Minneapolis Military Drills Based Around “Confrontation Scenarios”

Black Hawk exercises continue to stir intrigue, concern

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Friday, August 31, 2012

Minneapolis records clerk Melissa Hill tells the Star-Tribune that she fears people are being conditioned “to accept a police state” as military exercises in the city involving Black Hawk helicopters based around “confrontation scenarios” continue to stir intrigue and concern.

Asked about the exercises which have been ongoing all week in downtown Minneapolis, Hill responded, “To me it’s really frightening. Military copters flying around in our airspace in an urban setting — it kind of conditions people to accept a police state.”

As we reported on Tuesday, footage of the drills showed Black Hawk choppers hovering between skyscrapers and circling over the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.

The exercises are being run by an elite military unit based in Florida called the U.S. Special Operations Command, in coordination with Minneapolis and St. Paul police.

According to Ken McGraw, a deputy public affairs officer with the Special Operations Command, civilians have also been hired as role players to act as the “bad guys” in a situation based around confrontation scenarios, “Close-quarters battle — small-unit engagement at short ranges in confined areas, building- and room-clearing operations; dynamic entry — breaching doors or walls with explosives.”

The exercises also involved the Black Hawks flying around the roof of the Federal Reserve building, on top of which observers stood watching proceedings.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

When asked about their involvement in the drill, Fed spokeswoman Patti Lorenzen were reticent to give much away, telling the newspaper, “The law enforcement activity in the vicinity of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis is part of previously announced routine training exercises.”

Residents who shot footage of the drills and attempted to communicate with troops in full military fatigues sitting in open-doored choppers were met with a stony response – the soldiers didn’t wave back.

Attorney Steve Reeves said he was “very happy” to see the military conducting drills in the city, adding “I support our military.”

The fact that elite troops are conducting drills based around “confrontation scenarios” will undoubtedly stir concern that they are being prepared not for overseas operations but for potential civil unrest inside America.

A recent academic study about the future use of the military as a peacekeeping force within the United States written by a retired Army Colonel depicts a shocking scenario in which the U.S. Army is used to restore order to a town that has been seized by Tea Party “insurrectionists”.

The study is based around very real preparations for domestic disorder and martial law in the aftermath of a civil emergency or an economic collapse.

It dovetails with a recently leaked U.S. Army manual which reveals plans for the military to carry out “Civil Disturbance Operations” during which troops will be used domestically to quell riots, confiscate firearms and even kill Americans on U.S. soil during mass civil unrest.

Preparations for using troops to deal with social breakdown on U.S. soil have been in the works for years.

Back in 2008, U.S. troops returning from Iraq were earmarked for “homeland patrols” with one of their roles including helping with “civil unrest and crowd control”.

In December 2008, the Washington Post reported on plans to station 20,000 more U.S. troops inside America for purposes of “domestic security” from September 2011 onwards, an expansion of Northcom’s militarization of the country in preparation for potential civil unrest following a total financial collapse or a mass terror attack.

A report produced that same year by the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Institute warned that the United States may experience massive civil unrest in the wake of a series of crises which it termed “strategic shock.”

“Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security,” stated the report, authored by [Ret.] Lt. Col. Nathan Freir, adding that the military may be needed to quell “purposeful domestic resistance”.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.