Perspective on Threats of Terrorism

Larry C. Johnson, former CIA intelligence officer and former deputy director for transportation security, antiterrorism assistance training, and special operations in the State Department's Office of Counterterrorism, appeared on Olbermann to talk about media coverage of terrorist activity in the UK.

While the Bush Administration and it's Republican allies (in politics and the media) busily hype the threat of Jihadi terrorism in an attempt to frighten Americans into surrendering their Unalienable Rights, they're ignoring a real and growing danger:

Schumer Faults U.S. Safety Checks of Chinese Goods (Update1)

By Nadine Elsibai

July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Charles Schumer criticized the Food and Drug Administration and other U.S. agencies for not adequately protecting American consumers from harmful Chinese- made imports. ...

..."The fact that every week we have to frantically pull Chinese goods off store shelves shows that our safeguards are failing,'' Schumer said in a statement today.

... 'Filthy' Food

Seventy percent of the New York-bound refusals resulted from products deemed health hazards, Schumer said. Among them were ``filthy'' food unfit for human consumption and pharmaceutical products tainted with veterinary drug residue that could result in resistance to antibiotics or cancer in humans.

The FDA said on June 28 it would detain three types of Chinese farm-raised fish, catfish, basa and dace, as well as shrimp and eel unless suppliers could prove the shipments didn't contain harmful residues. ...

... ``There is no question that too many Chinese manufacturers and food producers put the bottom line ahead of safety,'' Schumer said in the statement. ``The FDA and other agencies regulating the safety of imported goods need to do much more to address this worsening crisis.'' (full article)

Remember the dogs and cats that died from eating pet food tainted by ingredients from China? Don't think next time it could be people instead of pets? Think again!

...The discovery over the last few months of tainted or defective products from China - including toothpaste, tires, toys and fish - has prompted U.S. lawmakers to fault companies for compromising quality in their quest for inexpensive imports and higher profits.

If companies do not improve their safeguards, the safety of imports could take on a bigger political dimension, the lawmakers said.

"Food companies have been among the most resistant to informing the public about their ingredients," said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, who has been a leading congressional critic of China. "Now that's more worrisome because these ingredients are coming from an unregulated environment."

No fatalities or serious injuries from Chinese food products have been reported in the United States, although counterfeit Chinese glycerine has been linked to at least 100 deaths in Panama. ... (full article)

I'm not trying to say that the Chinese government is intentionally attacking us. The American people are actually under attack by the Republicans, whose 'Free Trade' fanaticism has stripped away all our safeguards and opened the door to defective, tainted, dangerous, even deadly products from around the world.