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Asking
the Tough Questions
November
2, 2001
by Ian Lohr
Who has benefited from the criminal disasters of September
11?
1. The former Governor of Texas, George W. Bush, whose approval
ratings in the office he was not elected to were under 50%
on September 10 and is now the most popular President in American
history, with a mandate to force his formerly unpopular radical
reactionary agenda down our throats.
2. Attorney General John Ashcroft, whose Justice Department
now has the expanded police powers he said he wanted during
his confirmation hearings.
3. The entire United States Military Industrial Complex,
who now have a practically infinite budget.
4. General Pervez Musharref, Totalitarian Military Dictator
of Pakistan, who now enjoys the official support of the United
States, and several billion dollars in American foreign aid.
5. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other hardliners in Israel,
who now enjoy the support of the United States in their Jihad
against the Palestinians.
6. The Carlyle Group, a military consulting firm owned by
Osama Bin Laden's family which employs former President
George Bush Sr. and received this week the largest defense
contract in history, over $200 Billion.
7. Enron Oil, owners of the incomplete Afghanistan Pipeline,
whose project was threatened with nationalization by the Taliban,
and will soon be pumping billions of barrels of oil per day
out of US-occupied territory in Central Asia.
8. President Andres Pastrana Aragano of Colombia, who was
facing intense competition for his nation's only significant
export from cheap Afghanistani heroin.
9. Every anti-democracy nutball with an axe to grind, who
can now accuse their opponents (the usual suspects, including
liberals, feminists, the entertainment industry, teacher's
unions, environmentalists, religious minorities, sexual minorities
and advocates of sexual freedom) of being unpatriotic, or
worse, bringing down the wrath of god by misbehaving.
10. Everyone who sold airline stock short on September 11.
The SEC has reported over $23 billion in unclaimed profits
from short sales which could not be cashed in due to the market
closures that week. These transactions were set in motion
up to a week before, which indicates that the person or persons
responsible had foreknowledge of the attacks.
Who has been victimized?
1. The Fallen, their families, friends, co-workers, and the
entire population of New York City.
2. The employees of major airlines, the tourism and hotel
industries, and others who have or will lose their jobs, without
any assistance or compensation from the government.
3. The families of our valiant men and women in uniform,
who have seen their loved ones sent halfway around the world
to get killed in another desert.
4. Patriotic Muslim, Arab, Sikh and Central Asian Americans,
who have been subjected to widespread public hostility and
violence, and more than 1,000 of whom have been 'detained'
without trial in the justice department's terror investigation
due to racial and religious profiling.
5. Patriotic pacifists, liberals, feminists, members of the
entertainment industry, public schoolteachers, environmentalists,
atheists, agnostics, sexual minorities and advocates of sexual
freedom, who have been unfairly blamed for bringing down the
wrath of god by misbehaving.
6. The innocent people of Afghanistan, who had enough problems
before the United States began bombing their schools, hospitals,
nursing homes and residential neighborhoods in a frantic attempt
to kill Osama Bin Laden and members of his organization, or
at least somebody with the same color skin.
7. The innocent people of Palestine, Syria, Libya, Iraq,
and other 'state sponsors of terrorism' who will
probably also have their schools, hospitals, nursing homes
and residential neighborhoods bombed very soon.
8. Middle class American workers, who face hefty increases
in payroll taxes to foot the bill for the runaway military
and law enforcement budget.
9. American schoolchildren and senior citizens, who will
suffer because federal funding for education and health care
has vanished into the ever-increasing military and law enforcement
budget.
10. The Constitution of the United States of America, which
is now under attack from a government that was relatively
hostile to it in the first place (except the second amendment
of course.)
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