[Paleopsych] Fascism and Homeland Security
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Fascism and Homeland Security
http://www.oilempire.us/fascism.html
Friendly Fascism or Full Strength?
Democrats vs. Republicans, neo-liberals vs. neo-conservatives
"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to
continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too
expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, pull back
the curtains, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the
theater."
-- Frank Zappa
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a few hours before the Supreme Court's
2001-2002 session, said that Americans are "likely to experience more
restrictions on our personal freedom than has ever been the case in
our country."
"I did not like fascists when I fought them as a diplomat for 23 years
and I don't like them now in my own country."
retired American diplomat Joe Wilson (smeared by the Bush gang)
see interview at [1]http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/9/94615/61143
[2]introduction - [3]updates and blog - [4]all files - [5]chapters
[6]newsletters - [7]slideshow - [8]dictionary
[10]9/11 Cheney's crime, not a failure - the American Reichstag Fire
[11]peak oil the real connection between Iraq and 9/11
[12]World War IV "the war that will not end in our lifetime"
[13]fascism and Homeland Security, the war on freedom
[14]media manipulates minds, left gatekeepers, psyops
[15]stolen elections ballot machines, lone gunmen, plane crashes
[16]Bush - oil we are saying, give impeachment a chance
[17]permatopia: permaculture solutions to Peak Oil
and climate change - toward a sustainable civilization
personal, local, global responses to Peak Oil and climate change
_________________________________________________________________
[billofrights.jpg]
restoring civil liberties
would require exposing
9/11: the pretext for
the war on freedom
[18]Bill of Rights - R.I.P.
[19]Homeland inSecurity and Total(itarian) Information Awareness
Michael [20]Chertoff: the new Homeland Security Secretary (Chertoff
means "devil" in Russian)
John [21]Negroponte: Death Squad supporter now in charge of US spy
agencies
who sent [22]anthrax letters to the media and to the Democrats in
Congress to "enable" passage of the [23]U.S.A.P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act?
Uncle Sam's Army Packages of Anthrax Terrorized Representatives Into
Obliterating Tolerance
[24]Papers, Please! national ID cards and the surveillance society
[25]Geoslavery:
how the global positioning system will track everyone, all the time
[slavery.jpg]
[26]Red Alert: FEMA camps, martial law and indefinite detention
without trial
Friendly [27]Fascism or Full Strength Fascism?
Democrats vs. Republicans, neo-liberals vs. neo-conservatives
[28]Brazil (the movie) Monty Python meets the Department of Homeland
Security
Orwell's "[29]1984"
[30]torture, "rendition" and "non lethal" weapons The War on
[31]Dissent and the abolition of First Amendment rights
Radio Frequency ID ([32]RFID) chips: a technological advancement over
Nazi tatooing of prisoners (coming soon to your drivers license, your
grocery store, your cash currency and possibly under your very skin) a
core part of the global surveillance society
[33]Biometrics
the [34]Police State is not on the horizon, it is already here
Slaying The Beast Before The Election Is Canceled, February 3, 2004
From the Streets of Little Beirut By Glen Yeadon
[35]http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/02/279760.shtml
There are three unmistakable characteristics of a police state. The
federal or state police serve the interest of the government rather
than the interest of the people. The police enforce the policies of
the government instead of the responding primarily to criminal
behavior. Finally, the police spy on private citizens. All these
conditions exist today in the United States.
[36]United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
[big%20brother.jpg]
http://www.maebrussell.com/Garrison/Garrison%20Playboy%20Intvw%202.htm
l
also archived at http://www.oilempire.us/reichstag-fire.html
Jim Garrison, New Orleans District Attorney (subject of Oliver Stone's
film JFK)
"fascism will come to America in the name of national security."
[37][corpflag.jpg]
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism,
since it is the merger of state and corporate power."
- Benito Mussolini
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Peak Oil and fascism
This explanation of how fascist fringe parties come to power is
accurate. The article's mention of the neo-cons misses the fact that
their program is definitely related to their understanding of the
implications of Peak Oil (as described masterfully in "[38]Crossing
the Rubicon").
[39]http://newerainvestor.blogspot.com/2005/04/politics-of-peak-oil-an
d-fascism.html
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
The Politics of Peak Oil and Fascism
_________________________________________________________________
[40]http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2005/05/voyage-of-beagle.html
list of recent articles detailing America's slide into fascism
_________________________________________________________________
[41]http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm July 5, 2005
Meantime, back at the Police State
With the new National Security Service signed into law: We can
expect a large number of side shows to be developed in coming
months because of the long wave economic train wreck forming up.
Specifically, as the economy softens, it will become more and more
difficult for the Powers That Be (PTB) to hold onto the reigns of
power. As a result, we read with interest this morning that the
Pentagon's planners are considering beefing up domestic security.
This is almost amusing to the well read student of history: Clearly
the agenda has nothing to do with terrorism and is more likely to
be the formation of military strength internally to attempt
maintenance of order after the markets crash and lynch mobs take to
the street looking for banksters and crooked politicians who are
squandering the public's trust as we speak. It will also be used as
the forerunner of the draft, we consider a near certainty by
mid-2006. Look for news out of Afghanistan and Iraq to be main
drivers, but the not-so-well hidden agenda is building up a
protection unit for the PTB to keep "order."
_________________________________________________________________
[42]http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/12/bank_regs_boost_data_minin
g/
Bush Admin demands more banking data
By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Published Tuesday 12th April 2005 16:02 GMT
The Bush Administration plans to extend its mighty neural networks
to international banking in hopes of discovering terrorist
activity, the New York Times reported in its Sunday edition.
The scheme would allow the US Treasury Department to maintain
databases of international money transfers to and from the USA,
creating an additional regulatory burden on banks struggling to
comply with myriad regulations already imposed by the so-called
"Patriot" Act.
The result of this additional data mining, the article suggests,
will be a flood of largely irrelevant data to federal agencies
already awash in irrelevant data. But the Administration's overall
approach has been to get all the data it can now, and figure out
how it might be used to catch terrorists later.
Since the Administration's grand schemes for monitoring the
public's every move, such as the MATRIX and Total Information
Awareness (TIA), fell into disrepute, it appears to be taking a
piecemeal approach, building its surveillance society one step at a
time.
We now have, or have in the works: biometric, RFID drivers'
licenses following a federal standard with state motor vehicle
databases linked electronically, as required by the Real-ID Act;
biometric, RFID passports; bulk demands by the federal government
for airline passenger records; the CAPPS - now called "Secure
Flight" - airline data mining scheme; and banking and other
financial data in federal hands, and enriched with personal data
from retail privacy invaders like ChoicePoint.
