Is Fascism an Impeachable Offense?

"House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers consistently lists among his reasons for not holding impeachment hearings, his fear of the corporate media. But last week the corporate media exhibited its fear of impeachment. Only those voices in support of Congressman Dennis Kucinich's articles of impeachment spoke. Others kept quiet. The network news shows avoided the topic, but the cable news shows gave us Keith Olbermann promoting impeachment on MSNBC, and Jack Cafferty on CNN..."

Why I Believe Bush Must Go by George McGovern

"Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world. These are truly "high crimes and misdemeanors," to use the constitutional standard."

Biden: Impeachment if Bush bombs Iran

Presidential hopeful Sen. Joe Biden speaks about his foreign policy plans at a forum held at Seacoast Media Group in Portsmouth, Thursday afternoon. - Scott Yates photo

"Presidential hopeful Delaware Sen. Joe Biden stated unequivocally that he will move to impeach President Bush if he bombs Iran without Congressional approval."

The National Campaign to Impeach President George W. Bush

by Prof. Francis A. Boyle - July 25, 2007
Global Research

Since the U.S. Supreme Court's installation of George W. Bush as President in January of 2001, the peoples of the world have witnessed a government in the United States of America that demonstrates little if any respect for fundamental considerations of international law, international organizations, and human rights, let alone appreciation of the requirements for maintaining international peace and security.

What the world has watched instead is a comprehensive and malicious assault upon the integrity of the international legal order by a group of men and women who are thoroughly Machiavellian in their perception of international relations and in their conduct of both foreign policy and domestic affairs.

This is not simply a question of giving or withholding the benefit of the doubt when it comes to complicated matters of foreign affairs and defense policies to a U.S. government charged with the security of both its own citizens and those of its allies in Europe, the Western Hemisphere, and the Pacific. Rather, the Bush Jr. administration's foreign policies represent a gross deviation from those basic rules of international deportment and civilized behavior that the United States government had traditionally played the pioneer role in promoting for the entire world community.

Even more seriously, in many instances specific components of the Bush Jr. administration's foreign policies constitute ongoing criminal activity under well-recognized principles of both international law and U.S. domestic law, and in particular the Nuremberg Charter, the Nuremberg Judgment, and the Nuremberg Principles.

Depending upon the substantive issues involved, those international crimes typically include but are not limited to the Nuremberg offenses of crimes against peace, crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as grave breaches of the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the 1907 Hague Regulations on land warfare, torture, disappearances, and assassinations.

In addition, various members of the Bush Jr. administration committed numerous inchoate crimes incidental to these substantive offenses that under the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles were international crimes in their own right: viz., planning, preparation, solicitation, incitement, conspiracy, complicity, attempt, aiding and abetting, etc.

Of course the great irony of today's situation is that six decades ago at Nuremberg, representatives of the U.S. government participated in the prosecution, punishment and execution of Nazi government officials for committing some of the same types of heinous international crimes that members of the Bush Jr. administration currently inflict upon people all around the world. To be sure, I personally oppose the imposition of capital punishment upon any person for any reason no matter how monstrous their crimes: Bush Jr., Tony Blair, Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, Vladimir Putin, Ariel Sharon, my former client John Wayne Gacy, etc.

Furthermore, according to basic principles of international criminal law, all high-level civilian officials and military officers in the U.S. government who either knew or should have known that soldiers or civilians under their control committed or were about to commit international crimes, and failed to take the measures necessary to stop them, or to punish them, or both, are likewise personally responsible for the commission of international crimes.

This category of officialdom who actually knew or at least should have known of the commission of such substantive or inchoate international crimes under their jurisdiction and failed to do anything about it typically includes the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, Director of Central Intelligence, the National Security Adviser, the Attorney General, the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff and regional CINCs, and presumably the President and Vice President. These U.S. government officials and their immediate subordinates, among others, were personally responsible for the commission or at least complicity in the commission of crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes as specified by the Nuremberg Charter, Judgment, and Principles - at a minimum. In international legal terms, the Bush Jr. administration itself should be viewed as constituting an ongoing criminal conspiracy under international criminal law.

Consequently, on Tuesday 11 March 2003, with the Bush Jr. administration's war of aggression against Iraq staring the American People, Congress and Republic in their face, Congressman John Conyers of Michigan, the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee (which has jurisdiction over Bills of Impeachment), convened an emergency meeting of forty or more of his top advisors, most of whom were lawyers. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and debate immediately putting into the U.S. House of Representatives Bills of Impeachment against President Bush Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and then Attorney General John Ashcroft in order to head off the impending war. Congressman Conyers kindly requested that Ramsey Clark and I come to the meeting in order to argue the case for impeachment.

