From:
http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2002-11-29/cols_ventura.html
Weapons of Mass Deception
by Michael Ventura
In the days following 9/11, George W. Bush began speaking of "homeland
security." Even then, some of us thought the phrase had a sinister,Orwellian ring. Bush
proposed a White House Office of Homeland Security subject to no will but the
president's -- no congressional oversight, no balance of constitutional powers,
no accountability to the people. In the ensuing months a free press and
some notable Democrats attacked the
idea; the Democrats' counterproposal was a cabinet-level agency of
Homeland Security, mandated by Congress and answerable to Constitutional checks
and balances. Bush appeared to accede to this pressure and to accept the
concept of a cabinet-level Homeland Security Department, mandated and
overseen by the people's representatives. Most Americans think that's what they
got when Congress recently passed the Homeland Security Act. What we really got
was an intimidated Congress, frightened of appearing "soft on terrorism," which supplied
Bush with the basic governmental structure necessary for a totalitarian
The new department will employ 170,000 people -- making it second only to the
Pentagon as our largest government institution. Under its authority will be the
Customs Service, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Border
Patrol, and the Transportation Security Administration, to name a few. The New
York Times reports that the bill "provides the new department with what
congressional officials say is unprecedented power for a federal agency to
organize itself as it chooses, without congressional oversight or
interference" (authority "demanded by the Bush administration").
With the Secret Service and other law enforcement
agencies under its control, Homeland Security will constitute an
intelligence-gathering institution of massive proportions. "Administration
officials acknowledge," says the Times, "that the Department of
Homeland Security could eventually emerge as a rival to the FBI as a domestic
intelligence-gathering agency." Language added to the bill since the
recent election "allows the administration to reorganize the department
after it is created." What this means in the real world is that essential
security services (the Secret Service, the Coast Guard, and the Border Patrol)
will no longer be subject to congressional "interference"; will no
longer
have to account for themselves to the people; and will no longer be answerable
to any but the White House, which can institute any changes it wants in the new
department without going to the people for approval. And the administration
already admits that Homeland Security could become a super-FBI operating
without any of the FBI's present constitutional constrictions.
In addition, the 170,000 Homeland Security employees will be stripped
of
civil service protections. This proposal was couched as a money-saving,
anti-union tactic that would give the new department "flexibility"
(Bush's
word). What it means in everyday reality is the department will exert
complete control over its employees, who will no doubt face severe
consequences for acts of conscience (such as telling their fellow
Americans
what Homeland Security is really up to).
The Department of Homeland Security will include an Office of
Information
Awareness, employing a system that is being called Total Information
Awareness: a massive computer database combining information from
intelligence agencies with information gathered by commercial
companies.
Here is conservative columnist William Safire's
description:
"This is what will happen to you. Every purchase you make with a credit
card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you
fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every
academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you
book and every event you attend -- all these transactions and
communications will go into what the Defense
Department describes as 'a
virtual centralized grand database.' To this computerized dossier on
your
private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information
that
government has about you -- passport application, driver's license and
bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy
neighbors to the FBI, your lifetime paper trail plus
the latest hidden
camera surveillance -- and you have the super-snoop's dream: a 'Total
Information Awareness' about every U.S. citizen ... [the new agency]
has
been given a $200 million budget to create computer dossiers on 300
million
Americans."
What is the rationale for this "Office of Information Awareness"? Not
the
"war on terrorism." None of the 9/11 attackers were American citizens;
they
would have barely shown up on such a database. The two or three
Americans
who have been connected to al Qaeda have been, by the
government's own
admission, low-level functionaries who posed no direct threat to public
safety. "Total Information Awareness" is a war not on terrorism but
on
liberty. It's about terrorizing us -- for when people know their every
move
is being recorded by the government, they are apt to be cautious,
self-doubting, and self-censoring, lest they draw the attention of the
authorities. "Total Information Awareness" -- total as in
totalitarian.
That is the root of the word: total government control and coercion of
the
total range of human activity, for which the government requires (and
will
soon have) total information.
The Office of Information Awareness isn't an Orwellian
fantasy. Thanks
to a
confused, timid, pliant Congress, it is now the law of the land. This
"office," by the way, is under the command of John Poindexter.
Remember
him? In the Reagan administration, it was his idea to sell Iran
missiles in
exchange for American hostages, and then to use that money to fund an
illegal (by U.S. and international law) "contra" movement against
socialist
Nicaragua -- "Iran/Contra" was his baby, and he was convicted on six
counts
for his crimes (one of them being that he lied to Congress under oath).
But
Poindexter served no prison time; Congress, you see, had granted him
immunity. It is to Poindexter that every piece of information about
your
life is now being entrusted.
Add to this mix the rulings of
Times reported that on Nov. 18 "a special federal appeals court"
ruled
"that the Justice Department has broad new powers ... the judges said
today
that the passage of [last year's USA PATRIOT Act] ensured that there is
no
wall between officials from the intelligence and criminal arms of the
Justice Department ... Applications for criminal warrants must comply
with
the Fourth Amendment's proscriptions against intrusive searches and
require
an official declaration that there is 'probable cause' to believe the
subject is involved in a crime. By contrast, the intelligence
surveillance
law requires only a showing that there is a probable cause that the
subject
is the agent of a foreign power," which could mean anything. "Today's
ruling was a significant victory for Attorney General John Ashcroft,
who
announced immediately that he would use it to greatly expand [my
italics]
the use of the special intelligence court by prosecutors to obtain
wiretaps." A New York Times editorial commented that this appeals
court's
proceedings "are held in secret, and the government is the only party
allowed to appear before it. [My italics; i.e., no other opinions are
allowed legal representation in this court.] The members of the court
are
hand-picked by Chief Justice William Rehnquist ...
The combination of
one-sided arguments and one-sided judges hardly instills confidence in
the
court's decisions."
What all this amounts to is an unprecedented shift of power not only
from
Congress to the presidency, but from the Constitution to the
presidency.
The essential idea of the Constitution -- that the president is
answerable
to Congress and to free courts -- has been subverted, gutted. More
power is
now concentrated in the White House than at any time in our history. We
have taken a huge step from a republic to ... the opposite of a
republic.
We are living in redefined
price
has yet to be paid. You'll pay it, and sooner than you think. Yes: you.
And
me. And every other American. The word is
totalitarian. There will be
no
exemptions.
Michael Ventura
---
See also:
Letters at
http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2002-12-13/cols_ventura.html
You don't think that this whole thing with
do
with the fact that
It's
gotta be them weapons of mass destruction. EXCELLENT
ARTICLE!
Letters at 3AM [11-15-02] BY MICHAEL VENTURA
http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2002-11-15/cols_ventura.html
America has engaged in a long-term strategy, through three presidential
administrations, to take over the Iraqi people whom we've made helpless
from a ruthless form of bio-warfare.
Letters at
http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2002-09-20/cols_ventura.html
The White House is intent on totalitarian measures and war; it employs
incoherence because it cannot speak plainly of its machinations.
OTHER COLUMNS BY
http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/deep_focus/cols_ventura.html