Conspiracies

Conspiracy theories have abounded since a series of seemingly coordinated, militarized police attacks began on various Occupy camps throughout the country last month, all in the space of just a few days. One of the more vocal proponents of the theory that Homeland Security has had its puppet-stringy tentacles stretched out, outsourcing/coordinating the national crackdown, is writer Naomi Wolf. Her Guardian article on the subject last month was almost universally panned. The main problem was her dearth of sourcing -- although as someone who was arrested by the NYPD and threatened with a permanent record with DHS, her theory is most likely correct. She just can't prove it to everyone's satisfaction.

 Her original piece is here.  A rebuttal from AlterNet's Joshua Holland is here, and next comes her sur-rebuttal, and finally (I think), here is Holland's counter-rebuttal to Wolf's sur-rebuttal. 

Meanwhile,  from writer Max Blumenthal comes this exposé (thanks to Kate Madison for the link) which tends to vindicate Wolf in its connection of the thuggish tactics of police during Occupy protests with special training provided by Israeli anti-terrorist forces.  It is a pretty chilling read. "No wonder our Occupy cops are so violent," Kate writes. "They learned from the 'Harvard anti-terrorism school' of dealing with our Occupy protesters."

Unrelated, or maybe semi-related, but every bit as chilling, is Glenn Greenwald's Salon piece about the Senate vote last week that overwhelmingly approved detention without trial of American citizens suspected of being terrorists.  Although President Obama has threatened a veto of the bill, it is not because of any particular allegiance to the Constitution or civil liberties.  As Greenwald has consistently been pointing out for a long time, Obama already approves of such detention (not to mention assassinations) -- he just wants it to remain a unitary executive power and does not welcome or need any legislative stamp of approval.

A bipartisan group of only seven of the 100 Senators voted against the bill, and for civil liberties. They are Sanders, Coburn, Wyden, Paul, Harkin, Lee and Merkley. 

The other 93 are what Greenwald calls war addicts, true believers that the whole world is a battlefield and due process can fly out the window in the name of safety.  Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina spoke for his fascist compatriots:

"It has been the law of the United States for decades that an American citizen on our soil who collaborates with the enemy has committed an act of war and will be held under the law of war, not domestic criminal law.In World War II it was perfectly proper to hold an American citizen as an enemy combatant who helped the Nazis. But we believe, somehow, in 2011, that is no longer fair. That would be wrong. My God, what are we doing in 2011? Do you not think al-Qaeda is trying to recruit people here at home? Is the homeland the battlefield? You better believe it is the battlefield."

Wow. And the so-called "progressive" Democrats are falling dutifully in line with this thinking. Now, that's a conspiracy we can all believe in. Keep Occupying!

Japanese-American Internment Camp During World War II