To Our Readers:
Two stories have grabbed our attention this week. As our thoughts are turned away from world events and towards jobs and politics, the growing power of the federal government continues unimpeded and largely ignored. Read how federal agencies are arming themselves far beyond what seems reasonable, and how a new Executive Order may change everything.
The Editor
Why Does ICE Need165 Million Bullets?
By Ilana Freedman - August 29, 2012
On August 16, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department of Homeland Security, better known as ICE, published a solicitation for 165 million .223 Remington Caliber SD bullets over a five year period. This is in addition to an earlier solicitation February 6, for 10 million rounds of .223 Remington Caliber Enhanced Performance (EP), also over a five year period.
On August 14, the National oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) posted a solicitation for 46,000 rounds of various types of .40 caliber bullets, including 16,000 hollow-point rounds.
Another recent online here (solicitation at fedbizops.gov by the Social Security Administration) dated August 7, calls for 174,000 rounds of .357 JHP hollow point bullets.
The Request for Quote (RFQ) for Ammunition posted at FedBizOps.gov contains a link that lists all of the cities to which the shipments of bullets are allocated. Forty-one cities are listed and the individual shipments are not, in fact, overly large, but the distribution is puzzling and the request is for hollow-points is even stranger.
For example, according to the list, Batavia, NY (population 15,465) will receive only 1,000 rounds, as will Helena, MT (population 25,780), and Charleston, WV (population 304,158), which is more than twenty times the size of Batavia.
Iselin, NJ (population 18,695), and Richmond, VA (population 205,533) will both receive 10,000 rounds, as will Los Angeles, with a population of well over 4 million, or 210 times as many residents as Iselin and nineteen times as many as Richmond.
Finally, Manchester, NH, with its relatively small population of 109,565, will receive the most of all, 15,000 rounds, the largest allotment given to any of the 41 cities on the list.
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The looming question is "why"? Why does the Social Security Administration need hollow point bullets? Or NOAA? And why does ICE require 12,000 .50 caliber rounds?
In 2009, the Department of Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement office contracted to receive an "indefinite delivery" of an "indefinite quantity" of .40 caliber bullets from defense contractor ATK, an order that could reach 200 million hollow points over a five year period.
The government is stocking up on its ammunition, and the purpose of these massive purchases by various federal agencies is now the subject of much speculation.
The agencies, however, are downplaying the purchase, calling the hollow point ammunition "standard issue" which are used for "mandatory federal training" sessions.
In a message on the official blog, the Inspector General explained, "Our office has criminal investigators, or special agents, who are responsible for investigating violations of the laws that govern SSA's programs. Currently, about 295 special agents and supervisory special agents work in 66 offices across the United States. These investigators have full law enforcement authority, including executing search warrants and making arrests." "OIG's special agents use this ammunition during their mandatory quarterly firearms qualifications and other training sessions, to ensure agent and public safety."
The explanations are limp, at best, and do little to ease the minds of those who are concerned of the increasing power of the federal government. The choice of hollow-point rounds is highly suspect. This kind of bullet is designed to expand upon entering its target, inflicting maximum damage to soft tissue (see photo above). It is illegal to use the hollow-point in war, and it is a poor choice on the range, both because it is much more expensive than regular training rounds, and because a hollow-point is not designed for target practice, but for stopping an assault by a human attacker. In fact, there is no logical reason for using hollow-point rounds for training.
This story is alarming in and of itself, but it not the end of the story, it is only part of what may be a much larger picture. (see next article) And we need much more daylight on it than we have at the moment.
The President's Plans for Martial Law
By Ilana Freedman - August 29, 2012
President Obama signs Executive Order "National Defense Resources Preparedness"
Last March, in a move that was largely ignored by the general population and the mainstream press, President Obama gave himself sweeping powers to declare martial law in undefined situations, in a power grab that made an end run around both Congress and the Constitution.
In an executive order dated March 16, 2012, entitled "National Defense Resources Preparedness," the President gave himself and his designated Secretaries the authority to seize all domestic U.S. resources, such as food, water, transportation, energy, and infrastructure within the United States, in times of peace or war. They can now, according to the order, reimpose the draft, compelling American citizens into the military, and bind all American citizens to satisfy "labor requirements" for national defense. In short, the federal government now has the authority to take over almost every aspect of American life at a time of his choosing and without consulting Congress.
Covered under this Order are:
Civil Transportation (including "movement of persons and property by all modes of transportation in interstate, intrastate, or foreign commerce within the United States, its territories and possessions, and the District of Columbia, and related public storage and warehousing, ports, services, equipment and facilities, such as transportation carrier shop and repair facilities … direction, control, and coordination of civil transportation capacity regardless of ownership");
Energy (including "all forms of energy including petroleum, gas (both natural and manufactured), electricity, solid fuels (including all forms of coal, coke, coal chemicals, coal liquification, and coal gasification), solar, wind, other types of renewable energy, atomic energy, and the production, conservation, use, control, and distribution (including pipelines) of all of these forms of energy");
Farm Equipment (including "equipment, machinery, and repair parts manufactured for use on farms in connection with the production or preparation for market use of food resources");
Resources (including "commodities or products, that are capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals, irrespective of other uses to which such commodities or products may be put" as well as "potable water packaged in commercially marketable containers, all starches, sugars, vegetable and animal or marine fats and oils, seed, cotton, hemp, and flax fiber");
Food resource Facilities (including "plants, machinery, vehicles (including on farm), and other facilities required for the production, processing, distribution, and storage (including cold storage) of food resources, and for the domestic distribution of farm equipment and fertilizer");
Health Resources (described as "drugs, biological products, medical devices, materials, facilities, health supplies, services and equipment required to diagnose, mitigate or prevent the impairment of, improve, treat, cure, or restore the physical or mental health conditions of the population");
and lastly,
Water Resources (to mean "all usable water, from all sources within the jurisdiction of the United States" .
In short, the order empowers the President, and the various secretaries of key agencies, to control these vast resources as he sees fit and when he sees fit, whether there is a national crisis or not. And he can do this without the consent of Congress.
The order further states that "The United States must have an industrial and technological base capable of meeting national defense requirements and capable of contributing to the technological superiority of its national defense equipment in peacetime (italics mine – Editor) and in times of national emergency."
In short, the order gives Mr. Obama (or whoever currently sits in the Oval Office, the ability to impose martial law at any time, which gives him control of nearly every aspect of American life and survival. In addition to being a threat to individual liberty and the fundamental principles of individual responsibility, it is blatantly unconstitutional. The Constitution forbids the President from assuming such powers without the consent of Congress.
In light of the looming concern of an expanding war in the Middle East, precipitated by the imminent threat of a nuclear Iran, the rapidly failing economy, and the knowledge that non-policing federal agencies like Social Security and NOAA are being massively armed, the possibility of the President actually assuming the powers he has given to himself becomes real and frightening.
One can only speculate about what it would take to trigger that event. If the President should decide to impose martial law prior to November 6, would it disrupt the upcoming elections and change the outcome? Imposing martial law "in peacetime" and without Congressional approval, gives virtually unlimited power to one man, and would render Congress totally powerless. Under such conditions, can the United States, as we know it, survive?
SOURCE: Why Does ICE Need165 Million Bullets? | Gerard Direct and The President's Plans for Martial Law | Gerard Direct
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