The Defeat of America By Terrorists

“And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.” - George Bush Sept 14, 2001 in NYC (video)

Crowd roars, chanting: “USA.  USA.  USA.”

Killing Americans

A decade ago on 9-11, foreigners on American soil killed thousands of civilians in four horrific commercial airplane crashes.   Three days later New Yorkers rallied around the President as he promised to strike back at “the people who knocked these buildings down” and dared spill American blood.

Within weeks, the US government retaliated by invading Afghanistan.  Before the decade had ended, the US government, already expert in killing foreign civilians, had invaded two foreign countries and killed thousands more Afghan, Iraqi, Pakistani, and Yemeni civilians.  US troops still occupy Afghanistan and Iraq today, regularly attacking Pakistan and Yemen with drones: all in the name of “fighting terrorism” and “protecting our freedoms.”

Or so the US government would have us think.

The Terrified States of America

“Americans are asking ‘Why do they hate us?’

“They hate what they see right here in this chamber: a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.” - Then-President Bush in an address to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001, explaining why terrorists attacked Americans. 

After 9-11, there was little talk of federal regulations that prevented airlines and citizens from defending themselves on airplanes and helped the attacks succeed.  Instead the federal government and the media terrorized citizens with public talk of WMD and mushroom clouds.  Playing on those fears, the US government justified limiting the very freedoms it pretends to defend with:

• the PATRIOT Act
• the TSA
• the Department of Homeland Security
• seemingly endless undeclared and therefore un-constitutional wars
• Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo
• torture
• extraordinary rendition
• assassination lists.

The federal government bureaucracy grew in response to 9-11 and most Americans sat back  as the federal government listened to their phone calls, opened their mail, frisked them in public places without probable cause of criminal activity, and forced them to show their identity papers while traveling.  Most Americans are still sitting back.

“Targeted Kill” Lists Under Bush

"I can assure you that no constitutional questions are raised here. There are authorities that the president can give to officials.  He's well within the balance of accepted practice and the letter of his constitutional authority." - Then-national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice November 2002, after Bush administration killed US citizen Kamal Derwish with a Predator drone.[1]

Less than a week after 9-11, on Sept. 17, 2001, President Bush signed a classified directive authorizing the CIA to kill or capture suspected al-Qaida members and create detention facilities where suspects could be interrogated and tortured.[2]  The directive didn’t distinguish between foreigners and US citizens.  If the US government thinks a US citizen is a “terrorist threat” to the US, the government will imprison or execute that person without due process, despite their precious freedoms Bush would outline three days later in his September 20th address to Congress.  Bush also authorized a “kill list” of terrorist leaders to be executed by the CIA.   

One year after 9-11 in November 2002, the US government killed American terror suspect Kamal Derwish with a Predator drone in Yemen as “collateral damage” when it was targeting another person on the “kill list.”  Most Americans let their government kill an American without due process and without complaint.

“Targeted Kill” Lists Under Obama

"And he repeatedly called on individuals in the United States and around the globe to kill innocent men, women and children to advance a murderous agenda." – President Obama on the assassination of American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki

Our “constitutional scholar,” President Obama is no better than Bush when it comes to killing US citizens without due process.  Obama’s Director of National Intelligence in 2010, Dennis Blair, acknowledged that the US government would execute US citizens without due process in court if they were involved in terrorism.

In June 2010, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel under the Obama administration wrote a secret 50-page memorandum to rationalize its planned execution of US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki.[3][4]  And on September 30, 2011, the Obama administration announced the US had killed two American citizens in Yemen: Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan.[5][6]  Unlike Derwish, a US citizen killed during the Bush administration, the Obama administration intended to execute Awlaki, also a US citizen. 

Obama’s Press Secretary, Jay Carney, speaking of Awlaki’s execution, assured Americans that it was all legal (video), but repeatedly refused to state whether the Obama administration would supply any evidence even after the fact:

Carney: He was obviously also an active recruiter of al Qaeda terrorists, so, I don’t think anybody in the field would dispute any of those assertions.

