- The language is softened and deceptive. The strategy
and tactics are not. The "war on terror" continues. Promised
change is talk, not policy. Just look at Obama's "war cabinet,"
discussed in an earlier article. It assures:
-
- -- the "strongest military on the planet" by
outspending all other countries combined;
-
- -- continued foreign wars;
-
- -- possible new ones in prospect; on February 7, vice-president
Joe Biden outlined continuity of the Bush administration's policy toward
Iran, including "preventive" wars under the National Security
Strategy; demands also that Iran abandon its legal nuclear program meaning
nothing going forward will change;
-
- -- permanent occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan is planned;
-
- -- a reinvented "Cold War" with Russia; perhaps
also with China; "draw(ing) a new 'iron curtain' (between these)
formidable Eurasian powers" to prevent their alliance from challenging
America, according to F. William Engdahl;
-
- -- an "absolute" commitment "to eliminating
the threat of terrorism (with) the full force of our power;"
-
- -- inciting instability for imperial gain, especially
in resource- rich parts of the world;
-
- -- militarizing America; keeping Bush administration
police state laws in force; dealing with a deepening economic crisis by
preparing for hard line crackdowns should popular unrest arise; and
-
- -- readying for another major false flag attack?
- Three times in his final week in office, George Bush
warned: "Our enemies are patient and determined to strike again.
There's still an enemy out there that would like to inflict damage on
America - Americans. And that'll be the major threat. The most important
job (for) the next president is....to protect the American people from
another attack."
-
- Late last year, similar talk came from figures like then
Senator Joe Biden. In October, he told a Seattle audience that "We're
gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test"
Obama's mettle. He called it a "guarantee (and a) promise" and
assured "tough (and) unpopular" decisions would follow.
-
- Others like Colin Powell, Madeline Albright, Zbigniew
Brzezinski, and Joe Lieberman gave similar warnings. The UK Defence Ministry
said Britain is teeming with extremists who'll attempt another London
"spectacular," perhaps at airports, Parliament, Whitehall or
Buckingham palace. Press reports circulated with London's Al-Quds Al-Arabi
suggesting a forthcoming attack that will "change the face of world
politics and economics." The London Times said Obama got "ominous
advice from leaders on both sides of the Atlantic to brace himself for
an early assault from terrorists."
-
- Other media reports and from officials believe a new
attack will rally popular support behind the president, but Ron Paul warned
earlier that America "is determined to have martial law (to get
people) fearful enough that they will accept the man on the white horse."
It's an old tactic as far back as Plato. Reflecting on terrorism, false
flag or real, he said: "This and no other is the root from which
a tyrant springs; when he first appears (as) a protector."
-
- James Madison believed "If Tyranny and Oppression
come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy,"
and according to Hitler: "Terrorism is the best political weapon
for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death." Stalin
added: "The easiest way to gain control of a population is to carry
out acts of terror. (People) will clamor for such laws if their personal
security is threatened."
-
- American history is replete with them:
-
- -- criminalizing dissent under the 1798 Alien and Sedition
Acts;
-
- -- suspending habeas and civil liberties during the Civil
War;
-
- -- the Espionage (and) Sedition Acts during WW I;
-
- -- numerous Red scares, before and after WW I; and
-
- -- a history of repression against dissent, political
opposition, subversion, people of color, the poor and disadvantaged, and
anything called "un-American."
-
- Pre-WW II repression was the most sustained legislative
assault on civil liberties in the nation's history:
-
- -- the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act imprisoning
anyone so- designated who was unregistered with the Secretary of State;
- -- enforcement of the 1917 Espionage Act;
- -- the 1934 - 1937 and 1938 House Un-American Activities
Committees; the former against fascist subversion; the latter targeting
suspected communists; then a standing or permanent committee from 1945
- 1975, again against communists;
-
- -- the 1939 Hatch Act excluding suspected communists
from government jobs and restricting government employee freedoms;
-
- -- the 1940 Smith Act against suspected communists; prohibiting
the advocacy of sedition; and requiring non-citizen adults to register
with the government within four months or be prosecuted; and
-
- -- the 1940 Nationality Act that stripped naturalized
immigrants of their citizenship for espousing "radical" views.
