{"id":7097,"date":"2010-09-06T00:00:10","date_gmt":"2010-09-05T22:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=7097"},"modified":"2010-09-05T21:19:17","modified_gmt":"2010-09-05T19:19:17","slug":"the-greatest-covert-operation-ever-the-politics-of-terror-as-the-business-of-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2010\/09\/the-greatest-covert-operation-ever-the-politics-of-terror-as-the-business-of-terror\/","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Covert Operation Ever: The Politics of Terror as the Business of Terror"},"content":{"rendered":"

The politics of terror are the greatest covert operation ever.<\/em><\/p>\n

In explaining why, I\u2019ll begin by defining some terms, because, when discussing the covert op called \u201cthe politics of terror,\u201d words and their management are all important.<\/p>\n

How are politics and terror actually defined: how are these meanings manipulated; for what purposes, and by whom?<\/p>\n

Terrorism is defined as “violence against civilians intended to obtain a political purpose.” This is an ambiguous phrase, which begs the questions: what are politics and violence?<\/p>\n

Politics is defined as \u201cthe process by which groups of people make collective decisions.\u201d And violence is the use of force to compel a person or group to do or think something against their will.\u00a0 That includes the violence of words \u2013 of threatening to hurt – and of social structures, as well as the violence of deeds.<\/p>\n

So, by definition, terrorism is political violence \u2013 hurting people, or threatening to hurt them, in order to make them govern themselves against their will.<\/p>\n

In America , terrorism is always condemned by the government, and, accordingly, America is never a perpetrator of terrorism, but always the victims of it.\u00a0 The US war on terror is the ultimate expression of this principle: it is a military response to terrorism; violence in self-defense, not (ostensibly) violence for a political purpose.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the official story \u2013 the assumption.\u00a0 But I\u2019m going to show that America does engage in terrorism \u2013 violence against civilians for political purposes.\u00a0 This \u201cstate\u201d terrorism, however, is covert, in so far as it is equated with national security, and thanks to that built-in ambiguity, it has both stated and unstated purpose.<\/p>\n

The State and Unstated Policy in America<\/strong><\/p>\n

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions.\u00a0 But who really makes the overarching political decisions in America ?\u00a0\u00a0 Who governs us?<\/p>\n

The two political parties represent the people and they compete for control of the government.\u00a0 Republicans generally favor business and Democrats favor labor.\u00a0 The political division is, generally, class based.<\/p>\n

Now, the government can be controlled by either political party; but the state endures \u2013\u00a0 \u201cthe state\u201d being the nation\u2019s indispensable industries and infrastructure (banking, auto industry, insurance, Microsoft), and the institutions which defend the nation\u2019s enduring interests: the military, law enforcement, the intelligence & security services.<\/p>\n

In Europe they often, cynically, refer to the state as \u201cindustry\u201d or Big Business.\u00a0 In America we tend to call \u201cthe state\u201d the Establishment \u2013 an ambiguous word that needs to be defined.<\/p>\n

The dictionary defines Establishment as, \u201cAn exclusive group of powerful people who rule a government or society by means of private agreements and decisions.\u201d\u00a0 I would venture to say that the interests of the state and the Establishment are the same, and that the definition of Establishment with a capital E is the pivotal phrase in discussing \u201cstate\u201d terrorism.<\/p>\n

Consider this: there is the politics of the two parties vying for control of the government, and there is the Establishment, the state, making the covert (ostensibly non-political) decisions that effectively govern America .<\/p>\n

Many of those covert decisions concern national security: they are unstated policy.<\/p>\n

Moreover, these covert policy decisions about national security are made by people who control the military, law enforcement, and intelligence & security services.\u00a0 These guardians of \u201cthe state\u201d are collectively called the National Security Establishment.<\/p>\n

Like the Establishment that secretly rules the \u201cstate,\u201d the National Security Establishment is an exclusive group that is not accountable to the political whims of the people.<\/p>\n

These professional guardians of the state \u2013 the Establishment – are assumed to be above partisan politics.\u00a0 Their loyalty is assumed to be to the law or national security.\u00a0 And that assumption is the Big Lie upon which state terrorism is based.<\/p>\n

Yes, it is true that the National Security Establishment is not accountable to the people: and, in fact, it has built a series of ever-larger, concentric moats around itself called the National Security State , precisely to keep the people out of its business.<\/p>\n

The National Security Establishment rules the National Security State , with an iron fist, but it is pure propaganda that the National Security Establishment and State are not political.<\/p>\n

