US: Martial Law coming?

[outsider]

Baltimore Riots: Buildings on fire, stores looted, state of emergency declared: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPm5nNzs49Y&feature=em-uploademail

And this, from SHTFplan & Infowars:
'This is a REAL Commercial from AARP: “Riots Nationwide Have Prompted The Government To Declare Martial Law”:
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/a-real-public-service-announceme nt-for-the-aarp-riots-nationwide-have-promoted-the-government-to-decla re-martial-law_04272015

And 'Jade Helm': 'Special forces set to swarm Southwest and operate undetected among civilians in massive military exercise':
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3013900/Fears-martial-law-spec ial-ops-set-swarm-Southwest-operate-undetected-civilians-ve-deemed-HOS TILE-massive-military-exercise.html

'Operation Jade Helm will see 1,200 service members including Green Berets and SEALs and special forces from the Air Force and Marines in July
Soldiers armed with blank rounds will operate in and around towns in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado for 8 weeks
The so-called Realistic Military Training has some residents fearful the drill is a preparation for martial law.

Seven Southwestern states will soon be infiltrated by 1,200 military special ops personnel as part of a controversial domestic military training in which some of the elite soldiers will operate undetected among civilians.

Operation Jade Helm begins in July and will last for eight weeks. Soldiers will operate in and around towns in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado where some of them wil drop from planes while carrying weapons loaded with blanks in what military officials have dubbed Realistic Military Training.

But with residents of the entire states of Texas and Utah dubbed 'hostile' for the purposes of the exercises, Jade Helm has some concerned the drills are too realistic.

Headlines like Freedom Outpost's 'Operation Jade Helm—military trains for martial law in American South-west' abound across the Right-leaning blogosphere and Info Wars warns that Jade Helm is simply 'an effort to test the effectiveness of infiltration techniques' on the American public.

'They're having Delta Force, Navy SEALS with the Army trained to basically take over,' Info Wars' Alex Jones said Sunday. 'Texas is listed as a hostile sector, and of course, we are...We're here defending the republic.'

The Houston Chronicle reports that, among the planned exercises, soldiers will attempt to operate undetected among civilian populations.

Residents, in turn, will be asked to report suspicious activity in order to gauge the effectiveness of the soldiers.

Military officials say they've gotten the go ahead for the operations from local authorities such as mayors and county commissions.

And sheriff's deputies told the Houston Chronicle they would ensure residents living near where aircraft were slated to create disturbances and drop soldiers, civilian and military vehicles will barrel through and where blank rounds would be fired.

Jim Stewart with the Brazos County, Texas Sheriff's Office told the Chronicle that such exercises are far from anything new.

'Special ops for years have trained off-post for years, where they go out and have folks that are role players out on the economy,' said the Army intelligence veteran. 'They'll have a scenario they'll be following and they'll interact with these role players as if they're in another country.'

However, the U.S. Army Special Operations Command themselves say Jade Helm is different.

'The size and scope of Jade Helm sets this one apart. To stay ahead of the environmental challenges faced overseas, Jade Helm will take place across seven states,' the USASOC wrote in a March 24 release.

'The diverse terrain in these states replicates areas Special Operations Soldiers regularly find themselves operating in overseas.'

The military has also reacted to widespread fear of the operation by calling some ultra-conservative coverage of the 'martial law' drills alarmist and inaccurate.

'That notion was proposed by a few individuals who are unfamiliar with how and why USASOC conducts training exercises,' USASOC spokesman Army Lt. Col. Mark Lastoria told Stripes.

'This exercise is routine training to maintain a high level of readiness for Army Special Operations Forces because they must be ready to support potential missions anywhere in the world on a moment's notice.'

Read more: Covert warfare coming to Texas sparks some fears of federal takeover - Houston Chronicle
Operation Jade Helm- Military trains for Martial Law in American South-West - Freedom Outpost
» Jade Helm: Troops to “Operate Undetected Amongst Civilian Population” Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!
Army Special Operations Command pushes back against alarmist claims about upcoming exercise - U.S. - Stripes
Operation Jade Helm - keyetv.com Austin News, Weather, Traffic KEYE-TV Austin - Top Stories

[outsider]

Jade Helm Is Preparing to Unleash False Flag Attacks:
http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2015/05/21/jade-helm-is-preparing-to -unleash-false-flag-attacks/?

'There Has Never Been Anything Like Jade Helm

Although there are the undeniable signs that Jade Helm is about the Red List extractions of political dissidents, which will be followed up with martial law, there are many of us who have covered Jade Helm since the beginning, feel that there is much more to this than extractions and martial law. These suspicions will be covered in the next part of this series. Suffice it to say for now, that the sheer enormity of the “drill” is so mammoth, that is almost defies description.

