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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (350070)	2/22/2010 3:01:45 PM
From: KLP	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793790

More on Defining Terrorism from CAIR and another from the Left: CAIR condemns US double standards on terrorism Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:08:57 GMT presstv.ir A small plane crashed into the IRS building in Austin on Thursday. Nearly four days have passed and still the United States has not declared the Texas suicide plane crash a terrorist attack, Muslim activists say. At least two people were killed and 13 more were injured when a software engineer flew his single-engine plane into the seven-storey Internal Revenue Service (IRS) office building next to an FBI office in Austin, Texas on Thursday. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) denounced the United States' "double-standard" policy on Sunday, saying that Washington would have labeled the suicide attack a terrorist incident if the pilot had been a Muslim. White House officials have only said they will wait until an investigation into the crash is completed before deciding whether to call it an act of terrorism. The attack fits the legal definition of terrorism, CAIR said, adding that the double-standard indicates the "meaninglessness" of Washington's definition of terrorism. Even the US media have provided very little coverage of the incident. FTP/HGL Comment Note: The views expressed and the links provided on our comment pages are the personal views of individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Press TV. Abdul-Rahman Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:06:31 GMT It is true the US imperialists have double standards, but this act was likely done by the US government to attack 9/11 truthers and other freedom seeking groups attacking the Zionist New World Order. See Alex Jones websites infowars and prisonplanet that prove that the FBI was on the scene in Austin, Texas before the crash even happened! Meaning the US government likely did it as a false flag op. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DEBATING DOMESTIC TERRORISM by Mickey McCarter Monday, 22 February 2010 hstoday.us Daniel Kaniewski argues attack in Austin fit the definition Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, speaking to a gathering of governors Sunday, indicated that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would concentrate more of its attention to dealing with domestic extremism. While Napolitano referenced the radicalization of American citizens in her remarks, experts still debate what exactly constitutes an act of domestic terrorism. Take last week's suicide attack on an IRS building in Austin, Texas, for example. Software engineer Joseph Stack flew his private plane into the building Feb. 18, killing himself and one other person in the conflagration that followed. Stack left a rambling, lengthy suicide note in which he blamed the IRS for his financial problems and called upon Americans to fight against the government. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo called Stack's suicide attack a single criminal act that did not qualify as terrorism. But Daniel Kaniewski, deputy director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute, disagreed, saying that Stack clearly qualified as a domestic terrorist under the FBI's definition of terrorism. "This was violence against persons or property to coerce the government to further his political objective, which was anti-government," Kaniewski told HSToday.us. Kaniewski argued that dismissing Stack as an individual disgruntled criminal and nothing more ignores the underlying ideology behind his attack. "Had hundreds of people died, people would have been more comfortable using the word terrorism. Had this individual been affiliated with an Islamic group, there is no question that people would have jumped to the conclusion that this is terrorism," Kaniewski stated. "But look at Timothy McVeigh, who uttered similar anti-government propaganda to the Austin perpetrator. McVeigh clearly meets the definition of a domestic terrorist. I feel very comfortable that Slack is a domestic terrorist," he added. Indeed, the concept of a plane crashing into a building brought back memories of 9/11, as Islamic terrorists used the same method to bring down the World Trade Center buildings in New York City. Convicted terrorist Timothy McVeigh, executed in 2001, blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995 in Oklahoma City, Okla., as part of an anti-government crusade. "Terrorists learn from previous incidents and they also follow the path of least resistance," Kaniewski observed. "While this individual may have learned to use an aircraft as a missile from 9/11, he also saw that general aviation was a vulnerability and exploited that vulnerability. That's what terrorists do-they exploit the weakest link." In the aftermath of the bombing of the Murrah Building, which killed 168 people, experts debated whether McVeigh qualified as a domestic terrorist. Many of the same arguments have resurfaced in arguments over Stack, Kaniewski said. It is important to understand the motive of the perpetrator in cases such as Stack's, he continued. The goal of inflicting violence for the purpose of achieving larger political or social objectives fits the definition of terrorism. The US Code of Federal Regulations defines terrorism as "the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives." Kaniewski expressed concern that the United States has been too focused on international terrorism and that homegrown domestic terrorists may therefore exploit vulnerabilities that DHS has not addressed. As such, he applauded Napolitano's increased focus on domestic extremism. "If you look at it from a vulnerability standpoint, we are so focused on al Qaeda and its affiliates on one hand and securing commercial aviation on the other, we have to realize what happened was neither. It was an act of domestic terrorism that used general aviation," Kaniewski remarked. "Neither of the top two priorities we are undertaking on the homeland security front are applicable here. It was a different type of person and a different type of aviation than what we are spending billions of dollars against," he concluded.