This impeachment debate lasted for two hours. It was presided over by Congressman Conyers, who quite correctly did not tip his hand one way or the other on the merits of impeachment. He simply moderated the debate between Clark and I, on the one side, favoring immediately filing Bills of Impeachment against Bush Jr. et al. to stop the threatened war, and almost everyone else there who were against impeachment for partisan political reasons. Obviously no point would be served here by attempting to digest a two-hour-long vigorous debate among a group of well-trained lawyers on such a controversial matter at this critical moment in American history. But at the time I was struck by the fact that this momentous debate was conducted at a private office right down the street from the White House on the eve of war.

Suffice it to say that most of the "experts" there opposed impeachment not on the basis of enforcing the Constitution and the Rule of Law, whether international or domestic, but on the political grounds that it might hurt the Democratic Party effort to get their presidential candidate elected in the year 2004. As a political independent, I did not argue that point. Rather, I argued the merits of impeaching Bush Jr., Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft under the United States Constitution, U.S. federal laws, U.S. treaties and other international agreements to which the United States is a party, etc. Article VI of the U.S. Constitution provides that treaties "shall be the supreme Law of the Land." This so-called Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution also applies to international executive agreements concluded under the auspices of the U.S. President such as the 1945 Nuremberg Charter.

Congressman Conyers was so kind as to allow me the closing argument in the debate. Briefly put, the concluding point I chose to make was historical: The Athenians lost their democracy. The Romans lost their Republic. And if we Americans did not act now we could lose our Republic! The United States of America is not immune to the laws of history!

After two hours of most vigorous debate among those in attendance, the meeting adjourned with second revised draft Bills of Impeachment sitting on the table.

Certainly, if the U.S. House of Representatives can impeach President Clinton for sex and lying about sex, then a fortiori the House can, should, and must impeach President Bush Jr. for war, lying about war, and threatening more wars. All that is needed is for one Member of Congress with courage, integrity, principles and a safe seat to file these currently amended draft Bills of Impeachment against Bush Jr., Cheney, Rumsfeld, and now Attorney General Albert Gonzales, who bears personal criminal responsibility for the Bush Jr. administration torture scandal. Failing this, the alternative is likely to be an American Empire abroad, a U.S. police state at home, and continuing wars of aggression to sustain both-along the lines of George Orwell's classic novel 1984. Despite all of the serious flaws demonstrated by successive

United States governments that this author has amply documented elsewhere during the past quarter century as a Professor of Law, the truth of the matter is that America is still the oldest Republic in the world today. "We the People of the United States" must fight to keep it that way!

Francis A. Boyle is a Professor of International Law and a human rights attorney. He is the author of Destroying World Order (2004, Clarity Press).

The Cheney Affair

by Ted Lang - July 25, 2007

Now that mainstream media bias is an established fact and recognized as such by the mainstream reading and viewing public, the revelation of Vice President Dick Cheney’s total unilateral control over all levels and branches of American government has not only raised eyebrows and concerns of dictatorship, but for those politically astute, begs the question as to why the Washington Post would be the journalistic vehicle to publish the four-part June 24 through June 27 series exposing this reality.

The Post's publisher, Donald E. Graham, has once again participated in the annual secret Bilderberg conclave, the latter the principal organizational player whose membership is made up of extremely high-level international bankers, mass media publishers, corporatists in both the oil industry and the military-industrial complex, and other principal international political movers and shakers. Bilderberg’s primary objective is a one world global government, the New World Order. And the NWO will be phased in via the European and then the North American Union.

Is it safe to say that the most recent Bilderberg meeting, held in Istanbul May 31 to June 3rd, considered the most vital issues confronting future global government? And of course, those issues would have been 1) Iraq, and 2) Iran. It is clear that American, British and Israeli control over Mid East oil is definitely on the agenda in their lockstep, jackboot march to deliver US all to the New World Order. This triumvirate is the world’s “real axis of evil.”

