Old-Line Republican Warns ‘Something’s in the Works’ to Trigger a Police State
July 21st, 2007Via: Raw Story:
Thom Hartmann began his program on Thursday by reading from a new Executive Order which allows the government to seize the assets of anyone who interferes with its Iraq policies.
He then introduced old-line conservative Paul Craig Roberts — a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan who has recently become known for his strong opposition to the Bush administration and the Iraq War — by quoting the “strong words” which open Roberts’ latest column: “Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran.”
“I don’t actually think they’re very strong,” said Roberts of his words. “I get a lot of flak that they’re understated and the situation is worse than I say. … When Bush exercises this authority [under the new Executive Order] … there’s no check to it. It doesn’t have to be ratified by Congress. The people who bear the brunt of these dictatorial police state actions have no recourse to the judiciary. So it really is a form of total, absolute, one-man rule. … The American people don’t really understand the danger that they face.”
Roberts said that because of Bush’s unpopularity, the Republicans face a total wipeout in 2008, and this may be why “the Democrats have not brought a halt to Bush’s follies or the war, because they expect his unpopular policies to provide them with a landslide victory in next year’s election.”
However, Roberts emphasized, “the problem with this reasoning is that it assumes that Cheney and Rove and the Republicans are ignorant of these facts, or it assumes that they are content for the Republican Party to be destroyed after Bush has his fling.” Roberts believes instead that Cheney and Rove intend to use a renewal of the War on Terror to rally the American people around the Republican Party. “Something’s in the works,” he said, adding that the Executive Orders need to create a police state are already in place.
“The administration figures themselves and prominent Republican propagandists … are preparing us for another 9/11 event or series of events,” Roberts continued. “Chertoff has predicted them. … The National Intelligence Estimate is saying that al Qaeda has regrouped. … You have to count on the fact that if al Qaeda’s not going to do it, it’s going to be orchestrated. … The Republicans are praying for another 9/11.”
What a comment on how “far” we have come, when a prominent ex-Republican can state: “The Republicans are praying for another 9/11” i.e. they are “praying” for mass murder on their fellow countrymen so that they can have more political/economic power . . .
With all the “predictions” by our “leaders” (who can look at Chertoff and/or Rove and not feel queasy – – is there anything either of them would rule out as to grabbing more power/position?) who can doubt another “terror event” will be dropped on innocent people by our “leaders”, either make it happen or let it happen thru the nutty groups they have infiltrated and can “lead” and enable to commit mass murder (the first towers bombing being a good example w/an FBI “informant” seemingly directing all the “terror” action – – you couldn’t make this stuff up, the funny thing being it is all right out there in the public domain w/almost no public comment . . . ) in the near future (“they” did it to the people in Latin/South America /Philippines etc. so why the big surprise that they are now finally willing to bring it home on us peons here?), wonder if they’ll use the Venice Airport “team” again . . . .
I sometime wonder who’s promoting the most fear in this country, the government or the opposants of the gouvernment.
Two years ago, I bet a friend $100 that there will be no 2008 presidential election. While I can’t say that I haven’t sometimes wavered about this view, I will say that the Bush and the Republicans continue to position themselves to perpetrate such an outrage.
“The Republicans are praying for another 9/11.”
Um, weren’t they responsible for the first one?
Just askin’
:o)
No, they just knew it was coming and did nothing. Then they used it (they = people in power) for their purpose.
tmb:
the first towers bombing being a good example w/an FBI “informant†seemingly directing all the “terror†action
I’m curious to know more… can you post links to more on this?
Also, the Venice Airport team refers to?
‘scuse my ignorance – would appreciate something more on those.
Thx
Haha Frank. Knew it was coming and did nothing? That’s all? I hope you don’t believe hijackers with boxcutters fairy tale.
i figure Canada has about 6-12 monthes before annexation via SPP so nothing like a little incendiary chatter….
(small info request for a zip inside u.s.; a ‘click me’ for those out of)
DeFazio asks, but he’s denied access
Classified info – The congressman wanted to see government plans for after a terror attack
Friday, July 20, 2007
JEFF KOSSEFF
The Oregonian Staff
http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/118489654058910.xml&coll=7
WASHINGTON — Oregonians called Peter DeFazio’s office, worried there was a conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack.
As a member of the U.S. House on the Homeland Security Committee, DeFazio, D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure “bubbleroom” in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents.
On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED.
“I just can’t believe they’re going to deny a member of Congress the right of reviewing how they plan to conduct the government of the United States after a significant terrorist attack,” DeFazio says.
