"This new Department of Homeland Security has the power to wiretap any American it wants, without a court order, without cause and without justification to any higher authority. Homeland Security goon squads will have the power to enter any American home, without a search warrant, without probable cause, simply because someone somewhere says 'hey, this guy might be a threat.' No checks and balances, no due process. Nothing.[..]
'An evil exists that threatens every man, woman and child of this great nation,' the leader of another country once wrote. 'We must take steps to ensure our domestic security and protect our homeland.'
That was Adoph Hitler, writing about creation of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany.
Wecome to the American Gestapo. Be careful what you say and do. They are watching and they will be watching from now on."
- http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1121-03.htm
"New agency raises privacy concerns":
- http://www.msnbc.com/news/839679.asp?cp1=1
"The First Victims of Homeland Security: 170,000 Workers Stripped of Their Rights":
- http://www.laboreducator.org/hlvicts.htm
"Homeland Security bill promotes government secrecy, rife with corporate giveaways
The Homeland Security bill that the Senate passed Tuesday in the name of preserving national security is a treasure trove of favors for special interests, according to Public Citizen. Embedded in the bill are numerous corporate giveaways unrelated to national security that benefit pharmaceutical companies, corporate tax evaders and other GOP supporters at the expense of public health and safety.":
- http://www.publiccitizen.org/hot_issues/issue.cfm?ID=426
"Why Orwell matters
The Orwellian-sounding 'Total Information Awareness' (TIA) project, the brainchild of a leading player in the notorious Iran-Contra scandal during the government of former president Ronald Reagan, is designed to create 'a virtual, centralized, grand database' that includes the financial, medical, communication and travel records of virtually everyone entering or living in the US.":
- http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/DK27Aa01.html
"Pentagon project to fight terrorism raises the specter of Big Brother"
- http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/4608879.htm
"Grave questions of invasion of privacy"
- http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/11/26/nelson_speech/?x
"It makes all sense, from the point of view of the Bush gang, that they oppose the establishment of an International Criminal Court. They wisely remember Nuremberg. For the rest of us, the lesson of September 11 ought to be understanding the rampant nature of the dominant power in the world, of which the Blair government has made itself a part.
There is a threat to ordinary lives - people in aircraft, people going about their everyday routine - from Islamic extremism; that has been demonstrated. However, what is not generally known in the West is that numerically the longest suffering victims of terrorism are Muslims themselves; and that the far greater threat comes not from the Islamic world, but from the West.
Take two examples. In Palestine, the American-underwritten Israeli state has brutalised the Palestinian people for more than half a century. In Iraq, the US-driven embargo on civilian life in that country (and which has strengthened the tyranny of Saddam Hussein) has, according to two American researchers, caused the deaths of more people 'than have been slain by all so-called weapons of mass destruction throughout history'.
Extremism is not a word we like to associate with our own societies. But what is at work in the world now is Western, specifically American extremism, attended by British courtiers.
The extremism of the Bush gang is a matter of record since September 11. Bush's declared intention to attack Iraq (undoubtedly with weapons of mass destruction, like 'bunker bombs' and depleted uranium) has been compared by the historian Correlli Barnett with the 'tone and language used by an earlier leader hard at work stoking up a needless international crisis - Adolf Hitler in September 1938'." - John Pilger, 11 Sep 2002
"The president emerged wearing a New York Fire Department windbreaker. He raised his arm and gave a thumbs-up to the crowd on the third base side of the field. Probably 15,000 fans threw their arms in the air imitating the motion. He then threw a strike from the rubber, and the stadium erupted. Watching from owner George Steinbrenner’s box, Karl Rove thought, 'It’s like being at a Nazi rally.'" -From "Bush at War" by Bob Woodward (p. 277)