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News :: Civil & Human Rights |
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No Joke: FBI Almanac Alert And Response |
Current rating: 0 |
by Ricky Baldwin
Email: baldwinricky (nospam) yahoo.com (verified) |
02 Jan 2004
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The FBI is warning police nationwide to watch for people carrying almanacs - no, seriously - and local activists are responding. |
The Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette has once again deprived its readers of a good laugh at the US government’s expense. The paper did not report that, according to the Associated Press, "The FBI is warning police nationwide to be alert for people carrying almanacs, cautioning that the popular reference books covering everything from abbreviations to weather trends could be used for terrorist planning" (Dec. 30, 2003) -- although news outlets from the Memphis Commercial Appeal to the New York Times, Washington Post, CBS and NPR did run the story.
The AP story describes "a bulletin sent Christmas Eve to about 18,000 police organizations," in which the FBI said terrorists may use almanacs "to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning."
"It urged officers to watch during searches, traffic stops and other investigations for anyone carrying almanacs, especially if the books are annotated in suspicious ways," according to AP, which also said the wire service had obtained a copy of the alert and verified its authenticity -- a point AP articles do not usually feel compelled to make.
Presumably even mainstream journalists recognize the absurdity of the alert on some level, and know that a lot of people make assume it's a joke. Some may even see humor in it.
NPR's "All Things Considered" asked the obvious question: "exactly what facts could fall into the hands of potential terrorists"? The show's hosts joked that it could be "the secrets of collective names of animals on Page 630." How else, they asked, would terrorists learn that "it's a cluster of peacocks, a gam of whales and a bale of turtles?"
But, as the NPR story noted, the FBI is "dead serious" (Dec. 31, 2003). The FBI urged police to report discoveries of the popular information digests to the local U.S. Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Dead serious
"For local law enforcement, it's just to help give them one more piece of information to raise their suspicions," David Heyman, a terrorism expert for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the AP reporter. "It helps make sure one more bad guy doesn't get away from a traffic stop, maybe gives police a little bit more reason to follow up on this."
But the alert could also provide "one more" excuse for police to hold someone who has given them no legitimate reason to suspect him or her of wrongdoing. In today's climate of racial profiling, war hysteria and massive restrictions on civil liberties -- when hundreds of people have been held for up to two years without charges -- this concern is also no laughing matter.
Besides, as almanac publishers note, there is really nothing in an almanac that anyone couldn't obtain elsewhere with ease. The FBI bulletin refers to profiles of cities, monuments and other structures, any and all of which is readily available in travel guides and other sources.
"This is all public information," says Kevin Seabrooke, senior editor for the World Almanac. "This is available from government Web sites. The government is actually one of our biggest contributors of information. And this is all available in libraries, on the Internet. I mean, there's no top-secret documents here."
According to the AP, "The publisher for The Old Farmers Almanac said Monday terrorists would probably find statistical reference books more useful than the collections of Americana in his famous publication of weather predictions and witticisms."
Yet, said publisher John Pierce, "While we doubt that our editorial content would be of particular interest to people who would wish to do us harm, we will certainly cooperate to the fullest with national authorities at any level they deem appropriate."
Appropriate response
In response, some local activists (yes, including me) are calling for a grassroots campaign featuring two simple actions to expose the utterly ridiculous level of the government's fear-mongering, using the only means appropriate: ridicule.
First, activists can engage in "civil disobedience" by bringing almanacs to the monthly "Prospect for Peace" demonstrations this Saturday, January 3, and next month, February 7, from 2-4 pm, on North Prospect near Tires Plus. Copies of the NPR transcript on the alert will be available as a handout. Most people will not have heard of the FBI alert, so this is an opportunity to educate them about the insanity of their government. (Activists as well as new converts may want to take old almanacs with them wherever they go - work, lunch, church, etc. - and explain to those who ask, perhaps with a copy of the handout.)
Second, to "up the ante", activists can help collect old almanacs for free distribution to literally anyone who wants one. Signs could read: "Free almanacs! (Yes, that’s pun.)" The effort need not be intense, but just enough to create an excuse to discuss the FBI alert and government fear-mongering.
Those who are so inclined could also write letters to the editor, complaining about the News-Gazette's failure to cover the story. ("What, were they afraid people might think the US government has gone crazy?") Such letters could be humorous, obviously, or serious, citing the current sad state of "freedom" in the US and Iraq. Iraqis protesting against the US occupation or US-appointed governing council, for example, now face a year in jail in addition to a good chance of being shot at the demonstration.
It's an opportunity to use humor, against which Mark Twain once claimed no evil could stand, to promote understanding of a grimly serious threat to freedom, at home and abroad: the US government and its public relations campaign of war fears. But such an opportunity is fleeting at best. By the end of a month, at most, its novelty will have completely worn off, and along with its, any effectiveness. Activists, in other words, must strike while the iron is hot.
Email me if you want to get involved.
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