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Congress to Vote Next Week on EXPLICITLY Creating a Police State
IF YOU THOUGHT POLICE BRUTALITY WAS BAD … WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE WHAT CONGRESS WANTS TO DO NEXT WEEK
The police brutality against peaceful protesters in Berkeley, Davis, Oakland and elsewhere is bad enough.
But next week, Congress will vote on explicitly creating a police state.
The ACLU’s Washington legislative office explains:
PART OF AN ONGOING TRENDThe Senate is gearing up for a vote on Monday or Tuesday that goes to the very heart of who we are as Americans. The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United States itself.
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The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world.
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The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself. The worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial provision is in S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which will be on the Senate floor on Monday.
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I know it sounds incredible. New powers to use the military worldwide, even within the United States? Hasn’t anyone told the Senate that Osama bin Laden is dead, that the president is pulling all of the combat troops out of Iraq and trying to figure out how to get combat troops out of Afghanistan too? And American citizens and people picked up on American or Canadian or British streets being sent to military prisons indefinitely without even being charged with a crime. Really? Does anyone think this is a good idea? And why now?
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In support of this harmful bill, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained that the bill will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield” and people can be imprisoned without charge or trial “American citizen or not.” Another supporter, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also declared that the bill is needed because “America is part of the battlefield.”
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The senators pushing the indefinite detention proposal have made their goals very clear that they want an okay for a worldwide military battlefield, that even extends to your hometown.
While this is shocking, it is not occurring in a vacuum. Indeed, it is part of a 30 year-long process of militarization inside our borders and a destruction of the American concepts of limited government and separation of powers.
As I pointed out in May:
THERE IS STILL A CHANCE TO STOP ITThe ACLU noted yesterday [that] Congress is proposing handing permanent, world-wide war-making powers to the president – including the ability to make war within the United States:
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As I noted in 2008:
An article in the Army Times reveals that the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team will be redeployed from Iraq to domestic operations within the United States.
The unit will soon be under the day-to-day control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. The Army Times reports this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command. The paper says the Army unit may be called upon to help with “civil unrest” and “crowd control”.
The soldiers are learning to use so-called “nonlethal weapons” designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals and crowds.
This violates posse comitatus and the Constitution. But, hey, we’re in a “national emergency”, so who cares, right?
(We’re still in a declared state of national emergency).
I noted a couple of months later:
Everyone knows that deploying 20,000 troops on U.S. soil violates Posse Comitatus and the Constitution.
And everyone understands that staging troops within the U.S. to “help out with civil unrest and crowd control” increases the danger of overt martial law.
But no one is asking an obvious question: Does the government’s own excuse for deploying the troops make any sense?
Other Encroachments On Civil Rights Under Obama
As bad as Bush was, the truth is that, in many ways, freedom and constitutional rights are under attack even more than during the Bush years.
Obama has presided over the most draconian crackdown on leaks in our history — even more so than Nixon.
As Marjorie Cohen – professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild – writes at the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy:
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is facing court-martial for leaking military reports and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, is being held in solitary confinement in Quantico brig in Virginia. Each night, he is forced to strip naked and sleep in a gown made of coarse material. He has been made to stand naked in the morning as other inmates walked by and looked. As journalist Lance Tapley documents in his chapter on torture in the supermax prisons in The United States and Torture, solitary confinement can lead to hallucinations and suicide; it is considered to be torture. Manning’s forced nudity amounts to humiliating and degrading treatment, in violation of U.S. and international law.
Nevertheless, President Barack Obama defended Manning’s treatment, saying, “I’ve actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures . . . are appropriate. They assured me they are.” Obama’s deference is reminiscent of President George W. Bush, who asked “the most senior legal officers in the U.S. government” to review the interrogation techniques. “They assured me they did not constitute torture,” Bush said.
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After State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley criticized Manning’s conditions of confinement, the White House forced him to resign. Crowley had said the restrictions were “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid.” It appears that Washington is more intent on sending a message to would-be whistleblowers than on upholding the laws that prohibit torture and abuse.
