December 22, 2007
PARALLELS
B
GERMANY (1930=s), AND THE UNITED STATES (2000=s)
Francoise Hall
Number of words: 25,464
Copyright 2007, Francoise Hall, all rights reserved
PARALLELS
B
GERMANY (1930=s), AND THE UNITED STATES (2000=s)
ONCE DEMOCRACIES............................................................................................................... 9
Germany.............................................................................................................................. 9
United States..................................................................................................................... 11
A FASCIST SHIFT....................................................................................................................... 13
WORDS AND IMAGES.............................................................................................................. 14
The Homeland....................................................................................................... 14
On a AWar Footing@............................................................................................. 14
Aggressors as ALiberators@................................................................................... 14
AEmbedding@ Reporters....................................................................................... 15
Hiding Heroes........................................................................................................ 15
Toilets to humiliate................................................................................................ 15
Stunning the World............................................................................................... 15
An AAxis@............................................................................................................. 16
A Anew Europe@................................................................................................... 17
Democracy re-defined........................................................................................... 18
GRANDIOSE SPECTACLES..................................................................................................... 19
Germany, 1935.................................................................................................................. 19
The Film................................................................................................................. 19
The Mission............................................................................................................ 20
United States, 2003........................................................................................................... 21
The Film................................................................................................................. 21
The Mission............................................................................................................ 21
SECRET PRISONS...................................................................................................................... 22
Germany............................................................................................................................ 22
Illegal Prisons......................................................................................................... 22
Concentration Camps............................................................................................ 22
United States..................................................................................................................... 23
A Prison in legal Limbo......................................................................................... 23
A worldwide Network of secret Prisons............................................................... 23
STATE-SANCTIONED TORTURE............................................................................................ 24
Germany............................................................................................................................ 24
Terror..................................................................................................................... 24
All Opponents punished........................................................................................ 24
The Opposition decimated..................................................................................... 24
Minorities targeted................................................................................................. 24
Torture legalized.................................................................................................... 25
Sound as Torture.................................................................................................... 25
Torture encouraged................................................................................................ 25
United States..................................................................................................................... 26
ANo-touch@ Torture.............................................................................................. 26
Torture encouraged................................................................................................ 26
Sound as Torture.................................................................................................... 26
Torture re-defined.................................................................................................. 27
Preparing to torture................................................................................................ 27
Torture undefined.................................................................................................. 27
ACCLIMATING CITIZENS TO STATE-SANCTIONED TORTURE..................................... 28
Germany............................................................................................................................ 28
Making light of Torture......................................................................................... 28
United States..................................................................................................................... 29
Accepting Torture.................................................................................................. 29
Abrogating Habeas Corpus................................................................................... 30
Making light of Torture......................................................................................... 30
A PRIVATE ARMY..................................................................................................................... 31
Germany............................................................................................................................ 31
Sanctioning Violence............................................................................................. 31
Encouraging Violence............................................................................................ 31
United States..................................................................................................................... 32
Privatizing Violence............................................................................................... 32
Privatizing Protection............................................................................................ 32
A free-lance Army................................................................................................. 33
A Tax-exempt Army.............................................................................................. 33
An international Army........................................................................................... 33
A private Army with Government Connections.................................................... 34
An Army with Police Functions............................................................................ 35
An unaccountable Army........................................................................................ 36
A parallel Occupation Force.................................................................................. 36
Many private Armies............................................................................................. 36
An Army above the Law....................................................................................... 37
A complementary Army........................................................................................ 38
An Army for Rent................................................................................................. 39
VOTER INTIMIDATION............................................................................................................ 40
Germany............................................................................................................................ 40
Uniformed Bullies................................................................................................. 40
United States..................................................................................................................... 41
Uniformed Bullies................................................................................................. 41
CITIZEN SURVEILLANCE....................................................................................................... 42
Germany............................................................................................................................ 42
Violation of Privacy............................................................................................... 42
The End of Privacy................................................................................................ 42
United States..................................................................................................................... 43
Secret Searches...................................................................................................... 43
Warrant-less Wire-tapping..................................................................................... 44
Spying on Dissenters............................................................................................. 44
Secret Surveillance................................................................................................. 45
Secret domestic Spying......................................................................................... 45
A secret domestic Police........................................................................................ 47
Spying on millions................................................................................................. 49
Legalizing warrant-less Spying.............................................................................. 49
The End of Privacy................................................................................................ 49
The Biology of ATerrorists@.................................................................................. 50
Retrospective Immunity for Spying...................................................................... 50
Spying on the Internet........................................................................................... 50
INFILTRATION OF CITIZENS= GROUPS............................................................................. 51
Germany............................................................................................................................ 51
Infiltration.............................................................................................................. 51
United States..................................................................................................................... 52
Infiltration.............................................................................................................. 52
ARBITRARY DETENTION....................................................................................................... 53
Germany............................................................................................................................ 53
Making Travel hazardous....................................................................................... 53
United States..................................................................................................................... 54
Making Travel hazardous....................................................................................... 54
Intimidating Travelers............................................................................................ 54
Intimidating Officials............................................................................................ 54
Black-listing........................................................................................................... 54
Sizing up Travelers................................................................................................. 54
CONTROLLING THE PRESS.................................................................................................... 55
Germany............................................................................................................................ 55
Intimidating Journalists......................................................................................... 55
United States..................................................................................................................... 56
Destroying the Source........................................................................................... 56
Killing the Messenger............................................................................................ 56
De-legitimizing the Source.................................................................................... 56
Discrediting the Source......................................................................................... 56
Planning to eliminate the Source........................................................................... 56
Torturing the Messenger........................................................................................ 56
Incarcerating the Messenger.................................................................................. 57
Discrediting the Messenger................................................................................... 57
Threatening the Messenger.................................................................................... 57
CONTROLLING UNIVERSITIES............................................................................................. 58
Germany............................................................................................................................ 58
Finding Support in Universities............................................................................. 58
Dismissing Academics........................................................................................... 58
United States..................................................................................................................... 59
Threatening Academics......................................................................................... 59
Intimidating Academics........................................................................................ 59
Finding Support in Universities............................................................................. 59
CONTROLLING CIVIL SOCIETY........................................................................................... 60
Germany............................................................................................................................ 60
Propaganda as Art................................................................................................. 60
United States..................................................................................................................... 61
Punishing Critics.................................................................................................... 61
Threatening Critics................................................................................................. 61
Finding Enemies of the State................................................................................ 61
Intimidating Artists............................................................................................... 62
Threatening Censure.............................................................................................. 62
Molding public Opinion......................................................................................... 62
CONTROLLING SEXUAL BEHAVIOR.................................................................................. 63
Germany............................................................................................................................ 63
Re-criminalizing Abortion..................................................................................... 63
United States..................................................................................................................... 65
Re-criminalizing Abortion..................................................................................... 65
RAISING THE PRICE OF DISSENT......................................................................................... 69
Germany............................................................................................................................ 69
Black-listing Critics............................................................................................... 69
Punishing the Opposition....................................................................................... 69
Ruining the Opposition.......................................................................................... 69
United States..................................................................................................................... 70
Punishing the Opposition....................................................................................... 70
Retiring the Opposition......................................................................................... 70
CRIMINALIZING DISSENT..................................................................................................... 71
Germany............................................................................................................................ 71
Punishing Humor................................................................................................... 71
United States..................................................................................................................... 72
Treason a Crime..................................................................................................... 72
Punishing Treason.................................................................................................. 72
Activism a Crime................................................................................................... 72
DANGER TO THOSE WHO HELP............................................................................................ 73
Germany............................................................................................................................ 73
Killing the Helper.................................................................................................. 73
United States..................................................................................................................... 76
Punishing the Helper.............................................................................................. 76
FLOODING THE DISCOURSE WITH LIES............................................................................ 77
Germany............................................................................................................................ 77
Soothing the Opposition........................................................................................ 77
Fooling the Opposition.......................................................................................... 79
Truth not a consideration....................................................................................... 80
United States..................................................................................................................... 81
Fiction, not Truth................................................................................................... 81
Justifying prospectively......................................................................................... 81
The 9/11 Attacks.................................................................................................... 82
Inventing Facts...................................................................................................... 83
Fictionalizing Facts................................................................................................ 84
Hiding the Facts.................................................................................................... 84
Destroying Evidence............................................................................................. 85
Truth not a Consideration...................................................................................... 87
A Five-year Lie...................................................................................................... 88
Lies unchallenged.................................................................................................. 89
USING FRAUDULENT DOCUMENTS.................................................................................... 90
Manufacturing the Evidence................................................................................. 90
United States..................................................................................................................... 91
Manufacturing the Evidence................................................................................. 91
SUBVERTING THE LAW.......................................................................................................... 92
Germany............................................................................................................................ 92
Targeting legal Professionals................................................................................. 92
Legalizing Murders................................................................................................ 92
Re-defining Justice................................................................................................ 92
United States..................................................................................................................... 93
Violating the Constitution..................................................................................... 93
Circumventing Congress........................................................................................ 93
Loyalty, not Justice................................................................................................ 93
KEEPING LEGAL DEFINITIONS VAGUE............................................................................. 94
Germany............................................................................................................................ 94
Keeping Offenses nebulous................................................................................... 94
United States..................................................................................................................... 95
Keeping Offenses nebulous................................................................................... 95
Broadening Definitions......................................................................................... 96
Trip-wire Justice..................................................................................................... 96
Refusing to define................................................................................................. 97
MAKING NEW LAWS RETROACTIVE.................................................................................. 98
Germany............................................................................................................................ 98
Murder Legalized retroactively............................................................................. 98
United States..................................................................................................................... 99
Murder legalized retroactively............................................................................... 99
Torture legalized retroactively............................................................................... 99
Demanding retroactive Immunity for Spying........................................................ 99
AN INTRANSIGENT STANCE............................................................................................... 100
Germany.......................................................................................................................... 100
Intransigence pays............................................................................................... 100
United States................................................................................................................... 104
Preventive War.................................................................................................... 104
On the Offensive always..................................................................................... 104
War, not Negotiations.......................................................................................... 105
Other Armies are Terrorists.................................................................................. 105
Destroy the World rather than negotiate............................................................. 106
RULING BY EMERGENCY DECREE / MARTIAL LAW................................................... 107
Germany.......................................................................................................................... 107
The First Reich..................................................................................................... 107
The Second Reich................................................................................................ 107
The Weimar Republic.......................................................................................... 107
The Third Reich................................................................................................... 108
United States................................................................................................................... 110
Acquiring War-making Power............................................................................. 110
The Military for Domestic Use............................................................................ 110
Preparing for Martial Law................................................................................... 110
Instilling Fear in Citizens..................................................................................... 110
Rehearsing Martial Law....................................................................................... 111
Expecting Insurrection......................................................................................... 112
CONCLUSIONS........................................................................................................................ 113
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 114
PARALLELS
B
GERMANY (1930=s), AND THE UNITED STATES (2000=s)
ONCE DEMOCRACIES
Before their slide toward authoritarianism, both Germany, in the 1920=s, and the United States, in the 1990=s, were B even if not perfect B democracies.
Germany:
The legal Rise to Power: Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), founder of the National Socialist German Workers= (Nazi) Party, and dictator (Chancellor, Fuhrer, 1933-1945), rose to power legally.
The Anticedents: Hitler=s predecessors, Chancellor Heinrich Bruning (1885-1970, Chancellor March 29,1930 - May 30, 1932), and Chancellor Franz von Papen (1879-1969, Chancellor June 1, 1932 - January 29, 1933), have weakened the framework of German democracy. They have restricted civil liberties, reduced the power of the Reichstag (national parliament), and increased the prerogative of the Chancellor to rule by emergency decree. The Reichstag itself has weakened the country=s system of checks and balances.
The Rise: On November 9, 1923, Hitler and his group of bully-boys B for whom violence seems the obvious way to power B break into a meeting which the head of the Bavarian government, Gustav Ritter von Kahr, is addressing. The meeting is in a beer-cellar (Burgerbraukeller), in Munich. Hitler has the backing of General Erich Ludendorff (1865-1937), a powerful military official who essentially ran Germany during the last two years (1916-1918) of World War I.
The intention is to arrest and depose the Bavarian government, then march, with a now subdued Bavarian armed contingent, to Berlin where Hitler will install himself as head of a new Reich government. Ludendorff will take over the national army. For his support, Kahr will be rewarded with an important position.
The putsch does not succeed. The Nazis, yet inexperienced, have secured the Munich army and police headquarters, but have forgotten to secure the army barracks, which remain in government hands. While Hitler is outside the beer-cellar, attending to the chaos, Ludendorff releases Kahr who promptly back-tracks from his enforced compliance with the plot, and repudiates Hitler=s actions.
(Once Democracies, Germany, continued)
On January 30, 1933, Hitler is sworn in as Reich Chancellor. Within six months, he terrorizes the German people, and transforms Germany into a dictatorship. He has succeeded in over-turning legally a living, even if somewhat eroded, rule of law (pp. 29. Evans 2003, pp. xxxi, 54, 178, 181, 189, 192-194 and 442. Wikipedia 2008 AHeinrich Bruning,@ p. 3).
(Once Democracies, continued)
United States:
The Antecedents: In the United States at the present time, the administration of President George W. Bush is operating in a weakened democracy.
In 2000, the Supreme Court hands the presidency to George Bush, although Bush has lost the popular vote.
Media and telecommunications companies are increasingly being de-regulated.
The wars on Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) are based on deceit of the American public.
The 2001 USA PATRIOT Act gives the president full power to declare war, expands the definition of terrorism to include domestic as well as foreign terrorism, and dramatically expands the power of government to gather personal information on citizens.
President Bush=s abuse of his prerogative to write signing statements to acts which he signs into law, gives him a loophole through which he can disregard Congressional decisions.
The 2002 Help America vote Act (HAVA) privatizes the electoral process. Voting machines cannot be inspected or audited, and produce no paper trail. As of 2008, there has been no full investigation of alleged fraud in the 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 elections.
The Aglobal war on terror@ has put the United States in a permanent state of emergency.
The 2006 Military Commission Act denies the writ of habeas corpus to Aany person,@ including American citizens, and deprives Aenemy combatants@ of the protection of the Geneva Conventions against torture.
(Once Democracies, United States, continued)
The administration interferes with academic freedom in universities, such as, in 2006, in the case of Ward Churchill, in Boulder, Colorado, and the case of Kevin Barrett, in Madison, Wisconsin. It has silenced scientists and tampered with scientific findings, such as in the case of James Hansen on global warming.
The administration intimidates and dismisses federal judges. In the case of Terri Schiavo, the administration has violated state law.
As of 2007, private military contractors, such as Blackwater USA, are unaccountable to Congress
(Pp. 29, 88 and 107. Cohen and Fraser 2007, summarized in Hall 2007b. Scahill 2007a, pp. xxi-xxii. Evans 2003, pp. xxxi and 442).
A FASCIST SHIFT
Fascism: Fascism is a militaristic system opposed to democracy. Ideologically and practically, it seeks to dismantle democracy, using state terror against the individual in order to achieve this goal.
A Fascist Shift: A Afascist shift@ is a shift, in a previously democratic society, toward an anti-democratic ideology which uses the threat of violence against the individual to subdue the institutions of civil society, and subordinate them to the power of the state.
Authoritarianism: Authoritarianism is a system in which one branch of government is all powerful. An authoritarian system favors, encourages, and enforces strict obedience to authority, as opposed to individual freedom. In 2008, the United States has an executive who disregards the restraints of the other two branches of government. It tends, therefore, toward an authoritarian system.
From Authoritarianism to Fascism: In a fascist shift, authoritarianism is not the end-point. As citizens believe themselves safe from state-sanctioned atrocities committed against others, government zeal intensifies, and the dividing line which separates the Athem@ from the Aus@ begins to blurs, soon fading away entirely. The terror spreads to all citizens.
State terror directed at the individual is the difference between a fairly stable authoritarianism and fascism.
Class Warfare: Unrestrained corporate power allied with government police power, tends to lead to fascism. In Germany, the cartels and the affluent strata supported Hitler and his Stormtroopers (Sturmabteilung, SA, Brownshirts). In the service of corporate interests and privilege, Hitler used the Stormtroopers as an anti-labor, paramilitary force which terrorized workers, farm laborers, socialists and communists. Nazi leader Hermann Goering labeled the Stormtroopers the Abodyguard of capitalism.@ In the United States today, corporations have inordinate power.
The American Empire: Just as previous empires were not born by accident (despite the myth that empires are so born), neither is the American empire, which presently encompasses the globe, innocent. Just as the fantasy of a thousand years Reich was driven by a drive to power, so the fantasy of the Anew American Century@ is driven by the wish for domination.
In order to acquire an empire, purpose-driven rulers have to consciously mobilize vast numbers of men,and amass vast amounts of materiel, to conquer and plunder far-off places. Empire abroad means control and domination at home.
(Pp. 21-23. Phillips et al 2007, p. 35. Parenti 2007a, pp. 343 and 346-352 Parenti 2007b).
WORDS AND IMAGES
The Homeland:
Germany, 1930:
By 1930, Nazis refer to Germany as Athe Homeland.@
United States, 2002:
In 2002, President George W. Bush creates the ADepartment of Homeland Security@ (p. 7).
On a AWar Footing@:
Germany, 1933:
In 1933, Hermann Goering (1893-1946), German Air Minister, founder, in 1922, of the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei, state secret police), and as of 1923, leader of the Storm Division (Stormtroopers, Sturmabteilung, the ASA,@ the brown-shirted military arm of the Nazi party), declares that the February 1933 Reichstag fire, has brought Germany (which is not actually at war) on a permanent Akriegsfusz@ (Awar footing@).
United States, 2004:
In 2004, U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and, in 2006, Vice-president Dick Cheney, declare that the 9/11, 2001, terrorist attacks brought America (which was not then actually at war) on a Awar footing@ (pp. 8-9, 41, 79 and 158. Evans 2005, p. 54. See the present document under ARuling by Emergency Decree/ Martial Law, Germany, The Third Reich, the Reichstag Fire@).
Aggressors as ALiberators@:
Germany, 1936:
In 1936, preparing to re-militarize the Rhineland, in violation of both the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, and the 1925 Locarno Pact, Nazi propagandists promise that the troops will be welcomed as liberators.
United States, 2003:
In 2003, preparing to invade Iraq, in violation of both domestic and international law, Vice-president Dick Cheney promises that the troops will be Agreeted as liberators@ (p. 8. Columbia Encyclopedia 2000).
(Words and Images, continued)
AEmbedding@ Reporters:
Germany, 1939:
In 1939, Nazi officials Aembed@ reporters and camera crews with their armed forces. In 1939, German film-maker Helene ALeni@ Riefenstahl (1902-2003) drives with German troops into Poland. In 1940, U.S. correspondent William Shirer drives with German troops into occupied France.
United States, 2003:
In 2003, the Bush administration Aembeds@ reporters with U.S. miliary units in Iraq (p. 9).
Hiding Heroes:
Germany, 1940:
In 1940, Nazis unload the coffins of the German war dead at night.
