Libertarians vs. Conservatives on Torture by Jacob G. Hornberger December 17, 2014 Sometimes people who are new to libertarianism think that libertarianism is just a subset of conservatism. Nothing could be further from the truth. While there are some overlaps on economic issues, libertarianism is a philosophy that stands squarely against conservatism and, for that matter, liberalism or, as it is commonly known, progressivism. The current national debate on torture provides a good dividing line between libertarians and conservatives. Conservatives love the fact that the U.S. government has a program of “enhanced interrogation.” They want to see more of it. Libertarians hold that the U.S. government’s torture program is one of the most shameful and despicable federal programs in U.S. history. Consider these two articles by two prominent conservatives, which pretty much express the views of the conservative movement: “I Am Not Sorry the CIA Waterboarded” by Bret Stephens and “Tortured Reasoning” by Thomas Sowell, both of whom are conservatives. If you would like to understand how conservatives view the torture scandal, ...
Make the CIA Release Its Chile Torture Files by Jacob G. Hornberger December 10, 2014 With the long-awaited release of the U.S. Senate’s Torture Report, it would be tempting to believe that the CIA’s torture regime began after 9/11 2001. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s not forget the torture regime in Chile that began on 9/11 1973 and continued for years after that. From 1970 to 1973, the CIA did everything it could to bring about a military coup in Chile, one designed to oust the democratically elected president of the country, Salvador Allende, a self-proclaimed Marxist, from office and install a military dictatorship in his stead. Since the election had been thrown into the Chilean congress given that no candidate had won a majority of votes, the CIA first tried to bribe the members of congress with U.S. taxpayer money to vote against Allende. When that didn’t succeed, the CIA orchestrated the kidnapping of the commanding officer of the entire Chilean armed forces, a man named General Rene Schneider. Why Schneider? Schneider was standing in ...
U.S. Officials Were Partners in Pinochet’s Kidnappings, Rapes, Torture, and Murders by Jacob G. Hornberger September 11, 2014 REMINDER: Our Upcoming One-Day Blockbuster Conference on October 18 at Columbia University in New York City. Don't be caught short. Sign up now because space is limited. Admission price: FREE. Today marks the 41st anniversary of the military coup in Chile, a coup in which Chilean military personnel under the command of Army General Augusto Pinochet brutally raped or tortured some 40,000 innocent people and murdered more than 3,000 innocent people. I use the term “innocent” in the sense that the victims had not committed any genuine crimes. Their only “crime”—and Pinochet and his henchmen believed it was a crime--was that the victims believed in communism or socialism or had supported the democratically elected regime of Salvador Allende, who himself was a believer in communism and socialism. Did Pinochet accord any of these people judicial trials, in which they were formally accused of being communists, socialists, or supporters of the Allende administration? No, he did not. He didn’t feel that trials ...
U.S. Federal Judges Owe America an Apology by Jacob G. Hornberger April 8, 2014 Chilean judges have issued a formal apology for their deference to Chile’s national-security state apparatus under the military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The apology comes some 40 years after Chile’s federal judiciary failed to protect the fundamental rights and liberties of the citizenry during Pinochet’s reign of terror. “The time has come to ask for the forgiveness ...
A Misguided Attack on The Future of Freedom Foundation by Jacob G. Hornberger March 27, 2014 In an article at PJMedia.com, writer Keith Farrell suggests that libertarians should support foreign interventionism and specifically takes The Future of Freedom Foundation and LewRockwell.com to task for opposing foreign interventionism. Acknowledging that some U.S. interventions have proven to be absolute disasters, Farrell feels that libertarians should nonetheless be supporting U.S. foreign interventionism in selected cases. Farrell is wrong. ...
So What If the CIA Is Spying on Congress? by Jacob G. Hornberger March 7, 2014 At the end of the Cold War, the American people had a grand opportunity, one that entailed the dismantling of the national-security state apparatus that had been grafted onto our governmental system after the end of World War II. It would have made sense, given that the justification for making the national-security state apparatus a permanent feature of American ...
Ukraine and the U.S. National Security State by Jacob G. Hornberger March 6, 2014 At the end of the Cold War, the American people had a grand opportunity, one that entailed the dismantling of the national-security state apparatus that had been grafted onto our governmental system after the end of World War II. It would have made sense, given that the justification for making the national-security state apparatus a permanent feature of American ...
The Fifth Amendment Lies in Crumbles by Jacob G. Hornberger February 25, 2014 The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads in part as follows: Nor shall any person … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” The term “due process of law” stretches all the way back to Magna Carta, the great charter extracted from King John in 1215 in which he was forced to acknowledge that his ...
The Strange Love for Pinochet by Jacob G. Hornberger September 11, 2013 As part of its coverage on President Obama’s plan to bomb Syria, yesterday’s New York Times reported the results of a survey it recently conducted. The article stated in part: When asked whether the United States should intervene to turn dictatorships into democracies, 72 percent said no while only 15 percent said yes. That is the highest level ...
Murder, Inc. by Jacob G. Hornberger May 23, 2013 For all his faults and failures, President Lyndon Johnson put it correctly: With its assassination program, the CIA was operating a “damned Murder Inc.” Not only does Johnson’s pointed observation observe the true nature of the federal government’s assassination program, it also serves to show that assassination has been an integral part of the U.S. national-security state apparatus since ...
My Talk at UNC by Jacob G. Hornberger March 22, 2013 On Thursday evening, I had the honor of addressing the Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) and the Students for Liberty (SDS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The two groups were working together to oppose the U.S. government’s assassination program as well as foreign interventionism and empire in general. During the day, the students promoted the event ...
Why Isn’t the Murder of an American Boy an Impeachable Offense? by Jacob G. Hornberger February 20, 2013 Article 2, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution reads as follows: The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” In 1998, President Bill Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice for matters arising out of ...