Homeland Security Committee staffers told his office that the White House initially approved his request, but it was later quashed. DeFazio doesn’t know who did it or why.
“We’re talking about the continuity of the government of the United States of America,” DeFazio says. “I would think that would be relevant to any member of Congress, let alone a member of the Homeland Security Committee.”
Bush administration spokesman Trey Bohn declined to say why DeFazio was denied access: “We do not comment through the press on the process that this access entails. It is important to keep in mind that much of the information related to the continuity of government is highly sensitive.”
Norm Ornstein, a legal scholar who studies government continuity at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he “cannot think of one good reason” to deny access to a member of Congress who serves on the Homeland Security Committee.
“I find it inexplicable and probably reflective of the usual, knee-jerk overextension of executive power that we see from this White House,” Ornstein said.
This is the first time DeFazio has been denied access to documents. DeFazio has asked Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., to help him access the documents.
“Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right,” DeFazio said.
Jeff Kosseff: 202-383-7814 jeff.kosseff@newhouse.com
I assume all you folks are already aware of this 911 site, but just in case:
http://www.ae911truth.org/
Check it out if you haven’t already.
I don’t buy it, it’s way too soon.
A new terrorist attack is *definitely* in the works, but fully exploiting the fear generated will be a more gradual process, as with 9/11.
The attack will follow the ’08 elections. An increasingly Orwellian state will then be installed over a period of years, against a backdrop of additional minor attacks.
Americans aren’t quite ready to be ruled, but we’ll turn that corner soon enough. That’s how I see it; sheer guesswork though.
And the executive-decider-guy diktats just keep on a-comin’
Be all this as it may…are you all PREPARED?
It’s my belief that we will see hyperinflation within the next couple of years. This will lead to considerable domestic turmoil, as people grow hungry.
The “something” that’s in the works to create a police state need not be an external threat. I don’t think there will be a need to manufacture another 9/11 incident, because a domestic scene featuring rioting and looting will provide a surfeit of excuses for declaring martial law.
I think the people in power are very much aware that the national and world economic system is set for an implosion. This is the crisis that is in the works; they engineered it themselves; it’s the people in power who will decide the precise moment for the descent into economic chaos.
In two years or more, the US economy will resemble Zimbabwe’s.
In reply to Snorky, I’d say that preparedness is a tough thing to manage, because this crisis will go on for many years. The kind of preparedness that you’ll need will be the ability to produce your own food over the long haul–preferably in a fairly isolated location and among like-minded people. To put it briefly, we need to get ready to live in what will resemble an African country in crisis.
And if nothing happen this time, like every time someone post a radical idea here, what will you all do? Pray for the salvation of humankind for the rest of your life?
“To eat from the tree of radical theory will make you gods.” David Horowitz
@ Sharon: Your view sounds a bit like Rawles’ Patriots scenario. Alternatively, you have the Joel Skousen theory that the Russians are going to rise again and nuke the US and UK, again leading to UN troops on our streets with martial law imposed.
Whatever the catalyst for the now obvious police state in the making, the key question is will it be contrived to occur after a major collapse event (i.e. financial crash / nuclear attack ), or before it. I’m not privy to enough facts to enable me to draw a firm conclusion either way on this. All I would proffer is that it might be easier for THEM to expedite their aims if they were to obtain a police state first, perhaps as an ostensibly “necessary measure” in the aftermath of a terrorist event of hitherto unseen magnitude (e.g. a nuke). That way, they could round up and disarm all the militia survivalist-patriot types in the backwoods now, while the law enforcement and military infrastructure are still intact, rather than risk a Rawles-like insurgency on down the line.
Of course, it’s all conjecture at this stage since we can’t say for certain which way the wind will blow on this, and the further ahead one tries to predict events, the more inaccurate those predictions are likely to be. What we can say with certainty, though, is that we have a whole array of extant threats laid out before us in the form of police state legislation, the precarious global monetary situation, and emerging contrived energy-food crises, amongst others. These are the things that need to be recognised and pre-emptively circumvented while there is still time left to do so.
@sorton
Briefly,in response to your question as to the 1st Towers “terror” incident/bombing there is significant question as to whether the “informant” the FBI had placed inside the “terror” group actually orchestrated the bombing (this seems to be the case in almost all these “events” but same is never fully, if at all, investigated).
