Discuss on Forum

Home

 

8/19/2004  Why the US is rapidly becoming a Police State

"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."  President George W Bush.

I post this because I want to show that I do not make unsupported claims.  Please take the time to read it.  I took the time to research and write it.  Thank you. 

 “A state regulated by means of a national police force having secret supervision and control of the activities of citizens. Also attrib.”   Oxford English Dictionary.

 “a country that maintains repressive control over the people by means of police (especially secret police)”  Cognitive Science Laboratory, Princeton University

 These definitions, while hauntingly reminiscent of life in today’s USA, they pale in comparison to the next definition.  I will give you the entire definition verbatim and then endeavor to support each point.

“Police state

A police state is a political condition where the government maintains strict control over society, particularly through suspension of civil rights and often with the use of a force of secret police. This implies that the control by the government contradicts the will of the people being controlled. Thus, a police state is inherently anti-democratic. It is similar to martial law.

 

The definitive literary treatment of a police state is George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which describes a totalitarian régime that uses the excuse of constant war to permit police and security cameras to surveil the entire population.

 

Until the fall of the Berlin Wall, a classic modern police state was East Germany, or the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The country's secret police force, the Stasi (or Ministerium für Staatssicherheit) maintained an incredibly close watch over East German citizens, to the point where virtually every residential building, place of employment or place of leisure was home to at least one Stasi informant.”  WordIQ.com

Proof:

“…political condition where the government maintains strict control over society, particularly through the suspension of civil rights…”

President Bush has used a 1942 decision by the Supreme Court as a basis for suspending the civil liberties of those deemed enemy combatants.  He has used this to support his claim that enemy combatants (even US citizens that have been declared as such) can be held indefinitely without trial or access to courts.

Though the same court recently changed part of his plan, the part about indefinite detention, they let pass his methods for declaring a person “enemy combatant” and the method of trying that person. 

In the 1942 decision the court goes so far as to say “military tribunals are not courts in the sense of the Judiciary Article [of the Constitution].  Rather, they are the military's administrative bodies to determine the guilt of declared enemies, and pass judgment.”  (Williams)

This means that the Commander in Chief as head of the military has final judgment regarding a prisoner that he has already declared to be an enemy combatant.  He has the authority to pass judgment on his own decisions.

Senator Lott made a mild but ominous statement regarding the suspension of civil liberties.   "When you are at war, civil liberties are treated differently."  (Bolick)

“…and often with the use of a force of secret Police.”

By the very nature of a secret police force you cannot prove its existence.  However you can see the methods that are being used.  The most prominent of these is the so-called “sneak and peek” warrants that have been discussed so thoroughly in the press of late. 

These warrants are issues by a secret court with dubious oversight.  “Over the last two decades the FISA process has occurred largely in secret. Clearly, specific investigations must be kept secret, but even the basic facts about the FISA process have been resistant to sunlight. The law interpreting FISA has been developed largely behind closed doors. The Justice Department and FBI personnel who prepare the FISA applications work behind closed doors.  Though cannot prove existence of secret police…FISA court is real” (Leahy)

“This implies that the control by the government contradicts the will of the people being controlled.”

Simple logic describes this section clearly.  Governmental control, such as that described in the previous sections does exist.  My will is not to be controlled in such a manner.  Therefore the control asserted by the government contradicts my will.

“Thus, a police state is inherently anti-democratic.”

Do I really need to rehash the catastrophe that was the 2000 election?  Replete with fraud, disenfranchisement and incompetence, it was conducted in a clearly anti-democratic way.

“…literary treatment…which describes a totalitarian regime that uses the excuse of constant war to permit police and security cameras to surveil the entire population.”

Since 9/11 we have been subjected to numerous “Orange Alerts” and a quagmire in Iraq.  All in an effort to control the populous by fear mongering.  Fear is one of the most effective and best methods of controlling a citizenry.  Just look at the 3^rd Reich for a prime example. 

“A war on terrorism is a permanent engagement against an always-available tool."  - Ronald Spiers, a retired diplomat who served as US ambassador to Turkey and Pakistan and as Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence.

Even president bush sees no end in sight to the “War on Terror” (Greider)

“…to the point where virtually every residential building, place of employment or place of leisure was home to at least one Stasi informant.”

Every citizen is now being asked to spy on each other.  A recent example reported by NPR shows how your doorman will be spying on you.  “In New York City, police won't be the only ones in uniform keeping an eye out for terrorists. A new initiative is training the city's residential doormen to spot suspicious people and packages, including those among their own tenants.” (NPR)

Our dutiful attorney general is sure doing his part to make sure you are being watched. 

“Ashcroft planned Operation TIPS, which would have encouraged citizens to spy on each other. He rewrote guidelines allowing the FBI to attend every worship service, political demonstration, and public gathering, enter every Internet chat room, and look at commercial records that reveal an individual’s buying preferences and travel and Internet records. All this information can now be gathered by the government whether or not there is any evidence of criminal behavior by the individual.”  (Allen)  

Bibliography.  (I hate them too, but the info is there.  Obviously I didn't follow format.  Screw format)

Heritage Foundation

Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties in Wartime

by The Honorable Frank J. Williams
Heritage Lecture #834

National Review Online

Clint Bolick, vice-president of the Washington-based Institute for Justice. September 18, 2001 8:45 a.m.

 

Senator Leahey

United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
The USA PATRIOT Act In Practice:

September 10, 2002

 

National Public Radio

All things considered, Aug 16, 2004

 

“Freedom of the Mind Threatened by War” (special to the Bangor Daily News, 5/17-18/03) by U.S. Representative Tom Allen
May 17, 2003

The Nation Under the Banner of the 'War' on Terror by William Greider Posted June 3, 2004

 

Have you spotted a "Hidden Truth?"  Email me

  hthiddentruth@yahoo.com