Troops on American Soil

Martial Law in the Land of Confusion!

By Gary D. Barnett, LewRockwell.com
April 23, 2011

Obviously, those in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, and other parts of the Middle East understand fully the sound of marching feet in their streets. U.S. soldiers carrying out the orders of those in command over them have been marching there for many years. They have brutalized those mostly innocent people all over that region, and in the process, entire infrastructures have been destroyed, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and maimed, and aggressive occupations have become the norm.

This is only the beginning, and most Americans don’t expect nor do they realize that the probability of marching feet in our own streets is great. This will not come from invaders from abroad, but by our own federal government and its agents in the police and military.

These things rarely happen all at once due to the danger for the ruling class of an uprising by the people. Generally, liberty and freedom are taken away over long periods of time, and the masses at large are little aware of this very dangerous slippery slope. That slope however, has become much steeper and now is covered in ice. Just consider the time line of liberty destruction in the past ten years since 9/11.

George W. Bush created by Executive Order 13228 the Office of Homeland Security and the Homeland Security Council just 11 days after the 9/11 attacks.

On October 26, 2001, Bush signed the horrible USA PATRIOT Act into "law." This in my opinion is not only the lynchpin in the devastating assault on civil liberty, but the most liberty destructive piece of legislation ever passed into law in United States history.

In January of 2002, the Information Awareness Office (IAO) was established to bring together several government projects focused on applying surveillance to monitor "terrorist" and "other" threats to national security. This was to be done by achieving Total Information Awareness which entailed creating an enormous computer database to capture and store the personal information of everyone in the United States, including personal emails, credit card records, social networks, phone records, medical records, and much more without any requirement for a search warrant. Although defunded by Congress in 2003, these projects continued to be funded, and continue to take place under different names.

The Department of Homeland Security was established on November 25, 2002. This monster has grown to become a massive bureaucracy that controls most every single aspect of our lives today.
The now groping and child molesting Transportation Security Agency (TSA) was moved from the Department of Transportation to the Department of Homeland Security in March of 2003. This was the beginning of the end for all those U.S. citizens who want to have free movement in their own country. Now, one has to be baked in radiation, sexually assaulted, or both, by the cretins at the TSA in order to travel.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 was an act of Congress signed by Bush to authorize trial by military commission of so-called violators of war and for "other purposes." One can only imagine all the "other purposes." This legislation basically stripped all rights from any individual captured or targeted by the U.S. government, so they could be held indefinitely and without proper charge or trial. This suspension of rights virtually eliminates any semblance of freedom or justice. This Act was amended in 2009, but as amended, still falls far short of providing any real due process as required by the constitution. While there is argument as to whether this Act affects the rights of habeas corpus, only an agent of the state could believe otherwise. Habeas corpus has been effectively rendered moot for any, including Americans, targeted by the government.

In October of 2008, the 3^rd Infantry Division’s 1^st Brigade Combat Team, a very "elite" combat squad, became the first active duty military unit to be dedicated and deployed for domestic use. This means the virtual elimination of the protections afforded us by the Posse Comitatus Act against federal military forces acting as domestic police. This is certainly an important step toward the implementation of Martial Law.

In January of 2010, President Obama signed Executive Order 13528, which established the Council of Governors. These governors are appointed directly by the president for the stated purpose of building a state/national police partnership. This fascist partnership was put into place to build a "legal" partnership between the federal government’s national military force and the domestic police agencies, so that they became one and the same. The scariest part is that this force would be fully controlled by the executive branch of government, making this a federally-controlled domestic police force! I wrote about this here.

In 2010 Obama authorized the targeting of U.S. citizens for assassination, thus continuing another heinous Bush policy. Glenn Greenwald of Solon discusses this policy in detail in this article.

I have only touched the surface of course, as these things are only a few of the most obvious invasions of our liberty, but as you can see, these past ten years have brought an avalanche of liberty-destroying policies and legislation to our doorstep. We are being bombarded continuously with more bad laws and more police state abuses. This behavior is increasing at an alarming rate and the populace, it seems, is still mostly unresponsive to these intrusions by government.

Due to all these government actions, the stage has been set for Martial Law. But will it come; and if so, what events will trigger this state assault on us all?