All of these components can, and certainly will, be correlated,
although the government hopes that the public will perceive them as
discrete elements in the so-called war on terror, and not
contemplate the eventual, cumulative effect of all this activity.
The public has rejected big gestures like TIA and MATRIX, but seems
tolerant of incremental developments, like the new banking
regulations now being worked out. With enough such steps, the TIA
dream can be realized without public resistance. So far, it appears
to be on track.
[sorry_we_missed_you-copy.gif]
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Remarks by Senator Byrd
Delivered on March 1, 2005
Stopping a Strike at the Heart of the Senate
witness how men with motives and a majority can manipulate law to
cruel and unjust ends. Historian Alan Bullock writes that Hitler's
dictatorship rested on the constitutional foundation of a single
law, the Enabling Law. Hitler needed a two-thirds vote to pass that
law, and he cajoled his opposition in the Reichstag to support it.
Bullock writes that "Hitler was prepared to promise anything to get
his bill through, with the appearances of legality preserved
intact." And he succeeded.
Hitler's originality lay in his realization that effective
revolutions, in modern conditions, are carried out with, and not
against, the power of the State: the correct order of events was
first to secure access to that power and then begin his revolution.
Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality; he recognized the
enormous psychological value of having the law on his side.
Instead, he turned the law inside out and made illegality legal.
_________________________________________________________________
March 7, 2005
Columbus Free Press / Ohio
[43]http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2005/1084
Senator Byrd is Correct to Equate Bush With Hitler
by Harvey Wasserman
The U.S. Senate's senior Constitutional scholar has correctly
equated Bush with Hitler, and the usual attack dogs are howling.
But they are wrong, and Americans must now face the harsh realities
of an increasingly fascist and totalitarian GOP.
Octogenarian Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia made the equation
in the context of Bush's attack on Senate procedures which might
slow or halt his on-going attempt to pack the courts with extreme
right-wing fanatics. Byrd said Bush's moves to destroy time-honored
Senate rules parallel Hitler's ramming fascist legislation through
his gutted Reichstag. ....
While Bush advocates for "democracy" overseas, the GOP is crushing
it at home. These judicial nominees mean to further solidify
Republican control of the court system, which they have added to
their grip on the Executive, both houses of Congress and the media.
The GOP is also gutting safeguards within the FBI and CIA, turning
them into a [44]personal police force that could parallel Hitler's
Gestapo.
Because the regime wraps itself in the rhetoric of our democratic
roots, it's emotionally difficult for Americans to equate Bush with
Hitler. He is not, after all, running [45]death camps like the ones
Hitler used to exterminate millions of Jews, Gypsies, gays,
unionists, Jehovah Witnesses, the elderly and infirm, birth
defected and handicapped. But the distinction may be lost on the
tens of thousands of Iraqis who have died in the wholesale
slaughter there, and whose land has been carpeted with radioactive
[46]depleted uranium which will kill for centuries.
Bush is now operating a classic concentration camp in
[47]Guantanamo. This infamous holding center operates entirely
outside the rule of law, with prisoners held without charge,
without evidence, without access to attorneys, family or the
outside world. ....
Both Mussolini's Fascist's and Hitler's Nazis used acts of terror
and alleged terror to grab absolute power. Ranting at Bolshevism as
the GOP now does against Islam, the Nazis used the burning of the
[48]Reichstag much as the GOP has capitalized on the terror attacks
of [49]September 11. ....
Like Hitler, Bush believes he talks to and for God. He has said at
least twice in public that he does not oppose dictatorship as long
as he can be the dictator. His family has long, well-documented
financial and political ties to the Nazi regime, as well as to
[50]Osama bin Laden and a long list of [51]oil-rich Islamic
fundamentalists.
Senator Byrd's invocation of the Nazis to describe the Bush regime
may be considered impolitic. But it's folly to avoid the important
parallels.
By all accounts American democracy is hanging by a thin thread
which Bush/[52]Rove is laboring mightily to cut.
Sen. Robert Byrd is a conservative, uniquely learned man. When he
equates Bush with Hitler, he speaks with great sadness and
scholarship -- and must be heeded.
[woodyguthrie.jpg]
Woody Guthrie
[53]http://keyholepublishing.com/index.html
The Unveiling of the National Security State (7/14/04)
The Unveiling of the National Security State
by Richard M. Dolan
copyright ©2004 by Richard M. Dolan. All rights reserved.
All things change, including our time-honored system of government.
We have entered into a new era, marked by the existence of an
omnipresent state, controlled by the very few, bound by no law but
its own. Welcome to the New World Order. A new American order is in
place. Better get used to it. Or else.
Five centuries ago, Niccolo Machiavelli explained how to undertake
a revolution from above without most people even noticing. In his
Discourses on Livy, he wrote that one "must at least retain the
semblance of the old forms; so that it may seem to the people that
there has been no change in the institutions, even though in fact
they are entirely different from the old ones."
That is, keep the old government structures, even while you make
profound changes to the actual system, because the appearances are
all that most people will notice.
So today, instead of seeing the corpse of a republic in which we
live, we see merely the dead man's clothing. Those clothes look the
same as ever, albeit increasingly worn. We have had a quiet
revolution that has not eliminated our Congressional
representatives - it's simply made them largely irrelevant.
It's been a long journey to our current state of affairs. Not
surprisingly, wars have been a major catalyst. Most wars fought by
the United States have added power to the executive branch, while
whittling power away from the legislature. This includes wars
fought for high-minded purposes such as the Civil War and World War
Two, mindless bloodbaths like World War One, and the dozens of
undeclared wars over the past half-century.
I would select World War Two - and its immediate aftermath - as the
real turning point when the American Dream went awry. This is
ironic, since it was at that moment when America first sat atop the
world at the pinnacle of power.
And therein lies the problem. For this was when the American
republic began its transformation into a national security state.
Or, to put it another way, into an Empire. ...
_________________________________________________________________
Creeping Fascism
It is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the conclusion that
conservatives, subtly but unmistakably, are fomenting violence against
liberals for the 2004 election. And if they succeed in doing so,
America will be facing what has always been considered unthinkable
here: a serious manifestation of fascism.
... I concluded previously that it seemed likely that any
manifestation of fascism was some ways off, perhaps as long as a
generation, if these trends were left unchecked. Now it appears that
the timetable is moving much faster than that -- and countervailing
forces are so far slow in coalescing, in no small part because of the
utter, Stalinist ruthlessness of their opponents.
