Terrorists Kill People

This is a fundamental issue, it is time to examine the government's use of a killer buzz word that can strip you of your rights as an American.

Graffiti photo in Occupied Palestine tells the Diaspora's real story, one of oppression, and resistance, not terrorism. By Dexter Phoenix Salem-News.com

(SALEM) - Strange title I know, but we're in strange times. Terrorism is the use of terror in attacking or controlling a perceived enemy. Terrorism is understood by some people on some levels, but by and large it has been used to describe anyone who refuses to accept oppression, and fights back.

Those human beings branded by the developed nations as "terrorists" are almost always poor; they generally are getting the hell blasted out of them by U.S. made weapons and they violently resist with whatever tools of warfare they can place their hands on or create.

Balad, Iraq- Mortaritaville. 2008 photo by Tim King for Salem-News.com

When I was in Iraq as a reporter, the 'terrorists' were the Sunni militias who would fire mortars and rockets at the U.S. base where I spent a good amount of time, Balad; aptly nicknamed 'Mortaritaville' due to the never ending attacks from the agricultural fields outside of the base's fences.

In this example, the U.S. invaded Iraq on bad information, killed an extremely large number of people who had done nothing to cross America. We moved thousands and thousands of troops onto their soil to occupy their country, and the indigenous population that fired at the base were the 'terrorists'.

Even this quick reference tells a story of the word being used in a very erratic and confusing way. I happen to know that the reason Iraqis could be recruited for this work in this particular region, is because the insurgency paid well for these deeds. It is always a matter of economics, it is always a result of oppression, and occupation is almost always a factor.

Wikipedia's page for Definitions of terrorism, includes the following paragraph:

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There is neither an academic nor an international legal consensus regarding the definition of the term "terrorism". Various legal systems and government agencies use different definitions of "terrorism". Moreover, the international community has been slow to formulate a universally agreed upon, legally binding definition of this crime. These difficulties arise from the fact that the term "terrorism" is politically and emotionally charged

”

Narco-terrorism is something we hear about a little, but the term generally is reserved for the political targets in the Middle east of both the U.S. and Israel. Yet raw and rampant terrorism is what has been taking place in Mexico for the last several years. However I don't hear that term used widely in this perfect application of terrorism. Of course the US government has been supplying thousands of the murder weapons for the drug cartels through a program established by Attorney General Eric Holder, who is not being held accountable, so it is no wonder they keep our attention away from that too with the help of the nodding governmental-friendly U.S. media today.

The People Governments Call Terrorists

South Africa

South Africa's Nelson Mandela

Apartheid South Africa

Lest we forget that a man known as nothing less than a hero throughout the entire world, Nelson Mandela, was considered a terrorist by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and then he went on to lead South Africa to freedom and the end of apartheid, which still is the system in place today in Israel, with the full approval of the United States.

The horrors that the black population of South Africa received from the white government is obscene. People were murdered for assembling publicly, school children that took part in demonstrations against the apartheid politics were gunned down in public by South African military forces.

Nelson Mandela refused to accept that violence was not necessary to free the people of his country from an already well established, extremely violent government. He knew that such systems could and would not last forever, and that world attention would help bring relief, and this is something that state terrorism governments abhor.

Northern Ireland

Bobby Sands of the Irish Republican Army

The IRA (Irish Republican Army - considered terrorist) fought the British occupation of Northern Ireland that English political rulers dominated for years.

The legal and political landscape of the lives of native Catholic inhabitants were defended by the IRA while British soldiers shot citizens dead in the street during protests.

It took the horrible, publicly-followed death of Bobby Sands of the IRA in a tragic prison hunger strike to force Thatcher's occupational government to finally back down.

As a result of the heroic and utterly selfless political acts of this 'terrorist', who is probably the most revered hero in Belfast today, there is a degree of peace now that while imperfect, is fairly unrivaled in any other recent period of history.

Sri Lanka

Artwork by the amazing Carlos Latuff, friend of Salem-News in Rio de Janeiro. See his work: Latuff Gallery

Shoba Isaippiriya LTTE media specialist

Then there are the Tamil people of Sri Lanka who tried for thirty years to hang onto their rights as the Sinhalese Buddhist majority slowly tried to erase the culture's very existence.

