American Ostrich by John Freda
By: Paul Craig Roberts
In response to the
question in the title I can report that most of my readers are. Almost everyone
got the point of the last column.
ED: This article is posted in its entirety below.
ED: This article is posted in its entirety below.
They see the absurdity of
the government’s claim that the identity of the tough, macho Navy Seals, who
allegedly murdered Osama bin Laden, has to be kept secret in order to protect
our fierce warriors from reprisals from Muslim terrorists, while those
government officials responsible for the torture and deaths of large numbers of
Muslims can walk around, identity known, unprotected and safe.
A few members of Congress are also awake, but not very many. Indeed, we are losing two of the most aware ~ Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul.
Kucinich was redistricted
in order to get rid of his independent voice. He carried 75% of the votes from
that part of his old district that was included in his new one, but the new
voters lacked the intelligence to vote for him. Ron Paul, in our time of
tribulation, tried for the Republican presidential nomination on a platform of
saving the US Constitution, but those who voted in Republican primaries weren’t
interested in saving the US Constitution.Now we are down to US Rep. Walter Jones. Initially, Jones was a member of the warmonger crowd. He was angered when the French government cast doubt on the George W. Bush regime’s reasons for the need for war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Jones said at that time that he was renaming French Fries “Freedom Fries.”
Jones unplugged from the Matrix and has been sentient for some time.
Recently the tyrant Obama
and the government operative Panetta, a political whore who has been in a
variety of government positions and is currently Secretary of Warmongering,
announced publicly that, the US Constitution notwithstanding, the executive
branch no longer needed the authority of Congress to go to war.
In our globalist
existence, the authority for the US to initiate hostilities against another
country comes from the UN, declared Obama and Panetta. If the executive branch
can persuade or bribe the UN to give a war OK, Congress is no longer relevant.
This was too much for the awakened US Rep. Walter Jones.
This was too much for the awakened US Rep. Walter Jones.
He has introduced House
Congressional Resolution 107, which clearly states that the president’s use of
US military in an act of aggression without the consent of Congress is an
impeachable offense.
There is absolutely no question whatsoever that Rep. Jones is correct.
There is absolutely no question whatsoever that Rep. Jones is correct.
However, you can bet that
the Obama regime already has a John Yoo-type hireling busy at work in the
Department of Justice (sic) writing a legal memo that the US Constitution gives
no authority to Congress to declare war.
A person would think that members of Congress would flock to Rep. Jones’ resolution.
After all, it is Congress’ own power that is on the line. Normally, organizations defend their own power. Strangely, the US Congress has not defended its power since Roosevelt’s "New Deal" in the 1930s.
A person would think that members of Congress would flock to Rep. Jones’ resolution.
After all, it is Congress’ own power that is on the line. Normally, organizations defend their own power. Strangely, the US Congress has not defended its power since Roosevelt’s "New Deal" in the 1930s.
Because of the crisis of
the Great Depression, Congress gave up its law-making powers to the executive
agencies created by Roosevelt to run the country. Congress pretends to still be
in control by having “oversight” over the ruling executive cabinet departments
and agencies. Cabinet secretaries, assistant sectaries, and CIA directors have
to go testify and be questioned before congressional committees and all that,
like the Federal Reserve chairman who has unaccountable power over interest
rates and inflation, but the laws are made by the executive branch.
Ever since the 1930s,
when Congress passes a law it is merely an authorization for some executive
branch agency to define the law by writing the regulations. As the executive
agency also enforces the regulations, we have the beginnings of tyranny as the
same agency both make the law and enforces it. (See, for example, Paul Craig
Roberts and Lawrence M. Stratton, The
Tyranny of Good Intentions, Ch. 11, “Abdicating
Legislative Power.”)
The roots of tyranny in America go back to the 1930s and even further back to President Lincoln.
The roots of tyranny in America go back to the 1930s and even further back to President Lincoln.
The decline of Congress,
which was created by the Founding Fathers to be a powerful political
institution, has been a long term process. However, in recent years the decline
of Congress’ power and relevance has accelerated. The Democrats are as
responsible for this as Republicans.