[54]http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2003_11_09_dneiwert_archive.html#1068
73808557482314
Rush, Newspeak and Fascism: An exegesis
by David Neiwert
POSTED AUGUST 30, 2003 --
[55]http://www.cursor.org/stories/fascismintroduction.php
_________________________________________________________________
http://www.prisonplanet.com/122203fascistamerica.html
PRISON PLANET.com
Juan Bosch: His Prophecy of a Fascist America
William Hughes
A long time ago, I remember reading a disturbing magazine article
that was written by Juan Bosch. He was the former president of the
Dominican Republic ...
Bosch, like any true son of a nation, stood with his people against
the grasping Oligarchs. He favored modest land reform in his
poverty-stricken country. That proved a little too much for the fat
cat sugar plantation owners and the ambitious army generals. He was
ousted after only seven months in office, in 1963, in a
CIA-assisted military coup. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson
sent in 20,000 Marines, on the pretext that the Dominican Republic
might go communist. He feared it was another Cuba in the making.
Sure, LBJ! Bosch died in 2001.
Anyway, getting back to Bosch's commentary. He had predicted that
America would one day look like a U.S. occupied Dominican Republic!
His point was, and I'm sorry I can't remember his exact words, that
America would be corrupted by its underhanded role in replacing his
and other governments around the globe. He saw a time when the U.S.
would have its soldiers patrolling its own cities, airports,
railroad stations, ports, public buildings and its capital. And,
also that its citizens' liberties would be unduly restricted by the
federal government that had lost its moral compass. Sadly, that
time is coming fast!
[fasces.jpg] -- close up --> [fasces2.jpg]
Roman "Fasces" on the wall behind the Speaker's Podium
US House of Representatives chamber, United States Capitol
The "Fasces" was a symbol of imperial power in ancient Rome.
A bundle of sticks bound together, it represented the "many bound
together as one."
"Fasces" is the root where the term "fascism" comes from.
"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be
dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War
is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And
armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing
the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the
discretionary power of the Executive is extended. Its influence in
dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the
means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force
of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be
traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud,
growing out of a state of war...and in the degeneracy of manners and
morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in
the midst of continual warfare."
-- James Madison, April 20, 1795
_________________________________________________________________
"A clique of U.S. industrialists is hell-bent to bring a fascist state
to supplant our democratic government and is working closely with the
fascist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity
in my post in Berlin to witness how close some of our [56]American
ruling families are to the Nazi regime. They extended aid to help
Fascism occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it
there."
--William E. Dodd, U.S. Ambassador to Germany, 1937
_________________________________________________________________
[57]http://www.politicalstrategy.org/2003_09_23_weblog_archive.php
No one knows the Bush extremists better than Ray McGovern, a former
senior CIA officer and personal friend of George Bush senior, the
President's father. In Breaking The Silence, he tells me: "They were
referred to in the circles in which I moved when I was briefing at the
top policy levels as 'the crazies'."
"Who referred to them as 'the crazies'?" I asked.
"All of us... in policy circles as well as intelligence circles...
There is plenty of documented evidence that they have been planning
these attacks for a long time and that 9/11 accelerated their plan.
(The weapons of mass destruction issue) was all contrived, so was the
connection of Iraq with al Qaeda. It was all PR... Josef Goebbels had
this dictum: If you say something often enough, the people will
believe it." He added: "I think we ought to be all worried about
fascism (in the United States)."
_________________________________________________________________
the terrorist threat is either hype or a neo-Con false flag project.
There is no al-Qaeda. You are being played by a government jealous of
your desire to focus on something other than the government itself.
All of these warnings are intended to keep your mind focused on what
Bush wants your mind focused on - Bush himself. This is classically
typical of a fascist regime. It may sound outlandish, but it is
true. Nothing about fascism is normal. Don't expect the normal,
expect the twisted.
[58]http://www.stop-fascism.org/dec__26_-_jan__1.htm
_________________________________________________________________
[59]http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/britt_23_2.htm
The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism
By Dr. Lawrence Britt
Free Inquiry Magazine / Spring 2003
Fascism Anyone?
Laurence W. Britt
The following article is from Free Inquiry magazine, Volume 23, Number
2.
Free Inquiry readers may pause to read the "Affirmations of Humanism:
A Statement of Principles" on the inside cover of the magazine. To a
secular humanist, these principles seem so logical, so right, so
crucial. Yet, there is one archetypal political philosophy that is
anathema to almost all of these principles. It is fascism. And
fascism's principles are wafting in the air today, surreptitiously
masquerading as something else, challenging everything we stand for.
The cliché that people and nations learn from history is not only
overused, but also overestimated; often we fail to learn from history,
or draw the wrong conclusions. Sadly, historical amnesia is the norm.
We are two-and-a-half generations removed from the horrors of Nazi
Germany, although constant reminders jog the consciousness. German and
Italian fascism form the historical models that define this twisted
political worldview. Although they no longer exist, this worldview and
the characteristics of these models have been imitated by
protofascist1 regimes at various times in the twentieth century. Both
the original German and Italian models and the later protofascist
regimes show remarkably similar characteristics. Although many
scholars question any direct connection among these regimes, few can
dispute their visual similarities.
Beyond the visual, even a cursory study of these fascist and
protofascist regimes reveals the absolutely striking convergence of
their modus operandi. This, of course, is not a revelation to the
informed political observer, but it is sometimes useful in the
interests of perspective to restate obvious facts and in so doing shed
needed light on current circumstances.
For the purpose of this perspective, I will consider the following
regimes: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco's Spain, Salazar's
Portugal, Papadopoulos's Greece, Pinochet's Chile, and Suharto's
Indonesia. To be sure, they constitute a mixed bag of national
identities, cultures, developmental levels, and history. But they all
followed the fascist or protofascist model in obtaining, expanding,
and maintaining power. Further, all these regimes have been
overthrown, so a more or less complete picture of their basic
characteristics and abuses is possible.
Analysis of these seven regimes reveals fourteen common threads that
link them in recognizable patterns of national behavior and abuse of
power. These basic characteristics are more prevalent and intense in
some regimes than in others, but they all share at least some level of
similarity.
1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism. From the
prominent displays of flags and bunting to the ubiquitous lapel pins,
the fervor to show patriotic nationalism, both on the part of the
regime itself and of citizens caught up in its frenzy, was always
obvious. Catchy slogans, pride in the military, and demands for unity
were common themes in expressing this nationalism. It was usually
coupled with a suspicion of things foreign that often bordered on
xenophobia.
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights. The regimes themselves
viewed human rights as of little value and a hindrance to realizing
the objectives of the ruling elite. Through clever use of propaganda,
the population was brought to accept these human rights abuses by
marginalizing, even demonizing, those being targeted. When abuse was
egregious, the tactic was to use secrecy, denial, and disinformation.
