-Caveat Lector- >From Alex Jones' http://www.infowars.com/ 11/13/99 A FLASH RADAR SPECIAL REPORT THIS FROM AN EMAIL I RECEIVED TODAY Well folks, they're at it again. Please read what was sent to me this morning before I located this in the papers: I absolutely could not believe what I heard on the local news last night here in Columbia SC. The news was warning citizens to stay away from 5 points in downtown Columbia SC. 5 points is our cities "restaurant row". It's also all where most of the bars are located cause it's right near the University of SC (USC). In other words, it's pretty much the center of nightlife here in Columbia, but NOT last night! The local news at 7:00PM last night issued a warning to citizens to stay away from the area as it was being used by the Marines for Urban warfare exercises! The late night news last night showed 5 points abandoned except for Marines vehicles and troops. Wonder what the hell the college kids thought at the university when they they were turned way by armed troops trying to go get a beer after class last night at one of the local hangouts! More choppers today coming into town today. Latest reports are we now have at least several hundred Marines camped out IN the city. Local news reported early this week that the exercises had been "extended" from the original 1 week to a month or more. Now we hear they are here until "further notice". WTF? Then today, I'm out taking my wife and our new son to the doctor and 6 choppers fly over our truck. I'm not a military person, but it looked like 2 dark green black hawks, some other smaller dark chopper, some kind of big "air crane" type chopper, a big white chopper (bigger than a black hawk) and a smaller white chopper just like the smaller dark chopper but white. A guy I work with who's wife works for the city of Columbia, told me today, that his wife came home last night and said that one of the Marine officers had gotten into a heated argument with our Mayor down at city hall about "carrying live ammo". What the hell is going on? Everyone as work today was talking about this, a lot of kinda wary jokes about we are being "invaded". Talked to a guy in a chatroom from Myrtle Beach SC a while ago. He couldn't believe it. Said he had heard nothing about it. The only report I can find about them even being here on the net is on the Reuters/AP link off of the Drudge report. Enter Marines in the search box, and then look on the 2nd page of "hits". You will see a 5 line story about hundreds of Marines conducting exercises in Columbia SC. Very little in our local news about what is going on except for occasional warning to stay out of this or that area. Is this normal? Who has white helecopters? I assumed they were like medical helecopters or something but someone on a chat site said they are UN. They were not light blue or light grey but pure white. Never seen any like that around here before. >From The State, Columbia, SC http://www.thestate.com/ : URBAN WAR GAMES UNNECESSARY By REBECCA BURGESS ROGERS Special to The State Published on 11/10/99 ---------- Hundreds of U.S. Marines are in town this week to train in simulated war conditions in an urban setting. According to the Oakland Tribune, when training was conducted there this spring, residents were willing to deal with the slight inconvenience. But when the exercises moved into their back yards, things changed. Despite promises to the contrary, helicopters flew low and weapons-fire noise was at an unacceptable level. "The helicopters in the neighborhoods were not part of the plan," said Col. Mark Thiffault. "They were not supposed to be flying at 200 feet. Our air planner put the exercise into play without checking with us. As a result, we and the neighbors had a big surprise." What surprises should we expect in Columbia? What a tremendous public relations event to promote violent response to conflict! How can anyone morally or ethically justify this "need" to train our military -- in our cities or anywhere else? When our nation is the largest purveyor of violence on this planet, it should not be surprising that our young people are so violent. The mayors of Oakland, Alameda and Monterey "earned" $4.5 million. Is the military paying our mayor? And what is that money used for? Instead of spending taxpayers' money for this high-tech,window-dressing exercise aimed at convincing us there is a foreign enemy about to invade, it could be better spent on the many victims of the current "urban war" -- students whose schools are in crisis, people who have no homes, people who have been downsized out of work. We need to stop playing war games not only in our back yard but also in other countries where such training is a fact of daily life. Instead, we should be training true peacemakers to go into areas of conflict ... people who are intensely trained and committed to work for non-violent resolutions ... people who do not carry guns. Being a socially aware and peaceful citizen means you have to work a lot harder to find non-violent ways to live. It takes more time and energy to look deeper into issues and ask the hard questions than it does to just accept decisions made by those in power. When you are repeatedly told you are in a minority -- and when you are called all those derogatory names minorities are called -- you need all of your non-violence skills. Often, when we are in such small numbers, we look for others. In the Carolina Peace Resource Center's 18-year history, we have found many other active, informed people and groups of people -- locally, nationally and internationally -- working for peace and social justice. Thanks to all these people, we cannot plead ignorance and innocence. We've learned too much to be silent. We'd be pretty foolish to be optimistic, but we do have hope. And we're still asking questions. How about you? (Ms. Rogers, a certified mediator and conflict management trainer, chairs the board of the Columbia-based Carolina Peace Resource Center.) DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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