The 9-11 terrorist attacks were intended to provoke an overreaction from the U.S. government according to the article. The terrorists hope the government will implement oppressive police state measures that restrict civil liberties in response. This plays into the terrorists' strategy outlined in the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of using violence to destabilize the government and society. While the attacks were evil, they make sense from the terrorists' perspective of trying to undermine freedom and provoke authoritarian government crackdowns. The article argues the U.S. should avoid overreacting in ways that undermine constitutional freedoms and play into the terrorists' hands.
2. Vol. 18, No. 20
new American
TERRORISM
October 7, 2002
.,"'!III
4 The Action Is in the Reaction
by William F. jasper - The terrOlist leaders and their
sponsors are providing the pretext for the U.S. government
to institute police-state measures.
9 A No-Win War Without End?
by William F. jasper - By embracing state sponsors of
terrorism like Russia and China, our leaders ensure that the
"war on terror" will never end in conclusive victory.
ON THE HOME FRONT
12 From Law to Lawlessness
by William Norman Grigg - The Bush administration
is laying the foundation for tyranny by putting itself above
the law.
19 Foundations of the Garrison State
by Steve Bonta - The proposed Department of Homeland
Security is based on an elitist blueprint finished and on the
President's desk before Black 1Uesday.
23 Militarizing Mayberry
by William Norman Grigg - State and local police agencies
are being transformed into paramilitary affiliates of a
centralized police force controlled by Washington, D.C.
Never again! Those responsible for 9-11 must be
brought to justice, and America must be defended.
But if we restrict freedom to combat terrorism , the
terrorists and their sponsors will have won .
25 Their Target: Your Guns
by Thomas R. Eddlem - It would be insane to disarm
law-abiding citizens. Yet this is what the UN seeks - and the
Bush adntinistration is quietly acquiescing.
28 TIPping Off Big Brother
b Steve Bonta - If the Bush administration's citizen
y
informant program "TIPS" is fully implemented, America
may end up a nation of tattletales and civilian spies that
would make Big Brother proud.
IN LIGHT OF THE PAST
34 From Republic to Reich
by William Norman Grigg - Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime
exploited a terrorist assault on the Reichstag Building to
carry out a pre-positioned strategy to convert the Weimar
Republic into a police state.
FREEDOM FIGHT
WORLD GOVERNMENT
31 Toward a Global Police State
b john F. McManus - Under both Republican and
y
Democratic administrations, the U government has been
.S.
implementing a decades-old strategy to make the UN the
most powerful force on Earth.
41 JBS: Defending the Rule of Law
by G. Vance Smith - The John Birch Society uniquely
understands the globalist conspiracy and how to win the
battle to preserve freedom .
44 What Can Be Done
by William F. jasper - The answer to terrorism lies not in
granting Gestapo-like police powers to the federal government
but in restoring legitimate internal security measures.
COVER Design: Joseph w. Kelly; Photos: ArtToday, FEMA
4. TERRORISM
The Action Is in the Reaction
The terrorist leaders and their sponsors are providing the pretext for the
to institute pOlice-state measures.
u.s. government
by W
illiam F. Jasper
[TJhe battle has moved to inside
America ... . f tell you, freedom and
human rights in America are doomed.
The U.S. Government will lead the
American people - and the West in
general - into an unbearable hell
and a choking life.
- Osama bin Laden
BBC taped video interview after 9-11
n his videotape message cited above,
recorded several weeks after the September 11 th attacks, Osama bin Laden
was obviously pleased over the expectation ~
that the terrorist acts would provoke the U.S. ~
government to implement repressive mea- ~
sures. He was hopeful that the repression ~
w
would progress to full-blown totalitarian- ~
ism, making America "an unbearable hell." "8
Bin Laden's remarks are extremely re- CD
~
vealing; they are a textbook restatement of <{
-g
I
the Marxist-Leninist doctrine spouted by
terrorists worldwide for the past several
decades.
They sound as if they came right out of
the Mini-Manualfor Urban Guerrillas, authored by Brazilian Communist Carlos
MarigheUa in 1969. Translated into many
languages and used as a standard handbook for terrorists worldwide, it teaches
that the urban guerrilla "must use revolutionary violence" to wreak havoc on the
public order. Marighella continues:
Then, the government has no alternative except to intensify repression.
The police roundups, house searches,
arrests of innocent people make life
in the city unbearable .. ..
Rejecting the "so-called political
solution," the urban guerrilla must become more aggressive and violent, resorting without letup to sabotage, terrorism, expropnatIOns, assaults,
kidnappings, and executions, heightening the disastrous situation in
which the government must act.. ..
4
Hidden strategy behind the terror: The 9-11 attacks struck a devastati ng blow against America.
But rather than taking rational measures to protect the U.S. from future terrorist attacks, the Bush
administration is playing into the hands of the terrorists by imposing police-state measures.
In other words, a key element of the terrorist plan is to provoke the government to
implement oppressive police-state measures, to destroy constitutional restrictions
on government power. Note that in this
scheme it is government that primarily
benefits from terrorism. It is the people
who lose, as they are entrapped between
the violence of terrorists (pressure from
below) and the expanded powers of government (pressure from above).
Origins of Terror
Uruguay's Communist Tupamaros were the
first terrorist group to put Marighella's formula to work, with amazing success. Their
terror spree of 1970-72 pushed Uruguay
into a military dictatorship before the end
of 1972. The Tupamaros became the
model for the Weather Underground in the
U.S., the Red Army Fraction in Germany,
the Red Brigades in Italy, and terrorist
groups throughout Latin America, the
Middle East, Africa, and Europe.
One of the major promoters of the
Marighella-Tupamaro thesis was millionaire Italian Communist Giangiacomo Feltrinelli , a close friend of Fidel Castro, the
PLO, and the Soviet bloc countries. Heir
to an immense fortune, Feltrinelli bankrolled and organized much of Europe's terrorist underground. He also publi shed
Marighella's Mini-Manual. Feltrinelli exhorted his revolutionary comrades to engage in "intensive provocation," to "violate
the law openly . .. challenging and outraging institutions and public order in every
way." This meant even random ki lling of
innocent victims, such as "striking indiscriminately at passengers on a train, etc."
These actions would open "an advanced
phase of the struggle" by provoking "an
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
5. authoritarian turn to the right" - which, the billions.
The Black Tuesday hijackers
in the Marxist dialectic refers to the inA key element of the terrorist plan is to
flicting of harsh police-state measures on were following in the bloody footprovoke the government to implement
the people by the government. Feltrinelli's steps of Vladimir I. Lenin, the
prophet of modern terrorism who
terrorist cadres nearly pushed the Italian
oppressive pOlice-state measures . In
government to adopt totalitarian measures launched propaganda by deed on
this scheme it is the people who lose ,
an apocalyptic scale. In 1918, as
like Uruguay's.
In a slight variation on Feltrinelli's in- the first dictator of the 'Soviet
as they are entrapped between the
structions, the terrorist hijackers of Sep- Union, Lenin introduced the conviolence of terrorists and the expanded
tember 11 th were "striking indiscrimi- cept of "mass terror" as formal
nately at passengers" on a plane, rather communist strategy. Inspired by
powers of government.
than a train. The purpose was the same: the ferocity of the French RevoluProvoke America's destruction from with- tion's Reign of Terror, he deCheka official Martyn Latsis explained
in by causing the government to overreact. clared: "we can achieve nothing unless we
Seen in this light, the 9-11 attacks are not use terror." He further advised: "The ener- in the December 25, 1918 issue of Pravda
at all "senseless," as so many commenta- gy and mass nature of the terror must be that "during investigations one need not
look for evidence or proof of what
tors have described them. Vicious,
the accused said or did against
yes. Evil, yes. But they make perSoviet authority. The first quesfect , murderous sense to the tertion you must put to him is this:
rorists who committed them, and
What are his origins and upbringthe masterminds who set them in
ing, his education and occupamotion.
tion? These issues must deterThe Marighella-Feltrinelli "inmine the fate of the accused. This
tensive provocation" strategy is
is the meaning and essence of
rooted in an even older revoluRed Terror."
tionary legacy. The shocking imThe Red Terror launched by
ages of hijacked jetliners slamLenin and sustained by Joseph
ming into the World Trade Center
Stalin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi
exemplify what terrori sts refer to
Minh, Pol Pot, and other Comas "propaganda by deed" or "the
munist dictators had, by 1986,
propaganda of the deed." Creditbathed our planet in the blood of
ed with coining the term, Italian
more than 120 million victims,
anarchist-socialist Errico Malataccording to the research of Proesta declared in 1876 that his Italfessor R. J. Rummel. In the 1960s,
ian federation "believes that the
the Moscow strategists launched
insurrectional fact, destined to afa new vehicle for terror: a global
firm sociali st principles by deed,
network of seemingly indepenis the most efficacious means of
dent organizations carrying out a
propaganda." Meaning very simworldwide campaign of terror.
ply that a single violent act acGermany 's Red Army Fraction,
complishes far more than speeches,
Italy 's Red Brigades, the Japanese
pamphlets, and peaceful demonRed Army, the Palestine Liberastrations. Following this coldtion Organization, the Sandinista
blooded logic, the anarchists Leninist Muslim: Osama bin Laden , leader of al-Qaeda, is the
National Liberation Front, and
launched a stunning succession of accused mastermind of the 9-11 terror attacks on America.
dozens of other groups from
bombings and assassinations across Several years ago, al-Qaeda merged with the Egyptian Islamic
Jihad, which had fused Marxism with Islam. Jeremy Glick, who
every part of the Free World reEurope.
phoned his wife from the doomed Flight 93, said the hijackers
ceived training, arms, explosives,
The 9-11 terrorists used the were wearing red headbands, a trademark of Islamic Jihad and other critical assistance from
modern technology of commercial and of Communism , not Islam.