First, just consider where we are currently as a nation. Economically speaking, we are in dire straits. The national debt now stands at 14.3 trillion dollars. That doesn’t count all the hidden debt owed by the taxpayers that is sitting at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which is several trillion dollars more. Also not included are the unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare, and Prescription Drugs, which total over 113 trillion dollars. Current annual deficits are running above 1.5 trillion dollars with no end in sight. And the Fed continues to create money out of thin air, and the government keeps spending. This is a recipe for disaster.

Real unemployment as calculated by the well-respected John Williams at Shadow Government Statistics is 22%, which means that approximately 33,000,000 people are now out of work. The government is only reporting 8.8% by its fraudulent U-3 method, or 13,000,000. When this many people are out of work, a huge drain on the system is the result, and desperation takes hold.

The U.S. killing machine is now openly advancing aggressive wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, and is covertly involved in military actions in several other countries. Besides murdering innocents abroad, the cost to run the military and to prosecute these immoral wars is over a trillion dollars a year.

Predator drones are being used to murder people in the Middle East on a regular basis, but they are also being used for domestic law enforcement. These computer game-like spying drones can be used for surveillance, and they can also be used for target killing. The fact that they are flying over our towns and cities is frightening.

Our money is being purposely destroyed every single day so that this corrupt government can monetize the massive debt it created. The Federal Reserve is a most willing accomplice in this scheme to bankrupt our society. If in fact our money continues to lose value at this pace, and massive or hyperinflation is the result, our wealth will simply disappear.

The state governments are in deep trouble as well, and they don’t have the power of the printing press to temporarily cover up their mistakes. State pensions are broke in some cases, and vastly underfunded for future obligations in most others. When the checks stop going out, frustration and anger will take over.

The TSA gropes, fondles, and intimidates those traveling daily. This is done to instill fear, and to habituate the sheep like populace into a herd mentality. It is meant to turn the citizens into serfs. The abusive and brutal behavior by state and local police, and other agents of the government, is increasing dramatically. It is increasing in numbers, but it is also increasing in severity. In 2007, Paul Craig Roberts wrote about this in his article titled America's Police Brutality Pandemic, but since the time of that writing, this problem has increased exponentially, and is still worsening.

As I said earlier, the stage is set for a police-state takeover of our streets. The government has in place all the legislation, tools, and gendarmes it needs to implement Martial Law. It has a militarized police system armed and ready to act. It has a domestic military force trained in urban warfare. It has holding centers ready to house those who don’t go along or who practice civil disobedience. The government has the capability to listen to every conversation, to track our location, to monitor all our computers and email, and can shut down our communication systems, including the Internet at will.

Given this capability, and all the problems evident in our country today, the implementation of Martial Law in my opinion is imminent! When large numbers of people in this country continue not to find work, when they don’t have enough to eat, when their money won’t buy the necessities of life, when they can’t afford to travel because of high fuel prices, and when they continue to lose their homes, they will become desperate. This desperation will result in civil unrest. And this will be the government’s reasoning for declaring Martial Law. I don’t believe this will happen all at once nor do I think it will be immediately widespread. Like most government interventions, it will probably be incremental, beginning in the inner cities, and expanding to other areas as the ruling class sees fit.

We are living in dangerous times. We are facing a dangerous enemy. That enemy is the State. It is now all-powerful and armed to the teeth. Most of those armed government agents in the police forces and the military will act on orders without question. They will attempt to disarm the public, just as they did in New Orleans during Katrina. They will round up any who don’t obey government commands, and they will kill any who forcibly resist. These things are not far-fetched, but likely in the near future.

The time to act is now, not after this government aggression begins. By then, it may be too late. The signs are everywhere, so why do so many not see them? Why is this continuous buildup of the police state tolerated? Why are so many Americans blind to this reality? Has the "public" government-run "education" system been that effective, or is the majority so dependent on government that their apathy consumes them?

Time is running out, and we are at great risk of losing what is left of our freedom at the hands of our own corrupt government. We are now in a fascist state, and if this government assault on our liberty is not stopped soon, expect Martial Law in this land of confusion!

