The contract also shows up to 1,100 Swift detainees were expected, but about 500 were briefly housed.
Jennifer JacobsDes Moines Register
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
When federal immigration officials booked Camp Dodge as a temporary detention facility for people arrested at Swift & Co., they planned to house up to 1,100 undocumented workers for as many as 10 nights, a government contract shows.
That would have cost U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement $32,000 - but immigration officials stayed at the state military training site in Johnston for fewer days and housed about 500 people.
Federal agents at first booked Camp Dodge starting Dec. 4, the original date for the raid.
But "Operation Wagon Train'' was pushed to Dec. 12 because Swift took legal action in an attempt to block the raid. Federal agents were left with less time at the military facility because "Camp Dodge had something going on," said Jamie Zuieback, a spokeswoman for ICE.
Advocates for immigrants have complained that the workers were moved out of state so quickly that many didn't have a chance to meet with lawyers, pastors or their families.
A total of 1,283 workers from Swift meatpacking plants in Marshalltown and in five other states were arrested on immigration violations, the biggest such crackdown in history at one company.
The intergovernmental service agreement between ICE and Camp Dodge, dated Dec. 4, prohibited Iowa Army National Guard officials from disclosing any details about it without permission from ICE.
ICE booked a training complex that typically holds between 400 and 700 soldiers.
The federal agency reserved access to communications support, cleaning services, beds and 1,100 sets of linens (one blanket, two sheets, one pillow, one pillowcase, a mattress cover, a towel and a washcloth for each).
They did not ask Camp Dodge to provide meals. "We brought in our own food," Zuieback said.
The agreement appears to contradict complaints that ICE officials failed to advise Camp Dodge of the size and scope of the raid, Zuieback said.
A week after the raid, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and Maj. Gen. Ron Dardis, the top officer of the Iowa National Guard, wrote a letter to Michael Chertoff, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, saying Iowa officials will not cooperate with federal immigration officials in the future unless they provide better coordination with state officials.
ICE gave Iowa little chance to prepare to deal with the humanitarian consequences of the raids, Vilsack and Dardis said, and the "information blackout" ICE imposed after the raids made the situation worse.
The Dec. 4 agreement spells out a daily rental fee for Camp Dodge dormitories that were to be used to "house aliens."
Another invoice, dated Nov. 21, billed the federal government for $1,575 for services for "Operation Wagon Train." That was for an ICE planning team that used Camp Dodge early on, Zuieback said.
The Dec. 4 agreement states that the federal government will be billed only for the actual services provided. Officials at Camp Dodge on Friday said that they have not finished the invoice that will detail what services ICE used.
ICE said Dec. 14 that all the detainees would have been moved out by the end of that day.
More than 100 Swift workers were flown out of Des Moines by plane. ICE used the U.S. Marshals Service's air fleet, part of what's called the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System, Zuieback said. The system uses aircraft, cars, vans and buses to move 300,000 prisoners or illegal immigrants a year, according to its Web site.
Details on how much other aspects of the raid cost were not immediately available.
Privatized Immigrant Detention Facilities for Families Revealed to be Modern-Day Concentration Camps
Latina Lista | December 22, 2006
Marisa Treviño
| Infowars COMMENT/UPDATE:
More and more reports are coming in that indicate that these camps, built and run under the auspices of housing illegal immigrants from Mexico, are being used as general purpose detention facilities for housing immigrants from other countries. With the WWII era Japanese concentration camps now being federally protected in perpetuity, one must at least start to wonder who they intend to fill these camps with and why. The stage is being set for a major sweep of dissident legal immigrants and resident aliens into these camps. If something is not done before that can occur, its just a matter of time before suburban soccer moms with political lawn signs are behind razor wire.
From this Article: The T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas (on the outskirts of Austin, Texas) is a private detention facility operated by Corrections Corporation of America. It and a smaller center in Pennsylvania are the only two facilities in the country that are authorized to hold non-Mexican immigrant families and children on noncriminal charges.
From The American-Statesman: Juan Castillo recently reported on a private prison in Williamson County where families of illegal immigrants are held to await disposition of their cases. It is one of two Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in the United States holding non-Mexican unauthorized immigrants on noncriminal charges.
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One of the more disturbing stories that surfaced after the Swift meat plant raids was how too many children were left without a parent and/or farmed out to friends and families with no immediate word on how they will be reconnected with their mami and papi.