If US law had been
enforced, and Democrats could have enforced the law, George W. Bush and
essentially the entirety of his appointees would be in federal prison.
But the Democrats sacrificed the people’s power over government in order that the executive branch could protect us from a terrorism for which no evidence exists. No terrorist events have occurred since September 11, 2001, except for FBI orchestrated plots that “never endangered the public.” As for the government’s 9/11 story, thousands of experts have their doubts.
So, the US Constitution has simply been discarded on the basis of fear.
But the Democrats sacrificed the people’s power over government in order that the executive branch could protect us from a terrorism for which no evidence exists. No terrorist events have occurred since September 11, 2001, except for FBI orchestrated plots that “never endangered the public.” As for the government’s 9/11 story, thousands of experts have their doubts.
So, the US Constitution has simply been discarded on the basis of fear.
First, the fear of the
Great Depression,
and secondly, the fear of
Muslim Terrorism.
The United States of
America is the Constitution. If the Constitution no longer exists as an
enforceable document taken seriously by political elites, the United States no
longer exists. Some other entity has taken its place.
Think about that.
Think about that.
Describe to yourself the
characteristics of this new entity.
This will be easier for older people than for the young, who have been born into the new tyranny.
For the young, tyranny is all they know.
For the young, tyranny is normal.
How old does a person have to be to remember when you boarded an airliner
without any security?
In previous columns I
have pointed out the tiny, essentially insignificant infractions that led to
the resignation of President Richard Nixon in order to avoid impeachment.
Compared to Bush or
Obama, Nixon was flawless in his observation of US law and the US Constitution.
No one of my generation can possibly imagine Nixon saying that the UN could
replace Congress’ authority to initiate war, or that he could strip US citizens
of their liberty and lives on suspicion alone without evidence or due process of
law, simply on the basis of executive decree.
All Nixon did was to lie
about when he learned of a burglary of which he had no prior knowledge and no
involvement.
The loss of our liberty is where we are today. Rep. Jones wants to retrieve Congress’ war-making power. He says that those Americans who wish to support this goal should inform their Senators and Representative and local newspaper of this fact. He provides the telephone number of the congressional switchboard which can connect you to the three offices that, allegedly, represent you.
The loss of our liberty is where we are today. Rep. Jones wants to retrieve Congress’ war-making power. He says that those Americans who wish to support this goal should inform their Senators and Representative and local newspaper of this fact. He provides the telephone number of the congressional switchboard which can connect you to the three offices that, allegedly, represent you.
The number is 202 224-3121.
As you
know, I keep trying, and so must we all. If we don’t keep trying, it means we
accept our loss of our liberty and accountable government. If we give in now,
what was the point of resisting the Soviet threat, other than profits and power
for the military/security complex?
The US government and its media whores, presstitutes as Gerald Celente calls them, show increasing contempt for the intelligence, or lack thereof, of the American public. Even Americans spaced out on alcohol, drugs, junk food, television and sports events remember the name Osama bin Laden. This person, formerly an operative of the US government against the Soviet Union, was, we were told, the embodiment of total evil. He was responsible for 9/11.
President George W. Bush declared that Afghanistan’s refusal (apparently another Bush regime lie) to deliver Osama, the alleged (no proof) perpetrator of 9/11, to US authorities was the justification for attacking Afghanistan, a country at that time, as now, with two separate governments at war with one another. Shortly thereafter, Osama became, magically, the reason to invade Iraq, an old US ally who had attacked the government of the Iranian Revolution at Washington’s behest.
Suddenly America’s Iraqi ally had nonexistent “weapons of mass destruction” that threatened American cities, in the words of Bush’s moronic National Security Advisor, with “mushroom clouds.”
How did all this absurdity occur?
The US government and its media whores, presstitutes as Gerald Celente calls them, show increasing contempt for the intelligence, or lack thereof, of the American public. Even Americans spaced out on alcohol, drugs, junk food, television and sports events remember the name Osama bin Laden. This person, formerly an operative of the US government against the Soviet Union, was, we were told, the embodiment of total evil. He was responsible for 9/11.
