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North Magnetic Pole Is Shifting Rapidly Toward Russia
December 15, 2005
Brian Vastag for National Geographic News

Santa better check his compass, because the North Pole is shifting—the north magnetic pole, that is, not the geographical one.

New research shows the pole moving at rapid clip—25 miles (40 kilometers) a year.

Over the past century the pole has moved 685 miles (1,100 kilometers) from Arctic Canada toward Siberia, says Joe Stoner, a paleomagnetist at Oregon State University.

At its current rate the pole could move to Siberia within the next half-century, Stoner said.

"It's moving really fast," he said. "We're seeing something that hasn't happened for at least 500 years."

Stoner presented his team's research at the American Geophysical Union's meeting last week in San Francisco.

Lorne McKee, a geomagnetic scientist at Natural Resources Canada, says that Stoner's data fits his own readings.

"The movement of the pole definitely appears to be accelerating," he said.

Not a Reversal

The shift is likely a normal oscillation of the Earth's magnetic field, Stoner said, and not the beginning of a flip-flop of the north and south magnetic poles, a phenomenon that last occurred 780,000 years ago.

Such reversals have taken place 400 times in the last 330 million years, according to magnetic clues sealed in rocks around the world. Each reversal takes a thousand years or more to complete.

"People like to think something special is happening in their lifetimes, but despite the dramatic changes, I don't see any evidence of it," Stoner said. "It's probably just a normal wandering of the pole."

The north magnetic pole shifts constantly, in loops up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) wide each day.

The recorded location of the pole is really an average of its daily treks, which are driven by fluctuations in solar radiation.

The pole is currently at about 80º north latitude and 104º west longitude, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut.

Importance of the Pole

Pinpointing the precise location of the north magnetic pole is important for navigation: As you move closer to the pole, the direction north indicated by your compass becomes less accurate.

The pole also plays a role in the Northern Lights, which form when solar radiation bounces across the magnetic field in the upper atmosphere. As the north magnetic pole drifts, it will take the Northern Lights with it.

But for scientists, studying the field provides a tantalizing glimpse into the fiery center of the Earth.

The planet's outer core of molten iron spins constantly, acting as a giant dynamo, or electromagnet.

This energy interacts with the rocky mantle of the Earth, which is also shifting, resulting in a complex, ever-changing magnetic field.

"We're close to having a much better understanding on how the field fluxes," Stoner said.

First Reading

The first readings of the north magnetic pole date to 1831, when Sir John Ross and his ship searching for the Northwest Passage became ice-bound.

To pass the time he sent out a team with a compass to take readings, and the team soon found a dipole—an area with compass readings pointing both north and south—in what is now Nunavut. It was the north magnetic pole.

While historical readings date back almost two centuries, Stoner's team wanted to take a deeper look into the past.

They went to the Arctic and pulled 4.5-meter-long (15-foot-long) cores of mud and clay from the bottom of frigid lakes.

Each year, snowmelt deposits a layer of silt at the bottom of the lakes, which is then covered with a layer of clay. "There are these distinct couplets every year," Stoner said. "It's a lot like counting rings in a tree."

Back at his laboratory at Oregon State University, Stoner and his team sliced the cores into thin sections.

They then ran each section through an instrument that reads tiny magnetic particles in the silt to reveal both the direction and intensity of the magnetic field.

Each section comprises five to ten layers, or five to ten year's worth of magnetic readings.

"We can't get down to the yearly scale yet," Stoner said, "but that's getting to be a pretty tight resolution."

In contrast, similar techniques used to measure magnetism in rock have yielded much coarser resolutions of thousands to tens of thousands of years.

Besides recording the movement of the pole, the silt cores also show a recent drop in the strength of the magnetic field, Stoner said, a phenomenon that often accompanies north-south reversals.

