September 11 Has the Potential of Blowing Civil Liberties Back to the Stone Age

Commentary by WebToday Columnist J. Walter Diamond

October 3, 2001 (WebToday)--In the wake of this new so-called war on Terrorism, Americans are told again and again on national television to brace themselves for tighter security measures. In so doing, we are told to expect a loss of comfort and civil liberties.

Again, perfectly understandable in the wake of the horror witnessed on that black and sickening day. But are we making the right move or are we allowing politicians to tamper with long cherished principals and freedoms of America that made our Nation great to begin with?

I am concerned and you should be very concerned with all of the mixed messages coming out of Washington in these turbulent days.

On the one hand, consider the President’s recurring statement; Americans lose if we let the terrorist make us change our way of life.

Yet as we applaud, searches and seizers of bank accounts and property curb civil liberties around the globe. And in this Country newer and tougher laws are being postured to give the government even more right to invade our personal lives. Personal freedom is being put to the test in a new and different way, unlike anything we have ever seen before.

What makes it an "easy sell" is that it is a war prosecuted against terrorists and it makes perfect sense to not let "Terrorists" have any of the normal civil liberties, that law abiding citizens enjoy. And who in their right mind could argue with this course of action?

But what about authorities seizing your bank account because you disagree with governmental policies, or taking a questionable photograph of you and a passenger in your car, as you speed through a yellow traffic light? Then as if they were right and you were wrong, sending you a $250.00 ticket in the mail on a questionable violation? Or how about the private contractor, that reaps 60% of the profit from issuing that questionable ticket for installing the intersection-camera? See where this is going?

If we are not going to change the way we live after September 11th. If we are not going to dispense with the presumption that we are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, without a fair and just trial or anything about our American way of life after September 11, as the President has suggested that we not do, why are we moving a break-neck speed toward a police state? Something does not smell right here in the land of the free and the brave!

Our forefathers gave their lives in five major wars and conflicts to preserve our rights and freedoms. And now in one terrible moment of time will we be willing to allow the government to make such sweeping changes in our civil liberties because of 19 desperate crazed terrorists?

A strong word of caution! Once we give up these liberties, it will be near impossible to get them back, and therein lies the problem.

Yet over the last several weeks, carefully crafted questions from national talk show pundits have received overwhelming agreement from the Joe-Blows and the Jane Dowds around the Country. Americans saying that they are okay with the loss of certain freedoms in the wake of this terror rampage, in hope that they may receive some comfort and security in the future.

Of course, in most cases we never see their faces, do not know who these people are and by listening in agreement, we are positioned like so many dumb sheep to take this as some kind of national referendum?

To make matters worse, the Attorney General is scaring the "hell" out of us by predicting more and even greater terrorist acts and in so doing is setting us up to buy into anything presented in the name of national security.

More contradictions; If the major airlines are getting all of these billions, that the government is rushing to put in their pockets, why did they have to lay off one single person?

If we are going to go after terrorists worldwide and the nations that harbor them, why are we crawling in bed with Pakistan? Remember that it is Pakistan that created the Taliban in the first place. I am afraid that this is but another giant royal contradiction from our government.

In the wake of September 11 Th, I know it sounds unpatriotic to question our government in these trying times, but history has proven beyond a doubt, that in the best of times, our impotent government, with buried and hidden agendas are not to be fully and blindly trusted! Our government’s inappropriate actions throughout most of its existence have brought this lack of trust on their heads.

For example; why are we not going after the real camps of terror in Syria, Iraq and Iran and in China and Russia, instead of appealing to them to join this so-called international coalition? Is international coalition yet another code word and covert opportunity and compelling reason for stepping ever closer to a one-world government?

If we are going to deploy strategic alliances with the Northern Alliance, why are we moving 4 carrier task forces –groups and deploying them at the cost of billions of tax dollars? We need to back them up, but let these fierce fighters take the war to this enemy on there own turf, with limited involvement and limited loss of young American lives.

Why are we against allowing Pilots to carry side arms, which would be a simple cheap solution to the problem, yet have now put in place new rules of engagement that would allow our own fighter-jets to take out civilian airliners? Or why seek to spend billions more on complicated governmental, more than likely ineffective programs! This is beyond the pale of reason.

What will be the far reaching implications of the new office of "Homeland Security?" Again all the buzzwords seem politically correct, but will it be used to further invade the privacy of law biding citizens? Why does this word in this context have such a 1930’s Hitlerish smell to it?

Remember this, it is never the surface implications, but rather hidden agendas that we must forever be on guard against, should we be truly interested in protecting the freedom of this great and noble land in which we live.

Over a scant 30 years, we have seen the erosion and dangerous consolidation of corporate enterprise television news. It has gone from 200-300 objective radio and TV news broadcasts to a mere handful of pale profit- driven newscasts controlled and owned by international corporate interests. We often hunger for real in depth reporting, yet are only given carefully crafted sound bites and snippets of anemic rubbish day after day.

Anchors have superstar status and we have come to give them much more credibility than they rightly deserve. How easy it would be today to invent slanted stories, with a good mix of fact and fiction. Of course the WTC was too chilling and too real. But unfortunately we know very little about the rest of the enfolding story.

Careful posturing of public sentiment could not be achieved without utilizing the powerful few who control the media. And to what aim and to what direction are we then heading toward?

If you have all managed control of mass communications, dark and sinister forces in powerful government positions, developing national policies and a private controlled group with enormous powers to direct all monies (The Fed) to the free world, are we really so free or is it but an illusion? Ponder this if you will? If you even care to…..

There are so many questions and so few direct government responses, which will leave us in the dark, when we do have a right to know generally what’s going on. After all they are building their enterprise on the backs of the tax-ridden American middle class.

Our government is posturing to say that we will not know much about the new war. And guess what, we will be kept in the dark, whatever the reasons may be. On the one hand it makes good military sense and who could argue with their resolve.

But in a more sinister light, if we are kept in the dark, they can do or not do anything they wish, tell us what they will and suffer causalities or take no hits at all, that also is an equally dangerous course of action.

At the baseline, all of us need to be cautious and less willing to believe or blindly accept what the government spokespersons say, without thinking it through all the way. It is not un-American to hold these politicians’ feet to the fire, it’s our money and our country and far too much weighs in a perilous balance.

This nation was built and survived on honest open free public debate. While it is true that terrorist must be wiped off the planet, no one argues the point. It is also true that our precious freedoms, which make America so special and bright, must, at all costs be kept in tact. Lest we, like so many other nations be corrupted and conquered from within by men of means and ungodly-power and undue influence.

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