(Thinkstock)

WikiLeaks has been put on the map for exposing military secrets, specifically involving the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now the site is at it again. WikiLeaks, a non-profit organization founded by human rights campaigners, journalists and the general public, is about to expose an estimated 400,000 documents on the war in Iraq that are not on public record.

What does WikiLeaks have this time?

The information is expected to be more than four times the size of the highly controversial documents released in July. That month there was widespread fear that the documents released would not only expose secret military ops and details, but also endanger the lives of hundreds of people. There was fear that released names of Afghans who helped Americans could result in their deaths.

There were more than 70,000 documents released in July, but Robert Gates, U.S. Defense Secretary, has stated that the documents did not actually reveal any sensitive information, such as intelligence sources or any used methods. However, he followed that up by stating that releasing any names of Afghans who has helped NATO could cause “significant harm or damage to national security interests of the United States.”

The Pentagon’s reaction

A team of more than 120 people are ready to go over the documents in detail and take any precautions necessary to protect anyone who may be harmed by this release. WikiLeaks, however, stated it made sure there were no names released in the last disclosure of documents that could harm anyone’s well-being. The 400,000-plus new documents are going to be released by the New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegal, the same organizations that released the Afghanistan “War Logs.”

No payday loan could not be large enough to stop this release. The real question is, when will all the documents be published, and what will happen next?

Sources

LA Times

Reuters

Soon, there will be a mosque at Ground Zero in New York City. (Photo: Picasa)

Since the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement first announced they wanted to finance a mosque at 9/11 Ground Zero, the outpouring of emotion from the people of New York City and beyond has been tremendous. While some view building an Islamic mosque on the site of a national tragedy as a needed gesture of religious tolerance, others believe that doing so is an affront to those who died at the hands of orthodox Islamic operatives whose holy book advocates killing non-believers. Regardless of the objective truth – if such a thing exists – construction of the mosque at Ground Zero is set to commence, according to Associated Press reports.

Manhattan Community Board 1 says yes to Mosque at Ground Zero

The AP reports that a New York City community board voted 29-to-1 in favor of the Cordoba House mosque at Ground Zero building project. Ten members of the board abstained. While the vote by the Manhattan Community Board 1 wasn’t required for the project to move forward, it is widely viewed as being essential to obtaining the support of New York City residents. Construction should take three to five years and possibly require installment loans, sources indicate. There is a nearby building that may receive landmark status, however. That could delay the project.

‘A seed of peace’

Board member Rob Townley said the motion planted a seed of peace. “We believe that this is a significant step in the Muslim community to counteract the hate and fanaticism in the minority of the community,” he told the Associated Press.

The board meeting was anything but peaceful. Opponents yelled at various speakers, claiming the project was being built over a “Christian cemetery” and that the board should “show respect for 3,000,” referring to those who died there on 9/11. According to various sources, many of the opponents were not opposed to the construction of a mosque in general – just a mosque at Ground Zero.

Establishing an inclusive facility

The founders of the mosque at Ground Zero project told the press they are seeking to build a “vibrant and inclusive world-class facility” that would include a “performing arts center, swimming pool, culinary school, child care facilities and worship space,” according to AP reports. Cordoba House would also provide New York City with 150 full-time and 500 part-time jobs, not to mention a $100 million-plus infrastructure investment for the city, said Cordoba House spokeswoman Daisy Khan.

Not a recruiting ground for terrorists

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, executive director of the Cordoba Initiative, made a point of saying that the group fully condemns the activities of terrorists on 9/11, and that the Cordoba House will strive to ensure that the mosque is not a center of hate. New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told the media that there are no security concerns that would impact the mosque at Ground Zero project.

Sources:

MSNBC

Related Video:

Plans for the Cordoba House - a community center that will include a mosque - at Ground Zero have unleashed a flood of emotion. Image from Flickr.

There are plans to build a mosque at Ground Zero, and emotions are running high on both sides of this plan. The planned Cordoba House will be a 15-story community center that includes a mosque. Funded with payday advances from the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement, the community center was first announced at a Lower Manhattan Community Board meeting this week.

Mosque at Ground Zero a part of a community building

The plans for a mosque at Ground Zero are not for a purely religious building. Instead, the Cordoba House project will include a performance art center, gymnasium, swimming pool and prayer space. The planned space for the community center and mosque at Ground Zero is the former Burlington Coat Factory building, between West Broadway and Park Place.

