Since that horror filled, pristine Tuesday morning that was abruptly shattered as no other day in the history of our republic had ever been prior to it (I omit Pearl Harbor for the obvious reasons that it was a military target and Hawaii in 1941 was not yet an official state) we as a society have been changed forever and changed for the worse. We now torture as a matter of official policy. We allow ourselves to be spied upon by a rogue government that increasingly views dissent as sedition and treason. We have seen Habeas Corpus which had been a bedrock principle of law since the days of the Magna Carta rendered null and void. There has been an unprecedented consolidation of power in the Executive Branch and the neutered Congress has been reduced to a chattering club of irrelevant partisans with no real power or the intestinal fortitude to reassert itself as per the intentions of the founders as put forth in The Constitution.
There has sprung up a permanent and highly lucrative industry of institutionalized surveillance that has rendered privacy a quaint thing of the past. Our national airports have become Soviet style checkpoints where citizens are treated as criminals by ill tempered and poorly trained goons and thugs. Our domestic police are becoming increasingly more aggressive and militarized with instances of brutality and bullying becoming commonplace, the saying “if you’re not cops you’re little people” has gone from a line in a dystopian science fiction movie to reality. Deaths by Taser have been steadily increasing with no oversight, our fascist packed courts are now ruling in favor of the manufacturer of this dangerous weapon. The United States has in the most perverse Orwellian way been transformed into something as antithetical to what America was supposed to have always stood for that is strangely called “The Homeland which conjures up memories of a certain mid 20th century European land gone insane.
I am not going to go into a further litany of all that has gone terribly wrong in the land of Jack Bauer and extremist right-wing apple pie authoritarianism but suffice it to say that NONE of what has been visited upon us would have been possible were in not for the events of that terrible Tuesday in September 2001. Hitler had his enabling act and the ‘terrorist’ attacks of 9/11 gave us the USAPATRIOT Act and both were made possible by a false flag attack, in 1933 in was the Reichstag Fire and in 2001 it was the World Trade Center/Pentagon attacks. While some may cringe at the comparison to history’s most infamous totalitarian regime’s actions to those of the neocon junta and the Bush-Cheney administration the comparison has merit in that both events forever changed societies for the worse in their aftermath. There has never been a legitimate, objective and conflict of interest free investigation of 9/11 despite the growing suspicion among the American and international communities that the official government story is riddled throughout with lies, propaganda, omissions and obfuscations.
While the official pocket press and what passes for government in this sham democracy has continued to ignore any serious investigation into 9/11 it has been investigated by thousands of citizen journalists and investigators who have used the internet as a resource and an organizing tool. The most success at working to get at the truth of the day when the fascist switch was tripped has been the so-called ‘9/11 Truth Movement’, a loosely affiliated and diverse group of activists which despite their progress is often impeded by factions or segments whose focus on differing highly controversial theories (missiles not planes, explosive pods, ghost flights etc) are often easily mocked or are intentional pieces of disinformation. In this essay for the purpose of clarity I do not seek to at this time address any of these theories on how the event was actually pulled off but rather the serendipitous happenstance that allowed for rogue elements of the intelligence community, the military industrial complex and the government itself to implement their plans for world domination starting in the Middle East.
Given that I have immersed myself in reading and research over the past five years since the day when an ugly little idea turned into a blow that hit me like a sucker punch to the solar plexus that something was terribly amiss with the official story I have slowly been working at doing an end around on the obviously corrupt corporate media that lies through omission to protect the oligarchy by assembling the pieces to the puzzle myself as I am certain that many readers of this particular essay of mine have also done. Suffice it to say that the official story as put forth by the Bush administration and their government is hogwash and the Kean-Hamilton Commission that was eventually seated despite protestations by the Bush-Cheney junta was a classic whitewash along the lines of the Warren Commission which also was used to cover up involvement by a government within a government or as President John F. Kennedy called it “a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy”.
A while back I found a piece of information that really gave credence to my strongest suspicions that the ‘terrorist’ attacks of 9/11/01 were used as cover for an actual coup d’etat by a rogue network of fifth columnists and their multi-national foreign allies who then utilized the (C.O.G) Continuity Of Government infrastructure to effectively seize control of the United States which would effectively render the actual attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as not even the greatest crimes of that particular day. I discovered this piece on Edward Luttwak while plowing through the massive tome Neo-Conned! Again: Hypocrisy, Lawlessness, and the Rape of Iraq which is the second volume of a great collection of essays on the neoconservative pox on America that run the ideological gamut from Pat Buchanan to Noam Chomsky but all are consistently antiwar. The particular piece that I refer to is one that was written by Italian journalist Maurizio Blondet on neocon Edward Luttwak that references his seminal 1968 book Coup d'Etat: A Practical Handbook. In the essay (a postscript to Chapter 3) Blondet draws comparisons to the Luttwak blueprint and the ascension of the neocons by using 9/11 as a basis for their rise to power.
The necessary pieces were already in place within the bureaucracy, having slowly been installed ever since the heady days of the Iran-Contra affair where a shadow government was set up under the nose of the doddering and out of touch 'product as president' Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s administration was an incubator for dangerous right-wing extremists and the neocons who had been steadily asserting their influence within the government since the Cold War Team B days (a great resource on this along with other lies of the mythical 'war on terror' is Adam Curtis’ excellent documentary for the BBC: The Power Of Nightmares) on through the exploits of cowboys like Colonel Oliver North and his cohorts with their plan to subvert congress, trade arms with Iran and secretly supply the Contras in Latin America (by many accounts also trafficking in illegal narcotics which is a story for another time) to brutally crush resistance to the right-wing governments that used torture and death squads to protect American business interests.
Iran-Contra was exposed and while sending tremors throughout the system and resulting in many indictments and convictions which were then eventually largely covered up with some of the worst felons like Elliot Abrams (who figures prominently in Dick Cheney’s rogue shop of horrors to this day) were pardoned by George H.W. Bush, a man with a very sordid history of participation in covert and black ops himself as well as a long affiliation with the CIA which has long been a veritable secret police/paramilitary organization that exists largely for the benefit and protection of the interests of the oligarchy and American corporations. Many of the same players reemerged during this second Bush administration and this time they were going to ensure that their delusions of grandeur as exemplified through the neocon manifestos and white papers A Clean Break and the Project For A New American Century be implemented even if it they had to infiltrate and wait for their opportunity to overthrow the existing government in order to make it happen.
The essay by Mr. Blondet to which I refer may be interpreted to go some places that I choose not to go and before I get into this I want to make it perfectly clear up front that I by no means intend to imply that Luttwak was in any way tied to the actual plotters of the coup or of those who used the events of September, 11 2001 as a cover for their nefarious deeds. I do however assert that Luttwak's playbook for a successful coup d'Etat was a major inspiration to the neocons who were obviously impressed enough to follow it with the same vigorous attention to detail that Karl Rove quite obviously devoted to the teachings of Joseph Goebbels who himself was inspired by American father of Public Relations (propaganda) Edward Bernays. Luttwak was no more personally responsible for the actions on 9/11 than Judas Priest was after some drug addled teen commits suicide after listening to their music or David Berkowitz' dog was responsible for his Son of Sam killing spree. I just wanted to get that out front because some of the more imaginative bloggers/writers on the internet have made such a connection and it serves no use in addressing the very real problems of a regime run by madmen and are merely an unwelcome distraction. Now some excerpts first from a piece that ran in Time magazine back in 1969 entitled How To Seize A Country:
Unlike a revolutionary assault from the outside, Luttwak notes, a coup is an inside job, done by a government's own members. It involves minimal manpower and bloodshed. As in judo, the secret is to use leverage and make a state overthrow itself. Bureaucracy facilitates this by severing the loyalties that once personally bound rulers and their servants. A modern bureaucrat follows impersonal orders; if his immediate boss is subverted, the bureaucrat tends to obey orders blindly, even orders designed to topple his own government. According to Luttwak, a coup requires three preconditions: 1) a highly centralized government with a seizable seat of power, 2) a passive people not likely to react to a takeover and 3) the assurance that no foreign power will intervene.
