By Matt Agorist
“They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.” – George W. Bush addresses the nation on September 20, 2001 — 9 Days after the attacks
Those of us who are old enough to remember a time before 9/11 can recall “the good old days” before the police state was ramped up to the militaristic control grid that it is today.
We remember a time before fear became the only thing that your television fed you. Sure, the propaganda machine and the war machine has existed long before 9/11, but since that fateful day, the fear peddlers and the tyrants have cranked it up a notch – or ten.
Freedom diminishing step one: The TSA
Prior to 9/11, no one heard of the Transportation Security Administration because they didn’t exist. The TSA was created as a reactionary security measure to hijackers sneaking box-cutters onto planes. It has since morphed into a vile organization of total domination, degradation, theft, and molestation.
If you think taking your shoes off at the airport makes you safer, you need to read more history.
Freedom diminishing step two: The NSA
Having worked directly under the NSA for several years prior to the attacks on 9/11, I can tell you that spying on Americans was not only frowned upon by our superiors, but it was a chargeable offense. During my years as an Intelligence Communications Intercept Operator, we were told that if we came across “friendly chatter,” we move on, or we go to jail.
However, since 9/11, the NSA has conducted an about face. The restrictions that kept myself and my team from spying on Americans were lifted. The tentacles of this police state leviathan quickly spread their way into every facet of American life. We wouldn’t find out until several years later that all of our private data has been, and forever will be, subject to the prying eyes of the State.
Freedom diminishing step three: Perpetual War
The attacks on the world trade centers ushered in a new means of the state to spread its empire. A new and vaguely defined ‘enemy’ had been declared and its name was terrorism.
“Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,” George Bush ironically said immediately after saying the terrorists “hate us…because we can disagree with each other.”
Literally overnight, the entire world was declared an enemy of the United States unless they prostrated themselves and declared their unwavering support for the US empire.
This notion gave birth to the state’s ability to declare a perpetual war. The war on the ‘tactic’ of terrorism would give way to an unlimited expansion of police state powers, and the state knew it. Bush would even state this idea in his speech. Later in the same September 20th speech, Bush would declare that the war “will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.” In the same speech, he later said that this war is “a task that does not end.”
Despite both Obama and Bush declaring the wars a success and having ended, nothing could be further from the truth as Trump’s recent plan to re-escalate America’s presence in Afghanistan illustrates. Since 9/11 secret US prisons popped up where unspeakable acts of torture continue to this day. Millions of innocent civilians have been slain and continue to be slain. Countless children have been blown to bits by Americans spreading democracy with Hellfire missiles.
All the while, the average American continues to praise the government for “keeping them free” and unquestioningly continues life as normal.
Freedom diminishing step four: The Militarization of Police
Along with perpetual war comes the perpetual lobbying of defense contractors for bigger and better ways to kill people.
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist,” Dwight D. Eisenhower famously said in his 1961 farewell speech. He couldn’t have been more right.
As taxpayer dollars go to buying newer and nicer tools of death, these older tools of death need a new home.
Conveniently enough, the government had a program in place since 1997, which allowed for the old tools of war to come home and be used against the American people. It was called the 1033 program. Even though Obama ended this program in 2015, his champion of the police state successor just turned this program back on, paving the way for the creation of a standing army that our forefathers warned us about.
Within just a few short years, thousands of police departments across the country were issued mine-resistant vehicles, amphibious assault vehicles, grenade launchers, countless high-powered machine guns, and even Apache attack choppers—and now, all that is back.
All of this military gear, we are told, is to keep us safe.
Freedom diminishing step five: The End of Free Speech
As governments throughout history have attempted to spread their empire across the globe, a side effect is the creation of a police state at home. The United States is no exception, and as the police state grows, so does resistance to it.
This resistance becomes a thorn in the side of tyrants and they will do everything in their power to silence it.
Since 9/11, America has entered a Post-Constitutional era of “Free Speech Zones,” riot police with sound cannons blasting down peaceful dissenters, and worse. Now, identity politics are pushed upon the masses through the mainstream media causing violence at protests between the us’s and them’s. Protest violence is playing right into the hands of the police state as it easily allows them to demonize all free-speech.
As the Free Thought Project’s Jay Syrmopoulos points out, if there is one thing that Islamic fundamentalists and Islamophobic fascists agree on, it’s that there should be no “gray zone;” only black and white. The establishment’s identity politics are paving the way for this black and white world.
