Correspondence: Sec. Gottemoeller, SWAT, & c.
CORRESPONDENCE We've Been Warned For the several years I have been a loyal American Spectator subscriber, I have noticed a disturbing trend in your correspondence section. Every month the letters'...
...Let us hope that stability will return to the Balkans and that this tiny country will continue on the road to prosperity...
...DAN FLINT West End, North Carolina SATisfaction Re: RET's August editorial, "This Is just a Test": Yes, the U.S...
...instead, there were plenty of frightened fellow students —some of whom were impeded from leaving the school building by the SWAT teams...
...However, these difficulties are not an excuse for avoiding a problem...
...But now you have gone too far...
...And Chernobyl hadn't blown up in the meantime, as Ms...
...government has a different view...
...Second, Mr...
...There were no injuries, no loss of life...
...Why do you think they want that information...
...power in the Persian Gulf, China, and elsewhere...
...We are not superhuman, nor are we expected to die enforcing the law...
...They also claimed they had cut off all commercial contacts between NIKIET and Iran...
...RAY WISHER Cape Coral, Florida Mr...
...I am one who happens to believe that Tony Coelho is a good and caring man...
...Neal amassed 156 wins, including 72 by pin, and was the Pac-so conference heavyweight champion all four years...
...Timmerman did not attempt to interview me before writing the article, I feel compelled to respond to several points...
...Thank you again, Mr...
...Citizens should not sacrifice themselves on the altar of blind faith in dialing 911...
...First, police departments are some of the oldest bureaucracies in the nation...
...Every month the letters' editor feels compelled to run letters from malcontents who threaten to cancel their subscription because of some story that appeared in a previous issue...
...The Russians said they had fired several people directly involved in the Iran deals and had threatened others...
...Gottemoeller, some of which she helped to set up, are dangerously failing to achieve that goal because of a lack of effective administrative oversight and a political unwillingness to confront problems when they occur...
...Of course, commercial successes are not achieved overnight...
...Gottemoeller direly warned...
...First things first, however...
...But I also note from her letter that I got her position precisely right...
...how many were at the wrong address and then decide if it warrants another "scandal" title...
...As for the charge that my criticism of no-knock raids sounds "almost Clintonlike"—there is a simple distinction here...
...Unfortunately, many of the intrusive laws now on the books transform lawmen into public nuisances...
...I told Mr...
...Why should police routinely receive early retirement—after 20 years of work...
...We in Bakersfield are grateful that Mr...
...ROSE GOTTEMOELLER Assistant Secretary for Nonproliferation and National Security Department of Energy Washington, D.C...
...I believe that tuna-fish assaults are on the rise in this country, and account for many (unreported) injuries...
...And if Wisher believes that "no one could have done anything else that would have made much of a difference" — then why bother having police departments...
...this was a couple of punks who wanted to raise hell on their way out of their earthly domain...
...Columbine High was a nightmare come to life...
...SWAT is most effective when they can control the environment...
...This was not Bader-Meinhof or a Mideast terrorist clique...
...Amanda Flint, was on deployment with a NATO unit in Zagreb from her base in Germany...
...It is truly a waste of time and newsprint to continue running these letters in an effort to appear to be fair to opposing viewpoints...
...The SRT team threw in a flashbang grenade...
...If so, what does that again say for the man that would be president...
...JEREMY ADAMS Tokyo, Japan 74 October 1999 • The American Spectator...
...JOSEPH P. FAHEY via the Internet Stay in Touch While I appreciate The American Spectator's effort to highlight the very real proliferation dangers arising from the dissolution of the old Soviet Union, the feature article by Kenneth Timmerman in your July issue ("Russo-American Nuclear Cities") adds more confusion than clarity...
...Throughout the nineties, Washington has used the $14 billion Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to prod states into fashioning standards and assessments...
...It was on that lovely island in the little village of Sucaraj that we encountered "Tony's Bistro...
...Bovard's almost Clinton-like remarks such as "No-knock raids at the wrong addresses have become a national scandal...
...The U.S...
...On the contrary, from what my sources tell me, her advice was that the administration should not apply sanctions to NIKIET because of the potential danger to the Chernobyl reactors...