In order to get inside the National Security Establishment, and rise to a position of authority within it, one must be born there (like Bush \u2013 make a billion like Gates), or submit to years of right-wing political indoctrination calibrated to a series of increasingly restrictive security clearances.<\/p>\n

Political indoctrination \u2013 adopting the correct right-wing ideology \u2013 and security clearances represent the drawbridge across the moats.<\/p>\n

The National Security State is the covert social structure of the Establishment, and it has as its job not just defending the Establishment from foreign enemies, but also expanding the Establishment\u2019s economic and military influence abroad, while preserving its class prerogatives at home.<\/p>\n

By \u201cclass prerogatives,\u201d I mean the National Security State is designed to keep the lower class from exerting any political control over the state; especially, redistributing the Establishment\u2019s private wealth.<\/p>\n

To these unstated ends \u2013 imperialism abroad and repression at home – the National Security State engages in terrorism – political violence – on behalf of the Establishment.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the National Security State is political violence, terrorism, in its purest form.<\/p>\n

The Establishment and its National Security State as Terrorism<\/strong><\/p>\n

The lower classes in America have little voice in making government or state policy.\u00a0 Some are hopeless, others content: but in either case, voter turnout is a mere 54%.<\/p>\n

Whether hopeless or content, they know they cannot fight conventional thinking.\u00a0 For example, when the Establishment exerts its influence, it is not considered politics; it is simply the status quo.\u00a0 The rich create jobs and must be accommodated with trillion dollar bailouts, paid for by workers taking furloughs.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just the way it is.\u00a0 Politicians in the service of the Establishment, for over-arching reasons of national security, have to keep the capitalist financial system afloat.<\/p>\n

It is the same thing with the National Security Establishment: America invaded Iraq , and there was nothing the people do about it.\u00a0 The decision was made for them.\u00a0 Peace activists, least of all, had no voice in the decision, because they are assumed to have no stake in national security.\u00a0 You will not find peace activists in the National Security Establishment; and that political repression is covert state terrorism.<\/p>\n

Likewise, if labor seeks to exercise influence, its efforts are described as exploiting the state for more than it deserves, because it does not have an enduring stake in the state.<\/p>\n

It is a fact: only Establishment wealth \u2013 ownership – is equated with national security.<\/p>\n

Consider the immortal words of Leona Helmsley: \u201cOnly the little people pay taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

That injustice in the tax code is political repression and, in so far as it makes the people fearful, it is state terrorism.\u00a0 The Establishment fears losing its loopholes, while workers and the poor fear losing their homes: two types of terror, one for each class, one stated, one unstated.<\/p>\n

The Establishment engages imperialism and political repression through propaganda (word management violence) and social structures.\u00a0 This state terrorism is unstated, covert.<\/p>\n

Only when the people rebel and challenge the Establishment is the word terrorism applied.<\/p>\n

Likewise, the military, police or intelligence causes of rebellion, or responses to it, are never called terrorism: they are national security.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s how the management of words helps to repress the lower classes.<\/p>\n

Language and the Psychology of State Terror<\/strong><\/p>\n

America\u2019s industrial sized war machine was never said to terrorize Iraq ; the invasion was not political – because the war machine is owned by the Establishment.\u00a0 The Establishment profiting from war is not politics; it is ideological neutral \u201cprofits.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, America exerts its unwanted political influence overseas, through the state terror of aircraft carrier fleets, bombers, nuclear subs, shock and awe invasions, pacification programs, the overthrow of governments, and support of repressive puppet regimes.<\/p>\n

This state terrorism, which you never hear about, is the biggest covert psychological warfare operation of all time.\u00a0 This psywar operation depends on narrowly defining terrorism as a suicide bomber, a hijacked plane, the decapitated body of a collaborator: the \u201cselective terrorism\u201d of rebels and nationalists who, outgunned, and outlawed in their own country, have no other options, other than submission.<\/p>\n

The purpose of selective terror is psychological: to isolate collaborators, while demonstrating to the people the ability of the rebels to strike at their oppressors. Shock and Awe, and brutal pacification cam\u00adpaigns \u2013 state terrorism – prevent people from making a living – selective terrorism does not. That\u2019s a big, meaningful \u201cclass\u201d difference.<\/p>\n

The National Security Establishment understands that selective terror achieves political and psychological goals that state terror does not \u2013 that it rallies people to revolutionary ideals.\u00a0 So the National Security Establishment engages in selective terror too, by targeting the rebel, his family and friends in their homes.<\/p>\n

