Halliburton to build prisons in US for people smirk doesn't like

[donsu]

http://www.counterpunch.com/cassel01042005.html

They Say They Can Lock You Up for Life Without a Trial

Charged with No Crime, Implicated in No Wrongdoing


On Sunday, Jan 2, Dana Priest, writing in the Washington Post, described the plans of the Pentagon and the Justice Department to imprison indefinitely, perhaps for life, persons it wants "removed" from society. Having committed no crime, but believed to be associated with "terrorism" however that is defined at any given moment in time"the people will live in prison camps modeled on American prisons.

At this moment, the CIA admits that it has imprisoned hundreds of people in foreign prisons. Amnesty International puts that number at well over 1000. At least one American citizen, Ahmed Abu Ali, has been thus imprisoned in Saudi Arabia at the demand of federal prosecutors. Charged with no crime, implicated in no wrongdoing.

-snip-

To avoid restlessness among its surrogate thugs, Priest writes that the US is contracting with private companies (no doubt subsidiaries of Halliburton, which continues to build prisons in Guantanamo and Iraq) to build new prisons on American soil. Sources say the government is writing the rules (as they can do until somebody stops them), and it is specifically written that these prisoners won't be charged with any crime and will never set foot in a courtroom.

-snip-

In case you have forgotten what gulags are, let me refresh your memory. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, gulags made up a system of Soviet labor camps and accompanying detention and transit camps and prisons that from the 1920s to the mid-1950s housed the political prisoners and criminals of the Soviet Union.

-snip-

Think about this when you are sitting in an airport waiting for a plane. The CIA has a Gulfstream jet that might have a seat waiting for you. We will have an attorney general, Albert Gonzales, who has already validated your government's plans. In memos to his boss right after September 11, and in subsequent memos, Gonzales told Bush he had unlimited and unassailable power during "wartime."
-snip-
------------------------------


whose to stop them?

watching america change.

america - the country that tortures.

[Ezlivin]

1. Damn near made me drop my bong

They already are on a record-setting pace to overstuff the prisons with non-violent offenders.

Why should they stop now?

Of course, if you are incarcerated, you get medical and dental care, along with three meals a day and plenty of social interaction. That's compassionate conservatism in action!

[unpossibles]

3. well.. that was before

"Of course, if you are incarcerated, you get medical and dental care, along with three meals a day and plenty of social interaction. That's compassionate conservatism in action!"

now you get a free black head-sack, a crate and a dog.

[Ezlivin]

6. How about my Lyndie England pin-up poster?

And a monogrammed body bag.

Democracy's on the march, eh?

[B3Nut]

2. This is just lovely.

I cannot believe that we've sunk to this level. This is truly gut-wrenchingly sickening. If this is allowed to continue the USA will soon be past tense. We are hastening our own demise and if we continue to countenance this horrific crap we will end up a curse word on the lips of historians for centuries to come.

Todd in Beerbratistan

[Pegleg Thd]

4. Get out the Tinfoil

they are going to come and get us.

[Maat]

5. Wow. DUers bring such news to the table.

I appreciate it, but it amounts to more bad things I'll have to tell my hubby about. What a country!

Whatever happened to the pride I had in at least our facade of caring about fundamental rights?

[Skidmore]

7. Bush*s Gulag.

Doin' Stalin proud.

[radwriter0555]

8. Rad's "I told you so #3898"

I have been speaking of the coming gulags for 2 months now.

I'm glad people are catching on.

[anarchy1999]

16. Try 3 years now.

Glad to see you are on it.

on edit see this:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/gorwell.htm

snip to the end:

1984 was a bitter protest against the nightmarish future and corruption of truth and free speech of the modern world. In the story, Britannia has become Airstrip One in the superstate Oceania, which is controlled by Big Brother and the Party. "The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power." (from Nineteen Eighty-Four) The Party's agents constantly rewrite history. The official language is Newspeak, and the society is dominated by such slogans as "War is Peace", "Freedom is Slavery", "Ignorance is Strength." Goldstein with his book is supposedly plotting against Oceania, and a target of a hate period. The hero, Winston Smith, a minor Party operative, rewrites the past at the Ministry of Truth. He keeps a secret diary and has a brief love affair with a girl named Julia. He believes that O'Brien, a member of the Inner Party, is not sympathetic to Big Brother. O'Brien enrolls him and Julia in a conspiracy. One day Winston is arrested by the Thought Police, tortured and brainwashed. O'Brien directs Winston's torture and rehabilitation and tells that Goldstein is the invention of the Party. His spirit broken, Winston learns to love Big Brother. Winston and Julia meet briefly one day, they both have gone through the process and have lost their former love for each other. Some critics have related Smith's sufferings to those the author underwent at preparatory school - Winston is finally broken by rats. Orwell has said that the book was written "to alter other people's idea of the kind of society they should strive after."

In 1998 Martin Seymour-Smith listed Orwell's dystopia among 100 most influential books ever written. It has inspired less or more directly a number of other science fiction novels, among them Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Orwell himself implicitly acknowledged his debt to Evgeny Zamyatin's (1884-1937) novel We (in Russia My), which was written in 1920 and translated into English 1924. Although Orwell is best-known as a novelist, his essays are among the finest of the 20th-century. He also produced newspaper articles and reviews, which were written for money, but he carefully crafted his other essays for such journals as Partisan Review, Adelphi, and Horizon. Without hesitation he accused that Yeats is a fascist, H.G. Wells was out of touch with reality, Salvador Dali he found decadent, but he defended P.G. Wodehouse. In 'Why Write?' and 'Politics and the English Language' (1948) Orwell argued that writers have an obligation of fighting social injustice, oppression, and the power of totalitarian regimes.

[indepat]

9. Is this so shocking considering what some have allegedly done to frogs

and cats?

[GOPBasher]

10. I love sinking into fascism.

Will it ever stop? Do we even have a chance anymore?

[unpossibles]

13. we always have a chance

remember that the human spirit can triumph over these BS warlords, although it often takes time.

What bothers me is, how long will it take before people decided to do what is necessary? What will have to happen to turn public opinion?

I am pretty sure the majority of German citizens did not know the true atrocities of the Reich until later.

[GOPBasher]

15. That's what I mean.

Stupidity is rampant in this country. How do we get through to people? They don't know what's happening.

[oneold1-4u]

11. It is good to know-LOL

That when they come after all of us on du we will have a place where we can meet one another and discuss why (not how) this nation could do this. Well, we are now informed that we are outnumbered so they can do as they damn please. The paranoia within the highest ranks of republicans, because they understand what they are doing, is giving cause to build lock-ups and create a foreign military within our borders to enforce it.

[Alisa]

12. Cheap labor /or military volunteer's?

Kinda slick planning I'd say.

[roguevalley]

14. This power tripping, God-complex thing they are doing here is

probably the only way they can get an orgasm. Consider it viagra for the cruel.

[jokerman93]

17. A little light on details?

Elaine Cassel seems to be reporting on an article written elsewhere and giving her commentary. I'm concerned that such an affiliation of corporate prisons may indeed be in the process of forming. But Cassel offers no hard references or evidence of her own investigation of this. It's hearsay, no?

What in this article is actionable by a US citizen?

:shrug:

[bobthedrummer]

18. Kick.

:dem::kick: