Too Complicated for local " Talking Heads " to Grasp !

October 15, 2004

Mr. Steve Harris
110 E Chandler St
Brownwood, Texas 76801

Dear Mr. Harris,

Thank you for contacting me regarding America's War on
Terror. I appreciate hearing from you and having this
opportunity to respond.

Like you, I believe it is important to gain a deeper
understanding of the key roots of terrorism. In order to wage
a full scale war against those who wish us harm, America
must fight the terrorists on every front, including having a
better understanding of the anti-American forces that recruit
future terrorists. If we don't win this war of ideas, for every
terrorist we kill, two or three will take their place.

Thank you for contacting me. Please feel free to do so as
matters of interest or concern arise. For more information on
my values, legislation, or media activity, or to sign up for
updates, visit www.house.gov/stenholm. With

Sincerely yours,

Charles W. Stenholm
Member of Congress
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Georgie Anne Geyer: Power-obsessed Putin won't grab chance for Chechen peace

12:07 AM CDT on Monday, October 4, 2004
By GEORGIE ANNE GEYER

The heinous attack on the Beslan school in southern Russia not only reminded the world that small but poisoned situations like Chechnya still exist, but it made clear how authoritarian a state Vladimir Putin is bent upon creating.

The initial, overwhelming conclusions were two: (1) The Islamic Chechens' attack on Christian Russians showed inexorably that their "terrorism" was implacable and nonnegotiable, and (2) the Putin "security state" had the reason and the right to wipe them out piteously and without mercy.

These developments sat all too well in the Bush administration. Here was another prime example, despite some murmurs about "negotiation" from Secretary of State Colin Powell, to reinforce its actions in Iraq, to show that terrorism must be wiped out everywhere

There is only one caveat: Information now coming out of Russia indicates that there actually were attempts to negotiate, that the terrorists, savage as they were and unforgivable their actions, did have a list of initial demands that were not unreasonable, and that there remain rational, if traumatized, Chechens who could be negotiated with – should Mr. Putin so desire.

Last week, in Moscow, Ruslan Aushev, the former president of the neighboring region of Ingushetia and the man sent by the Kremlin to talk to the terrorists that black day of Sept. 1, gave a remarkable press conference. He urged the Russian government to talk with the more moderate rebels in Chechnya, saying its harsh policies there were only creating more terrorism.

"There are moderate rebels – fortunately they make up the majority," said Mr. Aushev, who is respected by all sides. "But there are also radicals who are ready to blow up, seize and so on. So, the more pressure and force we use, the more radicals we create."

He said that, when he entered the schoolhouse where at least 335 children and adults would die, the terrorists gave him a piece of notebook paper that, with a perverted respectfulness, was addressed to "His Excellency, President of the Russian Federation Putin." It demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya, the inclusion of Chechnya as a separate state within the commonwealth of former Soviet states, the continued use of the ruble and the restoration of order in the region.

But Moscow was unwilling to negotiate. Instead, with shots fired from both the terrorists inside and local armed villagers outside, whom the Russian security forces did not control, the situation was doomed. So now everyone waits tensely – with memories of past horrors of Caucasus pogroms – for Oct. 13 – the day that 40 days of mourning end and when all sides always begin to take revenge.

And the larger outcome? The distinguished Russian specialist David Satter, author of Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State, wrote recently in The Wall Street Journal from Moscow: "The horrifying outcome of the Beslan school siege in southern Russia makes clear that President Vladimir Putin's determination to crush the Chechen resistance at all costs is a form of moral suicide that will destroy what is left of Russian democracy and could threaten the whole world. ... Perhaps as shocking as the behavior of the terrorists was the reaction of the Russian authorities, who made no effort to save the hostages but concentrated exclusively on achieving their political goals."

Backing up Mr. Satter's analysis is a fascinating talk I recently had in Washington with a bright young Russian, Ilya Ponomarev. He works in an opposition movement called the Youth Left Front, which combines both democratic elements and remnants of the old Communist Party.

He had just returned from a lengthy visit to the Caucasus and, in Chechnya and its region, he found corruption so central and so extreme that, in many cases, the Russian military and the rebels were splitting the earnings from local oil wells and other industries. "There were no traces of Arabs fighting with the Chechens," he told me, "and the Chechen side sees it as a noble fight."

