Organizing for America | Tresa {utah4obama.org}: Heads up: As of 10/1, 1st Brigade, 3rd ID, deployed in the U.S.

Heads up: As of 10/1, 1st Brigade, 3rd ID, deployed in the U.S.

By Tresa {utah4obama.org} - Oct 9th, 2008 at 1:11 pm EDT

Also listed in: 10 groups

Comments | Mail to a Friend | Report Objectionable Content

IS THIS REALLY TRUE?The First Brigade, Third Infantry Division has been deployed in the
U.S. for so called "crowd control."

Naomi Watts wrote about this event in AlterNet this morning. She may
be overreacting, maybe not. It's worth considering. It appears to me
that W is backing up his fear-mongering with a pretty good sized
stick. If, in the future, martial law is declared, you might want to
be prepared with food and water storage. I am. I hope you will get
prepared. You may want to alert your friends and family about this
story as a precaution. Here's the story in its entirety so you can
judge for yourself if this troop deployment by itself or in
combination with other events is a threat to ordinary citizens:
--John

ALTERNET STORY BEGINS: (www.AlterNet.org)

Background: the First Brigade of the Third Infantry Division, three to
four thousand soldiers, has been deployed in the United States as of
October 1. Their stated mission is the form of crowd control they
practiced in Iraq, subduing "unruly individuals," and the management
of a national emergency. I am in Seattle and heard from the brother of
one of the soldiers that they are engaged in exercises now. Amy
Goodman reported that an Army spokesperson confirmed that they will
have access to lethal and non lethal crowd control technologies and
tanks.

George Bush struck down Posse Comitatus, thus making it legal for
military to patrol the U.S. He has also legally established that in
the "War on Terror," the U.S. is at war around the globe and thus the
whole world is a battlefield. Thus the U.S. is also a battlefield.

He also led change to the 1807 Insurrection Act to give him far
broader powers in the event of a loosely defined "insurrection" or
many other "conditions" he has the power to identify. The Constitution
allows the suspension of habeas corpus -- habeas corpus prevents us
from being seized by the state and held without trial -- in the event
of an "insurrection." With his own army force now, his power to call a
group of protesters or angry voters "insurgents" staging an
"insurrection" is strengthened.

U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman of California said to Congress, captured on
C-Span and viewable on YouTube, that individual members of the House
were threatened with martial law within a week if they did not pass
the bailout bill:

"The only way they can pass this bill is by creating and sustaining a
panic atmosphere. … Many of us were told in private conversations that
if we voted against this bill on Monday that the sky would fall, the
market would drop two or three thousand points the first day and a
couple of thousand on the second day, and a few members were even told
that there would be martial law in America if we voted no."

If this is true and Rep. Sherman is not delusional, I ask you to
consider that if they are willing to threaten martial law now, it is
foolish to assume they will never use that threat again. It is also
foolish to trust in an orderly election process to resolve this
threat. And why deploy the First Brigade? One thing the deployment
accomplishes is to put teeth into such a threat.

I interviewed Vietnam veteran, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and
patriot David Antoon for clarification:

"If the President directed the First Brigade to arrest Congress, what
could stop him?"

"Nothing. Their only recourse is to cut off funding. The Congress
would be at the mercy of military leaders to go to them and ask them
not to obey illegal orders."

"But these orders are now legal?'"

"Correct."

"If the President directs the First Brigade to arrest a bunch of
voters, what would stop him?"

"Nothing. It would end up in courts but the action would have been taken."

"If the President directs the First Brigade to kill civilians, what
would stop him?"

"Nothing."

"What would prevent him from sending the First Brigade to arrest the
editor of the Washington Post?"

"Nothing. He could do what he did in Iraq -- send a tank down a street
in Washington and fire a shell into the Washington Post as they did
into Al Jazeera, and claim they were firing at something else."

"What happens to members of the First Brigade who refuse to take up
arms against U.S. citizens?"

"They'd probably be treated as deserters as in Iraq: arrested,
detained and facing five years in prison. In Iraq a study by Ann
Wright shows that deserters -- reservists who refused to go back to
Iraq -- got longer sentences than war criminals."

"Does Congress have any military of their own?"

"No. Congress has no direct control of any military units. The
Governors have the National Guard but they report to the President in
an emergency that he declares."

"Who can arrest the President?"

"The Attorney General can arrest the President after he leaves or
after impeachment."

[Note: Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi has asserted it is possible for
District Attorneys around the country to charge President Bush with
murder if they represent districts where one or more military members
who have been killed in Iraq formerly resided.]

"Given the danger do you advocate impeachment?"

"Yes. President Bush struck down Posse Comitatus -- which has
prevented, with a penalty of two years in prison, U.S. leaders since
after the Civil War from sending military forces into our streets --
with a 'signing statement.' He should be impeached immediately in a
bipartisan process to prevent the use of military forces and mercenary
forces against U.S. citizens"

"Should Americans call on senior leaders in the Military to break
publicly with this action and call on their own men and women to
disobey these orders?"

"Every senior military officer's loyalty should ultimately be to the
Constitution. Every officer should publicly break with any illegal
order, even from the President."

"But if these are now legal. If they say, 'Don't obey the Commander in
Chief,' what happens to the military?"

"Perhaps they would be arrested and prosecuted as those who refuse to
participate in the current illegal war. That's what would be
considered a coup."

"But it's a coup already."

"Yes."

Reader Comments	Comments RSS
Comments are closed for this post.

No comments have been written yet.

Content on blogs in My.BarackObama represents the opinions of community members and in no way should be interpreted as endorsed or approved by the campaign.