Why would the Department of Homeland Security possibly need 2,700 Mine resistent armored vehicles? Inquiring minds want to know. Where are the liberals? Where is the ACLU? Where is MSNBC? Where are the Iraq War protestors who burned Bush in effigy? The sound of crickets.
Are there still Republicans in Congress? Is someone going to ask why DHS needs 2,700 armored vehicles and billions of rounds of ammo?
By Doug Ross http://directorblue.blogspot.com/
I guess President Obama was serious when he pledged — on two separate occasions — to build a “civilian national security force” just as powerful and well-equipped as the U.S. military. You may also recall from that antiquated document called the United States Constitution (like, dude, maybe 100 years old… right, Ezra Klein?) that using American armed forces for domestic military operations is forbidden.But that doesn’t seem to be much of a hindrance for this administration.
In addition to stockpiling over a billion bullets and thousands of semiautomatic weapons the feds would deny U.S. citizens, the vehicle of choice for fighting the counterinsurgency war in Iraq is appearing on U.S. streets.
The sequestration question du jour is why the Department of Homeland Security, busy releasing hundreds, if not thousands, of deportable and detained illegal aliens due to budget constraints, is buying several thousand Mine Resistant Armored Protection (MRAP) vehicles?
And just who are they intended to be used against?
This acquisition comes on top of the recent news of the stockpiling by DHS of more than 1.6 billion (with a ‘b’) bullets of various calibers, enough…to fight the equivalent of a 24-year Iraq War, and the ordering of some 7,000 5.56x45mm NATO “personal defense weapons” (PDW) — also known as “assault weapons” when owned by civilians.
…The Department of Homeland Security (through the U.S. Army Forces Command) recently retrofitted 2,717 of these MRAP vehicles for service on the streets of the U.S. They were formerly used for counterinsurgency in Iraq… These vehicles are specifically designed to resist mines and ambush attacks. They use bulletproof windows and are designed to withstand small-arms fire, including smaller-caliber rifles such as a .223 Remington. Does DHS expect a counterinsurgency here?
…A DHS officer, Robert Whitaker, stationed in El Paso, Texas, recently proudly described the agency’s new armored toy as “Mine-resistant … we use to deliver our team to high-risk warrant services … (with) gun ports so we can actually shoot from within the vehicle; you may think it’s pretty loud but actually it’s not too bad … we have gun ports there in the back and two on the sides as well. They are designed for .50-caliber weapons.”
This is needed to serve warrants? Perhaps it might have been useful at Waco.
So the question is what does DHS need 1.6 billion bullets, 7,000 Ar-15s and 2,700 armored vehicles for?
Are there still Republicans in Congress?
Do we still have a single journalist in the media?
Does no one care that this president is — at the same time he whines endlessly about tiny Sequester cuts — spending billions arming a huge, powerful, domestic security force?
Hat tip: BadBlue.com News Service.
Administrator says:
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8th March 2013 at 7:11 am
Nonanonymous says:
Good morning, TBP!
It’s been stated 2B rounds of small arms munitions is enough to wage a war against the American people for 7 years. 2700 of these Mine Resistant Vehicles (MRV) is enough to engage several metropolitan areas per state. Still not enough for an occupation force, but if the Constitution goes out the window, so does Posse Comitatus. What about the soldiers, will they defend the Constitution or serve their masters?
The feds have been buying up entire production lines of freeze dried food, as well. I guess they’re serious about continuity of government. I accept that there are external threats to the national security of the United States, and I don’t have any issues with preserving the internal security, as well, but let’s stick to the constitution, and there’s a lot wrong with what’s going on.
McCain and Graham be damned!
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8th March 2013 at 7:50 am
Eddie says:
Somebody really wants to be ready for the Zombie Apocalypse.
I can’t help but think TPTB have some real expectation of a crisis that will result in a loss of the rule of law. If the President does have some kind of rationale for this, he owes it to the American people to talk about it out loud, and not just arm a bunch of goon squads.
My inner taxpayer is groaning in agony at the thought of paying for this ridiculously expensive, totally unnecessary load of future army surplus.
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8th March 2013 at 8:54 am
ThePessimisticChemist says:
@Eddie – Don’t worry, MRAP’s can easily be repurposed as school buses, so they will totally pay for themselves.
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8th March 2013 at 9:04 am
beast rudolfo says:
they’re heading to the korean peninsula.
b.r.
