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This is an excellent guide for prepping for a condition most of us don't give much thought to - Martial Law. It was sent to me by SAA Holdings, who also generously gave their permission for me to post and Tweet and Facebook it to everyone I knew. (I pasted their address below.) It's a scary read, but has lots of info good to think about. I hope you like it. God bless you!Saa Holdings LLC | PO Box 4091 | Independence, mo 64050
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Survival E-Book
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Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 4
Chapter 1 ........................................................................................................................ 5
It's for Your Own Good; It Always Is ............................................................................ 5
The United States and Martial Law .............................................................................. 6
Word War II and Martial Law .................................................................................... 7
Even the Founding Fathers… .................................................................................. 7
Chapter 2 ...................................................................................................................... 10
The Executive Order .................................................................................................. 10
What is an Emergency? ......................................................................................... 14
Chapter 3 ...................................................................................................................... 16
FEMA, Government and Mechanisms of Control ...................................................... 16
Budgetary Black Holes ........................................................................................... 18
Culture of Crisis ...................................................................................................... 20
Chapter 4 ...................................................................................................................... 21
A Different Narrative .................................................................................................. 21
The Philippines ....................................................................................................... 22
Unionists ................................................................................................................ 22
Word War II ............................................................................................................ 23
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FEMA and REX-84 ................................................................................................. 23
Civil Disobedience and Oppression ....................................................................... 24
REX-84 and What It Means .................................................................................... 25
Bringing it Together ................................................................................................ 26
Chapter 5 ...................................................................................................................... 28
It Takes a Crisis ......................................................................................................... 28
The Airport ............................................................................................................. 29
Outside the Airport ................................................................................................. 30
Threats and Real Threats....................................................................................... 31
What it Means ........................................................................................................ 32
Chapter 6 ...................................................................................................................... 34
Martial Law and Surviving it in Practice ..................................................................... 34
Being Realistic ....................................................................................................... 35
Keep Your Head Down .............................................................................................. 40
Chapter 7 ...................................................................................................................... 41
Staying Alive .............................................................................................................. 41
The Mentality of an Oppressor ............................................................................ 42
Networking with a Network ................................................................................. 45
Chapter 8 ...................................................................................................................... 48
Surveillance and the Police State .......................................................................... 48
Basics.................................................................................................................... 49
Step 1: Get Offline ................................................................................................ 50
Step 2: Smile for the Camera .............................................................................. 51
Step 3: One-Time Communications .................................................................... 53
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Cell Phones, PDAs and Other Risks ................................................................... 55
Chapter 9 ...................................................................................................................... 56
Communications ..................................................................................................... 56
Useful Bands ........................................................................................................ 57
HAM Radios .......................................................................................................... 60
Appealing to Everything ...................................................................................... 60
Chapter 10 .................................................................................................................... 62
Preparation vs. Paranoia ......................................................................................... 62
FEMA Centers ....................................................................................................... 63
Chapter 11 .................................................................................................................... 65
The Economics of Martial Law ................................................................................... 65
Precious Metals .................................................................................................... 65
Hoarding................................................................................................................. 67
Other than Food ..................................................................................................... 68
Chapter 12 .................................................................................................................... 70
Understanding and Managing Current Threats .......................................................... 70
Hoarding Dangerous Substances .......................................................................... 70
Arsenals ................................................................................................................. 71
Bunkers and Other Structures ................................................................................ 72
Navigable Waters ................................................................................................... 72
Survival Preparedness ........................................................................................... 73
Chapter 13 .................................................................................................................... 76
Is this a Real Threat or Just a Fantasy? .................................................................... 76
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Introduction
If you're familiar with the military and what military service entails, you understand that
there's a paradox involved for people who fight for a nation with civil liberties. You might
be fighting for the civil liberties of others, but you do not enjoy those liberties yourself
during your stint as a soldier. This is something that soldiers accept and, once their time
is served, they are treated as ordinary citizens again.
Military law is harsh. Civil law in the United States has some characteristics that are not
necessarily true of military law. For example, a citizen cannot be held without charge. If
a police officer detains you, they only have a limited amount of time to explain why
you're being held and to formally charge you with a crime before they have to let you go.
Habeas corpus allows individuals to demand their freedom, or to have their freedom
demanded by another on their behalf, and prevents the government from arbitrarily
detaining civilians.
In the years following September 11, 2001 and, to a lesser extent, in the years before
that, interpretations of existing law and new laws reduced the amount of power that
citizens have against their government. The United States was originally set up as a
government that had very restricted authority. It was assumed that the citizens
themselves were the ultimate authorities in their lives. The rights that citizens enjoy,
derived principally from the Bill of Rights—the first 10 amendments to the constitution—
have been greatly infringed upon over recent years. Like all incidents where a
government has moved to strip rights from the citizenry, these actions have largely been
cast as necessary for security and for national defense. Political dispositions and
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ideologies notwithstanding, many people in the nation are greatly concerned with the
prospect of being forced to live in a police state or a state of martial law should things
degrade further.
Chapter 1
It's for Your Own Good; It Always Is
One of the characteristics that most states
with martial law in effect have in common is an officially-declared crisis. Whenever
martial law is declared, it's declared for the citizenry's own good, whether or not it
actually does the citizenry any good, or actually does them outright harm. Martial law, in
some cases, is warranted. In the aftermath of natural disasters, looting and violence can
become commonplace and may be impossible to quell otherwise. Riots sometimes
explode and, because of the dangers posed to people in the area of the riot, martial law
may be declared to bring the situation back under control. In the United States, various
law enforcement agencies and the National Guard may work to bring things back under
control in these situations. In some cases, however, these law enforcement and military
agencies end up infringing on people's constitutional rights. Sometimes, this is
propagandized so that citizens exercising their right to peaceably assemble and petition
the government for the redress of grievances are cast as an angry mob that poses a
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danger to those around them, when this is not at all the case. This tactic can and has
been used against both right- and left-wing protesters in the United States.
The United States and Martial Law
Martial law has been used in the United States many times over the years. As is almost
always the case, these instances usually involved cases where the government decided
that abridging the rights of the citizenry was necessary toward the fulfillment of one
national security goal or another.
While the federal government is usually cast as the real danger to citizens where
declaring martial law is concerned, be aware that it doesn't take the federal government
to make this happen. A governor or the military can just as easily start throwing their
weight around. Again, this is sometimes warranted but is also sometimes used as a tool
to quash politically inconvenient or unpopular voices. Labor activists, civil rights
activists, women's suffragists, anti-tax activists, religious communities and others have
all been victimized by official mechanisms of control and the legitimized use of force, as
have other types of protestors.
There have been several instances where marital law has been used in the United
States. You'll see that the justification for the application of this law is largely the same
across all of the instances where it was used, though the exact circumstances differ.
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Word War II and Martial Law
World War II is usually pointed to by those who want to take a bit of pride in the United
States. Just as it's easy to forget that the US didn't do most of the fighting in the Second
World War—the Soviet Union saw far more bloodshed and hardship—it's easy to forget
that the US engaged in some of the most egregious abuses of power and violations of
civil law in its history during this period.
During the Second World War, there as a brief period where martial law was applied to
the west coast of the United States. The reason given for this was, of course, the threat
against national security. This passed rather quickly, as challenges erupted almost
immediately. Those challenges to martial law, however, did not prevent the interment of
thousands of Japanese Americans by a government that used national security as a
pretext for violating their civil rights.
The Hawaiian Islands were also under martial law following the bombing of Pearl
Harbor.
Even the Founding Fathers…
Using the Founding Fathers to bolster one's political arguments is a common enough
tactic. It might be applied so readily if people studied history a bit more. Andrew
Jackson put New Orleans under martial law during 1812, during the war with the British.
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Governors
The Kent State University shooting of war protestors is one of the most famous
examples of martial law being applied by govern ors. The governor of Ohio, James
Rhodes, used the National Guard against protestors at Kent State. The troops shot and
killed unarmed students.
Much further back in history, the Governor of Texas, Ross Sterling, used martial law to
enforce regulations on oil drilling in eastern Texas. This occurred in 1931 and was
invalidated by the Supreme Court, which found that the rights of the property owners
prevailed.
There were many instances where governors called upon the military in civil matters
during the 19th and 20th Centuries where martial law was not declared formally, but the
difference is only procedural.
Wartime
During World War I, numerous different infringements on civil liberties were committed
in the name of national security. Sedition became a crime, rather than a manifestation of
a citizen's right to disagree with their government's policies. In addition to the war,
conflicts had erupted over labor rights all over the nation or, rather, had continued
erupting, which had been going on since the 1800s. Woodrow Wilson went as far as
disarming citizens—even police officers—in Colorado in 1914 because of the threat to
power that these protests were believed to embody.
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During the Civil War, martial law was in effect on a national basis. This is the only time
that this has actually happened in the entirety of US history. Lincoln declared this
himself. It would eventually lead to the Posse Comitatus Act. This makes it illegal to use
the US military against the US citizenry. This can be done, however, in the even that
congress authorizes as much.
Much has been made of the term "enemy combatant" in recent years. Insurrectionist
and other terms have also been used to strip unpopular people of their constitutional
rights. The Supreme Court has held that the President of the United States can suspend
the constitution in some instances. There are instances, of course, where such powers
make sense. Were there to be an actual insurrection that threatened the Republic, it can
be argued that it is logical that the president should have the power to use the military to
put down that rebellion and to restore order. People who are concerned with the
overabundance of power placed in the executive argue that these powers can be used
to go after unpopular speech under the guise of crushing a threat.
