This essay was originally submitted to the Disinformation Company for consideration in their You Are Still Being Lied To anthology, but was dropped when Russ Kick returned as the editor. As such, I have left the footnotes intact at the end of the essay.

I remember watching the towers burn from afar. I had a consulting contract at the time with a technology division of AIG, and made the hour and a half to two hour drive to Livingston, New Jersey four times a week. Looking out at the skyline towards New York—from the New Jersey Turnpike—you could see the dark gray god of aftermaths hovering menacingly from the horizon line to the tops of the skyscrapers and beyond. This smoke—this discoloration of American symbolism—seemed to move in permanently, like a new, unwelcomed, in-law setting up shop in your living room.

It was an unrealistic feeling. Terrorism? These were ontological guerillas throwing black hole grenades at mythological constructs. It was unsettling.

When I graduated high school in 1997 I thought I wanted a career in governmental crime fighting. Highly influenced by my US history teacher—Thomas P. Farner, a New Jersey historian and author—I wanted to make a difference in an increasingly dark world. Originally looking to get a degree in criminal justice and hoping to join the US Marshals Service, I came across a suspicious pamphlet for a college out in Erie, Pennsylvania that changed the course of my plans. Mercyhurst College had a program called RIAP—Research Intelligence Analyst Program. It was a program specifically designed to give college educations to people intending on working in high security governmental jobs. It had even placed a few Secret Service agents. This program was overseen by a former director of counter-terrorism for the FBI. In fact, you had to be personally interviewed by this man and formerly accepted by him into the program.

After my acceptance into the program, we sat down to flesh out my first semester of course selections. Everyone had to become proficient in a second language. I chose Arabic.

Roughly one month before I was set to begin college at Mercyhurst, I bailed on the school and the program. Many personal factors influenced me to do so—none having to do with the program. The prospect of being eight hours from home, without a car, without a job (both school requirements for freshman) and sharing a bathroom and shower with an entire floor at the dorm, weighed too much on my introverted and independent nature. I transferred to Rutgers University to major in religion and philosophy, and though I still had aspirations of working as an agent for the Department of Justice in some way, most of those aspirations took a backseat to my growing technology career.

I often think about how things would have been different if I stayed at Mercyhurst. By September 11th 2001, I would have been fresh out of college, having obtained a degree as an intelligence analyst with a focus on Middle Eastern studies. How involved would I have been in the investigation of the World Trade Center attacks?

In the days that followed the Al-Qaida attacks on the World Trade Center, I watched the bitterness and hate grow in my fellow Americans. Foreigners in service jobs, such as gas station attendants, paraded around in American flag t-shirts in fear of the rumored violence and antipathy toward them, whether they were an Arabic Muslim or not. I watched the hatred grow in the eyes of American citizens that cursed these "towel-heads," despite the fact that most turban-wearing foreigners are adherents to the religion of Sikhism and not Islam; but nobody really cared to make that distinction. I saw the growth of barb-wired stereotypes and a feverish racism, accepted by the general public through foggy PR-lensed glasses.

And this was all to be expected.

Barack Obama's famous gaffe of saying that many Americans cling to guns and religion during a time of crisis was only outrageous because it was so true. It doesn't have to be an economical crisis, either. After 9/11, many blue-collar Americans (specifically the white working class) retreated into their comfort-zones. They found solace in members of their own race, with an emphasis on sectarian Christianity and a firm belief in their "rights" as they pertain to American life and the Constitution. A divisive line sprouted up between the white-bred fundamentalist America and the mythological "land of opportunity;" but again, this was to be expected.

What I did not expect, however, was for the United States government to grab a hold of that slow-burning fire and stoke it into a malleable racist contempt—to use it as a tool to further a GOP-regime agenda—the creation of a storybook enemy.

The War on Terrorism that George W. Bush waged against the Al-Qaida in the mountainous region of Afghanistan was one of the most popular decisions in American history. The people of the United States let out a collective roar of "F*** THOSE TERRORISTS" and the rest is history. We did not catch Osama bin Laden, but America did get a chance to show that we will not tolerate terrorist attacks on American soil. The support for the War on Terrorism ranged from the ridiculous (Bruce Willis asking George W. Bush to be sent to Afghanistan) to the heroic and ultimately tragic (Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman leaving his career in football to join the Army Rangers).

