In Search of Terrorists Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Vanguard (Lagos) October 18, 2001 http://allafrica.com/stories/200110180512.html In Search of Terrorists Al-Bashir WHO were the terrorists that shattered the American invisibility in a most gruesome manner? If you don't know, find out from the Americans. They all have ready answers. Glued to their teeth, the answers reel out without a spare thought. Muslims/Arabs led by Osama bin Laden, apparently the only sworn enemy of the single giant. So, the 19 Muslim/Arab names that were found on the manifests of the four hijacked planes were all suspects, not victims. By the biological definition of their human status and the conception of their belief, they do not qualify as part of the victims but rather a wider network of the terrorist gang out to hurt the pride of "the only super power." Virtually all the 7 million Muslims in "God's own country" belong to the ring. And as administration officials seemingly passed this "truthful" verdict without the benefit of the doubt, U.S. patriots became the executioners of this valid judgement. Now American Muslims have no place to hide in a country that believes so much in the rule of law, so much so that by the definition of my name I am already a qualified terrorist, without even my proper knowing of the word. Cynics may add that of the 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, only the lunatics and the deranged among them would dare set foot in America. For a long time to come, the land of the powerful remains a "no-go area" for Muslims/Arabs, particularly given President Bush's verdict that ".... they (i.e Muslims) want to drive Christians and Jews out of Mideast and Africa," for which he got a standing ovation. The people needed no further proof to agree with their president. He has set an agenda for the religious polarisation of the globe with mindful satisfaction. His list of terrorist countries are pointedly directional: Afghanistan, its former friend in war against communism; Iraq, another old companion, Libya, the persistent enemy; Palestine, the friend's deadly foe; Lebanon the destroyed nation, Iran, the unrepentant sponsor of terrorism against Israel; Syria, the reluctant enemy, etc. Bush broadened it to include all those who are not with America. "You are either with us or with the terrorists," he flatly told us without our choice in the matter. So, those who do not wish to swallow all of its venom are also terrorists and may be fished out, a la Noriega, to be flown to the mother country. To save necks, we know the only option: believe in the theory of guilt without evidence. bin Laden is of course at the top echelon of the 1.5 billion Muslim terrorists worldwide. Even with McVeigh's Oklahoma as evidential historical antecedent, such historical points are treated as unnecessary footage in the face of the rule of stereotype. And so bin Laden is, as a point of fact, a terrorist and McVeigh the innocent good citizen of America who can't possibly be described a terrorist for roasting 160 people, mostly children, in a day-care centre. And the essence of judicial justice is lost and truth sidelined to the realm of historical shadow. Evidence, as required by the rule of law, has since become a casualty, as the poor Americans who perished in the barbaric debacle. The rule of law itself is another victim, the right to fair hearing a misnomer. In the web of these intrigues, no one is sparing a thought that the 19 names dished out by FBI as the suspected terrorists, could be innocent victims like the rest. By the nature of their names and religion, they couldn't be anything but Islamic terrorists. Case a blast that shattered this stereotype: Five of the nineteen "terrorists," believed to have died in the crash, are well and kicking in various Middle East countries. One of them, Abdul Aziz Alomari, whose name is on the FBI watch list as one of the dead terrorists, told newshounds that he was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, when the blast occurred, adding that when on a training in that country, he lost his passport there in 1995 and reported it, accordingly to the Police. Another, Alshehri, is a pilot with Saudi Airlines working in their Morocco office right now. Three others came forward to prove to the world that they were still alive and not dead as claimed by the FBI. In the face of such glaring inadequacies, it is difficult for the rational to sustain the American charges which have now led to attacks on Arabs/Muslims in U.S. and U.K. The cases of the five people make it attractive for U.S. intelligence to venture out beyond the bounds of stereotype in order to fish out the real culprits. As McVeigh has adequately proved, there are lots of dissatisfied groups in America who are not happy with the status quo. The Mafia gangs are among such. Who killed Kennedy? Who attempted to kill Reagan? Let account be taken of the fact that America has the greatest crime rate in the world. Such ought not be discounted in matters of this nature. There have been muted insinuations within certain circles that Israel was behind the bombing of U.S. missions in Kenya and Tanzania, as a strategic camouflage to draw U.S. anger against Arabs/Muslims. This may be far from the truth, but the line could still be explored. Of course, it might sound absurd that Israel would do such a thing to the U.S. Still this has to be seen against the liberal attitude of the Clinton administration towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Far from suggesting that Tel Aviv did this, the point is that no shred of evidence should be discounted in the ongoing search for the terrorists who caused the barbaric act. The Americans must come to terms with the fact that they helped in creating the monsters they are out in the field fighting today, through the use of expediency as a diplomatic weapon. The monsters were their sparring partners hatching anti-Soviet plots together. This was how Hamas, bin Laden, Saddam and several others were created. Yesterday, they were the best of friends, today they are the worst of enemies. Perhaps U.S policy planners need to learn one or two lessons - that expediency cannot be a permanent feature of productive diplomacy. In this moment of pain, we must learn to appreciate the wisdom in deep reflection; in this period of grief, we must learn to be sober; in this era of sadness, the will for vengeance must not be allowed to prosper beyond the bounds of reason; in this difficult time, we must allow concrete evidence, (not manufactured evidence) to dictate action. The wisdom of the mind has always been bringing calamity to humanity. The dictates of the head is what matters in this moment of grief as we engage in the long search for terrorists. For sure, they are everywhere, including America and we should not for a moment think otherwise. After all, terrorists have no international boundaries, especially in the case of U.S. which grants citizenship to people at random sampling: an excellent policy that could breed homegrown terrorism a la McVeigh. Copyright (c) 2001 Vanguard. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytaf-10.19.01-09:54:37-6951