Who's the real terrorist here?

I just want to bring you one brief observation noted in an article called, "In realm of political illusion, the world's a stage" by Gene Lyons:

The purpose of terrorism is to induce irrational, disabling fear. In this sense, comments the brilliant blogger Digby at digbysblog. blogspot. com, "Al Qaeda has a powerful ally... the Bush administration, which for four years has... worked ceaselessly to instill in Americans an overarching and excessive fear of terrorism."

Who has most to gain from inducing "irrational, disabling fear" in the American people? And it's worked. Why else are we selling our birthright of freedom for the illusion of security?