Thousands of Troops Are Deployed
on U.S. Streets Ready to Carry Out "Crowd Control"
Members of Congress were told
they could face martial law if they didn't pass the bailout bill.
This will not be the last time.
by Naomi Wolf
www.alternet.org, October 8, 2008
Background: the First Brigade of the Third
Infantry Division, three to four thousand soldiers, has been deployed
in the United States as of October 1. Their stated mission is
the form of crowd control they practiced in Iraq, subduing "unruly
individuals," and the management of a national emergency.
I am in Seattle and heard from the brother of one of the soldiers
that they are engaged in exercises now. Amy Goodman reported that
an Army spokesperson confirmed that they will have access to lethal
and non lethal crowd control technologies and tanks.
George Bush struck down Posse Comitatus,
thus making it legal for military to patrol the U.S. He has also
legally established that in the "War on Terror," the
U.S. is at war around the globe and thus the whole world is a
battlefield. Thus the U.S. is also a battlefield.
He also led change to the 1807 Insurrection
Act to give him far broader powers in the event of a loosely defined
"insurrection" or many other "conditions"
he has the power to identify. The Constitution allows the suspension
of habeas corpus -- habeas corpus prevents us from being seized
by the state and held without trial -- in the event of an "insurrection."
With his own army force now, his power to call a group of protesters
or angry voters "insurgents" staging an "insurrection"
is strengthened.
U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman of California said
to Congress, captured on C-Span and viewable on YouTube, that
individual members of the House were threatened with martial law
within a week if they did not pass the bailout bill:
"The only way they can pass this
bill is by creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere. Many of
us were told in private conversations that if we voted against
this bill on Monday that the sky would fall, the market would
drop two or three thousand points the first day and a couple of
thousand on the second day, and a few members were even told that
there would be martial law in America if we voted no."
If this is true and Rep. Sherman is not
delusional, I ask you to consider that if they are willing to
threaten martial law now, it is foolish to assume they will never
use that threat again. It is also foolish to trust in an orderly
election process to resolve this threat. And why deploy the First
Brigade? One thing the deployment accomplishes is to put teeth
into such a threat.
I interviewed Vietnam veteran, retired
U.S. Air Force Colonel and patriot David Antoon for clarification:
NW "If the President directed the
First Brigade to arrest Congress, what could stop him?"
DA "Nothing. Their only recourse
is to cut off funding. The Congress would be at the mercy of military
leaders to go to them and ask them not to obey illegal orders."
NW "But these orders are now legal?'"
DA "Correct."
NW "If the President directs the
First Brigade to arrest a bunch of voters, what would stop him?"
DA "Nothing. It would end up in courts
but the action would have been taken."
NW "If the President directs the
First Brigade to kill civilians, what would stop him?"
DA "Nothing."
NW "What would prevent him from sending
the First Brigade to arrest the editor of the Washington Post?"
DA "Nothing. He could do what he
did in Iraq -- send a tank down a street in Washington and fire
a shell into the Washington Post as they did into Al Jazeera,
and claim they were firing at something else."
NW"What happens to members of the
First Brigade who refuse to take up arms against U.S. citizens?"
DA "They'd probably be treated as
deserters as in Iraq: arrested, detained and facing five years
in prison. In Iraq a study by Ann Wright shows that deserters
-- reservists who refused to go back to Iraq -- got longer sentences
than war criminals."
NW"Does Congress have any military
of their own?"
DA "No. Congress has no direct control
of any military units. The Governors have the National Guard but
they report to the President in an emergency that he declares."
NW"Who can arrest the President?"
DA "The Attorney General can arrest
the President after he leaves or after impeachment."
[Note: Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi has
asserted it is possible for District Attorneys around the country
to charge President Bush with murder if they represent districts
where one or more military members who have been killed in Iraq
formerly resided.]
NW"Given the danger do you advocate
impeachment?"
DA "Yes. President Bush struck down
Posse Comitatus -- which has prevented, with a penalty of two
years in prison, U.S. leaders since after the Civil War from sending
military forces into our streets -- with a 'signing statement.'
He should be impeached immediately in a bipartisan process to
prevent the use of military forces and mercenary forces against
U.S. citizens"
NW"Should Americans call on senior
leaders in the Military to break publicly with this action and
call on their own men and women to disobey these orders?"
DA "Every senior military officer's
loyalty should ultimately be to the Constitution. Every officer
should publicly break with any illegal order, even from the President."
NW"But if these are now legal. If
they say, 'Don't obey the Commander in Chief,' what happens to
the military?"
DA "Perhaps they would be arrested
and prosecuted as those who refuse to participate in the current
illegal war. That's what would be considered a coup."
NW"But it's a coup already."
DA "Yes."
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