Another distraction...
The NY times was asked by the US government not to reveal its secret monitoring program that left the bank transactions of ordinary Americans open to NSA scrutiny, but they went ahead and did it anyway. The press seem to be finally standing up to Bush, six years too late. Probably because all but a few slavering fascists in middle America have deserted the hapless language-mangler and they're worried about losing their audience. The Times is of course the paper that distiguished itself by running Greg Palast's investigation into vote rigging in florida FOUR YEARS after he broke it on Newsnight in Britain.(It was big news over here, in America it only ran on the internet.) Incidentally the US is currently looking for a way to jail reporters who publish leaked info. Freedom! Democracy!
So: more warrantless, illegal snooping.
This revelation was followed with convenient speed by the arrest of seven men in Florida for plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago. Well, I say "plotting" but the US attorney general admitted shortly afterwards that the men possessed no bomb making equipment, no illegal weaponry and had "no clear plan". Apparently they were arrested on the basis of a tapped phone conversation. The administration also claimed the men were planning to link up with Al Quaida but offered no evidence for this. I'd like to hear the incriminating conversation, maybe they'll play it at the trial. If the men get a trial - they could be sent straight to Guantanamo I suppose or be tried behind closed doors with the excuse that the evidence is sensitive to national security.
Maybe they would have blown up the tower, I don't know. But you cannot trust a government that tortures, that imprisons without trial, that breaks its own laws, that lies its nation into a war to do this fairly. The timing of their arrest was clearly intended to distract, not to prevent a threat. If they were going to link up with Al Quaida, surely more surveillance would have lead the authorities to bigger fish. Either an investigation has been interrupted for political purposes or this whole thing is yet more bullshit.
So: more warrantless, illegal snooping.
This revelation was followed with convenient speed by the arrest of seven men in Florida for plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago. Well, I say "plotting" but the US attorney general admitted shortly afterwards that the men possessed no bomb making equipment, no illegal weaponry and had "no clear plan". Apparently they were arrested on the basis of a tapped phone conversation. The administration also claimed the men were planning to link up with Al Quaida but offered no evidence for this. I'd like to hear the incriminating conversation, maybe they'll play it at the trial. If the men get a trial - they could be sent straight to Guantanamo I suppose or be tried behind closed doors with the excuse that the evidence is sensitive to national security.
Maybe they would have blown up the tower, I don't know. But you cannot trust a government that tortures, that imprisons without trial, that breaks its own laws, that lies its nation into a war to do this fairly. The timing of their arrest was clearly intended to distract, not to prevent a threat. If they were going to link up with Al Quaida, surely more surveillance would have lead the authorities to bigger fish. Either an investigation has been interrupted for political purposes or this whole thing is yet more bullshit.
posted by Ben at 12:25 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home