In September 11, 2001, terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Hours later, more than 2,900 people were dead, the overwhelming majority of them in the civilian office buildings at New York’s World Trade Center.
Within 24 hours, the US government was doing what it does best. It demanded more power, and set to work coming up with schemes for using its enormous military and national security apparatus — a group of agencies which had received more than half-a-trillion dollars during that fiscal year.
When the US national security state failed on 9/11, not a single person with any significant level of responsibility lost his job.
Notably, the very same people who failed utterly to provide national security on September 11th were the same people who were entrusted with providing security on September 12. Except now, those people, and their government agencies, were granted more power, bigger budgets, and were held to less legal and public scrutiny than ever before.
By November, the federal government had already rewarded itself lavishly for its incompetence. Congress passed, and the President signed, the USA Patriot Act a measure that transformed American jurisprudence and made every American a suspected terrorist, open to surveillance by government agents. DC politicians had also created yet another federal department, the department of Homeland Security, because apparently the Defense Department is concerned with things other than the defense of the US “homeland.”
This war against the American people was complemented by ordinary shooting war against other nation states, including ones that had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 bombings. The invasion of Iraq, for instance was built upon intelligence manipulated and distorted by the White House and by CIA Director George Tenet. Iraq was not threat to the United States at all. But Washington, DC loves a war, and in the wake of 9/11, the American public was apparently willing to believe anything. So the politicians got their war. And have gotten many since.
Meanwhile, back home, the US government was transforming itself into something that looked like it was modeled more on China than on a government that claimed to revere the Bill of Rights.
As Jacob Hornberger writes :
Moreover, the [Chinese] regime can and does torture prisoners. Again, there is nothing anyone can do to prevent this. The torture is oftentimes so brutal that some independent minded, courageous individuals who were were protesting come out of the prison process as broken people, ones whose minds have been fixed through brutal and tortuous reeducation.
Before the 9/11 attacks, that sort of thing could not happen here in the United States, at least not legally. If the government arrested someone, it was required to file formal written charges (e.g., an indictment) that would notify the person of what he was being charged with. He also would be entitled to a jury trial instead of judge trial or a tribunal trial. He had the right to an attorney to represent him. He also had a right to an independent judge. And no cruel and unusual punishments, such as torture. That’s all because our American ancestors had the wisdom to guarantee such rights in the Bill of Rights.
What if U.S. officials did to someone what the Chinese government has done to Simon Cheng. In that event, the Constitution enables him to file a petition for writ of habeas corpus, a right that stretches back several centuries in English history and which actually is a lynchpin of a free society. An independent federal judge orders the government to bring the person to court and show cause why he should not be released. At the habeas hearing, the judge orders the government to charge the person with a crime or release him. No indefinite detention, like there is China. And of course no torture.
All that came to an end with the 9/11 attacks. At that point, the national-security branch of the federal government adopted many of the same powers as the Chinese communist regime, and without any amendment to the Constitution. The military and the CIA, two of the principal elements of the national-security state, now wield the power to take anyone, including both Americans and foreigners, into military or CIA custody by simply labeling them a “terrorist,” hold them as long as they want in a military dungeon or secret CIA prison camp, torture them, and even assassinate them. While Americans still have the right to file a petition for habeas corpus, federal judges will customarily defer to the Pentagon and the CIA on their determination that a person poses a threat to “national security.”
In today’s America, everyone is a potential terrorist. The country is always at war. “National security” demands American citizens be murdered by drone without trial. Or dropped into Guantanamo and forgotten about. Just in case.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks, we were often told that we must go on about our daily lives, or else “the terrorists win.” Except it wasn’t the terrorists who did the most to change America. For America, the post-9/11 world meant more searches, more regulations, more spying, more debt, and more endless haranguing about how we must all “support the troops” and how “you’re either with us or with the terrorists.” “We must sacrifice” we were told. Your “freedom” demands it.
What was the upside? So far, there’s no reason to believe that there is one. No evidence is provided, especially since the federal government maintains everything is secret, classified, or unfit for the public. “Trust us, we’re keeping you safe” is the constant refrain. For some reason, a lot of people buy it.
Meanwhile, the feds themselves didn’t sacrifice anything. For the feds, it was just more of what they’d always wanted. More taxpayer money. More power. More untrammeled authority to imprison, spy, tax, search, and control. Their abysmal failures on 9/11 led to no changes, no reforms, and no accountability. For them, everything got better.
If the destruction of American liberties was something the terrorists wanted, then they got what they wanted, too.
