================================================================== The BIRCH BARK BBS / 414-242-5070 ================================================================== THE NEW AMERICAN -- October 31, 1994 Copyright 1994 -- American Opinion Publishing, Incorporated P.O. Box 8040, Appleton, WI 54913 ================================================================== ARTICLE: Front Page Sidebar TITLE: "About Those Black Helicopters" AUTHOR: William F. Jasper ================================================================== In the rumor galaxy, "black helicopters" are the supernovas. If you have not heard hair-curling accounts of mysterious solid-black, unmarked helicopters hovering menacingly over your city or assaulting some patriot's house, you almost certainly have not been listening to many radio talk shows or reading conservative newsletters. If, however, you have been even a casual peruser of various "patriotic papers" and like-minded radio programs, you will know that these aircraft play a prominent role in much of the current hysteria. Two notable patriot personages, Mark Koernke ("Mark from Michigan") and Linda Thompson, appear to have played the primary roles in popularizing this scare. Through their lecture tours, video programs, and radio talk-show appearances, they have stoked the fires of panic and paranoia. Ms. Thompson, who was the subject of a profile by Robert W. Lee in the September 19th issue of The New American, rose to prominence in the wake of the Waco tragedy. However, her ill-conceived call to insurrection and an armed march on Washington, and her self-appointed grandiose role as "Acting Adjutant General, Unorganized Militia of the United States of America," appear to have cost her much of her earlier support. "Mark From Michigan" The popularity of "Mark from Michigan," however, appears unabated. Identifying himself only as "a former military intelligence officer," he claims to be fighting to stop the onrushing new world order police state -- a praiseworthy objective, to be sure (and one that we share). But his message seems more inclined to produce paranoia, paralysis, and despair than robust and effective resistance. On his video, America in Peril, "Mark" tells his audience that vast numbers of black helicopters -- "more than you can count" -- can be seen regularly filling the skies over Michigan. These, he claims, are the vehicles which will be (and are being) used by UN-FINCEN-FEMA-MJTF forces to invade our communities and to haul us off to concentration camps. He is entitled to his opinion, of course, and to his own pet "end-times" scenario, but he should realize that knowledgeable patriots will not automatically accept as gospel his every riveting word solely on the authority of his alleged past as an "intelligence" analyst. Before venturing further, we must digress; we can almost sense the reaction of some readers (since we have already experienced it with telephone callers): "Are you trying to tell me that I didn't see that black helicopter that was only 40 feet above my house?" Not at all. We are not questioning the reality of these aircraft. We have received acknowledgment of their existence by responsible government officials and have many confirmed sightings of the choppers (parked on the ground and in flight) by extremely reliable witnesses. But the appearance in the skies of a single black UH-1 Huey or even a whole squadron of AH-64 Apaches does not validate "Mark's" frightening thesis. Not by a long shot. That much should be evident. First of all, is there another reasonable explanation for these craft? There appear to be many. Although an all-black paint scheme is not the most common one for helicopters, it apparently is used by a number of city, state, and federal law enforcement agencies as well as by some military units. One of the many places our research led us to was Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, home to the U.S. Army Special Forces. Army spokesperson Carol Jones confirmed that all of the helicopters of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment -- nicknamed the "Nightstalkers" and stationed at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky -- are indeed black. She explained that her office has handled a number of calls "on the East coast here where people think they are seeing some of our helicopters, but we check and they're not ours; they actually belong to local police departments or other law enforcement agencies." Fort Rucker, Alabama is the Army's helicopter training center. Major Endicott, spokesman for the base, told The New American, "I've never seen any helicopters painted black," but noted that the Army paints many of its choppers in very dark shades of brown or olive green that often will look black unless you are very close and have very good light. Which comports with the testimony of many servicemen with whom we talked -- and with several of our witnesses who reported that at first sight they were positive the helicopters they had seen were solid black (like those described by "Mark"), but when they got within a few yards or a few feet of them they could see that they were indeed Army green or brown. Moreover, as many veterans told us, and as one can easily confirm for oneself, most helicopters will appear to be black to an observer on the ground looking up at a chopper silhouetted against the sky. And if it is a cloudy day, near dusk or after dark, many choppers will appear to be black even if they have another paint scheme. Is the color scheme of helicopters that important and worth belaboring? Not in and of itself; but an understanding of it does help explain why so many alarmed citizens have reported seeing these "FINCEN" aircraft. Undoubtedly, many of these witnesses are seeing local police, medical, fire, news, or military choppers painted "FINCEN" black due to visibility factors and "Mark's" power of suggestion. The central fact to keep in mind is that neither "Mark," nor Linda Thompson, nor