CIA GOES DOMESTIC ==>> BACKS BUSHERS VIA SUN MYUNG MOON ET AL
*Because **NYC** Could Be BETTER!!
Bush's 'Transformational' Democracy
By Robert Parry
September 22, 2004
George W. Bush's advisers call him "a transformational president,"
meaning that they believe his election to a second term on Nov. 2 will
cement Republican political control for the foreseeable future. Some
outsiders might consider the boast hyperbole, but this prediction of
conservative hegemony should not be underestimated.
The conservatives have been building toward this objective for at least
the past 30 years. Indeed, if one views the emerging conservative
dominance from the perspective of the past three decades, it is an
impressive – and, to many, a chilling – vista.
Combined with the rise of Bush family dynasty, this historical
development suggests that the United States may be moving toward a
significantly different form of government, far less open to
disagreement and debate, a process where even mainstream Democrats, such
as Al Gore and John Kerry, can expect to be turned into caricatures of
themselves and made effectively unelectable.
This emerging political future came into sharper focus for me as I spent
the last five months researching and writing a book on the ascendance of
the two George Bushes to the pinnacle of U.S. political power. Entitled
Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq,
the book examines how the two George Bushes have intersected with
scandals and other major political events over the past 30 years.
Besides tracing how the Bushes crisscrossed these events, the book
examines the broader question of how the United States reached today's
political crossroads. While George H.W. and George W. Bush played
significant roles at many turning points, they also were beneficiaries
of a sophisticated Republican strategy, which took shape in the late
1970s.
'War of Ideas'
The Republican strategy centered on building a political/media
infrastructure to fight what conservatives call "the war of ideas," a
concept that they do not mean in a metaphorical sense. Their goal has
been to "win" this "war" by crushing their enemies.
The conservatives began building their "war" machine in the 1970s mostly
for defensive reasons, to protect a future Republican president from
"another Watergate" and to neutralize anti-war protests against some
future Vietnam.
But this well-funded network of think tanks, media outlets and attack
groups also had an offensive capability that George H.W. Bush exploited
in the 1988 and 1992 campaigns and that George W. Bush used effectively
in the 2000 and 2004 campaigns – as well as during the run-up to war
in Iraq to silence political objections to his planned course of action.
Indeed, the younger George Bush – with his thin appreciation for the
value of free-and-open debate – may be the perfect vessel for
transforming the U.S. political process into a more authoritarian system
envisioned by some hard-line conservatives. After Election 2000, Bush
joked that "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot
easier – so long as I'm the dictator."
While the United States is not headed toward a traditional dictatorship
nor even a tightly controlled "democracy" on the model of Vladimir
Putin's Russia, Republicans do envision the nation undergoing a
transformation into a new political model that would ensure their
party's control of all levers of American power for a generation or
more.
In effect, the transformation would mean that any candidate without the
blessings of the powerful conservative echo chamber will have about as
much chance of winning as the Washington Generals do against the Harlem
Globetrotters. The contest might be mildly entertaining, but the outcome
will never be in doubt. Elections will become largely ceremonial
affairs.
The deconstruction of the Democratic candidates – or even moderate
Republicans – will fall primarily to the conservative media, including
Fox News, the Wall Street Journal's editorial pages, the Washington
Times, Rush Limbaugh, well-funded Internet sites, and an army of
over-the-top conservative commentators on TV, radio and in newspaper
columns.
Mainstream journalists, trying to protect their own careers, will mostly
play along or stay silent. No one will want to risk taking these
Republicans on, as CBS News and Dan Rather recently learned when they
were deceived about the origins of four memos purportedly written by
Bush's former National Guard commander.
Double Standard
While there's virtually no career risk in running bogus accounts against
Democrats – such as the ugly attacks on Kerry's Vietnam War record by
the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" – there is a huge downside for
journalists if mistakes are made in criticizing a Bush.