United States, 2003:
In 2003, the Bush administration unloads coffins of dead American soldiers from planes at night, forbidding photographers to take pictures of the coffins (p. 9).
Toilets to humiliate:
Germany, 1938:
In 1938, the Gestapo (German secret state police), forces Jews to scrub the toilets with the tfillin, their sacred phylacteries.
United States, 2005:
In 2005, in the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, U.S. guards abuse the Koran, allegedly by flushing copies down the toilet (p. 8).
Stunning the World:
Germany, 1940:
In 1940, speaking of his plans, Hitler exclaims:
AThe world will hold its breath.@
United States, 2006:
In 2006, as the terrorist plot against U.S.-bound planes is uncovered in London, a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent exclaims:
AIf this plot had actually occurred, the world would have stood still@ (p. 10).
(Words and Images, continued)
An AAxis@:
Germany:
1936: In November 1936, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) talks openly of a ARome-Berlin Axis,@ referring to a secret agreement he and Hitler have signed, to the effect that they will respect each other=s ambitions, and that they will ally themselves against the Spanish Republic.
At the same time, Hitler signs a secret agreement with Japan, pledging both countries to a defensive alliance against the Soviet Union. Together, the two agreements form the line-up of revisionist, expansionist powers against which the West would fight World War II.
1936-1945: From 1936 to 1945, the term AAxis Powers@ refers to the coalition of countries headed by Germany, Italy and Japan. In 1939, the AAxis@ is consolidated through an Italian-German alliance, and in 1940, it is extended through a military alliance between Germany, Italy and Japan (the Berlin Pact). Later, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Croatia would adhere to the Pact (Evans 2005, p. 641).
United States, 2001:
After the 9/11 attacks, President Bush elaborates on the all-encompassing nature of the terrorist threat B it is an AAxis of Evil.@ The implication is that it is expansionist B like the AAxis Powers@ of Hitler=s days (p. 35).
(Words and Images, continued)
A Anew Europe@:
Germany, 1940:
In 1940, Hitler uses the phrase Anew Europe@ to describe the Axis powers.
United States, 2003:
On January 23, 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld uses the phrase Aold Europe@ to describe the European countries which stall in their support the invasion of Iraq:
AGermany has been a problem, and France has been a problem. But you look at vast numbers of other countries in Europe. They=re not with France and Germany on this. They=re with the United States . . . [Germany and France represent] old Europe, and [NATO=s expansion in recent years means that] the center of gravity in shifting to the East@ (p. 35. CNN.com 2003, p. 1).
On June 11, 2003, speaking in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Center for Security Studies, operated in the city by the Pentagon, Rumsfeld praises the contribution of Poland and Romania to the post-war reconstruction of Iraq:
AIt suggests that the distinction between old and new Europe [is a] matter of the attitude and vision that countries bring to the trans-Atlantic relationship@ (GlobalSecurity.org 2003, p. 1).
The ski-resort of
Garmisch-Partenkirchen was the site of the 1936 Olympic Winter Games, held in the
midst of the Nazi
Aaim to shut out Jewry bit by bit from every sphere of life of the German people@ [Nazi leader Martin Bormann (1900-1945), February 1936, quoted in Evans 2005, p. 573]).
(Words and Images, continued)
Democracy re-defined:
Germany:
1933: Immediately upon his appointment as Chancellor, January 30, 1933, Hitler ignores assumed agreements. Pretending normality, and letting Reichstag representatives continue to engage in negotiations, he nevertheless follows his own course as a dictator. During the next six months, claiming a series of new powers (the right unilaterally to declare war, annex territory, veto existing laws and over-rule the judiciary), he presents the nation with faits accomplis which are increasingly daring.
1935: On September 11, 1935, at the Nuremberg Party Rally, Hitler insists that if state institutions prove ineffective in implementing the Party=s policies, then Athe movement@ will have to implement them instead:
AThe battle against the inner enemy will never be frustrated by formal bureaucracy or its incompetence@(Evans 2005, p. 447).
1936: In 1936, Hitler reiterates:
AI am not a dictator. I have only simplified democracy@ (pp. 144-145).
United States, 2000:
The George W. Bush administration espouses the AUnitary Executive Theory@ whereby it is unconstitutional for Congress to create Aindependent@ agencies which the President is not authorized to remove or discipline. The doctrine favors nearly unlimited executive power. The doctrine violates basic tenets of the U.S. system of checks and balances, and quietly crosses long-standing legal and moral boundaries which are essential to a democratic society.
On April 18, 2006, on the occasion of his nomination of Rob Portman as director of the Office of Management and Budget, President Bush counters criticisms of the performance of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld:
AI have strong confidence in Don Rumsfeld. I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I am the decider, and I decide what is best. And what=s best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the Secretary of Defense.@
(van Bergen 2006, p. 2. Wikipedia 2007, AUnitary Executive Theory,@ p. 1. The White House 2006, pp. 1 and 7).
GRANDIOSE SPECTACLES
Germany, 1935:
The Film: In 1935, the young actress and film producer Leni Riefenstahl, records the 1935 Rally of the Nazi Party in Nuremberg. The film is called, Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will), a title chosen by Hitler and the Awill@ is not only that of the German people, but also, and above all, Hitler=s own.
The film would be the only one made about Hitler during the Third Reich (Empire). Its release, in March, draws both national and international acclaim. It receives the German National Film Prize (1935), the Venice Film Festival Gold Medal (1935), and the Paris Film Festival Grand Prix (1937).
The documentary is striking for its monumentalism and its presentation of vast, disciplined masses moving in perfect coordination, as if they were one body, not thousands of men. It removes any doubt the audience might have regarding the disciplined coordination of the German masses and the primacy of military models in their organization. Presented as a documentary, it is really a propaganda film designed to show Germany and the world, the power, strength and determination of the German people under Hitler=s leadership. It would remain one of the great 20th century classics of documentary propaganda.
The film portrays Hitler=s plane descending through the clouds and landing in Nuremberg. Uniformed paramilitary personnel and civilians have gathered around the door of the plane to welcome him. Hitler emerges and reviews his troops, all dressed identically, and massed in orderly rows. He is wearing a black leather belt, and black leather bandoliers (pocketed belts for holding ammunition) slung over his chest. This tan jodhpurs are tucked into black leather boots and he carries a military hat in his left hand. He addresses the vast, orderly mass of troops in an epic scene of troops hailing their leader (Fuhrer). Huge vertical banners are visible throughout the crowd. Backing the parade ground is an enormous, stylized eagle, wings outspread, a swastika at its center, designed by Hitler=s official architect Albert Speer (1905-1981).
(Grandiose Spectacles, Germany, 1935, continued)
The Mission: In conjunction with his racial ideology and anti-semitism, Hitler often speaks of the Ahistoric@ or Ahigher mission@ of the Aryan race B and its elite core, the German people. Hitler sees the Aryan as the race endowed with the highest spiritual qualities, the only one capable of producing a higher civilization. Aryans once ruled the earth. The Ahigher mission@ of the German people is to regain world domination for the Aryan race. The new, god-like Aryan will then rule over the inferior races, the Amass-animal@ (Hitler 1925, pp. 383-384, 391 and 397-398, quoted in Spielvogel and Redles undated, p. 9. Spielvogel and Redles undated, p. 13).
In 1923, during his May 1st speech in Munich (six months before his November 9th beer-cellar putsch), Hitler declares:
AThe first of May [is] a glorification of the . . . liberation of the nation=s spirit . . . from the infection of internationalism . . . The question arises: Is the German oak ever destined to see another springtime? And that is where the mission of our movement begins. We have the strength to conquer that which the autumn as brought upon us@ (Hitler 1923, quoted in Stormfront.org, undated, p. 1. Evans 2003, pp. 191-195).
In 1924, while in prison, Hitler dictates Mein kampf:
AWhat we have to fight for . . . is the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may be enabled to fulfill the mission assigned to it by the Creator@ (Hitler 1925, p. 125, quoted in Ghouse 2007, pp. 9-10).
In 1931, interviewed by Leipzig newspaper editor Edouard Calic, Hitler explains:
ABetrayal of the nation is possible even when no crime has been committed B in other words, when a historic mission has not been fulfilled@ (Calic 1971, p. 68, quoted in Spielvogel and Redles undated, p. 1).
In 1934, during a speech in Munich, on the 11th anniversary of his November 9, 1923, beer-cellar putsch, Hitler welcomes new Party members:
AToday, the Party is by no means at the end of its mission, but at the very beginning!@ (Hitler 1934, quoted in Domarus 1990-2004, Internet Version, p. 1).
(Grandiose Spectacles, continued)
United States, 2003:
The Film: On May 1, 2003, arriving to give his AMission accomplished@ speech, President George W. Bush descends from the skies over water, in a small plane (a Navy S-3B Viking) which he ha been co-piloting. He lands on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier where uniformed military personnel have gathered around the door of the plane to welcome him. Bush emerges to review and address the troops. He is dressed in a green flight suit with many leather straps and a great deal of hardware across his chest. He is wearing black leather boots and holds his helmet in his left hand. A massive horizontal banner reading AMission Accomplished@ stretches behind him. The troops are standing in a vast expanse of orderly rows. Their cheering lasts for minutes. It is dusk and Bush delivers his speech under the cast of a golden glow.
The Mission: On board the USS Abraham Lincoln, President Bush announces the end of major combat operations in Iraq:
AIn the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. In this Battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. . . The Battle is one victory in a war on terror that began on September 11th, 2001, and still goes on. . . The use of force has been, and remains, our last resort. Yet all can know, friend and foe alike, that our nation has a mission. We will answer threats to our security, and we will defend the peace. Our mission continues.@
Exactly 80 years earlier, on May 1, 1923, Hitler had also made a speech, and in that speech, he had also spoken about a Amission@:
AThat is where the mission of our movement begins.@
Former ABC producer Scott Sforza, former NBC cameraman and lighting expert Bob De Servi, and former Fox News producer Greg Jenkins, have stage-managed the event.
(Pp. 124-125. Evans 2005, pp. 125-127 and 571. CBS News 2003, pp. 1 and 3. Conason 2007, pp. 29 and 117. See the present document under AGrandiose Spectacles, Germany, 1923@).
SECRET PRISONS
Germany:
1929-1933:
Illegal Prisons: The SS, led, since 1929, by Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945), owe allegiance solely to Hitler. They obey no laws except their own. In the early 1930=s, the Nazis begin establishing prisons in legal Aouter space,@ Alawless universes@ B often basements B guarded by SS officers not accountable to the state.
[SS stands for the defense echelon (schutzstaffel), the elite, black-shirted, bodyguard, Aprotection squad@ section of the Stormtroops (SA). The SA are the brown-shirted military arm of the Nazi party (See the present document under AWords and Images, On a >War Footing,= Germany, 1933@)].
Torture occurs with impunity in these illegitimate, makeshift prisons. At first, only communists, criminals and anarchists are rounded up, but after Hitler=s appointment as Chancellor, on January 30, 1933, ordinary Germans are also taken.
1933:
Concentration Camps: In1933, Heinrich Himmler announces the opening, in Dachau, near Munich, of a concentration camp for political prisoners. Within 30 days, the SA and SS have imprisoned and tortured, or simply shot dead, tens of thousands of Communists, Social Democrats, other opposition leaders, labor leaders, journalists and clergy.
(Secret Prisons, continued)
United States:
2008:
A Prison in legal Limbo:
On January 11, 2002, the first prisoners, most of them from Afghanistan, enter the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
As of July 2006, no military intelligence officer has been court-martialed in connection with the abuse allegations. The toughest sentence given for the murder of a prisoner B and it is given to a low-ranking soldier B is five months in jail. State-sanctioned torture has been well publicized to U.S. citizens, even while remaining in a Alawless universe,@ immune to the law.
In 2006, despite the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld, to the effect that the Geneva Conventions apply to Guantanamo inmates, torture continues in that facility with impunity.
As of January 11, 2008, out of the total of 800 Aenemy combatants@ who have been incarcerated in the Guantanamo Bay prison camp during the six years of its existence, 275 are still being held. No Guantanamo prisoner has received a federal court hearing. Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, is awaiting a decision from the Supreme Court as to whether Guantanamo prisoners have the right to go to court.
A worldwide Network of secret Prisons:
In 2006, President Bush
confirms the existence of a worldwide network of secret prisons
(Pp. 49, 51-52 and 67-68. Evans 2005, pp. 50, 81 and 85. Conason 2007, pp. 73, 79 and 89. Ratner 2008. Columbia Encyclopedia 2000).
STATE-SANCTIONED TORTURE
Germany:
1920=s-1933:
Terror: Even before their (January 30, 1933) accession to power, the Nazis make fear and terror an integral part of their armory of political weapons.
1933-1945:
All Opponents punished: From 1933 to 1945, Nazi terror and intimidation penetrates deeply into German society. After ascending to power, Hitler rapidly organizes an extensive apparatus of surveillance and control, to identify, arrest and punish those who oppose the Nazi regime B including the more than a third of the electorate who voted for the parties of the left on November 6, 1932, the last free elections (See the present document under AAn intransigent Stance, Germany, 1932, November 6@).
1935:
The Opposition decimated: By the end of 1935, organized opposition has been completely decimated. Politicians of other parties have been arrested, threatened, and even murdered as a warning to others to fall into line.
1936:
Minorities targeted: From 1936 onward, overt terror is increasingly directed at relatively small minorities, including the asocial, the work-shy, petty criminals, Jews and homosexuals. Executions, prison sentences, court verdicts against dissidents, and court verdicts against those charged with Amalicious gossip,@ are announced in the newspapers and other propaganda organs of the regime. This advertisement of terror serves to deter ordinary Germans from following the same path.
The openly proclaimed vastness of the Gestapo=s ambition (to purify German society politically and ethnically), is another instrument of terror, fostering the belief among the broad mass of Germans, that agents are everywhere and know everything. Germans are intimidated into acquiescence. Arrest, prosecution, imprisonment, torture and even death, under increasingly brutal and violent conditions, loom over everyone B and assuredly all those who dare voice the slightest criticism of the regime and its leaders.
(State-sanctioned torture, Germany, continued)
1937:
Torture legalized: On June 4, 1937, after objecting to the serious injuries which result from brutal police and Gestapo interrogations, Minister of Justice Franz Gurtner (1881-1941) gives his approval to limit interrogators to 25 lashes with a standard cane, in the presence of a doctor.
1938:
Sound as Torture: The Gestapo tortures imprisoned Austrian premier Kurt von Schuschnigg by keeping the radio on at top volume, day and night.
1941:
Torture encouraged: As he invades the USSR, Hitler urges his soldiers to use:
Aunprecedented, merciless and unrelenting harshness . . . Russia has not participated in the Hague Conventions, and has no rights under it.
(P.
67. Evans 2005, pp. 75 and 115-117).
(State-sanctioned Torture,
continued)
United States:
1963:
ANo-touch@ Torture: By 1963, Research done by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States and Canada, has led to a counter-intuitive breakthrough. It is the Ano-touch@ torture which merges Asensory disorientation@ (a total assault on all senses and sensibilities, including auditory, visual, tactile, temporal, temperature, survival, sexual and cultural), and Aself-inflicted pain@ (which makes victims feel responsible for their suffering) (McCoy 2006a, pp. 7-8. McCoy 2006b; both sources summarized in Hall 2006a, p. 17. Danner 2004, summarized in Hall 2006a. See also Hall 2004a, Poem).
The CIA codifies these results in the Kubark Counter-intelligence Interrogation Manual, and begins to disseminate the new practices worldwide B at first through the Office of Public Safety of the U.S. Agency for International Development (US-AID), which has access to police departments in Asia and Latin America, and, after 1975, through U.S. Army Mobile Interrogation Training Teams, which would be particularly active in Central America during the 1980=s (McCoy 2006a, pp. 10-11, 26, 50, 52, 86 and 91. Miles 2006, p. 49; both sources summarized in Hall 2006a, p. 17).
2002:
Torture encouraged: On December 2, 2002, William Haynes II, General Counsel for the Defense Department, sends a memorandum to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in which he describes the Astress positions@ which have been used in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq. One of these is the Astanding@ position. Rumsfeld writes one memo approving the Astress positions,@ then writes a second memo:
AI stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is >standing= limited to 4 hours?@
2003:
Sound as Torture: U.S. interrogators torment prisoners in Iraq by playing heavy metal music at top volume into their cells, day and night.
(State-sanctioned Torture, United States, continued)
2006:
Torture re-defined: The Bush administration asserts that the prisoners in Guantanamo are not covered by the Geneva Conventions. Only the President will determine whether torture has occurred (pp. 8, 67 and 69. Cohen and Fraser 2007, pp. 42-43, 145, 269, 292 and 305, summarized in Hall 2007b, p. 18. Evans 2005, p. 116. Dean 2005, pp. 1-2. Wikipedia 2007 AMilitary Commissions Act of 2006,@ p. 1).
2007:
Preparing to torture: By 2007, two total isolation sites, the Romeo and Tango camps, have been added to the Guantanamo compound (p. 54).
2008:
Torture undefined: On January 23, 2008, during an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Attorney General Mike Mukasey continues (as he did during his October 2007 confirmation hearings), to refuse to define the interrogation technique of water-boarding as torture:
AYes, I=ve been read into the program, but that=s part of a process. I said I would look at the program, look at the letters, and give my answers. I haven=t yet figured out precisely when and precisely how. I understand that the time is coming@ (Think Progress 2008, p. 1. See the present document under AKeeping legal Definitions vague, United States, 2008, Refusing to define@).
ACCLIMATING CITIZENS TO STATE-SANCTIONED TORTURE
It is well known that torture does not provide better information. In a dictatorship, however, torture is necessary because the authorities want citizens to know that torture does take place.
Germany:
1931-1933:
Making light of Torture: From 1931 to 1933, cartoons in the German press make light of prisoner abuse (p. 46).
(Acclimating Citizens to State-sanctioned Torture, continued)
United States:
2006:
Accepting Torture:
In 2004, U.S. citizens are shocked by photos of Abu Ghraib prison, in Iraq, graphically depicting torture by their own country.
On October 17, 2006, less than three years after the shock of the Abu Ghraib photos, President Bush signs into law the Military Commissions Act which creates a new, extra-constitutional system of militarized justice permitting the imprisonment, interrogation, trial and punishment of individuals designated by the president as Aenemy combatants.@ The Act legalizes military law for both foreigners and U.S. citizens. It legitimizes military round-ups and life-long detention without rights or constitutional protections for Aany person@ arbitrarily deemed to be an Aenemy of the state.@ Decisions as to who is an Aenemy combatant,@ and whether torture has occurred, are solely at the discretion of the President.
Section 950v of the Act specifically targets U.S. citizens (since only U.S. citizens would be deemed to have Aan allegiance or duty to the United States@):
AAny person subject to this chapter who, in breach of an allegiance or duty to the United States, knowingly and intentionally aids an enemy of the United States, or one of the co-belligerents of the enemy, shall be punished as a military commission under this chapter may direct.@
The Act re-defines torture; it removes the harshest, most controversial techniques from the definition of war crimes; and it exempts the perpetrators of torture (both interrogators and their superiors) from prosecution, dating back to November 26, 1997 (Phillips et al 2007, pp. 36-37 and 89. Conason 2007, pp. 15, 54-55, and 201. See the present document under ANew Laws made retroactive, United States, 2006@).