But if news filtering out of one of the newly designated immigrant detention centers for families is any indication, no undocumented parent is going to open their mouth and claim their children if the whole family is going to be subjected to what is becoming known as the first known concentration camp on American soil in the 21st Century.
The T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas (on the outskirts of Austin, Texas) is a private detention facility operated by Corrections Corporation of America. It and a smaller center in Pennsylvania are the only two facilities in the country that are authorized to hold non-Mexican immigrant families and children on noncriminal charges.
What does this mean?
It means that at the Taylor facility of the 400 people "held" there, 200 are children. And all are families that can be held there for whatever length of time without due process conducted in a timely manner.
To top it off, as long as the men, women and children are held there, the facility's operator draws a daily profit - per person.
The children range in age from infants on up.
According to the lawyers who have visited their clients in the facility, the children receive one hour of education, English instruction, a day and one half hour of indoor recreation.
Jeans and t-shirts have been replaced with jail uniforms; children are issued uniforms as soon as they can fit into them ? and everyone must wear name tags, even the babies.
Lawyers are reporting that thefamiliess are receiving substandard medical care and becoming ill from the food being served them. Children are losing weight and people are complaining of migraine-type headaches.
Those clients who are asylum seekers, say the lawyers, are continually suffering trauma on top of the trauma they've already undergone in their home countries - all without receiving any kind of pyschological treatment.
Originally, the detention facilities were touted by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff as a way to keep families together while waiting for their cases to come up for court review.
Well, they are accomplishing that goal - to the exclusion of being allowed any outside contact with the rest of the world, aside from those who have lawyers.
The plight of these families caught in a government-sanctioned Hell is slowly spreading ( Texas Civil Rights Review , Austin's American Statesman Editorial , American Statesman article ) but with Christmas less than a week away these families truly need a miracle to let them know that the outside world knows that they are there ? not to mention, the children who need to know that Santa or Los Tres Reyes, or the other Holiday entities observed by those who are not Mexican or Latin American, will know where to find them.
The detention for a prolonged period of any child, regardless of whether or not they are with family members, is beneath what the United States used to stand for.
As of late, the activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under the direction of Homeland Security, has had too many people - on both sides of the immigration debate - shaking their heads as to what our government is capable of subjecting the children of these immigrants to.
We have felt helpless and too many times my Inbox is filled with emails of "What can I do?" or "Where do we go from here?"
There are few issues that demand immediate action, and when children are concerned, it most always warrants as one of those issues.
For children to be held longer than three days, receive but one hour of instruction and only a half hour of recreational play, to be made to feel like criminals by wearing jail jumpsuits and name tags and not have any contact with anyone outside of the facility is a serious violation of the public trust we have in our government, and how we value children in this country.
What can be done?
As cliche as it sounds, it's time to contact our government officials:
Homeland Security
The White House
Members of Congress
Corrections Corporation of America
Yet, the secret of doing something, that the blogosphere discovered long ago, is that you don't stop with one email, one posting or one phone call.
The issue must be talked about and circulated until there is action, positive change and the day when all these families can see that they are not alone.
Neocon Lapdogs: "Round Up Traitors And Put Them In Camps"
In a discussion concerning Joy Behar comparing Donald Rumsfeld to Hitler, a Fox News guest yesterday asserted that people like her should be rounded up and put in detention camps because they are traitors.
Neocon Lapdogs: "Round Up Traitors And Put Them In Camps"
Congress preserves and improves internment camps and neocon critics call for them to be used to contain "traitors"
Steve Watson & Paul Watson
Infowars.net
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
In a discussion concerning Joy Behar comparing Donald Rumsfeld to Hitler, a Fox News guest yesterday asserted that people like her should be rounded up and put in detention camps because they are traitors.
