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"Joe Friendly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: FEMA - a wolf in sheep's clothing -
internment camps in America?
Extraordinary revelations from the investigative
journalist who broke the TIPS story. Versions of this
article have been printed in Australia and Europe, but
this is Goldstein's full-length, un-edited copy.
INTERNMENT CAMPS AND AUTHORITARIAN US FAST BECOMING
REALITY
By Ritt Goldstein
copyright 2002
all rights reserved
America as you know it is changing dramatically. The
democratic freedoms which long defined American life
are under siege. Today's Bush administration is moving
towards America's military pursuing law enforcement,
internment camps are on the horizon, and a member of
the US Civil Rights Commission previously broached
Arab-American internment. As the FBI pursues an
unprecedented investigation of Senators for leaking
the truth, Bureau monitoring of domestic dissent and
internet traffic has intimidated many into comparative
silence. Concurrently, the US Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) poses an unseen threat to the
America we know, recalling a darkly obscure side of
recent US history.
Hidden behind FEMA�s benevolent face as the body whose
chief responsibility is disaster relief, another FEMA
exists. It is a FEMA that few know has been �charged
by the Bush Administration with leading the nation�s
anti-terrorism effort�, and a FEMA whose history
includes nightmarish episodes in this vein.
The birth of FEMA�s dark side originated in secret
during the Reagan administration. FEMA's domestic
disaster management role was then broadened to allow
it to practice for the imposition of martial law and
the internment of so-called aliens and radicals.
During this period, a joint exercise was held with the
military to prepare for such a contingency, Rex-84.
Concurrently, FEMA began assembling files on those
whom the Agency might target.
Today, most Americans know only FEMA�s benevolent
side. However, in a little known move, President Bush
returned FEMA (headed by former Bush/Cheney 2000
campaign manager Joe Allbaugh) to the forefront of
national security, in May 2001 designating FEMA as the
agency in charge of terrorism response.
Under President Bush's newly released ``National
Strategy For Homeland Security'', FEMA would be placed
under the Office of Homeland Security. Both Homeland
Security and the Department of Defense planned to
participate ``in homeland security training that
involves military and civilian emergency response'',
provoking comparison to Rex-84. And now, the Bush
adminisration is moving to give FEMA disturbing new
responsibilities.
On 14 August the Los Angeles Times ran an article
entitled ``Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish
Vision'', relating to Attorney General John Ashcroft's
announced desire to create ``camps for US citizens he
deems to be 'enemy combatants'". The Los Angeles Times
article reported that Ashcroft aides �have indicated
that a �high-level committee� will recommend which
citizens are to be stripped of their constitutional
rights and sent to Ashcoft�s new camps�. Footnoting
events, on 15 July NewsMax.com reported that FEMA is
said to be pursuing a "crash effort" to build
�sprawling temporary cities to handle millions�. The
NewsMax report also noted that FEMA indicated the
temporary cities are for those fleeing weapons of mass
destruction. It added that FEMA had been given a
deadline of having the cities �ready to go by January
2003.'' And in a subsequent posting to the NewsMax.com
website, a copy of FEMA's project particulars noted
that those contractors seeking to participate in the
program ``must demonstrate capability of establishing
group housing developments (designing, developing,
constructing, and acquisition of property) and
maintenance of complex(s) for periods exceeding 2
years''.
NewsMax.com states that FEMA spokesman Chad Koltun has
confirmed some portions of their story, challenging
others. On 7 August NewsMax reported "Let me state for
the record that FEMA is moving ahead with plans to
create temporary cities that could handle millions of
Americans..."
While FEMA has no domestic intelligence apparatus of
its own to presently target those deemed suspect,
FEMA's Operation TIPS stated aim was to recruit
``millions of American workers'' to report
``suspicious activity''. But as the TIPS program
became public knowledge, a broad spectrum of Americans
voiced substantive concern that whomever an eager TIPS
volunteer might somehow deem ``suspicious'' would be
labeled ``suspect'', harshly treated as such by US
authorities.
At present, US media highlights the occasional
strip-search of elderly women, the routine targeting
of those who appear of Arabic or South Asian
extraction, and an ongoing stream of ``terrorist
alerts'' by US authorities. Individuals have been
questioned by the FBI over ``suspicious posters'',
academics disciplined for ``improper'' discussions of
current events, and a substantive number of innocent
individuals have endured public transportation
nightmares in the name of security. With US law
enforcement now free to engage in previously
prohibited spying on domestic political and religious
groups, many consider America's most basic freedoms
under siege.
Sounding a warning, Gregory Nojeim, Associate Director
of the American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU) Washington
office, said the ACLU is ``very concerned about the
government's apparently insatiable appetite for new
powers and new measures that threaten basic American
liberties as set forth in the Constitution.'' Nojeim
also warned that, ``military law enforcement
jeopardizes rights at the most fundamental level
because soldiers are trained to kill the enemy, not to
make arrests''. Sure to inflame concern further, FEMA
has a much discredited, but relatively unknown history
of compiling dossiers on those it might seek to
intern.
According to research compiled by investigative
authors Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall, before
FEMA's dossier effort became extensive, FBI
intervention halted it. The dossier episode detonated
when the FBI challenged FEMA's right to pursue
domestic spying, resulting in FEMA's turning over
``12,000 political dossiers'' to the Bureau. In a dark
reflection of that period, FEMA's Operation TIPS had
been designed as a vehicle where citizen informant's
reports would be ``maintained and analyzed in a single
(TIPS) database'' for future reference and/or action,
according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Earlier, President Bush had ensured there would be no
current FBI/FEMA conflict, mandating that FEMA work
closely with the DOJ (of which the FBI is part),
creating what Bush called a ``seamlessly integrated''
network. With this bond between FEMA and the DOJ, the
Administration effectively voided the
inter-departmental checks which stopped FEMA's earlier
abuses.
