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A commented portal page dedicated to
The Police State of America

( Latest Links are always at the bottom)
Most Recent full Update October 2007


Summary?
50% of Americans are either too ignorant, too badly educated or too apathetic
to recognise or resist the tide of fascism overwhelming them.
25% think the Police State is a good idea.

The other 25% are too divided to do anything about it.

"I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed.
The U.S. government will lead the American people,
and the West in general, into an unbearable hell and a choking life."
Osama bin Laden, October, 2001 (quoted in NewsMax.com 2/1/02)

August 5, 2004 President Signs Defense Bill
(The White House record)(Cached)
Remarks by the President at the Signing of H.R. 4613, the Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2005
Room 350, Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building. His remarks included the following: (click to listen)

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we.

They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people,

and neither do we.(mp3)

If you thought he was joking or just making a harmless gaffe, then you need to follow the links on this page.

 

******************************************************************
Below are now 200 numbered links (Oct 2007) to those stories which have attracted my attention.
If you feel I'm missing any of the important ones, please let me know.
(Use the links at top or bottom of the page)

We begin with this short but pithy extract from the March 2003 Idaho Observer:

 

 

  Headline, Summary/Extracts
My Comments (if any)
Source
1

The Nazification of America

One of the more ridiculous phrases in modern usage is “We are moving towards a police state.” We are not “moving” toward anything -- we are already living in a police state.

After years in the public indoctrination system (school), followed by the many forms social conditioning that adapt us to accepting government's various administrative regimes, most Americans can't even imagine what true freedom would be like.

In America today it's a crime to leave your house without your “papers” on you. You can be pulled over for as little as a dirty license plate. If you don't do just as you're told, the infraction can jump to a felony for “resisting an officer.

Bristle-headed, hog-jeweled policemen in dark glasses are on alert everywhere with a steroid attitude. With their K-9 friends, they're ready to sniff you out for any non-compliant activities. Forget everything you ever thought the Bill of Rights meant. There's terrorists out there.

Privacy? Forget it. Between bank records, “voluntary” tax filing and your “paper or plastic” purchasing methods, your every financial move is an open book. Carrying enough cash in your pocket to buy a used car is also a crime.

A police state isn't just about police. Bureaucrats of every persuasion form a lawless horde to “police” your every move by administrating their self-written rules and regulations. Crime creation no longer requires a Congress.

Are we only moving “towards” a police state or jumping farther off the deep end into a sea of totalitarianism? The PATRIOT Act was bad; the Homeland Security Bill was worse and now, along comes the Patriot II nightmare. How far will government go to protect itself from us?

This, as you will see, is not an isolated view. Furthermore, the American Police State is not a new accusation or phenomenon resulting from an understandable over-reaction to 9-11. Many of the links you'll see below preceed 2001 by several years. Some references go back more than a century.

You will also see that the authors are not - as you might expect - all lefties or liberals. There are a number of conservative and right wing libertarians equally outraged at the abuses of their government.

Many are rants - though, to be fair, none are incoherent. Many have multiple verifiable references and trusted sources.

In my opinion it is impossible to read this material and remain unconvinced that America is now an Authoritarian regime edging towards what we might call low level totalitarianism. (The distinction is based on how much the State tries to enforce "Thought Crime" by dictating not just what you do but what you're allowed to study or discuss openly)

It still permits many freedoms. It is, however, deeply afraid, intolerant and bigoted. A frighted redneck country. But its hope lies in the source of the analysis and reports that confirm this conclusion: Other Americans. That they can so clearly, fairly and, occasionally, passionately report what is going on in their country should tell us two things. First; not all Americans are ill informed deeply prejudiced hicks. Second the fact that they're still allowed to tell us all what is going on means that the shutters have not yet come down. There is still hope. But I have to say that, at the time of writing - Jan 2005 - the light of American Liberty is definitely waning rather than waxing.

My personal, selfish fear is that the political establishment in the UK will feel so desperately restricted by their "special relationship" with the US, that it will try to drag us increasingly in the same Orwellian direction. Their pathetic attempts at an ID card are indicative of their reducing respect for civil liberties and privacy. We're nowhere near as bad as the States - yet - but we are beginning to nudge in that direction. I am on the lookout for sites to fill a page dedicated to "Police State UK".

Below are a growing list of those which have caught my eye and appear to have something new to add to the picture.

Idaho Observer:

March 2003

Cached
(use this link if the Headline link no longer works)

2 Freedom is Not Safety
"Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference."
The first of many contributions from Congressman Ron Paul who has been waging a one man war against the Police State for many years

Counterpunch
Aug 2004
Cached

3 America is a police state
The Internet's dictionary.com website defines "police state" as: "A state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the people, especially by means of a secret police force."
If you want a short and sweet summary of the case, this page does it in 800 words. For a start it gives us a definition and then gives several examples of exactly how life in America increasingly fits that definition.

In Liberty & Freedom.com

May 2003

Cached

4 Battle In Seattle: Americans Face Off The Police State
The New American Patriot will be neither left nor right, just a freeman fighting for liberty. New alliances will form between those who have in the past thought of themselves as "right-wingers," conservatives, and patriots with many people who have thought of themselves as "left- wingers," progressives, or just "liberal."
I'd call that an optimistic vision. I hope they're right.

Louisbeam.com

Dec 1999

Cached

5 The United States of America is a fascistic police state.
"Surely not, I hear a shocked bystander proclaim. Tell me again, though: How many men, women, and children died at Waco for supposed paperwork violations of an unjust federal law? At Ruby Ridge? How many innocent people have died because they defied immoral and unconstitutional drug laws? Or as the result of daring to resist soldiers, er, police storming into their homes, unannounced and without visible warrants? How many terminal patients have been sentenced to death by a State that refuses to acknowledge the validity of "medical marijuana" laws that were designed to help these sick people combat the effects of their diseases? How many people have been condemned to an early grave because they are refused access to drugs that are not State approved? How many examples of "collateral damage" can we tally in the non-wars we have waged in Europe and elsewhere against people who dared to disagree with official American doctrine?"
 

Earthlink.net

July 2002

Cached

6 Enemies of Everyone
"The United States of America was once the envy of everyone for its principles guaranteeing freedom of religion, a free press, and liberty and justice for all. But now, spurred on toward bloody coercion by its perverted ties to the insanely warlike state of Israel, the U.S.A. is now the enemy of every honest human being anywhere as it tries to conquer, coopt, and plunder every nation on Earth."
 

Worldnewsstand.net

2003

Cached

7 A Police State Exists When...
"The American government has a habit of lying to its citizens when it wants to contrive a new war.
* Remember the Maine! In 1898, the sinking of the battleship Maine was the excuse for the Spanish American War
* In 1915, the sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania was the excuse for World War I
* In 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor was the excuse for World War II
* In 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin affair was the excuse for the Vietnam War
* In 2001, the 9/11 attacks were the excuse for the "war on terrorism"
* In 2003, the fictional weapons of mass destruction were the pretext for the war on Iraq "
 

new-enlightenment.com

June 2002 ongoing

Cached

8 Infowars - Police State archives
Among other things, the FBI was asking people:
"If you encounter any of the following, Call the Joint Terrorism Task Force":
"defenders of the US Constitution against federal government and the UN..."
Infowars own Portal

Infowars.com

May 2000 ongoing

Cached

9 Is America Becoming a Police State?

You'll learn:
* That the U.S. government education system, far from failing, is doing exactly what its Prussian-inspired founders intended -- discouraging learning while promoting blind obedience.
* Why "for your own good" stands among the most persuasive arguments a police state has for gaining control of citizens.
* Why the U.S. has so many impossible-to-follow laws and regulations.
* Why every police state needs wars and crises to justify its existence.
* Why our leaders know personal privacy must be erased.
* How lies and carefully planned "disinformation" are used against you every day.
* And why you must and will be disarmed if the U.S. isn't turned from its dangerous path.
Finally, you'll learn how you can help turn America from its dangerous course.
 

Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership.
(I kid you not).

Feb 2002

Cached

10 The [un]Patriot Act
Before casting THE ONLY NO VOTE the Senate against the USA Patriot Act, Sen. Russell Feingold said:
"Of course, there is no doubt that if we lived in a police state, it would be easier to catch terrorists. If we lived in a country that allowed the police to search your home at any time for any reason; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to open your mail, eavesdrop on your phone conversation, or intercept your email communication; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to hold people in jail indefinitely based on what they write or think, or based on mere suspicion that they are up to no good, then the government would no doubt discover and arrest more terrorists.

To which I feel compelled to add that there would also be a lot more terrorists to catch.

US Resolve

Nov 2003 ongoing

Cached

11 Creating a Police State From the Ashes of the Internet
"Tenet isn't describing a more secure internet, a safer city that allows its citizens to roam about with absolute certainty of their safety. Tenet is describing a police state that gives law enforcement absolute insight into every single conversation, communication and datagram that traverses the network. Tenet is looking for a centrally controlled authoritarian infrastructure to fix the problems caused by the internet. Problems like unfettered free speech, ad hoc freedom of association and absolute freedom to interconnect. "
 

CircleID.com

Jan 2005

Cached

12 America - the End of Freedom
"Preserving the US freedom is the reason of this war on terrorism. But America will lose that war without a shot being fired if we sacrifice the liberties of the American people."
 

cam.net.uk

Nov 2001

Cached

13 What Uncle Sam Really Wants
Note Added 2004 (by NC): "Since September 11, 2001, the most open thing about American society is that it is becoming openly fascist. The terrorist U.S. military/government has used the opportunity of the WTC attack to toss the Bill of Rights into the trash, thereby implementing a long-planned program of domestic tyranny."
  Noam Chomsky (1993)
14 Understanding the Police State
"What we are seeing today is the beginning of the process of the state separating itself from the people. This is reflected in the growing violence and brutality of the police, and also in the new laws granting the police greater powers and giving them responsibilities that have traditionally been handled by civilian authorities. "
 

League of Revolutionaries for a New America

2002?

Cached

15 American Fundamentalists
"Christian Reconstructionism considers democracy/freedom a heresy. Its distortion/reconstruction of American Christian traditions is used to justify its evil. Its social and religious dogma promotes genocide, enslavement, and terror to promote the delusions of a self-chosen royal race to dominion over the earth. They see themselves in religious terms as a new "master religion" whose destiny is to crush all others in the name of God...
...Christian Reconstructionism has to be one of the worse perversions of Christianity ever devised. "
A stunning painting with a fully described cast of hundreds and why they deserve to be in the painting. Must See.

American Fundamentalists.com

June 2004

Cached

16 Joseph Farah 1 - Moving toward a police state
"And now President Clinton tells the nation that terrorism is such a threat to America that we need to consider establishing a "commander-in-chief for the defense of the continental United States."
Pre 9-11

Worldnetdaily.com

1999

Cached

17 Joseph Farah 2 - Police State USA
"Now that Republicans are about to assume control of the U.S. Senate, it's time to focus attention on the real problems with the Homeland Security Act. It is nothing short of a prescription for a full-scale police state in the USA."
Post 9-11

Worldnetdaily.com

Nov 2002

Cached

18 Company fined $6,000 for not reporting customer's question
"Is any of this stuff made in Israel?"
Apparently, you're not allowed to ask that kind of question in the USA Example of Totalitarianism

Axis Of Logic
Dec 2003
Cached

19 The Neocon War on Peace and Freedom
"The main problem with Bush’s war on terrorism is that he has not attacked enough foreign regimes and not sufficiently trampled the privacy of the American people. Such is the thesis of David Frum, former speechwriter for President Bush, and Richard Perle, currently on the Pentagon’s Defense Advisory Board, co-authors of the new book An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror."
 

Future Of Freedom Foundation

April 2004

Cached

20 America to be world's largest ever police state
Operation TIPS will be "a nationwide program giving millions of American truckers, letter carriers, train conductors, ship captains, utility employees, and others a formal way to report suspicious terrorist activity."
 

Volconvo

May 2004

Cached

21 Toward an American Police State
George Orwell's 1984 has arrived in the U.S.S.A. Just as in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and in Russia from 1917 to 1990, any government agent or agency in America today can confiscate or seize almost any property from any American and there is very little the citizen can do to protect himself. We are witnessing the death of property rights in America — human rights and all other freedoms will follow.
 

Future Of Freedom Foundation

Nov 1993

Cached

22 Moving Toward A Police State or Have We Arrived?
"We have no choice but to make our voices be heard; it is time to stand and be counted on the side of justice and against the antediluvian forces that have much of our country in a stranglehold. "
Describes Secret Military Tribunals, Mass Arrests and Disappearances, Wiretapping & Torture

Human Rights Now

Nov 2001

Cached

23

Obedience is Freedom: On the Existing American Police State
What my class ended up with after all of this discussion was essentially this: individual freedom is bounded by laws that are a necessary evil, yet we must have a strong authority figure visibly present in order to get us to obey these laws. This obedience is the real sign of maturity and adulthood.

This (subservient attitude) is why, in the aftermath of September 11, the United States will not need to install a police state reminiscent of either 1984 or the Soviet Union. We already have one.

How the educational system is being used to try to condition obedience within the population - classic Totalitarianism.

Bad Subjects

Dec 2001

Cached

24 Will a Police State Protect Your Liberty?
I regard neither Jews nor Palestinians, World Trade Center workers nor Afghan civilians, as having any superior claim to the inviolability of their respective lives or property. Liberty, if it is to exist at all, must be indivisible. It is grounded in a mutual respect for one another’s claim to immunity from state coercion.
 

Butler Shaffer writing for the Pure Water Gazette (!)

July 2002

Cached

25

Humiliated, Angry, Ashamed, Brown.
They asked if I was taking photos of the train bridge, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I quickly pulled my notebook from my back pocket and explained that I was a new photography student over at Shoreline Community College, and showed them all of my notes — a list of exposures, subjects, f-stops, and shutter speeds. I think I talked to them for about five minutes, setting things straight and giving them all of the background information I could. They clarified that I hadn’t done anything wrong. I thought we were done.

“Can I see some ID?” one of the cops asked.

First, every "brown" citizen has become a suspect. Every action a potential threat.

Brown Equals Terrorist

2004

Cached

26 Should civil liberties always trump national security? (book review)
Michelle Malkin's airtight case for profiling in today's terror war -- and her courageous defense of World War II internment measures
I think you can guess what's coming here - but I doubt if you knew just how guilty those Japs still are.

In Defence of Internment by Michelle Melkin
Sep 2004
Cached

27 Is America becoming a Police State? US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies
Our commercial interests and foreign policy are no longer separate...as bad as it is that average Americans are forced to subsidize such a system, we additionally are placed in greater danger because of our arrogant policy of bombing nations that do not submit to our wishes. This generates hatred directed toward America ...and exposes us to a greater threat of terrorism, since this is the only vehicle our victims can use to retaliate against a powerful military state...the cost in terms of lost liberties and unnecessary exposure to terrorism is difficult to assess, but in time, it will become apparent to all of us that foreign interventionism is of no benefit to American citizens, but instead is a threat to our liberties.
Another gem - from Con Ron Paul's Speech to Congress January 31 / Feb 01 2000

Archive of Ron Paul's speeches at www.house.gov

Feb 2000

Cached

28 a couple of years later:
Unfortunately, my greatest fears and warnings have been borne out.
 

Archive of Ron Paul's speeches at www.house.gov

June 2002

29 How Police Confiscation Is Destroying America
The police now have the legal power to confiscate anything and everything that you own. Without trial, conviction, or even indictment, police are seizing cars, bank accounts, homes, and businesses from at least 5,000 innocent Americans every week. If you resist a police confiscation, they can even cripple or kill you with impunity.
 

Future Of Freedom Foundation

Oct 1993

Cached

30 THE CIVIL LIBERTIES CRISIS
Essential, up-to-date information on the current threats to civil liberties
· ACTION STEPS you can take to preserve and expand liberty in America
· Reliable sources for remaining informed
 

Advocates for Self-Government
2000 or earlier; ongoing

Cached

31

Police State - The Totse Collection
includes: America's Secret Police (Cached)
After compiling the information, we must conclude that the U.S. Government is on a small scale torturing, experimenting upon, and murdering innocent men, women, and children with ultrasonic and infrasonic weapons on American soil

and: Cruel and Inhumane Treatment at Virginia Supermaximum Prisons (Cached)
by Amnesty Internationall
Prisoners in Wallens Ridge State Prison (WRSP) are routinely abused with electro-shock stun guns, subjected to racial verbal abuse by guards, fired on with painful pellet guns, and placed unnecessarily in five point restraints

Totse's own portal.

Totse

1997 ongoing

Cached

32 POLICE STATE: Can't happen in America, right?
" The Smell of the Weimar Republic is in the Air " -Gore Vidal
"Law enforcement must serve persons who are guaranteed presumptions of innocence and right not appropriate when dealing with an enemy during times of war," Kopel writes. "Our citizens are not supposed to perceive themselves as subjects of an occupying force."
 

I Resist

1999

Cached

33

The Police State Enhancement Act of 2003
Bush Administration begins work on secretive sequel to the USA PATRIOT Act

includes:
The ability by the federal government to declare individuals, whether or not they are citizens, to be official enemies with whom the United States is at war.

 

The Freedom of Information Center

Oct 2003

Cached

34

BOOK BANNED IN AMERICA WHILE TROOPS DIE FOR FREEDOM
On March 19, 2003, Federal Judge Lloyd George ordered Schiff to stop selling his book "The Federal Mafia" which has been in print for over 13 years. According to Schiff the Federal Government is using the American people's preoccupation with the war in Iraq as an opportunity to squelch freedom here at home.


This and the next piece detail Irwin Schiff's one man campaign against the IRS

News With Views

April 2003

Cached

35

To Immediately discover how the federal government has, for 50 years, been illegally collecting income taxes

The following will provide extensive and irrefutable proof of how federal judges and the Dept. Of "Justice" lawyers knowingly violate the law in order to convict defendants (Illegally) charged with income tax crimes, And why only mis-statements of law ever "comes from the bench" at such trials.

 

Pay No Income Tax

June 2003

Cached

36

The Police State We Live In
Or - If it isn't martial law, then what is?

--There are presently 2 million Americans in jail, mostly for non-violent "offenses".
--The US has the world's highest incarceration rate, surpassing Russia and China, and the world's largest prison population.
--With less than five percent of the world's population, the US now has one-quarter (1/4) of the world's prisoners. --
There are six times as many Americans behind bars as are imprisoned in the 12 countries making up the entire European Union, even though those countries have 100 million more citizens than the US.
--Nearly one in three African American boys born this year will spend some time in prison.

