My perspective on this tragedy is that I know his father, Professor Emeritus David Hesla. David Hesla is a beloved and somewhat eccentric professor, one of the original members of my home department of the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory University. Among other things, he wrote the best book on Samuel Beckett that I’ve ever read (Art of Chaos). Not too long ago, he and my original dissertation adviser were granted Heilbrun Awards to support their current research. Prof. Hesla looked as happy as I have ever seen him, waxing enthusiastic about three projects that he was working on.

This is truly horrible news. Those of us who know David Hesla have been in contact, and everyone is stunned and heartbroken for David.

We weep for ourselves as well. By all accounts, we lost one of the very, very good guys in Thor Hesla. It has taken me several days to be able to write this blog post.

Thor Hesla, 45, of Atlanta, worked for BearingPoint Management & Technology Consultants, which had a contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development to help war-ravaged Afghanistan rebuild, a company spokesman said. He was one of the eight people killed in the bombing and shooting attack Monday on the Serena Hotel in Kabul. Authorities in Kabul said an American, a Norwegian journalist and a Filipina who died of her wounds Tuesday were among those killed. A longtime family friend, Margaret Hylton Jones, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Hesla was aware of the danger of Afghanistan, his most recent assignment after stints in Kosovo, South Africa and Kazakhstan. Hesla “put his affairs in order” before leaving for the assignment, which began Nov. 1, Jones said, including updating his will. He took his father, a retired Emory University professor, on a trip to New York and spent time with his 12-year-old niece and 10-year-old nephew.

The Memorial Site for Thor Hesla is http://www.rememberthor.com. There you will find a lot more information about Thor and what he was doing in Kabul, planned memorial services, reminiscences, 100 things Thor didn’t want you to know, official recognition letters, a sTHORy about how Thor was strangled by a dwarf in Pristina, Kosovo, and much more. A book will be made from the site to benefit Doctors Without Borders.

• See the hilarious Salon article Thor wrote in 1999: Ten modest proposals to help Ann Coulter get a date.
• A Legacy guestbook can be found here.
• In lieu of flowers, you can send a donation in Thor’s name to Doctors without Borders.

News Links:

• American killed in Afghanistan a ‘passionate believer’ | CNN
• Atlanta man killed in attack on Kabul hotel | AJC
• American Killed in Afghan Attack ID’d | AP
• 
  Analysis: Terror attack in Kabul | UPI
• Taliban Threaten Restaurant Attacks | AP

Since 2002, more than 5 million Afghan refugees – mostly women and children – have returned to their homeland, most with the assistance of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Despite this massive return movement, many Afghan families remain in neighboring countries, making them one of the largest exiled groups in the world.

Dear Ms. N: Thank you for contacting me regarding the National Security Agency’s (NSA) monitoring of conversations connected to terrorist activity and the treatment of military detainees. It is good to hear from you.

I certainly understand your concerns regarding personal freedoms. We are blessed to live in a free and effective democracy, and, just like you, I hold dear the personal freedoms that are provided to each and every law-abiding American.

As you know, the world changed on September 11, 2001. In the weeks following the catastrophic and murderous attacks on our nation, President Bush authorized the NSA to intercept certain international communications into and out of the United States from persons known to have links to terrorist organizations. As it has been publicly discussed, the purpose of the monitoring program is to prevent another attack on our country. This program is effective and the terrorist plots that have been foiled demonstrate that it is vitally important for the President of the United States to have the power and authority to act on information to protect the American people.

With respect to military detainees captured by the United States, they should be treated humanely and in a manner that honors our agreement under the Geneva Conventions. On October 17, 2006, President Bush signed into law (P.L. 109-366) a bill that outlines the treatment of our military detainees and our interrogation program. This law will further underscore to other countries that the United States will treat its detainees properly and justly.

As always, I appreciate hearing from you.

(Yada yada yada, I’m so sure he appreciates hearing from me.)

So here is my response. I am almost completely certain that such correspondence has no impact on Senator Chambliss whatsoever, but perhaps his staff draws some kind of statistical trend reports for purposes of future elections.

I’m not the only Georgian who wonders why Mr. Chambliss continues to puppet the lies of this administration.

Dear Senator Chambliss:

The NSA monitoring of conversations and email has gone beyond the bounds of what you describe in this correspondence. I am quite sure that you are aware of that.

How can you try to say that you hold dear our freedoms and the values of our democracy when you continue to support the unethical and anti-American actions of this President and Vice-President?

Stop using 9/11 as the “second Pearl Harbor.” With policies such as surveillance of American citizens, retroactive immunity laws, the expansion of executive power, and the torture and mistreatment of prisoners of all kinds – both here and abroad – you have undermined the values of the United States of America.

In this respect, the 9/11 attack couldn’t have been more successful as an act of terrorism; this administration, with your full support, has used it to betray what we should have been standing up for – our freedoms, our democracy, our rights as Americans. You, sir, are allowing that act to succeed in changing the very fabric of our nation.

