www.prisonplanet.com
(NUMEROUS Supporting Links at Source URL)




Halliburton Detention Camps For Political Subversives


Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | February 1 2006


In another shining example of modern day corporate fascism, it was announced recently that Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root had been awarded a $385 million dollar contract by Homeland Security to construct detention and processing facilities in the event of a national emergency.

The language of the preamble to the agreement veils the program with talk of temporary migrant holding centers, but it is made clear that the camps will also be used "as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency."

Discussions of federal concentration camps is no longer the rhetoric of paranoid Internet conspiracy theorists, it is mainstream news.

Under the enemy combatant designation anyone at the behest of the US government, even if they are a US citizen, can be kidnapped and placed in an internment facility forever without trial. Jose Padilla, an American citizen, has spent over four years in a Navy brig and is only just now getting a trial.

In 2002, FEMA sought bids from major real estate and engineering firms to construct giant internment facilities in the case of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack or a natural disaster.

Okanogan County Commissioner Dave Schulz went public three years ago with his contention that his county was set to be a location for one of the camps.



Alex Jones has attended numerous military urban warfare training drills across the US where role players were used to simulate arresting American citizens and taking them to internment camps.

The move towards the database state in the US and the UK, where every offence is arrestable and DNA records of every suspect, even if later proven innocent, are permanently kept on record, is the only tool necessary to create a master list of 'subversives' that would be subject to internment in a manufactured time of national emergency.

The national ID card is also intended to be used for this purpose, just as the Nazis used early IBM computer punch card technology to catalogue lists of homosexuals, gypsies and Jews before the round-ups began.

Section 44 of the Terrorism Act in Britain enables police to obtain name and address details of anyone they choose, whether they are acting suspiciously or not. Those details remain on a database forever. To date, 119,000 names of political activists have been taken and this is a figure that will skyrocket once the post 7/7 figures are taken into account. At the height of the Iraq war protests, around a million people marched across the country. However, most of these people were taking part in a political protest for the first time and as a one off. Even if we take a figure of half, 500,000 people being politically active in Britain, that means that the government has already registered around a quarter of political activists in the UK.

In truth the number is probably above half because we are not factoring in those already on MI5 'subversive' lists and those listed after the 7/7 bombings, when the powers were used even more broadly.



Concurrently in the US, a new provision in the extended Patriot Act bill would allow Secret Service agents to arrest and jail protesters accused of breaching any security perimeter, even if the President or any other protected official isn't present. The definition of 'free speech zones' can be shifted around loosely and this would open the floodgates for protesters to be grabbed and hauled away in any circumstance at the whim of the Secret Service.

During the 2004 RNC protests, thousands of New Yorkers were arrested en masse in indiscriminate round-ups and taken to Pier 57 (pictured), a condemned, asbestos poisoned old bus depot, where they were imprisoned without charge for up to 24 hours or more.

The existence and development of internment camps are solely intended to be used to round up en masse and imprison 'political dissidents' (anyone who isn't prepared to lick government boots) after a simulated tactical nuke or biological attack on a major US or European city.

blogs.washingtonpost.com


Early Warning

William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security


NSA Expands, Centralizes Domestic Spying

Code Name(s) of the Week: DIAZ, Emergejust, Freedom, Highpoint, PASSGEAR, Viceroy


The National Security Agency is in the process of building a new warning hub and data warehouse in the Denver area, realigning much of its workforce from Ft. Meade, Maryland to Colorado.

The Denver Post reported last week that NSA was moving some of its operations to the Denver suburb of Aurora.

On the surface, the NSA move seems to be a management and cost cutting measure, part of a post-9/11 decentralization. "This strategy better aligns support to national decision makers and combatant commanders," an NSA spokesman told the Denver paper.

In truth, NSA is aligning its growing domestic eavesdropping operations -- what the administration calls "terrorist warning" in its current PR campaign -- with military homeland defense organizations, as well as the CIA's new domestic operations Colorado.

Translation: Hey Congress, Colorado is now the American epicenter for national domestic spying.