Executive power has been on the rise for many years. Richard Nixon famously believed
in the theory of the Unitary Executive, which essentially sets up the President as the
sole power over the Executive Branch of government. With Congress having ceded a
great deal of power to the President over recent years, particularly in matters related to
declaring war, there are plenty of examples of how the law has changed in recent years
so that preserving the structures and protecting the interests of the government has
taken precedence over preserving civil liberties and protecting the rights of citizens to
exercise them. The president can make use of Executive Orders to invoke his personal
will upon the nation. With more power being ceded to the Executive Branch by other
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branches, this has the effect of encouraging a sort of dictatorship with great potential for
abuse.
Chapter 2
The Executive Order
For some ideologues, it becomes convenient to cast civil liberties, constitutional rights
and national security as things that cannot coexist. Presidents have, over the years,
taken more and more liberties with what is called an Executive Order. The Executive
Order occupies an odd position legally. In a nation that is ostensibly a democratic
republic, there should be no instance where the president can act as a dictator. An
executive order, however, can provide just that power. Presidents have used this power
to implement those changes or reforms that have been most important to them.
There are different types of executive orders. National Security Directives, for instance,
are different from a Presidential Determination in several ways. It is untrue to say,
however, that a president can act as a complete dictator based on executive orders
alone. There are been limitations found to their power and there has always been
conflict about them. While every president has, to some extent, used an executive order
as a tool of convenience, not all branches of government agree as to the scope of their
power or as to their validity in every situation.
One of the most contentious points about an executive order is how much it can be
used to effectively make law. In order for a president to use an executive order
successfully, they have had to make sure they were acting under existing law since
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1950. Prior to 1950, there were really no limitations on what a president could do via
executive order. In 1952, President Harry Truman was stopped from putting all steel
mills in the US under the control of the federal government by the ruling in Youngstown
Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer. The ruling held that a president has to be acting with the
authority of existing law when using an executive order. Every president since this ruling
has clarified the law that gives them the power to issue any given executive order.
There have been some egregious abuses of power by way of executive order, at least
according to how most people would define the term abuse. Executive Order 9066 is
probably the most notorious executive order signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt. The order
was the basis for forcing Japanese Americans on the West Coast into internment
camps without charge. This executive order is usually pointed to by those who strongly
object to the amount of power this hands to
the executive branch.
Another controversial executive order is
13233. This executive order was put into
force by President George W Bush in 2001.
Its effect and intent was to make the papers
of Presidents George HW Bush and Ronald
Reagan inaccessible to the public. It was revoked by President Obama.
The executive orders that tend to worry civil libertarians, conservative activists and
many people all along the political spectrum in between those poles are those that have
to do with war powers and those that have to do with establishing bodies that overrule
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constitutional law. The memory of Executive Order 9066 and its disastrous aftermath
certainly plays a role in this.
Some of the things that disturb those who take issue with executive orders most
include:
Executive Order 11490: This executive order requires that federal agencies prepare for
an emergency where they exercise control over the majority of mobilization efforts. To
some, this is believed to have set up a situation where the federal government can
exceed the authority of almost any agency so long as an emergency of any declared
type exists. This was signed into effect by Ronald Regan.
Remember that any state of martial law is usually justified by an emergency of one sort
or another. Egypt, for instance, existed in a state of perpetual emergency and martial
law from the 1970s until the Arab Spring revolution of 2011.
Many people who are concerned about the growth of a police state, the expansion of
government size and power make a connection between some of the powers that are
given to the government in the event of an emergency and those that have been
claimed by a government as necessary in times of war. These powers include:
The relocation of people, by force if necessary, to a location from which they are not
free to go, such as an internment camp in war or a quarantine station in an outbreak of
some sort
The seizure of private resources and mechanisms of production by the government
under the pretense of necessity brought about by an emergent situation
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The authority to declare certain individuals as enemies of the state and, thus, to strip
them of some certain constitutional rights, such as habeas corpus and the right to a
speedy trial
FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is believed by some to be a way
that the president can subvert the restrictions on using the military against the citizenry
under the pretense of an actual emergency, or by using an actual emergency as an
excuse to put into place onerous laws and, of course, to simply leave those laws in
effect after the crisis has passed.
Many of the original executive orders that give people pause were signed into effect by
President John F. Kennedy. These executive orders are designed around a crisis and
give the federal government a vast amount of power over the citizenry. Some of the
most controversial executive orders in this group have the following effects:
EO 10997: Authorizes federal seizures of public and private minerals, fuels and
electrical power.
EO 10999: Authorizes the federal seizure of any kind of vehicle, public or private. Also
gives the federal government complete control over roads and navigable waters.
EO 11004: Authorizes the federal government to seize all finances and housing. Also
allows the federal government to forcibly relocate people from areas that are considered
to be "unsafe".
EO 11002: The Postmaster General may register every US citizen.
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EO 12919: Bundles these executive order, and several others like it, into one executive
order. EO 12919 was signed into effect by President Bill Clinton in 1994.
The executive order from among those that were folded into EO 12919 that usually
disturbs people the most is the one that has to do with the authority to invoke the rest of
them. EO 11051 allows the Federal Emergency Management Authority to act upon
these executive orders in the event that there is increased international tension or
economic or financial crisis. National emergencies mean that FEMA gets complete
control. That fact that politicians from all ideological schools are almost always declaring
that there is one financial crisis or another in effect is not lost on many people worried
about the amount of authority these executive orders give to the president by way of
FEMA.
What is an Emergency?
Sometimes, the answer to this question is obvious. Hurricane Katrina, for example, was
obviously an emergency. There are situations, however, where many Americans
suspect that a state of crisis could be declared by a government out of political
convenience. Given the power that is handed to the president through FEMA in EO
12919, many people worry that this could lead to very serious impositions on the
constitutional rights of citizens. People who worry about this oftentimes have serious
concerns regarding the following:
• An emergency would serve as a pretext for the government to gather information
on citizens (blood type, immunizations, etc.)
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• An emergency could be used as a pretense to force injections/vaccinations on
the population
• An emergency could be used as a pretense to seize private land, housing and
industrial complexes
• An emergency could be used as a pretext to forcibly relocate people for political
reasons
There have been serious pandemics throughout history that have taken literally millions
of lives. In certain situations, it's likely that quarantining people, whether they wanted it
or not, would have saved many more. The refugees from the First World War are
thought to have exacerbated the flu epidemic that followed the Great War because of
their wandering, for example. Recently, the bird flu was identified as a threat, leading to
a much-criticized attempt by President George W. Bush to get the authority to use
military personnel for law enforcement should the US suffer an outbreak.
For many people concerned about the erosion of constitutional freedoms, a declared
emergency is always reason to be suspect.
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Chapter 3
FEMA, Government and Mechanisms of Control
FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.-FEMA Mission Statement
The fact that FEMA is the focus of many of the people worried about martial law is not
surprising. The justification for martial law is usually due to an emergency. FEMA's
entire purpose is to respond to emergencies. It stands to reason that the power to direct
the nature and goals of those responses gives the person directing them a great deal of
power. What distresses many people is the fact that the president has the power to both
declare an emergency and to direct the response of the agency tasked with managing
the fallout of the emergency.
FEMA is no longer a standalone agency. It has been folded into the vast bureaucracy
that is the Department of Homeland Security since 2003. The agency is now part of the
response system against terrorist attacks and is part of an agency that has over 20
different sub-agencies under its umbrella.
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There is nothing particularly sinister about FEMA on the face of it and most people
would agree that having an effective and competent emergency response plan is a
necessary function of government. What concerns people is the fact that this agency is
very well-supplied, that it has plans that allow it to take control of vast areas very
quickly—including the seizure of personal wealth and the means of production—and
that it has limited accountability. So long as an emergency is declared to be in effect,
the agency is believed, by some, to have far more power than it ought to.
President Carter took several acts of Congress and bundled them together. These acts
give the president a significant amount of power in the event of an emergency. The
president may:
• Seize the money and property of any foreign national or nation
• Exercise great control over the economy
• Relocate people, industries and governments to respond to a disaster
From one perspective, these powers would all help a president to respond more
effectively in the event of a disaster and, potentially, to save more lives. From another,
they set up a situation where all a president needs to assume dictatorial powers is an
emergency and where the president can use FEMA as a way to exercise control over
the population.
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Budgetary Black Holes
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. -George Bernard Shaw
If you're a politician and you want to make an agency powerless, you defund it. If you
want to make it powerful, you give it a large budget. If you want to make it
unaccountable, you find a reason to prevent the agency from having to disclose its
budget.
FEMA is believed, by some, to function as a sort of shadow government or as a means
of making the will of a shadow government a reality. This view is held by people across
party lines. It is one of the few instances where people of different ideologies—
sometimes vastly different ideologies—share a mutual concern about the growth of
government power in what seems to be a particularly menacing way.
Because FEMA does not fully disclose its budget to the entire Congress. In fact, only 20
people currently in Congress have the security clearance to know how FEMA is
spending its money. Whether you're partial to thinking the worst every time you're
presented with the unknown or not, this means that the agency controls money without
the hindrance of oversight by the Congress, which is intended to be the most
responsive branch of government to the people.
