On Feb. 4, 2008, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story in which the following was stated:
“Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of rail cars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.”
According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of “all removable aliens” and “potential terrorists.”
It goes on to state that the government has a list of 775,000 people it calls “terror suspects.” Were you aware that your government has plans to transport you and your family to detention camps if you disagree with it? Is your name on the list?
Perry Callas, Redmond
This article appears in Feb 21-27, 2008.
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Homeland security was formed 10 days after 9-11-01, which points out that Callas has a callous disregard for little incidentals like facts, time frames, etc. His point appears to be that Homeland Security was already in operation, with contracts in place, and this illustrious plan, “endgame.”
Where “is the beef?” Where do you hide thousands of unused rail cars? How do you silence all the people building them? There doesn’t seem to be any facts, documents, first person accounts, provable or any other attributions, DNA, soiled undergarments or various trivial detritus to substantiate this farce. The possible fact that this newspaper may have printed a “story” is the definition of meaninglessness. So what? The ‘Sun,’ the ‘Globe,’ the National Enquirer, have been publishing ‘stories’ for years.
To presume Congress secretly formed and funded Homeland Security years before 9/11 under the Clinton Administration, and that minor snippet of information was never leaked until now, sounds like badly disheveled thinking, to put it humanely.
Bear in mind also, The Chronicle is a very far left instrument of routine factual distortion and has about as much editorial credibility as a smear of week old bubblegum on a tepid sidewalk.
I think I go along with Genardo on this one. It can be argued whether or not taser use is deadly force, plenty seem to die, but there is no question whatsoever that it is dangerous force. Dangerous force should be used extremely rarely, not as casual vindictive revenge for verbal slights or because the cop has domestic issues of his own.
Tasers should be used as an alternative to deadly force when applicable and never be used as means a for vindictive cops to “punish” people on the spot. Were tasers used as an alternative to deadly force on the famous, “don’t tase me, bro!” college student who’s ‘crime’ was taunting Sen. Kerry? (How can any reasonable person not taunt Kerry?)
Taser use seems to be that of a ‘new toy,’ primarily used to sadistically thrash people… and get away with it.
Unfortunately, people are dying so that sadistic cops can fondle and play with their new toy.
Sorry, I was on the Taser letter, my computer burped, and the post ended up on this one.
My apologies to all…
The Chronicle runs an Op-ed ‘article’ by the tin-foil crowd and everyone comes out of the woodwork. Rail yards-industrial zones–anything surrounded by a fence is videoed and purported to be a site. The wire points outward so people can’t get in–ignore it. The ‘gun tower’ is a cell antenna site–‘sure it is!’ The You Tube stuff is amusing–that it is taken seriously is further proof that we have dumbed down to where any possibility becomes reality, vacant proof, logic and reason.
Stephen and Ginny,
I took off my foil hat long enough to gather some additional information. The following is available at http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=9c2d6a5e75201d7e3936ddc65cdd56a9. From the tone of your responses, I guess that you may not really be looking for additional documentation but are, rather, more interested in labeling me and the letter I wrote as lunatic fringe. However, on the off chance that you may be open to finding out more:
” The Halliburton subsidiary KBR (formerly Brown and Root) announced on Jan. 24 that it had been awarded a $385 million contingency contract by the Department of Homeland Security to build detention camps. Two weeks later, on Feb. 6, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that the Fiscal Year 2007 federal budget would allocate over $400 million to add 6,700 additional detention beds (an increase of 32 percent over 2006). This $400 million allocation is more than a four-fold increase over the FY 2006 budget, which provided only $90 million for the same purpose.
Both the contract and the budget allocation are in partial fulfillment of an ambitious 10-year Homeland Security strategic plan, code-named ENDGAME, authorized in 2003. According to a 49-page Homeland Security document on the plan, ENDGAME expands “a mission first articulated in the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.” Its goal is the capability to “remove all removable aliens,” including “illegal economic migrants, aliens who have committed criminal acts, asylum-seekers (required to be retained by law) or potential terrorists.”
There is no question that the Bush administration is under considerable political pressure to increase the detentions of illegal immigrants, especially from across the Mexican border. Confrontations along the border are increasingly violent, often involving the drug traffic.
But the problem of illegal immigration cannot be separated from other Bush administration policies: principally the retreat from traditional American programs designed to combat poverty in Latin America. In Florida last week, Democratic Party leader Howard Dean attacked the new federal budget for its almost 30 percent cut in development aid to Latin America and the Caribbean.
In truth, both parties have virtually abandoned the John F. Kennedy vision of an Alliance for Progress in Latin America. Kennedy’s hope was that, by raising the standard of living of Latin America’s poor, there would be less pressure on them to emigrate to the United States.
