ccun.org, August 25, 2007

It doesn’t take much imagination to foresee ‘Blackwater-style’ martial law in all of America.

“Since the totalitarian ruler conducts his policies on the assumption of an eventual world government, he treats the victims of his aggression as though they were rebels, guilty of high treason, and consequently prefers to rule occupied territories with police, and not with military forces.” ¹

Pre-emptive measures have now been proposed for Hurricane Dean - which has not even happened yet. The above photo is representative of what seems to be happening to the democratic process in America.



Contempt (OED). “The mental attitude in which a thing is considered of little account, or as vile and worthless. Law: Disobedience or open disrespect to the authority or the lawful commands of the sovereign, the privileges of the `Houses of Parliament or other legislative body; and esp. action of any kind that interferes with the proper administration of justice by the various courts of law; in this connection called Contempt of Court. 1621"

U.S. Contempt for life (“Stuff happens”) is rampant in Iraq, and also in Afghanistan.

Dave Lindorff (Counterpunch) writes:“And let's be honest: this is no matter of "collateral damage." It is a deliberate policy of terror.”



Contempt of law is also a totalitarian by-product. In the U.S., this is evident in the (continuing) presence of “Gitmo;” and in the recent conviction of Jose Padilla: The Huffington Post noted, “Clearly, too, the time has come to put the entire infrastructure of an illegal, and ominous so-called war on terror on trial, and show that those who maim, humiliate, kill, and psychologically torture in the name of counterfeit, homogenized purity are the true terrorists.”

‘Quite’, as we say here.

Presidential Signings

In April 2006,The Boston Globe wrote that “President Bush has issued signing statements on more than 750 new laws, declaring that he has the power to set aside the laws when they conflict with his legal interpretation of the Constitution.” You can read the full text of these, and further signing statements and annotations here

John Conyers and the Bush Dictatorship
06.06.07. blackagendareport. Without fanfare, or announcement of any kind, the president recently signed a directive which states that in case of a "catastrophic emergency" the "President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government." What is a catastrophic emergency? Well, it is anything that Bush says it is.

The "Use of the Armed Forces" in America under a National Emergency
27.06.07. Prof. Michel Chossudovsky,global research.ca. Unrestricted & Arbitrary Powers conferred to the President & Vice President.

Subpoenas ignored. There are 529,000 ‘web results’ pages on this subject.

U.S. ‘Prime Suspect’ for contempt


Official: Cheney Urged Wiretaps
07.06.07. D. Eggen, Washington Post. Stand-In for Ashcroft Alleges Interference

Dick Cheney's Song of America
By David Armstrong, Harper's Magazine, 0017789X, Oct 2002, Vol. 305, Issue 1829 / ICH.
The Plan is for the United States to rule the world. The overt theme is unilateralism, but it is ultimately a story of domination. It calls for the United States to maintain its overwhelming military superiority and prevent new rivals from rising up to challenge it on the world stage. It calls for dominion over friends and enemies alike. It says not that the United States must be more powerful, or most powerful, but that it must be absolutely powerful.

Gelman and Becker wrote a series on Mr. Cheney, Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency,for the Washington Post. And we also have the now the infamous video.

“Can’t recall” has become a U.S. mantra. Dr. Estes nails her man: Dick Cheney on the Couch: Factitious Disorder and Career Criminality

Five US Reps Support Cheney Impeachment
06.06.07. Atlanta progressive. US Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) has become the fifth total co-sponsor of US Rep. Dennis Kucinich's (D-OH) bill to impeach Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney, Atlanta Progressive News has learned. In addition to Kucinich, the additional three Members of Congress who have signed on to H. Res 333 are US Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-IL), William Lacy Clay (D-MO), and Albert Wynn (D-MD).

Don’t Misunderestimate Dick Cheney
30.06.07. John Dean, Find Law.

Cheney Told GOP-Led Congress They Couldn't Issue Subpoenas
21.08.07. Amanda Terkel, Think Progress / Alternet. Sen. Leahy says, "Not quite sure that's my understanding of the separation of power

Where will this pathological contempt lead the U.S.?



Google ‘martial law’ on Information Clearing House .There are about 185 entries.


Signs for the Times

Global Eye -- Dark Passage
20.02.02.Chris Floyd, Moscow Times, (republished at Information Clearing House) The Bush Regime's foreign policy is also being carried out according to a strict blueprint. Not since Mein Kampf has a geopolitical punch been so blatantly telegraphed.

