THE TERROR GAME
What's really behind the high terrorism alerts declared for a few weeks in February in the U.S. and Britain -- the two countries dedicated to invading Iraq in March despite increasing public pressure in opposition to war?
Dare we suggest it was at least in part an act of mass psychological manipulation intended to maneuver the bewildered populations of the aggressor states into supporting a new military adventure? Heaven forfend! But the timing -- just before and after the mass international peace demonstrations -- is, let us venture, rather curious.
President Bush decided to declare a "high terror alert" ("code orange") Feb. 7 -- one week before the scheduled protests and several weeks before Washington's preemptive war against Iraq, evidently now scheduled to start between March 15 and 22.
Al Qaeda, the American people were informed, is about to attack homes, hotels, public buildings, museums, transportation systems, factories and other targets. The basis for the warning was secret "intelligence reports," but when questioned homeland defense officials acknowledged having no concrete evidence of impending attacks. Even so, tens of millions of families were advised to take specific precautions to protect hearth and home against the horrors of gas and deadly germ attacks. This was when Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge issued his pathetic duct-tape-and-plastic-sheeting advice to survive a biological or chemical attack upon one's abode.
By Feb. 19, officials were indicating that the terror alert might soon be lowered, without producing any evidence as to why the "threat" diminished, much less why it materialized in the first place. Ridge was still telling scare stories, although now he was urging the multitudes to remain calm and to lead normal lives, at least until the moonless night when the bogeyman comes to fetch them.
By the end of February the "crisis" in the U.S. appears to have evaporated and the orange (high condition)"terror alert" was reduced to a yellow (elevated condition) status. In so doing, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Ridge issued a joint statement predicting that "Al Qaeda will wait until it believes Americans are less vigilant and less prepared before it will strike again."
The British "crisis" began Feb. 12 and lasted a few days. "UK on missile terror alert" read the relatively subdued page 1 banner headline in the liberal Guardian. The tabloids were deliriously inventing more sensational headlines, with one paper suggesting that terrorists were after the two young royal princes.
Tanks and 1,500 troops and special police were rushed to London's Heathrow airport -- the world's largest -- for several days to protect the facility from potential terrorists with portable SAM 7 antiaircraft missiles. The nation's terrorism alert was moved to "high." This provided the mass media with a constant supply of photos showing heavily armed police on patrol and soldiers posing in tank turrents. It was all based on "high-quality intelligence." The "emergency" was over by Feb. 17. No missiles were found.
Between the start and finish of both terror warnings, millions of people on both sides of the Atlantic participated Feb. 15 in the largest manifestation of worldwide antiwar activism in history. At the same time, however, the terrorism alerts in the U.S. and UK sufficed to divert considerable popular attention to such mundane matters as possibly inhaling lethal gases or ingesting killer germs at a time when both governments were the target not of missiles but international criticism for war-mongering.
It's an interesting coincidence, one we wager will be replicated in various guises until our Little Caesar's legions come back with the oil (for his corporate givers), a big chunk of territory (for his empire), and a wreath of laurels (for his reelection campaign).