Can anyone explain to me all the hemming and hawing by both the media and government/law enforcement officials about whether to use the word “terrorism” to describe Joseph Stack’s suicide crashing of a plane into a government building?
You know damn well if his name was Mohammed Al-Something or Jheet M’Droors that it would be Terrorism. But no, this was an American white guy named Andrew Joseph Stack. Well darn if that name doesn’t sound more “Presidential” than Barack Hussein Obama.
The Associated Press reported that “Police in Austin, Texas, say the crash of a small plane into a building that houses the IRS is an isolated incident and not an act of terrorism.” Really? THE GUY PURPOSELY CRASHED A PLANE INTO A GOVERNMENT BUILDING. He also left a manifesto/note with such gems as “violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer” and “Nothing changes unless there is a body count.” How is that not terrorism?
Another news report noted, “The FBI launched an investigation and Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican from Austin on the Homeland Security Committee, said the panel will take up the issue of how to better protect buildings from attacks with planes.” Yea? We’re gonna launch an investigation and have some panel take a little gander at this all-new out-of-the-blue idea of crazies attacking buildings with planes? Cuz that hasn’t happen since this one obscure time on September 11, 2001 when planes were crashed into those tower thingies and the Penta-something. Might want to look into that…
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported this nice little backtracking from White House spokesman Robert Gibbs by saying he “initially said that the incident did not appear to be related to terrorism but later said that he meant that it appeared not to be a foreign-based plot by a group such as al-Qaeda. He declined to rule out the possibility that the crash was a case of domestic terrorism.” Yea, he declined to rule out the possibility that maybe this coulda possibly been, y’know, umm, something sorta related to that thing that only Muslims usually do. Starts with a T.
Of course, when that guy opened fire at Fort Hood, that was definitely Terrorism cuz his name was Nidal Hasan.
It’s ironic that this country’s media and government LOVE to label anything and everything Terrorism if and when it will help their ratings or their political agenda. But when it comes with a white face and a “normal” name they all scratch their heads like they’ve just seen a unicorn.
Just last week Tom Engelhardt had a great piece on our irrational fear of terrorism and then of course today Glenn Greenwald nailed this whole subject of why we’re avoiding the T-word when talking about the plane crash in Austin.
23/7 