Bush’s World: Martial Law Without Congress

Last updated on: July 26, 2007 at 11:24 am by Lynn Hayes

Bush’s World: Martial Law Without Congress 2007-07-26T11:24:00-04:00 Lynn Hayes

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I can’t believe this has not made it into the mainstream news media. In my update on Bush a few days ago I mentioned this new presidential directive of May 9 declaring martial law in the event of a national emergency. Since then I’ve been looking for news reports to learn more, but have found nothing.

This directive was signed as Saturn was nearing its final opposition to retrograde Neptune. The Saturn/Neptune cycle, as we’ve seen, is associated with government (Saturn) and that which is hidden or obscured (Neptune), and under that umbrella it has a tendency to bring scandals and revelations of secret government misdoings. Saturn in Leo is concerned with “who’s in charge,” and Neptune is the King of Coverups. A perfect analogy for this:

On October 17, 2006, when George W. Bush signed the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2007—a $538 billion military spending bill—he enacted into law a section called “Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies.” In the view of many, this Act substantially changed fundamental laws of the United States, giving Bush—and all future U.S. presidents—new and sweeping powers to use the U.S. military anywhere in the United States, virtually as he sees fit—for disaster relief, crowd control, suppression of public disorder, or any “other condition” that might arise.

News coverage of these significant changes in the law has been virtually nonexistent. At nearly every stage when it might have received coverage, the news media have completely ignored the story: When the NDAA was debated, when it was passed in the House on September 29 and in the Senate on Sept. 30, 2006, when it was signed into law on October 17, and even when Senate Judiciary chair Patrick Leahy (D.-Vt.) introduced his own bill on February 7, 2007 to overturn the Oct. 17 measures, mainstream media have provided no news coverage. Only on April 24, 2007, when the first hearings were held on Leahy’s bill, did a handful of mainstream media reports appear.

What could happen under the new law? As just one example, let’s say hundreds of demonstrators in Boston engaged in civil disobedience, sitting-in on the Boston Common to protest the country’s policies in Iraq, and traffic ground to a halt. Under the new law, the president could order in the Massachusetts National Guard to clear out the protesters even if the Massachusetts governor opposed this. . . .

Until the hearings, none of the many twists and turns of this story since the summer of 2006 has resulted in a single news story in any mainstream outlet we could identify—including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report.

Searches of transcripts for ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, PBS and NPR likewise revealed no coverage. Even journals of opinion like the Nation, New Republic, National Review and Weekly Standard have managed to avoid the topic.

This new presidential directive revokes earlier directives that include Congress in emergency planning and instead makes the President the sole coordinator of the government: “The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government.” There is no mention of Congress in this directive.

Jerome Corsi of Worldnet Daily has done a good job of analyzing this situation.

More recently the Atlantic Free Press reports on another directive issued by President Bush, this one threatening to confiscate the property of anyone in the US that threatens the stability of Iraq. Will this extend to those who protest the war? With 70% of Americans disapproving of the way Bush is handling the war it’s hard to see that this would have much traction. But if it’s not reported in the news media, no one will ever know.

Which leads us again to the transition between Pluto (repression) in Sagittarius (the press) leading into Pluto (repression, breakdown, ultimate transformation) in Capricorn (governmental structures), especially when squared by Uranus (the common people) in Aries (mad as hell).

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