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8th March 2013 at 9:07 am
John Coster says:
This business is particularly scary. Constitution? What Constitution? It’s obvious we are developing privatized security forces for the oligarchs at tax payer expense. It’s hard to imagine anything more contrary to the intent of the founders. It often seems to me that we are already living in a conquered nation whose history is being obliterated along with our freedoms and the rule of law. The forces controlling the government are creating the very kinds of social chaos they supposedly are protecting us from.
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8th March 2013 at 9:46 am
Yojimbo says:
Someone who posts here works on these MRAP vehicles. Was it Buckhed or Jimski?
I didn’t realize that there were 2,700 being retrofitted for use inside the US. Cripes.
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8th March 2013 at 10:26 am
Stucky says:
I can’t wait until they come out with a CIVILIAN version of that beast … like they did with the Hummer.
I’ll be the baddest motherfucker on the road …. smashing pissant Honda Hybrids left and right!!
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8th March 2013 at 10:54 am
David says:
I always thought that America had a “civilian national security force”. It was made up of armed patriots ready at a moment’s notice to drop whatever they were doing, grab their gun from the gun rack over the fireplace and go defend the country. I guess that idea of protecting your own home is gone now. The new normal will be citizens cowering in their homes, peeping out the windows, and nervously counting the seven rounds of ammo that Diane Feinstein handed out for their security. Giant MRAP vehicles will be riding up and downs the streets, guns blazing from the portals, snuffing out all those evil civilian enemy combatants. Should a good citizen decide to strengthen his home defense then that new “civilian national security force” will call in a drone strike and a hellfire missile will settle the uprising. Collateral damage? Who cares? Yes sir, step out of line now and those in charge will hand you your ass on a platter. Shock and awe in the burbs.
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8th March 2013 at 11:04 am
dc.sunsets says:
During the War of Southern Secession men in Illinois volunteered in droves to join Lincoln’s army.
WHY?!
By the Illinois constitution neither free nor slave blacks were allowed into the state. Press reports graphically depicted the horrors of the war, yet men thronged to recruiting posts.
It was a time when social mood was quite negative, and people were so angry that they sought any outlet, no matter how dangerous, to give rein to their murderous impulses. That’s my explanation.
Nominally we are still bumping along the highs in social mood (as revealed by stock averages) but the fundamentals are deteriorating right along with the debased money system. The prospect for a years-long spasm of mindless rage grows with each passing day.
Our rulers respond with their only tool in the toolbox: Violence (or the threat thereof). When you’re a carpenter with only a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
Tazers. Guns. Predator (and REAPER) drones. Tanks. Tear gas. Nerve gas. Sonic weapons. Interdiction of food, water, electricity, or gas.
These are the only tools our demonic ruling class has in the toolbox. As soon as their lies (illusions) can no longer be maintained before a credulous, child-like audience, off will come the gloves.
The funny part is, how do our Masters maintain their institutions and tools of power if the supply chain for it all is widely distributed across the very lands they prepare to (figuratively?) carpet-bomb?
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8th March 2013 at 12:39 pm
Stucky says:
Looks like that Drone thread fell off the list.
sangell and some others think Drones in America are a great idea.
Recently uncovered government documents reveal that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) unmanned Predator B drone fleet has been custom designed to IDENTIFY CIVILIANS CARRYING GUNS AND TRACK CELL PHONE SIGNALS.
Oh, yeah. Great idea. What could go wrong?
.
Convoluted Source below.
http://epic.org/privacy/drones/EPIC-2010-Performance-Specs-1.pdf
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8th March 2013 at 12:51 pm
dc.sunsets says:
I often drive down Interstate 90 (the “Jane Addams Tollway”) into Chicago.
During recent renovations the shoulders of the roadway were widened in several places far beyond any reasonable size.
The only purpose I can see is to accommodate checkpoints.
If I were a tyrannical dictator who wished to dispense with any significant push-back from the Little People, I’d create a “crisis” that required regional evacuation, direct the evacuees through checkpoints dominated by troops with GE mini-guns, with Apache Helicopters hovering nearby.
Each car would be stopped, its occupants asked if they were carrying any weapons. The cars would THEN be searched, and if undeclared weapons were discovered, at least the adults present would be detained.
Depending on how far down the rabbit hole things had gone, that detention would either lead to a re-education camp or a face-down appointment with a large ditch created with a D7 Caterpillar.
Either way, all cellular communications would be turned off, all phone lines interrupted, and all non-military radio signals jammed. The only source for information would be Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.
Americans cut off from their families, cut off from any information not sourced from the Government/military would be very, very easy to herd anywhere our demonic rulers wished, cattle cars not needed. And the soldiers, cops, etc., doing the herding would follow orders just as did German, Soviet, Chinese, and Cambodian agents of their respective ruling governments, and for the same reasons.
