Whatever Happened to Never Again?

The Above is a speculative map of known ICE DRO, FEMA, and Military personnel holding facilities in the United States, either Completed, Empty, In Use, or under construction in the United States. Click the image for a clearer view. My apologies for not having a link to the original interactive map.

The more precise among you will no doubt notice that it is in fact a bit pessimistic, some would even say paranoid. Its contents include every Federal Airfield and Military Base that has land that could be requestioned, according to existing domestic emergency procedure and regulation, into holding facilities. So to call every blip on this map a "Prison Camp" is a bit inflammatory. However, its not the facilities currently being used for other things that should concern you. Its the dozens of new projects, the hundreds of ICE DRO processing facilities that are being built, or have been built to expand the governments holding capabilities far beyond the capacity currently allowed for in emergency plans. The idea that an emergency plan allowing for the detention and processing of humans in hundreds of existing facilities is not enough, this is what should concern you. The rapid expansion of a prison system that is not connected directly to a court system, this should concern you.

Its true, not every one of these facilities are directly earmarked as holding and processing facilities, but now, there are nearly an equal number of permanent facilities that serve no other purpose. These facilities are not to be used only for emergencies, they are to stand as a permanent place in American life, with full time administration, and full time guards.

The less suspicious of you will note that the stated purpose of these facilities is not to wontonly round up millions of Americans and intern them. You would be correct, the stated purpose is to act to "protect the continuity of government" in times of emergency, and to assist in the “removal of all removable aliens.” (who is removable is simply a matter for lawyers to figure out im sure, Illegal, legal, who's to say...) So, as long as you not an illegal alien, or active dissident or insurectionist, or supporter of terrorism, you should have nothing to worry about right?

Ask yourself, how would you prove that you are an American Citizen in good standing, with no alliance to any insurrection or rebellion, when they come to arrest you and put you on a train to take you to one of what may be close to 600 known and marked prison camps, without charge, evidence, or trial? How will you PROVE it to them, and who will insure they accept your proof? No lawyers, no judges, just you, and the end of a gun.

Its true, it might never come to this dreadful "Endgame" (their term, not mine) and American civilians may not be rounded up en mass and shoved in processing facilities around the country. the government may well have no intention of suspending Habeus Corpus universally, targeting specific groups, placing them in large scale transports, and shipping them to holding facilities to remove their threat to the state, but then, why would you not be upset with the spending of millions upon millions of dollars on a program that would be best used in that exact manner? If you are not mad at the threat of a government deciding the necessity of throwing Americans into reprocessing camps to stabilize the government, shouldn't you be mad at a government that is wasting so much money and resources planning for exactly that scenario?

Suppose you have figured out how you would prove that you are an American Citizen in good standing, with no alliance to any insurrection or rebellion, and will be waiting for the teams, papers in hand.

Now ask yourself, how could you NOT ally yourself with ANY rebellion or insurrection in the face of a government that would think nothing of raiding, seizing and putting 11-15 million people on trains and shuttling them to "processing facilities"?

How many of those people do you think will leave? If you think its 11-15 million, you are either naive or id guess, illiterate. Read a book.

History, is on repeat.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

http://www.yuricareport.com/Civil%20Rights/Endgame.pdf

http://www.whiterosesociety.org/WRS_pamphlets_home.html

Word of advice, if you get nothing else out of this, remember this: Dont get on the train.

Rule by Fear, or Rule by Law

An article co-written by former Congressman Dan Hamburg and carried by the San Francisco Chronicle has gained much attention recently as it shines light on a coordinated federal government program to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The issue gained national attention two years ago when it was announced that Kellogg, Brown and Root had been awarded a $385 million dollar contract by Homeland Security to construct detention and processing facilities in the event of a national emergency.
The language of the preamble to that agreement veils the program with talk of temporary migrant holding centers, but it is made clear that the camps will also be used "as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency." This has been worrysome to many activists, but hasnt received alot of public attention until now.

