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Military Commissions Act & The End of America

by MoreThanAFlag
Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 08:12:30 AM PST

I haven't been compelled to write my own diary on here before now, silently content to allow those with both more time and knowledge to keep me informed and entertained. But after silently observing the long line of abuses our nation has suffered over the last seven years, and after news that most Democrats still have plans of capitulating on FISA (have I mentioned that I hate Harry Reid?), I cannot take it any longer.

As a beginning note, I am quite shocked that no one (at least to my knowledge) mentioned here on the blogs anything on or about October 17, which was the one year anniversary of President Bush's signing into law of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [ http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:s3930enr.txt.pdf ] to, as the bill states, "facilitate bringing to justice terrorists and other unlawful enemy combatants through full and fair trials by military commissions, and for other purposes" (emphasis added).

Personally, I believe that on that day, October 17, 2006, the American Republic and our democracy finally met its death blow, after having staggered under a long string of abuses at the hands of this Administration and those pathetic souls that call themselves the Legislative Branch--culminating today in yet this latest horror, the use of retroactive immunity to further subvert the rule of law.

I just completing reading "The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot [ http://www.amazon.com/End-America-Letter-Warning-Patriot/dp/1933392797 ]" by Naomi Wolf, in which she argues that the last seven years have seen Americans living through what she terms the "fascist shift" of society, in which democratic societies move from the rule of law into fascist states through 10 clear-cut steps. While I highly recommend you read the book yourself, I feel compelled to at least list her 10 steps, and share a few of my thoughts on these and some examples she and others have used to back them up in a short of readable synopsis of the concept. I will argue that while the person I shared the following with yesterday called me an "alarmist" and "unpatriotic", I think it is something that we must examine, for our own sakes if for no one else. I've also noticed an increase in diaries dealing similarly with talk about the death of our democratic experiment and what not, so I figured now is as good a time as any to look into it myself. So I hope you'll bear with me.

As former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas once said, "It is our attitude toward free thought and free expression that will determine our fate. There must be no limit on the range of temperate discussion, no limits on thought. No subject must be taboo. No censor must preside at our assemblies." Daily Kos has been the embodiment of this principle for me, and so I hope you all will continue along side me in that tradition via examining the following:

THE FASCIST SHIFT:
10 Steps Toward Fascism

"But a constitution of government, once changed from freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." – John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams on July 7, 1775

"When America gets fascism it will be called anti-fascism." – Huey Long

In the interests of not having this diary become unreadable, I'm going to try and lay this out as a condensed list. I'll explain a few things as I go (might turn into a book, my history being any indication), but what you're basically going to see is an outline of Ms. Wolf's book, and the talking points I've used so far when talking to others about this. If you would like to add to this, or seek further clarification, well, that's what the comments section is for.

Step I. Invoke an External and Internal Threat

I doubt a single person here can argue that 9/11 was not a defining moment in our recent history. And as history has proven to us, every shift toward fascism requires those seeking the change to find the "cause event" for their crusade. For this Administration, that event was most undoubtedly 9/11.

In the ashes of one of the nation's most prestigious buildings, the nation's fearless leader called a press conference, and declared war not on a nation, but on a tactic, terror. Apparently terrorists of middle-eastern decent had meant the nation harm and the nation was now to be on a "war footing." Patriotism exploded, with flags displayed everywhere--newspapers printing flags in their papers suitable for window display. The leader became wildly popular and he began to define a new reality for us all. A small war was necessary, to deal with the terrorists. Europe was divided. Those whom stood with us were called "New Europe" and over complaints of increasing militarism by France, we nation moved to war.

Yes, we all know this story of President Bush's assent, but what many may not know is that this story can just as easily describe Adolf Hitler.

