Freedom Rider: Endless Terror
Printer-friendly version
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret KimberleyOnce citizenship can be stripped away by the state, the Constitution becomes a dead letter. Yet that is the self-mutilation prescribed by American politicians who would jettison every U.S. citizen’s rights just to spite the alleged Times Square bomber, a naturalized U.S. citizen. Most Americans seem incapable of understanding why Pakistanis, Yemenis and others that are being killed by the U.S. might also feel the need for vengeance.
Freedom Rider: Endless Terror
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
“Few people are willing to make the connection between the killing of Muslims by the United States government and the inevitable hatred of the American people that is unleashed.”
The United States government continues to kill Muslims like roaches in its never-ending war of terror. It shouldn‘t come as a surprise when that violence spawns revenge directed against this nation. Nonetheless, every act or attempted act of terror against Americans is met with shock and defiance in the face of American instigated violence.
Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born American citizen, is in custody for attempting to detonate a car bomb in New York’s Times Square. Fortunately, Shahzad was an untrained amateur who thought he could set off an explosion with ordinary fire works. He also didn’t have enough common sense to know that he should leave town immediately instead of waiting for two days before attempting his escape.
No damage was done to life or property and the suspect is in custody, but every attempt not only endangers us all but brings untold damage to American’s civil liberties. Senator Joseph Lieberman is proposing legislation that would strip citizenship from terror suspects. His goal is to prevent the use of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution which protects against self-incrimination. It is all a canard, because the right to remain silent can be exercised by citizens and non-citizens alike.
“Senator Joseph Lieberman is proposing legislation that would strip citizenship from terror suspects.”
Shahzad’s biography has been analyzed and his every move scrutinized. Few people are willing to make the connection between the killing of Muslims by the United States government and the inevitable hatred of the American people that is unleashed. It isn’t very complicated. Shahzad was angry about the continued killings of his people and he wanted to inflict the same suffering on Americans.
While politicians out do one another with demagoguery, the simplest cause of terrorism is ignored. The fear which always follows an attempted attack should be an impetus for Americans to think about the fear and terror their government visits upon the rest of the world. Instead, the same hand wringing and whining about “why they hate us” are the rule.
Why was Shahzad angry? Undoubtedly because thousands of Pakistanis and Afghans have been killed by American drone attacks. If we were at all encouraged to think beyond the “spectrum of thinkable thought” we might be able to speak with some intelligence on this issue. Instead we see Barack Obama and the rest of the Democrats succumbing to Republican demands to destroy our civil liberties at home and continue mass death abroad.
“Court decisions are clear that the renunciation of American citizenship must also take place before it can be taken away.”
Attorney General Eric Holder made the rounds of Sunday morning talk shows and made it clear he is bowing to lies and the political expediency that follows: “I think we have to give serious consideration to at least modifying that public-safety exception [to the Miranda protections. And that's one of the things that I think we're going to be reaching out to Congress, to come up with a proposal that is both constitutional, but that is also relevant to our times and the threats that we now face."
Senator Lieberman’s proposed Terrorism Expatriation Act (TEA) goes even further. The constitution has very strict rules regarding the removal of American citizenship. Sworn allegiance to an enemy is insufficient cause to strip citizenship. Court decisions are clear that the renunciation of American citizenship must also take place before it can be taken away. It is shocking that Lieberman, an attorney, would peddle this nonsense that even if passed would be struck down by the courts. For now, the always cringing Democrats aren’t saying very much. Of course they always allow Lieberman, a Democrat who endorsed the Republican candidate without punishment from his party, to do whatever he likes.
Both the Clinton and Bush administrations prosecuted terror cases in criminal court, with all rights of suspects being preserved. All of these cases resulted in convictions and at the time, no protest from Republicans. The cry for the awful enemy combatant designation in the cases of Shahzad and Umar Abdulmultallab should spark outrage and debate about American actions abroad. While political demagoguery becomes the norm, our government’s acts of terror continue with little protest.
“Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is repeating the demand that Pakistan speed up the killing of its own people in order to satisfy her government’s demands.”
Now the Obama administration claims that the Pakistan Taliban were responsible for this act. We don’t know if that is true, we don’t know if their claims that Shahzad is talking are true either. We can only be certain that political considerations come first. Now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is repeating the demand that Pakistan speed up the killing of its own people in order to satisfy her government’s demands. The Shahzads in Pakistan and in the United States will also be like ticking time bombs, growing more and more angry about the deaths of their people and more determined to strike back.
The sickening propaganda which makes invasion and occupation appear acceptable and even beneficial continues with little opposition. As long as the country lives under the grip of empire building and white supremacy, the rest of the world will be in danger and Americans will be endangered by the inevitable repercussions.
One day our luck will run out. A terror attack will not be carried out by someone trying to ignite his shoe or explosive placed in his underwear. The car bomb or other apparatus of death will be expertly put together and Americans will die. It isn’t right that anyone should die violently, but it isn’t worse for Americans to die under such circumstances than it is for people in Pakistan or Afghanistan. Of course, our government and media won’t say that. The end result will be an even louder cry for death from the nation that is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.
Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.com.
