Naomi Wolf: A "Paper Coup," and Blackwater Eyes Midtown Manhattan

[babylonsister]

I think it's pretty clear this country is rapidly turning into a police state. But will anyone do something about it?


A "Paper Coup," and Blackwater Eyes Midtown Manhattan
Naomi Wolf
Posted November 4, 2007 | 04:58 PM (EST)

I have argued that in the closing stages of a `fascist shift', events cascade. I am hearing about them, even across the globe. Here in Australia I hear from the nation's best-know feminist activist, and former adviser to Paul Keating, Anne Summers, who was also at the time this took place Chair of the Board of Greenpeace International. Summers was detained by armed agents for FIVE HOURS each way in LAX on her way to and from the annual meeting of the board of Greenpeace International in Mexico, and her green card was taken away from her. `I want to call a lawyer', she told TSA agents. `Ma'am, you do not have a right to call an attorney,' they replied. `You have not entered the United States.'

Apparently a section of LAX just beyond the security line is asserted to be `not in the United States' -- though it is squarely inside the airport -- so the laws of the US do not apply. (This assertion, by the way, should alarm any US citizen who is aware of how the White House argued that Guantanamo is not `in the United States' - is a legal no-man's land -- so the laws of the US do not apply.) Toward the end of her second five-hour detention she asked, `Why am I being detained?' `Lady, this is not detention,' the TSA agent told her. `Detention is when I take you to the cells out back and lock you up.'

Last week in Boston, while attending Bioneers by the Bay, I heard that one of the speakers for our event, an environmentalist named Gunter Pauli, was going to miss the time of his scheduled speech; he had been physically taken OFF THE PLANE by TSA agents and had to take a much later flight. More chillingly, the camerawoman doing my interview said that another well-known environmental writer found that his girlfriend was effectively `disappeared' for three days as she sought to enter the US from Canada. Lisa Fithian, an anti-globalization activist, was denied entry across the Canadian border in 2001 and was offered the choice of turning back or being arrested.

A friend emails me a story from USA Today about a 24-year-old college graduate who testified before Congress about her family of immigrants and the difficulties they face; shortly afterward, the entire family was arrested by immigration agents. Another online piece reports that Blackwater is setting up operations along the US/Mexico border and an insightful post on Daily Kos describes how the TSA list will revert from the airlines to the management of the Department of Homeland Security shortly and that by February we may well face the need to apply to the State for permission to travel. If this proposed regulation goes through, we will move from 1931 to about 1934--when the borders started to close-- with the stroke of a pen. Jews in America have hardwired into their DNA a sense of the distinction between those who got out before the borders closed and those who waited a moment too long.

Why should Congress impeach and prosecute this instant, not waiting till February? Why should this impeachment and prosecution be solidly bipartisan? After February it is the leaders on both sides of the aisle -- and the people writing these essays -- who are at most risk of being turned back at the border. People who can't leave in a police state are effectively silenced. And history shows that Republicans are at the exact same risk as Democrats of being violently silenced once liberties are lost. I am reading about IBM's close, profitable involvement with Nazi Germany -- much akin to Prescott Bush's well-documented close and profitable involvement with Nazi Germany through German industrialist, Fritz Thyssen. Right up to the top of the solidly Nazi hierarchy of the IBM affiliate, corporate executives were terrified of taking a wrong step in the eyes of the Party: `There are concentration camps', they would whisper to their US backers. The teenage son of one solid Nazi ally was taken hostage when he resisted Party orders. So alignment with the regime in a police state offers no ultimate protection.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/a-paper-coup-and-black_b_71067.html

[seemslikeadream]

1. the darkness of your blindness the beast will learn to bite

Song of Choice
Early every year the seeds are growing
Unseen, unheard they lie beneath the ground
Would you know before their leaves are showing
That with weeds all your garden will abound?