President George W. Bush declared that Afghanistan’s refusal (apparently another Bush regime lie) to deliver Osama, the alleged (no proof) perpetrator of 9/11, to US authorities was the justification for attacking Afghanistan, a country at that time, as now, with two separate governments at war with one another. Shortly thereafter, Osama became, magically, the reason to invade Iraq, an old US ally who had attacked the government of the Iranian Revolution at Washington’s behest.
Suddenly America’s Iraqi ally had nonexistent “weapons of mass destruction” that threatened American cities, in the words of Bush’s moronic National Security Advisor, with “mushroom clouds.”
How did all this absurdity occur?
Yes, what Gerald Celente
aptly designates as “the presstitute media” played a role. However, the whores
were serving their customers, which are the government and private interests
that benefit from war. The American public could have rejected the spin, but
they put yellow ribbon decals on their SUVs and supported the troops.
If Americans were puzzled when the US government abandoned its position that Osama bin Laden was responsible for 9/11 and announced a new “mastermind,” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the presstitutes didn’t mention it. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was designated the “mastermind of 9/11” because the US government had in custody this hapless individual, perhaps sold to them by warlords for the bounty paid for “terrorists.” There’s no good in having a mastermind of 9/11 whom you cannot catch. So Khalid Sheikh Mohammed became the Mastermind of 9/11.
Once designated the Mastermind, the CIA torturers went to work on him, illegally, of course, but who cares, here was the Mastermind of 9/11.
After Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was water-boarded 183 times with the only evidence against him being coerced self-incrimination, both the former chief US prosecutor at Guantanamo, Colonel Morris Davis, and Admiral Donald Guter, Judge Advocate General of the US Navy, dismissed the Guantanamo military tribunal trials as show trials or “circuses.”
Indeed, the American trials of alleged “terrorists” are even less lawful than Stalin’s show trials of the Bolsheviks, who created the Russian Revolution in 1917, and Hitler’s trials of the German military who attempted to assassinate him in order to save Germany from destruction.
When America’s own chief military prosecutors denounce trials of alleged “terrorists,” the media and the public should take notice. But not in America where the government believes its own lies as fervently as the brainwashed public believes the presstitute media.
Astonishingly, before a show trial could dispatch Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the Mastermind of 9/11, the US government has produced a new culprit. It was not Osama bin Laden nor Sheikh Mohammed, but Iran that is responsible for 9/11. In a US federal court judgment issued in December 2011, Iran was found guilty of the 9/11 attacks (ref).
So who is responsible for 9/11?
If Americans were puzzled when the US government abandoned its position that Osama bin Laden was responsible for 9/11 and announced a new “mastermind,” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the presstitutes didn’t mention it. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was designated the “mastermind of 9/11” because the US government had in custody this hapless individual, perhaps sold to them by warlords for the bounty paid for “terrorists.” There’s no good in having a mastermind of 9/11 whom you cannot catch. So Khalid Sheikh Mohammed became the Mastermind of 9/11.
Once designated the Mastermind, the CIA torturers went to work on him, illegally, of course, but who cares, here was the Mastermind of 9/11.
After Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was water-boarded 183 times with the only evidence against him being coerced self-incrimination, both the former chief US prosecutor at Guantanamo, Colonel Morris Davis, and Admiral Donald Guter, Judge Advocate General of the US Navy, dismissed the Guantanamo military tribunal trials as show trials or “circuses.”
Indeed, the American trials of alleged “terrorists” are even less lawful than Stalin’s show trials of the Bolsheviks, who created the Russian Revolution in 1917, and Hitler’s trials of the German military who attempted to assassinate him in order to save Germany from destruction.
When America’s own chief military prosecutors denounce trials of alleged “terrorists,” the media and the public should take notice. But not in America where the government believes its own lies as fervently as the brainwashed public believes the presstitute media.