FEMA has some very impressive equipment, and this makes some people suspect that
the agency is being set up as what amounts to a domestic branch of the military. The
agency, for example, has some authority that civilian police cannot come close to
approaching. FEMA may:
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• Detain you without a charge
• Search you without a warrant
• Seize your property without a warrant
• Relocate you from your house without cause
• Seize your wealth without a warrant or due process
• Search or seize your vehicle without a warrant
• Prevent you from leaving or entering an area of your own accord
If you made a list of the types of authority that law enforcement agencies in police states
wield, these would certainly be among them. According to the Los Angeles Times,
FEMA is now spending on the order of 75% of its budget on terrorist related issues. Of
course, this means that those programs are classified based on their being an national
security element to them and, of course, that means that this federal agency has billions
of dollars to spend and no requirement that the public be informed as to the nature of
those expenditures.
Some claim that the expenditures are being used to provide protection for government
agencies above all other things. The famous "shadow government", in fact, is a
reference to the government that would take control in the event that there was a
nationwide disaster. FEMA is believed by many to be the agency responsible for
providing bunkers and other places of refuge for this government and the agency tasked
with keeping order among the populace if such a disaster were to occur.
FEMA operates several training centers across the nation where reporters have alleged
that the curriculum involves taking down terrorists, intervening against suicide bombers
and other paramilitary-style operations. For many, the fact that an agency that is so
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much under the direct control of the president via executive orders has such a great
deal of military and legal power is frightening, to say the least.
Taking the Power Back: Numerous executive orders require the surrender of certain powers to FEMA in the event of an emergency. Not one executive order specifies when or even requires that those powers are given back at all.
Culture of Crisis
Crisis is great for business and great for government. Manufacturing a new crisis for
every day of the week gives justifications for the most outrageous overreaches of power
and the creation of the most onerous laws. Doubting the existence of the crisis can be
construed as sedition, as can pointing out that the actual crisis is not the one being
discussed.
Every day, the people of America are told that they are living in a time that is unique
within history, that today's crises are, by far, the most perilous of all and, because of
those things, they must give up more and more of their rights to stay safe. The
combination of the 24-hour crisis-driven news cycle, incompetent and ever-growing
government power and a Congress more willing than ever to cede its authority to the
Executive Branch, has made many people very worried about how free they remain, or
will in the future, and the role of seemingly unaccountable agencies such as FEMA in
the stripping of their freedoms.
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Chapter 4
A Different Narrative
No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. -Mark Twain
There is a very dangerous notion that everything the US has ever done historically
increased the level of freedom experienced by every individual involved. This is not the
case. The US has committed atrocities against freedom at home and abroad. The true
narrative of the US is a complex one and, in some instances, the US has resorted to the
same tactics of oppression, forced relocation and indefinite internment that the worst
dictatorships have indulged in. From the 19th Century to the 21st, the US has not always
been kindly to its citizens or its presumed enemies.
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The Philippines
The Philippine Islands were among the first places
the US went when it started expanding its global
influence. Seized after the Spanish-American War, it
was one of the first nations that the US began to treat
as a colony. Native fighters that had helped the US found themselves sent to camps
when the freedom they thought they were fighting for failed to materialize.
President Taft pursed a harsh policy toward the Filipino people for the duration of his
term. The military leadership objected to his heavy-handed tactics, but enforced them
on the Filipino people, nonetheless.
Unionists
For Governor Eugene Talmadge of Georgia, it wasn't enough to charge textile workers
with civil crimes when they went on strike in 1934. He had them tried by military
tribunals and sent to internment camps where their rights were stripped of them.
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Word War II
It wasn't just Japanese who were sent to internment camps during World War II. Italian
Americans and German Americans were also sometimes rounded up and detained.
What people who object to the whitewashing of history are concerned with is not that
people are being too charitable to the US. The concern is that "it"—meaning massive
government oppression of individual rights and liberties—can and has already
happened here, and on more than one occasion.
FEMA and REX-84
There are occasions when it would seem perfectly sensible to give an emergency
management agency vast powers. In the event that a very contagious disease broke
out, it makes sense that some people may have to be detained or even quarantined to
protect the many they might infect. In the event of a terrorist attack that did substantial
damage to infrastructure, someone has to come in and make sure that emergency
supplies are delivered and that some sort of order is maintained in the chaos. There are
other things for which FEMA has prepared itself, as well, and these scenarios certainly
don't have the benevolent feel that FEMA's disaster relief activities have.
REX-84 was signed into effect by Ronald Regan. The authorization allowed FEMA to
engage in secret exercises to make sure they were ready for certain events, should they
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ever take place. It's important to consider something about the US government's
attitude toward security since the 20th Century.
Civil Disobedience and Oppression
In the 1960s, a great deal of unrest erupted surrounding the Vietnam War and the civil
rights movement. This would bring about some of the most famous instances of police
brutality, rioting and other mayhem in American history. This did not occur in a vacuum.
Events such as the Haymarket Riot in the late 1800s show that America has a long, and
somewhat proud, tradition of civil unrest against the government. During the 20th and
21st Centuries, however, the government's typical responses toward free speech, civil
disobedience and peaceful dissent have become more militant, less tolerant and have
oftentimes edged upon outright infringements of the constitutional rights of US citizens.
The Paramilitary Law Enforcement Culture
In the past, riot police were deployed when protests and other events got out of hand, or
when actual riots were taking place. Today, police clad in riot gear, using military tactics
and military equipment are deployed at the beginning of just about any protest. It
doesn't matter whether the protestors, demonstrators or other people assembling quite
in line with their constitutional rights are left-wingers or right-wingers; the riot cops are
almost always there.
Watch videos to establish for yourself that these aren't the classic neighborhood beat
cops of days gone by. These are units of police who employ very expensive and
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advanced equipment and who are trained in advanced tactics. They are oftentimes
aggressive and overzealous and are mostly unaccountable for what they do. Official
sources are usually employed almost exclusively as ways to get information about the
protestors, allowing the government to define the protestors and their demands. Police
are employed to literally keep the peace. These units act more like military units;
aggressively infiltrating, agitating or simply attacking their perceived adversaries, usually
without any real provocation.
FEMA has the power to use not only the local law enforcement to enforce the will of the
government. FEMA can also be empowered to deploy the National Guard, if they feel
the need.
REX-84 and What It Means
Keep in mind that the US has been developing the military aspect of law enforcement
agencies and that FEMA has been spending around 75% of their budget on terrorist-
related programs that they do not disclose to the public. REX-84 stood for Readiness
Exercise 1984.
REX-84 proposes the following. A State of Domestic National Emergency prevails. This
could be in response to an event such as the US invading a Central American nation
and subsequent unrest developing in the US because of widespread opposition to the
invasion. REX-84 involved declaring martial law, suspending the US constitution,
seizing control of state and local governments across the US and replacing their leaders
with military personnel. It also involved moving populations of people and taking people
26
into custody if they were determined to be national security risks. This exercise was
written by Colonel Oliver North.
This is not a conspiracy theory. REX-84 is simply one of the most well known among
many different plans put forth by government agencies to seize control of the US
population through the use of unconstitutional military or law enforcement policies. The
government continues to have these exercises. Government resources for tracking and
cataloging people who are to be relocated or taken into custody based on their political
opinions have been in and out of use since the First World War.
Bringing it Together
In FEMA, you have an example of a government body with a great deal of authority and
very little accountability. This is something that is antithetical to the ideals of the
Constitution, which holds that the powers of the federal government are enumerated
and that those not specifically enumerated are assumed to belong to the people or to
the states.
At the same time that a huge government agency is being given the authority to act on
the whims of one government official—the president—the infrastructure that provides
police protection, disaster relief and other services has become more centralized and
more militarized. The military itself is already specified as being able to intervene in
cases where civil unrest becomes too much of a threat for the government to tolerate.
Of course, exercises such as REX-84 have been specific in preparing these agencies to
use military force to dismantle and take over the civilian government, with no limitations
being set on how long they may hold this power once it is seized.
27
There is already a history of presidents, governors and other authorities abusing power
of this sort when it is given to them. There is very little history of those same authorities
ever surrendering that authority once it is given to them.
The pretext for these mechanisms of potential oppression is always national security
and public safety. This was the justification for the internment camps during World War
2 and the brutal policies of the American occupation of the Philippines. Even using only
these two examples, it's easy to establish that the federal government can enforce this
type of brutality here and abroad and that there is always a crisis that they can invoke to
justify such transgressions.
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Chapter 5
It Takes a Crisis
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.-Thomas Jefferson
You might be surprised to know that violent crime in the United States has been
trending downward since the 1970s. Children, on the average, are more intelligent than
were children of their same ages in generations past. There are situations that are
difficult, but today's economic recession, for example, pales in scale and impact to the
Great Depression, to which it is oftentimes compared. Why are so many Americans
convinced that right now, at this very moment, the world is teetering on the brink of
disaster?
Because someone benefits from people thinking in this fashion. Every dictator is
benevolent just as every oppressive dictatorial law is designed for your own good. As
O'Brien said about Big Brother in 1984: "It's not enough to obey him. You must love
him."
29
People are conditioned to respond as if they are under constant deadly threat.
Americans today are expected to suffer the most intolerable indignities in the name of
national security, even though it's unlikely that those indignities do anything to make
anyone safer.
The Airport
In US airports, citizens are subjected to invasive,
embarrassing and sometimes downright humiliating
searches by TSA personnel with the justification that
it's for safety. Going through this line every time tends
to condition people to the idea that they have to put up with this in the name of safety,
because of the supremacy of authority or both.
