The Greatest Show on Earth
Looks like the guvment has decided to try its hand at theatre with the New York based “trial” of alleged 9/11 terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. With the economy in the tank, the military bogged down in what everyone knows is an “unwinnable” war and the healthcare fiasco, the guvment needs something to derail attention from those matters and make it look like it’s actually doing something.
Bring terrorism back to our doorstep so we’ll get all lathered up about fighting again.
It’s important to note that the United States government and its private contractors can go anywhere in the world it desires, pluck people from their homes (or caves), take them into custody, torture them, bring them to the U.S. and them make them appear in a mock trial where even our so-called liberal President has predicted their guilt and ultimate demise.
It’s shocking but not surprising from a nation that’s been having its way with whomever since day one. That’s not “un-American,” either. It’s just the facts.
Is the guy a terrorist? Most likely. Was he involved in 9-11? Maybe. Who really knows. I suppose we’ll see the evidence in court, but something tells me there were far more players in 9-11 than we’re being told.
And if he’s guilty, I say let him swing from a tree along with child rapists and murderers. I’m not “soft” on terrorism, as evidenced by my constant complaining about the activities of our own government. I think we need to get tough on terrorism and start by putting our home grown ones in jail. But shouldn’t this person have been charged in an international court with the tracking and apprehension handled by Interpol and local police? He is, after all, a civilian. He’s not even a guerilla fighter.
I think we need some rules of engagement here, because the ability for a government to go into a foreign nation and pluck up the citizens of the invaded nation is pretty scary. And yeah, I know, we’ve done this sort of thing before. Black Jack Pershing and 12,000 men went into Mexico to get Pancho Villa for his attack on Columbus, New Mexico. But this takes things to a whole new level.
I’ll even admit the policy of seek, find and destroy has a certain appeal to me. Like Little Bill in Unforgiven, I don’t like killers and assassins. I loathe terrorists. I want to personally hunt down people that hurt unarmed people, especially women and children. It’s cowardly and uncalled for. Yet, all this international cowboyin’ concerns me, because eventually, the guns get pointed at the folks at home. A government this powerful is dangerous, and considering it, I’m reminded of what Ed Abbey had to say about it:
“Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.”
Khalid Sheik Mohammed is allegedly a terrorist, and that’s a word that should carry an enormous amount of respect for everyone. Because once you’re labeled a “terrorist” (and the meaning is vague enough to include all sorts of folks), the guvment can do what it wants.
Terrorism is defined in the Federal criminal code 18 U.S.C. §2331 as “…activities that involve violent… or life-threatening acts… that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State and… appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping….”
Any civilian rebellion or monkeywrenching potentially becomes an act of terrorism. And under the PATRIOT Act, there are essentially no restrictions on the government’s ability to surveil, search, interrogate, detain and restrict Americans.
That means an organization that supposedly is “of the people, by the people and for the people” can do whatever it wants to people anywhere on the planet. What’s to stop ‘em?
The threshold for what’s considered terrorism is even lower when you consider the FBI’s 2002 definition of “ecoterrorism”:
“The use or threatened use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or property by an environmentally-oriented, subnational group for environmental-political reasons, or aimed at an audience beyond the target, often of symbolic nature.”
(Source: http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress02/jarboe021202.htm)
So, according to that definition you don’t even have to commit an act of so-called “ecoterrorism” to be considered a terrorist. You just have to talk about the potential a violent action. And, further, it’s considered terrorism to direct the action against property. Pour lapidary grit in a gas tank? You’re a terrorist. Paint a slogan on a wall? You’re a terrorist. Slap a Greenpeace sticker on a polluting vehicle? You’re a terrorist. Talk about the possibility of spiking trees? You’re a terrorist. The FBI’s definition of terrorism has more to do with protecting the assets and mechanical implements of developers than it does with protecting the country.
Yeah, they covered their bases pretty well with that sweeping generalization! And you hit the nail on the head, they’re the protectorate for corporate assets.