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	Workers Vanguard No. 876	15 September 2006

Bush, Democrats Wave "War on Terror" Flag

(Editorial Note)

SEPTEMBER 12—The fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks occasioned a barrage of “war on terror” tirades from Democratic and Republican politicos whose eyes are set on the November elections. Just as we warned five years ago, the U.S. rulers instantly seized on the criminal World Trade Center attack to rally support for their international imperialist adventures and for stepping up repression at home, first aiming at Muslim immigrants. As for the Pentagon, we have noted: “Unlike the World Trade Center, the Pentagon is the command and administrative center of the U.S. imperialist military, and being a military installation the possibility of getting hit comes with the territory. That recognition does not make the attack an ‘anti-imperialist’ act, nor does it change the fact that terrorism almost always gets innocent people—in this case, the passengers on the plane as well as the maintenance workers, janitors and secretaries at the Pentagon” (“Bush, Kerry Push ‘Anti-Terror’ Hysteria,” WV No. 830, 6 August 2004).

Bush continues to insist on the “rights” of the imperial presidency. That means no checks on the administration’s ability to bomb, slaughter and torture peoples abroad and to spy on and “disappear” its perceived opponents at home. In June, the Supreme Court, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, struck down Bush’s secretive Guantánamo military tribunals on the grounds that they were not authorized by Congress and also violate the Geneva Conventions. Last week Bush demanded that Congress authorize his warrantless wiretapping program and enact new laws for military commissions based on the practices of the Guantánamo tribunals—trial without the accused present; not allowing the accused to see evidence; use of hearsay evidence and evidence obtained through coercion (i.e., torture).

Bush finally admitted the existence of the CIA’s “secret” prison network as he announced the transfer to Guantánamo of 14 “suspected terrorists” deemed to be senior Al Qaeda members. Bush wants to run them through the military tribunals so he can claim a “victory” in the “war on terror.” He also wants to retroactively shield CIA personnel involved in torture from prosecution under the U.S. War Crimes Act.

The Democratic Party has countered Bush with its own “Real Security Act of 2006.” The Democrats’ self-described “tough AND smart” proposal calls for redeploying U.S. troops from Iraq in order to “kill and capture the terrorists where they are,” expanding U.S. Special Forces and increasing funds for “the CIA’s overseas facilities” (7 September, Democrats.senate.gov). Their real complaint about Bush’s tribunals is that they haven’t been able to convict anybody and have “undermined America’s influence and power in the world.” Now John Kerry has chimed in by calling for sending 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan to prop up the U.S. puppet government in Kabul.

One of the detainees Bush bragged he would put on trial at Guantánamo, Abu Zubaydah, is the government’s source for its “dirty bomb” frame-up of U.S. citizen Jose Padilla. Defense lawyers argued that Padilla’s arrest in 2002 as an “enemy combatant” was illegal, in part because it was based on information obtained through torture. The torture of Abu Zubaydah has now been confirmed by the New York Times (10 September).

Padilla was held incommunicado without charges in a military brig for three and a half years before being indicted on conspiracy charges, for which he is due to be tried in federal court. Three years ago, the Spartacist League and Partisan Defense Committee filed an amici curiae (friends of the court) brief on Padilla’s behalf, challenging the government’s attempt to disappear citizens at will. As we wrote in “Marxists Oppose Government Attack on Citizenship Rights” (WV No. 808, 29 August 2003): “What the U.S. capitalist rulers get away with will largely depend on the level of social and class struggle in this society. It is in the urgent interests of the integrated labor movement to mobilize in defense of immigrant rights and the democratic rights of the entire population.”