As I discovered in researching Secrecy & Privilege, this phenomenon of
"protecting the Bushes" is another feature of the emerging political
process. Other related findings in the book include:
--During the Nixon-Ford administrations, the elder George Bush was
viewed as a Mr. Fix-It with gold-plated connections. Richard Nixon
turned to Bush in 1973 during Watergate to lead the Republican National
Committee and to throw investigators off the Watergate trail. President
Gerald Ford later put Bush in charge of the Central Intelligence Agency
to stop the flood of politically damaging stories about CIA abuses.
--In fall 1976, CIA Director Bush deflected a scandal about a terrorist
bombing in Washington that killed Chilean dissident Orlando Letelier and
an American co-worker. Though in possession of incriminating evidence
pointing to the U.S.-backed Chilean government, Bush's CIA steered
investigators away from the real killers while Ford almost surged from
behind to catch Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter.
--As CIA director, the senior George Bush also set the stage for the
"politicization" of the CIA's analytical division by letting in
conservative ideologues for the so-called Team B experiment, the first
step in a systematic exaggeration of Soviet military power and the
gutting of the CIA's tradition of analytical objectivity. In 1991, Bush
named Robert Gates, a key "politicization" figure, to run the CIA.
--George H.W. Bush brought disgruntled CIA veterans into U.S. domestic
politics during the 1980 campaign. After Bush was picked as Ronald
Reagan's running mate, these former CIA officers carried their
intelligence skills – and their determination to oust President Carter
– into the Reagan-Bush campaign. One of Bush's key operatives was
former clandestine services chief Ted Shackley, the CIA's legendary
"Blond Ghost."
--Shackley and other CIA veterans coordinated with Bush in monitoring
President Carter's Iran hostage negotiations in 1980. New evidence also
supports allegations that senior Republicans went beyond keeping track
of Carter's progress in gaining a last-minute "October Surprise" release
of 52 American hostages. Senior Republicans, including CIA personnel,
appear to have met directly with Iranian representatives and disrupted
Carter's negotiations. The hostages were finally released after Reagan
was sworn in as President on Jan. 20, 1981.
--In 1992, while seeking reelection, President George H.W. Bush
succeeded in containing a congressional probe into the 1980 hostage
controversy by hiding behind shaky or false alibis.
In January 1993, the Russian government delivered a classified report to
the U.S. Congress corroborating allegations that senior Republicans,
including Bush, met with Iranians in 1980. But the House investigative
task force, headed by Reps. Lee Hamilton and Henry Hyde, kept the
Russian report secret from the U.S. public.
--During the 1992 campaign, President George H.W. Bush personally
encouraged his subordinates to dig up dirt about Bill Clinton's anti-war
activities and his student travels to Eastern Europe. Bush's pressure
led to an illegal search of Clinton's passport file at State Department
archives and the leaking of a baseless criminal referral that opened the
door to attacks on Clinton's patriotism.
--George W. Bush adopted similar hardball tactics in his campaigns. In
Campaign 2000, the younger George Bush was aided by a powerful
conservative news media that had been constructed in the quarter century
since Watergate.
A key feature of that right-wing machine has been the Washington Times,
a publication financed by South Korean theocrat Sun Myung Moon. Secrecy
& Privilege unearths evidence that Moon's fortune has relied on illegal
money laundering and that investigations of this criminal conspiracy
have been short-circuited by Republican administrations.
--During the Florida recount in 2000, George W. Bush's campaign paid the
expenses of Republican operatives who were flown to Florida and staged a
riot that stopped the counting of votes in Miami. Campaign documents
also show that Bush picked up the tab for a post-riot celebration that
included crooner Wayne Newton signing "Danke Schoen."
'Perception Management'
Beyond those specific findings, Secrecy & Privilege shows how the elder
George Bush injected CIA-style propaganda strategies – such as the
concept of "perception management" – into the U.S. political process.
In covert operations, intelligence operatives use "perception
management" techniques to control how a target population perceives
events by tailoring propaganda "themes" to exploit the population's
cultural weaknesses or biases.