-
- Post-Pearl Harbor, tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans
(between 110,000 - 120,000) were interned plus smaller numbers of Germans
and Italians suspected of having Axis sympathies. Conscientious objectors
were also targeted and imprisoned. An Office of Censorship was established.
Dissent was stifled. Sedition trials were held. So were others for spying,
suspected treason, anyone accused of un-American sympathies, and many
convictions, denaturalizations, and/or deportations resulted.
-
- Post-WW II brought McCarthyism; civil liberties struggles;
internal spying; COINTELPRO against the American Indian Movement, Black
Panthers, and other targeted organizations. Then Ronald Reagan's war
on international terrorism to George Bush's police state version - now
continued under Barack Obama.
-
- Also, "Remember the Maine," Pearl Harbor I,
Gulf of Tonkin, Pearl Harbor II, and the wars in each case that followed.
-
- Prospective Economic and Military Dangers
-
- In his latest article, "The Looming Crisis at the
Pentagon," Chalmers Johnson explains "How Taxpayers Finance
Fantasy Wars." He cites daily headlines about US industries (like
autos) losing out to emerging economies that have outpaced us "in
innovative design, price, quality, service, and fuel economy, among other
things."
-
- Less known is a crisis within "the military-industrial
complex (with) roots in (long-standing) corrupt and deceitful practices
(within the Pentagon, defense establishment, and) Congressional opportunists
and criminals" looking to cash in on business for their districts
and further their own self-interest. No promised change is forthcoming.
Obama assures business as usual, perhaps more so than ever.
-
- He wants to "invest in a 21st century military,"
raise spending to higher levels, increase the army by 65,000 and marines
by 27,000, double the US occupation force in Afghanistan, project greater
naval strength, expand the offensive national missile defense by spending
tens of billions more for it, maintain absolute supremacy in space, and
militarize America for greater control at home.
-
- "Given our economic crisis, the estimated trillion
(or more) dollars we spend each year on the military and its weaponry
is simply unsustainable....We face a double crisis at the Pentagon: we
can no longer afford the pretense of being the Earth's sole superpower
(nor) a system (being enriched) off inferior, poorly designed (and unneeded)
weapons." Yet this "ludicrously wasteful spending....has gone
on for decades....for fantasy wars that will only be fought in the battlescapes
and war-gaming imaginations of Defense Department planners."
-
- Given today's global economic crisis, this spending is
vitally needed domestically, but don't expect reform from the Pentagon
or its related interests. All actors in this game are part of a "criminal
intent to turn on the spigot of taxpayer money (just like Wall Street,
then) jam it so it cannot be turned off."
-
- Johnson is blunt as he always is saying:
-
- "Until we decide (or are forced) to dismantle our
empire, sell off most of our (hundreds of) military bases (globally),
and bring our military expenditures into line with those of the rest of
the world, we are destined to go bankrupt in the name of national defense
(if Wall Street doesn't do it sooner). As of this moment, we are well
on our way," and no one in the Obama administration will to stop
it.
-
- Ending Torture As Official Administration Policy
-
- Under George Bush, torture became policy through numerous
"findings," Military and Executive Orders, memoranda, and memos
like the infamous March 14, 2003 "Torture Memo," written by
John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales, Jay Bybee and David Addington. It bypassed
existing domestic and international laws to let interrogators use harsh
measures amounting to torture. It said legal prohibitions don't apply
when dealing with Al Queda because of presidential authorization during
wartime. It "legalized" everything in the "war on terror"
and sanctioned supreme presidential power.
-
- John Yoo put it this way: Inflicting "intense pain
or suffering" is permissible, short of what would cause "serious
physical injury so severe that death, organ failure, (loss of significant
body functions), or permanent damage" may result. As we know, even
those standards were violated, including use of psychological measures
harsh enough to turn human beings into mush.
