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Title: Welcome To Bush's New American Gestapo
Source:
Capitol Hill Blue
URL Source: http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4150.shtml
Published: Nov 20, 2002
Author: Doug Thompson
Post Date: 2005-12-21 04:45:51 by Uncle Bill
Keywords: American, Welcome, Gestapo
Views: 79
Comments: 6
Capitol Hill Blue Wonder if any of the vast sums of money approved Tuesday for the new Department of Homeland Security are set aside for black uniforms with knee-length boots and black leather trench coats? Should be. Since we’ve gone to all this trouble to create the new American Gestapo we might as well let them look the part. Excuse me if I don’t join in all the senseless celebration over creation of yet another mammoth bureaucracy of the federal government. Pardon me if I don’t go ga-ga over a federal agency that has been given unlimited powers to spy on Americans, trample all over the First and Fourth Amendments, ignore the privacy of anyone it chooses and violate the rights of every man, woman and child who used to live in the Land of the Free. Our own paranoia has accomplished what Osama bin Laden and his minions could not with hijacked airplanes and vague threats about future attacks – these fears have forced America to abandon its principles and create a police state. This new Department of Homeland Security has the power to wiretap any American it wants, without a court order, without cause and without justification to any higher authority. Homeland Security goon squads will have the power to enter any American home, without a search warrant, without probable cause, simply because someone somewhere says “hey, this guy might be a threat.” No checks and balances, no due process. Nothing. Video cameras at ATMs, convenience stores, department stores and office building lobbies already record Americans living in urban areas 75-100 times on any given day but that isn’t enough for the new American Gestapo. They plan to erect video cameras on streets, along public highways, in neighborhoods and deploy them on helicopters and police cars to record everything you and I do every day of the year. “We are entering a new era of domestic surveillance,” says retired FBI agent Franklin Postel. “One where the constitution is secondary to the cause. The new department has the power to document the day-to-day actions of any American it chooses.” A secret court decision last May already gives the Justice Department expanded powers to wiretap phones, spy on Americans and “share information” with other law enforcement agencies. These powers, granted under a dangerous piece of legislation called the “USA Patriot Act,” allow Attorney General John Ashcroft to sign away the normal rights and protections that Americans used to enjoy – little things like probable cause, due process and the now forgotten belief that any accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Those who support these expanded powers say the system has "safeguards" where law enforcement personnel must get a judge's approval before wiretapping an American family but those who have studied the law said the "safeguards" are, in fact, "carefully worded loopholes." "The law only requires an 'administrative review' by the very department that wants to spy on Americans," says retired federal judge John Macklin. "Most judges would not approve such wiretaps but the law is engineered to make sure that most judges never see the request." Ashcroft says he will implement the new powers “immediately” and is already increasing surveillance of Americans. Look closer at the powers granted under the act and you will find things that would make Hitler proud. They include provisions to allow private citizens to spy on other private citizens without fear of prosecution if the Department determines their actions were conducted “in the national interest.” “I’ve read some of the abstracts on the new law and they take the handcuffs off people like me,” says private detective Andrew Burlingame. “I can tap anyone I damn well please. All I have to do is claim I thought the guy was a terrorist.” Under the new law, an agent of the Department of Homeland Security can walk into your bank, flash a badge and demand to see your checking and saving account records. No court order. All they need is the “presumption of guilt.” They can stop you in your car without cause and search it and you. They can hold you in jail for 30 days or more without filing any charges or allowing you to make any phone calls. They can call up America Online and put a trace on all your Internet activity without a court order. They can require Visa to turn over all your credit card activity records without notice. "Again, the process only requires an internal administrative review and not the involvement of any independent judicial authority," says retired judge Macklin. "It violates all previous standards for due process and probable cause." In other words, they can do any damn thing they want and there isn’t a thing that any of us can do about it. Some may argue the current terrorist threat requires such drastic measures. But what happens when that threat is met? The Department of Homeland Security and its draconian powers will still exist. Who will determine the new threat? Who will decide who becomes the enemy? "An evil exists that threatens every man, woman and child of this great nation," the leader of another country once wrote. "We must take steps to ensure our domestic security and protect our homeland." That was Adoph Hitler, writing about creation of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany. Wecome to the American Gestapo. Be careful what you say and do. They are watching and they will be watching from now on. "I believe that freedom is the deepest need of every human soul." Say anything, do anything, become a dictator
Welcome to the New American Gestapo
By DOUG THOMPSON
Nov 20, 2002, 06:35
George W. Bush, Press Conference, White House, Tuesday, April 13, 2004.
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#1. To: OKCSubmariner (#0)
"An evil exists that threatens every man, woman and child of this great nation, ... We must take steps to ensure our domestic security and protect our homeland."
