We are all prisoners now

By Weekly Archive On Jan 9, 2008

By
Paul Craig Roberts Read Spanish Version

"They’re
locking them up today
They’re throwing away the key
I
wonder who it’ll be tomorrow, you or me?"

—
The Red Telephone (LOVE,
1967)

At
Christmas time it has been my habit to write a column in remembrance
of the many innocent people in prisons whose lives have been stolen
by the U.S. criminal justice (sic) system that is as inhumane as it
is indifferent to justice. Usually I retell the cases of William
Strong and Christophe Gaynor, two men framed in the state of Virginia
by prosecutors and judges as wicked and corrupt as any who served
Hitler or Stalin.

This
year is different. All Americans are now imprisoned in a world
of lies and deception created by the Bush Regime and the two
complicit parties of Congress, by federal judges too timid or
ignorant to recognize a rogue regime running roughshod over the
Constitution, by a bought and paid for media that serves as
propagandists for a regime of war criminals, and by a public who have
forsaken their Founding Fathers.

Americans
are also imprisoned by fear, a false fear created by the hoax of
"terrorism." It
has turned out that headline terrorist events since 9/11 have been
orchestrated by the U.S. government. For example, the alleged
terrorist plot to blow up Chicago’s Sears Tower was the brainchild of
a FBI agent who searched out a few disaffected people to give lip
service to the plot devised by the FBI agent. He arrested his
victims, whose trial ended in acquittal and mistrial.

Many
Europeans regard 9/11 itself as an orchestrated event. Former cabinet
members of the British, Canadian and German governments and the Chief
of Staff of the Russian Army have publicly expressed their doubts
about the official 9/11 story. Recently, a former president of Italy,
Francesco Cossiga, said in an interview with the newspaper, Corriere
della Sera [Osama-Berlusconi,
November 30, 2007,] that
"democratic
elements in America and Europe, with the Italian center-left in the
forefront, now know that the 9/11 attack was planned and executed by
the American CIA and Mossad in order to blame the Arab countries, and
to persuade the Western powers to undertake military action both in
Iraq and Afghanistan."

It
is unclear whether Cossiga was being sarcastic about the opinion of
skeptics or merely reporting what people think. I have written to him
asking for clarification and will report any reply that I
receive. Apparently, the Italian media has not offered a
clarification.

Cossiga’s
statement has not been reported by a U.S. newspaper or TV channel.
Raising doubts among Americans about the government is not a strong
point of the corporate media.

Americans
live in a world of propaganda designed to secure their acquiescence
to war crimes, torture, searches and police state measures, military
aggression, hegemony and oppression, while portraying Americans (and
Israelis) as the salt of the earth who are threatened by Muslims who
hate their "freedom
and democracy."

Americans
cling to this "truth"
while the Bush regime and a complicit Congress destroy the Bill of
Rights and engineer the theft of elections.

Freedom
and democracy in America have been reduced to no-fly lists, spying
without warrants, arrests without warrants or evidence, permanent
detention despite the constitutional protection of habeas corpus,
torture despite the prohibition against self-incrimination — the
list goes on and on.

In
today’s fearful America, a U.S. Senator, whose elder brothers were
(1) a military hero killed in action, (2) a President of the United
States assassinated in office, (3) an Attorney General of the United
States and likely president except he was assassinated like his
brother, can find himself on the no-fly list. Present and former
high government officials, with top secret security clearances,
cannot fly with a tube of toothpaste or a bottle of water despite the
absence of any evidence that extreme measures imposed by "airport
security"
makes
flying safer. [No
proof airport security makes flying safer:study,
Reuters, December 20, 2007]

Elderly
American citizens with walkers and young mothers with children are
meticulously searched because U.S. Homeland Security cannot tell the
difference between an American citizen and a terrorist.

All
Americans should note the ominous implications of the inability of
Homeland Security to distinguish an American citizen from a
terrorist.

When
Airport Security cannot differentiate a U.S. Marine General recipient
of the Medal of Honor from a terrorist, Americans have all the
information they need to know.

Any
and every American can be arrested by unaccountable authority, held
indefinitely without charges and tortured until he or she can no
longer stand the abuse and confesses.

This
predicament, which can now befall any American, is our reward for our
stupidity, our indifference, our gullibility, and our lack of
compassion for anyone but ourselves.

Some
Americans have begun to comprehend the tremendous financial costs of
the "war
on terror."
But few
understand the cost to American liberty. Last October a
Democrat-sponsored bill, "Prevention
of Violent Radicalism and Homegrown Terrorism,"
passed the House of Representatives 404 to 6.

Only
six members of the House voted against tyrannical legislation that
would destroy freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and that
would mandate 18 months of congressional hearings to discover
Americans with "extreme"
views who could be preemptively arrested.

What
better indication that the US Constitution has lost its authority
when elected representatives closest to the people pass a bill that
permits the Bill of Rights to be overturned by the subjective opinion
of members of an "Extremist
Belief Commission"
and
Homeland Security bureaucrats? Clearly, Americans face no
greater threat than the government in Washington.

Paul
Craig Roberts
was
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration. He
is the author of
Supply-Side Revolution: An Insider’s Account of Policymaking in
Washington.