 

Originally on "Liberty for all" now on Tacomacc.edu

2002

Cached

37 FREEDOM OF WORSHIP - YES! FREEDOM OF WHORESHIP - NO!
the most sexually repressed societies have committed the worst crimes in the name of "God," "law and order" and "decency." From the Holy Inquisition and the Holocaust to the Stalinist Purges and Mao's Cultural Revolution (each of which imprisoned, enslaved, tortured, and massacred millions), tyranny has always sought and found a scapegoat for society's ills (i.e., the heretic, the Jew, "the enemy of the people," "the counter-revolutionary"). And now, in the good old U.S. of A., they've identified the new boogie men: "the pusher," "the pothead," "the pedophile/pervert," and the "subvert" (animal rights, vegetarian, environmentalist wacko).
I'll do another page one day on the evidence for the correlation between Sexual Repression in Society and their tendency to go to War. This will get you started.

Propaganda Magazine

2002

Cached

38

The Martial Plan - Police State Tactics Transform A Nation
Every day the U.S. looks more like a police state.

An internal Justice Department probe, based on surveillance videos made by the government inside federal detention facilities, shows that the U.S. harassed, beat, and kept in solitary confinement without access to family or lawyers men it picked up off the streets of New York after 9-11.

 

Educate Yourself

Dec 2003

Cached

39 Texas Straight Talk - Police State USA
Every new security measure represents another failure of the once-courageous American spirit. The more we change our lives, the more we obsess about terrorism, the more the terrorists have won.
Another Ron Paul special.

Ron Paul's Weekly Column

Sept 2004

Cached

40 The Guantanamoization of America
The war on terrorism is also a war on the citizens of the Western world in general and a war on the citizens of the United States in particular. It is a war on civil liberties and personal freedom... It’s time to wake up before we are all very very sorry and have no one but ourselves to blame
 

Alex Jones - on Infowars

Oct 2004

Cached

41 Jihad Unspun Dont Be a Jihad Joe!
"Don't blame me," thousands of cops and clerks and technicians and programmers and internment camp guards will shrug. "I'm only a little guy trying to protect my pension."
A timely message about our shared responsibility. Remember Nuremberg!

Jihad Unspun

2005 (?)

Cached

42 Is America Becoming Fascist?
Since mainstream left-liberal media do not seriously ask this question, the analysis of what has gone wrong and where we are heading has been mostly off-base. Investigation of the kinds of under-handed, criminal tactics fascist regimes undertake to legitimize their agenda and accelerate the rate of change in their favor is dismissed as indulging in "conspiracy theory." Liberals insist that this regime must be treated under the rules of "politics as usual. Liberals are quick to note certain obvious dissimilarities with previous variants of fascism and say that what is happening in America is not fascist. It took German justice minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin to make the comparison explicit
 

Information Clearing House

April 2003

Cached

43 Neo-McCarthyism and the New Surveillance Culture
Welcome to post-constitutional America.
 

Impact Press
Feb 2002
Cached

44 Police-state measure threatens democratic rights
Up to now, it has been illegal for federal agencies like the FBI, the CIA, the IRS or the Immigration and Naturalization Service to share data under most circumstances. The Homeland Security Act tears down those walls, creating, in SARPA, a centralized office with unprecedented powers to link government and commercial databases, using a technique known as data mining.
First mention of "Total Information Awareness" - how to make "Big Brother" look like an amateur.

World Socialist Web Site
Cute name - reveals that they didn't quite "get" the web yet.

Nov 2002

Cached

45 Protecting America From Foreign Writers By the U.S. requiring foreign journalists and writers to obtain an “I” visa (or an official waiver), America is now in the same league with Iran, North Korea, and Cuba. In these police states, the regimes treat reporters and independent writers as dangerous subversives, disseminators of uncomfortable truths. In stark contrast, American journalists working abroad in free countries are not monitored, as are their counterparts in today’s U.S. Now Journalism is a threat too.

Intervention Magazine

July 2004

Cached

46 Pentagon database is step toward police state
This is Big Brother on steroids
More on "Total Information Awareness"

Libertarian Party Press Release
Nov 2002
Cached

47 The Rising Police State
Osama bin Laden was obviously pleased over the expectation that the terrorist acts would provoke the U.S. government to implement repressive measures. He was hopeful that the repression would progress to full-blown totalitarianism, making America "an unbearable hell."
Frankly, even if he's dead, I'd say he's clearly winning as we speak...

The New American

Oct 2002

Cached

48

DICTATORSHIP AT YOUR DOORSTEP
Universal surveillance, arbitrary property seizures, imprisonment without trial, "kangaroo-court" tribunals, and summary execution of "suspects" were the hallmarks of the brutal dictatorships in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia -- and continue today in repressive countries like Saddam Hussein's Iraq. These abuses have no place in a free and civilized society. But now in America, the USA Patriot Act and the other new anti-terror laws and edicts virtually wipe out our Bill of Rights and give government officials absolute power over your life and property. As Lord Acton warned: "Power corrupts -- and absolute power corrupts absolutely".

 

International Society for Individual Liberty

May 2002

Cached

49 America is a Police State! And Yes We All Know The Meaning Of "IS"
...as General Tommy Franks recently suggested, that moment will come when yet another serious terrorist attack, provoked and instigated by our own meddling, interventionist, imperialistic government, occurs on our soil. All the necessary “laws” are now in place! Never mind that they are all completely unconstitutional! And never mind as well that the finishing touches of our unconstitutional “laws” have been finalized and put in place by a “limited government” Republican administration! America is now “legally” a police state!
Tell it like it is General!

The Price of Liberty

Dec 2003

Cached

50

No Police State Measures
Portal, which includes the story below

This is an excellent portal for up to date comment and reporting on all the related issues

Refuse And Resist
March 2005 ongoing
Cached

51 First They Came for the Terrorists...
If Bush continues to roll back human and civil rights - and the installation of Alberto Gonzalez as America's chief law enforcement officer is very much a part of his campaign to do so - we may be facing a "Pastor Niemöller moment" sooner than most of us could have imagined.
 

Refuse And Resist

Jan 2005 ongoing

Cached

52 Another Police State Killing
If our government leaders can pick and choose who will be allowed to live and who will die, how do you know that you or someone in your family won’t be next?
Because my surname is Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld etc

Armed Females Of America
Oct 2004
Cached

53 Stolen Lives: Killed by Law Enforcement
There is a nationwide epidemic of police brutality in the United States. The victims are overwhelmingly African American, Latino and other people of color. These victims of brutal police cannot speak for themselves, but we can and we will.
Comprehensive coverage of most of the "legal" homicide carried out by the trigger happy American Police. It has been no surprise to see that attitude being displayed prominently on the streets of Baghdad. That "shoot first, ask questions later" approach is, I am sure, what will eventually cost them the War and, with it, their Empire.

Stolen Lives

2004 ngoing

Cached

54 American State Terrorism
“We have about 50 per cent of the world’s wealth, but only 6.3 per cent of its population... Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming… We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction... We should cease to talk about vague and... unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we will have to deal in straight power concepts.”

...that is a straight quote from George Kennan - US State Dept Policy Planning Staff Feb 1948. Hopefully it sends a shiver down your spine.

The page presents a well referenced Critical Review of The Objectives of U.S. Foreign Policy in The Post-World War II Period

If you've read enough Chomsky or even Caroll Quigley, this won't come as a surprise to you, though it's always useful to have further corroboration.

Media Monitors Network

Sept 2001

Cached

55 White House Wants ISP Search Limits Overturned
The US Justice Department wants to obtain sensitive customer records from ISPs, according to the Associated Press. It is asking a court to overturn a ruling that struck down sweeping investigative powers in the Patriot Act as unconstitutional.
Not a normal source for political stories, but when it comes to matters IT related, as this story is, none handle it better than el Reg.

The Register

June 2005

Cached

56

The Vice Lords of the Replacement Economies
How the Drug War and the Prison-Industrial Complex connect in a vicious cycle of violence, vice, and profit.

Sample:
...what may be even more shocking is that it has become progressively more serious to have been caught with drugs than to kill someone. In his 1999 Progressive Populist essay, “The Prison-Industrial Complex,” UNLV Criminal Justice professor Richard Shelden cites that between 1980 and 1992 the average maximum sentence in federal courts declined for violent crimes (from 125 months to 88 months) and almost doubled for drug offenses (from 47 months to 82 months)

and

...a nation with only 4.6% of the total world population has a full one-third of the world’s prisoners...
Prison populations have been increasing from between 5 percent and 7 percent each year.
(2002) 613,986 people, were (arrested) for nothing more than possession of marijuana.

...one in every 20 black men over the age of 18 is in prison, and in five states the ratio is 13 to 1. This is compared to 1 in 180 White men. But Blacks aren’t doing more drugs. White drug users outnumber Blacks by a five-to-one margin. But according to the US Department of Justice, Blacks comprise 56.7% of all drug offenders admitted to state prisons while Whites comprise only 23.3%.

This one is just full of gems

Guerilla News Network

June 2005

Cached

57 The Case of Sami Al-Arian (my own portal)

Here's one I should have included much earlier but I've been keeping track of it elsewhere.
The (now ex-tenured) Professor of Computer Science at the University of South Florida who has been an active supporter of the Palestinian cause for decades was "tried by media" (particularly a Bill O'Reilly special following 9-11) and subsequently hounded out of his job (Dec 2001), arrested (Feb 2003), charged and eventually tried in 2005; charged with no less than 50 terrorism related offences. It looks like one of the most contrived cases I've ever seen. In the end the Jury threw the case out on all charges. However, the State threatened to go after his wife and kids unless he caved in on something, so he agreed to a plea bargain in which they would do him for a being a "little bit terrorist" (he would admit handling money for them but not in any way connected to any of their violent acts) so that they had something to deport him for, as well as giving him a token prison sentence in order to justify the 3 years he's already spent, mostly, in solitary confinement. He gave in to this blatant blackmail for the sake of his sanity and his family.

Frankly I don't know if he is innocent or guilty. I do know that they couldn't satisfy a jury of his guilt so they had to blackmail him into submission.

Only one thing is fairly certain. If he wasn't an enemy before, he sure as hell is now.

 
58 Supreme Court Makes It Tougher to Sue Police
In a wrongful arrest and a questionable shooting, the justices say officers should be given the benefit of the doubt.

Quite right too, being thought capable of making mistakes is very damaging to Police Morale!

Contrast this Judicial attitude with the UK handling of the tragic execution of Jean Charles De Menezes

Refuse And Resist

Dec 2004
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59 Frist Kills Pentagon Spending Bill to Protect Abusive Interrogations
Senate majority leader (Frist) canceled a vote on the entire Pentagon spending bill because of an amendment that would have banned cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment
We can't have our interrogators working with their hands tied can we. No. That's the role for the suspect to play.

ACLU

July 2005

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60 Russ Stein Arrested For Not Co-operating with illegal arrest!
So what's the bottom line? First of all, I want to add mine to the chorus of objections to our mediocre Republican President's assertion that we live in the "most free country in the world." Apparently, in the heartland of our most free country, you can be arrested and roughed up, and have your car torn apart and searched, for sitting by yourself in a parking lot on public property typing on a laptop, and failing to fall to your knees and cower before the police when they order you to reveal your identity, purpose, and residence.
Russ Stein's shocking personal testimony about false arrest in a Police State. It is hugely reminiscent of stories from the Soviet Union or Red China at the height of the Cold War when they were as paranoid about us as we now seem to be about religious terrorists.

Lew Rockwell

March 2002

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61 The American Police State: The Government Against the People. (book listing)
With all of the literature about the CIA over the past two decades, it is easy to forget that for the first half of the Agency's history, almost nothing was in the public domain. Washington journalist David Wise changed all of that with "The Invisible Government" in 1964. CIA director John McCone called in Wise and co-author Thomas Ross to demand deletions on the basis of galleys the CIA had secretly obtained. When that didn't work, the CIA formed a special group to deal with the book and tried to secure bad reviews, even though the CIA's legal counsel had found the book "uncannily accurate."
See? The complaint (Police State) is not new...

New York: Vintage Books

1978.

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62 The Law Of Liberty
The United States is turning into a Third World country. Warrantless searches, paid testimony, and confessions through intimidation (plea bargaining) have become rampant. Police departments have taken to outright theft of property using the mechanism of “civil asset forfeiture.”
Just in case you thought all Christians must be supporting the Police State...

Holistic Politics

2005

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63 U.S. MILITARY CIVIL DISTURBANCE PLANNING: THE WAR AT HOME
Under the heading of "civil disturbance planning", the U.S. military is training troops and police to suppress democratic opposition in America. The master plan, Department of Defense Civil Disturbance Plan 55-2, is code-named, "Operation Garden Plot". Originated in 1968, the "operational plan" has been updated over the last three decades, most recently in 1991, and was activated during the Los Angeles "riots" of 1992, and more than likely during the recent anti-WTO "Battle in Seattle."
Note how long this has been going on...

Cryptome

Spring/Summer 2000

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64 DARE to Inform On Your Parents The Classroom as the Police State’s Foyer :
(abstract only)
The events leading up to this episode and the after effects for the family are considered in light of the overall society-wide increase in American police departments relying on individuals to inform on family members suspected of crimes.
STASI type practices in the "Land of The Free" - asking family members to spy on each other...

St Martins University Homepages

1998

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65 The State vs. The People:
The result of this bastardization of Western traditions, this perverse mating of Polizeistaat authoritarianism with the rhetoric of liberty, is so far neither freedom nor a total police state. It is a kind of dreary everyday drone in which we tell ourselves we certainly must be happy, as long as we have a well-paying job, nightly entertainment, and food on the table.
Excellent analysis of the Rise of the American Police State.

Libertarian Enterprise Review of book by Wolfe & Zelman
2001

Cached
main link dead March 2006 - My Cached version appears to be the last in existence!

66 Two Wrongs Don’t Take My Rights
Is the “War on Terrorism” becoming a war on Freedom?
Life is not safe. Freedom is an inherently risky proposition. Security is an illusion and safety a myth. The apostles of the nanny state continue to try to convince us that if we just pass enough rules and regulations and give up enough freedom, we will someday be safe and secure. Anyone who has lived more than a week on this planet knows that this just isn’t so. Recently, the bid to entice us to surrender our freedom for the illusion of security has taken the shape of two laws, The USA Patriot Act and the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act.
 

The Sight

2003

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67 McCain passes amendment to end torture of detainees; Bush threatens veto
John McCain passed an amendment to the next military appropriations bill which if followed would end such practices by simply requiring the treatment of detainees to be held to the standards in the Army field manual. Bush claims he's going to veto it. This would mean the first, and so far only, veto of Bush's entire presidency would be performed in support of torture
Strictly speaking this article doesn't belong under a "Police State" banner. It's perhaps more appropriate to something like "American War Crimes" but I can't be arsed to start up another page for that. At least not yet. Meanwhile, if you've absorbed the general tone of the previous links and understood the contempt the Bush administration has for its own citizens, the totalitarian tendency to torture foreigners comes as no great surprise.

K5

Oct 2005

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68 FBI Demands VOIP be subject to wire-tapping laws (link died, use cache)
"What the FBI has asked for, and what the FCC has to date given them, would require any new developer of a voice-based technology to submit their application for the FBI's approval before even one single person on the internet can try it,"
Back on topic...

Wired

Oct 2005

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69 American Torture, Religion and the Crusade of General William G. Boykin
Boykin and Bush clearly believe that the definition of moral goodness is the struggle against evil wherever it exists. In their minds, because they are waging a war against people they believe to be evil, their cause is by definition good, and is supported by God himself.
 

Irregular Times

2005

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70

Produce ID Or Go To Jail
The second cop said everyone had to show ID any time they were asked by the police, adding that if she were in a Wal-Mart and was asked by the police for ID, that she would have to show it there, too. She explained that she didn't have to show him or any other policeman my ID on a public bus or in a Wal-Mart. She told him she was simply trying to go to work.

Suddenly, the second policeman shouted "Grab her!" and he grabbed the cell phone from her and threw it to the back of the bus. With each of the policemen wrenching one of her arms behind her back, she was jerked out of her seat, the contents of her purse and book bag flying everywhere. The cops shoved her out of the bus, handcuffed her, threw her into the back seat of a police cruiser, and drove her to a police station inside the confines of the Denver Federal Center.

The two policemen sat in front of their computers, typing and conferring, trying to figure out what they should charge her with. Eventually, they wrote up several tickets, took her outside and removed the handcuffs, returned her belongings, and pointed her toward the bus stop. She was told that if she ever entered the Denver Federal Center again, she would go to jail.

This is the story of what happened when an ordinary citizen in an ordinary American city decided to challenge the illegal demands by the local police that bus passengers should produce ID on demand: AND SHE'S NOT EVEN "BROWN"

Deborah Davis Website "www.paperslease.org" - set up to publicise this specific incident in September 2005)

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Site was down when last tested (16 July 2006). Try it. Use cache if necessary

71

Are YOU considered an "Enemy of the State?" Don't be surprised...
According to a printout from a computer controlled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice, I am an enemy of the state.

The printout, shown to me recently by a friend who works for Justice, identifies me by a long, multi-digit number, lists my date of birth, place of birth, social security number and contains more than 100 pages documenting what the Bureau and the Bush Administration consider to be my threats to the security of the United States of America.
...
“Much of this information was gathered through what we call ‘national security letters,’” he said. “It allows us to gather information from a variety of sources.” A “national security letter” it turns out, can be issued by any FBI supervisor, without court order or judicial review, to compel libraries, banks, employers and other sources to turn over any and all information they have on American citizens.

The FBI issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year. When one is delivered to a bank, library, employer or other entity, the same federal law that authorizes such letters also prohibits your bank, employer or anyone else from telling you that they received such a letter and were forced to turn over all information on you.

This story illustrates one of the inevitable consequences of the ethically illicit and authoritarian USAPATRIOT act.

Can you feel them getting closer?

Doug Thompson Capitol Hill Blue

Nov 2005

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original site no longer holds the story, so I've redirected it to a mirror. Or you can use the cache.

72

Fascism Comes to the US: The Utah Rave Video
At around 11:00 I was enjoying the good vibes and great music. Then at about 11:30 pm a helicopter began circling the party. Out of nowhere huge semis filled with national guard, swat, and the police rolled up. Soldiers came out of the bushes and rushed down to the party. Carrying M-16s, Ak-47s, nightsticks, and tazers. They proceeded to attack random people and push their might around on people who had done nothing wrong.

