It’s Not About Little Green Men
Ponderings
on the anniversary of 9-11
The hardest thing about trying to write a
piece concerning 9-11 is not writer’s block. Just the opposite, how do you
limit yourself to one or two thousand words?
I could and people have, written a book or two on the subject. There is the emotional thing – I’m still
angry about it. There’s the national security thing, there are alternate
theories galore. There are, a multitude
of ways to approach this subject and not enough hours in the day.
I’ve done my little foray into 9-11 lore. I’ve
read up on David Ray Griffin and others and listened to Alex Jones and the
Scholars for 9-11 Truth. Frankly, the
more I delve into all that the more angry I get and at times have to retreat
back into the normalcy and peaceful serenity of ufology (!). So instead of telling you my latest theory
of how it all went down, I thought I’d venture into how it, ufology and some
other disturbing trends seem related.
To begin with, and to paraphrase Steven Greer,
It’s not about little green men. It’s about a secret government within the
government. A secret government without oversight, without controls, and at the
same time with nearly unlimited money and resources. A secret government that
does what it damn well pleases, without answering to any persons, without
answering to any rule of law and a secret government with total disregard (if
not contempt) for such quaint principles as democracy and a constitution.
In case you didn’t know it already, there are
at least two governments here in America. One of the best descriptions of how
this arrangement works is to be found in the Lewis Lapham essay entitled
“Lights, Camera, Democracy”. Here are brief excerpts of what Mr. Lapham has to
say about our “two governments”: one permanent; one temporary or provisional:
“The permanent government, a secular
oligarchy … comprises the Fortune 500 companies and their attendant lobbyists,
the big media and entertainment syndicates, the civil and military services,
the larger research universities and law firms. It is this government that
hires the country's politicians and sets the terms and conditions under which
the country's citizens can exercise their right -- God-given but increasingly
expensive -- to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Obedient to the
rule of men, not laws, the permanent government oversees the production of
wealth, builds cities, manufactures goods, raises capital, fixes prices, shapes
the landscape, and reserves the right to assume debt, poison rivers, cheat the
customers, receive the gifts of federal subsidy, and speak to the American
people in the language of low motive and base emotion.”
“The provisional government is the
spiritual democracy that comes and goes on the trend of a political season and
oversees the production of pageants. “
Writing in 1996, Mr. Lapham’s essay was not only insightful but
quite prescient too. As perverse and repugnant as this scheme is to most of us
who were brought up to believe in another kind of America, I’m afraid that the
situation has only gotten darker and creepier in the ten years since Mr.
Lapham’s essay.
Big oil and the armament manufacturers
(“defense contractors”) are the real movers and shakers behind the curtains of
recent administrations. Greed and power lust are harsh masters. The appetite
for both is insatiable. Like a bad James Bond movie plot, certain individuals
and cabals are bent on domination and conquest. Their pursuit of these goals is
not deterred by any law, by any morality, not by anything.
Two of their biggest advantages are secrecy
and a dumbed-down, complacent population. Those amongst the populace who aren’t
sufficiently dumb or complacent can be kept in line with the fear and constant
state of tension brought about by perceived threats. The "War on Terror”
is their centerpiece. Even if there is an element of truth to the terrorist
threat, whatever the reality of the threat is, it will be exaggerated and
pumped up to fulfill their agenda. Listen to what a real expert in these
matters has to say:
“… it is always a simple matter to drag the people along,
whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a
communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to
the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them
they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and
exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
- Hermann Goering, second in command of the
Nazi Third Reich
The
term “dumbed-down” doesn’t only mean lower IQ’s. It also includes those who
have been “numbed-down”. The case for a population that doesn’t know any
history, that can’t do simple math, that doesn’t seem to have received the kind
of education that was taken for granted a few generations ago is obvious. A
headline I heard this morning stated that American schoolchildren rank 20th
among industrialized nations in their math skills. Besides graduating
generation after generation of undereducated citizens, the number of people who
have turned off the political process is staggering. The corporate interests
that really run this country have seen to it that we all have plenty of
distractions. Just one big corporate society with artificial everything. Imagine that Disney, McDonald’s and Wal-Mart
are in charge of “The Matrix”.
