Dreadful news stories and bleak commentaries arrive almost daily. What is taking place
in the US right now is a subject of great anxiety around the world. The Fascist America
which many understand to be well on its way brings with it dark implications for the
human race. As Canadian Professor Michel Chossudovsky often points out, the Bush
administration is putting events in motion which are threatening to bring on mankind’s extinction.
Those who care about the direction the US is taking should become activists. There is no
other way for change to take place. If you can spare fifteen minutes a week you can
phone your representatives. If you can spare half an hour you can write a letter to
the editor of a local newspaper.
Many of us are making painful choices about what issues to respond to and what to do. Should
we plan and attend marches? Should we concentrate locally or nationally? Should we engage in
civil disobedience? Should we build web-blogs? Build a third political party? Demonstrate on
behalf of sustainable global economics? Work for media reform? Join the September 11
truth movement? ‘Yes’ is a sensible answer to all of them; however no one can do all of
these things. There is no shortage of peace and social justice work that must be done.
One of the strongest motivations for becoming more politically active is the chilling
prediction that the US may be in store for another terrorist “attack” like 911 before
the next election. Recently, the Washington Post featured an extraordinary commentary
from David Rothkopf in their weekend ‘Outlook’ section. (Terrorist Logic: Disrupt the
2004 Election, Washington Post, November 23, 2003). Rothkopf is a former managing
director at Kissinger Associates; he is believed to still be an associate of Henry
Kissinger’s. He writes that he recently co-chaired a meeting of about 200 business and
governmental elites. He says the overwhelming opinion in the room was that the US
will soon be subjected to another day like 9/11/01. Rothkopf speculates on a US
which resembles the Middle East as the Presidential election arrives. Without
using the term he is describing President-select Bush declaring martial law.
This commentary comes fast on the heels of General Tommy Franks’s equally-startling
comment (given to Cigar Aficionado) that if the US is attacked with Weapons of Mass
Destruction, the US Constitution will likely be shelved and a military government
installed. (For comments, visit
here.)
So in a very short span of time two shadowy members of the neoconservative elite have
prepared widespread, mainstream audiences with the concept of a US severely attacked and
under martial law—within the next year. Meanwhile, the more that is learned about 9/11/01 the
more impossible the official explanations become. The story of 19 suicidal Muslim fanatics
destroying the World Trade Center and damaging the Pentagon using jet planes defies the laws
of physics and elementary logic. Recall that the Nazi nightmare began with the Reichstag
fire. We must open our minds to the very painful possibility that
911 was a similar device for the ruling neocon elite to achieve similar foreign and
domestic policy goals as what the Nazis attempted.
The Bush administration has already built a concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. So
far the Federal courts have decided that the 660 men who have been held in open-air animal
cages on foreign soil for up to two years are not entitled to protections under either the
Geneva Conventions or the US Constitution. (The US controls Guantanamo and forces Cuba to
unwillingly lease it every year.) The last refuge of these prisoners may be the Supreme
Court, which has agreed to hear their case. If the Court agrees with the Bush administration’s
tortured logic that the men can be held indefinitely at Guantanamo it could seriously
harm our judicial system. We could then expect summary executions to begin taking
place in Guantanamo under the new rules of military tribunals. (These tribunals were
created by executive order by Bush.) What is known about the rules is severe. For
example, even if acquitted by the tribunal a person may still be executed. That is
because the President reviews all outcomes of tribunals and can over-rule any decision.
Meanwhile, over a thousand people were rounded up and imprisoned in the immediate
aftermath of 9/11/01. Most were deported. The whereabouts of the rest are unknown
and the government refuses to release any information about them. They have effectively
been disappeared.
A couple of US citizens (i.e., Hamdi and Padilla) are known to be incarcerated without
access to the protections under the US Constitution. These men have been languishing
in jails for over a year without any charges brought forward. They have been
denied any legal counsel and visitation from their families and friends. Their
prolonged incarcerations violate what used to be the fourth, fifth, sixth and eight
amendments of the Bill of Rights.
The significance of the Hamdi and Padilla cases coincides with the leaked version of the
update to the USA PATRIOT ACT sought by the Bush administration. In what has been since
dubbed PATRIOT II, the Bush administration seeks the power to legally disappear US
citizens solely on the word of the President they represent “enemy combatants”.
The police state that could be coming may resemble what the Miami police recently (11/20-11/22/03)
implemented at the no FTAA protests. (The Free Trade Area of the Americas trade treaty is
essentially an extension of NAFTA around South America. It promises to spread global
poverty, degrade the environment of the south and cause manufacturing jobs to leave like
gangbusters in the US.)
Flush with $8.5 million dollars from the $87 billion expenditure Congress approved to
continue the barbaric occupation of Iraq, the Miami police are described by hundreds of
witnesses as being completely out of control. They beat, shot with rubber bullets and
pepper-sprayed nonviolent protesters and people who were doing nothing. They used agent
provocateurs to dress up like anti-FTAA protesters and initiate violence and otherwise
disturb the peace. The Miami cops used these pretexts for extreme, indiscriminate violence
and the criminalizing of dissent. Judging by the example of the Miami police it is
now extremely dangerous for a group of people to attempt to use what used to be their
First Amendment rights in any city in the US. Even permitted demonstrations, like
the ones in Miami, could be subject to violent attack by increasingly militarized
police forces.
All is not dark, however. There are glimmers of hope seen in a variety of fronts. For
example, there is strong indication that the anti-free-trade movement is achieving
tangible victories in its struggle on behalf of fair trade. In addition, a media
reform conference in Wisconsin surprised organizers by drawing 2,000 people, ten
times as many as were expected. Locally, about 4,000 people tried to see Michael
Moore when he visited Johns Hopkins University to speak out against the Bush
administration while promoting his latest book. (Although Moore can be quite
harmful to progressive causes the outpouring of people who came to hear him
criticize the Bush administration was gratifying.)
We’re living in the most dangerous time in human history. Everyone with a
social conscience should become activists in some capacity. Those who say or
do nothing about the spread of Fascism in the US are contributing to it.
Scott Loughrey
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