63 Documents the Government Doesn't Want You to Read - Jesse Ventura [21]
23
MILITARY TAKEOVER
Operation Garden Plot: Our Military and “Civil Disturbances”
The curious thing is, a Civil Disturbance Plan called Garden Plot was in place more than ten years before 9/11. See if you agree whether this is a blueprint for the military taking over during any protest or “unrest” that might seem to be getting out of hand. In case you still think the Patriot Act couldn’t be applied to us.
Turning the military loose in our country to take care of things: Isn’t this what the National Guard is for, and doesn’t that fall under the jurisdiction of the states and their governors? It seems that the feds shouldn’t be coming in unless they’re asked. Which maybe they’d have to be now, because the National Guard is off fighting in foreign countries. It’s all ass-backwards. We’ve got the Guard in Iraq and they’re trying to turn the regular military loose on our own citizens. Again we owe that role reversal to George W. Bush.
I can understand occasions when federal help is needed, but this shouldn’t be top-down but bottom-up. You need to do this under great scrutiny, in very limited types of situations, to ensure that there are no abuses of power.
24 & 25
FREEDOMS FOR SAFETY?
“Emergency” Detention Camps and Civilian Inmate Labor Program
Are we ready for martial law? I think we are, because everybody’s sitting back and watching our freedoms being taken away and the handcuffs put on and “Newspeak” (read Orwell’s 1984 again, folks) being slowly put into practice. We can all proudly stand up as Americans and say, Guess what? The terrorists are winning because our country has changed in the last decade, and not for the good. We’re a country that’s now living in fear and so are willing to trade our freedoms for safety—which I stand against and will go to my grave stating: “I’d rather face the terrorists on a daily basis than lose any of my freedoms.”
So let’s look at how the government has been intent on keeping us safe. First, a press release issued by KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton (the company Cheney ran), early in 2006. It’s a joint deal they made with Homeland Security and Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), “in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs,” whatever that means. Did you know that the ICE already had detention centers in place since it was established in March 2003?
Second, the Army went on to establish a Civilian Inmate Labor Program back in 2005. “This regulation provides Army policy and guidance for establishing civilian inmate labor programs and civilian prison camps on Army installations.” The italics are mine. Would somebody tell me what this means, so I don’t have to worry so much about what it implies?
26
CONTINGENCY PLANNING
The Army’s Continuity of Operations Plan
Hours after the events of September 11, 2001, the Bush administration put “Continuity of Government” plans into operation for the first time in American history. These had actually been drawn up by Donald Rumsfeld earlier in the year, and when WikiLeaks published it, the document was affixed with a warning: “Destruction Notice: Destroy by any method that will prevent disclosure of contents or reconstruction of the document.”
I guess something has changed since then, because the revised Army Regulation 500-3 issued in April 2008 is stamped UNCLASSIFIED. I’m ending this section with some excerpts, which seem like decent contingency planning on the face of it. Still, the emergency relocation facilities do give me pause, not unlike the KBR contract and the civilian prison camps.
In the wrong hands…I’d better stop there.
27
EMBASSY CABLES
The State Department Cable on Russia as a “Mafia State”
No doubt by the time this book appears, there will be whole volumes being assembled