World Affairs Brief, March 6, 2009 Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World.

Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief

GLENN BECK FAILS TO DELIVER ON FEMA CAMPS

There are much more important and verifiable conspiracies in the world without having good conservatives diverted to such tripe. One important issue is the growing number of secret prison camps and holding facilities being built by our government. FEMA is the prime agency now directing this hidden agenda. I have previously reported in the WAB the significant travel and efforts I have made to substantiate prisons and camps that are valid. They do exist, though the major camps number less than a dozen, and they include a large camp clearly visible from I-15 just north of Nellis AFB in Las Vegas. Others are on decommissioned military installations. Interestingly enough, two years ago these large camps were removed from the official list of government prison facilities, even though the government still maintains them. They now join the growing list of FEMA camps of which there is no official government listing. Why the secrecy?

That said, it is important to note that there are many bogus camps being paraded as a threat. The lists and pictures circulating the internet of some 300 camps, claiming that nearly any fenced enclosure with barbed wire on top is a future concentration camp, is simply not credible. I’m convinced that agents of influence feed publicity-seeking radicals disinformation like this to discredit real threats.

TV and radio talk host Glenn Beck’s recent foray into the subject of FEMA camps is a study in how the establishment exercises subtle and not-so-subtle pressure to keep legitimate conspiracy evidence off the air. This week Beck announced on “Fox and Friends” that he was going to air his research about FEMA camps the next day, giving the distinct impression that he had found a credible threat of future tyranny. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f03zZA___Ho

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f03zZA___Ho]

Beck declares he attempted to “debunk these FEMAS camps” because he is “tired of hearing about them,” but was unable to do so. “We now for several days have done research on them… I can’t debunk them.” This was something new for Beck to admit. As a perennial conspiracy basher on the issue of 9/11, Beck is the last one (other than government shill Rush Limbaugh) that I would have expected to expose the FEMA camps. To Beck’s credit, he was one of the few on Fox who would attack President Bush and unconstitutional government actions whenever he could. I think he is sincere, but a bit of a loose cannon in his rapid fire speaking style–which doesn’t lend toward careful analysis when he gets carried away.

Naturally, I was skeptical that Beck would actually come through and I expressed skepticism to many thrilled conservatives who emailed me about this salacious story. This is definitely something that the Powers That Be don’t want exposed–why else would they be taking existing camps off the public records? Sure enough, yesterday Beck announced with a bit of sheepishness that his research was not yet at a credible stage to air. He even warned his listeners about not jumping to the conclusion that he had been pressured by the Powers That Be, saying “he only answers to himself.” I’m not buying that.

Though he may think he was making an independent decision, those who control the media have other ways to destabilize the confidence of someone like Beck, who doesn’t ever like to admit he’s wrong. Beck had obviously reviewed prior to this interview what his paid investigative team had come up, or he would not have scheduled this to air the next day. It could very well have been that the PTB got to Beck’s investigators and convinced them to revise their conclusions or the certainty of them, which would, in turn, make Beck nervous about going forward. Whatever it was, I’ll predict that when Beck does air this expose, if ever, it will have a much more tentative tone, leaving lots of excuses for the audience to believe in government claims, and doubt the camps’ existence.

Kurt Nimmo of Prison Planet.com wrote concerning the official government excuse for FEMA camps. “The existence of FEMA detention camps is a well-documented fact. In January 2006, Haliburton subsidiary KBR announced that it had been awarded a $385 million contract to construct the camps for the Department of Homeland Security. In a press release issued on January 24, 2006, KBR said the “contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs.”

One thing is for sure. These camps aren’t created to provide overflow capacity for illegal aliens as the government claims. If that were true, the government would be filling them up right now with all the thousands of Latino criminals California is about to release on the unsuspecting public in the name of overcrowding and budget woes.

Nimmo continues: “The possibility of an influx of illegal aliens, however, is a cover for the real purpose of the camps — to detain American citizens after a declaration of martial law. In 1984, the government created REX-84, an emergency response program involving the implementation of martial law and the arrest and detainment of certain segments of the population. REX-84 was mentioned during the Iran-Contra hearings and publicly exposed by the Miami Herald on Sunday July 5th, 1987. REX-84 dovetailed with Operation Garden Plot, a United States Army and National Guard program under control of the U.S. Northern Command to provide Federal military support during domestic civil disturbances.

“On May 9, 2007 George Bush reasserted the role of the government during a declared emergency by issuing Executive Order NSPD 51/ HSPD-20, stating that in the event of a ‘catastrophic emergency’ all ‘national essential functions’ may be taken over by the Executive branch of government and the Department of Homeland Security, including FEMA. In October of 2006, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, legislation allowing the government to detain citizens deemed ‘enemy combatants’ and hold them indefinitely without charge and independently of the judiciary. The act was upheld by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2003.

“It appears Hurricane Katrina has provided FEMA with an excuse to ‘dry run’ its unconstitutional powers in New Orleans, rounding up ‘refugees’ (now called ‘evacuees’) and ‘relocating’ them in various camps. ‘Some evacuees are being treated as ‘internees’ by FEMA,’ writes former NSC employee Wayne Madsen. ‘Some FEMA facilities are preventing these internees from leaving on their own. Reports of mandatory registration and the issuing of FEMA ID cards…’ Call it REX-84 revisited.

“For those who may have difficulty believing the government would actually suspend the Constitution, impose martial law, and round-up citizens, consider Bush era memos issued by the Justice Department. ‘The Justice Department secretly authorized President George Bush to use the military inside the United States to snoop on, raid and even kill citizens in order to fight terrorism without regard to the Fourth or Fifth Amendment, according to a Oct 23, 2001 memo released by the Obama Administration Monday,’ reports Ryan Singel for Wired News. The memo was written in part by John Yoo, a deputy assistant attorney general best known for penning a memo authorizing government agents to torture suspected terrorists, including crushing the genitals of children in order to get suspected terrorists to confess.

“‘Military action might encompass making arrests, seizing documents or other property, searching persons or places or keeping them under surveillance, intercepting electronic or wireless communications, setting up roadblocks, interviewing witnesses and searching for suspects,’ wrote Yoo.”