Either some Caesar or Napoleon will seize the reins of government with a strong hand, or your republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman Empire was in the fifth, with this difference, that the Huns and Vandals who ravaged the Roman Empire came from without, and that your Huns and Vandals will have been engendered within your own country by your own institutions. - Thomas Babington Macaulay, Letter to Henry Stephens Randall [October 9, 1858]

The Pentagon Wants Authority to Post Almost 400,000 Military Personnel in the U.S.

By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive
August 12, 2009

The Pentagon has approached Congress to grant the Secretary of Defense the authority to post almost 400,000 military personnel throughout the United States in times of emergency or a major disaster.

This request has already occasioned a dispute with the nation’s governors. And it raises the prospect of U.S. military personnel patrolling the streets of the United States, in conflict with the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.

In June, the U.S. Northern Command distributed a “Congressional Fact Sheet” entitled “Legislative Proposal for Activation of Federal Reserve Forces for Disasters.” That proposal would amend current law, thereby “authorizing the Secretary of Defense to order any unit or member of the Army Reserve, Air Force Reserve, Navy Reserve, and the Marine Corps Reserve, to active duty for a major disaster or emergency.”

Taken together, these reserve units would amount to “more than 379,000 military personnel in thousands of communities across the United States,” explained Paul Stockton, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and America’s Security Affairs, in a letter to the National Governors Association, dated July 20.

The governors were not happy about this proposal, since they want to maintain control of their own National Guard forces, as well as military personnel acting in a domestic capacity in their states.

“We are concerned that the legislative proposal you discuss in your letter would invite confusion on critical command and control issues,” Governor James H. Douglas of Vermont and Governor Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, the president and vice president of the governors’ association, wrote in a letter back to Stockton on August 7. The governors asserted that they “must have tactical control over all . . . active duty and reserve military forces engaged in domestic operations within the governor’s state or territory.”

According to Pentagon public affairs officer Lt. Col. Almarah K. Belk, Stockton has not responded formally to the governors but understands their concerns.

“There is a rub there,” she said. “If the Secretary calls up the reserve personnel to provide support in a state and retains command and control of those forces, the governors are concerned about if I have command and control of the Guard, how do we ensure unity of effort and everyone is communicating and not running over each other.”

Belk said Stockton is addressing this problem.

“That is exactly what Dr. Stockton is working out right now with the governors and DHS and the National Guard,” she said. “He’s bringing all the stakeholders together.”

Belk said the legislative change is necessary in the aftermath of a “catastrophic natural disaster, not beyond that,” and she referred to Katrina, among other events.

But NorthCom’s Congressional fact sheet refers not just to a “major disaster” but also to “emergencies.” And it says, “Those terms are defined in section 5122 of title 42, U.S. Code.”

That section gives the President the sole discretion to designate an event as an “emergency” or a “major disaster.” Both are “in the determination of the President” alone.
That section also defines “major disaster” by citing plenty of specifics: “hurricane, tornado, storm, high water, wind-driven water, tidal wave, tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslide, mudslide, snowstorm, or drought,” as well as “fire, flood, or explosion.”

But the definition of “emergency” is vague: “Emergency means any occasion or instance for which, in the determination of the President, Federal assistance is needed to supplement State and local efforts and capabilities to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in any part of the United States.”

Currently, the President can call up the Reserves only in an emergency involving “a use or threatened use of a weapon of mass destruction” or “a terrorist attack or threatened terrorist attack in the United States that results, or could result, in significant loss of life or property,” according to Title 10, Chapter 1209, Section 12304, of the U.S. Code. In fact, Section 12304 explicitly prohibits the President from calling up the Reserves for any other “natural or manmade disaster, accident, or catastrophe.”

So the new proposed legislation would greatly expand the President’s power to call up the Reserves in a disaster or an emergency and would extend that power to the Secretary of Defense. (There are other circumstances, such as repelling invasions or rebellions or enforcing federal authority, where the President already has the authority to call up the Reserves.)

The ACLU is alarmed by the proposed legislation. Mike German, the ACLU’s national security policy counsel, expressed amazement “that the military would propose such a broad set of authorities and potentially undermine a 100-year-old prohibition against the military in domestic law enforcement with no public debate and seemingly little understanding of the threat to democracy.”

At the moment, says Pentagon spokesperson Belk, the legislation does not have a sponsor in the House or the Senate.