any of the other alarmists we are aware of, has produced a shred of credible documentation to substantiate their shocking tales. They appear to be gambling that the legitimate outrage and apprehension caused by Waco and the accelerating police-state agenda of the Clinton Administration can be counted on to cause most Americans to suspend all exercise of discernment and the standard rules of evidence as long as the tale-bearer bashes Clinton, blasts the feds, brandishes the Constitution, and swears to "go down shooting." FinCEN: A Real Danger But what about this "FINCEN" business? Actually, the proper acronym is FinCEN, for Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, an organization launched by George Bush's Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady (CFR) under an Executive Order dated April 25, 1990 (No. 105-08). According to that order, "The mission of FinCEN is to provide a governmentwide, multi-source intelligence and analytical network in support of the detection, investigation, and prosecution of domestic and international money laundering and other financial crimes by Federal, State, local, and foreign law enforcement agencies." In its public relations brochure, FinCEN tells us: "FinCEN is currently staffed by criminal investigators and/or analysts from Customs, IRS, DEA, Secret Service, Postal Inspection Service, FBI and BATF.... FinCEN is in the process of establishing a working relationship with state, local, and foreign law enforcement agencies as well." Are fears that FinCEN is a nascent gestapo justified? Absolutely. Its sweeping powers, access to records of our most private financial affairs, and cross-jurisdictional mission strike at the core of our constitutional protection. Its constantly evolving definitions of "financial crimes" are leading toward the elimination of all financial privacy and the criminalization of perfectly legitimate transactions and economic arrangements. We have reported on the terrible injustices and dangers to liberty involved in the increasing use of "asset forfeiture" powers by law enforcement at all levels of government. (The New American, May 31, 1993.) FinCEN is a major catalyst in the promotion of these abuses. Moreover, it is a central player in the subversive scheme to corrupt and nationalize law enforcement: While the federal EPA, OSHA, EEOC, and other alphabet soup agencies pauperize municipal budgets with crushing mandates that leave police departments begging, FinCEN shows local law enforcement how to solve their funding problems by seizing the property of their citizens -- the classic good cop-bad cop routine. FinCEN should be abolished for all of these reasons and more, not because anonymous sources have conjured up (and presented as fact) terrifying chimeras that feature armadas of black choppers and fearsome troops in Darth Vaderesque attire swooping down on unsuspecting communities. Unfortunately, because of the federal government's phony war on drugs there are more than enough instances that "Mark" and others can cite of neighborhood "sweeps" involving large inter-agency forces (often with helicopters -- some black, some not) that appear to authenticate their stories. Louisiana Under Siege? Over the past year, because Louisiana has been "host" to some of these operations, the rumor mills would have one believe that the whole state is under marshal law. On September 14th, for example, a raid on the Ledbetter Heights area of Shreveport elicited excited reports that thousands of troops with flotillas of black helos were taking over the Pelican State. The real story was alarming enough without hyperbolization. This is from an account by the Shreveport Times on September 20th of Operation Bottoms Up: "Last Wednesday, after an 18-month investigation, 200 federal, state and local law enforcement officials sealed off nine blocks of Ledbetter Heights and arrested two dozen people on drug and violent crime charges. "Altogether, criminal charges were filed against 45 alleged members of the Bottoms Boys, described by federal authorities as one of Shreveport's 'best organized and most violent street gangs.' " The raid involved members of the Shreveport police, Caddo County Sheriff's Department, state police, the FBI, and the U.S. Marshal's office. One Louisiana National Guard helicopter -- painted olive green, not black -- was employed, according to the Times and to eyewitnesses interviewed by The New American. The Times report continues: "... [Attorney General Janet] Reno praised the joint effort.... She also said U.S. Attorney Michael Skinner has made it clear the raid was the beginning of the joint federal, state and local enforcement effort.... "Reno said she wants to end turf battles ... and create cooperative relationships among federal enforcement agencies and local prosecutors and law enforcement officials.... "That push became the National Anti-Violent Crime Initiative, which was announced in March and is ongoing in every state, Reno said." [Emphasis added.] Earlier in the year, similar raids were launched in other Louisiana locales. In January, a large "narcotics sweep" was made in Amite, a small town 50 miles north of New Orleans. The 140-man force included elements from the FBI, ATF, National Guard, Amite police, and the Tri-Parish Task Force. In the Port Allen area near Baton Rouge, Operation Gold Coast is an ongoing operation that has involved a number of drug raids. But according to officials there, it is a local operation involving police and sheriff's departments -- no federal agencies, and no black helicopters, reports to the contrary notwithstanding. Claims that these Louisiana raids were used as cover to conduct warrantless house-to-house searches for guns also appear to be untrue. Percy Collins, a retired police officer from Beumont, Texas and a resident of Ledbetter Heights, watched the Shreveport raid from his front porch. He told The New American that the officers appeared to have warrants and were properly executing