Since the September
attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it has been commonplace to
say that "the whole world has changed," or at least in the United States
"everything has changed." But what exactly has changed? What does it mean for
all our futures? And will we even be allowed to talk about it?
The Great Round-Up
First they came for
the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they
came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came
for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade
unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was
a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak
up.
(Pastor Martin
Niemoeller)
One dramatic
aftermath of September 11 has been the sweeping scale of the arrests and
detention without charges. Government agents descend upon communities, and
people are bundled into cars and taken away.
As of this writing,
the number of people in detention is well over 1,100. The detainees seem to fall
into three categories. One group consists of those arrested for immigration
offenses. Only a few of these people are thought to be connected in any way with
terrorist activity. Most were just swept up in the dragnet or turned in by
suspicious neighbors. They are being held in INS facilities awaiting
deportation.
The second group
consists of people picked up as possible abettors of terrorist crimes, as well
as those arrested on unrelated charges in the course of the investigation. They
are being held in various facilities all over the country.
Typical of these
people is Bader al-Hazmi, an Egyptian doctor doing a residency in radiology in
Texas. His story was recently profiled in the New York Times Magazine.
Dr. al-Hazmi was snatched from his home in San Antonio by FBI agents, who flew
him to New York where he was held for 13 days without charges. His only crime
was having a name spelled similar to that of one of the alleged airplane
hijackers who flew into the World Trade Center.
Finally, there is a
very small group of people being held, who are believed to have some connection
with the World Trade Center attack. Where the authorities don’t have any proof
yet, these people are being detained as "material witnesses." Most of these
prisoners are believed to be held in the federal government’s Metropolitan
Correctional Center in lower Manhattan. MCC, as the facility is known, has been
the high-security holding tank for dozens of people from other countries picked
up over recent years and held indefinitely on secret evidence that even their
lawyers cannot see.
Although there have
been some releases, the total number of persons still held in secret detention
is not known because the government refuses to release names and locations.
In addition,
immediately after September 11, many political prisoners all across the country,
ranging from religious anti-war activists like Father Philip Berrigan to former
Black Panther Sundiata Acoli to active Muslim inmates, were thrown into
"administrative segregation" (i.e., locked down and isolated from the general
prison population). Many of them were cut off from contact even with their
attorneys for weeks.
The absence of public
outcry against these mass roundups and lockdowns has been appalling. It is as if
the government need only pronounce the magic word "terrorist," and all
objections melt away. Yet the whole point of Martin Niemoeller’s famous
quotation is that the only way to stop a police state is to spring to the
defense of its very first victims, no matter how unpopular they may be.
We are prone to think
of these mass round-ups as something without precedent and an aberration within
a free society provoked by extraordinary circumstances. Unfortunately they are
not, and the precedents are infamous.
Two that come to mind
are the Palmer Raids of 1919-1920 (named after then Attorney General Palmer),
when federal agents staged simultaneous raids across the country to arrest
thousands of aliens considered by the government to be dangerous anarchists and
communists. Hundreds were summarily deported. Even more chilling was the
throwing of 110,000 U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry into concentration camps
during World War 2. Not a single Japanese-American was ever charged with any act
of disloyalty.
Both the Palmer Raids
and the mass internment of Japanese-Americans were done by executive order and
without legislative authority. What is unprecedented in the current situation is
that the government now proposes to enact that authority.
Sweeping New Police-State Legislation
...the consciousness
of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to
a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival.
(George Orwell, in his
novel 1984)
Some very dangerous
new legislation has been jammed through the Congress. Known as the "Uniting and
Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and
Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001," the final version passed the
Senate on a vote of 98 to 1 and the House on a vote of 357 to 66.
This legislation is
the love child of President Bush and the Democratic majority leader in the
Senate, Tom Daschle. The effect of the new legislation is to sweep away
remaining vestiges of the Fourth Amendment protection against search and
seizure. It will vastly expand the federal government’s powers as follows:
It will grant
authority to intercept wire, oral, and electronic communications relating to
"computer fraud." It permits the disclosure of supposedly secret grand jury
testimony to federal police agencies. It permits "roving wiretaps"— authority to
tap any phone used by the target of a wiretap warrant. It permits the
search warrant seizure of voice mail messages, allows subpoena of temporarily
assigned e-mail addresses, and "permits" internet service providers to disclose
the e-mail of their customers "to protect life and limb."