While the current administration pushes the
country further and further towards tyranny with things like the “Patriot Act”
(an Orwellian title if there ever was one) and executive orders that ignore
something called The Constitution, falsified intelligence as a pretext to war,
the majority of Americans are basically asleep at the wheel. Chris Farrell,
lead-investigator for Judicial Watch, addressing the Libertarian Party
convention said:
“The public is asleep. They’re comatose - and
if they’re not comatose, they’re lying on the couch eating Doritos and watching
NASCAR.”
Anyone who sees through this plan, who emerges
as a critic of what’s going on is dealt with through the auspices of the
corporate controlled media (or worse). Denial and ridicule are the order of the
day – just as in Ufology. A prime example is Alex Jones and the Scholars for
9-11 Truth. Mr. Jones and company are not new – they’ve been around for a while
and raising Hell the whole time. But just as they start to gain a little
traction – like getting their message on C-Span and other outlets – they are
labeled “Conspiracy Theorists” and purveyors of some 9-11 mythology. Fox News
even dug up the old Popular Mechanics piece ”Debunking the 9-11 Myths” meant to
totally discredit the scholars. Their on-air reporters try to play off unusual
angles to the story while ignoring their main thrust. All meant to create a
diversion, a distraction and sow the seeds of confusion and doubt about any
critics of the official version. Besides being labeled an extremist, fringe
lunatic, anyone daring to question those events is also “un-American”.
Besides keeping the majority of the population
off-balance and distracted, the other key tool is utter secrecy. “The Secret Government” as Bill Moyers
called it. “Special Access Programs”, sometimes called “Black Projects” with
black budgets that can’t be audited and are exempt from oversight provide the
ways and means to carry out the real state run hanky panky. Farming more and
more of their dirty work out to contractors pushes these programs even deeper
under cover and even further away from any official oversight and control. These
contractors don’t have to honor FOIA requests and other minor inconveniences.
The military is an old hand at keeping secrets
and doing whatever it needs to do / wants to do without anyone knowing about
it. They pretty much wrote the book on how to do this during the Manhattan
Project of WWII. Strict compartmentalization – wherein a project is broken up
into many pieces, divided amongst many groups with very few people knowing the
big picture became the master plan that would be followed and repeated over and
over again.
The military industrial complex came about
during WWII. The military and the nation’s industrialists, scientists and
engineers worked together like never before to defeat a common enemy. The war
effort pumped billions of dollars into the industries that supplied everything
the military effort needed. The huge success of this arrangement was not only
measured by the defeat of the Axis powers, but also by the realization of
enormous profits and the unprecedented accumulation of influence and power. The
civilian government was just a sideshow. It was the military-industrial complex
that was in charge of things and wielded the real power in the world. Just because
the war ended, this alliance was not about to let go of what they’d created – in
fact, just the opposite, this deal was almost too good to be true and had to be
perpetuated.
In the post- WWII, “cold war” era, the
exponential growth of the Intelligence community - propelled and invigorated by
the 1947 National Security Act, ostensibly needed to protect us from yet
another threat - communism became the third component of the new ruling order.
Some might argue that Congress should be included in this arrangement. Their
power is severely limited. It consists mainly of lining their pockets and
looking the other way.
Some point to the CIA or the NSA or some other
alphabet soup agency as the primary culprit. Richard Dolan uses the term
‘National Security State’. I like that term and I would apply it here to
represent the whole conglomeration of interests who actually run things – Mr.
Lapham’s “Permanent Government”, Mr. Moyers “Secret Government”.
Why would the permanent government pursue war
even if it means innocent Americans dying? Strategic power and G-R-E-E-D.
