Proverbs for Paranoids 2: Chossudovsky's latest

[Jan Klimkowski]

"Proverbs for Paranoids 2: The innocence of the creatures is in inverse proportion to the immorality of the Master."
Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

Seemed to me to be an appropriate quote to use in the context of Prof Chossudovsky's latest piece of fishing in the military press:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...&aid=10341

Pre-election Militarization of the North American Homeland. US Combat Troops in Iraq repatriated to " help with civil unrest"

by Michel Chossudovsky

The Army Times reports that the 3rd Infantry’s 1st Brigade Combat Team is returning from Iraq to defend the Homeland, as "an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks." The BCT unit has been attached to US Army North, the Army's component of US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM). (See Gina Cavallaro, Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1, Army Times, September 8, 2008).

"Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, 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.

It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home. ...

But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.

After 1st BCT finishes its dwell-time mission, expectations are that another, as yet unnamed, active-duty brigade will take over and that the mission will be a permanent one.

The command is at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., but the soldiers with 1st BCT, who returned in April after 15 months in Iraq, will operate out of their home post at Fort Stewart, Ga.,

...

The 1st of the 3rd is still scheduled to deploy to either Iraq or Afghanistan in early 2010, which means the soldiers will have been home a minimum of 20 months by the time they ship out.

In the meantime, they’ll learn new skills, use some of the ones they acquired in the war zone and more than likely will not be shot at while doing any of it. (ibid)

The BCT is an army combat unit designed to confront an enemy within a war theater.

With US forces overstretched in Iraq, why would the Pentagon decide to undertake this redeployment within the USA, barely one month before the presidential elections?

The new mission of the 1st Brigade on US soil is to participate in "defense" efforts as well as provide "support to civilian authorities".

What is significant in this redeployment of a US infantry unit is the presumption that North America could, in the case of a natgional emergency, constitute a "war theater" thereby justifying the deployment of combat units..

The new skills to be imparted consists in training 1st BCT in repressing civil unrest, a task normally assumed by civilian law enforcement.

What we are dealing with is a militarization of civilian police activities in derogation of the Posse Comitatus Act.

The prevailing FISA emergency procedures envisage the enactment of martial law in the case of a terrorist attack. The 1st BCT and other combat units would be called upon to perform specific military functions:

They may be called upon to help 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.

Training for homeland scenarios has already begun at Fort Stewart and includes specialty tasks such as knowing how to use the “jaws of life” to extract a person from a mangled vehicle; extra medical training for a CBRNE incident; and working with U.S. Forestry Service experts on how to go in with chainsaws and cut and clear trees to clear a road or area.

The 1st BCT’s soldiers also will learn how to use “the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded,” 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.

“It’s a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities that they’re fielding. They’ve been using pieces of it in Iraq, but this is the first time that these modules were consolidated and this package fielded, and because of this mission we’re undertaking we were the first to get it.”

The package includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and, beanbag bullets.

Civil unrest resulting from from the financial meltdown is a distinct possibility, given the broad impacts of financial collapse on lifelong savings, pension funds, homeownership, etc.

The timing of this planned militarization is crucial: how will it affect the presidential elections scheduled for Tuesday November 4.

The brigade in its domestic homeland activities will be designated as the Consequence Management Response Force ( CCMRF) (pronounced “sea-smurf”).

What " Consequences" are being envisaged?

In a conference held under NorthCom last February, the mission of CCMRFF was defined as follows;

"How to protect communities from terrorist and biological attacks topped the agenda last week for more than 100 service members and civilians gathered at Joint Task Force Civil Support headquarters at Fort Monroe, Va.

The U.S. Northern Command Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High-Yield Explosive Commanders’ Conference, held Feb. 21-23, brought JTF-CS subordinate task force and unit commanders here to discuss common concerns regarding operational requirements of the CBRNE Consequence Management mission and to begin preparations for Exercise Ardent Sentry 2007.

“We’re giving operationally focused briefs to our CCMRF ( CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force) units to help them prepare and successfully deploy for a CBRNE mission in the continental United States, its territories and possessions,” said JTF-CS Current Operations Specialist Hawley Waterman, who helped organized the conference. “This is also an opportunity to get acquainted and establish better relationships with (subordinate commanders).”(NorthCom, March 2007)

What is envisaged is the possibility of a (false flag) terrorist attack on America, which could be used as a justification for retaliatory or preemptive military action overseas (e.g. Iran) as well actions on the domestic front. The ultimate objective of this deployment of 1st BCT is to apply combat experience in the Homeland:

“I can’t think of a more noble mission than this,” said Cloutier, who took command in July. “We’ve been all over the world during this time of conflict, but now our mission is to take care of citizens at home ... and depending on where an event occurred, you’re going home to take care of your home town, your loved ones.”

While soldiers’ combat training is applicable, he said, some nuances don’t apply.

The operation officially has an emergency mandate to "help American citizens on American soil, to save lives, provide critical life support, help clear debris", but it also implies the running of military style operations. :in fact it would appear that the emergency tasks helping civilians is a cover-up. This is a combat unit, which is trained and equipped to kill people:

Some brigade elements will be on call around the clock, during which time they’ll do their regular marksmanship, gunnery and other deployment training. That’s because the unit will continue to train and reset for the next deployment, even as it serves in its CCMRF mission.

Should personnel be needed at an earthquake in California, for example, all or part of the brigade could be scrambled there, depending on the extent of the need and the specialties involved.

Other branches included The active Army’s new dwell-time mission is part of a NorthCom and DOD response package.

Active-duty soldiers will be part of a force that includes elements from other military branches and dedicated National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Teams.

A final mission rehearsal exercise is scheduled for mid-September at Fort Stewart and will be run by Joint Task Force Civil Support, a unit based out of Fort Monroe, Va., that will coordinate and evaluate the interservice event.

In addition to 1st BCT, other Army units will take part in the two-week training exercise, including elements of the 1st Medical Brigade out of Fort Hood, Texas, and the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade from Fort Bragg, N.C.

There also will be Air Force engineer and medical units, the Marine Corps Chemical, Biological Initial Reaction Force, a Navy weather team and members of the Defense Logistics Agency and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

One of the things Vogler said they’ll be looking at is communications capabilities between the services.

“It is a concern, and we’re trying to check that and one of the ways we do that is by having these sorts of exercises. Leading up to this, we are going to rehearse and set up some of the communications systems to make sure we have interoperability,” he said.

A national emergency could be triggered. "[H]orrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive [attack]" or a so-called CBRNE type scenario. One assumes that this is some form of domestic attack, allegedly by terrorists.

But at the same time, the Bush administration may be seeking a justification to establish martial law and intervene militarily within the USA.

“I don’t know what America’s overall plan is — I just know that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there are soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that are standing by to come and help if they’re called,” Cloutier said. “It makes me feel good as an American to know that my country has dedicated a force to come in and help the people at home.” (Army Times, op cit , emphasis added)

"This type of planning and coordination and training is a priority both in our headquarters and at NORTHCOM, as we understand our responsibilities to be ready should the requirement arise, God forbid," (Army News Service Sept 15m 2008)

[David Guyatt]

I note this article is dated 26th of this month and, presumably, the decision to deploy the unit Stateside was also in the last few days? If that is the case then surely the fear is that Mr. & Mrs. Taxpayer may revolt to the plan to bleed them for decades to come to bail out the banks and at the same time (the "shock & awe" aspect) object to the transporting of the political process into fewer and fewer elite hands?

[Jan Klimkowski]

I note thia article is dated 26th of this month and, presumably, the decision to deploy the unit Stateside was also in the last few days? If that is the case then surely the fear is that Mr. & Mrs. Taxpayer may revolt to the plan to bleed them for decades to come to bail out the banks and at the same time (the "shock & awe" aspect) object to the transporting of the political process into fewer and fewer elite hands?

Yes - the fear is Rex 84 all over again. Although this being 2008, we'd also presumably see private contractors like Blackwater patrolling the streets, and incarcerating citizens in the Halliburton prison camps built under (largely) FEMA contracts.

[Dawn Meredith]

This article sounds like another false flag "terrorist attack" will occur before 11/4.

And given that a lot of people, thanks to the internet, have educated themselves on 9-11 being an inside job, the FEMA camps will be ready when these people revolt.

I don't think we have ever lived in more terrifying times.
The looting of the economy and bailing out of the banks was as in your face as was the assassination of JFK.

I wonder if Pete Brewton is writing a follow-up.

Dawn

[Charles Drago]

Another possibility:

The likelihood of election fraud sufficient to steal the presidency for Hanoi Harry and the Ass that Roared grows with each passing day.

As I noted elsewhere on DPF, earlier this week James Carville stated, during post-debate coverage on CNN, that -- and I closely paraphrase -- "If Obama is five points ahead on election day and he loses, were going to ... well, let's leave it at that."