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause. The most
significant common thread among these regimes was the use of
scapegoating as a means to divert the people's attention from other
problems, to shift blame for failures, and to channel frustration in
controlled directions. The methods of choice--relentless propaganda
and disinformation--were usually effective. Often the regimes would
incite "spontaneous" acts against the target scapegoats, usually
communists, socialists, liberals, Jews, ethnic and racial minorities,
traditional national enemies, members of other religions, secularists,
homosexuals, and "terrorists." Active opponents of these regimes were
inevitably labeled as terrorists and dealt with accordingly.
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism. Ruling elites always
identified closely with the military and the industrial infrastructure
that supported it. A disproportionate share of national resources was
allocated to the military, even when domestic needs were acute. The
military was seen as an expression of nationalism, and was used
whenever possible to assert national goals, intimidate other nations,
and increase the power and prestige of the ruling elite.
5. Rampant sexism. Beyond the simple fact that the political elite and
the national culture were male-dominated, these regimes inevitably
viewed women as second-class citizens. They were adamantly
anti-abortion and also homophobic. These attitudes were usually
codified in Draconian laws that enjoyed strong support by the orthodox
religion of the country, thus lending the regime cover for its abuses.
6. A controlled mass media. Under some of the regimes, the mass media
were under strict direct control and could be relied upon never to
stray from the party line. Other regimes exercised more subtle power
to ensure media orthodoxy. Methods included the control of licensing
and access to resources, economic pressure, appeals to patriotism, and
implied threats. The leaders of the mass media were often politically
compatible with the power elite. The result was usually success in
keeping the general public unaware of the regimes' excesses.
7. Obsession with national security. Inevitably, a national security
apparatus was under direct control of the ruling elite. It was usually
an instrument of oppression, operating in secret and beyond any
constraints. Its actions were justified under the rubric of protecting
"national security," and questioning its activities was portrayed as
unpatriotic or even treasonous.
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together. Unlike communist regimes,
the fascist and protofascist regimes were never proclaimed as godless
by their opponents. In fact, most of the regimes attached themselves
to the predominant religion of the country and chose to portray
themselves as militant defenders of that religion. The fact that the
ruling elite's behavior was incompatible with the precepts of the
religion was generally swept under the rug. Propaganda kept up the
illusion that the ruling elites were defenders of the faith and
opponents of the "godless." A perception was manufactured that
opposing the power elite was tantamount to an attack on religion.
9. Power of corporations protected. Although the personal life of
ordinary citizens was under strict control, the ability of large
corporations to operate in relative freedom was not compromised. The
ruling elite saw the corporate structure as a way to not only ensure
military production (in developed states), but also as an additional
means of social control. Members of the economic elite were often
pampered by the political elite to ensure a continued mutuality of
interests, especially in the repression of "have-not" citizens.
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated. Since organized labor was
seen as the one power center that could challenge the political
hegemony of the ruling elite and its corporate allies, it was
inevitably crushed or made powerless. The poor formed an underclass,
viewed with suspicion or outright contempt. Under some regimes, being
poor was considered akin to a vice.
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
Intellectuals and the inherent freedom of ideas and expression
associated with them were anathema to these regimes. Intellectual and
academic freedom were considered subversive to national security and
the patriotic ideal. Universities were tightly controlled; politically
unreliable faculty harassed or eliminated. Unorthodox ideas or
expressions of dissent were strongly attacked, silenced, or crushed.
To these regimes, art and literature should serve the national
interest or they had no right to exist.
12. Obsession with crime and punishment. Most of these regimes
maintained Draconian systems of criminal justice with huge prison
populations. The police were often glorified and had almost unchecked
power, leading to rampant abuse. "Normal" and political crime were
often merged into trumped-up criminal charges and sometimes used
against political opponents of the regime. Fear, and hatred, of
criminals or "traitors" was often promoted among the population as an
excuse for more police power.
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption. Those in business circles and
close to the power elite often used their position to enrich
themselves. This corruption worked both ways; the power elite would
receive financial gifts and property from the economic elite, who in
turn would gain the benefit of government favoritism. Members of the
power elite were in a position to obtain vast wealth from other
sources as well: for example, by stealing national resources. With the
national security apparatus under control and the media muzzled, this
corruption was largely unconstrained and not well understood by the
general population.
14. Fraudulent elections. Elections in the form of plebiscites or
public opinion polls were usually bogus. When actual elections with
candidates were held, they would usually be perverted by the power
elite to get the desired result. Common methods included maintaining
control of the election machinery, intimidating and disenfranchising
opposition voters, destroying or disallowing legal votes, and, as a
last resort, turning to a judiciary beholden to the power elite.
Does any of this ring alarm bells? Of course not. After all, this is
America, officially a democracy with the rule of law, a constitution,
a free press, honest elections, and a well-informed public constantly
being put on guard against evils. Historical comparisons like these
are just exercises in verbal gymnastics. Maybe, maybe not.
Note
1. Defined as a "political movement or regime tending toward or
imitating Fascism"--Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
References
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Chabod, Frederico. A History of Italian Fascism. London: Weidenfeld,
1963.
Cooper, Marc. Pinochet and Me. New York: Verso, 2001.
Cornwell, John. Hitler as Pope. New York: Viking, 1999.
de Figuerio, Antonio. Portugal--Fifty Years of Dictatorship. New York:
Holmes & Meier, 1976.
Eatwell, Roger. Fascism, A History. New York: Penguin, 1995.
Fest, Joachim C. The Face of the Third Reich. New York: Pantheon,
1970.
Gallo, Max. Mussolini's Italy. New York: MacMillan, 1973.
Kershaw, Ian. Hitler (two volumes). New York: Norton, 1999.
Laqueur, Walter. Fascism, Past, Present, and Future. New York: Oxford,
1996.
Papandreau, Andreas. Democracy at Gunpoint. New York: Penguin Books,
1971.
Phillips, Peter. Censored 2001: 25 Years of Censored News. New York:
Seven Stories. 2001.
Sharp, M.E. Indonesia Beyond Suharto. Armonk, 1999.
Verdugo, Patricia. Chile, Pinochet, and the Caravan of Death. Coral
Gables, Florida: North-South Center Press, 2001.
Yglesias, Jose. The Franco Years. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1977.
Laurence Britt's novel, June, 2004, depicts a future America dominated
by right-wing extremists.
_________________________________________________________________
On the road to Fascism
United States is taking on all the defining characteristics
Durango Herald -October 5, 2003
[60]http://new.globalfreepress.com/article.pl?sid=03/10/10/1832217
We believe that the United States of America is drifting towards
its own version of fascism.
Fascism, whatever its particular national characteristics, is
inherently a destruction of the "old order" of a country its laws,
its culture, its internal politics and its international relations.
