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War on Terrorism or Police State?
counterpunchhttp://www.counterpunch.org/mckinney0725.html
July 25,
2002
War on Terrorism or Police State?
by Rep.
Cynthia McKinney
T
he attacks of September 11th, 2001 caused
significant changes throughout our society. For our military services, this
included increased force protection, greater security, and of course the
deployment to and prosecution of the War on Terrorism in Afghanistan and
elsewhere. Sadly, one of the first acts of our President was to waive the high
deployment overtime pay of our servicemen and women who are serving on the
front lines of our new War. The Navy estimates that the first year costs of
this pay would equal about 40 cruise missiles. The total cost of this overtime
pay may only equal about 300 cruise missiles, yet this Administration said it
would cost too much to pay our young men and women what the Congress and the
previous Administration had promised them.
In another ironic twist, the War on Terrorism has the potential
to bring the US military into American life as never before. A Northern
Command has been created to manage the military's activity within the
continental United States. Operation Noble Eagle saw combat aircraft
patrolling the air above major metropolitan areas, and our airports are only
now being relieved of National Guard security forces. Moreover, there is a
growing concern that the military will be used domestically, within our
borders, with intelligence and law enforcement mandates as some now call for a
review of the Posse Comitatus Act prohibitions on military activity within our
country.
In the 1960s, the lines between
illegal intelligence, law enforcement and military practices became blurred as
Americans wanting to make America a better place for all were targeted and
attacked for political beliefs and political behavior. Under the cloak of the
Cold War, military intelligence was used for domestic purposes to conduct
surveillance on civil rights, social equity, antiwar, and other activists. In
the case of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Operation Lantern Spike involved
military intelligence covertly operating a surveillance operation of the civil
rights leader up to the time of his assassination. In a period of two months,
recently declassified documents on Operation Lantern Spike indicate that 240
military personnel were assigned in the two months of March and April to
conduct surveillance on Dr. King. The documents further reveal that 16,900
man-hours were spent on this assignment. Dr. King had done nothing more than
call for black suffrage, an end to black poverty, and an end to the Vietnam
War. Dr. King was the lantern of justice for America: spreading light on
issues the Administration should have been addressing. On April 4, 1968, Dr.
King's valuable point of light was snuffed out. The documents I have submitted
for the record outline the illegal activities of the FBI and its CoIntelPro
program. A 1967 memo from J. Edgar Hoover to 22 FBI field offices outlined the
COINTELPRO program well: "The purpose of this new counterintelligence endeavor
is to expose, disrupt, misdirect, or otherwise neutralize" black activist
leaders and organizations.
As a result of
the Church Committee hearings, we later learned that the FBI and other
government authorities were conducting black bag operations that included
illegally breaking and entering private homes to collect information on
individuals. FBI activities included "bad jacketing," or falsely accusing
individuals of collaboration with the authorities. It included the use of paid
informants to set up on false charges targeted individuals. And it resulted in
the murder of some individuals. Geronimo Pratt Ji Jaga spent 27 years in
prison for a crime he did not commit. And in COINTELPRO documents subsequently
released, we learn that Fred Hampton was murdered in his bed while his
pregnant wife slept next to him after a paid informant slipped drugs in his
drink.
Needless to say, such operations were
well outside the bounds of what normal citizens would believe to be the role
of the military, and the Senate investigations conducted by Senator Frank
Church found that to be true. Though the United States was fighting the spread
of communism in the face of the Cold War, the domestic use of intelligence and
military assets against its own civilians was unfortunately reminiscent of the
police state built up by the Communists we were fighting.
We must be certain that the War on Terrorism does not threaten
our liberties again. Amendments to H.R. 4547, the Costs of War Against
Terrorism Act, that would increase the role of drug interdiction task forces
to include counter intelligence, and that would increase the military
intelligence's ability to conduct electronic and financial investigations, can
be the first steps towards a return to the abuses of constitutional rights
during the Cold War. Further, this bill includes nearly $2 billion in
additional funds for intelligence accounts. When taken into account with the
extra-judicial incarceration of thousands of immigration violators, the
transfer of prisoners from law enforcement custody to military custody, and
the consideration of a 'volunteer' terrorism tip program, America must stand
up and protect itself from the threat not only of terrorism, but of a police
state of its own.
There does exist a need to
increase personnel pay accounts, replenish operations and maintenance accounts
and replace lost equipment. The military has an appropriate role in protecting
the United States from foreign threats, and should remain dedicated to
preparing for those threats. Domestic uses of the military have long been
prohibited for good reason, and the same should continue to apply to all
military functions, especially any and all military intelligence and
surveillance. Congress and the Administration must be increasingly vigilant
towards the protection of and adherence to our constitutional rights and
privileges. For, if we win the war on terrorism, but create a police state in
the process, what have we won?
Cynthia
McKinney represents Georgia's Fourth Congressional District. This is
article is a reprint of her remarks before the House Armed Services Committee
on H.R. 4547, The Costs of War Against Terrorism Act.
She can be reached at: cymck@mail.house.gov