Dear FRONTLINE,

Let me first thank you for your efforts to bring some understanding to a very difficult topic. In my opinion Frontline represents the best in American journalism. Unfortunately, I must admit to some frustration with the "free pass" given to tonightís apologists for the "Heroes" of Islamic Fundamentalism. While their criticism of the regions current governments may well be justified, Frontline failed to illicit an explanation as to how their stated goal of creating Fundamentalist Islamic States would improve the lot of the disenfranchised citizens they say they represent.

I suggest that only when this information is made available can American foreign policy begin to be fairly criticized. As matter of journalistic balance, Frontline should have presented this information before asking why successive American administrations supported these governments. In the light of recent events it is only fitting that America critically examine those factors which may have contributed to the slaughter of her innocent citizens. But this cannot be done in the absence of moral and ethical values. To impugn the values, motives and actions of one party to a dispute without examining those of the other is not only unfair but in this instance dangerous.

I hope Frontline will have the opportunity to explore these questions in the near future.

Norm Gaskarth
calgary, canada

Dear FRONTLINE,

More important than US economic and military interests abroad and maintaining a position of world superpower, is a change to an uninvasive foreign policy while playing a major role in promoting peace and understanding, and not allowing conditions that breed hate to arise. It is hate that kills,and hate that killed in the attack at the WTC.

All other solutions notwithstanding, only when we truly understand the underlying causes of hate may we finally conquer terrorism.

Sal Cataldo
brooklyn, ny

Dear FRONTLINE,

When the Frontline documentary "Hunting Bin Laden" aired sometime ago, I was haunted by the image of this man, Bin Laden. The delivery of his message--a message declaring war on the U.S.--was not ferocious, fanatical, or brutal. It was delivered in a matter of fact way that left me feeling uneasy. It's easy to block out the ravings of fanatics--not so easy to block out Bin Laden. At the time, I thought this man is a dangerous man. This man's patient conviction was what was most chilling and leant validity to his words. Ahmed Sattar in that same documentary spoke defiantly but with that same patient, matter-of-fact chilling delivery. They seemed self assured that they would eventually be victorious no matter how long it took or how many innocent lives would be lost.

I purchased that documentary from PBS at that time and in recent weeks I have shared it with friends, family, and co-workers. Some watched it twice--most made the same observation.

I applaud frontline for their in-depth, continued reporting on this and their courage presenting some of the underlying causes that have spawned terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda and The Islamic Jihad. Even if the report didn't always paint a pretty picture of American policy and actions in that region of the world, I think it gives us a true picture of what we our up against and how we got here.

Nanette Palo
puyallup, wa

Dear FRONTLINE,

We have been waging war on the Islamic countries of the middle east since the collapse of the Ottoman empire, the Muslims do not forget the Balfour declaration, Lawrence of Arabia's lies, the Arab revolt, the foundation of the state of Israel, four Arab-Israeli wars and the 34 years of Israel's brutal occupation of Arab land.

Ask an Arab how he responds to 20,000 or 30,000 innocent deaths and he or she will respond, as decent people should, that it is an unspeakable crime. But they will ask why we did not use such words about the sanctions that have destroyed the lives of perhaps half a million children in Iraq, why we did not rage about the 17,500 civilians killed in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. And those basic reasons why the Middle East caught fire last September the Israeli occupation of Arab land, the dispossession of Palestinians, the bombardments and state-sponsored executions Now we know what it means to have fear it is time root out terrorism by disengaging from Israel occupation, supporting democracy and civil society, stopping the genocide of the Iraqi people.

Once we do that bin laden will be alone

john howard
los angels, ca

Dear FRONTLINE,

...All we kept hearing was the information the u.s. had backed the wrong side, perhaps this is true, but simply to allow the terrorists a further platform for describing their hatred of the u.s. up until the time of the world trade bombing, with no sense of rebuttal,( Mr.Armitage does not exactly represent the most enlightened side of the u.s. foreign policy)...left me feeling the program was irresponsible, at the worst, insentive at best, it's bad enough ben laden's group have their propaganda t.v. station working for them...i don't think we need to help.