Tapper (reporter): You don’t think anybody else in the government would dispute those assertions…?

Carney: I wouldn’t know of any credible terrorist expert who would dispute the fact that he was a leader in al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula and that he was operationally involved in terrorist attacks against American interests and citizens.

Tapper: Do you plan on bringing before the public any proof of these charges?

…

Tapper: Can you show us or the American people?  Has a judge been shown?

Carney: Again, Jake, I’m not going to go any further than what I’ve said about the circumstances of his death.  And the case against him which you’re linking.

…

Tapper: Is there going to be any evidence presented?

Carney: I don’t have anything for you on that.

After their deaths, when the two men could not defend themselves against government accusations, anonymous government sources detailed the accusations against them which President Obama echoed.[9]

“Awlaki was the leader of external operations for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. In that role, he took the lead in planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans.” - President Obama [10]

According to Obama, Awlaki was an American “guilty of planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans.”  Doesn’t our system of government require that evidence must be given in a court of law before a final determination of guilt can be made? 

Assassination is not Due Process

“The precedent set by the killing of Awlaki establishes the frightening legal premise that any suspected enemy of the United States - even if they are a citizen - can be taken out on the President's say-so alone.  Part of the very concept of citizenship is the protection of due process and the rule of law.  The President wants to spread American values around the world but continues to do great damage to them here at home, appointing himself judge, jury, and executioner by presidential decree.” – Ron Paul writing in the NY Daily News, Oct 3, 2011

The fifth amendment was added to the US Constitution to protect individuals: no person shall “be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”  The fifth amendment is one of ten in the Bill of Rights added to the Constitution to protect Americans from a too-powerful government.  The purpose of the Bill of Rights was to explicitly limit the powers of the federal government.  Everything in the Constitution is based on a mistrust of government—an expectation that those in power will tend to abuse their power. 

Today the unrestrained executive branch fulfills the worst expectations of those who wrote the Constitution:

• It has created an assassination list, where individuals are executed without due process.[11]
• Moreover, the evidence against those on the list is classified—a case of the fox guarding the henhouse as the American people are forced to trust the government to determine whether the government is breaking the law.

Sadly, most Americans forgo their fifth amendment rights as they willingly relinquish their liberties and trust the government.  “This is war,” they tell themselves.  But how can this be war if no war has been declared per the Constitution?

If this really is war, why did the Obama administration go to the trouble to write a secret 50-page memorandum by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel to attempt to justify its planned execution of Awlaki?

Ron Paul labeled the killings an assassination, warning Americans to beware of accepting government executions without due process.[12]  You didn’t have to search very long on your radio (45 minutes into this podcast) to find mouths that roared about “crazy Ron Paul” and how Awlaki was an “enemy combatant” and didn’t deserve any of his rights.  Would those same “mouths that roared” be calling Ron Paul crazy if he defended their first amendment right to freedom of expression if the government decided to take it away?

It’s a short step from accepting an undeclared, un-constitutional war, concentration camps, and government executions of American citizens without due process, to accepting the execution of Americans for other seemingly good and expedient reasons.[13]

Evidence of America’s Defeat

 

The evidence:

• submissive citizens in porno-scanners, hands up high, legs spread like prisoners, waiting for their jailers’ permission to move
• submissive parents standing by and watching as their children are molested by TSA agents
• the “land of the Free” as a surveillance state—if US troops overseas truly were fighting for our freedoms—and they’re not—they’d be losing the war[14][15][16]
• Americans cheering the murder of other Americans who oppose US government invasions and ignoring the murder of foreigners for the lies of the US government.

Over ten years ago on the night of 9-11, then-President Bush addressed the nation and predicted the victory of justice and peace over terrorism:

“This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time.”[17]

Bush was wrong.  In America, the terrorists won.

_______________________

[1] “Killing Americans: On uncharted ground in attack,” Matt Apuzzo, AP, Sept 30 2011, (Accessed at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9873878 on Oct 1, 2011).

[2] “Timeline: History Of Harsh Interrogation Techniques,”Corey Flintoff, Apr 22, 2009, NPR, (Accessed at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103376537 on Oct 7, 2011).

