The Terrorism Research Center offers its deepest sympathy to the victims of the horrendous terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, DC, Tuesday morning. These attacks, which were obviously well planned and coordinated, are a direct challenge to peace, and an affront to human decency.
The Terrorism Research Center also offers its support and prayers to the emergency responders, including police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and physicians, and urban search and rescue personnel, who now have such a daunting and heartbreaking task ahead of them.
Finally, the Terrorism Research Center offers its reassurance to the citizens of the United States and faith in the United States Government, that the cowards who perpetrated these acts will be identified, located, and brought to justice quickly.
At this stage, the facts do not conclusively demonstrate the perpetrator's identity: only that the perpetrating conspiracy was well organized and well prepared. Certainly an attack on the political, financial, and military symbols of America suggest an anti-American agenda, however, the Terrorism Research Center cautions against drawing premature conclusions in absence of the facts.
Our leaders' first task is to save those lives that can be saved, prevent further damage, and provide as much relief to the victims as required. We must rely on our leaders to discover the identity of the terrorists, and support our government in our national response.
Now is not the time for rash assumptions or finger pointing. Furthermore, while the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon were not thwarted, other attacks may have been, today and in the past. We must now take stock of the lessons learned from this tragedy, and carefully consider where our national security system did and did not work. This is the only sound basis for change in how our democratic government of law fights terrorism.
For information about terrorism, click here:
http://www.terrorism.com/index.html
What do people around the world think about terrorism and how to counter it?
Read and/or join in on TRC´s Discussion Forum:
From 1999: Is one man´s terrorist another man's freedom fighter?
From Sept. 11th 2001: Terrorists are attacking the world trade center
http://www.terrorism.com/cgi-bin/ctdiscuss/