But research by French scientists published in 2003 suggests that such "jerks" in the magnetic field—abrupt shifts in intensity and direction—occur often, not just during reversals.
http://tinyurl.com/dbe2l

China flexes muscle in space
Tue Jan 8, 2008

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is to launch 15 rockets, 17 satellites and its third manned mission in 2008, flexing its muscle in space in a year in which it will host the summer Olympics.



Huang Qiang, secretary-general of the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defence, revealed the planned launches at a news conference on Monday, the official Xinhua news agency said. He did not give details.

State media have said China plans to launch its third manned mission, Shenzhou VII, into space in October involving a space walk, and it will mount a joint effort with Russia to explore Mars in 2009.

In 2003, China became only the third country to put a man into space using its own rocket, after the former Soviet Union and the United States. It then sent two astronauts on a five-day flight on its Shenzhou VI rocket in October 2005.

Xinhua quoted Huang as saying the Shenzhou VII was a major task for the year and called for full cooperation between all departments involved.

China launched its first lunar probe -- Chang'e 1 named after a mythical goddess who flew to the moon -- in October, the latest feat in an ambitious space program seeking scientific and military benefits as well as domestic political gains from its boost to patriotism.

But some critics have questioned the ruling Communist Party's eagerness to clamber into the select ranks of global space powers even as hundreds of millions of Chinese struggle in rural hardship.

Fears of potential military rivalry in space with the United States have mounted since China blew up one of its own weather satellites using a ground-based missile in January.

(Reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim; Editing by Ken Wills and Sanjeev Miglani)
http://tinyurl.com/2qnqxm

PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF U.S. FED UNSUSTAINABLE, UNLESS THE CARTEL SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTS ITS "END GAME"
January 4, 2008
by DeepCaster LLC

“But if you wish to remain slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them create money.”
- Joshua Stamp, Director, Bank of England, 1928

Even the most causal student of Economic History knows that the United States’ Federal Reserve system, or “The Fed” as it is called, is not a U.S. government owned or controlled entity.

Various international private banks, several of which are headquartered in Europe, own the “United States” Fed. Moreover, this “United States” Fed leads a Cartel of Central Banks* who collectively intervene in a wide variety of markets, as Deepcaster (see January, 2008 Letter) and others have demonstrated. All this is obviously quite financially incestuous.

These International Bankers, acting through their “U.S.” Fed, make money by creating money out of “thin air” as eloquently described by the Dean of the Newsletter Writers, Richard Russell:

“I still can’t get over the whole Federal Reserve racket.

Consider the following - - let’s take a situation where the U.S. government needs money. The U.S. doesn’t just issue United States Notes, which, of course it could. These notes would be dollars backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. No, the U.S. doesn’t issue dollars straight out of the U.S. Treasury.

This is what the U.S. does - - it issues Treasury Bonds. The U.S. then sells these bonds to the Fed. The Fed buys the bonds. Wait, how does the Fed pay for the bonds? The Fed simply creates money “out of thin air” (book-keeping entry) with which it buys the bonds. The money that the Fed creates from nowhere then goes to the U.S. The Fed holds the U.S. bonds, and the unbelievable irony is that the U.S. then pays interest on the very bonds that the U.S. itself issued. (With great profit to the private owners of The Fed - - Ed. Note) The mind boggles.

The damnable result is that the Fed effectively controls the U.S. money supply. The Fed is …not even a branch of the U.S. government. The Fed is not mentioned in the Constitution of the United States. No Constitutional amendment was ever created or voted on to accept the Fed. The Constitutionality of the Federal Reserve has never come before the Supreme Court. The Fed is a private bank that keeps the U.S. forever in debt - - or I should say in increasing debt along with ever rising interest payments.

