Friday, December 17, 2010

The Politics of Truth: WikiLeaks, The Power Elite, and Deep Politics


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Saman Mohammadi
The Excavator
December 17, 2010
“I’m telling you that our leaders lie to us, they lie to us systematically, they lie to us with a purpose that may not be your purpose. Some of their lies, if you’re a young man, may motivate you to go off some day and die, be killed, or to kill people. And the only way you can defend yourself against other people programming you–because we are programmable, marine corps boot camp taught me that–they can teach you and get you fired up and they say charge and you will charge up the hill without asking why, and perhaps may not come down the hill feet first. The French have a saying that I mangle in translation “Them that don’t do politics will be done.” If you don’t defend yourself by filling your mind with a true understanding of what’s happening in the world then others will fill it up for you, and then at some point in time use the information and the conditioning that they planted in your mind and breast to use you.” – CIA Whistleblower John Stockwell, a Former Chief of CIA Angolan Task Force, from a lecture he gave in December 1989 called Secret Wars of the CIA.” The quote begins at 6:45 in this video.
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The phenomena of WikiLeaks shows is that America hangs between two worlds. Photo: Dani.
Over the past forty-seven years, determined interests in America have succeeded in keeping the truth about the murder of President John F. Kennedy from gaining legitimacy in the public consciousness. This was accomplished through government censorship, mass propaganda in the media, collective brainwashing, and political myth-making. When all those methods failed, phrases like “conspiracy theorist” and “crazy” were used to cast fear in inquiring minds and persuade people against following the trail of facts to the painful conclusion that elections are insignificant because America’s political and economic system was hijacked by a powerful elite that operates like an invisible, globally-minded network with a grand political mission that is in stark contrast with the founding principles and values of America.
The term National Security State is often applied to describe this network of higher special interests like the military-industrial complex and Wall Street but a better term is Banking Security State because what this elite group has in mind is not the national interest of America, but instead the interest of international bankers and oligarchs who control the country’s private central bank, its gigantic military, its two major political parties, the mass media, and intelligence agencies.
This powerful network exists above the law, Congress, and the President. At its core is the belief that the American people, and the mass of humanity, are too stupid and backward to direct the course of human destiny. But this is a lie that all tyrannical elites tell themselves to justify their brutal and deceitful policies. The truth is that this network is filled with murderous and greedy liars who personally and politically profit from wars, and continually create new conflicts around the world in order to further enrich themselves, while maintaining a coercive government structure along with the many war-time privileges that come with a state of permanent war.
It is not a conspiracy theory that freedom and democracy do not exist in America. It is a matter of historical record. But it is one thing to say it, and another thing to do something about it. Facing the truth that a vast elitist network controls the biggest military machine in the world means staring into the political abyss. It paralyzes us. We are handicapped by our knowledge of current and recent history which we did not learn inside our schools. We are trapped between two worlds because we don’t believe in the old Washington Consensus, but a new political reality is still not in view in the short term. We are stuck in this state of limbo.
So, what do we do as citizens to change the political course in America, and the Western world? Where do we start? How do we end the Banking Security State and The War on Terror? We should start in the beginning. We should begin by stating the cold, hard facts. We should stop lying to ourselves about how the world is currently governed. Many of us have already started on this journey, but the entire culture and society must now do the same, and enter the process of education and renewal.
Letting go of myths and false historical narratives is psychologically difficult, and in some cases impossible, because the stories we tell ourselves shape our personal beliefs and guide our actions, but learning the truth about the depths of modern political corruption in America and other Western countries is a matter of changing the course of human civilization so if we don’t grow up now then we may forever be stuck in a dark wonderland, cursed with a false historical consciousness.
