Police State America --- A Look Back and Ahead

Police State America - A Look Back and Ahead

By Stephen Lendman

Created Dec 17 2007 - 7:34am

Year end is a good time to look back and reflect on what's ahead. If past is

prologue, however, the outlook isn't good, and nothing on the horizon

suggests otherwise. Voters last November wanted change but got betrayal from

the bipartisan criminal class in Washington. Their attitude shows in an

October Reuters/Zogby (RZ) opinion poll with George Bush at 24% that tops

Richard Nixon's worst showing of 25% at his lowest 1974 Watergate point. And

if that looks bad, consider Congress with "The Hill" reporting from the same

RZ Index that our legislators scored a "staggering 11%, the lowest

(congressional) rating in history," but there's room yet to hit bottom and a

year left to do it. Why not with lawmakers' consistent voter sellout and

failure record that keeps getting worse.

It's been that way ever since 9/11 with both sides of the aisle complicit

with the administration. This article looks back at the record, and year end

is a good time to review it. It's hard imagining another as bad with a

President defiling the law and once telling Republican colleagues the

Constitution is "just a goddamned piece of paper."

He didn't just say it. He governs by it, gets away with it, and former

Defense Department analyst Daniel Ellsberg, of Pentagon Papers fame, says "a

coup has occurred (with another to come from) the next 9/11....that

completes the first (that's) seen a steady assault on every fundamental

(aspect) of our Constitution (to create) an executive government (to) rule

by decree" no different from a police state.

Author Naomi Wolf spells it out in her April, 2007 Guardian article -

"Fascist America, In 10 Easy Steps." In it, she argues the Bush

administration is following the same script any "would-be dictator must take

to destroy constitutional freedoms," and she lists them. They range from

"invoking a terrifying internal and external enemy" to "creat(ing) a gulag"

to spying on everyone to harassing opposition to controlling the media to

calling dissent treason to "suspend(ing) the rule of law." She also notes

how much "simpler" it is to shut down democracy than "to create and sustain"

it, and that's today's threat.

It's not with jackboots in the streets but by a steady "process of erosion"

with the public largely unaware and distracted by media mind manipulators.

It's happening today, and Wolf sounds the alarm with the words of James

Madison saying "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and

judiciary, in the same hands....is the definition of tyranny," and that's

the condition now in America. This article reviews the record for the past

seven years. It's not pretty.

Even the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, (unlike every Pope in

memory) condemned it in a wide-ranging UK Muslim magazine interview. It was

quoted in a November 25 Sunday Times column headlined "US is 'worst'

imperialist" and wields its power more reprehensibly than Britain ever did

in its heyday. He explained that American overseas adventurism led to "the

worst of all worlds" and expressed pessimism about the current state of

western civilization and Washington's own misguided sense of mission.

He critiqued the "war on terror" and stated America lost the moral high

ground post-9/11 and needs to launch a "generous and intelligent programme

of aid to the (nations it) ravaged;....check (its) economic exploitation of

defeated territories" and demilitarize them. He called the West

fundamentally adrift and our "definition of humanity (isn't) working." He

denounced America's violence and belief it can solve problems left for

"other people (to clean up and) put....back together - Iraq, for example."

Another is the condition at home.

Since taking office in January, 2001, George Bush signed a blizzard of

Executive Orders and attached dozens of "signing statements" to hundreds of

law provisions even though nothing in the Constitution allows this practice,

and the Supreme Court banned line-item vetos. He continues to do it while

Congress and the courts condone his claiming unconstitutional "unitary

executive" authority to ignore the law and do as he pleases in the name of

"national security" on his say alone.

It began on 9/11 when George Bush addressed the nation and declared a "war

on terrorism," asked for world support to win it, and began what became "our

government's emergency (preventive war strategy) response plans." The scheme

was to ignore the law, go to war, and destroy our civil liberties to keep us

safe from "rogue states, 'bad guys,' and evil-doers" throughout an "arc of

instability" from the South American Andean region (mainly Colombia) to

North Africa through the Middle East to the Philippines, Indonesia and

elsewhere in Asia. Congress as well acted right out of the box with two

audacious resolutions that surrendered its authority to the executive,

allowed him to proceed, and signaled what would come.

The first one came September 18, 2001 in a joint "House-Senate Authorization

for Use of Military Force (AUMF)" that authorized "the use of United States

Armed Forces against those responsible for the recent attacks launched

against the United States." A second followed in the October, 2002 "Joint

Resolution to Authorize the Use of the United States Armed Forces Against

Iraq," and the rest is history. This article reviews other key congressional

legislation to the present along with George Bush's blatant abuse of

presidential power.

