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The Yemen Underwear Bomb and Other Hobgoblins
Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada ^ | 5/7/12 | James E. Miller

Posted on 05/08/2012 10:28:26 PM PDT by JohnKinAK

Today it was widely reported that the CIA thwarted a “plot by al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb.” This bomb, which was to be concealed in a pair of underwear, was designed as an improvement over what Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to use to blow up an airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day of 2009. This bomb was upgraded and designed to specifically avoid metal detectors.

At first glance it would appear to be a job well done by the world’s leading domestic affairs meddlers.

But like all of these instances, it was routinely denied “there was ever any immediate threat to the public.” It was also revealed that:

The bomb plot had allegedly advanced to the point that a would-be suicide bomber was told to buy a ticket on the airliner of his choosing and decide the timing of the attack. It’s not immediately clear what happened to the would-be bomber.

It would seem that what the CIA recovered was essentially just a crudely made bomb. The supposed bomber was nowhere to be found. There is no evidence presented as to a real threat or plan to use it.

The truth was finally revealed as the would-be bomber was, in fact, a double agent of the CIA.

When considering the nature of the state, this new instance of government supported terrorism is unsurprisingly comparable to previous cases.

Looking back at the original underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the mainstream narrative nowhere matches the disturbing details. Not only was Abdulmutallab’s explosive device determined not to be functional but, according to undersecretary for management at the State Department Patrick Kennedy, his visa wasn’t confiscated and he was given access to the airplane for the purposes of conducting further investigation. This came at the request of federal counterterrorism officials.

As former Assistant Secretary to the U.S. Treasury and acclaimed commentator Paul Craig Roberts documents in regards to attempted terrorist attacks since September 11, 2001:

If we look around for the terror that the police state and a decade of war has allegedly protected us from, the terror is hard to find. Except for 9/11 itself, assuming we accept the government’s improbable conspiracy theory explanation, there have been no terror attacks on the US. Indeed, as RT pointed out on August 23, 2011, an investigative program at the University of California discovered that the domestic “terror plots” hyped in the media were plotted by FBI agents.

For example, the Washington DC Metro bombing plot, the New York city subway plot, the plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago were all FBI brainchilds organized and managed by FBI agents.

RT reports that only three plots might have been independent of the FBI, but as none of the three worked they obviously were not the work of such a professional terror organization as Al Qaeda is purported to be. The Times Square car bomb didn’t blow up, and apparently could not have.

Think now about the airliner shoe-bomb plot, the shampoo-bottled water plot, and the underwear-bomb plot. Experts, other than the whores hired by the US government, say that these plots are nonsensical. The “shoe bomb” and “underwear bomb” were colored fireworks powders incapable of blowing up a tin can. The liquid bomb, allegedly mixed up in an airliner toilet room, has been dismissed by experts as fantasy.

Just this past May Day, the FBI reportedly foiled an attempted bombing of a bridge near Cleveland. But like many instances of domestic terrorism, this operation was aided and facilitated by the FBI itself. On cue, authorities assured the public it “was never in any danger.”

Far from having their liberty secured, the American public is being lulled into a sense of infant dependency from engineered threats from abroad and at home.

The art of governing can be broken down into two easy steps: scare the citizenry into capitulation with manufactured threats and legislate yourself increasing amounts of power.

With the illusion of monsters from foreign countries breathing down their necks, those infatuated with “national defense” as some unworldly savior are more than willing to bow down and submit themselves to having their privacy torn to shreds for the feeling of security. They are no better than children who wrap themselves in a blanket for fear of an unknown boogeyman. The corporate media, never letting an opportunity of state worship go to waste, vets out the reports of threats with little if any vigor. The Associate Press actually found out about the newly “foiled” underwear bomb threat last week but submitted to White House demands to hold off on reporting the story. After all, there is too much money at stake to not buddy up with Washington and keep a frightened populace spoon-fed with false delusions.

The danger in such juvenile acceptance of war propaganda is the creeping hand of despotism that must emerge. For if the public is lead to believe danger lurks in every shadow of the world, it will demand greater and greater protection from exactly those who salivate at the chance to provide it. From the Patriot Act to the National Defense Authorization Act, private correspondence and due process have been casually tossed aside for the promise of safety. This vicious cycle is reinforced by contrived instances of impending doom. The ruling class creates them and then feeds off the panic.

Even Bush administration spokesman Ari Fleischer admitted that “fake” terror alerts were used in 2002 to quell growing criticism amongst the public and particular Congressmen.