...The soldiers proceeded to attack anyone with cameras or camcorders, obviously wanting to restrict the film that got out about it. This was not a legal attack, it was a blatant violation on our rights as American citizens. And the swat, police, politicians who authorized this, and the national guard knew this. That is why they were removing potential evidence.

The local storm-troopers raid a legal, licensed, insured Rave party without a warrant. Realising that they were being videod by people with cameras and mobile phones they tried to confiscate them to remove the evidence of their illegal raid.

Fortunately they didn't entirely succeed. This seems like a good time to mention Trusted Surveillance...

What Really Happened

23 Aug 2005

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73

World Prison Population List (pdf)
More than 8.75 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world, mostly as pre-trial detainees (remand prisoners) or having been convicted and sentenced. About half of these are in the United States (1.96m), Russia (0.92m) or China (1.43m plus pre-trial detainees and prisoners in ‘administrative detention’).

I've long been aware that the USA had the highest rate of incarcaration per capita. I hadn't realised that America also has the highest absolute number of prisoners. Think about that. The "Land of The Free" holds more prisoners in its jails than the world's largest dictatorship which has four times as many citizens. What's wrong with this picture?

fourth edition UK Home Office

2005

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74

Miami Police Take New Tack Against Terror

 

 

 

 

 

 

"People are definitely going to notice it," Fernandez said. "We want that shock. We want that awe. But at the same time, we don't want people to feel their rights are being threatened. We need them to be our eyes and ears."

>>>>>>

What, I think, is most disturbing about this story is the complete absence of criticism or opposition. (Even ACLU are apparently supporting it - which makes me wonder, who the hell am I to complain? Perhaps - as suggested by one of the respondents to that ACLU comment thread - Miami is so bad that random shows of intimidating force by the local constabulary is actually a good idea!) What it entails is that every couple of weeks, the Miami swat teams or whatever, will do a mock lockdown of a bank - without warning and with its complement of customers inside. They will all be forced to show ID (again) and then given a pep talk or brochure about being vigilant and looking out for terrorists.
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THEY'LL HAVE JUST TERRORISED A FEW DOZEN OF THEIR OWN CITIZENS FERCHRISSAKES! And they really don't seem to get the irony! Things like this illustrate that the spirit of the American people is, if not yet broken, then certainly buckling.

If you think that a good case can be made for this behaviour then, please, try to Persuade me. If you do, I'll amend or even remove the link. (That goes for any of the stories on the page).

Associated Press

Nov 2005

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75

The FBI Pamphlet - Who's a Terrorist?
Domestic Terrorism is defined as "Groups or individuals operating entirely inside the US, attempting to influence the US Government or population to effect political or social change by engaging in criminal activity"

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Note the open ended definition. "Terrorism" is any attempt to effect political or social change using "criminal activity". Chances are you've already read my Terrorism article which discusses the dishonest and delusional behaviour involved in the pathetic international attempts at defining terrorism, but the Americans do take the biscuit. As you will see from the linked article, included on the "watch list" of suspected terrorists are:

"defenders" of US Constitution against Federal Government and the UN

those who: Make numerous references to US Constitution

or campaign for Animal Rights

and, just in case we miss anyone: Lone Individuals

FBI

Undated. I found it late 2005

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76

The Surveillance Society Quietly Moves In
Governmental and law-enforcement agencies and MATRIX contractors across the nation will gain extensive and unprecedented access to financial records, medical records, court records, voter registration, travel history, group and religious affiliations, names and addresses of family members, purchases made and books read.

This is just one of 25 stories on that page featuring the "Top 25 Censored Stories of 2006 - a "must read".

Project Censored

Jan 2006

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77

Domestic Military Intelligence Is Back
Since 9/11, functions that were previously intended to protect U.S. forces overseas from terrorism and protecti U.S. secrets from spies have been combined in one super-intelligence function that constitutes the greatest threat to U.S. civil liberties since the domestic spying days of the 1970's.

Ask questions of a military person about their tour in Iraq, protest about the presence of military recruiters on campus or at the Mall, engage in lawful protest against the Iraq war, and you could find yourself in the Cornerstone database, forever a "suspect."

Read his follow up stories as well. The man is keeping a well informed finger on the pulse.

William Arkin - Washington Post

Nov 2005

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78

Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity
"We are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in America. This is a huge leap without even a [congressional] hearing," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a recent interview

Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said the data-sharing amendment would still give the Pentagon much greater access to the FBI's massive collection of data, including information on citizens not connected to terrorism or espionage. The measure, she said, "removes one of the few existing privacy protections against the creation of secret dossiers on Americans by government intelligence agencies." She said the Pentagon's "intelligence agencies are quietly expanding their domestic presence without any public debate."

And still they slept on...

Washington Post

Nov 2005

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(may require registration)

79 Marquette Dental Student Suspended Over Blog Posts
This - for a change - is not the State acting as a Bully. This is a college meting out a ridiculous punishment for a trivial offence and conducting themselves like a nineteenth century patriarchy. I include it not because it is a particularly ghastly example of repression but because it demonstrates the "trickle down" effect. When you have a State that behaves like a tyrant, the junior authorities below it treat it as a perfect role model.

Marquette Warrior

Dec 06 2005

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80

Al Gore "Constitution In Grave Danger"
"As we begin this new year, the Executive Branch of our government has been caught eavesdropping on huge numbers of American citizens and has brazenly declared that it has the unilateral right to continue without regard to the established law enacted by Congress to prevent such abuses.

It is imperative that respect for the rule of law be restored."

and later:

This Administration has come to power in the thrall of a legal theory that aims to convince us that this excessive concentration of presidential authority is exactly what our Constitution intended.

>>>>>

 

 

The Dean of Yale Law School, Harold Koh, said after analyzing the Executive Branch's claims of these previously unrecognized powers: "If the President has commander-in-chief power to commit torture, he has the power to commit genocide, to sanction slavery, to promote apartheid, to license summary execution."

 

Gold Dust!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


When even former presidential candidates stick their heads above the parapet, you know things are getting serious. This next extract, though, is the sign that middle America - or at least one tiny but important part of it - may at last be beginning to wake up:
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quite. Now, what are you going to do about it?

widely published. This version from Information Clearing House

Jan 16 2006

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81

National Security Agency Whistleblower Warns Domestic Spying Program Is Sign the U.S. is Decaying Into a “Police State”
Former NSA intelligence agent Russell Tice condemns reports that the Agency has been engaged in eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without court warrants. Tice has volunteered to testify before Congress about illegal black ops programs at the NSA. Tice said, “The freedom of the American people cannot be protected when our constitutional liberties are ignored and our nation has decayed into a police state."

Follows on from the Gore story above

Democracy Now

Jan 2006

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82

Bush declares war on freedom of the press
Bush recently directed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to use "whatever means at your disposal" to wiretap, follow, harass and investigate journalists who have published stories about the administration's illegal use of warrantless wiretaps, use of faulty intelligence and anything else he deems "detrimental to the war on terror."

I haven't found corroboration for this story (yet) but it is from a reasonably reputable source. If true, it marks a new low.

Capitol Hill Blue

Mar 2006

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83

Police Station Intimidation-Parts 1 and 2

 

 

 

(Lauderhill P.D.
tester: Yeah, I wanted to find out how to file a complaint against an officer. I just want to find out how you do it. Do you guys have a form or something that I could take with me.
officer: Well, you got to tell me first, and then I got to hear what's going on. You've got to tell me what the complaint is.
tester: Do you have a complaint form that I can, like, fill out or something like that?
officer: Might not be a legitimate complaint.
tester: Who decides that?
officer: I'm trying to help you.
tester: Like, if there's a form, why can't I just take it and leave, right?
officer: No, you don't leave with forms. You tell me what happened, and then I help you from there. Do you have I-D on?
tester: Why?
officer: You know what? You need to leave.
tester: Why?
officer: I'm going to tell you one more time, because I can't do this anymore with you, okay. You're refusing to tell me what you want to do, okay. You're refusing to tell me who's involved, where it happened, what transpired. You'e not cooperating iwth me one bit.
tester: I was just asking if you guys have a complaint form, like if there's some way for me --
officer: Out of my way.
tester: To contact Internal Affairs.
officer: You can do whatever the hell you want. It's a free country.
man" You're cursing at me.
officer: Where do you live? Where do you live? You have to tell me where you live, what your name is, or anything like that.
tester: For a complaint? I mean, like, if I have --
officer: Are you on medications?
tester: Why would you ask me something like that?
officer: Because you're not answering any of my questions.
tester: Am I on medications?
officer: I asked you. It's a free country. I can ask you that.
tester: Okay, you're right.
officer: So you're not going to tell me who you are, you're not going to tell me what the problem is.You're not going to identify yourself.
tester: All I asked you was, like, how do I contact --
officer: You said you have a complaint. You say my officers are acting in an inappropriate manner.
officer: So leave now. Leave now. Leave now.
tester: I'm not doing anything wrong.
officer: Neither am I. It's a free country.
officer: I'm not in your face. I'm standing on the sidewalk. It's a free country. One more step forward, and you'll see what happens. Take one more step forward.)

The local TV station sent out reporters with hidden cameras to ask at 38 local police stations whether they had a form available with which to register a formal complaint against a police officer. Only 3 complied, the majority of the rest became agressive, abusive and intimidating. A classic example of the need for Trusted Surveillance. Here's a sample transcript:
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cbs4

Feb 2006

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    Links Below Added April 15 2006  
84

The Court-Martial Of Willie Brand


 

 

 

 

 

 

A man named Habibullah and a cab driver called Dilawar died only days after they had been brought in on suspicion of being Taliban fighters.

>>>>>

 

 

 

 

"I didn’t understand how they could do this after they had trained you to do this stuff and they turn around and say you’ve been bad you shouldn’t have done this stuff now they’re going to charge you with assault, maiming and 'unvoluntary' manslaughter, how can this be when they trained you to do it and they condoned it while you were doing it"

>>>>>

(This story is important - amongst other things - because this is the first time on this page that I've been able to link to a mainstream TV News organisation to tell the story. A sign, I hope, that the worm is beginning to turn...)

Former Powell Aide Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson claims that Authorization for (Afghan) torture came from “the very top”. This adds to the growing pile of evidence in the public domain that confirms that illegal methods, amounting to war crimes, are being fostered and endorsed by the leaders of the American regime. It is truly remarkable that a story like this can be aired on a mainstream network without producing riots in the streets!
<<<<<

 

 

which would have remained hidden, had someone not leaked their story. This has forced the administration to find a scapegoat - which is what the show trial is all about. The American victim (Willie Brand) is of no more consequence to the real murderers than the Afghani victims. Hence his bemused response:
<<<<<

 

 

 

 

 

How indeed? And how long will American soldiers, who are mostly honourable men and women, continue to do the dirty work for their corrupt Government? Time, I think, they were all given personal copies of "Sir! No Sir"

CBS News

March 5 2006

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85

The War on Academic Freedom
Pipes is notorious in the academy for calling fundamentalist Muslims "barbarians" and "potential killers" in a 2001 National Review article and accusing them of scheming to "replace the [US] Constitution with the Koran," in a similar piece in Insight on the News. Along these lines, a 1990 National Review article insisted that "Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene.... All immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most."

Another late discovery (for me that is). It is a detailed attack on those who accuse anyone who dares to criticise Israel of being an anti-semite. As many of the prominent critics are Jewish this charge tends to fall flat. And given that these alleged anti-semites are simultaneously being attacked for showing some sympathy for the Arabs - who are also semites - the whole meme is deeply rooted in woeful ignorance. (So what's new?) Chief target in the author's sites is Daniel Pipes

The Nation

November 2002

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86

Former White House Drug Smuggler Negroponte Made Head of American Intelligence
Cele Castillo made headlines in the 1980's for exposing illegal government-sponsored cocaine trafficking. Although the responsible parties were never brought to justice, Castillo is still speaking out loud and strong in order to save his country.

Castillo also fingered John Negroponte, now in the Bush administration and who served from 1981-1985 as U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, as just another drug smuggler covering up the illegal government activity as well as illegally assisting the contra war and helping the Reagan administration in the disappearance of more than 300 political opponents in classic death squad fashion.

"In Honduras, I saw first hand how Negroponte and General Alvarez committed some of the worst human rights violations ever committed against humanity in the Western Hemisphere" said Castillo, adding in 1994, the Honduran Human Rights Commission charged Negroponte personally with several human rights abuses.

"Today, President Bush has named Negroponte, as headhunter, Director of National Intelligence. He is now in charge of all intelligence including the Pentagon. God help us in saving our world."

This policy must, presumably, be based on the adage "set a thief to catch a thief..."

Arctic Beacon

Mar 2006

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87 Sandra Day O'Connor Warns Of US Dictatorship

"It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."
The significance of this story is its source rather than its content. For those who weren't already aware, Ms O'Connor is a recently retired US Supreme Court Justice and a Republican to boot.

RAW STORY republished by the Guardian

March 2006

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88

Paramilitary Policing in the Drug War
Within seconds shots rang out, and within moments it was clear that the team had secured its objective and killed its target. Was it a bank robber holed up for a desperate last stand? Was it a psychotic kidnapper barricaded with his hostages? Was it a tweaked-out ex-con with a grudge and an AK-47? Was it a foreign terrorist operative about to blow a landmark to smithereens? No. It was a 22-year-old bar tender who police had heard might be retailing small amounts of marijuana.

While the Sunrise incident was unusual in that it ended up with a young man dead, fatal outcomes are bound to happen when the aggressive tactics of SWAT are employed. There are numerous examples: Eleven-year-old Alberto Sepulveda killed by a SWAT team shotgun blast as he lay on the floor during a 2001 Modesto, California, drug raid. Alberta Spruille, a 57-year-old New York City woman who died of a heart attack after a SWAT team with the wrong address threw flash bang grenades into her apartment. John Adams, a 64-year-old Lebanon, Tennessee, man killed by a SWAT team when he picked up a shotgun to defend himself and his wife from masked invaders who kicked down his door in the middle of the night -- another case of the wrong address. And on and on.

Even if we accepted the basis for the illegality of Marijuana, which we don't, one must ask if these macho imbeciles have ever heard of "Proportionality" - or come to that - whether they could spell it.

Stop The Drug War

March 2006

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89

The name of the murder victim described above? Anthony Diotaiuto

next-door neighbor Rudy Strauss told the Sun-Sentinel he and his wife were awake when the raid occurred and heard the crash of Diotauito's door being smashed in, but heard no yelling announcing the presence of police. There were no words spoken outside, he said, adding that he and his wife watched the raid unfold from their window. "I heard this loud bang, and I saw a flash," Strauss said Tuesday. "I never heard them say 'Police.' If somebody were pounding on the door, I would definitely hear that, or if they yelled, 'Police, police!'"

Reviewing this story prompted this blog, so I wont repeat it all here. The gist is that this "police homicide" was a far more egregious and disproportionate act than the killing of Jean Charles De Menezes. Yet the media and judicial treatment of the cases is dramatically different. It is unlikely that - until you came across his name here - that you've ever heard of Anthony Diotaiuto and equally unlikely that you haven't heard about the Menezes case. Why is that?

Stop the Drug War

December 2005

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90

Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement (to talk to Congress)
When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers.


This story is an obvious partner to the one below.
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Who needs democratic oversight and accountability anyway? Only democrats, so that's all right then...

Boston.com

March 2006

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91

Bush’s Bogus Theory of Absolute Power
One of the starkest statements of this theory came in the confidential August 2002 Justice Department/White House memo justifying torture. That memo revealed, “In light of the president’s complete authority over the conduct of war, without a clear statement otherwise, criminal statutes are not read as infringing on the president’s ultimate authority in these areas.” And even if Congress did try to explicitly restrain executive power, any such law would be unconstitutional because of the inherent power vested in the presidency, according to the memo

and, following on from that...
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Lew Rockwell

April 2006

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92 Total Information Awareness
I have no external link to this as I came across it in our ST911 forum. It is a "powerpoint" outline (in pdf form) of DARPA's proposed Surveillance network uber America. As you can see from the date, it precedes the newspeak change of title to "Terrorism Information Awareness" made necessary by one of the rare public outcries against the ongoing war against American liberty.

DARPA

2002

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    Links Below Added 13 July 2006  
93

Brutalized & Arrested in Cleveland for Posting "Bush Step Down" Posters
"Ma'am! Hundred dollar fine unless you take those posters down." He is pursuing me across the street. Damn! OK fine, I say, I will take them down (not wanting to get into a confrontation, because I have lots to do today!) But this too is not enough for the cop. He wants my ID. I say I dont have my ID. He grabs my arm. I say let go of me, I am not doing anything wrong, I will take the posters down. People are watching to see what happens, are outraged but very afraid. The cop wont let go, he clearly wants more grief from me, and he is in the spotlight. He wants people to be scared. He pushes me against a store window and next thing I know I am face down on the sidewalk with two cops on top of me, one with his knee in my back. I am trying to call out to people, to tell them what the posters are about. They keep pushing my face into the sidewalk. I cant breathe.

I have osteoradionecrosis in my jaw, resulting from radiation treatments for cancer. My jawbone is slowly deteriorating, is very fragile, and doesnt heal well. I am 53 years old, not exactly a spring chicken. A hand comes down again to push my chin against the concrete. By this time there are four cops on the scene. My hands are tightly cuffed behind my back. They lift me up and shove me onto a parkbench and shackle my legs. I am still calling out, telling people what this is about. One of the cops says to me, "Shut up or I will kill you!", "I am sick of this anti-Bush shit!" "You are definitely going to the psyche ward." Then somebody calls the EMS, and a fire squad shows up. The cop superviser appears and puts his finger in my face: "I dont like it when people treat my men like this and if you don't obey the law you will suffer the consequences."

There are two interesting angles to this story. First and obviously most important is the clear example of further State repression of freedom of expression. (Carol was incarcarated for her "assaults" on two armed cops about twice her size and weight and less than half her age. Her real "crime"? Flyposting anti-Bush posters). But the second angle is also interesting. Do a google for "Carol Fisher" arrested jailed and (as you'll see if you click on that link) you'll get a few hundred hits. I've checked the first 6 pages. Not a single mention in the mainstream media. Not one. This is a revealing example both of how badly let down the general public are by the "fourth estate" but also how the web is making it possible for us to bypass their self imposed censorship.

Carol Fisher's personal account - "The World Can't Wait"

Feb 2006

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94

If you think Bush is Guilty of War Crimes, you are Delusional.
On April 28, after a 5-day trial, Carol Fisher was found guilty of 2 counts of assault on police officers for posting a sign on a telephone pole announcing World Can't Wait's protests against Bush's State of the Union address. She faces a possible 3 years in prison and a mandatory psych exam.

