The Last Roundup

Is the government compiling a secret list of citizens to detain under martial law?

This article is from the May/June issue of Radar Magazine.

ARE YOU ON THE LIST? The federal government has been developing a highly classified plan that will override the Constitution in the event of a major terrorist attack

In the spring of 2007, a retired senior official in the U.S. Justice Department sat before Congress and told a story so odd and ominous, it could have sprung from the pages of a pulp political thriller. It was about a principled bureaucrat struggling to protect his country from a highly classified program with sinister implications. Rife with high drama, it included a car chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., and a tense meeting at the White House, where the president's henchmen made the bureaucrat so nervous that he demanded a neutral witness be present.

The bureaucrat was James Comey, John Ashcroft's second-in-command at the Department of Justice during Bush's first term. Comey had been a loyal political foot soldier of the Republican Party for many years. Yet in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he described how he had grown increasingly uneasy reviewing the Bush administration's various domestic surveillance and spying programs. Much of his testimony centered on an operation so clandestine he wasn't allowed to name it or even describe what it did. He did say, however, that he and Ashcroft had discussed the program in March 2004, trying to decide whether it was legal under federal statutes. Shortly before the certification deadline, Ashcroft fell ill with pancreatitis, making Comey acting attorney general, and Comey opted not to certify the program. When he communicated his decision to the White House, Bush's men told him, in so many words, to take his concerns and stuff them in an undisclosed location.

The Continuity of Governance program encompasses national emergency plans that would trigger the takeover of the country by extra-constitutional forces. In short, it's a road map for martial lawComey refused to knuckle under, and the dispute came to a head on the cold night of March 10, 2004, hours before the program's authorization was to expire. At the time, Ashcroft was in intensive care at George Washington Hospital following emergency surgery. Apparently, at the behest of President Bush himself, the White House tried, in Comey's words, "to take advantage of a very sick man," sending Chief of Staff Andrew Card and then–White House counsel Alberto Gonzales on a mission to Ashcroft's sickroom to persuade the heavily doped attorney general to override his deputy. Apprised of their mission, Comey, accompanied by a full security detail, jumped in his car, raced through the streets of the capital, lights blazing, and "literally ran" up the hospital stairs to beat them there.

Minutes later, Gonzales and Card arrived with an envelope filled with the requisite forms. Ashcroft, even in his stupor, did not fall for their heavy-handed ploy. "I'm not the attorney general," Ashcroft told Bush's men. "There"—he pointed weakly to Comey—"is the attorney general." Gonzales and Card were furious, departing without even acknowledging Comey's presence in the room. The following day, the classified domestic spying program that Comey found so disturbing went forward at the demand of the White House—"without a signature from the Department of Justice attesting as to its legality," he testified.

What was the mysterious program that had so alarmed Comey? Political blogs buzzed for weeks with speculation. Though Comey testified that the program was subsequently readjusted to satisfy his concerns, one can't help wondering whether the unspecified alteration would satisfy constitutional experts, or even average citizens. Faced with push-back from his bosses at the White House, did he simply relent and accept a token concession? Two months after Comey's testimony to Congress, the New York Times reported a tantalizing detail: The program that prompted him "to threaten resignation involved computer searches through massive electronic databases." The larger mystery remained intact, however. "It is not known precisely why searching the databases, or data mining, raised such a furious legal debate," the article conceded.

ONE NATION, UNDER SURVEILLANCE James Comey testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee

Another clue came from a rather unexpected source: President Bush himself. Addressing the nation from the Oval Office in 2005 after the first disclosures of the NSA's warrantless electronic surveillance became public, Bush insisted that the spying program in question was reviewed "every 45 days" as part of planning to assess threats to "the continuity of our government."

Few Americans—professional journalists included—know anything about so-called Continuity of Government (COG) programs, so it's no surprise that the president's passing reference received almost no attention. COG resides in a nebulous legal realm, encompassing national emergency plans that would trigger the takeover of the country by extra-constitutional forces—and effectively suspend the republic. In short, it's a road map for martial law.

While Comey, who left the Department of Justice in 2005, has steadfastly refused to comment further on the matter, a number of former government employees and intelligence sources with independent knowledge of domestic surveillance operations claim the program that caused the flap between Comey and the White House was related to a database of Americans who might be considered potential threats in the event of a national emergency. Sources familiar with the program say that the government's data gathering has been overzealous and probably conducted in violation of federal law and the protection from unreasonable search and seizure guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.

According to a senior government official who served with high-level security clearances in five administrations, "There exists a database of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated. The database can identify and locate perceived 'enemies of the state' almost instantaneously." He and other sources tell Radar that the database is sometimes referred to by the code name Main Core. One knowledgeable source claims that 8 million Americans are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect. In the event of a national emergency, these people could be subject to everything from heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and possibly even detention.

DESPERATE TIMES Should another 9/11 occur, Continuity of Governance plans developed during the Cold War go into effect

Of course, federal law is somewhat vague as to what might constitute a "national emergency." Executive orders issued over the past three decades define it as a "natural disaster, military attack, [or] technological or other emergency," while Department of Defense documents include eventualities like "riots, acts of violence, insurrections, unlawful obstructions or assemblages, [and] disorder prejudicial to public law and order." According to one news report, even "national opposition to U.S. military invasion abroad" could be a trigger.

Let's imagine a harrowing scenario: coordinated bombings in several American cities culminating in a major blast—say, a suitcase nuke—in New York City. Thousands of civilians are dead. Commerce is paralyzed. A state of emergency is declared by the president. Continuity of Governance plans that were developed during the Cold War and aggressively revised since 9/11 go into effect. Surviving government officials are shuttled to protected underground complexes carved into the hills of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Power shifts to a "parallel government" that consists of scores of secretly preselected officials. (As far back as the 1980s, Donald Rumsfeld, then CEO of a pharmaceutical company, and Dick Cheney, then a congressman from Wyoming, were slated to step into key positions during a declared emergency.) The executive branch is the sole and absolute seat of authority, with Congress and the judiciary relegated to advisory roles at best. The country becomes, within a matter of hours, a police state.

In case of a wide-scale attack, the executive branch becomes the sole and absolute seat of authority. The country becomes, within a matter of hours, a police stateInterestingly, plans drawn up during the Reagan administration suggest this parallel government would be ruling under authority given by law to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, home of the same hapless bunch that recently proved themselves unable to distribute water to desperate hurricane victims. The agency's incompetence in tackling natural disasters is less surprising when one considers that, since its inception in the 1970s, much of its focus has been on planning for the survival of the federal government in the wake of a decapitating nuclear strike.

Under law, during a national emergency, FEMA and its parent organization, the Department of Homeland Security, would be empowered to seize private and public property, all forms of transport, and all food supplies. The agency could dispatch military commanders to run state and local governments, and it could order the arrest of citizens without a warrant, holding them without trial for as long as the acting government deems necessary. From the comfortable perspective of peaceful times, such behavior by the government may seem far-fetched. But it was not so very long ago that FDR ordered 120,000 Japanese Americans—everyone from infants to the elderly—be held in detention camps for the duration of World War II. This is widely regarded as a shameful moment in U.S. history, a lesson learned. But a long trail of federal documents indicates that the possibility of large-scale detention has never quite been abandoned by federal authorities. Around the time of the 1968 race riots, for instance, a paper drawn up at the U.S. Army War College detailed plans for rounding up millions of "militants" and "American negroes," who were to be held at "assembly centers or relocation camps." In the late 1980s, the Austin American-Statesman and other publications reported the existence of 10 detention camp sites on military facilities nationwide, where hundreds of thousands of people could be held in the event of domestic political upheaval. More such facilities were commissioned in 2006, when Kellogg Brown & Root—then a subsidiary of Halliburton—was handed a $385 million contract to establish "temporary detention and processing capabilities" for the Department of Homeland Security. The contract is short on details, stating only that the facilities would be used for "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs." Just what those "new programs" might be is not specified.

In the days after our hypothetical terror attack, events might play out like this: With the population gripped by fear and anger, authorities undertake unprecedented actions in the name of public safety. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security begin actively scrutinizing people who—for a tremendously broad set of reasons—have been flagged in Main Core as potential domestic threats. Some of these individuals might receive a letter or a phone call, others a request to register with local authorities. Still others might hear a knock on the door and find police or armed soldiers outside. In some instances, the authorities might just ask a few questions. Other suspects might be arrested and escorted to federal holding facilities, where they could be detained without counsel until the state of emergency is no longer in effect.

It is, of course, appropriate for any government to plan for the worst. But when COG plans are shrouded in extreme secrecy, effectively unregulated by Congress or the courts, and married to an overreaching surveillance state—as seems to be the case with Main Core—even sober observers must weigh whether the protections put in place by the federal government are becoming more dangerous to America than any outside threat.

Another well-informed source—a former military operative regularly briefed by members of the intelligence community—says this particular program has roots going back at least to the 1980s and was set up with help from the Defense Intelligence Agency. He has been told that the program utilizes software that makes predictive judgments of targets' behavior and tracks their circle of associations with "social network analysis" and artificial intelligence modeling tools.

"The more data you have on a particular target, the better [the software] can predict what the target will do, where the target will go, who it will turn to for help," he says. "Main Core is the table of contents for all the illegal information that the U.S. government has [compiled] on specific targets." An intelligence expert who has been briefed by high-level contacts in the Department of Homeland Security confirms that a database of this sort exists, but adds that "it is less a mega-database than a way to search numerous other agency databases at the same time."