Mountain ranges of corporate money have been provided to Congress by lobbyists and corporatists representing the oil industry, military weapons contractors, AIPAC, banking and media interests, to not only buy into American government, but to where their “investments” have now facilitated total control of America. They have replaced what was once reserved as the exclusive representative domain of the people of the United States, which allowed the latter their collective voice in government. And the people’s representatives, after abandoning America’s interests, have turned over congressional war-making powers to Bush, who has in turn delegated virtually all of his presidential duties to Vice President Richard B. Cheney. And Cheney-Bush are profiting personally via heavy investment interests in oil and an oil support industry giant [Halliburton].

Constitutionally speaking, the Office of Vice President of the United States of America has no duties. This inefficate position in the executive branch serves only as President of the Senate, and then functions legislatively only in an extremely narrow capacity to break a deadlocked vote. Complaints about the “do-nothing” status of the vice president’s role and function date back to America’s first Vice President, John Adams.

Considering the absence of constitutionally mandated responsibilities, it should be clear that at least from a regulatory and legal standpoint, there’s little to nothing a vice president can do wrong; he has, basically, no executive branch functions. And it is for this reason that Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s House Resolution 333, seemed at first, to be a wrong-headed exercise in partisan politics hand wringing.

But that was before the Washington Post launched its four-part series. The Post is a nationally recognized bastion of the American mass media. It is the paper of Watergate fame, the paper of Bradlee, Bernstein and Woodward. And considering all that the Cheney-Bush regime has done to launch NWO, the attempted legalization of Mexican illegals, the private “negotiations” between Bush and the heads of Canada and Mexico to dissolve totally our borders to create a North American Union, the United States’ unilateral abolition of the Geneva Conventions and other international treaties ensuring and protecting the sovereignty of independent nations, why would Graham’s Washington Post now attack Bilderberg’s “dream team?”

Obviously, something is up with the planners and conspirators maneuvering the human race into a one world global government. The Post series, written by staff writers Barton Gellman and Jo Becker, would never have been allowed off the ground and would have never been accorded so much focus unless it was sanctioned and possibly even urged by the Bilderbergs. And consider the appearance of the series so shortly after the latter’s annual secret meeting. So what’s up?

It can only be speculated since the movement for global government is so secret. That is why everything the Cheney-Bush crime machine does is a matter of “national security.” 9/11 was indeed an inside job perpetrated by Cheney-Bush; it is the source of their unlimited dictatorial power. But if they arranged 9/11, why the suspension of our Bill of Rights and why the intense spying on Americans? The answer is obvious: they fear Americans will find out, organize, and plan an armed rebellion. They do not fear al Qaeda, because al Qaeda doesn’t exist, or at least it didn’t exist in terms of planning and executing 9/11. No, Cheney-Bush intend to enslave America, strip it of its national identity, and serve US all up to the New World Order. Multizillionaire international banker David Rockefeller has already admitted to the latter effort.

Apparently, something has happened to interfere with the bankers’ plans and schedule. Perhaps Cheney-Bush have provided too much evidence of their criminal and treasonist intentions, and the threat of an armed rebellion is now looming larger than ever. Perhaps a military coup is in the wind. Or perhaps, the unpopularity of the Cheney-Bush dictatorship is causing even the world conspirators to fractionalize. Whatever it is, something must be up to have triggered the Gellman-Becker series.

The exposé has now provided solid evidence that Cheney is running the show and is therefore definitely impeachable. As Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer and a former associate deputy attorney general under Ronald Reagan wrote in his June 27th article, “Impeach Cheney” and posted in Slate, “Under Dick Cheney, the office of the vice president has been transformed from a tiny acorn into an unprecedented giant oak. In grasping and exercising presidential powers, Cheney has dulled political accountability and concocted theories for evading the law and the Constitution that would have embarrassed King George III.”

Fein continues: “The most recent invention we know of is the vice president’s insistence that an executive order governing the handling of classified information in the executive branch does not reach his office because he also serves as president of the Senate. In other words, the vice president is a unique legislative-executive creature standing above and beyond the Constitution. The House judiciary committee should commence an impeachment inquiry. As Alexander Hamilton advised in the Federalist Papers, an impeachable offense is a political crime against the nation. Cheney’s multiple crimes against the Constitution clearly qualify.”

During the Clinton administration, Bill Clinton “wrote legislation” via executive orders. The opposition’s beef at the time was that such presidential fiat executive orders were not national law, but were instead confined to operational directives within the executive branch alone. Now Cheney explains his vision that executive orders do not apply to the executive branch of government, and if they do, they don’t apply to him because he has decided he isn’t in the executive branch of government. That’s not what is written in the Constitution. His arrogant defiance of the United States Constitution and an executive order that applies directly to him constitute the very political crimes attorney Bruce Fein pointed out were in violation of the rule of law of this nation.

