Posted on 07/26/2002 5:33:29 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
Recent pronouncements from the Bush Administration and national security initiatives put in place in the Reagan era could see internment camps and martial law in the United States.
When president Ronald Reagan was considering invading Nicaragua he issued a series of executive orders that provided the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with broad powers in the event of a "crisis" such as "violent and widespread internal dissent or national opposition against a US military invasion abroad". They were never used.
But with the looming possibility of a US invasion of Iraq, recent pronouncements by President George Bush's domestic security chief, Tom Ridge, and an official with the US Civil Rights Commission should fire concerns that these powers could be employed or a de facto drift into their deployment could occur.
On July 20 the Detroit Free Press ran a story entitled "Arabs in US could be held, official warns". The story referred to a member of the US Civil Rights Commission who foresaw the possibility of internment camps for Arab Americans. FEMA has practised for such an occasion.
FEMA, whose main role is disaster response, is also responsible for handling US domestic unrest.
From 1982-84 Colonel Oliver North assisted FEMA in drafting its civil defence preparations. Details of these plans emerged during the 1987 Iran-Contra scandal.
They included executive orders providing for suspension of the constitution, the imposition of martial law, internment camps, and the turning over of government to the president and FEMA.
A Miami Herald article on July 5, 1987, reported that the former FEMA director Louis Guiffrida's deputy, John Brinkerhoff, handled the martial law portion of the planning. The plan was said to be similar to one Mr Giuffrida had developed earlier to combat "a national uprising by black militants". It provided for the detention "of at least 21million American Negroes"' in "assembly centres or relocation camps".
Today Mr Brinkerhoff is with the highly influential Anser Institute for Homeland Security. Following a request by the Pentagon in January that the US military be allowed the option of deploying troops on American streets, the institute in February published a paper by Mr Brinkerhoff arguing the legality of this.
He alleged that the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which has long been accepted as prohibiting such deployments, had simply been misunderstood and misapplied.
The preface to the article also provided the revelation that the national plan he had worked on, under Mr Giuffrida, was "approved by Reagan, and actions were taken to implement it".
By April, the US military had created a Northern Command to aid Homeland defence. Reuters reported that the command is "mainly expected to play a supporting role to local authorities".
However, Mr Ridge, the Director of Homeland Security, has just advocated a review of US law regarding the use of the military for law enforcement duties.
Disturbingly, the full facts and final contents of Mr Reagan's national plan remain uncertain. This is in part because President Bush took the unusual step of sealing the Reagan presidential papers last November. However, many of the key figures of the Reagan era are part of the present administration, including John Poindexter, to whom Oliver North later reported.
At the time of the Reagan initiatives, the then attorney-general, William French Smith, wrote to the national security adviser, Robert McFarlane: "I believe that the role assigned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the revised Executive Order exceeds its proper function as a co-ordinating agency for emergency preparedness ... this department and others have repeatedly raised serious policy and legal objections to an 'emergency czar' role for FEMA."
Criticism of the Bush Administration's response to September 11 echoes Mr Smith's warning. On June 7 the former presidential counsel John Dean spoke of America's sliding into a "constitutional dictatorship" and martial law.
Ritt Goldstein is an investigative journalist and a former leader in the movement for US law enforcement accountability. He revealed exclusively in the Herald last week the Bush Administration's plans for a domestic spying system more pervasive than the Stasi network in East Germany.
Another "reputable" paper was on this story almost a year ago.
13:00 2001-10-08 MARTIAL LAW IMPLEMENTED IN THE US
Troops have entered city streets and administrative and governmental buildings, as well as cultural memorials and famous buildings, are being guarded.
The cities are divided into responsibility zones; in business districts, check points are being created, which can be crossed only with a special permit. Parking is being redirected near administrative buildings. Planes are patrolling the air space.
These security measures (nothing of the kind has taken place since WWII) were taken by the US just after launching the military action against Afghanistan.
In his TV speech, George Bush appealed to Americans to understand the necessity of such measures. He personally obliged the governors of the states to use the National Guard to protect local public places.
“To defend our nation, the government has engaged reserves," George Bush said in his TV speech, which was transmitted in the US just before the bombardments.
Ha!
Perhaps he should take a looksee at the laws of his protector country...might surprise him.
Ritt is not the only one to report on this subject. Charlotte Iserbyt from the Reagan Administration reports that the mechanism is in place. Read it at
http://www.uhuh.com/education/noamer.htm
An old list of prison camps will be found at
http://www.uhuh.com/control/list-cam.htm
I have neither time, money nor authority to check out these prison sites, and my Congress Critters refused to even discuss it with me. So, go figure.
For those of you who wish to read the Executive Order (EO), the most complete list on the Internet is the Donnelly Collection at
http://www.uhuh.com/laws/list-law.htm
Want read about how nice FEMA is? Try
http://www.uhuh.com/control/fema/list-fema.htm
I still believe that a well armed citizenry is our best defence (sic.), to paraphrase the Federalist Papers.
Enjoy your vacation with full room and board, or else . . .
How can anyone take this crap seriously? Not only would rounding up effectively every black American suddenly enough to avoid mass insurrection in every black neighborhood be far beyond a military that has only 1/10th as many people as the number of blacks named in this - but the lower enlisted ranks of the GIs who'd have to be doing it are almost half nonwhites!
And add that one other reality - economic impracticality. What would happen to the U.S. economy if effectively no black labor existed within a week? And who'd pick up the garbage?
Baby Bush is going to take care of us.
Are they gonna shoot everyone they arrest. Lol
Rumsfeld said he didn't plan to recommend any adjustments to the military's role. "I don't think anyone should hold their breaths waiting for changes in Posse Comitatus," he said.
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