Now from Blondet's piece:
The target State must have a political centre. If there are several centres these must be identifiable and they must be politically, rather than ethnically, structured. If the State is controlled by a non-politically organized unit [like the CFR, the representative of business] the coup can only be carried out with its consent or neutrality.
Already in the Preface, Luttwak underlined as essential the fact that the perpetrators of a coup must be able to count upon "the absence of a politicised community," upon the apathy of the public. "The dialogue between the rulers and the ruled [upon which democratic legitimacy is founded] can only take place if there is a large enough section of society which is sufficiently literate, well fed and secure to 'talk back.'" But "without a politicised population, the State is nothing other than a machine.
Then the coup d'état becomes feasible because, like every machine, one can take control of everything by grasping the essential levers." [Now Luttwak identifies this "machine" in the Bureaucracy.]
The growth of modern bureaucracy has two implications which are crucial to the feasibility of the coup: the development of a clear distinction between the permanent machinery of State and the political leadership [which changes], and the fact is, like most large organizations, the bureaucracy has a structured hierarchy with definite chains of command....
The importance of this development lies in the fact that if the bureaucrats are linked to the political leadership, an illegal seizure of power must take the form of a 'Palace Revolution,' and it essentially concerns the manipulation of the person of the ruler. He can be forced to accept policies or advisers, he can be killed or held captive, but whatever happens the Palace Revolution can only be conducted from the 'inside' and by 'insiders' [in these pages, we have seen nothing but the work of insiders surrounding a weak President].
The State bureaucracy has to divide its work into clear-cut areas of competence, which are assigned to different departments. Within each department there must be an accepted chain of command, and standard procedures have to be followed. Thus a given piece of information, or a given order, is followed up in a stereotyped manner, and if the order comes from the appropriate source, at the appropriate level, it is carried out.... The apparatus of the State is therefore to some extent a 'machine' which will normally behave in a fairly predictable and automatic manner.
A coup operates by taking advantage of this machine-like behaviour; during the coup, because it uses parts of the State apparatus to seize the controlling levers; afterwards because the value of the 'levers' depends on the fact that the State is a machine.
And
With detailed planning, there will be no need for any sort of headquarters structure in the active stage of the coup: for if there is no scope for decision-making there is no need for decision-makers and their apparatus. In fact, having a headquarters would be a serious disadvantage: it would constitute a concrete target for the opposition and one which would be both vulnerable and easily identified.... We should avoid taking any action that will clarify the nature of the threat and thus reduce the confusion that is left in the defensive apparatus of the regime....
The leaders of the coup will be scattered among the various teams. [As we can see Luttwak is theoretically discussing an invisible coup d'état: the infiltrated coup participants speak with the voice of the legitimate government, of that which they have seized. On September 11, let's remember, the immediate entourage of President Bush were not thinking of an Arab attack, but of a military coup d'état. It is for this reason that the President was taken to a secure location for 10 hours].
And
The masses have neither the weapons of the military nor the administrative facilities of the bureaucracy, but their attitude to the new government established after the coup will ultimately be decisive. Our immediate aim will be to enforce public order, but our long-term objective is to gain the acceptance of the masses so that physical coercion will not longer be needed.... Our far more flexible instrument will be our control over the means of mass communication.... In broadcasting over the radio and television services our purpose is not to provide information about the situation, but rather to affect its development by exploiting our monopoly of these media. [This is exactly what the American mass media has done since September 11.]