How did the Fed get away with this outrage? A tiny secretive group of bankers sneaked through a bill in 1913 at a time when many in Congress were absent. Those who were there and voted for the bill didn’t realize (as so often happens) what they were voting for (shades of the shameful 2002 vote to hand over to President Bush the power to decide on war with Iraq).”
Richard Russell, “Richards Remarks,” dowtheoryletters.com, March 27 2007

After President Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law in 1913, he reportedly said, “I am a most unhappy man, I have unwittingly ruined my country…a great industrial nation is now controlled by its system of credit…the growth of the nation, therefore, and all of our activities are in the hands of a few men…”

Insightful economic forecaster Ian Gordon notes several negative consequences of the nearly 100-year reign of The Fed, consequences with which we cope today.

“Since its inception in 1913, the Federal Reserve Board has been responsible for almost 95% devaluation of the U.S. Dollar. All this has been achieved through its ability to continually inflate the money supply.

And, between 1985 and 2005, the Federal Reserve Board has increased the money supply by five times. This extraordinary money creation is merely the catalyst for debt creation. In a fiat money system, money is debt…there is absolutely no way this money can ever be repaid except by continued inflation. But, now that the credit bubble is blown up, inflation is no longer an option; bankruptcy looms.” “The Federal Reserve…What Has It Done For You Lately?” Ian Gordon, December 29, 2007 (www.axisoflogic.com)

Gordon goes on to conclude that today we are in the “late Autumn” of an inflationary blow-off in the current 50 to 70 year Kondratieff cycle. (The Economist Kondratieff theorized that Central Bankers were instrumental in creating 50 to 70 year long, four phase cycles, with the “Winter Phase” characterized by a deep recession or depression). Indeed, according Kondratieff theory this month, January 2008, we are on the threshold of a Kondratieff “Winter” - - a deep recession or depression. Deepcaster agrees that such a Kondratieff Winter is likely in the next very few years, but for other reasons than just the Kondratieff cycle (see June, 2007 and January, 2008 Deepcaster Letters at www.deepcaster.com).

When the United States has, in recent years, been threatened with recession or depression (e.g. 1987 and 2001), the Greenspan-led Fed responded to each threat by ever more massive fiat money (debt) creation. The problem is that each time the fiat money supply is inflated by an ever-greater amount, more money must be printed in order to stave off recession or depression. One recent calculation has indicated that approximately $6 must now be created (i.e. printed) in order to drive each additional $1 of GDP.

Such profligate printing merely delays financial disaster, but does not avoid it. Such a disaster could be avoided by linking currency to the Monetary Metals – Gold & Silver – but The Cartel strenuously resists that. It would dilute their power and profits.

Monetary inflation reflected in (the now hidden by The Fed) M3 is now increasing at nearly 13% annualized per year (www.shadowstats.com) - - a 5 year doubling time. Of course, this reckless Fed-generated Monetary Inflation is gradually translating into Price Inflation, though that price inflationary effect has 1) been temporarily delayed by importing cheap goods and cheap labor into the United States via the de facto Open Borders policy and 2) has been disguised by data manipulation (see section of January, 2008 Deepcaster Letter regarding shadowstats Alternative Government Statistics Calculations at “Latest Letter” at www.deepcaster.com).

Of course, among the negative consequences resulting from rampant monetary inflation and easy credit has been serious wage depression and job quality degradation of American workers, as well as the destruction of much of the United States’ domestic manufacturing capacity.

A major problem with The Fed’s profligate fiat money creation is that as the money supply continues to increase prices begin to increase at an increasing rate. That rate is beginning to be reflected even in the jiggered U.S. government’s CPI and PPI figures which the December 13 and 14, 2007 data releases showed. Of course, Real Consumer Price Inflation is over 11% annualized (www.shadowstats.com).

Deepcaster and Richard Russell are of the same mind regarding the consequences of the Fed-created monetary inflation. Regarding the continued inflation of the money supply:

1) The U.S. Dollar will eventually (pushed by Fed policies) self-destruct (though we are at the beginning of a short-term U.S. Dollar “bounce” as Deepcaster has earlier forecast) and

2) “…The system must eventually destroy itself. It is not a matter of whether, it is simply a matter of when and how…” Richards Remarks, March 27, 2007

So if “the system must eventually destroy itself” and The Cartel likely knows this, what has been, and is likely in the future to be, their response?

