Stop Press - international reaction to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon

New Internationalist, Oct, 2001

We record the worldwide reaction to the attack on the US, as reported in the editorial pages of newspapers and websites from around the world as of 13 September 2001. The opinions that follow are a selection of world opinion, and not necessarily those of the NI.

La Jornada, MEXICO

The territory of the United States was suddenly exposed as being just as insecure as the countryside of Colombia or the cities of Palestine and Israel -- the national security of the most powerful country on the planet had been completely blown apart...

The electronic media... confirmed their status as instruments of planetary disinformation; a bombardment of images replaced the search for the motives behind the bombardment of the United States and, as happened a decade ago during the war against Iraq, live broadcasts of destruction helped to obscure the fundamental questions; who planned and executed these demented assaults and what did they have in mind?

No-one refers to the position of advantage these tragic events will give to the hawks in the US and other countries as well. Nowhere on the casualty list appear the individual liberties and guarantees of migrant people.

Nasra Al Sa'adoon, Baghdad-based author, IRAQ

These innocent civilians are the collateral damage -- like the Iraqis in the Ameriyah shelter and the victims of the almost daily bombings, like those in so many disputes; Panama, Vietnam, Grenada, Hiroshima. The price of conflict is fire, blood and human life yet all of them, all of us, are just that -- precious human lives.

Can this be a turning point? A time to join hands? A halt to carnage which has been going on since the crusades?

And let me say that here in Iraq, contrary to reports, we were not smiling. We know loss and pain too well, we are not vengeful, but we were remembering again what happened to us 10 years ago.

Official Government Statement published in Granma, CUBA

The position of Cuba against all terrorist action is well known. It is impossible to forget that our people have for 40 years been the victim of similar actions coming from the territory of the United States itself.

Iran Daily, IRAN

The reasons for the shocking attacks on the World Trade Centre Twin Towers and the Pentagon should be sought inside the US. The world's sole superpower and major military player should also learn to assess its domestic and foreign policies at regular intervals and not wait to do so when terror strikes and reality knocks.

After the colossal damage had been done to American life and property on Tuesday, President George Bush pledged to bring those responsible to 'justice'... justice these days is a very rare commodity.

Amin Sabooni

Jordan Times,' JORDAN

Tuesday 11 September was the United States' 'Yom Kippur', its 'Day of Atonement' for all the sins its policy makers have committed against other countries and people over the last 40-odd years...

While the Bush administration has announced its determination to 'wage war on terrorism', the US will never win that war until it addresses the grievances which inspire militants to strike at Washington. Palestine should be at the top of the Bush administration's list because the US pro-Israel stance in this century-old conflict fuels the hatred which drives Muslims to attack 'soft' US targets and kill US citizens.

Michael Jansen

Main Islamic fundamentalist group the Muslim Brotherhood, EGYPT

[The attacks] contradict all human and Islamic values.

LEBANON'S top Shi'a Cleric and one-time leader of Hizbollah,

Mohammed Hussein Fadlallsh,

We reject methods of this sort. No rational person can accept any people being exposed to what the American people have been exposed to.

Payman Bahrami, a greengrocer, IRAN

Shedding blood is always bad, but shedding blood comes from hatred and this hatred the Americans themselves produced, They are bullying the world and this is the result of their bullying. It is the innocent people who suffer.

Gulf News, DUBAI / UAE

In the past America has sought vengeance for attacks on U.S. government buildings by retaliating against sites in Libya, Afghanistan and Sudan. It was not clear at that time that America was attacking the right places, and it has become more clear with time that the sites attacked were mistakes. Such tit-for-tat violence has resulted in continuing attacks from violent groups, and has not solved anything.

It is important at a time like this that America remembers its role as the world's leading power, and its commitment to justice. Bush's intention to 'punish' should not disintegrate into plain revenge, but should incorporate justice as well. In such a search for justice America carries the sympathy and support of the world.

Moscow Times, RUSSIA

Alas, it is the lot of the American people, like the peoples of many other countries around the world, to clean up the bloody mess created by politicians - by no means exclusively or perhaps even predominantly by American politicians. If politicians are not brought to their senses, what happened will look like a trifle compared to what lies ahead.