Welcome back to the HempFarm and our semi-monthly HempFarm Reports.
http://www.HempFarm.org
"Almost from the beginning, the CIA engaged... in covert operations which involved rigging elections and manipulating labor unions abroad, carrying on paramilitary operations, overturning governments, assassinating foreign officials, protecting former Nazis, and lying to Congress."
- Senator George McGovern
"What counter-insurgency really comes down to is the protection of the capitalists back in America, their property and their privileges. US national security, as preached by US leaders, is the security of the capitalist class in the US, not the security of the rest of the people."
- Philip Agee, CIA Diary: Inside the Company, 1975
On this Independence Day, while we cook our steaks and celebrate our "freedom from oppression", it might be a good time to examine the illegal and anti-democratic actions committed by our intelligence agencies under the guise of "National Security".
First of all, I do not mean the well-intentioned activities of the FBI and CIA agents who honestly attempt to protect America by finding the truth and telling it to the people. I’m talking about the unconstitutional and anti-democratic actions of the political and corporate elite who use American military power to prey on the poor and oppressed people of America and the Third World, while waving the flag of “National Security”.
With the Bush administration's frantic calls for an Office of Homeland Security to "protect America", the people of America are beginning to wonder what, exactly, the FBI and CIA have been doing all this time if they haven't been protecting us? What is this new agency going to do that the others couldn’t do?
More importantly, why does the Bush administration want it to be above accountability and exempt from Whistleblower Laws? The same reason they always have: “Revealing sources and methods would be a threat to National Security”. This “End justifies the means” policy gave birth to The Phoenix Program in Vietnam, Operation Condor in South America, and COINTELPRO, which operated illegally here in America.
If you don’t know what these bits of history are, find out. Then ask yourself why you didn’t know in the first place. And ask yourself why our government lets the same people and corporations violate our human rights over and over again without any questions from the “Liberal Media”.
I'm not against the FBI or CIA, I am against the people who use the power of those agencies to protect the profits of their business partners while destroying the lives of innocent people. I'm not against all corporations, I'm just against the malignant corporations that trade profits for blood. And as a free American, I am not afraid to demand the truth from my government.
One example of the CIA’s past “methods” would be George Bush Sr. giving weapons to Iraq as head of the CIA (to help fight Iran), then turning around and giving weapons to Iran as Vice-President (to help fight Iraq). Does anybody remember the Iran-Contra Scandal? CIA planes illegally brought weapons to Iran then took the Iranian money to the Contras, who sent the same planes back to America full of cocaine, thus allowing the CIA to defray the costs of the “War on Communism” by selling drugs to American children. This also gave a nice propaganda boost to the "War on Drugs", which guaranteed the CIA an even bigger budget. Its a nice business plan, no wonder insiders call it The Company.
While all this may be hard to swallow, the evidence is vast and undeniable. Many have called the CIA's long history of trading "weapons for drugs" the worst kept secret in Washington.
The FBI’s methods, the least of which include phone taps, harassment, and constant surveillance of such “Dangerous Extremists” as Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lennon, seem tame by comparison.
As we begin to expose the rotten roots of our entrenched National Security infrastructure to the light of public scrutiny, it becomes depressingly clear that when the government says they are “Protecting National Security”, it has little to do with actually protecting the People of America.
"National Security" does not mean ending poverty and starvation in our inner cities and forgotten towns, and it does not mean protecting the individual rights of American workers to safe working conditions and an unpolluted environment. "National Security" means propping up business friendly dictatorships who oppress the local population and protect corporate access to cheap labor and resources. “National Security” means protecting the Corporate Conservative Status Quo.
When the Bush administration says that it would be a threat to "National Security" to expose the CIA's methods and practices, they mean: If the American people found out that their tax money was being used to train and arm terrorists, like Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden, to protect oil pipelines and keep the local populations “under control”, they might start asking dangerous questions like: Are oil company profits really worth the price of State Sponsored Terrorism?
