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DESCRIPTION:AUTHOR GORE VIDAL TO EXAMINE THE TERRORISM WAR AT INDEPENDENT\nINSTITUTE 
 EVENT MODERATED BY HARPER’S MAGAZINE EDITOR LEWIS LAPHAM\n\nEvent to 
 probe why America faces a terrorist crisis and what should be done, 
 features panel of distinguished 
 scholars\n\nhttp://www.independent.org/tii/forums/020418ipf.html\n\nOAKLAND, 
 Calif. -- Despite efforts by Attorney General Ashcroft and others to stifle 
 debate and ignore critical questions over the serious issues pertaining to 
 terrorism, the Independent Institute, a public policy research and 
 educational organization, will host a special event with world-renowned 
 author Gore Vidal to address the terrorist war based on his new book, 
 Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated, on April 
 18.\n\nCo-sponsored by Harper's Magazine and moderated by its editor, Lewis 
 Lapham, this Independent Institute program will also feature a response 
 panel of distinguished scholars: Barton J. Bernstein (Professor of History, 
 Stanford University), Robert Higgs (Senior Fellow, The Independent 
 Institute), and Thomas Gale Moore (Senior Fellow, Hoover 
 Institution).\n\nThe program will question the comforting yet largely 
 unexamined consensus that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the 
 Pentagon are incidents unconnected to long-standing U.S. policies that may 
 well be courting a truly catastrophic sequel to the events of Sept. 
 11.\n\nThe participants will further explore other critical questions given 
 short shrift, such as why--after retaliating against the Al Qaeda terrorist 
 network and its Taliban enablers--the Bush Administration now speaks of 
 "bringing justice" to an "axis of evil" countries not involved in the 9/11 
 attacks--while Osama bin Laden and most of the major terrorist leaders 
 remain at large.\n\nThe program will also discuss:\n   *Why, despite 
 spending $1.5 trillion over the past five years, constituting 36 percent of 
 global military spending in 1999, and exceeding the combined military 
 budgets of the ten nations that rank immediately behind it, the U.S. failed 
 to protect Americans and the Pentagon on 9/11.\n\n   *Why, in the wake of 
 Sept. 11, politicians have awarded billions in corporate welfare to the 
 airline, agriculture, steel, insurance, and other industries; and White 
 House tom-toms call for record increases in military spending.\n\n   *Why 
 federal agencies have acquired broad, new police powers to systematically 
 spy on and detain both Americans and foreign nationals without due 
 process.\n\n   *Whether the "War on Terror" will ultimately stop terrorism 
 or further facilitate a pork-feeding frenzy by special interests to the 
 detriment of the public and the Bill of Rights.\n\n   *Could U.S. policies 
 be both provoking the hatred behind the murderous 9/11 attacks and 
 increasing the prospects for more ominous threats to the safety of 
 Americans and people around the globe? If so, how can we produce a safer 
 world?\n\nBorn at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, and 
 raised in the Washington D.C. home of his grandfather, Oklahoma Senator 
 Thomas Gore, Gore Vidal is a cousin of Al Gore and was brother-in-law to 
 John F. Kennedy. The recipient of the National Book Award, Mr. Vidal is the 
 author of twenty-two novels, numerous plays, television scripts and 
 screenplays, and eight non-fiction books.\n\nThe non-profit, non-partisan 
 Independent Institute regularly sponsors in-depth studies of major social 
 and economic issues, the results of which are published as books and 
 studies, and form the basis for its numerous conferences and media 
 programs.\n\nTo request a complimentary media admission (limited 
 availability) or arrange an interview with one of the panelists, please 
 contact Rob Latham of the Independent Institute at 510-632.1366 
 x116.\n\n-30-\n https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/02/03/5803.php
SUMMARY:Understanding America's Terrorist Crisis: What Should Be Done?
LOCATION:The Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA\nDirections: 
 Driving and parking directions available online at: 
 http://www.performances.org/theaters/herbst.asp\nOr take BART to the Civic 
 Center Station.
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/02/03/5803.php
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