by Eric Zuesse, The Duran:
The U.S. Congress is now about to pass into law something called “The Restrict Act” that is being promoted as aiming to empower the Government to protect children from being influenced by foreign “adversaries” but would basically enable the Government to control all media in order to protect everyone in America from having access to allegations that come from a “foreign adversary” which it defines as “any foreign government or regime determined by the Secretary, pursuant to sections 3 and 5, to have engaged in a long-term pattern or serious instances of conduct significantly adverse to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons.” (All of the clauses in that determination are judgmental on the part of that “Secretary,” not necessarily based upon any proofs or even on any allegations about facts — and not at all based upon the finding by any court or by any independent scientific body.)
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This dictate, that there will be censorship against the “foreign adversary,” will be targeted against, but not be limited only to, the following countries, which are specifically identified as being “foreign adversaries,” in this Act to be passed by Congress and signed by President Biden (if that happens): China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela. Those 6 countries are specifically named as being “foreign adversaries,” but the Act also allows the “Secretary” to add others that are, as yet, unidentified. (The Act specifically names Venezuela’s leader as being the reason why that country is on that list of 6 — essentially as being targeted by the U.S. for regime-change. Each of the other 5 countries on it is a “foreign adversary” irrespective of the identity of any of its leaders.)
Without Congress having to comply with the section of the U.S. Constitution that requires a congressional passage of a declaration of war in order for the President to be authorized to order U.S. troops to invade a foreign country, this Act, if it becomes passed into law, will already institute martial law of strict censorship to prevent, in America, whatever the “Secretary” declares to be allegations from a “foreign adversary” to be published or publicized in the United States. The result, of course, will then be that the U.S. Government will be legally enabled to censor-out and ban whatever the U.S. Government wants to ban, and will need only to claim that the information that is being banned comes from a “foreign adversary” in order for the U.S. Government to have the legal authority to censor all U.S. media in order to protect “the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons.”
Of course, after a few weeks or months of such censorship-power being imposed upon the ‘citizens’ (or subjects) of this Government, a formal congressional declaration of war against any or all of the named “foreign adversaries” (then become “enemies”) and/or against any other foreign Government(s) that the “Secretary” will name, will then easily pass Congress and become signed into law by President Biden, constituting then a formal declaration of war against that or those named “foreign adversaries,” so that the United States Government will then be fully authorized to go onto a complete war-footing, and to invade that country or those countries.
In other words: this bill, if passed, would lead to identifying 6 specific, and undetermined other, ‘enemies’ (or “foreign adversaries”) of the American people, and thus be the preliminary draft of a congressional declaration of war against any or all of those countries. The subsequent declaration of war would be only a formality. Of course, in the cases of America’s invasions against Iraq in 2003, and against Libya and Syria and so many others, the Constitutional requirement for a declaration of war was simply ignored. They’re doing it a different way this time. Or, at least, they are trying to. It is not as-if the American permanent-warfare state is entirely new. But it is evolving.
The proposed law, if passed, would also violate the press-freedom clause in the U.S. Constitution; but that, too, means whatever this Government says it means, and would therefore not be a barrier.
The bill was drafted by a centrist or bipartisan Democrat, Senator Mark Warner, and might go through revisions or amendments in order, for example, to find out which of the named “foreign adversaries” are accepted by enough members of Congress to be called “enemies,” so as to facilitate ultimately drafting a declaration of war that will then have sufficient bipartisan support so as to pass and go to the President for his signature. So: Warner’s bill is the first step towards war against any of at least 6 countries, and others as-yet undetermined.
