No Questions Asked

I am astonished that the U.S. government can be so blatantly racist. As the story below illustrates, the FBI is not facing the facts when it comes to homegrown terrorists — this guy was caught boarding a plane with a bomb in OKLAHOMA CITY — and the FBI says he’s not a terrorist. What exactly is their definition of terrorist?

How many more bells have to go off before the FBI realizes that American militia members and white supremacists are just as dangerous as Muslim fanatics? A terrorist is a terrorist no matter what his religious belief or ethnicity.

Oklahoma man held before boarding plane with bomb
August 11, 2005
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - An Oklahoma man was taken into custody after he tried to carry a bomb on board an airplane on Wednesday in Oklahoma City, an FBI spokesman said.

Charles Alfred Dreyling Jr., 24, was detained on Wednesday morning after a security screener using an X-ray machine saw the device in his luggage as he tried to board a flight to Philadelphia at Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City.

“Although the investigation is in its initial stages we have found no apparent connection to any type of terrorist activity or group,” FBI spokesman Gary Johnson said.

…Johnson said Dreyling would be charged in federal court on Thursday with possession of an explosive device at an airport.

http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=uri:2005-08-11T055030Z_01_N11533997_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-SECURITY-OKLAHOMACITY-DC.XML

Apparently the FBI has forgotten that two years ago American William Krar was caught in Texas with weapons of mass destruction. He was caught because he accidentally sent a package filled with false identification documents — passports, driver’s licenses, identity cards from the Department of Defense and United Nations, etc. — to the wrong address. The recipient called the police. Krar refused to talk to police about what his plans were, who he was working with and how many bombs he had already supplied to other potential terrorists around the country.

Is Charles Alfred Dreyling Jr a member of the same gang as Krar? We’ll never know because the FBI says he’s not a terrorist. He’ll receive a light sentence and the anti-government militia members in the U.S. will continue to plot their next attack.

Check out this story about what the FBI thought about Krar and homegrown terrorists a few years ago:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5350.htm

Charles Alfred Dreyling Jr was caught boarding a plane with a bomb in a city where a major terrorist attack occurred a few years ago. If he was from Yemen or Pakistan or Afghanistan would he be charged with possession of an explosive device at an airport or would he be an enemy combatant?

A few years ago Tom Cruise starred in a science fiction movie called The Minority Report. The film’s premise was that crimes could be predicted and prevented by the arrest and punishment of perpetrators before they acted. Nobody questioned their guilt because the system was considered infallible. And while they had not yet committed a crime it was assumed that it was only a matter of time before they did. As a result of these preventive steps taken by the U.S. government the public was considered safer.

The system’s flaws were revealed only after Cruise’s name popped up as a future murderer and he was able to prove them wrong. In the end all those convicted prior to committing a crime were set free. “What would you do if you were accused of a murder, you had not committed… yet?” the movie’s tagline asked. “The system is perfect until it comes after you.”

The prescience of the futuristic Minority Report is astonishing. While many would say I’m exaggerating, consider the world’s new approach to stopping terrorism.

London police executed Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian engineer, because they thought his backpack might have contained a bomb. They weren’t sure whether it did or not, but they shot him just to be safe. Most polls show the public supports the police’s aggressive attempt to thwart terrorism. There has yet to be a loud public outcry about the murder of an innocent man and the police have refused to apologise.

Swedish police say they regret their role in the arrest and illegal expedition of two Egyptian men who were seeking asylum. Mohammad Al-Zery and Ahmed Agiza, were arrested by Swedish police and brought to an airport where they were placed on an executive jet crewed by America security agents wearing masks. They were flown to Egypt, tortured and imprisoned. They are currently missing and Swedish police have publicly wondered what happened to them.

These men aren’t the only ones missing. A 60 Minutes story recently noted that more than 100 people around the world have disappeared or been “rendered” by U.S. officials. The procedure for each is the same: they are captured by masked men who cut off their clothes, put them in a jumpsuit and a blindfold and fly off in an unmarked jet.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/20/60minutes/main710396.shtml

Italy recently objected to CIA agents “kidnapping” a radical Muslim imam as he walked to evening prayers. He was brought to an Egyptian prison where he claims he was tortured. Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was under investigation for terrorism in Milan when he was abducted. An Italian judge issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents involved in the illegal extradition.

None of the men “rendered” were read their rights, charged with a crime or given the opportunity to defend themselves in court. They were simply picked off the streets and deprived of their freedom because the U.S. government felt they were potential threats.

One of the most famous terrorism cases in the U.S. is the “Lackawanna Five” — five men from upstate New York who were accused of being al-Qaeda members and arrested. The men are American citizens of Yemeni descent who took a pilgrimage to Afghanistan where they spent time in an al-Qaeda training camp. They were accused of “aiding and abetting al Qaeda”. To avoid a possible gun charge for training with weapons and a 30-year sentence, they pleaded guilty and were sentenced to between eight and 10 years in prison.

