Can anything scare a dead man -

A man with a bomb strapped to his chest ?            YES
                    YES !
The danger of helping his enemies & betraying his friends.

Cash is the key. Everyone understands money. Even those themselves indifferent to wealth recoil at the thought of enriching those they hate.
A nd just so can terrorism be beaten. Turn his bloody deeds into bonanzas for the victim's side - and the terrorist is immobilized.
T he prospect of delighting his foes will cower the boldest suicide-bomber.

C heckmate is the goal and the solution is a multibillion dollar fund that can turn terrorists into benefactors of their enemies and traitors to their friends.
A murderous attack on a Catholic by Ulstermen might trigger a $10 million jackpot for the IRA (and vice versa). The bombing of a Tel Aviv bus could reward the settler movement with a $100 million gift. The murder of Muslim worshipers at Abraham's tomb would warrant a similar payment to Hamas. A staggering gift to the NAACP would punish white supremacist bombers of a black church .
The trouble is we assume weapons, to be effective, must kill and destroy. No expense is spared to make them more lethal. But today our most dangerous opponent is immune to our planes, tanks and ships. This new enemy is indifferent to destruction and death. In fact, he is nourished by violence. . . The answer is CAT.

CAT alone can penetrate the skin of Terror. Only CAT can emasculate fanatics. CAT only CAT.
A nd who will release those teeth, those claws?
T he people. The people must uncage this tiger. The people must defeat this scourge.

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          nacl@mail.com

1.    I can see it. CAT flies in on the dynamite of the bastard's own hate. It lets society reply in what is really an extreme way, but it's bloodless and so acceptable.
    It'll work - if the media rubs it in and spotlights the celebrations produced by the awards.
    CAT's Fund amounts to a soaring world financial tower hovering over terrorism - ready to fall on and crush those who surrender to murderous political and religious emotions.
    May God help you erect that tower. 
                            - Louis Santiago, Santa Fe  NM

2.    My sister wants to me to quote her, "CAT is the silliest idea I've come across." Trying to stop one bunch of terrorists by giving another bunch lots of money, she says, is crazy.
But I disagree. Sandra is smart, she went to Dartmouth on a full scholarship. Still, she's wrong about this.
It won't be necessary to make the other sides's terrorists beneficiaries for very long. The lesson will sink in quickly. Anyway, what empowers suicidal fanatics is not money but their convictions and their hate.  Of course an elaborate attack, like on September 11, requires money. But not even trillions could make people sacrifice themselves. The critical element is their credo and their hate.
That's what CAT scratches. A terrorist aware that his self- sacrifice will strengthen his enemies and make them glad (rather than God), will think twice before lighting a fuse.
Finally, the beneficiaries of those jackpots don't really need to be other terrorists. If Orangemen know they'll be helping the Catholic diocese of Belfast, or KKKers know they will be supporting the NAACP, or Hezbullah knows it'll be delighting some kibbutz, that will dampen spirits.
No, this approach can work;it's ingenious, it really will make the terrorists afraid.- Sandra & Ellie, near De Kalb Georgia.

3.    You've got to go and get yourselves tax free status from the government, and then you've got to get yourselves an organization like Amnesty International, or Freedom House, or the Red Cross or the Catholic Church to run the program, and then invest a bit on getting the idea around, maybe with a TV telethon like what Jerry Lewis did for MS. Good luck.                    - Leanora

4.      Too ambitious.  Test the scheme first. Try it on a narrow issue like Salmon Rushdie.  $3 million is presently on his head.  Suppose a fund, run by PEN, announced: we will spend $3 million a year promoting the Satanic Verses the world over.  We will  keep the book in print, have it translated.  We will get Rushdie's work a far larger readership than it would otherwise have, and keep it up, year after year, until the mullahs close down their fatwa. - If that worked you'd have a stepping stone towards bigger things.      - Alexander Brussels, Denver

5.      There's a law against private citizens meddling in foreign policy. Tell your senator to propose your Kitty to the Congress. You would need them to fund it in any case. But don't even think of trying it yourself. And another thing.  I am sorry to have to tell you but the Pentagon and the FBI and CIA wont like CAT. Terrorism is their turf and even if they can't handle it they're not going to let anyone else have it. I worked for the Selective Service and then the Veterans Administration and everybody fights for more and more turf and nobody, nobody gives it up.  Trust me.            - Cynthia Lee Jefferson, D.C.

