Voltaire wrote, �It is forbidden to kill; therefore all
murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of
trumpets." Since September 11, 2001, the world has changed dramatically
due to the climate of trepidation instilled in Western society and the
excessive use of military force, which has not been as overt since the Cold War
era.
Western
society is indoctrinated into believing, with religious conviction, that
terrorism is an act only non-Western countries, such as Syria or Iran,
ostensibly commit. The mainstream media and the governments of the West
vehemently insist that miscreants attack our society because they hate
�freedom� and �democracy." However there is convincing evidence that
proves �terrorist groups� commit acts of violence out of desperation and
retaliation. The subversive groups lash out at institutions they feel have
oppressed and marginalized them. The majority of the Western public is
oblivious to the fact their own countries support state terrorism and the
�terrorists� of the world are the oppressed fighting for self-determination.
Moreover, due to the shock of the September 11 attacks the public subsequently
and unnecessarily abdicated so that, �big brother," the government could
protect them from the �terrorist threat."
Thus, the typical terrorist is not the real threat to the
world. The governments and institutions of the West, who engineer and commit
international terrorism through their sponsorship of state terrorism, are the
true threat to the world; since terrorism leads to the dismantling of democracy
and the inevitable backlash of the oppressed.
Topics discussed and analyzed will be the use of terrorism
by the West, the backlash of the oppressed, media disinformation, the
dismantling of democracy, and the effects of �terrorism� on Canadian Law. The
following issues analyzed and discussed shall be on current events in areas of
the world that are normally ignored or trivialized by the mainstream media.
The concepts of real state and international terrorism are a
very old phenomenon, both of which became more common through imperialism.
Examples of state and international terrorism during overt Imperialism include:
Columbus ordering the mutilation of Native slaves or the execution of their
children if they did not bring him enough gold, and Winston Churchill silencing
the Iraqi Insurgency of 1920 by ordering the British military to gas the Iraqi
people into subjugation.
State
terrorism occurs when a state administers terror to its own population. State
terrorism ensures that all aspects of life are controlled, the population is
marginalized, and that all forms of cultural and political expression that
oppose the centralized power are overtly suppressed with threats and violence.
In other words, state terrorism equates to pure totalitarianism. State
terrorism is the most prodigious, potent, and terrifying form of terrorism
humanly possible. The reason why it is so terrifying is because citizens of the
state live in fear everyday knowing the military, para-militaries, police, and
intelligence services will silence movements or people the government deems
seditious. The terror is so potent and prodigious because command is
centralized and well funded, by their supporters such as Western countries and
multinational corporations [1].
A connection between the West and state terrorism is the
Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, which is run by the US.
Many of South America�s soldiers, para-militaries, and juntas have been trained
in Western military techniques at the WHINSEC [2]. It is conspicuously clear
that the West trains the foreign militaries as Western puppets, to carry out
the West�s will through proxy. The West does not teach the South American
students at the WHINSEC how to spread democracy and freedom, since, according
to the US Department of Defense, in instruction manuals given to students
between 1982 and 1991, the WHINSEC taught it�s students to utilize �torture,
blackmail, beatings and executions� [3]. The WHINSEC confirms that state
terrorism is encouraged and perpetuated by the West. Graduates of the WHINSEC
have gone on to rule totalitarian and former totalitarian states such as
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Haiti -- just to name a few [1].
Canada has also helped encourage and perpetuate state
terrorism. For example, elite Canadian JTF-2 commandos trained the Haitian
National Police in 1993 [4]. In 2004, between the months of September and
December the HNP with the elite commando training they received from JTF-2,
killed nearly 300 Haitians [5].
