Police State \ Martial Law
By Rep. Ron Paul
In 2002 I asked my House colleagues a rhetorical question with regard to the onslaught of government growth in the post-September 11th era: Is America becoming a police state?
The question is no longer rhetorical. We are not yet living in a total police state, but it is fast approaching.
The seeds of future tyranny have been sown, and many of our basic protections against government have been undermined. The atmosphere since 2001 has permitted Congress to create whole new departments and agencies that purport to make us safer- always at the expense of our liberty. But security and liberty go hand-in-hand.
Members of Congress, like too many Americans, don’t understand that a society with no constraints on its government cannot be secure. History proves that societies crumble when their governments become more powerful than the people and private institutions.
Unfortunately, the new intelligence bill passed by Congress two weeks ago moves us closer to an encroaching police state by imposing the precursor to a full-fledged national ID card.
MARTIAL LAW
Martial law is defined as the rule by military authorities imposed on a civilian population. According to an article in the Army Times last month, the administration’s threats of implementing martial law in not idle talk. In this shocking article, the U.S. Army admits they’re bringing a combat team back from Iraq to continue their mission in America. And that this combat team will be assigned to NORTHCOM to assist in “civil unrest and crowd control” through non lethal weaponry. This deployment is of course in direct violation of longstanding laws, known as Posse Comitatus and the Insurrection Act which strictly prohibit the U.S. Army from policing American citizens on American soil.
May 9, 2007, President Bush signed off on National Security Presidential Directive 51. This top secret Continuity of Government plan effectively makes the President a dictator allowing his to declare a national emergency for any reason whatsoever and implement martial law without the approval of Congress. The plan itself is so secret that not even members of the Homeland Security Committee in Congress are allowed to see its contents.