6.      Sorry, CAT can't handle fanatics? The proof is Gaza & the West Bank. After every bombing the Israelis would close the borders, and Hamas knew they would, and knew that that would keep thousands of their people from their jobs and livelihood.  Yet the "incidents" go  on and Hamas is more popular than ever, and the Palestinians by the thousands chant, we want bombings.                                      - Henry Asher, RI

7.      The idea needs work (not to mention a few bank robberies).  It has to be more concrete and specific. Before you start protecting the whole world try just a single hot-spot: Northern Ireland maybe. A fund with $104 million a year to spend could announce two new $1 million awards every week, one going to a Protestant and one to a Catholic community organization.... every act of violence would cause the attacker's side to forfeit its check to the other side, for a period of time that would depend on the size of the crime.... That's doable.  Garrisoning Northern Ireland is costing Britain more than a billion a year.  There are plenty of worthy neighborhood and charitable organizations in Northern Ireland that could make good use of the money.  And it would definitely give a lad with the idea of getting his licks in for the cause, a reason to think twice. -Vincent Palamino, L.A.

8.    Ha, Ha. It is a joke.  But it is also sad.  The Americans have all the weapons and all the money and all the media. The exploited people have only fertilizer. And even that is not allowed.  You cringe and are afraid of a few sticks of dynamite in bare fists, while you are spending $300 billion every year to become even stronger.  That is being civilized and logical and fair?  Ha, ha.  Your Fund  is a joke, a stupid joke, but in the end you will not laugh. - Cheetah,  New Rochelle

9.      One more Jew scheme to suck up money.  You figure since everyone (with any sense) hates Jews they will end up as the chief beneficiaries of a "who do gutsy people hate most" fund. You guys don't miss a trick. It's disgusting. You suck $$$ even out of blood and death.      - K.M.A.  Israel

10.    The Nobel prize is rewarded on the basis of a secret committee of experts. You too could work so.  A similar plenum of unidentified specialists...  So could all be decided. - Elisabeth Meister, Leinz Austria

11.      With respect to your Rhode Island correspondent, (letter #6):
            a) Even if the policy of border closings hasn't stopped terrorism in Israel it probably discouraged it some.
            b) The pain of causing financial hardships to your own people (for whom Hamas has special compensation funds) can be more easily rationalized than bringing financial bliss to your enemies.
            c) For those looking for martyrdom, an act that helps the infidel may not be the right ticket to heaven.                    -Alexander Kessel, VA

12.      You have the only idea that is good. Perhaps not always, but it will stop several with their crimes.  Some paralysis is better than not at all. And just even for attempts.                    -  Ishmael Nova, Cyprus

13.    You are talking of tying up billions of dollars to ward off a handful of incidents. Forgive me, that is not cost effective. The analogy is with health care.  People campaign for multibillion dollar programs that might save a relative handful suffering from certain rare diseases. They are invariably turned down. Its just not practical. The money can be spent more effectively for the benefit of more people, elsewhere.                          - Hardfact Kelly, Fresco

14.    Understand: 3600 years ago when whites lived in caves on the Dordogne and Hebrews were crude barbarians, Egypt and Iraq (Mesopotamia) invented civilization, and Pharaoh and his army were its defenders.... By calling terrorists primitives who scream and act crazy and aren't civilized and don't think and feel like white folk you are betraying CAT's reactionary, racist, fascist agenda. - Mark S, NYC

