AG Eric Holder Says 'Terrorists Only Have to Be Successful Once'
Attorney General Eric Holder has an urgent message for Americans: While he is confident that the United States will continue to thwart attacks, "the terrorists only have to be successful once."
And while it is not certain we will be hit, the American people, he told ABC News, "have tobe prepared for potentially bad news."
"What I am trying to do in this interview is to make people aware of the fact that the threat is real, the threat is different, the threat is constant," he said.
In a rare and wide-ranging interview, the attorney general disclosed chilling, new details about the evolving threat of homegrown terror, and touched on topics ranging from Wikileaks to the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
What was uppermost on his mind, however, is the alarming rise in the number of Americans who are more than willing to attack and kill their fellow citizens.
"It is one of the things that keeps me up at night," Holder said. "You didn't worry about this even two years ago -- about individuals, about Americans, to the extent that we now do. And -- that is of -- of great concern."
"The threat has changed from simply worrying about foreigners coming here, to worrying about people in the United States, American citizens -- raised here, born here, and who for whatever reason, have decided that they are going to become radicalized and take up arms against the nation in which they were born," he said.
In the last 24 months, Holder said, 126 people have been indicted on terrorist-related charges, Fifty of those people are American citizens.
"I think that what is most alarming to me is the totality of what we see, the attorney general said. "Whether it is an attempt to bomb the New York City subway system, an attempt to bring down an airplane over Detroit, an attempt to set off a bomb in Times Square ... I think that gives us a sense of the breadth of the challenges that we face, and the kinds of things that our enemy is trying to do."
Holder says many of these converts to al Qaeda have something in common: a link to radical cleric Anwar Al Awlaki, an American citizen himself.
Authorities suspect Awlaki helped mastermind last year's Christmas Day underwear bombing plot in Detroit, and a recent scheme to blow up cargo planes travelling from Yemen to Europe and the United States.
"He's an extremely dangerous man. He has shown a desire to harm the United States, a desire to strike the homeland of the United States," Holder said. "He is a person who -- as an American citizen -- is familiar with this country and he brings a dimension, because of that American familiarity, that others do not."
Holder said that as a threat to the United States, Awlaki ranks right up there with Osama bin Laden.
"He would be on the same list with bin Laden," the attorney general said.
"He's up there. I don't know whether he's one, two, three, four -- I don't know. But he's certainly on the list of the people who worry me the most."
When asked whether the United states has a preference between killing or capturing and prosecuting Awlaki, Holder replied: "Well, we certainly want to neutralize him. And we will do whatever we can in order to do that."
Awlaki is believed to be in Yemen, but thanks to the Internet, his reach is global, and his influence dangerous.
Authorities say his teachings and writings have been discovered on the computers of a number of radicals who have tried to carry out terror plots here in America. Holder said Awlaki is able to preach violence on al Qaeda websites, and reach new converts.
"The ability to go into your basement, turn on your computer, find a site that has this kind of hatred spewed ... they have an ability to take somebody who is perhaps just interested, perhaps just on the edge, and take them over to the other side," he said.
To combat the threat of Americans turning to al Qaeda and violence, the United States is monitoring scores of radicals and has set up stings to blunt the threat.
The increasing number of FBI stings, such as the alleged plot to detonate a bomb at a Christmas tree lighting in Portland, are not without controversy, but Holder vigorously defended them.
"Options are always given all along the way for them to say, 'You know what, I have changed my mind. I don't want to do it.' Everyone that we have charged has said, 'No I want to go forward,'" he said. "All those actions were designed to kill Americans.
"I have to have all those tools available to me to try to keep the American people safe, and to do the job that I'm supposed to do as a 21st century attorney general," Holder said.
Holder said the United States has made great strides in improving its ability to detect and block attacks, which is shown by the number of would-be terrorists who have been stopped before they could kill Americans. The intelligence community is working around the clock, he said, with little time off.
"We are doing everything that we possibly can to keep the American people safe," Holder said. "We are vigilant, we are doing everything we can to keep our homeland secure,"
Turning to how terror suspects are tried, Holder said he still believes the "decision as to how people get prosecuted, where they get prosecuted, is an executive branch function. Even if those suspects are being held now at Guantanamo Bay. Holder said Congress should not be interfering with that.
"It's -- from my perspective -- a constitutional issue," he said.