In a hastily called hearing on May 10, Judge McGinty made a highly unusual decision to force Carol to undergo a state psychological exam as part of her pre-sentencing investigation. From the start of Carol's case, the judge has said that she must have mental problems for resisting an unlawful and brutal encounter with Cleveland Heights police.

Terry Gilbert, one of Carol's attorneys said, "This is Gulag stuff--saying that people who are dissidents are crazy." He said that in his 33 years of practicing law, he has never seen anything like this.

 

Daily Kos further coverage of the Carol Fisher Story

May 2006

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95

 

International Commission of Inquiry On Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration
Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, testified on the use of horrible forms of torture by the US’s “Coalition of Willing” and declared, in a solemn moment, “I’d rather die than have someone tortured to save my life.” Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, the former commander of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, described a high-ranking general demanding that Iraqi prisoners be “treated like dogs.” The testimony of former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter described in detail how the administration had full knowledge that Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction and posed no threat to the US, laying bare the lies used to justify the war of aggression on Iraq.

Speaking of "War Crimes"... I trust you've heard about the
<<<<<

who have released their "Preliminary findings" (pdf)

Bushcommission.org

April 2006

Cached (pdf)

96

US Government Routinely Using "State Security" to avoid Prosecution
Are there any legal limits to what the executive branch can do in the name of national security, or is it anything goes?In separate federal lawsuits challenging the warrantless surveillance of American citizens, the Bush administration argues that courts must dismiss cases claiming that the National Security Agency has broken the law because those claims implicate "state secrets."

One of the examples they mention is the infamous case of Khaled El-Masri

Khaled El-Masri was abducted, sodomized and beaten over five months of detention at the hands of CIA agents or their operatives. Eventually, the government realized it had kidnapped the wrong person and, luckily, released him. El-Masri sued the head of the CIA, claiming the agency authorized his kidnapping and torture as part of the U.S. "rendition program." Though German prosecutors back up El-Masri's story and though the United States has admitted and lauded the practice of rendition, the government successfully moved to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds of state secrets.

This is another of the classic indicators of a Police State. When caught in clear breach of the laws, they plead that they can't be prosecuted because their defence would involve the exposure of State Secrets. Given that it is trivially simple (in State terms) to organise "in camera" courts with specially sworn Juries, such claims reveal nothing but the true motives and mindset of the potential dictators involved

Wired

June2006

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97

 

'They beat me from all sides'
"I heard the door being closed," says el-Masri. "And then they beat me from all sides, from everywhere, with hands and feet. With knives or scissors they took away my clothes. In silence. The beating, I think, was just to humiliate me, to hurt me, to make me afraid, to make me silent. They stripped me naked. I was terrified. They tried to take off my pants. I tried to stop them so they beat me again. And when I was naked I heard a camera." El-Masri breaks down as he recalls the moment when the men carried out an intrusive anal search.

Here is a more complete coverage of El-Masri's "Rendition":

Guardian

Jan 2005

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98 Federal Court Strikes Down Tax Funding of Iowa (Evangelical Christian) Prison Program


“For all practical purposes, the state has literally established an Evangelical Christian congregation within the walls of one its penal institutions, giving the leaders of that congregation, i.e., InnerChange employees, authority to control the spiritual, emotional, and physical lives of hundreds of Iowa inmates,”
Of course, the good news here is that the court hasn' t let them get away with it. But consider the mindset it reveals; not to mention the exploitation of a "captive audience"...
This is what the Judge had to say about it:
<<<<<

Americans United For Separation of Church & State

June 2006

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99

Busted for wearing a peace T-shirt; has this country gone completely insane?

>>>>>

 

 

"You can't be in here protesting," Officer Adkins said, pointing to my Veterans For Peace shirt.
"Well, I'm not protesting, I'm having a cup of coffee," I returned, thinking that logic would convince Adkins to go back to his earlier duties of guarding against serious terrorists. Flipping his badge open, he said, "No, not with that shirt. You're protesting and you have to go."

 


The answer would seem to be "Yes" (note the similarities between this kind of story and the Carol Fisher disgrace above. Not just the repression of dissidence but also the complete absence of mainstream media coverage)
<<<<<

Online Journal

July 2006

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Links below added October 04 2006
 
100

Bush's Mysterious 'New Programs'

The Pentagon plan also includes a strategy for taking over the Internet and controlling the flow of information, viewing the Web as a potential military adversary. The “roadmap” speaks of “fighting the net,” and implies that the Internet is the equivalent of “an enemy weapons system.”

Better late than never. (this should have gone up months ago)

Lots of juicy tidbits on this one but that's the extract that chilled my blood...

Consortiumnews.com

Feb 2006

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101

Schneier on Security - "REAL ID"

"The United States is getting a national ID card. The REAL ID Act (text of the bill and the Congressional Research Services analysis of the bill) establishes uniform standards for state driver's licenses, effectively creating a national ID card. It's a bad idea, and is going to make us all less safe. It's also very expensive. And it's all happening without any serious debate in Congress."

"Is there anyone who would feel safer under this kind of police state?"

Bruce Schneier is one of the few people I look up to on this planet. If you want to understand security, start reading his stuff. If you want to understand just how incompetent government can be, start reading his stuff.

Bruce Schneier Blog

May 2006

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102

Top 10 Signs of the Impending U.S. Police State

1. The Internet Clampdown
2. "The Long War"
3. The USA PATRIOT Act
4. Prison Camps
5. Touchscreen Voting Machines
6. Signing Statements
7. Warrantless Wiretapping
8. Free Speech Zones
9. High-ranking Whistleblowers
10. The CIA Shakeup

Meant to include this in the last update. Alternet's useful summary of the situation.

Alternet

May 2006

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103

America: From Freedom to Fascism

Wikipedia Summary of the Aaron Russo Movie

"This documentary covers many subjects, all specific to America, including: the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), income tax, the Federal Reserve System, national ID cards (REAL ID Act), human-implanted RFID tags (Spychips), Diebold electric voting machines,[2] globalization, the possibility of America becoming a police state, Big Brother, and the alleged use of terrorism by government as a means to diminish the citizens' rights."

CBS critic Todd David Schwartz called the film "The scariest damn film you'll see this year. It will leave you staggering out of the theater, slack-jawed and trembling. Makes 'Fahrenheit 9/11' look like 'Bambi.' After watching this movie, your comfy, secure notions about America – and about what it means to be an American – will be forever shattered."

When are they showing this in the UK is what I want to know. (eventually found it online see link below)

Wikipedia

June2006

104

Can Journalists Be Prosecuted for Receiving Classified Information?

"The reason we know about warrantless eavesdropping or secret prisons in Eastern Europe or the use of torture is because the media has found out about it and reported it. And this administration is intent upon criminalizing investigative journalism, by creating a way to put journalists in prison, for the first time in a long, long time in our country, who report on what the government is doing in secret."

In August, a federal judge ruled private citizens could be prosecuted if the government decides they have received or disclosed information harmful to national security. Now, when a case like that goes to court, I would have no objection if the Jury decided not just whether or not a technical offence (the transfer of sensitive information) had taken place but also whether any real or potential harm had been done. That would be appropriate in a democracy. As you may have guessed, however, the Jury will only be allowed to decide whether or not the transfer took place. The oligarchy retains the exclusive right to decide whether or not the event was potentially harmful.

Democracy Now

August 2006

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105 INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES AND THE RIGHTS OF AMERICANS

MAJOR FINDING
"The Committee finds that covert action programs have been used to disrupt the lawful political activities of individual Americans and groups and to discredit them, using dangerous and degrading tactics which are abhorrent in a free and decent society.

Subfindings

(a) Although the claimed purposes of these action programs were to protect the national security and to prevent violence, many of the victims were concededly nonviolent, were not controlled by a foreign power, and posed no threat to the national security.

(b) The acts taken interfered with the First Amendment rights of citizens. They were explicitly intended to deter citizens from joining groups, "neutralize" those who were already members, and prevent or inhibit the expression of ideas.

(c) The tactics used against Americans often risked and sometimes caused serious emotional, economic, or physical damage. Actions were taken which were designed to break up marriages, terminate funding or employment, and encourage gang warfare between violent rival groups. Due process of law forbids the use of such covert tactics, whether the victims are innocent law-abiding citizens or members of groups suspected of involvement in violence.

(d) The sustained use of such tactics by the FBI in an attempt to destroy Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., violated the law and fundamental human decency.

Elaboration of the Findings

For fifteen years from 1956 until 1971, the FBI carried out a series of covert action programs directed against American citizens. 1 These "counterintelligence programs" (shortened to the acronym COINTELPRO) resulted in part from frustration with Supreme Court rulings limiting the Government's power to proceed overtly against dissident groups.

Spot any uncomfortable parallels?

I picked this gem up as an external link from the Wiki page for Cointelpro (which is what you'll land on if you follow that headline link - it's well worth reading in its own right)

One has to wonder how long it will be before we read the equivalent report from a Senate Committee describing the illegal, destructive and unethical policies and practices of the present phase of the Police State.

Special Select Committee of the US Senate

April 1976

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106

Bush Passes Law To Pardon Himself (Youtube video extract)

"Under the war crimes act, violations of the Geneva Convention are felonies; in some cases punishable by death. When the Supreme Court ruled that the Geneva Conventions apply to Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees, President Bush and his boys were suddenly in big trouble. They'd been working these prisoners over pretty good. In an effort to avoid possible prosecutions, they're trying to cram this bill through congress before the end of the week when congress adjourns. The reason there is such a rush to do this? If the Democrats get control of the house in November, well this kind of legislation probably wouldn't pass."

It is difficult to imagine a more cynical and cowardly example of naked self interest. This is the Police State at its most poisonously corrupt.

And, yet another example of mainstream ignorance. I am staggered that I first heard about this from "Stop The Lie". I then googled "Military Commissions Act" "retroactive immunity" and not a single mainstream source came up in the first 10 pages.

Stop The Lie

Sept 2006

107

ACLU Letter to the Senate Strongly Urging Opposition to the Military Commissions Act of 2006(MCA)

"The American Civil Liberties Union strongly urges you to oppose S. 3930, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, unless amended to ensure that:

* the President will have no authority to authorize any of the acts prohibited by Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and the Army Field Manual on Interrogations, which reinforces the Common Article 3 prohibitions;

* the courts are not stripped of their historical and constitutional role as a check on the Executive Branch, in ensuring that the protections of the Constitution and Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions are enforced;

* government officials who authorized or ordered illegal acts of torture and abuse will not receive retroactive immunity;

* no one can be convicted on the basis of evidence that was literally beaten out of a witness or obtained through other abuse by either the federal government or by countries such as Syria, Jordan, or Egypt that tortured and abused persons sent to them by the federal government;

* at minimum, those acts which violate the McCain anti-torture amendment remain criminal acts under the War Crimes Act."

a less polemical and more detailed critique of the same. It is truly shocking and shameful that in 21st century America, there has to be a political campaign against giving officials retroactive immunity to those who have ordered illegal torture. Quite incredible.

There are, of course, dozens of stories about this particular Orwellism but most - like PrisonPlanet's offering "Bush Given Authority To Sexually Torture American Children" are so OTT that, though entertaining, we can't take them seriously. Nevertheless, follow that link and you'll see it's a google for that exact title and that it alone gets 17,600 hits. So many people obviously DO take it seriously! At the very least that provides some evidence of the febrile atmosphere developing.

The pot is beginning to simmer...

(update March 1 2007: now isn't that interesting. I just checked that link and it's dropped from 17,600 to 1,090. Did 16,510 people remove their web pages or clear them of references to this story in just 6 months?)

ACLU

Sept 2006

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108

The Antifederalists Were Right

"Antifederalists opposed the Constitution on the grounds that its checks on federal power would be undermined by expansive interpretations of promoting the "general welfare" (which would be claimed for every law) and the "all laws necessary and proper" clause (which would be used to override limits on delegated federal powers), creating a federal government with unwarranted and undelegated powers that were bound to be abused."

I had to include this one because it marks the anniversary of the first recorded warning of the Police State (although the term didn't exist back then) viz the publication on Sept 27 1789 of the "Antifederalist Papers". They clearly perceived the weaknesses in the American Constitution and how those weaknesses would be abused to produce the situation we see today.

Ludwig Von Mises Institute

Sept 2006

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109

U.S. gets ‘Sovietized’ (adopts Soviet style prison regime)

"We have seen America’s president and vice president, sworn to uphold the Constitution, advocating some of the same interrogation techniques the KGB used at the Lubyanka. They apparently believe beating, freezing, sleep deprivation and near-drowning are necessary to prevent terrorist attacks. So did Stalin."

 

Toronto Sun

Sept 2006

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Links below added Nov 2006

 
110

1965 Anti-Pornography Propaganda film

Commissioned, performed and paid for by Citizens for Decent Literature Inc.

 

Who said the Police State couldn't be fun?

This is even funnier than "Reefer Madness" and even more revealing of the psychology of the religious control freak. It also tells us something quite profound about middle America in the '60s.

The concerned Christians who put their heart and soul into this masterpiece clearly believed there was a significant audience for this message. They announce in horrified terms that "15 Million " (of these lascivious magazines) are sold each week and I'm guessing that they understand, that this implies somewhere between 5 and 10 million buyers. And they believe they live in a democracy - a perverted one, but a democracy nevertheless. So they obviously had reason to believe that more than 10 million Americans would be at least as horrified as they were by the shocking revelations herein. I'm guessing they were right.

Best watched from behind the sofa.

(Update March 2007: just stumbled across this - related - brilliant bit of French social engineering propaganda from 1844(Cached). It's a long and deranged tradition!)

YouTube

June 2006

111

Vote Democrat and Die
from video script; a short series of captions

“What is yet to come will be even greater”-Osama Bin Laden, Al Jazeera, 12/26/01

“With God’s permission we call on everyone who believes in God…to comply with His will to kill the Americans.”-Osama Bin Laden (The World Islamic Front, Fatwa, 2/23/98)

[Text Fades: “kill the Americans”]

“They will not come to their senses unless the attacks fall on their heads and…until the battle has moved inside America.” -Osama Bin Laden (Interview, Al-Jazeera, 10/21/01)

[Text Fades: “inside America.”]

“We sent our people to Moscow, to Tashkent, to other central Asian states, and they negotiated. And we purchased some suitcase bombs.” -Ayman Al-Zawahiri (“Al Qaeda: We Bought Nuke Cases,” [New York] Daily News, 3/22/04)

[Text Fades: “suitcase bombs.”]

“Our message is clear—what you saw in New York and Washington and what you are seeing in Afghanistan and Iraq, all these are nothing compared to what you will see next.” -Ayman Al-Zawahiri (“Al Qaeda Threatens More UK, U.S. Attacks,” CNN.com, 8/4/05)

[Text Fades: “nothing compared to what you will see next.”]

“What is yet to come will be even greater”

These Are The Stakes. Vote November 7th.

www.GOP.com

If you haven't already watched the 1965 Anti Porn Propaganda clip detailed above, go and watch that now. If you have, you can no doubt see the connection - what it reveals about what they think we think...

These two are examples of the attempted thought control which is an important component of Totalitarianism. As such they help to illustrate the distinction between simple authoritarianism - which most governments are guilty of - and Totatilatarianism, which, as well as over-controlling your actions seeks also to control your mind. I think its fair, by now, to argue that the American regime has crossed that line. It clearly isn't succeeding as well as it would wish to (in controlling our thoughts) but the intent is stunningly overt.

Outside The Beltway

October 2006

Cached (avi)

(converted flv)

 

112

Vegemite Banned

THE US has banned Vegemite, even to the point of searching Australians for jars of the spread when they enter the country.

The bizarre crackdown was prompted because Vegemite has been deemed illegal under US food laws.

This is so ludicrous that it may appear frivolous to include it. Especially after that previous item. But think about what it means when a government has so much control that it can get away with such trivial micro-management.

For the uninitiated, Vegemite is the inferior Australian version of the British original - Marmite. (That should get the hate mail started) If you don't know what either is, you're probably American. They seem to have a genetic aversion to it. It's an inoccous rather delightful yeast based "spread". Delicious (but too much salt.). Chemical or Biological threat, it aint.

News.com.au

October 2006

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113

Abdelhaleem Ashqar - Another Sami Al Arian?

Ashqar was an assistant professor at Howard until 2003, when the university declined to renew his contract. That year, he was again jailed for refusing to testify before a grand jury in Chicago.

Looks extremely similar to me. If you haven't already read it, you might find my article on Terrorism relevant. He is clearly "guilty" of supporting the aims of Hamas - but there is no evidence that he has participated in their lethal activities. Isn't that pretty close to what I'm doing in my blog? When, I wonder, can I expect the jack boots to come kicking in my door?

Washington Post

October 2006

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114

Bush Moves Toward Martial Law

In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law

...Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."

...The law also facilitates militarized police round-ups and detention of protesters, so called "illegal aliens," "potential terrorists" and other "undesirables" for detention in facilities already contracted for and under construction by Halliburton. That's right. Under the cover of a trumped-up "immigration emergency" and the frenzied militarization of the southern border, detention camps are being constructed right under our noses, camps designed for anyone who resists the foreign and domestic agenda of the Bush administration.

He snuck this one in while everyone's attention was drawn by the almost equally horrendous MCA discussed above

Information Liberation

October 2006

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115 Copy-control Senator sleeps while fair-use rights burn

Picture a future where distributing Linux is a crime punishable by a hefty fine and a prison sentence. If that sounds ridiculous, then you haven't run into the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act. It's the very latest - and most bizarre - word in political back-scratching from one of South Carolina's U.S. senators. And he'd rather not talk about it, thank you very much.

As is often the case, The Register has the most relevant and concise analysis.

The Register

October 2006

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116

They Covered up the Torture in Vietnam too...

Documents show troops who reported abuse in Vietnam were discredited even as the military was finding evidence of worse.

The accounts of torture and the Army's effort to discredit Herbert emerged from a review of a once-secret Pentagon archive.

quel surprise.

Of course, the Generals running the show today cut their teeth in Vietnam. Like father like son?

Obey

October 2006

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117

America's Slide to Totalitarianism

Bush will have the authority to send American young men and women to war wherever he chooses; he will have the power to spy on anyone he wants; he could imprison citizens and non-citizens alike under the Military Commissions Act while denying the detainees the right to file motions with civilian courts; he could order harsh interrogations which could then be used to convict defendants (assuming they are ever brought before one of his hand-picked tribunals for trial, conviction and execution); he could ignore or reinterpret any laws that he doesn’t like; he would have rubber-stamps in Congress and very soon in the U.S. Supreme Court; he and his potential successors would be, in effect, dictators.

