LETTERS

Re “The suffering of Abu Zubaydah,” Opinion, April 30

Joseph Margulies, co-counsel for suspected Al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah, tells us, “We should remember that there was a human being strapped to that board.”

Well and good, but we should also remember that the terrorist organization -- or rather, “organization with a different point of view” -- that he belongs to caused nearly 3,000 of our fellow American human beings to be incinerated beyond recognition and/or blown to smithereens.

Catalino T. Ribac

Encino

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She looks into his eyes. Hers are filled with terror. The heat is unbearable. Her skin is beginning to blister. He reaches out and takes her hand. His hand has a deep gash in it from the shattered glass of the window he has helped to smash. “Hold on tight to me,” he whispers. “Keep your eyes closed. Don’t look down.” Together they step through the jagged opening of a high floor of the World Trade Center. On the sidewalk below people shriek in horror.

I don’t know the young woman’s name, but I do know that, like Abu Zubaydah, she can’t picture her mother’s face either.

Orson Bean

Venice