When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. ...Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States

A Political Glossary - Euphemisms - Double Speak

Backdoor Draft - A term that defines the current (2001-2008) federal policy of using economically disadvantaged volunteer citizens to serve in the military, rather than subjecting all draft age citizens to a lottery type national induction service, which is not politically viable.
Blowback - CIA terminology for a covert operation that is most probably not legal or moral, but has the approval of the government and if this program/operation fails, will result in adverse publicity and/or action if it becomes known to the general public or officials from who it is being kept secret. A CIA term first used in March 1954 in a recently declassified report on the 1953 operation to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran. It is a metaphor for the unintended consequences of the US government's international activities.
Collateral Damage - The civilian casualties that result from Military actions.
Coercive interrogation - A euphemism for torture.
Conflating - Mixing up ideas in your head, causing you to make connections. The Bush administration telling the public Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the means to deliver them, and Hussein was connected to al-Qaeda, while al-Qaeda was responsible for 9-11 ... there being no connection to Hussein or Iraq.
Corporatocracy - A form of government where a corporation, group of corporations, or entities run by corporations, control the direction and governance of a country or group of countries.
Covert Operations - Those operations and policies by the government which are ignored by congress and the media until they overflow into public awareness too far to avoid comment. They are then treated as scandals and isolated incidents.
Crop Science- A euphemism used by corporations engaged in genetic engineering of plants. They say, for the public good.
Decapitation Strategy - Coined March 19, 2003, by the Bush Administration when they preemptively invaded Iraq. A military strategy to attack and eliminate if possible, the leader or head of a sovereign state, before or during the opening actions of any military engagements.
Democracy Development - A Euphemism. A strategy adopted by the Pentagon and Bush Administration and now the Obama government, which is to install democracy at gunpoint inside failed or backward societies, along with unrealistic security guarantees to states and people of marginal strategic interest to the U.S.
Doublespeak - Language constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning or foster deliberate ambiguity.
Enhanced interrogation - A euphemism for torture.
Enhanced techniques - A euphemism for torture used by CIA operatives in interrogation of “enemy combatant” suspects or “terror suspects.”
Ethnic cleansing - The practice of genocide by a government or army or supported by same.
Exploratory Intrusion - Inappropriate uses of subpoena power by the government, as in those specifically related to requests from the government for data base info from Google (1/2006 AP wire stories).
Extraordinary rendition - The policy of seizing individuals without even the semblance of due process and sending them off to be interrogated by regimes known to practice torture. Instigated by the Bush Administration after 9/11 and the Patriot Act.
Face Serious Consequences - An ambiguous phrase. When and if used in a United Nations resolution prompted by the United States (2003), it means the authority to proceed with War against another country in a preemptive manner.
FUBAR - An acronym "Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition." The Oxford English Dictionary currently lists Yank magazine (1944, 7 Jan. p. 8) as its earliest citation.
FUD - Acronym for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Used to obfuscate an issue that is legitimate or is credible. Sometimes used with plausible deniability. Can be used to discredit an idea, solution, or alternative course of action by raising lots of ‘what ifs?’ that are not directly germane to the issue.
Globalization - A form of manipulation of the worlds peoples by the Corporatocracy, to maximize profits, regardless of the social and environmental costs.
ICT - The Institute for Creative Technology. Its purpose is so the Military can create gaming technology to lure, train, and recruit individuals as soldiers.
Mislead - A parliamentary euphemism for a lie. When queried by BBC about a British Intelligence report used by the government that was found out to be plagiarized, the interviewee said; “they stated they only intended to mislead us ... “.
Mortality Response - a euphemism for death by killing.
Neutralize - a euphemism for assassination used by agencies of the US government.
Outsourcing - Business Administration language for firing employees and transferring their jobs to foreign countries.
Packaging - A term devised by the American Military after 9-11 in Afghanistan, to describe the conditions of transport of prisoners captured in fighting or turned over by warlords, that were categorized as “terrorists” and then shipped to Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. See Extraordinary Rendition.
Plausible Deniability - A lie that may seem innocuous or even true, if presented with ambiguous wording or definition.
Political Expediency - Actions carried out by Nations, Individuals, or Groups, for political expediency, are done without regard for morality, justice, or humanity. Such actions are undertaken solely for the preservation of supremacy by the acting nation or to maintain a political status quo, as in the U.S. hiring of scientists from Germany and Japan at the end of W.W.II to further the scientific advancement of the United States even though these scientists had designed, directed, and participated in the torturing of civilians, and soldiers of the allied armies, rather than being prosecuted for crimes against humanity.
Rendition - See “extraordinary rendition,” a euphamism for kidnapping.
Restore Democracy - Use of violence by the government to support or install regimes that most benefit US investors or politicians in power.
Shock and Awe - Coined by the Bush Administration in early 2003, to describe the military attack against Iraq consisting of twice as many bombs and missiles being launched against the capital Baghdad. The intent is to use such overwhelming military force against an opponent, that it will be “shocked” into giving up.
Structural adjustment policies - Used by the World Bank and IMF. Consisting of; currency devaluation, funding cuts for social programs, privatization, and trade liberalization.
Targeted Attacks - A term coined first by Israel, then later adopted by the United States, to justify assassination of individuals who are suspected “terrorists”. Also referred to as, “summary execution without judicial process” by human rights groups, because no public evidence or trial in absentia has been presented.
Tendentious Answers - Answers specifically aimed at questions to justify actions. The manufacture of tendentious answers to questions such as; Why was it inconvenient to deal with the problem of Saddam Hussein’s crimes against humanity two or three years ago? Why now? (2002).
Unilaterally determined preemptive self-defense. - To strike an opponent first and claim that it is self-defense because he may strike you first.
Viewpoint Discrimination - When a private individual or group wants to promote an alternative viewpoint to the government’s with their own money, and the government passes rules or laws to prevent this action.

Questions Posed by the ACLU:

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