As reported by Fox watchdog newshounds, The program was Fox On Line with Bill Hemmer, his guest was right wing radio host, Mike Gallagher. As Gallagher moved into a tirade against free speech, left wing radio host, Rob Thompson, who was the "fair and balanced" element of the piece, reminded Gallagher what America is and what having free speech means:
Mike Gallagher: You know it's a little bit ridiculous that we continue to watch these TV stars and movie stars who smear our leaders. I just wonder, Rob, if you'll think for a moment what our enemies think of seeing TV personalities comparing the outgoing Defense Secretary to Adolph Hitler.I mean, you know, conservatives never get a pass. Strom Thurmond is wished a Happy Birthday by Trent Lott and the sky falls in on Trent Lott. But if Joy Behar goes on national TV and compares a good man like Rumsfeld to the evilest man in the world and there's no repercussions for Joy Behar. You know, I think we should round up all of these folks. Round up Joy Behar, round up Matt Damon, who last night on MSNBC attacked George Bush and Dick Cheney. Round up Olbermann, take the whole bunch of them and put them in a detention camp until this war is over because they're a bunch of traitors.
Rob Thompson: They're not traitors, they're Americans. You know what the great thing about America is? You get to say what you like and you don't get thrown into detention camps...MG:..No, you don't...
RT: ...And that's what the rest of the world sees. They see free Americans say what they like without having any fear of going to jail. So, if I wanted to compare someone to Hitler or anybody else, Pol Pot, whatever it might be, I have no fear of going to jail because that is what an America is.MG: There's such a thing as treason, Rob.
RT: That's not treason. That's just political talk and satire and it's a little funny at the least.
Witness the bizarre logic of saying you cannot compare to Hitler someone who illegally invades other countries and sanctions torture of their citizens as well as erecting a police state at home. These idiots demonize such allegations against their ilk as the frothing of "leftist internet junkies" while at the same time calling for internment camps to be used against law abiding American citizens in a Hitler-esque fashion.
Who are the real traitors? The Americans who criticize torture and pre-emptive war, or the Americans who go along with it and call for detention camps for anyone who is critical, be it movie stars, news readers, comedians or Billy Bob who works in the gas station?
Satire is a biting behemoth form of political commentary because it separates the wheat from the chaff, the intellectual voices of reason and students of political wisdom from the blockheaded numbskull yes men that would happily throw themselves off a cliff if they believed it was what President Bush wanted them to do.
The art of satire is an alien concept to these neocon lapdogs, primarily because they do not have brains logical enough to decipher serious commentary from incisive satirical wit. These are the kind of people you see on the daily show who don't realise it is not a serious political news show. They totally fail to grasp the fact that just by being there they create their own downfall and prove Jon Stewart's point before he has even told us what it is.
No you morons, Matt Damon did not literally mean he wanted to see the Bush twins running around an Iraqi desert getting shot at by insurgents when he said why not send them there. He was attempting to make a point by highlighting the double standards that you lapdog fools engage in every second you open your mouth and defend the indefensible.
Unfortunately these type of commentators make up a great deal of the new output of the major stations. Even more unfortunately, their suggestions may not be so ridiculous as far as the Bush crime syndicate are concerned.
As reported earlier this month, one of the last acts of Congress was to send President Bush a bill that establishes a $38 million program of National Park Service grants to preserve Japanese POW internment camps in Hawaii, California, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho. Is this really in the name of historical interest or does it dovetail with programs on the books to intern hundreds of thousands of dissidents in a time of crisis?
During the Iran Contra hearings in the 80's, previously classified information came to light about Continuity of Government (CoG) procedures in times of national crisis. The masterminds behind these programs were Oliver North, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney and the Rex-84 'readiness exercise' discussed the plan to round up immigrants and detain them in internment camps in the context of uncontrolled population movements across the Mexican border.
The real agenda was to use the cover of rounding up immigrants and illegal aliens as a smokescreen for targeting political dissidents and American citizens . From 1967 to 1971 the FBI kept a list of persons to be rounded up as subversive, dubbed the "ADEX" list.
Since 9/11 shadow government and CoG programs that were outlined in Rex-84 have been activated, including mass warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. The internment camp program is being readied for execution following the announcement on January 24th that Halliburton subsidiary KBR (formerly Brown and Root) had been awarded a $385 million contingency contract by the Department of Homeland Security to build detention camps.
Footage of a FEMA facility recently surfaced that reveals the model for the upcoming camps.
Under the enemy combatant designation anyone at the behest of the US government, even if they are a US citizen, can be kidnapped and placed in an internment facility forever without trial. Jose Padilla, an American citizen, has spent over four years in a Navy brig.
So we have a government that will have the right to strip American people of their citizenship, we have current internment camps being restored and pristine new ones being built, and we have a lapdog media not questioning this but instead asserting that anyone who does question it should be thrown into the camps.
