January 9, 2002
Kitzman provides world view on terrorism
Former CHS student speaks to Central High government classes
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Trying to answer the question 'Why' that has been on many people's minds since the terrorist attacks of September 11, a student of international relations spoke to students at Traverse City Central High School last Thursday. Peg Townsend, one of the school's government teachers, invited Mike Kitzman to talk with all of her classes plus another teacher's Advanced Placement government class.
Kitzman, a Central High School graduate from the class of 2000, is majoring in international relations and German at the University of Idaho. He is studying this year with a professor who worked for the federal government in counterterrorism. During his talks, he brought to students his perspective about terrorism, the Islamic religion and the history of the Middle East, Afghanistan and Al-Quaeda.
Kitzman also discussed the history of terrorism as it has increasingly affected the United States since the early 1990s and listed some of the hot spots of terrorist activity around the world during that time. He told students that as the United States policy shifted its intelligence resources away from human intelligence for political expediency, it left the country vulnerable to attack.
"The CIA increasingly leaned toward electronic and surveillance during the 1990s, which did not make them look bad," he said. "The people you could get to work for you in these organizations were not good people, they were terrorists. Then in the mid-1990s, a girl was killed by a former CIA operative and it hit the papers and looked bad and we've been thin in human intelligence department."
In his talk, Kitzman discussed three main points of conflict between the west and the Islamic world: the role of women in society, holy sites of Islam, such as Mecca, and the existence of the state of Israel. He outlined the history of both the Islamic religion and the countries where it is a dominant force and talked about the surging conflict between the two cultures.
Kitzman also noted that, contrary to its immediate impact, terrorism is not really an effective political tool.
"Usually terrorism is not an effective negotiating tool, there hasn't been one organization yet that has succeeded in its goals," Kitzman told students in Townsend's Advanced Placement government class.
After Kitzman's talk, students began asking questions: Is there an American Taliban? What nations harbor Islamic terrorists? Are there domestic terrorism groups? What are other terrorist groups around the world? Why was the Somalia operation in 1993 a failure? Where is Osama bin Laden hiding?
Kitzman patiently answered the students' questions as best he could, pleased by their level of interest and knowledge.
"What is interesting is that they've kept up on the news really well," he said. "They brought up some really good questions and I tried to fill in the gaps left by the news."
Senior David Walker has always been interested in terrorism and plans to pursue a career in political science or international relations. Hearing Kitzman speak reinforced his interest.
"I learned a lot about how terrorist networks work," he said. "I am reading 'Black Hawk Down' about the failed raid in Somalia."
Townsend had worked with Kitzman three years ago when Central High School held a Model United Nations. When she heard from his brother, one of her current students, that Kitzman would be in town over the holidays, she invited him to come by for a visit.
After learning that he was studying terrorism as part of his international relations curriculum, Townsend asked him to speak to her classes.
"There's been such an interest on the kids' part on these issues, in the first and second hours we had watched it on TV when the tragedy happened," Townsend said.
"I was impressed with the students because they were asking Mike questions that showed they were looking for some depth of understanding about what had happened and why. I was impressed with their interest, they still are certainly caring about what is going on. she noted."