. . . THEY WILL BE BACK FOR ME IN THE MORNING

In the words of James Baldwin, in an open letter to Angela Davis, "If they come for you tonight, they will be back for me in the morning." Here we have African American writer James Baldwin expressing his belief that if any one of us is at risk of being singled out, followed and "informed" on, we're all at risk. How right he was! J. Edgar Hoover and his minions kept tabs on every influential person in the country, generating millions of files on "suspected communists," "communist sympathizers" and persons engaged in un-American activities.

J. Edgar Hoover was not alone in his penchant for singling out "persons of interest," the U.S. Congress was involved, as well. The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUCA 1938-1975) provides one of the best examples of what could be called the American Inquisition. In the tradition of some of the most well known Inquisitions, carried out by the Catholic church in Spain, Portugal and Rome, this American Inquisition continues to this day. The HUCA no longer exists, however, Americans need not fear, the House Judiciary Committee is here and it has been given the task of keeping America safe from any and all un-American thoughts.

America has touted itself as being the "land of the free and the home of the brave." However, this freedom has been of a limited nature from the outset. In the beginning one's freedom was based on gender, ethnicity and social standing. Universal suffrage did not come into existence until the late 20th century.

Interestingly, the FBI under Hoover did not restrict it's investigations to communist radicals. Among those on it's list of suspected subversives were included the likes of Liberace; Congressman John Lewis; Joe Louis, the boxer; Lady Diana, Princess of Wales; actors Peter Lawford, Burt Lancaster and Canada Lee and novelist Sinclair Lewis. What is it that all of these people have in common, that would bring them to the attention of the FBI? It's quite simple really, the potential to influence people. Anyone who could influence a significant number of people was on their list and in fact may of us continue to be on their list today.

The good news is, the FBI has compiled millions of documents, which are now available to the curiosity seeker and historian alike, documenting the lives and activities of millions of American citizens, organizations, religious denominations, etc. These documents now form an important resource, particularly for the historian, much of which is now available online. These documents allow us to compare the lives and aspirations of our predecessors with our contemporaries. Take for instance, the following statement:

"Our safety does not lie in fighting . . . wars. It lies in our own internal strength, in the character of the American people and of American institutions. As long as we maintain an Army, a Navy, and an air force worthy of the name, as long as America does not decay within, we need fear no invasion of this country.

Again, I address those among you who agree with this stand. Our future and our children's future depends upon the action we take. It is essential to think clearly and to act quickly in the days which are to come. We will be deluged with propaganda, both foreign and domestic--some obvious, some insidious. Much of our news is already colored. Every incident and every accident will be seized upon to influence us. And in a modern war there are bound to be plenty of both. We must learn to look behind every article we read and every speech we hear. We must not only inquire about the writer and the speaker--about his personal interests and his nationality--but we must ask who owns and who influences the newspaper, the news picture, and the radio station. If our people know the truth, if they are fully and accurately informed, if they are not misled by propaganda, this country is not likely to enter the war now going on in Europe."

This statement could be directly applied to the situation we find ourselves in currently with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Did it come from one of President Obama's eloquent speeches? Was it from one of our contemporary congressional representatives? Maybe it was part of a comment made by Keith Olbermann. Wrong on all counts. In fact it was made by aviation pioneer Charles A. Lindbergh on September 16, 1939. It describes perfectly the battle now raging over the airwaves between MSNBC and FOX news, both of which are becoming more theatrical in nature, as time passes. It points out the use of newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and the internet as propaganda tools for the privileged class of our society. It lets us know how similar our times are to those of our predecessors. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Even more surprising is the source of the quote. It came from a newspaper article sent to the FBI by one of many American citizens concerned about the "loyalty" of flying ace Charles A. Lindbergh. Apparently, no one is above suspicion, when it comes to subversive activities. All it takes to generate an FBI file is the willingness to express one's opinion in a public forum.

Of course Lindbergh had, to his discredit, joined the America First Committee, a so-called subversive organization, which Republican presidential candidate John McCain turned into a campaign slogan in 2008). The committee was considered subversive, because they opposed the policies of the interventionists, which included President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). In fact, FDR felt Lindbergh was a Nazi sympathizer and allowed FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to act as an unofficial U.S. inquisitor, thoroughly "investigating" the political activities of Lindbergh and others. This was the beginning of what I call "The American Inquisition."

