I got this post from Reclaim.org
Yesterday, the World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert for swine flu to the second highest level, meaning that it believes a global outbreak of the disease is imminent. Matthew Rothschild at The Progressive asks the question, “Will NorthCom take over in Swine Flu Outbreak?”
It was also reported yesterday that the Massachusetts Senate rammed through a martial law bill in response to the hysteria. Obviously, the swine flu outbreak raises a lot of fears, but is the direction we want our nation to go?
Very few people know that over 30 states already have the power to declare martial law in response to this recent flu outbreak under the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MSEHPA). When the WHO raised the pandemic threat to Level 5 it gave these governors absolute power under MSEHPA. Technically, the states that have adobted this “model” are currently in a state of adminstrative martial law right now–even if it isn’t being reported.
The next shoe to fall will be when the Pentagon reveals to the public that civil society is under the authority of NorthCom. Testifying in March, General Victor Renuart, head of NorthCom, said it would provide “assistance in support of civil authorities” during an epidemic.
General Renuar added NorthCom has prepared for a flu outbreak from Mexico. He explained that is “because Mexico is our neighbor and disasters do not respect national boundaries, we are focused on developing and improving procedures to respond to potentially catastrophic events such as pandemic influenza outbreak,” he testified.
Certainly, they will claim Martial Law is needed as a response to this Swine Flu but it begs the larger question: was this crisis (and perhaps the flu strain itself) manufactured for the purpose of staging a military take over of the United States?
Back in 2002, President Bush created NorthCom, the Pentagon’s Northern Command, which has jurisdiction over the United States. And NorthCom has been running preparedness drills in the event of a flu pandemic for at least the past three years.
Making things more alarming, NorthCom got assigned its own fighting unit six months ago—the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, which had spent much of the last five years battling things out in Iraq.
The assignment of that fighting unit alarmed the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “This is a radical departure from separation of civilian law enforcement and military authority and could, quite possibly, represent a violation of law,” said Mike German, ACLU national security policy counsel.
NorthCom also has a “private sector cell,” Renuart said in a talk to the Heritage Foundation on August 20, 2008. “We have great participation from industry and from other organizations around the country.”
One private sector group that has worked with the FBI and Homeland Security on pandemics is InfraGard. This is group of more than 30,000 businesspeople who have special access to confidential FBI information and may be assigned special—and lethal—duties in times of an emergency (See “The FBI Deputizes Business”).
An InfraGard chapter held a meeting at NYU Medical Center on February 21, 2007 on “Pandemic Preparedness Planning: the Case for Public-Private Collaboration”.
InfraGard also participated in a conference entitled “Surviving the Pandemic,” held in Madison, Wisconsin, October 12, 2006. Clearly, InfraGard wants to be a player in pandemic response. “Utilization of their expertise will help local communities prepare for a possible pandemic event to ensure minimal disruption and quick recovery,” one InfraGard press release stated.
Whether and how InfraGard and NorthCom might be working together in this swine flu outbreak is unclear. Similarly, it is unclear what actions NorthCom might take if an all-out pandemic ensues.
George W. Bush bestowed upon the Presidency enormous powers, essentially to be in charge of every branch of government, as well as state and local and tribal governments and the private sector, in the event of a “catastrophic emergency.” (See National Security Presidential Directive 51)
We’re in a public health emergency now. It’s not “catastrophic” yet. But it appears to be up to the President—and the President only—to make that determination, according to Directive 51.
During the Reagan era Col. Oliver North help develop the Rex 84 plan which proposed rounding up 400,000 refugees, under FEMA, in the event of “uncontrolled population movements” over the Mexican border into the United States. Furthermore, In 2002, FEMA sought bids from major real estate and engineering firms to construct giant internment facilities in the case of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack or a natural disaster.
One of the last acts of Congress in 2006 was to send President Bush a bill that establishes a $38 million program of National Park Service grants to preserve Japanese POW internment camps in Hawaii, California, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho. Is this really in the name of historical interest or does it dovetail with programs on the books to intern hundreds of thousands of dissidents in a time of crisis?
What could the government be contemplating that leads it to make contingency plans to detain without recourse millions of its own citizens? asked former Congressman Dan Hamburg of the watchdog group Voice of the Environment, Inc. in a article carried by the San Francisco Chronicle last year.
“Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs.” Hamburg co-wrote with Lewis Seiler.
The article continued:
Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.
According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of “all removable aliens” and “potential terrorists.”
Over the past decade we have witnessed an extreme acceleration of the physical implementation of a framework and infrastructure ready to receive those who will not go along with a coordinated destruction of traditional American values and freedom.
The only question that remains is this: are we seeing a beta test or will this event unleash the NorthCom martial law monster? We may have our answer very soon.
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