(Acclimating Citizens to State-sanctioned Torture, United States, continued)
2007:
Abrogating Habeas Corpus: On January 18, 2007, at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales expresses his opinion:
AThe Constitution doesn=t say every individual in the United States or citizen is hereby granted or assured the right of habeas corpus. It doesn=t say that. It simply says the right shall not be suspended@ (Phillips et al 2007, p. 38)
Making light of Torture: In 2007, the Fox TV show A24 Hours@ depicts torture as entertainment. Producers report that torture is no longer shocking B it is not even news any longer (pp. 47, 51, and 60. Cohen and Fraser 2007, summarized in Hall 2007b, p. 18. Phillips et al 2007, p. 291).
A PRIVATE ARMY
Germany:
1933:
Sanctioning Violence: On February 10, 1933, eleven days into his Chancellorship, as Germany=s political parties are campaigning for the March 5th Reichstag elections, Hitler declares
AThe movement will be intolerant of anyone who sins against the nation.@
Encouraging Violence: On February 15, 1933, Hitler reiterates:
AOur fight against Marxism will be relentless, and every movement which allies itself to Marxism will come to grief with it.@
Hitler=s belligerent language encourages his Stormtroopers (SA, the Browshirts) to take the law into their own hands. They unleash a campaign of terror with an aggressiveness which terrorizes not only leftists, but all supporters of Weimar democracy, and even the former supporters of Weimar democracy. The SA plan on not being reprimanded if they act on their own initiative, in the spirit of Hitler=s words. Indeed, they are not.
The massive outburst of violence drives the crackdown of not just the politically suspect, the deviant and the marginal, but of every part of German society. A barrage of reports appears in the press describing brutal beatings, torture and ritual humiliation of prisoners from all walks of life and all shades of political opinion, except the Nazis. Far from being directed against particular, widely unpopular minorities, the terror is comprehensive in scope, affecting anyone who expresses dissent in public B from whatever direction. It is against deviants, vagrants, and non-conformists of every kind. The widespread intimidation of the population provides the essential pre-condition for the Acoordination@ (Gleichschaltung) of society. Almost every aspect of political, social and associational life is affected, at every level, from the nation to the village.
A Nazi Society: By July 1933, the process of Acoordination@ of German society is essentially complete (Evans 2005, pp. 321, 323, 380-381 and 455).
(A private Army, continued)
United States:
2001:
Privatizing Violence: In September 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announces a major new policy directive which would become known as the Rumsfeld Doctrine. The Pentagon bureaucracy is to be dismantled, and for its Aglobal war on terror,@ the U.S. will draw heavily on the private sector B including reliance on private contractors for combat operations. Other aspects of the doctrine include emphasizing covert actions, sophisticated weapons systems, and the use of Special Forces. Firms like Blackwater and Triple Canopy expand exponentially.
The first Awar on terror@ contract of the private security firm Blackwater, is a Ablack@ (secret) contract with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Blackwater, a company which officially opened for business a mere 5 years previously (May 1996), is now cooperating secretly with the U.S. government.
2003:
Privatizing Protection:
In March 2003, the invasion of Iraq by the U.S. Army, is carried out with the help of the largest number of private contractors ever deployed in any war.
On May 12, 2003, when L. Paul Bremer III, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, arrives in Iraq, his security and that of other senior U.S. officials stationed in Iraq, is protected by Blackwater, not the U.S. Army.
(A private Army, United States, continued)
2004:
A free-lance Army:
By early 2004, Blackwater is firmly entrenched in Iraq. Powerful Republicans in Congress hail Blackwater=s executives as Asilent partners@ in the Awar on terror.@
On April 8, 2004, Senator Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) requests Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, by letter, for an Aaccurate tally@ of the number of Aprivately armed@ non-Iraqi personnel operating in Iraq. As of February 16, 2005, Senator Reed has not received an answer.
In May 2004, Erik Prince, Chief Executive Officer of Blackwater, raises publically the concept of creating a Acontractor brigade@ to supplement the conventional U.S. military:
AThere is consternation in the Department of Defense about increasing the permanent size of the Army. We want to add 30,000 people.@
A Tax-exempt Army: On May 13, 2004, Blackwater incorporates a new division, AGreystone Limited,@ in Barbados. The Central Contracting Office of the U.S. government duly classifies the company as a Atax-exempt corporate entity,@ listing its operations as ASecurity Guards and Patrol Services.@
Greystone=s promotional literature and videos for prospective clients paint a different picture (See the present document, this section, under A2005, A private Army with Government Connections@).
An international Army: In September 2004, the U.S. Air Force contracts with Blackwater for its aviation division (Presidential Airways), to provide Ashort take-off and landing@ flights in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.
(A private Army, United States, continued)
2005:
A private Army with Government Connections:
On February 4, 2005, Cofer Black starts his employment as
Vice-chairman of Blackwater. Cofer Black
is a former ambassador to Sudan (1993-1995), and the former director of the
Counter-terrorism Center at the CIA (1999-2005), in the latter post having been
a major architect of the Aextraordinary
renditions@ program B the transfer of prisoners to countries
where torture is practiced, with the transfer to these countries of a list of
questions to be answered by the prisoners.
On February 19, 2005, a 7-hour inauguration event, in Washington, D.C., for Blackwater=s new division, AGreytone Limited,@ paints a different picture from the ASecurity Guards and Patrol Services@ registered by the U.S. government. The guest list includes weapons manufacturers, oil companies, representatives of the International Monetary Fund, and diplomats from Algeria, Angola, Croatia, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.
Greystone promotes itself as:
Aan international security services company that offers your country or organization a complete solution to your most pressing security needs. We have the personnel, logistical support, equipment and expertise to solve your most critical security problems.@
The keynote speaker at the event is Cofer Black.
(A private Army, United States, 2005, continued)
An Army with Police Functions:
Soon after August 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit, 150 men employed by Blackwater arrive in New Orleans well ahead of the federal government and of most humanitarian organizations. They are in full battle gear, wearing khaki uniforms and black or beige military boots, their Blackwater identification number strapped to their arms. Heavily armed (with M-4 automatic weapons, shotguns and assault rifles), they patrol the streets in suburban vehicles (SUV) marked with the Blackwater logo. By September 18th, 250 Blackwater troops are deployed in the region, guarding private companies, banks, hotels, industrial sites, and private individuals sufficiently rich to pay for Blackwater=s services. The troops are paid approximately $350 a day.
On September 8, 2005, the Federal Protective Service of the Department of Homeland Security, gives Blackwater a no-bid contract, to Aprotect federal reconstruction projects for the Department=s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).@ This is the first use of an unaccountable private army (private militia) domestically. The private army is ready to be deployed in future situations of Anational emergency.@
(A private Army, United States, continued)
2006:
An unaccountable Army: On January 11, 2006, Erik Prince, founder and head of Blackwater, explains that his forces are:
Aaccountable to our country.@
A parallel Occupation Force:
In June 2006, the Government Accountability Office, in its report, ARe-building Iraq,@ acknowledges:
ANeither the Department of State, nor the Department of Defense, nor the Agency for International Development (the principal agencies associated with using private security providers responsible for Iraq reconstruction efforts) have complete data on the costs associated with using private security providers.@
In December 2006, when Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resigns, there are about 100,000 private contractors in Iraq B a number in an almost one-to-one ratio with active-duty U.S. soldiers.
The 2006 Quadrennial Review of the Department of Defense defines the U.S. war machine as including private contractors:
AThe Total Force [of the Department of Defense consists of] its active and reserve military components, its civil servants, and its contractors [all of whom] constitute its war-fighting capability and capacity. Members of the Total Force serve in thousands of locations around the world, performing a vast array of duties to accomplish critical missions.@
The mercenary army is politically expedient B contractor deaths are not counted in the official death toll.
Many private Armies: Between 2004 and 2006, Blackwater, with contracts worth almost $500,000,000, is the 12th largest contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan for the U.S. government.
How many private security firms are employed by the U.S. Government to operate in Iraq, the size of their respective forces, their roles, and under which laws they operate, is information not known at the present time.
(A private Army, United States, continued)
2007:
An Army above the Law: In 2007, Blackwater has more than 2,300 private soldiers deployed in 9 countries, including the United States itself. It maintains a data base of 21,000 former Special Forces troops, soldiers, and retired law enforcement agents on whom it can call at a moment=s notice. Its private fleet of more than 20 aircrafts, includes helicopter gun ships, and surveillance blimps. Its 7,000-acre facility in Moyock, North Carolina, is the world=s largest private military facility. Construction has begun on new facilities in California (ABlackwater West@) and Illinois (ABlackwater North@), as well as on a jungle training facility housed in the former U.S. naval base at Subic Bay, the Philippines.
Blackwater forces are the private army of its founder and chief executive, Erik Prince, a radical right-wing Christian millionaire, and major donor to the Republican Party, including the campaigns of President George W. Bush.
Blackwater trains tens of thousands federal and local law enforcement agents a year, as well as troop from Afriendly@ foreign nations. It operates its own intelligence division. Senior executives include senior former military and intelligence officials.
Blackwater has openly declared its forces above the law. It resists attempts to subject its private soldiers to the Pentagon=s Uniform Code of Military Justice (UMC) B insisting that they are civilians. It simultaneously claims immunity from civilian litigation in the United States B insisting that its forces are part of the U.S. Total Force. Blackwater claims that its forces operate under the code of conduct of the trade association of private military contractors B the International Peace Operations. The code is both unenforceable and without legal status.
(A private Army, United
States, 2007, continued)
A complementary Army: Table 1 summarizes the size of the occupation forces in Iraq, as of late 2007.
Table 1: Occupation Forces, Iraq, September 2007
|
Supported by |
the U.S. |
Supported by through private |
the U.S. Contracts |
Total |
|
U.S. Army |
Mercenaries |
Private Personnel, not armed Combatants |
Private Personnel, armed Combatants |
Occupation Forces |
|
165,000 (a) |
80,000 (b) |
125,000 (c) |
71,000 (d) |
441,000 |
(a) As of January 2008, there were between 160,000 and 170,000 U.S. military personnel in Iraq (Jamail, in Jamail and Jarrar 2008, p. 6).
(b) These are previous insurgents and defense fighters for al Qaeda, who have turned coat and are now employed by the U.S. Department of Defense B after having been renamed AConcerned Citizens,@ or AAwakening Groups.@ The 20,000 troops which, on January 28, 2008, in his State of the Union Address, President Bush announced are to be withdrawn, represent one fourth of this AIraqi grassroots surge@ (Jamail and Jarrar 2008, pp. 4 and 5. White House 2008b, pp. 7-8).
(c) As of June 30, 2007, there were Aover 196,000 contractor personnel working for the
Defense Department in Iraq and Afghanistan,@
according to Jack Bell, Deputy
Under-secretary of Defense for Logistics and Materiel Readiness, in his January
24, 2008, testimony to a joint hearing of the Senate Subcommittees on
Governmental Affairs and Homeland Security.
The figure is from the U.S. Central Command. In general, of the contracting dollars, 86
percent is designated for Iraq and 14 percent for Afghanistan (Center for
Public Integrity 2007b, p. 5).
Many of these 196,000 contractor personnel are Iraqi laborers and foreign nationals who work in food, laundry and other support services. I have estimated the number of these contractor personnel who are private armed combatants, and deducted this estimate from the 196,000 total (see note (d)) (Pincus 2008, p. 1. Democracy Now! 2008b, p. 1. Brodsky 2008, pp. 3-4. Scahill 2007c).
(d) In December 2006, when Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld left office, the number of private contractor personnel in Iraq was estimated to be 100,000, of which 48 percent (48,000) worked as private soldiers. If, in 2007, the proportion of private soldiers to total private contractor personnel was the same as in 2006, then the number of private soldiers has risen to (48 x 196,000)/100 = 94,080. The figure given in the Table is half-way between the 2006 figure of 48,000 and the 2007 proportional figure of 94,080. It is 48,000 + (94,080 - 48,000) /2 = 71,040 (Scahill 2007b, p. 2. Scahill 2007d, p. 4).
(A private Army, United States, continued)
2008:
An Army for Rent: By 2008, Blackwater plans to have 35,000 men ready to be rented for Afire support.@ This consists of a combination of intelligence gathering, aerial surveillance, private gun ships, armed helicopters, armored vehicles, remote controlled blimps, and fast-attack aircrafts, with either cluster bombs or joint direct attack munitions.
[Pp. 74-76. Scahill 2007a, pp. xiiv-xxii, 33, 47, 81,117, 151-153, 239, 259, 262, 264, 271-272, 278, 321-327, 341, 342-343, 357, 366-368, 370, 373 and 386-387. Scahill 2007b, p. 2. Conason 2007, pp. 139-140. Phillips et al 2007, pp. 59-61. Democracy Now! 2008b, p. 1. Jarrar and Jamail 2008, pp. 4-6. Brodsky 2008, pp. 3-4. Pincus 2008, pp. 1-2. Center for Public Integrity 2007a, p. 1. Center for Public Integrity 2007b. p. 4. For Paul Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority, see also the present document under AMaking new Laws retroactive, United States, 2004@].
VOTER INTIMIDATION
Germany:
1931:
Uniformed Bullies:
On December 7, 1931, during the campaign for the July 31, 1932 Reichstag
elections, in an attempt to curb Nazi violence, Chancellor Heinrich Bruning bans the wearing of political uniforms, such as
the brown shirts of the Stormtroopers (Brownshirts, SA). The Stormtroopers, however, continue to march
in formation, now dressed in white shirts B
and produce the same effect (p. 76. Evans 2003,
p. 274).
(Voter Intimidation,
continued)
United States:
2000:
Uniformed Bullies:
In November 2000, as the disputed vote is being re-counted in Florida,
angry groups of young men, all dressed in chinos and white shirts, and refusing
to give their names (later identified as Republican political staffers),
materialize in politically critical settings around the state, and intimidate
officials (p. 76).
CITIZEN SURVEILLANCE
Germany:
Early 1930=s:
Violation of Privacy: In the early 1930=s, the Gestapo requisitions private data, such as medical, banking, library and booksellers= records.
1935:
The End of Privacy: By 1935, citizens understand that their conversations were no longer private.
(Citizen Surveillance, continued)
United States:
2001:
Secret Searches: The October 23, 2001, Uniting and strengthening America by providing appropriate Tools required to intercept and obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act, gives the government unprecedented authority to search the records and premises of citizens without seeking the consent of a judge, if the purpose of the search is related to terrorism or foreign intelligence B and indeed, in some situations, without even that assurance.
Section 215 authorizes the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to conduct, without judicial warrants or oversight, secret, wide-ranging searches of American citizens= records B credit card charges, bank withdrawals, video rental receipts, library slips. The citizen whose records are violated need not necessarily be suspected terrorists. Those who are ordered to turn over the records to the authorities, are forbidden to disclose this fact to anyone.
Section 218 expands the authority of federal agencies, based on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978, to carry out secret searches (Asneak and peek@ searches) of anyone, if the Apurpose@ of the surveillance is to gather foreign intelligence. The Section also permits roving wiretaps of any telephone or computer which the targeted person might use B again without any guarantee that the target is a suspected terrorist.
Section 213 permits black-bag entry into a private home, and the placement of surveillance chips in a home computer, without even the flimsy excuse of a foreign intelligence investigation. Federal agents can return surreptitiously to the same premises repeatedly, without informing the residents that their home has been invaded (Conason 2007, pp. 58, 60-61, 63 and 91).
(Citizen Surveillance, United States, 2001, continued)
Warrant-less Wire-tapping:
In 2001, within months of the 9/11attacks, President Bush authorizes the National Security Administration (NSA) to monitor secretly, without warrants from the AFISA Court,@ American citizens= telephone calls and e-mails which originate in the United States. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 directed the creation of a AFISA Court@ to oversee extremely sensitive counter-intelligence activities. To date, the Court has rejected only 5 of the more than 18,000 requests for surveillance submitted to it by the administration.
In April 2004, at a town hall meeting, President Bush reassures citizens that the government is respecting their rights:
A[A] wiretap requires a court order . . . When we=re talking about chasing down terrorists, we=re talking about getting a court order before we do so . . . We value the Constitution.@
On December 16, 2005, the New York Times reveals the massive program of secret, warrant-less wire-tapping by the Bush administration. Vice-president Dick Cheney denounces the disclosure as:
Ashameful . . . The fact that we=re discussing this program is helping the enemy.@
Cheney declares that the program will continue, daring the courts and Congress to try to stop it [p. 83. Conason 2007, pp. 180-183 and 187. See the present document, this section (ACitizen Surveillance@), under A2006, Spying on millions@].
Spying on Dissenters: After the 9/11 attacks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spies on war protesters and other peaceful dissenters. According to internal documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Bureau opens investigations on Greenpeace (a worldwide environmental organization), People for the ethical Treatment of Animals (an animal rights protest group), and the ACLU itself (Conason 2007, pp. 194-195).
(Citizen Surveillance, United States, continued)
2002:
Secret Surveillance:
In 2002, the Department of Justice proposes the program, Terrorism Information and Prevention System (TIPS), designed to enlist workers with access to private homes, as informants to the Justice Department. Public outcry is such that Congress denies funding for any such program.
During the winter of 2005, the Department of Homeland Security quietly takes over the program, using school bus drivers instead of cable installers. The School Bus Watch Program seeks Ato turn 600,000 bus drivers into an army of observers@ (Conason 2007, pp. 194-195).
Secret domestic Spying:
In late 2002, the secret Bush administration program, Total Information Awareness (TIA), is revealed. It is housed in the ultra-high-tech Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, in the Pentagon, and is directed by John Pointdexter, a retired navy admiral, President Reagan=s national security advisor, and a defendant in the Iran-Contra scandal. (As national security advisor, Pointdexter supervised the secret arms-for-hostage sales to Iran and approved the transfer of profits from the arms sales to the Nicaraguan Contras, in violation of a federal law barring government funding of the rebel force).
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer defends Pointdexter=s appointment to this sensitive government position:
AAdmiral Pointdexter is somebody who this administration thinks is an outstanding American, an outstanding citizen, who has done a very good job in what he has done for our country, serving the military.@
In 2003, Congress votes to de-fund the Total Information Awareness Office. The Bush administration then moves the same work, performed by the same consultants and scientists, to the Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA) Office of the National Security Agency (NSA), in Fort Meade, Maryland.
(Citizen Surveillance, United States, 2002, Secret domestic Spying, continued)
In 2004, a prototype system, code-named ABasketball,@ is tested in a secret ARDA facility. The costs of this and other programs (such as ATopsail@) are concealed in the multi-billion dollar classified budgets of the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, and the intelligence agencies.
Administered mostly by private consulting firms, these data-mining experiments aim to improve the government=s capacity to compile, sort and instantly extract information from the vast cyber-environment which surrounds and defines every citizen B telephone records, tax returns, medical records, credit reports, bank-card payments, movie tickets, motel charges, books, electronic tolls, Orbitz tickets, e-mail and more (Conason pp. 187-191).