Jay Bookman’s article The president’s real goal in Iraq (29.10.02) has excellent resource material.

The Thirteen Stars and Stripes: An Expatriate's Alarm
05.05.07. ICH. Emanuel E. Garcia. ‘A quartet of laws has been signed that lays the complete legal foundation for the takeover of our constitutional democracy. They are the (so-called) Patriot Act of 2001 (extended in 2005); the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (which allows for the suspension of habeas corpus and the practice of torture and rendition); the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007, which facilitates the declaration of martial law and nullifies posse comitatus by allowing the President to station troops anywhere in the country and to commandeer the National Guard without the consent of local authorities; and, finally, the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, signed on May 9, 2007, which in the event of a catastrophe would place all governmental authority in the hands of the President.’

The CIA -- a Terrorist Organization
11.05.07. C. Nelson, oh my news. ‘Most definitions of terrorism include only those acts which are intended to create fear or "terror," are perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to an attack by a "madman"), and deliberately target "non-combatants." According to the United States Federal Criminal Code, Chapter 113B of Part I of Title 18, terrorism is defined as “activities that involve violent ... or life-threatening acts ... that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State and ... appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and ... (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States ... [or] ... (C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States." … In reality, the CIA does not only gather information but consistently targets and engages in covert operations, psychological operations, and acts of terrorism both domestically and internationally.’ Discusses past/present operations of CIA and concludes: “It seems to me you cannot claim to fight terrorism or claim to be the beacon of democracy with an organization like the CIA in your ranks.”

Habeas Corpus Evaporating
14.05.07. Aziz Huq, Tom Paine. Six months after Congress enacted the Military Commissions Act of 2006 with its eyes firmly on the polls, there have been many promises and proposals from legislators about how to remedy the damage done to civil liberties by that law—but little action. Despite the powerful advocacy of former military officials, religious figures, and law enforcement officials, Congress has as of yet failed to fix a single one of the MCA’s many flaws. … In particular, Congress made it easier to hold individuals without an adequate or lawful process to determine what they have in fact done to merit detention. It established a category of “Unlawful enemy combatant,” which is presently limited in function, but which may create an open-ended detention authority.

America's biggest threat comes from within
19.05.07. dmregister / ICH. “Paul Craig Roberts is a Republican who served as undersecretary of the treasury under Ronald Reagan and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, so he's no kook or Commie. He warns, "Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the United States could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran." Roberts warns us that Bush has put into place all the necessary measures for dictatorship in the form of executive orders that are triggered whenever Bush declares a national emergency.”

Al Gore | Drive for Global Domination Puts Us in Greater Danger
24.05.07. Guardian / Truthout. Al Gore writes, "Moral authority, which is our greatest source of strength, has been recklessly put at risk by this willful president."

Not for Freedom
06.06.07. Charley Reese Lew Rockwell, ICH. The "global war on terror" is just a bad metaphor that doesn't have any connection to reality. How long are the American people going to allow liars to lull them into sacrificing the most precious treasure the country has - its youth - in a futile, lie-ridden, corruption-pocked war?

Imperialism and Fascism are on the Rise in the USA
09.07.07. Prof. Rodrigue Tremblay, globalresearch.ca.

Tales of Angst, Alienation and Martial Law: Roasting Marshmallows on the American Reichstag Fire to Come
26.07.07. Phil Rockstroh, uruknet. ‘those who have been paying attention are aware that the outward mechanisms of martial law are in place. We shudder knowing that Bush has issued an executive decree that grants him dictatorial power in the event of some nebulously defined national emergency. In addition, the knowledge nettles us that a vast network of internment camps bristle across the length of the U.S., standing at wait for those who might raise objections to the fascistic fury unloosed by the American empire's version of the Reichstag fire. … After the catastrophes spawned by the rise of European fascism in the 1930s, a number of brilliant, original thinkers (including Hannah Arendt, Roberto Freire, Wilhelm Reich, and R. D. Laing) set out to study the phenomenon in order to learn how future calamities might be prevented.’

The Threat Of Martial Law Is Real
27.07.07. Dave Lindorff, ICH. The looming collapse of the US military in Iraq, of which a number of generals and former generals, including former Chief of Staff Colin Powell, have warned, is happening none too soon, as it my be the best hope for preventing military rule here at home.