15.    It could have worked against Saddam Hussein. Suppose, when he still was in Kuwait, a CAT fund had been in position to say:  until you withdraw your army Israel will get 50 million dollars a week. That sure as hell would have made him less popular in the Arab world. And it might yet be a useful alternative between doing nothing and sending in the Marines.          Robert van Lyden, Miami

16.    You will want tax-free IRS status and a bank account POB. Probably several, in the US and in Europe and Asia. Also an accounting firm like Peat, Marwick and Mitchell, certifying and publishing bimonthly audits. And finally administrators of the caliber of ex-fed chairman Volker. My recommendation would be to give large contributors the option of keeping most of what they pledge in their own coffers until the time it is actually needed. All multinationals, and especially the airline industry should be enthusiastic supporters because CAT would be a kind of insurance for them. Also, the rich Arab countries and multimillionaire Moslems who are always affirming that Islam is against Terrorism would here have a chance to show they mean it. For that matter, all those freebooters who have been the beneficiaries of the US nuclear umbrella and her military would here have a chance to do their part to make the world safer.  - J.L. Irrizary, Detroit

17.  What do you do when you don't know who did it? And what about unjustified payoffs when the wrong people are blamed?  I could see it become one big mess.                                     
Sydney Bloomenthal, Ill.

18.  Don't give killing machines like Hamas or the PLO, or the IRA for that matter, big checks.  They will only use the money to find another way to make themselves strong.  And they might even stage attacks on themselves and sacrifice some of their own, to get the money. No, I will not help.
                            -Sybil Klein, Colorado

20.  How could CAT stop the Unibomber, or Terry Nichols? Then there are all those killing in Algeria. In Corsica as in Latin America it is often  impossible to distinguish between terrorism or plain crime.  In Spain the Basque have called a truce, but how long will that last, and how will CAT then punish them?  Buy the Guard Civil Cadillacs?                                  - Martha Spiegel, Manhattan

21.    Kelly (letter #13) makes an analogy with medicine.  But epidemiologists will tell you they go all out to nip  a new disease in the bud the moment it is discovered. Even against a new worm infestation of Norwegian maples  no expense is spared.  Because, if it is allowed to spread it is sure to become a bigger and far costlier problem, or get completely out of hand.... We are dealing with what Secretary Albright has called "the war of the future". But if a way can be found to stop that war dead in its tracks now, it will be a godsend and cheap, regardless of how expensive it now seems. If not put out of business now those bomb rigged pick-ups will turn into semis rolling over bridges and into tunnels and onto the nuclear highway.        - An Old Veteran, Key Largo

22.    Alexander Brussels' idea (letter #4) is a good one because it contains a built in way for raising the necessary cash. It would simply require bookstores to ask every book purchaser whether he/she wanted to contribute  25 cents, matched by the store, to the Salmon Rushdie fund. Nobody would say no.  It would be good for business. People would appreciate a chance to fight back. And with more than 100 million books sold a year, an ample fund would soon come into being.          - Vincent Reilley, Riverdale

23.    I think Mark S' charges (letter #14) are unjustified. Defining terrorism as primitive and atavistic and the enemy of civilization is accurate, not racist. One of the purest expressions of terrorism was Nazism. Nazism consciously gave primacy to the blood and the instincts, over the head and the conscience. "When I hear the word civilization", said Goering, "I reach for my revolver". Hitler was a terrorist whose truck-bomb was the Wehrmacht. Everything was emotional and personal with him, including public orations and diplomatic negotiations. (He would rant and shout during military conferences. It was said, he would "chew the rug") He was driven by hate. He is recognizable not in what he was for, but in what he was against: the Jews, none-Aryans, the Bolsheviks, plutocracy, modern art, the traitors and back-stabbers of Versailles, all the people who conspired to deprive Germany of her place in the sun. Hitler exuded to an intense and  infectious degree terrorism's primal rage. (To this day he is attractive to those with a strong need to hate.)  He was awash in self-pity. For what had been done to him his he demanded vengeance. His territorial demands were insatiable because they were the demands of his personal rage. Terrorists do not stay appeased. He was less in the service of his Volk than of his Hate. Germany was less his cause then the instrument wherewith to satisfy his hate. In the end he didn't give two figs for Germany's plight. His virulent kind of bigotry exists also among other races.
                                - Dr.Thomas Kotletz, Bonn Germany

