- CIVILIAN INTERNMENT CAMPS
UP FOR REVIEW http://www.thewinds.org/archive/government/camp9-97.html
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- In a revealing admission the Director
of Resource Management for the U.S. Army confirmed the validity of a memorandum
relating to the establishment of a civilian inmate labor program under
development by the Department of the Army. The document states, "Enclosed
for your review and comment is the draft Army regulation on civilian inmate
labor utilization" and the procedure to "establish civilian prison
camps on installations." Cherith Chronicle, June 1997.
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- Civilian internment camps or prison camps,
more commonly known as concentration camps, have been the subject of much
rumor and speculation during the past few years in America. Several publications
have devoted space to the topic and many talk radio programs have dealt
with the issue.
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- However, Congressman Henry Gonzales (D,
Texas) clarified the question of the existence of civilian detention camps.
In an interview the congressman stated, "the truth is yes - you do
have these stand by provisions, and the plans are here...whereby you could,
in the name of stopping terrorism...evoke the military and arrest Americans
and put them in detention camps."
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- HISTORY OF CIVILIAN INTERNMENT CAMPS
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- The concept of mass internment camps
was implemented during the decade of the 1930's when the idea was either
integrated into national security planning or put to actual use in the
world's three socialistic experiments - the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany
and the United States under Roosevelt.
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- On March 9, 1933, Adolph Hitler put his
Dachau detention center into operation where thousands of his own countrymen
were sent. (Source: Martin Gilber,The Holocaust). Stalin exterminated 7
to 10 million in his rural collectivization program from 1931-1933 and
another 10 million in the purges of 1934-1939. It was this decade that
the Soviet Gulag proved its worth. On August 24, 1939, FBI Director J.
Edgar Hoover met with FDR to develop a detention plan for the United States.
Five months after this meeting, Hitler opened the Auschwitz detention center
in Poland.
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- On August 3, 1948, J. Edgar Hoover met
with Attorney General J. Howard McGrath to form a plan whereby President
Truman could suspend constitutional liberties during a national emergency.
The plan was code-named "Security Portfolio" and, when activated,
it would authorize the FBI to summarily arrest up to 20,000 persons and
place them in national security detention camps. Prisoners would not have
the right to a court hearing or habeas corpus appeal. Meanwhile, "Security
Portfolio" allowed the FBI to develop a watch list of those who would
be detained, as well as detailed information on their physical appearance,
family, place of work, etc. (David Burnham, Above the Law).
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- Two years later Congress approved the
Internal Security Act of 1950 which contained a provision authorizing an
emergency detention plan. Hoover was unhappy with this law because it did
not suspend the constitution and it guaranteed the right to a court hearing
(habeas corpus). "For two years, while the FBI continued to secretly
establish the detention camps and work out detailed seizure plans for thousands
of individuals, Hoover kept badgering...[Attorney General McGrath for]
official permission to ignore the 1950 law and carry on with the more ferocious
1948 program. On November 25, 1952, the attorney general...caved in to
Hoover." ibid.
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- Congress repealed the Emergency Detention
Act of 1950 more than twenty years later in 1971. Seemingly the threat
of civilian internment in the United States was over, but not in reality.
The Senate held hearings in December, 1975, revealing the ongoing internment
plan which had never been terminated. The report, entitled, "Intelligence
Activities, Senate Resolution 21", disclosed the covert agenda. In
a series of documents, memos and testimony by government informants, the
picture emerged of the designs by the federal government to monitor, infiltrate,
arrest and incarcerate a potentially large segment of American society.
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- The Senate report also revealed the existence
of the Master Search Warrant (MSW) and the Master Arrest Warrant (MAW)
which are currently in force. The MAW document, authorized by the United
States Attorney General, directs the head of the FBI to: "Arrest persons
whom I deem dangerous to the public peace and safety. These persons are
to be detained and confined until further order." The MSW also instructs
the FBI Director to "search certain premises where it is believed
that there may be found contraband, prohibited articles, or other materials
in violation of the Proclamation of the President of the United States."
It includes such items as firearms, shortwave radio receiving sets, cameras,
propaganda materials, printing presses, mimeograph machines, membership
and financial records of organizations or groups that have been declared
subversive, or may be hereafter declared subversive by the Attorney General."
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- Since the Senate hearings in 1975, the
steady development of highly specialized surveillance capabilities, combined
with the exploding computerized information technologies, have enabled
a massive data base of personal information to be developed on millions
of unsuspecting American citizens. It is all in place awaiting only a presidential
declaration to be enforced by both military and civilian police.
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- In 1982, President Ronald Reagan issued
National Security Directive 58 which empowered Robert McFarlane and Oliver
North to use the National Security Council to secretly retrofit FEMA (Federal
Emergency Management Agency) to manage the country during a national crisis.
The 1984 "REX exercises" simulated civil unrest culminating in
a national emergency with a contingency plan for the imprisonment of 400,000
people. REX 84 was so secretive that special metal security doors were
installed on the FEMA building's fifth floor, and even long-term officials
of the Civil Defense Office were prohibited entry. The ostensible purpose
of this exercise was to handle an influx of refugees created by a war in
Central America, but a more realistic scenario was the detention of American
citizens.
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- STATE OF EMERGENCY
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- Under "REX" the President could
declare a state of emergency, empowering the head of FEMA to take control
of the internal infrastructure of the United States and suspend the constitution.
The President could invoke executive orders 11000 thru 11004 which would:
1- Draft all citizens into work forces under government supervision. 2-
Empower the postmaster to register all men, women and children. 3- Seize
all airports and aircraft. 4- Seize all housing and establish forced relocation
of citizens.
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- FEMA, whose black budget comes from the
Department of Defense, has worked closely with the Pentagon in an effort
to avoid the legal restrictions of Posse Comitatus. While FEMA may not
have been directly responsible for these precedent-setting cases, the principle
of federal control was seen during the Los Angeles riots in 1992 with the
federalization of the National Guard and during the siege at Waco, where
Army tanks equipped with flame throwers were involved in the final conflagration.
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- GOVERNMENT VIOLENCE IS "LEGITIMATE"?
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- The Deputy Attorney General of California
commented at a conference that anyone who attacks the State, even verbally,
becomes a revolutionary and an enemy by definition. Louis Guiffreda, who
was head of FEMA, stated that "legitimate violence is integral to
our form of government, for it is from this source that we can continue
to purge our weaknesses."
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- It is significant to note that the dictionary
definition of terrorism - "the calculated use of violence" -
corresponds precisely to the government's stated policy of "the use
of legitimate violence." One might ask, who are the real terrorists?
Guiffreda's remark gives a revealing insight into the thinking of those
who have been charged with oversight of the welfare of the citizens in
this country. If one's convictions or philosophy does not correspond with
the government's agenda, that individual may find himself on the government's
enemy list. This makes him a "target" to be "purged"
by the use of "legitimate violence."
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- If one forgets the past, he will not
be prepared for the future.
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- Written 9/8/97 Copyright © 1997,
The WINDS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. http://www.TheWinds.org Contact The WINDS
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