I mentioned yesterday that I noticed a bunch of military helicopters flying over downtown Denver on Monday night, and wondered what the heck was going on. Turns out I wasn’t alone. The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News report that the city police department received numerous calls from members of the public concerned about the aerial activity. Not to worry, folks were told: this was simply “routine” training related to the war on terror, not a response to, or preparation for, any particular threat or crisis.
Here’s some video of the choppers doing their thing:
More detail from the Rocky Mountain News:
The exercise by special ops troops, supported by Denver police SWAT teams and firefighters, is intended to prepare for any terrorism threat in a “realistic urban environment,” said Lt. Steve Ruh, a spokesman for the U.S. Special Operations Command, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. …
“It’s all in preparation for anything that could possibly happen with the global war on terrorism,” said Ruh, whose command coordinates all the military branches’ crack commando units - from Army Rangers to Navy SEALS.
The Special Operations Command calls itself the “Tip of the Spear” against the nation’s gravest threats.
Ruh noted that the exercises are conducted in major cities in the U.S., usually at the invitation of the cities, but that doesn’t mean those cities are necessarily possible targets for terrorism.
There was apparently conflicting information at first about whether the location of the training is related to the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August, but the official line appears to be that it is not. Meanwhile, there was some controversy about whether the proper notifications were made:
“The federal agencies sponsoring the ongoing multi-agency training in Denver agreed to make the proper notifications regarding the exercises to prevent surprise and inconvenience to Denver residents,” [Mayor John] Hickenlooper wrote. “There seems to have been a misunderstanding about the reach and scope of these notifications, and they did not occur in the manner expected by the City.
“Although these exercises are in no way connected to the upcoming Democratic National Convention, Denver officials were well aware that there would be heightened sensitivity to an exercise such as this because of its proximity to the Convention,” the mayor continued. “Denver recognizes that these are our federal partners, and we are fortunate that they have chosen Denver for their training exercises. Should there ever be an emergency here that would require federal assistance, they will be familiar with our City and how best to navigate it.” …
“Advance notice was given to the (Denver) civil authorities. We were here as guests,” Ruh said. “It would be up to (local authorities) to send it out.”
[Denver police Lt. Ron] Saunier said that Defense Department officials asked police to “respond to inquiry only.” So he provided a “very generic statement” Monday to police dispatchers in case the public called.
But the official statements were not enough to satisfy some commenters on the Rocky Mountain News website, where the phrase “martial law” appears repeatedly. For example:
This is done to make citizens accustomed to military hardware, and martial law easier to accept. Don’t accept it, Posse Commititus puts citizen protection under police authority. Blending police and military is what tin pot dictators do to control their population. …
just wait until the convention starts, the military, and the local police will be trying out all kinds of toys on the protestors. personally, I cant wait to watch it all unfold on CNN. …
The military is for wars, domestic protection is up to the police. Bringing the military onto our soil to do the cops’ job is martial law, AKA lost liberty …
This is just great…we now accept the military in our cities…the more we accept this the easier it will be for our government to imprison anyone it deems a “terrorist.” We need to fight back NOW …
[T]he Constitution deems a standing military a threat to freedom…what we need in this country is a militia and for everyone to own a gun…I dont need protection from the big bad terrorists and I don’t need blackhawk helicopters flying over our cities…let everyone in this country own a gun with absolutely no restrictions and then we don’t need any protection from anybody …
[T]he first Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed in September 2001 declaring the War on Terror as a war on American soil, the PATRIOT ACT, The Military Authorizations Act, all written to erode our Bill of Rights. These all pave the road to Martial law and suspension of our government. We stand today one national emergency from this possibility. Why do we accept this? …
The oath of the military is to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. I just hope impending martial law triggers memory of this oath among the current servicemen. I love my country and our constitution, loyal to that document and the people, I work to better it by denouncing the current direction we are headed. …
Are you ready for martial law? … We are opening a Pandora’s box here. It’s fun to play with the hardware…but actually using it domestically is another thing…
We are prepping you for MARTIAL LAW. What are you doing reading anyways, you should be watching the sports games like all the other mindless sheeple who have given up their liberty and freedom for a FALSE Security and who revel in being lied to. Franklin said that YOU deserve neither. So go and vote, doesnt matter to us in the CFR and bildaberg group who OWN both political parties! None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. Go back to sleep sheeple and dont google CFR or Bildaberg group, its better not to know who controls/owns you! If a nation expects to be ignorant and free it expects what never was and never will be!
Et cetera, et cetera.
(Hat tip: Marty.)
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Categories: Terrorism & Homeland Security
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June 18th, 2008 at 12:58:42 pm
The military is prepping us for martial law? Loonies.
June 18th, 2008 at 1:00:11 pm
Helicopters are cool.
