The hour of the wolf

Taken from an Aug. 8 audio commentary at prisonradio.org

A lone gunman invades a space frequented by people of color.

Carnage ensues.

Hours later, we learn that the slaughterer of the Sikhs is a veteran, not just of the U.S. Army, but of right-wing, racist groups.

Days after the Sikh Massacre, we learn that Wade Michael Page killed himself rather than suffer arrest or imprisonment.

But we learn more. This massacre-maker proudly flew a Nazi flag at his Army post. Presumably, his higher-ups either agreed with the sentiments expressed by that flag, or simply looked the other way.

There is more.

Initial news accounts reported that the American Nazi massacre-maker served in the U.S. Army’s “psychological operations” unit.

Psy-ops?

Anyone with a fleeting familiarity with U.S. Intelligence histories knows that “psy-ops” is shorthand for dirty tricks spy craft, meant to create the illusion of chaos and instability in countries targeted by American government agencies.

It’s most famous (or infamous) usage was in 1950s-era Guatemala, where the CIA used fake radio transmissions to make it appear that the military had turned against the leftist president, Jacobo Árbenz, toppling the government.

Similar tactics arose in post-war Italy, when it looked like the Communist Party would prevail in the elections. The CIA used the Mafia and big money to produce their desired result — a right-wing government.

Does this mean this [present massacre] was a psy-op? No. But it’s certainly worth considering, for powerful economic forces want to create social chaos in the U.S. — to further entrench right-wing power by stimulating that most powerful of all drugs: fear.

That this man was on no list, and suspected by no one, says more about the Army than it does about him.

While nearly a million Black and Latino boys and men are stopped and frisked in New York, Philly and Chicago on the presumption of their danger, a neo-Nazi buys guns legally and creates havoc as he expresses the hell within.

Fear creates carnage.

The writer is a political prisoner at SCI Mahanoy in Frackville, Pa.