If you close your eyes, stop your ears
Shut your mouth then how can you know ?
For seeds you cannot hear may not be there
Seeds you cannot see may never grow

In January you've still got the choice
You can cut the weeds before they start to bud
If you leave them to grow high they'll silence your voice
And in December you may pay with your blood

So close your eyes, stop your ears,
Shut your mouth and take it slow
Let others take the lead and you bring up the rear
And later you can say you didn't know

Every day another vulture takes flight
There's another danger born every morning
In the darkness of your blindness the beast will learn to bite
How can you fight if you can't recognise a warning?

Today you may earn a living wage
Tomorrow you may be on the dole
Though there's millions going hungry you needn't disengage
For it's them, not you, that's fallen in the hole

It's alright for you if you run with the pack
It's alright if you agree with all they do



If fascism is slowly climbing back



It's not here yet so what's it got to do with you?

The weeds are all around us and they're growing
It'll soon be too late for the knife
If you leave them on the wind that around the world is blowing
You may pay for your silence with your life

So close your eyes, stop your ears,
Shut your mouth and never dare
And if it happens here they'll never come for you
Because they'll know you really didn't care

Peggy Seeger

[babylonsister]

3. Those words are haunting, and I'm afraid that's what's happening.

Will it be too late before what's going on is recognized for what it is?

[Warren Stupidity]

2. All those in denial need to start opening their eyes.

It is very real.

[annabanana]

4. This is a profoundly disturbing article.

Are there "foreign" zones at other airports? Places where we are refused the right to call an attorney?

[ixion]

5. you bet...anywhere were TSA or Customs sets up

at that point, you now have no rights whatsoever. Going through a security checkpoint or customs line, you can now be whisked away and not allowed contact with anyone, even your attorney, for any length of time. And in the end, there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Try and fight it, and you end up "strangling yourself" with your own handcuffs.

Some freedom, eh?

[reprobate]

6. Has anyone pointed this out to Pelosi and Reed? Those who abet treason practice treason.

As more of this shit goes down, I am forced to believe that our 'leaders' in the party had foreknowledge of what would happen. The only question that must be answered: was it blackmail and threats that kept them silent, or was it participation in the coup?

I'm afraid that this question will not be answered until the trials for treason are convened. If any remain true to the constitution.

[JohnyCanuck]

7. Others have issued the same warnings as Naomi Wolf

America 2007 is Germany 1930

By Norman Livergood

SNIP

How could Germans living under Hitler's National Socialism not have seen what it was? How did their lack of social and personal awareness make them blind to their reality?

How could Americans now possibly be living under a creeping dictatorship and not know it? And how could we not only not see a police state condition but actually think we're living in complete freedom?

Because most of us don't WANT to know what's going on. We've lost the ability to think critically about political, economic, and social dangers confronting us.

If we have a job--as most people did in Nazi Germany--if the political-economic system seems stable--as it does in America--then that's all we want to know.


To the Germans in Mayer's study, each occasion of Nazi violence was worse than the last, but only a little worse. So they waited for the one shocking event, thinking that they would join with others if or when it happened. But as the violence escalated, no one rose up to condemn the concentration camps and general oppression. No one wanted to act alone, and when a mass uprising failed to occur, the common people just let events take their course. They progressively lost the ability to understand the horror of Nazism and the will to oppose it.

Similarly, we don't see the growing fascism in America and the world because we don't want to see it and because it happens somewhat gradually, which makes it almost imperceptible to those who don't think critically. Everything in your society--Nazi Germany or twenty-first century America--seems so ordinary.

http://www.hermes-press.com/germany1930.htm

[oscarmitre]

8. I'm going to Toronto for a couple of months

I could fly via the US because it breaks the journey. But I've chosen to fly via Vancouver and then to TO. I've gone through San Francisco and O'Hare before but the last two times I've eschewed that, I don't need to be subjected to the bullshit in your airports. I probably won't bother to drive across the 49th either, I'll fly to the UK for a week or so. Pity, I like the States, got family and friends there. Maybe I'll make it in 2009 if things have improved. In the meantime, you're welcome to your very own gulag.