At the time of those abuses, then FBI Director William
Webster objected to FEMA's pursuing domestic
intelligence under the veil of counterterrorism.
Appreciating the validity of Webster's complaint,
alarmed as to both the aim and scope of FEMA's
excesses, then Attorney General William French Smith
charged that there were ``serious policy and legal
objections to an 'emergency czar' role for FEMA.''
Smith also conveyed alarm regarding a drift into an
effective exaggeration of events, circumstances
allowing what he termed ``the expansion of the
definition of severe emergencies to encompass
'routine' domestic law enforcement emergencies'', thus
engaging FEMA's extraordinary powers.
Details of FEMA's national security role first emerged
during the Reagan-era Iran-Contra scandal. Iran-Contra
involved the clandestine selling of weapons to Iran,
illegally using the proceeds to fund US backed Central
American insurgents, the Contras. It was an episode
that led to felony convictions for some of the Reagan
administration's key figures, such as John Poindexter
and Eliott Abrams, both of whom are in the present
Bush administration, as are others from that period.
As one of his last acts as President, Bush Sr.
pardoned those still implicated by the scandal.
Others, such as John Poindexter and Oliver North, had
their convictions reportedly reversed on the basis of
``congressional immunity''.
Reagan's legacy also included the US's so-called
``Dirty Wars'' in Central America, what has been
called the creation of the region's ``killing
fields''. It was a time marred by members of the
Reagan administration engaging in both questionable
and criminal activities, pursued in the name of
National Security. It is against this backdrop that
FEMA's controversial roles and powers were drafted,
powers which also provided for the Government to be
administered solely by the President and FEMA alone.
According to the Washington Post, the creation of a US
``shadow government'' was also a part of the Reagan
initiatives. When the Post revealed the shadow
government's existence on 1 March 2002, the Bush
administration explained it as a precaution to ensure
the continuation of government in case of a terrorist
attack. But on 2 March the Post ran a subsequent
headline, that the US Congress had been unaware the
shadow government existed. However, present law does
provide for the Speaker of the House, followed by the
President of the Senate, to assume the presidency
should both the President and Vice President become
unable to perform their duties. Should the
Constitution be suspended, control of the country pass
to the President and FEMA alone, succession provisions
remain beyond public record. In this context, it
should also be noted that the shadow government is
physically located within a FEMA facility.
Reagan initiated the roots of today's extraordinary
concerns in the period when he was California's
governor. In 1971 Reagan reportedly inaugurated the
idea of utilizing the military and law enforcement to
combat dissent, creating the California Specialized
Training Institute (CSTI), a ``counterterrorism
training center''. Reagan also appointed a retired
National Guard general, Louis Giuffrida, as his
``emergency czar''. It was at this time that Giuffrida
developed plans for martial law, plans which were
never implemented, but which were reportedly designed
to ``legitimize the arrest and detention of
anti-Vietnam war activists and other political
dissidents''.
When Reagan became President, Giuffrida was appointed
to head FEMA, promptly opening a ``Civil Defense
Training Center'' based on CSTI. FEMA also worked with
the Pentagon, their joint position paper, ``The
Civil/Military Alliance in Emergency Management'', an
early exploration into the effective use of the
military for law enforcement purposes, a precursor to
America's present debate regarding the military's
role.
At FEMA, Giuffrida worked with Oliver North, the
central figure of Iran-Contra, in developing FEMA's
then emerging scope and powers. According to a 1990
report authored by Diana Reynolds, presented by the
liberal think-tank Political Research Associates, the
resulting Reagan initiatives were designed to ``change
civil defense planning into a military/police version
of civil society'', a charge with particularly current
resonance today.
It was paradoxically 1984 when FEMA mounted its
national exercise with the Department of Defense, its
exercise to prepare for the arrest and detention of
so-called aliens and radicals, Rex-84. The exercise's
purpose was to test military capabilities in
anticipation of ``civil disturbances, major
demonstrations'', incidentally illustrating the
evolution of civil defense into civil control.
At present, the final contents and disposition of the
Reagan security initiatives, part of a national crisis
plan, remains beyond public knowledge. But given the
"War On Terror's" scope, even if a formal crisis is
not declared, speculation exists that a de facto drift
into an effective deployment of FEMA�s crisis powers
could occur. And this February, the former FEMA
executive, John Brinkerhoff, who reportedly drafted
the martial law/internment portions of the national
crisis plan, revealed it was �approved by Reagan, and
actions were taken to implement it.�
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"I have the audacity to believe that peoples
everywhere can have three meals a day for their
bodies, education and culture for their minds, and
dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits. I
believe that what self-centered men have torn down,
other-centered men can build up. Human progress is
neither automatic nor inevitable... We are now faced
with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are
confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this
unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such
a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy
or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and
positive action.... Peace is not simply the absence of
conflict, but the existence of justice for all
people....A piece of freedom is no longer enough for
human beings... unlike bread, a slice of liberty does
not finish hunger. Freedom is like life. It cannot be
had in instalments. Freedom is indivisible - we have
it all, or we are not free."
Martin Luthor King Jr.
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