In May, Dana Priest reported here in The Washington Post that the CIA was planning to shift much of its domestic operations to Aurora, Colorado.

The move of the CIA's National Resources Division was then described as being undertaken "for operational reasons."

The Division is responsible for exploiting the knowledge of U.S. citizens and foreigners in the United States who might have unique information about foreign countries and terrorist activities. The functions extend from engaging Iraqi or Iranian Americans in covert operations to develop information and networks in their home countries to recruiting foreign students and visitors to be American spies.

Aurora is already a reconnaissance satellite downlink and analytic center focusing on domestic warning. The NSA and CIA join U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) in Colorado. NORTHCOM is post 9/11 the U.S. military command responsible for homeland defense.

The new NSA operation is located at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, at a facility commonly known as the Aerospace Data Facility.

According to Government Executive Magazine -- thanks DP -- "NSA is building a massive data storage facility in Colorado, which will be able to hold the electronic equivalent of the Library of Congress every two days." This new NSA data warehouse is the hub of "data mining" and analysis development, allowing the eavesdropping agency to develop and make better use of the unbelievabytes of data it collects but does not exploit.

Part of the move to Denver, Government Executive reported, was to expand NSA's base of contractors able to support its increasingly complex intelligence extraction mission.

Contracting documents from 2004 and 2005 obtained by this reporter identify numerous Top Secret and compartmented computing and signals intelligence projects being run by prime contractors Lockheed Martin; Northrop Grumman Mission Systems; and Raytheon on behalf of NSA in Colorado to building the domestic warning hub and data warehouse. The projects have the code names DIAZ, Emergejust, Freedom, Highpoint, PASSGEAR, and Viceroy.

Ironically, the only federal agency seemingly absent from the domestic intelligence trifecta is the Department of Homeland Security, perpetually out to lunch.


Note: A free copy of my book Code Names to any reader who can tell me -- in English -- what any of these programs actually do.

By William M. Arkin | January 30, 2006; 08:30 AM ET

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/4153306

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference NSA Expands:

» Rocky Mountain High from GroupIntel
William Arkin points out an interesting set of coincidences: The National Security Agency is in the process of building a new warning hub and data warehouse in the Denver area, realigning much of its workforce from Ft. Meade, Maryland to Colorado. ... [Read More]

Tracked on Jan 30, 2006 11:53:09 AM

» Colorado: epicenter of espionage from Glorfindel of Gondolin
William Arkin reports in the Washington Post that the Denver suburb of Aurora is becoming a hotbed for national espionage: NSA is aligning its growing domestic eavesdropping operations -- what the administration calls "terrorist warning" in its current... [Read More]

Tracked on Jan 30, 2006 6:39:46 PM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4655196.stm


US plans to 'fight the net' revealed


By Adam Brookes BBC Pentagon correspondent


A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military's plans for "information operations" - from psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks.


Bloggers beware.

As the world turns networked, the Pentagon is calculating the military opportunities that computer networks, wireless technologies and the modern media offer.

From influencing public opinion through new media to designing "computer network attack" weapons, the US military is learning to fight an electronic war.

The declassified document is called "Information Operations Roadmap". It was obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University using the Freedom of Information Act.

Officials in the Pentagon wrote it in 2003. The Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, signed it.

Information Operations Roadmap PDF document at Source URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4655196.stm

The "roadmap" calls for a far-reaching overhaul of the military's ability to conduct information operations and electronic warfare. And, in some detail, it makes recommendations for how the US armed forces should think about this new, virtual warfare.

The document says that information is "critical to military success". Computer and telecommunications networks are of vital operational importance.

Propaganda

The operations described in the document include a surprising range of military activities: public affairs officers who brief journalists, psychological operations troops who try to manipulate the thoughts and beliefs of an enemy, computer network attack specialists who seek to destroy enemy networks.

All these are engaged in information operations.

Perhaps the most startling aspect of the roadmap is its acknowledgement that information put out as part of the military's psychological operations, or Psyops, is finding its way onto the computer and television screens of ordinary Americans.