Virtually all the interests who bankroll the current National Security State
are making huge, unprecedented profits. If you drive a car then you know about
oil profits. The price of oil has skyrocketed sending Big Oil profits into the
stratosphere. Maybe you’ve heard about the no-bid, billion dollar contracts
awarded to companies like Halliburton. What about the arms dealers, our defense
industry?
Paul Hellyer, former Canadian Defense
Minister, speaking to Paola Harris explained it this way:
“… the way we do it is by going further into
debt and consequently every time we have another war, the people have the
additional debt burden put on them while few people who own the munitions
factories are the beneficiaries but the beneficiaries of the munitions
factories are not the ones that do the fighting. They are the ones who have
luxury continuing during the wartime period. It is the ordinary people that do
the fighting and lose their sons and fathers and uncles and brothers, then have
to carry debt afterwards instead of having the freedom to regroup their lives
and make them better.”
In a nutshell, we go deeply in debt as a
nation. The money that is spent is given to the defense contractors. They make
obscene profits and conveniently, don’t have to actually fight the war. The
ordinary people have to fight the war and die. When the war is over, it is the
ordinary people who are left with the financial burden of that debt - to be
repaid through taxation. Oh yeah, and the benefactors of this scheme also
receive tax breaks and such. “They” get richer and even more powerful as a
result of our sacrifice and suffering. Pretty sweet deal if you’re one of
“them”.
Under the guise of “The War On Terrorism”, we
secure one of the largest known oil fields in the world (Iraq) in order to
ensure the continued supply of oil for profit for another 10-20 years. The
NeoCons get their political will, the military gains the strategic advantage,
the oil companies reap whirlwind profits; the defense industry gets wealthier,
and so on. The whole system feeds itself and grows even wealthier, even more
powerful. All the cronies get what they want and it is the American people who
are left holding the bag.
The powers-that-be, the National Security State,
the permanent government, the control group – whatever label you choose – are
the same interests driving world events, holding the keys to the nuclear
arsenal and continuing the UFO cover up. The potential for reverse engineering
acquired alien technology can only further solidify their hold on the rest of
the world. Peaceful uses of reverse engineered technology translate into
enormous commercial profits. Turning reverse engineered technology into a super
weapon or a globally dominate weapon not only guarantee enormous profit, it
constitutes the ultimate prize of any arms manufacturer and the government they
serve. The first nation to master alien propulsion and physics (and keep it
secret from any other nation) will rule the world and probably their corner of
the galaxy through sheer technological advantage.
Given what is at stake and given the track
record of our permanent government, is it any wonder that work going on in
these areas is so secret? UFO secrecy, who-did-what on 9-11, the Kennedy assassination
– are all symptoms of the same forces at work. Any struggle against the secrecy
and cover up is a struggle against those same forces. Just look at the
parallels in how the establishment deals with the pro-UFO folks and the “9/11
conspiracy theorists” – secrecy, denial, ridicule. It’s the same old game we’ve
heard before.
I don’t know what the future holds – perhaps
this country can get better, maybe it’s not too late to grab the wheel, step on
brake – whatever it takes to get us back on course. We can’t do it by NOT
trying. Generations of Americans have sacrificed and contributed to this grand
democratic experiment in the 200+ years this country has existed. We owe it to
them, we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to generations to come. At a minimum, we owe it to them and
ourselves not to be sheep, to be involved and aware of what’s going on at the
highest and deepest levels of our government.
Some of the things that have been going on are
deeply disturbing – disturbing in their brazen commission and perhaps even more
disturbing in the way they seem to be getting away with it – even though these
things are playing out right in front of our eyes while very few people are
noticing. Put down the Doritos and turn off NASCAR long enough to be involved
in your own fate. There’s a lot more riding on it than a checkered flag.
Don’t ever forget 9/11 and don’t ever let
those responsible off the hook – be they foreign or domestic.
"All the war-propaganda, all the
screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not
fighting" - George Orwell
RM
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