Chris Herz: One of our own, or a tale of two scientists

VHeadline's Washington-based commentarist Chris Herz writes: In past times, a military officer caught in the act of some crime or another was given by his brothers-in-arms a pistol loaded with just one bullet. In order to spare his army and colleagues further embarrassment he was expected to blow his brains out his ear.

Was this how it is with Dr. Bruce E Ivins?

This bacteriologist was a 36-year veteran of the American rogue state's biowar program, working in the army installation at Fort Detrick in the city of Frederick, Maryland. My own home town. His house is one street away from my parents' old home, now occupied by my son and his family. And if we are to believe what government and media authorities tell us, Ivins was also the author of the infamous anthrax terrorism which occurred in late September and October of 2001. This terror was directed against the Democratic Party leadership in the Senate and against the media; prime focii for right-wingnut hatred.

Five persons lost their lives: Most unpleasantly.

The main postal facility for the capital city of Washington was disabled, and the Congressional offices were for weeks rendered unusable.

Oddly enough, or not so oddly, as you please, it seems this man was permitted, even encouraged to suicide. A government armed with the power to declare anyone an enemy combatant on the merest of suspicions, then intern him indefinitely without charge chose instead to actually tell this criminal terrorist suspect that he would soon be indicted by a grand jury and the government would seek the death penalty against him. Dr Ivins then did the "right thing."

All through this investigation, the interest on the part of government to avoid among other things, disclosure of the extent of its violations of the various treaties concerning bioweapons has been evident. Also it is almost certain that the attacks could not have been just the work of Ivins, but may have involved others, possibly a serving army officer (66% of whom describe themselves to the ARMY TIMES as "very conservative"). This last I have heard from a disgusted local police officer.

The fact that a public trial of a white, anglo, apparently militantly conservative biowarrior with the personal resources to secure proper legal representation has been avoided must have many in the imperial high command breathing a bit easier.

This has to be contrasted with the case of computer scientist, the Florida professor Sami al-Arian who is a Palestinian migrant. This man has been held now for over five years under often atrocious circumstances -- involving two years of solitary confinement, etc. And this after a jury deadlocked at 10 to 2 for acquittal on charges of the professor having given and raised funds for Islamic charities which may or may not have been associated with the Gaza Hamas Party. Here government have not hesitated to use their powers to keep al-Arian incarcerated indefinitely. For giving money to charities!

Ours is a sick and racist justice -- if you can call it that. Ours is a government which hesitates not at fostering corruption at the highest levels of its own Justice Department. What else may one expect of a regime which has labored assiduously for decades to destroy its own constitutional and democratic legitimacy? But all this is only another example of the Byzantine politics of the New Rome.

From the imperial capital,

Chris Herz
cdherz44@yahoo.com

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