Preparing for the Iron Heel
News that the US government, beginning in 1999, has entered into a series of single-bid contract’s with Halliburton’s subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the US and with several companies to build railcars—some reportedly with shackles—is a chilling development. Diplomat Peter Dale Scott has been quoted as saying that the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan, entitled “ENDGAME,” the goal of which is said to be the removal of all removable aliens and potential terrorists.
Add to this that Section 1042 of the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act gives the Executive Branch the power to invoke martial law in response to “a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack, or any other condition in which the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order.” Then factor in that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 allows for secret trials and the indefinite imprisonment of anyone who donates money to a charity that winds up on a list of “terrorist organizations, be they US citizen or not. Then consider the 2007 National Security Presidential Directive 51 (as of yet not subject to a single Congressional hearing) gives the President alone the power to do whatever is necessary to ensure the “continuity of government,” and, despite global warming, the political climate becomes exceedingly chilly.
However, when we add to this vile mix the news that the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act (HR1955), which was passed in 2007 by a vote of 404 to 6, sets up a commission to “examine and report on the facts and causes” of violent radicalism and extremist ideology and to make recommendations for legislation to combat them; a well as Naomi Wolf’s statement that the National Counterterrorism Center presently holds the names of 775,000 “terrorist suspects” and is adding 20,000 new names each month, it is time to sit up and take notice. Moreover, it is time to take action.
By action, I do not mean writing letters to ones Congressperson (any one of the 404 who voted for HR1955), but to take serious action to decide how to defend yourself against a government that has crossed the line into the realm of illegal (after all, Constitutions can’t legally be suspended through legislation or Executive action) attacks on an internal opposition. In short, the time has come for every member of the socialist Left to ensure that they own and know how to use weapons. It is time to have plans in place if you need to evade illegal and indeterminate incarceration. It is time to have maps on hand that will assist you in finding back-roads routes into Canada or Mexico.
Those who have slipped into complacency concerning what the bourgeois state is prepared to do in order to ensure its survival in times of crisis need to slap themselves awake. The legislation and Executive orders described above have not been put in place merely for show and any of you who wishes to put their faith in Constitutional protections might take a lesson from the nearly 30 years of incarceration suffered by Geronimo Pratt as the result of an FBI frame-up or the continued imprisonment of Leonard Peltier today. The bourgeois state is not a neutral body, the bourgeois courts are not impartial, and bourgeois democracy functions just so long as it is can guarantee the survival of the capitalist system and not a moment longer.
When they come for us in the morning, you’d better have a better plan than hiring a good lawyer. If you decide to run, remember that credit cards can be cancelled and cell phones provide excellent GPS tracking devices. The comrades of the International Republican Socialist Network advise revolutionary socialists of all organizations and orientations to take these threats seriously and prepare for the worst. We have a responsibility to our class to provide a resource of consciousness when the survival of their struggle depends on it and meeting that responsibility requires that we both strive to raise class consciousness now and that we be available to provide it when crisis demands it. It is your right to put yourself at risk, if you so choose, but it is your responsibility to our class to avoid falling prey to that risk.
Peter Urban
Comrade, International Republican Socialist Network
6 Feb 2008
Add to this that Section 1042 of the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act gives the Executive Branch the power to invoke martial law in response to “a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack, or any other condition in which the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order.” Then factor in that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 allows for secret trials and the indefinite imprisonment of anyone who donates money to a charity that winds up on a list of “terrorist organizations, be they US citizen or not. Then consider the 2007 National Security Presidential Directive 51 (as of yet not subject to a single Congressional hearing) gives the President alone the power to do whatever is necessary to ensure the “continuity of government,” and, despite global warming, the political climate becomes exceedingly chilly.
However, when we add to this vile mix the news that the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act (HR1955), which was passed in 2007 by a vote of 404 to 6, sets up a commission to “examine and report on the facts and causes” of violent radicalism and extremist ideology and to make recommendations for legislation to combat them; a well as Naomi Wolf’s statement that the National Counterterrorism Center presently holds the names of 775,000 “terrorist suspects” and is adding 20,000 new names each month, it is time to sit up and take notice. Moreover, it is time to take action.
By action, I do not mean writing letters to ones Congressperson (any one of the 404 who voted for HR1955), but to take serious action to decide how to defend yourself against a government that has crossed the line into the realm of illegal (after all, Constitutions can’t legally be suspended through legislation or Executive action) attacks on an internal opposition. In short, the time has come for every member of the socialist Left to ensure that they own and know how to use weapons. It is time to have plans in place if you need to evade illegal and indeterminate incarceration. It is time to have maps on hand that will assist you in finding back-roads routes into Canada or Mexico.
Those who have slipped into complacency concerning what the bourgeois state is prepared to do in order to ensure its survival in times of crisis need to slap themselves awake. The legislation and Executive orders described above have not been put in place merely for show and any of you who wishes to put their faith in Constitutional protections might take a lesson from the nearly 30 years of incarceration suffered by Geronimo Pratt as the result of an FBI frame-up or the continued imprisonment of Leonard Peltier today. The bourgeois state is not a neutral body, the bourgeois courts are not impartial, and bourgeois democracy functions just so long as it is can guarantee the survival of the capitalist system and not a moment longer.
When they come for us in the morning, you’d better have a better plan than hiring a good lawyer. If you decide to run, remember that credit cards can be cancelled and cell phones provide excellent GPS tracking devices. The comrades of the International Republican Socialist Network advise revolutionary socialists of all organizations and orientations to take these threats seriously and prepare for the worst. We have a responsibility to our class to provide a resource of consciousness when the survival of their struggle depends on it and meeting that responsibility requires that we both strive to raise class consciousness now and that we be available to provide it when crisis demands it. It is your right to put yourself at risk, if you so choose, but it is your responsibility to our class to avoid falling prey to that risk.
Peter Urban
Comrade, International Republican Socialist Network
6 Feb 2008