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What's happening in America? A slide into fascism... national |
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news report
 Saturday December 21, 2002 20:27 by bad
 things getting bad in the states. Mass arrests in California spark protests The Justice Department was scrambling Thursday to explain why INS agents arrested hundreds of men who voluntarily arrived at INS offices in Southern California this week to register under Attorney General John Ashcroft's plan to document all men in the US who come from several countries in the Middle East. Media around the world carried stories of how the men, some as young as 16, were handcuffed, shackled, and (according to their laywers) hosed down, before being placed in jail cells. Most of those arrested were Iranian whose familes had fled to the US after the 1979 overthrow of the Shah, including members of the Iranian Jewish and Christian communities, according to The Independent. Thousands of Iranian-Americans then protested in front of INS offices in Southern California. The Guardian reports they waved placards which read "What's next? Concentration camps?", "Detain Terrorists not Innocent Immigrants", and "Free our fathers, brothers, husbands and sons."
The INS says the entire episode has been overblown by the media and that most of those detained are out on bail. The Boston Globe reports that any who showed up to register were in the country illegally because their visas had expired, according to Jorge Martinez, a spokesman for the Justice Department. "We're talking about individuals who have violated the law," he said. "I can't believe we've become a country where violating the law doesn't matter." The INS said their agents are required to arrest anyone for any sort of violation, regardless of the circumstances. The INS position was backed by the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
But the LA Times (which called the INS's handling of the situation a "bust") and the Globe pointed out that many of the minor violations for which the men were arrested were caused by INS backlogs and not anything the men had done illegally. "Given the proven incompetence of the INS with paperwork, the complaints sound feasible," said an editorial in the LA Times. The INS has said that once the men provide proof that they've filed all the right paper work, they won't be bothered any more. Men from another 13 nations, mostly from the Middle East (including Saudi Arabia) and North Africa, have been ordered to appear and register next month. Immigration experts now fear that many will stay away for fear of similiar arrests. And in a move that soon might lead to the monitoring of all Americans, the New York Times reports that the "Bush administration is planning to propose requiring Internet service providers to help build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring of the Internet and, potentially, surveillance of its users." An official with a major data services company who has been briefed on several aspects of the government's plans said it was hard to see how such capabilities could be provided to government without the potential for real-time monitoring, even of individuals. "Part of monitoring the Internet and doing real-time analysis is to be able to track incidents while they are occurring," the official said. The official compared the system to Carnivore, the Internet wiretap system used by the F.B.I., saying: "Am I analogizing this to Carnivore? Absolutely. But in fact, it's 10 times worse. Carnivore was working on much smaller feeds and could not scale. This is looking at the whole Internet." |
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Comments (7 of 7)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7As soon as you read the words "nazi" or "fascism" you know what's inside is going to be exaggerated.
They were arrested since they broke the law and went through the revolving door on the other side. My my only problem is that a)they treat don't Mexicans, Irish, Polish or any other illegal to the same standard of reporting and b) that by arresting them when they voluntarily came forward they are discouraging others from being processed which is the whole idea of documentation. They should have use the fact that they would be given a pass the carrot to anyone who tries to set things straight.
The INS is one of the most dysfunctional parts of the government. It's well known. These numb nuts sent Muhommad Atta a visa on 3/11/02. The numb nuts probably weren't even fired because of union rules, seniority and other silly reasons that keep morons in their positions.
So it was wrong, yes, but to pretend that things are "getting bad" in America and that interment camps like those the Japanese were subjected to in WW2 is just not true.
The US is a nation of legal immigrants. Those who enter without authorization or those who violate the conditions of their authorized period of temporary stay are law breakers, subject to arrest, detention and removal by the INS. There is no such thing as a law abiding illegal alien. Those who rush to wear the cloak of victimhood must be reminded that they are volitional victims.
The Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, is the byproduct of our Congress and Administration working together to codify the collective will of our great nation. Immigration Officers are sworn to uphold these federal statutes without regard to race, religion, nationality, political affiliation, or membership in a particular group.
Those opposed to the immigration laws have the opportunity to change them working through the democratic process. However, we are not at liberty to pick and choose which laws we are going to honor. To do so is to invite anarchy - - - the very political condition that gives birth each year to millions of refugees in our world community - - - refugees who to look to America and Lady Liberty as their only beacon of hope.
Let's keep that beacon brightly lit by supporting the INS' efforts to enforce our nation's immigration laws.
Of course things are getting bad in America - especially for Muslims and people from the Middle East. 9/11 has put the US over the edge and civil rights are being consistantly and systemically eroded. It is true that the victims of this erosion of civil liberties are confined to a few thousand 'dissapeared', the context is being set for much grater possible future abuse. Hopefully this won't happen but its not unrealistic to see a follow-up to another massive terrorist attack resulting in widespread human rights abuses in the US.
