RK77

If this is the wrong forum for this would an admin move it to the right one please. Thanks.

Thousands of Troops Are Deployed on U.S. Streets Ready to Carry Out "Crowd Control"
By Naomi Wolf, AlterNet
Posted on October 8, 2008, Printed on 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. Th us 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:

"If the President directed the First Brigade to arrest Congress, what could stop him?"

"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 ille gal orders."

"But these orders are now legal?'"

"Correct."

"If the President directs the First Brigade to arrest a bunch of voters, what would stop him?"

"Nothing. It would end up in courts but the action would have been taken."

"If the President directs the First Brigade to kill civilians, what would stop him?"

"Nothing."

"What would prevent him from sending the First Brigade to arrest the editor of the Washington Post?"

"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."

"What happens to members of the First Brigade who refuse to take up arms against U.S. citizens?"

"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."

"Does Congress have any military of their own?"

"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."

"Who can arrest the President?"

"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.]

"Given the danger do you advocate impeachment?"

"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 state ment.' He should be impeached immediately in a bipartisan process to prevent the use of military forces and mercenary forces against U.S. citizens"

"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?"

"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."

"But if these are now legal. If they say, 'Don't obey the Commander in Chief,' what happens to the military?"

"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."

"But it's a coup already."

"Yes."

RK77

Heretic----

Take two deep breaths before you respond.......I KNOW this is linked to the FISA matters (and I know that FISA has been monitoring and recording and storing info from Americans having phone sex)......

You are preaching to the choir!

The question is what the fuck we should be doing about this now!

poetrychic

i'm right int he middle of moving now so i don't have time to respond to the article itself other than

and you're welcome

__________________
"it was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation, yes we can!"

RK77

Thanks--- I kept vacillating between In the News and General Political and Election (since many of the articles on this are saying it will be used to stop the elections).

Much appreciated!!

Ya done painting?

Heretic

Trust that our guys in green won't overturn the Constitution they swore to uphold and defend. Look to Serbia and Ukraine and how the citizens there befriended soldiers to such a degree neither country's troops fired a shot against their fellow countrymen.

Also, there's a semi-legitimate concern here in regards to the racists we might need to subdue should Obama win. Maybe- I'm making a leap here, that the troops are to keep the racist headhunters in line.

But either way the path of nonviolent resistance is our best tool against internal oppression. You can't lose once the other side brutalizes you.

__________________
"In space no one can hear you scream. in D.C. it won't matter..." -Clinton Resurrection: The Alien Queen lives!

jowey

Heretic - I hope that you are right, that if Bush attempts martial law his administration/the party will have some problems. That it would be laughed out of office...

Your claim of trust and sworn oath is shallow foundation to support non-action, given the damage done to the Constitution already by people that swore oaths too....

However it is the Army that has been returned. From what I hear they did not return the deployed National Guard who would be more familiar with the local particularities of a State.

This would fit with a strategy to acquire power.....

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Heretic

Not laughed out of office. If Jr. attempts to subvert democracy he'll be dragged out of office by two burly Marines or Secret Service officers. He has no choice but to respect the Constitutional principle of a peaceful and timely transition of power. He doesn't get to choose.

I know enough Soldiers and Marines to know that not one of them would support the end of representative government in the U.S.

It doesn't matter. The Regular Army are just as serious about their oath as any National Guardsman.

Count on it.

__________________
"In space no one can hear you scream. in D.C. it won't matter..." -Clinton Resurrection: The Alien Queen lives!

jowey

Bush will be dragged out of office only on orders. He is the Commander in Chief.

The individual soldier's duty is to obey orders, what might appear to be a bad order may be a necessary order. They might stand up against killing women and children like some did in Vietnam.

The difference between regular Army putting down a civil uprising and the National Guard is that the Guard might understand the regional culture better, the reason for any alleged uprising. The National Guard is under State authority, the Governor, the use of the Guard on foreign soil removed the States military power.

So when we consider some of the states that have stated that they were going to secede from the Union, the return of Union Army from foreign soil - we have a recipe for disaster.

I would recommend talking to your buddies when they are not talking shit about being bad asses. Being in just after Vietnam we talked a lot of shit about if another stupid war occurred also. Lets not hope that this all DOES NOT come down to some grunt in an American field behind a 50 cal with orders to shoot the insurgents.

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RK77

Where would we make our stand? DC?

RK77

We also should not forget that Bush has his own private army! If our boys won't act against us---what about the Blackwater folks?