Fw: [ALBSA-Info] a must-read article

[Sejfi Protopapa]

----- Original Message -----
From: Sejfi Protopapa
To: Xhuliana Agolli
Sent: Tuesday, November 13,
2001 10:34 PM
Subject: Re: [ALBSA-Info] a
must-read article


Dear Xhuliana,

Your response is either very
naive or very misleading.
However, since you have also
posted Mr.Petros Komodromos'
interpretation of the events
in Kosova lead me to believe
that you are hell bent to tell
members of ALBSA that America
is a Fascist country and that
President Bush is the
Dictator.

You are selectively quoting
others and therefore you are
equally responsible for
distributing their trash.

It is unfortunate that you
have not had the opportunity
to learn a little bit more
about American Democracy and
its endurance in face of
adversity.

The historical evolution of
the political institutions of
the American system of
government, based upon the US
Constitution, has resulted in
a very strong executive branch
with the President of the US
being also the Commander in
Chief of all the Armed forces.

In all other democratic
countries in the world the
executive branch is less
powerful than the White House
is in the USA.

The discussion about the
executive branch of government
is always under discussion and
therefore open to all sorts of
interpretation and therefore
should not and is not my
concern.

You, Ms Agolli are using ALBSA
to propagate your notions of
fascists America and the
dictatorial Mr. Bush. Even the
mechanism of posting your
extreme views is misleading.
Under subject you have:

"Re:ALBSA-Info: a must-read
article".

Why don't you develop your own
web site and then distribute
to your hearts' contents all
your little machinations of
nonsense. And, please, leave
ALBSA alone.

Sejfi Protopapa.

=======

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Xhuliana Agolli
  To: Sejfi Protopapa
  Sent: Sunday, November 11,
2001 1:11 PM
  Subject: Re: [ALBSA-Info] a
must-read article


  Dear Sejfi,
  What I may consider "a
must-read" doesn't necessarily
have to be considered so by
others. So, it's perfectly OK
that you didn't find it as
compelling as I did.

  As per a cup of coffee, it
would have been a good idea if
I lived in the Boston area.
But I don't. Nevertheless,
thank you.
  xh.a.
    ----- Original
Message -----
    From: Sejfi Protopapa
    To: Xhuliana Agolli
    Sent: Saturday, November
10, 2001 5:47 PM
    Subject: Re: [ALBSA-Info]
a must-read article




      Dear Xhuliana,
       I read the article and
I do not find it a must
reading.
      If you are anywhere near
Boston we can have a cup of
coffee and discuss this
article.
      Sincerely,
      Sejfi Protopapa
      ========
      From: Xhuliana Agolli
      To: albsa-info
      Cc: Sofia Kalo ; Arjan
Kopani
      Sent: Saturday, November
10, 2001 11:59 AM
      Subject: [ALBSA-Info] a
must-read article


      Homeland Insecurity:
      Phoenix, Chaos, The
Enterprise,
      and The Politics of
Terror In America
      Prior to the 11
September terror attacks on
the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon, two conditions
defined American politics. In
regard to foreign affairs, the
United States was universally
recognized as the world's only
super power. And today that
condition remains unchanged:
no other nation comes close to
matching America's military
might.

      But domestic politics
was defined by doubts about
the legitimacy of the Bush
Administration. Al Gore had
won the popular vote by an
overwhelming majority, and
Bush had acquired his
presidential powers through a
combination of nepotism and
voter fraud in Florida,
blatant media bias, and a
judicial coup d'etat by the
right wing of the U.S. Supreme
Court.

      Before the terror
attacks, the stench of
venality clung to Bush like
cigarette smoke and stale beer
after a night of bar hopping.
Since the attacks, his
standing in the polls has
nearly doubled, and there's
been no more talk of an oil
crunch, or the ailing economy,
or of the looting of pensions
plans down ten to twenty
percent, or of looting of
Social Security and Medicare
to pay for the war of revenge,
or of Republicans losing
Congress in 2002.

      This second, overarching
condition--the inherent
illegitimacy of the Bush
Administration--must be
remembered when considering
how the apocalyptic events of
11 September changed the
domestic political landscape.
Symbolically, they wiped the
slate clean. The U.S. remains
the most powerful nation in
the world, but Bush's
legitimacy is no longer an
issue. As a result, all the
moral and psychological
prohibitions on the
reactionary right have been
lifted, and all the anger and
frustrations it cultivated
during the Vietnam War, and
the Carter and Clinton
Administrations, is poised to
be unleashed under the aegis
of counter-terrorism, not only
on the usual suspects--foreign
enemies sitting on vast oil
reserves, suspected
terrorists, and domestic
dissidents--but on the
unwitting, flag-waving
American public as well.

