Troops And Police Take On Protesters in “Anti-Terrorism” Drill

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
September 4, 2009

Soldiers teamed up with police at Fort Lee, Virginia this week for a three day long “anti-terrorism drill” that involved defending themselves from actors playing the part of “agitated” protesters.

A report from CBS affiliate WTVR provides details of the drill, which centered on containing and quelling a staged demonstration.

The volunteer protesters held aloft signs, one of which declared a “racist free zone” (see opposite, click to enlarge).

“We train our solders as realistically as we can, to protect for us as a garrison, other soldiers and families on the post” Fort Lee’s Garrison Commander Colonel Mike Morrow told reporters.

Combining active duty soldiers with civilian police has taken weeks of planning according to the report. The drill involved “all aspects of protecting of the military installation whether its protesters or terrorists.”

Fort Lee Chief of Police Joe Metzger told WTVR that in times of emergency the military and the police must work together. “We forget one’s wearing blue, one’s wearing a uniform. We all come together for the same cause”. Metzger stated.

Apparently that cause involves the prevention of people exercising their First Amendment rights.

One participating soldier was quoted as saying “I learned over here we also have missions back in the US to protect our families and friends and this is a part of doing so”.

It has been the case for a number of years now that the police and the armed forces are being trained, in this case TOGETHER, to treat protesting US citizens as a threat to security.

Now it is clear that the American people are the classed on same threat level as “terrorists” by the military and the police. Why else would such an exercise be part of an “anti-terrorism” drill?

Back in June we covered the news that current Department of Defense anti-terrorism training course material states that the exercise of First Amendment rights in the US constitutes terrorist activity.

The ACLU wrote a letter of protest to the DoD regarding its Antiterrorism and Force Protection Annual Refresher Training Course, which advises personnel that political protest amounts to “low-level terrorism”. All DoD personnel are required to complete the course on a yearly basis.

Over the last few years we have also seen countless examples of security assessment reports from the likes of the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, as well as police training manuals, which state that anti-war protesters, gun owners, veterans, Ron Paul supporters and those who merely cite the Constitution should be equated with extremists.

The latest evidence of such training was sent to us last week in the form of a 2006 FBI training video produced as part of a program to train police how to spot and apprehend terrorists.

The “terrorists” in the presentation were people carrying video equipment, cell phones and sleeping bags in their cars, along with people taking photographs of structures.

Watch Alex Jones’ breakdown of the training video below (begins at 6.20 mins):