To The InterNest Egress

Date: 2005-12-23 23:45
Subject: Liberty's End- America can still win
Security: Public

Wednesday, December 21st, 2005
New Documents Show FBI Spying on Domestic Activist Groups

The National Security Agency (NSA) has been spying on American citizens on the pretext that they may be involved in terrorist activities. In fact, according to The head of Greenpeace USA, the NSA and FBI are spying on American's who have nothing to do with terrorism.

In a Democracy Now, interview with Amy Goodman, http://www.democracynow.org/article.plsid=05/12/21/1447236&mode=thread&tid=25 JOHN PASSACANTANDO, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA. claims the Bush administration is using federal information gathering and investigative agencies to gain advantages over its political enemies, much like the Nixon administration did during the Vietnam war.

"Well, it's a classic smear campaign. This administration has used the power it was able to consolidate post-9/11... to try to intimidate the peaceful groups that oppose this administration's policies, whether it be foreign wars or rolling back environmental laws. "

Amy Goodman reported that:

"... Newly released documents show counterterrorism agents at the FBI have been monitoring domestic organizations active in causes as diverse as peace, the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief. The documents came as part of a series of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits brought by the American Civil Liberties Union."

Commentary by Robert Warlov:

If this then is the only way a democratic nation can respond to terrorism, then the Bush administration is telling us that the only way we can save our democracy, is to destroy it.

But I don't blame the government for responding to the terrorist's attacks this way. It can only use the tools it's been given.

If you take your son to the doctor because he can't hit a home-run, the doctor will look for a pill with which to "cure" him.

The "cure" to terrorism is not to be found in politics, but in the recognition that terrorism is a problem of community, not politics.

The world is fast becoming one community, as witnessed by our ability to communicate instantly. The terrorist are aware of this and on September 11th., attacked America in such a way as to send a message to the world.

Oddly, no one in the administration has spoken to this. I wonder why?

The terrorists are betting that America has harmed more people in the world through our foreign policy efforts than not. If they're right, if we have more enemies than friends, then their act becomes a clarion call of our weakness, that by this method we can be weakened, and possibly even killed.

What is the answer then, if not a commitment to everlasting war on our enemies abroad and a despotic, totalitarian government at home?

The answer lies in efforts and tools that belong to community, not to politics.

We must first address the question the terrorist's act posed: what evils if any did our foreign policy effectuate over the last fifty years? Who did we harm and why?

It's a fact that in 1952, the C.I.A. purposefully destroyed the budding democracy movement in Iran, and at just the right moment, flew the Shah of Iran into Tehran to take over. Iranians hated us for the horrors he, with the help of the C.I.A. perpetrated on the Iranian people for the next 25 years. Their "payback" came in the 1980's with the taking of American hostages.

The Shah was placed and kept in office by American power whose policy reflected not the moral concerns of the American people, but the values of American corporate greed. He became a despot responsible for horrific crimes against his own people. The Iranians blamed his evil friend too; The United States of America .

After the September 11th attack on our nation, the President told us the reason the terrorists hate us is because... "we're good and their evil." But the facts speak for themselves. Our foreign policy initiatives have harmed many people in the world and not all were to bring some greater good to fruition for us or them, but sometimes only to make a few rich American's richer.

As a nation, we must begin to address these wrongs, entering into a dialog with the other peoples of the world. We are big enough to admit our own failures in foreign policy, and fix these weaknesses in our government. Lessening or destroying our democratic principles wont do that, but strengthening and increasing them will.

The approach to a solution to terrorism is through faithful and honest dialog with the world and a promise to weaken the stranglehold that powerful corporate interests have on our government. President Bush should recognise these efforts. Telling the world we acknowledge our wrong doing is called 'confession', and the promise to turn away from that evil behavior is called 'Repentance'. If we really are the good guys, this is what we must do.

If WE, THE PEOPLE, and democracy are to survive in this coming single world community, we must recognize the true enemy of liberty. A government not responsive to the moral concerns of its people, one hijacked by the greed of the evil few is destined along with the nation to fail.

How sad to ponder a future where, after showing the world the highest good a nation could achieve, founded upon the love of liberty, America becomes only a fading memory in the minds of the worlds children, and the history books which pose but leave unanswered the question: How could it have happened?

-- Robert Warlov