From Rediff.com: “Pakistan frees terrorists due to lack of evidence.” This article describes a crime report that explored how the Pakistani police have been unable to build a case against “a large number” of “dreaded terrorists” from Al-Qaeda and other organizations. Because they didn’t have evidence against them, they had to let them go.
The article goes on to relay that “most of them have vanished into thin air soon after their release and were probably planning or participating in more attacks… [A]s many as ’121 high-profile terrorists were released between 2002 and 2007. In each case, the prosecution’s case was not strong enough.’”
Maybe they should take a lesson from the U.S. We don’t let them go. We just redefine feared suspects as “enemy combatants.” Then they wouldn’t need any evidence. And they also wouldn’t need real terrorists. They could cage up anyone they want, in order to make themselves feel that they’re “fighting crime.” If you do something in your private life that freaks out any government stooge with a pole up his ass, you too could be an “enemy combatant.”
A friend of mine said he was searching for a Palestinian charity he could contribute to that wouldn’t get him branded as a terrorist. I joked that we have free speech and free association in this country, and you’re allowed to donate to whatever cause you believe in… Well, actually, that’s not true, is it?
(By the way, this friend is also on the no-fly list, because apparently some supposed terrorist used his name, a relatively common name, as an alias. Of course, we all know that the no-fly list is a dumb-ass joke.)
A comment nestled in the midst of the Rediff article is particularly revealing: “At least a dozen of those released due to lack of evidence are those involved in failed assassination bids on former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf…”
What’s so revealing about this comment is that it admits that terrorism is about government power, not about civil safety. We usually think of terrorists as hurting and killing innocent noncombatants in order to bring about political change. (Like the U.S. government did in World War II in Japan.) But President Pervez Musharraf, who later resigned to avoid impeachment, could hardly be called an innocent noncombatant!
See? It’s easy to become a “dreaded terrorist.” Just be someone the government fears.
Government uses the fear it has over losing power to instill fear in us. And this job becomes all the easier when it can invoke “terrorism.” The shivers we feel in our spine are more than enough to make us trip all over ourselves begging to give away our rights in order to feel more safe.
But so-called “terrorism” isn’t about keeping us safe. It’s about keeping government power. And until we realize this, we are vulnerable to the fear that government foments in order to rationalize taking away our human rights, in which rest our true safety.
Always watching!
-TimK
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