Posted on 12/21/2002 10:03:05 AM PST by Doctor Raoul
Sen. Murray blistered over bin Laden remark
By Katherine Pfleger and Alex Fryer
Seattle Times Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — In a lunchtime discussion this week, Sen. Patty Murray told a group of high-school students to think about how Osama bin Laden's generosity to the poor may have helped him win support around the world.
Maybe, the Washington Democrat said, the United States should consider following his lead.
The statements sparked criticism yesterday from Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Spokane, and Washington state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance, who called Murray's statements everything from ignorant to despicable.
The reaction made Murray the subject of local talk-radio discussions and landed her at the top of the Drudge Report, an Internet gossip and news column that gained notoriety during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.
And even some of the 40 or so world-history students at Columbia River High School in Vancouver, Wash., found the statements a little off, according to the principal.
At the end of a wide-ranging, 45-minute discussion, Murray, who is up for re-election in 2004, left the students with final thoughts on Wednesday:
"We've got to ask, 'Why is this man (Osama bin Laden) so popular around the world?' " Murray said, according to The Columbian newspaper. "Why are people so supportive of him in many countries ... that are riddled with poverty?
"He's been out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day-care facilities, building health-care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful. We haven't done that.
"How would they look at us today if we had been there helping them with some of that rather than just being the people who are going to bomb in Iraq and go to Afghanistan?"
The questions were meant to be thought-provoking, aides to Murray said. Vance characterized them as "way beyond a simple gaffe."
"It is absolutely outrageous and despicable to imply that the American government should learn a lesson from the madman who murdered thousands of American citizens," he said.
Nethercutt — a potential candidate for the Senate — disputed claims that bin Laden has been involved in humanitarian work.
"It borders on negligence. It borders on misinformation. It borders on a lack of sensitivity of the state of the world that surprises me of a United States senator," said Nethercutt, who sits on the House defense spending panel. "I have never had any briefings that suggest that Osama bin Laden is any kind of humanitarian. It smacks of ignorance in saying something like that or suggesting it for intellectual exercise."
Yesterday, Murray called her statements "off-the-cuff remarks," generalizations about how bin Laden has used his money to win support in Third World countries.
In an interview, Murray said her words weren't meant to be a major policy statement or a speech from the Senate floor, but rather a discussion about "an evil man."
"What is important is that we have to have thoughtful debates and discussions in this country and raise questions and answer them without being pulled into some right-wing media frenzy," Murray said. "That is truly frightening to me.
"While we continue to search every corner of the globe to destroy Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network, should we also consider the longer-term issue of what else can be done to improve relations with all nations including the Arab world?" Murray asked in a statement released yesterday. "How else can we bring America's values to those who do not understand us?"
Murray's aides note that the State Department Web site says bin Laden built roads, tunnels, hospitals and storage depots in Afghanistan. The site also says the infrastructure was used to help fight the Soviet Union.
The Washington state GOP was quick to point out that the United States provides billions of dollars in humanitarian aid worldwide.
In February 2001 — seven months before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon — the U.S. Agency for International Development announced an emergency airlift of supplies into Pakistan and Afghanistan.
At the time, the agency noted the U.S. was the largest single donor of assistance to Afghanistan, contributing about $115 million that year to improve health, water, sanitation and nutrition.
Daniel Benjamin, a former staff member of the National Security Council, said radical Islamic groups have used social-welfare policies to improve their popularity.
"But I don't believe that's the reason why (bin Laden) is popular in the Arab world," Benjamin said, adding that bin Laden's primary appeal in the Middle East was instead his virulent anti-Americanism.
Benjamin, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., said al-Qaida had done limited social-service work in Afghanistan, though he was not aware of any specific project.
Other groups linked to terrorism, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, he said, are much more active in supporting schools and providing financial assistance to families.
Benjamin, who read about Murray's comments yesterday on the Drudge Report, was reluctant to answer questions about them. "It just looks like a story that is going to be demagogued a bit," he said.
Although high-school Principal Mike Stromme was delighted Murray visited his school, he said her comments almost guaranteed some sort of political fallout. "In this climate, it doesn't surprise me that someone would clamp on this."
He said some of the students questioned Murray's analysis. "Some thought her partisanship may have shown through there. These kids are pretty savvy."
Hey Patty, there's your next hero!
You mean they saw her without clothes, when the media saw the fabulous trappings of lefitist gilded cloth?
Ms Murry is apparently unaware of the dismal plight of women in the countries Bin Laden "improved". Day care facilities!!!! In a country where women weren't permitted to work, even if they were widowed! Women weren't even allowed out of their houses, how can that woman be so ignorant and so, dare I say it, INSENSITIVE to women's issues.
I thought Patty "nutcase" Murray said Osama was?
Call Senator Nickles, she should at least be censured(sp)
Way to go kids! The students are obviously smarter than their guest!
Oh, now he's an evil man. I must have missed that part. From what I could see about her remarks, he sounds like a real life Santa Claus. Too bad he's not Catholic. They could have considered making a Saint out of him--right up there with Mother Theresa.
Yikes, I hope nobody went blind.
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