But, he said, ordinary, suffering Chechens in general had given up their earlier passion for independence – an important observation apparently born out by the demands presented in the school – and were willing to settle for a position inside the Russian Federation.

We should not let events in Chechnya stand as an example of hopeless and nonnegotiable terror that we can use to back up our own wars against terrorists. Rather, we should see these situations as the tragic and confused ones that they are – and realize that every day that passes without serious negotiation over real issues, the situations only grow more grave and untreatable.

Chechnya is a mixture of the savage and deranged fighters who attacked the Beslan school and radicalized, but salvageable, Chechen people with a real, centuries-old, legitimate cause against the Russians. There is still a tiny fraction of hope for a negotiated settlement; whether a power-obsessed Kremlin will, even at this late moment, grasp it seems, sadly, less and less possible.

Georgie Anne Geyer's column is distributed by the Universal Press Syndicate. Her e-mail address is webmaster@amuniversal.com.
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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/100404dnedigeyer.db4c0.html

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Nellie Doneva / Reporter-News
Dr. Caron Gentry teaches a political science course Tuesday at Abilene Christian University. Gentry published an article on female terrorism in the summer 2004 issue of the journal Terrorism and Political Violence.
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ACU prof says female terrorists not irrational

By Staci Semrad / Reporter-News Staff Writer
October 6, 2004

The best hope for curbing terrorism lies in the pursuit of truth and a better understanding of terrorism, says Dr. Caron Gentry, a professor at Abilene Christian University who specializes in the study of female terrorists.

That's why she works to erase myths in her field about female terrorists, who she said are wrongly depicted as irrational and driven by emotion.

''We can't end (terrorism) until we understand it,'' she said.

This summer, the Terrorism and Political Violence academic journal published Gentry's article, ''The Relationship between New Social Movement Theory and Terrorism Studies: The Role of Leadership, Membership, Ideology and Gender.''

''Terrorism studies tend to be very sensationalized,'' she said. ''It's a sexy, glamorous field, but we have to have an academic understanding of why people get involved in terrorism so we can help fix the problem. If we're maligning women, we're not looking fully at the problem.''

Gentry became interested in the subject a few years ago while doing research for her doctorate in international relations at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

In the terrorist groups Gentry examined, she found numerous similarities between men and women. For example, they were recruited the same way, they spoke about their commitment to the cause in the same way and they left the group in the same way, she said.

Because of sexism, the women had to work harder to be members of the group, but Gentry found no evidence that the women were more aggressive or violent than the men.

Contact staff writer Staci Semrad at semrads@reporternews.com or 676-6734.

Dr. Caron Gentry

Age: 27

Position: Assistant professor of political science, Abilene Christian University, summer 2003 to present.

Education: Doctorate in international relations, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland, June 2003; bachelor of arts degree in politics, Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, 1999.

source: http://www.reporter-news.com/abil/nw_local/article/0,1874,ABIL_7959_3233392,00.html

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The parallels that KXYL's Connie and Marion cannot acknowledge


Nationalism drives many insurgents as they fight U.S.
'Terrorists,' only one element, experts say
Borzou Daragahi, Chronicle Foreign Service
Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Baghdad -- Bush administration officials have drawn a consistent picture of the insurgents they have been fighting in the past 17 months of occupation: religious extremists, "dead-enders" associated with Saddam Hussein and foreign terrorists slipping across the country's porous borders.

But a wide range of interviews with Iraqis and U.S. officials here paints a starkly different portrait -- a growing, intensely nationalist resistance determined to remove U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies.

"Rather than vilifying those who don't like us and rather than simplistic rhetoric, shouldn't we be trying to understand what's going on, what many Iraqis are thinking and try to address their concerns?" said an American adviser in Baghdad, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Of course there are some terrible elements -- there are, clearly, some al Qaeda adherents and some who use terrorist methods as well as some garden- variety criminal elements -- but I just don't think it's good to categorize them all as 'terrorists.' "

Iraqi critics say U.S. failure to distinguish between different elements of the resistance has hampered its ability to secure the peace.

for the entie article go to: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/10/26/MNG659G46T1.DTL