There are many resources online and books on this but this website gives some basic info: http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0408c.asp
This passage gives you some idea:
“After the bombing, Salem anguished to one FBI agent, “You were informed. Everything is ready. The day and the time. Boom. Lock them up and that’s that. That’s why I feel so bad.†On another tape, Salem asked an FBI agent, “Do you deny your supervisor is the main reason of bombing the World Trade Center?†The agent did not deny Salem’s charge. Shortly after the bombing FBI agent Nancy Floyd confided to Salem that her supervisors had botched the case:
I felt that the people on the squad, that they didn’t have a clue of how to operate things. That the supervisors didn’t know what was going on. That they hadn’t taken the time to learn the history.
It was never clear to what extent Salem instigated the bombing, as opposed to simply reporting on the plot to his FBI controllers.”
As usual, “incompetence” of incredibly well financed and trained Federal Law Enforcement, here the FBI (we see the same thing as to the CIA etc.) is the excuse – – I don’t buy it. Having worked in law enforcement, I can tell you that all some infiltrating group needs to control is some key positions and they control the entire agency. Most members of law enforcement care about one thing – – keeping their jobs, the idea of being fired and having to be a security guard is not agreeable and as a result most will follow just about any order given by a superior, if you tag “National Security” on it you can forget about any meaningful investigation occurring – – many major drug trafficking investigations were/are ended due to this label being laid on same by “higher ups”.
As to the Venice Airport, I grew up down there and was a prosecutor in that part of Florida for several years during the 80s. It was known in law enforcement circles that the Venice Airport, a former Air Force Army base was a “spooky” airport w/”proprietary” airlines etc. making trips into and out of South/Latin America especially during the Iran Contra period. Daniel Hopsicker has documented the “intelligence” related nature of the airport and “flight school” owners extremely well in his book “Welcome To Terrorland” and his website: http://www.madcowprod.com/
(His book on Barry Seal, the biggest coke trafficker and CIA man who died w/Bush I’s phone number in his pocket is also great . . . ).
Hopsicker has documented how a “terror” flight school owner’s plane was pulled w/over 40 pds. of heroin and everyone received a “get out of jail free” card, which by definition means it was “intelligence” connected and “National Security” . . . . To say that Atta, who had lots of money and ran around snorting coke, partying w/strippers, and hung around German and other foreign nationals who looked very much like “intelligence” agent types, was at this airport without the knowledge of US “Intelligence” is beyond the realm of coincidence . . .
As Hopsicker documents the only “investigation” done was basically certain witnesses being told to shut up and get lost, the newspaper “coverage” was a joke and when any did occur it was full of lies and distortions . . . It seems that the whole background to 911 involves the $500 Billion drug business and operators working in same (North American Drug Lords and their employees), further it is my understanding that when the third tower was “pulled” investigations into hundreds of billions of dollars in high level fraud were destroyed . . . so the tragic mass murder “event” seems to have also functioned as one of the biggest bank robberies ever . . . The fact that the average Amerikan is clueless and worse, does not care, about what really happened as to the mass murder of 3000 of their countrymen does not bode well for the future of any of us peons . . . Read some of this stuff and maybe you will agree?
“The revolution will not be televised.”
“Bread and Circuses”
Folks, these people know how to boil frogs.
Apart from some magnificent miscalculation or random event, (always possibilities), I suspect the West’s future will be closer to “Brave New World” than “1984”.
The omnipresent trappings of a police state a la the old DDR are hideously expensive and limit Imperial efforts. They also tend to inhibit productivity and consumer confidence, which is still largely what makes the wheel$ go ’round. Overt Totalitarianism or even Fascism would simply be bad for most businesses and thus unlikely, imho. An Iron Heel is simply unecessary, I doubt the near-term military or civilian law enforcement would stand for it. (Nothing will be done that would risk triggering visible defiance from military. But to their credit, some in the Pentagon has been getting pretty good at being passive-aggressive, lately. Let’s see what happens when the Big E arrives on station…)
As monitoring technologies becomes ubiquitous, people will tend to be less vocal about their concerns, including that minority still having any actual crtical thinking skills. Free speech will become auto-inhibited as citizens see it as being both vaguely risky and ineffectual. So overt suppression efforts will be rare, subtle and highly effective. Think IRS or DEA instead of FBI.
I believe we are facing a slow, gentle descent into a comfortable sort of serfdom. We will elect our Kings. People will not revolt en masse because that will be “unsafe”, nor will enough they believe they can succeed. Only after a few generations of servitude may enough passion and anger grow to bring change. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.
