In Power and Terror, his first new book following his runaway bestseller 9-11, Chomsky presents his latest thinking on terrorism, U.S. foreign policy, and the meaning and true impact of militarism in the world today, based on a series of talks and conversations in March and May of 2002 in California, Cambridge, Mass., and New York.

Beginning with the fundamental principle that the exercise of violence against civilian populations is terror, regardless of whether the perpetrator is an underground network of Muslim extremists or the most powerful state in the world, Chomsky, in stark and uncompromising terms, challenges the United States to apply to itself the moral standards it demands of others.

Chomsky reviews the history of war crimes and delivers his now-famous analysis of the double-standards and hypocrisy of Western governments, and the role of the media and intellectuals. Power and Terror is an uncompromising critique of American power. With clarity and forcefullness, he places terrorist acts in the context of American foreign intervention throughout the postwar decades--in Vietnam, Central America, the Middle East, and elsewhere.

Power and Terror also includes personal reflections by Chomsky on the sources of his optimism, and the connection, if any, between his work in linguistics and his political activism. He credits the dedicated, painstaking, often unacknowledged but brave participation of ordinary citizens with making the world a more civilized place now than it was decades ago. It is perhaps this optimism that sustains his life-long mission: to bring facts to the public in the faith that, armed with information, people will use that knowledge to demand peace, democracy, and social justice.

The publication of Power and Terror coincides with the release of the film Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times, a seventy-two-minute documentary by John Junkerman.

CHOMSKY: This is a reference to about the only thing on which I find I disagree with my Quaker friends. On every practical activity I usually agree with them, but I do disagree with them about their slogan of speaking truth to power. First of all, power already knows the truth. They don't need to hear it from us. Secondly, it's a waste of time. Furthermore, it's the wrong audience. You have to speak truth to the people who will dismantle and overthrow and constrain power. Furthermore, I don't like the phrase "speak truth to." We don't know the truth. At least I don't.

We should join with the kind of people who are willing to commit themselves to overthrow power, and listen to them. They often know a lot more than we do. And join with them to carry out the right kinds of activities. Should you also speak truth to power? If you feel like it, but I don't see a lot of point. I'm not interested in telling the people around Bush what they already know.

* * *

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Read transcripts of new Chomsky talks and interviews on Z Magazine's excellent web site, Z-Net.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The video and DVD versions of Power and Terror are available from First Run Features.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Other Noam Chomsky books published by Seven Stories Press:

9-11
Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda
Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order
Acts of Aggression Policing "Rogue" States
Umbrella of U.S. Power The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Contradictions of U.S. Policy