John Whitehead's Commentary
Detention Camps on American Soil
"All men in power ought to be mistrusted."--James Madison
Halliburton, the controversial Texas-based energy company formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney, has focused much of its resources on securing lucrative government defense contracts in Iraq since the American invasion. These include the postwar construction of Iraq and responsibility for putting out potential oil-field fires. However, recently Halliburton publicly announced that the Bush Administration had awarded a $385 million contract to its subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root, to build American detention facilities. Ironically, these facilities are not being built in discreet locations around the globe to house captured terrorists or even so-called "enemy combatants." They are being built on American soil.
Although the government and Halliburton have failed to offer details as to where or when these domestic detention centers will be built, they have offered justifications for their future existence. According to the government contract, these Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities, as they are formally named, are being built to prepare for "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs" in the event of other emergencies such as "natural disasters." In other words, with such fluid language, these detention camps could be used for anyone--including political dissidents.
Paranoia, fear and the post-9/11 mentality obviously play into the perceived need for such camps. The anticipation is clearly for martial law. Indeed, shortly after the Katrina disaster, President Bush called for more military involvement in American life. This development and many others like it should cause us to pause and seriously think about the American government's movement toward martial law.
It is no secret that the government has had its fair share of dark, waning moments when confronted with obstructions to power and control. However, when met with such resistance, government leaders throughout American history have opted to suppress civil liberties. In fact, after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established internment camps to involuntarily house Japanese Americans, in spite of their constitutional rights.
Despite the embarrassment of the Japanese camps, the move toward creating detention camps has continued. In the 1970s, President Jimmy Carter signed an executive order that transferred many of the disaster relief agencies into one large agency known as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). As I've written before (www.rutherford.org), in the 1980s and 1990s under President Reagan, FEMA, a relatively unknown agency, morphed into what some call a "shadow government." FEMA lost its identity as a federal agency focused on disaster relief to an underground agency dedicated to some of the nation's most secret plans of countering civil unrest and ensuring the stability of power in government. In fact, as the Hurricane Katrina tragedy horrifically demonstrated, FEMA has essentially lost its identity and credibility as being a federal responder to natural disasters. The reason for FEMA's miserable failure to respond quickly and efficiently during the hurricane isn't that FEMA is inept. To the contrary, the agency is quite good on what it focuses its time, energy, money and resources.
Indeed, it was in the early 1980s when FEMA began to shift its focus to secret government operations that reports began to slowly surface describing secret military-type training exercises by the federal government. Under the name Rex-84, the government was secretly training a covert operation run by FEMA and the Department of Defense to train 34 federal agencies, including the CIA and the Secret Service, on how to deal with domestic civil unrest. This government plan, revolving around FEMA, also included the creation of top-secret American internment camps. Although the precise number of these internment camps and all their exact locations are unknown to most, their existence is virtually undeniable. In fact, in addressing a question about the existence of civilian detention camps on August 29, 1994, former Rep. Henry Gonzalez (D-Tex.) stated, "The truth is yes--you do have these standby provisions and the plans are here...whereby you could, in the name of stopping terrorism, evoke the military and arrest Americans and put them in detention camps."
The proof goes further. Some have speculated that there are already between 600-800 "prison camps" in the United States that are fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. According to these claims, the internment camps, while already staffed and supported, are to be operated by FEMA should martial law ever be implemented. People have claimed seeing these camps in various discreet locations throughout America, describing inverted barbed wire fences and guard posts. An Internet search of "FEMA Internment Camps" reveals countless websites littered with pictures, descriptions and alleged proof of their existence.
These allegations are not limited to conspiracy theorists. In fact, they have become mainstream, even reaching our nation's concerned government leaders. For instance, when Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) read a story widely circulated in the U.S. press in 2003 entitled "Foundations Are in Place for Martial Law in the United States," he became so alarmed that he gave a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on the topic. McDermott also discussed an article from the Detroit Free Press entitled "Arabs in U.S. Could Be Held, Official Warns," which referred to a member of the Civil Rights Commission who foresaw the possibility of internment camps for Arab Americans, pointing out that FEMA had already practiced for such an occasion. As McDermott proclaimed on the House floor, "The reason I raise this issue is that I come from a State where in 1941 under executive order by the President, 9661, we rounded up all the Japanese Americans in this country and put them in internment camps. We have set in place the mechanism to do that again and we must not, we cannot sacrifice the Constitution in this rush to war that we are doing in Iraq."
In the 1940s, the government used the term "espionage" as a scarlet letter to justify the internment of Japanese Americans, claiming they were potential dissidents. Today, we know that countless Arab Americans were swept up without due process immediately after 9/11. And just as we now know that the Bush Administration's domestic spy program produces incredibly little in the form of valuable or legitimate information, the raids of the 1940s also produced little in the way of proof that Japanese Americans were plotting against the United States. And more generally, as post-9/11 paranoia and fear have paralyzed our sense of decency and respect for freedom due to international terrorism, Americans of the 1940s were gripped with a similar fear due to World War II.
Even our government's shallow justifications are similar. Just like before, our government assures us that these camps would only be used for a hypothetical influx of immigrants. But can we trust the government?
