“I get this call out of nowhere,” Ms. Lucznikowska said. “First you get the flash in your mind: Is this a joke? Somebody you don’t know saying you’re invited to meet the president, you want to say, ‘Name, rank and serial number, please.’ ”So, Ms. Lucznikowska alleges that the president invited her among the 9/11 relatives because she advocates shutting down Gitmo. Hmmm......
Although the 9/11 and Cole relatives said they were pleased that the president met with them, not all embraced his views on Guantánamo. Ms. Lucznikowska needed no convincing from him, however. For years, she felt that Guantánamo and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq had become intertwined as symbols of torture and of justice long delayed and therefore denied. They had, in her view, become symbols of revenge.
“I’m not interested in revenge,” Lucznikowska said. “Revenge is useless if you don’t uphold your own principles. What good is it to punish someone if you are not punishing them justly? That’s what America is all about.”
If political labels are necessary, Ms. Lucznikowska falls leftward, part of a group called September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows... She was invited to the Obama meeting, she said, because she had immersed herself in reading and writing about Guantánamo.
Nevertheless, the late Mr. Arias's two brothers reportedly weren't too happy when they learned that their aunt was among the 9/11 relatives invited to last week's meeting'. They were not invited.
h/t JamieWearingFoolAndy and Donald Arias, attended the hearings of five suspected plotters of the 9/11 attacks at Guantanamo Bay last month and support keeping the facility open and prosecuting the detainees immediately. By comparison, Lucznikowska has complained about alleged torture of Gitmo detainees and favors closing Gitmo.
The Arias brothers both sent letters to Obama protesting her presence in the Oval Office because she does not speak for or represent the Arias family. They complained that Lucznikowska is exploiting their brother's name to promote her own agenda.
Ultimately, I think Barack Obama was probably unaware of Miss Lucznikowska's views on Guantanamo and did not realize that Mr. Arias had two brothers - otherwise, in all likelihood, he would have invited them, and not her, to the meeting. Keep in mind, the president is not the kind of person who would go about exploiting a 9/11 victim like that. It's just not his nature to behave in such a callous manner. [Ahem.....]
P.S. A brother of the late Adam Arias comments on the JamieWearingFool blog:
"Was Valerie [Lucznikowska] representing her "own view" when she paraded in front of the U.N. and the White House with a poster of my brother with a caption reading, "Not in His Name?" Who is she to say what can be done in "his name?" Valerie is a carrion feeder and a liar." [h/t Jawa Report]
I just wish someone would have informed Obama and his staffers about Lucznikowska's leftist views.
Ultimately, the White House needs to do a better job of keeping abreast of these things, otherwise, the American people may start to believe that Obama is going soft on terrorists - which of course - is not true. [Ahem.....]
9 comments:
I'm sorry, but what is your point? Because I think I'm missing something.
The point is The Arias family suports the preservation of GITMO unanimously! and Ms.Lcznakowska is NOT an Arias but an estranged aunt of 9/11 victim whose blasphemy is causing the Arias family great suffering but her only concern is that she furthers her political agenda..and gets another glass of vodka
OK. Well. Hmm. Let's see.
First, I'm sorry for the Arias family's loss (and Ms. Lucznikowska's). But their grief doesn't justify the preservation of Gitmo, which amounts to using the Constitution for toilet paper while piddling ourselves like a bunch of terrified 3-week-old puppies at the notion of terror. We've got some very bad actors in custody, but we've also got the greatest criminal-justice system on the face of the planet; it's more than capable of dealing with them. And we've got a very capable military (albeit not as capable as it was before we broke it in Iraq) that can go after the bad actors that the criminal-justice system can't reach.
Second, people disagree with me all the time, often on issues of great import. Does it cause me suffering? Yeah, sometimes, to a greater or lesser degree. Does that mean I'm right and they're wrong? Nope. Does it mean they don't have the right to disagree with me? Nope. The Ariases are entitled to their opinion. Valerie Lucznikowska is entitled to hers.
Third, preserving Gitmo in its current form is just as much a political agenda as getting rid of Gitmo in its current form is. A "political agenda" is neither good nor bad, it just is. What's good or bad is the TYPE of political agenda, and when we're judging what constitutes a good or a bad political agenda, the Constitution, U.S. law and ratified treaties -- collectively defined as "the supreme law of the land" -- would be a damn good place to start. I realize that position may strike you as un-American. I'll live.
Finally, as someone who has known Ms. Lucznikowska for almost 30 years, I can confirm that she is indeed fond of Polish vodka (although not, to my knowledge, overly so). So am I. I also can confirm that although she and I disagree politically on a number of things (she's a NY liberal, I'm a NC conservative), she has more integrity in her little finger than George W. Bush had in his entire godforsaken administration.
