some facts about martial law....

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5. They are even preparing for martial law. Even though I get asked about this subject wherever I go, I have studiously tried to avoid discussing it. It's always sounded to me like something that only conspiracy theorists take seriously.

Initially, it was hard for me to admit that the government might be saying one thing and doing another. But, as I've watched Y2K unfold, I've gradually become more and more convinced that they are doing exactly that. As I testified before Congress in September 1998:

I have detected a disturbing attitude in Washington and elsewhere as I have traveled the country. There are those who, if not saying it directly, are acting as if the people cannot be trusted with "dangerous information." This attitude betrays a fundamental presupposition about our citizens that I do not share: that is, if people know the truth they will act irrationally and without concern for their neighbors. While this may be true in isolated incidents, it is not true of our people as a whole, as any cursory reading of our history will show.

Now the handwriting is clearly on the wall:

The London Sunday Times reported that the British government has drawn up secret plans to use elite special forces to deal with Y2K disruptions when Jan. 1 arrives. Code-named "Operation Surety," the plans call for members of the SAS -- comparable to the U.S. military's Army Rangers or Navy Seals -- to protect not only key government sites, but also civilian installations such as banks, airports, and power stations if civil unrest becomes widespread. You can bet that if they are doing this in Great Britain, they are doing it in the other NATO nations as well.

The Washington Post reported that a contingent of Marines based in Washington D.C. recently trained in Quantico, Va., to hone its skills in dealing with civil unrest. In the mock scenario, an angry mob of disgruntled federal workers had not received their paychecks because of Y2K computer problems and were storming government buildings. Equipped with riot shields and concertina wire, the Marines practiced various techniques for controlling the crowds.

According to Federal Computer Week, "the Defense Department has instructed all military commanders to maintain their units' ability to go to war in the event of widespread Year 2000-related critical infrastructure failures, relegating local community assistance to the bottom of the department's priority list. Local commanders at military installations across the United States and abroad will be authorized to 'undertake immediate, unilateral, emergency response actions that involve measures to save lives, prevent human suffering or mitigate great property damage' in the event of catastrophic infrastructure failures, according to a recent memorandum signed by Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre."

These examples do not even include the myriad reports I am getting from private citizens and military personnel about urban assault training, low-flying military helicopters at all hours of the day and night (I have witnessed this myself on two separate occasions, one of them last night), the erection of convoy signs on Interstates, special Y2K operating procedures, and the re-opening of military bases that have been closed since World War II. Some of these reports may, in fact, be bogus, but I can tell you the volume has increased substantially and some of them are coming from sources I trust.

Think about this: If there aren't going to be significant problems, why would the military be anticipating civil unrest and "critical infrastructure failures"? Why would they be engaged in such comprehensive mobilization exercises? Why would the deputy secretary of defense be instructing all military commanders to be prepared for a situation that can only be described as something akin to war?

The bottom line is this: Forget what you are hearing in the mainstream media. Forget the happy-face notices you are receiving in the mail from your suppliers and from government officials. If these spin doctors really believed that Y2K has been substantially solved, they would not be doing what they are doing. Specifically, they would not continue to raise budgets, push the deadlines out, make contingency plans, pass legislation to limit Y2K litigation, and prepare for martial law. But they are, and in doing so, they betray their true colors.

-- owl (woo@woo.xcom), September 23, 1999

Answers

See www.newswatchmagazine.org It is coming-open your eyes. Guess we should all heed dogs@zianet.com words of wisdom!!Prepare spiritually first-physically second.

-- (I Believe (Repent@time is now.com), September 23, 1999.

Yes. All those threads, all the discussions of the past 2 years here -- watch them become real, manifested before your eyes. Thank God for the emotional and mental prep this Forum has afforded.

Lockdown at the very latest by December 27, 1999.

May become more visible by November 1, 1999.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), September 23, 1999.


Owl,

Give credit where credit is due. Michael Hyatt wrote this piece. An honest oversight on your part I presume.

-- Dale (dale@spicreative.com), September 23, 1999.


OK gang...by now I sincerely hope that none of you think of me as a polly on the Y2K issue...but I'm still having some trouble with this whole martial law idea. Maybe it's because I live in Wyoming. I served in the Navy for 9 years, and although I worked in windowless buildings and was not allowed to play with guns or sharp objects, I do know a little about the military in general.

