Leah O'Donovan

I have not read an op-ed piece in the Guardian more insightful, informed or thought-provoking than this one. Naomi Wolf is an American writer and in this article argues that Bush is taking American down the road towards fascism like that of Hitler, Mussolini and Pinochet. It is quite lengthy but well worth the read for anyone interested. I have, however, summarised the main points below for those with less time on their hands.

Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy: The enemy in this case is terrorism but it is deemed to be on a world-wide scale. The civil liberties we often give up during times of war or crisis eventually return but because this is an open-ended war, we don’t know if this will ever occur. The language we use to convey the terrorist threat is different to other countries such as Spain. The grandiose language used by the US, however, persuades citizens to give up these liberties without possibly fighting for them to return.

Create a gulag: Guantanamo, obviously, fits this bill but also the many secret CIA prisons throughout the world. At first we see the prisoners as criminals and feel safer but soon enough clergy, journalists and activists start to fill the cells. These jails also tend to become more secretive the longer they continue.

Develop a thug caste: Post 9/11 and hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of contracts have been given to mercenaries for security work that belongs with the military. In Iraq, some of these operatives are known to have fired on civilians and tortured prisoners. At home, hundreds of private security guards roamed New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Some of these were reported to have fired on unarmed civilians.

Set up an internal surveillance system: Secret police are well-documented in Mussolini’s Italy, Nazi Germany and in communist China. We all remember the wire-tapping scandal of the past few years.

Harass citizens’ groups: There have been many documented reports of federal agents infiltrating otherwise peaceful activist groups. They’ve even redefined animal rights protests as ‘terrorism.’ The definition expands to include everyone that is in the dissenting ‘minority.’

Engage in arbitrary detention and release: The black-list of passengers not allowed to board a plane in America is nothing more than more harassment of otherwise peaceful people. Liberal Senator Edward Kennedy was once on this list as was a Venezuelan official after Chavez made disparaging remarks about Bush.

Target key individuals: With the present Alberto Gonzales scandal and the firing of eight US attorneys for not falling in line with the Republican Party, we see Bush’s intimidation of civil servants. Academics too have been targeted by state universities threatening termination or punishment for criticizing the administration.

Control the press: Arrests of journalists are at an all-time high says the Committee to Protect Journalists. Even bloggers such as myself aren’t free from attack. The main example is the Joseph C Wilson affair and the outing of his CIA wife Valerie Plame as punishment. Furthermore, in Iraq journalists not embedded with a unit have been seized and stuck in prisons, fired upon, threatened to be fired upon and even killed (ITN’s Terry Lloyd).

Dissent equals treason: When the wire-tapping story ran in the New York Times, Bush labeled it disgraceful and Republicans in Congress wanted the editor charged with treason for leaking classified documents. Even normal citizens aren’t safe. Any one of us can be labeled an ‘enemy combatant’ and shipped off to some secret prison thanks to the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Suspend the rule of law: The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 gave the president the ability to send Michigan’s militia to any state over the objections of the state’s governor or citizens if he declares a national emergency (which he also has increased power to do). The founders were afraid of this exact thing (I.E. the Quartering Act): being unable to prevent or protest against soldiers bullying citizens.

She sums up by saying that even with a President H. Clinton or a President Giuliani we might not be safe. Any executive will be tempted to enforce his/her will on the people rather than go through arduous task of proper democratic negotiation. She wants all citizens to fight against this semi-tyranny and demand these civil liberties be restored. She ends with an excellent quote from James Madison which says “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands … is the definition of tyranny.â€?