The 9/11 hijackers, who are the ultimate threats that are being relied upon to justify
these searches, used nothing more than box cutters to take over the planes they
crashed. They weren't carrying binary explosives, guns or anything else on the plane
that would constitute an obvious threat. Even though there's really no way to justify the
invasiveness of these searches, customers are told that it is part of security. This
provides a way to condition the passengers to think that invasiveness on the part of
authorities automatically equates to better security for everyone.
In many other nations, more sophisticated forms of airport security are relied upon.
Undercover law enforcement, for instance, keeps an eye out for people acting
30
suspiciously—they would have certainly noticed the very nervous, sometimes vomiting
9/11 hijackers—and leaves everyone else alone for the most part. Simply put, this level
of invasiveness is not only degrading to passengers, it's not even necessary. It's great
for fostering a climate of fear, however, which is useful for encouraging obedience on
the part of the population.
Outside the Airport
Crime is always a boogeyman that politicians like to use to promote fear in the masses.
Far more frightening is the size of the US prison population. As of 2008, the United
States had approximately 5% of the world's population and nearly 25% of all the
prisoners in the world. The US has, more and more, been transforming law enforcement
into a tool that can be used to incarcerate people for long periods for very minor
infractions of the law. At the same time, privately run prisons have become enormously
profitable operations. The judgment of a judge is no longer even relied upon. The local
judge who may have once given a group of rowdy teenagers some community service
and a warning might now have to send them to jail for a long time simply for violating a
minor law. Fear of crime makes this possible; political mendacity, corruption and
convenience keep it going.
At the same time, we're conditioned to obey authority without question because of one
existential threat or another, we're told that pointing out the workings of the government
that make this sort of oppression possible is trading in conspiracy theories. It is possible
to establish with paper trails, testimony and the government's own records that there
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have been preparations made for martial law. It is possible to demonstrate, certainly
beyond a reasonable doubt, that some government agencies have been oriented
toward exerting almost totalitarian control over the populace, even though their mission
statements say nothing about it. It's possible to show reams of evidence that some of
the money that people pay in taxes is spent directly on oppressing those same people,
but all of this is still labeled as the stuff of conspiracy theories.
Threats and Real Threats
The threat of terrorism, domestic or otherwise, is always said to be multi-pronged. They
will take away our freedom, turn us into a third-world country and oppress the masses.
This threat doesn't seem to be one that requires outside agencies to be realized in full.
The government has given trillions of dollars to private banks after they took actions that
should have resulted in their downfall. In exchange for the lack of any sort of recovery,
the US is still saddled with the same corrupt institutions that were saved from their own
actions with taxpayer money. The government has literally lost billions of dollars in Iraq
and Afghanistan and has used a considerable sum of money to pay off regimes that are
clearly hostile to the US and its interests.
The US government has created a tax system so complex that no one really
understands it in full and so full of loopholes that some individuals pay huge amounts of
taxes and others pay none. Most of the time, this isn't based on their income; it's based
on how well they can game the system, or how easily they can buy a congressperson to
change the laws in their favor.
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RICO laws and drug laws are used by law enforcement as convenient ways to take, and
oftentimes sell, the property of private citizens. Never mind that many of the victims of
this sort of law enforcement are neither mobsters nor drug dealers and never mind that
allowing the government to sell items that it seizes for its own gain is simply a huge
invitation to all manner of corruption.
Americans of all political stripes, all belief systems and all ideologies are taking notice
that things seem to have gone wrong somewhere along the way and that things seem to
be getting more sinister by the moment. Freedom is defended by detaining foreign
nationals indefinitely without charge or trial because freedom, apparently, can have no
role in defending itself. Taxes are collected and spent, but little benefit is realized by the
people who pay them. Government redistributes wealth as it sees fit, oftentimes suing
backchannel ways to do it so that the amount of economic manipulation isn't as
apparent as it might be.
What it Means
The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. –William Butler Yeats
Imposing martial law requires that the population is in a state of almost constant fear—
either of some enemy or of the state itself—and it requires that people are conditioned
to obey. It requires that people believe that they have rights while it is established to
them every day by agents of the government that those rights are neither respected nor
the citizen's to defend. It requires that money be directed to the resources of the state
33
and that the moneys that the state collects are spent secretly, so the populace never
quite understands the mechanisms of their oppression or, more importantly, how they
might, as a people, starve such mechanisms out of existence.
It requires what are oftentimes called "useful idiots": people who parrot the state line
without thought, who accept any and all forms of oppression as necessary to their
safety and who think of themselves as the masters of their own lives, nonetheless. It
requires a healthy dose of what Orwell called doublethink: the ability to accept to
contrary realities as if there were no conflict between them. In states where military
government and martial law was the norm, such as in Poland during the Communist
era, Orwell's writings were very popular for their dissection of the absurdities, and
brutalities, of state control of every aspect of a population's lives.
Surviving a state of martial law requires the exact opposite of what you're being
conditioned to do by society and by the government. It requires that you subvert
authority, but that you do not attack it directly. It requires that you understand that, no
matter how right you feel you are and no matter how oppressive the state, you have to
pick your fights so that you don't end up taking on more than you can handle. Surviving
martial law requires some common sense, in sort.
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Chapter 6
Martial Law and Surviving it in Practice
Were martial law ever to be
imposed, there would be no way for anyone to avoid its effects. It would only matter
whether you were at the top of the power structure or the bottom of the power structure.
Chances are if you're not at the top of the power structure now, you're not going to be
there if martial law is imposed, either.
Surviving martial law will require the average person to be smart. You'll have to
understand that there will be limits to what you will be able to do. Just as you cannot
change US trade policy toward China, you will not be able to exercise any control over a
government once it starts imposing martial law on the citizenry. It's important to
remember that closing borders is one of the first things that usually happens in a state
of martial law. If you plan to head to Canada or Mexico to avoid the worst of it, think
again. If you don't flee ahead of it, you probably won't be able to flee at all.
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Being Realistic
There are plenty of people across the United States that have paramilitary organizations
dedicated to surviving martial law or war or other disasters and to defending their rights.
There are people who hoard guns and ammunition thinking that they're going to defend
themselves against government troops. In reality, most citizens would be easily outshot
by any average street cop. Put the average citizen up against a trained solder with good
equipment and support and that citizen is going to die, no matter how many guns they
might have in their closet. You'll have to be smarter than that.
It's also important to remember the previous chapter and the information about
conditioning the population. Most of the time, the imposition of martial law on a
population is done with the good graces of the population itself. Remember: Hitler was
voted into office, he didn't take it in a coup. In many cases, martial law is imposed to
cheers and gratitude from a population that has no idea what they're in for and that has
no idea that their government is never relinquishing its power.
Your Guns
Those guns are going to be a big deal for the people who have them now. The majority
of people who own guns own them for sporting, target shooting or hunting, not for
military purposes. This means that those firearms are usually stored out in the open
and, quite often, in a prominent place, as they're objects of pride. If martial law is
declared, this display is the first thing that has to go.
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If you do have weapons, you'll want to hide them for two reasons:
• If there is disorder and your guns are confiscated, you will be defenseless
• Possessing guns may identify you as a potential threat by authorities
Again, think about martial law with some intelligence. You wouldn't want to be defending
yourself against government troops with your average deer rifle. Still, they're good to
have and you'd do well to hide them. Guns can oftentimes be disassembled and hidden
in pieces in various locations. Revolvers can be thrown together in a few moment's time
and, because they're durable, can be hidden for a long time without cleaning or firing
and still perform reliably. Long guns can be taken down and stored in parts or stored
away from the house, at least.
Other types of weapons, such as hand-to-hand weapons and bows and arrows, don't
usually merit so much caution, but it's still good to hide them, if possible. One of the
most important things that an unarmed person in a disordered and dangerous situation
needs to learn is that every tool can be a weapon if
you hold it right and that not having guns doesn't
necessarily mean being without protection.
Supplies
The federal government has actually been
advocating that people store food and water for a crisis for many years. This is
something you should take them up on.
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Storing food is not suspicious, it doesn’t draw attention to you and it's empowering in a
crisis. Just as is the case with your guns, however, you'll want to keep your food stores,
or the presence of them, at least, as privileged information. It's likely that, if things get
too desperate, people may come knocking on your door—or come to knock it down—to
get at what you have. This is the same in any crisis, martial law being imposed or not.
Here are some things that you will want to have on hand if you're storing food:
Long Storage Times
• Rice
• Beans
• Canned Goods
• Peanut Butter
Medium Storage Times
• Powdered Milk
• Crackers
• Beef Jerky
• Oats and Other Grains
Short Storage Times
• Water
• Drink Mix
• Dried Fruits
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MRE (Meal, Ready to Eat) rations are good for storing food. You can get them at most
survival and military surplus stores. There are civilian versions of them, as well. The
meals are very high in calories, which will be necessary in a survival situation. These
can be expensive, however, and you need to make sure you check the expiration dates
and throw out what is expired.
Never eat food beyond the expiration date. It's more likely to get you sick than anything
else, which can be a disaster in a martial law situation where access to medical services
might be gone altogether.
Vacuum Packed Seeds
There are products out there that you can buy that consist of some seeds in a tube for a
very high price. Having seeds on hand is good, obviously, because you have at least
some way of planting food in a very serious crisis, presumably one that would destroy
modern infrastructure altogether. The caveat here is the money. You can do just as well
going down to your local seed store and storing seeds in a mason jar in a cool, dark
spot. You can always rotate the seeds when they reach their expiration rather than
counting on some preservation method—which may or may not actually work—keeping
them useable for the long-term future. If you're interested in learning about different
types of seeds and crops that you may want to work with, check agricultural sites.