Russia, China, Cuba, and the Soaviation and the mass media's
viet bloc countries. Terrorist trainglobal reach to carry "propaganda
by deed" to a fiendish new level. Their encouraged." To carry out his demonic vi- ing camps were established in Russia,
murderous acts have achieved maximum sion he organized the Cheka (predecessor North Korea, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria,
propaganda impact; the riveting video im- to the KGB and the current Russian FSB) East Germany, Cuba, Syria, Libya, Iraq ,
ages of the 9-11 deeds have been played under the leadership of Feliks Dzerzhinsky. and elsewhere. The era of terror was
and replayed many thousands of times, "We stand for organized terror," Dzerzhin- spawned.
Although the 9-11 hijackers have been
reaching a repeat audience numbering in sky proudly declared .
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
5
6. TERRORISM
HizbAllah International, the to promote Communism as " liberation
global collaborative terror ap- theology" among Christians. Mahdi ChamOur new "ally" in the war on terror,
paratus launched at the 1996 ran continues to work closely with Russian
Russia , is now, as was the Soviet Union
intelligence, as he did during the Soviet
Tehran terror summit.
But although bin Laden is a era.
previously, the principal sponsor of
well known player in the terror
terrorism. The U.S. government is
network, he. is not the chief Terrorism: A State Enterprise
player, and' "the network of What is most important to keep in mind
focusing on relatively minor tentacles
which he is a part is not rooted from the foregoing is that the terrori st
like bin Laden 's al-Qaeda while ignoring
in Islamic fundamentalism. Sit- threat facing us now is undeniably a conting in ultimate authority over tinuation of the global Soviet terror netthe head of the terror octopus.
the Committee of Three is Dr. work of earlier decades. The U.S. govMahdi Chamran Savehi, Iran's ernment and other Western governments
universally referred to as "Islamic funda- chief of External Intelligence and supervi- are running from an inconvenient truth :
mentalists," they quite obviously are fol- sor of its global terror operations. Mahdi Their new "ally" in the war on terror, Ruslowing the Communist program. There is Chamran and his brother Mustafa were sia, is now, as was the Soviet Union preanother very important piece of evidence both educated in the United States. Active viously, the principal sponsor of terrorism
in this regard that the media, government in radical-left politics in the 1960s in Cal- in the world. They focus on the relatively
officials, and so-called experts have almost ifornia, they established a Marxist front minor tentacles like bin Laden's al -Qaeda
totally ignored. According to the descrip- known as the Muslim Students' Associa- while ignoring the head of the terror
tion provided by Jeremy Glick, one of the tion of America and an Iranian terrorist octopus.
What emerged from the mountains of
citizen heroes of Flight 93 believed to have organization called Red Shiism. The Chamtaken on the terrorists, the 9-11 hijackers ran brothers, like many other Marxist- evidence concerning the terror decades of
may have been members of the Islamic Leninists, adopted the rhetoric and sym- the 1960s, '70s, and' 80s is this critical unJihad, backed by Syria, Iran, and Russia. bols of Islam to spread the Communist derstanding: The modern phenomenon of
Mr. Glick managed to call his wife from message to a larger, unsuspecting audi- international terrorism was only possible
the plane and told her it had been com- ence, in the same way that Marxist-Lenin- on the scale at which it was occurring bemandeered by "three Arab-looking men ists in Europe and the Americas co-opted cause of state sponsorship. Without supwith red headbands." Red headbands? That the symbols and language of Christianity port provided by the Communist bloc nais a trademark of Islamic Jihad. Like
many of the so-called "Muslim extremist" groups, they are more "red" (Marxist-Leninist) than "green" (Islamic
fundamentalist).
The federal government itself has
provided additional reason to believe
that Islamic Jihad terrorists were involved in the attacks. According to documents introduced by federal prosecutors in the 1998 Kenya and Tanzania
embassy bombing cases, the Egyptian
Islamic Jihad and Osama bin Laden 's
al-Qaeda effectively merged several
years ago.
Along these same lines, it is important to note that bin Laden and members of his al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad
have joined the hardcore Communist
atheists such as George Habash, Abu
Nidal, and Ahmed Jabril at global ter- "0
ror summits in Tehran, Damascus, and ~
OJ
Khartoum. Even more telling is evi- "0
dence produced by the Congressional ~
<i
Task Force on Terrorism and Uncon- UN·backed fanatics: Hundreds of Hezbollah activists, wearing headbands that read , "We are Coming,"
ventional Warfare indicating that bin raise their hands in a Hitlerite salute during a February 15, 2002 rally in Syrian-controlled Lebanon.
Laden is one of the three members of Currently sitting on the UN Security Council , Syria backs Hezbollah , Hamas, Islamic Jihad , and many
the Committee of Three overseeing other terrorist groups. The UN allows the Hezbollah flag to fly over its facilities in Lebanon.
6
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
7. tions the motley international terrorist
bands would pose no major threat.
The U.S. Senate's Subcommittee on
Security and Terrorism, in a 1985 report entitled State-Sponsored Terrorism, observed: "The prevailing tendency has been to view each terrorist act as
an individual incident without political
pattern or strategic dimension. This attitude is naiVe in view of the accumulating evidence of collusion among
states sponsoring violence against pluralist democracies, particularly the
United States and its allies."
And the Soviet Union was undoubtedly the principal sponsoring state. As
Dr. Hans Josef Horchem, head of West
u
Germany's anti-terrorist Office for the
~
Defense of the Constitution, noted in
u
1979: "The KGB is engineering inter~
«
national terrorism. The facts can be
Our noble "ally," Afghan leader Hamid Karzai , with first lady Laura Bush at his side (right), is
proven, documented, and are well
acknowledged by President Bush during his January 29, 2002 State of the Union address. Tightly
known to the international Western in- connected to the terrorist state of Iran , Karzai has been to Tehran since the 9-11 attacks and has
telligence community."
welcomed Iran's terror chief Mohammad Khatami to Afghanistan .
In 1964, the Soviet Politburo decided to increase spending on its fledgling
terrorist networks by one thousand percent. ed Nations General Assembly on Septem- in a place of honor next to Mrs. Bush.
The year 1967 marked another leap for- ber 12, 2002, stating: "And our greatest "And this evening," said the president, "we
ward. "Shortly after Yuri Andropov be- fear is that terrorists will find a shortcut to welcome the distinguished interim leader
came head of state security in May 1967," their mad ambitions when an outlaw of a liberated Afghanistan : Chairman
notes the aforementioned Senate report, regime upplies them with the technolo- Hamid Karzai." But Mr. Karzai, whom the
"Moscow adopted a policy of supplying gies to kill on a massive scale."
Bush administration installed in power,
training, arms, and ammunition in generThe problem is that all of the most cul- was, and is, closely allied to Iran, a memous quantity to Syria and the Palestine Lib- pable "outlaw regimes" were represented ber of the Bush-designated "axis of evil."
eration Organization (PLO) under Yasser right there in the UN General Assembly- Iran 's state-run Tehran Times reported on
Arafat. The PLO, with this kind of en- and the president has partnered us with January 3, 2002 that Karzai had met the
couragement and support, has reached out some of them in the war on terror. In his previous day with Iranian minister Mohsen
in all directions against U.S. 'imperialist UN speech, President Bush repeatedly sin- Aminzadeh and had said: "We want to see
gled out Iraq's role in international terror our Iranian brothers involved in every asforces.' "
Many of the graduates of the Soviet ter- and warned of Saddam Hussein's plans for pect of the reconstruction of Afghanistan."
ror camps of the 1960s, '70s, and '80s- developing "weapons of mass destruction" That has happened; the Northern Alliance
from the PLO, PFLP, IRA, etc. - are (WMD). The fact is, however, that it is our terrorists who have come into the governpresently training and guiding the terrorist new "partner" Vladimir Putin who is sup- ment with Karzai have close ties to Iran
groups currently making the headlines. plying Iraq with the WMD technology, and Russia. On February 24th, Karzai jourThe newer actors on the block - al- which is a continuation of the Moscow- neyed to Tehran to meet with "reform" terQaeda, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Baghdad relationship extending back four ror chief Mohammad Khatarni. "Our presAbu Sayyaf - depend on the same state decades. Putin has recently concluded a ence here is like going to your brother's
sponsors who supported and sheltered the $40 billion agreement with Saddam Hus- house, because Iran is our brother country,"
earlier cadres: Syria, Iran , Iraq, Libya, sein. Russian military advisers and scien- Karzai said.
Cuba - and, ultimately, Russia and China. tists have always figured prominently in
Meanwhile, Russia is busy in Iran exIn a news conference on October 11, Saddam's totalitarian state, and have been panding the $800 million nuclear facility
200 I , Bush characterized the new global especially critical for his WMD programs. it has been constructing for that terror
conflict as "a war against all those who
regime in the city of Bushehr. In July, Russeek to export terror, and a war against Our Anti-terror Posse
sia released information about its new 10those governments that support or shelter Near the start of his January 2002 State of year program to expand scientific and milthem." (Emphasis added) . He hit this the Union Address, President Bush mo- itary cooperation with Iran. That program
theme again in his address before the Unit- tioned toward the tall, bearded man seated includes plans to build as many as five
Q)
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
7
8. TERRORISM
State Sponsored Terrorism, provides an English translation of the
Plans for a war on terrorism and a
"TOP SECRET" minutes of that
Homeland Security Department were
meeting. It leaves no doubt that
Khatami, whom our media continscripted in CFR position papers long
ue to falsely portray as a "moderbefore 9-11. While America must fight
ate" and a "reformer," was
building a truly forriUdable
terrorism resolutely, the Bush-CFR
terror apparatus. And the
plan ultimately would extinguish the
world has witnessed its
handiwork for the past
very liberty it purports to defend .
decade and a half.
Like Iraq and Libya,
more nuclear power reactors . It also un- Syria is a Marxist, tyrannical
doubtedly includes plans to enhance regime that has adopted an Islamweapons programs such as Iran 's ballistic ic veneer in recent years. And, like
missile program, which Russia built in vi- Iraq, Libya, and Iran, it has a vigolation of an international convention it orous WMD program - being
had signed known as the Missile Technol- constructed with the assistance of
ogy Control Regime. Russia 's enormous Russia, China, and North Korea. It
assistance has enabled the Tehran regime was Syrian-backed Hezbollah terto continue as the main sponsor of the rorists who carried out the suicide
ultra-violent Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad, truck bombings of the U.S. Emwhich have set up shop well beyond the bassy, U.S. Marine barracks, and
confines of the Middle East in Asia, Africa, U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut durEurope, Latin America, and the United ing the 1980s, killing hundreds of
Americans . In 1982, Syrian dicStates.
Note that in 1984 Iran 's current presi- tator Hafez ai-Assad brutally
dent, Mohammad Khatami , presided over slaughtered 20,000 of his own
a secret meeting in Tehran to create an in- people in the city of Hama. During
ternational terror brigade that would be the same period, his troops and terprovided with vast economic and techno- rorists murdered thousands of
logical resources. The U.S. Senate's report, Lebanese and turned the previous-
Iy beautiful and prosperous Lebanon into
rubble.
Terrorist organizations with actual bases
of operation inside Syria or Syrian-occupied Lebanon include Islamic Jihad ,
Hamas, Hezbollah, and many others. Be.'
Terror rehabilitated: "We stand for organized
terror," declared Feliks Dzerzhinsky, who
headed Lenin 's dreaded secret police, the
Cheka, forerunner of the KGB . For decades a
giant 14-ton statue of the terror chief glared
down at Russians from Lubyanka Square,
headquarters of the KGB in central Moscow.
Thousands of demonstrators cheered when
the hated symbol was toppled in 1991 (left).
But the statue was not destroyed; it stands in
a museum backyard in Moscow (above). The
New York Times reported on September 17th
that Moscow's mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, plans to
reinstall the statue at its former site. With KGB
veteran Vladimir Putin serving as Russia's
president and assisting terror regimes around
the world , that is a very foreboding omen.
AP/Wide World photos
8
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
9. TERRORISM
sides directly and indirectly supporting
these groups, Syria has used its own intelligence organizations to carry out terrorist bombings and assassinations. Yet
the Bush administration now regards
Syria as an ally against terror.
President Bush's speeches and policies on terrorism are self-contradictory,
schizophrenic, and dangerous. They have
made us partners with the world's worst
tetTorists, ostensibly to fig ht terrorism.
And in his rush to establish a Homeland
Security Department, he would demolish our system of checks and balances,
sweep away our constitutional separation of powers, and create an enormous
police-state apparatus. What can Mr.
Bush have in mind with thjs misbegotten and dangerous crusade? Former
Senator Gary Hart offers a clue.
Commenting on the Black Tuesday
attacks during a September 14, 2001
meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Hart stated: "There is a
chance for the President of the United
States to use thjs disaster to carry out
what his father - a phrase his father
used I think on ly once, and it hasn't
been used si nce - and that is a new
world order." The global power elite attending the CFR program knew what
the senator meant and, doubtless,
heartily agreed with him. According to
former CFR member Admiral Chester
Ward, the CFR goal of a "new world
order" entails "submergence of U.S.
sovereignty and national independence
into an all-powerful one-world government" under the U . Hundreds of internationalists from the CFR permeate
President Bush's cabinet and entire administration. And as another article in
this special issue shows (see page 19),
plans for a global war on terrorism and
a massive Homeland Security Department were scripted in CFR position papers long before the hijacked planes of
9-11 slammed into the World Trade
Center, the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania countryside. Yes, America must
fight terrorism with resolute action and
unyielding determination, but the BushCFR plan ultimately would extinguish
the very liberty it purports to defend.
That is something the terrorists themselves could never directly succeed in
doing . •
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
A No-Win War
Without End? '
.'.
By embracing state sponsors of terrorism like Russia and
China, our leaders ensure that the "war on terror" will
never end in conclusive victory.
Uniting with terrorists: Presidents Vladimir Putin, George Bush, and Jiang Zemin at the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation Summit in Shanghai , October 21 , 2001 . President Bush has called for
"a war against all those who seek to export terror, and a war against those governments that
support or shelter them." Russia and China are the two biggest exporters and supporters.
by William F. Jasper
America has also accepted a great
challenge in the world; to wage a relentless and systematic campaign
against global terror. ... We are in for
a long and difficult war. It will be conducted on many fronts. But as long as
it takes, we will prevail.
- President George W. Bush
April 30, 2002
n the same April 30th speech in San
Jose, California, cited above, President
Bush pointed to the early successes in
Afghanistan and pledged that "in every
cave, in every dark corner of that country,
we will hunt down the killers and bring
I
them to justice." Then, throwing down the
rhetorical gauntlet to the terrorists and their
state sponsors, he repeated a line he had
used before: "Across the world, governments have heard this message: you're either with us, or you're with the terrorists."
Like many of his similar calls to arms since
the 9-11 terrorist attacks on America, this
expression of resolute determination resonated with his audience and was greeted
with vigorous applause. Americans want
the perpetrators of these heinous crimes
brought to justice - dead or alive. It is
both a matter of justice and national security that we follow through on this commitment, for those allowed to escape will,
almost assuredly, strike again.
But is the Bush administration waging
9
10. the kind of war on terror that will bring the
9-11 terrorists to justice and destroy the
global terror networks at war with America? Unfortunately, it is not. In fact, the current U.S. "war on terror" is on course to
become another "no-win" war like the war
on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on
inflation, the Korean War, the Vietnam
War, and other failed crusades of previous
administrations. The consequences offailure in this case, however, could prove far
more catastrophic, both in terms of loss of
lives and loss of liberty.
We must not close our eyes to the plain
truth in so grave a matter. It is utterly impossible for us to win the war on terror as
it currently is being waged. The facts are
clear; the president has:
Recruited a posse including the worst
ter ror ist state sponsors. The coalition of
"allies" President Bush put together includes Russia and China, who support the
terrorist organizations through surrogate
states, while continuing to build weapons
of mass destruction for Iran, Iraq, Pakistan,
Syria, and Libya. This is absurd; it is the
equivalent of declaring war on organized
crime and then inviting the mafia kingpins
onto the Police Commission as allies and
praising their assistance when they help
arrest a few of their own low-level thugs or
drug peddlers. Calamity is guaranteed from
the start.
Committed our nation to an endless,
undefined war. This is an open-ended,
global conflict with no exit strategy and no
clear definition of the objectives constituting victory. The president and administration officials have repeatedly stated that
this war could go on for many years and
range over the entire globe.
Centralized vast, unprecedented police powers in Washington. The consolidation of law enforcement powers following 9-11 presents an even greater threat to
our constitutional order and liberty than
any terrorist attack could. This is following the terrorist script, as explained in the
article beginning on page four, by terrorist
leaders Marighella, Feltrinelli, bin Laden,
and others.
Weakened our borders. President Bush
has continued the dangerous, out-of-control immigration policies of Presidents Bill
Clinton and George Bush Sr. He has even
announced support for the Free Trade Area
of the Americas, which would abolish the
10
Another UN outrage: Syrian Ambassador to the UN Mikhail Webhe (center) talks with ambassadors
at the UN Security Council. Syria, a major sponsor of terrorism, was elected to a two-year
membership on the Council by the terrorist-laden General Assembly following the 9-11 attacks.
borders (and border controls) between the
U.S ., Mexico, and Canada - and then all
of Latin America. Anyone who doubts that
this is the intent need only look at the gradual submergence of European nations in
the EU, the model for the FTAA.
Appointed the United Nations to head
the posse. The United ations is not just a
menagerie of misfits and kleptocrats, but a
colossal Terrorists-R-Us. The UN General
Assembly is loaded with terrorist state
members such as Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria,
Sudan, Cuba, Russia, China, North Korea,
Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, etc.
And the Security Council, the most powerful branch of the UN, includes terrorist
sponsors Russia and China as permanent
members. President Bush has placed the
"war on terror" under the aegis of this
same terrorist-laden UN, and under the restrictions imposed by UN Security Council Resolution 1373. Consider also:
• Within weeks after the 9-11 attacks,
the UN voted to give terrorist state Syria a
seat on the Security Council. (Syria was
even president of the Security Council during June 2002.)
• In 2002, terrorist state Libya was placed
on the UN Human Rights Commission.
• The UN chose as co-chairman for its
2000 Millennium Summit Sam Nujoma,
Namibia's dictator and leader of the Communist terrorist group SWAPO.
