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13 January 2015
By Stephen Lendman
Civil liberties in America, Britain, France, and other
Western societies are gravely threatened. Already
seriously eroded.
Expect more assaults on fundamental freedoms ahead.
Based on the usual canards.
Protecting national security. Defending free society
rights. How by enacting police state laws against
them?
According to a July 2010 ACLU report titled
"Establishing a New Normal," Obama administration
officials waged unprecedented war on civil liberties.
Continuing the worst Bush era practices. Adding more
extreme ones. The ACLU discussed the following top 10
post-9/11 abuses of power:
(1) Warrantless Wiretapping
Candidate Obama promised to end the practice.
President Obama institutionalized it more than ever.
Mass surveillance is pervasive. Big Brother watches
everyone.
Secretly with virtually no congressional or judicial
oversight. No public say over their own lives, rights
and welfare. No concern about breaching fundamental
rule of law principles.
(2) Torture, Kidnapping and Detention
Obama continues what Bush began. Anyone can be
declared an enemy of the state for any reason or none
at all.
Lawless arrests, detentions, torture, and at times
cold-blooded murder follow. Targeted individuals can
be held indefinitely without charge.
Innocence is no defense. Guilt by accusation suffices.
Rule of law protections don't apply.
(3) The Growing Surveillance Society
Personal data on virtually everyone is collected and
stored. Mass surveillance is more pervasive than ever.
America's intelligence apparatus, the military, state
and local police, even private companies are involved.
Terrorism is the pretext. Unchallenged control the
objective. Everyone targeted.
(4) Abuse of the Patriot Act.
Enactment eviscerated fundamental Bill of Rights
freedoms. Federal investigators continue
unconstitutional surveillance tactics against
virtually everyone.
Lawful advocacy groups are monitored. War on Islam
targets Muslims for their faith and ethnicity. At
times their activism, prominence and charity.
(5) Government Secrecy
Candidate Obama promised transparency, accountability
and reform. President Obama presides over the most
secretive, unaccountable administration in US history.
Wanting free flowing information stifled. Total
control over what's made public. Unprecedented amounts
of government information classified to conceal what's
vital for everyone to know.
Journalists are monitored. Their phone records
accessed. Emails read. Personal movements tracked.
Independent journalism is threatened. Government
wrongdoing suppressed. Whistleblowers criminalized for
revealing it.
Police state extremism threatens everyone. "It's time
to drastically" change what's ongoing," said ACLU
Washington Legislative Office director Laura Murphy.
(6) Real ID
"Rammed through Congress in 2005." Attached to an
unrelated "must pass" bill. Establishes the foundation
for a national ID card.
Makes it harder for persecuted people to receive
asylum. States must standardized driver's licenses.
According to yet to be established guidelines.
Gives Washington access to state and local databases.
Permits secret deportations. Makes non-citizens
vulnerable to deportation for lawful speech or
associations.
(7) No Fly and Selectee Lists
Targeting anyone for any reason labeled as security
risks. Whether true or false. As of 2010, included
about 720,000 names.
All with "mysterious or ill-defined criteria" for why
designated. Lists are all-sweeping. Rife with errors.
Even the late Senator Ted Kennedy was flagged.
Law Professor Francis Boyle was placed on a terrorism
watch list. He's been stopped, searched and questioned
when traveling abroad.
(8) Political Spying
NSA, FBI, DOD and other government agencies routinely
spy extrajudicially. Through FOIA requests, ACLU
learned about monitoring Quakers.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Greenpeace. The Arab American Anti-Defamation
Committee. The ACLU itself. Other civil and human
rights organizations. Their officials.
(9) Abuse of Material Witness Statute
So-called "material witnesses" can be arrested and
detained. Especially Muslims. Most targeted
individuals committed no crimes. Or have knowledge
about what authorities seek.
Innocent victims are detained indefinitely uncharged.
At times because US officials "believe (they) might do
something in the future," said ACLU.