CROWD CONTROL New Yorkers walk home on the afternoon of the September 11 attacks

A host of publicly disclosed programs, sources say, now supply data to Main Core. Most notable are the NSA domestic surveillance programs, initiated in the wake of 9/11, typically referred to in press reports as "warrantless wiretapping."

In March, a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal shed further light onto the extraordinarily invasive scope of the NSA efforts: According to the Journal, the government can now electronically monitor "huge volumes of records of domestic e-mails and Internet searches, as well as bank transfers, credit card transactions, travel, and telephone records." Authorities employ "sophisticated software programs" to sift through the data, searching for "suspicious patterns." In effect, the program is a mass catalog of the private lives of Americans. And it's notable that the article hints at the possibility of programs like Main Core. "The [NSA] effort also ties into data from an ad-hoc collection of so-called black programs whose existence is undisclosed," the Journal reported, quoting unnamed officials. "Many of the programs in various agencies began years before the 9/11 attacks but have since been given greater reach."

"We're at the edge of a cliff," says Bruce Fein, a top justice official in the Reagan administration. "To a national emergency planner, everybody looks like a danger to stability"The following information seems to be fair game for collection without a warrant: the e-mail addresses you send to and receive from, and the subject lines of those messages; the phone numbers you dial, the numbers that dial in to your line, and the durations of the calls; the Internet sites you visit and the keywords in your Web searches; the destinations of the airline tickets you buy; the amounts and locations of your ATM withdrawals; and the goods and services you purchase on credit cards. All of this information is archived on government supercomputers and, according to sources, also fed into the Main Core database.

Main Core also allegedly draws on four smaller databases that, in turn, cull from federal, state, and local "intelligence" reports; print and broadcast media; financial records; "commercial databases"; and unidentified "private sector entities." Additional information comes from a database known as the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, which generates watch lists from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for use by airlines, law enforcement, and border posts. According to the Washington Post, the Terrorist Identities list has quadrupled in size between 2003 and 2007 to include about 435,000 names. The FBI's Terrorist Screening Center border crossing list, which listed 755,000 persons as of fall 2007, grows by 200,000 names a year. A former NSA officer tells Radar that the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, using an electronic-funds transfer surveillance program, also contributes data to Main Core, as does a Pentagon program that was created in 2002 to monitor antiwar protesters and environmental activists such as Greenpeace.

HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU From your late-night e-mails and travel plans to phone records and financial transactions, the government finds you fascinating—and may consider you a potential enemy of the state (Photo: Illustration by Brett Ryder)

If previous FEMA and FBI lists are any indication, the Main Core database includes dissidents and activists of various stripes, political and tax protesters, lawyers and professors, publishers and journalists, gun owners, illegal aliens, foreign nationals, and a great many other harmless, average people.

A veteran CIA intelligence analyst who maintains active high-level clearances and serves as an advisor to the Department of Defense in the field of emerging technology tells Radar that during the 2004 hospital room drama, James Comey expressed concern over how this secret database was being used "to accumulate otherwise private data on non-targeted U.S. citizens for use at a future time." Though not specifically familiar with the name Main Core, he adds, "What was being requested of Comey for legal approval was exactly what a Main Core story would be." A source regularly briefed by people inside the intelligence community adds: "Comey had discovered that President Bush had authorized NSA to use a highly classified and compartmentalized Continuity of Government database on Americans in computerized searches of its domestic intercepts. [Comey] had concluded that the use of that 'Main Core' database compromised the legality of the overall NSA domestic surveillance project."

If Main Core does exist, says Philip Giraldi, a former CIA counterterrorism officer and an outspoken critic of the agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is its likely home. "If a master list is being compiled, it would have to be in a place where there are no legal issues"—the CIA and FBI would be restricted by oversight and accountability laws—"so I suspect it is at DHS, which as far as I know operates with no such restraints." Giraldi notes that DHS already maintains a central list of suspected terrorists and has been freely adding people who pose no reasonable threat to domestic security. "It's clear that DHS has the mandate for controlling and owning master lists. The process is not transparent, and the criteria for getting on the list are not clear." Giraldi continues, "I am certain that the content of such a master list [as Main Core] would not be carefully vetted, and there would be many names on it for many reasons—quite likely including the two of us."

UNDER REAGAN In the 1980s, control of the FBI's "security index" was reportedly transferred to none other than FEMA

Would Main Core in fact be legal? According to constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, who served as associate deputy attorney general under Ronald Reagan, the question of legality is murky: "In the event of a national emergency, the executive branch simply assumes these powers"—the powers to collect domestic intelligence and draw up detention lists, for example—"if Congress doesn't explicitly prohibit it. It's really up to Congress to put these things to rest, and Congress has not done so." Fein adds that it is virtually impossible to contest the legality of these kinds of data collection and spy programs in court "when there are no criminal prosecutions and [there is] no notice to persons on the president's 'enemies list.' That means if Congress remains invertebrate, the law will be whatever the president says it is—even in secret. He will be the judge on his own powers and invariably rule in his own favor."

Compared to PROMIS, Richard Nixon's enemies list or Senator Joe McCarthy's blacklist look downright crudeThe veteran CIA intelligence analyst notes that Comey's suggestion that the offending elements of the program were dropped could be misleading: "Bush [may have gone ahead and] signed it as a National Intelligence Finding anyway."

But even if we never face a national emergency, the mere existence of the database is a matter of concern. "The capacity for future use of this information against the American people is so great as to be virtually unfathomable," the senior government official says.
In any case, mass watch lists of domestic citizens may do nothing to make us safer from terrorism. Jeff Jonas, chief scientist at IBM, a world-renowned expert in data mining, contends that such efforts won't prevent terrorist conspiracies. "Because there is so little historical terrorist event data," Jonas tells Radar, "there is not enough volume to create precise predictions."

The overzealous compilation of a domestic watch list is not unique in postwar American history. In 1950, the FBI, under the notoriously paranoid J. Edgar Hoover, began to "accumulate the names, identities, and activities" of suspect American citizens in a rapidly expanding "security index," according to declassified documents. In a letter to the Truman White House, Hoover stated that in the event of certain emergency situations, suspect individuals would be held in detention camps overseen by "the National Military Establishment." By 1960, a congressional investigation later revealed, the FBI list of suspicious persons included "professors, teachers, and educators; labor-union organizers and leaders; writers, lecturers, newsmen, and others in the mass-media field; lawyers, doctors, and scientists; other potentially influential persons on a local or national level; [and] individuals who could potentially furnish financial or material aid" to unnamed "subversive elements." This same FBI "security index" was allegedly maintained and updated into the 1980s, when it was reportedly transferred to the control of none other than FEMA (though the FBI denied this at the time).

FEMA, however—then known as the Federal Preparedness Agency—already had its own domestic surveillance system in place, according to a 1975 investigation by Senator John V. Tunney of California. Tunney, the son of heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney and the inspiration for Robert Redford's character in the film The Candidate, found that the agency maintained electronic dossiers on at least 100,000 Americans that contained information gleaned from wide-ranging computerized surveillance. The database was located in the agency's secret underground city at Mount Weather, near the town of Bluemont, Virginia. The senator's findings were confirmed in a 1976 investigation by the Progressive magazine, which found that the Mount Weather computers "can obtain millions of pieces [of] information on the personal lives of American citizens by tapping the data stored at any of the 96 Federal Relocation Centers"—a reference to other classified facilities. According to the Progressive, Mount Weather's databases were run "without any set of stated rules or regulations. Its surveillance program remains secret even from the leaders of the House and the Senate."

JUST IN CASE The Miami Herald contended that Reagan loyalist Oliver North had spearheaded the development of a

Ten years later, a new round of government martial law plans came to light. A report in the Miami Herald contended that Reagan loyalist and Iran-Contra conspirator Colonel Oliver North had spearheaded the development of a "secret contingency plan,"—code-named REX 84—which called "for suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the United States over to FEMA, [and the] appointment of military commanders to run state and local governments." The North plan also reportedly called for the detention of upwards of 400,000 illegal aliens and an undisclosed number of American citizens in at least 10 military facilities maintained as potential holding camps.

North's program was so sensitive in nature that when Texas congressman Jack Brooks attempted to question North about it during the 1987 Iran-Contra hearings, he was rebuffed even by his fellow legislators. "I read in Miami papers and several others that there had been a plan by that same agency [FEMA] that would suspend the American Constitution," Brooks said. "I was deeply concerned about that and wondered if that was the area in which he [North] had worked." Senator Daniel Inouye, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Iran, immediately cut off his colleague, saying, "That question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area, so may I request that you not touch upon that, sir." Though Brooks pushed for an answer, the line of questioning was not allowed to proceed.

Wired magazine turned up additional damaging information, revealing in 1993 that North, operating from a secure White House site, allegedly employed a software database program called PROMIS (ostensibly as part of the REX 84 plan). PROMIS, which has a strange and controversial history, was designed to track individuals—prisoners, for example—by pulling together information from disparate databases into a single record. According to Wired, "Using the computers in his command center, North tracked dissidents and potential troublemakers within the United States. Compared to PROMIS, Richard Nixon's enemies list or Senator Joe McCarthy's blacklist look downright crude." Sources have suggested to Radar that government databases tracking Americans today, including Main Core, could still have PROMIS-based legacy code from the days when North was running his programs.

In the wake of 9/11, domestic surveillance programs of all sorts expanded dramatically. As one well-placed source in the intelligence community puts it, "The gloves seemed to come off." What is not yet clear is what sort of still-undisclosed programs may have been authorized by the Bush White House. Marty Lederman, a high-level official at the Department of Justice under Clinton, writing on a law blog last year, wondered, "How extreme were the programs they implemented [after 9/11]? How egregious was the lawbreaking?" Congress has tried, and mostly failed, to find out.