That vision foundered when successive administrations, both Democratic and Republican, contributed to the overthrow of democratically elected governments in Brazil, Chile and elsewhere, replacing them with oppressive dictatorships.
Since about 1970, the policies of the U.S.-dominated International Monetary Fund have also aggravated the problem of poverty in the rest of the world, especially Latin America. U.S. programs abroad, like programs at home, are now designed principally around the concept of security — above all for oil installations and pipelines.
In consequence, the United States is being redefined as a vast gated community, hoping to isolate itself by force from its poverty-stricken neighbors. Inside the U.S. fortress sit 2.1 million prisoners, a greater percentage of the population than in any other nation. ENDGAME’s crash program is designed to house additional detainees who have not been convicted of crimes. ”
Space limitations prevent me from including the entire article, so please use the link to read the entire text. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Stephen and Ginny,
I took off my tinfoil hat long enough to fond out more about the program I mentioned in my letter. If you’re interested in reading about it, you might check it out at http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=9c2d6a5e75201d7e3936ddc65cdd56a9.
Or, if you prefer, perhaps you’d like to continue your program of personal insults.
Holding pens for the Rapture…
I read your letter. I read your response to the other posters. I don’t get why your feathers are ruffled. Sounds to me like really smart moves, trying to get ahead of the curve.
Making sure we are prepared for contingencies, is what Homeland Security is/should be all about.
I would think at least a million of us, if not a hell of a lot more, could end up being a dangerous problem if certain national issues were to develop. What would you propose we do with them? Buy them a nice condo and give them prime rib?
As for Mexicans, they have a country, it’s called Mexico. What have they done with it? Whose responsibility is that?
Callas: You got this crap off a website. Anybody can own a website. This website you put up is an ethnic propaganda site. Notice that it is an Dot.org not a Dot.com. That means it is not for profit, it is an ‘organization.’ Organizations have a specific agenda. This website you site has a specific agenda. Gee, I wonder what the agenda is? You state we can find “further documentation there,” but what one finds is rumor, ‘facts’ with no provable attribution, innuendo and other pro-ethnically biased bullshit.
Because you appear to be excruciatingly naive and perhaps you enjoy getting sucked into a propaganda site without any other documentation to support the bias you probable had from the get go, doesn’t suffice as documentation, truth or any recognizable reality that the the rest of us demand.
Time to change the tinfoil.
Callas: I checked with CNN, MSNBC, ABC, FOX, CBS, Fred’s Texaco & Organic World Wide News, as well as the ever erudite, Uncle Bob’s Squirrel Cage Liners & News Bureau…None of them had a leg up on this story. The Bolshoi Ballet promised to look into it as soon as they finished an article on the myth of fever blisters among blind sheep with gingivitis, but that could take awhile, the way they tip toe into a story.
In the mean time, dwell upon the axiom that “those with an ax to grind, usually have the dullest axes,” which I just made up on the spot, but in the spirit of mischief and to give it more bling, I’ll attribute to a Wise Old Turk.
Perhaps you should try my old sainted Grammaw’s soup tasting advice she used to dish out around the campfire, after a hard day scrubbing pigs, regarding baseless nonsense such as you have put forth, which goes, “If the soup tastes like crap, don’t eat it.”
Put another way, hogwash makes bad soup.
Consider checking your tinfoil supply in case it is lead based.
Wayne Sheffield: “I would think at least a million of us, if not a hell of a lot more, could end up being a dangerous problem if certain national issues were to develop.”
Whom do you have in mind, Wayne? Maybe me?
HBM…Recognition or awareness that a third of one percent of us, more or less, might, under certain circumstances, act in a subversive manner, detrimental to the short, medium and long term interest of the other 99 2/3% of us, should not surprise an educated man.
You have to answer your own ridiculous question, which has no answer, which you knew before you asked it… and that is precisely the reason you asked it. I am quite aware that you ‘spin’ your questions for effect.
I think one of my favorite comments from the people who have responded so far has to be “ethnic propaganda site.” What did the writer mean by “ethnic?” Is it possible “ethnic propaganda site” is a phrase meant to describe a site that talks about people whose skin color is different from yours? Is it a nice little euphemism you use when you describe anyone who picks your fruits and vegetables? Or does it just apply to people who you have prejudged as unworthy of association with you and your family? I thought there were probably quite a few white supremacists in the Central Oregon area. I just didn’t realize one could get them to come out of the woodwork by simply asking why the government is funding detention camps. Now I know. My naivete has been shattered.