It's painfully apparent that the government is allowing the 2nd Amendment to remain in place until the very last moment when the authorities tighten the noose all the way. Until that time we big, tough, macho, gun-strokers (pot- bellied and in need of a shave) will be convinced that all is right inside our country and there is no need to worry.
It's a Bush family tradition. "The consolidation of the States into one vast empire, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of ruin which has overwhelmed all that preceded it." General Robert E. Lee
There are people organizing all over the country. They're smarter now. Cell by cell. I, the undersigned sovereign citizen of one of the several states comprising the united States of America, do hereby make the following proclamation regarding the use of force against government or institutional tyranny in the defense of liberty: Sincerely,
"It's a Bush family tradition." Yep. The Patriot Act = The Marxist Act.
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Hitler
#2. To: Uncle Bill (#1)
#3. To: Uncle Bill (#0)
#4. To: Bub (#2)
To: United State's Citizens and Governmental Officials
A moral imperative was established by the united States Declaration of Independence which recognized that mankind is endowed with unalienable rights which derive, not from the state, nor from the president, nor from congress, nor from any legislature and not from any man-made institution, but rather from their Creator. This recognition is the essence for which our forefathers fought the British in a bloody revolutionary war. These founders established that citizens themselves are sovereign; that government is a creation of these sovereign citizens and their sovereign states; and that government exists as the guarantor of those rights, not as the source of dispensation of those rights.
The Constitution of the several states established this moral imperative in law in the form of the Bill of Rights. Therein, certain rights, which represented a more thorough (but not exhaustive) list of rights, which are not to be infringed by government, are enumerated. These rights, thus enumerated, include:
Our founders, in their quest to obtain recognition for, and enumeration of, these rights, themselves set the example for the use of force in that quest. The lessons of history were clear to the framers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights: they understood that whenever and wherever a government assumes the power to violate the rights of its citizens, those who wish to violate those rights will find their way into government, and they will exercise that power. Whether that authority is great or small, they will exercise it. The Second Amendment was written into the Bill of Rights as the Founders' tacit acknowledgement that if sufficient numbers of citizens remain fully and faithfully armed, that that example would not have to be repeated and that their rights would remain secure.
It was when the tyrannical government of their day attempted, by force of arms, to confiscate their weapons, that they resisted with deadly force, in earnest and in numbers.
Therefore, in defense of these rights I proclaim in all solemnity and sobriety, and being of a sound and rational mind, that I will defend the right to keep and bear arms against infringement by government, or its officers. Specifically, any attempt to confiscate arms from law-abiding citizens will be met with armed resistance.
In addition, any law attempting to register or curtail the purchase of firearms by law-abiding citizens will not be obeyed, nor will any law which directly infringes on the exercise of the rights enumerated above by law abiding citizens. Such laws violate the letter and the spirit of America's founding documents and are therefore void. Laws that violate the fundamental principle of a individual's right to his own life are in fact crimes against Man, nature, justice and reason. Any attempt to compel infringement of this fundamental right by means of force of arms will be met with resistance in kind.
In the historic case of Marbury vs. Madison of 1803, then Supreme Court Chief Justice Marshall proclaimed that any "act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void". This statement makes it clear that any so called "law" or legislative act that attempts to deprive law-abiding citizens of their second amendment rights is itself illegal, null and void and ought to be resisted. In addition, the following statements from the Declaration of Independence make it clear what any liberty-loving, patriotic American citizen's course should be, once the government undertakes to infringe upon, deny, corrupt and trample unalienable rights -- specifically the second amendment, which serves as the great protector of all others.
"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. "
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
Therefore, let legislative bodies, judges, officers of the court, presidents, governors, appointed officials, law enforcement officers and all governmental agencies and elected officials take note: You who have taken a solemn oath to defend, uphold and protect the Constitution and Rights enumerated therein; Violation and infringement of citizen's unalienable rights, and specifically the Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms, will occur at your peril. Specifically, confiscation of firearms from law-abiding citizens, will be met with armed resistance, so help me God.
Proclaimed and Signed on the date indicated with each signature
By Claire Wolfe
May, 14, 1998
It is now a federal agent's "duty" to shoot nursing mothers in the face.
The argument, "I vass only following orders," which failed the Nazis so righteously at Nuremberg is now enshrined in America.
Anything a federal agent does - as long as it can be stretched to be considered within the scope of his job - is now above any state law, anywhere in this land.
I just learned a few minutes ago that Horiuchi walked free. I may not be entirely coherent expressing my loathing. He had only been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Involuntary manslaughter, for god's sake! It was a token charge. A slap on the wrist. Nothing but a gesture in the direction of justice. It was the least, the very least, we had a right to expect from even an unjust government.