Detailed plans for mosque at Ground Zero

The Cordoba Initiative estimates that the community center and mosque at Ground Zero will cost about $100 million. The building would be funded by the Initiative, the American Society for Muslim Advancement and donations. The land for the Cordoba House is already owned by the Cordoba Initiative and does not involve any zoning changes. Even though the building does not require approval by the Community Board, the Initiative chose to discuss the plans at the Community Board Meeting voluntarily. The Cordoba House would be open to all and would aim to help promote Muslim-American understanding through offering needed community services.

Rumors about the mosque at Ground Zero

There have been many rumors flying about the possibility of a mosque at Ground Zero. One rumor states that the building is planned to open on Sept. 11, 2011 (the 10-year anniversary of the attacks). However, the Cordoba House will take between three and five years to build after funding is secured. Groundbreaking for the building may happen soon, but no solid plans for a date have been set. The building will be more than a mosque at ground zero; it will offer community services that are lacking in the mostly business oriented area.

Reactions to the mosque at Ground Zero

The reactions to the community center and mosque at Ground Zero have been understandably mixed. Some friends and family of September 11 victims are decrying the plans as “hypocritical and sacrilegious.” Other New Yorkers, already shaky from recent attempted attacks, are calling the plan “dangerous.” At the same time, other friends and family highlight that 10 percent of the victims of the September 11 attacks were American Muslims. Muslim community leaders respond by pointing out that religious extremists do not represent the feelings or actions of most American Muslims and are just that – extremists. So what do you think? Is this community center an insult or an effort at religious tolerance?

Sources:

Cordoba Initiative
CNN.com
Associated Press at http://www.lakewyliepilot.com/2010/05/06/718186/mosque-going-up-in-nyc-building.html

Image from Flikr.com.

The September 11 Education Trust — founded in 2001 as the World Trade Center United Family Group — has spend the past eight years developing September 11 Lesson Plans to teach kids about the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

The group’s web site says “The September 11th Education Trust produces comprehensive, flexible, and engaging 9/11 and civic literacy education programs that are personalized and enriched through first-hand accounts, filmed oral histories, and authentic, primary archival materials to permanently record this shared historic event in a way that is not stagnant, but inspiring and relevant to the nation’s youth.”

Another chapter in the history books

HispanicBusiness.com reports that six states will be adding the September 11 lesson plans to their agenda this year. The curriculum includes video footage and information gleaned from 70 interviews of eyewitnesses, family members of victims and politicians such as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as well as Muslim scholars.

The September 11 Education Trust isn’t funded by military personal loans or defense funds. It’s a non-profit organization funded mostly by donations and directed by victims’ families, survivors, rescue workers and educator.You can donate to the cause and read about September 11 lesson plans at the September 11 Education Trust web site.

September 11 lesson plans

The Associated Press reports that the September 11 lesson plans also include interactive elements, including using Google Earth to map terrorist activity. Rudy Guliani said:

“This is one of the critical subjects on which young people should develop some ideas and thoughts; they’re going to have to live with this for quite some time. It gives young people a framework in which to think about Sept. 11, all that it meant and all that it means to the present.”

Professors helped develop the September 11 lesson plans through the Taft Institute for Government at Queens College. “The real trick is to get kids to see that it’s not just a dramatic event like 9/11 that connects them to these issues, it’s connected to their lives in the everyday,” said Michael A. Krasner, a political scientist at Queens College.

The truth, the whole truth

Anthony Gardner, the executive director of the September 11 Education Trust, said the September 11 lesson plans give an open-eyed view of the events that happened that day in 2001.

“We’re not sugarcoating the event. We’ve included some images that are challenging,” Gardner said.

Gardner’s brother died in the World Trade Center because of the attacks.

Taking advantage of technology

September 11 lesson plans are not limited just to traditional classroom teaching methods. There’s a interactive web site built around the curriculum.

Professors and students are encouraged to share their own videos and lesson plans as well as discuss the questions raised in their classrooms.

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum has also developed educational materials for high schools, which are intended to augment classroom discussions, not to serve as an in-depth curriculum, The Associated Press says.

They died in service of their country, as did those who worked to save lives on 9/11. Why shouldn't that be honored as a national day of service, to remember them? (Photo: flickr.com)

Donald Kent Douglas recently contributed an article to Pajamas Media entitled “A ‘National Day of Service?’ Or a Political Hijacking of 9/11?” To say the least, I find his opinions to be overly cynical and I cannot agree with them. But that’s not all. To think that naming 9/11 a National Day of Service somehow dishonors those who lost their lives on that tragic day is backward.

