Ignorance As A Weapon Of Domestic Terrorism?

Sure, it's a stronge statement, but let's take a look at what we are talking about here.

The reason that "terrorism" works is because the attacker(s) only hav to succeed once. That's it. Once they have, all they have to do is sit back and watch their victim(s) - it's the U.S. in this case - start destroying themselves from the inside.

Conservative misinformation is a perfect weapon to continue to, in essense, aid terrorism in America.

Here's some examples.



Quinn seems to be forgetting that US tax dollars have been footing the bill for Guantanamo since its opening. The issue with prisons in the US has little to do with "shoring up security" as one of the primary problems are overcrowding, lack of basic maintenance on the buildings, and lack of qualified personel to run the prison system.

Also, known terrorists are already housed in US Supermax prisons.

Detained in the supermax facility in Colorado are Ramzi Yousef, who headed the group that carried out the first bombing of the World Trade Center in February 1993; Zacarias Moussaoui, convicted of conspiring in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001; Ahmed Ressam, of the Dec. 31, 1999, Los Angeles airport millennium attack plots; Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, conspirator in several plots, including one to assassinate President George W. Bush; and Wadih el-Hage, convicted of the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya.

I haven't heard anyone complaining that they are afriad that these men are being detained in the US.



Buchanan seems to accept the line of thinking that suspected terrorist detainees are going to enjoy luxuries when/if they are transfered to Supermax prisons in the US. Again, taxpayer money has has always funded prisons in the US. This talk of "bail" and "when they get out" is rabid hyperbole that lacks any pretense of intelligent discourse. It's fair to say that Pat just might agree with Newt Gingrich's wild assumption that when/if these detainees are released, that they will receive welfare.



Then why hasn't this happened to those terrorists that we already have housed in the US?

Bob Cesca has an interesting take on this clip:

Yeah, what if we put a terrorist in a prison (sort of like the dozens of terrorists currently in our domestic prison system) and then the ghost of Saddam Hussein appears as a gigantic marshamallow man and bashes a hole in the prison wall, releasing a mutated 100-foot-tall "Mr. Jingles" mouse into nearby neighborhoods where it devours YOUR CHILDREN.

Despite the very real fact that no one has ever escaped from a Supermax facility, Halperin seems to be having visions of a mash-up between Con-Air and escape from New York.



And, as always, the Conservative media mouthpiece that is Fox"News" perpetuates this faulty line of thinking.

....the administration has consistently maintained that terrorists will not be released into the United States. At a January 27 hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Gates responded to a comment by Rep. John McHugh (R-NY) about the administration's detainee policy by saying, "I can't imagine a situation in which detainees at Guantanamo who were considered a danger to the people of the United States would simply be released here."

Similarly, during a May 7 hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) asked Attorney General Eric Holder: "Do you have the authority under the law to do this, to bring terrorists into this country and bring them into the community?" Holder responded, "[W]ith regard to those who you would describe as terrorists, we would not bring them into this country and release them, anybody who we consider to be a terrorist, as I think you're using the word."

Nevertheless, Fox News hosts and contributors have repeatedly advanced the baseless Republican charge that the administration intends to release terrorists held at Guantánamo Bay into the United States...

Sean Hannity, one of the loudest voices in the lunatic-fringe conservative movement, seems to take great joy in his misinformation.

The Director of National Intelligence, as Hannity stated at the start of the clip, was referring only to the 17 Chinese Uighur. What is more interesting about this point is that George W. Bush's administration was fine with releasing them.

...Blair was answering a specific question about detainees belonging to the Uighur ethnic group from western China. As Media Matters for America has noted, the Bush administration told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in September 2008 that the 17 Uighur detainees "will be treated as if they are no longer enemy combatants."

The level of misinformation and blatant lies that have become so ingrained in the national dialogue is staggering.

One of the basic definitions of "terrorism" is this:

The act of terrorizing, or state of being terrorized.

By it's very nature, the conservative movement, their media arm, as well as the pundits, writers, and radio personalities that abide by their doctrine of fear and misinformation are perpetuating a level of terrorism in this country that is growing to such a state that it is becoming such an ingrained portion of common conversation that many people aren't able to discern between the lies and the truth.