OpEdNews
Aug. 11, 2006
Chertoff: Plot Would Have Killed 100’s of Thousands. Really? Let’s Do
The Math
by Linda Milazzo
"Had this plot been carried out, the loss of life to innocent
civilians would have been on an unprecedented scale." These are the
words of British Secretary of Home Security, Dr. John Reid, when
forecasting the catastrophic outcome had the airline terrorist plot
taken off.
"Unprecedented"? Compared to what??
"We cannot stress too highly the severity that this plot represented.
Put simpler, this was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable
scale." This is how a uniformed high ranking Brit, featured on CNN,
described what he thought would be the carnage had the terrorist plot
carried out.
"Unimaginable"? Compared to….
– Darfur with 200,000 innocent civilians murdered since 2003, and
over 2 million current refugees?
– Rwanda with 800,000 innocent civilians slaughtered in 100 days?
– The Holocaust with 6 million innocent civilians exterminated?
– The Armenian Genocide with 1.5 million innocent civilians
massacred?
Far be it from me to undermine the tragedy of innocent deaths had
this alleged plot succeeded. I deplore terrorism. And murder. But
when assessing the current air-scare by Drama Queens George Bush and
Tony Blair, I’m shocked the Brits use the words "unprecedented" and
"unimaginable" to project civilian casualties had the terrorist plot
been born out.
Obviously, no life should be lost to the folly of deranged
fundamentalism. Not even one!!
Nonetheless, I’m dumbfounded by the catastrophic numbers forecast by
British and American officials. Michael Chertoff, United States’
Secretary of Homeland Security, said the presumed plot "had the
potential to kill hundreds of thousands of people."
Really? H-O-W????
Let’s do the math. Twenty four men were arrested in England for
planning to hijack ten commercial airliners. Had they hijacked
Boeing’s large 767-400ER, they would have had 304 passengers at their
mercy. Had they hijacked Airbus’ 330 and 340 series airliners, they
would have had up to 350 passengers at their mercy.
350 innocent civilians x 10 airliners = 3,500 innocent civilians
Add innocent civilian flight crews to each fully loaded plane and
these 24 supposed terrorists would have murdered somewhere around
3,600 people; 848 more victims than the 2,752 innocent civilians
believed to have perished on September 11th.
The fact is, had this sorely overstated plot been realized, its
ramifications would have been horrific. No one should suffer so
gruesome a fate.
My purpose here is not to undermine the horror of such an act. But to
diffuse the hyperbole of fear-mongers, and maintain an honest
perspective of the situation. The death of even one person resulting
from violence is unimaginable. But, come on, lay off the scare
tactics and propaganda.
Dissenters may counter that beyond this single plot lies the
potential for many more. This is true. But the propagandists aren’t
discussing future plots. They’re discussing this one, which they have
purposely misrepresented. They need to be challenged on their lies.
They need be admonished for their distortions, lest we be permanently
mired in propaganda and fear.
3,600 innocent deaths would have been reprehensible. But considering
the state of our inhumane world, they fail to meet the requirements
for the "unimaginable" and "unprecedented" scale.
More in line with "unimaginable" and "unprecedented" are the deaths
of over 100,000 innocent civilian Iraqis, countless innocent civilian
Afghanis, and the mounting deaths of innocent civilian Lebanese,
Palestinians and sub-Saharan Africans.
No need for hyperbole here. These numbers are honestly appalling. How
’bout foiling them??
Linda Milazzo is a Los Angeles based writer, educator and activist.
Her writing has appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines and
domestic and international journals. She’s a member of CodePink Women
For Peace and Progressive Democrats of America. Over the past three
decades Linda has divided her time between the entertainment industry,
community projects and education. A political and social activist
since the Vietnam War, Linda attributes her
revitalized-fully-engaged-intense-head-on-non- stop-political activism
to the UNFORTUNATE EXISTENCE OF GEORGE W. BUSH and her disgust with
greed-ridden American imperialism, environmental atrocities, egregious
war, nuclear proliferation, lying leaders, and global tyranny!
linda_mi_060811_chertoff_3a_plot_would.htm