What was that about Hitler again?
Last Act Of Congress Preserves Internment CampsOne of the last acts of Congress was to send President Bush a bill that establishes a $38 million program of National Park Service grants to preserve Japanese POW internment camps in Hawaii, California, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho. Is this really in the name of historical interest or does it dovetail with programs on the books to intern hundreds of thousands of dissidents in a time of crisis?
Last Act Of Congress Preserves Internment CampsSuspicious restoration in name of "historical interest" will raise fears of link to Halliburton camps for dissidents Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Friday, December 8, 2006
One of the last acts of Congress was to send President Bush a bill that establishes a $38 million program of National Park Service grants to preserve Japanese POW internment camps in Hawaii, California, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho. Is this really in the name of historical interest or does it dovetail with programs on the books to intern hundreds of thousands of dissidents in a time of crisis?
The Honolulu Advertiser reports,
"Notorious internment camps where Japanese-Americans were kept behind barbed wire during World War II, including a camp in Honouliuli Gulch, will be preserved as stark reminders of how the United States turned on some of its citizens in a time of fear."
"The National Park Service already operates facilities at two of the 10 War Relocation Authority camps: Manzanar National Historic Site in California and the Minidoka Internment National Monument in Idaho. The money in the bill the House passed today on a voice vote and sent to Bush would go to them and eight others, to be operated by state and local governments or organizations."
Precise details of exactly what the "restoration" of these camps will entail remain absent from news reports, but suspicions will undoubtedly be cast as to whether making the camps accessible again to process people in whatever form is part of a wider agenda to set up a network of internment camps that will be used to forcibly detain American citizens under emergency provisions.
During the Iran Contra hearings in the 80's, previously classified information came to light about Continuity of Government (CoG) procedures in times of national crisis. The masterminds behind these programs were Oliver North, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney and the Rex-84 'readiness exercise' discussed the plan to round up immigrants and detain them in internment camps in the context of uncontrolled population movements across the Mexican border.
The real agenda was to use the cover of rounding up immigrants and illegal aliens as a smokescreen for targeting political dissidents and American citizens . From 1967 to 1971 the FBI kept a list of persons to be rounded up as subversive, dubbed the "ADEX" list.
Since 9/11 shadow government and CoG programs that were outlined in Rex-84 have been activated, including mass warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. The internment camp program is being readied for execution following the announcement on January 24th that Halliburton subsidiary KBR (formerly Brown and Root) had been awarded a $385 million contingency contract by the Department of Homeland Security to build detention camps.
A much discussed and circulated report, the Pentagon's Civilian Inmate Labor Program, has recently been updated and the revision details a "template for developing agreements" between the Army and corrections facilities for the use of civilian inmate labor on Army installations."
The pretext given for which the camps would be used as reported by the New York Times was stated as, "an unexpected influx of immigrants, to house people in the event of a natural disaster or for new programs that require additional detention space."
Following the news first given wide attention by this website, that Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root had been awarded a $385 million dollar contract by Homeland Security to construct detention and processing facilities in the event of a national emergency, the Alternet website put together an alarming report that collated all the latest information on plans to initiate internment of political subversives and Muslims after the next major terror attack in the U.S.
The article highlighted the disturbing comments of Sen. Lindsey Graham, who encouraged torture supporting Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to target, "Fifth Columnists" Americans who show disloyalty and sympathize with "the enemy," whoever that enemy may be.
Respected author Peter Dale Scott speculated that the "detention centers could be used to detain American citizens if the Bush administration were to declare martial law."
Daniel Ellsberg, former Special Assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense, called the plan, "preparation for a roundup after the next 9/11 for Mid-Easterners, Muslims and possibly dissenters. They've already done this on a smaller scale, with the 'special registration' detentions of immigrant men from Muslim countries, and with Guantanamo."
The current terrorist suspect list was revealed earlier this year to contain the names of 325,000 people. The government claimed that only a tiny fraction were American citizens living in America but when compared to the potential terrorist list in the UK, which under section 44 of the terrorism act has ensnared at least 119,000 people, most of them innocent protesters, the number is likely to be far higher. Britain's population is only 60 million compared to the US at 295 million.