His first action came November 13, 2001 when he issued Military Order Number

1 that one analyst called a "coup d'etat," and "watershed moment in (the)

country," that was a hint of what would follow. This order violated the

spirit and letter of a civil society under constitutional law with a

firewall separating it from the military. No longer, and it got worse later

on when its provisions resurfaced by act of Congress. That's discussed

below. First, Military Order Number 1 and what's in it:

-- it let the President usurp authority to capture, kidnap or otherwise

arrest any non-citizens (and later citizens as well) anywhere in the world

if he claims they're involved in international terrorism and to hold them

indefinitely without charge, evidence or allowing them due process in a

court of law.

-- however, IF trials are allowed, they would be by special ad hoc "military

commissions," not civil courts and in secret, with evidence obtained by

torture allowed, those found guilty given no right of appeal, and they can

be secretly executed.

-- no civil court has authority in these cases even if victims are

identified and legal counsel wishes to represent them.

Few knew then that on November 13, 2001 US citizens lost their civil

liberties, but that would come out later on. It's still ongoing with

Congress and the courts complicit in the willful destruction of our

democracy that was already on life support. Today, it's gone.

Use of National Security ((NSPDs) and Homeland Security Presidential

Directives (HSPDs)

In the Bush administration, NSPDs replaced the Presidential Decision and

Review Directives under Bill Clinton and others under different names since

the Kennedy administration began the practice. Earlier ones remain in force

unless superseded. They're much like Executive Orders (EOs) with the "full

force and effect of law," relate to national security, and for that reason

remain classified unless or until made public. In seven years, George Bush

issued dozens of NSPD's that are too many to review as well as over 20

Homeland Security Presidential Directives (HSPDs). A few key ones are

discussed below.

The October 25, 2001 NSPD-9 deserves special note and was titled "Defeating

the Terrorist Threat to the United States." On March 23, 2004, Donald

Rumsfeld gave this explanation of its classified contents to the 9/11

Commission:

-- "To eliminate the Al Queda network;

-- To use all elements of national power to do so -- diplomatic, military,

economic, intelligence, information and law enforcement;

-- To eliminate sanctuaries for Al Queda and related terrorist networks --

and if diplomatic efforts to do so failed, to consider additional measures."

On April 1, 2004, the White House released this statement on the directive:

The NSPD called on the Secretary of Defense to plan for military options

"against Taliban targets in Afghanistan, including leadership,

command-control, air and air defense, ground forces, and logistics (along

with similar efforts) against Al Queda and associated terrorist facilities

in Afghanistan."

Here's the problem. The administration adopted these measures on September

4, 2001, seven days before 9/11. George Bush then signed them into binding

law in NSPD-9 on October 25, 2001 to conceal when they originated.

Other important NSPDs relate to:

-- combatting WMDs;

-- developing and deploying an anti-ballistic missile defense that's for

offense, not defense;

-- biodefense;

-- deploying nuclear weapons and domestic nuclear detection;

-- the Iraq war;

-- a national space policy as part of the goal for "full spectrum dominance"

over all land, surface and sub-surface sea, air, space, electromagnetic

spectrum and information systems to deter any domestic or foreign threat or

challenge to our global hegemony; and,

There's one other crucially important combined NSPD-HSPD:

NSPD-51/HSPD-20 on April 4, 2007 - National Security and Homeland Security

Presidential Directive

This is a combined directive from the White House and Department of Homeland

Security (DHS) to establish "Continuity of Government (COG)" procedures

under a "Castastrophic Emergency" defined as follows:

"any incident (such as a terrorist attack), regardless of location, that

results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption

severely affecting the US population, infrastructure, environment, economy,

or government functions."

COG is then defined as:

''a coordinated effort within the Federal Government's executive branch to

ensure that National Essential Functions continue to be performed during a

Catastrophic Emergency."

Crucial to understand is that this combined directive gives the President

and DHS unprecendented powers free from constitutional constraints. Under

NSPD-51, the President can declare a "national emergency" and declare

martial law without congressional approval. It allows him to create a de

facto militarized police state with him as dictator and DHS as a national

Gestapo to an even greater degree than it is already. It also empowers the

Vice-President to implement the directives' provisions as part of the

"Continuity of Government" plan that in the case of Dick Cheney gives him

even more power than George Bush the way this administration operates. This

combined directive alone is the face of "police state America" in real time

if it's implemented, and it wasn't likely enacted as window dressing. But

there's lots more besides.

Other HSPDs relate to:

-- combatting "immigrant terrorism;"

-- a national response plan to domestic incidents;

-- critical infrastructure identification, prioritization, and protection;

-- national preparedness;

-- comprehensive terrorist-related screening procedures;

-- domestic nuclear detection; and others.

