The possibility of mass detentions in America rises

Scott Ritsema
CIVICS NEWS
January 28, 2009



Paul Watson reports on the bill before Congress that would establish military detention facilities for Americans:

The National Emergency Centers Act or HR 645 mandates the establishment of "national emergency centers” to be located on military installations for the purpose of providing “temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster,” according to the bill.

Sounds innocuous enough. After all, what's wrong with the government helping people out during an emergency? Well, consider the following language in the legislation, and ponder how a would-be tyrant might utilize this legislation to put political dissidents or other enemies of the state into camps. Watson points out,

Ominously, the bill also states that the camps can be used to “meet other appropriate needs, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security,” an open ended mandate which many fear could mean the forced detention of American citizens in the event of widespread rioting after a national emergency or total economic collapse.

"As determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security."

Martial law, concentration camps, outright tyranny: "It could never happen here," so it is often said. The more that the people put their guard down, believing this lie, the greater the possibility that martial law and FEMA camps will be instituted in America. Thomas Jefferson stated, "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance." If we're not eternally vigilant, there is no doubt that we will allow tyranny to advance on our own soil.

America is indeed exceptional, but only to the extent that we keep our government within the bounds of the Constitution. We're not doing that. So be prepared for tyranny, so common throughout history, to happen here.

We've previously posted (here and here) on the possibility of this happening in America, and the actual plans that have been in place since the 1980s to do so.

Watson also mentions previous moves in the direction toward mass detention of Americans:

As we have previously highlighted, in early 2006 Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root was awarded a $385 million dollar contract by Homeland Security to construct detention and processing facilities in the event of a national emergency.

The language of the preamble to the agreement veils the program with talk of temporary migrant holding centers, but it is made clear that the camps would also be used “as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency.”

As far back as 2002, FEMA sought bids from major real estate and engineering firms to construct giant internment facilities in the case of a chemical, biological or nuclear
attack or a natural disaster.

A much discussed and circulated report, the Pentagon’s Civilian Inmate Labor program, was more recently updated and the revision details a “template for developing agreements” between the Army and corrections facilities for the use of civilian inmate labor on Army installations.”