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CounterPunch
February
13, 2003
Let's Call Bush on His Bogus
Terror Threats
The Propaganda
of Anxiety
By KURT NIMMO
FEMA and Tom Ridge say I need to be prepared.
This is what they tell me I need to do:
rush out to the local hardware store and buy duct tape, plastic
sheeting, and batteries for the radio. Next run over to the grocery
store and stock up on bottled water and food. FEMA says I should
keep some of this stuff separated in a backpack just in case
we need to evacuate quickly.
Bush elevated the color-coded terrorism
threat level to orange last week in response to the possibility
of a chemical or biological attack. Ridge told reporters the
other day the terrorism alert issued last week is "the most
significant" since 911. "The threat is real,"
he warned.
Yeah, right.
I'm not rushing out to the store. I'm
not buying into Bush's propaganda war. I don't think al-Qaeda
is capable of launching a chemical or biological assault of any
measurable significance against America. In fact, I don't think
al-Qaeda is anywhere near as organized and ominous as Bush and
Ridge and the corporate media keep telling us it is. It's nothing
more than a terrifying and mostly imaginary monster used to frighten
the people into acquiescence.
Are there pissed off Muslims who'd kill
Americans if given half the chance?
You bet.
There's also pissed of Israelis who'd
kill Palestinians, pissed off Hindus who'd kill Muslims, and
pissed off drivers who'd run you down for making a lane change.
I'm more worried about this last category than I am about anything
Osama bin Laden may or (more likely) may not do. I'm more worried
about some nut with a gun freaking out while I'm shopping for
my plastic sheeting and duct tape than I am about becoming a
"soft" target for al-Qaeda. I'm more worried about
Tom Ridge and the Ministry of Homeland Security, John Ashcroft
and the Justice Department, and what FEMA may have in mind for
me and others who not only think these so-called terrorists alerts
are pure and unadulterated bullshit, but who also think Bush
is an illegitimate poseur and the invasion of Iraq will be an
immense crime perpetuated against humanity.
Now don't get me wrong. I think there's
a good chance there will be some kind of "terrorist"
attack in the near future.
Bush needs a terrorist attack, so there
will be one.
Remember the anthrax scare that followed
on the heels of 911? Remember how frightened everybody was? People
were scared to go out and collect their mail. Remember the Bushites
attempting to place the blame on Saddam? Well, as it now turns
out, Saddam bought the Vollum strain of anthrax from American
Type Culture Collection, a company based in Rockville, Maryland.
The anthrax used in the Washington attacks was traced back to
the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
at Fort Detrick, Maryland. It was the Ames strain, not the Vollum
strain.
Put two and two together.
Who do you think sent out those microbe-infested
letters? It sure the hell wasn't Saddam Hussein. Since it now
appears somebody in the US military may have perpetuated this
terrorist attack, the FBI investigation has conveniently stalled.
Since Bush couldn't scam the people into thinking it was Saddam,
the crime will now be allowed to die a neglected death.
I'm more afraid of the CIA and the Department
of Defense than Saddam Hussein. Why? Because they actually have
an extensive track record of using biological, chemical, and
nuclear agents on unsuspecting Americans.
The CIA has dosed people with LSD without
their consent, the Navy released a cloud of bacteria from ships
in San Francisco, the US military released toxic clouds of zinc
cadmium sulfide gas over Winnipeg, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Fort
Wayne, the Monocacy River Valley in Maryland, and Leesburg, Virginia.
Thousands of people were exposed to the airborne germs Serratia
marcescens and Bacillus glogigii in New York and San Francisco.
Mosquitoes infected with Yellow Fever were released over Savannah,
Georgia, and Avon Park, Florida. The US Army dropped light bulbs
filled with Bacillus subtilis variant niger into ventilation
grates throughout the New York City subway system. In 1987 the
Department of Defense admitted that, despite a treaty banning
research and development of biological agents, it continued to
operate research facilities at 127 facilities and universities
around the nation. In 1995 the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation
Experiments (formed by President Clinton in January 1994) concluded
that several different agencies of the US government had conducted
thousands of human radiation experiments and several hundred
intentional releases of radiation.
No, I'm not particularly worried about
Saddam Hussein.
It's Donald Rumsfeld I'm worried about.
In 1983 Rummy traveled to Iraq to shake
hands with Saddam Hussein -- and soon thereafter the Reaganites
showered the brutal Iraqi regime with scads of military intelligence,
economic aid, and covert supplies of munitions (including the
aforementioned anthrax) for use in its war against Iran. "It
is hard to believe that, during most of the 1980s, America knowingly
permitted the Iraq Atomic Energy Commission to import bacterial
cultures that might be used biological weapons," writes
Christopher Dickey and Evan Thomas (the quote is taken from an
article Senator Byrd inserted in the Congressional Record on
September 20, 2002).
Rumsfeld the Enabler, now leading the
charge against Saddam. These guys are really a piece of work.
Why should you trust them any further than you can throw them?
Is it crazy to think Bush and his Masters
of Death and Destruction at the Pentagon would pull off a bio
attack and blame it on Saddam or the now mythical (or apparently
invisible) Osama bin Laden?
Nope.
All you have to do is surf on over to
the National Security Archive's website and search for "Operation
Northwoods." It will return a formerly top secret document
titled "Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in
Cuba." It was cobbled together by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Seems the Joint Chiefs thought it was a dandy idea to stage assassinations,
blow up things (like passenger airplanes), and sink ships jammed
full of refugees and blame it all on the Cubans as a pretext
for an invasion of Cuba. The Joint Chiefs were gunning for Castro.