First, in order to stave off the day or month or year of Reckoning (which, we reiterate, is coming mainly as a consequence of their dramatic monetary inflation and “easy money” policies), the Fed-led Central Bankers Cartel has created, and for the past several years has operated, an extraordinary “financial machine” built on increasing trillions of dollars of created derivatives for the manipulation of major markets ranging from Precious Metals to Crude Oil and Energy, to Equities and Strategic Commodities. (See Deepcaster’s January, 2008 article “Market Intervention Accelerating…” at www.deepcaster.com.

But, finally, the pressures of the Real Economy (e.g. increases in food and energy costs) coupled with this relentless and irresponsible money (debt) creation by The Fed have begun to seriously stress the entire financial system, as the credit freeze-up last August, 2007 shows. As we pointed out in our January, 2008 Letter, the credit freeze-up, subprime crisis, toxic derivatives and other threats have not gone away. These threats are latent and growing, waiting to erupt again.

Indeed perhaps the most salient item of evidence that The Central Bankers Market Intervention Regime is becoming less and less effective is that The Cartel requires, and thus creates, an ever-increasing number of derivatives to “manage” all the various markets in which The Cartel intervenes. Indeed, those amounts of derivatives are increasing exponentially. (See Deepcaster’s January, 2008 article “Market Intervention Accelerating…” at www.deepcaster.com).

So what are the Central Bankers to do as their Market Intervention Regime becomes less and less effective? What are they doing?

They surely must want to avoid allowing the financial system to collapse around them (in a manner in which its failure would be linked to them) lest they be subject to the wrath of the populace of the major nations. They must thus develop a solution - - an “End Game” as it were - - for what Deepcaster and Richard Russell view as the inevitable collapse.

Deepcaster has described The Cartel’s apparent End Game is in its June, 2007 Letter posted at www.deepcaster.com in the “Archives” at “Latest Letter”.

A most compelling rational conclusion from the foregoing is that The Cartel expects (and may even be pushing) the Dollar to go further and further decline, over the medium term, and to continue their other policies, until there is a “No-Salvation, No-Return Systemic Crisis.” (Very short-term, Deepcaster earlier forecast the U.S. Dollar to “bounce” into the 1st quarter of 2008 - - a forecast that is being fulfilled - - but that does not affect the fact that the primary trend for the U.S. Dollar is down.)

It is clear from a variety of substantial evidence that the relentless monetary inflation, toxic derivatives, dark liquidity, et al has put the financial system in such serious jeopardy that it will be difficult or impossible to remedy (see Deepcaster’s December 23rd “Alert”).

That the U.S. economy is headed in the direction of serious stagflation (a Kondratieff Winter) is pretty clear from the shadowstats.com November, 2007 statistics. According to shadowstats, Real Consumer Price Inflation is running in excess of 11% a year and, as we commented above. The Money Supply Growth (M3) is increasing at nearly 13% a year or a doubling time of nearly 5 years.

Moreover, U.S. GDP “growth” is a negative number - - a negative 2% according to shadowstats. It would appear that The Cartel-charted-course toward a stagflationary recession/depression is on course.

To be sure, this Fed policy of explosively increasing the money supply (“money from helicopters” to use a phrase associated with Chairman Bernanke) and The Cartel’s massive and increasing use of derivatives to intervene in a wide variety of markets (see www.bis.org - - then follow the path: statistics>derivatives>Tables 19 through 22) is fraught with danger. Deepcaster, Warren Buffett and Jim Sinclair have pointed out the dangers of derivatives. Indeed, Buffett calls them toxic and Sinclair has aptly described the financial system as “sitting on a $20 trillion trembling mountain of derivatives…think Weimar Republic.” Unfortunately Jim Sinclair, Warren Buffett, and Deepcaster are correct.

