In our nation of ‘national security’, where everything is re-defined and justified by the notion of ‘fighting terrorism’, it would be only appropriate to revisit and examine the term ‘terrorism,’ and then go a few steps further and look into its implications. Monday, 3. October 2011
State Sponsored Terrorism when the State is of the People
“A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn’t have an Air Force” - William Blum
Almost everyone thinks that they know what ‘terrorism’ is or what constitutes terrorism. There are hundreds of definitions for terrorism varied by cultural, sub-cultural, national, linguistic, political, historical, and numerous other interpretations, perceptions, factors and circumstances. I am going to use the general definition of terrorism under U.S. Law: Premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents.
There is another type of ‘terrorism’ with a slightly different definition which was not commonly used until recently, when our nation’s status changed to a ‘national security’ state: State Sponsored Terrorism. In general state sponsored terrorism refers to acts of terrorism conducted by a state against a foreign state or people. It can also refer to widespread acts of violence by a state against its own people. In February 2011 I wrote a commentary on the Supreme Court decision which upheld the broad application of a federal law making it a crime to provide “material support” to designated “foreign terrorist organizations” (FTOs), and I wrote:Based on this definition and based on what the puppet court recently ruled on what constitutes ‘material support’ to terrorism, our government, those who have sanctioned US Foreign Aid to dictators inflicting violence against their own people, should be brought to trial. I am talking about Egypt. I am talking about Uzbekistan. I am talking about Jordan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Israel …To be more accurate, I am talking about Billions of dollars being continuously provided to dictators for half a century who in turn are terrorizing their own people. Egypt and where our tax dollars, US Foreign Aid, went is only one example. All you have to do is line check dozens of our foreign aid recipients against their established human rights (terrorism) record.Many rational readers agreed with the above assessment- the fact that our government supports terrorist dictators and provides them with financial and other material support. That makes us a state that provides material support to terrorists.
Considering the escalating rate of our government’s undeclared and covert wars around the world, taking into account the tens of thousands of innocent lives lost as a result of these wars, and adding to that our intelligence agencies’ established record on rendition, torture and assassination, I believe some would agree with me on our nation’s terrorizing practices, thus its status as a terrorist state. I know some already do.
Now here comes a term that I have not seen used, written or talked about. This may be due to needed denial for a self-perceived need for national pride. This may be due to the severity of the realistic implications that only a few are capable of handling once understood and digested. This is possibly caused by externalization of already acknowledged truths of the atrocities and inhumanities that have been committed by our nation, and are still being committed. The term I am talking about here is: Nation’s Civilians Sponsored Terrorism. You see it is too vague and abstract when we attribute the atrocious overt and covert wars, inhumane and wide-spread practices of kidnapping, rendition, torture and assassination, to an entity called a government. I believe it is self-preserving, self-serving and convenient to externalize the atrocious practices constituting terrorism to some broad entity called ‘our government.’ It is shrugging off our key role, participation and responsibility when we express our disgust with our government’s atrocities and its terrorization of people around the world.. Read more>>
