Posted on 04/29/2010 1:26:31 PM PDT by Hypo
Army Preps for Tea Party 'Terrorists' By Mark Alexander · Thursday, April 29, 2010
"The duty imposed upon [the president] to take care, that the laws be faithfully executed, follows out the strong injunctions of his oath of office, that he will 'preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.' The great object of the executive department is to accomplish this purpose; and without it, be the form of government whatever it may, it will be utterly worthless for offence, or defence; for the redress of grievances, or the protection of rights; for the happiness, or good order, or safety of the people." --Justice Joseph Story
A few months back, the commander in chief of our Armed Forces, that erstwhile community organizer Barack Hussein Obama1, denigrated a large cross section of Americans who identify with the Tea Party movement -- those who advocate for Essential Liberty2 and Rule of Law.
Obama identified them as malcontents, "waving their little tea bags."
Since then, the Obama administration and their Leftmedia sycophants3 have endeavored to characterize Tea Party attendees as rude, radical, racist, redneck, enemies of the state. They have attempted to tie high-profile acts of violence against the government to the Tea Party, including the pilot who crashed his plane into a Texas IRS headquarters. (Turns out, he was a Leftwing nut.)
In fact, Americans who attend Tea Party rallies are from all walks of life, as noted in the Patriot Declaration4, Patriots who are peacefully and constitutionally petitioning their government for redress.
As I noted in my tax-day essay5, Tea Parties are "not a call for revolution but for restoration -- a call to undertake whatever measures are dictated by prudence and necessity to restore constitutional Rule of Law."
However, Obama's words do have consequences.
This week, I was contacted by a number of civilian and military personnel (enlisted and officer ranks) who expressed concern about a military exercise proposed for Ft. Knox, the U.S. Bullion Depository. (For the record, I called Ft. Knox security for an official comment and received the standard reply: "We are not authorized to discuss this exercise." The exercise in question may have been one of several proposed security exercise scenarios.)
As with most such exercises, the Ft. Knox scenario outline occurred in stages, as if real time intelligence was being provided at various intervals. The first intel advisory6 was issued on Friday, 23 April 2010, and identifies the terrorist threat adversaries as "Local Militia Groups / Anti-Government Protesters / TEA Party."
You read that right: "TEA Party"!
The alert states that plans for the demonstration may have been interrupted by "Federal and local law enforcement" raids on a "White Supremacists Organization," but "TEA Party organizers have stated that they will protest at the Gold Vault at a future date."
Further, the intel advisory states, "Anti-Government - Health Care Protesters have stated that they would join the TEA Party as a sign of solidarity."
In accordance with the exercise proposal, Ft. Knox post security is placed on high alert because, "these groups are armed, have combative training and some are former Military Snipers. Some may have explosives training / experience," and "a rally at their compound / training area is scheduled."
Another intel update6 was issued on Monday, 26 April 2010, noting that the "rally at the Militia compound occurred," and "Viable threats ... have been made." The intel on the rally notes, "Many members were extremely agitated at what they referred to as Government intervention and over taxation in their lives. Alcohol use 'fanned the flames.' Many military grade firearms were openly carried. An ad hoc 'shoot the government agent' event was held with prizes (alcohol) given for the best shot placement."
The report states further, "Components of bomb making are reported to have been on the site. Some members have criminal records relating to explosive and weapons violations."
In response to the "immediate threat," the exercise stipulates, "local detention centers are being made ready for mass arrests." Both the "QRF I and QRF II" are placed on two hour recall, and the "5-15 CAV" was ordered to "draw weapons from holder and store in most available arms room," and "coordinate with MASA for immediate ammunition draw; have equipment readied for immediate use, i.e. vehicles staged and loaded IAW 5-15 CAV SOP; LMR's charged."
QRF refers to Quick Reaction Force. QRF I is the 16th Cavalry Regiment7. QRF II is the 194th Armored Brigade8.
The 26 April order gives specific instructions for the 5-15 CAV (a 16th Cavalry battalion) to have weapons, ammo, vehicles and communications at ready, and it places the other 2,200 members of the units on two-hour recall. In other words, these orders are to gear up for defending Ft. Knox against Tea Party folks and their co-conspirators who oppose nationalization of our health care sector.
Now, for almost 30 years I have participated in the development and implementation of small and large scale military exercises within the U.S. and around the world.
Such exercises are critical to the readiness of our forces, and the standard for the real time intel reports in these drills requires thinly veiled references to assets of existing or collateral threat vectors such as communist regimes such as China and real terrorist networks such as al-Qa'ida, etc.
Perhaps the writers of such exercises today should focus on response plans for, say, an Islamic terrorist who attacks a post. (See Ft. Hood / Major Nidal Malik Hasan.)
While the Ft. Knox exercise scenario is amateurish in its construct (meaning it was probably composed by a civilian bureaucrat), it still sets an ominous political precedent.
The military officers and enlisted personnel with whom I spoke are all dedicated uniformed Patriots who are loyal, first and foremost, to their oath to "support and defend9" our Constitution "against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
Their concerns about this exercise mirrored my own. As one put it, the exercise "misrepresents freedom loving Americans as drunken, violent racists -- the opponents of Obama's policies have been made the enemy of the U.S. Army."