Economic Collapse As Precursor To Open Plan For Martial Law?
16.08.07. PJ Watson, Prison Planet. Many fear recession, bank run, strike on Iran or terror attack could signal green light for state of emergency. With Video


Fear to Create Fear

“Propaganda is indeed part and parcel of “psychological warfare”; but terror is more. Terror continues to be used by totalitarian regimes even when its psychological aims are achieved; its real horror is that it reigns over a completely subdued population."²

Nations Use Fear to Distract From Rights Abuses, Group Says
24.05.07.Washington Post / ICH. "The politics of fear is fueling a downward spiral of human rights abuse in which no right is sacrosanct and no person is safe," said Irene Khan, secretary general of the human rights watchdog. Governments are undermining the rule of law and human rights with "short-sighted fear-mongering and divisive policies." See Amnesty International Report 2007 here.

and a further Amnesty report:
Amnesty International Regional Report on the United States of America
Facts and comments on detainees; Military Commissions Act; Renditions and secret detention; Guantánamo; Detentions in Afghanistan and Iraq; Unlawful killings by US forces outside the USA; Detention of 'enemy combatants' in the USA; Torture and other ill-treatment; Ill-treatment in jails and police custody; 'Supermax' prisons; Women in prison; Prisoners of conscience; Death penalty; Other concerns; UN Committee against Torture and UN Human Rights Committee ; AI country reports/visits.

This is a good, cynical example of the 'Fear Factor" : White House: Iraq Progress Report Could Be Sept. 11 (20.08.07, Reuters).



Identity

National ID card a disaster in the making
03.05.07. news.com / ICH. Six years into the "new normal" of terror alerts, identification checks, electronic surveillance, and increasing levels of secrecy-based security, the prospect of a national identification card needs serious public debate. … Real ID was buried in a 2005 "must-pass" military spending bill and enacted into law without public debate or congressional hearings. But
REAL ID Revolt Spreads to 33 States (09.05)

National ID: Biometrics Pinned to Social Security Cards
15.05.07. R. Singel, wired. "This is an exact example of why IDs are so ludicrous as a form of security," American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel Tim Sparapani said. "Do we really think the migrant workers are going to show up at the pickle farm and the farmer is going to demand ID and have a laptop in the field to check their ID?" … A recent report by the Social Security Administration's inspector general backs up Moran's criticism with findings that 17.8 million records in the government's employment databases contained inaccuracies that could initially and erroneously flag individuals as ineligible for employment.

Face recognition next in terror fight
11.05.07. USA Today. Homeland Security leaders are exploring futuristic and possibly privacy-invading technology aimed at finding terrorists and criminals by using digital surveillance photos that analyze facial characteristics. [Remember the racial profiling by the Nazis?]

Official Identity Theft
22.05.07. Frances Madesen, Tom Paine. “There is in existence an electronic database with over a half-billion records, containing information collected via extrajudicial requests made in National Security Letters, the majority of which pertain to U.S. citizens. Your banking and credit activities, telephone and internet usage records, insurance policies, post office box rental, car, boat and home ownership records could already be in the FBI’s Investigative Data Warehouse. If so, no one need inform you. If the information is incorrect, there’s no way to fix it. It is shared among 10,000 government employees at multiple agencies, and is stored for 20 years even if you have no connection whatsoever to a crime. In fact, only 65 convictions correlated to information obtained by the FBI from over 143,000 NSL demands made during 2003-2005.”

Critical Care Without Consent
27.05.07. R. Stein, Washington Post. The federal government is undertaking the most ambitious set of studies ever mounted under a controversial arrangement that allows researchers to conduct some kinds of medical experiments without first getting patients' permission. The $50 million, five-year 'project,' which will involve more than 20,000 patients in 11 sites in the United States and Canada, is designed to improve treatment [the profit margin for the corpora-terrorists] after car accidents, shootings, cardiac arrest and other emergencies... George J. Annas, a Boston University bioethicist, said "I don't think we should use people like this." Annas was particularly disturbed that children as young as 15 might be included in the research. [note from legitgov.org: Bush's mentors, the Nazis, carried out such experiments on prisoners in concentration camps! Notice that this news tidbit broke in the middle of a holiday weekend, when no one was paying attention.]

