"The whole aim of practical politics is to
keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by
menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them
imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
The Terror Card: Fear is the Key to Obedience
The Terrorism Industrial Complex (TIC)
by Rev. Richard Skaff
Global Research, January 31, 2010
Definitions of terrorism
Webster’s dictionary defines terrorism as the systematic use of
terror especially as a means of coercion. [1].
However, the United States code defined terrorism as “(An) act of
terrorism means an activity that (A) involves a violent act or an act
dangerous to human life that is a violation of the criminal laws of the
United States or any State, or that would be a criminal violation if
committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any state,
and (B) appears to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian
population: (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation
or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by
assassination or kidnapping.” [2].
This is an official congressional definition of terrorism that applies
only to other nations. However, the psychological end results of terror,
is always fear that eventually leads to resignation and submission. Fear
and terrorism are interconnected, therefore, we should discuss their
connection in order to understand their impact on our behavior, and their
use to control people. Fear has been the glue that has kept people
attached to their dictators and to their gods. It is worth our time to
take a brief look at this phenomenon that rules our existence.
Fear is the key to obedience
Man’s self-awareness is the progenitor of his alienation, fear,
egocentrism, and anxiety; therefore, the unexamined life is worth living
for the human herds, because it gives them a sense of false security and
pseudo-belonging. Fear is the ulcer of the masses that cripples their
psyche and vanquishes their freedom. [3].
Biblically speaking, fear was always used by the clergies to ensure that
people would obey the rules that were allegedly bestowed by God upon
humanity to avoid burning in hell. These rules were actually written by
men to control the masses and to perpetuate the power of the religious
leaders. As a result, telling the truth and challenging the establishment
will only lead to ridicule, crucifixion, and death.
Unfortunately, fear is the driving force and the main psychological
component of terror. Fear incapacitates people and renders them impotent.
Fear is conducive to regressive behaviors by responsible adults, where
people become dependent on an illusory parent figure like the government
or a corporation per example, in order to protect them from the
evildoers. So they become willing to relinquish their most intimate and
sacred rights in order to feel safe. [3].
How governments perpetuate fear through the use of the media
Americans have been living in fear since 9-11. However, the reality
behind our fears has been set out by our own corporate media who has been
the main culprit in spreading it like a disease. Our media has terrorized
our hearts and minds for years through their subliminal violent
programming, and sensational coverage of their own version of the
distorted truth.
Sensationalism and misinformation are the essence of the modern media!
Angry talk shows are the dish of the day, where the host abuses, yells,
belittles, terrorizes his guests to ensure that their opinions are not
heard, and only the host’s scripted ideas emerge as the winners, so his
or her master’s agenda is served.
The media has been spreading terror for years in the hearts of the
American public, in order to force them to watch their trivial
programming. Just as in Orwell’s Oceania , the airwaves are
bombarded with 24 hours news channels that would resort to any twisted
strategy to keep their distorted coverage going. “If it bleeds it leads.
The airwaves are also inundated with shows and stories that promote fear,
exaggeration of situations, twisting of the truth, psychological
propaganda, bloody and gory stories, and buzz words (i.e. flesh eating
bacteria, shark attacks on our shores, weapons of mass destruction, SARS,
West Nile virus, carjacking, hijacking, war of the sexes, violence,
epidemics, pandemics, child abductions, gay marriages, bird flu, H1N1,
and so forth and so on). All designed to frighten, brainwash, manipulate,
create conflict, confuse, liberalize, and mesmerize their audiences into
watching their programs where anything is acceptable. “Instill fear in
them and they shall watch and follow”. This is a policy of terror not of
democracy. [3].
The terror card
Just as in the case of the Nazi Germany and the Israeli State, terror
has been the ace in the hole for the US government. They have even
adopted Israel’s model of safety. They totally ignore that the US is not
under occupation as the Palestinian people are in Palestine , and that
the alleged terrorism in the Holy Land is simply a reaction against
unholy brutal occupation.
The US Homeland Security (the Orwellian ministry of lies) would like to
use the Israeli anti-terror system, which is usually financed by American
tax payers (US government gives Israel $7 to $8 billion dollars a year in
money for being our friend besides the free military equipments, nuclear
technology, and contracts).
As our proxy in the Near-East, an Israeli company has developed a system
that matches high technology up with and behavioral psychology. It’s
called WeCU, short for “We See You” (the same way Big Brother sees you).