[The action of the media] will be achieved by conveying the reality and strength of the coup instead of trying to justify it [the emotional blow of the collapse of the World Trade Centre was presented with plenty of "reality" and "force" by CNN]. We will have fragmented the opposition so that each individual opponent would have to operate in isolation. In these circumstances, the news of any further resistance against us would act as a powerful stimulant to further resistance by breaking down this feeling of isolation. We must, therefore, make every effort to withhold such news. If there is in fact some resistance...we should strongly emphasize that it is isolated, the product of the obstinacy of a few misguided or dishonest individuals who are not affiliated to any party or group of significant membership. The constant working of the motif of isolation, and the emphasis on the fact that law and order have been re-established, should have the effect of making resistance appear as dangerous and useless.
There will arise, Luttwak says, "the inevitable suspicions that the coup is a product of the machinations of the Company [American slang for the CIA]. This can only be dispelled by making violent attacks on it...and the attacks should be all the more violent if these suspicions are in fact justified.... We shall make use of a suitable selection of unlovely phrases [for example, anti-Americanism? Anti-Semitism?]. Even if their meanings have been totally obscured by constant and deliberate misuse, they will be useful indicators of our impeccable nationalism."
So who really runs America? The elected government or a parallel/shadow government that has existed in some shape or form essentially since the end of WW II? The evidence is beginning to strongly support the latter. Most importantly and absolutely essential to the successful execution of a hostile takeover is the secret/shadow government apparatus itself. Author Peter Dale Scott recently alluded to the execution of the C.O.G. plans that subvert the Constitution (originally implemented during the Cold War in the event of a Soviet decapitation strike) in both this easy to read Counterpunch article and in much more depth in his outstanding new book on the "Deep State" entitled: The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire and the Future of America. It is naive and childlike for thinking Americans to ignore the deep politics that represent the true power base in this and other countries for it not only exists but thrives in darkness and through it's existence makes the ability to subvert the traditional processes possible.
Then there is that matter of inconsistent reports of what exactly was Dick Cheney up to while he was in the PEOC tunnel on the morning of the attacks. The history of Rumsfeld and Cheney’s involvement in Continuity of Government has been documented in articles in The Atlantic entitled The Armageddon Plan, Andrew Cockburn’s recent book on former SECDEF Donald Rumsfeld (Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall and Catastrophic Legacy) and in James Mann’s The Rise of the Vulcans. Alpfonso Chardy of The Miami Herald did a hard to find piece back in 1987 entitled Reagan Aides and the ‘Secret Government’ which talked of Colonel North’s REX 84 program that has been updated recently with the Bush administration’s revisions of C.O.G. plans in National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD 51) and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20 to facilitate the declaration of martial law if and when it becomes necessary. This all unfortunately gets little to no play in the corporatist media but it is far out of the realm of the ‘tin foil hatters’ that critics of such secretive actions are so easily dismissed as by professional debunkers and others who are simply in denial that such things just can't happen here. I would like to recommend this piece by Lewis Seiler and Dan Hamburg of The San Francisco Chronicle that I find to be worth reading entitled Rule By Fear or Rule By Law.
The evidence strongly suggests that a rogue faction has seized control since 9/11 and may have even in some way been complicit in allowing the attacks to occur. There are just too many little inconsistencies, procedural changes (NORAD intercepts), multiple war games on 9/11 including simulated hijacks, a war game called Global Guardian that happened to utilize the same B4B Doomsday Planes that were used for C.O.G., the knowledge of the alleged hijackers by the government in Able Danger, the immediate information available to the news media on the 'hijackers' (could be that they were being tracked and monitored but for what exact purpose?) those mysterious Israeli art students who were thrown out of the country (why were they here? To prevent the attacks or ensure that the plan was going accordingly), the immediate availability of the USA PATRIOT Act to implement the police state, the unsolved military grade Anthrax attacks that only were targeted against influential Democrats and news anchors and the list goes on much longer than I can list here although I do want to mention the possibility that 9/11 may have been aided and abetted by the same nuclear blackmail ring that Sibel Edmonds spoke of in those three stories in the London Times earlier in 2008 (For Sale, West's Deadly Nuclear Secrets , FBI Denies File Exposing Neclear Secrets Theft and Tip Off Thwarted Nuclear Spy Ring Probe) and while this is purely speculative may be connected to security of breaches in association to 9/11 as well as raises questions as to exactly who the recently suicided D.C. Madame Deborah Jeane Palfrey may have had on her client list and what they were being used for . It all adds up though to JFK's "monolithic and ruthless conspiracy" and the neocons are as guilty as hell in all of it and especially those with ties to a traitor named Richard B. Cheney who did after all select himself as Vice President and then proceed to consolidate power in his office.