Farmers know far more about this than do advertisers.
Water
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Again, this is only really going to be an issue if martial law was imposed following a real
disaster that ruined a fair amount of infrastructure. It's not unheard of for military coups
and other oppressive political takeovers to involve the cutting off essential services to
subdue the population, so it is a good idea to have water on hand.
First things first, filters come in all price ranges and many of them are more
appropriately thrown away than actually used. A real filter is going to run you over $200,
in most cases, and will have a very limited number of uses. If you want to make sure
you have water, there are two things you need to learn to do.
• Make sure you have emergency water stored up already and that you regularly
rotate it
• Learn how to purify water with bleach
If you are in a crisis and you get a waterborne illness, it could easily mean forfeiting your
life. It's important to make sure that everything in the water you drink is dead or inert
and there are few things that do this as reliable as does household bleach. Bleach does
lose its potency after a while, so be sure you have a fresh bottle on hand. Here's how
you use it:
• 16 drops per one gallon of water (1/8 tsp.)
• Add bleach and let stand for 30 minutes
• Check for bleach smell, if not present, repeat
• Check again, if there is still no bleach smell, throw the water out
• The water will not taste bad from the bleach
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You can also boil water. You only have to bring it to a rolling boil for a minute. After you
boil it, pour it back and forth between two glasses to oxygenate it and improve the taste.
Remember: Filters, bleach and boiling cannot remove petrochemicals or other pollutants from water. Runoff of floodwater must never be drunk, it is always hazardous, even when processed.
A gallon of water a day is the norm for adults. If you live in a dry or humid area, this will
obviously factor into how much water you actually need.
Water must never be rationed. You have to drink when you're thirsty. This is why it's
important to have effective means of purifying water at your disposal. Remember to get
all of the water out of your house's pipes in the even that such services are turned off.
Keep Your Head Down
Don’t stand out, don't lip off and don't get indignant with the authorities if you're in a
martial law situation. Remember, the contingencies that FEMA and other federal
organizations that have trained for include ones where forcibly removing people and
detaining dissidents are part of the plan. If you stick out too much or if you get in the
way, consider yourself part of that dissident removal plan and don't count on going
home anytime soon.
Your best bet in a martial law situation is to obey curfews—these may be, and quite
frequently are, backed up with deadly force—start networking with the people around
41
you and to make sure that you don't reveal any resources that you have on hand.
Surviving over the long term is going to require supplies and a plan that will keep you
alive. The prospect is a terrifying one but remember, millions of people have survived
states of martial law throughout history and there's no reason to believe that millions
more won't have to endure the same hardships to survive themselves.
Chapter 7
Staying Alive
In a situation where martial law is in
effect, civil rights are completely
eliminated. Simply put, you have no
constitutionally guaranteed liberties. You have no right to speak your mind. You have no
right to assemble peacefully and, if you try, you can be sure that the assembly will be
broken up in short order, and probably with violence on the part of the state. To make
sure that you do survive such a situation, you have to learn a new set of strategies.
Some of these strategies will mean leaning on people who are also opposed the end of
constitutional liberties, but who are also in the same position you are and who are
unable to do anything about it at the moment.
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The Mentality of an Oppressor
Any oppressive government, whether it starts with a right- or left-wing movement, will
demand certain things of the people over whom it holds power. First and foremost, it will
demand obedience. This means not asking questions and, when you are forced to
answer a question, giving the answer you know you're supposed to give. Even though
there isn't currently martial law in effect, you've probably experienced this sort of a
dynamic before when dealing with law enforcement officers. When you get pulled over
for a minor traffic infraction—or just because the officer decided to pull you over to see
what you were doing under the pretense of a traffic stop—you've probably said "Yes,
sir" and "No, sir" a lot. This is the type of interaction you'll want to get used to with the
authorities. Understanding the nature of an oppressor starts by understanding an
oppressor's vision of authority.
Legitimized Force
All authority rests on the execution or the threat of force. Legitimized force is that force
that is applied by the state and that is not subject to the same restrictions as is the force
used by citizens. A good example of this can be found in self-defense laws. Under
certain circumstances, you have the right to use deadly force to defend yourself, your
property and other individuals, depending upon the state that you live in. A police officer
has far fewer restrictions to worry about if they decide to use deadly force. It's also
notable that you, should you choose to defend yourself using deadly force and later be
found to have done so without legal justification, could go to jail for a very long time. A
police officer would likely face unpaid suspensions, counseling and other bureaucratic
hassles for committing the same infraction and would be treated much more favorably
43
by the system. It's not who has the guns that matters; it's who gets to use them that
matters.
In a martial law situation, the only entity that has the right to use force is the
government. The stripping of weapons from citizens would likely be one of the first acts
in such a situation. Any citizen found to be in possession of a firearm would most
certainly be suspect and would likely be disappeared. There are certain things that you
can never do openly to anyone who has the authority of the state behind them if you're
in a martial law situation.
• Do not argue with the authorities
• Do not protest, no matter how badly you're treated
• Do not talk back, no matter how undignified you feel
• Do not talk openly with others against the authorities
• Never lay a hand on or raise a hand to anyone with a badge or a gun
It Happens to Everyone
When the Founders wrote the US Constitution, they went to great pains to divide the
power of government. The idea behind this is that no one branch of government is
vested with so much power that it can dictate its will to the other branches of
44
government. Checks and balances keep people's rights secure. Over time, the
executive orders, Unitary Executive theory and the concentration of power in two
branches of government—the executive and the judicial—have skewed the power
balance. When people get too much power, it always gets ugly. It doesn't matter what
they believe, what they think or where their allegiances lie. The Founders were well
aware of the axiom about absolute power corrupting absolutely.
In the early 1970s, researchers at Stanford University did an experiment with students.
It is usually referred to as the Stanford Prison Experiment. The concept was simple;
have some students be "guards" and some students be "prisoners" and document the
interactions between the two groups. This experiment became famous because of what
it revealed about human nature. Things got so bad that the experiment lasted only six
days.
The students who got to play the role of "guards" quickly succumbed to the excesses of
power. They used brutality and domination to break the will of the "prisoners" in the
experiment. Eventually, the "guards" began torturing the "prisoners". The students who
were the prisoners became very passive, in most cases, and let the torture and brutality
go on, even visiting it upon their fellow prisoners when ordered to do so. The leader of
the experiment even became corrupted in this short period, not using the authority of his
"prison superintendent" role to stop the torture or abuse in any way. This experiment
was and is controversial, but most psychologists and sociologies admit that it shows
that there is something terrible that happens when people are put in positions where
they have too much power and authority.
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Now, instead of this experiment being carried out by college students, imagine that it's
not an experiment, the authority that the guards wield is very real and that their authority
is backed up by the legitimized use of force.
Surviving martial law will
require you to form networks,
but you'll have to keep some
things in mind about doing so.
Networking with a Network
In most every situation where
martial law has been applied,
people have formed networks for mutual protection and support. You'll have to do this to
survive a martial law scenario, but you'll also have to be smart about it.
You'll need to keep in mind, however, what the Stanford Prison Experiment revealed
about the oppressed as well as what it revealed about the oppressors. Importantly, the
prisoners in the experiment not only failed to intervene when one of their fellow
prisoners was being tortured, they also sometimes participated in the brutality
themselves.
The most important thing you have to worry about in a martial law situation is your own
survival. Thoughts of revolution or other acts of rebellion may come to fruition at some
46
point, but probably not right after martial law has been declared. Remember that the
people of Egypt waited three decades before they overthrew their regime and, to a large
extent, this was because there were plenty of loyalists to the police state. The same
would likely be true in any martial law scenario.
When forming networks with other individuals, you will have to be careful that they're not
going to report you to the authorities. You're not going to want to start openly speaking
against the state in situations where you might be overheard because anyone who
hears might report you. You're not going to want to be caught putting up flyers or
posting on computer networks because someone might see or detect you and report
you. Unfortunately, paranoia is part of a basic survival strategy under martial law.
Remember that the passionate revolutionary type may be exactly who you want to avoid
having in any network of people you join up with. Such individuals attract attention and
most revolutionaries are more narcissistic than committed to righting social injustices or
removing government tyranny.
It's a good idea to make sure you keep your distance from people who are looking to
form a visible rebellion or who insist on belligerence and confrontation when dealing
with the authorities. They might be walking around the streets at the moment gathering
followers, but it's unlikely that they'll be doing so for long.
Your network, ideally, should be made up of individuals who are interested in surviving
and who are willing to help one another do so. The first rule of surviving is not to be
noticed. This brings up another vital point about your social network: visible
connections.
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Make certain that you're not constantly seen in public with the same people. This can
create a situation where you inadvertently give away the members of your social
network. Anyone that works for a law enforcement agency understands that the people
that anyone hangs around with are likely parts of any criminal enterprises that a suspect
is involved in. Be sure you don't give away your connections by being seen with them in
public. In most cases, it's best never to be with more than one person from your network
at any given time.
Snitches
Unfortunately, your most dangerous enemies are probably going to be close to you.
These will be the people that will snitch as soon as they're caught for something by the
authorities or whom will snitch because they believe that it will get them some power
within the existing structure.
One way that you can help to avoid becoming the victim of a snitch is to
compartmentalize information. For instance, if you share food stores with someone on
your block, there's no reason that anyone but the two of you have to know about it. In
fact, it's best if the two of you acted like complete strangers in everyday life. Anyone
who is snitching is going to be paying attention to those you spend time with and is
going to report it to the authorities.
