Collusion, Coup, or Secret Combination

            I was studying the Book of Mormon – Another Testament of Jesus Christ this morning, and I felt like I was reading current events. The book of Helaman begins with a simple principle: “Murder, intrigue, contention, and divisiveness weaken a nation and make it vulnerable to destruction.” It tells of a secret combination that sought to destroy the government.

            A man by the name of Kishkumen goes into the judgment hall and murders Pahoran, the chief judge, “as he sat upon the judgment-seat” (Helaman 1:9). The murderer cannot be found because he and his band “did mingle themselves among the people” (Helaman 1:12).

The chief judge is the ruler of the society. It must have had the same effect on that society as having a U.S. President assassinated is in ours.

            Pacumeni is appointed to the judgment seat but does not rule long. There is so much contention among the people and so much difficulty in the government that there are insufficient guards around the capital city of Zarahemla. The Lamanites march right into the center of the land, take possession of the capital city, and kill Pacumeni (Helaman 1:18-21).

            Helaman is appointed to the judgment seat, and Kishkumen goes forth to kill him. However, one of Helaman’s associates recognizes Kishkumen and stabs him before he can kill Helaman. Kishkumen’s associate named Gadianton becomes worried when Kishkumen does not return from his murderous mission and leads the band of robbers and murderers into the wilderness (Helaman 1:11).

            Helaman 2 reports that there is “continual peace” in the land except the band of robbers and murderers, now known as Gadianton robbers, has become “established in the more settled parts of the land” (Helaman 2:23). This means that the robbers are operating in much the same way that organized gangs operate in our cities.

            We do not hear any more about the Gadianton robbers until Helaman 6:22 where we learn that the gang has developed “secret signs” and “secret words” in order to “distinguish a brother who had entered into the covenant” and to protect each other.

            Later in this same chapter we read that the Gadianton robbers have established themselves among both the Nephites and the Lamanites. The Lamanites are wiser than the Nephites because the Lamanites “did hunt the band of robbers of Gadianton; and they did preach the word of God among the more wicked part of them, insomuch that this band of robbers was utterly destroyed from among the Lamanites” (Helaman 6:37).

            However, the “Nephites did build them up and support them, beginning at the more wicked part of them, until they had overspread all the land of the Nephites.” In time the Gadianton robbers “did obtain the sole management of the government, insomuch that they did trample under their feet and smite and rend and turn their backs upon the poor and the meek, and the humble followers of God” (Helaman 6:39). Soon, the people are in such a state of wickedness that the robbers have become the judges “having usurped the power and authority of the land” (Helaman 7:4). A little later, we read that the robbers are fighting among themselves with a chief judge being killed by his brother and both belong to the Gadianton robbers (Helaman 8:28).

            The Nephites and the Lamanites fight the robbers off and on, sometimes winning and most of the time losing, for the next 400 years until the Nephites are completely destroyed. Mormon, the ancient American prophet who compiled the Book of Mormon, makes this statement about the Gadianton robbers.

And behold, in the end of this book ye shall see that this Gadianton did prove the overthrow, yea, almost the entire destruction of the people of Nephi.

Behold I do not mean the end of the book of Helaman, but I mean the end of the book of Nephi, from which I have taken all the account which I have written (Helaman 2:13-14).

            Mormon warns that any society that supports secret combinations will be destroyed by them. Elder Bruce R. McConkie, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, makes the following statement while raising a warning voice about our day: “Bands of Gadianton robbers will infest every nation, immorality and murder and crime will increase, and it will seem as though every man’s hand is against his brother” (“Stand Independent above All Other Creatures,” Ensign, May 1979). 

            All of the above information is a prelude to an article written by Greg Hunter titled “Trump is Doing What Kennedy Tried to Do – Kevin Shipp” and dated April 29, 2018. The first three paragraphs of the article are as follow.

