Guest guest Posted September 8, 2004 Report Share Posted September 8, 2004 > Wed, 08 Sep 2004 01:47:11 -0400 > palast > Don't Look at the Flash > > DON'T LOOK AT THE FLASH > September 8, 2004 > by Greg Palast > > On September 11, 2001, we Americans were the victims > of a terrible attack. > > By September 12, we became the suspects. > > Not one single U.S. citizen hijacked a plane, yet > President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft, > through powers seized and codified in the USA > PATRIOT Act, fingered 270 million of us for > surveillance, for searches, for tracking, for > watching. > > And who was going to play Anti-Santa, watching to > see when we've been good or bad? A guy named Derek > Smith. > > And that made September 11, 2001 Derek's lucky day. > > Even before the spying work could begin, there were > all those pieces of people to collect - tubes marked > " DM " (for " Disaster Manhattan " ) - from which his > company, ChoicePoint Inc, would extract DNA for > victim identification, work for which the firm would > receive $12 million from New York City's government. > > Maybe Smith, like the rest of us, grieved at the > murder of innocent friends and countrymen. As for > the 12-million-dollar corpse identification fee, > that's chump change to the $4 billion corporation > Smith had founded only four years earlier in > Alpharetta, Georgia. > > Nevertheless, for Smith's ChoicePoint Inc., Ground > Zero would become a profit center lined with gold. > > As the towers fell, ChoicePoint's stock rose; and > from Ground Zero, contracts gushed forth from War on > Terror fever. Why? Because this outfit is holding > no less 16 billion records on every living and dying > being in the USA. They're the Little Brother with > the filing system when Big Brother calls. > > ChoicePoint's quick route to no-bid spy contracts > was not impeded by the fact that the company did > something for George W. Bush that the voters would > not: select him as our president. > > Here's how they did it. Before the 2000 election, > ChoicePoint unit Database Technologies, held a $4 > million no-bid contract under the control of Florida > Secretary of State Katherine Harris, to identify > felons who had illegally registered to vote. The > ChoicePoint outfit altogether fingered 94,000 > Florida residents. As it turned out, less than 3,000 > had a verifiable criminal record; almost everyone on > the list had the right to vote. > > The tens of thousands of " purged " citizens had > something in common besides their innocence: The > list was, in the majority, made up of African > Americans and Hispanics, overwhelmingly Democratic > voters whose only crime was V.W.B: Voting While > Black. And that little ethnic cleansing operation, > conducted by Governor Jeb Bush's gang with > ChoicePoint's aid, determined the race in which > Harris named Bush the winner by 537 votes. > > To say that ChoicePoint is in the " data " business is > utterly to miss their market concept: These guys are > in the Fear Industry. Secret danger lurks > everywhere. Al Qaeda's just the tip of the iceberg. > What about the pizza delivery boy? ChoicePoint > hunted through a sampling of them and announced that > 25 percent had only recently come out of prison. > " What pizza do you like? " asks CEO Smith. " At what > price? Are you willing to take the risk?... " > > War fever opened up a whole new market for the Fear > Industry. > > And now Mr. Smith wants your blood. ChoicePoint is > the biggest supplier of DNA to the FBI's " CODIS " > system. And, one company insider whispered to me, > " Derek [smith] told me that it is his hope to build > a database of DNA samples from every person in the > United States. " > > For now, Smith keeps this scheme under wraps, > fearing " resistance " from the public. Instead, > Smith pushes " ChoicePoint Cares " - taking DNA > samples to hunt for those missing kids on milk > cartons. It's for, " the mothers of this country who > are wrestling with threats " - you know, the pizza > guy from Al Queda, the cult kidnappers. In other > words, ChoicePoint's real product, like our > President's, is panic. > > In Hollywood, Jack Nicholson picked up the > zeitgeist: " If I were an Arab American I would > insist on being profiled. This is not the time for > civil rights. " > > Maybe Jack's right: screw rights, we want safety. > > But wait, Jack. We're both old farts who can > remember the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1962, the > Russians were going to drop The Big One on us. But > we didn't have to worry, Mrs. Gordon told us, if we > just got under the desk, covered our necks. And > she'd warned, it will all be OK as long as we, > " Don't look at the flash! " > > ChoicePoint's Smith admonishes that, if we‚d only > had his databases humming at the airports on > September 11, the hijackers, who used their own > names, would have been barred from boarding. > However, experts inform me that Osama no longer > checks in as " Mr. bin Laden, " even at the cost of > losing his frequent flyer miles. > > ChoicePoint's miles of files, the FBI's CODIS > system, taking off your shoes at the airport, Code > Purple days, the whole new Star-Spangled KGB'ing of > America is the new " Duck and Cover. " > > Thank you, ChoicePoint. Thank you, Mr. Ashcroft. > Thank you, Mr. Bush. We're safe now, as long as we > don't look at the flash! > > **** > > Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times > bestseller, " The Best Democracy Money Can Buy " and > " Joker's Wild: Dubya's Trick Deck " - investigative > regime change cards from Seven Stories Press. All > are available here: > http://www.gregpalast.com/store.htm > > This month, Palast will release, " Bush Family > Fortunes, " the film based on his investigative > reports for BBC television. View a 2-minute preview > at http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm > > Sign up for Greg Palast's investigative reports at > www.gregpalast.com/contact.cfm > ============================================ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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