As for Julian Assange and Wikileaks, Holder said "it's an ongoing investigation."
"What Wikileaks did, at the end of the day, was harmful to American security, put American agents and properties ... at risk ... and I think for arrogant and misguided reasons," he said.
December 22nd, 2010, 13:16
Toad
Re: Eric Holders new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
Slightly in Mr. Holder's defence, many western countries in the last decade have had a tremendous upturn of immigrants with no intent on integration. This is the primary internal threat as I see it.
December 22nd, 2010, 13:26
Malsua
Re: Eric Holders new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Toad
Slightly in Mr. Holder's defence, many western countries in the last decade have had a tremendous upturn of immigrants with no intent on integration. This is the primary internal threat as I see it.
I'm sure Mr Holder sees a pointed hood behind every blade of grass.
While he sees the issue with homegrown Islamics, he's probably more focused on the groups he can control and punish, white males and conservatives.
December 22nd, 2010, 16:27
vector7
Re: Eric Holders new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
Eric Holder and this Administration's actions speaks much louder than their carefully chosen words by the steady stream of regurgitated articles coming from the Socialist MSM.
In response to foreign terror threats the Administration rolls out naked scanners and grope pat downs at airports for all white elderly in wheelchairs, toddlers and women; but Muslims are given careful treatment and foreign Muslim terrorists are given Miranda Rights.
With wide open borders and Arizona land all but given to Mexican gangs with ties to Islamic terrorist giving rise to possible "Grey Terror" within the CONUS. If States step up to do anything about it the Administration hauls them before the United Nations.
Be rest assured this Administration will never let a crisis go to waste.
Friends we are living in the beginnings of an Axis nightmare to successfully destroy America if these useful idiots are not stopped. They are in the process of lowering our defenses and destroying whats left of our economy leaving us ripe for Civil War and or Invasion.
December 22nd, 2010, 16:40
American Patriot
Re: Eric Holders new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
And he wonders why Americans would take up arms?
Gosh... I can't imagine Americans doing such a thing.
January 20th, 2011, 00:15
vector7
Re: Eric Holders new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
Is someone planning on things to really start going down hill here at home soon?
By the end of the year, the U.S. Army will leave Iraq.
But Iraq isn’t going to leave the U.S. Army.
American soldiers spent seven years patrolling the urban neighborhoods of Iraq; its troops battled insurgents there block-by-block and house-by-house.
Now that the Army is getting out of Iraq, it wants to make sure its urban combat skills don’t wither away.
So it today it gave Lockheed Martin a contract worth up to $287 million to build Urban Operations Training Systems — essentially, giant simulation facilities and modules to help soldiers get ready for life in the big, bad city.
The contract will include structures like those, which are known as Mobile Military Operations on Urban Terrain systems, or Mobile MOUTs.
Lockheed says it’ll help soldiers drill on everything “from traditional war fighting tactics, to nation-building, to overseas contingency operations.”
Overseas contingency operations is the new bureaucratic and budgetary term for what we used to call “wars.”
A statement from the company heralding the deal said that the new training systems were likely to include measures to simulate homemade bombs, an indicator that the Army doesn’t think the threat from the signature weapon of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is likely to diminish.
That in turn has implications for other stuff the Army wants to buy — especially the new Ground Combat Vehicle, the service’s next-generation transporter.
The Army and the Marine Corps have faced criticism for buying so many armored Humvees and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, on the assumption that they’ll rot in the motor pool if troops don’t have to roll through terrain laced with homemade bombs in the future.
That may not be a chance the Army wants to take.
Training isn’t destiny, and just because the Army wants to keep urban combat in its toolkit doesn’t mean it’s looking to go stomping through any foreign capitals. One of the Army’s biggest internal criticisms after finding itself mired unexpectedly in Iraq was that its post-Vietnam officers deliberately unlearned how to fight insurgents.
Look for the exact opposite to happen here: Army gadflies like Col. Gian Gentile of West Point warn that the Army’s assuming that unpredictable future land wars are going to look too much like today’s counterinsurgencies.
A different aspect to the urban-training scenario offered by Lockheed: “live, virtual and constructive mission domains,” the statement says.
Whether that means, in part, videogame-based training remains to be seen. But at the Army’s recent annual conference in D.C., the service was showing off a sophisticated first-person-shooter modeled on eastern Afghanistan’s rugged, mountainous terrain. If Call of Duty can rig up an urban-warfare videogame, presumably one of the world’s largest defense companies can too.