"Information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and Psyops, is increasingly consumed by our domestic audience," it reads.

"Psyops messages will often be replayed by the news media for much larger audiences, including the American public," it goes on.

The document's authors acknowledge that American news media should not unwittingly broadcast military propaganda. "Specific boundaries should be established," they write. But they don't seem to explain how.

"In this day and age it is impossible to prevent stories that are fed abroad as part of psychological operations propaganda from blowing back into the United States - even though they were directed abroad," says Kristin Adair of the National Security Archive.

Credibility problem

Public awareness of the US military's information operations is low, but it's growing - thanks to some operational clumsiness.

When it describes plans for electronic warfare, or EW, the document takes on an extraordinary tone. It seems to see the internet as being equivalent to an enemy weapons system

Late last year, it emerged that the Pentagon had paid a private company, the Lincoln Group, to plant hundreds of stories in Iraqi newspapers. The stories - all supportive of US policy - were written by military personnel and then placed in Iraqi publications.

And websites that appeared to be information sites on the politics of Africa and the Balkans were found to be run by the Pentagon.

But the true extent of the Pentagon's information operations, how they work, who they're aimed at, and at what point they turn from informing the public to influencing populations, is far from clear.

The roadmap, however, gives a flavour of what the US military is up to - and the grand scale on which it's thinking.

It reveals that Psyops personnel "support" the American government's international broadcasting. It singles out TV Marti - a station which broadcasts to Cuba - as receiving such support.

It recommends that a global website be established that supports America's strategic objectives. But no American diplomats here, thank you. The website would use content from "third parties with greater credibility to foreign audiences than US officials".

It also recommends that Psyops personnel should consider a range of technologies to disseminate propaganda in enemy territory: unmanned aerial vehicles, "miniaturized, scatterable public address systems", wireless devices, cellular phones and the internet.

'Fight the net'

When it describes plans for electronic warfare, or EW, the document takes on an extraordinary tone.

It seems to see the internet as being equivalent to an enemy weapons system.

"Strategy should be based on the premise that the Department [of Defense] will 'fight the net' as it would an enemy weapons system," it reads.

The slogan "fight the net" appears several times throughout the roadmap.

The authors warn that US networks are very vulnerable to attack by hackers, enemies seeking to disable them, or spies looking for intelligence.

"Networks are growing faster than we can defend them... Attack sophistication is increasing... Number of events is increasing."

US digital ambition

And, in a grand finale, the document recommends that the United States should seek the ability to "provide maximum control of the entire electromagnetic spectrum".

US forces should be able to "disrupt or destroy the full spectrum of globally emerging communications systems, sensors, and weapons systems dependent on the electromagnetic spectrum".

Consider that for a moment.

The US military seeks the capability to knock out every telephone, every networked computer, every radar system on the planet.

Are these plans the pipe dreams of self-aggrandising bureaucrats? Or are they real?

The fact that the "Information Operations Roadmap" is approved by the Secretary of Defense suggests that these plans are taken very seriously indeed in the Pentagon.

And that the scale and grandeur of the digital revolution is matched only by the US military's ambitions for it.


Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4655196.stm

Published: 2006/01/27 18:05:49 GMT

© BBC MMVI

onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_461.shtml

Jan 27th, 2006


Refute the Policies of Bush & Clinton:

Declare War on the Nationalist-Globalist Class


By John Stanton
Online Journal Contributing Writer


When will Americans recognize that theirs is a polarized, politically segregated society, not unlike those they helped create in Iraq and Palestine? When will they come to the realization that their political process is nothing more than a collusive duopoly and, as such, borderline totalitarian? There is no opposition political party of substance, of courage and, of course, there’s no real choice between two political parties. When will Americans refuse to participate in sham federal elections? When will they recognize that all the accumulated data from study after study clearly shows that America is in real crisis across the entire socioeconomic, political and foreign policy spectrum?

