The Last Roundup

"First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me."

--- Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945

Edgar J. Steele writes:
(2-12-03)

A little over a year ago, when the alarm bells first went off in my head about the current federal administration, I started joking that I longed for the day when I was merely embarrassed by a President who couldn't keep his pants zipped. I honestly didn't believe that Bush, Ashcroft, Cheney,

Rumsfield and company were evil or that ultimately they would do anything to endanger us - from either within or without the country. I thought they were pretty much just overzealous boy scouts.

I'm not sure whether it was Churchill or Roosevelt who said of national politics: Nothing is as it seems. I do believe it was Roosevelt, however, in a moment of weakness, who said that all national and international incidents and outcomes are scripted.


I was naive. I am no longer joking about Clinton, either. Ashcroft is evil incarnate. So are Cheney, Rumsfield and the rest of them.

I'm still inclined to give Bush a pass, but only because I think he lacks the mental capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct. In the legal field, we call it the insanity defense. Even so, I'm one of those rare lawyers who thinks the insanity defense should only moderate the penalty, not the conviction, so Bush the Second goes on the docket with the rest of them, in my book.

I saw Bill Clinton talking on TV last night and was amazed to find myself feeling somewhat kindly toward him. You just don't know what you have until you lose it, as they say. Yes, Clinton was a disgrace. Yes, Clinton was a crook. But I didn't feel my family to be threatened by him, either directly or indirectly, as a result of his foreign policy, as I do with Bush and company.

I didn't vote for either Bush or Gore this last election. Previously, I would have felt fine pulling the lever for Bush, like so many others, feeling that I had selected the lesser of two evils. The problem with doing that, of course, is that one still chooses evil. Think about that for a moment. I suspect that most of the people reading this right now did that very thing after closing the curtain on the voting booth. We have only ourselves to blame for what is now unfolding. Possibly the US Supreme Court, too, given what they pulled regarding the Florida vote.

We all know of the danger that America faces today as a result of the buildup of forces in and around Iraq. We all know of Bush's failure to articulate a single defensible rationale for attacking Iraq, too. Incredibly, many Americans seem to think that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9-11.

What so many seem to be ignoring is the danger presented by our cavalier dealings with North Korea.

We are literally on the verge of World War III, folks. It just takes a spark from one of the many powderkegs that Bush and company have emplaced around the world. The big difference from the last two major wars is that this time we are going to start it. You have heard them talking about preemptive strikes - on both Iraq and North Korea. You have heard them talk about even using nukes in those preemptive strikes, haven't you

Probably doesn't matter, because we are rapidly eliminating any options for Iraq and North Korea, so that they will feel compelled to attack, just as we literally forced Japan to attack us at Pearl Harbor. And that completely ignores Al Quaeda and Osama bin Laden (Osama who).

Even in Britain and Australia, now, the two countries that have been our most ardent supporters concerning Iraq, there is arising a huge cry against America's warmongering. You would be able to hear it from the streets of America, too, if the media were not so tightly controlled. We are walking this path alone. Well, not counting Israel, of course, for whom all this began, in the first place.

The Facts We literally have become the most hated nation on the planet and that is why, when the fireworks begin, a goodly amount of them will go off in American cities. Bush and company are well aware of this. Obviously, they consider America's impending casualties to be "acceptable losses."

Think of your children in that category - Bush and Ashcroft do.

The inevitable disruption in America to be caused by those strikes will lead to massive civil chaos and unrest. Thus, the need for Homeland Security and the ill-named Patriot Act. Those weren't implemented to protect us, you see, they were designed to control us when the time comes.

Thus, the emphasis on domestic "terrorists." Seeing one's family butchered will make a terrorist of anybody - just ask the Palestinians.

Matt Hale

It isn't being reported in the media, but there is a roundup taking place of those deemed most likely to lead insurrections against the American government in a time of civil disturbance. The most visible arrest lately has been that of Matt Hale, head of the World Church of the Creator, taken down on what appear to be manufactured charges of soliciting the murder of a judge sitting on a copyright case in which his organization has been involved (and which, incredibly enough, resulted in a judicial order that the church's bibles be destroyed).


Hardly anybody agrees with or approves of Hale. Most dismiss his church as being no church at all, but merely an excuse to vent racial hatred. That is not the point. Hale vehemently disagrees with the policies of the American government and that is the point. Hale is being held in solitary confinement, with virtually nobody allowed to see him and all letters to him being returned, a la the Patriot Act. They are treating him as a domestic terrorist.