(Of course, I'm not refering to the the millions of generally poor, black and disenfranchised non-violent victims of the prison industry)
Especially when it punishes, detains and humiliates individuals simply because of their race or religion or nation of origin. There can of course be no question that if a law or a body of authority exists, it is necessarily just and correct. RIGHT! 'Lady Liberty,' I scoff at you!
The United States is indeed getting bad. What makes this story about the mass detentions of what is, at latest count approx 2,500 people is that no-one here knows about it. It is simply not being reported in the "mainstream" press with some very notable and rare exceptions. Certainly not on the television news. I tell any here who will listen that, having actually observed a police state come into existence i.e. living in northern Ireland from 1969-84, that I am currently seeing the same phenomena developing here. Not as quickly as the north but still following the same pattern. An ultra-nationalistic and bigoted fervor gripping some sections of the population followed by the setting up of "special powers" legislation i.e. The "Patriot" Act and the squelching of any and all legitimate political dissent. I was once at an anti-war rally here and was sharing this with an old woman, whom I had never met and have not seen since. After making this analysis, she started to cry and stated to me "oh my god son, I was raised in Hitler's Germany and i have been thinking the same thing but I had never told anyone that until now". Likewise I was talking about the complete bias of the media to a gentleman from the former Soviet Union. He laughed and said " yes, indeed but in Russia we knew we are being lied to, here you don't".
Nothing like the voice of experience. However, the upside is that word is geting out, people are becoming aware and resistance is indeed growing here.
I find it incredible that there are actually people who don't have a problem with the INS arrests
and the way they were carried out. These same people seem to hold 'THE LAW' sacrosanct above
all else. In Nazi Germany they had laws against Jews, -it is this same mentality that would unquestionably
obey those ones as well because they are THE LAW.
I also note how silent these respondents were on the issue of monitoring all Internet traffic.
Anyways I would like to also draw attention to the assault that the present fascist-corporate cabal who
are in power are making on the environment. The article at
http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2002/2002-12-19-10.asp
Conservationists Warn Bush Will Dismantle Safeguards
puts it better than I ever could
And why else is the USA fascist and becoming more so. Maybe because of the way, the prison population has
increased 300% since 1980, or the institutionalized racial-discrimination against basically all non-whites, or the
proportion of Blacks on death row, or the illegal activities of the CIA in countless foreign policy adventures
since WWW II, in which literally millions have died, the way democratic governments/states have had coup-d'etats,
the whole phoney drug war, the way inner cities are targeted and supplied by the CIA with drugs to criminalize
those sectors of society while at the same time using the funds for illegal terrorist activities abroad, the
declassification in the mid-90s of the Northwoods project to start a terrorist campaign by the secret services
in order to bring in a repression regime, the fact that people in the WACO affair, who authorized the murder
of people got promoted, the stock market scandals, the IMF/WTO behaviour, the robbing of $40 billion from
the social security fund for the War on Terror, the $1 trillion tax break, the vast majority of which goes
to the top 5% of earners, the $100+ billion corporate handout last Oct 2001, the systematic dismantling of
environmental safeguards and their hollowing from the inside, the complete lack of any effort to help slow
down global warming, and the way obstacles have been put in the way, the way the US has not ratified the
landmine treaty, the way they never condemned at the UN, the use of nerve gas by Saddam against the Kurds,
the way practically have police district has a para-military police force, the way the separate of the army
and police has disappeared, the way the FBI put a car-bomb in the early 90s under the seat of a logging
protestor -Judi Bari, the USA Patriot Act. And this is just the short list.
In the "elections" in the USA we are given a choice of 2 corporate candidates....and even then they rig the results if the parasitical plutocracy don't like the outcome
Election Fraud 2000 www.gregpalast.com
Election Fraud 2002 http://www.bartcop.com/111102fraud.htm
The History of Corprote Plutocracy Fascism is long. Read the sick history going back to WWII. The mask has just come off in the US. They lulled us to sleep. Many are awakening now though. Read the following research and books:
LETTER TO HARVARD AUTHOR WHO ATTRIBUTES 9/11 TO THE BUSH JUNTA AND it's
crytpocracy backers.
