How the CIA gets away with it: Our democracy is their real enemy

[Octafish]

54. Our justice system is the exact opposite -- dominated by Rightists.

Thank you for the important news from Italy. Berlusconi symbolizes all that has gone "right" for the West. To give you an idea of how tilted things are in the USA, consider who Chief Justice John Roberts appoints to the courts "overseeing" the legality cough whatever of the CIA/NSA/FBI etcetc spy programs the People happen to hear about:

The G.O.P.’s Surveillance Judiciary

Is it possible to simply disband the partisan FISA court?

By Scott Horton
Harper's, July 29, 2013

In Friday’s New York Times, Charlie Savage takes a closer look at the judges hand-picked by John Roberts for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court.

Ten of the court’s 11 judges — all assigned by Chief Justice Roberts — were appointed to the bench by Republican presidents; six once worked for the federal government. Since the chief justice began making assignments in 2005, 86 percent of his choices have been Republican appointees, and 50 percent have been former executive branch officials.

Not surprisingly, the Times review shows that Roberts has fashioned a court in his own image: movement conservative, Republican, largely consisting of persons who previously worked in the government. In sum, Roberts has picked a court that can be relied upon to quickly approve any government request for surveillance, through whatever instruments and according to whatever rules the government wishes.

The two chief justices who preceded Roberts, William H. Rehnquist and Warren E. Burger, were also conservative Republicans, and like Roberts they also ensured that a majority of the FISA court’s judges were conservative Republicans. However, neither of his predecessors was nearly so obsessive about it as Roberts — two-thirds of their selections were Republicans, while for Roberts, all but one have been Republican.

SNIP...

The special judicial body put in place by FISA to check government surveillance activities has been transformed by John Roberts into a cheerleader for such programs. This judicial adulteration leaves NSA critics in Congress with little alternative but to push for laws establishing further limits on NSA activities — though even if they manage to pass such a law, they must be wary of the demonstrated ability of the Justice Department, the NSA, and the FISA court to find secret “understandings” of statutes that justify unforeseen forms of overreach.

CONTINUED...

http://harpers.org/blog/2013/07/the-gops-surveillance-judiciary/

It's not history if the pendulum's fixed to stay on the right. Remember Propaganda Due (P2) Lodge?

"Staying Behind"
NATO's Terror Network

Fighting Talk, May 1995

As the 50th anniversary of the end of the war is celebrated,
some unpleasant truths will become further buried beneath the
myth of the "triumph of freedom and democracy" over fascism. For
if fascism itself was the great evil that had to be stopped at
any cost, how are we to explain the total failure of the British,
French and American governments to do anything about the war in
Spain from 1936 to 1939, when Franco's fascist forces, openly
supported with arms and troops by Hitler and Mussolini, destroyed
the "democratically elected" republican government? The answer is
not hard to find. For Western capitalism the real enemy was not
fascism but the popular revolution inaugurated by the Spanish
working class.

Whilst a great many of those actively engaged in the war
against Hitler genuinely fought under an anti-fascist banner,
whether in the various official armed forces or the guerilla
networks, the war was essentially a diversion from the ongoing
concern of the European and American elites. German expansion had
to be stopped because it challenged the economic and political
interests of those elites. Having been defeated, business as
usual could be resumed, specifically the business of preventing
any internal threat to the ruling classes in the form of popular
revolution.

SNIP...

In effect Gladio had both "official" and "unofficial" wings,
with the latter initiating its own "anti-communist" operations
but receiving both sanction and funding from the "official" wing.
General Pietro Corona head of "Office R" in 1969/70 told a Venice
enquiry into a bombing in Peteano that there was an "alternative
clandestine network, parallel to Gladio, which knew about the
arms and explosives dumps and had access to them". General Nino
Lugarese, head of SIMSI (a branch of the Italian secret service)
from 1981-1984, revealed the existence of a "Super Gladio" of 800
members responsible for internal intervention against domestic
political targets.

Gladio was "officially disbanded" by the Italian government
in December 1990 after the story broke. On January 29th, 1992 it
was officially declared to have been a clandestine and illegal
"armed band" involved in subversion, by an Italian parliamentary
commission on terrorism.

The 1990 revelations in Italy had a wider impact. After all,
Gladio was simply the Italian branch of a European wide network.
The Belgian, French, Dutch, Greek and German governments all
officially acknowledged that they took part in the covert NATO
network, with the Belgian prime minister revealing that a Europe
wide meeting of the network had been held as recently as October
1990. Of course the respective governments were at pains to deny
that the network had been intended for anything other than to
enable post-invasion guerilla warfare. Intervention in domestic
politics could only be the work of "uncontrollables" following
their own agenda.

The British authorities have refused to comment officially
on any similar network in this country. However, General Sir
Anthony Farrar-Hockley revealed in November 1990 that a secret
arms network had in fact been set up. In the same article other
(anonymous) sources also claimed that the organization had a
further aim - "combatting the takeover of civil government by
militant left wing groups". Yet is there any evidence of
destabilisation activities similar to those carried out on the
continent?

During the 70s, the same time as the Italian "strategy of
tension" was escalating, elements of the right wing establishment
in this country perceived a genuine threat to their vested
interests. In the midst of economic collapse trade unions seemed
to be unstoppable, indeed the miners had effectively destroyed
the Tory government, and Labour under Wilson came to power in
1974. Edward Heath was seen as having betrayed the Tory party,
not just by the upper echelons but by the thousands of ordinary
supporters defecting to the far right.

CONTINUED...

http://web.archive.org/web/20040223035037/http://www.etext.org/Politics/Arm.The.Spirit/Antifa/gladio

So is our political system in the USA dominated by Rightists, just not advertised as such. Remember in Florida, the former CIA guy, Charles Kane, who handled the absentee ballots and such for the GOP, all special-like? As long as the Right folks got the votes, it's cool and leeegul. Thank you for grokking the situation as major, JonLP24.