From: Andrew Johnson
Date: 2007-09-03 09:31:48
OpEdNews Original Content at www.opednews.com/art… August 30, 2007 Scholars endorse “The Kennebunkport Warning”: Report ominous signs of a privatized takeover of the nation By Jim Fetzer A warning about the prospect of an imminent but staged 9/11 attack followed by a strike on Iran and imposition of martial law in the US has been issued by Cynthia McKinney, Webster Tarpley and others. Known as The Kennebunkport Warning (August 26, 2007), it has drawn support from Scholars for 9/11 Truth. According to its founder, James H. Fetzer, not only are there multiple indications the United States is about to attack Iran, but a series of rather odd events suggest that martial law may be near at hand. The threat is not from our own military, the strength of which is being depleted by the ongoing occupation of Iraq, but from privatized armies, such as Blackwater USA, which appear to be growing stronger as the US Army is growing weaker. According to The Kennebunkport Warning, extensive evidence suggests that those allied with the neo-con faction headed by Vice President Cheney are determined to orchestrate and manufacture a new 9/11 terror incident . . . (to) be used as a pretext for launching an aggressive war against Iran and for imposing a regime of martial law here in the United States. . . . We solemnly warn the people of the world that any terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction taking place inside the United States or elsewhere in the immediate future must be considered the prima facie responsibility of the Cheney faction.Fetzer, a former Marine Corps officer, observes that the privatization of military force has created a new problem for the citizens of this nation. In the past, we have had confidence that the US military, our national guard, our local police and armed citizens had the combined ability to withstand threats to our liberty from our own government. But our military is broken, the National Guard has been placed under the Presidents control, and our access to ammunition now appears to be being cut off, which compromises our capacity to resist tyranny.That our level of engagement in Iraq cannot be continued has been conveyed by many sources. Associated Press reporter Lolita C. Baldor (August 19, 2007) has written that our level of engagement in Iraq cannot be sustained. Sapped by nearly six years of war, the Army has nearly exhausted its fighting force and its options if the Bush administration decides to extend the Iraq buildup beyond next year. Many general officers and National Guard commanders have said similar things, but the effects of a depleted military may have unexpected ramifications.The control of the National Guard has been placed directly at the disposal of the President of the United States over the opposition of all fifty governors. I cant imagine a more blatant violation of states’ rights than this, Fetzer said. It used to be the case that the Republican Party stood for states’ rights. But then it also stood for balanced budgets, Constitutional government, a non-interventionist foreign policy, and keeping the government out of our personal lives. I simply do not understand why any principled Republican would support this administration. Maybe there arent any left. An article by Reuters (August 26, 2007) confirms that the US is the most heavily armed nation in the world, with 90 guns per 100 people. According a Small Arms Survey conducted by the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, each year about 4.5 million of some 8 million new rifles, shotguns and hardguns are sold to US citizens, who own about 270 million of the world’s 875 million known firearms. Ordinarily, I would consider this to be a source of security, Fetzer observed, but the Second Amendment is meaningless if our access to ammunition is cut off.Fetzer was recently startled to read in The Capital Times (August 28, 2007) that police departments across the country are so starved for ammunition that they are resorting to target practice with paint-ball guns. This is quite shocking, he said. Most police ammunition is .38 and 9mm caliber, not the kind that our military requires. The profit margin on the sale and manufacture of bullets is so great and the demand is so strong that it is difficult to imagine how this could happen absent a deliberate policy to curtail access to ammo. Without bullets, those vast stocks of weapons are useless. This appears to be a very clever, insidious plan.Other developments raise Fetzers concern, including a report (wesh.com, August 22, 2007) that members of the 1st Battalion, 265th Air Defense Artillery are being deployed from Florida to the nations capital for a years duty, where they will operate high-tech weapons systems against any potential air threat. He finds that strange. I am not aware of any threat from the sky to the White House, Fetzer said. Is this to protect Bush and Cheney from foreign terrorists or are they concerned that US citizens may rise up in opposition to their suspension of the Constitution?And a disturbing report has just appeared on the internet (nworeport.com/blackw…) that Blackwater, USA, the private security contractor that has assembled a large mercenary force in Iraq (as part of a governmental privatization scheme to keep the official count of American forces involved artificially low) is now building its own air force in the United States, including the purchase of Super Tucano light combat aircraft from Embraer, a Brazilian company. According to the article, it has one new private military base in San Diego, another in Mount Carroll, IL, and has applied for operating licenses in every coastal U.S. state.If you believe in coincidence, Fetzer said, then perhaps you consider it to be a remarkable improbability that, just as the American military is being weakened in Iraq, the National Guard is being placed under the Presidents direct control, and that ammunition is being cut off from police departments and armed citizens, while air defense units are being deployed to Washington, D.C., and mercenaries are developing their own air force. Im not so sure. If we have the most capable air force in the world, then why is this one needed? To do things our own air force would not do? All of these developments are troubling and lead me to think that the Kennebunkport Warning may be even better founded than its signers realize.Authors Website: 911scholars.orgAuthors Bio: Founder, Scholars for 9/11 Truth
