Matt - Fighting Terrorism, Saving Tyrants

Jim Bovard jbovard at his.com
Thu Jan 10 23:21:08 PST 2002


Matt:
Thought you might enjoy this bouquet for the war on terrorism.
take it easy,
Jim


              USA Today   January 10, 2002

                   Don't bed down with tyrants to fight terrorism
                   By James Bovard

                   President Bush recently declared: "So long as anybody's
                   terrorizing established governments, there needs to 
be a war."
                   Bush rightfully sought international support for the campaign
                   to put the al_Qaeda terrorist network out of 
business. But the
                   war on terrorism threatens to become a license for tyranny.
                   The United Nations is concerned that an expansive call for
                   governments to crack down on terrorism - a crime that is not
                   clearly defined - is spurring a surge of oppression 
around the
                   world. Los Angeles Times writer William Orme detailed some of
                   the ways governments are exploiting the new war to repress
                   their citizens:

                   The Cuban government, as part of its war on 
terrorism, added a
                   new law allowing the death penalty for anyone who uses the
                   Internet to incite political violence.

                   Zimbabwe's war on terrorism includes a proposal to 
criminalize
                   any critical comment about President_dictator Robert Mugabe.

                   Syria bragged to the U.N. that financial support for
                   terrorists was effectively curtailed by the absence of any
                   private banking system or independent charities, Orme
                   reported. In other words, a government that totally destroys
                   freedom expects to be applauded as an 
anti_terrorist  superstar.

                   Bacre Waly Ndiaye, a chief U.N. human_rights 
officer, recently
                   complained: "In some countries, non_violent activities have
                   been considered as terrorism, and excessive 
measures have been
                   taken to suppress or restrict individual rights, 
including the
                   presumption of innocence, the right to a fair trial, freedom
                   from torture, privacy rights, freedom of expression and
                   assembly, and the right to seek asylum."

                   Many of these complaints, in fact, apply to the 
actions of the
                   Bush administration. A new law decimates individual 
privacy by
                   giving the FBI the de facto right to vacuum up practically
                   anyone's e_mail. Permanent resident aliens who publicly
                   criticize the U.S. government's war on terrorism 
can be banned
                   from re_entering the United States. Some have floated the
                   suggestion that permitting the torture of suspects could help
                   avert future terrorist attacks. And Bush's 
executive order for
                   military tribunals threatens to bring unsavory aspects of
                   Third World "justice" to American shores.

                   A myopic focus on private_sector criminals risks giving a
                   green light to more dangerous government abuses. A core
                   fallacy of the war on terrorism - as opposed to attacking and
                   destroying al_Qaeda - is that terrorism is worse 
than anything
                   else imaginable. Unfortunately, governments have 
committed far
                   worse abuses than al_Qaeda or any other terrorist cabal.


                 Official murderers
                   Mass murder was the most memorable achievement of some
                   20th_century governments. The Black Book of Communism, a 1997
                   scholarly French compendium, detailed how 85 million to 100
                   million people came to die at the hands of communist regimes
                   in the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia and elsewhere. In Death
                   by Government, R.J. Rummel declared that some 170 million
                   people were killed in one of "the myriad ways 
governments have
                   inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens and 
foreigners."

                  By raising terrorist attacks to the pinnacle of political
                   evil, the war on terrorism implicitly sanctifies whatever
                   tactic governments use in the name of repressing terrorism.
                   But, in the long run, people have far more to fear from
                   governments than from terrorists.

                    Bush's labeling of attacks on any "established 
government" as
                   a justification of counterterrorism ignores the 
fact that some
                   governments are little more than criminal 
conspiracies against
                   their victims. The United States was created as a result of
                   popular uprisings and attacks on an established government
                   that was far less oppressive than many current regimes in
                   Africa and Asia.

                   The Bush administration must find a way to fight terrorism
                   without sanctifying tyranny. The word "terrorism" must not
                   become an incantation that miraculously razes all existing
                   limits on government power. The fact that governments such as
                   Syria and Zimbabwe can justify their oppression by invoking
                   the war against terrorism is an embarrassment to anyone who
                   both opposes terrorism and favors human rights.

         James Bovard is the author of Lost Rights (St. Martin's 
Press, 1994)  and Freedom in
                   Chains (St. Martin's, 1999).

http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/2002/01/10/ncguest2.htm

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