Jade Helm – Is this how the elites will wage war in America?

To be honest, I have been paying small attention to the “Jade Helm” controversy that has been the concern of many micro bloggers. What with all of the scandals, a city aflame, a Congress out of control there just was little time.But when I caught Zero Hedge run a very well thought out post with a clip of activity in Fort Lauderdale, it made it to the front of the line. I encourage everyone to slide over and read the whole thing.

When elites wage war in America, this will be how they will do it

In the meantime, here is a taste of the post.

A late night military exercise conducted in a highly populated urban area of Florida has many residents wondering if there were intentions beyond the training aspect of the operation.

Federal crisis exercises have a strange historical tendency to suddenly coincide with very real crisis events. We may know very little about Jade Helm beyond government admissions, claims and misdirection. But at the very least, we know what “JADE” is an acronym for: Joint Assistance for Deployment and Execution, a program designed to create action and deployment plans using computer models meant to speed up reaction times for military planners during a “crisis scenario.” It is linked with another program called ACOA (Adaptive Course of Action), the basis of which is essentially the use of past mission successes and computer models to plan future missions. Both are products of theDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

As far as I know, no one has presented any hard evidence as to what “HELM” really stands for, but the JADE portion of the exercise explicitly focuses on rapid force deployment planning in crisis situations, according to the government white paper linked above. This fact alone brings into question statements by the Department of Defense that Jade Helm is nothing more than a training program to prepare military units for “foreign deployment.” This is clearly a lie if Jade Helm revolves around crisis events (which denotes domestic threats), rather than foreign operations.

Of course, if you also consider the reality that special operations forces ALWAYS train like they fight and train in environments similar to where they will fight, the entire notion of Jade Helm as a preparation for foreign theaters sounds absurd. If special operations forces are going to fight in Iraq, Iran or Syria, they go to training grounds in places like Kuwait. If they are training in places like Fort Lauderdale, Florida (including “infiltration training”), then there is no way around the fact that they are practicing to fight somewhere exactly like Fort Lauderdale with a similar culture and population.

I would further note that Jade Helm exercises are also joint exercises with domestic agencies like the FBI and the DEA.  Again, why include domestic law enforcement agencies in a military exercise merely meant to prepare troops for foreign operations?  I often hear the argument that the military would never go along with such a program, but people who take this rather presumptive position do not understand crisis psychology.  In the event of a national catastrophe many military personnel and government employees may determine that they will do what is “best for them and their families”.  And if following orders guarantees the security of their families (food security, shelter, etc), then they may very well follow any order, no matter how dubious.  Also, a large scale crisis could be used as a rationale for martial law; otherwise well meaning military men and women could be convinced that the loss of constitutional freedoms might be for the “greater good of the greater number”.  I believe some military will indeed resist such efforts, but of course, Jade Helm may also be a method for vetting such uncooperative people before any live operation occurs.

Read the whole thing at Zero Hedge

Kuwait: “Apostasy Bill” Still Alive in Parliament

Remember when we marched in and saved those sorry folks in Kuwait? We gave lives and treasure to keep them “free” from Iraq. Here is the lesson. We are wasting American lives and our money in thinking the Middle East will not turn on us on a dime. But first we apparently must arm them.

Since Kuwait’s liberation, the United States has provided military and defense technical assistance to Kuwait from both foreign military sales (FMS) and commercial sources. The U.S. Office of Military Cooperation in Kuwait is attached to the American embassy and manages the FMS program. There are currently over 100 open FMS contracts between the U.S. military and the Kuwait Ministry of Defense totaling $8.1 billion. Principal U.S. military systems currently purchased by the Kuwait Defense Forces are Patriot Missile systems, F-18 Hornet fighters, the M1A2 main battle tank, AH-64D Apache helicopter, and a major recapitalization of Kuwait’s Navy with U.S. boats Wikipedia

The bill, which “stipulates that Muslims who are convicted of cursing God, the Qur’an, any of the prophets or the wives of Prophet Mohammad will be punished by death or life in jail,” was just rejected by the emir. But a 2/3 vote in its favor from parliament — where it originated — will make it law.

“Kuwait emir rejects apostasy death-penalty bill,” from Al-Shorfa, June 7:

Kuwaiti emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah has refused to sign a bill passed by parliament stipulating the death penalty for major religious offences, AFP reported Thursday (June 7th).

The government returned the bill to parliament on Wednesday following the emir’s rejection. Al-Sabah has the power to reject bills passed by the elected assembly, but parliament can override the decision by resubmitting the bill with a two-thirds majority among its 49 members and 16 cabinet ministers.

The bill, passed by parliament last month, stipulates that Muslims who are convicted of cursing God, the Qur’an, any of the prophets or the wives of Prophet Mohammad will be punished by death or life in jail.

H/T:Jihad Watch