Written by Don Washington   

Do you remember 9/11? Do remember where you were, what you were doing and then what you thought when you saw the carnage on that day? I remember that my youngest brother lives in New York City as do a number of my friends and contacts. I remember that my dad worked at the Pentagon sometimes during that time and was missing for hours because of his job in times exactly like that.

What I remember most was how fast everything “came” together names, pictures... an orgy of evidence and feeling played from jump street. And then the PATRIOT ACT happened and I found myself wondering what would have happened if the Bush Administration of all people had, had the PATRIOT ACT when 9/11 happened. It made me shudder because I know something you all should understand... it is not a question of if there will be another mass terror act on American soil but when.

I call it the many minds theory. It’s simple and statistically unavoidable. If enough people are scheming hard enough, working tirelessly enough and are motivated enough whatever they are attempting to accomplish will eventually happen if it is within the realm of probability. Right now, every day via kicked in door, tortured soul, drone launched death, dictator supporting policy, rendition kidnapping to secret prisons, hunter-killer teams and straight up occupation we are adding to the minds working on our demise. I said as much weeks ago;
http://mayoraltutorial.com/articles/decoupled
Eventually there is going to be another 9/11 or maybe something far worse... a "constitutional dictatorship."

The very idea of a “constitutional dictatorship” sounds like an oxymoron developed by the neo-cons, market tested by Frank Luntz, promoted by Fox News and supported by pastors, tea-partiers and the wealthy and powerful who have proven that they are routinely above the law. What it really means is that ordinary citizens like you and I will be at the mercy of the least ethical or empathic member of any leader or member of the executive branch or federal intelligence or law enforcement agency. Sounds paranoid far-fetched, doesn't it? I'd think so too if I hadn't taken the time to read the PATRIOT ACT and our Executive Orders and Federal Code around terrorism. The state of the law right now is already something that is hardly imaginable in an actual democracy.

Right now, if the conditions were right, like someone in the federal intelligence or law enforcement felt like it, secret charges, involving secret evidence, given to a secret grand jury can lead to you being secretly picked up and held on a military base without trial or hearing for an indefinite amount of time without any rights of due process. The next time something like 9/11 happens the only thing between mass secret arrests and you will be who is in the White House. The question Americans should be wrestling with is not how we can stop another massive terror attack, we can’t but when it happens what will happen next?

Well, we can't really know what will happen next but we do know what our government is empowered to do without checking with anyone. Imagine that 3,000 or more Americans are laying the streets of some city and in spite of having worn our civil liberties down to damn nub some President has to appear in charge. They have to convince the rest of us that they have everything under control. That's how we got the TSA and the Department of Homeland Security and the airport monkey dance we do every time we travel and oh yeah, the PATRIOT ACT. That President could declare martial law and thanks to end of the Posse Comitatus these could be real combat soldiers and private mercenaries come calling. The President is free to set the CIA loose on us and he or she could fully enact the PATRIOT ACT.

Presently under the PATRIOT ACT, right now many activists could be prosecuted as domestic terrorists under Sections 802, 803, 805 and 808. This expanded scope of definitions of the Definition of a Domestic Terrorist, Prohibition Against Harboring Terrorists and Providing Material Support for Terrorists is why peace activists and animal rights groups of all groups are under federal surveillance and whistleblowers are catching such hell. After the next terrorist attack groups like the peace activists in Chicago and Minneapolis should expect that the next time the authorities come it will not be for their laptops it will be for them and it will be legal.

Depending on who the President is we could see a replay of Japanese Internment Camps only this time it will be filled with... maybe Muslim-Americans, maybe liberal Americans, peace protestors, government critics and this time the enemy is a stateless idea not a nation state. How long will people be detained? Who can say in the long war, the twilight struggle the right likes to call it possibly forever.

I realize this sounds like something out of a South American coup or Nazi Germany but we ignore these parallels at our peril.
http://www.favreau.info/misc/14-points-fascism.php
We have ample evidence right now that our government under both rabidly conservative a Republican and a “surprisingly” conservative Democrat has targeted American citizens for assassination, persecuted whistleblowers and tried to link peace activists to terrorist organizations.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/25/
http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1598447
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/whistleblowers-rescind-ob_b_876971.html
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/11/01/whistleblowers
http://wonkette.com/447651/fbi-now-investigating-major-u-s-enemy-domestic-peace-activists
http://www.austinagainstwar.org/dangerous-trend-fbi-detains-and-investigates-peace-activists.htm

What I know about democracy is that it works best in times of peace. That's one reason why ours is unable to reform its election system, hold banks accountable, enforce/create regulations on corporate entities or protect its citizens from the abuses of the powerful. It's why we apparently have two different justice systems and it's why right-wing extremists have the space to operate as if they are mainstream actors. It's a witch's brew of “perfect conditions” to kill our little Republic, which is why now more than ever it is time to get off the mat and fight for democracy.

Call the Eric Holder's office at 202-353-1555 and demand an end to political intimidation of peace activists and an investigation into torture, rendition and human rights violations of the last administration. It's never too late for some accountability.

Call or write the “newspapers of record” such as the New York Times and Washington Post, asking them to give full and prominent coverage to how the PATRIOT ACT is killing democracy.

Write your own angry polemic as a letter to the editor. Let your local paper know that you won't stand for the PATRIOT ACT because it is a danger to democracy.

Put your metaphorical foot in your local members of Congress' ass. Demand that the FBI stop harassing peace activists, that they cite some concrete evidence of how the PATRIOT ACT has helped save lives and stop terrorism and mostly ask them if something else happens what will they do to protect our civil liberties then.

Finally get off the damn bench! Protest, take action, get in the streets with someone and turn up the heat. Make a stand and don't stand down because democracy is the battle that never ends....