Good Neighbours?

Misdirection, disinformation and outright lies. Do these make good neighbours?

Here’s the latest from supposedly informed and reputable politicians in the USofA. If that isn’t an oxymoron.

Canada more lax than U.S. about whom it lets in, Napolitano says (Clarifies comments that implied 9/11 terrorists entered U.S. through Canada) "The fact of the matter is that Canada allows people into its country that we do not allow into ours," she said. "That's why you have to have a border, and you have to have border policies that make sense." Liberal MP John McKay, who was at the conference, said Napolitano's comments alarmed him. "If you are, in fact, negotiating a managed border, and your negotiating partner believes a set of mythology, then you have problems," he said "You try to work on the basis of fact, not on the basis of myth."

McCain defends Napolitano, insists 9/11 perpetrators came from Canada…”Arizona Senator John McCain is the latest high-profile politician to repeat the diehard American falsehood that the Sept. 11, 2001, attackers entered the United States through Canada. "Well, some of the 9/11 hijackers did come through Canada, as you know," McCain, last year's Republican presidential candidate, said on Fox News on Friday. Ambassador Michael Wilson, reminded Americans once again that none of the attackers came to the U.S. via Canada. As the 9/11 Commission reported in July 2004, all of the 9/11 terrorists arrived in the U.S. from outside North America. They flew to major U.S. airports. They entered the U.S. with documents issued to them by the U.S. government. No 9/11 terrorists came from Canada.”

(source, http://www.cbc.ca/, April 21/24)

It’s abhorrent that the current head of USAmerican “Homeland Security”, that wholly redundant sinecure established by the Dubya regime, should be mouthing these erroneous allegations, and on Canadian TV, no less. Equally appalling is that the supposedly honest and above-board McCain is spewing the same filth on Fox. Having just read in the Guardian (UK) that Fox is once again trouncing viewership of both CNN & MSNBC, is it any wonder that many USAmericans continue to believe the lies? If I didn't have numerous USAmerican friends who I know don't buy this garbage, I'd be truly concerned. As it is, I'm saddened & discouraged.

The whole sorry mess reminds me of a visit to our neighbouring country, some years ago, coincidentally to Oklahoma City on the day after the bombing of the federal building. I was a little apprehensive travelling just then, chiefly about whether intensive airport security would foul up my connections, but had important meetings to attend. The immediate response at the time was that the bombers “must be foreign terrorists”, so there was NO increase in internal security. At that time, airport security in the US was little more than a bad joke. They were much more concerned about training sniffer dogs to root out the odd joint than in scanning for possible weapons. I witnessed both the training, and the lack of scanning. How do I know? I have a prosthesis that triggers airport scanners, infallibly. It triggered the Canadian scanners, but none in the good old USofA. It would have been a cake-walk to take any number of weapons through security. And what do you know, it turned out to be a native terrorist after the fertilizer dust had cleared. Surprise, surprise. In fact, if Homeland Security was really doing their job, they’d be doing something about the millions of lethal weapons and nutbars in their own backyard, rather than accusing their neighbours first.

In all of this, I wonder how many Fox adherents understand that the bombings on September 11th, 2001, were carried out by former US-resident, US-trained, very probably US-funded or at least US-armed, and direct to US travelling bombers. I wonder how many of them have honestly examined their own culture, or travelled to experience the cultural similarities & differences of their neighbours. Probably not very many.