Anyone who believes otherwise must also believe in the Tooth Fairy.
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8th March 2013 at 12:52 pm
dc.sunsets says:
Stucky, like the Hummer, only someone filling the tank on the back of the taxpayer could afford the fuel.
If the S where to ever really HTF, the first hulks abandoned at the side of the road are the Monster Trucks (like the Hummer). The next are most other cars. The last are the more recent-vintage hybrids (my Camry hybrid can go about 680 miles from tank-filled to dry).
Then it’s bicycles (until tires can’t be repaired), horses, and foot.
The supply chain feeding our modern society has long, brittle lines. It’s not difficult to imagine it being cut, either by unofficial or official criminals.
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8th March 2013 at 12:58 pm
AWD says:
Why does the U.S. government need 7500 assault rifles they ordered?
Why does the U.S. government need 2700 armored vehicles?
Why does the U.S. government need 2 billion rounds of ammo?
Why does the U.S. government need 260 drone bases on U.S. soil?
Why does the U.S. government need more than 200 FEMA camps?
Why has the U.S. government built underground bunkers in several states that can handle several thousand government officials and are completely stocked?
Why has the U.S. government spent billions on DHS and TSA when we already have the FBI and multiple layers of state, county and local police?
Why has the government run military exercises on U.S. soil in many, many cities?
Because they know what is coming. Anyone with a brain can see what’s coming. They’re not fighting terrorists, they’re going to be fighting Americans. When the 100 million people getting free everything from the government no longer get shit, when 1/2 the country loses their jobs (see Europe), when stores no longer have any food to sell, when there isn’t anymore gas available to buy, when the pharmacies are all cleaned out by looters, when roaming packs of desperate people and gangs murder for a few cans of beans, the government will be safe and secure. And your tax dollars are paying for their continued security.
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8th March 2013 at 1:20 pm
A Government to be Feared | A Different Perspective says:
[...] WHY DOES DHS NEED 1.6 BILLION BULLETS, 7,000 AR-15s, & 2,700 ARMORED VEHICLES? (theburningplatform.com) [...]
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8th March 2013 at 1:23 pm
AWD says:
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8th March 2013 at 1:27 pm
Zarathustra says:
Perhaps Hezbollah could ship us some anti-tank rockets.
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8th March 2013 at 2:32 pm
Matte Kudasai says:
Just put this together.
Hope you like it.
http://youtu.be/RYn9JF0TSgw
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8th March 2013 at 5:24 pm
Ragman says:
THey need this shit so they can kill us, pure and simple!
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8th March 2013 at 5:30 pm
taxSlave says:
Matte K. -good video. We are heading into a totalitarian hell.
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8th March 2013 at 10:25 am
crossbow 1 says:
Do you remember when nobody really cared to own an ar or ak? Then your local police started sporting them around on traffic stops and in their car gun racks. Then everyone including myself had this weird feeling that maybe we needed one too.
Now our government is building a large offensive force with mraps and such and they honestly believe we will be like other countries citizens and just bow our heads and accept it?
Even if it was a few harmless preemptive purchases to upgrade the dhs. Americans have it in their dna to be somewhat ahead of the game since we are and have been hated by almost every country in the world and do not at any time trust our government.
So it would be wise on dhs’ part to stop building up arms without giving us at least a valid excuse for doing so. all they are going to accomplish with their silence and arrogance treating us like dumb sheep that need protection from a few retarded rag heads is to turn the american people further in defense mode. In the end do we really need dhs at all? To be honest i can’t think of one instance where they stopped any terrorist anywhere Last i looked the fbi and cia covered that department. All they appear to be is a making of a new gestapho and that really spells major problems to at least half of our population excluding our millions of illegal aliens who really don’t care because they left a country just like the one we are turning into.
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8th March 2013 at 12:12 pm
crossbow 1 says:
Just remember no country ever announced it’s intention of war against another while building up arms.
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8th March 2013 at 12:14 pm
Ron says:
I was at the local feed store and a guy asked if they wanted to buy his SKS.When he said he wanted 450.00 for it,i almost laughed.But they were interested! I mentioned how i almost bought one when they were 89.00. They were out of 22 long rifle also.
I still dont see anyone fighting it out with soldiers with an APC of any sort.
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8th March 2013 at 6:02 pm
Thunderbird says:
It seems that the government is getting ready for urban warfare.
If and when the real revolution starts it will be fought with long rifles.
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8th March 2013 at 1:11 pm
Rogue Elephant says:
We saw this also today in Forbes and found it very intriguing. What do they need all that ammo for??
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8th March 2013 at 6:14 pm