HISTORY'S LESSONS Japanese Americans moved to internment camps in World War II

In July 2007 and again last August, Representative Peter DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon and a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee, sought access to the "classified annexes" of the Bush administration's Continuity of Government program. DeFazio's interest was prompted by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20 (also known as NSPD-51), issued in May 2007, which reserves for the executive branch the sole authority to decide what constitutes a national emergency and to determine when the emergency is over. DeFazio found this unnerving.

But he and other leaders of the Homeland Security Committee, including Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, were denied a review of the Continuity of Government classified annexes. To this day, their calls for disclosure have been ignored by the White House. In a press release issued last August, DeFazio went public with his concerns that the NSPD-51 Continuity of Government plans are "extra-constitutional or unconstitutional." Around the same time, he told the Oregonian: "Maybe the people who think there's a conspiracy out there are right."

None of the leading presidential candidates have been asked the question, "As president, will you continue aggressive domestic surveillance programs in the vein of the Bush administration?"Congress itself has recently widened the path for both extra-constitutional detentions by the White House and the domestic use of military force during a national emergency. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 effectively suspended habeas corpus and freed up the executive branch to designate any American citizen an "enemy combatant" forfeiting all privileges accorded under the Bill of Rights. The John Warner National Defense Authorization Act, also passed in 2006, included a last-minute rider titled "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies," which allowed the deployment of U.S. military units not just to put down domestic insurrections—as permitted under posse comitatus and the Insurrection Act of 1807—but also to deal with a wide range of calamities, including "natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack, or incident."

More troubling, in 2002, Congress authorized funding for the U.S. Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, which, according to Washington Post military intelligence expert William Arkin, "allows for emergency military operations in the United States without civilian supervision or control."

"We are at the edge of a cliff and we're about to fall off," says constitutional lawyer and former Reagan administration official Bruce Fein. "To a national emergency planner, everybody looks like a danger to stability. There's no doubt that Congress would have the authority to denounce all this—for example, to refuse to appropriate money for the preparation of a list of U.S. citizens to be detained in the event of martial law. But Congress is the invertebrate branch. They say, 'We have to be cautious.' The same old crap you associate with cowards. None of this will change under a Democratic administration, unless you have exceptional statesmanship and the courage to stand up and say, 'You know, democracies accept certain risks that tyrannies do not.'"

CREDIBLE WITNESS James Comey As of this writing, DeFazio, Thompson, and the other 433 members of the House are debating the so-called Protect America Act, after a similar bill passed in the Senate. Despite its name, the act offers no protection for U.S. citizens; instead, it would immunize from litigation U.S. telecom giants for colluding with the government in the surveillance of Americans to feed the hungry maw of databases like Main Core. The Protect America Act would legalize programs that appear to be unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, the mystery of James Comey's testimony has disappeared in the morass of election year coverage. None of the leading presidential candidates have been asked the questions that are so profoundly pertinent to the future of the country: As president, will you continue aggressive domestic surveillance programs in the vein of the Bush administration? Will you release the COG blueprints that Representatives DeFazio and Thompson were not allowed to read? What does it suggest about the state of the nation that the U.S. is now ranked by worldwide civil liberties groups as an "endemic surveillance society," alongside repressive regimes such as China and Russia? How can a democracy thrive with a massive apparatus of spying technology deployed against every act of political expression, private or public? (Radar put these questions to spokespeople for the McCain, Obama, and Clinton campaigns, but at press time had yet to receive any responses.)

These days, it's rare to hear a voice like that of Senator Frank Church, who in the 1970s led the explosive investigations into U.S. domestic intelligence crimes that prompted the very reforms now being eroded. "The technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny," Church pointed out in 1975. "And there would be no way to fight back, because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know."

UPDATE: Since this article went to press, several documents have emerged to suggest the story has longer legs than we thought. Most troubling among these is an October 2001 Justice Department memo that detailed the extra-constitutional powers the U.S. military might invoke during domestic operations following a terrorist attack. In the memo, John Yoo, then deputy assistant attorney general, "concluded that the Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations." (Yoo, as most readers know, is author of the infamous Torture Memo that, in bizarro fashion, rejiggers the definition of "legal" torture to allow pretty much anything short of murder.) In the October 2001 memo, Yoo refers to a classified DOJ document titled "Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities Within the United States." According to the Associated Press, "Exactly what domestic military action was covered by the October memo is unclear. But federal documents indicate that the memo relates to the National Security Agency's Terrorist Surveillance Program." Attorney General John Mukasey last month refused to clarify before Congress whether the Yoo memo was still in force.

