no reason to be alarmed
<< Sep 24, 2008 @ 16:23 >>
I can only hope I'm a tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorist and I never have to say, "I told you so."
The Army Times has an interesting article:
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.
...
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.
...
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.
...
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.
Ok, so first of all, whatever happened to the Posse Comitatus Act?
Second of all, isn't this what we have a National Guard for? Oh wait, that's right, they are all deployed in shit hole countries overseas.
THIRDLY, our former Halliburton subsidary friends at KBR, have this to say:
The contract, which is effective immediately, 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.
Emphasis mine. Horror also mine.