EDITORIAL
Don't believe it
Whoops.
That's how casually the FBI ended its manhunt for five
Middle Eastern immigrants whose photographs it had posted on
its Web site under the "war on terrorism."
Turns out it was fabricated. Just a hoax.
Bureau officials blame it all on a suspect they had in
custody--a suspect--who they say concocted the tip. How can
anyone confirm if that's a lie, as well? If the person does
exist and did give them a false lead, were agents terrorizing
him? Was he being tortured for information he didn't
possess?
This is no innocent blunder. Photos of the five men of color
were published in newspapers and broadcast around the world on
television screens. They weren't computer simulations--they are
real people put in harm's way by the FBI.
The incident ratcheted up racist profiling by the
government, aimed at creating fear and suspicion of Arab
people. Much hoopla was made in the media about doubling the
police presence in Times Square on New Year's Eve based on the
"lead" about these five men--who had done nothing.
Why should anyone believe anything emanating from White
House, FBI front office or Justice Department media
conferences? All progressive-minded, clear-thinking people need
to be on a different kind of alert: Propaganda alerts.
If it sounds like war hype, don't swallow it!
When Bush and his generals are finally ready to launch a
full-scale attack on Iraq, a "Gulf of Tonkin" pretext may
appear everywhere in the media, reported as news. Dissenting
voices will be drowned out in the blitzkrieg of lies to justify
a war by the imperial power with the most weapons of mass
destruction of any country in the world.
Don't believe anything they say. Instead, visit
www.workers.org for the truth, or the
www.internationalANSWER.org website to find the anti-war
protest nearest you.
Reprinted from the Jan. 16, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
Commons License.
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