The
Ultimate U.S. Terrorism List: Obama Adds 675 Million
Muslims As Terrorists
11 January 2010By Franklin Lamb
Obama adds 675 million Muslims to the ultimate
U.S. Terrorism List.
Lebanon reacts: “Would it be simpler just to put the
whole world on?”
However President Obama is judged on various subjects
for his first year in office, he has already made
history in the way that neither his predecessor nor
any other leader has ever managed.
On January 3, 2010, the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) issued new security directives to
all United States and international air carriers with
inbound flights to the U.S. effective January 4, 2010.
The TSA press release sought to assure the traveling
public: "The new directive includes long-term
sustainable security measures developed in
consultation with law enforcement officials and our
domestic and international partners."
At midnight Washington DC time, January 3, it went
into effect and placed 675,000,000 (675 million) more
Muslims and Arabs on yet another ‘Terrorism ‘list.
Also added were Nigerian and Cuban Christians but they
were not the target.
675 million is the approximate total number of people
on the new list from the ten “prone to terrorism
Countries” as the Washington Post called them, or
“terrorist leaning countries “according to Fox news,
(Sudan, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya,
Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen)
and the four current” State sponsors of Terrorism” (
Iran, Syria, Libya and Cuba).
All 675 million of these citizens are subject to being
watched, patted down, and full body scanned under
arrangements calling for ‘intense screening’ by the
national airlines who would like to transport them to
the U.S. As with the new H. R. 2278 Congressional
initiative against satellite TV providers, the
airlines flying from or via the 14 countries will have
to enforce the new stringent security measures or
themselves risk losing their lucrative U.S. bi-lateral
landing rights and potentially, end up on yet another
U.S. Special Global Terrorism facilitator list.
In addition to the approximate 675 million covered by
the new measure, with the average birth rate of these
countries being approximately 45 live births per 1000
per year, it means that more than 17,000,000 newborns
will join the new U.S. T list even before their first
gulp of their mommy’s milk. And every subsequent years
worth of new ‘T babies’.
The new list initiative is enough to warm Dick
Cheney’s heart, reputed as he is to have never seen a
Muslim or an Arab (except those he does business with)
he didn’t want terrorized by a listing or other means,
but the international rebellion against this latest
U.S. War on Terrorism initiative has begun.
As this report is being prepared, Nigeria has just
weighed via media reports reaching Beirut around noon
on 1/5/09 and its government has demanded that their
150,000,000 (150 million) citizens be immediately
scratched from the new T list of 14 countries singled
out for special treatment. Nigeria Information
Minister Dora Akunyili announced that "Nigeria,
Africa's most populous nation, did not accept the new
Terrorism list and we do not have a history of
terrorism and such a move could not be justified. It
is unfair to include 150 million Nigerians on the U.S.
list for tighter screening because Nigerians do not
have terrorist tendencies."
It’s no secret these days that anyone who even looks
like they could be Arab or Muslim is already on a
‘mental U.S. Terrorism watch list’ evidenced by
reports of some passengers deciding not to board
flights after observing Hijab wearing females or Abaya
wearing Muslin or Arab men looking at them. What often
happens according to airport security officials is
that non Muslims sometimes stare at Muslims trying to
detect something unusal or suspicious about them and
then the Muslims stare back wondering why they are
being stared at and both parties become paranoid.
The Lebanese, bless them all, ever alert to foreign
intrigues, and were among the first objecting to being
placed on the new U.S. T list.
On Sunday night’s (1/3/09) late and wild van ride back
to Beirut from Beital in the now frigid and frequently
bitterly cold and windblown, Bekaa Valley of Lebanon,
this observer got an ear full. Our driver, by
appearance, down to the “Akek” (Amber) ring on his
little finger, neatly trimmed short beard, black wool
jacket and black baseball cap, was a Hezbollah guy.
