fascist america: step six, are you on the list?

Over the past years we have slowly watched as the terms of "enemy combatant", "terrorist", and other such terms have come to encompass the very citizens of the mostly free United States of America. We have seen it become more and more convenient over our history as certain administrations faced opposition from ordinary citizens. The greatest mobilization that met a very strong military backlash (including multiple troop units, calvary, and tanks) was the Bonus Army of the 1930s. War veterans from WWI demanded their bonus pay as the Great Depression took strong effect on their lives and families. Before I go too far on a tangent, the topic of today's step towards a frightening state is the fact that regular citizens with dissenting opinions can and do face state repercussions. The best current example of this is the creation of "Free Speech Zones" at political events. This includes both Democratic and Republican. I know that in many of my posts under the title "fascist america" tend to lean towards examples of Republican or 'Right-leaning' peoples and politicians. The fact of the matter is that while it may be easiest to find example of the overt stomping of civil rights by 'the Right,' it is just as easy to see the silence and inaction of 'the Left' when it comes to challenging what may be deemed wrong.

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
This scares people. It is a kind of cat-and-mouse game. In a closing or closed society there is a "list" of dissidents and opposition leaders: you are targeted in this way once you are on the list, and it is hard to get off the list.

In 2004, America's Transportation Security Administration confirmed that it had a list of passengers who were targeted for security searches or worse if they tried to fly. People who have found themselves on the list? Two middle-aged women peace activists in San Francisco; liberal Senator Edward Kennedy; a member of Venezuela's government - after Venezuela's president had criticised Bush; and thousands of ordinary US citizens.

Professor Walter F Murphy is emeritus of Princeton University; he is one of the foremost constitutional scholars in the nation and author of the classic Constitutional Democracy. Murphy is also a decorated former marine, and he is not even especially politically liberal. But on March 1 this year, he was denied a boarding pass at Newark, "because I was on the Terrorist Watch list".

"Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that," asked the airline employee.

"I explained," said Murphy, "that I had not so marched but had, in September 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the constitution."

"That'll do it," the man said.

Anti-war marcher? Potential terrorist. Support the constitution? Potential terrorist. History shows that the categories of "enemy of the people" tend to expand ever deeper into civil life.

The definition relates back to Step Five, where we saw the backlash of 'terrorist' attacks on Arab-American citizens and others confused as looking like terrorists. It also relates back to discussions in Step Five regarding the Real ID act and the redefining of 'enemy combatant' and 'terrorist' to include ordinary citizen groups. Even more now, if you so much as carry a dissenting sign at any political event you will be nearly 'hog-tied' and carted off if you fail to remove yourself from the event to a "free speech zone." In an article in The American Conservative Magazine published in 2003, the author highlights three separate events at three Bush visits across the country. In an interview with 65 year-old retired steel-worker, Bill Neel after his arrest he later commented, “As far as I’m concerned, the whole country is a free speech zone. If the Bush administration has its way, anyone who criticizes them will be out of sight and out of mind.”

A notable quote, I can only hope that the majority of US citizens agree with his statement that our whole country should be a free-speech zone. In a CNN article written in 2004, the constitutionality of free-speech zones was considered and easily the author debates the difference between zones and searches, which is the least intrusive and still allows for dissent to be heard. I cannot necessarily agree that searches will allow dissenters to be closer to a political event. The author also importantly brings up the idea of dialogue and how penning protesters completely negates that first amendment ability to persuade. If we really seek a better America, why not encourage dialogue. It can then be noted that protesters are not there for dialogue, but just to yell slogans, but the idea cannot be lost that placing voices of dissent in cages cannot promote democracy. Another important issue to think about is security concerns, however the author does not agree and easily says that the security concern is not valid to allow for 'free-speech zones.'

More recently, a judge in Denver allowed for 'free-speech zones' to be set-up for the DNC in 2008. In the article, the judge says that the security concern is far greater than the rights of citizens. The ACLU and others argued against the ruling, but in the end Judge Marcia Kreiger agreed that some freedom of expression would be restricted, but stuck to her ruling on the basis of the security concern. The youtube videos of protesters was in typical fashion of police force against protest and dissent. The protests were near mirror images of many other protests that I cover in Step Three. The police state is not above political party as an ABC reporter was man-handled at the DNC:



Also this year, the Center for Constitutional Rights reports that 52 anti-war activists won a $2 million lawsuit against the New York City police for violating their First Amendment "rights to assemble and speak their mind free from the fear that they will be punished for their views." (CCR) Why is it in some cases easy to hold law enforcement accountable for wrong-doings related to constitutional rights and other times the legal battles just disappear?