Ernst Zundel

Picked up just last week: Ernst Zundel, Canadian expatriate who has been living in Tennessee. Zundel was central to a notable hate speech trial in Canada, which he lost when the court ruled that he illegally was a "Holocaust denier," because he took issue, in writing, with many of the claims made by jews concerning the Holocaust. It didn't matter that he proved his points to be correct. What mattered was that he disagreed with the Canadian government. What matters now is that he disagrees with the American government regarding many things, though he really watches his step. His misstep He missed a visa hearing of which he swears he never received notice.

Christine Greenwood

A lady named Christine Greenwood was recently arrested in Southern California. Greenwood ran something called the Aryan Baby Drive, which collected children's clothing for distribution for free, solely to needy white people. Government agents found a couple of things that probably are in your garage right now, things they said could be used in the manufacture of a bomb. What were they doing in her garage in the first place Greenwood has been openly critical of the government.

David Duke

David Duke just worked out a plea bargain whereby he does some hard time, allegedly for embezzling contributions. The facts literally do not hold water in his case, but he doesn't dare go before a jury on any charge, because a conviction is as certain as death and taxes.

Kirk Lyons

Testimony was taken last week in Spokane from a woman who claimed she received $2,000 from a North Carolina attorney named Kirk Lyons, in exchange for a box of secret documents, part of a cache of such documents that she and her ex-military paramour had amassed. Lyons is waiting for them to come for him. Lyons is the head of the Southern Legal Resource Center, a public-interest law firm that handles many of the Confederate flag cases that you hear about. Lyons has been openly critical of the government. No, of course he didn't do it. It's a setup.

A number of lesser lights have been taken into custody recently.

Eric Gliebe

Rumors abound of investigations into others who are alleged to be racists and/or antigovernment. Eric Gliebe, new head of the National Alliance, has heard them concerning himself and his organization. The National Alliance has been characterized by Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center as being the most dangerous antigovernment organization in America today.

Dees was instrumental in taking down Richard Butler and the Aryan Nations two years ago, and Tom Metzger before that, and a significant chapter of the Ku Klux Klan before that. Rumor is, had Clinton jettisoned Janet Reno after the Waco disaster, then Dees would have taken her place as US Attorney General.


Used to be, the establishment took down one of these high-profile politically-incorrect types every two years or so. Suddenly, all the stops have been pulled out and they are being arrested and locked away faster than I can keep track. Do you believe in coincidence I don't.


Given the current temperament of political correctness, none of these people dare appear before a jury. Already tried and convicted in the media before jury selection, they simply don't stand a chance of not doing serious time on trumped-up charges. No, I am not kidding. I have too many clients who already have met the same fate, with whom I can prove that tragic assertion.

Aside from shutting these people up and, in some cases, destroying their organizations altogether, the government is getting them off the streets before things blow up. These are the people that logically could be expected to be leading protests when the time comes, you see.

As if that weren't enough, last week the Justice Department took the wraps off Patriot Act II, a significant extension to the already-draconian provisions of the Patriot Act passed last year. I have yet to do a comprehensive analysis of this lengthy document, but what I have seen so far is very troubling, indeed.


Patriot Act I allows the designation of an American citizen as a domestic terrorist, a governmental designation not subject to review by any court or, for that matter, anybody. After that, the person can be held indefinitely, without trial or, even, being charged. No, I am not kidding.

You haven't been paying attention if you didn't already know that.

Now, here comes Patriot Act II, which allows that "domestic terrorist" to be stripped of his American citizenship and deported to another country for "further processing" (can you say "summary execution" or "torture," boys and girls).

I suppose there will come a time when I will need to shut down this modest effort at providing a look behind the curtain. It may even come to my being arrested on some phony charge, though I suspect they will work through a number of other people before they get to me. For now, though, I speak up for the politically incorrect among us who are being led away.

Now You

How long before they get to you, do you suppose Of course, you do realize, don't you, that neither I nor anybody else of a mind to do so will be left to speak on your behalf when that time comes

The time has come for every single American to speak out in protest. Trust me, this is our last chance. The American government has become truly insane and must be stopped. It is our job to do it. Call congresspeople.

Tell your friends and coworkers. Flood the media with letters. March. Speak up in public meetings.

New America. An idea whose time has come.



"I didn't say it would be easy. I just said it would be the truth." -- Morpheus

Copyright ©2003, Edgar J. Steele

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