g-Think | Issue 16 | The True Colors of Terror

Quick, what’s the national threat level right now?

Don’t know? Join the crowd. A recent g-Think poll shows that 65% of Awakening Consumers don’t know either.

What’s more, 33% said they suspected the government of using the national threat level program (the one with the color codes) for political purposes. If that’s true, it certainly bolsters the arguments of those who accuse the Bush administration of cynically using national security to manipulate public opinion.

Sometime in late 2005, someone sent me a link to a most interesting video; it was from Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC show Countdown. It chronicled ten instances where an upgrade in the US government’s national threat level, or announcement of a terror threat came right on the heels of news that proved either damaging or embarrassing to the administration. Watch the video segment for yourself but before doing so, I think there’s one incident that’s particularly noteworthy.

It’s incident Number Five on Olbermann’s list. It cites the raising of the terror code on December 21, 2003. I remember this vividly. Four days before Christmas is, obviously, a time when a lot of families are traveling. Especially families with kids. Especially on airplanes. It’s a heck of a time to talk about “credible intelligence” regarding new plots to crash airplanes into American cities, which is exactly what the Department of Homeland Security did. Six international flights were not allowed to enter US airspace. As I said, I remember it vividly.

What I did not remember was that three days earlier, on December 17, 2003, the Co-Chairman of the 9/11 committee, Thomas Kean, said the September 11 attacks were preventable. Well, that story sure got off the front page in a hurry.

Using fear to control those you are governing is hardly anything new. There are myriad instances of ruthless rulers, both ancient and modern, who had no qualms about filling the hearts of their subjects with terror to maintain the status quo (the Egyptian Pharaohs, for example, were not exactly a day at the beach). But one can’t help but hope for a higher standard from what is supposed to be the shining beacon of freedom and democracy.

The speed and thoroughness with which information flows today allows world leaders to have an immediate and powerful impact with their words. On the other hand, this same information technology can reveal coincidences, inconsistencies and less-than-genuine motives.