Former CIA Officer and whistleblower Kevin Shipp says what is going on with Donald J. Trump “is an ongoing coup to remove a duly elected President.” Shipp contends, “This is a huge constitutional crisis like the country has never seen before. This makes Watergate look like a Sunday school class.”

On Friday, Shipp and other retired top officials at the CIA, FBI, DOJ and NSA held a press conference and demanded Attorney General Jeff Sessions prosecute top Obama era officials for obvious crimes against the incoming Trump Administration. Shipp says, “We have a coup within our government right now at the senior levels at the CIA, DOJ and the FBI attempting to unseat a duly elected President who was elected by the American people and remove him from office…. This is, at worst, treason with senior officials in the shadow government or Deep State… to attack Donald Trump and remove him from office…. We have not seen anything like this since the Presidency of John F. Kennedy (JFK), when CIA Director Allen Dulles attacked him, and we saw what happened there…. There is crystal clear evidence that the CIA was, at least, involved with the cover-up of the JFK assassination. Now, we have the same thing happening again…. Remember what Chuck Schumer said, and it was chilling. He said, `If you cross the intelligence community, they can hit back at you six ways from Sunday.’ That’s what we are seeing now. It’s collusion or a coup with senior officials at the FBI, DOJ and CIA along with Robert Mueller to unseat an elected president.”

Shipp goes on to explain, “There is essentially a civil war involving parts of senior management and upper parts of our government that is occurring in the United States. It’s between the `Dark’ side and the `Constitutional’ side. There has never been anything like this in history. It is extremely serious, and this is an extremely serious hour for our government and especially for our constitutional freedoms…. This essentially is a global criminal cabal that has penetrated into our government and now has senior level officials colluding and, I would argue, conspiring to unseat this president.”

            It appears that Gadianton robbers have infected our federal government and intelligence agencies. Will we be able to root them out and destroy their power before they destroy our constitutional government? Will we heed Mormon’s warning, or will we follow in a similar path to destruction as did the Nephites?

   

Freedom of Privacy

                The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the importance of privacy in a free society.  The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States guarantees privacy for Americans:  “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

                As I hear and/or read about the various ways our federal government is spying on us, I think of the books (Red Horizons:  Chronicles of A Communist Spy Chief  and Programmed To Kill) written by Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa, the former chief of the DIE (the Romanian equivalent of the CIA or the KGB).  General Pacepa worked very closely with the Communist regime of Romania’s President Nicolae Ceausescu.  He is one of the highest ranking officials of the Soviet bloc countries to ever defect, and his defection to America caused the entire DIE operation to collapse.  General Pacepa received a new name and identity before he arrived in America because Romania continues in their attempts to locate and destroy him.

                I reviewed in Red Horizons more than two years ago.  “Red Horizons describes how Romania maintains an unbelievable, worldwide, network of spies and `agents of influence.’  These spies and agents range from ambassadors to archbishops in America, and they hold positions in our government.  It also details the surveillance under which every citizen in Romania is subjected to and how the most private conversations and intimate acts are recorded and revealed to government leaders.  I was shocked to read that every building in the nation is bugged and monitored.  All the property in Romania is owned by the government and nearly all rooms are bugged.  Public buildings are also bugged.  Centerpieces in restaurants hold microphones so that the government can listen in on conversations.  In an effort to control Romanian citizens, the government wants to know what every person in the country thinks, says and does.  In order to completely control Romanians, Ceausescu ordered handwriting samples from the entire population (including children), licensing of typewriters, and the decree that every Romanian family have four children….  Ceausescu was able to control his citizens because he knew everything that was happening.  If anyone got too far out of line, they would simply disappear.”

                I encourage you to read Red Horizons in order to better understand how a rogue government can completely destroy the privacy of its citizens.  I do not want to live in a nation where the government has all citizens under surveillance, and yet I fear we are heading in that direction.  Edward Snowden recently released classified documents from the National Security Agency (NSA) exposing the government’s systematic surveillance of innocent citizens. 

