In Baghdad, Barwiz Muhammad Mahmoud al-Merani
was shot to death along with his son. Al-Merani was slated to serve
on the tribunal that will prosecute Saddam Hussein. In Chicago,
federal judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow came home to find her husband and
mother dead from gun shot wounds.
Assassinations in Iraq aren’t terribly surprising. Foreign armies
are beginning their third year of occupation in that country and have
killed and detained thousands. That sort of thing always incites violence.
There is no war on American soil. We don’t expect that a judge’s relatives
will be slain execution style. We think we are different but perhaps
we should not be so sanguine.
There may not be a war in this country but there are thousands of
haters who would love to become killers. Sometimes they emerge from
the shadows and act out their sick fantasies. That is what Benjamin
Smith did in 1999.
He went on a shooting spree in Illinois and Indiana killing a black
man and an Asian man and wounding nine others. Smith was a protégée
of Matthew Hale, leader of World
Church of the Creator, a group
that espouses Racial Holy War.
No one has been arrested for killing Judge Lefkow’s family, but followers
of Matthew Hale are logical suspects. Last year Hale was convicted
of soliciting an under cover FBI agent to have Lefkow killed.
If it can be said that good deeds are in fact punished, Lefkow is a
tragic example.
In 2002 Lefkow decided in Hale’s favor in a trademark infringement
case. Hale had been sued by an Oregon based group that also called
itself World Church of the Creator. Lefkow’s decision in favor of Hale
was overturned on appeal, but when he ignored the verdict from the
higher court she fined
him $1,000 for every day that he continued
to use the disputed name.
Furious with Lefkow and incorrectly assuming her to be Jewish, Hale
was taped soliciting her murder. After he was charged his white supremacist
brethren openly advocated her murder.
Hal Turner is a case in point. Turner is a former radio talk show
host who two years ago said that Lefkow was “worthy of being killed.” Turner
recently defended that statement. "If I say some politician
should be assassinated, that's an opinion. If I say, `Let's go kill
so-and-so,' that's solicitation of murder. It's a very fine line, and
sometimes people can't distinguish."
Matthew Hale, Hal Turner and their ilk are usually referred to as “white
supremacists.” The description certainly fits, but how about the word “terrorists?” The
media in this country are loath to use that word when Americans kill
or advocating killing. Timothy McVeigh murdered 168 people and was
described as being anti-government, but was rarely called a terrorist. It
seems that being white
and American is enough to preclude being
thought of as a terrorist, no matter how horrible the statements or
actions of the individuals involved.
George W. Bush is on a rampage around the globe in an effort to wage
what he calls the war on terror. It is a phony war. Its true goal is
to make America dominant. The fight against terror in the United States
is always a pretext for keeping the public frightened and distracted
from threats to their well being that emanate from the supposed terror
warriors.
Bushmen propaganda always rears its ugly head when they are on the
defensive. It is not a coincidence that national security and the war
on terror re-emerge as the issues of the day when the public expresses
a lack of enthusiasm for doing away with the Social
Security safety net.
Printer friendly version of Huntin' with Dubya cartoon.
Omar Ahmed Abu Ali is an American citizen from Virginia. While in
custody in Saudi Arabia he allegedly confessed to a participating in
a plot to kill President Bush. Ali had no access to an attorney and
was never charged with a crime. His attorneys also allege that he was
tortured while in Saudi custody.
Even John Ashcroft didn’t prosecute Ali. Thinking people must ask
themselves two questions. Why is Ali being prosecuted and why is he
being prosecuted now. The answer is that Ali was kept on the back burner
until he was needed. Ali is now being placed front and center lest
we forget ourselves and start questioning anything that the Bush clique
is trying to put over on us.
Judge Lefkow and her family were never threatened by Osama bin Laden,
Islamic extremists or an al-Qaeda cell. They were threatened by Americans
with the same skin color who called themselves Christians. Hopefully
the identity of the killers will soon be discovered and we will know
that the terror threatening us all has been eased. Not permanently
of course, just for a little while and just in one place. Bush is right
about one thing. The war on terror must never end.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly
in Ms. Kimberley is a freelance writer
living in New York City. She can be reached via e-Mail at [email protected].
You can read more of Ms. Kimberley's writings at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com/ |