With all of the pieces in place, when will the hammer drop?

Dees Illustration

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Over the past few months, those who have been paying attention have witnessed some of the most disturbing developments in modern American history unfold at breakneck speed.

This includes the explicit codification of indefinite detention without charge or trial as well as rendition under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Fiscal Year 2012, the KBR move to create a team of sub-contractors to activate the so-called FEMA camps on a moment’s notice and the designation of American citizens as the enemy under Continuity of Government (COG) plans created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Unfortunately, the file revealing the FEMA COG plans, entitled “National Continuity Programs (NCP) Program and Mission Support Services (PAMSS)” was quickly removed from the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) official website, according to Infowars.

All that is left is a message warning users to not upload any classified materials, even though the document was listed as “Source Selection Sensitive” and not classified, as the warning notice might have you believe.

This serves as just another example of our criminal, corrupt government believing that there is no need for them to be accountable for their actions to the American people which are used as collateral and manpower in their insane schemes.

These developments have been part of a gradual march toward an all-encompassing authoritarian police state with a massive surveillance grid so expansive George Orwell would likely never believe it could be reality.

Just a few pieces of this incomparably complex control grid include the Carrier IQ monitoring software which is loaded on to every major smartphone by every major wireless service provider, drone surveillance which includes so-called threat assessment technology and facial recognition, comprehensive and centralized biometric databases, along with widespread citizen spying programs.

This surveillance state, which has already been rolled out and is only increasing in reach and depth, is complimented by the militarization of police moving towards a de facto martial law.

However, the NDAA makes the steady move to turn local and state police departments into paramilitary forces look like child’s play.

Previously, I believed that programs like the Pentagon’s 1033 program were being used to transform public servants into public oppressors without having to formally declare martial law, but now it is clear that I was wrong.

Under the NDAA, there is absolutely no need to declare martial law now or in the future, given that it effectively eviscerates the Bill of Rights, the Posse Comitatus Act and the Non-Detention Act.

Declaring martial law would just be redundant, given that there is absolutely nothing stopping the military from kicking down the doors of innocent Americans and holding them indefinitely under the guise of fighting terrorism.

We are already seeing military technology being rolled out in situations where it hardly seems warranted, as was the case with the use of a Predator B drone in North Dakota, along with the entirety of the dangerous domestic drone program, and the decision to deploy an armored personnel carrier (APC) to the Occupy Tampa protests.

There is no need for the individual to even have tenuous links to terrorism or terrorist groups, as the military will never be forced to justify their actions or present evidence to anyone.

Even more disturbing is that now American citizens can be charged with providing “material support” to terrorists simply by writing about issues which might otherwise be covered by free speech.

This was exemplified by the case of 29-year-old Tarek Mehanna who federal prosecutors claim traveled to Yemen in 2004 in hopes of training as a terrorist and then killing American soldiers fighting in Iraq.

However, Mehanna failed to locate any training camps – clearly indicating he is not keyed in to the terrorist underworld – and then allegedly returned home to promote al Qaeda by writing about violent jihad against the United States online.

Mehanna and his legal team gave a much different story: instead of going to Yemen to attempt, and fail, to find a terrorist training camp, Mehanna claims that he went to Yemen simply to receive instruction to become an Islamic scholar and that his writings on the internet were protected by free speech.

Carol Rose, the executive director of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said that they are “gravely concerned that today’s verdict against Tarek Mehanna undermines the First Amendment and threatens national security.”

“Under the government’s theory of the case, ordinary people – including writers and journalists, academic researchers, translators, and even ordinary web surfers – could be prosecuted for researching or translating controversial or unpopular ideas. If the verdict is not overturned on appeal, the First Amendment will be seriously compromised,” the ACLU’s statement said.

It is clear that there is an assault on the Constitution on all fronts, with the federal government leading the charge in the war against our liberties, as clearly shown by the disturbing levels of support for the NDAA seen in both the House and Senate.

Increasingly American citizens are being treated like the enemy, and if the NDAA’s sections are fully utilized, many Americans could be locked up as prisoners of war and civilian internees without charge or trial with no hope of being released until the government makes the call.

The disturbing truth is that being designated a civilian internee is literally the best case scenario for people like myself who relentlessly expose government malfeasance and the evisceration of our most essential liberties as protected by the Constitution.

The mainstream corporate-controlled media is all but completely ignoring the NDAA, and when they do cover it, which is laughably rare, they whitewash the most important sections and claim that the bill does not actually provide for the indefinite detention of American citizens, which I clearly debunked in a previous article.

As every week goes by, it becomes clearer that we are approaching a crossroads in this nation and around the world.

One road will lead us even further down the slippery slope of tyranny into a situation that would make the Orwellian police state we currently see unfolding around us look tame.

This road leads to massive indefinite detention of American citizens in FEMA prison camps which have already been erected around the nation, along with the establishment of even more detention centers on military installations and elsewhere.

It also leads to the total abolition of habeas corpus and all of the rights which so many Americans never imagined could ever be in danger of being impinged on, restricted, or even removed altogether.

The other road is obviously the one I would much prefer we head down.

This is one where the traitors in our government are brought to justice, the tyrannical financial establishment is dismantled in favor of a much more equitable debt-free monetary system, and the global imperialistic force serving the corporate elite that the United States military has become is radically changed.

The nationwide and now global surveillance state would be scrapped, the mainstream media would become irrelevant and die off in a matter of days, the government would no longer believe itself to be immune from criticism and the once opaque operations would become open and accountable to the people footing the bill.

No longer would innocent people be slaughtered at home and abroad in the name of the sham that is the war on terror and the United States would no longer be the reviled death machine that it has become thanks to our hijacked government.

Collusion between corporate interests and all government corruption would no longer be the rampant, parasitic blight that it currently is.

Our freedoms and safety would be secured, not through a phony war on terror which seeks to have us trade liberty for security, but instead through a genuine government that actually sought to protect its citizens and not use them as collateral and slave labor in private prisons.

The failed drug war would end and thus the countless non-violent offenders we are paying to keep locked up in college for criminals, while they are exploited for cheap labor by government-connected corporations, would no longer fill our prisons.

Medical marijuana could replace many overpriced and dangerous pharmaceutical treatments and hemp could drastically impact countless industries and revive the American economy and turn the United States back into the manufacturing powerhouse and economic power it once was.

Bankers would be held accountable for their criminal activity and no longer would our government be a revolving door system for corporations and their employees.

It would truly be a government of the people for the people, but this not something that would happen overnight, nor is it something that could occur without the majority of Americans waking up to reality and taking a stand.

It now appears that it is only a matter of time until the government either drops the hammer and we find ourselves traveling rapidly down the dark road, or the American people finally stand up and refuse to let our nation be destroyed any further.

Hopefully Americans will not wait to take action until the worst-case scenario has unfolded, as it very well might be too late at that point.

I encourage all of my readers to spread this information to anyone and everyone and encourage them to actually look into it, check my sources, and decide for themselves if they want to wait and ignore the signs; or, start making an effort to make our country, and the world, a better place for ourselves and future generations or just allow a once-great nation to become a system that would make the Soviets green with envy. 

This article first appeared at End the Lie 

Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis database End The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. He is available for podcast and radio interviews. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at [email protected]