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Politics : About that Cuban boy, Elian -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Yogizuna who wrote (3048)	4/26/2000 9:12:00 PM
From: gao seng	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9127

WHAT HATH JANET WROUGHT? BLITZKREIG ON THE CUBAN EXILES etherzone.com By: Phil Brennan According to Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, he held a weeping, guilt-ridden Janet Reno in his arms in the wake of Reno's Raid on the house where Elian dwelt. Yeah! I have a picture of that, a tearful Attorney General seeking solace from the odious Eric Holder as she contemplated what she'd wrought Good Saturday morning in Little Havana. Aside from the fact that going to the duplicitous Holder for comfort would be something akin to seeking solace from a rattlesnake, I'm willing to bet that Fraulein Reno was anything short of overjoyed at the results of her blitzkreig on a bunch of defenseless Cuban exiles. Think about it. As revealed in NewsMax.com Monday, Reno was fully aware of the fact that Associated Press freelancer Alan Diaz would almost certainly be in the Gonzalez house when her jackbooted thugs, automatic weapons at the ready, came smashing in. And that Diaz, a friend of the Gonzalez family would have every opportunity to film the outrage. Moreover, she had ordered that all media should be granted free access to the incident, assuring that it would be well covered by both still and video cameramen - a breed far different from the subservient, bootlicking correspondents and commentators of the mainstream media who could be depended upon to cover the event in a manner favorable to her interests no matter how illegal and outrageous they might be. The photographers, an irreverent boisterous lot, were certain to go after the best photos their cameras could capture, whatever they showed, the gorier the better, and the consequences to Reno and her minions be damned. So knowing that there was a strong chance that photos such as the one Diaz got would almost certainly be taken and widely published, why did Reno go so far as to almost guarantee such an outcome? After all, as NewsMax.com and the Washington Post reported Monday, many of her associates were dead set against giving cameramen free rein for the very reason that a damning Diaz photo would almost surely emerge from the assault. Having lived through most of a century during which tyrannical governments rose and fell, and watched them come and go, sometimes close up, I think I know the answer. Reno wanted that kind of photo taken, and both expected and wanted the horrified reaction it produced all around the nation. Why? Well go back a bit and recall Waco and the awful images that came out of that little exercise in lethal government power storming down and killing ordinary Americans. After a while, the average American managed to put the images of that flaming holocaust out of their minds. Power hungry, would-be tyrants know that there is value in terrorism. Hitler and Stalin knew it, as do the Chinese communist rulers and Elian's father's boss, Fidel Castro. The message is simple: if we can do it to them we can also do it to you, Mr. & Mrs.Citizen, so watch your step, big brother is watching. But there's more. When incidents like Waco, the bombing of aspirin factories in Sudan and civilians in Belgrade and now attacking houses in Little Havana, occur with increasing frequency they tend to desensitize the population, thus making it possible to raise the ante as each new opportunity to terrorize the citizenry arises. After a while, the populace becomes almost blase and accepts such things as Crystalnachts and concentration camps as being nothing out of the ordinary. In this case it seems to be working - polls show that about half of all Americans think Reno's Raid with all its barely restrained brutality was just dandy. The consequence? It's an old story. They came for Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge and killed his wife and son and we did nothing. Then they came for David Koresh and incinerated him and some 80 other innocent Americans and we still did nothing. Now they've come for Elian and terrorized his great uncle and his foster mother and their family, and we did nothing. Some day they'll come for us. Then there's the matter of the enforcers the tyrants send out to terrorize the ordinary citizens. You have to be certain they'll obey orders, just as Adolph Eichman obeyed his superiors during the Holocaust. If there are any men or women among the enforcers who can't be depended upon now's the time to identify and root them out. There's no room in Amerca's SS for compassion or decency. Think about it. Would you, any of you, agree to do what Reno's raiders did last Saturday morning shortly after 5:00 a.m.? Would you be willing to storm into someone's private house waving and pointing lethal weapons at adults and children, shout at them to hand over the f...ing kid or you'll shoot them as Reno's Raiders did in Lazaro's house? Or would you simply say 'no thank you" and go get an honest job. In short, what kind of monsters are we breeding in federal law enforcement? Unfortunately, they are exactly the kind of monsters Fraulein Reno and her Fuhrer are looking for. What comes next, the burning of some American Reichstag and a man on a white (House) horse to protect the American people from the alleged incendiary terrorists? Ora Pro Nobis. Mail this article to a friend(s) in two clicks! -------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------ Phil Brennan's column appears every Wednesday on the Ether Zone. Phil Brennan can be reached at pvb@pvbr.com We invite you to visit his website at Wednesday on the Web Published in the April 26, 2000 issue of Ether Zone. Copyright ¸ 2000 Ether Zone (http://etherzone.com). Reposting permitted with this message intact.

To: Yogizuna who wrote (3048)	4/26/2000 11:16:00 PM
From: Rock_nj	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9127

I think it's true that we are heading towards a police state with the victimless crime laws and "war on drugs". However, I don't see any of these outraged conservatives leading us to a freer society. After all, they are often in favor of increased police powers. Just look at decision after decision by arch-conservative Justice Anthony Scalia and you'll see he's very supportive of intrusive police power. I also haven't seen the Republicans during their control of congress restore our rights lost to the drug war. I am especially outraged by the seizure laws that have been abused time and time again. At least they are finally passing legislation to curb govvernment's power to seize property. But, they aren't going far enough to stop this abuse of power.