That is the real threat to their vision of National Security: The Truth. The people of America might actually learn the facts for themselves and decide that maybe, just maybe, protecting the profits of Multinational Oil Corporations is less important than protecting the lives of human beings.
Remember, these "Clandestine Activities" and "Black Operations" are done illegally and behind the backs of Congress and the people of America. They lie to us while pretending to protect us because they claim we are too stupid to take care of ourselves, and behind our backs these wolves in sheep’s clothing steal our money, poison our children, and count their stock options all the way to the Shadow Government Country Club.
That is not “Democracy” by anybody’s definition, except Dick Cheney who apparently defines a "Free Democratic Republic" as National Socialism backed by a Multinational Corporate Oligarchy.
In other words, Corporate Welfare: Public Subsidy for Private Profit. We pay for the “research” with our tax money, and they over-charge us for the resulting products. (Car fuel and pharmaceuticals come to mind.)
Perhaps if the CIA had been more interested in protecting innocent people and exposing the truth than in propping up right-wing dictatorships through rigged elections in third-world Banana Republics like Chile and Florida, the people of America wouldn't be scratching our heads and wondering 'why they hate us'.
Here’s another question: After the Sept. 11 attacks, when all private plans were grounded, why did the CIA and State Department allow a private airplane owned by the Bin Laden family to fly around the country, picking up more than a dozen “family members”, and evacuate them so they wouldn’t be bothered by the FBI and all us angry Americans?
Answer: Because the Bin Laden family has been Cheney and the Bush family’s business partners in Saudi Arabian Oil for decades . . . just like Iraq.
Somebody recently asked Sen. John McCain: “If we know that Saudi Arabia is giving money to terrorists, then when are we going to stop buying their oil?” He answered simply: “When we are no longer dependant on Saudi Arabian Oil.”
The central point of The HempFarm.org is to prove one simple fact: WE DON’T NEED OIL AND NEVER HAVE. Everything done with fossil fuels can be done better, cheaper, and cleaner with renewable natural resources, just like it was before Hemp was banned in 1937 by the very same petrochemical companies who profited most from the war by selling weapons and synthetic materials to both sides of the war. (I'm looking at you Dupont and Rockefeller!)
Meanwhile, the DEA arrests hemp farmers while the CIA trades weapons with terrorists for cheap oil, and the Bush Junta calls it National Security with a smile.
To put it simply: Our government is run buy Oil Soaked corporate shitbags who will do anything they can to protect their investments in the Saudi Arabian oil business. They are far more interested in protecting their pipelines than the American people, that’s why they will never admit that their precious oil can be replaced with cheaper natural resources that can be grown anywhere in the world.
How can anybody pretend that the Corporate Cabal of Bush and Cheney are trying to protect us when they tell us that arsenic in our water, and protecting Saudi Arabian terrorists is good for us, but dried flowers and clean air are a "Threat to National Security"?
Perhaps if the FBI and CIA spent more time investigating the American business connections to the Saudi Arabian financing of terrorism, and less time hunting down innocent Americans for possession of a dried flower that can end our dependence on the oil, we would all be a little bit safer at night.
Taxation without representation was nothing compared to economic slavery. It almost makes you yearn for the days of that other unelected King George, back when we knew exactly who the bad guys were.
Keep the hope alive!
Zed B. Starkovich
Hollywood, Ca
HempFarm.org
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The New Stuff:
An Ancient Alternative to Oil -- NOW IN MONO!
By Zed B. Starkovich - 10/25/01
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/AlternativeToOil10-25-01.html
The ONLY way our past foreign policy, and present war, can be justified is if we accept the fundamental premise that WE NEED OIL TO SURVIVE. We must believe that oil is our only source of energy and without it civilization as we know it would collapse. In order to justify our more "precision bombing" must believe that protecting our oil-based economy is the same as protecting the people of America. But its all a lie. WE DON'T NEED OIL AND NEVER HAVE.