Especially telling was the award winning Washington Post series on Dick Cheney entitled Angler. Cheney has in the past unequivocally stated that his office is NOT a part of the executive branch and presumably functions as some sort of unaccountable fourth branch of the government. This is entirely consistent with the concept of the coup per Luttwak: "A coup consists of the infiltration of a small but critical segment of the State apparatus". Power has been consolidated in Cheney's shop since the beginning, Seymour Hersh in his great piece for the New Yorker entitled The Redirection wrote the following:
Iran-Contra was the subject of an informal “lessons learned” discussion two years ago among veterans of the scandal. Abrams led the discussion. One conclusion was that even though the program was eventually exposed, it had been possible to execute it without telling Congress. As to what the experience taught them, in terms of future covert operations, the participants found: “One, you can’t trust our friends. Two, the C.I.A. has got to be totally out of it. Three, you can’t trust the uniformed military, and four, it’s got to be run out of the Vice-President’s office”—a reference to Cheney’s role, the former senior intelligence official said.And of course the Iran-Contra network survived to rise through the bureaucracy, the key players either pardoned by 'Poppy' Bush or let off the hook by the Clinton administration they were only hiding in the background like cockroaches couched in fetid dankness and awaiting their opportunity to feed. A key player who keeps turning up is none other than the son in law of ideologue Norman Podhoretz (the godfather of neoconservatism) Elliot Abrams a dangerous man who is connected with virtually every influential neocon and virtually every dirty deed undertaken during the Reagan years and thereafter. A veteran of secret government operations it would be highly unlikely if he were not a key component of the neocon coup and is another who stands to lose much if the Cheneyites were to be exposed and held accountable. With so much at stake they will throw everything but the kitchen sink into the works to ensure that 1: the plot is never exposed 2: that legitimate investigations into 9/11 and the decidedly anti-American assault on civil liberties are never undertaken 3: that come hell or high water that Iran will be the next stop on the neocon world destruction tour.
I mean when you really think about it there is not much of a reach in looking at 9/11 as an actual coup d’etat, I am not going to get into how the attacks actually were pulled off and who was involved but the neocon cabal and Cheney’s C.O.G. experience were sure as hell ready and waiting to put their own plans into action using the attacks as an opportunity. Rather than focus on such things as controlled demolition, missiles hitting buildings, ghost flights or any of that other happy horseshit, it is essential to look at exactly who benefited and why. Perhaps we should all be asking the other real question that is why do so many Americans doubt the official story on 9/11 to the extent that they would blame a government that holds the laws of the land in the utmost of contempt and cloaks every decision in a shroud of secrecy.
The real problem is that this neocon government is so pathologically psychotic, anti-American and criminally negligent in EVERY act that they engage in gives reason to believe that they would be capable of murdering 3,000 + American citizens in order to further their nefarious plans for global hegemony, the conquest of the Middle East through a war of civilizations in which the religious right shock troops could get behind and ultimately culminate in the encirclement of China. These guys think ahead, according to an insider named Stanley Hilton who just happened to go to school with neocons Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith such radical plots were discussed frequently. I think that any of us who went to school during the 60’s and 70’s know the type of little world leader pretends who gathered over their Avalon Hill board games and conjured up doomsday scenarios. The neocons are just those kids grown up and in highly influential foreign policy positions.
