The Nation since 1865.

May IS, 1995

CONTENTS.

Volume 260, Number 19

LETTERS

672

Wartime Journey

EDITORIALS

What RoughBeast?
One Mans Jihad
PlayingWithFlre
About This Issue . . .

Robert I. Friedman
Davrd Corn
The Edrtors

COLUMNS

658
659

Vengeance Opportunlties
Beat the Dm11

Calvin Trillin
Alexander Cockburn

ARTICLES

We AreAll Hibakusha:
A Downwinder in
Hlroshirna
Tempest Terry
Williams
668 Secrecy, Cover-up and the Bomb:
The Atomic Curtain
Robert Jay Llfton
and Greg Mitchell
670 America 1945:
The and
End
the Beginning
Studs Terkel
661

Cover design by WBMG

Edrtor,
vanden
Katrlna

Racism at the Front:

A Black Womans

654
655
656
657
658

655

Judith Rollins crnd

Odette Harper Hines

Blacks and Baseball:

Whereve You Gone,
Mark Harris
Jackie Robmon?
676 Reslstance and Reaction:
In Europe, Hope Amid the Rums
Danrel
Singer
679 The Nution Time Capsule: 1945
686 The U.N. at 50:
Stephen Schlesinger
Will the U.S. Go It Alone?
688 War Crimes Then and Now:
Tina Rosenberg
From Nuremberg to Bosnia
692 Forgetting the Bomb:
Martm 1 Sherwrn
The Assault on History
694 Japanese-Americans Remember:
Hard Times at Heart Mountain
Jon Wiener
674

BOOKS & THE ARTS

696

Oe: Three Books

Masao Miyoshr

Illustrations by Sue Coe, Robert Grossman, Komar and Melarnld and Edward Sorel

Heuvel

Execufrve Edrtor,Rlchard Lingeman, Assocrate Edrtors.Katha Polhtt, Bruce

Shaplro, Mlcah L Slfry; Lrterury Edrtors, Elsa Dlxler, Art Wmslow; Poetry
Edrlor, Grace Schulrnan, Manugrng Edrtor, JoAnn Wypi~ewskr;Copy Chief,
Roane Carey; Copy Edrtor, Judlth Long, Assistant Copy Edrtor, Emrly
Gordon; Assrstant to fheEdrtor, Denms Selby, Interns, Marta Ansbn, Martln
Boer, BenJamin Flnernan, Stephane Fltch,Lawrence Levi, Erlc Verhoogen,
Llsa Westberg
Depurtmenfs Archrtecture, Jane HoltzKay, Art, Arthur C.Danto, Frctron,
John Leonard; Films. Stuart Klawans, MUSK,Edward W Sad, Gene Santoro,
Televrsron, Lewls Cole, Theater,Thomas M Dlsch, Bureuus: Washmgton,
Dawd Corn, Europe, Damel Slnger; Budapesf,Mlkl6s Vhmos, Tokyo, Karl
TaroGreenfeld. Southern Afrrcu, Mark Gwlsser Corporatrons, Robert
Shernll; Defense, Mlchael T Klare, Columnrstsand RegularContrrbutors
Alexander Cockburn (Beat the Devil), Chrlstopher Hltchens (Mrnorrty
Reporf),Aryeh Neler ( Walchrng Rrghls), Katha Poll~tt
(SUbJeCllo Debute),
Edward Sorel, Calvin Trrllln, Conlrrbutrng Edrtors Lucla Annunziata, Kal
Bird, George Black, Robert L Borosage, Stephen F Cohen. Marc Cooper,
Mlke Davis, Slavenka Drakullc, Thomas Ferguson, Doug Henwood. Max
Holland, Molly Inns, Joel Rogers, Klrkpatrlck Sale, Robert Scheer, Herman
Schwartz, Andrew L Shaplro, Ted Solotaroff, Gore Vldal, Jon Wiener, Amy
Wllentz, Patricia J.Wllliarns; EdrtorralBoard. Norman Blrnbaurn, Richard
Falk, Frances FrtzGerald, Ph~llpGreen, Randall Kennedy, Ellnor Langer,
Deborah W Meler, Tom Morrison, Richard Parker, Michael Pertschuk, Ehzabeth Pochoda, Ned Postman, Marcus G Raskln, David Werr, Roger Wdklns
Edrtor ut Large, Rlchard Pollak
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EDITORIALS.