International
terrorism is defined as �terrorism practiced in a foreign country by terrorists
who are not native to that country� [6]. The UN operation in Haiti epitomizes
this definition. In 2005, the San Francisco Labour Council, which was part of
the US Labour and Human Rights Delegation to Haiti, published the �Report on UN
Massacre." Cite Soleil, the neighbourhood that the �massacre� occurred in,
is devoted to the ousted and democratically elected Aristide and Lavalas party,
both removed by the West due to their refusal to submit to the West�s demands
[7]. The report by the SFLC includes witness accounts of the mainly UN
operation, such as this one:
Many were killed by headshots, such as 31-year-old Leonce
Chery moments after a gunshot ripped off his jaw. Chery was clearly unarmed.
There are audible machine gun blasts occurring in the background. The video
footage also depicts the bodies of Sonia Romelus and her two young children,
lying in blood on the floor of their home. Apparently, Sonia was killed by the
same bullet that passed through the body of her one-year old infant son Nelson.
She was reportedly holding him as the UN opened fire. Next to their two bodies
is that of her four-year old son Stanley Romelus who was killed by a shot to
the head. The video footage shows a weeping Fredi Romelus, recounting how UN
troops lobbed a red smoke grenade into his house and then opened fire killing
his wife and two children. "They surrounded our house this morning and I
ran thinking my wife and the children were behind me. They couldn't get out and
the [UN] fired into the house." The video also shows the grenade canister,
apparently left in the house.
The eyewitness source claimed that the operation was primarily conducted by UN
forces, with the Haitian National Police this time taking a back seat [8].
The
operation conducted by the UN security forces is clearly terrorism, and is a
paradigm of international terrorism. Terrorism is defined as �the systematic
use of violence and intimidation to achieve some goal� [9]. By systematically
terrorizing and killing unarmed individuals, women, and children based on the
fact that they live in a predominately Lavalas Party constituency, the West has
without a doubt committed terrorism. International terrorism was committed due
to the fact that the UN operation was conducted by soldiers that are
predominately non-Haitian, and made up of military and paramilitary personnel
from Canada, France, Jordan, Spain, Sri Lanka, the United States, and many more
countries [10]. Furthermore, the West is culpable since it controls the UN
Security Council (Britain, France and the US have veto power). Apropos of
Western dominance of the SC, corollary, the SC condoned the removal of a
democratically elected leader, and the violent occupation of Haiti. Moreover,
the findings of the SFLC were ignored by the mainstream media and condoned by
the governments of the West since the UN security forces� actions benefited the
West�s cause of keeping Aristide�s supporters marginalized and terrified.
Through the evidence provided, it has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt
that the West is guilty of committing international terrorism.
Western intervention and operations in the developing world
are carried out due to economic interests. The perfect term to epitomize the
West�s intentions in the developing world is Neo-Colonialism. The terror states
are simply mercantile economies that exist to benefit the West. The West
interferes with third and second world countries to create nations where the
elites� and upper-class�s votes and ideas are the only ones that count; and
where the state will not interfere with the business community unless it is to
help them, thus, giving them freedom. Every terror state supported by the West
is dominated by multinational-corporations. Paradigm examples of this are
United Fruit Corporation in Haiti, Shell in Nigeria, Bechtel in Bolivia,
Coca-Cola in Colombia and Nike in Indonesia, just to name a few. Due to
corporate dominance of the terror states� economies, corollary, terror states
usually have astounding GNPs with an equally astounding amount of inequality in
the country. For example, in Latin America between 1950 and 1975 there was a
400 percent increase in GNP, while the affluent top 10 percent of the
population received 37.5 percent of the national income, and the poor, which
make up 40 percent of Latin America, received 13.7 percent of the national
income. To keep the population marginalized and quiescent, terror states
dismantle social welfare organizations and suppress political parties and
movements that represent the poor, which are usually the majority of the
population [1].
