Friday, June 23, 2006
It's For Your Own Good, naturally....
When the US government announced it had just broken up a ring of “terrorists” down in Miami, the bells went off. In the last few years we’ve seen rings of terrorists busted in Portland, Detroit, and elsewhere in the country. There have been flags flying and politicians posing, reputed mountains of evidence, and then...collapse. The hoop-la has been to remind—to frighten— the population into believing that things are really dangerous and without all sorts of skull-duggery, the terrorists would take over the country. Or something.
When the lawyers get busy, the government falls back on saying, well, that information is classified. It’s about national security. We can’t tell you—it’s actually we won’t tell you. The government justifies many many actions on the grounds of security. The justice department (acting as a surrogate for the executive branch) has stonewalled congress. The Justice Department and the executive branch have essentially become the law unto themselves. They decide. Period.
It’s the movie “Catch 22” all over again. The government claims all sorts of things but when people start investigating, the government refuses to disclose anything.
Propaganda to try to con the public into believing the government has to keep enormous warehouses of secrets, and only acts in the best interests of the country. They they can lock up who they want without filing charges. That they can snoop into everyone’s homes and private matters. It’s in our best interests, we’re told...As if any government, anywhere and anytime, ever did anything without justifying it in terms of the best interests of the nation.
BBC: Sears Tower 'plotters' just 'wannabes'
06/23/2006 @ 10:21 am
Filed by David Edwards
In a BBC news broadcast today, Miami Herald reporter Mani Garcia remarks that the government's arrest of seven men in connection with a 'plot' to blow up the Sears Tower is probably overblown.
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"They've been described to us by sources as 'wannabes' -- still to be determined if making a connection about talking about doing an attack and and being able to finance an attack," Garcia said. "We've seen previous cases where the Federal government has announced with great hoopla breaking terrorist cells. And when you start deconstructing a case, you see that there's a lot of talk."
In Miami today, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales outlined the alleged plot and claimed that the "homegrown terrorists" sought to join up with Al Qaeda, but instead met with an agent secretly "working with the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force."
The father of one of the defendants denied that his son could have been involved in something like this.
"This boy, he's not a violent boy. He never got into trouble. ... He didn't want to kill people," Stanley Grant Phanor's father, Joseph told the Associated Press.
When the lawyers get busy, the government falls back on saying, well, that information is classified. It’s about national security. We can’t tell you—it’s actually we won’t tell you. The government justifies many many actions on the grounds of security. The justice department (acting as a surrogate for the executive branch) has stonewalled congress. The Justice Department and the executive branch have essentially become the law unto themselves. They decide. Period.
It’s the movie “Catch 22” all over again. The government claims all sorts of things but when people start investigating, the government refuses to disclose anything.
Propaganda to try to con the public into believing the government has to keep enormous warehouses of secrets, and only acts in the best interests of the country. They they can lock up who they want without filing charges. That they can snoop into everyone’s homes and private matters. It’s in our best interests, we’re told...As if any government, anywhere and anytime, ever did anything without justifying it in terms of the best interests of the nation.
BBC: Sears Tower 'plotters' just 'wannabes'
06/23/2006 @ 10:21 am
Filed by David Edwards
In a BBC news broadcast today, Miami Herald reporter Mani Garcia remarks that the government's arrest of seven men in connection with a 'plot' to blow up the Sears Tower is probably overblown.
Advertisement
"They've been described to us by sources as 'wannabes' -- still to be determined if making a connection about talking about doing an attack and and being able to finance an attack," Garcia said. "We've seen previous cases where the Federal government has announced with great hoopla breaking terrorist cells. And when you start deconstructing a case, you see that there's a lot of talk."
In Miami today, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales outlined the alleged plot and claimed that the "homegrown terrorists" sought to join up with Al Qaeda, but instead met with an agent secretly "working with the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force."
The father of one of the defendants denied that his son could have been involved in something like this.
"This boy, he's not a violent boy. He never got into trouble. ... He didn't want to kill people," Stanley Grant Phanor's father, Joseph told the Associated Press.
