SCAD
 SCAD(crime)   | |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | Lance deHaven-Smith |
A State Crime against Democracy, (SCAD) is a term introduced by Lance deHaven-Smith. He defined SCADs as “concerted actions or inactions by government insiders intended to manipulate democratic processes and undermine popular sovereignty.”[1] Many deep events are SCADs.
Origins
Lance deHaven-Smith coined the term “State Crimes Against Democracy” in a peer-reviewed article in the journal of the Public Administration Theory Network. He explains his motivation for studying them:
- "Until recently, scholarly research on political criminality has given little attention to antidemocratic conspiracies in high office, focusing instead on graft, bribery, embezzlement, and other forms of government corruption where the aim is personal enrichment rather than social control, partisan advantage, or political power. However, SCADs are far more dangerous to democracy than these other, more mundane forms of political criminality because of their potential to subvert political institutions and entire governments or branches of government."[2]
Selected Examples
As examples, he cites "the Watergate break-ins and cover up; the secret wars in Laos and Cambodia; the illegal arms sales and covert operations in Iran-Contra; and the effort to discredit Joseph Wilson by revealing his wife's status as an intelligence agent. Examples of suspected SCADs include the fabricated attacks on U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964; the "October Surprises" in the presidential elections of 1968 and 1980; the assassinations of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King; the attempted assassinations of George Wallace and Ronald Reagan; the election breakdowns in 2000 and 2004; the numerous defense failures on 9-11-2001; the anthrax mailings in October 2001; and the misrepresentation of intelligence to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq."[2]
Related Documents
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Beyond Conspiracy Theory | paper | February 2010 | Lance deHaven-Smith | The article posits a new framework for the analysis of Deep political events and Conspiracy Theories. The term SCAD (State crime against democracy) is explained and developed as a way of connecting the dots across multiple suspect events. |
| Document:Systemic Destabilization in Recent American History | article | 24 September 2012 | Peter Dale Scott | |
| File:The Politics of Fear and SCADs.pdf | paper | February 2010 | Kym Thorne Alexander Kouzmin |