• At the UN's 2002 Earth Summit in Johannesburg, Robert Mugabe, dictator of
terrorist state Zimbabwe received a cheering, standing ovation from delegates.
• The UN's 2001 Summit on Racism
held in South Africa days before the 9-11
attacks turned into a giant hate-America
conference featuring many of the top terrorist state leaders.
• Major General Paul Vallely, USA (retired), has recently provided eyewitness
testimony and photographs showing UN
personnel in Syrian-occupied Lebanon collaborating with Hezbollah terrorists and a
UN facility flying the Hezbollah flag.
• Each of the UN's member terrorist
states sends delegates to the U.S. with full
diplomatic immunity. Many of these UN
"diplomats" are intelligence agents, some
with terror assignments.
• Two of Sudan 's agents, Siraj Yousef
and Ahmed Yousef Muhammad, used their
UN diplomatic cover to help plan the second New York Trade Center bombing conspiracy in 1993 (which was foiled). Their
immunity protected them from arrest.
• Filiberto Ojeda Rios, an agent for Fidel
Castro, masterminded a series of bombings
throughout the U.S. by the Puerto Rican
FALN, while enjoying diplomatic immunity at the Cuban UN Mission.
If not reversed, our present policies will
lead to national suicide. Congress must be
made to see the folly and peril of continuing this course. It must exercise its authority to protect the Constitution and implement genuine national security measures . •
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
11. ON THE HOME FRONT
From Law to Lawlessness
Using the threat of terrorism as an excuse to eradicate constitutional safeguards, the Bush
administration is laying the foundation for tyranny by putting itself above the law.
by William Norman Grigg
Man for All Seasons, Robert
Bolt's dramatization of the life
and martyrdom of St. Thomas
More, timelessly illustrates the value
of the rule of law. Serving as Lord
Chancellor of England, More, a devout Catholic, provoked the wrath of
Henry VIII by refusing to endorse the
King 's claim that his authority transcended that of the Catholic Church.
Condemned as a traitor, More was beheaded at the Tower of London on
July 6, 1535. In Bolt's version of the
story, More's betrayal occurred at the
hands of Richard Rich, a petty, ambitious man who had sought employment from the Lord Chancellor. His
request spurned, Rich took revenge by
offering perjured testimony against
More.
Shortly after Rich 's overture was Who's the real enemy? A weary air traveler submits to a "wanding" administered by a federal
transportation security worker at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Nearly all of the proposed counter-terrorism
rejected, More 's wife, knowing that
measures are directed at American citizens, the potential victims of terrorism.
Rich was a threat to her husband, turns
to him and urges: "Arrest him!" "For
what?" More inquires. "He's dangerous!" thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's all criminal acts, including those of the
rejoins More's wife. William Roper, laws, not God' s .. .. And if you cut them government. When an individual's rights
More 's son-in-law, agrees: "For all we down ... do you really think you could are violated, "the injury and the crime is
know, that man 's a spy!" More's daughter stand upright in the winds that would blow equal, whether committed by the crown or
joins the anxious chorus: "Father, that then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit oflaw, some petty villain." Nor can a majority of
the citizenry sanction government to comman 's bad!
for my own safety's sake."
When More points out that it's God's
Giving "the Devil benefit of law" is a mit criminal acts, as "nobody can transfer
role to punish "bad" men who have not principle deeply inscribed in the Anglo- to another more power than he has in
committed crimes, his exasperated wife Saxon legal tradition to which Americans himself."
exclaims, "While you talk, he's gone!" are heirs. While it is true that laws exist to
From time immemorial, rulers of all va"And go he should, if he were the Devil punish the guilty, the law's deeper purpose rieties, pleading the purity of their own inhimself, until he broke the law!" More is to restrain the government. Freedom de- tentions, have insisted that they must be
replies. "So, now you'd give the Devil the pends on the limitation of government by unshackled from the law to protect their
benefit of law!" snorts Roper in disgust. law. As British philosopher John Locke subjects from "bad" men, whether foreign
"Yes!" admits More. "What would you do? pointed out in his Second Treatise on Gov- enemies or domestic criminals and subCut a great road through the law to get ernment (1694), slavery consists of being versives. But once such rulers succeed in
after the Devil?" Roper impetuously re- "subject to the incessant, uncertain, arbi- clear-cutting the laws, they create a freesponds, "Yes, I'd cut down every law in trary will of another man," and that "ab- fire zone in which they can make war on
England to do that!"
solute arbitrary power" is the practice of their own subjects with impunity. In this
"Oh? And when the last law was down, "governing without settled standing laws." way the law becomes perverted. Instead of
and the Devil turned 'round on you, where Since the chief purpose of law, according protecting the rights of the innocent, it bewould you hide . .. the laws all being flat?"
to Locke, is to "preserve and enlarge free- comes a means of protecting the power of
More asks Roper. "This country is planted dom," it must protect the individual against the ruling elite.
A
12
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
12. In England prior to the 17th-century
"Glorious Revolution," some English kings
claimed the power to declare certain people "outlaws" without trial. But even the
most presumptuous European monarch understood that there were limits to his authority. This is not true, however, of modern totalitarian dictators. Soviet dictator
Vladimir Lenin, the inventor of the modern totalitarian state, famously declared:
"The scientific concept of dictatorship is
nothing else but this - power without
limit, resting directly upon force, restrained by no laws, absolutely unrestrained by rules." Where medieval monarchs would occasionally consign scores
of individuals to the dungeons as "enemies
of the realm," modern totalitarian dictatorships , beginning with Lenin's Soviet
Union, have claimed the power to designate entire classes or races "enemies of the
state," consigning them to prison camps or
marking them for extermination.
Advocates of the total state often invoke
the necessity of cutting down laws impeding the state's efforts to pursue its enemies,
which are depicted in diabolical terms. But
as Robert Bolt's Thomas More reminds us,
those who cut down the laws in the name
of "justice" are actually doing the devil's
work. This is certainly true of the Bush administration's behavior in the "war on terrorism," as it rapidly mows down laws and
constitutional protections obstructing the
president's power to rule by decree - but
only for the high-minded purpose of
"homeland security," of course.
Devil's Due
An echo of Robert Bolt's
Rulers of all varieties have insisted that they
Thomas More was heard
must be unshackled from the law to protect
during an August 13th District Court hearing in Virtheir subjects. But once such rulers succeed
ginia. U.S. District Judge
in clear-cutting the laws, they can make war
Robert G. Doumar demanded that the Bush ad- .'
on their own subjects with impunity. Instead of
ministration justify its
protecting the innocent person's rights, the law
open-ended detention of
Yasser Esam Hamdi. Born
is perverted to protect the ruling elite's power.
in Louisiana, the Saudi
national was captured in
"The Constitution doesn ' t apply to
Afghanistan by U.S.-commanded forces,
transported to Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo, Hamdi?" exclaimed Judge Doumar. CounCuba, and then designated an "enemy sel for the Justice Department insisted that
combatant" after it was learned that he had an unsworn, vaguely worded "declaration"
been born in America. The Bush adrrnnis- submitted by a rrnnor Pentagon bureaucrat
tration insisted that once the president named Michael H. Mobbs offered adebranded Hamdi an "enemy combatant," quate legal justification for Hamdi ' s imthe administration could keep him impris- prisonment without trial. "I do think that
oned for as long as it pleases - without due process requires something other than
access to an attorney or judicial review of a basic assertion by someone named
Mobbs that they have looked at some pahis case.
~
~
u.:
~
~~:"-.-.J ~
Garrison state preview: "Urban warfare" training
exercises foreshadow the possible domestic use of
the U.S. military as a militarized internal security
force. Administration officials, congressional
leaders, and pundits are now discussing repeal or
modification of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act,
which forbids such use of our armed forces within
our borders.
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
13
13. ON THE HOME FRONT
Why should we care? Isn ' t it enough
that Hamdi, Padilla, and Lindh chose to asAs Robert Bolt's Thomas More reminds us,
sociate with anti-American Islamic radicals? Though difficult to understand, we
those who cut down the laws in the name of
must give such devilish characters the ben"justice" are actually doing the devil's work.
efit of law for our own protection. The
Bush admimstration is using the Hamdi
This is true of the Bush administration's
and Padilla cases as the foundation for a
behavior in the "war on terrorism ," as it
legal revolution that would dispense entirely with many of our constitutionally
rapidly mows down laws and constitutional
guaranteed rights and immunities - parprotections - but only for the purpose of
ticularly the Habeas Corpus guarantee, the
"Great Writ" prohibiting indefinite in"homeland security," of course.
carceration without trial.
Commenting on the Hamdi case, a
pers and therefore they have deter"senior Bush administration official"
mined he should be held incommunitold the August 8th Wall Street Jourcado," commented Judge Doumar.
nal, "There's a different legal regime
"Just think of the impact of that. Is this
we're developing" in the so-called war
what we're fighting for?" The judge reon terrorism. The Journal observes
ferred to the Bush administration's
that the new regime contemplated by
claim as "the most interesting precethe administration would blend "the
dent ... in Anglo-American jurispruonce-separate realms of civilian law
dence since the days of the Star Chamand the law of war. Criminal law deber" - a notorious tribunal operated
termines gUilt and assigns punishment
by British kings to punish their politifor past wrongdoing, but the law of
cal enemies.
war gives governments vast powers to
Admittedly, Hamdi seems a very
prevent possible harm by imprisoning
unsavory figure. But the Bush adminand interrogating enemy soldiers."
istration has not accused him of helpThe Bush administration maintains
ing to plan or carry out the Black Tuesthat in dealing with captured enemy
day terrorist attacks. No evidence has
combatants, the judicial branch must
been presented that he had prior
defer to the military's judgment. But
knowledge of that attack, or that he
the new "legal regime" being develeven expressed support for that atrocoped is intended to reverse defeats
ity after it was committed. While Man of principle: "I'd give the Devil the benefit of law,
suffered in the courtroom, rather than
Hamdi freely offered his services to for my own safety's sake," explained Sir Thomas More,
on the battlefield. Notes the Journal:
the admittedly despicable Taliban as portrayed in Robert Bolt's drama A Man for All
"stung by the courtroom circus that ...
