News

UW to host 9/11 panel at Memorial Union

Today at noon the University of Wisconsin will hold an open panel discussion at Memorial Union commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Titled "Perspectives on a Post-9/11 World," the panel will discuss such topics as global security, presidential powers, public opinion, emergency preparedness, the role of the military and how they have changed in the past five years.

The panel speakers will include Vicki Bier, director of the UW Center for Human Performance and Risk Analysis; Capt. Scott Mobley, UW professor of Naval Science; UW political science professor Jon Pevehouse; and UW history professor Jeremi Suri.

Bier said a large attendance is expected at the forum — as it has been publicized both on and off campus — and is intended mostly for open discussion.

"I am just as interested in hearing the reactions of the audience as conveying any one message," Bier said. "There will be some very interesting presentations, but the plan is to keep the presentations rather short and have open discussions afterward."

While he is not a member on the panel, UW political science professor Donald Downs said he thinks the forum will be "the real thing." Downs has many opinions about the post-9/11 world, which he said he plans to reveal in a book he recently began work on.

The book does not have a title or a definite direction as of yet, but Downs said it will be about "the line between insecurity and freedom and the role of leadership in helping us draw the right line."

Downs said his criticisms are not focused on any one party, though, because Democrats and Republicans have been playing "gotcha politics" with each other for the past five years.

While Downs said he does not think the checks and balances of the United States government have been properly implemented and he feels the Iraq war has created enemies for the U.S., he said it is "a big deal" that there has not been another terrorist attack on American soil since.

"It's getting harder for a terrorist group to put some sort of things in operation than it was five years ago," Downs said. "So in that sense, I think we're safer — but we're sort of floundering when it comes to legal policy."