WhatRoughBeast?

he awful Oklahoma City bombingexposed, along

with the shattered superstructure of the Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Building, the dark currents of paranola and vlolence now overtakingAmerican politics.
Despite the escalating attacks on abortion clmics, despite the
loud warnings from Klanwatch, the Anti-Defamation League
and Planned Parenthood, most Americansstill believed, in

Sinclair Lewiss famous phrase, that It Cant HappenHereof a native-born consplracy of

at least, not at the hands
would-be patriots.
As with the J.F.K. assassination there is a sense of innocence lost, this time the nostalgic innocence
of the right. For
like John Salvi, the accused Brookline womens c h i c shooter,
the Oklahoma Citybombers were goaded to action not Just
by their private mad impulses but by a broaderpolltical culture. Suspect Timothy McVeigh, a former Armysergeant and
thwarted Special Forces candidate, found a home in an armed

The Nation.

656

rnll~tlamovement arising from a prlmordial stew of propertyrights fanatics, gun control resisters and white supremacists
[see DavidHelvarg, Anti-Envlros Are Gettmg Ugller, November 28, 19941. Their essential fears and principles lie within
the vlsible spectrum of the rights vigilante rhetorlc as posted
daily in the Congressional Record and on the radio waves, and
they are hardly alonein their xenophobic vision of America
at war agalnst spiritual decllne. Such political currents were
evldent hours after the bombing In the humiliating arrest of
Ibrahim Abdullah Hassan Ahmed, an OklahomaCity Muslim
who had the misfortuneto be traveling abroad on April 19.
The terrorism experts, like the bombers themselves, were
seeking an easy foreign scapegoat for heartland pathology.
Mllltlas nationwide had called for a mobilization on April 19,
the second anniversary of the Wac0 debacle. All able-bodled
cltlzens are toassemble with their arms tocelebrate their right
to keep and bear arms andto assemble as militias In defense
of the Republic, went a grandiose but retrospectlvely chilling proclamation of the Texas Militia.
This IS at bottom a political problem, having more to do
wlth the Inflated currency of hateful ideas in a downwardly
spiraling economy than with a shackled F.B.I. The ultlmate
solution IS intense infiltratlon and intelligence work, declared
Senator Joseph Lieberman.But theresno reason to think restoring theF.B.l.s surveillance power would have prevented
this bombing; the actualpresence of undercover Informants
did nothing to stop the
World Trade Center bomblng or the
1979 Klanshootlngs in Greensboro, North Carolina. (The formula forthe Oklahoma City bomb seems to have come
stmght
from the Special Forcestmmng manual and IS probably known
to every farmer in the country. An agricultural magazine a
few years back offered the formula as a recipe for Instant Catfish Pond On the other hand,
whenever the government has
responded to political violence with broader pollce powersfrom the Haymarket bombing of 1886 through thedays of the
Weather Underground-it has been nonviolent dissenters who
ended up as targets. Through the mid-l980s,well after the F.B.I.
halted its notorious CISPES probe, local pollce departments
happily snooped on nuclear freeze and anti-nuclear protesters
in the name of antiterrorism.
Its also worth consldering how the governments crlminally
senseless attack at Wac0 made martyrs ofBranch Davidians
and provlded a bridge for militia leaders like Bo Gritz into
the media spotllght. WithSalvl, Paul Hill and now Timothy
McVelgh all facing possible execution there are moremllltia

rn

NATION NOTES
his week Victor Goldberg joins TheNation as assoclate publisher for busmess affalrs. He will help
T
organlze the Committeeof 100, a new group of Nation

small shareholders. He will also oversee The Nafrons

~nvolvementin ancillary business enterpnses. Victor has
served as president of the HudsonValley Broadcasting
Corporation and held high-level executiveposmons in
the textile and other industries.

