The casual way that Americans are shredding their liberties is breathtaking. Rights that have been revered as the nation's spiritual heirloom for 225 years are cast aside like so many disposable keepsakes. We pretend that we still prize the ideals of which they are emblematic even as they are tossed aside. Only a people confused by runaway emotions, and forgetful of their identity, can act with such feckless abandon.
Blatant violations of basic legal rights and protections have been a feature of the 9/11 decade in America. Wholesale electronic surveillance, arbitrary detention, intrusive investigations of persons and organization without cause or court order, the participation of the CIA and military intelligence in contravention of stipulated prohibitions -- a wide array of unsavory and illegal practices. This past week has seen official lawlessness reach new depths.
The Obama administration's extrajudicial assault on WikiLeaks and the person of Julian Assange is the most frightening. Federal officials have put the muscle on private businesses to deny their services to both Wikileaks and anyone who wishes to extent financial support to them. The fact that PayPal, Amazon, Mastercard, Visa et al are de facto public utilities underscores the abuse of governmental power.
The Justice Department also may well have brought pressure on the Swedish government to enlist Interpol in the pursuit of Mr. Assange for surreal sexual offenses, still unstated, that prosecutors have been fondling for two months. (Allegedly Washington is threatening to cut off intelligence sharing to the newly frightened authorities in Stockholm). Now there are reports that the Swedes are collaborating with Washington to keep Assange in British detention long enough for him to be indicted on some contrived charge or other by the Justice Department, acting in complete secrecy. In addition, the United States Air Force has blacked out electronic access on all its computers to newspapers who have published excerpts from the leaked cables. Employees are further enjoined from reading said papers under pain of severe sanction. A general order prohibits each and every DoD employee even from looking at hard copy editions -- whether in the sanctity of their homes or in the lobby of Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel. This is the Stars & Stripes version of repressive practices used by autocratic regimes the world over -- practices that Washington righteously denounces as odious attacks on freedom.
The key point, overriding everything else, is that the United States has no legal authority to do any of these things. It did not seek legal authority. The White House and Pentagon simply arrogate to themselves the power to punish as they arbitrarily see fit. American officials from Barack Obama on down are declaring their right to inflict penalties on citizens based on nothing more than their will and whim. The premise, and the precedent, are in direct contravention of our fundamental liberties. There is no distinction in kind between these actions and the federal government's denying any individual or group DSL service or electricity because those utilities could be used to do things embarrassing to those who wield power in Washington.
As distressing as this situation is, that distress is compounded by the eerie silence that surrounds this historic power grab. The mainstream media make no editorial criticism, the news columns ignore the civil liberties issues -- as do the op-ed columns (Eugene Robinson is a notable exception), the bar associations utter not a word, the universities continue along their insular ways, and politicians either cry for Assange's blood (literally) or cower in dread of being labeled soft on saboteurs of the nation's security. It is especially noteworthy that The New York Times, itself culpable of, or accessory to whatever alleged crimes Mr. Assange may be accused of, has kept its lips discretely, if unheroically sealed.
The American collective state of mind has become incapable of making the elementary, basic distinction between personal preference and law. To raise the matter with colleagues and friends is to elicit responses dictated solely by what one thinks of Wikileaks, Assange and their doings. That is a logical non sequitur and ethically obtuse. My personal feelings about them have nothing to do with my judgment about the illegality and arbitrariness of what our government is doing. Nor should it. One should be fierce in denouncing this violation of our principles and laws whatever/whomever the object of the abuses. We used to understand that.
To round out the week's dismaying news on the civil liberties front, a Federal District Court judge, John Bates, threw out a lawsuit aimed at preventing the United States from targeting U.S.-born, Yemeni based Anwar al-Awlaki whom our security agencies have put on a kill hit list. The suit was brought by the cleric's father. The Obama Justice Department's opposition was grounded on the claim that the court has no legal authority to review the president when he makes military decisions to protect Americans against terrorist attacks. Judge Bates dismissed the suit in saying that only Mr. al-Awlaki has the legal standing to make the case. So now we have judicial confirmation of the right of unstated officials using unstated criteria to liquidate an American citizen on their own volition alone. The target's only apparent recourse is to secrete himself into a federal courthouse, along with lawyers, without getting himself gunned down on the way in. Again, virtually no public comment.
How have we reached this point? The obvious answer is fear -- fear exploited by self-serving elected officials whose own political interests trump their oath of office to protect and obey the constitution of the United States of America. Fear and the craven behavior it spawns. Supposedly we are a people whose bravery keep us free -- supposedly.
Rep. Barbara Lee: Afghanistan War Review Conclusions Misguided
I am not quick to jump on this bandwagon about how great WikiLeaks is. What they are publishin is not verified and no one is responsible for collateral damage. I know the war was illegal (I traveled from California to Washington twice to protest) but I am uneasy by the cavalier way in which illegally obtained documents are being exposed. What is to keep someone from post false information? This type of forum could be catastrophic.
This is the largest retreat of consciousness into cowardice, that I have seen in my lifetime. The "America" that is a spirit, will not survive in this anaerobic environment.
If this is all that the American Spirit amounts to, after 200 years of relative liberty, maybe America ain't worth saving?
Technology takes advantage of such an amorphous, organic structure, offering anonymity, proxy addressing, 256+ bit encryption, file shredding and replication and tools to store and display.
Against this, every government is powerless to control the flow of information. Not China, Not Russia, Not India, Not Saudi Arabia, nor other secrecy obsessed governments and therefore, Not the US.
That is why our government is moving WiKiLeaks to a high moral ground, because otherwise, secrecy will become a non-sequitur as long as there is one person who refuses the eat the dog food put out by corporations and government agencies.
The future should look interesting
This is a problem, isn't it? An American citizen is a declared enemy of his own country. We should issue a warrant for his arrest and just let the chips fall where they may. Why the government feels it has to issue a death warrant is purely POLITICAL -- the kind of sword-rattling that voters really DO like. The principles of the rule of law be damned in those instances. I'm not surprised at the lack of public outrage -- or even interest, for that matter.
About WikiLeaks. Paranoid government and public reaction to it is a much more troubling story. This is the future of information, but few understand this -- yet. They see it as treason (not a correct definition, but few care). Or they see it as a heroic "Scarlet Pimpernel" episode. What I'm thrilled about is a much larger picture -- the possibility that information will be freed. Technology will bring this to pass. The only other possibility is that government will totally shut down its flow. That is something even the most conservative non-thinker will not tolerate. Therefore WikiLeaks holds a great promise for the future.
Well. Times have changed and there is no longer a giant free land to rape and exploit mindlessly, we are rubbing up against each other now and it's agitating because Americans are not used to having a real culture that is anything other then a conservative idea of "the work to be done" or the liberal indulgent hedonistic "liberty" of so much "free" capital.
We are rotten from the core, and no manner of "rationality" will save us from this curse of america for the very foundations which motivate our approach to engage are steeped with the intuition that our past is void of any real desire to understand the systems we exploit beyond our sought
I'm going to blame Hillary Clinton, P.J. Crowley, and Eric Holder, and just assume the President is delegating, for his lack of any clear statement on the topic. I think he's playing his cards right by leaving it alone, but he ought to restrain arm-twisting efforts because the fact is, the DOJ is ignoring torture already.
Additionally, the principles of free speech are non-negotiable. Sometimes the precise circumstances are debatable. The bellicose warnings against various publications, and the baseless claims of criminality are unacceptable.
But, we are discovering new rights all the time. We have a right to affordable health care, if you haven't heard about it yet. I'm anxiously awaiting the right to Jack Daniels to be discovered.
Obama is like the mayor, not the DA. The mayor should not politicize law enforcement, and I don't believe Obama is. Most everyone in the so-called "Obama administration" was there before Obama. We don't have the spoils system any more.
Obama swore to uphold the laws of the US, to do otherwise is treason. The Judicial branch decides whether laws are Constitutional, the Executive executes them. If Justice Dept thinks the law has been broken it is supposed to prosecute. We're a nation of law, not run by a King.
Society and culture, like everything else, evolves over time and like many individual Americans, this nation couldn't be more self serving than it is right now. We've waged continuing war out of our own fear, with no concern for civilian casualties. While truth became secondary to power and greed, we now become witness to a classic David vs. Goliath battle of a corrupt US government against not any one person, but against the truth itself.
I think Chris Hedges take on inverted totalitarianism is right on the money
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/democracy_in_america_is_a_useful_fiction_20100124/
Inverted totalitarianism represents “the political coming of age of corporate power and the political demobilization of the citizenry,” Wolin writes in “Democracy Incorporated.” Inverted totalitarianism differs from classical forms of totalitarianism, which revolve around a demagogue or charismatic leader, and finds its expression in the anonymity of the corporate state. The corporate forces behind inverted totalitarianism do not, as classical totalitarian movements do, boast of replacing decaying structures with a new, revolutionary structure. They purport to honor electoral politics, freedom and the Constitution. But they so corrupt and manipulate the levers of power as to make democracy impossible.
Capitalism is the *sworn* enemy of Freedom now that it has no competition.