Liberty Minute August 2 2013

Acting on the principle that government?s chief function is to terrify its subjects into submission, the State Department announced the closure of embassies in the Middle East and issued a worldwide travel alert to all Americans that would run through August 31. This was done in response to an unspecified threat by what was described as ?al-Qaeda and affiliated organizations [who] continue to plan terrorist attacks in both the region and beyond.?

Those of a cynical ? which is to say, realistic ? disposition might suggest that this is a public relations exercise intended to demonstrate the damage supposedly done by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who disclosed the agency?s illegal surveillance operations. Assuming that there is any truth to the terrorism advisory, the American public can blame the government that supposedly protects us for keeping the threat alive. John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, has compiled a report documenting that the Pentagon has 43 contracts with al-Qaeda supporters in that country. The agency responsible for administering that program insists that it would be a violation of ?due process? to cut off taxpayer money to the same terrorist network being cited in the State Department?s advisory.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.