The Battle Plan III: Deployment and Its Dangers

On October 1, 2008, President Bush deployed a brigade -- which means three to four thousand warriors -- somewhere in America. We do not know where they are deployed though citizens have informally reported to me having seen military vehicles and troops in Georgia and Alabama. We do know that their official mandate according to the first report is 'crowd control' as well as action in the event of a mass civilian catastrophe. Initial reports described their technology 'module package' as involving Tasers and rubber bullets.

According to Amnesty International, more than 300 people in the United States have died since 2001 as the result of being Tasered by law enforcement authorities. According to the first reports, the mission includes subduing 'unruly individuals.' After an outcry, more recent statements from military spokesmen have backed off from identifying those tasks as being the ones the troops will be charged with. Why worry about the deployment of troops in our nation?

First, the founding generation set a bright line to keep military from policing our streets in 1807 because they knew from their own experience how easily military forces -- King George's -- could subdue civilian society. The First Brigade is Bush's force: they are not answerable to Congress or to the Governors of states: they are answerable to the Commander in Chief. In an Alternet posting, I interviewed Air Force Colonel (retired) David Antoon who noted that the troops must obey the president, even if he asks them to arrest Congress or fire on civilians or attack media outlets. If they do not obey orders, he notes, they face five years in
prison.

We should not have to remind ourselves that these scenarios are unlikely to understand that this power is dangerous. Antoon himself calls the deployment 'ominous.' Troops on our streets makes us something less than a democracy: one definition of a police state is when a leader sends his own military units into civilian streets. Meanwhile the civilian policing of citizens is becoming more brutal. Hundreds of preemptive arrests took place in St Paul, dozens of journalists were arrested.

I was phoned yesterday by Monica Bicking, a young, well-scrubbed Midwesterner who is one of eight perfectly ordinary young Americans charged as 'terrorists' under the Minnesota Patriot act after being arrested at the RNC.

I learned only this week that there is little good footage of the RNC brutality because police demanded the cameras of reporters or exposed their film. Some of the footage we
have, showing random unprompted mass arrests, was buried in the ground
by a protester so it could survive.

Police forces have become more violent toward civilians due to resources as well as pressure from Homeland Security money and personnel. Prior to this summer's conventions, $50 million was sent to both Denver and St. Paul, much of which was used to arm and train police to act against citizens.

In St. Paul, funds were sent in advance to pay off the lawsuits against police forces that were guaranteed to arise from the planned abuse of citizens. This sort of thing is happening across the country. The tactic has established a closed circle that has turned citizens' law enforcement agencies into contractors of a state that is directing acts of increasing severity against US citizens. Now a military brigade is being deployed.

The Bush administration has unilaterally decided to defy federal laws that have kept the military off our streets since 1807, almost since the birth of this nation: The John Warner Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 expanded the president's authority to deploy troops within the United States. The people raised a hue and cry -- and this power was then substantially limited by a new provision in the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act. But Bush signaled, with a signing statement, that he would not recognize these new limitations. We may be called unpatriotic for fearing these soldiers on our streets. We should see through this. Our military are indeed brave and overwhelmingly decent. And, as I note, they can be prosecuted for refusing to follow orders. But history -- and the Zimbardo experiments, and Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo -- has taught us clearly that decent kids under duress and following strict orders can do appalling things. Our men and women in uniform over there have followed many orders that are still giving them PTSD and nightmares at home.

Air Force Colonel Antoon notes further:

I am not a constitutional scholar. But history, which we as Americans ignore at our own peril, clearly suggests that martial law trumps civil law. As I said, and as you have written, I believe we are in great peril if we have American troops who have been trained to "destroy the enemy ... in close combat" patrolling American streets. Posse Comitatus is essential because American soldiers are not trained for such things as civil disobedience -- they are trained to kill. The US military "Warrior's Creed" clearly states: "I stand ready to deploy, engage and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.

One only need look at the events in 1970 when the National Guard was called on to the campus of Kent State University. These soldiers instinctively did what they had been trained to do: kill.

