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Sunday September 26, 3:47 PM

Y2Chaos: Does the FBI Have a Waco-Like Plan for Black America?

Could Waco happen again -- this time not in rural Texas but instead in the heart of America's urban centers? Former FBI agent and criminal justice Ph.D., Dr. Tyrone Powers says the Bureau has just such a Y2K contingency plan, code named "Mad Max."

In a Saturday interview on PBS's "Tony Brown's Journal," Powers laid out the FBI's plan for martial law, including the rounding up of "dissidents", should power go down and disorder break out during a Y2K crisis.

The ten year FBI veteran contends that U.S. intelligence agencies, including the FBI, the CIA, Navy Intelligence and other intelligence services have drawn up plans in case a Y2K "castastrophe" hits next January. But beyond January, says Powers, "they were also preparing for Y2K-related events to occur throughout the year 2000. In fact, they were planning for operations as far down as June, when the weather turns warm in certain cities."

The "Mad Max" plan, named after the 1980's Mel Gibson film depicting the total breakdown of social order, is a worst-case contingency plan, claims Powers.

"The FBI expects, in this (worst) case scenario, that people would begin to riot and loot. And specifically they believe this would happen in urban areas among black citizens," says the retired agent.

"In this case, they've set up a scenario where they would respond by, first of all, having the president declare martial law. And they have a written plan for this. And once he declared martial law, then these agencies, along with the HRT team, which is the FBI's Hostage Recovery Team, which is kind of a SWAT force, would go in to restore order in these particular places......to calm down the looting and bring back stability to the urban areas."

But isn't it a good idea for the FBI to plan for the worst, just in case?

Certainly, says Powers. In fact, such planning is routine. "Except the type of response that they're planning for these areas is not really routine in this particular instance. For instance, the HRT team, the FBI's Hostage Recovery Team, does not usually respond to urban riots and looting. They're the group that was used in the case in Waco and the case up on Ruby Ridge.... So their involvement in this, their response to this kind of a scenario, is different than it would be in any other case."

Powers told PBS's Brown that the name "Hostage Recovery Team" really disguises the group's true mission.

"Essentially they're not trained to recover hostages. They're trained to do other things and we saw that at Waco and Ruby Ridge. They're trained to go in and restore order by any means necessary."

The ex-agent said the government's response to the riots of the 1960's formed the basis for its Y2K "Mad Max" plan:

"When I was with the Maryland State Police, we had what they called urban assault vehicles or urban tanks. And this came about right after the riots of the late 1960's. And so they created plans to go in and restore stability by going in and making mass arrests and moving people from one location to the other.... They're prepared to go in and control the public in mass numbers and move them to certain locations."

Most chillingly, Dr. Powers described what one source told him was the government's "acceptable loss rate" for its Y2K urban contingency plan during a massive blackout:

"If in fact we lose electricity, now you're talking about making movements under the cover of darkness..... And they realize they have an acceptable loss rate, and my source told me about that -- which is still not a surprise if you know intelligence organizations. In these movements that occur at night, there may be some innocent people who are harmed and shot, but that's acceptable," according to current government thinking.

Powers described the FBI's Y2K "acceptable loss" calculation as something that would be "no different than in any other battle or war."

The ex-agent also says that the FBI may take advantage of Y2K chaos to round up "dissidents," which the FBI continues to monitor despite the demise of such bureau operations as "Cointellpro."

"Many of the operations that the FBI had during the 60's that we thought were bygone are still in place," claims Powers, who explained that the FBI maintains a network of F.O.B.'s ('Friends of the Bureau') who continue to gather intelligence on media and other organizations on a regular basis.

"During the time I was working at the FBI, as I began to see some of this paperwork that reminded me of the counter-intelligence operations of the 60's, I asked one of my supervisors, 'Why would they continue this?'"

His boss' response, according to Powers: "Why would we stop when it was so effective?"

Powers explained that the government would justify a Y2K round-up of America's "dissidents" as necessary to the restoration of order:

"The government believes that it is these people who could actually either calm the situation or create more chaos as the government moves in. If the government decided that they're going to move because of Y2K into a particular community, and there are people in that community who are saying, 'This is what I've been telling you about all along, the government is moving on us" -- we've got to remove these people who might give that indication as we move to restore order."

Link

-- BB (peace2u@bellatlantic.net), September 26, 1999

Answers

Mad Max in the cities. This does not conjure up very nice pictures. Time to get rural.

-- BB (peace2u@bellatlantic.net), September 26, 1999.

I made a point to watch the show. I didn't really feel that threatened after watching the show as I thought I would after ready the posing last week. The opening was great! T.B. explaining y2k and why balck people are preparing at a faster clip than non-blacks (my wife and I dispute this because we are non- black and heavily prepared). Anyway after the opening we thought it kinda went downhill from there. Nothing really new all about infiltration into groups and such. I think this website has been infiltraited. Are you aware Taiwan encted their version of martial Law? It'll be interesting how the new year develops.

-- The Count of Meijer Crisco (40@cansof.course), September 26, 1999.

In a moment(s) of rage I let my old self out.

"For all have sinned and come short of the glory of GOD"

Onward Christian soldiers...

-- The Count of Meijer Crisco (40@cansof.course), September 26, 1999.

saw this show in my neck of the woods this p.m. wasn't particularly alarming. brown claimed that larger percentages of blacks are preparing even though they are far less apt to own computers. he chalked it up to the fact that blacks have had muddle through a whole host of nasty situations for 200 years. thus the general sentiment is that "yes, things really could get bad. makes sense to me

-- corrine l (corrine@iway.net), September 26, 1999.

http://www.pir.org/pirpost.14

-- FYI (FYI@seek.find), September 26, 1999.

I tried to tape the TB program, but all I got was another program that wasn't listed in the program guide. I wonder if some stations refused to run it.

Newfie

-- Newfie (chocolate@sweet.zits), September 26, 1999.

* * * 19990927 Monday

Newfie:

WFUM-TV PBS (Flint, Michigan) ran the 'Journal' at 4pm Sunday as scheduled.

WTVS-TV PBS (Detroit, Michigan) DID NOT run the 'Journal,' although it was in the printed scheduled.

Is this indicative of a "racist" pattern to reduce Y2K "risk" of panic? I don't know. Perhaps this thread could shed some light on that speculation?

Regards, Bob Mangus

* * *

-- Robert Mangus (rmangus1@yahoo.com), September 27, 1999.

If the closing paragraph doesn't scare you, and you are a regular on this forum, then what would it take to scare you?

-- Not Now (AmScared@of.gov), September 27, 1999.