The Crosswinds Of Democracy
Bona-Fide Investigative Reporter Wayne Madsen hits it out of the park today:
Sep. 20, 2006 -- ANALYSIS -- As the neocons, the corporate news media, and the international banking class push the world towards more military showdowns in Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and wherever else they can provoke a crisis, along with their ultimate goal -- a "Clash of Civilizations" -- there are some important crosswinds blowing around the world that may stop them dead in their tracks.
First, the pro-democracy military coup in Thailand should be examined outside the spin and puffery emanating from the editorial and production desks in New York and Washington, DC.
Yesterday, while Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a Rupert Murdoch- and Silvio Berlusconi-like corporate media and telecommunications baron, was preparing to rub shoulders with his fellow "coalition of the willing" war criminal George W. Bush at the UN General Assembly summit in New York, he was deposed in a pro-democracy and bloodless military coup at home. Although the neocon media tried to paint the coup as having some nefarious purposes (pointing out that the coup leader, Army Commander Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin, is a Muslim), the coup's aim was to wrench Thailand's government away from the corruption, nepotism, and anti-constitutional government of Thaksin, his family, and his cronies. As far as the backing for the coup, it is well known that Gen. Sondhi maintains a close relationship with the King -- and the King is the supreme Buddhist leader of the nation. So much for the neocons trying to link the coup to Al Qaeda and their other bogeymen like Jemaah Islamiya, the group's Southeast Asian branch. But the neocon media are now painting the coup as a "dangerous" precedent -- because the generals did not accede to the "civil society" efforts to depose Thaksin. That is, of course, Council on Foreign Relations/global governance claptrap that often emanates from the "enlightened" limousine liberals -- the same bunch who have decided to support Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election in California.
As with all deposed dictators, Thaksin was forced to retreat into exile in gilded splendor, in his case in a suite at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan and then to fashionable quarters in London. The Thai military, which was supported in their move by the Thai opposition, placed Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister under arrest. Thailand cleaned house in one of those rare moments when the military steps in to restore or bring about democracy. It has happened in Portugal, Spain, the former Soviet Union, Romania, Venezuela, Philippines, Sao Tome and Principe, and other nations. Nazi Germany serves as an example of the military attempting twice, but failing, to return the nation to sane leadership by ousting Hitler in 1942 and 1944. Marshal Pietro Badoglio's 1943 coup against Benito Mussolini serves as another example of the military ousting a tyrant.
Rioting broke out in Budapest after the transcript of comments, made by millionaire "Socialist" Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcasny after winning re-election in April, were leaked to the public. Candidly, Gyurcsany admitted that he and his government had been lying to the Hungarian people for the previous four years in order to ensure their re-election. Gyurcsany's comments could have been made in the Cabinet rooms of Bangkok, London, and Washington, DC by similarly corrupt and dishonest government officials. But these leaked out and gave the Hungarian people a rare dose of who and what is running their country, in fact, who and what are running much of the world. Gyurcsany's comments included the following:
". . . we have screwed up. Not a little but a lot. No country in Europe has screwed up as much as we have. We have obviously lied throughout the past 18 to 24 months. It was perfectly clear that what we were saying was not true... in the meantime we did not actually do anything for four years. Nothing . . . we lied morning, noon and night. I do not want to carry on with this . . . .the faith comes from the fact that I am creating history. Not for the history books, I do not give a shit about them. I do not at all care whether we or I personally will be in them. I do not at all care . . . the government's work is not constructed nicely, calmly or scrupulously. No. No. It is being prepared at a mad breakneck speed because we could not do it for a while in case it came to light, and now we have to do it so desperately that we are almost at the breaking point."
While it doubtful the Hungarian military will have to step in to oust Gyurcsany and his government of liars, the riots involving tens of thousands of people throughout the country threaten to topple his shameless lying regime, a government that puts the interests of the World Bank, European Central Bank, NATO, and the dictates from Washington before the interests of its people. And the Hungarian police are being criticized for not coming down harder on the rioters when they first hit the streets.
Then there is the declaration by millions of Mexicans that their candidate, former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, robbed of his election by a combination of U.S. and international banking class corruption and vote fraud, is the legitimate President of Mexico. Lopez Obrador's populist movement and rival presidency is buttressed by popular rebellions in Chiapas and Oaxaca states. The Washington right-wing candidate, Felipe Calderon, and his conservative forerunner Vicente Fox, are besieged in their own capital. The people of Mexico and Lopez Obrador are saying no to fraudulent elections and continued control by the international banks and neocon interests. Populist governments in Venezuela and Bolivia are saying no to the international bankers and multinational corporate leeches. But America does not have to look to Bangkok, Budapest, or Caracas to see a rising tide of progressive populism. It is occurring right to our south.
Which brings us to our current dilemma. George W. Bush has trampled on our Constitution, has been found to have authorized illegal surveillance of Americans in violation of the U.S. Constitution, and tortured those protected under U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions. Senators of Bush's own party now realize that Bush and his cronies may have committed war crimes and they are not eager for Bush to have the U.S. back out of its Geneva Convention treaty commitments. And then there is Iran. From all indications, Bush and his neocon war council are determined to go to war with Iran sooner rather than later. Current and retired senior military officers have reached their breaking points with the Bush administration over torture and another bloody war. They are also well aware that Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority war criminal Jerry Bremer presided over a cabal of Republican loyalists who enriched themselves and their families with lucrative salaries and contracts -- at the cost of the lives of hundreds of American servicemen and women and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis.
That Bush has violated the Constitution is not debatable. He has. But the GOP Congress has abdicated its responsibilities to hold Bush and his administration accountable for their illegal behavior. Level-headed Federal and state judges have tried to put the breaks on the Bush excesses, but the effects have been piecemeal. There is now fear that the Bush administration and its allies in state and local governments will manipulate the November 7 elections with their "election engineering" accomplished by Diebold and other corrupted electronic voting machines.
Bush's impaired mental state was painfully apparent to reporters who covered his press conference last Friday, an event in which Bush threw a virtual tempter tantrum to defend his torture policies and effort to disengage America from its legal commitments to upholding the Geneva Conventions. With all the evidence that Bush's mental state calls for the implementation of the 25th Amendment which calls for his replacement due to physical or mental inability to carry out his duties, the rubber stamp Congress refuses to act.
The response by loyal Americans to either a Bush war with Iran or another rigged election, or both, is clear. Every U.S. military officer swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, including enemies occupying the Oval Office. And it may take temporarily suspending a very small part of the Constitution in order to save our Constitutional Republic from neocon tyranny and dictatorship.
The Thai military decided to suspend the entire Thai Constitution in an interim measure before a return to democratic rule. The U.S. military, in response to Bush's numerous violations of the U.S. Constitution and orders to engage in a potentially disastrous war with Iran, could merely step in and suspend Article I, Section 9; Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution to pave the way for a return to democratic rule. That Clause is the Bill of Attainder clause, which states, "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed." A Bill (or Writ) of Attainder is when a legislature (or another governing tribunal such as the Joint Chiefs of Staff) declares a person or group of persons guilty of a crime or crimes, and nullifies their constitutional rights, without benefit of a trial." In this case, the U.S. military could, under international law (and pursuant to a suspension of the Bill of Attainder clause in the U.S. Constitution), declare that Bush, Cheney, and other high level administration perpetrators have violated the Geneva Conventions and other U.S. treaties having the effect of law, and, without the benefit of a U.S. trial, hand them over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to face justice. In other words, the Joint Chiefs of Staff could issue a Writ of Attainder against the guilty parties in the Bush administration. Afterwards, the Writ of Attainder clause of the U.S. Constitution could be restored to force. Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures -- and the founders of the United States wanted it that way. We owe it to them and their great sacrifices to carry on the revolutionary spirit they bequeathed to us.
Combining the wishes of our Founders like Jefferson, Madison and Paine with the requirements of modern international law: Temporarily restore the Writ of Attainder for Bush and his criminal administration and then hand them over to The Hague for trial.