      Alas, righteous outrage
over the crime of 11 September
has enabled the once wobbly
"unpresident" to stand tall,
assert himself, and exploit
the catastrophe in a way that
seems at once crass, eerily
preordained, and suspiciously
opportune. Though its moral
authority and intentions are
as uncertain as the
perpetrators of the carnage,
the Bush Administration has
effectively silenced its
critics, and, amid rapturous
bipartisan Congressional and
public support, launched a
"low intensity" war on
Afghanistan and a nebulous,
"covert" war on world
terrorism, while reorganizing
the executive branch of
government into the most
fearsome political and
psychological warfare machine
the world has ever seen.

      There is a grave, hidden
danger in this situation, for
the reactionary right wing--by
which I mean the owners,
managers, and supporters of
America's totalitarian,
military industrial
information complex--have
united the nation behind the
Bush Administration in a
spirit of belligerent
nationalism. With its actions
and intentions shrouded in
secrecy, the Bush
Administration, in this
respect, fits the classic
definition of a fascist
dictatorship.

      Already some of our most
cherished freedoms have been
sacrificed. Dissent has been
stifled, censorship imposed,
and cherished legal
protections, especially
regarding the Fourth
Amendment, have been altered
and suspended. No one knows
exactly how many "suspects"
are being detained, or where,
and already there has been one
suspicious death and
widespread rumors of abuse.
And the situation will only
get worse.

      In a 21 October article
for The Washington Post,
Walter Pincus reported that
FBI and Justice Department
investigators are increasingly
frustrated by the silence of
some jailed suspects. Offers
of lighter sentences, money,
jobs, and a new identity and
life in America haven't
loosened their tongues, and
alternative strategies under
discussion include "using
drugs or pressure tactics,
such as those employed
occasionally by Israeli
interrogators, to extract
information."

      Images come to mind of
stoic Israeli soldiers
breaking the hands of
adolescent Palestinian rock
throwers. But more serious
measures are being
contemplated. According to
Pincus, one law professor
believes "the use of force to
extract information could
happen" in cases where
investigators believe suspects
have information on an
upcoming attack. "If there is
a ticking bomb, it is not an
easy issue," the professor
said.

      Right wing Republican
stalwart Kenneth W. Starr, the
former Clinton inquisitor,
said the danger of terrorism
requires "deference to the
judgments of the political
branches (italics added) with
respect to matters of national
security." And right wing
Republican Richard Thornburgh,
a former Pennsylvania governor
and attorney general under
Ronald Reagan and George H. W.
Bush, said that due process
sometimes "strangles us." When
it comes to counter-terrorism,
Thornburgh said that legally
admissible evidence "may not
be the be-all and end-all."

      According to Pincus,
"the country may compare the
current search for information
to brutal tactics in wartime
used to gather intelligence
overseas and even by U.S.
troops from prisoners during
military actions."

      Suddenly we've gone from
breaking hands to cutting off
fingers, attaching electrodes
to genitals, and pouring soapy
water down windpipes while
suspects hang suspended on
meat hooks.

      But is there a "crisis"
as government propagandist
Pincus suggests? And even if
there is, why must we defer to
the "political branches," as
Starr claims, to combat
terrorism? And what does it
mean for Bush's domestic
political opponents if, as
Thornburgh suggests, the
"current search for
information" should include
the "brutal tactics" used "in
wartime"?1

      How To Organize A
Fascist State

      America was attacked and
is at war; and in the rage and
confusion following the
morning of 11 September Bush
sought unprecedented emergency
powers to counter the threat
of more terrorism. He received
those powers from Congress
with near unanimous public
support. The logic was
irrefutable at the moment: a
murderous, suicidal enemy had
invaded our homeland, and the
military had to be mobilized.
Fear gripped the nation, and
while Bush was ignominiously
hidden away in a military
bunker by security forces
(because, his aides falsely
claimed, terrorists planned to
attack Air Force One) the
White House was able to impose
what amounts to martial law.
Armed National Guardsmen now
stalk our airports, concrete
barriers surround our
government buildings, and the
president's press secretary
cautions our apologetic
comedians (when they're not
sports casting or sharing
emotional moments with Dan
Rather) to watch what they
say.

      And even though the
attacks ended quickly, a
bizarre outbreak of anthrax
keeps the body count climbing,
emotions simmering, and the
emergency sustained. The
military is now integrally
involved in domestic
counter-terror operations, and
intelligence gained from CIA
covert actions--evidence
hitherto inadmissible in
courts of law, due to the
CIA's refusal to reveal its
illegal "sources and
methods"--has been folded into
law enforcement operations.
Any number of secret
presidential edicts may have
been issued--we know of one
authorizing the CIA to commit
assassinations--and thus the
scope of the assault on our
civil liberties has yet to be
fully revealed.

