National Police?

It’s reported that Mr. Obama is once again calling for a “National Police Force”, intended apparently to provide federal augmentation to the local Gendarmes nationwide, and naturally to provide “security” within our borders. During the late presidential campaign, Mr. Obama claimed that “We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.” Something might occur within the United States that the US ARMY with a million or so soldiers can’t handle!? That I find very hard to believe! And now we need a civilian police type “security force” armed with machine guns, tanks, and attack helicopters!? And all this time I thought that having Police SWAT teams and FBI snipers was quite bad enough.

My first thought was why can’t the Army handle things? After all, the Posse Comitatis Act was passed in 1878 and was intended to severely limit the federal government in using the military for law enforcement. But, recent bills passed by our Congress allow the armed forces to be used under the revised “Insurrection Act”, to “restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or other such condition occurs in the United States, or when the President determines that domestic violence has occurred, where the legal authorities of that State are unable to maintain public order, or to suppress any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy. Also, if such a condition hinders the execution of the laws of a State, or if a State opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States.”

Then there are an entire series of “Executive Orders” authorized in times of “increased international tension, economic crisis, and/or financial crisis”, to “institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to establish control over the mechanisms of production, distribution, energy sources, wages, salaries, credit, and the flow of money”. “Homeland Security Presidential Directive HSPD-20”, signed by President Bush, claims the power to execute procedures for continuity of the federal government in the event of a "catastrophic emergency", construed as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions." Naturally most of these presidential directives and executive orders are classified, so we really have no idea of what they say the president can or can’t do, and at present even interested congressmen are denied access to them. But an unclassified portion of one directive claims that the president has the power to declare a catastrophic emergency, but does not specify who has the power to declare the emergency over. The signing of these directives were not covered by the media, or discussed by Congress, which has, according to the National Emergencies Act passed in 1976, oversight of presidential emergency powers. On October 1, 2002 the United States Army established it’s “Northern Command”, to provide command and control of Department of Defense homeland defense mission, and to coordinate the DoD support of civil authorities. Again, the Army is supposed to handle whatever situation, not some sort of presidential Preatorian Guard. What’s interesting here is that Congress has over the years delegated much of it’s authority to the office of the president, with no oversite or “checks and balances” in place, and I have yet to see anything in the Constitution allowing them to do that! It sounds to me as if the White House has pretty well covered everything needed to seize total control of this country and everyone in it, and yet Mr. Obama is now calling for additional federal forces!?

So what are we to think of this “National Police” organization? Perhaps we’re to have our very own Secret Police? Secret police (sometimes called political police) are defined as a government agency which operates in secrecy against internal threats to the state. Such police forces are nearly always associated with totalitarian regimes where they’re used to maintain the “president for life” in political power, and are quite often used to uphold the dictator’s orders by operating above and beyond duly established law. “Secret police” are accountable only to the executive branch, with their operations hidden from the public and most government officials, and are used as instruments of political repression. And we might remember that, after the Ruby Ridge and Waco Texas incidents, and along with the clandestine records keeping and electronic eavesdropping going on, the FBI is considered by many people to be a secret police agency in it’s own right.

Probably the best known secret police organization was the Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police, abbreviated “Gestapo”) organized by the Nazis in 1933. The Gestapo, through its power of arrest and confinement without recourse to law, was the principal means for eliminating any enemies of the Nazi regime. They operated without any restriction by civil authority, which meant that its members could not be tried for any crimes committed in the course of their “police” activities. Under the law, the only appeal of the accused was to the next higher authority within the Gestapo itself. They were given the responsibility of administering the concentration camps, wherein the arrest and commitment to the camps was usually because the person “endangered, by his attitude the existence and security of the people and the State”. This included offenses like "working against the Greater German Reich with an illegal resistance organization," "being a Jew," "suspected of working for the detriment of the Reich," "being strongly suspected of aiding desertion," "because as a relative of a deserter he is expected to take advantage of every occasion to harm the German Reich," "refusal to work," "sexual intercourse with a Pole," "religious propaganda," "working against the Reich," "loafing on the job," or "defeatist statements." Concentration Camps huh… Well, at least we don’t have to worry about that… or do we?

While the stories are impossible to properly confirm or deny, reports abound that a number of internment camps have been established, and are ready to detain citizens if mass insurrections occur. These reports come from a wide range of sources, both from the far right, and even from members of the US Congress! Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) declared that the government “might use a pandemic disease or national disaster as an excuse to declare martial law.” (I’ve noticed that the government is threatening us with a Swine Flu epidemic this fall…) In his September 2008 newsletter, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) stated “Even though we know that detention facilities are already in place, [the government] now wants 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.” Legislation introduced by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fl.) would have the DHS establishing at least half a dozen national emergency centers for large-scale imprisonment of American citizens on military installations in a Guantanamo-style setting… after martial law is declared. To counteract these charges, some claim the “renovated military bases” will simply be used to hold illegal aliens. The Idaho Observer recently reported that “… it was revealed that Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), had received a $385 million contract to build detention facilities ‘for an emergency influx of immigrants.’” Halliburton? It figures.Claiming that these camps are to hold illegal immigrants doesn’t make much sense either, considering that the government is so “undocumented immigrant” friendly. More likely detainees would be tax protesters and those deemed “extremists” and “enemies of the state” by the recent DHS report about “homegrown right-wing terrorists.” I’ve personally seen the rather disturbing U.S. Army advertisement recruiting soldiers who might be interested in becoming ‘internment / resettlement’ specialists. The job description is “Internment/Resettlement (I/R) specialists in the Army are primarily responsible for day-to-day operations in a military confinement/correctional facility or detention/internment facility.” That’s normally not a military job that needs much recruiting, as there isn’t much call for those troops, and the position is usually filled by regular Military Police personnel. With that, I’ve also seen pictures of what are reported to be the prison railcars, again built by Halliburton, to be used to transport “detainees” to the camps.

Is all this for real, or is it nothing more than another panicky conspiracy theory? Personally I don’t know, and I guess I won’t know until it happens. But remember, the US Government has a history of illegally imprisoning dissidents that goes clear back to 1836, and Mr. Obama did quite plainly tell us that he planned to “Change America”. He just didn’t say what he and the far left intend to change us to… And remember that government, no matter how well intentioned it may claim to be, is inherently the enemy of freedom.

A lot of European Jews disbelieved the rumors of Nazi evils, right up to the point they were being herded into the gas chambers.