Thursday, June 30, 2005

The Follies of the Powers that Be

June 29, 2005

Negroponte to Head New National Security Division

By DOUGLAS JEHL

WASHINGTON, June 29 - President Bush ordered today changes intended to break down old walls between foreign and domestic intelligence activities by creating a new national security division within the Federal Bureau of Investigation that will fall under the overall direction of John D. Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence. The directive by Mr. Bush is aimed at consolidating the power of Mr. Negroponte, whose authority over the F.B.I. had been left ambiguous. It also sets in motion a major restructuring intended to dissolve the barriers that have often kept the Central Intelligence Agency and the F.B.I. at arm's length, and elevates intelligence operations to new prominence within an F.B.I. that has remained firmly oriented toward traditional law enforcement, even since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/29/politics/29cnd-intel.html?ex=1277697600&en=afd0b2a1ec47ea64&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

MY TURN:

They've been trying to do this since J. Edgar Hoover's days. The FBI under Hoover distrusted the Yale Skull and Bones guys over at the CIA. Those in the know knew what these sons of opium dealers did, while the FBI and the DEA risked their lives with no anticipated fortunes or senior government appointments after their law enforcement careers were over. They were incensed beyond toleration when Nixon and Halderman used the CIA to trump FBI investigations of Watergate. The FBI, before Louis Freeh, Pres. Clinton's director and Bush patsy respected the law and the legal restrictions on their investigations.

The PTB tried all during the '50's and '60's to use Communism and the racial and anti-war disturbances to breach this wall to no effect. Then came the '80's and Iran-Contra and the drug running escapades involving Clinton/Bush I, circumventing the necessity of breaching the wall. They passed the RICO acts and the property/drug seizure laws as well as the IRS to do the same things. During the late Bush I years and during the Clinton administration, they tried using civil unrest, the racist/militia armies, WTC bombing, Branch Davidians, and other local bred terrorists to extend the powers of investigation, enact gun bans, and extra-judicial seizures of property. However, local bred terrorism didn't instill the proper level of fear in the public so that the people would trade their rights for security. Besides, the local boys were of our own.

So, along comes 9/11 and now we have a xenophobia that created great fear in the public, at the same time manifesting that time worn phrase, "As long as it's them damn furriners, more power to ya!"

Now, the FBI has finally been given the powers of extra-judicial, star chamber investigations and trials without jury, all in the name of national security. "Those that sacrifice liberty for security will soon find that they have little of either." Wasn't that James Madison who said that? May he rest in peace.

I'm like my dad, now. I don't really give a shit, because it's all folly to me. In the mean time, I will try to live a life that's enlightened enough that it spreads to enough people, including my kids and their peers, so that these control freaks find their efforts in vain. Who can control the human spirit? No one.

Namaste'

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