Bringing back memories of the Bush era the National Security State, facing an increasing amount of pressure for illegal spying activities is playing the fear card. DNI James Clapper, who lied to Congress launched the coming propaganda campaign to terrorize the already besieged U.S. populace with warnings of an imminent Syrian based 'terrorist' attack on "The Homeland".

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Constantly under pressure for the illegal surveillance activities of the NSA that are now fully blossoming to include what are the obvious uses of such programs  including sexual blackmail  the National Security State has resorted to the Bush strategy: fear mongering.  The state-corporate media has dutifully been ratcheting up the full frontal assault on Americans over  DNI James Clapper's ominous testimony  before a Senate committee that a Syrian group  "does have aspirations for attacks on the homeland" .  Never mind that this is the same James Clapper who  lied to Congress  over the extent of domestic spying on law-abiding citizens but he is taken seriously with his threat of a looming Islamist militant attack within the borders of the United States.  It should be noted that such an attack (or the uncovering of one in the plotting stage) at the very same time when the drip, drip, drip of stories of abuse by the intelligence agenies under his sphere of authority is about to become a torrent would be very fortuitous indeed. Such an attack on The Homeland would allow for the full power of the state to be mobilized to go after former government contractor turned NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden with hammer, tong, JSOC assassination teams and drones. It would also allow for the total and permanent crushing of any dissent against the post September 11, 2001 authoritarian state, starting with journalists like the hated Glenn Greenwald and extending to possibly include anyone who within the range of a  three hop query  of those who have voiced support for Snowden.

This past week saw the resurrection of the toothpaste bomb, something straight out of the Bush-Cheney era of cultivating our national paranoia that turned our airports into Soviet bloc style checkpoints. Now the Department of Homeland Security is following Clapper's lead by bringing the war that Obama did not start on schedule into the domestic realm. Jeh Johnson the successor to Janet Napolitano as the head of the American Gestapo in remarks on Friday stated that:

"We know individuals from the U.S., Canada and Europe are traveling to Syria to fight in the conflict," he said. "At the same time, extremists are actively trying to recruit Westerners, indoctrinate them, and see them return to their home countries with an extremist mission."

And in a piece that ran in Reuters on the same day entitled "Analysis: Is Syria now a direct threat to the U.S.?"  by David Rohde which bestows a sort of fawning legitimacy upon the pathological liar Clapper a number of what will soon become standard talking points were rolled out".  I excerpt the following:

Peace talks are at a virtual standstill. An emboldened President Bashar al-Assad has missed two deadlines to turn over his deadliest chemical weapons. And radical extremists who have fought in Syria are carrying out attacks in Egypt and allegedly aspire to strike the United States as well.

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper told members of Congress last week that Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda aligned group in Syria, "does have aspirations for attacks on the homeland." American and Egyptian officials expressed alarm this week at signs that Egyptians who fought in Syria have returned home to mount an insurgency.

Critics of Obama administration policy in Syria argue that none of this should come as a surprise. For years, they have predicted that Assad and his Iranian and Russian backers would fight tenaciously; militants would flock to Syria; and the region would be destabilized by refugee flows, rising sectarianism and radicalized fighters returning home.

In his testimony last week, Clapper said that American intelligence agencies had picked up indications of "training complexes" within Syria "to train people to go back to their countries and conduct terrorist acts, so this is a huge concern."

If the addicted to war establishment is to make a public case for rebooting the failed push for attacks on Damascus it would probably be advisable to find some new footage of the "training camps" other than the al Qaeda fighters swinging from monkey bars that was aired thousands of times when the case was being made to attack Iraq but perhaps I am being too generous in thinking that anyone would notice.  Having another terrorist attack occur domestically, especially with foreign interests blamed for it would also be a windfall for the trillion dollar private security industry that sprang up to exploit the "day when everything changed' and have been parasite upon the body politic ever since as well as leeches on the backs of American taxpayers. It would for all intents and purposes allow them to lock in their gains forever and even receive more money courtesy of corrupt politicians and sociopathic bureaucrats like Clapper.

There will be absolutely no excuse for not demanding the bald head of one James Clapper mounted on a pike if there is another attack on The Homeland. There was no accountability after September 11, 2001 but this time and especially in light of his obvious conflicts of interest were one to occur Clapper should not only be immediately fired but investigated. Enough of this looking forward crap in order to excuse incompetence and even possible criminality, it is well past time to begin to eliminate the rats that have infested our system.

We will soon rue the day when a more proactive approach to the removal of Clapper from his position was not taken shortly after he lied to Congress as this is a very cunning and dangerous man who has been backed into a corner.

Authors Bio:

Donn Marten is a free lance writer and consultant who resides in West Central Florida.