Dear Sir/Madam,

The article in today NYT, “Stopping Signals From Satellite TV Proves Difficult” lends support to my suspicion that the Administration’s fear  that video tapes from Al Qaeda could contain coded messages is just a pretext to prevent them being freely shown by the TV networks.

What, I suspect, they are really afraid of is Al Qaeda’s uncoded message, i.e. the justified grievances it has with American foreign policy.

The Administration doesn’t want Americans developing even a flicker of understanding for the other side in what G.W. Bush has declared to be a battle between good and evil.

I am not suggesting for a moment that there is anyway of justifying Al Qaeda’s diabolical acts of terrorism. There isn’t. Nevertheless, it is in our interest to understand their – and their supporters’ – grievances and motives.

That might allow us – the West - to tackle some of the root causes of terrorism (injustice and the rule of money, for example). At the moment there is a danger that for every terrorist we kill, 10 more will be created.