Racial and religious profiling is rife. Activists are
targeted on unfounded suspicions of providing
"material support" for terrorism
(10) Attacks on Academic Freedom
"Censorship at the border" prevents scholars opposed
to lawless US policies from entering the country. "(O)utright
censorship and prescreening of scientific (and other
articles) occur before publication."
Western free societies are threatened. Civil liberties
in America are fast disappearing. Europeans are losing
theirs.
Expect authorities to take full advantage of Paris
killings. Instituting harsher than ever measures in
response.
On January 11, The New York Times headlined "FBI Is
Broadening Surveillance Role, Report Shows."
Saying the agency collects and "retain(s) unprocessed
communications gathered without a warrant to analyze
for its own purposes."
Allegedly on non-citizens. Heavily redacted FOIA
information obtained conceals likely targeting
virtually anyone.
FBI director James Comey warned about radicalized
Islamists in Syria planning to attack America and/or
its allies. "(V)ery, very soon," he said.
"Given our visibility, we know they're serious people,
bent on destruction." CIA operatives and US special
forces arm, train, fund and direct radicalized
Islamists.
Death squads used as proxies. Against US enemies.
Ravaging Syria. Comey didn't explain.
Britain's MI5 warned of Paris-style killings on UK
soil. General Director of the Security Service Andrew
Parker hyped a likely "mass casualty attack" coming.
So-called intelligence indicates "specific plots," he
said. Including blowing up a passenger jet. Mass
public killings.
Hit-and-run attacks using vehicles. Deadly threats are
increasing, he said. So-called "terrorists" may be
able "to operate beyond our reach."
Threats are "unlikely to abate for some time."
Describing what he called the "phenomenon of the
modern age."
Wants stepped up police and security services ability
to act more forcefully against whatever are called
terrorist threats.
If past is prologue, expect future attacks. False
flags like previous ones. Blamed on the usual
suspects. Islamic extremists.
Used as pretexts for waging imperial wars. More
repressive legislation. Targeting civil liberties for
elimination altogether. In Britain. America. France.
Elsewhere.
Incidents like Paris killings aren't random. French
authorities closely monitored individuals involved for
years.
In 2005, Cherif Kouarchi was sentenced to three years
in prison for "association with wrongdoers with the
intention of committing a terrorist act."
His sentence was later suspended. He and brother Said
reportedly got Al Qaeda training. Fought against in
Syria.
Returned home. Were on a French intelligence watch
list. Yet managed to pull off Charlie Hebdo killings
with military precision.
Then get away easily despite heavily policed Paris.
Before tracked down and killed. Along with grocery
store hostage-taker Amedy Coulibaly.
Eliminated to silence them. Dead men tell no tales. UK
Prime Minister David Cameron signaled what's likely
coming.
Citing "a challenge to our security." Saying "we have
to fight this terrorism with everything we have…(D)efending
the values we all hold dear."
Forget about Islamist extremists. State-terrorism
alone matters. Threatening fundamental freedoms.
Committing false flag attacks. Blamed on the usual
suspects. So-called radicalized Islamists. Targets of
choice.
Using the Kouarchi brothers and Coulibaly as
convenient patsies. Heavily armed with an arsenal of
weapons and munitions, reports said.
How gotten not explained. Murdering them to silence
them. Denying them due process.
Wanting the official narrative left unchallenged.
Wanting Paris killings used as pretexts for likely
harder than ever hardline policies to follow.
On January 11, Reuters headlined "White House to hold
global security summit Feb. 18: US official." On
"countering violent extremism."
Saying Obama invited allies to discuss ways to prevent
terrorism. In Paris, Attorney General Eric Holder
said:
"We will bring together all of our allies to discuss
ways in which we can counteract this violent extremism
that exists around the world."