We know that Jade Helm is preparing to unleash political dissident extractions and impose martial law. We have now discovered a third purpose. Jade Helm will use “TIGR” to unleash false flag attacks.

The following will walk you through the progression of known Jade Helm goals. More evidence for extractions and martial law imposition will be presented. This will be followed by new evidence that Jade Helm is about to unleash false flag attacks.

Yermo Logistics Marine Base

Just off of Interstate15 North of Barstow, CA., at the Yermo Logistics Marine Base, this private video was taken by a person who travels this road on a regular basis. The number of military vehicles that he captured on video is mind-boggling! I have never seen anything this enormous as regular military vehicles, tanks, MRAPS, and Humvee’s are videotaped.


What is interesting is that I have a confidential source who, for the past three years has reported to me that he has seen Russian soldiers training adjacent to this base and he has also seen Russian T20 tanks at Yermo.

Largest Military Drill In the History of Ft. Carson

In yesterday’s version of the Colorado Springs Gazette, the paper quoted Ft. Carson officials that upcoming exercises will involve over 650 vehicles which will roll south from Colorado Springs next week in the biggest Army convoy seen in the Pikes Peak. In fact, “it’s the largest road convoy in Colorado since World War II. It will take more than 4,000 soldiers and more than 300 Stryker armored vehicles and other rigs from Fort Carson’s 1st Brigade Combat Team to its Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site east of Trinidad for combat training”.

The hundreds of Fort Carson vehicles will hit the road starting May 26, 2015 in a massive convoy for a training exercise at the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site. When I read about the use of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site for this drill, it caught my attention. I have interviewed ranchers from the area who have been upset for years that Ft. Carson vehicles have roamed over private property leading up the site and were guilty of doing irreversible harm to the “virgin” prairie land. In the past, Ft. Carson vehicles have wreaked havoc upon the residents of this area and refused to compensate the landowners for the tremendous damage done to their private property. The point being, that this is training for what is coming and it has been going on for over a decade. Now, the ranchers are bracing again for an unprecedented onslaught. This rolling prairie land is certainly not terrain that is akin to anything in the Middle East. Therefore, I believe we can finally put to bed the lie that Jade Helm is about training for war in the Middle East.

The long drive for the thousands of Ft. Carson based troops, is the start of a two weeks of training for the troops who will fight a simulated war called Raider Focus. The goal of the drill is to get the brigade ready for quick deployment if war breaks out.

Let me remind everyone of two things. First, the accompanying picture of U.S. troops posing and training with Russian troops was taken at Ft. Carson. Secondly, the training will take place east of Trinidad, Colorado. This area was used to illegally incarcerate Americans, of Japanese extraction, in the early days of World War II. Today, this area is considered to be a FEMA camp and has been the site of many detention drills.......'

[outsider]

This is quite old (2013) but is relevant to this 'Martial Law' thread:

Pentagon bracing for public dissent over climate and energy shocks:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/jun/14/clima te-change-energy-shocks-nsa-prism

'.........Just last month, unilateral changes to US military laws formally granted the Pentagon extraordinary powers to intervene in a domestic "emergency" or "civil disturbance":


"Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances."

Other documents show that the "extraordinary emergencies" the Pentagon is worried about include a range of environmental and related disasters.

In 2006, the US National Security Strategy warned that:


"Environmental destruction, whether caused by human behavior or cataclysmic mega-disasters such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, or tsunamis. Problems of this scope may overwhelm the capacity of local authorities to respond, and may even overtax national militaries, requiring a larger international response."

Two years later, the Department of Defense's (DoD) Army Modernisation Strategy described the arrival of a new "era of persistent conflict" due to competition for "depleting natural resources and overseas markets" fuelling "future resource wars over water, food and energy." The report predicted a resurgence of:


"... anti-government and radical ideologies that potentially threaten government stability."

In the same year, a report by the US Army's Strategic Studies Institute warned that a series of domestic crises could provoke large-scale civil unrest. The path to "disruptive domestic shock" could include traditional threats such as deployment of WMDs, alongside "catastrophic natural and human disasters" or "pervasive public health emergencies" coinciding with "unforeseen economic collapse." Such crises could lead to "loss of functioning political and legal order" leading to "purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency...


"DoD might be forced by circumstances to put its broad resources at the disposal of civil authorities to contain and reverse violent threats to domestic tranquility. Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States. Further, DoD would be, by necessity, an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance."

That year, the Pentagon had begun developing a 20,000 strong troop force who would be on-hand to respond to "domestic catastrophes" and civil unrest - the programme was reportedly based on a 2005 homeland security strategy which emphasised "preparing for multiple, simultaneous mass casualty incidents."

The following year, a US Army-funded RAND Corp study called for a US force presence specifically to deal with civil unrest.

