Red alert
FEMA camps, martial law and indefinite detention without trial
"The President has the power to seize property, organize and control the means of production, seize commodities, assign military forces abroad, call reserve forces amounting to 2 1/2 million men to duty, institute martial law, seize and control all menas of transportation, regulate all private enterprise, restrict travel, and in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of all Americans... "Most [of these laws] remain a a potential source of virtually unlimited power for a President should he choose to activate them. It is possible that some future President could exercise this vast authority in an attempt to place the United States under authoritarian rule. "While the danger of a dictatorship arising through legal means may seem remote to us today, recent history records Hitler seizing control through the use of the emergency powers provisions contained in the laws of the Weimar Republic." -- Joint Statement, Sens. Frank Church (D-ID) and Charles McMathias (R-MD) September 30, 1973 http://www.politechbot.com/p-00106.html
Tom Ridge's Mea Culpa: The Code Orange Terror Alerts were based on Fake Intelligence by Michel Chossudovsky http://www.globalresearch.ca 12 May 2005 The URL of this article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/505A.html
Secret Police Concentration Camps http://www.hermes-press.com/gonzalez5.htm In a revealing admission in June, 1997, the Director of Resource Management for the U.S. Army confirmed the validity of a memorandum relating to the establishment of a civilian inmate labor program under development by the Department of the Army. The document states, "Enclosed for your review and comment is the draft Army regulation on civilian inmate labor utilization" and the procedure to "establish civilian prison camps on installations." Amid widespread rumors, Congressman Henry Gonzales clarified the question of the existence of civilian detention camps. In an interview, Gonzalez stated, "The truth is yes -- you do have these stand by provisions, and the plans are here...whereby you could, in the name of stopping terrorism...evoke the military and arrest Americans and put them in detention camps."
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html? article_id=eed74d9d44c30493706fe03f4c9b3a77
Homeland Security Contracts for Vast New Detention Camps News Analysis/Commentary, Peter Dale Scott, New America Media, Jan 31, 2006
Editor's Note: A little-known $385 million contract for Halliburton subsidiary KBR to build detention facilities for "an emergency influx of immigrants" is another step down the Bush administration's road toward martial law, the writer says. BERKELEY, Calif.--A Halliburton subsidiary has just received a $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to provide "temporary detention and processing capabilities." The contract -- announced Jan. 24 by the engineering and construction firm KBR -- calls for preparing for "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs" in the event of other emergencies, such as "a natural disaster." The release offered no details about where Halliburton was to build these facilities, or when.
Editor's Note: A little-known $385 million contract for Halliburton subsidiary KBR to build detention facilities for "an emergency influx of immigrants" is another step down the Bush administration's road toward martial law, the writer says.
BERKELEY, Calif.--A Halliburton subsidiary has just received a $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to provide "temporary detention and processing capabilities."
The contract -- announced Jan. 24 by the engineering and construction firm KBR -- calls for preparing for "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs" in the event of other emergencies, such as "a natural disaster." The release offered no details about where Halliburton was to build these facilities, or when.
Iranian - Americans protest Ashkroft round-up (Los Angeles, CA)
Color Wheel of Fascism http://www.falloutshelternews.com/ColorWheelFascism.html a handy guide to terror alerts
Bush civil rights commissioner warns of detention camps http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jul2002/kirs-j26.shtml
http://www.cryptome.org/garden-plot.htm martial law plans are not new ("Homeland Security" is a term coined toward the end of the Clinton administration)
New Jersey says "red alert" means entire state must stay home -- MARTIAL LAW -- STATE OF SIEGE
http://www.southjerseynews.com/issues/march/m031603e.htm Red alert? Stay home, await word Sunday, March 16, 2003 By TOM BALDWIN Gannett State Bureau TRENTON
If the nation escalates to "red alert," which is the highest in the color-coded readiness against terror, you will be assumed by authorities to be the enemy if you so much as venture outside your home, the state's anti-terror czar says. "This state is on top of it," said Sid Caspersen, New Jersey's director of the office of counter-terrorism. Caspersen, a former FBI agent, was briefing reporters, alongside Gov. James E. McGreevey, on Thursday, when for the first time he disclosed the realities of how a red alert would shut the state down. A red alert would also tear away virtually all personal freedoms to move about and associate. "Red means all noncritical functions cease," Caspersen said. "Noncritical would be almost all businesses, except health-related." A red alert means there is a severe risk of terrorist attack, according to federal guidelines from the Department of Homeland Security. "The state will restrict transportation and access to critical locations," says the state's new brochure on dealing with terrorism. "You must adhere to the restrictions announced by authorities and prepare to evacuate, if instructed. Stay alert for emergency messages." Caspersen went further than the brochure. "The government agencies would run at a very low threshold," he said. "The state police and the emergency management people would take control over the highways. "You literally are staying home, is what happens, unless you are required to be out. No different than if you had a state of emergency with a snowstorm."
http://www.post-gazette.com/nation/20030330codered0330p6.asp Code Red would trigger a virtual lockdown Top terror alert could shut landmarks, ground planes, stop trains or trigger roadblocks Sunday, March 30, 2003 By Michael Collins, Scripps Howard News Service
WASHINGTON -- National landmarks such as the Washington Monument, Ellis Island and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis could be shut down. Planes could be grounded, trains could stop running, and bridges and tunnels could be closed. U.S. borders might be sealed off, and roadblocks might be set up on interstates and other major highways. The United States is prepared to go into lockdown mode if the government should raise the nation's terror alert to Code Red, the highest threat level for terrorism. Code Red means there is a severe risk of terrorist attack, or that an attack is imminent or may already be under way. "It essentially means you stop doing everything except protecting yourself," said Dave McIntyre, deputy director of the Anser Institute for Homeland Security, a nonprofit research group in Arlington, Va. Homeland security officials have put Americans on notice to brace for the possibility of terrorist attacks while the country is at war with Iraq. The threat level was raised to orange, the second highest, just two days before the war began March 19. "There are no plans, nor have their been any discussions, about elevating the threat level to Code Red," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. To trigger such an alert, U.S. intelligence would have to be "very specific, credible, corroborated [and] provide us with information such as time, date, location" of a possible attack, Johndroe said. Still, federal, state and local officials across the country are going over emergency plans to be prepared in the event that the terror level should be raised to red. Homeland security officials have been vague about what protective measures might be taken under Code Red. But Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has said such measures might be similar to those put in place Sept. 11, 2001, which means planes could be grounded, borders closed, government buildings shut down and road and rail traffic curtailed. The specific response would depend on the nature of the threat. It's doubtful that the entire country would be placed under a Code Red alert, McIntyre said. A more realistic scenario is that a red alert would result from a specific threat to a particular region or industry. If, for example, there were a terrorist threat against the trucking industry in the Southeast, truck traffic might be temporarily halted in that region but be allowed to continue elsewhere, McIntyre said. Code Red wouldn't mean automatic closure of the Washington Monument and other national landmarks. But superintendents at national parks have been advised that shutting down the facilities is an option at their discretion, said David Barna, a spokesman for the National Park Service. Security was tightened at eight high-profile landmarks, including the Washington Monument, the Liberty Bell pavilion and the Statue of Liberty, after Sept. 11 because they are symbols of democracy and are thus potential terrorist targets, Barna said. Visitors at those landmarks now face airport-security type measures, such as metal detectors, bag searches and checks for explosive devices. Patrols also have been stepped up since the terror alert was raised to orange. But Barna said the landmarks would remain open if possible because they are places of solace that should be available to the public in times of war. A Code Red alert also serves as an advisory to state and local officials, who then must decide whether to put in place protective measures. Emergency plans will vary with each community, but might include calling up the National Guard, closing government buildings and shutting down key roads and bridges. Some schools have plans to lock down their facilities during Code Red and already have begun advising parents not to rush to pick up their children. Residents would be advised to stay away from gathering places, such as sporting events, and listen to the radio or television for instructions. They should be prepared to leave if necessary, but should remain in their homes or offices until they are instructed to leave, McIntyre said. "The worst thing you can do is to flee without reason," which could create gridlock on the streets and keep emergency vehicles from getting through, he said. Emergency measures taken under Code Red would be expensive and aren't intended to remain in effect for extended periods, McIntyre said
http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204~21474~1251515,00.html WASHINGTON Should war with Iraq erupt, Southern Californians could find themselves living in a world of restricted travel, constrained trade, closed schools and public buildings, canceled events and hypersecurity.
your tax dollars at work
Grand Central Station, New York City, February 2003 partial-martial law has already begun
Concentration Camps for Citizens - Ashcroft's Hellish Vision http://www.latimes.com/la-oe-turley14aug14.story http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0814-05.htm
http://www.counterpunch.com/shivani0807.html 21st century police state
http://www.counterpunch.com/shivani0813.html "What's next, concentration camps?"
http://www.counterpunch.org/valentine0824.html Operation Phoenix and Homeland (in)Security
Phoenix program (vietnam war assassination program) vet runs part of Homeland Security agency
http://www.counterpunch.com/homeland1.html more on Operation Phoenix - the model for Homeland inSecurity
Guantanamo - 'A Live Experiment In Long-Term Interrogation' Meanwhile 4,000 Miles Away In Guantanamo Bay, 660 Prisoners Have No Idea When They Will Be Freed By Andrew Buncombe The Independent - UK 11-19-2003
Indefinite Detention
There is a long list of outrages to our democratic rights in recent years - the "legalization" of indefinite detention on the mere assertion of the president may be one of the most troubling yet.
Associated Press [US] January 8th, 2003
WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the government can hold U.S. citizens as enemy combatants during wartime without the constitutional protections afforded Americans in criminal prosecutions. In overturning a lower court ruling, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., said the status of 21-year-old Yaser Esam Hamdi as a citizen did not change the fact he was captured in Afghanistan while fighting alongside Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. "Judicial review does not disappear during wartime, but the review of battlefield captures in overseas conflicts is a highly deferential one" to the government, the judges wrote. Attorney General John Ashcroft hailed the decision, calling it "an important victory for the president's ability to protect the American people in times of war." "Detention of enemy combatants prevents them from rejoining the enemy and continuing to fight against America and its allies, and has long been upheld by our nation's courts, regardless of the citizenship of the enemy combatant," Ashcroft said in a statement. Hamdi was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 after a prison uprising by suspected Taliban and al-Qaida members. He was transported along with hundreds of other alleged enemy soldiers to a prison at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It was discovered Hamdi had been born in Louisiana to Saudi parents, who later returned with their son to Saudi Arabia. He has been held in a naval brig in Norfolk, Va., since April. Hamdi's case is seen by some as a major legal test case to determine the government's ability to hold citizens without access to a lawyer or the courts. If Hamdi can be imprisoned in a military jail with few of the constitutional protections afforded Americans facing criminal prosecution, critics say, then other U.S. citizens could be similarly held. A federal judge in Norfolk, Va., agreed, ruling in August that Hamdi should at least have a right to a lawyer and a chance to see the government's evidence against him. The circuit court agreed that the case raises serious questions about the rights of citizens but concluded that, in wartime, the government's authority is supreme in deciding who may be held indefinitely. Hamdi, the judges said, was "squarely within the zone of active combat" when captured and is being lawfully detained. The courts, they added, have only limited authority to intervene in such national security matters. "Any effort to ascertain the facts concerning the petitioner's conduct while amongst the nation's enemies would entail an unacceptable risk of obstructing war efforts authorized by Congress and undertaken by the executive branch," the 54-page opinion said. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=533& e=3&cid=533&u=/ap/20030108/ap_on_go_ot/ afghan_american_prisoners
US prisoners from Afghanistan being flown to the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp (built by Halliburton corporation, Dick Cheney's company) photos leaked to the Art Bell show note the total sensory deprivation (goggles, nose and mouth muzzle, ear muffs and lack of provisions for bathroom functions (each prisoner has a towel under them to soak up urine)
Hi, The following is a press release for the press conference organized in support of Cpt. James Yee by Cecilia Chang of Justice for New Americans here in San Francisco. This is the statement I will make on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild Military Law Task Force. Marti HikenMilitary Law Task Force National Lawyers Guild 318 Ortega Street San Francisco, CA 94122 415-566-3732 * fax: 415-564-1945 Contact: Marti Hiken, co-chair MLTF mlhiken@pacbell.net November 12, 3003
My name is Marti Hiken. I'm co-chair of the NLG MLTF. Cpt. Yousef (James) Lee was stationed at The U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo -- a 45 square mile piece of land on the southeastern side of Cuba. There is a 17.4 mile fence, guarded by 120 Marines, separating the base from Cuba. He was one of about 3500 troops, sailors, Coast Guard and intelligence agents on the base working at the Navy airstrip and harbor, and the prison. The U.S. Southern Command established The Joint Task Force- Guantanamo to command the base. It states that its mission is to support detainee operation activities at the Holding Facility for Al Qaeda, Taliban or other terrorist personnel that come under US control as a result of the ongoing War on Terrorism, and also to serve as the Department of Defense's focal point for interrogation operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Camp Delta, Guantanamo is a concentration camp. Except for Auschwitz's mass slaughter of its prisoners, Guantanamo is run no differently from Manzanar or the German equivalents during WWII. Like Auschwitz, Guantanamo is housed on foreign soil but controlled by the invading country. Cpt. Yousef Lee was one of the few who had contact with the prisoners at this concentration camp. The US government has systematically denied the human rights of those 660 imprisoned there. Some of them are teenagers, some are older than 80 years old. Attempted suicides, torture and the development of new torture and control techniques is occurring in the name of the American people. The government is step-by-step eliminating all contact from anyone having contact with the prisoners. The Lynn Stewart case is an indication that this government will attempt to disbar any attorney who provides defense and support to the "terrorist" clients. After lawyers, who else would have access to the prisoners that the government would eliminate? Chaplains. Thus, Chaplain Yee is arrested and confined. Who is next next in line? Translators. Ahmad Al-Halabi and Ahmed Fathy Mehalba. Both currently confined in military brigs. They also had the opportunity to meet solo with some of the prisoners. The Camp Delta prisoners are held incommunicado, no charges, no counsel. By excluding attorneys, chaplains, translators, the media, and human rights organizations, the prisoners are left to the interrogators and prison guards. As with any concentration camp, ultimately the fact that it exists will come back to haunt us as a people. Yee should be set free immediately -- Camp Delta should be shut down and the entire base at Guantanamo returned to the Cuban people.
Previous Plans for Martial Law Vietnam War Protests, Iran-Contra Ignored by American Society, Now the Plans Have Metastasized
from http://www.prorev.com/fema.htm In a July 1983 series in the San Francisco Examiner, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Knut Royce reported that a presidential directive had been drafted by a few Carter administration personnel in 1979 to allow the military to take control of the government for 90 days in the event of an emergency. A caveat on page one of the directive said, "Keeping the government functioning after a nuclear war is a secret, costly project that detractors claim jeopardizes US traditions and saves a privileged few." According to Royce there was a heated debate within the Carter administration as to just what constituted an "emergency." The issue arose again during the Iran-Contra affair, but even in the wake of all the copy on that scandal, the public got little sense of how far some America's soldiers of fortune were willing to go to achieve their ends. When the Iran-Contra hearings came close to the matter, chair Senator Inouye backed swiftly away. Here is an excerpt from those hearings. Oliver North is at the witness table:
REP BROOKS: Colonel North, in your work at the NSC, were you not assigned, at one time, to work on plans for the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster? BRENDAN SULLIVAN: Mr. Chairman? SEN INOUYE: I believe that question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area so may I request that you not touch on that. REP BROOKS: I was particularly concerned, Mr. Chairman, because I read in Miami papers, and several others, that there had been a plan developed by that same agency, a contingency plan in the event of emergency, that would suspend the American constitution. And I was deeply concerned about it and wondered if that was the area in which he had worked. I believe that it was and I wanted to get his confirmation. SEN INOUYE; May I most respectfully request that that matter not be touched upon at this stage. If we wish to get into this, I'm certain arrangements can be made for an executive session
With few exceptions, the media ignored what well could be the most startling revelation to have come out of the Iran/Contra affair, namely that high officials of the US government were planning a possible military/civilian coup. First among the exceptions was the Miami Herald, which on July 5, 1987, ran the story to which Jack Brooks referred. The article, by Alfonzo Chardy, revealed Oliver North's involvement in plans for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to take over federal, state and local functions during an ill-defined national emergency. The Constitution does not directly address the question of what should happen in the midst of a major national catastrophe. But neither does it give the slightest support to notions of turning matters over to non-elected civilian or military officials with plenary powers. The best guide is to be found in Amendment Ten which states that the powers of the federal government are those delegated to it by the states and the people. The states and the people have not delegated the power of martial law. Thus in a true crisis (such as a nuclear attack) the answer seems quite plain: the country would be run as a loose confederation of fifty states until a legitimate federal government could be re-established. In the interim, the highest constitutional officials in the land would be the governors.
note: the Federal Emergency Managment Agency is one of the core components of the new Department of Homeland Security.