Congressional Legislation After 9/11

Post-9/11, Congress acted in lockstep with the President and continues to

pass laws any despot would love. Written, on the shelf, and ready to go long

before 9/11, the USA Patriot Act was passed and signed by the president 45

days later on October 26, 2001. The legislative process capitalized on a

window of hysteria to grant unchecked powers to the executive but created

three grave civil liberties threats in the process:

-- the erosion of Fifth and Fourteen Amendment due process rights by

permitting indefinite detentions of undocumented immigrants that can now

apply to anyone anywhere in the world; more on that below;

-- the First Amendment loss of freedom of association that the Supreme Court

considers an essential part of free expression; now anyone may be charged

and prosecuted because of his or her claimed association with an

"undesirable group;" and

-- loss of the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches

and seizures, and as a consequence, the loss of privacy; the Act grants the

administration unchecked surveillance powers to access personal records;

monitor financial transactions; student records; conduct "sneak and peak"

searches through "delayed notice" warrants; authorize roving wiretaps; track

emails, internet and cell phone use; use secret evidence in prosecutions;

deny immigrants the right to counsel if they're unable to get their own; and

ends built-in safeguards to let domestic criminal and foreign intelligence

operations share information so CIA can now spy domestically.

The Act also creates the federal crime of "domestic terrorism" that broadens

the definition and applies to US citizens as well as aliens. It states

criminal law violations are considered domestic terrorist acts if they aim

to "influence (government policy) by intimidation or coercion (or)

intimidate or coerce a civilian population." By this definition, anti-war or

global justice demonstrations, environmental activism, civil disobedience

and dissent of any kind may be called "domestic terrorism." The Patriot Act

was just for starters. Much more was ahead with a bipartisan Congress acting

like a gift that keeps on giving and the President loving it.

The Homeland Security Act (HSA) of November 25, 2002 followed as a sweeping

new anti-terrorism bill, and like the Patriot Act, was planned long before

9/11. It created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by combining

previously separate government agencies under this new authority to prepare

for, prevent and respond to domestic emergencies and give the federal

government broad new powers to protect the nation within and outside our

borders. In March, 2003, its largest investigative and enforcement arm was

then established - the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE).

It was charged with protecting public safety by identifying and targeting

"criminal" and "terrorist" threats to the country who in most cases are

NAFTA and globalized trade victims here out of need, not choice, and who

aren't terrorists.

DHS is part of the administration's plan to centralize unprecedented

military and law enforcement power in the executive branch that aims for

greater global dominance - to rule the world unchallenged including

repressively at home by suppressing civil liberties in the name of "national

security." DHS and USA Patriot Act are two frightening measures to do it.

DHS is insidious. It encroaches on local authority by "mandat(ing) federal

supervision, funding, and coordination of 'local first responders.' " This

refers to police and "emergency personnel" comprising local law enforcement.

The Homeland Security Act (HSA) doesn't mandate local control. Instead, it

provides coordination and guidance as a first step measure with more to

come. That's why US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) was established in

October, 2002 as an unprecedented move to militarize the mainland plus

Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Gulf of Mexico and Straits of Florida and, for the

first time ever, allow troops to be deployed on US streets to counter drugs,

an "insurrection" loosely defined, and combat crimes with nuclear, chemical

or biological weapons. In other words, the President may now deploy military

forces on US streets in the interest of "national security." This power is

unprecedented and dangerous.

So is another affecting everyone. It's largely below the radar since it was

was scheduled to be fully operational in late September, 2006. It's the

Pentagon's New Offensive Strike Plan called the Joint Functional Component

Command for Global Strike and Integration - or simply Global Strike Command.

It grew out of the 2002 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) that was updated more

belligerently in early 2006. NPR is a declaration of preventive war on any

nation, group or force anywhere on earth the administration calls a

"national security" threat and could be used by NORTHCOM against US-based

targets along with a HSA crackdown if martial law is declared.

HSA goes further still by creating a sweeping domestic intelligence agency

called the Directorate of Information Analysis and Infrastructure

Protection. It's to create and maintain an all-inclusive intrusive public

and private information data base on everyone. It can include virtually

everything - financial transactions and records, medical ones, emails, phone

calls, purchases, books and publications read, organization memberships, and

any other personal habit or pattern.

USA Patriot Act and HSA end the distinction between foreign and domestic

intelligence gathering and, up to now, the sacrosanct firewall between them.

They also no longer allow "critical infrastructure information" from a

federal agency to be disclosed through a FOIA request as part of an official

policy of secrecy characteristic of police states. There's much more in both

Acts as well that's frightening, dangerous and unknown to the public. In

sum, they end constitutional protections whenever the executive suspends the

law in the name of "national security." That's how "police state America"

works that's hidden from public view.

The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005

Torture is official state policy for the Bush administration as its

preferred means of intimidation, retribution and social control. The McCain

Detainee (anti-torture) Amendment in October, 2005 was a futile effort to

deter it. It was passed and weakened by the Graham-Levin Amendment, became

the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, and was attached to the 2006 Defense

Department's Appropriations Act. George Bush signed the legislation after

which he gutted its provisions relating to detainees in one of his notorious

"signing statements." Its language gave himself the right (irrespective of

the law) to "protect the American people from further terrorist attacks"

using all his self-given powers as a "unitary executive" that places him

above the law, Congress, the courts, the people, and world public opinion.

