National Guard Soldiers to Usher in New Year at Times Square

National Guard Soldiers to Usher in New Year at Times Square

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
December 31, 2008

Later this evening as the newfangled Times Square Ball descends in Manhattan, you may see New York National Guard soldiers patrolling with the NYPD as you watch on television. “Under orders from New York Governor David Paterson, members of the New York Army and Air National Guard will conduct additional security missions and stand ready to respond to city authorities if a man-made or natural emergency occurs,” reports Jim Kouri, who is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police.




Photo: National Guard troops in New Orleans. Troops will patrol Times Square later this evening.

Short of a hurricane, blizzard, or al-Qaeda bio attack — all extremely unlikely — the presence of armed soldiers on the streets during the celebration has an obvious purpose: to get you accustomed to soldiers working with the police.

Earlier this month, the U.S. military announced it will place 20,000 troops on the streets of America by 2011. “But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened homeland military role since the middle of this decade, saying the greatest domestic threat is terrorists exploiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” the Washington Post reported on December 1. “The Pentagon’s plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces to be ready for emergency response by September 2011. The first 4,700-person unit, built around an active-duty combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Ga., was available as of Oct. 1, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of the U.S. Northern Command.”

The Pentagon plans to include the National Guard and reserve units in this effort. “All would be trained to respond to a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive attack, or CBRNE event, as the military calls it.”

In October, the Department of Defense announced it was assigning a full-time Army unit to be “on call” to facilitate military cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security. On October 1, the Army Times reported Northern Command’s deployment of the Army’s battle-hardened 3rd Infantry Division 1st Brigade Combat Team, ostensibly to respond to a natural disaster or terror attack.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

According to Bert B. Tussing, director of homeland defense and security issues at the U.S. Army War College’s Center for Strategic Leadership, the long standing Pentagon plan “breaks the mold” by assigning an active-duty combat brigade to the Northern Command for the first time. Although Mr. Tussing did not mention it, this plan also breaks the Posse Comitatus Act that forbids the military working with law enforcement.

“The National Guard’s 2nd Civil Support Team, a full-time, rapid-response element that detects chemical, biological or radiological hazards, also will provide a detachment in Manhattan to support the New York Police Department,” Kouri continues. “The 22-man detachment, based at the Scotia Air National Guard Base near Schenectady, NY, has worked with New York City police for counterterrorism support operations since the unit’s formation in 2000, according to police officials.” In other words, the unconstitutional deployment was on the agenda well before the attacks of September 11, 2001.

In addition to parading uniformed and armed soldiers on the streets, the New York National Guard will provide liaison officers to New York’s emergency management office and the New York City Police Department, according to Kouri, again a direct violation of Posse Comitatus.

Predictably, the New York Times and the rest of the corporate media are ignoring this report based on information obtained by the 14,000-member National Association of Chiefs of Police.

Don’t be surprised if you see soldiers toting carbines mingling with the revelers later this evening. It is all part of a psychological warfare campaign to get you acclimated to the incremental presence of troops on the streets and the implementation of a police state.