The gray zone is the zone of peaceful coexistence. Eliminating the gray zone – and rendering a world as black & white as the flag of the Islamic state is the ultimate goal of fundamentalists on all sides.
In fact, a recent ISIS publication, titled Extinction of the Grayzone made clear that the strategy has been at play for the past 14 years.
The grayzone is critically endangered, rather on the brink of extinction. It’s endangerment began with the blessed operation of September 11th, as these operations manifested two camps before the world for mankind to choose between, a camp of Islam… and a camp of kufr – the crusader coalition.
American policy is playing right into the hands of terrorists and the citizens are playing right along.
But all hope is not lost.
Freedom regaining step one: Be the Change
Sadly enough, this counterfeit version of the “Land of the Free” is now the new normal. The next generation’s benchmark for “Freedom” will be journalists being snatched up in the streets, and cops publicly executing citizens and not being charged.
The dystopian future that Americans are now taking part in creating is an ominous reality.
However, to those of us who see the entire picture and remember a time when it wasn’t okay for the blue gloves at the TSA to prod your anus in the name of freedom, we remain resilient.
So, next time your chest begins to fill with patriotic puff, stop for a second and realize that Americans are not free anymore. America is becoming the evil that it once stood against.
In the meantime, however, we still have the freedom in this country to inform ourselves and others. Only through a lesser ignorance will these horrid tyrannical traits subside.
Humanity is involved in a struggle, as we have always been, but there are much more of us now. Inciting peaceful change has never been more important. However, so many well-meaning individuals go about inciting this change with blunt force. As the violence at the recent protests across the country in the last year have shown—this has to change.
If you truly want to make the world a more peaceful place, you have to become a more peaceful person. Petty infighting, personal attacks, vitriol, and hate are the tools of tyrants and also of those who only claim to be awake.
Peace is true professionalism and it is also the means by which effective change is sought.
Be the change that you want to see in this world.
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Facebook. This article first appeared at The Free Thought Project.
To really understand 9/11, one must understand the players.
See article “Ishmael, Edom and Israel and 9/11 Attack Upon America.” Click on my name, then our website. Go to our Online Books page, and scroll down to title.
Evil triumphs when good people do nothing! Don’t do what the great majority of the German people did after WWII and state that they didn’t know. Ignorance is not an excuse, especially in a connected World.
“”The TSA was created as a reactionary security measure to hijackerssneaking box-cutters onto planes. It has since morphed into a vileorganization of total domination, degradation, theft, and molestation.”
There is NO LAWFUL agency called the TSA, NSA, etc. Why not? Because there was NO AUTHORITY DELEGATED to any branch or named office within a branch for the power to LAWFULLY create those agencies, and many others. They were created with the express intention to be used to destroy the US Constitution, the USA, the American people. They were created by the very people who SERVE WITHIN our government, those people are NOT “THE” government but are put there – elected, hired, contracted, etc – to carry out duties that are in writing. The authority they use is the authority of the branch or office, and is dependent upon them doing the dutieis assigned to them in a constitutional manner, taking, KEEPING their Oath.
Basically, as Dr. Vieira said so well here: “This has nothing to do with personalities or subjective ideas. It’s a matter of what the Constitution provides… The government of the United States has never violated anyone’s constitutional rights… The government of the United States will never violate anyone constitutional rights, because it cannot violate anyone’s constitutional rights. The reason for that is: The government of the United States is that set of actions by public officials that are consistent with the Constitution. Outside of its constitutional powers, the government of the United States has no legitimacy. It has no authority; and, it really even has no existence. It is what lawyers call a legal fiction.”
The US Constitution created the federal government, and through that contract those that serve have duties that are found in riting within that document. As with any job that one signs a contract to do, those words are Legal and Binding on the person who serves. But to make that contract stronger on people who will/do/did serve, (since our founders understood that the nature of people) they also REQUIRED an Oath of those who serve in EVERY single governmental position. So if one receives a government check, they are required to have taken that Oath, and to KEEP it.
I do not care that “During my years as an Intelligence Communications Intercept Operator, we were told that if we came across “friendly chatter,” we move on, or we go to jail”. The creation of the agency itself was an unlawful act.