Bringing the War Home by Ron Ridenhour with Arthur Lubow From New Times, 28 November 1975, Vol.5, No.11, pp. 18, 20-24. The Pentagon is training police and guardsmen to help the army crush any revolt in the streets of America. It's part of a detailed secret plan that could end up crushing our liberties. http://www.namebase.org/ppost14.html
http://www.rightwingslayer.blogspot.com From 1982-84 Colonel Oliver North assisted FEMA in drafting its civil defence preparations. Details of these plans emerged during the 1987 Iran-Contra scandal.They included executive orders providing for suspension of the constitution, the imposition of martial law, internment camps, and the turning over of government to the president and FEMA. A Miami Herald article on July 5, 1987, reported that the former FEMA director Louis Guiffrida's deputy, John Brinkerhoff, handled the martial law portion of the planning. The plan was said to be similar to one Mr Giuffrida had developed earlier to combat "a national uprising by black militants". It provided for the detention "of at least 21million American Negroes"' in "assembly centres or relocation camps". Recent pronouncements from the Bush Administration and national security initiatives put in place in the Reagan era could see internment camps and martial law in the United States. When president Ronald Reagan was considering invading Nicaragua he issued a series of executive orders that provided the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with broad powers in the event of a "crisis" such as "violent and widespread internal dissent or national opposition against a US military invasion abroad". They were never used. The plan, which was modeled after a plan that Reagan and Edwin Meese had developed in California to deal with black activists, anti-war protesters and members of the student Free Speech Movement, involved the cooperation of a number of agencies, including the Immigration and Naturalization Service which took steps to establish a network of detention centers capable of holding thousands of undocumented aliens. Foundations are in place for martial law in the US http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/27/1027497418339.html Oliver North's Private Network http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/FBI/Heart_North_CoverUp_BDF.html
by Adam Cohen, New York Times [US] September 22nd, 2002 rehnquist When America is at war, according to Chief Justice William Rehnquist, people have to get used to having less freedom. There is a limit to what courts will do to help those deprived of rights, he says, because judges have a natural "reluctance" to rule "against the government on an issue of national security during wartime." In fact, there is "some truth," he concludes, to the Latin maxim "inter arma silent leges" — in time of war, the law is silent. With all of the war talk today — the so-called war on terror and the prospect of a real one in Iraq — it may sound as if the chief justice is laying the groundwork for a drastic rollback in civil liberties. But these reflections come from a history book, "All the Laws but One: Civil Liberties in Wartime," that he wrote four years ago. When it came out, "All the Laws but One" seemed like an academic exercise. But with several major terrorism cases headed to the Supreme Court, court watchers are starting to pick it up as a possible guidebook. If Mr. Rehnquist the jurist sees the world as Mr. Rehnquist the historian does, there is cause for concern. The Supreme Court term that begins next month could prove momentous. It will be the justices' first chance to rule on the impact on civil liberties from the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath. The court could resolve several key questions: whether American citizens can be held indefinitely without access to lawyers simply because they have been labeled "enemy combatants," whether terrorism suspects can be held in secret detention and whether their deportation hearings can be closed to the public. "All the Laws but One," which discusses civil liberties during the Civil War and World Wars I and II, does not answer those questions. But its central message is that in wartime, the balance between order and freedom tips toward order. In recounting the history, Justice Rehnquist gives all the arguments for order, and far too few for freedom. The people whose liberties are taken away are virtually invisible. Justice Rehnquist's selective blindness is most evident in his discussion of the worst denial of civil liberties in American history, the internment of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry at the start of World War II. He lavishes pages of detail on the military reasons for the roundup. Against that, he offers a single sentence about the hardship imposed on those put in the camps. His account is as dubious as it is brief: he writes that there was "no physical brutality," but historians report that some prisoners were beaten and shot. Justice Rehnquist endorses only part of the Japanese internments, but he seems far more accepting than many scholars who regard the entire episode as a disaster. It would be harder for the reader to accept his conclusions if he had included details about the men, women and children who were rounded up, and the economic, physical and emotional toll imposed on them. It is much the same with the book's discussion of President Abraham Lincoln's decision, during the Civil War, to suspend habeas corpus — the right of someone taken into custody to challenge his imprisonment before a judge. It offers considerable detail about the wartime problems confronting Lincoln, but only a vague sense of how many innocent people may have been kept in prison as a result. Justice Rehnquist readily accepts Lincoln's famous formulation: that if he had preserved habeas corpus, it would have meant allowing "all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one" — habeas corpus — "be violated." It is this quotation, of course, that gives the book its title. Justice Rehnquist's eagerness to see things from the viewpoint of those charged with keeping order — and his relative lack of concern about their victims — could have important implications for the cases the court hears this term. If the justices think only of terrorism and the threat to national security, they may be inclined to uphold whatever restrictions the Bush administration imposes. The more they actually consider the people being held in secret, or denied the right to see a lawyer, the more likely they are to appreciate the costs of those policies. Another problem with "All the Laws but One" is its contention that presidents cannot be reined in during wartime, so it is pointless to try. Justice Rehnquist quotes, with approval, Francis Biddle, President Franklin Roosevelt's attorney general, who said, "The Constitution has not greatly bothered any wartime president." The opposite case can be made. When President Harry Truman tried to seize the nation's steel mills during the Korean War — arguing that an impending strike threatened national security — he backed down when the Supreme Court objected. Other presidents would probably be just as compliant. But the most disturbing aspect of Justice Rehnquist's book is the lack of outrage, or even disappointment, he evinces when rights are sacrificed. The greatest American patriots have been eloquent about the danger of letting freedom lapse even briefly. Benjamin Franklin said, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." There are times when Justice Rehnquist sees the wisdom of standing up to wartime fervor — he is particularly good about the importance of freedom of speech and assembly. But too often, giving up essential liberty for temporary safety seems an easy call for him. Shortly after "All the Laws but One" came out, in an interview on C-Span, Justice Rehnquist was asked what he thought of writing books. "It's very nice," he responded, "to be able to write something you don't have to get four other people to agree with you [on] before it can become authoritative." This may be the term when we see which of these views he can get four justices to agree with him on. His colleagues should be cautious. If we keep sacrificing "one" law to save "all the laws," there will eventually be no laws left to save. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/22/opinion/22SUN3.html