Censorship

Censorship 'changes face of net'
05.05.07. BBC. Amnesty International has warned that the internet "could change beyond all recognition" unless action is taken against the erosion of online freedoms.

State-mandated Internet censorship on the rise: report
18.05.07. The Jurist. A study released Friday by the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) [advocacy website] has found a "substantial growth in the scale, scope and sophistication" of Internet censorship [JURIST news archive] worldwide. The study, focusing on state-mandated censorship, found evidence of content filtering in 25 of 41 countries tested.

Google is watching you
24.05.07. Independent. 'Big Brother' row over plans for personal database. Google, the world's biggest search engine, is setting out to create the most comprehensive database of personal information ever assembled, one with the ability to tell people how to run their lives. In a mission statement that raises the spectre of an internet Big Brother to rival Orwellian visions of the state, Google has revealed details of how it intends to organise and control the world's information.

The Pentagon has recently censored soldiers from blogging; many reporters have been murdered; newspaper offices bombed. The only war news allowed is from controlled 'embedded' reporters, or news manufactured by the defence department.

Criminalising the public

Air Marshals Flooding German, British Flights
14.05.07. ABC. * Also See: EU: Armed sky marshals by the back-door?

Then there are the numerous innocent citizens wrongly stopped because of the 'terrorist' list at airport 'security' - includng very young children. See, eg., Seven-year-old Muslim boy stopped in US three times on suspicion of being a terrorist (20.08.07. JAYA NARAIN, Daily Mail). [More racism? ]

FBI Terror List Out of control
13.06.07. J. Rood, ABC. A terrorist watch list compiled by the FBI has apparently swelled to include more than half a million names.

Secret trials for terrorists, says US judge
28.06.07. David Nason, The Australian / ICH. A TOP-RANKING US judge has stunned a conference of Australian judges and barristers in Chicago by advocating secret trials for terrorists, more surveillance of Muslim populations across North America and an end to counter-terrorism efforts being "hog-tied" by the US constitution.

Nightmare on Main Street: More on Bush's Anti-Dissent Order
02.08.07. Chris Floyd, Empire Burlesque/URUKNET. … In other words, Bush now claims the power to strip you of your assets if you oppose American policy in Iraq.

Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons who Threaten Efforts in Iraq
17.07.07. The White House

Bush Executive Order: Criminalizing the Antiwar Movement
20.07.07. Michel Chossudovsky Global Research.

“Totalitarianism in power uses the state administration for its long-range goal of world conquest; … it establishes secret police as the executors and guardians of its domestic experiment in constantly transforming reality into fiction; and it finally erects concentration camps as special laboratories to carry through its experiment in total domination.” ³

Construction set to begin on delayed maximum security prison
04.08.07. AP, 9NEWS.com - Denver,CO,USA. Construction on a 948-bed maximum security prison will begin in November, more than four years after lawmakers approved funding to build it./ The Colorado State Penitentiary II, being built next to the Centennial correctional facility, is expected to open in early 2010. [ Another Halliburton contract?]

US House passes intelligence surveillance bill
05.08.07. The Jurist. The bill can be read here.


Globalising US Troops

The Militarization of North America
18.08.07. Michel Chossudovsky, globalresearch.ca. Canadian jurisdiction over its Northern territories was redefined, following an April 2002 military agreement between Ottawa and Washington. This agreement allows for the deployment of US troops anywhere in Canada, as well as the stationing of US warships in Canada's territorial waters.


Outsourcing

“It is true, ascendancy of the secret police over the military apparatus is the hallmark of many tyrannies, and not only the totalitarian.”⁴

The corporate takeover of U.S. intelligence
01.06.07. T. Shorrock, Salon.com. The U.S. government now outsources a vast portion of its spying operations to private firms -- with zero public accountability. ‘the U.S. government revealed for the first time how much of its classified intelligence budget is spent on private contracts: a whopping 70 percent. Based on this year’s estimated budget of at least $48 billion, that would come to at least $34 billion in contracts. … "Those numbers are startling," said Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists and an expert on the U.S. intelligence budget. "They represent a transformation of the Cold War intelligence bureaucracy into something new and different that is literally dominated by contractor interests."