(Citizen Surveillance, United States, continued)
2003:
A secret domestic Police:
In May 2003, just as the invasion of Iraq comes to an end, on orders from Deputy Secretary of Defense, and chief architect of the war, Paul Wolfowitz, the Pentagon establishes the secret domestic counter-intelligence program, Threat and local Observation Notice (TALON). The program is to gather:
Anon-validated threat information and security anomalies indicative of possible terrorist pre-attack activity.@
According to documents obtained by NBC and Newsweek, the program monitors peace groups and other political groups deemed hostile to the administration. TALON is essentially a data base of dissenters. It contains thousands of pages of dossiers devoted to anti-war meetings and protests B an anti-war rally in Los Angeles, a Quaker meeting in Florida, an anti-corruption demonstration in Texas. Such innocuous events are stigmatized by the Department of Defense as Asuspicious incidents@ which could pose a threat to national security.
From 2003 to 2007, the
TALON operations are housed in a secretive wing of the Pentagon known as the Counter-intelligence
Field Activity (CIFA), which the Bush administration seeks to transform
into a secret military police with broad domestic powers. The organizer and director of CIFA is
Under-secretary of Defense Stephen
Cambone. Of the CIFA staff, 70
percent are contractors B
hence not subject to Congressional oversight.
In August 2007, the TALON
operation is transferred from the Department of Defense to the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
(Citizen Surveillance, United
States, continued)
Corporate-Government Connections B Stephen Cambone:
In 2006, Stephen Cambone leads an internal inquiry, and Congress holds hearings, to investigate a scandal involving one of CIFA=s contractors.
In November 2007, Stephen Cambone leaves the Defense Department to become Vice-president for Strategy, at QinetiQ North America (QinetiQ is pronounced Akinetic@). It is the McLean, Virginia, branch of a major British defense and intelligence contractor.
On January 7, 2008, Mission Solutions Group, a subsidiary of QinetiQ (Cambone=s present organization), signs a contract with CIFA (Cambone=s previous organization) to provide unspecified security services. QinetiQ wants to Aexpand in the U.S. market@ (Conason pp. 192-193. Wheeler 2008, pp. 1-3. Shachtman 2008, pp. 1-2. Nickel 2007, pp. 2-3. See the present document under AInfiltration of Citizens= Groups, United States, 2007).
(Citizen Surveillance, United States, continued)
2006:
Spying on millions:
In May 2006, USA Today reports that the National Security Administration (NSA) has obtained the cooperation of telecommunication companies (AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth) to compile the telephone records of millions of American citizens into an enormous secret data base. Like the warrant-less wire-tapping program, this program also has been initiated without judicial authorization.
In the spring and summer 2006, the Bush administration demands that three cases concerning the NSA surveillance programs be dismissed by the federal courts:
* A law suit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (a non-partisan public interest group) against AT&T and the NSA for using secret computerized facilities to spy on the telephone company=s customers.
* A civil rights law suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against the NSA.
* A civil right law suit initiated by the Center for Constitutional Rights against the Bush administration.
Legalizing warrant-less Spying: In August 2006, Congress passes the Protect America Act which legalizes warrant-less spying.
The End of Privacy: By 2006, U.S. citizens know that at least three forms of surveillance are being carried out B telephone calls (social and sexual life), e-mails (work life), and bank records (financial life). Regular mail is probably also being monitored
[Pp. 8 and 81-86. Conason 2007, pp. 182 and 187-188. Greenwald 2008, p. 4. See the present document this section (ACitizen Surveillance@) under A2001, Warrant-less Wire-tapping@].
(Citizen Surveillance, United States, continued)
2008:
The Biology of ATerrorists@: On January 15, 2008, the London Guardian reports that the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. allies in the Awar on terror@ (Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) are developing a data base (code-named AServer in the Sky@) which consists of biometric data, including fingerprints, palm prints, iris scans, facial images, scars, genetic information, and videos. The data base is to be used in the search for Ainternational criminals, including terrorists@ (NewsFeed Researcher 2008, pp. 1-8).
Retrospective Immunity for Spying: On January 28, 2008, in his State of the Union Address, President Bush demands that the telecommunication companies (AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth) which have allowed the government to spy on the telephone communications of their customers, be granted immunity retrospectively:
ACongress must pass liability protection for companies believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend America.@
Congress is set to acquiesce to Bush=s demand (Greenwald 2008, pp. 2-4. See the present document under AMaking new Laws retroactive, United States, 2008@).
Spying on the Internet: On January 29, 2008, the Washington Post reports that President Bush has signed a classified directive which authorizes the National Security Agency (NSA) B a spy agency B to monitor the Internet traffic of all federal agencies B that is, domestic networks (Democracy Now! 2008c).
INFILTRATION OF CITIZENS= GROUPS
Germany:
1930=s:
Infiltration: Nazi agents infiltrate groups of anti-Nazi students, Communists and labor activists.
(Infiltration of Citizens= Groups, continued)
United States:
2007:
Infiltration:
As of 2007:
* The TALON program of the Department of Defense has a database of Aanti-terror@ information about peaceful citizen groups and activists.
* The Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
investigates activists more frequently than other people (pp. 89-91. See the present document under ACitizen Surveillance, United States, 2003@).
ARBITRARY DETENTION
Germany:
1939:
Making Travel hazardous: By 1939, ordinary citizens are detained and released arbitrarily. Borders are tightened and travel across borders is difficult for people out of favor with the state.
(Arbitrary Detention, continued)
United States:
2002:
Making Travel hazardous: In 2002, Canadian citizen Maher Arar is detained as he is changing planes in the Kennedy airport. He is Arendered@to Syria where he is imprisoned for more than a year and tortured (pp. 97-98).
2004:
Intimidating Travelers: In 2004, a commercial flight from London, carrying singer Cat Stevens (Usef Islam) is diverted from its destination (Washington, D.C.) to Bangor, Maine.
Intimidating Officials: In 2004, Senator Edward M. ATed@ Kennedy, is detained five times in East Coast airports.
2005:
Black-listing: By 2005, peace activists, members of the Green party, free speech advocates, constitutional lawyers, and Muslim scholars are routinely detained. According to the American civil Liberties Union (ACLU), tens of thousands of people are on Athe list@ B either the Awatch list@ or the more stringent Ano-fly@ list.
2006:
Sizing up Travelers:
By 2006, the Department of Homeland Security is using a Ascoring system@
to rate the danger posed by people crossing American borders (pp. 95-96).
CONTROLLING THE PRESS
Germany:
1920-1938:
Intimidating Journalists:
In the 1920=s, Carl von Ossietzky (1889-1938), pacifist, journalist, essayist, leader of the German peace movement, and editor of the famous anti-militarist weekly, Die Weltbuhne (The World Stage), exposes the German clandestine re-armament. He is unsparing in his ridicule of Hitler.
1933: Immediately upon the coming into power of the Third Reich (January 30, 1933), Ossietzky is imprisoned and tortured.
In 1936, suffering from tuberculosis, Ossietzky is hospitalized, according to Propaganda Minister (Paul) Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945),
Aso as not to give foreign media the opportunity to accuse the German government of causing Ossietzky=s death in prison.@
Ossietzky receives the 1936 Nobel Peace Price while in hospital. The German government protests, and bars all Germans from future acceptance of a Nobel Prize.
In 1938, still hospitalized, Ossietzky dies from his maltreatment (p. 123. Evans 2005, p. 153. Evans 2003, p. 136. Columbia Encyclopedia 2000).
(Controlling the Press, continued)
United States:
2001:
Destroying the Source: In 2001, in Afghanistan, the U.S. bombs the offices of the Arab television network station al Jazeera (Scahill 2005, p. 2).
2003:
Killing the Messenger: On April 8, 2003, the U.S. army kills three journalists in Baghdad. Tareq Ayoub is killed when a U.S. missile hits the offices of the al-Jazeera station. Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk and Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso are killed when a U.S. tank fires, unprovoked, at the Baghdad Palestine Hotel, known to house about 100 journalists (pp. 118 and 168. Campagna and Roumani, 2003, p. 1. Scahill 2005, p. 2).
2004:
De-legitimizing the Source: On April 11, 2004, senior military spokesperson Mark Kimmitt, declares:
AThe stations that are showing Americans intentionally killing women and children, are not legitimate news sources. That is propaganda, and that is lies@ (Scahill 2005, p. 3).
Discrediting the Source: On April 15, 2004, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking to a reporter, declares:
AI can definitively say that what al-Jazeera is doing [in its coverage of the April 5, 2004 siege of Fallujah] is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable . . . It=s disgraceful what that station is doing@ (Scahill 2005, p. 2).
Planning to eliminate the Source: On April 16, 2004, during a meeting at the White House with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush suggests bombing the al- Jazeera=s international headquarters in Qatar. (In November, a Blair Cabinet official would leak the information to the Daily Mirror) (Scahill 2005, p. 1).
2005:
Torturing the Messenger: In March, 2005, U.S. soldiers shoot and wound Abdul Hussein, a CBS News freelance cameraman working in Afghanistan. He is held for two years, one of which is in Abu Ghraib prison, in Iraq. During this time, CBS is unable to find out the charges, much less the evidence, against Hussein (p. 119. See the present document, this section, under A2006, Incarcerating the Messenger@).
(Controlling the Press, United States, continued)
2006:
Incarcerating the Messenger: In April 2006, the U.S. military in Iraq imprisons Pulitzer Prize winning AP photographer Bilal Hussein (no relation to the CBS cameraman). To date, no charges have been filed (p. 119. See the present document, this section, under A2005, Torturing the Messenger@).
Discrediting the Messenger: On June 23, 2006, The New York Times reveals that the Bush administration is spying on American citizens= finances without warrants. The paper alleges that within weeks of the 9/11 attacks, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Pentagon have sent secret Anational security letters@ to credit card companies, banks and other financial agencies, ordering them to provide the records of thousands of American citizens. This financial spying program has access to the vast international data base of the banking consortium, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), located in Brussels, Belgium. The official goal of the program is to track wire transfers overseas by both American citizens and non-citizens believed to be associated with al Qaeda.
President Bush labels the publication of the story Adisgraceful@ (p. 135. Cohen and Fraser 2007, pp. 28, 65-67, 145 and 269. New York Times 2006, p. 1).
Threatening the Messenger: In August 2006, Greg Palast, author of the best-selling critique of the administration, Armed madhouse, films an encampment of trailers housing 1,600 homeless Hurricane Katrina evacuees, next to a pollution-producing ExxonMobil refinery.
The Department of Homeland Security charges Palast and television producer Matt Pascarella, with Aunauthorized filming of a critical national security structure.@ The charges would be dropped in September (p. 121. Palast 2006, pp. 1-3).
CONTROLLING UNIVERSITIES
Germany:
1933:
Finding Support in Universities: On May 27, 1933, Martin Heidegger, giving his inaugural address as Rector of Freiburg University, declares,
A>Academic freedom= will no longer be the basis of life in the German university. This freedom is not genuine because it is only negative. It means a lack of concern, arbitrariness of views and inclinations, and a lack of anchorage in doing things or not doing them.@
It is time, continues Heidegger, for the universities to find their anchor in the German nation, and play their part in the historic mission it is now fulfilling.
1935:
Dismissing Academics:
On April 30, 1935, Victor
Klemperer, Chair of Romance Languages and Montesquieu scholar, at Dresden
Technical University (a state institution), receives his dismissal notice
through the mail. It is signed by Nazi
Party Regional Leader (Gauleiter), Martin
Mustchmann.
(Evans 2003, pp. 419-420. Evans 2005, pp. 280, 456 and 568).
(Controlling Universities, continued)
United States:
2006:
Threatening Academics: In June 2006, tenured University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, who has drawn attention to the fact that the victims of 9/11 were not entirely innocent, is accused of:
Aacademic misconduct.@
The University of Colorado is a state institution.
Intimidating Academics: In 2006, Kevin Barrett, founding member of the AMuslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth,@ and associate lecturer at the University of Wisconsin, is accused of having:
Aacademically dishonest views [for having] disputed official findings on the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks.@
An internal university probe determines that Barrett has not discussed his personal views in the classroom. Barrett=s is a one semester appointment and he is not invited back. The University of Wisconsin is a state institution
Finding Support in Universities: On July 23, 2006, Stanley Fish, later to be law professor at Florida International University, writes an op-ed in The New York Times, arguing that academic freedom does not include the right to express partisan ideas in the classroom.
(Pp. 107-108. Wikipedia 2007, AKevin Barrett,@ p. 1).
CONTROLLING CIVIL SOCIETY
Germany:
1933:
Propaganda as Art: On March 13, 1933, Hitler establishes the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda, to be headed by Joseph Goebbels. The Ministry is to centralize control of all aspects of cultural and intellectual life. The whole educational system, theater, film, literature, the press, and broadcasting are to be Acoordinated@ (Evans 2003, 396-397).
(Controlling Civil Society, continued)
United States:
2001:
Punishing Critics:
On September 17, 2001, six days after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Bill Maher, comedian and host of the show APolitically Incorrect,@ draws a volley of criticism from right-wing media and advertisers, after stating:
AWe
have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That=s
cowardly. Staying in the airplane when
it hits the building, say what you want about it, it=s not cowardly.@
On September 26, 2001, asked how President Bush felt about Maher=s comment, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer replies:
AIt=s a terrible thing to say, and it is unfortunate . . . And that=s why . . . [his remarks] are reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that. There never is.@
At the end of the season, ABC cancels Maher=s show (p. 110. Rutherford 2003, p. 2. Conason 2007, p. 97).
2003:
Threatening Critics: In 2003, Natalie Maines, lead singer for the Dixie Chicks, draws a volley of criticism from right-wing media, and is subjected to a consumer boycott, after she has exclaimed during a show:
AWe=re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.@
Finding Enemies of the State: Soon after his appointment as chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Kenneth Tomlinson secretly hires a consultant to inspect the ideological content of the program, ANOW with Bill Moyers.@ The consultant finds Bill Moyers an Aenemy of the state,@ and Moyers is ultimately evicted from his post (Conason pp. 123-124).
(Controlling Civil Society, continued)
2006:
Intimidating Artists: In 2006, The New York Times reports that other recording artists are scared to express views critical of the Bush administration, from fear of being ADixie Chicked.@
2007:
Threatening Censure:
In May 2007, the Bush administration threatens to confiscate, before its
official release, ASicko,@ a documentary by Michael Moore (pp. 110-111).
Molding public Opinion: In 2007, former co-chairperson
of the Republican National Committee, Patricia
Harrison, is president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) B a corporation supported by public
funds. Since its initiation in 1966, the
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has aired conservative and
corporate-oriented programs which have included AThe
McLaughlin Group,@
AValues,@
AThink Tank,@ AMoney
World,@ AWall Street Week,@ ANational
Desk@ and AUnfilered.@
To date, PBS has not agreed to one program sponsored by a labor
union (Conason 2007, pp. 124-125).
CONTROLLING SEXUAL BEHAVIOR
Germany:
1933:
Re-criminalizing Abortion: The Weimar Republic (1918-1933) has a lively sexual reform movement which favors sexual freedom, the public dispensing of contraceptive advice, reform of the restrictive abortion law, and the de-criminalization of homosexuality.
In 1927, the Republic:
* Eases the laws restricting the sale of condoms, with the result that sex counseling centers (some funded, and some even operated by regional governments), open and offer contraceptive advice.
* Relaxes the anti-abortion law, reducing the offence from a felony to a misdemeanor.
* Effectively de-criminalizes prostitution, through a liberal law against sexually-transmitted diseases.
On March 1, 1933, four weeks after Hitler assumes the Chancellorship, a health insurance decree closes state-funded sexual health advice clinics. Doctors and staff are thrown out into the streets. The ban is enforced by the SS (Blackshirts).
On May 6, 1933, Nazi students ransack the Institute for Sexual Science, in Berlin, and burn some 10,000 of its 20,000 books. The Institute is known for its campaign to reform of all laws regulating sexual behavior, its evening classes in sexual education, and its championing the legalization of both abortion and homosexuality.
(Controlling sexual Behavior, continued)
On May 26, 1933, Hitler and his cabinet amend the Weimar Republic=s liberal Law against Sexually Transmitted Diseases B thus re-criminalizing prostitution, and re-introducing the legal ban on education regarding abortion and abortifacients.
The new laws and the destruction of the Institute for Sexual Science, are part of a wide-ranging Nazi assault on what they portray as the Jewish movement to subvert the German family. Within a short time, the Nazis dismantle Weimar Germany=s sexual reform movement, and place legal restrictions on all types of sexual behavior, from same-sex relations to other kinds of sexual activity not directed toward the goal of reproduction. Henceforth, sex and procreation would have to be indissolubly linked (Evans 2003, pp. 128, 142 and 375-377).
United States:
2008:
Re-criminalizing Abortion:
In 1973, the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision finds, on the basis of the constitutional right to privacy, that state laws banning abortion are unconstitutional. The Court specifies that the health of the mother is paramount. The Court defines the human fetus as not a Aperson,@ and hence not having a constitutional right to life.
Between 1995 and 2003, the Republican-dominated Congress takes more than 180 Aanti-choice@ actions. Most of these legislative actions are defeated in the Senate.
By January 22, 2003, the 30th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the Bush administration has weakened considerably women=s reproductive rights.
The administrations=s actions have included:
* The declaration of AHuman Sanctity of Life Day@ (January 20th).
* The appointment in key positions of men who express publically their anti-abortion stance:
John Ashcroft as Attorney General.
Tommy Thompson as Director of the Department of Health and Human Services.
W. David Hager as Director of the Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee, in the Food and Drug Administration.
* The initiation of the Child Health Insurance Program, which insures a fetus, but not its mother. The program implies a higher legal status for the fetus than for its mother.
* An increase in government funding for school programs based on abstinence only B programs which exclude information on birth control.
(Controlling sexual Behavior, United States, continued)
On November 5, 2003, President Bush signs into law the Federal Abortion Ban Act (called by its proponents the APartial-Birth Abortion Ban@). The law bans late-term abortions by means of dilatation and extraction.
On April 1, 2004, President Bush signs into law the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. The law recognizes as a legal victim, a Achild in utero@ who is injured or killed during the commission of a federal crime of violence. It defines a Achild in utero@ as
Aa member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.@
The law is a step toward the granting of legal personhood to human fetuses. The definition of a fetus as a human being, abrogates the right of the mother to choose to terminate her pregnancy.
(Controlling sexual Behavior, United States, continued)
In 2005, the appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services (part of the Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2005), is passed by Congress with a conscience clause provision inserted into it. The legislation specifies that
ANone of the funds made available in this Act may be made available to a Federal agency or progam, or to a State or local government, if [it] subjects any institutional or individual health care entity to discrimination on the basis that the health care entity does not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.@
The definition of Ahealth care entity@ is broad. It includes:
AAn individual physician or other health care professional, a hospital, a provider-sponsored organization, a health maintenance organization, a health insurance plan, or any other kind of health care facility, organization, or plan.@
The effect of the legislation is to prevent the federal, state and local governments from enacting policies which require health care entities to provide or pay for certain abortion-related services. The legislation greatly increases both the number and type of health care providers and professionals who may refuse to provide abortion training or services without reprisals.
