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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=tanstl@aol.com href="mailto:tanstl@aol.com">David Sladky</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=undisclosed-recipients:
href="mailto:undisclosed-recipients:">undisclosed-recipients:</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, April 22, 2010 6:55 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> A Lethal Hypocrisy - Bill Clinton on Violence and
Government </DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face=arial color=black size=2><BR><BR>
<DIV style="CLEAR: both">
<DIV id=AOLMsgPart_2_24274dca-7d59-4c37-8565-512879c6e8a2><FONT face=arial
color=black size=2><BR><BR><FONT face=Verdana color=#990000>April 20,
2010</FONT>
<H1 align=left><EM><FONT face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size=+1>Bill
Clinton on Violence and Government </FONT></EM></H1>
<H1><FONT face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" color=#990000 size=+2>A Lethal
Hypocrisy </FONT></H1>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size=+1>By JAMES BOVARD
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana><FONT color=#990000 size=+3>Y</FONT><SPAN
class=style2>esterday, on the fifteenth anniversary of the attack on the federal
office building in Oklahoma City, former President Bill Clinton had an op-ed in
the <EM>New York Times </EM>headlined: “Violence is Unacceptable in a
Democracy.” The article settles any doubts about whether Clinton was
one of the most talented demagogues of modern times.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=style2>Casting a net of collective guilt over much of the 48
contiguous states, Clinton announced that the 1995 bombing was the fault of
people who believed “that the greatest threat to American freedom is our
government, and that public servants do not protect our freedoms, but abuse
them.” People who distrusted government helped echo ideas which
somehow persuaded “deeply alienated and disconnected Americans” to carry
out the attack. </DIV>
<DIV class=style2>In other words, people who harshly criticize the government
are guilty of - or at least complicit in - mass murder.</DIV>
<DIV class=style2>It would be difficult to contrive a storyline to better
exonerate all government actions. We still know far too little
about the actual facts of the Oklahoma City bombing. We do know that the
perpetrators were guilty of a heinous crime and deserved the harshest
punishment. But that is a topic for a different day. </DIV>
<DIV class=style2>Clinton declared that “we do not have the right to resort to
violence — or the threat of violence — when we don’t get our way. “</DIV>
<DIV class=style2>Unless you’re the government. </DIV>
<DIV class=style2>The four million Americans arrested for marijuana violations
during Clinton’s reign were victims of government violence and government
threats of <A
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403963681/counterpunchmaga"
target=_blank><IMG height=181 src="http://counterpunch.com/bovardterro.jpeg"
width=120 align=right border=0></A>violence. The “fact” that Clinton never
inhaled did not prevent the drug war from ravaging far more lives during his
time in office. The number of people arrested for drug offenses rose by
73% between 1992 and 1997. The Clinton administration bankrolled the
militarization of local police, sowing the seeds for a scourge of no-knock
raids at wrong addresses and a massive increase in efforts to intimidate average
citizens in big cities around the country.</DIV>
<DIV class=style2>During Clinton’s reign, the IRS seized over 12 million bank
accounts, put liens on over 9 million people’s homes and land, directly
confiscated more than 100,000 people’s houses, cars, or real property, and
imposed over 100 million penalties on people for allegedly not paying sufficient
taxes, paying taxes late, etc. The IRS knew that millions of
citizens were assessed taxes and penalties that they did not owe. A 1997 audit
of the IRS's Arkansas-Oklahoma district found that a third of the property
seizures carried out violated federal law or IRS regulations. Former IRS
district chief David Patnoe observed in 1998: “More tax is collected by fear and
intimidation than by the law.” The Clinton administration fought tooth and
nail against a law Congress passed in 1998 to curtail IRS depredations against
innocent Americans. </DIV>
<DIV class=style2>Clinton’s op-ed mentions, almost as an aside, that the
Oklahoma City bombing occurred on the second anniversary of the final assault at
Waco. In 1995, Clinton denounced the Branch Davidians as “murderers” for
their response to the 1993 Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms attack on
their home. Clinton used that label even though a Texas jury found
no such guilt - and even though the BATF apparently shot first and did not have
a proper warrant for its no-knock, military-style raid. </DIV>
<DIV class=style2>Clinton was commander-in-chief when the FBI 54-ton tanks
smashed into the Davidians’ home, collapsing 25% of the ramshackle building on
top of residents before a fire commenced that left 80 people dead. His
administration did almost everything it could to cover up the details of federal
action at Waco, spurring the widespread distrust which Clinton later denounced.