The famous Randolph Bourne quote “war is the health of the state” is often invoked as a simple dictum to demonstrate the irrefutable connection between government usurpations of authority and organized combat on a massive, industrialized scale. Almost any respectable writer, historian, or economist will cite the phrase when addressing the topic of warfare. That’s because in just seven plain words the mentality and violent temperament of those who sit at the state’s controls are defined so explicitly, it completely disrobes the glory and prestige too often associated with bloodthirsty crusades of patriotism.

Murray Rothbard recognized the underlying immorality of the government’s war machine complex when he wrote:

It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute domination over the economy and the society. Society becomes a herd, seeking to kill its alleged enemies, rooting out and suppressing all dissent from the official war effort, happily betraying truth for the supposed public interest. Society becomes an armed camp, with the values and the morale—as Albert Jay Nock once phrased it—of an “army on the march.”

The alleged Yemen “underwear” bomber was just another fabricated spook in the long line of mounting justifications to keep the war on terror and its profiteers going; no matter the cost. As long as the American people are still easily whipped into a frenzy over forged menaces from afar, their blood and treasure will go on to be squandered on military boondoggles and redundant intelligence agencies. War and fear end up becoming a way of life. And so does the state’s command over what could be a life of peace and tranquility for the nation it supposedly protects.

This isn’t conspiracy theory; just a recognition of the various hobgoblins, as H.L. Mencken described them, invented to justify encroaching totalitarianism.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: underwearbomb
More and more people are catching on to this modus operandi.
1 posted on 05/08/2012 10:28:30 PM PDT by JohnKinAK
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To: JohnKinAK

No terror attack in the US? What about the Ft Hood slaughter?


2 posted on 05/08/2012 11:20:40 PM PDT by FlyingEagle
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To: JohnKinAK

Um, that’s one of the most ignorant screeds I’ve read on either side of the political spectrum, and I’ve read a LOT.

This was an intelligence coup by low-level operatives countering a real threat. Sure, obastard will try to take credit for it, but the odds he had ANY clue about the op are near zero.


3 posted on 05/08/2012 11:32:24 PM PDT by piytar (The predator-class is furious that their prey are shooting back.)
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To: JohnKinAK

It’s an old one. There was a case back in the sixties where some draft protesters were nabbed for invading an SSS office to destroy draft records. It turned out that the informant among them was a prime mover, having procured a ladder to facilitate the plan. This ladder was a focal point for those who charged entrapment.

I myself have always been sympathetic to this charge. Such tactics are, in the simply understood sense, entrapment, and no amount of legal mumbo jumbo can erase this fact.


4 posted on 05/09/2012 12:33:37 AM PDT by dr_lew
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To: dr_lew

Yes. It is distressing when you consider that the CIA/government announce the “suicide bomber” was one of them, along with a group of local Saudi gunman infiltrants.

It just makes you wonder whether the CIA actually constructed the “FTL Bomb”, too! One wonders if the Drone base the CIA constructed was to get rid of troublesome leftover pigeons.


5 posted on 05/09/2012 3:00:24 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: FlyingEagle
That was "workplace violence" - didn't you get the memo?

Besides, AS WE ALL KNOW...


6 posted on 05/09/2012 4:21:50 AM PDT by Old Sarge (RIP FReeper Skyraider (1930-2011) - You Are Missed)
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To: JohnKinAK

The article is right. These “amazing” discoveries just before the bombers do their thing happens too often not to believe that this is nothing more than staged propaganda designed to make the public feel that they need to throw out more of their constitutional rights to be protected on an ever increasing scale for their own good.

Common sense dictates that if a terrorist wants to down an airplane all he has to do is stand at the end of a runway with an RPG and shoot one down. Don’t believe it? Go to your nearest large airport and park at either the approach or takeoff end of the runway and you will quickly get my meaning.

Now, with that in mind, how many RPGs are here illegally and how many rag-heads have come across our open borders?

The “real deal” is going to happen one day and it will not be prevented by any government propaganda unit.


7 posted on 05/09/2012 5:35:28 AM PDT by DH (Once the tainted finger of government touches anything the rot begins)
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To: JohnKinAK

The reasonable course of action:
All muslims, whether male or female, traveling to of from the USA, will be required to surrender their clothing prior to boarding any plane. Their garments will be returned to them when they reach their destination and have been de-loused.


