posted January 29, 2013 08:41 AM            

quote:

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HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The sight of Army helicopters and the sound of gunfire created a lot of concern Monday afternoon in one Houston neighborhood.

We received a lot of phones calls, Tweets and Facebook posts from worried neighbors, wondering what was going on.

SkyEye 13 HD was over the south side where at first look, it appeared there was a massive SWAT scene happening.

With military helicopters flying above her southeast Houston neighborhood, Frances Jerrals didn't know what to think.

"When you see this, you think the worst. When you hear this, you think the worst," Jerrals said.

And so, she passed along her concern.

"She told me 'don't come home it sounds like we're in a war zone. Guns, shooting, helicopters flying around the house,'" Isaac Robertson Jr. said.

The U.S. Army along with other agencies took over the old Carnegie Vanguard High School near Scott and Airport. There were armed men in fatigues, plenty of weapons and what many thought were real live rounds

"I felt like I was in a warzone." Jerrals said. "It was nonstop. I was terrified."

Turns out, it was a multi-agency training drill that Jerrals wished would have come with warning.

"They could have done a better job in notifying the neighborhood," Jerrals said.

The Army did not give any details of what the training is for.

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posted January 29, 2013 08:47 AM            

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted January 29, 2013 08:53 AM            

A school was affected, it went into lock-down. Kids in there were terrified because no one thought it was necessary to make sure the kids knew it was just a drill.

posted January 29, 2013 10:03 AM            

Think of the reaction to one of these from those who lived through 9/11. Same tail insignia too. Otis AFB, Cape Cod, MA. Mass. Air National Guard.

posted January 29, 2013 11:27 AM            

Seems there would be more of a public outcry but it's like everyone just goes back to the bread and circuses.

Also, what happened in Houston yesterday took place in Miami last year: http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21004103642382/

I guess they are amping up MOUT.

All they need is real bullets~ the legislation is in place saying they can do this (NDAA..America = battlefield), the people are willing, trained, and ready to roll.

posted January 29, 2013 11:50 AM            

That's not regular army; not by any stretch of the imagination. That's a MH-6 Little Bird flown by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Those aren't regular soldiers. At minimum, those soldiers are from the 75th Ranger Regiment. More likely, they are from 1st SFOD-D, otherwise known as "Delta Force." That is why no announcement was made.

I bet some d1psh1tz brass stars in the Pentagon gave the go ahead with the practice drill for a Newtown-type incident but with a hotsage-taking scenario.

That's why *nobody* was informed. Not even the Mayor of Houston or Governor of Texas.

posted January 29, 2013 11:53 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by YoursTrulyAlways:
^^ Then you'll have to worry about the rising ocean lol

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posted January 29, 2013 11:58 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by YoursTrulyAlways:
I finally clicked on the link in Houston.

That's not regular army; not by any stretch of the imagination. That's a MH-6 Little Bird flown by the 160th Apecial Operations Aviation Regiment out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Those aren't regular soldiers. At minimum, those soldiers are from the 75th Ranger Regiment. More likely, they are from 1st SFOD-D, otherwise known as "Delta Force." That is why no announcement was made.

I bet some d1psh1tz brass stars in the Pentagon gave the go ahead with the practice drill for a Newtown-type incident but with a hotsage-taking scenario.

That's why *nobody* was informed. Not even the Mayor of Houston or Governor of Texas.

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Hmm, thanks for looking into it. I'm amazed you could identify them.

On the video in the Houston link, the newscaster said she spoke with an Army major who was there, who wouldn't tell them anything.

They also refer to it being a multi-agency drill.

ETA: Maybe it was practicing for a Newtown situation, though they've been doing this kind of thing since 2011 (see Miami link.)

posted January 29, 2013 12:18 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
Hmm, thanks for looking into it. I'm amazed you could identify them.

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posted January 29, 2013 12:22 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
On the video in the Houston link, the newscaster said she spoke with an Army major who was there, who wouldn't tell them anything.

They also refer to it being a multi-agency drill.

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Of course the Army major couldn't say anything. Bet the Major didn't know anything. Such drills are usally classified until launched.

It is inter-agency only to the extent that FBI/DOJ suspends Posse Comitatus. Military usually isn't allow to go postal on public civilian property.

posted January 29, 2013 01:42 PM            

quote:

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The training is designed to ensure that military personnel are able to operate in urban areas and to focus on preparations for overseas deployment. It also serves as a mandatory training certification requirement.

