Billions are wondering why

Several billion people in the world — including myself — are wondering why:

• America is hellbent on destroying its own Constitution. The first Patriot Act torpedoed most of it, but now the new Patriot Act II — currently under wraps and about to be deployed secretly for a rigged vote in Congress — actually contains a provision to revoke the citizenship of American citizens if they are deemed to be connected with a terrorist organization. This decision would require no proof, only an assertion by the government. It means that people who attend peace protests are now eligible for indefinite detention without access to lawyers or phone calls to family. To be clear, it means quite literally that America is no longer a free country, and that its citizens are no longer Constitutionally protected from arbitrary punishment by its war-mad government.

Several billion people don't understand why all Americans aren't out screaming in the streets that their freedom has been taken away by rich fascists who don't tell the truth about anything.

• Nobody is talking about the experiments by an Israeli astronaut that may have brought down space shuttle Columbia. Despite controversial photos of lightning hitting the craft, and knowledge that Ilan Ramon was working on a new way to spy on Iraq, the phrase "americium-242" — which is apparently the new technology to take us to Mars — remains hidden from the public. As Yoichi Clark Shimatsu wrote: "The negative charge of the high-energy electron pulse from the americium-242 would attract the positive charge of the gas plasma generated by sprites (lightning is positive in the upper elevations)... A lightning burst would account for the sudden surge in temperature, the immediate shutdown of heat sensors and communications systems (why the ghostly "last words" were never transmitted to NASA monitors), and for the tumbling that sent Columbia, a flaming chariot of the heavens, to her doom." Ramon was testing an infrared spy camera that can see through clouds.

• Anyone believes these "terror alerts" so frequently declared by the American government. More people are beginning to notice that these things are called for one of two reasons: either when some nasty bit of political revelation threatens to further tarnish the already-trashed reputation of the Bush regime — as most recently when Secretary of State Powell used plagiarized material to impress the world about how dangerous Iraq was — or, when the Bush regime wants to clandestinely sneak another repressive legislative measure past American's comatose Congress, as it does now, with Patriot Act II. Because the spinoff stories completely seize control of the attention of the prostituted major news media, these terror alerts are clearly meant to distract the public from the actual news, as in the current case, which is the dismantling of the Constitution, and the continued coverup of Bush financial crimes.

• There has never been an effort to investigate the events of 9/11 and explain what happened on this sad day to the general public. Clearly most of the several billion — including myself — believe that the reason is obvious: because the people who did the crime are doing the coverup. How else could eight of the named hijackers still be alive? A good point made by a friend the other day was that how could Osama bin Laden have been praising the devotion of suicide hijackers when eight of them were still alive. Or how about: how does Colin Powell already know what bin Laden is saying before the TV station which is going to reveal the piece has done so? Did you know al-Jazeera used to be a BBC outlet? Who is bin Laden, what is his purpose, and who does he really work for? Um-hmm.

• Few people are raising questions about the obviously false statements we have been told about 9/11? Why did it take 28 minutes for flight controllers to notify NORAD two planes had been hijacked when the average time to do so in such a case is 3 minutes? Why were fighters scrambled from a base 180 miles away when seven other bases had fighter jets ready that could have done the job in a fraction of the time? Why was FEMA in New York the night before the crashes? Why did those fires at the base of the towers burn for 100 days? Why did Bush read a book for a half hour when he knew two planes had hit and two more were hijacked? Why was the binLadin family flown out of the country when all flights were grounded? Why did the FBI chief say we had no warning this was coming and everybody else in the FBI say we had plenty of warning? Who did make the millions of dollars from all those put options on two airlines the day before the attacks? These are only a fraction of the questions the government continues to cover up, as several billions of people know.

• All the targets of American aggression in recent history have been former allies who were armed and supported by Washington, but then suddenly "went bad". Saddam and Osama bin Laden are only the latest examples. Iraq was a staunch U.S. ally when it was using chemical weapons sold by Donald Rumsfeld against Iran. Osama bin Laden was the recipient of billions of U.S. aid when he was involved in fighting the Soviets. Panama's Manuel Noriega was a personal friend of the first President Bush when he suggested he was going to blow the whistle on American drug smuggling; soon, 5,000 Panamanians were killed by U.S. soldiers and Noriega's doing 40 in a Supermax. How does it happen that who America supports with guns and money soon become America's enemies? Is there an American formula to "set up" other countries with military aid only for the purpose of creating threats to be combatted in the future? It is very easy to read history in this way, and it makes you wonder who Saddam and Osama are actually working for, not to mention Yasir Arafat. Will we soon invade Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and all those Stans to whom we have recently given so much money?

• There is no legitimate opposition party in Washington, D.C. Zealous American patriots, many of whom voted for George W. Bush, used to castigate the Soviet Union as being an evil one-party dictatorship, but given the recent votes in Congress, how can there be any doubt that the United States has become — or perhaps has always been — a one-party state? Only eight senators voted against continuing America's falsely framed aggression against Iraq. Virtually the entire Congress voted for Patriot Act I without even reading it, according to Rep. Ron Paul, the principled Texas congressman who has undoubtedly been targeted for deportation by Jewish groups. Virtually the entire Congress accepts the premise that Iraq should be invaded because it represents a threat to the United States, when in fact, this sanctions-ravaged country is not even a threat to its nearest neighbors.

It is crystal clear to billions of people around the world that the United States is doing the bidding of Israel, which controls vital communications and financial systems in the U.S. and plans to conduct the mass expulsion of Palestinians once the U.S. provides adequate cover with its invasion of Iraq.

• There are no actual human beings among the world's leaders. In all of the discussions about how to split up Iraq, there has been no discussion by any of the principal leaders of the world about the people of Iraq, who have been savaged by 12 years of unrelenting bombing, and continue to suffer from the effects of illegal bombing and poisonous uranium contamination, all approved by not only the American people but by the populations of all its major allies as well. Even Germany, France, and Russia, who recently have expressed support for additional moves to forestall the cynical American invasion, are not doing it to protect the millions of innocent people who will surely be killed or injured by such an invasion. They're doing it because they want to get more leverage when Iraq's oil is stolen by the capitalist vigilantes who covet it.

• Why are we so willing to throw away our freedom? The obviously false pronouncements that we hear everyday are merely justifications for the robbery and enslavement of all the world's people by the evil men who control our money, our media, and our beliefs. They believe that they can buy their friends. They believe that if you give someone enough money, those who accept these bribes will look the other way when their neighbors are killed. The "blackmail, terror and mass murder" President Bush speaks of are not something the U.S. and its allies are combatting, they are things the U.S. is perpetrating. This is the Orwellian doublespeak that now assails us.

The famous Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti once described the difference between an individual and a human being. An individual is someone who is concerned only with aspects of his own life; a true human being is concerned with aspects of the lives of every person in the whole world.

We are on the cusp of a new world. Whether we advance toward a new age of enlightened empathy and understanding or regress back into the dark ages of traditionally secret political manipulation is a question that currently hangs in the balance.

Perhaps a billion people all over the world will be out on the streets Saturday (2/15/03) to express which way they hope this question will go. There are demonstrations against the unjust invasion of Iraq planned in virtually every American city. Find out where it is and go. If you don't, there may come a day — and maybe real soon — when you can't.

John Kaminski is a writer who lives on the coast of Florida and is very encouraged that anti-war protests are being scheduled in even some of the smallest towns around the world. You won't hear it on TV, because TV is the corporate enemy, but virtually everyone with a brain is against what's happening in the world right now. If anyone is for it, it's because they are being paid to be for it. Don't let our freedom slip away. Say something.

E-mail your comments to amirali@ilaam.net