The Trillion-Dollar Conspiracy (32 page)

Since the ratification of the PATRIOT Act, many critics have argued that the surveillance portions are unconstitutional. The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Award-winning investigative reporter Kelly O’Meara spent sixteen years working as a congressional staffer to four members of Congress prior to working as an investigative journalist. She holds a BS in political science from the University of Maryland and makes her home in Alexandria, Virginia. O’Meara wrote, “With one vote by Congress and the sweep of the president’s pen, say critics, the right of every American fully to be protected under the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures was abrogated.”

Such perversion of the Constitution was aggravated on March 4, 2010, with the introduction of a bill called the Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010. This legislation expanded the Bush-era term “enemy combatant” to “enemy belligerent,” defined as any individual, including American citizens, suspected of any affiliation with terrorism or supporting “hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners.” Such suspects, under this law, must be turned over to military authorities and can be detained without charge, denied the Miranda warning of self-incrimination and legal representation, and held for “the duration of the hostilities.” Despite Obama’s earlier voiced opposition to Bush’s Military Commissions Act, he was expected to support this bill, which was introduced by Democratic senator Joe Lieberman (CFR) and Republican senator John McCain. Constitutional attorney and author of the
New York Times
bestseller
How Would a Patriot Act?
Glenn Greenwald called the Enemy Belligerent Act “probably the single most extremist, tyrannical and dangerous bill introduced in the Senate in the last several decades, far beyond the horrendous habeas-abolishing Military Commissions Act.”

LASER OR TASER

U
NDER STATUES WITHIN THE
PATRIOT Act, David Banach of Parsippany, New Jersey, was accused in 2005 of using a laser beam to temporarily blind the pilot and copilot of a jet plane passing over his house on December 29, 2004. Banach denied any evil intent and said he was simply using the laser to point out stars for his seven-year-old daughter.

Though the airplane landed safely and without incident, and though the FBI found no terrorist connection and acknowledged Banach’s actions were simply “foolhardy and negligent,” Banach faced a twenty-five-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine. Banach was eventually released from jail after posting $100,000 bail. But then in early 2006, Banach was found guilty of violating a portion of the PATRIOT Act having to do with interfering with pilots of commercial aircraft. He was given a two-year probated jail sentence.

This probation sentence may be understandable since it was learned that the government was testing a laser system in the same area as Banach when he was arrested. In early 2005, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta announced that the U.S. military would activate the ground-based lasers to warn off pilots whenever unauthorized or unresponsive aircraft entered restricted zones in the Northeast. During testing of this system, pilots began to report incidents of lasers being shone into their cockpits. Mineta’s announcement came on January 12, 2005, the same day that technical testing of the laser warning system was completed. This means the U.S. government made the public believe that terrorists were testing laser beams to bring down aircraft when, in fact, it was the government testing lasers.

Another energy device being widely used by the government is the Taser, an electroshock weapon that disrupts voluntary muscle control. Police too often use electric Tasers in situations that don’t require it, even though some 129 people nationwide have died in connection to the device. The medical examiner in Tarrant County, Texas, Dr. Nizam Peerwani, told the media he believes that Tasers are safe. But following three deaths in Fort Worth, he said he would like to see more studies done on the Taser being used on people who are high on drugs, agitated, or suffering from heart problems. Peerwani said that in at least one case, the death of seventeen-year-old Kevin Omas, who died after being Tasered three times by police, he believes the use of the Taser was a contributory factor in the death.

POLICE TACTICS AND FEMA

N
ATIONAL FEARMONGERING MAY HAVE
something to do with the rise of a police state in certain locations. Most local police no longer wear the traditional blue uniforms, and the slogan “To Serve and Protect” has largely been eliminated from their vehicles. Today, many officers, particularly in the large urban centers, wear black and, in serious situations, don body armor and helmets based on the German World War II design.

Beginning in 2008, public fears were further heightened when stories appeared on the Internet concerning stockpiles of cheap plastic sealable coffins discovered in the country. The stories were documented with photos. One such place, reportedly containing some half a million coffins, was in middle Georgia near the town of Madison, just east of Atlanta, home of the Centers for Disease Control.

Then rumors spread about plans for roadblocks, mandatory vaccinations, and quarantine holding centers for those who resisted relocation. Apparently, some rumors were based on information about the changing role of law enforcement. Greg Evensen, a former Kansas state trooper. recalled, “Our nation’s police forces prior to…Richard Nixon were centered on community policing. Most of their time was spent on looking for, identifying, and monitoring criminals, and responding to unusual or dangerous events that were beyond the control of ordinary folks.

“As government began its sickening expansion, policing became a meaner and nastier job. It was made that way by badge-wearing thugs who didn’t hesitate to do whatever they were told by the S.A.C. (Special Agent in Charge) of the FBI, BATF(E), U.S. Marshal’s Office, right down to armed poultry inspectors—yes, they have them and they are really tough on criminal chickens. The ‘us against them’ mentality and the ‘mission essential’ attitude justified SWAT teams, ‘dynamic entries,’ and later use of Mace, Tasers, flashbang grenades, and ‘routine’ use of submachine guns—all in the name of ‘taking down’ the accused—no matter the charge…. Now we have become eaves-dropping, roadblock-setting, door-crashing, face-grinding, arm-breaking, pursuit-driven bastards that have sold their asses to the government masters, hell-bent on establishing the true reincarnation of the dreaded SS. That is no overstatement….

“There are significant numbers of officers at all levels that simply detest the forced training at FEMA centers, the requirements to stop Patriots and others simply because they ‘look’ dangerous, and are exercising free speech statements on their vehicles,” Evensen added.