It goes on to permit
"sneak and peek" searches, where a search warrant is executed but the target of
the search is not informed until later. That is, your home can be searched while
you are at work and they don’t have to tell you about it. It has a ton of
provisions to monitor bank accounts, supposedly to stop money laundering and the
transfer of money to terrorists. And it mandates financial institutions to
report "suspicious activities," while granting such institutions immunity from
law suits for doing so.
The new law amends
the Fair Credit Reporting Act to require a consumer reporting agency to furnish
all information in a consumer’s file to a government agency authorized to
conduct investigations of terrorism. It allows the FBI to request telephone toll
records. It amends the General Education Provisions Act and the National
Education Statistics Act to provide for disclosure of students’ records to the
Attorney General.
It provides for the
mandatory detention until deportation of any citizen of another country
certified by the Attorney General as a suspected terrorist or threat to national
security. The pro-government media reported that this new legislation allows for
detention for seven days without charges. What the new law actually allows is
the holding of any alien for up to six months, solely at the discretion of the
head of a government security agency. Then this period of detention may be
repeatedly extended every six months without any new review. It also allows
terrorism crimes by members of organizations to be used to shut down those
(otherwise legal) organizations under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations (RICO) law.
Finally, it
establishes regional "computer forensic laboratories," and provides temporary
authority to withhold from Congress reports on intelligence and
intelligence-related matters.
On October 31, the
Justice Department announced new regulations concerning federal prisoners.
Henceforth, any federal prisoner suspected of terrorism or any act of "violence"
will no longer be allowed to have private meetings with their lawyers. All
conversations between lawyers and these prisoners will be monitored. At the same
time, the government is considering the use of "seditious conspiracy" charges.
This requires very little in the way of proof; it only requires that one
defendant make a deal with the government to testify that he "conspired" with
the other defendants.
These actions by the
federal government have been supplemented by new state and local legislation.
For example, a few days after September 11 the New York state legislature
hustled through a series of vague new laws with Draconian penalties. In New York
state, "hindering" the prosecution of a terrorist can now get you 20 years to
life.
The New York Times
Magazine ran a major article on the development of face recognition
software, and reported on the use in London of video cameras that watch all
public areas for wanted persons. Everywhere security is tightened. For weeks in
New York, there were police checkpoints on the major bridges checking IDs.
Amtrak announced that you would have to produce a photo ID to buy a train
ticket. And numerous calls were made for the establishment of a national ID card
that would contain encoded personal information which could be read by police.
For the first time
that I can remember, there is open discussion in the media of the need
for the government to use torture to extract information from suspects. This has
now come up in Newsweek magazine, the Fox News Channel, CNN, ABC
Nightline, and The Wall Street Journal.
None of this has much
to do with actually stopping terrorist attacks on innocent civilians, but it
does have a lot to do with what the government is planning for the future.
War Powers—At Home and Abroad
That the President is
authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations,
organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided
the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such
organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international
terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations, or
individuals.
(from the September
15 Joint Resolution of Congress) This is an incredibly broad mandate of military
power to the president. It goes beyond the Tonkin Bay Resolution which gave
Lyndon Johnson a free rein to start the war on Vietnam (which lasted for 12
years). Because of that tragic experience, in 1973 the congress passed the War
Powers Act that is supposed to restrict the power of the president to start wars
on his own. That law requires the president to report back to congress within 60
days of putting troops in any situation that may result in armed conflict and
get congressional approval to continue.
How does that apply
here? It doesn’t, because in another part of the same September 15 resolution,
the congress gave Bush the authorization to continue in advance! He doesn’t need
to come back for further congressional authorization. Only one member of
congress, Rep. Barbara Lee, had the courage to vote against this transfer of
power to the president.
The second thing to
note here is that there is no distinction made between foreign and domestic.
After the Civil War, the congress passed a law that the armed forces could not
be used for domestic law enforcement. This sweeping new authorization appears to
override that, and give the president the authority to deploy the military
against organizations and individuals domestically.