...However, he fails to note the report's conclusion, which states that "DOE's effort to supplement the salaries of former weapons scientists so that they do not sell their services to terrorists, criminal organizations, or countries of proliferation concern is laudable and, we believe, in our nationalsecurity interest...
...But if we are going to advocate some form of censorship, we abandon our right to criticize "political correctness" and the growth of the Nanny State...
...Kenneth R. Timmerman replies: I'm sorry Ms...
...At no time did I attempt to shield NIKIET from sanctions...
...God Bless Colonel Denman and the USMA Class of 1944, and thank you for reminding us of their sacrifices to keep us free and safe...
...DET...
...I would hope for better from your magazine and its contributing writers in the future...
...The Big Bang Theory This is a response to James Bovard's recent article concerning SWAT teams and Columbine High ("They Couldn't SWAT a Fly," TAS, August 1999...
...Had lunch there before taking the car ferry back to the mainland, and we all agreed that Tony's hamburgers were top of the line...
...Would it have made no difference if they knocked out the killers early...
...With the help of a local travel agency in Zagreb, the three of us embarked on a week along the Adriatic coast...
...JOHN HAYNES Bakersfield, California Tony Awards I read "Al Gore's Hit Man" by John H. Fund in your August issue...
...I advised clearly and consistently that we sanction NIKIET with our eyes open...
...Neal: the World Championships in October, possibly followed by the z000 Olympic Games...
...An unheard-of comeback at this level of competition...
...First, Mr...
...RICHARD CHILES Yuma, Arizona Name That Tuna As a subscriber I have always enjoyed TAS, and been pleasantly amused by its various observations and animadversions...
...Within twenty-four hours, the agency managed to obtain for us round trip airline tickets, a rental car, and hotel accommodations...
...The point I registered was that we must recognize the impact on our nuclear safety work in Russia and Ukraine once NIKIET comes under U.S...
...In Mr...
...In fact, Mr...
...z. A three-day waiting period before an entire tuna may be taken home (maybe shorter, for fillets...
...I would like to see the figures on how many warrant services were done in the U.S...
...I'm not an expert, but I am a ten-year veteran of a police department who has friends and co-workers on our SRT team...
...If we do it is often a choice made not because we are the police but because we are humans trying to save lives...
...Since Mr...
...Police are notoriously ignorant of firearms, often treating them in a cavalier fashion...
...The same force Bovard claims not enough was used...
...We will continue to emphasize long-term commercialization and we already see our efforts bearing fruit...
...The scenery is magnificent and everyone we met was friendly and almost without exception spoke English...
...I laid out in my article the facts 10 October /999 The American Spectator that led me to conclude that the programs administered by Ms...
...They acquire floor plans of the buildings down to which way the doors swing in hopes to gain entry quickly and overwhelmingly so to shock the suspects into submission...
...I have seen our team at work...
...We expect that nineteen IPP projects for which industry is a partner will be commercialized by 2001...
...Gottemoeller's objections, that froze the flow of U.S...
...Lastly, I am frankly disappointed in Mr...
...To sue the police for using force...
...Either we are for free speech (not just on college campuses) or we are not...
...Bovard is quite correct to highlight the incompetent bungling of police officials at the Columbine High School debacle...
...Second, the police exist only to investigate and preserve evidence for the prosecutor...
...The focus of the piece was Neal v. California State University, Bakersfield...
...KIRK S. FREEMAN Lafayette, Indiana James Bovard replies: Detective Wisher states that "our job is to...take the reports, keep the records...
...sanctions...
...Bovard seems to argue that the SWAT teams at Columbine should have gone in with guns blazing to stop Klebold and Harris...
...This is one issue that can greatly distinguish the left from the right...
...Yet, Mr...
...What about the police who shot at the perpetrators and missed...
...They are not responsible for your safety(here you should be thankful) as numerous courts have held...
...I went to my then congressman at the time, Tony Coelho, who did try and assist me by writing letters and making phone calls...
...Detective Wisher is offended at the mention of possible lawsuits over friendly fire casualties and complains that Colorado police would be sued for using "the same force Bovard claims not enough was used...
...A strong measure of commercial viability is industry interest and willingness to invest...
...meanwhile, I invite TAS to join this epic struggle...