The legislation allows large health insurance companies and HMO=s to refuse to provide coverage or pay for abortions. It is intended to deny abortion-related services to a significant number of individuals.
(Controlling sexual Behavior, United States, continued)
On April 18, 2007, the Supreme Court upholds the Federal Abortion Ban Act (called by its proponents the APartial-Birth Abortion Ban@) of 2003. The decision undermines the core principle of the Roe vs. Wade decision that the woman=s health is paramount
By January 22, 2008, a number of states have ballot initiatives which re-define a person as a human being from the time of fertilization .
(Free Speech Radio News 2008, p. 1. Avni 2003, pp. 1-3. Feder 2005, pp. 1-9. National Right to Life Committee 2004, pp. 1, 2 and 5. Wikipedia 2007 AConscience Clause (medical),@ p. 1. ACLU 2007, p. 1).
RAISING THE PRICE OF DISSENT
Germany:
1933:
Black-listing Critics: On April 1, 1933, eight weeks after the Nazi seizure of power, a group of musicians based in the United States, including the conductors Serge Koussevitsky, Fritz Reiner and Arturo Toscanini, cable Hitler, protesting the purges of musicians by the new regime. The German state radio immediately bans the broadcasting of compositions, concerts and recordings involving the signatories.
Punishing the Opposition: On April 7, 1933, the Reichstag passes a law forcing the dismissal of all state employees who are Jewish.
Ruining the Opposition:
On April 11, 1933, Wilhelm Furtwangler, conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra , publishes, in a liberal daily newspaper, an open letter to Joseph Goebbels, declaring that he is not prepared to terminate the contracts of the Jewish players in his orchestra. (Unlike other orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonic is not a state-owned corporation, and hence is not subject to the law of April 7, 1933). The Reich government promptly withholds all state or municipal subsidies to the orchestra, until it is on the verge of bankruptcy.
On October 26, 1933, the Reich takes over the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, now bankrupt. The orchestra Jews, now state employees, are dismissed (Evans 2003, pp. 399-402. Evans 2005, p. 196).
(Raising the Price of Dissent, continued)
United States:
2003:
Punishing the Opposition:
On July 6, 2003, Diplomat Joseph Wilson publishes an op-ed in The New York Times, in which he argues that the Aweapons of mass destruction@ rationale for the war in Iraq, is based on false information. In retaliation, his wife, Valerie Plame, an under-cover operative for the CIA, is revealed as such by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, and possibly also by Lewis AScooter@ Libby, Chief of Staff to Vice-president Dick Cheney. Her career, her life, and the lives of others, are now in jeopardy (p. 115).
In 2008, the White House admits to Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald that it has taped over all electronic documents before October 2003, the date when the Justice Department began a probe into the CIA leak (Yost 2008, pp. 1-6).
2004:
Retiring the Opposition:
In
2001, after the 9/11 attacks, CBS News anchor Dan Rather, declares:
AGeorge Bush is the President . . . Wherever he wants me to line up, just tell me where.@
However, in 2004, Rather present documents from the Vietnam War era, purporting to detail George Bush=s failure to present himself for his duties as a member of the Texas Air National Guard. The documents are later shown to be fraudulent, and Rather is forced into early retirement (p. 115. Palast 2006, p. 3).
CRIMINALIZING DISSENT
Germany:
1934:
Punishing Humor: In 1934, the Reichstag passes the Heimtuckegesetz law criminalizing political libel and slander. More than 100,000 people are prosecuted under the law, some serving time in prison for telling jokes (p. 134).
(Criminalizing Dissent, continued)
United States:
2003:
Treason a Crime: In her 2003 book, Treason B liberal treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter first uses, and hence legitimizes, the word Atreason@ to characterize opinions critical of the Bush administration:
AWhile the form of treachery varies slightly form case to case, liberals always manage to take the position that most undermines American security@ (p. 134. The quote is from Coulter p. 203).
2006:
Punishing Treason: On October 12, 2006, the Justice Department charges Adam Gadahn, of California, with treason. The charge carries a possible death sentence. Gadahn is not accused of having taken part in planning terrorist attacks against the United States, only of propagandizing against the United States. His words are his crime. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, explains that Gadahn has Aprovided the enemy with aid and comfort@ by acting as a propagandist for al Qaeda (pp. 137-138).
Activism a Crime: In November 2006, the Senate passes the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, aimed at crimes against commercial animal processing facilities. The Act allows federal prosecutors to Aenhance@ prison terms for convicted activists (pp. 139-140).
DANGER TO THOSE WHO HELP
Germany:
1932-1944:
Killing the Helper:
In May 1932, the AGerman Christians,@ a pressure group organized by clergy supporters of the Nazis, call for the abolition of the federal structure of the Evangelical Church, and its replacement by a centralized AReich Church@ under Nazi control. All Jews would be dismissed from Church employment.
In April 1933, at a mass meeting in Berlin, AGerman Christians@ announce their intention to take over the Evangelical Church. Berlin theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) speaks out in favor of equal status for Jewish converts.
On July 23, 1933, AGerman Christians@ win Church elections. The Evangelical Church becomes the Reich Church, with the Nazi Ludwig Muller (1883-1945) appointed Reich Bishop. As a state institution, the Reich Church adopts the AAryan Paragraph@ (the expulsion of racially-defined non-Aryans), and dismisses 18 pastors to whom it applies.
In September 1933, Bonhoeffer becomes a leading voice in the Pastors= Emergency League, recently founded in Berlin by pastor Martin Niemoller (1892-1984). Bonhoeffer=s opposition is both political (to National Socialism) and religious (to anti-semitism). Niemoller=s opposition is only religious (baptized Jews are, by definition, no longer Jews. Un-baptized Jews are cursed for all eternity).
On November 13, 1933, at a rally in Berlin, AGerman Christians@ demand the expulsion of all pastors not yet having declared themselves in favor of the new regime. Regional Church administrator Reinhold Krause calls for the removal of the AJewish@ Old Testament from the Christian Bible, the purging from the New Testament of ARabbi Paul=s theology of inferiority,@ and the discarding of the cross on the basis that it is a Jewish symbol.
(Danger to those who help, Germany, continued)
In May 1934, in Barmen, oppositional pastors reject the Reich Church altogether, repudiating its AAryan Paragraph,@ and founding the Confessing Church as a rival body.
In November 1934, the Confessing Church organizes a central, coordinating committee B the AProvisional Management of the German Evangelical Church.@
Martin Niemoller delivers a series of sermons, reading out the names of pastors imprisoned or barred from speaking, and naming as responsible:
* Joseph Goebbels, Minister of
Propaganda,
* Franz Gurtner, Minister of Justice,
* Alfred Rosenberg (1893-1946), Editor of the Nazi daily newspaper Volkischer Beobachter (Racial Observer), leader of the Kampfbund fur deutsche Kultur (Fighting League for German Culture), and Goebbels= rival in cultural-political affairs.
On January 30, 1937, the 4-year anniversary of Hitler=s appointment as Chancellor, Niemoller describes the imprisonment of the apostle Paul, and leads prayers for non-Aryans who have lost their jobs. The Confessing Church is beginning to serve as a focal point for the opposition to the regime.
On July 1, 1937, Niemoller is arrested. He is tried and acquitted, but immediately imprisoned again as Hitler=s personal prisoner. He is placed in solitary confinement in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and tortured. Bonhoeffer continues his ministry underground.
(Danger to those who help, Germany, continued)
In 1939, Bonhoeffer participates in the conspiracy to bring about Hitler=s downfall.
In 1941, Niemoller is transferred to Dachau where he would stay until his liberation by the Allies in 1945.
In April 1943, after money used to help Jews escape to Switzerland is traced to him, Bonhoeffer is arrested and imprisoned.
In 1944, after the unsuccessful July 20th plot against Hitler, Bonhoeffer=s connection with the conspirators is discovered, and he is moved to a series of concentration camps, ending at Flossenburg. He is hanged on April 9, 1945.
(Evans 2005, pp. 195, 209, 220-233 and 669-671. Wikipedia 2007, AFranz Gurtner,@ pp. 1-2. Wikipedia 2008, AMartin Niemoller,@ p. 3. Wikipedia 2008, ADietrich Bonhoeffer,@ p. 2. Columbia Encyclopedia 2000).
(Danger to those who help, continued)
United States:
2006:
Punishing the Helper: On October 16, 2006, civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart is sentenced to a prison term of 28 months for, among other charges,
Aconspiring to defraud the United States, providing and concealing material support [to terrorists], and making false statements.@
The charges are in connection to her defense of the Egyptian Muslim cleric, Abdel-Rahman, convicted in 1995 of conspiring to bomb landmark buildings in Manhattan. Judge John Koelt admits that there is:
Ano
evidence that any victim was in fact harmed by Stewart=s actions.@
Stewart remains free pending appeal (CNN.com 2005, p. 1. Gray Panthers of San Francisco 2006, p. 1).
FLOODING THE DISCOURSE WITH LIES
Germany:
1933:
Soothing the Opposition:
In the March 5, 1933 elections, called by Hitler (Chancellor since January 30, 1933), the Nazi party falls short of a majority, despite massive propaganda paid for by an inflow of funds from industry, and despite violent intimidation in the streets, including the banning or breaking up of most rival political meetings:
Party Percent of the
Total Vote
Nazi 44
Social Democrat (labor) 18
Communist 12
Center (Catholics) 11
Nationalist (big business, old aristocracy) 8
Even after forming a coalition with the Nationalist party, and thereby having a majority (52 percent) of the deputies, Hitler is still far short of his aim B having the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution.
On March 23, 1933, Hitler convinces the Center Party to join him, through the promise of a comprehensive Concorda with the Papacy, guaranteeing the rights of Catholics. Now with the required two-thirds majority of the deputies allied with Hitler, the Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, which gives the Chancellor the right to rule by decree without reference either to the Reichstag or to the President.
On July 14, 1933, the Reichstag passes a law formally banning all parties except the Nazi. Germany is a one-party state, with Hitler having under his command 2,000,000 SA troops.
Hitler has achieved his desired result by:
* The Social Democratic Party: Hitler has lured trade union leaders into accepting a May 1st holiday B and then the next day (May 2nd), raiding, looting and closing down the offices of trade union and Social Democratic leaders. Within a few weeks, mass arrests of union and Social Democratic officials, together with the torturing of many in makeshift concentration camps, break the spirit of the labor movement.
* The Communist Party: During the month of February, Hitler did not legally ban the Communist Party for fear that its voters would desert to the Social Democratic Party in the March 5th elections. However, after the Reichstag fire of February 28, 1933, Hitler portrays it as the result of a Communist conspiracy to stage an armed uprising B a charge which severely weakens the Party.
* The Center Party: Hitler has threatened to dismiss Catholic civil servants and close down Catholic lay organizations, should the Center Party not agree to dissolve itself. The party agreed, in return for the finalization of the Concorda which Hitler has promised on March 23rd, at the time when he enlisted the Center=s support to pass the Enabling Act. The Concorda ensures the integrity of the Catholic Church in Germany, with all its assets and organization. Time would show, however, that the agreement was not worth the paper it was written on.
* Nationalists: Hitler has spread lies about the Nationalists. He had Nationalist officials and deputies harassed and arrested. Alfred Hugenberg (1865-1951), Chair of the Nationalist Party (1927-1933), was forced to resign. The Nationalist Party=s floor leader in the Reichstag was found dead in his office, under suspicious circumstances. By the end of June, Hitler had succeeded in dissolving the Nationalist party.
* Liberal and Splinter Parties: Hitler has forced the liberal and splinter parties to dissolve themselves (Evans 2005, pp. 12-14. Encyclopedia of World History 2001, pp. 2-3. Columbia Encyclopedia 2000).
(Flooding the Discourse with Lies, Germany, continued)
1938:
Fooling the Opposition:
On September 12, 1938, at the yearly Nazi Party Rally in Nuremberg, Hitler gives a speech threatening war, should the Sudeten Germans (the German-speaking population in the regions of Czechoslovakia bordering on Germany) not be granted self-determination.
On September 22, 1938, during a second meeting with Britain=s Prime Minister Nelville Chamberlain (1869-1940), Hitler now announces that he would have to occupy the Sudetenland no later than October 1st.
On September 29, 1938, at a conference to which the Czechs have not been invited, Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier (for France) sign the Munich Agreement, which permits Germany to occupy the Sudetenland immediately.
On September 30, 1938, Hitler and Chamberlain sign a declaration that the two countries will never go to war again.
On October 1, 1938, German troops annex the Sudetenland.
(Flooding the Discourse with Lies, Germany, continued)
1939:
Truth not a consideration:
On March 10, 1939, Hitler forces Slovakia to declare independence from the rump Czecho-Slovakia Republic, and request protection from the Czechs by the Third Reich.
On March 14, 1939, confronted with the imminent dissolution of his state, Czecho-Slovakia=s President, Emil Hacha (1872-1945), travels to Berlin. Hitler keeps Hacha waiting far into the night (while he watches a popular film), then tells him that German troops are already on the move. When Goering, who is present, adds that German bombers will drop their payloads on Prague in a few hours, Hacha faints. Revived by Hitler=s personal physician, Hacha calls Prague, and orders his troops not to fire on the invading Germans.
On March 15, 1939, shortly before 4 a.m., Hacha agrees to a German protectorate over Checko-Slovakia B without consulting his parliament. Two hours later, at 6 a.m., German troops cross the Czech border. They reach Prague by 9 a.m.
On June 26 and July 4, 1939, Germany passes regulations effectively placing outside the law, Czech workers who have migrated to jobs in different parts of the Reich B thus opening the way for Germany to deport and exploit millions of Europeans for the purposes of the German war economy (Evans 2005, pp. 672-687. Wikipedia 2008, AEmil Hacha,@ pp. 1-2).
(Flooding the Discourse with Lies, continued)
United States:
2001:
Fiction, not Truth: In his 2001 autobiography, A charge to keep B my journey to the White House, ghost-written by sportswriter Micky Herkowitz, in anticipation of the 2000 presidential elections, President George W. Bush attributes his becoming a Aborn-again@ Christian to extended private talks with Reverend Billy Graham, and particularly after a long walk along the beach, in Kennebunkport, Maine, during the summer of 1985:
AI don=t remember the exact words. It was more the power of his example. The Lord was so clearly reflected in his gentle and loving demeanor@ (Bush and Merkowitz 2001, p. 136, quoted in Unger 2007a, p. 79).
Evidence, however, points to the fact Bush was Aborn again@ on April 3, 1984, in Midland, Texas, thanks to evangelical preacher Arthur Blessit, whose evangelism is rooted in the Jesus movement of the 1960=s counterculture, and who is known for having carried a 12-foot cross Afor Jesus@ through 60 countries. The encounter with Blessit was in the coffee shop of the local Holiday Inn, in the presence Bush=s friend and Mildland oil man, Jim Sale (Unger 2007a, pp. 80-85. Unger 2007b).
Justifying prospectively:
By September 9, 2001, two days before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush finalizes war plans for Afghanistan. He has placed 44,000 U.S. troops and 18,000 British troops strategically in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
On October 7, 2001, as he declares Apre-emptive@ (really preventive) war against Afghanistan, Bush uses the excuse of the 9/11 attacks to justify his aggression (Cohen and Fraser 2007, pp. 145, 186 and 297, summarized in Hall 2007b, p. 3).
(Flooding the Discourse with Lies, United States, 2001, continued)
The 9/11 Attacks:
Outsourced by the CIA: There is very substantial evidence that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated by the CIA, with the support and cooperation of the Saudi government, using the Pakistan secret service (ISI), as a conduit to facilitate their execution by al-Qaeda.
The New Pearl Harbor: The attacks provided the necessary Anew Pearl Harbor@ to give the American people a feeling of extreme vulnerability and galvanize them into supporting massive funding for control over Southwest Asian oil reserves (beginning with the control of Afghanistan and Iraq), and massive funding for the weaponization of space in order to achieve total and complete global dominance B a Pax Americana.
Cumulative Evidence: This conclusion is based on cumulative evidence B that is, the kind of argument which consists of several individual arguments, each independent of the others. Each argument supports the others B like a cable composed of many strands, each strands strengthening the cable. Should some strands unravel, the cable can still hold the necessary weight, particularly if one or two strands are very strong. It is not necessary for all of the evidence to stand up.
The argument is not a deductive one, in which each step depends upon the truth of the previous one. In this type of argument, should a single premise be found to be false, the argument fails B like a chain which is only as strong as its weakest link.
[The evidence is summarized in Hall 2004b, 2004c, 2005 and 2006b. References include but are not limited to the following: Meyssan 2002. Griffin 2004. Griffin 2005. Griffin 2006a. Griffin 2006b. Hufschmid 2002. Ruppert 2004. Fetzer 2007. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (the Kean Commission) 2004].
(Flooding the Discourse with Lies, United States, continued)
2003:
Inventing Facts:
2001-2003: From the time of the 9/11 (2001) attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, President George W. Bush, Vice-president Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, with repeated insistence, grossly exaggerate the dangers posed by Iraq B for instance, by invoking frightening images of a mushroom cloud, and by implying that the secular regime in Iraq is connected with the Islamic extremist al Qaeda group responsible for the attacks.
By March 19, 2003, when the U.S. Ashock and awe@ on Baghdad assault begins, most Americans believe that Iraq possesses nuclear weapons and is responsible for the 9/11 attacks (Conason 2007, p. 35).
On January 23, 2008, the Center for Public Integrity releases the results of its analysis of the statements by President Bush and seven of his most senior aides, which relate to Iraq=s weapons of mass destruction and links to al-Qaeda. During the two-year period after the 9/11 (2001) attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there were 935 false statements on 532 separate occasions. Charles Lewis, Director of the study, reminds us that millions of White House e-mails from 2001 to October 2003 may have been destroyed (CommonDreams.org 2008, pp. 1-2)
(Flooding the Discourse with Lies, United States, 2003, continued)
Fictionalizing Facts: In March 2003, in Iraq, when U.S. private Jessica Lynch is wounded after her vehicle is hit by a rocket, she is taken to the Nasiriya Hospital, treated by Iraqi staff who then attempt to return her to the U.S. forces. On April 24, 2007, testifying before the House Committee on Oversight, Lynch is adamant:
AThe nurses tried to soothe me and return me . . . They (the Pentagon) have turned me into a little girl Rambo . . . They lied and tried to make me into a legend.@
Indeed, the Pentagon=s story has been that Lynch was wounded by Iraqi gunfire, continued to fight until her ammunition ran out, was abused while in hospital, and her return to the U.S. authorities refused. A Pentagon video shows a heroic night rescue of Lynch from her captors (p. 130. Tran 2007, pp. 1-3. Conason 2007, p. 113, CommonDreams.org. 2008, pp. 1-2, CNN.com 2008, pp. 1-2).