The Arias family is greatly distressed by the Feb. 10 New York Times piece featuring an apparently morally superior Valerie Lucznikoska, (a.k.a., Valerie Lutz). "Justice, Not Revenge, Is Her Motive," was badly researched and terribly biased.
On January 21 the Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs unilaterally cancelled a promised 9-11 family press conference requested by those of us at Guantanamo Bay. Family members held our own impromptu press conference in a hangar at GTMO. The customary press conference was no longer customary explained a DoD public affairs officer. He explained "we" decided to have individual interviews instead.
Myself, brother Andrew, sister Lorraine, Jim Riches and Joe Holland held our own press conference in a noisey hangar, not in the press room as promised -- thanks to an order from within the Obama administration. Our message was effectively diffused as much of the press was already outside the hangar interviewing the defense and non-government "observers." It seems only defense council, the ACLU and other like-minded organizations get attention from Obama's communications apparachik -- 9-11 families were NOT given equal access. We were "protected" from the press and had to fight for our right to encounter them.
In subesequent interviews at GTMO our group asked for a meeting with Mr. Obama to discuss his executive order and his plan for the Guantanamo detainees.
When 9-11 family members were selected to meet with Mr. Obama I assumed it was using the same random selection software used by the Commission's Victim Witness Liaision Office that allowed me to attend the hearings at GTMO. I couldn't have been more mistaken. This selection was "special." The Obama administration delegated that process to a partisan, special interest group.
One of those people selected was a peripheral relative who was no more than an occasional childhood visitor to the Arias household. Valerie Lucznikowska claims a "special relationship" with my brother Adam Arias. The only special relationship of hers I am aware of is with the ACLU and other organizations opposed to the tribunals that finance her activities.
Ms. Lucznikowska was cited by the Times saying she was "a little foggy,” when "the woman" on the other end of the phone asked her to join a group that would visit with Mr. Obama. It is clear to me (as I'm sure it was to Ms. Lucznikowska,) the unidentified woman was Ms. Mary Fetchet of "Voices of 9-11."
In 2003 the Arias family asked Ms. Lucznikowska and her client Peaceful Tomorrows to stop using my brother's name and likeness for their political agenda. Photos of my brother were removed from their website and Ms. Lucznikowska promised our family she would stop using our family's grief as a springboard for her political and professional aspirations.
A "splintering" within Lucznikowska's "family" was also cited by the Times. Valerie Lucznikowska has no family to splinter -- just relatives to victimize with her narcissism and left-wing politics. She has been estranged from the Arias family since 2003.
I ask you, how was this person selected as a 9-11 Arias family representative to the Oval Office? Why were none of Adam Arias' immediate relatives even considered? How does an estranged aunt gain access to Mr. Obama, (and the media attention that goes with it,) while Adam Arias' immediate family struggles to be heard despite ham-handed efforts of the administration to gag us?
How can the Obama administration delegate selection of 9-11 family members to a non-government partisan group? Why shouldn't the Arias family think the New York Times, America's so-called newspaper of record, simply penned a puff piece for a pro-Obama kindred spirit? Why didn't the Times or the White House contact Adam Arias' immediate family? I was at GTMO, the White House and the Times knows how to reach me -- honest mistake? I think not. I shared a bedroom with Adam and grew up in the same household -- but in the Obama administration the crazy aunt is now next of kin. Adam's widow, mother, father and five sisters and brothers would love to talk with Mr. Obama.
Ms. Lucznikowska is not an Arias family member and as such should not have been considered for a meeting of 9-11 family members. However, I am sure the corrupted process that deigned her a family member and gave her access to the President is of little interest to the White House or the New York Times.
I knew Valerie Lucznikowska when she walked around in her mink coat, wisked herself away every weekend to her country home and talked down to anyone she determined to be inferior. A pseudo-intellect, she spent rest of the time yelling and could care less about the concerns and feeling of others.
She has always been an angry person in need of attention. This is the perfect vehicle for her behavior.
Valerie is a angry, bitter person-it would not matter what she was fighting for or against...the real problem stems from her abusive relationship with her father.
Thank you for posting this important information. I have told local media about the cynical and deceptive way the Arias family has been treated by the Obama administration and its left-wing surrogates. But neither the Times or major media seem intersted. Thank God for the NY Post and Rush. Lucznikowsa still enjoys a dialogue with the White House and the Arias family is essentially shut out. It's Orwell's 1984.
If political labels are necessary, Ms. Lucznikowska falls leftward, part of a group called September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows... She was invited to the Obama meeting, she said, because she had immersed herself in reading and writing about Guantánamo.
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