Gasp! Shock! Outrage!

UNABOMBER TED KACZYNSKI publishes an essay in an obscure anarchist journal – and the Washington Post regards this as front-page news?

On July 27 Post writers Dan Eggen and Dominic Gates lamented – in pseudo-neutral newspaper style – Kaczynski's latest literary foray. "Locked behind the walls of a federal maximum security prison in Colorado, Kaczynski has apparently managed to get his controversial views in print again," Eggen and Gates wrote.

(Kaczynski's last manifesto, you will recall, ran about 35,000 words and was published in the Post.)

His new work, titled "Hit Where It Hurts," appears in issue eight of Green Anarchy (www.greenanarchy.org), which was, until now, a little-known Eugene, Ore.-based zine.

Furor over prisoners' writing is old news. Since 1977 more than 40 states have passed laws barring inmates from selling autobiographies or screenplays based on their crimes. "Selling" is the operative word: the laws – inspired by New York serial killer David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz – are designed to keep convicts from profiting from felonious behavior.

The Unabomber thing, by contrast, is all about content. His victims are apparently unhappy that his First Amendment rights haven't been completely revoked. "I'm surprised that he's able to write these things," Charles Epstein, a San Francisco geneticist who lost fingers to one of Kaczynski's bombs, said in the Post piece. "To the extent that his message potentially influences malleable people, it's a concern."

For all the fear that Kaczynski – stats: 3 killed, 17 wounded – might warp us "malleables" with dangerous ideas, his new offering is a pretty dull read. He doesn't include a hit list of earth-destroying villains. There aren't any recipes for homemade incendiary devices. All he does is urge anarcho-revolutionaries to strive for the "elimination of the techno-industrial system" by targeting biotech businesses.

And Kaczynski even prefaces this fiery talk with a – probably disingenuous – disclaimer, insisting he's "not recommending illegal activity of any kind."

Don't be surprised if officials at the federal prison where Kaczynski spends 23 hours a day in solitary confinement react to the Post story by barring the Unabomber from communicating with anyone – the same way John Ashcroft's secret police are disappearing suspected Islamic terrorists. (A.C. Thompson)

Throw millions from the train

The president's war on terrorism doesn't seem to be getting in the way of the administration's other war – the war on Amtrak. Funny, that.

Two weeks ago, the Bush administration declined to give Amtrak a $205 million emergency appropriation, opting instead to give the nation's rail system a loan of $170 million. The policy of Bush and his lame transportation secretary Norman Mineta seems clear: cater to the private airlines' every whim and allow Amtrak to wither to the bone – even when that puts the lives of American commuters at risk. No less conservative a source than the New York Post published an outrageous story today that highlights the administration's deceptive and inadequate domestic response to the war on terrorism.

Cash-strapped Amtrak has now sunk to calling on ordinary rail workers to patrol the rail bridges and tunnels that lead commuters into and out of New York City. More unbelievably, Amtrak has funds to provide only three police officers to patrol all of Penn Station – not the safest place to begin with, given its marauding winos and at-loose psychopaths. The Post reported that one Amtrak passenger was repeatedly rebuffed when he tried to obtain a supposedly required yellow security sticker for his luggage, because the train service did not have the money to buy them.

Clearly, the nation's rail system is in need of immediate assistance if it is to remain safe. But Bush is blinded by ideology. The president's handling of Amtrak reflects his knee-jerk bias in favor of corporations over federalized entities – which has led him to avoid bringing the entire American public into the fight against terrorism. Since Sept. 11, the Bush administration could have created a structure wherein ordinary Americans help patrol rail networks, airports, and power plants – but it hasn't.

Compare that with the administration's recently unveiled Terrorism Information and Prevention System program. I'm not yet ready to buy into the TIPS program (like many, I have civil-liberties concerns), but there seems to be a serious disconnect at work here. Amtrak is leaving the security of vital bridges and tunnels to rail workers. Meanwhile, until TIPS or something like it is implemented, workers and citizens who witness out-of-the-ordinary things have nowhere to turn. David Grann of the New Republic recently wrote of the difficulty experienced by a truck driver transporting nuclear material who wanted to report a suspicious man who had been following his vehicle. And I have heard several similar accounts of citizens who tried to report suspicious individuals to police and the FBI around sensitive local sites – all of whom have been, more or less, blown off.

Other than the ongoing military action, of course, and meager public-relations efforts, the administration still seems unable to come to grips with the demands of security. Hopefully, it won't take another attack to prompt the government to get serious where terror is concerned. (Seth Gitell)

Seth Gitell's piece first appeared in the Boston Phoenix.