http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2002_08_01_xymphora_archive.html More on AshKroft's Kamps: 1. Apparently, some think that the original article on the camps has been completely debunked. The point is that there are at most 20 prison cells in question, and that fact, while unfortunate, is not enough to get upset about. The camps issue is thought to be a red herring, and the real issue is still the indefinite detention of 'enemy combatants', especially when the determination of whether one is an 'enemy combatant' is made solely by the Bush Administration. It seems to me that this is true, but it is also important not to forget the issue of the camps. The actual physical construction of the camps is irrelevant. FEMA (the agency that can predict the future) and no doubt other organizations already have suitable camps, constructed for legitimate and semi-legitimate reasons. Once the precedent is set using Padilla and Hamdi (it is possible that the Padilla case is worse than the Hamdi case), and the mechanism is set up to allow the Administration to process 'enemy combatants' in bulk (and anyone who followed the Eichmann trial knows how important the institutional mechanics of repression are to this type of person), it would therefore be easy to 'scale' the 20 cells into 200, 2000, or 20,000. The critical point is the fact that the precedent of Padilla and Hamdi has been set, and as hardly anyone complained about it, it can be used against anyone, even an American citizen arrested in the United States. 2. The whole system being proposed by Ashcroft is actually the equivalent of pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. His theory is that once he has determined that you are an 'enemy combatant', then all normal Constitutional protections immediately evaporate. However, presumably the protections can't evaporate before he makes that determination, i. e., in that legal millisecond before he makes his determination the courts still must be able to examine the Constitutional validity of the making of the determination, and in examining this, presumably have the right to consider all the facts of the case. The judge in the Hamdi case is alive to these issues. The whole 'enemy combatants' issue appears to be a rather transparent method to avoid human rights protections using the circular argument that the Constitution doesn't apply because it doesn't apply to 'enemy combatants', coupled with the dubious notion that you can become an 'enemy combatant' by your alleged involvement in the never-ending and ill-defined 'war on terror'. 3. The most interesting questions about Padilla have never been asked. He was detained in early May, but his detention only came to light with Ashcroft's announcement in early June. Since the Administration felt absolutely no qualms about Padilla's detention, and almost didn't bother to mention it until it needed a big distraction from the Coleen Rowley testimony, the whole issue of how many other detainees like Jose Padilla there are remains completely open. The camps may already be full! 4. Jonathan Turley, who seems to hold a monopoly in writing about these issues, points out that Ashcroft now wants to turbo-charge the secret court which interprets and enforces the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to make its draconian powers apply to American citizens. This would presumably grant the government practically unlimited powers of investigation in order to obtain the information required to label the 'enemy combatants', as well as on anyone else the Administration would like to investigate without regard to that nasty Constitution (somewhere in hell, Richard Nixon must be laughing). 5. There is an interesting pattern here in the Administration's use of the media. We constantly hear about 'leaks' from the Bush Administration, and sometimes (e. g., Rumsfeld) even hear complaints about the 'leaks'. The 'leaks' and general use of the media appear to be the work of a master manipulator (Rove?):
* the Padilla case was clearly set out for the American people, and the full implications of his treatment explained, allowing for his case to be used as a precedent for the indefinite detention without trial or legal representation for any American citizen labelled an 'enemy combatant'; * the constant flow of warnings about imminent terror attacks, to continue the charade of the 'war on terror'; * all the 'leaks' involving plans on Iraq, which may be a combination of trial balloons and misdirection, especially if the real goal of the Administration is also to capture Saudi oil fields; * all the obvious media manipulation concerning the anthrax attacks and Steven Hatfill, a patsy who is apparently to be used to distract public attention from the real issues of the case (with apparently another patsy in the wings to take over once the Hatfill investigation peters out). But hey, if you don't want to worry about the AshKroft Kamps, then don't worry about the AshKroft Kamps. As long as you're white and quiet and don't criticize the government, you'll probably be fine.
by Jeffrey St. Clair & Joshua Frank / July 5th, 2008
The following is an excerpt from the new book Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland, published this month by AK Press. To learn more about the book, please visit http://www.RedStateRebels.org.
We are not supposed to exist.
According to the political Steinberg map of the nation, we come from no man’s land, fly-over country, the unredeemable middle, where political progressives are as rare as a Hooters in Provo, Utah.
We are children of the wasteland. The rural outback. Where folks carry guns and use them. Where fenced compounds and utopian communes exist side-by-side with a cyanide heap-leach gold mine. Out here cell phones don’t work. Not yet, anyway. And some of us would like to keep it that way.
Frank grew up on the wheated plains of eastern Montana. St. Clair hails from the humid cornfields of central Indiana. These states span the glaciated heart of the continent, a region carved and ground-smooth by the weight of ice. From a distance, the terrain of the Great Plains appears homogenous. From a distance so do its politics and demographics. You must look closer to discover the diversity, the radical nuances. Even the Republicanism of Indiana, sired as it was by the rigid Lutheranism of German immigrants, is wildly different from the libertarian, anti-government Republicanism of Montana and the Rocky Mountain Front. They are not one. Except on the two-color map of American politics, or Barack Obama’s electoral playbook, which writes off this vast region almost completely.
Neither of us fit in the geo-ideological matrix contrived by the mainstream political establishment. Neither do thousands of others, left, right and anarcho-libertarians, who reside in the forgotten midsection of the nation.
And not all of us are children of Ken Kesey and Ed Abbey. Some follow in the footsteps of David Koresh, Reies Tijerina, Randy Weaver, Elvira Arellano or Mary Dann.
A Red States rebellion is breaking out. It’s been going on for some time. Since Reconstruction in the South and even longer in the West. The true West of Wyoming and Utah, Idaho and Arizona. Where the stakes are high and the odds are long. And the battles are waged over the essentials of life: water, food, wilderness, human liberty.
Take abortion. Largely cast as an urban issue by the flyover press, the real crisis and militant resistance is happening in Utah, South Dakota, Mississippi and Idaho-states where unwanted pregnancy rates are high and abortion clinics are sparse and marked for extermination.
Consigned to death row, the loneliest and most forbidding place in America? Fighting for your life against the conveyor-belt execution industry of Texas is qualitatively different from the struggle in Illinois or California where activists and Ivy-league trained litigators are lined up to give aid. In the grim chambers of the row of interior America you can’t expect to enjoy the right to a competent lawyer, a fair judge or crusading journalism students. It’s just you against the death machine.
Or try being an environmentalist in the toxic towns of Libby, Montana or Tonopah, Nevada, where cancer rates are soaring, the death threats don’t stop at prank calls and the cops are more likely to kick your ass than rush to your defense. It’s a lonely and dangerous struggle. But people are doing it. Thousands of them. Fighting as if their lives depended on it-which, of course, they do.
Out here there are no fixed blueprints for resistance. No organizational flow charts for how to plot a rebellion. No focus groups or pulse polls or field-tested PR strategies or genteel formalities for grant applications. Marx would be confused. The human spirit is the best guide. When Peabody Coal announces its intention to evict your grandmother, dynamite her hogan and strip-mine the family sheep pasture, you don’t have time to consult Weiden and Kennedy for how to spin it to your advantage or wait around for a year on the infinitesimal chance that Pew Charitable Trusts might drop you a few bucks. You must act. As a group if you can, unilaterally if necessary. Militantly if you must.
While the Forest Service sparks a chainsaw in the outback of Wyoming no progressive from Vermont is going to stop them from ravaging the countryside. That job is left to the people who inhabit the places that are under assault day in and day out.
When the ATF or FBI come busting through your kitchen door, rousting you at gunpoint from your bed, roughing up your children, accusing you of being a rightwing crazy, an illegal immigrant or an animal liberation terrorist, the ACLU isn’t likely to speed to Wallace, Idaho to bail you out of jail and make your case a cause celebre for constitutional rights.
In fact, the FBI could burn down your house, incinerate dozens of women and children, and good liberals in New York and San Francisco will say you had it coming. They already have. See Waco and Ruby Ridge; Cove-Mallard and Wounded Knee.
This is the game plan the Feds have used since the inception of our so-called constitutional republic, and there have always been bloody consequences. Smoke out the non-conformists, or better yet, murder them. Of course there is a silver lining for the rest of us, and that’s that these brave rebels are the true heart of the nation. The people who bring about real change. They are the freedom fighters. They are the sons and daughters of César Chávez and Leonard Peltier. Without them, the government’s assault on its citizens and the environment would largely go unchecked.