The legislation's final form went further as well. It denied detainees

habeas rights, let US forces use any cruel, abusive, inhumane or degrading

treatment in the interests of "national security," prohibited detainees from

bringing suits as a result, and allowed statements gotten coercively to be

used as evidence against them. It also followed previous policies as far

back as September 17, 2001 when George Bush signed a secret "finding"

authorizing CIA to kill, capture and detain "Al Qaeda" members anywhere in

the world, rendition them to black site torture-prisons for interrogation,

and obtain it by any means. From then to now, torture and abuse of anyone

have been standard operating procedures for the Bush administration with

complicity from Congress and the courts.

Other Repressive Legislation and More

The 107th, 108th, 109th and 110th Congresses will be remembered for likely

having done more than all others before them to defile the rule of law and

our constitutional protections. They conspired with a rogue administration,

wrecked the republic, and for the 109th Congress, October 17, 2006 stands

out shamelessly as a day that will live in infamy.

The Military Commissions Act

In a White House ceremony, George Bush signed the Military Commissions Act

(MCA) now known as "the torture authorization act," but it's more

far-reaching than that. It grants the administration extraordinary

unconstitutional powers to detain, interrogate and prosecute alleged terror

suspects and anyone claimed to be their supporters. It also lets the

President call anyone anywhere in the world an "unlawful enemy combatant"

and empowers him to arrest and incarcerate those accused indefinitely in

military prisons without needing corroborating evidence proving guilt. The

law states for persons detained that "no court, justice, or judge shall have

jurisdiction to hear or consider any claim or cause for action

whatsoever.... relating to the prosecution, trial, or judgment of a military

commission....including challenges to the lawfulness of procedures of

military commissions."

MCA further scraps habeas protection (dating back to 1215 in the Magna

Carta) for domestic and foreign enemies of the state, citizens and

non-citizens alike, and says "Any person is punishable... who....aids,

abets, counsels, commands, or procures" and in so doing helps a foreign

enemy, provides "material support" to alleged terrorist groups, engages in

spying, or commits other offenses previously handled in civil courts.

Other key elements of the act include:

-- legalizing torture against anyone and lets the President decide what

procedures can be used on his own authority;

-- denying detainees international law protection and lets the executive

interpret it;

-- empowering the President to convene "military commissions" to try anyone

he designates an "unlawful enemy combatant," and hold them in secret

detention indefinitely;

--denying speedy trials or any at all;

-- allowing evidence obtained by torture or coerced testimony to be used

against detainees in trial proceedings;

-- permitting hearsay and secret evidence to be used; and

-- denying due process, destroying human dignity, mocking the rule of law,

and establishing the principle of kangaroo court justice for anyone the

executive targets.

Revising the 1807 Insurrection Act and Ending 1878 Posse Comitatus

Protection

Also on October 17, 2006, the president privately signed into law a hidden

provision in Sections 1076 and 333 of the John Warner National Defense

Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007. It amended the Insurrection Act of

1807 and Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 that prohibit using federal and

National Guard troops for law enforcement inside the country except as

constitutionally allowed or expressly authorized by Congress in times of a

national emergency like an insurrection. The executive can now claim a

public emergency, effectively declare martial law, suspend the Constitution

for "national security," and deploy federal and National Guard troops on the

nation's streets to suppress whatever he calls disorder. That means First

Amendment-guaranteed peaceful public demonstrations and all organized acts

of dissent are no longer constitutionally protected. Neither is the republic

in "police state America."

The new law also authorizes the Pentagon to transfer state-of-the-art crowd

control weapons and technology to state and local responders. It's to

militarize them and blur the distinction between federal and local law

enforcement agencies as an operational police state tactic.

The Real ID Act of 2005

Congress passed the Act that threatens personal privacy, it's scheduled to

become effective in May, 2008, and it will require states to meet federal ID

standards if in takes effect next spring. That's now in question as two

dozen or more states passed laws prohibiting its use and refused to fund it.

The federal law mandates that every US citizen and legal resident have a

national identity card that in most cases will be a driver's license. It

requires that it contain an individual's personal information and means this

ID will be needed to open a bank account, board an airplane, be able to

vote, or conduct virtually any other essential type business.

In the future, the law may also require that the card contain a radio

frequency identification (RFID) technology computer chip that will be able

to track all movements, activities and transactions of everyone, everywhere,

at all times. In other words, with this technology embedded, the card will

become an empowered police state dream (and an Orwellian nightmare) to be

able to monitor everyone having one all the time wherever they are.

However, growing state opposition to the law puts its status in doubt. It's

because it's costly to establish and administer and will create a

bureaucratic nightmare besides. It thus looks likely it won't be adopted in

its current form, but it may be revised and reintroduced, so don't yet count

this one out as some are ready to do. As of now, measures have been

introduced in the House and Senate to repeal it by adopting national ID

standards in other legislation and increase federal funding for it. So going

forward, the issue of mandating national ID measures is very much alive. It

looks like something on it will emerge as federal law going forward, but the

cure may be worse than the disease if states adopt it to give "police state

America" another repressive tool.

