will contact religious leaders in Iraq to seek the
release of Thomas Hamill, the U.S. civilian truck driver abducted
in Iraq, Hamill's wife said Saturday.
Kellie Hamill, who has been
pleading in the media for her husband's release, said Jackson made
the offer last week and she asked him to intervene.
"We talked with him several
days ago," she said in a telephone interview from the couple's
home in Macon.
U.S. Sen. Trent Lott said
Friday at a news conference in Tupelo he had talked with Jackson
and helped the longtime civil rights advocate contact the Hamill
family.
Lott said one step Jackson
wanted to take was to write a letter to Al-Jazeera, the Arabic
language television network, and encourage Hamill's release.
There was no immediate response
to messages seeking comment from Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH coalition
in Chicago on Saturday, and it was unclear if he had already sent
the letter or taken other steps.
Thomas Hamill, 43, a fuel
tanker driver for Halliburton Co. (HAL) subsidiary Kellogg Brown &
Root, was abducted April 9 when gunmen attacked his convoy.
Jackson has been instrumental
in securing the release of other U.S. hostages.
In 1990, during the first Gulf
War, Jackson negotiated the release of Americans held hostage in
Kuwait and Iraq. In 1999, he helped secure the release of U.S.
soldiers held hostage in Kosovo.
In a statement issued Thursday,
Jackson appealed both to Hamill's captors and to religious leaders
in Iraq.
"Mr. Hamill came to Iraq not to
wage war against any group or religion, but to serve the Iraqi
people and thus help relieve their pain and sufferings," Jackson
said in the statement, which also called for the release of other
hostages.
Kellie Hamill was awaiting the
results of tests to determine whether four bodies discovered west
of Baghdad earlier in the week are the remains of civilian U.S.
contractors missing since the assault on their convoy.
Nightly vigils and prayer
meetings have been held in Macon since Hamill was abducted.
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2004 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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WASHINGTON -- Rejecting President Bush's point-blank
demand, the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan refused to hand over Osama bin
Laden. The Pentagon deployed additional planes to support a military
buildup in the Persian Gulf
The White House maintained it would not negotiate
with leaders of Afghanistan's Taliban regime, who they believe are
harboring suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and members of his
Muslim extremist organization al Qaida.
Federal authorities say bin Laden, already on the
FBI's 10 Most Wanted list in connection with the 1998 embassy bombings
in Africa, is responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the
United States in which at least 6,000 people were feared killed.
"The president made clear that there'd be no
negotiations, no discussions about his conditions," said White House
Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.
President Bush made emphasized during a nationally
televised address Thursday that he would not compromise with the Taliban
regime and that diplomatic efforts would continue with foreign leaders
to bring bin Laden to justice.
"Some people call it a government, some people call
it a regime. I think for the purposes of defending America, it does not
matter what it is called," Fleischer said. "If they harbor terrorists,
the president's message is clear, we will defeat you."
Bush and his national security advisers believe bin
Laden was responsible for the actions of terrorists who used two
hijacked jetliners to crash into the World Trade Center in New York and
a third into the Pentagon outside Washington.
A fourth hijacked airliner, which crashed outside of
Pittsburgh, Pa, is believed to have been brought down by struggling
passengers attempting to thwart the hijackers, who may have been heading
for Washington.
The attacks were the worst-ever on U.S. soil with the
expected civilian death toll surpassing military losses from the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Bush was expected to end his week with a meeting with
Chinese Foreign Minister Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan before
leaving for the Maryland presidential retreat, Camp David.
Jiaxuan is the last in a parade of foreign leaders
who traveled to the White House this week to express condolences for the
nation's loss and voice support for the administration's campaign
against terrorism.
Jiaxuan made a stop at the State Department as a
Beijing spokesman released a statement denying reports that China had
linked its support of the U.S. effort against terrorism to certain
conditions.
"This evidently has seriously distorted the stand of
the Chinese government, said spokesman Zhu Bangzao.
He went on to say: "The Chinese government is firmly
opposed to all forms of terrorism. International cooperation is very
necessary and urgent for opposing terrorism. In attacking terrorism, it
is necessary to have conclusive evidence and clear targets, avoid
hitting the innocent, comply with the purposes and principles of the
U.N. Charter and the generally acknowledged principles of the
international law, and give play to the role of the U.N. Security
Council."
"All actions should be in the long-term interest of
safeguarding world peace and development," Zhu said.
Fleischer would not say what action the United States
would take should military action destablize the region, possibly
toppling the Taliban regime. He maintained that the focus of U.S.
officials was its campaign against terrorists.
"The president does not pick and choose who is to be
in power around the world. The president's goal is to protect Americans
and people around the world from terrorism," he said.
In his address before a joint session of Congress,
Bush condemned the Taliban regime and said that by aiding and abetting
murder, it was committing murder.
He demanded the Taliban deliver to appropriate
authorities all terrorists in Afghanistan and all those involved in
their infrastructure.
The Taliban should also release all foreign nationals
- including American citizens unjustly jailed - and protect foreign
journalists, diplomats and aid workers.
Finally, he said, the United States should be given
full access to terrorist training camps to make sure they were no longer
operating. Bush's demands effectively raise the bar for the Taliban
which has refused to expel him, even to a third country, let alone to
the United States.
"There is already an indictment for Osama bin Laden,"
Fleischer said Friday. "There's been indictments in the case of Tanzania
and Kenya, with the bombings in East Africa, with the indications that
the Taliban and Osama bin Laden were involved, and that the al Qaida
organization and Osama bin Laden were involved in the bombing of the
(USS) Cole.
"The president last night made his conditions clear,
and he said there will be no discussions and no negotiations," Fleischer
said.
Bush Thursday named Pennsylvania Republican Gov. Tom
Ridge to head the new Cabinet-level Office of Homeland Security. Talks
were underway with Congress about funding and staff for the office,
Fleischer said.
Fleischer said Ridge would not face a confirmation
hearing since Bush created the office.
Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All
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