“The emphasis on the police as the sole organ of power, and the corresponding neglect of the seemingly greater power arsenal of the army, which is characteristic of all totalitarian regimes, can still be partially explained by the totalitarian aspiration to world rule and its conscious abolition of the distinction between a foreign country and a home country, between foreign and domestic affairs. The military forces, trained to fight a foreign aggressor, have always been a dubious instrument for civil-war purposes; even under totalitarian conditions they find it difficult to regard their own people with the eyes of a foreign conqueror.” ⁵



What if our mercenaries turn on us?
03.06.07. Chris Hedges, Philly.com, anti-war.com. Armed units from the private security firm Blackwater USA opened fire in Baghdad streets twice in two days last week. It triggered a standoff between the security contractors and Iraqi forces, a reminder that the war in Iraq may be remembered mostly in our history books for empowering and building America's first modern mercenary army. … Mercenary units are a vital instrument in the hands of despotic movements. Communist and fascist movements during the last century each built rogue paramilitary forces. And the appearance of Blackwater fighters, heavily armed and wearing their trademark black uniforms, patrolling the streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, may be a grim taste of the future. In New Orleans Blackwater charged the government $240,000 a day. … And the thugs with automatic weapons, black uniforms and wraparound sunglasses who appeared on the streets in New Orleans could appear on our streets.

Defense Agency Proposes Outsourcing More Spying
19.08.07. W. Pincus, Washington Post. Contracts Worth $1 Billion Would Set Record. The Defense Intelligence Agency is preparing to pay private contractors up to $1 billion to conduct core intelligence tasks of analysis and collection over the next five years, an amount that would set a record in the outsourcing of such functions by the Pentagon's top spying agency.


U.S. ‘War of Terror’

"Only when terror is intended to coerce not merely from without but, as it were, from within, when the political regime wants more than power, is terror in need of propaganda.

“Propaganda and violence are never contradictions. Use of violence can be part of the progaganda.”⁶

NATIONAL EMERGENCIES ACT (2002)

‘War on terror’
05.07. Amnesty International Report. In its international campaign against abuses in the “war on terror”, AI exposed and denounced hundreds of cases of torture and other grave violations of human rights claimed by states to be a necessary response to security threats. AI also strongly condemned deliberate attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks by armed groups.

National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive
10.05.07. The White House. Also see article about this directive: Bush Anoints Himself as the Insurer of Constitutional Government in Emergency

Contingencies for nuclear terrorist attack
12.05.07.J. Sterngold, Sfgate/ - markings by legitgov.org. Government working up plan to prevent chaos in wake of bombing of major city. As concerns grow that terrorists [the Bush regime] might attack a major American city with a nuclear bomb, a high-level group of government and military officials has been quietly preparing an emergency survival program that would include the building of bomb shelters, steps to prevent panicked evacuations and the possible suspension of some civil liberties... Fred Ikle said that the government should plan how it could restrict civil liberties and enforce a sort of martial law in the aftermath of a nuclear attack, but also have guidelines for how those liberties could be restored later.

see also Bush orders contingency plans for attack on U.S. (Washington Post/LA Times): President Bush issued a formal national security directive Wednesday ordering agencies to prepare contingency plans for a surprise, "decapitating" attack on the federal government, and assigned responsibility for coordinating such plans to the White House.

? "surprise"", as in 'Pearl Harbour attack', mentioned in PNAC document?

Street Lockdowns Proposed for Baltimore
17.05.07. AP, Guardian. Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr., a mayoral hopeful, said Curran's idea was an interesting concept but it raised questions about civil liberties. “We have to make sure we're not declaring martial law,'' he said.

Portland to Host Terrorism Drill “NOBLE RESOLVE 07-2” Aug. 20 to 24
13.08.07. Oregon Truth Alliance / legitgov.org. This is an urgent advisory notice from concerned citizens of Oregon and Washington about an upcoming U.S. Joint Forces Command emergency management exercise known as NOBLE RESOLVE 07-2 that will simulate terrorism or disaster scenarios in the Lower Columbia River Basin between Aug. 20th and Aug 24th, 2007. / NOBLE RESOLVE 07-2 was designed and will be directed by U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) and the Department of Homeland Security. We are aware of no public notice concerning this exercise, but preliminary investigation has revealed that Oregon National Guard officials and federal officials will conduct the drill. Details from official sources are minimal.

Homeland Security Enlists Clergy to Quell Public Unrest if Martial Law Ever Declared
16.08.07. ksla. Could martial law ever become a reality in America? Some fear any nuclear, biological or chemical attack on U.S. soil might trigger just that.

Who is listening?

Who is planning the next 9/11?


“UNFREE FREEDOM”

“and once again you're tumbled from your private concerns into a dreadful realization of where history has taken you: into a strange hybrid world of unfree freedom, where you can say what you want, do what you want – unless those in power arbitrarily decide that you can't.” Chris Floyd.

Democracy Dreaming
23.03.07. (& reposted) Joel S. Hirschhorn, ICH. We have arrived at a delusional democracy. Delusional because Americans overwhelmingly cannot admit the painful truth that their limited democracy no longer works for the good of most citizens. Instead, through corruption and dishonesty, our representative democracy has morphed into a plutocracy that serves the wealthy, power elites and corporate masters that control the political system and through that the economic system.

Freedom or Totalitarianism, The Choice Is Yours
08.06.07. Sgt. Kevin Benderman, ICH. The apathetic American public needs to pull their heads out of the comfortable little hole in the sand where it has been for far too long and do something about the way our country is being stolen from us by an administration that has its well-being and only its well-being in mind.

Postscript: A Bit of Opposition?

In an article no longer available on the internet, The Washington Times reported (23.05.07): "Baltimore council nixes 'martial law'. '‘Baltimore lawmakers have rejected a proposal to allow the mayor to lock down streets and close businesses in high-crime zones, the most recent attempt to curb violence in the city. The proposal, which was introduced by City Council member Robert W. Curran (D) also would have granted police extended search powers. "While I do agree that desperate times call for desperate measures, I do not agree that trampling on citizens' civil liberties is the answer," said council member Keifer J. Mitchell Jr., a Democrat running for mayor. "This bill gives the mayor tremendous power, tantamount to declaring martial law, and I have grave reservations about that."

I liked Carolyn Baker’s article,
The End of the World as We Know It: Hope Vs. Mindset (17.08.07, Dissident Voice)

For those pathologically sick people who are trying to destroy our world – may they experience ‘blowback’. Soon.

“They fail to understand that their own conspiracy may eventually provoke the whole world into uniting against them.⁷


Videos

George Bush's Power Grab: Authorizes Martial Law Provisions

Mind Control : America's Secret War

The Century of the Self. (How politicians and business learned to create and manipulate mass-consumer society.)

"The War On Terror Is Bogus"

Just in the Name of Democracy

Gore Vidal: Understanding America's Terrorist Crisis: What Should Be Done?


"Terror becomes total when it becomes independent of all opposition; it rules supreme when nobody any longer stands in its way. If lawfulness is the essence of non-tyrannical government and lawlessness is the essence of tyranny, then terror is the essence of totalitarian domination.⁸


References

Totalitarianism and Obedience (13.02.07. S. Meyer, Index Research. Updated to 30.04.07)

Project for the New American Century

PNAC: Rebuilding America's Defenses - A Biopsy on Imperialism; Part I: Blueprint for Imperialism (18.02.06. S. Meyer, Index Research)

PNAC: Rebuilding America's Defenses - A Biopsy on Imperialism; Part II: "Special Interests" - The Persian Gulf (29.03.06. S, Meyer, Index Research. Updated.)

Iraq: Security Companies and Training Camps (24.05.06. S. Meyer, Index Research, updated frequently)

I have quoted from Hannah Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism. Also recommend Hannah Arendt, Personal Responsibility under Dictatorship , The Hannah Arendt Papers at the Library of Congress. This essay is also in Arendt’s book, Responsibility and Judgment, Schocken; Reprint edition (August 9, 2005)



Footnotes

[1] Arendt, Hannah, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Schocken Books, 2004, pp. 543-4. More on p. 401.

[2] Arendt Ibid, p. 453.

[3] Arendt, Ibid, p. 511

[4] Arendt, Ibid, p. 401

[5] Arendt, Ibid, p. 543

[6] Arendt, Ibid, p. 450, footnote

[7] Arendt, Ibid, p. 506

[8] Arendt, Ibid, p. 599



Sarah Meyer is a researcher living in the UK
(The UK is also having its share of oppression. Google ‘The Observer’: Henry Porter – he’s terrific - and angry.)

This Timeline article is dedicated to a visiting Washington, D.C. lawyer friend, who ticked me off - shaking a finger at me - four years ago, for saying that the U.S. was becoming fascist. I apologised, but I haven’t changed my mind; worse than I feared.



The url to U.S. Martial Law Timeline:

 http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2007/08/us-martial-law-timeline.html
Shorter url: http://tinyurl.com/362zcd

Sarah Meyer is also on the Advisory Committee of the BRussels Tribunal. Please see
here for access to this article on the BRussels Tribunal site. Thank you.

***

UPDATES

JULY 2007

REPORTS

Homeland Defense
3 – 28.07.07. Joint Publication (PDF). See Steven Aftergood’s comment about ‘Heimat’ here

Combatting War Profiteering
25.07.07. fas.org.

AUGUST 2007

REPORTS

PROTECT AMERICA ACT OF 2007
See also the Fact (sic) Sheet (TheWhite House).

Air Force Views Irregular Warfare
01.08.07. fas.org. Steve Aftergood’s essay on ‘irregular warfare, and a pdf file on same subject: the following is quoted: "In some UW [unconventional warfare] operations, the use of US military aircraft may be inappropriate, tactically or politically. In those cases, training, advising, and assisting the aviation forces of insurgent groups, resistance organizations, or third-country nationals may be the only viable option."
See "Irregular Warfare," Air Force Doctrine Document 2-3 , (1 August 2007)

ARTICLES

NATIONAL ID? WHAT ABOUT A GLOBAL ID?
10.08.07. computerworld.com. The cultural gap with the public in general is still too wide," said Dr. Mike Mestrovich, president of FiXs. "I think there would have to be a public consensus to move us in that direction and I don't see that happening until at least 2009 or beyond."

Liberties Advocates Fear Abuse of Satellite Images
17.08.07. Eric Schmitt, NY Times.

DETAILS SOUGHT ON DOMESTIC USE OF SPY SATELLITES
20.08.07. fas.org.

Report urges cities to halt surveillance
20.08.07. Jeff McDonald, signonsandiego/legitgov. Cities in the county and across the state are using surveillance cameras to record people's activities with almost no public debate and few adopted policies outlining how the data will be used, an American Civil Liberties Union analysis concludes. More worrisome, the report's authors say, is the possibility that government monitors may integrate facial-recognition and other technologies to develop databases that track individual behaviors.

ACLU Calls On Congress to Hold Administration in Contempt, Calls Latest Missed Spy Deadline Outrageous
20.08.07. ACLU. Today, after the White House missed its second deadline to respond to congressional subpoenas for information on the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program, the American Civil Liberties Union called on Congress to hold the Bush administration accountable.

Jailing Nation: How Did Our Prison System Become Such a Nightmare?
20.08.07. Daniel Lazare, The Nation/Alternet. With five percent of the world's population, the U.S. has close to a quarter of the world's prisoners. How did the American criminal justice system go so wrong?

NYPD's Homegrown Hysteria
20.08.07. N. Parry, Consortium. An influential report by two New York Police Department counterterrorism analysts crosses a dangerous threshold in recasting the “war on terror” as primarily a struggle that requires increased domestic surveillance and pre-emptive action against American Muslims who might become “homegrown terrorists” by visiting Internet sites.
Report can be seen here . See also NYPD Report Brands "Citizens who Quietly Band Together" as Terrorists

Pentagon to Close Terrorism Database
Wall St. Journal. The Defense Department said it will shut down an antiterror database that has been criticized for improperly storing information on peace activists and others whose actions posed no threat. It will be closed Sept. 17, and information collected subsequently will be sent to an Federal Bureau of Investigation database, according to Army Col. Gary Keck, a Pentagon spokesman. He said the database is shutting down because "the analytical value had declined," not because of public criticism of its use. Eventually the Pentagon hopes to create a new system to "streamline such threat reporting," according to a statement. The program, known as Talon, was was designed to maintain a base of information on reported potential threats to military facilities and personnel. In December 2005, it was disclosed that the system included data on antimilitary protests and other peaceful demonstrations. Pentagon officials have said the program had detected international terrorist interest in specific military bases, but it also acknowledged some officials may not have used the system properly.

Cheney's Office Says It Has Wiretap Documents
21.08.07. WASHINGTON POST. Vice President Cheney's office acknowledged for the first time yesterday that it has dozens of documents related to the administration's warrantless surveillance program, but it signaled that it will resist efforts by congressional Democrats to obtain them. / The disclosure by Cheney's counsel, Shannen W. Coffin, came on the day that the Senate Judiciary Committee had set as a deadline for the Bush administration to turn over documents related to the wiretapping program, which allowed the National Security Agency to monitor communications between the United States and overseas without warrants.

Pentagon's New Drug Weapons
21.08.07. D. Hambling, wired.com.

Why Cheney Really Is That Bad
21.08.07. Scott Ritter, Truthdig.com/Truthout. Bush's singular appeal has been the impression of steadfastness in the eye of the storm, even if the storm is for the most part self-created. For this we must look not to "Bush's Brain," but instead peer deep into the dark recesses of the White House, where we can glimpse the awful "soul" of the president-Dick Cheney. The vice president is the single greatest threat to American and international security in the world today. Not Osama Bin Laden. Not the ghost of Saddam Hussein. Not Ahmadinejad or Kim Jung Il. Not al-Qaida, the Taliban, or Jose Padilla himself. Not even George W. Bush can lay claim to this title. It is Dick Cheney's alone. … The absolute worst of the rot that has infected America because of the policies and actions of the Bush administration has originated from the office of the vice president. … America today is very much engaged in a life-or-death struggle against the forces of evil. The enemy resides not abroad, however, but at home, vested in the highest offices of the land.

The Warfare State is Part of Us
22.08.07. Norman Solomon, Counterpunch –ICH. While the Bush-Cheney administration is the most dangerous of our lifetimes -- and ousting Republicans from the White House is imperative -- such truths are apt to smooth the way for progressive evasions. We hear that "the people must take back the government," but how can "the people" take back what they never really had? And when rhetoric calls for "returning to a foreign policy based on human rights and democracy," we're encouraged to be nostalgic for good old days that never existed.

White House seeks to withhold records
22.08.07. AP.

Spy Chief Reveals Classified Details
22.08.07. AP – sfgate.com. … McConnell confirmed for the first time that the private sector assisted with President Bush's warrantless surveillance program. AT&T, Verizon and other telecommunications companies are being sued for their cooperation. "Now if you play out the suits at the value they're claimed, it would bankrupt these companies," McConnell said, arguing that they deserve immunity for their help. … Offering never-disclosed figures, McConnell also revealed that fewer than 100 people inside the United States are monitored under FISA warrants. However, he said, thousands of people overseas are monitored.

The REAL Purpose Of The REAL ID And The SPP
22.08.07. Channeling Reality. (Good Resource Siteon ID)To have a combined data base requires compatibility of the numbering system and information captured (EDI compliant). That's the real reason behind the Real ID. No doubt the driver's license number will include country code and state-province code. Even though the card stock might look different depending upon the issuing agency, the data will be designed to reside in a single database for all three countries. (See Washington State license below)

White House Manual Details How to Deal With Protesters
22.08.07. P. Baker, Washington Post. Not that they're worried or anything. But the White House evidently leaves little to chance when it comes to protests within eyesight of the president. As in, it doesn't want any.

FBI Provides Arrest Records of Peace Activists to Immigration of Other Countries - for Detention
23.08.07. afterdowningstreet / legitgov. Be Ready to Be Detained
By US Army Reserves Colonel and former US Diplomat Ann Wright

Foreign Aid Groups Face Terror Screens
23.08.07. W. Pincus, Washington Post. The Bush administration plans to screen thousands of people who work with charities and nonprofit organizations that receive U.S. Agency for International Development funds to ensure they are not connected with individuals or groups associated with terrorism, according to a recent Federal Register notice. The plan would require the organizations to give the government detailed information about key personnel, including phone numbers, birth dates and e-mail addresses. But the government plans to shroud its use of that information in secrecy and does not intend to tell groups deemed unacceptable why they are rejected.

Democracy's new dawn is on CCTV: the security state as infotainment
24.08.07. Naomi Klein, Guardian. So keen are America's leaders to hear dissent they're videotaping the dissenters. Welcome to a world of total surveillance. "Leaders were not able to see the protesters in person, but they could watch the protesters on TV monitors inside the hotel …
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What We Chose To Ignore brief summary of presidential directives, executive orders, and congressionally approved bills that where signed into law over the last 40 years or so.

This happened in Canada. Has it, does it, will it happen in the US? + Video, Stop SPP Protest - Union Leader stops provocateurs