Update, 8:50 a.m., January 19: This post has been edited for clarity.
January 18th, 2012, 19:16
vector7
Re: Eric Holders new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is providing senior state and local police officials with its analysis of homegrown terrorism incidents, including common signs law enforcement can use to identify violent extremists.
The warning signs identified for police include someone joining a group advocating violence, receiving support from a network that plans attacks or seeking out charismatic leaders who encourage violence. The analysis was conducted by the Homeland Security Department, the FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center. An overview of the findings was shared with The Associated Press.
The conference Wednesday at the White House marks the first time this unclassified analysis will be presented to 46 senior federal, state and local law enforcement officials, many of whom are police chiefs and sheriffs. The conference will also include sessions on other programs the federal government has for countering violent extremism and a briefing from a deputy chief of the Los Angeles Police Department about what the city has done on this front.
"Engaging local communities is critical to our nation's effort to counter violent extremism and violent crime, and this meeting brings together many of our partners," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.
Napolitano, Attorney General Eric Holder and the president's counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, planned to attend the White House conference.
There has been an uptick in attempted attacks by Americans and other legal U.S. residents in the past few years, prompting the Obama administration to place a priority on finding ways to stop this type of violence. The administration rolled out a thin strategy last year that put local communities — not Washington — in charge of countering violent extremism in the U.S. That strategy was short on details and did not focus on threats from Islamic extremists.
The White House has encouraged law enforcement to reach out to Muslim communities to build relationships, insisting that these communities are partners in the fight against terrorism. At the same time, the government is trying to develop ways to help local law enforcement detect behavior that could indicate someone is plotting a violent attack. The challenge has been to provide behavioral indicators that indicate the potential for violence rather than religious beliefs or other constitutionally-protected rights.
Analysts from the FBI, Homeland Security Department and National Counterterrorism Center reviewed 62 cases of homegrown violent extremists and found basic similarities. The cases included violent extremists who adhered to a mix of ideologies, including people who ascribed to white supremacist beliefs and people inspired by a violent interpretation of Islam. The analysis is not a psychological profile of a homegrown terrorist, but instead offers similarities among cases that could help local law enforcement better understand and detect threats.
In the 62 cases reviewed, the subjects increasingly spoke out against the government, blamed the government for perceived problems and did so in a way that caught the attention of other people in their communities, according to the senior counterterrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private White House event. Subjects became active on the Internet to espouse extremist views. In some cases, the subjects purchased weapons, ammunition or explosive materials.
Analysts found that a person's origin, ethnic background and socioeconomic status are not good indicators for potential violent extremist activity, the senior counterterrorism official said.
Later this month, a training program for local law enforcement on countering violent extremism will be tested in Southern California, and the government intends to roll out the training to the rest of the country through 2012. Part of the training will focus on understanding constitutionally protected activities so law enforcement can distinguish between illegal acts and free speech. The official said the FBI academy plans to incorporate this training into its programs as well.
The FBI came under fire last year for some controversial training sessions that portrayed Islam as a violent religion.
January 18th, 2012, 21:04
vector7
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Attorney General Eric Holder and Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan met with senior state, local and tribal law enforcement officials at the White House to discuss how to counter domestic extremism.
The Jan. 18 summit examined the Obama administration’s anti-domestic terror plan, called the Strategic Implementation Plan for Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States. The plan looks to engage local communities and law enforcement in preventing violent extremism in communities. Meeting attendees, said a statement by DHS, included sheriffs and chiefs of police from across the country, including representatives from the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Major Cities Chiefs Association, National Sheriffs’ Association, National Native American Law Enforcement Association, Governors Homeland Security Advisors Council, and Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council.
“Engaging local communities is critical to our nation’s effort to counter violent extremism and violent crime, and this meeting brings together many of our partners,” said Napolitano.
During the gathering, DHS said Napolitano underscored the agency’s efforts to support local communities by enhancing existing partnerships, focusing on information-driven community-based solutions, building government and law enforcement expertise, supporting community oriented policing practices and expanding grant prioritization to counter violent extremism and violent crime regardless of ideology. Additionally, DHS is continuing to implement recommendations from the DHS Homeland Security Advisory Council Countering Violent Extremism Working Group, like developing a curriculum for state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement that is focused on community-oriented policing in countering violent extremism and violent crime. DHS’ Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties also works to educate communities and state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement on cultural awareness across the nation, it said.