June 18th, 2008 at 1:35:49 pm
Brendan, what are we going to do for our witty headline needs when the blog goes down ;-)
June 18th, 2008 at 2:07:44 pm
This was just a test of the poop cannon…
June 18th, 2008 at 3:00:30 pm
The GAO upheld Boeing’s tanker protest.
June 18th, 2008 at 7:20:52 pm
Andrew, i’m working on a post about that, the blog has been fussy today though.
June 18th, 2008 at 7:24:14 pm
Aha! I’m not the only one seeing helicopters everywhere. The government has been plotting to kil
June 18th, 2008 at 7:41:44 pm
People are not “loons” for getting alarmed at seeing the military operating within society without warning. There’s a reason this nation has several laws and strict language about the military operating domestically.
That being said, I’d be more upset if the military _wasn’t_ planning on contingencies in Denver. It’s not like an attack on the Dem convention is inconceivable. Heck, what better way to sew chaos than, you know, whacking the opposition party’s candidate? You don’t think the Troofers wouldn’t be all over that?
June 19th, 2008 at 6:19:22 pm
The smaller helicopters are AH-6 MH-6 or their derivitives - actually a derivitive of the OH-6 - also known as a LOACH (Light Observation Helicopter).
The newer attack special are often known as “Little Bird”. They are generally used to bring special forces units into places where a UH/MH-60 (aka a Blackhawk) are just too darned BIG or heavy
Always interesting to watch them “do their stuff”. The “Little bird” is small - basically there is room inside for MAYBE 3 men - so they have those spots for the med to sit outside/partly outside (the 2 guys in the rear sit back to back with their legs outside)
June 20th, 2008 at 11:03:53 pm
Youngblai, that’s admirable of you, but no, people who get all worked up about the military practicing emergency maneuvers are indeed loons. Perhaps you can share what that reason is that this nation has so many strict laws and language about the military operating domestically, other than Americans’ inbred and irrational sense of paranoia about government? I mean, we’ve slipped so close to tyranny so many times throughout history, I’m sure that reason you’re talking about is really obvious….
June 20th, 2008 at 11:29:45 pm
Um, you’re right Andrew, that funny part in the Constitution about quartering soldiers was written by loons.
The reason this nation has so many laws about soldiers started with the abuses the Founding Fathers endured at the hand of the British Army prior to the Revolution.
The Posse Comitatus Act was based on some of the heavy handedness of Federal troops post Civil War. I can’t help it if they didn’t cover Reconstruction when you were in High School, but while the Southerners hardly acted well some of the crap the Federals pulled was not the sort of thing you do against citizens of your own country, former rebels or not.
Finally, I’d rather have people with an inbred and irrational sense of paranoia than folks who thought everything was hunkey dorey until the ovens started up. It doesn’t have to be examples within this country to make people say, “Nope, not how we want to have our military acting.” I didn’t say I agree with them, but I’m hardly going to start calling them “looney.”
Especially since you have brilliance like the John Warner Act where people think it’s a good idea to have the President authorized to use the military to keep people from being deprived of their Constitutional rights within the United States. I won’t even get into the amount of mischief that can lead to. Thankfully it was repealed, but still–just one example of why folks may be a bit squirrely.
June 26th, 2008 at 5:52:59 pm
Youngblai, are you serious? The Third Amendment? Perhaps you missed the second half of that amendment, which allows for the possibility of quartering soldiers in a time of war. Last time I checked, we are at war, so conceivably Congress could pass a law allowing for the quartering of soldiers and it’d pass constitutional muster (unless Justice Kennedy is writing the opinion and he again invokes “evolving standards of decency in a maturing society” or some similar bullshit line that has nothing to do with the intentions of the Founding Fathers who wrote and signed the constitution).
In any case, the experiences of the Revolutionary War are absolutely not pertinent to the discussion at hand, which is simply, Are people loons if they legitimately fear that military dictatorship is a possible threat in America? I say the answer is unequivocably, Yes. You, however, think that such ignorant, conspiratorial looniness is fine and dandy among the populace, because it’ll protect us from when “the ovens [start] up”. If that’s not tiptoeing dangerously close to Godwin’s Law, I don’t know what is.
Previously you have cited yourself as being some sort of bigwig (or at least someone who has access to government bigwigs). Well, I’ve spent plenty of time around people on the Hill, at the Pentagon, with intelligence agencies, and elsewhere in the Executive Branch, and I’m afraid I have to report that, of all the people I have ever met Inside the Beltway, not one of them on any side of the political sphere would ever for one second support and take part in implementing the type of martial law contemplated by the above loon cited by Brendan in his post above. So if I can’t find a single person in government who would support or take part in invoking martial law and depriving Americans in general of their freedoms, why the hell should I give any credence to such loony, nonsensical concerns that we are veering onto the edge of dictatorship (or theocracy, or communist totalitarianism, depending on which nutjobs you’re listening to)?