Post-Election Certainties:
- Paralyzed Government/Full Speed Globalization
- Recession
- War in Colombia

"FASTEN SEAT BELTS"

by Michael C. Ruppert

(c) Copyright 2000, "From The Wilderness" Dec 14, 2000 issue. Reprinted with permission for the "Narcoresearch" List Serve. All Rights Reserved. May not be reprinted, reproduced or otherwise distributed before Jan 15, 2001 without owner's express authorization.

[The Dec issue of FTW, for subscribers only, contains a chilling breakdown of the true history and danger behind U.S. plans for biowarfare in Colombia. Read the real story behind Fusarium oxysporum by Dan Russell only in the December issue of "From The Wilderness"]

December 14, 2000 - What happened during Campaign 2000 is nowhere near as important as what will happen after it. "If voting could change the system it would be illegal." So said an anonymous political cynic and I could not agree more. FTW has purposely avoided frenetic bulletins about recounts and lawsuits, demonstrations and allegations of voter fraud because we do not, and did not, endorse either candidate and we never trusted either side. Neither could we see any particular benefit to having either George Bush or Al Gore as President. To quote our good friend Catherine Austin Fitts, "Passing all understanding is the special insanity that is so obvious now that somehow permits people to transfer all the evil of their faction onto the other side. People are scared to death and they are making choices that have nothing to do with reality." As Republicans, in their zeal to avenge Clinton corruption, forget about Iran-Contra, The Savings and Loan scandal, death squads and their own HUD scandal, Democrats systematically forget about Kosovo Iraqi sanctions that have killed thousands of children, Plan Colombia, Democratic Party drug money, campaign finances, welfare reform, NAFTA and the fact that almost 800,000 non-violent drug offenders have been added to the prison population under Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

Somewhere down the road an unbiased forensic logician will look at the way the election scenario played and conclude that decisions were made by both sides that could have had no other objective but to prolong the crisis and corrode the authenticity and cachet of the government of the United States. It is the best living proof I have yet seen that a globalized New World Economic Order, the bane of both left and right, is emerging from shadows into light. It will not be long before we can see its shape more clearly as powerful economic "necessities" drive events at an accelerated pace. In the end, a President who is widely viewed as being incompetent, uninspired and lackluster, further hobbled by divisiveness so precise that it could only be contrived, is exactly what the situation calls for. We need not fear a dictator yet. But the current situation is the best Petrie dish for breeding one that this country has seen since 1929. The next four years will determine how quickly that comes - and perhaps only the next two.

Our biggest hero on election night was Pacifica Radio's legendary Amy Goodman who, from WBAI in New York, kept a really frustrated Bill Clinton (thinking he had called in for a "Get Out The Vote" rally), on the air for 30 minutes. Goodman called him to task on many of the issues that mainstream Democrats seem so amnesiac about. In doing so she gave essential voice to the growing numbers of Americans who are breaking free from hypnosis. As Pacifica Radio struggles through the second year of a purge to drive out any remaining independent thinkers we salute Goodman for her courage and perseverance. Current efforts to remove her from American airwaves, if successful, would serve as a chilling omen of coming fascism. Let us see how long she survives.

The Government
"Splintered," ""Fragmented," "Lacking in Clarity" - these were some of the terms that rolled in on December 12th as the Supreme Court decision was read over MS-NBC. Such adjectives accurately describe what the entire government will look like after January 20th. The Senate is split 50-50. Counting four Independent members the Republicans will have a mere five vote margin in the House. A President who lost the popular vote will have to appoint a cabinet. What does it mean for Americans? Under the Constitution the branch of government responsible for enforcing the laws, especially those laws that protect citizens and consumers is the executive branch - the President. These powers pass down through the President's cabinet secretaries to the various agencies, from the FBI to the SEC to the DEA to the FAA, etc. Cabinet posts have enormous power and for the next four years they will become virtually autonomous fiefdoms, unaccountable and unstoppable, more indebted to partisan and corporate interests than to a central government or the public interest.

It is critical to understand the role of major multi-national corporations in the running of the various agencies of the U.S. government. Corporations like Lockheed-Martin and Dyncorp, with strong CIA ties, have the contracts for data processing and financial management of accounts at HUD (mortgages), the Department of Justice (asset forfeiture fund) and the Pentagon. Just recently the GAO (see story this issue) announced that nearly $2.4 trillion has disappeared from HUD and the Department of Defense alone. This money is not lost. It has been stolen. Under a new Administration no agency will have the political will to investigate since a large portion of the stolen money goes back into partisan campaign coffers. How can Congress hold oversight hearings when both parties are implicated and neither party holds a mandate? The situation is tailor-made for both parties to engage in a looting spree unparalleled in human history. This is certain for no other reason than because both will be convinced that the other side is doing exactly the same thing.

For President "W" to get his nominees approved there will be a great deal of back room barter. More than one or two cabinet posts will go to the democrats as concessions and to keep up appearances that the government still holds legitimacy. The Republicans will, of a certainty, retain close control of State, Treasury and Justice. Less certain however, is the Department of Defense which may go to a Democrat like retired Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia. The rationale for this is that a massive war in Colombia is an absolute economic necessity for Wall Street corporations backing both sides. Do not expect Bush cronies like Richard Armitage and Ted Shackley to be placed in nomination for key posts because a 50-50 Senate would not confirm them. Also do not expect President "W" to be a bully with Cheney's Senate tie-breaking vote too soon. The real tie-breaker in the Senate will be the Federal Reserve and Wall Street. 

This lack of governmental authority will allow major corporations and campaign donors to deal directly with cabinet Secretaries for their "feeding" purposes. It will also permit multi-national corporations pushing for WTO, globalization, and in close alliance with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to operate virtually unfettered as they parade their international efficiencies against the arthritic remains of a once powerful central government. Expect Social Security to be raided before the 2004 elections in response to a massive recession.

Recession
It is important to understand that a recession is not a depression and that major corporations do not always suffer when recession or inflation comes. People suffer. A few day upsurge in the Dow Jones industrials or the beleaguered NASDAQ does not mean that everything is fine. As reported by the conservative Salomon Smith Barney an estimated $4.2 trillion dollars were wiped off of the value of stocks on the various US exchanges from March through mid-November. According to The New Federalist whose political philosophy I disagree with but which has excellent factual economic reports, this amount is, "equivalent to Japan's entire annual Gross Domestic Product. Poof!" This money has gone poof but only after it has gone into the pockets of corporations and brokerage houses where it remains - at least at the levels it was invested at. And, as FTW has been telling you for years now, trillions of new dollars are needed to keep the structure from collapsing. I happen to agree that a recession, that may well become a very deep one, is already here and that it will put many people out of work. 

In August, two noted Russian economists Oleg Grigoriyev and Mikhail Khazin, writing in Russia's Exspert Magazine (and reported by Eric Baronov in The Washington Insider) predicted a global economic collapse beginning in November, 2000. They have bee right thus far. Using hard numbers they established a precise correlation between the current U.S. economy and that of the late 1920s and then unabashedly observed that the way the US economy avoided a crash in 1998 after the Asian markets tanked was by resorting to the artificial mechanism of blowing up Kosovo. In this way Grigoriyev and Khazin agree with what FTW has been saying for some time - that the imminent war in Colombia is essential to prevent a total meltdown. They also agree with FTW that a lack of South American support for Plan Colombia augurs an increasingly profitable role for the Euro in the soon to be war torn continent. 

The Russian economists also predicted two things which we find very interesting in light of current events. First, they predicted that WTO would eventually fail as the world regressed into feudal protectionist economies and they also predicted that the "financial oligarchy" would do everything possible to maintain control over the political parties until after the election. This would be to prevent disclosure of how weak the economy actually is and how large fourth quarter losses are really going to be. Isn't it interesting to note that the results of the election have been delayed until well after the normal reporting period for quarterly earnings? 

Colombia
For 200 years nothing has so intoxicated the American people, or distracted us from our troubles as a war. It may well be that not since Pearl Harbor was allowed to happen in 1941 has the American oligarchy and Wall Street so needed one. In August, Bill Clinton, who created Plan Colombia traveled to Cartagena with a host of American business executives to celebrate Plan Colombia, a $1.3 billion military aid package supposed to help the Latin American nation fight the drug cartels. For a year now we have tracked the build-up and laid out the economic and political forces driving us into another Vietnam war that FTW believes must eventually involve American troops. Much of the implementation of Plan Colombia and the opening stages of the war are mandated by bi-lateral agreements approved by Congress last Fall. Not surprisingly, everything gets started in January. Included here is the mandatory use of biowarfare (see story this issue) against "coca" cultivation on lands controlled by leftist FARC and ELN guerillas. The intent: drive coca production onto lands controlled by the right wing paramilitaries and the government so that the proceeds can be invested in Wall Street.

As massacres increase and as the government, right-wing Paramilitaries like the AUC and the FARC and ELN guerillas all posture like Sumo wrestlers seeking the greatest advantage before January, the certainty of a bloody conflict increases daily. Here are just a few recent quotes from news stories that you may have missed while awaiting the outcome of the Presidential election. Washington still officially maintains that the creation of two more "anti-drug battalions in January and the launching of attacks in the southern half of the country has nothing whatsoever to do with the civil war. May God have mercy on us all.

- "White House Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey on Monday predicted heavy fighting in an approaching U.S. backed anti-drug offensive and warned that there would be repercussions for Colombia's neighbors... Last week, Colombia's largest leftist insurgency declared a freeze on peace talks..." - The Salt Lake Tribune, November 21, 2000

-  " The FARC's expansion, together with significant increases by both the armed forces and rightist paramilitary squads, comes as further evidence that Colombia's bloody conflict is heading for a major upsurge as the military finalizes plans for a U.S.-backed assault on drug traffickers and the rebels who protect them." The Miami Herald, December 11, 2000.

-  "...Evidence shows FARC guerillas supplied cocaine to the [Mexican] cartel in exchange for cash and possibly weapons. This development is another illustration of FARC's deep involvement in narcotics trafficking. Since late 1999 the FARC has sought to establish a monopoly position over the commercialization of the cocaine base across much of Southern Colombia." - U.S. State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher, November 29, 2000.

-  "WASHINGTON - As U.S. assistance to war-fatigued Colombia escalates, the Clinton administration portrays American military involvement there as nothing more than basic anti-drug fighting aid. Haunted by the shadows of Vietnam and El Salvador, administration officials vow to avoid managing another war by proxy in a foreign land. The truth, however, isn't that clear cut... Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., said he detests Vietnam analogies, 'because nine out of 10 times they are all wet.... But I have to tell you," he said, 'this reminds me very much of Vietnam... Whatever happens, there are going to be a lot of mother's sons who are going to die who may or may not be Americans." - The St. Petersburg Times, December 3, 2000.

Michael C. Ruppert