I interpret the deployment of U.S. combat troops to the U.S. mainland as a message sent to Democrats who, behind closed doors, have warned the fixers against a third consecutive theft.

Think of the deployment as a simple question posed by the power-that-is:

"How many divisions does Pelosi have?"

[Magda Hassan]

Watch Out! Those Germans are getting organized again. First at home then abroard?

With Military Means
2008/10/07

BERLIN
(Own report) - The German government is legalizing the use of "military means" in domestic affairs. As was jointly announced on Monday, Oct. 6 by the Ministries of Justice and the Interior, Berlin's government coalition parties have agreed to amend Article 35 of the German Constitution. According to this agreement, the German Bundeswehr will be allowed to operate on German territory - on land, at sea and in the airspace, in otherwise unspecified "particularly serious cases". This intervention can be carried out under cabinet orders, or - in case of an "emergency" - under the sole orders of the Minister of Defense. This promotes the dissolution of the separation of powers between military, police and intelligence agencies that previously had been urged principally between police and intelligence activities. Just a few days ago, reports disclosed the extent of the cooperation between the Federal Criminal Investigation Agency (BKA), the Federal Police and the domestic and foreign intelligence agencies. The BKA bill, due to be passed soon, is being heavily criticized for its violations of the constitutional separation of powers imperative. A recent publication exposes the current extent of the cooperation between the police and the military. Cooperation and a comprehensive blending of the various branches of Germany's repressive organs, on the domestic and foreign fronts, permit a flexible combat of potential civil disorder around the world.


All Branches of the Military
To legalize military operations inside the country, the German government is preparing to pass an amendment to Article 35 of the German Constitution. This article, which lays the legal groundwork for administrative assistance and aid in times of catastrophe, is to be amended with an additional two paragraphs. According to the bill "if the means at the disposal of the police prove insufficient to ward off threats in particularly serious cases, the federal government can order the armed forces to use military means." The federal government has command authority over the regional state governments. In cases of "imminent danger" the defense minister would be authorized to order a military intervention. According to reports, an "incident" need not have taken place nor be of imminent danger of taking place, merely an "indication" of an attack is sufficient.[1] Evidently there will be no limitation on the "military means." Accordingly all branches of the military under Bundeswehr command can be called into action inside the country. A parliamentary decision to this effect is not necessary.

A Bygone
Berlin is advancing the dissolution of the separation of powers between military, police and foreign intelligence by opening the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany to operations by the German armed forces. Already back in July 2007 Chancellor Merkel explained that the separation between domestic and foreign repression is "a bygone".[2] Other than in the case of the Air Safety Law, whose Bundeswehr paragraph (Art. 14 Para. 3) was annulled two years ago by the Constitutional Court,[3] the competence of police forces has been widened. The most recent example is the BKA Bill, soon to be passed into law. This provides the BKA - which has long since been active abroad - with preventive competence, with which it can "go over onto the turf of the Verfassungsschutz" (political secret police "Protectors of the Constitution"), says the publicist Dieter Schenk in a conversation with german-foreign-policy.com. De facto these wide-ranging rights for a so-called defense against threats, are also a subversion of the sovereignty of the police of the individual federal states.[4] Parliamentarians of the opposition are criticizing that the projected domestic repressive apparatus is in many ways "unconstitutional".[5]

Screened By All Agencies
The foreign espionage service is increasingly being included in this dissolution of the separation of powers between police and intelligence agencies. This has been substantiated in a report on the "Gemeinsame Analyse- und Strategiezentrum illegale Migration" (Joint Analysis and Strategy Center on Illegal Migration - GASIM). That institution, which began functioning two years ago, officially defends against undesired immigrants. In GASIM officials of the federal police and the BKA are cooperating with secret service personnel (Verfassungsschutz and the Federal Intelligence Service - BND).[6] Internal documents as well as statements from insiders indicate the extent to which police work and espionage are blending into one another. According to these sources, information from the BND "is simply passed on to the desks of the police." The police then do research in "their own data banks for information on these persons."[7] It is reported that even on the basis of "vague suspicions, also Germans (...) will be screened by all of the participating agencies." This cooperation also includes operative measures. In reference to the police working together with the spy agencies, a GASIM insider explains that "this means that information is enhanced, investigations prepared, at times even accompanied, and further measures are initiated with other police departments."