President Bush has not called out a small National Guard unit. He has mobilized a battle hardened army brigade. President Bush's signing statement to dismiss the law of Posse Comitatus is gravely ominous.

And Michael Ratner, who is head of the Center for Constitutional Rights, adds: "I don't think it's chance that at the time of the greatest economic crisis in this country since 1929 the military is employed to insure that popular unrest does not get out of hand. It's dangerous to have troops on our streets. The military is not trained in protecting constitutional rights; it shoots first. It is the first step to go along with the stripping of rights that has already occurred.

So: why, indeed, worry? In Iraq, our soldiers have, as a matter of practice, according to Human Rights Watch, taken the wives of alleged 'insurgents' -- many of them innocent citizens -- hostage, as a way to pressure their husbands to turn themselves in. Amnesty International and the Center for Constitutional Rights and Human Rights Watch have all confirmed that our soldiers have carried out directives to threaten minors in custody with rape and other kinds of abuse. Superbly careful documentation by Michael Ratner, Jane Mayer, Seymour Hersh and others confirm that our soldiers have carried out directives to strip civilians naked, sexually humiliate them and torture them -- sometimes to death. Some have followed directives to cover up these civilians' deaths. As a matter of policy in Iraq our soldiers obey orders to burst into civilian homes armed but without warrants. According to Reporters without Borders, US military have carried out orders to arrest journalists and hold them without charges in abusive conditions. A handful of respected journalists are in U.S.-held prisons right now.

Oh, but you say, that is a battlefield; Iraq. But according to the White House's definition of the 'War on Terror', as Bruce Fein, former Reagan administration official, of the American Freedom Agenda, notes, the whole world is a battlefield. Both he and Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch confirm that it is this legal definition of the whole world as a battlefield that the administration has used to justify seizing people and rendering them as they change planes at JFK. If the whole world is a battlefield, then the US is a battlefield. The war has come home.

We should worry because history shows that there are no magic shields that protect citizens in a weakening democracy once troops are deployed in civilian streets. It is folly to assume that military units would never obey orders to take action against their own fellow civilians -- say 'unruly individuals' at a protest or turned away from a voting booth. Chinese soldiers round up at gunpoint Chinese parents protesting tainted milk; German soldiers arrested Germans in 1933; Italian soldiers obediently beat up Italian editors and journalists in 1920; Russian soldiers brutalize compatriot Georgians. Lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild say that these are legitimate questions to ask now: The U.S. military reports to the Commander in Chief -- not to Congress.

If the U.S. is a battlefield does military law override civilian law? The president has said he can call anybody an 'enemy combatant': can the Third Battalion seize U.S. citizens and keep them in military detention? What about interrogation? What rules apply? If the First Brigade is sent to the Washington Post newsroom to seize 'inflammatory' or 'classified' work threatening 'national security', and the executive editor resists, can they Taser him? Detain him? Col. David Antoon says that if ordered to, they must do all of this. If reporters take pictures of the altercation can the Third Battalion seize their film? Arrest them? If ordered to, Antoon says they must. If the president declares a state of emergency and Congress disagrees, he can send the First Brigade into the halls of Congress, according to Antoon. History shows that once troops are visibly deployed in the vicinity of a parliament, parliamentarians become very passive -- even while the nation is still a technically functioning democracy.

The president has troops, and we don't. Remember: if the President declares a state of emergency, he can unilaterally take over even the National Guard. Congress has no troops and, in this scenario, neither do we. Here is what you must do.

Battle Plan Actions:

1. Wake up. Resist the temptation to yield to denial. This is exactly as bad as it sounds. Tell everyone you know. Even our representatives do not understand this. I reported the deployment in Baltimore last week -- the head of the city council had heard nothing about it. A citizen told me tonight that when John Kerry was in Massachusetts a few days ago, when told of the First Brigade's deployment, he said he had not heard of it.

2. Groups like the Center for Constitutional Rights, The National Lawyers Guild and the ACLU are our army now. They are our leadership in the legal fight while we fight in the trenches. We need to at least quintuple their budgets IMMEDIATELY. They need to hire enough brigades of lawyers to get us out of prison and to fight these abuses. Fundraisers for them and write them the biggest checks you can NOW.

3. Form yourselves into Democracy Commando teams of twenty to thirty citizens. I give you the technique in Give Me Liberty. You basically register your friends and set out tactically to support your U.S. representative and let the field office know what you have done so that your voice is as powerful as that of the special interests' and lobbyists.

4. Tell your representatives about the deployment. Bombard your city council members, state representatives and Congress people to pass laws immediately to stop their operation on your streets and to disarm the Homeland-Security-corrupted police forces in your town.

5. Call on your U.S. representatives to overturn the Patriot Act and on your state representatives to do the same to any state Patriot Acts. Demand that city council members ban the use of Tasers, rubber bullets and preemptive arrest. Most urgently, demand that they refuse any additional Homeland Security money. Establish and publicize communities that are refusing Homeland Security money. This has to be as firm as sanctions against South Africa. It is entirely tainted, it is blood money and it is being used to wage war against citizens.

6. Fundraise for ads in your local media to alert people to the threat of Homeland Security money and military deployment. Write op-eds for your local media.

7. Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi (The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder) has written a powerful and carefully argued case for the trial for murder of George Bush. He asserts that any district attorney in the country from whose district a soldier has been killed in Iraq can bring charges. Call your DA and ask that he or she file charges against George Bush for murder. I argue that a coup has taken place, without the headlines. History shows that only prosecution
of such leaders secures society adequately for accountable elections and general stability.

8. Call on Republican voters you know to alert them to the danger. Ask them to bombard their representatives with demands that they form a Patriots' Committee to break ranks with the regime. The Committee must let the attorneys know they will have a bloc of support on the Hill. Ask your Senators and Congressmen to reach out to disaffected CIA State Department and U.S. Military leaders to sign a new Declaration of Independence, a personal commitment to refuse to comply with a rogue government that has deployed U.S. forces at home.

9. Write to military Web sites explaining that troops have been deployed in violation of the principle of posse comitatus -- which has been subverted. Ask family members to request that troops that have been deployed against America lay down their arms and refuse orders. Tell them this is a higher patriotism. Set up a set of funds where citizens -- especially major donors -- of both parties can set up escrow accounts to help military families with the legal prosecutions
and other harassment that will follow.

10. Print out copies of the User's Guide to the Declaration of Independence and the Bill or Rights (see www.myamericaproject.org for the documents) and pass them out to everyone you see. While there, sign up with our new mission to
witness the vote, to raise money for the lawyers, to organize real protest, to fight this war for liberty.

11. Remember that without liberty we are nothing. Remember that the Founders counted on us to act. Remember that courage is called for in times such as these.

The Battle Plan Part I
The Battle Plan Part II

Naomi Wolf is the author of Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries, the sequel to her New York Times best-seller, The End of America.

Comments

[rwinkel]

Where do you think black-clad swat teams and soldiers come from? They are programmed to ignore empathic impulses. This is one aspect of how this programming is achieved.
They are victims, and they create victims.

[Hermenutic]

I understood that a coup had taken place shortly after the first election that made G.W. Bush POTUS.

It is obvious that the United States has gone down hill since then and that the entire world is suffering from the excesses inherent in our culture. It should also be obvious that those who have done this have benefited from their activity.

There is a solution and it is not possible that this solution will be accessed in the current paradigm of political / Corporate thought. That solution is to take the financial institutions out of Corporate hands, including the Federal Reserve. Other major industries need to be removed from the domain of speculation as well, including transportation and energy.

When this is done a good start on solving the problems will result. If not any activity will be akin to the crew trying to patch holes in the Titanic.

[juliaizen]

Naomi - You are a true American patriot. I understand and have expected exactly what you are warning us about. We must be prepared.

[avraamjack]

.
Cool, maybe Bush will use the brigade to areest the gang stalkers who go around poisoning people.
.
The police sure won't.
.