Astonishingly, before a show trial could dispatch Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the Mastermind of 9/11, the US government has produced a new culprit. It was not Osama bin Laden nor Sheikh Mohammed, but Iran that is responsible for 9/11. In a US federal court judgment issued in December 2011, Iran was found guilty of the 9/11 attacks (ref).
So who is responsible for 9/11?
If not bin Laden, why did
the Navy Seals allegedly murder him?
If not Sheikh Mohammed,
why is he being put on trial after being tortured for years?
The answer is that the criminals in Washington, who control our lives, no longer care about any of their previous propaganda. They now want to attack another country on totally false pretenses, as does the extreme right-wing Israeli government, the cancer of the Middle East.
Some of the Israeli military brass and much of the Israeli security/intelligence brass oppose an attack on Iran as an act of insanity. Yet, little, if any of the Israeli opposition to war has been reported in the US presstitute media. In order to negate internal opposition, the Israeli prime minister has formed a unity government with the main opposition party, as AIPAC stampedes the US Congress into voting for war with Iran (ref).
If the unaware American population can be programmed to believe that Iran is the 9/11 culprit, then Washington can initiate yet another war that enriches the military/security complex with money and power.
Will bin Laden’s family now sue Washington for blaming Osama for an offense which Washington now acknowledges he was not guilty?
The answer is that the criminals in Washington, who control our lives, no longer care about any of their previous propaganda. They now want to attack another country on totally false pretenses, as does the extreme right-wing Israeli government, the cancer of the Middle East.
Some of the Israeli military brass and much of the Israeli security/intelligence brass oppose an attack on Iran as an act of insanity. Yet, little, if any of the Israeli opposition to war has been reported in the US presstitute media. In order to negate internal opposition, the Israeli prime minister has formed a unity government with the main opposition party, as AIPAC stampedes the US Congress into voting for war with Iran (ref).
If the unaware American population can be programmed to believe that Iran is the 9/11 culprit, then Washington can initiate yet another war that enriches the military/security complex with money and power.
Will bin Laden’s family now sue Washington for blaming Osama for an offense which Washington now acknowledges he was not guilty?
Will Sheikh Mohammed be
found guiltless, because a US federal court now says it was Iran that was
responsible for 9/11?
These would be the results if America had a justice system that was independent of the needs of the political elites and the private interests that they serve.
These would be the results if America had a justice system that was independent of the needs of the political elites and the private interests that they serve.
But today in America the
ruling interests produce by hook or crook justifications for war that serve the
power and profit of the military/security complex. Whatever the mainstream
media tells you serves this interest.
So, how do we rescue America from its government and from the corrupt media that serves as a Ministry of Truth for a corrupt government?
There are a large number of unguarded electric power
substations. Entire regions of the country could be shut down. The simplest
disruptive act would be to release large quantities of roofing nails in the
midst of rush hour traffic in Boston, New York, Washington DC, Atlanta, Dallas,
Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco. You get the picture: thousands and
thousands of cars disabled with flat tires blocking the main arteries for days.
Before some reader accuses me of giving terrorists ideas, ask yourself if you really think people so clever as to have allegedly planned and carried out 9/11 couldn’t think of such simple tactics, plots that could be carried out without having to defeat security or kill innocent people? My point isn’t what terrorists, if they exist, should do. The point is that the absence of easy-to-do acts of terrorism suggests that the terrorist threat is more hype than reality. Yet, we have an expensive, intrusive security apparatus that seems to have no real function except to exercise power over American citizens.
In place of real terrorists carrying out easy plots, we have “terrorist” plots dreamed up by FBI and CIA agents, who then recruit some hapless or demented dupes, bribing them with money and heroic images of themselves, and supplying them with the plot and fake explosives. These are called “sting operations,” but they are not. They are orchestrations by our own security agencies that produce fake terrorist plots that are then “foiled” by the security agencies that hatched the plots. Washington’s announcement is always: “The public was never in danger.” Some terrorist plot! We have never been endangered by one, but the airports have been on orange alert for 11.5 years.
