FEMA'S GROWING POLICE POWERS
CONCERN ACTIVISTS
By Mark Anderson
If, God forbid, Americans are ever rounded up in large numbers
during a natural or manmade disaster, where could they be detained? Well,
perhaps look no further than the school building next door, the office building
around the corner or the stadium downtown. And besides existing military
installations, state fair grounds, horse stables, airports “and maybe even a
hotel” also could be used as detention centers.
That’s according to Restore the Republic’s Gary Franchi at Freedom Law School’s
recent Health & Freedom Conference. Franchi
was one of several speakers who gathered at the Airport Hilton in Ontario, Calif.,
March 12-15 to talk about cutting-edge developments in health and politics.
Many vigilant Americans have become aware of some apparently
underutilized military facilities and other installations around the nation
that seem designed to detain large numbers of people but are largely empty. Unsubstantiated rumors and urban legends have
been circulated, and Franchi was careful not to overstate this issue. But he said there is cause for considerable
concern in these post-9-11 days when the normal patriotic impulses of Americans
are being relabeled as radical or even on par with terrorism by federal
agencies.
Franchi told the conference audience that on April 1, 1979,
under Executive Order 12127, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was
created but it unfortunately was “no joke” for April Fools Day. Just as FEMA was absorbed nearly 25 years
later by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), FEMA at its birth absorbed
the Department of Defense civil-preparedness functions that designated schools,
office buildings and other structures as atom bomb “fallout shelters” starting in
the 1950s during the Cold War days with the Soviet Union.
DHS, created on the direct recommendation of the 9-11
Commission, that purported to deeply study what happened on Sept. 11, 2001,
says, under its “Goals and Objectives” statement (Part VI), that its mission is
to “protect our nation from dangerous people.” Now under the DHS umbrella, FEMA’s
three basic objectives, according to its own policy, are: national emergency
recovery, continuity of government and “to combat perceived threats to the
social and political order,” Franchi emphasized.
He showed an aerial picture of “FEMA City,”
the drab barracks set up in Florida
after Hurricane Charlie. These cookie-cutter mobile homes were “free housing
with nosebleeds,” Franchi said, referring to the effects of chemical fumes
emitted from the shoddy building materials.
The area, courtesy of FEMA, became a crime haven. Any genuine public
benefit was marginal at best.
Fast-forward
to Highland Mall in Austin, Texas,
claimed by FEMA in 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as a place to put Louisiana refugees entering Texas. The New Orleans Superdome itself was “another
private building used to house refugees,” Franchi added. Given the ongoing “war on terror” and the
threat to the people’s liberties that can arise from “anti-terror” measures, combined
with steep economic decline and the procedures and policies that FEMA and DHS
have developed or are still developing, Franchi says the situation looks grim
unless Americans protest now and show they are informed of, and actively
opposed to, potential plans to imprison large numbers of people, lest Americans
bite the dust the way the USSR people did when they were sent to brutal labor
camps amid political turmoil and the demonizing of “unlawful” political
beliefs.
Pointing to the WorldWar II detention of thousands of Japanese-Americans,
Franchi said the detaining of Americans has already happened. Recall that
during Woodrow Wilson’s days, many notable war dissenters were imprisoned in a
nation supposedly dedicated to free speech. So it’s only a question of
circumstance, as Franchi sees it The FBI’s Project Megiddo in 1999, the
Missouri Information Analysis Center “militia” report from February 2009 and
the April 2009 DHS report Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and
Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment, are
among the reports that have tried to tie Americans’ concerns and beliefs to
supposed violent tendencies, so these linkages can be transformed into the “truth”
and used to arrest political dissidents, just like what happened in the early
20th century, said Franchi. He added that the Southern Poverty Law Center,
which has long tried to influence law enforcement and legislation, has issued
yet another report that follows a similar tack.
His research is in the documentary Camp FEMA.
“We cannot let these people . . . intimidate us; we are sovereign
U.S.
citizens, and nothing is going to stop us from [resisting] this tyranny,”
Franchi said, noting that public television stations may help.
Mark Anderson is
a longtime newsman now working as the deputy editor for AMERICAN FREE
PRESS. Together he and his wife Angie provide many photographs of the
events they cover for AFP. Mark welcomes your comments and inputs as
well as story leads. Email him at at [email protected].
Subscribe to American Free Press. Online subscriptions: One year of weekly editions—$15 plus you get a BONUS ELECTRONIC BOOK - HIGH PRIESTS OF WAR - By Michael Piper.
Print subscriptions: 52 issues crammed into 47 weeks of the year plus six free issues of Whole Body Health: $59 Order on this website or call toll free 1-888-699-NEWS .
Sign up for our free e-newsletter here - get a free gift just for signing up!
(Issue # 12, March 22, 2010)
|