      But we do know how the
Bush Dictatorship will be
organized. It will be based on
a broad policy of
anti-terrorism covering the
entire spectrum of possible
actions, from conventional
military operations, to
political intervention, and to
economic sanctions against
nations like Afghanistan,
Cuba, and Iraq. This broad
policy of anti-terrorism will
include specific
counter-terror programs and
operations, at home and
abroad. White House political
and security advisors will
coordinate this bifurcated
effort under the ostensibly
direction of dimwitted George
Bush and the actual direction
his Machiavellian Vice
President, Dick Cheney. Should
Haliburton Oil Company
executive Cheney depart the
scene for health reasons, an
equally aggressive individual,
most likely Secretary of State
Colin Powell, will take his
place.

      The job of managing
overseas counter-terror
operations will fall to
National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice. A board
member of Chevron Corporation,
which operates in 100 foreign
countries, Rice, like Bush and
Cheney, has an abiding
personal interest in the
growth of the oil industry.
She is a "hard liner" and
advocates a worldwide war on
terrorism, to be fought in
more than 60 countries. As she
said in an 18 October article
posted on the CNN website,
"you've got to get to these
(terrorist) cells and root
them out and disrupt them
before they strike again."

      The job of coordinating
the domestic counter-terror
effort will fall to former
Pennsylvania Governor Tom
Ridge, as director of the
newly created Office of
Homeland Security (OHS). In
less sophisticated times, the
domestic counter-terror effort
would be referred to as
"internal security," and Ridge
would head the Office of
Internal Security. But the
Bush Administrations public
relations experts evidently
think "internal security" has
a negative connotation, and
that the word "homeland"
connotes "the land of the free
and the home of the brave," as
opposed to the Fuhrer and his
adoring volkreich.

      Although he is a
personal friend of Bush and a
decorated Vietnam veteran,
Ridge supports a woman's right
to an abortion, and thus is
mistrusted by the reactionary
right wing of the Republican
Party. Even the mainstream
media is beginning to portray
him as a mere spokesman and
figurehead without real
authority, and it's clear the
White House's political cadre
will make the real decisions
about internal security, and
foreign policy.

      In existence since 1947,
the National Security Council
implements the President's
foreign policy wishes, which
are to organize the world
based on the totalitarian
corporate paradigm, in a
political way that will enrich
himself and his loyal
supporters. The new OHS has
the same purpose, and same
organizational structure, as
the NSC.

      The political pretext
for creating the OHS was
simple enough: 6000 citizens
were killed in a terrible
terror attack, and the Bush
Administrations claims that
the OHS is the best mechanism
to reduce the risk of such a
calamity happening again. To
this end, the OHS will
coordinate more than 40
federal agencies involved in
intelligence, security, and
law enforcement endeavors.

      Although the lines of
authority have yet to be
determined, the OHS will work
with the murky Military
Homeland Defense Agency under
Deputy National Security
Advisor General Wayne Downing.
Though he is describe as
Ridge's deputy, Downing has
far greater experience in
counter-terror doctrine and
operations, including service
as an intelligence and Civil
Affairs officer during the
Vietnam War. Before his
retirement in 1997, Downing
was Commanding General of the
U.S. Army Special Operations
Command at Fort Bragg
(1991-1993), and Commander in
Chief of the U.S. Special
Operations Command at MacDill
Air Force Base (1993-1996).

      The man to watch,
Downing will advise Ridge and
Bush on how best to detect and
disrupt domestic terrorist
organizations. Downing will be
OHS's liaison to the Pentagon
and its highly evolved
counter-terror units. These
units will likely serve as the
OHS's "action" arm in hostage
situations or in cases when
the "brutal tactics" used "in
wartime" are required to
persuade a terrorist to reveal
the location of a "ticking
bomb."

      Downing also will likely
oversee the Stalinist military
tribunals the Bush
Administration has proposed as
a method of trying, dispensing
with, and even executing
terrorists. In a 25 October
article titled "How We Punish
Saboteurs" for Legal Times,
Philip Lacovara, cited the
case of eight German saboteurs
executed during World War II.
President Roosevelt ordered
the men tried before a
military tribunal composed
entirely of military officers.
The saboteurs took their case
to the Supreme Court, but the
Justices backed the President,
ruling that the Germans had no
right to a public trial or a
trial by jury. The Court even
implied that the President as
commander in chief had the
power to order the men
executed without any trial at
all. Ultimately the military
tribunal did its job, and in
early August 1942, six
would-be saboteurs were
hanged.

