by Stephen Lendman

Post-9/11, America declared war on Islam. Injustice triumphed. So did hate and fear. Muslims are fair game.

US targets of choice. Britain, France, Germany and other Western partners march in lockstep against them.

Waging phony war on terror. Pretext for state terror. Against targeted Muslim counties, groups and individuals. After last week's Paris killings, Le Monde headlined "Le 11 Septembre Francais." Saying US history was "before (and) after 9/11."

For France it's "before (and) after 1/7." An accompanying article said anti-Islamic protests erupted in Paris, Dresden and other European cities.

Muslims are vilified for their faith and ethnicity. Expect more violence to follow. Manipulated by Western interests. With dirty CIA and Mossad hands involved.

French authorities arrested dozens extrajudicially. Outrageously accused of "glorifying terrorism." By exercising their free expression right.

Law Professor Jonathan Turley said so-called French support for freedom features crackdowns on free speech.

"If the French really wanted to honor the dead at Charlie Hebdo, they would rescind the laws" threatening free expression with "criminal prosecution."

"(N)ews (reports) indicate that the French government is doubling down on criminalizing speech in the name of free speech after the massacre."

Only government allowed speech is OK. France and other Western countries are "falling out of faith with free speech, which is now something to be prosecuted rather than protected," said Turley.

France's National Assembly voted 488 to 1 to escalate air strikes on IS. Perhaps authorizing them against Syria is next. Partnered with other US-dominated NATO allies.

IS and other Takfiris are the pretext. Assad's government the target. Regime change the objective.

France's "11 Septembre" assures escalated imperial wars. Stepped up homeland repression. Militarized for extra harshness.

Calls for increased surveillance. Curtailed free speech, privacy and other fundamental rights.

Banned online encryption. Anything goes replacing constitutional governance. Infesting Europe.

US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson saying: "Recent world events call for increased vigilance at home."

Code language for more congressional repressive legislation. Militarizing America more than ever.

Abolishing constitutionally protected freedoms altogether in the name of national security. Waging greater war on humanity.

Muslims more than ever are in the eye of the storm. No matter that Paris killings were less about terrorism and more about false flag deception.

State terrorism. Using Kouarchi brothers and Coulibaly as convenient patsies. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Charlie Hebdo killings "a war on civilization."

Blaming Muslims for "barbarity." Ignoring French involvement in US-led NATO aggression. Murdering millions of Muslims.

Mostly defenseless men, women and children. Media scoundrels marching in lockstep with imperial lawlessness.

Ignoring genocidal high crimes. Feigning concern about 17 French deaths. "(D)efending the (selective) right to offend," said Media Lens.

Western offensiveness against Muslims. The other way around called terrorism.

"The Western tendency to act with ruthless, overwhelming violence is, of course, a key reason why" some Muslims retaliate, said Media Lens.

"(W)e live in a time when a 'war for civilization' is seen as something more than a grotesque contradiction in terms."

Perhaps the bloodiest modern attack on European journalism occurred on April 23, 1999.

US-led NATO bombed Serbian state radio and television. An act of cold-blooded murder.

Killing 16. Injuring 16 others. Victims included an editor. Program director. Cameraman. Make-up artist. Three security guards. Other support staff.

Additional media outlets throughout Serbia were attacked. Amnesty International called bombing iits state media "a deliberate attack on a civilian object and as such constitutes a war crime."

A Pentagon spokesman outrageously called it "part of Milosevic's murder machine…right up there with security forces and the military."

It bears repeating. When Muslims retaliate against crimes harming their lives and wellbeing, it's called terrorism.

US-led NATO raping Yugoslavia was called liberating it. Terror bombings reflect longtime US strategy.

Willfully targeting civilians. Killing them in cold blood. In all US wars. Post-9/11, murdering millions of Muslims.

Journalists are prime targets. In November 2001, US air strikes targeted Al Jazeera's Kabul, Afghanistan satellite TV station.

In April 2003, a US tank shelled Baghdad's Palestine Hotel. Where many foreign journalists were based.

Striking a 14th floor balcony. Sky News journalist David Chater was in the hotel at the time.

Saw the tank aiming in his direction before firing. Asking at the time how Western journalists could continue working if US forces targeted them.

American bombs killed Al Jazeera's cameraman Tareq Ayoub. Injured a Reuters reporter, photographer, technician and cameraman.

In July 2011, US-led NATO bombed Libyan media in Tripoli. Killing three media workers. Injuring 21 others

When US-led NATO warplanes commit cold-blooded murder, it's called liberating oppressed people. Humanitarian intervention. Responsibility to protect.

Making the world safe for plunderers ready to take full advantage. When Muslims defend themselves, they're called cold-blooded killers.

When Israel murders over 2,200 mostly Palestinian civilians, injures thousands more, turns large parts of Gaza to rubble, it's called self-defense.

Including willfully targeting and murdering 17 Palestinian journalists. Preventing them from reporting Israeli atrocities.

Bad guys are them. Not us. Western reports on Charlie Hebro killings are one-sided and then some. Hypocrisy taken to a higher level.

In France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and Israel, holocaust denial is criminalized.

If Western media mock or vilify Islam, it's OK. Muslims are targets of choice.

Imperial wars rage against them. Homeland repression targets them. Expect worse ahead post-Charlie. Across Europe. In America.

Media scoundrels hype nonexistent threats. On January 14, Wall Street Journal editors headlined "France's War on Terror."

Instead of explaining its war OF terror. Against Muslims. Anyone legitimately against lawless state policy. Exercising their free expression right to say so.

Not according to Journal editors. Hyping the need to defend against "Islamist terror." Applauding France's response.

Turning the country into a militarized armed camp. Likely with orders to shoot to kill resisters. Mass arrest others.

Imprison them for exercising their democratic rights. What free societies champion.

French legislation being drafted eviscerates them. Bravo, say Journal editors. Keep "boost(ing) counterterrorism capabilities."

Forget about longstanding rule of law principles. Ones all free societies respect. Protecting monied interests from political, economic and social justice matters more.

"To prevent future attacks, the French government should do more," said Journal editors. Maybe they have criminalizing all Muslims in mind. Targeting them for praying to the wrong God.

"Effective counterterrorism requires some civil-liberties trade-offs," say Journal editors. Benjamin Franklin once said sacrificing freedom for security assures losing both.

"(H)omicidal violence…is the hallmark of radical Islam, Journal editors claim. Genocidal slaughter is the "hallmark" of US-led NATO aggression.

Waging permanent wars. Against one country after another. Killing millions. Destroying nations. Turning them to rubble. Don't expect Journal editors to explain.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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