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Some information on President Obama's National Defense Resources
Preparedness Executive Order of March 16. I hadn't heard of this
until just today. It's frightening how things like this happen
quietly in Obamas "transparent" government.<br>
<br>
From
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-garrison/martial-law-under-another_b_1370819.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-garrison/martial-law-under-another_b_1370819.html</a><br>
<br>
<h1 class="title-blog">Martial Law by Executive Order</h1>
<p> </p>
Jim Garrison<br>
President, Wisdom University; Author, 'America as Empire'
<p>President Obama's National Defense Resources Preparedness
Executive Order of March 16 does to the country as a whole what
the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act did to the
Constitution in particular -- completely eviscerates any due
process or judicial oversight for any action by the Government
deemed in the interest of "national security." Like the NDAA, the
new Executive Order puts the government completely above the law,
which, in a democracy, is never supposed to happen. The United
States is essentially now under martial law without the exigencies
of a national emergency.</p>
<p>Even as the 2012 NDAA was rooted in the Patriot Act and the
various executive orders and Congressional bills that ensued to
broaden executive power in the "war on terror," so the new
Executive Order is rooted in the Defense Production Act of 1950
which gave the Government powers to mobilize national resources in
the event of national emergencies, except now virtually every
aspect of American life falls under ultimate unchallengeable
government control, to be exercised by the president and his
secretaries at their discretion.</p>
<p>The 2012 NDAA deemed the United States a "battlefield," as
Senator Lindsey Graham put it, and gave the president and his
agents the right to seize and arrest any U.S. citizen, detain them
indefinitely without charge or trial, and do so only on suspicion,
without any judicial oversight or due process. The new Executive
order<a
href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness"
target="_hplink"></a> states that the president and his
secretaries have the authority to commandeer all U.S. domestic
resources, including food and water, as well as seize all energy
and transportation infrastructure inside the borders of the United
States. The Government can also forcibly draft U.S. citizens into
the military and force U.S. citizens to fulfill "labor
requirements" for the purposes of "national defense." There is not
even any Congressional oversight allowed, only briefings.</p>
<p>In the NDAA, only the president had the authority to abrogate
legitimate freedoms of U.S. citizens. What is extraordinary in the
new Executive Order is that this supreme power is designated
through the president to the secretaries that run the Government
itself:</p>
<p>• The Secretary of Defense has power over all water resources;<br>
• The Secretary of Commerce has power over all material services
and facilities, including construction materials;<br>
• The Secretary of Transportation has power over all forms of
civilian transportation;<br>
• The Secretary of Agriculture has power over food resources and
facilities, livestock plant health resources, and the domestic
distribution of farm equipment;<br>
• The Secretary of Health and Human Services has power over all
health resources;<br>
• The Secretary of Energy has power over all forms of energy.</p>
<p>The Executive Order even stipulates that in the event of conflict
between the secretaries in using these powers, the president will
determine the resolution through his national security team.</p>
<p>The 2012 NDAA gave the Government the right to abrogate any due
process against a U.S. citizen. The new Executive Order gives the
government, through the Secretary of Labor, the right to
proactively mobilize U.S. citizens for "labor" as the government
deems necessary and to coordinate with the Secretary of Defense to
maintain data to coordinate the nation's work needs in relation to
national defense. </p>
<p>What is extraordinary about the Executive Order is that, like the
NDAA, this can all be done in peacetime without any national
emergency to justify it. The language of the Order does not state
that all these extraordinary measures will be done in the event of
"national security" or a "national emergency." They can simply be
done for "purposes of national defense," clearly a broader remit
that allows the government to do what it wants, when it wants, how
it wants, to whomever it wants, all without any judicial restraint
or due process. As Orwell famously said in <em>1984</em>, "War is
peace. Peace is war." This is now the reality on the ground in
America.</p>
<p>Finally, the 2012 NDAA was hurried through the House and Senate
almost like a covert op with minimal public attention or debate.
It was then signed by the president at 9:00 PM on New Year's Eve
while virtually nobody was paying attention to much other than the
approaching new year. This new Executive Order was written and
signed in complete secret and then quietly released by the White
House on its website without comment. All this was done under a
president who studied constitutional law at Harvard.</p>
<p>It is hard to know what to say in the face of such egregious
disregard for the integrity of what America has stood and fought
for since its founding. It is hard in part because none of us
thought such encroachments would ever happen here, certainly not
under the watch of a "progressive" like Obama. </p>
<p>At one level, the prospect for war with Iran is probably an
immediate justification. But the comprehensiveness of the
Executive Order, like that of the 2012 NDAA, speaks to something
much deeper, more sinister. I would suggest that this Order, like
the NDAA, has been in the works for some time and is simply the
next step in the logic of the "global war on terror." Our
political elites have come to consider democracy an impediment to
effective governance and they are slowly and painstakingly
creating all the democratic legalities necessary to abridge our
democratic rights with impunity, all to ensure our "security." Of
such measures do republics fall and by such measures tyrants
emerge.</p>
The only thing that really remains is the occasion to test the new
rules of the game. Perhaps that will be war with Iran, perhaps some
contrived emergency, or perhaps, as long as the public and media
remain asleep, no occasion will be necessary at all. It will just
slowly happen of its own accord and we, like the frog in the pot of
slowly boiling water, will just sit there and be consumed by our own
turpitude.
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