Stealing the 2000 election was essential, the neocons needed a useful idiot in George W. Bush to piggyback into the White House where Cheney and Rumsfeld could set up their shops in order to allow for the coup to be executed. Once Bush's installation was ensured by the requisite political chicanery, black ops, a massive psyops media campaign and the assistance of the Federalist Society stooges on the Supreme Court all the pieces were in place. A weak and easily manipulated president who appealed to a certain segment of the population, a self-selected V.P., the necessary bureaucratic appointments and the stage was set for the catalyzing event that would set the plan into motion and the ensuing quashing of dissent when the power grab came. I wonder why any serious investigation of those nasty little anthrax letters has never taken place, and why the only recipients were influential media figures and key Democrats who could have potentially stopped the USA PATRIOT Act.
The neocons have too much to lose if they are removed from the White House, the implications of real investigations would be devastating, shocking and could very likely result in convictions on charges of treason and not that silly dittohead talking point style ‘treason’ which has become a common euphemism for dissent and criticism in the reich wing media but REAL treason.
Our immediate aim will be to enforce public order, but our long-term objective is to gain the acceptance of the masses so that physical coercion will not longer be needed.... Our far more flexible instrument will be our control over the means of mass communication.... In broadcasting over the radio and television services our purpose is not to provide information about the situation, but rather to affect its development by exploiting our monopoly of these media.The shameful abrogation of the media is even more responsible for America’s tragic present and ugly future than even the neocons themselves and they spit on the graves of every American serviceman or woman who is killed in Iraq and Afghanistan every time that they cue up the saturation coverage of Paris Hilton, the missing white teenager of the week, the pervert of the day or the latest brushfire that is deemed worthy of national coverage. The media is despicable and the charlatans along with every big-haired, addle-brained bimbo with nice t*ts who can read a teleprompter like Paula Zahn or Katie Couric is a disgrace to truly dedicated journalists who once viewed their profession as that of integrity rather than of opportunity for career ladder climbing shills and corporate whores who are nothing more than charlatans masquerading as journalists.
-Edward Luttwak
About a week ago I was away for a trip with no access to the internet, satellite radio or any foreign news sources. All that I had was the network 'news' and CNN and it was quite a shocking experience. I really do not watch that crap when I am at home and the unbelievable spin, fixation on one story ad nauseum (for example Ted Kennedy) at the expense of anything at all meaningful and the complete disappearance of any thing at all on Iraq is stunning. It was travelling into some sort of bizarre parallel universe and yet the majority of Americans are trapped in that world with no way of knowing what is really going on. While understanding the problem with a population kept enshrouded in a cloaking device of enforced ignorance I am just in a state of disbelief of what life is like for those who aren't online and informed on the real issues while the country goes fascist and the economy goes bankrupt.
As Orwell said:
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act"
It's no wonder that Dick Cheney, Joseph Lieberman and the rest of America hating neocons are trying to crack down on the internet by levelling scurillous 'terrorist' accusations to lock in their gains before the matrix of fear and ignorance is penetrated. The dumbing down of America has worked to perfection at least until now but the peasants are growing restive and the movements behind Barack Obama and Ron Paul are if nothing else encouraging first signs of a real resistance that is growing in this country against the neocon executors of the coup d'etat that stole away our legitimate government under the cover of the black smoke of burning jet fuel and the stench of scorched human flesh. Let us all begin the call for a REAL investigation of the events of 9/11, the day when our history was stolen from us by a pack of ruthless thugs who rightfully belong swinging at the end of a rope.
It’s far past time for that something very loud (In the words of William Rivers Pitt) to take place and a damned good start would be in pulling the chain and flushing the neocon toilet and then turning the hoses on Cheney's office. Then how about a coup d'état using the existing bureaucracy to take over the government through the democratic processes that have been stolen from his country over the past seven and a half years by a power crazed anti-American junta that belongs in the dock at The Hague instead of in the White House, The Congress and The Pentagon.
