Fema Camps Debunked
The history of the United States has some dark chapters in it. One of the darkest is the rounding up of Japanese Americans with international ancestry during the days of World War II. By order, they were told to leave their homes and be transferred to concentration camps that were fenced and guarded. The purpose was to eliminate West Coast Axis collaborators and the Supreme Court agreed with the legality of the decision.
This history has led to the idea that it could happen again. The focus of this idea is FEMA concentration camps that have been built so that if martial law were ever declared, people could be quickly rounded up and contained. As an added bonus, it is sometimes believed that $1 billion in taxpayer funds have been appropriated to pay for coffins to bury those infected with Ebola or other viruses.
How Did This Theory of FEMA Camps Begin?
This theory is associated with the One World Government theory. In basic terms, there will be a need for camps to take care of people who are dissenters to the new form of rule. As North America becomes consolidated, concentration camps will house political prisoners so that they cannot overthrow the new government.
FEMA is involved because if a government consolidation would occur, they would still be available to run the camps in some form. There are over 800 camps that are believed to have been built and all of them are apparently guarded and staffed, even though they are completely empty. Because of inferred or outright support by politicians of the theory, especially from the extreme conservative side, many survivalists and those in the militia movement believe there is truth in the theory.
To back up this theory, HR 645 is often cited. Passed by Congress in 2009, the bill actually does authorize funding for FEMA camps. The only difference is that these camps are designed for emergency situations only, consist of temporary housing, and are run with a combination of state, local, and national resources.
Yet the fears of history, when the US maintained lists of subversives and ran committees to study activities that were considered unpatriotic, maintain some level of background truth to the idea of a FEMA concentration camp. After all, those who don’t learn from history are often doomed to repeat it, right?
What About Rex 84?
Readiness Exercise 1984, or Rex ’84, was a classified scenario drill that was developed by the US government to plan for a worst case scenario should the President declare a State of National Emergency. The plan was written by Oliver North and John Brinkerhoff and the plan was based off of a worst case scenario need to house up to 21 million people who may turn violent during the Civil Rights movement.
Subversive lists have existed in the past that are similar to Rex ’84 as well, including the ADEX list that the FBI maintained for 5 years until 1971. The purpose of the list was to round up to 100,000 people who might be considered “troublemakers” during a time of a national emergency.
In Rex ’84, the goal was to provide government continuity. Martial law would be declared, military rulers installed at local levels, and American citizens who are a national security threat would be detained for “prolonged” periods.
These do exist and are part of a program called Operation Garden Plot. The goal is to quell civil disturbances and military documents can be found online that authenticate the orders and the goal of this scenario drill.
Does This Mean FEMA Concentration Camps Are Real?
Being suspicious of a government that has already detained people and investigated political descent in the past is not a bad thing. It’s when those suspicions grown into full-fledged paranoia that problem begin to form. Here’s the first issue to consider when researching this subject on your own: most of the websites that promote the idea of FEMA camps are actually copied and pasted, word for word, from the same information.
A secondary problem that you’ll begin to find as you take a look at the various document references that are in place is that many of the documents have quotes that are either taken out of context or completely fabricated.
One of the classic examples is Executive Order 10999 that was signed by John F. Kennedy. At the height of tension between the Soviet Union and the United States, there was a good chance that there would be a nuclear strike occurring from Cuba. In return, the US would need to return fire at Cuba and the Soviet Union and then manage resources as effectively as possible. When discussing the FEMA concentration camps, EO 10999 and others in this series from Kennedy are given as evidence that the US has the authority to take over all resources.
What is missed is the first line of each section of these documents. Kennedy was ordering his cabinet to draft and develop plans and procedures for the worst case scenario. He wasn’t ordering the takeover of private farms or the control of food resources. What Kennedy wanted was a plan of action that could be implemented so that resources could be shared with a population in need of nuclear war happened.
Section 11 in EO 10999 even specifically states that nothing in the order confers authority.
Then Why Are All These Places Listed on Websites?
The over 800 FEMA concentration camps, if you look at the theory promotion websites, even state that they “could” be used. There’s no confirmation of fact anywhere to be found. Some theorists have even toured some of these sites and noticed things like inward facing fences, which according to their descriptions state that they could only be used to control people.
There are actually a number of valid reasons why a fence may be installed inward.
• The fence was installed incorrectly. Anyone who has ever worked with a contractor in the past has seen similar mistakes over the course of time.
• The fence is designed to protect the edge of the property because inward barbed wire is harder to cut from the outside.
• Low lying fencing that is inward helps to prevent snagging.
• Local bylaws might require inward fencing.
The problem is that the images from Japanese internment camps during World War II have many inward facing fences. The images of Ansel Adams and other photographers during the time show people leaning against fences that are inward facing. The fear that internment brings, combined with our country’s own historical images, is a legitimate feeling.
The assumptions, however, are not as legitimate – especially when information is manipulated to support these assumptions.
FEMA Has a Legitimate Need to Stockpile Emergency Supplies
What does a survivalist and an emergency organization in the federal government have in common? They both work on stockpiling supplies when there isn’t an emergency going on so that if a disaster does happen, they’ll have supplies that they can fall back upon. It is doubtful that the survivalist who is stockpiling supplies is plotting a detention facility on their property, even if they have an inward facing fence.
The same is true for FEMA. The need to stockpile supplies because evident after the disaster of a response that happened during Hurricane Katrina. The incompetence that FEMA displayed in the initial days and in the cleanup afterward was massive. There were private citizens who did a better job of rescuing people or providing supports that were needed. People were stranded for weeks, there was no concentric emergency response, and many people suffered because of it.
This brings us to the $1 billion in coffins that were allegedly appropriated by Obama. There are two problems with this: 1) the pictures that support evidence for these coffins show grave liners, not coffins; and 2) the pictures are from the 1990’s. The company that produced them had extra inventory, so since they protect against water seepage, it was decided to just store them outside. Those pictures have since been used to support a number of theories, including FEMA camp internments.
As a final consideration, there is also the $385 million that Halliburton was granted to build detention facilities. These were awarded to create immigration detention centers, but critics quickly pointed out that they could be used for generalized and prolonged detention. It’s true that anything could be manipulated to create something terrible.
Just because it can, however, doesn’t mean that it will. Just because there’s a possibility doesn’t make something fact. Conjecture is fine to have, but that is how it should stay.
FEMA concentration camps are not something that currently exists. Even those who support the theory of them confirm this fact. Anything is possible in life, as the Japanese internment camps our country produced confirm. Our history supports this fear. Fear, however, is a poor substitute for real facts.