The eventual outcome were frequently acts of retaliation toward instances of government terrorism. The LTTE did set off suicide bombs and many other tragic forms of warfare were employed, but this is the same pattern with oppressed populations everywhere, every time. Their anger was based in things like having their language stricken by the Sri Lanka government, and seeing their rights as a minority culture vanish into thin air.

It was after thirty years of failed non-violent Gandhi-style peaceful resistance, that the Tamils rose up against the Sri Lankan government with their own defenders, the

Shoba Isaippiriya, murdered

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) or 'Tamil Tigers', and for a while, at times, balance was restored, at least to a degree.

Then U.S. President George W. Bush joined in the effort to declare the Tigers as a terrorist group and when this was achieved, the Tamils lost their ability to bargain for their own political future.

Soon came a Genocide, only two summers ago, and the population of northern Sri Lanka, in the Tamil region, was slaughtered ruthlessly by the Sri Lanka Army.

Numbers of civilians killed officially number between 40 and 100 thousand, however more than 160k Tamil people remain missing. The government went after the journalists first, people like well-known TV personality Shoba Isaippiriya, shown both before and after death, before the civilian populace, in this worst modern case of government terrorism.

Of course the Sri Lanka government has been on great terms with the United States the entire time. I find it incredible that Americans were taken down this road, to see a scenario created where those who stand against tyranny, and there is plenty of it; can be considered terrorists.

Palestine

Salem-News.com's Ken O'Keefe

No group has been stamped 'terrorist' more frequently than those people of the Middle east, the land of deserts and oil, strong religious principles and Israeli military occupation.

The Arab states that cooperate with Israel and the west are often both the richest, and the most oppressive places on earth. The fundamentalist Muslims who force women to wear burqas and ban them from driving, attending school, working in professional roles, are from Saudi Arabia.

Iraq was absolutely not like this; women were allowed to do anything they wanted, and the Americans destroyed that. The Palestinians are the ones the world has turned its back on and when countries speak up for the freedom of this place that is constantly being absorbed illegally by Israel over its contention that "God gave the land to them", is the scene of the most bitter and brutal suffering.

This is terrorism- a small boy, Ahmed Samouni, shot by Israeli soldiers during Israel's Operation Cast Lead, Gaza.

The Israeli attacks on the civilians of Gaza are frequent and almost always ignored by the western media, and anything Israel says goes, it is immediately parroted by anchors who read the Israeli Defence Forces press releases as if they are anything but propaganda and excuses for murder.

Our writer and friend Ken O'Keefe has risked his life against the Israelis time and time again, he has been shot at twice while on camera while working in Gaza. He has had to identify Murdered friends and watch Palestinians die for standing up in non-violent protest. But it goes far beyond that, there is a systematic elimination of Palestinians taking place by a right-wing government in Israel that is bent on having all of the land for itself at all costs, with no apologies or accountability.

The fact that Israel declared publicly that Ken was a "terrorist", accusing him of traveling to Gaza to "train Hamas" is right up there with the foulest and most easily disproven lies. Ken was aboard the Gaza Flotilla ship Mavi Marmara in 2010 when it was attacked on the high seas by the Israeli military using helicopters, patrol boats and plenty of live ammunition. The ship was totally unarmed and the Israelis knew it.

Ken with the Samouni family in Gaza

They killed nine of the unarmed activists and media aboard the ship and Ken, a former U.S. Marine, personally helped disarm two of the invading Israeli soldiers who had no legal right to forcibly board the vessel like pirates in the night spraying lead.

Ken helped remove two weapons from the disarmed Israelis and ensured that no more people were shot with those particular weapons by tossing one overboard, and by hiding one on the ship in hopes it would later be used as evidence. For this act of heroic self defense Ken would be added to this list of people who are all set to lose their rights as humans and as Americans now, simply by backing the wrong horse.

Since the U.S. decides its allies with the direction of the blowing wind, and places banking and large-scale corporate investment before absolutely anything else, people like Ken O'Keefe are extremely necessary in this world.