In all honesty, it was a beautiful thing. American patriotism was at an all time high.

But then the American government started doing things that were not expected. They fed on the energy and encouragement of the American people and used that to construct an ever present myth of imminent disaster and destruction at the hands of the EVIL MUSLIM TERRORISTS.

The Patriot Act was passed, whose encroachment on the rights of the American people in the name of security was more unpatriotic than any flag burning demonstration to date. Bush signed into law a military order calling terrorist attacks "acts of war" and this order allowed for the detainment of suspected terrorists for trial in front of a military tribunal and not a criminal court. The government announced that political parties viewed as "terrorists" in the eyes of America would be treated as terrorists, regardless of the worldview consensus, and suddenly we began to hear more and more about "terrorist nations." The Bush administration pushed through their idea of "pre-emptive" strikes on countries and settlements viewed as "dangers" to the American people. The administration further muddied the waters by using terms like "axis of evil" and "crusade" in speeches on terrorism (I guess nobody informed the President that Christianity didn't fare too well in the original Crusades). We were warned by the ruling elite of the government that around every corner there was an Islamic extremist waiting to inflict "acts of terror" upon us.

"Terrorism" became the new "Communism;" and the McCarthy era made its comeback by giving America that invisible enemy that could strike at any time. Terrorism became the new bogeyman hiding in your closet, waiting to attack you if you don't do what you're told. Don't want to give up your private information to the government? Fine; but that means the "terrorists" will get you! Terrorism became the justification for everything. They were taking away our freedom in order to fight terrorism, so that we could keep having our freedom. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

Many Americans, however, went along with this thinking out of fear. They feared this unknown enemy that could wreck such devastation like the World Trade Center attacks; and the US government fed off of that fear and further perpetrated it. We received more warning from the government about terrorism and possible terrorist attacks, and what would happen if we didn't give the government full reign to do as they please, then we received warnings, threats and claims from actual terrorist organizations. The government claiming to be fighting terrorism was actually inflicting terrorism on its own people with fear tactics. In fact, according to the very Patriot Act that the government enacted, these tactics clearly fit into the definition of domestic terrorism. These fear tactics pointed to an invisible enemy called "terrorism" that had only one really identifiable feature… an Arabic face.

It didn't take long after the War on Terrorism to begin that the US government elected to invade Iraq on the premise that they were training terrorists and hiding weapons of mass destruction. It's funny how out of the "axis of evil" of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, North Korea actually has the means to make nuclear weapons and wants to test them, but the government instead focuses its military on Iraq while throwing insults in Iran's direction. And how do we justify all of this? By saying that they are training and/or funding terrorists. You no longer have to be a terrorist to be a terrorist. You just have to be associated with one, even if it's through six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Little is often mentioned of the US support for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, and subsequently, the indirect support of the Taliban (who had Osama bin Laden as a chief organizer and trainer) through CIA initiatives against the Russian invasion. In fact, by 1987 more than 65,000 tons of US weapons and ammunition were being pumped into the Afghani conflict. Or how about the US support for Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war? The US government supplied Iraq with intelligence, economic aid and weapons during the Ronald Reagan administration because they believed that they "could not afford to allow Iraq to lose the war to Iran." Double standard is an understatement.

In 2001, an American born Muslim, fluent in Arabic and taught in Yemen, who had previously fought with an Islamic militant group near Kashmir, against Indian forces, was captured by American forces in Afghanistan. Despite joining the Taliban before the 9/11 attacks—despite declining to take part in any operation against the United States or Israel—and with his only "crime" being an allegiance to a political party, nation and religion that he held dear and fighting for his home, John Walker Lindh was captured, detained, brutally interrogated, and ultimate sentenced to 20 years in prison with a gag order. During his indictment, it clearly states that Lindh declined to participate in terrorist operations against the United States; however, this did not stop John Ashcroft—the attorney general at the time—from telling the US people—on February 5th 2002—in a press conference that Lindh had dedicated himself to "killing Americans"—a blatant lie.