Meanwhile, congressional sources tell Radar that Congressman Peter DeFazio has apparently abandoned his effort to get to the bottom of the White House COG classified annexes. Penny Dodge, DeFazio's chief of staff, says otherwise. "We will be sending a letter requesting a classified briefing soon," she told Radar this week.

http://www.radaronline.com/from-the-magazine/2008/05/government_surveillance_homeland_security_main_core_01.php

OpenYourEyes

US Marine BOASTS of MARTIAL LAW TAKEOVER In USA by MARINES

67.185.16.197

SPECIAL REPORT from BOZEMAN, MONTANA-

US MARINE DRILL SERGEANT BOASTS OF WHAT THEY WILL DO TO CIVILIANS UNDER MARTIAL LAW IN THE USA/MONTANA

I am still kinda reeling from what a US Marine admitted to me in a long conversation...a crack US Marine drill sergeant with 12 years of professional training and being a trainer in the Marines. He specialized in hardening them to win (ie-fire on women and children wherever appropriate, "show no mercy" etc.)

He CONFIRMED lots of things to me I already knew, and revealed lots of new things to me.

MARINE CONFIRMS PRISONER BOXCARS PREPOSITIONED EVERYWHERE FOR MARTIAL LAW-

HE ADMITTED (actually, BOASTED would be more appropriate) that there were INDEED PRISONER BOXCARS PREPOSITIONED EVERYWHERE THROUGHOUT MONTANA where I interviewed him(and nationwide)...that the military has properly assessed the civilian resistance/militia threat under martial law, and hence had everything in place for a military takeover USING US MARINES HEAVILY.


Quote:
"WHY do you THINK that they have the Marines in place in Billings, Montana, " he bragged. He explained that MARINES would be used most heavily in Montana(and NATIONWIDE) under martial law...and he was evidently quite proud of their role. He admitted they had been hardened to kill...and that killing women and children would be a part of their agenda wherever deemed necessary.


WHY? He said that under a state of war or martial law, it is a known fact that women can be used and even children to convey information to"the enemy." (OR to combat US forces.)

He shared then how many men in his platoon stationed overseas had been killed or hurt because a Marine refused his orders, to fire on an eight year old child. The child was suspected to be a courier for the Mujahideen, transporting information about Marine logistics and whereabouts,to the Moslems they were fighting. And as a result of enemy information getting thru, many men in his platoon were injured or killed by resultant Moslem attack.


Quote:
"The child may not have even known what he was transporting," the Marine told me, "But the damage to our men occurred regardless...all because one man refused his orders and failed to take out this threat..."


We discussed the BOXCARS AND SHACKLES and MILITARY DETENTION CAMPS under MARTIAL LAW issue. A knowing smile broke out on his face as I described to him my research on future MARTIAL LAW and the role of PRISONER BOXCARS WITH SHACKLES.

When I mentioned how my research on this subject brought me to the HIGHLINE (the railroad tracks that run parallel to HIGHWAY 2 in northern Montana) and northern Montana, he admitted...


Quote:
"The boxcars are NOT just up there...we have them spread out ALL OVER MONTANA...Billings...Bozeman..." He went on to name city after city in Montana.

TERMINATION IN THE PRISONER BOXCARS, MARINE STYLE-
"LIKE SHEEP LED TO SLAUGHTER"

We discussed what would happen ONCE people were arrested under martial law and brought into these boxcars. MARINE style.

Quote:
He said, "In many cases they won't even waste a bullet on them. MANY WILL NEVER REACH THE CAMPS ALIVE. They have this thing we called a 'staple gun'..." I asked him to elaborate. "This 'gun' shoots out a long metal rod that hits another piece of metal...they just hold that to someone's head like a gun and...."

He was in fact describing a STUN GUN, the same kind used to stun cattle and sheep in slaughterhouses prior to processing.

I understood. With the same effect that a BULLET THRU THE HEAD, favored by military for dispatching people under such circumstances, would have. Only THIS way, the American people will become LIKE SHEEP LED TO SLAUGHTER...literally.

nd like dumb sheep led to slaughter, civilians arrested under martial law are not even considered worth the cost of a bullet...


Quote:
RED-FLAG/BLACK FLAG- MARINE STANDARDS FOR "WHO SHALL LIVE, WHO SHALL DIE"


We discussed various LISTS or status of people, once arrested, under MARTIAL LAW would have. You know, like FEMA RED-BLUE lists, etc.

He responded by admitting that FEMA WAS ONLY A FRONT FOR SUCH OPERATIONS, and that IN FACT IT WOULD BE THE US MILITARY (with foreign troop assistance, UN/NATO/Pfp etc.,) OPERATING THE BOXCARS AND DEATHCAMPS.

He said that the Marines had their RED FLAGGED people and BLACK FLAGGED people. When people come up RED FLAG on their computerized list, it is a person that will be arrested and taken to military camps, but may be "salvageable" (or can be rehabilitated, re-educated, etc.)

But when people come up BLACK FLAGGED, they will be arrested and PUT TO DEATH.
NO questions asked.


