Muslim Vendor Gets No Credit in Helping to Foil Times Square Bomb Plot

From Democracy Now:

JUAN GONZALEZ: As the federal investigation into Saturday’s foiled Times Square car bombing attempt continues, here in New York a different sort of debate is under way. Who was the first person to sound the alarm bell about the smoke rising from the Nissan Pathfinder parked on one of Manhattan’s busiest street corners? Most of the media have focused on two street vendors who are veterans of the Vietnam war.

AMY GOODMAN: But there’s a third vendor who says he was the first person to notice the smoke rising out of the car parked right in front of his table and alert others. Unlike the other vendors on the block, he’s received barely any attention for his efforts. Alioune Niass is an immigrant from the West African nation of Senegal and an observant Muslim.

And

ALIOUNE NIASS: I am the first person who saw. Look at this, this is my table right here. I do not know how Lance, he’s going to see this. You see, his table’s over there. He was sitting there. [Inaudible] Look at this. This is my table right here. This one right here. You see the car? This is my car. That car right here. I don’t know. So, when I come in the morning, they tell me Lance, he said he saw the car first. Oh, I am surprised. I’m so mad, believe me. But it doesn’t matter.

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Of course, two all American Vietnam vets doing their patriotic duty to foil a foreign terrorist plot fits extraordinarily well into the pre-existing post 9/11 media narrative about fighting terrorism. You know, "let's roll" and all that shit. It makes complete sense that the corporate news media would choose to go with what they feel is going to move copy and sell ads.

But what a US propaganda coup it would be to highlight Niass' effort. Indeed, it would go a long way toward solidifying the half-hearted efforts of the Bush administration to get the world to believe that the "Global War on Terror" isn't simply a reverse jihad against Muslims, Senator Lieberman's decidedly unconstitutional bill to strip Americans accused of Islamic terrorism of their citizenship notwithstanding. And Niass' tale fits in very nicely with another pre-existing all American narrative, the immigrant who comes to our nation, and not only works his ass off, but steps forward at the drop of a hat to help defend his new country against an insidious foreign enemy.

Yeah yeah, I know, immigrants aren't too popular these days, but pushing Niass' story might be helpful in diffusing such anti-immigrant attitudes. Why isn't the White House all over this? I mean, the corporate new media are stupider than shit, so I understand why they're taking the path of least resistance, but aren't Obama's people smarter than this?

Yet another missed opportunity. That's what we Americans are about these days. Missed opportunity.

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