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)
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:
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
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.
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.
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?"
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."
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 "
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..."
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).
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.
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. "
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."
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. "
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.
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."
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."
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."
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."
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.
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
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.
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
(!)
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.
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
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.
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
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
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."
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.
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
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.
--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
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.
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.
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.
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
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!
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
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.
Protecting
America From Foreign WritersBy 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.
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...
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".
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!
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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%.
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.
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.
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."
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...
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."
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...
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.
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.
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,"
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.
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)
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.
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...
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?
"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.
<<<<<<
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).
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"
>>>>>
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
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".
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.
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."
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.
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:
<<<<<
quite. Now, what are you going to do about it?
widely published. This version from Information
Clearing House
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."
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.
(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: <<<<<
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"
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
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..."
"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.
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.
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?
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.
<<<<<
Who needs democratic oversight and accountability anyway? Only democrats,
so that's all right then...
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
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.
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"
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
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
<<<<<
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
'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":
“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: <<<<<
"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)
<<<<<
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...
"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.
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.
"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)
"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.
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.
"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.
"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?)
"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.
"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."
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!)
“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.
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.
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?
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
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.
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.
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?)
...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.
"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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,"
"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...
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
"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...
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
...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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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?
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.
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...
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...
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
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.
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.
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.
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?
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
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.
"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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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...
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..
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...
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.
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...
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.
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...
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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...
(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.
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.
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
To use the proxy form on the right, just type in a url
(eg www.google.com) then select one of the proxies from the popdown list
and click "Go". This helps online anonymity but won't hide your
tracks on your own PC. For that you need other tools
