Letters

Reeling In the Terrorists

It's intriguing to learn where and how al-Qaeda is regrouping, because anyone with common sense knows it is not defeated.
SEAN BECKER
Erie, Pa.

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CNN.com: Latest News

Your report "One Man's Story," on revelations by al-Qaeda terrorist Omar al-Faruq [Al-Qaeda, Sept. 23], noted that he was subjected to three months of "psychological interrogation tactics." That phrase is nothing but a euphemism for plain old torture. I fully appreciate that these terrorists are extremely tough characters and that an element of torture may be necessary to get them to spill the beans. But the U.S.'s democratic system may be harmed by something far more perilous than acts of terrorism: the worm of deceit. The preservation of democracy may require the use of wicked actions, but any act deemed too wicked to speak of plainly must be too wicked to perform.
NICK GODWIN
Edinburgh

It is revealing that most of the Lackawanna Six, accused of being al-Qaeda members, are unemployed underachievers whose loyalty to their country is ambiguous at best, given their religious extremism. Like these disaffected alleged terrorists, many people who live in the Arab world have been on the unemployment line for years. Arab jealousy of Western success and power is the root of the recent terrorism.
RICHARD L. JOHNSON
College Station, Texas

Al-Faruq confessed after three months of pressure, including sleep deprivation and isolation. But people who have been subjected to such conditions will often say almost anything their captors wish them to say. The information that has been gleaned from al-Faruq is likely to be horribly misleading and quite possibly complete fantasy.
ED TILLMAN
Mount Pocono, Pa.

Does the word secret mean anything to TIME? You mentioned several times in this article that you got your information from a "secret cia document" and intelligence reports. What ever happened to responsible journalism? Secret means it is neither my business nor yours!
PHYLLIS ADAIR
Irvine, Calif.

It's intriguing to learn where and how al-Qaeda is regrouping, because anyone with common sense knows it is not defeated. Al-Faruq's secret testimony is precisely the kind of information the U.S. government needs if it is to wage a successful war on terrorism.
SEAN BECKER
Erie, Pa.

Enough is enough. This is a big world we live in, and there has to be more going on than al-Qaeda and terrorism every week. I would like to read about something else. By devoting so much of your magazine to the terrormongers, you're giving them exactly what they want: more press.
ROBERT GOUGH
Thornton, Colo.

The Equivalent of Mug Shots

The basic legal premise that one is innocent until proved guilty seems to be ignored by the Wilmington, Del., police who are detaining innocent people on the street in high-crime areas and taking their pictures to file in a database [Law, Sept. 23]. While police have the right to take photographs in a public place, they are on a slippery slope when it comes to searching and detention. It seems that being African American makes one a police target. And if the only cause for a search is being black, doesn't that mean any contraband found would be viewed as the fruits of an illegal search and thus not be admitted in court as evidence?
FRANK H. STALEY
Upper Marlboro, Md.

Our Kind of Despot

Charles Krauthammer's article "Dictatorships and Double Standards" [ESSAY, Sept. 23] argued that past and current backing for dictatorial regimes is justified because they support the larger U.S. interests of fighting communism or terrorism. Krauthammer failed to mention that several of the dictatorships the U.S. has assisted were created by the U.S., often by destroying an existing democracy. Could Krauthammer's real point be that the U.S. should prop up dictators when democracy results in a government the U.S. dislikes?
JEFFREY FRANK
Arlington Heights, Ill.

Krauthammer's message needs to be read by everyone, particularly America's detractors. U.S. foreign policy does not exist in a vacuum, so while our leaders would prefer not to do so, they sometimes must take a course of action that is less than ideal. External factors often force our government to compromise. Our critics do not value the difficult decisions that American officials consistently make. Our leaders are not violent madmen but are instead champions of an ultimate global peace.
DANIEL SPECTOR
Washington

So we're told that in the fight against Islamic radicalism, Americans must dance with dictators, or we will die. But where did most of the Sept. 11 hijackers come from? Not from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Iran or Libya, and not from any Arab nation led by a hostile regime. They came largely from Saudi Arabia, a country led by friendly dictators that Krauthammer categorizes as our "sons of bitches." Supporting such regimes in the name of freedom not only is pathetically ironic but also backfires on a regular basis. Our strongest and most reliable allies throughout the cold war were the governments and people of true democracies, countries that knew the benefits of a free society and were willing to defend them. The same will be true in the future, as people who can vent their frustrations in a voting booth are much less likely to vent them with a bomb.
JAMES DENNING
Los Angeles