8 posted on 05/09/2012 5:51:09 AM PDT by BuffaloJack (End Obama's War On Freedom.)
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To: JohnKinAK

The reasonable course of action:
All muslims, whether male or female, traveling to or from the USA, will be required to surrender their clothing prior to boarding any plane. Their garments will be returned to them when they reach their destination and have been de-loused.


9 posted on 05/09/2012 5:51:17 AM PDT by BuffaloJack (End Obama's War On Freedom.)
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To: JohnKinAK

Yes, 9/11 never happened. Neither did all the other Islamist attacks on America. Anyway, all the plots were contrived by the CIA ...IN CONJUNCTION WITH THEIR ZIONIST MASTERS IN CONGRESS AND ISRAEL!!! oops, sorry, (wipes perspiration from brow)...went off on a little paleo-conservative rant there. At any rate, all the Islamist murders of American civilians and servicemen never happened. And even if they did happen, the Islamists involved were forced to do it by our Jewish-controlled security forces. So let’s disband the military, the CIA, and all other security forces. You’ll feel a lot more secure. (smirk)


10 posted on 05/09/2012 6:09:39 AM PDT by driftless2
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To: dr_lew
The art of governing can be broken down into two easy steps: scare the citizenry into capitulation with manufactured threats and legislate yourself increasing amounts of power

This whole thing is as fake as Obama's birth certificate. They will keep creating these episodes until the sheeple belive it is real and give up all their freedoms. Give me PROOF this was real... You can't, all you have is the government's (liars' ) word that it is real. They make it up, they set it up, then they catch their own "bad guys". Fast and Furious anyone? This is as fake as Obama's birth certificate!

11 posted on 05/09/2012 6:20:27 AM PDT by ThePatriotsFlag (Still a contributing Republican? Why?)
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To: JohnKinAK
I'm interested in seeing the response of Freepers in general to this. While I don't agree with all that the author states, he has some very strong points to make about the way the FBI has been manufacturing "incidents" over the years. It has been a joke for years, that in any "radical' group, the one trying to get people to blow things up is always an FBI plant. Even if one were to take the government's assertions at face value, we would have to be a far more surveilled society than even some of the paranoid types (like myself) would like to admit for the feds to be johnny on the spot for so many of these things. Wouldn't it be nice if they put so much effort nito catching child pornographers? While I know that we are monitored much more closely than we like to think about, the fact is that it is Fedgov modus operandi to attempt to locate people that they think want to get their hands dirty, then encourage, push, and supply them as much as possible in order to "uncover" some huge plot, when in fact without federal assistance, coordination, material support, and motivation, nothing would have happen but some random ranting and bloviation.

All of this effort continually goes towards increasing their power, budget and scope of action. It is the nature of government. The government is not, nor has it ever been, looking towards your best interest.

12 posted on 05/09/2012 7:45:03 AM PDT by zeugma (Those of us who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.)
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To: zeugma

See post #10 for about what I expected.


13 posted on 05/09/2012 8:36:25 AM PDT by JohnKinAK
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To: zeugma

After 9/11 there should have been a large number of firings at the top of the CIA and FBI. Also the same people fired should have had a “Pension-ectomy” performed so they would not be able to retire. Then the people below them that were sounding alarm bells about the ROPers in flight school should have been promoted to take the vacancies above them with the knowledge that if their subordinates sound a warning bell and they turn a deaf ear to it, they could next on the “chopping block”....

There was no need to create “Homeland Security” or the TSA. What was needed after 9/11 was some serious housecleaning in out intelligence agencies to prune the dead wood do nothings out of the agencies.


14 posted on 05/09/2012 8:44:54 AM PDT by GraceG
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To: FlyingEagle

Hobgoblins Theme Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q18Wz73yUPo


15 posted on 05/09/2012 8:51:30 AM PDT by GraceG
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To: JohnKinAK
See post #10 for about what I expected.

Sadly, yes. That's about what I expect as well.

16 posted on 05/09/2012 10:49:31 AM PDT by zeugma (Those of us who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.)
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To: GraceG
In addition to the housecleaning at the FBI and CIA, the State department could use a mass firing as well.

There was no need to create “Homeland Security” or the TSA. What was needed after 9/11 was some serious housecleaning in out intelligence agencies to prune the dead wood do nothings out of the agencies.

The teutonically named (and appropriately so) "Homeland Security" needs to just be shut down, along with their TSA jackboots.

17 posted on 05/09/2012 10:53:22 AM PDT by zeugma (Those of us who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.)
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