Make sure you never give any information to anyone without real cause for doing so.
You don't want to make casual talk with someone from your network and tell him that
you have some fuel in your garage, some extra food under the floor or a generator out
in the woods. If you have a vehicle, you may want to pretend it's broken down so that no
one knows that you have access to transportation. Even within your network of
48
associates, you have to think of yourself first and, by doing so, you can protect the
entire network
Chapter 8
Surveillance and the Police State
A modern marital law state
would be much different from
what you would expect if you
went by how these situations
unfolded in the past. In France during the Nazi occupation, Resistance members could
meet in the woods at night, behind buildings or in abandoned properties to make their
plans. They could hide out almost forever in convenient cellars or bars and could walk
around at night without worrying about being detected by anything but a trooper's eyes
or a security dog. The situation today is much different.
Today's security state has much more powerful means of monitoring its citizens than did
the regimes of the past. Since the terrorist attacks of 2001, surveillance efforts have
been constantly increased and oftentimes have skirted the constitution, when they
haven't defined the protections it affords citizens outright. The Patriot Act made it much
easier for the government to pry into our lives and for the government to establish
secret prisons for those it deems enemy combatants. The change from the Bush
49
administration to the Obama administration was supposed to bring an end to some of
the most egregious abuses of the Patriot Act but, as government usually does, the
Obama administration kept most of the powers afforded to it by this invasive act.
Remember that surveillance is always advertised as something that keeps you safe. In
a martial law scenario, you'll soon find out how surveillance really only keeps the state
safe and puts everyone else at risk.
Basics
There are a few things you need to understand about today's surveillance technology
before you get into the complexities of dealing with being watched and listened to at
almost all times. Here are some things to consider:
• You cannot hide your IP address online, you can only make it harder to find
• Darkness will not hide you from surveillance cameras
• Surveillance cameras have no tapes that need to be checked; the information is
transmitted instantly
• Blacking out or otherwise damaging a security camera sets off an alarm in almost
all cases
• Motion detectors cannot be avoided
• Sound detection equipment cannot be avoided
• Infrared cameras are the standards now, not the expensive exceptions to the rule
The basic rule about surveillance in the 21st Century is that you can and will be seen
doing whatever you're doing, no matter where you are. If you understand this much, you
can understand how to thwart efforts to monitor your actions. As you consider this,
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however, remember one important thing: under martial law, there is no need for a
warrant, probable cause or a charge to detain someone. Whether the authorities have
evidence that you did something wrong or not, they can take you. This is why dealing
with surveillance in the right way is important.
You'll have to do things a bit differently than you're probably used to, or do things the
same way you did in the past, to survive under the watchful eye of the state.
Step 1: Get Offline
Anything and everything you do online can be monitored and the information gathered
can be retained. Whenever you make a request for a webpage or send an email, that
information is sent through several different routers before it reaches its destination.
Taps can be placed at any router along the way and the information gathered.
During the 2000s, the US was spying on Internet traffic via a secret room located in an
AT&T building in San Francisco. The Obama administration has recently announced
that it plans to request even more power to spy on Internet communications. Their plan
involves making sure that all ISPs and other Internet services are able to comply with a
wiretap order when given one. This means, of course, that those networks are able to
surrender their traffic data to the government whenever it's requested. Combined with
using the excuse of a terrorist threat whenever it's convenient, this means that anything
you do online is subject to being recorded by the government. This is happening even
before a police state or martial law has been declared!
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Online is never a safe place to communicate. When you do go online—assuming this is
allowed under martial law—remember the following practices:
• Never go to a site that opposes the government
• Never go to a news site that is not state approved
• Never use email or instant messaging to communicate with any member of your
network
• Never use coded messages online, they're more obvious than you think
• Never put anything incriminating on removable media or a hard drive
• Get a file shredding program and shred everything on your computer. Keep the
hard drive blank and use it as a dumb terminal, for all intents and purposes
The number one rule with any sort of online communication is to assume that someone
is always listening and that they're looking for a way to get you in trouble. Follow this
guideline and you'll at least be sure to be sensible about what you say and do online.
Step 2: Smile for the Camera
Americans are photographed without their consent over and over again on any given
day. There are surveillance cameras in most stores, restaurants and retail stores. There
are cameras in banks, at intersections, along the freeways and just about everywhere
else. Between the many different images taken of you every day, it's impossible to go
completely unnoticed. This means that you have to engage in a bit of image control to
avoid catching the attention of government troops.
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First and foremost, make sure you never make an obvious effort to duck a security
camera. There's probably another one nearby taking a picture of you acting suspicious.
Don't look into a security camera. Just ignore them. The number one rule, however, is to
be boring.
In the worst case scenario, there would be someone monitoring you live on a monitor
when you passed in front of the camera. People, no matter how enthusiastic they are
about enforcing marital law on their fellow Americans, have short attention spans. Be
boring and you'll likely avoid drawing attention to yourself. Assume that, however, you
are being monitored almost constantly. Remember that a security camera can be very
tiny device these days and that they can be hidden almost anywhere.
For Some Situations…
Many types of infrared cameras emit infrared light via LEDs that surround the camera.
These make them easy to detect in the dark. If you have a digital camera on your cell
phone or just a regular digital camera, point a television remote control at it and look
through the view screen. Depress the button on the remote control and look for the
flashing light. If you see it, it means that your camera detects light into the infrared
range. If you point such a camera at a security camera in the dark, you'll see a ring of
LED lights. This is a good way to determine whether or not there are cameras installed
with night vision capabilities. You can do this casually as if you were just taking a
picture; being obvious about it would obviously raise suspicions.
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They Have Sound
Most surveillance cameras also have sound gathering capabilities. If you're standing
near a camera and warn someone verbally that there's a camera nearby, the operator
probably will hear you. Be aware of this when you're near any security cameras. You're
probably being listened to, in addition to being watched.
Hidden Cameras
Modern technology means cameras that are downright tiny are very inexpensive and
easy to find. Imagine what you could buy if you had the financial resources of the
government to make such purchases. Remember that cameras can be hidden most
anywhere. It’s common for law enforcement officers and soldiers to have some sort of
video recording device handy to give a record of their actions. Whenever you deal with
people in positions of authority, assume that you're being recorded.
Step 3: One-Time Communications
There will inevitably be times when you have to communicate with people in some way
other than verbally. Most of us are accustomed to doing so over the Internet or other
electronic communications. In a situation where martial law prevails, this is far too
dangerous. The easiest and best way to communicate in these situations is by written
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letter. You'll want to adhere to some basics when communicating under the nose of the
agents of a martial law state.
First, use some sort of code to communicate. This doesn't necessarily have to be
encryption. During World War II, resistance communications famously made use of
codes that substituted meaningless phrases for direct information. For example "John
has a long moustache" was a code that was broadcast before the Allied invasion of
Normandy that told the resistance that the Allies were coming. You can use such codes
in your own letters. The more natural sounding they are the less suspicion they will
arouse. Talking about a flower garden in a letter, for instance, could be a coded way
about talking about exchanging food.
During the Cold War, espionage agents used what were called one time pads. These
were codes that were used only one time and, thus, they are unbreakable. These are
usually substitution codes that use numbers to deliver the messages. In order for a one
time pad to work, the person sending the message and the person receiving the
message must both have a copy of the code. After decoding the message, the receiver
destroys the paper used to decode the message and the sender destroys their copy, as
well. Because the code no longer exists and because it is used only once, it can never
be broken.
There are ways to encrypt messages electronically, as well, but you can count on the
fact that the government will have better means of encoding and decoding message
electronically than you will. They will also have access to the type of people who can
decode just about anything, so be sure that you don't rely on this too heavily.
Remember that, even if you do encrypt a message that you send online, you can be
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traced as the source of the message in the first place. In a state of martial law,
communicating with any type of encoding applied to the message will likely be as
criminal as whatever you're communicating in the first place, so be sure that you don't
make the mistake of thinking you're not going to get in trouble for an encoded message
simply because the authorities cannot read it.
Cell Phones, PDAs and Other Risks
Your cellular phone is capable of tracking your movements, storing the data,
transmitting the data or letting someone know where you are in real time. In fact, these
features are oftentimes used as ways to market these devices. Remember that these
are also features that can be used to track you.
Any type of portable network device can be tracked and it doesn't take long it figure out
where you are. Normally, this is a good thing. It's a feature that makes it possible for
someone to find you if you have a medical emergency and can't do anything more than
dial 911, for instance. It's also a feature that lets parents keep tabs on where their
children are and that lets people navigate new cities without getting lost.
Both iPhones and Android phones have been the subjects of controversy because of
the location information they give about their users. If you're living under a state of
martial law, you can be sure that the government will use these devices to keep tabs on
where citizens are.
These devices are also subject to monitoring. Cellular phones, for all their fancy
features, are really just radio devices. Any radio signal can be intercepted and decoded,
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provided that the intercepting party has the right technology. The government certainly
has that technology!
Never have a conversation on a cellular phone that you wouldn't want someone else to
hear. You'll also want to make sure that you have any GPS features on your cellular
phone turned off.
There is one very real risk of cellular phones that you must always keep in mind.
Cellular phones can be turned on remotely from the network. This means that someone
can turn on your phone and use the microphone to listen in on what's going on without
you knowing. The best policy under a state of martial law is to assume that any and all
methods of surveillance are being used by the government and to act accordingly.
