Arrest of Caro 'terrorists' reveals stereotyping

September 11, 2006 —

Harvard professor Samuel P. Huntington wrote that the 21st century will be characterized by conflict between the West - especially the United States - and the "rest," especially the Middle East. He argued that this international system would replace geopolitical situation that existed at the time of the Cold War.

We can use that hypothesis to analyze the effects of 9/11.

To perform this analysis, we can use events that occurred on a local level: the case of the three Texans of Palestinian descent arrested near Caro for an alleged terror plot. On Aug. 14, WNEM TV-5 ran a story on the arrests. The lead follows: "It was revealed that the goal of an alleged terror plot, uncovered in Mid-Michigan, was apparently to hit the Mackinac Bridge."

Apparently, these men had purchased TracFone cellular phones from Wal-Mart. A clerk found such a purchase suspicious and quickly notified the police. Shortly thereafter, a curious sequence of assumptions was made by several parties, including the police, the prosecutor assigned to the case, and TV-5 itself.

First, we can address the assumptions made by police. According to the TV-5 report, a member of the Michigan State Police bomb squad said, "This has all the telltale signs of using cell phones to detonate bombs."

The report also mentioned that over 1,000 cell phones were found in the minivan the men were traveling in. Because of this, a conclusion was made that the phones were going to be used to detonate bombs.

The prosecutor also made assumptions: according to an interview with a TV-5 reporter, Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark Reene said, "In regard to the vulnerable target, I think it's appropriate at this time to disclose the targeted issue in this case is the Mackinac Bridge - that is what we have information on." He went on to say - in the same sentence - that "I cannot explain to you exactly what all the evidence is pertaining to that."

This is clearly a case of due process being denied to these men. If it weren't, the prosecutor should have disclosed evidence. Instead, his office assumed the worst and three innocent men were charged with severe felonies.

Finally, we can examine the media's assumptions, in this case, TV-5. The news team reported "What we do know is the van driven by the men contained about one-thousand TracFones. These cell phones are used by terrorists because they are cheap and virtually untraceable."

Again, this is a case of the media assuming the worst. "Terrorists" use TracFone, certainly. So do millions of other people.

9/11 was the result of an extremist few making the worst assumptions about the character of the United States. We now must make sure the United States does not begin to make the worst assumptions about the character of others.