Can't disagree with a word he says. Despite which, I still argued in favour of a Republican victory in the November polls, for reasons I spelt out in my blog.

Robert Parry at Consortium News

Nov 6 2006

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    Links Below Added 13 December 2006  
118

Freedom To Fascism

Aaron Russo's tour de force documentary is available, free, online by following that link to google video. (See also the wiki entry above)

This polemic documentary is so important that I have blogged it. It finally made me understand the basis of Irwin Schiff's case against the illegal taxation of millions of American wage-earners. It is fascinating to watch both Democrat and Republican politicians squirm to avoid answering the relevant questions.

Google Video

Oct 2006

(no cache - haven't figured out how to capture google videos yet - Suggestions?)

119

Keith Olbermann Proves That Dissent Has An Audience

...the story about the Military Commissions Act -- which the Times never named -- was buried in a 750-word piece on page A20. "It is a rare occasion when a President can sign a bill he knows will save American lives" was the first of several quotes of praise from the President that were high up in the article. Further down, a few Democrats objected to the bill, but from the article's limited explanation of the law it was hard to understand why.

But if you happened to catch MSNBC the evening before, you'd have heard a different story. It, too, began with a laudatory statement from the President: "These military commissions are lawful. They are fair. And they are necessary." Cut to MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann: "And they also permit the detention of any American in jail without trial if the president does not like him."

At last! A good news story! He isn't, of course, the first to "say it like it is". But he is one of the first to be attracting serious attention. His success is being parallelled by the growth is support for Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" which has now become the main news source for young thinking Americans who haven't bought into the Fox News fantasy. As many of them now rely on Stewart for the news as favour the mainstream alternatives. Not as daft as it may sound - as this Indiana University study found:

Julia R. Fox[no relation], assistant professor of telecommunications at Indiana University isn't joking when she says the popular "fake news" program, which last week featured Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as a guest, is just as substantive as network coverage.

The difference is that while Stewart is straightforward (and very welcome) satire, Olbermann's approach is reasonably serious investigative analysis.

Another faint sign of turning worms?

Alternet

Dec 2006

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120

Gingrich wants to restrict freedom of speech?

"My view is that either before we lose a city, or if we are truly stupid after we lose a city, we will adopt rules of engagement that we use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the Internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us, to stop them from recruiting people before they get to reach out and convince young people to destroy their lives while destroying us."

“I want to suggest to you that we right now should be impaneling people to look seriously at a level of supervision that we would never dream of, if it were not for the scale of this threat.”

“This is a serious, long-term war,” Gingrich added, “and it will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country. It will lead us to learn how to close down every Web site that is dangerous.”

 

And this is one of the Keith Olbermann stories being raved about above. Those on the left are all genuine quotes made by Newt Gingrich in an address (you're not going to believe this) - in an address to the annual Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment Award Dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Oberlmann interviewed Jonathan Turley, constitutional law expert, on whether it was remotely possible that imbeciles like Gingrich could actually succeed. Turley's verdict:

...this really could happen. I mean, the fact is that the First Amendment is an abstraction, and when you put up against it the idea of incinerating millions of people, there will be millions of citizens that respond, like some Pavlovian response, and deliver up rights. We’ve already seen that.

and as Turley also commented, if Gingrich can come out with that drivel at a celebration of the First Amendment, "God knows what he’d say at a Mother’s Day speech."

MSNBC

Nov 2006

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121

Death by Taser: The Killer Alternative to Guns

On Aug. 4, in Lafayette, Colo., policemen on a stakeout approached Jack's son Ryan as he entered a field of a dozen young marijuana plants. When Ryan took off running, officer John Harris pursued the 22-year-old for a half-mile and then shot him once with an X-26 Taser. Ryan fell to the ground and began to convulse. The officer attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but Ryan died.

In the span of three months -- July, August and September -- Wilson's Taser-related death was only one among several. Larry Noles, 52, died after being stunned three times on his body (and finally on his neck) after walking around naked and "behaving erratically." An autopsy found no drugs or alcohol in his system. Mark L. Lee, 30, was suffering from an inoperable brain tumor and having a seizure when a Rochester, N.Y., police officer stunned him. In Cookeville, Ala., 31-year-old Jason Dockery was stunned because police maintain he was being combative while on hallucinogenic mushrooms. Family members believe he was having an aneurysm. And Nickolos Cyrus, a 29-year-old man diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was shocked 12 times with a Taser stun gun after a Mukwonago, Wis., police officer caught him trespassing on a home under construction. An inquest jury has already ruled that the officer who shot Cyrus -- who was delusional and naked from the waist down when he was stunned -- was within his rights to act as he did.

There are an increasing number of examples of this particular form of abuse. Tasers constitute nothing more nor less than legalised bullying by the State.

When they were first introduced the idea was that it might reduce the incredible rate of killing of Americans by their Police force. Rather than that, it has merely lowered the bar for the use of force so that the taser has simply become a cattle prod.

Alternet

November 2006

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122

Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act

That clause, “loss of profits,” would sweep in not only property crimes, but other activity like undercover investigations and whistleblowing. It would also include campaigns of non-violent civil disobedience, like blocking entrances to a laboratory where controversial animal testing takes place.

Those aren’t acts of terrorism. They are effective activism. Businesses exist to make money, and if activists want to change a business practice, they must make that practice unprofitable. That principle guided the lunch-counter civil disobedience of civil rights activists and the divestment campaigns of anti-apartheid groups. Those tactics all hurt profits. And those tactics, if directed at an animal enterprise, would all be considered “terrorism” under this bill.

Jeez! Where to start?

I have described some acts by Animal Rights Activists as Terrorism myself, because, on occasion - such as digging up the bones of Gladys Hammond - they are clearly trying to intimidate (terrorise) their opponents. But to describe legitimately dissenting activities (such as campaigning against the commercial interests of target companies) as terrorism is literally totalitarian (it tries to control what we're allowed to think)

If you're a regular visitor to this page, you've probably already read my essay on Terrorism. If you haven't, now might be a good time.

Green Is The New Red

October 2006

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123

Presidential Tyranny Untamed by Election Defeat

When law - understood here as agreed-upon principles of justice and commonweal - is treated as a filthy rag or a "quaint" relic or a cynical sham by those in power, the result is an ever-growing suppuration of greed, lies, brutality and violence. Its starkest form is evident in Iraq, where a lawless invasion based on deceit has created a hell beyond imagining, and beyond control. At home, unfettered power has stripped Americans of their essential liberties and human rights, which are now no longer unalienable and inviolable but are instead the gift of the "unitary executive," to bestow - or withhold - as he sees fit.

For those who hoped that November's elections might bring some essential alteration in our degraded estate, some repair of the broken strands, recent events have been dispiriting indeed. Two in particular stand out as exemplary of the ugly reality behind the bright rhetoric of "change" and "moderation" now twinkling in the Beltway air. Although apparently unrelated, they are in fact part of the same malignant process that has been devouring the structure - and substance - of the Republic for years.

A depressing analysis of the chances of the recent Democrat victories having any impact on the momentum of the Police State. Possibly even more pessimistic than my own analysis. I argued that it was too soon to let the Democrats back in because the American voters haven't yet accepted - en bloc - that the neocon strategy is a complete and unmitigated disaster. By getting their hands on the tiller before the ship has finally run aground they will now share some of the responsibility for the resulting shipwreck.

Chris Lloyd, on the other hand, is arguing that the Democrats not only could have done more whilst in opposition but have already passed up chances to avert/reduce disaster from their new position. If so, then the Democrats will rightly deserve more of the blame than I've previously acknowledged.

Truthout

December 2006

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124

José Padilla the first US Citizen described as an "illegal enemy combatant"

On June 9, 2002, two days before District Court Judge Michael Mukasey was to issue a ruling on the validity of continuing to hold Padilla under the material witness warrant, President Bush issued an order to Secretary Rumsfeld to detain Padilla as an "enemy combatant," and Padilla was transferred to a military brig in South Carolina without any notice to his attorney or family. The order legally justified the detention using AUMF[2], which authorized the President to "use all necessary force against . . . such nations, organizations, or persons" and by opining that a U.S. citizen detained on U.S. soil can be classified an enemy combatant.

I don't know why I haven't included this case earlier. It was Chris Lloyd's story (above) which brought it back to my attention. (Another better late than never.)

In many ways it is the archetypical example of the Bush administration's gross overstepping of its legal and moral authority. It can even be seen as one of the causes of the Military Commissions Act.

Clearly the administration recognised that had the Padilla case not failed on a technicality (April 2004) when put before the Supreme Court, they would have lost on the substantive issues. With the MCA, they've sought to give themselves the right to define future American citizens as illegal enemy combatants so that they don't run the risk of similar embarrassments ever again.

Wikipedia

2004-2006

125

One Nation Under Siege
DVD

Our Nightmare Has Just Begun... are you ready to fight back?

One Nation Under Siege is a forceful unmasking of the U.S. government and those in powerful positions who are actively dismantling the United States Bill of Rights for their own gain and greed.

Through the research of over a dozen internationally distinguished authors, journalists, doctors, and military experts you will begin to understand the massive and ceaseless control projected onto an unsuspecting populace by a government that may have finally crossed the line from a representative republic to a fascist empire.

A good late Xmas present for those friends and family who give a damn! Nothing new (at least not to readers of this page) but a nicely packaged collection of some of the major issues.

Police State 21

2006

126

The Torture Case Against Rumsfeld gets to court

Today’s hearing addressed the defendants’ claim that they cannot be held legally liable for the torture of civilians in U.S. custody. The ACLU and Human Rights First argued that the Constitution and international law clearly prohibit torture and require commanders to act when they know or should have known of abuses. In addition to the orders they gave directly, Secretary Rumsfeld and the other defendants were repeatedly notified of abuse and torture at detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan by military reports, the International Red Cross and other reports and complaints by human rights organizations.

The groups further charge in the lawsuit that Secretary Rumsfeld personally approved brutal and illegal interrogation techniques in December 2002. Those techniques included the use of “stress positions,” the removal of clothing, the use of dogs, and isolation and sensory deprivation.

Its good to see the major culprit being forced to answer to a court although I am not optimistic that legal attacks on the agents of tyranny can ever succeed. Only a congressional impeachment is likely to have sufficient clout and as Chris Lloyd's piece (above) makes clear, there appears to be no mood amongst the elected hand-wringers to pursue any such policy.

Nevertheless, merely making the attempt does raise the profile and may bring the relevant abuse of both power and prisoners to a few more of those who haven't yet "got it".

ACLU

December 2006

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127

Smoking becoming taboo in US workplace, homes and even in public

The property manager at The Blairs, an apartment complex near Washington, recently sent tenants a letter that has many up in arms: Stop smoking at home come January or move out, the note essentially said.

Like the Schools example above, this is not the State as such behaving as an authoritarian tyrant. It is just another example of how those authorities lower down the food chain feel "empowered" to enact their own little bit of tyranny by the role model set by their masters.

Physorg

December 2006

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16 Links Below added: Feb 28 2007
 
128

Ma Bell Meets George Orwell

I listened to excerpts of the Alberto Gonzeles congressional “interview” this morning. you certainly could not dignify it with the title “testimony.” I was shocked to hear he declined to be sworn in.

 

 

 

 

I think I have hit on an interesting little prank, that if enough of us participate, just might bring this thing (the illegal Domestic Surveillance program) to a screeching halt. You may have seen Tony Scott’s 1998 film “Enemy of the State” starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman. The practice I propose is a low-tech variation on their idea of turning intelligence technology upon itself and its masters.

 

 

 

So was I. First I'd heard of it. And, actually, when you check out the transcript it's not quite true. The Chairman ruled that swearing in wasn't necessary. That points to behind the scenes corruption rather than straightforward blustering refusal by the Attorney General. It is important to get the charges right! Anyway, the reason I decided to include this initially inaccurate story is because he's making a novel suggestion. Novel, that is, outside the crypto-geek community where they call what he is suggesting "chaff"

 

 

 

 

 

and he goes on to suggest that, at the end of any innocent conversation or email you tack on a script designed to trigger the "domestic surveillance" alarms and thus overload the system. This is naive, but it gives me an excuse to nudge him and anyone else so inclined in the right direction.

It's naive because once they've seen the script, they can just filter it out. The kit is really quite sophisticated and can easily distinguish real candidate messages from trolls. It would work a bit better if we all inserted randomly selected words from the one of NSA Keyword Lists you can find on the web. But don't use the words inappropriately or out of context (EXPLOSIVES) because they can filter that out as well.

No, what you have to do is SMUGGLE words into your text so that it reads naturally. We must use our INTELLIGENCE to avoid DETECTION of our ruse by the NSA. As I said when I SPOKE to my sister IRIS when she came back from MEXICO, if you use EXPLICIT phrases like BLOWFISH ENCRYPTION and try to remain ANONYMOUS, you can present quite an ENIGMA to the POLICE, who will assume you are part of a CLANDESTINE operation.

Of course, we mustn't overdo it and provide an "orgy of evidence" like that paragraph either; because that'll work only once and they'll have you flagged as a troll. Be sparing, be credible, one or two key words used innocently so that it attracts their attention but not so many that it's obvious what you're doing.

But if you REALLY want to tweak their tails, start using encryption for real. That's expensive for mobile phones, but for emails its free and, if you sign up for a Freenigma account, it's pretty bloody simple and very powerful.

And even if you don't feel strongly enough about derailing the American "spy on everyone" project, consider the benefits for citizens living under other repressive regimes. Chinese, Iranian, Zimbabwean dissidents could all protect themselves by using encryption. Unfortunately, because so few others use it routinely, anyone who does, sticks out like a sore thumb. By incorporating routine encryption into your messaging - even if you don't feel you need that level of protection personally - you are at least helping to provide "chaff" for those who really do need that protection.

Fired Up! Missouri

Feb 2007

 

129

Ron Paul for President? (video)
with his declaration of intent to explore running for the Republican Primary, this is now a distinct possibility.

...Liberty once again must become more important to us than our desire for security and material comfort. Personal safety and economic prosperity can only come as the consequence of liberty. They cannot be provided by an authoritarian government. To expect government to take care of us from cradle to grave undermines the principles of liberty. ...

...The foundation for a Police State has been in place and it's urgent we mobilise resistance before it's too late.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amen to that.

Ron Paul is not a democrat. He's a republican. He's also a libertarian. Like many libertarian republicans, he is actually opposed to democracy because he sees it as "collectivist" nonsense in much the same way as Edward Griffin's "Freedom Force International" They fear "mob rule" and "tyranny of the majority" and believe that is an inevitable consequence of democracy. This is a naive belief on their part, which they've inherited - unconsciously I suspect - from the Platonists (who's views I try to explain here) but it is an honest one and it at least shows that their heart is in the right place - protecting the liberty of the individual which I support without reservation.

(I'll be explaining the potential democratic protections against the "dictatorship of the proletariat" they rightly fear, when I get around to part 3 of the rewritten Chapter 7 and I haven't finished part 2 yet, so don't hold your breath)

Anyway, as you will see from previous entries on this page, Ron Paul has a long and proud tradition of fighting Big Brother in the US of A and given that no other presidential candidate is going to be in favour of real democracy either, you might as well at least cast your one vote every four years for the wolf/shepherd who is most supportive of the sheeps' liberties.

If he does make it through the primaries, we might genuinely be able to see the "carrot at the end of the tunnel" I am not too optimistic, however, as I note that when I first watched that video, 7 days after it was posted, only 16,626 others had watched it. That doesn't look like the sort of response we'd need to see if he was really going to have a hope. I suspect if Al Gore put out a video statement on youtube, announcing that he was in the race, he'd get a million hits on the first day. Still, he might be the only hope you've got, so get viral guys.

Ron Paul Exploratory 2008

Feb 2007

130

Kathryn Johnston

88-year-old Atlanta, Georgia woman shot by three undercover police in her home on Neal Street in northwest Atlanta on November 21, 2006 where she had lived for 17 years. She opened fire on the officers after they pried off burglar bars and broke down her door using a no knock warrant. None of the officers received life-threatening injuries, but Johnston was killed by the officers...

...In the affidavit police used to obtain a search warrant for Johnston's house, Atlanta, Georgia narcotics officers alleged their informant bought drugs inside Johnston's home earlier in the day from a man named "Sam", and that the home had video surveillance equipment justifying the no knock warrant. In an interview with Atlanta television station WAGA a few days after Johnston's shooting, the informant denied having gone to her house and said that after the shooting, the police pressured him to lie and say he had.

The contrast between this routine cockup (see story below) and what happens in civilised countries is determined by the American messianic dedication to the War On Drugs. Nowhere else in the western world would the judicial system permit an armed raid on the trivial basis that someone had bought drugs on the premises. Until the American Drug Warriors are lobotomised, this insanity will clearly continue unabated.

Wikipedia

Nov 2006

131

Botched Raids Not Rare

Forced-entry raids breach the centuries-old idea that a man's home is his castle, and that the government can only violate that sanctity under the most extreme of circumstances. Yet over the last 25 years, we've seen a staggering 1,300 percent increase in paramilitary style forced-entry raids in the United States —- there are about 50,000 per year now. The majority of these raids are for proactive drug policing, such as executing search warrants. (emphasis added)

What's more, the very nature of drug policing requires investigative tools that frequently produce bad information. One example is the use of informants, notoriously shady characters often involved in the drug trade themselves. Police maintain that they rarely use a single informant's tip as the basis for a drug raid, but dozens of botched raids and a stack of innocent bodies over the years suggest otherwise.

Combine this propensity for bad information with violent, highly confrontational forced-entry raids, and the lack of oversight and real accountability that pervades the entire process and you've created a system ripe for tragic outcomes such as the one we saw Nov. 21 in Atlanta. (see the Kathryn Johnston story above)

50,000 Per Year. 1000 a week. Over 130 every day. I suspect that this dwarfs the record of every totalitarian regime in history. From Stalin to Stasi, they couldn't have afforded that many standard issue boots to kick in that many doors over such a sustained period of civil brutality.

ReasonOnline

Dec 2006

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132

Even if they're off, cellphones allow FBI to listen in

It should come as no surprise that cellphone calls may be tapped by law enforcement. But authorities also can use cellphones to eavesdrop on suspects, even when the devices are off.

The FBI converted the Nextel cellphones of two alleged New York mobsters into "roving bugs," microphones that relayed conversations when the phones seemed to be inactive, according to recent court documents.

