Saturday on the Weekend Interview Show, I’ll be talking with Ray McGovern of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity about the absence of intelligence and sanity in our government, and Antiwar.com’s own Gordon Prather will return in the second hour to explain all those complicated details surrounding the fight America is picking with Iran.
Update: Show’s over, Archives
With 80,000 unique visitors on Monday, Antiwar.com is clearly the web center of the new American realignment. Featuring a couple of hundred or so most important news stories of the day in real time, and the best commentary from libertarians, the old right and the progressive left, we provide easy access to the best information about, and dissent against, the neocons‘ imperial juggernaut.
As the most totalitarian tendencies of some of our neighbors coalesce around the “Global War on Terror” and “protecting the Homeland,” those of us who love liberty are finding ways to bypass the old artificial constraints of our cultural differences in all of our last ditch attempts to save the liberty that once distinguished America from the rest of the world.
Short of all out nuclear warfare, this country could never be destroyed by foreign enemies. We have a 10 trillion dollar economy, two friendly neighbors, two mountain ranges, and a population of three hundred million with five hundred million firearms. The danger to this country instead comes from our own government while at war abroad. As Americans are divided into “wimps and warriors,” dissent is equated with treason, incredible deficits are added to an already crippling national debt, the national police power undergoes wholesale restructuring and their authority over the states and our lives is extended, America is being destroyed from the inside out. As Randolph Bourne said, “War is the Health of the State.” And when the state is healthy, individual liberty is in danger. As James Madison pointed out, War is,
“the parent of armies. From these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, debts and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the dominion of the few…. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”
We can’t repeal the PATRIOT act and dismantle the Department of Homeland Security until we stop this self destructive foreign policy. And since the wars in question have absolutely nothing to do with protecting the American people, we ought to be able to get it done.
Those of you who take this as your responsibility, and rely on Antiwar.com to keep up to date in your own fight (how many months before the rest of the country did you learn about the Office of Special Plans and the real purpose of those scary aluminum tubes?), owe it to yourselves to chip in and keep this magnificent tool running smooth.
And, you can write it off, rather than paying it in income taxes to the warfare state. What are you waiting for? Click here to donate.
Saturday on the Weekend Interview Show, 3-5 pm Texas time (that’s central) I will, in a case of the most blatant interest-conflicting nepotism, be interviewing my boss, Justin Raimondo, all about the neoconservatives, and how they lied us into war in Iraq.
In the second hour, I’ll be talking with Peter Lance about his book A Thousand Years for Revenge, and the history of bin Laden, Yousef, Rahman, Zawahiri, etc.
Update: Show’s over, Archives here.
Saturday on the Weekend Interview Show, 3-5 pm Texas time (that’s central) I will, in a case of the most blatant interest-conflicting nepotism, be interviewing my boss, Justin Raimondo, all about the neoconservatives, and how they lied us into war in Iraq.
In the second hour, I’ll be talking with Peter Lance about his book A Thousand Years for Revenge, and the history of bin Laden, Yousef, Rahman, Zawahiri, etc.
Jacob Hornberger reminds us of the true nature of our unlimited republic:
“Zacarias Moussaoui’s guilty plea to terrorism charges in U.S. federal district court does not end the Pentagon’s threat that hangs over the head of every federal judge who has jurisdiction over an indicted terrorist defendant.
Moussaoui’s punishment must still be decided, either by a jury or by the judge if both Moussaoui and the government waive a jury. The problem is that the Pentagon and the Justice Department are still claiming the power to remove Moussaoui from the jurisdiction of the federal court and transfer him to the military for punishment, including execution. Don’t forget that that’s in fact what they’ve done to Jose Padilla and Ali al-Marri and that they are fighting for the power to do this to every other American citizen and every foreigner whom they suspect of being a terrorist.
Thus, if it looks like the jury or the judge might be unwilling to impose the death penalty on Moussaoui, the military might simply take the law into its own hands and do the dirty deed itself, transferring Moussaoui to Gitmo and executing him there, independent of any federal judicial interference.
