Is HR 645, a bill "To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish national emergency centers on military installations", a reprise of the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Act? That bill was pulled from the Senate floor after protest by citizens outraged at its infringement on basic civil rights. According to Chossudovsky, there's no time like an economic meltdown to introduce legislation to establish detention camps, and like its predecessor, HR 645 will only be stopped by the same broad-based popular outcry.
by Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, published on March 18
The financial meltdown has unleashed a latent and emergent social crisis across the United States.
What is at stake is the fraudulent confiscation of lifelong savings and pension funds, the appropriation of tax revenues to finance the trillion dollar "bank bailouts", which ultimately serve to line the pockets of the richest people in America.
This economic crisis is in large part the result of financial manipulation and outright fraud to the detriment of entire populations, to a renewed wave of corporate
bankruptcies, mass unemployment and poverty.
The criminalization of the global financial system, characterized by a "Shadow Banking" network has resulted in the centralization of bank power and an unprecedented concentration of private wealth.
Obama's "economic stimulus" package and budget proposals contribute to a further process of concentration and centralization of bank power, the cumulative effects of
which will eventually resul in large scale corporate, bankruptcies, a new wave of foreclosures not to mention fiscal collapse and the downfall of State social programs. (For further details see Michel Chossudovsky, "America's Fiscal Collapse," Global Research, March 2, 2009).
The cumulative decline of real economic activity backlashes on employment and wages, which in turn leads to a collapse in purchaisng power. The proposed "solution" under the Obama administration contributes to exacerbating rather than alleviating social inequalities and the process of wealth concentration.
The Protest Movement
When people across America, whose lives have been shattered and destroyed, come to realize the true face of the global "free market" system, the legitimacy of the Wall
Street, the Federal Reserve and the US administration will be challenged.
A latent protest movement directed against the seat of economic and political power is unfolding.
How this process will occur is hard to predict. All sectors of American society are potentially affected: wage earners, small, medium and even large businesses, farmers,
professionals, federal, State and municipal employees, students, teachers, health workers, and unemployed. Protests will initially emerge from these various sectors.
There is, however, at this stage, no organized national resistance movement directed against the administration's economic and financial agenda.
Obama's populist rhetoric conceals the true nature of macroeconomic policy. Acting on behalf of Wall Street, the administration's economic package, which includes close to a trillion dollar "aid" package for the financial services industry, coupled with massive austerity measures, contributes to precipitating America into a bottomless
crisis.
"Orwellian Solution" to the Great Depression: Curbing Civil Unrest
At this particular juncture, there is no economic recovery program in sight. The Washington-Wall Street consensus prevails. There are no policies, no alternatives
formulated from within the political and economic system.
What is the way out? How will the US government face an impending social catastrophe?
The solution is to curb social unrest. The chosen avenue, inherited from the outgoing Bush administration is the reinforcement of the Homeland Security apparatus and the militarization of civilian State institutions.
The outgoing administration has laid the groundwork. Various pieces of "anti-terrorist" legislation (including the Patriot Acts) and presidential directives have been put in place since 2001, largely using the pretext of the "Global War on Terrorism."
Homeland Security's Internment Camps
Directly related to the issue of curbing social unrest, cohesive system of detention camps is also envisaged, under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon.
A bill entitled the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act (HR 645) was introduced in the US Congress in January. It calls for the establishment of six national emergency centers in major regions in the US to be located on existing military installations. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-645
The stated purpose of the "national emergency centers" is to provide "temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster." In actuality, what we are dealing with are FEMA internment camps. HR 645 states that the camps can be used to "meet other appropriate needs, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security."
There has been virtually no press coverage of HR 645.
These "civilian facilities" on US military bases are to be established in cooperation with the US Military. Modeled on Guantanamo, what we are dealing with is the
militarization of FEMA internment facilities.
Once a person is arrested and interned in a FEMA camp located on a military base, that person would in all likelihood, under a national emergency, fall under the de
facto jurisdiction of the Military: civilian justice and law enforcement including habeas corpus would no longer apply.
HR 645 bears a direct relationship to the economic crisis and the likelihood of mass protests across America. It constitutes a further move to militarize civilian law
enforcement, repealing the Posse Comitatus Act.
In the words of Congressman Ron Paul: "...the fusion enters, militarized police, surveillance cameras and a domestic military command is not enough... Even though we know that detention facilities are already in place, they now want to legalize the construction of FEMA camps on military installations using the ever popular excuse that the facilities are for the purposes of a national emergency.
With the phony debt-based economy getting worse and worse by the day, the possibility of civil unrest is becoming a greater threat to the establishment. One need only look at Iceland, Greece and other nations for what might happen in the United States next." (Daily Paul, September 2008, emphasis added)
The proposed internment camps should be seen in relation to the broader process of militarization of civilian institutions. The construction of internment camps predates the introduction of HR 645 (Establishment of Emergency Centers) in January 2009.
There are, according to various (officially unconfirmed) reports, some 800 FEMA prison camps in different regions of the U.S. Moreover, since the 1980s, the US military has developed "tactics, techniques and procedures" to suppress civilian dissent, to be used in the eventuality of mass protests (United States Army Field Manual 19-15 under Operation Garden Plot, entitled "Civil Disturbances" was issued in 1985)
In early 2006, tax revenues were allocated to building modern internment camp facilities. In January 2006, Kellogg Brown and Roots, which at the time was a subsidiary of Halliburton, received a $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE):
"The contract, which is effective immediately [January 2006], provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing
ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs...