In sum, with The Cartel’s increasing use of derivatives comes an increasing risk of a financial meltdown. We had such a harbinger of one in August, 2007 with the credit market freeze-up but The Cartel was able to rescue its major International Bank and Wall Street clients from this one.

So far The Cartel has staved off a systemic meltdown. But, alas, it may well not always be so.

Thus we expect that a (inevitable eventually) “No-Salvation, No-Return Systemic Crisis” will likely, as Deepcaster pointed out in his June, 2007 Letter, at some point provide The Cartel a catalyst to force realization of its “End Game.” Only the timing and details are dark.

The clue to the character of the “End Game” is the Strategic and Prosperity Partnership Agreement signed by Presidents Bush, Fox of Mexico and Martin of Canada in Waco, Texas in March, 2006.

This Agreement was signed without the approval of Congress, or the knowledge of most of the American people.

It is clear from the End Game Plan reflected in this Agreement why the Bush Administration has been so resistant to defending U.S. borders.

It is also clear that a key component of the End Game Plan is the dissolution of the United States Dollar and other currencies into a new currency, the “Amero.” Indeed, two bits of anecdotal evidence that this plan is being taken seriously are:

1) That the “Swiss Portfolio” Investment Advisory Company is already touting the “Amero Alternative” on its website; and

2) The London investment firm Jeffries International Ltd.’s Vice President, Steven Pervis, said that the coming “Amero” will have “a big impact on everybody’s life.”

One clear inference is that if The Cartel is pushing the Amero as the eventual, and their favored, alternative to the U.S. Dollar, The Cartel certainly intends to continue its interventional efforts at suppressing the prices of Gold and Silver in order to prevent their attaining widely-recognized legitimacy as money.

The foregoing are only a couple of the components of this massive and dramatic End Game Plan, the particulars of which can be found in Deepcaster’s June, 2007 Letter at www.deepcaster.com at “Latest Letter” in the Archives.

In the event of the success (from The Cartel’s perspective) of the implementation of the End Game Plan, doubtless The Fed would transmogrify itself into The (still private and very profitable) Central Bank responsible for issuing the Amero.

Of course, the key question for the long-term is whether The Cartel will be able to pull it off. Certainly they have been instrumental in creating a financial climate which has crisis potential.

The immediate question is whether their massive Cartel Interventional Takedown Machinery will continue to be potent enough to do as they did most recently on December 13 and 14, 2007 - - implement major takedowns of the Gold price directly in face of the high CPI and PPI inflation numbers reported on those two days.

As their recent exponentially increasing derivatives creation shows, The Cartel is having a harder and harder time maintaining their potency.

So it appears that if The Fed is not able to lead its Cartel to success in implementing its “End Game,” the No-Salvation, No-Return Systemic Crisis which its policies will likely create, will clearly and publicly be its responsibility.

In that event, is it not highly likely that The Fed would be unable to continue as a privately owned for-profit entity?

Rather, and as an alternative to The Cartel’s planned End Game, there could then arise genuine a United States National Bank issuing United States Notes (as did President J.F. Kennedy briefly before he was killed) solidly backed by the monetary metals, Gold and Silver.
http://tinyurl.com/3yahpb

SEE ALSO:
Building a North American Community
Council on Foreign Relations Press May 2005
http://tinyurl.com/2f6vvd

FINA-NAFI - NAFTA Timeline
http://tinyurl.com/2regbt

CURRENT FEMA US CONCENTRATION CAMPS LISTINGS BY STATE
Jan 7, 2008

Federal Regions

REGION I: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont Regional Capitol: Boston

REGION II: New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Virgin Island Regional Capitol: New York City

REGION III: Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, District of Columbia. Regional Capitol: Philadelphia

REGION IV: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee Regional Capitol: Atlanta

REGION V: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin Regional Capitol: Chicago

REGION VI: Arkansas, Lonisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas Regional Capitol: Dallas-Fort Worth

REGION VII: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska Regional Capitol: Kansas City