Seasons. While others urged cutting a path through the
[accused terrorist] Zacarias Mousjunta, he posed no known threat to our
laws to get at evil men, More understood that those
nation or to any American citizen.
saoui has created, and the aggressive
who mow down laws that restrain the government do
The same is true of Jose Padilla, aka the devil's work.
defense marshaled by John Walker
Abdulla Al-Muj ahir, suspected of plotLindh before he plea-bargained his
ting to detonate a radioactive "dirty
way out of a possible life sentence, the
bomb" here in the United States. Padilla is socia ted Press report observed that Padilla Bush administration is preparing to expand
an ex-con who converted to radical Islam "is probably a ' mall fish' with no ties to its policy of indefinitely detaining in U.S.
while in prison. Like Hamdi (and John al-Qaeda cell members in the United military jails people it designates as
Walker Lindh), Padilla migrated to Afghani- States .... The FBI's investigation has pro- 'enemy combatants' .. .."
stan, where he adhered to the Taliban junta. duced no evidence that Jose Padilla had
Where do the president and his minions
In early June, federal officials.at Chicago's begun preparations for an attack and little get the authority to seize and detain people
O' Hare Airport arrested Padilla. Com- reason to believe he had any support from at whim? Legal arguments made by the admenting on the arrest, Attorney General al-Qaeda to direct such a plot...." No for- ministration in the Yasser Hamdi case inJohn Ashcroft called Padilla a "known mal charges have been made against Padil- voke the September 14, 2001 joint resoluterrorist." Within hours, President Bush la - and the Bush administration insists tion from Congress authorizing the
designated Padilla an "enemy combatant," none are necessary, since the presidential president to "use all necessary and approand he was taken into military custody in designation that Padilla is an "enemy com- priate force against those nations, organiVirginia.
batant" is sufficient to justify his open- zations, or persons he determines planned,
As Thomas More's daughter might say, ended detention.
authorized, committed, or aided the terrorPadilla is unmistakably a
"bad man." But the Bush
administration has failed to
produce a molecule of evidence that he was actually
plotting a terrorist attack.
Under Secretary of Defense Paul 'Wolfowitz has
admitted, "I don ' t think
there was actually a plot
beyond some fairly loose
talk ...." An August 13th As-
14
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
14. It has happened here: Following the murderous
sneak attack at Pearl Harbor, the FDR administration
- which had foreknowledge of the Imperial Japanese
assault - consigned Americans of Japanese
ancestry to "relocation camps. " While those detention
centers were not as grim as stalags, gulags, or death
camps, they nonetheless represent a blot on our
nation's character - and a precedent for future use
of detention camps in the "war on terrorism."
ist attacks on September 11 , 2001." (Emphasis added.) The president has publicly
cited that open-ended grant of power as
justification for his announced policy of
launching "pre-emptive" strikes (that is ,
offensive wars) against suspected terrorist
states, without the constitutionally required
declaration of war. But little attention has
been paid to the fact that the president considers that resolution a declaration of war
on the Bill of Rights as well.
According to the administration, those
designated "enemy combatants" - whether
Americans or foreigners captured in the
U.S. - "aren ' t afforded the same constitutional rights as criminal defendants , or
even the limited rights allowed in military
tribunals," reported the Wall Street Journal. "The White House is considering creating a high-level committee to decide
which prisoners should be denied access to
federal courts."
Answering only to the president, that
"high-level" committee would be an updated Star Chamber tribunal with the
power to imprison at whim any individual
- citizen or noncitizen - as an "enemy
combatant."
"That sort of thing used to happen in the
Soviet Union and may still happen today
in Iran and Iraq, but it's not the sort of thing
that should happen in the United States,"
observes Stephen Dycus of Vermont Law
School. "If the government succeeds in
this case, if its arguments are upheld it
would mean that anybody, anytime could
be labeled an enemy combatant by the atTHE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
torney general and arrested in the middle
of the night and locked away in a military
brig."
The power to seize detainees means little unless there are facilities to hold them,
and the administration has begun - quietly but audibly - to discuss the supposed
need for "detention camps." "The camp
plan was forged at an optimistic time for
Ashcroft 's small inner circle, which has
been carefully watching two test cases
[those of Hamdi and Padilla] .. . to see
whether their vision could become a reality," points out Professor Jonathan Turley
of George Washington University.
"Whereas al-Qaeda is a threat to the
lives of our citizens, Ashcroft [and, it must
be added, the president who appointed
him] has become a clear and present threat
to our liberties," continues Turley. "Ashcroft is a catalyst for constitutional devolution, encouraging citizens to accept autocratic rule as their only way of avoiding
massive terrori st attacks .. .. If we cannot
join together to fight the abomination of
American camps , we have already lost
what we are defending."
The State's Eyes and Ears
Subjects of the Soviet Union, National Socialist (Nazi) Germany, and other totalitarian police states were aware that they were
under constant surveillance, and that any
anti-government utterance could result in
the dreaded "midnight knock" by the secret police. Thanks to the artfully misnamed USA PATRIOT Act - passed over-
whelmingly by Congress before much of
its text had been written - Americans
confront the specter of omnipresent federal surveillance in the name of fighting
terrorism:
• Section 213 of the measure authorizes
"black bag jobs" - covert break-ins - if
they suspect that you are somehow involved in criminal behavior using a personal computer.
• Section 210 authorizes warrantless
wiretaps and eavesdropping on phone
calls, e-mails, and fax communications,
and authorizes the feds to demand detailed
personal customer information (including
credit card and bank account numbers)
from Internet Service Providers and telephone companies.
• One of the most appalling abuses generated by the bogus "war on drugs" is
"asset forfe iture," the practice of seizing
money and other assets allegedly connected to drug trafficking. It isn' t necessary to
demonstrate that the property owner was
somehow implicated in criminal activity,
because the property itself is deemed
"guilty" of a crime. Section 302 of the PATRIOT Act permits "forfeiture of any assets in connection with anti-terrorist efforts
of the United States." If a citizen donates a
single dollar to a group designated a "terrorist" organization, everything he owns
can be seized by the feds.
• Sections 358 and 361 radically expand
federal intrusion in the financial affairs of
citizens. Under section 358, law enforcement and intelligence agencies can compel
15
15. ON THE HOME FRONT
As the campaign for "homeland security"
proceeds, its architects strive to keep
attention focused on foreign enemies.
But nearly all of the proposed "security"
measures are directed inward, at the
potential victims of terrorism, a fact
testifying that the "war on terrorism" is
actually a war on American liberties.
banks, credit card and finance companies,
and other financial agencies to turn over
detailed personal information on targeted
individuals. Section 361 gives the IRS's
FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network) expanded power to collect information on "non-bank networks," such
as barter systems, check-cashing centers,
etc .
• Section 802 offers an ominously elastic definition of "terrorism" including acts
"dangerous to human life" or intended "to
intimidate or coerce a civilian population
[or] to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion." Obviously, violent acts of a political nature
would fall under this definition. But what
about peaceful protests or activism that
leave government officials feeling "intimidated"? They would fall under this definition of "terrorism" as well.
Ambiguous laws are a hallmark of every
police state. So are citizen informants. The
Bush administration's TIPS (Terrorism Information Protection System) would conscript tens of millions of Americans to act
as the eyes and ears of the federal government, using their casual or business associations to spy on friends, neighbors, clients,
or other acquaintances. In Communist East
Germany, roughly one quarter of the population worked as informants for the Stasi
secret police; America in the "war on terrorism" threatens to eclipse that infamous
accomplishment (see page 28).
Federal Police Monolith
In addition to cutting down constitutional
protections and expanding surveillance of
the citizenry, the Bush administration's
counter-terrorism campaign is rapidly amalgamating state and local police and emergency agencies into one vast, monolithic
16
"homeland security" apparatus .
Thi s is potentially disastrous, for
two reasons: First, because a centralized counter-terrorism system
gives terrorists the luxury of a single target; secondly, becau's e a
centralized police system is a prerequisite for creating a totalitarian state.
Significantly, these two liabilities are
mutually reinforcing. On September lIth,
brave local police and firefighters were
called on to give their lives because the
federal government failed to carry out its
chief function - protecting our nation
from attack. The fedgov - steadily expanding its control over local police since
1994 - reacted to its Black Tuesday failure in classic fashion, demanding expanded power over state and local police and
emergency services (also described as "first
responders").
