Doug Lorimer
As former US treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recently confirmed, Washington's post-9/11 "war on terror" was a coldly calculated conspiracy by the administration of US President George Bush, begun from its first week in office, to conquer Iraq, take control of its oil resources and restructure the entire Middle East in accordance with US corporate interests.
The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks provided Bush with a much-needed pretext to launch its war drive. It also provided the Bush regime with a pretext for terrorising domestic dissent.
Ostensibly targeted against the organisers of the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration launched a dizzying flood of near-daily edicts, executive orders and "rule changes" to gut the constitutional protections of the American people's rights to free speech, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, and a fair and speedy trial.
At the end of October 2001, with the support of an overwhelming majority of Democrat and Republican politicians, US Congress passed the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USAPATRIOT) Act.
It legalised secret searches of citizens and non-citizens alike, without probable cause, without notification, and without any relationship to "terrorist" investigations; expanded detention of immigrants, without hearing and potentially for life, based on vague assertions by the US attorney general; allowed expansive email and internet snooping; and it expanded secret access to people's personal and professional records, including medical records, bank records, credit histories, drug tests and hair and DNA samples.
The act also legalised expanded government powers to spy on and prosecute political protesters, dissenters and organisations.
The passage of the USAPATRIOT Act was followed by a wave of massive "voluntary" round-ups and secret detentions of thousands of mainly Arab immigrants and Arab-American citizens. Americans were encouraged to spy on their neighbours and urged to "watch what they say". There were promises of expedited citizenship for immigrants who acted as stool pigeons. Students, professors and media reporters who spoke out against the US invasion of Afghanistan were harassed and disciplined.
It is now possible in the US for a person to be jailed without charge and to be held secretly — and, potentially, indefinitely — without ever being informed of the evidence against them; to be presumed guilty until proven innocent and be denied a defence lawyer.
Domestic dissent
In December 2001, Bush's attorney-general John Ashcroft made it clear that the "war on terror" involves extensive targeting of "domestic religious and political groups". In testimony before a US Senate subcommittee, Ashcroft declared: "[T]o those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: your tactics aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies, and pause to America's friends."
Bush himself was even more explicit in affirming that the government's aim was to terrorise domestic political dissent. On January 6, 2002, Bush told an audience that anyone "who espouses a philosophy that's terrorist and bent, I assure you we will bring that person to justice".
In congressional testimony given in May 2001 — four months before 9/11 — FBI director Louis Freeh indicated just what US government officials meant by "a philosophy that's terrorist and bent". Describing the FBI's targets, Freeh stated: "The second category of domestic terrorists, left-wing groups, generally profess a revolutionary socialist doctrine and view themselves as protectors of the people against the 'dehumanising effects' of capitalism and imperialism. They aim to bring about change in the United States through revolution rather than through the established political process."
The FBI's targets for surveillance and intimidation go far beyond "left-wing groups" that "profess a revolutionary socialist doctrine".
In October 2001, for example, a 60-year-old retired phone company worker in San Francisco received a visit from the FBI after expressing his opinion while at the local gym. According to the January 8, 2002, Christian Science Monitor, Barry Reingold in a conversation had stated: "Bush has nothing to be proud of. He is a servant of the big oil companies and his only interest in the Middle East is oil." A fellow weightlifter found the comment to be "disloyal". He called in the tip, and the FBI investigated Reingold as a potential terrorist. (In cases like Reingold's, even if the tip is "discarded", the FBI still opens and maintains a file on the "suspect".)
"Across the US, growing numbers of Americans are facing similar interrogations — apparently, they say, because they have criticised the government, President Bush, or the war on terrorism", the Monitor reported. It recounted how a small Houston art gallery was investigated for "anti-American activity" by FBI agents when it opened an exhibit called "Secret Wars" on US government covert operations.
In another example, the Monitor reported how a community college student in North Carolina was grilled for 40 minutes by two Secret Service agents and a local police officer after a tip that she had "un-American material" in her apartment. They took particular note of a poster of George Bush holding a noose. It read: "We hang on your every word", referring to Bush's unflinching support of the death penalty when he was governor of Texas.
Anti-war movement
The New York Times reported on November 23 that the FBI "has collected extensive information on the tactics, training and organisation of anti-war demonstrators and has advised local law enforcement officials to report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism squads".
"The FBI is dangerously targeting Americans who are engaged in nothing more than lawful protest and dissent", American Civil Liberties Union's executive director Anthony Romero told the NYT. "The line between terrorism and legitimate civil disobedience is blurred... What the FBI regards as potential terrorism strikes me as civil disobedience."
In November 2002, the Bush administration set up a Department of Homeland Security to oversee 22 federal government agencies. With 170,000 employees and a budget in 2003-04 of US$36.2 billion, the ostensible purpose of the DHS is to stop terrorist attacks within the US. In reality, DHS head Tom Ridge has been working to create a vast electronic policing system in which the activities and beliefs of millions of ordinary US citizens and visitors to the country can be tracked.
Two key components of this system are the Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program and the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening (CAPPS) program.
Under the US-VISIT program, which began to be implemented on January 5, visitors from all but 27 countries, arriving at 115 airports and 14 seaports (up to 24 million people a year), will be fingerprinted and photographed.
Under the CAPPS program, airlines will be required to turn over to the US government each passenger's reservation data, including name, date of birth, address, telephone number and travel itinerary. This data will be fed into an electronic database.
The US Transportation Security Administration will give each passenger a colour-coded security rating — green for normal screening, yellow for extra searches and red for not being allowed to fly. In addition, "red" passengers may be subject to police interrogation and possible arrest.
From Green Left Weekly, January 28, 2004.
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