Detention Camps in the US... They're to "Stop Immigrants", yeah sure, whatever

[ck4829]

A Halliburton subsidiary has just received a $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to provide "temporary detention and processing capabilities."

The contract -- announced Jan. 24 by the engineering and construction firm KBR -- calls for preparing for "an emergency influx of immigrants, or to support the rapid development of new programs" in the event of other emergencies, such as "a natural disaster." The release offered no details about where Halliburton was to build these facilities, or when.

To date, some newspapers have worried that open-ended provisions in the contract could lead to cost overruns, such as have occurred with KBR in Iraq. A Homeland Security spokesperson has responded that this is a "contingency contract" and that conceivably no centers might be built. But almost no paper so far has discussed the possibility that detention centers could be used to detain American citizens if the Bush administration were to declare martial law.

For those who follow covert government operations abroad and at home, the contract evoked ominous memories of Oliver North's controversial Rex-84 "readiness exercise" in 1984. This called for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to round up and detain 400,000 imaginary "refugees," in the context of "uncontrolled population movements" over the Mexican border into the United States. North's activities raised civil liberties concerns in both Congress and the Justice Department. The concerns persist.

http://www.alaskareport.com/z44709.htm

[Rockstone]

1. "Give us your poor, you tired, your hungry"....

"for out new concentration camps"

[Deja Q]

2. Given the amount of people coming into the US, via immigration,

especially through non-legal means, there is some truth to the claim.

However, there may be some truth in the tinfoil too.

Nobody knows until it happens, however. And I refuse to live on hyperbole. Life as it is is already depressing without conjuring up bogeymen...

[shance]

3. While Americans are distracted by political theatrics, Bechtel and

other paramilitary companies are withdrawing their troops from Iraq because it's too 'violent'.

Where are they going to send these paramilitary troops? Back here? Now that the Bush Administration has attempted to dismantle any rights we have, one might want to take note of such actions occurring.

[OneBlueSky]

4. the Halliburton contract is only the lastest development . . .

in a long history of preparing for mass detentions in this country . . . see this post for some interesting (terrifying?) links . . .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=328519&mesg_id=328941