{"id":55932,"date":"2013-08-05T14:57:49","date_gmt":"2013-08-05T13:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/welcome-to-post-constitution-america\/55932\/"},"modified":"2013-08-05T14:57:49","modified_gmt":"2013-08-05T13:57:49","slug":"welcome-to-post-constitution-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/welcome-to-post-constitution-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Post-Constitution America"},"content":{"rendered":"
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http:\/\/www.truthdig.com\/report\/item\/welcome_to_post-constitution_america_20130805\/<\/a><\/h6>\n

Posted on Aug\u00a05,\u00a02013<\/h4>\n
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By Peter van Buren, TomDispatch<\/b><\/p>\n

This piece first appeared at TomDispatch. Read Tom Engelhardt\u2019s introduction here<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

On July 30, 1778, the Continental Congress created the first whistleblower<\/a> protection law, stating \u201cthat it is the duty of all persons in the service of the United States to give the earliest information to Congress or other proper authority of any misconduct, frauds, or misdemeanors committed by any officers or persons in the service of these states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two hundred thirty-five years later, on July 30, 2013, Bradley Manning was found guilty<\/a> on 20 of the 22 charges for which he was prosecuted, specifically for \u201cespionage\u201d and for videos of war atrocities<\/a> he released, but not for \u201caiding the enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Days after the verdict, with sentencing hearings in which Manning could receive 136 years of prison time ongoing, the pundits have had their say. The problem is that they missed the most chilling aspect of the Manning case: the way it ushered us, almost unnoticed, into <\/strong>post-Constitutional America.<\/p>\n

The Weapons of War Come Home<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even before the Manning trial began, the emerging look of that new America was coming into view. In recent years, weapons, tactics, and techniques developed in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in the war on terror have begun arriving in \u201cthe homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consider, for instance, the rise of the warrior cop<\/a>, of increasingly up-armored police departments across the country often filled with former military personnel encouraged to use the sort of rough tactics they once wielded in combat zones. Supporting them are the kinds of weaponry that once would have been inconceivable in police departments, including armored vehicles, typically bought with Department of Homeland Security grants<\/a>. Recently, the director of the FBI informed a Senate committee that the Bureau was deploying<\/a> its first drones over the United States. Meanwhile, Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security and already flying an expanding fleet of Predator drones, the very ones used in America\u2019s war zones, is eager to arm<\/a> them with \u201cnon-lethal\u201d weaponry to \u201cimmobilize targets of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Above all, surveillance technology has been coming home from our distant war zones. The National Security Agency (NSA), for instance, pioneered the use of cell phones to track potential enemy movements in Iraq and Afghanistan. The NSA did this in one of several ways. With the aim of remotely turning on cell phones as audio monitoring or GPS devices, rogue signals could be sent out through an existing network, or NSA software could be implanted on phones disguised as downloads of porn or games.<\/p>\n

Using fake cell phone towers that actually intercept phone signals en route to real towers, the U.S. could harvest hardware information in Iraq and Afghanistan that would forever label a phone and allow the NSA to always uniquely identify it, even if the SIM card<\/a> was changed. The fake cell towers also allowed the NSA to gather precise location data for the phone, vacuum up metadata, and monitor what was being said.<\/p>\n

At one point, more than 100 NSA teams had been scouring Iraq<\/a> for snippets of electronic data that might be useful to military planners. The agency\u2019s director, General Keith Alexander, changed that: he devised a strategy called Real Time Regional Gateway<\/a> to grab every Iraqi text, phone call, email, and social media interaction. \u201cRather than look for a single needle in the haystack, his approach was, \u2018Let\u2019s collect the whole haystack,\u2019\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u00a0\u201d said<\/a> one former senior U.S. intelligence official. \u201cCollect it all, tag it, store it, and whatever it is you want, you go searching for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sound familiar, Mr. Snowden?<\/p>\n

Welcome Home, Soldier (Part I)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks to Edward Snowden<\/a>, we now know that the \u201ccollect it all\u201d technique employed by the NSA in Iraq would soon enough be used to collect American metadata and other electronically available information, including credit card transactions, air ticket purchases, and financial records. At the vast new $2 billion data center<\/a> it is building in Bluffdale, Utah, and at other locations, the NSA is following its Iraq script of saving everything, so that once an American became a target, his or her whole history can be combed through. Such searches do not require approval<\/a> by a court, or even an NSA supervisor. As it happened, however, the job was easier to accomplish in the U.S. than in Iraq, as internet companies<\/a> and telephone service providers<\/a> are required by secret law to hand over the required data, neatly formatted, with no messy spying required.<\/p>\n