As if to drive home
that point, the administration promptly called up thousands of National Guard
troops and began deploying them around airports and other installations. They
are being deployed to carry out a police function and make the point that people
should get used to seeing armed soldiers in the new America.
Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld has appointed the Secretary of the Army, Thomas White, to direct
the military’s efforts against terrorism inside the U.S. White, who will
continue as Secretary of the Army, favors creating a combat command for homeland
security commanded by a four-star general.
Then on November 8,
Attorney General Ashcroft announced "a wartime reorganization and mobilization
of the nation’s justice and law enforcement resources to meet the mission of the
Department of Justice."
Some people have put
a false hope in the so-called "sunset" provision of the new "USA Patriot" Act,
that causes it to expire in four years unless renewed by congress. A more
realistic assessment was given by Vice President Cheney, speaking to Republican
governors on October 25. "Many of the steps we have now been forced to take will
become permanent in American life," Cheney said. "I think of it as the new
normalcy."
Better You Don’t Know
The first casualty
when war comes is truth.
(Sen. Hiram Johnson)
A few years ago, the
media was trumpeting a wonderful new technology: private satellite photography.
Through the marvelous medium of free enterprise, any of us would be able to log
on to the internet and purchase current satellite photos of anywhere in the
world. No longer would knowledge about events in far off places be the sole
property of government.
So, what happened
when the U.S. began using Stealth bombers against Afghanistan? The National
Imagery and Mapping Agency of the Defense Department simply purchased all of the
rights to pictures of Afghanistan taken by the world’s best commercial imaging
satellite! The purchase contract allows the Defense Department to keep the
images secret forever. As Adam Clayton Powell III, vice president of the Freedom
Forum, observed: "This sets a precedent for the government to buy up all of the
capability of a technology that can be used for independent verification and
basic reporting."
The next step taken
by the government was to "ask" all the major networks not to broadcast the
videotaped statements of Osama Bin Laden. They all readily agreed. According to
the New York Times: "The decision, the first time in memory that the
networks had agreed to a joint arrangement to limit their prospective news
coverage, was described by one network executive as a ‘patriotic’ decision." The
government’s excuse for this blatant act of censorship was that bin Laden might
be sending secret messages in his recorded interviews.
The problem, of
course, was that the Arab television network Al Jazeera was being broadcast all
over the world via satellite, so the U.S. networks were unable to cut off bin
Laden’s statements (at least in Arabic). As the New York Times lamented
in a later article, "As recently as a decade ago, such an agreement between the
government and broadcasters might have prevented Mr. Bin Laden from
communicating by television with any followers in the United States. No more.
The global village simply has too many pathways."
Unable to censor
those abroad, the U.S. resorted to its time-honored custom of censoring those at
home. First to feel the axe was Bill Maher from the late night TV program
Politically Incorrect. Maher had suggested that people who flew airplanes
into buildings should not be called cowards; that label belonged more to those
who bombed people from a safe distance. He was immediately forced to
apologize—for being politically incorrect on Politically Incorrect.
Next the censors went
after the popular comic strip "Boondocks." When artist Aaron McGruder wouldn’t
toe the official line on the war—and had his lead character Huey run down the
history of the CIA in Afghanistan—editors refused to publish the strip.
One of the major
radio chains, Clear Channel, made a list of songs that were considered
unpatriotic and suggested they should not be played on the air. (The entire
collected works of Rage Against the Machine made the list.)
Journalists and
college professors were threatened for voicing dissent.
Referring to the
censorship of Bill Maher, Presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer warned reporters
in a White House press briefing that "people have to watch what they say and
watch what they do." Then, as if to demonstrate the new climate expected of
reporters, the official transcript of press briefing omitted that remark by
Fleischer!
Next the censors went
after dissenting internet sites. Not only were Arab language web sites hit, but
so were sites supporting the Irish struggle. For example, Radio Free Erieann
which broadcasts on WBAI in New York maintained an archive of its program at
IRAradio.com. Cosmic Entertainment Co. which maintained the web site was
"strongly advised" by their Internet Service Provider Hypervine to take the site
down. Hypervine told Cosmic Entertainment that the newly created Office of
Homeland Security can seize all assets of any company or person "that helps,
supports, or does anything that can be called or labeled terrorism or is found
to be connected to terrorism in any way or means possible."