On 2/27, 1933, the German Reichstag was firebombed by a distressed and mentally unstable communist Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch Jew. Hitler used this attack to declare war not on a nation, but on terror. In fact, the very next year, Joseph Stalin himself, after the assassination of communist party functionary Sergei Kirov, would claim "terrorism" as a justification for the mass deportations and arrests of Soviet citizens in the late 1930's. Hermann Goering in Germany said that Germany was now on a "war footing" and those nations that stood with Hitler in this war, the Axis powers (a phrase coined by Mussolini--should I mention "Axis of Evil") he referred to as "New Europe", the same term President Bush used to refer to the "Coalition of the Willing". So, now they were at war with middle-eastern Jews, America just happens to be at war with extremist Muslims from the middle east...

The new reality is that we must fight the "evildoers", who seek new weapons to cause killing on an "unimagined scale". Yes, the Administration reminds us that we are fighting "Islamofascism", or Islamic Fascism for some. Osama bin Laden is the next Lenin or Hitler, a "threat to civilization" itself. The man whom hides in a cave will take down the world's mightiest nation. Interesting thought.

After the attack, President Bush moved to prepare the nation the adequately address this new threat of terror. His first step was the passage of the USA PATRIOT ACT, which by the time it was completed, passed over 400 pages of text.

I'm not sure many people ever took note of this connection, but at the time, then Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy were skeptical of the bill, and had said so publicly. Only a few days before the bill went to vote, weapons grade anthrax was mailed [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101301417.html ] to both of their offices and the offices of some news services. 5 people died, and over 17 were infected, even more tested positive for exposure to anthrax. The USA PATRIOT ACT passed shortly thereafter (many claiming they had not had sufficient time to read the bill), but the government never solved the anthrax cases, and by then, the nation was focusing on other things...

After the Reichstag firebombing, the German Parliament soon found itself facing the passage of "Clause 2" and the "Enabling Act", which Hitler requested to better fight this new war on terror. Both passed, though the German Parliament claimed they did not have sufficient time to read the legislation before its passage. The "Enabling Act", just like the USA PATRIOT Act, gave increased powers to the executive branch and sought to integrate the police and security services.

President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security to help achieve this, for the first time in American history (that I can recall) using the overly nationalistic and implicatively racist term of "homeland" to describe America. The term "homeland" was first used by Hitler and the Nazi's to describe Germany. In fact, Hitler created his own "Office for the Defense of the Homeland", which we would later come to know as the SS. And while some could hope that the DHS will disappear in the future, I highly doubt it. We now see what I'd call the "Security-Industrial Complex", second only to the Pentagon. The security industry is now worth by some estimates up to $180 billion a year, and over 259 companies [ http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1007/6159.html ] last year reported having registered lobbyists to the Department of Homeland Security.

And last but not least in this section, a fascist shift requires that the enemy of the state never be destroyed, simply maintained. Bush says we are fighting a global "War on Terror" – war eternal in time and space, apparently by this definition, with no clear end or ability to say "we have won" or "we have lost". As soon as one conflict nears an end, the fascist state must start a new one. We started in Afghanistan, but if we had captured Osama, well, then there wouldn't be a point to continue, now would there? So we give up and move onto Iraq, but with that going to hell we need something else, so, can someone say Iran? Hitler also used this tactic. He first annexed Austria. Then he moved onto Czechoslovakia, and after that, most notably, Poland.

Step II. Establish Secret Prisons

The second step toward fascism requires one to bypass the independent judiciary altogether, either through "people’s courts" or military tribunals. You start with the suspension of Habeas Corpus and then move to facilitate the usage of secret prisons.

President Bush helped set the stage by inventing the new, nebulous, and extremely vague "legal" term of "Enemy Combatant", which is a legal classification used only at his Administration's pleasure.

Fascist societies always start by targeting the "evil" and criminals as normally accepted by society. Yet very shortly after "mission creep" falls into place, when the lines between "us" and "them" blur. You start with criminals, but then what? Civil society leaders, clergy, peace activists?