The existence of this directive was discovered by an ACLU FOIA request.

[3] “Secret U.S. Memo Made Legal Case to Kill a Citizen,” By CHARLIE SAVAGE, NY Times, Oct 8, 2011, (Accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/world/middleeast/secret-us-memo-made-legal-case-to-kill-a-citizen.html?pagewanted=all on Oct 9, 2011). 

[4] “Secret White House memo made case for legally killing Anwar al-Awlaki: Report,” BY Tina Moore, DAILY NEWS, Oct 8, 2011, (Accessed at http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2011/10/08/2011-10-08_secret_white_house_memo_made_case_for_legally_killing_anwar_alawlaki_report.html on Oct 9, 2011).

[5] “Anwar al-Aulaqi, U.S.-born cleric linked to al-Qaeda, killed in Yemen,” By Sudarsan Raghavan, Sept 30, 2011, Washington Post, (Accessed at http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/anwar-al-aulaqi-us-born-cleric-linked-to-al-qaeda-killed-yemen-says/2011/09/30/gIQAsoWO9K_story.html on Sept 30, 2011).

[6] “2nd American in Strike Waged Qaeda Media War,” By ROBBIE BROWN and KIM SEVERSON, NY Times, Sept 30, 2011, (Accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/world/middleeast/samir-khan-killed-by-drone-spun-out-of-the-american-middle-class.html on Oct 5, 2011).

[7] “Al Qaeda's Anwar al-Awlaki killed in Yemen,” CBS/AP, Sept 30, 2011, (Accessed at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/30/501364/main20113732.shtml on Oct 7, 2011).

Government sources didn’t mention the Pentagon recruiting Awlaki when he dined at the Pentagon after 9-11 (video), nor his attendance at a prayer group for Muslims in Congress.[8][9]

[8] “EXCLUSIVE: Al Qaeda Leader Dined at the Pentagon Just Months After 9/11,” By Catherine Herridge, FoxNews, Oct 20, 2010, (Accessed at http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/10/20/al-qaeda-terror-leader-dined-pentagon-months/ on Oct 7, 2011).

[9] “Some Muslims Attending Capitol Hill Prayer Group Have Terror Ties, Probe Reveals,” By Jana Winter, FoxNews, Nov 11, 2010, (Accessed at http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/11/11/congressional-muslim-prayer-group-terror-ties/ on Oct 7, 2011).

[10] “Remarks by the President at the "Change of Office" Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Ceremony at Fort Myer, Virginia,” Sept 30, 2011, ” (Accessed at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/30/remarks-president-change-office-chairman-joint-chiefs-staff-ceremony on Oct 1, 2011).

[11] “THREATS AND RESPONSES: HUNT FOR AL QAEDA; BUSH HAS WIDENED AUTHORITY OF C.I.A. TO KILL TERRORISTS,” By JAMES RISEN and DAVID JOHNSTON, NY Times, Dec 15, 2002, (Accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/15/world/threats-responses-hunt-for-al-qaeda-bush-has-widened-authority-cia-kill.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm on Oct 11, 2011).

[12] “Ron Paul on Anwar al-Awlaki’s Demise: ‘I Think It’s Sad’,” The State Column, Oct 01, 2011, (Accessed at http://www.thestatecolumn.com/articles/ron-paul-on-anwar-al-awlakis-demise-i-think-its-sad/ on Oct 7, 2011).

[13] “Ron Paul: US could target journalists for killing,” By Philip Elliott, Associated Press, October 5, 2011, (Accessed at http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2011/10/05/ron_paul_us_could_target_journalists_for_killing/  on Oct 7, 2011).

[14] “Post-9/11, NSA 'enemies' include us,” By James Bamford, Sept 8, 2011, (Accessed at http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=CA0FDA14-61EA-4015-A80B-1F6D34C59183 on Oct 9, 2011).

[15] “Senate Approves Bill to Broaden Wiretap Powers,” By ERIC LICHTBLAU, NY Times, July 10, 2008, (Accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/washington/10fisa.html?pagewanted=all on Oct 9, 2011).

