Innocent Bystanders and the New Terrorism

10/07/19 • 0 min

The Open Mind, Hosted by Alexander Heffner

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A Statecraft of Peace

On this episode of The Open Mind, we're delighted to welcome the brain trust of the newly inaugurated Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Trita Parsi and Stephen Wertheim. Trita is cofounder and executive V.P. of the Quincy Institute and founder and former president of the National Iranian American Council. Stephen is cofounder and research director of the Quincy Institute and research scholar at Columbia University.

The Quincy Institute was formed to promote ideas that move American foreign policy away from endless war and toward vigorous diplomacy in pursuit of international peace. Heeding the instruction of John Quincy Adams that “America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy” the institute’s mission states “The foreign policy of the U.S. has become detached from any defensible conception of American interests and from a decent respect for the rights and dignity of humankind. Political leaders have increasingly deployed the military in a costly, counterproductive, and indiscriminate manner, normalizing war and treating armed dominance as an end in and of itself.” Our guests today will expound on their mandate and vision.

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An Innocent Bystander

On this episode of The Open Mind, we're delighted to welcome Julie Salamon, a perceptive critic, prolific author and riveting storyteller. Her newest book is “An Innocent Bystander: The killing of Leon Klinghoffer.”

Daughter of Czech immigrants who were Holocaust survivors, Salamon was raised in Ohio, a rural village of 800 people where her father was a town doctor. A veteran of the New York Times, and Wall Street Journal, she has covered business, philanthropy, and the arts.

“’An Innocent Bystander’ recounts the harrowing story of a hijacked voyage at sea, the terrorists and the family of the murder victim, an elderly American thrown overboard” The New York Daily News noted, “It explains how competing governments, complicated treaties and outright lies kept the four attackers, terrorists from ever facing American justice.” And NPR added, “Klinghoffer’s death became a symbol for many of the costs and fears of terrorism.” Indeed, Salamon chronicles that episode and its successive chain reaction to illuminate the present Israeli Palestinian conflict and connected moral and geopolitical questions.”