"That'll do it," the man said.


"As difficult as this is to contemplate, it is clear, if you are willing to look, that each of these 10 steps has already been initiated today in the United States by the Bush administration."
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I'll note that what Naomi Wolf says in item two:
"It can, like Hitler's invocation of a communist threat to the nation's security, be based on actual events" applies to most of the rest.

For instance it is a "left" meme that the Red Scare of the 50's was all about fascism and I suppose it was, but as the Venona Files indicate there were in fact many Communist spies, and we all know about agent provocateurs during the 60's. Which leads to the question, who sets the parameters for this ping pong game? Oh, and Naomi leaves off number 11; Disarming the people.

Read the whole article, below are excerpts.

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
Creating a terrifying threat - hydra-like, secretive, evil - is an old trick. It can, like Hitler's invocation of a communist threat to the nation's security, be based on actual events


2. Create a gulag
At first, the people who are sent there are seen by citizens as outsiders: troublemakers, spies, "enemies of the people" or "criminals". Initially, citizens tend to support the secret prison system

... the establishment of military tribunals that deny prisoners due process tends to come early on in a fascist shift.

3. Develop a thug caste
The years following 9/11 have proved a bonanza for America's security contractors, with the Bush administration outsourcing areas of work that traditionally fell to the US military. In the process, contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars have been issued for security work by mercenaries at home and abroad.

Thugs in America? Groups of angry young Republican men, dressed in identical shirts and trousers, menaced poll workers counting the votes in Florida in 2000. If you are reading history, you can imagine that there can be a need for "public order" on the next election day.

4. Set up an internal surveillance system
I don't think I need a clip for this one.

5. Harass citizens' groups
It can be trivial: a church in Pasadena, whose minister preached that Jesus was in favour of peace, found itself being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service...

... A little-noticed new law has redefined activism such as animal rights protests as "terrorism". So the definition of "terrorist" slowly expands to include the opposition.

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
"Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that," asked the airline employee...I had not so marched but had, in September 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the constitution."

"That'll do it," the man said.

... It is a standard practice of fascist societies that once you are on the list, you can't get off.

7. Target key individuals
Academe is a tinderbox of activism, so those seeking a fascist shift punish academics and students with professional loss if they do not "coordinate"...

8. Control the press
Over time in closing societies, real news is supplanted by fake news and false documents.... a steady stream of lies polluting the news well. What you already have is a White House directing a stream of false information that is so relentless that it is increasingly hard to sort out truth from untruth.

9. Dissent equals treason
Cast dissent as "treason" and criticism as "espionage'.

... And here is where the circle closes: most Americans do not realise that since September of last year - when Congress wrongly, foolishly, passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 - the president has the power to call any US citizen an "enemy combatant". He has the power to define what "enemy combatant" means. The president can also delegate to anyone he chooses in the executive branch the right to define "enemy combatant" any way he or she wants and then seize Americans accordingly.

10. Suspend the rule of law
... laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night ... Beyond actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or any 'other condition'."... a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.

Posted: Wed - April 25, 2007 at 04:54 PM            

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