Anticipating a Terrorist Attack on Congress...
Will there be a terrorist attack on Congress?
Mike Whitney
The strategy to militarize the country is moving forward as planned despite apparent setbacks in Iraq. As the Washington Post reported on Nov. 27 the Dept of Defense is expanding its domestic surveillance activity to allow Pentagon spies to track down and "investigate crimes within the United States".
An alarmed Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore) said, "We are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in America. This is a huge leap without a congressional hearing".
Is this the first time that the naïve Wyden realized that the war on terror is actually directed at the American people?
The expanded powers of the Pentagon were presented in a proposal by a presidential commission headed by Lawrence Silberman and former Senator Charles Robb, two members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the 9-11 "whitewash" commission. The CFR, a 4,000 member amalgam of elites from the military, industry and media, was the driving force behind the Iraq war, as well as, enthusiastic advocates of the national security state. Their recommendations will allow the military to assume the traditional role of law enforcement and by giving it the authority to "carry out domestic criminal investigations and clandestine operations against potential threats inside the United States".
Oh, yeah; and the Pentagon will be involved in the "apprehension, or detention of individuals suspected" of criminal offenses.
This is a giant step for removing dissidents and political enemies while further militarizing the country.
So, why would there be a need for a terrorist attack on congress? Isn’t the master-plan for a military dictatorship moving along according to schedule?
Yes and no.
The Patriot Act is up for renewal and will remove the last nettlesome parts of the 4th amendment and any conceivable notion of personal privacy. "Lone wolf" provisions in the new bill allow law enforcement to investigate any American citizen, seizing whatever records they want, without a shred of "probable cause". The same is true of the Act’s NSS (National Security Letters) which permits the government to sort through all of one’s private records without legal defense or oversight.
The "due process" provisions of the Bill of Rights has been summarily removed by the 4th Circuit Court in its recent Jose Padilla ruling which allows the president to arbitrarily imprison an American citizen "indefinitely" without charging him with a crime. The long-standing "presumption of innocence", habeas corpus, and inalienable rights were quietly rescinded without as much as a whimper from the American people.
At the same time Bush has put "a broad swath of the FBI" under his direct control by creating the National Security Service (aka; the "New SS"). This is the first time we’ve had a "secret police" in our 200 year history. It will be run exclusively by the president and beyond the range of congressional oversight.
Also, on October 27, 2005 Bush created the National Clandestine Service, which will be headed by CIA Director Porter Goss and will "expand reporting of information and intelligence value from state, local and tribal law enforcement entities and private sector stakeholders". This executive order gives the CIA the power to carry out covert operations, spying, propaganda, and "dirty tricks" within the United States and on the American public. ("The New National Intelligence Strategy of the US" by Larry Chin, Global Research)
Also, within 2 years every American license and passport will be made according to federal uniform standards including microchips (with biometric information) that will allow the government to trace every movement of its citizens.
All of these changes in the law have taken place below the radar of public attention and all of them correspond to a "nutcase" conspiracy by the CFR to transform Canada, Mexico and the US into one, integrated "free trade" nation in 5 years time. (I’m not making this up) See: Trilateral Task Force Recommendations.
The only thing that makes this bizarre specter of a "capitalist police state" seem believable is that Bush has already executed the fundamentals of that other wacky conspiracy theory; The Project for the New American Century. Most of the goals of that hypothesis have materialized. The US has extended its military presence throughout central Asia and the Middle East, curtailed civil liberties at home, greatly enhanced the power of the president, militarized space, passed legislation for Missile Defense "Star Wars", and reinvigorated the bio-chemical weapons industry.
You see, sometimes "conspiracy theories" come to fruition despite the unwillingness of the Left to speculate on what the future may hold.
So, let me make a prediction, however groundless and far-fetched as it may seem.
The 5 years of work that went into creating the Bush National Security State will not be passed on to some anemic Democrat, like Hillary Clinton, according to the normal protocols. The "capitalist police state" represents the concerted efforts of myriad elites from all walks of life; particularly banking, big energy, military and media. The last obstacle to actualizing their macabre vision is Congress; the final hurdle to absolute power.
This may shed some light on the anthrax attacks in 2001 following the destruction of the Twin Towers. Certainly the administration has done everything possible to obfuscate the details of that investigation, which has only increased suspicion of their motives.
Could the anthrax have been a "second wave" attack intended to disband Congress and deliver supreme authority to the president?
Who knows?
What we do know, however, is that elite right-wing groups like the American Enterprise Institute, "issued proposals for the operation of Congress following a catastrophic terrorist attack". They advocate the "APPOINTING" of individuals to the House of Representatives "to fill the seats of dead or incapacitated members, a first in American history"… "The Continuity of Government Commission is 'self-commissioned’, its members being neither elected nor appointed by any government body…and mostly made up of professional lobbyists". (Read the whole article)
This gives us some idea of the contempt that right-wing elites have for democracy and how they plan to dismantle Congress when given the opportunity.
But, why now???
Bush’s fortunes are inextricably tied to an "unwinnable" war in Iraq. As his popularity has continued to dwindle, Congress has become more reluctant to promote his far-right agenda and make further cuts to popular social programs. This situation promises to get worse unless the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal take "preemptive" action to reverse the current downward trajectory.
It may be time for another galvanizing "Pearl Harbor-type event"; one that will strike at the legislative nerve-center of American democracy. With Congress out of the picture, the path is clear for one man rule; the final jewel in the neocon crown.
Copyright © Mike Whitney
