by Larry C. Johnson (bio below)
Do you think that John Yoo, the guy who authored the Department of Justice memo justifiying torture, believes that pedophilia is okay as long as the President believes it is necessary to save the nation? That my friends, as absurd as it sounds, is the thrust of the logic underpining the arguments Woo and his buddies are making. Their assault on the traditional conservative view that the power of Federal Government should be limited is truly frightening. In the name of saving the nation they insist that international accords against torture and inhumane treatment no longer apply. They are also on board for holding American citizens in prison indefinitely without a chance to confront their accusers in court. If it is done in the name of “national security” it is okay.
It is too bad that the term “fascism” is such a hot button term, because it is a word that appears to accurately define Woo’s views on Presidential supremacy. I guess we are resigned to labeling him a neo-conservative imperialist, because he believes that the President’s status as the Commander in Chief grants an inherent manifest destiny to wield unbridled power.
Joining Woo’s war wagon are David Rivkin and Lee Casey, who write in an op-ed in today’s NY Times that the President can collect foreign intelligence, even in the United States, without worrying himself about pesky laws and bureaucratic hurdles.
How do they justify this? Because they believe in the myth that we live in a “new day and age” where the threats move so fast we can’t be troubled with legal contraints. According to Rivkin and Casey,
Although the administration could have sought such warrants, it chose not to for good reasons. The procedures under the surveillance act are streamlined, but nevertheless involve a number of bureaucratic steps. Furthermore, the FISA court is not a rubber stamp and may well decline to issue warrants even when wartime necessity compels surveillance. More to the point, the surveillance act was designed for the intricate “spy versus spy” world of the cold war, where move and countermove could be counted in days and hours, rather than minutes and seconds. It was not drafted to deal with the collection of intelligence involving the enemy’s military operations in wartime, when information must be put to immediate use.
I realize that Yoo is a relative youngster and was barely able to legally drink when the Soviet Union collapsed and does not remember the Cold War, but what is Rivkin’s excuse? Amnesia? … continued below …
The “neo-conservative imperialists” live in a fantasy world where terrorism is the most deadly, horrific threat we have ever faced. Heavens, it is far worse than anything we faced back in the good old days of the Cold War. Yes sir, we only had thousands of nuclear tipped missiles on a hair trigger pointed at each other. Let’s not forget the B-52s that were aloft with bombs in their bellies. Goodness gracious, that’s not the kind of threat that requires quick action or fail safe communication system, such as a “hotline” is it?
It would help if we could put the threat of terrorism in a proper historical perspective rather than create a fantasy land of fear. While there is no denying that the radical Muslims would like to cause us great harm, they do not have an air force with long range bombers nor do they have an armada of aircraft carriers. They also do not have submarines armed with submarine launched ballistic missiles. Their ability to attack us is greatly constrained. Even if they get their hands on one or two nuclear devices, they face significant obstacles delivering them. Let’s not ignore this threat, but neither should we surrender our civil rights to it just because we’re afraid.
Yet, night after night we are confronted with some thick headed TV reporters and pundits who repeat the nonsense that because the threat is new spying is justified. Enough already! We can accept the fact that terrorism is a threat that must be taken seriously but it should not be employed as an excuse to pursue any activity that is cloaked in the aura of “security”. If we use the fear of terrorism to excuse torture and permanent imprisonment then we are only a hop-skip-and-a-jump to making sex with children okay as long as the President believes it will keep us safe from Osama.
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Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm that helps corporations and governments manage threats posed by terrorism and money laundering. Mr. Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism (as a Deputy Director), is a recognized expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk management. Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, ABC’s Nightline, NBC’s Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for publications, including Security Management Magazine, the New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and aviation security around the world. Further bio details.
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You ask:
“Do you think that John Yoo, the guy who authored the Department of Justice memo justifiying torture, believes that pedophilia is okay as long as the President believes it is necessary to save the nation?”
Be careful what questions you ask.
You might get some answers that you do not want to hear.
There are those who say…and not just a bunch of low IQ conspiracy theorists, either, simply people who are free enough of the media conditioning under which we all live today to be able to think outside of its subconsciously applied constraints…those who say that there are people who are allied with BushCo and the right in general believe that pedophilia (plus ritual sex, torture…see Abu Ghraib for more on that… and murder as well) are not only “okay” but absolutely necssary to the culmination of their plans.
“Oh look, dear…another nut!!!”