It projects images on a wall and monitors reactions of people. “If you
strolled through an airport and saw a picture of your mother, you
couldn’t help but respond.”
Or if you were a terrorist, the logic goes, you’d respond to a terror
group logo or other familiar imagery. The reaction to these images could
be a darting of the eyes, an increased heartbeat, a nervous twitch or
faster breathing, said company CEO Ehud Givon. If the system observes
suspicious behavior, a person is detained and interrogated. “One by one,
you can screen out from the flow of people those with specific malicious
intent,” Givon said. U.S. officials are considering the Israeli model for
airport security. Israel practices ethnic profiling at Ben-Gurion Airport
. Jewish Israelis typically pass through smoothly, while others like
their Palestinian cousins may be taken aside for closer interrogation or
even strip searches." In other words, if you are an Arab or a
Palestinian, you will be strip searched and be subjected to body cavity
searches. [4].
Of course the intimidation process that triggers anxiety, fear, and false
positives doesn’t count, because the system is not designed to work but
to harass and intimidate the identified victims just as the Stasi did in
East Germany, or the Soviets in the Soviet Union. The Israelis’
self-hatred for being Jews combined with their desperation to be
identified as Europeans (especially German) has continuously obfuscated
their judgment and forced them to project their self-hatred against their
Arab cousins and re-enact their persecution on their Palestinian brothers
whom they occupy and slaughter on a daily basis, even though the
Christian Europeans have persecuted, burned and murdered millions of Jews
throughout history.
Purpose of terrorism
According to Herman and O’Sullivan, terrorism has served other purposes
in the West beyond mobilizing of populations in support of
counterinsurgency operations in the provinces. It created a generalized
fearfulness and irrationality that give leaders greater freedom of
action. Per example, the Reagan administration needed a terrorism threat
tied to a foreign enemy to justify its enormous arms buildup of the early
1980s and to distract attention from its regressive economic and social
and social policies. [5]. Thorstein Veblen (American economist and
social critic) pointed out in 1904 that militarization to combat a
foreign enemy is the natural and best hope of the American elite as “a
corrective for ‘social unrest’ and similar disorders of civilized life”
and as the route to “popular submission and squalor.” [6]. Therefore,
opponents of militarization and harsh measures against dissident
minorities are paralyzed by terrorism propaganda, and it is very
difficult to do something that demagogues can interpret as “helping
terrorists.”
Ironically, the alleged underwear/Christmas Nigerian bomber who was
listed in our intelligence data base as a terrorist and who had no coat
during his trip to the United States (despite freezing temperatures) or
luggage, had a one way ticket, and was aided by a professional mystery
man who helped him get on the plane, was easily granted a visa by the US
embassy to the United States.
Are our embassy employees so inept that they keep making the same errors
over and over again?
Or incompetence is always a better strategy than complicity and treason?
This Christmas day incident created a major distraction during the
holidays, revived the existence of the mythical Al Qaeda, and was used as
a state propaganda tool to drum up fear in the public.
Sure enough few days later, a fabricated audio tape of the late Osama Bin
Laden conveniently surfaced to corroborate the link of the Nigerian
bomber to Al Qaeda.
This event has set the stage for the next level of terror propaganda that
will pave the way for additional loss of liberty and multi-million dollar
contracts for the Terrorism Industrial Complex that will be providing the
airports of the world with body scanning machines to protect the herds
from terrorism. Let’s remember that using intermittent fear mongering
through contrived incidents is a great marketing strategy to sell
expensive security gadgets and to erode freedom. No wonder that most
Americans favor ethnic profiling and body scanning in airports, according
to a recent poll conducted by a government mouth piece/newspaper “USA
Today.” [7]. As I mentioned in a previous article that people will always
give up their liberty for their safety, and that Mr. Obama has quickly
learned that the permanent war on terror card is the inherent ingredient
to maintain his power, and to guarantee himself a second term.
Consequently, the TIC public-private partnership will continue to promote
more technology for safety. Per example, Iris scanning technology in
airports provided by L1-ID solutions a company that George Tenet former
head of the CIA benefited greatly as a major shareholder and a previous
director of Viisage that was acquired by L-1 ID solutions will eventually
be implemented. [8]. Or next time you decide to fly, Homeland security
and their subdivision the TSA (the thought and behavior police) might
slap on you a shocking bracelet that would serve as your boarding pass,
and would track your lost luggage, set off an alarm in area that you are
not allowed to be in, awaken you with an electric jolt if you fall asleep
and helps you not to miss your flight. Subsequently, a stewardess can
shock you and/or immobilize you if you get out of line. Of course this
bracelet is designed to ensure your safety and the safety of your luggage
from being lost. A top government official expressed interest in these
safety bracelets in 2006. However, as of today it remains unclear if this
is the trend of future air travel. [9,10].
Racism as a tool to promote terrorism and suspend natural rights
Give up your freedom or die! That is the logo that most Americans
believe in at this point of time as told by their government. What is a
loss of a few sacred rights when we can keep you safe and alive, our
government asks? In addition, our government implies that they are not
discriminating against you, but they are only targeting a specific ethnic
and/or racial group who doesn't look like you and who wants to kill you.
It’s our holy (Jihad) war against the evil dark skinned man versus the
good and pure white Christian man (even though purity is a myth and
humanity is a pool of mutt who has shagged each other for thousands of
centuries). The government will also tell us that they will use the
terrorists’ violent tactics to eradicate as taught by our Lord Jesus
Christ. This is the dogma of our alleged born again U.S. Christian
government.
Historically, every dominant race and culture has appointed itself as the
supreme one and the rest had to follow. In contrast to the bible, the
meek shall not inherit the earth, but shall perish like an insignificant
cockroach. Racism like hate and destructiveness is part of the human
character. It is definitely a great political tool to create division
among the masses in order to dominate them; in addition, down-grading
people justifies their eradication. The establishment has the ability to
define a race and to alter that same definition based on the political
climate of the day. The illusion of belonging to a superior group helps
compensates for the person who feels like a flee, and in lieu the group
membership leads him to feel like a giant by appealing to his or her
narcissistic biases. Group narcissism is a key factor in racism. It is
fueled and perpetuated by politicians. Racism and fear go hand in hand.
Fear is a natural response for self-preservation. By connecting fear to
racism and artificially inducing it in people, weakens the masses and
divides them, fabricates consent, and makes racism a mechanism of pseudo
self-preservation. [3].
A brief view of The Terrorism Industrial Complex (TIC)?
According to Herman and O’Sullivan, the terrorism industrial complex
consists of security agencies closely connected to the government. Many
of their employees are previous government employees from the
intelligence community and the military.
The private sector terrorism experts in the west who reaches the mass
media are generally affiliated with the terrorism industry institutes and
think tanks. A large fraction of these experts also has revolving-door
relationships with governments and government intelligence agencies, and
many are connected with private security firms.
They therefore reflect official views and a state agenda, and they rarely
depart from the assumptions of the western model of terrorism. Some of
the experts have a material interest in “threat inflation.” [5]. The
security industry serves business and government; it therefore approaches
“terrorism” from the standpoint of its employers and principals. Some
segments, especially those providing security services and recruiting and
training mercenaries, are often arms of the government that carry out
covert actions for which the government does not want to admit
responsibility.
Leaders of the security business organize and participate regularly in
conferences, hearings, and seminars on terrorism, and are experts
consulted by the media to explain and show how to cope with the terrorist
threat. Because of their structural position and role, members of the
security industry look at terrorism strictly within the frame of the
Western model. And they have a material interest in inflating the threat
of terrorism in order to elevate, their own importance as supplier of
counterterrorism services. Since the West engages in and supports a
primary terrorism under the guise of responding to the violence of
others, the security industry naturally gravitates to the support of and
participation in real terrorism, as exemplified by advising the
Guatemalan and Honduran military on apprehending and interrogating
so-called terrorists and aiding the Nicaraguan contras. In the West this
is all known as counterterrorism. [5].
The industry naturally excludes the terrorism of the West and its clients
from the terrorism agenda, and in fact, makes primary terrorist like the
governments of South Africa and El Salvador victims of terrorism engaging
in counterterrorism. The press follows closely in the terrorism
industry’s wake. Thus Abu Nidal, loosely affiliated with Libya and Syria
, merits great attention as a terrorist; the leaders of RENAMO, whose
killings of unarmed civilians exceed those of Abu Nidal by a factor of
many hundred but who are surrogates of a Western client and ally, South
Africa , are rarely placed on official and expert lists of terrorists and
are given slight attention and inspire little indignation in the mass
media. Even after the State Department itself issues a report documenting
RENAMO killings on a staggering scale, mass media attention was fleeting
and their indignation was restrained (in contrast with their reaction to
the killing fields of distant Cambodia ). Even traditional terrorists
like Orlando Boschand Luis Posada Carriles, who blow up civilian
airliners and engage in multiple assassinations, do not attract
substantial media attention. As long as they only attack the citizens,
facilities, and friends of enemy states, the terrorism industry and media
display little interest in their activities. This pattern is pervasive,
and the choices have nothing to do with the substance of terrorism –in
fact, they commonly involve emphasis on a lesser terrorism and
simultaneous aversion of the eyes from wholesale terror. The choices are
simply tailored to the political and propaganda needs of the West. If it
is true that a substantial part for anti-Western terrorism is a response
to western terrorism, then the solution to the terrorism problem for the
West is clear: Stop doing it! The U.S. media rely almost exclusively on
the government and private sector of the terrorism industry for their
identification of terrorists, model of terrorism, facts, and proposed
solutions. [5].
Manufacturing terrorism
There are several forms of manufactured terrorism. One is the
inflation of the menace on the basis of modest and not very threatening
but conceivable real actions (as with the weather underground and the
West German Kurds). Another is the false transfer of the responsibility
for a terrorist act to a convenient villain, as in the case of Agca's
shooting of the pope. The spate of terrorist bombings in western Europe
during the early and mid-1980s had the earmarks of being, at least in
part, manufactured terrorism. The bombings were all too convenient for
Western propaganda needs; many of them, especially those directed against
NATO installations , were symbolic and ineffectual. [5]. The examples of
manufactured terrorism are innumerable, and will continue to go on and on
to advance Western governments political agendas. Terrorism is also
manufactured in the private sector to incriminate union leaders,
activists, and political enemies, sometimes in collusion with agents of
the state. In addition, the West has produced an industry of institutes
and experts who formulate and channel analysis and information in
accordance with Western demands. These institutes as part of Terrorism
Industrial Complex are designed to give authoritative status to experts
who will confirm and reinforce state propaganda, to occupy the
informational space that might otherwise be used by dissident voices, and
thus to ensure closure of fact and opinion. The government and corporate
wealthy nourish the institutes and think tanks that service and sponsor
suitable intellectuals and journalists who will convey the proper
messages. The function of experts is merely to clarify and elaborate on
pre-established truths, which reflects an effective propaganda system.
[5].
Terrorism as a tool for power and for grand theft of public money
As we have seen, there are several factors that influence terrorism
and they're all connected and manipulated to serve political purposes, in
order for the elite to increase their wealth, power, and global
domination. The key ingredient to take away people's money, long
standing systemic privileges, and their natural rights such as freedom is
for governments to snatch it in increments through what social
psychologists call the inoculation effect. Per example, you don't take
away people’s social security privileges overnight, instead you will
surreptitiously do it in small doses by regularly and gradually reducing
these benefits to nothing, while the herds become totally desensitized to
the idea of losing it. Like religious leaders, our public-private
partnership (PPP) democratic governments have consistently and regularly
robbed the proles of their money. Through taxation and inflation
(indirect tax) induced and justified by deliberate and profligate
spending to finance their alleged political agendas, they have
transferred the wealth of nations to themselves and to their other half
in the global private industry. Meanwhile, contrived terror
will continue to be a great tool of control and wealth for the elites who
have rendered their mercenaries and bandits into famous terrorists and
global stars.
Notes
1. Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary
2. The United States Congressional and Administrative News, 98th
congress, Second session, 1984, Oct 19, volume 2; par 3077, 98 STAT, 2707
(West publishing Co. 1984).
3. R. Skaff, (2007). The Human Manifesto. PA, Maryland.
4. Michael Tarm, (January 8, 2010). Associated Press.
Mind-reading systems could change air security.
5. E. Herman, G. O’Sullivan (1984). The “Terrorism” Industry:
The experts and institutions that shape our view of terror. Random House
Publishing, New York .
6. Throstein Veblen, The theory of Business Enterprise ( New York :
Scribner, 1904), pp. 393-94.
7. Thomas Frank , USA Today (01-11-2010). Most OK with TSA full-body
scanners
8. Shorrock, T. (05-07, 2007).
George Tenet cashes in on
Iraq. Salon.com
9. Youtube, 2010. DHS Showed Interest in Shock Bracelet for Airline
Passengers
10. Worldnet daily (July 8, 2008) Latest buzz: Shock bracelets for all
airline passengers 'Just when you thought you've heard it all'
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17299
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