Chapter 1-The Rise of the Police State
Chapter 4 — Universal Public Surveillance
Chapter 5 — Other Surveillance
Chapter 6 — Searching for Anarchists, or Maybe Just Political Activists
Chapter 7 — Winning the Information War
Chapter 8 — Arbitrary and Unaccountable Law Enforcement
Chapter 9 — The Militarisation of the Police
Chapter 10 — Occupy Wall Street
Chapter 11 — Intimidating the Media & Subverting the Press
Chapter 12 — The Short Road: Democracy to Fascism
Chapter 13 — The Next American Revolution? Anticipated Civil
Police State America
Occupy Wall Street protestors march down Fifth Avenue towards Union Square during a May Day rally in New York City. Photograph: Monika Graff/Getty Images
CHINESE ENGLISH
Most people know about the massive "Occupy Wall Street" protests that occurred in the US during 2011 and 2012. Briefly,these were spontaneous protests that began in the US and spread to other Western countries, involving hundreds of thousands of people in the US and attracting tens of thousands in cities in other nations.These protests arose not so much because of the US banker-caused financial crisis, but when it became clear the US government planned no action either to punish those responsible or to initiate reforms to prevent such disasters from recurring, but instead to protect and reward the perpetrators.The main issues raised by this civil society movement were social and economic inequality in America, the institutionalised greed and corruption of US multinational business,and the enormous influence of corporations on the US government, especially from the large banks and financial companies.
In 2012, American police harshly, and often brutally, dispersed protesters of the Occupy Wall Street movement that had been proceeding for nearly two months, the extremely harsh actions of law enforcement agents causing first outrage on the Internet, and then in the streets. The campaign spread across other cities in the US, then to dozens of other nations, culminating in bloody riots and widespread fires in the UK. Despite the fact that the protesters were supported by almost half of the US population, the authorities had no dialogue with them, preferring the language of batons and clubs, water cannons and tear gas. Newly-released documents show that the violent crackdown on the Occupy movement was coordinated not only by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and local police, but was coordinated with the big banks themselves. The evidence reveals a terrifying network of coordinated activity by US government agencies "working for and with the big banks"to silence and politically disable the protestors. It is now apparent that plans had been made months in advance by the banks, the FED, state and local police departments, and FBI officials to share information and crush all public opposition to the banks that had engineered one of the greatest social disasters in US history.
ACLU: FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that FBI agents surveilled Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protestors, questioned activists about an OWS organizer, and in one internal memorandum listed the peaceful protest movement as domestic terrorists. Government agencies such as DHS, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Domestic Security Alliance Council, the Federal Reserve are all included in FBI correspondences concerning OWS. Source
In a truly frightening event, the FBI broadcast a letter to various law enforcement agencies, titled: "International Terrorism Matters",to inform these agencies that the Occupy Wall Street movement "has been determined to be an organisation which is opposed to the US war with Iraq", i.e., they were now officially classified as "low-level terrorists", and that this information could be used to justify "any action deemed appropriate". And you know what that means.
I have discussed elsewhere the many US financial crises. Our focus here is not the 2008 crisis nor the protests against those responsible, but rather the response of the US government - which was not focused on either those who caused the social and economic collapse or on remedial regulation and legislation,but entirely on containing protests by the public who had been financially devastated.While the American public waited patiently for several years for their government to take some leadership action, the government itself wasted no time in taking action against its own public who were the victims of the collapse. In the background, recently-released government documents revealed that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had not only been monitoring these civil movementsbut had classified them as domestic terrorist organisations and targeted them for severe treatment.The FBI launched a massive espionage campaign meant to infiltrate and disrupt these movements. The latest photo identification technology was applied, searching all government database records including medical, military and even driving licenses in attempts to identify the leaders and specifically target them for intimidation and violence. Not only that, these agencies shared their collective information with the very bankers and other corporations against which the public was protesting.
It is now apparent that a great amount of collusion existed between the government, the Wall Street Bankers and the FED, various police and enforcement agencies, the media, and many local governments as well, producing coordinated attempts to intimidate, silence and suppress public disaffection and protests against the US government and its "friends".The FBI and DHS arranged conferences with the mayors of large US cities, where suppression of public discontent was discussed, the consensus being that these widespread public protests could "not be allowed to gain any credibility".After these organised meetings, the US government began orchestrated and systematic waves of attacks on the protesters, many of them involving substantial violence. These concerted actions by the FBI and related agencies fell firmly under the definition of "domestic terrorism". In other words, the government had classified a peaceful civil society movement as terrorism and then itself moved to apply genuine terrorism against these people, using physical force and violence against a civilian population for purposes that were purely political. Many foreign media commented on the fact that the US mainstream media failed to cover this massive movement adequately, in many cases ignoring the protests altogether even though they continued for over a year. Many single protest events that involved as many as 100,000 individuals passed virtually unnoticed due to a media conspiracy of silence.
But President Obama comments serve only to highlight that US politicians, including the President, have almost totally lost control of the government of the nation, and that it is the major private interests - the banks, the owners of the FED, the large corporations, and the CIA/military that control the country.