Fellow passengers were accepting as “Abass” treated us
to his new CD of Resistance music, (again and again!),
including the popular songs “Haydar, Hayder” and “Oh
Hussein!”, and the catchy “ Ali, Ali!” (Ali was the
cousin and son in law of the Prophet Mohammad who Shia
Muslims believe should have been the first Khalifa
(successor) of the Prophet rather than Abu Bakr and
his line including Omar (the second Khalifa) and
Othman (the third Khalifa). In important respects,
from this succession argument grew the Shia-Sunni
conflict now deeply splitting Islam.
On the van, it was a party atmosphere among the
fifteen or so passengers most of whom were returning
from week-end visits to their families with Bekaa
toting delicacies of one kind or another. Van users,
including this one, prefer Hezbollah drivers on the
Beirut-Bekaa run because they know every pot hole on
the route over the West Lebanon Mountains, don’t try
to overcharge riders, are unfailingly polite to the
elderly and infirm-assisting them on and off the vans,
and perhaps most importantly, these guys drive like
bats fleeing hell, which cuts travel time by about
one-third.
But those probably most grateful for riding with
drivers like ‘Abass’ are those whose documents might
not be quite in order or they just might be carrying
contraband of some sort. For them our driver was
golden because drivers like him are routinely waived
thru various check points en route once their
affiliation is noticed. One can’t help wondering what
would happen if a U.S. ‘profiling’ system was in place
and a van was pulled over by a Pennsylvania State
trooper named Lawrence and his flashing red light, for
ID and luggage inspection or just to sniff inside the
vehicles quickly rolled down windows. Would the van
still have passengers traveling to Beirut or would he
ask to share a smoke?
The friendly young man sitting next to me opened a
carry on case and while not wanting to appear snoopy,
one could not help noticing that it was packed with
filled honey comb and softball sized clumps of Red-bud
Hashish (known locally by Western clients as ‘H & H’,
with sometimes the prized honey fetching more than the
Red-bud) two ancient Bekaa products. Appreciated from
before Roman times each harvest achieved bumper crops
this year. The near record yield was recorded despite
a couple of DEA funded ‘photo op’ anti-drug ‘raids’
last summer that the locals laugh at. The chatty kid
told me lots of couriers make at least twice weekly
Baalbek trips.
One Baalbek young lady, a member of the large Jaafar
clan ( which producers some of Hezbollah’s best
fighters) , studying Journalism at Beirut’s American
Lebanese University (LAU), commented to this observer
after our driver took a music break to tune in the
news, “Oh, your country just added 14 more Muslim
countries to another airplane Terrorism list. Mabrouk!”
This opened an animated discussion of the ways things
are going these days between the Obama administration
whose sweet words last spring have become the source
for scowls and ridicule in Lebanon due to deep
disappointment and, once more dashed hope of America
becoming an honest broker in the region --and of
course, the various U.S. Terrorism lists.
A teen ager from the back of the van sing-songed
“Wouldn’t it be easier just for you Americans to put
the whole world on your terrorism list and then let
everyone on the planet convince you they should be
taken off?” And another smart alec grinned: “Or you
could just stop giving Israel weapons to kill and
terrorize us and then there would be no need for any
terrorist lists at all? “ Within two seconds, not
more, an old woman who must have been in her 80’s,
wrapped in an Ashoura black covering, and who appeared
to be sound asleep, lifted her head and shouted
“Enshallah! (God willing!) and returned her head
forward to slumber. With that sage intervention the
van erupted and shook in laughter.
The strongest reaction came from ‘Mustapha’ who
appeared to be some sort of Salafist recently arrived
from the gulf. Claiming to have friends in Al Qaeda in
the Arabian Peninsula, he expressed a strong opinion
and with anger in his voice:
“Does your government think Muslims with self respect
and who value the Koran will allow his family
especially his wife and his daughters to be body
scanned? He would rather die. This will not happen.
One phone call and your Embassy in Lebanon will close
faster than the one in Yemen. I think sometimes that
you Americans have no idea about these latest
aggressions against Muslims? Are you out of your
minds? We are peaceful people with a few extremists
doing some crasy things but only in response to crimes
against us like in Palestine. Stop provoking us and
leave us and our lands!”
Will frequent flyers start to Glow?