To openly make the claim that President Obama and the Democrats are attempting to “reclaim” the day from Bush Republicans is not only cynical, but indicative of the kind of irrationality that has made reasonable discourse during the health care town halls largely impossible. People need emergency money for coverage, but the extreme right invokes zombies and death books to scare, rather than engaging in back-and-forth discussion. A National Day of Service is an emergency loan to the whole of America.

Obama signed the bill in April

September 11 is now “an annually recognized National Day of Service and Remembrance,” meant to “encourage and facilitate community service across the country.” Douglas, who believes that we live in a shadow reality where the president is actually a Nazi, sites an American Spectator piece by Matthew Vadum to trump up his cause:

The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry.

In short, Vadum and Douglas believe that rather than honoring those who served and died with service for our own for those in need, Obama is “hijacking our generation’s day of infamy, turning it into a ‘socialist holiday of community service.’”

Proof of this?

It’s a single “White House-sponsored teleconference,” in which “the entire array of America-bashing left-wing special interests” attacked 9/11 as a “day of fear.” But Mr. Douglas and Mr. Vadum, that’s exactly what 9/11 is but should not be. Using  9/11 as a constant call to war against terrorism is fear mongering. Service is honorable; fear is paralysis unless it inspires us to act. Soldiers served their country. Those who gave their lives so that others could be saved on 9/11 did the same. Why shouldn’t we honor them with a National Day of Service? Contrary to previous reports, it isn’t mandatory. People can do as their consciences and skills dictate.

He seeks to honor the memories of those who have died, and serving your fellow man as they did is a perfect memorial. What can a clear-thinking person find wrong with that? (Photo: thewhizzer.blogspot.com)

Vadum questions the motives of the National Day of Service because of who may or may not have been involved in a conference call that may or may not have occurred. I don’t care if Ronald McDonald, Mayor McCheese and Benedict Arnold were in on that meeting… if the outcome is service that reminds us of those who have gone before us, that is noble. If that sound like hijacking to you, I advise you to seek help.

Why not GIVE?

The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act – HR 1388 – officially passes on the torch of responsibility to current generations. At the very least, this answers former President John F. Kennedy’s call for us to “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” Mr. Douglas, to call this “a paramilitary force of volunteer brown shirts” discredits the memory of 9/11 victims in the way you’re accusing Obama of doing. The green community service projects that will come out of GIVE will improve the nation as a whole. Yet you have the gall to say that “undeserved” communities would be served. Considering your seeming obsession with denigrating the “Hip Hop Caucus Advisory Board,” are you trying to show us your racism? If so, you’re succeeding.

The fear mongering is yours

Douglas next references an essay by Columbia history professor Eric Foner. Foner writes, “I’m not sure which is more frightening: the horror that engulfed New York City or the apocalyptic rhetoric emanating daily from the White House.” Then you attempt to confuse readers by invoking the rhetoric of Ward Churchill, who claimed the people in the Twin Towers deserved to die. Last I checked, Ward Churchill does not represent Obama administration policy, nor does it represent popular opinion in any way. A National Day of Service is honorable, a signpost on the way toward a better America. At the very least, it’ll be an outlet to help curb the rampaging obesity rate. All voluntary, of course. Not mandatory. It’s an outlet to do well and be active.

Obama makes reasonable associations, Douglas froths at the mouth

[apply_button float="right"]

So making the World Trade Center Memorial  ”a high-tech, multimedia tutorial about man’s inhumanity to man, from Native American genocide to the lynchings and cross-burnings of the Jim Crow South, from the Third Reich’s Final Solution to the Soviet gulags and beyond” is in some way inaccurate, Mr. Douglas? Was it not intolerance that led to the tragedy? How is that hijacking the somber remembrance of those who died? If anything, those who died join in the stand against intolerance and hate. It is yet another reminder that America needs something like a National Day of Service. Those who died are honored BY acts of service. It’s not a “Republican” or “Democrat” day; it’s a day that honors the best in humanity – the spirit of service. That is a just cause… there is a poetic justice in what GIVE makes possible. It is emergency money to empower those who want to serve but didn’t have the means to do so before.

Serving the greater good

Douglas ends his screed by labeling the National Day of Service “not a noble national service,” but “a cold, calculating national disgrace.” I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t think you understand what it means to be an American. The right to choose to serve others on a National Day of Service (or any other day, for that matter) is a true sign of humanity. Latching on to the baseless complaint that adding noble action to the memorial of the fallen is political grandstanding is not only misguided, but it is bitter to the point of being unpalatable. However, you do have the right to your opinion, being an American. How do you honor the fallen, Mr. Douglas?

Related Video: