A "Paper Coup," and Blackwater Eyes Midtown Manhattan

I have argued that in the closing stages of a `fascist shift', events cascade. I am hearing about them, even across the globe. Here in Australia I hear from the nation's best-know feminist activist, and former adviser to Paul Keating, Anne Summers, who was also at the time this took place Chair of the Board of Greenpeace International. Summers was detained by armed agents for FIVE HOURS each way in LAX on her way to and from the annual meeting of the board of Greenpeace International in Mexico, and her green card was taken away from her. `I want to call a lawyer', she told TSA agents. `Ma'am, you do not have a right to call an attorney,' they replied. `You have not entered the United States.'

Apparently a section of LAX just beyond the security line is asserted to be `not in the United States' -- though it is squarely inside the airport -- so the laws of the US do not apply. (This assertion, by the way, should alarm any US citizen who is aware of how the White House argued that Guantanamo is not `in the United States' - is a legal no-man's land -- so the laws of the US do not apply.) Toward the end of her second five-hour detention she asked, `Why am I being detained?' `Lady, this is not detention,' the TSA agent told her. `Detention is when I take you to the cells out back and lock you up.'

Last week in Boston, while attending Bioneers by the Bay, I heard that one of the speakers for our event, an environmentalist named Gunter Pauli, was going to miss the time of his scheduled speech; he had been physically taken OFF THE PLANE by TSA agents and had to take a much later flight. More chillingly, the camerawoman doing my interview said that another well-known environmental writer found that his girlfriend was effectively `disappeared' for three days as she sought to enter the US from Canada. Lisa Fithian, an anti-globalization activist, was denied entry across the Canadian border in 2001 and was offered the choice of turning back or being arrested.

A friend emails me a story from USA Today about a 24-year-old college graduate who testified before Congress about her family of immigrants and the difficulties they face; shortly afterward, the entire family was arrested by immigration agents. Another online piece reports that Blackwater is setting up operations along the US/Mexico border and an insightful post on Daily Kos describes how the TSA list will revert from the airlines to the management of the Department of Homeland Security shortly and that by February we may well face the need to apply to the State for permission to travel. If this proposed regulation goes through, we will move from 1931 to about 1934--when the borders started to close-- with the stroke of a pen. Jews in America have hardwired into their DNA a sense of the distinction between those who got out before the borders closed and those who waited a moment too long.

Why should Congress impeach and prosecute this instant, not waiting till February? Why should this impeachment and prosecution be solidly bipartisan? After February it is the leaders on both sides of the aisle -- and the people writing these essays -- who are at most risk of being turned back at the border. People who can't leave in a police state are effectively silenced. And history shows that Republicans are at the exact same risk as Democrats of being violently silenced once liberties are lost. I am reading about IBM's close, profitable involvement with Nazi Germany -- much akin to Prescott Bush's well-documented close and profitable involvement with Nazi Germany through German industrialist, Fritz Thyssen. Right up to the top of the solidly Nazi hierarchy of the IBM affiliate, corporate executives were terrified of taking a wrong step in the eyes of the Party: `There are concentration camps', they would whisper to their US backers. The teenage son of one solid Nazi ally was taken hostage when he resisted Party orders. So alignment with the regime in a police state offers no ultimate protection.

Let us think like business consultants analyzing the decisions of a business that claims it is going to close its door in just a year. What kinds of decisions is it making? Here is a quiz, if you still doubt that we need to shift our thinking and recognize what appears to be 'a paper coup.':

- Is building a US Embassy in Baghdad the size of eighty football fields and at a cost of well more than half a BILLION dollars evidence of short- or long-term thinking?

- These walls would crumble if the next legitimate president independently ends the war. How about defending and expanding the basis for FISA violations at this late stage -- after all, these folks will be gone in a year?

- How about the decision to fight so hard for a US attorney who will defend the view that the President is above the law?

- Why would that matter so much in an administration folding its tents?

- Why the rush to establish Guantanamo as a permanent part of the landscape and even seek money at one point to double its size -- if the next President, a truly independent Republican or Democrat, might just close it down?

- Why the push to expand a war that makes no military or popular sense, rush through military tribunals that the next President might just disband, and, by the way, drum up a fresh new World War III?

- Do the neo-cons advising Giuliani look like a fresh page for an independent, transparent election or an ideological continuity of government in themselves?

- Do these look like the short-term tactics of a fading administration -- or the institutional strategic bases for some kind of new long-term beginning?

- Why work so hard to make sure that the man who defended the infamous "enemy combatant" concept will be the new Attorney General?

Increasingly, reputable figures are starting to talk about `a coup.' Jim Hightower notes in an important essay, "Is a Presidential Coup Under Way?," that a coup is defined in the dictionary as a sudden forced change in the form of government. (He also spells out the basis for a rigorously modeled impeachment and criminal prosecution.) Daniel Ellsberg's much-emailed speech on recent events notes that, in his view, a `coup' has already taken place. Ron Rosenbaum speculates in an essay on Slate about the reasons the Bush administration is withholding even from members of Congress its plans for Continuity of Government in an emergency -- noting that those worrying about a coup are no longer so marginal. Frank Rich notes the parallels between ourselves and the Good Germans. And Congress belatedly realizes as if waking from a drugged sleep that it might not be okay for the Attorney General to say the President need not obey the law. Congress may realize why Mukasey CAN'T say that `waterboarding is torture' -- the minute he does so he has laid the grounds for Bush, Cheney and any number of CIA and Blackwater interrogators to be tried and convicted for war crimes. They are so keenly aware that what they have been doing is criminal that laws such as the Military Commissions Act of 2006 have been drafted specifically to protect them and the torturers and murderers they have directed from criminal prosecution. That is why insisting that Mukasey say that waterboarding is torture is, in spite of the alarming apparent defection of Feinstein and Schumer, an important tactic and even the perfect opening for the impeachment bid that Kucinich is bringing on November 6th to be followed by Congressional investigations into possible criminality.

This is the "Blackwater Tactical Weekly." (Yes, Blackwater has its own weekly e-newsletter.) Look at "Islamist protest in N.Y. - 'Mushroom cloud on way'" -- it is reasonable to speculate that Blackwater is focusing on becoming more active domestically in managing domestic protests and rallies. (Regarding this particular rally, note the repetition of the White House `Mushroom Cloud' sound-bite and other signs bearing current White House talking points, that are attributed to alleged Muslim protesters in New York City. The US has a long history of using agents provocateurs -- people dressed as those they are targeting, who pose as conveying a more violent or threatening message than that of the real group itself or who commit acts of violence to stigmatize the group. The Cointelpro program of the 1970's discredited many rallies in this way. An alleged or infiltrated violent, threatening Muslim rally would be the perfect defensible trigger for a Blackwater response.)

See also that Blackwater may be exploring the management of private flights in US airports because of a threat or `threat' to private aircraft. ("Extremists may target private US planes: TSA.") This entry point to the air travel system would seem defensible -- after all Blackwater personnel do in fact guard airports around the world, for example in Bosnia. The danger is that a bleeding of Blackwater into US airport security in general would affect a coup in essence -- quite quickly and serenely -- even as a coup in fact need not be declared. It is a short step from managing private plane and private airport security to aiding the TSA -- which is a branch of Homeland Security -- and Homeland Security and Blackwater have already worked in alliance with one another in New Orleans. A TSA agent blogged about having signed up for Blackwater -- at ten thousand a month, which is a lot more than TSA agents make now and a real incentive -- but I have no evidence of reverse movement. The White House recently announced that the Watch List and No-Fly List together have 775,000 citizens and that they are adding 20,000 A MONTH. This trend on both sides, if not confronted, points to an easy slide to a paramilitarized domestic flight experience in the US and a routine aggressive searching of hundreds of thousands of citizens, the growth being exponential enough so that being aggressively searched could easily soon become a common experience at airports. Nothing at present prevents Blackwater agents from being deployed to help or replace the TSA domestically. Or from being deployed at the next New York City rally such as the one that is being featured on their website. And airports being the lifeline of freedom, if you are scared to fly or can be bullied, interrogated, tasered or worse when flying, you are no longer free. History shows that there is no easy retroactive movement toward a free society once travel is truly restricted.

The Mukasey hesitation on torture is our cue to call a halt to these crimes. (By the way, strapping victims to boards to prepare them for torture was common at Buchenwald.)

Congress must ask:

- What is torture?
- Has it happened?
- Who ordered it?
- How high up the chain of command does this go?
- And what does our system of laws say about such crimes and those who commit them?

If it takes hearings and possible prosecutions to restore the rule of law and maintain a free society, then it is past time for the hearings to begin.

Comments

[2BaRealist]

I have been SCREAMING that this egotistical, murderous regime' would NOT relinquish power in 2009, they are too close to completing their plans for global dominance and abolishment and enslavement of all North American people.

Their immediate goal is the joining of Canada, Mexico and the US, a half billion people that can compete with the EU and the Asians, socio-economically and politically..

http://nauinfo.blogspot.com

[laurac1062]

Naomi,
Are you familiar with Senator Mike Gravel and his run for President? He is the most outspoken candidate on the entrenchment of the Military Industrial Complex and has now been silenced by GE a major weapons manufacturer. He was the first to call out Hillary and the complicit Dems on Iraq and now Iran! We need his voice on the debates! He knows from his own filibuster experience ending the Draft and releasing the Pentagon Papers that courage from the Senate floor can end the Iraq war now. Your views are aligned with his. Please check out his HuffPost pieces and youtube recaps of the debates. If you are interested to connect please contact me at [e-mail] He has real solutions, we need help getting MSM to let him speak.
With appreciation,
Lynne

[AnnaVanZ]

Does anyone know what the status of all those domestic "detention centers" is? There was a tiny amount of print coverage when KBR/Halliburton won the no-bid contract to build these, and to refurbish existing buildings. I haven't been able to find any recent coverage or information about how operational they are at present. The last couple of articles I read that mentioned the detention centers referred to them as being for large round-ups of "illegal aliens", in case of a sudden influx of illegals(!?). Awhile back I saw a list of where they were located, and there was a bunch of them, all across the country.
Any recent info out there?? Thanks!

[smchris]

I guess what scares me most are the ways we _aren't_ like Nazi Germany. Which is to say that I think we may have one chance, and only one chance, to avoid the pit at the bottom of this slide. After that, what? China would invade us and set up a new Marshall Plan to restore our constitution? Don't think so. Revolution? I should be more informed on how Argentina and Chili, for example, transitioned from their despotic regimes but the U.S. is unique in the respect that it is so huge. In a country with our mass media and our internal law enforcement resources would it really be possible to agree upon and coordinate a citizen revolt from Mississippi to Oregon? Or is it more likely that once the constitution is destroyed we will be a new Roman Empire? Could whole regions secede? Doubt it in light of this regime. The Neocons would probably be perfectly willing to tactically nuke Vermont. Just one or two to make their point. Another possibility, perhaps most likely, is _uncoordinated_ revolt. Bringing the chaos and anarchy of Iraq to Main Street in the form of IEDs and apartheid-era South African bombings of fern bars and utility infrastructure.

With Canada turning back peace activists, it is unlikely there will be safe haven for liberals and conservatives who honor the constitution in North America, much of Asia, and perhaps some of Europe. If you can get there. So, like I say, I'm concerned that we have one chance to restore sanity to the country _now_, or ...

[Lute]

hopefully ms. Wolf will publish her thoughts on Mr. Mushareff and the Pakistani shutdown.

Americans are "frightened" More accurately, they are afraid to be afraid. Their loyalty is to position and security; not to their duty to posterity. Mayhap Ms. Wolf, as an example you might start giving away free copies of your book, eschew the capitalist manifesto in favor of those children yet unborn. I am quite certain you are comfortable enough in your New York flat without that cumbersome revenue.

Imagine the mob of the City of Rome swayed by the next demagogue come to restore the Republic.

I would urge a general strike, to force the entire government to resign. Put some new crooks in, my Granpaw used to say.

Can we turn the tide of history? Expose the fallacy at the heart of the system which says that Freedom is only self-interest?

[multipole]

History will show that this kind of article is what we need more of on The Huffington Post right now.
In fact, The Huffington Post will probably determine whether history shows that with a smile or a frown.
The MSM are so compromised as to need the excuse of following the lead of established alternative sites.
You are the front runner. Time to sprint hard.

[ScooterLiddy]

Naomi: I just got your book in the mail today and am halfway through it. Excellent. You connect the dots. We all knew something was terribly wrong, but the cookbook method you describe that is used by all totalitarian regimes puts it into context.

After watching your interview on C-Span After Words: "Naomi Wolf interviewed by Viet Dinh" (Aired: 10/20/2007) two weeks ago I was so affected that I downloaded the podcast http://c-span.org/podcast/ and listened to the full one-hour program again. Then I listened to it for the third time yesterday. Every American concerned about democracy and the preservation of our Constitution should hear it.

[Vanna]

Not to nitpick, but the Blackwater stuff quoted is over a year old (April 2006 was the date of the Islamist protest, not "yesterday"). The Blackwater site hasn't been updated in that time, a curiosity in itself. Maybe, like Bush, they don't have to explain anything anymore. Interesting, though not surprising, that they quote WorldNet Daily.

[Steven G. Brant - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you for this excellent post, Naomi. I've been concerned thinking about how this gang will orchestrate its exit. Now I'm not sure if they will actually go.

By the way, Gunter Pauli isn't just an environmentalist. He's the founder of Ecover, whose "green" cleaning products you've probably seen at Whole Foods...

http://cleanproduction.org/popup.ecover.html

And I heard him speak at the UN at the launch of its Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.

I can't imagine what issue the TSA had with him, but here you can watch a 9 minute video of Gunter talking about how we can create food from the waste byproduct of coal-fired power plants (which are going to be around for a while)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piH8lIZDwLQ

Lastly, to the heart of thiss essay, I recommend you all read "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45," by Milton Mayer. First published in 1955 and republished in 1966, it is based on interviews Mr. Mayer conducted with Germans who lived through the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler.

http://www.amazon.com/They-Thought-Were-Free-Germans/dp/0226511928

Excerpts can be found here...

http://www.ronpaulonline.com/content/view/220/214/

I will definitely do what I can to support Kucinich's efforts.

[backward]

Further, did Hillary unequivocably stated who rescind the abrogations of constitutional rights embodied in the various pieces of legislation (e.g., military commissions act) passed recently. NO she did not. So don't look to the election of a Dem to save stuff. She is Just As Likely to use those against Americans as Bush. She is, after all, a Bilderberg Group afficiando.....

[cadawa]

Immigration has been given extraordinary powers and unconstitutional powers.
The opinion of the lowliest employees cannot be contested by anyone. Their word is law. Non citizens have absolutely no rights and enter or leave at the pleasure of any immigration officer.
My daughter-in-law's sister was detained when she tried to enter the country with her visa in order, accused of lying about her reason for visiting. Her request that the officer call her family to verify her story was refused and her family insulted. She missed a connecting flight and she is not permitted to stay the full amount she was entitled to on her visa. She is nineteen years old.
When I called my congressman, he was not able to do anything.

[itmaybetoolate]

Here's my informal survey: How many of you believe that bushie will willingly give up power? If yes, what has he done to convince you of this?

I am truly frightened. Kuchnich and his forced Impeachment vote may be our last chance.

Why IS Pelosi so unwilling to Impeach? Maybe her family has been promised protection when the shit hits the fan.

[backward]

It appears to be all but a done deal. Question is, what are You gonna do? Gonna get off the web and mobilize? Or hunker down and hope to survive as the elites begin to enact their pogroms? Are you a 'citizen' they wish to keep? Or are you discardable? Gonna wait to be carted off to the camps? Lots of questions to ask.

[mommadona]

" - Do the neo-cons advising Giuliani look like a fresh page for an independent, transparent election or an ideological continuity of government in themselves?

- Do these look like the short-term tactics of a fading administration -- or the institutional strategic bases for some kind of new long-term beginning?

- Why work so hard to make sure that the man who defended the infamous "enemy combatant" concept will be the new Attorney General?"

I BELIEVE WE NEED TO LOOK AT THE 'ENABLERS' HERE. THE 'SILENT GERMANS'....IN OTHER WORDS:

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADERS
THE DEMOCRATIC 'LEADERSHIP' PARTY
THE BLUE DOGS
THE BUSH DOGS
THE YELLOW DOGS
THE DINOS

YOU KNOW - ALL THOSE 'CORPORATE' DEMOCRATS WHO ENABLE THIS LITTLE DESPOT.

BUSINESS AS USUAL = NO MORE U.S.A.
BUSINESS AS USUAL = 'DADDY AND THE BELT'
BUSINESS AS USUAL = NOT A GOOD PLACE FOR A MIDDLE CLASS OR ANY SORT OF INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM

[reuben]

The President of Pakistan is a dictator, true, but what about the Musharraf at home?

On May 9th 2007 George Bush signed National Security Presidential Directive 51.

The Directive says that if the President labels any event a “catastrophic emergency,” he can “coordinate” an “effort among the executive, legislative and judicial branches” to narrow government for the sake of “continuity.”

Unopposed, a single person who “coordinates” an entire government is a dictator.

Pervez Musharraf discussed the possibility of, in effect, coordinating all the branches of Pakistan’s government earlier this year after the Chief Justice challenged his authority. But in the words of one journalist, “the fact that the option has been used sooner rather than later caught many an observer unawares.”

A few months from now will someone be saying that about Bush’s option to simplify government in America? Last week the White House said that the President is now issuing “administrative orders” to “implement policy” without legislation from Congress. The media reported and moved on. So yes, if in a few months there is a new kind of American government, many an observer and many a citizen will have been caught unawares.

Americans had better put aside ordinarily important matters like expanding health coverage for children. These are not ordinary times. With powers taken since 2001, today the President can, without a court order, read Americans’ mail, listen to their phone calls, take their property without explanation and imprison them for years without charge. Bush can torture.

The Bush Presidency is itself a “catastrophic emergency.” Every American who can speak should now be talking about the removal of Cheney and Bush.