Security policies developed apparently in some government insane asylum
August 29, 2006
The whole aim of practical politics is
to keep the populous alarmed (and hence, clamorous to be led to
safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of
them imaginary.
- H.L.
Mencken, 1920
Our government has kept us in a
perpetual state of fear — kept us in a continuous stampede of
patriotic fervor — with the cry of grave national emergency.
Always there has been some terrible evil ... to gobble us up if we
did not blindly rally behind it.
- General
Douglas MacArthur, 1957
On September 11, 2001, when Prime Minister
Blair announced, in the wake of the disaster of the Twin Towers —
apparently without discussing Britain's stance with his Cabinet and
with no debate in Parliament — that Britain stood "shoulder to
shoulder" with the United States, the refrain on the street, on
the bus, among friends was broadly "thanks a bunch, Tony, we are
all targets now." Inspite of the outpouring of sympathy for
innocent lives lost, people were mindful of possible reasons, such as
the 21 countries attacked or destabilized by America since 1945.
Yet when London's bombings of July 7, 2005,
took place, grief and sadness were accompanied by huge doses of
cynicism. The emergency services in an "extraordinary
coincidence" were conducting, that very day, an excercise to test
their response if a number of tube stations and trains were bombed
simultaneously. This is according to Peter Power, CEO of Visor
Consulting, who spoke on BBC Radio 5 that same day: "At the half
past nine this morning we were actually running an exercise for a
company of over a thousand people in London based on simultaneous
bombs going off precisely at the railway stations where it happened
this morning" (Prison
Planet).
Questioning Why
Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani,
who had "guided" New Yorkers through the Trade Center
trauma, just happened to be in town to tell Londoners that this was
their 9/11 and that the world was a dangerous place, populated with
people who resented our freedoms, way of life, and democracies. (Try
reading Britain's Terrorism Act and freedoms long gone further:
According to the Independent, 3,023 new "crimes" have been
introduced since the Blair government's inception in 1997, including
"purchasing Polish potatoes.")
So again, when Britain woke to news of an
apocalyptic wave of attacks and "mass murder on an unimaginable
scale" (Metropolitan Police) on airliners crossing the Atlantic,
it also woke to a wave of skepticism and blame. Was an unthinkable act
set up with extraordinary timing to remind us of the
"menaces" we face as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine
hemorrhage into hell and Lebanon lies in ruins, their citizens from
the infant to the senior lying under them, in another illegal invasion
where the United States, Britain, and Israel are seen by most of the
world as indivisible?
Simon Carr, political sketch writer for the
Independent wrote of cause, if it were a genuine plot. Security levels
had been raised to seven-headed-beast level. "Arrival of
anti-Christ imminent." Questioning why, he referred to Blair's
recent messianic speech: We invaded Iraq (and elsewhere) "to
change their value system." "We what?" asks Carr.
Continuing re Blair: "My values are the values of the entire
world" is delusional, bedlamic (Bedlam: a notorious 19th century
mental institution), as well as extraordinarily rude to the rest of
the world. And as "our values" include vaporizing entire
cities, I wouldn't want to spread them round indiscriminately. Out of
eight hundred (mainly Muslim) arrests under new draconian anti-terror
laws, he cites just three convictions. He ends by quoting poet Rudyard
Kipling (1865-1936) on an epitaph on a far away tombstone: "A
Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East."
On August 13, an Independent editorial trod
a fine line, condemning any excuse for acts of terrorism, but citing
again Prime Minister Blair's recent speech in Los Angeles: "... a
war not just against terrorism but about how the world should govern
itself in the 21st century, about global values." This elemental
struggle was in part between "reactionary Islam and moderate,
mainstream Islam … hence Afghanistan, hence Iraq." George W.
Bush's "Crusade" in which he enjoined Britain is either
forgotten or the silent "elephant in the living room."
Azzan Tamimi, director of London's
Institute of Islamic Thought, commented that, inspite of a vast cost,
"I suspect that the entire episode ... to be a utility of a
government … seriously short of public support. … I wonder (also)
whether [it is] to smear the image of Islam at a time when the world
can see they are the victims of an unjust USA/UK dominated world
order."
