(slightly revised and edited, from an earlier post.)
June 25, 2006
By Ron Fullwood
The arrests of the young men in Miami on terror related charges is the Bush regime's most clumsy attempt yet to gin up the fear that has allowed them to pose as the protectors of the nation and the world since the collapse of the World Trade Towers. The men were, in part, recruited, aided, and encouraged by the U.S. government to violence against U.S. targets.
They were exploited just like they might have been by any other organization bent on hurting our country and our interests. The attitude of the FBI toward this religious organization is a mirrored reflection of the entire 'terror war' which oozes out of every orifice of government and drives every aspect of our government policy, absorbing as much as 70% of our annual budget in 'emergency' defense and unaccountable 'intelligence expenditures.
It seemed no accident that FBI Director Mueller was scheduled for a major speech the same day as the announcement at the City Club of Cleveland warning of "homegrown terror cells." He warned of a "new face of terrorism", of young men who had come to "hate our country." He spoke sympathetically to an audience filled with 250 Muslims from the community even as his agents outlined their infiltration of the religious group in Miami.
It also seemed no coincidence that on the same Friday, the Department of Justice released over 20 examples of some of the convictions they obtained in terrorism cases since Sept. 11, 2001. All but one case they trumpeted - Richard Reid and the shoe-bomb - involved providing and conspiring to provide assistance to known or suspected terrorists and terrorist organizations, but, these prosecutions were not for the overt acts of violence or aggression that most Americans have been steeled against.
From the flames of fear that flashed out of the collapse of the World Trade Towers, Bush exploited our deepest anxieties as he warned the nation about the potential for a future Iraqi assault on our country, or on our allies, of a magnitude that would far exceed the devastation of the horrendous incident in New York. With his phony license to war, Bush has overseen the killing and maiming of tens of thousands of innocent civilians by our military and its agents in a flailing pursuit of bin-Laden (the designated ringleader of the 9-11 tragedy) and any who would align with him or his organization, by name or by deed. By Bush's example, those who would violently resist his nascent imperialism, at the receiving end of his campaign of shock and awe, have been schooled in the rudiments of his tyrant's reign. So have his accomplices in the hijacking of our democracy.
Certainly these arrests will not be enough to hold down the anxiety rising among Americans about the continued occupation of Iraq and the growing casualties. Certainly these will not be enough to gin up support for the failed occupation of Iraq, the spot where Bush has decided 'terrorists' should be fought.
"There are some who feel like that conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is 'bring them on'," Bush spoke to reporters in the White House Roosevelt Room at the beginning of the occupation in 2003.
Inviting attacks on Americans overseas should have been enough to outrage Americans on Bush's traitorous use of our military as bait. But, he was allowed to continue and deepen his aggression. No one in authority stood in his way and insisted that he truthfully ‘exhaust all peaceful means' before he invaded Iraq, as Congress had directed him to in their toothless resolution. No one in his party insisted that, along with our allies, he develop alternatives to his plans to war with the sovereign nation.
These days, in the wake of concern for the deaths of over 2500 U.S. soldiers in Iraq, Bush is looking to revive the anxiety that kept Americans yoked to his command of our armed forces with whatever specter of fear he can muster from his likely suspects.
His legislative agenda, and that of the republican Party is at risk in the November elections. Bush and his political advisors have decided to appeal to voters with the same jingoistic display of militarism in Iraq he thinks earned their votes in the last election.
No consideration, whatsoever, is being given by Bush to toning down the confrontational rhetoric about winning and victory in Iraq. Victory, to Bush, perhaps means the end of the violent, militarized resistance to our occupation and to the new ruling authority. But, with every violent action and expression, Bush almost guarantees there will be a violent response from one of our government's foreign adversaries.
It's really no surprise that there are Americans in the country who are contemplating violence against the U.S. and our interests here and abroad. What distinguishes the men in Miami is their reported abstinence from drugs , alcohol, or, more importantly, weapons of any kind. The hapless group doesn't match the breathless descriptions from the initial media broadcasts of a hateful cult of terrorists, bent on destroying America. Shackled together in court, the entire crew was described by a reporter as slightly built and subdued.