“A new and vaguely defined ‘enemy’ had been declared and its name was terrorism.” “This notion gave birth to the state’s ability to declare a perpetual war” … “Countless children have been blown to bits by Americans spreading democracy with Hellfire missiles.”
You are correct except that the actions are against the American poeple and intended to destroy our own nation. No where is the state givern authority to LAWFULLY carry out wars of aggression. The ONLY wars that the American people can LAWFULLY participate in is those declared by the people serving within the Congress. No other “war” is LAWFUL or is allowed.
John Quincy Adams: “America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She well knows that by enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition, which assume
the colors and usurp the standards of freedom.”
Thomas Jefferson: “I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war.“
James Madison: “The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature … the executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.”
George Washington: “The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and
authorized such a measure.”
Why did they give the power to declare war ONLY to those who serve within the Congress? Because they are directly answerable to us. Because they knew that if we allowed those who SERVE WITHIN our government to always put us into war it would destroy our nation from within, That is also the reason that we are forbidden to have a “standing” (permanent) military. Instead all Americans are required to be armed and trained as the Congress requires the military to be trained.
James Madison: “Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied: and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”
Richard Henry Lee, 1788: “Whereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the
people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it.” (Initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights)
George Washington: “It may be laid down, as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every citizen who enjoys the protection of a free government…, but even of his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency.” (“Sentiments on a Peace Establishment”, letter to Alexander Hamilton; “The Writings of George Washington”)
“If you truly want to make the world a more peaceful place, you have to become a more peaceful person. Petty infighting, personal attacks, vitriol, and hate are the tools of tyrants and also of those who only
claim to be awake.”
No, if you want our nation to be peaceful then we must hold those who serve within our governments to the contracts. To do so, one must not only read the US Constitution their own state’s Constitution, but understand that they are the supreme and highest contracts for those who serve within our governments. That when elections are held and they put up amendments to be voted on, realize that those are changing the contract that those who serve within are under, and they do NOT give up power that they have, so are in some way adding to their power.
If you want our nation to be peaceful all must train as the Congress requires the military to train so that we can do our Militia duties which is
— Enforce the US Constitution (supreme LAW of this nation that all legislation that is to be binding on the American people is to follow – “be in Pursuance thereof) and each state’s Constitution (highest LAW of the state),
— Enforce and keep the “Laws of the Union” (which are constitutional laws ONLY),
— Protect the country against all enemies both domestic and foreign, and
— “to suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions”.
It is “We the People of the united States” that are to hold accountable all those that serve within our governments, that are to enforce the laws so that we cannot have a police state, or military takeover of our nation. WE are the ones constitutionally required to defend our borders. You cannot have a government of the people if the people do not bother to know what their government is (it is NOT a democracy), or be willing to do their duties. THAT is how freedom is kept.
28 C.F.R. Section 0.85 Terrorism is defined as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives”.
Let’s go back to the Patriot Act. The whole point of creating all these UNLAWFUl agencies is/was the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS was modeled after Heinrich Himmler’s RSHA, where they created a system that was incorporating all Nazi police departments under the control of what they called the Department of National Security. The Department of Homeland Security was also known as the Reichssicherheitshauptamt.
Treason – Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution of the United States provides: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.
There are three key elements are necessary for an offense to constitute treason: an obligation of allegiance to the legal order, the intent, and then the action to violate that obligation.
Color of Law: “The appearance or semblance, without the substance, of legal right. Misuse of power, possessed by virtue of state law and made possible only because wrongdoer is clothed with authority of state, is action taken under “color of law.” Black’s Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition, page 241.
Hitler: “What luck for rulers that people do not think.”
“We wouldn’t find out until several years later that all of our private
data has been, and forever will be, subject to the prying eyes of the
State.” ….which would certainly explain the complete neutering of Donald Trump (imagine the convos with Epstein they have “on record”.)
I challenge you on Step 4. That gives The Deputiz’m Plan teeth. A WELL REGULATED MILITIA, being necessary for the security of a free state……………………………… and a well armed one, is essential. The AK pea shooters we all possess are a joke compared to drones with AA-12s mounted. The right to bear arms…. not just rifles and pistols, yes?
The NSA has been doing this since at least the 1960’s. I know this as fact, with some “background” myself. Don’t listen to this author.