Monday, October 10, 2005
Slouching Toward a Police State?
“Something is going on here, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mister Jones?” —Bob Dylan.
Whatever it is that’s going on should give all of us shivers. Katrina showed us just how inept the government can be, when it wants to be, about actually helping anybody. Our government is very good at throwing money to corporations it likes, and these days it’s very good at stripping away our rights.
In New Orleans, the government hired what are essentially private militias—like Blackwell, the big security contractor in Iraq, and a large Israeli company made up of ex-Israeli security agents and secret police—to provide law enforcement and protect private property. The government was also effective at blocking outside help. Paratroopers were called in to patrol and set up roadblocks. New Orleans was successful—in government terms—at low-profile ethnic cleansing. Thousands and thousands of black people were relocated to places where it’s likely they’ll never come to their homes.
________
The president recently announced that in case of a flu epidemic, he believes federal troops should be able to quarantine areas of outbreaks. He wants the presidency to have authority to use troops, within the country and without restrictions, when he believes it necessary. “Martial law,” is what it’s called, whether or not he calls it that.
There is, on the books, the Posse Commitatus Act of 1878; the Act prevents the military from performing law enforcement in situations other than national disasters. It isn’t guaranteed: during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, troops were used as law enforcement against strikers and others unhappy with the status quo. Troops were used against miners’ strikes in Idaho and Arizona, against small ranchers and business owners in New Mexico, and against demonstrating World War One veterans in Washington D.C.—wherever the ruling groups seemed threatened. So it’s happened here. The problem is, Bush wants it to happen whenever he and his handlers think it’s necessary, without having to justify it to anybody.
There is now an agency known as the National Security Service—the NSS, which operates without congressional oversight. The president is the only superior. Not quite a KGB—but close.
The 4th Circuit Court recently ruled that the president has the power to declare any American citizen to be an “enemy combatant,” and to be locked up. No trial, no jury, just the president’s signature. That person wouldn’t even have to be told why she or he is being locked up. Go directly to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
The new version of the Patriot Act includes “administrative subpoenas.” These are search warrants that law enforcement agency thinks it needs. Fishing licenses, really. Just a suspicion or a “tip” is enough. No judge has to sign off on such a warrant.
Here’s an article from the Washington Post about the latest request by the Defense Intelligence Agency:
Request for Domestic Covert Role is Defended
By Walter Pincus
The Washington Post
Saturday 08 October 2005
As part of the expanding counterterrorism role being taken on by the Pentagon, Defense Intelligence Agency covert operatives need to be able to approach potential sources in the United States without identifying themselves as government agents, George Peirce, the DIA's general counsel, said yesterday.
"This is not about spying on Americans," Peirce said in an interview in which he defended legislative language approved last week by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The provision would grant limited authority for DIA agents to clandestinely collect information about US citizens or emigres in this country to help determine whether they could be recruited as sources of intelligence information.
It is about spying on Americans: “clandestinely collect information about US citizens...” is precisely about spying: “clandestinely collect information” meets the very definition of spying.
Is it that the government thinks such dummies we won’t notice, or they know if they repeat a lie often enough and loud enough, people will believe it?
In the Declaration of Independence, there’s this phrase: “inalienable rights.” Not now.
George Orwell doesn’t know what he missed.
Whatever it is that’s going on should give all of us shivers. Katrina showed us just how inept the government can be, when it wants to be, about actually helping anybody. Our government is very good at throwing money to corporations it likes, and these days it’s very good at stripping away our rights.
In New Orleans, the government hired what are essentially private militias—like Blackwell, the big security contractor in Iraq, and a large Israeli company made up of ex-Israeli security agents and secret police—to provide law enforcement and protect private property. The government was also effective at blocking outside help. Paratroopers were called in to patrol and set up roadblocks. New Orleans was successful—in government terms—at low-profile ethnic cleansing. Thousands and thousands of black people were relocated to places where it’s likely they’ll never come to their homes.
________
The president recently announced that in case of a flu epidemic, he believes federal troops should be able to quarantine areas of outbreaks. He wants the presidency to have authority to use troops, within the country and without restrictions, when he believes it necessary. “Martial law,” is what it’s called, whether or not he calls it that.
There is, on the books, the Posse Commitatus Act of 1878; the Act prevents the military from performing law enforcement in situations other than national disasters. It isn’t guaranteed: during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, troops were used as law enforcement against strikers and others unhappy with the status quo. Troops were used against miners’ strikes in Idaho and Arizona, against small ranchers and business owners in New Mexico, and against demonstrating World War One veterans in Washington D.C.—wherever the ruling groups seemed threatened. So it’s happened here. The problem is, Bush wants it to happen whenever he and his handlers think it’s necessary, without having to justify it to anybody.
There is now an agency known as the National Security Service—the NSS, which operates without congressional oversight. The president is the only superior. Not quite a KGB—but close.
The 4th Circuit Court recently ruled that the president has the power to declare any American citizen to be an “enemy combatant,” and to be locked up. No trial, no jury, just the president’s signature. That person wouldn’t even have to be told why she or he is being locked up. Go directly to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
The new version of the Patriot Act includes “administrative subpoenas.” These are search warrants that law enforcement agency thinks it needs. Fishing licenses, really. Just a suspicion or a “tip” is enough. No judge has to sign off on such a warrant.
Here’s an article from the Washington Post about the latest request by the Defense Intelligence Agency:
Request for Domestic Covert Role is Defended
By Walter Pincus
The Washington Post
Saturday 08 October 2005
As part of the expanding counterterrorism role being taken on by the Pentagon, Defense Intelligence Agency covert operatives need to be able to approach potential sources in the United States without identifying themselves as government agents, George Peirce, the DIA's general counsel, said yesterday.
"This is not about spying on Americans," Peirce said in an interview in which he defended legislative language approved last week by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The provision would grant limited authority for DIA agents to clandestinely collect information about US citizens or emigres in this country to help determine whether they could be recruited as sources of intelligence information.
It is about spying on Americans: “clandestinely collect information about US citizens...” is precisely about spying: “clandestinely collect information” meets the very definition of spying.
Is it that the government thinks such dummies we won’t notice, or they know if they repeat a lie often enough and loud enough, people will believe it?
In the Declaration of Independence, there’s this phrase: “inalienable rights.” Not now.
George Orwell doesn’t know what he missed.