Such fears were further solidified in a detailed 2010 study by the US Joint Forces Command - designed to inform "joint concept development and experimentation throughout the Department of Defense" - setting out the US military's definitive vision for future trends and potential global threats. Climate change, the study said, would lead to increased risk of:


"... tsunamis, typhoons, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and other natural catastrophes... Furthermore, if such a catastrophe occurs within the United States itself - particularly when the nation's economy is in a fragile state or where US military bases or key civilian infrastructure are broadly affected - the damage to US security could be considerable."

The study also warned of a possible shortfall in global oil output by 2015:



"A severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity. While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions."

That year the DoD's Quadrennial Defense Review seconded such concerns, while recognising that "climate change, energy security, and economic stability are inextricably linked."

Also in 2010, the Pentagon ran war games to explore the implications of "large scale economic breakdown" in the US impacting on food supplies and other essential services, as well as how to maintain "domestic order amid civil unrest."

Speaking about the group's conclusions at giant US defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton's conference facility in Virginia, Lt Col. Mark Elfendahl - then chief of the Joint and Army Concepts Division - highlighted homeland operations as a way to legitimise the US military budget:



"An increased focus on domestic activities might be a way of justifying whatever Army force structure the country can still afford."

Two months earlier, Elfendahl explained in a DoD roundtable that future planning was needed:


"Because technology is changing so rapidly, because there's so much uncertainty in the world, both economically and politically, and because the threats are so adaptive and networked, because they live within the populations in many cases."

The 2010 exercises were part of the US Army's annual Unified Quest programme which more recently, based on expert input from across the Pentagon, has explored the prospect that "ecological disasters and a weak economy" (as the "recovery won't take root until 2020") will fuel migration to urban areas, ramping up social tensions in the US homeland as well as within and between "resource-starved nations."

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was a computer systems administrator for Booz Allen Hamilton, where he directly handled the NSA's IT systems, including the Prism surveillance system. According to Booz Allen's 2011 Annual Report, the corporation has overseen Unified Quest "for more than a decade" to help "military and civilian leaders envision the future."

The latest war games, the report reveals, focused on "detailed, realistic scenarios with hypothetical 'roads to crisis'", including "homeland operations" resulting from "a high-magnitude natural disaster" among other scenarios, in the context of:


"... converging global trends [which] may change the current security landscape and future operating environment... At the end of the two-day event, senior leaders were better prepared to understand new required capabilities and force design requirements to make homeland operations more effective."

It is therefore not surprising that the increasing privatisation of intelligence has coincided with the proliferation of domestic surveillance operations against political activists, particularly those linked to environmental and social justice protest groups.

Department of Homeland Security documents released in April prove a "systematic effort" by the agency "to surveil and disrupt peaceful demonstrations" linked to Occupy Wall Street, according to the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF).

Similarly, FBI documents confirmed "a strategic partnership between the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the private sector" designed to produce intelligence on behalf of "the corporate security community." A PCJF spokesperson remarked that the documents show "federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America."

In particular, domestic surveillance has systematically targeted peaceful environment activists including anti-fracking activists across the US, such as the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, Rising Tide North America, the People's Oil & Gas Collaborative, and Greenpeace. Similar trends are at play in the UK, where the case of undercover policeman Mark Kennedy revealed the extent of the state's involvement in monitoring the environmental direct action movement.

A University of Bath study citing the Kennedy case, and based on confidential sources, found that a whole range of corporations - such as McDonald's, Nestle and the oil major Shell, "use covert methods to gather intelligence on activist groups, counter criticism of their strategies and practices, and evade accountability."

Indeed, Kennedy's case was just the tip of the iceberg - internal police documents obtained by the Guardian in 2009 revealed that environment activists had been routinely categorised as "domestic extremists" targeting "national infrastructure" as part of a wider strategy tracking protest groups and protestors.

Superintendent Steve Pearl, then head of the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit (Nectu), confirmed at that time how his unit worked with thousands of companies in the private sector. Nectu, according to Pearl, was set up by the Home Office because it was "getting really pressured by big business - pharmaceuticals in particular, and the banks." He added that environmental protestors were being brought "more on the radar." The programme continues today, despite police acknowledgements that environmentalists have not been involved in "violent acts."

The Pentagon knows that environmental, economic and other crises could provoke widespread public anger toward government and corporations in coming years. The revelations on the NSA's global surveillance programmes are just the latest indication that as business as usual creates instability at home and abroad, and as disillusionment with the status quo escalates, Western publics are being increasingly viewed as potential enemies that must be policed by the state.'

Dr Nafeez Ahmed is executive director of the Institute for Policy Research & Development and author of A User's Guide to the Crisis of Civilisation: And How to Save It among other books. Follow him on Twitter @nafeezahmed