Voting on Election Day, seen as one of the only ways to democratically vent our collective disgust, doesn’t always do much good. In fact most of the dissidents in Red America don’t vote at all. And for good reason. They know the system is rigged. Besides, they don’t trust the government or its policies anyway. They see what it has done for their families and loved ones, and that’s not much. They recognize they didn’t enjoy the benefits of those federal tax cuts. They know their hardware shop went under because Wal-Mart moved to town. They see that their Grandpa lost the family homestead because industrialized farms began receiving huge subsidies from Washington. And they sure as hell don’t trust the so-called liberal establishment. Why should they? Life under Hillary’s husband wasn’t any better than it has been under Bush.
The resistance isn’t always about revolution; it’s about maintaining a semblance of dignity in a world where such a thing is in short supply.
That’s why there has been a resurgence of organic farming in the Red River Valley of North Dakota where farmers like Todd Leake are fighting Monsanto and supporting their families through farmer’s markets and community supported agriculture. If you want to learn about the negative effects of genetically modified crops, you don’t need to consult a study by a scientist from Berkeley, just talk to the Nelson family of Amenia, North Dakota who stood up to Monsanto after the company sued them for patent infringement.
Or take a trip down to Colorado where feisty environmentalists are fighting the moneyed interests of billionaire Red McCombs who is trying to build yet another sprawling ski resort in the heart of the Rockies. These radical greens are fighting McCombs in the courts and may soon plant their bodies on Forest Service roads to block his bulldozers. Since we’re here, may as well take a trip due west to the outback of Escalante, Utah, where Tori Woodard and Patrick Diehl routinely receive death threats for their environmental activism. A few years back, a band of local yahoos vandalized their home, threw bottles of beer through their front windows, kicked in the front door, trashed the garden, and cut the phone line to their house. It takes real guts to stand up in the distant belly of the beast, where defending the Earth usually results in a face-to-face confrontation with a bulldozer, a taser or a shotgun.
Down in Texas, not far from where the government burned the Branch Davidians alive, anti-death penalty advocates spared the life of Kenneth Foster, who was to be put to death for a murder he didn’t commit. Or traverse Interstate 10 to New Orleans where passionate groups of local citizens, without much help from the Federal government are slowly rebuilding their forgotten neighborhoods. Many lost everything in the devastating, preventable Katrina floods of 2005. But they refuse to give up. Since we are in Louisiana, why not roll on over to the tiny town of Jena where protests rage on over the racist incarceration of six black youths who were unfairly imprisoned for beating a white kid.
This book offers a just a few snapshots of the grassroots resistance taking place in the forgotten heartland of America. These are tales of rebellion and courage. Out here activism isn’t for the faint of heart. Be thankful someone is willing to do the dirty work.
Nope, we’re not supposed to exist. But here we are, in the flesh, with mud on our boots and green fire in our souls—living examples of what Greil Marcus calls the Invisible Republic. Deal with it.
Jeffrey St. Clair is the author of Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: The Politics of Nature and co-edits CounterPunch.org. Joshua Frank is the co-editor of Dissident Voice and the author of Left Out! How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush. Together they are the editors of the brand new book Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland, published by AK Press. Read other articles by Jeffrey St. Clair &.
by Colleen Fitzgibbons
Reporter
Streetsboro -- There is still time for experienced and first-time golfers alike to bring out the clubs and register for an 18-hole round of golf.
The Chamber of Commerce is hosting its 10th annual Golf outing at Raccoon Hill Golf Club on Judson road in Kent this July 11 at 10 a.m.
Anyone is allowed to participate by registering and paying a fee of $85.
The chamber hopes to have at least as many people as last year -- 100 -- participate, said Bill Griffith, the golf chairman of the chamber of commerce board. As of press time, 78 people had registered.
"We're hoping to have people sign up and come in," Griffith said.
Kori Brady, the executive director for the Chamber of Commerce, said she will continue to accept registrations until July 10, the day before the event. Call 330-626-4769 to sign up.
"I'll take everybody," Brady said.
For those who are participating, the event starts at 10 a.m. with registration and a chipping contest to get participants in the mood for full day of golf.
A continental breakfast will be served in the morning, as well as lunch and dinner. Brady said dinner will not only consist of steak but also "some good Ohio sweet corn" donated by Szalay's farm.
After enjoying an 18-hole round of golf, participants' stomachs will not be the only thing full, so will their arms. Prizes will be distributed throughout the day.
With a total of 22 sponsors, the chamber received prize donation, including gift certificates for restaurants, oil changes, coolers, chairs, microwaves and a new window.
Soft-Lite LLC, located in Streetsboro, will donate a window to the winner of the chipping contest which takes place during registration. Brady said last year's winner received a new sliding door.
Great Lakes Hyundai also will be sponsoring a competition during the outing. The winner of the hole-in-one contest will receive a 2008 Hyundai Tucson Limited.
"We're more than excited for someone to win the car," said Bob Petrus, general manager at Great Lakes Hyundai located on Route 14.
Hyundai has helped out with this and other Chamber events for the past two years since the business opened in Streetsboro. The dealership was the main sponsor of the 2007 outing.
"We just think it's important to be involved in the community," Petrus said.
The main sponsor of the event this year is Glick, Layman and Associates, a dental office located in Liberty Corners on Market Square Drive.
While this is the first year Glick, Layman and Associates have sponsored this specific event, Dr. Marty Layman said they sponsored another golf outing for the FBI Academy in Moreland Hills.
They also participate in other Chamber events such as the community expo and the health fair, as well as sponsoring scholarships for Streetsboro High School graduates.
"We're just trying to be civic-minded in that way as far as helping sponsor community [events]," Layman said.
Even though Layman said he has not had a chance to play golf as much as he did in dental school, he will be playing on July 11.
"It's a great networking opportunity, good chance to meet people and support each other's business ventures," he said.
Businesses are also encouraged to sponsor a hole for $100 and have the opportunity to set up an informational table at that hole to greet golfers and pass out brochures.
"You can still do business and have fun at the same time," Brady said. "I've seen a lot of business done on a golf course."
While the event is a great way to connect with people and businesses within the community, Brady who has played at the event for the last three years said it is also one of the chamber's main fundraisers.
Last year the Chamber raised $5,500 through this single event, she said.
"The money that we gain back allows us to continue to serve the community and our members," Brady said. "It's a great way to have a day out of the office and a chance to have some good meals, some fun and win some prizes. You can't beat that."
Sibel Edmonds State Secrets Gallery Connects Pipeline Politics, Madrassas & the Turkish Proxies By Lukery
In a recent immigration court case involving Turkish Islamic Leader, Fetullah Gulen, US prosecutors exposed an illegal, covert, CIA operation involving the intentional Islamization of Central Asia. This operation has been ongoing since the fall of the Soviet Union in an ongoing Cold War to control the vast energy resources of the region - Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - estimated to be worth $3 trillion.
Court Case The scene for these dramatic disclosures was an application for a Green Card in the Eastern District Court in Philadelphia by “controversial Islamic scholar” Fetullah Gulen. Gulen, who has been living in the United States since 1998, argued that he qualified for the Green Card as “an extraordinarily talented academic.”
The court case was covered extensively by the Turkish press. Leading Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported:
“Gülen’s financial resources were detailed in the public prosecutor’s arguments, which claimed that Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Turkish government, and the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, were behind the Gülen movement. It stated that some businessmen in Ankara donated 10 to 70 percent of their annual income to the movement and that it corresponded to $20,000 to $300,000 per year per person. It added that one businessman in Istanbul donated $4-5 million each year and that young people graduating from Gülen’s schools donated between $2,000 and $5,000 each year.”
Another leading Turkish newspaper reported (translated by Rastibini)
Among the reasons given by the US State Department’s attorneys as to why Gülen’s permanent residence application was refused, is the suspicion of CIA financing of his movement. [ . . . ] “There is even CIA suspicion”
“Because of the large amount of money that Gülen’s movement uses to finance his projects, there are claims that he has secret agreements with Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkic governments. There are suspicions that the CIA is a co-payer in financing these projects,” claimed the attorneys. [ . . . ] Among the documents that the state attorneys presented, there are claims about the Gülen movement’s financial structure and it was emphasized that the movement’s economic power reached $25 billion. “Schools, newspapers, universities, unions, television channels . . . The relationship among these are being debated. There is no transparency in their work,” claimed the attorneys.”