[16] “Coming soon to a trash bin near you: The FBI,” By David Morgan, CBS, June 13, 2011, (Accessed at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/13/national/main20070845.shtml on Oct 9, 2011).

[17] “President Bush Speaks to the Nation,” PBS, Sept 11, 2001, (Accessed at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/terrorism/july-dec01/bush_speech.html on Oct 7, 2011).

The Roman Eagle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gaius Marius (157 BC – 86 BC)—Roman leader who strengthened the connection between the people of Rome and their military by allowing all Roman citizens into the legion, regardless of social class.  This drew poorer citizens to military service with the prospect of owning land in conquered territory.  Marius decreed that the eagle standard of the Roman legion would be the symbol of the Senate and People of Rome (or Senatus Populusque Romanus SPQR).

Over two thousand years ago, Julius Caesar (100 BC – 44 BC), as Roman governor of Gaul, had almost completed Rome’s conquest of Gaul when Vercingetorix, a Gallic nobleman, organized a rebellion.  Using hit and run tactics against a superior Roman military force, Vercingetorix nearly succeeded.  Caesar defeated the Gallic rebel leader at the Siege of Alesia in 52 BC. 

Romans may have viewed the defeat of Vercingetorix as a good thing, but three years later, Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon river and marched on Rome to start a five year civil war.  Caesar’s military success and eventual assumption of dictatorial powers was the beginning of the end of the Roman Republic.  Four years after defeating Vercingetorix, Caesar was appointed dictator, and he was appointed dictator-for-life shortly before his assassination.

The tyrant had four celebratory triumphs in Rome to boast of his military prowess.  The Roman mob, accustomed to crucifixions and other brutal displays of state power, were treated to the public strangulation of Vercingetorix six years after his surrender.  Vercingetorix was no longer a threat, but his execution was a useful reminder to the mob of the fate for those who dared to oppose the oligarchy.  Most Romans probably figured Vercingetorix was a bad man—after all, he didn’t want to be ruled by Rome. 

US and “Afpak”

Today’s Rome and Gaul are the US and the Afghanistan-Pakistan region (Afpak in now obsolete government-speak), and the US treats the Middle East as ancient Rome treated its conquered territories: as sources of commodities.[1]  And today’s Vercingetorix is Osama bin Laden.  But Americans pretend they’re unique in history, so they can’t see the parallels between American militarism and Roman imperialism.

The US does differ from ancient Rome in that Americans are a video culture isolated from reality.  Instead of a public execution of Osama bin Laden to demonstrate the brutal power of the state as Caesar did with Vercingetorix, pictures sufficed.  Michelle Bachmann and a handful of lawyer/legislators, isolated from what happens to real people, got to look at photos of the executed opponent of the US federal government.  “Our representatives” were convinced bin Laden was dead, just as an earlier hoax photograph on the Internet convinced Senator Scott Brown (R).[2] 

Today’s mob is so well-trained it was convinced by the word of its leaders without even seeing pictures.  Perhaps pictures were not released because it occurred to our rulers that pictures might cause some of the mob to have second thoughts about executing an unarmed opponent. 

Rome of Caesar’s day didn’t hesitate to shed blood to remind the populace that the state was a ruthless parent and infanticide was widely practiced.  Today, the US pretends to be a gentle Big Brother with only the people’s welfare as its concern.  Beneath the pretense, the US government is just as brutal to those who refuse to submit to its power.

The most recent version of the story of bin Laden’s death released by the US government was that bin Laden was unarmed when he was killed.[3]  Stories also said bin Laden’s wives were held for questioning.  But why murder bin Laden when he could have been taken prisoner?  If bin Laden was still a threat, wouldn’t he be more useful alive?  Why pretend to ask his wives what he was thinking after he was executed?  Unless you don’t really care about the answers?  Or unless the US still isn’t telling the truth? 

