Time: Tue Dec 16 05:34:46 1997
To: 
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: Special Forces Underground "Resister" Speaks Out (fwd)
Cc: 
Bcc: sls, friends, liberty lists, 3cc, psc
References: 

<snip>
>
>                    Division In The Ranks?
>         Special Forces Underground "Resister" Speaks Out
>
>                     by Vincent H. Miller
>
>
>ABC News last year interviewed a number of shocked Green Berets
>regarding training they had
>been given to prepare them for 1996 gun seizure raids.
>
>In the face of the spectre of disarmament of the American public by
>military force, the big question
>now is whether military personnel would fire on American citizens who
>resisted. In a survey
>circulated within the military last year, it was found that only 20%
>would follow orders to fire on
>Americans during gun seizure raids. On radio talk shows, military
>officers stated outright that they
>would be much more inclined to fire on superiors who gave such an order.
>
>The big question is how much a criminal Congress can count on the
>military to do its dirty work for
>them. During the past year there have been indications that military
>personnel are not thrilled. Some
>insiders have gone so far as to divert heavy military materiel into the
>hands of citizen militias. There
>are other signs of flies in the ointment for Washington's power brokers.
>
>             Enter the Special Forces Underground
>
>The latest development regarding a division in the ranks comes from
>within the U.S. Army's elite
>Special Forces Units. A group of soldiers called "The Special Forces
>Underground" has been
>publishing a radical newsletter called The Resister. With a
>revolutionary war "Don't Tread On Me"
>coiled rattlesnake symbol on its masthead, The Resister has inveighed
>against Joint Task Force 6,
>which employs the US military as combattants in the ill-fated war on
>drugs. They have also warned
>of government plots to use the Army in gun-confiscation raids.
>
>The big surprise comes upon examining The Resister's principles and its
>views on US foreign
>policy. Here there are buzz words and phrases that hint strongly of
>libertarian/Objectivist influence.
>
>Indeed, in a description of their philosophy which appeared in its first
>issue in the summer of 1994,
>The Resister said it favored: "strict constitutionalism, isolationism,
>laissez-faire capitalism, individual
>rights, limited government and republicanism," and opposed "statism,
>liberalism, tribalism, socialism,
>collectivism, internationalism, democracy, altruism, pull politics and
>the New World Order."
>
>Soldiers publishing The Resister are highly critical of U.S.
>peacekeeping efforts. In a past issue of
>The Resister they editorialized: "The U.S. military has become a slave
>service for the wealth
>redistribution schemes of internationalists and gangs of weeping
>do-gooder mystics. One need
>simply note the circling of media carrion-eaters to predict in which
>Third World toilet these altruists
>will flush hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars and the lives of
>U.S. servicemen. Peacekeeping is
>a monumental fraud."
>
>The Resister vehemently opposed U.S. military involvement in Haiti, and
>claimed that its adherents
>among Green Berets sent to Haiti were subverting U.S. policy by telling
>supporters of the ousted
>military junta how to hide their weapons and themselves. They also
>reportedly identified supporters
>of the restored (communist) President Jean-Bertrand Aristide for future
>retribution.
>
>Needless to say the government is more than just a little concerned by
>this apparent revolt in the
>ranks. A researcher who has been tracking the group lamented: "This is
>very dangerous. These are
>individuals trained in insurgency warfare and they are the best in the
>world. They have access to
>weaponry. If they become more involved with underground paramilitary
>extremists this is a very bad
>sign." (emphasis ours)
>
>On a CBS News "60 Minutes" show last year two Green Beret Resister
>editors appeared. With
>their faces hidden in shadows and their voices altered to disguise their
>true identities, they fielded
>questions from reporter Steve Kroft. After the broadcast, Army special
>operations technicians
>worked feverishly to "demask" the altered voices by repeated computer
>analysis and processing.
>This was defeated by "white noise" and other precautionary electronic
>countermeasures (we are,
>after all, dealing with professionals here). One humorous question posed
>by Kroft was: "The
>commander says you don't exist." The answer? "Excellent!"
>
>The Army, its nose severely out of joint, has called on none other than
>Command Sergeant Major
>William H. Rambo Jr. to conduct an investigation to ferret out this
>blatant exhibition of
>non-political-correctness.
>
>This task has not proved to be an easy one as The Register staff has
>exhibited an uncanny ability to
>avoid detection. According to the February 1996 issue of Soldier of
>Fortune magazine they have
>done so by "using the same tradecraft and counterinsurgency skills to
>avoid detection that they were
>taught as covert operators by the Army and the Central Intelligence
>Agency."
>
>However in order to save face, Army brass has been engaged in an
>intensive witch hunt, rounding
>up suspects (any suspect/victim) and making examples of them.
>
>Curiously, the publication of The Resister is not illegal - so long as
>it is not publishing on government
>time or with government equipment and materials. It reportedly satisfies
>these requirements. So
>what's the problem?
>
>In a recent interview a SOF journalist observed: "Some Army spokesmen,
>and some people on
>Capitol Hill, have described The Resister as an extremist (there's that
>word again) publication.
>
>The reply from The Register editor was: "What they mean is that The
>Resister is anti-socialist,
>anti-Communist, and anti-United Nations."
>
<snip>
      


Return to Table of Contents for

Supreme Law School:   E-mail