Sep. 20, 2006 -- ANALYSIS -- As the neocons, the corporate news media, and the international banking class push the world towards more military showdowns in Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and wherever else they can provoke a crisis, along with their ultimate goal -- a "Clash of Civilizations" -- there are some important crosswinds blowing around the world that may stop them dead in their tracks.
First, the pro-democracy military coup in Thailand should be examined outside the spin and puffery emanating from the editorial and production desks in New York and Washington, DC.
Yesterday, while Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a Rupert Murdoch- and Silvio Berlusconi-like corporate media and telecommunications baron, was preparing to rub shoulders with his fellow "coalition of the willing" war criminal George W. Bush at the UN General Assembly summit in New York, he was deposed in a pro-democracy and bloodless military coup at home. Although the neocon media tried to paint the coup as having some nefarious purposes (pointing out that the coup leader, Army Commander Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin, is a Muslim), the coup's aim was to wrench Thailand's government away from the corruption, nepotism, and anti-constitutional government of Thaksin, his family, and his cronies. As far as the backing for the coup, it is well known that Gen. Sondhi maintains a close relationship with the King -- and the King is the supreme Buddhist leader of the nation. So much for the neocons trying to link the coup to Al Qaeda and their other bogeymen like Jemaah Islamiya, the group's Southeast Asian branch. But the neocon media are now painting the coup as a "dangerous" precedent -- because the generals did not accede to the "civil society" efforts to depose Thaksin. That is, of course, Council on Foreign Relations/global governance claptrap that often emanates from the "enlightened" limousine liberals -- the same bunch who have decided to support Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election in California.
As with all deposed dictators, Thaksin was forced to retreat into exile in gilded splendor, in his case in a suite at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan and then to fashionable quarters in London. The Thai military, which was supported in their move by the Thai opposition, placed Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister under arrest. Thailand cleaned house in one of those rare moments when the military steps in to restore or bring about democracy. It has happened in Portugal, Spain, the former Soviet Union, Romania, Venezuela, Philippines, Sao Tome and Principe, and other nations. Nazi Germany serves as an example of the military attempting twice, but failing, to return the nation to sane leadership by ousting Hitler in 1942 and 1944. Marshal Pietro Badoglio's 1943 coup against Benito Mussolini serves as another example of the military ousting a tyrant.
Rioting broke out in Budapest after the transcript of comments, made by millionaire "Socialist" Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcasny after winning re-election in April, were leaked to the public. Candidly, Gyurcsany admitted that he and his government had been lying to the Hungarian people for the previous four years in order to ensure their re-election. Gyurcsany's comments could have been made in the Cabinet rooms of Bangkok, London, and Washington, DC by similarly corrupt and dishonest government officials. But these leaked out and gave the Hungarian people a rare dose of who and what is running their country, in fact, who and what are running much of the world. Gyurcsany's comments included the following:
". . . we have screwed up. Not a little but a lot. No country in Europe has screwed up as much as we have. We have obviously lied throughout the past 18 to 24 months. It was perfectly clear that what we were saying was not true... in the meantime we did not actually do anything for four years. Nothing . . . we lied morning, noon and night. I do not want to carry on with this . . . .the faith comes from the fact that I am creating history. Not for the history books, I do not give a shit about them. I do not at all care whether we or I personally will be in them. I do not at all care . . . the government's work is not constructed nicely, calmly or scrupulously. No. No. It is being prepared at a mad breakneck speed because we could not do it for a while in case it came to light, and now we have to do it so desperately that we are almost at the breaking point."
While it doubtful the Hungarian military will have to step in to oust Gyurcsany and his government of liars, the riots involving tens of thousands of people throughout the country threaten to topple his shameless lying regime, a government that puts the interests of the World Bank, European Central Bank, NATO, and the dictates from Washington before the interests of its people. And the Hungarian police are being criticized for not coming down harder on the rioters when they first hit the streets.
