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By Tom Elia
September 11, 2002
The New Editor
19 Arrested In 'Terrorist Plot'
New York, September 12 (AP) -- In what it called "an unprecedented operation in the history
of the US intelligence community," the FBI today announced yesterday that it had arrested 19
men from the Middle East in New York and Boston in connection with what was called "a
terrorist plot to blow up the World Trade Center, the White House, the Capitol, and the
Pentagon."
A spokesman for the FBI said that the men, 15 Saudi Arabians and 4 Egyptians, were
carrying "box-cutters, flight-manuals, copies of the Koran, and death shrouds" at the time of
their arrests and had booked flights bound from New York and Boston to the West Coast
intending to hijack the flights and use them to "crash into various federal buildings."
The FBI said that the group comprised part of the al Qaeda terrorist network run by the
Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Islamic fundamentalist and Saudi dissident.
In an interview broadcast on CNN, a spokesman for the Saudi Arabian embassy in
Washington said, "these men were arrested because they are of Middle Eastern descent. It’s
an outrage."
When reached for comment, a spokesman for the Arab-American Anti-Defamation
Committee called the arrests "an outrageous example of racial profiling."
Ari Fleisher, President Bush’s press secretary, said the White House would make no
comment about the arrests until more was known.
Protests Over The 'Arab 19'
New York, September 17 (AP) - In response to the arrests of 19 men of Middle Eastern
descent suspected of terrorism on September 11, protests popped up across the nation.
The New York police department estimated that protesters outside of the United Nations
numbered in the "low thousands."
"This is yet another example of the injustice of racial profiling in the United States," said
Tiffany Suit, a protester and law student from New York University. "And I’m tired of it."
In Washington, DC, hundreds of protesters gathered across from the White House, in
Lafayette Park. Some carried signs that read, "Bush is a Fascist," "Free The 'Arab 19'" and
"The United States of Racism."
Speaking at the rally, Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia said, "as a woman of color, I am all
too familiar with the horrific reality of racial profiling in America. This Administration wants
you to believe that just because these men are of Middle Eastern heritage, they are suspects
in some diabolical plot. Box cutters? Get serious. What could anyone do with box-cutters -
take down a plane? The Republicans are paranoid. Bush has got to go."
In Boston, a crowd estimated around three thousand showed up to listen to a short speech
by MIT linguistics professor, Noam Chomsky.
"The US government wants you to believe that because these men were taking classes at
flight training schools that they are somehow dangerous and in need of incarceration. They
had flight manuals with them? Of course they did. They were student pilots! The United
States is a terrorist regime bent on world hegemony."
In Berkeley, California police, donned in riot gear, were pelted with crumpled pages of the
US Constitution by students chanting, "shame, shame, shame."
Some in the crowd said they thought that President Bush was to blame.
Student leader Nathan Cabbage, an anti-globalization activist and environmental studies major
at the University of California at Berkeley, said, "Bush is the problem. This is what happens
to a country that kills innocent animals for food - they become paranoid nuts. Bush stole the
election and now he wants to throw all of us in jail because we are different from him and
his rich oil buddies. I stand in solidarity with my Arab brothers. So they had copies of the
Koran with them. So what? Bush claims to be religious. Should we throw him in jail because
he reads the Bible? America is a racist country."
McAuliffe Calls for Investigation
Chicago, September 21 (AP) -- In a speech at a fundraiser, Terry McAuliffe, Chairman of
The Democratic National Committee, called for an investigation of the arrests of the
"Arab 19." "It is time to put an end to racial profiling in America… the airlines should
apologize to Arab-Americans," he said.
United, American Apologize: To Start Scholarships
Chicago, September 24 (AP) - United Airlines apologized to all Arab-Americans today and
offered to fund a scholarship for the training of pilots of Middle Eastern descent. "We want
to correct the false impression that we are anti-Arab. We are not," said a spokesman for
United Airlines. In Dallas, American Airlines announced that it would match the United offer
"because we care," said an American spokesman.
Tom Elia is a contributing editor for The New Editor.
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