The AC Phoenix
March 2006
Page 9
HONELAND SECURIH
COnTRACTSrORVAST
NEW DETENTION CAMPS
By: Peter Dale Scott
News Analysis/Commentary
Halliburton subsidiary has just received a $385 million contract from the Department of
Homeland Security to provide “temporary detention and processing capabilities.”
The contract, announced Jan. 24, by the engineering and construction firm KBR, calls
for preparing for “an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid develop
ment of new programs” in the event of other emergencies, such as “a natural disaster.”
The release offered no details about where Halliburton was to build these facilities, or
when.
To date, some newspapers have womied that open-ended provisions in the contract
could lead to cost overruns, such as have occurred with KBR in Iraq. A homeland Security
spokesperson has responded that this is a “contingency contract” and that conceivably no
centers might be built. But almost no paper so far has discussed the possibility that deten
tion centers could be used to detain American citizens if the Bush administration were to
declare martial law.
For those who follow covert government operations abroad and at home, the contract
evoked ominous memories of Oliver North’s controversial Rex-84 “readiness exercise” in
1984. This called for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to round up and
detain 400,000 imaginary “refugees,” in the context of “uncontrolled population move
ments” over the Mexican border into the United States. His activities raised civil liberties
concerns in both Congress and the Justice Department. The concerns persist.
“Almost certainly this is preparation for a roundup after the next 9/11 for
Mid-Easterners, Muslims and possibly dissenters,” says Daniel Ellsberg, a former military
analyst who in 1971 released the Pentagon Papers, the U.S. military’s account of its activ
ities in Vietnam. “They’ve already done this on a smaller scale, with the ‘special registra
tion’ detentions of immigrant men from Muslim countries and with Guantanamo.”
Plans for detention facilities or camps have a long history, going back to fears in the
1970s of a national uprising by Black militants. As Alonzo Chardy reported in the Miami
Herald on July 5,1987, an executive order for continuity of government (COG) had been
drafted in 1982 by PEMA head Louis Giuffrida. The order called for “suspension of the
Constitution” and “declaration of martial law.” The martial law portions of the plan were
outlined in a memo by Mr. Giuffrida’s deputy, John Brinkerhoff.
In 1985, President Ronald Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 188, one
of a series of directives that authorized continued planning for COG by a private parallel
government.
Two books, James Mann’s “Rise of the Vulcans” and James Bamfords “A Pretext for
War,” have revealed that in the 1980s this parallel structure operating outside normal
government channels, included the then-head of G.C. Searie and Co., Donald Rumsfeld,
and then-Congressman from Wyoming, Dick Cheney.
After 9/11, new martial law plans began to surface similar to those of EEMA in the
1980s. In January 2002, the Pentagon submitted a proposal for deploying troops on
American streets. One month later, John Brinkerhoff, the author of the 1982 FEMA memo,
published an article arguing for the legality of using U.S. troops for purposes of domestic
cJJ©[talS®CD
security.
Then in April 2002, Defense Department officials implemented a plan for domestic U.S.
military operations by creating a new U.S. Northern Command (CINC-NORTHCOM) for the
continental United States, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called this “the most
sweeping set of changes since the unified command system was set up in 1946.”
The NORTHCOM commander. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced, is
responsible for “homeland defense and also serves as head of the North American
Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)... He will command U.S. forces that operate
within the United States in support of civil authorities. The command will provide civil
support not only in response to attacks, but for natural disasters.”
John Brinkerhoff later commented on PBS that, “The United States itself is now for the
first time since the War of 1812 a theater of war. That means that we should apply, in my
view, the same kind of command structure in the United States that we apply in other
theaters of war,”
Then, in response to Hurricane Katrina in Sept 2005, according to the Washington Post,
White House senior adviser Karl Rove told the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Babineaux
Blanco, that she should explore legal options to impose martial law “or as close as we can
get.” The White House tried vigorously, but
ultimately failed, to compel Gov. Blanco to
yield control of the stat National Guard.
Also in September, NORTH-COM con
ducted its highly classified Granite Shadow
exercise in Washington. As William /Vkin
reported in the Washington Post, “Granite
Shadow is yet another new Top Secret and
compartmented operation related to the
military’s extra-legal powers regarding
weapons of mass destruction. It allows for
emergency military operations in the
United States without civilian supervision
or control.”
It is clear that the Bush administration is
thinking seriously about martial law.
Many critics have alleged that FEMA’s
spectacular failure to respond to Hurricane
Katrina followed from a deliberate White
House policy; of paring back FEMA and
instead strengthening the military for
responses to disasters.
A multimillion program for detention
facilities will greatly increase
NORTHCOM’s ability to respond to any
domestic disorders.
(Peter Dale Scott is author of “Drugs,
Oil and War: The United States in
Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina.”
Visit his website at
WWW.Socrates.berkeleyedul
pdscott/index.html.)
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