Even President Obama noted that, in the wake of the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression, with huge social and financial damage throughout the country, the same people who acted irresponsibly in causing the crisis were now acting irresponsibly in preventing protest against those same abusive practices. But his comments serve only to highlight that US politicians, including the President, have almost totally lost control of the government of the nation, and that it is the major private interests - the banks, the owners of the FED, the large corporations, and the CIA/military that control the country. In any case, the powers in control did indeed launch a major military-style offensive against these civil society groups in a manner that would do credit to an axis of evil dictatorship. In addition to the espionage, the intimidation, and the widespread use of force, US government agencies arrested more than 10,000 individuals who were considered leaders, and initiated widespread violent assaults on many tens of thousands more.Most of this was quietly ignored by the US media.
So much for fabled democracy and freedom of assembly. Leading media outlets of the country tried to ignore the campaign for a long time, preferring to talk about the "march of democracy" in Libya and Syria, or the "bad policy" of Russia, China or Venezuela in dealing with political unrest.According to Americans, protests in other countries are cries for freedom and good government, but these same protests in the US are caused by criminals and terrorists fully deserving of police abuse.In the meantime, of course, the US spends huge amounts of money and effort to sponsor these dissidents in other countries, solely for the pleasure of being able to point an accusing finger at the 'unfair' treatment they receive at home.
Medical attention: Cecily McMillan collapsed at the Occupy protest on March 17 in Zuccotti Park after reportedly being dragged by police.
Cecily McMillan, a 25-year-old student was attending an Occupy Wall Street demonstration in Manhattan when she was seized by police, beaten so ferociously that she was black and blue on her ribs and arms and went into a seizure.Media photographs show a policeman grabbing her breast from behind, and McMillan instinctively throwing up an elbow to protect herself, catching a policeman under the eye. After being beaten, she was arrested and is now slated to serve a seven-year prison term for "assaulting a police officer". She was only one of more than 700 protestors brutally treated and arrested in what was described in the media as "an orgy of police misconduct". Professors from two New York law schools produced a scrupulously detailed report of the police routinely using excessive force to crush the protest movement, and New York was by no means the only city where this occurred. Los Angeles was far worse, but the media and all outsiders were prohibited from viewing the police violence, and no charges have ever been laid against the officers. In one case, the Oakland Policeintentionallyshot US Marine veteran Scott Olsenin the head during a protest.
Photojournalist Kristyna Wentz-Graff, her Journal Sentinel ID badge clearly visible, is handcuffed Wednesday while covering a protest. Credit: Lita Medinger. Source
Almost all reporters covering the protests were immediately arrested and thrown into prison, to prevent public knowledge of the police violence. Anyone with a camera or mobile phone, especially those attempting to photograph the many instances of police brutality, was arrested or threatened with arrest and the device seized and destroyed. Reporters were often arrested on falsified charges that would later have to be dismissed for lack of evidence, but the arrests served to intimidate the media into silence. Many reporters, and those with cameras, were physically attacked by the police, thrown to the ground, pepper-sprayed, beaten and kicked, and then arrested on trumped-up charges of "civil disobedience, disorderly conduct, criminal trespassing, unlawful assembly, and even public drunkenness".Any journalists covering the police brutality toward the protesters were specifically identified and targeted by the police. Many demonstrators attempted to use video recording of the many instances of police violence and brutality as a way to document and to deter this behavior, but the position of the US government and its law-enforcement agencies was that"the public use of cameras to document police brutality is an illegal act".
ACLU: The Military Commissions Act of 2006 gives the president absolute power to decide who is an enemy of our country and to imprison people indefinitely without charging them with a crime. Source/来源
It is in this light that the US government labeled as terrorists anyone active in this movement or even supporting the movement.It is astonishing that Americans will still attempt to defend their so-called 'freedoms', claiming particularly of speech and assembly, in direct contradiction to the facts on the ground. One government official quoted the US Military Commissions Act, which states that, "Anyone who speaks out against the government’s policies can be declared an "unlawful enemy combatant"and imprisoned indefinitely (without trial or recourse).That includes American citizens". How do we reconcile this statement with claims of freedom of speech?
FBI DOCUMENT ‘[DELETED’] PLOTS TO KILL OCCUPY LEADERS BY SNIPER RIFLES ‘IF DEEMED NECESSARY’
But it's much worse than this. Documents were obtained from the FBI office in Houston, Texas, that outlined a plan to use mercenaries to kill the leaders of this Occupy Wall Street movement if it progressed much further.In that city as in many others, official reaction to the demonstrations involved violent assaults by police on the activists, and this is where the assassination plot was hatched.To quote the FBI document, "(An organisation) planned to engage in sniper attacks against protestors in Houston, Texas . . . planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then formulate a plan to kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles". The FBI confirmed that the document was genuine and that it originated in the FBI's Houston office. It offered neither explanation nor apology. It appears that the organisation involved was an FBI/CIA-linked mercenary-for-hire organization called Craft International, which has a contract funded by the US Department of Homeland Security. This is America today, where Hollywood and the media daily pump out propaganda on the treasured democratic values of freedom of expression and assembly.
Protesters affiliated with Occupy Wall Street march down Broadway in Manhattan towards Wall Street on May 1, 2012 in New York City. Occupy Wall Street has joined with unions during the May Day protests, a traditional day of global protests in sympathy with unions and leftist politics. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Mr. Romanoff’s writing has been translated into 32 languages and his articles posted on more than 150 foreign-language news and politics websites in more than 30 countries, as well as more than 100 English language platforms. Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He is one of the contributing authors to Cynthia McKinney’s new anthology ‘When China Sneezes’. (Chapt. 2 —Dealing with Demons).
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