Respected author Peter Dale Scott speculated that the "detention centers could be used to detain American citizens if the Bush administration were to declare martial law."
Daniel Ellsberg, former Special Assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense, called the plan, "preparation for a roundup after the next 9/11 for Mid-Easterners, Muslims and possibly dissenters. Theyve already done this on a smaller scale, with the 'special registration' detentions of immigrant men from Muslim countries, and with Guantanamo."
Under the enemy combatant designation anyone at the behest of the US government, even if they are a US citizen, can be kidnapped and placed in an internment facility forever without trial. Jose Padilla, an American citizen, spent over four years in a Navy brig before being brought to trial.

In 2002, FEMA sought bids from major real estate and engineering firms to construct giant internment facilities in the case of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack or a natural disaster. And a much discussed and circulated report, the Pentagon's Civilian Inmate Labor Program, has recently been updated detailing a "template for developing agreements between the Army and corrections facilities for the use of civilian inmate labor on Army installations."

Where all this is going is hard to say, but it is probably important that it goes there publicly and in the open, and i am glad to reprint the Seiler/Hamburg article in full. Enjoy.

Rule by fear or rule by law?
Lewis Seiler,Dan Hamburg
Monday, February 4, 2008
San Francisco Chronicle

"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist."

- Winston Churchill, Nov. 21, 1943

Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of "an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs."

Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.

According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of "all removable aliens" and "potential terrorists."

Fraud-busters such as Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, have complained about these contracts, saying that more taxpayer dollars should not go to taxpayer-gouging Halliburton. But the real question is: What kind of "new programs" require the construction and refurbishment of detention facilities in nearly every state of the union with the capacity to house perhaps millions of people?

Sect. 1042 of the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies," gives the executive the power to invoke martial law. For the first time in more than a century, the president is now authorized to use the military in response to "a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack or any other condition in which the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order."

The Military Commissions Act of 2006, rammed through Congress just before the 2006 midterm elections, allows for the indefinite imprisonment of anyone who donates money to a charity that turns up on a list of "terrorist" organizations, or who speaks out against the government's policies. The law calls for secret trials for citizens and noncitizens alike.

Also in 2007, the White House quietly issued National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD-51), to ensure "continuity of government" in the event of what the document vaguely calls a "catastrophic emergency." Should the president determine that such an emergency has occurred, he and he alone is empowered to do whatever he deems necessary to ensure "continuity of government." This could include everything from canceling elections to suspending the Constitution to launching a nuclear attack. Congress has yet to hold a single hearing on NSPD-51.

U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Venice (Los Angeles County) has come up with a new way to expand the domestic "war on terror." Her Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (HR1955), which passed the House by the lopsided vote of 404-6, would set up a commission to "examine and report upon the facts and causes" of so-called violent radicalism and extremist ideology, then make legislative recommendations on combatting it.

According to commentary in the Baltimore Sun, Rep. Harman and her colleagues from both sides of the aisle believe the country faces a native brand of terrorism, and needs a commission with sweeping investigative power to combat it.

A clue as to where Harman's commission might be aiming is the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a law that labels those who "engage in sit-ins, civil disobedience, trespass, or any other crime in the name of animal rights" as terrorists. Other groups in the crosshairs could be anti-abortion protesters, anti-tax agitators, immigration activists, environmentalists, peace demonstrators, Second Amendment rights supporters ... the list goes on and on. According to author Naomi Wolf, the National Counterterrorism Center holds the names of roughly 775,000 "terror suspects" with the number increasing by 20,000 per month.

What could the government be contemplating that leads it to make contingency plans to detain without recourse millions of its own citizens?

The Constitution does not allow the executive to have unchecked power under any circumstances. The people must not allow the president to use the war on terrorism to rule by fear instead of by law.

Lewis Seiler is the president of Voice of the Environment, Inc. Dan Hamburg, a former congressman, is executive director.