Ideology and "Homeland Security"
A political and
ideological program of "Resurgent America" is being cultivated and guided from
the highest offices in the land. Its prominent themes—a "moral awakening of the
nation" and the drive for America to be Number One in the world by force of
arms—have a distinctly fascist aura and raise the specter of a police state.
(from the founding
statement of Refuse & Resist!)
Going beyond the
censorship, there has been a vast ideological campaign to unite the country
behind the war and police-state policies of the administration. TV networks
endlessly broadcast banners across their news programs proclaiming "America
Under Attack." The unmistakable message has been that "we are all in this
together," "America is standing tall," "America is fighting back," and "You’re
either with us or you’re against us."
In New York
immediately after the attack on the World Trade Center, there was a massive
organized campaign around patriotic themes. Firemen were sent to hang giant
flags from the sides of buildings. Street vendors, who are normally harassed by
the cops, were given free rein to peddle flags and patriotic ribbons. Initially,
the patriotic display was linked to the rescue effort which everyone supported.
But then, step-by-step, the theme was transformed to support for the war against
Afghanistan (and other countries yet to be named).
A special team was
assembled at the White House to write a "presidential" address for Bush to read
to a joint session of congress on September 20. Immediately afterward we were
told that his approval rating had shot up to 89%, and that everyone was now hot
to bomb Afghanistan.
To reassure the
U.S.’s Muslim allies and to win popular support for his war moves and police
measures in the U.S., the President denounced vigilante attacks on Muslims and
Arab people. At the same time, FBI and police were systematically profiling Arab
people for arrest and detention. And in the popular media, reactionary talkshow
hosts were venting American jingoism and anti-Arab propaganda.
Quite predictably,
the result was a series of attacks against Arabs, mosques, and anyone who even
looked like they might be Arab, such as Sikhs from India who wear turbans.
Right-wing outlets like the Washington Times and the Jewish Defense
Organization were busy publishing the names of left-wing groups and individuals
who were "supporting the enemy."
The ugliness of all
this was expressed most vividly by New York Mayor Giuliani in his October 1
address to the United Nations: "You’re either with civilization or with
terrorists. On one side is democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human
life; on the other is tyranny, arbitrary executions, and mass murder.... Let
those who say that we must understand the reasons for terrorism come with me to
the thousands of funerals we are having in New York City...." In other words, to
even ask why this happened is to dishonor the innocent victims. So shut up.
The patriotism
campaign escalated with the call by Education Secretary Ron Paige for all of the
nation’s 52 million school children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance
simultaneously on Friday, October 12. One major school district that refused to
go along, Madison, WI, was made the focus of a national attack, and it
eventually gave in.
As if to soften the
hard edge somewhat, the compulsory patriotism campaign was given a thin veneer
of humanitarian aid. While the children were all forced to pledge allegiance to
the government that was raining bombs down on incredibly impoverished people in
Afghanistan, at the same time the president asked them each to donate a dollar
for aid to the Afghani children who were being bombed. Similarly, as the planes
dropped their bomb loads, little yellow bags sporting American flags fluttered
down bearing gifts of peanut butter, strawberry jam, and shortbread cookies.
Not surprisingly,
after compulsory patriotism had forced open the school door, Christian religious
observance was right behind.
In the current
climate, dozens of schools districts across the South are openly defying the
Supreme Court ban on prayer broadcast at school sporting events. In South
Carolina, there is a bill in the legislature to turn the moment of silence that
begins the school day into a moment of prayer—something else declared
unconstitutional. In doing this, they are led by a White House that publicly
touts prayer as an adjunct to state power and welcomes patriarchal Christian
fundamentalists into its administration.
To lead this whole
effort at home, President Bush announced the creation of the Office of Homeland
Security and announced the appointment of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge to
head the office. As the new Director of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge is a scary
choice. Ridge, like Bush, is an ardent supporter of executions. While governor
of Pennsylvania, he signed 220 death warrants, including two against Mumia
Abu-Jamal. Ridge has selected as his deputy retired Admiral Charles Abbot. Abbot
was deputy to General Wesley Clark during the recent war on Yugoslavia, and
worked under Vice President Dick Cheney directing a domestic security review.
