Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How a Secret Memo Justifies a Kill List [View all]Octafish
(55,745 posts)30. When the commie USSR croaked, we were promised a 'Peace Dividend.'
The Cold War ended and the warmongers cried in their martinis, Shirley Temples and near-beers. For a day or two, Corporate McPravda actually covered the obvious. Then, there was this terrorism thing.
From Christopher Simpson, info on how Poppy started the big ball of wax when he pried control out of the bed-ridden Pruneface aa strategy they would use to later develop their new existential enemy:
George Bush Takes Charge: The Uses of "Counter-Terrorism"
By Christopher Simpson
Covert Action Quarterly 58
A paper trail of declassified documents from the Reagan‑Bush era yields valuable information on how counter‑terrorism provided a powerful mechanism for solidifying Bush's power base and launching a broad range of national security initiatives.
During the Reagan years, George Bush used "crisis management" and "counter‑terrorism" as vehicles for running key parts of the clandestine side of the US government.
Bush proved especially adept at plausible denial. Some measure of his skill in avoiding responsibility can be taken from the fact that even after the Iran‑Contra affair blew the Reagan administration apart, Bush went on to become the "foreign policy president," while CIA Director William Casey, by then conveniently dead, took most of the blame for a number of covert foreign policy debacles that Bush had set in motion.
The trail of National Security Decision Directives (NSDDS) left by the Reagan administration begins to tell the story. True, much remains classified, and still more was never committed to paper in the first place. Even so, the main picture is clear: As vice president, George Bush was at the center of secret wars, political murders, and America's convoluted oil politics in the Middle East.
SNIP...
Reagan and the NSC also used NSDDs to settle conflicts among security agencies over bureaucratic turf and lines of command. It is through that prism that we see the first glimmers of Vice President Bush's role in clandestine operations during the 1980s.
CONTINUED...
http://books.google.com/books?id=YZqRyj_QXf8C&pg=PA75&lpg=PA75&dq=christopher+simpson+The+Uses+of+%E2%80%98Counter-Terrorism%E2%80%99&source=bl&ots=8klB0PzATX&sig=hi9DpE3qF43Oefh7iGn79W4jXQs&hl=en&ei=zAFQTeriBsr2gAfu1Mgc&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=christopher%20simpson%20The%20Uses%20of%20%E2%80%98Counter-Terrorism%E2%80%99&f=false
Gangster times would be a picnic compared to what these days represent.
Thank you infinitely for putting it into words, kenny blankenship. Every word you wrote, the Truth.
Edit history
Please sign in to view edit histories.
32 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations
Secret Government and its associated Kill Lists are troubling, no matter who's in the Oval Office.
Octafish
Feb 2013
#4
Which brings up the central question: ''When did murder become an approved national policy?''
Octafish
Feb 2013
#7
K&R! "It's legal" does not make it moral. Legal does not trump moral.
Fire Walk With Me
Feb 2013
#10
I figure two possible reasons: a permanent war budget, or to draw destruction upon the US.
Fire Walk With Me
Feb 2013
#16
Pvc Manning probably feels safer in prison with drones on the loose looking
rhett o rick
Feb 2013
#15
Based on the principles established by the Caroline case and cited at Nuremberg...
Octafish
Feb 2013
#25