The poor and the oppressed of the Developing World do not
appreciate being subjugated and living in practical serfdom, such as the
Zapistas of Mexico, an armed non-violent revolutionary group that wants to
abolish inequality and opposes economic globalization. Due to violent
repression of their ideas and social groups, they feel they must retaliate
against those who have subjugated and marginalized them: Western institutions,
and the oppressed�s own totalitarian puppet governments. The mainstream media
consistently ignores these facts by hiding the terrorism perpetrated and
supported by the West, spreading disinformation, and claiming miscreant
terrorists want to attack the West, its institutions, and partners due to the
supposed fact that the �terrorists� hate �freedom� and �democracy."
Malcolm X once said,
�If you�re not careful the media will have you hating the people who are
oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." The
mainstream media have been successful thus far indoctrinating the population
into believing that everything the West does abroad is for the greater good and
security of the world. The Western media conspicuously hides information of
Western connections to terrorist groups such Jemaah Islamiah.
On October 12, 2002, in Bali, Indonesia, a terrorist group
called Jeemah Islamiah attacked a nightclub frequented by tourists. The attack
caused the deaths of 202 people, the majority of them being Australian [11].
There were cries of indignation across the Western World, and the so-called
masterminds of the attack were rounded up, and given censored trials, so
that sensitive information could be hidden from the public.
The mainstream media covered the trial and aftermath of the
attacks, yet disregarded the Western and Indonesian government involvement with
the attacks. For example, Indonesia�s former president Abdhurrahman Wahid said,
"The orders to do this or that came from within our armed forces, not from
the fundamentalist people." The Indonesian intelligence service BIN has
been implicated in collusion with JI for the Bali bombings, and BIN also has
strong connections to the CIA and the southeastern hegemon: Australia.
Furthermore, President Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia said "[The US
is] a superpower that forced the rest of the world to go along with it . . . We
see how ambition to conquer other nations has led to a situation where there is
no more peace unless the whole world is complying with the will of the one with
the power and strength" [12].
All of this information was never reported in the mainstream
media. The dubious reporting of mainstream media simply gave the public the
�official� story approved by the governments of the West to conceal their
duplicity, so they could perpetuate their �war on terror." The Australian
government used the Bali bombings, with the help of the mainstream media to
indoctrinate the Australian people into supporting and participating in the
Invasion of Iraq -- how convenient.
Another
example of media disinformation is the political discussion show, �Diplomatic
Immunity." DI had a show in December 2005 on international terrorism and
anti-terror laws, and the show was made up of panelists who are all
pro-anti-terror legislation. One of the guests on the show was David Harris, a
former chief of Strategic Planning at the CSIS. Harris was allowed to state
unchallenged that the terrorists threatening the West are people with no sense
of how the real world works and live in a fantasy land, out to hurt people for
no reason except that they hate our way of life [13]. Now, this is coming from
an individual who was once in charge of the security of our country, and all
Mr. Harris did was simply repeat verbatim everything the mainstream media says
about �terrorists." Mr. Harris did not enlighten the viewers on any of the
West�s operations in perpetuating and promulgating terrorism such as in Haiti,
and Indonesia. Mr. Harris also forgot to mention that the terrorists that hate
the West are always the downtrodden and marginalized coming from countries that
are extremely resource rich, yet the majority of the population lives in
poverty. It is this kind of disinformation that indoctrinates the majority of
the public into believing that they are in danger, and must perpetuate the war
on terrorism.
After 9/11, the
Canadian government passed the Anti-Terrorism Act, giving police and
intelligence agencies new powers to preemptively arrest someone, without
justification, and not allow the person in custody to appeal the arrest [14].
The Anti-Terrorism Act makes Canadian Legal Rights irrelevant. This is clearly
totalitarianism, since in totalitarian states constitutional rights are
irrelevant and the government is always unquestionably correct. It is abhorrent
that in a supposed democratic state where the rule of law, and civil rights are
supposed to be supreme, an individual can be arbitrarily held in custody
without justification and be powerless to defend himself or herself from
accusations.
