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More Lies to Keep You Afraid
by AntiChimp
Saturday, Jun. 11, 2005 at 4:19 PM
antichimp2005@yahoo.com
Lies, Damn Lies, & Statistics
Last week, President Bush made another attempt to mislead the nation about his "war" on terror and the need for the renewal of the Patriot Act, when he stated that "federal terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against more than 400 suspects, and more than half of those charged have been convicted." But as noted in the Washington Post, when you look behind the raw numbers, a different story emerges.
First, let's correct the numbers: only 39 people have actually been convicted of anything remotely related to terrorism; quite a bit less than "half", as Bush suggests. The rest of the convictions had no terrorism aspect. Many of the people charged had been cleared, sometimes years ago, of any ties to al Quaeda or any other terrorist organization.
The Bush Equation for Fear seems to be: Muslim male plus any excuse for a criminal charge equals a terrorism suspect. That's how the administration arrives at its inflated and inflammatory pseudo-statistics.
If you suddenly lower the speed limit on a given road by 20 m.p.h. and don't tell anybody, of course you'll wind up being able to arrest more speeders. That is the basic intent of the Patriot Act. Does America have a terrorist problem? Hardly, at least compared to the rest of the world. The Patriot Act and the "War" on terror are simply propaganda tools for neo-con imperialism.
Copyright 2005 by AntiChimp.com
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