Obviously we must probe and understand and expose, but at such a vulnerable time we can search for an enlightenment that would allow for some hope for the future and some sense of at least debate.

la, calif

Dear FRONTLINE,

While I have found many of your past programs to be well researched and informative, this program was hastily assembled and riddled with half-truths and not well documented facts. I suggest you might want to provide greater research and more in-depth reporting before you air such a piece. You will find that the media has been an active participant in creating Bin Laden. His war exploits in Afganistan have never matched that which the media was mislead into developing. He emerges as a "Trust-fund Terrorist" When he returned from the war in Afganistan he felt he was a hero. The Saudis did not give him the adulation he craved. In addition, he was interested in leading the Gulf War because he felt he was the most capable leader. It was offensive to him that he felt he was overlooked. That insolent pride and belief that he and a ragtag group had brought down the number two super power, the Soviets, propelled him to greater haughtiness. He failed to notice that without Saudi and U.S. support , he could not have survived in Afganistan. Even the size of his fortune has been overplayed. In actuality he has needed and used charities both with and without their knowledge to support his activities. (That would make an interesting program. Furthermore, his role in his own family could be an interesting dynamic to explore. ) Bin Laden's final arrogance which occurred on September 11 is most telling. He now has much of the world opposed to his actions and he doesn't understand that four or five airplanes and 30,000 or 40,000 men are certainly no match for China, Great Britain, Russia, and France not to mention the United States. His only hope is to use the media to bring in the disaffected and use them to further his own ends. Isn't that what Hitler did?

Carol A. Moore
littleton, colorado

Dear FRONTLINE,

I hope that our government will realize that we need to rethink or reinvent how the US protects its interests in the middle east. The terrorist acts are a clear message that we cannot continue with business as usual in the middle east, and here at home. I agree with some of the muslim leaders that complain about the presence of troops in Saudi Arabia. I wouldn't feel comfortable if mujhadeen were guarding the Vatican, or the Statue of Liberty. They are there because we did not complete the Gulf War. If we were truly interested in peace, and saving the Iraqi people we would have hung Saddam Hussein by his crown jewels. But our true interests were (and are) keeping the oil flowing so we could all fill up our gas guzzling SUV's at a $1.50/gal. This is our greatest shortcoming as a superpower by exploting areas of the world for our benefit, rather than helping them become democratic and free. I think we could make many wrongs right by going after Saddam and freeing the Iraqis from his oppression. Who wants to patrol a no-fly zone for the next 30 years anyway? It's ludicrous.

Why wait for Saddam to do something when we have the moral authority to do something right NOW.

jason langley
denver, co

Dear FRONTLINE,

Frustrated people, with nothing or little to lose, are easy prey for those preaching that their misfortune is a result of other peoples actions. The United States is an easy target because the country is rich and generally supports leaders in other countries that block the preachers and believers from implementing their goals. The West is facing an abstract and dangerous enemy that won't compromise on its view of the world and thus will only be defeated by strategically placed bullets.

deephaven, mn

Dear FRONTLINE,

Why did the State Department allow Egyptian Islamic fundamentalists to enter the United States, knowing that they had been gaoled by Egypt for terrorist activities? Was this part of a deliberate policy on ouur part? President Clinton while preaching a war on terrorism invited known terrorists, with blood on their hands, to have tea at the Whitehouse. The Irish IRA terrorists are every bit as callous as the Muslims.

Edward Nisbett
navarre, fl

Dear FRONTLINE,

Does anyone really believe that any good is going to come out of the current conflict between the US and Bin Laden, without a genuine effort by the current administration to reconsider their policies towards the Middle East? I believe the task of eliminating terrorism is virtually impossible unless we deeply look into the deeply rooted hatred and animosity that has been building up in the Middle East over many years to their oppressive regimes, Israeli brutal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and systemic cleansing of Palestinians all in defiance of UN resolutions, and last but not least the unconditional political and financial support of these regimes on both sides of the conflict (including Saddam Hussain) against the absolute will of nearly 100% of the Arab population everywhere.