The Bush administration's National
Strategy for Homeland Security contains
this telling statement: "[T]he homeland security community will view the federal ,
state, and local governments as one entity...." Rather than preserving our federal
system, in which the central government
has limited, delegated powers, the Bush
administration is rushing to create a consolidated, nationalized law enforcement
body extending even to passenger and baggage screeners at airports. Somehow, fed-
One possible future: A division of
mechanized infantry occupies Brooklyn in
The Siege, an eerily prescient 1998 motion
picture depicting a terrorist campaign in
New York City. In the aftermath of the
rampage, the military seals off the
borough, demands that Arab-Americans
turn themselves in , and sets up detention
camps to process suspects - measures
not far removed from policy options
presently being discussed by the Bush
administration.
eralizing such employees is supposed to
provide better security. Somehow, phasing
out the state criminal codes in favor of a
national criminal code, and absorbing local
police agencies into a growing national police force, is supposed to provide better law
enforcement. In reality, the notion that our
nation's independent jurisdictions should
be absorbed into "one entity" echoes ominously of a previous effort to nationalize
law enforcement in the name of national
security - the 1933-1936 drive for Gleichschaltung (coordination) in National Socialist Germany (see page 34).
As the campaign to erect a totalitarian
"homeland security" apparatus proceeds,
its architects are striving to keep public attention focused on our foreign enemies whether it 's Osama bin Laden, Saddam
Hussein, or another denizen yet to be identified. But nearly all of the proposed "security" measures are directed inward, at
the potential victims of terrorism. This fact
eloquently testifies that the "war on terrorism" is actually a war on American
liberties . •
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
16. ON THE HOME FRONT
Foundations of the Garrison S
tate
Far from being a reaction to 9-11 , the proposed Department of Homeland Security is
based on an elitist blueprint finished and on the .~residenrs desk before Black Tuesday.
by Steve Bonta
ne of the themes trumpeted in
the news media as a "lesson" to
be learned from 9-11 is that the
federal government is too disorganized
and inefficient to combat effectively a
threat like terrorism. On October 8,
2001 , President Bush established by
executive order the Office of Homeland
Security, with former Pennsylvania
governor Tom Ridge as director. More
recently, the Bush administration has
proposed creating an entirely new cabinet-level department, the Department
of Homeland Security, to fill the alleged
"0
void in homeland defense capabilities. ~
The Department of Homeland Secu- "0
~
rity might at first blush seem an appro- CL
priate prescription for the battle against <t
domestic terrorism. Undeniably, Amer- Orwellian backdrop: President Bush unveils his "Home lan d Security" strategy. Americans naturally
rally around the president in times of criSis, but George W. Bush is exploiti ng public support on
ica does face a serious threat. Moreover,
behalf of an agenda inimical to our freedom .
defending the American homeland is
certainly an important governmental
function. The Founders intended for the D.C. , to promote the policy recommenda- that "Americans will become increasingly
federal government to be able to defend the tions of an obscure task force, the so-called vulnerable to hostile attack on our homeUnited States of America; the weakness of Hart-Rudman Commission. This group, land, and our military superiority will not
the Articles of Confederation in providing known formally as the United States Com- entirely protect us" and that "states, terfor the common defense was one of the mission on ational Security121st Century, rorists, and other disaffected groups will
major factors that led to the 1787 consti- had been working since 1998 on proposals acquire weapons of mass destruction and
tutional convention. But the new Depart- for restructuring the U.S . government to mass disruption, and some will use them.
ment of Homeland Security is unmistak- prepare for 21st century challenges. The Americans will likely die on American
ably an Insider-inspired move to consolidate Commission, originally created at the urg- soil, possibly in large numbers."
dangerous new powers in the executive ing of President Bill Clinton and former
The Hart-Rudman Commission also isbranch of the federal government, and to Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (both sued several other reports recommending
erode the independence of state and local CFR members) , was entirely a CFR proj- changes in the federal government's orgagovernments.
ect. Chaired by former senators and CFR nization. The most important proposal,
veterans Warren Rudman (R-N.H.) and recommended in another Commission reDubious Origins
Gary Hart (D-Colo.), the Commission port entitled Road Map for National SecuThe biggest red flag about the Department sported an impressive roster of CFR Insid- rity, was the creation of a "National Homeof Homeland Security is its origin. Unbe- ers, including CFR president Leslie Gelb, land Security Agency." According to Road
knownst to many Americans, our nation 's former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamil- Map, this agency would have "the responpower elite had carefully planned for an ton, and former Secretary of Defense sibility for planning, coordinating, and inOffice of Homeland Security years before James Schlesinger.
tegrating various U.S. government activiSeptember 11 tho A few days after the
The Hart-Rudman Commission pro- ties involved in homeland security." The
Black Tuesday attacks, the Council on For- duced several studies, beginning with New Hart-Rudman study recommended placing
eign Relations (CFR), the nerve center for World Coming , which forecasted trends Customs, Border Control, the Coast Guard,
America's pro-world-government Estab- and events over the next quarter century. and many other federal agencies under the
lishment, held a meeting in Washington, New World Coming foretells, chillingly, jurisdiction of the new cabinet-level agency.
O
Ql
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
19
17. ON THE HOME FRONT
communications with
state and local governThe new Department of Homeland Security
ments , private industry,
and the American peois unmistakably an Insider-inspired move to
ple about threats and
consolidate dangerous new powers in the
preparedness;
• One dep.artment to
executive branch of the federal government,
coordinate ou~ efforts to
and to erode the independence of state and
protect the American
people against bioterrorlocal governments.
ism and other weapons
of mass destruction ;
• One department to help train and
The agency would also oversee state, local,
and federal law enforcement. Its responsiequip first responders;
• One department to manage fedbilities would include "setting training and
eral emergency response activities.
equipment standards, providing resource
grants, and information sharing among
state emergency management officials, The new department's sweeping jurisdiclocal first responders, the Defense Depart- tion will include, according to the Bush
ment, and the FBI" - all, presumably, to proposal, "food and water systems, agricombat the Commission's predicted threat culture, health systems and emergency serof terrorism.
vices, information and telecommunicaShortly after President Bush took office, tions , banking and finance, energy
members of the Hart-Rudman Commis- (electrical, nuclear, gas and oil, dams),
sion delivered copies of Road Map to the transportation (air, road, rail, ports, waterBush administration. Unsurprisingly, with- ways), the chemical and defense indusin days after September 11 th, President tries, postal and shipping entities, and naBush created his Office of Homeland Se- tional monuments and icons" - in other
curity, followed in June 2002 by a formal words, just about everything, from the food
proposal to create an entirely new depart- we produce and eat and the money we
ment. The blueprint for the new depart- spend to the telephones and email we use
ment followed the CFR panel's recom- to communicate.
The reason for claiming such an all-enmendations almost precisely.
compassing authority is that, in the words
Department of Everything
of the Bush proposal, many functio ns withThe proposed new Department of Home- in the federal government are "currently
land Security, when fully operational, will fragmented" - that is, separated. But once
become the most far-reaching of federal upon a time, "fragmented" government
departments, with a vast jurisdiction em- worked very well; our American constitubracing huge swaths of private activity as tional republic was crafted on the basis of
well as areas of state and local jurisdiction. the separation of powers, so that, in MadiAccording to President Bush 's own pro- son's words, we could "first enable the
government to control the governed; and
posal, issued last June:
in the next place, oblige it to control itself."
The Department of Homeland SecuThe Founders believed that the powers the
rity would make Americans safer benew Constitution enumerated would enable the new federal government to govern
cause our nation would have:
effectively, despite the careful separation
• One department whose primary
mission is to protect the American
of powers and checks and balances that the
homeland;
Founders created.
Yet the Bush administration is dissatis• One department to secure our
borders, transportation sector, ports,
fied with the federal arrangement. Homeand critical infrastructure;
land Security chief Tom Ridge, speaking
in November 2001, explained that home• One department to synthesize and
land security was "to be a national strategy
analyze homeland security intelligence from multiple sources;
- not a federal strategy. The national strat• One department to coordinate
egy that the president envisions will in20
volve all levels of government, federal,
state and local. It will tap the creative genius and resources of both the public and
the private sectors .... Our national strategy
will focus all the instruments of national
power at our qisposal." A July 2002 document produced by the Office of Homeland
Security made the picture still clearer, insisting that "the homeland security community will view the federal , state, and
local governments as one entity."
Since the Constitution's ratification, the
power and scope of the federal government
have grown enormously, far exceeding its
origi nal constitutional limits. Never in
American history - except, arguably, in
wartime - has the federal government enjoyed more power over state and local governments and individual American citizens
than now. The federal government is the
largest employer in the United States, and
even those of us working in the private sector still toil for months every year just earning the money to pay our federal taxes.
Rules and regulations constrain our every
activity, stifling private enterprise while
spawning a vast professional sector of accountants, lawyers, and consultants who
spend their time teaching us how to navigate
the shoals of the federal bureaucratic ocean.
What need, then , do we have of yet another federal regu latory behemoth? Our
problem is not that the federal government
is too diffuse, or too fragmented. It's too
large and too powerful , operating well beyond its constitutionally defined limits.
Any new Department of Homeland Security will add huge new regulatory burdens
and further expand the activities of the federal government into areas where it isn't
authorized to act.
Feds and First Responders
According to the Bush proposal, the new
department would "coordinate, simplify,
and where appropriate consolidate government relations on its issues for America's state and local agencies. It wou ld coordinate federal homeland security
programs and information with state and
local officials .... It would manage federal
grant programs for enhancing the preparedness of firefighters , police, and emergency medical personnel. It would set standards for state and local preparedness
activities and equipment to ensure that
these funds are spent according to good
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
18. statewide and regional plans." Quite so:
The new department will be in the business
of dictating to state and local "fIrst responders" - fIre, police, and other emergency
workers - how better to do their jobs, via
the inevitable federal standards and guidelines (read: "bureaucratic red tape").