What was rarely reported is the fact that FBI agents were never convinced the men were going to do anything wrong. Ashcroft and President Bush called them a terrorist cell, but the federal prosecutor didn’t. Michael A. Battle told the New York Times: “It’s a heavy burden to prove and I wasn’t prepared to do that.”
http://www.geocities.com/munichseptember1972/unclear_danger.htm

The head of FBI headquarters in Buffalo described the agency’s attitude toward pre-emptive arrests this way: “If we don’t know for sure they’re going to do something, or not, we need to make sure that we prevent anything they may be planning, whether or not we know or don’t know about it.”

The Buffalo FBI officials said the men were arrested after Bush administration officials asked: “‘Can you guarantee to me that these people won’t do something?’ And the answer [was] we think we can. We are probably 99 percent sure that we can make sure that these guys don’t do something — if they are planning to do something. And under the rules that we were playing under at the time, that’s not acceptable. So a conscious decision was made, `Let’s get `em out of here.’ ”

Isn’t this reminiscent of the Minority Report?

Hundreds of immigrants have been arrested in the U.S., rounded up under new terror-fighting tools. Many remain in prison, mostly for minor visa violations. Few have been charged with a crime related to terrorism.

But the most disturbing element of this new preventive arrest policy is its unbalanced nature and the equally warped media coverage. Most Americans have heard of the Lackawanna Five. How many know the name William Krar?

William Krar was caught with weapons of mass destruction, a sodium-cyanide bomb capable of killing thousands, more than 100 other explosives, half a million rounds of ammunition, dozens of illegal weapons and mounds of white-supremist and anti-government pamphlets.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1229/p02s01-usju.html

Krar is the most dangerous terrorist arrested on American soil in decades, yet very few people know about him or his arrest.

Why? Because, as UPI, wrote: “Since his appointment as attorney general, John Ashcroft’s Washington office has issued 2,295 news releases. Not one of them has mentioned the name William Joseph Krar.”
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:SHN97ItGGXkJ:washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040311-030156-8181r.htm

Does anybody remember Oklahoma City? Why are white redneck terrorists considered less dangerous than other terrorists? Isn’t a terrorist, a terrorist no matter what the color of his skin, his nationality or his religious affiliation?

Krar was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Authorities still have no idea what he planned to do with the explosives. He obviously had accomplices — he was caught because dozens of forged identity documents were sent to the wrong address and were given to the police. Krar has not revealed with whom he was working, what their plans were or how they got the weapons.

Compare Krar to Joseph Padilla, another name most Americans are familiar with. Padilla, an American citizen accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb,” has been in prison for more than three years. What is his crime? Officials have accused Padilla of planning a dirty bomb attack. Padilla did not possess any weapons and officials have not provided much evidence to support their case. Padilla was pulled from a plane he took from Pakistan to Chicago, arrested, labelled an enemy combatant and left to rot in prison without the ability to defend himself. Unlike Krar, Padilla made headlines across the U.S.

Ashcroft held a press conference about Padilla saying, “We have captured a known terrorist who was exploring a plan to build and explode a radiological dispersion device, or ‘dirty bomb,’ in the United States.”

Where is the logic? Krar had a dirty bomb, was charged with a crime, consulted with an attorney who represented him in court and was ultimately sentenced to 11 years in prison. It doesn’t appear he was tortured or abused in any way (not that I support abuse or torture, I’m just pointing out for the record that many who have committed lesser crimes have been “rendered,” tortured and killed). Padilla, who did not have anything close to the materials needed to make a dirty bomb, was never charged and remains in prison indefinitely without the right to defend himself.

White Americans have been caught with powerful explosives and receive little if any publicity, minor jail sentences and remain unknown to the American public. Other Americans have been imprisoned for visiting countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. These men have not harmed anyone, were not caught with any weapons and many officials do not believe they planned to attack. They received front-page media play around the country and have been sentenced to long prison terms.

If the real goal is to protect the nation from future terrorist attacks, then the system appears to be flawed. Throwing innocent people in prison while allowing guilty to remain free creates the possibility of future terrorism. The Lackawanna Five’s families (many of the men had small children) are certainly unhappy with the outcome since they never committed a crime. But Krar’s friends — the ones who we know have the ability to make weapons of mass destruction, and have fake passports, drivers’ licenses and identity cards – are on the loose. The Attorney General didn’t even bother to write a press release about Krar’s arrest and it is unclear if FBI officials are still searching for his accomplices.

Certainly we all want to feel safe, but the questions become, safe from whom and at what price? Homegrown redneck terrorists have shown they are just as dangerous as religious fanatics.

Unfortunately, while The Minority Report had Cruise as its hero, there are many more cowards than heroes in real life. Cowards prefer the veil of safety to the harsh reality of a just world.

It is impossible to say what the future holds, but doesn’t every human being deserve a chance to live their lives without being pre-judged?

In the meantime, people like Lackawanna Five defendant Sahim Alwan are left to wonder what they did wrong. Alwan told the New York Times he passes time “dissecting this in my mind, saying, ‘What the hell did you do?’ ”
http://www.geocities.com/munichseptember1972/unclear_danger.htm