-
- On January 22, Obama signed a series of Executive Orders
(nominally) ordering Guantanamo's prison closed, ignoring all the others,
reviewing military trials of terror suspects, and banning the use of torture.
The same day, the Center for Constitutional Rights said the following:
-
- "We welcome" this important decision. "President
Obama (took a first) step in restoring the rule of law." Much more,
however, must be done, and vague language must be clarified.
-
- "The order to close Guantanamo....provides little
detail. The government has to charge the rest of the detainees in federal
criminal court (not military tribunals). There can be no third way, no
new schemes."
-
- Secret CIA black sites must be closed. If not, Obama's
order "is more symbolic than a true reversal." Enforcing Army
Field Manual No. 27-10's provisions is crucial. We "caution that
(Obama's) order may leave an escape hatch if the CIA" intends to
continue certain practices. Only domestic and international laws must
apply.
-
- "Today's orders are filled with promise" but
follow-through accountability is crucial, and individual violators must
be prosecuted as "the only way to deter future lawbreakers."
Domestic and international laws unequivocally ban torture of all kinds,
for any purpose, with no exceptions under any conditions. By that standard,
Obama's EOs fall way short. As such, they're woefully inadequate and may
be little more than lip service deception to hide business as usual plans
going forward.
-
- The language refers to...."individual(s) in the
custody or under the effective control of an officer, employee, or other
agent of the United States Government, or detained within a facility owned,
operated or controlled by a department or agency of the United States,
in an armed conflict...."
-
- It suggests that torture is permissible in non-conflict
areas and everywhere by US proxies under CIA, Pentagon, or other US supervision.
-
- On February 1, the Los Angeles Times headlined: "Obama
preserves renditions as counter-terrorism tool."
- Whatever's planned, Obama's EOs still authorize the CIA
"to carry out what are known as renditions, secret abductions and
transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States."
Even worse, "Current and former US intelligence officials said that
the rendition program might....play an expanded role" because it's
"the main remaining mechanism....for taking suspected terrorists
off the street....the Obama administration appears to have determined
that the rendition program was one (tool) it could not afford to discard."
-
- Another provision lets the CIA detain and interrogate
suspects so long as they're not held long-term. But no definition of short
or long-term is given, just the imprecise designation "transitory."
-
- Human Rights Watch (HRW) carries water for America by
failing in its mandate "to protect the human rights of people around
the world (by) standing with victims and activists....upholding political
freedom (and) bring(ing) offenders to justice." Its Washington advocacy
director, Tom Malinowski, supports Obama by saying: "Under limited
circumstances, there is a legitimate place" for renditions even though
activists globally denounce it and persons subjected to it are tortured.
-
- CIA's Long History of Torture
-
- For over half a century, the CIA conducted experiments
on various types of torture, including very harsh mind control measures.
In his book, "A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the
Cold War to the War on Terror," Alfred McCoy explained how techniques
were developed, codified in manuals, used extensively in Southeast Asia,
Central America, and now virtually anywhere, including in Iraq, Afghanistan
and at secret US black sites globally.
-
- McCoy refers to an offshore mini-gulag of information
extraction in pursuit of the "war on terror." CIA and Pentagon
sites exist globally with no oversight or legal compliance. Out of sight,
they're a malignant cancer - on US bases, torture ships, and in prisons
of torture-friendly allies. Nothing there is banned, including physical
viciousness and psychologically crippling mind control methods that turn
human beings into mush.
-
- On February 5, The New York Times reported that head
of CIA- designee Leon Panetta told a Senate confirmation hearing panel
that in cases where interrogators can't extract vital information, he'd
recommend methods excluded by the new rules. "If we had a ticking
bomb situation (the old ploy that could apply to anyone for any reason),
and obviously, whatever was being used I felt was not sufficient, I would
not hesitate to go to the president....and request whatever additional
authority I would need."