Authorities won't reveal how they did this. But a countersurveillance expert said Nextel, Motorola Razr and Samsung 900 series cellphones can be reprogrammed over the air, using methods meant for delivering upgrades and maintenance. It's called "flashing the firmware,"

You have been warned!

The Seattle Times

Dec 2006

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133

High school lockdown yields no illegal drugs

"We had a hunch that today would be a good day for a lockdown," explained Tim Hamilton, CHS principal. "We like to do these every now and then to ensure that the students know we remember them and are looking out for their safety."

...

"I'm pleased to announce that we checked every student and every classroom, and no illegal drugs were found," he said. The search did turn up some Tylenol and Aleve, Hamilton said; while not illegal, even painkillers such as those must be approved by the school nurse.

Just another routine bust for the Drug Warriors. Note that they can do this sort of thing, today, on a "hunch". None of this "warrant" or "just cause" nonsense. Nice to know that it's all being done "for their safety". It is, of course, an important part of modern education to be taught to accept that routine intimidation by the forces of internal repression is nothing for you to worry your pretty little heads about...

Coolidge News

Dec 2006

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134

The War On Toddlerism

Nothing emphasizes the decline of America into an authoritarian police state more than the treatment of children as possible enemies, deviants or criminals. A few cases, involving very young children, have caught our attention this month that indicate in the current climate any sniff of power is corrupting absolutely those who believe they have it.

The AP reported today that a five year old boy has been accused of sexually harassing a kindergarten classmate:

"Washington County school officials told Charles Vallance that his son pinched a girl's buttocks earlier this month in a hallway at Lincolnshire Elementary School. The school says that meets the state's definition of sexual harassment.

The father of the child insists that his son knows nothing about sex and was just playing. Nevertheless the "offence" will remain on the child's file."

Catch the buggers early is obviously the motivation behind this modern, intelligent and caring approach to child management.

Infowars

Dec 2006

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135

Taser used on HANDCUFFED 9 YEAR OLD girl

A veteran South Tucson police sergeant is under investigation for firing his stun gun to subdue a handcuffed 9-year-old girl.

At the request of Chief Sixto Molina, the Pima County Sheriff's Department is trying to determine if the sergeant committed a crime when he sent a jolt through the child's body.

The police officer used a Taser on the girl at about 5:30 p.m. May 8, Molina said. The nonlethal weapon uses a pulsating electrical charge to immobilize a person for several seconds.

"I'll be the first to admit, you've got a veteran sergeant Tasing a 9-year-old girl, it doesn't look good," said Molina. ...

He said the girl was handcuffed at the time the weapon was used.

Another - earlier - example of sensitive child management:

I obviously missed this first time round because it happened in May 2004. I found it while looking for "Tasing" stories. Above I make reference to the fact that the 50,000 bodged forced entries annually conducted by the US Gestapo is likely to be way more than other Totalitarian regimes have ever managed. To this we can now add that even those regimes didn't - as far as I know - go round handcuffing 9 year old girls and then electrocuting them.

What I am increasingly puzzled by is why - after an incident like that - the neighbourhood didn't gather together, burn down the police station and lynch the thug responsible. That is not an approach I'd recommend, but it's certainly one I would understand. If the restraint of the Pima County population is driven by their good Christian "turn the other cheek" values, it might reflect an admirable trait. But I suspect it's more to do with the fact that the entire population is now too intimidated to react, even to overt bullying like this.

Arizona Daily Star

May 2004

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136

Police Entrapment in Terror Case?

This is what happened when an FBI paid informant began to persuade a previously innocent Muslim that he should take part in Jihad:

"I’m an Islamic scholar. I’m twice your age. Let me teach you about what the duty of somebody who's really an Islamic person is.” And he begins to befriend [the target]. And as the war in Iraq starts to ramp up, and as the pictures of Abu Ghraib come out, [the informant] starts to twist this young man. He's now just 22 years old. He's been in the US since 1999, and [the informant] convinces [the target] that it is the duty of somebody who is a true believer to engage in violent jihad -- that is, to cause great economic harm to the United States. And he twists him and convinces him that it's his duty to do this.

Five days before he's arrested:

...at the last minute, the young man says, “Wait a minute. I don't really want to do this. I don't want anybody to get killed. I don't want to be the one that's involved in placing a bomb any place. I think I better check with my mother before I go any further with this plot.”

Not content with catching any passing real terrorists, why not let's create a few new ones of our own? First you manipulate the target into becoming a "militant", then you provoke him into planning an attack. Then you tape him planning the attack, arrest him, take him to court and lock him up for 30 years. (Despite his attempt - on the record - to pull out of the plot 5 days before his arrest)

Is the USA one iota safer - as a result of this obscene and corrupt practice - than it was before the patsy was induced to become a criminal? No, but a few thousand man-hours of valuable security time has been wasted which may have allowed a real threat to go unnoticed. And they've turned at least one potential friend into a certain enemy. Clever stuff.

Democracy Now

Jan 2007

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137

Terror suspects 'face execution over hearsay' and not just any old "hearsay" but "hearsay" extracted under torture.

“No civilized nation permits convictions to rest on coerced evidence, and reliance on such evidence has never been acceptable in military or civilian courts in this country,” said Elisa Massimino, Washington director of Human Rights First.

an interesting early test for the new "Democrat" majority. If they let this go through then America is in even deeper trouble than we realised.

Telegraph UK

Jan 2007

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138

Inside Waco

The handful of survivors of the Waco siege are soon to be released from prison. Their testimony and recordings of FBI negotiatons reveal for the first time the truth about the siege that gripped the world in 1993:

Until I saw this new docudrama on 1 Feb, I simply hadn't appreciated the extent of the incompetence shown by the authorities. On the one hand it's a classic example of "Cockup Not Conspiracy" but, on the other hand, it clearly reveals the casual brutality of the regime (in 1993) which formed the foundations of what we see today.

Channel 4 UK

Feb 2007

If Channel 4 don't make this available online I'll attempt to post it - in bits - to youtube.

139

US Attorney General Questions Habeas Corpus

In one of the most chilling public statements ever made by a U.S. Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales questioned whether the U.S. Constitution grants habeas corpus rights of a fair trial to every American.

No one reading this page will need me to spell out just how serious this is. It is, though, perhaps worth emphasising that this wasn't a private comment accidentally leaked. This was a public statement at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Like many stories above, what concerns me at least as much as the evil revealed is the utter absence of coverage in the mainstream media.

Baltimore Chronicle

Jan 2007

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140

Law would ban iPods when crossing street

Walk, jog or bicycle across a New York street with an iPod plugged in your ears and you could get slapped with a $100 ticket under a new law proposed by a legislator from Brooklyn.

State Sen. Carl Kruger's bill would also outlaw the use of cellphones, Blackberries, video games or other electronic devices when crossing the street.

Is it a good idea to pay attention when crossing a busy road? Damn right! But is failure to pay attention a rational thing to criminalise? Of course not. Darwinian selection processes will weed out those who fail once too often. I nearly got run down when I stepped in front of a bus a few years back. If my mate hadn't pulled me back, I wouldn't be straining your eyeballs right now. My carelessness arose from being deeply engrossed in a conversation with him. Should we ban talking while crossing the road as well?

This kind of nanny-statism is clearly nowhere near as dangerous as the threat to Habeas Corpus above, but the attempt to control even these low level aspects of our lives is classic Totalitarianism, not just "Police State" ism.

USA Today

Jan 2007

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141

School to test for students' weekend drinking (emphasis added)

Some teenagers who drink over the weekend could be in big trouble come Monday morning: A New Jersey school district plans to institute random urine tests capable of detecting whether alcohol was consumed up to 80 hours earlier.

Er... since when did schools get the authority to control behaviour outside their premises and timetable?

CNN

Jan 2007

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142

Bill Moyers Tells it like it is:

"Big Media is Ravenous. It Never Gets Enough. Always Wants More. And it Will Stop at Nothing to Get It. These Conglomerates are an Empire, and they are Imperial."

Finally (for this link-set) two "good news" stories. "Good" in the sense that popular heavyweights are getting into the struggle. First Bill Moyers...

Democracy Now

Jan 2007

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143

George Carling on "Who Controls America?" (Myspace video)

"It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it"

and then George Carlin. I just love that closing line...

Myspace

Dec 2006

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10 Links below added March 2007
 
144

The Pentagon’s Power to Arrest, Torture, and Execute Americans

As Alfred McCoy described in his book A Question of Torture, this particular type of torture technique is specifically intended to cause mental damage to its victims. The CIA learned the technique from the North Korean communists, who subjected American POWs to it during the Korean War.

What is so significant about the José Padilla case?

Its significance lies not only in what U.S. officials did to Padilla but also in the fact that what they did to him, they now wield the power to do to every other American.

A useful analysis of how the Bush admin morphed Padilla from Terrorist into mere Criminal in order to avoid a Supreme Court reversal of the Appeal Court judgement which gave them the powers being described, accurately it seems when they say:

No infringement on economic liberty – hyperinflation, confiscatory taxation, oppressive regulation, or the like – can compare in significance with the omnipotent power of a government official to arbitrarily pick up anyone he wants for any reason he wants and incarcerate him, torture him, and execute him.

Lew Rockwell

Feb 2007

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145

The Late, Great American Nation

Under these new provisions, the president can now use the military as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, disease outbreak, terrorist attack or to any “other condition.” According to the new law, Bush doesn’t even have to notify Congress of his intent to use military force against the American people—he just has to notify them once he has done so. The defense budget provision’s vague language leaves the doors wide open for rampant abuse. As writer Jane Smiley noted, “the introduction of these changes amounts, not to an attack on the Congress and the balance of power, but to a particular and concerted attack on the citizens of the nation. Bush is laying the legal groundwork to repeal even the appearance of democracy.”

...A pattern is emerging, predicated on one horrific incident in 2001. The current administration is laying the groundwork for a military state, and this is our final wake-up call.

This is a more detailed and thoughtful response to the story we first mentioned here.

The Rutherford Institute

Mar 2007

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146

The Tendency to Obey

"The results as I observed them in the laboratory are disturbing. They raise the possibility that human nature cannot be counted on to insulate men from brutality and inhumane treatment at the direction of malevolent authority. A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do, irrespective of the content of the act and without limitations of conscience; so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority. If in this study, an anonymous experimenter could successfully command adults to subdue a 50 year old man and force on him painful electric shocks against his protests, one can only wonder what government, with its vastly greater authority and prestige, can command of its subjects."

A timely reminder of the Milgram study from 1961. Nothing much has changed since.

Stop The Lie

March 2007

 

147

NSA Blocked Domestic Spying Whistleblower And Pressured LA Times To Kill Story (video)

 

Whistleblower Mark Klein reveals how the NSA - who are supposed to spy on foreigners - have set up deeply integrated surveillance into the Domestic telephone infrastructure. The story first aired in the LA times in April 2006 but they were leaned on.

The good news here is that - for a change - the story is being aired on mainstream. As you will see, this video is from ABC Nightline.

Prisonplanet

March 2007

 

148

U.S. Court Allows CIA Kidnapping and Torture

In a breathtaking example of judicial double-speak, the Court even goes so far as to assert that under certain circumstances, the executive branch would not even be required to explain why the state secrets doctrine exempted certain evidence, because the explanation itself could create an unacceptable danger of compromising national security. In these circumstances, a court would be "obliged to accept the executive branch's claim of privilege without further demand."

This is the legal follow-up to the story of Khaled El-Masri which we first mentioned here. That paragraph contains the message I want to focus on. Now the court is supporting the State's right to determine what constitutes a threat to National Security with no form of accountability to anyone, not even the court. That alone - together with their craven willingness to shield their eyes from the evil - constitutes the most serious of threats to National Security.

OhMy News

March 2007

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149

Another early version of Social Propaganda

a "comic" style presentation from 1844 warning of the dreadful dangers of...

I don't want to spoil the surprise by telling you what this is about. I can tell you I nearly fell off my chair laughing when I reached the end. And I can tell you it is an honourable precursor in the same tradition as the propaganda films mentioned above

fukung.net

March 2007

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150

FDA Says Pills Can Cause 'Sleep-Driving'

Sleep-driving made headlines last May when Kennedy, D-R.I., crashed his car into a security barrier outside the U.S. Capitol after taking Ambien and a second drug, Phenergan, an anti-nausea pill that also acts as a sedative. Kennedy has said he had no memory of the event. He pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of prescription drugs, and was sentenced to court-ordered drug treatment and a year's probation.

I couldn't decide, immediately, whether this story was more appropriate in my anti-drug war collection or here. As an example of Social Psychosis driven by America's hysterical attitude to intoxication it is clearly a Drug War topic. But in so far as the judicial system is being used to police medical issues it is also a classic Police State issue.

Physorg

March 2007

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151

Us to George -- sure, whatever

And it is morality when the chief law enforcement officer in this country tells Congress he doesn't believe in habeas corpus and is cool with torture and the practice of "disappearing" people. Alberto Gonzales even admitted to abusing the Patriot Act — is it even possible to abuse the Patriot Act?
...
Do you feel good about America now? I'll give you my answer, and to get it out of me, you don't even have to hood me, hold my head underwater and have a snarling guard dog rip my face off. No, I don't feel very good about that.

It's been said that evil happens when good men do nothing. And as the Democrats prove, it also happens when mediocre people do nothing.

apparently it is...

 

 

this isn't just self indulgence on my part. Agreed it's just a polemic OpEd which doesn't add any new information to the mix. But it is the first time I've come across something this "in your face" in a US mainstream publication. That must count for something. And it is a bloody good read.

LA Times - Op Ed
by Bill Maher

March 2007

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152

the Secret Confessions and Torture of Khalid Sheik Mohammed

Mohammed Sheikh Khalid has now, voluntarily and of his own free will, admitted he masterminded every significant event from the Norman Invasion through the bubonic plague, fall of Constantinople, and Great Fire of London, to the Battle of Little Big Horn, assassination of JFK and the Oklahoma bombing.

Or he might as well have. The extraordinarily comprehensive list of terrorist outrages for which he claims responsibility would be beyond the capacity of any but the most brilliant and inspired mortal; Khalid, I fear, is a more run of the mill thug.

But in truth, we have absolutely no idea what, if anything, he has confessed at all. The BBC brazenly reported all of yesterday that while Khalid did allege he had been tortured during his four years of secret detention by the CIA in various locations around the globe, he is now freely confessing under no duress and does not retract any of his confession.

this childish attempt at deception is exposed by Murray's further observation:

If Khalid really is freely and openly confessing all of this stuff, then what possible reason can there be to deny him a lawyer, and not allow public and media access to his trial?

Of course, it's possible that it's not deception and he really is a) confessing and b) responsible for what he's confessing. But how, without a Trusted Surveillance system, will we ever know?

Blairwatch
Craig Murray

March 2007

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153

FBI agents 'abused Patriot Act powers'

The FBI repeatedly broke the law by secretly accessing information about US citizens under a law passed to curb terrorism, according to the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General in a report that prompted a sharp rebuke from legislators and civil libertarians.

The violations included demands for personal information by agents who had no official authorization to do so and the improper obtainment of telephone records in non-emergency circumstances. FBI officials also underreported to Congress how often it used powers granted under the Patriot Act to force businesses to turn over customer data.

The real news in the story is not so much that this kind of abuse is happening, (I'd have been more surprised to learn that it wasn't) but that they've actually chosen to hang a couple of scapegoats out to dry. They'll be much more careful to hide their abuse in future.

It is an example of a particularly important "class" of Police State/Surveillance stories because it's all about "Corrupt Insiders" which are the fundamental flaw at the heart of all centralised security systems and routinely ignored by the proponents of Police Statism because they believe we're stupid enough to trust them.

The Register

March 2007

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    22 New Links added July 2007  
154

My National Security Letter Gag Order

Living under the gag order has been stressful and surreal. Under the threat of criminal prosecution, I must hide all aspects of my involvement in the case -- including the mere fact that I received an NSL -- from my colleagues, my family and my friends. When I meet with my attorneys I cannot tell my girlfriend where I am going or where I have been. I hide any papers related to the case in a place where she will not look. When clients and friends ask me whether I am the one challenging the constitutionality of the NSL statute, I have no choice but to look them in the eye and lie.

I resent being conscripted as a secret informer for the government and being made to mislead those who are close to me, especially because I have doubts about the legitimacy of the underlying investigation.

This is the real deal. This is where the speculation and innuendo stops and the purest form of the Police State takes centre stage.

It is the story of one of those 30,000 (A YEAR) businesses, libraries, banks, schools, boys clubs, employers etc which are receiving "National Security Letters" - which demand information about a potential surveillance target and then forbid the source ever to reveal that the request has taken place. Yes, that's right, it's our old friend the USA PATRIOT act.

There is no earthly conceivable rational or ethical justification for this behaviour. And no tactical necessity for it.

If ever there was a public example of the need for Trusted Surveillance, this is it.

If you're looking for behaviour which defines the Police State, look no further.

Washington Post

March 2007

Cached

Thanks to Stop The Lie for bringing this one to my attention before anyone else.

Note: this is the 4th from the Washington Post and the mainstream sources generally are hotting up.

155

Interactive Map of Botched Paramilitary Police Raids.

The map accompanies a paper called "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America" which you can find from a link on the map page. Unfortunately, being the Cato institute they want you to pay for the full paper. You needn't bother because the story below is Radley Bilko's testimony to Congress which says much the same thing for free. However, to save you the trouble, here's the executive summary:

Americans have long maintained that a man’s home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders. Unfortunately, that right may be disappearing. Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home.

These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. These raids bring unnecessary violence and provocation to nonviolent drug offenders, many of whom were guilty of only misdemeanors. The raids terrorize innocents when police mistakenly target the wrong residence. And they have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries, not only of drug offenders, but also of police officers, children, bystanders, and innocent suspects.

Remember "Stolen Lives" or the "Botched Raids Not Rare" stories above?

This is the new improved version with up do date graphics and filters. Now you can click on a button on the map representing one of the raids and get the story right there. You can also filter the bullying by State and Year (see below the map) although, slightly disappointingly, the filters don't update the map - which would be really neat.

Cato Institute

Ongoing

156

Our Militarized Police Departments

Military-grade semi-automatic weapons, armored personnel vehicles, tanks, helicopters, airplanes, and all manner of other equipment designed for use on the battlefield is now being used on American streets, against American citizens.

...paramilitary police actions are extremely volatile, necessarily violent, overly confrontational, and leave very little margin for error. These are acceptable risks when you’re dealing with an already violent situation featuring a suspect who is an eminent threat to the community.

