Tomgram: Nick Turse on the Homeland Security State (Part I)

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Sat, 29 Jan 2005 08:17:16 -0500

[TD] Tomgram: Nick Turse on the Homeland Security State (Part I)

 

 

 

 

[TD] Tomgram: Nick Turse on the Homeland Security State (Part I)

 

 

 

TomDispatch

a project of the Nation Institute

 

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Tomgram: Nick Turse on the Homeland Security State (Part I)

 

Since ancient Rome, imperial republics have invariably felt a tension

between cherished republican practices at home and distinctly

unrepublican ones abroad; or put another way, if imperial practices

spread far enough beyond the republic's borders and gain enough

traction out there in the imperium, sooner or later they also make the

reverse journey home, and then you have a crisis in -- or simply the

destruction of -- the republic itself. The urge of the Bush

administration to bring versions of the methods it's applying abroad

back home is already palpable; the urge to free the President, as

" commander-in-chief " in the " war on terror, " from all the old fetters,

those boring, restraining checks and balances, those inconvenient

liberties won by Americans -- so constraining, so troublesome to deal

with -- is equally palpable.

 

Back in the Watergate era, we had a would-be imperial president,

Richard M. Nixon, who provoked a constitutional crisis. Actually, it

amounted to a near constitutional coup d'état -- and if you don't

believe me, check out The Time of Illusion, Jonathan's Schell's

classic work on the subject. Now, it seems, we're in Watergate II, but

without a Democratic Congress, a critical media, or a powerful antiwar

movement (yet). All we have at the moment is the constitutional crisis

part of the equation, various simmering scandals, a catastrophic war

abroad, and an ever more powerful military-industrial-security complex

at home. And we're not just talking urges here, we're talking acts.

We're talking programs. We're talking the continual blurring of

distinctions between the domestic and the foreign, the civilian and

the military, between liberties at home and " securing the Homeland. "

The problem is, we! can only guess at the extent of that " securing "

process because so much is clearly happening just beyond our sight (or

oversight).

 

Below, in the first of a two-part series, Nick Turse, who follows the

military-corporate complex regularly for Tomdispatch, offers as solid

a sense as we are likely to get right now of the outlines of the new

Homeland Security State being created within the bounds of the old

republic. Let's face it, this is frightening stuff, but too important

not to read. Tom

 

Bringing It All Back Home:

The Emergence of the Homeland Security State

By Nick Turse

 

Part I: The Military Half

 

If you're reading this on the Internet, the FBI may be spying on

you at this very moment.

 

Under provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the Department of Justice

has been collecting e-mail and IP (a computer's unique numeric

identifier) addresses, without a warrant, using trap-and-trace

surveillance devices ( " pen-traps " ). Now, the Federal Bureau of

Investigation, Justice's principle investigative arm, may be

monitoring the web-surfacing habits of Internet users -- also without

a search warrant -- that is, spying on you with no probable cause

whatsoever.

 

Click here to read more of this dispatch.

http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/index.mhtml?emx=x & pid=2152

 

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