Pervasive Spying on Americans

Under George Bush, spying is a national pastime, but it's no joke. The New

York Times reported on December 16, 2005 that his administration had been

secretly spying on Americans without warrants since late 2001. He authorized

the National Security Agency (NSA) to intercept international communications

of US citizens with known links to Al Queda, related "terrorist"

organizations, or for any other reasons at its discretion. The operation was

called the "Terrorism Surveillance Program."

It made no difference to the administration that wiretapping without

probable cause or judicial oversight violates Fourth Amendment protections

and the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). In the current

atmosphere, the rule of law is out the window, Congress and the courts

condone it, and that's the problem.

It surfaced again when Congress passed the Protect America Act of 2007 that

amends FISA with doublespeak language Orwell would love. It supposedly aims

to close "communication gaps" but will allow virtual unrestricted mass

data-mining monitoring and intercept of domestic and foreign internet, cell

phones and other new technology as well as transit international phone call

traffic and emails. The Act claims to restrict surveillance to foreign

nationals "reasonably believed to be outside the United States" and must be

renewed. In fact, the law targets everyone including US citizens inside the

country if the Attorney General or Director of National Intelligence claim

they pose a potential terrorist or "national security" threat, but no

evidence is needed to prove it.

This law allows virtual unrestricted warrantless spying of anyone for any

claimed "national security" reason. It thus renders the notion of illegal

searches and privacy rights null and void. But that already went on earlier

post-9/11 through other unconstitutional speech-related monitoring

activities. One was the short-lived Operation TIPS that was dropped when

civilian informers refused to be spies. Then, there was the Pentagon's Total

Information Awareness (TIA), later renamed Terrorism Information Awareness,

that was also ended under pressure but resurfaced in new form so illegal

military spying continues. The Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON)

program was part of it to collect domestic intelligence through a huge

database focused on "terrorism" that means everyone legally opposing Bush

administration practices is targeted.

MATRIX is another new data mining tool that stands for the Multistate

Anti-Terrorism Exchange Program. It violates our privacy by mass monitoring

the lives and activities of ordinary people on the pretext of learning

whether they may be engaging in any type terrorist or criminal activity.

Privacy isn't mentioned in the Constitution, but Supreme Court decisions

affirmed it as a fundamental human right. In addition, it's protected under

the Ninth Amendment, the Third prohibiting quartering troops in homes, the

Fourth prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures, and the Fifth

safeguarding against self-incrimination. MATRIX and other intrusive laws

violate the letter and spirit of the law and permits Patriot and HSA justice

in "police state America."

Executive Orders Issued by George Bush

George Bush loves big numbers. They show up in budgets and spending, in his

number of signing statements to congressional legislation, and in over 250

Executive Orders (EOs) in almost seven years. A key one is reviewed below.

July 17, 2007 Executive Order (EO): Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who

Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq

The US Constitution has no provision that gives a President power to make

new law through one-man executive order decrees. That never deterred others

in the past from issuing them, but none ever abused this practice more than

George Bush who's issued over 250 of them thus far with more sure to come.

This one on July 17 is especially egregious but right in character for a

President who disdains the law and shows it. It starts off: The President's

power stems from "the authority vested in me as President by the

Constitution and the laws of the United States of America" as well as the

International Economic Powers Act he also invokes.

The order continues: "....due to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the

national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by acts of

violence threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and undermining efforts

to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq and to

provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people," George Bush, in fact,

unconstitutionally usurped authority to criminalize the anti-war movement,

make the First Amendment right to protest it illegal, and empower himself to

seize the assets of persons violating this decree.

By this action, the President again, on his own authority, violated the

Constitution, criminalized dissent, and moved the nation another step closer

to tyranny in "police state America."

Secrecy As Policy under George Bush

In November 1, 2001, George Bush signed Executive Order 13233: Further

Implementation of the Presidential Records Act. In so doing, he established

an official administration policy of secrecy in violation of the 1978

Presidential Records Act, the 1974 Freedom of Information Act, and James

Madison's 1822 warning that "A popular Government, without popular

information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a

Tragedy; or perhaps both." He also violated the Supreme Court's 1977

decision in Nixon v. Administrator of General Services that ruled "executive

privilege" is subject to "erosion over time" after a president leaves

office, and Congress decided that little or none of an executive's

communications with his advisors should remain secret after 12 years.

Secrecy threatens democracy because it avoids accountability and empowers an

imperial president way beyond issues of national security that are

justifiable. On his own authority, George Bush placed limits on presidential

records, the Freedom of Information Act, and a free and open society by

giving himself the power to classify information for national security and

create a whole new array of categories called "sensitive" information that

includes anything he so designates. The result is that classified

information doubled since 2001 and efforts to declassify material was

stopped by invoking the "State Secrets" privilege to avoid court challenge.