And although the Gellman-Becker Post series started out promisingly enough, and in spite of the fact that it still evidences a refreshing air of professional journalism, Part I of the series defining Cheney’s criminal dictatorial control gives way later in the series to a condoning tone and a dimension of approval articulating Cheney’s exceptional talent in cutting through the mire of government bureaucracy red tape to arrive expeditiously at common sense solutions. The plight of the Klamath basin farmers in opposing the federal Environmental Protection Agency, a cause resoundingly favored by “conservatives” who hate the bureaucratic stupidity of big government, was presented by the “liberal” Washington Post as a case in point as to Cheney’s astonishing and beneficent vision. Huh?! Championing the rights of individuals trying to earn profits over caring, compassionate, Big Brother government is now a cause for the Washington Post?

As stated, the series does indeed expose Cheney’s dictatorial control, but before the series is over, this dictatorial control is offered up as “good” dictatorship. Perhaps this is the real purpose of the series, to admit to Cheney’s total control of America, but to blunt its horror and danger by pointing out evidence of beneficence. And considering that no more mention of this horrible anomaly in American government can be found anywhere in the mass media, it would seem that its timing and shock effect would wear off quickly given the newspaper mentality and short collective memory of the American public. Again, it is most difficult to surmise the real intent of the series.

Part I is the most shocking in terms of describing how one individual controls ALL in American government. Here’s an example from the opening paragraph: “Just past the Oval Office, in the private dining room overlooking the South Lawn, Vice President Cheney joined President Bush at a round parquet table they shared once a week. Cheney brought a four-page text, written in strict secrecy by his lawyer. He carried it back out with him after lunch.

In less than an hour, the document traversed a West Wing circuit that gave its words the power of command. It changed hands four times, according to witnesses, with emphatic instructions to bypass staff review. When it returned to the Oval Office, in a blue portfolio embossed with the presidential seal, Bush pulled a felt-tip pen from his pocket and signed without sitting down. Almost no one else had seen the text.”

The article continues: “Cheney’s proposal had become a military order from the commander in chief. Foreign terrorism suspects held by the United States were stripped of access to any court -- civilian or military, domestic or foreign. They could be confined indefinitely without charges and would be tried, if at all, in closed ‘military commissions.’”

Is this the way American laws should be written? Does this align with Constitutional constraints that provide for a separation of powers and checks and balances to ensure individual freedoms? “Suspects” are now designated as such by the government’s executive branch, and proof in a court of law is now no longer required. And what is to differentiate between a terror suspect and any other kind of suspect? And how about members of a political opposition – are they also “terrorists” because they disagree with this criminal administration? Only Cheney and Bush now have this power, which they gave to themselves!

Even members of Bush’s own administration were outraged by this dictatorial fiat. Gellman and Becker elaborate after members of the Bush regime found out about the fiat while still in the dark as to its origin: “‘What the hell just happened?’ Secretary of State Colin L. Powell demanded, a witness said, when CNN announced the order that evening, Nov. 13, 2001. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, incensed, sent an aide to find out. Even witnesses to the Oval Office signing said they did not know the vice president had played any part.”

As much as Cheney covets total control protected by total secrecy, Gellman and Becker note that, “Cheney expresses indifference, in public and private, to any verdict but history’s, and those close to him say he means it.” But isn’t this the same outlook that can be attributed to Hitler and Stalin? Isn’t it the same indifference and arrogance that justifies “breaking some eggs to make an omelet?”

In the opinion of this writer, there is more behind Cheney’s quest for unlimited power, shrouded in absolute secrecy, and all-encompassing in every matter of federal government control. And the article makes it clear, that anyone who crosses Cheney gets wasted. Gellman and Becker point out to the sharp differences of opinion and the conflicts that former EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman had with Cheney, differences that led her to eventually resign from the agency. They mention former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s differences with Cheney, also leading to his resignation. The article documents Cheney’s meddling with both the EPA and the Department of Justice. And his pressuring the CIA for fraudulent intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq is now well known.