White House press secretary Josh Earnest issued a
statement saying:
"On February 18, 2015, the White House will host a
Summit on Countering Violent Extremism to highlight
domestic and international efforts to prevent violent
extremists and their supporters from radicalizing,
recruiting, or inspiring individuals or groups in the
United States and abroad to commit acts of violence,
efforts made even more imperative in light of recent,
tragic attacks in Ottawa, Sydney, and Paris."
"This summit will build on the strategy the White
House released in August of 2011, Empowering Local
Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United
States, the first national strategy to prevent violent
extremism domestically."
In September, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson
first announced it. Citing a growing threat from
Islamic State militants.
Saying an October summit would be held. Why postponed
wasn't explained.
"Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) efforts rely
heavily on well-informed and resilient local
communities," said Earnest.
"(O)ur partners around the world are actively
implementing programs to prevent violent extremism and
foreign terrorist fighter recruitment."
"The summit will include representatives from a number
of partner nations, focusing on the themes of
community engagement, religious leader engagement, and
the role of the private sector and tech community."
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said his
European counterparts agreed to increase cooperative
efforts to prevent future terrorist attacks.
Including more inclusive watch lists. Travel
restrictions. Preventing online use for whatever
authorities call terrorism or terrorist related
activities.
"We need to work more closely with Internet companies
to guarantee the reporting and if possible removal of
all content that amounts to an apology of terrorism or
calls for violence and hatred," he said.
An upcoming EU interior justice meeting is planned to
discuss further action. Perhaps repressive legislation
is already drafted.
In France. Britain. America. Elsewhere. Ready to be
enacted. Hundreds of pages of detailed Patriot Act
provisions became US law six weeks after 9/11.
Months are needed to draft legislation this complex
and inclusive. Including agreeing on measures wanted.
At the time, congressional members said they had no
time to review the measure in advance. Bipartisan
House members passed it 357 - 66.
Former Senator Russ Feingold was the sole Senate no
vote. Not another profile in courage joined him. The
measure passed 98 to 1.
It bears repeating. Expect likely further attacks on
civil liberties ahead. En route to eliminating them
altogether.
Police states operate this way. America is most
threatening of all.
A Final Comment
Police Commissioner Helric Fredou investigating
Charlie Hebdo killings died mysteriously. A near-total
media blackout followed.
An exception was France 3 Limousin Poitou Charentes. A
regional television service. Part of France 3's
network.
Headlining "Limoges: suicide d'un commissaire de
police." Needing no translation. Providing little
information. Suggesting depression from burnout.
21st Century Wire headlined "New Twist: Charlie Hebdo
Police Investigator Turns Up Dead, 'Suicided.' "
Saying "this latest bizarre bombshell…fuel(s)
speculation as to the covert nature of the Charlie
Hebdo false flag affair."
Lots of people are depressed. Few commit suicide. Did
Fredou take his own life? Or was he killed? If so,
why?
Was he about to reveal what French authorities want
suppressed? Perhaps refuting key parts of the official
story.
Maybe suggesting what this writer and others believe.
Paris killings were less about terrorism and more
about state-sponsored false flag deception.
Why is there a near-total media blackout? Why no
reporting on something demanding headlines. Nothing
from all major Western news sources.
Silence suggests coverup. What little information came
out said Fredou shot himself in his office for
"unknown" reasons.
An almost identical incident occurred in November
2013. In Limoges. In west/central France.
At the time, Le Parisien headlined "Limoges: un
commissaire de police se suicide avec son arme
(weapon)."
He was third-ranked SRPJ officer (Service regional de
police judicaire). Shot himself with his own gun in a
police hotel.
Following Ferdou's death, Le Parisien headlined "Deux
suicides de commissaire en deux ans." Two commissioner
suicides in two years.
Explaining little. No likely connection between
Ferdou's death and his ongoing Charlie Hebdo
investigation.
Little more is known at this time. Coverup is rife. It
bears repeating. Ferdou perhaps had information French
authorities want suppressed.
Contradicting the official narrative. Exposing false
flag deception. Ferdou can't explain. Dead men tell no
tales.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached
at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as
editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in
Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen
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