Penn's flack howled in protest, claiming her boss was the victim of terrorist misquotes. "Oh, please! I don't know where those statements are being fabricated from," said spokeswoman Mara Buxbaum. "This is specifically propaganda. It's a twisted interpretation of what he said. They are twisting his words." According to Buxbaum, Penn never even spoke with the Iraq Daily. [New York Post, 12/18/02]
Also, detailed plans are available at a few of the architects' sites:
What a relief that seven of the nine proposals call for towers taller than the original WTC! Just the fact that they were proposed makes me feel like we're not living in a nation of cowards and compromisers without vision or ambition.
James Gardner comments on the World Trade Center proposals, in today's New York Sun:
What is so striking about most of these projects is that, beyond their individual infelicities of style, incommodities of structure, and illogicalities of thesis, they partake in almost equal measure of the two besetting sins of architecture in our time: indifference to beauty and an excessive attachment to meaning....The newest generation, however, creates a single form, or at best a sequence of forms, that has been twisted, facetted, knotted and distressed in slavish obedience to the Deconstructivist style that, for the moment at least, dominates "quality" architectural discourse....[C]ould it be that architecture that departs radically from symmetry and a circumscribed number of basic forms--most atrociously the hulking clusters of towers put forward yesterday by SOM and United Architects--is simply and irredeemably obnoxious to the human eye...?
One is reminded of adolescents trying to express their individuality, whether through Afros, Quiana shirts, or piercings, in such a way that, absurdly, they all end up looking the same....The team led by Richard Meier claimed that its five joined towers were supposed to suggest clasped hands, which would be goofy enough. What they really resembled were five Gumbys in a chorus line. Buildings should not look like Gumby.
Just about the only firm that managed not to follow fashion slavishly was Peterson/Littenberg. And while there was something almost consoling about the rectilinearity of their plan, the two lofty towers at its center seem poorly conceived....Probably the best project is the first of three submitted by Think, led by Raphael Viñoly. It appears to be the most coherent and the least irritating, even though it feels completely contemporary.
Secretary of State Colin Powell is assuring the Arab world the Bush administration's demand for regime change in Iraq aims at disarmament, not ousting President Saddam Hussein. "If he cooperates, then the basis of changed-regime policy has shifted because his regime has, in fact, changed its policy to one of cooperation," Powell said...
Powell said the policy of regime change in Baghdad was inherited from the Clinton administration by the Bush administration. [Associated Press, 12/16/02]
In other words: We're not trying to change the regime, and if we are, it's not our fault--it's the Clinton Administration's. And then there's the fantasy that Hussein suddenly becomes legitimate because he knuckles under when threatened by force! The lead editorial in today's New York Sun notes that Powell's interview effectively drops three of the conditions President Bush had set out for Iraq.
The American movie star, Sean Penn has condemned the US-British threats to wage war against Iraq. He told press conference that there is no legitimate justification for the brutal campaign against an authentic state like Iraq. He confirmed that Iraq is completely clear of weapons of mass destruction and the United Nations must adopt a positive stance towards Iraq. He also condemned the US misleading claims arguing that it is the US and not Iraq who is practicing such illegal behavior.
Mr. Penn went on saying that he would convey to the public opinion in US the real situation that the Americans should force the US administration to stop such aggressive campaign. Finally, Mr. Penn passed a written communiqué in which he declared that his visit to Iraq is to evaluate the humanitarian situation of Iraqis and to reject the crippling sanctions on Iraq since 1991.
By the invitation of the Institute for Public Accuracy, I have the privileged opportunity to pursue a deeper understanding of this frightening conflict," Penn said in a statement released in Washington and Baghdad on Friday. "I would hope that all Americans will embrace information available to them outside conventional channels. As a father, an actor, a filmmaker, and a patriot, my visit to Iraq is for me a natural extension of my obligation (at least attempt) to find my own voice on matters of conscience.Penn's visit to Iraq has been organized by the Institute for Public Accuracy, "a national U.S. organization of policy analysts with offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C." The founder, Norman Solomon, endorsed--and indeed participated in--the visit of three Democratic Congressmen to Iraq earlier this Fall. In an article he wrote for the Baltimore Sun, Solomon quoted his fellow traveler Congressmen David Bonior: "It seems to me that if we are going to deal with this in a real and honest way, we have got to create dialogue.""Dialogue" is what Neville Chamberlain offered to Hitler. It is a euphemism for appeasement, which is a euphemism for capitulation. There is nothing to gain from dialogue with a totalitarian dictator. Such an act is, to use Ayn Rand's phrase, "the sanction of the victim." It is acts of appeasement like this that make the Saddam Husseins of the world possible. Otherwise, Saddam would be a street thug.Now a note on Sean Penn: what a moron. Regardless of whether he thinks there should be "dialogue," why does he think that he, a movie actor, is the one to do it? He will be nothing more than a stooge for the Iraqi regime, another photoshoot opportunity for Saddam to shove in the faces of the terrorized, and terrified, Iraqi people. Penn will surely smile and shake hands and tell the whole world how nice the country of Iraq is, and how Saddam cares about his people.Having the excellent fortune of living in America, like Mr. Penn, I do not know how demoralizing such a story of his visit would be to victims of Iraqi totalitarianism. Maybe they are cynical enough not to believe anything from their government. Or maybe, on some level, it crushes, even more, their hope for justice in the world--which they have never once seen. Mr. Penn should have thought about that.