REFLECTIONS ON 911 | LIBERTY INTERNATIONAL

By Johnny Liberty

Author's Note: This article was written a few days after 9/11/01 and before the USA Patriot Act was passed (and portions were reauthorized in 2020 by the U.S. Congress).

Another Crossroads

Here we sit at another crossroads. Life offers so many opportunities for reflection. Where are we? What have we done? How is our way of life changed forever, for better or worse? What is the state of our nation? Are we a “kinder and gentler America” as Senior Bush once promised during his campaign for the presidency? Or are we set on a course towards oblivion?

During the fall of the Roman Empire most people couldn’t imagine life being any different. Ask anyone who was there. Most people believed, I imagine, that the Roman Empire would continue forever. That it was too big, too large, too entrenched, too much the status quo for change to ever happen. Yes, they believed then as we believe now, that the American Empire will go on forever.

Now that America is the world’s only superpower, we can arrogantly do whatever we want. We can invade Afghanistan. We can attack Iraq because we don’t like their leader. We can topple governments and establish dictatorships more akin to our way of thinking. We are America after all. America is good. America is God. America can do no wrong.

So then why do so many people hate America around the world. Why is America seen as a threat? Why would anybody want to blow up the World Trade Center buildings and kills innocent civilians as an act of terror, an act of war? Have we stopped shopping long enough to really consider this question?

Hmm. I don’t think we’ve learned the lessons from 9/11. And until the American people learn the lesson, the teacher is going to continue to pursue terrorist attacks against America at home and abroad. And all our efforts towards establishing “homeland security” will be ineffective and absurd.

The only ones more secure are the terrorists themselves, secure in knowing that if the conditions around the world and in many poor countries don’t change, that if American foreign policies don’t change, that if the rich continue to plunder the poor, that more terrorist attacks will be justified, in fact necessary to tame the beast.

But American’s will have to stop shopping and watching television long enough to reflect upon these conditions, to inform and educate themselves about global issues and concerns. And if we fail to do so, our way of life is destroyed. Our so-called democracy has failed and tyranny and absolute dictatorship will replace it.

Furthermore the American Empire will fall just like the Roman Empire did. Bush fiddled while America and the World Trade Center towers burned. We have a lot to learn. What does 9/11 mean to you and what have you learned?

The USA Patriot Act

What I've learned since 9/11 is that the USA Patriot Act has amended fundamental law unconstitutionally to provide additional powers to the goverment, to the Executive Branch, the FBI and the Attorney General's office in the Department of Justice, and especially to the banker's. This is a banker's bill to protect the Federal Reserve Banking cartel and punish those who might compete with them, foreign or domestic.

This bill was passed by the U.S. Congress without reading it after 9/11. It was prepared for the U.S. Congress by the attorneys for Morgan-Chase, the largest bank in America. All of these actions are unconstitutional as they contradict our unalienable rights as a sovereign people. So you have to ask yourself under this law, are there any possible situations where you might be considered a terrorist by your own government? So who and where are the real terrorists? I think you know by now.

Highlights of the USA Patriot Act
© 2002 Associated Press

1. Freedom of Association:
Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigation.

2. Freedom of Information:
Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records requests.

3. Freedom of Speech:
Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.

4. Right to Legal Representation:
Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.

5. Freedom from Unreasonable Searches:
Government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.

6. Right to a Speedy and Public Trial:
Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial.

7. Right to Liberty:
Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them related to a terror investigation.

Source: Liberty International