Dear Mr Shivani,
I agree with your assessment that 9/11 is the equivalent of Germany's Reichstag fire with the perpetrators being the unelected Bush Junta. The book "The War on Freedom" by Nafeez Ahmed, "Value Wars" by John McMurtry, and "War and Globalisation, and the Truth behind 9/11" by Michel Chossudovsky are scholarly works which devastatingly support your position as well. I Noticed however, that you completely ignored the history of the formation of European Fascist and Nazi Regimes in your article:
"Is America Becoming Fascist? Alle Recht alles".
http://www.counterpunch.org/shivani1026.html
European and American Corporations and associated plutocrats installed the European Fascists
and Nazis into power. The population was turning to socialism, land reform, and unionization etc. in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s as they had been looted into serfdom by the corporate plutocracy (example the Great
Depression). The plutocrats funded the fascist terror and wars to overthrow the democracies before they went socialist. No high ideals here other than the almight buck. Orwellian history books concentrate on Jews being the victims of the fascists. Per Father Niemoller's accurate statement: First they came for the communists, socialists, then the union leaders and then the Jews .
http://www.christianethicstoday.com/Issue/009/First%20They%20Came%20for%20the%20Jews%20By%20Franklin%20H%20Littell_009_29_.htm The Fascist regimes are a war against workers installed by the parasitical plutocracy when the workers are about to rebell such as after an especially intense period of looting by the parasites.
Read George Seldes. He wrote the truth of the period 1917 to 1980 and was taken before the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) for it. He covered the censored news of the supporters and installers of Fascism. His works are gems of gold in an Orwellian history matrix. His books are available at bookfinder.com. (Best one is "Facts and Fascism" but all are exceptional). I also recommend that you read Clement Liebovitz's book "The Chamberlain-Hitler Deal" and Charles Higham's "Trading With the Enemy". "Saving Private Power: The Hidden History of the "Good War" " by Zezima, and "The F-Word: American Fascism and the Politics of Illusion" by David McGowan which detail allied plutocrat instalation and support for Hitler's clearing out of socialists, unionists, democrats from Europe to remove the threat to capitalists of socialism (the threat resulting from the absolute tyrrany and enslavement of the workers by plutocrats) and the fascistic actions and nature of the US Government since WWII. This is the real history of WWII and fills in all the holes. Read who supported these regimes then read of their actions and statements.
Add to this evidence the overthrow of 55 real democratic/populist movements around the globe by the US and the installation of Fascist regimes with death squads (William Blum's book "Killing Hope" John Stockwell, Penny Lenoreux, and many Noam Chomsky books etc).
Further evidence is that our "enemies": the Nazis; were brought into the US Military and the CIA when Germany "lost". This official pact between the Nazis and the US Military Industrial Complex was called "Operation PaperClip". Do a search for it on the internet.
A recap is: The US Military-Industrial Complex installed and funded the fascists and Nazis for the common purpose of a war on workers movements (all labeled "communist"), the Nazis were brought into the US military after the war, and the US has continued the fascist terror against workers movements and true democracy and has installed fascist regimes with death squads all over the globe. The lie of US Orwellian indoctrination that does not list the motivations and funding of plutocrats....only that these people "hated Jews" as their motivation never made any sense to me my whole life...now I know why they lied. Can't alert the serfs.
Sincerely,
**** ***** MBA MHA RPh and Intertel top 1% IQ Society WWII research group member.
www.globalresearch.ca Chossudovosky's book avail able here.
** www.thewaronfreedom.com Nafeez Ahmed's book. If you read anything in your life read this. Leave the Matrix imposed upon you by the Fascist Junta
running the former US republic. Details in depth the 1001 Problems of the 9/11 fable as presented by US Corporate media Cartel Propaganda outlets. ***
The Conclusions in the backword are not warranted however...i.e.that Israel is primarily to blame. Israel is a puppet of the US National Security state and does not act independently. Read Perfidy by Ben Hecht on Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis for common aims, and Ralph Schoenman's "Hidden History of Zionism" for clarification.
www.unansweredquestions.org
www.communitycurrency.org
www.americanstateterrorism.com One stop Instant de- Brainwashing site. Details the 50 plus real democracies/ populist movements overthrown by the US National Security State with the accompanying 10 million brutal murders.
** Elaboration on which Jews were targeted (not all were) and why they as a group were targeted: I suggest that you read "Perfidy" by Ben Hecht and Schoenman's "Hidden History of Zionism" for some background. For
example, the DuPont family, one of the primary funders of fascism and Hitler are Jewish. Their daughter (Ethel DuPont) married FDR's son (FDR Jr) in 1937. Do a search for "fascism and DuPont" or Nazis and DuPont.
Also, the US Military Industrial Complex CHOSE to leave a trail like a herd of elephants implicating the US and have their hired goons post the information all over the net and in a few books. This serves two purposes:
to further undermine the US Constitutional Government (which is a teetering bulwark against fascist tyrrany) and to also terrorize Americans and the world.