Quote:
"When taking captives under MARTIAL LAW, we might even use a black flagged person who is going to die anyhow, and MAKE THEM AN EXAMPLE TO THE OTHER PEOPLE WE ARREST TO NOT MESS WITH US AND COOPERATE...by executing that person in front of the others...a form of CONTROL THRU FEAR."


WHY THE US MILITARY IN IRAQ-A Marine Explains

I discussed my loathing for the reports we were now receiving from IRAQ, about even young girls and teens being arrested indiscriminately, tortured and sodomized, raped, etc.


Quote:
He replied, "You have to understand the logistics of WAR and what is happening there. Since the US soldiers are surrounded with people (Iraqis) and the enemy in many cases is THE UNKNOWN, that have to have ways to flush them out.

By randomly selecting civilians to interrogate through torture and other means, and then releasing them, they are hoping that when that person who has been roughed up returns to their home or friends, it will provoke them (enemy combatants) into such anger and retaliation that they are FLUSHED OUT INTO THE OPEN so we can deal with them and know who the enemy really is."


He also admitted it creates FEAR in the people towards the occupying army, so that they will hesitate to rebel.

In light of coming MARTIAL LAW, which he admitted WOULD COME DOWN IN AMERICA, I discussed my theory that THE US MILITARY THAT IS BEING HARDENED THROUGH SUCH PRACTICES IN IRAQ TODAY, will be the ones brought home to PERFORM THE SAME TASKS AGAINST THE US CIVILIANS IN THE FUTURE UNDER MARTIAL LAW.

MARINE MENTALITY-FIRING UPON WOMEN AND CHILDREN AT COMMAND-

He did not deny this. And when I mentioned my concern over whether or not they could get our own US troops to fire upon America citizens, even women and children, he explained to me the MARINE MENTALITY.


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"These Marines have been hardened to KILL UPON COMMAND. They have been taught to NOT QUESTION THE ORDERS OF THEIR SUPERIORS OR COMMANDING OFFICER. THEY WILL KILL WHOEVER AND WHENEVER THEY ARE COMMANDED TO. " He let me know that concepts of MERCY or COMPASSION are diametrically opposed to WAR and military mentality.


He had trained men himself in the Marines, and admitted he was one of those people hardening OTHER Marines to kill without regret or conscience...even under MARTIAL LAW IN AMERICA.

MILITARY STRATEGY UNDER MARTIAL LAW USA-

We then discussed WEAPONS OF WAR. I fully admitted to him my position in the upcoming MARTIAL LAW holocaust. It was SAFE: we were on neutral ground and martial law has not been declared here YET.

I then discussed my honest assessment, however, of Patriot/civilian resistance. Coming from the kind of military background family I do, I had a much more realistic assessment of modern military might versus civilian resistance. I said,

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"I always give a salvation message at the end of each radio broadcast I give on the subject of MARTIAL LAW SHOWDOWN...I let the Patriot militias out there know that while I admire their intentions as they stand up for freedom and against the NWO, they frankly have no realistic concept of how highly armed and trained and prepared the military forces of the NWO really are...and that a lot of these good folks are going to factually die with what is coming down when they offer resistance... SO I tell them, 'at LEAST ensure yourselves the ULTIMATE VICTORY of knowing you have ETERNAL LIFE thru Jesus Christ in case you die....and many of you WILL END UP IN HELL should they take you out WITHOUT CHRIST...so GET RIGHT WITH GOD NOW."


He smiled and said, "That's why we Marines have a saying that we will take 'em out and LET GOD SORT 'EM!"

He went on to describe the newer weapons the US military had developed to be used against civilian resistance. Grenades that have caustic substances that when exploded, will eat away any CHEM/BIO BODY SUIT that a resister may be wearing for protection under MARTIAL LAW. Projectiles with uranium shells that when fired will pass through buildings with such power and velocity that they will suck human bodies right out with them through the hole they create in buildings as they emerge (of course destroying the bodies in the process). And more.

THE COMING REALITY OF MICROWAVING DEATH CAMPS UNDER MARTIAL LAW-

He also confirmed the reality of microwave related weapons as well.

I mentioned that in my research on MILITARY DETENTION CAMPS and termination facilities, I knew about GASSING/CREMATORY facilities, and MICROWAVING deathcamps as well.

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WIth the smile of a hardened soldier, he replied, "The MICROWAVING facilities have been around since the 1950's. THEY ARE ALREADY BEING USED IN PLACES LIKE KOSOVO and other places...they make our clean-up much more easy after executions. The bodies don't EXPLODE...they IMPLODE or collapse from the inside...."

I commented on my 6 months of research in Germany at the US military installation called THE MARSHALL CENTER and other locations, to uncover more about the role of UN/NATO foreign troops to be used under martial law in America someday.

