Army will have weapons and tanks when policing U.S. streets

Army will have weapons and tanks when policing U.S. streets

October 5, 2008, 6:21 am
Filed under: 1st amendment, 4th amendment, army, bailout, Big Banks, Bio Weapons, Biological Attack, biological warfare, catastrophic event, civil liberties, civil rights, Congress, Credit Crisis, DEBT, DHS, Dictatorship, Dissent, Dollar, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Empire, enemy combatant, Fascism, free speech, global economy, Great Depression, Greenback, Homeland Security, House, hr 5122, hyperinflation, Inflation, Iraq, john warner defense authorization act, liquidation, Martial Law, Military, Military Industrial Complex, national socialism, nationalization, Nazi, NORTHCOM, Nuke, occupation, Oppression, Police State, Posse Comitatus, Protest, riots, Senate, socialism, Stock Market, Troops, Uncategorized, urban warfare, us army, US Constitution, US Economy, Wall Street, War On Terror | Tags: civil disobedience, civil unrest, crowd control, Insurrection Act of 1807, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, october suprise, posse comitatus act, run on banks, soldiers, u.s. soldiers

NorthCom Denies Troops To Be Used For Crowd Control
But admits that Army will have access to weapons and tanks during homeland patrols

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
October 2, 2008

Following the alarming admission that active duty U.S. Army would be on call to deal with “civil unrest” inside the United States from October 1st, the US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) has publicly denied that troops will engage in law enforcement duties, but concedes that forces will be armed with both non-lethal and lethal weapons as well as having access to tanks.

As we highlighted last week, a September 8 Army Times report stated that active duty troops from the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team returning from Iraq would be on call as a “federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks,” for a period of 12 months from October 1st.

The purpose of the unit’s patrols, according to the article, includes helping “with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.”

However, a NorthCom official, presumably responding to reports featured on this website and others, publicly denies that troops will be used to police Americans.

“This response force will not be called upon to help with law enforcement, civil disturbance or crowd control, but will be used to support lead agencies involved in saving lives, relieving suffering and meeting the needs of communities affected by weapons of mass destruction attacks, accidents or even natural disasters,” Army Col. Michael Boatner, USNORTHCOM future operations division chief, told Homeland Security Today.

We also learn that the troops will be under the operational control of USNORTHCOM’s Joint Force Land Component Command under US Army North, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. The operational headquarters of the response force is at Fort Monroe, Virginia.

The original Army Times report also stated that the use of non-lethal weapons against Americans would be a possibility, but a retraction has now been issued stating that the forces would not use nonlethal weaponry domestically.

Read Full Article Here

 

Use of military in quelling domestic unrest a scary sign

Amy Goodman
Seattle PI
October 2, 2008

A little-noticed story surfaced a couple of weeks ago in the Army Times newspaper about the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team. “Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months,” reported Army Times staff writer Gina Cavallaro, “the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.” Disturbingly, she writes that “they may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control” as well.

The force will be called the chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive Consequence Management Response Force. Its acronym, CCMRF, is pronounced “sea-smurf.” These “sea-smurfs,” Cavallaro reports, have “spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle,” in a combat zone, and now will spend their 20-month “dwell time” — time troops are required to spend to “reset and regenerate after a deployment” — armed and ready to hit the U.S. streets.

The Army Times piece includes a correction stating that the forces would not use nonlethal weaponry domestically. I called Air Force Lt. Col. Jamie Goodpaster, a public affairs officer for Northern Command. She told me that the overall mission was humanitarian, to save lives and help communities recover from catastrophic events. Nevertheless, the military forces would have weapons on-site, “containerized,” she said — that is, stored in containers — including both lethal and so-called nonlethal weapons. They would have mostly wheeled vehicles, but would also, she said, have access to tanks. She said that use of weapons would be made at a higher level, perhaps at the secretary of defense level.

Talk of trouble on U.S. streets is omnipresent now, with the juxtaposition of Wall Street and Main Street. The financial crisis we face remains obscure to most people; titans of business and government officials assure us that the financial system is “on the brink,” that a massive bailout is necessary, immediately, to prevent a disaster. Conservative and progressive members of Congress, at the insistence of constituents, blocked the initial plan. If the economy does collapse, if people can’t go down to the bank to withdraw their savings, or get cash from an ATM, there may be serious “civil unrest,” and the “sea-smurfs” may be called upon sooner than we imagine to assist with “crowd control.”

The political and financial establishments seem completely galled that people would actually oppose their massive bailout, which rewards financiers for gambling. Normal people worry about paying their bills, buying groceries and gas, and paying rent or a mortgage in increasingly uncertain times. No one ever offers to bail them out. Wall Street’s house of cards has collapsed, and the rich bankers are getting little sympathy from working people.

Read Full Article Here

U.S. Army conducting training exercises in cities, towns
http://www.elliscountypress.com/news/132/ARTICLE/2575/2008-09-30.html

Troops Patrol U.S. Streets Searching For “Civil Unrest”
http://noworldsystem.com/2008/09/26/t..eets-searching-for-civil-unrest/

 

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