Halliburton, the controversial Texas-based energy company formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney, has focused much of its resources on securing lucrative government defense contracts in Iraq since the American invasion. These include the postwar construction of Iraq and responsibility for putting out potential oil-field fires. However, recently Halliburton publicly announced that the Bush Administration had awarded a $385 million contract to its subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root, to build American detention facilities. Ironically, these facilities are not being built in discreet locations around the globe to house captured terrorists or even so-called "enemy combatants." They are being built on American soil.
Although the government and Halliburton have failed to offer details as to where or when these domestic detention centers will be built, they have offered justifications for their future existence. According to the government contract, these Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities, as they are formally named, are being built to prepare for "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs" in the event of other emergencies such as "natural disasters." In other words, with such fluid language, these detention camps could be used for anyone--including political dissidents.
Paranoia, fear and the post-9/11 mentality obviously play into the perceived need for such camps. The anticipation is clearly for martial law. Indeed, shortly after the Katrina disaster, President Bush called for more military involvement in American life. This development and many others like it should cause us to pause and seriously think about the American government's movement toward martial law.
It is no secret that the government has had its fair share of dark, waning moments when confronted with obstructions to power and control. However, when met with such resistance, government leaders throughout American history have opted to suppress civil liberties. In fact, after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established internment camps to involuntarily house Japanese Americans, in spite of their constitutional rights.
Despite the embarrassment of the Japanese camps, the move toward creating detention camps has continued. In the 1970s, President Jimmy Carter signed an executive order that transferred many of the disaster relief agencies into one large agency known as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). As I've written before (www.rutherford.org), in the 1980s and 1990s under President Reagan, FEMA, a relatively unknown agency, morphed into what some call a "shadow government." FEMA lost its identity as a federal agency focused on disaster relief to an underground agency dedicated to some of the nation's most secret plans of countering civil unrest and ensuring the stability of power in government. In fact, as the Hurricane Katrina tragedy horrifically demonstrated, FEMA has essentially lost its identity and credibility as being a federal responder to natural disasters. The reason for FEMA's miserable failure to respond quickly and efficiently during the hurricane isn't that FEMA is inept. To the contrary, the agency is quite good on what it focuses its time, energy, money and resources.
Indeed, it was in the early 1980s when FEMA began to shift its focus to secret government operations that reports began to slowly surface describing secret military-type training exercises by the federal government. Under the name Rex-84, the government was secretly training a covert operation run by FEMA and the Department of Defense to train 34 federal agencies, including the CIA and the Secret Service, on how to deal with domestic civil unrest. This government plan, revolving around FEMA, also included the creation of top-secret American internment camps. Although the precise number of these internment camps and all their exact locations are unknown to most, their existence is virtually undeniable. In fact, in addressing a question about the existence of civilian detention camps on August 29, 1994, former Rep. Henry Gonzalez (D-Tex.) stated, "The truth is yes--you do have these standby provisions and the plans are here...whereby you could, in the name of stopping terrorism, evoke the military and arrest Americans and put them in detention camps."
The proof goes further. Some have speculated that there are already between 600-800 "prison camps" in the United States that are fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. According to these claims, the internment camps, while already staffed and supported, are to be operated by FEMA should martial law ever be implemented. People have claimed seeing these camps in various discreet locations throughout America, describing inverted barbed wire fences and guard posts. An Internet search of "FEMA Internment Camps" reveals countless websites littered with pictures, descriptions and alleged proof of their existence.
These allegations are not limited to conspiracy theorists. In fact, they have become mainstream, even reaching our nation's concerned government leaders. For instance, when Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) read a story widely circulated in the U.S. press in 2003 entitled "Foundations Are in Place for Martial Law in the United States," he became so alarmed that he gave a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on the topic. McDermott also discussed an article from the Detroit Free Press entitled "Arabs in U.S. Could Be Held, Official Warns," which referred to a member of the Civil Rights Commission who foresaw the possibility of internment camps for Arab Americans, pointing out that FEMA had already practiced for such an occasion. As McDermott proclaimed on the House floor, "The reason I raise this issue is that I come from a State where in 1941 under executive order by the President, 9661, we rounded up all the Japanese Americans in this country and put them in internment camps. We have set in place the mechanism to do that again and we must not, we cannot sacrifice the Constitution in this rush to war that we are doing in Iraq."
In the 1940s, the government used the term "espionage" as a scarlet letter to justify the internment of Japanese Americans, claiming they were potential dissidents. Today, we know that countless Arab Americans were swept up without due process immediately after 9/11. And just as we now know that the Bush Administration's domestic spy program produces incredibly little in the form of valuable or legitimate information, the raids of the 1940s also produced little in the way of proof that Japanese Americans were plotting against the United States. And more generally, as post-9/11 paranoia and fear have paralyzed our sense of decency and respect for freedom due to international terrorism, Americans of the 1940s were gripped with a similar fear due to World War II.
Even our government's shallow justifications are similar. Just like before, our government assures us that these camps would only be used for a hypothetical influx of immigrants. But can we trust the government?
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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