...I am convinced the use of SWAT teams has saved lives and prevented injuries far, far more often than caused any...
...SWAT teams try to balance force with force in an environment where if they make a mistake they can be killed, have an innocent killed, or end up in a civil lawsuit defending their actions with the potential loss of millions and even perhaps their freedom...
...Bovard complains about this...
...We believe that these initiatives are central to our broader security and nonproliferation interests...
...As if one set of parents would say, "Save my child even if you have to shoot another by accident...
...If there was any doubt about my role, then Mr...
...has a strong national security interest to make sure that Russian scientists do not sell their knowledge to U.S...
...Then, at this July's competition in Winnipeg, Mr...
...Granted, the states' academic standards vary from mushy to meaty, but at least many states now have tests coming on-line, at no small expense to taxpayers...
...Clinton is a champion of arbitrary gov72 October 199 9 The American Spectator ernment power in almost any form...
...This leads to debacles such as Columbine where "recon by fire" and gross timidity was demonstrated at a national level...
...Better yet, let me take over the subscription of one of those kick-me-I'm-a-loser conservatives who seem to have an unlimited supply of TAS subscriptions available to cancel whenever their teeth hurt or it rains, and always seem far more interested in judging their friends than in effectively opposing our adversaries...
...DONNA CROWDER Merced, California About the Coelho article: I would never have known the background of this infamous fellow without this timely article...
...Actually, I was not advocating that police randomly shoot students...
...Bovard would be well served to contain his opinions to things he is either an expert on or at least had some experience in...
...I suggest the following: 1. An instantaneous computer search, at the supermarket, before any shopper may handle a tuna...
...Neal completed his senior year of eligibility as he did his junior year: undefeated and untied...
...NIKIET is the only source of certain technical information about the so-called Chernobyl-style reactors...
...Her glimpse of a country rarely visited by those of us in the USA brought back fond memories of my trip there in September 1998...
...As you suggest, more lucid minds would look at disparate SAT results and correct the root problem—weak public schools that haven't prepared applicants for the rigors of college...
...There are many lawmen who would prefer to stick to deterring violence by private citizens against other citizens...
...The next stop for Mr...
...For IPP projects alone, I would like to stress that industry has invested $64 million, compared to $38 million invested by DOE...
...But the havoc goes even deeper—or lower...
...We flew to the city of Split and then drove up the coast to the fabled walled city of Dubrovnik...
...But now comes the OCR with hatchet out for those tests that fail to produce neatly egalitarian outcomes...
...I am also familiar with their tactics, their reasons, their capabilities as I am also familiar with the tactics, motivations, and capabilities of the bad guys we pursue...
...But perhaps that is asking too much—or perhaps the armed police on the scene were too mentally exhausted from all the records they had been keeping to distinguish between victims and perpetrators...
...In his four-year career at CSUB, Mr...
...Gottemoeller ever "advised clearly and consistently that we sanction NIKIET with our eyes open," as she states in her letter...
...At the same time, police brass often regard those who study weapons with great alarm ("cowboys" or Rambos...
...In its current proposal before Congress to re-up the ineffective ESEA for another five years, the administration talks bravely about ratcheting up accountability for results...
...Even in industrial countries, commercialization of science and engineering is a high-risk undertaking, and projects typically take five to seven years to bring them from the lab to the market...
...Witnesses said it was very probably the best heavyweight match in history...
...My sources tell me that a top adviser to President Yeltsin phoned National Security Adviser Sandy Berger on August 5, anxiously entreating him for some 3o minutes to lift the sanctions on NIKIET...
...Timmerman criticizes Department of Energy (DOE) programs to employ former Soviet weapons scientists—specifically the Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP) and the Nuclear Cities Initiative (NCI) — as wasteful and dangerous...
...I quoted sources who sat in meetings with her as saying that "she claimed [NIKIET was] the only Russian enterprise that had mastered the technology needed to maintain the containment of the Chernobyl reactors, and had to be protected, whatever the cost...
...The issue is how much power law enforcement needs to protect the peace...
...If TAS does not cease the above-described practice, I will be forced to renew my subscription...
...I sent Mr...
...There is an element out there completely fearless and devoid of respect for human life, including their own...
