Essentially, the government is conflating Americans who believe in being prepared for disruptions in normal circumstances with potential domestic enemies who bear scrutiny, and are recruiting those they patronize to spy and snitch on their customers. As potential terrorists. For such suspicious activities as buying storable food. And paying in legal tender. [More]
This afternoon's Gun Rights Examiner column notes we can never be too safe from all you damn haters...
It's a marketing effort on the part of the government agencies involved. They put out the flier with a list of innocuous, legal behaviors on it, ask the store owners to report such activity to them, and include their telephone numbers.
ReplyDeleteThen they sit back and eat doughnuts until they start getting the calls that keep them "busy" investigating "terrorist" activity and generating reports. It gives them something to "prove" that they need a funding increase in their budget. It's a bunch of BS that wastes taxpayer resources. We have too many real, dangerous criminals on the loose for these guys to be doing such a cushy slob job. They need to can it and get real. We don't have the money to waste on this kind of law enfarcement, fishing expedition, nonsensical scam anymore.
"Yup! Terrorists! Bad ones! Gonna catch 'em! Any day now! On their trail! Got leads! Solid leads! Lookin' bad! Might do a lot of harm! Could be murder! Never really know! Investigating! Yup! Big investigation! Nationwide! Yup! Manhunt! Could be a killer! Yup! Any day now! Might be cornered! Could be desperate! Yup! Any day now! Got a witness! Saw the whole thing! Guns involved! Out of state plates! Highly suspicious! Unusual characters! Could be a plot! White male! Criminal activity! Any day now!"
Then the FBI better arrest FEMA, because back in January 2011, read a story about FEMA buying massive quantities of 'MRE' so I sent them this question:
ReplyDeleteThere's a story circulating on the Internet that FEMA "FEMA Buying 140 Million Meals For A Specific Earthquake."
The Solicitation Number is: "HSFEHQ-11-R-Meals"
Here's the rest of that story:
"Added: Jan 20, 2011 The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) procures and stores pre-packaged commercial meals to support readiness capability for immediate distribution to disaster survivors routinely. The purpose of this Request for Information is to identify sources of supply for meals in support of disaster relief efforts based on a catastrophic disaster event within the New Madrid Fault System for a survivor population of 7M to be utilized for the sustainment of life during a 10-day period of operations. FEMA is considering the following specifications (14M meals per day)."
Can you confirm or deny this story to help squelch the stories flooding the 'Net?
Here's the reply received in March 2011:
Dear Mr. Bacon:
Thank you for your e-mail to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) inquiring about HSFEHQ-11-R-Meals.
The posting is in connection to the National Level Exercise (NLE) scheduled for May, 2011.
As part of FEMA’s ongoing efforts to prepare for all hazards, we are constantly engaged in planning for disasters both large and small. Each year, FEMA, along with our Federal, State, local, and other partners - including the private sector and volunteer groups - participates in the NLE, which is a large scale exercise that simulates the response to a catastrophic disaster. This year’s NLE will simulate a large scale earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. Here is a fact sheet: http://www.fema.gov/media/fact_sheets/nle2011_fs.shtm.
The Request for Information (RFI) was prematurely posted on FedBizOpps in an attempt to gather information from potential venders that may be able to provide commodities that could be needed in such a scenario; however the RFI was canceled, because FEMA’s partner, the Defense Logistics Agency is responsible, through interagency agreement, for providing commercial, shelf-stable meals (i.e., the civilian equivalent of military meals ready to eat (MREs).
I hope this information is helpful and wish you the best.
Sincerely,
Janice Sosebee
FEMA Recovery Directorate
It's the same old story, the government can do anything, but if you as a private citizen try and prepare for the future, you're viewed as some kind of survivalist nut and need to be put away.
Another curious angle to this story is that in late April 2011, the feds decided to relief the swollen Missouri River by dynamiting the levies in SW Missouri, damn near right on top of the New Madrid fault.
As I recall, FEMA has been admonishing people to be aware of disasters that could happen at any time, and telling them to have some preps in place to counter that. So which is it? Do they want us to prepare and then confess or what? About the only thing clear about this is that no Fed agency ever thinks this stuff through, and never talks to another agency about what they are doing.
ReplyDeleteIf people are prepared with storage food, how can they N.O. Superdome us -- food and shelter in exchange for your weapons, even trade(not!)?
ReplyDeleteBeen away from resistance intel for a while, calming down, getting a new job. I see things are progressing as planned. Ain't skeered.