During his well publicized capture, John Walker Lindh made allegations of poor treatment at the hands of his US captors. Unfortunately, his dilemma occurred before the publicized abuses at Abu Ghraib. It took some time, but eventually the US Supreme Court finally ruled that "enemy combatants" could no longer be held indefinitely without being charged. This ruling, combined with the events of Abu Ghraib, finally brought the public opinion to a point of challenging the previously free-wheeling zeal of Ashcroft's Justice Department. As a result, another American citizen fighting for the Taliban, Yaser Hamdi, was released after roughly 3 years of imprisonment (of which he was never formerly charged), despite his case being strikingly similar to Lindh's.

In many ways, John Ashcroft was one of the main perpetrators of this new McCarthyism, as he and the US government were attempting to make an example of John Walker Lindh to show the American people how the "evil" Islamic religion can corrupt even American citizens, and the consequences to any citizen who takes up the Islamic way of life. This is, of course, in contrast to the thousands of Nazi war criminals that the US government deliberately recruited to serve American interests in postwar Europe. I guess Lindh didn't have as much to offer in strategic intelligence… but the example that was made of him had much to offer, indeed. It showed that the government was willing to seek out the "evils" of Islam even in its own citizens, and punish them for it. Just like McCarthy did to the "reds" during his reign as "inquisitor" during the Cold War. In many ways, it was Ashcroft who was one of the main perpetrators of this new McCarthyism against Muslims… or maybe the Torquemada of a new inquisition.

With the War on Terrorism in Afghanistan, the current war and occupation in Iraq, the threats against Iran, and terrorism, terrorism, TERRORISM, it's no wonder the American people began to associate the whole of Islam with terrorist acts; and the government has done what it can to perpetuate this lie. It's the peaceful freedom-loving American Christians versus the evil Muslim terrorists. We're on a "crusade," remember? It's okay to hate and war-monger against the Muslims because they're terrorists. This point is further driven home by John McCain's insistence on continued war with Iraq and possible war with Iran. Three times McCain has tried to state that the Al-Qaida Sunni sect in Iraq is being trained by Iran, despite the fact that Iran is a mostly Shiite Muslim country and has been trying to close its borders to the rival Sunni sect. Three times? Once is a mistake, but three times… That just shows how little McCain and the GOP higher ups care to make a distinction between Muslim countries and sects. Why, when you can just lump them all in the same terrorist group and give Americans a common enemy to hate. This confusion between Islam and terrorism has led to an immense fear among the Arab-American community, causing them to second-guess their socialization with other communities and placing them in a state of intense anxiety and fear when they travel too far from their homes. In fact, during a Gallup Poll in March of 2008, only 17% of Americans had a positive view of Muslims with 34% having a negative view and 48% remaining somewhat neutral. In that poll, only Atheists and Scientologists garnered more negative views.

The government has so successfully skewed the opinion of the general public towards Islam in order to further their power in the new McCarthyism that more people cared about Barack Obama's religious beliefs in the 2008 presidential primary than his association with criminal money launderer Tony Resko. In fact, conservative radio show host Bill Cunningham—during a John McCain rally—continuously referred to Obama using his middle name Hussein in order to try to draw negative connecting lines between Obama and Saddam Hussein in the eyes of Americans. McCain later disavowed Cunninham's comments, but the damage was already done. In fact, Obama had to spend much of his primary campaign attempting to refute rumors that he was a Muslim. I'm not quite sure what's worse: that people would spread rumors about Obama's religious beliefs in an attempt to sabotage his campaign, or that calling him a Muslim would have as much of an impact as it did. At the time, my own father contemplated voting for Hillary Clinton in the democratic primary in order to "keep that Arab from getting into office"—a sentiment that was shared by quite a few Americans. It wasn't until after he heard Obama speak, and read a little more about him, that his opinion changed.

Even in my own family, I could see the negative views and misconceptions growing. My cousin's husband is Albania. He began following Islam just because it "made the most sense" to him. He never tried to force his beliefs on his wife, his children or anyone else in the family. After 9/11, I listened as other relatives would call him a "terrorist" behind his back. It was unwarranted, unnecessary and wrong. Though they obviously did not believe he was a terrorist, this talk showed the derogatory views towards Islam that were culminating, even inside families, thanks to media and governmental bias.

