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First They Come For the Muslims by Chris Hedges

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Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
April 16, 2012

Ocupa por la justicia

Image by Daquella manera via Flickr

Tarek Mehanna, a U.S. citizen, was sentenced Thursday in Worcester, Mass., to 17½ years in prison. It was another of the tawdry show trials held against Muslim activists since 9/11 as a result of the government’s criminalization of what people say and believe. These trials, where secrecy rules permit federal lawyers to prosecute people on “evidence” the defendants are not allowed to examine, are the harbinger of a corporate totalitarian state in which any form of dissent can be declared illegal. What the government did to Mehanna, and what it has done to hundreds of other innocent Muslims in this country over the last decade, it will eventually do to the rest of us.

Mehanna, a teacher at Alhuda Academy in Worcester, was convicted after an eight-week jury trial of conspiring to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq and providing material support to al-Qaida, as well as making false statements to officials investigating terrorism. His real “crime,” however, seems to be viewing and translating jihadi videos online, speaking out against U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and refusing to become a government informant.

[…]

via Truthdig

Copyright © 2012 Truthdig

 spent two decades as a foreign reporter covering wars in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. His latest books are Death of the Liberal Class, and The World as It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress.

see

Tarek Mehanna’s Powerful Statement As He Received a 17-Year Sentence Despite Having Harmed No One by Andy Worthington

Training Terrorists in Nevada: Seymour Hersh on U.S. Aid to Iranian Group Tied to Scientist Killings + Stop the Pentagon from Training Terrorists

2 thoughts on “First They Come For the Muslims by Chris Hedges”

  1. Pingback: Mickey Huff: Which Key Stories Did the US Media Ignore? « Dandelion Salad

  2. The writer states : “What they (the US Government) has done to hundreds of other innocent Muslims in this country (US) over the last decade, it will eventually do to the rest of us”.

    Are corporatist governments doing exactly the same throughout Europe and most democracies in 2012?

    has Spin/PR developed to a stage where alternative realities are broadcast by all governments.
    Illusions are spun as fact and truth by power brokers and their “advisers”.
    Compliant media in fear and in hock to the establishment perpetuate the lie.
    Where might is right innocent peoples die.

    Embedded media don the uniform, why?

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