Socialist Worker

Imperial panic: the terror attack that wasn't

Issue No. 2226

The news that printer toner cartridges are to be banned from hand luggage was one of the more surreal responses to the latest “terror plot”.

We were initially told that explosives were sent from Yemen by a terrorist who voluntarily left their address and phone number at the airport.

It produced predictable outraged responses.

Security will be tightened, and promises of scrapping anti-civil liberties legislation dropped.

We’re told that we shouldn’t criticise the security services—because the information that stopped the plot probably came from torture in Saudi Arabia.

Yemen, their latest supposed failed “state of evil”, is now under threat from the US. In response, the Wall Street Journal reports that the US is stepping up covert action in Yemen, giving the CIA operational control over US military Special Forces units.

They will operate what the Journal calls “elite US hunter-killer teams” to go after those allegedly responsible for terrorist attacks.

The plan also includes using drone attacks—the same ones that have brought death and destruction to ordinary people in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Yemen is a country ravaged by war and instability—the result of decades of imperialist interference in the region.

It is one of the poorest countries in the world and is marked by a destructive civil war.

More US intervention will breed greater violence and misery.

The media furore surrounding an attack that didn’t happen stands in sharp contrast to the lack of coverage of the death and destruction the US rains down on people on a daily basis.

The sordid silence and secrecy of imperialism must be broken.


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What We Think
Tue 2 Nov 2010, 18:06 GMT
Issue No. 2226
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