“Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times.” This quote by Machiavelli accurately shows how everything that happened in the past, directly affects the future. While most people have heard this, and believe the idea, there seem to be few who notice it happening today. Today, we are going too look, first at the history itself, then second, just exactly how it is affecting us now.
On February 28, 1933, a German Prime Minister by the name of Adolph Hitler staged attack on the Reichstag, which was the German Parliament building, burning it to the ground, and blamed it on Communist terrorists. This cause widespread outrage and hatred against the so-called communists who destroyed the seat of German government. Hitler was heard to say that it marked the beginning of widespread terrorism and major threat to “homeland security.” In the middle of the unrest, Hitler stepped in to take charge. He proposed a bill, called the Ermächtigungsgesetz, or “Enabling act,” saying it would give the government the ability to track down these terrorists and restore peace to the German people. But in order to accomplish this, he needed the Enabling act, and because it would alter the constitution, he needed a two-thirds majority. The people opposing it argued that it would give Hitler sole power and would strip the constitutional rights of the people of Germany.
On the night of the vote, the members of parliament walked into the new Reichstag to find Nazi storm troopers surrounding the walls and even lining the aisles of the voting chamber, staring menacingly at any who disagreed with the soon to be Furor’s wishes. During the discussion, a man named Otto Wells, a prominent member of the German Parliament, stood up and said “We of the German Social Democrats pledge ourselves solemnly to the principles of humanity and justice. No Enabling act can give you the power to destroy ideas which are eternal and indestructible.” Hitler responded to this with a mixture of terrifying threats to Mr. Well’s person and promises to use “restraint.” When the vote came, not unsurprisingly, the bill was passed with Four-hundred and forty votes for it, and a mere 84 were opposed. As soon as the bill was passed, the Nazi’s leaped and started singing Horst Wessel, the Nazi anthem. Hitler had become a Fascist dictator legally.
As we all know, after that, Hitler stripped the rights of the German people, killed many Jews, and started WWII; just as the opponents said he would.
Now that we have the history, what about the second part, the repeating?
On September 11th, 2001, two 737 jet airplanes crashed into the World Trade Centers, killing thousands of people. Five days later, President Bush proposed a 342 page bill entitled bill H.R. 3162. This very bill is history repeating, right before our very eyes. This bill repeats the horror Hitler created, both in the circumstances in which the bill was passed, and also in the very text of the bill.
We will start with the conditions in which the bill was passed.
Five days after 9/11, the Senate was faced with this bill. FIVE DAYS! It took whoever wrote it FIVE DAYS to analyze the situation, decide what to do, write up a three hundred page document, print off over a hundred copies, and pass it. FIVE DAYS! There is no amount of people that are that fast of analyzers, writers, and printers in the world! What does that mean? That means the bill had to have been written beforehand. When you look at this logically, if Congress and or the President hired a lawyer or another Congressman, it would have taken them years to write a bill of this magnitude. They would have to have had looked at the ramifications, and what it would do to the other law, and the possible problems with the bill. This bill was obviously written beforehand.
This Bill is so similar to the Enabling act that even the opposing arguments are exactly the same. Some of the members of the Senate pointed out that this act is the same type of tyrannical law that Hitler passed in 1933. According to Terry Neal, Essentially, it provides legal cover for the executive branch of government to violate the rights of the people in the U.S.
Even more frightening are the defending arguments. In response to the Senate, our vice-president Dick Cheney said that anyone who voted “no” on this bill would be BLAMED FOR THE NEXT TERRORIST ATTACK, which is defined, in another act as terrorism itself! This statement is more at home in Germany in the 1930’s that in the Senate of the United States! And from the lips of our vice-president himself! Who would have thought that threats would be used in the House of Representatives.
Now that we have looked at how even the circumstances in which it was passed were the same as the Enabling Act, We will now look at the very text of the bill, and look at how it is the same draconian law that Hitler passed in 1933.
Sections 117, 115, and 153 of the Enabling act all have to do with Removal of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications. Under the Enabling act, your phones could be tapped at any time, your letters were all opened and looked at before being sent on, and the Gestapo could even look at what certain individuals were checking out of libraries. If someone said something, read something, or wrote something the Nazi’s didn’t like, boom, they were sent off to a concentration camp, or killed, under the charges of being a “terrorist.” These are obvious infringes in the rights of any American, and there is no American alive today who would stand for this kind of tyranny, or is there?
Section 201 of the H.R. 3162 gives the government (quote) “The Authority to Intercept Wire, Oral, And Electronic Communications Relating To Terrorism.”
This was the same law that section 117 of the Enabling act mandated! If the government labels you a potential terrorist, they legally have the power to intercept whatever is going to, or coming from your home. Your personal privacy is virtually nill. Period. Incidentally, the fourth amendment, one of your unalienable rights, reads “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizers, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Section 201 of the H.R. 3162 is a direct violation of this part of the bill of rights. The people are to be secure against unreasonable searches without a warrant! The government can search anything that you come in contact with at any time.
Section 109 of H.R. 1362 declares that the government can tap your phone at any time; section 209 announces that all voicemail can be intercepted by the government, section 217 allows the government to intercept all internet activity. All these are just more and more reasons the bill of rights does not stand anymore. There is even a section on warrant less house searches in section 213, which reads “With respect to the issuance of any warrant or court order under this section, or any other rule of law, to search for and seize any property or material that constitutes evidence of a criminal offense in violation of the laws of the United States.” If the government suspects that you are a terrorist, your home can be searched without a warrant; another infringement on the bill of rights. The government can even force a library to hand over their records to the government. What kind of liberty is that?
Now here is the place where everyone says “it won’t happen to me, all those sections only relate to terrorists, and because I am obviously not a terrorist, it can’t happen to me.”
That’s where you’re wrong. Ever so helpful definitions relating to terrorism are provided in section 802 which reads (quote) “the term ‘domestic terrorism’ means activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State.” An innocent enough definition at first glance, but reading closer, this definition includes things like rolling through a stop sign! Have any of you ever rolled through a stop sign, or sped, or littered? If the answer is yes, then you are a domestic terrorist. The government can and will do all these things I just mentioned to you.
A good example of this was Elliot Spitzer. The way the government found out what he did, was that his money was being tracked. They saw a good portion of his money gone, investigated it, and found out where he had been, and what he was doing. If President Bush had remained true to his word, no American would have been tracked. Elliot spitzer may not have had the best of morals, but he was definitly not a terrorist.
Today we have just come to the realization that history is being repeated, right here in the United States of America. And how? By bill H.R. 3162; but this bill has another, more widely used name. This bill, the one that is tearing away your rights is also know as the PATRIOT act. The PATRIOT act is the virtually the same bill Hitler created in 1933. The Patriot Act is repeating the horror Hitler created, and is, stripping us of the rights given to us by men like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. These things our founding fathers fought and died for and they are legally being taken away, one by one. Bear in mind what Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”
Be careful what you read, be careful what you say, be careful what you write, be careful what you see, because Big Brother is watching you.
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