The September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington have had some unintended consequences, some good, some bad. The good: for a while, our broadcast and print news media did not consist entirely of updates on and further speculations about the "Gary Condit Affair"; we were spared that non-story, if only temporarily. The bad: those terrorist acts created more victims - secondary and tertiary victims, some acknowledged, some not. Among the secondary victims: some of our basic and most cherished civil and political rights here in the US, rights that are being quickly and inexcusably revoked for the sake of "security," even though the measures being taken are quickly turning our supposedly "free" society into the same type of police state we pride ourselves on being the very antithesis of. This secondary victim, our freedom, is at least getting some attention, as well it should - mostly in the alternative press and from organizations dedicated to preserving our civil liberties, such as the ACLU. (See, e.g., the ACLU press releases web page, http://www.aclu.org/news/pressind.html.)

Other secondary victims, however, have been even less visible. Before September 11, Lori Berenson, an innocent American citizen who has been languishing in a Peruvian prison since she was falsely convicted of being a leader of a Peruvian terrorist group in 1995, was finally starting to get some attention in the news media. Not all of it was positive - indeed, a good bit of it was negative and viciously unsympathetic; but at least Lori's parents, Mark and Rhoda Berenson, were being afforded forums in which to plead their daughter's case, and take their pleas directly to the American public.

That case was and remains a pretty good one. Lori had always maintained that she was no terrorist and that the "evidence" used to convict her in her first trial was either woefully lacking in content - proving, in essence, nothing, or easily and convincingly shown to be innocuous - or was fabricated by the Peruvian authorities.

Nobody likes to hear the latter accusation; it seems to reek of "wacko conspiracy" fumes and summons forth images of the loons who spin such unbelievable yarns.

Except that Alberto Fujimori and Vladimiro Montesinos, the leaders of Peru at the time of Lori's arrest and conviction, both of whom micro-managed her first prosecution and made it clear from day one (even before most of the "evidence" against Lori had been fully manufactured) that they would accept nothing less than a full conviction - have been shown to be torturers, murderers, blackmailers and terrorists themselves - in short, thugs of the worst kind: thugs with power. After a decade of running a terrorist state, both finally fled Peru in disgrace (after first turning on each other as thugs routinely do), with authorities in hot pursuit; only one - Montesinos - has been brought back thus far, but it has been credibly asserted that enough of his former creatures are still in positions of power in Peru (Congress; the judicial branch) that he may never be convicted of the many crimes he is known to have committed. He knows where the bodies are buried and would be able to take too many people down with him, including, perhaps, the Lead Justice in Lori Berenson's second "trial", held earlier this year, in which she was convicted of a lesser, though no less absurd, charge and sentenced to twenty years.

No evidence was adduced to show that Lori was guilty of the "crime" she was charged with; and, moreover, the charge - collaboration with terrorists - was used as a catch-all for any number of thought-related activities, including sympathizing with some of the stated goals of groups designated "terrorist." (Lori, for instance, considers any exploitation, including government exploitation, of the poor to be immoral.) Having political beliefs is not a crime in any civilized country; accusations of "thought crime" such as this against Lori are an offense committed by the state against any individual so accused. Peru, alas, is still a country in which one can be charged and convicted of thought crime, and Vladimiro Montesinos and Alberto Fujimori are in large part the reason why.

Before her second trial, Lori and her parents were getting a lot of attention in the US press. Many editorials, written by people who finally deigned to take a look at the "evidence" against Lori, concluded that she ought to be released, for there is no credible evidence that she ever engaged in any criminal activity. Lori was convicted nonetheless, but it looked as if the new Bush administration was determined to take a more aggressive stance with Peru over Lori's illegal conviction than the Clinton administration had. Peru, also, had a new leader, and there was reason to hope he, Alejandro Toledo, might be more reasonable than the terrorist Fujimori and his Chief Inquisitor Montesinos.

Then September 11 happened, and nothing else mattered.

It is not my intention in any way to minimize the shock and pain that thousands of individuals - and this nation as a whole - suffered as a result of the terrorist acts of September 11. It is merely my hope that we will soon remember, as a compassionate people, that other things still matter, too. Others are suffering, too, and their being lost in this latest tragedy makes them victims of it, as well. Lori Berenson and her family are just such victims.

I know we will remember this eventually - that others are still suffering. My hope is that this essay will be viewed as a gentle reminder that maybe now is the time to begin to remember.