Yet on September 11 th, the federal government did little to help the stricken people of lower Manhattan. Instead, even as
Washington's elite huddled at a safe distance, New York City's "fIrst responders"
- without the benefIt of any federally imposed mandates or standards - rushed
into the flaming skyscrapers. Without federal supervision, they dragged many of the
wounded to safety, and, when the towers
fell, many heroic "fIrst responders" gave
their lives. The only Americans able to
confront the terrorists were the heroic
passengers on United Airlines Flight 93,
who, without the benefIt of military training or modern weaponry, hastily organized
a counterattack against the men who had
commandeered their plane, bringing it
down in a remote Pennsylvania fIeld
rather than allowing it to reach its intended target.
September 11 th was a story of improvised, frontline heroics by ordinary American citizens, and of panic and confusion
on the part of the federal government,
which had ignored and even suppressed
critical intelligence prior to the attack.
There's no basis for believing that the
federal government should be entrusted
with supervisory authority over all our
multilayered defenses against terrorist
attack, and every reason to believe that
state and local "fIrst responders," free of
federal interference, will do a better job
every time.
The proposed Department of Homeland Security, then, is a gigantic, Insiderinspired new push to amass power at the
federal level, and especially in the executive branch. Its misguided agenda to consolidate power over domestic security will
be implemented at the expense of state and
local independence, and will help lay the
groundwork for a national police force .
The Department of Homeland Security
will prove in the long run to be the organizational template for massive new inroads
on the sovereignty, privacy and freedoms
of state and local governments as well as
private citizens . •
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
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19. ill of
ights
:First rren fZLmendments to the Constitution
.9Lrtic{e I. Congress sfia{{ mal(g no raw respecting an esta6{isfiment of re{igion, or profiioiting tfie
free e'tercise tfiereoj; or aoriaging tfie freecfom of
speecfi, or of tfie press; or tfie rigfit of tfie peop{e
peacea6{y to assem6{e, ana to petition tfie government for a rearess ofgrievances_
.9Lrtic{e I I. 5t we{{-regu{atea miatia oeing
necessary to tfie security of a free state, tfie rigfit of
tfie peop{e to I(gep ana oear arms sfia{{ not oe
infringed.
.9Lrtic{e I I I . 'J{p soUier sfia{['
in time of
peace, oe quarterea in any fiouse, witfiout tfie
consent of tfie owneTj nor in time of war, out in a
manner to oe prescrioea oy raw_
.9Lrtic{e 10/. 'Tfie rigfit of tfie peop{e to oe
secure in tfieir persons, fiouses, papers, ana effects
against unreasona6{e searcfies ana seizures sfia{{
not oe vio{atee( ana no warrants sfia{{ issue, out
upon prooa6{e cause, supportea oy oatfi or affirmation, ana particu{ady aescrioing tfie peace to oe
searcfiee( ana tfie persons or tfiings to oe seized.
.9Lrtic{e 0/.
'J{p person sfia{{ oe fie{a to answer
for a capita{, or otfierwise infamous crime, un{ess on
a presentment or inaictment of a granajury, e~ept
in cases arising in tfie rana or nava{forces, or in tfie
miatia, wfien in actua{ service in time of war or
pu6{ic aanger; nor sfia{{ any person oe suoject for
tfie same offense to oe twice put in jeoparay of {ife
or amo; nor sfia{{ oe compe{{ea in any crimina{ case
to oe a witness against fiimser;; nor oe aeprivea of
{ife, a6erty, or property, witfiout aue process of raw;
nor sfia{{ private property oe tal(gn for pu6{ic use,
witfiout just compensation_
.9Lrtic{e 0/1. In a{{ crimina{ prosecutions tfie
accusea sfia{{ enjoy tfie rigfit to a speeay ana pu6{ic
tria[, oy an impartia{jury of tfie state ana aistrict
wfierein tfie crime sfia{{ fiave oeen committee( wfiicfi
aistrict sfia{{ fiave oeen previous{y ascertainea oy
raw, ana to oe informea of tfie nature ana cause of
tfie accusation; to oe confrontea witfi tfie witnesses
against fiim; to fiave compufsory process for ootaining witnesses in fiis favor, ana to fiave tfie assistance of counse{for fiis aejense_
.9Lrtic{e 0/11. In suits at common raw, wfiere
the va{ue in controversy sfia{{ e'tceea twenty ao{rars,
tfie rigfit of triaC oy jury sfia{{ oe preservee( ana no
fact triea oy ajury sfia{{ oe otfierwise re-qaminea in
any court oj tfie 'llniteaStates, tfian accoraing to tfie
ru{es of tfie common {aw_
.9Lrtic{e 0/111. 'E'tcessive oai{ sfia{{ not oe
requiree( nor e'tcessive fines imposee( nor crue{ ana
unusua{ punisfiments inf{ictea_
.9Lrtic{e IX.
'Tfie enumeration in tfie
Constitution, ofcertain rigfits, sfia{{ not oe construea
to aeny or aisparage otfiers retainea oy tfie peop{e_
.9Lrtic{e X . 'Tfie powers not adegatea to tfie
'llnitea States oy tfie Constitution, nor profiioitea
oy it to tfie states, are reservea to tfie states respective{y, or to tfie peop{e_
mean Serrers ~ord
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20. ON THE HOME FRONT
Militarizing Mayberry
State and local police agencies are being transformed into paramilitary affiliates of a
centralized police force controlled by Washingtof)J. D.C.
.~
by William Norman Grigg
ber 11th attack.
"We should always be reviewing things
like Posse Comitatus and other laws if we
think it ties our hands in protecting the
American people," stated four-star general
Ralph E. Eberhart on July 17th. Air Force
General Eberhart, heads the recently cre-
tus Act of 1878 and any other laws that
sharply restrict the military's ability to parn the mythical hamlet of Mayberry, as
ticipate in domestic law enforcement," redepicted on the beloved Andy Griffith
ported the July 18th New York Times.
Show, Sheriff Andy Taylor wore his
"Posse Comitatus" means "power of the
authority lightly, rarely even carrying a
county." The 1878 act, which ended the
gun. His comically high-strung deputy,
military occupation of the Southern states
Barney Fife, was issued a single
after the Civil War, prohibits the
bullet, which he never used.
use of the military "as a posse
While The Andy Griffith Show is
comitatus or otherwise to execute
the laws ...." A 1981 congressionidealized fiction, "Sheriff Andy"
does embody an authentic Amerial report pointed out that the Posse
Comitatus Act encapsulates "the
can concept of law enforcement:
The lawman whose role is to protraditional Anglo-American printect and serve the community in
ciple of separation of military and
which he lives.
civilian spheres of authority, one
The antithesis of that noble conof the fundamental precepts of our
cept is an army of occupation, acform of government." Moreover,
countable only to the distant ruling
that act acknowledges a largely
elite whose whims it enforces on a
forgotten fact about our constitutyrannized population. Tragically,
tional system: Law enforcement is
America is moving away from the
properly an almost exclusive conidealized concept of law enforcecern of local, county, and state
ment toward the totalitarian model.
governments.
With increasing federal involve"Since the writing of the Decment in law enforcement has come
laration of Independence, Ameriincreasing militarization. That
cans have mistrusted standing
process, already underway before
armies and have seen them as inBlack Tuesday, has accelerated
struments of oppression and tyrandramatically because of that atrocny," observed Matthew Carlton
ity, with ominous implications for
~ Hammond in a 1997 analysis pubour liberties.
~ lished by the Washington Univer~ sity Law Quarterly. "Over time,
War at Home
« the military has increased its esDependable duo: In The Andy Griffith Show, Sheriff Andy and
"Flame throwers? Tanks? Yes teem among the populace, but it
his comic sidekick Barney Fife embodied the ideal of locally
use ' em. Helicopters? Bazookas? accountable law enforcement. That ideal is being eclipsed as the
has always been held separate from
Cannons? Sure ." Against whom federal government expands its control over increasingly
civilian government and limited to
would this formidable arsenal be militarized local police.
its focused goal of military prearrayed ? AI-Qaeda, perhaps, or
paredness and national security."
Taliban holdouts in Afghanistan?
Obviously, those who enlist to
Or maybe murderous Abu Sayyaf terrorist ated Northern Command, assigned the spe- serve as either military personnel or police
cadres in the Philippines? No. The speak- cific task of protecting the U.S. homeland. carry out tasks that are both honorable and
er is not a military commander, but former
Eberhart's suggestion was echoed by indispensable to the preservation of our
Minneapolis police chief Tony Bouza, cap- Homeland Security Adviser Tom Ridge, liberties. But those roles involve mutually
tured on film in Urban Warrior, a docu- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman incompatible approaches to the use of
mentary depicting the accelerating drive to Joseph Biden (D-Del.), and numerous pun- force, as well as different lines of authormilitarize local police. Significantly, the dits. The Bush administration "has direct- ity. "Civilian law enforcement is traditioninterview with Bouza was conducted by ed lawyers in the Departments of Justice ally local in character, responding to needs
director Matt Ehling prior to the Septem- and Defense to review the Posse Comita- at the city, county, or state level," Ham-
I
"0
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
23
21. ON THE HOME FRONT
enforcement.''' The HRT,
continues Hardy, is part of
Those who enlist to serve as either military
"an elite military force ...
of growing size: nearly 10
personnel or police carry out tasks that are
percent of the FBI is
both honorable and indispensable to the
presently enrolled in its
HRT teams . or the many
preservation of our liberties. But those roles
other SWAT~like units creinvolve mutually incompatible approaches
ated by other agencies."