Napolitano also called for Congress to prevent layoffs of law enforcement and first responders by passing President Obama’s American Jobs Act. The legislation, said DHS, would provide $5 billion in assistance to states and local communities to create or save thousands of law enforcement and first responder jobs across the country.
Over the past year, Napolitano said her agency has worked with the Department of Justice on the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative (NSI) that trains state and local law enforcement to recognize behaviors and indicators related to terrorism, crime and other threats; standardize how observations are documented and analyzed; and ensure the sharing of those reports with the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Forces for further investigation.
January 25th, 2013, 10:01
vector7
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
Attorney General Eric Holder says it's time to ask "hard questions" about Constitutional rights.
Attorney General Eric Holder, still under fire for his role in the infamous Fast and Furious scandal, said that Americans need to ask "hard questions" about Constitutional rights, including the right to keep and bear arms, The Blaze reported Sunday.
“I'll say that as a nation I think we have to ask ourselves some hard questions. We gather too often to talk about these kinds of incidents,” he said while speaking about the Newtown school shootings in Tulsa, Okla.
“We need to discuss who we are as a nation, talk about the freedoms that we have, the rights that we have and how those might be used in a responsible way,” he added.
Holder made his remarks on the second anniversary of the shooting death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) took Holder to task for his comments while appearing on "Fox News Sunday."
“Well I think coming from him, that’s really important to note, coming from a man who’s over a department that forced the sale of guns to people that would bring about the death of people like Brian Terry, and there should be national outrage about Mexicans — our neighbors — 200 or more that have been killed by the guns that his department have forcibly — forced to be sold,” he said.
A post at the American Thinker reminds readers that Holder once suggested brainwashing people against guns, using anti-smoking campaigns as a model.
"What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that’s not cool, that it’s not acceptable, it’s not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way in which we’ve changed our attitudes about cigarettes,” he said in January 1995.
"We need to do this every day of the week and just really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way," Holder advised.
At the time, Holder served as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
Video of Holder's "brainwashing" comment can be seen here.
January 27th, 2013, 04:30
Ryan Ruck
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
A dead science teacher, weapons of mass destruction, first responders in hazmat suits and the Ohio Army National Guard all near the Municipal Stadium in Portsmouth, Thursday. There's no cause for alarm -- this is just a drill!
The mock disaster training exercise is being done with Scioto County first responders and the Ohio Army National Guard 52nd Civil Support Unit.
"It's the reality of the world we live in," says Portsmouth Police Chief Bill Raisin. "Don't forget there is such a thing as domestic terrorism. This helps us all be prepared."
The make-believe scenario is timely. Two school employees who are disgruntled over the government's interpretation of the Second Amendment, plot to use chemical, biological and radiological agents against members of the local community.
January 27th, 2013, 21:26
American Patriot
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
The reality of the wold in which live has nothing to do with the fantasies of these fools.
I work in the "field" of anti terrorism, security, and random, stupid "insider threats" and the world of wmd doesn't belong in schools.
Idiots
January 29th, 2013, 06:39
vector7
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
The containers (like those pictured) are usually painted olive drab and are unmarked except for indistinguishable numbers/letters probably for inventory, routing, etc.
Reader Don sent this in recently:
Jim – I passed a convoy of olive drab unmarked 40 foot tractor trailers each with four 10 yard ammo bunker boxes chained to them and unmarked armored Hum-Vee’s heading north on I-95 in Brevard County, Florida this past Thursday morning. The “govt” is positioning these ammo storage boxes, I have been told, in strategic places in population centers around the country. They are usually painted olive drab and are unmarked except for indistinguishable numbers/letters probably for inventory, routing, etc.
Obma’s Homeland Security Department has purchased 1.4 billion rounds of ammunition – that is not a typo — during the last six months.
ATK is one company that won a contract with the Department of Homeland Security to provide 450 million rounds of .40 caliber ammunition in 2012.
Previously it was reported that people around the US have begun reporting the site of strange, new, heavily-armed FEMA fighting vehicles this past year.
