(DV) Whitney: KGB Chieftain Finds Home at Homeland Security

KGB Chieftain Finds Home at Homeland Security
by Mike Whitney
www.dissidentvoice.org
January 21, 2005

“Security and liberty go hand-in-hand. Members of Congress, like too many Americans, don’t understand that society with no constraints on its government cannot be secure. History proves that societies crumble when governments become more powerful than the people and private institutions.” [1]

--Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas)

Why would Homeland Security hire former Stasi chief Markus Wolfe and former head of the KGB General Yevgeni Primakov?

Is this part of the Bush anti-terror strategy? After all, Wolfe is the man who is credited with building up the feared East German secret police that was responsible for the disappearance and deaths of thousands of citizens. And, Primakov’s record is not any better. As skipper of the KGB he was driving force behind the machinery of state terror; a legacy that still has a chilling affect on many Russians.

Now, apparently, they’ve found a new place to hang their hats at Homeland Security. Or have they? Perhaps, the numerous stories on the internet are just fabrications intended to mislead independent research. That’s certainly one possibility. But, consider this; for those who have followed the activities of the current administration (the torture, the deception, the death squads, the destruction of Falluja) stories like this are difficult to discount. As a matter of fact, the hiring of Primakov and Wolfe seems fairly consistent with the long-term goals of the Bush team.

We already know that there’s a power struggle within the government from the number of top agents who have been jettisoned at the CIA. Why not develop a new Security apparatus under the auspices of a proven loyalist like Michael Chertoff? (the new appointee at Homeland Security) That would require the expertise of a couple of old pros who can help-out with the basics and get the machinery of state repression clanking along?

The move is not unprecedented either. As Noam Chomsky points out, in SS officer Klaus Barbie, “The Butcher of Lyon” was employed by the US Army after WW2 to “spy on the French.” [2] Col. Eugene Kolb of Army counterintelligence later admitted that Barbie’s “skills were badly needed…His activities had been directed against the underground French Communist party and the resistance’ who were targeted for repression by the American liberators”. (“What Uncle Sam Really Wants”) Other Nazi leaders were also used in counterintelligence operations in Italy. They were regarded as “specialists in anti-resistance activities.”

Primakov has allegedly been hired to oversee the issuing of federal IDs. Now that the new Intelligence Reform Act has passed, (uniform) federal standards will be required for licenses within two years. All the citizens personal, credit and biometric history will be stored on one small document. No one will drive a car or get on a plane without one. Don’t leave home without it, or else.

The new federal ID will be required in all financial transactions. Details will be electronically transferred to Office of Internal Security (which falls under the authority of Homeland Security), which will keep “threat files” on each citizen. Ultimately, the ID will be used as an “internal passport” (Primakov’s words) so the government can keep tabs on the movements of every citizen; to keep us safe, of course.

Sound Orwellian? This is what our “freedom loving” Congressmen and Senators overwhelmingly supported in the Intelligence Reform Act. Most of its provisions were written nearly a full year earlier as part of Patriot Act 2. It slipped by the media without a whimper of dissent. There’s also plenty of “enhanced powers” for the President; like the ability to incarcerate suspects indefinitely without charges. But, then, George would never abuse that authority, would he?

Apparently, there’s a Patriot Act 3 in the hopper, too. Investigative journalist Al Martin believes that this new addition will be intended to “establish the internal mechanism to coordinate, as an official function of state, a system of informants.”

“System of informants”? The land of the free and the home of the snitches.

This must be where a man with Markus Wolfe’s unique talents fits in. As Stasi king-pin he reportedly groomed an impressive network of moles, finks and stool-pigeons. His professional know-how will probably be soothing balm to the quick-learners at Homeland Security. It’s bon voyage to the enemies of the State.

Of course, all of this could just be more paranoid, conspiratorial claptrap?

After sitting through 45 minutes of President Windy’s delusional ramblings of “global liberation”, that seems rather unlikely. Our national nightmare is grounded in some very real changes in the law, and we already know how far these people will go.

The political remedies to the Bush onslaught are diminishing by the day and the observations of Texas congressman Ron Paul are looking increasingly more prophetic. Paul said, “Those who believe a police-state can’t happen here are poor students of history. Every government, democratic or not, is capable of tyranny. We must understand this if we hope to remain a free people.”

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state, and can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com.

REFERENCES

Thanks to Al Martins, “Get Ready for the USSA” (United Soviet States of America), Behind the scenes in the Beltway (www.almartinraw.com)

[1] Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) “It Can’t Happen Here”

[2] Noam Chomsky, What Uncle Sam Really Wants (Odonian Press, 1992), page 18.