Here is the short, one sentence version of how America’s constitutional republic was transformed into a tyrannical, war-addicted, debt-ridden beast of a government: The official economic takeover of America began in 1913 with the establishment of the privately-owned Federal Reserve Bank, and this draconian move was followed up fifty years later with the official political takeover of America in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by the CIA. Writer and photographer George Bailey perfectly articulated what the murder of President Kennedy meant for America in his December 11, 2010 article called “Where The JFK Assassination Sent Us”:
“I think by now we all know that the death of John F. Kennedy changed America forever and was a pivotal event in American history of the twentieth century. It’s a long and winding road from Dealey Plaza to where we are now. When he died it showed us the true nature of our Republic. That while we cherish the Founders, and our rule of law, we are not ever far from the Night of the Long Knives. No matter what we think of ourselves, the Kennedy Administration was ended by bullets and not ballots. Checks and balances be damned–the fiefdoms that arose since the founding of the National Security State in 1947 came to the fore and made their play.” (1).
The murder of JFK, and later of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. gave the power elite in America a free reign to do anything they wanted to, from starting false wars to sanctioning massacres, terror campaigns, and lying to the public. Since Kennedy’s death, and even before then, the war-possessed establishment in America have acted like mini-gods on Earth, secretly in charge of one world, and manipulating another world that is meant for public consumption.
But there is a change coming. What the phenomena of WikiLeaks shows is that America hangs between two worlds, the one that believes that might is right and is the champion of barbaric force, which remains protected in the shadows behind the walls of government secrecy, propaganda, and lies, and hypocritically preaches freedom and peace but arrogantly clings to power and war; and the other that believes in the founding principles of the country but is kept in the dark about certain facts that reveal in no uncertain terms that America’s constitutional republic was hijacked by powerful ruling forces that know no loyalty to constitution, country, or morality, but instead follow a ruthless global political program that is being implemented for the establishment of a new dictatorial world government, described as a new world order in the words of former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, in which freedom, democracy, and national sovereignty are done away with.
The ruling elite favor this new model of governance to the old one because individuals and people are disempowered on a global scale while they are able to consolidate power and secure it for all of history. Such a global super state has been the dream of every tyrannical establishment in history.
The old world rests on the power of the mega wealthy elite and is centered around the politics of fear, lies, and secrecy, whereas the new world is coming up from below and desires the politics of truth, justice, and accountability. The term ‘the politics of truth’ is taken from a book of the selected writings of American sociologist C. Wright Mills called The Politics of Truth edited by John H. Summers. Among historians, thinkers, and writers who have described how the American political system really works none have done so better than Mills.
In 1956 Mills wrote in his book “The Power Elite” that a combination of political, economic, and military interests in modern American society manage the perceptions of the regular citizen and influence the government to increase their power, status, and wealth. From Mills’ study we learn that fifty years ago the oligarchs and special interests in America had already established themselves. Elections are kept around only for political and social theater, a way to keep the people complacent and powerless. That will not last forever, however, as people are finally realizing that the two party system is a scam – a political awakening that was partly anticipated by the shadowy forces that rule America who have set up a technological police state to keep themselves safe from retribution.
Mills expanded on his study of the power elite and responded to his critics in an article called “The Power Elite: Comment on Criticism” that appeared in Dissent magazine in 1957. In the excerpt below he argues that the manifestation of the power elite is evident in big events like wars, and that his in-depth analysis of their anti-democratic influence discounts any need for a narrative that relies on conspiracy theories. Mills:
One type of reasonable liberal broadly accepts my “account of who holds the power in American society” but complains that I really don’t say “what the elite does with its power . . .” This, of course, is to ask for a full-scale American history of our times, military, economic and political. And this I clearly have not done nor attempted to do in The Power Elite. An account of the power elite, in one volume at least, must work from examples. Seemingly realizing this, such reviewers then object to the example I use as “. . . the most obvious ones conceivable.” They are of course the big events of our time which have involved major decisions: Hiroshima, Korea, etc. And of course they are obvious. Should I seek out esoteric ones? But I think such reviewers have the notion–although they certainly didn’t get it from my book–that, if there’s anything to the idea, the power elite must be all the time secretly at work doing secret things that nobody knows about. Then they complain that I don’t tell what these things are. Of course, my idea of the power elite is not of that order. It is an interpretation of well-known historical events, not a notion of a secret cabal making decisions. Such decisions do enter into it, but they are by no means its defining characteristic. Naturally I sought examples that were not questionable; it is their interpretation that we are arguing about.
This line of reflection permits reasonable liberals to accept much of my account with a little moral shrug which helps bury the consequences of accepting it. They do so by reiterating a few of my points with the comment that “most modern governments” are of this sort. This of course is merely to accept the facts as if they were inevitable and obvious while refusing to confront the democratic problem of responsibility, in fact any problem of democracy, to which they lead.
A second objection along the same line is that I don’t really say “what are the interests on the basis of which the power elite decides policy.” This again is either to ask for a detailed history–this time in large part a psychological one–or it is to assume that there must be some one all-embracing, unifying interest, in short, that the unity of the elite must be based on conscious interests, or even ideology. This, I believe, is too rationalistic a means of interpretation. It is possible to say, as I do, that socially their decisions run to a maintenance of the status quo and personally, to a consolidation of their personal state, both materially and ideally, in it. But this, of course, is a quite formal assertion which holds of other groups as well as of those on top. 
One key to such elite unity as exists lies in the “coincidence” of several structural trends I’ve traced; another is the psychological and status facts on which I’ve spent so many pages. Only third and last have I brought into the picture the explicit following of explicitly known interests. The whole idea of the power elite is set up and presented in this way in order to avoid the kind of “conspiracy” theory into which some reviewers, with a rather crude lack of theoretical acuteness, try to force a much more complicated and quite different view.
Yet one reviewer, for example, believes that I am “hinting at” an idea needed by my argument but which I can’t really accept–the idea of an elite interest in “a permanent war economy.” The fact is I don’t hint at all. I think it obvious that war and the preparation for war as we know it is a perfectly marvelous way of solving and of ditching all sorts of problems confronted by the several members of the power elite, as well as by many other people. (2).
Mills sadly died in 1962. Big events after his death that supported his thesis that a power elite decides the economic and political fate of America includes the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the CIA’s secret wars in the Third World, the Gulf War, the September 11 attacks, the War on Terror, and the mass looting of the American people that is officially presented as the global economic crisis. All these big events were sold to the American public with the purpose to keep the real criminals safe from scrutiny, and accountability.
Professor and author Peter Dale Scott calls big events like the assassination of JFK and 9/11 “deep events.” In a talk he delivered on January 30, 2010 at the New England Antiwar Conference, MIT, Scott defined the term deep events:
It is clear that exposure of McNamara’s deceptions about the Tonkin Gulf incidents, especially in the Fulbright hearing of 1968, was an important factor in slowly changing Congress’s mind about Vietnam. It is my earnest hope that exposure of Cheney’s deceptions about 9/11, and particularly about what he did that day, will someday help end Congressional funding for the Afghan War.
I do not know the truth of what happened on 9/11. I do know for a certainty that there has been a cover-up of 9/11; and also, what the 9/11 Commission itself admits, that there has been high-level governmental lying about what happened, and what didn’t happen, on that day. It became clear to me early on that 9/11 was another in a string of what I have called “deep events” — which I define in my forthcoming book as
events which are systematically ignored, suppressed, or falsified in public (and even internal) government, military and intelligence documents, as well as in the mainstream media and public consciousness. Underlying them is frequently the involvement of deep forces linked to either the drug traffic or to agencies of surveillance (or to both together), whose activities are extremely difficult to discern or document. (3).
Scott’s clarity of thought helps us to process the difficult truths of our time, and provide us with a new mental tool in “deep events” to make us see the world anew. The idea of “deep events” is just as instrumental in increasing our understanding about the corrupt nature of the political system in America as WikiLeaks, which is a technological tool. Both tools give the public an opportunity to learn and process new information that has previously been suppressed by the United States government. It is by learning new facts and a new history of how America was hijacked by anti-democratic forces that we can change the world. “Social education,” said the philosopher Martin Buber, “is the exact reverse of political propaganda.” (4).
But social education is a slow process. It is a Herculean task to teach people censored knowledge and painful facts, which is why it is important that media institutions and other institutions in civil society uphold their responsibility and inform the public completely instead of sugarcoating and covering-up hard truths.