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For how many military personnel? Just Special Forces?

Still, doesn't that ensure that this will keep happening? They need their certification, after all!

posted January 29, 2013 02:06 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
^ Does this change your assessment? There was another drill a few days ago:

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Same deal. Probably different group of soldiers on a different sort of exercise mission. Black Hawks are more common and designed to carry 8 to 12 guys. It does not imply that the soldiers are any less elite, just that it is a much larger team.

Look at the Little Bird. It generally carries only four guys, strapped to benches outside the chopper. You don't typically make a guy ride outside a chopper amusement park style, unless the guys are either very stupid or very elite in skill.

Sounds to me like its a practice simulation of a major bank/business holdup. If a couple of whackjobs hold the Chairman of ExxonMobil hostage, you can be sure Uncle Sam is going to spend money going in.

posted January 29, 2013 02:12 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
For how many military personnel? Just Special Forces?

Still, doesn't that ensure that this will keep happening? They need their certification, after all!

And it could turn real anytime. Probably will.

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This is the first time I have heard anything about certification in civilian areas. There are mock cities built at Fort Bragg and Fort Benning for this type of thing. That certification thing sounds like deliberate civilian misinformation propaganda to assauge the public that this is entirely ordinary and routine. I assure you that it isn't.

As for Special Forces, only them deploy that thunderous rapid fire. In training for dumb regular grunts like myself, the first thing we are told is to control the darn fire, morons, because you are shooting at nothing. Ammo is expensive, even blanks. Reserve the John Rambo theatrics for those who know what they are doing. The Special Forces operate in very small groups of four or eight, but there are tens and hundreds of people in the background planning and providing logistics. The idea is that James Bond seems like a team of one, but MI6 has thousands of people of support Bond. Same concept.

posted January 29, 2013 02:18 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Faith:
And it could turn real anytime. Probably will.

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It could have turned real anytime over decades but has not. Even money is that few terrorist groups have the capability of planning something so elaborate.

Yes, the Pakistanis stormed Mumbai, but those guys off the boat on the pier would have been taken out by US police quickly. Not to say that the Indian police were incompetent. Just that they were slow.

Also, if those guys were to have tried it in Paris or Frankfurt, they wouldn't have gone very far because there is no posse comitatus, and the French and German militaries don't mess around.

posted January 29, 2013 06:59 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by YoursTrulyAlways:
This is the first time I have heard anything about certification in civilian areas.

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Maybe it's a new thing? But two drills/raids within a few days of each other? I hope they don't keep up that pace.

quote:

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Originally posted by YoursTrulyAlways:
It could have turned real anytime over decades but has not.

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They've been ratcheting up the police state gradually. Who are the enemies? The kids in Houston who they're using for lab rats? Where is their concern for the people and our fundamental right to NOT be scared out of our wits?

When I say it could turn real I mean the drills could go live, the blanks replaced with real ammo, with citizen casualties. It doesn't matter WHO their target was...they will never disclose it for our scrutiny. It will just be reported as "a key domestic terrorist was killed today."

Like so...

quote:

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Originally posted by YoursTrulyAlways:
The cops killed the shooting suspect but also shot 13 innocent passers by, without apology and with congratulations all around.

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posted January 29, 2013 09:29 PM            

And these days, it's RFID tracking.

Though it gets worse. One school in CA didn't even tell the parents about RFID tracking (and it turned out they got paid by the corporation selling the technology to implement it), one school got busted for putting a high school cam in the bathroom (and it wasn't even big news), and giving students free laptops and then spying on them in their homes (the one school busted for it here, no telling how many other schools are doing it with better sense than show their hand that way).

And then there are cases like this, where one student said he smelled pot in a restroom and the principal instantly called the cops for a surprise shakedown. No drugs were found, but many supported it anyway, even the pointing guns at kids (when many cops are incompetent at best with firearms, not to mention trigger happy). One girl complained of severe sexual harassment but as it happened in an area without a cam there was no proof, and unlike a lying cop's word a kid's word is no good (and more than once undercover cops have gotten teens pregnant in school and the cops "to protect the cop's identity" won't reveal who he is, I don't even know how they get away with that), though a few months later a cop on that same police force molested the wrong little girl to the point that not even the "blue shield" could protect him anymore. Anyway, 30 seconds of that drug raid with cops menacing innocent kids:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxECm85k4eE

posted January 29, 2013 10:37 PM            

however i have to point out that it's important to read carefully:

...agencies took over the old Carnegie Vanguard High School near Scott and Airport.

this is an abandoned campus, therefore, no "kids" were subjected to anything, the school having been "shut down" for some time, not by this exercise...

but as long as people react like this:

They could have done a better job in notifying the neighborhood," Jerrals said.

The Army did not give any details of what the training is for. Some people we spoke to needed no explanation.

"If it's to protect our kids, I'm all for it," neighbor Glenn DeWitt said

such will probably continue.

as to police behaviour, it has been high handed and brutal for ages. and people have been called "whiners" for saying so for at least as long...

recently in oakland a high speed car chase by several police cars, showering bullets at the getaway car, ended in the death of the two people in the car. and the destruction of many police cars, wounding of officers, and mayhem brought on the neighbourhood "hosting" the event.

the "perps" were not armed, nor were they even who the cops thought they were...but the people of oakland will have to pay for the damages caused by these copsters.

this too is nothing new.

posted January 30, 2013 08:04 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by katatonic:

however i have to point out that it's important to read carefully:

...agencies took over the old Carnegie Vanguard High School near Scott and Airport.

this is an abandoned campus, therefore, no "kids" were subjected to anything, the school having been "shut down" for some time, not by this exercise...

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If you would have watched the video in the link, you would have understood what I meant about the school that went into lock-down. Because, can you BELIEVE it? There is *more than one school* in that area.

quote:

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Originally posted by katatonic:

the scary thing is how many people consider snitching on their neighbours and others around them to be their "civic duty"...this is nazi mentality.

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posted January 30, 2013 08:16 AM            

Great points...and the PA school that was caught spying on its kids via webcam is pretty close to me.

quote:

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But now there’s a lawsuit, which means there’s discovery, and a motion filed by the students’ attorney last week claims that the school might have thousands of images collected by the school, many of which featured students who did not have lost or stolen (or uninsured) laptops. And according to the motion, “There were numerous webcam pictures of Blake and other members of his family, including pictures of Blake partially undressed and of Blake sleeping.” Which is just, you know, kind of creepy.

The motion itself is an attempt to get to the personal computers of school technology coordinator Carol Cafiero, who recently took the Fifth during a deposition. She was one of a very few administrators able to access the images, and the students’ attorney is calling her a “voyeur” – largely because of an email exchange between her and a colleague, who noted that seeing the webcam footage was kind of like a “soap opera” – to which Cafiero replied, “I know, I love it!”

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^ Can you possibly get any more f***ed up? Not much difference between this and the other pedophiles out there.

I know it's possible to remotely access another computer's webcam and I just assume that the government does some of that since they have neither shame nor legal consequences for any of their assaults on our privacy.

posted January 30, 2013 08:27 AM            

Military Tanks Roll Onto St. Louis Streets

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I have to say that this event, which is being labeled a "training exercise", makes very little sense to me. U.S. Army troops all the way from Maryland running open exercises in armored personnel carriers on the busy streets of St. Louis? I know Maryland is a small state, but is there really not enough room at Ft. Detrick to accommodate a tank column and some troops? Are there not entire fake neighborhood and town complexes built with taxpayer dollars on military bases across the country meant to facilitate a realistic urban environment for troops to train in? And why travel hundreds of miles to Missouri? At the very least, this is a massive waste of funds.

On the other hand, such an action on the part of the Department of Defense makes perfect sense if the goal is to acclimate citizens to the idea of seeing tanks and armed military acting in a policing capacity....

Add to the mix the reality that the DOD refuses to respond to any further inquiries by the press concerning details of the training, and you get yet another suspicious instance of behavior on the part of the establishment that seems preparatory for domestic action. I believe that the high frequency at which these activity reports have been coming in over the past year is certainly cause for alarm...

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posted January 30, 2013 02:36 PM            

but here we are again: On the other hand, such an action on the part of the Department of Defense makes perfect sense if the goal is to acclimate citizens to the idea of seeing tanks and armed military acting in a policing capacity. Just check out the two random idiots the local news affiliate picked to interview in St. Louis on the subject. Both state that they think the exercise is a "great idea", because having the military on the streets would help to "reduce crime":

a huge portion of this country is willing to surrender civilian life to the Security State...and there are those nasty letters again...SS...

i severely doubt that armed civilians will have ANY effect against the military should the occasion arise. and these shows of MIGHT will SUBTRACT from whatever resolve is in the minds of the few diehards, not add to it.