I have suspected for a long time that the so-called "War on Terror" would ultimately result in legal justification for our government invoking martial law and suspending all forms of civil rights, including the trashing of the Bill of Rights. Reading this article only convinces me that these fears may well be justified. As if things in this country aren't scary enough.
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=80&contentid=2101 (snip)
The Department of Homeland Security recently carried out an extensive anti-terrorist exercise entitled TOPOFF 3 (April 4-8, 2005). The "drill" was described by officials as "a multilayered approach to improving North American security".
The stated objective of the TOPOFF 3 "Full Scale Exercise" was to "prepare America" in the case of an actual bioterrorism attack by Al Qaeda:
The purpose of the TOPOFF anti-terrorist exercises is not to "defend America" against terrorists, but to build a consensus within federal, State and municipal bodies, as well as within the business community and civil society (hospitals, schools, etc.) that this illusive outside enemy exists and that "the threat is real".
We are not dealing with a classical media disinformation campaign. While the TOPOFF exercise has been casually mentioned in press reports, it is not the object of a national debate.
With regard to TOPOFF, the consensus building process is "internal", it does not pertain the public at large. it is largely addressed to key decision-makers within these various governmental and nongovernmental bodies. It includes more than 10,000 participants in important decision-making positions (federal and State officials, law enforcement, fire departments, hospitals, etc), who may be called to act in the case of an emergency situation. These individuals in turn have a mandate to spread the word within their respective organizations, --i.e. with their coworkers and colleagues, as well as with the people working under their direct supervision.
In other words, this consensus building process reaches out to tens of thousands of people in positions of authority. The antiterrorist agenda and exercises thus become a "talking point" within numerous governmental and nongovernmental organizations.
The objective is to sustain the war and national security agenda --and of course the possibility of martial law-- within the governmental, nongovernmental and corporate business sectors.
Ultimately, the objective is develop across the land, an unequivocal acceptance by key officials (and of their coworkers and subordinates), from the federal to the local level, for an emergency situation, where civil liberties and the rights of citizens would be suspended: