How does a massive, costly security apparatus fail to stop a known terrorism threat from boarding an airplane and wrecking devastation?

It happened on Sept. 11, 2001, and again on Dec. 25, 2009.

“There must be an agenda,” suggested Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) in a recent video message to supporters.

“It seems ironic that there is so much excitement about this and now talk about attacking Yemen,” he said, noting recent bombing raids by Saudi forces, carried out with the explicit blessing of the United States.

ADVERTISEMENT

“The Saudis are our close allies,” Paul explained. “We provide them with the weapons and the airplanes and we did sanction and endorse the bombing of Yemen.”

He said that terrorist-style tactics carried out against the United States and U.S. interests are a response to occupation of Arab lands. The attempted attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253, he said, was a result of “either awful stupidity or there must be an agenda.”

“I am concerned what they are going to do to the American people,” he said.

And by “they,” he meant U.S. leaders.

“They’ll add some more security on to us,” Paul explained. “First they make us take off our shoes and then our belts and then small bottles of water and put our computers in a tray and on and on so something else is going to happen, they won’t let us get out of our seats or look at our bags, thinking that’s going to make us a lot safer.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“The bigger the problem and the more the fear is built up, the more they take away our personal liberties and turn us all into zombies and the American people go along with it and say, ‘as long as it makes us safer I guess it’s okay to go along,'” he countinued. “But it’s time the American people woke up and started realizing that there’s a bit of propaganda going on and quite possibly this incident will not only undermine our personal liberties but will also accelerate our intervention and the violence occurring in the Middle East.”

This video is from Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty, published to the Internet on Dec. 28, 2009.