Victims and
Prejudices
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George Bush and Tony Blair love the
limelight of their fatuous war leader status
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While there have been the
aggressor-as-the-eternal-victim headlines — "Target
Britain," "Bomb plot 'just the tip of the iceberg' of UK
al-Qa'ida activity" and the manic tabloid The Sun:
"Hate-filled Mums willing to sacrifice themselves and their
babies are being hunted in the war on terror" —, global
coverage too has been interesting. Paul Joseph Watson, TV presenter
whose Prison
Planet website reaches millions, responded paraphrasing Bush's
9/11 take: "You're either with us or with the babies." Bush,
of course, within moments of London's chaos had a new war with
"Islamic fascists." At the time, it was not known who had
been arrested. A familiar pattern now emerges of those in custody
being described as normal people with normal jobs. Home Secretary John
Reid, who to many defies anything humanity should represent, declared
that those responsible were now in custody — thus instantly giving
the defense lawyers a gift by immediately prejudicing any trial.
Further, a new kind of bomb, the world was
told, had been identified. It could be hidden in drinks taken on
flights. All drinks were banned. However, Info
Wars website had the headline "Liquid terror ... terrorists
planned to mix liquids — so why are they being poured into airport
bins?" with an accompanying photograph of just that. No wonder
Britain and America are spearheading any excuse to restrict the
Internet.
Passengers in London, the city that is to
host the Olympics in six years' time (and presumably become a prime
target), endured unprecedented peacetime chaos, deprivation,
disorganization, theft, and twenty thousand lost bags. Others were
reportedly left planeside in the open, in pouring rain. A "ring
of steel" security operation was implemented, so stringent that a
12-year-old runaway managed to board a flight to Lisbon, Portugal,
without parents, passport, money, or ticket. Security was
"child's play." Passengers in all airports were not allowed
to board with hand baggage and were told to put their valuables into
suitcases destined for the hold. Predictably, countless suitcases were
collected slashed open, with valuables gone.
Insane Security
Policies
Gatwick, Britain's second largest airport,
admits to a 200 percent increase in theft. Perhaps British and
American authorities should be looking at some of the references of
their planeside staff and baggage handlers. Numerous passengers found
their flights grounded or missed them (and their bags) because they
failed to get through the security checks on time. British Airports
Authority (BAA) blames the airlines and the airlines are blaming BAA.
Some airlines are threatening to sue the government.
Security policies developed apparently in
some government insane asylum, include airline pilots who wear contact
lenses being forbidden to take lens solution on board, according to
the president of the British Airline Pilots Association, who added
wryly, "It gives a whole new meaning to blind flying." On a
flight from Malaga, Spain, to Manchester, UK, passengers mutinied when
they heard two of their number apparently speaking Arabic, resulting
in them being ejected from the flight.
The Britain of Asian extraction who
remarked to the effect that there would soon be a new crime of
attempting to fly if olive skinned is apparently already proved
correct. Passenger profiling is the new security game in town. Spot
anyone in an airline queue looking nervous or distracted, or sweating
and give them a good grilling. In the current clime that is probably
all but those with nerves of reinforced steel.
A Chaotic Scene
Whoever is responsible for this chaos,
denial is rife. Prime Minister Blair says British foreign policy has
nothing to do with "alienation by sections of the community"
inspite of a letter to him from every aspect of Muslim society in the
United Kingdom stating just that. David Cameron, leader of the
Conservative Party, talks of "radicalization within our shores
and facing a threat … from fundamentalism and terror."
Meanwhile, Blair asks for help from the
Muslim community while denying desperate requests from relatives of
British residents held in the US concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay,
uncharged and in despairing legal limbo, year after hopeless year.
However, attention is forever on the Muslim community. Attention needs
to be paid to the anger and outrage expressed in the United Kingdom by
ordinary British citizens from all aspects of society. Two million of
every color, class, and creed marched against the Iraq invasion.
There is another oddity in the potential
"apocalypse" faced by Britain and America. George Bush and
Tony Blair love the limelight of their fatuous "war leader"
status. Yet President Bush remains in these "apocalyptic
times" in Crawford, Texas, and for Tony Blair, life's a beach on
Barbados. No statesman-like rushing home in suits to reassure in
funereal tone. Funny that. Do they know something we don't? Has
"wolf" been cried once too often? Have Mencken's
"imaginary hobgoblins" come home to roost? Oh, and it has to
be wondered if the Olympic Committee is quietly looking at a switch to
runner up, Paris.
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