Earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate met with several state governors to discuss “emergency preparedness,” according to a press release [1] posted on FEMA’s website. “FEMA is committed to protecting and assisting our states and citizens during disasters,” said Fugate. “By working together and strengthening relationships at the state level, we can continue to build the national emergency response team which includes FEMA, as well as state, local, tribal and federal partners, the private sector and faith-based organizations. The work we are putting in now to build this team will go a long way during the next disaster.”

Preparations are now underway for FEMA’s NLE 09.

On Sunday, Fugate addressed governors from around the country at the National Governors Association conference in Biloxi, Mississippi, where he “discussed how FEMA can best support the states and their citizens as we prepare for and respond to emergencies and disasters.”

FEMA does not specifically detail the “next disaster,” although Fugate had participated “in a video teleconference with governors and officials from over a dozen hurricane prone states on his first day as Administrator.”

Last October, investigative journalist Wayne Madsen [2] learned from knowledgeable FEMA sources that the Bush administration had put the final touches on a plan that would see martial law declared in the United States with various scenarios anticipated as triggers. “The triggers include a continuing economic collapse with massive social unrest, bank closures resulting in violence against financial institutions, and another fraudulent presidential election that would result in rioting in major cities and campuses around the country,” explained Madsen.

An additional trigger has since emerged – a mass flu pandemic the government promises will occur this autumn.

In addition, Army Corps of Engineer sources told the journalist that the assignment of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) to the Northern Command’s U.S. Army North will augment FEMA and federal law enforcement in the imposition of traffic controls, crowd control, curfews, enhanced border and port security, and neighborhood patrols in the event a national emergency being declared. The BCT was assigned to duties in Iraq before being assigned to the Northern Command.

On July 3, Infowars [3] reported on National Guard troops training to engage in combat with “militia” groups. In the exercises, held in Missouri and South Dakota, eight members of a Jefferson City-based battalion acted as a “fictitious militant group” and attacked military checkpoints and convoys.

On September 30, the Army Times reported that the BCT would be deployed in the United States under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks. The BCT mission “marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities,” Gina Cavallaro [4] wrote for the Times. The military is prohibited under the Posse Comitatus Act from working with local law enforcement.

 Madsen reported on a highly-classified document regarding the martial law scenario on April 3, 2008. “WMR has learned from knowledgeable sources within the US financial community that an alarming confidential and limited distribution document is circulating among senior members of Congress and their senior staff members that is warning of a bleak future for the United States if it does not quickly get its financial house in order. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is among those who have reportedly read the document.”

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