Terrorist Plot
This "homegrown jidahist" story stinks to me. I wish I knew more information, because I don't trust what the government is saying. This reminds me a lot more of indictments of communists in the early 20th century than it does of breaking up a genuine terrorist cell. But I guess we will see, so I won't say anything more than that.
posted by Todd Martin at 1:12 PM
4 Comments:
This is a country that would not execute a man proven to have direct involvement in the planning of 9-11. These suspects will get their day in court and will receive more than a fair chance to prove their innocence; besides, the government is facing their share of heat for unnecessarily aggressive anti-terror policies, so they'll have been careful here.
We also cannot be nieve enough to think that there are no elements of radical Islam in our country.
Actually, nobody ever believed that Moussaoui (I think that's how it's spelled) was 'directly involved' in the planning of the 9/11 attacks. At best, it was felt that he was a peripheral character, which is why the jury did not give him the death sentence (along with the very wise decision not to create any more martyrs than this war already has). He was, more than anything, shown to be a woefully schizophrenic character consumed with self-delusions of his own importance. The government of the US is entirely indifferent to any sort of 'heat' that it receives over it's policy of torture, as it shows in it's continual denial that anything untoward is going on at all. In fact, on 'Hardball', as a ridiculously compliant Norah O'Donnell nodded from her anchor position, a US official who is an 'overseer' of the Gitmo prison, all but made it seem as though the Cuban-based jail is a summer camp for 'troubled Muslims'...I agree, it seems quite likely there are elements of radical Islam in the US, but as Todd warily admits, I too question the viability of these characters who were just arrested. It's too early to tell, but seeing as how the citizens of this country are now almost entirely left in the dark as to any of the workings which this government undertakes in the name of 'homeland security', it would be foolish to imagine that we will ever know the truth one way or the other. The Congress has been effectively neutered, the press is consistently attacked as 'left wing traitors', etc. To call this country a 'democracy' in the most basic sense seems to be incorrect-- a democracy implies that the will of the people must be heeded..this is no longer the case, and, in truth, it probably never really was.
Six reasons to execute Moussaoui aside from the punishment fitting the crime (knowledge and support of a massive terrorist attack):
1. Preventing him from having any influence, communication, and/or encouragement of others in or out of prison.
2. The remote possibility of a hostages/threat-for-Moussaoui exchange.
3. The remote possibility of escape.
4. The remote possibility of presedential pardon.
5. Cost
6. Desire of victims' families
Regardless of the fact that we should be torturing, often, based on the Alan Dershowitz model (Google it if you're unfamiliar), the government is made up of politicians who care about any kind of political ramifications.
While Bush's overall favorability is low, he is still running 50/50 on his handling on the war on terror. And that figure is bogged down by Iraq which is either not a part of that war or just one isolated theatre in it, depending on your point of view.
This is the typical Bush admin way of drumming up support when poll numbers are down and elections are forthcoming. Remember the "terror alerts" that were occuring seemingly on a bi-weekly basis before the 2004 election? How many terror alerts were made post-election? None. Even Tom Ridge, then director of Homeland Security acknowledged that these pre-election "alerts" were spurious at best and that he was encouraged to post alerts based on intelligence that had yet to be confirmed or corraborated. You can bet that this latest panic comes from the mind of Karl Rove. How better to keep voters from voting for "cut and run" Democrats than to keep people fearful of another 9/11? Meanwhile the Dems are not helping themselves. Rather than coming up with a cohesive indictment of Bush's woeful record (Iraq was based on a lie, debt and deficits are at record levels, corruption is the law of the land in Congress, Bush was asleep at the wheel for Katrina, tax cuts favor the ultra-rich while the min wage can't get an increase, etc, etc, etc) and a plan to make things better, Dems just in-fight and refuse to take any stand in fear of alienating swing voters.
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