1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.
2. Create secret prisons where torture takes place.
3. Develop a thug caste or paramilitary force not answerable to citizens.
4. Set up an internal surveillance system.
5. Harass citizens' groups.
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release.
7. Target key individuals.
8. Control the press.
9. Declare all dissent to be treason.
10. Suspend the rule of law.
These 10 steps seem to be follow some incremental creep towards a Fascist state...we certainly are at least to number 5!
Why there isn't more of an outcry when we out-source the role of our military to a greedy private entity with no accountability and penchant for secrecy, I'll never know.
(I checked their website and was soooo comforted to see that an un-biased mainstream media outfit like Fox News is backing them 100%...geez!!)
http://www.blackwaterusa.com/press/newsdefault.asp