Evensen referenced stories from other officers who turned whistleblowers and warned, “Have you been made aware of the massive roadblock plans to stop all travelers for a vaccine bracelet (stainless steel band with a micro-chip on board) that will force you to take [a vaccine] shot? Refuse it? You will be placed on a prison bus and taken to a quarantine camp. What will you do when your children are not allowed into school without the shot? What will you do when you are not allowed into the workplace without the vaccine paperwork? Buy groceries? Go to the bank? Shop anywhere? Get on a plane, bus or train? Use the toilet in the mall? Nope. Police officers will become loathed, feared, despised and remembered for their ‘official’ duties.”

Certainly, most Americans, lulled by the corporate mass media, must assume Evensen’s predictions are paranoid delusions. Yet these Americans should examine the evidence around them.

Though many claim fearmongering is a tactic reserved only for the Bush administration, President Obama did nothing to stop the fearmongering following his election. In fact, in March 2009, he announced America’s new regional strategy in the “Afpak [Afghanistan-Pakistan] theater.” Mimicking Bush administration rhetoric, Obama declared, “Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the U.S. homeland from its safe havens in Pakistan.” He vowed to send an additional four thousand troops to train recruits for the Afghan National Army, saying, “I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan.” This hawkish rhetoric was backed up in late 2009 when Obama increased troops levels in Afghanistan by thirty thousand while pledging to begin the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 2011. Little media notice was given to the fact that while attention was focused on Afghanistan and Iraq, Obama quietly was returning an estimated one million U.S. troops home to reinforce the new Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), formed under President Bush “to provide command and control of Department of Defense homeland defense efforts and to coordinate defense support of civil authorities.” Was Obama anticipating civil unrest?

DESIGNATED TERRORISTS

C
ONCERNS OVER POLARIZING THE
population were raised again in March 2009 after the release of an unclassified “reference aid” from the Department of Homeland Security’s Strategic Analysis Group and the Extremism and Radicalization Branch of the DHS Environment Threat Analysis Division. This “aid” was aimed not only at department offices but also “to assist federal, state, local, and tribal homeland security and law enforcement officials in conducting analytic activities.” Apparently, this means aiding lawmen in determining who in Homeland Security’s opinion might be considered a terrorist. This document, entitled a “Domestic Extremism Lexicon,” lists, along with animal rights and environmental extremists, Aryan prison gangs, black nationalists and neo-Nazis, Cubans “who do not recognize the legitimacy of the Communist Cuban Government,” lone terrorists, Jewish extremists, the patriot and tax resistance movements, and even “alternative media,” defined as “various information sources that provide a forum for interpretations of events and issues that differ radically from those presented in mass media products and outlets.” Following a public outcry, the extremist list reportedly was withdrawn, although for how long remains a question. Meanwhile, copies remain on the Internet, and some law enforcement officers still recall its words.

“The federal government is training its enforcers that people who don’t believe everything they see on Fox News, CNN or read in the
New York Times
are to be treated as a ‘threat’ and a potential violent domestic terrorist,” railed Internet commentator and author Paul Joseph Watson.

A pamphlet prepared by the Texas Department of Public Safety in 2004 and entitled “Terrorism: What the Public Needs to Know” was a recipe for paranoia and witch-hunting. It includes these pointers on how to spot a terrorist:

Will employ a variety of vehicles and communicate predominately by cell phone, e-mail, or text messaging services


Well prepared to spend years in “sleeper” mode until it is time to attack


In many cases, will try to fit in and not draw attention to themselves


May appear “normal” in their appearance and behavior while portraying themselves as a tourist, student, or businessperson


May be found traveling in a mixed group of men, women, and children of varying ages, who are unaware of their purpose


Trained to avoid confrontations with law enforcement and therefore can be expected to project a “nice-guy” image


Known to use disguises or undergo plastic surgery, especially when featured on police wanted posters

Another example of the emergence of a police state is the quiet but sudden appearance over the past few years of steel cables attached to metal posts in the medians on freeways in and out of major cities. When these concrete strips first appeared, many people thought they were bicycle or jogging paths. But the steel cables revealed their true purpose—a barricade to prevent anyone from making a U-turn. Such impediments have joined the thousands of concrete barriers already in place on most freeways and interstate highways.

But was there a huge problem with U-turning traffic to begin with? None that anyone could recall. Then what was the purpose of spending millions of dollars on major highways when the economy was at a low ebb?

Conspiracy-minded individuals believe that these barriers are in preparation for future roadblocks to prevent city dwellers from leaving town. Anyone caught in line for a checkpoint, similar to those already in use in Los Angeles and other major cities, will find they will be unable to turn around. No other purposes for these barricades have been publicized. Because local police do not have the personnel to administer this level of police state activity, it may be up to the military to take charge, despite the Posse Comitatus Act prohibiting such action.

Very little national media coverage was given to the heavy-handed police reaction against protesters at the late September 2009 G-20 meetings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Frustrated at not being able to approach the meeting place, some two thousand demonstrators (called “anticapitalists” by one news report) clashed with black-clad helmeted police armed with dogs, gas, rubber pellet–filled shotgun charges called “beanbags,” and advanced technologies like long-range acoustic device (LRAD) sonic cannons. Allegations that violence at the G-20 was initiated by government agent provocateurs were supported by YouTube videos of a supposed black-clad “anarchist” posing for photos with grinning police officers. Officials later claimed the youth in the video was forced to pose by the men in riot gear.