George W has become Chicken Little, crying “terrorist” every time an acorn hits him on the noggin.
More and more Americans say he lied to us about Iraq – “You’re aiding the terrorists,” he shrieks. Conservatives condemn his illegal program of secretly spying on Americans – “You’re only helping the terrorists,” he wails. Some mosquitos bite him at his Crawford ranch – “Your actions support the terrorists,” he screams at them.
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Now comes some news stories about a surreptitious Bush program to snoop through millions of private, international banking transactions made by Americans and others – and Chicken Little has gone completely batty. George W exploded on the news media, calling their reports “disgraceful.” Such disclosure of government secrets, he spewed, “makes it harder to win this war on terror.”
How silly. First of all, right after 9/11, the Bushites themselves loudly announced to the world that they would be tracking the flow of money to terrorist organizations and, specifically, that the treasury department would monitor international banking transfers. Does George think the theorists don’t watch CNN or read his press releases? The recent news reports didn’t tell terrorists anything they don’t already know – the reports only informed the U.S. public about what its government has been doing. It’s you and me that the autocratic Bushites want to keep in the dark.
Well, says the White House, now that the word is out, the banks might not cooperate in releasing the records of their customers, so that helps the terrorists. Stop lying to us, Chicken Little – the banks are under subpoena from you, forced to cooperate.
This is Jim Hightower saying… The Bushites have cried “terrorists” so wantonly that they simply have no credibility and can no longer be trusted. Their constant war cry is not invoked to protect America, but to cover their own political mendacity and incompetence. And that truly endangers America.
Sources:
“Patriotism and the Press,” The New York Times, June 28, 2006.
“Bush Says Report Bank Data Was Disgraceful,” The New York Times, June 27, 2006.
“Bush says report On Bank Data Was Disgraceful,” The New York Times, June 27, 2006.
“NYT Editors Puzzled by argument against publishing money,” Associated Press, June 26, 2006.
“Cheney Assails Press on Report On Bank Data,” The New York Times, June 24, 2006.
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