2004:
Hiding the Facts: On April 22, 2004, Army Ranger Pat Tillman, former National Football League (NFL) player, is killed in Afghanistan. Three very close bullet holes in the forehead, suggest to the medical examiners that the cause of death is an M-16 gun, fired from a distance of approximately10 yards. There is no evidence of enemy fire at the scene. The medical examiners request an investigation. Their request is refused by both the Human Resources Command and the Criminal Investigation Division of the Army. The Pentagon=s versions of the events are different. The first was the Tillman was killed by enemy fire. The second, five weeks later, after an Army investigation, is that Tillman was killed by friendly fire. Transcripts of the Army investigation show that Army attorneys tried to ward off a criminal investigation (p. 130. Mendoza 2007, pp. 1-6. Tran 2007, p. 3. Conason 2007, p. 113).
(Flooding the Discourse with Lies, United States, continued)
2005:
Destroying Evidence:
On December 5, 2007, Michael Hayden, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), discloses having destroyed, in 2005, at least two videotapes of al Qaeda prisoner interrogations.
It so happens that:
* From June 2003 to January 2004, the CIA remained silent on the tapes, as the 9/11 Commission was investigating the case of terrorist suspect Zacarias Moussaoui.
* Abu Zubaydah: One of the al Qaeda suspects whose tapes were destroyed, was Abu Zubaydah, wounded and captured in Pakistan, in 2003. During his interrogation, Zabaydah revealed that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan (two of the U.S.=s closest allies in the Awar on terror@) were linked to the 9/11 (2001) attacks.
The four men to whom Zabaydah pointed have since died, all under suspicious circumstances, namely:
Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz: On July 22, 2002, 43-year old Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, one of King Fahd=s nephews, and chair of the largest Saudi publishing empire, dies of either a heart attack or a blood clot, after liposuction in a Riyadh hospital. Prince Ahmed was in the U.S. at the time of the 9/11 attacks.
(Flooding the discourse with Lies, United States, 2005, continued)
Prince Sultan bin Faisal bin Turki al-Saud: On July 23, 2002, 41-year old Prince Sultan bin Faisal bin Turki al-Saud, dies in a one-car accident, while on the way to Prince Ahmed=s funeral.
Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Saud al-Kabir: On July 30, 2002, 25-year old Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Saud al-Kabir, dies Aof thirst, due to the summer heat while traveling in the province of Remaah.@
Mushaf Ali Mir: On February 20, 2003, 57-year old Mushaf Ali Mir, head of the Pakistani Air Force, dies with his wife and 15 close aides, when his plane explodes in clear weather. Sabotage is suspected. It is not known whether the Pakistan government has investigated (Pozner 2008, pp. 3-5. Kean and Hamilton 2008, pp. 1-3. Yost 2008, pp. 1-6).
(Flooding the Discourse with Lies, United States, continued)
2006:
Truth not a Consideration: In 2006, Tom Kean, Co-chair of the 9/11 Commission, gives his approval to an ABC mini-series to be broadcast on the five-year anniversary of the attack, then made available to high schools for educational purposes. Some of the scenes portraying the Clinton White House staff are fictional. One, for instance, shows National Security Advisor Sandy Berger on the telephone with a CIA official on whom he hangs up. Another shows Secretary of State Madeleine Albright allowing Osama bin Laden to slip away from capture. Tom Kean is not apologetic:
AI don=t think the facts are clear whether Sandy Berger, if the CIA [hung up] or if the line went dead, but they [the producers] chose to portray it this way. My memory is that it could have happened any number of ways.@
The benchmark, therefore, is no
longer the truth. The benchmark is
the memory of Tom Kean B
AMy memory is that it could have
happened any number of ways.@ Truth is not a consideration. This is, of course, the hallmark of
propaganda B not the
truth, but rather the utilitarian goal of selling a point of view (pp. 129-130. Parenti 2007b).
(Flooding the Discourse with
Lies, United States, continued)
2008:
A Five-year Lie:
From November 18, 2002 to March 18, 2003, United Nations inspectors are in Iraq to monitor the possible development of nuclear weapons. They leave just before the U.S. attack, which occurs on March 19, 2003. While the inspectors are in Iraq, President Bush is on record discussing their presence there on several occasions.
On July 14, 2003, President Bush introduces the fiction (lie) that U.N. inspectors were forced out of Iraq by President Saddam Hussein:
AWe gave him [Saddam Hussein] a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn=t let them in.@
Mainstream news does not report the mis-statement, except for the Washington Post which notes:
A[Bush=s statement] appeared to contradict the events leading up to the war.@
In January 2004, Bush repeats the lie:
A[Saddam Hussein] chose defiance. It was his choice to make, and he did not let us in.@
Again, there is no reaction from the media.
On January 2, 2008, in Israel, during an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, President Bush repeats, now for the fifth time, that the U.S. was forced to attack Iraq, in 2003, because Hussein refused to allow in United Nations inspectors. By now, the lie is 4 2 years old:
AMy decision [to invade Iraq] was based upon U.S. intelligence . . . There was a unanimous vote in the Security Council B disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences. And when he defied, when he refused to allow the inspectors in, when he made a statement by his actions that he didn=t really care what the international community said, [it was then], that I decided to make sure words meant something.@
(The White House, 2008a. Stevens 2008, pp. 1-2).
Lies unchallenged:
As of January, 2008, no presidential candidate has challenged President Bush=s behavior as a war criminal. In the words of Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the issue of impeachment is Aoff the table.@ The lies, the deceptions, the imperialistic drive of the U.S., are set to remain unchallenged.
On January 28, 2008, in his State of the Union Address, President Bush declares:
AThe mission in Iraq has been difficult and trying for our nation.@
Indeed, the United States, in 2002, a country of 291 million people, has suffered, as of January 31, 2008, the death of 3,943 of its soldiers in Iraq B a ratio to population of 1:73,800.
However, Iraq, in 2002, a country of 24.5 million people, is suffering a genocide. Table 2 summarizes the human catastrophe. There is no end in sight. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad is the largest on earth, and from 6 to 12 permanent U.S. military bases either have been constructed or are under construction.
(Ferrechio 2006, p. 1. United Nations Development Programme 2004, pp. 152 and 250. White House 2008b, p. 9. Antiwar.com 2008, p. 1. Jamail, in Jamail and Jarrar 2008, pp. 5 and 11).
Table 2: Human Toll, Iraq 2003-2008
|
War Casualties (b) |
Number |
Ratio to Population |
|
Population, 2002 |
24,510,000 |
- |
|
Killed |
1,000,000 |
1:25 |
|
Displaced (c) Internally Externally Total |
2,000,000 2,500,000 4,500,000 |
1:5 |
|
In need of Emergency Aid (c) |
4,000,000 |
1:6 |
|
Total |
9,500,000 |
1:3 |
(a) Jamail, in Jamail and Jarrar 2008, p. 11. Ali 2007.
(b) As of January 2008. No data are available on the wounded.
(c) Oxfam
Report, July 2007, quoted by Jamail, in Jamail and Jarrar 2008.
USING FRAUDULENT DOCUMENTS
Germany:
1940:
Manufacturing the Evidence: On May 10, 1940, the day Germany invades the Low Countries, during a press conference, Colonel Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893-1946) Germany=s Foreign Minister (1938-1945) justifies Germany=s action on the basis of its necessity in order to:
Asafeguard the neutrality of Belgium and Holland.@
von Ribbentrop supports his assertion with a fraudulent document purporting to show that the Low countries were about to invade the Ruhr (p. 126. Evans 2005, p. 645).
United States:
2003:
Manufacturing the Evidence:
In February 2002, at the behest of the CIA, Joseph Wilson, former U.S. embassador to Gabon, travels to Niger, to investigate the reliability of a British intelligence report which alleges that, in the late 1990=s, Iraq has bought uranium Ayellow-cake@ (a processed form of ore) for use in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. After his investigation, Wilson concludes that the British report is without basis. Though Wilson makes his findings official, the Bush administration does not acknowledge them.
On January 29, 2003, President Bush uses the discredited report in his State of the Union address:
AThe British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.@
On March 19, 2003, the United States declares Apre-emptive@ (really preventive) war on Iraq. President Bush justifies the U.S. action on the basis of the fake Ayellow cake@ document (p. 128. Cohen and Fraser 2007, p. 145, summarized in Hall 2007b, p. 8. Conason 2007, p. 113).
SUBVERTING THE LAW
Germany:
1933:
Targeting legal Professionals: On April 7, 1933, the new Law for the Re-establishment of a Professional Civil Service targets unreliable state judges, attorneys and teachers (Evans 2005, p. 267).
1934:
Legalizing Murders: On July 3, 1934, addressing his cabinet, Hitler justifies his having had two senior army officers killed during the purge of SS leader Ernst Rhom (the ANight of the Long Knives,@ June 29-30, 1934). Hitler=s defense is that he was forced to act, as plots threatened to culminate in a putsch on June 30th. If there are legal objections to what he has done, his answer is that due process was not possible in such circumstances:
AIf a mutiny breaks out on board a ship, the captain is not only entitled but obliged to crush the mutiny right away. The example which he would give would be a salutary lesson for the entire future. He would have stabilized the authority of the Reich government for all time.@
There is to be no trial, just a law to legalize the action retroactively B a measure backed by Reich Minister of Justice Franz Gurtner (p. 37. See the present document under AMaking new Laws retroactive, Germany, 1934@).
1936:
Re-defining Justice: To Nazis, the purpose of the law is not to apply long-held principles of fairness and justice, but rather to root out the enemies of the state and express the true racial feeling of the people. In 1936, Hans Frank (1900-1946), Reich Commissioner for Justice, and head of the Nazi Lawyers= League, issues a manifesto demanding the abrogation of all rules of justice, and the translation of the Nazi street violence of the pre-1933 period into a principle of state. The manifesto states:
AThe judge is not placed over the citizen as a representative of the state authority, but is a member of living community of the German people. It is not his duty to help enforce a law superior to the national community, or impose a system of universal values. His role is to safeguard the concrete order of the racial community, eliminate dangerous elements, prosecute all acts harmful to the community, and arbitrate in disagreements between members of the community. The National Socialist ideology, especially as expressed in the Party program and in the speeches of our leader, is the basis for interpreting legal sources@ (Evans 2005, p. 73. Wikipedia 2007 AHans Frank,@ pp. 1-6).
(Subverting the Law, continued)
United States:
2001:
Violating the Constitution: On November 13, 2001, President Bush announces that he has issued an order authorizing military trials for suspected terrorists B whether they have been captured in Afghanistan or elsewhere, including on American soil. This means that a defendant can be sentenced to death and executed, without a public trial, the right to appeal, or the necessity of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt (Conason 2007, pp. 57 and 65).
2006:
Circumventing Congress: On April 30, 2006, the Boston Globe reveals that President Bush has used Asigning statements@ granting himself the right to disregard Congressional decisions, and circumvent a possible Congressional over-ride (by a 2/3 majority of both houses) of a Presidential veto. In 1998, this type of Aline item veto@ was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. President Bush has issued more than 750 signing statements during his five years in office, compared to George H. W. Bush=s 232 in his four years in office, and Bill Clinton=s 140 during his eight years in office (pp. 43, 181, 292 and 308-309. Boston Globe 2006a, pp. 1-2, and 2006b, p. 1. Conason 2007, pp. 90-91. Cohen and Fraser 2007, summarized in Hall 2007b, pp. 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15 and 16).
2007:
Loyalty, not Justice: In March 2007, it becomes known that nine U.S. attorneys have been dismissed, perhaps with the knowledge of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Internal Justice Department e-mails indicate that these attorneys have been targeted for being insufficiently loyal to White House policies. The possibility of purging all of the U.S. attorneys was discussed (pp. 142-143).
KEEPING LEGAL DEFINITIONS VAGUE
Germany:
1935:
Keeping Offenses nebulous: In 1935, The Nuremberg (anti-Semitic) Laws turn ordinary Germans into criminals for vaguely defined offenses, such as associating with a Jew, or for a Jew to display the German flag (p. 59).
(Keeping legal Definitions vague, continued)
United States:
2005:
Keeping Offenses nebulous: Since its beginning, the Bush administration has aggressively tried to keep the definition of Aenemy combatant@ lose and broad, resisting defining the term with any specificity. It has also re-defined the level of abuse legally considered to be torture.
By 2005, two U.S. citizens have been taken and tortured:
* Yaser Hamdi, imprisoned for three years without a hearing, and released, in 2006, after the Supreme Court ordered a hearing.
* Jose Padilla (a.k.a. Abdullah al-Muhajir), taken as an Aenemy combatant@ and tortured for three years, until becoming Alike a piece of furniture@ (pp. 55-56. Conason 2007, pp. 76-78).
(Keeping legal Definitions
vague, United States, continued)
2006:
Broadening Definitions: On November 27, 2006, President Bush signs into law the Animal Enterprises Terrorism Act (AETA), which expands the Animal Enterprises Protection Act (AEPA) of 1992. The Act criminalizes dissent and defines as Aterrorism@ behavior which is protected under the constitution, such as demonstrations and boycotts.
In the Act:
* The definition of Aanimal enterprise@ is:
Aany enterprise that uses or sells animals or animal products.@
The definition, therefore, encompasses most U.S. businesses.
* The phrase Aloss of any real or personal property@ is to be interpreted, as it already has been interpreted under the 1992 AEPA. The phrase includes loss of projected profit.
* The right to Aprotection against interference@ applies to any:
Aperson or entity having a connection to, relationship with, or transaction with an animal enterprise.@
The phrase is, therefore, sufficiently broad to re-define dissent as terrorism, and re-define animal activists as Aeco-terrorists@ (Phillips et al, 2007, pp. 109-114).
2007:
Trip-wire Justice: In 2007, U.S. citizens are facing an increasingly elaborate trip-wire for arrest, such as, for instance, for Amaterially and purposely supporting hostilities.@ The President claims Aunilateral authority@ to hold indefinitely, without charge, even U.S. citizens, and also claims the right to mistreat those whom he detains (pp. 55-59. Conason 2007, pp. 76-78).
(Keeping legal Definitions
vague, United States, continued)
2008:
Refusing to define: On January 23, 2008, during an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Attorney General Mike Mukasey continues (as he did during his October 2007 confirmation hearings), to refuse to define the interrogation technique of water-boarding as torture:
AYes,
I=ve been
read into the program, but that=s
part of a process. I said I would look
at the program, look at the letters, and give my answers. I haven=t
yet figured out precisely when and precisely how. I understand that the time is coming.@
(Think Progress 2008, p. 1. See the present document under AState-sanctioned Torture, United States, 2008, Torture undefined@).
MAKING NEW LAWS RETROACTIVE
Germany:
1934:
Murder Legalized retroactively:
In 1934, Reich Minister of Justice Franz Gurtner, applauds the Nazi crackdown on Adisorder@ which has taken place in 1933 and 1934.
In particular, during the night of June 29-30, 1934 (the ANight of the Long Knives@), a mass murder, ordered by Hitler, eliminated:
* SS leader Ernst Rohm.
* Rowdy SS troops.
* Conservatives.
After this event, Gurtner arranges for legislation to sanction the murders retrospectively. He is also able to forestall attempts by some local state prosecutors to initiate proceedings against the killers (pp. 74-75. Evans 2005, pp. 20-41 and 72. See the present document under ASubverting the Law, Germany, 1934@).
(Making new Laws retroactive, continued)
United States:
2004:
Murder legalized retroactively: In June 2004, on the eve of his departure from Iraq, Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (May 12, 2003 - June 28, 2004), issues AOrder 17,@ which grants foreign contractors, including private security firms, such as Blackwater, full immunity from:
Aany form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their Sending States.@
The Order is made retroactive B all foreigners involved in the occupation project being granted:
Afreedom of movement without delay throughout Iraq@
(Pp. 74-75. Wikipedia 2008 AL. Paul Bremer,@ p. 3. Engelhardt 2007, pp. 3-4. Scahill 2007a, p. xx. For Paul Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority, see also the present document under AA private Army, United States, May 12, 2003).
2006:
Torture legalized retroactively:
The Military Commissions Act stipulates that only the President will
determine whether or not torture has occurred, and makes this authority retroactive
as of November 26, 1997 (Cohen and Fraser
2007, summarized in Hall 2007b, pp. 15 and 18. See the present document under
AAcclimating
Citizens to State-sanctioned Torture, United States, 2006@).
2008:
Demanding retroactive Immunity for Spying: On January 28, 2008, in his State of the Union Address, President Bush repeats his demand that Congress grant immunity to the telecommunication companies (AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth), which, from 2001 to August 2006, without a warrant, have allowed the government to eavesdrop, or have turned over to the government records reflecting the communication activities of their customers.
ACongress must pass liability protection for companies believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend America.@
Congress is set to acquiesce to Bush=s demand (Greenwald 2008, pp. 2-4. See the present document under ACitizen Surveillance, United States, 2006, and United States, 2008@).
AN INTRANSIGENT STANCE
Germany:
1933:
Intransigence pays:
On May 20, 1928, the Reichstag elections give the following results:
Social Democrats 29.8 percent 153 seats
Nazis 2.6 percent 12 seats
Other 67.6 percent 326 seats
_____________________________________
Total 100.0 percent 491 seats
When the Social Democrats refuse to approve the starkly deflationary budget proposed by Chancellor Heinrich Bruning (1885-1970, Chancellor 1930-1932). Bruning, who is from the Center (conservative, Catholic) party, uses his power under Article 25 of the constitution, to dissolve the Reichstag and call new elections.
On September 14, 1930, the Reichstag elections give the following results:
Social Democrats 24.5 percent 143 seats
Nazis 18.3 percent 107 seats
Other 57.2 percent 327 seats
_____________________________________
Total 100.0 percent 577 seats
This is a shock. Neither Bruning nor his political opponents on the left (mainly the Social Democrats and the Communists), had believed that the Nazis= extremist rhetoric and street bullying tactics, could be anything else than evidence of their political marginality.
From now on, the (conservative) Nationalists, led by Alfred Hugenberg would cooperate with the Nazis to bring down the Republic and replace Chancellor Bruning with someone even further to the right.
(An intransigent Stance,
Germany, continued)
On March 13, 1932, in the presidential elections, the two main contestants are President Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934, president 1925-1934) and Hitler. The elections give the following results:
Hindenburg 49.6 percent
Hitler 30.1 percent
No candidate having received a majority of the vote, a run-off election is to be held.
On April 19, 1932, the run-off presidential elections, give the following results:
Hindenburg 53.0 percent
Hitler 36.8 percent
The 85-year old Hindenburg continues as president, and Chancellor Heinrich Bruning continues as Chancellor. On May 30, 1932, Chancellor Bruning tenders his resignation.
On June 1, 1932, President Hindenburg appoints Franz von Papen (1879-1969, Chancellor 1932-1933) as Chancellor. Hitler calls for Reichstag elections and the lifting of the ban on the SA (Brownshirts). Hindenburg and von Papen, hoping to gain Nazi support for the anti-democratic policies they plan to initiate, agree to both demands. Hitler hopes that a new election will lead to a further increase in the Nazi vote B as indeed, it would.