They were equally concerned that command staff at Ft. Knox had signed off on this exercise, noting, "it has been issued and owned by field grade officers who lead our battalions and brigades," which is to say many Lieutenant Colonels saw this order before it was implemented.
It's not likely that Ft. Knox Commanding General James Milano or Deputy Commander Col. David Teeples, or even the regimental and brigade commanders for the 16th Cav and 194th AB, actually read the exercise scenario, but that doesn't absolve responsibility for such an egregious example of political agendas infiltrating military exercise scenarios.
One officer insisted, "The American people should require greater accountability of their commissioned officers, that they abide by their oath and never allow politically motivated propaganda like this exercise on any post or base again."
Another observed, "Whether this is complacency by officers who do not see such orders as a problem, or worse, officers who recognize the problem but do not insist the orders are changed, this is a serious problem. We are discussing the training of American citizen soldiers in the use of potentially deadly force against a specific group of political dissenters. There is never a time in an officer's career in which he does not have a duty to apply critical thought to the orders he is given and asked to give. It is my opinion that any officer that has allowed these orders to persist, to reach the level of junior officers and soldiers, has demonstrated a lack of judgment or apathy towards what his duty requires of him. Either way, we should demand more of the commissioned officers, who we as a nation empower to lead our sons and daughters into battle."
Indeed, and at best, the blatant malfeasance on the part of the individuals who composed this exercise reflects poorly on the uniformed services.
The antidote to this patent misrepresentation of peaceable Patriots is to expose it with the Light of Truth. As our motto Veritas vos Liberabit affirms, the Truth shall set you Free!
(Note: To report examples of politically motivated "exercises" in either the civilian or military sectors of our federal government, please contact us -- NewsTip@PatriotPost.US)
it's coming...
Thanks, I was just going to post it.
Works for me!
Let's wait until Jim finishes his, though.
It would be bad form otherwise. ;-)
It would be fun.
Good point!
Update from Mark Alexander – April 29, 2010
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Regarding my essay, Army Preps for Tea Party 'Terrorists', I was contacted by senior command staff at Ft. Knox this afternoon. There was a security exercise at Ft. Knox this week, but an officer in the security loop altered the scenario "in order to make it more realistic." Those alterations were described in my essay, exactly as they appeared. The command staff informed me that the alterations were not approved at the command level and that the individual who circulated the scenario through official channels will "receive appropriate counsel." I was assured that the Command staff would not have authorized such a scenario.
It might be a good idea to send cards...and lots of them to soldiers and sign them from “The Tea Party..Supporting the US Military since 9/11”
It looks very interesting and I plan on checking them out in the near future. I am glad I asked and always appreciate talented FReepers and try my best to support them in the quest to enlighten.
Godspeed FRiend, nice to meet you.
In the opening post, I pasted one of them.
Thanks! I was behind a firewall at work and could not see what that photo was.
FEMA camps. They are real and exist. They are for housing in the case of natural disasters etc.
It’s all supposed to be a conspiracy theory, although you can find actual government documents stating that they exist. Check out KBR contracts.
Just check the website, you can read about 400 pages right there. You’ll know if it’s of interest long before you’ve exhausted that material.
In 2009, the Tea Party held at the State Capitol in Sacramento had law enforcement on top of the Capitol Building photographing us. As best I could tell, they had weapons as well. Michelle Malkin, Neil Cavuto, Congressman Tom McClintock were all in attendance as was Michael Reagan as I recall. I guess they’re a threat just as much as the grandmothers, grandfathers, military veterans, children, pregnant women who were there that day.
America better wake up and realize who the real enemies of American freedom are.
Yeah, heard about those.
But it is interesting that the left for years under Dubya accused us of making detention centers for them.
I think the left better re-learn their history. Or at least ask for a refund of College tuition, they got ripped off.
They’re just following the playbook rule of “accuse your target of doing what you yourself are doing”.
One of Alinsky’s rules I think.
Yes, the police on the roof of the capital were armed with sniper rifles. I didn’t mind that because the Tea Party people weren’t going to be the problem. The Police on the ground did a good job in keeping out the trouble makers.
When I drove on to Ft Knox Tuesday morning there were several HUMMWVs at the Bullion Depository. Guess I am too pre-occupied to worry about too much as I just glanced at them, thought to myself that it was an exercise and drove to work.
When I was there as a kid, there was a thing called “Operation Eldorado” which was a standing “protect the Gold Vault” operation, and it got tested periodically. At that time, phase 1 was all MPs converged to assist the Treasury people at the Depository. Phase two was a combined arms platoon with few tanks and APCs that were always on-call. Not in vehicles on call, but on call via phone from units / home. I don’t think there were pagers then, but I expect they got them early on.
Knowing what I know about moving gold, you weren’t going to move enough to be worthwhile before armor came down on you like a ton of bricks.
Having a standing operations plan like that is one thing. If orders were really cut with the language presented here, that is a whole ‘nother can of worms.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.