-
- Panetta also told senators that CIA employees won't face
prosecution and that he'll continue practicing rendition, but not to
countries "that violate our human values" - more weasel words
meaning nothing beyond rhetoric to affirm the same Bush administration
practices going forward.
-
- On January 11, ABC This Week's host George Stephanopolos
asked Obama:
-
- "Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor....to independently
investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush administration, including
torture and warrantless wiretapping?"
-
- Obama responded:
-
- "....I don't believe that anybody is above the law.
On the other hand, I also have a belief that we need to look forward as
opposed to looking backward." By that standard, no prosecutions will
occur, and all lawless acts are permissible. Obama added:
-
- "....part of my job is to make sure that (at CIA),
you've got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to
keep Americans safe. I don't want them to suddenly feel like they've got
to spend all their time looking over their shoulders and lawyering up....when
it comes to national security, we have to focus on getting things right
in the future (not) looking at what we got wrong in the past."
-
- In his 2006 book "Nemesis: The Last Days of the
American Republic," Chalmers Johnson called the CIA "The President's
Private Army," much like Rome's praetorian guard. Its budget is black,
its activities extrajudicial, and in all respects it's "the personal,
secret, unaccountable army of the president" through which the most
mischievous, illegal operations are conducted, including ousting democratically
elected governments, assassinating foreign leaders, propping up friendly
tyrants, and renditioning and torturing state enemies in global black
sites. Its power is unchecked and a threat to the nation.
-
- Yet, Obama wants it strengthened, not curbed, given the
possibility of martial law in the event of a national emergency. As Peter
Dale Scott explained in his January 8 Global Research.ca article titled
"Martial Law, the Financial Bailout, and War:"
-
- "The US military has been training troops and police
in 'civil disturbance planning' for the last three decades. The master
plan, Department of Defense Civil Disturbance Plan 55-2, or 'Operation
Garden Plot,' was developed in 1968 in response to the major protests
and disturbances of the 1960s."
-
- Much more now is in place under Army Regulation 500-3
and other hard line provisions to assure "the execution of mission-essential
functions without unacceptable interruption during a national security
or domestic emergency." The Pentagon, CIA, and other intelligence
branches along with state and local authorities are networked to implement
policies nationally.
-
- Obama is doing more as well. His Justice Department is
defending Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, John Ashcroft, John Yoo, and
others in a case brought by torture victim Jose Padilla for his grievous
treatment and violations of his constitutional rights. Defense attorney
requests for dismissing all charges are clear evidence of where Obama
stands on the law, his willingness to let Bush administration officials
go unpunished, and likelihood he'll continue the same practices going
forward.
-
- More indications emerged as well. After Britain's High
Court ruled that evidence of a UK resident's Guantanamo rendition and
torture stay secret (because the Bush administration threatened to halt
intelligence sharing), the Obama administration told the BBC:
-
- "The United States thanks the UK government for
its continued commitment to protect sensitive national security information
and preserve the long-standing intelligence sharing relationship that
enables both countries to protect their citizens."
-
- In response, the ACLU's executive director, Anthony Romero,
told the press:
-
- "Hope is flickering. The Obama administration's
position is not change. It is more of the same. This represents a complete
turn- around and undermining of the restoration of the rule of law. The
new administration shouldn't be complicit in hiding the abuses of its
predecessors." The ACLU asked Hillary Clinton to "reject the
Bush administration's policy of using false claims of national security
to avoid judicial review of controversial programs" amounting to
high crimes and misdemeanors.
-
- On February 9, ABC News reported that "the Obama
administration today announced that it would keep the same position as
the Bush administration in the lawsuit Mohamed et al v. Jeppesen Dataplan,
Inc." DOJ attorney Douglas Letter argued before the Ninth US Circuit
Court of Appeals that charges should be dismissed because state secrets
and national security are involved.
-
- Five extraordinary rendition victims are involved - Binyam
Mohamed, Abou Elkassim Britel, Ahmed Agiza, Bisher Al-Rawi, and Mohamed
Farag Ahmad Bashmilah. They sued Boing's Jeppesen Dataplan subsidiary
for flying them to offshore secret CIA black sites where they were tortured.
