Scare tactics, fear and terrorism

Terrorists win, even when the plot isn’t carried out

A few days ago, the Department of Transportation received packages that were suspicious and buildings were evacuated. My first instinct was to walk over to my computer and blog about it. At the time it was considered “breaking news” and the bloggers and media hadn’t reported about it yet. I decided against blogging on topic because I knew the onslaught of bloggers that would hammer the point home would report within minutes, and they did.

Another reason I decided not to write and “break the news” was because of a concern that doing so might raise an issue that is not as severe as the media (CNN) was reporting. Sure enough, hours later as I read an update that made me shake my head in disgust at our country’s problem with fear and terrorism

Department of Transportation evacuation, premature media reports

This is the news that I was watching on CNN’s “Breaking News” report.

We heard the announcement, like you hear right now, to evacuate the building,” said contractor Derek Koy. “There was something suspicious on Independence Avenue that was being looked into.”

Police closed Independence Ave. from 7th Street to 12th Street and brought in the bomb squad, which included several bomb-sniffing dogs.

“Returning from lunch, there was this guard with a dog, and the dog was going around the traffic control box, which is right at the corner here, and the dog was going all around it and was very agitated, and I noticed that about 20 minutes later we were ordered to leave the building,” said federal employee Bill Biegenwald.

Authorities determined the package was harmless after over two hours.

The “suspicious” package was discovered by a DOT worker on the sixth floor of the main building. The package was non-threatening, but authorities said their response was necessary.

Better safe than sorry?

“It’s better to be overcautious and respond in a situation like you saw today with all these resources instead of being in a situation where you need more resources and don’t have them,” said Alan Etter of the D.C. Fire Department.

Fast forward to Saturday morning (Today)

This morning, I walked over to the Television room and CNN was reporting on the arrests made regarding the JFK terror plot arrests. When I turned on the tube, “Breaking news” was flashing, little did I know they call everything thats a story in-progress, “Breaking.” Regardless, when i posted I thought I was providing a sort of service to the masses. I felt like a good citizen in my quick update and filtering the details from the news that would soon be in print media online.

Only one problem with this attempt at ‘breaking’ news. The plot and attack was not operational, no date or plan to move or time of action! Yet, CNN was reporting it as breaking news. I’m embarrassed to say that I have become as bad as the typical media bloggers that report news ‘because everyone else is reporting it.’ This blog will receive traffic spikes as a result, but I can’t say they were warranted for that report.

Updated report on JFK Int’l Airport terror plot

Authorities say they uncovered a plot to attack JFK Int’l Airport

Rep. Peter King, R-New York, said law enforcement had had the plot “under control” for some time. Another law enforcement official said the plot was never fully operational.

“There is no credible intelligence to suggest an imminent threat to the homeland at this time, and there are no adjustments to our security posture being made as a result of this plot,” a Homeland Security official said.

“We consider this plot to have been credible with an intent to commit acts of violence, but not yet fully operational,” the official said.

As you can see, the latest update now says that the plot was one that was over a year in the making. An informant security guard that was recruited by the group of conspirators had all of the details ready for the FBI and basically a report was released to announce to the world that the department of Homeland Security was doing its job.

Homeland Security

We’ve accepted this terrorist watch dog into our country, we know what their purpose is why are we receiving reports that they did their job? Is the point to highlight to legislators, the people, to liberals that the anti-terrorist fanatics are “right.”

We need to stop reporting this kind of news as “breaking news,” because its NOT breaking news, its simply reporting on the work of an agency that is supposed to take care of such matters. The only thing that happened today was arrests were made, yet CNN for example, keeps showing JFK international airport because it was part of the plot, and they keep reporting it as breaking news whenever they speak about the subject.

Fear tactics and Terror, evil reigns on

The very word “terror” means fear, to terrorize a people is to instill fear for the purpose of controlling the direction of a society, its laws and policy. Al Qaeda terrorists sought to fear American into submission and in many ways they have succeeded.

Al Qaeda also sought to bankrupt the United States, that was their primary reason for attacking the world trade center, September 11th, 2001.

Ron Paul says the war on terror is bankrupting America

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USSAEQl0XMM[/youtube]

Ron Bartlett, domestic policy adviser of the President Reagan

Conservative economist Bruce Bartlett accused President Bush of “bankrupting” America and betraying the Reagan legacy in an interview on PBS’s Tavis Smiley Show on Tuesday. A domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan and a treasury official under President George H.W. Bush, Bartlett assailed Bush’s “big government conservatism” and said he was surprised at Bush’s policies, despite his campaign pledge to be a “compassionate conservative.”

“In 2000 I thought that was election year rhetoric,” said Bartlett. “I didn’t think it meant anything. I learned the hard way as a lot of us did what he really meant it when he talked about compassionate conservatism.” When asked how the current President Bush compared to his father, Bartlett responded, “If I didn’t know with a certainty they were related, I wouldn’t think that they were.”

Do we need to continue our war on terror? Yes. Should we keep encouraging the knee-jerk reactions to fear and terror every time a member of the media utters its words? No. The media itself should be more responsible when it comes to these issues, because they are helping terror achieve its prime objective. To scare, to change the lives of the people on the receiving end of terrorism, after the press conferences and false news reporting that has been happening at an alarming rate, this objective has been achieved.

Who is to blame? It doesn’t matter, but I’ll call out President Bush, Rudy Giuliani and the other exploiters of fear and 9/11 for political gain. Next, the media that feeds on the fear and allows it to present sensational “news breaking stories” is pathetic and needs to take journalistic integrity more seriously. Finally, bloggers, starting with me and YOU, should stop allowing the terrorists to guide our words! NO MORE FEAR.

UPDATE: this video is on topic

Fred Soto is an Attorney and Entrepreneur from the Silicon Valley.
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