The Washington Post’s Gellman-Becker series is, whatever the reason for its airing, an absolute masterpiece of journalism, but not for reasons that are immediately obvious. It’s not the writing style, nor is it even the revelations resultant from intense investigative reporting. Perhaps the real benefits of the article have been totally missed by Graham and the Post’s executive staff. The expose answers two not so obvious questions: first, why do we have such an incompetent fool as president, and second, why does such an incompetent fool wield so much power and is so assertive regarding “his” decisions? The series provides the answer: Dick Cheney.

For early on in the quest to rid America of a very popular yet very destructive president, Cheney’s name came up as a dedicated American to replace a dedicated internationalist. And this may be the real reason for the subdued attack/exposure on Cheney. It may not be his fascism that offends, but his nationalism. Perhaps it’s Cheney’s vision for a New World Order controlled by Washington that bothers the Bilderberg internationalists. And it is this same nationalism which turned off the bankers to both Hitler and Stalin. But there is no need to speculate the connection between Cheney and Bush.

Undoubtedly, Cheney was the GOP’s pick to replace Clinton. But because of his heart problems, Cheney would never win a presidential election. Enter stage right, G. Bush, a simpleton, and an obedient and virtually clueless stooge. Bush serves not only as the buffoon heat sink for the GOP dictatorship, but is also its “decider” as related in the Post’s series when describing how Cheney writes law and Bush decides to sign without either reading or understanding what it is that he is signing. The series explores how Cheney decides on everything that is within the federal government’s purview.

The series explains Cheney’s involvement and direct supervision and control over the Department of Justice, his intimidation of the EPA, his power over the CIA, his total control of foreign policy, and his total control over the White House staff and Bush. Gellman and Becker try to paint the picture that Bush retains some identity distinct from Cheney’s oversight, but at least for this observer, it simply doesn’t work. I’m convinced that Cheney is behind EVERYTHING this dangerous, corrupt and criminal regime has perpetrated. And that would include 9/11!

As Dr. David Ray Griffin has pointed out in his latest book, both the 9/11 Commission report and the government-sanctioned released tapes falsify the timeframe wherein Cheney was in the bunker on 9/11. After reading the Post series, can there be any doubt as to who was in charge on that awful day? Can there be any doubt as to who really ordered those WTC buildings to be “pulled?” Can there be any doubt as to who decided that certain attorneys in the Justice Department were to be let go? And for Hillary and Congressman Nadler, can there be any doubt as to who made the phone call to EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman directing her to lie about the condition of the pulverized glass, concrete and steel in the dust and smoke of the disintegrated WTC buildings? Hillary demanded to know who gave the order to Whitman; now we know!

The benefit of this journalistic effort has little to do with presentation; it has everything to do with timeliness and the solving of the types of mysteries such as Hillary and Congressman Nadler were looking into. Can one imagine the anger in Whitman for having to take the fall for the very guy that forced her to resign? Here are Gellman and Becker again: “Stealth is among Cheney’s most effective tools. Man-size Mosler safes, used elsewhere in government for classified secrets, store the workaday business of the office of the vice president. Even talking points for reporters are sometimes stamped ‘Treated As: Top Secret/SCI.’ Experts in and out of government said Cheney’s office appears to have invented that designation, which alludes to ‘sensitive compartmented information,’ the most closely guarded category of government secrets. By adding the words ‘treated as,’ they said, Cheney seeks to protect unclassified work as though its disclosure would cause ‘exceptionally grave damage to national security.’”

And, “Across the board, the vice president’s office goes to unusual lengths to avoid transparency. Cheney declines to disclose the names or even the size of his staff, generally releases no public calendar and ordered the Secret Service to destroy his visitor logs. His general counsel has asserted that ‘the vice presidency is a unique office that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch,’ and is therefore exempt from rules governing either. Cheney is refusing to observe an executive order on the handling of national security secrets, and he proposed to abolish a federal office that insisted on auditing his compliance.” Have you ever seen a better description of a total dictatorship?

If the evidence wasn’t there before, it sure as hell is now! Cheney is absolutely guilty as charged, and Congress now has the evidence. Congressman Kucinich hit the nail perfectly on the head, and the time for Congress to nail the Cheney-Bush regime is long overdue. Nothing more needs to be written or said about the Cheney-Bush regime; it’s now all been said. And in conjunction with the continuously mounting scientific evidence proving the 9/11 terrorist acts as being inside jobs, we also know of Cheney’s modus operandi and his commitment to history instead of his required dedication to America and its people. Has there ever been a more immoral character than Cheney capable of the expression “the public be damned?”

