Halliburton Awarded Contract To Build Detention Camps in the US
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Tom Hennessy writes for the Press Telegram:
Maybe a lifetime in the news business makes one paranoid. Or maybe it was just a matter of timing.
The story showed up in Tuesday's Press-Telegram, as I was reading "Night," Elie Wiesel's horrifying autobiography of a teenager in Buchenwald and Auschwitz.
Appearing on page A5, the story said the federal government had awarded a $385 million contract for the construction of "temporary detention facilities." These would be used, the story said, in the event of an "immigration emergency."
Jamie Zuieback, an official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), explained such an emergency like this: "If, for example, there were some sort of upheaval in another country that would cause mass migration, that's the type of situation that the contract would address."
That sounds a tad fuzzy, but let's concede that the camps do have something to do with immigration, illegal or not. In fact, there already are thousands of beds in place at various U.S. locations for the purpose of housing illegal immigrants.
But for anyone familiar with history U.S. or European the construction of detention camps for whatever purpose should prompt a chilling scenario.
Same folks
The new detention camps will be built by Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Halliburton. The latter, as you likely know, is the defense-related corporate giant with fists full of contracts involving the war in Iraq.
Halliburton was led by Vice President Dick Cheney from 1995 to 2000. Democrats in Congress have accused the administration of favoring the company via no-bid contracts. But KBR says the detention contract was competitive.
It's horrifying enough that these camps would be used for immigrants, but consider the next possible step...as forewarned back in 2002 in this article by Jonathan Turley in the LA Times.
Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's announced desire for camps for U.S. citizens he deems to be "enemy combatants" has moved him from merely being a political embarrassment to being a constitutional menace.
Ashcroft's plan, disclosed last week but little publicized, would allow him to order the indefinite incarceration of U.S. citizens and summarily strip them of their constitutional rights and access to the courts by declaring them enemy combatants.
There have been proposed antecedents, such as Oliver North and Reagan's Rex-84 plan, as well as Operation Garden Plot.
Democrats.com's DictatorshipIsEasier.us reports on a changing America under George W. Bush.
"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator" -- George W. Bush, December 18, 2000
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Comments
Nazi Germany
Just watched "The Nuremberg Trials" yesterday. (I encourage anyone to get a tape/CD of it if they can.) I believe this IS the attempted resurgence of Naziism. The parallels can't be denied. The (Prescott) bush/hitler connection cannot be denied either. It didn't die when hitler put a gun to his head.
What kind of emergency immigrant crisis would there be??? It's more cr*p talk. These detention camps are for dissenters (ie. GOOD PEOPLE) who try and stand in the way of this criminal coupe from turning the entire world over to Fascism -- starting with the United States.
First they start with "immigrants" with some claim that a certain immigrant group has just attacked us, then it will grow to the dissenters, democrats, greens, all people of color, etc. etc.
But seeing the Nuremberg Trials film, I have hope we won't let it go on as long as it did in Nazi Germany. And the voiceover at the end of the film said something like, "Let these trials be a lesson to anyone in the future who attempts such evil, that Justice WILL catch up with them and bring them to trial for war crimes."
Detention for Quarantine
I am strongly inclined to believe that these facilities are part of the response to pandemic influenza.
It is almost inevitable that this event will cause widespread disorder. In addition, there will be sharp restrictions on border traffic. There are now about 25 detention facilities to hold potentially infected persons at major ingress areas (San Diego, Seattle, Miami) but these are far too small to deal with a worldwide outbreak. There are some large ports that lack facilities, such as Philadelphia. There is an "initiative" on board at DHS that will specify quarantining, by force if necessary. This will be a federal program, and probably not be administered by the National Guard.
The feds know they cannot stop the flu from entering the US. Their only hope is to delay it by days, or weeks (if we're lucky). During this time, they may be able to mobilize responses.
The current vaccine requires 2 very large doses to achieve about 50% protection. While it is nearly impossible that enough vaccine can be produced currently at this dose level, they are scaling up manufacturing, a taxpayer gift to drug companies that they accepted on the condition of blanket immunity from liability. Anyway, the point is, there will be massive shortages of vaccine and anti-flu drugs like Tamiflu. Likely, there will be massive border control operations and quarantines. Under the current circumstances, there will have to be rationing of vaccine and antivirals.
Let's hope there won't be involuntary detention, but if the next pandemic is anything like 1918, you can count on a complete breakdown of society and the inevitable martial responses.
Flu
I don't think the feds want to stop the flu from entering the US. I think these people were responsible for sending anthrax to their fellow government workers because they were Dems. I wouldn't put it past them to manufacture a strain in the labs and release it to the population in order to control them.
So if there is a quarantine from a epidemic, I believe it's what this admin. wants to happen.
FLU
I believe as lot of other people do that this nazi admin under bush is looking to stay in power PERIOD. They will either let another attack on the usa happen or the bird flu will overwelm them. Then, they will begin rounding up anyone who speaks out against them.
325,000 * one or two percent?
Playing the lowball, "very, very small fraction..." say one or two percent: that's still around 5,000 U.S. citizens; 100 for each state. Even accepting the lowball premise, that figure still seems like a fabricatedly high amount: realistic only as a justification for endless war on our own soil.