The fog of fear and its effectiveness as an agent of control

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
--BERTRAND RUSSELL, An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish

If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living
--SENACA, The Epistles

It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.
--AUNG SAN SUU KYI, Freedom from Fear

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
--EDMUND BURKE, On the Sublime and Beautiful

With this week's terrorist "plot" and subsequent ratcheting up of the rhetoric of fear and talk once more or "the war on terrah," I found this interesting piece at Living With War Today.

LWW Today, August 13, 2006
by, RB Warford

LWW has been watching the news as have millions around the world. We did some research and the latest "TERROR" threat (liquid based explosives) seems to be something the US government has known about for a while and is not a really a surprise. What is surprising is the sudden interest in making people scared of this danger now.

The extreme closeness of these events and related terror alert announcements to important elections in US and voter confidence in Britain relating to Prime Minister Blair is notable. LWW has learned that the knowledge and use of these explosives by our own government and governments around the world is commonplace. Why we have not been protected by Homeland Security thus far against the possible threat of a liquid based explosive is a curiosity.

Just read the following description of Fixor, a liquid based explosive, and you too may wonder why we are just now reacting to a threat that is so obvious.

LWW has been watching the news as have millions around the world. We did some research and the latest "TERROR" threat (liquid based explosives) seems to be something the US government has known about for a while and is not a really a surprise. What is surprising is the sudden interest in making people scared of this danger now. The extreme closeness of these events and related terror alert announcements to important elections in US and voter confidence in Britain relating to Prime Minister Blair is notable. LWW has learned that the knowledge and use of these explosives by our own government and governments around the world is commonplace. Why we have not been protected by Homeland Security thus far against the possible threat of a liquid based explosive is a curiosity. Just read the following description of Fixor, a liquid based explosive, and you too may wonder why we are just now reacting to a threat that is so obvious.

FIXOR ®--

FIXOR® is a two-component explosive kit, based on a flammable liquid. It has been designed to replace the use of plastic explosives and block TNT as traditional demining and UXO explosive charges. Unlike ammonium nitrate based binary explosives and traditional explosives:

FIXOR® can be transported around the world by any method, including commercial passenger aircraft. This makes FIXOR® rapidly available to those Customers who require safe, secure, single-purpose, demolition explosives throughout the world. FIXOR® Explosive self-neutralizes after a period of time, becoming a non-explosive. This unique characteristic of FIXOR® is very important to those Customers concerned with the proliferation of explosives-based terrorist devices.

WHAT WE KNEW--

Team FIXOR® is pleased to announce that demonstrations of FIXOR® have been witnessed by EOD Specialists from the Canadian Department of National Defense, US Air Force, US Army, US Marine Corps, US Navy, and private EOD/Demining corporations during the past 12 months. Team FIXOR® is currently negotiating contracts with a variety of organizations around the world for the provision of FIXOR®, and we are pleased with the international response FIXOR® has received to date. MREL is committed to reducing the traditionally high costs of explosives required to safely neutralize landmines and UXO in blow-in-place EOD operations throughout the world.

WHAT WE DON'T KNOW--

We don't know why a Dept of Homeland Security terror alert has now been activated as if the threat of liquid based explosives was an unforeseen threat against the world. We don't know why warnings and precautions did not take place long before the story of the arrests in Britain. Are we being mis-led? You be the decider.