Terrorism, right or left
Sir: Caroline Moorehead's review of Claire Sterling's The Terror Network (14 November) is a mixture of misrepresentation and conceit.
Moorehead claims that Sterling's book is typical of 'fashionable' American opinion on the subject of terrorism. Ironically, her own assessment is identical to those of several American liberal high-priests, notably Alexander Cockburn and James Ridgeway in the Village Voice, Tom Wicker in the New York Times, and Aryeh Neier in The Nation.
Moorehead states that Sterling 'denies terrorism of the right'. Sterling admits in her introduction that she has limited her study to terrorism of the left, but notes: 'It would have been easier for me to write about Black (i.e. fascist) terrorists, always a virtuous pursuit — and now, once again, becoming a singularly urgent one. Writing about left-wing Red terrorists did not make me feel virtuous: it saddened me. Moorehead admits that Sterling's book is scrupulously researched, but disregards its conclusions because the book is a bestseller. Presumably, Moorehead considers the Gulag Archipelago, another best-seller, to be in the same category of 'fashionable' literature.
David R. Sorensen
69 Cecile Park, Crouch End, London N8
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