President Obama (D) told Americans that he had conferred with former President George W. Bush (R) after the execution.   Bush, interviewed later about his reaction to the news of the death of an enemy to the state, praised the fighting spirit of US government warriors, just as Julius Caesar had when writing of his soldiers who fought for booty in the Gallic Wars.[4] [5]  Bush, obviously pleased by the SEALs’ attitude, related a conversation he’d had with a SEAL Team Six warrior:

"I met SEAL Team Six in Afghanistan. They are awesome, skilled, talented and brave," he added. "I said, 'I hope you have everything you need. One guy said, 'We need your permission to go into Pakistan and kick ass.'" 

That’s just how our leaders like it: warriors completely loyal to our dog pack and completely oblivious to the US Constitution.

Standing behind a podium with the symbol of Rome, the golden eagle, prominently displayed upon it, President Obama announced bin Laden’s execution to the cheering mob (video and video).[6]

Of course Obama is no Caesar, no dictator for life.  Today’s news cycles are much shorter.  But even if Obama doesn’t win re-election, he’ll have been in control longer and with much more power than “tyrant-for-life” Julius Caesar.[7]  As the US government continues down a path similar to that of the Roman Republic, so too does the American mob, as it continues to embrace the power of the military.

__________________________________

[1] “Osama bin Laden mission agreed in secret 10 years ago by US and Pakistan,” Declan Walsh, May 9, 2011, The Guardian, (Accessed at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/09/osama-bin-laden-us-pakistan-deal on May 23, 2011).

A former US official explains US-Pakistan relations (keep your people in line or we will):

“The former US official said that impetus for the co-operation, much like the Bin Laden deal, was driven by the US. "It didn't come from Musharraf's desire. On the Predators, we made it very clear to them that if they weren't going to prosecute these targets, we were, and there was nothing they could do to stop us taking unilateral action.

“’We told them, over and again: “We'll stop the Predators if you take these targets out yourselves.”’”

[2] “Bachmann, other lawmakers see bin Laden photos; convinced ‘we got our man’,”  Dan Farber, Lucy Madison, CBS News, May 12, 2011, (Accessed at http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20062269-503544.html May 23, 2011).

[3] “SEAL helmet cams recorded entire bin Laden raid,” By David Martin, May 12, 2011, CBS News, (Accessed at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/12/eveningnews/main20062410.shtml on May 23, 2011).

[4] “George W. Bush Gives First Public Reaction to Osama Bin Laden Death,” By DEVIN DWYER, May 13, 2011, (Accessed at http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/george-bush-reacts-publicly-osama-bin-laden-death/story?id=13592860 on May 22, 2011).

[5] Julius Caesar related similar sympathies in his troops during a siege in Gaul (from Commentaries on the war in Gaul, book 7, chapters 14-31):

“Things were so serious, in fact, that for several days the men had no grain at all and managed to avoid starvation only by bringing in cattle from distant villages.

“But even so, no one uttered a word that was unworthy of the greatness of Rome or of the victories they had already won. Indeed, when I went round and spoke to the men of each legion as they worked, saying that I would raise the siege if they were finding their privations too much to bear, every man of them begged me not to. They had now served under me, they said, for many years without ever losing their good name or anywhere abandoning a task they had once begun. They would be disgraced if they gave up the siege they had started, and they would rather endure any hardship than fail to avenge the Roman citizens who had been killed at Orleans through the treachery of the Gauls. They made these same feelings known to the centurions and military tribunes, with requests that they should pass them on to me.”

Caesar’s rewarded his soldiers with slaves, plunder, booty, and bonuses in addition to their regular pay.

[6] At a bipartisan Congressional Dinner the day after his announcement, Obama decries the loss of the unity that was experienced immediately after 9-11.  Having a common enemy is a useful distraction for the mob and the oligarchs who rule them:

“I know that that unity that we felt on 9/11 has frayed a little bit over the years, and I have no illusions about the difficulties of the debates that we’ll have to be engaged in, in the weeks and months to come…And so tonight, it is my fervent hope that we can harness some of that unity and some of that pride to confront the many challenges that we still face.”

[7] Caesar was assassinated one month after he was declared “dictator for life.”