Under the enemy combatant designation anyone at the behest of the US government, even if they are a US citizen, can be kidnapped and placed in an internment facility forever without trial. Jose Padilla, an American citizen, has spent over four years in a Navy brig.
In 2002, FEMA sought bids from major real estate and engineering firms to construct giant internment facilities in the case of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack or a natural disaster.
Okanogan County Commissioner Dave Schulz went public three years ago with his contention that his county was set to be a location for one of the camps.
Alex Jones has attended numerous military urban warfare training drills across the US where role players were used to simulate arresting American citizens and taking them to internment camps. Actors scream out that they have constitutional rights as they are handcuffed and hauled off to the detainment facility.
One of the camps Jones visited was the Manzanar facility in California, which still has a "Federal Detention Center" sign outside, running water, electricity and all the requirements necessary for processing large numbers of people.
Congress votes to preserve World War Two internment camps
Guantanamo Detainees Going to New Prison
Military Commissions Act: A Precursor To Tyranny?
In an interview with nationally syndicated radio talk show host Alex Jones, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas recently discussed President Bush's support for the Military Commissions Act. During the interview, Paul said that "the law officially allows for citizen concentration camp facilities."
Military Commissions Act: A Precursor To Tyranny?
Chuck Baldwin
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
In an interview with nationally syndicated radio talk show host Alex Jones, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas recently discussed President Bush's support for the Military Commissions Act. During the interview, Paul said that "the law officially allows for citizen concentration camp facilities."
Paul also warned that "the Military Commissions Act and the Defense Authorization Act . . . essentially wipes out Habeas Corpus."
Paul continued by noting, "Right now we don't have concentration camps, but . . . the authority has been given so that concentration camps can come without Habeas Corpus." He then said, "If they can lock you up, what good is freedom of speech or what good is a gun?"
Couple the implementation of the Military Commissions Act with the already-passed USA Patriot Act and all the legalities necessary to completely eviscerate America's constitutionally-protected liberties are in place. Think of it. Without firing a shot or dropping a bomb, President George W. Bush has done more to strip the American people of their liberties than all the world's despots and dictators combined!
Consider further the recent statements of former house speaker Newt Gingrich. According to the (Manchester, NH) Union Leader, "Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday [Monday, Nov. 27] in Manchester said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.
"Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a 'different set of rules' may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message."
Of course, Mr. Gingrich did not say how he plans to reduce people's free speech rights. Neither did he say a word about the fact that our greatest potential for terrorism is coming in the form of an invasion of illegal aliens across our southern border, and that it has been the words and policies of one George W. Bush that have mostly contributed to this threat.
Will someone please tell me how expunging the free speech of the American people is going to make the United States safer? And, pray tell, why are our brave troops fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, ostensibly to "promote democracy," if the same political leaders who sent them to the Middle East are working to shrink democracy here at home?
Ladies and gentlemen, please wake up! Under the leadership of President George W. Bush, rights and freedoms that have been lost to you include your right to an attorney, your right to know the charges being levied against you, the right to a speedy trial, the right to trial by a jury of your peers, the right to not be subjected to torture, the right to not have your home and personal items searched and seized without warrant, the right to not have your personal conversations (including letters and email) intercepted without court order, and the right to not incriminate yourself, just to name a few. And now we learn that our government has authorized and is planning to build "concentration camp facilities."
Furthermore, just because you or I have not yet been personally subjected to this tyranny, does not mean that we won't be! The seeds are already planted; the die is already cast. The time to act is not when you are being carted off to an "undisclosed location." By then, it is too late.
Thank God for Congressman Ron Paul. If it weren't for him, there would be practically no one on Capitol Hill willing to sound the alarm for the American people. I wish someone could convince him to run for President of the United States on the Constitution Party ticket. The GOP would never support his candidacy for president, but the CP would welcome him with open arms. And, given the American people's frustration with both major parties, a serious third party challenge is very possible in 2008.
In the meantime, the power establishment in Washington, D.C., continues to undermine our Constitution and fritter away our freedoms.
Congressman: American Concentration Camps "On The Books" Re-elected Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul joined Alex Jones on air last week to discuss the fallout of the midterm elections and what he sees transpiring over the next two years. He ended by ominously warning that if something is not done soon to overturn legislation such as the Military Commissions act, the law officially allows for citizen concentration camp facilities.