When the U.S. wanted something in Iraq or Afghanistan, they sent guys to kick down doors and take it. This, too, may be beginning to happen here at home. Recently, despite other valuable and easily portable objects lying nearby, computers<\/a>, and only computers, were stolen from the law offices representing State Department whistleblower Aurelia Fedenisn. Similarly, a Washington law firm representing NSA whistleblower Tom Drake<\/a> had computers<\/a>, and only computers, stolen from its office.<\/p>\n

In these years, the FBI has brought two other NSA wartime tools home. The Bureau now uses a device called Stingray<\/a> to recreate those battlefield fake cell phone towers and track people in the U.S. without their knowledge. Stingray offers some unique advantages: it bypasses the phone company entirely, which is, of course, handy in a war zone in which a phone company may be controlled by less than cooperative types, or if phone companies no longer cooperate with the government, or simply if you don\u2019t want the phone company or anyone else to know you\u2019re snooping. American phone companies seem to have been quite cooperative. Verizon<\/a>, for instance, admits hacking its own cellular modems (\u201cair cards<\/a>\u201d) to facilitate FBI intrusion.<\/p>\n

The FBI is also following NSA\u2019s lead implanting spyware<\/a> and other hacker software developed for our war zones secretly and remotely in American computers and cell phones. The Bureau can then remotely turn on phone and laptop microphones, even webcams, to monitor citizens, while files can be pulled from a computer or implanted onto a computer.<\/p>\n

Among the latest examples of war technology making the trip back to the homeland is the aerostat<\/a>, a tethered medium-sized blimp. Anyone who served in Iraq or Afghanistan will recognize<\/a> the thing, as one or more of them flew over nearly every military base of any size or importance. The Army recently announced plans to operate two such blimps over Washington, D.C<\/a>., starting in 2014. Allegedly they are only to serve as anti-missile defenses, though in our war zones they were used as massive surveillance platforms. As a taste of the sorts of surveillance systems the aerostats were equipped with abroad but the Army says they won\u2019t have here at home, consider Gorgon Stare<\/a>, a system that can transmit live images of an entire town<\/a>. And unlike drones, an aerostat never needs to land. Ever.<\/p>\n

Welcome Home, Soldier (Part II)<\/strong><\/p>\n

And so to Bradley Manning.<\/p>\n

As the weaponry and technology of war came home, so did a new, increasingly Guantanamo-ized definition of justice. This is one thing the Manning case has made clear.<\/p>\n

As a start, Manning was treated no differently than America\u2019s war-on-terror prisoners at Guantanamo and the black sites<\/a> that the Bush administration set up around the world. Picked up on the \u201cbattlefield,\u201d Manning was first kept incommunicado<\/a> in a cage in Kuwait for two months with no access to a lawyer. Then, despite being an active duty member of the Army, he was handed over to the Marines, who also guard Guantanamo, to be held in a military prison in Quantico, Virginia.<\/p>\n

What followed were three years of cruel detainment<\/a>, where, as might well have happened at Gitmo, Manning, kept in isolation, was deprived of clothing, communications, legal advice, and sleep. The sleep deprivation regime<\/a> imposed on him certainly met any standard, other than Washington\u2019s and possibly Pyongyang\u2019s, for torture. In return for such abuse, even after a judge had formally ruled that he was subjected to excessively harsh treatment, Manning will only get a 112-day reduction<\/a> in his eventual sentence.<\/p>\n

Eventually the Obama administration decided Manning was to be tried as a soldier before a military court. In the courtroom, itself inside a military facility<\/a> that also houses NSA headquarters, there was a strikingly gulag-like atmosphere. His trial was built around secret witnesses and secret evidence; severe restrictions were put on the press\u2013the Army denied<\/a> press passes to 270 of the 350 media organizations that applied; and there was a clear appearance of injustice<\/a>. Among other things, the judge<\/a> ruled against nearly every defense motion.<\/p>\n