Who is Gulen? Fetullah Gulen is “a 67-year-old Turkish Sufi cleric, author and theoretician,” according to a recent profile in the UK’s Prospect magazine. Prospect ran a public poll last month to find the world’s greatest living intellectual. Gulen ‘won’ the poll after his newspapers alerted readers to the poll’s existence. Gulen is also the leader of the so-called ‘Gulen Movement’ which claims to have seven million followers worldwide. The Gulen Movement has extensive business interests, including “publishing activities (books, newspapers, and magazines), construction, healthcare, and education.”
Gulen and the CIA The fact that the prosecutors in the court cite documents that claim that Gulen has been financed in part by the CIA is remarkable for a number of reasons, even though there have been strong suspicions about the CIA’s involvement in the Gulen Movement for years. The Russian intelligence agency, the FSB, has repeatedly taken action against the Gulen movement for acting as a front organization for the CIA. In December 2002, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported:
“Russian secret service claims: Turkish religious brotherhood works for CIA
The FSB, the Russian intelligence organization formerly called the KGB, has claimed that the ‘Nurcus’ religious brotherhood in Turkey has engaged in espionage on behalf of the CIA through the companies and foundations it has founded. FSB head Nikolay Patrushev has mentioned the names of these companies and foundations, saying, ‘The brotherhood engages in anti-Russian activities via two companies, Serhad and Eflak, as well as foundations such as Toros, Tolerans and Ufuk.’ Patrushev has accused the brotherhood of conducting pan-Turkish propaganda, of trying to convert Russian youths to Islam by sowing the seeds of enmity, and of engaging in certain lobbying activities. These companies and foundations have turned up in the internet site of Fethullah Gulen [alleged leader of the Nurcu religious community currently living in the United States who is a defendant in several court cases in Turkey, accused of engaging in anti-secularist activities.]“”
Russia has banned all of Gulen’s madrassas, and in April of this year, banned the Nurcu Movement completely.
Gulen’s Madrassas The Gulen Movement founded madrassas all over the world in the 1990’s, most of them in the newly independent Turkic republics of Central Asia - Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan - and Russia.
These madrassas appear to be used as a front for enabling CIA and State Department officials to operate undercover in the region, with many of the teachers operating under diplomatic passports.
Why Central Asia? Central Asia, with its vast energy wealth, is of major interest to US oil and gas companies. The region is also of key strategic interest in the ‘Great Game’ as Russia, China and the US compete for dwindling energy supplies. The US government has been using Turkey as a proxy to gain control over Central Asia via Pan-Turkic nationalism and religion.
Sibel Edmonds Case Twenty six people wrote reference letters supporting Gulen’s application for a Green Card - most notably ex-CIA agent George Fidas, former Turkish ambassador Morton Abramowitz, and former CIA Deputy Director Graham Fuller who appears in Sibel Edmonds’ State Secrets Privilege Gallery.
I called Sibel Edmonds to comment on the latest revelations. She said:
You’ve got to look at the big picture. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the super powers began to fight over control of Central Asia, particularly the oil and gas wealth, as well as the strategic value of the region.
Given the history, and the distrust of the West, the US realized that it couldn’t get direct control, and therefore would need to use a proxy to gain control quickly and effectively. Turkey was the perfect proxy; a NATO ally and a puppet regime. Turkey shares the same heritage/race as the entire population of Central Asia, the same language (Turkic), the same religion (Sunni Islam), and of course, the strategic location and proximity.
This started more than a decade-long illegal, covert operation in Central Asia by a small group in the US intent on furthering the oil industry and the Military Industrial Complex, using Turkish operatives, Saudi partners and Pakistani allies, furthering this objective in the name of Islam.
This is why I have been saying repeatedly that these illegal covert operations by the Turks and certain US persons dates back to 1996, and involves terrorist activities, narcotics, weapons smuggling and money laundering, converging around the same operations and involving the same actors.
And I want to emphasize that this is “illegal” because most, if not all, of the funding for these operations is not congressionally approved funding, but it comes from illegal activities.
And one last thing, take a look at the people in the State Secrets Privilege Gallery on my website and you will see how these individuals can be traced to the following; Turkey, Central Asia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia - and the activities involving these countries.
Many of the people in Sibel’s State Secrets Privilege Gallery are closely connected to Gulen, and each other, as well as the operations that Sibel mentions. Many of them have actively advocated for using Muslims to further their own needs - from Turkistan to Albania and Central Asia.
Marc Grossman, former State Department #3 and former Turkish ambassador, and one of the key named individuals in Sibel’s case, is currently receiving $1.2 million per annum from Ihlas Holding, a Gulen-linked Turkish conglomerate. Sibel has previously referred to Ihlas as ’semi-legitimate’ and ‘alleged shady’ - and emphasized that Grossman’s current payoff is a result of services performed while he was in office.
Grossman’s predecessor as ambassador in Turkey was Morton Abramowitz - in fact, Grossman actually worked under Abramowitz in Ankara for a number of years. During that period, the US opened an espionage investigation into activities at the embassy involving Major Douglas Dickerson, a weapons procurement specialist for Central Asia. Dickerson and his wife, an FBI translator, later became famous when they tried to recruit Sibel to spy for this criminal network.
Abramowitz, who is not listed in Sibel’s State Secrets Privilege Gallery, wrote a letter in support of Gulen for his immigration case. He has long advocated the use of Islamic fighters in furtherance of US interests, including the Afghan mujaheddin against the Soviets and the Kosovo Liberation Army during the war in the Balkans, acting as an advisor to the Kosovar Albanians.
Another player from Sibel’s Gallery is Enver Yusuf Turani - Prime Minister of East Turkistan, a ‘country’ recognized by only one country, the United States. East Turkistan, aka Xinjiang, is officially a part of China, and home to the Uyghur people and the “Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement,” a UN-nominated terrorist organization “funded mainly by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network and received training, support and personnel from both the al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime of Afghanistan.” In fact, the Uyghurs constitute a significant percentage of detainees - at least 22 - at Guantanamo Bay since 2001. Five of those have been set free, and were eventually sent to Albania, amid much controversy.
According to TurkPulse:
“One of the main tools Washington is using in this affair in order to get Turkey involved in the Xinjiang affair is some Turkish Americans, primarily the Fetullah Gulen team who are prosecuted in absentia in Turkey for trying to found a theocratic State order in this country because he runs his activities from the United States, his protégé. Another Turk used in this affair is Enver Yusuf Turani, who is the self styled Foreign and Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government in exile. He has been an American citizen since 1998. Enver Yusuf is in close cooperation with Fetullah Gulen… Their activities for the government in exile are based on a report entitled “the Xinjiang Project” drafted by Graham Fuller in 1998 for the Rand Corporation and revised in 2003 under the title “the Xinjiang Problem.” It emphasises the importance of the Xinjiang Autonomous region in encircling China and provides a strategy for it.”
In fact, Abramowitz and Fuller were key players in the establishment of ‘East Turkistan,’
“proclaiming the government in exile within 4-5 months, starting in May (2004) and completing the proclamation in mid- September. The ceremony was held at Capitol Hill under American flags in Washington.”
Two others from Sibel’s gallery, Sabri Sayari and Alan Makovsky, have been similarly involved with Gulen, Fuller, and Abramowitz - co-authoring books and articles, making joint appearances, dinners etc.
Illegal Operations Earlier I quoted Sibel saying
“And I want to emphasize that this is “illegal” because most, if not all, of the funding for these operations is not congressionally approved funding, but it comes from illegal activities.”
Where does this funding come from? Narcotics trafficking, nuclear black market, weapons smuggling, and terrorist activities. As Sibel makes clear in her The Highjacking of a Nation article, the management of the heroin industry from the farms in Afghanistan to the streets of London and elsewhere “requires highly sophisticated networks,” from the protection of the convoys from Afghanistan through Central Asia to their final destination, to the laundering of the billions of dollars in proceeds in Central Asian casinos and financial institutions in Dubai and Cyprus. “So, who are the real lords of Afghanistan’s poppy fields?” Sibel asks. The heroin trade finances al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but they aren’t the real lords of the poppy fields. Journalist Ahmed Rashid, author of “Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia ” and other similar books about these issues recently noted on Democracy Now that a “cartel” controls Afghanistan’s heroin, which supplies 93% of global heroin supply.