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and President Kennedy nixed
this fantastically fascist idea.
Would Bush and Rummy do the same?
Cui bono? That's Latin for "who
benefits?" It's a term used a long time ago when the Romans
were investigating crimes. It's an expression that pops in my
head when Ridge and FEMA start talking about making sure you
have a flash light and battery operated radio and a big roll
of duct tape because you never know when Saddam or al-Qaeda or
some enemy who hates our way of life may release anthrax or small
pox or blow up a dirty bomb in the parking lot of the Mall of
America. Cui bono? Not Saddam because it would give the US a
perfect excuse to bomb the hell out of his country like the US
bombed the hell out of Afghanistan after 911. Saddam might be
a sadist but he certainly isn't an idiot. Also, as a megalomaniac,
he wants to stay in power. Killing shoppers in Cleveland or Tampa
is the wrong way to go about making sure you stay in power (or
remain alive).
It just doesn't make sense.
Of course, since the Bush administration
thinks Americans are so gullible (and, unfortunately, too many
of them are), they keep throwing out flimsy and transparent pretenses
in a desperate attempt to pin terrorism on Saddam.
Secretary of State Colin Powell was no
sooner caught with his pants down at the United Nations -- thanks
to his buddy, Tony Blair, who gave him some kid's homework as
evidence against Saddam -- then Powell told the Senate Budget
Committee he had a transcript "of what Bin Laden, or who
we believe to be Bin Laden, will be saying on al-Jazeera during
the course of the day... Once again he speaks to the people of
Iraq and talks about their struggle and how he is in partnership
with Iraq." At first al-Jazeera said they had no such tape
and then later in the day they said they did. Maybe the CIA gave
Powell the tape before they delivered it to al-Jazeera? Oops.
But even if bin Laden really is on the
tape, so what?
He didn't say he was in "partnership"
with Saddam, but the Iraqi people. But then, since the US will
bomb the Iraqi people regardless, maybe this distinction is lost
on Powell (who, after all, said last time the US bombed Iraq
the number of dead wasn't something that "interested"
him). It's probably irrelevant to Powell, as well, that bin Laden
hates Saddam and offered to lead the mujahadeen against his secular
dictatorship.
None of this means squat at the end of
the day because the real target of Bush's attack is the Iraqi
people. For Bush and Rumsfeld and Cheney there is no difference
between Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi people. In fact, the Iraqi
people (and all the other people on Bush's hit list) are more
of a threat because they will resist occupation and subjugation.
Even if Saddam moved to Saudi Arabia
and shared a guest house with Idi Amin, even if he stood on his
head on the White House lawn and kissed Dubya's shoes, it wouldn't
change the fact Bush and Crew are going to kill an additional
500,000 or more innocent Iraqis. Murder's in the script and the
UN, the French, the Germans, and millions of Americans demonstrating
in the street will not change it.
Bush is attempting to whip up fear and
hysteria with these completely transparent threat warnings.
For Americans, his message is: Although
we cannot give you specifics on the terrorist threat, you need
to prepare, you need to be in a state of paranoid readiness,
you need to hate and fear the people we say you need to hate
and fear (today Saddam, yesterday Osama, next week maybe Kim
Jung-il of North Korea), who are our official enemies, our shifting
visage of Emmanuel Goldstein.
The American people certainly need to
be prepared for the next anthrax scare or worse (maybe a controlled
release of chicken pox so you won't question that needless vaccination)
because there's one country after another that needs to be invaded.
Oh, and the Son of Patriot Act needs
to be steamrolled through Congress. Just in case you get any
funny ideas about freedom and liberty and all that stuff written
in the Constitution.
Son of Patriot Act is even more draconian
than its predecessor, but then the next attack may be more draconian
and severe than 911.
As for the Iranians, the Syrians, and
the North Koreans -- all they need to do is keep their eyes on
what will soon happen to the Iraqis.
All they need to do if they love their
children is submit to the new masters. All they need to do is
give up their oil and other natural resources to transnational
corporations. They also need to allow the US to set up military
bases.
In the meantime, I'm not buying sheets
of plastic and rolls of duct tape. I'm not watching CNN or Fox
News or tuning in my portable radio to the emergency station.
I won't hide in the closet or lock myself in the bathroom and
tape plastic sheets over the door. I refuse to cringe in fear
and hope Tom Ridge, John Ashcroft, and Dubya will save me from
the monsters they created (or, rather, the monsters the CIA created).
I'm calling a spade a spade.
If the DoD or the CIA or whatever malignant
"intelligence" agency decides it wants to gas the small
town where I live, or even parachute in bogus al-Qaeda operatives
to do us harm, there's nothing I can do about it.
Not directly, anyway.
All I can do is continue writing this
and attend the antiwar demonstrations here in my small town.
I can speak out, refuse to believe the lies, and urge my neighbors
and others I pass in the street to do the same. If there are
enough of us maybe one day soon we can put a stop to all this
madness and send Bush packing back to his ranch in Crawford,
Texas.
Or send him signed, sealed, and delivered
to International Criminal Court to face charges of crimes against
humanity.
On that day that happens it will be Christmas
all over the world.
Kurt Nimmo
is a photographer and multimedia developer in Las Cruces, New
Mexico. Visit his excellent online
gallery. He can be reached at: nimmo@zianet.com
We highly recommend regular visits to
Nimmo's website, Another
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