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Gregory Palast: "America Has Been Utterly Damaged"

By GREGORY PALAST
Gregory Palast, author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, in an interview with Linda L. Starr.

Online Journal, Mar. 17, 2003

"In America, there are no legal limits to Free Speech, and the First Amendment is taken very seriously. In the U.K., the press is afraid of the law because they do not have First Amendment rights. Now, since Bush came into office, America is afraid of its shadow."
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"Newsrooms in the U.K. are more intellectual and factual, while America no longer enjoys real freedom of open discussions of issues in newsrooms."
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"Dan Rather related American media had been silenced by a fear of lynching with labels of being unpatriotic and anti-American. Those who dare to ask the tough questions of the Bush administration are shunned. Look, it's just been announced that Phil Donohue's show has been cancelled, not for lack of high ratings, but for cozying up to anti-war and anti-Bush guests."
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"America has been auctioned off to the highest bidder, the Bush administration, which is carting off everything that isn't nailed down. War with Iraq has become Bush's weapon of mass destruction. The system has been stolen out from under us."
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"Cowardice [is the biggest threat to the world]. The media won't report, people won't march and stand up, no open debates. Cowardice stalks America. People do not know, and many are afraid to ask, but where does the Bush administration's foreign policy end and Bush family's bank accounts start?"
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"[The C.I.A.'s] powers have been diminished by other agencies. It doesn't follow the agenda of the Bush administration. It steadfastly maintains there is no connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Other agencies are moving to the front."
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"We have characters in the Bush administration who fantasize about a total control state where all Americans are watched."
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"[I don't see Bush as another Hitler.] Hitler set out to exterminate a race of people. Bush is based upon money and greed, by auctioning off the assets of the U.S.A. and the world."
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"Remember, Poppy Bush had a 92 percent approval rating just 12 months prior to Bill Clinton being elected. Bush learned something from his father's defeat and thinks he can survive for another four years with all war, all the time. Americans will tire of this quickly. It's happening now. The antiwar movement is growing daily."
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"America has been utterly damaged. For the first time in history, America's Supreme Court interfered in our elections and appointed an extremist. Americans who disagree with that decision are under suspicion and being watched. America was attacked by Saudi Arabs, not Americans, but Americans are the ones being watched. Now we have the Ashcroft Total Awareness Information, created to hamper free speech, search and seizures without warrants and Americans face losing their American citizenship if they protest. ChoicePoint has been chosen to keep the database on all dissidents. The Bush administration is rewriting the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, where they have total control over everyone and everything. Once again McCarthyism, with Americans under suspicion by the government."
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"Bush wasn't elected by the people. He is not my president. There was a manipulation of the outcome of the Florida election by Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris. I owe him no allegiances. I owe America my allegiance. How did this snot-nosed Yankee son of a rich congressman get out of serving during Viet Nam and ultimately escape that enlistment? He went A.W.O.L. and didn't even get into trouble. How did this white, rich, spoiled, frat boy become president of the United States? Bush has no appreciation, no empathy, for what normal Americans encounter in everyday life. When Milosevich and Fugimori tried to manipulate the vote in their countries, the people went into the streets. It's sad that Americans did not march upon Washington after the selection by the Supreme Court in Dec. 2000. It required very strong leadership and America doesn't have that right now."
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