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L. Neil Smith's THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 183, July 22, 2002 "I'VE SEEN THE FUTURE BROTHER; IT IS MURDER"
Dis-Mything 9-11 Part 1: Protected My Ass
Exclusive to TLE "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania (1759) After the bombing of Afghanistan had begun -- and the Bush Administration, despite Colin Powell's pledge, had failed to produce the "white paper" proving that bin Laden and al'Qaeda -- let alone the Taliban (or the more than 3,500 [1] Afghan civilians killed by U.S. operations, ~86% of whom disliked the Taliban) were behind the 9-11 attacks (and before we knew that National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice had plans for attacking the folks in Afghanistan on her desk on September 10 - - the day before 9-11) [2] -- a well-known libertarian friend of mine told me, "Well, the government should go after these guys. That's what they get paid for -- to protect us." Can they? New York City's Mayor and Time's Man of The Year Rudy Giuliani: "Short of closing down America and closing down the city of New York, it would be impossible to entirely prevent terrorism." -quoted by Brian Jenkins, CNN Live, 19 Feb. 1998, 2:04pm The US is vulnerable to chemical, biological, nuclear attack, according to a Congressional report to be released next week. Such an attack against the U.S. is impossible to prevent. -ABC Evening News with Tom Brokow, 8 Jul 1999, 6:36:38 PM EST U.S. Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: "Needless to say, we do worry that they will make a terrorist attack on the United States. They already did. They've threatened to do more. They will do more whether we do what we're doing or whether we don't do what we're doing." -November 13, 2001, 15:01:13 An anti-terrorism expert claims, "Two out of three terrorist attacks succeed." -MSNBC, 7 Aug 1998, ~11:40:24 AM EDT Desert Storm General Norman Schwartzkopf: ~"There is no way to stop a dedicated terrorist who is willing to pay the price." -MSNBC, 8 Aug 1998, ~11:04:34 AM EDT We know from 9-11 that there are indeed people dedicated enough to pay the price -- nineteen in that attack alone. We also know from recent history: Of the British Government in Northern Ireland, and particularly the Israeli Government vs. the Palestinian "suicide bombers," etc. reported regularly in today's (June/July 2002) 6 O'clock News. So the experts, including such luminaries as Schwartzkopf and Rumsfeld, know they can't protect us. Why not? What's so hard about defending against terrorists? Donald Rumsfeld: ~"The asymmetrical advantage a terrorist has is that he can strike any place at any time, using any conceivable method of attack, and this is impossible to defend against." -CNN Late Edition, May 26, 2002, 13:05:16 They had to shut down the Alaska pipeline yesterday because some dumb local guy shot the pipeline, putting a hole through the covering. -CNBC, October 5, 2001, 11:41:30 An estimated 6,600 barrels, or 277,000 gallons, gushed from the bullet hole, Alyeska [the pipeline operator] said. -Anchorage Daily News, Oct 5, 2001 DOCUMENTS FOUND IN AFGHANISTAN INDICATE AL-QAEDA TERRORISTS HAVE BEEN INVESTIGATING WAYS TO DISRUPT U.S. WATER SUPPLY -drudgereport.com & TIME, Sun Jul 14, 2002 11:18:44 ET Colorado Governor Bill Owens: "If we had to protect everything all the time, we simply couldn't do it." -CNBC, July 3, 2002, 19:31:50 But what about those places we can protect all the time? 16,000 containers enter U.S. ports every day. Only several hundred of these are inspected. -Phil Anderson, Center for Strategic and International Studies, CNBC, December 31, 2001, 11:47:46
Since 1991 46% of nuclear power plants have failed to prevent staged [like on Broadway] take-over attempts. U.S. has 103 commercial nuclear power plants producing 20% of U.S. electric power. -CNBC, July 3, 2002, 19:35:50 But how about airport security -- where the barn-door closers have been hyper-active? [Hisham Mohammed] Hadayet was fourth in line [at Los Angeles Airport] when he opened fire at the check-in counter of Israel's national airline, killing Victoria Hen, 25, a ticket agent, and Yaakov Aminov, 46, a jeweller and father of eight, who was dropping off a friend. Three others were wounded. ... The shooting prompted criticism of airport security, which was supposed to be at its highest level on July 4 ... Airport killer's motive provokes US-Israeli split, From Katty Kay in Washington, www.timesonline.co.uk, July 06, 2002 Government official says about 90 airport security lapses found in the last 11 days. -CNBC banner, November 15, 2001, 08:41:03 The million-dollar, space-age bomb-detection machines that Congress wants installed in every airport can have trouble telling the difference among peanut butter, chocolate and deadly explosives. Scanners can mistake chocolate for bombs, BY MARC CAPUTO, Cox News Service, Miami Herald, Sun, Jul. 07, 2002 In recent tests of airport security, 70% of knives made it through, 60% of guns made it thru 50% of simulated explosives made it thru. -CNBC, July 3, 2002, 19:30:55 But they've arrested all sorts of terrorists. That must be doing some good - - - The nationwide search for terrorists after Sept. 11 has resulted in the arrests of more than 1,200 people ...Of the 104 people charged with federal crimes as announced by Mr. Ashcroft on Tuesday, almost all were accused of crimes completely unrelated to terrorism. ...Those officials, who are involved in the investigation, said today that they were skeptical of Mr. Ashcroft's characterization that the detentions were having a profound impact on interrupting terrorist activity in the United States. Al Qaeda Link Seen in Only a Handful of 1,200 Detainees By DAVID FIRESTONE and CHRISTOPHER DREW, The New York Times, November 29, 2001 If you listen closely you'll find out that what they're really doing when they're watching everyone -- aside from watching everyone -- is getting ready to call in the clean-up crews as soon as possible after the next terrorist score. Finally, if you're still not convinced, Unknown bomber(s) explode