Tuesday, August 13, 2002

Does Anyone Remember the Reichstag Fire?   We are living in a weird twilight zone of government and media fantasy about the war on terror.  After years of seeing more and more news treated solely as entertainment by networks and newsmagazines, the difference between fact and fiction has almost vanished.   Compare these two quotes:   Newsweek / MSNBC on June 24th   "The story of Padilla’s quiet capture is the best evidence yet that the war against Al Qaeda has entered an entirely new phase. If the war began dramatically, with planes crashing into buildings and the Taliban fleeing Afghanistan, it is now mostly underground—waged by terrorists, spooks, paramilitaries and G-men. It is, at last, the long twilight struggle George W. Bush promised, and then some; a shadow war that is equal parts Tom Clancy and John le Carre, with a little Torquemada thrown in, as U.S. allies like Pakistan and Egypt apply their own harsh interrogation techniques. The bounds of morality are unclear—and it may not be known until decades from now, when the histories are written, just how far America was willing to go to rid itself of this scourge."   New York Times on Aug 13:   "WASHINGTON (AP) -- An American touted by Attorney General John Ashcroft as a significant terrorism figure with plans to detonate a radioactive bomb is probably a ``small fish'' with no ties to al-Qaida cell members in the United States, law enforcement officials say. The FBI's investigation has produced no evidence that Jose Padilla had begun preparations for an attack and little reason to believe he had any support from al-Qaida to direct such a plot, said one of the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity." Unfortunately, this American, Jose Padilla, is currently held in a military prison on the direct order of George Bush as an enemy combatant, with no recourse or even the ability to meet with his lawyer.   The first time the government shouts “terrorist”, and then they make a mistake, it is possible to believe they were simply mistaken.  The second time they shout “terrorist”, and they cannot produce evidence or support, it is grounds for skepticism.   The third time, it is the Reichstag Fire.   For those of you who don’t know your history well enough, Hitler was elected Prime Minister of Germany in 1932, but he lacked totalitarian authority.  So in an act of terrorism the Nazi party burned the German parliment building called the Reichstag and blamed their rivals the communists.  In the ensuing uproar, Hitler dissolved the Reichstag, declared an emergency, and assumed his full dictatorial power.   The phony war on terrorism is rapidly becoming our version of the Reichstag fire.  Every time the government yells “terror”, things that seemed unthinkable just a few months ago become more commonplace.   We now have journalists from Newsweek (see above) writing about torture as if it was some joke that  may or may not be part of American policy.  We have an attorney general who conducts a show arrest to keep the American people in fear and off balance.  We have columnists in the Wall St. Journal, declaring that Iraq was behind Sept. 11th despite the entire intelligence community saying there is no evidence to prove it.   It took years for the press to become skeptical of the government’s lies about Vietnam.  Unfortunately, we do not have years today.  It is time to stop taking anything our government says about the war on terror at face value.  We are being lied to. 11:25:10 PM   comment []

© Copyright 2002 Toby Sackton. Last update: 12/26/2002; 9:29:42 PM.