In justifying his request to expand the unprecedented government spy powers given to the Attorney General and Director of National Intelligence under the Protect America Act, President George W. Bush said yesterday that, while the Protect America Act is due to expire in 135 days, “The threat from al Qaeda is not going to expire in 135 days.”
What threat from al Qaeda?
It’s the question that no one is asking, and that’s the success of right wing propaganda. Almost everyone in the United States assumes that there is a threat from al Qaeda, without really knowing that it’s the case at all.
In fact, people assert that there is a threat from al Qaeda despite evidence to the contrary. The Department of Homeland Security, as much as it loves to whip up the fears of American citizens, has stated many times this year that there is no sign of any specific, credible threat of an attack by al Qaeda. Less than just two weeks ago, the Department of Homeland Security repeated this admission.
There are no specific, credible threats of an attack by al Qaeda.
Oh, sure, Osama Bin Laden recently released a video in which he told Americans that we all ought to become Muslims. Bid Laden said, “As soon as the warmongering owners of the major corporations realize that you have lost confidence in your democratic system and have begun to look for an alternative, and this alternative is Islam, they will run after you to please you and achieve what you want to steer you away from Islam.” Yammer, yammer, yammer. Osama Bin Laden lately sounds more like a weird hybrid of Michael Moore, Ron Paul and Cat Stevens than he sounds like a terrorist. He’s losing his edge.
Know what Osama Bin Laden did not say during that video? He never said anything about attacking the United States.
There is no threat from al Qaeda, at least not if you mean any threat to actually do anything to launch a terrorist attack in the United States. If you mean, however, that there is the possibility that al Qaeda will launch such an attack, then yes, there is a threat from al Qaeda. Then again, there is also the possibility that a giant asteroid will slam into the Earth tomorrow, or that a gamma ray burst will blast the Earth, or that the sun will explode, or that an unknown plague will kill billions of people by the end of the year.
Vague, looming threats of all kinds exist, but rational people do not allow those threats to interfere with their plans to lead free and happy lives. If you want to get nit picky, yes, there is a threat from al Qaeda, but it’s a vague, theoretical threat. That’s all.
There was a credible attack of a bomb attack in Brunswick, Maine this month, most likely from a disgruntled high school student. Al Qaeda can’t even muster that much.
Unfortunately, the lack of any concrete threat from al Qaeda does not stop Americans from acting as if there is one. This month, for example, the New York City Police Department made unannounced security checks at synagogues just in case terrorists were lurking around, in spite of the fact that there was no credible, specific threat of an impending terrorist attack against any of the synagogues.
And then there’s the Protect America Act. In the middle of the summer, citing the vague, theoretical threat from al Qaeda, Congress, including many Democrats, gave the federal government the power to listen in on Americans’ telephone calls, read their emails, and track their activities online without any effective restraint. Now, George W. Bush, saying that “The threat from al Qaeda is not going to expire in 135 days,” is asking for that power to be extended and to be expanded.
The thing is, that as George W. Bush defines “the threat from al Qaeda”, as vague and theoretical as it is, the threat will probably not expire for his entire lifetime, or yours. Bush’s has given so much rewarding attention to the al Qaeda criminal gang that there will probably by some group running around under the name al Qaeda, making general claims that it’s going to get the United States, one hundred years from now.
Will we allow the federal government to listen to our phone calls, read our private mail, and keep records of what we do online for the next hundred years? If we follow Bush’s distorted line of reasoning, yes, we will.
Timid Americans will prefer to give up their freedoms, rather than feel exposed to even the idea of a threat from al Qaeda. For the rest of us, it’s time to stop cringing, and time to stop giving power to Osama Bin Laden and his pipsqueak gang. It’s time to take a rational look at the real threats to our way of life. By the Department of Homeland Security’s own assessment, there is no looming threat from al Qaeda.
The threat from al Qaeda has already expired. The threat we must face now is from power-hungry opportunists in our own government, who want to use laws like the Protect America Act to destroy the Bill of Rights.
(Sources: CTV, September 7, 2007; The Times-Record , September 17, 2007; New York Newsday, September 6, 2007; ABC News, September 19, 2007)