[beekeeper69]

How about the representatives that just passed the bail out with the majority of citizens against it? Politicians continue to do the opposite of what the people request, and the bail-out was a mistake according to over 200 economists who warned it will be detrimental in the long run. If the excuse for passing the bail out is due to threats of martial law then they are even more pathetic than the people coercing them, but apparently they are dishonest and cowards too.. Being coerced is no excuse for going along with the bail out. Where do both parties continue to dig up the stupid dump trucks to run for office? I think senility and mental illness is a requirement for office. None of them seem to be able to read the Bill of Rights, and or the Constitution. I served in the military to defend the Constitution and many people died for the God Given freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. People from the world over have risked their lives to come to America, because of our God given rights guaranteed to the people of the United States by the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, and yet we have one party pretending to be two just to keep 80% of the people fighting one another. 80% of the people believe the government does and should own them, and that the Constitution is something government should control. They need to wake up!

[beekeeper69]

The government owns you and can tell you how to wipe and that's how it is. What can we do, when 80% of society would agree to a license to wear shoes on public siewalks if it were put to the ballot? Or at least that is what we would be told after the election. Can we really appeal to our representatives? Who would that be? The same ones that parroted the mantra that impeachment is off of the table for 7 years during continuous war crimes and ignoring the rights of people both here and abroad. I wonder if belonging to the Foriegn Relations Committee, which controls the media giants and various elections throughout the world has anything to do with it? All the effort that went into toppling Sadam Hussien's regiem, you think they wouldn't put out the same effort to rig elections here? Well they did, and we're being dictated by a nut case that was never elected by the people. In 2000 a Supreme Court Justice ruled to give Florida vote count to Bush and Al Gore didn't even contest it, and then in 2004 the votes were flip flopped by computer software, and the Skull and Bones John Kerry didn't even fight about the outcome. Of course both Bush and Kerry are bonesmen. A lot of the stuff on campusses is put there by the Rockefellers for a reason, namely NWO or OWG.

[SophiaGoldberg]

I have been noticing the parallels between America now and Nazi Germany for years. I was thrilled to hear Naomi talk about it in such a well-researched, well articulated way.
There is a fiction book about that topic that just came out called The Change Artist. It’s inspired by the true story of the author's father who changed his gypsy identity in Austria in the ‘30’s to avoid persecution. He ended up having to fight for Hitler as a gunner at Birkenau where many of the gypsies were deported.
He changed his identity again when the war ended and he fled to Canada. He spent the rest of his life ashamed for having forsaken his heritage and fighting against his own people.
I imagine that the same thing could happen to young people now who get involved in the military and later live to regret it. The man in this book was an award winning athlete with an IQ in the 98th percentile before the war, plus a gifted artist. By the end of his life he weighed 350 lbs and lived in house filled to the brink with junk, no friends, and no contact with the outside world.
It's a great read, and has a hopeful ending and a beautiful message. Since way more people read fiction than non-fiction, it would be good to see the message get out there. For more info on the book: www.thechangeartistbook.com.

[mad mary]

Germany to allow domestic military deployment
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081006/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_fighting_terrorism

[OneWorlder]

I wonder why, since "Bush's Brigade" has received so little press and Senators such as John Kerry have never, blissfully, heard of such a thing, this article is nowhere to be found on the front page of the HuffPost?

I admit that I am very concerned about the Army Brigade "Homeland" Tours coming to a town near you, and it's not just because of the Nazi-esque sounding name.

But the quote-mainstream media blackout doesn't bother me as much as why the "Democratic" or "Republican" nominees are so noticeably silent on this issue...or....Why is it not a subject of the "debates" between the nominees of the "two parties"?

I wonder if Barack Obama considers the Army Brigade "Homeland" Tours a "grave, grave breech" and one of the many well-documented "intentional breeches of the president's authority"‏?

