[Peace-discuss] More right-wingers

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Old-line Republican warns 'something's in the works'
	to trigger a police state
	Muriel Kane
	Published: Thursday July 19, 2007 	
	
Thom Hartmann began his program on Thursday by reading from a new 
Executive Order which allows the government to seize the assets of 
anyone who interferes with its Iraq policies.

He then introduced old-line conservative Paul Craig Roberts -- a former 
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan who has recently become 
known for his strong opposition to the Bush administration and the Iraq 
War -- by quoting the "strong words" which open Roberts' latest column: 
"Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now 
the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran."

"I don't actually think they're very strong," said Roberts of his words. 
"I get a lot of flak that they're understated and the situation is worse 
than I say. ... When Bush exercises this authority [under the new 
Executive Order] ... there's no check to it. It doesn't have to be 
ratified by Congress. The people who bear the brunt of these dictatorial 
police state actions have no recourse to the judiciary. So it really is 
a form of total, absolute, one-man rule. ... The American people don't 
really understand the danger that they face."

Roberts said that because of Bush's unpopularity, the Republicans face a 
total wipeout in 2008, and this may be why "the Democrats have not 
brought a halt to Bush's follies or the war, because they expect his 
unpopular policies to provide them with a landslide victory in next 
year's election."

However, Roberts emphasized, "the problem with this reasoning is that it 
assumes that Cheney and Rove and the Republicans are ignorant of these 
facts, or it assumes that they are content for the Republican Party to 
be destroyed after Bush has his fling." Roberts believes instead that 
Cheney and Rove intend to use a renewal of the War on Terror to rally 
the American people around the Republican Party. "Something's in the 
works," he said, adding that the Executive Orders need to create a 
police state are already in place.

"The administration figures themselves and prominent Republican 
propagandists ... are preparing us for another 9/11 event or series of 
events," Roberts continued. "Chertoff has predicted them. ... The 
National Intelligence Estimate is saying that al Qaeda has regrouped. 
... You have to count on the fact that if al Qaeda's not going to do it, 
it's going to be orchestrated. ... The Republicans are praying for 
another 9/11."

Hartmann asked what we as the people can do if impeachment isn't about 
to happen. "If enough people were suspicious and alert, it would be 
harder for the administration to get away with it," Roberts replied. 
However, he added, "I don't think these wake-up calls are likely to be 
effective," pointing out the dominance of the mainstream media.

"Americans think their danger is terrorists," said Roberts. "They don't 
understand the terrorists cannot take away habeas corpus, the Bill of 
Rights, the Constitution. ... The terrorists are not anything like the 
threat that we face to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution from our 
own government in the name of fighting terrorism. Americans just aren't 
able to perceive that."

Roberts pointed out that it's old-line Republicans like himself, former 
Reagan associate deputy attorney general Bruce Fein, and Pat Buchanan 
who are the diehards in warning of the danger. "It's so obvious to 
people like us who have long been associated in the corridors of power," 
he said. "There's no belief in the people or anything like that. They 
have agendas. The people are in the way. The Constitution is in the way. 
... Americans need to comprehend and look at how ruthless Cheney is. ... 
A person like that would do anything."

Roberts final suggestion was that, in the absence of a massive popular 
outcry, "the only constraints on what's going to happen will come from 
the federal bureaucracy and perhaps the military. They may have had 
enough. They may not go along with it."

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