During the months of the trial, the U.S. military refused to release official transcripts of the proceedings. Even a private courtroom sketch artist was barred<\/a> from the room. Independent journalist and activist Alexa O\u2019Brien<\/a> then took it upon herself to attend the trial daily, defy the Army, and make an unofficial<\/a> record<\/a> of the proceedings by hand. Later in the trial, armed military police were stationed behind reporter<\/a>s listening to testimony. Above all, the feeling that Manning\u2019s fate was predetermined could hardly be avoided. After all, President Obama, the former Constitutional law professor, essentially proclaimed him guilty<\/a> back in 2011 and the Department of Defense didn\u2019t hesitate to state<\/a> more generally that \u201cleaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

As at Guantanamo, rules of evidence reaching back to early English common law were turned upside down. In Manning\u2019s case, he was convicted of espionage, even though the prosecution did not have to prove either his intent to help another government or that harm was caused; a civilian court had already paved the way<\/a> for such a ruling in another whistleblower case. In addition, the government was allowed to label Manning a \u201ctraitor\u201d and an \u201canarchist<\/a>\u201d in open court, though he was on trial for neither treason<\/a> nor anarchy<\/a>. His Army supervisor<\/a> in the U.S. and Iraq was allowed to testify<\/a> against him despite having made biased and homophobic statements about him in a movie<\/a> built around portraying Manning as a sad, sexually-confused, attention-seeking young man mesmerized by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Finally, the same judge who essentially harassed the press throughout Manning\u2019s trial issued<\/a> a 24-hour advance notice of her verdict to ensure maximum coverage only of the denouement, not the process.<\/p>\n

Given all this, it is small comfort to know that Manning, nailed on the Espionage Act after multiple failures<\/a> in other cases by the Obama administration, was not convicted of the extreme charge of \u201caiding the enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not Manning Alone<\/strong><\/p>\n

Someday, Manning\u2019s case may be seen as a bitter landmark on the road to a post-Constitutional America, but it won\u2019t be seen as the first case in the development of the post-Constitutional system. Immediately following 9\/11, top officials in the Bush administration decided to \u201ctake the gloves off<\/a>.\u201d Soon after, a wounded John Walker Lindh<\/a>, the so-called American Taliban<\/a>, was captured on an Afghan battlefield, held in a windowless shipping container, refused access to a lawyer even after he demanded one as an American citizen, and interrogated against his will by the FBI. Access to medical care was used as a bribe to solicit information from him. \u201cEvidence\u201d obtained by such means was then used to convict him in court.<\/p>\n

Jose Padilla<\/a>, a U.S. citizen who clumsily plotted to detonate a nonexistent \u201cdirty bomb,\u201d<\/a> was held incommunicado for more three years, over a year of which was in a South Carolina military jail. He was arrested only as a material witness<\/a> and was not formally charged with a crime until years later. He was given no means to challenge his detention under habeas corpus, as President Bush designated him an \u201cenemy combatant<\/a>.\u201d Pictures<\/a> of Padilla being moved wearing sound-proof and light-proof gear strongly suggest he was subjected to the same psychosis-inducing sensory deprivation used as \u201cwhite torture<\/a>\u201d against America\u2019s foreign enemies<\/a> in Guantanamo.<\/p>\n

Certainly, the most egregious case of pre-Manning post-Constitutional justice was the execution of American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki<\/a> by drone in Yemen, without due process or trial, for being an al-Qaeda propagandist. In this, President Obama and his top counterterrorism advisors quite literally took on the role of judge, jury, and executioner. In a similar fashion, again in Yemen, the U.S. killed<\/a> al-Awlaki\u2019s American teenage son, a boy no one claimed was connected to terrorism. Obama administration lawyers went on to claim the legal right<\/a> to execute U.S. citizens without trial or due process and have admitted to killing four Americans<\/a>. Attorney General Eric Holder declared<\/a> that \u201cUnited States citizenship alone does not make such individuals immune from being targeted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then-FBI Director Robert Mueller<\/a>, asked in a Congressional hearing if the FBI could assassinate an American citizen in the United States, replied that he simply did not know<\/a>. \u201cI have to go back. Uh, I\u2019m not certain whether that was addressed or not.\u201d He added, \u201cI\u2019m going to defer that to others in the Department of Justice.\u201d As if competing for an Orwellian prize, an unnamed Obama administration official told<\/a> the Washington Post<\/em>, \u201cWhat constitutes due process in this case is a due process in war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Post-Constitutional America<\/strong><\/p>\n

So welcome to post-Constitutional America. Its shape is, ominously enough, beginning to come into view.<\/p>\n

Orwell\u2019s famed dystopian novel 1984<\/em> was not intended as an instruction manual, but just days before the Manning verdict, the Obama administration essentially buried<\/a> its now-ironic-campaign promise<\/a> to protect whistleblowers, sending it down Washington\u2019s version of the memory hole<\/a>. Post-9\/11, torture famously stopped being torture if an American did it, and its users were not prosecutable<\/a> by the Justice Department.<\/p>\n

Similarly, full-spectrum spying is not considered to violate the Fourth Amendment and does not even require probable cause<\/a>. Low-level<\/a> NSA analysts have desktop access to the private emails and phone calls of Americans. The Post Office photographs the envelopes of every one of the 160 billion pieces of mail it handles, collecting the metadata<\/a> of \u201cto:\u201d and \u201cfrom:\u201d addresses. An Obama administration Insider Threat Program<\/a> requires federal employees (including the Peace Corps<\/a>) to report on the suspicious behavior of coworkers.<\/p>\n

Government officials concerned over possible wrongdoing in their departments or agencies who \u201cgo through proper channels\u201d are fired<\/a> or prosecuted<\/a>. Government whistleblowers are commanded to return to face justice<\/a>, while law-breakers in the service of the government are allowed to flee justice<\/a>. CIA officers who destroy evidence of torture<\/a> go free, while a CIA agent who blew the whistle on torture<\/a> is locked up.<\/p>\n

Secret<\/a> laws and secret courts<\/a> can create secret<\/a> law you can\u2019t know about for \u201ccrimes\u201d you don\u2019t even know exist. You can nonetheless be arrested for committing them. Thanks to the PATRIOT Act, citizens, even librarians<\/a>, can be served by the FBI with a National Security Letter<\/a> (not requiring a court order) demanding records and other information, and gagging them from revealing to anyone that such information has been demanded or such a letter delivered. Citizens may be held without trial, and denied their Constitutional rights as soon as they are designated \u201cterrorists<\/a>.\u201d Lawyers and habeas corpus are available only when the government allows.<\/p>\n

In the last decade, 10 times<\/a> as many employers turned to FBI criminal databases to screen job applicants. The press is restricted when it comes to covering \u201copen trials.\u201d The war<\/a> on whistleblowers is metastasizing into a war<\/a> on the First Amendment. People may now be convicted based on secret testimony by unnamed persons. Military courts and jails can replace civilian ones. Justice can be twisted and tangled into an almost unrecognizable form and then used to send a young man to prison for decades. Claiming its actions lawful while shielding the \u201clegal\u201d opinions<\/a> cited, often even from Congress, the government can send its drones to assassinate its own citizens.<\/p>\n

One by one, the tools and attitudes of the war on terror, of a world in which the \u201cgloves\u201d are eternally off, have come home. The comic strip character Pogo\u2019s classic warning<\/a>\u2013\u201cWe have met the enemy and he is us\u201d\u2013seems ever less like a metaphor. According to the government, increasingly we are now indeed their enemy.<\/p>\n

Peter Van Buren blew the whistle on State Department waste and mismanagement during Iraq Reconstruction in his first book, <\/em>We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People<\/a>. A <\/em>TomDispatch regular<\/em>, he writes about current events at his blog, <\/em>We Meant Well<\/em><\/a>. Van Buren\u2019s next book,<\/em> Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99Percent<\/a>, will be available March 2014<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\nCopyright 2013 Peter Van Buren<\/small>\n<\/p>\n

Marion Doss<\/a> (CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

Republished from: TruthDig<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.truthdig.com\/report\/item\/welcome_to_post-constitution_america_20130805\/ Posted on Aug\u00a05,\u00a02013 By Peter van Buren, TomDispatch This piece first appeared at TomDispatch. Read Tom Engelhardt\u2019s introduction here. On July 30, 1778, the Continental Congress created the first whistleblower protection law, stating \u201cthat it is the duty of all persons in the service of the United States to give the earliest information to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-55932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}