them at locations that were known centers of drug activity. He was not aware of any inappropriate or random searches. We have been unable to verify or disprove reports of illegal searches of homes in Amite for weapons. In Port Allen, reports of illegal weapons searches of residences appear to be false; Operation Gold Coast involves the so-called "Gold Coast" of U.S. Highway 190, a "sin district" of bars and go-go dance halls infamous for drug trafficking and prostitution. Which isn't to say that these drug raids are not being used to prepare the way for gun raids. It is obvious from the anti-gun agenda of President Clinton, Janet Reno, Handgun Control, Inc., and most of the major media, that that is exactly what is in the works. That was made clear earlier this year when warrantless apartment-to-apartment firearms searches of federal housing projects in Chicago were ruled unconstitutional and stopped by court order. President Clinton's response was to try to skirt the constitutional protection by calling on "tenant associations to put clauses in their leases allowing searches when crime conditions make it necessary." In other words, extortion by the federal landlord: "Sign away your rights or you're out on the street." Multi-Jurisdictional Task Forces A regular feature of the black helicopter legends is "MJTF," which stands for Multi-Jurisdictional Task Force. According to the rumor circuits, this is an organization composed of hundreds of thousands of members of the military and federal, state, and local police operating under FinCEN and the United Nations. Multi-jurisdictional task forces are not new; local sheriffs and U.S. marshals have cooperated in tracking down bad guys since the days of the Old West and before. But using the "multi-jurisdictional task force" as a proper noun with capital letters and the MJTF acronym is deceptive. As far as we have been able to determine, there is no discrete entity known as MJTF, in the sense that there is an FBI, BATF, FinCEN, CIA, etc. Yet, that is what alarmists always imply and often explicitly state. They claim to have seen black helos and black-uniformed police with "MJTF" on them. None of the law enforcement officers we interviewed had ever seen any "MJTF" markings or had heard the term used other than in the standard generic sense. This included officers who had participated in multi-jurisdictional operations involving federal agencies (and who were not, it should be noted, at all sympathetic to federal encroachment). Multi-jurisdictional task forces can serve a legitimate, constitutional law enforcement function. However, in recent years, such operations have been used as a cloak to federalize law enforcement. Most of the multi-jurisdictional operations underway can and should be carried out (if conducted at all) without federal involvement. If a local crime situation is out of control, the sheriff has the authority to deputize law-abiding citizens and to appeal to county officials to provide the funding necessary for more officers; there is no need to go hat in hand to Washington for funds that must come out of the pockets of local taxpayers anyway. Militarizing Law Enforcement Another ominous development with the explosion of federal multi-jurisdictional operations is the increasing involvement of the military. Our posse comitatus law provides that, "Whoever, except in cases under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both." The courts have upheld the right of law enforcement agencies to receive "passive" military assistance -- the use of training facilities and equipment -- but the federal government has been pushing the limits of what the law will allow. Federal, state, and local law enforcement and regulatory agencies are sending personnel to military training facilities in growing numbers. Military planes, helicopters, and other assets are being tasked to police operations with increasing frequency. In October 1993, National Guard units were deployed in Puerto Rico to perform law enforcement functions alongside the police. James Pate, writing in the May 1994 Soldier of Fortune, revealed that an Army Special Forces team from Joint Task Force Six (JTF-6) at Fort Bliss, Texas was involved in advising the ATF force that assaulted the Branch Davidian compound in Waco in April 1993. Texas National Guard helicopters were used in that deadly debacle. JTF-6 operates in conjunction with Operation Alliance, a creature of the Justice Department which provides military assistance to civilian law enforcement. According to Pate, the JTF-6 handbook states that military personnel "are precluded by the Posse Comitatus Act from performing search, seizure, arrest or other similar law enforcement activities." However, notes Pate, the Operation Alliance/JTF-6 legal staffs are busy "finding legal loopholes to allow further military involvement in civilian law enforcement." This skirting of posse comitatus restrictions is seen as "innovative" at JTF-6. "Innovative approaches to providing new and more effective support to [law enforcement agencies] are constantly sought," the JTF-6 guidebook says, "and legal and policy barriers to the application of military capabilities are gradually being eliminated.... Pending legislative actions may soon alleviate some of these restrictions...." If these "innovations" are allowed to continue, we will soon have to worry not just about "black helicopters," but federal tanks and troops at our doorstep. END OF ARTICLE ================================================================== THE NEW AMERICAN -- October 31, 1994 Copyright 1994 -- American Opinion Publishing, Incorporated P.O. Box 8040, Appleton, WI 54913 SUBSCRIPTIONS: $39.00/year (26 issues) ATTENTION SYSOPS: Permission to repost articles from The New American may be obtained from the above address. ================================================================== The BIRCH BARK BBS / 414-242-5070 ==================================================================