The list seems endless: changing demographics and ignorance of inclusion issues, leadership deficits, trade imbalances, sky rocketing health care costs, increasing unemployment, enormous consumer debt, impending foreign currency competition with the US dollar, trumped up wars on terror, embracing torture, assassination and spying, sweeping Katrina/New Orleans under the carpet, and on, and on, and on.

When will Americans realize that at this moment, the world stands one or two decisions away from WWIII, which would likely see the use of nuclear weapons and subsequent genocides and holocausts that may make those of the 20th century seem pale by comparison? And the solutions offered to clean up this mess? Re-engineering, outsourcing, tax cuts, budget cuts, creative destruction theory, trust in the market and God, more security and the tired refrain of 9-11, to name some. (On the 9-11 matter: how is it that the UK, Germany, France, and Spain could deal with “terrorists” without proclaiming their world had changed?)

All the standard solutions have failed. If you think the foregoing is a bunch of bunk, take the time to look at the trends in the American education system.

The cornerstone of America’s strength is its system of universal public and private education. America’s education system is the true melting pot of America. It brings together Americans from all walks of life: parents, guardians, students, educators, first generation Americans, the rich and the poor, the bright and challenged. The education system houses America’s greatest resource -- its youth. The industry most deserving of the moniker critical infrastructure/vital to national security, is not some power company or defense contractor, it is the American system of education. It produces America’s greatest product: informed and tolerant, open-minded young citizens. But that’s collapsing too. And if that is allowed to happen, the country will surely perish from within.

Mommy? Daddy? What Class am I in?

The president of the College Board (SAT Testing, etc.), Gaston Caperton, recently reported that educators across America fear a growing danger of creating a two-tiered population of lower and upper income students. Dr. Gary Orfield, professor of education and social policy at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, said data shows that the period of expanding and affordable college access for all Americans that existed between World War II and the mid-1970s is drawing to an end due to weak national, state and local leadership/vision, declining state and federal resources, large tuition and fee increases, a retreat from civil rights, an increasing reliance on standardized tests and, of course, economic/globalization issues. And in a new twist, there is a siphoning off of education funds from the super-poor in America to the newly emerging poor: the American middle class.

Caperton noted that James Johnson, professor of management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, indicated that some Americans are now going to India for heart bypass surgery because it is so much cheaper and the hospitals are safer. Moreover, the skill sets of American, Indian and Chinese doctors are equal. Johnson remarked that, "The job competition from throughout Asia is formidable, implying that cultural values combined with educational rigor in that part of the world makes the competition brilliant." Yet, Johnson's solution to the problems mentioned by Orfield comes right out of a corporate boardroom: reengineer college admissions to include more diversity, reengineer America's universities on the corporate model and, oh yes, become more entrepreneurial. Orfield wasn't kidding when he said that America has weak leadership and vision.

As American education goes, so goes the country. America is in the midst of a shift to a two-tiered class society based on economic data showing alarming income disparity and the concomitant destruction of public government.

The Nationalist-Globalist Class (NGC) runs the show and consists of corporations/media, foreign interests/agents, nonprofits and the like. The NGC’s enforcement arms are the three branches of American government, housing the two-party system, its agencies/departments and, of course, the US military. They are insulated/protected from the daily grind of American life and, at the first hint of attack/natural disaster, are whisked away to the safety of their bunkers.

Vital to the NGC are its American Disciples -- those millions upon millions of Americans who believe the myth and propaganda generated by their corporate and religious masters. They have signed on to The Covenant of the NGC. In this they are the American equivalent of Hamas in Palestine. The American Disciples offer a religion that grotesquely merges commodity with religious faith, and censor anyone who seriously threatens their system. They are found in the form of the local auto mechanic, with the W bumper sticker, or the computer technician with the John Kerry bumper sticker. On the national stage, it’s George Bush and Hillary Clinton, or those like John McCain and Barak Obama. What do they have to offer the world that hasn’t been seen or heard before?

The Remainder

The Fractional Class (FC) occupies the second tier of American society. These are the millions of remainders -- those Americans who are nothing more than temporary renters in the behemoth domestic and global system run by the NGC. They own tiny fractions of the stock and housing markets. They have minor input in their respective workplaces. They volunteer on weekends at the local homeless shelter. They go to dinner and a movie once a week and find solace in television entertainment. They must borrow heavily from the NGC to make their lives and those of their children work. In their homes, they argue over invoices/bills at least once a week.

Yet, The FC is not easily labeled as conservative, liberal, idealistic, realistic, republican or democrat, nor do they want to be. They want to be countrymen and women who are respected for their love of life and community, their tolerance and strength, the flexibility to adapt to change, and the recognition that making a profit or entering the military is not the highest calling in life.

The FC overflows with those who know that the NGC is destroying the social compact of American society, the environment, local communities and the community of nations. The FC understands that America must talk to the world and, moreover, take care of its own people ravaged by natural disasters and under the care of sick political leadership. They are the bloggers, the community activists, the artists, the realtor's, the cooks, the temporary workers, the unemployed poor, the working poor, the poor middle class, and the upper middle class that has gone as far as it can go. They are opposed to low wages, raped pensions and benefits, free markets that are non-free, racism, homophobia, collapsing infrastructures, religious intolerance, war, dependence on foreign nations, the police state, the lies, the staged debates/speeches, religious leaders who preach from palaces, corporate/government intrusions into their homes, and “freedom” as administered by the NGC.

The FC is hungry for change, for a new social compact, for taking chances. They are frustrated, angry and fearful of the future and are very afraid to take a stand against the NGC. But in them lies the only hope for breaking the NGC and ushering in a new era of possibilities.

The Final Solution: Theirs or Yours

The time for preferring the penned and spoken word over the sword of action is coming to an end. The NGC’s Long Wars, as annunciated in the Pentagon’s recent Quadrennial Defense Review (didn’t Sun Tzu say there is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare?) that embrace fascism, torture, and assassination will become the norm rather than the exception. As the public listens to the beat of the war drums, the political and economic assassination of social programs and other elements of the nation's infrastructure are taking place. By the time Americans turn their attention to the rape and pillage of pensions and benefits, it will be too late. Absent those, they will be forced to work ‘til they drop dead on the job.

All of this has been covered over and over again and reported on the Net via blogs, portals, foreign news outlets, and -- to a degree -- the corporate-controlled so-called "mainstream media" (MSM). Now it's all repetitive messaging. Now is the time for action, for The FC to mobilize and develop a plan that focuses solely on the state and local levels.

The NGC’s machinery must be broken and crushed. Here are some suggestions.

Break the NGC Political Duopoly, Myth & Propaganda Machine

* Talk politics with fellow citizens for more than two minutes!

* Boycott federal elections.

* Refuse to donate to the two parties/candidates.

* Don’t participate in national polls/surveys.

* Political Detox: get off the habit of watching/listening to federal politicians-officials.

* Infiltrate the two political parties -- wage psyops campaigns against the duopoly.

* Create anti-NGC parties at the state and local levels. Seek local offices.

* Pressure state legislatures and local governments.

* Force states and localities to follow the Maryland State Legislature's lead. NGC member WalMart was forced to pay some minimal health benefits to workers (governor's veto overridden). Take the next step -- increase wages, decrease hours given greater productivity of US workers.

* States and localities need to find $3 trillion for repairing collapsing cities, roads, schools, sewage plants, water pipes and electrical grids along with refunding social programs for its citizens. New types of compensation that combine a living stipend with payment in the form of a home or automobile, health care or college tuition are options. Go beyond the labor for cash model.

* Tune out MSM and cable news on TV/radio. Cancel fee-based subscriptions to newspapers, political publications, newsletters.

* Perform research via the Net for facts on the news, the latest government statements. Don't rely solely, if at all, on the NGC MSM.

* Don't support corporate media/content providers if at all possible. Turn off the TV/radio.

* Don’t let the children get programmed by popular shows that mirror adult fare. Saturdays are full of teen TV shows that mimic news programming, reality, game shows.

