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Real conspiracies: Operation Paperclip, which assimilated Nazis into the U.S. establishment, shows the antecedents for labeling people of conscience enemies of the state

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 3, 2003 by Richard Thieme

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Kaplan goes on to advocate the efficient use of covert action to overthrow regimes and destabilize enemies of the empire. "The U.S. had 550,000 troops in Vietnam but didn't accomplish much," he observes, contrasting that effort with the successful appropriation of rightwing groups in El Salvador with only special forces miners on the ground.

That, he suggests, is the model for the future.

I discussed this with two neighbors yesterday on a sunny lawn with autumn flowers in bloom. One said she was concerned for what had happened to the America she knew. The other said she was too busy with her job and taking care of her children to do much about it. Both felt helpless to do anything anyway, and that's the intention.

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Those feelings of helplessness are typical, I would guess, but there was something else in the conversation. "You'd better be careful," one warned. "You're probably on the list."

Now, that's relatively new. The belief that there is a list, the belief that with technological advances we can be tracked, databased and identified as enemies, the belief that we are so tracked, that the information will be used against us, that's new. Among middle-aged Midwest conservative people, that's new.

Those beliefs, intermittently reinforced by stories of police or FBI questioning innocent people for speaking aloud their objections to empire, is one means of control of mainstream citizens who "want to believe the American myth," as one put it, while evidence accumulates that the high moral ground is one more means for keeping us acquiescent and compliant.

It was warm on the lawn among those flowers, yet soon enough, shorn of our real history, shorn of constitutional rights, we'll be shivering like sheep in the first chill breeze of autumn.

One could do worse than revisit Paperclip and other forgotten events, the real antecedents of our current situation, One could do worse than refuse to surrender to denial or design.

Richard Thieme speaks, writes and consults on the human dimensions of life and work, the impact of technology, and "life on the edge." He has written for Information Security Magazine, Salon, Forbes and the Village Voice.

Real conspiracies: Operation Paperclip, which assimilated Nazis into the U.S. establishment, shows the antecedents for labeling people of conscience enemies of the state

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 3, 2003 by Richard Thieme

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