American Complicity Today
Why I Started the South Carolina Upstate Coalition
By Tim Gatto article link
10 July 2010 | Liberalpro | Countercurrents
I haven't been writing for quite some time. It gets to the point as Paul Craig Roberts said; “Nobody is listening”. There are some that are listening as my articles have received many hits. While I'm happy about that, it just isn't enough. The people that read my articles are the people that already know what dire straits our Democracy in America is in. Most of my readers know that the legislative branch, the executive branch and now it seems the Supreme court as well as the lower federal courts have been co-opted by those that have the money and clout to do so. I read a brilliant article by Lawrence Wilkerson (Right Wing Thought Police MWC News) that blew me away. It's not what he said; it was what he didn't say that completely blew me away. Let me write a short list of what Americans should be concerned about.
1. The War in Afghanistan and Iraq.
These wars are totally unconstitutional. We were never attacked by the Taliban or Saddam Hussein. The reasons for the wars are bogus. We went into Iraq because Saddam had threatened to sell oil in Euro's not dollars, undermining American currency. The war in Afghanistan is to complete TAPI, the pipeline for gas and oil coming from the Caucasus and preventing Russia from having a lock on oil exports to Europe. These are wars of aggression, pure and simple.
2. The loss of American Civil Liberties
With implementation of The Patriot Act, The Military Commissions Act and The John Warner Insurrection Act that allows Federal Troops for peacekeeping duties within the Continental U.S. in violation of Posse Comitatus. We have “free speech zones” that keep demonstrators behind chain link fencing away from the demonstrator's target zone, rendering demonstrations ineffective.
3. Wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping on American citizens.
The enhanced FISA laws did not hold accountable the telecoms that illegally copied all conversations of Americans that was unlawfully demanded of them by the Federal Government. We still are subject to warrantless tapping of our phones and eavesdropping on pour computer correspondence.
4. Holding no One Accountable
The reluctance to hold anyone accountable for the incomprehensible acts of 9/11, No building hit by an airplane can fall at free-fall. Building 7 wasn't touched and came down in its own footprint. This is ridiculous to believe that airplanes that made maneuvers that are theoretically impossible brought down those buildings. Nano-thermites were found on the steel girders, yet no investigation is forthcoming and the American citizenry has not demanded it. Why? The building fell at free fall which under the governments “pancake” the only way that would have been impossible. The only way those buildings could have fallen at free fall would have been if the underpinnings were knocked out. This is the law of physics.
4. Obama's Unwillingness to Act in the Public's Interest
The Obama Administration's blatant refusal to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate torture and to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the accusations of torture under the Bush/Cheney regime. The refusal to have a criminal investigation into the events of 9/11. To stop the practice of Extrodinary Rendition (kidnapping) instead of using the rule of law. The failure to abide by the Geneva Conventions.
5. The non-news given to the majority of Americans.
The mainstream milquetoast reporting of news that is neutral to events in the world that our government is pursuing. The fourth estate in this country has been co-opted by the same interests that need them to stay silent. No true investigative reporting on the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan is being conducted. The news reports on celebrities and divisions between the Republicans and Democrats which are only two-sides of the same coin.
6. Failure to release Military and Special Ops Budgets.
The budgets of the military and the investigative agencies like the CIA and the NSA and the 14 intelligence agencies run by the military is never reported on in the mainstream media. The military budget as a whole hardly ever makes the news. Why?
7. Truth about the Bail-Outs
The bank bailouts and Goldman Sachs that bought up failing banks after they received the TARP fund that made them liquid again has not resulted in criminal charges. There has been very little help for the average American citizen.
8. Ongoing Illegal Activities
The continuing practice of Rendition (kidnapping) of people by the United States continues. The phony trial of Khalid Sheik Muhammad (KSM) goes on after it was made public that he was water boarded 183 times and confessed to crimes that were committed four years after he was apprehended. A travesty of justice.
9. Supporting a Rogue State
The support of Israel that gas for the last few decades has shown itself to be a rogue state that violates all the International rules of behavior and has the city of Gaza under a terrible blockade that makes it a virtual prison. They have annexed Palestinian lands and East Jerusalem throwing out Palestinians that have lived there for hundreds of years. This is a form of genocide in which the United States supports by supporting Israel. There is no reason strong enough to continue to support that criminal enterprise. The refusal of Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty illustrate the criminality of their government, yet we berate Iran who Has signed the NPT and abides by the treaty.
These are just some of the points that I would like to make. The co-opting of the Congress by special interests along with the Supreme Court should be investigated. The rule of law in this country is practically non-existent when it comes to the Federal Government. It applies to the people however. If we break a law we are expected to pay the consequences. People understand that Homeland Security was designed to watch the people of the US, not the terrorists.
This is why I have decided to become an activist and reach out to others that believe as I do. We can no longer sit on the sidelines and wait for someone to rescue this nation. We have become a belligerent nation ruled by the Military-Industrial-Complex. People need to reach out to likeminded individuals and band together and make our voices heard. If we can do it in the reddest State in the Union, it can be done anywhere. To join the South Carolina Upstate Coalition, contact me ( timgatto@hotmail.com ), we can make a difference.
(MMr Note: numeric sequence #4 in original article)
Read Tim's Books "Complicity to Contempt" and "Kimchee Days or Stoned Cold Warriors" from Oliver Arets and Open Press.
From Complicity to Contempt details the changing political views of an Army veteran of 21 years. From the opening of the "Global war on Terror," this writer-patriot saw that his beliefs about his country were no longer based on truth. The Constitution and Bill of Rights were being dismantled in plain sight and the majority of his fellow citizens were either unaware of it or failing to stop it. Gatto's book provides a highly personal but also powerful look into the frustration and anger of an American who came to see that everything he'd stood for throughout his whole life was being turned into a fraud. Tim Gatto was born in 1950 and grew up in the Cold War era. Idealistically, he enlisted in the Army in 1968, though the Vietnam War soon began shaping and changing his ideas about American foreign policy, much as it did for most of his generation. While still serving, he joined the protest against the war. And later, after witnessing the fraudulent run-up to the Iraq war engineered by the Bush administration, he became politically active all over again-and began writing, prolifically and for an ever-widening audience. He lives in South Carolina, a liberal in one of the reddest states in the country.
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