New Trend Magazine (Phone:410-435-5000)
The following letter was sent to NPR. Your help is needed to give it
maximum
distribution.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"All Things Considered"
National Public Radio
Washington, D.C.
Dear "All Things Considered"
I was pleasantly surprised to hear your coverage this evening (January
25) in
which you reported on the death of 154 Afghan civilians in five
incidents of
bombing by the U.S. air force.
As you conceded, if 154 were killed in 5 days of bombing out of the
total of
99 days of bombing, the final death toll of civilians must be in the
thousands.
My sources in Pakistan say that the total of Afghan civilians killed in
the
bombing is near 60,000. Of these only 4076 have been documented (by an
American) but the rest can only be estimated because they remain buried
in
hundreds of mud hut villages which were obliterated in the bombing.
You had the moral courage to point out that 65 of those Afghan civilans
were
killed in the bombing of an Afghan mosque during prayer time near the
town of
Khost. I couldn't quite catch it, but was that an excuse from your side
or
from the Pentagon that three Al-Qaida members were among those who were
praying in the mosque?
I wonder if the Pentagon realizes what kind of precedent it has set by
bombing the mosque. If an enemy is praying among a community, are you
saying
it is okay to wipe out the whole community?
Will any member of the U.S. air force be penalized for killing all
those
civilians? Can Rumsfeld or Stufflebeem or Myers be brought to trial for
directing those attacks? Surely, the conscience of America must answer
if its
outcry about terrorism is to be taken seriously by the Muslim world.
Remember, there were no Afghans among the hijackers.
Sincerely
Kaukab Siddique, Ph.D
Phone: 410-638-5965
-------------------------------------------------------------------
2002-01-26 Sat 15:01ct