Ashcroft’s Warning on Possible Attacks

Re “Americans Warned of New Attacks,” Oct. 30: Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft says 18,000 law enforcement agencies have been advised to go on highest alert because the government has information indicating more attacks are likely but won’t say when or where or how or by whom or even where the information came from, but we’re to go ahead with our normal lives. Am I missing something or is this terrorism from my own government?

Douglas Page

Redondo Beach

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Ashcroft’s vague warning, from anonymous sources, that terrorist attacks are possible soon, accompanied by the request that people report anything suspicious to authorities and by the admonition to the public that law enforcers are going to give their all to “protect” the citizenry, is a scheme reminiscent of nazism: You snitch, we eavesdrop. And when no acts of terrorism occur, Ashcroft and his minions will credit their efficiency for having prevented any attack.

Michele Mooney

Van Nuys

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The Patriotic Act of 2001 is best described as the needle-in-a-haystack brand of political oppression. To catch 10, maybe 100, “potential” terrorists among 300 million, an outrageously abusive and nondiscriminating dragnet has been cast. How many “non-terrorist” suspects of criminal activity will actually get arrested because of this dragnet? There isn’t a totalitarian law enforcer in all America who isn’t cheering Ashcroft.

Daniel Daugherty

Pasadena

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Re “Pentagon Defends Strikes as Civilian Toll Rises,” Oct. 30: Thanks to [Secretary of Defense] Donald Rumsfeld for reminding the American people that this war was forced upon us. Five thousand Americans died on Sept. 11. We now need the media to publish pictures of our losses, in color, on the front page, on a daily basis. We can show the site in New York, memorial services for our victims, the damaged Pentagon, the crash site in Pennsylvania, the families of victims killed in all four airplanes, pictures of the victims, the injured in hospitals and Americans doing good for the victims. As President Bush stated, “Cough him (Osama bin Laden) up and we will go home.”

Margit Ischovitsch

Orange

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Your Oct. 29 editorial, “A War Barely Begun,” was refreshingly realistic. Usually real wars are not easily won. We know about Pearl Harbor, the last massive attack on American soil. But we may have forgotten that it took 31/2 years of bloody combat to win the war that the enemy started. Hopefully, bringing Bin Laden and his forces to justice will not take that much or that long. But we must not underestimate him (just as he should never have underestimated us).

Thomas A. Schenach

Huntington Beach

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The Taliban has won . . . when we can’t park at the airport, when we have armed soldiers there, when we limit immigration, when the CIA can hire thugs to use as informants, when the government won’t tell us what’s really happening and when everybody has to have a flag and “God bless America” on their car or house or be branded a traitor.

The crazies are in control. We are running scared, while at the same time admiring the World War II veterans who gave their lives. Where have the country and the people I admired gone?

Syd Brown

Los Osos

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Re “Politics, Security Don’t Mix,” editorial, Oct. 30: Every decision made by a politician is made based solely on its impact to self-preservation. What House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) means to say is that he and his job are more important than the security of the flying public. Want proof? A whiff of anthrax on Capitol Hill and the entire House ran home, but you postal workers keep at it.

Brian P. Hunt

Santa Monica