These actions characterize police states and represent another threat to a

free and open society under an administration that disdains the law and

operates freely without constraint.

The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA)

On November 27, 2006, George Bush signed AETA into law to amend the Animal

Enterprise Protection Act of 1992. The new Act has broad and vague language

to criminalize First Amendment activities advocating for animal rights like

peaceful protests, leafleting, undercover investigations, whisleblowing and

boycotts. It shows how out of hand things have gotten with animal protection

advocacy now a crime.

Under the old law, anyone convicted of a physical disruption causing $10,000

in damages to an animal enterprise was subject to a $10,000 fine or 10 years

to life imprisonment. The new AETA is even harsher with penalties far

exceeding comparable offenses under other laws. It expands the original Act

by changing activity "for the purpose of causing physical disruption" to

actions "for the purpose of damaging or disrupting" an animal enterprise. In

this case, "disruptive" means any activity that results in "losses and

increased losses" over $10,000 by peaceful protests for consumers boycotts,

advocating harmful practice reforms, or a whisleblower doing the same

things.

The Act also goes further. It allows for expanded surveillance of animal

rights organizations to include criminal wiretapping and makes it easier for

a court to find probable cause for the vague crime of economic damage or

disruption than for one requiring hard evidence a person or group plans to

commit these acts.

The bill exempts "lawful public, governmental or business reaction to the

disclosure of information about an animal enterprise," but that provision

only applies to economic disruption claims, not damage and makes it hard to

distinguish between the two. In addition, AETA:

-- expands the kinds of facilities covered by adding ones that use or sell

animals or animal products;

-- it covers any person, entity or organization with a connection to an

animal enterprise;

-- it applies to any form of advocacy;

-- it criminalizes threatening conduct and protected speech as well as

communication with individuals who engage in these practices; and

-- it potentially includes any form of communication such as emailing across

state lines to boycott abusive animal activities;

-- it protects corporate animal abusers with a vested interest in silencing

dissent; and

-- it effectively singles out any form of civil disobedience or protest

activity and brands animal advocates as terrorists even when nothing they do

causes physical harm; even worse, the bill's language is so broad and vague

it's hard to know the difference between legal and illegal behavior; this

Act is another nail in the coffin of free expression, the rule of law in a

free society, and the right of everyone to be protected by law, not targeted

by it.

The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007

(HR 1955)

The House overwhelmingly passed this measure on October 23 that some

observers call "the thought crime prevention bill." It's now in the Senate

(S 1959) where if passed and signed by George Bush will establish a

commission and Center for Excellence to study and take action against

"thought criminals." The commission will be empowered to subpoena and

investigate anyone that will automatically create a perception of guilt that

may be highlighted in the media for added emphasis.

This Act is a direct assault on democratic freedoms in the current

atmosphere with both parties and a President determined to end them. The

bill's language hides its possible intent as "violent radicalization" and

"homegrown terrorism" may be whatever the administration says they are.

"Violent radicalization" is defined as "adopting or promoting an extremist

belief system (to facilitate) ideologically based violence to advance

political, religious or social change." "Homegrown terrorism" is used to

mean "the use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a

group or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within

the United States or any (US) possession to intimidate or coerce the (US)

government, the civilian population....or any segment thereof (to further)

political or social objectives."

This and other repressive laws may be used against any individual or group

with unpopular views - those that differ from established state policy, even

illegal ones, and historian Howard Zinn is concerned. He says: "This is the

most recent of a long series of laws passed in times of foreign policy

tensions, starting with the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which sent

people to jail for criticizing the Adams administration." Under Woodrow

Wilson in WW I, "the Espionage (and) Sedition Act(s) (jailed) close to a

thousand people (who spoke) out against the war." From HR 1955 and other

post-9/11 laws, authorities now have the same power to target anti-war

protesters or anyone expressing views this Act alone calls

"terrorist-related propaganda." Persons charged and convicted face stiff

penalties in an effort to deter others. This measure is still another step

toward full-blown tyranny in "police state America."

Sections 1615 and 1622 of the 2008 Defense Authorization Act

These provisions authorize DOD to militarize the country under martial law

by merging the military with state and local law enforcement during a

national emergency described as "an incident of national significance or a

catastrophic incident." It also gives the Defense Secretary extraordinary

power to determine what military capabilities are needed, to provide them to

"active (and) reserve components of the armed forces for homeland defense

missions, domestic emergency responses, and (to provide) military support to

civil authorities (for) at least five years."

The Act designates the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman to review NORTHCOM

civilian, reservist and military positions and increase their number in

preparation for a potential catastrophic event requiring "homeland defense

missions, domestic emergency response, (and the need for) military support

to civil authorities."

Section 1622 then establishes a Council of Governors to advise the

Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security and the White House "on matters

related to the National Guard and civil support missions."

The Act is more proof of "police state America." It establishes a martial

law apparatus to be used in case of a "catastrophic event" of any kind and

empowers the President or Vice-President under NSPD-51 to implement it in a

"national emergency" without congressional approval.

