Daily Archives: November 28, 2011

11/28/11

Silent Running – The Targeting of Americans

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Hear that? That’s the shredding of the Constitution and your rights as America sinks into a full-fledged police state. Not only are the government goons now shutting down more and more sites at an alarming rate (without due process), they are now putting their literal sights on Americans who fall under their personal definition of ‘terrorist.’ And the last time I read the Southern Poverty Law Center tripe, that included Tea Partiers, patriots, Christians, Libertarians, gun enthusiasts and pretty much anyone who does not toe the government line. Welcome to Obama’s Third Reich – American style…

While Americans were giving thanks for what little we have left, our politicians were cooking up a doozy of a surprise for us just in time for the holidays. And who can you thank for this poisonous present? Well, none other than Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) – a Progressive on the Left and a Progressive on the Right. Now that’s bipartisanship to die for, literally.

From the ACLU via The Daily Sheeple:

The Senate is gearing up for a vote on Monday or Tuesday that goes to the very heart of who we are as Americans. The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United States itself.

…

The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. Even Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) raised his concerns about the NDAA detention provisions during last night’s Republican debate. The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself.

The worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial provision is in S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which will be on the Senate floor on Monday. The bill was drafted in secret by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and passed in a closed-door committee meeting, without even a single hearing.

I know it sounds incredible. New powers to use the military worldwide, even within the United States? Hasn’t anyone told the Senate that Osama bin Laden is dead, that the president is pulling all of the combat troops out of Iraq and trying to figure out how to get combat troops out of Afghanistan too? And American citizens and people picked up on American or Canadian or British streets being sent to military prisons indefinitely without even being charged with a crime. Really? Does anyone think this is a good idea? And why now?

If that doesn’t make your blood run stone cold, I don’t know what will. I looked at the bill and it looks to me as if it is referring more to the Department of Justice and Homeland Security than the military, but hey, either way, it’s a crap sandwich for Constitutional Conservatives like me and all other patriotic Americans. I can’t stand the ACLU, but this time they are right and people better pay attention. If I’m wrong about the military angle on this, then our boys and girls will be forced to turn on Americans or be ‘disciplined.’ That could be a life and death decision for them. Pray for our troops – I know in my heart they will not turn on their family and friends. They would be forced into a blatant violation of the Posse Comitatus Act and that would be the final straw to break in the birth pains of a civil war.

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of elitists telling us we are overreacting, while legislation is being crafted and debated in secret, while we lose more and more of our freedoms with each passing day. All of us should be royally pissed off. You don’t actually think these asshat politicians have our best interests and security in mind do you? Damned right they don’t. They want to control us, enslave us, shut us up and close us down. I know that I won’t go down without a fight, what say you?

If they pass this monstrosity, they can come to your home in the dead of night and take you with no due process and you will simply disappear. They will never give the reason – the fact they consider you an enemy of the State will be all it takes. That’s not America. That’s a fascist totalitarian State and I’ve got news for America – it will happen if the Progressives stay in power. Many, many will disappear and many more will die.

The vote on this either happened today or will take place tomorrow. Remember who voted and how. I know Udall out of Utah was presenting an amendment that would neutralize a lot of this, but I don’t hold a lot of optimism that he will prevail.

From InfoWars:

“I would also point out that these provisions raise serious questions as to who we are as a society and what our Constitution seeks to protect,” Colorado Senator Mark Udall said in a speech last week. One section of these provisions, section 1031, would be interpreted as allowing the military to capture and indefinitely detain American citizens on U.S. soil. Section 1031 essentially repeals the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 by authorizing the U.S. military to perform law enforcement functions on American soil. That alone should alarm my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, but there are other problems with these provisions that must be resolved.”

Convinced yet? Silent running indeed. I suggest you buy food, silver and keep a gun by your door.

11/28/11

A Copt Writer’s View of the Egyptian Elections

By: Ashraf Ramelah
Arutz Sheva

Ashraf Ramelah, founder and president of Voice of the Copts, has recently given testimony to the Canadian Parliament on the revolution taking place in Egypt. Please visit www.voiceofthecopts.org to read more.

The power struggle between Islamic fundamentalists and the all-powerful Egyptian military to gain control of Egypt ignores the will of the people who shed their blood for freedom and human rights during the Lotus uprising earlier this year.

In all likelihood, the Egyptian military, which has been successful in igniting warfare in the Cairo streets, pitting Muslim against Christian and inciting Islamist against freedom-fighters, will soon be rewarded with civil war.

Exacerbated by pressures from Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi factions while trying to maintain control of the country and hold on to protected interests, Egypt’s military leaders, playing both sides, may very well favor the protesters and halt the upcoming November 28th election, the event which would most likely turn the country over to the Muslim Brotherhood and the strict rule of Islam.

This power struggle between Islamic fundamentalists and the all-powerful Egyptian military to gain control of Egypt ignores the will of the people who shed their blood for freedom and human rights during the Lotus uprising earlier this year.

Mubarak’s military loyalists in power today are desperate to endure Egypt’s upheaval and emerge with privileges and material interests intact, and their decision to side with revolutionary protestors from the moment of their first military bulletin announcing this at the outset of the revolution was a statement of their determination to do so.

