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The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act: A Tutorial in Orwellian Newspeak
By Robert Weitzel
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Monday 03 December 2007
"Political language has to consist largely of euphemisms ... and sheer
cloudy vagueness."
- George Orwell
H.R 1955: the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act
of 2007 recently passed by the House - a companion bill is in the Senate - is
barely one sentence old before its Orwellian moment: It begins, "AN ACT
- To prevent homegrown terrorism, and for other purposes."
Those whose pulse did not quicken at "other purposes" have probably
not read George Orwell's essay, "Politics and the English Language,"
or they voted for the other George both times.
Orwell's jeremiad on the corruption of the English language and its corrosive
effect on a democracy was written two years before his novel "1984"
spelled out in chilling detail the danger of Newspeak, which renders citizens
incapable of independent thought by depriving them of the words necessary to
form ideas other than those promulgated by the state.
After its opening "tribute" to Orwell, H.R 1955 is strategically
peppered with Newspeak regarding the establishment of a National Commission
and university-based Centers of Excellence to "examine and report upon
the fact and causes of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism and ideologically
based violence in the United States" and to make legislative recommendations
for combating it.
The "sheer cloudy vagueness" of H.R 1955, as well as its terror factor,
may account for its bipartisan 404-6 House vote, but how, in an era informed
by the Bush-Cheney administration's egregious assault on the Bill of Rights,
can the phrase "other purposes" fail to raise the "National Terror
Alert" from its current threat level of "elevated" to "severe"?
Future "other purposes" will undoubtedly be justified by the Act's
use of the term "violent radicalization," which it defines as "the
process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose
of facilitating ideologically based violence ..." or by the folksy, Lake
Wobegonesque "homegrown terrorism," defined as "the use, planned
use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born [or]
raised ... within the United States ... to intimidate or coerce the United States,
the civilian population ... or any segment thereof ...."
In the service of some self-serving "other purposes," will "extremist
beliefs" become any belief the temporary occupants of the White House consider
antithetical and threatening to their political agenda?
Will "ideologically based violence" or the use of "force"
become little more than the mayhem resulting after a peaceful protest, daring
to move beyond the barbed wire of the free speech zone, is attacked by a truncheon-wielding
riot squad armed with tear gas, German shepherd dogs and water cannons?
Will the unarmed, constitutionally protected dissenters who are fending off
blows or dog bites, or who are striking back in self-defense become "homegrown
terrorists" and suffer draconian sentences for their attempt to "intimidate
or coerce" the state with free thought and free speech?
A clue to future "other purposes" may lie in the Act's parentage.
The proud House "mother" of the Patriot Act's evil twin is Rep. Jane
Harmon (D-California), chair of the Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee.
Representative Harmon has admitted to a long and productive relationship with
the RAND Corporation, a California based think-tank with close ties to the military-industrial-intelligence
complex. RAND's 2005 study, "Trends in Terrorism," contains a chapter
titled, "Homegrown Terrorist Threats to the United States." Is this
Act a bastard child?
Keep in mind, the RAND Corporation was set up in 1946 by Army Air Force Gen.
Henry "Hap" Arnold as "Project RAND," sponsored by the Douglas
Aircraft Company. Keep in mind also, Donald Rumsfeld was its chairman from 1981
to 1986, and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Dick Cheney's felonious former
chief of staff, and Condoleezza Rice were trustees. Enough said!
RAND maintains "homegrown terrorism" will not be the result of jihadist
sleeper cells. Rather, it will result from anti-globalists and radical environmentalists
who "challenge the intrinsic qualities of capitalism, charging that in
the insatiable quest for growth and profit, the philosophy is serving to destroy
the world's ecology, indigenous cultures, and individual welfare."
Further, RAND claims anti-globalists and radical environmentalists "exist
in much the same operational environment as al Qaida" and pose "a
clear threat to private-sector corporate interests, especially large multinational
business." Therein lies the real "other purposes."
Predictably then, H.R. 1955 is not about protecting homegrown Americans. That
protection is only incidental to its "other purposes" of protecting
homegrown corporate interest and its unconscionable manipulation of the American
political process to fill its coffers. Any thought or speech or action - however
protected it might be by the Bill of Rights - that threatens corporate hegemony
and profit will no doubt suffer the "other purposes" clause of the
Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act.
Anyone doubting the Orwellian nature of a "bastard child" that equates
anti-globalists and environmentalists with al-Qaeda terrorists will do well
to read Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" and to acquaint
themselves with the fate of Winston Smith in 1984.
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Biography: Robert Weitzel is a freelance writer whose essays appear in The
Capital Times in Madison, WI. He has been published in the Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel, Skeptic Magazine, Freethought Today and on popular liberal web sites.
He can be contacted at: robertweitzel@mac.com.
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