Chapter 9
Communications
"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed." –Mark Twain
The safest forms of communication to
use under a repressive regime are those that are one-to-many in design. This means
devices such as radios that do not transmit, but that allow you to receive information.
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When you're using these devices to get information, however, remember that some of
that information will be purely propagandistic.
Useful Bands
AM and FM radios are generally short-distance affairs. AM radio can sometimes pick up
signals from a long way away, but this is usually due to tricks of the atmosphere and
isn't reliable enough to depend on these devices. The reason that range will be
important is that media and information control is likely to be complete in a police state.
For many decades, people living in totalitarian nations have relied upon shortwave radio
as a means of getting information from the outside world.
A shortwave radio can pick up communications from around the globe. This means that
you can get information from them that is not approved by the standing government,
which will be vital in a crisis situation such as one where martial law has been imposed.
The best way to control a population, as far as many dictators are concerned, is through
fear. By making the population fearful of chimeric enemies, the state can exert total
control. This will be a hugely important strategy used by the government in a situation
where they want to keep martial law in effect for long enough to solidify their power.
There are a few lies commonly used to scare a population into submission:
• Fear of attack by outside militaries or terrorists
• Fear of attack by enemies of the dominant culture
• Fear of a natural disaster or illness
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Any of these will work well to keep the population from asking too many questions.
There are usually appeals made to the conscious of the citizens that are designed to
encourage obedience, as well. They include:
• Appeals to patriotism
• Appeals to religion
• Appeals to self-interest
Any one of these things can be twisted into something sinister. Loyalty to one's fellow
citizens can be twisted into loyalty to a repressive regime. Loyalty to a religion can be
twisted into a call to obedience to the government. Having a shortwave radio will allow
you to get information from outside the nation, which means that it will be outside the
control of the martial law state and, therefore, likely to be more useful and accurate.
A state of perpetual crisis is something that requires perpetual hype. This oftentimes
comes from the media and you'll have to learn to recognize, and ignore, the hype. This
may not be as easy as you think; Psyops are some of the most developed and effective
means of waging war.
Propaganda and Recognizing It
In a police state, you'll be encouraged to love your oppressors. You'll be told that
conformity and obedience bring prosperity and safety for all. Remember: every
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dictatorship every conceived has been "for the good" or the nation it oppressed. You're
going to have to think for yourself a bit to avoid falling prey to propaganda.
Here are some things to consider:
• FEMA has provisions for organizing clergy to preach a message of obedience
• Martial law is specifically against the constitution, anyone who imposes it is, by
definition, treasonous
• Being oppressed by your own government is no protection against being
oppressed by another
• All media should be regarded as suspect
• Be wary of repeated phrases in different venues: they're the signs of talking
points, one of the most basic propagandistic techniques
• If it seems like the media is trying to pound a message or idea into your head,
they probably are
• State-run media always lies: always, every single time it goes on the air
Seizing control of the media is a necessity for a state that wants to impose martial law.
Love it or hate it, the press in the US is free to speak truth to power and that, of course,
is one of the greatest possible threats to power. This means that, in a situation where
martial law is being imposed, freedom of the press will be the first thing to go.
What you'll need to remember is that the state will make every effort to keep the
appearance of a free press. Oppressive regimes almost never make it apparent that all
the media is state controlled. Slanted, biased and outright false information is given
under the guise of being objective; this is a necessity for the propagandist. If you want a
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good example of propagandized media, you can see plenty of videos of North Korean
television on the Internet. You'll see the repeated messages, fear mongering and
appeals to love for the government and the leader that are the hallmarks of propaganda.
HAM Radios
HAM radios allow you to transmit and receive, sometimes worldwide, depending upon
your equipment and your level of skill. Unfortunately, these radios make use of large
antennae and are likely to be confiscated if martial law is imposed. If you can keep one
of these tucked away, it may prove very useful. Remember that the transmissions can
be traced, however, and that you may wind up in a very bad position if you're found
broadcasting on one of these radios without permission. There are mobile versions of
these radios but, again, they require antennae that are painfully obvious to anyone
looking for clandestine broadcasting equipment. If you use one of these, tear it down
and hide it away immediately.
Appealing to Everything
There's a truth about torture that states that, given enough of it, anyone will crack. The
same is true about propaganda. No matter how strongly you believe in something and
no matter how much you object to a military state, there will be propaganda that will hit
you where it hurts or that will trigger your sympathies.
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Be aware that you're not invulnerable to falling for a pretty lie. They may tell you that
obeying is only necessary for a short while until the danger passes, but the danger
never will pass. They may tell you that you only have to give up your constitutional
freedoms for a while so that they can win a war, but that war will never end. They may
tell you that your religion, your nation or your family is imperiled by an enemy, when the
state poses the greatest threat of all to each of those things.
Don't believe the lies. The most dangerous kind of propagandist is not the bellowing
strongman who demands that he is followed. The most dangerous propagandist is the
reasonable, affable spokesperson who knows how to make you feel like all of the
wrongs that the state is committing are benefitting you and keeping you safe.
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Chapter 10
Preparation vs. Paranoia
When someone tells you not to believe anything you read or hear, it's actually a good
idea not to believe that person. There is a difference between paranoia and preparation
just as there is a difference between discerning and delusion.
Preparing requires a solid plan, a realistic idea of what you are preparing for and a
reasonable set of steps that you can take to make sure you and your family are as safe
as possible. Paranoia requires only that you believe everything that confirms what you
already suspect and deny everything that goes against your suspicious. Paranoia
makes you ineffective, unprepared and easily manipulated. For every left-wing radical
that wants you to give up your money and live under a state-controlled economy there is
a so-called patriot that wants to impose their right-wing version of America on you, as
well. If there's a boot on your neck, it doesn't matter whether it's on the left or right foot.
What matters is the threat posed by a government that has grown so large and so
powerful that it cannot resist growing further. Like a cancer, government will sometimes
grow and grow, even if it means killing the thing that gave it life in the first place.
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FEMA Centers
REX-84 and other operations like it are real. They are taken seriously by scholars from
all ideological backgrounds and are universally considered indications that the
government does make provisions for what amounts to martial law. There are centers
located in every state designated as places to take those who dissent if martial law is
imposed.
You may want to avoid living near areas that are convenient for detaining people, such
as military bases. It's a good idea to have an evacuation plan in case martial law is
declared and to make sure that everyone in your family knows it. This doesn't have to
be a plan solely for cases where martial law is imposed. You could use this same plan
to evacuate the area in the event of a natural disaster, as well, or some other crisis.
Make sure your evacuation takes into account the routes that you'll be taken in terms of
what government buildings you'll be going by. Avoid:
• Military bases
• Police Stations
• Arenas and other areas where large groups can be detained
• Emergency shelters of any kind
• Main traffic arteries, if possible
• Well-maintained roads into wilderness areas (take the back roads)
Among the provisions of REX-84 was finding ways to detain people effectively. In a
martial law scenario, this usually means rounding people up in large numbers and
moving them around from place to place against their will. It's easiest to do this if you
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can get the people into a large group, supervise them with armed guards and vehicles
and keep them moving enough to keep them disoriented and to prevent them from
getting a plan of escape together. If this happens to you, don't try to flee. If you're
dealing with soldiers, they're not in the habit of missing what they shoot at and they're
very likely to shoot at anyone who defies the will of the state in a situation where martial
law has been declared. Defying the will of the state may mean speaking out against it or
it may mean just trying to go home when you're being detained. Live to fight another
day.
Worry About Yourself
In some cases, martial law results in or is the result of completely social entropy. When
this happens, you're likely to be getting a lot of messages that tell you not to react to the
crisis and to do as you're told.
The most important thing you have to do is to make sure that you and your family are
provided for. Just ignore the appeals to guilt and other emotions that you'll be getting as
encouragement to obey. If you are out of water, get some. If you are out of food, get
some. Take care of yourself first and don't worry about what the martial law state wants
you to do beyond what is required to help you stay alive.
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Chapter 11
The Economics of Martial Law
The US dollar is still the standard for
economies but it is on shaky ground as of the
last few decades. Inflation and the US debt make the dollar unstable and, of course, an
economic crisis is one of the pretexts that can be used for the imposition of martial law.
If martial law is declared, one way that the government can control the population is by
manipulating the value of currency. This means that you're going to have to learn to
function by trading in other ways for goods and services.
Precious Metals
Gold, silver, platinum and palladium are oftentimes marketed as ways to save your
wealth in a situation where the dollar loses value. This is true, to an extent. This
presumes that there is a functioning market on which to trade, however, and this may
not be the case if martial law is declared.
If martial law is declared and if the markets are forcibly seized by the state, the state will
be the one to determine the market value of any commodity, including precious metals.
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In the underground economy, they'll function like anything else that exists outside the
official economy. These metals will be worth whatever people are willing to trade for
them. There are two possible ways that this can turn out and there is a significant risk to
consider here.
The first way that it may turn out is the more optimistic scenario. In such a scenario,
people agree that whatever they're using for currency has a certain value and they
exchange goods and services for that currency based on the established value. This is
basically a free market. This may happen if there is enough stability within society to
support it. Having a currency other than the dollar on hand may be very useful in this
situation. Precious metals can also be desirable as a means of underground trading
because they can be exchanged for the currency of other nations, as well.
The second scenario is less optimistic. In a very oppressive state of martial law, the
term "intrinsic value" will take on a whole new meaning. If you can't eat it, use it for
shelter or use it to defend yourself, it basically has no value at all in such a situation.
This is where bartering and networking come in.