Prior to the February
to the use of force.
1993 ATF assault on Waco's
Branch Davidian church,
mond notes. Police are trained for "civil- then-Texas Governor Ann Richards was
ian law enforcement," meaning that they able to exploit a "drug war" loophole in the
are expected "to use lesser forms of force Posse Corrtitatus Act inserted by Congress
when possible [and] to draw their weapons in 1989. Falsely asserting that the Davidians were implicated in drug trafficking,
only when they are prepared to fire."
For military personnel, Hammond con- Richards signed a waiver requesting militinues, "escalation is the rule" - and quite tary support for the raid. This perrrtitted the
properly so, given their specific responsi- FBI to deploy tanks, aircraft, supplies,
bilities. "The military exists to carry out manpower, and high-tech equipment durthe external mission of defending the na- ing the 51 -day siege.
tion. Thus, in an encounter with a person
identified with the enemy, soldiers need What Happened to Mayberry?
not be cognizant of individual rights ...." Even greater damage has resulted from onPolice analyst Diane Cecilia Weber elabo- going efforts to transform state and local
rates on that point: "[T]he mindset of the law enforcement agencies into paramilisoldier is simply not appropriate for the tary armies of occupation in their commucivilian police officer. Police officers con- nities - a process Weber describes as
front not an 'enemy,' but individuals who "Militarizing Mayberry."
Legal analyst Hammond points out that
are protected by the Bill of Rights. Confusing the police function with the rrtilitary federal courts have authorized "exceptions
function can lead to dangerous and unin- in name" to the Posse Comitatus Act that
tended consequences - such as unneces- "allow the military to provide equipment
and supplies, technical assistance, inforsary shootings and killings."
Mackubin Thomas Owens, professor of mation, and training to law enforcement
strategy and force planning at the Naval agencies," most commonly under the
War College, concurs. "Employing the U.S. rubric of the "war on drugs." By way of
military as a domestic police force is a this exception, "Congress has encouraged
recipe for disaster," writes Owens. "The the U.S. military to supply intelligence,
U.S. rrtilitary is structured to play 'away equipment, and training to civilian police,"
games.' It is good at protecting the United notes Weber. "That encouragement has
States by threatening the sanctuary of our spawned a culture of paramilitarism in
adversaries abroad. There are, of course, American law enforcement."
While relatively few Americans have
things the military can do to enhance the
security of the American homeland, but we had traumatic run-ins with federal parashould not be blurring further the distinc- militaries, the federally funded militarization between rrtilitary activities and do- tion of local police directly impacts nearly
every American community. By the end of
mestic law enforcement."
That critical border has become partic- the 1990s, writes Weber, "nearly 90 perularly thin where it divides the military cent of the police departments surveyed in
from federal law enforcement agencies. communities with populations over 50,000
Former federal attorney David Hardy had pararrtilitary units, as did 70 percent of
points out that the FBI's "Hostage Rescue the departments surveyed in communities
Team" (HRT), which played a lethal role with populations under 50,000. The Penin the stand-offs at Ruby Ridge and Waco, tagon has been equipping those units with
"was superbly trained for war, not for 'law M-16s, armored personnel carriers, and
24
grenade launchers. The police pararrtilitary
units also conduct training exercises with
active duty Army Rangers and Navy
SEALs."
This sharing of technology and training "is prodqcing a shared mindset" between the military and police, warns
Weber. She cites the example of a small
Midwestern town whose police department "sends out patrols dressed in tactical
uniform in a military personnel carrier. The
armored vehicle, according to the SWAT
commander, stops 'suspicious vehicles and
people. We'll stop anything that moves.
We'll sometimes even surround suspicious
homes and bring out the MP5 s [machine
guns].' "
Another tactical officer with a metropolitan force refers to "saturation patrols"
carried out by tactical teams in his city:
"We do a lot of our work with the SWAT
unit because we have bigger guns. We send
out two, two-to-four men cars, we look for
minor violations and do jump-outs, either
on people or on the street or automobiles.
After we jump out the second car provides
periphery cover with an ostentatious display of weaponry."
It is important to recognize that these
snapshots of the emerging U.S. garrison
state come from local officers increasingly funded and trained by the federal government. The training they receive, in tum,
is largely derived from doctrines put into
practice in UN "peacekeeping" rrtissions
overseas, in which co-mingling of police
and military roles is the rule, rather than
the exception.
In Macedonia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and
elsewhere, many U.S. military personnel
carry out a role similar to that of "beat
cops" on American streets. "We were essentially used to 'enforce the peace' by
being there and maintaining a presence,"
retired Army Sergeant Joe Kelly, who
served in the Bosnian peacekeeping mission, told THE NEW AMERICAN. "We would
do foot patrols, guard cemeteries, help put
down riots , and every once in a while we'd
'lock and load' just to let some hard cases
know we were serious." This approach resembles that of the tactical officers described above. That similarity reflects the
extent to which our independent, local police forces are being amalgamated into a
centralized, rrtilitarized, "internal security"
apparatus . •
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
22. ON THE HOME FRONT
Their Target: Your Guns
With America on the front line of the terror war, it would be insane to disarm law-abiding
citizens. Yet this is what the UN seeks - and the B ~.s h administration is qUietly acquiescing.
This is clearly illustrated in the recent debate over arming commercial
airline pilots. Though the president
his declaration of rights, as
himself avoided publicly discussing the
I take it, is intended to seissue, his staff took the lead in pushing
cure the people against the
the restriction of firearms possession to
mal-administration of the government,"
agents of the state. Speaking on behalf
stated Congressman Elbridge Gerry
of the administration , Undersecretary
(Mass.) as he opened di scussion of the
of Transportation John Magaw told a
Second Amendment on August 17,
May 21st congressional hearing: "The
1789. "If we could suppose that, in all
use of firearms aboard a U.S. aircraft
cases, the rights of the people would be
must be limited to ... thoroughly trained
attended to, the occasion for guards of
members of law enforcement." Conthis kind would be removed ... . Whenfronted with a grounds well of public supever Governments mean to invade the
POlt for congressional proposals to arm
rights and liberties of the people, they
pilots, administration officials unveiled
always attempt to destroy the militia, in
a tiny "test" program for a selected arorder to raise an army upon their ruins."
mament of pilots just before the vote.
Like the other Founders, Gerry used
That the Bush administration doesthe term "militia" to describe an armed,
n' t even trust pistols to airline pilotslaw-abiding citizenry capable of demany of whom, after all, had previousfending their homes and communities.
ly been entrusted with nuclear weapons
Recognizing the right to armed self~
~ as Air Force pilots speaks volumes
defense within the Bill of Rights sets
the U.S. apart from nearly every other
~.~~~~!J ~ about the elitist worldview of the Bush
::iI
~ administration with respect to firearms
government in history up until that
ownership.
time. During the debate over ratifying The UN's anti-gun vision is displayed in this
the Constitution, James Madison con- sculpture entitled "Disarmament," positioned as the
first thing a visitor sees when entering the courtyard
George W VS. 2nd Amendment
.
trasted "the advantage of being armed, at UN Headquarters. According to the world body,
Gun confiscation proponents prefer to
which the Americans possess over the governments must disarm their subjects to have a
frame discussion in terms of what the
people of almost every other nation," to monopoly on force - a view that led to tens of
Second Amendment "permits" citizens
"the military establishments in the sev- millions of deaths during the 20th Century.
to do, rather than what it forbids the
eral kingdoms of Europe ... [where] the
federal government to do. That amendgovernments are afraid to trust the people with arms ." The Founders rightfully ership were in place before the genocide ment, properly understood, imposes a
viewed an armed population as free citi- took place. The authors conclude that "an comprehensive ban on federal laws and
zens, and a disarmed population as slaves armed citizenry is as close to being immu- policies infringing on the right of armed
subject to the whim of the state.
nized against genocide as seems possible." self-defense. The Bush administration, like
Tyrants throughout history have always
Governments either recognize and pro- its predecessor, favors uncon stitutional
monopolized the use of force . This is par- tect the individual right to keep and bear measures amounting to an incremental asticularly true of modem totalitarian states. arms or embrace the totalitarian notion that sault on that right. A Bush administration
During the 20th century, the dreadful cost the state exclusively enjoys the use of fact sheet stated that "in addition to strict
of "gun control" has become painfully ev- force. Some nations not blessed with the enforcement of existing gun laws, the President. In their study Lethal Laws, re- equivalent of our Second Amendment have ident supports expanding instant backsearchers Jay Simkin, Aaron Zelman, and governments that allow private gun own- ground checks to close the gun show loopAlan Rice surveyed the eight bloodiest ership, but only as a limited and revocable hole and banning the importation of
genocidal regimes over the last 100 years privilege. The Bush administration, despite high-capacity ammunition clips."
- among them Hitler's Germany and So- its pro-Second Amendment posturing, has
In May 2001, President Bush initiated
viet Russia - and found that in every case embraced the totalitarian perspective on "Project Safe Neighborhoods" (PSN), a
severe restrictions on citizen firearms own- this fundamental issue.
major federal program with limitless poby Thomas R. Eddlem
,,T
THE NEW AMERICAN • OCTOBER 7, 2002
25
