Posted 2006-October-01, 08:54
I am not so fearful of terrotists as I am American neo-fascism. I have been accused of improperly applying the word fascism, and I may have done so.
Here are definitions I read which may or may not be right, as the source is the internet:
1. Economic fascism is based in a merger of big business and big government. Sometimes, a formal corporatism emerges; other times, the private sector (monopolies and oligopolies) simply pass over into the public sector (as in the US), capturing the state and using it to wage that most profitable of activities: war
From "Harper's":
Among the Times' other interesting findings:
More than half of all employees at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCC) are outside contractors, and the former head of the NCC, John Brennan, is now the CEO of Analysis Corp, which supplies contract analysts to the center. The use of contractors is especially heavy at the CIA. Abraxas Corp, a firm conveniently located near the agency in McLean, Virginia, and home to many former CIA veterans, creates false identities for an elite group of overseas case officers.
Contractors have at times outnumbered CIA employees at key stations like Baghdad and Islamabad. In Baghdad, contractors aren't simply performing bureaucratic functions; they recruit informants, manage relationships with the military, and “handle agents in support of frontline combat units.”
Senior U.S. intelligence officials told the Times that agencies have become so dependent on contractors that they could no longer function without them. “If you took away the contractor support, they'd have to put yellow tape around the building and close it down,” a former CIA official told the newspaper
2. Political fascism normally includes, as it did for Italy and Germany, a retreat from already-existing democratic practices – an erosion of democracy. The political class begins to express a disdain for human rights and international treaties. Power is increasingly centered on the executive branch, and elections become less transparent, even fraudulent. Civil liberties are restricted, and constitutions are ground under the hobnailed boot.
Disdain for human rights and international treaties - The government has maintained since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that, based on its reading of the laws of war, anyone it labels an unlawful enemy combatant can be held indefinitely at military or CIA prisons. But Congress has not yet expressed its view on who is an unlawful combatant, and the Supreme Court has not ruled directly on the matter. Wahington Post
Power is increasingly centered on the executive branch - President Bush signed a secret order in 2002 authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens and foreign nationals in the United States, despite previous legal prohibitions against such domestic spying, sources with knowledge of the program said last night. Washington Post
elections become less transparent, even fraudulent. - In the December 12 ruling by the US Supreme Court handing the election to George Bush, the Court committed the unpardonable sin of being a knowing surrogate for the Republican Party instead of being an impartial arbiter of the law. Vincent Bugliosi, The Nation
Civil liberties are restricted, and constitutions are ground under the hobnailed boot. - The legislation broadens the definition of enemy combatants beyond the traditional definition used in wartime, to include noncitizens living legally in this country as well as those in foreign countries, and also anyone determined to be an enemy combatant under criteria defined by the president or secretary of defense. New York Times
Donald Rufsfield can now define me as an enemy combatant - that is truly frightening.
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Franklin D. Roosevelt
"We know that if one man's rights are denied, the rights
of all are endangered." Robert Kennedy
"We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace." George W. Bush
"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace. " George W. Bush
"There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that's just a fact." Donald Rumsfeld
"With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And war is what they got. " George W. Bush
"A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny."
~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Black Lives Matter. / "I need ammunition, not a ride." Zelensky