Fascists govern within existing systems until parallel systems are
in place. Once those systems are in position, the evolution from
national populism to fascism is unstoppable. Fascist states are
internally destructive. When they become externally destructive,
they are destroyed from outside.
Characteristics of fascist states include:
Fascist countries project that they are in a permanent or long-term
state of war. (Example: We are in an endless war on terrorism.)
Fascist countries invade other countries without provocation.
(Example: pre-emptive war against Iraq.) We tried the Germans at
Nuremberg for exactly this offense.
As Supreme Court Justice Robert L. Jackson, the chief U.S.
prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunal, said on Aug. 12, 1945: "We
must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their
fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that
they started it. ... Our position is that no grievances or policies
will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and
condemned as an instrument of policy."
Fascist countries violate their own treaties and international law.
(Example: violation of the United Nations Charter by waging war
against Iraq without UN approval.) Fascist countries lie to the
general population, instilling fear and hysteria against
mythological enemies, so they can go to war at will. (Examples: The
9-11 tragedy was used to generate hysteria through a massive
government propaganda campaign based upon lies about Iraq;
intimidation by color-coded terror warnings and provisions of the
USA Patriot Act.)
Fascism is characterized by single-party rule, the destruction or
transformation of the two-party system. (Examples: Colorado Gov.
Bill Owens abolished the Colorado 2004 primary election; illegal
attempts at redistricting driven by the White House; monetary
corruption of the system resulting in voter apathy.)
Fascist governments demand unquestioning support otherwise you are
a traitor. (Example: President Bush's statement, "You are either
with us or against us.")
Fascist governments project an ideology that they are "right."
(Example: President Bush, "I am right and I know I am right and
history will prove me right.")
Fascist countries consolidate media control for propaganda
purposes. (Example: Federal Communications Commission and corporate
attempts at consolidation of the media.)
Fascism is characterized by legal parallelism. Fascist states
create shadow agencies, shadow courts, separate prisons, thus
destroying guaranteed constitutional rights. (Examples: Destruction
of the guarantee of right to trial by jury; holding U.S. citizens
without charge, without access to legal counsel and without the
right to court appearance; intimidation of the judiciary by threats
of blacklisting; intimidation of lawyers; degrading attorney-client
privileges.)
Fascism is characterized by using torture, concentration camps and
having major prison populations. (Examples: Guantanamo
concentration camp; the FBI's description of how it "breaks"
suspects with heat, cold, sound and sleep deprivation. The United
States has the highest percentage of citizenry in prisons of any
country in the world.)
Fascism is characterized by parallelism between the state and
corporations. (Examples: Government and corporate overlap in
certain industries oil, energy, military contractors and the media;
massive corporate donations to both parties to assure connivance.)
Fascism, U.S. version, is characterized by the privatization of
public services and the sell-off of public entities and resources
for the benefit of the party faithful rather than the public at
large. (Examples: Private profiteering on public services such as
prisons, water, sewer, forest use, oil and gas; current order for
appraisal of all post office buildings for contemplated sale.)
Fascism incorporates racism and attacks on the nondominant
religion. (Examples: Imprisoning disproportionately one race for
using a drug of choice other than that used by the dominant
majority; Muslim profiling and harassment; denial of franchise to
blacks under false pretenses in the Florida election.)
Fascism promotes conservative views of arts, literature, family
culture, family planning and morals. (Examples: attacks on and
decreased funding for National Public Radio, the Public
Broadcasting System, the National Endowment for the Arts, any
institution promoting family planning; school vouchers as the
beginning of class-based private education and the destruction of
the public education system; passing financial responsibility for
Head Start to states that are near bankruptcy.)
Fascism takes religious symbolism and transfers the emotional and
moral appeal to state symbols. (Examples: Aggressive and
ostentatious God Bless America signs; the attempt to make the
Pledge of Allegiance mandatory in Colorado schools; ostentatious
flag waving and display; destruction of constitutional separation
of church and state.)
We believe that the American tradition is in great peril.
Christine Eleanor Anderson, of Vallecito, is a businesswoman and a
former law professor. Ross A. Worley is retired from Fort Lewis
College. He lives in Durango. This was also signed by Jennifer
Gehrman and Mark Seis, of Bayfield, and Greg Rossell, Charles Swift
and Mary Lou Swift, of Durango.
_________________________________________________________________
[61]http://erippy.home.mindspring.com/Guns%2C_Drugs%2C_and_Oil_9-11_an
d_US-Led_Global_Fascism.html
GUNS, DRUGS, AND OIL: 9-11 AND US-LED GLOBAL FASCISM
By Ed Rippy
Wake Up and Smell the Swastikas!
By Ed Rippy
[Note: most of the historical background is documented on my "9-11
and US-led Global Neofascism"
(http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/RIP308A.html) and "War Is
Still A Racket"
(http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/RIP308B.html). To save
space, I have omitted those footnotes here.]
According to the best information I have been able to find, we are
in much more trouble than most of us realize. The biological,
ideological, and corporate descendants of the people who ran Hitler
& Mussolini are now running much of this country, much of South
America, much of the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia. We are
in serious danger of a neofascist police state that will make Nazi
Germany look like a picnic, and we need to take this as seriously
as if our lives and our children's lived depended on it - because
they do. We are as expendable to these people as the Jews, the
Poles, the Gypsies, and the homosexuals were to the Third Reich.
Today we face unemployment, homelessness, the prison-industrial
complex, a drug war which is really a war on us, and biological
warfare attacks from our own government. The terrorist attacks of
9/11/01 serve the same function as the Reichstag fire which enabled
the Nazis to take over Germany.
Prescott Bush, our President's grandfather, handled banking
arrangements for a host of US industrialists who supplied Hitler
with money, war materiel, and political cover. Bush owned part of
the Silesian-American Steel company, which used slave labor in
Poland to make steel for the tanks and airplanes which killed and
wounded many of our fathers, grandfathers, and uncles. He also had
a piece of the Hamburg-Amerika Steamship line, which gave Nazi
propagandists free passage to the US and had supervisors from the
Nazi Labor Front on all its ships. Henry Ford, Standard Oil of New
Jersey, and ITT built up Hitler's war machine, some of them racking
up huge profits from slave labor, and often supplying both sides.
The list goes on. Some of these fascists, seeing Roosevelt as a
Communist, plotted a coup against him - he found out and it fizzled
- but they were so powerful that he couldn't have a single one of
them arrested, even though a Congressional report found that the
plot was real. The report was hushed up.
After the war, using the military and intelligence services, US
fascists rescued many of the Nazi leaders and their industrial
assets (of course other countries got some too), using the Morgan
Bank among others. The Dulles brothers, who became head of the CIA
and Secretary of State, managed much of this while the Justice
Department stood by helpless.
