The ability to exercise this power with impunity is facilitated by the National Security Act of 1947. The thrust of the exposé is the Iran-Contra arms and drug-running operations which flooded the streets of our nation with crack cocaine. The significance of the documentary is probably greater today in 2007 than it was when it was made. We now have a situation in which these same forces have committed the most egregious terrorist attack on US soil and have declared a fraudulent so-called "War on Terror". The ruling regime in the US who have conducted the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, are now banging the war drum against Iran.
Full Documentary:
1. You start abroad and then you bring this behavior home.
2. "A look at a government in the shadows"... 'and where the government will take us if the people let it!'
3. A policy of lies got accidentally exposed!
4. 'Since our adversaries know about our covert operations the only ones fooled are the America people.'
From PBS = Are we becoming a police state? Five things that have civil liberties advocates nervous - 1. Indefinite military detentions of U.S. citizens, 2. Targeting U.S. citizens for killing, 3. Arresting witnesses for recording police actions, 4. Using GPS to track your every move, 5. Surveillance drones spying on American soil...
Notes:
1. There are "900 bases in 150 countries"
2. From The Economist: Indeed, the one lesson that can be drawn from the data is that today's strategic priorities can shape deployments for decades to come, long after the original reason for putting G.I.s in a particular region has gone.
3. "[W]e can now remove almost all of our forces from Saudi Arabia. Their presence there over the last 12 years has been a source of enormous difficulty for a friendly government. It's been a huge recruiting device for al Qaeda. In fact if you look at bin Laden, one of his principle grievances was the presence of so-called crusader forces on the holy land, Mecca and Medina. I think just lifting that burden from the Saudis is itself going to open the door to other positive things." Wolfowitz, 2003.
4. Economics perspective: Manufacturing jobs have become more specialized requiring less labor and more technical expertise - i.e. small companies making big ticket items such as fighter jets; this means less people are employed, smaller number of people make huge profits and these huge profits make the economy look like its growing when actually its just a few companies making huge profits benefiting a small group of people.Senator Bernie Sanders also thinks sending manufacturing jobs abroad is bad economic policy.
5. Comedic perspective: Colbert Report: Solutions to America's Financial Worries - World War III
6. Millions of jobs vs hundreds, possibly thousands of jobs, created by small companies with big ticket items.
7. Article: 11 Ways That Amerika Is Becoming More Like North Korea .
8. Interview: Ben Lowy describes his photographic work in Iraq and Afghanistan. Arresting people just because someone says so with any due process of law.
9. "The Pentagon needs to conduct a "serious inquiry" into the Air Force for letting a retired general turned Boeing executive participate in a war game for a $51 billion aerial tanker contract Boeing was competing to win, Sen. John McCain said Thursday in a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta."
10. Remains of 274 Soldiers Dumped in Virginia Landfill - Fox News Video [Original article here.]
11. "They've taken all the heat they want to," Barr said. "They paid a lot of money for an aircraft that doesn't work."
12. "How do you break an internet? Easy. SOPA." Judge Andrew Napolitano
13. Comedic perspective: At last, the U.S. government brings swift justice to hardened criminals on YouTube.
14. Interview: Colbert Report: Stop Online Piracy Act - Danny Goldberg & Jonathan Zittrain.