On 18 Sep 2003 at 17:38, Collins Richey boldly uttered: > On Thu, 18 Sep 2003 18:59:46 -0400 > dep <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > quoth Philip J. Koenig: > > | On 18 Sep 2003 at 10:56, Collins Richey boldly uttered: > > | > Homeland Security is scarcely the same as the Nazi SS. Where and > > | > when, pray tell, have they descended upon any innocent group of > > | > citizens, knocking heads and breaking up property? > > | > > | The US government has already been detaining people simply because > > | they are of "middle eastern descent". > > Except for the Oklahoma City incident, I can't think of a single terrorist > activity in the past 10 years that was not perpetrated by young Arab/Moslem > males.
I guess that's what you get for getting your "terrorism news" from the mainstream US press. (or just not paying attention) Let me give you a few hints: - Northern Ireland (various parties, various incidents) - UTA/Basque separatists (various incidents) - Chechnya (various incidents) - Columbian drug cartels, FARC, ELN, etc. (various incidents) - Hebron massacre of muslims by US citizen and right-wing extremist Baruch Goldstein, 1994 - Tokyo poison gas attack by Japanese cult Aum Shinri-Kyu, 1995 - Tupac Amaru kidnapping of diplomats in Peru, 1996 That should get you started. There are many more on the list. > If the US government is detaining non-citizens of "middle eastern > descent," that is unfortunate but maybe necessary. The bastards who > created 9/11 were certainly of "middle eastern descent," Easy and common trap you fall into there. What bonds the Al Qaeda operatives together is primarily their radical Islamist beliefs, not their ethnic heritage. The single individual in US custody who is believed to have been slated to join the 9/11 hijackers is actually a French national of Moroccan (North African) descent. Richard Reid, the infamous "shoe bomber", is a UK national, has an English mother and Jamaican father, and was born in England. I trust you know about the "American Taliban" kid too. > and I would think that even you would wish that they had been detained! You have no idea what I wish, and neither are my views so easy to characterize. First of all, I don't believe in people being imprisoned simply because of their ethnic heritage. It is against almost every founding principle of the USA, for starters. If someone has some evidence of criminal activity, that's quite another thing altogether. > If the US government is detaining US citizens, that is another matter > entirely. That they are should be patently obvious by now, to anyone but Rip Van Winkle. > Even in that case, if these people have proven associations with > terrorist organizations, I have no problem with that. That is the problem -- people have been rounded up simply because of their ethnic background or country of origin. -- Philip J. Koenig [EMAIL PROTECTED] Electric Kahuna Systems -- Computers & Communications for the New Millenium _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe/Suspend/Etc -> http://www.linux-sxs.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
