We all heard about this story, right?
Italian authorities recently announced that they had used wiretaps to uncover the conspiracy to conduct a series of major attacks inside the U.S.
Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the planned attacks would have targeted stadiums, ships and railway stations, and the terrorists' goal, he said, was to exceed the devastation caused by 9/11.
And, having been thus informed, it's understandable that Americans are not outraged by the wiretapping kerfuffle. What? You didn't hear this story in the US? Well, perhaps the following can explain why:
The Associated Press version of the story did not disclose that the men planned to target the U.S. Nor did it report that the evidence against the suspects was gathered via a wiretapping surveillance operation.
Furthermore, only one American newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, is known to have published the story that the AP distributed. It ran on page A-6 under the headline "Italy Charges 3 Algerians.” The Inquirer report also made no mention of the plot to target the U.S. - although foreign publications included this information in the headlines and lead sentences of their stories. Nor did it advise readers that domestic wiretaps played a key role in nabbing the suspected terrorists.
So, keep up your outrage that Bush has embraced fascism. Yes, that will serve us well. And make sure you concentrate on stories about Abramoff and ignore those of Ahmadinejad.
h/t Beautiful Atrocities
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