Spreading democracy and freedom through the barrel of a gun

Bush Says Kerry Wants 'Acceptable' Level of Terror

HOBBS, N.M. (Reuters) - President Bush stepped up his attack on Democratic rival John Kerry on Monday by saying the Massachusetts senator would prefer to reduce terror to an "acceptable level" rather than eradicate it. Two days before their final debate showdown in Arizona, Bush accused Kerry of failing to understand the U.S. war on terrorism while warning a Republican rally in New Mexico that the Democratic presidential nominee could shift directions like a western wildfire. "Now just this weekend, Senator Kerry talked of reducing terrorism to quote -- nuisance -- end-quote, and compared it to prostitution and illegal gambling. I couldn't disagree more," said the Republican incumbent, referring to a comment Kerry made in an interview with The New York Times Magazine. "Our goal is not to reduce terror to some acceptable level of nuisance," Bush said. "Our goal is to defeat terror by staying on the offensive, destroying terrorist networks and spreading freedom and liberty around the world."

Simple solutions for complex problems have unpredictable results. Bush says it himself, we wants to stay on the offensive, place your children in harms way to spreading freedom and liberty around the world through a barrel of a gun.

His bellicose remarks tells you his heart. He and his administration knows best, so he's going to remake the world with the lives of your children. Sounds a bit grandiose doesn't it?

Clearly the Bush administration is attempting to make something of the NY Times article I commented on last night. Does he really think the American people are so ignorant that he can scare them into voting for him? If he makes things simple and emotional enough, will he carry the election? If so, America is in real trouble. If the majority of the electorate can be manipulated with simplistic scare tactics, then our "Great Experiment in Democracy" may just fail. Or at best, our Al Qaeda will have succeeded in radicalizing the US populous and provoked a fascistic backlash that will curtail our civil liberties in the interests of security. We've already seen just what that can mean for visitors to this country.

Will the day come that a person in your neighhood point at you and say "terrorist" and you will find yourself having to prove that you are not? Guilty unless proven innocent is already the rule for visitors to the US. A unknown number of American citizens have been treated that way as well. Take for example the Portland lawyer who was locked up for two weeks for a mistaken fingerprint in Madrid.


Complete Articles

Justice probe of wrongfully accused lawyer

Reuters: Bush Says Kerry Wants 'Acceptable' Level of Terror

HOBBS, N.M. (Reuters) - President Bush stepped up his attack on Democratic rival John Kerry on Monday by saying the Massachusetts senator would prefer to reduce terror to an "acceptable level" rather than eradicate it.

Two days before their final debate showdown in Arizona, Bush accused Kerry of failing to understand the U.S. war on terrorism while warning a Republican rally in New Mexico that the Democratic presidential nominee could shift directions like a western wildfire.

"Now just this weekend, Senator Kerry talked of reducing terrorism to quote -- nuisance -- end-quote, and compared it to prostitution and illegal gambling. I couldn't disagree more," said the Republican incumbent, referring to a comment Kerry made in an interview with The New York Times Magazine.

"Our goal is not to reduce terror to some acceptable level of nuisance," Bush said. "Our goal is to defeat terror by staying on the offensive, destroying terrorist networks and spreading freedom and liberty around the world."

The emotional war of words between Bush and Kerry has intensified dramatically since the Democrat began closing the gap in the polls after the first presidential debate on foreign policy and homeland security.

With barely three weeks to go before the Nov. 2 election, the race between the two men is extremely close with polls showing the candidates tied or with a slim lead. A Reuters/Zogby tracking poll released on Wednesday showed Kerry with a three-point lead.

Bush, who faces challenges on the issues of Iraq and the economy, has based much of his assault on Kerry around the war on terrorism -- a top issue where the president consistently leads his challenger.

The Bush-Cheney campaign moved quickly to target Kerry's published remarks by pushing out a television ad on Sunday lambasting the Democrat for telling the magazine that "we have to get back to the place where we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance."

He also was quoted as describing terrorism as one of those unsolvable problems like organized crime, prostitution and illegal gambling that can never be fully eliminated but can be lessened.

The Kerry-Edwards campaign fired back with an ad of its own citing a Bush interview with NBC's "Today Show" in which the president said he did not think the war on terror could be won.

On Monday, Bush added Kerry's remarks to a well-established litany of stump speech accusations that cast the Democrat as a tax-and-spend liberal, a big government politician, a dangerously weak leader and an incurable flip-flopper on issues including Iraq.

"It's not only wildfires that shift in the wind," Bush told his audience in an arid southwestern state where wildfires pose a perennial threat to life and property.

By contrast, Kerry has described Bush as an incompetent leader who misled America into war in Iraq and made the world a more dangerous place as a consequence.

New Mexico was won by Democrat Al Gore in 2000 by less than 400 votes. Bush's campaign swing, however, took him into solid Republican territory in the southeastern New Mexico city of Hobbs, near the border with his native Texas. (Additional reporting by David Morgan)

Reuters

Oct 11 2004 2:06PM





Justice probe of wrongfully accused lawyer

Fingerprint mistake leads to arrest



WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department's watchdog office has opened an investigation into the arrest of an Oregon lawyer that was based on what turned out to be faulty FBI analysis of a fingerprint linked to the deadly terrorist attack in Spain last March.

Glenn A. Fine, the department's inspector general, said the antiterrorism Patriot Act may have been improperly used in the arrest of attorney Brandon Mayfield.

Mayfield, a Muslim convert, was arrested May 6 on a material witness warrant after an FBI analysis concluded he was a match for a fingerprint found on a bag containing detonators like those used in the attacks on trains in Madrid that killed nearly 200 people and wounded 2,000.

A few weeks later, Mayfield was released after the FBI admitted it had made a mistake and that the fingerprint did not match Mayfield's.

The inspector general's investigation was disclosed in a twice-a-year report to Congress on potential civil rights and civil liberties abuses by Justice Department officials. A copy of the report was obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, a day ahead of its scheduled public release.

The Mayfield investigation is focusing on how the fingerprint error was made and also on a complaint by Mayfield that the "FBI inappropriately conducted a surreptitious search of his home ... potentially motivated by his Muslim faith and ties to the Muslim community," according to Fine's report.

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility also is investigating the actions of prosecutors in the Mayfield case.

The Patriot Act, passed a few weeks after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, includes a provision authorizing the inspector general to review any complaints about civil liberties and civil rights abuses involving Justice Department personnel. The latest report covers the period between December 16, 2003, and June 21, 2004.

During that time, the inspector general received 1,613 such complaints, the vast majority of which did not require investigation.

Nearly 1,000 of the complaints did not involve a Justice Department employee or included farfetched claims, such as that the government was interfering with a person's thoughts or pumping poisonous gas into someone's home. Another 410 complaints were outside the inspector general's jurisdiction, including claims of improper prison medical care and inadequate library facilities.

Of the remaining 208 complaints, only 13 were determined to warrant further review, including the Mayfield case.

Another case that prompted an investigation involves allegations by four people of Arab descent who say they were improperly detained by the FBI while trying to enter the United States. They were allegedly handcuffed, taken to an FBI office for questioning and "subjected to unnecessary humiliation," the report said.



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