The atmosphere that developed in the days and months prior to the engagement of U.S. troops in WWII became charged with innuendo and misrepresentation. Lindbergh became a victim of that which he had decried, the press, which published pictures of members of the America First Committee saluting the U.S. flag with the "Bellamy salute", as part of their smear campaign. This salute was common in schools across the country. It was discontinued in 1942, because it was the same salute used by the Nazis. But, the depictions in newspapers all over the country of America First Committee members showed no flag, so it appeared that they were a group of Nazi sympathizers.

As we contemplate the "news" of the day we should take into account the words of Lindbergh and carefully consider the source. This is much harder today than in the past, because of the nature of international finance. In the past it was a much simpler matter to determine the ownership of our media sources. Nowadays, it may take some doing to discover the 400 lb. gorilla in the room.

The use of terms associated with the Catholic church and some of their practices may seem odd, but from the outset we've seen the use of religious terminology in the prosecution of the so-called War On Terrorism. One week after 9/11 President Bush (Bush 43) said, "this crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take awhile." Muslims around the world took immediate offense to this terminology. But, this is what was the perspective of the Bush administration throughout his 8 year administration. They had to immediately change their official terminology, however we now have proof positive, with the recent release of official White House memos to the president, that a crusade mentality remained for the duration.


All of this background information is important as we look at the use of torture in the interrogation of so-called "enemy combatants." When we compare the treatment of these "enemy combatants" with the treatment of heretics, suspected witches, etc. from the 15th century on we're hearing the same rhetoric and seeing the same practices used today that were used then to justify this treatment. We're also getting the same results, false confessions, in order to escape further torture.

At first glance this would appear to be inappropriate, for the U.S. government to be involved in the extraction of false confessions from detainees. However, apparently it achieved the desired result. By obtaining false confessions from the detainees the invasion of Iraq, capture and execution of Sadaam Hussein, as a war criminal and the subjugation of the Iraqi people via military invasion and occupation was justified and continues to this day.

The issue of waterboarding being a means of torture has been furiously debated over the past few weeks. There should be no debate on this issue at all we have plenty of testimony from U.S. officials involved in the application of this torture that this is exactly what it is. From sworn Senate testimony by William Howard Taft, former governor of the Philippines during the Filipino insurrection to current sworn testimony by interrogation trainers with the U.S. military. So, we can put that to the side.

The Republicans would like to change the subject and speak of the effectiveness of the method and how it was necessary to save many lives. What they don't want to talk about is the fact that whether it was effective or not it was contrary to the Geneva Convention. This breach in international law means the perpetrators are now subject to trial and punishment by the World Court in the Hague, the same court that should have tried President Hussein, if in fact he had committed crimes against humanity. Instead he was put on trial, while still in U.S. custody, by an Iraqi Special Tribunal, found guilty and subsequently executed by hanging.

Now that we have information unavailable to us before the end of the Bush presidency we know that not only were detainees illegally imprisoned, they were also humiliated, tortured and their human rights were violated in numerous other ways, as well. We also now know that the reason for the war in the first place was fallacious, because there was no link between the Iraqi government of President Hussein and Al-Qaeda; the Iraqi government had no involvement in 9/11 and there were no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) as widely reported by the U.S. news media. Therefore, the trial and execution of President Hussein must also be called into question, along with the wrongful deaths of thousands of American soldiers and Iraqi soldiers and citizens. How much greater are the true crimes of the U.S. government compared with the supposed crimes of the government of President Hussein?


As red-blooded Americans it's time to stand up and be counted when we hear our new president proclaiming in a loud and dignified manner that the new administration will institute a policy of "preventive detention." We have an example of such a policy in the 2002 movie "The Minority Report." We're already seeing this policy instituted in real life. The detainees at Guantanamo are the first casualties in this new "Crusade on Terrorism." This presentation cannot go into the details on the history of the Crusades. I urge all of you to go to your local library and check out books on the crusades to get a quick overview of the history of the Crusades. Talk about scared straight, that ought to scare the bejeebuzz out of you. We certainly don't need any modern crusades.

To paraphrase President Lincoln, we need a government that has the needs of the people at heart and the ability to make sound decisions in the interest of all of the people, all of the time; instead of some of the people all of the time.