|
CounterPunch
November
23, 2002
Rough Beast
Slouching
The Birth of an American Tyranny
by CHRIS FLOYD
We've said it before, and we'll keep on saying
it: A country whose leader has the power to imprison any citizen
whatsoever, on his order alone, and hold them indefinitely, in
military custody, without access to the courts, without a lawyer,
without any charges, their fate determined solely by the leader's
arbitrary whim--that country is a tyranny, not a democracy, not
a republic, not a union of free citizens.
Now it may be that it is still a tyranny
in utero, a rough beast slouching toward Bethlehem--or
in this case, Washington--to be born, and not yet the full-blown
monster, fangs bared and back plated with bristling armored scales.
But the tyranny has been conceived, it's taken root in the womb,
gained definite form and is clawing, tearing its way toward the
light.
President George W. Bush openly claims
that he now holds this power of arbitrary arrest and imprisonment.
His minions defend it with earnest arguments. They have already
begun acting on its dictatorial tenets. If this claim is not
rejected by the other two branches of government--an unlikely
event, with both branches now held by Bush partisans--then the
fundamental liberty of every American citizen will have been
stripped away finally and completely. Henceforth, liberty is
not the inalienable right of the citizen, but a privilege
granted--or not--by an autocratic government.
What we are witnessing is the mutation
of a democratic republic into a military autocracy: Bush bases
his claim of arbitrary power on the president's constitutional
role as commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces. Although
there is nothing in the constitution that warrants the extension
of military command to cover arbitrary rule over the entire citizenry,
and certainly nothing that countenances the abrogation of basic
rights and liberties on the unchallengeable say-so of an all-powerful
leader, the "commander-in-chief" argument nevertheless
serves a useful purpose for the autocrat, creating the illusion
of a limited and temporary suspension of liberties--a drastic
but necessary "wartime" measure.
But Bush and his officials have already
warned us that this "wartime emergency" might never
end. A direct quote from the commander-in-chief: "There's
no telling how many wars it will take to secure freedom in the
homeland." The other branches concur in this militarization
of American society. Citing a political landscape "changed
by war," the new head of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
Republican John Warner, says he wants to "break down the
barriers"--the constitutional barriers--that restrict the
military's involvement in civilian life. The Chief Justice, William
Rehnquist, whose Supreme Court stands as the last defense against
the dictatorship of the executive branch, has already signaled
his public approval of military rule, quoting the old Roman maxim:
"In time of war, the laws are silent."
So if the wars never cease raging, the
laws will no longer speak. Or rather, they will speak only to
ratify the will of the authoritarian regime. Just this week,
a "special" appeals court--a secret panel operating
outside the ordinary judicial system--upheld the right of the
state to invade the privacy of any citizen through expanded wiretap
and surveillance powers, Reuters reports. These invasions no
longer need meet the already-lax standards previously required
for domestic surveillance, but can now proceed virtually at the
whim of the federal forces, even without any direct connection
to suspected terrorist or espionage activity.
The "special" court is a three-judge
board made up of appointees from the Reagan-Bush administration,
chosen for this secret duty by that obedient Roman, William Rehnquist.
It overturned a lower-court ruling that curbed surveillance powers
after documenting 75 cases of their abuse by federal agents in
both the Clinton and Bush II administrations. However, Attorney
General John Ashcroft--whose agents will carry out most of the
secret investigations--said this week that the government will
not "overstep its legal bounds" with the new, broader
powers. And indeed, with a "silent" high court and
a supine legislature willing to lend an air of legitimacy to
any action of the ruling junta--hijacking a presidential election,
imprisoning citizens without charge, waging aggressive war--no
doubt Ashcroft is right. There are no longer any "legal
bounds" to overstep.
Bush's dictatorial powers of arrest and
imprisonment are only part of an unprecedented expansion of militarized
state power into every aspect of American life, coupled with
an unprecedented level of secrecy surrounding government activity.
These changes are meant to be permanent--and they are meant to
remain under the control of the Bush Regime and likeminded successors.
It is absurd to believe that Bush, Cheney and the rest of the
junta are constructing this vast machinery of dominance only
to risk turning it over to any political adversary who genuinely
opposed empire, plutocracy and rule by a privileged elite.
It is equally absurd to believe that
these new, unconstrained powers will not be abused. The very
fact of their assertion is itself an abuse, a perversion of the
freedoms that Bush has sworn--falsely--to uphold. They are a
far greater threat to the foundations of American liberty than
even the most horrendous attack by murderous criminals. No foreign
terrorist can strip the entire American system of its basic freedoms--the
inviolability of the citizen, the right to due process, the constitutional
separation of powers, the people's right to know what their government
is doing in their name.
Only an American tyrant can do
that. And he is doing it, day by day.
Yesterday's
Features
Jason Leopold
Secrets
and Lies:
Bush, Cheney and the Great Rip-Off of California Ratepayers
Ali Moayedian
Letter
from Ayatollah Ashcroft to His CounterPart Ayatollah Shahroudi
of Iran
William MacDougal
Heroes and Villains:
The Sun, Saddam and the Fire Strike
Carol Norris
Secret
Burial for the Bill of Rights
4th Amendment R.I.P
Mark Hand
From Wal-Mart to Proudhon
Michael Neumann
Reflections
on Kant and Moral Equivalence
Philip Farruggio
The Dagger of Futility
Michael Rossman
The Betrayal
of Lenny Glaser
Michael Rossman
The Free Speech Movement & the Rossman Report:
A Memoir of Making History
New
Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- CounterPunch Special:
The Persecution of Gershon Legman by Susan Davis: Smut, the Post Office, Commies
and the FBI;
- Reeling Democrats: Is Pelosi the Answer?
- Gandhi v. Hitler: the Secret Race for the Nobel
Prize;
- Sullying Mario Savio's
Memory;
- Lynching Then and Now;
- Earn While You Learn: Chris Whittle and Child Labor;
The Case of the Pompous
Professor;
- The Class Struggle in
Boston: All that
Effort, But What Did They Get?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
November 14,
2002
Edward Said
Europe vs.
America
Todd May
The Ironies of History
Paul de Rooij
US Aid to Israel
Feeding the Cuckoo
Ben Sonnenberg
Vertov's
Man With a Movie Camera
Gadi Algazi and Azmi Bdeir
Transfer's Real Nightmare
Martin van
Creveld
Sharon's Last Option
Walter Brasch
Scoring the US/Iraq War
Michael S.
Ladah
The Burning Sails of Baghdad
Don Moniak
An Open Letter on the Augusta Golf
Course Campaign
George Fletcher
Is the UN Security Council Vote on Iraq Illegal?
Ralph Nader
A Tribute to Wellstone
Adam Engel
Mannahatta!
(A Tale of Two Cities)
Bernard, Engel, Dailey, St.
Clair
Poets' Basement
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|