Case in point. This week we've been bombarded by the news that a young Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutalla, tried to blow up an airliner that was landing in Detroit. We hear that this young man has been tracked for a long time, that his father met with US authorities (the CIA) to warn them that his son was talking about being a suicide bomber. But as reported on ABC News, all that information was so "vague" that the man wasn't put on the no-fly list. Hmm.
That sounds a little like the "oops" explanation about the fellows who flew the planes into the World Trade Centers. "Gee, we were following them for years, but our information was still a little vague." Of course many security agents had been instructed to end their investigations of those men and their flying lessons. Hmm.
See, I'm skeptical because a friend of mine who wrote a respectful letter to George W. Bush during the buildup to the invasion of Iraq stating that he was opposed to the invasion on both practical and moral grounds--that friend immediately was put on the no-fly list. He didn't threaten, he didn't use inflammatory language, he simply voiced his opposition to killing a few hundred thousand people. That apparently wasn't a "vague" threat to the powers that be. Hmm.
Could it be that national security is a selective process? Could it be that there is a political (for want of a better word) strategy behind all these things? Could it be that when it is convenient for there to be a tragedy which has Americans BEG their government to remove more of their freedoms and liberties and support any number of wars--could it be that then no amount of evidence would be deemed anything but "vague?"
We lived through the horror of 9/11 here in New York City. What I saw from my government was a power grab of horrifying proportions--accompanied by a staggering inhuman attitude to firemen, rescue workers, and average New Yorkers.
That isn't vague to me--it is something so glaringly and blatantly wrong that I'm inclined to believe the worst about the people in power.
As we sacrifice more young Americans to insure that the USA owns the oil pipelines that will run through Afghanistan and that Russia and China won't, I continue to shake my head and wonder why the people who are speaking the truth in this country are called "conspiracy theorists." And with each shake I also wonder why the liars, drunk with their genocidal power, are called the authorities.
If I see you walking down the street shaking your head, I'll be encouraged to know that there is someone else who is inwardly saying "Hmmm" to the madness.
