I'm afraid, all right, but afraid of what?

OFF/BEAT GLIDEWELL E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published February 15, 2002

This is all getting a little 1984ish for me.

"Be afraid," is what a local television news commentator seemed to be saying to me Monday night, "be very afraid."

He was referring to the FBI warning of a possible terrorist attack either in the United States or Yemen (that narrowed it down) based on "credible" information provided by those truthful guys, the al-Qaida whatever-they-ares being held at Guantanamo Bay.

You would get, of course, nothing but credible information from members of a terrorist organization dedicated to fight to the death (although apparently some of the detainees hedged that bet) to destroy America and Americans. I'm sure the intelligence community has some means of determining which of them is a credible source.

Interestingly, the net effect of the local television warning was useless for anything other than making people more scared than they already are.

The broadcast provided the name of one of the possible attackers, Yahya al-Rabeei, but no photographs.

So we were, I gather, to be on the lookout for anyone acting suspiciously who told us his name was Yahya al-Rabeei or was wearing a name tag that said that.

True, the FBI Web site, for those with access to computers, did have pictures of al-Rabeei (who has 14 aliases) along with 12 of his associates, and it probably is a good idea to have as many people as possible on the lookout for bad guys.

To me, simply "be worried" is a counterproductive statement. Nonspecific warnings about unknown events that may occur half a world away -- or next door -- serve to escalate the level of tension, to wit: to create more terror, which is the aim of the terrorists.

"Be alert" for some unspecifiable danger doesn't do much for us except increase our stress levels. I think Americans are already on a state of high alert. The immediate intercession of passengers during several incidents on airliners since Sept. 11 is a pretty good indicator. For the most part civilians and aircraft crew members have shown what I consider admirable restraint. I, for instance, would not have hesitated to use an ax on a guy trying to break through the cockpit door like the passenger on the United Airlines flight headed for Buenos Aires did. I'm not sure I would have used the blunt side of it, however.

And, keeping in mind the Aug. 11, 2000, incident where frightened passengers sat on -- until he suffocated -- a 19-year-old young man who was trying to break into the cockpit of a Southwest Airlines flight, I have some concerns about a public state of mind that could lend itself to over-reaction.

For instance, if I was of, or looked like I might be of, Middle-Eastern extraction and suddenly had an unbearable itch on the sole of my foot, I think I would sit there and suffer rather than take off my shoe to scratch.

That wasn't an attempt to be funny. I think that a lot of people are wired to go off that way. I am flying in a couple of months and I'm already planning to dress relatively conservatively. For instance, I won't wear a T-shirt that I bought the last time I visited my destination because the shirt has a Sanskrit "ohm" on it and I don't want that to set anyone off. I'll probably be careful about my reading material on the plane and will be consciously trying to draw as little attention to myself as possible.

I don't like living that way, but that seems to be the order of things these days.

I'm not putting down the need for vigilance, but I have to wonder how much of this "state of high alert" stuff is because of the law enforcement and intelligence types embarrassed by being caught with their pants down a whole bunch of times lately.

There seems to be a recurring theme here like, "If we keep warning them something is going to happen, when something happens, and it probably will, they can't say we didn't warn them."

That might be good preventive public relations, but I don't know how much it does for security. We need to be vigilant, but there can come a day when they have turned the stress screw just one quarter-turn too far . . . and then I fear that bad things will happen.

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