James Bovard is an excellent (contrarian) investigative journalist, and he writes yet another scathing book about governmental excesses here. His earlier
Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty
and
Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen
were hugely influential in getting me to see how power corrupts, and just how far and frivolous this corruption has gone in modern America. And I like this book on the so-called "War on Terror" very much, however the one caveat is it needs to be read with an understanding of the broader context, what didn't make the nightly news and what it is all building towards. In other words, as another reviewer here said, Bovard documents a lot of trees but is in danger of missing the forest. I think Bovard clearly sees the forest but he really isn't free to show us any more directly. What he does show us is what was clearly visible in mainstream news, connecting the dots but without embellishing it with questionable and potentially liable opinion.
It is easy to forget in a post-9/11 world, but Reagan began the war on terror when he first took office in January of 1981, redefining the term and thus the scope of how the government can fight it. But what shows up again and again is just how inept the government has been in this (legitimate, constitutionally mandated) role of protecting the American public. Bovard shows time and again how the military, FBI, CIA, NSA and DOJ let vital information slip or just sit unheeded, didn't prepare for pre-warned attacks and consistently rewarded incompetence and failure (not wanting to undermine the public's faith in the powers that be). Examples; the terrorist bombings of the embassy and military barracks in Beirut in 1983, the botched 1986 US airstrike on Libya, and the US Navy's 1988 downing of an Iranian civilian airline, killing all 290 passengers - an event which was quickly forgotten by Americans, but never will be by Iran.
I know the US has always been playing catchup in its intelligence operations (often being infiltrated and manipulated by adversaries both within and without the agencies), but I have a hard time believing they can be so completely incompetent so consistently. My suspicion is they have just let much of it happen (besides sometimes directly instigating and encouraging it), so as to achieve other long range goals.
So, as I read Bovard's encyclopedic account of abuses and failures I like to keep in mind what others have reported - such as Ruppert's equally encyclopedic
Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
. A good example of how both perspectives are needed is the case of Sen Paul Wellstone (D-Minn) who complained the so-called Patriot Act was being rushed through after 9/11. Bovard mentions him, but what he neglects to mention is that for this small attempt to obstruct the administration Wellstone was murdered just a little over a year later (in a highly suspicious plane crash that killed the senator, his wife, daughter and three staff members). This kind of followup is what Ruppert's account excels at. So if you keep in mind alternative accounts of what happened in places as diverse as Mena Arkansas during the Iran/Contra scandal, Ruby Ridge Idaho, Waco Texas, Oklahoma City, and the World Trade Center (twice!) then you get a fuller picture of the terror and tyranny facing America today.
Of course a large part of the problem is how we define terrorism. "The US definitions of terrorism focus far more on the perpetrator than the act. The same act is either public service or terrorism, depending on whether the killer is wearing a uniform." (p. 227) So by the US government's definition a government is incapable of acts of terror (even though they kill way more of their citizens than any terrorist organization or individuals ever do), and so always on the side of "good". This has led to the US government bankrolling "some of the world's most oppressive regimes." (p. 252).
Bovard clearly saw where all this was heading as he presciently remarked, "The precedents the Justice Department establishes in abusing aliens will inevitably influence how the federal government treats American citizens... The power seized after 9/11 will be the starting line for a sprint toward greater discretionary and punitive power over anyone residing in this country." (pg.132) He can say this with confidence because it's how the FBI habitually operated before being reigned in in 1976, and how the DOJ began treating Americans soon after 9/11 and the passage of the Patriot Act. And it has only gotten worse since.
I'd love to see a revised edition 10 years after its original publication. I'd hope he'd include some of the more current research on US government's use of false flags. I'm also interested to hear some detailed follow-up on the impact of such things as the draconian anti-money laundering aspects of the Patriot Act on individuals, and businesses, and the practice of warrantless and secret searches. As well as how tyranny continued to expand during the rest of the Cheney/Bush Jr. presidency, and now in the almost identical Obama administration. I'm sure Bovard has a whole bulging file of such consequences of this endless war.
And the more I study all this the less I can call them unintended consequences...
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Nolyn: The Rise and Fall, Book 1
In the depths of an unforgiving jungle, a legend is about to be born. Listen now
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Nolyn: The Rise and Fall, Book 1
In the depths of an unforgiving jungle, a legend is about to be born. Listen now