Doublethink (Part 4)

“The songs, the processions, the banners, the hiking, the drilling with dummy rifles, the yelling of slogans, the worship of Big Brother — it was all a sort of glorious game to them. All their ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals.”   

Nineteen Eighty-Four  Part 1 Chapter 2, p. 24 by George Orwell.[1]

Remembering 9/11

On September 11th, 2010 across the US, Americans commemorated the anniversary of 9/11  with US flags, speeches, flowers floating in reflecting pools, and patriotic songs.  The President spoke at the Pentagon, and his wife, with her predecessor, spoke at Shanksville, Pa.  There was also the obligatory anti-Moslem controversy over the mosque at the World Trade Center site, and the pastor who wanted to burn the Koran.[2]

Our rulers can’t let us forget “the day America changed forever” because they use the terror of that day to justify invading two nations and seizing more power here at home by tightening the chains on American citizens.  The US government, like Orwell’s Big Brother, keeps its citizens’ “ferocity… turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals.”

US is in a State of National Emergency

With the remembrances of the victims comes the continual reminder of an evil that killed nearly 3,000 US civilians.  The US has been in a state of National Emergency since September 14, 2001 because of it.  President Obama quietly extended the state of National Emergency for its 10th year.  He conveniently notified Congress on September 10th, when most Americans are distracted with upcoming September 11th memorials.[3] 

If anyone even chanced to notice the quiet departure of more of our liberties amidst all the patriotic memorializing of the nearly 3,000 Americans victims, who would dare question the President?

Be Afraid

Our rulers want us to “rally round the flag” while looking outwards for foreign enemies.  They want us terrified so that we ignore, or even support, their removal of many of our freedoms  over the last nine years.  Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano marked the ninth anniversary of 9/11 in New York vowing to keep up the fight against terrorists:

“We can’t guarantee there won’t be another successful terrorist attack.  The threats we face are evolving, and enemies like Al Qaeda and its affiliates are determined. … Today, on the eve of the ninth anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history, I can pledge to you this: We will do everything in our power to prevent attacks and to prepare ourselves.”[4]

They need us to be afraid.  They need us to stay fearful and support wars in foreign countries:

• They need us to support the war in Afghanistan which Obama escalated to fight al Qaeda terrorism. 
• They need us to support the war as they move it to Pakistan. 
• They need us to support it as they try to move it to Iran.
• They need us to be afraid despite CIA chief Leon Panetta’s estimate that there are no more than 100 al Qaeda members in Afghanistan.[5]

Terrorism vs. Collateral Damage

Why do you think we’re repeatedly reminded of the nearly 3,000 US civilians killed on 9/11, but not that the US military killed more than 3,000 civilians in Afghanistan in the first six months of what is now a nine-year war to avenge the deaths of 9/11?[6][7]

Why is it that when Americans civilians are killed, they’re victims of terrorism and when foreign civilians are killed, they’re merely collateral damage?

Is it possible that people who lose family members to “collateral damage” might get angry enough to become “terrorists”?  Who then fathers terrorism?

12-year old Ali, an Iraqi victim of US rockets in 2003, wasn’t terrorized, just damaged collaterally.[8]

Can you see a difference between terrorism and collateral damage?  If you can, you’re on your way to understanding doublethink as well as Syme, a character in Nineteen Eighty-Four: 

“'Even the slogans will change. How could you have a slogan like “freedom is slavery” when the concept of freedom has been abolished? The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking — not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.’

“One of these days, thought Winston with sudden deep conviction, Syme will be vaporized. He is too intelligent. He sees too clearly and speaks too plainly. The Party does not like such people. One day he will disappear. It is written in his face.”

Nineteen Eighty-Four  Part 1 Chapter 5, p. 47 by George Orwell.

________________________________

[1] Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell, New American Library, N.Y., 1949, p. 24.

[2] “On Sept. 11 Anniversary, Rifts Amid Mourning,” By ANNE BARNARD and MANNY FERNANDEZ, NY Times, September 11, 2010, (Accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/nyregion/12sept11.html?_r=2&th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all on Sept. 24, 2010).