(An intransigent Stance, Germany, continued)
On July 31, 1932, the results of the Reichstag elections are:
Nazis 37.3 percent 230 seats
Social Democrats 21.6 percent 133 seats
Other 41.1 percent 245 seats
_____________________________________
Total 100.0 percent 608 seats
The only realistic alternatives for Germany now are either a dictatorship under Hitler, or a conservative, authoritarian regime under von Papen, backed by the army.
Although still short of a majority, the Nazi party is now by far the largest in the Reichstag. The reasons for its success center on the sharply deepening crisis of the Great Depression. The election confirms the Nazis= status as a rainbow coalition of the discontented. The Nazi=s is a catch-all party for social protest.
However, as compared to the April 1932, presidential elections (when they had 36.8 percent of the vote), the Nazis (now with 37.8 percent), have not made significant gain. The Nazi vote seems to have peaked. Hitler now discards the parliamentary route to power, as it is unlikely to ever get him an absolute majority of the votes. The time to play the opposition is over. The moment to grasp for power has arrived.
Hitler refuses to enter a coalition government led by another party, insisting that he will only enter a government as Reich Chancellor. Yet without Hitler, Hindenburg and von Papen have no popular legitimacy.
On September 12, 1932, when the Reichstag meets, its president (the leader of the largest party), Hermann Goering, refuses von Papen=s attempts to declare a dissolution of the Reichstag (after which von Papen could rule by decree). On the other hand, Goering accepts a Communist motion of no-confidence in the government. The motion passes with overwhelming support, and new Reichstag elections are set for November.
(An intransigent Stance, Germany, continued)
On November 6, 1932, the results of the Reichstag elections are:
Nazis 33.1 percent 196 seats
Social Democrats 20.4 percent 121 seats
Other 46.5 percent 267 seats
______________________________________
Total 100.0 584 seats
von Papen lacks legitimacy and announces his intention to resign.
On December 3, 1932, President Hindenburg appoints Kurt von Schleicher (1882-1934), von Papen=s war minister, as the new Chancellor. Schleicher hopes to entice Hitler to join his cabinet, but Hitler remains adamant that the Nazis will not join any government of which he is not Chancellor. Hindenburg, von Papen and Alfred Hugenberg (Chair of the conservative Nationalist Party) conspire to oust von Schleicher. The plan is to put Hitler as Chancellor but with a majority of conservatives in his cabinet, and thereby keep him in check.
Schleicher requests President Hindenburg to let him rule unconstitutionally. Hindenburg refuses, and Schleicher tenders his resignation.
On January 30, 1933, Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor. von Papen is Vice-Chancellor. Hitler=s conservative cabinet would prove unable to control him. On the streets, the SA (Brownshirts) unleash a whole new level of violence against their opponents.
(Evans 2003, pp. 209, 250-251, 255-259 and 277-308. Hornberger 2004, pp. 1-4. Wikipedia 2008, AGerman Election, 1928,@ p. 1. Wikipedia 2007, AGerman Election, 1930,@ pp. 1-2. Wikipedia 2007, AGerman Election, July 1932,@ pp. 1-2. Wikipedia 2007, AGerman Election, November 1932,@ pp. 1-2. Columbia Encyclopedia 2000).
(An intransigent Stance,
continued)
United States:
2002:
Preventive War: On June 1, 2002, addressing the West Point graduating class, President Bush voices explicitly, for the first time, the idea of preventive war (attacking another country even though it poses no immediate threat) B a stance which would become known as Athe Bush doctrine.@
At the beginning of his speech, the President states:
A[in relation to the] new threats, [deterrence] means nothing . . . [and containment is] not possible.@
Bush then uses the word Apre-emption@ (attacking a country when the danger of an attack by it, is too imminent to allow time for the United Nations to intervene) in the traditional sense of the word Aprevention@:
AIf we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long . . . [America=s security] will require all Americans . . . to be ready for pre-emptive action@ (meaning preventive action) (Griffin 2006b pp. 96-97 and 220, summarized in Hall 2006b, p. 22).
2004:
On the Offensive always: On April 13, 2004, addressing the nation, President Bush summarizes the two lessons of the 9/11 attacks:
A[that his country] must deal with gathering threats [and that it] must go on the offense and stay on the offense@ (Griffin 2006b. pp. 99 and 220, summarized in Hall 2006b, p. 22).
(An intransigent Stance, United States, continued)
2006:
War, not Negotiations: In 2006, the official Aannual defense budget@ of the Department of Defense (Pentagon) is 440 billion dollars.
To this official budget must be added:
* The military spending incurred in other departments (Treasury, Veterans, Homeland Security, State, Energy).
* The Congressionally appropriated ASupplements@ (for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq).
* The Military Construction Appropriation Bill (for military bases inside and outside the U.S.).
The total then comes to 1,019 billion dollars B double the official Aannual defense budget,@ and more than the combined defense budgets of all other countries on Earth (Johnson 2006, pp. 271-274, summarized in Hall 2007a, pp. 38-39).
The Adefense@ budget is witness that the policy of the administration is to bully rather than to negotiate.
2007:
Other Armies are Terrorists: On October 25, 2007, the U.S. State Department designates Iran=s Ministry of Defense, and Iran=s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as terrorist organizations. Executive Order 13224 permits the administration to block the assets of organizations designated as Aterrorist,@ and punish foreign businesses which Aprovide support, services or assistance to, or otherwise associate with, >terrorist= organizations.@
Iran=s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is a component of Iran=s military force under Article 150 of the Iranian Constitution. The Corps totals 125,000, of which 100,000 are Ground Forces with one airborne brigade, 20,000 are Naval Forces, and 5,000 are Marines. The Corps controls Iran=s missile force and the Strait of Hormuz. It focuses on asymmetrical warfare, thus complementing the more traditional role of the regular military (Artesh, Aarmy@) (Wikipedia 2008, AArmy of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution,@ pp. 1-2 and 4-5).
(An intransigent Stance, United States, continued)
2008:
Destroy the World rather than negotiate: On January 22, 2008, in anticipation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, to be held in April, five senior commanders representing the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Holland, deliver a 150-page manifesto to their respective heads of state. General John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and ex-supreme commander of NATO in Europe, speaks for the United States. The manifesto includes:
1. An outline of the threats facing the West:
a. Climate change and energy security will lead to both a contest for resources and mass environmental migration.
b. The spread of weapons of mass destruction.
c. International terrorism.
d. The weakening of the station state.
e. The weakening of international organizations, such as the United Nations, the NATO and the European Union.
f. Political fanaticism and religious fundamentalism.
2. A call for:
a. AThe first use of nuclear weapons [by NATO, which] must remain in the quiver of escalation, as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction.@
b. The use of force by NATO without authorization by the United Nations Security Council, when:
Aimmediate action is needed to protect large numbers of people.@
(Traynor 2008, pp. 1-5. Telegraph.co.uk 2008, pp. 1-3. Democracy Now! 2008a, p. 1).
RULING BY EMERGENCY DECREE / MARTIAL LAW
Germany:
The First Reich: The first AGerman Reich@ (800-1815) is the Holy Roman Reich of the German Nation, founded by Charlemagne in 800, and dissolved by Napoleon in 1806. This is the famous Athousand-year Reich@ which the Nazis would thrive to emulate. After the defeat of Napoleon, in 1815, the Reich is succeeded by the German Confederation.
The Second Reich: The Asecond@ German Reich (1871-1918) is created after the November 1848 Revolution, which, starting in Paris, has flashed across Europe. It would come largely to fail in Germany. After wars of unification (1864-1870), Prussian Premier Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) names himself head of the North German Confederation. He engineers wars, first with Austria (1866) and then with the French (1870-1871) whom he defeats at Sedan, in 1870. The constitution which Bismarck devises for the new German Reich, in 1871, allows for a loose confederation of independent states with, as its titular head, a Kaiser (Emperor, the name derived from the Latin ACaesar@), who has wide-ranging powers, including the declaration of war and the right to appoint a government, with a Reich Chancellor at its head. The Chancellor and his ministers, therefore, are civil servants beholden to the Kaiser, rather than party politicians beholden to the people or their parliamentary representatives. The Reichstag is nationally elected but is mainly a deliberative body with little power. Under Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941, Kaiser 1888-1918), Germany lives under an almost constant state of emergency decrees and martial law.
The Weimar Republic: The Weimar Republic (1918-1933) is created during the November 1918 revolution, amid a sense of disorientation following the defeat of Germany in World War I, the collapse of the Bismarck=s Reich, and the flight of Kaiser Wilhelm II into exile. The constitution, approved on July 31, 1919, is essentially a modified version of the constitution established by Bismark. In place of a Kaiser, there is to be a President elected by popular vote. The President is granted extensive emergency power under Article 48 of the constitution. In times of trouble, he can rule by decree and use the army to restore law and order in any of the federated states. The constitution provides no effective safeguard against abuse of Article 48, since the President can use the power given to him by Article 25 of the constitution, to dissolve the Reichstag, should this body reject a Presidential decree.
The first President, Friedrick Ebert (1871-1925, president 1919-1925), uses the power to rule by decree no fewer than 136 times. His successor, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934, president 1925-1934), uses it to appoint Hitler as Chancellor B a step which would prove fatal to the survival of the Republic.
(Ruling by Emergency Decree/
Martial Law, Germany, continued)
In other areas, the constitution is similar to that of most other European countries in the 1920=s. After 1918, workers and farm laborers win the 8-hour day, unemployment insurance, and the right to unionize. Women are able to vote and stand for election at every level, from local councils to the Reichstag. They have the right to enter the major professions, and generally play a prominent role in public life.
On June 1, 1932, President Hindenburg appoints Franz von Papen (1879-1969) to succeed Heinrich Bruning as Chancellor. von Papen is expelled from the Center Party for accepting the post, and, in November, submits his resignation.
The Third Reich:
The Third Reich (1933-1945) is created on January 30, 1933, when President Paul von Hindenburg, with the agreement
of the army, appoints Hitler as
Reich Chancellor. Franz von Papen is Vice-chancellor.
The SA and SS immediately stage triumphant parades and processions,
demonstrating on the streets the confidence and power of the Nazis.
The Reichstag Fire: On February 28, 1933, a lone Dutch anarcho-syndicalist, Marinus van der Lubbe, sets fire to the Reichstag building in protest against the injustices of unemployment. The night after the fire, President Hindenburg signs the Reichstag Fire Decree, an emergency decree which suspends civil liberties and allows the cabinet to take any necessary measures to protect public safety. Hitler and Minister without Portfolio, Hermann Goering (1893-1946), use the Stormtroopers (SA) to foment violence in the streets. Joseph Goebbels, soon to become Reich Propaganda Minister, portrays the fire as part of a Communist conspiracy to stage an armed uprising. By the summer, more than 100,000 Communists, Social Democrats, trade unionists and others have been arrested, and official estimates put the number of deaths while in custody at 600.
The Enabling Act: On March 23, 1933, the Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, which gives to the Chancellor the right to rule by decree without reference either to the Reichstag or to the President. The Weimar constitution is now a dead letter, and the Reichstag is shut out of the legislative process.
The Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act are used to dismiss supposed enemies of the state B meaning enemies of the Nazis. The Acts provide the legal pretext for the creation of a dictatorship.
(Ruling by Emergency Decree/ Martial Law, Germany, continued)
Incidences of violence and anti-semitism multiply exponentially. Soon, Hitler=s Stormtroopers (SA) rule the cities, parading their newly-won supremacy in an obvious and intimidatory manner. Massive, brutal and murderous assaults grow to a vast and unprecedented scale. By the summer 1933, the creation of a one-party state is virtually complete. Indeed, January 30th would mark, not a conservative counter-revolution, but rather the beginning of seizure of power by the Nazis.
Hitler does not like the extensive and sometimes critical discussions which a cabinet meeting of his ministers involves. He prefers decrees to be worked out as fully as possible before being presented to a full meeting of ministers. Increasingly, his cabinet meets only to rubber-stamp previously decided legislation.
On August 2, 1934, President Hindenburg dies. The cabinet issues a decree which merges the offices of President and Chancellor, transferring all the powers of the former to the latter.
On August 19, 1934, a nationwide plebiscite ratifies Hitler as the A>Fuhrer= (Leader) and Reich Chancellor.@ Hitler is now Head of State, with the armed forces swearing allegiance to him. He is dictator.
(Evans 2005, pp. 4-14, 27, 42 and 216. Evans 2003, pp. 1-9, 39, 45, 80, 88, 127, 250, 283-284, 307, 317, 331-333, 336, 347-348, 351, 374, 453-454, 456 and 461. Parenti 2007a, p. 346. Columbia Encyclopedia 2000. See the present document under AWords and Images, On a >War Footing,@ Germany, 1933).
(Ruling by emergency Decree/ Martial Law, continued)
United States:
2001:
Acquiring War-making Power: On September 18, 2001, one week after the 9/11 attacks, the House and Senate pass a joint resolution, the Authorization to use Military Force (AUMF), which authorizes the president:
Ato use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons [involved in the attacks] to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States@ (Conason 2007, pp. 183-184).
2005:
The Military for Domestic Use: On September 5, 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush calls for the use of the military to enforce the law in case of a natural disaster. The call violates the1878 Posse Comitatus Act which places strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement (pp. 180 and 292. U.S. Constitution.net 2006, p. 1).
Preparing for Martial Law: In October 2005, President Bush calls for martial law, including forced quarantines, in the event of an Avian Flu pandemic (pp. 180 and 292. U.S. Constitution.net 2006, p. 1).
Instilling Fear in Citizens: As of December 2005, at least 13 changes in color-coded terrorism alerts have been preceded by a political downturn for the Bush administration. Consistently, fear-inducing headlines dwarf setbacks for the Bush administration (pp. 177-178. Conason 2007, pp. 75-76).
(Ruling by emergency Decree/ Martial Law, United States, continued)
2005-2006:
Rehearsing Martial Law: Between April 2005 and October 2006, a total of 30,110 Afugitives@ are arrested in three federally coordinated mass operations under the name Federal and Local Cops organized Nationally (FALCON). The operations directly involve more than 960 agencies (local, state and federal).
The raids occur on:
* April 4-10, 2005 (FALCON I, 10,340 individuals).
* April 17-23, 2006, (FALCON II, 9,037 individuals).
* October 22-28, 2006 (FALCON III, 10,733 individuals).
To catch fugitives is routine police work. Such centralization of power is not an effective way of apprehending criminals.
This is the first time in U.S. history that all the domestic police agencies have been put under the direct control of the federal government. The FALCON operations make sense only as means of effectively setting up a chain of command structure which starts in the Department of Justice, and relocates the levers of control to Washington, where they can be manned by members of the administration. The operations appear to have been devised to enhance the powers of the Aunitary executive@ by putting local and state law enforcement under federal supervision, ready for the institution of martial law.
The precedents are now established for law enforcement agencies across the nation to be taken over by the president at a moment=s notice (Phillips et al 2007, pp. 55-58).
(Ruling by emergency Decree/ Martial Law, United States, continued)
2006:
Expecting Insurrection: On October 17, 2006, President Bush signs into law the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act, which allows the president to station military troops anywhere in the United States, and take control of state-based National Guard units, without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to Asuppress public disorder.@ The law in effect repeals the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act.
Section 333 of the Act, entitled AMajor public emergencies, interference with State and Federal Law,@ states:
AThe
President may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal
service B
to
restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States, when, as a
result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health
emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition in any State or
possession of the United States, the President determines that domestic
violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the
State or possession are incapable of (or Arefuse@ or Afail@ in) maintaining public order,
B
in order to suppress, in any State, any insurrection, domestic violence,
unlawful combination, or conspiracy.@
Thus, under the cover of Alaw enforcement,@ the President has unfettered legal authority to order federal troops onto the streets, and direct military operations against the U.S. public.
The president can now declare martial law at his discretion. With direct control over local, state and federal law enforcement agencies (see the 2005-2006 operations FALCON above), and control over the states= National Guard, the president now has a complete monopoly over all the means of organized violence in the country. All the traditional obstacles to absolute power have been removed (pp. 146-147 and 170. Phillips et al 2007, pp. 40-42 and 58).
CONCLUSIONS
A Cumulative Argument: The argument that the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, were pre-meditated by the Bush administration, is cumulative B the overwhelming weight of the evidence points in that direction, leaving little room for doubt. Similarly, the argument made in the present document also cumulative. The United States is sliding into a dictatorship, with numerous and important parallels with the slide of Germany in the late 1920=s and early 1930=s.
Some of the examples given may not hold under closer scrutiny. Others may be merely fortuitous and have no political significance. But it is hard to deny all of the parallels, particularly if a few are very strong. The weight of the evidence is toward a severe weakening of the U.S. democracy, such that now, any major event, whether willed by the leaders or unwilled by them but used by them opportunistically to their advantage, could tip the boat over into a free-reign dictatorship and even fascism. All the precedents which make for a dictatorship are in place. They still have not been applied on a large scale.
The argument is like a rope composed of many strands. Its strength does not depend on each individual strand. It depends on enough strands, strong enough to hold the weight, each strand bearing weight independently of the others. The argument presented here is not a deductive argument which depends on the truth of each of its premises, and on the validity of each step taken on the basis of those premises. It is not chain-like, with the conclusion being only as strong as the weakest link in the chain.
Search for more Categories and Examples: Some of the categories into which examples have been classified, are stronger than others. Some categories undoubtedly are missing altogether. Nothing has been said, for example, about the quality of the political leadership in the United States today as compared to 40-60 years ago, or in Germany in the late 1920=s and early 1930=s, as compared to during the Weimar Republic.
Within each category, some examples are stronger than others. Undoubtedly many important examples are missing altogether. The next task is to fill in the blanks.
Empire or Freedom: It is difficult, if not impossible, to have a global empire and freedom at home. Empires are based on the exploitation of subjugated people to increase the wealth of the dominating country. Democracies are generally much more reticent to do this than dictatorships, the latter able to mobilize vast numbers of people against their will and put them to work to increase the wealth of the few.
We must choose. Either empire and try to keep our Alifestyle@ in the face of such ominous global trends as a world population beyond what the planet can sustain, and global warming. Or, we can modify our Alifestyle@ and focus on widening and deepening democracy for ourselves and others around the globe.
REFERENCES
All unspecified page numbers refer to:
Wolf, Naomi. 2007. The end of America B letter of warning to a young patriot. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green.
Specified page numbers refer to:
Ali, Tariq, 2007. AWar and the Media.@ Speech, Montreal, October 4. Broadcast by Alternative Radio, January 29, 2008.
http://www.alternativeradio.org.
American Civil Liberties Union, 2007. AACLU and National Abortion Federation criticize Decision by U.S. Supreme Court upholding Federal Abortion Ban.@ April 18, 2007.
http://www.aclu.org/reproductiverights/abortion/29423prs20070418.html. Posted April 18, 2007. Accessed January 24, 2008.
Antiwar.com. 2008. ACasualties in Iraq,@ January 31.
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties. Posted January 31, 2008. Accessed February 1, 2008.
