Terrorism, US Politics, and the US Media
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Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Special to The Greanville Post | Commentary No. 28: “Terrorism, US Politics, and the US Media”
Is Robert Dear a “radical”, a “hate crime offender”, or a terrorist? And if he is a “radical”, who radicalised him? The media has failed to focus on this nutcase’s history of violence to women, including repeated rape, and the ideological forces that remain part of the “respectable” value system of many Americans.
First question: what is terrorism? One definition is that it is an armed technique, usually used again non-combatants, in a conventional or non-conventional war situation. (Well yes, I did make that one up.) One dictionary definition is: “1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes; 2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization; 3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.” Another is: “the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal; the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.” But then the good old Wikipedia tells us that: “There is neither an academic nor an accurate legal consensus regarding the definition of terrorism.[1][2] Various legal systems and government agencies use different definitions. Moreover, governments have been reluctant to formulate an agreed upon, legally binding definition. These difficulties arise from the fact that the term is politically and emotionally charged.[3] “
One thing that all of these definitions have in common is that they describe a tactic, or at best a strategy, of war. Nevertheless, since the time of President Bush (who described the 9/11 disaster as a “terrorist attack” before anyone had the foggiest notion who/what was responsible), we have somehow had the “War on Terror” (which for the military-industrial complexes involved in fighting it has the advantage of being a Permanent War). It just so happens that the “War on Terror,” was declared by Bush, and, as Eugene Robinson noted, continued under Obama without a definition of the term having ever been provided. However, as Robinson also said, paraphrasing an unknown U.S. general, declaring a “war on terror” is like declaring a war on “flanking maneuvers.” [Black pundit Eugene Robinson was for a long time a faithful supporter of Obama. That has changed some, but certainly not radically.—Ed.]
SIDEBAR
WHY ISN’T THE KKK REGARDED AS A FULL-FLEDGED, HOMEGROWN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION TODAY? WHY IS THE SANITIZED ‘HATE CRIME’ LABEL USED INSTEAD?
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he First Klan was created in 1865 by 6 well-educated Confederate veterans from Tennessee. The name was formed from the combination of the Greek word κύκλος, meaning circle, with clan. The group was a secret, oath-bound organization using violence. As the group was formed during the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War, it was made UP of many veterans, attempting to control the dramatically changed post-war society.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Klan was organized in chapters with a national headquarters, similar to what the veterans were used to in their military hierarchies. The (strange) organisations and titles were as follows:
Grand Wizard - This was the national head of the 'Invisible Empire' Grand Dragon - This was the ruler of a 'Realm' (State)
Grand Titan - Ruler of a 'Dominion' within a Realm
Grand Giant - Head of a province or chapter
Grand Cyclops - President of a meeting or a 'Den'
Grand Magi and Grand Monk - Second and Third authorities at a meeting/
Den Grand Turk - The marshal, executive officer to the Grand Cyclops
Grand Sentinel - Head of the Grand Guards
Grand Guards - Guards of the Den Genii - Assistants to the Grand Wizard (usually 10)
Grand Scribe - The secretaries to the Grand Wizards, Dragons, Titans, Giants, Cyclops
Grand Exchequer - The treasurers for the Grands listed above
Hydras - Assistants to the Grand Dragon (usually 8)
Furies - Assistants to the Grand Titan (usually 6)
Goblins - Assistants to the Grand Giant (usually 4)
Night-Hawks - Assistants to the Grand Cyclops (usually 2)
Ghouls - Individual members
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here were also initiation rites for new members. The Investigating committee, responsible for initiations, were composed of the Grand Cyclops, Magi and Monk. Upon nomination of a new member, the committee would investigate the candidate's past and would pronounce the candidate 'worthy'. The Grand Turk would escort the candidate to an out post where he would question him and administer the preliminary oath. The candidate would then be taken to the Den, where the Grand Cyclops would administer the final oath. The next section of initiation involved the candidate resting his left hand on a bible and his right hand towards heaven. He would then be interrogated with 10 questions. They included whether or not the candidate had been a member of a Republican Party or whether they believed in Negro equality.
One of many lynchings staged by the KKK. It should be noted that lynchings of black Americans were also carried out by White racists who did not belong to the KKK.
