A National Sickness

A National Sickness
by Calvin Sloan

On Sunday, May 1st, 2011, around 7 p.m. PDT, the Obama administration revealed its noble murder of Osama Bin Laden to the world. The face of terror, the Emmanuel Goldstein of 21st century America had been slain; thus began our prolonged period of two-minute hate.

By Monday morning, the front cover of every major newspaper in the country was graced with Bin Laden's face and a concise headline regarding his execution. People would have something to talk about for the May 2nd work week, and surely after viewing, again for the 1,000th time in their lives, footage of the 9/11 attacks, people would be suffering from nightmares as well.

Terror alerts were issued. Security measures were raised. Demagogic speeches were given. And, following standard procedure, the source, the authority of the information was never questioned by the mainstream media, nor by the mainstream 'alternative' outlets.

Who was that authority?

Solely, the representatives of the United States government. The Intelligence Community, by requirement, deals within the realm of the covert and top-secret, and exists to delude the public. With a long history of such deception, their word - it goes without saying - should be taken with a grain of salt.

But surely the liaison of the report, Barack Obama, a sitting American president, couldn't lie to the people? Undoubtedly, every single one has, and every single one will. It is the nature of the position.

With Osama's body safely laid to rest at sea, there cannot be an international entity to verify the DNA results - not that there ever would have been - and thus the final word lies with the President, and his professional prevaricators.

Unquestioned goes the notion that Bin Laden might have died of natural causes years ago. Indeed, that view has been suggested by Dale Watson (then acting head of the FBI's counterterrorism unit), Oliver North, Hamid Karzai, and several sources within Pakistan's ISI and Israel's Mossad.

Furthermore, technical experts and retired intelligence officers like Robert Baer have proposed that many, if not all of the Bin Laden video and audio recordings that have surfaced since 9/11 were fakes or edited versions of older broadcasts. The CIA admits to having falsified a copy - in jest, they claim - of Bin Laden and his associates sitting around a campfire, so such forgeries are certainly feasible (more evidence, here).

Regardless of whether the Obama administration actually killed Osama Bin Laden or not, disturbing conclusions about the state of the American Republic, and its citizenry, can be drawn from the event. Because, despite what the jingos outside the White House think, murdering people, without applying the writ of habeas corpus, is not an achievement of justice; it is a despotic act, committed only by fascist systems in order to maintain their specious claims upon authority.

In March of 2010, when speaking to a House Panel on the possibility of capturing Bin Laden, Attorney General Eric Holder, the highest arbitrator of the law in the United States, presciently asserted that "we would be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden" if we were ever to 'find' him, and that he would "never appear in an American courtroom."

Just a month ago, when speaking on the implementation of military tribunals (kangaroo courts) for the accused plotters of the 9/11 attacks, Holder declared, "Had this case proceeded in Manhattan or in an alternative venue in the United States, as I seriously explored in the past year, I am confident our justice system would have performed with the same distinction that has been its hallmark for over 200 years," unaware, or unconcerned that he has been presiding over only the vestiges of that system.

Yes, vestiges, for, according to the Obama administration, American citizens can be murdered in the name of fighting terrorism, or, like Bradley Manning, subjected to torture before being convicted of committing a crime. Yet this is simply "how the world works," according to Obama, because "we are a nation of laws."

Such is the nature of empire, of the deceits needed to sustain it.

The imperial logic is infinitely paradoxical. Ten years ago, America invaded Afghanistan 'to go after Bin Laden,' yet refused the Taliban's offer to hand the terrorist over for trial in a third party country, because there existed no evidence linking him to 9/11. And now, according to President Obama and the obediently enthusiastic mainstream media, killing Bin Laden marks a good and historic day, yet Al Qaeda remains as dangerous as ever; inherently, the ever-expanding occupations must endure.

So the public awaits the last video of Bin Laden, or photo - hopefully both! The more blood, the better! And although the 21st century's Emmanuel Goldstein has been forced into Television retirement, forever banished to the boring territory of the High School textbook, there may be a movie or two for his character on the horizon.

More importantly, Orwell's Brotherhood has an infinite cast. The question remains: who'll be the next big star, and what nationality will he claim?