Avni, Sheerly. 2003. AReproductive Rights. American Women take their Right to an Abortion for granted. They shouldn=t anymore.@ January 22, 2003.
http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2003/01/22/choice. Posted January 22, 2003. Accessed January 24, 2008.
Boston Globe,
2006a. ABush challenges hundreds of laws B President cites Powers of his Office.@ (Charlie Savage). April 30.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04/30/bush_challenges. Accessed October 4, 2007.
2006b. AExamples of the President=s Signing Statements.@ (Charlie Savage). April 30.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04/30/examples. Accessed October 4, 2007.
Brodsky, Robert, 2008. ANew Direction charted for Wartime contracting.@ Government Executive.com. January 25, 2008.
http://govexec,com/dailyfed/0108/012508rb1.htm. Posted January 25, 2008. Accessed January 28, 2008.
Campagna, Joel, and Rhonda Roumani, 2003. APermission to fire.@ May 27.
http://www/cpj.org/Briefings/2003/palestine hotel/palestine hotel.html. Posted May 27, 2003. Accessed January 2, 2008.
CBS News, 2003. AText of Bush Speech B President declares End to major Combat in Iraq.@
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/01. Posted May 1, 2003. Accessed January 2, 2008.
Center for public Integrity,
2007a. AThe top 100 private Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2004-2006.@ Month not specified.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/WOWII/Database.aspx/act. Date posted unspecified. Accessed January 30, 2008.
2007b. AThe top 100 private Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.@ (Bill Buzenberg). Month not specified.
http://www.publicintegrity.org.WOWII. Date posted unspecified. Accessed January 30, 2008.
CNN.com,
2003. ARumsfeld B France, Germany are >Problems= in Iraqi Conflict.@
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/01/22/sprj.irq.wrap. Posted January 23, 2003. Accessed January 5, 2008.
2005. ACivil Rights Attorney convicted in Terror Trial.@
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/02/10/terror.trial.lawyer. Posted February 14, 2005. Accessed January 5, 2008.
2008. AStudy: Bush, Aides made 935 false Statements in Run-up to War.@ January 23, 2008.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/23/bush.iraq. Posted January 23, 2008. Accessed January 23, 2008.
Cohen, Elliot, and Bruce Fraser. 2007. The last days of democracy B how big media and power-hungry government are turning America into a dictatorship. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus.
Summarized in Francoise Hall, 2007b. AThe United States of America B an emerging Dictatorship.@ September 30 (23 pages, unpublished).
Columbia Encyclopedia. 2000. 6th Edition. New York, N.Y.: Columbia University/ Gale Group.
CommonDreams.org, 2008. ACenter documents 935 false Statement by top Administration Officials to justify Iraq War.@ January 23.
http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0123-01.htm. Posted January 23, 2008. Accessed January 23, 2008.
Conason, Joe. 2007. It can happen here B authoritarian peril in the age of Bush. New York, N.Y.: St. Martin=s Griffin/ Thomas Dunne.
Danner, Mark. 2004. Torture and truth B America, Abu Ghraib, and the war on terror. New York: New York Review of Books.
Dean, Jody. 2005. ATaxonomy of Torture B Stress Positions.@
http://jdeanicite.typepad.com.i_cite/2005/05. Posted May 26, 2005. Accessed January 5, 2008.
Democracy Now!
2008a. AMilitary Chiefs assert first-strike nuclear Option for NATO.@
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/24/headlines. Posted January 24, 2008. Accessed January 24, 2008.
2008b. AAdministration not >prepared to address= Contractor Dependence.@
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/25/headlines. Posted January 25, 2008. Accessed January 24, 2008.
2008c. ABush OKs spy Agencies to monitor some Internet Traffic.@ Headlines. January 29.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/29/headlines. Posted January 29, 2008. Accessed January 29, 2008.
Domarus, Max. 1973. Hitler B speeches and proclamations, 1932-1945 B the chronicle of a dictatorship. German, 1973. English, Vol. 1-4, 1990-2004. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci.
Encyclopedia of World History. 2001. AThe World Wars and the Inter-war Period, 1914-1945 B Germany, January 30 to March 23, 1933.@
Engelhardt, Tom, 2007. AOrder 17.@ The Nation. September 24, 2007 (web only).
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071008/engelhardt. Accessed January 4, 2008.
Evans, Richard.
2003. The coming of the third Reich. New York, N.Y.: Penguin Group.
2005. The Third Reich in power. New York, N.Y.: Penguin Group.
Feder, Jody. 2005. AThe History and Effect of Abortion Conscience Clause Laws.@ January 14.
http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/crsreports/crsdocuments/RS2142801. Updated January 14, 2005. Accessed January 24, 2008.
Ferrechio, Susan, 2006. APelosi: Bush Impeachment >Off the Table=@ New York Times, November 8.
http://wwwnytimes.com/cq/2006/11/08/cq_1916.html. Posted November 8, 2006. Accessed February 1, 2008.
Fetzer, James, Editor. 2007. The 9/11 conspiracy B the scamming of America. Peru, IL: Carus/Open Court/Catfeet.
Free Speech Radio News, 2008. ACatholic Health Administrators vie to buy Colorado Exempla Hospitals.@ January 22, 2008.
http://www.fsrn.org/content/tuesday,-january-22,-2008. Posted January 22, 2008. Accessed January 24, 2008.
Ghouse, Mike, 2007. AHitler, Neocons and Fundies.@ July 16.
http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com. Posted July 16, 2007. Accessed January 13, 2008.
GlobalSecurity.org, 2003. AU.S. B Rumsfeld again refers to >old= and >new= Europe.@ June 11.
http://www/globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2003/06/mil-030611-rfel-171320.
Gray Panthers of San Francisco, 2006. ALynne Steward Sentence a Victory.@ November Newsletter.
http://graypanterssf.igc.org/06-11-newletter/06-11-NL-Lynne_Stewart.htm.
Greenwald, Glenn, 2008. AThe Bill that will give full Immunity to the Telecoms who broke the Law by allowing warrantless Spying on Americans B and which will also give the President vast new Powers to eavesdrop on Americans without Warrants.@ Democracy Now! January 29.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/29/. Posted January 29, 2008. Accessed January 29, 2008.
Griffin, David.
2004. The new Pearl Harbor B disturbing questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11. Northampton, MA: Interlink/ Olive Branch.
Summarized in Francoise Hall, 2004b, A9/11 B Outsourced by the CIA.@ June 11 (22 pages, unpublished).
2005. The 9/11 Commission Report B omissions and distortions. Northampton, MA: Olive Branch.
Summarized in Francoise Hall, 2005. AThe 9/11 Report B an Analysis.@ June 18 (19 pages, unpublished).
2006a, AAmerica=s Non-accidental, Non-benign Empire.@ In David Griffin, John Cobb Jr., Richard Falk and Catherine Keller, Editors, The American empire and the commonwealth of God B A political, economic, religious statement. Louisville, KY: Westminister John Knox.
2006b. Christian Faith and the Truth behind 9/11. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox.
Summarized in Francoise Hall, 2006b. AWanted, A new Pearl Harbor B The U.S. Government=s Incentives for organizing the 9/11 Attacks,@ August 12 (59 pages, unpublished).
Hall, Francoise,
2004a. ATorture@ (Poem). May 15 (8 pages, unpublished).
2004b. A9/11 B Outsourced by the CIA.@ June 11 (22 pages, unpublished).
2004c. AMichael Ruppert, Crossing the Rubicon B The 9/11 Attacks, Chronological Order of Events.@ November 29 (10 pages, unpublished).
2005. AThe 9/11 Report B An Analysis.@ June 18 (19 pages, unpublished).
2006a. ATorture in Western Culture.@ July 9 (83 pages, unpublished).
2006b. AWanted, A new Pearl Harbor B The U.S. Government=s Incentives for organizing the 9/11 Attacks,@ August 12 (59 pages, unpublished).
2007a. AGlobal Warming B An Assessment of possible Solutions.@ May 26 (64 pages, unpublished).
2007b. AThe United States of America B an emerging Dictatorship.@ September 30 (23 pages, unpublished).
Hornberger, Jacob. 2004. AHow Hitler became a Dictator.@ Future of Freedom Foundation.
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0403a.asp. Posted June 28, 2004. Accessed January 25, 2008.
Hufschmid, Eric. 2002. Painful questions B an analysis of the September 11th attack. Endpoint software, Goleta, CA.
Summarized in Francoise Hall, 2004b, A9/11 B Outsourced by the CIA.@ June 11 (22 pages, unpublished).
Jamail, Dahr, and Jarrar, Raed, 2008. ABush touts Outcome of Iraq Troop >Surge.= Repeats Threats against Iran.@ Democracy Now! January 29, 2008.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/29/bush_touts_outcome_of_iraq_troop. Posted January 29, 2008. Accessed January 29, 2008.
Johnson, Chalmers. 2006. Nemesis B the last days of the American republic. New York: Henry Holt/Metropolitan.
Summarized in Francoise Hall, 2007a. AGlobal Warming B An Assessment of possible Solutions.@ May 26 (64 pages, unpublished).
Kean, Thomas and Hamilton, Lee, 2008. AStonewalled by the CIA.@ (Commentary). Free Internet Press. January 2.
http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=14811. Posted January 2, 2008. Accessed January 17, 2008.
McCoy, Alfred.
2006a. A question of torture B CIA interrogation, from the cold war to the war on terror. New York: Henry Holt/Metropolitan.
2006b. Interview with Amy Goodman. Democracy Now!, WBAI, New York. February 17.
Mendoza, Martha, 2007. AAP B New Details on Tillman=s Death.@ Washington Post, July 27.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/26. Accessed January 4, 2008.
Meyssan, Thierry. 2002. 9/11 B the big lie. London, UK: Carnot.
Miles, Steven. 2006. Oath betrayed B torture, medical complicity, and the war on terror. New York: Random House.
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (the Kean Commission). 2004. The 9/11 Commission report B final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. Authorized Edition. New York:
W.W. Norton. Data obtained from:
9-11 Research.com. 2006. AThe Kean Commission B The Official Commission avoids the Core Issues.@
http://911research.wtc7.net/post911/commission/index.html. Updated February 2, 2006. Accessed August 14, 2006.
National Right to Life Committee, 2004. APresident Bush signs Unborn Victims of Violence Act.@ April 6, 2004.
http://www.nrlc.org/Unborn_Victims/BushsignsUVVA.html. Posted April 6, 2004. Accessed January 24, 2008.
NewsFeedResearcher, 2008. AFBI proposes international Crime Data Base.@
http://newsfeedresearcher.com/data/articles w3/idw2008.01.15.19.28.18.html. Posted January 15, 2008. Accessed January 17, 2008.
New York Times, 2006. ABank Data is sifted by U.S. in secret to block Terror.@ (Eric Lichtblau and James Risen). June 23.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/washington/23intel.html. Accessed October 3, 2007.
Nickel, Sin, 2007. ATALON Spy Database to continue operation under Alberto Gonzales.@
http://www.sinnickel.com/blog/?p=43. Posted August 21, 2007. Accessed January 20, 2008.
Palast, Greg. 2006. AReporter Palast slips Clutches of Homeland Security.@ September 14.
http://www.gregpalast.com/reporter-palast-slips-clutches. Accessed January 2, 2008.
Parenti, Michael.
2007a. Contrary notions. San Francisco, CA: City Lights.
2007b. ALies, War and Empire.@ Speech, Antioch College, Seattle, Washington. May 7, 2007. Broadcast by TUC Radio.
http://www.tucradio.org.
Phillips, Peter, Andrew Roth, and Project Censored. 2007. Censored 2008. New York, N.Y.: Seven Stories.
Pincus, Walter, 2008. AU.S. cannot manage contractors in Wars, Officials testify on Hill.@ Washington Post. January 25.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/24. Posted January 25, 2008. Accessed January 28, 2008.
Pozner, Gerald, 2008. AThe CIA destroyed Interrogation Tapes and the Saudi-Pakistani 9/11 Connection.@ January 15.
http://www.indiandefenceforum.com/index.php/topic,9969.0.html. Posted January 15, 2008. Accessed January 17, 2008.
Ratner, Michael, 2008. Interview with Amy Goodman. January 11. AOn its 6th Anniversary, calls resound worldwide for Closure of Guantanamo Bay Prison.@ Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/11/on_its_6th_anniversary. Accessed January 22, 2008.
Rutherford, John, 2003. AFree Speech and the return of Bill Maher.@
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm.politics democratic/97806. Posted January 16, 2003. Accessed January 15, 2008.
Ruppert, Michael. 2004. Crossing the Rubicon B the decline of the American empire at the end of the age of oil. Gabriola Island, B.C., Canada: New Society.
Summarized in Francoise Hall, 2004c. AMichael Ruppert, Crossing the Rubicon B The 9/11 Attacks, Chronological Order of Events.@ November 29 (10 pages, unpublished).
Scahill, Jeremy.
2005. ADid Bush really want to bomb al-Jazeera?@ The Nation. November 23 (web only).
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051212/scahill. Accessed January 2, 2008.
2007a. Blackwater B the rise of the world=s most powerful mercenary army. New York, N.Y.: Avalon/Nation Books.
2007b, AOur Mercenaries in Iraq.@ January 25. Common Dreams News Center.
http://www/commondreams.org/views07/0125-25.htm. Posted January 25, 2007. Accessed January 30, 2008.
2007c, ABush=s Shadow Army.@ March 15. The Nation (April 2, 2007 issue).
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070402/scahill. Posted March 15, 2007. Accessed January 30, 2008.
2007d, AOutsourcing the War.@ May 11. The Nation (web only).
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070528/scahill. Posted May 11, 2007. Accessed January 30, 2008.
Shachtman, Noah, 2008. ACambone corrals counter-intel Cash.@
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/01/if-youve-hear.html. Posted January 17, 2008. Accessed January 18, 2008.
Stevens, Eli, 2008. AThe amazing Lie that will not die.@
http://lefti.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html. Posted January 7, 2008. Accessed January 14, 2008.
Spielvogel, Jackson and David Redles, undated. AHitler=s racial Ideology B Content and occult Sources.@
http://freemasonrywatch.org/hitler_occult.html. Accessed January 13, 2008.
Stormfront.org, undated. AHitler=s Speech in Munich, May 1, 1923.@
http://wwwr.stormfront.org/posterity/ns/5-1-23.html. Accessed January 13, 2008.
Telegraph.co.uk. 2008. ANATO >must prepare to launch nuclear attack.=@
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml. Posted January 24, 2008. Accessed January 24, 2008.
Think Progress, 2008. AMukasey=s tap Dance on Torture B Two Months later, still can=t say if Water-boarding is illegal.@ January 23.
http://thiniprogress.org/2008/01/23/mukasey. Posted January 23, 2008. Accessed January 31, 2008.
Tran, Mark. 2007. A>Little Girl Rambo= decries U.S. Propaganda.@ Guardian Unlimited. April 24.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2064617,00.html. Accessed January 4, 2008.
Traynor, Ian, 2008. APre-emptive nuclear Strike a Key Option, NATO told.@ Guardian Unlimited.
http://guardian.co.uk/nato/story/0,,2244782,00.html. Posted January 22, 2008. Accessed January 24, 2008.
United Nations Development
Programme. 2004. Human development report 2004. New York, N.Y.: United
Nations Development Programme.
USConstitution.net, 2006. AConstitutional Topic B Martial Law.@
http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_mlaw.html. Updated March 15. Accessed October 3, 2007.
Unger, Craig.
2007a. The fall of the House of Bush B the untold story of how a band of true believers seized the executive branch, started the Iraq War, and still imperils America=s future. New York, N.Y.: Scribner.
2007b. Interview with Amy Goodman, 2007. AThe Fall of the House of Bush B The untold Story of how a Band of true Believers seized the executive Branch, started the Iraq war, and still imperils America=s Future.@ November 16. Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/11/16/the_fall_of_the_house.
van Bergen, Jennifer, 2006. AThe Unitary Executive B Is the Doctrine behind the Bush Presidency consistent with a democratic State?@ Findlaw January 9.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20060109_bergen.html. Accessed January 5, 2008.
Wheeler, Marcy (a.k.a. emptywheel), 2008. AStephen Cambone collects on his Handiwork with CIFA.@
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/01/16/stephen-cambone-. Posted January 16, 2008. Accessed January 18, 2008.
White House,
2006. APresident Bush nominates Rob Portman as OMB Director, and Susan Schwab for USTR.@ Released April 18.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases. Accessed January 13, 2008.
2008a. AInterview of the President by Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer of Yediot Ahronot. January 2.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/01/20080104-9.html. Posted January 2, 2008. Accessed January 14, 2008.
2008b. AState of the Union Address.@ January 28, 2008.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/01/20080128-13.html. Posted January 28, 2008. Accessed January 31, 2008.
Wikipedia,
2008. AArmy of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution.@
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guards_Corps. Updated February 2, 2008. Accessed February 3, 2008.
2007. AKevin Barrett.@
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Barrett. Updated November 19, 2007. Accessed January 2, 2008
2008. ADietrich Bonhoeffer.@
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer. Updated January 8, 2008. Accessed January 8, 2008.
2008. AL. Paul Bremer.@
http://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Paul_Bremer. Updated January 1, 2008. Accessed January 4, 2008.
2008. AHeinrich Bruning.@
http://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_BrAning. Updated January 31, 2008. Accessed February 6, 2008.
2007. AConscience Clause (Medical).@
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscience_clause_(medical). Updated December 9, 2007. Accessed January 24, 2008.
2008. AGerman Election, 1928,@
http://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/German_election,_1928. Updated January 19, 2008. Accessed January 26, 2008.
2007. AGerman Election, 1930,@
http://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/German_election,_1930. Updated December 23, 2007. Accessed January 26, 2008.
2007. AGerman Election, July 1932,@
http://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/German_election,_July_1932. Updated May 9, 2007. Accessed January 26, 2008.
2007. AGerman Election, November 1932,@
http://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/German_election,_November_1932. Updated May 19, 2007. Accessed January 26, 2008.
2007. AHans Frank.@
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Frank. Updated December 20, 2007. Accessed January 8, 2008.
2007. AFranz Gurtner.@
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_GArtner. Updated November 26, 2007. Accessed January 8, 2008.
2008. AEmil Hacha.@
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_HAcha. Updated January 1, 2008. Accessed January 13, 2008.
2008. AMartin Niemoller.@
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_NiemAller. Updated January 4, 2008. Accessed January 8, 2008.
2008. APartial-birth Abortion Ban Act.@
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial-Birth_Abortion_Ban_Act. Updated January 15, 2008. Accessed January 24, 2008.
2008. AUnborn Victims of violence Act.@
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unborn_Victims_of_Violence_Act. Updated January 2, 2008. Accessed January 24, 2008.
2007. AUnitary Executive Theory.@
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitary_esecutive_theory. Updated December 13, 2007. Accessed January 5, 2008.
Yost, Pete, 2008. AWhite House tape re-cycling raises possibility that some e-mails are gone.@ (Associated Press, MSNBC Wire Services, U.S. News).
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22689134/. Posted January 15, 2008. Accessed January 17, 2008.
***