Monday, February 02, 2009

Detention Camps for US Civilians?

I have a couple reasons for taking anything posted at WorldNetDaily with not a grain, but a mine of salt. One reason I'll keep to myself, and the other is that they so often come across as the Weekly World News. Is this story true as stated? I'm not well-versed enough in reading federal law to tell myself.

Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla., has introduced to the House of Representatives a new bill, H.R. 645, calling for the secretary of homeland security to establish no fewer than six national emergency centers for corralling civilians on military installations.

The proposed bill, which has received little mainstream media attention, appears designed to create the type of detention center that those concerned about use of the military in domestic affairs fear could be used as concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany.

If it's true, I'm comforted knowing that our civil liberties-loving friends on the left will stand up against this. Oh, wait....

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here is the text of the bill. It looks as though they are meant to be temporary shelters in the event of natural disasters and other emergencies.

It does say that the emergency shelters shall be "environmentally safe and shall not pose a health risk to individuals who may use the center". I think that means they can't be used to exterminate people ;). But then, this is the left, and they don't consider abortion or assisted suicide immoral.

Erica said...

I had a look over the text of the bill and it seems to be providing for large evacuation centers for people affected by disasters. They're favoring closed military bases as locations, but that might not be as ominous as it sounds because those facilities often have useful buildings in good condition that could be converted for the purpose.

Maybe I'm jaded, as we have to evacuate half our county about once a year, and camping out in the fairgrounds with everyone's livestock is getting old.

At this point I think I'd be less concerned about Nuevo Buchenwald, and more worried about why Hastings, D-Fla., thinks so many of us would need to be evacuated at a moments notice.

Darren said...

So I'm right that you can't be overly suspicious of anything in WND?

Anonymous said...

During the Clinton administration, one of the more entertaining right-wing fever-swamp conspiracy theories was that Clinton, in cahoots with the U.N. (*and* George HW Bush somehow), had plans to round up dissenters and intern them in giant camps here and there.

The websites pushing this had pictures of fences, railroad sidings, etc., etc.; they eventually progressed to the point of claiming that Wal-Marts would be used as regional U.N. HQs (with the fenced-in garden centers being used as temporary holding pens for patriots). The stickers on the back of road signs -- the ones with the warning about stealing 'em and with the installation date on them -- were to be used to guide the U.N. convoys around. That they were on the back of the signs only made things more convenient for the U.N., because (the story went) the U.N. vehicles would drive on the left side of the road. Apparently the UK, Australia, Japan, etc. were expected to head up the force.

It's the right-wing version of the left-wing claims -- which started in about 2002, if I remember correctly -- that Bush wouldn't leave office when his term was up.

Darren said...

I remember seeing those. They weren't "right-wing" sites, they were nutjob sites--like the 9/11 Troofers, no one really wants to claim them.

Anonymous said...

Erica, "Nuevo Buchenwald." Hilarious!

Anonymous said...

Darren,

I too once upon a time visited the WND site regularly but it was overblown stories like this one that prompted me to look elsewhere for news. Looking at the actual bill it you will also see this:

"There is authorized to be appropriated $180,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2009 and 2010 to carry out this Act. Such funds shall remain available until expended."

Which begs the question, how much every year after that? Government jobs once created aren't easily or ever terminated.

Ellen K said...

Back in the day there were many centers for Civil Defense that had supplies in case of an emergency. One of them is under the Texas State Fair in one of the buildings. There's a huge lead door and lots of boxes of stale crackers that were vestiges of the Cuban Missle Crisis. I would wonder why the Congresswoman thinks there is an immediate need for this. And I would wonder on which committees she serves as well. I hope they have good luck with that up north. As repeatedly noted in the media, here in Texas, we've got guns.

Anonymous said...

Oh come on Darren. Don't rain on Anon's parade. He's enjoying one of the perquisites of leftyhood: smugness.