Empire Under Attack: The Threat to Freedom Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - MavMedia@aol.com Empire Under Attack: The Threat to Freedom GREG GUMA Basic rights are easily taken for granted -- that is, until they're obviously threatened or actually curtailed. And, as history amply illustrates, the trigger is often public anxiety about some outside threat or "enemy within." On Sept. 11, with the bombing of the World Trade Center and Pentagon, that trigger may have been pulled. First, a look back. After World War II, hysteria about "Communist subversion" led to a government inquisition, blacklists, a general crackdown on dissent, and even jail for those with the temerity to teach radical ideas or organize an alternative political party. In the 60s and 70s, the tactics became even more extreme -- aggressive covert operations to disrupt and destroy political opponents. In the developing world, of course, this had been going on for the better part of a century already. But formal counter-intelligence programs -- often masquerading as defensive operations to counter terrorism -- refined and expanded the ability to mold public consciousness and isolate people who threatened the established order. Today, US society reflects both deep anxiety and cynicism about the potential for evil, expressed in popular culture's attraction to disasters and conspiracy theories, as well as a dangerous complacency that leads millions to ignore the warning signs. When we learn, for example, that Henry Kissinger lied about his involvement in the disruption of a democratic government in Chile, anger can lead to a sense of relief that now, at least, we know the truth, and we certainly won't be fooled again. Yet, if that's the conclusion drawn, it's naove at best and more likely a case of denial. Not to beat a live rat, but Kissinger was ultimately part of a foreign policy apparatus that has changed little in more than 50 years. In fact, one of his leading proteges, John Negroponte, is currently set to become US Ambassador to the UN. As a State Department official put it recently, "Giving him this job is a way of telling the UN: 'We hate you.'" This is a stalwart imperialist who has proven repeatedly that he's ready to act alone on behalf of "US interests," and lie about it without blinking. Keep in mind that Negroponte was Kissinger's point man in Vietnam on the National Security Council in the early 70s, and sometimes even thought his boss was too soft in negotiating. As Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-85, he turned that country into a massive staging area for the Contra War against Nicaragua's Sandinista government and presided over an era of death squads and violent repression. When questioned about it by Congress, he denied everything -- the murderous generals, political prisoners, and secret prisons and cemeteries. That Negroponte is the Bush administration's choice to represent the US in the UN speaks volumes about what we ought to expect -- more jingoism, lies, confrontation, and a clumsy but persistent effort to manipulate reality. A recent example is the US administration's position, dutifully parroted at fact in most media, on the recent UN ant-racism conference in South Africa. Secretary of State Colin Powell and the US delegation walked out, we're told, as a protest spurred by the rhetoric directed against Israel. But the real fear, as insiders know, was that staying meant confronting the country's responsibility for slavery and, more pointedly, demands for financial reparations. The point of the gathering was to raise issues and stir conscience. The walkout was designed to muddy the former and divert the latter. Following hard on the end of the conference, the attacks on the US may be, in part, a horrific reaction to US dominance and intransigence. But when it comes to skewing reality, the tactics and objectives are most ominously obvious in regard to the anti-globalization movement. As in every political scare for the last 120 years, the crackdown began by promoting the idea that political dissidents are dangerous threats to security and "order." That spin is well underway, with property damage by protesters providing the weak rationale. Next, the government classified its opponents as terrorists or "fellow travelers." Last May, in testimony on terrorist threats before the Senate Appropriations Committee, departing FBI Director Louis Freeh lit the fuse. "Anarchist and extremist socialist groups," he explained, "many of which, such as the Workers World Party, Reclaim the Streets and Carnival Against Capitalism -- have an international presence and, at times, also represent a potential threat in the United States. For example, anarchists, operating individually and in groups, caused much of the damage during the 1999 World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Seattle." By August, the FBI had added Reclaim the Streets, which occupies roads with dance parties to protest capitalism and the car culture, to its list of "Threats of Terrorism." The predictable move from here is to use the resulting public anxiety, combined with the license provided a real (or manufactured) emergency, to override rights like freedom of speech and assembly, privacy, and protection from cruel and unusual punishment. The US isn't the only country vulnerable to repression, only the most sophisticated, concealing tyrannical impulses with facile excuses and a fagade of well-honed platitudes. The spin of the year has been the suggestion that "stability" is seriously threatened by economic forces and "extremists" abroad and at home. And, on Sept. 11, with a series of unconscionable terrorist bombings, the ultimate excuse for a crackdown may have been provided. Whether public anxiety and complacency will persist, allowing repression to escalate and take hold, or turn into public anger at the erosion of democracy in the name of security, has again become the $64,000 question. -- Greg Guma, Sept. 11, 2001 ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytrc-09.12.01-02:11:59-28010