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The
Daily War Watch
Importing Terror Through the FBI
October 24, 2001
by
J B
Did you know your government is considering the adoption
of torture as a means of gaining information from suspects
detained without charge and without trial concerning the September
11 attacks? Talk about blowback. Did you know that the anti-terrorism
law that is being advocated would allow torture by foreign
nations to be used as legitimate evidence in a US court of
law?
Did you know that the idea of using torture ourselves and
extraditing suspects to torture-using nations is being openly
discussed to representatives of the The
Times (of London) and the Washington
Post, whether or not new laws are passed?
Did you?
I'll be blunt. I'm in no mood to play word games here. The
FBI has gone too far. Bush has gone too far here by getting
so many people who supported Guatemalan death squads and torturers
and covered up their crimes for the sake of the Cold War that
I cannot whatsoever be sure that he does not have the distinct
desire to import death squads to the United States, creating
real Gestapos and not pretend ones, which will have the legal
ability, indeed, the duty and obligation, to use torture against
American citizens... as long as they're suspicious.
Who is suspicious? Arab-Americans. Arabs in the United States
who are not citizens. Moslems? Hey, a lot of Arab-Americans
happen to be Christians. However, anyone who prefers to educate
him or her self about what the right wing is really thinking
about these people who are "different" should read the latest
from the female trifecta, Ann Coulter, Peggy Noonan, and Mona
Charen.
You may also wish to read Justin Raimondo's merciless mockery
of Peggy's last article, which brings new meaning to the unpolitically
correct term "hysterical." I'm sorry, ladies, don't think
that I'm painting anyone but these particular sad cases with
this brush: they're deliberately leaving their sanity behind
to snuggle up to Real Men, as they believe Real Men to be.
Personally I think a Real Man does not need to spend his
life trying to look like a Real Man. But that's another matter.
My problem is this: The anti-terrorism law that Ashcroft
and Hatch and others smeared opposition to as being support
for Osama Bin Laden, declaring it a patriotic and military
imperative, are also declaring support for strict constructionist
judges (a strict constructionist favors law enforcement and
disfavors criminals, favors civil rights defendants and disfavors
civil rights plaintiffs, paraphrasing the words of Judge Reinquist)
to be a patriotic and military imperative.
These judges, presumably, would be used to stuff the federal
courts so that when torture is used against you and I, despite
our innocence, we will get a hearing before a law and order
judge who will tell us why it is necessary and why it is consistent
with the Constitution of the United States of America and
the vision of the Founding Fathers.
I'm not stretching this much at all.
What the hell are these people thinking? They are talking
out loud about instituting torture as an official policy of
the United States of America! They're even talking about extraditing
criminals on the expectation, indeed, the demand, that the
nations extraditing them torture the criminals. Of course,
they're criminals because we say they are; they haven't had
hearings nor trials, so no one has any real idea, under any
kind of objective forum, like a court, that they really are
criminals.
Remember, this is not like a grand jury; this is not about
secret indictments, secret testimony, anything like that.
This is about the executive branch using national security
as a cloak behind which to do whatever they want to human
beings without judicial review. We have to simply take the
executive branch at its word and trust the men and women who
carry out the will of the President.
Trust the government? To administer torture fairly and judiciously
without trial?
What kind of America is this?
The Terror is gripping the government; the Terror will soon
grip us, because it will come, not from Osama Bin Laden, but
from our own protectors. Soon the protectors will use the
Terror to protect only themselves, just like the Taliban,
and to be frank, just like Saudi Arabia. (It's not like they
make any secret of this; they simply justify it, like those
who became the first 'terrorists' during the French Revolution.)
When will Jeb Bush declare that if his brother seeks to become
Emperor, then he (Jeb) will shoot his brother (George) himself?
Yes, yes, that is a stretch, but it's a stretch only because
this whole damned thing is un-American to its very core. Did
we get terrorized to the point where we are expected to see
torture as a patrotic duty that the FBI must perform on our
behalf? Remember, this is law enforcement. They'll take advantage
of absolutely anything they're allowed to do because they're
convinced it's for a good cause. It's their DUTY to abuse
whatever power they are allowed to protect us.
So if we make torture legal, and we put Giuliani in charge
of the CIA, if Bush can stand having another bigshot on his
payroll, doesn't that mean that the next Abner Louima gets
told, "Sorry, pal, it's for national security, you're not
allowed to tell anyone, and you can't sue, and your hospital
bill will be in the mail?"
Remember, this is all being advocated under the nose of the
Attorney General of the United States of America, a Senate-confirmed
individual who directly serves the President of the United
States. His people, people who are "high ranking" according
to the journalists involved, are either extremely rebellious,
to the point of advocating breaching American law for the
sake of American national security, or changing American law
to legalize torture in America, or they are doing it with
his express permission to do so.
So there you have it. Torture is now patriotic. We have a
duty to torture Osama's men, to protect the children. We have
a responsibility to start extracting fingernails and maiming
and beating to near-unconsciousness.
Perhaps the Israelis will insist we don't have to call it
torture; only simpletons do that. We call it "pressure." After
all, "moderate pressure" is a good legal standard, isn't it?
National security is at stake. Lives are at stake.
Well wake up. There are more important things than mere lives
at stake.
The Founding Fathers would understand.
I don't think conservatives will. That is why I no longer
am one.
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