June 12, 2002 (APJP) -- Work with me here, friends.

Follow along as I talk something through.

We've all been through a lot together since November of 2000. Our worst fears have been realized about the Bush "administration". Still, we could never have been cynical enough to imagine the venom with which the Bush clique would attack the Constitution and the American people, day after day after day. We've reeled under the blows and railed against events, our hearts breaking for this sweet land of liberty.

Last night I saw something in the day's news that buckled my knees. Something more potentially diabolical than we have seen in many decades. Something that could rip the country apart -- while bringing great benefit to the Bush clique.

It's difficult to even know how to broach such a subject, but here goes.

Would it be out of the realm of possibility for John Ashcroft and the inner circle to desire that red-state America rise up against Black American Muslims?

Would it be unthinkable that this regime could engineer a race war in America, focusing on a demonized and scapegoated minority?

Lord knows such a plan would put a song in John Ashcroft's heart, bringing together his theocratic impulses, rigid and fanatical ideology, fundamentalist bent, and latent racialism.

Lord knows such a plot would provide impetus and cover for any measure the regime wished to impose, from martial law to internment camps for certain Blacks, to even depopulation of one kind or another for any segment of society that became undesirable or difficult.

And the whole firmament knows how easily this race war could be implemented through the great echo chamber of the right wing -- Rush Limbaugh and his dittoheads alone could have an arguable third of America carrying ropes and torches within 24 hours, impressionable people that they are.

Media discussion on Monday of the capture of alleged "dirty-bomber" Jose Padilla is what specifically rocked my sensorium. Look at this, from Politically Incorrect:

Debbie Schlussel (right-wing columnist for Scaife-funded sites
and publications)*: Bill, I think one thing that is very
interesting, you know, Jane referred to the prisons and how
this Jose Padilla converted to Islam in prison. Same place Mike
Tyson converted to Islam. And the thing is that the
organization that had the contract with the U.S. Government to
train the chaplains for the prison and military system was this
thing called the graduate school of Islamic social sciences.
It was one of the organizations that was raided in Northern
Virginia in March under "Operation Greenquest" and customs,
under the warrant, said that the money they were getting from
the Saudis, they were laundering $1.7 billion to the Isle of
Man to fund terrorism. This is the organization that is
training the chaplains in the prisons and in our military."

Schlussel had obviously been briefed on the phenomenon of Muslims in American prisons for the show. And her goal was to "connect" Black felons with terrorism.

That's when my heart raced and my jaw dropped. Could they? Would they? A race war?

On Tuesday, other mentions of America's Islamic prisoners began to surface in coverage of Padilla, always characterizing the offenders as men transformed by Islam, embittered and alienated from American society.

On Wednesday came another hit, from the New York Post's John Podhoretz, a Murdoch-employed water carrier. His column is titled "The First Sign of a Fifth Column?"

"Here's the fear: The existence of Abdullah al Muhajir [Jose
Padilla] is the first real evidence we have that al Qaeda
might have developed some sort of Fifth Column here in America.
(The term "fifth column" refers to traitorous enemy agents
whose job it is to sabotage their own country from the inside.)
Al Mujahir isn't some messed-up Marin County kid like John
Walker Lindh. He's a hardened criminal named Jose Padilla who
was born in Brooklyn and raised in Chicago. He converted to
Islam during a stay in a Florida prison. This last fact is very
worrisome. It would make a certain amount of sense for prisons
to become a breeding ground for militant Islamists, given the
success that Black Muslim preachers have had over the past 60
years inside penitentiaries. (Malcolm X became a Black Muslim
in jail.)"

Podhoretz goes on to include a lot of information about Louis Farakhan's radicalism, striking a master blow of demonization overall.

Here's the association the right wing is pushing: Black Muslims = Malcom X = Farakhan = terrorism = Padilla = millions of Black felons carrying unspeakable terror to white America.

We can almost hear Ashcroft spitting out the denunciations in his inimitable and creepy style.

Tuesday night I found a few other people who see the insidious plot. A Black woman on Democratic Underground writes:

"Podhoretz is really reaching with this one. He says that
Padilla converted to Islam in jail. Well well, just like
Malcolm X did. Wow! That must mean somehow that Padilla and
Black Muslims are linked. Padilla is just like Malcolm,
didn't you know? And you know what that means. That means that
militant blacks are on the list next to be targeted as 'enemy
combatants' to be locked away by Ashcroft for an indefinite
period of time, stripped of all civil rights. They might be
talking about or planning to make a dirty bomb, too. Who's
next? This is nothing but modern-day McCarthysim: Who's the
'enemy-combatant'. Is it you?"

And another DU member responds:

"Let them try it, they will have every black organization on
their asses, starting with the NAACP, and because of the 2000
election, not a damn person will give them the benefit of the
doubt.

And that will damn well hurt them in November.

But I WILL say this. If the Bushies decide to declare a police
state or martial law, blacks will become to the US, what Jews
were to the 1930's Germany.

Holocaust victims.

They will come for us first."

There it is. American Black men will save the Bush presidency in just the same way that Jews provided for Hitler's success in oppressing his own people.

So, this is what's troubling me. And I'm bringing the worries to you in the hope that talking about this openly can blow their scheme.

The strategies of the Bush clique are majestic in scale and breathtaking in bravura. As we learned from the blitzkrieg announcement of the government reorganization, this White House crew cooks things up in total secrecy and springs plans on us for maximum debilitating effect.

Too many times, we could only react, stunned and sickened. That must change. We must put Bush and Ashcroft and the right-wing racialists on notice that this demonization and scapegoating of our Black brothers and sisters will not stand. How we raise the right ruckus, I leave to those more experienced in organizing activism.

If not us, who? If not now, when? If not for the protection of those who endured centuries of enslavement and bigotry at the hands of people like Ashcroft, for what?

*Note: Interestingly, Debbie Schlussel notes in her bio that she was voted most likely to succeed at her "black majority high school".