| Are you a terrorist? |
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| Monday, 14 May 2007 | ||||
 TV, radio and newspapers from all over the world often linger on the costs of terrorism, but what is not so often mentioned are the costs of the fight to terrorism. While dealing with such costs, we do not refer to how much money were spent to set up proper countermeasures against terrorist attacks, but to the consequences of a sort of Hysteria that affected whole western society from September 11th on. Terrorism is undoubtedly a threat that must be fought with all means, but we should take care to avoid that this state of alert will turn us into witch hunters, and we should prevent the fear of terrorism from damaging us much more than terrorism itself. Need some examples? Earlier this year, specifically on January 4th, the CNN apologized after mistakenly putting the name of US Senator Barack Obama as a caption on a story about Osama Bin Laden. Senator Obama did not make objection about the fact that it had been just an innocent slip and the whole issue should have been soon forgotten. But it has not, and an rumor spread out in streets and on-line forums: Barack Obama is a secret Muslim and eventually a jihad sympathizer . Obviously, there’s nothing wrong in being a Muslim but, for a candidate to US presidential elections a similar rumour, worsened by Jihadist suspicions, could mean a political collapse.The most common hysteria among people, anyway, is linked to terrorists detection. As any form of “witch hunt”, it is based on the principle that anyone could potentially be a terrorist until he or she proves his or her innocence. The situation is definitely worth noticing in the USA, where citizens are particularly vulnerable to similar problems and authorities are very effective in putting regulations on anything that can be regulated. For instance, some years ago the FBI distributed a brochure to local enforcement agencies in Phoenix, Arizona (page 1 and page 2 ). The brochure includes a list of suspicious activities , but actually, things such as “request authorities for a stop”, “make numerous references to the US Constitution”, “defend the US Constitution”, “drive without driving licence” and even “claim that driving is a right and not a privilege”, seem to be very far from a “terrorist behaviour”. Moreover, States such as Alabama and Arizona published a series of tips and advices to better recognize terrorist activities, in order to report them to authorities. According to such vade-mecum, if you say that “the Constitution has been subverted” , if you “advocate for property rights” or if you believe in “Marxist” philosophy… then you might be a domestic terrorist and your name could be soon added to the Terrorist Screening Database . Maybe, what the brochure and governmental websites are referring to, is just a list of general behaviours that, if associated to violence or specific activities, could characterize a potential terrorist. But people is not so wise, and the risk to be transformed into a horde of bounty-hunters is verisimilar, because according to the lists we quoted above, there are few people who could say they are not terrorists. For incredulous readers: we found a quiz that could help you in making up your mind. It is just a joke and there’s nothing institutional in it, but it is based on the characteristics listed as “terrorists’ behaviours” by US authorities.. Enjoy it and let us know your personal score!
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