Sibel has been trying to tell us about these operations for years, but has been gagged by the State Secrets Privilege which was invoked citing certain ’sensitive foreign diplomatic and business relationships.’ These ’sensitive relationships’ have now been exposed to a degree, thanks to the immigration case against Mr Gulen - one of the Turkish operatives who have been fronting for the CIA in the Islamization of Central Asia, incorporating drug trafficking, money laundering, and the nuclear black market, and the convergence with terrorism.
One Last Question At the end of our interview, Sibel asked me to leave you with this question:
“After 911, the US Government engaged in mock investigations and shut down many small Islamic charities and organizations, giving the appearance of action in the so-called ‘War on Terror.’ Why did they harbor, support and resource Fethullah Gulen’s $25 billion madrassa-and-mosque-establishment efforts throughout the Central Asian region and the Balkans?”
As the former publisher/editor of "From The Wilderness" (FTW) which broke the Pat Tilman case wide open in the early summer of 2006 I applaud your article.
In May of 2006, after being contacted by Mary Tillman, Pat's mother, I drove to her home near San Jose and copied 2,000 pages of Army records that revealed the depth of USG duplicity and criminal activity in the case. I then flew my Military Affairs Editor, Stan Goff (US Army Special Forces, retired) to our corporate offices in Oregon and we spent days analyzing and decoding those records.
As many mainstream writers have noted to me privately, the AP, Washington Post and L.A. Times (among others) stories which broke the Tillman case open in August and September were virtual cut and pastes of our original copyrighted series. If you don't believe me, just ask Mary "Dannie" Tillman directly. On my bookshelf, among maybe 30 other autographed volumes ranging from Daniel Ellsberg to Gordon Liddy, sits a copy of Mary Tillman's book autographed by herself and Pat's brothers Kevin and Richard. It thanks me for the help we gave the family.
Every congressional handout used by the Tillman family was a copy of our series which is still posted on the FTW site at http://www.fromthewilderness.com. Henry Waxman, who chaired the Tillman hearings, had been one of my subscribers for many years.
As we were running the series, my offices were burglarized in June of 2006 and all 7 of our computers were destroyed with a sledge hammer. I cannot prove this was a US government operation but we will always suspect it.
During our eight and a half years FTW broke many major stories that were picked up by the mainstream. Never once did we get any acknowledgement, even from Salon, which ran several stories based upon my documentation of five war game exercises takng place on 9/11 which effectively prevented any effective Air Force response to the hijackings.
Other major stories we broke included details of massive insider trading on 9/11, the fact that former CIA spy Edwin Wilson had been convicted with perjured CIA testimony, the fact that the wife of Medellin Cartel co-founder Carlos Lehder was employed by insurance giant AIG, and that Texas Gov. George W. Bush was flying in a state-owned airplane once oned by the legendary drug smuggler Barry Seal.
Never once have we been acknowledged by the mainstream press.
The plain fact is that the mainstream media scours the net and blatantly rips off the work of indy journalists who almost never get any credit at all. To me and many others it is a shameless and dishonorable form of theft.
Michael C. Ruppert
Author: "Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil".
CACI Grabs Scottish Census Contract, Ignites Political Firestorm Over Torture AllegationsGlasgow's Sunday Herald reported July 27 that a British subsidiary of CACI International was awarded an £18.5 million ($36.6) contract by the Scottish government to carry out the country's next census. The announcement ignited a political firestorm.
Leading human rights and antiwar organizations have condemned the deal and threatened the Scottish National Party (SNP) government with a mass boycott should the agreement stand.
On June 30, the Center for Constitutional Rights and other law firms filed a series of civil lawsuits against CACI International, Inc., CACI Premier Technology and L-3 Services Inc., a division of L-3 Communications over allegations of torture at Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib prison. AFC has previously reported on these landmark cases, see: "Abu Ghraib Torture Claims Spook CACI, L-3 Communications."
Sunday Herald investigations editor Neil Mackay writes,
Granting CACI (UK) -- a subsidiary of the firm accused of torture -- the £18.5 million contract has not only badly wounded the SNP government's claims of being more ethical than Labour and putting human rights at the top of its agenda, but has also led to fears personal data on millions of Scots collected by the company might be sifted by the US government given the close relationship between the Bush administration and the CACI head office in Arlington, Virginia. ("Scottish Government Hires Firm Accused of Torture in Iraq," Sunday Herald, 27 July 2008)
As strategic partners in Washington's "global war on terror," private corporations, particularly those in the defense and burgeoning "homeland security" industries, have been incorporated into the state's intelligence apparatus--with little or no accountability and even less oversight.
Human rights' lawyer John Scott told Mackay, "The government is opening itself up to significant and justified protest. Ordinary members of the public could refuse to have anything to do with the census. A boycott is something to be considered. It would be a legitimate step. We cannot ignore our principles."
As outrage grows over the deal, The Stop the War Coalition, a UK-wide organization that has mobilized mass opposition to the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, launched a petition drive against the contract. The SWC petition states "awarding millions of taxpayers' money to a subsidiary of a firm that has benefited from a contract at Abu Ghraib, profiting from an illegal and immoral occupation, is contrary to the views of the majority of the Scottish public."
Aamer Anwar, a prominent human rights attorney with the organization Scotland Against Criminalising Communities told the Sunday Herald, "the US government doesn't give a damn about people's rights, it'll gather data in any way possible how can we be sure that the census information will not be handed over to the US government in the interests of homeland security?"
Private Spies: A Cautionary Tale
Anwar's concerns are indeed justified. In May, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported on the case of Col. Larry Richards, a Marine reservist stationed at Camp Pendleton. According to investigative journalist Rick Rogers, Richards, a group of fellow Marines and law enforcement officers, including the cofounder of the Los Angeles County Terrorist Early Warning Center (LACTEW), stole secret files from the Strategic Technical Operations Center.
While Col. Richards and the other conspirators described below had no relationship to CACI or its web of worldwide affiliates their case however, is illustrative of the inherent dangers of employing private corporations with ties to the military-industrial-surveillance complex to perform sensitive public functions.
Created in 1996, the LACTEW has been described by the FBI and the Office of National Intelligence as "a model for others to emulate," according to the ACLU. The LACTEW has since "evolved" into the the Joint Regional Intelligence Center (JRIC) in Los Angeles. When not on active duty, Richards worked as a "top specialist" at LACTEW, according to the Union-Tribune.
But when he was working at Camp Pendleton, Richards' private spy ring stole hundreds of classified files, including those marked "Top Secret, Special Compartmentalized Information," the highest U.S. Government classification. The files included surveillance dossiers on the Muslim community and antiwar activists in Southern California.
Members of the ring included a Marine Gunnery Sgt., Gary Maziarz, who was given access to Richards' "logon and password to access confidential computer accounts on the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System and Secret Internet Protocol Router Network," while Richards was deployed to Iraq, the Union-Tribune reported.
Another conspirator was Lauren Martin, an intelligence analyst at U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado. NORTHCOM manages information about potential terrorism operations nationwide, and "Martin was responsible for the region that included Southern California, Maziarz testified" during his court martial.
While the private spies claimed they were acting on "patriotic motives" and were seeking to "minimize the threat of a terrorist attack," Richards and the others, Rogers reported, "shared anti-terrorism intelligence with defense contractors in exchange for future employment."
Among the firms being "scrutinized" for possible links to the ultranationalist spy ring are Kroll Associates, described as "a risk-management firm," and MPRI International Group, a "private military contractor" owned by L-3 Communications, a codefendant in the CCR lawsuit. According to Richards' account to investigators, MPRI allegedly offered him "$300,000 to work in Afghanistan," the Union-Tribune reported.
