IS THE US GOVERNMENT PREPARING TO SEND DISSENTERS TO PRISON CAMPS?

By NWV News writer Jim Kouri
Posted 1:00 AM Eastern
February 5, 2009
© NewsWithViews.com

Within the last few weeks since Americans witnessed the transition between a Bush Administration to an Obama Administration, some conservatives have noticed an escalation in using the US military and military-style tactics to deal with "national security concerns." Such actions include use of army troops within US borders and the building of camps designed to house and control American citizens.

For example, in January immediately following the inauguration of President Barack Hussein Obama, Newswithview.com dispatched a reporter to participate in a US Department of Defense press conference.

Armed Forces Press Service representative Donna Miles reported to news reporters, bloggers and Internet journalists that troops from the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team were deployed to the Naval facility located in Indian Head, Maryland. Their assignment was allegedly to get hands-on training in skills they could depend on to provide "support during a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive incident, known here as a CBRNE."

“It appears to me that the federal government is relaxing Posse Comitatus,” author Jerome Corsi told NewsWithViews.com

The "Rock of the Marne" division, which returned to Fort Stewart, Ga., direct from its third deployment to Iraq, the army division became part of the CBRNE Consequence Management Force. The force includes various military assets assigned to US Northern Command that could be called on to respond to a natural or manmade disaster with US borders.

However, not everyone is happy about this military development coming so close to the transition from the Bush White House to the Obama Administration. Some observers believe this plan is part of a deal between President-Elect Barack Obama and the current Secretary of Defense who will remain in his current position even after the Bush-Obama transition.

While these soldiers are being trained to operate within US borders, another development was discovered by conservative observers: the introduction of a congressional bill that would create de facto detention camps throughout the US.

“Unfortunately, the US has a history of using detention camps,” stated author and investigative journalists Jerome Corsi, best know for his co-authoring Unfit to Command, a work credited with keeping Senator John Kerry out of the White House.

“[This country] used detention camps in Washington, DC during the anti-Vietnam War protests. They were used in World War II to incarcerate Japanese-Americans. We are talking about a slippery slope: camps being prepared to be used in emergencies can easily be used to imprison dissenters,” Corsi told NewsWithViews.com in a telephone interview.

Disgraced former Florida judge -- now a Democrat Party member of the House of Representatives -- Rep. Alcee Hastings -- introduced what some claim is a disturbing piece of legislation. The new bill calls for the Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to build at least six facilities that can be designated as "emergency centers. Hastings rationale for such facilities is to gather and "house" civilians on what are basically detention centers guarded by armed soldiers or paramilitary troops.

The House bill (HR 645) is not even on the radar of members of the elite media. According to critics of the plan, if passed the government will create camps or centers that by their nature restrict the activities of US citizens herded into them.

One critic, political strategist Mike Baker claims the idea of such detention center smacks of the type of concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany, Americans find repugnant.

"Why aren't the news media covering this story? Could it be because they fear being the first occupants of these so-called emergency installations? Where is the outrage by our nation's Fourth Estate?" asks Baker.

Hastings bill is suspected of attempting to help expand the President Obama's military and law enforcement powers. While Hastings pushes this bill, even Republican congressmen are hesitant to remind one another and the nation that this Florida congressman was impeached while he sat on Florida's federal court bench.

Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, he became the first African-American federal judge in the state of Florida, and served in that position for ten years. He’s still called “Judge” by some of his colleagues, but one would think he’d rather forget his days on the federal bench.

In 1989, Judge Hastings was impeached by the US House of Representatives for bribery and perjury. The Democratic-controlled Senate convicted Hastings of accepting a $150,000 bribe in 1981 in exchange for a lenient sentence and of perjury in his testimony about the case. Hastings said the charges against him smacked of racism.

Even Rep. John Conyers, who is also black, said he “found no trace of racism during the investigation.” He urged his colleagues to remove Hastings from the bench. He said, “[Hastings] is unfit to serve.”

When the ultra-liberal Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi nominated Hastings for the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee, even members of her own political party balked.

"The prospect of Rep. Alcee Hastings becoming the chairman of the House of Representative’s Intelligence Committee was proposed by Congressional Black Caucus, who had been pressuring the new House Speaker Pelosi to appoint blacks to key leadership positions and Hasting benefited from the pressure on the radical left Pelosi," said former Detective Sidney Frances (NYPD-ret.), himself an African-American.

While not appointed to chair the intelligence committee, Hastings is currently a member of the powerful House Rules Committee and is a senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). On the HPSCI, Hastings is the ranking Democratic member of the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security.

"While Obama and his team are making it sound as if they will use the military in a non-combative roll, part of the training being conducted is in urban warfare," claims political strategist Mike Baker.

"Obama appears oblivious to Posse Comitatus and to the US Constitution when it comes to using the military against civilians within US borders," he said.

"And where do you think they'll keep these American prisoners of war? In comes impeached and corrupt Congressman Hastings with a solution," adds Baker.