[babylonsister]

13. Don't blame us, oscarmitre, none of us authorized this crap. nt

[JohnyCanuck]

9. If you are a DUer and not yet on the No-fly List, how long before

your name will be added to all the others suspected of being promoters of terrorism?

From the article in the OP:
The White House recently announced that the Watch List and No-Fly List together have 775,000 citizens and that they are adding 20,000 A MONTH.

They have to get 20,000 names a month from somewhere.

[babylonsister]

10. I flew out of the country in August with no problems. I don't know, but

if I ever get stopped, I won't be totally surprised. Having said that, I don't have an arrest record. I wonder if they'd stop my travels for frequenting a message board? :shrug:

[JohnyCanuck]

16. Would they stop your travels for frequenting a message board?

Maybe not today, but give 'em another 5 years of unchecked power. Still, to be on the safe side it might be best not to post anything online that could be seen by Homeland Security's terrorist detection experts as being too critical of Dear Leader and his cronies, or at odds with his policies.

Travelers Beware: Homeland Security is Googling You

We've all undoubtedly heard the warnings about being careful about the information we put online, as well as the stories of potential employers and college admissions and coaches checking up on people online through Google and social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. But here's a new one for you: the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is also using this information to check up on individuals entering the country. "They" are watching you, and "they" know what you've been up to.

Andrew Feldman, a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor who's currently a psychotherapist in Vancouver, was recently detained for four hours, fingerprinted, and then barred entry into the United States after Homeland Security googled him and found an article he wrote in a literary and scientific journal in which he talked about using LSD and various other drugs in the 1960's. And even though he has no criminal record and says he hasn't used drugs since the 1970's, Feldmar must now get formal permission from the U.S. consul before entering the U.S.

Feldmar has been accustomed to visiting the U.S. about five or six times per year to visit his children, but last summer when he was pulled over for a random search, border patrol turned up online evidence that he had experimented with drugs for therapeutic research in the past.

Now nearly a year later, Feldmar has come to the conclusion that his banishment from the United States is permanent. He claims that the waiver process is exhausting, costly, and demeaning. His family and friends are devastated.

http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/3380

[The Doctor.]

20. Someone has to give them that info.

It would either have to be the admins, or the ISP you subscribe to.

I doubt it would be the Admins here.

[Jim__]

11. Will anyone do something about it?

What can you do? If you take a small political action, it's almost useless because the media will not report it. I'm not sure you can organize a large political action - I don't mean a march, I mean civil disobedience that effects people all over the country.

Meanwhile, we are just pushed a little further everyday.

[JohnyCanuck]

12. Here's a link to a short 10 minute video

in which investigative journalist John Buchanan explains the evidence he found in the US National Archives and the Library of Congress showing the financial ties between the Bush family and Germany Nazis. He also talks briefly about their involvement in the plot to overthrow FDR and implement a fascist dictatorship in the USA. This was the plot that was foiled when Marine Corps General Smedley Butler blew the whistle on it after he was approached by the traitors to take charge of the military aspect of the coup.

http://stoplying.ca/video/bush_family_history_with_hitler.htm

[snappyturtle]

14. This is a most succinct description of the Bush family to the Nazis

that I've ever seen. Thanks. Wish the entire OP was in the General Discussion forum too!

[MasonJar]

15. Impeach now; elect a dem later.

[katty]

17. Naomi calls it like IT IS-and HAS BEEN for some time

Many have observed, many have written the facts, editorials, but the difference is she is WRITING IT/SPEAKING IT: the truth of what has been happening and CONTINUES to happen. Pervez wakes up one day and decides to dismantle the Supreme Court in Pakistan and arrest every lawyer and layperson, but the fact remains that our United States government, our Constitution has been symstematically DISMANTLED-WHY ARE WE STILL LISTENING, PAYING THEM?