</DIV>
<DIV class=style2>The federal raid in April 2000 to seize six year old Elian
Gonzalez was Clinton-style non-violence at its best. The late-night surprise
attack went as planned - nabbing the boy and leaving shattered doors, a broken
bed, roughed-up Cuban-Americans and two NBC cameramen on the ground, writhing in
pain from stomach-kicks or rifle-butts to the head. But a photographer caught
the image of a souped-up Border Patrol agent pointing his submachine gun
toward the terrified boy. </DIV>
<DIV class=style2>Clinton administration officials rushed to explain why the
raid was practically a demonstration of Gandhi’s teachings in action. A few
hours after the raid, Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder asserted that the boy
"was not taken at the point of a gun." When challenged about the machine-gun
photograph, Holder explained: "They were armed agents who went in there who
acted very sensitively." Attorney General Janet Reno stressed that the photo
showed that agent's "finger was not on the trigger." Two days later, Reno
declared, "One of the things that is so very important is that the force was not
used. It was a show of force that prevented people from getting hurt." By
Reno's standard, any bank robbery in which no one gets shot is merely a
nonviolent exchange of bags of money. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart,
responding to a question about the use of excessive force, stressed that the
agents "drove up [to the Gonzalez house] in white mini-vans" - as if the
vehicle’s color proved they were on a mission of mercy.</DIV>
<DIV class=style2>Clinton’s Iraq policy relied on systemic violence.
The U.S. was the lead country in enforcing and perpetuating the blockade on Iraq
that resulted in hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dying. U.S. planes
carried out hundreds of bombing runs on Iraq, and volleys of American cruise
missiles slammed his country during his reign.</DIV>
<DIV class=style2>Bill Clinton has often acted like his 78-day bombing assault
on Serbia in 1999 was his finest hour. The State Department was
referring to the Kosovo Liberation Army as a terrorist group until
1997. After Clinton decided to attack Serbia, the KLA officially
became freedom fighters. The fact that both Serbs and ethnic
Albanians were up to their elbows in atrocities was simply brushed aside or
denied. After surviving a Senate impeachment trial, Clinton was hellbent
on starring in an old-time morality play. </DIV>
<DIV class=style2>Clinton’s bombing campaign killed hundreds, perhaps thousands,
of Serb civilians. From intentionally bombing a television station,
Belgrade neighborhoods, power stations, bridges (regardless of the number
of people on them at the time), to “accidentally” bombing a bus (killing 47
people), a passenger train, marketplaces, hospitals, apartment buildings, and
the Chinese embassy, the rules of engagement for U.S. bombers guaranteed that
many innocent people would be killed.</DIV>
<DIV class=style2>In his anniversary op-ed, Clinton declared that “without the
law there is no freedom.” But the law did not stop, or even slow, Clinton
from raining death on Belgrade. Clinton brazenly violated the War Powers
Act, the 1973 law which required the president to get authorization from
Congress for committing U.S. troops to any combat situation that lasted more
than 60 days. The House of Representatives refused to endorse Clinton’s
warring. But, on Serbia and many other issues, Clinton acted as if his moral
mission exempted him from all restraints, legal and otherwise. </DIV>
<DIV class=style2>Clinton warned that “there is a big difference between
criticizing a policy or a politician and demonizing the government that
guarantees our freedoms and the public servants who enforce our laws.”</DIV>
<DIV class=style2>And who is to judge when criticizing turns into
demonizing? The politicians themselves? Or perhaps the Department of
Homeland Security, with its reports on the perils of “extremists” who believe in
the Constitution and civil liberties? And then there is always the
FBI, which views practically anyone who thinks Washington is full of crap as a
dangerous extremist. </DIV>
<DIV class=style2>And what of the “public servants” who violate citizens’
rights, unjustifiably shoot or Taser them, fabricate evidence against them, or
otherwise make their lives hell? What of the congressmen who vote in favor
of laws that authorize torture or suspend habeas corpus? What of Justice
Department lawyers who craft briefs proving why the president is a Czar?</DIV>
<DIV class=style2>Fifteen years after the Oklahoma City bombing, we must also
remember the danger from politicians who place government above the law and
above the people.</DIV>
<DIV class=style2><FONT
face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><STRONG>James Bovard</STRONG> is
the author of <A
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/140397666X/counterpunchmaga"
target=_blank>Attention Deficit Democracy</A>, <A
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403968519/counterpunchmaga"
target=_blank>The Bush Betrayal</A>, <A
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403963681/counterpunchmaga"
target=_blank>Terrorism and Tyranny</A>, and other books. </FONT> </DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV align=right><BR></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><A href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" target=_blank>WORDS
THAT STICK </A></DIV>
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height=150 src="http://counterpunch.com/OBUMMER-1.jpg" width=525
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