-
- ACLU attorney Ben Wizner responded in shock and disappointment
"that the (Obama) Justice Department (chose) to continue the Bush
administration's practice of dodging judicial scrutiny of extraordinary
rendition and torture." Instead of change, it intends "to stay
the course. Now we must hope that the court will assert its independence
by rejecting the government's false claims of state secrets and allowing
the victims of torture and rendition their day in court. Our clients did
not ask to be abducted, chained to the floor of planes, dressed in diapers
and taken to a foreign country. If you affirm (the District Court's dismissal),
plaintiffs will forever be" denied justice.
-
- Witch-Hunt Prosecutions Continuing under Obama
-
- On June 23, 2006 in Miami, Florida, the FBI arrested
and charged seven men (called the Liberty City Seven for the impoverished
Miami neighborhood where they lived) with four counts of conspiracy to
provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, Al Qaeda,
in a plot to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower, Miami's FBI federal building,
and possible other government sites in the city.
-
- In US v. Batiste, et al, charges were made against:
-
- -- Narseal Batiste, the claimed ringleader;
-
- -- Patrick Abraham;
-
- -- Stanley Grant Phanor;
-
- -- Naaudimar Herrera;
-
- -- Burson Augustin;
-
- -- Lyglenson Lemorin; and
-
- -- Rotschild Augustine.
-
- No crime was committed, and no firearms, explosives,
or other incriminating evidence was found. Yet Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales claimed "these men were prepared to wage a full ground war
against the US....as dangerous as Al Queda," and when the indictments
came down he hailed them as "yet another important victory in the
war on terrorism."
-
- The men belonged to Miami's Moorish Science Temple that
combines Christian, Jewish, and Islamic teachings given their common roots.
Its leader is Narseal Batiste who apparently drew attention by expressing
opposition to Bush administration practices no different from civil libertarians
and those in the anti-war movement.
-
- As usual in these cases, two paid informants were DOJ's
key witnesses. Both had shady pasts and got $130,000 for their services.
The charges were entirely bogus, no more than a case of entrapment to
put a ghetto face on terrorism as some in the neighborhood believed. FBI
Deputy Director John Pistole even acknowledged that the alleged plot was
"more aspirational than operational," or, in other words, manufactured
by the Bush administration for political advantage. Usually they target
Muslims. This time, poor black men were arrested. Five are American citizens,
one a Haitian resident, and the other a Haitian immigrant.
-
- Twice the case went to trial, each time ending in mistrials
with one defendant, Lyglenson Lemorin, acquitted, tried only once, then
threatened with deportation to Haiti.
-
- Nonetheless, Obama's DOJ is picking up where Bush's left
off, and on January 26, The New York Times reported that "prosecutors
(will) try for a third time (this week) to win convictions" after
two failed efforts, but not without challenges according to legal analysts.
-
- "The fear card was what they were playing,"
said Miami University law professor Bruce Winick. "If it didn't
work (before), I think it's less likely (now) because the fear of terrorism
is a little more distant in our minds."
-
- Yet one week after the second mistrial, prosecutor Richard
Gregorie said another trial was necessary to "safeguard the community,"
meaning DOJ was embarrassed enough to try again. Law professor Jonathan
Turley calls it "not a matter of the law of terrorism but the law
of averages" hoping a new jury will buy what two previous ones rejected.
-
- Winick said no new evidence is expected, and this time
will likely fail like the others. "It's a case where government
informant(s) got a bunch of guys together" to concoct a plot for
prosecutors. "It's a B movie really, more than a criminal case,"
yet Obama's DOJ will pursue it - a disturbing sign that business as usual
is planned, more witch-hunt cases will follow, and "war on terror"
efforts will persist for another four years. It's not change to believe
in, in fact, none at all at a time the need is greater than ever.
-
- Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre
for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached
at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday
through Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with
distinguished guests on world and national issues. All programs are archived
for easy listening.
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- http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12195
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