There is a fascinating video about a prison run by CCA (a private prison corporation) and funded by your tax dollars- a prison where, until people recently started asking questions, illegal immigrants and their children were jailed. The video may be watched at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3907096540955731120&hl=en
The March 3, 2008 New Yorker magazine also has a comprehensive article about the place and how its policies included confining seven year old children to cells. The cost to the taxpayers? $200 per day per prisoner. It would have been cheaper to house the immigrants at the local Hilton Hotel in Taylor, Texas. In fact, the prisoners could have stayed at a Motel 6 and the extra cash could have funded English classes, so that the people could get jobs and begin paying taxes. Unfortunately, that sort of economic thinking hasn’t reached the folks who profit from this sweetheart concentration camp deal. Until people started asking bothersome questions, families stayed behind bars simply because someone could make a profit off of it.
Before my ancestor, George Washington (yes- George was my 8th great grandfather), helped establish this country, every European person who arrived here was an illegal immigrant. The Iroquois were upset, but they were outgunned by our loving ancestors.
Today, of course, there are several million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and they have been made scapegoats by the crooks and liars in our government. Evidence of this propaganda process appears in the phrase one of the writers above chose: “getting ahead of the curve” – He mentions that there are a million people he would not oppose imprisoning. My guess is that those people would include me, anyone with dark skin, and anyone who asked a question he may find it uncomfortable to answer. Such scapegoating techniques were successfully used to mobilize the Germans before their annihilation of the Jews, mentally retarded people, and “ethnic” people Hitler and his buddies found to be distasteful. Your parents and grandparents can tell you what that means. Some of your relatives may even have perished in the fight against such inhuman treatment. Americans who liberated Europe in the 1940s did not think it wise to imprison people because of their ideas or ethnic background. One of my friends’ fathers was assigned to photograph the bodies the day the Allies liberated Auschwitz Concentration Camp. he said the dead were pile up like cordwood, and he had to stop between photos to vomit. His experience with preventive detention was less than positive.
Now that we have ample space to imprison those who disagree with the crooks in power; now that tasers are available’ now that the armed forces have deployed a ray gun which inflicts pain upon members of a crowd; it is no longer necessary for those who pray for totalitarian government to hide their intentions. My little letter is no more or less than a last attempt to remind you that your “security” techniques can and will be used against you by the same criminals you now support. Please forgive me if I can’t help you later; I and my “dangerous” friends who believe in the Constitution will be safely locked away.
Ladies and Gents,
I see a pattern here. I see lines drawn regarding our civil rights. The US Constitution provides for the right to speak, this means to dissent, and the right to privacy. I see that Perry is concerned about our civil rights. Then I see a lot of other people responding that they are willing to give up these rights. I hear that the rest of you are all ready to give up your civil rights and go straight to prison when you are found to be a danger to national security.
Fascinating discussion!
I find it curious that so many would think it so unlikely for our government to be quietly building detention centers to hold people who’ve not been charged with a crime.Or to hold suspected terrorists. Why is that so hard to believe? There are several hundred that we know of down in Cuba. Not charged with a crime. Not allowed decent representation. American Red Cross denied access.Hmmm.
We know that our government has kidnapped people off the street and taken them to other countries for “enhanced interrogation techniques”. But not tortured. Once again no charges of guilt, just suspicion of “terrorist connections” or some other contrived allegation. We don’t know how often this has occurred, because it’s a secret. A “State Secret”.
I’m not sure just how far the neoconservative imperialist swine in Washington will go,but questioning their every move is a vital and valid part of living in this country. This is our responsibility as Americans, and Callas is doing just that.
It seems to me that most people would rather stumble through life with their eyes closed tightly, while complaining about all the people pointing out the obvious greed and evil surrounding us in an attempt to consume our great nation one person at a time, then to actually take notice of what is happening around them. If you acknowledge the possibility of what Perry suggests holding even a fragment of truth to it, then you are automatically a compassionless moron for doing nothing, or for just continuing to be apart of the machine that spoon feeds us daily. Encouraging folks to turn away from the pain that others have just to keep a hold of whatever happiness you can consume for yourself. Isn’t that what most of America is best at, sitting back and doing nothing? And good for Perry who will never just lie down and be silent about the injustices in our world. Thank you Perry for always being true to who you are no matter how much resistance you get from the other side!
Perry: Kudos to you good sir. In this area of sheltered individuals it is nice to see a little concern for the well-being of all. I do love how when that little concern is shown, the ign’nt folk show right up. Stories such as these need to be taken very seriously in the context of “ruling with an iron fist”. Our country is meant to be ran by the people… not by fascist cyborgs bent on word dominance and ever-lasting-life though biotechnology.