NYC Letter: Gaea, Terrorist

Day 224 of CHOPE

On August 6, 2001, President George W. Bush famously received an intelligence briefing entitled, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." Thirty-six days later, al Qaeda terrorists did just that.

... The truth is that the threat we face is not an abstract concern for the future. It is already upon us and its effects are being felt worldwide, right now. Scientists project that the Arctic will be ice-free in the summer of 2013. Not in 2050, but four years from now.*

Make no mistake: catastrophic climate change represents a threat to human security, global stability, and — yes — even to American national security.

... Unfortunately, not everyone in Washington appreciates the stakes. It's tragic that we live at a time when if one were to dismiss the threat of terrorism, you'd be sent home in the next election. But there are no similar political consequences if you dismiss the science or the threat of climate change.

John "Sent Home" Kerry (D-MA),
alerting us to the world's biggest terrorist threat
WASHINGTON August 31, 2009 (HuffPo)

Of course, more famously Al Qaeda struck the Khobar Towers on June 25, 1996, killing 19 American servicemen, the American embassies (sovereign American territories) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya on August 7, 1998, killing 12 Americans, and the USS Cole on October 12, 2000, killing 17 American servicemen. And more famously still, here is Mr. bin Laden in an interview published in the January 11, 1999 issue of Time Magazine:

Q: What can the U.S. expect from you now?

bin Laden: Any thief or criminal or robber who enters another country in order to steal should expect to be exposed to murder at any time. For the American forces to expect anything from me, personally, reflects a very narrow perception. Muslims are angry. The Americans should expect reactions from the Muslim world that are proportionate to the injustice they inflict.

Q: America, the world's only superpower, has called you Public Enemy Number One. Are you worried?

bin Laden: Hostility toward America is a religious duty, and we hope to be rewarded for it by God. To call us Enemy Number One or Two does not hurt us. Osama bin Laden is confident that the Islamic nation will carry out its duty. I am confident that Muslims will be able to end the legend of the so-called superpower that is America.

All of this famously took place on Mr. Clinton's watch, well in advance of the less famous intelligence briefing Mr. Kerry references. And Mr. Kerry's "criminal nuisance" approach to terrorism is largely why he was "sent home" in 2004.** (Oh, and this.)

But Mr. Kerry's opening is just a splenic incontinence, something he can't control (and this and this). It is irrelevant to his larger message. Mr. Kerry reveals the world's greatest terrorist --

the PLANET!

Yes. [Pause.] Gaea. Mother Earth, her very self.

And Mr. Kerry is not alone.

WWF PRINT AD
View Full-size Here.

The caption (upper right) reads:

THE TSUNAMI KILLED 100 TIMES MORE PEOPLE THAN 9/11.
The Planet Is Brutally Powerful. Respect It. Preserve It.

This bizarre print ad*** by the ad agency DDB Brazil† has been disowned by its client, the World Wildlife Fund (via Hot Air):

WWF strongly condemns this offensive and tasteless ad and did not authorize its production or publication. It is our understanding that it was a concept offered by an outside advertising agency seeking our business in Brazil. The concept was summarily rejected by WWF and should never have seen the light of day. It is an unauthorized use of our logo and we are aggressively pursuing action to have it removed from websites where it is being currently featured. We strongly condemn the messages and the images portrayed in this ad. On behalf of WWF, here in the US and around the world, we can promise you this ad does not in any way reflect the thoughts and feelings of the people of our organization.

Fight the terror!

Or, as the ad suggests, knuckle under and let the terrorist win.

CHOPE.

Taking on the world's biggest terrorist.

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* Huh (and huh again)? Mark your calendars for this nonevent. We imagine four years from now Mr. Kerry will identify new boogeymen.

** For good.

*** Tastelessly exploiting 09.11 is not new. Here is another example and here another and another and another and another.

† Last year DDB Canada did a sports bra ad showing battered women (we just don't get it). Client Running Free disavowed approving the ad calling it a hoax. DDB is also the ad agency for Volkswagen but denies having anything to do with this viral ad developed by creative team Lee and Dan showing a suicide bomber driving a VW Polo.

[Hat tip: Michelle Malkin]

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UPDATE 09.02.09: Busted. At some level WWF approved the print ad:

Sergio Valente, president of DDB Brasil, said the ad was presented to the WWF in Brazil in December 2008 and approved; it then ran once in a small local paper.

"When I saw it, I said, 'Stop running that ad,'" Mr. Valente said.

Running an ad once is often a tactic to make it awards-show-eligible, and "Tsunami" somehow ended up among a bunch of the agency's submissions to this year's One Show in New York. Mr. Valente said that an American blogger apparently unearthed the ad in the One Show's online archive and posted it on his blog.

... After the WWF appeared to initially deny approving the ad, DDB Brasil and the WWF hammered out a statement posted in Portuguese on both groups' Brazilian websites Wednesday afternoon apologizing for the ad and attributing it to "the inexperience of some professionals on both sides, and not bad faith or disrespect toward American suffering."

The statement continued, "WWF-Brasil and DDB Brasil reaffirm that the ad never should have been created, approved or run. They deeply regret that this happened, and apologize to everyone who has been offended."

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UPDATE 09.03.09: Not bad enough. There is an unclaimed video version of the ad. Both WWF and DDB deny any connection. [Pause.] Like little Topsy, it just growed.

UPDATE: Whoa! YouTube: "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by DDB BRASIL."

How can DDB Brazil have a copyright claim if it didn't create the video? Uh-huh.

UPDATE: You can still see the video here.

Posted by Damian at September 1, 2009 11:45 PM