After the assassination of Lebanese writer Samir Kassir on June 2, and after receiving reliable information that a list of other possible targeted Lebanese writers and activists is circulating, we, as fellow writers, want to express our support of the Lebanese people’s basic and essential right, afforded by an open democratic society, to express themselves free of the threat of retribution and violence.

Tom McCarthy, filmmaker, New York City; Shiva Balaghi, educator, New York City; Naomi Klein, journalist, Toronto, Canada; Paul Auster, author, New York City; Noam Chomsky, linguist, Boston, Massachusetts; Joyce Carol Oates, author, Princeton, New Jersey; Rashid Khalidi, historian, New York City; Salman Rushdie, author, New York City; Howard Zinn, historian, Boston, Massachusetts; Michael Massing, journalist, New York City; Andrew Jarecki, filmmaker, New York City; Adam Shatz, journalist, New York City (partial listing).

This Issue

December 1, 2005