The National Emergency Centers Establishment Act (HR 645): This bill was submitted by Democrat Alcee L Hastings of Florida. The bill calls for Homeland Security to use KBR, a subdivision of Haliburton, to create no fewer than six national facilities for the concentration of civilian internees on military installations. Field Manual 3-19-40, Military Police Internment/Resettlement Field Operations: This field manual is the basis of operations for the handling of people in all situations.

Rex 84 – Your Internment Camp Awaits You

By sakerfa, Dprogram
August 20, 2009

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” – Thomas Jefferson

Did you know that the United States Army National Guard has been advertising job openings for “Internment Specialists?” Who would we be rounding up for internment, anyway? The United States hasn’t done that openly since Asian-Americans were forced into relocation camps during the World War II era.

Has the time come when political dissidents and malcontents will no longer dare question the actions of their government? By doing so, would they risk being rounded up by Internment Specialists and filed away in a place where they cannot disturb a perfect Orwellian, “1984”-esque peace?

Remember, in the parlance of NewSpeak, peace is war. The government simply wants to be prepared, as a part of Rex 84. In the meantime, we make a living day to day, occasionally relying upon secured loans and installment loans for our daily bread.

Breaking bread, breaking us

Taking a historical perspective, Kurt Nimmo writes for Global Research that the Army National Guard’s search for “corrections officers and internment/resettlement specialists” smacks of communist China and Mao’s way. Here’s a sample from the recruitment ad:

As an Internment/Resettlement Specialist for the Army National Guard, you will ensure the smooth running of military confinement/correctional facility or detention/internment facility, similar to those duties conducted by civilian Corrections Officers… This will require you to know proper procedures and military law; and have the ability to think quickly in high-stress situations. Specific duties may include assisting with supervision and management operations; providing facility security; providing custody, control, supervision, and escort; and counseling individual prisoners in rehabilitative programs.

FEMA camps are “rehabilitative programs”

Glenn Beck and other apologists say otherwise, but Nimmo points to specific military documents that demonstrate plans to relocate people into camps. Namely, Army Regulation 210-35, which bears the name “Civilian Inmate Labor Program.” According to the document, 210-35 “provides guidance for establishing and managing civilian inmate labor programs on Army installations. It provides guidance on establishing prison camps on Army installations.”

This is quite similar to the kind of detention centers that used to thrive in Mao’s China. They were reeducation centers that used forced labor to break down residents in the interests of turning them toward “the greater good.” Joseph Stalin sanctioned a similar network of GULAGS (which is an acronym based on the Russian phrase for “The Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies”).

Does this sound like the kind of liberty that America’s founding fathers guaranteed its citizens? Apply for installment loans and secured loans now if you think you’ll need one… you may not be at liberty to do so later.

Enter Rex 84

This is what the United States government has in place to enact martial law and use Internment Specialists to relocate those who do not comply. According to Wikipedia, Rex 84 (Readiness Exercise 1984) is “a plan by the United States federal government to test their ability to detain large numbers of refugees or American citizens in case of civil unrest or national emergency.” It is a continuity of government plan that places FEMA in charge of rooting out domestic terrorism, essentially. What constitutes domestic terrorism is for them to know and citizens to find out, apparently.

The program was initially tested in 1984, with the goal of dealing with “civil disturbances, major demonstrations and strikes that would affect continuity of government and/or resource mobilization,” writes Nimmo. If you are a subversive in any way, Rex 84 and FEMA will look to deploy “the military to implement government ordered movements of civilian populations at state and regional levels” and authorize “the arrest of certain unidentified segments of the population, and the imposition of martial law.”

Our government is prepared to institute martial law

And they’ve practiced for that day numerous times over the years. Politically repressive actions like the Palmer Raids and the McCarthy Era are two examples. From 1967 to 1971, the ADEX List was written. Over 100,000 people are on that list, among them a variety of notable public figures. They are considered “subversive” and are to be rounded up if the government deems it prudent.

The Patriot Act and its focus on Homeland Security brought renewed steam to the Rex 84 engine. In fact, Northcom was established stateside in 2002 to assist in federal homeland defense efforts. This agency is authorized to monitor the communications of citizens and be a rallying point should it be deemed necessary to mobilize in a Rex 84-type action.

President George W. Bush authorized the martial law option

Specifically, when he signed the Homeland Security Presidential Directive (aka Directive 51) on May 4, 2007, President Bush gave the government the authority to “declare a national emergency and impose martial law.” Directive 51 and Rex 84 can work hand-in-hand to ensure that the proper people are detained when needed. How does that make you feel?

Swine flu readiness… a Rex 84 action?

Ripped from today’s headlines, Nimmo draws our attention to a CNN report that the U.S. military is going to get involved in combating the swine flu outbreak when it rears its slimy nose this flu season. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, in his efforts to ensure that military teams can ostensibly work with civilian authorities efficiently, is prepared to sign an “execution order” that would authorize a Rex 84 action by the military. They just call it “detailed planning to execute the proposed plan.”

Executing the proposed plan

What does the Army National Guard and its Interment Specialists have in store for you? Will forced vaccinations be in order? Will those who disagree be relocated? Learn about Rex 84 and let your elected officials know what you think about forced relocation and martial law.

Congress Seeks to Authorize & Legalize FEMA Camp Facilities

By fromthewilderness
August 30, 2009

A new bill has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives called the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act or HR 645. This bill, if passed into law, will direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish national emergency centers, otherwise known as FEMA camp facilities, on military installations.

This is an incredibly disturbing piece of legislation considering the powers that be have already set in motion an agenda to setup a nationwide marital law apparatus through U.S. Northern Command and the Department of Homeland Security.

Apparently, the fusion centers, militarized police, surveillance cameras, and a domestic military command is not enough. Even though we already know that detention facilities are already in place, they now want to legalize the construction of FEMA camps on military installations using the ever-popular excuse that the facilities are for the purposes of a national emergency.

With the phony debt-based economy getting worse and worse by the day, the possibility of civil unrest is becoming a greater threat to the establishment. One need only look at Iceland, Greece and other nations for what might happen in the United States next.

With this in mind, it appears as if these so called national emergency centers will be used in a national emergency, but only if the national emergency requires large groups of people to be rounded up and detained.

If that isn’t the case, than why have these national emergency facilities built in military installations?

Let’s look through the various portions of the bill. Here is section 2 of the bill taken directly from the proposed legislation.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY CENTERS.

(a) In General - In accordance with the requirements of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall establish not fewer than 6 national emergency centers on military installations.

(b) Purpose of National Emergency Centers - The purpose of a national emergency center shall be to use existing infrastructure:

(1) to provide temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster;

(2) to provide centralized locations for the purposes of training and ensuring the coordination of Federal, State, and local first responders;

(3) to provide centralized locations to improve the coordination of preparedness, response, and recovery efforts of government, private, and not-for-profit entities and faith-based organizations; and

(4) to meet other appropriate needs, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security.

The legislation says that the Secretary of Homeland Security shall establish not fewer than six national emergency centers on military installations. This means that the Secretary of Homeland Security can setup as many FEMA camps within military installations as they want, it just has to be more than six of them.

On top of that, it also states that the facilities will be used to meet other appropriate needs as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security. This could mean anything. If the Secretary of Homeland Security thinks it is appropriate to kill large groups of people like the Nazis did in World War II Germany, than it looks as if this bill would give them the authority to use these facilities for that purpose.

Below is section 3 taken from the bill:

SEC. 3. DESIGNATION OF MILITARY INSTALLATIONS AS NATIONAL EMERGENCY CENTERS.

(a) In General - Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, shall designate not fewer than 6 military installations as sites for the establishment of national emergency centers.

(b) Minimum Requirements - A site designated as a national emergency center shall be:

(1) capable of meeting for an extended period of time the housing, health, transportation, education, public works, humanitarian and other transition needs of a large number of individuals affected by an emergency or major disaster;

(2) environmentally safe and shall not pose a health risk to individuals who may use the center;

(3) capable of being scaled up or down to accommodate major disaster preparedness and response drills, operations, and procedures;

(4) capable of housing existing permanent structures necessary to meet training and first responders coordination requirements during nondisaster periods;

(5) capable of hosting the infrastructure necessary to rapidly adjust to temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance needs;

(6) required to consist of a complete operations command center, including 2 state-of-the art command and control centers that will comprise a 24/7 operations watch center as follows:

(A) one of the command and control centers shall be in full ready mode; and

(B) the other shall be used daily for training; and

(7) easily accessible at all times and be able to facilitate handicapped and medical facilities, including during an emergency or major disaster.