Before the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, the greatest terrorist attack on American soil was the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. In fact, the 168 people killed at the hands of American citizens Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols was more than double the death toll of all the Islamic terrorist attacks on United States soil, sans the 9/11 attacks, since 1972. Terrorist attacks such as the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building in 1910, the Wall Street bombing in 1920, the Unabomber attacks, the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in 1996 suggest that terrorist attacks on US soil are more likely to occur as a result of American perpetrators rather than Muslim extremists. The Ku Klux Klan, the Weathermen, the Symbionese Liberation Army, the Earth Liberation Front, the Army of God, and many more are all domestic groups that are "terrorists" under the definition provided in the Patriot Act. Currently, there are over 400 active citizen militia groups operating in the United States with conservative numbers of militia members at approximately 100,000. In fact, there has been a 60% increase in the number of militia groups in the United States since 1997. This multitude of domestic terrorist groups is more than enough to rival the American-hating Islamic extremist groups in the Middle East, but none of this seems to be discussed by the current governmental or media outlets.

Terrorism is not new in America. We have lived with it for a very long time. Collectively, as Americans, we were all shocked and appalled at the mass destruction caused by Al-Qaida during the World Trade Center attacks. It burst the sacred American protection bubble. It ruined our feelings of untouchability. It provided us with a wakeup call, a shift in consciousness to become more world-aware. But in many respects, the GOP and the American government are attempting to put the blinders back on the American people. We're only good to them so long as we can be left in a state of fear. They want us to be children that they care for and not people that they represent, so they invoke the word "terrorism" as a catch-phrase for justification and point to the Middle East as the evil enemy, with their violent religion and attempts to destroy the American way of life. It's a fear tactic to instill complacency in the American people. The government wants us to think in generalizations and stereotypes, because as long as we do that, we're not seeing the bigger picture. We need to wake up and realize that patriotism doesn't require human lives to be sustained, and "terrorism" isn't the bogeyman to be feared… ignorance is.

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Farner, Thomas P. New Jersey in History: Fighting to be Heard. West Creek, NJ: Down the Shore Publishing. 1996.

Towle, Mike. I've Got Things to Do with My Life: Pat Tillman and the Making of an American Hero. Chicago: Triumph Books. 2004.

Elsea, Jennifer. Trying Terrorists as War Criminals. Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base. Retrieved April 17th 2008 from http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/crs/rs21056.pdf.

The Patriot Act defines domestic terrorism as tactics which "(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; (B) appear to be intended— (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States." The Patriot Act can be found online at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/USAPATRIOTAct.

Rashid, Ahmed. Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 2001.

King, John. Arming Iraq: A Chronology of U.S. Involvement. Iran Chamber Society. Retrieved April 2nd 2008 from http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/arming_iraq.php.

The Case of the Taliban American. CNN. Retrieved April 19th 2008 from http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/people/shows/walker/profile.html.

Orenstein, Susan. Trial by Fury. Mother Jones. Retrieved April 20th 2008 from http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/11/11_402.html.

Grose, Peter. Uncle Sam's Nazi's. The Washington Post. April 24, 1988. p. X11.

Hampson, Rick. Fear ‘as bad as after 9/11’. USA Today. Retrieved April 2nd 2008 from http://www.wzzm13.com/news/local/grmetro_article.aspx?storyid=66820. Many Arab-Americans are as fearful now of racist retaliation as they were right after the September 11th attacks.

This poll can be found online at http://www.gallup.com/poll/106516/Americans-NetPositive-View-US-Catholics.aspx.

Bazinet, Kenneth R. John McCain Disavows Barack Obama Slam. Daily News. Retrieved Apri 20th 2008 from http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/02/27/2008-02-27johnmccaindisavowsbarackobamaslam-1.html.

Giordano, Geraldine. The Oklahoma City Bombing. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. 2003.

Islamic Terror Attacks on American Soil. The Religion of Peace. Retrieved April 7th 2008 from http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Pages/AmericanAttacks.htm. My numbers exclude the 1999 plane crash of Egyptair Flight 990, of which a "suicide terrorist attack" is just one of several unproven theories.

Leap. Dennis. America’s Militia Threat. The Trumpet. March/April 2000.