Stop the paramilitary kidnappings of civilians in the United States by any means necessary
Emanuel Pastreich
Director
The Center for Truth Politics
Green Liberty
March 27, 2025
The kidnapping of Rumeysa Ozturk, a student at Tufts University in Somerville, Massachusetts by paramilitary forces in unmarked uniforms with faces covered, represents yet another dangerous step downwards in the intentional construction of an unaccountable, opaque system in the United States which serves in effect as the government but which is accountable to no one except the rich and powerful who control it through a set of classified directives and non-disclosure agreements.
If foreigners resident in the United States can be arrested without charges by paramilitary forces with no authority or identification, if immigrants can be similarly locked up for vague, imagined, or nonexistent crimes and rendered inaccessible in states distant from their homes, or be sent to the Guantanamo Bay limbo, or be shipped in chains to El Salvador to be subject to torture and abuse, then verily the gates of Hell have been opened. The United States has both feet firmly planted in the quicksand of barbarism.
The Trump administration, which is an umbrella term for a group of affiliated factions, is adopting the policies for the enforcement totalitarian rule that it picked up from Israel through various Pentagon contractors who have bid successfully for work on the Mexican border, from Argentina under President Javier Milei, and from Russia, and perhaps even North Korea. I support all efforts of citizens, intellectuals, and elected representatives of the United States to reach out to their peers in Israel, Argentina, Russia, and North Korea, and to find ways to work together, to create lasting peace. But this blasphemous alliance of the rich and powerful that is emerging is deeply, deeply threatening.
The manual for how to turn a relatively open society into a military dictatorship is well worn book; the techniques date back to the iron age.
Blowback, the process by which that the policies supported by United States abroad come home to bite, has reached a new high tide.
In the case of Ozturk, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) locator still has not given a location, in spite of repeated legal requests. That means that, quite simply, there is no rule of law.
The kidnapping of Ozturk, a Turkish national, by paramilitary forces was also meant as geopolitical theatre. We do not know exactly what the Trump regime (or the Netanyahu regime) was signaling to Ankara, but we can be sure that the authorities there fully understood.
The message for the entire world is unmistakable: the United States government and all its institutions are becoming tools for shaking down the entire world, including the citizens of the United States, for the benefit of the few.
There has been a lot of that in the history of United States, but we are entering a “golden age” of corruption now.
The role of the Israeli group “Canary Mission,” which is dedicated to stopping all protests against Israeli policy in this kidnapping, indicates that we are seeing a further merger of the Trump and Netanyahu administrations, and the police, the military, and intelligence of the United States and Israel.
Ozturk’s crime was co-authoring editorials for the school newspaper calling on Tufts University President Sunil Kumar to uphold resolutions passed by the Tufts Community Union Senate that asked the university to recognize the genocide in Gaza, to divest from Israeli companies, and to stop selling products from Sabra because its co-owners, the Strauss Group, have provided material support for Israel’s Golani Brigade.
There are numerous cases of immigrants, and citizens, being subjected to such illegal disappearances in recent days. It will not get better until we stand on the front line to stop it.
It is essential that the American people, and the citizens of the earth, our brothers and sisters, stand together, not just for a one-time protest, but to form tight, structured, and disciplined movements and organizations that will resist this drive for totalitarian government at every level.
Reference:
WSWS
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