As long as Americans pay for it and ignore the consequences of what their dollars fund, the world breaks a little more and the fact that the epicenter of all of this conflict is the Holy Land should tell us a number of things. Israel makes a great point out of terrorizing the people of Palestine and the fact that the terminology is never referenced is part of the recipe for this disaster people are being forced to live out, all due to the weakness of world leaders against the political ambitions of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister, and his pack of animal politicians.

National Suicide- Not Painless

George W. Bush's Homeland Security has been a huge part of everything taking place, however Barack Obama's recent signing of the military defense spending bill that allows anyone to be declared a terrorist and confined without trial for an indefinite period without any rights, sends what really is the final message about the current two-party U.S. system. (see the full text of the bill: 112th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 1867)

In an article published today by Green is The New Red, FBI Says Activists Who Investigate Factory Farms Can Be Prosecuted as Terrorists, the revelation that the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has kept files on activists who expose animal welfare abuses on factory farms and recommended prosecuting them as terrorists. The source is a new document uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act. The information comes as the Center for Constitutional Rights files a lawsuit challenging the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) as unconstitutional over its vague wording- which has had a chilling effect on political activism.

The article drops another bomb. The feds are not simply using their designation of 'terrorism' to account for those who kill, or even pose violence, hence the name of this article. It seems logical to conclude that if a person does not threaten anyone with physical harm, or threaten to or try to kill them, then they aren't terrorizing them and therefore they are not a terrorist.

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The animal activists caused 'economic loss' to businesses, the FBI says. And they also openly rescued several animals from the abusive conditions. This was not done covertly in the style of underground groups like the Animal Liberation Front — it was an act of non-violent civil disobedience and, as the FBI agent notes, the activists distributed press releases and conducted media interviews taking responsibility for their actions. Based on these acts — trespassing in order to photograph and videotape abuses on factory farms — the agent concludes there “is a reasonable indication” that the activists “have violated the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, 18 USC Section 43 (a).”

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Based on the rate we are moving, it does not seem unwise or brash to assume the worst, and like always the answers, if they do in fact exist, are rooted in our political system; the same one that has been fully corrupted by the so-called one percent. The fundamental rights of Americans are indeed what our Veterans have died for in our wars. Nobody can convince me that their deaths do not connect to our personal liberty, however it is not achieved by attacking the wrong people, and the distractions of the two current wars have taken our eye off the ball in a fatal way as the enemy is and has for a long time, been right in our own backyard.

Freedom is precious and sweet, it is something that should only be enhanced, not reversed. In the end, we can look back to the words of then-Presidential Candidate John F. Kennedy from 1960, as cited by museums.tv: TRANSCRIPT - The First Kennedy-Nixon Presidential Debate: September 26, 1960:

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If we do well here, if we meet our obligations, if we're moving ahead, then I think freedom will be secure around the world. If we fail, then freedom fails. Therefore, I think the question before the American people is: Are we doing as much as we can do?

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Epic fail, that is a term used by my youngest son Christian, and his friends, when describing video captures of blundering stupid crashes, falls, events that distort a person physically as they hit the deck. I feel that perhaps our nation has entered this period now, the time of total and ultimate failure. Perhaps Barack Obama could have fixed it and saved things, not likely, but maybe. He sure could have put on a good show had that been his sole intent. Personally, I am very moved by the existence of the new Canary Party, I suggest taking a close look at their new organization, just Google their name. From everything I can tell they are probably the best hope we have at relocating our sanity as a nation.

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Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer

Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim is a former U.S. Marine.

Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Silver Spoke Award by the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (2011), Excellence in Journalism Award by the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs (2010), Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), First-place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Tim has several years of experience in network affiliate news TV stations, having worked as a reporter and photographer at NBC, ABC and FOX stations in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Tim was a member of the National Press Photographer's Association for several years and is a current member of the Orange County Press Club.

Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. As News Editor, Tim among other things, is responsible for publishing the original content of 101 Salem-News.com writers. He reminds viewers that emails are easily missed and urges those trying to reach him, to please send a second email if the first goes unanswered. You can write to Tim at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com