We've already seen the blur in motion. We started with the Taliban members, or the "brown" people from the middle east. Yet then the Administration started with David Hicks [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3044386.stm ], not a middle-eastern man but a white, English-speaking Australian. When no one batted an eye, they moved onto US citizens, Yaser Hamdi [ http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Yaser_Hamdi ] & Jose Padilla [ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3208 ].

Yet these people have to be held somewhere, right? Ok, problem solved: Guantanamo.

Long before there were concentration camps in Germany, Dachau and Oranienberg prison camps were set up in 1933 for political opponents of the Nazi's and any others they felt should be placed there. The SS held people in the basements of buildings, all in an attempt to create a parallel judicial system outside the rule of law. Fascism doesn't require ovens to be in existence.

Nazi Germany established "People's Courts", and last year, we established military commissions through the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Once this is done, show trials begin, or even better, secret trails for "security purposes" when the public cannot even know what the case is, let alone the defendant.

Well, when you're capturing people without cause, and you need say you have cause, what is a dictator or would-be autocrat to do? Ah, I know, use torture to make people confess to anything.

Abu Ghraib [ http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/05/10/040510fa_fact ] prison, Iraq (April 2004)

The Taft-Haynes Memo [ http://www.scribd.com/doc/210865/Alberto-Gonzales-Files-The-Torture-Papers-The-Road-to-Abu-Grahib ] of March 22, 2002 which said the Geneva Conventions "do not apply".

The Pentagon's "72-point matrix [ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2004/05/mil-040514-dod02.htm ]" which allows for:

1. exposure to extreme heat or cold (110 – 20 degrees Fahrenheit)

2. withholding food

3. hooding for days at a time, naked

4. isolation in cold and dark for periods exceeding 30 days

5. threatening by dogs

6. stress positions designed for "rising levels of pain"

7. beatings

8. psychological abuse and humiliation

9. loosened definition of "rape"

Oh yes, and the "secret memos" condoning further torture and loos[en]ing definitions of such so that Bush can proudly exclaim "we don't torture."

Next you ostracize and attack those who help the helpless. JAG and civilian lawyers have been targeted by the Administration, these valiant individuals seeing their careers stall, or finding themselves fired, or even facing death threats. Now, most lawyers aren't even given access to their clients without promising to make their clients plead guilty.

You also need to remove the stigma against torture. FOX TV's show "24" often shows torture as entertainment, and many more programs are doing the same.

Step III. Develop a Paramilitary Force

Need I even mention the name Blackwater? While I don't have official figures, many people estimate that there is at least 1 armed contractor for every US soldier in Iraq.

The first and most obvious alarm here is that groups like Blackwater are wholly unaccountable and outside the scrutiny of Congress. Blackwater's own lawyers argue (apparently quite successfully) that Blackwater contractors are not accountable to the Pentagon’s Uniform Code of Military Justice because its soldiers are civilians. Yet on the flip side, they're not accountable to civilian courts because its soldiers are with the US military.

Groups like Blackwater go only where the money is, and there is no mission other than that behind their motives. Note, our own Founding Fathers had to fight Hessian (German) mercenaries during the Revolutionary War, which was King George's own paid-for army outside of the Parliament-supervised British Military.

And, once you start abroad with these mercenary groups, you then bring them home.

Blackwater has grown exponentially in Iraq. Yet, after Hurricane Katrina, Blackwater was paid $73 million to patrol New Orleans [ http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0910-07.htm ] in the absence of National Guard units deployed overseas. And chew on this one: if removed from Iraq this year or next, all 160,000 (estimating on my previous statistics) will return: to America

Political thugs are also important in a fascist shift to "aid" the democratic process. During the Florida 2000 vote recount, white-shirt sporting political staffers [ http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/01/11/21_banana.html ] who refused to name themselves arrived at key recount precincts to intimidate poll workers. These same staffers were on hand at predominantly African-American voting precincts and prevented many voters from participating through intimidation.