[3] “Letter from the President on the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Certain Terrorist Attacks,” Sept. 10, 2010, (Accessed at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/10/letter-president-continuation-national-emergency-with-respect-certain-te on Sept. 24, 2010).

September 10, 2010

Dear Madam Speaker:    (Dear Mr. President:)

Section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1622(d), provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the President publishes in the Federal Register and transmits to the Congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in effect beyond the anniversary date. Consistent with this provision, I have sent to the Federal Register the enclosed notice, stating that the emergency declared with respect to the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, is to continue in effect for an additional year.

The terrorist threat that led to the declaration on September 14, 2001, of a national emergency continues. For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue in effect after September 14, 2010, the national emergency with respect to the terrorist threat.

                       Sincerely,

                       BARACK OBAMA

[4] “Janet Napolitano vows to keep up fight,” By MIKE ALLEN, 9/10/10, (Accessed at http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/41967.html on Sept. 24, 2010).

[5] “New Estimate of Strength of Al Qaeda Is Offered,” By DAVID E. SANGER and MARK MAZZETTI, NY Times, June 30, 2010, (Accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/world/asia/01qaeda.html on Sept. 25, 2010).

Apparently if 50-100 al Qaeda is an acceptable justification for escalation of the war in Afghanistan, Panetta estimated 300 al Qaeda in Pakistan to justify US drones in Pakistan.  (Shades of Cambodia and Laos in the 1970s…)

If you’re ready for triple-think:  “The Imperial Anatomy of Al-Qaeda. The CIA’s Drug-Running Terrorists and the ‘Arc of Crisis’ Part I,” by Andrew Gavin Marshall, Global Research, September 5, 2010, (Accessed at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MAR20100905&articleId=20907 on Sept. 24, 2010).

[6] “Tighter Rules Fail to Stem Deaths of Innocent Afghans at Checkpoints,” By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr., NY Times, March 26, 2010, (Accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/world/asia/27afghan.html?_r=1 on September 21, 2010).

[7] “US forces 'kill 8 children' in night raid on village in Afghanistan,” Scotsman, 31 December 2009, By JEROME STARKEY in KABUL, (Accessed at http://news.scotsman.com/world/US-forces-kill-8-children.5947753.jp on Sept. 21, 2010).

[8] “Blood Brothers,” By TOM NEWTON DUNN, The Sun, 03 Apr 2010, (Accessed at http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/2919198/Victims-of-Iraq-war-meet-amputee-British-soldiers.html on Sept. 30, 2010).

Then twelve year old Ali, is now 19 and adjusted to his life without arms.  His doctor thought he would die within weeks after the rocket attack that killed most of his family (his aunt survived).  I’ve quoted liberally from the article in the New Yorker as I’m sure it will be instructive in distinguishing the vast difference between victims of terrorism and those who are merely “collateral damage”:

“Dr. Saleh stopped to talk briefly with three European doctors from Médecins Sans Frontières, the nongovernmental organization that had been in Iraq for several weeks, assisting Iraqi doctors.

“One of Dr. Saleh’s assistants, a young woman, had pulled some images up on a computer screen in his office. Dr. Saleh invited me to look at them with him. The first image the assistant showed us was of a boy lying naked in the emergency operating theatre. A catheter and tube was attached to his penis. The child’s legs were smooth, but his entire torso was black, and his arms were horribly burned. At about the biceps, the flesh of both arms became charred, black grotesqueries. One of his hands was a twisted, melted claw. His other arm had apparently been burned off at the elbow, and two long bones were sticking out of it. It looked like something that might be found in a barbecue pit.

“The child’s face was covered by an anesthesia mask. ‘This is Ali,’ Dr. Saleh said. ‘He is twelve. He was wounded in a rocket attack the night before last in the southeastern part of Baghdad, about fifteen minutes from here. Ali lost his mother, his father, and his six brothers and sisters. Four homes were destroyed; in one of them, the whole family was killed, eight people.’