These events and others are what can lead a person to be added to "the list." On 13 August, the TSA Blog wrote a reaction to the USA Today article saying that you would be added to a list if you forgot your ID at the airport. This may have been proven false, but contradiction was written everywhere. One commenter says this (better than I could):

From the article you linked to in your unsigned blog post:
Asked about the program, TSA chief Kip Hawley told USA TODAY in an interview Tuesday that the information helps track potential terrorists who may be "probing the system" by trying to get though checkpoints at various airports.

Later Tuesday, Hawley called the newspaper to say the agency is changing its policy effective today and will stop keeping records of people who don't have ID if a screener can determine their identity. Hawley said he had been considering the change for a month. The names of people who did not have identification will soon be expunged, he said.

In your unsigned blog post you wrote:
An August 13 USA Today article overstated the Transportation Security Administration’s interest in passengers who come to airport checkpoints without identification but cooperate in establishing their identity. The story gives the public the impression they might be put on a “list” if they forget their ID. That is false.

Passengers whose identity is confirmed will not be added to any watch list or face additional scrutiny during future checkpoint visits.

Please explain why you are so intensely spinning or slanting the facts.

The story plainly and clearly states the TSA is no longer adding those person's without ID to the list, and that those already on the list will be expunged, yet you attempt to twist the truth by saying persons are not put on a list for that, clearly implying that TSA never did put those names on the list that they never did keep.

Your boss says otherwise.

So it seems there is no doubt about it there are watch lists out there, if you care about the US and its people and have decided to do something about it, then you are probably on there too. It has become a constant that if you try to voice dissent or find something out you will be detained and taken to court - we see it in cases of reporters over and over, of ordinary citizens on no fly lits, of college students charged when speaking their mind - systematic detention and release of 'trouble-makers' has become a policy of our government. In July, Reuters reported that the 'Terrorism Watch List' topped one million people. Watch the CNN video made by a CNN commentator who also happens to be on the 'terrorism watch list.'



Read Step One,Step Two, Step Three, Step Four & Step Five.

fascist america: step three: rise of the police state

This is probably the most frightening step for the majority of people. Private security contractors roaming the streets with impunity to ensure the 'public good.' Along with that add the militarization of your local policeman as they begin wearing bullet proof vests and helmets and toting assault rifles. Over 2000 people have died in police custody in the last three years and the number of videos of blatant police brutality has become staggering. The police brutality is especially evident when dissent is expressed in the form of organized protest.

3. Develop a thug caste
When leaders who seek what I call a "fascist shift" want to close down an open society, they send paramilitary groups of scary young men out to terrorise citizens. The Blackshirts roamed the Italian countryside beating up communists; the Brownshirts staged violent rallies throughout Germany. This paramilitary force is especially important in a democracy: you need citizens to fear thug violence and so you need thugs who are free from prosecution.

After Hurricane Katrina, the Department of Homeland Security hired and deployed hundreds of armed private security guards in New Orleans. The investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill interviewed one unnamed guard who reported having fired on unarmed civilians in the city. It was a natural disaster that underlay that episode - but the administration's endless war on terror means ongoing scope for what are in effect privately contracted armies to take on crisis and emergency management at home in US cities.

Thugs in America? Groups of angry young Republican men, dressed in identical shirts and trousers, menaced poll workers counting the votes in Florida in 2000. If you are reading history, you can imagine that there can be a need for "public order" on the next election day. Say there are protests, or a threat, on the day of an election; history would not rule out the presence of a private security firm at a polling station "to restore public order".

This step is most evident when there are forms of peaceful protest or peaceful acts of civil disobedience that may step "out of line," but are in no way a threat to anyone. When the people become the enemy, then you know what democracy is dead.

May Day Immigration Reform Protest:


During this protest it was obvious, as the camera-man states, that the event was "set up for failure." The protest was contained in a park, an area easily surrounded and controlled by the massive police force. The police deemed the protest over when they wanted and began systematically forcing peaceful protesters of men, women, and children to leave. Firing rubber rounds into the crowds and knocking anyone out of their way. What was once a peaceful protest turned into a violent police oppression. Why? For what purpose is it necessary to violently silence peaceful voices?