a bomb near Wall Street, blowing the front windows out of a building during a nearby police anti-terrorist exercize. -CNN HLN, 11-09-97, ~4:08pm EST Protected my ass. Physical protection is by no means the only area that those in government promise way more protection than they can deliver. For example, the much vaunted SEC (Security and Exchange Commission), supposed to protect stock gamblers -- ah, that is investors -- from everything including fraud thru so-called "insider trading" employs, according to former Goldman Sachs CEO Senator Jon Corzine, only a total of 25 auditors. Of course, there are a few places -- and people -- that can be protected pretty durn well: Dubya can hop into Airforce One with full fighter escort of course, and disappear into a secret air base in Alabama -- or is it underground in the "STRATCOM" bunkers somewhere near Ohmaha, Nebraska as reported on CNBC - - - And if you're VP Cheney, you can regularly disappear to one of the two "undisclosed locations" along with the rest of the "shadow government" -- which abandoned it's previous HQ beneath the hills of West Virgina in a secret underground "wing" of the posh Greenbriar Hotel [3] -- and while you're there, you can call and stiff-arm the Indian principles regarding the sale of your campaign donor's (ENRON) Dahbol power plant project. These newer secret shadow government digs "make use of local geological features to render them highly secure, are well stocked with food, water, medicine and other consumable supplies, and are capable of generating their own power" according to a March 1, 2002 article by RON FOURNIER of The Associated Press. And, in the unlikely event "Dubya" gets caught in the open, out amongst the folks when the terrorists -- or CIA -- launch the next chemical, biological or nuclear attack, you'll be glad to know that a van, with special drugs to treat the president accompanies his motorcade. -ABC Evening News with Tom Brokow, 8 Jul 1999, 6:36:38 PM EST So, you'll be happy to know, while "Homeland Security" "watches over" the next terrorist incident -- waiting for the worst to pass so they can send in HASMAT and the other clean-up crews -- (while your family, friends and neighbors slowly succumb to some chemical or biological agent or are busy decontaminating the drapes from a "dirty nuke" attack) that top members of your government are cozy and safe in their newest underground cribs. Now I'm not defeatest. There are some very effective things we can do. Here in the freest country in the world, for one simple example - - where we have the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution stating that "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed" - - don't you find it wierd that the Bush Administration won't permit passengers -- or even pilots -- to protect themselves and others by carrying weapons? I guess that's OK. We have absolutely nothing to worry about -- since only 6 in 10 terrorist guns, 7 in ten terrorist knives and only half of terrorist explosives can be expected to get thru airport security and onto planes. Well, duh. And that's through the front door. Additionally, there are some other really effective things we can do long-term. I'll stumble through a few of these in a later "Dis-Mything 9-11," TLE permitting. O.K. So now we know they can't really protect us. And we know they know. And they dont' want us to protect ourselves . . . This all raises a few questions don't you think? Since they know they can't protect us, is what they are doing - - - the so-called USA PATRIOT Act, etc. - - - just political, irrelevant, inane, expensive, and counter productive as usual? Or is it worse than that? Aside from the $37 billion or so in additional wasted tax money, is there any more down side? What do you think? Coming next: Dis-mything 9-11 Part 2: Is the USA PATRIOT ACT Patriotic? NOTES: [1] NEW HAMPSHIRE - December
10 - More than 3,500 civilians [3,767 as of Dec. 21,
2001] have been killed in Afghanistan by U.S. bombs,
according to a study to be released December 10 by
Marc W. Herold, Professor of Economics, International
Relations, and Women's Studies at the University of
New Hampshire. ...Professor Herold has been
gathering data on civilian casualties since October 7
by culling information from news agencies, major
newspapers, and first-hand accounts. "I decided to
do the study because I suspected that the modern
weaponry was not what it was advertised to be. I was
concerned that there would be significant civilian
casualties caused by the bombing, and I was
able to find some mention of casualties in the foreign
press but almost nothing in the U.S. press," said
Herold. Herold's data will be available at
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mwherold/. For
each day since October 7, when the U.S. bombing of
Afghanistan began, he lists the number of casualties,
location, type of weapon used, and source(s) of
information.
3,500 Civilians Killed in Afghanistan by U.S. Bombs,
Marc Herold, University of New Hampshire,
Dec. 10, 2001 return.
[2] WASHINGTON (AP) - The
White House acknowledged Friday it had a battle plan
to topple Osama bin Laden awaiting President Bush's
approval in the days before the Sept. 11 attacks. ...
It was dated Sept. 10 and sat on national security
adviser Condoleezza Rice's desk for Bush's review when
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were struck.
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the
memo recommended dismantling bin Laden's network
"through what you saw put into place frankly, rather
quickly in our operations in Afghanistan." -White
House Reveals Pre-9/11 Plan, Fri May 17, 11:17 AM ET,
By CHRISTOPHER NEWTON, Associated Press Writer
[Original Yahoo! link,
"http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020517/
ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_hijackings_66&printer=1" has
expired. -LRW] return
[3] You can now tour this underground "shadow" city, complete with hospital, and even crematorium (all originally built with your tax dollars, of course), for thirty bucks. return
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