by Paul Craig Roberts
What was the greatest failure of 2007? President Bush's "surge" in Iraq? The
decline in the value of the US dollar? Subprime mortgages? No. The greatest failure of
2007 was the newly sworn in Democratic Congress.
The American people's attempt in November 2006 to rein in a rogue government, which has
committed the US to costly military adventures while running roughshod over the US
Constitution, failed. Replacing Republicans with Democrats in the House and Senate has
made no difference.
The assault on the US Constitution by the Democratic Party is as determined as the assault
by the Republicans. On October 23, 2007, the House passed a bill sponsored by California
Democratic congresswoman Jane Harman, chairwoman of a Homeland Security subcommittee, that
overturns the constitutionally guaranteed rights to free expression, association, and
assembly.
The bill passed the House on a vote of 404-6. In the Senate the bill is sponsored by Maine
Republican Susan Collins and apparently faces no meaningful opposition.
Harman's bill is called the Violent Radicalization and
Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. When HR 1955 becomes law, it will create a
commission tasked with identifying extremist people, groups, and ideas. The commission
will hold hearings around the country, taking testimony and compiling a list of dangerous
people and beliefs. The bill will, in short, create massive terrorism in the United
States. But the perpetrators of terrorism will not be Muslim terrorists; they will be
government agents and fellow citizens.
We are beginning to see who will be the inmates of the detention centers being built in
the US by Halliburton under government contract.
Who will be on the "extremist beliefs" list? The answer is: civil libertarians,
critics of Israel, 9/11 skeptics, critics of the administration's wars and foreign
policies, critics of the administration's use of kidnapping, rendition, torture and
violation of the Geneva Conventions, and critics of the administration's spying on
Americans. Anyone in the way of a powerful interest group--such as environmentalists
opposing politically connected developers--is also a candidate for the list.
The "Extremist Beliefs Commission" is the mechanism for identifying Americans
who pose "a threat to domestic security" and a threat of "homegrown
terrorism" that "cannot be easily prevented through traditional federal
intelligence or law enforcement efforts."
This bill is a boon for nasty people. That SOB who stole your girlfriend, that hussy who
stole your boyfriend, the gun owner next door--just report them to Homeland Security as
holders of extreme beliefs. Homeland Security needs suspects, so they are not going to
check. Under the new regime, accusation is evidence. Moreover, "our" elected
representatives will never admit that they voted for a bill and created an "Extremist
Belief Commission" for which there is neither need nor constitutional basis.
That boss who harasses you for coming late to work--he's a good candidate to be reported;
so is that minority employee that you can't fire for any normal reason. So is the husband
of that good-looking woman you have been unable to seduce. Every kind of quarrel and
jealousy can now be settled with a phone call to Homeland Security.
Soon Halliburton will be building more detention centers.
Americans are so far removed from the roots of their liberty that they just don't get it.
Most Americans don't know what habeas corpus is or why it is important to them. But they
know what they want, and Jane Harman has given them a new way to settle scores and to
advance their own interests.
Even educated liberals believe that the US Constitution is a "living document"
that can be changed to mean whatever it needs to mean in order to accommodate some new
important cause, such as abortion and legal privileges for minorities and the handicapped.
Today it is the "war on terror" that the Constitution must accommodate. Tomorrow
it can be the war on whomever or whatever.
Think about it. More than six years ago the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked.
The US government blamed it on al Qaeda. The 9/11 Commission Report has been subjected to
criticism by a large number of qualified people--including the commission's chairman and
co-chairman.
Since 9/11 there have been no terrorist attacks in the US. The FBI has tried to
orchestrate a few, but the "terrorist plots" never got beyond talk organized and
led by FBI agents. There are no visible extremist groups other than the neoconservatives
that control the government in Washington. But somehow the House of Representatives
overwhelmingly sees a need to create a commission to take testimony and search out
extremist views (outside of Washington, of course).
This search for extremist views comes after President Bush and the Justice (sic)
Department declared that the President can ignore habeas corpus, ignore the Geneva
Conventions, seize people without evidence, hold them indefinitely without presenting
charges, torture them until they confess to some made up crime, and take over the
government by declaring an emergency. Of course, none of these "patriotic" views
are extremist.
The search for extremist views follows also the granting of contracts to Halliburton to
build detention centers in the US. No member of Congress or the executive branch ever
explained the need for the detention centers or who the detainees would be. Of course,
there is nothing extremist about building detention centers in the US for undisclosed
inmates.
Clearly the detention centers are not meant to just stand there empty. Thanks to 2007's
greatest failure--the Democratic Congress--there is to be an "Extremist Beliefs
Commission" to secure inmates for Bush's detention centers.
President Bush promises us that the wars he has launched will cause the "untamed fire
of freedom" to "reach the darkest corners of our world." Meanwhile in
America the fire of freedom has not only been tamed but also is being extinguished.
The light of liberty has gone out in the United States. (newstarget., 1.07.2008) http://www.newstarget.com/022465.html
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan
administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and
Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/076152553X/counterpunchmaga
The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com