First, the DoD has flatly stated in writing that their mission is to be ready to go to war and/or defend this nation. Y2K disruptions and helping the local civilian populace is the lowest priority possible. They will only do so if directed, and then only if it does not interfere with their primary mission.

Second, military personnel could be called upon to defend federal buildings in ANY emergency situation. This does NOT constitute "practicing for martial law" by any stretch...I'm sorry!

Third, as I stated yesterday I believe, in another thread...Sen Bennett himself has publically stated that martial law is out of the question - on a national scale - for one thing there aren't enough troops to enforce it! If you take every military person and every person in law enforcement, and add all the NG personnel and anyone else you can think of who is military or wears a badge, they could not possibly hold New York and Los Angeles together, much less the whole damned country!!

What is all this hypersensitivity to martial law? The only people who should even be remotely concerned with this are those living in large metro areas...and if you frequent this forum, then what the hell are you doing in a large metro area anyway? And another thing...Diane...what the hell are you doing living in California??

Rant off

-- Don Wegner (donfmwyo@earthlink.net), September 23, 1999.


Don,

Martial Law was declared last week in NJ in a very SMALL town. My sister lives there, so I SHOULD know. Maybe that is why I am a bit paranoid? Wake up and smell the coffee.

-- Who Me (Was@home.com), September 23, 1999.



This is what im talking about (quote below). if you people are seeing these strange things happen all over the US...TAKE SOME DAMN PICTURES and get them up on the net. Shoot..ill do it..email them to me at pinionsmachine@hotmail.com. You cant go on making claims like these without PROOF...this whole thing is starting to mirror the way UFO sightings are handled....or rather laughed at.

INVESTIGATE PEOPLE....get off your asses do something!

SNIP **************************************************************

These examples do not even include the myriad reports I am getting from private citizens and military personnel about urban assault training, low-flying military helicopters at all hours of the day and night (I have witnessed this myself on two separate occasions, one of them last night), the erection of convoy signs on Interstates, special Y2K operating procedures, and the re-opening of military bases that have been closed since World War II. Some of these reports may, in fact, be bogus, but I can tell you the volume has increased substantially and some of them are coming from sources I trust.

-- Cory Hall (coryh@strategic-services.net), September 23, 1999.


Don,

This objection has arisen and been dealt with time and time again. A declaration of martial law does not mean a 1:1 ratio of soldiers to citizens, and a tank on every streetcorner of America. It is in essence a legal change. It is a shift in the law, and in the realationship between people and government; it is the turning of the apparatus of the military upon it's citizenry (for their own good).

If there is a curfew, and television and newspapers are commandeered, and cities are cordoned off to prevent mass-exodus, and freedom of speech and association are curtailed, we still haven't used too many troops or material. But we have martial law. Strength will be focused on crushing open rebellion, or non-cooperative regional resistance to the Fed. In a condition of martial law, every beat cop, every firefighter, every den-mother, is going to be recruited into the effort. Because there will be a genuine crisis, and because media is overtly controlled, there will be no dissent. We will be in dire straits, and dissenters will be our "enemy within." So will hoarders and blackmarketeers. The militias will be "racist, baby-eating rapists of the radical right" - or whatever; they will be exterminated, and we'll all cheer like the crowd at a jr. high school pep rally. If you don't have pep, it'll go down on your permanent record. So it's not a question of "us-against-them" - we ARE "them," provided there is a scary enough boogey-man thrust in our face, and provided the police threat, like a sheepdog nipping at the heels of the herd, is dark and vicious enough to underscore the urgent need for unity.

Liberty

-- Liberty (liberty@theready.now), September 23, 1999.


Why the hypersensitivity about Martial law? Because Don without exception, in every nation that has declared a national state of Martial Law, the freedoms the populace once enjoyed are NEVER completely restored. Perhaps piecemeal to placate the masses, but true freedom is never beholden again for one simple reason: once the leadership tastes absolute power and monarchal control via fiat, they will NEVER willingly relinquish that control again.

Our military commanders understand this, which is why until Waco they have resisted such efforts of utilizing military force on civillians.

Under a tyrannical power-mad traitor like Clinton, the spectre of Martial Law is frightening. Clinton's strewn wake of ruined lives, corpses and corruption, appear to anyone with common-sense that his Mafioso-style governance would turn Stalinist to any opposition he faced as Absolute Ruler. This is why most are warning and dreading such a declaration from this president. It would be the bullet in the head of freedom, and those left alive will be billed for the round to the tune of slavery.

Until now, only govenors had to make such declarations. The system of checks and balances ensured the relative return to normalcy after an event. With Clinton, the system of balances has been corrupted. Ie: never before has a president made an emergency declaration BEFORE a disaster and BEFORE a Govenor's request. A precedent has been set with Floyd, and no one noticed, or cared.

Talk to any foreign national who lived unter a national-state of Martial Law, and they will tell you, America will cease as a free nation the moment it happens.

This is why so many oppose the notion and are fearful of it.

-- INVAR (gundark@sw.net), September 23, 1999.


*Who Me* - The state of NJ should be under martial law NOW!!

*Liberty* - I understand that there doesn't need to be a 1:1 ratio or tanks on every corner. For the boneheaded morons among us, and I'm not talking to you Liberty, we are under a declared state of emergency right this very moment. In fact, we have been since the days of FDR. Yet there are no troops in the streets.

*INVAR* - This is a valid point. However, unless they are prepared to go house to house and confiscate all weapons, I think that normalcy would indeed be restored.

So, what is the long and short of it all? What is the answer? We cannot prevent the King from calling out the troops. If it happens, are you suggesting that we all take to the streets and start shooting everyone in a uniform or what? If American troops begin shooting at American citizens...then the war is on and it will be a very bloody one indeed. I still think that some of you are over-reacting on this issue. If it happens, then we will deal with it. No sense getting all excited about it!!

-- Don Wegner (donfmwyo@earthlink.net), September 23, 1999.


Don,

Well said. If it happens, we'll deal with it. This anxiety and paranoia take energy away from preparing. Everyone needs to prepare as best they can. For some, that means rural survival living; others, it means a well stocked apartment in an urban city. Many, including I, will be well armed.

No use wasting precious energy(I, with MS, consider energy particularly precious) on imaginative fear; there is plenty just with a read of the final Y2K Senate report. Especially if you understand the document as the most that this commitee can politically reveal, without causing self-fullfilling prophecy.

Get prepared spiritually, get a grip on your fears. Whatever happens, be as prepared as you can. Then, you've done the best you could, and emotionally and physically, you too are Y2k READY!

-- Leslie (***@***.net), September 23, 1999.



Leslie and Don,

You both seem to admit that it's possible, and that if the govt tries to really lock us down into an oppressive totalitarian state, you imply that fighting back would be a good thing. If troops roll into the streets to help keep supply lines open, stop looters, deliver fuel, etc., anyone who shoots at them should of course be strung up. But media is taken over by the government, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech are curtailed, or we are ordered to turn in all our firearms, they've gone too far. At that point, we are dealing with an "enemy...domestic." And frankly, I think members of the military who understand their oath to uphold and protect the Constitution are going to be the biggest obstacle to that. Next come the veterans, who are not likely to jump the gun in this type of situation, but would absolutely open up a full ration of whupass on any Constitution-usurping "authority," in a manner that would be awesome and terrible to behold.

There's no need to be filing down your trigger for this event. But we need to think about it, and talk about it, and decide AHEAD OF TIME what were going to do; whether, for example, we would cooperate with a government that "suspended" our right to freely assemble, or to speak publically. I think this sort of thinking-through REDUCES the probability of gun-happy idiots going off on some poor soldiers just because they are trying to get coal to a power plant, or stop looters. In any case, there are far fewer of this type than the gov/media would have you believe. Discussion is not dangerous. Supression of discussion is.

Liberty

-- Liberty (liberty@theready.now), September 23, 1999.


Don asked: "If it happens, are you suggesting that we all take to the streets and start shooting everyone in a uniform or what?"

I'd advocate that (except for the idea of doing it from the street) if there was a suspension of legal rights that I feel are key. But I no more expect that to happen than I expect to get hit by lightning. It's possible, it just isn't high on my "things to be concerned about" list.

-- Gus (y2kk@usa.net), September 23, 1999.


Gus,

I'm not concerned about my car bursting into flames. But I carry a fire extinguisher under my seat. And funny thing: if I'm really prepared for a car fire, there's no reason to be concerned.

If we're all truly prepared for the evil that men do, then the evil men are the ones who need to be "concerned."

Liberty

-- Liberty (liberty@theready.now), September 24, 1999.


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