Living in an Imperial World: Coming Soon - the New, Improved Police State!

Spartacus sends this note re this CNN article:

The true test of any law is not the good that can be done in its name, but the evil that can be done under the letter of that law. I eagerly await the wailing and gnashing of teeth from those who formerly said "give Bush the Patriot Act, the Dept of Homeland Security, and other police state apparatus; he's a GOOD MAN, and we can trust him not to abuse it!"

Now let's see how those Republican Patriots like their police state tools when the shoe is on the other political foot.

Excerpt from the article:

***
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United Kingdom has MI-5, which roots out spies and terrorists in the British Isles.

The RAND Corporation said one option would be for domestic intelligence to operate under the FBI.

The RAND Corporation said one option would be for domestic intelligence to operate under the FBI.

Canada has CSIS -- the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Now Congress is asking: Should the U.S. have its own domestic intelligence agency?

On Monday, at the request of Congress, the RAND Corporation outlined the pros and cons of establishing a domestic intelligence agency. It also discussed different ways to organize a new entity, either as part of an existing department or as a new agency.

But there's one thing you won't find in the report -- a recommendation on what to do.

"We were not asked to make a recommendation, and this assessment does not do so," the report says.

Instead, says RAND's Gregory Treverton, the report provides a "framework" for policymakers to use when deciding whether and how to reorganize counter-intelligence efforts at home.

RAND is a nonprofit think tank seeking to help improve policy and decision making through objective research and analysis.

Collecting intelligence domestically always has been a sensitive issue, at least partially because of episodic abuses by the government, notably against civil rights leaders, unions, antiwar organizations or even communists and hate groups.

But the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks renewed calls for increased domestic intelligence to prevent future attacks. Critics said that in the lead-up to the attacks, the FBI devalued counterterrorism agents and failed to heed signs that an attack was imminent.

"If you didn't carry a gun, you didn't count so much," Treverton said.

After the attacks, the FBI moved to transform its primary mission from law enforcement to counterterrorism intelligence and prevention. It now focuses on terrorism through its National Security Branch and the National Counterterrorism Center.

The RAND report focuses on two options to the current system.

In one, a new agency would be created using intelligence agencies from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and intelligence community. A second option is to create an "agency within an agency" in the FBI or DHS.

The first option would result in an organization with a clear, unambiguous mission, and might be able to draw on a more diverse recruitment pool, such as linguists and historians who are not normally attracted to law enforcement. On the flip side, such massive reorganizations typically involve political compromises that could affect its performance.

The second option -- an "agency within an agency" -- could involve less short-term disruption, but could be hindered by a "lack of clarity of a single mission," the report says...
***

Read the full study here, and also take a look at the full-scale version of the diagram above.

Once you've done that, it's time for a multiple-choice test; see how you do at home!

Question: The new domestic intelligence service to be authorized by the upcoming lame duck session of Congress will be used to collect information for enforcement and other executive purposes on which groups?

A) Chinese Communist intelligence operatives who have infiltrated all levels of American society since the early Nineties.

B) Russian Communist intelligence operatives who, having benefited from the massive infusion of petrodollars into Russia over the past five years, are trying to make up for lost time under the aegis of their old KGB boss and current Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin.

C) Wahabbist Islamic operatives, funded by Saudi Arabia, who seek to spread their despicable death cult across the US and the rest of North America.

D) American and other Wall Street-based perpetrators of the still-unfolding derivatives financial debacle and its aftermath, the largest white-collar fraud ever effected in the history of our species.

E) Armed, trained, educated, articulate, defiant opponents of the Marxist-socialist takeover of the USA who refuse to lick the boots of their newly-elected "leaders", regardless of the consequences of that refusal.