Many of us who have woken up understand how painful it is for individuals to let go of a historical narrative that they are emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually attached to, but we must continue to tell people that believing in false narratives which are only intended to support wars and tyranny is socially and culturally destructive. In comparison, truth is positive and offers the possibility for healing and renewal.
It is easy to see why truth-tellers have been derided, while liars and cowards have consistently been championed as saviors. The truth about JFK, MLK, 9/11, and America’s deep corruption all threaten the individual’s survival. In a society that is oppressed by collective brainwashing and mass propaganda, and deceived about basic events it is almost a sin to speak against the official version of events, to mention the hidden screws of power, to say that America’s destiny is controlled by a power elite who do not care about the majority of humanity, that the air you breathe in is not air but smoke.
Making the majority of people understand that 9/11 was done by the United States government, and helping them see how a system of deep politics that doesn’t value human life governs the American government and other Western states is not possible without also providing a positive vision for the future because people like to be comforted and like to believe that better days are ahead. What many of us are doing–talking, writing, and sharing this type of information on the internet across the world is having a big impact on the public discourse. The more we speak the truth the less foreign it sounds, and the more likely it will be accepted.
Ultimately, government insiders and former/current public officials will have to step up and tell what they know to the public. The UK’s Iraq expert Carne Ross has already stepped up in a major way by using the term “deep state” to describe Britain’s bureaucracy. In an article he wrote that was published by The Guardian on July 25, 2010 Ross said that Britain’s “deep state” denied the Chilcot inquiry key documents about the Iraq war. Ross:
“I testified last week to the Chilcot inquiry. My experience demonstrates an emerging and dangerous problem with the process. This is not so much a problem with Sir John Chilcot and his panel, but rather with the government bureaucracy – Britain’s own “deep state” – that is covering up its mistakes and denying access to critical documents.” (5).
The deep state is a state within a state, similar to the concept of a deep dream in the film Inception, which is a dream within a dream. There is perhaps a deeper state – a state within a state within a state. In other words, we have the public state, represented by the Congress/Parliament/President/Prime Minister, then the next level down are the secretive intelligence agencies like the CIA, MI6, CSIS, and Mossad, which operate through deception and trickery and routinely hide covert operations from elected members of Parliament and Congress, and further below we reach another level of the deep state, where we find the real manipulative power players who pull the strings. Each level is connected in the vast deep state network, but to understand the full depth of crimes like 9/11 we must breach the deepest level in the deep state. If it means going into a state of social and political limbo to find out the whole truth about 9/11 and the war on terror then so be it. The victory of freedom and justice is worth the journey into the abyss.
II. Restoring Truth, Freedom, and Justice in The West, and Peace in The Middle East
We are entering a new age, it is a turning point in the history of human civilization. We can either decide to live in a free open global society, wherein government leaders are held accountable for their actions and human affairs are governed by the rule of law, and the principles of decentralization and representative government, or a closed global society under the lawless rule of a technocratic and moneyed elite.

The pursuit of knowledge and the spirit of brotherhood that dominates this new age is a threat to the criminal elitist network that rules America, and other Western nations. Their ruthless grip on democracy can’t be maintained for much longer. Power for power’s sake, power that produces nothing but spiritual carnage and human misery is coming to an end. The majority of humanity yearn for open and civilized societies that uphold the values of justice, truth, freedom, and peace. As President Obama’s foreign policy adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said in the New York Times two years ago, on December 16, 2008:
“For the first time in history almost all of humanity is politically activated, politically conscious and politically interactive. Global activism is generating a surge in the quest for cultural respect and economic opportunity in a world scarred by memories of colonial or imperial domination.” (6).
The global political awakening can’t be suppressed or kept in check. People are no longer evading obvious facts like, “9/11 was an inside job,” and beginning to look over the abyss that separates them from a better world. WikiLeaks, and other emerging whistleblowing organizations in the new information frontier like OpenLeaks are part of a new politics of truth that will replace the old, closed-door politics that is anti-democratic, anti-human, and anti-freedom. I propose that we dedicate the new politics of truth to John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., American soldiers, the Iraqi and Afghan people, and the countless other victims of the vicious manipulators of America’s secret government.

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