martial law, though they would not call it that. (Probably something typically Orwellian like "Operation Safe America.)
Many days after the hurricane, when basically there were STILL effectively no federal relief efforts, the Bush Administration tried to get Gov. Blanco to sign away important civil powers to them, including among other things total control of New Orleans and of the state's National Guard - and THEN they would move in. Blanco refused, rightly seeing this as BLACKMAIL to force her to accept federal MARTIAL LAW:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1750979 (The LBN thread title - by DU rules the same as the WaPo title - is misleading. Read the excerpt.)
I'm quite sure now that one of the things that this is about (I think there are several) is that the neocons want more power. They've been leading up to it for years, making a quantum leap after the 9/11 attacks (which I believe were an inside job) terrified all too many Americans into believing they needed Bush's "protection" from marauding "terra-ists™", even to the point of surrendering their civil rights and allowing an immoral, baseless war. The neocons been working toward this - a stranglehold on the country and their plan for world domination - for years, as all of us know. There have already been too many steps in this direction. John Dean calls it "constitutional dictatorship" and says it is possible (this was written in 2002 and discusses what would happen after another domestic terrorist attack - but the hurricane destruction, cleverly manipulated, might do do the trick even better):
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/06/columns/fl.dean.powers.0607For the bigger picture, here is an article written in Dec 2003 in response to General Tommy Franks' amazing interview, the one in which he said that "one more hit" (like a domestic terrorist attack) would be enough for them to suspend the Constitution. This entire article is excellent and prescient, but I'm going to quote the paragraph that especially grabbed my attention.
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/12/07/Columns/From_Tommy_Franks__a_.shtmlIt was the Nine Years' War in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World that facilitated the seizure of power by the world reformers who then took control of nearly all human and social development. In 1984, George Orwell described Oceania as in a constant state of war with a changeable enemy who "always represented absolute evil." These inventors of the great dystopias understood the way governments use war and its associative fear and instability to consolidate power. Despotism thrives on insecurity. Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs puts safety right behind food, water and sleep. Humans naturally crave stability and are willing to sacrifice values such as liberty in its pursuit.
I think the neocons have been trying to hype racial/class tension, for example by pushing the idea of "looters" and "out-of-control violence." Yes, there was some violence, but I think they wanted the image, the terrifying image, to be far worse than reality. Again, they would benefit from the fear of the American public for perceived dangerous "enemies," this time domestic ones: our fellow citizens. In this scenario, any filmable, hype-able or fabricated "riots" around the country protesting the government's treatment of hurricane victims would be pure gold.
But the main plan, I think, was to set up a situation in which the hurricane damage and death toll was as severe as possible - delay relief and rescue, prevent levee maintenance or patching, block civilian aid. Fabricate, with the expected help of their Poodle Press, a story in which this was the fault of having civil authorities have too much power. Force a turnover of civilian power to the Pentagon (i.e., martial law), followed by a "miraculous" inpouring of organized relief as the order to stop blocking and allow the still-waiting military relief efforts under NorthCom to sweep in as dramatically as possible. Once again, you would have a situation in which the American public could be propagandized with the idea that only Pentagon-driven martial law (called something like "Operation Safe America") was capable of effective protection. Stirring up racial/class tensions, with hyped and fabricated stories of "out-of-control violence breaking out" would help this meme of needing the Pentagon's protection at the expense of surrendering to what would be in effect a military dictatorship.
There is a great deal of documentation supporting the view that the neocons have wanted more and more disabling of the Constitutional separation of powers and protections of civil liberties. NorthCom, formed in April of 2002, represents a major threat to our civil liberties and most of us don't even know much about it.
Please read this thread and the linked articles throughout the comments:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all=104x4519574#4521111Thread title:
"Think about the implications of this: Nat'l Guard in Iraq, NorthCom HERE."(Something to think about:
The first NorthCom head, General Eberhard, was head of NORAD during the 9/11 attacks, when the hijacked planes were not intercepted because during their very long flights to their targets, air defense was coincidentally called off. Quite amazing, isn't it, that this catastrophic failure to protect US airspace under his command was REWARDED with promotion to head of the newly created NorthCom?)
I also suggest you read this article on NorthCom, written by a Canadian. (Don't be put off by the title; when you've read the article you will understand why he chose it.)
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO411C.html. It's a very long article and I think it's important to read it all. This is another helpful article:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO504B.html There are more articles but this is a good place to start.
We are teetering on the edge of descent into a fascist military dictatorship. But bless the American people, it’s looking like this plan is backfiring. Instead of enhanced fear of natural disasters, blamed on failure of local and state authority, we are getting more and more stories of how the Bush Administration has DELAYED AND BLOCKED aid. We have Bush Administration officials caught in blatant lies about every aspect of this. Instead of race/class riots breaking out, we have the American people reacting with outrage at the monstrous treatment of the hurricane victims by their own federal government, which looks more deliberate every day. The American public is taking on the rescue and aid of the victims, whom they rightly see as abandoned to their death by Bush and his political hacks. Amazingly, the faithful Poodle Press, which has for so long licked all GOP Guccis in sight, is actually telling enough of the truth that the Bush Administration is not getting away with their usual spin. These are hopeful signs, both for the victims and the rest of the country.
One way or the other, this the turning point for our nation.
(Oh, and by the way, it’s not just the profits in rebuilding –
just THINK of the lucrative deals they could make if they succeeded in clearing New Orleans for “redevelopment.” More oil refineries (maybe the Saudis would invest?), more shipping infrastructure, resorts, lots of extremely profitable building contracts and yet more profits from the results. Getting the poor people out of the way would make this possible for them, and they’ve never shown any aversion to theft or blood money.)
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