Congressman: American Concentration Camps "On The Books"
Texas Representative urges repeal of neo-fascist laws in America before it is too late
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Monday, November 13, 2006
Re-elected Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul joined Alex Jones on air last week to discuss the fallout of the midterm elections and what he sees transpiring over the next two years. He ended by ominously warning that if something is not done soon to overturn legislation such as the Military Commissions act, the law officially allows for citizen concentration camp facilities.
Beginning with the positives to come out of the election, Ron Paul stressed that it has provided an important indication to the rest of the world that the people of America are unhappy with the usurpers that have seized control of their government and are trying to initiate change. The Congressman was quick to point out that this may not be carried into policy however:
"Not a whole lot will change because the leadership on the Democratic side, even if they had their way, don't have a different foreign policy. They have been supportive of an interventionist foreign policy in the middle east, and they are not about to back away from that... They are willing to criticize the policy but only as a means to get power."
As we have seen over the past week, leading Democrats are all towing the party line, unreservedly dismissing any notion of the possibility of impeaching the President over Iraq.
The Congressman also stated that monetary policy will stay the same, which can only mean bad news for the American economy.
" They all believe in the federal reserve, they are not going to get rid of the IRS and the income tax. I think the dollar is going to keep sliding, which means prices are going to rise, when currencies self destruct, the end goes quickly. There are no signs that there is anything being done in Washington to correct the problem. Spending is going to continue and probably going to get worse, the deficits are going to stay high if foreign policy is not going to change."
The Congressman agreed that the elite globalists within the US government may not care about this too much because it means they can blow out the economy and then come back and buy it up very cheaply. These Internationalists care not about preserving and protecting American sovereignty when there is a quick buck to be made.
"That's also part of the foreign policy to be in position to hold onto natural resources, that's one of the major reasons why we're in the middle east, so yes if there is a financial crisis, they're going to have the guns, and they have control of the natural resources... It's not a good scenario, because what usually happens when you wipe out a currency is that you wipe out the middle class, and we already see this happening. The standard of living is going down." Paul asserted.
Ron Paul's comments echo those of Former World Bank Vice President, Chief Economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, who two weeks ago predicted a global economic crash within 24 months - unless the current downturn is successfully managed. Asked if the situation was being properly handled Stiglitz emphatically responded "no," and also drew ominous parallels to the development of the NAFTA Superhighway and the North American Union.
What real Conservatism there was left in the House, to block such moves, as well as Bush's amnesty program for illegals, is gone. With Pelosi at the helm Ron Paul sees it as a forgone conclusion that such policies will sail through.
"I think that's right, although I complain about the two parties being exactly alike, I would say on this amnesty issue and what's happened with the election, there probably was a difference between the two. It is more likely with the Democrats in charge, and Judiciary and the other major committees, and with the President not really fighting for our national borders, he's always argued for some type of worker program, yes I think there's a much greater danger that that is going to be coming in the next session."
Commenting on strategies to defeat the North American Union, the Congressman urged a continuance of educating people on the real issues and reaching more and more Americans who care about preserving their national sovereignty:
"You have to keep doing what you are doing, you are reaching a lot of people, and they have to get to their members of congress, and in many ways the current House has been pretty good with this. With the new House we don't know exactly what is going to happen, but I had something very encouraging come to my attention just this week. I had a call from a young lady that won in Kansas as a Democrat, and in her literature she put my whole article on the NAFTA super corridor in there... She is not going to vote with Nancy Pelosi."
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, The Congressman spoke on the issue of going about demanding a repeal of freedom crushing legislation such as the Patriot act and the Military Commissions act and the Defense Authorization Act which essentially wipes out Habeas Corpus.
"We might have to hope that our Supreme Court helps us out a little. The Court has been better than the executive branch and a heck of a lot better than the Congress, because we've given the President everything he's asked for and the President has been begging for all this authority, so immediately we have to hope that the courts will save us on some of these things. But once again ultimately its only when the people wake up and say they don't like this... sometimes the people wake up to late. Right now we don't have concentration camps, but like you have pointed out, the authority has been given so that concentration camps can come without Habeas Corpus . I have heard the argument that there is nothing else left in the Bill of Rights. If they can lock you up, what good is freedom of speech or what good is a gun? That is now part of the books, part of the law."
Take Ron Paul's suggestion up and contact your new or re-elected members and demand a move to repeal legislation paving the way for fascist government control in America today.