“It was hard to imagine that the person in the photograph could be alive, but Dr. Saleh said that Ali was still conscious. ‘I don’t think he will survive, though,’ he said in a flat tone. ‘These burned people have complications after three or four days; in the first week they usually get septicemia.’ His assistant was pulling up new images on her monitor. They showed Ali again, on the same bed and in the same position as before, but this time without his charred appendages. Both arms had been amputated, and the stumps were wrapped in white bandages. His torso was covered in some kind of clear grease. The mask had been removed from his face, and he appeared to be sleeping. He had a beautiful head, with the feminine features of a prepubescent boy. In another picture, Ali was awake, staring at the camera with large, expressionless eyes.

“Dr. Saleh’s assistant breathed in sharply and put one hand over her mouth. Then she brought up some images of Ali’s family just after the bodies had arrived at the hospital’s morgue. It was difficult to make out what had once been human beings. Cloth stuck to the bodies, bits of bold red-and-green fabric with flower designs. There seemed to be some straw mixed in, and I asked Dr. Saleh if they had been farming people. He said yes, and pointed out Ali’s mother. Her face had been cut in half, as if by a giant cleaver, and her mouth was yawning open. In other pictures, which Dr. Saleh said were of Ali’s father and a younger sister, all I could see was a macabre collection of charred body parts and some red flesh. The body of his brother was all there, it seemed, but from the nose up his head was gone, simply sheared off, like the head of a rubber doll. His mouth, like that of his mother, was open, as if he were screaming.

“‘Have you seen enough?’ the assistant asked me quietly. I didn’t say anything, so she showed me more pictures. After a few minutes of this, Dr. Saleh said, ‘O.K. This is just part of the tragedy.’ He asked me if I wanted to see Ali.

“I followed Dr. Saleh to the burn unit, where some men helped us on with green smocks, face masks, gauzy hair nets, and shoe coverings. Then we walked down a bare and quiet hall that reminded me of a prison corridor. The only thing on the walls was a framed portrait of Saddam Hussein. Dr. Saleh opened a door and we went into a small room where an older woman in a black abaya, Ali’s aunt, was sitting in a chair. A tiny window in the far wall of the room let in some sunlight. The aunt was sitting next to a bed on wheels that had a hooplike structure over it. Dr. Saleh carefully pulled back a coarse gray blanket, and I saw Ali’s naked chest, his bandaged stumps, and his face. His large eyes were hazel, flecked with green. He had long eyelashes and wavy brown hair. I didn’t know what to say.

“Dr. Saleh asked Ali how he felt. ‘O.K.,’ he said. Wasn’t he in a lot of pain, I said to Dr. Saleh, in a whisper. I spoke in English. ‘No,’ he replied. ‘Deeply burned patients don’t feel much pain because of the damage to their nerves.’ I stared at Ali, who looked back at me and at Dr. Saleh. His aunt got up and stood behind the head of the bed. She said nothing.

“I asked Dr. Saleh to ask Ali what he was thinking about. Ali spoke for a moment in Arabic, in a boy’s soft, high-pitched voice. ‘He doesn’t think of anything, and he doesn’t remember anything,’ Dr. Saleh said. He explained that Ali did not know that his family was dead. I asked Ali about school. He was in the sixth grade, he said, and his favorite subject was geography. As he spoke, his aunt stroked his hair. Did he like sports? Yes, he replied, especially volleyball, and also soccer…

“…Dr. Saleh rubbed his eyes and cleared his throat several times. We went back to his office, and he washed his face in a sink. ‘So it’s untrue what they say about doctors being able to suspend their emotions,’ I said.

“He looked at me. His eyes were pink. ‘We are human beings,’ he replied. He explained that Ali knew that he had lost his arms, but that he had not acknowledged it yet: ‘He is conscious. He can see the stumps.’ Ali would likely die within three weeks.”[9]

[9] “Letter from Baghdad, War Wounds; Bombs fall and the lights go out” by Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker, April 14, 2003, (Accessed at http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/04/14/030414fa_fact1?currentPage=all on Oct 1, 2010).