[Nettime-bold] Re: Scared witless? Poll shows Americans willing to give up civil liberties

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/poll/civil_liberties/index.html
http://www.npr.org/news/specials/civillibertiespoll/011130.poll.html

This just proves that all societies react similarily to threats of 
violence. They cave in, rally around the flag, and look for strong and 
decisive leadership (a "strong hand" as we used to call it in the 
former Yugoslav society). Fear is an important and very strong 
motivator. I am critical of the laws, but I understand why majority is 
not. And just like many others I am not overwhelmingly concerned 
about the rights of Osama Bin Laden and his ilk. This threat, 
however, came to the US that already had been inoculated with the 
political correctness vaccine. So, now the Americans would like to 
see the same people, that they painstakingly assert, that they do 
not want to discriminate against, safely tucked behind bars or 
worse. I have two fears - which, I believe, are legitimate:
1) that the new rules are written too broadly and may be abused 
and applied too widely (although the government did not yet provide 
any evidence to support that, but, then, the rules are around barely 
a couple of months).
2) that the threat will pass and the new rules will stay, i.e. that we 
are going to remain stuck with the less open society and less free 
country once the 'evil ones' go away.

ivo

ps - what will happen with arrested terrorists who are US citizens? 
after all, the case of 3 Taliban fighters, US citizens, is REAL, 
however unrealistic it may sound...

NY POST: PRO-TALIBAN HIPPIE "RAT"; BUNGLING 
CIA MOLE "HERO" 
An amusing Dec. 7 New York Post story related how CIA 
agent Johnny Spann grilled US-born Taliban fighter John Walker 
just before the Kala-i-Janghi fortress where the prisoners were 
being held exploded into rebellion. Walker, 20, a gullible hippie 
who wound up in the Taliban army after journeying to the East 
to seek spiritual discovery, actually found enough backbone not 
to respond with as much as a syllable to Spann's repeated 
questions. The story was predictably headlined "HERO vs 
RAT"--despite the fact that Spann's keystone kop antics 
(condescending attempt at "native" garb, trigger-happy response 
to being jumped by a captive) likely sparked the conflagration in 
which he lost his life (See WW 3 REPORT #10). 

A sniveling Dec. 5 report in National Review relates how 
Walker's parents in California continued to subsidize his Islamic 
studies in Yemen and Pakistan even after it became clear that he 
was under the sway of fundamentalist extremism. Surprisingly, 
Walker isn't alone. CBS News reported Dec 4: "US and allied 
Afghan forces are holding three former Taliban fighters who 
claim to be American citizens." 

These strange cases raise the question of whether Walker and 
his fellow ex-pat Taliban cannon fodder will be tried before 
civilian courts (on what charges?) or military tribunals (ostensibly 
closed to US citizens) or simply returned to their families 
(providing more fodder for the NY Post and National Review to 
grouse about how America coddles hippie terrorists). US 
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the Los Angeles Times 
Dec. 5: "We found a person who says he's an American, with an 
AK-47, in a prison with a bunch of al-Qaeda and Taliban 
fighters. And you can be certain he will have all the rights he is 
due. We are looking at the various options at the present time." 

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