The KKK was considered to be a terrorist organisation with over 550,000 members, especially across the Southern States. [However it was not so described in the press, especially in the South.] The 1871 trials saw KKK defendants sentenced to 5 years incarceration with fines. Hundreds of Ghouls were imprisoned and fined. The crimes the KKK committed were barbarous and inhumane. They attacked their chosen victims at night and wore masks and robes to hide their identity. The organisation attacked black political leaders and any sympathisers. They would often burn houses down with the occupants still inside. They drove successful black farmers off their land and their businesses. The attacks were primarily used to supress black voting. More than 2000 people were killed and wounded a few weeks prior to the Presidential election in 1868. The KKK would often chase, hunt and murder black republicans through the woods and burn the bodies in piles.
[dropcap]U[/dropcap]nfortunately the First Klan of 1865-1874 were not the most violent group in KKK history. There have been 2 revival periods since then, one in 1915-1944 and the much more recent 1950s onwards. One of the most violent KKK crimes was committed in 1955. 14 Year old Emmett Till was brutally murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Two men took Emmett for reportedly whistling at one of their wives. They took him to an abandoned warehouse where they brutally beat, killed and mutilated Emmett. They then wrapped his body in barbed wire and threw him into a river. When the body was discovered they found that his right eye was out of its socket and hangin down his cheek, and that his left eye was missing. There was a hole in the side of his head from a gunshot and they had cut out his tongue and cut off his genitals. Emmett's mother had an open casket funeral open to the public, in order to show the horrors of the KKK.
Emmett Till: Christmas Day 1954 (left), In the open casket (right). Is this barbarous and cowardly crime any less heinous than those committed by ISIS?
The are hundreds more stories like this that showcase the violence and inhumanity of the organisation. Many people were abused both physically and mentally and hundreds were lynched and murdered. It is shocking to see that some KKK chapters still exist. They even have websites, like www.kkk.com. The site's homepage carries this ominous and typically alarmist/paranoid message:
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America, Our Nation is Under Judgement from God! |
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"There is a race war against whites. But our people - my white brothers and sisters - will stay committed to a non-violent resolution. That resolution must consist of solidarity in white communities around the world. The hatred for our children and their future is growing and is being fueled every single day. Stay firm in your convictions. Keep loving your heritage and keep witnessing to others that there is a better way than a war torn, violent, wicked, socialist, new world order. That way is the Christian way - law and order - love of family - love of nation. These are the principles of western Christian civilization. There is a war to destroy these things. Pray that our people see the error of their ways and regain a sense of loyalty. Repent America! Be faithful my fellow believers. " National Director of The Knights, Pastor Thomas Robb |
REGULAR TEXT RESUMES HERE
Except that in the United States, acts that can be described as “terroristic” using any of the definitions quoted above, such as “the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes,” or “the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal” or any others that one could think of for that matter, have one very peculiar characteristic. That is, in this day-and-age, flanking maneuvers or no, according to most U.S. politicians (and all Repub. politicians) and most of the U.S. media (most especially what is referred to as the “mainstream media”), for the most part to be labelled as “terrorism” a violent act carried out against civilians it has to have been done, or made to appear to have been done by Muslims.
And so, since “San Bernardino,” (an absolute horror to be sure) we have been hearing about it and its apparent perpetrators virtually 24/7. Most especially we are hearing about their “radicalization” and how the Pakistani woman got into the country. (We don’t hear so much about how they happened to be able to freely get themselves, or through a friend, military-style assault rifles, but of course we know the reason for that.) That word, “radicalization,” as though it were some kind of secret process conducted by witches (think “Macbeth”), is repeated over-and-over again, the implication being that it must be Muslims who are the potential subjects for it, and that must be found out. [A similar attack on “radicals” and “radicalisation” is taking place in Britain; if anything it is more advanced and acerbic than in America.—Eds.]
One does have to wonder why we don’t hear too much about Robert Dear, who murdered three people at the Planned Parenthood Clinic in Colorado Springs and how he got “radicalized.” Lots of people think that abortion is murder (after all, the Repubs. and their echo chambers at Fox”News” and right-wing talk radio spew that stuff 24/7). But fortunately not-too-many are “radicalized” enough to go commit murder. We do hear some about Sandy Hook, but that was not “terrorism,” mind you, because it was committed by a clearly mentally ill young man who had a mentally ill mother for an accomplice (and they both happened to be white).