REGION VIII: Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming Regional Capitol: Denver

REGION IX: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada Regional Capitol: San Francisco

REGION X: Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho Regional Capitol: Seattle

Look for specific information:
http://www.greatdreams.com/concentration.htm
http://www.greatdreams.com/concentration-camp-locations.htm
http://www.greatdreams.com/concentration_camp_plans.htm

CAMPAIGN: http://www.peaceinspace.org
NUCLEAR FREE ZONE: http://peaceinspace.blogs.com/nuclear_free_zone/
9/11 War Crimes Tribunal: http://peaceinspace.blogs.com/911/
EXOPOLITICS: http://www.exopolitics.com
STAR DREAMS INITIATIVE: http://www.peaceinspace.net
LISTEN TO EXOPOLITICS RADIO: http://www.exopoliticsradio.com


US FEMA Camps
By Geopolitical Monitor
Global Research, January 10, 2008
GeopoliticalMonitor.com - 2007-09-20

Contents

1. Executive Summary
2. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
3. Powers and Preparations for a Declared State of Emergency
4. Detainment Camps
5. End Notes

1. Executive Summary

The United States Federal Emergency Management Agency has numerous detainment camps throughout the United States. Some camps have been recently constructed and / or renovated and are fully staffed. The existence of the camps coupled with Presidential Executive Orders giving the President and Department of Homeland Security (of which FEMA is now part) control over ‘national essential functions’ in the event of ‘catastrophic emergency’ have resulted in concerns that the camps will be used to forcefully detain American citizens for unconstitutional purposes.

2. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

History

FEMA was created on April 1, 1979 pursuant to President Jimmy Carter’s Executive Order 12127. It amalgamated the Federal Insurance Administration, the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration, the National Weather Service Community Preparedness Program, the Federal Preparedness Agency and the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration activities formerly carried out by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It also took over Civil Defense from the Department of Defense, which was in charge of preparing citizens for military attack. [1]

In 1993 Bill Clinton turned the directorship of FEMA into a Cabinet position. In 2003 FEMA became part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate. [2]

Stated Purpose

The stated purpose of FEMA is to “reduce the loss of life and property and protect the Nation from all hazards, including natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters, by leading and supporting the nation in a risk-based, comprehensive emergency management system of preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation.” [3]

Recent Operations

FEMA’s most notable large-scale operation in recent times was in the aftermath of August 2005 hurricane Katrina, which occurred along the north-central Gulf Coast, particularly affecting New Orleans, Louisiana. FEMA’s response to the disaster was widely criticized due to a slow and inadequate response, blocking external private and public assistance from individuals and groups including the Red Cross, [4] banning photographs of the dead [5] and confiscating reporter’s equipment [6] and homeowner’s registered firearms. [7]

The 2006 Congressional report on FEMA’s handling of Katrina stated that it was "… a national failure, an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare," [8]

Criticisms

Some have criticized FEMA’s failure as being due to is focus on ‘civil defense’ continuity of government and terrorism response programs to the detriment of its natural disaster response readiness. It is further alleged that hurricane Katrina was used to test run of a continuity of government program, allowing FEMA to rehearse rounding up and relocating large numbers of people to camps, suspending their constitutional rights and militarizing the region [9] with the help of private military contractors (mercenaries). Black Water USA, a private security company, was used in the aftermath of Katrina. [10]

3. Powers and Preparations for a Declared State of Emergency

REX-84 and Operation Garden Plot

Readiness Exercise 1984 (REX-84) is an emergency response program involving the implementation of martial law, the movement of civilian populations and the arrest and detainment of segments of the population. A rehearsal of the program was carried out April 5-13, 1984. It was led by FEMA and the Department of Defense and involved the coordination of 34 other Federal departments and agencies. [11] REX-84 was mentioned during the Iran-Contra hearings [12] and publicly exposed by the Miami Herald on Sunday July 5th, 1987. [13]