Osama bin Laden - The Forbidden Truth
By Firoz Osman - 11/26/01
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Bin_Laden's_oil.html
It is becoming more apparent that the war in Afghanistan has nothing to do with terrorism, Osama bin Laden, the Taliban or the World Trade Centre. Realpolitik, the need and greed for oil and gas are, once again, the source of misery and tragedy. This time it is in Central Asia, just as it was in Iraq.
Bush Slashing Aid for E.P.A. Cleanup at 33 Toxic Sites
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE, The New York Times - 6/30/02
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Bush_Cuts_EPA.html
The Bush administration has designated 33 toxic waste sites in 18 states for cuts in financing under the Superfund cleanup program, according to a new report to Congress by the inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency. The cuts, imposed because the cleanup fund is hundreds of millions of dollars short of the amount needed to keep the program on schedule, mean that work is likely to grind to a halt on some of the most seriously polluted sites in the country, confronting the surrounding communities with new uncertainty over when the work will resume, how quickly it will proceed and who will pay for it.
Earth First! Pair Win Jury Award: FBI, violated rights in car-bombing case.
By BETTINA BOXALL and KAREN ALEXANDER
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Earth_First_vs_FBI.html
Ending a two-month trial and handing Earth First! activist Judi Bari a posthumous vindication, a federal jury awarded $2.9 million to her estate Tuesday after finding FBI agents and Oakland police officers violated her civil rights in their handling of a car-bombing investigation 12 years ago.
Enron Memos Show California Power Trading Schemes
By Chris Baltimore, Reuters - 5/6/02
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Enron_vs_Calif.html
California's two senators called for a criminal probe into Enron Corp.'s trading activities on Monday after Federal energy regulators released documents describing how the bankrupt energy giant used trading strategies with names like "Death Star" and "Fat Boy" to manipulate electricity supplies and boost profits in the state.
'Big Oil' Eyed in Gas Price Blame Game
By Grant McCool - May 11, 2002
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Big_oil_price_Fix.html
Is "Big Oil" holding American car owners and businesses over a barrel by boosting gasoline prices every spring and summer for peak driving season? The sudden price increases have become an annual event that consumer groups blame on the industry and companies blame on environmental laws mandating expensive fuels -- but this time, federal regulators say they're taking sharp aim at the problem.
IMF and World Bank Told to Stop Discredited Policies
By Charlotte Denny and Larry Elliott - 6/19/02
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/UN_Globalization_Study.html
More than 100m people in the world's poorest countries will be dragged below the basic subsistence level of a dollar a day by 2015 as they become ensnared in globalization's poverty trap, the UN warned yesterday.
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The Books of the Month are:
"The Mafia, CIA & George Bush" By Pete Brewton
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Mafia_CIA_Bush_BOM.html
If you think Enron is a one-of-a-kind accident, you might want to research on the long forgotten Savings and Loan Scandal. As the long history of corporate-backed corruption in our political system becomes more undeniable each day and confused congressmen wander through the halls of congress asking aloud 'how could this happen?' perhaps now is a good time to take another look at the last major political/corporate scandal that allowed the Bush family and their business partners to use our government to steal our tax money and destroy the lives of countless Americans.
"Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press" By Alex Cockburn & Jeff St. Clair
http://www.HempFarm.org/Papers/Whiteout_BOM.html
If the CIA and FBI have recently been dedicated to protecting the people of America, it begs the question of what exactly they were doing before this momentous change in assignment. In the case of the CIA, the Agency's information analysis mission has been dwarfed by its "Counter Intelligence" mission. From assassinations and rigging elections, to protecting "National Security" by supplying right-wing extremists with weapons and training them to export drugs and terrorize the local peasants, the CIA has always been happy to ignore our constitution and turn the definition of Democracy on its head.
These books are a clear and concise overview of what the CIA has been doing all these years while claiming to protect the people of America. If you like to bury your head in the sand and ignore the facts, these are not the books for you.
