Page 9 - the NOISE February 2013

arcanalysis
On September 11, 2001, the United States was attacked by terrorists from the Middle East, who “hate our freedoms” as President Bush declared. But who hates our freedoms now and why do consecutive Chief Execu- tives continue doing the business of terrorists, taking away our freedoms at home?
Americans are witnessing amazing new restrictions to their freedoms with the new NDAA ruling. The Hedges v. Obama legal case addresses the NDAA’s right to disap- pear anyone it deems a threat without the all important due process, a natural right of the judicial system for over 800 years.
The NDAA’s current ruling (that those who are perceived to be a threat to our internal security can be arrested and held indefinitely without facing their accusers) is fast becom- ing the law of the land. If you are arrested and don’t know why, there doesn’t have to be a reason, or so it follows. This happens in Third World countries in Central and South America and now it can legally happen in America. Worldwide human rights violations have jour- nalists worried, but what of the violation of Mr. Raub’s rights on American soil?
The Oath Keepers are outspoken oppo- nents to the government’s detention of Mr. Raub. They are a non-partisan group of first responders, law enforcement, and veterans, and were dumbfounded by what they called:
“a Soviet style pre-crime detention.”
In the Soviet Union, millions of dissidents
were condemned to psychiatric prisons to de- moralize any opposition during the Russian sweep. Even in the United States, the Japa- nese internment camps of WWII held tens of thousands of American citizens illegally dur- ing war. After Pearl Harbor, Americans looked at the Japanese people the way we still look at Muslims after September 11, 2001.
Later, the US Government apologized to the Japanese people for not practicing demo- cratic principles in the time of war.
As said by James Joyce: “History repeats it- self and that’s one of the problems with history.”
With an endless “war on terror” and no clear cut enemy, it is imperative that Ameri- cans understand the definition of a dissident. Fred Solop, professor of Political Science at Northern Arizona University, acknowledges
“there is a broad problem under the Obama Administration with people being detained for long periods of time without trial. There is widespread recognition of people (including Americans) being added to a ‘kill list’ without due process and that there is a failure to pros- ecute Americans responsible for torture and the atrocities around the world.”
That some folks are innocent and others are guilty becomes an arbitrary game of the power structure. You can now be swept up and disappeared without ever being charged with a crime, as Franz Kafka addressed in The Trial, predicting fascism before WWII.
The fact that “extralegal judgments” are happening today in Virginia should con- cern every American. During Mr. Raub’s one week detention, another 20 individuals were extra-judicially detained in Virginia alone, ac- cording to his defense lawyer, Mr. Whitehead. While defending Mr. Raub, Mr. Whitehead thinks that the larger question is whether
“government officials are monitoring citizen’s private Facebook pages for dissent. This is a
scary new chapter in this nation’s history.” Law officials pretend they’re not arresting anyone, only detaining in mental institutions;
this amounts to extralegal imprisonment. The mainstream media claims that Mr. Raub wasn’t arrested or charged with a crime, and he wasn’t.
He was “disappeared” and that’s why they didn’t need to be report it. Creating new lan- guage for old behaviors is what totalitarian governments do. This classical style of dis- appearance is documented in Aleksandr Sol- zhenitsyn’s book The Gulag Archipelago.
If our country imprisons Mr. Raub and the freedom of speech he stands for, what’s next? President Obama demanded that the NDAA be passed and our representatives agreed, even though the American public was against it. Do we live in a representative constitution- al democracy or not?
In September of 2012 Judge Katherine Forrest ruled that the NDAA was unconsti- tutional and blocked its passing permanently. The Obama administration appealed the next day and got a “stay” until three judges, recent- ly appointed by Obama, ruled in October that
Judge Forrest’s ruling was unconstitutional. Obama wrote a signing statement, highly publicized, that said he’d “never use such a law.”
But the reality is, he forced the law through and sent a nice cozy personal statement as a mea culpa to throw us off. The mainstream media played up the signing statement and played down the law. We only know what the mainstream media allows us to know and henceforth we live in a virtual reality de- signed to keep us confused. This should be of concern to everyone.
If the government continues its pursuit of the NDAA ruling, every indication is that it will end our democratically-elected republic. If dissidents can be classified as “terrorists,” the government can bypass the judicial process and lock up anyone it’s in disagreement with. Supposedly, civilized countries don’t do this.
That a patriot like Mr. Raub was willing to post his observations should be applauded, not condemned.
John F. Kennedy said: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make vio- lent revolution inevitable.”
Our government is frightened that the Brandon Raubs of America are waking up and that the sleeping monster of public opinion is rearing its ugly head, so they are fashion- ing frightening laws to take out the leaders pre-emptively. Brandon Raub is a casualty of another war, a war on the American people.
“First they came for the Catholics, then they came for the Jews, the Gays, and finally they came for me and when I asked for help, it was too late, all were gone.” — Reinhold Neibor
TAKE ACTION: Send a certified letter to Chief of the Executive Branch, President Barack Obama voicing your opinion to Mr. Raub’s detention and the passing of the NDAA. 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Wash- ington DC 20500 • whitehouse.gov
| Bob Reynolds is a staunch Constitutionalist who moonlights as a film critic, English teacher & coffee connoisseur. bob699669@hotmail.com
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