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Edited on Sat Jun-24-06 12:49 PM by bigtree
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 same 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 seven 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.
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.
It seemed no accident that FBI Director Mueller was scheduled for a major speech Friday 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 were busy outlining 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.
Certainly these would not be enough to hold down the anxiety rising among Americans about the continued occupation of Iraq and the growing casualties. Certainly these would not be enough to gin up support for a failed occupation in 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. These days, in the wake of 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.
The hapless looking group of men in Miami didn't match the breathless descriptions from the initial media broadcasts of a hateful cult of terrorists, bent on destroying America. 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.'
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.
"It is a very real threat," Cheney said yesterday. "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.
The Bush regime is fostering the creation of more individuals with a potential to act violently against our country or our interests with their mindless aggression, collateral killings, and their imperious expansionism. One of the first and most primary task the U.S. set their resources to (besides defending and refurbishing the Oil Ministry) was the reestablishment of the Iraqi army they had just disarmed. New weaponry was provided, military training was offered (including a SOA type military academy in Iraq), and the new government forces were encouraged as soon as they were able to war against those Iraqis who dared to oppose the new puppet authority.
Virtually no effort was made, until they needed participation in their military enabled election, to use the full force of diplomacy to bring the disparate factions and sects together. Muckraking and intimidation intended to cow the opposition into accepting the seating of the junta.
So it was in the case of this group of young men. There was no apparent positive intervention. The government seems to have encouraged the worst responses from these men, wasting lives and further endangering the community.
The government 'informant' in Miami, 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 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 shackled together for their appearance in court 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.
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 and endeavored to better themselves through spirituality and discipline.
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 directing these impressionable men in a positive direction, they were directed by the FBI to fulfill the 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.
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