This is the selective terror con\u00adducted by counter-terrorists.\u00a0 But don\u2019t be confused: it is terrorism.\u00a0\u00a0 All terror is psychological and political; state terror by immobilizing people and making them responsive, submissive, apathetic, and\/or ostensibly \u201ccontent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Security Establishment fully understands that once people have been terrorized, they have been politically defeated, without necessarily receiving bullets.<\/p>\n

As former Director of Central Intelligence William Colby once said: \u201cThe implication or latent threat of terror was sufficient to insure that the people would comply.”<\/p>\n

This principle of the psychological use of \u201cthe implication or latent threat of terror\u201d is what brings us back to America and the business of terror.<\/p>\n

The Business of Terror<\/strong><\/p>\n

State terror \u2013 colonization abroad and political repression at home – is a key means of extracting profits and maintaining ownership of property.\u00a0\u00a0 Ask the American Indian.<\/p>\n

In its colonies, the US engages in state terrorism by removing all legal protections for rebels; detention, torture, and summary execution are the price for rebellion against US policy.<\/p>\n

State terrorism overseas, imperialism, is never acknowledged by the media, because the media is a big business; indeed, two of the major networks are owned by defense contractors.<\/p>\n

And state terrorism applied domestically to ensure \u201cinternal\u201d security is never acknowledged – America says it has no political prisoners.\u00a0 But the National Security State is well thought out, by professionals in language management, and political and psychological warfare, aimed at you.<\/p>\n

“Personal violence is for the amateur in dominance,” says two-time Nobel Prize winner Johan Galtung, but “structural violence is the tool of the professional. The amateur who wants to dominate uses guns; the professional uses social structure. The legal criminality of the social system and its institutions, of government… is tacit violence. Structural violence is a structure of exploitation and social injustice.”<\/p>\n

As Colby said: \u201cThe implication or latent threat is enough to insure people will comply.”<\/p>\n

The war on terror and its domestic version \u201chomeland security\u201d are the law of the land \u2013 America ‘s new legally criminal social structure based on administrative detention, enshrined in The Patriot Act and a number of executive orders, some secret.<\/p>\n

This lack of due process comes on top of a justice system already skewed to protect the propertied elite and pack the prisons with the poor, through “structural violence,” mainly the drug wars.<\/p>\n

The Establishment\u2019s new anti-terror and anti-drug laws make the National Security State the most fearsome covert political and psywar machine the world has ever seen.\u00a0 And the National Security State is growing: the \u201cTop Secret America\u201d series in the Washington Post put it at 750,000 cadres.<\/p>\n

This secret state within a state extends into the homeland\u2019s critical infrastructure and beyond.\u00a0 For example, the arms industry provides good jobs, making American imperial aggression seem a positive value.<\/p>\n

And this is how the psyched-out people become one of the moats.<\/p>\n

As it is modeled on the totalitarian corporate paradigm, the National Security State in al its manifestations fits the classic definition of a fascist dictatorship.\u00a0 And we know what its intentions are.\u00a0 They have been stated.<\/p>\n

In the days after 9-11, right wing Republican stalwart Kenneth W. Starr, the Clinton inquisitor, said the danger of terrorism requires “deference to the judgments of the political branches with respect to matters of national security.”<\/p>\n

But is there an on-going emergency that requires defer to the political branches, meaning the right-wing ideologues who rule the National Security State ? And what does it mean for Establishment opponents if due process is completely abandoned at home, and subjected to politics?<\/p>\n

Michael Ledeen, a former counter-terror expert on Reagan’s National Security Council, blamed 9-11 on Clinton “for failing to properly organize our nation’s security apparatus.” Ledeen’s solution to the problem of those who sneered at security was “to stamp out” the “corrupt habits of mind.”\u00a0 By which he means Liberalism.<\/p>\n

In other words, the reactionary right wing that owns the National Security State wants to impose its total rule on the people in order to create a security conscious, uniform citizenry – marching in lock step, flags waving – that is necessary to win the war on terror. This is how the National Security professionals are incrementally creating the requisite fascist social structure – through terror, the best organizing principle ever. “This is time for the old motto, ‘kill them all, let God sort ’em out.’ New times require new people with new standards,” Ledeen asserted. “The entire political world will understand it and applaud it. And it will give us a chance to prevail.”<\/p>\n

When Ledeen says \u201cpolitical\u201d world he means the “owners of the business” of state terror, the right wing ideologues who pack the National Security State and the capitalist Establishment they serve.<\/p>\n

And they have won the propaganda war, folks.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 globalresearch.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The politics of terror are the greatest covert operation ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}