Operation FALCON - Police State America in Real Time

Mike Whitney won a 2008 Project Censored Award for his February, 2007

article titled "Operation FALCON and the Looming Police State." In it, he

reported that the Bush administration "carried out three massive sweeps in

the last two years, rolling up more than 30,000 minor crooks and criminals"

that he calls a "blueprint for removing dissidents and political rivals"

reminiscent of Nazi Germany or any other repressive police state. Those

chickens now reside at home, but the public is largely unaware and

unconcerned. We all should be as Whitney raises a "red flag for anyone who

cares at all about human rights, civil liberties, or simply saving his own

skin."

Operation FALCON stands for "Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally"

and came out of the Bush Justice Department and right-wing think tanks

"where fantasies of autocratic government have a long history" and are now

playing out in real time. The scheme centralizes power in Washington and

uses resources of local authorities for its own purposes.

Whitney traces its short history starting in the week of April 4 - 10, 2005

when over 10,000 criminal suspects were arrested in "the largest criminal

sweep in the nation's history" in a "single initiative." Its aim was

"quantity," not "quality," but Whitney asked why did the Feds get involved

in local police work and suggested something more sinister was involved

"than just ensuring public safety." His answer - "to enhance the powers of

the 'unitary' executive" by giving Washington power over local law

enforcement, and that makes perfect sense under an administration obsessed

with wanting unchallengeable control.

Operation FALCON II followed a week later from April 17 - 23 and swept up

another 9037 "alleged fugitives." The final FALCON III came from October

22 - 28, 2006 with 10,773 more arrests. Each sweep was the same and

concentrated on alleged criminal types out of character for a federal

operation, so clearly another motive was involved. Further, no one arrested

was charged with a terrorist-related crime, and that alone looks fishy.

Whitney thought so and called FALCON "new drills for a new world order"

that's waging permanent war, defiles the law, ignores checks and balances,

condones torture, repealed habeas, and illegally spies on everyone.

Muslim and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) Sweeps

As FALCON targeted petty crooks and criminals, Muslims are the

administration's main "war on terrorism" victims. Post-9/11, thousands were

mercilessly harassed and persecuted through mass witch-hunt roundups,

detentions, prosecutions and deportations. Their assets were frozen, and

legal immigrants among them were subjected to secret federal immigration

court status hearings where those found guilty of minor past infractions

were illegally held or returned to their countries of origin where they

faced possible arrest and torture.

Others fared even worse and became political prisoners. Professor Sami

Al-Arian was one of them because of his faith, beliefs and activism.

Palestinian refugee, scholar, academic, community leader, civic activist,

and freedom and justice advocate for his people made him a Bush

administration target. His ordeal began when he was arrested in February,

2003 and unjustly charged with supporting terrorism, conspiracy to commit

murder, racketeering, giving material support to an outlawed group,

extortion, perjury and other offenses proved spurious in his subsequent

trial in which he was exonerated. Yet he remains imprisoned under harsh

conditions as the Bush Justice Department finds ways to hold him.

Another victim was Dr. Rafil Dhafir, a Muslim American of Iraqi descent and

practicing oncologist until his license was suspended. He was convicted in a

shameless kangaroo court trial of 59 of 60 trumped up charges of violating

the Iraqi Sanctions Regulations (IEEPA) for using his own funds and what he

could raise through his Help the Needy charity to bring desperately needed

essential to life humanitarian aid to Iraqis under sanctions. He's now

serving a 22 year sentence in a special Terre Haute, IN "Communications

Management Unit" (CMU) for Muslims and Arabs for his "crime of compassion"

(see dhafirtrial.net, Katherine Hughes) where he, like Sami Al-Arian, is a

Bush administration "trophy" prisoner in the "war on terrorism."

Undocumented Latino immigrants have also been targeted with ICE shock troops

mandated to do it. The agency was established in March, 2003 as the largest

DHS investigative and enforcement arm and charged with protecting the public

safety by identifying and targeting "criminal" and "terrorist" threats to

the country. In most cases, they're innocent victims of NAFTA and globalized

trade coming north to survive. ICE heads them off at the border, hunts them

down ruthlessly once they're here, and boasts how well their multi-billion

dollar budget lets them conduct a reign of terror against vulnerable people.

Workplace assaults continue, and on October 3, ICE said it swept up and

deported (or will deport) more than 1300 "criminal aliens, immigrations

fugitives, and immigration violators" in the "largest-ever" operation of its

kind in the Los Angeles area. Most were Mexican nationals, but some were

from 30 other countries, and ICE called them "immigration violators."

They're Bush administration targets in its "war on terrorism" that soon may

come for us.

Police State America Preparations

Today, dissent is an endangered species, and preparations are underway for

mass detentions in the "war on terrorism" targeting anyone seen as a threat.