Well, before you get off nutting on me, please go take a look at the blog Rigorous Intuition”, a blog the subtitle of which reads “What you don’t know can’t hurt them.” Scroll down on the right of the site to a section titled “The Military-Occult Complex, ritual abuse/mind control, and ‘High Weirdness’.” A section that examines much more of what our own frontpager Col. Patrick Lang so briefly and tantalizingly mentioned in his recent post The Propaganda of the Word as “various strange studies ” that were funded by the armed forces in the ’70s and then supposedly terminated. But, as Col. Lang goes on to say, this “tendency survived in the persons of several officers who have risen to high rank. Some have been high officials in the counter-terrorism and homeland defense fields. Some are now major media figures and others officials of the Department of Defense, but outside the “mainstream” of the Army.”
Scroll down on Rigorous Intuition and read what has been written there. Take some names and go run with them. Go to search engines and do your own research. Find out about the intersections between and among Aleister Crowley, L. Ron Hubbard, the Moon Church and representatives of various defense and intel agencies. Look at the rumors of strange goings on in Republican occupied White Houses. Among high level Republican hustlers in AND out of the White House. Think about what the Guckert/Gannon thing MIGHT have been. Try to find a better explanation for the totally anti-human careers of people like Adof Hitler, Henry Kissinger, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Please. Give me a BETTER explanation than what might be called a sort of Satanism to explain how human beings could act in a manner so consistently contrary to what might be considered the best interests of the human race over an entire career.
Please.
Enlighten me.
Because I can’t find one, and I do not like the place where not being able to do so leaves me.
“What Next? Pedophilia?”
What if it is not only not “next”, but old news?
If of course our news system was functional.
Be careful what questions you ask.
You may not like the answers.
Consider this.
What if the Islamic fundamentalist saying “The Great Satan” is not religious hyperbole but instead a matter of fact statement of one way of looking at things?
Remember…if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and has cloven hooves and a forked tongue…it is NOT a duck.
It is the Great Duck of Death.
DUCK!!!
AG
Did you ever notice any similarity in style between JG/JG and Jeffrey Goldberg?
In response to Arthur Gilroy. It is my opinoin that all that is happening in Iraq is intentional.
Iraq is becoming a fundamentalist nation, the Kurds are separating and the Shiites will soon turn their Badr militia and other militas including the vaunted Iraqi Army against the United States. This leaves the US and the Insurgents fighting together unless…the US attack Iran first. Iran supports the Shiite American installed government. It’s all convoluted madness.
It is the intentional madness of George Bush and others who are simplly very distrubed people who are trying to destroy the United States. It doesn’t have to exist at a concious level for them. It’s there. Look at what they have done or allowed to happen. Rape, torture, kindapping, use of chemical weapons …all the things they accuse others like Sadaam of having done.
It’s what they want. It’s their desire.
They can’t be allowed to continue becasuse Bush is hallucinatory and hears voices from God. I am afraid they are telling him to destroy everyone and everytiung. If there was ever an Anit Christ of recent times it’s george Bush.
I’ve been trying to get folks to talk about this for quite a while now. I think it’s safe to say they’re more likely to listen when you say it.
Besides historical perspective, some honest realism would be good too. I don’t thnik many of us believe there are absolute right and wrong in every situation. Sometimes the lesser of two evils is the best choice overall. We don’t need to compound legend with more lies to understand a threat exists. We could do a lot better with a sense of trust and credibility.
Thanks
In 1976 I had a friend whose home had twice been the target of terorist attacks. We used to go there and hang out almost every single day. We all knew that it could happen again.
And indeed it did happen one more time. I was there that evening. Two or three minutes earlier I was standing no more than three feet from where the bomb was placed.
Once the building was repaired, we continue hanging ot there until the family moved. The point is that you cannot live in fear.
I sincerely admire that attitude in the face of uncontrollable circumstances. I’m sorry for anyone who has to endure that in life. I haven’t but I can empathise as best as possible. I’d like to think I’d be the same way but we never know for sure what we’ll do until the situation is upon us. I’m just at a loss to all of the hatred and deliberate infliction of suffering in the world.
Back in those days, in your environment, were you and your circle of friends able to know who, what and why those attacks were happening?
The official story was that the armed organization Montoneros were the responsible of the bombing. However, after they were out of power it became known that the military would commit a terrorist act, and blame the left. This served to further justify the dictatorship. (coincidently it was the same technique used in Iran at the time of the Sha which was inspired by the CIA)
A few years later, I was invited to a party just across my friends house. The owner was a high ranking officer (since he had bodyguards at the door). My conclusion was that this officer got sick and tired of hearing the loud music (and the type of music eg: Pink Floyd King Crimson etc whichthey HATED)and they commited those terrorists acts to scare them and force them to move. In addition, as soon as we came out of the building, I started swering at whoever put the bomb, and one of the bodyguards threatened to arrest me if I didn’t shut up
Yeah, I can understand all the different forces at work there. I sure don’t condone them but I can see how things work. Damn,..I think maybe Floyd put ’em over the edge. We’ve always had similar but different forces at work here. There’s always just a few degrees of seperation between a neighbor and a government employee. If someone gets a grudge for even a simple misunderstanding, the pressure comes down from the govt even when it’s wrong. We have plenty of code enforcement officers that take it too far and run people out of their own homes. Not the same as bombs, I know, but the govt or individuals in power abuse that trust that’s placed in them.
