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Fright is right
Given the FBI?s panache in periodically coming up with new conspiracies, we may soon have an industry rivaling Hollywood. However, there might be a flipside to this success.
America’s love for terror plots is becoming legendary. Not so long after the Moussaoui trial comes the Sears Tower Conspiracy. When a bunch of small-time goof-balls swearing allegiance to an obscure religious sect, the Sea of David, are caught conspiring to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and the FBI building in Miami, everyone has a field day. Viewers stay glued to their TV screens as five of the accused, the latest Threat to the Security of The Homeland, are brought to court chained together at the wrists and wearing ankle chains. A reference to the group having ‘derived inspiration from al-Qaeda’ turns up the alarm quotient, and everyone nods in collective admiration for the FBI’s cleverness in yet again outsmarting the bad guys.
But the FBI Deputy Director seems to be closer to the truth when he terms the group “more aspirational than operational”, and that they were seeking arms, money and even shoes and uniform from the undercover agent, posing as an al-Qaeda operative. Now the Attorney General says that “there was no immediate threat” as the accused “never had contact with al-Qaeda and did not have weapons or explosives”. So why the chains in the courtroom, and isn’t there a difference between criminal activity and play acting? Some are making suggestions of the Republicans’ contribution to the new pop cultural phenomenon of the ‘love for terror plots’. After all, with the elections coming up in November, a good fright can work wonders.
Given the FBI’s panache in periodically coming up with new conspiracies, we may soon have an industry rivaling Hollywood. However, there might be a flipside to this success. Already there are dark rumours that some small-time thugs are complaining they haven’t managed to get their 15 minutes of fame as yet. Expect more pre-emptive strikes against ‘homegrown’ terrorists.