You say we are “blessed to live in a free and effective democracy.” What remains of this “blessing” – a state of affairs hard-earned in blood and vigilance – is systematically being dismantled, and you contribute to this! Your oblique reference to God does not move me; I cannot imagine how you think God would approve of rampant greed and corruption, deceit, theft, torture, war profiteering, or throwing away the very aspects of American democracy that used to give hope to so many people here and abroad.

Senator Chambliss, after 9/11, we had the sympathy and support of most of the world – think for a moment about how we have thrown that away. Think for a moment about how a truly effective counter-terrorism policy might have reduced terrorism, rather than exponentially increasing it as this administration has done with its harmful policies and actions.

America currently disregards international and domestic laws and agreements on a level that I would never have thought possible. We have even aggressively invaded another country that had not attacked us – a deep violation of our own principles, and of the U.N. agreements for member countries.

You claim that the NSA program has foiled terrorist plots. Would you care to name a few? Can you show me someone that has been lawfully convicted on the basis of this (unconstitutional) activity?

The statement that we treat prisoners (whether at Gitmo, or in Iraq or Afghanistan – or in the countries we ship them out to for torture) in a manner that is in accordance with international law and treaty is so laughable that I am quite frankly amazed that you would still continue to make this claim.

Mr. Chambliss, I have contacted you about many issues, and although I know that your email responses are simply cut and pasted from form letters written by others, I still ask you to hold yourself accountable for the misleading statements being made in them.

Sir, your role in the Senate is to represent the interests – and the laws – of the people of Georgia and of this nation. When will you begin to take your job more seriously?

Senator, I plead with you. Revisit some of these important issues. The future of America is at stake.

These are real problems, and the way they have been handled so far will have lasting repercussions.

Won’t you begin to be part of solving these problems rather than making them even worse with your denials and your continued support of every whim of this secretive and dangerous administration?

Most sincerely-

(it’s “Dr. N.” to you, Senator)

Some actions for my fellow armchair activists. Click on the links for more information and to take action.

• Don’t Give Alberto Gonzales the Power to Speed Up Executions. You’ve got to read this just to believe they are even considering it.
• Demand the immediate release of renowned Iranian-American scholar Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, who is imprisoned for the 100th day in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, a location infamous for the torture and detention of political prisoners. Dr. Esfandiari, 68, is the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
• As a consumer, support workers’ rights at the Tar Heel, North Carolina, Smithfield Foods plant, the largest hog slaughterhouse in the world. The mistreatment of injured workers – and the conduct of Smithfield Foods in past union elections at the Tar Heel plant – is completely unacceptable (and perhaps unlawful too).
• Fat lot of good that it will do, but go tell the Bush administration to reject the proposed Desert Rock power plant. Oppose the plans for a dirty, coal-fired power plant in northwestern New Mexico that would release mercury and other toxic contaminants into the environment, pollute waterways and threaten human health. A “global energy company” and the Dine Power Authority want to build the plant on the eastern edge of the Navajo Nation.
• Sign the petition for an independent investigation that would seek to establish whether the Bush Administration intentionally delayed the capture of Osama Bin Laden in order to justify the invasion of Afghanistan.

On 6-24-2007

• AFGHANISTAN-NATO Kills 60 Taliban Terrorists In Operations In Afghanistan-Pakistan Border
• AFGHANISTAN-Lashkar Gah-Soldiers attacked by Afghan roadside bomb
• AFGHANISTAN-Lashkar Gah-Over a dozen Taliban, coalition soldier killed
• AFGHANISTAN-Andar-Taliban seize 18 Afghan mine clearing experts
• AFGHANISTAN-Musa Qala-Taliban behead local police chief’s son
• COLOMBIA-Buenaventura-Bomb kills at least two in troubled Colombia port
• GAZA-Palestinian Territory-BBC Journalist wearing bomb belt seen in new video
• INDIA-Nagpur-Cops on high alert due to letter threat
• IRAQ-Mosul-Iraqi journalist shot to death on her way home
• IRAQ-Hillah-Car bomb strikes Hillah
• IRAQ-Baghdad-Chemical Ali sentenced to hang
• LEBANON-Khiyam-Car bomb kills 6 U.N. soldiers in Lebanon
• LEBANON-Metulla-Lebanon Bomb Kills 4 U.N. Peacekeepers
• NIGERIA-Osogbo-Plans to Bomb Campaign HQ Exposed
• PAKISTAN-Kashmir-At Least 11 SOG Personnel Injured in Bomb Blast
• SOMALIA-Mogadishu-Four Wounded in a Grenade Explosion in Mogadishu
• SOMALIA-Mogadishu-Unknown gunman shoots two people dead
• USA-Riverside-University Of California Bomb Threat Initially Suspect May Have Had Serious Motives
• VENEZUELA-Caracas-Chavez Predicts Resistance War With US