Forgetting the military’s long history of loyalty and indebtedness to the Mubarak regime as well as their connectedness to the ex-President through positions of favor and ownership and control of Egypt’s prime businesses, activists and protestors naively accepted the military’s stance of solidarity and gave them their trust.

When Mubarak installed Omar Suleiman, former head of Egyptian spy and torture services (the Egyptian Secret Service), as his Vice President after three decades of rule without one, he hoped this was an opportunity to keep his regime in power. The ploy flopped and as he stepped down, Mubarak turned to his loyal military.

Although Egypt’s constitution does not allow for military rule in the case of the President’s death or unseating, the interim military council (SCAF) illegitimately received the transfer of power from Mubarak after his forced departure (although Mubarak no longer had the power to transfer) as a last ditch effort to maintain his rule and power, the military having identical interests and intertwining concerns with his own.

As the military took control in a nation ignoring its own constitution which states that a President must be replaced temporarily with the President of the Parliament and then the President of the Constitutional Court, and in spite of the meaningless appointment of Isam Sharaf as First Minister (now replaced by the recycled Kamal al-Ganzur of the Mubarak Regime), the military remains firmly planted in place.

That being said, three forces vie for power over Egypt. This conflict is comprised of each faction using their position for short-term alignments in order to further their own position, interests, and power to dominate Egyptian politics in the future.

Clinging to religious juridical law, the Muslim Brotherhood (banned from Egypt and illegal) rode the people’s revolutionary wave which crashed the Mubarak presidency, a dream come true for the Muslim Brotherhood which had sought the collapse of Mubarak in their pursuit to replace the leniency of his government with Islamic fundamentalism.

The whole world knows by now that Muslim Brotherhood rule of Egypt would mean a step backward for human rights and democracy and a move forward for Jihad and serious threats to Israel, jeopardizing the entire region.

In the years previous to January’s revolution, the Egyptian military never had a real connection to the people or any history of political engagement, and the military found in the Muslim Brotherhood a great ally to achieve their own ends of destroying the revolutionary goal of democracy when the Muslim Brotherhood usurped the direction and took control of the Lotus uprising. Ignoring Egypt’s ban of the illegal Muslim Brotherhood, the military continues to align themselves with them and favor reform of Egypt’s constitution only after the parliamentary election.

Everyone knows that a Muslim Brotherhood victory is assured if the election is held on November 28 along with securing Article 2 of the constitution, which indicates Shariah law as the source of Egyptian law.

Meanwhile, the military now seeks its own autonomy and hopes to be above the law and Egypt’s constitution as seen in their current attempt to become a state within the state (in a mid-November military submission to the public entitled, Article for Military to be Above the Constitution, which sparked the second wave of rebellion by protesters).

Like dictators Nasser and Sadat before him, Mubarak was a military man when elected President, and like his predecessors, he filled key positions with appointments of loyalists from Egypt’s military colleges in order to protect and preserve his reign.

For a period of six decades from the time Nasser came to power during the coup of 1952, Egyptian military generals have been consistently selected and appointed to high level civilian and government positions by every Egyptian President, such as; government department heads, governorships, mayoral offices, directors of public authorities, and heads of private corporations.

Of the three dictators, Mubarak was especially notorious for the corrupt practice of pressuring Egyptian private sector businessmen to hire retired colonels to fill key company positions over others more qualified or else face a shutdown. Mubarak appointed the military man Mohamed Hussein Tantawi Soliman to be his Minister of Defense and Production in 1991 and the ties between these two men, from years of combined interest in building and preserving the power and privilege of the military forces along with their personal fortunes, are now revealed within the role and behavior of the Military Council (SCAF) headed by Field Marshall Tantawy.

It is not surprising then that the Egyptian military which now runs a parallel economy within Egypt, with ownership or control of most of the construction companies and manufacturing plants, is today very wealthy, powerful and deeply invested in maintaining the status quo.

Having developed their dynasty over time through the aid and benefit of special favors — little or no competition, free manpower with military draftees, and tax exempt status — it is also not surprising that this one fact alone has done great damage to the economy of Egypt and to the cause of freedom.

The Military Council has the might of its army, the Muslim Brotherhood has the persuasive power of religion over the illiterate, naïve and impoverished populace, and the ordinary protestors (both Muslim and Christian) carrying out the revolution wield the collective will for democracy and human rights.

Within the country, the ordinary people alone hold the gift of the vision of hope for a free Egypt as they bravely battle the entrenched and institutionalized forces. Aggressive and determined, the insidious Muslim Brotherhood mocks the sentiments of freedom, justice, and human rights, by their very existence.

The army, turning against the people who they were meant to serve and protect, inflicted protesters with horrific and inhumane acts of violence by their use of tear gas spiked with nerve gas, tanks speeding into people, and bullets aimed at eyeballs — proving they will stop at no amount of cruelty in order to hold on to power.

As they fight an uphill battle, the revolutionary protestors embody the very soul of Egypt and carry within them the eternal quest for freedom, one which must prevail against the evil that deeply penetrates the land of Egypt.