Similar large-scale emergency preparedness drills have taken place regularly since then. The most recently announced, organized by NORTHCOM, are scheduled for October 15-20. [14] Some assert that the drills continue to include preparations for the suspension of the Constitution and the implementation of martial law. [15]

Operation Garden Plot is a United States Army and National Guard program under control of the US Northern Command (NORTHCOM) to provide Federal military support during domestic civil disturbances. One example of the program’s implementation was during the 1992 Los Angeles riots when US Army and Marine forces were used in conjunction with the California National Guard. [16] In Los Angeles an Executive Order was made to permit the use of the Federal army to uphold domestic laws pursuant to the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which places restrictions on the domestic use of the military for law enforcement purposes. [17]

Recently, however, Section 1076 Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) has amended Posse Comitatus and The Insurrection Act (which also places limits on domestic military deployment) to allow the Federal government to unilaterally take control of state National Guards and position Federal troops anywhere in the country during a ‘public emergency’. [18]

Executive Orders

Throughout the 1960s numerous Presidential Executive Orders were issued authorizing Federal agencies to take over essential functions in the case of a declared emergency. The powers include, among many others, the authority of the Federal government to take over transportation infrastructure including highways and seaports (10990), food resources and farms (10998) and mobilize citizens into government supervised work brigades (11000). [19]

On May 9, 2007 President George Bush reasserted the role of the Federal government during a declared emergency by issuing Executive Order NSPD 51/ HSPD-20. The Order states that in the event of a ‘catastrophic emergency’ all ‘national essential functions’ may be taken over by the Executive branch of government and the Department of Homeland Security (including FEMA). [20]

4. Detainment Camps

Developments and Construction

In August 2002, then Attorney General John Ashcroft called for American citizens who are deemed ‘enemy combatants’ to be detained indefinitely without charge and independently of the judiciary. [21] This legal position was upheld in the case of a US citizen detained abroad by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a January 2003 ruling. [22]

In October 2006 the Military Commissions Act was passed by Congress. [23] The legislation applies to non-US citizens and permits individuals labeled as ‘enemy combatants’ to be imprisoned indefinitely and without charge. It also denies non-military tribunal judicial review of detainment (Section 7), disregards international treaties such as the Geneva Convention, and states that it is the President who defines what constitutes torture (Sections 5 & 6).

In January of 2007 the American Civil Liberties Union released a report based on documents obtained by a Freedom of Information Act suit showing that the Pentagon had monitored at least “186 anti-military protests in the United States and collected more than 2,800 reports involving Americans in an anti-terrorist threat database.” [24]

For some time FEMA has been renovating and constructing new detention camps throughout the country. In January 2006 Haliburton subsidiary KBR announced that it had been awarded an “indefinite delivery / indefinite quantity contract to construct detention facilities for the Department of Homeland Security worth a maximum of $385 million over 5 years. [25]

Stated Purpose

Little has been said about the purpose of the detainment camps but when official comment has been made it has stated that the camps are for the temporary detainment of illegal immigrants. [26]

Quantity and Locations

Citizens who are concerned about the purpose and potential use of the detainment camps have documented and, when possible, filmed the detainment facilities. A current estimate of the number of detainment camps is over 800 located in all regions of the United States with varying maximum capacities. [27] If one includes government buildings currently used for other purposes the number is far greater. Video of renovated but empty detainment camps has also been released. [28]

5. End Notes

[1] Executive Order 12127--Federal Emergency Management Agency
http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo/eo-12127.htm.

[2] Federal Emergency Management Agency. “About FEMA” April 1, 2007
http://www.fema.gov/about/history.shtm

[3] Ibid.