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Torture is commonplace in countries strongly allied with the United States. Vice President Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s intelligence chief, was the lynchpin for Egyptian torture when the CIA sent prisoners to Egypt in its extraordinary rendition program. A former CIA agent observed, “If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear – never to see them again – you send them to Egypt.” In her chapter in The United States and Torture, New Yorker journalist Jane Mayer cites Egypt as the most common destination for suspects rendered by the United States.
As I pointed out in March:
Former constitutional law teacher Glenn Greenwald says that – in his defense of state secrecy, illegal spying, preventative detention, harassment of whistleblowers and other issues of civil liberties – Obama is even worse than Bush.
Indeed, Obama has authorized “targeted assassinations” against U.S. citizens. Even Bush didn’t openly do something so abhorrent to the rule of law.
Obama is trying to expand spying well beyond the Bush administration’s programs. Indeed, the Obama administration is arguing that citizens should never be able to sue the government for illegal spying.
Obama’s indefinite detention policy is an Orwellian nightmare, which will create more terrorists.
Furthermore – as hard as it is for Democrats to believe – the disinformation and propaganda campaigns launched by Bush have only increased under Obama. See this and this.
And as I pointed out last year:
According to Department of Defense training manuals, protest is considered “low-level terrorism”. And see this, this and this.
An FBI memo also labels peace protesters as “terrorists”.
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A 2003 FBI memo describes protesters’ use of videotaping as an “intimidation” technique, even though – as the ACLU points out – “Most mainstream demonstrators often use videotape during protests to document law enforcement activity and, more importantly, deter police from acting outside the law.” The FBI appears to be objecting to the use of cameras to document unlawful behavior by law enforcement itself.
The Internet has been labeled as a breeding ground for terrorists, with anyone who questions the government’s versions of history being especially equated with terrorists.
Government agencies such as FEMA are allegedly teaching that the Founding Fathers should be considered terrorists.
The government is also using anti-terrorism laws to keep people from learning what pollutants are in their own community. See this, this, this and this.
Claims of “national security” are also used to keep basic financial information – such as who got bailout money – secret. That might not bode for particularly warm and friendly treatment for someone persistently demanding the release of such information.
The state of Missouri tried to label as terrorists current Congressman Ron Paul and his supporters, former Congressman Bob Barr, libertarians in general, anyone who holds gold, and a host of other people.
And according to a law school professor and former president of the National Lawyers Guild, pursuant to the Military Commissions Act:
Anyone who … speaks out against the government’s policies could be declared an “unlawful enemy combatant” and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes American citizens.
Obama has refused to reverse these practices.
The ACLU notes that there is some hope:
But there is a way to stop this dangerous legislation. Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) is offering the Udall Amendment that will delete the harmful provisions and replace them with a requirement for an orderly Congressional review of detention power. The Udall Amendment will make sure that the bill matches up with American values.
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The solution is the Udall Amendment; a way for the Senate to say no to indefinite detention without charge or trial anywhere in the world where any president decides to use the military. Instead of simply going along with a bill that was drafted in secret and is being jammed through the Senate, the Udall Amendment deletes the provisions and sets up an orderly review of detention power. It tries to take the politics out and put American values back in.
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Now is the time to stop this bad idea. Please urge your senators to vote YES on the Udall Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.
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Dream on, mate. They didn't shoot Bush, they'll even less shoot mister Smiley'bama or any other of these traitors!
Pitchforks & Torches are right out, because they are far too dangerous for the average american! They would only result in severe self harm!
Oh and by the way: Sheeple can't fire weapons, they only 'Baaah!'
Oh I don't know about that: http://verydemotivational.memebase.com/2010/10/19/demotivational-posters-battlesheep/
Well what did any rational person expect?
A large portion of the population thnks its perfectly acceptable for government to mandate a citizen buy health insurance from a private corporation. They also seem to think they have a "right" to anothers expertise, time & labor at a price to be determined by government or themselves.
But back to the article...will the families of the detained be sent a bill for housing the detainees? ;-)
they can 'mandate' all they want but how much blood can they squeeze from a turnip
And will they mandate that you have to work to pay for your own incarceration AND to pay for your health care while locked up or you will face...uh, jail time? Uh oh, time to dig the bunker a little deeper...
"And will they mandate that you have to work to pay for your own incarceration AND to pay for your health care while locked up"
Already happening in several states. Unlike the average cubicle however, at least many of these prisoners get to work outside all day long.
Knowledge is power
Ignorance is strength
War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Please---use your brain--It's all covered with private prison system-- its been working for years-- don't your remember the blood plasma deal between Clinton in ARK prisons and the French that sent aids tainted blood to Europe and cost a French PM his job? Oh sorry -thats old news.
they also mandate that you poison your kids with vaccinations that are designed to harm for the purpose of control... land of the free? even where the law requires you to opt out of vaccinations, you will be socially shunned when the other parents discover that your child is... gasp... unvaccinated. what a scam.
The 1% puppet masters paranoia should tell us something: despairation!
Land of brave and free ..... anyone?
Land of the whimpy and regulated.
Fixed it for you.
regardless, how many happy, slappy, golf clapping every statement the TOTUS lies about, will run and vote in 2012?
but then again, one look at my avatar, and i don't think there will be anymore free elections!
American fascism is well past the point where some 'Udall Amendment' giving the corrupt US Congress some theoretical intervention powers, is worth anything more than a pitcher of warm spit.
These people like the ACLU, and Marjorie Cohen putting her face on CNN for her National Lawyers Guild, and every other big-name American NGO, have gotten fat with their own corporate connections and money over the years, and they have had a major guilty role in the way America has rotted into a fascist hell.
These people are media chasers, and actually serve the fascist US system. They pretend to be doing something by taking up a few cases that are already in the media, but they ignore the majority of real victims of the American ugliness, they ignore people who could be important, who try to get help from them. They ignore the hundreds of thousands of victims whose collective plight could help spark true revolution in America.
The ACLU and Cohen and the National Lawyers Guild, ignore most real Americans fighting for freedom, and all of them, including Glenn Greenwald at Salon, are afraid to discuss how American human rights really got destroyed:
Via the fact that the American judges are corrupt and worthless from the top down to the bottom, working directly for oligarchs via bribes they get via their law firm buddies. And the lawyers in America are predominantly a giant criminal mafia, who abandon honest lawyers like US legal hero Richard Fine to be jailed and slandered if they fight that mafia.
A US revolution needs to face that its legal system, what is 'Supreme' in America, that legal system is bought and bribed and owned by the US oligarchs and banksters. This truth will not be faced so long as shills and frauds like the ACLU are around getting undeserved credibility, and as long as writers like Glenn Greenwald act like a fascist tool and play the devious game of blaming 'Bush' or 'Obama', instead of daring to speak about the corruption of the people who are really in charge in America:
The cabal of American judges and lawyers working for the oligarchs, who disbar or even jail most any lawyer who merely dares to make a filing about the judges' crimes.
Articles on a Google-censored EU website about US court corruption, which Google executives don't want Americans or anyone else to read ... the journalism that Glenn Greenwald is too afraid to speak, by a dissident threatened with death in the US, yet another victim whom the ACLU would never help, because the ACLU was afraid of losing corporate donations, from companies who need favours from bribed US judges:
Foreign Companies Face Risk of US Court Corruption:
Doing Business in the Big Bribery Nation
http://www.banned-in-america.net/us-court-big-bribery-nation.html
America's Corrupt Legal System -
A Danger to Visitors, Travellers as Well as USA Residents
http://www.banned-in-america.net/us-corrupt-legal-system.html
Americans Murdering Their Judges, and the US Crisis of Judicial Corruption
http://www.banned-in-america.net/americans-murdering-judges.html
America's CIA - Google censoring of sites on US judicial corruption, shown live at work:
Live Photo: Google Inc. Caught Censoring EU Search Results
Google Internet Censorship - Censure d'Internet par Google - Internet censuur door Google
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22325431@N05/6100668211/in/photostream
first off what good is the bribery if it doesn't get you what you want? "we paid the law firm ten million...but lost." ooops. sounds like it's better to settle! second the world of America Inc. doesn't want a legal system period. Of course they will "buy them off"--but only to the extent it works--which it doesn't since the legal system serves the interest of the state and not "business." why else not arrest Jon Corzine for stealing a billion plus of client money? "it serves the interest of the State" and obviously not business--let alone commerce. the USA does not have a fascist legal system--although i do agree the idea of a "prison system" to "get reformed" is rather odd...and strikingly optimistic actually. we just had a guy let go by the parole board up here who raped and murdered a woman in a matter of weeks. of course when it was discovered that he told the review board "if let go i will do this crime again" it barely was made mention of in our criminal media class and the asshole Jew politicians who support...who support...who support---Israel i guess! (And they don't even do that well anymore. Go figure.) anywho we're entering into a strikingly lawless age over here in the USA. I think Madison was wrong with the idea that we could have a Republic on a Continental Scale. The good news for Europe is you're going to blow yours up before it has a chance to metastisize. The irony that "the Jews of New York City are highly disappointed with this turn of events" should be lost on no one. I mean who doesn't want Holocaust 2.0 more than a New York City Jew?
Think about how many people have sufferred from excessive usury? Now think about the religion of most that are on the other side of that usury. Sort of tells you all you need to know.
Oh no doubt. And I think you'll actually agree with the following: The USA needs a real revolution now, or it will get one anyway.
But there HAS to be SOME KIND OF PROTEST. If there's not a word; anything from the american public, about S 1867, they'll go ahead full steam and the USA will, without a shadow of a doubt be transformed from an "Inverted Totalitarian State" (Sheldon Wolin), in which we are now, into a full-blown "Militairy Dictatorship". I'm saying "we" while I'm in the Netherlands right now, and you're in Belgium (or what's left of it). Because we're in the american sphere of influence and the E.U. has, in the Treaty of Rome a simular clausule, even more vague (since they thought the old Constitutions of our countries are done away with), but with the same practical idea: http://www.currentconcerns.ch/index.php?id=866
SO THEY WANT TO GO TO WAR, ON THEIR OWN POPULATION. It's as simple as that; first with less-lethal weapons, but there are no legal guarantees. I seriously doubt the american armed forces will fire on civillians if ordered, but they'll find someone to do that "job". In a (cold) war with China, and Russia, they cannot have some "occupy" protestors running around on UC or main street. This needs to be CRUSHED, for them to have a deck of cards that can actually win. Why do you think Russia Today covers the "occupy" rallies meticulously? It's in their interest.
You may argue: "they'll crush the protests anyway, they don't need a law to change the role of the army for that". This is true, but obviously this Bill is there for the vote to make the change complete, and no loose ends left untied. Because that is how these sociopaths think: "If no one objects, they obviously don't care, and then it's ok, ethically, to go ahead and trash the last remnants that are supposed to guarantee a free western society."
So yeah I do think that any protest, any seemingly futile "last minute appeal" through the american Congress, to not do this, buys each and everyone of us some time, and will make more people aware of what is about to happen, if these clowns are not thrown out. No offence to you personally, but the country you're in doesn't even have a government, or a population that demands one. And obviously that doesn't hinder powerbrokers to make descisions there. It's that kind of acceptance that is at the heart of the problem. People don't care anymore about endless debates over minute petty differences, are sick of the pointless bickering between politicians of different parties, that are not so very different in execution of their marching orders? That is IMO all by design, planned ahead by men in Rhodesian and simular Societies, of which only their "roundtables" are visible (Council for Foreign Relations, Bilderberg Group). Seriously, these people are on the wrong path! We need more involvement of the public, to be able to deal with serious problems like energy, and a changing climate, not less! Their "plan" will not work, it will plunge us all (by design) into a giant failure. (Fukushima's evidence of this, they are incapable or unwilling to deal with it)
And with that, the free market, Wall Street, etc. will be less free as well. MF Global is just the start. A friendly hint to stay the fuck out of their way and leave the market and it's rules that are supposed to keep it in check, to collapse and never return. It's following exactly the same principle: If you don't object, and make a countermove (anything) they'll just sweep it under the rug, and prepare for their next step.
So, resonating with your post:
IT'S NOT NECESSARY! THESE ARE PLANS OF JUST A SMALL GROUP OF ELITE POLITICIANS AND EVEN FEWER PUPPETMASTERS THAT CONTROL THEM. ACCEPTANCE OF THIS NONSENSE IS TOTALLY RIDICULOUS.
So, while your argument that it's corrupt anyway is absolutely true, it's not a reason to just give up on the laws that were put in place just to prevent such a thing. Last week an internet blacklisting bill was defeated. Hundreds of thousands of people objected through petitions, and this sent a clear message, that someone's awake (awakened sheeple?). Are You? I think you are. The ZH crowd? Very likely. But what are you or I or anyone going to do about it? We need more time! People are becoming aware of what's going on. Of the lies, and the useless powergames that only waste resources, instead of gaining them. (Iraq) The politicians, their puppetmasters, they are LOSING CONTROL OVER THE INFORMATION STREAM. They are losing their grip. That's why this is pushed through, while ppl. are still basking in turkey fat and useless trinkets.
To everyone out there that think they matter; you have been thouroughly warned.
It's time for the more affluent of society, the managers, the people that have some real control TO WAKE THE FUCK UP.
Their efforts to secure a bright future for their children will be seriously under threat as well.
NO ONE WILL BE EXEMPT. YOU CAN'T "BUY" YOUR WAY OUT OF THIS ONE!!!
Schindler in the WW2 was an exception, the one that slipped through the maze. You won't be able to do that, with modern surveilance technology.
Good luck!
Reptil
I seriously doubt the american armed forces will fire on civillians if ordered, but they'll find someone to do that "job". In a (cold) war with China, and Russia, they cannot have some "occupy" protestors running around on UC or main street. This needs to be CRUSHED, for them to have a deck of cards that can actually win. Why do you think Russia Today covers the "occupy" rallies meticulously? It's in their interest.
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yup protests do little else than bring forward contempt for global 'peace and security'
Posse Comitatus obviously has no place in a global powerstructure, where armies of any kind can be sent to any other country to put an unruly population under the boot. That's an old trick, to let a foreign army do that dirty work. (Spanish Civil War is one example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_Africa_%28Spain%29#Role_in_the_Spa... )
Obviously that's near impossible in the USA, since it's the apex of the planet's militairy force. Paralels with the late Republic of ancient Rome are obvious. Legions were used inside the Roman empire, sometimes marched on Rome, under leadership of a rogue general, or one of the Consuls. Here's a short primer: http://www.roman-empire.net/republic/laterepublic.html
But there are also differences of course; there was no police in that system , to speak of. Posse Comitatus and exclusivity of US citizenship has been a "watershed" between the idea of "war" (shit that happens to them), and what happens to american citizens themselves (shit that doesn't ever happen to us), inside the USA. https://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/7/us_army_denies_unit_will_be
That difference will, if this passes, be erased. American citizens will be on par with Iraqis or Afghanis, if this goes pearshaped. Many americans, judging from commentaries do not understand their rights at all. (including police) There seems to be a structural disconnect. That gap will be closed now.
Instead of an army "sweeping the NY streets", I think we can expect a more active role of FEMA (which coördinated the crackdown on the occupy protests) and other "new" police forces, that operate as paramilitairy groups throughout the States. But I'm guessing here.
For those that didn't see it, whatch Jesse Ventura make an issue of "Fusion Centers" (a sort of Gestapo, or Stasi HQ) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dys3xE2Bnk The guy was spot-on.
That would be much more likely than M-1 battletanks rolling past Broadway.
Correction in the above post: I wrote"Treaty of Rome" must of course be "Treaty of Lisbon". oops
Just like in Egypt and other nations. Coming to Greece, Italy, Ireland, Spain and yes the U.S.,
When the rebellion gets large enough, our military will take side with the majority, the people.
As for now the Banking Cartel, Bloomberg, Murdoch and the likes are trying to maintain status quo.
That is why the are using military tactics against peaceful unrest. They actually want to esculate the mayhem.
It is a excuse to wrong the larger public by placing a line in the sand farther from themselves.
I think so too. Create confusion and chaos, so as it escalates no one is questioning how it started in the first place.
Some friends of mine are against the protests, because they see it as an escalation of the development. I think that's incorrect, the police state was put into place after the Patriot Act passed. There's now actually a chance it will backfire. But it requires, as you've said, a peaceful, but determined majority.
Yep, something like "hey if you kill these two citizens we will double the amount on your SNAP card."