Canada will not renew anti-terror legislation or allow indefinite detention of suspects. Former CIA consultant, Chalmers Johnson, says 9/11 was "blowback" for CIA meddling, and America's dogged pursuit of empire makes totalitarian regime inevitable at home.
Canada will not renew anti-terror legislation that stemmed from the hysteria following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US. The vote came after the Canadian Supreme Court struck down one of the provisions, said BBC News:
"On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that a system allowing the government to indefinitely detain foreign-born terror suspects or deport them violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms."
Apparently the Canadians feel a lot safer and calmer now. There have been no attacks on Canada. Why was the US targeted, any way? Why do the terrorists hate us, and not Canada?
This week, Amy Goodman interviewed former CIA consultant, Chalmers Johnson, on Democracy Now!. You can hear/watch/read this eye-opener HERE. Johnson is the author of the Blowback trilogy, and he talked with Goodman about his latest in the series, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic. Among his not unexpected, but nonetheless startling to hear confirmed, revelations:
Every president, when he takes office, is told about his secret, private army, the CIA, which he can use for assassinations, destabilization of foreign economies and governments, or for any purpose he chooses, with impunity, even if those actions are illegal. Since the agency was formed in 1947, no president has declined to use the CIA for clandestine warfare. These operations are kept secret from the American people. When there is retaliation ("blowback") for these covert operations, the American people don't see the connection.
My favorite recently-spotted bumper sticker says,
Why are we here, and what am I doing in this handbasket?
(If you don't get it, it's a reference to your grandmother's old saying about people unwittingly headed in the wrong direction: they're "going to hell in a handbasket.")
Johnson says that the 9/11 attacks were a direct, if delayed, response to CIA meddling in Afghanistan, beginning with the installation of the Mujaheddin during the Russian invasion. We will never know the full extent of the provocation. In other words, folks, even if we can't see or understand the cause, we had it coming to us, thanks to the CIA's heavy-handed enforcement of the corporate globalists' imperial agenda.
Even if Chalmers Johnson is not telling us anything there we weren't wise to, he goes a lot farther with his insightful analysis. He draws a very important lesson for us from history: Any government that tries to have democracy at home and empire abroad is doomed to failure. If it continues to pursue empire, the end result at home will be a totalitarian regime. (Anybody see any signs of that happening here?) Because Britain saw just that, it decided to give up its empire after World War II. There were reactions, and it was very uncomfortable for a time, but that's what Britain chose to do to save democracy. (George Bush just uses "democracy" as a code word for corporate globalism, in my opinion.)
If you didn't know why the terrorists hate us, you have an idea now. Click on the interview link, above, and you'll really enjoy it. Read Johnson's books. And while you're at it, take a good look at the lessons we can learn from Canada about democracy.
And ask your favorite presidential candidate whether s/he'll commit to not using the CIA for secret warfare.