[KaryninMiami]

18. Link to Naomi speaking about the book and The End of America

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc

If you haven't experienced Naomi speaking, I strongly urge you to check this out- she's quite brilliant. Her book is available in a variety of places= please buy it and spread the word about it to your friends and family...
You can order it from Amazon or from 911truth.org

http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20071028103444598


Naomi Wolf on "The End of America"

"It not only can happen here, it is happening here. Mussolini created the blueprint (with inspiration from Lenin), Hitler elaborated on it, Stalin studied Hitler...

Here's how it works (notice how many Bush & Co. is using now.):

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law "

[gateley]

19. Did you guys read the post from someone who was going to hear the CIA

director speak in her town? She's a member of Code Pink, but it wasn't a Code Pink protest. Another CP member bought the tickets for 6 of them (3 from one area 3 from another if I remember correctly) and had to give each of their names when the tickets were purchased.

The DUer had posted here that she was going to try to ask the Director a couple of questions, and what those questions were.

They arrive at the door and she's informed she's on list and can't attend the talk. Two of her friends were also on the list, the other 3 weren't.

So there was speculation that there are probably trolls here, but her post was pretty benign.

I'm wondering if Homeland Security picked up the CIA and Director and NAME OF TOWN through the ethers and deemed her to be a security threat.

If the cause of her being barred from entry is a result of her DU post, it comes as no surprise they could find out her actual name and other info.

One of the things I've heard Naomi Wolf say was that when this all started coming down in Germany, people would go about their business and do whatever, but realized it wasn't safe to "say" anything to anyone as you could be turned in. In our country we don't need people to rat others out, our government can find all the info they want on us.

I feel like weeping.

[earth mom]

21. Let me get this straight-They are TARGETING Environmentalists? WTF?!

Seriously, :wtf:

:argh:

Listen up Gore! You can't let them pull this sh*t! Run Already!

This is outrageous & horrendous!

OMFG!

[Senator]

22. K&R&ImpeachNow

[MinM]

23. SBA ruling comes up in Blackwater investigation

No-bid contracts, license to murder and avoid paying taxes..

SBA ruling comes up in Blackwater investigation

The Small Business Administration has found itself in the middle of the controversy over Blackwater USA, the private security company under fire for its actions in Iraq.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is raising questions about whether Blackwater is evading U.S. taxes by classifying its armed guards who are working in Iraq under contract to the State Department as independent contractors instead of employees. Businesses do not have to pay payroll taxes or unemployment taxes or withhold income taxes for independent contractors.

Waxman, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, noted that DynCorp and Triple Canopy, two other companies that provide security services to the State Department, classify their guards as employees.

The Internal Revenue Service ruled in March that Blackwater's classification of a security guard in Afghanistan as an independent contractor was "without merit," Waxman said. The IRS warned its ruling "may be applicable to any other individuals engaged by the firm."

In response, Blackwater cited an SBA "official finding" that "Blackwater security contractors are not employees." The independent contractor model better suits its needs, the company said.

That reference to the SBA troubled Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who chairs the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. "The SBA must explain to the American people what role they may have played in helping Blackwater avoid paying $31.8 million in taxes," Kerry said Oct. 23.

The SBA finding cited by Blackwater involved the classification of an affiliate as a small business. Competitors of Blackwater affiliate Presidential Airways protested a small business set-aside contract awarded for helicopter replenishment services. The SBA determined Blackwater's personnel were independent contractors, not employees, and therefore the company qualified as a small business because it did not exceed the 1,500-employee threshold for its industry.

In an Oct. 24 letter to Kerry, SBA Administrator Steven Preston wrote that "SBA's size determinations are solely for the purpose of ascertaining eligibility for our small business programs and have no applicability to tax liability matters."

Kerry now contends Blackwater "erroneously and inappropriately relied on an SBA size determination for the classification of its workers." He asked the Senate Finance Committee to investigate Blackwater concerning the gap between the taxes that should be paid and the taxes actually collected.