I go over how the How the U S Government planned to round up Americans into detention centers.
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Transcript
How the U.S Government Planned to Round up Americans into Detention Centers
On July 13th, 1987, Texas Democratic House of Representatives member Jack Brooks, along with other members of congress, grilled former Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North about his sales of arms to Iran and funding of Contra guerrillas against the government in Nicaragua.
During this Iran-Contra hearing, Brooks asked North about his other clandestine activities, with a focus on a plan titled REX-84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984.
Brooks asked North, and I quote,
“[i]n your work at the NSC, were you not assigned at one time to work on plans for the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster?”
This question about “continuity of government” was the REX-84 plan, a plan to round up American citizens in a national emergency.
North’s attorney, Brendan Sullivan, asked the House Chairman to intervene.
Democratic Chairman and house representative for Hawaii Daniel Ken Inouye spoke up and halted the inquiry, stating,
“I believe the question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area. So may I request that you not touch upon that, sir?”
Representative Brooks responded, “I was particularly concerned, Mr. Chairman, because I read in Miami papers and several others that there had been a plan developed by that same agency, a contingency plan in the event of emergency that would suspend the American Constitution and I was deeply concerned about it and wondered if that was the area in which he had worked. I believe that it was, but I wanted –”
And before he could finish, Chairman Inouye interjected again, stating,
“May I most respectfully request that that matter not be touched upon at this stage? If we wish to get into this, I'm certain arrangements can be made for an Executive session.”
And with that, the REX-84 investigation was kept from the public eye.
So, what exactly did this plan entail?
According to a report put out in 1983 by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, for short, the REX-84 plan was a “civil readiness exercise” implementing “major emergency actions” during a national emergency.
These interventions were practiced prior via exercise WINTEX-CIMEX 83, where FEMA coordinated with other agencies to run practice procedures for what would be invoked in a time of international crisis.
Reporter Alfonso Chardy, writing for the Miami Herald, revealed elements from this secret plan in the July 5th, 1987 paper.
His investigational report found that the REX-84 plan was an exercise aimed at suppressing dissent and placing American citizens into camps if they were deemed a security threat during a president-declared national emergency.
It was this report and the concerns about upending civil rights that led to Representative Brooks wanting to investigate the program further.
Sadly, as you heard from the hearing, more details about North’s involvement and the totality of the program have been kept hidden and away from public accountability.
All we have today is some indications of what that program would look like from declassified documents on an antecedent program to REX-84, Operation Garden Plot, which was the Department of Defense’s plan for quelling civil disturbances via Federal military intervention.
Given how much government has eroded our rights with the Patriot Act, the NDAA, and NSA spying, it’s more critical than ever to declassify these internment plans and stop them before they are used against us.
Sources
Sources Round Up
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_84
User Clip: North being questioned on REX 84
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4797423/user-clip-north-questioned-rex-84
Congressman Jack Brooks, Rex ’84 and the Iran-Contra affair
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/06/brks-d06.html
Document Friday: “Garden Plot:” The Army’s Emergency Plan to Restore “Law and Order” to America
https://unredacted.com/2011/08/12/document-friday-garden-plot-the-armys-emergency-plan-to-restore-law-and-order-to-america/
The Rise of the National Security State: FEMA and the NSC
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/fema/Fema_2.html