The citizens of the US and UK have played right into a trap that may or may not have been intentionally laid for them. By believing the goverment’s absurd position that we cannot accept *any* civilian casualites and that we are in ever growing danger, people endorse an endless war and erosion of civl liberties. But when the Tree of Liberty is pruned “for the duration”, will it ever grow back?
Personally, I would willingly tolerate 3,000 civilian dead *each year* from terror attacks, (even if my family were among them), if it meant maintaining the integrity of of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. We can make more citizens, but I’m not sure we can make another American Revolution.
Have a nice day.
There is speculation above as to whether we’ll have a “1984” or a “Brave New World” scenario. There’s a third choice: Vonnegut’s “Player Piano”, which which is the world that Slugbob is describing, the (as he so aptly puts it) “slow, gentle descent into a comfortable sort of serfdom.” Americans aren’t going to attend the Daily Hate; they’ll just watch TV and take whatever comes their way. If you’ve never read “Player Piano”, you should. Of the 3 major dystopian novels, it is IMHO the best, and certainly the funniest.
As to the 2008 election: my deepest fear has been that when it comes time to leave, BushCo simply won’t go. It’s hard to imagine Dick Cheney shrugging, thinking “Well, we tried” and then packing his desk.
In reply to “vote for slugbob in 2008”, I’d have to say that we’ve long been in a “comfortable sort of serfdom”–and it is precisely this comfortable serfdom that is coming to an end.
Any level of comfort, security, or affluence enjoyed by the masses represents lost profits for the elites, and their greed is limitless.
Historical examples of this abound. Ruling elites take ever more of the labor products of the rest of society, and are unconcerned when “the people have no bread.” The British landlords were unconcerned while millions died of starvation during the Irish potato famine–a period in which enough food was actually being produced in Ireland to feed everyone very well. But the food produced there was being exported by the landlords, for profit, while the producers died of starvation.
Until recent decades, elites have operated under certain restraints–effective labor unions, effective political action, organized social action, and even moral restrains–but most of these have now been removed.
Thanks for the reminder about Player Piano, Montysano. You are spot on. I haven’t read it since high school and had completely forgotten about it. Time for a re-read…
A thought related to my dystopic comments yesterday: perhaps we are well on our way to a Soma Society? A recent CDC study found that antidepressants have become the most commonly prescribed drugs in the US.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/07/09/antidepressants/index.html?iref=newssearch .
That is astonishing. Hard for folks to get disruptive or even vaguely concerned with Prozac on board…
I agree that it seems odd how the Republican leadership seems to have little interest in the 2008 elections. They may just know they cannot possibly win this time, but I too have had similar dark thoughts about if the 2008 vote would actually happen. Those worries started in late 2004, iirc…
I’ve been hearing odd snippets about how the Republicans would need an Incumbent to win, and the way to get one is for the Veep to resign “for health reasons”. The new Veep would be appointed by GWB and then run for President from the bully pulpit of the White House. (I actually heard this stated recently as fact by a Very Serious Careerman I know.) Hardly proof, so don’t take it as such, but the more I think about it, the more I believe this scheme could work for them.
I’ve heard McCain and Guliani mentioned by others as the possible “anointed one” in this scenario, but I’m inclined to think it might be someone completely unexpected; a fresh face the media could perseverate upon and the press never has time to vet properly. Cheney (and Rove) could then be re-appointed in a new Republican administration so they wouldn’t miss any fun.
Every day is the cusp of all future history, but it does seem that some very odd butterflies are being stepped on. We may only understand their significance when we actually hear the Sound of Thunder in the years to come. (Thx to Mr. Bradbury for that story…)
Sharon, while you make excellent points, and historcal examples of misery caused by unbridled greed abound, I disagree that “…Any level of comfort, security, or affluence enjoyed by the masses represents lost profits for the elites…” I suspect they now know (insofar as there is a coherent “They”), that they cannot maintain control without those things. A tranquil populace is the key to their success. The comfort of the middle class is the cost of doing business. The poor do not effect their calculations.
I don’t think Whoever will ultimately benefit from creeping Passive-ism will kill the golden goose. A good 1930’s smacking-about should do it. They needn’t bother destroying Labor.
The only reliable prognostication is that things will not turn out the way we expect. Humanity has been Doomed for most of my unexpectedly long lifetime, so these days I’m trying to remember that things may turn out just fine. I am obligated to default to Optimism. I am a father.
Yet another obscure literary reference: Search on “SlubGob”, and read the book. Very Rovian.