As Bruce Fein wrote after reading the Post series, “Cheney must be impeached!” Fein documents the long list of criminal activities the Bush administration, now proven to be under the total control of Cheney, has perpetrated against the American people and the entire human race for which the administration, the Congress, AND the American people must now all be held accountable for in the eyes of our Creator. How many letters have you sent to your congressional representatives and senators? How many discussion groups or activist groups have you joined or participated in? Should you come up with a negative response, then YOU are guilty as well! Anyone who remains silent witnessing these egregious crimes and the evil of merely one “human” being should consider themselves an accessory, before, during and after the fact. It is time to impeach, sentence and punish these most dangerous and evil criminals!

Impeach Now! Or, Face the End of Constitutional Democracy

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS - July 16, 2007

Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran.

Bush has put in place all the necessary measures for dictatorship in the form of "executive orders" that are triggered whenever Bush declares a national emergency. Recent statements by Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff, former Republican senator Rick Santorum and others suggest that Americans might expect a series of staged, or false flag, "terrorist" events in the near future.

Many attentive people believe that the reason the Bush administration will not bow to expert advice and public opinion and begin withdrawing US troops from Iraq is that the administration intends to rescue its unpopular position with false flag operations that can be used to expand the war to Iran.

Too much is going wrong for the Bush administration: the failure of its Middle East wars, Republican senators jumping ship, Turkish troops massed on northern Iraq's border poised for an invasion to deal with Kurds, and a majority of Americans favoring the impeachment of Cheney and a near-majority favoring Bush's impeachment. The Bush administration desperately needs dramatic events to scare the American people and the Congress back in line with the militarist-police state that Bush and Cheney have fostered.

William Norman Grigg recently wrote that the GOP is "praying for a terrorist strike" to save the party from electoral wipeout in 2008. Chertoff, Cheney, the neocon nazis, and Mossad would have no qualms about saving the bacon for the Republicans, who have enabled Bush to start two unjustified wars, with Iran waiting in the wings to be attacked in a third war.

The Bush administration has tried unsuccessfully to resurrect the terrorist fear factor by infiltrating some blowhard groups and encouraging them to talk about staging "terrorist" events. The talk, encouraged by federal agents, resulted in "terrorist" arrests hyped by the media, but even the captive media was unable to scare people with such transparent sting operations.

If the Bush administration wants to continue its wars in the Middle East and to entrench the "unitary executive" at home, it will have to conduct some false flag operations that will both frighten and anger the American people and make them accept Bush's declaration of "national emergency" and the return of the draft. Alternatively, the administration could simply allow any real terrorist plot to proceed without hindrance.

A series of staged or permitted attacks would be spun by the captive media as a vindication of the neoconsevatives' Islamophobic policy, the intention of which is to destroy all Middle Eastern governments that are not American puppet states. Success would give the US control over oil, but the main purpose is to eliminate any resistance to Israel's complete absorption of Palestine into Greater Israel.

Think about it. If another 9/11-type "security failure" were not in the works, why would Homeland Security czar Chertoff go to the trouble of convincing the Chicago Tribune that Americans have become complacent about terrorist threats and that he has "a gut feeling" that America will soon be hit hard?

Why would Republican warmonger Rick Santorum say on the Hugh Hewitt radio show that "between now and November, a lot of things are going to happen, and I believe that by this time next year, the American public's (sic) going to have a very different view of this war."

Throughout its existence the US government has staged incidents that the government then used in behalf of purposes that it could not otherwise have pursued. According to a number of writers, false flag operations have been routinely used by the Israeli state. During the Czarist era in Russia, the secret police would set off bombs in order to arrest those the secret police regarded as troublesome. Hitler was a dramatic orchestrator of false flag operations. False flag operations are a commonplace tool of governments.

Ask yourself: Would a government that has lied us into two wars and is working to lie us into an attack on Iran shrink from staging "terrorist" attacks in order to remove opposition to its agenda?

Only a diehard minority believes in the honesty and integrity of the Bush-Cheney administration and in the truthfulness of the corporate media.

Hitler, who never achieved majority support in a German election, used the Reichstag fire to fan hysteria and push through the Enabling Act, which made him dictator. Determined tyrants never require majority support in order to overthrow constitutional orders.

The American constitutional system is near to being overthrown. Are coming "terrorist" events of which Chertoff warns and Santorum promises the means for overthrowing our constitutional democracy?

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review.