Canadian legislators
feel they have the right to disregard the concept of habeas corpus, which is meant to protect people from unlawful
arrest or detention. The Anti-Terrorism Act sets Western civilization back to
tyrannical despot rule, when the concepts of habeus corpus and civil liberties were absent. The Anti-Terrorism
Act, which the public accepted as necessary to defend itself from the terrorist
threat, creates an environment ripe for the next stage in the dismantling of
democracy: the arbitrary invasion of privacy.
In November 2005 the federal
government announced a �lawful access� bill which would make it easier for
police and intelligence services to spy on Canadians by eavesdropping on their
cell-phone calls and monitoring their Internet activities [15]. The government
is acting like a totalitarian government again by habitually suppressing the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If the government is able to monitor what
people are saying, citizens will be afraid to exercise their fundamental
freedoms such as �freedom of thought and expression,� because they may be
arbitrarily detained under the Anti-Terrorism Act if they say something the
government believes is subversive or seditious. This behaviour that the
government is displaying by disregarding the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is
setting a precedent for future behaviour.
Canadian
citizens may one day be living in a country where secret police burst into
their home and take their family members or friends away just like in Nazi
Germany. Some may find the possibility of a Canadian Police State preposterous,
however, simply looking at the legislation the Canadian �democratic� government
has passed and plans on passing will verify the evolution towards
totalitarianism. The federal government acts as if it is an institution that
the citizen must serve. This is typical behaviour of an extreme-statist,
totalitarian regime. Government is supposed to be an institution created by
citizens to serve citizens -- it was not created to marginalize citizens and
destroy the civil rights their freedom-loving predecessors of Western society
worked hard for. The suppression of the Fundamental Freedoms is indefensible.
A
parallel of the suppression of civil rights is clearly present, between the
puppet-states of the Third World and in the �democratic� countries of the
Western World. In the developing world, democracy is suppressed through
violence, while in the developed world, democracy is suppressed through
indoctrination. Democracy and Civil Rights are being dismantled in both the
Western and developing world, all in the name of commerce. This is done to keep
the common individual out of the political and economic process so that
governments and corporations have free reign to do as they wish. The conduct of
the governments and institutions of the West is planting seeds of dissent
throughout the world. Retribution is inevitable.
Endnotes
[1] Herman, Edward S.. The Real Terror Network: Terrorism in
Fact and Propaganda. Montreal: Black Rose Books LTD, 1985
[2] SOA Watch.
Dec, 2005.
[3] Schulz, William F.. Ask Amnesty:
Torture. Dec 2005.
[4] Podur, Justin. Znet - Foreign Policy - Canada
for anti-imperialists, Part II. July 03, 2004. December
2005.
[5] Human Rights Watch. Haiti: Hundreds
Killed Amid Rampant Impunity. April 14, 2005. December 2005.
[6] Princeton University. Wordnet. December 2005.
[7] Chomsky, Noam. Haiti�s History. MP3. Democracy Now!.
[8] San Francisco Labor Council. Growing
Evidence of a Massacre by UN Occupation Forces in Port-au-Prince Neighborhood
of Cite Soleil Summary of Findings of the US Labor and Human Rights Delegation
to Haiti. July 14, 2005. December 2005.
[9] Anderson, Sandra and others. Collins English Dictionary.
Glasgow: HarperCollins, 2005.
[10] UN. MINUSTAH:
United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti � Facts and Figures. 2005.
December, 2005.
[11] BBC News. Bali death
toll set at 202. February, 19, 2003. December, 2005.
[12] Chossudovsky, Michel. Who
was Behind the 2002 Bali Bomb Attack?. October, 14, 2005. December, 2005.
[13] Harris, David. International Terrorism and Canadian
Security. Diplomatic Immunity. Television Program. TVO, Toronto, December,
2005.
[14] Blair, Annice and others. Canadian and International
Law. Canada: Oxford University Press, 2004.
[15]
FIPA. Lawful
Access. December, 2005. December, 2005.