• GrouchyGrouse [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      9 days ago

      You really want to feel the paranoia juice? Look up how much of USAPATRIOT was written down and ready to go before 9/11 even happened. I’m not a “9/11 was an inside job” person, for what it’s worth.

      But I am very much a “they were planning this kind of police state bullshit for a long time” guy. Which feels a bit silly having “won” the Cold War a decade before, ending history etc etc. So… what event were they really planning all the crackdown for? (My money’s on the climate)

      • Shaleesh [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        9 days ago

        I’m not sure about that last part. While it may prove useful in the event of a climate collapse scenario I have doubts as to its purpose being so forward-thinking. The USA is white supremacist, built on slavery, the perpetrator of genocides and born from imperialism. Such a state turning its tools inwards is probably just the natural progression of things.

      • IttihadChe@lemmy.ml
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        9 days ago

        9/11 doesn’t have to be an inside job. It was an inevitability which they were all aware. The whole “we won” and “end of history” narrative was obviously not true and just meant to attempt to pacify people, they knew they were still conducting global imperialism and that eventually some group(s) would try and strike back

      • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]@hexbear.net
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        9 days ago

        The American Civil Liberties Union alleges that extraordinary rendition was developed during the Clinton administration. CIA officials in the mid-1990s were trying to track down and dismantle militant Islamic organizations in the Middle East, particularly Al Qaeda.[15]

        According to Clinton administration official Richard Clarke:

        ‘extraordinary renditions’, were operations to apprehend terrorists abroad, usually without the knowledge of and almost always without public acknowledgment of the host government … The first time I proposed a snatch, in 1993, the White House Counsel, Lloyd Cutler, demanded a meeting with the President to explain how it violated international law. Clinton had seemed to be siding with Cutler until Al Gore belatedly joined the meeting, having just flown overnight from South Africa. Clinton recapped the arguments on both sides for Gore: ‘Lloyd says this. Dick says that.’ Gore laughed and said, ‘That’s a no-brainer. Of course it’s a violation of international law, that’s why it’s a covert action. The guy is a terrorist. Go grab his ass.’

        Both the Bush and Clinton cases involved apprehending known terrorists abroad, by covert means if necessary. The Bush administration expanded the policy after the 9/11 attacks.