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-Caveat Lector-
(AN EXCELLENT THOUGHT PROVOKING COMPARISON - worth saving)
Excerpt from post below: Hitler responded that the suspension of civil
liberties would last only until the emergency was over. That turned out to
be a lie. The decree remained in effect until the fall of the Third Reich in
1945.
Vol. 8, No. 1981W - The American Reporter - November 23, 2002
On Native Ground
THE AMERICAN POLICE STATE IS NOW COMPLETE
by Randolph T. Holhut
American Reporter Correspondent
Dummerston, Vt.
DUMMERSTON, Vt. - We got a preview of what the 108th Congress
is going to be like with the Republicans' performance in ramming the
Homeland Security Act through this month's lame duck session.
The bill, which started out as a 32-page document, was magically
transformed after the GOP's midterm election triumph into a 484-page document
loaded
with pork, corporate welfare and special interest favors for the GOP's
friends.
The pro-gunners got a provision to arm airline pilots. The drug companies
got liability protection for developing new vaccines. The various companies
that make anti-terrorism technology got similar legal protection. U.S.
companies that have set up their headquarters overseas to avoid paying taxes
are now eligible for government contracts. And, as a going-away gift to
outgoing Texas GOP Senator Phil Gramm, Texas A & M has been awarded a
homeland security research center.
With the memory of what happened to Georgia Senator Max Cleland fresh in
Democrats' minds, most Democrats voted for the bill. Cleland's mild
objections to President Bush's plans to remove civil service protections
from more than 170,000 employees in the name of "national security" was used
as campaign fodder by Republican challenger Saxby Chambliss, who defeated
Cleland in the midterm election.
The spectacle of Chambliss, who used a bum knee and three student deferments
to avoid service in the Vietnam War, attack Cleland, a decorated Vietnam who
lost both legs and an arm in that war, as being unpatriotic was one of the
most disgusting acts in the recent history of the GOP. But the GOP got away
with this, and got away with turning the Homeland Security Act into a
bloated porker of a bill, because of the Democrats' fear of taking on George
Bush. This is only the first of what will likely be more legislative
outrages like over the next two years.
But that's the least of the problem. In an eerie replay of what happened
last October with the USA Patriot Act, Congress overwhelmingly approved a
massive law with many far-reaching consequences for Americans' civil
liberties without even attempting to read the fine print. Quite simply, put
the Patriot Act together with the Homeland Security Act and what you get is
the foundation for the creation of the modern equivalent of the Gestapo or
KGB.
Think that statement is an exaggeration? Here's a sampler of what to expect
from from the new Department of Homeland Security:
It will have the power to eavesdrop on your phone calls and read your mail.
It can call up your Internet service provider and monitor all your e-mail
and web browsing habits. It doesn't need a court warrant to do these things,
nor will it need one to enter your home or stop you in your car and conduct
a search at any time for any reason if there's reason to suspect that you
are a "terrorist."
It can walk into your bank and demand to see your checking and savings
account statements. It can require credit card companies to turn over your
account information. It can go to the library or your local book seller or
video store to check on what you've been reading or watching. Again, no
search warrant is needed.
You could be held in jail for 30 days or more without filing charges or
without even being allowed to tell anyone that you are in custody. Due
process or probable cause no longer matters under this law.
Even the definition of the word "terrorist" is being refined. It's not just
someone who uses violence to frighten civilians and change how a government
functions. Now, under the new law, terrorism is any act "that is a violation
of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State or other
subdivision of the United States" that "appears to be intended to intimidate
or coerce a civilian population." It's not much of a stretch to believe that
this vague wording will ultimately be applied toward anyone who opposes the
government and its policies. Be prepared to see anti-war protesters and
other opponents of the Bush administration to be classified as terrorists.
Some may say the threat of terrorism demands tougher security measures. I
say there's no threat anywhere that justifies such draconian abuse of our
civil liberties - especially when you give this power to the most ruthless
and unscrupulous presidential administration this nation has ever seen.
It's funny how the "terrorist" threats seem to pop up whenever the Bush
administration wants something. Last fall's anthrax-by-mail attacks neatly
coincided with the stampede to pass the Patriot Act. Of course, we still
don't know who did it and we may never know.
When the stories came out in June about the extent of the advance warning
that the Bush administration had regarding the Sept. 11 attacks, suddenly we
got a bunch of vague warnings about potential terror attacks on the Fourth
of July.
When the corporate scandals started getting too hot and President Bush and
Vice President Cheney started to face criticism for less-than-ethical
actions they had done during their time in the private sector, suddenly
Saddam Hussein became the focus of all evil in the world and an immediate
attack on Iraq was needed.
And in this month's home stretch of the debate over the Homeland Security
Act, Osama bin Laden - the man who was supposed to be dead - popped up with
another one of his propaganda tapes.
The result of this game that the Bush administration has so skillfully
played is clear. The fear level gets ratcheted up, the original debate gets
forgotten and our elected officials rush to line up behind President Bush so
they won't be thought of as unpatriotic. Meanwhile, pay no heed to the loss
of your civil liberties. After all, it's only going to be a temporary thing
and if you're not guilty of anything, you've nothing to worry about. Right?
Another leader in another time made a similar case for the primacy of
domestic security over freedom.
"An evil exists that threatens every man, woman and child of this great
nation," he wrote. "We must take steps to insure our domestic security and
protect our homeland."
The leader was Chancellor Adolf Hitler, who was writing about the creation
of the Gestapo in Germany in 1933. It took just one day for Hitler, using
the burning of the Reichstag (blamed on the Communists, but never
conclusively proven) as the pretext to convince a dottering, 86-year-old
President Paul von Hindenberg to sign, on February 28, 1933, an emergency
decree suspending the basic rights of German citizens for the "duration" of
the emergency.
Taking advantage of the fear of a communist uprising (a fear that the Nazi
Party created and helped to inflame), Hitler got a sweeping law that
authorized death or imprisonment for a number of crimes, including
opposition to the law itself. There were no guarantees that those arrested
would have a speedy trial or access to legal counsel, and those who were
detained often saw their detention extended indefinitely.
Shortly after the decree was enacted, Hitler was asked by a British reporter
whether it would be permanent. Hitler responded that the suspension of civil
liberties would last only until the emergency was over. That turned out to
be a lie. The decree remained in effect until the fall of the Third Reich in
1945.
As seen from the German example, rights that are taken away are rarely
restored. In the space of a little more than a year, Americans have allowed
an unelected regime to do away with our Constitutional rights. There is no
guarantee we will see them returned in our lifetimes, unless we are willing
to fight as vigorously to restore these rights as our forefathers did to
create them.
Randolph T. Holhut has been a journalist in New England for more than 20
years. He edited "The George Seldes Reader" (Barricade Books).
Copyright 2002 Joe Shea <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The American
Reporter. All Rights Reserved.
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
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