The federal judiciary and brainwashed juries actually treat these concocted plots as real threats to American security despite the government’s announcements that the public was never in danger.
The announcements of the “foiled” plots keep the brainwashed public docile and amenable to intrusive searches, warrantless spying, the growth of an unaccountable police state, and endless wars.
The “War on Terror” is a hoax, one that has been successfully used to destroy the US Constitution and to complete the transformation of law from a shield of the people into a weapon in the hands of the state. By destroying habeas corpus, due process, and the presumption of innocence, the “War on Terror” has destroyed our security.
So, how do we rescue America from its government and from the corrupt media that serves as a Ministry of Truth for a corrupt government?
By: Paul Craig Roberts
If there were any real terrorists, Jose Rodriguez would be dead.
Who is Jose Rodriguez? He is the criminal who ran the CIA torture program. Most of his victims were not terrorists or even insurgents. Most were hapless individuals kidnapped by warlords and sold to the Americans as “terrorists” for the bounty paid.
If Rodriguez’s identity was previously a secret, it is no more. He has been on CBS “60 Minutes” taking credit for torturing Muslims and using the information allegedly gained to kill leaders of al Qaeda. If terrorists were really the problem that Homeland Security, the FBI and CIA claim, Rodriguez’s name would be a struck through item on the terrorists’ hit list. He would be in his grave.
So, also, would be John Yoo, who wrote the Justice (sic) Department memos giving the green light to torture, despite US and International laws prohibiting torture. Apparently, Yoo, a professor at the Boalt School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, was ignorant of US and international law. And so was the US Department of Justice (sic).
Notice that Rodriguez, “The Torturer of the Muslims,” doesn’t have to hide. He can go on national television, reveal his identity, and revel in his success in torturing and murdering Muslims. Rodriguez has no Secret Service protection and would be an easy mark for assassination by terrorists so capable as to have, allegedly, pulled off 9/11.
Another easy mark for assassination would be former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who staffed up the Pentagon with neoconservative warmongers such as Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, who in turn concocted the false information used to justify the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Who is Jose Rodriguez? He is the criminal who ran the CIA torture program. Most of his victims were not terrorists or even insurgents. Most were hapless individuals kidnapped by warlords and sold to the Americans as “terrorists” for the bounty paid.
If Rodriguez’s identity was previously a secret, it is no more. He has been on CBS “60 Minutes” taking credit for torturing Muslims and using the information allegedly gained to kill leaders of al Qaeda. If terrorists were really the problem that Homeland Security, the FBI and CIA claim, Rodriguez’s name would be a struck through item on the terrorists’ hit list. He would be in his grave.
So, also, would be John Yoo, who wrote the Justice (sic) Department memos giving the green light to torture, despite US and International laws prohibiting torture. Apparently, Yoo, a professor at the Boalt School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, was ignorant of US and international law. And so was the US Department of Justice (sic).
Notice that Rodriguez, “The Torturer of the Muslims,” doesn’t have to hide. He can go on national television, reveal his identity, and revel in his success in torturing and murdering Muslims. Rodriguez has no Secret Service protection and would be an easy mark for assassination by terrorists so capable as to have, allegedly, pulled off 9/11.
Another easy mark for assassination would be former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who staffed up the Pentagon with neoconservative warmongers such as Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, who in turn concocted the false information used to justify the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rumsfeld himself declared members of al Qaeda to be the most
vicious and dangerous killers on earth. Yet Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Richard
Perle, together with neoconservative media propagandists, such as William
Kristol and Max Boot, have been walking around safe for years unmolested by
terrorists seeking revenge or bringing retribution to those responsible for as
many as 1,000,000 Muslim deaths.
Condi Rice, Colin Powell, who delivered the Speech of Lies to the UN inaugurating the invasion of Iraq, and Dick Cheney, whose minimal Secret Service protection could not withstand a determined assassination attempt, also enjoy lives unmolested by terrorists.