But when you’re dealing with nonviolent drug offenders, paramilitary police actions create violence instead of defusing it. Whether you’re an innocent family startled by a police invasion that inadvertently targeted the wrong home or a drug dealer who mistakes raiding police officers for a rival drug dealer, forced entry into someone’s home creates confrontation. It rouses the basest, most fundamental instincts we have in us – those of self-preservation

As promised above, this is Radley Bilko's testimony to the House Committee on Crime. It is no more than a glorious Statement of the Bleedin Obvious but that appears to be more than necessary at this time.

Reason online

July 2007

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157

"My name used to be 200343,"

...Vance said recalling his prisoner ID (during his illicit 3 month detention without trial by US forces in Iraq). "If they can do this to a former Navy man and an American [who also voted for Bush, twice, and was a paid informant for the FBI], what is happening to people in facilities all over the world run by the American government?"

(Donald) Vance received the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling, an award named in memory of Army helicopter gunner Ron Ridenhour who struggled to bring the horrific mass murders at My Lai to the attention of Congress and the Pentagon during the Vietnam War.

Boy do we need more like him!

David Phinney - the Rough Cut (though I came across it first in Alternet)

April 2007

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158

The Governor's Database

Piece by piece, Gov. Rick Perry's homeland security office is gathering massive amounts of information about Texas residents and merging it to create the most exhaustive centralized database in state history

 

Not content with the Federal Police State, Texas has decided it want's it's own slice of the action. The really sinister aspects of this story are
1) the evasion of Federal standards for control of criminal justice databases. Those standards, as we know, are pretty useless anyway, but Texas avoids even their basic protections.

2) Over 7,000 people will be authorised to access this data. With no Trusted Surveillance in place.

The Texas Observer

April 2007

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159

Public Knowledge of Current Affairs Little Changed by News and Information Revolutions

When asked to name the president of Russia, just 36% recalled Vladimir Putin. Only about three-in-ten (29%) could correctly identify former White House aide Scooter Libby; the survey was conducted during Libby's trial

At the top of this page I make the statement, somewhat polemically, that 50% of Americans are either too ignorant, too badly educated or too apathetic to recognise or resist the tide of fascism overwhelming them.

This story illustrates that such ignorance is not limited to their understanding of the gradual emergence American Totalitarianism.

Pew Research Centre

April 2007

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160

In Texas, a white teenager burns down her family's home and receives probation. A black one shoves a hall monitor and gets 7 years in prison. The state NAACP calls it 'a signal to black folks.

There was the 19-year-old white man, convicted last July of criminally negligent homicide for killing a 54-year-old black woman and her 3-year-old grandson with his truck, who was sentenced in Paris to probation and required to send an annual Christmas card to the victims' family.

 

This story of 14-year-old black freshman, Shaquanda Cotton (just pause for a moment to reflect on the irony of where that name is likely to have come from in the not too distant past) triggered an explosion on the blogospere which paid off: she was released, after spending a year in jail, in April 2007 following initial publication - for a change - in the mainstream Chicago Tribune.

The sentences of many of the 4,700 delinquent youths being held in Texas juvenile prisons might have been arbitrarily and unfairly extended by prison authorities and thousands of youths could be freed in a matter of weeks as part of a sweeping overhaul of the scandal-plagued system, officials say

A clear and welcome victory for the - specifically - black bloggers. Best coverage of story is the Wiki entry.

Chicago Tribune

March 2007

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161 Just had to include this. Click on the picture for a bigger, readable version. Unfortunately I've lost track of where I got it from so if anyone knows, lemme know and I'll redirect the link to the original author.

Dunno where this came from - anyone tell me?

May 2007

162

14 Points of fascism

In his original article, "Fascism Anyone?", Laurence Britt (interview) compared the regimes of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto, and Pinochet and identified 14 characteristics common to those fascist regimes. This page is a collection of news articles dating from the start of the Bush presidency divided into topics relating to each of the 14 points of fascism. Further analysis of American Fascism done by the POAC can be read here.

It is usually held to be the death of intelligent discussion or rational dissent when the iconic name of Adolf Hitler is mentioned in support of - or opposition to - almost any argument. See if you still feel like that after reading a few of the stories on this page.

In a very real sense, they're doing the job I'm trying to do with this page. But whereas I'm just jumbling the data randomly together roughly in the order I encountered it, they're presenting the evidence in the deeply symbolic and sinister historical context of fascism.

And it doesn't look at all overstretched. (with a quibble over point 5 where Britt's title - 'Rampant Sexism' - doesn't fit the modern behaviour which is not so much sexist as anti-sex. A better title "Severe Sexual Repression" is actually more descriptive of the Fascist/Fundamentalist psyche and better explains the homophobia.

Project for the
Old American Century

Copyright 2002-6 but I only found it May 2007

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163

Rumsfeld's Fake News Flop in Iraq

Office of Media Outreach activities included hosting "Operation Truth," a one-week tour of Iraq by right-wing talk-show hosts, organized by Russo Marsh & Rogers, a Republican PR firm based in California that sponsors a conservative advocacy group called Move America Forward. The purpose of the "Truth Tour," they reported on the Move America Forward website, was "to report the good news on Operation Iraqi Freedom you're not hearing from the old line news media... to get the news straight from our troops serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom, including the positive developments and successes they are achieving." Even before the trip began, however, the radio talkers' take on Iraq was already decided. "The war is being won, if not already won, I think," said tour participant Buzz Patterson in a predeparture interview with Fox News. "[Iraq] is stabilized and we want the soldiers themselves to tell the story."

I've been vaguely aware of the propaganda charges for years. I think I even came across this Alternet piece months ago, but it was only recently I actually read it all the way through and it is simply stunning.

It's a stunning bit of journalism to start with. And a stunning example of how far the Platonists will go to manufacture the consent they need.

And right there, almost at the end of the piece, is our increasingly routine justification for Trusted Surveillance - in this instance, to eliminate Plausible Deniability from their armoury.

Alternet

May 2007

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164

The Bill of Wrongs

 

Dahlia Lithwick's personal summary of Police State howlers for 2006. While she reveals nothing new, it is nice to see such items becoming increasingly common in the mainstream press

Washington Post

Dec 2006

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165

US starts censoring FOREIGN dissidents!

In an apparent reversal of decades of U.S. practice, recent federal Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations bar American companies from publishing works by dissident writers in countries under sanction unless they first obtain U.S. government approval.

The restriction, condemned by critics as a violation of the First Amendment, means that books and other works banned by some totalitarian regimes cannot be published freely in the United States.

Violations carry severe reprisals — publishing houses can be fined $1 million and individual violators face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Another, this time from 2004, in the "better late than never" series. This is sinister because you can't see any obvious point - other, perhaps, than testing the water to see what might happen when they try to start banning home grown dissidence.

LA Times

Dec 2004

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166

Hollywood's Dirty Little Secret

All a producer needs do for assistance, it seems, is submit five copies of his script to the Pentagon for approval, make whatever script changes the Pentagon suggests, film the script exactly as approved by the Pentagon and preview the finished product for Pentagon officials before it's shown to its broader audience. And, according to Robb, as he puts the boot firmly into Jerry Bruckheimer, Tom Goldberg (Stripes), John Woo and other producers and directors, many do this gladly. It is, he insists, Hollywood's dirtiest little secret

another late addition, from 2005, this video tells about how the US military co-operate with Hollywood - providing they like the message. And they'll even "co-operate" by helping to write that message! How friendly can you get?

Information Clearing House

Feb 2005

 

167

Teacher Fired for "Honking For Peace"

When one of Deborah Mayer's elementary school students asked her on the eve of the Iraq war whether she would ever take part in a peace march, the veteran teacher recalls answering, "I honk for peace."

Soon afterward, Mayer lost her job and her home in Indiana. She was out of work for nearly three years. And when she complained to federal courts that her free-speech rights had been violated, the courts replied, essentially, that as a public school teacher she didn't have any.

This is one of those grubby little stories that elevates the blood pressure and makes one even more determined to replace the corrupt legal system with a democratic Jury controlled judicial system. There is no legitimate basis why a teacher should not be a) allowed to protest at the illegal (or legal come to that) activities of her government or b) allowed to tell anyone else that she does so. Suppression of dissidence is pure Totalitarianism.

San Francisco Chronicle

May 2007

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168

Gonzales Hospital Episode Detailed

On the night of March 10, 2004, as Attorney General John D. Ashcroft lay ill in an intensive-care unit, his deputy, James B. Comey, received an urgent call.

White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales and President Bush's chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., were on their way to the hospital to persuade Ashcroft to reauthorize Bush's domestic surveillance program, which the Justice Department had just determined was illegal.

...this is how far corrupt insiders will go to get their way, even in the face of explicit legal findings against them. This should have resulted in their instant dismissal...

Washington Post

May 2007

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169

Teachers stage mock gun attack on 11 year old kids

Teachers at a US school have been criticised after staging a fake gun attack during a class trip, telling children it was not a drill.

Many of the 69 pupils, aged about 11, were reduced to tears when they were told to hide under tables and keep quiet as a gunman was on the loose.

This is the effect of Tyranny on a pliant population. They begin to normalise their nightmares. Remember this related nonsense from Nov 2005?

If Teachers - people we expect to have an IQ bigger than their shoe size - think this is a good way to train kids, then I can only advise that someone with the appropriate resources puts them through the same treatment someday. That'll teach the screwed up bastards. I assume the parents are sueing the School off the planet...

BBC News

May 2007

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170

'Freedom Is About Authority': Excerpts From Giuliani Speech on Crime

We look upon authority too often and focus over and over again, for 30 or 40 or 50 years, as if there is something wrong with authority. We see only the oppressive side of authority. Maybe it comes out of our history and our background. What we don't see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.

Another reminder that the rot didn't set in with 9-11. This verbal sewage was spewed out in 1994.

Straight from the "Arbeit Macht Frei" school of "Freedom", George Orwell would have been proud to written doublespeak like this.

Coming from a senior politician it is, of course, much more sinister and significant than if it came from any old redneck or Fox News presenter. This shows how deep rooted are the seeds of totalitarian corruption inside the political class of America

New York Times

March 1994

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171

A 15 year-old American girl has been charged with child pornography offences after posting pictures of herself online.

The unnamed teenager is accused of sending photos of herself "in various states of undress and performing a variety of sexual acts" to people she met in online chat rooms, AP reports. Police found dozens of inappropriate photos when they seized the girl's PC.

The teenager has been charged with the possession and distribution of child pornography as well as the sexual abuse of children

THIS - in case a few Guliani supporters are wondering what the fuss is about - is what "Authority" looks like in modern America. And it is a very very sick puppy.

When I first came across this story I couldn't believe it. a) because it is so bizarre and b) because it happened in 2004 and it hasn't apparently caused any riots to date! In fact it was so unbelievable that I wouldn't have used it had I not found that it was far from an isolated example of such "Crimes Against the Self"

Nobody who is likely to be reading this page will need me to explain how utterly and literally insane this legal over-reaction is. The real social and political problem we have, though, is that most of those who would never read this page cannot figure out, for themselves, what is wrong with this picture.

The Register

April 2004

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172

CIA's Harsh Interrogation Techniques Described

1. The Attention Grab: The interrogator forcefully grabs the shirt front of the prisoner and shakes him.

2. Attention Slap: An open-handed slap aimed at causing pain and triggering fear.

3. The Belly Slap: A hard open-handed slap to the stomach. The aim is to cause pain, but not internal injury. Doctors consulted advised against using a punch, which could cause lasting internal damage.

4. Long Time Standing: This technique is described as among the most effective. Prisoners are forced to stand, handcuffed and with their feet shackled to an eye bolt in the floor for more than 40 hours. Exhaustion and sleep deprivation are effective in yielding confessions.

5. The Cold Cell: The prisoner is left to stand naked in a cell kept near 50 degrees. Throughout the time in the cell the prisoner is doused with cold water.

6. Water Boarding: The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner's face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt.

"Sources Say Agency's Tactics Lead to Questionable Confessions, Sometimes to Death"

well colour me surprised.

Another late one - 2005 this time. Particularly wanted to include it because it is a rare (for that time in particular) example of mainstream exposure. But it also pairs up nicely with the next story.

ABC News

Nov 2005

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173

Former U.S. Army Interrogator Describes the Harsh Techniques He Used in Iraq

Lagouranis says he now feels it his duty to speak out about what he witnessed in Iraq:

* His use of harsh interrogation techniques on prisoners in Iraq including dogs, sleep deprivation, prolonged isolation and dietary manipulation.
* How Navy SEALS induced hypothermia by using ice water to lower the body temperature of prisoners.
* Serving in Fallujah and going through the clothes and pockets of some 500 dead bodies to try and identify them.
* The corpses on men, women and children in Fallujah, which had been lying in the streets for days and had been "eaten by dogs and birds and maggots," were then stacked up in a warehouse where U.S. soldiers ate and slept.

Watch the video. The truth about "Authority" - straight from an ex-professional bully's mouth.

Democracy Now

Nov 2005

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174

The Pentagon Papers

Thirty-five years ago this weekend, Beacon Press lost a Supreme Court case brought against it by the US government for publishing the first full edition of the Pentagon Papers. It is now well known how the New York Times first published excerpts of the top-secret documents in June 1971. But less well known is how the Beacon Press - a small, nonprofit publisher affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association - came to publish the complete 7,000 pages that exposed the true history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Their publication led the Press into a spiral of two and a half years of harassment, intimidation, near-bankruptcy, and the possibility of criminal prosecution.

Democracy Now is running this as a major story as I write. It's a "must see". It is incredibly relevant to our current situation, despite being a tale from the early 70s. First it, once again, illustrates just how long the Police State has been growing. Second, famous whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg, tells us, it is an inspirational example of high level institutional civil disobedience. Can you imagine what could be accomplished if today's editors had the balls to behave like this?

Democracy Now

July 2007

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175 Portrait of the Modern Terrorist as an Idiot

The recently publicized terrorist plot to blow up John F. Kennedy International Airport, like so many of the terrorist plots over the past few years, is a study in alarmism and incompetence: on the part of the terrorists, our government and the press.

Terrorism is a real threat, and one that needs to be addressed by appropriate means. But allowing ourselves to be terrorized by wannabe terrorists and unrealistic plots -- and worse, allowing our essential freedoms to be lost by using them as an excuse -- is wrong.

The alleged plan, to blow up JFK's fuel tanks and a small segment of the 40-mile petroleum pipeline that supplies the airport, was ridiculous. The fuel tanks are thick-walled, making them hard to damage. The airport tanks are separated from the pipelines by cutoff valves, so even if a fire broke out at the tanks, it would not back up into the pipelines. And the pipeline couldn't blow up in any case, since there's no oxygen to aid combustion. Not that the terrorists ever got to the stage -- or demonstrated that they could get there -- where they actually obtained explosives. Or even a current map of the airport's infrastructure.

Another classic from Bruce Schneier. His theme was taken up elsewhere. So it ain't just the geeks getting the benefit of this common sense. Unfortunately precious little of it seems to have leaked into the mainstream

Schneier On Security

June 2007

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176

ACLU forces disclosure White House "Suppression of Dissent" Manual

The ACLU filed today's lawsuit after obtaining a heavily redacted version of the Presidential Advance Manual from the Justice Department. This manual is the Bush administration's guide for planning presidential events around the country, and it repeatedly instructs organizers about "the best method for preventing demonstrators," "deterring potential protestors from attending events," "designat[ing] a protest area . . . preferably not in view of the event site or motorcade route," and the like.

It's no news, of course, that the Bush team WANT to suppress dissent and actively do everything they can to achieve that. The idea that they have a printed manual on how to do it... now that is truly bizarre.

ACLU

June 2007

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    23 Links added July-Oct 2007  
177

Careful: The FB-eye may be watching

"I'll tell you what, Marc. Someone in the shop that day saw you reading something, and thought it looked suspicious enough to call us about. So that's why we're here, just checking it out. Like I said, there's no problem. We'd just like to get to the bottom of this. Now if we can't, then you may have a problem. And you don't want that."

This is exactly the kind of behaviour we see in other Totalitarian societies. Most East Germans will recognise it as classic STASI behaviour.

What is most alarming about it isn't so much the unwarranted interrogation, which seems to have been handled with reasonable politeness on this occasion (though we suspect this wouldn't have been true had the author's name been Islamic rather than Jewish sounding); but the casual way in which a fellow citizen in the coffee shop could actually believe it to be appropriate to call in the FBI on such an issue. Did they really think potential terrorists would wander in reading their seditious material in public view? What kind of sick paranoid "pussy" (to quote one of the commenters who attacks the author for his passivity) has the average American citizen become?

Creative Loafing

July 2003
(Better Late than never)

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178

White House Says Congress Cannot Pursue Contempt Cases

Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.

The concept of "Executive Privelege" is the last vestige of the "Divine Right of Kings" and has no place in a modern political system, other, of course, than in a Police State. Here in the UK, we still have something similar - called the "Royal Preroragative" - but it is actually exercised (rarely) by the executive rather than the Monarchy and they have to account for their actions to Parliament. Declaring War was - until Blair changed the rules in the context of Iraq - an example of something which could be done by Government under "Royal Prerogative". In all cases, however, actions under the RP can still be challenged in the courts. The idea that, in the 21st century, an advanced nation could exercise and tolerate a situation where its executive tried to block legal challenges to its decisions is quite disturbing.

Similar issues were raised during the widely discredited Class Action lawsuit by Stanley Hilton against the the Bush administration - charging them with direct responsibility for 9-11. It looked like a very feeble case but the important point was the basis for dismissal which was not the merits of the case but rather "Sovereign Immunity" which is essentially a variant on the same theme as Executive Privelege. The idea that even if Bush was guilty of invoking 9-11, he couldn't be prosecuted because of Sovereign Immunity is mind-bogglingly ludicrous.

The upside? If the Bush Administration gets away with this, in the pursuit of such naked self interest, the American illusion of accountability will be pared down another layer.

Washington Post

July 2007

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179

Criminalizing the Antiwar Movement

A presidential Executive Order issued on July 17th, repeals with the stroke of a pen the right to dissent and to oppose the Pentagon's military agenda in Iraq.

The Executive Order entitled "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq" provides the President with the authority to confiscate the assets of "certain persons" who oppose the US led war in Iraq:

"I have issued an Executive Order blocking property of persons determined to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq or undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people."

In substance, under this executive order, opposing the war becomes an illegal act.

The Executive Order criminalizes the antiwar movement.

