ESSAY
"Terror Alert is a Well-Planned Distraction"

Categories

Reshma Khilnani

February 25, 2003

World

National

Politics

Public response

Terror alerts

Media manipulation

Technological fix

Excerpt (first and last two sentences)
"On February 7th 2003 the current presidential administration decided to raise the terror alert level from yellow (“elevated”) to orange (“high”).  The official reasons given were information from Al Qaeda operatives held at camp X-ray, confessions from Shadi Abdullah and Mounir el-Motassadeq, suspected Al Qaeda operatives arrested in Germany, and an increase in intercepted telephone conversations, email messages and other intelligence regarding a terror attack....
...
However the millions of people protesting in London, Madrid, Berlin, Rome, New York, Sydney, and Melbourne are sidelined from the American public, as is the embarrassing pro-war presentation of Colin Powell to the UN Security Council by the heightened terror alert.  It is no coincidence that the fear created by the increased terror alert comes at a time when this administration is under such scrutiny by its own public and the international community."

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