Former YUGOSLAVIA is being used as a test case for an entire country brought under UN/NATO control. It has been divided up into FOUR regions, with UN foreign troops assigned to patrol each section. This is much like AMERICA UNDER MARTIAL LAW will be divided up into TEN regions with UN/NATO/PfP troops patrolling each region.

And even now, foreign and America troops are being trained through experience in places like KOSOVO for what they will do under MARTIAL LAW in America someday:roadblocks and searches and weapons seizures, gun confiscation, "search/seizure/arrest" at homes, marching red-flagged/black-flagged, FEMA red/blue listed people off to boxcars and shackles or buses (OR federal prisoner transport planes) to be held or terminated accordingly, etc.

The fact that THEY ARE EVEN NOW PRACTICING TERMINATING "ENEMIES" UNDER UN/NATO/NWO OCCUPATION in "microwaving deathcamp" facilities leaves a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

We have heard of microwave termination facilities here in the US to be used under MARTIAL LAW. I have reported on our suspicions. And now this Marine has provided up front confirmation. He admitted that not only are there gassing/crematory facilities, but the MICROWAVE termination facilities are a present reality as well.


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Marine Mentality-"LOTS OF AMERICAN ARE DUMB SHEEP!"


I expressed to him my deep concerns over innocent people being terminated in such camps. He explained the military mentality of thinking.

"MOST AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE DUMB SHEEP" and sheep can be dangerous IF they cannot be controlled or pose a threat to the security of the US military forces under martial law or endanger their operations. In such cases THEY MUST BE TAKEN OUT...as in NEW ORLEANS. He admitted that his Marine buddies had been shooting and killing a lot of people down there...people who will not surrender their weapons when asked, etc.

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"We have the philosophy in the military that you SACRIFICE ONE OR A FEW FOR THE GOOD OF THE MANY..."


In others words, IF a person, OR a group (Patriot leader, militia leader and their group, etc., or various people under martial law) poses a threat to the good of the MANY (in the US military) then they will sacrifice those people.

When I shared with him how my previous research uncovered the hidden reality of NWO RESISTANCE within the ranks of the US military, he looked at me with narrowed eye intensity and responded, "NOT THESE MARINES...NOT MY MEN! These men have been prepared and trained and equipped...THEY ARE PREPARED FOR MARTIAL LAW and they have been trained to WIN."

PARTING INTO THE NIGHT-CONCLUSION

We finally parted and went our separate ways into the night.

But before he left, I told him, "Well , nice talking to you...and whether you know it or not, you just did a HELLUVA PSY-OPS JOB on me, sir..." He just smiled. In fact it took me all night in prayer just to assess what he had shared with me and finally become calm and drift off to sleep.

WARRIOR CLASS CHRISTIANS AND PATRIOTS-

I simply let him know that there are those among " NWO resistance" that are not afraid to die.

We ARE in fact Major Ralph Peter's WARRIOR CLASS Patriot/Christian resistance that he has formerly described to the US military, and Major Ralph (formerly of PENTAGON INTELLIGENCE) was RIGHT in his assessment of us American Christians/Patriots in his report: we CANNOT be dissuaded from our faith in God and from our stand against NWO despotism and the Satanic darkness behind it all...not even by threats of death or what he just had informed me about US military strategy against resistance under martial law.


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He looked at the ground and spoke softly and said, "There's not many of your kind out there anymore..." as I continued to witness Jesus Christ and salvation to him.

But there are many more of us than you might think, dear! And by GOD'S GRACE, God is raising up MORE AND MORE committed and informed Christians, who see the NEW WORLD ORDER and the coming MARTIAL LAW TYRANNY for what it is in light of Bible Scriptures, and who are going to THEIR Commander in Chief, God Almighty, for WISDOM, and COUNSEL, and DIRECTION and STRATEGY TO WIN as well!


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"THESE SHALL MAKE WAR WITH THE LAMB, AND THE LAMB SHALL OVERCOME THEM, FOR HE IS LORD OF LORDS AND KING OF KINGS, AND THEY THAT ARE WITH IM ARE CALLED, AND CHOSEN AND FAITHFUL." From REVELATION in the BIBLE


Are YOU "WITH HIM" in this critical hour...are YOU with the ETERNALLY WINNING SIDE of JESUS CHRIST???

-Pam Schuffert reporting LIVE from the Pacific Northwest


(The former Major Ralph Peters of PENTAGON INTELLIGENCE, now apparently retired, had written a report for the US Army's PARAMETERS magazine, called "WARRIOR CLASS," in which he discussed NWO RESISTANCE and how there was a group of people among NWO resisters who could NOT be swayed or deterred by conventional military means from their stand against the NEW WORLD ORDER or their religious faith BEHIND their determination to not accept it nor cooperate. He referred to them as WARRIOR CLASS. He then stated in his report in PARAMETERS that SUCH RESISTANCE WILL HAVE TO BE COUNTERED BY THE US MILITARY WITH "IRRESISTIBLE FORCE."

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