Hitler's entire eastern spy network went to work for the US after
the war. Klaus Barbie, a brutal Gestapo chief, set up the School of
the Americas in the Panama Canal Zone (now the Western Hemispheric
Institute for Security Co-operation at Fort Benning, GA) as a
co-ordinating center for the recycled Nazis of South America. In
1980 his troops, wearing Swastika armbands, carried out a bloody
coup in Bolivia. Otto Skorzeny, "Hitler's favorite commando," went
to the Middle East, where he built up a network of over 100 former
SS officers. Dr. Kurt Blome, a Nazi biological warfare scientist
who experimented on concentration camp prisoners, went to the US
Army Chemical Corps. Walter Dornberger, a general who worked
concentration camp slaves literally to death in the Reich's rocket
program, became a senior vice-president of the Bell Aerospace
Division of Textron Corporation.
The South American Neonazi network has killed, tortured, and
disappeared tens of thousands of people, and US clients around the
globe are little different. Argentinean death squads tortured
victims under pictures of Adolf Hitler. In the `60s and `70s
military intelligence gave money, tear-gas bombs, Mace, and
electronic surveillance equipment to thugs in Chicago for use
against local anti-war groups.
Sixteen states have passed laws allowing forced vaccination or
quarantine in case of biological emergency. Eleven allow
confiscation of buildings and property. Seventeen grant immunity
from prosecution to state and private actors for these deeds.
Remember, the anthrax in the mailings after 9-11 was processed in
US Government labs, and a former biowarfare director said the
attacks were a good thing since they got more money for the budget.
Police in Oakland routinely beat up and even kill poor people,
usually of color, with impunity. At last report, there is still no
evidence that protesters at the Oakland docks on April 7 threw
anything at police, but the police shot them with
"less-than-lethal" weapons and ran into them with motorcycles. They
targeted dockworkers as well as protesters, dragged an ILWU
business agent from his car, roughed him up, and held him for
eighteen hours. Witnesses report that police had covered or removed
their badges. Port management and Stevedoring Services of America,
which has contracts in the Persian Gulf, met with police three days
before the protests.
The "PATRIOT" Act --written long before 9-11 -- allows the
government to lock non-citizens up forever with no hearing or
evidence if the Secretary of State "suspects" them of terrorists
links. A new law in the works will allow the government to strip
people of their citizenship for joining or providing "material
support" to a group which the Attorney General has designated
"terrorist." The FBI, with the aid of local police departments, is
collecting intelligence on antiwar groups as part of its
"counterterrorism" program. Gen. Tommy Franks, retired "liberator"
of Iraq, says that another terrorist attack on the US would
probably lead to a military government. The Department of Homeland
Security said in late November 2003 that it expects al-Qaeda to
attack soon.
At the FTAA protests in Miami, police shot, gassed, beat, and
arrested protesters without provocation, injuring over 100 and
sending at least 12 to the hospital. Although the police knew the
charges wouldn't stick, they arrested over 250 in order to beat and
torture them for daring to voice disagreement with government
policy. One eyewitness relates, "[O]ver at the jail vigil a few
blocks away the police declare an illegal assembly. They tell
people to get on the sidewalk and they'll be safe. Then they
surround the group on the sidewalk, beat people to the ground,
kneel on their spines and arrest them.... [A] friend comes up and
tells me that Abby and her friends have been badly beaten up,
jumped by cops on their way home to their hotel, her sweet, lovely
face pushed into the pavement. `We could kill you here,' the cops
tell them."
_________________________________________________________________
The Soldiers At My Front Door
by John Dear
Saturday, November 29, 2003 CommonDreams.org
I live in a tiny, remote, impoverished, three block long town in
the desert of northeastern New Mexico. Everyone in town--and the
whole state--knows that I am against the occupation of Iraq, that I
have called for the closing of Los Alamos, and that as a priest, I
have been preaching, like the Pope, against the bombing of Baghdad.
Last week, it was announced that the local National Guard unit for
northeastern New Mexico, based in the nearby Armory, was being
deployed to Iraq early next year. I was not surprised when yellow
ribbons immediately sprang up after the press conference.
But I was surprised the following morning to hear 75 soldiers
singing, shouting and screaming as they jogged down Main Street,
passed our St. Joseph's church, back and forth around town for an
hour. It was 6 a.m., and they woke me up with their war slogans,
chants like "Kill! Kill! Kill!" and "Swing your guns from left to
right; we can kill those guys all night."
Their chants were disturbing, but this is war. They have to psyche
themselves up for the kill. They have to believe that flying off to
some tiny, remote desert town in Iraq where they will march in
front of someone's house and kill poor young Iraqis has some
greater meaning besides cold-blooded murder. Most of these young
reservists have never left our town, and they need our support for
the "unpleasant" task before them. I have been to Iraq, and led a
delegation of Nobel Peace Prize winners to Baghdad in 1999, and I
know that the people there are no different than the people here.
The screaming and chanting went on for one hour. They would march
passed the church, down Main Street, back around the post office,
and down Main Street again. It was clear they wanted to be seen and
heard. In fact, it was quite scary because the desert is normally a
place of perfect peace and silence.
Suddenly, at 7 a.m., the shouting got dramatically louder. I looked
out the front window of the house where I live, next door to the
church, and there they were--all 75 of them, standing yards away
from my front door, in the street right in front of my house and
our church, shouting and screaming to the top of their lungs,
"Kill! Kill! Kill!" Their commanders had planted them there and
were egging them on.
I was astonished and appalled. I suddenly realized that I do not
need to go to Iraq; the war had come to my front door. Later, I
heard that they had deliberately decided to do their exercises in
front of my house and our church because of my outspoken opposition
to the war. They wanted to put me in my place.
This, I think, is a new tactic. Over the years, I have been
arrested some 75 times in demonstrations, been imprisoned for a
"Plowshares" disarmament action, been bugged, tapped, and harassed,
searched at airports, and monitored by police. But this time, the
soldiers who will soon march through Baghdad and attack desert
homes in Iraq, practiced on me. They confronted me personally, just
as the death squad militaries did in Guatemala and El Salvador in
the 1980s, which I witnessed there on several occasions.
I decided I had to do something. I put on my winter coat and walked
out the front door right into the middle of the street. They
stopped shouting and looked at me, so I said loudly, publicly for
all to hear, "In the name of God, I order all of you to stop this
nonsense, and not to go to Iraq. I want all of you to quit the
military, disobey your orders to kill, and not to kill anyone. I do
not want you to get killed. I want you to practice the love and
nonviolence of Jesus. God does not bless war. God does not want you
to kill so Bush and Cheney can get more oil. God does not support
war. Stop all this and go home. God bless you."