* At a minimum, keep the NGC out of the K-12 classrooms. Don't let the NGC overrun America's universities. On that note, The FC must monitor university/college investment practices and stop the NGC from turning young Americans into American Disciples.

* Detox the American Disciples. Fact-based argument gives them convulsions. Keep pounding away at them.

* Don’t confuse position or rank with either intelligence or common sense.

* Making a profit and wearing a military uniform are not the highest callings in life. There are hundreds of professions equally as important.


John Stanton is a Virginia based writer specializing in political and national security affairs. He is the author of "America 2004: A Power But Not Super," and co-author of "America’s Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II."

Copyright © 1998-2006 Online Journal

STILL unpacking but the move is completed and happy to be back on-line.

Thought I'd post up an interesting angle that caught my eye after being reconnected to the internet at my new location.

Back with more once settled... - EOTS


Article abstract from Truthout.org:

The Constitution is silent on whether a seated President and Vice President can be indicted, while in office, for crimes committed while they have held those offices. Constitutional lawyers are congenitally prone to announcing that this cannot be done because it would disrupt the ongoing business of the government. According to Ronnie Drugger it is time to do it, if necessary absent impeachment, for exactly that reason - to disrupt the continuation of THIS government.


Original article...

http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=2117

From issue: 1/27/2006

Impeach or Indict Bush and Cheney

by Ronnie Dugger

The year 2006 will be historic for the nation, and probably for humanity. Texans Bush and Rove and their conspirators in the second Bush presidency have disgraced American democracy at home and in the world with debasements of our nation and our values that have now entered their climactic phase. What part will the rest of us Texans play in this decisive year?

As I have written in a review-essay that appears in the tenth-anniversary spring issue of Yes!, the quarterly of new solutions published in Washington state by David and Frances Korten (YesMagazine.org), we are living and working in the very days and nights of the American Emergency, the climactic American Crisis. Our elections are bought, and our government is run by and for the major transnational corporations. Bush announced in 2002 his illegal presidential policy that the United States can and will attack other nations first, waging war on them, when he so decides. He is now waging, as if he were doing it in our names, a bloody war of aggression against Iraq, which on the face of it is a crime against humanity under the Nuremberg principles that we and our allies established and enforced with hangings after World War II. The President, the Vice-President, and their factors sold this war to Congress with twistings and lies that were crafted to infuriate and terrorize us about Iraq’s alleged connections to Al Qaeda and mass-murder endangerments to us from Iraq itself, all of which literally did not exist. In polls now six of 10 Americans do not believe the president is honest. Yet he has three more years of dictatorial control over our nuclear and other arms and our Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps and seems now to be maneuvering to use that control to wage another aggressive war on Iran, with literally incalculable consequences.

We Texans are a major source of this deterioration into crisis. The leading Democrats of the state so dishonored the liberal traditions of their party that in the resulting political vacuum, Bush was elected Governor here, and from Austin he mounted the campaign that a 5-4 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court illegally decreed made him President. After that, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, from Sugar Land, crafted his scheme to use corporate money to widen the Republicans’ majority in the Texas delegation to Washington, D.C., battening down right-wing GOP control of the House and the Congress. The third President from Texas and his Republican Congress then waged aggressive war on Iraq, drove the nation into insolvency to further enrich the already rich, and just for good measure tore up the Constitution.

As we in Texas bear guilt for this we have also begun to join the resistance and revolt against it, starting with Cindy Sheehan’s brigades in Crawford. By happy accident the Texas trip-root that now threatens to help bring the Bush presidency crashing down, crushing itself under its own arrogance, hubris, and criminality, is a law against corporate money in Texas elections that was passed a century ago in the state’s populist afterglow. To uphold that law, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has braved ruthless contumely, as he had done often before in order to prosecute public officials he believed had violated the laws. While it is merely seemly to await the outcome of the trial of DeLay and his co-defendants on the charges that they laundered corporate money through Washington to elect Republicans to the House from Texas, in a speech in September Earle declared what he believes his prosecution is all about. “Corporate money in politics” has become “the fight of our generation of Americans....It is our job—our fight—to rescue democracy from the money that has captured it,” he said. “The issue that we’re faced with is the role of large concentrations of money in democracy, whether it’s individuals or corporations, the issue is the same.”

