The latest so-called scandal coming out of Washington might better be called "Feinstein's Fallacy." The California Senator is apparently taking a parting shot at George Bush and Dick Cheney before she becomes part of the minority party in the U.S. Senate.
I don't recall her, or any other Washington politician for that matter, complaining about the ill treatment accorded 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. I still recall the big hug Bush received from Tom Daschle during the brief period of unity that existed while we mourned our 3,000 dead.
That unity didn't last long, and now, 13 years later, Feinstein and her ilk are aghast at the horrible things we did to gain information in order to prevent another attack on our homeland. The oft repeated phrase "we're better than that" is enough to make one gag.
I salute Cheney for saying he'd do the same thing again, and I have no doubt most Americans are glad he would. Feinstein must be more than a little shocked at the pushback she's getting from the CIA and others who took note of Stephen Decatur's my country right or wrong view and had no compunction about doing what had to be done in order to gain information from those who seek to destroy us.
To those of us who remember or even care about that horrible day, certain images are burned into our brain.
The falling man is one image that will stay with me forever. I can't imagine the horror he must have felt before smashing into the sidewalk far below.
Added to this tragedy is the fact that, to this day, no one has identified him.
There's another death on that day that all Carroll countians need to know about. Karen Seymour was one of our own.
Seymour attended South Carroll High and played basketball on the 1978 championship team coached by Ruth Lampert. With time running out in the final game, she hit a 25-footer that brought South Carroll the title. The team photo shows a smiling young woman just beginning her life, a life that came to an end in one of the twin towers on September 11, 2001.
I don't know what measures were taken to get Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to give information, nor do I care. When I think of 9/11 I think only of a falling man and a smiling young woman who suffered a death she did not deserve.
Don Haines
Woodbine