(c) Location of National Emergency Centers- There shall be established not fewer than one national emergency center in each of the following areas:

(1) The area consisting of Federal Emergency Management Agency Regions I, II, and III.

(2) The area consisting of Federal Emergency Management Agency Region IV.

(3) The area consisting of Federal Emergency Management Agency Regions V and VII.

4) The area consisting of Federal Emergency Management Agency Region VI.

(5) The area consisting of Federal Emergency Management Agency Regions VIII and X.

(6) The area consisting of Federal Emergency Management Agency Region IX.

(d) Preference for Designation of Closed Military Installations- Wherever possible, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, shall designate a closed military installation as a site for a national emergency center. If the Secretaries of Homeland Security and Defense jointly determine that there is not a sufficient number of closed military installations that meet the requirements of subsections (b) and (c), the Secretaries shall jointly designate portions of existing military installations other than closed military installations as national emergency centers.

(e) Transfer of Control of Closed Military Installations- If a closed military installation is designated as a national emergency center, not later than 180 days after the date of designation, the Secretary of Defense shall transfer to the Secretary of Homeland Security administrative jurisdiction over such closed military installation.

(f) Cooperative Agreement for Joint Use of Existing Military Installations- If an existing military installation other than a closed military installation is designated as a national emergency center, not later than 180 days after the date of designation, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of Defense shall enter into a cooperative agreement to provide for the establishment of the national emergency center.

(g) Reports:

(1) PRELIMINARY REPORT- Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security, acting jointly with the Secretary of Defense, shall submit to Congress a report that contains for each designated site:

(A) an outline of the reasons why the site was selected;

(B) an outline of the need to construct, repair, or update any existing infrastructure at the site;

(C) an outline of the need to conduct any necessary environmental clean-up at the site;

(D) an outline of preliminary plans for the transfer of control of the site from the Secretary of Defense to the Secretary of Homeland Security, if necessary under subsection (e); and

(E) an outline of preliminary plans for entering into a cooperative agreement for the establishment of a national emergency center at the site, if necessary under subsection (f).

(2) UPDATE REPORT- Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security, acting jointly with the Secretary of Defense, shall submit to Congress a report that contains for each designated site:

(A) an update on the information contained in the report as required by paragraph (1);

(B) an outline of the progress made toward the transfer of control of the site, if necessary under subsection (e);

(C) an outline of the progress made toward entering a cooperative agreement for the establishment of a national emergency center at the site, if necessary under subsection (f); and

(D) recommendations regarding any authorizations and appropriations that may be necessary to provide for the establishment of a national emergency center at the site.

(3) FINAL REPORT:

Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security, acting jointly with the Secretary of Defense, shall submit to Congress a report that contains for each designated site:

(A) finalized information detailing the transfer of control of the site, if necessary under subsection (e);

(B) the finalized cooperative agreement for the establishment of a national emergency center at the site, if necessary under subsection (f); and

(C) any additional information pertinent to the establishment of a national emergency center at the site.

(4) ADDITIONAL REPORTS- The Secretary of Homeland Security, acting jointly with the Secretary of Defense, may submit to Congress additional reports as necessary to provide updates on steps being taken to meet the requirements of this Act.

This section authorizes the Homeland Security Secretary to setup these FEMA camps in closed or open military installations and in regions around the nation. This essentially legalizes any existing FEMA camp infrastructure that has been built in either closed or open military installations and opens the door for additional facilities to be created.

Fortunately, the bill only authorizes $180,000,000 per year for these facilities, but considering that the majority of the detention facilities are probably already built, they won’t need much additional funding.

There is no doubt, judging from the language of this bill, that it is meant to legalize what they’ve already been doing. After all, FEMA has already been looking at ways to transport large quantities of people to camps: they held a FEMA camp drill which consisted of an illegal alien round up in Iowa, and KBR/Halliburtion has already aided in the creation of detention facilities.

The rationale behind this legislation is undoubtedly to serve as a mechanism of control if the authorities need facilities to hold large amounts of dissenting people.