Two things. First, this was such a dramatic charge that I refused to take, at face value, the first version of the story I "stumbled" across (from Rense.com) because they do have a tendency to overegg the pudding. So I put the title of the EO into google and went looking for mainstream comment and interpretation. Try it yourself. I found 22,000 pages referring to the title but I gave up looking for a mainstream comment after the first ten pages of google results. The one I chose to represent the class is from Global Research and is penned by Professor Michel Chossudovsky, who, as you can see from that link, is no hysterical light-weight or conspiracist.

Second, the real test of this EO will be if they try to use it against an antiwar protestor. Then we will see the true current status of the Police State. Will the courts back them? Will the supine mainstream media dare to get into the battle? Will any citizens march in protest? Or will it turn out to be another successful nail in the coffin?

Global Research

July 2007

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180

The Dog That Never Barked

The President's Intelligence Oversight Board -- the principal civilian watchdog of the intelligence community -- is obligated under a 26-year-old executive order to tell the attorney general and the president about any intelligence activities it believes "may be unlawful." The board was vacant for the first two years of the Bush administration.

This is another fine example in support of my arguments for Trusted Surveillance. Bodies like this are the sop the executive throw to Congress allegedly to ensure that nothing they do is illegal. As we now know, the list of illegal actions by the current administration exceeds those of all previous administrations put together, yet the recognised watchdog who is supposed to protect the interests of the Public from abuse by the executive has failed to comment on any of these abuses right up until at least May 9 this year.

Washington Post

July 2007

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181

In hail of bullets, cops kill armed man in Point Breeze

Cops said officers shot the unidentified 30-year-old man multiple times at about 6:15 p.m. when he allegedly pointed the weapon at one of them. So many shots were fired in the deadly confrontation that crime-lab investigators had to use hand-written markers to locate each spent shell.

More than 107 placards marked the trail of spent police ammunition along Tasker Street between Baily and Taney streets, police said.

The gunman did not fire, police said. He was pronounced dead at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Again, you'll not find any mention of this in the mainstream. Had this happened anywhere else in the Western World, it would have been headline news. In the USA it's so close to routine that it doesn't even make the inside pages.

This man may have deserved to die. Without a Trusted Surveillance system, we'll never know. But let's, on this occasion at least, give the Police the benefit of the doubt. In which case the obvious question is why did it require 107 shots to subdue a target who wasn't even returning fire?

What this tells us is that the trigger-happy Police who form the backbone of the Police State haven't even had adequate weapons and combat training to deal with a single hostile individual. A trained marksman would have dropped the target with one, possibly two shots. A hundred and seven reveals lousy weapon skills, panic and malicious over-reaction.

Philly.com

July 2007

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182

Ex Reagan Aid Predicts False Flag Attacks

Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran.

Bush has put in place all the necessary measures for dictatorship in the form of "executive orders" that are triggered whenever Bush declares a national emergency. Recent statements by Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff, former Republican senator Rick Santorum and others suggest that Americans might expect a series of staged, or false flag, "terrorist" events in the near future.

Many attentive people believe that the reason the Bush administration will not bow to expert advice and public opinion and begin withdrawing US troops from Iraq is that the administration intends to rescue its unpopular position with false flag operations that can be used to expand the war to Iran.

There is a rash of such speculation running around the US at the moment. This story will introduce you to some of them, though, if you're a regular reader of this page, you probably don't need my help to find them. The significance of this particular version is the source. This is no hyped up college/web based fantasist revolutionary. It is not even a political opponent (ostensibly). Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for the Reagan administration and "has been dubbed the "Father of Reaganomics". He is also a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Scripps Howard News Service.

When players from that stable start issuing such incendiary warnings, even ordinary docile American citizens might raise an eyebrow. Whether they'll do any more than that I doubt. But an eyebrow would be a start...

Counterpunch

July 2007

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183

CURRENT US Attorney Blasts Bush Administration!

Bush justice is a national disgrace

In the course of its tenure since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration has turned the entire government (and the DOJ in particular) into a veritable Augean stable on issues such as civil rights, civil liberties, international law and basic human rights, as well as criminal prosecution and federal employment and contracting practices. It has systematically undermined the rule of law in the name of fighting terrorism, and it has sought to insulate its actions from legislative or judicial scrutiny and accountability by invoking national security at every turn, engaging in persistent fearmongering, routinely impugning the integrity and/or patriotism of its critics, and protecting its own lawbreakers. This is neither normal government conduct nor "politics as usual," but a national disgrace of a magnitude unseen since the days of Watergate - which, in fact, I believe it eclipses

Tentatively - very tentatively - I suggest this might be the breach in the dam which we've been hoping for since 9-11. The story above is noteworthy because it is from a "responsible" member of the political elite who is ostensibly on the same political team as the sitting president. This story, by contrast, is much more potentially explosive because it is written by a current employee of the administration.

We've had former insiders come out and spill the beans but this insider is still (for the time being) on the inside. He has clearly been provoked into this rebellion by the illegitimate treatment of his colleagues and the routine lies and evasion used to try to justify their dismissals. He is a brave man for sticking his head so far above the parapet, but he's taking a calculated risk. If they are now stupid enough to fire him, we might see a few thousand of his DOJ colleagues walking out in support of his stand. That's the kind of political scandal that even a Dictatorship would have difficulty in surviving.

Denver Post

July 2007

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    Added Sept 10 or later  
184

Dog Day Afternoon

Sheriff Joe 's goons launched an assault to make a misdemeanor arrest. The Raid left a burned house, a terrified neighborhood and a dead dog.

...

Arpaio's Ahwatukee assault should have drawn banner headlines in the daily newspapers. But the Arizona Republic, where Arpaio's son-in-law, Phil Boas, serves as deputy editor of the editorial pages, buried the story in a community section. The East Valley Tribune ignored it entirely.

Check out the pictures of what their house looked like after the raid.

This would be highly entertaining - a modern version of the Keystone Cops - were it not so fucking serious. If this sort of thing doesn't make you angry enough to act against the bastards then you've already lost the war.

Damn! I just noticed:

This happened 3 years ago. It obviously didn't make you angry enough. You even went right ahead and re-elected the turd responsible.

Perhaps you have already lost the war...

Phoenix New Times

August 2004

(better late than ever)
(again!)

cached

 

185

Bush's Grandad Part of the Fascist Plot 1930s

In 1936, William Dodd, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, wrote a letter to President Roosevelt in which he stated,

"A clique of U.S. industrialists is hell-bent to bring a fascist state to supplant our democratic government and is working closely with the fascist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity in my post in Berlin to witness how close some of our American ruling families are to the Nazi regime.... A prominent executive of one of the largest corporations, told me point blank that he would be ready to take definite action to bring fascism into America if President Roosevelt continued his progressive policies. Certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy. They extended aid to help Fascism occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there. Propagandists for fascist groups try to dismiss the fascist scare. We should be aware of the symptoms. When industrialists ignore laws designed for social and economic progress they will seek recourse to a fascist state when the institutions of our government compel them to comply with the provisions."

Two relevant points in this story. First the long standing committment of the American Military Industrial Complex to totalitarian control systems and second, the Bush family's long pedigree as part of that "team". This particular plot was blown when one of the Generals they recruited to carry out the putsch against Roosevelt decided to blow the gaffe. He subsequently went on to write the famous "War is a Racket" which you can read for free as it is now online here. As you can see, some things haven't changed much in these parts...

Prison Planet

July 2007

Cached

186

Government Forced To Pay $101 Million compensation for wrongful imprisonment

US District Judge Nancy Gertner said from the bench that the FBI had deliberately withheld evidence that Peter J. Limone, Joseph Salvati, Louis Greco, and Henry Tameleo were innocent, and that the bureau helped cover up the injustice for decades as the men grew old behind bars and Tameleo and Greco died.

"FBI officials up the line allowed their employees to break laws, violate rules, and ruin lives, interrupted only with the occasional burst of applause," said Gertner, berating the FBI for giving commendations and bonuses to the agents who helped send the men to prison for the killing in Chelsea of Edward "Teddy" Deegan, a small-time hoodlum.

Classic instance of "Corrupt Insiders". (and see also entry 195 below for whole bunch more)

But in case you're inclined to think that "it's not a problem today" read this story to see that the Bush admin is STILL resisting full disclosure because it wouldn't be in the "National Interest".

NOTHING is MORE in the National Interest of the United States than exposing this kind of corruption (and it is still widespread) and making all such corruption impossible. This is precisely the sort of thing I am talking about here.

As you read this (and watch the video I stumbled first) ask yourself - if you don't already know about this story - why you don't. Government forced to pay record damages of over 100 million dollars and it isn't considered newsworthy? Why would that be?"

Do a google for "Joseph Salvati" (or just click that link) and you'd expect - what? - a million hits perhaps, given the record $100 Million dollar payout. I tried it just now and got just 773. Then try looking for any high profile mainstream mention of the story. It's not there. I don't know who's pulling the strings on this, but they've done a helluva job in managing almost to bury this story. See what you can to dig it up again..

Boston Globe

July 2007

Cached

187

Arrested For Flying Flag Upside Down

Even though Kuhn took the flag down, the officer immediately demanded that the couple show their ID's and when they refused told them to put their hands behind their back and was about to arrest them before the couple shut and locked the door.

Scarborough then proceeded to kick the door in, "And the next thing we know, the glass is flying, he unlocks the deadbolt and he comes into our house after us," Kuhn told The Alex Jones Show.

The officer then pursued Mark Kuhn through the house before intercepting him in the kitchen and putting him in a choke hold.

Deborah Kuhn called 911 to report that the officer had broken into the home and was assaulting her husband.

The officer then pulled out pepper spray to which Mark Kuhn responded, "Are you going to spray me in my house?" before Scarborough whipped out his billy club and the Kuhn's ran out of the house into the street, pleading for help from their neighbors.

"Nine police cars showed up, they whipped out the Tasers, they said 'get down we're gonna Taser you'

Also worth reading the Lew Rockwell coverage of the same story which links it to a number of other similar abuses, including "Would-Be Samaritan Instead Busted By Police" Her mistake, of course, was to stop and help the police. That's a mistake which millions will now learn from. Clever stuff, officers...

Prison Planet

July 2007

Cached

188

Arrested For Distributing Dissent Videos

Rushing thought it would be nice to give the 911 tape as well as the C-Span tape to local Kentucky State Trooper Lewis Dobbs. Mr. Dobbs is a young State Trooper working out of the Mayfield Kentucky Post in western Kentucky south of Paducah . So Rushing slipped the tape into the Dobbs mailbox one afternoon.

...there was another tape air by C-Span on national television on the same subject, with Texas Congressman Ron Paul and a 45 minutes discussion on the subject of a police state. Rushing had a copy of the C-Span show and he also put that tape into Trooper Dobb's mailbox.

Within a week or two, Rushing was pulled over on his way from work, by Trooper Lewis Dobbs. Dobbs went through the usual procedure, asking for drivers license, registration, etc., after which Trooper Dobbs slapped his handcuffs on him.

Since there was no probable cause as to his motor vehicle operation, Kelly asked Dobbs what he was being arrested for, and Dobbs said, you are being arrested for “giving me that tape. You are being arrested for terroristic threatening.

Another I missed in 2004.

The good news (from the same page):

In reversal of soviet-style police powers, Lyon County Kentucky Jury finds Kelly Rushing not-guilty of terroristic threats. You are still allowed to give public servants video tapes. What's incredible is that this even went to trial. So, the moral of the story is: some police would like to put citizens in jail for their political views.

Infowars.com

2004

Cached

189

Bush's Martial Law Plan - Access Denied even to Congress!

If the Bush administration wanted to fuel conspiracy theories about its classified plan for maintaining governmental control in the wake of an apocalyptic terror attack, it could not have come up with a better strategy than refusing to let Congressman Peter DeFazio examine it.

The Oregon Democrat recently requested permission to enter a secure "bubbleroom" in the Capitol and examine the secret White House plan. As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, DeFazio has the requisite security clearance - and a compelling rationale for reviewing the documents.

Last Wednesday, DeFazio received word that his request had been denied. Through Homeland Security Committee staffers, he learned the White House had initially granted his request, but that it later was rejected. There was no explanation of why - and no word about who made the final decision.

When even members of the "Homeland Security" Committee aren't allowed to see plans concerning so called Homeland Security, it really is time to make sure your passport is up to date. You might need to get out in a hurry...

The Register-Guard

July 2007

Cached

190

Permission Required For Internal US Flights

Beginning in February 2008, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will implement their ¨Advance Passenger Information System (APIS),¨ the gist of which is that you will need permission from the United States Government to travel on any air or sea vessel that goes to, from or through the U.S. The travel companies will not be able to issue a boarding pass until you are cleared by DHS. This applies to ALL passengers, US citizens and visitors alike. And how do you get said permission to travel? That´s for your government to know and you to never find out.

Will the sheeple let them get away with this?

Daily KOS

Sept 2007

Cached

191

Federal judge slams Patriot Act

Judge Ann Aiken ruled that FISA "permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment".

"For over 200 years, this nation has adhered to the rule of law — with unparalleled success. A shift to a nation based on extra-constitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill-advised."

Nicely understated. Hope she didn't have Supreme Court ambitions...

The Register

Sept 2007

Cached

192

Deputies compete in arrest contests

One recent competition, described in an internal Sheriff's Department e-mail obtained by The Times, was called "Operation Any Booking." The object was to arrest as many people as possible within a specific 24-hour period.

Other one-day competitions have included "Operation Vehicle Impound," a contest aimed at seizing as many cars as possible. And another challenged deputies to see how many gang members and other suspected criminals could be stopped and questioned.

So now arresting people is turning into a game for the State employed bullies.

LA Times

Oct 2007

Cached

193

School Guards Break Child's Arm And Arrest Her For Dropping Cake

School security guards in Palmdale, CA have been caught on camera assaulting a 16-year-old girl and breaking her arm after she spilled some cake during lunch and left some crumbs on the floor after cleaning it up.

Another potential triumph for Trusted Surveillance (once the School and Security Guard have been dragged through the courts and duly humiliated). Now ask yourself, why do we need security guards to protect us from cake crumbs in schools?

Infowars

Sept 2007

Cached

 

194

Epidemic Of Police Brutality & Harassment
Sweeps America & UK

An epidemic of violence and harassment is sweeping the country. Police are being trained that the general public are the enemy and that they can engage in outright brutality without recourse. Taser deaths are skyrocketing because the police have been ordered to use "pain compliance", otherwise known as torture, to subdue and oppress the citizenry. Police are also increasingly completely unaware of the laws they are supposed to enforce and have resolved to invent offences out of thin air as an excuse to harass people. It is time for police to remember that their duty is to protect the general public from criminals and not act as enforcers for a tyrannical police state.

Prompted, apparently by the story above, Prison Planet has now set up its own portal to gather such stories. Not before time! Plenty more comment and discussion here.

Prison Planet

Sept 2007 ongoing

Portal

195

This Weeks Corrupt Cop Stories

Pages and pages of examples of the "Corrupt Insider" problem going back to July 2006.

another portal I've just discovered. This one run by "Stop the Drug War"

Stopthedrugwar.org

July 2006 ongoing

Portal

196

Strip Searching 13 Year Olds ruled Legal!

Safford Middle School officials did not violate the civil rights of a 13-year-old Safford girl when they forced her to disrobe and expose her breasts and pubic area four years ago while looking for a drug, according to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.

I wasn't even aware of this story from 2003 until I came across this court decision Oct 2007. Can you guess what they were looking for that justified such incredible intrusion? Cocaine, Meth, Heroin, Weed? Must have been a serious illegal drug right? Wrong.

IBU - fucking - PROFEN

Eastern Arizona Courier

Oct 2007

Cached

197

Arrested For Reading The Constitution

Peaceful onlookers were arrested by police for reading the Constitution while a pro-war group was allowed full freedom of speech in Washington DC recently in another flagrant example of how American cops are now the enforcers of a tyrannical police state.

One of the stories on the Prison Planet portal. Good to see more and more of these things being captured on private video. This is a vital part of Trusted Surveillance.

Prison Planet

Oct 2007

Portal

198

Students to get $11k compensation for Armed Police Raid on school

When police stormed Stratford High School in Goose Creek, South Carolina, three years ago with guns drawn, they ordered students to lie on the floor as dogs sniffed them in a surprise drug sweep.

Tempting to think of this as a good news story. But this story is from 2006 and as the stories immediately above it reveal, these kind of decisions do not appear - yet - to be causing the authorities to re-think their approach...

MTV

April 2006

Cached

199

Government Wants Exclusive Right to Determine what is and is not a State Secret

(Judge) Harry Pregerson, asked Garre whether the state secrets privilege meant that the courts must simply "rubber stamp" the decisions of the executive. "The bottom line here is the government declares something is a state secret, that's the end of it," Pregerson said. "The king can do no wrong."

"This seems to put us in the 'trust us' category," said Judge M. Margaret McKeown, referring to government assurances that the surveillance program didn't violate the law. "We don't do it. Trust us. And don't ask us about it."

This apparent skepticism on the part of Pregerson and his fellow judges was highly unusual and may signal a new willingness to question government assertions about national security.

Hallelujah! The judiciary is waking up!

But only Jury controlled justice can protect us in this situation.

LA Times

Aug 2007

Cached

200

Support growing for Secession

In an unlikely marriage of desire to secede from the United States, two advocacy groups from opposite political traditions — New England and the South — are sitting down to talk.

Tired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully...

"It doesn't matter if our next president is Condoleeza (Rice) or Hillary (Clinton), it is going to be grim," said Naylor, adding that there are secessionist movements in more than 25 states, including Hawaii, Alaska, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Texas.

This could be the future for the United States.

This is what happens when a dictatorship oversteps its boundaries. That's why America declared independence from what it saw as British Tyranny in 1776. Secession would certainly be less bloody than the other possible alternative - Civil War.

Columbus Despatch

Oct 2007

Cached

    added 16 Oct 2008  
201

Government Wants American Internet to Work as A Microphone

The Bush Administration is pushing Congress hard to give the intelligence community the authority to order domestic communication companies - your ISP, a phone company, Skype or any email provider based in the United States to turn on surveillance or turn over the content of communications to the Intelligence community without a warrant.

Chances are that if you're a regular follower of this page and similar, you've already read 1984. If you haven't, order a copy now.

In the book you will find, amongst other things, that the TV has been modified to become the domestic surveillance device which the Bush totalitarians are dreaming up in this proposal.

Unsupervised Total Surveillance:
The Totalitarians' Wet Dream

Wired

Oct 2007

Cached

 

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Last Full Update October 6 2007
 
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