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TOTAL LICENSING
maximum protection THERE! I FINALLY HAVE AN ANSWER! saved because it was not hit directly and could
for our intelligence A RESOUNDING “NO”! reconstitute rapidly.
or security services,
do we then lose the If we assume we are entering fifty years of ter- But let us assume the nation, already weakened,
values we wish to rorism because we can’t see a way to pacify it sustains another blow - a 1-2 attack. Then what
protect? – then let us plan! I must give credit to Bruce about the Supreme Court? How many justices
• If we sanction Ackerman, Professor of Law at Yale, and writer could be found quickly enough? Would there
the aggressive on political sociological topics for some of the be a quorum in the House and in the Senate
questionings mind-bending reflections in this part of the col- and how many committee chairmen would be
of our POW umn. available?
detention centers overseas
(ignoring the times when, by our admission • Could we sustain a debilitating attack if it What might have become of the President? I
and evidence, a very small group of prison happened when, just once, our security think our Presidential Succession Act would be
camp personnel transgresses even these services “missed one”? capable of surviving attack. Yes, the sequence:
rules?) – do we help swell the ranks of our (for you who never considered it) we have
enemies by fueling outrage amongst the • Yes! President Truman to thank for. It goes like this:
many yet not committed to oppose us? But would the justifiably upset public President – Vice President – Speaker of the
• Or do we, by bending backwards to opinion look for guilt, fault, conspiracy? House – President Pro Tem of the Senate. This
respect the humanistic impulses of the And could such an instinctive reaction works, but considering the possible decapitation
laudable Geneva Convention, do we threaten seriously our civil liberties? If of Congress there might be a slight possibility of
hamstring our security services who no thought is given now to this, in advance none of these being available quickly enough! It
protect our soldiers and millions of our of attack, and there are no plans for might be an interesting idea to have a nationally
citizens? automatic stand-by legislation - just respected senior politician (not in office) whose
• Can “realpolitik” diplomacy avoid, could imagine the insurance claims, the damage prestige could help heal a wounded nation. He/
it have avoided for us, the endless job of suits, the claims of all those truly suffering she would be on stand-by only for this eventual-
fashioning the Iraq future with honor. We and hurt, the political blame game. ity and this might be most needed to provide
keep tinkering and trying but somehow calm after the shock.
our goal keeps avoiding us and we must • Just imagine refugee clogged roads, non
start all over again. running trains, broken down buses You say all this is crazy, this is the end of our
• Could we exit rapidly and leave the jamming the roads, not enough doctors world, Armageddon! I say we just decide to
undeniable lawlessness and the Sunni/Shia on stand-by, medicine and food supplies think outside of the box and surely with such
conflict to play itself out to the eventual disrupted or destroyed. measures, or similar ones, we can limit shock
peace of exhaustion that might follow. • Just look at the military confusion that and disruption if we are willing to buy insurance
• And would this eventual peace not followed the inadvertent entry into against disaster, just like each of us does rou-
strengthen a United Arab front against the Washington air-space by a stray airplane. tinely always for ourselves in our private lives.
despised USA? We hope we will never need it, but we buy the
• Would relief from Iraq give us time and • Just look at FEMA’s (Federal Emergency insurance anyway.
money to concentrate on the real danger Management Administration)
– terrorism? acknowledged failings in dealing with the To close I would like to quote Voltaire:
• Is all this not a question of size and predictable emergency in New Orleans “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but
gravity? Is there really this overreaching and other hurricane or tornado events. certainty is absurd”.
word-wide conspiracy of Al Qaeda so
powerfully threatening us that we must There has to be a stand-by master response
rush to the barricades? No matter what! chart and a geographically dispersed group of
Or are we part of a self-serving ‘take charge managers’ with a master response
propaganda war? plan.
Earlier in this column we have examined the dif-
View from America is a Total Licens-
Usually in this column I have a firm opinion, but ficulties of the presidential power legal frame-
ing magazine column written regularly
by George Medina of New York-based
this time I confess I don’t! What to do? (Write work - and that of the normal constitutional ci-
Intercontinental Licensing. The column is
me if you know). vilian court system, to deal with sudden masses
intended to give our readers worldwide
of events. We need a committee of respected
some idea of the American mind set and
Now let us assume that the pessimists who see jurists to create a stand-by system of law that
incidentally his own opinion to help them
danger are really right – and we better assume can both protect our security and keep from understand key issues in today’s world.
they might be. Have the Patriot Act passed after overreaching. We also need a Congress pre- If you have any questions, comments or
9/11, The Homeland Security Act and the Intel- pared to translate such recommendations into
opinions on the column, do please contact
ligence Reform Act accomplished their goals? sensible emergency laws.
us at Total Licensing or, alterntively, con-
We must assume that somehow (as during 9/11)
tact George directly on (212) 683 5830.
email: interny@intercontinental-ltd.com.
the offices of President and Congress had been
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