      As Lacovara notes,
without any sense of irony
that every member of the CIA
falls within this definition,
"The laws of war grant no
quarter to those who plot
their evil in the shadows."

      It's unclear if the OHS,
in conjunction with Downing's
organization, will have the
power to torture and summarily
execute. But the OHS is being
funded by hundreds of millions
of taxpayer dollars, and Bush
Administration propagandists
are busy lowering
expectations. Defending our
homeland will not be an easy
task, according to Michael
Ledeen, a former
counter-terror expert in the
Reagan Administration's State
Department and National
Security Council. In a 1
October article for the
National Review OnLine, Ledeen
said the difficulty will be
getting the law-enforcement
and intelligence agencies "to
coordinate better with one
another." 2

      Ledeen defines this
organizational problem as
ideological, and he
specifically blames the
Clintons, "for failing to
properly organize our nation's
security apparatus."

      He even goes so far as
to suggest that the Clinton
Administration is liable for
the terror attacks of
September 11th, because,
"People who took security
seriously were sneered at by
the Clintons. Bubba's White
House was a security
shambles," and his Secretary
of State, Madeline Albright,
"presided over one security
debacle after another. Rooms
were bugged, files and
computers disappeared, perhaps
into the same black hole as
the Rose Law Firm records
having to do with Ms.
Hillary's billable hours."

      Ledeen's vilification of
"the Clintons" is a textbook
example of the unsubtle
political and psychological
warfare being waged on the
American public, to legitimize
the Bush Administration, and
to justify the political
repression of those people
whom Clinton is presumed to
represent: obviously not those
who take security seriously.

      Bombing a pharmaceutical
factory in the Sudan, endless
economic sanctions against
Iraq, more than a billion
dollars to fight
narco-terrorism in Colombia,
and the war in Bosnia--none of
this was serious enough to
suit Ledeen and the radical
right. Nor was Clinton's total
commitment to Israel.
Clinton's failure was here, at
home, and the radical right is
about to set things straight.

      The terror attacks of 11
September cry out for violent
retribution, and if, as Ledeen
alleges, "the Clintons" are to
blame--through sins of
omission, ignorance, or
arrogance--then violent
retribution must surely be
visited upon them and their
associates. This is exactly
what Ledeen is advocating, and
this is the tricky part,
because he does not define
whom these people were who
sneered at security. But his
visceral hatred of them is
indicative of the violence the
reactionary right wing wishes
to inflict, through the OHS,
on its political
opponents--however erroneously
represented by Clinton they
are--in order to instill
"respect" for the illegitimate
Bush Administration.

      According to Ledeen,
Clinton's sneering lack of
respect took "a terrible toll
on the system, and Ridge will
not find it easy to instill a
proper respect for proper
secrecy, even in his own
offices. It takes quite a
while to stamp out corrupt
habits of mind and action."

      Ledeen's solution to the
problem of domestic terrorism
is "to stamp out" the "corrupt
habits of mind (italics
added)" that are still
lingering around, somewhere.
In other words, the
reactionary right wing must
impose its "proper" ideology
through the institution of an
official Thought Police, the
OHS, in order to create the
politically correct, security
conscious, uniform American
citizenry, marching in
lockstep, flags waving, that
is necessary to win the tough
war ahead. It's a matter of
will.

      "This is time for the
old motto, "kill them all, let
God sort 'em out." New times
require new people with new
standards," Ledeen asserts.
"The entire political (italics
added) world will understand
it and applaud it. And it will
give Tom Ridge a chance to
succeed, and us to prevail."

      The "new times" means a
society in which the
organizing principle is
terror. The "new people" are
those who take internal
security seriously enough to
impose the "new standards,"
which allow military tribunals
to order summary executions
and torture here in America,
when necessary, and mass
murder anywhere in the world
there are thought to be
terrorists, as is happening in
Afghanistan right now.

      It all depends on
whether or the reactionary
right wing succeeds in
terrorizing the American
public into submission. As the
Bush regime is fond of saying,
"You're either with us, or
you're against us."

      Continued in Part Two:
Phoenix and the Anatomy of
Terror

      Douglas Valentine writes
frequently for CounterPunch.
He is the author of The
Phoenix Program, the only
comprehensive account of the
CIA's torture and
assassination operation in
Vietnam, as well as TDY a
chilling novel about the CIA
and the drug trade.

-------------- next part --------------
HTML attachment scrubbed and removed