Their jaws dropped, their eyeballs popped and they stood in shock
and silence, looking steadily at me. Then they burst out laughing.
Finally, the commander dismissed them and they left.
Later, military officials spread lies around town that I had
disrupted their military exercises at the Armory, so they decided
to come to my house and to the church in retaliation. Others
appealed to the archbishop to have me kicked out of New Mexico for
denouncing their warmaking. Then, a general called the mayor and
asked him to mediate "negotiations" with me, saying he did not want
the military "in confrontation" with the church. Really, the mayor
told me, they fear that I will disrupt the gala send-off next
month, just before Christmas, when the soldiers go to Iraq.
This dramatic episode is only the latest in a series of
confrontations since I came to the desert of New Mexico in the
summer of 2002 to serve as pastor of several poor, desert churches.
I have spoken out extensively against the U.S. war on Iraq, and
been denounced by people, including church people, across the
state. I have organized small Christian peace groups throughout the
state. We planned a prayer vigil for nuclear disarmament at Los
Alamos on the anniversary of Hiroshima this past August, but when
the devout people of Los Alamos, most of them Catholic, heard about
it, they appealed to the archbishop to have me expelled if I
appeared publicly in their town. In the end, I did not attend the
vigil, but the publicity gave me further opportunities to call for
the closing of Los Alamos. I receive hate mail, negative phone
calls and at least one death threat for daring to criticize our
country. But New Mexico is the poorest state in the U.S. It is also
number one in military spending and number one in nuclear weapons.
It is the most militarized, the most in need of disarmament, the
most in need of nonviolence. It is the first place the Pentagon
goes to recruit poor youth into the empire's army.
If we are to change the direction of our country, and turn people
against Bush's occupation of Iraq, we are going to have to face the
ire and persecution of our local communities. If peace people in
every local community insisted that our troops be brought home
immediately, that the U.N. be sent in to restore Iraq, that all
U.S. military aid to the Middle East be cut, and that our arsenal
of weapons of mass destruction be dismantled, then we might all
find soldiers marching at our front doors, trying to intimidate us.
If we can face our soldiers, call them to quit the military and
urge them to disobey orders to kill, then perhaps some of them will
refuse to fight, become conscientious objectors and take up the
wisdom of nonviolence. If we can look them in the eye and engage
them in personal Satyagraha as Gandhi demonstrated, then we know
that the transformation has begun.
In the end, the episode for me was an experience of hope. We must
be making a difference if the soldiers have to march at our front
doors. That they failed to convert me or intimidate me, that they
had to listen to my side of the story, may haunt their consciences
as they travel to Iraq. No matter what happens, they have heard
loud and clear the good news that God does not want them to kill
anyone. I hope we can all learn the lesson.
John Dear is a Catholic priest, peace activist, lecturer, and
former executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. His
latest books include "Mohandas Gandhi" (Orbis) and "Mary of
Nazareth, Prophet of Peace" (Ave Maria Press). For info, see
http://www.johndear.org
_________________________________________________________________
[62]http://www.unknownnews.net/031121civics.html
Civics class: 2003
Teaching kids to live in a police state
Unknown News, Nov. 21, 2003
Cops plan mock commando games for school lockdown drills
by Mike Conway, Modesto [CA] Bee
Nov. 19, 2003
LIVINGSTON, Ca. -- Lockdown drills come three or four times a year
at Livingston High School.The one set for Thursday will be more
real than any other.
Officials said someone will open fire and try to break into
classrooms as police close in. The guns will be real -- and loaded
with blanks.
Thursday morning, students and faculty again will be reminded that
the exercise is only a drill.
But Police Chief Bill Eldridge said he has a few surprises that he
will not disclose.
School administrators and police said their intent is not to cause
undue alarm. Officials mailed notices to all students' homes, and
alerted nearby residents and other schools.
"We do lockdown drills regularly," Principal Robert Wendel said.
"We feel the need to take it one step further, so the police can
see how things work on campus and how to move about." There's not
enough hours in the school year for our children to learn about the
relationship between their needs & desires and those of the
authorities. I wonder who in the Senior Class will be voted "Most
Likely to Be the 1st One Killed in Any Hostage Situation"?
=John C.=
Kathleen Luxon has a daughter, Julie, who is a senior at Livingston
High. "I think it's a good thing," Luxon said of the drill. "I
think the kids always need to be prepared on how to handle a
situation if it happens."
She said having the lockdown is no different than a fire drill or
"duck and cover" exercises meant to show children how to protect
themselves in earthquakes and nuclear attacks.Police "I feel that
Livingston is a very safe school," Luxon said. "We would hate for
something like this to happen and not be prepared for it."
Chief Bill Eldridge said: "We're not doing this out of fear or
paranoia. After Columbine, we can no longer say, it won't happen to
us."
In April 1999, at Columbine High in Littleton, Colo., two students
killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves. While
the killing went on, police waited outside the school for Special
Weapons and Tactics officers.
"We're changing our whole mode of thinking about how we would get
on the school grounds," Eldridge said.
"The old philosophy was to respond and contain, and call in the
tactical units," he said. "We can no longer stand back and wait.
We, as street officers, have to get on the school grounds very
quickly to prevent other students and staff from being injured."
In a real-life situation, a mutual aid call would be placed and
sheriff's deputies and other available law enforcement personnel
would be called to the scene. But Livingston police would still be
the first responders.
"I don't think we do enough hands-on training of these scenarios to
make our personnel and the school personnel feel comfortable," he
said.
Eventually, Eldridge said, he wants to have a full-scale drill with
firefighters, paramedics and neighboring law enforcement.
"That one would include a controlled evacuation of the school," he
said.
Since 1999, the school has had a response plan and practices it
regularly, Livingston High's Wendel said. A critique follows each
drill.
Thursday morning, students and faculty again will be reminded that
the exercise is only a drill.
But Eldridge said he has a few surprises that he will not disclose.
"We're going to add to the realism as closely as we can," he said.
"There's always that percentage of staff members and students who
think these training scenarios are a joke. But they're not. We
learned it's not a matter of if, it's when."
Published by
Modesto [CA] Bee
_________________________________________________________________
Police raid middle school in Vermont
Principal eyes 12-year-old who wears baggy pants
by Peter Freyne, Seven Days [Burlington, VT]
Nov. 19, 2003
Television brings countless frightening images into the living
room, but none was more chilling than that of cops with police dogs
and guns drawn, terrifying kids in the hallway of a South Carolina
High School on November 5.
Students that didn't line up against the wall fast enough were
thrown to the floor and handcuffed.
The principal had called the cops after getting reports of illegal
drug activity, specifically marijuana. The massive police drug raid
failed, however, to turn up any pot. Not a single seed.
