Noam needs a fact checker

Human Rights Watch says Chomsky's wrong, plus responses to E.O. Wilson.

Jan 22, 2002 | Read "The Salon Interview: Noam Chomsky" by Suzy Hansen.

Noam Chomsky states in a Jan. 16 interview with Suzy Hansen, "That one bombing [of the al-Shifa plant in Sudan], according to the estimates made by the German Embassy in Sudan and Human Rights Watch, probably led to tens of thousands of deaths."

In fact, Human Rights Watch has conducted no research into civilian deaths as the result of U.S. bombing in Sudan and would not make such an assessment without a careful and thorough research mission on the ground.

We have conducted research missions and issued such estimates for Iraq and Yugoslavia, after U.S. bombing campaigns there. In our experience, trenchant and effective criticism of U.S. military action requires factual investigation.

-- Carroll Bogert, Communications Director, Human Rights Watch

In your interview with Noam Chomsky, he said that "nobody believes" Sept. 11 was an "armed attack" in the legal sense of the term. You inserted an editor's note pointing out that "after the attacks, NATO allies invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states, 'An armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.'"

But you're not telling the whole story. In recent years, Washington has made repeated efforts to persuade the NATO alliance to include terrorism in its official definition of Article 5 armed attacks. The allies have always refused. International law usually makes a distinction between acts of terrorism and "armed attacks." A 1999 NATO communiqué specifically distinguished between Article 5 armed attacks and "other risks of a wider nature, including acts of terrorism"-- so-called "Article 24" issues.

Then came Sept. 11. Washington quickly drafted a resolution invoking Article 5 to respond to a terrorist attack -- even though NATO officially does not count terrorism as an Article 5 issue. In the emotionally charged atmosphere, the allies had little choice but to support the U.S. But immediately after the vote, they made clear their objections. Several allied countries wanted assurances that the interpretation of Article 5 would be clarified in the future.

"Article 24 was slipped into Article 5," a NATO official complained to the Financial Times on Sept. 19. "The legal experts should have been consulted. But the allies knew such consultations would drag on for days. It was a fait accompli. There was no time for legal niceties." An alliance diplomat added that "political solidarity with the U.S. took precedence over legality. The Europeans could not be seen to be wavering."

Finally, another diplomat made a point very similar to Chomsky's view on combating terrorism: "We believed then, as now, that NATO's role was not about combating terrorism. This should be left up to democratic and civil institutions, involving the police, the judicial authorities and all diplomatic and political instruments."

Instead of using an editor's note to contradict him, maybe you should have brought up the NATO vote in the interview and let Chomsky respond for himself.

-- Seth Ackerman, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, New York

When I saw Chomsky's (oddly rendered) face on your splash story, I was pretty stoked -- I've agreed with a good bit of what he's had to say about global politics.

Unfortunately, not only was Chomsky apparently nursing a massive hangover and fairly ornery, you seem to have chosen an interviewer with almost no knowledge of Chomsky's work or his way of seeing political events -- except perhaps for what she reads in the popular media.

You simply cannot attempt to interview a lifelong political science academic (that's what he is, and his derogatory use of the word is aimed at those who, unlike him, regard academia as a place removed from the turmoil of the real world) without at least a passing familiarity with political theory. For example, your interviewer kept confusing states and nations -- and Chomsky noticed, and clammed up. Suddenly the discussion is not about reasonable responses but popular perceptions -- wonderful. Clearly someone needs to skim through Hannah Arendt.

You can't couch pointed questions in the simplistic, propagandistic terms Chomsky's been fighting his entire life and expect a relevant answer. The interviewer's knowledge of Chomsky's response to Sept. 11 apparently was limited to the news section of the Washington Post.

This is not Tim Robbins you're talking to; Chomsky and some of his colleagues, like Edward Herman, have thought about this stuff -- and the solutions they've come up with, for some reason, drive mainstream media types crazy. Why do you ignore the implications of what he's saying and revert over and over to "we've heard a lot about" and "some people are saying?" Are you afraid (writing for Salon!) of being labeled a commie? Chomsky himself indicts the popular press for ignoring the subtexts of terrorism and focusing on trivialities. That's exactly what you've managed to do here.

Come on, Salon, I've come to expect better. You have done zero justice to a very provocative progressive of uncommon honesty. I read Salon and buy my family subscriptions because I want to get beneath the usual media drivel and talk about substance. You've disappointed me.

-- Ryan Goudelocke

Thank you for publishing this! After months of tolerating Salon's parochial coverage of American foreign policy and the Middle East, it is a pleasure to read something that unabashedly -- and with no apologies -- states the obvious truth about the arrogance and hypocrisy of U.S. foreign policy.

Chomsky dares to believe that the peoples of the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America actually have lives and viewpoints that are of equal value to those of U.S. citizens.

This is such a revolutionary concept for American society -- liberals and conservatives alike -- that Chomsky is naturally treated with contempt in his own country.

It is not for nothing that he is so deeply appreciated wherever he goes in the countries of the south (the "developing" world). His appearances are always sold out within hours or days. After all, they know who respects them and who does not.

-- Sandra Necchi

Did you ever see the film "Zardoz?" Whenever I read Chomsky I feel like one of the "Eternals" living inside those plastic bubbles, while the "Exterminators" do their work outside.

-- Oliver Franks

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