                Rush Limbaugh quoted Herbert Meyer who was in the national security apparatus during the Reagan Administration:  “Herbert Meyer, if I may quote him again, asserted that essentially what’s taking place in the United States right now is a coup, not a violent coup, and not a million artistic coup, but nevertheless a takeover of a government, and it’s being done by the Obama Administration.     

        

                “He referred to it as a coup.  I don’t know if he used the word `peaceful,’ but clearly there’s a coup d’état going.  You know it and I know it.  This is what animates us.  This is why the Tea Party exists.  This country was founded on certain concepts, principles, beliefs – and they’re under assault.  Chief among them under assault is the right to privacy, and that’s what all this is about.  So in the midst of this coup d’état….

                “There are people attempting to take over this country and to make it something that it wasn’t founded as; turn it into something that it wasn’t intended to be.  That is happening.  You know it and I know it.  It’s peaceful, nonviolent.  The military isn’t involved.  But nevertheless it’s a coup.  So in the context of that and the realization that’s happening, in the midst of learning that the National Security Agency is literally `Hoovering,’ vacuuming every telephone record they can, what do we hear?

                “`Nothing to see here….  Calm down!  Slow down….  This is nothing to get concerned about.   There’s nothing illegal here.  The Fourth Amendment’s not being violated or breached.  This is nothing whatsoever to get concerned about.’

                “The basic tenet of this story is that somebody in the intelligence community – NSA, somewhere – is so concerned over what he’s seeing take place that he went to the Washington Post and took with him a little PowerPoint slide presentation and gave it to the Post and their reporters, and they wrote a story up and put it on their website.  The story is that practically every major tech group and company in this country is participating with the government in allowing the government access to their servers.

                “E-mails, texts, phone calls, photographs.  Virtually any communication that’s taking place via the Apple servers, the Microsoft servers, the Google servers, the NSA is able to look at in real time.  This is the story now.  The guy that went to the Washington Post said, `It was so scary.  They can watch us as we type.’  The Washington Post published some of the PowerPoint slides.  I’m reading this after being told that the Verizon thing is no big deal.  `It’s nothing to get concerned about.’

                “`Nothing to see here.  Don’t get too worried about that.  Don’t go off half-cocked!’  Here comes the Prism story, and then shortly after the Prism story hits, all of these tech firms start denying it.  Apple says, `I never heard of Prism.  We don’t know what this is about.  We never let anybody have access to our servers without a warrant, without a court order.  We never!’  Google said the same thing.  Microsoft said the same thing.  Facebook said the same thing.

                “They’re all out there denying it.  So I thought, `Did the Washington Post get set up?’  I’m asking myself, `Did they get set up by somebody walking in and telling them something that wasn’t true?’  But then I saw that Prism was reported someplace else by this Glenn Greenwald guy at the UK Guardian.  So there were two sources for the Prism story, but the tech firms involved continue to deny it.  `Nope, couit’s not happening.’  …

                “There was a time when the United States government earned the trust of its people.  There was a time when most people believed that the United States government was protecting them.  There was a time when most people believed that the United States government was spying on the bad guys, that the United States government was in fact earning the trust of the people.  But this current data collection, scanning, whatever you want to call it, unfortunately has to be judged in context:  the IRS leaks, the now unquestionable, undeniable, admitted-to-it IRS tactic of suppressing the vote of Tea Party conservatives, denying them their First Amendment rights.

                “The regime and its tricks with the Associated Press and Fox reporter James Rosen, the Benghazi cover-ups, the Fast and Furious operation, suing the state of Arizona for simply endorsing essentially federal immigration law.  You can’t just try to be the smartest guy in the room and say, `Well, we must be levelheaded about this and understand that this is just metadata.’  We cannot take the motives and intelligence guided by experience watching this administration over the last four-and-a-half, five years, and what their express purpose is.”

                I believe that something is wrong in our federal government.  I believe that secret combinations have taken over our government and are in the midst of destroying our freedoms.  Will Americans wake up in time to do something about it?  Only time will tell!