A few days later, when a caller to a Vermont talk show mentioned
the Gestapo-style high school drug raid, the host was quick to
point out it happened in South Carolina, not Vermont!
But guess what, folks? It has happened here.
Seven Days has learned that school officials and police conducted a
drug raid at the Colchester Middle Schoolon November 6, the day
after the controversial raid in South Carolina. Lockers were
searched, as were individual students. And a German Shepherd
sniffed the joint searching for a whiff of illegal marijuana.
According to Principal John Barone, about two ounces of marijuana
were found behind a tile in the ceiling of the boys' bathroom.
Three boys were suspended. They were scheduled to appear in
executive session before the Colchester School Board Monday night.
After finding the pot, Barone said a sniffer dog named Kilo was
brought in to sniff lockers. No additional pot was discovered, said
Barone.
The matter was brought to our attention last week by a hard-hat
construction laborer on Hospital Hill. The 31-year-old single mom
was upset because she believed school officials were picking on her
12-year-old son, a seventh-grader. We're withholding her identity
to protect the privacy of her child, who's getting quite the
education in what it means to have no constitutional rights. Let's
just call her Rosie the Riveter.
According to Rosie, her son was taken to the principal's office the
Monday after the raid and suspended for alleged insubordination. In
the process his clothing was thoroughly searched. Then the school
nurse, Melissa Goldberg, examined the boy in a locked room, said
Rosie. She shined a flashlight in his eyes, nose and mouth and
asked if he had "shot, snorted or smoked anything." When he asked
to call his mom, he was told by Assistant Principal Karen Gockley
they just wanted "a quick check."
The boy told Seven Days that he was "frightened" and "didn't know
what was going on." He also told us the nurse asked if he could
pass a urinalysis drug test. He told her he could.
The assistant principal, he said, also told him he ought to stop
wearing those baggy clothes. "Ms. Gockley always tells us how it's
not a ghetto school and stuff. She told us, like, to change how we
dress."
In fact, when his mother later called Gockley, she was told she
should change the way her son dressed because, "when drugs were
found they were often on kids with the baggy-style clothes."
When she asked what "reasonable suspicion" they had to search her
son, Rosie said she was told the boy had been seen with another
child who looked to be under the influence of drugs. It turned out,
said Rosie, that kid was on prescription drugs for an ear problem.
"I feel he was violated," said Rosie. "It's not right to do that to
a 12-year-old, especially when he wants his mother. I'd be scared
if I was 12."
No evidence of drugs or drug use was found, but the boy's two-day
suspension stood.
Welcome to middle school in Vermont, folks -- the new front line in
the totally failed War on Drugs. And you thought kids had
constitutional rights? Civil liberties? Think again.
One veteran criminal lawyer put it this way: "In America today
there are three places where you have no rights. One is at the
border. One is in prison. And the other one is in school."
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1985 that school officials, not
police, may search students without a warrant if they have
"reasonable grounds" to suspect the search will turn up evidence of
a crime or violation of school rules.
Principal Barone told Seven Days he received a "tip" that morning
"that there was marijuana being distributed in school." Based on
that intelligence, he searched student lockers and individual
students. No pot was found in those searches, he reported.
Mr. Barone then received another tip that led to the discovery of
two bags of grass in the boys' bathroom ceiling.
More students came forward, said Barone. They told him there were
more drugs in the school but "they couldn't elaborate." At that
point, the decision was made to bring in the Colchester Police and
Kilo.
Barone said that when Kilo "hit" on a possible drug location,
Officer Jeff Fontaine would stand back and let Barone or Gockley
conduct the search. No drugs, however, were found as a result of
the K-9 unit's help.
Colchester Middle School has 605 students. It is the largest middle
school in Chittenden County. Both Barone and Gockley are in their
first year at the school. Previously they worked in Essex Junction.
"When we were hired," said Barone, "it was made clear to us that
student management had been lax." He said the school board wanted
us "to tighten things up."
Sounds like the kids in Colchester are getting quite a lesson in
citizenship, eh?
Published by Seven Days [Burlington, VT]
References
Visible links
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6. http://www.oilempire.us/newsletters.html
7. http://www.oilempire.us/slideshow.html
8. http://www.oilempire.us/dictionary.html
9. LYNXIMGMAP:http://www.oilempire.us/fascism.html#Map
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19. http://www.oilempire.us/homeland.html
20. http://www.oilempire.us/chertoff.html
21. http://www.oilempire.us/negroponte.html
22. http://www.oilempire.us/anthrax.html
23. http://www.oilempire.us/unpatriotic.html
24. http://www.oilempire.us/papersplease.html
25. http://www.oilempire.us/geoslavery.html
26. http://www.oilempire.us/redalert.html
27. http://www.oilempire.us/fascism.html
28. http://www.oilempire.us/brazil.html
29. http://www.oilempire.us/1984.html
30. http://www.oilempire.us/torture.html
31. http://www.oilempire.us/dissent.html
32. http://www.oilempire.us/rfid.html
33. http://www.oilempire.us/biometric.html
34. http://www.oilempire.us/policestate.html
35. http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/02/279760.shtml
36. http://www.oilempire.us/un.html
37. http://www.adbusters.org/
38. http://www.fromthewilderness.com/
39.
http://newerainvestor.blogspot.com/2005/04/politics-of-peak-oil-and-fascism.html
40. http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2005/05/voyage-of-beagle.html
41. http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm
42. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/12/bank_regs_boost_data_mining/
43. http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2005/1084
44. http://www.oilempire.us/homeland.html
45. http://www.oilempire.us/holocaust.html
46. http://www.oilempire.us/depleted-uranium.html
47. http://www.oilempire.us/redalert.html
48. http://www.oilempire.us/reichstag-fire.html
49. http://www.oilempire.us/911.html
50. http://www.oilempire.us/bushbinladen.html
51. http://www.oilempire.us/saudi.html
52. http://www.oilempire.us/karlrove.html
53. http://keyholepublishing.com/index.html
54.
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2003_11_09_dneiwert_archive.html#106873808557482314
55. http://www.cursor.org/stories/fascismintroduction.php
56. http://www.oilempire.us/bush.html
57. http://www.politicalstrategy.org/2003_09_23_weblog_archive.php
58. http://www.stop-fascism.org/dec__26_-_jan__1.htm
59. http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/britt_23_2.htm
60. http://new.globalfreepress.com/article.pl?sid=03/10/10/1832217
61.
http://erippy.home.mindspring.com/Guns%2C_Drugs%2C_and_Oil_9-11_and_US-Led_Global_Fascism.html
62. http://www.unknownnews.net/031121civics.html
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