That’s why the Moussaoui case — or more accurately, the Pentagon’s claim of power to punish Americans and others without due process of law — still presents the most ominous threat to the freedom of the American people in our lifetime.”
The funny part is that the feds have said before that they don’t even really believe he was meant to be the twentieth hijacker. That was Ramzi Binalshibh. As Seymour Hersh has written,
“The assumption of government bungling was predicated on the assumption that Moussaoui was indeed the twentieth hijacker. (There were five hijackers on each of the three planes that hit their targets, but only four on the flight that went down in Pennsylvania.) Moussaoui has said in federal court that he was a member of Al Qaeda, but he has denied any involvement in the hijackings. Many present and former F.B.I. and C.I.A. officials have told me that they believe he was “a wanna-be,” as one put it, and far too volatile and unstable to handle a long-term undercover terrorist operation. Nevertheless, they said, Moussaoui may have crucial knowledge about Al Qaeda.”
Oh, well. Close enough for an execution, right?
If you’re not a terrorist, you don’t have anything to worry about.
An interesting piece in Haaretz by Efraim Halevy, former chief of the Mossad and National Security advisor to Ariel Sharon, about the wonderful potential of American Empire in the Middle East:
“At present the United States is torn between the immediate need to ensure a safe flow of oil, while maintaining close ties with the existing government in Riyadh, and the fear that every day that passes without genuine reform in Saudi Arabia is not only bringing the fall of the House of Saud closer but is also heightening the danger that the new rulers will take an extremist approach to the “infidel” states of the West. Thousands of citizens from Western countries live in Saudi Arabia, in well-fortified compounds that protect their families. These extreme measures of protection reflect the constantly widening gulf between the local population and the foreign guests.
Few observers of the Middle East scene are actually taking a good hard look at the situation in Saudi Arabia and examining coolly the terrifying scenarios, one of which might ensue. Some believe that there is a real danger that extremist religious figures will seize power in Saudi Arabia and establish an “Al-Qaida state” in Riyadh. Others note that the national identification of large numbers of the country’s population with the Saudi entity is feeble and that their main attachment is tribal or local-regional. Thus, a revolutionary situation might cause the disintegration of the state and the creation of parallel regimes in various regions of the kingdom.
In a visit to the United States two weeks ago, I was told by several well-informed observers that should one of the more severe scenarios come to pass, the United States will have no choice but to deepen its presence in the Middle East. To that end, it will have to renew the draft, to ensure that there are enough forces to deal with developing situations in countries like Saudi Arabia.
Superpower in the `neighborhood’
From being a superpower that exerts a potent influence in the Middle East, the United States has become a player that is present in the region. Its pattern of activity in Iraq illustrates not only the determination of President Bush to act consistently to realize his policy in Baghdad. There is a good possibility that Iraq will not be the last country in the region that will require a lengthy American military presence. The U.S. campaign in Iraq was perceived as a signal of long-term American commitment to do whatever is required and to stay in the “neighborhood” for as long as needed. It was none other than Martin Indyk, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel, who not long ago raised the idea of establishing an American trusteeship regime in the areas of the Palestinian Authority, if it should turn out that the Palestinians are not ripe for self-rule. That arrangement would require an American operational military presence along Israel’s border with the Palestinian territories.
The shapers of the basic political approach of the Bush administration say that the United States plans “to be in the area” for as long as 10 years and more, if needed. Speaking in a semi-closed forum during a visit to Israel a few months ago, Bill Kristol, one of the most influential “neocons” (neoconservatives) in the United States, noted in this connection that the American presence in Europe after World War II lasted for nearly 60 years. Israelis who are trying to promote a role for NATO in the region, in one form or another, are actually promoting a generation-long American presence.”
Sounds great so far, what else?
“In the light of the accumulated weight of all the developments cited above, it is possible that the favorable surprise of the years ahead will be nothing less than the containment of Iran and the neutralization of the danger it poses to Israel – without Israel’s having to consider whether to cope alone in the face of what it justly construes as the potential of a genuine existential threat.”
Potential Existential Threats everywhere beware! The U.S. is on its way to protect Israel from you. At least until we go bankrupt.