May 15, 1995

martyrs in the making; and repression will only drive dissident organizations underground, perhaps provoking more
violent attacks.
For survlvors of the Oklahoma City bombing and their
families and neighbors, it was a community trauma transcending conventional political categories. It is true enoughto say
there are larger massacres in the world, and easy enough to
point out how often the government has aided and abetted
its own acts of terror abroad andat home. But mass vlolence
anywhere IS uniquely shattering because itattacks social structure as well as individuals. In the wake of mass murder, wrote
Terrence DesPres twenty years ago, what remains to us now
1s simple care . . . made active through mutual need. Thus
the most stirnng ovation at Oklahoma Citys memorial service
was not for President or preacher but for two emergencyservice workersand a search-and-rescue dog as they walkeddown
the aisle to their seats. In some sense, too, this bombing made
human those demonized as anonymous bureaucrats; It was
a devastated Victor Lawton, notan anonymous HUD paperpusher, who described on CNN how his friends and colleagues literally fell away around him.
This is a pivotal political moment. The honor paid those
emergency service workers
by their Oklahoma City neighbors
suggests a social ethlc of solidarity profoundly at odds with
the dehumanizing anger of the right. The question is whether
the bombing will inspire a turn toward that ethic of solidarity,
away from thepolitics of alienation, or power a helter-skelter
descent further into fear and rage.

OneMansJihad
ven before the dust had cleared In Oklahoma City,
journalist and self-proclaimed terrorism expert
Steven Emerson was on the tube warning that the
horrific blast was the latest round in militant
Islams
/ h a d against America. On the
night of the bombing, Emerson said on CBS Evenrng News: Thls was done with the
Intent to Inflict as many casualties as possible. That is a Mideastern trait. He offered no proof.
For the first forty-eight hours, Emerson was a fixture on
radio and TV, waging jrhad on Islam. There are simply too
many budding Arab terrorists in America forthe F.B.I. to hunt
down, he said on Fox. The Bureaus overwhelmed.Hamas is a
likely culprit. They hate democracy. They hate America. They
want to kill all the Jews. Meanwhile, hasty reports on CNN
that the F.B.I. was hunting down men of Middle Eastern
extraction dovetailed nicely withEmersons belief that Arab
terrorists are trying to bring America to its knees. The F.B.I.s
announcement that two key suspects were white males didnt
stall Emersons crusade. On Crossfire he said: The F.B.I.
considers radical Islam~cextremists on American soil to be
the number-one domestic national security threat, period.
When a fellow panellst, attorney Ronald Kuby, criticized
Emersons rush to Judgment,reminding viewers that four days
after the World Trade Center bombing, Emerson announced
the attack was carried out by a Serb terrorist group, he
whined, I was reporting a snapshot of the investigation.

May 15, I995

The Nation.

YOUwere dead wrong. Thats the point that

we ought toremember, barked host John Sununu.
Emerson was not alone inhis leapto conclusions. Former
Oklahoma Representative Dave McCurdy, who had headed
the HouseIntelligence Committee, cited Emersons December 1994 PBS documentary, JIhad
in Arnerlca, which shows
Muslims meeting in Oklahoma City allegedly to wage war
on this country, as proof that Islamic terrorist groupswere
involved. The one-hour documentary purports show
to how
radical Islamic fundamentalism, withIts goal of destroying
America, has taken root here. But Emersons only examples
of Islamic terrorismon U.S. soil were the World Trade Centerrelated cases. What is new are his clips of Muslim speakers
in the United States calling for Jihad.
The films fundamental deceit is that thespeakers are not
referring to America but to Afghanistan andIsrael. Although
Emerson breathlessly implies that thejihadlstswere unknown
to U.S. law enforcement, the F.B.I. was actually well aware
that Jihad offices had been set up across the country, as part
of a covert C.I.A. programto raise volunteers and funds to
defeat theSoviets in Afghanistan.Even after the Soviets withdrew in 1989,the C.I.A. contmued to bring over Muslim clerics
to agitate against the
Soviet puppet government left behind.
The C.l.A.s most notorious motivatlonal speakerwas Sheik
Omar Abdul Rahman,say well-informed sources, including
members of the House Intelligence Commlttee who have
viewed classified files. While the sheiks agenda may have
been quite different from the
C.I.A.s, Emersons documentary offers no proof that U.S.-based Muslims outside the
sheiks innercircle took part or were even interested in antiU.S. terror.
Prior to its airing on PBS, Emerson screened Jrhad rn
Arnerrcu for officlals atthe New York headquarters of a major
national Jewlsh organization. He wanted their public endorsement of the film toincrease pressure on Clinton for tougher
laws to combat Arabterror. Whde theJewish leaders werent
shy about using the film to press Clinton for laws to increase
federal police powers, they didnt want to
be publicly Identified with the video, for fear of harming intergroup relations, according to oneofficial. People were concerned then
and now that it looked like all Arabs are blamed for a very
small portion of Muslim fundamentalists who engage in
terrorism, that it pomted the finger at the entlre Arab community, that it made generalizations.
The Israeli government was lessconcerned about stereotyping Arabs. Emerson
gave a sneakpreview for Israeli officials
in Washlngton, who had long complained that Hamas was
bemg run from bases in America. Emersons film not only
helped them press their case with the Administration-that
Islam 1s our common enemy-but It also helped to rehabilitate Emersonwith the Labor government. Labor was angry
with Emersonfor helping Llkud undermine the peace process. YOSSIBen-Aharon, Yoram Ettlnger and Ylgal Carmon are
former hlgh-ranking Likud government officials
whom Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin dubbed the Gangof Three after the
trio startedlobbying Capitol Hill against theIsraeli-P.L.O. accord and against sending U.S. peacekeepers to the Golan
Heights in order to undermine any chance for peace with

