Yesterday, the fear mongers in Washington brought out the fear hype by reminding us that some possible terrorists were possibly plotting against a few (rather nasty) multinational financial institutions. This is the same possible plan which caused the federal police squads to cordon off the financial district in New York City last august, which in turn was based on information gathered in 2000-2001. We've heard about it three times now, and its beginning to show a pattern. And that pattern clearly shows that there is no threat. In the past four years, the Department of Homeland Security has not stopped a single terrorist attack.

If you still need a primer in the workings of how the government lies and manipulates the news, to increase the fear of Americans, you should read the New York Times article "3 Indicted in Suspected Plot on East Coast Finance Sites" which is in today's issue. And remember, you are just learning what the government know back in August of last year. Once you do that, you should go back and read a news story about the incident as it was portrayed last August. Here is a link to one in CBS News called "Finance Centers Face Terror Threat". The current story tells us that they had a couple of suspects in custody and that they were interview and their plot was foiled. I barely qualified as a plot, but still, it had been contained. But when you read the CBS News article, it is clearly portrayed as a current threat, the sources of the information are clearly misattributed, and the situation is hyped to increase the fear factor in any way possible.

If you read between the lines, you can clearly see that there was never any plan to commit a terrorist attack. The closest that they can come to it is to say that the suspects planned to make a plan to figure out how to do it. This is similar to me investigating the possibility of setting up an IRA (that's an individual retirement account, not a paramilitary organization). I read the literature, I know how to start one, but I haven't made any plan to actually do it.

I don't see that this is worthy of a single story. And certainly not worth a Homeland Security paranoia scare at three different times, and not the deployment of armed agents into the streets of NYC. This is nothing more than the government deliberately manipulating the psyche of the average corporate citizen by scaring him into a state where he is more willing to support the governments assertions. Government statements are for the governments benefit. This government will not protect the citizens of the country from pollution, or medical costs, or bankruptcy. In all of these cases, the well-being of the average citizen is secondary to the well being of the corporation involved in the issue.

So, we have a terrorist plot against corporations involved in the world financial industry. The financial institutions that the supposed terrorists supposedly checked out were New York Stock Exchange and Citicorp building in New York, the Prudential Building in Newark and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington. It can legitimately be argued that first, two of these agencies are not financial agencies, and that they are actually pseudo governmental agencies dedicated to economic interests of the developed countries at the expense of the undeveloped countries. American citizens have been protesting against the acts of the same financial institutions for many years. Three of the five would benefit from George Bush's plan to privatize social security, and none of them can be considered even slightly democratic.

Why should the average American care if Citicorp is targeted by terrorists? Who is it that actually approves of a company that gives credit cards to young Americans, before they have had a chance to develop a mature economic outlook, strongly pushes the same young Americans to take advantage of the credit line by consuming and then charges up to 27% interest on the money those young Americans spent on the cards. I don't, and they business model should be considered a criminal act.

But, it gets worse. Considering the New York Stock Exchange to be a fine upstanding citizen of a democracy is like saying we should have a poll tax of one million dollars. Sure, you can participate in the NYSE brand of democracy, if you have the entry fee. But, the entry fee is so high that only the top 1% can afford to do it. The rest of us, even the ones with 401k plans would be better off if that money were being put into a social security trust fund and invested in health care.

The so called ownership society is bogus. Stock is not ownership. It is an IOU that never becomes due. It is a pseudo economic scam which trades IOU interest (dividends) around, but you will never be able to cash in your IOU. You can only get your money from the IOU from another 'investor'. What is going to happen in the future when more people need to sell their stock from their retirement accounts than people are willing to buy? That's right, the stock price will go down. Instead of social security possibly needing a bit more money, the result would be a corporate economic collapse. The only difference is that the people who benefit from your cash will retire before the bills come due, and they will do it in grand style based on your cash.

Prudential's public face is that of an insurance company, I don't know what they do out of the public eye, but their inclusion on this list shows that they are far more involved in the global finance industry that I knew.

Lastly, The IMF and World Bank are of course, notorious scumbags who deserve anything that comes their way from third world countries. I'm not going to list their activities here because there are too many websites which already list their crimes against humanity.

Strictly speaking, I don't believe the men arrested in England are terrorists. I see them more as mercenaries. Their goal was not to cause terror, it was probably an attempt at retribution. If Americans feel terrorized, then they need to look at the source. The government spokesmen, and their media parrots, an the provocateurs.

Terror, for a world financial institution does not involve a bombed office building. Construction and destruction are economic opportunities for a bank. Terror for a financial institution involves the interruption of capital. A rise in the prime rate, or unemployment rate causes more panic than a bomb. A series of corporations failing to meet their projected net profits, and poof, down goes the market, then you'ld see something like this: Stocks Sink on Earnings Jitters. This is a much more terrifying prospect for the NYSE, Citibank, IMF, etc. And if you really want to terrorize them, forward the ABC News article called Slow Growth Expected for Global Economy to everyone in each organization an watch the panic set in as they worry about their year end bonus, their sporty BMW and their stock portfolio.

If you want to cause terror on wall street, all you need to do is declare that you will not participate in the corporate world. Get rid of your TV, your radio, your computer, and concentrate on the real world. Pick up an instrument and play your own music. Stop purchasing corporate goods. Make an effort to participate in the alternate economy. Buy from local owner-operated businesses. Look for the union made label, the made in a America label, or whatever local label applies. Destroy your credit cards, get rid of your car and work closer to home.

There is no need to confront the corporations, they don't care about your concerns, so long as you pay them their usury interest rates, they will gladly commiserate with you about the unfairness of it all. Just turn them off, unplug them wherever you see them. Stop giving them access to your life. Free yourself and the world will follow.