Luis Tab
chicago, il

Dear FRONTLINE,

Your insistence on blaming the victim (the U.S.) is ridiculous. We shouldn't be sitting around asking ourselves what we did to make them hate us or why we didn't detect the threat in advance. Imagine the Jews of the Nazi era taking time out to thoughtfully consider "why do they hate us so much?" and "why didn't we see this coming?" The whole tilt of your discussion seemed to imply that the U.S. obviously did something wrong to call this violence down on itself.

Hatred does not have to be rational. The American people have been hated in many cases simply because of envy. They envy us our success as a nation and assume that we could not be doing so well unless we had taken some of "their share".

Why do you give these enemies of our nation the benefit of the doubt and start from a point in the discussion where you assume their motives and actions are noble and right or, at the very least, based on rationality.

mt. pleasant, michigan

Dear FRONTLINE,

The almost total absence of a meaningful inclusion of the role of the Israeli oppression and continuing brutilization of the palestinian people is further proof to me that the mass media cowers at the thought of confronting the Jewish American lobby. Americans must extricate themselves from the battle that wages in the middle east between religeous fanatics be they Jewish or Muslim. We are a nation dedicated to the separation of church and state yet we mindlessly endorse the state of Israel, a nation dedicated to the uniting of church and state, despite their protestations to the contrary.

Your frontline piece on the Muslim terrorists is yet another example of the propagandizing of America; those factors are discussed which the N.Y. Times wants discussed. The N.Y. Times being probably the premier Israli apologist in the country. You have the good pictures and the concerned faces but you are still propagadists.

grand blanc, michigan

Dear FRONTLINE,

What many in the West do not understand is that the roots of militant Islam extended earlier than the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928.

It is clear that the Jihad, which Islamic militants seek to carry out was effectivelly used in the late 1890's and between 1914-1921 by Turkey in its attempt to creat an Islamic state by ridding itself of its minority christain populations. These efforts which where extensivelly successful are well understood by Islamic fundimentalists. Remember Adolph Hitler commented about the extermination of the indigenous Christain Armenian population by the Ottomen Turks in formulating his "Final Solution".

As a christain with family roots in that part of the world, let me caution that there are no simple solutions. Fundimmentalist/militant Islamics believe that they alone hear the true voice of God. That as a result it is their Islamic duty to subdue by any means any and all infidels. ...

The comment that was made by Colin Powel's assistant that "we are all members of the Book. Jews, Christains and Muslims" may be the Wests view. But this is not the view of Islam nor of Muslim militants. You must understand that these individuals are part of a movement that seeks to turn back the clock almost a thousand years. Further that they are willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish their goals.

Unfortunatelly, unless the West and specifically the US is of the same mind set this brand of Islamic extremisim will not disappear.

Jim Menoutakis
edison, new jersey

Dear FRONTLINE,

One greate source of Arab anger: The United States-led sanctions against Iraq have caused great suffering and the deaths of many thousands of innocent civilians since 1991. The sanctions, suffering and deaths continue to this day. This is fact, not propaganda: even the U.S. Pentagon website has posted a document in which we admit that we are preventing essential water purification supplies from getting into Iraq, and the acknowledged result is sickness and death, especially among children and the elderly. The Pentagon has noted this as a "public relations problem."

Jonathan Shailor
kenosha, wisconsin

Dear FRONTLINE,

Your Frontline program of 10/9 was very informative. Howevere, I am deeply disturbed that western media, in the name of journalism, gives radical Islam a platform to spew their venom and misstate facts with no rebuttal. Does Al Jazeera broadcast the American viewpoint?

In interviews with these radicals, why don't you ask why Saddam is not despised by Muslims? After all he is responsible for shedding the blood of untold thousands of Iraqi and Irani Muslims in war. He also tried to overrun the small Muslim country of Kuwait. Devout Muslims have a problem with the Saudi gov't being repressive and corrupt? What about Saddam? what has he done to benefit his people? The U.S. is unpopular on the streets of Islamic countries? How come you don't ask them why we are most popular on the streets of Iran? After 25 yrs of their gov't villifying the U.S., Iranians on the street don't hate the America. Why? Because they've lived under the rule of the clerics and they know it is oppressive. Your program would have been TRULY worthwhile, had you pursued these issues.

brooklyn, ny

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