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Date published: 2/2/2003
ONDON--America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs, and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam war. The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the domestic rights and freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded. The hounding of non-national U.S. residents continues apace. "Non-permanent" males of North Korean and Middle Eastern descent are disappearing into secret imprisonment on secret charges on the secret word of judges. U.S.-resident Palestinians who were formerly ruled stateless, and therefore not deportable, are being handed over to Israel for "resettlement" in Gaza and the West Bank, places where they may never have set foot before. Are we playing the same game here in Britain? I expect so. Another 30 years and we'll be allowed to know. The combination of compliant U.S. media and vested corporate interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press: See page A27 if you can find and understand it. Iraq war planned long agoNo American administration has ever held its cards so close to its chest. If the intelligence services know nothing, that will be the best-kept secret of all. Remember that these are the same organizations who brought us the biggest failure in intelligence history: 9/11.
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
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