American Prison Camps Are on the Way
Rounding Up U.S. Citizens
Mathba | October 1, 2006
By Marjorie Cohn
Because the bill was adopted with lightning speed, barely anyone noticed that it empowers Bush to declare not just aliens, but also U.S. citizens, "unlawful enemy combatants."
The Military Commissions Act of 2006 governing the treatment of detainees is the culmination of relentless fear-mongering by the Bush administration since the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Because the bill was adopted with lightning speed, barely anyone noticed that it empowers Bush to declare not just aliens, but also U.S. citizens, "unlawful enemy combatants."
Bush & Co. has portrayed the bill as a tough way to deal with aliens to protect us against terrorism. Frightened they might lose their majority in Congress in the November elections, the Republicans rammed the bill through Congress with little substantive debate.
Anyone who donates money to a charity that turns up on Bush's list of "terrorist" organizations, or who speaks out against the government's policies could be declared an "unlawful enemy combatant" and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes American citizens.
The bill also strips habeas corpus rights from detained aliens who have been declared enemy combatants. Congress has the constitutional power to suspend habeas corpus only in times of rebellion or invasion. The habeas-stripping provision in the new bill is unconstitutional and the Supreme Court will likely say so when the issue comes before it.
Although more insidious, this law follows in the footsteps of other unnecessarily repressive legislation. In times of war and national crisis, the government has targeted immigrants and dissidents.
In 1798, the Federalist-led Congress, capitalizing on the fear of war, passed the four Alien and Sedition Acts to stifle dissent against the Federalist Party's political agenda. The Naturalization Act extended the time necessary for immigrants to reside in the U.S. because most immigrants sympathized with the Republicans.
The Alien Enemies Act provided for the arrest, detention and deportation of male citizens of any foreign nation at war with the United States. Many of the 25,000 French citizens living in the U.S. could have been expelled had France and America gone to war, but this law was never used. The Alien Friends Act authorized the deportation of any non-citizen suspected of endangering the security of the U.S. government; the law lasted only two years and no one was deported under it.
The Sedition Act provided criminal penalties for any person who wrote, printed, published, or spoke anything "false, scandalous and malicious" with the intent to hold the government in "contempt or disrepute." The Federalists argued it was necessary to suppress criticism of the government in time of war. The Republicans objected that the Sedition Act violated the First Amendment, which had become part of the Constitution seven years earlier. Employed exclusively against Republicans, the Sedition Act was used to target congressmen and newspaper editors who criticized President John Adams.
Subsequent examples of laws passed and actions taken as a result of fear-mongering during periods of xenophobia are the Espionage Act of 1917, the Sedition Act of 1918, the Red Scare following World War I, the forcible internment of people of Japanese descent during World War II, and the Alien Registration Act of 1940 (the Smith Act).
During the McCarthy period of the 1950s, in an effort to eradicate the perceived threat of communism, the government engaged in widespread illegal surveillance to threaten and silence anyone who had an unorthodox political viewpoint. Many people were jailed, blacklisted and lost their jobs. Thousands of lives were shattered as the FBI engaged in "red-baiting."
One month after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, United States Attorney General John Ashcroft rushed the U.S.A. Patriot Act through a timid Congress. The Patriot Act created a crime of domestic terrorism aimed at political activists who protest government policies, and set forth an ideological test for entry into the United States.
In 1944, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the internment of Japanese and Japanese-American citizens in Korematsu v. United States. Justice Robert Jackson warned in his dissent that the ruling would "lie about like a loaded weapon ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need."
That day has come with the Military Commissions Act of 2006. It provides the basis for the President to round-up both aliens and U.S. citizens he determines have given material support to terrorists. Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Cheney's Halliburton, is constructing a huge facility at an undisclosed location to hold tens of thousands of undesirables.
In his 1928 dissent in Olmstead v. United States, Justice Louis Brandeis cautioned, "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." Seventy-three years later, former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, speaking for a zealous President, warned Americans "they need to watch what they say, watch what they do."
We can expect Bush to continue to exploit 9/11 to strip us of more of our liberties. Our constitutional right to dissent is in serious jeopardy. Benjamin Franklin's prescient warning should give us pause: "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."
Marjorie Cohn, a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, is president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild, and the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists. Her new book, Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law, will be published in 2007 by PoliPointPress.