657

Syria, says a prominent Israeli Journalist. Carmon, whowas

on terrorism,
Likud PrimeMinister Yitzhak Shamirs adviser
and Ettinger, who was Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahus
man in the Israeli Embassy, stayin Emersons apartment on
their frequent visits to Washington. Carmon was credited as
an adviser on Emersons documentary.
Ignoring his role in creating mass hysteria against AmericanArabs,Emersonwarned
in an Op-Ed piece in The
Wall Street Journal six days after the Oklahoma City bombmg that unless the pendulum swings back to the days
when
the F.B.I. was able to infiltratelegal political organizations,
radicalIslam will prevail. Apparentlybeing a terrorism
expert means never having to say youre sorry.
ROBERTI. FRIEDMAN

Robert 1. Friedman ISan rnvestrgatwereporterfor New York.

Playing With Fire

bvernment% the enemy. So say the bombers of

Oklahoma City, so say the armed partisans
of the
militia movement, so say the members of the
National Rifle Association, so say the radio talk
show hosts, so say the leadersof the Republican Party. Three
days after the massacre,a reporterasked NewtGingrich
whether the Speakers antigovernment invective had cultivated
a cllmate forright-wlng terrorism. Thats grotesque, sputtered the Speaker. But the suggestion is not outrageous, for
the worlds of theweekend warriors, the conservative movement and the G.O.P. do bleed into one another.
Last summer G. Gordon Liddy
counseled hls radio audience on thebest method for murdering officers of the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, archfiend of the paramilitary patriot movement. Theyve got a big target there
[on their chest],A.T.F., Liddy noted. Dont shoot at that
because theyve got a vest on underneath that. Head shots,
head shots. . . . Kill the sons of bitches. Portions of the
militia movement have called for a rally in Washington on
to Llddy (aswell as Pat
June 4, and the organizers hope have
Buchanan and Republican Representative Steve Stockman)
address the troops. But Liddys popularity extends
beyond extremists. In February he was honored at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference(C-PAC), co-sponsored
by the American Conservatlve Union, College Republicans,
the Heritage Foundation, National Revlew and dozens of
other right-wing tltans. Bob Dole,Phil Gramm, Bob Dornan
and Gingrich-and many other conservatives-have been
guests on Llddys show. Liddy builds up an audience wlth
venomous talk; G.O.P.ers rush to share the mike.
Grotesque? My colleague Benjamin Fmeman contactedthe
offices of these Llddy gueststo inquire whateach thought of
Llddys how-to guldeto killing federal employeesand to ask
whether they would continue to appear onhls show. None
would respond.
No clear line dividesthe polltical right from themilitia set.
In March various patnot computer bulletln boards-one
1s called the Paul Revere Net-distributed an article by Jack