Corporate Media Puzzled by U.S. Martial Law Plans in Wake of Brit Riots

Operation Garden Plot was established under the cover of race riots in the 1960s.

Back in late 2010, the Army Corps of Engineers inadvertently posted information about Northcom’s CONPLAN 3502, included within information about a FEMA-simulated earthquake drill called National Level Exercise 2011.

The documents reveal how a secret Pentagon Civil Disturbance Operations plan calls for military-operated detention and search operations within the United States. It is mentioned in a Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) Handbook that was prepared by the Army’s Joint Test and Evaluation Command. It was also mentioned by General Victor E. Renuart, Northcom commander, in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities on March 5, 2008.

More information can be found here. IndyMedia provided extrensive coverage, not that the New York Times or the Washington Post noticed. The establishment press was uniformly silent.

CONPLAN 3502 surfaced again this week as the Brits scrambled to confront riots sweeping their country.

“With British Prime Minister David Cameron authorizing the use of rubber bullets and water canons in wake of the turbulent London riots spreading through Britain, questions have been raised about how authorities in the U.S. would respond to a similar domestic disturbance threatening the nation’s stability,” writes John Hudson for the Atlantic Wire.

“According to National Journal‘s White House correspondent Marc Ambinder the U.S. already has a game plan in place. “If what happened in London ever happened in the US, the military has plans — CONPLAN 3501 and 3502 — to suppress the ‘insurrection,’ he tweeted. The mysterious reference to a numbered military plan generated a flurry of interest on Twitter as NPR host Michele Norris shot back: “I want to know more about the military’s plan to suppress any potential ‘insurrection.’– CONPLAN 3501 and 3502????”

Hudson continues:

Interestingly, the CONPLAN (which stands for an “operation plan in concept format” at the Pentagon) Ambinder referenced is a popular subject among conspiracy theorists and critics of martial law. According to the public policy organization GlobalSecurity.org, CONPLAN 3502 is the U.S. military’s plan for assisting state and local authorities in the event of a riot or major civil disturbance: “Tasks performed by military forces may include joint patrolling with law enforcement officers; securing key buildings, memorials, intersections and bridges; and acting as a quick reaction force.”

The Brits may be scratching their heads, but the feds over here in the states have had plans in place for decades to deal with civil unrest. Following the riots of the 1960s, the U.S. Army and National Guard devised Operation Garden Plot. Infowars.com reported the posting of several declassified documents detailing on Operation Garden Plot back in 2009.

Garden Plot still exists and is now under the operational command of Northcom. It was last activated during the attacks of September 11, 2001, and also became operational during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Annex A, section B of Operation Garden Plot defines tax protesters, militia groups, religious cults, and anti-government activists as “Disruptive Elements.”

Garden Plot is a sub program of Rex 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984, that established an undisclosed number of concentration camps in America for the internment of dissidents and other elements considered enemies of the state. It was first revealed during the Iran-Contra Hearings in 1987, and subsequently reported upon by the Miami Herald on July 5, 1987, so it is not a conspiracy theory.

Now that the riots in Britain seem to be subsiding, the truth deniers at NPR and elsewhere in the corporate media can go back to sleep or turn to more important things, such as the ridiculous “Dougherty Gang” or the supposed debt deal that isn’t a debt deal.

Come the economic riots in America, they will once again be talking about CONPLAN 3502 and will be asking questions about Operation Garden Plot, REX 84, and any number of other operational martial law plans waiting to be activated.