Scared witless? Poll shows Americans willing to give up civil liberties
Ivo Skoric
ivo at reporters.net
Sun Dec 9 17:04:06 CET 2001
http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/poll/civil_liberties/index.html
http://www.npr.org/news/specials/civillibertiespoll/011130.poll.html
This just proves that all societies react similarily to threats of
violence. They cave in, rally around the flag, and look for strong and
decisive leadership (a "strong hand" as we used to call it in the
former Yugoslav society). Fear is an important and very strong
motivator. I am critical of the laws, but I understand why majority is
not. And just like many others I am not overwhelmingly concerned
about the rights of Osama Bin Laden and his ilk. This threat,
however, came to the US that already had been inoculated with the
political correctness vaccine. So, now the Americans would like to
see the same people, that they painstakingly assert, that they do
not want to discriminate against, safely tucked behind bars or
worse. I have two fears - which, I believe, are legitimate:
1) that the new rules are written too broadly and may be abused
and applied too widely (although the government did not yet provide
any evidence to support that, but, then, the rules are around barely
a couple of months).
2) that the threat will pass and the new rules will stay, i.e. that we
are going to remain stuck with the less open society and less free
country once the 'evil ones' go away.
ivo
ps - what will happen with arrested terrorists who are US citizens?
after all, the case of 3 Taliban fighters, US citizens, is REAL,
however unrealistic it may sound...
NY POST: PRO-TALIBAN HIPPIE "RAT"; BUNGLING
CIA MOLE "HERO"
An amusing Dec. 7 New York Post story related how CIA
agent Johnny Spann grilled US-born Taliban fighter John Walker
just before the Kala-i-Janghi fortress where the prisoners were
being held exploded into rebellion. Walker, 20, a gullible hippie
who wound up in the Taliban army after journeying to the East
to seek spiritual discovery, actually found enough backbone not
to respond with as much as a syllable to Spann's repeated
questions. The story was predictably headlined "HERO vs
RAT"--despite the fact that Spann's keystone kop antics
(condescending attempt at "native" garb, trigger-happy response
to being jumped by a captive) likely sparked the conflagration in
which he lost his life (See WW 3 REPORT #10).
A sniveling Dec. 5 report in National Review relates how
Walker's parents in California continued to subsidize his Islamic
studies in Yemen and Pakistan even after it became clear that he
was under the sway of fundamentalist extremism. Surprisingly,
Walker isn't alone. CBS News reported Dec 4: "US and allied
Afghan forces are holding three former Taliban fighters who
claim to be American citizens."
These strange cases raise the question of whether Walker and
his fellow ex-pat Taliban cannon fodder will be tried before
civilian courts (on what charges?) or military tribunals (ostensibly
closed to US citizens) or simply returned to their families
(providing more fodder for the NY Post and National Review to
grouse about how America coddles hippie terrorists). US
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the Los Angeles Times
Dec. 5: "We found a person who says he's an American, with an
AK-47, in a prison with a bunch of al-Qaeda and Taliban
fighters. And you can be certain he will have all the rights he is
due. We are looking at the various options at the present time."
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