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Public as Enemy: Targeting You
by C. L. Cook
by C. L. Cook
There will be investigations, promise the L.A. Police Department in wake of that entity's unprovoked attack against ethnic and social justice activists taking part in the nation-wide May Day immigrant rights demonstration.
While police brutality during protests is nothing new in America, what is different in this case is the L.A.P.D.'s brazen attacks against journalists; that is to say, capital "M" media workers, not the bloggers, Indy Media types, or assorted riff raff well used to officially sanctioned State violence employed against civilian demonstrators.This time the goon squad chose going after corporate T.V. crews covering the family-orientated events for FOX, and the Big 3 networks.
The little people too, naturally, received their
lumps from the unrestrained police demonstration of raw malice and
utter disregard for the people and principles they have been sworn to
"serve and protect." It is reported, hundreds of "rubber" bullets, and
tear gas cannisters were fired at the peaceful demonstration, many
striking people in the back as a police motorcycle charge followed by
truncheon wielding riot cops stampeded the crowd.
Law suits have been filed, and the American Civil Liberties
Union, (ACLU) has, as ever, jumped into the fray, issuing strongly
worded condemnations of the police action, etc., comparing the attack
against the journalists as a repeat of similar blatant attacks carried
out during the year 2000 Democratic National Convention.
Those law
suits will wend their weary way through the court system recently cited
in the news as corrupted by the Republican Party political hacks
controlling the Attorney-General's office. They may, under a possible
future Democratic Party administration, eventually make it to the
Supreme Court, stacked with the political hacks that made that 2000
election year a memorably precedent-setting one for the American
political process. But by 2012, or whenever the facts finally see the
light of a legal ruling, who will still care?
Fill 'er Up
The May Day march is the second to focus on immigration
issues since a Bush administration hard-line approach against
"illegals" already working in the United States took effect last year.
This year's effort is titled: 'Operation: Return to
Sender.' As are operations announced by the military in the
on-going destruction of foreign lands, (aka 'The
Global War on Terror'), the Immigration and Custom Enforcement branch,
(ICE) too brands its actions.
But before the unfortunates caught up in ICE's broadening dragnet searches are sent packing, there are mandatory stays in "immigration prisons."
It's a very profitable, and growing sector of the so-called
'Prison-Industrial Complex,' one White House favoured contractor,
Halliburton has been quick to exploit. Halliburton, the infamous serial
fraudster, renowned for its criminal billing practices and its cozy
relationship to the current administration through former CEO, Dick
Cheney, last year landed a multi-million dollar contract, likely to run into the billions, to construct
concentration camps across the nation, and now looks ready to start filling them
up with the thousands busted across the nation in ICE raids.
The Media is the Message
And that message is: Watch Your Step! As witnessed during the
American military rampage through Afghanistan and Iraq, shots
across the media bow are no bluff. The Arab al-Jazeera network has the
distinction of being the first news organization to have its
headquarters in two war zones targeted and destroyed by the U.S., while
scores of network and independent journalists, and their local support
staff, are dead or wounded, killed and maimed since George W. Bush's
ascension at Century's end determined a course for war.
But is it fair and/or balanced to lay
this at the feet of Bush and Gonzales, Cheney, Halliburton, and the
L.A.P.D., when the Clinton administration bombed media operations in
Yugoslavia, and killed dissenting citizens with impunity in Waco, and
on Ruby Ridge, setting the stage for the War President's impunity? It's not as though George W. Bush is the first war criminal to occupy the Oval Office!
A Growing "Enemies" List
Recall Richard M. Nixon, the extra-legal creep President, whose bell tolled on the lawn of the White House, waving farewell to American public life from the doorway of his get-away chopper, escaping two steps ahead of impeachment, and perhaps worse?
Nixon's infamous
list, one then White House Counsel John Dean insists the Tricky One
never saw, grew from a modest 20 names, to more than 30,000 before its
titular author's career crashed.
Likewise, the enemies list of this
administration has, from tiny acorn size exploded to include an
estimated 80,000 Americans (and foreigners), contained in the files of
Homeland Security, and the plethora other alphabetized agents of the
overarching American security apparatus; but to end there would do
disservice to Georges' Bush and the efforts of their dedicated coterie.
As a recently revealed army publication spells out to the soldiers of the
realm, journalists are to be now considered "enemies" on a par with
al-Qaeda, warlords, and drug cartels. According to the Columbia
Journalism Review, the army's Operational Security Guidelines (OPSEC),
encourages the troops' keep an eye peeled for skulking journos, and any
who would stoop to whisper in their pointed, rodent-like ears; to whit:
This directive applies too to the DoD contractors, a growing percentage of the "boots on the ground" forces overseas, (as witnessed in the body of Blackwater, the Bush administration's reaction to Hurricane Katrina's landfall in New Orleans, and the subsequent breaching of the levies there), and operating at home too.
"[C]onsider handling attempts by unauthorized personnel to solicit critical information or sensitive information as a Subversion and Espionage Directed Against the U.S. Army (SAEDA) incident."
This directive applies too to the DoD contractors, a growing percentage of the "boots on the ground" forces overseas, (as witnessed in the body of Blackwater, the Bush administration's reaction to Hurricane Katrina's landfall in New Orleans, and the subsequent breaching of the levies there), and operating at home too.
But the list doesn't end with 80,000
individuals, or the entirety of the un-embedded press corps; American
soldiers fond of blogging their thoughts from the front, or anywhere
else, are to be considered suspect too; that privilege recently
curtailed, and perhaps to be eliminated completely.
Falling too under the
shadow of this broad blog security umbrella would be those millions of Americans (and foreigners) who for reasons suspect by the
administration continue to criticize U.S. policies at home and abroad,
using the "internet."
Can't We All Just Get Along?
The answer to that famous question, posed most famously by L.A.P.D. beating survivor, Rodney King is: "Yes!"
But, in George W.
Bush's America, and the pseudo-vassal nations in its orbit, getting
along means going along; nothing short of total adherence to the Leader
and his Party line will do. Whether you be tinker, or tailor, soldier,
or sailor, woe betide you if you fail, or are perceived to have failed
to live up to those expectations of citizenship. You are, in short,
either with US or you ARE the terrorists.
As the CJR quotes Major Ray Ceralde, reputed author of the army's OPSEC paper:
Truly, an Army of One(ness); a nation divided upon itself, fulfilling at home what it accomplishes "over there;" bringing terror to the Homeland.
C. L. Cook is a contributing editor to www.pacificfreepress.com, and host of the weekly public affairs program, Gorilla Radio. You can check out the GR blog here.
As the CJR quotes Major Ray Ceralde, reputed author of the army's OPSEC paper:
"A person doesn’t have to be in the military or government to support OPSEC… As a Nation, we are in this fight together, and all Americans are encouraged to practice OPSEC."
Truly, an Army of One(ness); a nation divided upon itself, fulfilling at home what it accomplishes "over there;" bringing terror to the Homeland.
C. L. Cook is a contributing editor to www.pacificfreepress.com, and host of the weekly public affairs program, Gorilla Radio. You can check out the GR blog here.
For more on the targeting of civilian populations by police and military, please see:
The Lancet Study of Iraqi civilians killed since the invasion of March, 2003.
The ACLU reaction to the storming of the march in L.A.
Democracy Now! coverage of draconian immigration policies under Bush
Tricky Dick Nixon's Enemies List
And here's the groundbreaking Israeli Defense Force using civilians as "Human Shields" Tricky Dick Nixon's Enemies List
And Benny Goodman
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