The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other U.S. Government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster. (KBR, 24 January 2006, emphasis added)
The stated objectives of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are to:
"protect national security and uphold public safety by targeting criminal networks and terrorist organizations that seek to exploit vulnerabilities in our immigration
system, in our financial networks, along our border, at federal facilities and elsewhere in order to do harm to the United States. The end result is a safer, more secure America." (ICE homepage)
The US mainstream media is mum on the issue of the internment camps on US soil. While casually acknowledging the multimillion dollar contract granted to Halliburton's
subsidiary, the news reports largely focused their attention on possible "cost overruns" (similar to those which occurred with KBR in Iraq).
What is the political intent and purpose of these camps? The potential use of these internment facilities to detain American citizens under a martial law situation are not an object of media debate or discussion.
Combat Units Assigned to the Homeland
In the last months of the Bush administration, prior to the November 2008 presidential elections, the Department of Defense ordered the recall of the 3rd Infantry's 1st Brigade Combat Team from Iraq. The relocation of a combat unit from
the war theater to domestic front is an integral part of the Homeland Security agenda. The BCT was assigned to assist in law enforcement activities within the US.
The BCT combat unit was attached to US Army North, the Army's component of US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM). The 1st BCT and other combat units would be called upon to perform specific military functions in the case of civil unrest:
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.(
(See Gina Cavallaro, Brigade homeland tours start
Oct. 1,
2008. Army Times, September 8, 2008).
Under the proposed withdrawal of US forces from Iraq
under the Obama administration, one expects that other
combat units will be brought home from the war theater and
reassigned in the United States.
The evolving national security scenario is characterized
by a mesh of civilian and military institutions:
-Army combat units working with civilian law
enforcement, with the stated mission to curb "social
unrest".
- the establishment of new internment camps under
civilian jurisdiction located on US military facilities.
The FEMA internment camps are part of the Continuity of
Government (COG), which would be put in place in the case of
martial law.
The internment camps are intended to "protect the
government" against its citizens, by locking up protesters
as well as political activists who might challenge the
legitimacy of the Administration's national security,
economic or military agenda.
Spying on Americans: The Big Brother Data Bank
Related to the issue of internment and mass protests,
how will data on American citizens be collected?
How will individuals across America be categorized?
What are the criteria of the Department of Homeland
Security?
In a 2004 report of the Homeland Security Council
entitled Planning Scenarios, pertaining to the defense of
the Homeland, the following categories of potential
"conspirators" were identified:
o "foreign [Islamic] terrorists" ,
o "domestic radical groups", [antiwar and civil
rights groups]
o "state sponsored adversaries" ["rogue states",
"unstable nations"]
o "disgruntled employees" [labor and union
activists].
In June of last year, the Bush administration issued a
National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD 59- HSPD 24)
entitled Biometrics for Identification and Screening to
Enhance National Security (For Further details see Michel
Chossudovsky, "Big Brother" Presidential Directive:
"Biometrics for Identification and Screening to Enhance
National Security, Global Research, June 2008)
Adopted without public debate or Congressional approval,
its relevant procedures are far-reaching. They are related
to the issue of civil unrest. They are also part of the
logic behind the establishment of FEMA internment camps
under HR 645. .
NSPD 59 (Biometrics for Identification and Screening to
Enhance National Security) goes far beyond the narrow issue
of biometric identification, it recommends the collection
and storage of "associated biographic" information, meaning
information on the private lives of US citizens, in minute
detail, all of which will be "accomplished within the law":
"The contextual data that accompanies biometric data
includes information on date and place of birth,
citizenship, current address and address history, current
employment and employment history, current phone numbers and
phone number history, use of government services and tax
filings.
Other contextual data may include bank account and
credit card histories, plus criminal database records on a
local, state and federal level. The database also could
include legal judgments or other public records documenting
involvement in legal disputes, child custody records and
marriage or divorce records." (See Jerome Corsi, June 2008)
The directive uses 9/11 and the "Global War on
Terrorism" as an all encompassing justification to wage a
witch hunt against dissenting citizens, establishing at the
same time an atmosphere of fear and intimidation across the
land.
It also calls for the integration of various data banks
as well as inter-agency cooperation in the sharing of
information, with a view to eventually centralizing the
information on American citizens.
In a carefully worded text, NSPD 59 "establishes a
framework" to enable the Federal government and its various
police and intelligence agencies to:
"use mutually compatible methods and procedures in
the collection, storage, use, analysis, and sharing of
biometric and associated biographic and contextual
information of individuals in a lawful and appropriate
manner, while respecting their information privacy and other
legal rights under United States law."
The NSPD 59 Directive recommends: "actions and
associated timelines for enhancing the existing
terrorist-oriented identification and screening processes by
expanding the use of biometrics".
The procedures under NSPD 59 are consistent with an
earlier June 2005 decision which consisted increating a
"domestic spy service", under the auspices of the FBI. (For
further details see Michel Chossudovsky, Bush Administration
creates "Secret State Police", June 30, 2005)
Working hand in glove with Homeland Security (DHS), the
proposed "domestic intelligence department" would combine
FBI counterterrorism, intelligence and espionage operations
into a single service.
The new department operating under the auspices of the
FBI would have the authority to "seize the property of
people deemed to be helping the spread of WMD": They would
be able to "spy on people in America suspected of terrorism
or having critical intelligence information, even if they
are not suspected of committing a crime." (NBC Tonight, 29
June 2005).\
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