{"id":85700,"date":"2017-01-23T12:00:29","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T12:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=85700"},"modified":"2017-01-23T08:54:59","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T08:54:59","slug":"regime-change-comes-home-the-cias-overt-threats-against-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/01\/regime-change-comes-home-the-cias-overt-threats-against-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Regime Change Comes Home: The CIA\u2019s Overt Threats against Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

17 Jan 2017 – The norms of US capitalist democracy include the election of presidential candidates through competitive elections, unimpeded by force and violence by the permanent institutions of the state. Voter manipulation has occurred during the recent elections, as in the case of the John F. Kennedy victory in 1960 and the George W. Bush victory over \u2018Al\u2019 Gore in 2000.<\/em><\/p>\n

But despite the dubious electoral outcomes in these cases, the \u2018defeated\u2019 candidate conceded and sought via legislation, judicial rulings, lobbying and peaceful protests to register their opposition.<\/p>\n

These norms are no longer operative. During the election process, and in the run-up to the inauguration of US President-Elect Donald Trump, fundamental electoral institutions were challenged and coercive institutions were activated to disqualify the elected president and desperate overt public pronouncements threatened the entire electoral order.<\/p>\n

We will proceed by outlining the process that is used to undermine the constitutional order, including the electoral process and the transition to the inauguration of the elected president.<\/p>\n

Regime Change in America<\/strong><\/p>\n

In recent times, elected officials in the US and their state security organizations have often intervened against independent foreign governments, which challenged Washington\u2019s quest for global domination. This was especially true during the eight years of President Barack Obama\u2019s administration where the violent ousting of presidents and prime ministers through US-engineered coups were routine – under an unofficial doctrine of \u2018regime change\u2019.<\/p>\n

The violation of constitutional order and electoral norms of other countries has become enshrined in US policy. All US political, administrative and security structures are involved in this process. The policymakers would insist that there was a clear distinction between operating within constitutional norms at home and pursuing violent, illegal regime change operations abroad.<\/p>\n

Today the distinction between overseas and domestic norms has been obliterated by the state and quasi-official mass media. The US security apparatus is now active in manipulating the domestic democratic process of electing leaders and transitioning administrations.<\/p>\n

The decisive shift to \u2018regime change\u2019 at home has been a continual process organized, orchestrated and implemented by elected and appointed officials within the Obama regime and by a multiplicity of political action organizations, which cross traditional ideological boundaries.<\/p>\n

Regime change has several components leading to the final solution: First and foremost, the political parties seek to delegitimize the election process and undermine the President-elect. The mass media play a major role demonizing President-Elect Trump with personal gossip, decades-old sex scandals and fabricated interviews and incidents.<\/p>\n

Alongside the media blitz, leftist and rightist politicians have come together to question the legitimacy of the November 2016 election results. Even after a recount confirmed Trump\u2019s victory, a massive propaganda campaign was launched to impeach the president-elect even before he takes office – by claiming Trump was an \u2018enemy agent\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Democratic Party and the motley collection of right-left anti-Trump militants sought to blackmail members of the Electoral College to change their vote in violation of their own mandate as state electors. This was unsuccessful, but unprecedented.<\/p>\n

Their overt attack on US electoral norms then turned into a bizarre and virulent anti-Russia campaign designed to paint the elected president (a billionaire New York real estate developer and US celebrity icon) as a \u2018tool of Moscow.\u2019 The mass media and powerful elements within the CIA, Congress and Obama Administration insisted that Trump\u2019s overtures toward peaceful, diplomatic relations with Russia were acts of treason.<\/p>\n

The outgoing President Obama mobilized the entire leadership of the security state to fabricate \u2018dodgy dossiers\u2019 linking Donald Trump to the Russian President Vladimir Putin, insisting that Trump was a stooge or \u2018vulnerable to KGB blackmail\u2019. The CIA\u2019s phony documents (arriving via a former British intelligence operative-now free lance \u2019security\u2019 contractor) were passed around among the major corporate media who declined to publish the leaked gossip. Months of attempts to get the US media to \u2018take the bite\u2019 on the \u2019smelly\u2019 dossier were unsuccessful. The semi-senile US Senator John McCain (\u2019war-hero\u2019 and hysterical Trump opponent) then volunteered to plop the reeking gossip back onto the lap of the CIA Director Brennan and demand the government \u2018act on these vital revelations\u2019!<\/p>\n

Under scrutiny by serious researchers, the \u2018CIA dossier\u2019 was proven to be a total fabrication by way of a former \u2018British official – now – in – hiding\u2026!\u2019 Undaunted, despite being totally discredited, the CIA leadership continued to attack the President-Elect. Trump likened the CIA\u2019s \u2018dirty pictures hatchet job\u2019 to the thuggish behavior of the Nazis and clearly understood how the CIA leadership was involved in a domestic coup d\u2019\u00e9tat.<\/p>\n

CIA Director John Brennan, architect of numerous \u2018regime changes\u2019 overseas had brought his skills home – against the President-elect. For the first time in US history, a CIA director openly charged a President or President-elect with betraying the country and threatened the incoming Chief Executive. He coldly warned Trump to \u2018just make sure he understands that the implications and impacts (of Trump\u2019s policies) on the United States could be profound\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly CIA Director Brennan has not only turned the CIA into a sinister, unaccountable power dictating policy to an elected US president, by taking on the tone of a Mafia Capo, he threatens the physical security of the incoming leader.<\/p>\n

From a Scratch to Gangrene<\/strong><\/p>\n

The worst catastrophe that could fall on the United States would be a conspiracy of leftist and rightist politicos, the corporate mass media and the \u2018progressive\u2019 websites and pundits providing ideological cover for a CIA-orchestrated \u2018regime change\u2019.<\/p>\n

Whatever the limitations of our electoral norms- and there are many – they are now being degraded and discarded in a march toward an elite coup, involving elements of the militarist empire and \u2018in`telligence\u2019 hierarchy.<\/p>\n

Mass propaganda, a \u2018red-brown alliance, salacious gossip and accusations of treason (\u2019Trump, the Stooge of Moscow\u2019) resemble the atmosphere leading to the rise of the Nazi state in Germany. A broad \u2018coalition\u2019 has joined hands with a most violent and murderous organization (the CIA) and imperial political leadership, which views overtures to peace to be high treason because it limits their drive for world power and a US dominated global political order.<\/p>\n

______________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of more than 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 600 articles in professional journals. He has a long history of commitment to social justice, working in particular with the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement for 11 years. In 1973-76 he was a member of the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Repression in Latin America. He writes a monthly column for the Mexican newspaper, <\/em>La Jornada<\/em>, and previously, for the Spanish daily, <\/em>El Mundo<\/em>. He received his B.A. from Boston University and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

17 Jan 2017 – The norms of US capitalist democracy include the election of presidential candidates through competitive elections, unimpeded by force and violence by the permanent institutions of the state. Voter manipulation has occurred during the recent elections, as in the case of the John F. Kennedy victory in 1960 and the George W. Bush victory over \u2018Al\u2019 Gore in 2000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85700","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=85700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}