Pearl Harbor and the ISA
These words, taken from the speech made by President Franklin D Roosevelt to the US Congress the next day which marked the entry of the US into World War II.
Over 50 years later it was disclosed that Winston Churchill had already known that Japan was going to attack Pearl Harbor a week before. He decided not to warn his US counterpart.
But at that time Japan was not doing anything to threaten the US forces. Her navy was over 3,000km from Hawaii. Still, that did not stop the Japanese War Commission from making plans to attack Pearl Harbor.
If Roosevelt had known about the Japanese plans, the scenario would be painted quite differently from the one recorded by history.
The Internal Security Act (ISA) was formed to stop any threats to the stability of the country at its planning stage. Based on the leads provided by government agents, the police made their move.
The informer might just be one of those detained by the police, who knows? Undercover agents have been known to play the part of a madman, rummaging through trash, eating leftovers and sleeping in the back alleys to infiltrate drug syndicates.
The man recently arrested for saying "BOMB" in an airport in the US did not complain of human rights abuse. He was making others feel threatened. The fault was his not some over-enthusiastic airport policeman who heard the remark.
They were just doing their job. I trust the government's judgement on the ISA issue. Let the Oklahoma Federal Building bombing be a lesson to be learned for all of us. It takes only one man to demolish a building.