One set of images made available by Rense.com shows trailer after trailer carrying these new DHS and FEMA armored fighting vehicles, complete with machine gun slots. They’re labeled with the usual backward American flag and the title, ‘Homeland Security’. Below that and the DHS logo, it also reads, ‘Immigration & Customs Enforcement’. Joining those markings, the black vehicles with white lettering also display ‘POLICE/RESCUE’ on one side and ‘Special Response Team’ on the other.
Whiteout Press reported on the government ammunition purchases back in October 2012.
As we detailed in the August 28 Whiteout Press article ‘History of DHS Ammunition Purchases’, federal emergency management agencies are looking more and more like a military army every day.
The federal government’s procurement website actually lists DHS’ requests for bids to supply it with ammunition and military weaponry. All of the orders listed in the above article, including the orders for hundreds of millions of rounds of ammunition, are publicly available at http://www.fbo.gov.
One look at a chart of DHS ammunition purchases over the past decade reveals a drastic spike in orders of bullets recently, totaling in the billions of rounds. Other charts available online show a similar drastic spike in the purchases of accompanying weaponry by the Department of Homeland Security.
What is the US federal government preparing for? And why does it feel it needs an army of brainwashed youth, millions of guns, thousands of armored fighting vehicles and literally billions of rounds of ammunition, just to provide relief to the American people during a natul disaster? Any historian will tell you it sounds more like the arming of the Hitler Youth than an army of first responders fighting forest fires and hurricanes.
Look for the Homeland Security ammunition containers coming soon to your community.
January 29th, 2013, 14:29
American Patriot
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
Army drill scares residents on Houston's south side
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The sight of Army helicopters and the sound of gunfire created a lot of concern Monday afternoon in one Houston neighborhood. Related Content
With military helicopters flying above her southeast Houston neighborhood, Frances Jerrals didn't know what to think.
"When you see this, you think the worst. When you hear this, you think the worst," Jerrals said.
And so, she passed along her concern.
"She told me 'don't come home it sounds like we're in a war zone. Guns, shooting, helicopters flying around the house,'" Isaac Robertson Jr. said.
The U.S. Army along with other agencies took over the old Carnegie Vanguard High School near Scott and Airport. There were armed men in fatigues, plenty of weapons and what many thought were real live rounds
"I felt like I was in a warzone." Jerrals said. "It was nonstop. I was terrified."
Turns out, it was a multi-agency training drill that Jerrals wished would have come with warning.
"They could have done a better job in notifying the neighborhood," Jerrals said.
The Army did not give any details of what the training is for. Some people we spoke to needed no explanation.
"If it's to protect our kids, I'm all for it," neighbor Glenn DeWitt said.
January 29th, 2013, 14:39
Malsua
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
And a similar thing happened in Miami a few days ago with live fire.(blanks or some other non projectile rounds being fired)
January 29th, 2013, 14:47
American Patriot
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
Yup. These urban exercises seem to be happening a lot, in crowded areas for some reason.
I don't really see why the US military is practicing inside population centers in America. They can't LEGALLY police cities. I don't care about this so-called "martial law" crap. They pull that and it's going to get nasty quickly.
January 29th, 2013, 15:32
American Patriot
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
They can put one of those in my back yard. Thank you very much.
January 29th, 2013, 16:20
American Patriot
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
I was thinking the same thing....
January 29th, 2013, 16:30
American Patriot
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
Let's make sure the kids know what guns sound like....
Cary Grove Drill To Include Shooting Blanks In Hallways
January 29, 2013 9:49 AM
CHICAGO (CBS) — A school shooting drill planned for tomorrow in the far northwestern suburbs has many parents upset.
According to a letter from Cary-Grove High School principal Jay Sargeant, there will be a code red drill at the school on Wednesday.
It will include somebody shooting blanks from a gun in the hallway “in an effort to provide our teachers and students some familiarity with the sound of gunfire.”
Parent Kassy Pinter says: “It’s probably necessary to have the ‘code red’ drill but not really necessary to shoot the blanks in the hallway.”
Parent Sharon Miller says the way Cary Grove has planned the code red drill is absurd and also thinks it’s not necessary to shoot blanks in the hallway.
“If you need to run a drill, you run a drill,” she told WBBM Newsradio’s Bernie Tafoya. “They run fire drills all the time, but they don’t run up and down the hallway with a flamethrower.”
Parents are also concerned about some students getting too upset during the exercise and about some parents having not yet receiving the email.
School spokesman Jeff Puma said the small number of parents who have contacted the school are evenly split for and against the drill.