As Mustapha expressed, Muslims and Arabs find the
full-body scanner treatment abhorrent and they will
likely oppose in strongly. In this they are not alone
with many questions being raised from cost
(approximately $ 200,000 each or 10 more expensive
that the usual metal detectors) to questions whether
such devices would have even detected the type of bomb
allegedly used on Christmas Day in Detroit.
While the Israel Defense Industries has announced a
crash program to build and distribute quickly a
cheaper and improved full body scanner (FBS) version,
the stock of American Science & Engineering, a U.S.
company that makes the full body scanners skyrocketed
after Christmas and hit $82 dollars per share on
1/4/09, up from around $ 42 this summer. UK companies
like L-3 Communications and Qinetiq hope to fend off
competitors in landing quick orders. Qinetiq announced
that it can perfect a “stand-off” full body scanner to
reduce privacy issues.
Former Bush Homeland Security director, Michael
Chertoff admitted to NPR the other day that he is in
the hunt for contracts for his new consulting firm,
while denying that his advocacy of fbs when he held
his post is a conflict of interest. Janes Weekly
claims the fbs are here to stay.
There are many critics of FBS including claims that it
tends to fry hearing aids, and sends massive doses of
ionizing x-rays radiations to the thyroid and breast
areas. Others insist dogs are more effective and much
cheaper.
Dr. John Gofman, Professor Emeritus of Molecular and
Cell Biology, University of California, a leading U.S.
expert on the biological effects of X-radiation has
concluded after exhaustive research that there is NO
SAFE DOSE-LEVEL of ionizing radiation. His studies
indicate that radiation from medical diagnostics and
treatment is a causal co-factor in 50 percent of
America’s cancers and 60 percent of our ischemic
(blood flow blockage) heart disease. He stresses that
the frequency with which Americans are medically
X-rayed “makes for a significant radiological impact.”
Privacy issues
The rapid introduction of full body scanners at
British airports threatens to breach child protection
laws which ban the creation of indecent images of
children. Terri Dowty, of Action for Rights of
Children, in London claims that the scanners could
breach the Protection of Children Act 1978, under
which it is illegal to create an indecent image or a
"pseudo-image" of a child.
The ACLU and similar civil liberty organizations in
England and Europe are waging a campaign against fbs
on privacy grounds some arguing that the images
created by the machines are so graphic they amount to
"virtual strip-searching" and have called for
safeguards to protect the privacy of passengers
involved. U.S. and European Child porn laws are
applicable in the view of some lawyers and there is
growing concern that TSA type at airports around the
World do not commit offences under child pornography
laws or sell to the likes of the National Enquirer,
the UK Sun, NY Post etc. full body scan images of
celebrities, movie stars and others. Some governments
are expressing concern that images could end up on the
Internet.
A 12-month trial at Manchester, England airport of
scanners revealed naked images of passengers including
their genitalia and breast enlargements only went
ahead last month after under-18s were exempted.
According to a U.S. Congressional source, the Obama
administration’s new list is meant to parry the coming
expected rampage from the likes of Russ Limbaugh.
Already some conservatives such as retired Lieutenant
General Thomas McInerney who wants to get young Muslim
men naked in the worst way. The former U.S. Air Force
general's comments during a recent Fox News broadcast.
"We've got to go to more than just the normal process
that they're talking about now," he opined on
Saturday. "We have got to go to very; very strict
screening and we've got to use profiling. And I mean,
be very, very serious about the profiling. If you are
an 18-28-year-old Muslim man, then you should be strip
searched. If we don't do that, there's a very high
probability that we're gonna lose an airliner."
The Obama administration has expressed for months an
interest in revamping the Terrorism lists and who is
on them who should not be. Now is the time to rethink
the whole T list concept. They can boomerang and cause
many more problems than they were constructed to
prevent. The Obama administration should proceed on a
case by case basic with people suspected of planning
violence. It should immediately scrap the latest 675,
000,000+ Mega Special Global Terrorism List and try
good works rather than threats and serial humiliations
to build trust and friendship among Muslims and Arabs
who are identical to ourselves in what they are
working to accomplish in life for their loved ones.
-- Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon. He
is reachable at fplamb@gmail.com.
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