If you have other friends who like to be prepared, you can make sure you have a
relationship set up with them where you can trade goods. Perhaps you have food and
they have fuel or vice versa. They may have a great place to lay low that you can use
and you might have a vehicle that they can use to work and get money. There are
plenty of ways that you can do this so that you don't starve or freeze and so that you
support those who support you. A state of martial law is one where one's loyalty to their
fellow Americans will be incredibly beneficial. This type of trade is also untraceable by
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the state, which will be very important for anyone who wants to ensure the safety of
their family.
Hoarding
Believe it or not, many states have laws against hoarding resources, particularly in
times of crisis. This can be used as a pretense to take away what you have, of course,
which means that you're going to want to keep your stash of goods and wealth in a safe
place. This may be harder than you think in a situation where martial law has been
declared. Remember that martial law means that you have no right to life, liberty or the
pursuit of happiness, so expect to get searched, a lot.
There are several different ways that you can keep the authorities from finding anything
you have that's contraband. There are good guides to hiding such items that you can
find online, but here are some basics.
• Hiding things in the open is a good strategy, people never look there
• Keep vehicles non-descript and, preferably, beat-up looking
• If possible, store goods somewhere other than your house
• If you have a hiding spot, make sure you can watch it for a while before you
actually approach it
• Make sure that any food items are properly protected from pests and the
environment
• Never tell anyone what you have or how much of it you do have
• Always keep a "captain's stash"; a little bit extra of everything just for yourself
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Some people like to use various means to either set up alarms for their goods or to
actually booby trap their goods. There is an important consideration here that you have
to take into account. When an alarm goes off, anyone who hears it will assume that
something valuable is in the area, which can be very bad. Alarms are usually used to
call the attention of the authorities, which is exactly that you don't want in a state of
martial law.
Booby traps tend to make fools out of everyone who sets them. They may backfire and
injure you or someone you care about. If the authorities do find whatever you have
stashed, and are injured or killed by your booby trap, you can imagine what's going to
happen to you when they find out that it was yours. In some cases, it might be best to
just leave your goods well hidden but otherwise unprotected. This ensures that an alarm
will not call attention to their existence and that you won't inadvertently make yourself
into a murderer by killing someone.
Other than Food
There are some items that you should have on hand other than food, just in case you
need them. These items will be handy whether you're dealing with martial law being
imposed or a natural disaster. Consider having the following stashed somewhere safe
at all times:
• Fuel
• Canned Heat
• Matches or lighters
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• Medications
• First Aid Kits
• Pain Relievers
• Extra Eyeglasses
• Extra Clothing—Seasonal Clothing
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Chapter 12
Understanding and Managing Current Threats
If you're going to prepare for martial law, you have to understand the laws as they
currently exist and learn to work within them so you don't get yourself into trouble. There
are differences depending upon where you live that you'll need to pay attention to as far
as storing certain items. These restrictions are
sometimes severe and you may find yourself in a bad
way if the authorities find out that you've been doing
something that they can fine or imprison you for.
Hoarding Dangerous Substances
There are regulations that govern how certain
substances have to be stored. For instance, if you're
storing fuels, they have to be in approved containers
and they have to be stored in a way that provides a
safe situation relative to the amount of fuel in question.
You may be able to store 10 gallons of gas in cans in your garage, but if you store 100
gallons, you may run askew of environmental regulations in your state. Be sure to check
to make sure you don’t cause any trouble.
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There are some substances that will draw attention because, when combined, they are
used for illegal activity. For instance, just about every farm in the nation has diesel fuel
and fertilizer on the property. Buy enough of these items without having a farm to justify
it, however, and it looks like you're building a bomb. Be sure you're not inadvertently
hoarding items that may get you placed on a terrorist watch list of one sort or another.
Remember that you can do so innocently without having a clue that the substances you
were buying could be used in that way. You might be buying sulfuric acid and drain
cleaner to fix up your plumbing, but that doesn’t mean that the authorities can't use it as
a pretense to say that you're manufacturing methamphetamine and raid your home.
Keeping your head low and making sure you don’t accidentally call attention to yourself
is imperative.
Arsenals
Gun laws change constantly in the US. One minute a certain type of weapon or clip is
illegal and the next it's perfectly fine. If you have firearms, you have to make sure you
stay on the right side of these laws. If you're already the kind of person that the
authorities don't particularly care for, they can always use one obscure gun law or
another as an excuse to invade your home.
Do everything according to the law and never buy any firearm on the black market.
There's no point and it's a very serious offense. In fact, it's one of the best ways to get
yourself thrown into detention when there isn't even martial law in effect.
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Possessing anything that is strictly prohibited, including fully automatic weapons,
explosives and explosive detonators and so forth can be construed as an indication that
you're a terrorist of some sort. This can land you in a lot of trouble. Again, no matter
how offensive you may find the impositions on Second Amendment rights, stay within
the lines and make sure you're not making yourself a target.
Some states are much stricter with gun regulations than others are. Generally speaking,
the Western US is more accommodating than are many of the states in the east.
Bunkers and Other Structures
Believe it or not, you can easily run askew of building codes by building shelters. There
are specific requirements in every city about what you have to do to build on your
property. If you live in rural area, you can probably get away with building something on
your land without asking anyone, but be sure you check into the requirements first. Any
structure on your property may affect your tax status, as well, so be sure you're doing all
of this correctly so you don't get into trouble.
Navigable Waters
If you're fortunate enough to live by the ocean or one of the Great Lakes and have a
boat, you may be able to escape the imposition of martial law altogether. Watercraft that
are big enough to take long distances usually have enough room to store supplies in
73
them and, of course, once you hit international waters or another nation's borders,
you're home free. Many people who worry about martial law and the growth of
government have a plan to get out if need be and it sometimes involves a watercraft.
Watercraft that are smaller, such as canoes and fishing boats, can also be useful for
simply fleeing an area where people are being rounded up and they don’t require that
you take to the roads, which will most likely be patrolled, to get away.
Survival Preparedness
You can take survival training from many different sources
and get the skills you'll need to survive in the wilderness for
a time. There are so many resources for this type of
training that there's no reason not to take it. It doesn't cost
much money; remember that you're not blowing money on
luxury camping equipment here.
You can learn how to build fires, fish and hunt for your food
and basic first aid for a start. This will give you the skills you
need to get out of a hot area if you need to and to remain undetected while you're
fleeing.
Most of the people who are really into the survival end of things will recommend that
you have an evacuation kit prepared in advance. This should contain at least the
following:
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• Food
• Water
• A Tarp
• A Sleeping Roll
• Soap
• Matches or a Lighter
• A Compass
• A Map
• Cash
• Identification
• Cookware, if needed
• A radio
• A knife
Remember that MRE rations contain everything you need to prepare a meal, including a
heat source. A few of these will easily fit into a backpack and they have enough calories
to keep you sustained for a long time.
If you're going into the woods, you may well want to take a firearm for protection.
Twelve gauge shotguns are versatile and, with buckshot or slugs, can bring down large
game for food. Single-shot and double-barreled break action guns are very simple to
clean and maintain. Single-shots are very lightweight.
You can also prepare a kit to keep in your car but remember, the roads will almost
always be heavily patrolled in a situation where martial law is imposed on the
75
population. Get caught in a vehicle with survival gear in it and they'll know that you're
probably up to something.
Here are some resources for getting reliable, non-hobby survival gear:
Tarps and Tents: Camping and hardware stores
Backpacks, compasses, waterproof matches, knives: Sporting good or survival stores
MREs: Army surplus stores. Canned goods are also excellent choices
Identification: A passport is preferable, for obvious reasons. An officially issued state ID
is second choice.
Cash: This can be US currency, if it's all you have, or you can take precious metals, if
you want to convert that wealth into another form of currency, particularly if the US
dollar is completely devalued due to the takeover by the government.
Remember to have extra supplies of any medications you need and to have an extra
pair of eyeglasses, as well.
With these items and the right training, you should be fine roughing it for a while.
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Chapter 13
Is this a Real Threat or Just a Fantasy?
No matter what your politics may be, there
is good reason to be afraid of the direction in which government has been growing in
the US. Society has increasingly been more likely to imprison people for infractions that
wouldn't get them anything more than a small fine in other nations, even nations that are
ostensibly less free than the US. The government has been continually grabbing new
powers and using this or that threat as a justification to trample over the inalienable
rights of the people. Once these powers are seized, they are almost never given back.
Society has also become more dependent on means of communications that are easily
controlled. For instance, the Internet is the dominant means of communication among
young people today. It's a form of communication that the government can shut down at
will. An "Internet kill switch" has long been a goal of the government and, of course, the
justification for shutting down the freest forum of communication ever devices is national
security, as always.
Hurricane Katrina already showed how fast the government will act when it gets a
chance to seize firearms. Remember that, in the aftermath of Katrina, people were
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generally just using their guns to defend themselves against being robbed, which is
supposed to be their right. The Patriot Act and other legislative maneuvers have shown
that government will not hesitate to seize power given the right national security crises.
The government will always seek to create a narrative where there is some sort of
conflict between people having the rights that they are guaranteed by the constitution
versus the nation being safe, as if freedom is somehow inherently dangerous and
oppression is somehow safe.
Whether or not marital law ever comes to fruition, exercises just as REX-84 exhibit that
it is something that the government is ready to impose and that it has worked out to the
most exacting degree. The government is ready and able to enact martial law on the
population. All it takes is a politician that is willing, and the worst fears of many
Americans could be realized.
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