UCLA Library Taser Incident

LA Police Arrest with Punches to Face

Police Crackdown on Young Skaters

New Orleans Police Bloody Brutalization of Old Man

Florida Police Arrests and Punches 15 Year-old Girl for Breaking Curfew

WTO Protests in Seattle

NYC Critical Mass Protest at RNC 2004

In November of last year 4000 young people protested police brutality in DC:


Blackwater in New Orleans

Just recently in New Orleans citizens protested the destruction of public housing at the City Hall meeting where they were denied access:


All of these incidents cut across the racial and class barriers of America. The majority are acts of violence against minority groups, but the police do not discriminate when it comes to dissent. White, black, hispanic, college-age, elderly, if you raise your voice in dissent (or if you say nothing at all) you will suffer the consequences - or at least that is what they want us to think. Long ago Patrick Henry spoke against the British tyranny saying, "Give me liberty or give me death!" On that fateful day that has given us such a historic quotation Patrick Henry also said this,

"We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it."

We have shut our eyes and ears to the truth because we are told to do so. We are told there is a great terror threatening our land and so you must allow the power structure above you to make any and all decisions because they will be for your own good. We have seen our rights systematically taken away and we have left this issue to fester much too long with inaction. We may not be fighting for liberty from the oppressive crown, but what we are fighting is not that much worse. We are fighting for our personal and collective freedom. I will join the ranks with Patrick Henry and say, Give me Freedom or give me death! The rise of the police state in America is real and very much a step towards the development of a fascist state.

Read Step One & Step Two.

fascist america: step one, exploiting fear

What happens when the voice of dissent sheds light on the truth and knocks on the door of the root of a problem? What grows when that level of dissent is directed at a powerful government structure run on the fumes of false fear? Why has there been such a sharp increase in the number of deaths while under police custody? Why do our local police now look like paramilitaries waiting to take over a town center from extremists? When people so much as question their government why does that become motive enough for arrest, beating, and detention? How can our government systematically take away our rights and grant themselves exemption? The questions as to where America is headed could go on for a very long time, but what is needed is an understanding and an answer to follow those questions.

In her book The End of America Naomi Wolf outlines 10 steps of how to turn a democracy into a fascist state. She tells us that there is a blueprint written by all the 'greats': Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler and followed by other smaller dictators like Pinochet and others. She writes that each of these 10 steps have been initiated in America. All blockquotes are from the above cited article of Naomi Wolf.

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
After we were hit on September 11 2001, we were in a state of national shock. Less than six weeks later, on October 26 2001, the USA Patriot Act was passed by a Congress that had little chance to debate it; many said that they scarcely had time to read it. We were told we were now on a "war footing"; we were in a "global war" against a "global caliphate" intending to "wipe out civilisation". There have been other times of crisis in which the US accepted limits on civil liberties, such as during the civil war, when Lincoln declared martial law, and the second world war, when thousands of Japanese-American citizens were interned. But this situation, as Bruce Fein of the American Freedom Agenda notes, is unprecedented: all our other wars had an endpoint, so the pendulum was able to swing back toward freedom; this war is defined as open-ended in time and without national boundaries in space - the globe itself is the battlefield. "This time," Fein says, "there will be no defined end."

Naomi notes that our government increased the fear factor of this event and used hyped language to push the beginning of their fascist agenda. However, Naomi agrees to the truth of this event and the real threat of Islamic terrorism. Is there really a threat of Islamic terrorism or is it really a state terrorism? Was 9/11 an inside job?

A conservative republican who could not reconcile with the fact that the explanation of the World Trade Center Towers' collapse was officially caused by impact and fire has made a documentary called 9/11 Mysteries. Watch the 12 part series on Youtube here as Brad's documentary uses science and history to prove the official collapse theory wrong and makes frightening discoveries that hint at an inside job, a fabricated terrorist threat. The corporate interests involved before and after the collapse are absolutely disgusting. "No steel-framed building before or since 9/11 has collapsed due to fire. What happened to the Twin Towers that caused them to come down? This video takes you through popular myth into science for a new understanding of the possibilities."

In the Spring of 2001, "reporting on terrorism surged dramatically,"notes the 9/11 Commission Report (204), "[...] none of these [reports] pointed specifically to possible al Qaeda action inside the United States - although the CSG [Counterterrorism Security Group] continued to be concerned about the domestic threat." This surge in threat reports came from none other than the Counterterrorist Center (CTC) established under the Reagan administration. The CTC collects information only abroad. What better place to fabricate a threat than the Counterterrorist Center? Another interesting note - the security firm, no longer in existence, that handled security at the WTC, Dulles Airport, and United Airlines was Securacom, where the youngest Bush son sat on the Board of Directors. Everything that we have been told about 9/11 makes no sense. The truth is slowly being uncovered.

I will follow Naomi Wolf's "ten steps" and provide my own research and analysis of what we might be seeing happen to the America that we used to know and love. Watch for the next steps coming soon. In the meantime be sure to do your own research, ask questions, and don't accept anything merely because you are told by your government or "authority."

"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."
- Buddha