But have you ever heard of the 2009 mass killing at an adult immigrant resource center in Binghamton, NY? Well, you may have, but I had to be reminded of it by a recent column on the Huffington Post. Of course, they were all foreign nationals, but I wonder if the killer had become “radicalized” against such folk. I don’t think that we’ll ever find out. And then what about the “massacre [that] took place at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, where 40-year-old Wade Michael Page fatally shot six people and wounded four others.[3][4] . . . . Page was an American white supremacist and United States Army veteran. . . .” I can’t recall much of an investigation about how this known white supremacist got radicalized. And oh by the way, Page thought that he was murdering Muslims. Sikh’s aren’t.
And then we come to the out-lier rancher Cliven Bundy and his gang of “militia-men” who threatened to murder Federal law enforcement officials if they attempted to stop him from breaking the law on grazing his cattle on public lands. How did such folks “get radicalized?” And when Dylann Roof, known for his open association with white “The Confederacy Will Rise Again” hate groups (of which there are many not only in the South but other parts of the country as well), slaughters eight church-goers in Charleston, South Carolina (the capital of the first of what became the Confederate States of America) we don’t hear the media going on and on about “how was he radicalized?”
[dropcap]B[/dropcap]ut heck, we would be getting much too close to home (literally). After all, the Southern Policy Law Center has identified about 1600 armed and dangerous right-wing “militias/hate-ist/domestic terrorist groups.” But when early in the Obama Administration the Department of Homeland Security announced that it was going to launch an investigation into domestic organizations posing potential terrorist threats the screams and outrage from the supposedly “anti-terror” Republicans in the Congress brought that one to halt quickly. And we could go on.
However this is not just the work of Republicans and their Propaganda channels who run very well when they can get the country terrified about “foreign,” especially “Muslim” terror. The so-called “mainstream media,” from The New York Times to the “liberal” cable news channels, are focusing almost exclusively on “San Bernardino” and the apparent killers’ “radicalization” (that’s quickly become the in-word). And so on most of the media “terrorism” has a very narrow focus, because it is of course linked to Muslims and furriners, donchaknow. They are just stoking the fire, which the likes of Trump breath in and then spew out into general Muslim suspicion, which can very quickly turn to hate (yellow crescents, anyone?)
And so, where are the Democrats? When on the day I wrote this column (December 17, 2015) President Obama gave another one of his patented “calming” speeches about terrorism he mentions just one place: San Bernardino, where he is stopping off on his way to his annual holiday-time Hawaii vacation to “comfort the families of the victims.” “What?” (as the great sports commentator on New York City’s WFAN Steve Sommers likes to say about subjects of much less importance). The President could have also stopped in Colorado Springs to comfort the families there. After all it’s on the way. But that would mean not feeding into the narrative that his enemies intend to use to win the 2016 election. And it would also mean standing up for Planned Parenthood. And we can’t have either of those, can we?
Please indulge for one more “oh, by the way.” There will be at least one more “Muslim terrorist attack” between now and the next election, most likely about two weeks before it. After all, the Repubs. really do want to win, even if it means having a former pro-choice Democrat totally loose cannon in the White House.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Senior Editor, Politics, Steven Jonas, MD, MPH is a Professor Emeritus of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY) and author/co-author/editor/co-editor of over 30 books. In addition to being Senior Editor, Politics, for The Greanville Post, he is: a Contributor for American Politics to The Planetary Movement; a “Trusted Author” for Op-Ed News.com; a contributor to the “Writing for Godot” section of Reader Supported News; and a contributor to From The G-Man. He is the Editorial Director and a Contributing Author for TPJmagazine.us. Further, he is an occasional Contributor to TheHarderStuff newsletter, BuzzFlash Commentary, and Dandelion Salad.
Dr. Jonas’ latest book is The 15% Solution: How the Republican Religious Right Took Control of the U.S., 1981-2022: A Futuristic Novel, Brewster, NY, Trepper & Katz Impact Books, Punto Press Publishing, 2013, and available on Amazon.