Since 1994, although the polls show a majority of Texan citizens support progressive reforms such as adequate taxation for equal education for Texas schoolchildren, the leaders of the disappearing Texas Democratic Party and their statewide candidates, finking out on every ethically important political issue, have proved again and again that nothing fails like failure. Rot-gut Republicans have swept every statewide office and achieved mercenary domination of the Texas courts, too. In my opinion, Texas Democrats ought to have concluded by 2002 at the latest that they should be choosing, from among the waves of the on-comers, entirely new sets of state and local party leaders and candidates. For example, rather than be taken in, even a jot, by the torrent of contemptuous abuse directed at Ronnie Earle by Tom DeLay, his lawyers, and that ilk, Texans should be realizing that—just as the dramatic prosecutions of Thomas E. Dewey in New York made him a Republican presidential candidate and now the populist prosecutions of Eliot Spitzer in New York State are making him a national figure—Ronnie Earle has fully qualified himself as a front-rank leader in Texas politics. For another example, this year, in my opinion—shared, by the way, by Jim Hightower—Texans are very fortunate to have running for Attorney General the lifelong labor lawyer and Democratic firebrand David Van Os of San Antonio. The Observer does not make political endorsements, but I may say here for myself alone that David, in my carefully considered personal judgment, is the Ralph Yarborough of his generation.

The national resistance to Bush, Cheney, Rove, et al., is coming into focus, too. John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, which is the logical source for impeachment initiatives, has taken the significant step of calling for an investigation of Bush and Cheney with a view to censure, which obviously could metamorphose into impeachment. Tom Daschle, until recently the Minority Leader in the Senate, Sen. Edward Kennedy, and Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader, are all calling for investigations of Bush and Cheney. Elizabeth Holtzman writes for impeachment in the current Nation, and the Internet is on fire with initiatives to impeach Bush and Cheney for crimes committed in office, foremost among them lying our nation into a war of aggression. Impeachment is unlikely as long as the House remains firmly in GOP control, but this year it would be gratifying to see citizens seeking the election of House candidates—whether Democrats, Republicans, or independents—who promise explicitly to vote, if elected, to impeach Bush and Cheney.

If impeachment does not become possible, let me broach with you the idea that a grand jury, federal or state, should indict Bush and Cheney for their manifold official crimes. Are we, as we are so often piously assured, “a nation of laws and not of men,” or is the President above the law if his party controls the House and can block impeaching him?

The Constitution is silent on whether a seated President and Vice President can be indicted, while in office, for crimes committed while they have held those offices. Constitutional lawyers are congenitally prone to announcing that this cannot be done because it would disrupt the ongoing business of the government. But it is time to do it, if necessary absent impeachment, for exactly that reason—to disrupt the continuation of THIS government.

I have not yet found one constitutional lawyer who can cite a Supreme Court case or any other judicial precedent prohibiting their indictment—if you know of one please let me hear from you. In 1973 Nixon’s attorney general said the President can’t be indicted, but why should Nixon’s attorney general bind us?

Committed to nonviolence, determined, in this post-Gandhi era, against violence, nevertheless we are once again in the position of the Framers of the Constitution. In the post-revolutionary emergency, the Founding Fathers took things in their own hands, violating their clear instructions from the states by proposing to create the United States, which the states then created. In the crisis we are in now we must not be misled by expostulating lawyers or posturing politicians. We the citizens can make up our own minds whether we can indict Bush and Cheney and, if they are convicted, throw them out.

May we close here, then, as we began two centuries and more ago, with the words of Tom Paine. “We have it in our power to begin the world over again,” he said. “The birth day of a new world is at hand… We are a people upon experiments. It is an age of revolutions, in which everything may be looked for.”



Ronnie Dugger is the founding editor and former publisher of The Texas Observer. Author of presidential biographies and other books and articles, he writes now from his office in Cambridge, Mass.