Don’t forget about domestic issues
While our troops are fighting in Iraq — and getting all the press — you might want to start reading pages 5-20 of your newspaper, lest you will miss what the Bush administration is up to while they have you captivated with their sanitized war. Their bullshit budget is one example, but it at least got some press.
In my last post, I argued (quite poorly; I was angry) that America is on the express train to totalitarianism in the wake of 9/11 and so on. This is the beginning of the evidence.
Bush has signed an executive order that reverses a Clinton administration executive order concerning classification of information. Bush’s order says the government can classify documents that were previously declassified, and, interestingly, extends ‘classifiability’ (excuse the malapropism) to cover “infrastructure” items, and any items about weapons of mass destruction (remember, we have more of those than anyone), as well as anything pertaining to our “war on terror”.
Here’s the section defining what can be classified:
Sec. 1.4. Classification Categories. Information shall not be considered for classification unless it concerns:
(a) military plans, weapons systems, or operations;
(b) foreign government information;
(c) intelligence activities (including special activities), intelligence sources or methods, or cryptology;
(d) foreign relations or foreign activities of the United States, including confidential sources;
(e) scientific, technological, or economic matters relating to the national security, which includes defense against transnational terrorism;
(f) United States Government programs for safeguarding nuclear materials or facilities;
(g) vulnerabilities or capabilities of systems, installations, infrastructures, projects, plans, or pro-tection services relating to the national security, which includes defense against transnational terrorism; or
(h) weapons of mass destruction.
Well, the big new things here are the inclusion of “infrastructure”, as well as the “defense against transnational terrorism” stuff.
I don’t know about you, but I’d be hard pressed to think of something under these standards that they *couldn’t* classify. And, I can’t blame them for trying to grab ahold of as much power as they can; it’s just that I’d like to see more people arguing against it.
So now Cheney and Bush can do even more evil shit to make money for their friends, and they don’t even have to tell us about it. Oh yay.
Here’s a link to the order itself.
Just another small step on the way toward a closed government. I’ll keep my checklist going as I continue posting on this topic. To recap:
- martial law whenever terror alert hits “red”
- government has more power to classify documents