Remember the deck of cards that the Bush regime had with Iraqi faces? If terrorists had a similar deck, all of those named above would be “high value targets.” Yet, there has not been a single attempt on any one of them.
Strange, isn’t it, that none of the above are faced with a terrorist threat.
Condi Rice, Colin Powell, who delivered the Speech of Lies to the UN inaugurating the invasion of Iraq, and Dick Cheney, whose minimal Secret Service protection could not withstand a determined assassination attempt, also enjoy lives unmolested by terrorists.
Remember the deck of cards that the Bush regime had with Iraqi faces? If terrorists had a similar deck, all of those named above would be “high value targets.” Yet, there has not been a single attempt on any one of them.
Strange, isn’t it, that none of the above are faced with a terrorist threat.
Yet, the tough, macho Navy Seals who allegedly killed Osama bin
Laden must have their identity kept hidden so that they don’t become terrorist
targets. These American supermen, highly trained killers themselves, don’t dare
show their faces, but Rodriguez, Rumsfeld, and Condi Rice can walk around
unmolested.
Indeed, the Seals’ lives are so endangered that President Obama
gave up the enormous public relations political benefit of a White House
ceremony with the heroic Navy Seals. Very strange behavior for a politician. A
couple of weeks after the alleged bin Laden killing, the Seals unit, or most of
it, was wiped out in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.
If you were a Muslim terrorist seeking retribution for Washington’s crimes, would you try to smuggle aboard an airliner a bomb in your underwear or shoe in order to blow up people whose only responsibility for Washington’s war against Muslims is that they fell for Washington’s propaganda?
If you were a Muslim terrorist seeking retribution for Washington’s crimes, would you try to smuggle aboard an airliner a bomb in your underwear or shoe in order to blow up people whose only responsibility for Washington’s war against Muslims is that they fell for Washington’s propaganda?
If you wanted to blow up the innocent, wouldn’t you instead
place your bomb in the middle of the mass of humanity waiting to clear airport
security and take out TSA personnel along with passengers?
Terrorists could coordinate their attacks, hitting a number of
large airports across the US at the same minute. This would be real terror. Moreover,
it would present TSA with an insolvable problem: how can people be screened
before they are screened?
Or coordinated attacks on shopping malls and sports events?
Why should terrorists, if they exist, bother to kill people when it is easy to cause mayhem by not killing them?
Or coordinated attacks on shopping malls and sports events?
Why should terrorists, if they exist, bother to kill people when it is easy to cause mayhem by not killing them?
Before some reader accuses me of giving terrorists ideas, ask yourself if you really think people so clever as to have allegedly planned and carried out 9/11 couldn’t think of such simple tactics, plots that could be carried out without having to defeat security or kill innocent people? My point isn’t what terrorists, if they exist, should do. The point is that the absence of easy-to-do acts of terrorism suggests that the terrorist threat is more hype than reality. Yet, we have an expensive, intrusive security apparatus that seems to have no real function except to exercise power over American citizens.
In place of real terrorists carrying out easy plots, we have “terrorist” plots dreamed up by FBI and CIA agents, who then recruit some hapless or demented dupes, bribing them with money and heroic images of themselves, and supplying them with the plot and fake explosives. These are called “sting operations,” but they are not. They are orchestrations by our own security agencies that produce fake terrorist plots that are then “foiled” by the security agencies that hatched the plots. Washington’s announcement is always: “The public was never in danger.” Some terrorist plot! We have never been endangered by one, but the airports have been on orange alert for 11.5 years.
The federal judiciary and brainwashed juries actually treat these concocted plots as real threats to American security despite the government’s announcements that the public was never in danger.
The announcements of the “foiled” plots keep the brainwashed public docile and amenable to intrusive searches, warrantless spying, the growth of an unaccountable police state, and endless wars.
The “War on Terror” is a hoax, one that has been successfully used to destroy the US Constitution and to complete the transformation of law from a shield of the people into a weapon in the hands of the state. By destroying habeas corpus, due process, and the presumption of innocence, the “War on Terror” has destroyed our security.
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