[4] Federal Emergency Management Agency. News Release. “First Responders Urged Not To Respond To Hurricane Impact Areas Unless Dispatched By State, Local Authorities” 29 August 2005
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18470

Rodgers, Ann. “Homeland Security won't let Red Cross deliver food” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 3 September 2005
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05246/565143.stm

Zarend-Kubatko, Jill. “Disaster touches area residents” Valley Life. 2 September 2005
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15147862&BRD

[5] Editorandpublisher.com. “Journalist Groups Protest FEMA Ban on Photos of Dead” 7 September 2005
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001055768

[6] Gebauer, Matthias. “The Eye of the Hurricane” Spiegel Online International.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,373590,00.html

[7] Berenson, Alex and Timothy Williams. “New Orleans Begins Confiscating Firearms as Water Recedes” New York Times. 8 September 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/08/national/nationalspecial
08cnd-storm.html?ex=1189483200&en=b7a5f1efcf668506&ei=5070

[8] Cable News Network (CNN). “Report: Katrina response a 'failure of leadership':
Homeland Security secretary described as 'detached'” 14 February 2006
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/13/katrina.congress/index.html?iref=newssearch

[9] Nimmo, Kurt. “Attacks on democratic rights, breaching legal barriers: FEMA and Katrina: REX-84 Revisited” Global Research. 11 September 2005
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=NIM20050911&articleId=929

[10] Scahill, Jeremy. “In the Black(water)” The Nation. 22 May 2006
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060605/scahill

[11] Reynolds, Diana. “The Rise of the National Security State: FEMA and the NSC.” Publiceye.org. 1990
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/fema/Fema_1.html

[12] “Suspension of American Constitution Oliver North.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8tQAYYtLok&mode=related&search

[13] Chardy, Alfonso. “Reagan Aides and the ‘Secret’ Government.” The Miami Herald. 5 July 1987
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/secret_white_house_plans.htm

[14] United States Northern Command. “Exercise Vigilant Shield ’08 slated for October.” 30 August 2007
http://www.northcom.mil/News/2007/083007.html

[15] Rogers, Lee. “NORTHCOM Plans 5 Day Martial Law Exercise.” Intel Strike. 5 September 2007
http://intelstrike.com/?p=57

[16] Global Security. “Operation Garden Plot JTF-LAJoint Task Force Los Angeles”
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/jtf-la.htm

[17] Morales, Frank. “U.S. Military Civil Disturbance Planning:
The War At Home” Covert Action Quarterly, #69 Spring / Summer 2000.
http://cryptome.org/garden-plot.htm

[18] Morales, Frank. “Bush Moves Towards Martial Law” Toward Freedom. 26 October 2006
http://www.towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/911/

[19] Anonymous. “FEMA Concentration Camps: Locations and Executive Orders” Friends of Liberty.
http://www.sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1062

[20] The White House. “Presidential Directive NSPD 51, HSPD-20.” 9 May 2007
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html

[21] Turley, Jonathan. “Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision” Los Angeles Times. 14 August 2002
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0814-05.htm

[22] Cable News Network (CNN). “Americans may be held as 'enemy combatants,' appeals court rules.” 8 January 2003
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/01/08/enemy.combatants

[23] The Library of Congress. Military Commissions Act of 2006. 17 October 2007
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:S.3930

[24] American Civil Liberties Union. “ACLU Report Shows Widespread Pentagon Surveillance of Peace Activists” Press Release. 17 January 2007
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spyfiles/28024prs20070117.html

[25] Halliburton Public Relations “KBR Awarded U.S. Department of Homeland Security Contingency Support Project for Emergency Support Services.” 24 January 2006
http://www.kbr.com/news/2006/govnews_060124.aspx

[26] Ibid.

Scott, Peter Dale. “Homeland Security Contracts for Vast New Detention Camps.” New America Media. 8 February 2006
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=eed74d9d44c30493706fe03f4c9b3a77

[27] Friends of Liberty “FEMA Concentration Camps: Locations and Executive Orders.”
http://www.sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1062

[28] FEMA Camp Footage (Concentrations Camps in USA).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P-hvPJPTi4.
http://tinyurl.com/yvymzq