Then there is the declaration by millions of Mexicans that their candidate, former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, robbed of his election by a combination of U.S. and international banking class corruption and vote fraud, is the legitimate President of Mexico. Lopez Obrador's populist movement and rival presidency is buttressed by popular rebellions in Chiapas and Oaxaca states. The Washington right-wing candidate, Felipe Calderon, and his conservative forerunner Vicente Fox, are besieged in their own capital. The people of Mexico and Lopez Obrador are saying no to fraudulent elections and continued control by the international banks and neocon interests. Populist governments in Venezuela and Bolivia are saying no to the international bankers and multinational corporate leeches. But America does not have to look to Bangkok, Budapest, or Caracas to see a rising tide of progressive populism. It is occurring right to our south.
Which brings us to our current dilemma. George W. Bush has trampled on our Constitution, has been found to have authorized illegal surveillance of Americans in violation of the U.S. Constitution, and tortured those protected under U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions. Senators of Bush's own party now realize that Bush and his cronies may have committed war crimes and they are not eager for Bush to have the U.S. back out of its Geneva Convention treaty commitments. And then there is Iran. From all indications, Bush and his neocon war council are determined to go to war with Iran sooner rather than later. Current and retired senior military officers have reached their breaking points with the Bush administration over torture and another bloody war. They are also well aware that Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority war criminal Jerry Bremer presided over a cabal of Republican loyalists who enriched themselves and their families with lucrative salaries and contracts -- at the cost of the lives of hundreds of American servicemen and women and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis.
That Bush has violated the Constitution is not debatable. He has. But the GOP Congress has abdicated its responsibilities to hold Bush and his administration accountable for their illegal behavior. Level-headed Federal and state judges have tried to put the breaks on the Bush excesses, but the effects have been piecemeal. There is now fear that the Bush administration and its allies in state and local governments will manipulate the November 7 elections with their "election engineering" accomplished by Diebold and other corrupted electronic voting machines.
Bush's impaired mental state was painfully apparent to reporters who covered his press conference last Friday, an event in which Bush threw a virtual tempter tantrum to defend his torture policies and effort to disengage America from its legal commitments to upholding the Geneva Conventions. With all the evidence that Bush's mental state calls for the implementation of the 25th Amendment which calls for his replacement due to physical or mental inability to carry out his duties, the rubber stamp Congress refuses to act.
The response by loyal Americans to either a Bush war with Iran or another rigged election, or both, is clear. Every U.S. military officer swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, including enemies occupying the Oval Office. And it may take temporarily suspending a very small part of the Constitution in order to save our Constitutional Republic from neocon tyranny and dictatorship.
The Thai military decided to suspend the entire Thai Constitution in an interim measure before a return to democratic rule. The U.S. military, in response to Bush's numerous violations of the U.S. Constitution and orders to engage in a potentially disastrous war with Iran, could merely step in and suspend Article I, Section 9; Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution to pave the way for a return to democratic rule. That Clause is the Bill of Attainder clause, which states, "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed." A Bill (or Writ) of Attainder is when a legislature (or another governing tribunal such as the Joint Chiefs of Staff) declares a person or group of persons guilty of a crime or crimes, and nullifies their constitutional rights, without benefit of a trial." In this case, the U.S. military could, under international law (and pursuant to a suspension of the Bill of Attainder clause in the U.S. Constitution), declare that Bush, Cheney, and other high level administration perpetrators have violated the Geneva Conventions and other U.S. treaties having the effect of law, and, without the benefit of a U.S. trial, hand them over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to face justice. In other words, the Joint Chiefs of Staff could issue a Writ of Attainder against the guilty parties in the Bush administration. Afterwards, the Writ of Attainder clause of the U.S. Constitution could be restored to force. Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures -- and the founders of the United States wanted it that way. We owe it to them and their great sacrifices to carry on the revolutionary spirit they bequeathed to us.
Combining the wishes of our Founders like Jefferson, Madison and Paine with the requirements of modern international law: Temporarily restore the Writ of Attainder for Bush and his criminal administration and then hand them over to The Hague for trial.
posted by TLC's Place at 6:46 AM
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