Consider this: Does the President have the power to disolve Congress in the name of National Security?
And if Congress does invetigate the NSA’s Spy-gate, will he consider doing that???
Or, Will he set the Constitution on fire if it becomes a “threat” to National Security???
Like I said many times: This is a dictatorship, without a formal dictatorship.And I should know, since I live most of my life under dictatorships.
Consider this:
Just like in your country of origin…in everyone’s country of origin, truth be told…the leaders have whatever power the military allows them to have.
Or have not.
“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” … Mao Zedong
Yup.
On ALL sides of the equation.
AG
Or, the military have the power that we allow them to have.
Right after the Malvinas/Falkland war,the People was so pist off with the military, that they would call our 911, report a crime and when the police would arrive there were snipped by several individuals who would then vanish into the air. It was generalized and the military got the message: leave or there will be a civil war. They left power within a month
THIS military/civilian relationship is different than the one you describe.
On any NUMBER of levels.
But the most important one is this. The American people have been mythologized within an inch of their lives about “the military”. All except the really poor and the recently arrived…usually the same thing here except in the case of the Black and Native American populations.
And when that sort of situation DID arise in the ghettoes of the U.S.,,,and believe me, it did…it was squashed by either massive, overt military force (Watts riots, others…) or covert operations such as assassinations and drug epidemics.
Y’see.,..the truth of the matter is that the U.S. is MUCH better at imperialism…even within its own borders…than any other nation has EVER been.
Much less forthright and much, MUCH more able to spin hearts and minds.
We do not need all that many desaparecidos compared to the total population, because we have “disappeared” the MINDS of said population in a fog of advertising and spin.
“BRILLIANT!!!”
SO much less…messy, don’tcha know.
So it goes…
AG
Where are the rest of the Abu Ghraib photos? The ones showing boys being raped?
As I recall, a court had ordered the release of these by a dateline which by now must have passed.
Is the Pentagon defying the court?
Great, great Q. Where indeed.
(And, dammit, I think that the New Yorker has them too but won’t release them… If I were with the New Yorker, I’d be willing to face down Rummy to show those photos. ‘course, the reason the NYorker gave for not publishing them was that it might be too much for their readers’ sensibilities. Give me a break.)
I’ve noticed some trends in some New Yorker authors that have elements of the NYTimes problems. It’s more apparent when looking back with hindsight.
Our dictator has now the power to circunvent our freedom of expresion.
Those photos threaten our National Security.Imagine what would happen if Iraqis decide to imitate our soldiers and beggin to rape them, film them and then post it in the internet…dont ask, dont tell…
the inimitable rude pundit:
Rape David Brooks To Save America
That’s all well and good for the President but I’d still stop the wiretapsurveillance stopped regardless of what he decides for Brooks.
That rude mind is beyond description. Thanks for the link.
There it is…
But of course…that only holds if David Brooks is some kind oiif enemy of America.
And who would say THAT????
Of course.,..he DOES work for the same NY Times that employed Judith Miller to blast up the war in Iraq and then defended her to the bitter end when she was exposed and a government mole, but…what the hell.
They can’t be ALL bad over there at the good grey whore, can they?
CAN they?
AG
Well around the time of Abu Ghraib there were a few stories of young girls being sexually assaulted while in US detention. But thats all gone quiet now.
It’s Yoo, not Woo.
sounds nicer, don’t you think?
In some news articles it goes into detail as to how Italian officials tracked the 21-22 agents in the illegal abduction by tracking their cell phone. Authorities said the basic precaution of not removing the battery allowed them to document nearly all movements. Was this carelessness or part of the plan?
The correct word for what Yoo advocates is ‘tyranny’. This is an old word that went out of fashion when it was superseded by ‘fascism’, a term invented by fascists to mask the fact the fact that they were introducing tyranny. It’s an old word, well-defined, and accurately represents the core ideal of the Bush administration. Machiavelli’s description of that type of government is as good as any, probably better than most: lawless government.
I’m tempted to mail it to yoo@law.berkeley.edu
but fear I’m already on his shit list.
So many shit lists, so little time, eh?