Email this page
Comments
It will be interesting to
It will be interesting to read more as indy media journalists uncover the story on the NYC foiled terror attack. I have doubts that the Pakistani Taliban was involved. Given the shenanigans uncovered regarding the Nigerian Xmas terrorist along with a boatload of other incidents throughout our history, it wouldn't surprise me to learn the CIA or some other US apparatchik manufactured the NYC incident to rachet up support to afflict more mayhem in the Middle East. The US has wanted for months that Pakistan govt rachet up the killing of its citizens. The CIA "predicted" a terrorist incident in the US would occur w/i 6 months and like clockwork it happens. The NYC foiled attack was too amatuerish to have been planned by the Taliban. Add to this the usual lies and disinformation disseminated by Washington and it's easy to be beyond skeptical about the whole mess.
There's a qualitative difference between...
a stupid M.F.r (GWB) and a craven, little pussy (BHO, and the Dems). If this wannabe car bomber, (with 82 cameras in Times Square, one of if not Thee busiest intersections in North America, has to get caught by a street vendor and a homeless man, when Ray Kelly is speedialed and linked up with Homeland Security and the myriad alphabet agencies responsible for "intelligence") can not only set the "act" into motion but damn near (like the Nigerian "jock-strap" bomber) get on the purported NO FLY LIST, then what the fuck more do yall need to know about "security." "Security" in America is like law and morality in America, it's pulled out of someone's ass.
Funny thing is how we all knew GWB was full of shit with his color-coded terror alerts and serendipitous "terrorist attempts," the one's that timely spiked the polls or set the tone for authoritarian policies. Now we have Obummer talking and walking the same as Bush, but he is even more full of shit than Bush. A fucking wino knows the Nigerian was a CIA plant, and same for the wannabe car bomber. If this M.F.r was trained by the Taliban somebody or something would have got blown up. They would have blown his ass up by remote control at minimum. An engineering student (Nigerian) and a well-educated man (wannabe car bomber) can't execute shit a high school, weed-smoking drop out can do. If the Taliban was behind this, they'd at least be smart enough to put a white, male meth user behind the wheel, give a shit load of psuedoephedrine and the "get up" for a rolling meth lab. Under the circumstances this kind of individual would have a better chance of blowing some shit up than these two CIA fuckups. At least he'd leave a friggen bio-hazard?!
Americans are the scariest, dumbest people on the planet. What are the chickenshit Americans to do when Obummer's dirty war in Afghanistan starts to unravel? It's only a matter of time.
Update No.1:
Don't like my analysis then read the NY Times, those "first drafters of history." lol Read this shit and see if you don't fall out of your chair at the keystone cops spending untold billions on "intelligence gathering." And these people are keeping you safe? I say "you" cause I don't believe shit they do or say.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/us/19intel.html
"The blunders took place at every major intelligence agency and included computer glitches, misspellings and poor analysis, the committee said. Together, the failures meant that the Nigerian passenger, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was never placed on a no-fly list even though his father had warned American diplomats that he might have joined militants in Yemen, where the bombing was planned by a branch of Al Qaeda."
.......
"The report left few agencies unscathed. The State Department should have revoked Mr. Abdulmutallab’s visa after his father reported his suspicions to the American embassy in Nigeria, it found.
At the Central Intelligence Agency, the report said, important reports were never given to all relevant officers, one division failed to search the right databases, analysts failed to connect different reports on Mr. Abdulmutallab, and critical information was not sent to other agencies until after Dec. 25.
A counterterrorism analyst at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the report said, never saw relevant information on Mr. Abdulmutallab because her computer profile was configured incorrectly. The National Security Agency, which intercepts electronic communications, “did not pursue potential collection opportunities” that could have identified the threat, it said."
Joe Lieberman
At this point, nothing that Joe Lieberman does these days in terms of law is shocking. He should've been cut from the Democratic party altogether since he is now an independent. He's a turncoat period and has proven, at least to me, he cannot be trusted at all. I wonder often what country does he have alligence to?
Also its interesting the acronym of this proposed act is TEA.
No way
"Instead we see Barack Obama and the rest of the Democrats succumbing to Republican demands to destroy our civil liberties at home and continue mass death abroad."
Please. The Democrats are -- and have been for a long, long time -- neck and neck with the Republicans here. Let's please stop all this bullshit about Democrats as "spineless" or "cowardly" and being bullied by Republicans into taking positions and enacting legislation against their "true" beliefs.
The Democrats are just as happy to eliminate civil liberties for the majority, screw the middle and working classes, and suck up to the ruling class as the Republicans, in no small part because they think they are the ruling class.
When Republicans do these sorts of things, they are pandering to their base and they gain votes. No guts required. When Democrats do these sorts of things, they are pandering to their true base -- the ruling class -- and telling their ostensible "base" -- the working class -- to go fuck themselves. They stand to lose votes and lose their jobs -- ironically, to Republicans! It's a difficult line they must walk, pretending to care about progressive issues while enriching and empowering themselves and their ruling class masters. It's the Democrats who really have a lot of nerve.
Can we PLEASE stop pretending that it's otherwise? With decades of evidence readily available, can we PLEASE just be honest with ourselves and admit that ALL of the evidence shows that the Democrats have zero interests in common with the people who vote for them? Please?