24.    Forget it. Even if it worked, they wouldn't make such a fund. It's antiSemitism. Believe me.  They would figure, all the bomb throwers, in the end, have the most venom for the Jews, so the Jews would be the beneficiaries most often, so no. A way to keep bombs exploding everywhere is no good if it helps Yids. It should be the reverse. They should be glad to have the Jews to use as such a weapon, they should think, why not? If Jews get it in the teeth all the time let them be at the crux of the answer. So I tell you no.  And those most against will be the big Jews, they're embarrassed.They don't like standing out.  I could tell you stories.          - S.H. Elmira, NY

25.    Israeli should pay the Palestinians. That would be just and good for Israel's soul.  Say $100 million a month. Linked to CAT this would  ensure that there would be no more "incidents". Moreover, this would overcome the objections of Islamists to outsiders who do not pay the jizyah as the  Holy Koran  requires.-
                                    Razor f, Detroit

26.    Had Saddam Hussein known that for every month that he stayed in Kuwait the Jews would get $100 million there would have been no need for Desert Storm.  Just think of the pressure on him from just his own people. - Jonsie, Toronto Canada.

28.    If the Archille Lauro hijackers, listening to Klinghoffer's backtalk, had known, pushing him overboard would  give the Jews in some kibbutz a  windfall , they would  not have drowned that cripple..  Had Goldberg  known that Arafat would get $10 ,000,000 for every murdered Arab, he would yet be practicing medicine.
              Cathleen Morris, Astoria, NY

27.    Will the Tamil Tigers call off their struggle  because of money paid to Sri Lanka? Would Shining Path or Pol Pot have been constrained by CAT? I doubt it.
- Calvin Cooper,        Atlantic Beach NJ

29.    One more cash cow for Israel. One more way of denying the Arabs their rights. -Pete Belanzano,  Youngstown Ohio.

30.    Sounds good. We and the Europeans and Japanese have been giving the Palestinians billions. That aid could be divided into predesignated monthly allocations. Every act of Arab terror should change the Arab address of a monthly check to an Israeli one. Every act of Settler terror should send a portion of our aid to Israel in the other direction.
                    - Herman Blickstein, Saranac Lake, NY

31.    The  cost of airport and airplane security gives this idea special resonance for the  air transportation industry.. International commerce, business in general, is also endangered by terrorism.  Even the average citizen would shell out a few bucks if it meant putting a lid on bombers arbitrarily tearing people to pieces.  It would not need government.
Open a fund of proven integrity , advertise it,use the first incident to start making payments. The contributions will follow.      - Andrew Lee (Piano player), Hong Kong

32.    I get it. We must give the Americans heap big moola. Osama will despair and burst into tears. He will write a new fatwa: go home everyone, forget your ideals and your faith. All resistance is futile as it only makes Americans richer. Al-Qaeda will then switch to franchising falafel push carts.    Brilliant.
  -Orwell Lewis, Gwent UK

33...Ever since the end of the Cold War I've had my doubts whether Israel is worth the candle. CAT answers that.
    But this scheme could make the money we are anyway paying, do some good. The same idea is explained, only better, on this site. It exploits Islam's mindset Making Israel the beneficiary of attacks on the US would tie the shoelaces of Muslim terrorists, it would put them in one heck of a quandary.
    For once American generosity would pay America direct rewards.        - Ken W, Mohawk MI