The whole effort
seemed climaxed by the great Anthrax scare. There is still no evidence to
connect the small number of Anthrax-bearing letters that were sent to the attack
on the World Trade Center. But we do know that prior to the new scare, over 170
abortion clinics and doctor’s offices in 14 states had received letters claiming
to contain anthrax. Then in just the last few weeks, two hundred abortion
clinics and pro-choice organizations have received FedEx packages containing a
white powder and a threat of anthrax signed by the "Army of God." The Army of
God is a domestic Christian-fascist organization. But reporting on this doesn’t
fit with the repeated calls by some in the administration who speculate on an
Iraqi source for the anthrax, and call for extending the "war on terrorism" to
an invasion of Iraq.
Why Do They Hate Us?
Americans are
asking, why do they hate the United States? This is a very important question
that people need to be discussing everywhere. But President Bush’s answer is
downright ridiculous. His claim is that people hate the U.S. because of its
democratic form of government.
Now think about that
for a minute. Can anyone really imagine that what makes people willing to kill
themselves by flying planes into buildings is that we get to vote for George
Bush or Al Gore (before the Supreme Court makes the actual decision)? Can we
really imagine that there are people in Third World countries, gritting their
teeth and hurling curses at America because sometimes the Senate is run by Trent
Lott and sometimes by Tom Daschle? Not likely.
The answer seems to
be more rooted in the enormous imbalance of wealth in the world, and the
determination of the U.S. government to keep it that way by supporting every
vicious local tyrant in the world willing to do the U.S.’s bidding—and then
stabbing some of them in the back. Whoever was responsible for the attacks of
September 11, it is clear that the current crisis is the inevitable and terrible
outcome of these twisted alliances and the deep injustices resulting from U.S.
domination in the Middle East.
Rather than seeking
"justice," the government’s aim seems more directed at recasting power
relationships in South Asia and the Middle East and to maintain and increase
U.S. domination of these vital oil-producing areas.
Yet what is offered
to everyone is a devil’s bargain: "If you will just give up all your civil
liberties and join with us in a campaign to eradicate the anti-American
infidels, we will protect you from the fallout from our actions in the world."
This then becomes an avenue and justification for standing with the world’s
greatest power against untold millions of oppressed and exploited people of the
world.
Personally, as a
revolutionary internationalist I think the people of the world need to hear a
different message from us. They need to hear that we know what this government
is doing and why it is so hated by millions of people around the world. All
those who seriously want justice need to reach out to the people of the world,
to stand together against the crimes of this system, and to strengthen our
resistance against every act of war and repression.
But regardless of how
anyone analyses these questions, what has been brought home so tragically in the
events of September 11 is that America can no longer find safety in some kind of
"gated community" at the world level. Clearly there are people so angry with
what the U.S. has done to their countries that they will stop at nothing to
strike back. And what is needed now is great national debate, free of censorship
and demagoguery by the administration, on who has caused this and how we should
respond.
The Need to Resist
Some of us strongly
believe in the principles and values to which this country has historically
aspired; others of us find oppression and injustice to be rooted in these same
principles. But ALL of us agree on the need to repudiate this new course of
"Resurgent America." The transformation now taking place is not some periodic
swing of the pendulum from "left" to "right," but a departure directly connected
to preparations for war, repression of dissent, and promotion of U.S. global
dominance and superiority over other people.....
(from the founding
statement of Refuse & Resist!)
Times of great danger
are also moments when millions of people come into political life, begin to
question what they are told, and are called upon to consider real choices.
Getting voices of dissent and exposure out there into society is not so easy to
do right now. To even have such a national discourse requires that we now fight
for the space and the freedom to inform, debate, and protest. But we fail to do
this at our own peril.
Most heartening have
been the actions of thousands of people across the country who have spoken out
in protest against the war and against the ugly climate of xenophobia and
repression. Tens of thousands have marched against the bombing, ordinary people
have gone to the defense of their Muslim neighbors, and organizations of lawyers
and civil libertarians have exposed and denounced the new police-state measures.
The need now is to bring together all
those who oppose these new policies, regardless of their views on many other
issues. It is crucial to work together in support of the right to dissent and in
defense of those who exercise that right in the coming period. People have to be
mobilized to speak out, to take up this fight, and to build the resistance to
all forms of repression.
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