The past is the present is the future

The past is the present is the future

With so much history in the making right now, you may feel as though now isn’t the time to review scandals of yore. But those who do not study history are condemned to relive it. Yes, that’s a cliche; it’s also true.

Case in point: Gary Buell’s recent look back at the Secret Army Organization(http://coverthistory.blogspot.com/2...), a militia-like provocateur group of the early ’70s — whose leaders were run by the FBI.

The SAS represented the plausibly deniable "action arm" of an extremist group within the government which felt that Nixon had sold out by pursuing detente. I’ve discussed this group in past posts, which looked back at Hoover, Angleton, and the Moorer-Radford affair.

Another plot targeted the 1972 Republican National Convention. In this scenario, terrorists falsely identified as Vietnam Veterans Against the War personnel were to bomb and gun down delegates.

John Kerry helped to lead the VVAW at that time. He must have pissed off someone.

The ultimate goal: A far-right (to the right of Nixon) military takeover of the United States.

One informant (whose reliability has been questioned) maintained that the plot included Watergate burglars James McCord and E. Howard Hunt. If that’s true, we may better understand the arguments profferred by many observers that these two men intentionally "bungled" the Watergate burglary to embarrass Nixon.

Why is all this past-tense material still relevant?

1. Because the ideological heirs of that far-right faction have achieved power in the present administration.

2. Because the public must understand that this strategy — mass death engineered to seem the work of an opponent — has precedent. The extreme right really will use such tactics to acquire and maintain power.

Understand the past and you will better understand the future.
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