Puma said the school has worked closely with the Cary Grove Police Department on the drill plans
“It was their recommendation that we do this in order to create the knowledge necessary to keep our students safe in an active crisis situation.”
The full email:
Dear parents: At Cary-Grove and across District 155, we make your child’s safety our number one priority each day. As a parent, I can assure you that we understand our responsibility to return your child safely at the end of each day. While we take many preventative steps to keep our building secure, we also practice our response should a crisis arise. Some examples include meetings with first responders, a comprehensive crisis response plan, and simulations. We are planning a code red simulation on Wednesday, January 30. We feel it is important to explain the simulation to you in advance so that you and your child might be able to better understand what will take place on Wednesday.
The simulation will take approximately 15-20 minutes, during which time teachers will secure their rooms, draw curtains, and keep their students from traveling throughout the building. Please note that we will be firing blanks in the hallway in an effort to provide our teachers and students some familiarity with the sound of gunfire. Our school resource officer and other members of the Cary Police Department will assist us in sweeping the building to ensure that all students are in a secure location during the drill. At the conclusion of the drill, we will take some time to process what occurred and then we will return to our normal classroom routine.
I encourage you to discuss the drill with your student both before it happens and after. These drills help our students and staff to be prepared should a crisis occur, but it may cause some students to have an emotional reaction. In those cases, your voice may provide reassurances of the drill’s importance. Additionally, we have trained social workers on staff who can speak directly with your child should he or she need added support.
Should you have any questions, please contact me or any member of the Cary-Grove’s administrative team. Together, we can keep our school a safe place for your child to learn and grow.
Sincerely, Jay Sargeant
Principal
January 29th, 2013, 16:56
American Patriot
Re: DHS new Terror Warning: "We are now focused on Americans taking up arms"
Gunships Over Miami: “Machine Gun Fire, Strafing Runs, Troops Rappelling From Choppers, and Road Blockades”
Mac Slavo
January 28th, 2013
Read by 14,538 people
Gun control advocates say deadly assault weapons have no business being on the streets of America.
But, apparently, those same people who would restrict you of your ability to defend yourself have no objections to fully loaded military gunships flying over American population centers.
That’s exactly what happened in Miami, Florida recently when the U.S. military, in conjunction with local law enforcement agencies, staged an “urban training exercise,” justifying the action as as preparation of our troops for deployment overseas.
If we’re supposedly pulling our military out of Afghanistan and Iraq, which urban environment is it that the military and local police are training for?
Military “exercises” in populated urban environments are now so routine, so commonplace, they are no longer reported by the national media and are left as “human interest” stories for local news stations.
For instance, in Miami last Thursday, units of the military industrial complex staged yet another training exercise.
“Diving Blackhawks, blank rounds of machine gun fire, strafing runs, troops rappelling from choppers, and road blockades,” writes Karen De Coster. “All over the skies of Miami at night, just a few days ago. According to this local TV clown in the video, this event was for the purposes of ‘meeting requirements,’ preparing for overseas military drills, and making sure the equipment is in check.”
In the above video, we hear the staccato of door guns pounding away as “military-style choppers” swooped a couple hundred feet above traffic on I-395 in downtown Miami.
From the local CBS disinfo ministry:
The training is designed to ensure that military personnel are able to operate in urban areas and to focus on preparations for overseas deployment. It also serves as a mandatory training certification requirement.
The U.S. military has remote training installations all over the world. Why, then, would it be necessary for them to be engaging in exercises over a major U.S. city?
We are being systematically desensitized to a domestic police state. From being violated by security agents at our nation’s airports, to heavily armed hybrid security teams being deployed in martial red zones around the country, the government is reshaping our perceptions of what ”normal” means.
In this context it’s important to note that Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano recently said that we no longer need to worry about Al Queda as a threat to America. Rather, DHS security and intelligence resources are shifting to the domestic front:
“There’s been a lot of evolution over the past three years,” she said. “The thing that’s most noticeable to me is the growth of the lone wolf,” the single attacker who lives in the United States or elsewhere who is not part of a larger global conspiracy or network, she said.
She named no examples, but it’s a phenomenon that is increasingly the focus of international anti-terror operations.
Make no mistake. The goal of this live environment exercise is not to stop a terrorist threat from Al Queda or some other rogue foreign element.
It’s to stop you.