Working with former CIA officers who joined him in the White House in
the early 1980s, then-Vice President Bush helped craft secret policies
for manipulating U.S. public opinion and for hiding controversial
policies from the public's view.
The evidence now shows that Bush played a key role in carrying out
clandestine U.S. foreign policies in Central America and the Middle
East. Some of those policies were exposed in the Iran-Contra Affair in
the late 1980s, but the emerging conservative political/media
infrastructure helped the Reagan-Bush administration limit the
Iran-Contra disclosures in ways not available during the Watergate
scandal a little more than a decade earlier.
The impact of the conservative Republican political/media strategy was
compounded by a corresponding failure of liberals and Democrats to
respond in kind. Secrecy & Privilege reveals that Democrats, including
President Bill Clinton, repeatedly sought accommodation rather than
confrontation with Republicans, apparently out of false hope that
meaningful bipartisanship was possible.
Toward that end, national Democrats often joined in shutting down
investigations of alleged Republican wrongdoing, such as occurred with
probes of the Iran-Contra scandal, the Iraqgate evidence of Reagan-Bush
coddling of Saddam Hussein, and the October Surprise allegations of
Republican interference in Jimmy Carter's 1980 hostage negotiations.
Democratic Reward
The Democrats were "rewarded" for these bipartisan gestures with an even
more powerful dose of the Republican attack strategies. Clinton's
presidency was pounded with allegations of wrongdoing over his
Whitewater real estate investment and a host of other minor issues, such
as the firing of employees in the White House Travel Office.
Though those allegations led to no charges against Clinton, the scandal
frenzy eventually led to Clinton's 1998 impeachment for lying about a
sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Clinton survived a trial in the Senate in 1999, but Clinton's legacy was
forever tarnished and Vice President Gore's campaign to succeed Clinton
was badly damaged by the impeachment fallout.
In Campaign 2000, mainstream journalists joined with their conservative
colleagues in bashing Gore out of what appeared to be a sense of
frustration over Clinton's survival.
From the New York Times to the Washington Times, the national press
corps exaggerated Gore's alleged proclivity for exaggeration, creating
what became a decisive issue in the minds of many American voters who
came to doubt Gore's honesty.
[See Consortiumnews.com's "Al Gore vs. the Media" and "Protecting
Bush-Cheney."}
Campaign Sequel
Campaign 2004 is turning out to be a kind of sequel to Campaign 2000,
with the potent conservative machine churning out personal attacks
against Sen. John Kerry's integrity, honesty and patriotism. At the
Republican National Convention in New York, some delegates wore
band-aids with purple hearts to mock Kerry's war wounds and reinforce
the attacks on Kerry's heroism from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Kerry, who won the Bronze Star and the Silver Star for heroism in
Vietnam, had skippered a Swift boat in the Mekong Delta during Operation
Sealords, one of the most hazardous assignments in the Vietnam War. Vice
Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, Navy commander in Vietnam, estimated that sailors in
Operation Sealords suffered a 75 percent casualty rate.
But the conservative news media and mainstream news outlets, such as
CNN, let themselves be used to promote the dubious Swift Boat Veterans
for Truth charges challenging Kerry's heroism and honesty. The impact on
Kerry's reputation was devastating, sending him into freefall in some
national polls and making him the subject of public derision.
For his part, George W. Bush refused to specifically denounce the
attacks on Kerry, saying only that all political advertising from
independent groups should be banned. In effect, Bush was equating the
spurious attacks on Kerry's war record with questions raised by some
liberal groups about how Bush slipped past better-qualified candidates
to get a position in the Texas Air National Guard and then failed to
fulfill even those duties.
This summer's dismantling of John Kerry is a sign of what the
"transformed" American political system may look like for years to come.
Robert Parry, who broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for the
Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s, has written a new book
entitled, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate
to Iraq. Copies can be obtained from the publisher at
http://www.secrecyandprivilege.com .
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this article x-posted as a community service. if you don't vote, you let
someone else vote twice.
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(-->>BeTTeR LiVinG Thru BetteR LiVING !!<<----)
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