----- Original Message -----
From: "Institute for Public Accuracy" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2001 19:46
Subject: Relatives of Victims Speak Out


Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * [log in to unmask]
___________________________________________________

Thursday, September 27, 2001

"Not in Our Names"

Relatives of Terror Attack Victims Speak Out

Some family members of the victims killed in the September 11 attacks are
speaking out in opposition to the administration's apparent military plans.
Judy Keane, who lost her husband Richard, said: "Bombing Afghanistan is
just going to create more widows, more homeless, fatherless children."
[CNN, 9/25; see
also  http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/exile/dn20010921.html] Jill
Gartenberg, whose husband Jim was killed, said that "we don't win by
killing other people." [Fox, 9/24] Amber Amundson lost her husband, Craig,
in the Pentagon. She wrote in the Chicago Tribune [9/25,
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0925-06.htm] "If you choose to respond
to this incomprehensible brutality by perpetuating violence against other
innocent human beings, you may not do so in the name of justice for my
husband." Gavin Cushny's brother Rupert Eales-White stated, "If military
action results in the deaths of innocent Afghans then 100 more Bin Ladens
will rise from the grave." [The Independent, 9/22,
http://commondreams.org/headlines01/0922-01.htm] The parents of Deora
Bodley have spoken out. Her mother Deborah Borza said: "Let this passing be
the start of a new conversation ... that provides a future for all mankind
to live in harmony and respect." [San Francisco Chronicle, 9/22,
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/09/22/MN1
23903.DTL]

The following family members are available for limited interviews:

PHYLLIS and ORLANDO RODRIGUEZ, [log in to unmask],
http://www.corpwatch.org/bulletin/2001/0074.html,
http://commondreams.org/views01/0919-08.htm
They said: "Our son Greg is among the many missing from the World Trade
Center attack. We cannot pay attention to the daily flow of news about this
disaster. But we read enough of the news to sense that our government is
heading in the direction of violent revenge, with the prospect of sons,
daughters, parents, friends in distant lands dying, suffering, and nursing
further grievances against us. It is not the way to go. It will not avenge
our son's death. Not in our son's name. Our son died a victim of an inhuman
ideology. Our actions should not serve the same purpose. Let us grieve. Let
us reflect and pray. Let us think about a rational response that brings
real peace and justice to our world."

MATTHEW LASAR, [log in to unmask], http://www.lasarletter.com
In his speech at the National Cathedral memorial service, President Bush
praised an unnamed man "who could have saved himself" but instead "stayed
until the end and at the side of his quadriplegic friend." Lasar said
today: "That man was my uncle, Abe Zelmanowitz. When the first airplane
struck, Abe could not bear to abandon his wheelchair-using colleague, and
called his family to say so. Despite their pleading, he insisted that he
would stay. They have been missing ever since. My mother, who lives 20
minutes from the WTC, is in a state of shock. I mourn the death of my
uncle, and I want his murderers brought to justice. But I am not making
this statement to demand bloody vengeance. A senator from my state, Dianne
Feinstein, said: 'U.S. must spare no effort to uncover, ferret out and
destroy those: who commit acts of terrorism; who provide training camps;
who shelter; who finance; and who support terrorists. Whether that entity
is a state or an organization, those who harbor them, arm them, train them
and permit them must, in my view, be destroyed.' How does one destroy
states? Through the covert subversion of their societies? Through carpet
bombing? Afghanistan has more than a million homeless refugees. A U.S.
military intervention could result in the starvation of tens of thousands
of people. What I see coming are actions and policies that will cost many
more innocent lives, and breed more terrorism, not less. I do not feel that
my uncle's compassionate, heroic sacrifice will be honored by what the U.S.
appears poised to do."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

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