The keyhole shot on CNN which showed the inside of the 'warehouse' panned to a wall with certificates. According to earlier reports, those were certificates of learning in sciences and other basic achievements that the organizers of the group had created for their membership. The warehouse was described by the residents in the area as a place where the men went to pray. A man who said he knew 'Brother Sunni' well (pronounced by him as 'sunny'), told the reporter that the group was formed as an alternative to the crime and violence in the area. The 'military garb', he said, was actually karate garb, a defensive art. According to one reporter, many in the community said they felt safer by the presence of the men.
That didn't stop the Vice-President from exploiting the accused men for a republican campaign. In Chicago at a fundraiser for republican candidate David McSweeney - coincidently the location of one of the Miami group's alleged targets - Cheney used the arrests to brag on his regime's 'war on terror.'
"It is a very real threat," Cheney said. "There are still people out there who are trying to do everything they can to kill Americans. We have to defend ourselves against that threat." That 'everything', for Cheney, includes wiretapping of Americans, continued occupation in Iraq, and now, the entrapment of impressionable young men to violence.
What of Cheney's old mantra? "We are fighting this evil in Iraq so that we do not have to fight it in our own cities," he boasted at the beginning of the invasion and occupation.
The government 'informant', posing as a representative of al-Qaeda, was the apparent recipient of most of the threatening statements that the group of men are alleged to have made. In fact, the 'oath of allegiance' to al-Qaeda was actually given to the informant. The recon photos - taken by a camera provided by the informant - were taken by only one individual, of the FBI building. One of the charges involves the purchase of a memory chip for the camera.
And shoes. They requested shoes, which the FBI apparently provided.
One striking legacy of the Bush regime's terror wars will be their ability to manufacture threats out of thin air, and, whenever able, to induce discontented individuals and groups of individuals to violence. Whether provoking through the intimidation and destruction of our military forces, or by damnation through innuendo, distortions, and lies, the self-promoting guardians in the Bush regime's protection racket have measured their prowess and efficacy by their flailing response to the very violence they themselves have encouraged, aided, and escalated by exploiting our nation's military forces and intelligence assets.
The Miami 7 could be the current generation's Chicago 7. The descriptions of the group as they were led into court for their first appearance brought back memories of how, after the Chicago police gassed and clubbed the mostly peaceful protesters outside of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, they then put the seven diverse protesters on trial for inciting to riot. Although initially convicted, the Chicago 7 had most of the trumped up charges reversed on appeal.
Upon conviction, at sentencing, defendant David T. Dellinger spoke on his own behalf and made a comment I thought was striking:
"Any punishment the Government can impose upon us will not solve the problem of this country's rampant racism, will not solve the problem of economic injustice, it will not solve the problem of the foreign policy and the attacks upon the underdeveloped people of the world," he said.
The Government has misread the times in which we live, just like there was a time when it was possible to keep young people, women, black people, Mexican-American, anti-war people, people who believe in truth and justice and really believe in democracy . . ."I wonder, undeniably riding a moonbeam, just what could have been accomplished by a positive intervention in these men's lives? Whatever transgression was related by these men to the 'informant'; whatever anger toward the U.S. the may have expressed (if any at all), these men appear to have attempted to remove themselves from the violence and crime that surrounded them in the town they lived in, and made efforts to better themselves through spirituality, discipline, and work.
Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of Multi-national Corps Iraq, said in May that the "the key to reducing American casualties in Iraq is getting a government that can revive the economy, "take the angry young men off the street" and give them an alternative to violence."
"I honestly believe that as this government begins work on the policies that will be required to put people to work and make use of the vast resources of Iraq that you're going to see a decrease in violence," he said in a video teleconference with reporters at the Pentagon.
There may have been an opportunity to guide these young men in our own country, and others like them, into productive activities that would discourage violence. There was definitely an opportunity for a positive intervention. I wonder if the authorities considered talking the men down from the aspirations they allege?
Is there any outreach in the community
now from the government that would provide a bridge for motivated residents to something productive? That could accomplish so much more than the sensational sting operation. How many young black men
can our law enforcement agents convince to push the limits of the law for a spot on the Justice Dept.'s terror scorecard?
I don't think that anyone should feel relieved that the FBI was called in to infiltrate this group. Their agent appears to have mislead some of the members to commit actions against the country. Instead of pointing these impressionable men in a positive direction, they were directed by the FBI to fulfill the bureau's criteria for a self-serving conviction based on aspirations, not overt acts. It also makes for a wonder about the other 'conspiracy' convictions touted.
It should be an interesting trial, and an even more interesting defense. I wish the young men well.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ron_full_060625_the_bush_regime_is_m.htm
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