More Judicial Deference on National-Security State Murder by Jacob G. Hornberger August 5, 2013 Continuing the long tradition of deference to the national-security state by the U.S. federal judiciary, a federal judge recently dismissed a lawsuit by the sons of a man named Frank Olson seeking damages for the CIA’s murder of their father. The excuses that the judge used to dismiss the case were the statute of limitations and a previous settlement that had been entered into regarding the case. The sordid details of the Olson case have been set forth in a book entitled A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Cold War Experiments by H.P. Albarelli. A good review of the book, written by a filmmaker named Melissa Roddy, is posted on the website of the Huffington Post. For another discussion of Albarelli’s book, see my article “The Evil of the National Security State, Part 5.” Olson was a scientist working for the national-security state during the Cold War. He participated in the infamous ...
The Real Criminals Under Our National-Security State System by Jacob G. Hornberger July 31, 2013 Let’s recap the situation regarding criminal conduct within the U.S. national-security state, just to see how the national-security state has succeeded in corrupting the morals and values of our nation. People Who Are Considered Heroes by the National-Security State 1. The officials who devised the scheme that plunged America into the illegal world of torture. 2. The officials who actually committed the crime of torture. 3. The officials who induced private telecommunication firms to engage in illegal monitoring of their customer’s telephone calls. 4. The officials who devised the scheme that plunged America into the illegal world of assassination. 5. The officials who have actually committed the assassinations. 6. The officials who devised the scheme to establish a Constitution-free torture and indefinite-incarceration zone at Guantanamo Bay. 7. The officials who have actually supervised and operated the torture and indefinite-incarceration zone at Guantanamo Bay. 8. The officials who devised the illegal scheme to kidnap a man on the streets of Milan, Italy, and transport him to the ...
Edward Snowden and the Corruption of Morals and Values by Jacob G. Hornberger July 16, 2013 The vilification of Edward Snowden by U.S. officials and their spokesmen in the mainstream press reflects perfectly the extent to which the national-security state apparatus, which was foisted on America’s governmental system after World War II and without even the semblance of a constitutional amendment, has warped and perverted fundamental morals and values. After all, what exactly has Snowden done to deserve condemnation? He’s revealed to the American public (and the people of the world) a super-secret, massive governmental surveillance program that under normal circumstances would be considered the hallmark of a totalitarian regime. In fact, can anyone name me any totalitarian regime in the last 100 years or so, including the model totalitarian regime, Nazi Germany, that has not entailed a massive surveillance scheme on the citizenry? Any normal person would be saying thank you to Edward Snowden. But people whose hearts and minds have been corrupted by the two most important words in the lives of the American ...
No Military Coups for America? What About November 1963? by Jacob G. Hornberger July 9, 2013 An interesting aspect of the military coup in Egypt has been the attitude of American mainstream commentators who suggest that unlike Egypt and other countries, the chances of a military coup in the United States are virtually nil. See, for example, “America the Coupless” by Rosa Brooks and “Could a Military Coup Happen in America?” by Paul ...
Terrorism and the Bill of Rights by Jacob G. Hornberger July 1, 2013 In the aftermath of the Boston bombings last spring, GOP Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham and others called on Barack Obama to treat the surviving suspect in the bombings, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, as an “enemy combatant” rather than as a criminal defendant. The episode highlighted the revolutionary change in the relationship of the American people to the federal government ...
National-Security State Toadies are Guilty of Hypocrisy on Snowden by Jacob G. Hornberger June 21, 2013 One of the most amusing aspects of the NSA scandal has been watching national-security state toadies berate Edward Snowden, the man who blew the whistle on the NSA’s longtime secret surveillance system, for being a “coward.” Their rationale? They say that Snowden should have stayed here in the United States instead of fleeing to Hong Kong. They say that if he ...
Syria and the U.S. Are Partners in Crime by Jacob G. Hornberger June 3, 2013 I know it’s considered heresy to criticize the U.S. government with respect to foreign affairs, but sometimes it’s just necessary to point out the disingenuousness and hypocrisy of the U.S. national-security state. There are lots of good examples that one can draw upon but since Syria is in the news, that’s a good one to focus on. Today, the official ...
The National-Security State, Not North Korea, Is the Root of Our Woes by Jacob G. Hornberger April 8, 2013 In the current crisis with North Korea, what you see coming out of the mainstream media is the same mindset that characterizes the Pentagon and the CIA. The communists are engaging in provocation and threats of aggression and the U.S. national-security state, just minding its own business, now has to take the time and trouble to respond. Of course, when ...
Chile’s Gun-Control Lesson for Americans by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2013 One of the popular arguments for gun control is that people don’t need assault rifles, high-capacity magazines, and certain types of high-powered pistols to shoot deer. That argument, however, ignores the primary rationale for the Second Amendment, which was to ensure that people retained the means to resist tyranny at the hands of the federal government. Statists give short shrift ...
Ten Reasons the U.S. Is No Longer the Land of the Free by Jonathan Turley April 1, 2013 While each new national-security power Washington has embraced was controversial when enacted, they are often discussed in isolation. But they don’t operate in isolation. They form a mosaic of powers under which our country could be considered, at least in part, authoritarian. Americans often proclaim our nation as a symbol of freedom to the world while dismissing nations such ...
My Talk at UNC by Jacob G. Hornberger March 22, 2013 On Thursday evening, I had the honor of addressing the Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) and the Students for Liberty (SDS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The two groups were working together to oppose the U.S. government’s assassination program as well as foreign interventionism and empire in general. During the day, the students promoted the event ...