Remember the "Brownshirts" in Nazi Germany? Of interesting note, they were banned briefly in some municipalities during the 1930 Reichstag elections. Working to ignore the ban, these "Brownshirts" arrived instead sporting identical white dress shirts...

Step IV. Surveil Ordinary Citizens

The Gestapo, KGB, Stasi, Chinese Politburo and other autocratic societies have all used this step as a vital "security" tactic.

Immediately following 9/11, President Bush launched Operation TIPS – Terrorism Information and Prevention System of 2002. He requested 1 million citizen participants, which the ACLU noted [ http://www.aclu.org/search/search_wrap.html?account=436ac9516921&q=Operation+TIPS&imageField.x=0&imageField.y=0&imageField=search ] was more than double the Stasi ratio of spies to citizen in Eastern Germany.

The Chinese often refer to an "iron triangle" – encompassing the whole of our lives, to keep its citizens safe and in line. It includes (related US influences):

1. Monitoring Phone calls – which makes up our social and sexual lives (USA PATRIOT ACT, exposed by Washington Post [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/16/AR2005121600021.html ] )

2. Monitoring Emails – makes up our work lives as well as private lives (USA PATRIOT ACT, additional 2005 illegal programs exposed by New York Times [ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/washington/16nsa.html ] )

3. Monitoring Bank records – this covers our financial lives (reported June 22, 2006 by New York Times [ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/washington/23intel.html ], installed after 9/11)

I beg to ask, in what other area of our lives to we conduct business? Looks like everything is covered to me.

Something else to note, surveillance is cost effective: not all have to be watched, just think they are.

These illegal programs were "discovered" in leaks to the Press, but are not the leaks perhaps the real effective part of the program? It is one thing not to know that this is going on, it is another animal completely to know. Citizens begin to self-censure, we think a little harder before mass-emailing the "Impeach Bush" emails. We don't discuss certain subjects over the phone with our friends and neighbors. We don't buy certain books, or check them out at the Library (again, the USA PATRIOT ACT monitors this area of our lives).

Step V. Infiltrate Citizens’ Groups

Italian Fascists infiltrated unions, the Nazi’s infiltrated intellectual, religious, and student circles, while the Soviets infiltrated the factories, students, and businesses.

Now days, the FBI, local police forces and anti-terror units are infiltrating local anti-war groups, anti-war protests and other groups that are deemed "suspicious".

One such case involved Peace Fresno in California, which was infiltrated [ http://www.aclunc.org/news/press_releases/attorney_general_bill_lockyer_finds_sheriffs_department_infiltrated_peace_fresno.shtml ] by an agent working for the Fresno Sheriff’s Department and local anti-terrorism unit. Aaron Kilner, known by Peace Fresno activists as Aaron Stokes, died in a motorcycle accident in late August. Peace Fresno activists learned his true identity in the local paper’s obituary...

The Defense Department in 2006 was openly monitoring the emails of the Veterans for Peace group of New York State.

Note also, that if you're outspoken on issues the Administration doesn't like, you face intimidation. The All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California was publicly scrutinized by the IRS [ http://www.latimes.com/business/taxes/la-me-allsaints24sep24,1,6300942.story?coll=la-headlines-business-taxes&ctrack=2&cset=true ] after the rector gave a sermon characterizing Jesus as "anti-war" – two other churches in New York and Maine have faced similar IRS audits after involvement in Iraq-related peace movements. I'm sure a quick Google search will find even more cases...

... well, I can tell that this is indeed reaching the point of becoming unreadable. As such, I'll leave it here, and tomorrow will continue with the last 5 steps. Again, if you have comments or questions, or want to make additions, or call me unpatriotic, or bat-sh**-crazy, that's what the comments section is for.

Please take it easy, though, 'tis just my first post.

© Kos Media, LLC (emphasis in original)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/24/111230/47 [with comments]