...Education Department's Office for Civil Rights imperils higher education's academic integrity by attacking the SAT on "disparate impact" grounds...
...This administration has consistently refused to apply meaningful sanctions on Russian entities or the Russian government despite overwhelming evidence of their involvement in the missile and nuclear weapons programs of both Iran and Iraq...
...Neal made two early mistakes that caused him to finish the first period down six points to one...
...Timmerman questions the commercial viability of IPP and NCI projects, characterizing them as little more than "temporary employment" for former weapons scientists...
...Had I used Bovard's "street smarts" method and tried to serve the warrant myself I would have been met with a blast from a shotgun...
...Timmerman could have contacted me directly...
...These individuals would as (Continued on page 72) Correspondence (Continued from page HI soon kill you as look at you...
...In the end, the administration did impose modest sanctions on NIKIET last January 12, overruling Ms...
...Neal cruised through the preliminary rounds on a collision course with the defending world heavyweight champion, a Cuban gentleman with impressive credentials...
...The OCR memo plainly targets not only the SAT but also secondary-school promotion or graduation tests if females or minorities have lower passing rates...
...I preferred that they target the killers...
...the FBI Hostage Rescue Team has been sharply expanded under his watch...
...The OCR endorses alternatives, such as subjectively rated portfolios of student projects, allowing all boys and girls to feel equally good about their work...
...There are two points that Bovard does miss...
...Bovard's defense he is simply ignorant of the reality and probably gained much of his opinion from thevideo of the assault as well as the misguided images about the police from TV and the movies...
...On the broader issue, I certainly agree that the U.S...
...So there...
...sanctions for its cooperation with Iran...
...Neal's suit proved successful long enough at least to permit the unfolding of an extraordinary collegiate athletic career...
...Unfortunately, sham standards will make the SAT ever more forbidding to most high-school students...
...No one could have done anything else that would have made much of a difference...
...On the Road Marina Malenic's article, "West of the War," in the July TAS was especially appreciated by this reader...
...His failure to do so is irresponsible and surprising given his reputation as a fair-minded journalist...
...SWAT teams train and plan on a doctrine of controlling the environment and the actions therein...
...Timmerman's critique borrows heavily from a hard-hitting GAO report...
...The IPP program itself is only five years old...
...I am referring, of course, to your inappropriately light-hearted reference to unregistered tuna fish (The Continuing Crisis, TAS, August 1999...
...Go along to get along" is the way of life...
...One of the reasons SWAT teams exist is that the average police officer is not equipped to handle today's criminals...
...Ultimately, I would like to see mandatory locking styrofoam padding around every tuna, and a microchip of some sort that would prevent any given fish from being handled by anyone other than its legally designated owner...
...This is simply false...
...Oh, and your comments about the GOP and free speech hit home...
...Freeman's final point is an excellent one...
...We have been working intensively to integrate the GAO recommendations into the IPP and NCI programs, including improved project screening procedures, enhanced emphasis on commercialization, and an increase in the percentage of funds directed to former weapons scientists in Russia...
...In the letter I pointed out in reality police officers are not required to die for anyone...
...It is happy news indeed...
...Stein...
...My daughter, 1st Lt...
...This is a dagger at the heart of what the Clinton administration fondly calls "standards-based education...
...It is ludicrous to claim that "Klebold and Harris could not have planned a better attack...
...took off its blinders and realized that the Russian government does not share our vision of a world at peace under the rule of law, and is actively seeking to create challenges to U.S...
...You are fair-warned...
...Instead of levity, we need serious remediation...
...Bovard points out that already attorneys are trying to unseal the autopsies to investigate "possible friendly fire...
...Innovations that would have prevented Columbine (e.g., arming teachers as in Israel) are officially discouraged so that police brass can go to city council meetings and beg for bigger budgets...
...I have since found out that the military has violated my civil rights...
...If you want to be "safe," refuse to be a sheep and fight back...
...DAVID R. REICH Auburn, New York Surplus Value Please extend my subscription...
...Bovard about a warrant I was on several years back...
...Thank you, Ben Stein, for "West Point Recognition" (TAS, August 1999), your wonderfully moving tribute to real heroes and role models...
