Jacob Hornberger has written an engaging ebook – The CIA, Terrorism, and the Cold War: The Evil of the National Security State – that exposes a government not found in the Constitution. Hornberger refers to it as a ‘fourth branch of government having unbelievable powers of invasion, assassination, torture, and fomenting coups and regime-change operations.’ But since, as he says, it is untouchable by the three constitutional branches, I think it is more accurate to regard it as an autonomous government acting in the name of the one created by the Constitution.
It’s a government not affected by voting, budget debate, or popular opinion.
It is an Orwellian creature, consisting of the military-industrial establishment and the vast CIA-led intelligence network, justifying its actions on the basis of ‘national security.’ Since it needs vast amounts of funding independent of the legislative process, I would include the Fed in this mix, too.
‘National security’ trumps everything. As Hornberger points out, the protections detailed in the Constitution – ‘Due process of law, right to counsel, grand-jury indictments, trial by jury, search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishments, bail, speedy trial’ – are subordinate to ‘national security,’ which is never really defined. In practice, ‘national security’ is anything that keeps the national security establishment whole.
This post was published at GoldSeek on Sunday, 10 April 2016.
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