WHO ARE THE REAL TERRORISTS?

Hi-de-ho, fellow noncons and innocent bystanders. 'Tis I, Andrew the Bad,

back in black and ready to rock the net with another set of excoriating

and exoricating essays with the natural abrasiveness of an unrepentant and

unreconstructed S.O.B.. After two full months on the sideline, I'm ready

to get back in the game.

Using Crispin's formula for terrorism--p to q, q to r--I will apply same

to current government actions, foreign and domestic. Since September 11,

2001, the Bush administration has stepped up its entanglements in the

Middle East. It has also stepped up its entanglements in domestic affairs.

While its current international movements seem to be primarily focused on

diplomatic efforts, its actions at home have become more intrusive:

increased use of roving wiretaps, military tribunals, 'temporary'

suspensions of civil liberties, detentions of 'suspicious' persons for

indefinite periods without formal accusations or sentences, increased

enforcement of internal passport (ID) laws, and so on. But none of this is

or should be surprising.

Every President since JFK--I'm using his interrupted Presidency as an

arbitrary starting point--has done his part to erode civil liberties. LBJ

and 'no-knock' warrants and expanded wiretap provisions. Nixon with his

Enemies' List (a California gubernatorial tradition; Reagan had one too)

and increased use of government force against dissent, climaxing in the

deaths of students at Kent and Jackson State. Carter and his reinstatement

of the draft. Reagan and his attacks on unions, his secret paramilitary

wars. Bush's clampdown on media during the Gulf War and increased arrests

of drug and other suspects.

But that's not the best part: Clinton, a supposed Democrat, and his

dismemberment of habeus corpus, increased arrests of marijuana users (more

than any Republican President!),

the introduction of roving wiretaps, deporting suspected terrorists while

depriving them of the right to confront their accusers, unwarranted and

previously illegal detention of asylum applicants and aliens. (All of the

above can be confirmed in Nat Hentoff's Village Voice column of 5/7/02.)

And now Bush and Ashcroft are taking credit for all of these incursions

while urging all Americans to give up our hard-won freedoms 'temporarily'

so we can all be safer--or else.

The actions of September 11, horrific and terribly misguided as they were,

were partly payback for our preceived meddling and attempts at hegemony in

the Middle East. In the eyes of many Arabs, the schoolyard bully finally

got a beating. And in true bully fashion, we are lashing out in

disingenuously bewildered rage at perceived enemies without and within.

I have three simple questions: How does it help our image at home and

abroad to treat US residents like suspected terrorists? Are we the enemy?

Or are we just an easier, 'softer' target?

www.carolmoore.net

http://prorev.com

www.villagevoice.com