Spy Satellites
This insider report on the GASIM reinforces apprehensions that the police-intelligence service cooperation is also violating the separation of powers imperative in the Gemeinsame Terrorismusabwehrzentrum (Joint Terrorism Defense Center - GTAZ) located in Berlin-Treptow.[8] In addition the dividing lines are becoming ambiguous between the work of the BKA, which in the context of the GASIM and the GTAZ, is working officially with the domestic and foreign espionage agencies and the military. In his most recent work, the publicist Dieter Schenk, who has written several critical analyses of the BKA, speaks of a "unification of police-military resources."[9] As Schenk reports, the BKA agreed in June 2005 to cooperate with the Center for the Transformation of the Bundeswehr - to formulate "interdisciplinary coordinated analyses of the causes, characteristics and consequences of threats as well as the possibilities for combating them." This also includes the Bundeswehr's satellite surveillance photography that the BKA would like to use for "threat analyses or police surveillance measures."[10]

Military Functions
Even though this obviously is to be used for domestic repression, the president of the BKA also has his sights on cooperation with the military in regions where Germany is an occupying power. While "using the Bundeswehr's infrastructure, such as its means of communications, protective vests, transportation logistics" [11] police officers could support the Bundeswehr in its functions as an occupying power. In general, "police and military resources must be consciously coordinated in the field of strategic planning." This is similar to what Christian Schmidt, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Defense Ministry, has been demanding. Already several years ago Schmidt alleged that "a cemented division separating domestic from foreign security can no longer be maintained." In the future, according to Schmidt, the police must be prepared "to take on typical military functions in foreign deployment, for example in the Balkans."[12]

Flexible
The dissolution of the separation of powers between the military, police and intelligence services, which is ostentatiously advancing in occupation zones,[13] is having a blowback onto German territory with the BKA-Law and the legalization of military operations in domestic affairs. Now it will also be possible to carry out in Germany what is being done - with hit and miss success - in Southeast Europe and Afghanistan: the flexible fight against various potentials of civil disorder using the respectively adequate measures, ranging from police intervention to heavy artillery on the basis of espionage information.

Please read also Interview mit Dieter Schenk and BKA - Polizeihilfe für Folterregime.

[1] Bundeswehr gegen den inneren Feind; taz 05.10.2008
[2] Einsatz der Bundeswehr im Inneren?; http://www.tagesschau.de 02.07.2007
[3] see also Freie Fahrt für die "zivil-militärische" Bundeswehr and Klarstellung
[4] "Das Bundeskriminalamt kann die Aufgabe der Abwehr von Gefahren des internationalen Terrorismus wahrnehmen, in denen eine länderübergreifende Gefahr vorliegt" (§ 4a, Absatz 1 BKA-Gesetz).
[5] Widerstand gegen BKA-Gesetz. Warnung vor deutschem FBI; n-tv 16.09.2008
[6] see also Lagebilder
[7] Was passiert in Schäubles Vorzeigeprojekt "GASIM"?; Report Mainz 29.09.2008
[8] see also Alle Kräfte bündeln
[9], [10], [11] Dieter Schenk: BKA - Polizeihilfe für Folterregime, Bonn 2008
[12] Martina Harder: Polizeisoldaten; Wissenschaft und Frieden 4/2006. See also Sammelrezension: Polizeisoldaten
[13] see also Paramilitary, Söldner and Spezialkommandos

http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56190

[Peter Lemkin]

Another possibility:

The likelihood of election fraud sufficient to steal the presidency for Hanoi Harry and the Ass that Roared grows with each passing day.

As I noted elsewhere on DPF, earlier this week James Carville stated, during post-debate coverage on CNN, that -- and I closely paraphrase -- "If Obama is five points ahead on election day and he loses, were going to ... well, let's leave it at that."

I interpret the deployment of U.S. combat troops to the U.S. mainland as a message sent to Democrats who, behind closed doors, have warned the fixers against a third consecutive theft.

Think of the deployment as a simple question posed by the power-that-is:

"How many divisions does Pelosi have?"

Like any good Deep Political Op, there are usually several purposes in mind. Having said that, I think there might be some nervousness about reaction if the election is stolen AGAIN. I'm listening to a progressive radio station via internet as I type and many persons are saying things along the line of 'there'll be hell to pay in the streets if they steal Obama's landslide victory from us!'..... But whatever it is for, it is both illegal and frightening - but, hey, what has the current administration done that isn't both illegal and frightening?!....I can't think of a one.

Great line Charles. Pelosi has no divisions, but we the People have thousands, if we want.

[Charles Drago]

I wonder if the true bottom line remains, "What difference does it make?"

I'm afraid I'm obliged to opt out of the Obama/McCain choice.

Conflict of disinterest.