On January 26 The Seattle Times reported “India’s special forces training with Green Berets at JBLM”, in a narrative that sounded more like a Boy Scout outing than part of an immense hunter-killer drill that is occurring at public beaches and boat marinas in Washington State. Joint Base Lewis-McChord is the home of The Green Berets of The 1st Special Forces Group, and as the article states, they will be hosting Indian Special Forces in controlling waterways and beaches. This is but a small part of a war game involving Navy Seals stalking at least 68 public beaches, parks and boat marinas. Dahr Jamail writes in Truthout:
“EXCLUSIVE: Navy Uses US Citizens as Pawns in Domestic War Games” (excerpts)
“Beginning in mid-January, Navy SEALs will be practicing unannounced and clandestine combat beach landings across Washington State’s Puget Sound and many other coastal areas of that state.
The simulated combat exercises, which will include the use of mini-submarines and other landing craft, will deposit Navy SEALs carrying “simulated weapons” on 68 beach and state park areas in Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Washington’s west coast, unbeknownst to most of the relevant government agencies tasked with overseeing these areas.”
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“In the new scenario, which the military calls “realistic military training,” Navy SEALs carrying “simulated” weapons may also travel across public and private property within city limits, and may swim through public and private marinas occupied by people living on boats. They could conduct war game patrols on roads through residential communities. In addition to tribal, state, federal and county lands, there are many properties on the Navy’s list of training sites marked as private.
Naval plans include the use of special reconnaissance teams conducting patrols, which are authorized to go on simulated “direct action” missions. The definition of “direct action” is “short-duration strikes and other small-scale offensive actions conducted as a special operation in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments and which employ specialized military capabilities to seize, destroy, capture, exploit, recover, or damage designated targets.”
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“According to the documents, a “safety” buffer of 500 to 1,000 meters will also be maintained by a Navy support team in boats, vehicles and on foot, which will prevent bystanders from entering the areas.
“They have exempted themselves from disclosing to the public the full scope and nature of their actions.”
This amounts to periodic closings of public land, including state parks and fishing areas, with no public comment periods or government oversight. Given that some of the exercises will entail Navy SEALs swimming through marinas where people live on their boats, along with exercises and patrols through residential neighborhoods and private land, maintaining a “safety” barrier of 500 to 1,000 meters simply does not seem possible.”
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“According to Karen Sullivan, former assistant regional director at the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Division of External Affairs and a retired endangered species biologist, the Navy’s actions are also illegal. Sullivan has worked in the division for over 15 years, and is an expert in the bureaucratic procedures the Navy is supposed to be following.
She is now part of the West Coast Action Alliance, one of two large multistate and international citizen groups that have tasked themselves with watchdogging the Navy, due to what they believe are ongoing violations of the law, blatant acts of disrespect toward human and environmental health, and ongoing bellicose behavior by the military branch.
According to Sullivan, the Navy’s actions are a violation of several laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, Administrative Procedures Act, National Historic Preservation Act and possibly others, as well as a violation of the public trust doctrine.
“They have exempted themselves from disclosing to the public, and even to state and federal agencies, the full scope and nature of their actions, in order to segment them into smaller pieces that individually may look harmless but cumulatively have big impacts,” Sullivan told Truthout.”
For further details please refer to the embedded link to the “Truthout” article above.
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I have read the Navy training documents embedded in the Truthout article, and I would suggest there has not been this level of military intrusion in populated areas since World War 2, when the region faced an actual threat.
This report falls on the heels of a previous military war game plan we reported on in December 2014. The Navy will be acquiring an additional 36 “Growler” jets to train in some of the same areas with powerful electromagnetic weapons designed to knock out enemy installations. People near the Olympic Rainforest are very concerned about the targeting flights flooding wildlife and recreation areas and small coastal towns with electromagnetic radiation. Additionally, residents on Whidbey and The San Juan Islands have complained about the noise of additional jets, which have already spurred lawsuits by residents near the Naval Air Base. The jets can easily fly to the designated training area in Yakima in 10 minutes or less, but the proposal is to have them train over the Olympic Peninsula.
You can read that article at this link:
“Navy Electronic Warfare In Washington State” (link)
While environmental groups have mounted a legal action against the electromagnetic targeting flights, not much has been said about the drastically increasing militarism that the American population is experiencing. With large protest movements like the ones in Ferguson Missouri, Occupy wall Street, the blockading of ports in labor strikes and similar public actions, there is a pressing concern that the military is preparing to turn it’s sights inward toward the American public. The military was used in The L.A. Riots, were stationed at the scene of the Seattle World Trade Organization protests, and were actively surveilling Dr. Martin Luther King at the time of his assassination. They have been running urban combat drills in populated areas of The U.S. for years, including risky helicopter flights through downtown Portland and other cities. The recent Jade Helm drills in the southwest states labeled some areas as enemy combatant strongholds. Considering the huge land-holdings of the U.S. military in remote regions and designated training areas, the only reason to send Navy Seals swimming silently into boat marinas and capturing local parks and beaches is to intimidate the public, and prepare them for domestic military use against the population.
You can read the Navy documents yourself, embedded in the “Truthout” article linked here:
