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http://www.newstarget.com/022465.html
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Monday, January 07, 2008 by: Paul
Craig Roberts |
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What was the greatest failure of 2007? President Bush's "surge" in Iraq? The
decline in the value of the US dollar? Subprime mortgages? No. The greatest
failure of 2007 was the newly sworn in Democratic Congress.
The American people's attempt in November 2006 to rein in a rogue government,
which has committed the US to costly military adventures while running roughshod
over the US Constitution, failed. Replacing Republicans with Democrats in the
House and Senate has made no difference.
The assault on the US Constitution by the Democratic Party is as determined as
the assault by the Republicans. On October 23, 2007, the House passed a bill
sponsored by California Democratic congresswoman Jane Harman, chairwoman of a
Homeland Security subcommittee, that overturns the constitutionally guaranteed
rights to free expression, association, and assembly.
The bill passed the House on a vote of 404-6. In the Senate the bill is
sponsored by Maine Republican Susan Collins and apparently faces no meaningful
opposition.
Harman's bill is called the
Violent
Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. When HR 1955 becomes
law, it will create a commission tasked with identifying extremist people,
groups, and ideas. The commission will hold hearings around the country, taking
testimony and compiling a list of dangerous people and beliefs. The bill will,
in short, create massive terrorism in the United States. But the perpetrators of
terrorism will not be Muslim terrorists; they will be government agents and
fellow citizens.
We are beginning to see who will be the inmates of the detention centers being
built in the US by Halliburton under government contract.
Who will be on the "extremist beliefs" list? The answer is: civil libertarians,
critics of Israel, 9/11 skeptics, critics of the administration's wars and
foreign policies, critics of the administration's use of kidnapping, rendition,
torture and violation of the Geneva Conventions, and critics of the
administration's spying on Americans. Anyone in the way of a powerful interest
group--such as environmentalists opposing politically connected developers--is
also a candidate for the list.
The "Extremist Beliefs Commission" is the mechanism for identifying Americans
who pose "a threat to domestic security" and a threat of "homegrown terrorism"
that "cannot be easily prevented through traditional federal intelligence or law
enforcement efforts."
This bill is a boon for nasty people. That SOB who stole your girlfriend, that
hussy who stole your boyfriend, the gun owner next door--just report them to
Homeland Security as holders of extreme beliefs. Homeland Security needs
suspects, so they are not going to check. Under the new regime, accusation is
evidence. Moreover, "our" elected representatives will never admit that they
voted for a bill and created an "Extremist Belief Commission" for which there is
neither need nor constitutional basis.
That boss who harasses you for coming late to work--he's a good candidate to be
reported; so is that minority employee that you can't fire for any normal
reason. So is the husband of that good-looking woman you have been unable to
seduce. Every kind of quarrel and jealousy can now be settled with a phone call
to Homeland Security.
Soon Halliburton will be building more detention centers.
Americans are so far removed from the roots of their liberty that they just
don't get it. Most Americans don't know what habeas corpus is or why it is
important to them. But they know what they want, and Jane Harman has given them
a new way to settle scores and to advance their own interests.
Even educated liberals believe that the US Constitution is a "living document"
that can be changed to mean whatever it needs to mean in order to accommodate
some new important cause, such as abortion and legal privileges for minorities
and the handicapped. Today it is the "war on terror" that the Constitution must
accommodate. Tomorrow it can be the war on whomever or whatever.
Think about it. More than six years ago the World Trade Center and Pentagon were
attacked. The US government blamed it on al Qaeda. The 9/11 Commission Report
has been subjected to criticism by a large number of qualified people--including
the commission's chairman and co-chairman.
Since 9/11 there have been no terrorist attacks in the US. The FBI has tried to
orchestrate a few, but the "terrorist plots" never got beyond talk organized and
led by FBI agents. There are no visible extremist groups other than the
neoconservatives that control the government in Washington. But somehow the
House of Representatives overwhelmingly sees a need to create a commission to
take testimony and search out extremist views (outside of Washington, of
course).
This search for extremist views comes after President Bush and the Justice (sic)
Department declared that the President can ignore habeas corpus, ignore the
Geneva Conventions, seize people without evidence, hold them indefinitely
without presenting charges, torture them until they confess to some made up
crime, and take over the government by declaring an emergency. Of course, none
of these "patriotic" views are extremist.
The search for extremist views follows also the granting of contracts to
Halliburton to build detention centers in the US. No member of Congress or the
executive branch ever explained the need for the detention centers or who the
detainees would be. Of course, there is nothing extremist about building
detention centers in the US for undisclosed inmates.
Clearly the detention centers are not meant to just stand there empty. Thanks to
2007's greatest failure--the Democratic Congress--there is to be an "Extremist
Beliefs Commission" to secure inmates for Bush's detention centers.
President Bush promises us that the wars he has launched will cause the "untamed
fire of freedom" to "reach the darkest corners of our world." Meanwhile in
America the fire of freedom has not only been tamed but also is being
extinguished.
The light of liberty has gone out in the United States.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan
administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial
page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/076152553X/counterpunchmaga
The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com
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