Yet for Judge Edward Lodge, Janet Reno and the federal Justice Department, it was too much. Allow one of their own to suffer any consequence for his own actions? Never. Allow a mere rural county government to imagine it could seek even token justice against an aristocrat? Don't be absurd. We are the federal government. We are Supreme.
Horiuchi ought to die. Ought at least to spend many years in prison, thinking about what he did. Instead, he gets to go home and laugh with his FBI buddies about how he got away with it. Just like they did at Waco. Just like future assassins will, as long as they work for the FBI or ATF or Marshals Service, IRS, Forest Service, HUD...or any of the other government agencies that now arm their agents, operate SWAT teams and play with military weapons.
I don't know whether an elite sniper like Mr. Lon Horiuchi hobnobs with regular FBI troops. But I can picture Horiuchi hoisting a celebratory beer with the agent seen in Waco: The Rules of Engagement, joking (Or was it bragging?) about what a trained and powerful killer he is.
Nothing new, nothing new. There's nothing new in federal murder. Nothing new in jackboot tactics. And they've been getting away with it all along, so why should anyone be so outraged now? Just because one more judge-member-of-the- club protects one more federal good ole boy?
Objectively, I'd say it's the use of the Constitution's supremacy clause this way - to give carte blanche to any crime a federal employee cares to commit. Even a casual reading of the Constitution - by an honest person, that is - reveals that clause was never intended to turn federal agents into a privileged class, exempt from all state punishment for crimes.
But that isn't it. There's nothing new in the Constitution being abused. Nothing new in corrupt judges and twisted rulings. Nothing new in federal arrogance. Nothing new.
For me it's more personal and more difficult to express.
I know that, for a lot of people in the freedom movement, it was Waco that moved them beyond doubt and into irredeemable disgust. But for me, the horrors of Waco have seemed so huge they've been an abstraction. Unless I'm hearing tape of the little Davidian girl begging the BATF sniper/negotiator not to come in and kill her...or unless I'm seeing those very normal "religious nuts" on the videotapes they made of themselves during the siege...unless I'm watching that terrible film...my mind has never really been able to grasp, in any personal terms, what happened at Waco.
But the moment I first saw the wavering, fuzzy footage of the Weaver cabin on August 22, 1992, my heart tore out of my chest. My lungs wouldn't hold any more air.
I can't even remember, at that point, whether they'd announced that Sammy was dead. Certainly, they were still pretending they had no intention of killing Vicki. (Only later would I see the documents and hear the testimony that made it clear that getting rid of Vicki, one way or another, was a top priority, since the government perceived her as the strong, decision-making member of the Weaver family.)
All I remember is that little cabin in the woods and all the forces of the federal government brought against one isolated family. They were calling them white supremacists at that point. I didn't know whether it was true or not; in any case, it wasn't a reason for 200...400?...agents to descend upon one plywood cabin. It wasn't a reason. What was the reason? That Randy was an "illegal gun dealer" as they put it then? Two hundred agents? Four hundred? Tanks? Humvees? Helicopters? Against a single family on a mountaintop? What was the reason?
And if these people, this family in the cabin, were so evil, so dangerous, so depraved, so violent, why would hundreds of neighbors and friends stand at barricades on their behalf for days? Why would women cry for them? Why would men demand a halt?
All I knew, as I sat there in my own one-room cabin set in its own dark and isolated woods, was that, wherever the truth lay, it didn't lay in the mouths of the government spokesmen. Whatever was true or false about that family up there, everything was false about those who sought to destroy them.
Everything.
And everything was false. And everything is false. And so a murderer walks free. And more murderers will walk free tomorrow. The same false and arrogant government that murdered Vicki Weaver will murder again.
They don't realize how much better off they'd be if they allowed just a few of their most public villains, like Horiuchi and the planners of the Waco raid, to receive public wrist slaps. They don't realize that if we saw even token agents receive token punishments, many of us would be appeased. "See," we'd say, "justice is done. There's hope. The system hasn't entirely failed yet."
But what can we say when, year after year, monsters walk free? They don't realize that the need for justice doesn't go away, just because justice goes away. They don't realize what a fury they turn loose in the land.
It's not their fury that will ultimately be the most terrible. Those bureaucrats with guns don't have enough true, gut passion to be furious. All they have is sadism, brutality and a cool, calculating will to power.
If rage could be measured in kilowatts or megatons, the rage of American freedom lovers would be as powerful as a dozen atom bombs. Understand. This power will go somewhere. It will drive the engine of our hope and despair. It will. You will not murder and celebrate your murders this way forever. You will not.
(c)1998 by Claire Wolfe
#5. To: BTP Holdings (#3)
#6. To: robin, christine, OKCSubmariner (#5)
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