A series of executive orders under JFK gave
the President authority, in a "national emergency," to declare martial
law, nationalize the economy, detain "subversives," and relocate entire
populations at will. The Garden Plot
plan, developed in response to the civil disorders of the 1960s ("Never
again!" our ruling elites said), provided for cooperation between the
regular armed forces, Guard, and state and local police on a national
scale to restore "civil order." Among other things, pursuant to Garden
Plot, many local police forces maintain files of "subversive"
organizations for future reference--pretty handy in a "national
emergency," when a U.S. military liason is sent to "assist" the local
Chief of Police. Under Jimmy Carter, FEMA was created with the primary
mission of superceding civilian government in the event of a national
emergency (under Bush II, of course, it has been subsumed under the
Ministry of Fatherland Security). In the early 1980s, Reagan's FEMA
Director, Louis Giuffrida (at one time Governor Reagan's National Guard
guy, an enthusiastic supporter of Garden Plot joint training exercises)
collaborated with Ollie North in drafting plans for martial law
in a national emergency. The "emergency" scenario was mass civil
disorder resulting from an antiwar movement, in the event of a
hypothetical U.S. invasion of Central America. If it sounds like the
U.S. government increasingly sees its own population as a potential
enemy, well, that's the impression I get, too.
"...you don't repair disorganized or incompetent government by granting it more power. You fix it by making it more organized and more competent. Just so here -- the move to militarize government's domestic responsibilities rather than improve them is a dangerous trend. And it suggests that, functionally, there's little left of conservatism today other than a warped big-government authoritarianism."
:: posted by buermann @ 2005-09-27 13:28:48 CST |
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