Halliburton is the beneficiary with a DHS contingency contract worth nearly

$400 million to build US-based camps for "detention and processing" in case

of an "emergency influx of immigrants....or to support the rapid development

of new programs (for planned) expansion facilities (for anyone with capacity

for 5000 or more persons)."

This language is cover for planned US-based concentration camps for anyone

labeled an enemy of the state or threat to "national security." The plan is

clear - to have facilities in place if martial law is declared with plenty

of reasons to fear it's coming. Why else these camps and why all the

repressive laws, EOs, NSPDs, and HSPDs put in place if they weren't for a

purpose.

The Pentagon is also ready with a DOD action plan called "Strategy for

Homeland Defense and Civil Support." It envisions an "active, layered

defense" both within and outside the country that pledges to "transform US

military forces to execute homeland defense missions in the....US homeland."

It lays out a strategy for increased reconnaissance and surveillance to

"defeat potential challengers before they threaten the United States." It

also "maximizes threat awareness and seizes the initiative from those who

would harm us."

These are ominous developments that suggest a likely real or contrived

homeland terror attack severe enough to warrant suspending the Constitution

and declaring martial law with the public acquiescing out of fear. If it

comes, anyone may be targeted as a "national security" threat, indefinitely

detained in a camp, and no evidence is needed for proof. The state and

military will be empowered by law to act preventively through mass roundups

and detentions that appears the reason for three test-run FALCON operations.

Full-scale militarization of the country is already lawful under the 1988

Reagan administration's "national security emergency" EO 12656. It was meant

for "Any occurrence, including natural disaster, military attack,

technological or other emergency, that seriously degrades or seriously

threatens the national security of the United States." "Police state

America" has been in the works a long time, and it now may be near the

boiling point.

The Role of Blackwater USA in Police State America

Most people know about Blackwater but not how it operates. We better learn

because it's coming to a neighborhood near you, and that means trouble.

Author Jeremy Scahill wrote the book on the company he calls "the world's

most powerful mercenary army" and describes it as a "shadowy mercenary

company (employing) some of the most feared professional killers in the

world accustomed to operating without worry of legal consequences (and)

largely off the congressional radar." It has friends in high places who give

it "remarkable power and protection within the US war apparatus" with

unaccountable license to practice street violence with impunity to include

cold-blooded murder wherever their paramilitaries are deployed.

For now, that's mostly abroad, and controversy surfaced about the company

after its mercenaries killed two dozen or more Iraqis and wounded dozens

more in al-Nisour on September 16. It was the latest incident involving a

company with a disturbing history of unprovoked violence and then claiming

self-defense. Blackwater is contracted to provide security services for US

diplomats, officials and others that once was assigned to the military at

one-sixth or less what the company charges under an administration that

believes anything government can do private business does better, so let it

whatever the cost.

Using Blackwater and other paramilitaries is part of the scheme to

militarize America, and New Orleans is its first test case. Scahill wrote

that "about 150 heavily armed Blackwater troops dressed in full battle gear"

arrived in the Crescent City right after Katrina hit and spread out into the

city's chaos. Others came later. Their cover was to provide hurricane

relief, but that was a ruse as local residents still around in the wrong

places soon discovered. They patrolled like Gestapo in SUVs with tinted

windows and their logo on the back. Others used unmarked cars with no

license plates, and relief wasn't their mandate. They came to secure

neighborhoods from their legal residents and treat those wanting to return

like criminals. They wore flak jackets, carried automatic weapons and had

extra guns strapped to their legs. They weren't for show.

Instead of helping hurricane victims, they came as vigilantes to terrorize

them and be empowered by federal, state and local authorities to do it.

Blackwater USA is the face of paramilitarism on US streets as the "war on

terrorism" comes to a neighborhood near you with New Orleans the first test

case to see if the company can operate here the way it does in Iraq and get

away with it. It's doing it.

More than two years after Katrina, New Orleans is still a disaster zone, and

many thousands of its residents are still without homes. Instead of helping

them rebuild and restore their lives, federal funds instead go to private

mercenaries to protect the privileged from desperate people needing help.

Blackwater is another element in place in "police state America" where the

streets of Boston, Boise or Buffalo may one day resemble Baghdad and bring

the "war on terror" to the homeland with chilling implications of what that

means.

A Look Ahead in Police State America

This article began and will end with the same chilling thought. It past is

prologue, the outlook isn't good in "police state America" under neocon rule

that won't appreciably change when the White House has a new occupant in

2009. The nation is at war and laws are in place that end constitutional

protections, militarize the country, repress dissent, and our government is

empowered to crush freedom and defend privilege from beneficial social

change it won't tolerate. It's the price of imperial arrogance we the people

are paying, and that won't end until the spirit of resistance gets aroused

enough to stop it in our own self-defense. We better hope that happens in

time with potentially little of it left.

--

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Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107

"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their

spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their

government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are

suffering deeply in spirit,

and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public

debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have

patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning

back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at

stake."

-Thomas Jefferson