Rogers reported that Kroll's clients included the city of San Diego and that some of its employees have had ties to the Los Angeles County Terrorist Early Warning Center. MPRI denied that Richards ever worked for the firm. Kroll refused to comment on the allegations to the Union-Tribune.
As the American Civil Liberties Union documents in their update on the groups' November 2007 report on Fusion Centers, which LACTEW served as a "model,"
In the six months since our report, new press accounts have borne out many of our warnings. In just that short time, news accounts have reported overzealous intelligence gathering, the expansion of uncontrolled access to data on innocent people, hostility to open government laws, abusive entanglements between security agencies and the private sector, and lax protections for personally identifiable information. (Mike German and Jay Stanley, "Fusion Center Update," ACLU, July 29, 2008)
While there was no CACI involvement in the scandal, the question must still be asked: will the "abusive entanglements between security agencies and the private sector" be replicated in Scotland?
Considering the breathtaking reach of the Official Secrets Act and the shocking abuses perpetrated by British intelligence agencies against their own citizens, many of which have been documented by the Pat Finucane Centre for Human Rights and Social Change, this is not an issue that should be taken lightly.
Will Data Be More Secure in Scotland?
Given serious and well-documented data-security breaches in the United States and elsewhere, egregious civil liberties violations, as well as the seamless relationships that exist among the military, law enforcement and private security contractors with a vested interest in hyping the "terrorist threat," the concerns of Scottish human rights' campaigners are hardly misplaced.
The Scottish government for its part, have denied the charges and defended its actions by claiming CACI (UK) was not involved in defense work and was a "separate legal entity from its US parent company. Allegations of improper conduct made against the parent company have been vehemently denied, but in any event there is no link between these allegations and the work of CACI (UK)," the Sunday Herald reported.
Claiming the government "would never be a party" with any company "convicted" of human rights abuses, SNP spokespeople asserted that their choice of the firm was based solely on claims that CACI's offer represented "the best and most competitively priced of the bids we received, delivering best value for tax-payers' money."
The government contended it "could not take unproven allegations into consideration". The SNP government also claimed that personal information would be protected through "independent audits of security," according to Mackay's report.
CACI (UK) maintained that allegations of abuse at Abu Ghraib "was not substantiated by any evidence or proof, and subsequent investigations by both CACI and the US government could not confirm it. No CACI employee was ever depicted in the shocking and disturbing photos seen in the press."
Despite CACI assertions to the contrary, photographic evidence indeed exits and was published more than two years earlier. In April 2006, Salon investigative journalist Mark Benjamin published a photograph of CACI International interrogator Daniel Johnson, a defendant in CCR's lawsuit against the company, interrogating an Iraqi prisoner in what Army investigators described as "an unauthorized stress position." According to Benjamin,
The Army investigated the circumstances behind the photograph, found "probable cause" that a crime had been committed, and referred the case to the Justice Department for prosecution. (Salon obtained the photo from someone who spent time at Abu Ghraib as a uniformed member of the military and is familiar with the Army investigation there.) But in early 2005, a Department of Justice attorney told the Army that the evidence in the case did not justify prosecution. ("No Justice for All," Salon, April 14, 2006)
Indeed, the Army's Criminal Investigation Command (CID) told Salon their office had "investigated the circumstances" surrounding the incident and found "probable cause to believe a crime was committed by civilian contractors." However, after the case was referred to the Department of Justice, "an assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia told the Army that he had reviewed the Johnson case and found there was 'insufficient evidence' to prosecute."
There the case against Johnson and other contractors languished until this May when CCR initiated a lawsuit in Los Angeles federal district court, brought by a former "ghost" detainee at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison and torture center. That case was filed against another former CACI contract employee, Steven Stefanowicz, aka "Big Steve."
As I reported in July, CCR attorneys were forced to file separate civil suits only after a federal District of Columbia judge in 2004 refused the attorney's petition to consolidate some 237 victims' abuse claims as a class-action lawsuit. The judge ruled he "lacked jurisdiction," not that the charges were "baseless allegations," as CACI maintains. The original complaint is still pending. Why then, was CACI less than forthcoming?
How Is this Relevant to the Issue of the Scottish Census?
As the ACLU forcefully argues, "the elements of [a] nascent domestic surveillance system include: Watching and recording the everyday activities of an ever-growing list of individuals; channeling the flow of the resulting reports into a centralized security agency; sifting through ('data mining') these reports and databases with computers to identify individuals for closer scrutiny." (ACLU, op. cit.)
A centralized database of census information culled by a private corporation with long-standing ties to the military-industrial-surveillance complex sets up a system ripe with the potential for abuse, particularly if such data were to fall--or drop--into the wrong hands, as feared by human rights, antiwar and civil liberties advocates.
CACI is not some eager start-up; rather the firm has been described as "one of the Pentagon's favorite contractors" by Tim Shorrock in his essential book, Spies For Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing.
And according to Washington Technology's "Top 100 Federal Prime Contractors: 2008," CACI International, Inc. clocked-in at No. 17 with some $1,337,472,153 in total revenue. Some $1,105,765,855 or 82.6% was a result of defense-related contracts for IT and network services, data information, management services and what the publication terms "integrated security and intelligence solutions."
Meanwhile, the victims of heinous abuse and torture that resulted from policies crafted at the highest levels of the Bush administration, and with the alleged complicity of many of their "outsourced" partners, are still awaiting their day in court and a modicum of justice.
For more information on CCR's lawsuits see: "New Abu Ghraib Torture Claims Filed Against Military Contractors," Press Release, May 5, 2008 and "CCR Files Four New Abu Ghraib Lawsuits Targeting Military Contractors in U.S. Courts," Press Release, June 30, 2008.
Tom Burghardt is a researcher and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to publishing in Covert Action Quarterly, Love & Rage and Antifa Forum, he is the editor of Police State America: U.S. Military "Civil Disturbance" Planning, distributed by AK Press.
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Police and federal agents are watching downtown Denver right now from a top-secret location.
Inside a large conference room, somewhere in Colorado, there are real-time satellite images of the city and maps on the wall, including close-ups of the Pepsi Center and Invesco Field at Mile High.
Officials from 62 different agencies are monitoring the city from the Multi-Agency Command Center, or the MACC, in order to keep the peace during the Democratic National Convention.
"If folks are acting in an unlawful manner, we can see it here," said Secret Service Agent Malcolm Wiley.
Existing cameras that are maintained by the Colorado Department of Transportation and Denver police — along with some new cameras that were placed
Some of those cameras are likely covering the free-speech zones where demonstrations are scheduled to take place outside the Pepsi Center and Invesco Field.
"It gives us eyes if there is a problem," said Denver police Lt. Ron Saunier. "There are a lot of law-abiding citizens and we are trying to provide a safe environment for them, too."
After the convention, Denver police will move some of those cameras to other areas of the city where there are crime concerns, Saunier said.
The MACC is overseen by the U.S. Secret Service and paid for with funds from that office.
The Democratic convention is designated as a National Special Security Event and the Secret Service is charged with implementing the safety plans along with local law enforcement.
Agents began assembling the MACC in September because coordinating air-space security, training and credentials among so many agencies takes time.
The MACC began full operation Saturday and the surveillance ends midday Friday.
Wiley says he can't disclose how many cameras are on the street, where they are placed or how much it costs to operate the high-tech room.
The MACC is designed to help commanders effectively direct officers on the ground to respond to events from a small medical emergency to a full-scale terrorist attack.
Officials from agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Denver Water and the U.S. Attorney's Office are on hand to address health and legal issues as well.
During the convention, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will provide a vehicle cargo-inspection system, a high-tech gamma imager that allows nonintrusive inspection of vehicles and packages.
Also, the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office has a mobile radiological and nuclear detection unit.
At past conventions in Boston and New York, and at events such as the Olympics, local law enforcement officers sat side by side with agents from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the North American Aerospace Defense Command to determine what security needs were on the ground.
"The nice thing about it is we have 62 agencies together," Saunier said. "We are not trying to catch someone on their cellphone to find out what is going on; we can get up, walk over and talk to each other."
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