Thread: Wall Street Editorial Page: If the Government Claims You Are a Terrorist, Then You AR

May 17, 2012
Wall Street Editorial Page: If the Government Claims You Are a Terrorist, Then You ARE a Terrorist
Posted by Bill Anderson on May 17, 2012 06:12 AM

The "War on Terror" has become a sickness. Abroad, the U.S. Armed Forces either commit acts of war in small, defenseless countries or they are engaged in dirty wars of occupation, as we have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan. Drone strikes kill innocents and now the government has decided that Americans are so evil that they, too, need to feel the full force of the drone.

Cheering on every lie and abuse has been the neocon (emphasis on "con") Wall Street Journal editorial page and today we see the Journal's viewpoint in all its evil: the government should not have to face any restrictions at all when it comes to pursuing what it calls "terrorists." On top of that, the Journal goes on to lambast those few "Tea Party" Republicans who have the audacity to question the abuses of the FBI, the CIA, and the Armed Forces. The editorial states:

A week ago the world learned of another foiled airplane bombing attack by the Yemeni offshoot of al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden's successors are desperate to strike the U.S. again, which isn't news to most Americans but seems to elude some Members of Congress.

As early as Thursday, the House is due to vote on a measure that effectively declares the war on terror over in the U.S. and dismantles the legal architecture that has protected the homeland since 9/11. Any wonder Americans have so little respect for Congress? Or the Constitution has Presidents run the nation's wars?

The newest "foiled" attempt was yet another CIA "false flag" operation, but the WSJ wants us to believe that the brave U.S. Government agents, using their vast intelligence network that was gained through waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation" methods that in reality have produced nothing but hot air and lies at home, not to mention hatred of the USA by people abroad. But the editorial gets even better:

Adam Smith, a Washington State Democrat, and Michigan Republican and tea partier Justin Amash want to bar the U.S. military from capturing, detaining or interrogating any terrorist of any nationality captured on American soil. Their proposed amendment to next year's defense authorization bill more or less revokes the legal authority granted by Congress a week after 9/11 to fight terrorists on every front.

What this means in practice is that if al Qaeda big Ayman al-Zawahiri and his soldiers are captured overseas (say, in Pakistan), they can be detained by the military, interrogated, and dispatched to wherever the Commander in Chief decides. But if they happen to make it to the U.S., they will have to be handled like your neighborhood burglar. That means being read their Miranda rights, handed over to the local police and put before a civilian judge. The military or CIA couldn't question them to learn about future plots.

This is a bizarre distinction, as if America is not somehow part of the global terror battlefield. Try to explain that to the al Qaeda bombmakers in Yemen, or the residents of downtown Manhattan. The amendment would essentially reward al Qaeda operatives with better treatment for having the wit to get out of their caves and sneak into America to blow up civilians in shopping malls.

If this is not delusional thinking, then delusion is nonexistent. The only true "organized" terror "plots" in this country since 9/11 have been FBI or CIA-inspired "false flag" actions that were orchestrated and led by government agents. That includes the first "underwear bomber" action and the latest howler, the attempt to blow up a bridge near Cleveland, Ohio, by a gang that on their own probably could not blow up its own bongs.

But the neocon Journal is not done, as the editors include this lament:

The tragedy here is that the political battles over terrorist detention were finally calming down.

Wall Street Editorial Page: If the Government Claims You Are a Terrorist, Then You ARE a Terrorist « LewRockwell.com Blog


"And I say if your a neocon then you are a con", if the shoe fits..well...it fits a lot of them, from both sides of the isle.

Plaintiff in NDAA case: U.S. has ‘gone insane’ in its war on terror

By Eric W. Dolan
Thursday, May 17, 2012 22:59 EDT


Topics: citizens united ♦ District Judge Katherine Forrest ♦ Tangerine Bolen
Journalist Tangerine Bolen, who along with other activists and writers filed suit over an indefinite detention law, said Thursday that the citizens United States had become indifferent about their rights.

“This panoply of laws and circumstances over the last ten years have led to a milieu that is increasingly dangerous for our own citizens as well as citizens around the world,” she told The Young Turks host Cenk Ugyur. “The U.S. government has gone a little bit insane in its war on terror.”

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan, an Obama appointee, ruled on Wednesday that Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 likely violated due process rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment and free press rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Bolen and the other plaintiffs had claimed that Section 1021 of the $662 billion defense spending bill was unconstitutionally vague, and put them in fear of being arrested and held in military custody indefinitely.

Section 1021 covers anyone who has “substantially supported” or “directly supported” “al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners.” But the law does not define “substantially supported”, “directly supported” or “associated forces.” It allows the military to detain terrorism suspects without charge or trial.

Bolen said she was a moderate Democrat who voted for Obama, and expressed her disappointment that the President signed the law despite threatening to veto it.

Watch video, courtesy of Current TV, below:

video at link below


Eric W. Dolan has served as an editor for Raw Story since August 2010, and is based out of San Diego, California. He grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and received a Bachelor of Science from Bradley University. Eric is also the publisher and editor of PsyPost. You can follow him on Twitter @ewdolan.

Plaintiff in NDAA case: U.S. has ‘gone insane’ in its war on terror | The Raw Story



I would say the right word is 'apathy"