The source for the following is at:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/27/1027497418339.html
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            Foundations are in place for martial law in the US
                             by Ritt Goldstein
                           Sydney Morning Herald
                              27 July 2002



     Recent pronouncements from the Bush Administration and national
     security initiatives put in place in the Reagan era could see
     internment camps and martial law in the United States.

     When president Ronald Reagan was considering invading Nicaragua he
     issued a series of executive orders that provided the Federal
     Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with broad powers in the event
     of a "crisis" such as "violent and widespread internal dissent or
     national opposition against a US military invasion abroad". They
     were never used.

     But with the looming possibility of a US invasion of Iraq, recent
     pronouncements by President George Bush's domestic security chief,
     Tom Ridge, and an official with the US Civil Rights Commission
     should fire concerns that these powers could be employed or a de
     facto drift into their deployment could occur.

     On July 20 the Detroit Free Press ran a story entitled "Arabs in
     US could be held, official warns". The story referred to a member
     of the US Civil Rights Commission who foresaw the possibility of
     internment camps for Arab Americans. FEMA has practised for such
     an occasion.

     FEMA, whose main role is disaster response, is also responsible
     for handling US domestic unrest.

     From 1982-84 Colonel Oliver North assisted FEMA in drafting its
     civil defence preparations. Details of these plans emerged during
     the 1987 Iran-Contra scandal.

     They included executive orders providing for suspension of the
     constitution, the imposition of martial law, internment camps, and
     the turning over of government to the president and FEMA.

     A Miami Herald article on July 5, 1987, reported that the former
     FEMA director Louis Guiffrida's deputy, John Brinkerhoff, handled
     the martial law portion of the planning. The plan was said to be
     similar to one Mr Giuffrida had developed earlier to combat "a
     national uprising by black militants". It provided for the
     detention "of at least 21million American Negroes" in "assembly
     centres or relocation camps".

     Today Mr Brinkerhoff is with the highly influential Anser
     Institute for Homeland Security. Following a request by the
     Pentagon in January that the US military be allowed the option of
     deploying troops on American streets, the institute in February
     published a paper by Mr Brinkerhoff arguing the legality of this.

     He alleged that the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which has long
     been accepted as prohibiting such deployments, had simply been
     misunderstood and misapplied.

     The preface to the article also provided the revelation that the
     national plan he had worked on, under Mr Giuffrida, was "approved
     by Reagan, and actions were taken to implement it".

     By April, the US military had created a Northern Command to aid
     Homeland defence. Reuters reported that the command is "mainly
     expected to play a supporting role to local authorities".

     However, Mr Ridge, the Director of Homeland Security, has just
     advocated a review of US law regarding the use of the military for
     law enforcement duties.

     Disturbingly, the full facts and final contents of Mr Reagan's
     national plan remain uncertain. This is in part because President
     Bush took the unusual step of sealing the Reagan presidential
     papers last November. However, many of the key figures of the
     Reagan era are part of the present administration, including John
     Poindexter, to whom Oliver North later reported.

     At the time of the Reagan initiatives, the then attorney-general,
     William French Smith, wrote to the national security adviser,
     Robert McFarlane: "I believe that the role assigned to the Federal
     Emergency Management Agency in the revised Executive Order exceeds
     its proper function as a co-ordinating agency for emergency
     preparedness ... this department and others have repeatedly raised
     serious policy and legal objections to an `emergency czar' role
     for FEMA."

     Criticism of the Bush Administration's response to September11
     echoes Mr Smith's warning. On June 7 the former presidential
     counsel John Dean spoke of America's sliding into a
     "constitutional dictatorship" and martial law.



     Ritt Goldstein is an investigative journalist and a former leader
     in the movement for US law enforcement accountability. He revealed
     exclusively in the Herald last week the Bush Administration's
     plans for a domestic spying system more pervasive than the Stasi
     network in East Germany.




     Š 2002 Sydney Morning Herald
     Reprinted for Fair Use Only.




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