Silent Coup in the night and fog? It could happen here.
I was listening to Nathan Englander on WHYY's Radio Times this morning talking about his new book "The Ministry of Special Cases" and in the course of the discussion about the coup and the disappeared in 1970's Argentina he brought up something that was very obvious but also very profound.
Coups don't happen over night. You know, there's planning that has to go into it; the tanks don't immediatly appear on the streets; the Germans didn't just wake up one day and find out they were living in the Third Reich.
This whole deal with Congress legislating away the Writ of Habeas Corpus for detainees at Gitmo is just another step on the slippery slope. I remember reading in the Rise and Fall of the Third Riech by William Shrier the story of a Herr Schmidt who was disappeared by the Gestapo shortly after the enactment of the Nacht Und Nebel Erlass (The night and fog directive) in 1941. The directive gave the authorities the right to sieze people and disappear them forever.
As I recall from memory, the Gestapo arrived at Schmidt's house in the middle of the night and hauled him away. It turned out that the Gestapo had gotten the wrong Schmidt and soon after returned his body to the family in a sealed coffin which they were told never to open.
From the freedonarchives:
"The Führer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces:[stamp] SECRET
Directives for the prosecution of offences committed within the occupied territories against the GermanState or the occupying power, of December 7th, 1941: Within the occupied territories, communistic elements and other circles hostile to Germany have increased their efforts against the GermanState and the occupying powers since the Russian campaign started. The amount and the danger of these machinations oblige us to take severe measures as a determent. . . Prisoners taken to Germany are subjected to military procedure only if particular military interests require this. In case German or foreign authorities inquire about such prisoners, they are to be told that they were arrested, but that the proceedings do not allow any further information."
Hmmm. . . that sound familiar doesn't it?
Instead of the Democrats wasting everyone's time with this damn troop withdrawal language they should be moving to immediatly restore all the rights we've had taken away. I mean, today the WaPo reports that Democrats have conceeded to the White House and are going to "drop their demand for a timeline to bring troops home from Iraq." Sounds more like a capitulation than a concession to me, but who cares anyway? They knew they wouldn't be able to over-ride a veto and even if they had been able to, W. would have just done his own legislating with a signing statement.
Nancy Pelosi said after losing the vote to over-ride in the House "We made our position clear. He made his position clear. Now it is time for us to try to work together."
What the hell does that mean? He knew what your position was in January, you knew his.
Pelosi: "But make no mistake: Democrats are committed to ending this war."
Yeah right! The only way to end this war is to either, to wait W. out until Jan. '09, or to impeach him and Cheney. It's pretty much that simple. So, let's get serious about rolling back the dictatorial excesses of this administration and focus on not waking up in the Third Reich; this time with the full power of the internet, cameras on every street and the wonders of biometrics.
By the way, has anyone been paying attention to what ICE has been up to with all these raids all over the country?
"Immigration and customs enforcement, also known as I.C.E, says it has arrested more than 4-thousand immigration fugitives around California in the last 12 months. . . Virginia Kice, ICE Spokesperson, says 'by the end of the year we'll be apprehending more immigration fugitives than we ever have before.'" [ABCNews30]
Apprehending fugitives is one thing, but they're arresting entire familes, orphaning American children from their Mexican parents and in some case, as posted here before, locking whole families up in ICE prisons. Could all this be more than just cracking down on illegal immigrations? Could it be a dry run for rounding up some of us out here who don't get with the silent coup game plan?
Coups don't happen over night. You know, there's planning that has to go into it; the tanks don't immediatly appear on the streets; the Germans didn't just wake up one day and find out they were living in the Third Reich.
This whole deal with Congress legislating away the Writ of Habeas Corpus for detainees at Gitmo is just another step on the slippery slope. I remember reading in the Rise and Fall of the Third Riech by William Shrier the story of a Herr Schmidt who was disappeared by the Gestapo shortly after the enactment of the Nacht Und Nebel Erlass (The night and fog directive) in 1941. The directive gave the authorities the right to sieze people and disappear them forever.
As I recall from memory, the Gestapo arrived at Schmidt's house in the middle of the night and hauled him away. It turned out that the Gestapo had gotten the wrong Schmidt and soon after returned his body to the family in a sealed coffin which they were told never to open.
From the freedonarchives:
"The Führer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces:[stamp] SECRET
Directives for the prosecution of offences committed within the occupied territories against the GermanState or the occupying power, of December 7th, 1941: Within the occupied territories, communistic elements and other circles hostile to Germany have increased their efforts against the GermanState and the occupying powers since the Russian campaign started. The amount and the danger of these machinations oblige us to take severe measures as a determent. . . Prisoners taken to Germany are subjected to military procedure only if particular military interests require this. In case German or foreign authorities inquire about such prisoners, they are to be told that they were arrested, but that the proceedings do not allow any further information."
Hmmm. . . that sound familiar doesn't it?
Instead of the Democrats wasting everyone's time with this damn troop withdrawal language they should be moving to immediatly restore all the rights we've had taken away. I mean, today the WaPo reports that Democrats have conceeded to the White House and are going to "drop their demand for a timeline to bring troops home from Iraq." Sounds more like a capitulation than a concession to me, but who cares anyway? They knew they wouldn't be able to over-ride a veto and even if they had been able to, W. would have just done his own legislating with a signing statement.
Nancy Pelosi said after losing the vote to over-ride in the House "We made our position clear. He made his position clear. Now it is time for us to try to work together."
What the hell does that mean? He knew what your position was in January, you knew his.
Pelosi: "But make no mistake: Democrats are committed to ending this war."
Yeah right! The only way to end this war is to either, to wait W. out until Jan. '09, or to impeach him and Cheney. It's pretty much that simple. So, let's get serious about rolling back the dictatorial excesses of this administration and focus on not waking up in the Third Reich; this time with the full power of the internet, cameras on every street and the wonders of biometrics.
By the way, has anyone been paying attention to what ICE has been up to with all these raids all over the country?
"Immigration and customs enforcement, also known as I.C.E, says it has arrested more than 4-thousand immigration fugitives around California in the last 12 months. . . Virginia Kice, ICE Spokesperson, says 'by the end of the year we'll be apprehending more immigration fugitives than we ever have before.'" [ABCNews30]
Apprehending fugitives is one thing, but they're arresting entire familes, orphaning American children from their Mexican parents and in some case, as posted here before, locking whole families up in ICE prisons. Could all this be more than just cracking down on illegal immigrations? Could it be a dry run for rounding up some of us out here who don't get with the silent coup game plan?
posted by William Duane at 1:31 PM
1 Comments:
Ok, this post was a disaster. I should never write from my memory. The Nacht und Nebel Erlass was run by the SD ( Sicherheist Dienst) and in Russian by the Erzatzgruppen.
I tried to look up the story of Her Schmidt but I couldn't find it. I know I read it, though! In any case, his death wasn't related to the Nacht und Nebel Erlass.
I think the point I was trying to makes is still valid however, even if my facts are all screwed up.
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