...In fact, if TAS does not stop this practice immediately, I am going to renew my subscription for two years in advance...
...Competing against the best collegiate heavyweight wrestlers in America, he earned his second consecutive NCAA Division I champiThe American Spectator October 1999 73 onship, with a record of 83-0 over those two years...
...Klebold and Harris could not have planned a better attack...
...3. Complete psychological profiling and thorough FBI search, for all would-be tuna fishermen...
...adversaries...
...It has also vigorously opposed moves by Congress to mandate such sanctions, for fear of "angering" the Russians...
...There are many fine private facilities that can instruct you on defensive weaponcraft...
...Rabkin reported that the cause of action in this case arose when "seven male wrestlers out of 32 were cut from the team to make the overall ['gender' quota] numbers come out right," implying in the process that the complainant, Stephen Neal, was one of the seven "removed from their places to satisfy a feminist quota...
...You cannot expect the police or anyone to save you (regardless of your tax burden...
...They knew the layout, they had the weapons, they had a thousand hostages, and they had the surprise...
...In the second and third periods, he rallied to tie the score at 7-7, then scored a takedown with zo second left in the match to win 8-7...
...It landed between the legs of a suspect sitting on a couch with a shotgun in his lap...
...In discussing the law's impact on college athletic programs, he argued that "they sacrifice the rights of individuals for the sake of reallocating aggregate outcomes among groups" — a synopsis of American jurisprudence over the past thirty years—and outlined the hypocritical stances of the feminist elite, the Justice Depaitment, Bill Clinton, and educrats everywhere...
...Our favorite stop was on the island of Hvar, which indeed reminded my wife of her journey to Italy some years ago...
...We took her advice and now tell all of our friends that Croatia should be on their itinerary...
...In June, he won the right to compete for the United States in the Pan American Games...
...By the time his eyes refocused he was covered by our people...
...But in reality overwhelming force is often the safest way to avoid a shootout...
...Neal, though injured in a legal sense by Title IX implementation, was not himself cut from the CSUB wrestling team, and the evidence follows...
...She had been sending me and my wife glowing reports of that city and urged us to come see it for ourselves...
...Anyone in law enforcement will tell you (if he is not around his supervisors, or has good reason to believe that his supervisors will not be reading a particular magazine) that armed cops, as a group, are more a danger to themselves and innocents than criminals, especially the "SWAT" teams...
...Furthermore, I have found no evidence that Ms...
...these programs need time to mature...
...Her letter uses almost precisely the same terms to describe NIKIET and its importance for the U.S...
...Therefore, safety work on such reactors would necessarily be affected...
...Even that modest step got the Russians' attention...
...ROBERT HOLLAND Senior Fellow The Lexington Institute Arlington, Virginia Go Army...
...If these are primary tasks of law enforcement, then why should a policeman be paid any more than a government clerk...
...Please don't down Tony Coelho...
...Thus, I feel I, too, must issue my own threat...
...It's time the U.S...
...I am a female Army veteran who as a nurse was trained in all coed combat training as a mechanic...
...His has been a record of achievement born of individual determination, conditioning, technique, and yes, the support system that a team environment provides when it is not mangled by Title IX considerations...
...Third, Mr...
...Our job is to keep the peace, take the reports, keep the records, enforce the laws, and do our best to keep you all from harming each other...
...Timmerman cites unnamed sources who suggest that I sought somehow to "spare" the Russian NIKIET organization from U.S...
...and 4. Mandatory registration of all tuna fish in captivity, dead or alive...
...Gottemoeller got miffed because I didn't call her...
...Do you think the vice president is aware of the full extent of his personal and political baggage...
...Unfortunately, police are increasingly dragged into the salvation business by politicians and police supervisors itching for power and photo opportunities...
...JAMES PHILLIPS Folsom, California Wrestling to Winnipeg Jeremy Rabkin cogently reviewed recent developments in Title IX litigation in April's "Gender Benders" (aptly subtitled "Feminists beat up on male wrestlers and other jocks...
...Wrestling in the finals against his would-be nemesis, Mr...
...They did not have "a thousand hostages...
...Bovard a long letter hoping some of the information provided would make him think twice before speaking about things he has no knowledge of...
Vol. 32 • October 1999 • No. 10
