Richard Pryor has the talent to make us laugh at things that are not so funny. He remembered a time when the USA would not interfere with any nation weaker than itself. “You just shut up” the USA would say, and that would be effective enough. “Today we find ourselves messing around in El Salvador. How can we lose? Only 50 people in El Salvador!”

That was then. Now the USA has no problem boasting about its control of the air over Afghanistan, a nation that might have owned less than one-point-five aircrafts. I also find it distasteful and deeply disturbing to brag about a great victory while the media report bombing and shelling of people who are fleeing for their lives. It seems more like cowardice, cruelty and genocide, than greatness.

If the video tape “purporting to show Bin Laden” was guilty is to be believed, we should also believe that Taliban fighters fleeing war did not know that the WTC would have been bombed and could not have contributed to that crime. So why the slaughter? To complete the query, the phrase “purporting to show Bin Laden” is a quote from BBC World, 4:35 a.m Sunday December 16, 2001. It is significant that days after the release of the video by the Americans, BBC World was not yet convinced about the authenticity of that tape.

It is also immensely discomforting how the leadership of the world’s sole super power can carry on “like a loose canon.” By presidential decree a suspect can be tried by military tribunal, in secret. I refuse to believe that the most powerful nation on earth cannot give a man a fair trial, and at the same time preserve national security. Ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Alan Specter, and many others, do not believe the Bush administration either on this point.

It is an ill wind that blows nobody good. Bin Laden did evil to his cause and to himself but did “good” for manufacturers of military hardware. Besides the latter, it is difficult to conclude that any other group benefited. Indeed, there is a legacy in the making that all evil sprang from the WTC tragedy.

In the Caribbean you no longer get the flu; you get the Bin Laden. In Trinidad in particular people describe themselves as bin screwing up, bin fooling around, bin partying or liming, but never bin working.

In Dominica there are those who even argue that the arrest of Mr. Julian Giraud by the USA authorities had its roots in the events of September 11. The evidence suggests that the FBI “sting” operations began a year or years prior to that date.

Let me disturb myself for a few moments. Political advice-giving is not my forte. Here it is particularly dicey because those in opposition demand high standards from those in office. When tables turn and opposition comes to “power,” those standards are deemed no longer applicable. So, let me speak for myself and for no one else:

"If I were the Minister of Finance I would resign; not because the Arabs, the DAIC, or the Opposition says so, but because, all things considered, I would wish to save my colleagues and my country from any further collateral damage, actual or potential." I so declare with full cognizance that in the indictment document of Giraud and another, the Minister is not mentioned. As I write, not even Mr. Giraud has been proven guilty. But every intelligent politician should know that there are situations that should elicit a political response, as distinct from a legal response.

Now I must go back to the FBI. Professor Neville Duncan of the University of the West Indies expressed alarm at the fact that the FBI should enter Dominica, and reportedly, without prior knowledge of the government, carry out such activity, viz, enticing a man to commit a crime. Duncan believes it is an infringement of Dominica’s sovereignty, and suggests that the FBI agent in turn should be sent back to Dominica to be tried for his crime.

Duncan’s remarks will probably not go beyond the dimension of useful and interesting observation or commentary. But let us express the hope that Government has at least raised the issue with the USA, concerning a fair trial and adequate legal representation for Julian Giraud, citizen.

There are many women and men, who walk too slowly away from temptation; so slowly that temptation will always overtake them. The United States justice system has an infamous historic record of leading people into temptation; especially black people. If you belong to the easily tempted category, you may very probably be trapped.

Marian Berry, Mayor of Washington DC, was among the more famous victims. He failed to seek help for his cocaine addiction until the law enforcement authority set him up and trapped him.

Then there was Ms. Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X. There was an unproven allegation that Louis Farakkhan was involved in the assassination of her father. Police/FBI authorities set her up in a conspiracy that planned to avenge her father’s death by having Farakkhan killed. Shabazz was arrested and charged. Farakkhan blasted the FBI for setting up the young woman.

There was Edwin Moses, the most famous hurdler ever. The FBI reportedly posted one of their number to play prostitute and then arrested and charged Moses for soliciting. Moses pleaded that he believed the woman was one of his fans, and he defeated the FBI at court.

Just think about this: there is a T.V. commercial that boasts that a car is stolen in the USA every twenty seconds. Leave alone rapes and murders. One would have thought that the Police/FBI have more serious work to do than set up Moses.

When they cannot tempt you they resort to other machinations: The FBI tapped the telephone of Martin Luther King Jr. They found no subversive activity on his part; only a bit of extra-marital affair. (Walter Cronkite).