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/28/america/NA-POL-US-Obama-No-Impeachment.php

[cruisepuppy7452a]

The bastards are trying to block this from being able to download it, save it even on a removable drive. That is illegal. Its not copywritten, its public knowledge and out there to warn us. Folk,s I tried to tell my family about this and they wanted to have me committed to a mental institution. No joke, they refuse to believe this is going on. They called me dillusional, mentally incompetant, crazy, paranoid, bi polar, and in dire need of meds to control me. The public needs to realize this is real. We are not crazy, dillusional nor paranoid. Please, someone speak out and up for me and others who have seen this, tried to write about it, to be told, its not real, its all in your head. Ms. Wolf isn't a liar. We are not liars. They are trying to block this from every aspect of media. Alternet got it from C span, I made a copy of it, thank god to prove its real. They can't silence all of us if we work together. But we must stand united on this, to block this from happening in our own country. This is the USA, not CUBA.

[Elysiumfire]

I hope I am proved wrong on this, but I would posit that the 'real' deployment of the brigade will be seen on election day, in strategic areas that may prove to be decisive in the election count.

I believe Naomi is right to call out the taking place of a coup. It is not one of high visibility, but inferential, and murkily obscured behind small tactics of subtlety. They know they cannot take on the whole country, but truly there is no need to do so. Manipulative psychology, fear-inducements, and ultimately, one's concern for one's own socio-economic comfort places one as like a rabbit in the headlights of an oncoming juggenhaut. Rooted to the spot is where they want you, and it is where they have many already. It's a form of self-hypnosis which one needs to awaken from, otherwise the juggenhaut is going to flatten you.

The election alone is not going to free you from the position you are in. Your courage (which Naomi calls from you) is not enough, you need those whom represent you to be courageous...in short, you need defiance.

[CatoTheCensor]

W may not be the one to watch, here. He's been the figurehead and the dupe of much more intelligent people all along. His assassination, pre-election, would give them the perfect pretext for cementing their power by declaring martial law and suspending the elections, putting everything in the hands of Dick Cheney.

That said, I truly don't believe any of this to be more than theoretical possibility, disturbing as the mere possibility is. The beauty of our Second Amendment rights is that any invading force will find 'a gun behind every door.' The Armed Forces couldn't control this populace while simultaneously waging two wars. It would be truly stupid to try. They're stretched too thin as it is, and there would be plenty of soldiers who would refuse orders to shoot American civilians.

The whole scenario would create the one perfect bandaid for the deep ideological divisions in this country, by giving us all a common fight. I'll be there, fighting back to back with conservatives I would never otherwise have agreed with on anything, if it ever comes to that. You bring your six pack, I'll bring my mocha latte.

[PKSSK]

In all honesty, this administration and congress is a disgrace and I am convinced that impeachment, FISA and now the bailout have all been congressionally in favor of the administration because of blackmail. Congress, both parties, is just as corrupt as this administration. Our government is owned by the special interest corp elite status quo. We have to vote out every encumbent before we can ever consider taking back our country. The prime example was when Tom Brokaw interviewed Pelosi and mentioned, and she confirmed, her vested interest in T. Boone Pickens new energy firm, which is how congress and special interests have sold out the middle class. I would love to know how many in congress have a vested interest in the companies who will reap the benefits of the bailout or have a vested interest in defense, oil, healthcare, pharmaceutical corp/contractors at the expense of the American middle class taxpayers The same taxpayers who pay the salaries and benefits of their congressional reps who could care less if their constituents have jobs or healthcare.

[TopProf]

I'd like to believe that armed westerners would rise up and protect us from martial law, but consider another possibility: a stage-managed "terrorist attack" from outside. Such things have been staged to justify wars in the past. Those gun-toting people would be out front joining the battalion. Hate to be a conspiracy theorist, but Rove and Cheney are somewhere out there plotting and not caring that the front-men-- Bush, McCain, and Palin-- are stumbling.

[carriellbee]

NorthCom Denies Troops To Be Used For Crowd Control
But admits that Army will have access to weapons and tanks during homeland patrols

http://www.prisonplanet.com/northcom-denies-troops-to-be-used-for-crowd-control.html

***

Democratic Congressman: Representatives Were Threatened With Martial Law In America Over Bailout Bill

http://www.prisonplanet.com/democratic-congressman-representatives-were-threatened-with-martial-law-in-america-over-bailout-bill.html