This is not to help people. One only needs to take a look at what happened during Hurricane Katrina and it is obvious that the government does not care about the people. They didn’t care then, and they don’t care now, and these facilities built or unbuilt will definitely not be utilized for the people’s interest.

Government Prepares for 'Unwillingness to Follow Government Orders'

By Karen De Coster, LRC Blog
August 11, 2009

The International Swine Flu Conference is being held in Washington, D.C., next week, just two weeks after the conference on weight control that I wrote about last week. Here’s a summary of it:

Top leaders and key decision-makers of major companies representing a broad range of industries will meet with distinguished scientists, public health officials, law enforcers, first responders, and other experts to discuss pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and recovery at the 1st International Swine Flu Summit.

Read the agenda for the breakout sessions, especially the session on “psychological issues” (Session #2) and the topic heading: “Unwillingness to follow government orders.” Also note session #6, which includes “Control and diffuse social unrest & public disorder” and “Isolate prisons and other facilities”...

Military Planning for Possible H1N1 Outbreak

By Barbara Starr, CNN
July 28, 2009

The U.S. military wants to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials. The proposal is awaiting final approval from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The officials would not be identified because the proposal from U.S. Northern Command's Gen. Victor Renuart has not been approved by the secretary.

The plan calls for military task forces to work in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There is no final decision on how the military effort would be manned, but one source said it would likely include personnel from all branches of the military. It has yet to be determined how many troops would be needed and whether they would come from the active duty or the National Guard and Reserve forces. Civilian authorities would lead any relief efforts in the event of a major outbreak, the official said.

The military, as they would for a natural disaster or other significant emergency situation, could provide support and fulfill any tasks that civilian authorities could not, such as air transport or testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients. As a first step, Gates is being asked to sign a so-called "execution order" that would authorize the military to begin to conduct the detailed planning to execute the proposed plan. Orders to deploy actual forces would be reviewed later, depending on how much of a health threat the flu poses this fall, the officials said.

Obama Team Mulls New Quarantine Regulations

By Josh Gerstein, Politico
August 5, 2009

The Obama administration is quietly dusting off an effort to impose new federal quarantine regulations, which were vigorously resisted by civil liberties organizations and the airline industry when the rules were first proposed by the Bush administration nearly four years ago.

White House officials aren’t saying what their rules might ultimately require. But the previous administration proposed giving the federal government the authority to order a “provisional quarantine” of three business days — or up to six calendar days — for those suspected of having swine flu or other illnesses listed in a presidential executive order.

The Bush-era proposal would also have required airlines and cruise lines to store more information about domestic and international passengers, such as e-mail addresses, traveling companions and return flight information. The information would be subject to review by federal officials in a health emergency, though it would be voluntary for passengers to provide the data.

Opponents of the Bush administration’s efforts to enforce the new guidelines insist that they still are a mistake.

“It’s not really going to help,” said Wendy Mariner, a professor of law and public health at Boston University. “The proposals to limit liberty represent a dangerous precedent to constitutional theory, particularly when there’s almost no evidence it will matter... It wouldn’t surprise me if they try to sneak this past in August, when people are away.”

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget has set a September target date to complete the first major overhaul of the quarantine regulations in about three decades. That would have at least some of the rules in place if swine flu returns with a vengeance later this year, though officials are reluctant to make that link publicly.

“It’s important to public health to move forward with the regulations,” said Christine Pearson, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We need to update our quarantine regulations, and this final rule is an important step.”

Pearson said CDC had made “changes where appropriate” to the 2005 proposals, but she did not specify those adjustments. An OMB spokesman, Tom Gavin, confirmed the rules submitted by the CDC in June were in “an interagency review process.”

Civil liberties groups and some public health experts question the value of the effort and not just on privacy grounds — they also contend that mandatory quarantine is unlikely to be an effective tool to contain swine flu or other diseases in the modern era.

“It doesn’t surprise me that when swine flu or any other epidemic is featured prominently in the news, we see a return to quarantine and other public health regulations,” said Christopher Calabrese of the American Civil Liberties Union, which sharply criticized the Bush-era proposal as too heavy-handed. “The enemy here isn’t the American people or sick people. It’s an illness... Police officers with guns cannot make people obey a quarantine. In order for this to work, it has to be collaborative. They have to trust the government”...

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